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Final Year Chapter 13 – Another Step Closer to the End

Hermione awoke the following morning with an overwhelming feeling of contentment. As she opened her eyes she found Harry already awake and gazing at her with a contented smile of his own. She smiled back as they each reached out to draw the other into an embrace.

“Good morning. Happy Christmas,” he whispered.

“Happy Christmas to you too. I love you,” she returned fervently.

“I love you too. How are you feeling?” he asked as he tightened the hug.

Christmas morning in a warm, comfortable bed, wrapped in a naked embrace with the man she had just made love to for the first time the night before, Hermione didn’t think it was possible to feel much better than this. Even the bit of soreness between her legs, which presumably was the concern that prompted Harry to ask the question, felt good. “Perfect,” she replied, punctuating her declaration with a kiss. Harry responded in kind, and it was some time before either spoke again, other than a few murmured endearments.

“What has you awake so early?” Hermione wondered as they pulled back to catch their breath. She was nearly always the first to wake up when they slept together.

“I had a lot of things on my mind. Then I woke up and saw you lying there and I couldn’t help just watching you, hoping this was real and not a dream. It’s hard to believe I could be this lucky,” he admitted.

“Well, believe it,” she declared. “Personally, I think I’m the fortunate one to have you. Last night was wonderful. It was everything I’d dreamed it would be.” She snuggled back into his embrace and sighed, allowing herself to enjoy the contentment for a while before she continued. “I suppose you’re also thinking about what happened at Godric’s Hollow.” She felt him nod against her head. “Me too. Want to talk about it?” Another nod.

Hermione rolled over to look at the bedside clock, taking care to remain within Harry’s arms, and he adjusted his grip accordingly, so that his hands were now cupping her breasts, which elicited another smile on her part. “It’s just gone past eleven,” she declared. Let’s lie here and enjoy ourselves a bit more, then get up and order brunch.”

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – December 25

As Harry and I compared notes, we discovered that we mostly had similar thoughts. First we established that Bathilda Bagshot was dead, and had been for some time, and that Nagini must have been possessing her body somehow. Assuming that was the trap that Snape warned us about, how is it that she never appeared when Remus and Tonks checked the place out? Tonks even walked around looking like Harry right in front of the house, whereas we were under the invisibility cloak. I commented that I had the feeling that she wasn’t using her eyes to see, and was sensing us some other way. Then Harry reminded me that it seemed that she only sensed him, not me.

We concluded that it was because of his connection to Voldemort. He noted that he felt his scar tingling as we entered the house, and it’s happened in the past that his scar reacted when Voldemort was present, going all the way back to first year with Quirrell.

I’m starting to get a very bad feeling about this. That there’s possibly more to that scar connection than we thought. Nothing I’ve read, and no one I’ve talked to, suggests that a curse could establish a connection like this, where Harry can unintentionally not only get flashes of what Voldemort’s feeling, but actually get visions where he sees things through Voldemort’s eyes. Yes, possessions are well documented, but they’re always due to an active spell cast for that specific purpose. The only thing that even comes close is Ginny’s possession by the Horcrux in the diary, and even that was intentional on Tom Riddle’s part.

I really don’t like where this line of reasoning leads, and I refuse to go down that path on Christmas Day. If necessary, we can consider it further when we’ve dealt with the other Horcruxes.

On the good side, there were several positives about the whole visit. We destroyed another Horcrux, and not just any Horcrux but the one we thought would be the most difficult to get at. Harry finally got to visit Godric’s Hollow and see the house he lived in and visit his parents’ graves. And we learned more about his possible connection with Ignotus Peverell and the Deathly Hallows. It seems pretty likely that we have two of them now, and possibly all three if the Resurrection Stone is indeed in the snitch Dumbledore gave him. We’re not exactly sure what we’re supposed to do with them, though. Will it be like the legend and Harry will be the Master of Death? Will that allow him to kill Voldemort more easily? It’s frustrating that there simply aren’t any books available that I could look at to research this more thoroughly.

We both tried out Dumbledore’s wand – or I should say the Wand of Destiny. Harry’s decided that ‘Wand of Destiny’ is too cumbersome so he calls it the Elder Wand. (I think he means it’s too ostentatious of a title. He’s never been comfortable with the whole ‘destiny’ idea either.) In any case, it works for us but doesn’t do anything special. Both of us get better results with our own wands. Interestingly, we discovered that Harry can use my wand almost as effectively as his own, much more so than the Elder Wand. And I can use his as well. I think I like that – it suggests that our magic is compatible, that we belong together.

