Chapter 28

When All You Have Is A Mind

"Mrs Longbottom?" Ginny asked when she finished anchoring Alice's mind. It wasn't an easy task, given that she had to tether her mind to four other minds, and then making sure that it could recover. For that, they needed to get Neville's mother to collaborate with them, or otherwise it would be impossible to do it.

Alice looked at her, blinking owlishly. Ginny chastised herself for not realising it would not be that easy. Alice Longbottom would still need some time to stand on her feet again, even with her and her friends' support.

"Mrs Longbottom, I am Ginny Weasley. I think you knew my uncles, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, from when you were in the Order of the Phoenix." She thought she saw a spark of recognition in her eyes, but apart from that she kept the same expression. "We are trying to heal your mind, so that you may come back with us. So that you can be back with Neville." The spark she had seen before shined even brighter this time.

"Can I do something, Ginny?" Luna asked. Ginny wondered what she planned to do, but she let her do it. Luna just neared the older woman and gave her a hug. Ginny was surprised, as well as the other two girls.

Slowly, Alice Longbottom returned Luna's embrace, and a small smile graced her face. Ginny could now see from where Neville got his smile, as well as the rest of his face.

Luna whispered something into her ear, something she did not hear, but she did not attempt to pry what it was: maybe her friend had had a good idea.

"I hope to meet the real you soon, Mrs Longbottom," Luna said, and Ginny could swear that Alice has nodded, even if it is a fraction.

"She will be OK," Luna told her. "We should do the healing part now."

"Ginny," Hermione interrupted, "do you know if Harry knows how to do this kind of thing?"

"Yeah, he does. It is a process similar to repairing your own shields, but it is harder because, to help someone repair his or her own shields, someone has to anchor it. I am sure the boys will be able to do this like we are doing as soon as they can find Mr Longbottom in his mind."

"Of course, that is as long as he actually knows where he is."

"Oh, he will know for sure."

They were forced to wait for a little more time until Alice seemed to be a bit more aware of her surroundings. Ginny thought she had seen a spark of recognition in her eyes some time later, but it was not enough. She needed to make sure she could follow on what she did.

While Ginny and Luna stayed with Alice, Hermione and Susan walked around the protections Alice had, and what required to be repaired. They were not as advanced in the art of Occlumency as Harry or even Ginny were, but they knew enough to know what had to be done.

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"Not bad, gentlemen," Harry said when Ron, Neville and Draco finally arrived to Frank Longbottom's mind fortress. "You could have arrived sooner, though."

"Not my fault that this place is really weird, mate," Ron complained.

"Hey, don't complain about my father's mind, will you?"

"Guys, please," Draco pleaded. "The more you argue, the longer it will take us to get back to our girls."

"Exactly. Now, let's go inside this ruins. We should be able to find your father soon if we get working now."

The four teenagers entered the ruins, knowing that the recovery of Frank Longbottom now depended on them and on how fast they found the man, or his representation within there. The ruins made it difficult, because it required a lot of moving around, but Harry took the chance to start mending a few things around, those that would not require much work; he still would need Frank's implicit consent to achieve the bigger things.

A few minutes later, Neville found someone sitting down on the distance, and rushed forward, towards the figure. The other three followed him at a more sedate pace, and a few moments later they were next to their friend, who was kneeling before a man with short hair like Neville's and blue-green eyes that is, undoubtedly, Frank Longbottom, because he looked exactly like in the photograph Harry had of the original Order of the Phoenix. However, right now, the man had an empty look. Probably because he had been trapped within his own mind for about fifteen years. Harry shuddered to think how much pain Frank and Alice Longbottom had to go through to retreat so deeply within their minds.

"Neville," he said, trying to catch his friend's attention, "let your father go. I am going to need your help to make sure your father recovers. If you do not concentrate on that part, you are not going to be very helpful."

Reluctantly, Neville did as Harry asked, and Harry concentrated, trying to anchor Frank Longbottom's mind to Neville's, Ron's, Draco's, and finally his own. It was a long process, which took more than ten minutes, but it was completely necessary. This was not like what happened to Voldemort in his first incursion into his mind, when he had managed to destroy a good part of his mind's castle: Voldemort had been still lucid enough to repair everything in there back to how it was before the attack. Frank had not had that possibility, because the attack on him had been very brutal.

