Sticks & Stones

The seven D.A. members appeared in the kitchen of the House of Black. Most of them had grown accustomed to traveling by Floo enough to not fall over, but Luna’s ankle wasn’t strong enough; fortunately Neville managed to catch her before she fell over. “Thank you,” she said softly as he reset her on her feet.

“You’re welcome,” Neville answered embarrassedly. “Er, would you like a hand up the stairs?”

Luna opened her mouth, looking like she was going to protest, but froze before she said anything. “Please,” she whispered finally.

“Harry, do you need us any more?”

“You didn’t notice anything at the cottage, right?” Harry asked. “Any of you?” Everyone shook their heads. “Then no. We’ll need to get versions of what happened from each of you, but that can wait until tomorrow. Thanks, everyone. Get some chocolate from Dobby or Winky before you go to sleep.”

“Neville, don’t forget that tomorrow morning we’d like an update on the greenhouse,” Ginny said quickly.

“I’ll be ready if you want to come by around nine or ten,” Neville answered. Ginny nodded, and Neville escorted Luna to the stairs, and helped her slowly up them one at a time after Dean, Parvati and Padma had gone.

Harry met the eyes of Ginny, Ron, and finally Hermione, who flushed slightly and looked away. “I think we’d better talk,” he said.

“Right,” Ron said tersely. “Our room, or the conference room?”

“Your room,” Harry replied instantly. “It’s more comfortable.” And Hermione will feel more at ease there, he added to himself. She’s really wound up about this.

While Ron, Hermione and Ginny headed upstairs, Harry took a moment to call on Dobby and request dinner for the four of them, and to offer dinner to the other D.A. members who’d just returned. Then Harry ascended to the third floor, where most of the bedrooms were.

As Harry was heading down to Ron and Hermione’s room, Fred’s door open and the twin stuck his head out. “Harry? I saw Luna go by limping! What’s going on?”

“She sprained her ankle when some Dementors went for her,” Harry told him. “But she’s going to be—”

“Dementors?” Fred bellowed. He grabbed Harry by the neck of his robes and slammed him back against the opposite wall. “You almost got her killed? What the hell do you think—”

Harry shoved his wand between them and choked out “Banir!” He didn’t move, but Fred was thrown across the hall and through his door. He sprawled out on the ground and thumped his head, dazing him.

Harry walked carefully over to the door and leaned against the frame; he rubbed his neck gingerly and looked down at the stunned redhead. “Hello, George,” he muttered. “Where’s Fred?”

George looked up at him angrily. “Shagging Angelina in the shop, probably.”

“You could have asked Luna what happened, you know.”

“Piss off!” George snapped. He pushed himself to his feet and shoved past Harry, heading for the stairs to the fourth floor where he’d moved to.

“George!” Harry called after him, but George didn’t turn around; he just kept going until he’d vanished up the stairs. Harry sighed. He couldn’t help but still feel guilty—he and Ginny had betrayed George’s trust by sleeping with Luna. Even though George had, technically, given them permission, Harry should have insisted on checking with the other boy before doing anything.

“What took so long?” Ginny asked Harry when he entered Ron and Hermione’s room.

Harry opened his mouth, but closed it and shrugged; he didn’t think it was the right time to bring up George and Luna. “Dobby,” he said instead. “House elves are weird.”

Ginny gave him a very penetrating look, but didn’t comment further. “All right,” Ron said when Ginny and Harry had seated themselves in chairs next to the bed, which he and Hermione were settled on. “What do we need to talk about?”

“Hermione’s Patronus,” Harry said immediately, fixing his eyed on her. “Hermione, what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Hermione insisted, “honestly! That’s the first time that’s ever happened—I was as shocked as you! I cast the Charm exactly as I always have, expecting to see Ollie, and—” She stopped as she took in Ron’s expression. “What?”

“Who’s Ollie?” Ron asked.

Hermione flushed. “My otter Patronus,” she murmured embarrassedly.

“You named your Patronus?” Ron asked with a grin.

“Yes, and why not?” Hermione replied hotly.

“My Patronus has a name,” Harry said, frowning at Ron. “Prongs, after my dad.”

“My vixen is named Kitsune,” Ginny added.

“Oh, from the Japanese word for fox?” Hermione asked, impressed. “It also means ‘fox spirit’.”

“And fox spirits were often tricksters,” Ginny replied with a smirk.

“So Ron,” Harry said, trying not to laugh, “why doesn’t your Patronus have a name?”

“Oh, piss off,” muttered Ron.

Harry returned his attention to Hermione. “You really don’t know what happened?”

“No,” Hermione insisted. “I suppose… We know that a person’s Patronus can change form if they experience a severe shock—it happened to Tonks, remember. And I was Cursed, and that definitely qualifies.”

“That’s right,” Harry said, amazed—he’d forgotten that could happen. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Could any of you tell what it was?” Ron asked. “It was too bright for me to see.”

Harry shook his head. “It was definitely a large bird, like a bird of prey,” declared Ginny.