Of course, in order for the Wand to have its full power it has to be won from its previous owner. It obviously doesn’t recognize Harry as its master, so we figure that must be Snape, since he killed Dumbledore. I wonder if that’s why he was so insistent that Harry make certain that everyone knew he did it. Is it possible he knew Dumbledore’s wand was the Wand of Destiny? It’s hard to believe that he would know when neither McGonagall nor Flitwick did.

So, there are two potential benefits to us removing the wand from the tomb. The most important is to keep it out of Voldemort’s hands. If he does track it to Grindelwald, and discover that Dumbledore had it, he would likely realize that he could become its master by killing Snape, which neither Harry nor I have any trouble believing he would do without a second thought.

The other thing to consider is that Harry could also become its master, if he were to kill or defeat Snape. It doesn’t seem likely that he would kill him, although it’s possible that a situation could arise in which that happened, during a battle where Snape was fighting with the Death Eaters, for example. Harry certainly wouldn’t kill him only for that reason. As far as winning it from Snape by defeating him in a duel – well, we’ll consider that if the opportunity presents itself.

Later –

We’ve decided to wait and open our presents along with Remus and Tonks and the Weasleys tomorrow at Bill’s house. But Harry had a very special one for me to open today. It was his mother’s engagement ring!

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it. I started crying when I realized he wanted me to wear it. It’s so beautiful! It’s a one carat diamond with a tiny emerald on either side.

I asked him how he’d managed to get hold of it. He was pretty pleased with himself that he’d pulled it off without me knowing. He’s been cooking it up with Remus using the mirrors. Remus told him about the ring, and said he thought it was in the Potter family vault, which Harry should have access to now that he’s seventeen. Bill looked into it at Gringotts and they confirmed the vault’s existence, but they wouldn’t let him take out any of the family heirlooms even though he had Harry’s key. So Tonks morphed into a duplicate of Harry and she went in with his key and picked it up.

Other than that excitement, we’ve had a nice, quiet day here at the hotel with just the two of us. I’m sure that we’ll have a good time tomorrow seeing everyone again and having a chance to catch up with all of the Weasleys, but having the time to ourselves was lovely.

As Hermione finished writing in the journal and gazed once again at the incredible ring on her finger, she wondered what would happen when they turned in later that night. Would there be a repeat of the previous night’s activity, or should that be a special, one time only event until after they were married?

The look in Harry’s eyes as they undressed for bed answered her question, with no ambiguity whatsoever.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – December 26

From the grin Fleur gave me as soon as we walked through the door of her and Bill’s cottage I knew she could tell what Harry and I had been up to. Veela must have some sort of sixth sense about these things. Fortunately, her reaction went unnoticed in the general commotion over my new ring. Ginny was particularly excited, and even Molly smiled and wished us well. We quickly broke up along gender lines as the males took Harry aside and congratulated him, along with the ribbing one would expect from a gathering of Weasleys. I think it was just as bad for me, though, since as soon as the men were out of earshot Tonks made a few ribald comments of her own, which caused Fleur also to extol some of the joys of being newly wed.

Once that ‘ordeal’ was out of the way and we rejoined the men, Harry and I told everyone about our adventure in Godric’s Hollow. Ron was a bit upset that he hadn’t been there with us facing Nagini. Remus and Tonks, who were the only others present who know about the Horcruxes, clearly caught the significance of what we’d accomplished, although they were rather agitated about the fact that we’d been caught by the trap that they’d failed to discover. In the end, all agreed that everything seemed to have turned out for the best.

Later, when Harry and I had a chance to meet with Remus alone, we explained our theory about how Nagini/Bagshot was somehow keyed specifically to Harry, which is why she didn’t reveal herself to them, nor was she aware of my presence. From the troubled expression on Remus’s face as he digested that information, I deduced that he might be thinking along the same lines as I was. We’ll have to get together sometime when it’s less crowded to explore those thoughts further.

Tonks is coming along in her recovery from her injuries, although she couldn’t be on her feet for more than a short time. At least she’s out of bed now. She told us it was driving her batty, being laid up, and she in turn was probably making life miserable for Remus. He quickly assured her that she was doing no such thing. It was cute to see the way he fussed over her. Even though she outwardly protested, we could tell that she enjoyed having him taking care of her.