After he managed to anchor Frank's mind, he knelled before the man.

"Mr Longbottom, we need you to help us."

Frank blinked his eyes. A few minutes later, Harry thought the man had started to recover his consciousness.

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"Lily?" Ginny heard. She looked at Luna, who smiled a bit, and then at Alice. It had been her who had called Ginny 'Lily': probably she had confused her with Harry's mother, given that they both had red hair, but Ginny knew she did not look that much like Lily Potter.

"Mrs Longbottom?" Ginny said.

"You are not Lily," Alice sentenced, a bit sad.

"I know. My name is Ginny Weasley, and we are here to try to help you."

"Weasley? The Weasley's have a daughter, but she is just a baby. I know it, I held her in my arms just a few weeks ago. Who are you?"

Ginny winced, but knew this was normal. The poor woman had been so out of sorts that she had not been aware of her surroundings or of the passage of time, and to her it seemed that it was just a few minutes ago that she had been attacked by the Lestrange.

"Mrs Longbottom?" Luna said, softly. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Why?"

"It might help us explain everything to you," she replied.

Alice seemed surprised, but tried to recall what had happened to her last.

"We were... having dinner at Longbottom Manor... Frank and I had been talking about adopting Harry Potter... he had just lost his parents, and they were our friends... then... the wards were attacked... Frank's mother took Neville and called the Aurors... while Frank and I faced the attackers... we managed to keep them back, but they got lucky... they disarmed Frank, and then me... they asked us where Voldemort was... and then the pain... just pain..."

Without asking more, Luna hugged Alice, in an attempt to comfort the older woman. She was her boyfriend's mother, and she really wanted to give him something more to be happy about. It felt odd, having to console someone that was older than her, but she did not mind about it.

Once Alice calmed down, Ginny continued.

"Mrs Longbottom, the pain is finished. It's been fourteen years and a half since that happened."

"Fourteen... years... where is Frank? Where is Neville?"

"They are not here." Ginny could see the look of horror in Alice's eyes, and she rushed to explain. "We are in your mind. The pain you were submitted to was so much that both you and your husband retreated into your minds to cope with it. You have both been in this state for fourteen years and a half, right now. Neville is now sixteen, and he is helping your husband recover. He suffered as much as you did at the hands of the Lestrange."

"Fifteen... years?"

It broke Ginny's heart to see Alice Longbottom like this. However, she knew it was unavoidable, and that the sooner they got through the problem, the sooner she would recover.

"You are in Saint Mungo's Hospital. It has taken us a bit to do it, but we have managed to find a way to help you heal and wake up."

Ginny saw how the look in the woman's eyes slowly changed from the desperation of discovering that she had missed fifteen years of her life to one of decision as the knowledge that she could finally wake up from the coma that had held her for so much time.

"What do I have to do?" Alice asked, and Ginny smiled.

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"It is like when you repair your mind after fighting off an Occlumency attack. However, given the situation you were in, we had to anchor your mind to ours so that you could be well enough to start these reparations."

"Is it that easy?" Frank asked.

"Well, it is theoretically easy. But considering the damage done, both me and my friends are going to be helping you, so that it takes you less time to recover completely. Our friends are helping Alice, so both of you should be awake soon."

"Thank you very much, Harry."

"You are welcome. Now, let's start with the repairs."

The five of them separated and raised their hands, concentrating on repairing a part of the mental walls. It was a slightly hard task, especially for Neville, Ron and Draco, who did not have much experience with the task, but their time with the Founders had been quite useful, and now they could put it to great use. Neville was especially interested in this, and also quite nervous, given that this was going to give him what he had dreamed about for so much time. It took Harry a few minutes to get Neville to calm down and just concentrate in the task at hand.

Harry found a wall that had been turned completely into dust. It was somewhat near the center of the mind, so that meant the attack must have been either very strong or happened when the outer defenses were down. He shook his hand at the brutality of the attack performed by the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr on them, and he started to wave his hands: given the size of this part of the protections, it would require more magic than what he had used everywhere else.

