The Inadequate Life

Over the next week, Oliver Wood proved to be an invaluable addition to the D.A. He was an excellent strategist, and Harry spent many long hours with him, Ron, Hermione and Ginny huddled over maps of Diagon Alley discussing how best to use their limited manpower. His presence also seemed to have a motivating effect within the House of Black; there had been a lot of tension building, and Oliver’s positive attitude really helped the other D.A. members to loosen up.

One member who definitely loosened up was Alicia Spinnet, and not just because of Oliver’s presence: it was more because of his stamina. The first night he’d been there, Oliver had come down for dinner side by side with Alicia, and it was obvious from the way that Alicia was walking—and the enormous grins both of them were wearing—that Oliver hadn’t taken so long getting to dinner because he’d gotten lost. Alicia was subjected to merciless teasing, especially from Angelina, Katie and the Weasley twins. Harry almost put a stop to it until he realized that it was all sliding off Alicia, who was apparently too pleased with herself to let it bother her. Besides, after listening a bit longer Harry realized that Alicia was giving as good as she got, and seemed to be enjoying every minute of it, so he stopped worrying about her.

Luna, Sally-Ann, Padma and Terry were hardly seen at all. They spent all their waking hours secreted away in the second conference room, working on establishing the properties of the basilisk venom. Since there was so little of it, they spent days doing nothing but researching ever known fact about the substance, and arguing for hours at a time about what conclusions could be drawn from what they found. Harry asked Hermione at one point if they should be worried that the four Ravenclaws might come to blows, and she responded “Oh, they might, I suppose. But don’t worry about it, Harry. It’s just the scientific process at work.”

“But it’s not science,” Harry said, perplexed. “It’s magic.”

“But the principles are the same,” Hermione insisted. “Any time several intelligent, logical-minded people come together to try and wrap their minds around a complicated problem, tempers will flare. It’s their various opinions butting against one another; they get angry because they’re all trying to prove each other wrong.”

“What?” Harry exclaimed. “But they want to find out what’s right!”

“And the best way to do that,” Hermione replied, “is for intelligent, rational people to try and prove a theory wrong. If they can’t, there’s a far greater chance that it’s right. They’re trying to use the process of elimination to figure out what isn’t true, because whatever’s left over must be the truth. It’s rather like Sherlock Holmes.”

Harry shook his head, feeling that he was in over his head. “I’ll take your word for it.”

Harry heeded Hermione’s advice and didn’t intervene when it was clear that the Ravenclaws were at odds with each other, sometimes quite loudly. Fortunately, none of them shouted anything that he wanted them keeping secret from the rest of the D.A.

Then, after a week had passed, Harry was roused out of sleep by a pounding on the door. Sitting up in bed, he squinted at the clock since he’d taken off his glasses. That better not be right, he thought muzzily.

“Who the bloody hell is it at four in the bloody morning?” Ginny growled sleepily from beside him.

“I dunno, but if no one’s in desperate danger then they’re going to be,” Harry grumbled. Swinging his legs out of bed, he plodded over to the door.

“Hey Harry?” Ginny said.

“Yeah?”

“Not that I care, but whoever’s out there might not appreciate seeing you in the nude,” Ginny murmured.

Harry looked down at himself. He usually slept in some old boxers and a t-shirt, but that night Ginny had treated him to a stunningly fabulous shag, and he’d been too all-in to bother redressing after. Sighing, Harry snatched his jeans from behind the back of the sofa and tugged them on before proceeding to open the door.

“Harry!” Sally-Ann exclaimed excitedly, practically bouncing in place. “We think we’ve done it! Figured it out, I mean! All the information we could find supports our theory, and all the tests we’ve been able to do without actually mixing the ingredients or the—items have held up the theory too! We think that we’re ready to—” She stopped when she saw Harry’s expression, and his tousled, barely coherent state. “Oh—did I wake you?” she asked.

“Did you wake me?” Harry repeated incredulously. “It’s four in the bloody morning!”

“It is?” Sally-Ann looked at her watch, and paled slightly. “Wow, we hadn’t realized it had gotten so late!” she shuffled her feet. “Um… well, I guess we can wait until tomorrow—we should probably get some sleep, too, so we’re rested when we explain everything to you…” she trailed off. “Um… night!” she said rapidly, and scampered off.