“I thought it might have been an eagle,” Hermione mused. “Which makes sense to me, since I was almost sorted into Ravenclaw, and their standard is an eagle.”

“Hermione, does it actually matter that your Patronus changed?” Harry asked. “I mean, does it… I don’t know, portend something?”

“I think you mean does it presage something,” Hermione corrected, “and no, I don’t believe so. It’s not a very common occurrence, but it’s not known to represent anything beyond a somewhat severe change or event in the caster’s life having recently occurred.”

“Does it matter to you?” Ron asked nervously. “Are you—I mean, does it upset you?”

Hermione hesitated, considering the question before answering. “No, I don’t think so,” she said finally. “I was shocked, of course, but it does make sense to me. I will miss Ollie—” she glared at Ron—“but there’s no question that that eagle was extremely powerful. I can’t help but consider that a positive outcome.”

“All right, then let’s move on, it’s getting late,” Harry said. “Er… so I guess the trip was a waste,” he said glumly.

“I wouldn’t call destroying more than a dozen Dementors a waste,” Ron said wryly.

“Harry—what about the other reason for being there?” Hermione asked tentatively. “That is, your wanting to see the place your parents died,” she added when Harry looked blank.

“Oh… that.” Harry swallowed. “I was really unhappy, at first. But something Ginny said got me thinking, and… well, by the time we were ready to leave I wasn’t thinking of it as the place my parents died—now it’s more like the place we all lived together. You know,” he added, glancing at Ginny, “as a family.”

Hermione smiled. “Well then, it definitely wasn’t a wasted trip.”

Harry flushed a bit. “Well… okay. But still, we didn’t get anything useful out of it—we still don’t know why Voldemort was there this time. Until those Dementors showed up I was starting to wonder if he’d been there at all.”

“It was odd that there was no sign of him anywhere,” Hermione agreed, clearly puzzled. “There wasn’t even any lingering trace of the Killing Curse that I could detect.”

“Maybe it doesn’t last that long?” Ron offered. “It has been sixteen years…”

“That’s true. But even so, why was there no trace of Voldemort from recently?” Hermione asked.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Ginny replied. “Voldemort didn’t use any magic while he was there.”

There was a pause while they thought about that. “That could be, I guess,” Harry agreed. “It’s the only thing that explains it, right?”

“But then why did he go there?” Hermione asked. “And for that matter, what caused the building to explode if it wasn’t Voldemort’s magic?”

“Muggle explosives could have done it,” Harry said grimly. “And as to why he went there—maybe he didn’t, but he wanted us to think he did.”

Ginny’s eyes went wide. “A trap?”

“It explains why there was no trace of magic in the house, but a ton of Dementors still lurking around,” Harry said. “Voldemort would have known that if I heard about an explosion at my parents’ home that I’d want to go there. He must’ve left the Dementors to wait until I showed up. He just didn’t count on the strength of our Patronuses.”

“But he must have known you wouldn’t go there alone,” Hermione said. “And he will have heard by now about how you fought off a hundred Dementors when you were thirteen!”

“Maybe not,” Ginny answered. “The strength of Harry’s Patronus isn’t common knowledge, and the time Harry fought off all those Dementors is even less known. I can see Voldemort figuring that there was no way a bunch of students could fight off a hundred Dementors.”

There was another long silence. “This means that next time, he’ll send two hundred Dementors,” Ron said eventually. “Or three hundred, or four. He’ll probably want to over-compensate to make sure it works.” Harry shivered; what Ron was saying made a lot of sense.

“Well we did beat them pretty handily,” Ginny pointed out with satisfaction. “Seven Patronuses, but they were strong enough to kill maybe twenty Dementors and scare away eighty more without any of us getting hurt. If Voldemort does send more next time, we’ll just make certain we have more D.A. members around to cast more Patronuses.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but you’re right,” Hermione agreed. “I think the explosion having been a decoy to lure you into a trap seems likely, Harry. We’ll have to be more diligent about watching for those from now on.” Harry nodded fervently.

“Did anyone see anything significant at the cottage we should all know about?” Harry asked, but no one spoke up. “All right… I, um, I’d like to find out if my parents left me the house—do you know how to do that?”

“You would have to speak to a solicitor,” Hermione said. “They could help you find out about the ownership of the property.”

“Ask Neville if he’ll introduce you to his solicitor,” Ron said with a chortle. “It worked for Pansy, right?”

“Has it?” Hermione asked, surprised. “I haven’t heard about that!”

“There’s nothing really new yet,” Harry said. “Pansy was able to establish her claim to ownership of the Parkinson estate, and she immediately opened the mansion and the vaults at Gringotts for the Ministry to inspect. Her solicitor hired people to observe and ensure the Ministry behaves itself, and as soon as they’re done and out, Pansy gets to keep whatever they didn’t confiscate.” He shrugged. “She’s back to being rich again. There was an entire vault full of money, and her solicitor argued that there was no reason for the Ministry to deny Pansy access to it.”

“Has—has she broken off with Neville?” Hermione asked faintly.