Slowly, the dust started to congeal, first into small rocks, then greater rocks, then big blocks of stone. Those blocks of stone moved to form a line, then more dust congealed on top of that line. Harry was a bit peeved that it had taken so much (probably a minute) to restore just that, and knew that it would take

"Want some help?" Draco offered.

"Sure," Harry said. Soon, Draco was next to Harry, moving his hand in a similar way. The stone blocks formed at a faster pace than before, and several minutes later they had finally managed to build the whole wall back.

"Damn, it took us a lot of time just to put this."

"Let's get back to work, or else we will be here for years."

"True," Draco replied with a grimace and set on to continue working.

Harry sighed as he poured his magic into building the next wall.

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After what seemed too many hours working restlessly, the five of them had finally managed to restore the building in Alice Longbottom's mind. As that work advanced, they noticed how Alice was far more aware of what was happening, and more active in the reparations, not to mention that her guidance was fundamental so that they knew what went where.

"I cannot thank you girls enough for what you have done for me," Alice said, hugging them all in turn.

"No need to thank us," Ginny replied with a big smile.

"Just make sure to tell Neville that you like his girlfriend," Hermione continued, nodding towards Luna. Uncharacteristically for her, Luna blushed, and the others smirked at the fact that they had finally got one over the girl.

"Well, I do have to say my Neville has a great taste in girls. He must think the world of you."

"Yes," Luna replied, a bit shy, and still blushing.

"So, Ginny, how do we get out of here?" Susan asked, feeling that enough was enough when it came to joking about Luna and Neville.

"We have to un-anchor Alice's mind from ours," Ginny replied.

"Now that I am recovered, I think I can actually help with that. I think you can easily stop anchoring my mind, I can take care of things quite well right now," Alice said.

"Let's do it one by one, to prevent any damage from happening. Hermione, you go first. It is easy, just do what you did when we anchored, only the opposite way."

Hermione nodded, and closed her eyes. Something that looked like a red thread slowly materialized in the air, between Alice and Hermione. Hermione's face changed slightly, showing the concentration on the effort that unhooking the anchors required of her. It took her only half a minute, and just then the thread snapped back into Alice, who closed her eyes too, and concentrated to offset the loss of that anchor.

It was just five minutes later that Ginny broke her connection to Alice, and the girls were finally ready to leave.

"Hope to see you soon, ladies," Alice said as the four girls started to leave the now rebuilt mind fortress.

"I am hoping the same, too," Luna replied. The four waved their hands, and walked outside of the fortress, upon which moment a light flashed before them, and everything became white.

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"I am proud of you, Neville," Frank said, messing Neville's hair up. "And Harry, I am sure that your parents would be awfully proud of you, too."

"I hope the same, sir," Harry replied.

"Drop the sir, Harry. I know you since you were a tiny thing in your mother's arms, you can call me Frank."

Harry shrugged, not knowing how to answer to that.

"What do we have to do now, then? I am eager to finally be able to do something after fifteen years," Frank said.

"Well, we have to let the anchoring go, so that we can leave here," Harry said. "It is easy, just the same as what we did to anchor Frank's mind, but the opposite way. Draco, you go first, then Ron, then Neville, and I will do it the last."

It took the boys ten minutes to un-anchor Frank's mind, but it was worth it all, considering what awaited them when they came out of where they were.

"I hope to see you out there soon, boys. "

"So do we... Dad," Neville replied. The four left the fortress, and suddenly a light flashed before them, turning everything around them completely white.

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As the light receded, Harry slowly recovered his sight, and was able to see what was surrounding him. Bit by bit, he started to see his friends. All of them were still around, standing like they had been when they did the ritual, blinking in order to help their eyes recover from the intense light. A minute later, the light shrunk into Frank and Alice's joined hands and then disappeared.

A groan was heard from Alice. "Did it work?" she asked in a raspy tone. It was clear that the woman had not used her voice in many years.

"Yeah," Frank, in an even raspier voice, replied, "think so."