Her mother, Andromeda, was there for a while, and agreed to take in Kreacher if things didn’t work out for him at Hogwarts. Since her husband, Ted, has been captured she’s by herself in her house. While this is certainly unfortunate for her, it does mean there would be less conflict with Kreacher, as she is a pureblood while Ted was a muggleborn.

Later in the afternoon, after all the presents had been exchanged and we’d had our fill of Fleur’s French cuisine (Molly even managed to restrain herself from offering too many opinions on how it should be cooked), Harry, Ron, Remus, Tonks, and I sat down with Bill to discuss the question of how to obtain an item from a Gringotts vault. Ron had already told him that we had to do this as part of our effort against Voldemort, and Bill was very understanding about the need for secrecy, so he didn’t press us for details on exactly what we needed from Bellatrix’s vault.

What it boils down to is that in order to remove something from a family vault, you either need the key and written permission, or need to be the actual person owning the vault, in which case they take a blood sample if you don’t have your key. Obviously, we have neither of those. We considered the possibility of having Tonks impersonate Bellatrix, but the blood sample would likely give her away. (We’re not certain, since she is Bellatrix’s niece, so she technically shares her blood to an extent. That might be good enough, but again it might not. The consequences of trying and failing are extremely unpleasant, so we’d only let her try that as a last resort, even though she’s willing if necessary.) Polyjuice might work better, since the blood would be real, but that would require getting a hair from Bellatrix, which is almost as unlikely as getting her vault key.

The other option is for us to ‘break in’. Bill made some discreet inquiries, and was actually granted an interview with Ragnok himself, once Harry’s name was mentioned in conjunction with Voldemort. The goblins’ response was that they were sympathetic to our cause, but that the integrity of their bank was at stake. The bottom line is that they would have to oppose us, and that blood would have to be shed for them to uphold their ‘honor’, but that if we were willing to pay the price it was possible.

It’s hard to believe that the goblins would be willing to barter with someone’s life like that, but Bill reminded us that they have a different culture than we do. That motto on the front door isn’t just for show. The obvious question is which of us would be willing to give our lives to get the Horcrux out of that vault. The whole thing is almost too distasteful to consider, so I’m not even going to speculate at this time. The only certain thing is that it can’t be Harry, although I’m afraid that he might be the first one to volunteer. I am certain that not one of us would let him.

So, none of the possibilities seem very promising at this point. And right now we don’t even know which Horcrux is in that vault, so even if we did get in we wouldn’t know what we were looking for, although it’s probably either Hufflepuff’s Cup or Ravenclaw’s Diadem.

Fortunately, the rest of the day was quite a bit cheerier than that conversation, and we enjoyed Fred and George’s antics, and catching up with Ginny about what’s been happening at Hogwarts. Fred and George are taking the loss of their shop in stride, and are turning their pranking talents toward creating more nasty surprises for Death Eaters. It’s a cat and mouse game, albeit a deadly one, with them and the rest of the resistance changing tactics frequently, as the Death Eaters catch on and come up with counter traps. Ginny reports that things are somewhat similar at Hogwarts in their battle against Umbridge and Dawlish, although not as dangerous.

When it was time to turn in, Harry and I retired to our tent out in the yard, since things were pretty crowded in the house, as we expected. Fleur shot me another grin as we left the house, and teased me about remembering to use a Silencing charm. I assured her that I was quite conscientious about all my charms.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – December 27

Today’s Daily Prophet had a story about BathildaBagshot’s house being destroyed, with her body found inside. It mentioned that she’d been dead for some time, but didn’t speculate on what had happened to her house. We’re fairly sure it was Voldemort destroying it in a fit of rage after his familiar had been killed. I wonder how close it was – how soon after we left that he arrived. No matter, we’re safe now and the Horcrux is destroyed.

Remus suggested, and we agreed, that we should stay here for a few days, as Voldemort may be watching for us to show ourselves so that he can take revenge. According to Remus, he’s been spending a lot of time in Eastern Europe this month recruiting. Harry suspects that what he’s actually doing is searching for the Elder Wand. In any case, Remus intends to go to the continent himself and shadow him, trying to undermine his efforts. Plus, things are a bit hot here in Britain for Remus, after that battle with the Death Eaters at the beginning of the month. The Ministry would like to get their hands on him and some of the Order members, or others in the resistance, to make an example of them. Their negotiated peace looks bad when fighting of that magnitude is still going on.