“No,” Harry answered, surprised. “Why would she?”

Hermione didn’t answer immediately, but Ron did. “Because she doesn’t need him any more,” he said bluntly. “It’s not so much of a stretch to think that she latched onto Neville because she was broke and desperate, and he’s a pureblood—he may not be rich, but he fulfilled some of what she was supposed to marry into. Now that she’s rich again she could decide that he was a mistake and isn’t necessary any more.”

Ginny scowled. “I can’t believe you still think that about Pansy!”

“I don’t!” Ron protested. “I just said it’s possible, not that I think it’s true!”

Harry looked coldly at Hermione. “You brought it up—do you think Pansy is like that now?”

“Oh, of course not,” Hermione said. “I just… I can’t help but think of it—it’s exactly what she would have done six months ago! And Neville’s been through enough already.”

Well, that was true. “He’s got Susan waiting in the wings if Pansy doesn’t work out, though,” Ron said, clearly trying not to laugh.

“Not likely,” Ginny said. “Susan’s hurt, and so angry at Neville she won’t even speak to him right now. I don’t think she’d appreciate being a distant second choice. Besides, it’s all moot, because Pansy’s not going to break off with Neville.”

“You sound awfully sure,” Ron observed. “How do you know?”

“Because Pansy is definitely not stupid,” Ginny retorted. “She knows how lucky she is that Neville’s interested in her, and she’s not going to let go of anything or anyone that special.”

“It’s too bad we can’t convince the rest of the D.A. of that,” Hermione said sadly. “Most of them are still convinced that Pansy is only using Neville as a rebound from Draco.”

Harry shrugged. “They’ll figure it out once some time has passed. Speaking of Draco, we need to arrange some more lessons on the Patronus Charm for him. He seemed like he had the ability when we let him try yesterday.”

“I still say we shouldn’t be giving that git a wand,” Ron muttered.

“Ron, there were seven of us there, all ready to Stun him if he tried anything stupid,” Ginny pointed out. “I think Draco’s desire to learn the Patronus Charm is completely genuine—and as much as we may despise him, he isn’t stupid enough to try anything while he’s surrounded by all of us and doesn’t even know how to get out of the house!” Ron shrugged, transparently trying to act like he didn’t care.

“So what about tomorrow morning?” Harry suggested. “For Draco’s next lesson.”

“We can’t, Harry,” Hermione said. “Tomorrow morning we’re meeting with Neville, and then Snape is going to supervise our Revitalizing Draught, so he can tell us why it hasn’t been working.”

Harry shuddered convulsively. It would be the first time they would be letting Snape out of his closet untied and ungagged since they first captured him.

Not that he would be completely unencumbered. Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron had created a geas, a magical binding, which Hermione had cast on Snape. It was similar to what they’d cast on Pansy when she’d first joined the D.A., but far more restrictive: Snape was bound to not harm any member of the D.A., or directly or indirectly cause harm, or through any action or inaction allow any of them to come to harm. It was so strongly worded that Snape couldn’t even have told them to add an ingredient to a potion that would give them an upset stomach. Snape was even bound to save any D.A. member from harm at the expense of his own safety.

Snape hadn’t been happy about it once he’d found out (and honestly, neither had Hermione, although Harry and Ron found it grimly satisfying). They’d cast it on him while he was Stunned, but he hadn’t a choice—it was the price he had to pay for being granted a certain amount of mobility. Harry had Enlarged the closet they’d been locking Snape in, much the same way he’d done for the greenhouse and the practice spaces on the second floor. They’d turned the Enlarged space into a small but comfortable set of rooms, complete with bathroom and shower, so Snape could at least have a few simple comforts. He was still a prisoner—the room was still blanketed by every protection spell and charm the D.A. could think of—but at least he wasn’t being tied up and Stunned every day.

“All right,” Harry said, staring blankly at the middle of the table, thinking. His eyes fell on the box they’d found in the chest Dumbledore had left to Harry; they’d been unable to open it yet, despite them trying everything they could think of relating to Voldemort and the Horcruxes. Ponderously, Harry pulled out his wand, tapped the box and said “Godric’s Hollow!”

Nothing happened. Harry sighed and put away his wand. “Well, I had to try, didn’t I?” he shrugged. “What about tomorrow afternoon then?” he suggested. “For Draco’s lesson?”

“I think we should use that time to do something about Luna, Harry,” Hermione said tentatively. “I’m almost certain that she hasn’t worked on deciphering what she can about Horcruxes in Sawol Immortalis for weeks. And what happened last night—we can’t ignore her unhappiness any longer.”

Harry sighed. He’d been incredibly upset when Ginny whispered to him what Luna had said: no memory happy enough. “Yeah… all right, tomorrow afternoon Ginny and Hermione will try to talk to Luna and George. Ron and I will grab a few of the others and I’ll give Draco his lesson. After that we’ll meet up again, and Ron and Hermione can go back to working on the ledgers for the Black family vaults. We’ve still got one Horcrux to find, and I want it before Voldemort gets any more clever ideas about trapping me.”