There was no means of steering; the dragon couldn't see where it was going, and Johnny knew that if it turned sharply or rolled in midair they would find it impossible to cling onto its broad back. Nevertheless, as they climbed higher and higher, London unfurling below them like a gray-and-green map, Johnny's overwhelming feeling was of gratitude for an escape that had seemed impossible. Crouching low over the beast's neck, he clung tight to the metallic scales, and the cool breeze was soothing on his burned and blistered skin, the dragon's wings beating the air like the sails of a windmill. Behind him, whether from delight or fear he couldn't tell, Ron and Harry kept swearing at the top of his voice, and Hermione seemed to be sobbing.

After five minutes or so, Johnny lost some of his immediate dread that the dragon was going to throw them off, for it seemed intent on nothing but getting as far away from its underground prison as possible; but the question of how and when they were to dismount remained rather frightening. He had no idea how long dragons could fly without landing, nor how this particular dragon, which could barely see, would locate a good place to put down. He glanced around constantly, imagining that he could feel his seat prickling.

How long would it be before Voldemort knew that they had broken into the vault? How soon would the goblins of Gringotts notify Jakob? How quickly would they realise what had been taken? And then, when they discovered that the golden cup was missing? Voldemort would know, at last, that they were hunting Horcruxes.

The dragon seemed to crave cooler and fresher air. It climbed steadily until they were flying through wisps of chilly cloud, and Johnny could no longer make out the little colored dots which were cars pouring in and out of the capital. On and on they flew, over countryside parceled out in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscape like strips of matte and glossy ribbon.

"What do you reckon it's looking for?" Ron yelled as they flew farther and farther north.

"No idea," Harry bellow back. Johnny's hands were numb with cold but he didn't dare attempt to shift his grip. He had been wondering for some time what they would do if they saw the coast sail beneath them, if the dragon headed for open sea. They was cold and numb, not to mention desperately hungry and thirsty.

The sun slipped lower in the sky, which was turning indigo; and still the dragon flew, cities and towns gliding out of sight beneath them, its enormous shadow sliding over the earth like a giant dark cloud. Every part of Johnny ached with the effort of holding on to the dragon's back.

"Is it my imagination," shouted Ron after a considerable stretch of silence, "or are we losing height?"

Johnny looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery in the sunset. the landscape seemed to grow larger and more detailed as he squinted over the side of the dragon, and he wondered whether it had divined the presence of fresh water by the flashes of reflected sunlight.

Lower and lower the dragon flew, in great spiraling circles, honing in, it seemed, upon one of the smaller lakes.

"I say we jump when it gets low enough!" Harry called to the others. "Straight into the water before it realises we're here!"

They agreed, Hermione a little faintly, and now Johnny could see the dragon's wide yellow underbelly rippling in the surface of the water.

"NOW!"

Johnny slithered over the side of the dragon and plummeted feetfirst toward the surface of the lake; the drop was greater than they had estimated and he hit the water hard, plunging like a stone into a freezing, green, weed-filled world. He kicked toward the surface and emerged, panting, to see enormous ripples emanating in circles from the places where Harry, Ron and Hermione had fallen. The dragon didn't seem to have noticed anything; it was already fifty feet away, swooping low over the lake to scoop up water in its scarred snout. As Johnny, Harry, Ron and Hermione emerged, spluttering and gasping, from the depths of the lake, the dragon flew on, its wings beating hard, and landed at last on a distant bank.

Johnny, Harry, Ron and Hermione struck out for the opposite shore. The lake didn't seem to be deep. Soon it was more a question of fighting their way through weeds and mud than swimming, and at last they flopped, sodden, panting, and exhausted, onto slippery grass.

Hermione collapsed, coughing and shuddering. Though Johnny could have happily laid down and slept, he staggered to his feet, drew out his wand, and started casting the usual protective spells around them.

When he had finished, he joined the others. It was the first time that he had seen them properly since escaping from the vault. They all had angry red burns all over their faces and arms, and their clothing was singed away in places. They were wincing as they dabbed essence of dittany onto their many injuries. Hermione handed Johnny the bottle, then pulled out four bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from Shell Cottage and clean, dry robes for all of them. They changes and then gulped down the juice.

"Well, on the upside," said Ron finally, who was sitting watching the skin on his hands regrow, "we got the Horcrux. On the downside-"

"-no sword," said Harry through gritted teeth, as he dripped dittany through the singed hole in his jeans onto the angry burn beneath.