Harry shut the door, shed his jeans and collapsed face-up onto the bed again. “Merlin,” he muttered. “Blasted Ravenclaws.”

“Mff,” Ginny mumbled into her pillow before scooting closer and snuggling up against Harry. Her hand drifted down until it caressed Harry’s cock, making him twitch. “Mm,” Ginny hummed into Harry’s chest. “Up for more, are you?”

Harry was about to protest that he was too tired when Ginny began to stroke him in earnest, and his cock leapt to attention. “Relax, Harry,” Ginny said, slowly sliding down so she was facing the other way. “Just lay back and enjoy it.”

Harry groaned when Ginny’s mouth wrapped around his cock. She massaged the base with her skilled fingers while her other hand lightly cupped his sack. Her tongue flicked off his tip several times before she started to bob her head, sliding her silken lips over his soft, sensitive skin.

Harry didn’t last long, despite having just shagged Ginny a few hours earlier. She pushed him relentlessly, and when her teeth lightly grazed the head of his cock he came, moaning quietly. Ginny sucked him in and continued to milk him until he was completely spent. Harry’s breath came back to him slowly as Ginny turned around and curled up next to him again, with her arm stretched over his chest. “Wow, Ginny,” Harry murmured happily.

Ginny’s lips curled into a smile against his chest. “Good night, Harry,” she whispered.

*****

Sally-Ann was relieved to find Harry in a much better mood than she’d feared the next day. He showed up at breakfast just as she and Terry were about to sit down; “Hey,” he said, and to their surprise he sat down with them. We want you to show us what you figured out yesterday,” he said without preamble.

“Um, all right,” sally-Ann agreed. “Er—right now?”

“Let’s eat first,” Harry suggested, smiling as Ginny came down the stairs. “We probably shouldn’t have food around when we’re talking about that, should we? You might have to demonstrate some of your experiments, and we wouldn’t want food next to the ingredients on the table.”

Sally-Ann and Terry agreed, so they all sat down to eat. When Ginny slid into the seat next to Harry, he leaned over and whispered in her ear “I owe you two.”

“Two?” Ginny whispered back. “Why not just one?”

“Because you also kept me from staying angry, and helped me get back to sleep,” Harry replied warmly. “That deserves another one. Unless you don’t want it…”

“No, I’ll take it,” Ginny said impishly.

Ron and Hermione came down to join them, so almost the entire D.A. was present. It made things very crowded, but everyone cheerfully budged up to make room.

Everyone seemed pretty happy. Oliver was the center of attention at one end of the table—even after a whole week he was still being bombarded with questions about life as a professional Quidditch star. Further along the table, Pansy and Hermione were in a spirited but friendly argument about the moral implications behind the use of a particular potion. Ron had cleared a section of table and spread a map of Diagon Alley out, and was showing Seamus, Dean, Parvati and Lavender where they’d be going that day to set more of Fred and George’s inventions. Justin was curiously questioning Cho about her Medi-Witch training. Everything seemed… kind of normal.

“Harry? Are you okay?”

“What? I mean yeah,” Harry said, turning to Ginny. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, you’re just… sitting there with this silly grin on your face,” Ginny said with concern.

Harry reddened. “Sorry. I was just thinking… how great it is that everyone’s so happy. I wish we could have more moments like this morning—in fact, I wish that this one would just go on forever.”

Ginny smiled sadly. “Too bad we have to be realistic, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “It would be nice to live in the moment all the time. Except it would backfire on us later.” He sighed. “Well… let’s get on with it then.”

Harry and Ginny pried Hermione, Ron, Luna, Sally-Ann, Terry and Padma away from their conversations and led the way upstairs to the second conference room. Everyone squeezed in as usual, and Harry shut the door. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s hear what you’ve learned.”

“And please,” Ginny said quickly Sally-Ann, Padma and Terry all opened their mouths to talk at once, “don’t give us the step-by-step breakdown of all the arguments you’ve had over the last week.”

“They were only discussions!” Padma insisted.

“Whatever. We want to hear your theory, and the logic behind. Beyond that, we can ask questions if we’re not satisfied.”

Looking slightly disappointed, the three of them nodded. Harry noted that Hermione looked slightly disappointed too, and suspected that she would be asking them for every single detail later on.

