Hermione's Plan
Summer's End

By Chem Prof

Previous Inspiration Setting Things in Motion Getting to Know the Grangers Initial Preparations Final Preparations and Bon Voyage A Year in Mexico, Part 1 A Year in Mexico, Part 2 A Year in Mexico, Part 3 An Unexpected Friend and Ally Joy and Sorrow Life Goes On Healing A Very Long Week Revelations Reactions Tales of Two Horcruxes Picking Up the Pieces Training Ron A Call to Arms (and Legs) Potter's Army Information, Both Useful and Disturbing Summer's End An Eventful Beginning Fall Term Part 1 - Happy Birthday Hermione Fall Term Part 2 - Many Things Are Revealed Fall Term Part 3 - On to Halloween Wedding Bells Romantic Interlude The Hogwarts Challenge The War Comes to Hogwarts Where It All Ends Epilogue Next

Chapter 22, Summer’s End

Harry and Hermione’s series of meetings ended up with a visit with Mad Eye Moody at Grimmauld Place.  One of the things he wanted to discuss with them was Voldemort’s tactics in a fight.  They reviewed Harry’s pensieve memory of the duel in the graveyard as well as one of Moody’s from the last war.  Moody pointed out that he tended to open with an Unforgivable Curse.  Even if his opponents evaded it they were off balance and he had the advantage.  Harry and Hermione nodded solemnly.  If they were prepared they could block it without being distracted.  And they now had the methods to block anything.

The two students also showed Moody the silver instruments Harry had inherited from Dumbledore.  Moody informed them that one of them was a ward monitor.  Dumbledore had used it to keep track of the strength of the wards on Privet Drive, but it could be set for any location they wished.  At Hermione’s query he allowed that they could set it to monitor more than one location simultaneously.  A wand tap would easily shift it from one to the next.  After a bit of discussion, they decided they would set it up to track the Granger home, the Longbottoms, the Lovegoods, and Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.

The other object, which when activated emitted a puff of smoke, was a dark detector.  They could set it to focus on a given location, and it would determine the level of dark activity at that location.  Harry recognized it as the instrument Dumbledore had used when Mr. Weasley had been attacked at the Ministry.  Somehow he had been able to determine that Voldemort was possessing Nagini at the time.  Essentially, they would be able to ascertain if Voldemort was present at the site of an attack.  This would make a big difference in deciding on their response.

Moody brought up one other item before they left.  “Do you two have wand holsters?” he growled.  “Not still keeping your wand in your back pocket are you?”

“Nope,” Harry responded.  “Hermione got me one for my birthday, and picked up one for herself too.”  Both teens pushed up the sleeves of their robes to show top of the line Auror models that Tonks had helped Hermione pick out.  They could be strapped either on their forearms or their legs, delivered the wands into their hands with but a thought, and had built in anti-summoning charms.  Moody nodded his approval.

“You should also have backup wands, hidden somewhere else on your bodies,” he insisted.  He then led them to a cupboard where he revealed a trunk that was filled with wands.  “Picked up some of Ollivander’s stock when he left,” was his only comment.  After several tries, each student found a suitable wand, although neither one’s worked as well as their original.  They had also discovered that they could use each other’s wands reasonably well.  They headed home after thanking the ex-Auror for his help.

-ooOoo-

“Hermione?”

“Hmm?”  They were back at the flat in Cambridge, and Hermione looked up from where she was making notes about what Moody had said with one hand, and giving her spare wand a few practice flicks with the other.

“You … which hand do you use for your wand?” Harry asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“Oh, well, I can actually use either hand, so I try to alternate so I’m equally proficient with both of them.”

“And the same with your writing?” 

Hermione gave a sheepish nod.  She had wondered if he had noticed this.  “Yes, I’m ambidextrous.”

“What made you decide to learn to do that, or did it come naturally?” 

Hermione decided that his question was out of genuine curiosity, and not because he thought she was strange.  “Do you promise not to laugh at me?”  Harry gave her an odd look, evidently wondering why she asked that, but nodded quickly.  “Well, when I’m writing long essays, my hand gets tired.  So back in first year I came up with the idea to learn to use my left hand, too.  That way when one got tired I could switch to the other … Harry, you promised not to laugh!”

Harry had his hand over his mouth and was trying his hardest to control himself, but his shoulders were shaking with repressed mirth.  Hermione crossed her arms and pouted, turning away from him.  This made Harry come up behind her and try to give her an apologetic hug.  She shook him off once, but then relented.  Knowing he needed to do something nice to get back on her good side, he began rubbing her arms, then moved his hands up towards her neck, working his thumbs into the area between her shoulder blades.  She decided to forgive him this time.

