A Single Moment

Part Five

Harry stepped in the door to the conference room and gave the three waiting for him an apologetic smile. “Sorry I’m late…I’m uh…I overslept.”

“Considering how long you’d been up I’m not surprised,” Sally-Ann said calmly.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Terry agreed.

“Thanks.” Harry shut the door and took his seat. “Okay…how well do you three know each other?”

Terry, Sally-Ann and Padma looked surprised. “Why are you asking?” Padma asked.

“Because I want you three to do something together and it’s going to mean working very closely,” Harry told them. “And you won’t be able to tell the others about it; I need to know if you’re all comfortable working with each other.”

“Absolutely,” Sally-Ann said confidently. “Ravenclaws are as tight-knit a group as Gryffindors, and we were all the same year – I roomed with Padma for six years, and we’ve always gotten along fine, and we both worked with Terry plenty in classes and such. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You two agree?” Harry asked Padma and Terry.

“Definitely,” Terry answered.

Padma nodded. “Remember what it means to be a Ravenclaw, Harry,” she said a bit teasingly. “What’s logical appeals to us.”

Terry picked up on the teasing. “It’s logical for us to work together, and it’s logical of you to ask. Very clever, Harry.”

“That’s right,” Sally-Ann added with a twinkle in her eye. “Are you sure you weren’t meant to be a Ravenclaw?”

Harry grimaced at them. “You three are as bad as Fred and George,” he grumbled.

“I resent that,” Sally-Ann complained. “We’re far more insidious than they are!”

Padma shook her head. “No, insidious is a Slytherin word,” she admonished. “Ravenclaws are ingenious and crafty.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Whatever you are, you’re Ravenclaws and that’s why I chose you. Do any of you know Professor Flitwick well?”

Harry had surprised the three Ravenclaws again. “Reasonably well, I suppose,” Terry said. “He’s a good Head of House; always willing to talk and advise.”

“Harry, how does Professor Flitwick relate to the fight against V-V- him?” Padma asked. “I can’t imagine you want him to know what we’re doing…”

“No, absolutely not,” Harry agreed. “But we need some Charms advice, and Flitwick’s generally recognized as one of the foremost at Charms in the continent.”

“Harry,” Sally-Ann said, eyeing him shrewdly, “would this have anything to do with Neville?”

“Good guess,” Harry said to her, mildly surprised. “In a couple weeks, Neville’s going to be completely in the clear about having killed Bellatrix Lestrange; once the Aurors aren’t interested in him any longer, I want to undo the Memory Charm I did on him.”

Terry frowned. “Is that even possible?”

“It is, Professor Flitwick told me a bit about it when I wrote an essay on Memory Charms,” Padma confirmed.

“He did?” Harry exclaimed excitedly. “Did he-?”

“No,” Padma interrupted, shaking her head sadly. “He didn’t tell me how, only that it was possible.” She considered Harry seriously. “He did say that it was extremely difficult, Harry. And if I remember correctly, only the one who cast the initial Charm can undo it. Well, anyone could try, but it would be an imperfect job; only the one who cast the Charm could undo it perfectly.”

“Anything less than perfect isn’t an option here,” Harry said firmly. “I’m not going to risk messing up Neville’s head any further – I’d rather leave the Charm there.”

“Harry,” Terry said carefully, “don’t take this the wrong way, but…are you sure we should be spending time on this right now? Neville isn’t exactly D.A. business…”

“He is,” Harry insisted forcefully. “Remember, Neville’s in danger from Voldemort because of what happened with the Lestranges; by now Voldemort has to know that what everyone was told happened, and what actually happened, don’t match up. If Neville had his memory back he’d be much safer. And you know, Neville…he’s a Herbology master, there’s no sense in denying it, or at least he will be very soon. He’s done things that most of us wouldn’t feel safe doing if we studied Herbology for fifty years. Even Professor Sprout called Neville a natural; she sent a recommendation for him when he applied at Magical Herbs that basically said she thinks he could take over her job within five years, if he wanted.” He nodded at their amazed expressions. “Neville has a gift, and it’s immensely valuable. And we have good evidence that Ollivander’s disappearance and Slughorn’s death were the results of Voldemort’s eliminating people useful to our side – well, Neville can be very useful to our side, and on top of that he roomed with me for six years. He could probably tell Voldemort a lot about me that could put us all in danger. He really is a prime target.”