So, we’ll stay here for a while and keep Tonks company. That will also make Remus feel better. In the meantime, I’m organizing our search of possible Horcrux locations in Britain. I have 42 potential sites, broken down by likelihood. We have 15 strong candidates, mostly magical sites like Stonehenge and the Avebury Stone Circle with the rest being of lower probability.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – December 31

Some interesting news just came in over the Wizarding Wireless Network. The Hufflepuffs carried out their rescue mission to break Justin and his parents and other muggleborns out of their internment camp today! They were being held on an island in the Irish Sea near the Isle of Man. The rescuers caught the guards completely by surprise, as they were mostly looking ahead to their New Years Eve celebration (and possibly hitting the Firewhiskey a little early).

The planning and execution of the operation were superb. They infiltrated the camp and stunned all of the guards, with only minor injuries, and had the inmates whisked away with portkeys before the Ministry even knew they were there. Upon their arrival in France, the French Ministry immediately granted all of the captive muggleborns political asylum, so that must have been coordinated in advance as well.

What they found in the camp was appalling. This ‘protective custody’ was nothing more than a prison where those being held were subjected to the most brutal and inhumane conditions. Many of the muggle relatives of the witches and wizards died (or were killed by the guards as a sick kind of sport), including Justin’s parents.

Susan was clever enough to bring along a reporter who knew her from her aunt’s time as head of the DMLE. Given that students from prominent pureblood families like her and Ernie Macmillan were involved, it’s more likely that the rest of the wizarding population will take notice. (Even Zacharias Smith took part in the raid, and his family is quite influential.) This really puts the Ministry on the spot, as their alleged safekeeping of muggleborns has been revealed to be a farce. In his interview Ernie particularly emphasized the fact that these were fellow witches and wizards being subjected to these conditions. Hopefully this will turn the tide with public opinion.

This is related in a way to some conversations Harry and I have been having in private, particularly since our getaway in London last week. He’s not sure if he wants to remain in the wizarding world when this is all over. I let him know I was having similar doubts. I used to think that the most blatant prejudice against muggles and muggleborns was from a small, extremist faction in the wizarding world. With the events of this past year I now realize just how widespread these attitudes are. It’s something we’ll have to give more thought to at a later time.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – January 2

Today is the day we’re going to visit Hogwarts to get a look at the statue of Ravenclaw wearing the diadem. McGonagall sent word that this is an ideal time since Umbridge and Dawlish are back at the Ministry trying to help do damage control after the exposure of the conditions in the muggleborn internment camp. The Ministry’s first reaction was to issue warrants for the arrest of the students involved, but there aren’t many DMLE officials who would be willing to go after Susan Bones, especially in the face of the outrage they felt. And then, as it became clear that the entire Hufflepuff House was behind the rescue, and when the full story of the conditions in the camp came out along with pictures in the Daily Prophet, the uproar from the public stopped those plans in their tracks. Most likely some second or third tier Ministry personnel will end up taking the fall as the top officials try to cover up. We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out, but overall this revelation can only help our cause.

This time McGonagall herself met them at the Hogwarts gate, but as a precaution they remained under the invisibility cloak as they crossed the grounds and entered the castle. For his part, Ron was using a new invention from Fred and George to conceal himself – an invisibility hat. It was a modification of the Headless Hats they had developed during their last year at Hogwarts, in which the invisibility field now extended to cover the user’s entire body. Unlike a permanent invisibility cloak, however, the effect only lasted for a short time, and the twins were currently working on extending that period.

Flitwick met them outside the Ravenclaw common room, and informed them that he’d made certain that all of his students would be occupied elsewhere in the castle. Then they turned to the entrance. Rather than a portrait guarding a hole that one climbed through, there was merely a plain door with no handle, only a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. They watched as Flitwick reached up and rapped it once.

“What came first, the phoenix or the flame?” the eagle asked in a soft, feminine voice.

“Huh?” Harry asked in bewilderment. “Why …?”

“It’s the Ravenclaws’ version of the password,” McGonagall explained while Flitwick looked on with satisfaction. “You have to answer the question in order to get in.” Hermione brightened immediately, then turned thoughtful as she pondered the riddle.

“What if you get it wrong?” Harry wondered.

“Then you have to wait until someone else comes along who answers it correctly,” Flitwick replied eagerly. “It’s a learning device, you see?”

“But how would anyone know which of those came first?” Ron objected. “It’s not like anyone was around to see it.”

“What do you think, Miss Granger?” Flitwick asked of the young witch who he’d always wished had been sorted into his house.

