Chapter Sixteen

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The group found themselves in the middle of the Great Hall during Dumbledore's start of term speech. The tour and explanations had taken longer than they had anticipated, and instead of turning up at the same time as the other students, they arrived late. Every eye in the Hall was watching them as they shifted uncomfortably and waited for the surprised Dumbledore to continue. He had been in the middle of reminding the school that the Forbidden Forest was out of bounds when they had suddenly appeared. They were relieved when they looked up at him and saw a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

“ Well, it's nice of you all to join us. If you'd like to take your seats at your House tables, we can discuss this after the feast.”

“ Sir, we would appreciate it if we could just place our baggage somewhere,” Ron said, gesturing to the bags they had.

Dumbledore looked a little sceptical, as if wondering why a small bag each would be a problem. His eyes widened, however, when Harry lifted the invisibility charms on the two floating bodies. The students in the Hall all started to mutter amongst themselves, and the teachers seemed rather shocked. It was Professor Sewell, the Potions Mistress, who reigned in her surprise first and looked to the sheet covered forms.

“ Mr. Evans, are they what I think they are?”

“ It depends what you think they are, Professor.”

“ Are they bodies?”

At this point Dumbledore took over, letting out a loud spray of sparks from his wand to silence the whispering students.

“ SILENCE! I believe we should take this matter to my office now, as it obviously cannot wait. Professor Binns, please take over.”

Nodding to the History of Magic professor, he moved from his place at the head table and stalked out of the door, heading for his office. The group of students followed, their bags and the Potters floating close behind. Once the silent procession reached the gargoyle, Dumbledore announced the password.

“ Black Bullets.”

The guardian statue leapt to one side, and they all went into the large round office. The time travellers looked around, unable to prevent the wave of memories that came to them as they thought what it had looked like when Gryffindor used it. They were dragged from their thoughts after they had seated themselves, as Dumbledore was holding out his customary bowl of sweets.

When they all declined, he folded his hands in front of him and cleared his throat.

“ Now, that was a rather dramatic entrance, don't you think? May I ask what happened? Why weren't you on the train, and who is under those sheets?”

“ Well, it's a rather long story, Professor,” Hermione began.

“ I have a better idea, `Mione.”

“ What's that, Ginny?”

“ We can show him.”

Everyone looked at the younger redhead in confusion. However, when she waved her hand and the room became dark, the older students soon caught on. Dumbledore was still confused, as were Minh and Eustace.

“ May I ask what you are planning, Miss Weston?”

“ It's an ancient spell for showing memories. We can show you the important things that happened by projecting them into the room. It's not real, but it's sort of like a pensieve. You feel like you are there, but you aren't really. Just, trust me. If any of you don't want to relive it, I suggest you leave.”

Minh and Eustace looked at each other a moment, as if debating whether to stay or not. After a minute, they nodded to each other, and went over to Harry, who was sat in the middle of a chaise longue off to one side. They sat one on each side of him, and he wrapped them each in a one armed hug. Whispering, he asked them why they were staying when he knew it would upset them.

“ You can leave, you know. We won't think any less of you.”

“ I need to stay,” Eustace told him in a breaking voice, “ It might help me to deal with it better if I can see that there was nothing I could have done. And I just want to see them one more time.”

Harry nodded his head in acceptance and turned to Minh, waiting for her reason.

“ I can see that you both feel bad, Eustace because they were your parents, and Harry because you blame yourself. I can't leave you here alone when I know it's going to be hard for you.”

Harry smiled at the young elf and tightened his hold on the two first years. He looked over to where the rest of his friends were watching the display in bemusement, and nodded to Ginny to continue. Putting her hand to her head, she started to chant. After a minute ghostly images began to form, until they were in a replica of the Potter's house, sitting around the Christmas tree. She then proceeded to show Dumbledore the air raid, the death of the Potters, the Logans and the attack of Grindelwald's followers. The trip to Domus Corvus Corax was missed out, as it was Harry's to tell about. The headmaster seemed rather surprised that four students had single handedly taken out over twenty of Grindelwald's best men. As the whole thing was from Ginny's perspective, it missed out the part with Tiberius Malfoy. When Ginny had finished with her memories, the others took it in turns to add little things only they had been privy to. One of the things Harry showed was the fall of the elder Malfoy. Having not really known about this, everyone else in the room was rather surprised. Eustace, Minh and Dumbledore were all shocked when they heard Malfoy offer Harry a place with Grindelwald. They were even more shocked when he spoke parseltongue and Nirah appeared. When all the memories had been shown, Dumbledore started his round of questioning.