“That’s sound reasoning,” Terry said regretfully after a pause.

“There’s another thing,” Harry continued. “Right now, without Neville, there’s real danger in the greenhouse. Dobby’s doing what he can, and we all have a bit of knowledge to help with, but Neville brought in a lot of plants that none of us are prepared to deal with. At best, they’ll die off and we’ll lose valuable resources; at worst, they’ll attack and damage other plants and possibly people as well. The Last Rites plant is just too dangerous for us to approach, but from Neville’s notes a dead Last Rites plant is almost as bad as a live one.” He sighed. “And of course, lack of plants means less ingredients for potions, which means Pansy’s going to start having problems keeping up with what we need. We’re in a tight fix, and having Neville back would change that enormously.”

The other three pondered Harry’s words for a bit. “You know,” Sally-Ann said eventually, “I read up on Last Rites, and the fact that it’s even in the same house terrifies me. I wondered why Neville was a Gryffindor, but I suppose now I know.”

“Neville is one of the bravest people I’ve ever met,” Harry agreed. “And once he got a bit of confidence, he’s proven to be a bloody good wizard too.”

“Right then,” Terry said matter-of-factly. “You want us to find Professor Flitwick and talk to him, right?”

“Yes, but there’s something else,” Harry replied. “We need Flitwick’s help, but we don’t want him knowing that we’re doing. That’s the tricky part.”

“Hmmm…do you know where Professor Flitwick lives?” Sally-Ann asked. “I kind of thought he lived at Hogwarts year-round…”

“He doesn’t,” Harry said. “A lot of the teachers do, but Flitwick has a place somewhere else, and no, I don’t know where it is. So your job is to find him, and to come up with a solid way to get the information we need out of him without giving away why we need it.”

“Finding him could be difficult,” Padma said, biting her lip nervously. “Flitwick’s very clever, you know, and he’ll certainly have realized that his loyalty to Professor Dumbledore would make him a target. He may well have cloaked himself magically, or maybe even cast the Fidelius Charm.”

“The Fidelius Charm…” Terry looked thoughtful at that. “Hmm…well, who would he trust to be his Secret-Keeper other than Dumbledore?”

“Professor McGonagall?” Sally-Ann suggested. “They seemed fairly close…”

“That sounds about right,” Terry said. “I can’t see Flitwick dropping out of touch with Hogwarts completely during the summer.”

“But we can’t just send Professor McGonagall a letter out of the blue asking her where Flitwick is,” Padma pointed out with a wry look.

“It wouldn’t be so odd if we were looking for recommendations for jobs,” Sally-Ann said. “Recommendations from your Head of House is completely normal.”

“But we wouldn’t be able to ask about the Memory Charm while requesting a recommendation,” Padma said. “Hmm…maybe if we-”

“Hold it, hold it!” Harry exclaimed, stopping the conversation. “Slow down a bit, will you? You can’t be certain Professor Flitwick’s using a Fidelius Charm…”

“He’s one of the best in the world at Charms,” Terry said to Harry. “What better way to hide himself than with a Charm? A Fidelius literally can’t be broken.”

“But it can be gotten around,” Harry said. “All right, I admit it seems likely that Flitwick would use a Fidelius…well, maybe it’s a bit too obvious?”

“You mean he’d try something else to throw people off?” Terry asked, and Harry nodded.

“You know, it doesn’t really matter,” Sally-Ann said. “No matter what he actually is using to hide himself, I still think it’s likely that he’ll be in contact with Professor McGonagall. We can send a letter addressed to Professor Flitwick at Hogwarts, and if he replies we’ll at least know that he is in contact with them.”

“That still doesn’t get us the answer we need, though,” Padma pointed out.

“There must be another way to get the information,” Sally-Ann mused. “Flitwick may be brilliant at Charms, but he’s not the only person who’ll know about this; and I bet someone’s written all about it, although it’s probably not in a book you could just pick up anywhere.”