"Good Merlin!" someone said, right behind Harry, who jumped. He had totally forgotten about Neville's mother. He stepped aside so that the woman could finally kiss and hug her son and daughter-in-law. Neville joined, finally enjoying being in his mother's embrace after being denied it for fifteen years, while the other teenagers left in silence, trying not to disturb the Longbottoms on the way out.

"That was great," Ron said as soon as they left the room.

"Yes, it was," Luna replied, smiling at her boyfriend's happiness.

"Let's find a Healer, so that we can tell them that Neville's parents are awake," Ginny said.

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MIRACLE IN SAINT MUNGO'S

Written by Matthew Saint-Christopher

Yesterd ay evening, Saint Mungo's Hospital of Magical Maladies and Injuries gave a completely unexpected announcement in a press conference: Frank and Alice Longbottom had awakened and recovered.

The Longbottoms, who had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Junior two weeks after Harry Potter's defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in October 31st 1981, had been written off by Saint Mungo's Healers as "incurable" due to the extension of the damage done to their minds.

However, it looks like either this diagnostic was incorrect or premature, or that the Longbottoms were somehow able to repair their own damaged minds from the inside, because, as Saint Mungo's has reported, they managed to recover conscience and were completely aware of their surroundings, as well as talking.

"This does not mean that they are completely out of the woods yet," Saint Mungo's spokeswitch, Healer Amethyst White, said. "They will have to follow a strict regime of physical and magical rehabilitation, as well as becoming up to date with the happenings of the Magical World in the last fifteen years, but we are sure that Alice and Frank will be up to returning to their home before their son is back to Hogwarts."

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A PIECE OF MY MIND

Normally, this is something I would not be writing about, given the nature of this magazine. However, these news affect me personally, so I feel compelled to write about them.

My daughter Luna was just a few months old when Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who. My family, like all other magical families — save for those that had supported You-Know-Who, of course — celebrated the end of the war, but our celebration was tempered by the fact that said victory had required that a child lost his parents at the young age of one, and become a celebrity for something that he would probably not be able to remember at all. Some time later, the celebratory mood was further shattered when another child lost his parents to what could be said to be a fate worse than death.

As I write these lines, fifteen years and four months have passed since that time. My daughter is now studying for her O.W.L. exams. She is a close friend to Harry Potter, who I have been told is regarded by most Hogwarts students as their leader, and by most of Magical Britain as their saviour. She is also Neville Longbottom's girlfriend, and, to my gratefulness, she is happier with him than ever. I have met both young men personally, and I have to say that, if either were my son, I could not be prouder of them.

Fortunately, one of these young men has been able to recover what was taken from him in the most foul way. Neville Longbottom, the one who got his heart stolen by my daughter — and viceversa — has seen his parents being returned to him.

Alice and Frank Longbottom, whom many people, myself included, thought would never be able to wake up after being trapped in the deepest recesses of their minds for so much time, have instead beaten all the odds and come back. No one knows how they did it, whether the fact that they recovered now has some meaning, or even if someone was helping them to heal. However, despite my naturally inquisitive mind, I think that this is one case where the better thing all could do would be to give the Longbottoms the intimacy and chance to reconnect with their son. After all, do you not think that they deserve such reward after everything they have gone through?

Signed,

Xenophilius Lovegood

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When the Easter holidays ended, Neville suddenly became the most popular student at Hogwarts, to Harry's great relief, as that took most of the spotlight off him, and gave him enough free time to enjoy with Ginny.

On the other side, Luna did not take Neville's new status as "the hottest thing" very well. Not because of him, but because of the fangirls Neville had "acquired", who were now following him everywhere he went whenever there were no classes, and who probably had been doing the same in regards to Harry the previous months. Neville, in turn, had taken to ask Harry for the Marauder's Map, so that he could sneak away with Luna whenever the two of them wanted to have some time alone. Getting into the Founders' room, which would have been quite good, would have required a sense of good timing so that they were not seen: they did not want everyone and their mother to learn about the room and attempt to enter it.

