The Boys Who Lived

CHAPTER 15

Harry wasn’t sure where he was or how he got here, but he just knew this was not where he was suppose to be, and where ever here was… it hurt to be here. Slowly he managed to open one swollen eye and peak out from under his lashes, it appeared that here was a cell of sorts, maybe a dungeon or jail? And he seemed to be chained to the bars on the wall of the cell by shackles of some sort to his wrists, and his ankles were bound to the wall too.

There wasn’t any light coming into the shadow filled cell, so it was hard to make out the shapes and dimensions of things in here when all there was were blurry shadows and darker blurry shadows.

Just then Harry heard a low moan near him, maybe ten feet away. He listened closer and it happened again, a moan, low and pain filled.

“Neville?” Harry croaked out, in a whisper, his voice hoarse and sore from screaming.

Another moan, then a quiet “Harry?” Echoed through the cells.

“Yeah,” he gasped out, “were are we?” Still trying to look into the shadows for any clues of where they were or what kind of place this was.

“Can’t…see…blindfold.” He moaned out. “Can’t move, think my leg is broke…’moan’…chained to some bars.”

“Oh gods, brother what happened? I don’t remember much. I remember shoveling dragon dung with you out by greenhouse three, the next thing I know I wake up here feeling like a dragon used me to wipe it’s ass with, for real. I hurt in places I didn’t know could hurt, hell my eyebrows hurt.” Harry wheezed and coughed and groaned as he fought the pain in his ribs from coughing. Apparently he had some broken ribs and just now realized it. Mother of Merlin what had happened to them.

It sounded like Neville was in worse shape than he was, so it looked like it was up to him to be the one to get them out of here. But how? He did have his wand…but then again he didn’t exactly need it did he. Hmmm.

First things first, light. Harry took and created a nice size light sphere and sent it hurling across the room to the darkest corner. He did the same thing to the other two corners and finally he could see where he was and exactly what kind of trouble they were in.

Okay they were in some kind of cells, like a dungeon or something. It looked like there were only the two cells though. The cells were all metal bars about eight to ten inches apart and maybe an inch, inch and a half around. There was a cot and a toilet in one corner of the cell he was in and he could see the same in the next cell, although from the angle he was at he couldn’t see Neville yet.

Next, getting off this bloody wall. Harry focused hard and created a tiny black spell ball and tossed it at the cuff holding his wrist. It took five tries but he finally managed to get his right hand free. Thankfully the little pop of the spell ball hitting the metal didn’t bring about their captor. That was when Harry thought to put up a silencing ward… stupid…stupid…stupid. He had been so careless, Moody would be infuriated with him if he knew.

He hastily put up a silencing ward.

Now the left hand, it was much easier to hit and he had his hand released in only one try. Next his feet and then he was free of the wall. Okay, Padfoot training kicked in, how hurt was he and what damage could he fix on the spot. He had some bruised or broken ribs, so… ‘Episkey’… okay he could breath easier now, it must have been broken for real. He had several cuts and bruises so he went about healing the worst ones and left the minor ones for later.

Then he went over to the divider between his and Neville’s cell. Again it was dark. He threw some light balls into the cell and got a better look around.

Neville was hanging there in just his slacks, no shirt. He looked as if he had been whipped. And yeah his right leg looked like it was broke, just from the angle it was at.

Okay now, next was to get to Neville. Harry looked over to the door of his cell and limped his way over. Even though he had fixed his ribs apparently that did not fix the pain.

Harry formed another small black orb and tossed it at the lock on the cell, two tries and the door opened. He could have used a bigger orb and gotten it in one blast but he didn’t want who ever had captured them alerted to their escape quite yet.

Then he quietly opened his cell door, making sure it didn’t make a sound, and slowly made his way over to Neville’s cell. Another little black orb and he was inside.

Harry rushed over to Neville and remove the blindfold from his brother’s eyes. Looking into those pain filled brown eyes for the first time told him more than he needed to know.

“Harry, how….?” Neville started. “Never mind, get me down from here.” He moaned.

“First things, first… brother.”

Harry placed his hands on Neville’s leg, right on top of where it looked like the break was, “Brachio Emendum!” He whispered. And with a snap, the leg was fixed, well as best as it could be without Madam Pomfrey that is.

Neville groaned, then sighed and let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “Thanks, that feels loads better.”

“Okay, now the shackles.” Again Harry formed a tiny black orb and tossed it at the shackles holding Neville’s right wrist. It took two tries but he got it the second time around. Then he did the ankles, just incase Neville had problems standing he didn’t need him falling on his face because he was still strapped to the wall or anything. Finally he did the left wrist. It looked like his left wrist may be broke as well as that leg had been. As soon as he was released from the wall Neville began to sink down the wall but Harry managed to catch him and guide him over to the cot and lay him down on his stomach.

“Let’s fix your back right quick before we do anything else.” Harry went down each whip mark and chanted that healing spell that Alice had taught them not a month ago, and he watched the two edges of each torn piece of skin knit together and heal he was again thankful for his Mum.

“How is that, does that feel any better?” Harry asked as he finished up.

“Loads. It still feels achy down in the muscles, but the majority of the pain is gone. Thanks.” Neville said as he sat up. Then he held out his wrist. “Can’t tell if it is a sprain or a break, it just hurts to move it.” He said.

“Broke probably, Let’s see….Brachio Emendum…” and another snap and a sigh of relief, yup it had been broke.

“All right, anything else?” Harry asked.

“Not really, just a little dizzy is all. I think it might be a concussion.” And he ran his hand over his head and found a goose egg sized knot on the back of his head, yeah probably a concussion.

“I don’t know what to do about one of those… can you manage to walk though?” Harry asked worriedly.

“Yeah, at this point I think I could manage to fly, if you asked me to.” He chuckled softly.

Harry chuckled as well. “Ok, let’s split this joint.”

Harry slipped an arm underneath Neville’s shoulder and hefted him up of the cot, then together they slowly made their way out of the dungeon cells.

They made it through a dark hallway and into what looked like a fancy tent, but they didn’t stop to look around. They kept going, slowly and quietly they made their way to the opening of the tent and out to the grounds. They had almost made it to the wards when they heard a hideous cackling laughter behind them.

“Naughty, Naughty…bad little toys don’t get to play on their own now do they? Well, we will just have to make sure they never try that again.” Harry and Neville turned around quickly and saw their capturer for the first time…Bellatrix Lestrange.

And she had them at wand point, and knife point.

“Cultroflora!” Neville shouted pointing his finger at her blade, and her huge buck knife turned into a daffodil in her hand. This brought about a shrill scream of frustration and she tossed the offensive flower down.

“Naughty!” Bellatrix raised her wand and aimed it at Neville. “CRUICIO!”

Harry quickly pushed his brother out of the way but was hit by the angry red lightning bolt that blazed towards them.

“AAHHhhhh!!” Harry screamed and fell to the ground arching his back as the pain of the Cruciatus Curse hit him.

Neville quickly created a huge black orb and hurled it at Bellatrix, not thinking of the repercussions. It hit her dead on. Exploding in the center of her chest. Her body was thrown back maybe ten feet and lay in a useless heap of gnarled flesh and bits of exposed bone. It didn’t take Neville going over there to check, to know that she was dead, there wasn’t enough left of her to be alive.

Neville crouched down and placed his hand on his trembling brother, “You think you can walk?”

“If you told me to brother, I could fly.” Harry chuckled and used Neville’s own words against him and together they managed to get Harry standing again, although it was on shaky legs.

Together they walked slowly through the many wards that Bellatrix had placed up around her tent and Neville guided Harry over to a large oak tree and sat them both down.

“Now what?” Harry said shakily.

Neville sighed. “Now we wait.”

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Sirius pounded his fist on the Headmistresses desk and shouted, “Ten days! It has been ten days! What are you people doing? My son is out there with that madwoman, with her doing Merlin knows what to him, and you people are sitting here talking about shift changes and meal times, when they are probably being tortured to death or worse already dead!”

Headmistress McGonagall’s eyes were huge, she knew her Gryffindor student of the past was temperamental but he was a lit fuse right now and any spark was going to set off this powder keg and blow us all up, if people weren’t careful.

“Sirius Black, you will calm yourself… there are certain things that Amelia has to deal with, that are a nuisance to her, but she must still deal with. Yes, she would rather be out there and looking for the boys, and her next shift starts in one hour so keep your pants on and wait, as normal you and the rest will be heading out with her team as soon as the sun comes up.” Headmistress McGonagall stated firmly.

“I am tired of this waiting, I want to….” Sirius started but was interrupted by the sound of pounding feet and the banging on the outer door of the Headmistress’ office.

“Enter!”

Hermione Granger and Padma Patil rushed into the office, both breathing hard and looking as if they had run a long way. “Sirius! Storm and Thunder just broke out of their paddock and took off into the woods, Luna and Pavarti are on Ventus and Tonitru, right behind them. Something is up! Something big!” Hermione gasped. Holding her side.

“What! Where?” Sirius reached over and put his hand on Hermione’s shoulder, calming the young girl.

“They headed toward to the other side of the Black Lake, into the forest. Come on Procella, and Fulgura know the way.” Hermione stated with confidence. Then she turned and rushed down the stairs and back out towards the stables, with Padma hot on her heels.

The room once filled with Aurors, Unspeakables, Professors and parents quickly emptied and followed the two girls, running across the school grounds.

They got to the stables and the two Darcorns were there prancing about as if waiting for something and immediately knelt down for Hermione and Padma to get on and Sirius changed into Padfoot and followed hot on their heels.

————————————————————

“Hey Harry, would you look at that! It’s Thunder, and Storm.” Neville nudged Harry gently.

“What?” Harry looked over to where Neville was pointing and sure enough there were their Darcorns racing towards them at top speed.

“Storm!” Harry smiled.

“Yeah, I wonder how they knew were to find us?” Neville helped Harry up, the tremors still making walking a little difficult on his own.

“Who cares, looks like we have a ride home. And you boys get steak tonight… won’t you boys. So what will it be wild boar or bison…hmm?” Harry asked as he patted Storm’s trembling neck. Storm lowered himself down so that Harry could get on him easily and with Neville’s help he was astride his magnificent Darcorn.

Thunder did the same for Neville and in minutes the two were turned around and gently walking back home. Somehow the two Darcorns knew that the boys were hurt and couldn’t manage a faster ride right now so they took it easy and just gave them a gentle, easy ride home, tossing their powerful necks back and forth as if daring anything to try and attack their humans again.

They had made it about twenty feet when Luna and Pavarti broke through the underbrush and came rushing over to them on Ventus and Tonitru.

“Harry!” Luna shouted.

“Neville!” Shouted Pavarti, at the same time.

Both Darcorns and riders rushed over to the boys and their stallions. As soon as they were close enough Pavarti wrapped her arms around Neville and began checking him for injuries, seeing the newly healed whip marks on his back she gasped and asked, “Are you all right?”

“Harry healed them, but they still hurt some, they feel like a pulled muscle more than anything else right now, but I will be fine. She broke my right leg and left wrist too, but he healed that too. They are a little weak so I need to have Pomfrey look at them as well.” Neville admitted.

Luna noticed Harry was trembling and asked about it.

“Cruciatus Curse, it was pretty bad. But Neville killed the bitch when she hit me with the curse, so I think it is even.” Harry leaned on Luna and nuzzled her hair some.

Luna ran her hand through Harry’s hair and looked into his swollen eyes, apparently giving him two black eyes was a fun little game that Bellatrix had enjoyed playing, since it appeared she had done it more than once. Luna figured it had something to do with his beautiful green eyes, wait a minute… beautiful green eyes? Where did that come from?

Before Luna could finish that thought there was a crashing through the trees and here came Hermione and Padma on Procella and Fulgura, followed by Padfoot close at their heels and at least a dozen individuals that Harry didn’t recognize on brooms flying low, he looked up and there were at least another dozen individuals flying high above them in the sky. Everyone landed with there wands out and ready for battle.

“No need for that.” Harry said. “Neville took care of her, she is through those wards there, about a hundred yards behind us and to the west. You can’t miss it, it has every ward I have ever heard of on it and a few I don’t recognize. Plus it has no odor, you know… it doesn’t smell like the forest.” Harry did his best to describe the place that they had been held but truly he had only seen the outside for a few moments before he was hit with the Cruciatus Curse and at that point things kinda went down hill.

Most of the Aurors and Unspeakables headed over to the direction that Harry had indicated. The Grim rushed over to Neville and Harry and immediately turned into Sirius and he reached up to hug his boys.

“Harry! Neville! You’re safe!” He tried, but he couldn’t manage to keep the tears from falling. Ten days of searching, combing every inch of this bloody forest, using every scrying method known to the Unspeakables.

Hell they had even gone to the extreme of going and getting Kreacher, the house elf from Grimmauld Place, and seeing if he could find her. When the little beast refused, he’d cut off his own head, instead of following a direct order. The only good thing to come out of that whole ruddy thing, is that they found another one of those Horcruxes, that bloody elf had been wearing it. Slytherin’s locket. How he got it was anyone’s guess, but it didn’t matter, another one down.

“We’re okay Dad, well for the most part at least. Neville needs to see Pomfrey and I guess so do I, but other than that we are doing just fine. Can we go home?” Harry asked as he hugged Sirius close to him.

Sirius could feel Harry’s tremors and looked at him curiously. When Harry didn’t say anything immediately he looked over to Neville, and Neville said. “She used the Cruciatus Curse on him. He saved me Padfoot, knocked me out of the way of the Curse and took the Curse for me. He needs anti-Cruciatus Curse tonic for the tremors and some pain potion for the residual pain he is going through.”

“MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE!” Padfoot shouted and his worried eyes looked over the boys to see what else he could find that they were not telling him. He then saw the whip marks, or what was left of the whip marks on Neville’s back. All that was left was thin white, pink raised lines right now but the marks were still there. His boys had been through Hell, and he had been unable to protect them.

But they had managed to escape and kill the bitch who dared to touch their brother.

A Field Medic, judging from their uniform, came rushing up and began to take in the picture. “Harry was hit with the Cruciatus Curse, and Merlin knows what else. And Neville was whipped, I don’t know if it was by spell or by an actual whip, but it looks like Harry closed the wounds pretty good for now.”

“Yeah, I also had a broken right leg and left wrist, and he healed those too. He has some broken ribs, although I don’t know if he got them all or if there is any further damage from the broken ribs or not. Remind me to thank Mum for all her healing classes when we get back Padfoot. We need to step those up a bit too.” Neville stated as he was examined by the Medic.

The Medic gave Neville some Blood Replenishing Potion and a Pain Potion and said it would have to do until they got back to the school. Then turned to Harry, first she gave him a Anti-Cruciatus Curse tonic, then a pain potion and some Bruise Potion for those black eyes, then said that his lungs were badly bruised and he needs to rest, some Dreamless Sleep wouldn’t hurt the boys either.

At first Padfoot wanted to side along apparate them directly to St. Mungos but the boys begged off that, and everyone just went for a slow even walk on the back of their Darcorns. They made it about half way back and were met by Frank, Remus and Xenophilius came rushing down the pathway towards them followed closely by Alice and Persephone. Apparently breakfast had just let out and they all heard that that they boys had been found, thankfully it was a Saturday and there were no classes today.

“Neville!” Alice screamed as soon as she saw them, then her eyes went over to to Harry and she screamed out his name as well.

“Harry!” Remus shouted, as he raced forward not even bothering to slow down to take in the picture, all he saw was his cub.

Soon the boys were surrounded by family and after a few minutes they all began to walk slowly back to the stables of the school.

Storm didn’t like the crowd of people around slowing them down from getting to the school and getting his human help. That one person had helped some, he could feel that the trembling of his human had lessoned some, but it was still present and he didn’t like it. His human was strong and healthy, not weak and trembling. This had to be fixed and these other humans were slowing him down from getting his human help. Every now and then he would toss his head around in exasperation and snort, pawing the ground. Harry would just pat his neck and thank him for his patience and gently card his fingers through his mane to calm him.

“Look folks, I don’t know about any of you but I haven’t seen a bathroom in a few hours and I kinda need to, so can we get going here please.” Harry said teasingly although he wasn’t quite being dishonest either, he wasn’t sure how long he had been hanging there and a bathroom sounding pretty good right about now.