Harry grinned. “This is why I asked you three to do this,” he told them. “Besides knowing Flitwick better than most of us, you three are smart and can think through problems.” He glanced at Sally-Ann. “If there is an easier way to get the information we need, without letting anyone know, that’s great – in fact, it’s probably better because we don’t need to figure out how to get the information out of Flitwick. Look around if you think it’s worthwhile, but make sure you’re totally discreet. And if that doesn’t work, go back to trying to find Flitwick, okay?”

“Certainly,” Sally-Ann agreed, and Padma and Terry both nodded. “Can we arrange to meet with you again to tell you what we’ve found?”

“Sure…how about Friday?” Harry suggested. “In the evening after work, say seven?”

They spoke for a while longer about the properties of the Memory Charm until Pansy appeared on the stairs from the kitchen, accompanied by Ginny. “It must be nine,” Harry declared, and got a nod of confirmation from Padma. “All right; thanks a lot, you three. Let me know if you need anything.”

Terry opened the door, nodded briefly to Pansy and Ginny, and headed towards the stairs to the upper floors with Padma and Sally-Ann; they chattered quietly at each other until Harry stuck his head out the door and called to them “Oi! In private, remember?”

The three Ravenclaws jumped and looked sheepish. “Er, how about if we go to my room and cast a Silencing Charm before continuing?” Terry suggested.

“Fine, but don’t get so overzealous that you forget in the future,” Harry admonished. He turned back into the room and stood aside for Pansy and Ginny, then shut the door. “Hi,” he said to them as they sat, Ginny calmly and Pansy tensely. He reseated himself and began “So Pansy-”

“Wait,” Pansy interrupted. She looked very pale, and has a bit of nervous sweat on her brow. She reached into her robes and extracted her wand. Ginny rolled her eyes. “Pansy, you’re being ridiculous-”

“Shut up, Weasley!” Pansy exploded. Ginny raised her eyebrows but didn’t comment further. Pansy turned to a stunned Harry and held out her wand, handle first. “Here,” she said shortly.

“Er…what am I supposed to do with this?” Harry asked tentatively, not touching the wand.

“Take it, you fool!” Pansy snapped. “Lock it somewhere so I can’t use it!”

“What?” Harry gasped. “But…how will you defend yourself if you go somewhere?”

Pansy started at Harry for a moment before barking out a laugh. “Do you honestly think after what I did I can just walk down Diagon Alley? I’m stuck in this blasted house until the war’s over, Potter!”

“I walk down Diagon Alley all the time, and I’m a much bigger target than you are,” Harry countered, still not taking the wand. “I’m not leaving you defenseless, so forget it.”

“Potter,” Pansy said, and there was no mistaking the pleading in her voice, “for once stop seeing so narrowly and look at the bigger picture! Leaving me with a wand puts all of you in danger!”

Harry’s eyes narrowed as something clicked. “I told you already that I trust you, Pansy, I thought last night proved that-”

“I don’t trust myself!” Pansy shot back hotly; her eyes were wide and slightly unfocused. “You have no idea how skillfully the Dark Lord uses fear, you can’t possibly understand-”

“Stop it!” Harry shouted. He stared at Pansy for a long time; she looked frightened and small, something she’d never seemed before. Finally Harry reached out and touched the tips of his fingers to Pansy’s wand, but didn’t grasp it. Pansy peered at his hand confusedly. “What-”

“Trust only matters if you trust yourself, Pansy,” Harry said pointedly. “You could have turned your wand into a Portkey that only activated for me, and sent us both straight to Voldemort.”

“I- It didn’t even occur to me!” Pansy protested, her eyes huge and scared. From Ginny’s stricken expression she hadn’t thought of it either.

“I know. You didn’t betray me because it’s not what you want. I knew you wouldn’t have done that, which is why I felt safe to touch the wand, but I won’t take it. You’ve earned your own trust as much as you have ours, but you don’t see it. Start looking.” Harry withdrew his hand. “I don’t want to hear any more about locking you away from now on. Put your wand away and let’s get started; we’ve got a lot to cover.”

Pansy stared in utter disbelief at Harry for a long moment. She glanced over at Ginny, who simply shrugged and nodded. Finally she retracted her hand and stored her wand shakily inside her robes. “What- what do you want to talk about?”