A door slowly creaks open.

Two pale hands emerge to set down a very, very tardy update.

They swiftly withdraw, and the door closes once more.

Chapter 7

"You-Know-Who is in the castle?!" Ron's startled yelp had Harry and Neville hurrying to hush him, glancing over their shoulders to make certain no one heard. Thankfully, the hallway where they'd pulled their friend aside to explain the situation remained deserted.

"That's what we heard Professor Snape say," the latter whispered. "It's why they put that Cerberus on the third floor, and a whole bunch of other traps behind it."

"But they don't know where he's hiding, so it's a waiting game," Harry added.

"Which is why we want to go a step further, to try and find out where he is-"

"-but for that we need the Marauder's Map, and I'm pretty sure your brothers have it."

Ron snorted, his fear slowly draining away. "Good luck getting it, then, because the twins hate giving up any of their things."

"That's why we need your help." Harry ignored the redhead's groan. "We need you to distract them long enough for us to search through the third year boy's dormitory to find it."

"You're both barmy. They'll know what I'm up to, they always know."

"Sounds like you could use some outside assistance, then." The three boys froze, and slowly turned to see Hermione Granger standing just a few feet away from them, hands on her hips and a challenging look on her face.

"...How long have you been listening to us?"

"Long enough. How did you spy on Professor Snape?"

Harry and Neville exchanged a wary look. "We stayed outside the infirmary last night while he was talking to my mum. The Headmaster saw us when he left, but didn't say a word, just left the doors open a crack."

The girl let loose a sharp hmph, before stepping closer, able to lower her voice and still be heard though not quite part of their huddle. "Look, I'm not one much for breaking rules, but from what I heard last night, the Headmaster has clearly overstepped his bounds and failed in his duty to keep the students safe."

"From what you heard?" Harry asked warily.

"I didn't drink all of Madam Pomfrey's potion, so I woke up during your mother's ranting, and pretended to still be asleep." Hermione's fierce expression was briefly twisted by a grimace. "She's very loud. Anyway, a lot of what she and Professor Snape said afterward was, fuzzy, and I dozed off again when they changed topics to the Potions textbook, but I can recall enough - there's a wraith that needs to be caught, before it finds a way past the defenses on the third floor."

Sharing another brief look with Neville, Harry faced the girl straight on. "And you want to help us, why?"

Again, her face briefly fell, but then Hermione grit her teeth and stood higher. "You saved my life by ignoring rules. It seems the least I can do to help save yours by doing the same."

Harry glanced at Neville. Neville shrugged back. Ron's gaze darted between the both of them, eyes wide. Finally, the first boy looked back to Hermione... and held out a hand. "It would probably be shorter to just say, because we're friends."

With that, she beamed, grasping his hand in her own for a brief shake. "Friends, then."

-CE-

The rest of the fall and first month of winter passed quietly, both at Hogwarts and the Potter Home. Lily continued her days of running the house, tending her garden and little bit of woodland, crafting new spells and practicing old, and of course engaging in near-constant correspondence with friends and especially her son.

When not writing his own replies and reports, Harry threw himself into schoolwork, keeping his scores high and his nose clean, ignoring taunts from the likes of Draco Malfoy while also defending other, weaker targets from the same. Neville was his constant companion, as always, while Ron Weasley started to grow comfortable enough around the pair he didn't constantly feel like an extra, unnecessary limb. Hermione, too, became close enough to the trio she counted all three boys as her friends. They shared benches at meals and in class, did their homework together, and in the quiet evenings when no one else paid them the slightest attention, researched ways to trap, contain, and destroy a wraith. The third floor corridor they didn't concern themselves with overly much, though Ron was able to gain his older brothers as allies, and Fred and George Weasley filled the hall before the Door of the Cerberus will all manner of boobytraps and unpleasant pranks. These were also tied to the communication mirrors Neville and Harry constantly carried, so that they could be alerted if the traps were sprung.

In the meantime, they also had winter plans to hash out.

"We'll like as not still be grounded, so you two will just have to come visit us both," Harry declared one afternoon. "But I'll work on getting Mum to cave before Boxing Day, so we can all spend it together."

Just before winter break began, however, there was one bit of personal excitement. In the last Quidditch match of the term, the Gryffindor Seeker, a small fourth year girl with only the barest of talent at the game, had been knocked from her broom. The subsequent fall resulted in two overnight stays in the infirmary, followed by her quitting the team due to "mental strain and an ill fit." Since then, Professor McGonagall had been questing for a new Seeker, as the entire castle knew.

Unable to find one in the upper years, she approached Harry.

The day before students were to depart the castle, he flew over the Pitch with Oliver Wood, who landed an hour later and flat out begged Professor McGonagall to lift the rule against first year Quidditch players. She could only promise to take up the matter with the lad's mother.

Following through on that, it was the Professor who saw off her students from the Hogsmeade train station... and Auntie Minnie who met them outside King's Crossing several hours later, as the sun was nearing wintertime sunset. She went home with Harry and Lily Potter, allowing them time to reconnect while she helped prepare dinner, then took up the matter of Quidditch over dessert.

Lily stared at her from across the table, eyebrows raised and lips upturned at the corners. "You," she pronounced, "Are a sneaky old cat."

"The very sneakiest," Minerva replied, her voice and face completely deadpan. Harry was forced to muffle his giggles.

The elder Potter didn't give her old mentor an answer that night, nor through the rest of the winter holidays. She thought about it, as Harry practiced on his personal broomstick, catching toy snitches when alone and Chasing a quaffle when joined by the Longbottoms, the Weasleys, Hermione, and his favorite uncles, Padfoot and Moony.

Minerva visited twice more, for the Potters' Boxing Day feast, and for a quiet cup of tea towards the end of the break, when Harry was off with his friends at the Longbottom estate.

"Tell me more about the traps Albus has set up," Lily insisted. And Minerva did, less because of a desire to win the younger woman's goodwill, and more because it was a serious matter, one that could quite easily concern her son.

In the end, Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts energized by his visit home, eager to resume studies both regular and secret, and ecstatic to have a Quidditch permission slip in one hand, a brand new Nimbus 2000 in the other.

-CE-

"The first spring Quidditch match, perhaps?"

"Yes... Yes, that will do. No doubt someone will catch the boy before he falls too far, but I would wipe the confidence from his steps. Soon enough, we will arrange a proper death for the brat."

"Of course, my lord. Once your body is restored, I'll bring him to you myself."

"Excellent."