“ Well, that was enlightening. I can see how the Potters died, and with young Mr. Potter's permission I will make the funeral arrangements.”

Eustace nodded to the man in gratitude, not wanting to have to deal with it himself.

“ I also see that you found a family to stay with, which was fortunate. I will contact them and thank them personally for their kindness. I would also like to congratulate you on your success against the attacking wizards, however I have a few questions about that. Firstly, I would like to ask what happened to the ones who were bitten by the snakes. I would also like to see the creatures in question.”

“ The snakes are magical coral snakes, sir,” Harry began, “ Their venom is not fatal, unlike non-magical coral snakes, however their bites have a rather unfortunate effect on witches and wizards. It poisons their systems and destroys their magic, leaving them as powerful as squibs. We saw it as the only choice, as we had no means of contacting aurors, and no way of detaining them indefinitely. I think it was a rather fitting punishment for Muggle torturers to become the one thing they despise the most.”

“ I quite agree, Harry. Can I see the snakes in question?”

In reply, Harry simply lifted his sleeves and held out his arms. The concealing charms, recognising that the people looking knew the snakes where there, allowed them to see the two colourful bands wrapped several times around Harry's wrists. Eustace and Minh took in sharp breaths as they looked at the creatures.

“ Don't worry, they won't harm anyone unless I ask them to.” Harry reassured them.

“ I see, and from what I heard in the memory you are a parselmouth. Is that true?”

“ Yes, Professor. It's one of the reasons I managed to help Gryffindor defeat Slytherin, by using snake magic. It's a powerful art, but I can control it. I assure you, Headmaster, you have nothing to fear from me. I won't become evil.”

“ Harry, I must admit I agree with you. When I first learned of your fondness for Dark Magic, I was worried. I would have been concerned at his further ability, as it reminds me a lot of Salazar Slytherin, however having witnessed your duel with Tiberius Malfoy, and your refusal of his offer to join the Dark Lord, I see you are on the side of good. I am sorry for ever doubting you.”

“ It's alright, Professor, I can see why you did. You didn't wish to endanger your students by having an evil person here, and I can respect that.”

“ I have one more question, though. How did you get back here? And how does Mr. Potter know about your time travelling? I take it from his lack of surprise regarding your mentioning of Slytherin that he has been told.”

“ Headmaster, that was two questions, but I will answer them both. As you saw from the memories, we had no way of getting help, or returning here until the floo system was repaired. But as you know, Hogwarts isn't on the external floo system, so we had to use a portkey. We travelled by floo to a place called Domus Corvus Corax. It is an unplottable estate here in Scotland. I left it to be built after we left the last time period. It has a portkey room with several that go to Hogwarts. We simply used one of them to get here.”

“ I see. I will not pry about your house, although I would be interested to see it sometime.”

“ I'm sure that can be arranged. In fact, I plan to show you soon. As for Eustace, we had to tell him everything when I was giving them all a tour of the house. There were too many things that didn't add up, like the fact that I designed it myself, but it took nearly fifty years to build. He hasn't been told much, just as much as you have been told, as we do not wish to change the future in any way. We will not tell you anything that is to come, for it could be very dangerous.”

“ I agree, Harry. We must preserve the timelines. I trust Mr. Potter agrees with this.”

“ Then I will say nothing more on the matter. The only thing I have left to discuss with you is the extra lessons.”

Everyone but Harry looked confused. The Boy-Who-Lived thought back to the conversation he had had with the headmaster after the memorial service in November, and remembered their deal.

“ Headmaster, I have yet to mention it to my friends. It slipped my mind, what with Percy's funeral and all.”