Normal classes were going quite well. The Eight always required little time to learn the spells the Professors taught them. McGonagall and Flitwick were quite happy to see this, but no one felt better than Martin, the DADA Professor, who was delighted at their learning speed, and had started to teach them all more complex and advanced spells and hexes that could be quite useful in the future.

This did not mean that they took time off from working with the DA and training the Hogsmeade inhabitants for the battle that would surely happen around June. If there was something Voldemort could be counted on, it would be on attempting to act in a decisive way that month. Of course, that was just more than enough to push them all to work much harder, in order to learn as much as possible.

Unfortunately, out of school things were not going as well as Harry hoped. Voldemort had continued with his tactic of leaving all the planning to his Death Eaters, only wanting to learn about the attacks a few minutes before the attacks happened, which made it difficult for Harry to catch on those plans. Harry had started to enter Voldemort's mind at random times, to see if he managed to learn something by chance, but normally it did not work well. At least, the Aurors were able to detect when the Death Eaters attacked, and there were always many Aurors ready to defend twenty-four hours a day, although this meant that they could not arrive soon enough to prevent injuries and some deaths.

If he were to be honest with himself, Harry could not wait until Voldemort attacked. The sooner they got rid of Voldemort, the sooner he would be able to get back to a normal life. Or, at least, as normal as it was possible.

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"So, guys, do you think we can do something more for Harry?" Fred said, as him, George, Angelina, Alicia, Lee and Oliver — who was on a break from his career with Puddlemere United, as the Quidditch season had ended for him — met in the twins' flat over Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes a week after Hogwarts re-started.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, nursing the Butterbeer bottle in his hand.

"Come on, Ollie, you know what I mean. Harry is going to have to fight old Moldie and his Death Munchers real soon. He has quite the routine set up already, don't you think so?" George replied.

"He is our friend, Oliver," Angelina said. "He has done a lot for us, and he is not even of age. I am sure that we can do something to help him."

"We have something prepared already," Lee stated. "Those boxes of War Wangs are ready so that we can deliver them to Hogwarts. We plan to make enough of the other prank items that they would be able to make a lot of money if we sold them. I guess that you guys are suggesting that we go to Hogwarts for the fight, right?"

"Yeah. After all, this is what Harry trained the DA for, so that we knew how to fight when the time came. Given what he has had to get through, I think that he could certainly use our help with this situation. And if we join the fight, that is something good we can do."

"I tell you, if I get injured, my coach will kill me," Oliver replied.

"Pfft, as if he would do anything to his star Guardian and a hero of Hogwarts," Lee said.

"Yes, Oliver," Alicia interjected. "Besides, I have an idea that may make it safer for us, and it falls right into the thing we have being doing together for years."

"Given that Lee and I do not live here, I guess you must be speaking about flying on brooms," Oliver replied with a smirk. Angelina threw him a cushion he blocked with a fast hand move.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Oliver. You do not see me making stupid jokes about you and whomever you are going out with. Are you going out with someone, by the way?" Angelina asked Oliver.

Oliver shook his head. "My last girlfriend left me six months ago. She could not stand the fact that I was constantly besieged by the fans whenever we went out. Had a couple of flings after that, but nothing serious."

"Oooh. Well, then I think I should try to present you to my cousin Martha, I am sure you will like her."

"You can do that later," Fred said, poking Angelina. "This is about what we can do to help Harry with this problem of his. What was your idea, Alicia?"

"All of us are good flyers, and we are quite good at fighting with magic. Well, Oliver not so much, since he was not at Hogwarts when we did the DA. Anyway, I think that, if we train up a bit, we could easily attack the Death Eaters from the sky."

"That's really risky," Oliver said.

"Not if we time things well. If the Death Eaters are concentrated on the ground, a fast pass could easily allow us to knock out several of them. We could also throw prank things to distract them, and attack the giants if You-Know-Who brings several to Hogwarts. Either way, we can be useful for Harry."

"Could be nice," George said, bringing Alicia closer to him. "I bet that Ron and Ginny miss us loads. And it would be quite good to visit old Hogwarts again."

"There is still the problem of the shop. Who takes care of it?" Fred said.