Sirius laughed and got everyone moving along at a brisker pace and finally the stables came into view.

Storm and Thunder allowed Xenophilius to tend to them while Sirius picked up Harry, and Frank picked up Neville.

“We can walk!” Harry said frustrated at being carried.

“As long as you have those tremors, and until Neville has that leg looked at, you two are being carried. End of story. Now hush”. Alice said as she came up beside Sirius.

Both Neville and Harry knew better than to argue with Alice when she was in one of her moods, so they just laid their heads down and enjoyed the rides from their Dad’s. They made it to the Medi-ward without a problem, they even had a short side trip to the closest bathrooms just for the boy’s sake. Turns out both boys really were in need of that little relief break.

Madam Pomfrey already had beds set up for the boys and had been given a basic run down of their condition before they ever got into the Ward so she had everything prepared. She had even called in a specialist on the Cruciatus Curse to work with Harry. Just in case.

“Up on the beds please.” Madam Pomfrey instructed both Frank and Sirius, “Mr. Black to my right, Mr. Longbottom to my left if you please.” Apparently that is the way she had their potions set up already.

Sirius had barely let go of Harry and she was already waving her wand about, doing diagnostic spell after diagnostic spell. Tutting here and there, but she kept most of it to her self for the moment. Then she moved her cart close to her and began handing out potions, another Anti-Cruciatus Curse tonic, a Nerve Tonic, a Blood Replenisher, two Nutrient Potions, another Bruise Potion, and another Pain Potion. “You did an excellent job on those ribs Mr. Black, but I am going to give you some Skele-Grow to help firm up those broken bones and make sure they heal correctly, and I think that is best done at night while you are sleeping, also I am going to give you some Dreamless Sleep to make sure you make it through the night with out any nightmares of this horrid event.

From what I can tell you have been given only the barest of food and water for the past ten days, but not much really, it is showing the beginnings of malnourishment. I would bet she was feeding you Nutrient Potions and giving you water and that was all. From the looks of it.” Madam Pomfrey stated, her ire showing in her voice.

“From the feel of it too, I feel like I could eat a cow right now, and you might throw in a wild boar just for the diversity of it too.” Harry said chuckling.

“Same. I think my stomach has given up on me and decided to tie it self in a big knot and pout. At least that is what it feels like. I would even go for some of Hagrid’s rock cakes right about now.” Neville joined in, holding his stomach.

As Madam Pomfrey finished with Harry she called a house elf and asked for chicken soup and crusty bread.

“But we haven’t eaten for so long, we want food, not soup.” Neville said, looking forlorn. The thought of a juicy steak vanishing from his mind quickly.

“Yes, I know you are very hungry, but you haven’t eaten in days, so your stomachs are going to be hyper- sensitive. We don’t want you getting sick so quickly after you getting back, now do we? Light soup to start with, then if your stomach handles that okay we will work you up to some chicken or fish, some light meat or maybe some pasta. You had better plan on it being a couple of days before you get that steak young man. Your stomach would not like you at all if you tried to eat it right now, and no amount of Stomach Soothers will make that feeling go away totally. So we do it the right way to start with and you don’t have any problems, and maybe by dinner you can have some Chicken Alfredo or Baked Cod for dinner.”

Then Madam Pomfrey turned to Neville’s side and began examining him. “Good job on that broken leg, and the broken wrist, Mr. Black. I think you are ready for me to start tutoring you on Basic First Aid as a Field Medic, you certainly show the talent for it. No wand and still able to heal these broken bones and these whip marks. Definitely ready for my classes.”

Harry grinned from ear to ear and looked over to Neville who looked at Madam Pomfrey and asked if he could join in on the classes as well. “Of course Mr. Longbottom, I would never think of training one of you without including you both. You two are a team, and quite a team you make. Teaching one with out the other is like making tea without using water, it just isn’t going to work. You two feed off each other, and when one can’t do something the other one can. If one has a broken leg the other one carries him, if one has a broken arm the other one protects him. I have never met a more perfectly aligned team in all my days. Now sit still and let me look at your back. These are some nasty whip marks. Just as I thought, she made them with a real whip and not with magic so we can completely heal them, so there will be little to no scarring, thank goodness. For some reason that evil Witch like the hands on approach better than the easier method of using magic, and in this case it is to your benefit.” Madam Pomfrey went over to a cabinet by the next bed and brought back a large white tub, Neville recognized it as Scar Removal Salve just from the markings on the tub.

“I am going to put some of this Scar Removal Salve on your back now and I want you to have it applied twice a day, morning and night, until the tub is gone or the scars are gone which ever comes first. It will be a little cold so just be prepared for that, but other than that you should only feel a slight tingling sensation and nothing else. If you feel any pain let me know immediately.” With that she began to rub the salve into his back, covering each whip mark completely. After she finished she had him get into a set of pajamas she had waiting for him and get into the bed.

“I am going to give you the same Skele-Grow and Dreamless Sleep combination that I am giving Mr. Black. And I am going to give you a mild Concussion Draught for that goose egg you have on your head, thankfully there was no further skull damage. But that should take care of any dizziness, nausea, double vision, or memory problems you might have. So take that Concussion Draught now and eat your soup, if you do okay with your soup I will see about something light in an hour or so.”

Sirius and Frank were watching this whole time making mental notes of every injury and everything their boys had been through. Both men looked livid but they held their peace and said nothing, waiting patiently for the Matron to finish and allow them to step forward. Once she moved out of the way and headed into her office to get their potions ready both men stepped forward.

“Do you boys remember anything about what happened to you during the last ten days?” Frank asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“I don’t, not really, just bits and pieces. Then most of it, it seems like I was blindfolded or something. I know when Harry broke us free today, I was blindfolded and couldn’t see a thing. I had also been unconscious until he spoke to me. I don’t know how long I was out of it. Or what happened before that though, sorry Dad.” Neville said.

“I came to and could barely open my eyes, they were so swollen shut, so I had been unconscious too for a while. I only remember getting hit by the Cruciatus Curse a few times and this horrible giggly laughter, then someone using me as a personal punching bag. The next thing I know I would wake up and it would start all over again. I couldn’t see who it was but whoever it was was definitely female and definitely crazy. Laughing and giggling as she hit me with the Curse. Then she would say ‘Oops, Naughty Naughty! And hit me in the face. And giggle again. she would say ‘Bad Toy! Naughty! And do it over and over again. Then that is all I can remember.” Harry stated, looking confused.”

Madam Pomfrey came back into the room and went over to Frank and Sirius and motioned them over to the side. They followed her over to the side and she put up a Silencing Ward around them before she spoke, then looked at each man and said, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the boys, but they had high traces of a Muggle drug called Rohypnol in their system, you probably don’t know what it is, but the Muggles call it the Date Rape Drug. It makes the individual completely compliant, and a willing victim. ‘It also makes sure they can’t remember what happens to them. Both boys show significant amounts of the substance in their system. I gave them a counter agent to the drugs and it should be out of their system shortly but their memories of what happened to them may never come back to them. To be honest gentlemen that may be the best thing. I checked and it looks like she broke Neville’s leg three days ago and he has been suffering with that for the last three days. The whip marks are at least a day old, and the broken wrist was probably a week old. The concussion was the most recent injury, I would say that was last night, from what I could tell she either hit him with something heavy or banged his head against something heavy, causing that concussion. So the injuries were compounded on each other and untreated, he has been suffering with each one for days or weeks and who knows what else was done to him in the mean time that she healed so she could continue to torture and enjoy her ‘toys’ as she called them.”

Sirius looked a little nauseated, “Date rape drug? So did she…well… did she do anything, you know….sexual to the boys?”

Frank looked a little sick to his stomach about then too, he hadn’t thought of that possibility and he prayed that the Matron stated ‘no’.

“No, from my exam the boys were untouched. Thankfully. Now there are some things that would not show up on my scan that might have happened to the boys, and I have no way of knowing if they did or did not happened, such as inappropriate touching and masturbation. But both boys were found with their pants on and no signs of sexual stimulation was present so we can only hope. I would just not mention it to the boys unless they brought the subject up to you. It may be too traumatizing for them to even attempt to remember, so do not attempt to trigger those memories at all.”

“Sweet Merlin my son…” Sirius thought out loud.

Frank looked at him and frowned. “Don’t let yourself go there Sirius, we can’t. If we do the boys will want to know what we are thinking and then we will have to explain what we are thinking and it might trigger something that their minds aren’t ready to handle yet. That Bitch was pure evil, I wouldn’t put it past her to do just about anything if she thought it would break their minds. So don’t even go there. For their sake.”

“For their sake.” Sirius swallowed loudly and wiped away the tear that he was trying to hide. “Ok, how do we help our boys?” He asked.

“You be there for them. With this drug, the memories may or may not come back to them, if they come back it will usually be in nightmares. So be prepared for that. When a memory comes back it may be so horrific that they need counseling to deal with it, so allow them to seek outside help. I am always available, but if you want to seek someone that is outside the school or more private then that is also an option. I would suggest Andromeda Tonks. She is one of the best. She has full Medi-Witch credentials as well as Mind Healer credentials so she is well qualified for such situations.”

“Andromeda, of course. I may just contact her and have her see the boys anyway. Something like this is bound to leave some pretty hefty mental scars, so they might need to see someone and they may feel that an outsider would be more comfortable than someone here at the school.” Sirius said nodding. He would talk to her about the whole thing any way, since Bellatrix was her sister and all. He hoped that would not be too awkward a conversation.

“It looks like the boys are finished with their soup, so let’s end this for now, if you two have any questions feel free to ask at any time. I am here for you as well.” Madam Pomfrey stated, then she vanished the privacy bubble she had created and headed over to the boys to check on them, leaving Frank and Sirius to their own devices.

——————————————————————

It took a while, but the search team finally found the compound that Bellatrix Lestrange had set up. And boy was Harry correct. It had more wards than most of the Ward Masters they had with them were familiar with. Thankfully, they had some Unspeakables that were experts in the field of Wards and the began to assist immediately. Still it took almost six hours to get all of the wards Lestrange had put up to be pulled down. Between that and the booby-traps she had put in place they had to be extra careful though so it was slow going. With the final snap and fizzle out of a Ward they were able to clearly see the clearing that she had chosen and the tent that she had placed within it.

Off to one side they saw what was left of the infamous Bellatrix Lestrange herself. Her chest cavity blown in and her body a mangled mess.

Amelia had seen the effects of Blasting Curses before, but never the boy’s colored orbs. She had worked with them over the years and trained them to perfect their timing and style, but apparently when it came down to a life or death situation, they would do what was necessary and would not hesitate, thankfully.

In groups of three they headed into the tent and began to investigate and do scans. The library was half full with Dark Arts material the rest was basic reference. It looked like the majority of it came from the Black Library, although how she managed to get her hands on it is questionable… probably Kreacher.

The Unspeakables began to go through the books and catalogue them and scan them for curses, clearing each one before packing them to be removed from the site.

They also found several portkeys to different locations, which will have to be examined at a later date. Quite a bit of Muggle money as well as galleons and various valuables. Several disguises and bottles of Polyjuice. Multiple knives, several wands, including the boy’s wands. Potions of all kinds, some that they would have to have Potion Masters look at to see what they were, although the Unspeakables were pretty sure they knew what they were they just wanted confirmation.

There was enough food to last about six months without having to restock in the pantry, and plenty of food in the cold box. There were several cases of wines and plenty tea as well. Apparently Bellatrix had been craving chocolate since there was a huge collection of Honeydukes Chocolates in their best variety boxes and bars too numerous to count just by looking.

The dungeon had been well used, judging by the amount of blood splattered on the walls and floor of the two cells. Amelia was a little shocked when she first saw it, especially when she had just seen the two boys that had been the victims within those very walls not a few hours ago. Bellatrix must have worked them over, then healed them, then worked them over again. Just to make sure that they lasted as long as possible. The cell on the right seemed to have more blood on it than the one on the left, with a simple scan she was able to identify it was Neville Longbottom’s blood that seemed to cover the floor and walls. The other cell seemed to have a lot of magical residue in it, definitely from the Cruciatus Curse, the number of times it was used had to be up in the teens if not the twenties from the amount of residue present. It would take a bit of Arithmancy to figure it out but they could take the scan results and get the answer soon enough. Taking into account spell degradation and time frames they should be able to tell how many times Harry Black was hit with the Curse and perhaps even for how long each time.

Apparently Bellatrix had wanted to use magic on Black but wanted to stick to physical assault when it came to Longbottom. Why? We may never know. What lurked around in the mind of that madwoman is anyone’s guess. She apparently got board with just using the Cruciatus Curse on Harry and would beat him with her fists though, if the condition of his face was any indication. So maybe she liked to use both on him and not just magic.

It was decided once the tent was emptied of all pertinent material that the Unspeakables would take claim of it and would add it to their field work supplies. Since it was quite a nice tent after all, and no reason such an expensive piece of equipment should go to waste. They would merely list it as confiscated, and split the cost of the tent with the Department of Law Enforcement.

They found several cursed artifacts and one very unusual cup. Croaker began examining the cup and waiving his wand over the cup, after about five minutes he stood back and shook his head, looking over to Amelia.

“What? What is that thing?” Amelia asked.

“That Amelia is another Horcrux. And if I am not mistaken it appears to be the Hufflepuff Cup.” Croaker said sighing. “One more down. That makes three, the diary, the Slytherin Locket, and now the Hufflepuff Cup.”

“We need to let Frank and Sirius know about this, at this rate we may just find them all, before someone has a fool idea to try and bring that idiot back.” Amelia stated.

“Correct, and we haven’t even perfected our device to hunt them down yet. But soon, soon.” Croaker said. He reached into one of the many pockets of his robes and pulled out an evidence bag and levitated the cup into the bag and sealed it shut. All the lingering sense of wrongness that had been hanging in the air dissipated as the bag disappeared into the folds of his robes.

“I wish we knew how many of those blasted things we are working with, perhaps our device will give us that information as well.” Croaker stated.

“Well the most powerful magical numbers are three, seven and nine. We already have three, so I doubt that is it. The next number on the list is seven, and since we have found three so far that leaves four to find. If you take off the one piece in You-Know-Who that would be that would leave three pieces left.” Amelia pointed out.

“Three pieces, considering we have already found that many in one week, I think that is completely doable. Although some would say that our finding said pieces was due to just pure dumb luck, the fact remains that we did indeed find three of Riddle’s Horcruxes. By this time tomorrow we should have the device finished to do the search for the remaining three. But I think you are correct the number he would have chosen would have to be a magically charged number, and nine is too large a number and three have already been found, so that number is out since if it were three would have found two and the third piece would have been the one inside of Riddle. So that leaves the number seven. Even Riddle is not insane enough to go for nine, at seven his soul would become so unstable that the slightest bit of soul work he would do, would cause it to destabilize and result in his immediate demise. That very well may have been what caused his original death to begin with, Riddle was attempting to use the Potter’s death to create another Horcrux and his soul was simply too unstable at that time for him to be able to do so. Resulting in his body imploding and his soul being cast out. Now he wanders around looking for a way to create a new body or possess a body long enough to use one of his Horcruxes to create one of his own. Without burning the body out first. We must collect each one of these abominations and destroy them before Riddle manages to possess another individual and attempt that purpose. If we miss even one he can come back and if he does he will be completely insane, he will make the madman that we dealt with in the past look like Father Christmas.” Croaker stated as he looked over to Amelia. “We need to go talk to Black and Longbottom, and tell them what we have found, the rest of the crew can finish up what there is left to do here.”

Amelia nodded and followed Croaker out of the tent and into the busy outside staging area was. The Unspeakables had tables set up with crates of books on them, they were going through each crate and cataloguing each one after it had been cleared of all threats. Most of it was probably going to be given back to Lord Black, but a few volumes were going to be requested for study.

Croaker went over to his second in charge and whispered something then came back to Amelia and nodded, letting her know he was ready to head to Hogwarts. She had done the same with Kingsley and then the two of them apparated out.

————————————————————

“What do you mean there was a fourth Horcrux? What fourth Horcrux?” Amelia asked, as she looked at Sirius.

“Yes, I would like to know that as well,” Croaker looked at Sirius curiously.