“I’m sorry,” he pleaded.  “But that is just so … so you.  You have to admit it is somewhat amusing.  But I think it’s right brilliant of you.”

She turned to face him.  “You really think so?”

He lowered his head to her upturned face and gave her a kiss.  “Of course.  In fact, it’s such a good idea that I think I’ll start practicing using my wand with either hand also.  You never know when that ability might come in handy.”

Hermione beamed at him and returned the kiss and wrapped him up in a big hug.  Then with a satisfied smile she returned to her notes, while Harry drew his wand to try a few left-handed spells.

-ooOoo-

The week after their meeting with Director Hammer, they received a follow-up owl, thanking them for their testimony.  It also informed them that it was DMLE policy that there be no public announcement of any Death Eater trials, or the results of such trials.  When they read this, they now realized why they hadn’t heard anything about the disposition of the charges against the eleven Death Eaters captured during the battle at the Department of Mysteries the year before.  Hermione surmised that it was for security reasons.  A public trial would be too tempting of a target for an attack.  However, the idea of secret trials was quite worrisome for both of them, for obvious reasons.

-ooOoo-

Meanwhile, back at Potter Manor the training went on.  The other PDA members were gradually coming to realize what Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny already knew from what they had witnessed at the Burrow:  Harry and Hermione were far more advanced than any of the rest of them.  Their performance in the spellcasting practices, in both power and accuracy, as well as their effectiveness against the dueling dummies, left no doubt that they were formidable opponents.  A hint of just how formidable was revealed by an exhibition duel the pair agreed to participate in after two hard weeks of training.  The group’s initial enthusiasm was beginning to wane, and their commitment tested, by the reality that it takes a lot of effort to improve significantly at anything.  Tonks had noticed this budding discontent, and came up with an idea to boost morale.

She proposed that she and Remus engage Harry and Hermione in an exhibition duel, hoping that the PDA members would be inspired by the superior skills that their leaders had developed from doing exactly the type of training they were currently undergoing.  She reasoned that it would be a relatively even matchup.  She was very much mistaken.

“How do you want to work this?” Harry asked as he and Hermione were stretching to loosen up before the duel.  She was wearing a similar outfit to the one she had dueled Ron in at Hogwarts – tight shorts and a spandex T-back tank top.  Harry was wearing gym shorts and a snug-fitting tee shirt.  “Overwhelm them right away or draw it out a bit?”

“I think we should take the opportunity to try a few things,” Hermione replied.  “I have some ideas I’ve been wanting to test out.”  She quickly explained to him what she had in mind, and the pair came up with a strategy that would showcase some of their abilities, but not give away too much.

Flitwick had eagerly agreed to officiate the contest, and had put up strong shielding charms in front of a small set of bleachers that he had conjured up for the onlookers.  As word of the duel spread, other Order members also came to watch, including McGonagall, Pomfrey, and Hagrid from Hogwarts, Aurors Moody, Shacklebolt, and Hestia Jones, as well as Hermione’s parents.  From his years on the Gryffindor quidditch team, Harry was accustomed to performing in front of much larger crowds than this, and fell back on his usual methods to maintain his focus despite his pre-match jitters, which he shared with Hermione.  Having Fred and George walk up right beforehand and joke about it helped a lot.

“This is it,” shouted George.

“The big one,” added Fred.

“The one we’ve all been waiting for,” they chorused together, imitating Oliver Wood’s warm-up speech perfectly.

“Get the snitch or die trying,” concluded Fred as they both took turns clapping each of the combatants on the back.

“Wood actually said that?”  Hermione asked as they walked out to the dueling site.

“Yep,” answered Harry with a wistful smile, recalling the days when winning or losing a quidditch match was the most stressful thing in his life.  “I think it was the time I broke my arm.”  Hermione responded with one of her exasperated sighs and a characteristic eye-roll and Harry chuckled and put his arm around her as they arrived in the make-shift arena.

As with the duel between Hermione and Ron, life-threatening curses would not be used.  The two couples arranged themselves twenty paces apart and Flitwick shot gold sparks out of his wand to signal them to begin.

At first nothing happened, as all four of them dropped into an alert stance, waiting for the other side to make the first move.  Harry and Hermione were comfortable at this distance, and so didn’t move closer.  After a few moments the two teens launched a half dozen stunners in a staccato burst, alternating between the two of them, which Tonks and Remus easily deflected.  Then the older pair did likewise, and the teens split apart to evade the spells as they passed through the area where they had been standing.  This continued for several minutes, each side varying the strength and type of spells, taking the measure of their opponents.  When this stopped, both sides paused to catch a breath.  Or at least appeared to.