“I think,” Hermione deduced, “that it’s a question that has no answer, because it leads to circular reasoning. Just like a circle has no beginning and no end.”

“Nicely put,” the eagle proclaimed, and the door opened. As the others stepped through, Hermione hung back slightly, wishing they had time to answer more of the door’s questions. But Harry, knowing what was going through her mind, just grinned and pulled her along, shaking his head.

Whereas the color scheme of the Gryffindor common room was red and gold, the Ravenclaw counterpart was draped in blue and bronze. It also had considerably more windows, affording a spectacular view of the nearby mountains, and giving the whole room a much airier feeling. Appropriate, Hermione decided, for a house whose symbol was an eagle.

After a quick glance around their attention was drawn to a statue of white marble, in a niche across the room from the entrance. As they approached the likeness of Rowena Ravenclaw, they could make out a small, delicate circlet on her head, which reminded Hermione of the borrowed tiara that Fleur had worn at her wedding. For an instant the thought flashed through her head that Aunt Muriel’s prized jewelry could be the missing heirloom of Ravenclaw, now made into one of Voldemort’sHorcruxes, but this was immediately discarded. There was no way that the dark lord would hide one of his precious soul repositories with a member of a light side family like the Prewetts.

“That’s it?” Harry blurted out, ending Hermione’s train of thought. “That’s a diadem?”

“Well, yes,” Hermione answered, giving him a strange look. “What did you think a diadem was?”

“I don’t know, something more impressive than that though,” he complained. “I mean, it’s supposed to be a crown, right? Like kings and queens wear?”

“Ah, but she wasn’t actually a queen, you see,” Flitwick explained as Harry moved closer, peering at the head of the statue with a frown. “I’m sorry if it disappoints you.” Hermione could see that the diminutive professor was a bit put off by Harry’s reaction, and approached him with the intention of getting him to lighten up his criticism. She was brought up short when Harry turned back to face them with his eyes wide.

“I … I think I know where this is!”

There was a momentary silence as the other four processed this amazing declaration. Then they all joined into a jumble of excited voices. “What …? How …? Where?” Harry just held up his hands and shook his head until their questions died down.

“I think I saw it in the Room of Requirement last year, when Professor Trelawny was hiding her empty sherry bottles. So much else happened later that day that I’d pretty much put it out of my mind,” he explained. Now that he thought about it, he remembered that while he’d been in the room he’d called up Hermione on their mirrors right during the extra session she had attended at Beauxbatons on nude rituals, and a touch of red flashed across his face. Hermione’s matching color confirmed that she’d recalled the event as well.

“The Room of Requirement?” Ron prompted, not understanding why that reference would embarrass his friends like this.

“Uh … yeah, why don’t I show you my memory of it and see what you think,” Harry stammered quickly so as to forestall any other questions. He proceeded to unshoulder his rucksack and withdraw the pensieve that Dumbledore had left him. While he set it up on a table and focused on the memory he wanted to withdraw, Flitwick stepped up to examine the charmed rucksack.

“Nice charm work, Mr. Potter,” he commented with admiration. “Or should I say, Miss Granger?” he added as he took in her slightly embarrassed smile of pride in her spellcraft.

“Yep, that was all Hermione’s doing,” Harry noted absently as he deposited the glowing memory strand in the pensieve. “So, is everyone ready?”

Harry led the five of them into the version of the Room that was crammed full of discarded items of every sort. Hermione shot him a dirty look as they passed his memory self pausing before the lewd display of scantily clad witches, then huffed and grabbed Ron’s arm to yank him along as he stopped to gape at it himself. Before long, Harry found the spot he was looking for – an out of the way corner where a finely crafted tiara rested atop a cupboard.

“What do you think?” he asked breathlessly. “Is that it?”

“I believe it is,” Flitwick pronounced after a close inspection. “But where exactly is this place?”

“It’s a version of the Room of Requirement where students, staff, and house elves hide old stuff they don’t want or need any more,” Harry answered. “I suppose we can just go up to the seventh floor and guess at which phrase will summon it until we hit on it.” He shared a grim look with Hermione. “When I found it last year I reckoned we could always get Trelawny to let us in if we needed it again, but …”

McGonagall and Flitwick nodded sadly at the loss of their colleague, the first victim of the latest Umbridge regime. “But if you said the house elves use it,” McGonagall pointed out, “perhaps one of them …?”

