A/N: A reader sent me a PM today asking if I was going to do any more work on Myth of the Hourglass. The answer is no. I intend to do no further work on the story. BUT . . . .

It so happens that at the time I stopped writing and posting chapters, I had a goodly number of chapters stacked up and ready to go. I just never posted them. They're quite hefty- 54,835 words. As I've upgraded computers, they've found themselves moved to each of my new computers.

Over the years, on numerous occasions, I have dusted off Myth and read through both what I posted and what I did not post. I suppose I may as well share them now.

I'm sorry that I have no intention to finish the story. But, I do feel like what I did write is worth reading, at least up to when Harry is reunited with his friends. All the rest would have been the usual story of killing Voldemort. I'm a little hazy on some of the finer details, but while in the past, Harry learned a lot about the Dark Arts and stored that knowledge in the Sorting Hat. I think he would have recognized the symptoms of Horcruxes.

As for Harry's magical hourglass, the myth surrounding it was simply that-a myth. But, the seed of a myth is some true fact or another. The real story that would have unfolded is that, while in the past, Harry used the hourglass as a tool to help him time his most powerful and complicated spells. While in the past, Harry's studies of time travel and reality enabled him to learn how to cast a spell and send it a few minutes into the past. Harry would use the hourglass to measure and mark when and where to send the spell. Harry's opponents were destroyed in spectacular fashion within seconds of him brandishing the hourglass. But, nobody, not even Harry, could see or remember Harry casting the real spell that traveled through time and destroyed his enemies. So, it was assumed that the hourglass itself was the weapon of doom. If I recall correctly, the hourglass does not survive even to the end of what I have written. But, and I can't remember whether it happens somewhere in the chapters below or would have happened later, Ginny was going to gift Harry with a spectacular watch that he would have used in his final duel with Voldemort.

Chapter Eight: Rescue

When Ron and Hermione had returned to where they had left Ginny, they had found her missing. It was only about half an hour later that they realized that she had been kidnapped by the Death Eaters. They were duly horrified and didn't waste any time informing Professor Dumbledore of the situation.

The Order was quickly convened and Dumbledore informed them of the kidnapping. They all agreed that it fell to Snape to either make a rescue attempt or to make arrangements for the possibility of a rescue. Snape was hesitant, but Professor Dumbledore took him aside and explained the importance of rescuing Ginny.

Professor Dumbledore did not doubt Ginny's good intentions and bravery, but he knew what she was up against. In order to rescue her and prevent her from letting Voldemort learn about Lord Darkbane, Dumbledore was willing to take great risks. Thus, Snape became the first other than the teens and Dumbledore to know of Lord Darkbane's identity.

Snape was very pessimistic about the chances for success. He told Dumbledore that Ginny was likely being held at Malfoy Manor. At this juncture, Dumbledore opted to introduce Snape to Dobby the house elf. It took little urging to convince Dobby of the importance of the rescue.

This was how Snape found himself in Malfoy Manor with the object to rescue Ginny Weasley. Upon his arrival, he discovered that Voldemort was not there. This was an immense relief to him. The Dark Lord might see through the deception he was hoping to pull off.

Conversation with some of the Death Eaters revealed not only Ginny's location, but the fact that she had not yet revealed a shred of information about Lord Darkbane. This forced Snape into carrying out the plan. He would have scrapped it if he had found that she had already broken.

He carefully maneuvered through the manor so as to avoid his fellow Death Eaters being aware that he was ever anywhere near where Ginny had been held prisoner. He was soon in the lower levels near where he supposed she was being held. Finding the exact room was not difficult. Apparently, Bellatrix was still in the process of torturing the child as he could hear whimpering and the occasional scream.

The screams grated on his ears. Scowling, he cast a disillusionment spell on himself and then activated a charmed coin in his pocket. This passed a signal on to Dobby who was positioned on the manor's grounds.

It was only a second before several loud but short explosions sounded outside. The wards that the Dark lord had set were promptly activated and sounded the alarm to the Death Eaters in the castle. As he had hoped, Bellatrix did not waste a moment and left the room to investigate.

Snape quickly entered the room and found Ginny Weasley lying on the floor. She was breathing heavily and shaking. Her eyes were unfocussed and uncomprehending. He used the coin to signal again and Dobby appeared. "Get her out of here," he commanded the elf.

Dobby touched Ginny and then disappeared with a bang. Snape then drew his wand and Disapparated out of the manor to a distance location and then back to the same place he had originally Apparated into the manor at. He then joined the other Death Eaters outside who were looking into the disturbance.

It did not take the Death Eaters long to determine that there was nothing outside. Almost immediately after that, Ginny's rescue was discovered. Bellatrix was utterly furious with the other Death Eaters and fearful of the Dark lord's retribution. Snape privately hoped that Bellatrix enjoyed that. He was able to quietly excuse himself and Disapparated to where Dobby had taken Ginny.

The girl appeared to be marginally better, but was still shaking uncontrollably. Her eyes had focused, but not on anything particular. "Has she said anything?" he asked Dobby.

Dobby shook his head fearfully. Snape scared the poor house-elf.

Snape looked at Ginny. She was a pitiful sight and clearly needed a hospital visit. Certain precautions would have to be taken first though. "Weasley, can you hear me? Weasley!"

Ginny's eyes turned to Snape, acknowledging him but she didn't say anything.

"Your injuries are too serious for the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. I'm going to send you to St. Mungo's. Whatever you do, don't tell them who injured you or where it happened. Most importantly, don't tell them that I rescued you. Do you think you can handle that?

"Yes," Ginny said weakly. "Thank you for saving me, Professor."

Snape felt terribly awkward now and didn't know how to respond. Guiltily he remembered that his motivations in saving her were strictly pragmatic. He had not cared whether she died or lived. He felt like he had to respond, but wasn't sure what to say. Finally he settled on a grudging compliment. "You did well, Weasley. "

This praise from Snape obviously confused Ginny. Seeing that she was beginning to lose her cognizance of the situation, Snape grabbed a knut from one of his pockets and turned it into a Portkey with a tap of his wand. "Your family will visit you soon."

Ginny felt him put the knut in her hand and after a painful jerk, she found herself on the floor in the lobby of St. Mungo's. In a detached sort of way, Ginny observed that the lobby was crowded with wizards and witches in need of medical attention. Fortunately, she was spotted by a nurse and it was only a few moments before she was being carefully put onto a magical stretcher and taken to one of the wards.

After they got her to drink a few potions, the mediwitches and mediwizards kept asking her about what had happened and a multitude of other questions. She remembered that there were things she wasn't supposed to let them know, and rather than risk accidentally revealing those, she opted to remain silent.

Eventually, they decided that she was simply incapable of responding to their questions and left her alone. This allowed her the ability to think while they did spell work on the injuries that Bellatrix had inflicted. As they obviously didn't want to leave serious scars, their work was delicate. The sensations were very relaxing, especially with Ginny under the influence of multiple potions.

While they worked, Ginny remembered Snape's compliment. Had he really meant it? Snape didn't give out compliments for the sake of it. That probably signified that he really meant what he had said. Ginny vaguely realized that both she and Snape were members of the Order and working together to bring Voldemort down.

Voldemort is the enemy, Ginny realized. We can all work together to bring Voldemort down. We need to put our differences aside so that we can fight him.

Further speculation on Ginny's part was cut off when the mediwitch in charge of setting bones arrived. Though Ginny was under the influence of multiple pain killers, the sensation of setting the bone in place was enough to cause her to black out.

It was painful for her to wake up much later. Though she wasn't suffering from the pain of injuries that were now healed, the disorientation, light, and small noises around her made her brain hurt in a way. The loud exclamations from familiar voices announcing that she was awake didn't help either.

Eventually, she was able to sort everything out. Her mother's voice was the easiest one to distinguish. "Ginny," she kept saying over and over.

"I'm all right, Mum," Ginny declared, feeling terribly awkward. She took a moment to check that she was actually all right. She couldn't see everything as she was covered up by hospital blankets, but she felt all right and her arm wasn't broken anymore. She looked around and spotted most of her family there. Hermione was standing with Ron behind everyone. They looked awfully shamefaced. Percy was missing. As he didn't speak to any of them, he probably hadn't heard about her being captured and hospitalized.

"When Professor Dumbledore told us that you were gone, we were so worried," Mrs. Weasley told Ginny, almost on the verge of tears.

Ginny wondered if Harry felt this awkward every time he ended up in the Hospital Wing. He didn't have to worry about his mother coming and crying about it though. Mrs. Weasley was getting dangerously close to that. "I swear, Mum. There's nothing to worry about," Ginny said, anxious to reassure Mrs. Weasley.

No one really knew what to say, so there was a little bit of silence. Finally, Charlie spoke up. "I don't understand why they kidnapped you. Professor Dumbledore has been acting like the entire point of the attack on Diagon Alley was to kidnap you."

This was uncomfortable territory for Ginny, but she managed to give a satisfying answer. "Voldemort wanted to know what we knew about Lord Darkbane."

"They were questioning you?" Bill asked sharply. He was the brother who was the most defensive of Ginny. He was also clever enough to realize that things must have been bad for Ginny if the Death Eaters had captured her in order to get information.

Ginny cringed inwardly. She really didn't want to talk about what Voldemort and Bellatrix had done to her. It was private and she didn't want to have everyone knowing about it and pitying her. She didn't even want to really think about it that much. At least, not alone, but not with anyone there either. "I don't want to talk about it," she said in a too loud voice.

This statement caused another extremely awkward silence while all her family members looked at each other and her. Finally, Ron spoke up. "Look Ginny, I'm sorry about leaving you. I was an idiot. I don't know how I can apologize enough."

"It's my fault too," Hermione declared in a subdued voice.

Ginny could see from the various reactions of other family members that this was a volatile subject. Her father was carefully looking away from both her and Ron and Hermione. Mrs. Weasley's lips tightened. Her other brothers weren't bashful about staring at Ron. As Ginny was not in any actual pain at the moment, it was easy for her to reassure everyone. "It's fine, don't worry about it," she said, doing her best to make it sound genuine.

Ron and Hermione seemed somewhat relieved. The other family members seem to still be unhappy with them. Ironically, it was harder for them to forgive the neglect that Ron and Hermione had shown to Ginny during the Death Eater raid.

"Professor Dumbledore has had you excused from classes for the rest of the term," Mrs. Weasley informed Ginny. "There were only a few days left anyhow. As soon as you're clear to leave the hospital, you'll be coming home."

"That's good to hear," Ginny replied.

Mrs. Weasley seemed to be satisfied that Ginny was okay at this point. "We'd better let you rest," she said.

"That would be great," Ginny agreed. She didn't really feel like resting, but having everyone staring at her was terribly uncomfortable. It would be best if they just left her to her own devices.

Everyone filed out of the room, bidding her farewell. As soon as they were gone, an older mediwitch came in with some potions and a bedpan. Ginny accepted the potions but spurned the bedpan. As soon as the mediwitch was gone, she threw back the blankets and weakly made her way to the bathroom where she relieved herself and took the opportunity to check for scars. She was sure there must be many, but was pleasantly surprised when she discovered that all her scars were only visible if you knew what you were looking for.

Ginny's stay at the magical hospital did not last for much longer, though was longer than she felt was strictly necessary. Her mother seemed to feel that it should have lasted longer. Ginny took advantage of this and let on that she needed a lot of rest. In reality, she just wanted to be alone in her room where she could hide from the tense atmosphere that prevailed at the Burrow during the Christmas holiday.

Christmas day soon arrived and lightened everyone up. The exchanging of gifts, the snow, and the general holiday cheer served to help everyone forget past grievances and disappointments. Ginny did her utmost best to make sure everyone saw her being happy.

Mrs. Weasley soon began working on the Christmas dinner and began to assign everyone to various tasks. Ginny narrowly missed one of these assignments by gathering up her gifts and taking them upstairs to her room. It was there that she was able to pause and think about the holiday.

She soon found herself watching the snow fall outside. Harry soon came to mind. He usually was with the Weasley family for Christmas. He would have been with them had he not been sent in the past. Ginny idly wondered where he was at this moment. Was he enjoying Christmas? She then wondered what over a hundred Christmas days must have been like for him. Did he miss being with the Weasleys?

"Merry Christmas, Harry," Ginny said aloud, feeling silly for speaking when no one was there to hear, not even Harry. "Wherever you are."

Christmas soon passed. Before the New Year came, Professor Dumbledore called another Order meeting. They chose to hold it in the kitchen of the Burrow. By this time, everyone in the Order knew by word of mouth that Ginny had been captured and questioned, but had not revealed anything to the Death Eaters. Ginny could tell that not a single person there questioned her right to sit as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Even Snape gave Ginny a grudging nod as if they were acquaintances of some sort.

Ron and Hermione didn't appear to feel as confident, though Ginny didn't notice anyone displaying negative feelings toward them. They displayed their lack of confidence by acting overly casual, as if attending Order meetings was something they did commonly. They also avoided speaking to Ginny, largely because they were still embarrassed.

Eventually Dumbledore called everyone's attention toward him. "I realize that this is the holidays and that you have places you would rather be, so I shall make this as brief as possible. You will note that in recent weeks I have privately assigned many of you to focus your efforts on finding information about Lord Darkbane instead of searching history for any sign of Harry Potter. This is because we have discovered some crucial information about him."

Dumbledore paused, half expecting to be questioned on this, but no one seemed to be in the mood to prevent him from proceeding with needless questions. Therefore, he continued speaking. "Miss Weasley was fully aware of this information at the time of her capture. Had she revealed it to Voldemort, we would have lost an important advantage. In light of Miss Weasley's bravery, I shall give her the honor of sharing this information, though credit goes to all three of our youngest members for discovering it."

Ginny had not expected this honor from Professor Dumbledore and was consequently blushing when she stood up and everyone's attention was on her. Her parents and brothers were especially surprised. She cleared her throat though it did not need it. "Originally, we were researching Lord Darkbane because we came across information indicating that he was skilled in the art of time travel. We hoped that by researching Lord Darkbane we might find out whether he and Harry every crossed paths"

"You found Potter?" an elderly but excited witch asked.

"Well, sort of," Ginny admitted. As soon as they heard this there was a great deal of excited muttering. Ron and Hermione had forgotten their embarrassment and were leaning forward in their chairs excited to be part of the discovery of this information. "Finding information on Lord Darkbane is rather difficult as you that have been doing research have probably discovered by now."

There were many nods of agreement and Ginny kept talking. "We found a Pensieve memory of Lord Darkbane having an argument with the Minister of Magic. From that memory we have learned that Lord Darkbane and Harry Potter are one and the same."

This caused a lot of shock and excitement for everyone present. Ginny looked around and saw her mother sporting a mouth hanging open from shock; others had gotten over their shock and were already talking with each other and yelling questions. Ginny guiltily avoided looking in Tonk's direction. The only person who wasn't surprised was Snape. Ginny at that point realized that Snape must have already known when he rescued her. Suddenly, she realized why Snape had taken to vaguely respecting her.

Dumbledore stood and began to try to control the confusion. Ginny took the opportunity to sit down. "We'll accept questions one at a time," Dumbledore said loudly, effectively silencing everyone.

"Are you completely sure that it was Potter?" asked Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Ron was first to answer the question. "All three of us saw Harry. It was definitely him. There is no question. Furthermore, it was clear to us that the other people we saw in the memory knew him as 'Lord Darkbane.'"

Ron and Hermione seemed prepared to share more information, but Dumbledore prevented that by speaking himself. Ginny realized that Dumbledore probably didn't want the entire Order to know every detail. Briefly, Dumbledore outlined some of what they knew about Harry's tenure as the first Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"What we need you to find out is what happened at the end of Harry's tenure as Headmaster," Dumbledore explained. "The information is unclear, but obviously crucial. If we want to know where Harry is in relation to us, we need to find out what happened when he stopped being Headmaster of Hogwarts."

The Order members were nodding in agreement. Mad-Eye Moody spoke up. "What do you already know about the end of his tenure?"

Dumbledore frowned. "I'm afraid that's the bad news. Our only source, which we aren't entirely sure is accurate, implied that Lord Darkbane committed suicide."

This caused about as much reaction as Ginny's announcement of Lord Darkbane's identity. It was then that she remembered what she had learned from Voldemort and neglected to pass on owing to her desire to suppress the memory. She timidly raised her hand in an attempt to get everyone's attention.

Professor Dumbledore used this as a way to get everyone to settle down and focus on the meeting. "Yes, Miss Weasley?"

"Lord Voldemort has a little bit more information than we do," she announced. Everyone was now staring at her intently, including Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore. "He thought that we had more information than him, so he accidentally revealed some of his information. According to Lord Voldemort, Lord Darkbane staged his suicide."

This caused more excitement, especially among those who had been aware of the suicide possibility for longer. Ginny could see triumph in Professor Dumbledore's eyes and excitement in Ron and Hermione's. She just hoped that they wouldn't be angry with her for not telling them sooner.

Professor Dumbledore began issuing specific instructions to each Order member. Each assignment was very detailed and together, they represented a thorough search for Lord Darkbane. Among these assignments, Dumbledore informed the Order that he and the three teens would be speaking to all the portraits and paintings in the school to see if they might find clues.

The meeting was soon over and everyone did not waste any time departing, though the occasional Order member did stop to congratulate Ginny and offer sympathy for what she must have gone through. Even Ron and Hermione got compliments for discovering Harry's ultimate fate.

Ginny returned to her bedroom under the pretense that she needed to rest. In reality, she wanted to get a head start on her school work for the upcoming term. Not only did she intend to have as much time as possible to contribute to the search for Harry, she intended to be ready the next time she faced Death Eaters.

She opened her Defense text and placed it on her desk, but before sitting down she went to the window to look at the cold outdoors. "We're going to find you, Harry," she announced.

At the end of his fourth year at Hogwarts, Harry had decided that he detested the Triwizard Tournament completely. He had been glad that the five year gap between each one precluded the possibility of him being at Hogwarts when it happened again. Apparently he had been wrong. Professor Greengrass had managed to not only create the horrid thing, but had possessed the nerve to volunteer Hogwarts as its first location.

Privately, Harry had been hoping that it would be held at Beauxbatons or Durmstrang so he could send Greengrass with the Hogwarts delegation and get him out of his hair for a year. The ambitious toad had been getting on Harry's nerves lately. Over the space of the last few years, Greengrass had convinced himself that Lord Darkbane was practically in his death bed already. This lead him to start taking upon himself duties that normally belonged to Harry- like agreeing on behalf of Hogwarts to participate in a ridiculous multi-school magic tournament.

Harry scowled as he sat in his high-backed black chair at the teacher's table in the Great Hall even though there was no one to see his scowl. They were all outside waiting for the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to arrive. They were late and it contributed to Harry's bad mood.

His mind returned to the issue of Greengrass taking upon himself the Headmaster duties. He supposed that it was partially his fault. His obsession with time travel and the nature of reality had consumed a lot of his time. He rarely left his office and few had the permission, let alone the nerve, to go to his office. When there were problems, students and teachers went to Greengrass' office, the same one that Godric had occupied.

Harry sat in his chair and stewed over the situation until students started entering the Great Hall. When they saw that the normally empty black chair at the front was occupied, they froze and stared at Harry with widened eyes and then walked slowly toward their tables without taking their eyes off of Harry.

Yes, Harry thought sarcastically while trying not to glare directly at any of the students, the horrid hermit named Lord Darkbane has descended from his office to come and eat you for dinner. What has Greengrass been telling them about me?

Professor Greengrass himself soon arrived in the Great Hall and was also surprised to see Harry present. This seemed to unnerve him a little bit. He got over his surprise quickly and joined Harry at the table. "The delegations have arrived," he informed Harry.

"Good," Harry said. "The house-elves are getting sick of keeping the food warm."

"Right," Greengrass said slowly, not entirely sure how it was possible for Harry to know what the house elves were up to. He eyed the three rings on Lord Darkbane's fingers. The older professors who had taught when he first came to the school called them the Founder rings. Was it possible they actually had power over Hogwarts? When he became Headmaster, would they be his?

"Just what do you intend to do for the three tasks?" Harry asked quietly, but firmly.

Greengrass hesitated. "They're supposed to be secret."

Harry looked at Greengrass. "They're not secrets to the Heads of each school."

Though not pleased, Greengrass briefly detailed each task to Harry.

"Those are too dangerous," Harry said unhappily. "We can't have students getting seriously injured or dying."

"It's too late to change them," Greengrass said in a voice that he hoped sounded dismissive. "I have every confidence in our students. There won't be any problems."

"I don't care," Harry responded. "I will arrange for each task to take place in a suspended reality. Everything will seem completely real to each contestant, but if there is a death, it won't be real."

Professor Greengrass was furious. "That could ruin the entire tournament! If anyone finds out that the consequences aren't real, then the competition would hardly be taken seriously."

"Then you'd better hope that no one dies or gets seriously injured," Harry retorted.

It was at that moment that Professor Greengrass decided that he despised Lord Darkbane. He could hardly wait for Lord Darkbane's death. Once that happened, the old fool would no longer stand in his way.

The Christmas holiday ended and it was soon time for the students to return to Hogwarts. Ginny was glad when Neville and Luna opted to join Ron, Hermione, and herself in their train compartment. They briefly sympathized with Ginny's misfortunes before moving onto other topics that Ginny could only half pay attention to while she studied her Defense text.

She had committed to herself to study intensely for all of her classes, and she did, but she found herself working on Defense more than any other subject. Unknown to her parents and friends, she had also been practicing the spells in secret. Avoiding the Ministry's detection was easy as she lived in a magical household in which no Muggles were present.

They soon arrived at the train station in Hogsmeade where they transferred to the carriages that took them up to the school. As soon as Ginny's carriage arrived, she quickly entered the school and made her way to Professor Dumbledore's office.

She arrived and managed to guess the password by naming various types of candy available at Honeydukes. Though the moving staircase usually sufficed to get people up to the door leading to his office, Ginny walked up as it moved up and found herself at the door in half the time. Before she could knock, Dumbledore's voice invited her to enter.

She entered to find him standing in front of one of the bookshelves rather than behind his desk. "Miss Weasley," he said by way of greeting, "what may I do for you this evening?"

"I came to discuss the search effort for Harry," Ginny told him. "You said at the Order meeting that we would be talking to the portraits in the castle."

"You are of course correct," Professor Dumbledore said, putting down his book and sitting at the chair behind his desk. "I'm afraid that this task will be more difficult than it seems."

"How so?" Ginny inquired.

Professor Dumbledore pointed to Professor Blood's portrait. "That is the oldest portrait in this office and I've only seen it awake once, despite my repeated efforts to speak to him. We're going to be looking for portraits and paintings that are far older."

Ginny quickly comprehended the difficulties without Dumbledore explaining further. Her disappointment was written plainly on her face and she didn't have to say anything in order for Dumbledore to pick up on it.

"There's still hope," Dumbledore said. "Professor Blood did wake once and speak to us. I think that we should take small steps and content ourselves with identifying portraits that may be old enough to provide us any information."

"How do we get them to wake up and speak after that?" Ginny asked, feeling slightly pessimistic.

Professor Dumbledore shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. We might have to start consulting painters and antique dealers if we get desperate. I'll try to look into that. In the meanwhile, why don't you tell Ron and Hermione that you three need to start taking extended tours of the castle so that you may search for paintings of interest? The one's we want to talk to probably won't be in the main areas of the castle."

"Why wouldn't they be in the main areas of the castle?" Ginny asked.

"If the paintings got boring, they might have been moved elsewhere. The layout of the castle has also been changed. Parts of the castle that are now practically abandoned may have been high traffic areas hundreds of years ago," Dumbledore explained.

"I'll do that," Ginny said, trying not to sound as doubtful as she was. Consulting portraits sounded like a complete dead end to her. If she was in charge, she would devote all available energy into getting Professor Blood to speak again.

"Good," Dumbledore said happily. "Keep me informed of your progress.

Ginny excused herself and made her way to the Gryffindor common room where she discovered that most of the students had already gone to bed as they were tired from the holidays and weren't looking forward to classes beginning the next day. She followed suit.

Ginny was up bright and early the next morning and ready for classes. She made her way down the Great Hall slowly, sharing words with the portraits that she passed along the way. It didn't take her long to develop the ability to distinguish older portraits from newer. Unfortunately, she did find any portraits that were anywhere old enough to be of interest to her.

She greeted Ron and Hermione when they arrived for their breakfast and then moved onto business. "I spoke to Professor Dumbledore last night."

"You didn't tell us that you were going to see him," Ron said, frowning.

Ginny muttered something vague that they seemed to accept as an apology and then moved on, explaining everything that Professor Dumbledore had told her. They committed to help her on the search. Further discussion was cut off when it came time to go to classes.

The first weeks passed extremely slowly for Ginny and were frustrating. Ron and Hermione had been quick to volunteer to help out on the effort, but had only been willing to accept half the work because they wanted to do it together. Ginny was reasonably sure that a good amount of their search time was spent searching broom closets and it annoyed her to no end. To compound her frustrations, she had failed to find a single portrait older than five hundred years.

Professor Dumbledore also did not inform her of any news about finding a way to force Professor Blood to speak to them. Ginny soon determined that they were not doing the right things to search for Harry. She started investing some of her portrait searching time into thinking up other options that they might pursue.

She was sitting in History of Magic listening to Professor Binns drone on about goblin rebellions when it suddenly occurred to her that he might know of Lord Darkbane. He was a history professor after all. The lecture became even more boring as Ginny desperately waited for the end of class so that she could ask the ghostly professor what he knew.

Finally, class ended. Ginny quickly approached the ghost before he could leave the room through the chalkboard. "Professor, may I ask you a question?"

The ghost seemed surprised that a student was asking a question and nodded slowly.

Speaking with the ghost made Ginny feel strange, therefore she hurriedly asked her question to get it over with. "Have you heard of a man named Lord Darkbane?" Referring to Harry as a man also felt strange to Ginny.

The ghost answered, "Yes."

"What do you know about him?" Ginny asked, becoming very excited. Consulting Professor Binns should have been their first step. She didn't know why Professor Dumbledore had not considered it. Perhaps it was because the Headmaster didn't think Binns was much of a teacher either.

"From the perspective of wizards and witches with regard to the history of goblin rebellions, Lord Darkbane was one of the greatest villains in history," Professor Binns informed Ginny in a very serious voice.

Chapter Nine: Blood Speaks Again

Ginny was shocked, but that quickly turned into outrage. They were talking about Harry Potter. He was not a villain. "How is it that Lord Darkbane was a villain?" Ginny demanded, her voice betraying that she was on the verge of an angry outburst.

"I didn't say that Lord Darkbane was a villain, I said that wizards and witches who study goblin rebellions would view him as a villain," Binns said dryly. "From the point of view of the goblins, Lord Darkbane probably was one of the most heroic wizards to ever live. Your opinion depends largely on your perspective.

This was very confusing to Ginny, but she determined that her perspective was whatever made Harry a hero. She was confident that whatever Harry did, he had only done that which he thought was right. "What else can you tell me about Lord Darkbane?" she asked.

Professor Binns began droning on as he often did in class. "During Lord Darkbane's time, the Ministry was in the midst of multiple goblin rebellions. If they weren't in the middle of fighting one rebellion, they were trying to root out the conspiracy for another one."

This seemed to fit in with the memory that Ginny had seen of Harry and Minister Smythe, so she nodded to signify that she understood even though Professor Binns wasn't particularly paying attention to her.

"The Ministry was not nearly as strong then as it is now. Therefore, it was necessary for them to rely on the help of the more powerful wizards in Britain to help them suppress these goblin rebellions. This is where Lord Darkbane and the Ministry often clashed. Though he never came out and said it, it seems clear to historians that Lord Darkbane was a goblin sympathizer," Binns lectured.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Ginny said, trying to convince herself more than Professor Binns.

The boring lecture that Ginny had induced continued without interruption. "When the Ministry requested Lord Darkbane's aid to put down the Draknak Rebellion, he refused and told them that they deserved to have that rebellion on their hands."

"I'm sure they did!" Ginny said vehemently. Since the events of last year at Hogwarts, she wasn't much of a fan of the Ministry.

"As you should know from class," Binns continued, "the goblins finally found victory in the Gringott Rebellion in which the goblins gained a monopoly over the monetary system of Britain. With this stranglehold over wizards and witches everywhere, the goblins were able to negotiate for their demands."

"How was Lord Darkbane involved in that?" Ginny inquired.

Professor Binns sighed. Normally, he was the one who tired his students, but this one was tiring him awfully quick. "No one can prove it, but I share the opinion with many historians that Lord Darkbane was secretly allied with the goblins during this rebellion. Events turned out too well for the goblins."

"How does the luck of the goblins connect to Lord Darkbane?" Ginny asked.

"Lord Darkbane was an expert time traveler," Binns explained. "Some say that he even had the ability to alter reality itself. If there was an alliance, time travel is the service Lord Darkbane would have been in the position to provide them. After the goblins assumed control of the financial world, Lord Darkbane became extremely rich. That smacks as a payoff of some kind to me. If you combine that with the goblins' seeming ability to predict events with unbelievable precision and Lord Darkbane's talents, you find yourself believing that there was an alliance."

Ginny was slightly skeptical of this, but wasn't about to argue with Professor Binns. If Harry had dealings with the goblins in the past, it didn't seem likely that it was relevant now or to their search for him. "Do you know anything else about Lord Darkbane other than his connection to the goblins?" she inquired.

Unfortunately, Professor Binns knew nothing aside from Harry's supposed alliance with the goblins. Ginny wondered if Binns even realized that Lord Darkbane was the Headmaster of Hogwarts at one point. It occurred to her that they had rarely studied anything other than goblins in his class.

Politely thanking the professor for his time, Ginny exited the classroom and ran to the Great Hall to eat lunch. Talking with Professor Binns had put her behind in her daily schedule and she still had classes to go to before the day ended.

That evening, the Dueling Club met for the first time since the Christmas holiday. Ginny had been looking forward to it, but as soon as she arrived in the Great Hall where it was being held, she immediately felt out of place. Many of the students were telling jokes and engaging in horseplay.

This annoyed Ginny greatly. Since her capture and torture, she had realized that they were literally fighting a war against Voldemort. If they didn't take things seriously, they could get killed, or worse. If they want to have fun they should join the Exploding Snap club, Ginny declared to herself.

Ginny had intended to join Ron and Hermione, but seeing that they were otherwise occupied with themselves, she opted to take a place in an out of the way corner to wait for the beginning of the class so as not to interrupt them. She would be able to talk to them after class. Professor Snape soon arrived and announced that he would be teaching this evening. In a perverse sort of way, Ginny was glad for this. He wouldn't tolerate any nonsense from anyone.

Snape began by explaining the intricacies a hex that would disable an opponent by blinding them. He then informed them that blocking it was quite simple and required only a basic shield charm. "For you benefit, I will demonstrate both the casting and blocking of this curse," he said, finishing his official lecture. "Weasley, get up here."

At Hermione's nudging, Ron started to head up to where Snape was standing but Snape stopped him. "I mean the other Weasley."

This caused both Ron and Ginny to blush. Ginny had not realized that Snape had even noticed her in the back corner. She quickly made her way up and was soon standing across from Professor Snape.

"All right Weasley, I'm going to shoot the hex at you and you're going to block it."