Neither Remus nor Tonks noticed the small gestures Harry and Hermione made with their free hands, being more focused on their wands.  Neither did they notice the vines that emerged from the ground beneath their feet.  They did feel the sensation of being pushed back, and leaned forward to resist.  But when each took a step back to brace themselves against this mysterious force, the vines came into play, tripping first Tonks and then Remus.  As the Auror struggled to regain her balance, she grabbed onto the werewolf, and ended up taking him down with her.  It was only an instant before they could scramble back to their feet, but in that instant they were deluged with a cascade of water that appeared from nowhere, drenching them and knocking them back to the ground.

Although the teens could have ended the duel then and there, while the adults were distracted, they stepped back and allowed them to recover.  They were not idle during that time, as they set up their next maneuver.  Hermione silently cast a narrow anti-disapparation ward in a fifteen foot radius around their soaked to the skin and thoroughly irritated foes.  More visibly, Harry created a ten foot wide flaming lasso that effectively confined them to that exact spot and limited their maneuverability.  Remus and Tonks shared an uneasy look.  They both realized that they were in big trouble now.

Without warning, the younger pair fired off a barrage of bludgeoning spells at the now quite apprehensive older couple.  With considerably more effort this time, Remus and Tonks blocked this attack and shot back a counterattack of the strongest spells they could.  This time, neither Harry or Hermione made a move to evade or block.  But just as they were about to be hit, both disappeared.

Apparating without a sound, they reappeared immediately one on each side of their surprised opponents, and fired off a second barrage of the bludgeoning spells.  Before they could be targeted again, they repeated the maneuver and continued to do so, each time reappearing in a new position, always on opposite sides of their foes and striking a powerful blow each time.

Remus and Tonks were both stronger physically than the average witch or wizard, Remus because of his lycanthropy and Tonks because of her physical conditioning, but they began to wear down.  Finally Remus figured out the pattern of the assault.  Harry was taking the two o’clock, six o’clock, and ten o’clock positions of the circle, while Hermione was appearing at the corresponding four, eight, and twelve o’clock positions.  Gathering his strength, he anticipated where Harry would appear next and launched a powerful stunner, which arrived just as Harry fired off his next salvo of hexes.  To everyone’s amazement, Harry instantly put up his other hand, even as the hexes were leaving his wand, and wandlessly conjured a shield to intercept the bright red streak of light.

Now that the apparation strategy had been deduced, Harry and Hermione switched to the next part of her strategy.  Remaining where they were, they flicked their wands to raise a massive rocky barrier from the ground in front of each of them.  Using them to shield themselves from potential assaults from the older couple, they prepared their next attack.

From Hermione’s side of the ring a flock of birds suddenly appeared, circled her head twice, and then shot straight at her beleaguered challengers.  While they dealt with that assault, she also conjured a swarm of bees and sent them in a follow-up wave.  Meanwhile, on his side, Harry created an assortment of snakes and instructed them to slide under the flaming lasso and attack the humans inside.

Remus and Tonks were so preoccupied with this new threat that they had little time to get off any offensive spells of their own, mostly shooting explosive hexes at the rocky barriers and trying an occasional disarming spell, hoping for a lucky hit. 

Now satisfied with the chaos her birds and bees were creating, Hermione next took a page from Cedric Diggory’s battle with his dragon during the First Task and transfigured some of the rocks from her barricade into dogs.  By now Harry had stopped renewing the fiery lasso and an exuberant pack of dogs leapt onto the by now thoroughly bewildered couple who were beginning to regret ever having met this pair of irritating teens.  At this point Hermione noticed that Harry was intently conjuring something behind his barrier and apparated over to a point where she could take a look while still keeping an eye on her opponents.  What she saw severely strained her ability to keep her mind on the battle.

Harry had transfigured one of his rocks into a long rectangular tube that narrowed down to a point at one end.  Four other rocks were transfigured into flat pieces that were wider at one end than the other, and he was currently attaching these to the long tube in an X pattern.  Seeing her watching him, he looked up and gave her a wink, and then returned his attention to putting the finishing touches on his creation.  Hermione put her hand over her mouth to try to stifle her laughter and popped back to the opposite side of the couple who were finally disentangling themselves from the pile of dogs and snakes.  Just for good measure, she decided to add a few goats and a wild pig to the mix.