“When I first got Harry, I took him to the Goblins to be healed, he had that great gash on his head and I knew there was some kind of magic behind it, I could just feel it coming off of it. James didn’t trust anyone else to heal him or his family, so they are the ones that I took him to. Once there, they found a seventy percent block on Harry’s core that Dumbledore had placed as well as several tracking spells. They also found a Horcrux imbedded in the scar on his forehead. I had the block, tracking spells and Horcrux removed that night of course.” Sirius stated.

“Do you know who the Horcrux belonged too?” Croaker asked.

“They still have it as evidence at Gringotts, so all you need to do is get the evidence from them.” Sirius suggested.

“Ok we go and get the Horcrux from Gringotts and compare it to the ones we currently have and see if it is another one of Riddle’s. If it is then we have only two to find. That would be the most recent and final Horcrux that he created. Then again his soul may have been so unstable that a piece of his soul fractured off, after Riddled killed both James and Lily Potter and sought out the first available open individual, leading not to a true Horcrux but a soul fragment. And hence it sought out Harry James Potter now Black and embedded itself in his freshly created scar. But that is merely one theory. We will have to examine the possibilities later and see if it was a soul fragment or a true Horcrux. Tomorrow the device should be finished and we should be able to find the two remaining Horcruxes. So we shall see.” Croaker thought out loud.

Sirius went over to his desk and picked up his cup of tea and took a sip, thinking about what Croaker had said. “If we have found four now and there are seven that would leave two left, one being in Voldemort himself. And if that thing you guys are working on actually does work and we find the remaining two, we could actually do this. We could make that bastard mortal. The problem would be, could he come back one last time? With the fragment that is remaining in him now could he use it to return, even mortal could he return one more time?” Sirius questioned.

Croaker looked solum then answered. “Yes, there are rituals that would allow a fractured spirit to return to a physical state. We have been examining those possibilities since the first Horcrux was found and yes there are ways for him to return. Although the methods are limited and the means are few. The do exists.”

“What are they and what are some ways that we can block the rituals from happening?” Frank asked.

“Well the easiest for Riddle to do is Bone of the Father, Flesh of the Servant and Blood of the Enemy, will revive thy Master. That one would require the assistance of one of his previous minions to not only do the ritual but donate the flesh.” Croaker explained.

Frank thought for a moment then stated. “Well we can’t do anything about flesh of the servant because he has too many of those still wandering around willing to jump back up and do his bidding, and blood of the enemy…well he could choose anyone, but chances are he would want Harry’s blood since he is the one that destroyed the last body he had. So we have to be extra vigilant on that front. That leaves bone of the father, why don’t we go down to the Riddle grave site and take all the bones there, not just of his father but all male relatives, just to be sure. At that point we have two options, leave a female’s bones in its place, or leave a random Muggle’s bones in it’s place. If we leave nothing he will get suspicious and go searching and maybe look for someone even more powerful to replace his father’s bones with. So we need something there. But we need to do a complete workup on who ever we put there, no mistakes. No great, great grandson of Merlin or anything. We don’t want him coming back stronger than he was before he left.”

“That is an excellent idea, that would be his first choice of ritual. And his easiest to access. I will get my people on it immediately. We will do a complete historical background check on the individual and maybe even a blood line check just to make sure that there is no hidden magical ties that can be linked to anyone. I don’t know if placing a female’s bones in the burial site would be wise, they can be quite vindictive when they want to be. I think it best to stick to male bones that have little or no significance in the muggle realm, and none in the magical realm. Not even a squib. The less power that individual has access to the better. Perhaps a hog farmer from Yorkshire would do. Yes, I think that is what I will look for, a manual laborer that is a distance away with no local ties. We will get on it tomorrow and have the bones replaced by the end of the week.” Croaker nodded and took out a small pad and quill and began to write something on it, after a moment the pad wrote something back and he replied and put both items away. “The orders have been given and the search is underway.” He stated.

—————————————————————————————

“Okay here is Transfiguration, we had Testacochlea or shell into snail, which was fun although kinda gross too, that whole slime trail was a little icky. Now we are on Botoscarabaeus or button into beetle, we will probably do that one for the rest of this week, it is interesting, people came up with the most interesting beetles. Luna made a Rhino beetle on her first try, a little much but she liked it. I stuck with a plain scarab. I think they are much more beautiful. Pansy created a plain black beetle then screamed her lungs out, it was hilarious. Apparently she has a thing against bugs.” Pavarti handed over her notes for Transfigurations class.

“Next we have Charms, we did Incendio and Auguamenti, and then we learned Alohamora, which is what we are on right now. It is a low level lock opening spell but it still works on a lot of the standard doors around here. The next one on the list is Scourgify, it is suppose to be tomorrow, that is one that I am rather looking forward to learning, one that will clean up just about anything. Definitely need that.” Pavarti continued.

Luna went through her Potion notes and got out a nice sized stack, “We did the Girding Potion, definitely one you need to know. It helps you build up your endurance and has multiple benefits that could become quite useful. We are still working on it this week so you should be able to make it along with us tomorrow. It’s complex and has several steps to it so it is taking most individuals multiple tries to get it right. Only Malfoy got it right out of the Slytherins the first time around.”

“Then we had Defense Against the Dark Arts, you missed Plimpies, Pegasus and Salamanders. Plimpies were boring, but Pegasus and Salamanders were a lot more interesting. Especially Salamanders. They were very interesting. Tuesday is suppose to be Lethifolds, the only thing that can repel a Lethifold is a Patronus, so you might be prepared for that.” Pavarti stated as she went through her notes and pulled out another stack of papers and handed them over.

Luna took Care of Magical Creatures of course. “We saw a Mooncalf, and a Snidget, Friday we are suppose to get to see a Runespoor. And we are suppose to read ahead for that.”

As the girls handed each classes notes over the boys copied them and set them aside giving each one a set to work with. Writing down each assignment they mentioned and homework that they needed to do to go along with the notes.

“Herbology had Fluxweed, and Spiky Bush, We are going to work on the Venomous Tentacular on Friday and are suppose to read ahead and do a ten inch essay on the plant before we come to class so be prepared for that one.” Luna stated.

“Venomous Tentacular, Wow! I have been waiting to get a chance to study that plant, I am so glad I didn’t miss it.” Neville smiled real big and took their notes on the other lessons, making a copy for Harry.

Pavarti took out her last stack of papers and frowned. “That leaves History of Magic, we were suppose to have had the Minister for Magic come in, but due to your disappearance he begged off. He will probably show up Tuesday stating how he helped in your recovery or something… oh how I dislike that man. Instead we had Arthur Weasley come in and discuss some of his duties in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, it was fascinating. Then we discussed some of the more obscure offices within the Ministry. Tuesday the Minister of Magic should be coming into class, at least that is the plan at this point.”

“Here is a complete list of all the essays that need to be done and in chronological order, so you won’t get them messed up. Also you need to practice your Patronus, we won’t have a true Lethifold, I don’t think, since they can only be found in the tropics. But we might. Either way you need to practice it. We have been working on ours since we found out what our next creature would be in Defense. Mine is now a little better, but not by much. Luna’s however has jumped forward leaps and bounds. Her fox is almost solid now, although not corporeal yet. My bunny still is only about half formed but it is getting better each time I try.” Pavarti continued.

“Maybe like what the Professor said, you need a different memory. Something with happiness and love and joy in it. It is hard to find the right memory but when I found mine I just cling to it and it works.” Luna stated.

“What memory are you using?” Pavarti asked “If that isn’t too personal a question to ask?”

“Oh I don’t mind. I use the first time I held my baby brother and sister, in my arms.” Luna stated. “That holds so much love for me I can practically burst from it.”

“Yeah, I can see how it would. I loved it the first time I held Lillian in my arms. Her little hand wrapping around my finger, I thought I would cry with how much love I had for her, she’s the reason that my patronus is as strong as it is.” Harry commented.

“Same here. My heart filled to over-flowing with love for my little sister, and I have never felt such happiness as when I held Lillian for the first time. And I am not ashamed to admit it, I did cry. Dad said he cried too. Sirius said he cried the first time he held Harry just after he was born and James placed Harry in his arms, and asked him to be Harry’s Godfather.” Neville smiled kinda lopsidedly. Remembering the moment he held his little sister the very first time.

“I think we just need to be older for our Patronus to form fully, I don’t think it is a matter of a better memory at this point, I think it is a matter of our core being big enough to handle a spell of that magnitude. That is an extremely advanced spell and we are just twelve after all. Hell, over half the adults out there have problems with that spell, so I would be shocked if we didn’t have problems with it.” Harry stated.

Pavarti got a contemplative look on her face and nodded, “You might be right, it is quite advanced, and I know several of the individuals that are on the Auror forces still have problems with it. If we can achieve a non-corporeal patronus at this age, I consider that a win on all fronts. Once we get a couple of years older we should be able to perform a corporeal patronus without a problem.”

“Probably.” Harry thought as he shuffled through some of the papers that the girls had handed over. Then looking at the list of essays he and Neville had to complete ASAP he sighed. Oh well, better get started on the ones that needed to be handed in first, so Charms first then Potions. “Okay let’s start with Charms and get those out of the way, then tackle Potions. Then we can do Transfigurations, History and Defense. Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures can be last since they won’t be due until Friday.”

With that Harry and Neville got up and began headed over the proper shelf where the Charms books and References were kept in the Library and began to search through them to see about finding something on Incendio and Auguamenti, they both wanted at least three references for their report so they searched until they had the appropriate number of references and headed back to sit down.

They did a bit of reading and comparing of information before they settled on what all to write, then it was just a matter of picking the most pertinent information to put down, and not waste a bunch of parchment, like Granger seemed to do each week. There was being thorough and there was being a know it all, and she basically just regurgitated everything she read on the subject without filters. She would pick out three or four references and quote or paraphrase everything in those books about the subject matter she was looking for, without any kind of filter or judgement about what goes into her report or not. It is one of the reasons she gets good grades just not perfect grades. The Professors want her to learn discretion and to write something that has a imaginative synopsis, not just something that is regurgitated out of a book somewhere.

Harry had learned to take three or four references, get some good ideas, some important facts and then come up with some interesting questions, a possible theory or idea that made the teacher think or have to do some research of their own to either prove them right, or prove them wrong. The fact is they made their Professor think. And that got them the higher points on their essays, both he and Neville had been writing this way for a long time and it had paid off for them in a big way. They may not always have the same ideas in their essays but when they did they always made the Professor do some major research and got extra points on their essays for their efforts.

-------------------------

Both boys were given clean bills of health and were allowed to attend classes on Monday, which actually made them quite happy. They were glad to get back into the routine of it all. They had finished most of their essays and readings for their classes, well all except Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures that is. But even that, they were working on.

As they filed into the Charms classroom they got a lot of stares and a few welcome backs from different Ravenclaws. Hermione and Padma especially. They were after all part of the whole rescue team that had helped find the boys, them and their Darcorns that is.

“Alright people settle down, settle down. We are working on Scourgify today so we are going to be doing quite a bit of work in class and I want each of you to be able to do this charm correctly by the time we leave today, so let’s get started. Now this is in your third chapter page twenty seven through twenty eight, so I hope you read your assignment over the weekend. The word Scourge means ‘to clean’ and ify means ‘to show action’ therefore Scourgify is simply a charm that is to clean. Now it doesn’t specify what it will clean, unlike Tergeo which is specific for when you spill ink or a liquid on something and wish the liquid removed. Scourgify will simply clean the surface of a space.” Professor Flitwick started.

Flitwick continued. “With Scourgify you can clean a specific area or do a wide area clean with a larger circle of your wand. Now Scourgify is also the appropriate way to deal with Bundimun as well as being a basic charm. Bundimun are greenish, multi-eyed pests that feed on dirt or filth. It gives off an unmistakeable foul stench of decay and when irritated can excrete an acidic fluid that is rather toxic. If the infestation is bad enough they can bring an entire building down, so it is best not to let them get out of hand. They are a level XXX creature as defined by the Ministry of Magic and are considered a pest more than any thing else. A small infestation can be dealt with by a Scourgify charm but a large infestation needs to be dealt with by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures {pest sub-division}.”

“I am going to hand out a board that has three stains on it, each stain is unique, I want you to use Scourgify to remove each stain and tell me if you noticed a difference in how it worked or felt when you did so.” With that Professor Flitwick handed out a small board to each student with with splotches of something on it, and when everyone had one he instructed the class how to do the wand work for the spell.

The class continued along that line and went pretty much as normal, some people asking questions but most people just focusing on their boards with little cloth splotches and that had stains on them for you to remove. For Harry and Neville it was easy and quick and they went about their business.

“Some of the older students stated that they use this spell instead of a shower when OWLS or NEWTS come along. Is that safe to do?” Hermione asked.

“I personally don’t recommend it, simply because it can be rough on the skin if it is over used, but an emergency Scourgify when you are late for class and you truly don’t have time for a shower is acceptable every once and a while. Just remember to moisturize your skin later.” Professor Flitwick stated.

“Does it matter the material or type of cloth that this is used on? Like silk or satin? I have a couple of rather delicate dresses that I wouldn’t want damaged by careless spell work.” Padma asked.

“It is best to use the natural methods, like hand washing, on something that is questionable I always say. I would rather be overly cautious and save a blouse, than worry about trying to replace the item of clothing at a later date.” The Professor nodded. Then pointed to Seamus Finnigan.

“When I try to do this spell it always ends up blowing up in my face, I don’t have any more eyebrows left, what am I doing wrong?” Seamus asked, his eyebrows still smoking from his last attempt.

“I would say you are putting too much magic into the spell when you are attempting it, pull back a little and try again.” Professor Flitwick suggested looking a little shocked at the boy’s missing eyebrows.

The bell rang and everyone wrapped up what they were doing and packed away their things.

Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti headed into Study Hall to gather their things together to get ready for Potions class and sort out their essays they had to hand in. Neville and Harry sat down to reread the chapter on the Girding Potion and to go over the steps of the potion once more before class. The biggest challenge with this Potion is that you add an ingredient and then heat it until it turns the correct color. Any variation from that color and the Potion is ruined. Like step six after you have added the dragon fly thoraxes and the potion has turned red you heat it until the potion turns blue, but does it mean baby blue, cobalt blue, midnight blue or what? That was the challenge of this Potion. Learning the proper color for each step.

Harry sighed and reread the instructions again, then went over the instructions from the older potions book he had found in the library. That book gave a more detailed list of instructions with the specific color listed for each phase of the Potion. He showed it to Luna and asked her opinion on it and she loved the book, stating she wished she had had that book last week. Each one copied the information from the older book down onto their new book and were working on reading what the older book stated about that particular Potion when the bell went off and they had to leave for Potions class.

Professor Lovegood was already writing the instructions on the board when they went into the classroom. Harry took the older book up to the Professor and showed it to her, asking her opinion about the descriptions as far as to what color the Potion should be at each stage. She actually thought the book was very accurate and told them that it was an excellent reference. Harry smiled and went over to his seat and began to set up his station for class.

“She said that the color descriptions were accurate and it was a good choice to use it for a reference.” Harry told Neville, Luna and Pavarti. Each one nodded and smiled. They were glad they had something that gave them more information other than just ‘red’, now it was ‘fire red’ or ‘cherry red’, ‘green’ was ‘grass green’, ‘pink’ was ‘pastel pink’, and ‘blue’ was ‘cobalt blue’. It made the potion so much easier to work with.

Harry got a wild hair and got up from his seat and went over to Malfoy.

Malfoy looked up at him and raised an eyebrow in question.

Harry handed over the book, “I think you will find that this older Potions book is very helpful, I just asked the Professor if the colors mentioned were correct and she stated that they were more accurate than our current book. So you might find it useful. If you would like to copy down the information you can. I am just borrowing the book so I will need it back after class. But you can use it until then.”

Draco looked at the recipe for the Girding Potion and found the descriptive words used for the colors to be much more informative than the books they had to use for class. He looked up to Harry and nodded. “Thank you, this should be quite useful. I will make sure you get it back after class.” Malfoy stated. He could hardly believe that Black would give up such a useful piece of information but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He watched Black walk back over to his station and than began to write in his own book the descriptive words the older book had next to each one that his book listed. Adding any notes that the older book mentioned. He would have to check out this book once Black finished with it. It seemed to be a gold mine of information.