Ginny nodded, but didn't say anything because everyone's stares were beginning to unnerve her. Usually, demonstrations like this were carried out between the professors teaching the club. Students weren't invited up until it had been demonstrated and explained thoroughly. Either Snape was out to get her, or he thought she could handle it. Perhaps it was both.

With only the smallest warning, Snape raised his wand arm and with a dramatic flourish sent the hex hurtling toward Ginny. Without having to think, Ginny reflexively raised her wand and with a sweep of her wand erected a strong shield around herself. He had said a basic shield charm would suffice, but Ginny wasn't about to take chances.

The hex exploded against the shield in a brilliant show of light. The students were quite obviously impressed with both Snape and Ginny's performance as they promptly applauded, causing Ginny to blush.

"We will now trade places," Snape announced, not betraying a hint of emotion. "Weasley will cast the charm and I will block it."

Ginny quickly reviewed her memory of Snape casting the spell in order to make sure she had the wand movements down. She didn't think that it was necessary to flourish the wand quite as dramatically as Snape had done, but could see the advantage of extra movement behind the spell.

At Snape's signal, she raised her wand and tried cast the spell with as much strength as possible. As Ginny watched the spell hurtle toward Snape she was slightly disappointed. She had been hoping that it would come out better. She glanced down at her less than excellent wand and realized that it wasn't quite her fault. Perhaps she would be able to convince her parents to get her a new wand next Christmas.

The hex crashed against Snape's shield which blocked it easily. There was once again applause from the students watching. Even Ginny was impressed with herself. Getting the spell right on the first try wasn't something that always happened with her.

Snape nodded at Ginny. "Good job, Weasley."

Ginny thought a smile might annoy the professor so she only nodded and returned to her space in the back corner of the room. On the way, her eyes met Ron and Hermione's. Ron and Hermione nodded at her with congratulatory smiles that though friendly, were distant. Ginny sighed and didn't pay attention for the rest of the club meeting.

When the meeting ended, she expected to return to the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Hermione, but soon discovered that they had left without her. Ginny then decided that she might as well visit Professor Dumbledore and report on Professor Binns' goblin conspiracy. Soon she was moving in the direction of Dumbledore's office and thinking about Ron and Hermione drifting away from her.

She supposed that she couldn't blame them. They were discovering love and if they weren't already, they were moving toward becoming an official couple. Ginny could hardly begrudge them this, though it did leave her out in the cold. She had been out of few times with Dean Thomas, but that had fizzled over the summer and had not been rekindled because of her focus on finding Harry. People were apt to make new friends and move on.

This thought caused her to stop cold just outside Dumbledore's office. If a summer and half the school year were enough to cause Dean to move on and find new friends of the female variety, what had a hundred years done for the relationship between Harry and everyone in the present time?

By the time she entered Professor Dumbledore's office, the thought had succeeded in distressing her greatly. At Dumbledore's inquiry, she announced that she had come to report on what she had found since the beginning of the term with regard to Harry.

"What did you find?" Dumbledore asked, motioning for her to take a seat.

"I can't find any portraits older than five hundred years," Ginny informed him and then somewhat bitterly, she reported on Ron and Hermione progress, or lack of it. She then moved on to her conversation with Binns and recounted the Gringott rebellion conspiracy. "It sounds like a far-fetched idea to me," Ginny concluded.

Professor Dumbledore shrugged and smiled. "It's hard to say. I'm sure Harry ran across multiple goblins during his time in the past. Indeed, it was probably unavoidable. As for secret treaties and large payoffs in gold, I don't know. History is more of an art than science. The least important events or facts often become the subject of entire books while the most important and influential occurrences are lucky for a paragraph in an encyclopedia."

Ginny nodded. "I suppose you're right, professor."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he studied Ginny over the rims of his spectacles. He reached for his bowl of lemon drops and offered it to Ginny who partook. "Now tell me, what has made you so depressed?"

Getting relationship advice from an aged headmaster wasn't quite Ginny's style, but she was desperate to unload. She soon was recounting her feeling left out. Then she moved onto talking about how she had just realized that in over a hundred years, Harry must have found new friends. "I bet he's forgotten about us and doesn't care about coming back. Why would he want to come back and deal with Lord Voldemort?" For some reason, the idea that Harry might have abandoned them completely distressed Ginny greatly and she was soon working really hard to hold back tears.

Professor Dumbledore didn't have an immediate reply, though from his face, it was clear that he understood Ginny's concerns completely. He eventually spoke in a gentle voice. "Of all my former students, Harry is perhaps the most loyal one I've known," he told her. "He knows very well the peril we are now in and he knows that we are depending on him. I'm confident that he did and is doing everything he can to come back to us."

"But how do you know?" Ginny pleaded.

"His actions and choices," Dumbledore explained, trying to sound as optimistic as possible. "What happened to you at the end of your first year here at Hogwarts?"

"T-tom took me into the Chamber," Ginny admitted.

Dumbledore nodded. "And what did Harry do?"

"He came down with Ron to rescue me," Ginny said.

"That took a certain amount of persistence and bravery. He could have died very easily and he knew it before he stated. He went down there knowing perfectly well what he would be facing," Dumbledore said. "He was barely acquainted with you at that time. Don't you think that he knows you better now? And what about Ron, Hermione, and everyone else? I'm sure that his loyalty holds."

This caused Ginny to start crying. "I was such an idiot. I practically nearly killed him."

"I told you then that greater wizards and witches have been fooled by the Dark lord," Dumbledore reminded her.

"I know, I know," Ginny said. This didn't quite suffice though. Putting aside guilt wasn't an easy task.

Dumbledore could see that she was struggling with this and tried to find a way to pump her up. "You're just as loyal as he is. You didn't betray his identity to Voldemort."

"Well, no," Ginny admitted slowly.

"I know you don't want to talk about what they did to you, but I know enough about things to know that it wasn't pleasant for you. No one would have blamed you if you had given in. But you didn't, and for that, you deserve a great amount of honor. There is a great deal that you and Harry have in common."

Ginny was feeling good about that and was about to ask Professor Dumbledore what he meant when they were interrupted by Professor Blood's voice.

"Would you mind taking this conversation elsewhere? It's grating my nerves!"

Dumbledore and Ginny started from shock. Dumbledore recovered quickly and was out of his chair and in front of the portrait before Ginny could blink. "We need to speak with you, Professor Blood," he said gravely. He then added a caveat, "Otherwise, we'll have no choice but to continue the conversation you detested so much."

Professor Blood rolled his eyes and yawned. "I'm sure that if I made enough of a nuisance of myself that you would leave promptly."

"We want to know more about Lord Darkbane," Ginny announced, joining Professor Dumbledore in standing in front of the portrait of Professor Blood.

"I told you to check Hogwarts THE History," Professor Blood reminded them.

"We already checked it," Ginny informed the portrait. "There's not enough information there. We need to find Lord Darkbane and we're going to need a lot more information. You seem to be very well informed so we were hoping that you could help us.

Professor Blood seemed to be intrigued by Ginny's words. "You need to find Lord Darkbane? Are you looking for the Founder rings?"

Ginny was about to deny this as she was not interested in magical objects, but Dumbledore cut in. He could see from the portrait's tone of voice that a positive answer would result in more information. "Yes, we're definitely interested in the Founder rings. Would you mind giving us some details about them? I'm sure you know far more about them."

Professor Blood sat up his chair and stretched a bit. "I was eleven years old when I first learned about Lord Darkbane. It wasn't uncommon for students to spend their free time trying to find legendary objects like Ravenclaw's diadem or Hufflepuff's cup hidden about the castle. When I first started as a student, the popular thing to search for was the Chamber of Secrets. A lot of people thought that if they could only find the Chamber and unleash the monster, they'd have complete control of the school. I and a select set of others knew better though."

"Is that so?" Dumbledore said, prompting Blood to continue.

"As you should know by now, Darkbane was essentially the apprentice of Godric Gryffindor. Gryffindor ultimately handed over complete control of Hogwarts over to Lord Darkbane. According to tradition passed down by descendants of Hogwart's second Headmaster, Greengrass, Lord Darkbane possessed three rings that had belonged to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. These rings had the ability to completely control the castle and the wards that the Founders had placed around it. You can see that possessing these rings would be of far more value than possessing the allegiance of the monster that allegedly resides in the Chamber."

"You are of course correct," Dumbledore admitted.

Ginny's memory had been stirred and she remembered the rings that she had seen on Harry's fingers. "Were the rings made from gold with blue, yellow, and red jewels?"

Professor Blood seemed impressed. "You've done your research. Where did you find that information?"

"There's a Pensieve memory at the Ministry," Ginny replied.

Blood was nodding before Ginny finished speaking. "I've viewed that same memory myself many times."

"How close did you come to finding the rings?" Dumbledore asked. He really wanted to find out specific details about Harry and his ultimate fate, but was afraid that if they moved off the subject of the rings, Professor Blood would get bored.

Professor Blood shrugged. "I don't know."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that," Ginny said.

"Everyone knows where the rings are," Professor Blood explained. "The trouble is getting there. Those who opted to search for the rings were in the same boat as those searching for the Chamber of Secrets."

This was very confusing to Professor Dumbledore and Ginny. Dumbledore did not hesitate to ask the obvious question. "So where are the rings?"

"I thought you had done your research," Blood said, annoyance clear in his voice.

"The information that was common knowledge in your time has been lost," Dumbledore explained to the portrait.

Professor Blood seemed to accept this. "The rings are located in Lord Darkbane's office, presumably still on his corpse."

"So that's why you accepted the position of Headmaster. It was so you could get access to this office," Ginny concluded.

Professor Blood shook his head. "No, this office you are sitting in was not Lord Darkbane's office."

This was a startling surprise for both Professor Dumbledore and Ginny, but especially for Dumbledore who had spent a great deal of time searching the office for clues under the assumption that Harry had previously occupied it.

It seemed that Professor Blood was especially enjoying the shock on Dumbledore's face and he continued without a prompting or question. "That was the chief task of those searching for the Founder rings; to find and then enter Lord Darkbane's office. I spent many summers trying to track down some reference left behind by anybody as to where in the castle the office was located, but had no success."

Ginny had been processing the story in her mind and was the first to catch some of the holes in it. "Professor Greengrass should have known where the office was," she pointed out.

"He did," Blood admitted.

"Then how is it that no one else knew the location when it was Greengrass' descendants who passed on the story about the Founder rings?" Ginny inquired.

Professor Blood was eyeing Ginny with annoyance, but also a measure of respect. He did have an answer though. "He told his children and grandchildren, but they selfishly hid the secret so as to prevent others from getting their hands on the rings before they could. Greengrass himself had wanted the rings desperately. They seemed to think it was their birthright. Eventually, the location was lost entirely."

"If they knew perfectly well where Darkbane's office was, then how do you know the rings are still in it? They could have just entered and took them." Ginny argued.

"I said the task was both to find and enter the office," Professor Blood snapped. "After Lord Darkbane's suicide, the office was locked. Apparently, Darkbane changed the password or some such before he did the deed. Nobody could get it to open, not even Greengrass. Others refused to even try or go near it for fear that Darkbane had laid traps. Eventually, the location was lost to history."

Dumbledore was quick to see an opening. "Do you know of the events surrounding Lord Darkbane's suicide?"

Blood nodded and explained briefly. "It occurred late in the evening on the day that the students had departed for their Christmas holiday. The staff had just retired to their private quarters when they all heard a tremendously loud explosion from the direction of Darkbane's office. The explosion was so loud that it literally rocked the castle on its foundations. The staff of course rushed to the office, but couldn't get in as Professor Greengrass was the only staff member who was trusted with the password to the office at that time. They weren't overly concerned until he arrived and discovered that the office was locked and that he couldn't get in."

The events as described by Professor Blood meshed nicely with the theory that Harry had staged his suicide, but she wanted to ask Blood and see what he thought about it. "We've heard rumors that Lord Darkbane might have actually staged his suicide and left Hogwarts. What do you think of that?"

Professor Blood was hesitant to respond. "Well, it is possible that the suicide was . . . staged."

Dumbledore picked up on the nuance. "Staged by whom specifically?"

"There were a few people who believed that Professor Greengrass in fact murdered Lord Darkbane," Professor Blood told them.

Ginny gasped and began breathing heavily. The fact that Harry had staged his suicide had been the thought that had been carrying her through. The thought that Harry might actually be truly dead was very distressing to her. "Murdered?" she asked weakly. "Are you sure?"

"I didn't say I believed it, girl," snapped Professor Blood. "In my opinion, it was definitely suicide. In the years leading up to his disappearance, Darkbane became a complete recluse. He was obsessed with his studies of time travel. There were times when he wouldn't eat. He was practically already dead for the last years of his life. Furthermore, if Greengrass murdered him and took the rings, don't you think they would have turned up by now? They're no good unless you use them."

"You have some very good points," Dumbledore said to the portrait for Ginny's sake.

"Of course I do," Professor Blood answered.

Ginny still wasn't mollified. From the account rendered by Professor Blood, it sounded as if Harry may have really committed suicide. Dumbledore could see this and exercised some further wisdom. "I don't think we'll ever know for sure what happened unless we find Lord Darkbane's office," he announced.

"You're probably right," Blood said.

"Now, what can you tell us about the location of Lord Darkbane's office?" Dumbledore inquired.

Professor Blood seemed to really want to be helpful and contemplated his answer for several moments before responding. It was a long enough amount of time that Ginny and Dumbledore were afraid that he was falling asleep. Finally he spoke. "Everything I ever found or heard seemed to indicate that his office was located in the highest floors of the castle. Even the memory you've seen argues that. He came at Minister Smythe from the top of the main staircase, not from the staircases leading to the dungeons or lower levels."

"Good," Dumbledore said, pleased with this information. "Do you think it would be worth researching other sources to find the location?"

Blood shook his head. "Nothing you would find would actually be of use. I've already checked everything. You are just going to have to stick to the castle itself. Personally, I'd have to say that you will need an edge that no one else has ever had if you expect to even get close."

"I'm sure that if we look hard enough, we'll find that edge," Dumbledore said optimistically. "Now, tell me one last thing. We have heard rumors that Lord Darkbane possessed a magical hourglass. What do you know about it?

Professor Blood arched an eyebrow. "I don't know where you're getting your information. I never was aware of a magical hourglass connected with Lord Darkbane."

"It was a question we had to ask," Dumbledore said.

"If you say so," Professor Blood said with a patronizing smile. "Let me know if you ever find Lord Darkbane's office." He then sat back in his chair and fell asleep.

Ginny was trying desperately to be optimistic. "All we have to do is search the castle. How hard can it be to hide an office?"

"We're about to find out," Dumbledore said. "We can start the formal search this Saturday. Tell Ron and Hermione what we've learned and that I want to meet here early Saturday morning to work out some strategies for the search."

Ginny agreed to do this and added that she would be beginning the search privately in the meantime.

Dumbledore thought this sounded like an excellent idea and told her that she might as well head back to her dormitory.

Ginny left the office deep in thought. Based on Professor Blood's information, she had no doubt that Harry must have been trying desperately to return to the future. However, this led her to think of how it must have felt to want to return to the future but not be able to. She refused to let it get her down. "Don't lose hope, Harry. We're going to find you somehow."

Harry stood in front of the wall of windows in his office, staring down at the point in front of the castle where the students had boarded the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade and from there, home so that they could spend Christmas with their friends and family. Harry had watched them do it and had returned to the window multiple times for the rest of the day obsessing with it.

I wish I could go home and see my friends, Harry thought to himself bitterly. Unfortunately, Voldemort's plan to get rid of me for good seems to have succeeded.

While watching the students earlier in the day, Harry had realized that he didn't know a single one of them and he doubted that any of them would recognize him as their Headmaster if they were to bump into him outside of Hogwarts. This had both irritated him and made him feel guilty. It also led Harry to other thoughts.

They've forgotten me, Harry decided. Do they even know I exist? Greengrass does an awfully good job of pretending I don't exist, he told himself darkly.

In his desperation to return to the future, Harry had begun to let Greengrass look after the matters that didn't need Harry's personal attention. This turned out to be pretty much everything as far as Greengrass was concerned.

Harry had considered replacing Greengrass, but it would take too much of his time to train someone else to manage Hogwarts. Harry still appeared to be only sixteen years of age in the mirror, but Harry had begun to have doubts. It had been over a hundred years since he had arrived in the past. Surely it wasn't possible for someone to live that long.

The thought that he could die any day combined with his lack of success had nearly driven Harry insane. He missed his friends and was afraid of what Voldemort would do to them. Absence had made the heart fonder. In his day dreams about returning to the future, none of his friends had the flaws that had bothered him when he was with them. He had even gone so far as to day dream about those who were only acquaintances.

As Harry looked back on his past, he could see that some of the people he had not paid very much attention to were in fact very excellent people. His acquaintance with scores of people had taught him that his friends from the future were among the most excellent people. For instance, he had developed the greatest respect for both Neville and Luna. Even Ginny Weasley appeared in his thoughts and dreams often. He had not met any woman that he liked as well as Ginny.

When they grow up, they'll be fine people, Harry told himself.

Harry was shaken when he realized that there was now a gap between him and his former friends. Even though Harry didn't look it, he had matured and become an adult.

"My life is over," Harry said to himself out loud. "I'm an old man."

His thoughts returned to the students who didn't know who he was and another horrid thought attacked him. His friends probably had tried to find where he went, but failed. After his being gone for so long, they would have forgotten him. Or worse, maybe Voldemort had been victorious and had found a way to prevent Harry from returning and resetting things. Maybe they hated him for abandoning them when they needed him.

How many of them would have discovered via the prophecy and Dumbledore that Harry was the only one who could kill the Dark lord? How many of them would have given up the fight, knowing that Harry wasn't there? How many of them would die without him because he had failed to find a way to return to the future, or had failed in the first place to prevent himself from being sent to the past?

Depression suddenly overwhelmed Harry and he could no longer stand to look at anything or even think. Sleep was out of the question and food would be too burdensome. There was no one in the present time that he even wanted to talk to at this point. Hogwarts would be fine without him; Greengrass had demonstrated that sufficiently and shamelessly. There was really only one potential situation that Greengrass and any other succeeding Headmaster would be unable to deal with. Harry had placed wards that would notify him if that situation arose.

Harry drew his wand. Holding up his hand with the rings, he touched the wand to Ravenclaw's ring, resetting the password to his office, but not specifying a new password. Harry didn't want to be bothered and this would effectively prevent Greengrass or anyone else he shared the password with from doing so.

Harry abandoned his position in front of the windows and headed for the fireplace. As he passed his desk, he dropped his wand next to his notebook that contained all of his notes on time travel. Soon, he was sitting in front of the fire, staring into the flames, his mind devoid of all thoughts, cares and worries.

Chapter Ten: The Edge

It wasn't until after classes were over the next day that Ginny had the opportunity to inform Ron and Hermione of Professor Blood's awakening and the information that he had shared. She recounted all of the major details to them and then Professor Dumbledore's instructions that they were to meet with him on Saturday to organize an official search of the castle.

Though slightly miffed that they had been left out, Ron and Hermione were nevertheless enthusiastic and optimistic about the search for Harry's office. "We're his friends," Hermione declared. "He surely must have left clues behind that we'll recognize. Maybe he even changed the password to something we'd know."

This led to speculation as to what password Harry would place on his office if he wanted them specifically to be able to find it. Ginny didn't really have any good suggestions, though Ron and Hermione did.

"It wouldn't be terribly complicated," Hermione informed them. "I bet it would be something simple, like his name, Harry Potter. None of the people searching for the office or Professor Greengrass would have guessed that. They thought his name was James Darkbane."

"I've got a better idea," Ron announced with a grin. "What about this? I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good!"

Ginny suddenly realized that the Marauders Map could be their key to success. "Ron! Get the Marauders Map. We might be able to find Harry's office on it."

Ron's eyes widened when he realized that they might be that close to success. He dashed up to his dormitory and grabbed the Marauder's Map from where he had stashed it in his trunk. It was fortunate that he had filched it from Harry's trunk while it was at Moody's house.

By the time he returned to where Ginny and Hermione were waiting for him, he had already activated the map and was perusing it for any sign of Harry's office. "I don't see anything," he said as he laid it out on the table they were sitting next to. "Professor Blood might be wrong. It doesn't have to be on the upper levels of the castle.

"I'm not entirely confident that the Marauders would have found the office," Hermione said doubtfully, though she was studying the map just as hard as Ron and Ginny were. "It's not as if the Chamber of Secrets is on here either."

"That's true," Ginny said, "but they might have found the entrance and been unable to enter. They still might have noted where it is. Or maybe we can find some irregularity in the floor plan."

Ron shook his head, "The floor plan of this castle is irregular by nature."

The Marauders Map failed to reveal the location of Harry's office, though it helped to bolster the spirits of Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. By the time Saturday arrived, they had already spent a great deal of time searching the castle for anything that might be an entrance to Harry's office.

"It seems to me that the entrance to an office belonging to someone as important as Harry would be more obvious," Ron muttered in an annoyed voice as they ascended the staircase leading to Professor Dumbledore's office. "I mean, wouldn't he want people to be able to find his office so that he could do business and manage the school?"

Hermione was less annoyed and more observant. "It isn't as if Professor Dumbledore's office is that obvious. The entrance is hidden behind a gargoyle."

They entered the office to find that Dumbledore had made extensive preparations for their search. As previously agreed on, they showed him the Marauders Map which astounded him. "How extraordinary," he said as he examined it with a keen eye. "It hasn't revealed the location of Harry's office, has it?"

"No," Ginny admitted.

"We thought it might still be helpful," Hermione informed the Headmaster.

"Of course," Dumbledore said quietly. "I think that I'll spend some time examining it. For now, let me show you some of the strategies that I have devised for finding Harry's office."

Professor Dumbledore then reviewed all of the possible ways that a room might be concealed in the castle and some of the signs they should look for. Abrupt dead ends in hallways, staircases that seemed to have a larger capacity than what they were now used for, and statues that were placed in certain ways were among the things he told them to look for. He then taught then a number of spells that might at the very least reveal that there was a passage or room even if they didn't necessarily open the way.

They soon were searching. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were assigned specific parts of the castle to search. Professor Dumbledore assigned himself to use the Marauders Map to check specific places of interest to him. Their search lasted well into the evening. Unfortunately, they found neither Harry's office nor even an indication of a concealed room.

There had been several false alarms, at least for the individual searchers. Hermione had found an abrupt dead end in a hallway that seemed too large. She was able to apply her skill and ingenuity to find a way to vanish the wall. Behind it, she found that the hallway continued to a small door. The door was locked.

Professor Dumbledore noticed her disappear on the map and had soon arrived to assist Hermione. In the end, they decided to blast the door down with magic. Behind it, there was a room with a fireplace and some windows, but they eventually were forced to determine that it probably wasn't Harry's office though Dumbledore was hard pressed to explain what possible purpose the room could have.

Ron's part of the castle seemed to have a large number of statues. Some of them met the qualifications that Dumbledore had outlined. In particular, a statue of a very regal looking witch seemed to have been placed in a very odd position.

The spells that Dumbledore had taught them at the beginning of the search successfully resulted in the witch stepping aside to reveal a hallway that cut across the castle and went up and down several narrow flights of stairs. At the end was a blank wall which several charms finally forced to slide open. Ron found himself behind a tapestry. Upon exiting, he ran into Ginny and startled her quite severely.

"Merlin, Ron. What were you doing behind that tapestry?"

"Sorry," he muttered. "There was a secret passage behind it."

"It didn't occur to me to check behind those," Ginny admitted. They examined the entrance to the passage behind the tapestry and decided they'd go over their areas again and check all the tapestries. Ron returned to his search zone via the secret passage.

Eventually, it came time to end the search. As they had previously decided en route to the upper levels of the castle, they met at the landing located above all of the moving staircases next to a stone raven perched on the banister.

"We'll just have to try again," Dumbledore told them, trying to sound encouraging. "I didn't expect to be so lucky as to locate Harry's office on our first try. Shall we do this next Saturday?"

Though tired and worn, they all expressed a willingness to make another attempt the next Saturday. Ginny privately committed to continue searching throughout the week. She reckoned that if she went over the areas Ron and Hermione had examined, she might see something they missed.

Another week went by and nothing was found by Ginny during the week or by all of them during their second Saturday searching the castle. Ron and Hermione were beginning to feel that they should probably start moving on to lower levels of the castle. Dumbledore seemed to view the search as an especially intriguing challenge.

Ginny continued to strive for excellence in all of her classes and while so doing, tried to constantly push depressing thoughts about Harry out of her head. It was hard, but she found that focusing on her studies enabled her to keep an upbeat attitude.

At dinner one day, all of the students were reminded that the Dueling Club would be holding one of its regular meetings that evening.

"I sure hope that Snape doesn't teach it again," Ron muttered darkly as he shoveled his food into his mouth.

"Professor Snape teaches the club just as well as Flitwick and Dumbledore do," Hermione told him. "You ought to be glad that any of them are taking the time. Don't you agree, Ginny?"

"Of course," Ginny said in an empty voice. She was thinking about her last experience at a club meeting and had decided that she would not be attending. She reasoned that she could learn more on her own from some earnest study of any advanced Defense text from the library.

It wasn't hard to separate from Ron and Hermione after dinner and Ginny soon found that she was alone in Gryffindor Tower. All of the Gryffindors were either at the meeting or doing homework in the library. She cracked open a Defense text and began practicing a random spell. This proved easy to learn and she moved on to another. This went on for about forty minutes, but she was soon bored.

She abandoned the text and Gryffindor Tower and found herself navigating to the top of the moving staircases. From there, she began to search for Harry's office yet again. By this time, she was well acquainted with every feature of the upper floors and had tried various spells on nearly everything that could possibly lead to anywhere, but without success.

This lack of success and loneliness was very depressing. It also did not help that the upper floors were especially cold. Eventually, she gave up the search and soon found herself wishing that she could have some hot chocolate. This resulted in a trip to the kitchens.

On her way to the kitchens, Ginny observed that a great deal of time had passed and that the Great Hall was empty. The Dueling Club meeting was over. It wasn't a long walk from the Great Hall to the kitchens and she soon found herself in front of the familiar picture of a bowl of fruit. Before she could even finish climbing through the portrait, a dozen house elves were waiting to take her order, Dobby among them.

Ginny took the opportunity to thank the blushing Dobby for his participation her rescue from the Death Eaters. He was clearly embarrassed, but obviously grateful for the praise. She then moved on to her request. "I was wondering if I could get some hot chocolate," she said shyly, hating to bother them.

It took only a moment for them to produce a steaming hot mug of hot chocolate. She tried to relax while drinking it, but was discomfited by the rapt attention that they paid her. It wasn't often that the house elves got visitors she told herself. I bet half the students in this castle don't even know they exist.

Abruptly, a new thought occurred to her. Had any of the people searching for Harry's office ever consulted the house elves? This caused her to choke on her hot chocolate.

"Are you all right?" Dobby asked, clearly in a panic.

"Of course," Ginny said quickly between coughs. "There's nothing to worry about. It just occurred to me that you all may be able to help me with something special."

The house elves all gathered near the stool she had taken a seat on. "We'd love to help you!" squeaked one of them.

Ginny's heart was pounding. The house elves surely had to know where the office as. They could access anywhere they wanted. "Do any of you know who Lord Darkbane is?"

Suddenly, there were guarded expressions on the faces of each house elf, but one of them spoke for the group and admitted that they knew of Lord Darkbane.

"I really need to locate and enter Lord Darkbane's office," Ginny told them. "It's really important."

There was an awkward silence. Finally, one of the house elves who seemed to be in charge spoke. "There's nothing we can do to help you," she said apologetically.

Ginny sighed and thanked them for at least listening. As she finished her hot chocolate, she noticed that the elves who had previously been anxious to watch her were now finding excuses to leave. Before Ginny was finished, they were all gone except for Dobby.

"Dobby might be able to help you," Dobby admitted in a very quiet voice. From the way he was glancing around, it seemed clear that he didn't want to let the other house elves know that he was speaking to Ginny.

"Can you?" Ginny inquired with a whisper.

Dobby seemed very anxious, but responded. "How important is it?"

"Very important," Ginny whispered. "We're looking for Harry Potter who has gone missing. It seems that the only way we'll be able to find him is if we can get into Lord Darkbane's office and search it for clues." She left it at that and hoped that Dobby wouldn't ask any more questions.

Dobby was wringing his hands as he tried to think of a way to help Ginny. He spoke to her, maintaining his quiet, anxious voice. "We clean and maintain Lord Darkbane's office," he admitted. "It's protected by many wards and spells. I would take you there or tell you where it is, but we is bound to the magic of the castle and that magic protects Lord Darkbane's office zealously because that is his will."

"I understand," Ginny said as her mind raced to find a way to get around the obstacles. "What if I told you that Lord Darkbane would want us to find his office?" She was reasonably sure that Harry wouldn't object to them entering his office.

Dobby shrugged and spoke. "The magic doesn't know that."

"Well," said Ginny very slowly, "I can tell you that Lord Darkbane wouldn't mind if we found a way into his office. Isn't there any technicality in the rules, or some way that you could tell me indirectly how to get there?"

Dobby wrung his hands for several minutes as he tried to think of a way to help Ginny. Finally, he figured something out. "Does Mistress Weasley swear that Lord Darkbane will not be angry?"

"Yes," said Ginny quickly. She didn't know for sure, but if it turned out otherwise, she would accept the blame for pressuring the house elf.

Dobby nodded slowly and then suddenly disappeared with a crack. He then reappeared with a rolled up towel that he was cradling awkwardly. He looked around furtively to make sure that none of the other house elves were around. Seeing that the coast was clear, he shoved the towel in her hands. "This was on the desk," the house elf whispered quickly. "It will open Lord Darkbane's office. I wish I could tell you where to look, but you'll just have to try it everywhere."

Ginny was thoroughly confused. Was Dobby insane? "Lord Darkbane kept a towel capable of opening his office on his desk?" she asked incredulously.

"No!" Dobby said in a voice almost too loud. "The thing wrapped in the towel! Now go!"

"Thank you, Dobby," Ginny said, "for everything."

Dobby beamed at her. "Come back any time, just don't let the other elves know about this."

Ginny quickly agreed to this and exited the kitchens. Just in case the other elves were watching, she walked quickly with the rolled up towel to another abandoned hallway not far from the kitchens. She then unrolled the towel. As it flapped open, a long, shiny black wand fell out and clattered to the floor.

She stared at it for a moment and then abruptly recognized it from the Pensieve memory she had viewed at the Ministry. It was Harry's wand. Ginny bent down and picked it up. It was ice cold. Abruptly, the cold wand became very hot and Ginny nearly dropped it. A short moment went by and the wand turned cold again.

After several more moments, the cold faded away and left behind a funny sensation in Ginny's hand that also eventually faded. Ginny tried swishing it a few times and discovered that it seemed abnormally heavy. It felt to her as if she was hefting a large broadsword.

The wand was so strange that Ginny couldn't resist testing it out. She tried one of the Defense spells she had learned. The spell exploded from the wand's tip and crashed into one of the walls of the castle which promptly absorbed it. The casting of the spell caused a strange awareness to come over Ginny and she was nearly overwhelmed by feelings that were not her own; depression, pain, exhaustion, and a deep sort of longing with only a faint tinge of hope. Harry had left his mark on the wand.

After getting bored with examining the wand, Ginny gingerly pocketed the wand as if it was Harry himself and made her way to the common room where she found Ron and Hermione working on Ron's homework.