A final volley of blasting hexes disintegrated the last of her transfigured animals back into bits of rock and the last snake was vanished just as Tonks tried to sneak another disarming hex past Hermione’s guard.  She dismissed this attempt as easily as she had the rest and while she distracted the Auror’s attention with three quick stunning spells she concentrated on yet another hex in her mind.  ‘Levicorpus!’  The unfortunate couple now found themselves suspended upside down in midair, just as Hermione had been during her duel with Ron two weeks previously.  And even though they were both near exhaustion they managed to keep their wands and their composure, despite being blinded by their robes hanging down in their faces.  Fortunately, both were wearing standard wizarding trousers under their robes, contrary to the practice of many purebloods.  Several Diffindo’s shredded their robes and freed their vision, but before they could do anything else a silent ‘Liberacorpus’ from Hermione dropped them on their heads, putting them into a bit of a daze.  Hermione stifled another laugh when she noticed that Harry had ‘helped’ Tonks a bit with the cutting hex, and had sliced off the bottom six inches of her shirt, resulting in a cutoff top that exposed her bare midriff.

While the two weary combatants were shaking their heads and wishing they were anywhere else but there, Harry finished his masterpiece.  With a gesture of his hand, a four foot 1/10 scale model of an X-wing starfighter rose from behind his barrier.  While it hovered briefly, a quick flick of his wand and a nonverbal replicating spell created an entire X-wing squadron.  Another gesture and they all shot at the stunned pair of victims on the ground.  For her part, Hermione made a circular motion with her wand and the four wing tips of each starfighter glowed bright orange, followed by a barrage of stinging hexes that shot out at the hapless couple as each starfighter bore in on its target in turn and then peeled away.

To their credit, Tonks and Remus each managed to shoot one of the starfighters out of the sky with explosion hexes before Harry and Hermione finished the performance with silent Expelliarmus hexes which disarmed the older pair.  While the two students each caught one of their opponent’s wands, formally ending the duel, the exhausted couple sank to the ground in relief.

As the two young champions approached their vanquished foes, Remus managed to pull himself into a sitting position, from which he stared at them in amazement for several seconds before gathering his wits and congratulating them.  For her part Tonks remained lying on her back with her arms folded across her bare midsection and her eyes closed.  At length she opened them, looked up into a pair of innocent smiles, and groaned.  Her response was short and to the point.

“I hate you Harry Potter.” 

The two teens couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into laughter, which was quickly joined by the good-natured Tonks, and eventually also by the normally more somber Remus.  At that point the throng of cheering students reached them, now that Flitwick had taken down the shield barrier.  Amidst all of the congratulations and back pounding, the two young leaders of the light side shared a smile, knowing that they had made a statement.  They intended to win this fight.

The four muggleborns, Justin, Dean, Colin, and Dennis, were particularly impressed with the squadron of starfighters, so Harry gave them each one of the remaining models as a souvenir.  Hermione reminded them that the transfiguration would not be permanent, but that they could use them to practice their own transfiguration skills.  With all the revelry it was soon decided that a celebration feast was in order, and Minnie enthusiastically went about preparing a sumptuous meal, commenting happily that it had been years since there had been a dinner party at Potter Manor.  Dobby, who had been one of the spectators at the duel, insisted on being allowed to help.  After a quick negotiation, Minnie permitted him to assist her, but made it clear who was in charge.  Hermione noted with interest the way Dobby curbed his normally over-the-top helpfulness and deferred to her.  It was an insight into the house elf hierarchy that she had not previously witnessed.

During the feast, Moody insisted on using the duel as a teaching opportunity, and Hermione was all too willing to accommodate him.  She commented on several aspects of her plan, from keeping your opponent off balance by doing the unexpected, to the importance of nonverbal spells, to the use of short-range apparation in battle.  She also touched on how inappropriate robes were in a combat setting.  Along those lines, she noted to herself with amusement that several of the girls had paid close attention to the alterations Harry had made to Tonks’ clothing, and suspected that cropped tops would soon be a preferred item in the exercise sessions.  When she began to lecture on the applications of transfiguration in combat, many in her audience were beginning to get restless.

They were all rescued by Fred, who called out, in a perfect deadpan voice, “Yeah, my favorite part was when Hermione introduced them to the birds and the bees.”

This effectively brought the lesson to a hilarious halt.  It also may have set a Hogwarts record for simultaneous spit takes during a meal.

-ooOoo-

In the general conversation after the party Hermione spotted McGonagall involved in what appeared to be a serious conversation with her parents.  Just as she approached them, they each reached out and shook hands with the stern professor, and then turned to smile at her.

