A Light of Meaning

When Hermione and Ron finally woke around 8:00am – Hermione felt rested for the first time in weeks – they found a note on their door from Harry:

Ginny and I are in the conference room; when you wake up, come down and we’ll fill Ron in on what he’s missed. We have breakfast waiting.
-Harry

Since Hermione and Ron both felt ravenous, they threw on clothes and walked down to the second floor. The door to the conference room was ajar, so they stepped silently through. Harry and Ginny looked up from their conversation and smiled; “We were wondering if you two were going to sleep past Bill’s wedding,” Ginny teased.

“Hey, we were done in- wait a minute,” Ron said as he settled into his chair. “Bill’s wedding? What’s the date today?”

“It’s September First, Ron,” Ginny said quietly. “Three weeks since the attack. Bill and Fleur are getting married on the Eighth.”

Ron looked a bit stunned, like it hadn’t really sunk in until that moment just how long he’d been in the coma. “I’m sorry we didn’t come down sooner,” Hermione said to Harry.

“No worries,” Harry told them, waving the apology away as he stood and walked to the door. “Luna was working in here until about twenty minutes ago anyway. She’d been in here all night, I had to order her to bed, too – I’m starting to feel more like a nursemaid than a leader.”

“Hey- er, mum’s probably wondering where I am…”

“We sent mum an owl telling her you’d come to stay with us,” Ginny said. “Bill owled back this morning that she’d locked your room and put up anti-Apparition Charms on it.”

Ron was silent for a moment. “Good thing I got everything I really needed out already, then,” he muttered finally.

Harry poked his head out the door and called “Dobby!”

“Dobby the House-elf appeared in front of Harry. “Yes, Harry Potter?”

“We’re ready for breakfast now,” Harry told the elf.

Once they had enough food for twenty laid out on the table, Harry shut the door so no one, not even Dobby or Winky, would be able to enter the room, nor hear or see anything going on inside. Harry sat down and helped himself to breakfast as the others already were. “All right, Ron,” he said, picking up a piece of bacon, “we’ve got a lot to tell you. What do you want to know first?”

“Start with that night,” Ron said around a mouthful of eggs.

Harry began explaining what had happened the night of the attack from the beginning, with Ginny and Hermione adding their perspectives. They also told Ron the version they’d told the Aurors, in case he was questioned. When they’d finished, Ron looked very pale. “Blimey,” he muttered. “I’m right lucky to be alive, aren’t I?” The other three all nodded. “Harry, why didn’t you want anyone to know that Snape wasn’t there?”

“We never told the Ministry he’d been there,” Harry told him. “Lucius Malfoy had died, but Snape was alive and had seen a lot of what we’d been doing; if the Ministry had taken him into custody he’d have escaped, or found a way to get information to Voldemort, and Voldemort would know all about what we’re doing. So we told the Ministry that only Malfoy attacked us.”

Ron’s mouth was hanging open. “But- but what about Snape?” he asked. “What did you do with him?”

“Nothing yet; he’s still locked up downstairs.” Harry said.

“SNAPE’S IN THE BASEMENT?!” Ron bellowed, causing Harry, Ginny and Hermione to wince. “Are you insane? Why don’t we just stand on the roof waving ‘Voldemort Is Ugly’ banners?”

“He’s tied up, gagged and Stupefied, Ron,” Harry cut in quickly. “And his wand is locked in this chest here, and Ginny, Hermione, Luna and I are the only ones who know how to open it!”

Ron glared furiously across the table at Harry. “What if he had a Tracing Spell put on him?” he asked eventually.

Harry gaped in shock. He hadn’t even known such spells existed! But before he could react, Hermione spoke up; “Even if Snape did have a Tracing Spell on him, it wouldn’t matter; the Fidelius Charm prevents any spell, charm or hex from locating the house, anyone or anything inside it.”

“Well…okay, then,” Ron grumbled. “But I still can’t believe you have him here! What are we going to do, hold him until the war’s over?”