"We missed you at the Dueling Club," Hermione said when she spotted Ginny.

Ginny was pleased that they had cared enough to notice. "I didn't feel like going," she told them. "I've got good news. I've found a way to open Harry's office."

"You found the office!" Ron exclaimed.

"No," Ginny said, "I found the key to open it. I'm going to go show Dumbledore. I figure that if I tell you all together it will save time."

Ron proved to be more than willing to abandon his homework assignment to pay a visit to the Headmaster. Hermione was eager to learn what Ginny had found, though annoyed that Ron wasn't paying proper heed to his assignments. She peppered Ginny with questions all the way to Dumbledore's office, but Ginny wouldn't answer.

They were soon there and Dumbledore greeted them with twinkling eyes as Ron loudly announced that Ginny had made major breakthrough in the search.

Everyone's attention was on her. "I went to the kitchens and asked the house elves where Harry's office was located," Ginny told them.

"Of course!" Ron declared.

"I should have thought of that," Hermione muttered.

"They wouldn't tell me where it is," Ginny said. "Fortunately, Dobby was there. He isn't allowed to reveal the location, but I convinced him to help me. He went up to the office and stole Harry's wand." Ginny drew it from her robes with a somewhat dramatic flourish. "He claims that the wand will open the office."

Everyone looked at the wand excitedly. Ginny held it out for them to take it and examine it. Ron took it first and only held it for a moment before passing it to Hermione. Hermione quickly passed it to Dumbledore who studied it intensely with what seemed like a frown on his face. He then passed it to Ginny who was content to hold it while they talked.

"Isn't it rather long for a wand?" Hermione asked Professor Dumbledore.

"Yes, I noticed that," Dumbledore said, eyeing the wand that was in Ginny's hand. "I suspect that Harry must have had it custom made." His eyes twinkled and he looked at Ginny. "Perhaps the goblins did make him rich after all. This wand probably cost Harry a great deal of gold."

Ginny held up the wand and looked at it. It did seem strange, especially with its glossy black surface. Strange as it was, Ginny wished that she had a wand as nice as it was. "Dobby says it will open Harry's office. Basically, I get the impression that we'll just have to take it around and tap it everywhere and see what happens."

"We'll have to change our search methods," Dumbledore said. "I believe that we're still planning on another search this Saturday, correct?"

Everyone nodded, looking at the wand with excitement. Now that they had Harry's wand, how could they fail to find his office?

"In the meantime," Dumbledore said, "I think we shall entrust Miss Weasley with the safekeeping of the wand. Is that agreeable?"

Ginny was perfectly fine with that, and said so. Carrying an extra wand around wouldn't be a bother to her. Ron and Hermione didn't say anything. Dumbledore then regarded the matter as being settled.

"The Order has continued to do research on Lord Darkbane," he informed them. "Bill Weasley was instrumental in discovering that Harry has an account at Gringotts under the name of James Darkbane. Unfortunately, he was unable to discover any specific details. It would seem that the account and vault are shielded by multiple high security measures."

"I didn't know Gringotts existed during Harry's time as Lord Darkbane," Hermione said.

Ginny had done a little research into Professor Binns' ridiculous conspiracy theory and was thus able to answer. "The bank was chartered during the last decade of Harry's tenure as Headmaster," she said.

"Yes, that is correct," Dumbledore agreed. "Bill was also able to find that the bank has a will that Harry signed on file."

"Why hasn't it been executed?" Hermione asked. "According to him," she jerked her head rudely toward Professor Blood, "Harry committed suicide."

"There are two possibilities," Dumbledore said with an eye twinkling smile. "Either Harry directed that his will be executed only after a certain date or the goblins don't believe he's dead. Let us hope for the latter."

One of Dumbledore's clocks chimed and signaled that it was getting quite late. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny excused themselves to return to their dorms. However, as soon as Ginny was out the door, Hermione muttered something about asking Dumbledore something. Ron stayed with Hermione and eventually, Ginny was gone and on her way to the tower.

"Was there something else Miss Granger?" Dumbledore inquired.

Hermione and Ron looked at each other and then Hermione spoke. "I was wondering why you decided to have Ginny carry Harry's wand around with her. Wouldn't it be safer for you to keep it here in your office?"

Professor Dumbledore smiled benignly at the two. "Yes, normally that is what I would have opted for. However, there are some interesting circumstances that I noted. Tell me Miss Granger, or Mr. Weasley, why did you not hold and examine the wand for longer than you did when she passed it around?"

"It was just a wand," Ron responded a little defensively. "There was hardly a need to examine it that closely."

Hermione was slightly more thoughtful and objectively examined her memory of holding the wand. "It felt weird holding it," she admitted. "It was almost unpleasant in fact."

Dumbledore smiled and nodded. "There was almost a compulsion put on each of us to avoid holding it for any longer than was necessary. However, Ginny seemed to have no trouble holding it at all. She stood there with it in her hand for the entire conversation, hardly even noticing it. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"

"Well, I suppose," Ron said. "Why would it be different for her?"

"The wand is an extremely powerful one. As a general rule, the more powerful a wand, the more temperamental it is. Powerful wands are sensitive to who is wielding them. I believe that the wand has developed an affinity for Ginny, even if it has not chosen her as its mistress."

Hermione was not familiar with wand lore. Indeed, she had not even thought of it before. "Why would it be friendlier to Ginny than the rest of us? We're all friends with Harry."

Dumbledore shrugged. "I don't know."

"So what does this have to do with you deciding that Ginny should carry it around?" Ron asked. "I still think it would be safer here in your office."

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "I agree with you Mr. Weasley. I think the wand would be safer here in my office. However, I'm hoping to reap benefits from the wand's affinity to Miss Weasley. Namely, I am hoping that the wand will see fit to reveal some of Harry's secrets to her."

"What kind of secrets?" Hermione asked, thinking that this was very strange logic.

"Many things," Dumbledore said, standing up from behind his desk to signify that the interview was over. "Hopefully among them is Harry's current location."

Once again, the four engaged in a search of the castle on Saturday. This time, instead of splitting into groups, they all toured the castle together with Ginny wielding Harry's wand. At every possible place for a secret passage or entrance, Ginny was directed to tap the wand and even try the occasional unlocking spell.

Unfortunately, there were a great many false alarms. Dobby had told Ginny that the wand would open Harry's office, but he had failed to mention that the wand would also unlock and open every other door and secret passageway in the castle as well. Ron and Hermione were greatly annoyed by this, but Professor Dumbledore found it fascinating. He also noted that the wand seemed to be able to interact with a lot of the castle's wards. Interesting as this was, they didn't feel that this could help them find Harry's office or even Harry himself.

The entire Saturday passed with them energetically going about the castle searching for the entrance to Harry's office. Their knowledge that all they had to do was get into the office was find the entrance kept their spirits buoyed through lunch and well into the evening.

At nightfall, Dumbledore finally decided to call it a day. At his inquiry about searching again on the next Saturday, Ron and Hermione reminded him that it would be the Valentine's Day Hogsmeade weekend and they had made previous plans. Dumbledore acknowledged that this was indeed the case, but was not disappointed as Ginny was quick to volunteer to continue searching.

"It won't be a bother," she told them. "Really, I'm the only one that needs to be on the search if I'm the one with the wand. I suppose I could trade it off if you wanted to search some other time though."

Remembering that Dumbledore was hoping to get gains from Ginny's continued possession of the wand, Ron and Hermione quickly found excuses that resulted in Ginny continuing to have the wand in her possession.

Secretly, Ginny was glad that they didn't want to use or borrow Harry's wand. Though she didn't really use it in her classes or in private for spells, she had grown accustomed to carrying it around with her and could hardly bear the thought of not having it pocketed in her robes.

She had even taken to keeping it close to her at night. This resulted in an increased affinity with it and it began to affect Ginny's behavior. This reminded her of being possessed by Tom Riddle's diary, but she ignored the situation as it was Harry's wand and she was sure she could trust him.

Ginny found herself thinking of Harry constantly. Every spare moment of her time was spent searching the castle. Whenever classes ended or when she found herself finished with her homework, she was drawn inexplicably up to the top stair landing above the moving staircases. From there, she would wander the upper floors of the castle wondering if the wand was trying to tell her where Harry's office was.

When several of her female friends who lacked dates invited her out for a Valentine's Day outing in Hogsmeade, she immediately turned them down in as polite and kind a way as she could. The wand didn't want to leave the castle and she didn't want to leave the wand. Furthermore, she had told Dumbledore that she would search on Saturday. She tried to tell herself that she had more than compensated for taking Saturday off by all of her searching during the week, but it just didn't seem to cut it for her or for the wand.

So, immediately after breakfast on the Hogsmeade weekend, Ginny found herself drawn straight to the top of the staircase. She then performed the same search she had performed on every other day of the week, not even having to check most of the locations that normally would have been checked by a person searching for a hidden room. She had already checked them multiple times. She had even checked inside each passage and secret room to see if it held a second passage or room that might lead to Harry's office.

Since she knew the upper floors by heart, it only took her an hour to perform the cursory search, occasionally checking something she had not checked already. Eventually, she found herself sitting on the stairs at the top of the stairwell that contained the moving staircases where she could see the occasional first or second year going up or down the stairs.

Ginny was frustrated. It seemed as if they had tried everything and everywhere. This led to anger which instantly evaporated into depression when she remembered that Harry could be dead or trapped somewhere. She looked at the wand. Things couldn't be well if she had his wand and he didn't.

She was startled by a crack that announced the appearance of Dobby.

"Mistress Wheezy," he said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Ginny told the house elf, trying to put on a good smile for him. "It's just that searching for Lord Darkbane's office is difficult. I thought it would be easier once I had his wand." She considered asking him again if there wasn't anything he could do to get her closer to the office, but realized that he had already done too much for her and decided to respect that.

Dobby nodded in sympathy. "I've been watching your efforts over the past weeks. I think the wand wants you to find the office."

"Yes," Ginny said, toying with it. "It drives me to search constantly."

"Good luck," Dobby said.

Ginny smiled at him making eye contact, "Thank you, Dobby."

There was a wide smile on Dobby's face and his eyes were incredibly bright. Slowly, Dobby's head turned, breaking contact with Ginny's eyes. Ginny instinctively followed his gaze and saw that it had rested on the stone raven perched on the banister. There was a crack and Dobby disappeared.

Ginny stared absently at the stone raven, wondering what had inspired the Founders to put a sculpture in such a place. Something also struck her as strange. Why had the house elf appeared? Was he trying to tell her something?

Was the raven important? Ginny stood up from her seat on the stairs and walked to it. Professor Dumbledore had talked about sculptures located in odd places, but this sculpture could hardly be hiding anything.

Impulsively, Ginny held out the wand and touched its tip to the raven. She jerked back as the raven's eyes turned blue and started glowing. There was a screeching sound and the staircase started moving.

Chapter Eleven: Clues

Ginny looked on with wide eyes as the stone staircase that led downward to the other moving staircases began to shift upward. Within a few seconds, the staircase that had previously led downward now went up into the shadowed, unlit recess above the stairwell.

She looked at the raven whose eyes were still glowing blue one last time before proceeding up the stairs. Her heart was pounding with excitement. None of the previous false alarms had been like this. Furthermore, the statue and moving staircase were reminiscent of Professor Dumbledore's office.

It seemed like the climb was longer than anticipated. Ginny wondered if the staircase had not only changed direction but had grown longer. She eventually reached the top where an unlit hallway began. As soon as she stepped off the staircase and passed another stone raven, a grinding noise signified that the stair case had moved back to its original position.

"Lumos," Ginny whispered, holding up Harry's wand. Blue light shone from the tip of the wand, revealing Ginny's surroundings. The hallway was wider than she had estimated and not as empty as she had assumed. It was lined with suits of armor.

Each suit of armor was completely black with the exception of two bands of white slanting diagonally across their shields. Ginny was reminded of Harry's robes from the Pensieve memory. There were many suits of armor throughout the castle, but compared to these in the hallway, they seemed rather old and shoddy. These ones looked as if they were fully capable of going after someone and killing them.

Afraid of what the suits of armor might do if she lingered, Ginny didn't waste any time walking to the end of the corridor where she found a door that was flanked by two of the suits of armor. The door bolstered Ginny's hope that this was Harry's office as it was more ornate than most of the doors in the castle. She tried to open it, but discovered that it was locked. Fortunately, as with every other door in the castle, Harry's wand was sufficient to unlock it.

Ginny opened the door and stepped into the room. The room was somewhat brighter than the hallway that led to it owing to the many windows at one end of it. It would have been better lit, but the sky outside was overcast with clouds threatening to snow.

Closing the door behind her, Ginny surveyed the room. There were the windows on one end and a fireplace with two very comfy looking armchairs on the other end. Directly in front of the door was a very large desk with a high backed black chair behind it. The walls of the room were lined with built in cabinets. Through the glass cabinet doors, Ginny could see assorted book, trinkets, and potions.

Compared to Professor Dumbledore's office, this one seemed extremely sparse. There were always papers and objects spread about Dumbledore's office as well as numerous portraits. With this thought in mind, Ginny soon observed that the only object lying about other than the furniture was a book sitting on the desk's large, empty expanse.

Ginny walked over behind the desk, picked up the small book, and began thumbing through it. The pages were all handwritten or drawn. There seemed to be a great many diagrams and symbols alongside writing that appeared to be composed from the runic alphabet. Toward the end of the book, modern English began to dominate. She flipped back and looked for where the modern English first appeared and read the first two sentences aloud.

"I fear that the mere study of time travel will not enable me to undo Voldemort's handiwork. I shall have to move on and study what no other before me has studied; the very threads of reality."

Ginny smiled triumphantly. She had found Harry's office as well as a personal diary that might very well reveal his ultimate fate. Curiosity as to what the journal contained overwhelmed her and she sat down in Harry's chair behind the desk. However, before she could read anything else, there was a pop that announced the arrival of a house elf. It was Dobby. He was standing on the desk and holding a tray with a mug of Butterbeer and some pastries.

"Is Mistress Wheezy happy now?" Dobby asked.

"Yes, very happy," Ginny told him. "Thank you for helping me."

"Dobby doesn't know what Mistress is talking about," Dobby said with a sly smile.

Ginny amended her response. "I must have been very lucky indeed then. All I can say is that I'm grateful for certain friends. They trusted me enough to know that I wouldn't do anything bad to Lord Darkbane's office."

Dobby's sly smile widened even more. "It's impossible to do anything bad to Lord Darkbane's office. If your entering Lord Darkbane's office had been contrary to his will, the guards in the hallway would have killed you. Now the other house elves can't blame me for talking to you because they know that the guards didn't kill you."

Ginny felt the blood leave her face and she felt weak. "Kill me? Those guards can kill people?"

"Yes, but there was never any danger," Dobby announced proudly, "you told me that Lord Darkbane wouldn't mind if you got into his office."

This was indeed true and Ginny nodded in agreement, silently vowing to never deceive or mislead Dobby in the future. It then occurred to her that Dobby might be able to reveal more information to her. "Are you allowed to tell more about this office now that I'm in it?"

"There isn't much to say," Dobby said. "Here it is."

This wasn't quite what Ginny was looking for. "Do the house elves know anything about Lord Darkbane's ultimate fate?"

"No, Mistress Wheezy," Dobby answered. "After the magical explosion that marked Lord Darkbane's departure, the house elves came directly here to investigate. They searched this room and Lord Darkbane's bedroom."

"What did they find?" Ginny asked and then waited for the answer with bated breath.

Dobby gestured toward the rest of the room. "The office and bedroom are exactly as they were on that night."

Ginny was relieved beyond measure. There was no body and there had been no body. She was confident that this ruled out both suicide and murder. The mention of a bedroom had piqued her interest, so she inquired. "Where is the bedroom?"

The house elf pointed to the portion of wall on the right side of the fireplace. Ginny heard a creaking noise and the entrance to the bedroom appeared as the well disguised door opened. "It's just through there," Dobby said.

"Thank you very much," Ginny repeated. The house elf could hardly deny that he'd helped her at that juncture.

Dobby nodded. "I must go." He then disappeared with another pop leaving Ginny alone in Harry's office and living quarters.

Ginny stood up from the desk and abandoned the journal that she had been reading in favor of checking Harry's bedroom. The door next to the fireplace opened into a somewhat average-sized bedroom. A four poster bed dominated the area, alongside some other typical bedroom furniture. Ginny spied a wardrobe against one of the walls.

She crossed the room and opened the wardrobe to find all of Harry's clothes. Most of the robes were of a similar cut to the one she had seen Harry wearing in the Pensieve memory. All of them were of dark, conservative colors. Several of the robes had two broad white bands across each sleeve. Ginny supposed that they had become Harry's trademark or sigil.

Quickly, she looked over her shoulder to establish that Dobby had not returned to observe her. Seeing that this was the case, she grabbed several of the robes and held them against her face and breathed in the scent. The robes did indeed smell like Harry. This reassured her greatly and bolstered her confidence that Harry wasn't that far out of their reach.

Moving on from the robes, she discovered his stash of socks. She might have considered stealing a few of them if they weren't so old and ridiculously out of style. Paying no more attention to the socks she examined Harry's collection of footwear.

There were a couple of pairs of shoes she supposed he might have used as loafers and a couple more that would have done well at formal dress occasions, but the majority of footwear consisted of knee-high boots made from dragon hide. Though they were nearly a thousand years old, the boots were in pristine condition.

Ginny wasn't sure whether it was because she was naturally curious about boots or whether she had a desire to feel closer to Harry, but she couldn't help but want to try on a pair of them. She picked a lighter colored pair and was soon sitting on the bed switching her own shoes for the boots. To her delight, she discovered that Harry's feet were the same size as hers and she was soon walking around the room trying to imagine Harry wearing dragon-hide boots like this everywhere.

Eventually, the novelty wore off and she returned the boots to their original home inside the wardrobe. Seeing that there was nothing else to find in the bedroom, Ginny returned to Harry's office, closing the bedroom door behind her. Before returning to the desk and Butterbeer to read the journal, she looked at each cabinet a little more closely and even opened some of them to examine the occasional book. The drawers of the desk revealed the existence of various papers- none of which meant anything to Ginny.

After a while, Ginny returned to the desk and chair to resume reading the journal while sipping Butterbeer. The hot drink alongside the largely boring notes that Harry made soon put her to sleep and it was quite dark when she next awoke. The only light came from a fire that had been lit in the fireplace. The fact that the tray Dobby had brought was missing led her to assume that Dobby had been responsible for that.

It then occurred to Ginny that she ought to go inform Professor Dumbledore and her friends of her discovery. She closed the journal, picked it up off the desk, and checked to make sure that she had Harry's wand. The last thing she needed was to accidentally get locked out of Harry's office. She then exited through the door in front of the desk and walked down the corridor that led to the moving staircase.

There was just enough light for her to see her way to the raven. It proved unnecessary for her to tap the raven with the wand as the staircase instantly began to move when she got near it. She walked down the staircase and it resumed its usual position once she reached the end. She was about to walk down toward the Gryffindor common room when she heard Hermione calling her from the hallway that led to the upper floors. Ginny waited for Hermione to catch up to her.

"Ginny! Where have you been?" Hermione asked. "We've been looking for you since dinner."

"I didn't realize so much time had passed," Ginny admitted.

"What were you doing that caused you to lose track of time and disappear?" Hermione said, not satisfied with Ginny's answer.

A smile crossed Ginny's face. "I was asleep in Harry's office."

Hermione gasped loudly. "You found it? Where?"

Ginny gestured vaguely toward the staircase. "Dobby gave me a hint and I took it. I would have come down sooner to find you, but I fell asleep. Where are Ron and Professor Dumbledore?"

"They're both searching for you and the office," Hermione told Ginny.

"Let's find them so that I can show you all the office," Ginny suggested.

The two girls started off down the hall. It wasn't long before they found Ron and Professor Dumbledore as they had the Marauders Map and had noticed Ginny's appearance on it. They soon intercepted each other.

"Ginny has been in Harry's office!" Hermione said, breaking the news.

Ron's mouth dropped open but it was Dumbledore who spoke first. "Extraordinary. Well done, Miss Weasley."

"I can show it to you all right now," Ginny told them.

They all quickly agreed that this was what they wanted and were soon returning to the staircases. It was Ron who was first to inquire as to whether Ginny had found anything about Harry in the office.

Ginny realized that she could inform them that she had discovered that she and Harry shared the same shoe size, but decided not to. She did tell them everything else. "According to Dobby, who was more willing to speak about Harry once I was sitting at Harry's desk, the house elves never found his body in the office. I found a journal of sorts lying on the desk." She then presented it to Dumbledore.

"Extraordinary," Dumbledore said as he examined it.

"I looked through it, but most of what he's written is either in some other language or too hard for me to comprehend. There aren't a lot of personal thoughts or feelings, it's mostly just stuff about magical theory," Ginny explained for the benefit of Ron and Hermione who were craning their necks and trying to catch a view of what Dumbledore was looking at. "I looked through some of the books and papers in the office, but didn't see anything of special note there."

They reached the raven statue perched on the banister next to the staircase. Ginny moved to point Harry's wand at it, but before it got very close, the eyes lit up and the staircase began moving.

"Remarkable," Professor Dumbledore commented. "We should have paid much more attention to that raven from the start."

"You're right," Ginny admitted. "The wand kept drawing me here, but I thought it just wanted me to keep searching the upper floors." She then began to walk up the stairs very casually as if she had done it several times before.

Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore shared significant looks with each other before following Ginny up the stairs. It seemed that Professor Dumbledore had been correct. The wand would lead Ginny to the office. Now they just hoped that it would eventually lead her to Harry.

When the three got to the top of the staircase, Ginny was standing in the hallway with Harry's lit up wand. She gestured toward the black suits of armor that Dobby had informed her were deadly. "These are apparently Harry's guards. Dobby says that if Harry doesn't want you in his office, they will kill you."

This scared Ron and Hermione greatly and they searched their memories to make sure they hadn't said anything rude to Harry the last time they had seen him. Dumbledore who knew more about the charms Harry must have used on the suits of armor was unconcerned and reassured everyone. "I'm sure Harry has to consciously direct their movements in real time," Dumbledore told them. "I doubt they'll attack unless Harry is standing near here and is angry at us."

"Maybe," Ron muttered.

Ginny turned and continued down the hallway. They all followed her and were soon at the door to Harry's office. It opened for her and they entered. Seeing that it was quite dark, Professor Dumbledore waved his hand. The room then lit up, though the source of the light was not immediately apparent to them.

Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore split off and began examining the various aspects of the room and making comments. Hermione was fascinated by the various books in the cabinets that lined the walls. She attempted to open one of the cabinets to examine a book more closely, but failed. Ron was impressed with the view that the windows afforded of the Hogwarts grounds. Professor Dumbledore marveled at some of the trinkets lying about in the shelves. He too tried to open a cabinet but was met with failure.

"Harry really was the Headmaster," Hermione said quietly. "It was hard to believe it, but now this drives it home."

"We've definitely made progress," Dumbledore commented.

Ron was happy about finding the office, but was a little cynical. "We're in the office now, but where is Harry?"

Professor Dumbledore held up the diary that Ginny had presented him. "I do believe that this may hold some clues." He then made his way to one of the armchairs in front of the fire and sat down. "I'll look through it and see if there are any immediate clues."

Ron and Hermione joined him and began to read over his shoulder. Ginny who had already tried to look through and decipher the journal was not quite as interested and took a seat in Harry's chair behind the desk. With regret, she realized that she must have missed dinner while she was asleep. To her great surprise, a dinner tray with generous helpings of food appeared in front of her. Pleased with this development, she started eating while the others examined Harry's journal.

Eventually, Ron and Hermione lost interest and left Dumbledore to his own devices. Hermione returned to envying the books on Harry's shelves and Ron convinced Ginny to make some food appear for him on Harry's desk. After a good amount of time had passed, Dumbledore finished examining the diary.

"Was anything in there useful?" Ginny asked.

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "The contents are absolutely fascinating. Harry put forth an extraordinary amount of effort to find a way to return to us. In so doing, he learned and developed a great many spells and enchantments. However, I don't see that he ever came close to developing anything that would have fulfilled his goal."

"So where is he now?" Ron said.

Dumbledore held up the diary. "Based on the theories that Harry has recorded here, and based on the facts we know about him- especially the ones that reveal he never aged and that he suffered from depression, I'd have to say that he probably became unglued from reality."

"I'm not sure I understand," Hermione said with a frown as she eyed the diary warily.

The headmaster had the attention of all three of the teens and he tried his best to explain. "As far as magic goes and according to Harry's theories, when Voldemort sent Harry to the past, he did so quite sloppily. Harry was in the past, but he wasn't quite a part of it. It's almost as if he was a sort of ghost. He had the ability to interact with and affect people and events, but he was caught in a sort of stasis. You'll remember that in the Pensieve memory Harry appeared no older than we remember him despite his being Headmaster for several decades."

They nodded and signaled Dumbledore to continue speaking even though they didn't entirely understand his explanation.

"Harry became depressed. I see from the journal that Harry eventually ran out of theories and ideas. He was at his wit's end and unable to find a way home. Professor Greengrass was slowly taking over the school and Harry probably felt disconnected. I suspect at this point, Harry's tenuous connection with that time period was dissolved. Suffice it to say, he ceased to exist in our reality. He was no longer in the past but no magic propelled him to the future."

Ginny's heart sunk and she suddenly felt as if she was going to burst into tears. "You're saying that Harry is essentially dead."

There was silence as no one was entirely sure how to address this. If Dumbledore was correct, Harry was gone. Finally, Hermione spoke up. "Is there a way to bring him back or summon him back to . . . reality?"

"I don't know," Dumbledore answered slowly. "I'll have to look at Harry's notes more carefully. He may have mentioned something that will help. In the meantime, we may as well get some sleep. I assure you that I'll be putting my full effort into this. There is nothing more important than having Harry with us again."

With this, they all quietly filed out of the office and went down the stairs toward the rest of the castle. Dumbledore headed in the direction of his office with Harry's journal in hand and the three teens returned to their dorms. They were all depressed. Finding Harry's office had been very exciting, but now they were farther away from him than ever before if what Dumbledore said was true.

Ron and Hermione eventually fell asleep, but Ginny remained awake. After several restless hours, she got out of bed and left Gryffindor Tower. She soon found herself in front of the stone raven. Before she could draw Harry's wand to tap it, the eyes glowed blue and the stairs moved.

Ginny entered the office. The light Dumbledore had magically created was gone and the fire had burned out. For some reason, she had no desire to remedy the situation, but was content to sit in Harry's chair behind the desk and wonder how many times Harry had sat there in the dark wondering if he would ever see his friends again. Eventually, she fell asleep.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were greatly subdued as the weeks passed. Professor Dumbledore never seemed to be around. When they did see him, he assured them that he would contact them the instant he made a major breakthrough. Ginny soon took up the habit of spending time in Harry's office. She did her homework there and even spent her spare time sitting next to the fire with hot chocolate or aimlessly wandering about the office and bedroom.

It wasn't long before nearly two months had passed without any further news or progress. Ginny was on her way to Harry's office one afternoon when she was intercepted by Professor Dumbledore. "Miss Weasley," he said by way of address. "I was wondering if you could spare me some of your time."

"Have you found a way to bring Harry back yet?" she inquired.

Dumbledore smiled and his eyes twinkled. "I believe there may be hope," he told her. He held up Harry's journal. "Trying to comprehend this has been a challenge for me. Harry certainly delved deeply into time travel and the nature of reality. It is fortunate that he did so. By reading between the lines and making the occasional assumption, I have found that there is one definite possibility for bringing him back."

"What is it?" Ginny inquired, hardly daring to hope.

"The castle wards," Dumbledore answered. "If Harry created and then tied any wards to his person, activating them may serve to summon him back to reality. This is where I need your assistance."

Ginny frowned worriedly. "I don't know anything about wards," she told Professor Dumbledore.

"It's not your expertise on wards I'm after," Dumbledore reassured her. "While I was trying to figure out how we could discover the nature and location of the wards Harry set up, I realized that you had mentioned that you searched through Harry's books and papers. We may find diagrams of the wards among those papers."

"Let's go and check," Ginny said, eager to do anything that would help them find Harry quicker.

Dumbledore was pleased and the two were soon in Harry's office and standing behind Harry's desk. "All of the papers are in those two drawers," Ginny told Dumbledore, gesturing before she moved to one of the chairs near the fireplace with her book bag.

Dumbledore nodded, sat down in Harry's chair, and then attempted to open the first drawer but failed as it seemed to be locked. The second drawer also refused to open. He attempted to use some unlocking spells but they also failed to open the drawers. "Do you remember how you opened these drawers?" he asked Ginny.

Ginny returned to the side of the room the desk was on wearing a frown. "I just reached out and opened them," she replied. She put forth her hand to test the top drawer and to the surprise of Professor Dumbledore, it opened when she pulled on it.

"How extraordinary," he muttered to himself. He supposed he could spend time theorizing about why Ginny was able to open locked drawers at will, but was anxious to get on with looking for the wards. "Do you mind opening the bottom drawer too?"

Ginny obliged him and then returned to where she had begun to extract books, parchment, and quills from her book bag thinking nothing of the strange occurrence. Dumbledore began the tedious process of going through Harry's files. An enlarging charm on the inside of both drawers had enabled Harry to have an infinite amount of space for his paperwork. Consequently, he had never thrown anything out. He had not organized anything either.

Teaching contracts were alongside angry correspondence from parents and copies of Harry's pithy replies. There were letters of outrage from the Minister of Magic, newspaper clippings, expenditure reports, coupons clipped from the Daily Prophet, ticket stubs from Quidditch matches, advertisements for racing brooms, and the occasional remains of howlers. There was even junk mail. "I thought I needed a secretary," Dumbledore mumbled as he began to realize that Harry's drawers of papers were in fact his drawers of junk. Indeed, he discovered that the bottom of each drawer was littered with empty bottles of ink, used quills, the occasional carving, and even some glass marbles.

Eventually, Dumbledore was pleased to discover a parchment that when unfolded was nearly the size of Harry's desk. On it was drawn a crude map of the castle and grounds. There was sloppy writing and diagrams scrawled all across it. "I believe I have found what I was looking for," Dumbledore announced to Ginny.

Ginny abandoned her homework and joined Professor Dumbledore at the desk to study the map he had found. They attempted to make sense of it together. They soon found evidence that the map did detail the placement of Harry's wards.

Seeing that this was the case, they studied the map intensely. Interpreting Harry's sloppy handwriting proved to be difficult. It was further frustrating that Harry seemed satisfied to use symbols and abbreviations for the wards he had duplicated in multiple parts of the castle. It was also clear that he had not really anticipated that anyone else would be trying to use the map as a reference.

"Based solely on the placement and quantity of wards, I would have to say that Harry's defenses are impressive," Dumbledore commented to Ginny as they examined the diagrams. "However, I am concerned that I've never seen evidence of these wards functioning. "

"Does that mean they're probably long gone?" Ginny inquired.

Dumbledore hesitated before answering. "That could be the case, but I'd prefer to believe something else. It could be that the wards are only in effect when activated for a specific period of time. Harry's successors may have also found a way to disarm them as they would have wanted to replace them with wards they were sure they could rely on."

Ginny was still trying to conceptualize the plan for summoning Harry back to reality. "So the plan is that we're going to go on down, find these wards, and trigger them?"