“Well,” Padma said, “Once we had an epiphany, it seemed obvious. You see, we started out thinking that all we needed to do was figure out some combination of ingredients, in the proper proportions, to mix together and pour onto the Horcruxes, and that would destroy them.”

“Sure,” Harry agreed. “That makes sense.”

“We thought so too,” Sally-Ann said. “But it doesn’t. It’s never that simple with magic potions, or with magic objects.”

“So we were only working with the properties of the ingredients we thought might matter, and we were getting nowhere,” Terry picked up. “Nothing seemed to work right. And then, Luna had this brilliant thought!”

Everyone looked at Luna, who smiled calmly and shrugged. “It was only an insight which proved useful at that moment,” she said.

“Useful—now that’s an understatement!” Sally-Ann said.

“What was it that you realized, Luna?” Hermione asked.

“Well,” Luna said, “I only mentioned how most potions require ingredients to be added not only in specific proportions, but in a specific order, and often under specific circumstances. For example, wolfsbane often has to be picked during a full moon, and adding Lady-In-Waiting to almost any potion if it’s not in bloom will cause the cauldron to melt, or on occasion explode. So it seemed logical to think that those same rules should apply to basilisk venom, or blood, and in a broader sense, to the potion we’re developing itself.”

“Well…sure,” Ron said. “Why wouldn’t you think that?”

“No, I understand,” Hermione said. “It’s one of those things that’s so simple and obvious, it’s easy to overlook.”

“Exactly!” Sally-Ann said. “And once Luna brought it up, all of us started thinking about it, and we realized that not only do those rules apply to ingredients and potions—they apply to magical objects as well!”

“They do?” Harry asked.

“Absolutely,” Padma said firmly. “When magical objects are created, or ceremonial magic is performed, there are certain circumstances under which that magic has to be used or created, or it will often be less potent then desired, or simply won’t work at all.”

“Yeah,” Harry said slowly. “that’s right. When Voldemort resurrected himself, he had to use the blood of a wizard or witch who hated him, or it wouldn’t have worked. And using my blood made him even stronger, since I hated him more than anyone.” No one responded. “Plus, he had to take my blood against my will… ‘forcibly taken’, Wormtail said. And he had the bones of his father ‘unknowingly given’, and a sacrifice from a servant ‘willingly given’…”

“Yes!” Sally-Ann exclaimed excitedly. “That’s it exactly!”

Everyone looked at her, and she paled. “I—I’m sorry, Harry,’ she stammered. “I didn’t mean—it’s just that—”

“What?” Harry asked, recognizing that Sally-Ann was excited about something they’d worked out, and not about the horrible experience of Voldemort’s resurrection that Harry had suffered through.

“You had described all that to us before, Harry,” Padma said quickly, drawing the attention away from Sally-An, who looked mortified. “And we remembered that Wormtail dropped V-Voldemort into the cauldron, right? And then added the ingredients?” Harry nodded. “Well, considering the nature of the Horcruxes, it logically follows that a similar technique would work for them!”

“You mean—dropping the Horcruxes into a boiling cauldron, and then adding the venom and Harry’s blood?” Ron asked.

“That’s the idea, yes,” Luna confirmed. “With essentially opposite results, of course.”

“But is the cauldron necessary?” Ginny asked. “I mean, other than the irony involved? Why not just pour the ingredients onto the Horcruxes?”

“Because the method of delivery is just as significant as the order, location, time—anything,” Sally-Ann said, finally getting over her embarrassment so she could contribute. “We talked it through some more, and it occurred to us that the Horcruxes that have been destroyed have reacted in accordance with the method by which they were destroyed.”

Harry considered that. “Well… they’ve all reacted violently, haven’t they?” he said slowly. “The diary shot ink everywhere, which made sense considering what it was; the ring did something nasty to Dumbledore’s hand, which also kind of makes sense since a ring is meant to be worn on the hand; and Nagini exploded.”

“Yes” Luna agreed. “And consider this: Nagini was struck by the Killing Curse, about the most violent thing that could have happened to her, and the result was an equally violent explosion. The ring—well, we don’t know exactly what Dumbledore did to it, but it’s not a stretch to think that he tried to destroy it with some harsh spell or potion. And the diary was stabbed, which is pretty violent, but it had Harry’s blood and the basilisk venom on it. We believe that their presence dulled the reaction, so the diary reacted as much as it could, but not really violently.”

“That… makes a great deal of sense,” Hermione said thoughtfully.