“Miss Granger, please allow me to introduce you to our two new Muggle Studies professors,” announced the headmistress.

“You … what … how …?” Hermione stammered as her parents laughed while looking immensely pleased with themselves.

“Why Miss Granger, it was your suggestion after all that I appoint someone with more knowledge about the muggle world.  Who better than the muggle parents of one of my most distinguished students?” McGonagall answered while permitting herself the smallest of smiles.  “As for how, they will be able to access the castle in the same manner as parents of muggleborn students have always done for graduation ceremonies.  The Hogwarts headmaster or headmistress can create charmed medallions that negate the muggle repelling charms.”

“Oh yeah, I remember reading about that in Hogwarts, A History,” sounded Harry’s voice as he came up behind Hermione.”  She whirled around to face him with a look of disbelief, only to see the grin on his face and realize he had been having a go at her.

“Oh, you …” she sputtered and folded her arms across her chest in a huff.  She quickly gave it up though, and joined in the general excitement and congratulations.

“Now we’ll be able to keep an eye on you two this year and make sure you don’t get yourselves into any trouble,” smirked Dan.

Hermione managed to pull herself together enough to give him the appropriate teenage daughter response – a sigh, an exaggerated eye roll, and an exasperated, “Oh Dad!”

-ooOoo-

The last week of the summer the PDA expanded to take in four new members – Lisa Turpin and Su Li from Ravenclaw and Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass from Slytherin.  It was a testament to Harry’s leadership and everyone’s dedication to the task before them that the Slytherin pair was accepted without dissent.  It also helped that Ron, the most outspoken anti-Slytherin in the PDA, kept his opinions to himself and welcomed them enthusiastically.  The enthusiasm with which Daphne returned his welcome certainly raised some eyebrows, however, and several of the males were overheard muttering about how some guys had all the luck.

The newcomers were integrated into the teams reasonably well.  Lisa and Su naturally joined the Ravenclaw group, bringing their membership to six, with three of each gender.  Harry was reluctant to split up Daphne and Tracey, so they joined with the other girls that hung around Ron to bring that group up to six as well.  Lavender, Susan, and Hannah were not thrilled about the new competition from Daphne, but all of them thought that Tracey was a good addition.  She served sort of as a housemother, keeping the other girls on task, which relieved Hermione greatly.  Even though Ron trained with this group, he was officially part of what all of the students called the Ministry team – the six that had fought the Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic.  This was clearly the number one team, and even without Harry and Hermione participating could best any of the other teams in the exercises.

Harry and Hermione were quite satisfied with their final groups.  All five were now at full strength with six members each.  The Ministry team, the graduate team, and the Ravenclaw team were mixed gender, and they also had an all male and an all female team.  For training exercises involving mixed gender pairings, these two teams combined.  The PDA was gradually turning into an imposing fighting force.

-ooOoo-

Dan Granger had been keeping himself busy thinking of ways that muggle items could be of use to his children in their battle.  (He had long since taken to thinking of Harry as a son.)  When Hermione had told him about the high intensity light spell, he had responded that muggles could make some pretty intense lights too.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t think of any way to use that information for defensive purposes.  The problem was that muggles couldn’t see Dementors, so wouldn’t know when to set off a flare.  They did contact Kingsley Shacklebolt to pass this information on to the Prime Minister for possible use by British security forces. 

Dan did find some photocells in a science supply catalog that they used to measure the intensity of the students’ Solarus spells.  They determined that welding goggles were indeed strong enough to protect one’s eyesight from the spells, although Harry’s spell was bright enough to make the test subject see spots for several minutes afterward even with the goggles.  Harry sent several pairs of welding goggles to Fred and George with the suggestion that they see if they could incorporate something like them into a shield hat.

Another possibility that occurred to Dan was sniper rifles.  Some internet research had turned up information on the Barret M82 high caliber sniper rifle.  The key feature was that it had a range of 1800 meters (a little more than a mile).  It also fired a .50 caliber bullet that would pierce light armor, and presumably also troll hide.  When he shared this information with Harry and Hermione, he suggested that if they knew an attack was imminent, they could set up sniper positions well out of sight of the enemy, who wouldn’t have any idea of what was hitting them.  Harry and Hermione immediately realized that the towers of the castle would be an ideal site to deploy weapons of this type.  And they fully expected Hogwarts to be attacked sometime in the next year.