"Not quite," Dumbledore answered. "We'll need to figure out which wards are the type that would send an alarm to Harry when tripped. It's doubtful that he would set a ward to notify him every time someone tried to Apparate into Hogwarts for instance, but the presence of a Dark creature in the castle might be of note to him. I'll take care of that research, though we may have to call some Order members in to help. Specifically, your brother Bill would be helpful. In the meantime, you needn't unduly excite Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. I'll tell them if we do decide to start tripping Harry's alarms."

Ginny nodded her agreement and watched silently while Dumbledore folded up the map and left the office with it. As soon as he was gone she resumed her homework.

"Are you sure that Lord Darkbane's private quarters have been located by the old fool?" Voldemort hissed at Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Completely sure," Bellatrix breathed.

Narcissa didn't say anything but nodded fearfully. Draco had been closely observing the movements of Professor Dumbledore at the direction of Voldemort as well as working on the vanishing cabinet. She silently hoped that the Dark lord would not task him with anything more than that.

What of the hourglass," Voldemort demanded, "or the rings?"

"Nothing," Narcissa responded weakly. "There have been multiple visits to the office, but they seem to have been fruitless. Surely we would know by now if they had found the rings and hourglass."

Voldemort took some time to consider this information and then came to his own conclusions. "They're still in the process of searching it. If Lord Darkbane's rings or hourglass are in his quarters, he no doubt would have taken precautions to secure them. I doubt the old fool would be able to find the hiding place or even be smart enough to realize there is one."

"As you say, my lord," Narcissa agreed. It was her standard practice to do so whenever the Dark lord made such statements. It kept her out of trouble.

Bellatrix's insanity made her a bolder person though. "It would appear that Darkbane's suicide was staged, my lord. He might not have left the rings in his office."

"Perhaps not," Voldemort hissed. "However, the only way to find the rings or determine Darkbane's ultimate fate is for me to get into the office personally. It must be arranged."

"Raiding Hogwarts could prove dangerous," Bellatrix whispered. "The Ministry is still strong and Dumbledore will no doubt be able to marshal forces to drive us back."

"I will only need half an hour in the office at most," Voldemort hissed impatiently. "The Ministry will not be able to react quickly."

"What of Dumbledore's immediate defenses? Surely the castle has wards both inside and out."

Voldemort smiled coldly and began to toy with a ring on his finger. It was made from gold and had an emerald set in it. "Dumbledore's defenses of the castle are of no concern. Only Lord Darkbane himself would be able to stop me. Fortunately, he's been dead for nearly a thousand years."

Chapter Twelve: The Mysterious Ward

It was yet another Saturday when Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were summoned to Professor Dumbledore's office. Ginny assumed that Dumbledore was going to explain his theory about Harry's wards to Ron and Hermione. Upon arriving in the office, she discovered that she was only partially correct. Professors McGonagall and Snape were there along with Bill Weasley and Alastor Moody. It seemed that Dumbledore had seen fit to call in more expertise.

"Bill!" Ginny exclaimed happily.

"Are you feeling better these days?" Bill asked as they exchanged hugs.

"Of course," Ginny replied quickly, trying to avoid thinking about her previous capture. Her search for Harry, though exhausting, had taken her mind off more unpleasant things.

Bill smiled knowingly, but kindly. "I don't suppose you know why we're here?"

"It has to do with Harry," Ginny began to explain.

Bill nodded and was about to ask more, but was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore who addressed them all as he noted that all he had invited were now present. "In the past months, vast progress has been made with regard to locating Harry's whereabouts and fate. One important thing we discovered is that while Harry was the Headmaster of Hogwarts, he did not occupy this office. Fortunately, we were able to find his office after an extensive search."

"The kid really was Headmaster, was he?" Moody said.

"Yes, he was." Dumbledore replied affirmatively. "Inside the office we found proof in the form of a journal that Harry was indeed Lord Darkbane."

Snape seemed to be in a rather sour mood, but he was nonetheless rendering his attention to the subject at hand. "Did you search the office for the rings or hourglass that the Dark lord is after?"

"I didn't really see them lying around, nor did I search," Dumbledore replied. "I was more concerned about finding clues as to what happened to Harry. From the clues I've gathered, it would seem that Harry met with an accident that has placed him beyond our reach. He can't get to us and we can't get to him directly. I've been researching our options for the past while and have concluded that the best way to summon Harry to us involves the wards he placed on the castle while he was in the past."

Bill was quick to catch on. "You want to try to summon him to the here and now via his alarm wards."

"Yes," Dumbledore replied, clearly pleased with his former student. "That is my plan precisely. I found in his office a map of the castle on which Harry notated the placement of his wards."

Dumbledore stood up from his chair and produced the folded up map from a drawer. While he spread it out on the desk, Ron and Hermione looked at Ginny accusingly. They knew perfectly well that she and Dumbledore must have visited the office without them. Ginny shrugged at them and tried to put on an innocent face. Snape, McGonagall, Moody, and Bill were soon perusing the map. Ron and Hermione moved to join them. Ginny moved closer to the group but didn't strain herself trying to get a view of the map as she already had seen it.

"You can't read anything he's written," Snape growled with animosity clear in his voice. The fact that Harry had become Lord Darkbane clearly wasn't enough to impress him.

"It's good strategy," Moody declared. "You don't want your enemies to discover the nature of your wards after all."

Snape wasn't about to let that go. "That's why you lock the map up for safekeeping."

"Our inability to read the ward notations isn't strictly a handwriting issue," Dumbledore told them.

Bill was studying the map intensely, running his hands over various parts as he mentally visualized the wards and how they interacted with everything else. He was not paying strict attention to the conversation. "Was Harry friendly with the goblins?" he asked with a strange tone in his voice.

Dumbledore looked at Ginny and arched one of his eyebrows. Ginny took this as a signal that she should answer. "Professor Binns has theorized that Harry was involved in some sort of covert alliance with some goblins," she responded. Ginny was still of the opinion that Binns was off his rocker.

"The goblins who founded the bank to be specific," Dumbledore amended, his eyes twinkling for some reason.

Bill looked up from the map with an odd expression on his face. "I would have to say that this map confirms the theory. At least a third of the wards notated here were designed by goblins. Another third of them were originally goblin wards but have been modified and improved. The rest are normal wizard wards, albeit archaic ones. That's why it's nearly impossible to read the map. A good deal of it is written in terms familiar only to goblin ward crafters."

"Isn't it possible that Mr. Potter simply hired the goblins to cast those wards on the castle?" Professor McGonagall inquired.

"It is possible," Bill said. "However, I can tell from the nature, placement, and notations that Harry personally cast these wards."

Dumbledore had a smile on his face. "Wouldn't you say that it is somewhat rare for goblins to share their warding secrets with wizards?"

"Yes," Bill agreed, his voice becoming slightly energetic. "The wards are trade secrets and never shared with even the wizards or witches that Gringotts employs. I would give a great deal to talk about this with Harry."

"Perhaps that can be arranged if we can trip one of them to summon Harry," Dumbledore said.

"Is there any evidence that the wards are still in existence?" Snape asked. "Supposedly there are a great many. I would think that someone would have noticed them by now."

"Establishing that fact won't be a problem," Bill informed the collected group. He then pointed to a spot on the map. "I presume that this is Harry's office as it seems to be the hub of all the major controlling wards. We should go there, but on the way, let's stop here." He pointed to the main staircase where Harry had been standing during the confrontation with Minister Smythe. "A significant portion of the wards run through there. It will be the best place to determine whether they're still in place and able to function."

The party exited Professor Dumbledore's office with Bill and Dumbledore leading the way. Snape, McGonagall, and Moody grouped up and were conversing leaving Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to themselves.

"When did you and Dumbledore search Harry's office again?" Ron asked crossly.

"A little while ago," Ginny hedged. "It wasn't much. He just asked if he could check through some things and found that map. He said it could prove useful and said he'd tell us all more once he was sure."

This seemed to mollify Ron somewhat and he didn't seem as hostile anymore. Hermione got over it quickly and started asking questions. "Professor Dumbledore seems confident that Harry was allied with the goblins," she said.

"I suppose," Ginny responded.

They soon arrived at the staircase and Bill took up position about halfway up it. The others stood near, ready to observe whatever he did.

"The goblins taught me a spell that detects the presence of wards whether they're active or not," Bill informed them. "It simulates an attempt to tamper with them. If the spell tries to cross the boundary of any sort of ward, it will be repelled."

He raised his wand to cast the spell but was stopped by Professor Dumbledore. "Let's wait until some of these students move on," the headmaster suggested.

Several awkward moments ensued while they waited for a time when there were as few students in sight as possible. This earned the group standing on the staircase some odd looks from passing students. Snape and Moody seemed to be greatly annoyed by this.

Eventually, Dumbledore nodded to Bill that he could go ahead. Bill raised his arm and with a jab, let off a spell that shot up into the air. The spell sped toward the ceiling but abruptly bounced away with a loud and violent crack and flash of red and blue light. The spell accelerated to a faster speed and then bounced again with a louder crack and a flash of purple light. This pattern continued and it began to sound as if someone had lit off several strings of firecrackers.

"Hit the floor!" Moody yelled.

Of the group, all but Bill, Dumbledore, and Ginny dropped to the floor as the loud and blinding display continued. Eventually, the spell ran out of energy from the repeated ricochets and it fizzled while in between collisions. Ginny let out a sigh of relief. Her nerves were terribly rattled but she was thrilled to have been able to see that Harry's wards were still in place.

"I think we can safely say that Harry's wards are indeed still extant throughout the castle," Dumbledore observed as the rest of the group got back to their feet shakily.

"I've never seen such strong wards," Bill marveled. "I would hate to be the target of these wards."

"Unfortunately, that seems to have become our job," Snape sneered, trying to hide his shaken state. "Potter isn't going to return without one of them going off."

Hermione spoke up. "Wouldn't what we just did be enough to cause an alarm that would summon Harry back?"

Bill shrugged. "It's possible. If that was the case, I should think we'd know by now. Let's go up to Harry's office so I can examine all the wards better."

They began the trek up to Harry's office with Ginny and Professor Dumbledore leading the way. When they reached the stone raven, the staircase changed and they were soon at the hallway in front of Harry's office. Professors Snape and McGonagall seemed to be especially surprised at this. Ginny vaguely wondered whether Snape was in danger from Harry's guards, but they passed without incident. They were soon in the office.

Bill didn't waste any time and soon had the ward map spread on Harry's desk. After looking at the map and the office for several moments, he created a duplicate of the map with a wave of his wand and returned the folded up version to Dumbledore who passed it to Ginny. Ginny opened a drawer of the desk and stuffed it in with Harry's other papers.

The wait began as Bill began performing a multitude of spells and looking at the results through a pair of special goggles he had brought with him. Hermione and Ron watched him avidly. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall took up position near the windows and began to have a quiet conversation. Ginny sat down in a chair next to the fireplace and watched Snape study the contents of Harry's cabinets. The potions behind the glass seemed to intrigue him greatly. He spent several moments with his face pressed to the glass of one cabinet studying an especially interesting potion.

It took nearly an hour for Bill to pronounce the verdict. "Almost all of the wards are tied to inanimate objects."

There was a collective sigh of disappointment among the gathered searchers, but Dumbledore was still hopeful. "Are there any at all that may be tied to Harry?"

"There is only one ward that is not tied to an inanimate object," Bill said. "I suppose that it may be tied to Harry."

"What kind of ward is it?" Dumbledore inquired as he moved to look at the ward map Bill had been using and making notations on.

"I don't know," Bill answered slowly. "I've never seen one like it." With his finger, he pointed to the map and outlined the ward's notation and location. "It covers the entire castle and grounds. It seems to be a detection ward."

"What does it detect?" Dumbledore asked.

Bill shrugged. "It could be looking for anything. "

By this time, Dumbledore and Bill had been joined by everyone else in the room and they were all examining the writing that detailed the ward despite the fact that none of them had the ability to interpret Harry's notes with any degree of accuracy.

"It's probably a minor and irrelevant ward," Snape commented.

"I disagree," Bill replied. "This ward is the most complex and powerful of them all. As you can see from the notes, Harry reworked this ward several times. Based on some of the changes, I would say he was especially concerned about the ward's ability to transmit an alarm when triggered. If we could activate this ward and if it is indeed tied to Harry, we'd have a good chance of summoning him. I don't think there's anything that could prevent it from alerting Harry upon its activation."

Professor McGonagall asked the next question. "What happens when the ward is triggered?"

"At the present I would say it looks like a silent alarm," Bill answered. "Past renditions of the ward included the activation of other wards throughout the castle. However, Harry seems to have had second thoughts about tying this ward to any of the other wards."

"How do we trigger it?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think we can," Bill replied doubtfully. "If this ward hasn't been tripped in a thousand years by accident, I don't think we can pull it off on purpose now. If we don't know what the ward is supposed to detect and if we aren't the person who cast it, then we can't even interact with it."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "We may have an ace up our sleeve, Bill. How useful would the wand that cast it be to you?"

Bill quickly replied, "Immensely useful. "

Dumbledore nodded in Ginny's direction and then spoke. "It so happens that we have Harry's wand in our possession."

Ginny pulled it out from her robes. There were various reactions from those who had not previously known about the wand and Ginny's possession of it. Professor McGonagall and Bill were shocked. There were calculating expressions on Moody and Snape's faces. "The wand is able to unlock just about every door or secret passage in the castle," she told them as she handed it over to Bill.

"That's a good sign," Bill said quietly as he accepted the wand from Ginny. He held it in his hand delicately and examined it carefully. "I don't think I've ever seen a wand quite like this one," he muttered, "but I can see why Harry might prefer it over others."

Bill placed the goggles over his eyes and then used Harry's wand to cast a small number of spells. They all watched with rapt attention as he waved and poked Harry's wand around at things they couldn't see. Eventually, he sighed and then cancelled his spells. He removed the goggles and returned Harry's wand to Ginny. "The wand is able to interact with the ward, but I don't see an easy way to trigger it."

"Triggering a ward shouldn't be that hard," Snape criticized.

"I agree," Bill said, forestalling argument. "Unfortunately, we also have a desire to not accidentally destroy the ward while attempting to trigger it. Furthermore, Harry's wand appears to be very temperamental and unpredictable."

"I think that caution is the best policy," Dumbledore said. "At this point, we have done as much as we can. You might as well return to what you had planned to do today. I will consult with Bill a little further before he leaves so that I can perform further research and study of this ward."

Everyone filed out of Harry's office and left Professor Dumbledore and Bill hunched over the ward map with Bill doing his best to explain everything about the ward he could to the aged headmaster. Ginny opted to wait outside in the hall for them and said farewell to Ron and Hermione who were planning to go to the library together.

The wait proved to be quite a long one and Ginny got bored. The only objects of interest in the hallway were the suits of armor that allegedly served as Harry's guards and according to Dobby, were capable of killing intruders. She was soon examining one of them closely. Lifting the face guard of the helmet revealed that there was nothing inside. The shield and arm holding it was immobile, but Ginny discovered that the other arm moved quite easily and she laughed as she shook its limp hand, or rather, gauntlet.

At the side of the suit of armor was a scabbard that held a sword. Ginny wondered if the suits of armor really needed swords for fighting magical opponents. She wrapped her hands around the hilt and drew the sword. It was a solid sword, well polished and sharpened. Ginny found that it took the strength of both her arms to heft it. She was in the process of swinging the sword around and posturing with it when Bill and Professor Dumbledore emerged from Harry's office. They looked at her curiously.

"I was just having a look," Ginny said as her cheeks flamed.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "The house elves are under the impression that these suits of armor were used by Harry as a weapon of sorts. I must say, they are impressive suits of armor." He then said farewell to Bill and left the hall via the magical staircase.

Ginny quickly returned the sword to its respective scabbard. "I was bored!" she declared.

"Of course," Bill said, hiding a grin.

Ginny glared at him and then offered to walk him to the front doors. He accepted and they parted ways in the entrance hall. She then returned to her dorm to fetch her book bag so that she could do her homework.

The next weeks were rather uneventful, albeit depressing. They were so close to rescuing Harry, yet so far. Professor Dumbledore spent every waking minute researching the ward and even sent several Order members to foreign countries to attempt to gather information about ancient wards. There was no success and still more time passed.

It was in the early hours of a Friday morning when Voldemort and his forces raided Hogwarts. The students in Gryffindor tower were alerted that something was wrong by a massive explosion that shook the castle. The explosion woke and startled everybody. Ginny leapt from her bed and rushed to the only window in the room as the other girls in her dorm screamed and asked what was going on.

Ginny refrained from retorting that they knew as much as she did as she looked down on the grounds. Though it was night, she could see people running around on the grounds in front of the castle. Hagrid's hut was on fire and the flames were providing enough light for those bare details.

"Death Eaters are attacking the castle," Ginny announced as she moved away from the window and changed into her clothes as fast as she could. The situation was urgent and required speed, but she didn't think she'd be much use in her pajamas.

She grabbed Harry's wand in addition to her own and attempted to find a place to put it. Without her school robes and with it being abnormally long, it was difficult to find a place to put it on her person. She finally put it up one of her pant legs hoping that she wouldn't lose it.

The girls in her dorm were still in a panic by the time she exited and made her way to the common room. On her way down, she ran into Hermione who had apparently opted to also get dressed. "We've got to go and help," Hermione said anxiously. "There's more Death Eaters than there are staff."

They arrived in the common room to discover that several other Gryffindors had already made their way down in varying states of dress. Most of them were crowded around the window that had the best view of the grounds and battle thereon.

Ginny and Hermione tried to find Ron, but they heard his voice coming from near the portrait hole before they saw him. "The entrance is blocked!"

They rushed over to the portrait hole and found Ron, Neville, and Seamus trying to force open the portrait hole. "What's going on?" Hermione asked breathlessly.

"It won't open!" Ron declared. "It's been locked or blocked."

"Ginny, try Harry's wand," Hermione directed.

Cursing herself for not thinking of that sooner, Ginny stood on one foot and extracted Harry's wand from her pant leg. She waved it and muttered an unlocking charm. The entrance didn't open. "I don't understand," she said as she tried again and failed, "it unlocks everything else."

"Something must be stopping it," Hermione reasoned. "The Death Eaters may have blocked it off or even the teachers."

Ron cursed angrily, but didn't waste time dwelling on the obstruction in their path. "We'll have to get out through one of the windows and fly down on brooms."

"Let's try this window," Ginny suggested, gesturing toward a window that no one was already standing at. "The Death Eaters won't see us from there and we'll be able to get down to the ground safely."

"Go get some brooms then," Hermione commanded. "Ginny and I will work on the window."

The boys ran up to their dorms while Hermione and Ginny moved to the window. "I don't think I've ever seen one of these windows open," Ginny commented as Hermione tried to open it first manually, then by magic, and finally with a blasting hex. None of them worked.

"Harry's wand should do the trick," Hermione theorized.

Ginny nodded and raised Harry's wand to perform a blasting hex. As the window didn't seem to be built to open, she doubted that unlocking it would do any good. Before she could cast the blasting hex, the window vanished without a trace.

"Good job," Hermione commented as Ginny hopped around while trying to stick the wand back up the pant leg. "Are you sure that's a very good place to keep a wand? You might lose it."

"It's too long for me to put it anywhere else," Ginny retorted, "and I don't feel comfortable using it in a fight. If I lose it, I'll just summon it to me."

"Right," Hermione replied vaguely as she poked her head out the window and looked down at the ground below. "I don't think I'm going to enjoy the trip down."

Ginny glanced down. "At least we'll be out of the line of fire."

Ron, Neville, and a number of other boys showed up with brooms. There wasn't enough for everyone, so they had to double up. Ginny grabbed a broom and snagged Hermione as her partner. She had no desire to double up with any of her other classmates. She and Hermione were soon flying out the window with Ron and Neville on their tail.

A Death Eater who must have been standing guard began shooting hexes and stunners at them. Ginny heard Hermione gasp just before she pulled up and shot off as fast as the broom could go with two people on it. This led them into the path of other Death Eaters who shot nasty spells their way.

Figuring that they would make poorer targets if they were away from the light that flames consuming Hagrid's hut were casting, Ginny turned sharply and darted toward the other side of the grounds. They were soon over a part of the grounds not far from the entrance of the castle that was much less lit and seemingly free of Death Eaters. Ginny landed and Hermione sighed with relief. Ron and Neville landed next to them only a moment later.

"That was close," Neville gulped.

"Where's everyone else?" Ginny asked, noting that no one else was following them.

Ron shrugged, "I think they might have changed their minds when they saw us nearly get taken down. I'm pretty sure we're the only ones out here."

This annoyed Ginny greatly, but she chose not to comment and instead threw the loaner broom under a tree where it would be more or less safe until it could be reclaimed and returned. She drew her wand along with the other three.

"What precisely should we do?" Hermione asked them all.

"The Death Eaters are spread around the grounds," Ron informed them. "If we try to run around and hunt them down we'll just get knocked off one by one by those we don't see. It would be best if we tried to get into the castle and help fortify it."

Ginny nodded in agreement. "Let's do it then."

Without wasting any further time, they began to move toward the front entrance of the castle while watching carefully for Death Eaters. It wasn't long before they spotted a Death Eater in the darkness that seemed to be watching the castle carefully. Ron and Ginny exchanged some silent signals and simultaneously hit the nameless Death Eater with stunners. He dropped and Hermione conjured some rope to tie him up.

"I don't understand why they're not really attacking the castle proper," Hermione commented. "So far, all they've really done is set Hagrid's hut on fire and some noisy spell work.

"Let's just get in and we'll worry about it then," Ron muttered as they began to move toward the entrance once again.

They came across a second Death Eater, this one a woman. Ron distracted her and Ginny and Neville took her out with the double-stunner effect they'd learned with the first one. They were soon moving quickly toward the entrance and arrived without incident. One of the doors was open and they entered to find several Death Eaters exchanging spells with the staff in the entrance hall.

In particular, Professor Dumbledore was almost singlehandedly holding off the Death Eaters who were attempting to get past the staff and into the rest of the castle. The Death Eaters did not notice the four students enter behind them. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville were quick to take advantage of this and began to shoot a barrage of spells at the backs of the offending Death Eaters.

The Death Eaters began to fall quickly and in their panic they got sloppy and didn't dodge the spells cast by the staff very well, thus increasing the number of casualties on their side. Seeing that things were under control, Ron moved to close the open door so as to protect them from being attacked from behind. Neville moved to help him and while his back was turned he got hit by a nasty hex that rendered him unconscious and injured severely.

Ron finished closing the door and resumed firing spells at the Death Eaters while Hermione rushed over to Neville to check him over. "He'll be fine!" she declared as she performed a few minor healing spells to stave off the bleeding.

It was only another few moments before the last Death Eater had been downed and everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Neville and several other teachers were unconscious, but none were dead or in critical condition.

"How did you get outside?" Professor McGonagall asked them her voice her voice alternating between pride and disapproval.

"The portrait hole was blocked or something, so we got broom and exited through one of the windows," Hermione answered. "We assumed that you or the Death Eaters had locked it from the outside."

Professor Dumbledore frowned. "I'm not aware of a way to block the entrance to the house common rooms and none of the Death Eaters got past us."

"I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the Death Eaters," Hermione said carefully, having had more time to think it over. Even if you had locked the entrance, Harry's wand would have overridden it. We tried to open it with Harry's wand, but it wouldn't budge."

There was a curious expression in Dumbledore's eyes. "Overridden . . ." he said, his voice trailing off.

Before he could elaborate or continue, a sudden volley of spells assaulted them from the shadows of the main staircase. The only people left standing were the Headmaster, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. They were about to fire back, but were stopped by a voice all too familiar to Professor Dumbledore and Ginny. "Drop your wands or be killed."

The three teens were hesitant, but when Professor Dumbledore dropped his wand as directed, they followed suit reluctantly. As soon as this was accomplished, Voldemort and about half a dozen Death Eaters descended the staircase. None of the Death Eaters were familiar to them.

"You'll gain nothing by this, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly as they were surrounded by the Death Eaters and Voldemort. "The Aurors will arrive eventually and drive you from the castle."

"I don't intend to stay for long," Voldemort hissed. "However, if I did choose to stay, there is nothing the Aurors could do. I could hold the castle indefinitely."

Dumbledore shook his head. "I highly doubt that, Tom."

Voldemort held up one of his bony hands. On it was a gold ring with an emerald set in it. He displayed it to them. "This is Slytherin's Founder ring. How do you suppose I was able to move through the castle and avoid all of your wards so easily? With this ring I have absolute power over the castle and grounds."

"You seem to forget that there are three other Founder rings," Ginny said crossly.

"On the contrary," Voldemort snarled, "I have not forgotten. That is why I'm here. We're going to go pay a visit to Lord Darkbane's office where I will retrieve the other three rings and the magical hourglass." The Dark lord motioned toward the stairs with his wand. "Why don't you all lead the way?"

The prisoners weren't eager to lead the way to Darkbane's office and hesitated. Hermione took the opportunity to speak up bravely. "We've already searched the office and we didn't find the rings or hourglass."

A feral smile crossed Voldemort's face. "Then you won't mind if I take a look myself."

"Not even Professor Dumbledore could find anything!" Ron declared urgently, realizing that they had in fact neglected to search in earnest for the rings or hourglass. It was entirely possible that if Voldemort was allowed in the office, he would find them and all would be lost. Not even Harry's return would be enough to counter that defeat. "What makes you think you could find something that Dumbledore couldn't?"

Voldemort laughed. "I'm of the opinion that Lord Darkbane was far more powerful and brilliant than old Professor Dumbledore here. I trust the rings and hourglass are hidden well. Now if you don't mind, let's get a move on."

Ginny had realized midway during the discussion that she had not been entirely disarmed. Harry's wand was still in her pant leg. Just as Voldemort and the Death Eaters turned to go up the stairs and were distracted, she quickly spun and lifted her leg to draw the wand. The Death Eaters saw her movement and were turning to stop her, but she was confident that she could draw the wand and do plenty of damage with it before they could stop her. Unfortunately, when her hand reached her pant leg, she discovered to her horror that the wand was gone.

Before she could react to this nasty surprise, several Death Eater spells caught her and sent her flying into the nearest stone wall. It was painful, but the only thing that she could think about was the missing wand. Hermione had been correct; the pant leg was a bad place to put a wand if you didn't want to lose it.

Hermione and Ron moved quickly over to Ginny to help her stand. "It's gone," she muttered quietly as she quickly checked her injuries. "I guess I lost it during the broom ride."

Ron had a confused look on his face as he didn't understand completely what Ginny was talking about. He wasn't able to ask about it because Voldemort and the Death Eaters forced them all to start moving. To the mutual surprise of the prisoners, Voldemort seemed to know the way to Harry's office and he led the way with them next and the Death Eaters bringing up the rear so as to prevent them from running away.

They soon reached the familiar stone raven perched on the banister and Ginny was silently praying that it would refuse to open for Voldemort.

"Miss Weasley, if you please," Voldemort said, gesturing to the raven.

"I won't," Ginny declared.

Voldemort smiled evilly, his red eyes gleaming. "That's alright. Fortunately, I brought my Founder ring to aid me."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny watched with resignation as Voldemort lifted his hand that had the ring on it. Dumbledore was resigned as well, but he watched avidly as the Dark lord waved Slytherin's ring in front of the stone raven. There was a delay in which the prisoners thought that perhaps the ring had failed, but the staircase started moving.

It was at this point that Dumbledore's eyes gleamed with triumph.

Chapter Thirteen: Showdown

When the staircase finished moving into position, Voldemort smiled triumphantly and did not hesitate to start walking up. He was followed by Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Professor Dumbledore who were trailed by the nameless Death Eaters. They soon reached the top which opened into the hallway lined with Harry's guards. Ginny wondered if the guards would try to stop Voldemort. Much to her disappointment, they did nothing and Voldemort reached the end of the hallway in perfect health.

The door to Harry's office gave way to Voldemort's ring and he entered with the prisoners following closely behind. Ginny noted that the other Death Eaters did not enter the office behind them. The office seemed emptier and colder than usual to Ginny. Not even the light generated by the spell cast by Voldemort cheered the room up.

"Stand in the center of the room," Voldemort directed them, gesturing with his wand.

They did so and watched as Voldemort began to search the office. He cast several spells over the office with the intent to reveal potential hiding places, but they revealed nothing. He then patrolled the perimeter of the room, closely examining the walls and windows and then the cabinets. He contented himself with simply studying the contents of the cabinets through the glass rather than trying to open them.

Eventually, he moved to Harry's desk. It was only a few moments before he was trying to open the drawers. Ginny noted with satisfaction that they would not open for him, not even with his Founder ring. The drawers eventually gave way to several blasting hexes.

Voldemort ripped the first drawer out and dumped its contents on top of the desk. He then cast several charms on the items before pawing through the papers and random assorted pieces of junk Harry had collected. He found nothing and moved to the second drawer, dumping its contents onto the desk also.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were anxiously watching this proceeding. Dumbledore seemed to be uninterested and was looking around the office, studying his surroundings intently. Ginny noticed this and shifted her attention to watching Dumbledore. It was only a few moments later that Voldemort crowed victoriously. Everyone turned their gaze on him.

"The hourglass!" he said, holding it up in the air.

The prisoners stared at the hourglass with despair, cursing themselves for not searching for and finding it previously. Ginny tried to tell herself that it was a coincidence, that this hourglass could not possibly be the one of legend, but one look at it clearly told her and everyone else that it was a very special magical object.

It was quite small, but ornate in a curious sort of way. When Voldemort tapped it with his wand it lit up and the sands within began to swirl slowly. He tapped it again and the sands stopped and the light faded. "There was a certain amount of ingenuity to placing it in a junk drawer," Voldemort commented. "Darkbane could have done better than that though. He must have lost his edge in his old age."

A rather quiet voice sounded from the side of the room that the fireplace was on. "Seeing as it is a piece of junk, I thought that putting it in the junk drawer was an utterly brilliant idea."

Startled, everyone turned toward the fireplace and discovered Harry sitting in one of the chairs that usually sat in front of the fireplace. The chair had been positioned to face the desk and windows and thus everyone in the room. Next to the chair was a small table on which sat a mug of what appeared to be pumpkin juice. Ginny tried to search her memory and see if Harry had been sitting there all along. She didn't think so, but she didn't quite remember looking at the chair until now.

Harry sat in the plush chair very casually as if having a Dark lord in his office was of no concern. Ginny was relived and thrilled beyond measure to see that Harry had returned but, with concern, noted that Harry seemed very pale and looked as if he ought to be in the Hospital Wing.

Ron and Hermione were grinning broadly and Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling. Voldemort was staring at Harry with consternation. Ginny's joy was in the process of quickly souring with the realization that these were not optimal circumstances Harry's return. He would no doubt be forced to duel Voldemort. This was when she remembered that she had just previously lost Harry's wand. Ginny felt quite sick.

Voldemort was the first to speak. "I see you found your way back, Potter."

"I suppose you could say that," Harry commented tiredly as he reached out and grasped the mug of pumpkin juice. He took a sip of it before speaking again. "The trip wasn't particularly amusing."

"Apparently, you met Lord Darkbane and he found a way to send you to the future," Voldemort said, trying to sound hostile, but really fishing for information.

Harry's lips quirked a small smile and he returned to drinking his pumpkin juice. "That's one way of putting it."