“ Quite alright. I will explain the proposition. Ron, Ginny, Hermione, we have decided that for the good of the war against Grindelwald we will share some skills. When I spoke to Harry after the memorial service for the attack, he agreed to teach me some wandless magic, in return for apparition lessons. He said it was the one skill that would be very useful, that none of you have ever acquired. I will also be teaching you how to make portkeys. Do you agree?”

The other three nodded their agreement. They thought it would be a good idea, and it would prevent problems like the one they had encountered over the Christmas holidays from ever cropping up again. With little else to say, the six students took their leave, heading back to their Houses.

Before the group split to go to their own House common rooms, Harry pulled Minh and Eustace to one side. He had been thinking since they had left Dumbledore's office, and had come to a decision. Waving the other three on, he went over to a wall; the two younger students following close behind.

“ As the pair of you know everything, I think it's time I show you something.”

Putting his hand on the wall, he muttered in Anglo-Saxon and a door appeared. The first years were a little startled, but curious. Harry pulled the door open and held it until they were all inside, before closing it behind him and waiting for it to disappear. He led his friends over to a far corner of the room, telling them where they were as he went.

“ This room belongs to me, and is the only room in Hogwarts gifted to a student by one of the founders for their own personal use. Only Ron, Ginny and `Mione can get in here apart from me, as well as Peeves, but that's just because he can go through walls. In a minute I'll change the wards so you can get in.”

“ How did you get it?” Eustace asked.

“ Godric Gryffindor gave it to me as a joint birthday present and thank you gift.”

“ What was he thanking you for?”

“ Helping him to defeat Salazar Slytherin.”

“ You wouldn't have said that if you'd been there. It wasn't pleasant. Now, there's something over here I want you to see.”

Harry gestured into the corner and the others gaped at what they saw. It was the statue of Persephone Weasley. Minh went over to it and looked at the inscriptions, translating the elven one for Eustace. Both had tears trailing down their cheeks. Neither of them had gotten over the death of their friend, and neither had Harry, who pulled them into a hug.

“ I made it myself, and I will make one for every friend who I lose, so I never forget them. I am working on some more, and they will eventually be moved to one of the floors in the east tower of Corvus Corax. I would like to ask you, Eustace, if

I can make one each of your parents. Although I didn't know them well, it would make me feel better.”

“ Of course, Harry. As long as I can see them when they're finished. And I would like to add the inscription.”

“ Of course. Now, it's time to go to and get something to eat. We didn't get anything at the feast, and I'm hungry. I'll reset the wards on the way out.”

Moving over to the wall, Harry placed his hand on it and spoke to the castle in Anglo-Saxon. He then asked each of the students in turn to place their hands next to his so he could set the wards to recognise them. Once this was done, he taught them the phrase to open the door, before leading them to the kitchens.

A couple of days later was the time for the Potters' funeral. Dumbledore had done all of the arranging, with Eustace giving his opinion here and there on what his parents would have liked. It was being held in a small village in Wales called Godric's Hollow, where the family had owned a little cottage. The property had been Charles' home as a child, but it had been left for many years, and was in need of renovation. That had been why they had been living in London. As soon as Harry had heard where the funeral was to be held, be had become nervous. He had lived in Godric's Hollow when his parents had been killed, probably in the very house the Potters owned. His suspicions had been confirmed when Eustace had vowed to do the place up, to live in with his family when he was older.

As the funeral was on a Saturday, near the end of January, all six of the students affected were allowed to go. Much to Harry's disgust, they were taking a portkey with Professor Dumbledore to the venue. Harry's fear of portkeys was abating, as he didn't have panic attacks anymore when he used them, but he still avoided them when possible. Once they got there, they moved into the large pavilion set up on the grounds of the house. The service was to be held outside, before the coffins were carried to the local wizarding cemetery. Once the group was seated in the front row, the service started, as they had been the last to arrive. It was very similar to Percy's funeral. All of the students had silent tears running down their cheeks as they sang a wizarding funeral song, before heading to the graveyard.

As the bodies were lowered into the ground, Harry started to sing the same elven funerary song he had sung for Percy. Minh joined in as soon as she heard him, and the mourners watched in curiosity. They were different from the people who had been at the last funeral, so they had never heard it before. On the last chorus, Eustace, Hermione, Ron and Ginny joined in. They had been taught it the night before, as Eustace had thought it would be appropriate. As the last note faded out, Eustace stepped forward and threw a handful of earth on each casket, whispering a last message to his parents.