Harry walked back over to his station and sat down, smiling to himself. He didn’t need to do it. But he had, for some reason it felt like the right thing to do.

“That was very nice of you to do that.” Luna smiled her dreamy smile at him and leaned in close to him as he sat there waiting for the bell to ring and class to start.

“Alright folks we are working on the Girding Potion again, a couple of you managed to get it right last week but the majority of you did not. So we are continuing on with that Potion today. I want everyone to get your ingredients from the storeroom so you can make sure that all your ingredients are as fresh as possible.” The Professor stated.

Harry went and got the ingredients for everyone and then handed each person their little manilla envelopes. Then set about to start his Potion.

Harry set up his base and began.

1. Add one set of fairy wings.
2. Heat potion until the potion turns turquoise.
3. Add one measure of doxy eggs.
4. Heat until the potion turns pink. (Pastel pink).
5. Add the toasted dragonfly thoraxes until the potion turns red. (Cherry red)
6. Heat until the potion turns blue. (Cobalt blue).
7. Add toasted dragonfly thoraxes until the potion turns silver.
8. Heat the potion until potion turns red (blood red)
9. Add three measures of doxy eggs.
10. Add some dragonfly thoraxes.
11. Heat the potion until it turns blue. (Sky blue)
12. Add three flying seahorses.
13. Heat until the potion turns green (grass green).

Consistency should be that of a thick tea. Strain any particles from potion to ensure smooth consumption. Allow to cool for twenty minutes. Consume no more than two potions at any one time or within a twenty four hour period. This potion will give the consumer extra endurance for several weeks if prepared properly. Although the odor can be rather offensive, the taste is almost a roasted nut flavor.

Harry read the information and worked his way through each step. Following along with Professor Lovegood as she prepared the same potion at the station in the center of the classroom. He checked his cauldron after each step and compared it to the instructions of the older book. The color was perfect each step. The only thing that bothered Harry is that it didn’t state to stir or not to stir, so he watched the Professor and noticed that she did not stir the Potions so he didn’t either.

Sky blue, ok now for the seahorses, Harry gently placed the sea horses into his Potion and heated it until it turned grass green. Then removed it from the heat. Looks like he had finished it. And hopefully done so correctly on his first attempt. He looked over to Neville’s cauldron and noticed it was almost to the same grass green that his was currently at. He got out his strainer and strained it for particulates and allowed his potion to cool for twenty minutes as the book suggested. Then all he would have to do was bottle it up and he was done.

Luna’s potion was exactly the same color as his own, as was Pavarti’s, he was so glad he had found that older Potion’ s book in the Library yesterday. Professor Lovegood came by and looked at each one of their potions and gave each one ten points for a perfect potion and held up Pavarti’s and showed the class so they could see what color they should have at the end of their process.

She then went over to the Slytherin side and sure enough Malfoy was the only one who had a perfect potion on that side. She held up his potion and gave him ten points as well. Harry could see him puff out his chest and sit proudly at the Professor’s recognition. Then Malfoy looked over to him and he gave him a polite nod and Harry nodded back. Harry wasn’t sure what exactly he had started, but what ever it was he was sure it was something good.

It was strange not having Goyle or Crabbe in the class any more but in a way it made the class run smoother, the Professor could focus on the other students more and it seemed that everyone was pleased with that outcome. Now the biggest distraction was Parkinson. That girl could look at the book and read the instructions and still get the Potion wrong. Which she did again. Her potion turned out rust colored, what step she didn’t do or just totally over looked, who knows. If it wasn’t for her essays she would probably be flunking out of Potions. Since her practicals were so horrible. Right now the Professor was having her go through the Potion with her step by step, all over again, after she had vanished her last attempt and cleaned up the mess she called her station. The Potion only had four ingredients in it, you just had to put them in in order and heat them to specific temperatures before adding the next ingredient. It was a good Potion to get a student ready for the more complex Potions later. Luckily this one doesn’t blow up, it just smells bad if you do it wrong.

Harry was sitting there writing up his observations in his potions journal and he realized for the first time, that apparently Bellatrix had kidnapped he and Neville on Halloween day, and they hadn’t really even thought about it. Here it was November fourteenth and he had just now realized it. For some reason that felt so strange, a shiver went down his back when he thought about it. Bad things tend to happen around Halloween. He wondered if Bellatrix chose that day on purpose, or if it was a matter of opportunity and she had just seen the two of them working outside alone and grabbed them while she had the chance. Well that is something that they will never know. That and many other things that were going through that crazy bitch’s head. Thank Merlin that she is gone for good and never coming back. Harry couldn’t help but remember the caved in, crumpled form of Bellatrix as he sat there thinking back.

“Hey, you okay?” Neville asked, seeing that far away look on his brother’s face.

Harry glanced over to Neville and gave him a reassuring smile. “Yeah, just realized we missed Halloween, and it seemed weird you know. Missing it and never realizing it until now. Hell Yule is right around the corner and we don’t have any of our shopping done. We are so slacking brother. We need to get out our catalogues and start checking on what we want to send off for. I know I want to get Lillian a playhouse. I know she is too small for it but I want to be the first to buy her one anyway. So I want to buy her her very first play house, I don’t know if I want to buy her a castle or a regular house, I will probably go for a nice size mansion with all the amenities. Of course Mum will put a barrier up on it until Lils is old enough to play with it for real, and not just put the pieces in her mouth and chew on them. It’s like Dad want’s to be the first to buy Sebastian his first broom. Dad bought me my first broom and it is sort of tradition I guess that he buys the first broom. Mom was furious when he bought me my first broom and I was only eight months old but he still bought it for me. He would hold me on it while I would fly around the house, chasing her cat, a old orange tom cat that was terrified of that little broom.” Harry chuckled he could just barely remember that old broom and that darned old cat.

Neville chuckled too, “Yeah we need to get out the catalogues and see what we can get mailed in first, or if we need to order new catalogues. I have an idea for a present or two,” He gave a sly look over to Pavarti. “I think I will need to go into a shop for at least one of my presents though.”

“Same here.” Harry grinned and glanced over to Luna who was bottling her potion. Harry started to bottle his potion and put the idea of Yule out of his head for a while.

Apparently Zabini and Greengrass had also gotten the Potion right this time around and Nott and Davis had gotten real close. That left Brown, Thomas, Finnegan, Parkinson, and Bullstrode as to having to not doing it right. This was one of the first Potions Thomas had messed up on since the beginning of the semester and he was truly upset about it. His had turned out to be more of a yellowish color than a green so it was not usable at all. Finnegan’s was a thick gloppy mess and smelled horrific, he would definitely have to make his over again to even get close.

Harry reached over his seat and handed his Potion book with the additional notes in it, to Dean. Who took one look at the color descriptions and began to copy them down in his own Potions book. His eyes were sparkling and his quill was just flying as he wrote every note and comment that was in Harry’s book down in his own. He handed Harry’s book back to him with a mile wide smile and thanked him profusely. Harry just grinned and nodded. Harry knew how much Dean worked on his Potions work and strived to improve it since last year, he was right up there with Zabini and Greengrass as far as his quality of work maybe even a little better. So he had no problem helping out his dorm mate.

—————————————————————————————

Croaker made his way down to the Transfiguration classrooms, which has just emptied of the fifth year Slytherin, Gryffindor class. As he waited for the room to clear he took note of the individuals that exited the room. He knew many of their families, or parts of their families at least.

The last student left and Croaker entered the room to find Sirius gathering up a variety of items off of the desks and placing them back in boxes around the room.

“Excuse me, I hate to interrupt but I thought you might like to be kept up to date on our findings.” Croaker spoke out, startling Sirius.

Professor Black twirled around quickly with his hand on his wand, but removed it when he saw who it was. “Croaker, I wasn’t expecting you today. How are things going. I would have to guess good, if you are back here so soon.”

“They are going very well.” He reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out an evidence bag and showed it to Sirius.

“What is this, did you find another one? It worked?” Sirius asked excitedly.

“Yes it worked, and yes we found another one. It was located at the Gaunt shack. It appears to be the Gaunt ring. Although there are some unusual markings on the ring that we are having an expert look at. It had some very, very evil traps placed on it, ones that could easily lead to someone’s death if they placed the ring on. And it had some very strong compulsions on it to do just that. If our Unspeakables didn’t have the Occlumency shields that they do, well let’s just say we would have lost a member or two of our crew yesterday. All the curses, compulsions and otherwise have been removed from the ring at this point. So it is safe now. I wanted to show it to you as proof that our device works, and to let you know that our device located another one, here in Hogwarts. I was going to look for it now, if you would like to join me?” Croaker placed the ring back into one of his many pockets and pulled out the device they had created, preparing to utilize it shortly.

“Of course, this all can wait until later. Lead the way.” Sirius joined Croaker and the two followed the shimmery trail the device was giving off up to the seventh floor on the west wing of Hogwarts right into a crowd of second years who appeared to be standing in front of a tapestry of a dancing troll.

Croaker kept walking and the sparkling trail ended up going through a wall that ended up going no where. There was no door or way to go through the wall. He didn’t understand it.

“What’s up Sirius?” Harry asked.

“What are you all doing here?” Sirius asked the crowd of students.

“We were going to play some music for a while, but if you need the room for something that is cool.” Stated Harry.

“Room, What room?” Croaker asked, looking at the wall carefully. Trying to find some hidden trigger or door of some kind.

“The Room of Requirements, although the elves call it the Come and Go Room. All you have to do is stand here and walk back and forth three times thinking of what you are wanting, and the door will appear with the kind of room you need. Like a music room, a study hall, a exercise room, a dueling room, what ever, it can do anything.” Harry explained.

“Would you mind if I try?” Croaker asked.

“Not at all, have at it.” Neville and Harry said at the same time.

Croaker went over to where Harry was standing and began to pace back and forth and suddenly a door appeared and he looked up in shock and went over to the door and opened it. Looking inside. It was a huge room of junk, all kinds of stuff. Books, clothes, brooms, desks, swords, wands, more books.

Croaker pulled out his device and the sparkle trail lead to the left side of the room about half way back. “It appears Mr. Riddle used this room to hide one of his treasures in. Shall we.” And he motioned to Sirius to follow him. They made it about half way back and there on the bust of someone that no one remembers who it is any more, was a diadem… Ravenclaw’s diadem in fact. “Sweet maker. It can’t be. Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup and now Ravenclaw’s diadem.” At first Croaker just looked at the circlet for a moment seeming almost mesmerized by it, but then he snapped out of it and retrieved another evidence bag out of his ever present pockets and levitated the diadem into the bag, careful not to touch it. Once the diadem was safely put away Sirius seemed to snap out of the trance he appeared to be in.

“What? What was that? Was that it? Did you find it?” Sirius was a little flustered but not too bad. “You found it right? That was the last one? You can destroy them now and be done with it, he can’t come back now can he?”
Sirius looked Croaker in the eyes and asked point blank. “You are going to destroy each and every piece of that creatures soul are you not?”

“Absolutely. As soon as possible. We can either exercise the soul piece from each piece leaving the relic whole and return the relic to its original owner. Namely the three pieces that belong to the Founders being returned to Hogwarts. Or we can simply use Basilisk venom that we purchased for just such a situation. The Basilisk venom with destroy the item but it will guarantee that the soul piece is gone forever. So one way or other we will have this taken care of by the end of the week.” Croaker promised.

“Dad, would it be possible for us to take some of these books for ourselves. Some of these potion books are even older than what they have in the library and are in excellent condition. There are some transfiguration books that I want to look at too. But would it be okay, I mean who do they belong to now.” Harry asked.

An elf popped into the room and looked at Harry. “This is the room of lost thinges, these thinges belongs to no onesies. If young Master be wanting to use these bookes he can have them, it better than they going to rot in lost room.” The old elf stated then popped back out again.

“Well that answers that I guess.” Sirius stated, “I guess you kids can take what ever you want from this room as long as you don’t get into any trouble with it. If anything seems questionable, like cursed or booby trapped or something, set it aside and Frank or I will look at it later. But have fun. And don’t forget to do your class work first before you come up here to explore.

With that Sirius and Croaker left the kids to explore the room to their hearts content.

Each individual looking for a new and different treasure. Harry, Neville, Luna, and Pavarti looked around the room excitedly. Pavarti looked at the books and squealed at the same time Luna did. There were piles of old trunks to explore, books too numerous to catalogue and there were even just piles of galleons laying about. This place was heaven waiting on them to explore. Harry and Neville both spotted a couple of swords that looked just about their size and style, they were gorgeous. There were some daggers laying around too. Both boys picked them up as well.

Neville found a wand that worked very well for him hidden in the drawer of a wardrobe against the wall. Harry found one that worked almost better than the one he was using now stuck in a pile of books in the middle of the room. Luna found a wand that worked for her in the pocket of a ballgown that was on a dummy over on the east wall. And Pavarti found her a wand in a pile of wands that was in a trunk near the back of the room. Each one had a secondary wand now. That was so weird.

The boys found more daggers and gave the girls a couple for themselves. Pavarti found a couple of Pole-arms that she and Luna could use when they were working out. There were a couple the boys could use too, although they were heavier and more pointed at one end. Both girls found several pieces of jewelry they liked and tucked them away in their bags to polish and wear later. Harry and Neville found one or two rings that the liked as well. So they placed them in their bags with their instruments and continued looking. Harry found several Potions books, some a few years old, but most were over a hundred years old. He was so excited about getting to read them. And then there were journals, peoples journals that went to school here from long ago. It would be so interesting to see what life was like back then through the eyes of another student the same as yourself.

Pavarti started stacking books according to topic and Luna was helping her. Harry and Neville were going through the room gathering all the books they could find and bringing them up front to the girls so they could go through them. It became like an assembly line, first Harry or Neville would bring a book up, then they would hand it to Pavarti, she would look the book over and find out what the book was about or it’s subject and hand it to Luna to put in the proper pile. By the time they finished they had hundreds of books on all types of subjects. They decided that Pavarti would get all the books on Astrology, and Neville would get all the books on Herbology. Luna would get all the books on Care of Magical Creatures, and Harry would get the Potions books. They would split up the History books and the books and the books on Defense. Harry and Neville would share the books on Transfigurations, and Luna and Pavarti would share the books on Charms. They would all switch back and forth on any subject they wanted to, but for now that gave them a basic low down of where to put all the books. So they each packed their new finds into their endless bags, which they had brought with them to carry their instruments in. Now they were stuffing them with dozens of wonderful books, all the old books were in like new condition, apparently the old room was the perfect temperature to make sure that the humidity never got to them, and they barely even had any dust on them either. Once they got them to their rooms they were all going to put individual preservation charms on each book, just like they had on the old books they had in their libraries now.

It was close to curfew by the time they finished sorting the books so they decided to leave the wonderful room and head back to their dorm with a small side trip off at the kitchen, since they had forgotten to eat dinner. Oops.

Once they got back to their rooms Harry and Neville went down into their libraries and unloaded their bags and began shelving their new finds. Making sure to put the preservation charms on each one as they went. Neville was thrilled with his new selection of Herbology books, no matter how old the information is, it can still be useful. Sometimes the older methods work better than the newer methods anyway. He would have to let Professor Sprout know about some of his really rare finds, and he couldn’t wait to see her reaction on a couple of them.

Harry was excited about the new Potion books, he hoped they would be like the one he had found in the library, and have more detail or more information in it than what they are working with right now. Some of what he had found were old school books but some of what he had found were old reference books and books from people’s personal libraries. If the books had the original owner’s name in it he might even consider just copying the book and sending the original back to the original owner. But to tell you the truth if they hadn’t noticed it missing by now, chances were it doesn’t really matter that much. Besides if it is older than fifty years ago, chances are the owner may be dead or something. Who knows, he would worry with that later on, right now he was just going to prepare the books for his library, clean them up, catalogue them and then as soon as he got the chance he would go through the books and study them a little to see just how useful they could be.

Harry remembered the secondary wands that he and the others had found for each other, he made a mental note to himself to tell Sirius about it as soon as he had a chance, so that they could test out the wands, and see if they really do work for them as good as they appeared to. He already had the one he had gotten from Dumbledore and so he was going to store that one in his trunk and use the one from the Room of Requirements as his secondary wand, Dumbledore’s wand tended to overpower spells on occasion and so he couldn’t use it very often as it was. He was also going to get an additional wand holster, maybe for the other forearm. Maybe Sirius, Frank, Alice, Persephone, and Remus should go in there and see if they could find a secondary wand, there certainly were enough of them laying around or in trunks up there.