"I can do it quite well," Lee stated. "I am not as good on a broom as you guys, and besides I doubt you are going to be practising your flying twenty-four-seven."

"You'd do that for us, Lee?"

"Of course. We are partners in all of this, right?"

"Right, mate."

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The Potions class had just ended. Harry was among the last to abandon the room, as he had had some trouble trying to find a quill that had fallen to the floor and he did not want to break it if he tried to Accio it. As he prepared to leave for the Defence Against the Dark Arts class, there was a flash in the room, and Fawkes appeared over the table next to Harry. Harry raised his arm, and the phoenix jumped on it, dropping a message he was carrying on Harry's hand.

"What is the matter, Potter?" Snape asked, being as shocked over the bird's appearance as Harry.

"I do not know, Professor," he replied, opening the note with the one hand that was not busy supporting the red bird.

Harry,

I need to speak with you about a matter of great importance. Please, come as soon as you can, and bring your map of Hogwarts with you.

Albus Dumbledore

"It seems to be important, he wants to meet with me right now."

"Then you would do well in not making him await for you to arrive," Snape replied. "Besides, I am having the next class in five minutes."

"Do not worry, I will be out of here real soon," Harry replied, taking his wand out and waving it over the note, so that Professor Dumbledore's missive turned into a note of apology from him to Professor Martin for missing his class, as he had to meet with Dumbledore. "Would you mind taking this to Professor Martin, Fawkes?" he asked. The bird sang softly for a second, and then jumped from Harry's arm, took the note and flashed away.

Ra! Harry called his phoenix. Ra appeared, and flashed him to his room at Gryffindor's tower. It only took him a minute to find the Marauders' Map, and soon he flashed into the Headmaster's office.

"Good morning, Harry," Dumbledore said. With him were Remus, Sirius and Moody.

"Good morning, Professor," he replied, before giving Remus and Sirius a hug.

"Did you bring the map, Harry?" Sirius asked. Harry nodded, and put the piece of parchment over the Headmaster's desk. Remus activated it, and the five men stood around it.

"Gentlemen," Moody said, pointing at the map, "this map shows many, too many, liabilities to Hogwarts' security. We must seal them completely if we want to stop the Death Eaters from entering Hogwarts in a way that does not force them to take the main entrance."

"You mean the passages that go into Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked.

"Yes."

"Just like you know about them, Pettigrew does, too," Harry said. "We should block most passages, and the one that can be easier to check we will just put a trap. My bet is that Voldemort will send Pettigrew in here at some point before he comes in strength against us, to check on what we are doing right now. I would not put it past him to be already at Hogwarts."

"We can check that easily enough," Remus said, and put the tip of his wand on the map, and said "Invenire Peter Pettigrew."

The map moved around for a bit, and then some ink appeared in the centre. Sorry, mate, but we can't find Peter Pettigrew. Ask later.

"There you go, he is not here yet," Sirius said.

"Are you sure that maybe Pettigrew has not found a way to make himself invisible to the map?" Moody asked.

"We tried everything we could get our hands on to find if it was possible to hide from the map, but believe us, it is not possible. Besides, while Pettigrew had ideas for this map, he did not have anything to do with the charms we put to detect the people, that was all James and me," Remus explained. "And before you ask, Voldemort could have found a way to do it, but without knowing the charms on the map, it would be a hit-or-miss chance."

"More reason to actually block the passages," Moody replied. "If Pettigrew is here and he has somehow managed to to hide from this map, closing them and perhaps put traps in one of them may be our only chance to catch that rat. I do not know how much Voldemort trusts Pettigrew, but he will probably know some of the plans they are going through right now. We might even manage to find when they will attack Hogwarts!"

"We know that, Mad-Eye," Sirius said. "Though, blocking passages may not be as good of an idea, at least right now. If Wormtail finds one of the passages is blocked, and then goes for the next and finds it not blocked, he will suspect something is going on. I suggest that we just put traps in all the passageways, and then, when we catch Wormtail, we block the passages."

Moody looked at Sirius, and Harry had the thought that he was wondering why he had not had that idea.