“ Mum, Dad, I love you and I always will. I have a big brother and a good friend now. I won't be alone.”

The first of February saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny sitting in the headmaster's office. He had summoned them earlier that day to go for a meeting that evening after dinner. They had a vague idea what it was about, but weren't a hundred percent sure. Dumbledore could be rather odd at times, and they had learned over the years to expect the unexpected. When the headmaster came in a few minutes later, he sat behind his desk and got straight down to business, not even asking them if they wanted any Lemon Drops.

“ Thank you all for coming. I would like to start our lessons right away, if that is agreeable, as Grindelwald is gaining power quickly and I need to be able to help in the fight as much as I can. The aurors want me to stay out of it, but I know the Dark Lord is a danger to the school and its students. I can't let anything happen to Hogwarts. Wandless magic will give me a good advantage over the enemy.”

“ Professor, if you don't mind me asking, what is the situation with the resistance at the moment? I mean, who is opposing Grindelwald's rule?” Harry asked him, a thoughtful look on his face.

“ The only defence against him we have are the aurors. The Ministry is running the whole war, but they aren't getting very far. Aurors are used to dealing with small troubles and minor Dark uprisings. They're not suited to fighting a war. There are a lot of people who want to fight, but can't for some reason. For instance, I know several respectable wizards who are cursed with lycanthropy or vampirism. As the Ministry classes them as Dark Creatures, they're not allowed to join the aurors. It's a shame, really.”

“ I see. Thank you, headmaster. I was just wondering.”

“ That's fine, Harry. Now, shall we start today? I propose we meet at seven every Saturday and Sunday evening. On Saturdays you can teach me wandless magic, and on Sundays I will teach you apparition. Does that sound fair?”

The four quickly agreed, knowing the sooner they got started, the better it would be for everyone. Harry, though, wasn't quite with the conversation. He had been thinking about what Dumbledore had said about disunited opposition who couldn't really do any damage. It had gotten him thinking about what he could do to solve the problem. He was shaken, literally, from his thoughts by Ginny, who was poking him in the shoulder to get his attention. When he focussed on the other occupants of the room, he saw them all looking at him expectantly. Blushing, he stuttered an apology.

“ Sorry, I was just thinking about something. What were you saying?”

“ We were just saying to the headmaster that you could take us to a room that we could use for practicing,” Hermione told him.

Harry immediately understood what she was getting at. Standing, he went over to the wall of the headmaster's office and spoke the password, his hand placed on the cool stone. The headmaster seemed a little surprised when a door appeared.

“ Well, well, and I thought I knew most of Hogwarts' secrets…”

“ It comes from spending time with the founders. They did, after all, design it. One day we were all allowed to look at the plans, so we know more or less where everything is,” Ron explained, “ This room was given to Harry on his last birthday from Godric Gryffindor. It's for our own use, and you can only get in by stating your name and the name of the room. The wall and its wards check your magical signature through your hand, so only certain people can get in.”

“ Ingenious! I should have thought of something like that.”

“ Sir, I've changed the wards,” Harry added, “ You can get in now whenever you please.”

“ I think we should go in there. The wards mean that no magic done in there can damage the rest of the school. It's where we learned our wandless magic, so we know it's safe,” Ginny told the headmaster.

The group moved over to the door and went into the room. As they moved onto the central mats, he noticed Persephone's statue in the corner.

“ I like the statue. Did one of you make it?”

“ It's very thoughtful, Harry.”

Once they were all positioned in a circle on the mat, the four teenagers started the lesson the same way they had started their own. Ginny conjured up a feather and placed it before Dumbledore. He was then instructed on how to levitate it. The four friends had managed to pick up wandless magic fairly easily, as they had learned it when they were young. The headmaster, however, was over ninety years old, and was finding it a little more difficult. Ginny surmised that he had spent so many decades using only his wand; he was finding the concept of not needing it hard to grasp. He couldn't get the hang of simply willing something to happen through a hand gesture and silent incantation. It took him nearly an hour to manage the levitating charm on a feather. As he watched, Harry couldn't help but thinking that this could take a long time.