Harry had gathered up all the Galleons he could find up there, he and Neville had decided to take and split it three ways between Lillian, Sebastian and Astraea. They want the little ones to have some play money for Yule. They hadn’t counted it yet but it was a pretty big pile of coins so Harry bet it was quite a lot.

Harry and Neville thought about picking one of the prettier pieces of jewelry for Alice for Yule, after having it polished of course. They haven’t found the perfect one yet but they were keeping their eye out, for her and for Persephone both. So when they go back there that is one thing they will be looking out for.

He might check around at the old versions of Hogwarts a History and give one of them to Hermione Granger. She was always quoting from it anyway. She would probably appreciate one that was a couple of hundred years old, and treat it like it was made out of gold or something. Yeah, they need to go through and find the oldest one of that book and give it to her. She would squeeze them to death after she quit squealing and jumping around that is.

He would give Dean one of the old Potion books he found, Dean would be one that would truly appreciate the old book and know how to use it properly.

Now for Seamus, that was easy. There were several Brooms in the room. Some that looked almost new. Harry bet if he looked around for a bit he could find a real collectable one. An antique, like a first run or limited edition that only Seamus could appreciate. He wondered if he could find a Silver Star or a Cleansweep Wind Wisp, or maybe even a Nimbus Sky Scythe, that would be epic. Hell even a Comet two-sixty would be worth looking for. If he found a couple of epic brooms he would give one to Seamus and one to the Weasley Twins. If they could find two identical antique brooms, they would give them to the twins, they would flip their lids and then dance a jig until their feet fell off. So looking at the brooms that were there is a definite next project. They could even send them to a professional to get them a basic overhaul and retwigging if necessary, but considering the condition of most of the stuff in that room he doubted it would be necessary. Most of the stuff in that room looked as if it was brand new and undamaged by time. They may just do it, to be on the safe side though.

Frank would appreciate one of the ancient books on defense they had found, Harry was going to have to go through the one’s he had, to find just the right one, one that was an antique but not so outdated that it was useless. Perhaps one that had some forgotten old battle magic in it. Or one that had a lot of hand to hand stuff in it. He would just have to look and see what all was available to make up his mind. Frank liked the old Auror stuff but Harry hadn’t seen any of that in the room, maybe there was a book on Aurors in there somewhere. That would be cool.

For Xenophilius, now that would be easy, all they had to do was find some rare old book that had some weird exotic creatures in it. Maybe an ancient book on creatures. Again something to look out for.

Sirius was and easy one as well, he would just have to find the right Transfiguration book. Something old, an antique definitely, it could even be outdate and no longer relevant as long as it was one that was written well and
had some history behind it, Sirius would love it. He adored the old books on Transfiguration, he read them all the time. He liked to read about how a certain something was created or why a transfiguration came about and its history. It was all so fascinating to him, you almost couldn’t pull him away from one of his books once he got started on one.

If he found a secondary book he might give it to the Headmistress, she might appreciate it as much as Sirius would.

Professor Flitwick would have a kneazle if they brought him an ancient book on Charms. Even an outdated one, as long as it had some history about the charms to it, he would love it. Maybe not as much as those Basilisk steaks but he would still go nuts over it.

Okay, his Yule list was getting filled pretty fast here. He was still going to have to go shopping to get Luna her present, since he wanted it special made for her to match her necklace. She wore that all the time, and love it so much. He wanted to get her either a ring to go with it or hair barrettes to go with it. He had gotten her the bracelet on her birthday and she loved that, maybe he could go with earrings… Harry thought and thought but decided to wait and see what the jeweler could do before he made his final decision. But as of right now it looked like a ring… you know for friendship.

He knew what he was going to get Neville, a Field Medic kit, top of the line of course. He had seen several in the catalogues he had been looking through and a couple had caught his eye. But one or two stood out, so he would look those over carefully and compare them then make up his mind on which one to get. The one he liked best right now had every thing from a stretcher to full surgical kit available in it. While he didn’t think that Neville would ever need to do surgery on someone, you never know. Especially the way the two of them get into trouble. The one he liked had splints, emergency blankets, potions of all kinds, even an emergency shelter. And it was all set up in one neat little package that Neville could put into his bottomless bag and have with him incase he ever needed it. It was a little pricey but Neville was worth it. And if most of the other presents came from that room, he could certainly afford to get Neville the Field Medic Kit he was thinking about.

Harry continued to go through the books he had found and he found the perfect book for Sirius. It was called ’Transfiguration: A pathway Through The Future’ by Natalie Privet. It was written in the year twelve hundred and eleven, so around a millennium ago. But Harry had no doubt that Sirius would adore this book. The author thought that Transfiguration was the latest and greatest form of magic and could take the magical world into the modern world, maybe even surpass the Muggles. Sirius would love this book. Harry set the book aside and smiled, he knew his Dad. Sirius would read and reread this book until the pages were fading. He would make notes and stick little pieces of paper in the book everywhere with his notes and quotes of passageways that he wanted to make note of for later, possibly even for his class room.

Soon Harry realized how late it was getting and decided to call it a night. So he climbed out of his trunk and joined his dorm mates as they prepared for bed. Neville was of course reading, but Dean and Seamus were talking about Potions and girls, a weird combinations, so Harry stayed out of it. He just grabbed what he needed for a shower then headed into the bathrooms for a relaxing shower and some time to think about what all he had found so far. Treasures, pure treasures.

————————————————————

Amelia Bones and Unspeakable Croaker were gathered in Bones’ office at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, both with a shot glass half empty of Ogden’s finest Firewhisky sitting in front of them.

“So the part from Gringotts matched the other portions that you had already gathered?” Amelia started first, taking a sip of her firewhisky.

“Yes, indeed it did. Although it was the smallest sample, it was indeed from the same source. And it appeared to be a true Horcrux, and not just a soul fragment. It looks like Riddle had intended to create another Horcrux that night and had prepared himself to do so. Although, I think the reason that it was removed so easily from young Harry was due to the fact that he was not prepared as a vessel. It takes a rather long and drawn out ritual to prepare the vessel for the transfer. We think what happened is that when the spell back fired on Riddle the portion of soul that he had prepared to transfer broke away and sought out the first available host. Hence Harry Potter - Black and his open scar. It simply wedged itself in his scar and sat there, hoping to anchor itself deeper at some point, but it never got the chance. It was removed before it did any true damage.” Croaker explained as he took a small sip of his drink as well.

“And have you ‘killed’ them yet?” She asked.

“We are in the process of doing that now. We have taken care of the scar sample, the diary, and the ring. We are trying to decide what to do about the Slytherin locket, Hufflepuff cup and Ravenclaw diadem. We would prefer to use the Exercise Ritual and banish the soul, while preserving the article it was housed in. Then return the item to Hogwarts, but if that is not possible we will use the basilisk venom on those items as well, we certainly have enough.” Croaker stated.

“You have destroyed three of them, I wonder if he can feel them being destroyed. And if so, would he come back to check on the others, or would he go even further into hiding.” Amelia pondered out loud.

“I had considered that perhaps he might be aware of his Horcruxes but decided that the risk was worth the possible danger of his return at this point. Especially since we have all the items in our possession currently. His soul is too unstable for him to create another Horcrux, but then again he is insane, he might just be desperate enough to do something so absolutely suicidal. Also he is not aware of the piece that separated and went to Harry Black, hence he may think he has to do one final Horcrux to have his perfect number. If Riddle did attempt to sever his soul again it may just implode from the ritual itself and take care of our problem for us.” Croaker stated.

“Or he may show up looking for his other pieces and become infuriated, looking for his other pieces, finding them missing. Do something desperate like the ritual to make himself living again, and make himself another and final Horcrux and in doing do make it so we have to search that one out to be able to kill him finally.” Amelia looked at her half empty glass of Firewhisky.

Croaker nodded. “Always a possibility, always a possibility. If it was me, I would take a rock and turn it into a Horcrux then throw it into the ocean as far as I can throw it and be done with it. But he seems to want to keep them where he has control over his soul pieces in case he wishes to have them at a later date. Giving one to Bellatrix Lestrange, we are assuming Regulus Arcturus Black also had the Slytherin Locket, the Diary has enough of Lucius Malfoy’s signature on it, and he got arrested for having the possessed item and endangering the entire school so that is a non issue. So it appears Riddle had a habit of hiding some of his treasures with some of his best Lieutenants. But the others he hid himself and put enough booby traps on them to make himself feel comfortable doing so.”

Amelia merely nodded and took another sip of her glass. This subject was disturbing to say the least. No matter how necessary it was.

“The question being should we retain one of the Horcruxes to use in our device so that we can locate the final Horcrux he may or may not create, or should we destroy them all? There is danger either way.” Croaker sat there in silence for a few minutes as he thought.

Amelia had no answer to that question, either way could be dangerous, keeping one piece ‘alive’ meant that there was danger of either You-Know-Who some how getting his hands on it and reviving himself once again. Or if they destroy all the pieces they have no tracking method available to them to locate the final piece, so they would be walking into this blind. “I don’t think it is wise to hold off destroying the final piece, on the off chance that he may make another piece. It’s too great of a risk, we should destroy all the pieces and deal with what comes, when it comes. Knowing him, if he does indeed make another one, he would want to keep it with him at all times, trusting no one this time around. You have to remember that this time he is basically going to be insane, so logical thinking isn’t going to be a high point of his life. The whole idea of using a pebble in the ocean would be the most logical idea, so he is going to do the opposite of that. He will make it something big and flashy, and keep it with him at all times.”

“I tend to agree, I feel that keeping even one piece would be too great a risk. So that settles that. We destroy even the one we use to make the device with. I think that is the wisest choice of actions and would leave every one at a calmer state of mind. It would leave just the piece in Riddle himself and anything he created after this point. Which we can deal with at some later date if we must. Deal with the known, worry about the unknown later I always say.”

——————————————————————

“I found the perfect book for Sirius for Yule, in the books we found last night. It is real old and it’s all about Transfigurations, he is going to so love it. I think we can give it from all of us and we can mark him off our, to get for list.” Harry stated as he served himself some bacon and sausage onto his plate.

Neville nodded. “I found a book for my Dad we could do the same with. It is an old book about Battle Magic, some of the spells in it have to be forgotten by now. Dad will flip for it. He may even try out some of the old spells, some of them may have evolved into new spells but some of them may be useful even today.”

“I found the perfect book for Professor Sinistra, it is an old book that was written ages ago when they were still trying to figure out the galaxy, it shows just how much we have learned over the ages. It is so cool.” Pavarti stated as she sat down for breakfast. “We can say it came from all of us and give it to her for Yule, like we did for the telescope.”

Luna smiled and added grabbing a few pancakes and some fresh berries for herself. “I found the perfect book for Daddy, it is an older book on Magical Creatures, many of which are now considered extinct. He will love looking up the different ones and checking out the ones that have already gone extinct in comparison to those that are still active.”

“I found a potions book that is over five hundred years old and it has multiple potions in it that I have never heard about. I don’t know if they are just not used any more or if they are something that might be revitalized and that Professor Lovegood would enjoy looking through though. Again something that could come from us all.” Harry stated between bites.

“Yeah, I found a book on Magical Plants of Great Britain that I think Professor Sprout would love, it has full page color drawings that are absolutely beautiful in it and the information on how to care for the plants are extremely detailed. I think she would love it, and it too could come from us all.” Neville stated.

“I found a six hundred year old book on competitive dueling and advanced charms, it looked really interesting, but I think that Professor Flitwick would completely flip to have it. I think that we should read it then give it to him for Yule and make his Yule one of the best he has had in years, basilisk steaks last year not included.” Pavarti suggested as she added some fresh berries to her porridge .

“Speaking of possible presents, there are a few old Hogwarts: A History up there. I think we should find the oldest one and give it to Hermione for Yule. She will probably try and hug us all to death but oh well.” Harry stated.

“I want to see about finding Padma just the right piece of bling from that room, I noticed several necklaces up there and I am going to go through them and see if any catch my eye, she loves pretty, shiny things especially if it is really old.” Pavarti said.

“I think I am going to look for something for my Mum in that room too, maybe a broach or a robe clasp or something. Something that just calls out to me and said ‘here I am, pick me’, I want it to be special though.” Neville stated as he ate some of his eggs.

“I am going to look through the old brooms that are up there and see if there are any real gems and if there are I want to give one to Seamus, and if I can find two matching brooms I want to give them to the twins, Fred and George. I think they would really appreciate them. Even if they are antiques.” Harry stated as he finished the last of his eggs.

“Good idea, Seamus would love them and so would the twins.” Neville said then he turned to Pavarti and had a thoughtful look. “Ah, just a thought but do you think your sister would enjoy some of those antique clothes that are up there? I mean they are really, really old but she would look real nice in them, don’t you think?” He asked.

“That is such a great idea, I could pick out an outfit or two that is in good condition and have it cleaned and pressed and see if she would appreciate it. Oh I bet she would love it. She would so love the history behind it, it would be pathetic, that alone would get her going.” Pavarti was all smiles.

“What do you want to make a bet there is an old History book in there that we can get for Professor Lupin?” Neville asked.

They had all finished their breakfast and were chatting excitedly about things that they had found in the Room of Requirements when they realized it was time to head out to Transfigurations class. So they gathered their bags and headed out, still chatting away.

“Do you think Susan would like one of those daggers we found up there, and maybe one for Hannah as well?Especially after what Auror Bones said the other day about keeping a knife on hand at all time.” Harry asked.

“Good idea, I bet they both would love them. Susan especially, an antique dagger…oh she would flip. So would Amelia for that matter. If we found a real, real nice one we could always give it to Amelia, one that had a holster and everything, and if it didn’t have a holster we could have one made for it special.” Luna stated smiling real big at Harry, so proud that he was thinking of their other friends.

“That is brilliant, in fact I think, Sirius, Remus, Frank, Alice, Xenophilius, and Persephone as well as Moody, Shackelbolt, and Tonks would all go for some of those antique daggers we found up there. The last three especially.” Pavarti stated right along with him.

“Absolutely, let’s not forget your parents in that statement, I am sure your father would appreciate the beauty in a well honed antique knife that was centuries old.” Neville stated.

“True, my father loves antiques of any type but an antique blade, oh my he would adore it. My mother, she would be more interested in a really old book on poems or an old piece of art, she loves any antiques though so an antique broach would send her to the moon.” Pavarti smiled at him.

“Ok, it looks like we have some digging to do in that old room. How about after classes?” Harry asked and everyone nodded with smiles, “Cool, let’s go.”

Transfigurations that day was a little weird, they were doing Uttaeruca, which was to turn a piece of ribbon into a caterpillar. Which was all well and good and all, but the four of them has some fun with it, Harry created a purple and almost neon green caterpillar, that had tall pokey things sticking up every where on it. Neville created one that was red and white striped but at least six inches long, that thing was huge! And had eyes that bugged out and sat on the top of it’s head. Pavarti created a soft purple and pink caterpillar, what was unusual about her’s was that it has a tail that it kept wagging at everyone. She said it was like a kind that came from where she lived. Then there was Luna’s, her’s was as big around as your wrist and about four inches long and went from blue at the front where its goggly eyes were to red at the back, and it kept curling up in a little ball when ever you touched it.

To say that they were all feeling a little creative today would be an understatement.

Each one of them made two caterpillars and had fun coming up with the craziest rendition of what they thought a magical caterpillar should look like. Harry remembered this book he had seen back years ago about a girl named Alice and her falling down a rabbit hole, she had met with a caterpillar that spoke, wore clothes, and smoked a pipe, so given enough time Harry was sure they could have come up with something truly bizarre.

Transfigurations class was fun today to say the least.

Next came History class, and today they were actually suppose to get to hear from the post of Ministry of Magic. So everyone was looking forward to class. They all entered into the class and sat down quietly. Of course Luna, Harry, Neville and Pavarti took the front four seats on the left side of the room.