"Excellent idea, Black! We better do this now. The sooner we do this, the greater the chance we will have of catching Pettigrew."

"Should we separate or go all together? The former helps to do it faster, the latter means we can put up more traps and protections in every passageway," Harry suggested.

"I prefer going together," Sirius replied. "Wormtail may have not been as good at studying as James, Remus or me, but he still knew enough to find things. If we can have either Fawkes or Ra, or Harry himself, transport us towards all those points, we would be able to layer several spells that would help to trap Wormtail, especially if Harry manages to Craft a charm that can make all of them undetectable."

"I think that Fawkes will be more than up to the task. Please?" Dumbledore asked. Fawkes jumped on his extended arm, and offered his feathers so that the others could grab them. As soon as Moody had grabbed the feather, Fawkes 'flashed' them to a point nearby the entrance to one of the secret passageways.

Once there, the four adults started to place several spells which would protect the entrance, while Harry himself prepared a spell that would encompass the others and make them all undetectable, as well as providing an extra layer of protection over the rest of the spells. They spent several more hours travelling to the different entrances to the passageways, placing many spells on them. All of them would be protected against entrance by anyone through them, although Harry put another charm in the passageway that went from Honeydukes to the humpbacked witch statue that would allow him and whomever he chose to circumvent the protections. His idea was that, when the twins came, if there were any Death Eaters watching over the entrance, they would be able to sneak without being seen.

It would soon prove to be an excellent idea.

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Dear Mr Potter,

I would like to request for some of your time in order to meet you about certain details regarding your account at Gringotts. If possible, we wish to meet the next April 26th at 12 PM. If you are unavailable in that day, please let us know.

Yours,

< em>Griphook

Manager of the Potter Family Vaults

Harry showed the letter to Sirius.

"What do you think?"

"I think you should go. This seems quite important. And I have a feeling it is not completely about your accounts. If it were, they would not be asking to talk with you with such urgency."

"True. Though, I would like to have you there. You are my guardian, so I guess you should be there."

"I do not know, Prongslet. Goblins prefer for meetings with their clients to remain private. I might as well come with you, I can check on Diagon Alley and the twins while you talk with Griphook."