Their apparition lesson on Sunday went splendidly. The group had gone down to Hogsmeade to practice, as they had needed to get past the anti-apparition wards. At first they had started slow, jumping only short distances. But as they became more confident, they had tried different places. They had all managed to pick up the skill fairly easily, and were eagerly anticipating the following weeks when they would be learning how to make portkeys. Dumbledore had been practicing his wandless magic during the day as well, and proudly showed them how well he could manoeuvre a quill in the air. As it grew late, the group prepared to head back to Hogwarts, but just before they left Harry made a quick trip to Domus Corvus Corax, so that he could reset the wards in the portkey room to allow only him, his friends, and Dumbledore to enter.

The following day, Harry asked Eustace and Minh to go with him when he went for quidditch practise. They couldn't understand why, but trusted their friend and went anyway. Both sat in the stands and watched the team practicing, although the other Hufflepuffs hadn't been happy about a Gryffindor being there. They thought he was a spy, until Harry told them he had asked him to come.

An hour later, after the team had finished and most were heading back to the castle, Harry went up into the stands to collect his friends. Minh was a little curious as to why they had been brought out there.

“ What's up, Harry? What is the point in this little trip?”

“ Trust me, I brought you out here for a reason. There's someone I would like you to meet.”

Heading down the stands, Harry looked back to make sure they were following. When they were on the pitch, he went over to the stone he had uncovered in the ground, waving his hand over it and muttering to himself. He was rather pleased with himself when the two younger students let out light screams as a ghost appeared out of the ground.

“ Hello, Harry. Who do we have here?” the ghost asked in Anglo-Saxon.

“ These are my friends, Minh and Eustace. Eustace is a Potter, the most recent of our descendants. Over the holidays his parents got killed, and I ended up telling him I was a time traveller. I haven't told him about his heritage, but I have told him I had a child with the woman I loved. Thought I'd better tell you before you talk to him,” Harry replied in the same language.

“ I see…My English isn't that good, but I will try and speak with him. Who is the girl?”

“ Her name is Minh-Minh-Lama, Gaerwyn's daughter and Lolide's niece.”

“ I will speak with them both, then.”

Harry turned to the confused eleven year olds and made the introductions.

“ Minh, Eustace, I would like you to meet Gallatea Ravenclaw.”

“ She's the one in the painting,” Eustace stated.

“ You went to your house, I see. That was painted when Glen was two. Mother kept it in storage for when your house was complete.”

“ Yes, `Tea, we went to the house over Christmas. I'll tell you all about it another time.”

“ Harry,” the young boy asked, “ Are you telling us that this is your girlfriend? The one you had the baby with?”

“ Yes, it is. When she died she bound her soul to that stone, so she would one day see me again. I'm trying to find a way to free her. It gets a bit lonely spending eternity on the quidditch pitch.”

“ That is true. I was locked in the stone until Harry released me. Now I have more freedom than before, but still I cannot leave the pitch.”

“ Can we help with the research?”

Harry and Gallatea looked at the eager young students. Harry had promised `Tea he would try and free her when he got back off the holidays, and now was a good time to start. Sighing, he thought of all the books they would have to go through, and decided that the more people helping, the better.

“ Fine. We have the rest of the evening free. How about we gather the others and start right away?”

Three weeks later found a group of seven; the four time travellers, the two first years, and Peeves, gathered in the hidden room reading through book after book on spirits. Eustace and Peeves had been working their way through the books in the library; Ron, Hermione and Ginny were reading the ancient ones from Harry's room; and the Boy-Who-Lived and Minh were ploughing through elven texts. They had been spending all of their free time there, researching ghosts, spirits and binding spells. So far they had found very little. Ginny had discovered an old text that described the spell `Tea had used, and it said you needed a certain ritual to sever the link, but the page with the ritual itself was missing. They saw this as progress, though, as at least now they knew what they were looking for. They just needed a copy of the ritual itself.

It was late on Monday evening when Ron let out a loud yelp of surprise, followed by raucous cheering. The others looked at him in hope as he said what they had wanted to hear.

“ I've found it.”