Voldemort was quite clearly annoyed with Harry. He pointed his wand at Harry menacingly. "Since you were acquainted with Lord Darkbane, I think you can probably help me. Tell me, Potter. Where are the other three Founder rings?"

"Right here, old boy," Harry said, raising his free arm from his side and waggling his fingers at Voldemort. "You'll never get them from me, but at least you have the hourglass. I'll even make you a sporting offer. In exchange for Slytherin's Founder ring, I will tell you all the secrets of the hourglass. You can walk out of this castle prepared to use it to its full ability."

"You just said that the hourglass was a worthless piece of junk," Voldemort accused Harry.

Harry shrugged. "I was bluffing. So what do you say? I get the ring in exchange for your mastery of the hourglass?"

Voldemort's red eyes studied Harry intently, trying to see through Harry's deal. Surely there was a catch. He looked at the hourglass in his hand and then back at Harry and then to the rings on Harry's fingers. Suddenly, comprehension dawned in his eyes. "You are Lord Darkbane," he hissed angrily.

Harry laughed weakly, his face seeming even paler than before. He then downed the rest of his pumpkin juice and set the mug back on the side table. "What gave me away?"

"Your obsession with Slytherin's Founder ring!" Voldemort snarled angrily. "You hounded my ancestors for a century trying to get possession of this ring. Godric Gryffindor even sent you to murder Lord Moridane for it!"

"Moridane deserved to die," Harry said coldly. "He was a murderer."

"Your efforts came to nothing though," Voldemort said proudly. "My ancestors protected the ring well and hid it from you. Your and Gryffindor's efforts were in vain!"

A half-smile crossed Harry's pale face. "Imagine their disappointment now that you've practically handed the ring to me. They knew that if the ring ever crossed the threshold of this castle it would be lost to me. Not only have you entered the grounds with the ring, you've come straight to me with it. You will not leave Hogwarts with that ring."

"You're delusional," Voldemort sneered. "You seem to forget that I have you outnumbered." He turned toward the door to the office and called for the other Death Eaters to enter the office.

"Who are you calling to?" Harry asked in an overly casual voice.

Voldemort glared at Harry for his cheek. "I brought several Death Eaters up here with me. They're waiting in the hall."

"I'm afraid that they're indisposed," Harry informed Voldemort. "My guards put them out of commission while you were ransacking my desk." There was movement at the office's entrance and two of the suits of armor entered the office through the door with their swords drawn, effectively proving Harry's claim.

Voldemort was furious. He turned and pointed his wand at Harry. "You'll pay for that."

"We'll have to wait and see about that," Harry said, raising a hand to his mouth to cover a yawn.

As soon as Harry finished yawning, he brought the hand down swiftly and jerked it toward Voldemort, casting a wandless banishing charm. The Dark lord was sent flying across the office toward the windows. Shocked at Harry's surprise attack, Voldemort dropped the hourglass. Harry quickly stood, twitching his wrist as the jewels in his Founder rings began to glow. His wand appeared in his hand just as Voldemort crashed into the apparently unbreakable windows and the hourglass hit the floor and shattered.

Ron and Hermione jumped out of the way, realizing that standing in the imminent crossfire would be unwise. Ginny was too caught up in what was going on realize this and thus had to be grabbed by Dumbledore and dragged to the edge of the room next to the other two. She was just realizing that Harry must have magically summoned the wand to him, though she was unsure whether or not she had lost it before that.

Voldemort did not miss a beat and was already casting a nasty bludgeoning hex toward Harry as he fell to the floor. Harry swung his wand arm and created a yellow-tinted magical shield that rushed toward Voldemort and collided with the hex causing an earsplitting bang.

Several assorted hexes quickly followed Voldemort's bludgeoning hex and Harry was forced to dodge as he did not have enough time to cast an effective shield. Unfortunately, a cutting hex caught Harry on the arm as it went by and left Harry with a superficial cut.

Voldemort had gotten to his feet while Harry was dodging and was already sending more curses Harry's way. Seeing no other way out, Harry used Hufflepuff's modified ring to Apparate right next to Voldemort with a loud pop. Before Voldemort was able to adjust his mindset for Harry's new position next to him, Harry jabbed his wand toward the Dark lord. A loud bang sounded followed by a flash of bright light that blinded Voldemort for a moment.

While Voldemort was still dazed, Harry took the opportunity to shoot his own bludgeoning spell. This one caught Voldemort directly in the chest with a sickening crunch and knocked him down. The Dark lord remained on the ground and Harry prepared to cast a significantly deadlier curse. He was cut off from doing so when Voldemort pulled a small potion vial from his sleeve and broke it on the ground.

The contents of the vial reacted with the air in the room and Harry reeled back and began coughing while he tried to clear his eyes. There was a strange sounding crack which told Harry that Voldemort had attempted to use his Founder ring to Apparate but had failed. This was very satisfying for Harry. However, he didn't waste any time congratulating himself. Unable to think of a practical way to deal with Voldemort's potion gas, Harry gestured toward the windows and used his Founder rings to vanish them.

Voldemort had used a Bubble Head charm to avoid the effects of the gas and used the extra time bought to return to his feet. Just after Harry vanished the windows, the Dark lord jerked his wand toward Harry and banished him toward the fireplace at high speed.

Unable to counteract Voldemort's banishing charm quick enough, Harry was propelled into the fireplace where he crashed into the wall, broke some bones and then fell into the ashes. Voldemort then attempted to ignite a fire before Harry could react. He was only partially successful.

The fire started, but Harry promptly employed a rather complicated and forgotten spell he had learned in Egypt while researching the nature of reality. It involved a little bit of transfiguration, some charm work that some might consider Dark, and had everything to do with phoenix magic. Instead of being burned and consumed by the fire, Harry merged with and became the flames.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were awestruck when the flames that had appeared to consume Harry suddenly jumped out of the fireplace and burned across the floor toward Voldemort. Even Professor Dumbledore's eyes were widened from shock.

Voldemort attempted to extinguish the flames by conjuring water. This only served feed the fire as it gave Harry the ability to endure the transformation longer. The fire wrapped around Voldemort and set his robes on fire before moving to the windows where it rose into a pillar and then transformed back into Harry's proper form. The fire was still burning Voldemort's robes and Harry shot several hexes at him that did only minimum damage owing to the fact that Voldemort's erratic movements caused Harry to miss more often than not.

The combined results of several charms cast by Voldemort finally served to put the fire out and do some minor healing. At this point, the Dark lord appeared to be a complete wreck. However, he was far from finished.

Brimming with fury and hate, he hurled a Dark spell intended to obliterate Harry completely. Harry was intimately familiar with the Dark Arts as he had fought them for nearly a century in an era where they were all too commonplace. Thus, he had become expert at countering them.

Recognizing Voldemort's Dark spell as a comparatively weaker modification of a far more dangerous Dark spell, Harry promptly lifted his wand and shouted a counter-spell as loudly as he could. The spells collided and a brief contest of their respective wills then ensued, draining energy from both of them.

Technically and according to the prophecy, both were equal in power, but Harry had now been practicing magic longer than the Dark lord and was better at manipulating and using it. Harry's custom made Ollivander wand was also significantly superior. This gave Harry the advantage. His spell consumed Voldemort's and drove the Dark lord back against the wall.

Both wizards were now winded and breathing heavily from accumulated stress of the duel. Voldemort had been injured a number of times and was having to work through the pain. Harry had only gotten a small cut, but he was fighting the exhaustion that had consumed him the moment he had reconnected to reality. By all rights, he should have not attempted to perform any magic, let alone engaged in a duel.

Harry's ability to draw on reserves he had not realized he had was amazing him and he began to wonder if he might be able to kill Voldemort outright rather than simply drive him from the castle as had been his original plan. Thankful that his wand arm was not aching like his left arm was, Harry raised his wand and prepared to cast another spell at Voldemort.

The Dark lord, a coward at heart, quickly devised a plan that would be easier than trying to overwhelm Harry. He produced a dagger from his robes and leapt toward the onlookers, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Professor Dumbledore.

Realizing that he could not beat Voldemort to his friends, Harry thought quickly and employed his advanced learning to the situation. He raised his wand and moved it intricately as he mentally repeated some incantations as quickly as he could. He finished it up by raising the wand over his head and sweeping it in an arc in the direction of his friends.

The onlookers stared with horror as Voldemort rushed toward Hermione, the closet of them to him. Just as Harry's wand arced over his head, Voldemort reached out to grab Hermione and put the dagger to her throat. The Dark lord's arm swept through Hermione's neck, and she screamed while Ron yelled angrily and charged Voldemort, only to discover that he could not seem to move toward the Dark lord.

Voldemort tried to swipe his dagger at them several more times and even threw it toward Dumbledore angrily. He then attempted to hex them with his wand as Harry watched from where he was standing across the room. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Dumbledore watched Voldemort with bemused expressions on their faces.

"What have you done?" Voldemort snarled angrily.

Everyone turned their focus to Harry as they were all eager to hear the explanation. "I've placed them beyond your reach," Harry said, his voice betraying his exhaustion. Inwardly, he was cursing himself for not doing it before the duel started. He would have been able to employ curses far more destructive and successful without worrying about their safety.

He would have liked to be more specific in explaining what he had just done as he could see Dumbledore and Hermione were fascinated, but he feared that Voldemort would figure out how to undo his magic if he gave too many details. The Dark lord had been able to send Harry to the past. That signified that he must know something about that area of magic.

"You would have done better to protect yourself," Voldemort commented.

"That would make it rather difficult to get at you," Harry retorted. He waved his wand upward and sent a massive incineration curse Voldemort's way. In the past he had used the same spell to fight against hordes of Inferi, but he reckoned it would do against Voldemort. The curse passed Voldemort who had shielded his person and hit the wall behind Harry's friends after passing through them without harming them.

The Dark lord promptly summoned Fiendfyre and directed it against Harry. Harry watched it as if in slow motion as he slowly tried to decide whether to dodge or overpower it. He decided that overpowering it was really the only good option as they were dueling in a comparatively small space.

He swung his wand up and down and managed to turn the Fiendfyre on itself and even managed to scare Voldemort into retreating a few steps. Harry then shot a spell toward Voldemort that caused rapid explosions all across the room.

The two began to shoot massively large spells across the room at each other, variously blocking and dodging them and trying not to go deaf from the noise they created. Harry eventually got the upper hand and had enough time to cast a powerful spell designed to react to the victims Dark magic and destroy them.

Harry watched with satisfaction as the purple spell zoomed from his wand at a high speed and circled around Voldemort rapidly until it hit him. Harry was blinded by the purple light and almost deafened by the explosion. To Harry's horror, Voldemort was still standing and laughing when the purple light faded away.

"Not even that curse can kill me, Potter! Don't you see? I've become immortal!" Voldemort boasted.

Harry stared at the Dark lord; grief and annoyance clear on his face. The pain in his left arm had become unbearable and he was panting as his heart throbbed rapidly. Harry processed the Dark lord's spoken claim with disbelief. Surely magical spells that Dark had not survived much longer after he had left the past.

"Your immortality isn't quite what you think it is," Harry said, still gasping for breath.

"You can't kill me. That's all that matters." Voldemort said smugly, looking at Harry whose eyes seemed to be glazing over. "You'll kill yourself with exhaustion before you even hurt me."

Harry couldn't afford to use the energy required to respond. He began using his Hogwarts rings to search for something to help him. Far below the office in the Great Hall, Harry found what he was looking for- silverware, porcelain, glass, and wood.

With the aid of the Founder rings and his wand, Harry silently summoned them as he backed away from Voldemort and into a corner next to the windows. Voldemort laughed as he assumed that Harry had stepped back to get away from him.

Harry ignored Voldemort and closed his eyes, focusing on the hundreds of objects that were now flying to his office at high speed. Harry exerted more magic and the glass, metal, and porcelain shattered. The hundreds of pieces became thousands.

Voldemort raised his wand to try and kill Harry, but before he could cast a spell, the summoned missiles burst through the empty window frames and toward Voldemort at high speed. The Dark lord tried to shield himself, but wasn't quick enough.

The glass and metal hit Voldemort wave after wave and began to utterly destroy his body. Harry was unable to watch because his eyes were still closed as he focused on keeping the missiles flying toward Voldemort. Eventually it was over and the Dark lord was on the ground, barely able to move. His arms were splayed outward and on one of his hands, Harry could see Slytherin's emerald ring.

Harry realized that Voldemort would have brought an emergency Portkey with him. He quickly leapt across the room with his eyes on Voldemort's hand. He dropped his wand and wandlessly summoned a sword that one of his guards was holding. The sword instantly flew across the room and Harry caught it by the hilt, brandished it above his head, and then brought it down on Voldemort's arm as hard as he could.

The sword severed Voldemort's hand and wrist from his arm just before he whispered the activation word for his emergency Portkey. The Dark lord disappeared from Harry's office. On the floor where he had been lying was his hand, and on it, Slytherin's ring.

The sweet feeling of triumph filled Harry. After nearly a century, he had finally succeeded at the task Gryffindor had set him. Slytherin's ring was now his and Hogwarts was safe. Harry's triumph was short-lived, however. Pain exploded in his chest, and he gasped, dropping the sword as he fell to his knees, clutching his chest.

Dimly, out of the corner of his eye, he could see his friends yelling and waving their arms at him, trying to get his attention. He didn't understand what was wrong with them. They were safe. Trying to think clearly despite the pain in his chest and the fogging of his senses, Harry used the Founder rings to search the castle.

"P-peeves," he gasped. "Peeves."

The next moments were agonizing and Harry had to fight tooth and nail to prevent blackness from overcoming his mind. His friends and even Dumbledore were shouting loudly at him, but he was afraid that he'd lose consciousness if he allowed himself to be distracted.

After what seemed like an eternity, Peeves the Poltergeist zoomed into the office. "You called, my lord?"

Harry stared blankly at Peeves for a moment before remembering why he had sent for him. "T-take my guards. Secure the castle. Unlock everything."

Peeves saluted and then whirled on the two guards in Harry's office. "You heard him. Move!"

The one guard immediately exited with Peeves on its tail. The other ran across the room and grabbed its sword from where Harry had dropped it before running to catch up with the poltergeist. It was then that Harry finally gave up the battle and allowed the blackness to swallow him.

Upon Harry's losing consciousness, his magic that had placed Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny beyond Voldemort's reach dissolved. Dumbledore was kneeling at Harry's side in a matter of seconds. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were standing next to him.

"Is he dead?" Ginny asked. Her face was bloodless and voice hoarse from their attempts to get Harry's attention.

"Not yet," Dumbledore said tersely as he checked Harry's pulse with his fingers. "Ron, run and find Madame Pomfrey. Tell her to meet us in the hospital wing. Get a wand from one of the Death Eaters that the guards downed in the hall and use it to defend yourself if the need arises. After you tell her, go and get our own wands and bring them to us."

Ron nodded and quickly left. Dumbledore grabbed Harry's wand that had been dropped on the floor and began casting spells on Harry as best he could with the temperamental wand. "The injuries Harry sustained during the course of the duel weren't particularly serious," he told Ginny and Hermione. "However, he seems to have used more energy than he had and the result was a heart attack."

"Why was he so exhausted?" Hermione asked, trying to put everything together logically. "Voldemort's exertions were nearly equal and he didn't seem exhausted at the end of the duel."

"I have a theory about that," Dumbledore stated as he finished casting spells on Harry. He stood and walked over to where Harry had been sitting. The chair and table had been completely destroyed by the duel, but Harry's mug that had held pumpkin juice was lying on the floor, mostly undamaged. Dumbledore stooped over and picked it up. "I don't think Harry was drinking pumpkin juice for his own amusement."

Comprehending dawned on Hermione's face. "You think there was a potion in the juice?"

"Yes, I do," Dumbledore said. He held the mug to his nose and sniffed. His face blanched and he moved the mug away from his face reflexively. He passed the mug off to Ginny who grabbed it and sniffed herself before passing it to Hermione.

Dumbledore walked over to the wall cabinet that contained Harry's potions. Surprisingly, the cabinet and all the other cabinets were completely undamaged. "There is less in this one bottle than before," Dumbledore declared, pointing to a yellow-tinged potion near the front.

"Why would Harry put a potion in his pumpkin juice and wait for Voldemort's arrival before drinking it?" Ginny asked.

Dumbledore's face was grave. "I suspect it was a restorative or energy potion, and the odor from the mug suggests that it was an extremely potent dose. Harry was probably on the verge of collapse before the duel even began. That may explain why he was willing to trade the hourglass for the ring or even Voldemort's departure. At some point, he must have realized a duel was inevitable and took the opportunity to strike first."

"The hourglass is gone now," Hermione commented, gesturing toward where it had fallen and shattered.

"Sometimes it's better for everyone involved if such objects are destroyed," Dumbledore commented as he moved back to Harry. "We'll need to get him down to Madame Pomfrey. He'll regain his good health, but I fear the consequences will be lasting."

Harry was soon in Madame Pomfrey's care. Ron was able to recover everyone's wands and helped revive the staff that had been downed. Peeves and the guards drove every last Death Eater from the castle and even killed a few in the process.

Professor Snape eventually appeared and explained that he had been trapped in his living quarters until Peeves had unlocked the entrance. Upon examining the pumpkin juice mug and the odor left in it, he was able to confirm that Harry had indeed ingested some sort of energy potion. Dumbledore instructed him to be ready to continue his spy activities as soon as the opportunity arose. Of priority was gaining information about the Dark lord's health.

Chaos and confusion reigned throughout the castle as teachers and students attempted to figure out precisely what had happened and what needed to be done next. The atmosphere in the castle calmed down considerably once Dumbledore finally convinced Peeves and Harry's guards that Harry had not given them permission to terrorize everyone who crossed their path. They eventually stood down just before the Aurors arrived.

It was officially reported to the Ministry and Daily Prophet that Voldemort and an unknown number of Death Eaters had raided the castle in an attempt to steal some magical objects but were quickly driven away. Professor Dumbledore did his best to stress that the students had been safe, which wasn't necessarily a lie. They had been locked in their dorms and the Death Eaters would have been unable to reach them.

It was also mentioned in passing to the press that Harry Potter had reappeared and was now safe at Hogwarts. The Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour soon appeared and demanded to speak with Harry. Madame Pomfrey informed the Minister that Harry, in addition to being unconscious, was extremely ill and would need to rest for several weeks before having to deal with visitors.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny took up watch at Harry's bed side much to Madame Pomfrey's annoyance. She told them repeatedly that Harry would not be waking up for several days. Despite this, they persisted and even spent the first couple of nights in the hospital wing.

Over the next few days, Harry received a large number of cards and gifts from students, Order members, and the general public. Ginny and Hermione enjoyed reading the cards. They were disgusted when Ron eventually gave into temptation and helped himself to some of the candy.

Monday arrived and classes were scheduled as normal. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were beginning to become very concerned as Harry still exhibited no signs of waking up. Madame Pomfrey did not seem worried and reassured them before insisting that they go to their classes.

At this juncture, Hermione drew up a schedule to ensure that at least one of them was watching Harry at all times possible. She even took to having one of them sleep in the hospital wing each night. When Harry woke up, the one on watch was to notify the others as quickly as possible.

Dumbledore visited occasionally and was amused at their persistence. He reassured them that Harry would be fine and that he was just as anxious as they were. He had a great deal of questions for Harry and was looking forward to speaking with the boy who had become Lord Darkbane.

It was approximately a week and a half later when Harry regained consciousness during the early hours of the morning. He woke and convulsively jerked into an upright position as he tried to draw his wand. He eventually realized that he was in the hospital wing and that he was not wearing his normal robes or wand holster.

Reality suddenly crashed in on him and he realized that he was now in the future. As soon as he realized this, he felt his memory began to rearrange itself and he tried not to groan loudly as it caused a temporary headache. Suddenly, the events of his first years at Hogwarts and of the fateful evening at the shopping mall were foremost in his memory while the hundred years he had spent in the past were dim memories.

This helped him to remember the duel he had just fought with Voldemort before collapsing. Reflexively, Harry turned to the three rings on his fingers for information. Instantly he was aware of everything in the castle. He checked his office and discovered that the house elves had managed to restore it to its original condition. Lying on his desk was Voldemort's hand with Slytherin's ring still on it. Harry winced at the thought of having to deal with that. Removing the ring from the hand would not be very fun.

Harry took a moment to revel in the fact that he had finally obtained the ring. He began to plan ways to get it off of Voldemort's hand and then soon realized that the hand wasn't in the most secure location. He fumbled around for his wand and found it on the bedside stand. He then tapped it to Ravenclaw's ring and secured his office.

Once that was done, he began to wonder how everyone was and where they were. Using the rings, he searched the castle and found that Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione were safely asleep in their beds. It took an extra moment to find Ginny and he was startled to discover through the ring that she was in fact asleep in a chair next to his hospital bed.

He waved his wand and a dim light was cast on Ginny's sleeping form. Harry looked at her with a confused expression on his face. She seemed different than he remembered. He stared at her for several moments before realizing that she might wake up if he continued. Noting that her blankets had slipped off, he waved his wand and fixed them before extinguishing the light.

Trying to be extra quiet, he fumbled around some more and found his wand holster. This he strapped to his arm and then inserted his wand into it. He then lay back in the bed and began using the rings to check his wards on the castle. To his annoyance, he discovered that wards placed by other wizards and witches were interfering with his. He began to make plans to update and alter them. However, before he got very far, he fell asleep.

Chapter Fourteen: Catching Up

The next morning, Ginny failed to notice that Harry's wand and its holster had disappeared from the table and were now on his arm. Consequently, she did not realize that Harry had regained consciousness during the night. She left the hospital wing to go to breakfast and classes. It was late in the afternoon after classes before Ron, Hermione, or Ginny were free to come check on Harry.

They met up with each other and began to make their way to the hospital wing as they discussed Harry's condition in subdued tones. Their first clue that Harry had regained consciousness was Madame Pomfrey's loud squawk of outrage heard just as they were approaching the hospital wing.

"Mr. Potter! You are in no condition to eat steak and eggs! Don't you realize that you've just suffered a heart attack?"

"My heart attack had nothing to do cholesterol or saturated fats," Harry's voice retorted.

The three looked at each other with wide eyes before running the last few feet and bursting into the room to see Madame Pomfrey glaring at Harry and the large plate of greasy looking meat and fried eggs on the tray resting in front of him.

"I don't care what caused your heart attack," she declared. "You will not be eating that disgusting food!" She reached out, grabbed the plate from Harry and marched off with it into her office.

Hermione was the first to Harry's bedside. "We've missed you, Harry. It's been so long since we saw you."

"It's only been a few days since my duel with Voldemort," Harry said as his lips curved into a small smile.

"Don't be smart," Hermione shot back, her voice rich with emotion. "You know what I meant."

Harry was beyond thrilled at being finally reunited with his friends. He had longed for it for so long. It felt to him as if things were already back to normal. "It's been far longer for me," he commented, remembering all the years of longing he had suffered.

Ron was smart enough to see that this was a highly emotional moment for all, but he wasn't quite sure what to say. He settled on something simple. "It's good to see you back, mate."

Shyness had overtaken Ginny and she was disgusted. She had felt so close to Harry when he was gone, but now that she was face to face with him, she hardly knew what to say. Absently, she realized that he must be quite hungry; especially after Madame Pomfrey had stolen his food. "Did you need us to get some food for you?" she asked.

Harry smiled appreciatively at her. "That won't be necessary, but thank you." He glanced down at the Founder rings on his fingers. A few seconds later there was a pop and a plate of steak and eggs identical to the first appeared in front of him. "Did any of you want anything? The house elves have to do what I ask, even if they agree with Madame Pomfrey."

Ron snickered, evidently amused. "I guess being Lord Darkbane has its advantages."

There was a little bit of envy in Ron's voice. Ginny was the only one who could see it plainly, but Harry was canny enough to guess that it was there. "I'm just Harry," he said awkwardly, hoping that what he'd done in the past would not prove to be a barrier between him and his old friends. "It was Gryffindor who started calling me James Darkbane and it was everyone else who started referring to me as Lord Darkbane."

Soon, Ron was asking all sorts of questions about the past. Harry answered them as best he could between bites of his meal, but Hermione finally interrupted. She thought it would be more efficient for them to tell Harry what they had found out while searching for him. From there, he could make corrections or fill in the gaps.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny took turns recounting everything that had happened since Harry's disappearance. Harry was impressed at their persistence and luck. He was especially sorry when they reached the part about Ginny being kidnapped. He could see that she didn't want to talk about it and managed to get Ron and Hermione to move past that quickly, hoping that they could move past some of the things he wasn't especially anxious to chat about.

He filled in the occasional detail and added a little bit here and there, but avoided going into things that would require lengthy explanations. Ron seemed to revel in all of Harry's adventures and Hermione questioned every fact that Harry left unexplained. Ginny could see that their questions were wearing on Harry and thus decided to be content with listening.

The information about Dobby fetching his wand and Ginny being able to use it to get into the office especially intrigued Harry and he was soon asking them questions instead of vice-versa. "So what happened when you first touched my wand?" Harry asked, looking directly at Ginny.

A blush quickly covered Ginny's face. She quickly explained the sensations that had occurred.

"You were able to cast spells and use it after that?" Harry said.

"Well, yes." Ginny admitted.

Harry removed his wand from his holster and handed it to her. "Would you mind trying to cast a few spells with it now?"

"Not at all," Ginny said quickly. She took the wand and cast a few simple spells with varying degrees of success as Harry watched intently. Ginny couldn't prove it, but her gut feelings told her that Harry was somehow controlling how effective each spell was. She made no comment and when finished, she handed it back to Harry.

"No discomfort at all?" Harry asked.

"None," Ginny answered.

Hermione was perplexed by Harry's questions and the experiment. "What are you getting at?"

Harry shrugged. "I was just curious; I didn't think it was possible for anyone else to use my wand."

"What does Ginny's being able to use your wand mean though?" Hermione asked.

"We'll have to see," Harry replied evasively, not ready to speculate about or discuss the situation. "Let's get back on track. Where were we?"

They soon reached the point where Bill visited the castle and discovered Harry's goblin wards. Ginny thought that Harry seemed very reticent when Hermione asked about his association with the goblins. He satisfied her with some very vague responses and they were soon discussing the attack on the castle. Ron and Hermione quickly told Harry everything they knew up to the duel and asked him to explain his side.

Harry launched into an explanation of his return to reality and the events surrounding it. "Ironically, it seems to me that the thing that brought me back was you accidentally letting Voldemort know that you were researching Lord Darkbane." He looked straight at Ginny. "I'm sure that your resistance when questioned by Voldemort also played a pivotal role."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, not sure how Harry's return and Lord Voldemort's learning of the research project were connected.

"It was the mysterious ward that brought me back," Harry explained. "Just as Professor Dumbledore theorized might happen. The ward is an alarm designed to alert me personally when Slytherin's Founder ring crosses the threshold of the castle."

Hermione was quick to catch on and finished Harry's explanation for him. "Voldemort was lured into attacking the castle with Slytherin's ring because he found out about Lord Darkbane, or you."

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "You would have never been able to activate that ward without Slytherin's Founder ring. Voldemort used a sort of two-way cabinet located in the Room of Requirement to enter the castle. The moment he arrived, I was brought back to my office. It took me a little while to get my bearings. I eventually figured out what was going on and used my Founder rings to lock the dorms. That's when I started looking for my wand."

"We had it," Ginny said apologetically. "I guess we should have left it in your office or something."

Harry smiled. "I figured that out when you tried to open the entrance to the common room with it. I was quite surprised actually. When you went for the window, I realized that you would probably be quite annoyed with me if I stopped you, so I reluctantly let you through. I did close it back up after you exited though."

"That explains why we were the only ones who went down," Ron said. "I thought they had chickened out or something."

"While you were flying around, I summoned my wand," Harry said, continuing his account. "That's when I realized that I was magically exhausted. Fortunately, I've collected some rather rare potions over the years. I poured one of them into a glass of pumpkin juice and waited. When you all showed up at the entrance to my office, I let Voldemort in. You know the rest."

"I'm not sure the potion was such a great idea," Hermione said, more out of worry rather than trying to scold Harry. "Professor Dumbledore thinks that you're going to have some chronic health problems."

Harry shrugged. "It seemed probable that I was going to have to face Voldemort. Taking possession of Slytherin's ring was more important than you know, perhaps especially in light of the fact that it was in Voldemort's hands. I didn't really have much of a choice. I'll just have to deal with the consequences."

"You got Slytherin's ring all right," Ron declared, relishing the memory of Harry cutting Voldemort's hand off. "Unfortunately, we haven't succeeded in getting the ring off the hand. We didn't exactly try very hard though."

"It will take some ingenuity to get the ring off the hand," Harry told them. "There are certain precautions that Voldemort has undoubtedly taken to protect it."

"You pretty much won completely," Ron went on. "We haven't heard about Voldemort's condition yet, but he did look terrible before he Portkeyed away. It's too bad that the hourglass got broken though."

Harry laughed. "I wasn't lying when I told Voldemort that the hourglass was worthless."

"Why was there that legend about how powerful it was?" Hermione asked, shocked that the hourglass had turned out to be unimportant.

It took a moment for Harry to compose a response that left him feeling honest. "Sometimes people come up with strange explanations for things they don't understand. I guess someone saw me holding the hourglass at some point and drew some strange conclusions."

Ron and Hermione seemed to accept this, but Ginny was looking at Harry suspiciously. He had been quite reticent when explaining the goblin wards and his explanation about the hourglass seemed awfully hollow. It occurred to her that there might be things he didn't want to tell them. She supposed that it was his right though.

It was Ron who brought up one of the more awkward topics. "So how old are you officially now?"

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. "I try not to think about it. I don't feel like I'm especially old. Everything that happened while I was in the past has kind of faded away. I can remember the major things, but the day to day trivialities are hard to remember. I can remember everything before that though.

"They call that Alzheimer's," Hermione deadpanned.

Harry glared at her while Ron and Hermione stared at them quizzically. "Let's not worry about that," Harry decided. "We can just go on as best we can as before."

Being raised in a magical family, Ginny didn't understand Hermione's wisecrack, but she could see that they were beginning to wear on Harry. "We should probably let Harry get some rest," she said to Ron and Hermione.

Ron and Hermione both voiced their agreement and disappointment while Harry shot Ginny a very grateful look. He was glad to be reunited with them, but trying to explain a hundred years or so to them was difficult. He didn't feel especially tired, but he needed a break from his friends.

They all said goodbye and were on their way out the door when Harry called Ginny back. She returned to Harry's side and looked at him expectantly.

"I'm sorry about summoning my wand that night," Harry said quickly and awkwardly, feeling kind of silly for trying to explain and apologize. "I know that you got walloped when you tried to go for it and all that."

This embarrassed Ginny just as much. "Don't worry about it," she stammered quickly. "Really, it is your wand and you definitely needed it. Not summoning it would have been stupid just as me not trying to use it when I thought I had it would have been negligent. It was just a spot of bad luck and couldn't be avoided."

"Right," Harry said as he wondered what to say next.

"I'm really glad to see you back," Ginny said. "I missed you quite a bit."

"I missed you too," Harry said slowly, unsure about what to say.

"Right," Ginny said. "I guess I should go catch up with Ron and Hermione."

Harry nodded absently and she left him alone in the hospital wing. He looked down at his half finished plate of steak and eggs and decided that he didn't really want any more of it. It promptly disappeared. He was trying to resolve his conflicting emotions over Ginny when Professor Dumbledore arrived.