“We don’t know, Ron,” Hermione answered. “That’s why we haven’t done anything; he’s too dangerous to us right now to let out of our sight.”

“Huh.” Ron stared blankly at the table for a minute before shaking his head. “I can’t think of anything either. But I don’t like it; Snape’s too clever.”

“The room he’s in is sealed, and only the three of us know how to open it,” Harry said. “Hmm…Ron, we have to teach you the Charm to open Snape’s door, and how to open the chest,” he continued, getting up and circling the table to get at the chest. “Dumbledore left me this chest with information on the Horcruxes; I only found out about it a couple weeks ago.” Harry drew his wand and tapped the chest. “Horcrux,” he said, and the chest sprang open. “That’ll work for anyone,” he told Ron, “but fortunately the four of us and Luna are still the only ones who know about the Horcruxes, so the chances of anyone else making it work are pretty slim.”

“Hey, why Luna?” Ron asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like her and all, but of all the people to let slip about the Horcruxes, why her?”

“Because she’s helping us with this,” Harry answered, pulling out the book Sawol Immortalis. “We got this from Borgin in Knockturn Alley – Pansy polyjuiced into Snape to intimidate him. It’s a book about Dark magic; we got it because Dumbledore had thought it would help understand Horcruxes, but it turned out to be what Hermione used to wake you.”

“Pansy polyjuiced into Snape to get this?” Ron exclaimed. “And this is what woke me? Wow…remind me to thank her.” He looked up. “But that still doesn’t explain what you needed Luna for.”

“Read a page of the book,” Ginny suggested.

Ron flipped the book open to a random page and stared at the text confusedly. “What language is this?” he asked eventually.

“It’s several different ones, mixed together,” Hermione said with a slight grin. “That’s why Ginny got the idea of asking for Luna’s help; Luna speaks several languages, she’s been translating this book for us.”

“Huh. I would’ve thought if Luna had learned any other language it would’ve been Icelandic Mermish or something,” Ron said. “Well, that makes sense, anyway. Er…is this book legal?”

“Barely,” Ginny said. “But the way we got it wasn’t, so that’s kind of moot. Does it bother you?”

“Nah,” Ron said with a shrug. “I knew we’d be breaking the law; just sorry I missed out on the fun.” He handed the book to Hermione and returned to his breakfast. “All right, what’s next?”

“This is,” Harry answered, placing the locket on the table in front of Ron.

Ron peered at the locket. “So? It’s a hoary old locket. What’s so…” Ron’s eyes widened, and he leaned back away from the table. “Bloody hell!” he burst out. “Are you telling me that’s-?”

“A Horcrux,” Harry finished for him, nodding. “We haven’t tested it to confirm, since we don’t know how yet, but every time I touch it my scar burns, so we’re pretty sure it is.”

“Bloody hell,” Ron repeated weakly. “How- where was it? How’d you get it?”

“It was right here in the house,” Ginny said. “Or it was until Mundungus sold it. It was in a mess of the stuff he re-bought to return to Harry.”

“Dung sold off Voldemort’s Horcrux for a few sickles?” Ron gasped. “Merlin’s balls, we are so lucky it’s scary.”

“Ron, language,” Hermione chided, and then blushed.

“I think I’m due a few swears,’ Ron replied with a little grin. “So what now? I mean, how do we destroy it?”

“We’re working on it,” Harry answered; he took the Horcrux and placed it back in the chest with the book. “Luna’s still working on translating the book; like I said, she was in here all last night, so she might have something new. We’ll ask her when she wakes up.”

Ron sighed. “All right. Now tell me what my mum meant when she said I’d ‘end up like poor Seamus Finnegan’.”

Ron was stricken to hear of the murder of Seamus’ parents, and even more shocked that Seamus had attacked them under the Imperius Curse, nearly killing Luna and Pansy. “So how’s Seamus holding up? I should say hi or something when we’re done…”

“Erm…that may not be a good idea, Ron,” Hermione told him. “You see, Seamus…he decided not to join us in what we’re doing here.”