And so it happened that at the end of August Dan and Emma took one of the most bizarre trips of their lives.  On Monday afternoon (8/25) they departed for Mexico, where they spent three days at a resort near Tulum, returning to Britain on Friday (8/29).  Actually, Emma spent three days at the resort, while Dan spent three days there and two days in Texas.  Meanwhile Harry and Hermione took a slightly longer trip, leaving on Sunday, spending five full days in Mexico, and returning the following Saturday with their flight actually arriving early Sunday morning.  In fact, they spent five days on the beach and five days visiting their Mayan friends, while Harry spent an additional two days in Texas with Dan.

When the two men with English accents purchased half a dozen sniper rifles at the gun show, along with an entire crate full of ammunition, it naturally caught the attention of the American officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  As expected, a check with the FBI and Scotland Yard showed that they had been using false identities and a dummy bank account, although the account had more than enough funds to cover their purchase.  The two men seemingly vanished into thin air, and the frustrated officers eventually moved on to other cases.  Of course, it is rather difficult to track a shipment of rifles when they leave the country two days before they were purchased, hidden in a magical trunk being carried by a man under an invisibility cloak.

After a long bus ride into Mexico, Dan watched in amazement as Harry took the trunk and disapparated, only to reappear seconds later with his Firebolt.  Dan was thrilled with the subsequent ride across the Yucatan jungle, just skimming the treetops at better than 100 miles per hour.  (Harry later told Hermione that he probably could have side-alonged Dan, but he thought that he might enjoy the broom ride.  Hermione agreed.)  He was also fascinated when they stopped for a rest break and Harry transformed into a jaguar and ran around to stretch out and get a little exercise.  If anyone had bothered to check, Dan was sitting at a pool with Emma and Harry was lying on a beach with Hermione at the time the guns were being purchased in Texas.

Harry and Hermione timed their flights so that they left London at 9:00 AM on one Sunday (8/24) and arrived back at 6:00 AM the following Sunday (8/31).  After clearing customs they used the time turner once more and ended up leaving the airport on the original Sunday exactly one hour after they had arrived.  It had to be one of the most efficient holidays in history.  The following day (8/25) the pair stopped off to see her parents just before they left for their flight, and then came by again on Saturday (8/30) after they had returned.  Hermione slipped the time turner over Dan and Harry’s heads, they said goodbye to Emma, and the three of them disappeared, going back to Monday (8/25).  Dan thus spent the week at the training site instructing the DA members in the proper use of the sniper rifles while simultaneously vacationing with his wife in Mexico, and purchasing the same rifles in Texas.  On Sunday morning (8/31) Dan rejoined her, that afternoon they attended Remus and Tonks’s wedding, and that evening they took a portkey to Hogwarts to take up their new teaching positions.  Meanwhile Harry and Hermione were simultaneously in Mexico, Cambridge, and at Potter Manor (with Harry also in Texas for two days).

For some reason, in later years whenever Hermione attempted to explain this sequence of events to anyone they always left holding their heads in their hands and muttering about a headache.

-ooOoo-

There was quite a mixed reaction to the Barret sniper rifles among the members of the DA.  The wizards and witches who had had little or no contact with the non-magical world mostly regarded them as interesting curiosities, and had little interest in learning how to use one.  On the opposite extreme, Justin Finch-Fletchly had hunted with his father, who belonged to an exclusive hunt club, and was very familiar with firearms.  He took to the sniper rifle immediately and became very proficient with it in short order.  He also appreciated more than any of the others the penetrating ability of the .50 caliber ammunition.  Harry showed some potential with the rifles, but didn’t pursue it since he knew that he would have a bigger role in any battle than sitting up in a sniper nest.  Dean Thomas was also interested in the role of the sniper, and with a lot of practice would eventually become almost as good as Justin.  The real surprise was Ginny.

Even though she had never been exposed to any kind of muggle weapon, let alone a high powered rifle, the small girl took to the shooting with a passion, and turned out to be a superb marksman.  Before the end of the week she was routinely nailing one-meter targets from a distance of 1000 meters or more.  The problem was that the 30+ lb rifle was quite a bit for her to lug around.  But Dan pointed out that his intention was to pair the students in sniper teams, with one shooter and one spotter, who would also carry the ammunition.  Neville immediately volunteered to be Ginny’s spotter and said he would carry both the rifle and the ammunition.  Given that he was the strongest of all the students, Dan went along with this pairing.  Seamus was paired with Dean and Ernie agreed to be Justin’s spotter.  The DA now had three sniper teams.  But unknown to anyone but himself, Dan planned that he and Emma would be a fourth team.  He had finally found a way to become involved in the final battle and he intended to make the most of it.