"It must have been good to see your friends again," Dumbledore said by way of greeting.

"Yes," Harry agreed. "It's good to see you too. There were times when I really wished that I could have consulted with you. I bet you would have been able to find your way back to the future faster."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "I think you're wrong, Mr. Potter. After having had the privilege of examining your time travel notes I must say that you've distinguished yourself. I learned quite a bit from them."

"Well, you would have been able to find information quicker than I did," Harry hedged.

"Perhaps," Dumbledore responded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. "I must say that after everything you've accomplished, I consider you to be a peer. You are now someone to be reckoned with and I look forward to working with you in the future."

Harry didn't quite know what to say. In his mind, he could never see himself on level with Professor Dumbledore. It was hard for him to set aside his first impressions of the aged Headmaster. "Hogwarts has advanced significantly," Harry said. "I'm sure the school was easier to run when I was the Headmaster. I wouldn't know where to start now."

Professor Dumbledore could see that Harry wasn't really ready to discuss the changed dynamics between them and moved onto another pertinent subject. "Have you thought about what you're going to do now?"

Harry had already given the subject some thought. "I think it would be practical to sit for the NEWTS," he said. "However, seeing that they are Ministry tests and taking into account the fact that things change over a thousand years or more, I'd better take some time to review and prepare. I was hoping that I could just continue on as if I was a normal student."

"You can do whatever you feel is best," Dumbledore said carefully. "Feel free to go and attend any class you feel is necessary. I think homework is strictly optional in your case. I'm sure all the teachers would be willing to help you in any way possible. I've already announced to the school that you have returned. I can discreetly inform that teachers that they should give you free rein over your education."

"That sounds excellent," Harry said. He felt grateful that Dumbledore wasn't trying to control him or tell him what he had to do. It seemed that Dumbledore was unsure how to treat Harry with regard to the fact that they were both in a way the Headmaster. Harry himself was unsure how things should work out and wasn't really ready to try and define them.

"You look tired," Dumbledore said. "Now isn't the time, but at some point, we'll need to speak about Voldemort. For the moment, don't worry about it."

"I won't," Harry said gratefully. He was glad that someone he could trust was looking after the situation.

Professor Dumbledore said farewell and left Harry alone. Harry took the opportunity to review what he needed to get done now that he was back in the future but soon fell asleep. He spent the next few days sleeping and talking with visitors.

It was a Thursday when Madame Pomfrey finally determined that Harry was well enough to look after himself. She provided him with the clothes he had been wearing the night he dueled Voldemort. They had been repaired and laundered. While he reluctantly donned the old fashioned robes, she cautioned him about his health.

"You magically exhausted yourself in addition to suffering a heart attack, Mr. Potter." The tone of her voice made it clear that she felt he had acted foolishly. "It will be several months before you are at the top of your game again. Be careful not to exhaust yourself. If you do, you will suffer a relapse and be back in bed for much longer."

"I'll do my best to take it easy," Harry assured her, trying his best to put her at ease. He had no doubt that he would be able to take it easy. It wasn't as if dueling Voldemort was a weekly occurrence.

Harry was soon outside of the hospital wing and alone because he friends were all in their classes. Still feeling distinctly uncomfortable in his robes, he opted to make his way to his office and bedroom where he could change. The climb to his office proved to be quite tiring and when Harry finally arrived, he ended up laying down on his bed to rest for a spell.

When Harry next woke, it was late in the afternoon and he was disgusted at being so easily tired. He briskly opened the doors to his wardrobe to find some suitable robes to wear. Unfortunately, he could not find any robes that would not draw attention to his person. In the end, he settled on transfiguring the robes he was already wearing into the usual school uniform.

"I'll have to pay a visit to Diagon Alley," he mumbled to no one in particular.

As he began to make a mental list of all the things he ought to buy while in Diagon Alley, it occurred to him that he would need to visit Gringotts to get his affairs in order. Travelling one thousand years into the future and then changing one's legal name would surely require mountains of paperwork.

Knowing that the goblins would appreciate some forewarning, Harry exited his bedroom went into his office so that he could send the goblins an owl. He walked over to his desk, spotted Voldemort's hand on his desk, and winced. He had forgotten about that.

Harry stared at the hand for several moments as he tried to decide what he should do about it. Finally, he managed to dredge up the memory of a magical process that might help him get the ring off of the hand.

He drew his wand and with a quick wave, ignited a blazing fire in the fireplace. He opened one of his drawers and drew out two sheets of parchment. He left one on the desk, but rolled the other one up as he approached his potion cabinet. It opened to his touch and Harry removed one of the beakers from near the back. The rolled up parchment was dipped in the potion for a moment or two and then placed into the fire.

The flames turned blue as the parchment burned. Harry used his wand to levitate and then place Voldemort's hand in the fire. The fire reacted and the color of the flames began to alternate between the normal yellow, the parchment's blue, and a sickly looking black. The flames did not seem to affect the hand, but Harry was unconcerned.

He returned to his desk, found some writing supplies, and penned a brief but respectful letter to the bank on the piece of parchment that he had left on the desk.

Master Bankers:

I plan to pay you a visit tomorrow morning. I wish to discuss the status of my accounts and holdings with you and make any necessary changes.

May your gold flow always,

Lord Darkbane

Harry realized that the goblins would be surprised and suspicious at Lord Darkbane suddenly appearing again, even if he had warned them that something like this might happen. With that in mind, he pricked his finger with a small blade and sprinkled some blood on to the parchment followed by some unique goblin identification spells. They would have no choice but to acknowledge that the letter was authentic.

The castle's clock tolled the hour and Harry realized that dinner was starting. He quickly folded and sealed the letter to the bank and then left the office with Voldemort's hand still in the fire. On the way to the Great Hall, he stopped at the owlery where he had a happy reunion with Hedwig who was only too glad to carry his letter for him.

He arrived in the Great Hall to discover that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were sitting together and had saved a place for him at the Gryffindor table. Gladly, he joined them and began serving himself, trying to ignore all the stares he was receiving from the other students. It had been a while since his return had been announced, but this was the first opportunity for the student body to see him in person.

"Where have you been all day?" Hermione asked. "We checked on you at lunch, but Madame Pomfrey said you had been discharged."

"I ended up taking a small nap," Harry replied as he spooned an extra large portion of potatoes onto his plate. It hadn't occurred to him that he had missed lunch because of his nap. "I woke up just in time for dinner."

"I guess this is the first time you've sat at a house table in a while," Ron commented, trying to make conversation.

Harry wasn't sure what the best way to respond was. He was afraid that Ron's tendency toward jealousy might surface if he said the wrong thing. "Actually, it's the first time I've eaten in the Great Hall for a while," Harry told them all. "I was a little bit of a recluse toward the end."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were soon telling Harry about classes. Harry was surprised to learn that Snape no longer taught potions. He wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. Ron thought it was fantastic, but Hermione seemed to feel that the new potions professor wasn't nearly as accomplished in the subject as Snape was. Ginny was neutral.

Privately, Harry wondered what could have prompted Dumbledore to switch Snape from Potions to Defense. Finding a competent Potions master had always been a sore trial for Harry. On the other hand, from what Harry had observed during his first years at Hogwarts, Defense professors were harder to keep on the staff.

The discussion soon turned toward Harry's school plans. Ginny and Hermione both seemed to think that Harry should be able to take his NEWTS with the seventh years. Ron made it clear in his own way that he would miss Harry if he did that. Harry recounted his educational plans to them and they all told him that his choices seemed sound to them.

Dinner eventually ended and Harry found himself travelling to Gryffindor tower along with his friends. Ron led him up to their dorm and Harry discovered that his trunk and possessions had been placed in their usual place.

Harry quietly examined his old possessions. It seemed strange to handle them. They were completely familiar to him, but it was like examining relics from one's childhood. Vaguely, he reconsidered whether he needed to travel to Diagon Alley for robes and other things. He decided that he'd rather buy new things.

Ron had given Harry some space for a few moments, but eventually interrupted him in order to present Harry with his Invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map. "I filched them right after you disappeared," Ron confessed. "We tried to use the map to find your office."

"Thanks," Harry said, feeling very grateful to have the two valuable objects in his possession once again. "I guess there are some things that I need to add to the map now. The Marauders didn't come close discovering every secret about this castle."

As Harry placed the objects his trunk, he tried to think of what he should say next. He was spared when Ron announced that it would be necessary for him and Hermione to carry out their prefect duties. Not wanting to be alone in his dorm, Harry followed Ron to the common room where Hermione and Ginny were. Hermione was waiting for Ron, but Ginny had settled down to do some homework.

Ron and Hermione soon left and Harry ended up sitting down in a chair next to Ginny, her texts, and notes. He wasn't quite sure what to say though. "Prefect duties, eh?"

Ginny snorted and looked at Harry with a smile. "More like snogging duties."

Harry snickered. "I thought I sensed something like that going on." He then tried to think of something else to say that she might find interesting. "You know, there were times I deliberately set up prefects that I thought might get together."

"I thought you took a dim view to snogging," Ginny said, arching her eyebrows.

"Where did you get that idea?" Harry asked.

"When we were researching the mysterious Lord Darkbane, someone's journal mentioned you sending Peeves to dump cold water on the couples in the Astronomy tower," Ginny said.

A frown crossed Harry's face. "She and that weenie boyfriend deserved it."

Ginny laughed. "So, there is more to that story than we were led to believe by the journal. Perhaps there are times when such action is appropriate. Do you have plans for any repeat performances?"

"Did you have anyone in mind?" Harry asked.

Ginny put on a thoughtful expression. "I'll have to get back to you."

"You do that," Harry instructed.

Ginny nodded with mock seriousness and then hesitated before speaking. "I don't suppose you're very good at Charms, are you?" She gestured to an open textbook and some notes she had taken on parchment. "I can't seem to get this spell down."

"It depends on the charm," Harry replied. He picked up her text and examined the name and diagram charting the wand movements necessary. "Flitwick didn't assign this to us in my fifth year," Harry commented.

"A lot of the professors are changing things up a little bit," Ginny informed him. "The things we learn in a lot of our classes are decidedly bent toward Defense."

"Very wise," Harry muttered as he studied the unfamiliar spell and wand movements, trying to imagine how precisely this spell was supposed to work and what it could possibly result in. "What is the spell supposed to do?"

Fortunately, Professor Flitwick had demonstrated it in class and Ginny was able to explain. "It's a sort of cross between a summoning, levitation, and banishing charm. You can use it to summon and object to block spells. If an opportunity appears, you can even use the same object to attack your opponent. If you ask me, you may as well just learn summoning or banishing charms instead of fooling around with this."

Harry looked at her blankly for a moment but then recognized the spell. "Oh, I understand what you're getting at. The spell you're learning must be derived from another spell I'm familiar with."

He stood up, jerked his wrist slightly, and was holding his black wand. He held it up at a slanted angle and pointed it downward before sweeping it in front of him. Approximately two or three dozen pillows, books, and small pieces of furniture in the common room abruptly jerked into the air. Harry altered the slant of the wand and they were soon spinning around the two at high velocity.

"By changing the direction you point the wand, you can change how everything orbits around you," Harry explained briefly and demonstrated. He then jabbed the wand toward a wall. Everything that had been flying around them began to pummel the wall, hitting it from all different angles.

Oblivious to the furtive stares of his fellow Gryffindors, Harry referred back to Ginny's textbook and began muttering himself as he tried to understand precisely how the two spells were connected. He soon was able to figure it out and demonstrate the assigned spell. A single pillow zoomed around them and then hit the same place on the wall.

It only took a couple of attempts before Ginny was able to perform the spell Flitwick had assigned to perfection. Harry was pleased to see this as it made him feel like he could still pass as a competent teacher.

"Well fantastic," Ginny commented drily as he watched her single pillow fall to the ground after striking the ceiling. "When I get into an actual duel, my opponent will be so busy wondering why I didn't use a normal banishing charm that I'll be able to take advantage of the distraction and run away."

Harry tried to dredge up an explanation. "I guess they had to alter the spell a little bit so that the average witch or wizard could learn it."

"Such witches and wizards would be better off developing their other talents," Ginny observed. "Would you mind teaching me how the real spell works?"

"Not at all," Harry said. "It just goes like this . . ."

It wasn't long before Ginny had the spell down to perfection. Harry was duly impressed with Ginny and was beginning to wonder just how talented she was. She definitely ranked right up with some of the best students he had taught.

"When was the last time you used this in a duel?" Ginny asked, thrilled that she had been able to learn the spell quickly and also secretly thrilled that Harry seemed to be impressed.

A memory of a duel long past surfaced and Harry tried to avoid it. Fantastic duels with Dark wizards were things of legend, but they never left pleasant memories for Harry. He quickly turned to another memory of when he had used the spell. "Well, there might have been a food fight, and I might have intervened."

Ginny smiled and forced a laugh. "That must have been a sight." She had been observant enough to catch Harry's face tighten and was feeling guilty for dredging up what must be unpleasant memories.

"Yes," said Harry absently, "I suppose it was." He was soon lost in his thoughts.

Ginny opted to finish her homework in silence, but privately reveled in Harry's company and fancied that Harry's continued presence in the arm chair next to hers was a good sign of things to come.

Chapter Fifteen: More Catching Up

Harry awoke early the next morning and was making his way through the common room on his way to breakfast when he was joined by Ginny. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.

"No, not at all," Harry replied quickly. He was happy not only to have someone to sit with because he didn't fancy sitting alone in the Great Hall with everyone staring at him, but was also pleased because he had discovered the night before that he rather enjoyed Ginny's company.

They walked together through the castle, making only small talk. Ginny was slightly annoyed that they weren't succeeding at getting a more engaging conversation started. When they arrived in the Great Hall and Harry commented his surprise that Hermione was not yet awake, she leapt on that and talked about how Hermione's getting closer to Ron had changed some of her habits.

Harry also had been suffering from the lack of significant conversation and used the opening to ask about how Professor Snape was doing as a Defense professor. "Does Snape actually teach you anything that you can use?"

"Yes," Ginny replied. "As far as competence in the subject, he's definitely the most skilled professor we've had." She then realized that Harry's opinion was likely to be decidedly in favor of Professor Lupin and amended her statement. "Lupin was good too. It's just that he wasn't necessarily teaching us things about battles with Death Eaters."

"For one to be educated well in Defense, they need to study a wide variety of material," Harry commented. "I suppose we're fortunate that Voldemort doesn't seem to have a broad understanding of the Dark arts."

Ginny resisted the temptation to ask Harry about his understanding of the Dark arts and instead continued to comment on Snape. "His demeanor does leave something to be desired."

Harry cracked a grin. "I can imagine that."

They were discussing whether it would even be worth the bother for Harry to attend sixth-year Defense classes when Ron and Hermione joined them. Hermione wasted on time weighing in on the matter. "Of course you need to come to Defense class! You may learn something that you didn't already know. There's also the need for you to assess just how competent Snape and the rest of us are. We've had a dueling club of sorts going, but now that you're back, I know a lot of us would prefer having you tutor us."

"I wouldn't go to Snape's class if I had a choice," Ron scoffed. "Did you see what Harry did to Voldemort? Harry could wipe the floor with Snape."

"We'll have to see what happens," Harry said diplomatically.

Hermione quickly moved on. "You don't have to decide this very moment, Harry. We have Potions this morning. You'll be coming, won't you?"

"Actually, I had planned to visit Diagon Alley," Harry announced to his three friends. "I'll need to buy the textbooks for classes as well as some other things."

"Do you have a booklist yet?" Hermione asked, already drawing a piece of parchment from her book bag.

Harry shook his head negatively. "I guess you can tell me what I should get."

By the time breakfast ended, Hermione had produced a list of all the texts Harry would need. It also included some extra books that she recommended for reading on the side. Harry thanked her and promised her, Ron, and Ginny that he would catch up with them later.

They parted ways and Harry began to make his way to the bedroom connected to his office. Most of his necessary possessions were in his Gryffindor dorm, but he wanted to wear some of his Darkbane robes for this trip. As soon as he confident that he was out of sight, he used his rings to Apparate to his office. He didn't see any point in climbing all the stairs and exhausting himself today.

He was pleased to note that Voldemort's hand was still on fire in his fireplace. It was now largely black, and to Harry, that was a good sign. He cast several spells on it and finished with another spell to intensify the heat. As a second thought, he added an inverted shield charm around the fireplace to keep the heat from escaping.

It only took a few moments for him to change from his old school robes into his ancient robes. The robes and boots he had chosen were black as midnight save bands of white on the sleeves. He opted to wear some black gloves to help disguise his age. Carefully, he removed the Founder rings and then after putting the gloves on, placed the Founder rings on his gloved fingers. He then pulled up his hood and cast a charm to prevent anyone from seeing his face.

Now prepared for his excursion, Harry drew his wand and Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron in London. His presence went unnoticed by most of patrons in the pub. They were busy eating or speaking with friends and acquaintances.

He entered Diagon Alley through the wall and walked down the street to Gringotts. As he walked, he observed that the street had changed in many ways since he had last walked down it nearly a thousand years ago. Despite the different buildings, the alley felt the same and Harry almost felt at home.

The large building that was the goblin bank was just as Harry remembered it from before his time travel incident. It was large and very imposing. Harry felt a sense of pride. He had helped to establish this. The building itself had still been under construction when Harry had last visited, but the bank as an entity had partially been his creation. Unless, he was mistaken, he still owned a small percentage of it, too.

The goblin guards that normally stood as silent sentinels reacted when they spotted Lord Darkbane's trademark cloak that Harry was wearing. One of them rushed into the bank, no doubt to inform his superiors of Harry's approach. This proved to be true. Harry was met at the doors by a small delegation of finely dressed goblins who bowed deeply to Harry. He returned the gesture and they escorted him into the bank proper and past the long lines of witches and wizards who were waiting to do business with the tellers and bank officers.

It was not only the witches and wizards that stared at Harry and his escort. The goblins who were assisting them also stared. Harry did not recall being the subject of such attention during his previous dealings with the goblins and wondered whether the reactions were good or bad signs.

Harry's escort showed him into an extremely large and high-ceilinged room. Located in the center of the room was a long table. Seven goblins were seated in ornate chairs on the one long side of the table. One of the goblins who had escorted Harry to the room motioned for him to be seated in a single chair that sat on the other long side of the table facing the seven goblins.

As soon as Harry sat, the chair transformed into a replica of the black high-backed chair that Harry sat in when sitting at the head table in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. One of the goblins sitting at the table made a curt gesture toward the goblins forming Harry's escort. They turned and exited the room. While they were in the process of doing this, Harry took the chance to examine the seven goblins seated before him.

He had never met these goblins in his life, but he could tell from their manner of dress and the specific positions they occupied at the table what functions they served. The six goblins flanking the one in the center were the directors of the bank. The seventh sitting in the middle was the bank president and chief goblin. Harry had never been fond of the late Gringott very much, but he now felt a sense of nostalgia and vaguely longed for the comfort of a familiar face.

This chief goblin could feel Harry's gaze rather than see it. This prompted him to speak. "Lord Darkbane," he said, breaking the silence. The statement was as much a question as a greeting.

"I am he," Harry announced. He cursed himself for not magically disguising his voice to sound older. It was too late now.

"It has been long since your graced us with your presence," the chief goblin stated. They all stared at him, silently trying to compel him to answer or explain how he possibly could be Lord Darkbane of old.

Harry said nothing. As he saw it, there was no response necessary. The goblins knew full well that time travel was a possibility. He had sent his letter with a sample of blood.

There was an abnormally long pause as goblins and wizard sized each other up. Finally, the goblins broke the silence and acknowledged their accepted belief that he was indeed Lord Darkbane. "What business did you wish to discuss first?"

Inwardly, Harry winced. Even if he had only one matter to take care of, they would have several they would want to discuss with him. He wasn't going to get off easily today. Feeling safe now that the goblins had acknowledged his alternate identity, Harry reached up, carefully flaunting the Founder rings that further confirmed him as Lord Darkbane, and lowered his hood.

The goblins were shocked, though they hid it well. Each of them looked at his forehead and saw his scar. The chief goblin spoke for them all. "Harry Potter."

"Gringott incorrectly assumed that I was a native of his era, but as you can see, I belong to this time and place," Harry said.

This information was quickly integrated into the goblins' outlook. They could now understand some of the mystery behind their ancient ally. One of the goblins flanking the chief verbally confirmed their understanding in an excited tone of voice. "Gringott had difficulty accepting your far flung predictions of the future. He acknowledged that you did have the ability to see a short distance into the future, but he knew for a fact that you couldn't possibly see very far. Yet time proved your every statement in every whit. Now, all is clear to us."

"Indeed," Harry said. It made him uncomfortable to know that the goblins had an understanding of some of his magic and secrets.

He looked around at the goblins and observed that they seemed uncomfortable with him. Being wise and careful, Harry concluded that he would have to overcome this if he wanted to make his continued relationship with the goblins as profitable as possible. He stood up and stretched out his hand to the chief goblin. "The time of Gringott and the Founders was not mine, but now I am home. I think that our relationship should be as strong and profitable for both of us as it ever was."

The chief goblin sized Harry up before reaching out his hand and shaking it. "We hope that it may be as you wish. I am called Goldarm. Perhaps you could once again render your services to the bank."

"That is a possibility," Harry said vaguely. He would have to be infinitely more careful with doing that with the Ministry as it now was. Satisfied that his alliance with the goblins had been completely restored, Harry felt that he could proceed with his business affairs. He sat down and was about to speak, but was interrupted.

"Seeing that you are now of age, we can arrange for the Potter and Black estates to be settled," Goldarm informed him. The goblin gestured and one of the other goblins made for the door.

Harry smiled with satisfaction. The goblins would not have proactively offered to take care of that if they did not consider him a friend and ally. He wasn't sure whether the Potter or Black estates could be settled though. "My seventeenth birthday isn't until this summer," he reminded them.

"You're far over a hundred years old," Goldarm declared with a finality that caused Harry to wince. "The dates are only minor annoyances. We can fudge the paperwork. It's not as if we're going against the wishes of the testators for either estate anyway. If there are problems, you have the ability to take care of them."

"That's only a last resort," Harry said quickly, fervently hoping that the goblins didn't go too far overboard with expecting him to use his talents.

It wasn't long before two additional goblins entered the room with all the paperwork attached to the Potter and Black estates. The goblins did not insist on reading the wills but contented themselves with requiring Harry to sign all the necessary papers while one of them explained what precisely Harry had inherited.

"Your parents have provided you with a modest sum of money. The majority of it comes from their life insurance policies as well as those of your grandparents. There are also a couple of small properties, the house at Godric's Hollow being one. We will simply merge the funds and assets with your primary account."

Harry nodded his approval and finished signing the papers associated with the estate of his parents. "Something tells me that the Black estate is not nearly as simple."

"Your intuition serves you well," commented a goblin as he sorted through the papers from the Black estate. "You have inherited a larger number of properties from your godfather. They have been poorly managed by the agents of the Black family for nearly two decades. We suggest that you engage the services of Starks & Smither to take possession of these properties on your behalf and make any repairs necessary. You may decide what to do with the properties at a later date."

This seemed reasonable to Harry and he signed the paper that authorized Starks & Smither to act on his behalf with regard to the Black properties.

"In addition to some liquid assets, the Black family has a number of investments. Not very many of them are profitable or entirely legal. We think it would be best for you to liquidate those. The gold from that can be placed in your primary vault or used toward your current investment plan."

"Go ahead and do that," Harry said. For that, he had to sign nearly a dozen different documents. "What of Grimmauld Place? Is everything clear for me to reside there if I so choose?"

The chief goblin nodded. "Yes. The protective charms invoked by your godfather's associates are still in effect, but you are free and clear to access and live there. The services of Starks & Smither are not required in its case."

One of the goblins doing paperwork spoke up. "There are a number of heirlooms in the Black family vault. Would you like those transferred to your own vault?"

Harry thought about that for a moment. "I don't think so," he answered. "Leave the heirlooms in it and I'll look over them later."

"Very good, sir," said the goblin. He produced a small key. "Here is the key to that vault."

"Thank you," Harry said, pocketing the key.

Another one of the goblins spoke up. "Through the Black estate, you have inherited a seat on the Wizengamot. In times past, this meant you could claim the title 'Lord Black,' but it is rarely done."

"Unless it affects my standing in the Wizengamot, I see no reason to claim the title," Harry said. Being called Lord Darkbane already made him uncomfortable enough. He had gotten used to it in the past, but here in the future, things were different.

"It does not affect your standing," one of the goblins informed Harry. "We don't recommend that you claim your seat until it is clear to the general public that you are of age. For the past several years, Albus Dumbledore has controlled the seat on behalf of you and the late Sirius Black. You may change that if you so desire."

Harry arched his eyebrows at this revelation. "I think it would be fine to let things continue as they are for now. If I decide that I need to exercise my privileges in that body, I will get back with you."

"Very well," said the goblin. "That concludes the Black estate then."

The chief goblin next spoke. "Of immediate concern to you is assuming control of your accounts under your true name and in this present time. Was that the nature of your intended business today?"

"Yes," Harry said, "it was. What is my status with regard to Hogwarts?"

"That is a complicated issue," Goldarm said. "It has been very difficult for the bank to manage Hogwarts on your behalf. Things have changed over time, particularly with regard to the laws. Your Founder rings mark you as the undisputed owner of the castle and grounds. It also helps that you established title to the land with the Muggle government. That remains intact at least. The title 'Lord of Hogwarts' is valid, but it has been forgotten since you and Godric Gryffindor were the only ones to have held it."

"What's the catch?" Harry asked, bracing for the bad news.

"You no longer are able to reign independently of the Ministry, though your personal immunity is still intact," Goldarm said. "You no longer have jurisdiction over Hogsmeade, and your rights to the forest are gone. It should be noted however, the curse you placed over the forest renders it Forbidden to this day. "

Harry was pleased to hear that his handiwork in the forest was still in effect. "What of Hogwarts as an institution?"

"The news there isn't necessarily bad," Goldarm told him. "The school was put under the management of a Board of Governors, as you may be aware. It will only take some short legal work to oust the current board in favor of yourself alone. We suggest you retain the services of Bonwhit & Bonwhit for that."

"Let's do that as soon as possible," Harry said. He wasn't looking to change anything at the moment at Hogwarts, but he didn't need anyone interfering either."

The goblins already had the necessary documents for retaining the Bonwhit firm and Harry promptly signed them. Sensing Harry's urgency on that matter, a goblin took the document and left the room to get things rolling.

The goblins then apprised him of his current account balances and holdings and then also reported on the bank and Harry's investment and share in that. Harry made some specific inquires about some of his other accounts and made further arrangements. He was presented with new keys to all his vaults and then finally with documents identifying him as Lord Darkbane. After a while, he was finished and able to leave.

The goblin leaders and Harry parted ways. Another goblin showed him to his primary vault where he filled up his money pouch. He then departed from the bank and made his way to Madame Malkin's shop where he bought his basic school robes.

He opted to get his other robes at another shop that wasn't on the main path of the alley. He modernized his wardrobe and even bought a new set of battle robes. Shopping for boots turned out to be a failure. He simply could not find a pair that he was comfortable with. He supposed that his old boots could be touched up and repaired where necessary.

A visit to Flourish & Blott's and a number of other booksellers resulted in the purchase of his sixth-year texts as well as a number of other tomes that he felt would be necessary to at least round out his collection and bring him up to speed on modern developments. It was fortunate that he had bought a multi-compartment trunk that could shrink. He did not think it was possible to physically carry all of his purchases whether they were weightless or not.

Harry bought supplies and other random trinkets all through the alley and then finished with a visit to Mr. Ollivander in his wand shop. In the past, he had regularly taken the wand to be serviced by the Ollivander family. Given the temperamental nature of the wand, it had been slightly necessary, though he had taken it in more often than required. The possibility of a leak from the highly volatile core had always been a fear of Harry's. After leaving his wand on a desk for a thousand years, Harry felt it was necessary to get the wand checked.

Mr. Ollivander was pleased to see Harry and immediately stated the specifications for Harry's original wand as a greeting and then continued on. "It's a shame that your wand was destroyed this past summer. What can I do for you today? A new wand perhaps?"

"I have obtained a new wand since the demise of my original one," Harry said. "I was hoping that you could take a look at it and check to see that it is in good condition."

Mr. Ollivander's face displayed a confused frown. "Most wands don't require regular maintenance. They either work or they don't. If there's anything wrong, it would be more practical to buy a new one."

"This wand is not like other wands," Harry said quietly. He drew it from his sleeve holster and laid it on the counter in front of the wand maker.

Ollivander promptly raised his eyebrows in surprise upon seeing Harry's wand. The length and color of the wand told him that it was a unique piece. He picked it up and gave it a cursory examination. "I take it that this is an antique," he commented to Harry. "I doubt that any wand maker has crafted such a wand as this for several centuries. You could only have gotten it from a dealer of some sort. Am I correct?"

"Something to that effect," Harry said vaguely.

It looks to be made from holly and ash. Do you happen to know what the core is?"

Harry couldn't resist a small smile as he answered. The aged wand maker was in for a shock. "Phoenix feather soaked in phoenix tears and basilisk venom."

Mr. Ollivander gasped and his naturally large eyes widened from shock. He quickly turned his attention back to the wand and examined minutely. "This is the Darkbane wand, isn't it?"

"That would be correct," Harry said in a matter of fact voice.

"It was my family's belief that this wand perished with its master," Ollivander murmured reverently as he gingerly continued to examine the wand. "Where has it been and how did you come to own it?"

Harry smiled but didn't answer. Ollivander looked at Harry with a bemused expression on his face taking in Harry's robes, gloves, boots, and most especially, Founder rings. He was by no means an unintelligent man. Therefore, once he set aside what he already knew about Harry, the obvious clues fell into place. "You are Lord Darkbane, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I would appreciate it if you didn't spread that around too much," Harry said.

"You have my word," Ollivander vowed. He then commenced a detailed inspection of the wand in silence. After a long but not necessarily unpleasant amount of time, he cast several spells with it to test its ability and then finished up with some highly advanced polishing and care charms. "It's just like new," he told Harry when he was finished. Ollivander then returned it to Harry.

Harry slipped it into his sleeve holster. "Great. Now what do I owe you?"

Ollivander threw up his hands. "Nothing, Mr. Potter. Absolutely nothing. The opportunity to see and hold it is all the payment I could want."

"I intend to come back often," Harry said. "You can't just do it for free every time."

"We'll discuss that when you next come in," Ollivander demurred.

"Thank you," Harry said before exchanging farewells and departing the shop. He made his way through the alley and back to the Leaky Cauldron where he had something to eat and a small chat with Tom before Apparating into his Gryffindor dorm next to his bed.

He removed his new trunk from one of his pockets and reversed the shrinking charm on it before opening it and transferring his school robes, supplies, and textbooks to his old trunk. He then shrunk the new trunk and returned it to his pocket.

Harry's plans to Apparate to his office spoiled when Dean and Seamus entered the bedroom. Apparently they had a free period. He concluded that walking up the stairs that led to his office wouldn't be terrible and was on his way through the castle when he crossed paths with Professor Dumbledore and Rufus Scrimgeour in one of the corridors.

"Mr. Potter! How are you? Have you made a full recovery yet?" Scrimgeour questioned with a bright voice.