“He what?” Ron stared incredulously at Hermione. “How could he not? After losing his parents to Death Eaters!”

“Harry, Dean and Neville went to see him that night, and he told them to piss off,” Ginny said sadly. “I guess he’s just…scared that what happened to his parents is going to happen to all of us.”

“Uh…actually, that’s not entirely true,” Harry said after hesitating a moment. “I mean, it’s true, but it’s not the whole truth.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ron asked.

Harry took a deep breath. “Seamus is in the D.A. I Apparated into his room at St. Mungo’s and talked to him about forty minutes before I went in with Dean and Neville. I thought that if it looked like Seamus was, er, estranged from all of us, it was possible he’d be approached by some people on the other side, and he could fill us in on the sly.” He grimaced. “Seamus wasn’t too happy about it; he didn’t like that he can’t even talk to any of us.”

Ginny, Hermione and Ron were all staring at Harry like he’d gone mad. “You should have told us!” Hermione said sharply.

“I can’t believe you did that to Seamus!” Ginny added.

“I didn’t do anything to him, he agreed to it!” Harry snapped back. “Look, Seamus is in a position to find out a lot for us, and he allowed me to remove the one memory he had of the D.A. and replace it with a false one that fits what we told the Aurors; that way he can’t betray anything about us, even if someone invaded his mind using Legilimency. He’s got a believable reason to have misplaced anger at us, and that means it’s believable that he’d seek out Dark magic, to get back at us. Seamus agreed to this; he willingly took himself away from all his friends so he could do his part!”

Silence followed the end of Harry’s speech; because of Mr. and Mrs. Weasleys’ recent behavior, everyone had a fair idea of the situation Seamus had knowingly placed himself in. “The four of us are the only ones who will know about this,” Harry continued quietly. “And I swore to Seamus that we would stand for him when the time came, because eventually someone’s going to question his loyalty. We’ll be the only ones who can prove that he was on our side.”

“Are- are we all going to see Seamus?” Hermione asked. “The four of us, I mean.” Harry nodded. “Then it’s up to us to make certain that Seamus knows what he means to us,” Hermione stated firmly. “Not just in the fight against Voldemort, but to his friends. And we have to promise him that we’ll personally vouch for him, and do whatever we can to mend his friendships with the rest of the D.A. once this is over.”

Everyone nodded their agreement, and Harry smiled his thanks to them for understanding. As he was about to suggest they break for lunch (they’d been talking for more than four hours), he caught movement through the see-through wall. “Oh, now what?” he said, exasperated, and the others turned to follow his gaze. Lee Jordan had come up the stairs fast, and was running down the hall towards the conference room.

Ginny got up and opened the door just as Lee reached them. “What’s wrong, Lee?” she asked.

“N-Neville…owl…he…” Lee paused to get his breath back again. “Owl from Neville, Harry- Hannah Abbott! She’s here now!”

“Oh, Merlin, today’s the First!” Harry cried. “Hannah turned seventeen yesterday, and she’s coming back to London from Canada to help the Ministry against Voldemort,” he told the others quickly. “Neville and I agreed we should invite her into the D.A. again.”

“Oh! We have to give her the questions,” Hermione said, rising from her chair.

“No, wait,” Harry said. “Lee, is there anyone downstairs?”

Lee nodded. “Cho, Pansy and Dean are all having lunch.”

“Right. Go down and tell them to Floo over to the back room of the shop; then go back to the store and get either Fred or George to go to the back with you.” Lee nodded, and headed off down the stairs. “You three stay, keep talking,” Harry said to Ron, Hermione and Ginny. “I’ll deal with Hannah, and answer some questions for her after. Hermione, let me have the Veritaserum.”

“Are you sure?” Ginny asked as Hermione handed Harry the clear crystal vial.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll have Dobby come up with some lunch for you,” Harry said, and waved goodbye; he pulled the door shut behind him, again sealing the room from prying eyes and ears.

Hermione took her seat again, and raised her eyebrows at Ron. “Well, what else would you like to know?”