-ooOoo-

The wedding of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks was held on the final day of summer vacation, August 31, at Potter Manor.  Harry had been quietly licensed to make portkeys by the Department of Magical Transportation (they had seen the consequences of turning him down once and had no desire to repeat the experience) and he created them for all of the guests, thereby preserving the secrecy of the location.  Most of the guests did not even know that they were in Potter Manor, as Minnie had cleverly disguised the ballroom where the event was being held and removed any family heirlooms that might identify it.  Once again she graciously allowed Dobby to assist her with the preparations.

Despite the relative secrecy, there were a good number of attendees.  About a dozen Aurors, including Head Auror Robards and DMLE Director Hammer were invited, as were the entire Order of the Phoenix.  The whole Weasley family save Charlie, who was still in St. Mungo’s, and Bill and Fleur, in Albania, were on hand, as were selected other families of Hogwarts students including the Lovegoods and Longbottoms.  Remus had asked Harry and Hermione to stand up for them, and Tonks had lined up Hestia Jones and Kingsley Shacklebolt.  The ceremony was much less elaborate than that of Bill and Fleur, but Hermione thought that it was moving just the same.  She also noticed that Harry could not keep his eyes off of her for the entire ceremony.  Tonks had admired the halter style gown Hermione had worn to Bill and Fleur’s wedding and so it doubled as her bridesmaid gown, and they ordered Hestia a matching one in a shade of violet.  Harry also wore his dress robes from the previous wedding, since they had already been selected to match Hermione’s robes.

During the reception Harry spent most of his time with Hermione at the head table, but agreed to dance with several others, including Tonks of course, as well as Ginny and Luna.  Likewise Hermione danced with Remus, and also Ron and Neville.  She observed that Molly looked very happy while she was dancing with Ron and Harry was dancing with Ginny.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ron leaned forward and whispered in her ear when he saw what was bothering her.  “She’ll come to grips with it eventually.”  But Hermione noticed something else.  Ginny was clinging to Harry during their dance, seemingly in desperation.  Harry was trying his best to calm her down, but to little avail.  Hermione reflected that Ginny had not seemed to be herself for some time.  Later she asked Harry if he had said anything to her.

“I asked her what was wrong and she first said it was nothing, she was fine.”  Hermione raised an eyebrow and Harry gave a small chuckle.  “Yeah, that’s what I told her – I’ve used that line enough myself to know when it doesn’t mean anything.  Anyway,” he continued, “eventually she admitted that things have been really stressful at home.  She’s still very worried about her mum and dad.”

Hermione supposed that that might be true, but she wasn’t entirely convinced.  Molly’s mental condition was bothersome, to be sure, and Arthur was still incapacitated.  He was now getting around on what appeared to be a modified flying carpet crossed with a divan chair.  When she and Harry managed to get him alone and talk with him he seemed to be in good spirits, and thanked them for everything they had done for his family.  When Harry inquired about his prognosis, he reported that the Healers had explained to him that nerve restoration was much more complicated than bone restoration.  There were Healers working on the problem, but since there wasn’t much demand, there being relatively few wizards in his condition, it was a lower priority.  Hermione knew immediately that by the next day Gringotts would be informing St. Mungo’s that a new source of funding had arisen for research into this particular medical condition, with the donor insisting on it being of the highest priority.

During the course of their making the rounds at the reception they were pulled aside by Mad-Eye Moody, who passed them some urgent information.  It was a warning from Viktor Krum that Voldemort had successfully recruited a large batch of new Death Eaters from the continent, including quite a few Durmstrang graduates.  Viktor had risked his life to get this information to them, and had disappeared within the last few days.  Hermione gasped at the possible loss of her good friend and Harry stepped up behind her and put his arms around her in support.

“The last message he got out,” Moody said in a low voice, “was that it looked like a major attack was being planned for any time now.  We think it might be timed to disrupt the opening of the school tomorrow, so be alert.”

“Constant Vigilance!” the pair responded softly but firmly, and Moody nodded his approval before limping away.  Hermione noted that the Aurors among the guests were discretely taking their leave.

Harry caught Ron’s eye and nodded to a balcony.  In a few minutes Ron joined the couple where they stood, looking out over the peaceful grounds of the estate.  Hermione had her arms crossed and was hugging herself nervously, while Harry stood behind her running his hands up and down her arms to calm her down.  They quickly relayed Moody’s message and then they all fell silent, pondering the looming assault.

“One last golden day of summer, I reckon,” Ron commented as he leaned forward, resting his hands on the carved stone railing while watching the shadows lengthening across the lawn of the estate from the sun hanging low in the western sky.