"I'm doing well," Harry answered, silently cursing his bad luck. He was in no mood to deal with the Ministry. Hermione had informed him at some point that Scrimgeour was somewhat better than Fudge, but Harry had known too many Ministers of Magic and knew better.

"I'm glad to hear that," Scrimgeour declared. "I was actually hoping to run into you today. We've been wondering what precisely happened at that Muggle shopping center and where you've been since."

Harry shot a glance at Dumbledore who shrugged. It occurred to him that he should have coordinated with the Headmaster on the official story about Harry's being gone. Vagueness seemed to be the best course of action and Harry proceeded thus. "Voldemort found a way to send me far away. It took me a good amount of time to find my way back to civilization and to Hogwarts," Harry explained.

"I see," Scrimgeour said slowly. He didn't entirely accept the explanation, but it did seem reasonable. "I'm certainly glad that you managed to find your way back, Mr. Potter. Now, I was wondering if I could talk to you about You-Know-Who. The Ministry is trying to get things together since we discovered his return. You could be a tremendous help."

"I'm sure that is true," said Harry as he quickly tried to find a way to avoid getting too involved with the Minister. "We should save that for another day though. I haven't fully recovered as of yet and this week isn't particularly good with my schedule."

Scrimgeour was annoyed, but he couldn't afford to betray that. "Another time it is. There's a bit of a formal event coming up at the Ministry in a couple of weeks. There will be dinner and dancing along with the presentation of some awards to certain employees and prominent members of the community. If you could come, we could talk there. "

"That sounds like a good possibility," Harry said with a non-committal voice.

"Good, I'll see to it that you and some friends get invitations," Scrimgeour said. He turned to Dumbledore. "It was nice meeting with you, Headmaster. I'll see you later."

Dumbledore nodded and spoke up, "Indeed. Farewell, Minister."

Once Scrimgeour had disappeared down the corridor, Harry sighed. "I guess that wasn't as bad as it could have been."

"For you perhaps," Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes. "Hiding the fact that you weren't in the castle or on the grounds was no small feat. Where were you?"

"Diagon Alley," Harry replied. "I needed to pick some things up and speak with the goblins."

Dumbledore had to work hard to overcome the compulsion to ask Harry for details. He had told Harry that he considered him a peer and now he needed to treat him as one. He didn't deny that Harry did qualify as a peer of his; it was just hard to remember when he had only really seen Harry as a student. "I've decided to hold an Order meeting tonight," he said to Harry. "I think you should be there. The Weasley siblings and Miss Granger are invited as well. I would appreciate it if you could see to getting them there."

Harry nodded. "Just tell me where and what time."

Dumbledore shared these details and a few other pleasantries before they parted ways; Dumbledore to wherever he needed to be and Harry to his office to deposit his recent purchases.

Harry observed that he was no longer in sight of anyone and Apparated to his office. He was soon arranging his new books and other trinkets on the shelves and in the drawers of his office and living quarters. He was pleased to note that Voldemort's hand was now a pile of glowing embers in his fireplace.

After a close examination of the glowing embers, Harry opted to wait a little longer before trying to extract Slytherin's ring. He passed the time by taking a short nap.

When Harry woke from his rest, he fetched a long iron poker from next to the fireplace. After casting several protective charms on it and removing the inverted shield charm that he had placed around the fire earlier that day, he started poking around in the embers and ashes that had once been Voldemort's hand.

It was at this moment that he was surprised by a knock on his door. Harry turned toward the door with a frown, wondering why Ravenclaw's ring had not forewarned him that company was on the way up to his office. "Come in!" he called.

The door opened and Ginny walked in. "I hope you don't mind me dropping by," she said.

Harry quickly got rid of the frown and replaced it with a smile. "Not at all," he said rather quickly. "Feel free to drop by anytime."

He was trying to figure out how Ginny could have possibly bypassed his normal system of warning when she asked a question. "What are you doing with that poker?"

"This?" Harry asked dumbly, gesturing with the poker. "I was just looking at the results of lighting Voldemort's hand on fire."

"Is that how you hope to get the ring off his hand?" she asked.

"I'm hoping that it has already succeeded," Harry explained. He returned to poking at the ashes and was joined by Ginny who watched as he uncovered Slytherin's blackened ring.

Ginny sighed. "It kind of looks like you may have destroyed the ring alongside of Voldemort's hand."

"I hope not," Harry muttered, thinking of how horribly ironic that would be. He maneuvered carefully and the ring slipped onto the iron poker. Harry held the poker up, moved to his desk, and dropped the blackened ring onto it. He leaned the poker against the side of the desk and drew his wand. "Scourgify," he muttered, praying that the basic cleaning spell would work. The ring instantly returned to its original shiny gold state with the glinting emerald set in it.

"Good show," Ginny praised. "What are you going to do with it now?"

"Use it of course," Harry replied. He slipped his wand back into its holster, picked up the ring, and put it on one his fingers alongside the other three Founder rings. The ring seemed to work just as the others did, albeit it seemed to carry knowledge of some secrets that Harry had not been previously aware of, with the exception of the Chamber of Secrets.

Ginny knew that Harry had devoted a great deal of time into possessing the ring and wanted to congratulate him on finally succeeding, but was unsure what to say. "I guess that is a relief."

"Yes," Harry said. There was a little bit of silence before Harry spoke again. "Did Dumbledore tell you about the Order meeting tonight?"

"He did," Ginny replied. "I came up here to confirm that you were taking me with you."

"Yes, I've got you covered," Harry said. "Shall we leave after dinner then?"

"We may as well," Ginny replied. "I can make sure Ron and Hermione know if you'd like."

"That would be great," Harry said.

"See you at dinner then?"

"Of course," said Harry.

Chapter Sixteen: Nabbing Slughorn

Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry finished dinner as quickly as they could. Then, following Harry's lead, they left the Great Hall for the privacy of an empty classroom near the main floor. Harry then announced his plan. "I think it'll be easiest if I just double-Apparate us to the Order meeting."

"Harry, there's four of us," Hermione said. "In light of what Madame Pomfrey said, I'm not sure you're up to quadruple-Apparating us all there, even if it is possible and even if you're sure you can get through the Anti-Apparition wards."

"I'm not taking the Floo," Harry said stubbornly. His time in the past had only augmented his dislike of that mode of transportation. He was confident that he could take them all. He had side-along Apparated more than four people before. Although, Hermione did have a point about him not being at the peak of health, but Harry didn't think he was that ill. "Just grab on and let me worry."

Hermione looked like she wanted to argue more, but was cut off when Ginny laid her hand on Harry's left arm. She was followed by Ron and finally by Hermione. Harry grinned and then with his wand, Apparated them away with a loud pop.

They arrived safely on the street in front of Mad-Eye Moody's house. Dizziness overtook Harry and he was left leaning on Ginny's arm while Hermione and Ron knocked on the front door. It seemed that he's overestimated his energy. He was grateful that Ginny made no snide remarks. One of the Weasley twins opened the door and after confirming identities, ushered them all in. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny slipped into another room and left Harry with the twins.

"Harry, mate," Fred or perhaps George said. "It's great to see you!"

"We hear that you've been keeping busy," the other twin said, winking conspiratorially. "Or would it be more proper to say that you kept busy?"

Harry smiled nervously, wondering whether he should be worried about the wink while looking around to see if there was a place to sit down nearby. He was saved from responding to the twins by Mrs. Weasley. The Weasley matron dashed out of the kitchen and enveloped Harry in a suffocating hug.

"We've missed you so much," Mrs. Weasley declared. "Did you get a chance to eat dinner at the castle?"

"Yes," answered Harry dutifully. "We had a good dinner right before coming here." Mrs. Weasley's affection felt strange to Harry. He had grown used to it before the time travel incident and now it seemed that he would have to do so again.

"Why don't you go in there and have a seat," Mrs. Weasley said, gesturing to the front parlor. "The meeting should start soon."

Harry nodded thankfully and made his way into the room where he found a couch and collapsed on it. Hermione soon joined him and was taking out a small notebook. Harry presumed that she was planning to take notes.

Ginny entered the room a few minutes later carrying a mug of hot chocolate. "Drink this," she directed.

"Thanks," Harry said, taking the mug from her and sniffing it. It smelled slightly off. "Did you lace it with something?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ginny denied as she sat between Harry and Hermione.

"Maybe I'll save this for later," Harry said casually, making like he was going to set the mug down on the side table next to the couch. He had some experience under his belt and he was absolutely sure that there was something other than chocolate in the drink.

Ginny shot him a withering glance and leaned over to him so that Hermione wouldn't hear what she said next. "Were you planning on Apparating us back to the castle, or did you want to fall flat on your face?"

"Oh," said Harry, "thanks."

Several member of the Order stopped by where he was sitting to greet him and ask the occasional question. The meeting finally began once Professor Dumbledore arrived. The Headmaster didn't waste any time on meaningless chatter.

"As you've all noticed, Mr. Potter has returned. We are all thrilled to see him safe and sound." He then briefly caught everyone up on some basic details of Harry's visit to the past and his duel with Voldemort on the night of his return.

"This brings us to our first order of business," Dumbledore said once everyone had been brought up to speed. "Seeing that Harry has gained a great deal of experience in fighting Dark wizards and leading others, I would like to make him my second-in-command in the Order. However, we are a group that works together and I think we need a vote. Everyone in favor, please show by the raising of hands."

Harry felt tremendously awkward. He had indeed led the fight against many a Dark wizard, but that had been different. These were people he actually knew and had known him as a child. It was with trepidation that he looked around the room. All the members of the Weasley family were raising their hands as were everyone present, though some did look more pleased than others. Snape didn't seem especially happy. Hermione was beaming at him and Ron was giving him a thumbs-up.

"Were you going to vote for yourself, Mr. Potter?" Professor Dumbledore asked as his blue eyes twinkled merrily.

Harry raised his hand weakly and had it promptly pushed higher by Ginny.

"The vote appears to be unanimous," Dumbledore announced with a smile for Harry before turning his attention to everyone at large. "We can move on to further business. I believe that Professor Snape is prepared to report on the aftermath of Harry's confrontation with Voldemort."

Snape stood up and sneered at Harry before facing everyone else with a neutral face. "The Dark lord has recovered completely and is no longer suffering any ill effects from his encounter with Mr. Potter. I am not sure what magic was involved in the process, but I have observed that his familiar, the snake Nagini, is no longer with us. I suspect he used her in a Dark ritual to revive himself."

There were many surprised murmurs from the members of the Order. Ron and Hermione were astonished. They had seen what Harry had done to Voldemort and could hardly believe that anyone could recover so quickly from injuries as severe as those inflicted on the Dark lord.

Dumbledore had received Snape's report prior to the meeting and instead of reacting, was observing the reactions of those present. Of special interest to him was Harry's reaction. Harry's face was one of contemplation. There was a distant look in his eyes.

The aged Headmaster decided at that point that he should speak privately with his second-in-command. Lord Darkbane might understand Voldemort's actions better than Dumbledore realized. Of further interest to Professor Dumbledore was Ginny's reaction. Instead of reacting with everyone else, she was also studying Harry's reaction.

Snape took control of the situation after a few moments. "You can discuss this later on your own time," he said, clearly annoyed. "My other piece of information is that the Dark lord intends to bide his time for the moment. Mr. Potter is now a dangerous unknown. The Dark lord wants to be sure of what he is dealing with before doing anything drastic." With that, he sat down and distinctly avoided looking in Harry's direction.

Dumbledore returned to center-stage. "At this point, it would be most profitable if we focused on passing information to those who may be in danger. I also intend to privately assign certain of you to start setting up a network of safe houses and hideouts should things get more serious."

There was some further discussion on the subject and some more instructions issued. The meeting was finally adjourned in favor of some refreshments provided by Mrs. Weasley. Ginny personally saw to it that Harry ate plenty of them. Consequently, when it was time for the students to return to Hogwarts, Harry felt well enough to pull off another quadruple Apparition.

Before they left, Dumbledore approached them. "Harry, I would appreciate it greatly if you stopped by my office as soon as you return to the castle. I think we need to talk."

"I'll be there," Harry said, knowing full well what topic Dumbledore wanted to discuss.

Harry Apparated his three friends back to the hallway outside of Gryffindor tower. This time, he did not feel winded at all. He vaguely wondered what exactly Ginny had put in his chocolate. He silently hoped that he would not be feeling it in the morning.

"I'll catch up with you later," Harry told them, turning to go toward Dumbledore's office.

"You'll tell us what he says, won't you?" Ron asked.

"What he and Dumbledore talk about is private," Hermione declared staunchly.

"I'll tell you what I can," Harry said reassuringly. He wasn't afraid of betraying Dumbledore's confidence. He had a sinking feeling that he would be the one providing most of the information tonight. He hated thinking about the Dark arts.

Harry began walking toward the Headmaster's office and was soon in front of the gargoyle that guarded the way up. He waved his four Founder rings at it and it jumped aside, granting him admittance. When he entered, he found Dumbledore sitting in a chair that for once, was not behind his desk.

"Sit down, Harry," Dumbledore said, gesturing to another chair near his own. "Would you like something to drink?"

"I should ask you that," Harry said. "It's easier for me to procure it." He lifted his hand and a goblet of pumpkin juice appeared in it courtesy of the house elves in the kitchen.

"Pumpkin juice would be fine," Dumbledore said, smiling. Another goblet appeared on a flat surface near to Dumbledore's reach. He picked it up and took a sip. "I suppose you know why I asked you to come here."

"It's time to figure out how to deal with Voldemort, isn't it?" Harry said tiredly.

"Well, yes," Dumbledore admitted. "But first, I just wanted to apologize for catching you off guard tonight about being second-in-command. It seemed the natural thing to do."

"If you say so," Harry said neutrally. He was slightly annoyed, but he could see the logic and had outgrown the need to be petty.

"I was going to tell you about it earlier, but it slipped my mind." Dumbledore went on.

Harry waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever. Let's move on." While waiting for Dumbledore to speak, he drained his goblet and debated whether he should order up a refill.

"I noticed your reaction when Professor Snape announced that Voldemort had used his snake to revive himself. I was wondering if you had any thoughts to share." Dumbledore said.

Harry frowned and sent a silent signal down to the kitchens for the refill. He then stared at the pumpkin juice in his goblet for several moments before responding. He wanted to be useful, but he didn't exactly want to start teaching Dumbledore things about the Dark arts that were best forgotten.

"It would seem that Voldemort has found a way to dodge death for a time," Harry finally said. "Killing him won't be easy. I had already come to that conclusion though, so the shock wasn't that nasty."

"Do you have any theories as to how Voldemort could have accomplished this?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry took a long sip of pumpkin juice before responding as he considered his answer. "There are many avenues that Voldemort may have exploited to safeguard his life."

"Would you care to enlighten me?" Dumbledore inquired.

"I would prefer to take as many of my secrets about the Dark to the grave as possible," Harry answered softly. "Besides, I think it would be more useful for us to look at Voldemort specifically and figure out what avenue he travelled down rather than study every avenue and see if we can find him at the end of one of them."

"Your knowledge, assuming it is of a significant quantity, may be the only chance some future generation has of defending itself from the Dark," Dumbledore said, a frown on his face. "I can understand your desire to prevent certain Dark arts from being practiced, but you can't know that you're the only person who is cognizant of them. "

Harry smiled wanly. "I assure you that I do have a significant amount of knowledge concerning the Dark Arts. In fact, I think I can safely say that I know at least ten times more than Voldemort does or ever will. As for protecting future generations, I'm far ahead of you."

"And what steps have you taken for the benefit of future generations?" Dumbledore asked, beginning to be slightly annoyed at being outside of the loop.

"While in the past, I magically copied all my experiences with the Dark and stored the memories in a secret location," Harry revealed. "If and when needed, any information that could be helpful will be available."

Dumbledore was surprised at Harry's foresight. "Where is it located?"

"Somewhere in the castle," Harry said vaguely. "Don't worry about it. As long as I'm around, you don't need it. "

"If I don't know where it is, and if no one else knows where it is, it can't be useful," Dumbledore said with exasperation clear in his voice. It had been a terribly long time since any one person had possessed the upper-hand over him.

Harry chuckled. "I think you'd be surprised. I'm fairly sure that the hidden knowledge had been used profitably at least once—and quite effectively too. Now, if we want to figure out what is keeping Voldemort alive, we will need to look at him specifically and figure out what he's done."

Dumbledore sighed. "Searching Tom Riddle's past would be a very timely project. I had planned to embark on it, but recent events have taken up a lot of my time." He gave Harry a significant look.

Harry blatantly ignored the attempted guilt-trip. "I think we have enough clues to make a pretty good guess. Voldemort used a snake to revive himself this time. I'm reminded of another incident where Voldemort nearly revived himself, or rather, was nearly revived by other persons. Specifically, the Chamber of Secrets. The diary undoubtedly was made from a similar twist of magic."

"All right," Dumbledore said, "go on."

"That tells us that young Tom Riddle was pursuing one of his avenues while still in school. The information about the Dark arts he would have needed is rarely written. When it is, it isn't very accessible, especially to a young adolescent. Somebody who was at Hogwarts must have given Voldemort some strong clues or set him on the right path. So tell me," said Harry, "which professor do you think it was?"

Dumbledore thought for several minutes before finally answering. "Compared to all the other professors Riddle would have had, I think Horace Slughorn is your most likely suspect, but I doubt he'd hurt a fly. I don't see him as someone taking on apprentices and teaching them the Dark arts."

Harry sighed. "There are, unfortunately, a great many people who have an unhealthy fascination with the Dark. Such people would never practice them with the intent to do harm, but they run the risk of being burned, and worse, they pass on information that would better be forgotten. Now, tell me more about Horace Slughorn."

They spent the next half hour or so discussing everything Dumbledore knew about Slughorn. By the end of the time period, Harry knew a great deal about the man and was already formulating plans. "Basically, we'll need to find out if Slughorn ever let anything slip to Voldemort about one of these avenues as we're calling them."

"I suggest getting exact memories, if there are any," Dumbledore said. "We can review them in my Pensieve."

"Yes," said Harry. "That would be wise."

There was silence, but Dumbledore eventually broke it. "Do you have any ideas as to how we can approach him and get the memories out of him? He won't be anxious to share them and it could be difficult."

Harry smiled at the Headmaster. "Mr. Slughorn seems to have an affinity for famous people. I suspect that there will be a lot of famous people at that Ministry function Scrimgeour invited me to. Slughorn might even come himself. I'll go, corner him, and see what happens."

"Can we be sure that Slughorn will be invited?" Dumbledore asked. That last thing they needed was for their plan to fail because of such a simple oversight.

"I'll copy one of the invitations I'm due to receive and send it to him myself," Harry said dismissively. "If the Ministry actually does invite him, he'll just feel more special for getting two."

"It sounds like a good plan," Dumbledore admitted, speaking slowly.

Harry smiled. "Great. Now, I'm afraid I'd better get to bed."

They exchanged farewells and Harry returned to Gryffindor tower. It was quite late and he expected everyone to be in bed. However, this did not turn out to be the case. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were sitting in chairs next to the fire waiting for him.

"What's the word, mate?" Ron asked.

Harry collapsed in a chair that they'd pulled up next to them in anticipation of his arrival. "The short of it is that we need to figure out how Voldemort has managed to avoid dying in situations where he should have. Dumbledore and I have a theory that a man named Slughorn may be able to give us an important clue or two if properly convinced. I'm going to go to a formal dinner type thing that Scrimgeour invited me to and try to corner Slughorn there. If we're lucky, Slughorn will know what we need to know."

"You got invited to a Ministry banquet?" Ron asked excitedly.

"Unfortunately, yes," Harry said. "You've got invitations too, or at least, you will."

"We can all go and help you then," Hermione said. "Ron and I can go together, and you can go with Ginny."

Ron didn't look especially thrilled about the idea of Harry going with Ginny. Harry himself absently wondered if it was strictly proper seeing as he was in a way significantly older. Ron was prevented from objecting by Hermione who engaged him in a lively discussion about how Slughorn might be best cornered. As for Harry, he put off the moral dilemma by telling himself that it was strictly a business situation. Ginny's pleased smile didn't help his resolve at all.

"I've got to sleep," he mumbled to his friends. "I'll see you all in the morning.

They all bade him good night and he made his way upstairs and barely managed to get into his pajamas before collapsing into bed. He sleepily stared at the canopy above him thinking about the situation. Once again, he and his fellows were engaged in a war against the Dark. It was certainly annoying, but he wasn't about to let that drag him into the depths of depression. He soon fell asleep.

The next few days were relatively uneventful. Harry attended classes with Ron and Hermione. In Defense, Charms, and even Transfiguration he found that the classes were reviewing for the end of year exams. He was able to recognize the majority of the spells reviewed and perform them with ease. This resulted in boredom on Harry's part, and that resulted in frequent naps. The professors didn't seem to mind that much, but Hermione was terribly offended. Snape was beside himself. However, it was the class who suffered while Snape tried to teach material that would challenge Harry.

Potions and Herbology weren't so easy. Harry was adept enough to pick up on things without falling behind in the reviews, but he didn't enjoy them very much- even if the teachers were considerate and helpful.

The electives turned out to be a little bit of a tug-of-war. Ron wanted Harry to attend Divination and Care of Magical Creatures with him. Hermione wanted Harry to take up Runes and Arithmancy.

Divination had changed drastically during fifth-year, but Harry still felt it was a rather silly sort of art. He had not allowed it to be taught when he was Headmaster. In his stubborn view, he felt that being a true seer wasn't something that could be taught. Some had argued that it was useful to understand how prophecies worked, but Harry had observed in his own life that prophecies were fulfilled whether you knew about them or not. Then of course, Harry had made his own discoveries about time and the future that had nothing to do with Divination and could be controlled precisely.

Hermione was pleased with Harry's views on Divination and assured him that he would find Runes to be far more interesting. When he attended with her, he ended up spending most of the class period snickering quietly. He was elbowed multiple times by a disgusted Hermione.

After the period, he explained to her that Runes had been blown out of proportion over the centuries. Runes were quite simply the alphabet used prior to Roman occupation of Britain. Trying to attach special broad meanings to individual runes was quite simply ridiculous.

Hermione refused to believe this, but couldn't argue with Harry's proficiency with both the alphabet and ancient language. She moved on quickly and hauled him to Arithmancy. The subject matter was useful and accurate. However, Harry was perfectly capable of calculating circles around Professor Vector. A hundred years of working calculations to get back to the future had left Harry with that capability. Nevertheless, he opted to attend somewhat regularly to learn the modern terms and spend time with Hermione.

It was a similar reason that prompted Harry to stick around in Care of Magical Creatures. He didn't enjoy nearly being eaten alive in class on a regular basis, be he did enjoy the company off Hagrid and Ron.

About a week had gone by when Harry received two letters by owl during breakfast one morning. The owls dropped them on top of his food, only narrowly missing his goblet of pumpkin juice.

"Who are they from?" Ron asked.

Harry picked up the first letter. The parchment was clearly expensive, but not gaudy. Harry's name was written on the front. Below the wax seal on the back was inscribed the name of the senders: "Bonwhit & Bonwhit."

Knowing what that was about, and not ready to discuss that with his friends, he quickly moved to the next letter which was quite flashy. It proved to be from Scrimgeour. He opened it and passed the contents around.

"It's your invitations to the Ministry banquet," Ron said.

"They're all blank except the one for you," Ginny observed. "Aren't they clever enough to observe who your friends are?

"It's useful for us in this case," Hermione pointed out. "Harry needs to make sure Slughorn gets one."

Ron snickered, "It would be awfully awkward if we had to cross someone else's name off and put Slughorn's instead. "

Hermione grabbed two of the blank ones. "I'll take these. One for myself, and one for Slughorn. I'll owl it before lunch time."

Breakfast ended and they all headed to their classes without Harry having to explain or even dodge questions about the letter from Bonwhit & Bonwhit. They arrived in Charms and while everyone was engaged in reviewing some spells very familiar to Harry, he read the letter.

Dear Mr. Potter:

Please be advised that we have quietly put your legal affairs concerning Hogwarts in order. As of yesterday, you are the supreme authority over the institution. The Ministry will not be aware of this turn of events until you exercise your authority and dismiss the Board of Governors. Enclosed, you will find documents delineating your authority. They will withstand the most intense scrutiny and objections.

Regards,

Bonwhit & Bonwhit

Harry carefully examined the enclosed documents and was pleased. It seemed that the bank had been able to prove that Harry was the owner of Hogwarts without connecting him to the Darkbane name. He had reckoned that keeping that ace up his sleeve would be wise and was glad that it had not been necessary to play it in order to get control of the school.

He stashed the papers away for safekeeping and turned his attention back to the lesson, though he ultimately feel asleep before the period was over.

The next week passed uneventfully and the day of the banquet soon arrived. The four rushed back to Gryffindor Tower the instant classes ended. While Ron was in the loo, Harry Apparated to his office to fetch some dress robes and then back to the dorm to get into them.

Ron and Harry were soon waiting down in the common room for Hermione and Ginny. This proved to be a rather long wait.

"Slughorn will have come and gone by the time they get down here," Ron declared in an exasperated voice.

Harry made to check his watch, but realized he was currently without one. "I'm sure we're not too late," he mumbled as he thought about the possibility of purchasing a watch. His preferences weren't exactly congruent with modern technology and he wondered how he was going to find something to suit his needs.

He was pulled away from this train of thought when Ginny and Hermione descended from the girls' dorms. They were both stunning and Harry was distinctly reminded of the Yule Ball of fourth year. Ron seemed to agree as his eyes were bulging out. Harry smiled and hoped that this particular event went better for all involved.

"Hermione, you look great," Ron breathed out to Hermione who rewarded him with a beaming smile.

"You don't look too bad yourself," Hermione noted, causing Ron to blush.

Harry thought that Hermione looked great as well, but he was far more impressed by Ginny in her forest green robes with her dark red hair done up in a nice style.

Ron and Hermione were busy staring at each other, and Harry wouldn't have minded staring at Ginny for a big longer, but it was cut short.

"We're going to be late," Ginny reminded them perfunctorily as she linked arms with Harry. "Grab onto Harry so we can Apparate out of here. "

When Harry was sure that everyone was touching him, he drew his wand and Apparated them out of Hogwarts to the familiar phone booth in London. Ron and Hermione let go of him and stared at the phone booth.

"Couldn't you have just taken us directly into the Ministry?" Hermione asked. "Squeezing into that isn't going to be pleasant."

Harry shrugged apologetically, "My Apparition license expired a few years ago. You wouldn't want me to get into trouble with the Ministry would you?"

They all managed to squeeze into the phone booth and Harry was vaguely reminded of his fifth year. The booth was soon descending with them in it and it landed them in the mostly empty atrium. There were only three people wearing what appeared to be caterer uniforms and they were too busy arguing about an accidental occurrence of some sort to notice the arrival of the teens. Hermione and Ginny were quite obviously pleased to note that their informal arrival had been overlooked.

"You can use the Floo to go home if you must," Harry said, rolling his eyes at them. "It's just that I didn't want to get in trouble for illegally Apparating or creating a Portkey and none of you wanted soot all over your nice clothes."

"I think the banquet is in there," Ron said, gesturing down a corridor.

Hermione grabbed his arm before he could get away. "We need to review the plan."

"It's not as if it's that great of a plan," Harry muttered. They had debated endlessly how best to deal with this. There were many unethical means of approaching the task, but few of them were ethical. In the end, it had boiled down to them deciding to just politely approach Slughorn, playing Harry's fame card for all it was worth, and then trying to convince him to talk. Harry thought that the plan was rather lackluster and had told his friends repeatedly that it would fail and that they would just have to go back and figure out something better.

"Each of us will attempt to strike up a conversation with Slughorn," Hermione said, giving Harry a dirty look for his comment. "As soon as possible, you will mention that you're friends with Harry and then introduce him to Harry. Harry, you have to keep an eye on each of us so that you can be close by if we do find him."

"Right," Harry sighed.

Ron nodded, "That's what we'll do. Now can we go in already? The food is probably gone by now."

He made a move toward the room again, but was impeded by Hermione who linked her arm with his. "We're supposed to be together," she said, "and this is a formal event, so act like it."

Harry and Ginny smirked at each other and linking their own arms, fell in behind Ron and Hermione. They soon arrived at the entrance to the large event room. A wizard at the door asked Ron and Hermione for their invitations, but upon spotting Harry walking behind them, he desisted and motioned the four into the room.

"Apparently the invitations weren't needed," Harry said in a low voice as he took in his surroundings. The room was spacious and high-ceilinged. Chandeliers with glowing orbs hung over the tables and dance floor. At the head of the room was a platform with a podium. The wizards and witches in the room were either standing in groups and socializing or sitting at tables speaking quietly.

"More like Scrimgeour told everyone and their dog that you were going to be here. Your appearance here benefits him far more than it does you," Ginny said scathingly.

Harry nodded. "I think you are correct. Speaking of Scrimgeour, there he is. Let's walk over this way and dodge him. I don't think he's seen us yet." Harry and Ginny quickly darted behind a group of people and then at Ginny's behest made their way to a far end of the room where they found an empty table and sat down.

"The further we are from the podium, the better it is for you," Ginny told Harry.

"What if they call me up for some reason?" Harry asked. "Won't that make for a longer and more embarrassing walk up to the front?"

Ginny shrugged. "You'll just have to hope that doesn't happen."

Ron and Hermione eventually came to the table once they figured out where Harry and Ginny went. It seemed that they had already been accosted by the Minister of Magic. "Scrimgeour wants to know where you are," Hermione said.

"You sure slipped away fast," Ron snickered.

"Did you see Slughorn anywhere?" Ginny asked.

Hermione shook her head negatively. "He's not here. I asked several people if they'd seen him yet and we saw nearly everyone on our way over here. Nothing."

"There's still time," Harry said optimistically.

"I guess," Hermione said. Having the plan not work was frustrating for her.

At this point, music began playing and some of the couples present moved to the dance floor. Hermione's forlorn look toward the dancing couples served to motivate Ron to ask her to dance. She accepted eagerly and Harry and Ginny were alone again.

It occurred to Harry that he ought to ask Ginny if she wanted to dance. "Did you want to as well?"

Ginny looked at Harry appraisingly. "Perhaps later," she said, "I'd rather have dinner first. Besides, someone has to keep an eye out while those two are busy."

"Right," Harry said as looked around the room, feeling relieved that he was off the hook. Servers had begun to distribute plates of food and drinks to each table. "It doesn't look like anyone gets to pick what they want to eat," he observed. "Everyone is getting served the exact same thing."

"That's probably what those caterers were talking about in the atrium," Ginny commented, "I bet one of them messed up on the order or something."

Harry and Ginny were soon served. The food turned out to be fine and in Ginny's case, it happened to be her favorite dish. However, they weren't able to enjoy it in privacy very long. They were joined by Rufus Scrimgeour and Percy Weasley.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, are you enjoying yourselves?" Scrimgeour asked in a far too jovial voice.

"Of course," Harry said neutrally, cursing mentally. He hoped that Ron and Hermione were keeping an eye on them. It was up to the other couple to do the Slughorn watching now.

Ginny seemed to be having the same thought. She was anxiously looking toward Ron and Hermione while darting glances to the room's entrance.

Scrimgeour and Percy helped themselves to seats at the table. Harry sighed inwardly. They should have taken the possibility of Scrimgeour trying to monopolize him into account when they planned the evening out. Ginny was doing her best to establish eye contact with Ron and Hermione, but the couple was completely oblivious. They may as well have been in their own world. Harry wanted to know how Ron was able to keep dancing for so long.