“Wait a second,” Ron said. “So what you’re saying is, you think that, since violent methods get violent results, we should try non-violent methods to destroy the remaining Horcruxes?”

“Exactly!” Sally-Ann agreed. “And with the parallels between what was necessary to resurrect Voldemort and the ingredients we believe are needed to destroy the Horcruxes, it followed that similar circumstances would get the results we’re looking for. We’ve almost worked it all out!”

“Almost?” Ginny snapped immediately, narrowing her eyes. “What do you mean, almost?”

“Well,” Terry said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, “we haven’t been able to figure out how to get the boiling water stable before adding the rest. See, we’ve worked out that we need to have the cauldron of water boiling, and then add the Horcrux, then the basilisk venom, and Harry’s blood would be the final ingredient. But plain old boiling water is actually a bit volatile for this… oddly enough, we’ve discovered that basilisk venom doesn’t react too well with water. Which is a real problem, because the ingredients have to go in in that order.”

“And what’s the logic behind that?” Hermione asked curiously.

“You remember how Harry’s blood in the vial reacted to being near the necklace Horcrux?” Padma asked. Harry and the others nodded, not likely to forget the way the liquid had tried to climb up the side of the vial and get away. “We realized that if we poured the blood straight onto a Horcrux, they would never touch—it would just flow around. That’s when we struck on the idea of submerging the Horcrux in water, but again, the Horcrux would sit there and the blood wouldn’t go near it. So we’ve determined that the real benefit of the venom will be to disguise the nature of the blood; that means that if we put the Horcrux in the boiling water, and then add the venom, and then the blood, the venom will mask the blood long enough for it to affect the Horcrux. That’s what’s really going to do the job—the venom is only a part of the application process.”

“And that’s where the almost comes in,” Terry added. “Because if we pour the venom into regular boiling water, there’s no way to be sure it’ll saturate the water. We need a liquid in the cauldron that’s going to allow full saturation, something that can conduct the venom everywhere all at once.”

“We were thinking of adding another ingredient before the venom,” Luna said. “Like the juice from crushed Lady’s Embrace. But we can’t determine what the affects would be on the venom, or Harry’s blood and the Horcrux for that matter.”

“Wait a moment,” Hermione said. “You say you need some liquid that’s conductive and can be completely saturated by the venom?” They nodded. “Well, what about simple salt water? It’s basic and doesn’t react with pretty much any ingredient at all—some potions masters use it for more volatile potions. It’s even conductive.” Everyone looked at her blankly. “That means that it transmits electricity.” More blank looks, from everyone except Harry. Hermione sighed. “Never mind. The point is, it’s stable enough and should theoretically solve the saturation problem.”

“That’s true,” Luna said, looking mildly surprised. “I’d forgotten about that technique in potions work. It should suit what we need exactly, and without adding another ingredient.”

“We’ll have to do a bit more research,” Padma said, “but you might have just solved the final problem, Hermione!”

“Wait,” Ginny said sharply. “So that’s it, is it? You’ve worked it all out, just like that? What no one could solve, not even Dumbledore, you’ve figured out in a week? Excuse me if I’m skeptical.”

“Our theories are sound—” Sally-Ann started.

“Sound enough that you’d bet Harry’s life on them?” Ginny snarled. “What about all our lives? Because that’s what we’re talking about here! If we screw this up, we lose! Voldemort wins! Are you that sure?”

No one answered, and Ginny nodded shortly. “That’s what I thought. So I think you’d better pull out your research notes about the basilisk venom, and the Horcruxes, and Harry’s blood; you’re going to explain to us, step by step, exactly why you think each ingredient is going to behave the way you think it is. And if none of us can find any flaws anywhere in your logic, we’ll bring this to Pansy. She’s our potions expert, and she can triple-check your conclusions for flaws. If even Pansy thinks it will work—then we’ll consider whether to proceed.”

Harry noticed that no one asked Harry if he agreed with Ginny’s harsh reaction—they just followed her instructions. Not that Harry would have objected. He did agree with Ginny, and was also very aware that she was looking out for him. Since they’d agreed to not share shags with Luna any more, Harry and Ginny had grown closer than ever. So it was really no wonder that she was even more aware than he was about his own safety. Hiding a smile, Harry bent his attention to the minutia of the Ravenclaws’ research.