“All right folks come in and get seated we have a lot to cover today so let’s get started. The Ministry of Magic, was formally established in seventeen zero seven, and succeeded the previous Wizarding Council with the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Ulick Gamp as being the first Minister for Magic, and his term lasted until seventeen eighteen. His greatest claim to fame was creating the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was also during his administration that the Imperius, Cruciatus, and Killing Curse became listed as Unforgivables and were listed with the harshest punishments possible, life in prison in Azkaban. It was also Gamp’s job of instituting the new International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy on a very frightened and divided community.

“It wasn’t until seventeen ninety-eight that we had our first female Minister for Magic and that would be Artemisia Lufkin, she established the Department of International Magical Co-operation. She maintains her office until eighteen-eleven.

“Then we have Grogan Stump who was minister from eighteen eleven until eighteen nineteen that was such a fan of Quidditch that he established the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

“Our next noted Minister was Ottaline Gambol in eighteen twenty seven to eighteen thirty five, she was a very forward looking Minister and established committees to investigate Muggle inventions and from that, established the introduction of the Hogwarts Express in eighteen thirty as a means of transporting students to Hogwarts.

“Nobby Leach was the Minister from nineteen sixty two to nineteen sixty eight, the first Muggle-born Minister for Magic. Even though it brought about much consternation among the older Traditionalists whom many resigned from their government positions in revolt of his appointment. Minister Leach left office in nineteen sixty eight due to some unknown illness, conspiracy theories abound to this day.

“Now there were several other Ministers in between the Ministry’s origin and present time, and you are welcome to look them up and research them on your own, at any time. Our own Minister Cornelius Fudge became Minister for Magic in nineteen hundred-ninety and is currently serving in that distinguished seat as we speak. So class I would like to introduce you all to Minister for Magic, Cornelius Oswald Fudge, the thirty-second Minister for Magic of the British Ministry of Magic.” Professor Lupin raised his hand towards the back of the room and waited, the whole class turned and looked to where he was pointing with his hand and sure enough there was the Minister sitting, although he was not sitting there alone, there was a strange toad looking woman in a pink cardigan sweater sitting right next to him, whispering something in his ear. Apparently he didn’t hear the introduction that Professor Lupin had given him but he eventually did notice the fact that the whole room was staring at him and pushed the woman in the pink cardigan away from him and stood up, smiling real big and then walked up to the front of the room and acted as if nothing was wrong.

At first no one did anything and there was this annoying “Hem, Hem” from the back of the room. It took a second for everyone to realize it was from the woman in the pink cardigan. Professor Lupin looked at her and before he could say anything she stated, “You are all wasting the Minister’s valuable time, we are here for you to ask your questions and give you a better idea of how the Ministry works. Now show some respect and raise your hand and ask your questions.” The woman stated.

Neville raised his hand and spoke to the woman, “We were showing respect Ma’am, it is traditional that the guest speaker be allotted a time at the beginning of the class in case they wished to speak about a specific topic or area of interest that they can bring it up. Also we would never be so rude as to speak before we are directed to by Professor Lupin.”

Harry decided to start things off since she wanted everyone to just start asking questions, he raised his hand and turned towards the Minister and asked. “What have you found to be the most challenging thing to date you have dealt with, since you became Minister?”

“Hem, Hem…that is not an appropriate question to ask the Minister young man. Next question.”

Ernie McMillian raised his hand and asked “Do you consider yourself a Traditionalist, a Conservative, or a Progressive, does it help you in your duties as a Minister and if so how?”

“Hem, Hem…that is completely inappropriate to ask. Next question please.”

Luna tried this time, “It has been noticed that there is a serious lack of Muggle-borns and Half bloods as department heads or at higher department positions within the Ministry, is that something your campaign is working to correct?”

“Hem, Hem…that is not an appropriate subject for someone your age to discuss. Next question.”

Megan Jones tried this time, “Several of the previous Ministers either created new Ministry Departments or expanded what was already there, are you planning something along that lines soon?”

“Hem, hem…that is irrelevant and inappropriate to ask. Next question.”

Susan Bones raised her hand and asked “There are several of us that wish to go into the Auror program when we graduate, do you think there will be an increase in the number of individuals allowed the Auror’s to recruit by the time we graduate or will budgeting still be a problem then?”

“Hem, Hem…that is not a question you should ask the Minister of Magic, young lady. Next question.”

Susan tried again, “Since the Minister is the one that has final say in the budget for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who should I put my question to then?”

The woman at the back looked rather irritated and stated “You are being disrespectful and rude, what is your name.”

Professor Lupin spoke out at that point. “Excuse me, but her name is irrelevant, I believe I invited the Minister of Magic to speak here today. If he is unwilling or unable to speak then I shall have to ask him, and you of course, to leave my classroom so that I may teach on a different curriculum.”

“Do you know who you are speaking to?” The woman stated, now completely frustrated,

“Not a clue, but then again I invited Minister Cornelius Oswald Fudge the thirty second Minister for Magic into my second year History of Magic class. I did not invite an unknown guest to attend, especially one that refused to allow the Minister to speak, while insulting, interrupting and belittling my students. Now since you and the Minister have proven that this second year class is of no interest to you, or out of your scope of interest, please leave.” Professor Lupin stated

During this whole time the Minister had just stood by and held his hat in his hand and allowed the toad faced woman speak to her mind, until… “That is enough Delores, in-fact that is too much. I have reached my limits with you. Your fired, have your desk cleared out by the time I get back to the Ministry and do not attempt to annoy me further.” Delores Umbridge who had been sitting in the back of the class, interfering in the class this whole time turned pale, the Minister couldn’t mean it. But he kept staring at her until she got up out of her seat and walked out of the room. Watching her every move, even when she paused at the door, hoping he would call her back, which he didn’t. What was she going to do now? Being the Minister’s under secretary was all she ever wanted, it was her step up to becoming Minister for Magic herself in a few years. He fired her. She had been fired. She would talk to him later and see if he would change his mind, that is what she would do, that’s it. He couldn’t survive one day without her, he would be lost without her. She would give him a few hours of complete confusion and then swoop in and fix all the things he had messed up, and save the day. Then he would have to take her back and eat his words, that’s it, that is what she would do. A confident Delores walked down the halls of Hogwarts and out the gates to apparate away.

The Minister then turned to Harry Potter and looked him in the eye and stated “The hardest thing I have had to do since I became Minister is the meetings with the Muggle Prime Ministers, I would say. I have extremely limited knowledge of the Muggle world and so it is rather awkward to say the least.”

He then looked over to Ernie McMillian and stated “I consider myself to be somewhere between a Conservative and a Traditionalist to tell you the truth. In the Wizengamot I vote for the item on the docket, not my party. I am not a complete Traditionalist, as I don’t believe in the absolute separation in all things Muggle from the magical realm. But I also don’t see the harm in having both Yule and Christmas, and Samhain and Halloween, a society as diverse as our own, is built on it’s diversity not it’s similarity, and we can learn so much from each other from our differences; why not share in our differences and grow as a society together. Keep the old ways and the traditions of course, teach them to all who want to learn them, but accept that new ideas are always going to be there, change is always going to be there. To ignore that fact is to ignore history which tells us that we have made many changes in the past and have grown richer and wiser because of it.”

Then he turned towards Luna and began, “The lack of Muggleborn’s and Half bloods in higher level positions at the Ministry is something that is new to my information, but if it is true then that is definitely something I will wish to look into. A man’s ability to successfully qualify for a job should be based on his own experience, skills and achievements. Not on his blood purity. A half blood with ten years experience should always get the job over a pure blood fresh out of school.”

Turning to Megan Jones he stated, “I would like to expand on the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department, seeing as how Muggle technology is advancing in leaps and bounds, each year they are coming up with new inventions and new ideas that we have no way to work around at this point. Our Department of Magical Law Enforcement can’t fight what it doesn’t understand or isn’t aware of yet. We need to be kept up to date on this new technology and know how to protect ourselves when it does find it’s way into our world.”

Next he looked over to Susan Bones and started, “I am hoping that we will be able to reformat the next budget to allow for more recruits within our Auror training program and to allow for newer and better equipment to be offered to our Aurors that are currently on the job. Although it is a slow and painful process, I do intend to see it done. Next Question…” The Minister was on a role and everyone in the class was enjoying what he was saying, so they were paying close attention to everything he said.

Harry raised his hand again and waited for the Minister to point to him, “What classes would you recommend that we take if we wished to get a position at the Ministry?”

The Minister smiled. “Well of course you need your History classes, but as to extra classes you can take I would say it would depend on what area you wanted to go into at the Ministry. I would write to the Department head or the Department that you wished to join or explore and ask for their advice specifically. This way you will know for sure. If your wishing to get into the Department of the Ministry, I would recommend taking Runes, and Muggle Studies until you get to your fifth year and then taking Political Sciences as well. That class helped me the most, and I found it to be the most exciting of them all.”

Pavarti raised her hand and he pointed toward’s her, “Is there a specific Author or Philosopher that helped you along the way? Someone that inspired you to become the great man that you are today?”

“Oh my that is a huge question, well I would have to state that there are several people that I studied and that I enjoy reading from, to pick out one would lesson the value of the others in what they have contributed to my life. So I really couldn’t pick just one.” The Minister smiled over to Pavarti and she smiled and nodded to him.

“What quality do you consider your greatest benefit assisting you at being Minister of Magic?” Leanne Moon asked, and she almost never asked questions.

The Minister smiled real big at her and said, “That one is easy, patience, tons and tons of patience. After that good organizational skills are a must. If you can’t find something quickly or know how to organize things well you will be at a total loss in that office. You will just be over your head in no time flat. While a good staff is important, you can’t depend on them to keep things organized for you, you have to learn to organize all your own work and necessary notes quickly. Also learning to delegate, that was something I had to learn the hard way. I was stubborn on that one. I thought I had to do it all, when I first got into office. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that I had to delegate matters to the proper people, after all that is what they are there for. Does that answer your question?” He asked.

Miss Moon smiled sweetly and blushed, “Yes Sir, Thank you Minister Fudge Sir.”

Seamus raised his hand and the Minister nodded in his direction, “Is is true Sir that you are in negotiations to bring the Wizarding World Cup to England in two years?”

Fudge threw out his chest and smiled. “It most certainly is, we have been in negotiations for nearly eight months and it looks like we will win over Sweden. At least that is how it looks right now. So if all goes as planned we will be having the Wizarding World Cup right here in England in nineteen ninety four folks. Hopefully, Scotland, Ireland, Wales or England will be contenders in that cup too.”

“Woo Hooo!” Seamus shouted then he started clapping for the Minister, all the sudden the bell rang and everyone stood up and gave the Minister a standing ovation as they clapped. Professor Lupin smiled at his class and thanked the Minister, taking the time to apologize for the earlier inconvenience, but the Minister stated that it was he who should apologize and he did.

“I have to say Professor Lupin that that is the most stimulating conversations I have had in a long time, once Delores was excused that is. Your students are intelligent beyond their years, and were very respectful. They are insightful, and asked questions that made me think, which I must say is rare these days. I am so used to the common reporter asking idiot questions, it is pathetic. Your students asked questions that were truly brilliant.” Cornelias stated as he smiled and watched the last of the students leave the class. “If you ever need of me to help with another class, feel free to call.” He stated at last

They talked about the Minister’s appearance in History class all through lunch and into waiting outside the Defense class. Each person having nothing but good things to say, well mostly.

“That woman, who ever she was, was just plain rude.” Pavarti stated.

“I hate to, but I am forced to agree. I don’t normally state things negative about individuals, just because I don’t like to think of them saying negative things about me. But she was rude, and disrespectful. I can’t believe she was so mean to everyone in class, and we were asking real questions too. I am just glad that the Minister actually went through and answered each of our questions, it tells me that he respects us and what we think.” Luna agreed.

“I was just surprised when he fired her right there in front of everyone. That was amazing. Not saying it wasn’t deserved or anything, it truly was. She was being rude, not only to us but to him as well. Not letting him answer even one simple question. That was just ridiculous.” Neville added.

“Yeah, that got old real fast. Not letting him answer even one question was way to cowardly even for a politician. Good grief, we are only a bunch of twelve year olds. What does she think we are going to do, rush to our parents and tell them what the answer to a question was? Our questions were not that political, in fact they were not political at all, they were all about the office or about the individual himself. Not about his political views really.” Harry stated.

They were in the middle of the discussion when the door opened to the Defense classroom and it began to allow students in. So they let the last class drop and began to focus on what was going to happen in this class.

“Like I told you last class we are going to be working on Lethifolds this class. Now unfortunately they are too dangerous for me to bring one to class. Lethifolds are a class XXXXX beast with the Ministry of Magic, it’s general appearance is that is that of a black cloak, normally it is about half an inch think thick, it only appears thicker if it has recently digested a victim. They are only found in tropical climates naturally, so you wouldn’t normally find one while walking down the streets of London. Unfortunately, they have been known to be transplanted, or captured and released in areas that there is a high population for nefarious reasons. So I wanted to teach you about them just in case.”

Professor Longbottom turned to his easel and placed a large picture on it, it was of a Lethifold. It’s eerie blackness floating loosely through trees and undergrowth that covered every inch of the forest. Looking for it’s next victim, the picture it presented was terrifying and mortifying, definitely something you wouldn’t ever want to meet.

“There is only one thing that works against a Lethifold and that is the Patronus Charm, so Expecto Patronum is the only thing that might save your life if you ever meet one of these deadly adversaries. Just like we did with the Dementors, I want each of you to line up and try to work on your Patronus Charms everybody.” With that he had everyone stand up and moved the desks back and moved everything so that the central area was clear for everyone to form two lines and begin to practice their Patronus Charms.

Zabini’s had improved quite a bit, his was actually forming an incorporeal patronus, it was a hawk, or at least that is what it appeared to be.

Nott’s had improved somewhat as well, he had a solid wisp now that covered quite a bit of his body, so it was a huge improvement from his last attempt.

Seamus’ was able to hold a misty shield for about ten seconds this time, even though it was flimsy and thin it was still an improvement as to what he had done since the last time he had worked on it.

When Harry stepped up to the front of the line he closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breathes then focused everything he had and called out “Expecto Patronum!” And sure enough he had a completely incorporeal patronus, there was no doubt what it was, it was a massive grizzly bear and it thundered into the room and looked around for the dangers but finding none, it went over to Harry and stared into his eyes for a moment then he slowly dissipated. Harry couldn’t help the moisture that was gathering in his eyes, the feelings of love and absolute joy he was feeling right now was indescribable. It was like being overdosed with way too many cheering charms. It was incredible.

Neville floated in on that feeling and went with it, his patronus was even more solidified than it was last time, it was almost a corporeal patronus. The panther pounced out of his wand and leapt into the middle of the room searching for the threat, it then paced back and forth for a minute then went over to Neville and sniffed his hand then raised his head back and roared showing all it’s teeth. Then it dissipated.

Luna’s fox frolicked around the room, not wanting to leave but it was soon joined by a bunny and they chased each other and then after about two minutes they both turned and looked at their ‘people’ then they both dissipated.

Professor Longbottom was thrilled with the improvements he was seeing in several of the students patronuses and let them know it. Handing out points to those who had made any improvement at all. And since Crabbe and Goyle weren’t in the class anymore he was able to focus on Brown and Parkinson, the two next lowest on skill level. Brown actually was able to get a thicker mist by the time the class was over with. Although Parkinson was still only able to get a flimsy wisps and barely that, he told her to keep working on her memory and try a different one to see if that helped.

That night when they went to bed they had a lot to talk about, although Dean and Seamus were still talking about some Ravenclaw girls, Harry and Neville were going over what all had happened in their classes that day. They were really proud of their Patronuses, and bet each other that just a little work and they could come up with a corporeal patronus, they were sure they had the perfect memory to do it too.

Then they went over History class again, they even thought about writing the Minister and thanking him for taking the time to spend with their History class and decided they would do so in the morning. In fact they decided they would do so for each of their guest speakers. Although no one had asked them to do so. They felt that it was only proper. They would make it out to be like it came from the whole class and not just the two of them though. They would let Professor Lupin read the final drafts before they sent them off though that way he would know what they had planned and make sure it was okay to do.

With that in mind the two went to sleep and were out before their heads hit their pillow. Thinking of what to say in the letter and all that had happened in the last several weeks that had led up to them writing the letters.