"I hope you're feeling better tonight," Scrimgeour said to Harry.

"Of course," Harry said, picking up his fork. He wasn't going to let the Minister spoil a perfectly good meal.

"And you, Miss Weasley," Scrimgeour continued. "How are you feeling?"

Ginny broke her stare the dancing couple and stared at the Minister with a bewildered expression on her face. "Pardon?"

"I meant your kidnapping just before the Christmas holidays this past year," Scrimgeour specified.

"Oh, fine," she said quickly, "I recovered ages ago." She then returned to scanning the room, leaving Harry to deal with the Minister of Magic and her brother.

"I was hoping to talk to you about the situation with You-Know-Who," Scrimgeour said to Harry. "There has been an increase in Death Eater attacks since this summer. Wizards and witches all over the country are losing morale. You could be a real boost to them."

"What did you have in mind?" Harry asked.

Scrimgeour leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "I was thinking of an interview with the Daily Prophet and a little bit of a media campaign. You could let everyone know that things are okay and that we're doing what we need to do."

"Are you?" Harry asked, putting the Minister on the spot. It was at this point that Ginny suddenly reached out and squeezed Harry's knee under the table. He looked at her and she turned her gaze to the entrance. Horace Slughorn had arrived. Harry looked to the dance floor and saw that Ron and Hermione were otherwise occupied, still oblivious.

Ginny made as if she was going to stand and go to Slughorn, but Harry quickly reached out and put his arm around her to prevent it. This cost him a glare from her, but Harry couldn't afford to have anybody from the Ministry know that he was interested in Slughorn. It would get back to the man and then he'd disappear.

"What do you mean?" Scrimgeour asked, "Of course we're doing everything we can."

"I did hear that you sent a pamphlet to each household describing how to defend against an attack. I also have heard that you've increased funding for the Aurors," Harry said, giving Scrimgeour a little bit of credit.

Scrimgeour beamed a smile at Harry. "Now all we need is for you to raise our stock a little bit."

Harry sighed and relaxed his hold on Ginny. She was still anxiously watching Slughorn and the oblivious couple, but it didn't seem that she was about to chase after them either. "There's more that you must do yet. Voldemort is smart. He's not going to wage open war with you. He's going to undermine you bit by bit until he has full control of the Ministry."

"I'm not sure what you mean," Scrimgeour said.

Harry wondered how it was that Scrimgeour could be so dim. "What have you done about Dolores Umbridge? After what she did at Hogwarts last year, she ought to be in Azkaban."

"I'm sure that investigation is ongoing," Scrimgeour said.

This annoyed Harry greatly. Umbridge was placed highly enough in the Ministry that Scrimgeour should know every detail. Either the man was ignorant or he was lying to Harry. He turned his gaze to Percy. "Well? Surely someone like you ought to know."

Percy who had been satisfied to sit smugly at the Minister's side was suddenly in a very bad spot. He didn't want to do anything that might compromise his boss's footing in the conversation, but he wasn't necessarily ready to take a hit for him and appear ignorant either. Further, it didn't help that Harry's green-eyed gaze was boring into his soul. "The investigation is complete. No charges have been filed against her."

"All that stuff at Hogwarts was a misunderstanding," Scrimgeour said, trying to sound casual.

Harry's response was somewhat delayed. He observed that Slughorn had sat down with some acquaintances and was already eating the meal served up by the caterers. "You're the ones who misunderstand," he said. "The woman drove Professor Dumbledore from the school. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was for the students?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Scrimgeour tried to say convincingly.

"I think I do," Harry said coldly. "The Ministry is full of people like that woman. Their own selfishness and ambition cause them to do things that play right into Voldemort's hands. Worse, there are those in the Ministry who are Death Eaters and are actively trying to undermine you. You want me to get up and say that everything is fine, but it isn't. You need to purge the Ministry of these people if you intend to have a chance against Voldemort."

Scrimgeour's face had turned red and he was trying to reply, but to no avail. Harry ran roughshod over him.

"You can't take shortcuts," Harry declared. "Principles of good can defeat the Dark lord, but if you try to play underhandedly against him, he'll win. He's far better at what he does than you are. Get rid of your self-serving underlings and then you can stand up and fight this war effectively. If you don't, I suspect you'll be assassinated. When that happens, you can rest assured that your successor will be a Death Eater."

"Is this something Dumbledore has taught you?" Scrimgeour spluttered angrily. "Dumbledore may have been a power to be reckoned with in past days, but he's no good anymore. You-Know-Who raided Hogwarts just recently and there was nothing that the old man could do to stop it. If Umbridge had been in charge, nothing of the sort would have been allowed."

Harry's angry gaze was completely focused on Scrimgeour. "Even if he is old, wrong, or making mistakes, at least he doesn't insist on shrouding himself in ignorance."

"I have news for you," Scrimgeour hissed, "Dumbledore's days at Hogwarts are coming to a speedy end. Maybe then you will learn about how things are. When you're ready to support us, let me know." The Minister stood up and stormed away.

Percy remained at the table and there was a brief period of silence during which Harry finished up his meal. Harry didn't know why Percy had remained, but he wasn't about to drive him away without finding out. Finally, Percy spoke. "If you don't mind, Potter, I would like to speak with Ginevra privately."

This annoyed Harry to no end, but he stood graciously. "Be my guest," he said before leaving the table and going to the edge of the dance floor. Why were Ron and Hermione still dancing? Had they completely forgot the reason they were here? Harry waited until they passed his position and he waved at them to get their attention. They were too busy staring into each other's eyes to see him.

"Unbelievable," he muttered crossly. He decided to just head over to Slughorn and take care of things on his own. It appeared that the man had finished eating and was now standing in a group of wizards and witches socializing.

Before he could get there, he was joined by Ginny. "I can't believe that pompous jerk is my brother!"

"What did he do?" Harry asked.

"He asked me all sorts of questions about you and then implied that I should not be going out with you," Ginny said.

"He thinks we're an item then?" Harry asked with an amused smile.

Ginny gave Harry a strange glance. "Well, yes. Then, he had the gall to ask about how I was feeling after being kidnapped. He didn't bother to come to the hospital or anything when it actually happened. After that, he talked about how I need to start making better friends and connections."

"What an interesting fellow," Harry commented.

"Interesting is not the word I'd use," Ginny said, muttering several other things under her breath as the two walked toward Slughorn's position.

"It would appear that this evening isn't going to be for naught even if everything is going wrong," Harry said. "We've got Slughorn in our sights. He's not going to escape now."

Harry's prediction was suddenly proved wrong. They were only fifty feet away from Slughorn when the man abruptly put his hand over his chest and started gasping violently. Harry and Ginny could only stop and stare as the man had a heart attack right in front of them. In seconds, Slughorn was lying on the floor unconscious.

"Does anyone know CPR?" Harry asked loudly.

All the witches and wizards present stared at Harry. "What's CPR?" Ginny asked.

"Nevermind," said Harry as he moved closer to the man. "We've got to get him to a hospital or something.

Several in the crowd had had a similar idea and were already making arrangements to transport Slughorn to St. Mungo's. However, this proved unnecessary. A witch and wizard each dressed in white uniforms pushed their way through the gathered crowd.

"We're medics," the male declared urgently. He conjured a stretcher and the female medic helped load Slughorn onto it. They then rushed Slughorn out of the room and presumably to the hospital as the crowd stared.

Everyone returned to what they had been doing prior to Slughorn's unfortunate incident. Harry and Ginny were soon standing alone. "Well that does it," Harry said, clearly miffed. "I don't know what else could have gone wrong."

"You aren't kidding," Ginny said. "How about we just go back to the castle? I'm sure those two lovebirds can find their own way back, providing they ever figure out that Slughorn has already come and gone."

"All right," said Harry. He and Ginny then walked side by side out of the room and into the atrium. "Did you prefer Floo or Apparition?"

"Let's just Floor to your office," Ginny suggested. "There's no sense in risking you getting caught by some stray Ministry employee."

They walked over to the fireplaces and were just about to grab some Floo powder when a knut was thrown at them. The bronze piece bounced off the stone fireplace and landed at their feet. Harry spun around, wand drawn, to see who had thrown it. No one was present.

Ginny had bent over and picked up the piece of money. "This isn't a standard knut," she commented, handing it to Harry. "It has a funny design etched into it instead of the normal one."

Harry examined the knut and pattern on it with a frown. "How remarkably odd," he said softly.

"Who do you suppose threw it at us and why?" Ginny asked.

Harry looked up from the knut and into Ginny's eyes with a broad smile. "We did."

Chapter Seventeen: Deciphering the Plan

"What do you mean 'we did'?" Ginny demanded. "How can you tell?"

"The design on the knut is a symbol that I use when I'm making notes about time travel." Harry explained. "No one else could possibly have known this symbol. Time travel happened tonight. I suspect that those two people who rushed Slughorn to the hospital weren't really medics."

Ginny was quick on the uptake. "We're probably interrogating him at this moment, aren't we?"

"I assume so," Harry said thoughtfully. "So now, we need to go back in time and figure out how to pull it off. The question is how far back do we need to go?"

"Well, seeing as we don't have a clue as to what precisely we will be doing, we should give ourselves plenty of time to figure it out and make it happen." Ginny advised.

Harry smiled at her. He had feared that having to deal with yet another Dark wizard would be unpleasant, but having someone at his side made it all worth it. "That sounds practical to me. Let's go into London via the telephone booth. We can disguise ourselves and travel through time there."

The telephone booth returned them to the street above. Despite it not being especially late in the evening, the street was void of people. "We may want to find a better place to do the time travel bit," Ginny suggested. "There may not be anyone here at this moment, but there probably will be in the past."

"Good thinking," Harry said absently as he began to calculate the magic for their expedition in his mind. He was used to the luxury of extensive planning before time travel expeditions and was feeling slightly overwhelmed. He handed his wand to Ginny. "Why don't you use this and transfigure your dress into something less noticeable? My wand won't be picked up by the Ministry's underage magic detectors."

Ginny's dark green dress became a dark green sweater with blue jeans and her dress shoes only changed slightly to lower the heels. She then turned the wand on Harry and transfigured his clothes as well. His dress robes became dark slacks with a polo and jacket. Finished with the changes, Ginny handed the wand back to Harry who was now muttering quietly and stood back to wait on him.

"I think I've got it worked out," Harry announced. He then pointed to a nearby alley. "Does that look like a good place to do it?"

"I don't think so," Ginny said. "We don't want to run into anyone who is on their way into the Ministry. Let's get a few blocks away from here and find an alley."

"Right," Harry said. He started off down the street with Ginny at his side. They walked several blocks and in the process moved through a number of neighborhoods. Some had more people on the street, others less. They eventually found an out of the way alley and slipped into it, making sure to check that no one was following them with the intent to rob them.

They were soon at the end of the alley. "How do we do this?" Ginny asked, doing her best to hide her feelings of nervousness. She had never time travelled before, but knowing that it was Harry did calm her somewhat.

"It's quite simple," Harry said reassuringly. "To you, it won't be much different than side-along Apparition, though it will be much easier if you sort of take position in front of me like so." He wrapped his left arm around her waist and drew her near, greatly reducing the size of the space they occupied.

Without any further ado, Harry grasped his wand in his right hand and raised it above his and Ginny's heads. Harry had yet to develop an incantation for the spell, so the wand work necessary was quite involved. After several swishes, flicks, and other complicated, but precise movements, Harry swung the wand in a circle over their heads and then swooshed the wand down in an arc before bringing it up to point straight toward the dark evening sky overhead.

Harry and Ginny watched with fascination as time began to reverse at rapid speed. Evening reverted back to afternoon, and afternoon to morning. Just before the sun disappeared beneath the eastern horizon, Harry dropped the wand to his side and their journey was through.

"Here we are," Harry said needlessly.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Ginny asked.

"I could," Harry said, "but there's an awful lot of theory you'd have to get through first. For now, you'd best stick to your OWLs."

"Maybe some other time," she said, realizing that learning how to do what Harry had just done was no small feat and not sure yet whether she wanted to commit an extraordinary amount of time into learning time travel.

There was a long awkward pause after this. Harry's arm was still around Ginny and she wasn't ready to spoil that. Eventually Harry noticed the silence and dropped his arm. "Err . . . why don't we find a shop and get something to drink? We're going to have to figure out what to do."

"All right," Ginny said, a little disappointed that the physical contact with Harry had ceased.

There was a small café just around the corner and they were soon seated. They ordered only hot chocolate because they were still filled up from the Ministry banquet. Harry grabbed a paper napkin, discreetly conjured a ballpoint pen, and started taking notes. "Let's get started. What strange things happened at the banquet that resulted in our presumably getting our hands on Slughorn?"

The first one was easy. "Slughorn mysteriously collapses and is carted off by two medics," Ginny detailed.

"Now," said Harry, "how do we accomplish that?"

"I guess we could just stun him," Ginny theorized.

Harry frowned as he tried his best to recall the exact events of the evening. "Stunning isn't what happened. Someone would have figured that out, too. Something genuinely occurred that put Slughorn out of commission and it wasn't immediately obvious that foul play was involved."

There was silence as both Harry and Ginny mulled the possibilities. "Poison," Ginny finally said.

"That's not practical," Harry scoffed. "How can you poison one man in such a large crowd? We don't what precisely he'll eat or drink."

"Actually," Ginny retorted, "we do know precisely what he'll eat. Everyone ate the exact same thing."

"You've got a point," Harry said.

Ginny shrugged, "Not really. Now that I think about it, that would involve poisoning everybody at the banquet."

Harry frowned and sipped some of his hot chocolate. The liquid had finally cooled down enough that he could enjoy it. Slowly, he began to review his every memory of the evening. Eventually his mind lighted on something else strange that had happened. "Do you remember why everyone ended up eating the same thing?" Harry asked.

"Of course!" Ginny exclaimed. "Those caterers back in the atrium were talking about some sort of accident."

"I don't think that's a coincidence," Harry said. "It sounds to me like we tampered with the food."

"You've got a point," Ginny said, "but there's still the issue of poisoning only Slughorn. Maybe we were disguised as servers and made sure he got the right plate."

Harry shook his head. "That doesn't account for us making sure only one dish was served. Besides, trying to get in position to be the server that takes care of Slughorn is too complicated. I'm guessing there's some way to make a poison selective."

"How?" Ginny asked, tasting her own hot chocolate and discovering that it was still too hot for her taste.

"Well, concocting poisons and drugging people aren't my specialties," Harry mused. "However, you happen to have a pair of brothers who might be helpful."

Ginny laughed. "Why didn't we think of that before? We'll be paying them a visit then."

"Excellent," Harry said, writing down the relevant information. "We'll sabotage the catering operation and see to it that the food served is laced with whatever Fred and George can supply for us. What about the medics carting Slughorn off?"

"That's easy enough," Ginny said. "We can go to a second-hand robes shop and find some uniforms that can pass as that of a mediwitch or wizard. We'll discreetly hang around and wait for Slughorn to collapse. We already know what happens next."

Harry nodded and checked that off on the napkin. "Good. We'll take him to some nearby room and make sure to alert our counterparts to our scheme via the knut and symbol. What else happened that night that helped us?"

There was some silence as Harry and Ginny both reviewed the events of the evening in their head as they drained their lukewarm chocolate. Ginny was the one to come up with the next strange occurrence. "Now that I think about it, there was something awfully unnatural about Ron and Hermione."

"I can't believe I didn't realize that something was going on with them," Harry declared. "They really were in their own world! I already know precisely what spell can make that happen." He scribbled some more notes onto the napkin.

Harry and Ginny continued to brainstorm in an attempt to remember anything else odd about the evening, but they failed to come up with anything else of significance. They sketched up a rudimentary plan and prepared to put it into action.

"The part we need to get on top of first is the poison," Harry decided. "It's not too early to catch your brothers in their shop, is it?"

"I don't know that they'll be open yet," Ginny said, "but they should be there regardless."

Harry took a special wallet out of his pocket and drew some Muggle money from it. He paid for the chocolate and they left. "I guess we're off to Diagon Alley then."

The two left the café and began walking. "Do you know how to get to the Leaky Cauldron from here?" Ginny asked.

"Not really," Harry replied as he scanned their surroundings, looking for something familiar. "I'd hail a cab, but I don't see any around here. Let's go this way."

"We really ought to disguise ourselves more," Ginny told Harry. "The folks at the Leaky Cauldron and in Diagon Alley will be suspicious if they see two teenagers who ought to be in school wandering around."

"Surely not every teenager in this country goes to Hogwarts," Harry protested.

"No, but most do. It also doesn't help that you have that scar on your forehead." Ginny said casually.

Harry glanced around and seeing that no one was paying them serious attention, he discreetly drew his wand and cast some spells. The net effect was that most wizards and witches would not notice the pair. Those that did would be left with the distinct thought that the two were obviously in their twenties.

"We still look the same," Ginny informed Harry matter-of-factly. "We aren't fooling anyone."

"It's not what we look like that counts," Harry said to her, "it's what they thought we looked like that matters."

Ginny let it drop, thought she did give him a slightly doubtful glance.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, Harry got his bearings and they were soon on a more direct path to the Leaky Cauldron. The tavern proved to be not very far from where they had started and they were at the wall leading into Diagon Alley within an hour. Traffic was picking up in Muggle London, but the shops in Diagon Alley were still closed and the alley itself largely empty.

Among the closed shops was Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. However, some persistent knocking on Harry's part resulted in one of the twins opening the door. Harry had dropped the disguise on Ginny and himself, so they were instantly recognized.

"Merlin's beard! What are you two doing here?" exclaimed the twin.

"What are you talking about, Fred?" came the voice of the other twin. "Who's here?"

"It's Harry and Ginny!" Fred yelled back into the shop. He motioned them in and locked the door behind them.

"We need you to help us pull a prank," Harry informed Fred and George who were giving Harry and Ginny their full attention.

"You two snuck out of Hogwarts to ask us to help you pull a prank?" George asked, sounding suspicious.

Fred frowned at them. "We're all for pranks, but that is rather pushing it."

"It's in the nature of Order business," Harry informed them.

"Oh," George said. "Well that's okay then. What did you need from us?"

"We're in the market for some sort of potion that can induce a fake heart attack and leave the person unconscious. However, we need to be able to revive them soon after that." Harry told them.

Ginny spoke up and modified the request. "It's going to be administered to everyone present, but we only want it to affect one person."

This elicited a low whistle from both twins. "That's a tall order," Fred said.

"But it does sound brilliant," George declared.

"What precisely is the purpose of this poisoning?" Fred asked.

Harry cringed. He didn't want to discuss the details of this operation with anyone, but on the other hand, he didn't like asking for help and then refusing to come clean. Fortunately, Ginny stepped in. "We'd rather not tell you," she said. "Once things settle down, we'll let you in on the details."

"All right," Fred said. "We'll help you."

George gestured to the back of the store. "Step into our office."

Their office was more of a large workshop with various projects in the works spread all over the tables and floor. There was nothing for Harry or Ginny to do but look around at all of random things while the twins whispered to themselves and referred to several that looked like they belonged in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts.

"How many people are going to get dosed with this?" Fred asked after a short time.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other. "Maybe two hundred?" Harry said to her.

"We'd better plan for more than that," Ginny said.

"How about two hundred and fifty?" Harry said.

Ginny nodded, "That sounds about right."

"Merlin," George muttered, "no one can claim that you two lack ambition."

"Does the number matter?" Harry asked.

"We're talking about highly specialized potions, Harry," Fred said. "That means we're going to need highly specialized ingredients. Those tend to be rare and expensive."

Harry waved his hand dismissively. "Just make me up a list of ingredients and we'll go buy them for you. Money is the least of your worries for this project."

"Well that makes everything a lot easier," George declared, returning to the research with gusto.

In a short amount of time, the twins had drawn up a shopping list for Harry and Ginny. "You should be able to get those at any apothecary," Fred explained, showing Harry the list. He then pointed to a couple of other ingredients. "You may have to visit Knockturn Alley for those."

"You know what Mum says about Knockturn Alley," Ginny hissed to her brothers.

The twins both rolled their eyes and George spoke for them. "You're with Harry, Gin. You should be afraid for Knockturn Alley, not yourself."

"I'm not afraid of getting hurt," Ginny said lamely. "It's just that I'm sure Mum had good reasons to forbid us to go there, even when Voldemort wasn't around."

"You can stay here," Harry said nonchalantly as he pocketed the list the twins had handed him. "It is a rough place and there are things there even I'd prefer not to see and people I could do without associating with. There's also the fact that your mum might not appreciate me taking you there."

Ginny stood with a blank look on her face that disappeared when she shot a glare at the twins and made for the front door of the shop. "We shall be back with your ingredients shortly," she informed them curtly.

Harry followed her out the door. "We'll be sure to make it quick," he said to the twins by way of farewell.

"Don't strain yourself," one of them called out as Harry closed the door and found Ginny waiting for him.

"You really don't have to come," Harry told her. He didn't want to force her into doing anything she felt uncomfortable with. After all, she was still a teenager and he couldn't expect her to face the same things that his duties required of him, though he would welcome her company in any situation.

"Forget it," Ginny said neutrally, her face set in an expression that Harry couldn't interpret.

Rightly figuring that pressing the issue would have unpleasant results, Harry turned and headed toward the same apothecary he had always bought his school ingredients from. He pulled his wand out and performed several glamour charms on Ginny and himself. The pair now appeared to be in their early forties. Harry supposed that he should have tried to change eye and hair color, but he was better at age after years of trying to convince people that he was older than sixteen.

They arrived at the apothecary and were pleased to discover that it was already open for business. Upon entering, Harry took an order sheet from the counter and began to compare it to Fred and George's shopping list. Ginny contented herself by looking at the various ingredients and the clerk continued his work of stocking the shelves.

Providentially, the shop was able to supply everything that the twins had anticipated would be available in a normal apothecary. Harry and Ginny took the order up to the counter and presented it to the clerk who was able to quickly fill it owing to the lack of customers at that early hour. Harry's vault at Gringotts was charged and they were soon on their way to Knockturn Alley.

They soon were there and walking down the narrow way. Harry had visited Knockturn Alley many times while he had been in the past, but not always to do his shopping. Seeing that Ginny was eying their surroundings with disguised nervousness, he tried his best to distract her from the present moment. "This place has always been rather dodgy," Harry commented. "You'd think that it had a time when it was quite upscale, but it doesn't."

"Then why hasn't the Ministry gotten rid of it?" Ginny asked.

"It may be as simple as sheer laziness," Harry speculated. "On the other hand, the Ministry's lack of action may be more Machiavellian. It's good to know precisely where you can find the trouble makers instead of having to guess all the time. It's impossible to get rid of the blighters."

Ginny spent the next several moments considering Harry's observation in her mind and did not reply. Eventually, Harry stopped in front of a rather dingy looking shop. Ginny looked up and read the name to Harry. "Merlin's Cabinet."

"They're still in business after all these years," Harry said wonderingly.

"Or the new owners were too lazy to take down the sign when they moved in," Ginny said tartly as she noted the lack of general maintenance around the shop and those surrounding it.

Harry had already tried the door and discovered that it was locked. A faded sign announced that it was closed until later that morning. "Only one way to find out," he replied to Ginny. He reached out and rapped smartly on the door. When there was no answer, he did it again.

"We're closed!" yelled a voice from above.

Harry stepped back and looked up at the window above from whence the voice had proceeded. An old woman was sticking her head out the window and glaring at Harry. He waved his shopping list at her. "You'll make more off of us than you'll make the rest of this week. Get down here or we'll go down the road a ways."

"All right," conceded the woman. She disappeared from the window and eventually opened the door to the shop and showed them in.

What followed was far more fascinating to Ginny than the visit to the Apothecary in the main alley. Instead of grabbing an order form and matter-of-factly filling it out, Harry beat around the bush, not being entirely clear what he was after, and when they did start talking about a specific potion ingredient, a great deal of haggling followed with Harry demanding to inspect the product while both tried to negotiate a price more to their advantage.

Ginny's eyes bulged with surprise when Harry finally concluded his business by charging several hundred galleons to his Gringott vault. She was reasonably sure that they had just spent more money on potion ingredients that her father made in a year.

They were soon swiftly departing Knockturn Alley, weighted down by the bulkiness of their purchases. Harry had refused to shrink them owing to their value. He was rich, but he wasn't about to throw money away.

"Is there anywhere we can find some used clothes that would pass as uniforms?" Harry asked as they entered the main alley where traffic had picked up significantly since they had left it.

"Over there," Ginny said, motioning with a jerk of her head. It was the shop she and her family had shopped at often over the years.

Harry's eyes lit up when he saw it. "Excellent!" he declared. "Let's duck in there and see what we can find."

They went in and Ginny ended up looking after their potion ingredients while Harry rifled through the selections at a speed and with a selectivity that impressed even Ginny who had watched her mother for years. In short order, Harry had discovered the same outfits that he remembered the two medics wearing. "These should do," he said to Ginny, holding them up for her approval.

"All right," Ginny said.

Harry quickly purchased the used uniforms and they were back at Fred and George's shop only a few minutes later.

"Here are your ingredients," Harry said to the twins as he and Ginny deposited their purchases on some open space on one of the counters in the back room of the shop. "How long do you think it's going to take for you to get this ready?"

"Until some point in the afternoon," Fred replied as he examined the selection.

"That should be fine," Harry said. "Is there somewhere I could lay down and take a nap?"

"Sure," George answered. He gestured toward the stairs. "Just head up those over there. There's an empty room at the top. If things get too noisy, cast a Silencing charm."

Harry nodded and headed toward the stairs. He turned at looked at Ginny. "If you could wake me if you're around when they finish, I'd appreciate it greatly."

"No problem," Ginny replied, agreeing to his request.

Harry walked up the stairs and Ginny turned her attention to watching Fred and George get to work. Fred was removing everything from the packages. When he found the uniforms, he held them up and shot Ginny a questioning look.

"Those are for another part of the plan," Ginny explained.

"Right," Fred said slowly, setting the uniforms aside. He glanced back at the staircase to establish that Harry was well and truly out of ear shot and then turned back to Ginny. "Why is he taking a nap this early in the morning? Is he still ill?"

"How do you know that Harry hasn't been feeling well?" Ginny asked, surprised that her brothers knew about Harry's health.

George joined the conversation as he came over to get some of the primary ingredients. "The entire Order knows that Harry isn't in tip top shape," he announced to Ginny. "Pomfrey talks to McGonagall, and McGonagall talks to Mum and Mum talks to everybody."

"It's just like how we all worry about how Dumbledore is old and possibly barmy. The Order is worried that Harry could fall over dead or be killed at any moment," Fred explained.

The expression on Ginny's face was one of shock and worry. Seeing this, George moved to calm her down with a bit of humor. "Maybe we've got our signals mixed up. We should worry about Dumbledore falling over dead and Harry being barmy."

"Harry isn't barmy or . . . weak," Ginny huffed indignantly.

"That doesn't explain the nap," George said, returning to where he was setting up the potion.

Ginny knew that Harry didn't want everyone knowing every detail of the Slughorn plan, but as she thought about it, she saw that there were more advantages to telling them than just getting them off her back about Harry's nap. "Harry is using time travel to carry out this scheme," Ginny informed her two brothers. "It is well past our normal bedtime."

"That explains it," Fred said excitedly. "Finally, we get to see Harry do something with these special powers he allegedly has. I wish we could time travel. Think of the things we could get away with and still have an air-tight alibi."

"How did you get to be his partner in crime?" George asked. "It seems like Ron or Hermione would have fought pretty hard to be in on this scheme."

Ginny's answer was slightly delayed. She would have liked to tell Fred and George that she and Harry had a special understanding with each other and were exclusively working together, but if she was brutally honest with herself, teaming up with Harry at this juncture was more the result of Hermione arbitrarily assigning her to go to the banquet as Harry's partner. "It just worked out that way," she answered, sounding slightly depressed. "Ron and Hermione were occupied when the opportunity presented itself."

Fred and George were largely self absorbed, but they could read their sister decently well. "If Ron and Hermione are always busy, that's half the battle. Just stick to Harry's side like glue and you'll be Lady Darkbane before you know it."

Ginny bushed beet red. "You two!" she exclaimed and began to splutter before exiting the workshop in a huff as they laughed. She took up the marginally less stressful activity of browsing their shop as she waited for them to concoct the poison she and Harry had requested.

After a while, exhaustion overtook her and she found a chair in Fred and George's office where out of the way of the twins and their customers, she fell asleep. It was well into the afternoon when Fred came to wake her up. "The potion is ready. Why don't you go and fetch Harry?"

"Right," she said, rubbing her eyes and trying to stand using her cramped muscles. She went to the back of the shop and travelled up the staircase she had seen Harry go up. Near the top was an empty room where she found Harry sleeping in a conjured sleeping bag.

She was about to call his name when he opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Is it done?"

"Yes," Ginny answered.

"Perfect," Harry said. He got up from the floor and used his wand to get rid of the sleeping bag. "Let's go down and get them to tell us all about it."

When they got down to the workshop, only George was present. There were customers in the front of the shop that required assistance. "Here's what we were able to cook up for you," George told them, gesturing to several flasks that contained a ruby red liquid.

Harry walked over to the bench, picked up one of the flasks, and tilted it as he studied it intently. He uncorked it and wafted the odor toward his nose. "I don't believe I've ever seen a similar sort of concoction. How exactly will it work?"

"It's rather simple," George explained. "All you have to do is get your victim to ingest some of it." Anticipating the next question from Harry and Ginny, he continued. "I don't think it will take very much at all to be effective, so I wouldn't worry too much about drowning everyone in it. Once the potion has had time to get into your victim's system, all you have to do is shoot a simple and undetectable spell at him and the potion goes into effect. A fake heart-attack ensues. The victim doesn't really feel much of anything, but the symptoms will be very convincing for everyone who sees it happen."

"How long until this stuff is out of your system?" Harry asked. It had just occurred to him that he and Ginny must have ingested some of this stuff too.

"About a day," George replied. "I wouldn't worry too much. It's not as if you're going to run into the activation spell accidentally."

"What is this spell?" Ginny asked.

George then quickly explained the details of the spell that they would need to use. Harry and Ginny were able to perform it perfectly with only one try each and each were confident that they would be able to hit Slughorn with it even from a long distance.

"Anything else we should know?" Harry asked.

"There is one slight drawback that Fred and I weren't able to fix," George admitted. He gestured toward the bright red potion. "Making it subtle is really tough. You are going to need to stick it in something that has strong flavor and isn't exactly white and creamy."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "That explains why only one dish will end up being served. All the other ones aren't going to be suitable for this scheme."

"Now that I think about it, it dinner did taste a little off," Ginny said quietly.

"Well, you've done yourselves proud," Harry said to George. "Thank you for your help. If everything goes well, we'll make some serious progress this evening in the fight against Voldemort."

"Not a problem," George said. "Just remember that we're here and ready to help. You can count on us."

"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said happily as he picked up the flasks and the uniforms they had left in the workshop. "I suppose that Ginny and I really ought to get going if we want to carry this off without a hitch."

George walked them to the front door and they met up with Fred who had finally encountered a break from the tide of customers their shop was fortunate to have. "Come back soon," Fred said.

They exchanged farewells and finally, Harry and Ginny exited the shop and made their way to the Leaky Cauldron and from there, the Ministry's banquet.