“It has been quite a summer, hasn’t it?” Hermione allowed, trying to shake off the foreboding feeling.

“Yeah.  Just how long was this summer for you guys anyway?” Ron asked, turning back to them.

Harry screwed up his face in thought and scratched his head, but Hermione had been keeping track all along and had the answer instantly.  “68 weeks for me, 74 for Harry.”

“Blimey, that’s …”

“Almost 16 months for me, 17 months for Harry.  Nearly a year and a half.  Amazing, isn’t it?”

Ron just shook his head.  Then he looked up.  So, your list that you showed us that first day.  How did you do on it?”

Amazingly (at least to Ron; Harry was rarely amazed by anything Hermione did anymore) Hermione withdrew the battered piece of parchment from a hidden pocket in her bridesmaid robes and began to read:

“Let’s see, Find and destroy the Horcruxes.  Well, we got one, and Bill’s working on the rest.  As for the sub headings, Go through any materials Dumbledore may have left behind – check.

Research Horcrux creation and possible destruction using resources we haven’t tried yet – that’s been taken care of.  So the first item is under control.”

She folded down the parchment and continued.  “Next, Destroy Voldemort – well, obviously we haven’t done that yet.  But we’re moving in that direction.  With regard to these subheadings, Train with Harry to learn more, and more powerful spells – check.

Look into ways of boosting magical power – we’ve made a lot of progress there.

Consult with Aurors, for example Moody, re battle tactics – done that.

Figure out what the power he knows not is – well,” she smiled up at Harry, “I think we have an idea.”

She continued on down the list.  “Find a place to live and train after we leave Privet Drive – I’d say we’ve certainly got that covered.

Keep Harry focused and on track, but don’t let him get discouraged.” She paused and looked up at Harry with another smile.  “How did I do dear?”

Harry grinned back at her.  “You were fantastic.” He leaned down to give her a kiss but was interrupted by Ron loudly clearing his throat.  “You took care of Make sure Harry takes some time to have fun and enjoy himself once in a while pretty well too,” Harry pointed out after giving Ron a mock glare.

Ron grimaced and shook his head again.  “So, was that the last item on the list?”

Hermione turned around and beamed a brilliant smile at Harry, which he returned as his hands found their way to her waist and hers came up around his neck.  “Not exactly.”  Without turning her head away from Harry she took her wand out and waved it over the parchment, canceling the charm that kept anyone other than Harry or herself from reading the real last item, then floated it over to Ron as she replaced her hand around Harry’s neck.

Ron glanced down at the parchment and saw the words fade into view.  After a second another loud groan told her that Ron had finished reading the last item.

  Help Harry get over Ginny and fall in love with me

“I can’t believe you wrote that down,” Ron protested.

“Well, you know me, Ron, I like to plan everything out,” Hermione teased.

“I’d like to point out that she’s done a smashingly good job on that one,” Harry said with as straight a face as he could manage.

After a nice hug, and respecting Ron’s sensibilities by refraining from a kiss, Hermione pulled away and turned toward her red-haired friend.  “Do you want to see my new list?”

“So what’s this one called, ‘Hermione’s Plan Part 2’?” Ron joked.

“Sure, why not,” Hermione bantered in return as she pulled out another piece of parchment.  On either side of her, Harry and Ron leaned forward to see what she had come up with this time.

Finish with the Horcruxes – Bill

Smoke old Snake-Face’s Arse

Graduate Hogwarts

Get Married

Live Happily Ever After

Harry wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against his side.  “Sounds good to me.”

Ron made an unintelligible noise that Hermione took for general agreement.  She wrapped her other arm around him and the trio stood there in silence, watching the sun set, prepared for the challenges of the coming year.

End of Part 1

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-

Previous Inspiration Setting Things in Motion Getting to Know the Grangers Initial Preparations Final Preparations and Bon Voyage A Year in Mexico, Part 1 A Year in Mexico, Part 2 A Year in Mexico, Part 3 An Unexpected Friend and Ally Joy and Sorrow Life Goes On Healing A Very Long Week Revelations Reactions Tales of Two Horcruxes Picking Up the Pieces Training Ron A Call to Arms (and Legs) Potter's Army Information, Both Useful and Disturbing Summer's End An Eventful Beginning Fall Term Part 1 - Happy Birthday Hermione Fall Term Part 2 - Many Things Are Revealed Fall Term Part 3 - On to Halloween Wedding Bells Romantic Interlude The Hogwarts Challenge The War Comes to Hogwarts Where It All Ends Epilogue Next