——————————————————————————

For weeks things had moved along perfectly for the four of them, nothing major had happened. Well nothing bad anyway. In Herbology class Neville had done so well with repotting the immature Venomous Tentacula that Professor Sprout had given Neville his own sample plant to raise as a private project for the semester, he was so proud and so enamored with that silly plant it was pathetic, the little plant Neville was given was not deadly by any means, but it’s bite was still very dangerous so Neville put it down in his Green House in his trunk to make sure that no one in the dorm up set the little thing and caused it to bite them. Even though it was just now teething it could still give you a nasty bite that would require you to go to the Medi-Ward. At least this way it was safe and everyone in the dorm was safe as well. Madam Sprout completely approved.

Professor Lupin had been thrilled with their letters and had whole heartedly approved of them. And the boys had sent them off the very next day. Both Madam Bones and Madam Marchbanks wrote back stating that if they had any questions about either the Auror program or the Wizengamot they need only ask, or if they wanted them to come back again at a later date and attend another class to let them know the dates and they would be happy to do so. This had the boys over the moon. The Minister wrote back once again apologizing for his Under Secretaries behavior and stated that due to his extremely difficult schedule that he would find it hard to attend another talk such as that but if the class had further questions that they could send him a list and he would be happy to answer them at his earliest convenience. All in all the letters were a hit.

And low and behold Thunder and Storm got into a dominance battle and of course Storm won and he went through and picked out Tonitru and Fulgura as well as Ventus to be his females and Thunder gladly accepted Procella to be his female. Both males had wasted no time in mating with their new mates and they now had four pregnant Darcorns in their little herd. Procella didn’t seem to have one single problem being the only one not picked by Storm, in fact she quite literally strut around the paddock after Thunder and she had mated, so proud of her big strong Stallion. Now she spent much of her time leaning on him or rubbing up against him. It was adorable.

Hermione thought that maybe Procella would have felt left out or something, but when she saw how her Darcorn was constantly flirting with Thunder she realized that there was no jealousy there, just pure unadulterated happiness. Her Procella couldn’t be happier if she tried. She was pregnant by the Darcorn of her dreams and she was proud of it. Hermione was so relieved. And couldn’t wait so see the little foal that would come from that pair. She knew one thing though, she would never sell the foal no matter what, she would keep the family together. In fact they had all decided on that. Padma and Pavarti had decided the same thing, and of course Luna had no intention of letting her little foal go anywhere either. She had already picked out Aura as the name for the foul, it was latin for Breeze. She though Breeze was a little Wind so Aura should be a little Ventus. And it was asexual so it wouldn’t matter if it was a Male or a Female foal that was born either.

This got all the girls to thinking and so Pavarti wanted to name her foul Fatum meaning Destiny. Which would mean that Padma’s would would be named Fides, for Faith. And Hermione thought about naming her foul Spes for Hope, but found Cupido for Wish or Desire to be a much better fit. So once again Luna got to thinking, wanting to keep the foals names somewhat similar and came up with Amor for Love. Now that they had picked out the names of their foals all they had to do was wait impatiently for their mares to birth their new additions and the world would be perfect again.

Harry had to remind each of them that the foals would one day look for new riders and it was the new riders who would get to name them not the girls, so they all decided to wait and see if their little angels picked a rider early or not.

It was getting close to Christmas vacation and the kids had found several things in the Room of Requirements for their friends and Family. Harry and Neville had finally found the perfect piece of jewelry for Alice, it was a galleon sized broach that was made mother of pearl and ruby. It had a beautiful ruby as the center piece and surrounded by an inlay of mother of pearl in an almost stained glass pattern. It was exquisite. They were going to have it polished and put several charms on it, just for her safety mind you, you know like poison awareness, blocking minor curses, locater charm, things like that.

They found several cauldrons in the room, but their eyes popped out when they realized one of them was real solid silver. The boys latched on to that one for Persephone to come from the four of them. All they had to do was get it polished now. They were still going to give her the old Potions book but this was too good to pass up.

Broom wise, Harry couldn’t believe he found a Moontrimmer, a real Moontrimmer. He wasn’t sure whether to give that one to Frank for his collection or to give it to Seamus. I mean it was built in nineteen-oh-one and it could fly higher than any other broom on the market, even today. They were created by Gladys Boothby and each one had to be made by hand individually, so they are a true rare find now days. And it is for that reason the boys are hesitant at giving it to Seamus when they know that Frank would appreciate it much more. It took a while and they decided to keep looking between the brooms in the room for something for Seamus and to give the Moontrimmer to Frank. He had that collection of legacy brooms and he would know how to keep this one looking as if was brand new. He would truly appreciate the broom for what it was.

It only took two more days and they found a Comet one forty, it was build back in nineteen-twenty-nine and is listed as one of the premier broomsticks to come out of the Comet broom company it was the first to be patented with the Horton-Keitch Braking system, which later became the nation wide standard and is still used to this day. Because of it’s breaking system it became the standard for Quidditch players everywhere, since the brooms tended to not wander off their destination as much as other brooms. So they decided to give that one to Seamus. He would see that one as a true collectors broom.

They then found a pair of Comet one-eighties, two of them leaning against the back wall, just leaning there as if they were just waiting for Harry and Neville to find them. They looked like they had just come off the showroom floor, not a twig out of place anywhere. If it wasn’t for the breaking system and steering system wanting it to be checked the boys would have just wrapped them up and handed them over to the twins as is, they were in that good of a condition. But that marked Fred and George off the Yule present list as well.

But the boys sent the three Comet brooms to the Comet broom company to have them looked over and upgraded if necessary. The Moontrimmer they sent to a rare broom company to have it looked after. The only problem was that the man that was doing the work on the Moontrimmer kept trying to buy the broom and was stalling on sending the broom back. They told him ‘no’ repeatedly but he seemed most insistent, so they finally decided to tell Sirius about the problem they were having and he went to see the man in person and have a talk with him. Apparently Sirius didn’t have any problems with the man because he came home with the Moontrimmer and an apology from the gentleman about his behavior. Although Sirius stated he wouldn’t trust him with any of their rare brooms again. When Sirius realized what broom he had in his hands he almost fainted and he kept drooling over the package, but the boys insisted that it was Frank’s Yule present. Sirius just sighed and handed the package over but watched it as the boys put the package away for later.

Sirius didn’t know about the really cool book they had found for him so he was all googgly eyed over the boom that they had found in the room. Who knows they may find another really cool broom but the Moontrimmer was going to go to Frank. No matter how big those puppy dog eyes of Sirius’ got.

They then found a Hogwarts: A History that was written in fifteen-fifty and couldn’t imagine Hermione not freaking out about it. She would either read it until she had to have the pages put all back together again and rebound or else she would put it under the strongest preservation charms she could find and never touch it again. Chances are it would be somewhere in between, but the boys were thrilled with their find. They also decided to make it a gift from them all, so that she wouldn’t be to upset that they didn’t tell her about their really cool room yet.

They found a book that was all about rare and forgotten Magi-zoological Species which they decided to give to Xenophilius as a group. Luna just loved the book, it even had a drawing of her Crumple Horned Snorkrack in it. That left Harry wondering if they were extinct and not just imaginary like everyone thought. Well no matter, now they had a book they could show Hermione what one looked like and it gave a brief history about the little creature and where it was last known to inhabit. Reading it kinda made Luna cry, because she got to thinking the same thing that Harry did, that maybe they were extinct now and that was why they were so hard to find, especially since the book was written in seventeen ninety four, so around two hundred years ago. And they were classified as rare then.

They also found a Transfigurations book called Transfigurations Through the Ages, that was written in nineteen ten that they figured Professor McGonagall would go nuts for.

Since they were going to give Frank the Moontrimmer for Yule they decided to give Remus and Sirius a pair of matching swords and daggers they had found, complete with their sheaths.

So as it was sitting right now Harry needed to get Luna and Pavarti a gift and he wanted to get Neville something special for his Bonsai Gardens and decided on a Moon Gate. He had it designed after the Moon Gate that is present at the Bonsai and Penjing Museum, National Arboretum in Washington DC. Harry thought that was fitting some how. The Moon Gates were traditional entrances for the Chinese gardens and believed to bring good luck to who ever entered through there. He figured that with everything that Neville had in his Bonsai garden the one thing he needed was a proper entrance. And a Moon Gate was the perfect thing. So he sent away for it, and had it constructed, they were going to have it shrunk for easy shipment, thing they didn’t realize was that the dimensions that he gave them for shipping was the dimensions he wished the permanent piece to be. Once it got here he was going to have Sirius help him place a permanent transfiguration on it and make sure that it stayed that way and his brother would have his perfect entrance to his Bonsai Garden.

Harry decided to get Neville the Field Medic Kit for the practical purposes but the Moon Gate for more of a personal side and so he was going to get them both. It might seem like a little bit much he didn’t care his brother was worth it.

As to Luna, Harry had decided on getting her both the hair barrettes and a ring to match the necklace he had already bought her. He wanted to get her the ring but he didn’t want it to be taken too seriously, so he thought the hair barrettes would also be a good idea. Those are useful and they would match everything else as well.

For Pavarti, Harry thought about getting her a new Saddle blanket and a matching one for the foal. He thought that she would find that adorable, but he didn’t know if she would think that a little weird so he was still on the fence about that. He was leaning towards seeing about getting her a big box selection of teas that came from India, ones that would be hard to find here but would be favorites back in her home country. He thought that is something she would definitely enjoy. So that is where he was leaning right now. He didn’t want to get her any jewelry, especially since he knew what his brother intended to get her, and he didn’t want to compete. So imported teas it was. He found one that had a variety of Black teas and some Chai teas varieties as well and decided on that one, it seemed to be the most popular at least. The Chai tea sampler seemed to be the biggest seller that the store had at from what he could see and it wasn’t too expensive. He never realized that Chai tea came in different flavors but he guessed it did. Wow. So in the end he got her the Assam Loose Leaf India Special Chai and Black Tea Sampler from the Tea Spot, it had fourteen different teas in it and it was a pound of each tea, so it should last them quite a bit. It was a special made package and was on limited edition so he grabbed two while they were available one for her and one for her parents. He thought they might enjoy the teas as well.

They were in the Room of Requirements looking for an outfit for Padma for Yule to give to her from everyone when low and behold beneath the skirt of one of the dress dummies Harry found it, he couldn’t believe it. He had to look it over twice just to make sure he was really seeing what he was seeing, a true Nimbus Sky Scythe, it really was a Sky Scythe. How in the world could someone loose one of those and not go absolutely insane trying to find it. He would have. He decided immediately that he would give it to Sirius as his major Yule present from all of them. He had been so heart broken over the Moontrimmer, this would make him forget all about that broom and absolutely loose himself in this magnificent broom. And what was even more magnificent is that it was signed by the owner of Nimbus himself, this broom must be worth a small fortune, Hell it might be worth a sizable fortune. For collectors this broom would be one of the most sought out brooms on the market, signed and all. Harry couldn’t wait to see the look on Sirius’ face when he opened his gift and saw his Sky Scythe. They were so rare that they were listed on the Limited Edition selections now.

After that amazing discovery finding the turn of the century wedding gown that just so happened to be hidden in one of the trunks seemed like the most amazing luck in the world. Pavarti couldn’t believe it, to say it was beyond beautiful would be an understatement. It was a combination of lace and satin, so delicate and precious, it was antique eggshell white with small natural pearls sewn into the lace all over it. It had dozens of pearl buttons down the back that would have been a hassle to work with but, hey that’s what magic was for. You could tell the lace was hand made and the whole thing was wrapped in tissue, kept secure and safe from all harm for ages. Pavarti was sure her sister would just flip over the beautiful dress, as delicate and intricate the work on the gorgeous gown was. It even had a matching handbag. So they packed it all up in the original trunk and decided to have it professionally cleaned and put preservation charms on it just in case then give it to her for Yule. Everyone was pleased with that find.

It was the first week of the Christmas break that everyone decided they would make a trip into Diagon Alley and do a little shopping. Harry and Neville went back to the Jewelry shop where they had originally gotten the necklaces for Luna and Pavarti. Harry picked out a ring, self sizing of course, and hair barrettes to match the necklace and bracer that he had already gotten her. And Neville picked ring similar although it had a ruby in the center of it instead of a sapphire like Luna’s did. He also picked her up a bracer so that she had a complete set, similar to what Luna had. The boys also picked up Alice’s broach while they were there, since it was ready.

The man had put all known poison detections on it, charms against minor hexes and curses, charms against mind control or memory alteration, and a location or tracking charm on it. They had it all attached to a ring that they set up to work with a ring they intended to give to Frank. They felt that he would be the best to have it, in case of emergencies.

One thing that really impressed Frank was that while the ring couldn’t fight off the Imperious Curse, it would heat up, and let him know that someone was trying to use it on Alice, and that same signal would go through to the mate ring and Frank would feel it in his ring, and of course he would come running. The ring could block most mind control spells and warn against most mind controlling potions by pulsing and heating up. But it again would send a signal to the mate ring and Frank would know even if Alice was distracted and didn’t notice the warning in time. When the boys told Frank about what all the broach could do and the mate ring, he gave both boys a huge hug and thanked each one, telling each one how much he loved them. Frank tried to hide his tears but they could see the moisture in his eyes, even if he didn’t let the tears fall.

Harry and Neville were both truly thrilled that Frank was so happy about the broach. They knew that Alice would probably love the broach as well, but the fact that Frank was so happy with it was a surprise and they were so happy about it, it was a little surprising. They hadn’t thought about how he would feel about the present when they had gotten it made for her, but apparently their idea was a good one. Neville blushed and smiled real big as his father hugged him and hissed his hair telling him how much he loved him. Frank always made sure that he showed both boys that he loved them but sometimes he forgot to say it. So for him to say it made Neville and Harry feel warm and kinda awkward really. But when he said he was proud of them, they both couldn’t help but puff out their chests and blush again. This time feeling all the love and happiness in the world that one body could feel. Wow, maybe that was enough for a patronus…

After that they couldn’t wait to give the girls their presents. Both Harry and Neville knew what the significants of giving a girl a ring meant, and they decided to tell each one that it was a friendship ring. At least for now. Anything further, time will tell. Although both boys knew that the girls meant more to them than just friends, they didn’t yet understand where their relationship with the two girls would go. Harry knew that he hoped Luna would stay in his life forever, but to what place he was unsure. The same was true for Neville and Pavarti, Neville knew he wanted her to be in his life for as long as he lived but as to what place, he wasn’t sure yet. And neither boy wanted to hurt their friends in any fashion, so they decided to take things slow. They knew if the girls demanded something more, that they would have to think about it, but would probably agree to it in the end without a problem. But that is not something that they foresaw, it is more than likely it would be their father’s, or at least Pavarti’s father that would demand some form of permanent expression of intent towards his daughter that would happen. Especially after what happened last time, when Neville had given her the necklace. Pavarti’s father might just flip when Neville gives her a ring after all. He may demand that it be more than for just friendship and if he does then Neville would clearly state that he had every intention of making sure that Pavarti has a permanent place by his side for the rest of his life and that this ring is the first step. And hope that her father accepts the ring at that point. He knew that Pavarti would accept it, and that is all that mattered to him.

Since the mares were pregnant everyone decided to stay at Hogwarts just like they had done last year again. Hermione’s parents decided to take a short vacation for a few days, of just them and then they would join them at Hogwarts before Christmas. The Patils would simply join the group from Hogwarts after the students left for Christmas holidays and stay until they students were ready to come back. It was all arranged. Pavarti’s father had already taken time off from work to spend with his family as he did every year and it didn’t matter where he was to do so. And since her mother didn’t work, this was no hardship on Pavarti’s family to joint them at Hogwarts for the duration of the Christmas break. Besides it allowed them to have almost a vacation themselves, and they got to get to know their daughter’s teachers and the school they were going to as well, so to them it was a win win situation. For the Grangers they would take a four day stay in Paris, sort of a second Honeymoon if you will, and then they would join everyone else at Hogwarts for the remaining of the Holiday season. So they got the best of both worlds.

Pavarti’s Mother was completely over whelmed when they went to Harrods though. Both Pavarti and Padma were showing her around and she was going through the store trying to see everything. She was like a kid in a candy store. Ananya walked around the store handing all the things over to Raunak to carry, and he dutifully followed along behind her, trying hard not to thing of the cost. Instead, he thought of how happy these things would make his wife and daughters.