Ron frowned at Ginny. “How about you explain how in hell you got married. And why.”

After taking their lunch from Dobby, the girls answered Ron’s question. Since Ginny had been the one to ultimately figure out how to arrange the marriage, she did most of the explaining; Ron was impressed with her ingenuity, and gobsmacked that Fred was so adept at copying their father’s handwriting. Ginny also gave Ron a pretty detailed description of their mother’s reaction when she’d told Mrs. Weasley about herself and Harry. “So basically, mum forbade you from seeing Harry, and cut you off from the D.A. by keeping you home,” Ron summarized finally. “And when you got married, it made you- er…”

“Emancipated,” Hermione filled in.

“Right, emancipated,” Ron said. “And legally a full witch, so you could choose to leave home and come back here.”

“That’s it,” Ginny agreed.

Ron nodded slowly. “Okay, I get why, but did you really have to get married? I mean, wasn’t there any other way?”

“Possibly,” Ginny admitted, “but we couldn’t think of any. And besides,” she added with a blush, “I like this way.”

Surprisingly, Ron grinned. “Yeah, bet you do. You’ve been practicing writing ‘Ginny Potter’ for years.”

“Ron!” Ginny snapped. “That was in my diary!”

“Well, you chucked it at my head and stormed off when you were ten,” Ron said reasonably. “Did you really think after that I wouldn’t take a peek?”

Hermione gave Ron a surprised look. “I thought you would be more upset,” she admitted. “Does it not bother you?”

Ron shrugged. “What’s the point? Ginn’s been mad for Harry forever, and well, I saw how Harry was the week after Ginny got here. I’m just amazed you did it before Bill, even!”

“Funny you should mention that,” Ginny replied, and began telling Ron about Bill’s letter.

While a few D.A. members went back and forth past the room, the three of them talked for hours about all sorts of things. Ron was deeply amused to hear of Luna’s now-infamous night taming Fred and George, and laughed uproariously at Hermione’s and Ginny’s description of the way George was following Luna like a lovesick puppy. He was stunned into silence at Ginny’s description of Hermione’s behavior the last few days, and in the end said nothing, but reached over to take Hermione’s hand and squeeze it tightly. He did, however, appear to be fighting back a grin at the description of Lavender’s reaction to Hermione’s outburst. Ginny also told Ron of Harry’s secret trip to Hogwarts, but insisted that Harry be the one to describe his conversation with Dumbledore’s portrait.

Finally Ginny looked up and saw Harry approaching. She leapt up and pulled the door open just as he arrived. “Did everything go well?” she asked.

“It went great,” Harry said with a smile. “Hannah’s all set; she’s got her own place to stay, but she thinks she can get out of it in about a week and come stay here. You should have heard the shriek Susan let out when she saw Hannah – they are best friends, but I swear my eardrum burst.” Everyone laughed. “Oh, and get this,” Harry continued, pulling a folded letter out of his pocket. “While I was filling Hannah in, a letter came from Terry Boot! He’s finally getting out of New Zealand, and he’ll be here by the fifteenth!”

“About time!” Ginny exclaimed. “I thought his parents would never give in!”

“Listen, how about we have dinner in the kitchen?” Harry suggested. “You’ve all been in here all day; and Ron, there’s some of the others who want to see you again.”

“More hugs,” Ron grumbled. “I bloody well know it.”

The four friends walked down the stairs together, chatting happily, but as they stepped into the kitchen a huge cheer made them all look up. Almost every single D.A. member was there, and an enormous banner strung across the wall proclaimed WELCOME BACK, RON!! A huge feast had been laid out with all of Ron’s favorite foods, and Fred and George had set off a few fireworks. Ron turned to Harry. “You-?” Harry nodded. “But- but why?”

“Because we missed you, you stupid git,” Harry said earnestly. “The D.A. wasn’t the D.A. without you.”

A deafening Hear, Hear! made Ron blush all the way to his ears. Harry clapped his hand on Ron’s shoulder. “Come on, Ron,” he said happily. “Enjoy your welcome-back party!”