Harry shook his head. “I asked Dobby about it last year but he said the house elves were sworn to secrecy about it.”

“Hmm,” McGonagall mused. “Perhaps we can get around that.”

The group exited the pensieve and Harry called Dobby, and the excitable house elf immediately appeared. After one of his typically overly enthusiastic greetings, he quieted down as McGonagall asked him, under her authority as Deputy Headmistress (as the actual Headmistress was currently out of the castle), if he would retrieve an item for them from the hidden storage area. Dobby, who didn’t need much of an excuse to bend the rules where Harry Potter was concerned, agreed. Harry took Dobby back into the pensieve to show him exactly what they were looking for and where it was, and the zealous little creature popped away, returning less than a minute later holding the long sought after heirloom.

“Thanks Dobby, this is exactly what we wanted,” Harry declared as Dobby carefully handed over the tiara.

“Dobby is always happy to be helping Harry Potter sir,” the bubbly house elf insisted. “Yous can call Dobby anytime yous be needing something.”

“Well, this is a very important object that will help us defeat Voldemort, so you helped a lot,” Harry assured him. He turned to the others with a look of grim satisfaction. “Well, shall we destroy it right here, then?”

“Are you certain that this is indeed a Horcrux?” McGonagall asked anxiously. “It’s such a shame that a priceless artifact that’s been lost for so long has now reappeared, only to be destroyed.”

Harry turned to Hermione, who stepped forward and cast the revealing spell that she’d discovered and used once before, on Slytherin’s locket. The glistening diadem, which Harry had set down on one of the tables in the Ravenclaw common room, turned red, then darkened, before resuming its original appearance. She caught Harry’s eyes and nodded.

“Does anyone else want to do the honors?” Harry asked, as he grasped the jeweled handle of Sword of Gryffindor inside his rucksack and slowly withdrew the blade.

“No, it should be you, mate,” Ron responded immediately. “Let’s not take any chances with this. We know you can destroy them, we don’t need to find out that it doesn’t work for someone else.”

Thinking ahead, Flitwick had conjured a stone slab and Hermione levitated the diadem into place. The gleaming sword flashed once again, and the fifth piece of Voldemort’s soul was no more.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – January 4

It’s been a quiet couple of days since we returned from Hogwarts. Suddenly we find ourselves with not much to do – we’d planned on an exhaustive search of potential Horcrux hiding places, and then stumbled on the Ravenclaw Horcrux at Hogwarts, where we’d suspected it would be in the first place. Since we believe the last one – Hufflepuff’s Cup – is in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts, we’ve been sitting around brainstorming ways to get at it. Unfortunately, we’ve come up empty so far; it seems we need to find Bellatrix and either obtain a hair or some skin from her or steal her vault key.

Remus is now in Russia. He just reported in on his mirror that Voldemort has secured the services of a clan of giants, which will be bad news if he manages to get them to Britain. He doesn’t seem to have gone after Gregorovitch yet.

Hogwarts starts up again tomorrow, so Fred and George are going to the Burrow to say goodbye to Ginny tonight, and Ron is heading off to see Luna. Harry and I will have a relatively peaceful meal with Bill, Fleur and Tonks. Tonks is looking better now, but she still tires easily.

Hold on – there’s some shouting coming from the cottage.

A scream from Fleur split the air as Harry and Hermione clambered through the entrance to their tent, causing them to draw their wands and quicken their pace as they hurried toward the cottage. Once there they were startled to see the normally jovial Fred and George with looks of utter horror on their faces, shaking as they stumbled their way through their tale.

“Dark Mark … place torn apart … Mum and Dad dead … Ginny missing.”

Hermione gasped as the awful news sunk in, then turned to Harry and cried out, “Harry, call Ron on your mirror and warn him! The Death Eaters may go there next!”

Harry was shaking as he fumbled for the mirror in his pocket, having trouble wrapping his mind around the enormity of the situation. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley dead! Ginny captured!

Before he could activate the communication device, they were interrupted by a loud crack of apparation. Nerves nearly shot, the witches and wizards gathered outside the house turned with their wands raised against the intruder, despite the fact that the Fidelius charm assured that he would be friendly.

Ron stumbled as he appeared, his face white as a sheet. As soon as he recognized his friends and siblings, he shouted, “The Lovegoods have been attacked! Mr. Lovegood is dead and Luna’s gone! We have to …”

But the looks on his brothers’ faces told him what he’d feared. His warning was in vain.

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-