Once they were out of sight outside they shrunk all their purchases down and put them into their bottomless bags. Padma put all her mother’s purchases in her bag with her own purchases that way her father wouldn’t have to fill up his pockets with all the little packages and wouldn’t have to worry about them. So next they headed over to the little New Age store that Padma had told her mother about, Ananya found several pieces of jewelry she liked there, and several gifts in there as well. In fact she had Raunak trying on rings for quite a while until she found one that he really liked. A solid silver ring that had some beautiful engravings on the band. And she picked out some ruby stud earrings for Pavarti and some Emerald studs for Padma, sure that the girls would enjoy them. For herself she got herself a set of pearl earrings that matched some pearls that Raunak had given her years ago and that she was going to wear for Yule this year.

When they got back to Hogwarts, Harry and Neville decided to wrap up everything they were going to send out to other people and get it all sent off, to make sure everyone got it before Yule that is. So they spent the better part of the evening wrapping presents and then headed over to the owlery and sending off presents. Due to their value Sirius demanded that the boys deliver the brooms personally. So they just wrapped them up and set them aside. They could make the trips over to the Weasley’s place on Christmas Day, if Sirius wouldn’t mind taking them. And see if he wouldn’t mind taking them to see Seamus as well. They figured he might be a little put off about everyone else getting these cool antique brooms so they were going to give him his broom first before they asked him to take them over to see the others. Hopefully, he would be so thrilled with his present he wouldn’t mind the inconvenience of helping them out.

————————————————————————

This time Harry didn’t wake up Sirius at the break of dawn, instead he got up and organized the presents he wanted to give out. He was still working on putting bows and cards on each present when Sirius knocked on the door to his room.

“Come in.” Harry called out.

“What’s wrong? I thought you would be bouncing around on my bed as usual, you didn’t even wake me up this morning, is something wrong?” Sirius stuck his head into the room looking concerned.

“Nope,” Harry smiled. “I just have more presents this year and I wanted to make sure everything had it’s card addressed to the right person, and had their bows and everything on it.

“Need help?” Sirius stepped into the room all smiles.

“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind. Just grab a package that doesn’t have a bow on it and I will tell you who it goes to.” Harry smiled back.

They spent another half an hour putting bows and cards on everything. Harry couldn’t believe he waited until now to get this done. Then they started moving all the packages to the common room of Sirius’ apartment. They had just gotten the last of the packages moved into the main room when there was a knock at the door, Sirius went over to the door and let in Remus, who had his presents floating along behind him.

It was almost nine o’clock when they all gathered all their presents and headed down to the Longbottom’s apartment where everyone was gathering this year. Sure enough everyone was already awake and drinking tea inside waiting for them to arrive, shocked that they didn’t arrive earlier. Sirius explained that Harry still had a bit to do with his presents and that it took a bit of time to take care of. And apologized for the delay, which made Harry blush of course.

But Harry just glared at Sirius and threatened to give him his present last which made Sirius break out the poor puppy dog eyes, making Harry laugh.

Harry was stacking his presents when someone tapped him on the shoulder causing him to turn around, sure enough it was Luna. It took him a minute to close his mouth once he saw her. She was in a sapphire blue gown that had small snowflakes all over it and tiny sparkling stones here and there that caught the light just right making her sparkle when ever she moved. Her hair was pulled up behind her in a beautiful up-do and she looked so beautiful it took his breath away and he didn’t really know what to say for a minute or two. Even then the first words out of his mouth were, “Wow… you’re gorgeous Luna.”

“Thank you,” she giggled. “Do you need some help?”

“Ah, well…no not really, I just have so many things to give out that I wanted to put name tags on everything before I left this morning and I really should have gotten that done last night but I was busy wrapping everything last night so didn’t have a chance to do it. Now it is just handing everything out to everyone. Which is kinda simple really. I have divided everything up by family so hopefully it will make things easier, plus I put each families stuff in the same color of wrapping paper, to make it where I could tell whose is whose. So I just stack like wrapping paper together.” Harry said.

“That was smart, that is going to make things so much easier. Do you want me to help you stack things in like piles?” Luna asked and gave Harry her dreamy smile.

“Thank you, I would appreciate the help.” Harry started stacking presents that were similar and Luna started doing the same, just picking the ones that had wrapping paper that was the same together.

When they finished Harry sat down on one of the couches and waited until everyone else had sat down to start, “Well do we want to give out presents first or what?” Harry finally asked.

Frank laughed, he knew it would either be Harry or Neville who asked about presents, it always was. “We can start handing out presents anytime you want to Harry.” Frank said.

So Harry did. “Come on brother,” and he motioned for Neville to come over to help him with the presents that were suppose to be from them all and began to hand them out to all the adults in the room. “Now these are from Neville, Luna, Pavarti and myself so…enjoy.” He smiled real big as he handed the last one out.

Sirius noticed the large box being handed to Frank by Neville and knew what it was, Harry could see the disappointment in his eyes, until Harry placed an equally large box in his hands and Sirius looked down at it and then up in Harry’s eyes and down at the box and up at Harry again.

“Well, aren’t you going to open it Sirius?” Harry asked.

Sirius didn’t need any further encouragement and like a little kid at Christmas he ripped into the package and gasped as soon as he realized what he was looking at. A real true Sky Scythe, oh my dear god.

“Sweet Merlin, this can’t be. How… This can’t be what I think it is. Is it?” Sirius whispered barely.

“If you are thinking it is a Sky Scythe then yeah you’re right that is what it is.” Neville grinned great big and said.

Frank looked at the broom in Sirius’ hand and then at the box of similar dimensions in his own hands and didn’t have to be told twice. He was ripping through the wrapping paper as fast as he could, and he stood there with the package half unwrapped trembling. No it couldn’t be, where in the name of Merlin could the kids get such a broom? Was this real? Was it a real Moontrimmer? There could only be like two dozen of them left in commission at this point, how did the kids find one? And why were they giving it to him?

“What in the name of Merlin…”

“What have those kids gone and done Frank?” Alice asked getting way too curious now, especially with her husband standing there trembling next to her holding a half unwrapped package.

Frank gently finished unwrapping the broom and laid it out on the coffee table and Sirius did the same. Each one of them staring at the amazing brooms.

“The kids bought you new brooms?” Alice asked, not sure what was so amazing about the new broom.

“Alice, love, that is a Moontrimmer, it was originally built in nineteen-oh-one by Gladys Boothby, she handmade each and everyone of her brooms that sold. They are famed as being able to go higher that any broom on record to date, and remain controllable. There are less than two dozen of them left in commission in the world at this time. That is one of the most rare brooms in existence.” Frank stated slowly at barely a whisper, as if in reverence to the broom itself.

“And that one is a Sky Scythe. It was first commissioned in eighteen-eighty. They were some of the first ever built for long distance travel. They were designed for comfort and ease and were the first to use the new and improved cushioning charms that later became common on all brooms. They are now considered a Legacy broom and are only found in Museums if they are found at all. To find one outside a museum is…well… a miracle.” Sirius said as he reached over and caressed the the Sky Scythe gently as if it were a beautiful woman.

Both Sirius and Frank looked at the boys and asked at the same time… “Where did you kids find these brooms, if you kids bought these broom, we are taking them back immediately!.” Both men were thinking of the money the kids had gotten from the Basilisk and worried that the kids had spent the money they had gotten from the sell of the giant snake on them some stupid brooms. Fabulous stupid brooms, but they didn’t need Legacy brooms. Not with the kids money they didn’t.

“Neville and I found them in the Room, and decided to have them sent out for a refitting, then gave them to you. Since we knew that only the two of you would truly know the history and value of those two particular brooms. So don’t worry the only thing they cost us is the price to have them polished, and the breaking and steering charms examined and updated. And to tell you the truth that isn’t even a tenth of the cost of these brooms. So don’t worry, we all pitched in and took care of that together to pay to get the brooms updated, so that we could say that they came from us all.” Harry stated with a smile.

Frank looked at the boys with his eyes bugging out and Sirius wasn’t that much better off. “You boys found these brooms in that room of junk?” Sirius asked.

“Yes, and you said we could have anything we wanted from the room, so we wanted to give you these, which we did.” Luna stated.

“Wow. Just wow.” Sirius said “You boys should keep these brooms…” And that was all that Sirius got out of his mouth before Neville spoke up.

“We knew that the two of you would appreciate these brooms more so than anyone else. That’s why we gave them to you, so they are your’s.” Neville said.

Harry continued. “That’s right, we don’t want any Legacy brooms. If we got a new broom it would be a new broom that just come off the market, not a broom we are afraid to use. And just have to keep hidden in a vault somewhere. No these brooms belong to the two of you. Now accept them and do what ever you want to with them. They are your’s.” Harry put on his serious face, just to make sure there were no more questions about the brooms.

Both men looked at each other, then at the brooms, then at the kids. Then they picked up the brooms in reverence and together they went over to the kids and gave each one a hug and a kiss. Telling them thank you for the wonderful gifts.

Next Harry got the gift he had found for Alice. He handed it to Neville to give to his mother, which he smiled real big and handed it over to her. Alice had a rather curious look on her face but she unwrapped the present and gasped when she saw that it was a beautiful necklace and ring set. “Boys!” She started.

“It has a purpose.” They explained before she could even get going.

“What did those two do this time?” Frank asked as he sat down his precious broom, and turned toward his wife.

“Those two just handed me a very expensive necklace and ring set and say it has a purpose" Alice's voice was getting louder as she spoke.

“Mum, it has protections against poison, and mind control, event against someone forcing you to use imperious against you, it is match with the ring so the will always know where the other is. that way if one gets taken the other will know where the other is, and it can be hidden once it is put on you can hide it so no one will know you have it on and try to take it off you, plus no on but you or the were'r of the ring can ever remove it Besides your worth it to us.” Neville said.

“Yeah, don’t get upset. We are just trying to protect you and Frank, and we know you would have our heads if it was just some stupid piece of jewelry.” Harry stated. “Even if it is Yule.”

“The ring?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, it it is for you to wear.” Neville stated, smiling at Alice.

“And they are a matching set, the other piece is for Frank?” Alice asked.

“Yeah, that way you know where he is at anytime, and he has the same protections the necklace has too.” Harry replied.

Alice sat there caressing the beautiful necklace. It really was gorgeous and very tasteful still, the boys and made a good choice when they had picked it out for her. The ring was beautiful as well, not too big and clunky and not too showy, something that even Frank would wear all the time. And it matched the necklace perfectly, it was easy to see the pieces as a set. How could she be be mad at the boys when they had thought out this present so much, yes it was expensive, but they had gone in together and bought something practical and damn useful for her and Frank, she just couldn't say no to it. With a heavy sigh and a gentle sigh she picked up the necklace and put it on. Immediately she felt it get warm and activate its security systems. Frank reached down and picked up the ring and she felt the necklace warm again and she felt a pull in the direction that the ring was, knowing that the location monitoring system was in effect now as well.

With that Persephone reached down to pick up the present they had set before her. This time it was a book, a potions book. With trembling hands she opened it carefully and read the date, it read sixteen-fifty-two was when it was published. She had been right, the original of the book she was holding had been written back centuries ago and she was holding one in her hands right now. ‘Potions from the Elders’ was the literal translation of the title. This book was a book of all the Potions invented from the time of Merlin to the sixteenth century. Persephone flipped through the pages of the magnificent book and couldn’t believe the condition, it was like it had just been published. She could tell there were preservation charms on it, she could feel them, but the pages were in perfect condition, no stains, no writing, no tears, or damage anywhere.

“The room?” She questioned again softly.

“Yeah, it was one of several potion books that I found there, it seemed to be the most interesting, and I thought you would like it so, there you go. Now you can look at any of the other ones you want any time you want to go through them, I have them all in my trunk under preservation charms. So they are being well taken care of. I got all of the potion books, but we are all sharing them when it comes to using them for school work.” Harry said.

“You found more than this one?” Persephone’s eye lit up as she thought of what all he might have found,

“Yeah and you can go through them later if you want, I don’t mind at all.” Harry grinned.

Neville rolled his eyes. Potion nuts. They were all the same. Good grief.

Next they handed a package over to Remus and watched his eyes bug out as he opened his book up. “Kids you can’t…can’t just give away books, I mean…this is a valuable book, you need to keep this book. Who knows how much this book is worth.”

“Who cares. We knew you would enjoy it and so it is yours.” Pavarti stated firmly. And she handed a package over to Sirius and one over to Frank. Who both looked at the packages with some doubt in them.

Both gasped at their presents. Frank found his book on battle magic to be unbelievable and was totally absorbed by it. And Sirius was lost in his book on Transfiguration. The boys knew they would be.

Then Harry reached over to a different pile and picked up another package and handed it to Ananya and Raunak who were looking at him very skeptically, but finally they opened the package and were thrilled with the package of teas from their home country. Ananya stated how it was so hard to find good tea in England which seemed like it should be an impossibility but it was true, and she thanked the kids profusely.

“This one is for you Mrs. Granger.” And Harry passed over a package to her as she sat on the couch quietly taking everything in.

“And here is your’s Sir.” He said to Mr. Granger. And passed him a similar package as well.

The Grangers began to open their presents then Jean gasped when she realized her present was an original First Edition of Alice in Wonderland.

Dan opened his present and his eyes got huge when he realized his present was a First Edition of Sherlock Holmes, one of his favorite stories.

Both the Grangers were thrilled with their presents, and said so. Thanking the children profusely.

Presents were passed around, between the presents from the room and the presents from Harrods there were gasps, oohs and shrieks…especially from Hermione when she got that Hogwarts: A History. She Shrieked loud enough to scare the babies and got reprimanded by Alice and Persephone for it too. After apologizing she ran over and hugged the four responsible for her new treasure and then rushed back to make sure her new gift hadn’t disappeared on her while she was gone or something. Then she spent the next hour thumbing through it and gasping at things she found and showing it off to her mother and father, who were not quite as enamored with her gift as she was but were still impressed.

Padma’s favorite was the wedding dress they had found and she had started crying when her sister presented it to her. At first Harry thought it had made her sad, but then he got a huge hug from Padma so he assumed that she had liked it after all. Ananya was so taken back by the gown she started to cry as well, it was a beautiful gown after all. I guess it was the fact that she was seeing one of her girls in that gown that made her cry, at least Raunak didn’t ask Harry or Neville what their intentions towards Padma were this time, thankfully.

Although that relief was short lived when Neville finally gave Pavarti his present to her, she opened the box and gasped. As did Luna as she was opening the present from Harry at the same time. Harry reached over and plucked the ring from the box and placed it gently on Luna’s outstretched finger, as did Neville for Pavarti. Harry was the one to say it, so that Neville would not get cornered by Raunak before he could even get the words out, “These rings are to show you two how special you are to us, and to let you know that we hope you are in our lives for many, many years to come... as friends or what ever, time will tell, but for now we hope our friendship continues to grow and will be there forever.”

“My sentiments exactly, friendship forever.” Neville slipped the ring on Pavarti’s hand and watched her eyes sparkle with tears and she fought hard not to cry with the pure happiness that was filling her heart right now. That did not stop her from grapple hugging him as soon as he finished putting the ring on her finger though. Nor did it stop Luna from doing the same to Harry.

“Forever.” Luna said it all in one word, but it held the world within it.

The kids decided that the next best thing to presents was music so everyone went and got their instruments and they all began to play, even Hermione, and Padma. They played everything from some Christmas songs, which everyone enjoyed; to some contemporary rock, which brought about a lot of laughs.

Then it was time for dinner down in the Great Hall and everyone packed away their instruments and headed down to dinner, which was spectacular as always. The Great Hall was decorated as an ice castle and had a dozen beautiful Christmas trees all around the room full of fairy lights and decorations. Dinner was roast pork or goose which ever you please, and of coarse all the fixings.

After dinner the kids got out their instruments and played for those that had stayed behind and the Professors, and everyone joined in on the singing. It was almost curfew by the time they finally stopped playing, but no one cared they were having to much fun.

The Headmistress just smiled and wished everyone a Merry Yule and a Happy Christmas then headed off to bed herself, without ushering everyone away. But then everyone got the hint and decided to call it a night. One round of hot cocoa and they all headed out. Making it to their dorms just as the bell tolled for curfew that night.