"That's great."

~~~HPATUV~~~HPATUV~~~HPATUV~~~H PATUV~~~HPATUV~~~

On the 26th, Harry (after saying goodbye to Ginny and leaving his friends in charge of the DA class), Sirius and Ra travelled from Hogwarts to the main door of Gringotts. Having taken care of disguising themselves to prevent being recognised, Sirius left Harry at the gate, going straight for WWW, while Harry and Ra entered Gringotts, going straight towards the nearest teller.

"Greetings, Master Teller Urkunt," Harry said, reading the tag in front of the goblin before talking. The goblin looked at Harry with suspicion.

"What is it that you want, wizard?"

Harry took out Griphook's letter and showed it to Urkunt. Upon reading it, he folded it again and gave it back to Harry before turning and saying something in Gobbledegook, the goblin's language. Another goblin appeared, and Urkunt turned again to Harry.

"Mortaz will bring you to Griphook, Master Wizard."

"Thank you for your time, Master Urkunt. May gold flow into your coffers."

"May your enemies bleed against your sword, Mister Potter," Urkunt said in a whisper.

Harry bowed to the goblin, and then followed Mortaz to his destination, which, fortunately, was quite nearby. Mortaz stopped in front of a door and knocked thrice, being answered with something Harry did not understand, but which he supposed was the order to enter.

The door opened, and Harry saw Griphook at the other side, right behind a table.

"Mister Potter, I am glad to see you again," Griphook said. "Mortaz, you may leave us alone."

"Thank you, Master Mortaz," Harry told the leaving goblin, who bowed lightly to him before closing the door.

"Take a seat, Mister Potter."

"Thank you. What is it that you wanted to speak about? Because, the way your letter spoke, it certainly did not sound like you just wanted to talk about my accounts."

Griphook smiled. Harry could not help but compare that smile in his mind to that of a shark.

"You are correct, Mister Potter. While the need to talk about the Potter Family accounts is true, it is not as urgent as I made it look like in my letter. Instead, this is about a deal the Goblin nation desires to make with you."

Harry was a bit surprised, but he tried not to let that through. "Why me? Would not it make more sense that this deal was made with, say, Minister Bones, or Albus Dumbledore? I might be the Head of the House of Potter, and a member of the Wizengamot, but I am still a teenager."

"Indeed. You are the Head of the House of Potter, and a member of the Wizengamot, but you fail to point out that you are too the Boy-Who-Lived." Harry tries not to scowl. That is not exactly the way he wants people to refer to him. "You carry great influence due to your previous victory over the Dark Lord, and even more due to your other encounters with him, as well as the rumours about your being destined to face him. We know that he is likely to attack Hogwarts before the summer starts, and we know we can help you."

"Any help we have is welcome," Harry replied. "We have yet to learn the exact date when Voldemort will make his move, but my guess it will be June."

"Indeed. We do know that, despite what others may think, you are more the leader of the opposition than Dumbledore or Minister Bones. They might be in charge of parts of it, but, in essence, you are the one who is leading the efforts to get rid of Voldemort."

Harry wondered how the hell the goblins were getting that sort of information. He still was sure that they had it wrong, though: while it was true he was in charge of the DA, and it could be said that most of the Hogwarts pupils listened to him, Dumbledore was the one most everyone went for. He settled for a shrug.

"There are many people leading the fight, and I am just one of them," he replied.

"Either way, this offer is to you alone. While we do respect both the Minister and the Chief Mugwump, they are not young enough to help see through any changes, and neither would have the clout to do so. However, you are young, and when you defeat the Dark Lord, you would be able to do anything you put your mind on. And we know you are a man of honour. Thus, we are willing to offer you the support of our army, on your call."

Harry was surprised: he knew that the goblin warriors were fierce ones, able to use magic of their own without having to use wands. The whole goblin army probably numbered in hundreds of them, and were they to join the battle, it would be a massacre, and not exactly on the Death Eaters' favour.

"That is a very generous offer, Griphook. Though, I can guess what you would like."

"And what is that, Mister Potter?"

"Well, I can clearly say that I doubt it is money. You are practically in charge of wizard's economy, so it makes little sense for you to want more money, and if people heard about it you would be cast as mercenaries who would have fought on Voldemort's side if he had offered enough."

"Unfortunately, there are some of ours that have fallen for that, Mister Potter. They did not realise that Voldemort's hatred of our people is too high, and only saw the money he was offering, taken from the accounts of his followers."

Harry shook his head. "Indeed. Well, about your reasons to join this war... I would say it is about respect. Most wizards and witches respect you as bankers. However, many do not regard you as anything else, and some even despise you or treat you like animals. You may be protected by some laws and by the threat of your army potentially attacking the people, but in essence many still disregard you and would probably prefer not having to deal with you at all, and in some cases would even be willing to kill you. I would say that you want to stop being treated like that. That you want to be able to be a part of society. To be respected as fellow magical beings, whether you live among your own or you come out and live among humans. Am I correct?"

"Yes, Mister Potter. It is our hope that this might be our way back into wizard society. As you said, having to deal with wizards that dislike us, as well as a government that places many restrictions against our people, is not something we like, and thus we tend to keep to ourselves. I know it does not help much to mend our image, but it is the only sure way to secure our lives."

"I'll be glad to help the Goblin people regain their place in our society, Griphook" Harry replied, offering a hand. Griphook looked at it for a few seconds and then shook it.

"In the name of the Goblin nation, I thank you, Harry Potter."

~~~HPATUV~~~HPATUV~~~HPATUV~~~H PATUV~~~HPATUV~~~

I am very, very sorry for taking so much time in writing this! You won't believe how difficult it was for me to think about how things should evolve! I hope that this chapter will be enough to satisfy your want of HPATUV.

As you can imagine, we are slowly approaching the final battle between Voldemort's forces and those of the Good people. Hopefully, I will be able to deal in the next chapter with all the problems in May and most of June, and then the countdown will start.

Hope to see many, many reviews and opinions from all of you!