"No sword," repeated Ron. "That double-crossing little scab..."

Johnny pulled the Horcrux from the pocket of the wet jacket he had just taken off and set it down on the grass in front of them. Glinting in the sun, it drew their eyes as they swigged their bottles of juice.

"At least we can't wear it this time, that'd look a bit weird hanging around our necks," said Ron, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

Hermione looked across the lake to the far bank where the dragon was still drinking.

"What'll happen to it, do you think?" she asked, "Will it be alright?"

"I say we keep it as a pet when we move into the Manor," said Johnny, causing Ron and Harry to chuckle. "What do you think? Cats, dogs, horses, fish and a massive dragon?"

"It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about," said Ron, in;acing his boot.

"What do you mean?"

"Well I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts."

All four of them started to laugh, and once started, it was difficult to stop. Johnny's ribs ached, he felt lightheaded with hunger, but he lay back on the grass beneath the reddening sky and laughed until his throat was raw.

"What are we going to do, though?" said Hermione finally, hiccuping herself back to seriousness. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!"

"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him!" said Harry hopefully, "Maybe they'll cover up-" Harry stopped talking, his eyes rolling backwards. It was silent for several moments, then Harry's eyes flew open.

"He knows," said Harry, panting heavily. "He knows and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one," he was already on his feet, "is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."

"What?"

Johnny and Ron was gaping at him; Hermione sat up, looking worried.

"But what did you see? How do you know?"

"I saw him find out about the cup, I- I was in his head, he's-" Harry remembered the killings, "-he's seriously angry, and scared too, he can't understand how we knew, and now he's going to check the others are safe, the ring first. He thinks the Hogwarts one is safest, because Snape's there, because it'll be so hard not to be seen getting in. I think he'll check that one last, but he could still be there within hours-"

"Did you see where in Hogwarts it is?" asked Johnny, biting his nails anxiously.

"No, he was concentrating on warning Snape, he didn't think about exactly where it is-"

"Wait, wait!" cried Hermione as Johnny picked up the Horcrux and Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak again. "We can't just go, we haven't got a plan, we need to-"

"We need to get going," said Harry firmly. "Can you imagine what he's going to do once he realises the ring and the locket are gone? What if he moves the Hogwarts Horcrux, decides it isn't safe enough?"

"But how are we going to get in?"

"We'll go to Hogsmeade," said Johnny, earning a nod from Harry, "and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like. Get under the Cloak, Hermione, we're sticking together this time."

"But we don't really fit ¨C "

"It'll be dark, no one's going to notice our feet."

The flapping of enormous wings echoed across the black water. The dragon had drunk its fill and risen into the air. They paused in their preparations to watch it climb higher and higher, now black against the rapidly darkening sky, until it vanished over a nearby mountain. Then Hermione walked forward and took her place between Harry and Johnny, Harry pulling the Cloak down as far as it would go, and together they turned on the spot into the crushing darkness.

Johnny's feet touched the road. He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the mist line of black mountains beyond the village and the curve in the road ahead that led off toward Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, even as he relaxed his grip upon Harry's and Hermione's arms, it happened.

The door of the Three Broomsticks burst open and a dozen cloaked and hooded Death Eaters dashed into the streets, their wands aloft.

Johnny seized Hermione's wrist as he raised his wand; there were too many of them to run. Even attempting it would have give away their position. One of the Death Eaters raised his wand, and the scream stopped, still echoing around the distant mountains.

"Accio Cloak!" roared one of the Death Eaters. Harry seized his folds, but it made no attempt to escape. The Summoning Charm hadn't worked on it.

"Not under your wrapper, then, Potter? Grindelwald?" yelled the Death Eater who had tried the charm and then to his fellows. "Spread now. They're here."

Six of the Death Eaters ran toward them: Johnny, Harry, Ron and Hermione backed as quickly as possible down the nearest side street, and the Death Eaters missed them by inches. They waited in the darkness, listening to the footsteps running up and down, beams of light flying along the street from the Death Eaters' searching wands.

"Let's just leave!" Hermione whispered. "Disapparate now!"

"Great idea," said Ron, but before Harry or Johnny could reply, a Death Eater shouted, "We know you are here, boys, and there's no getting away! We'll find you!"

"They were ready for us," whispered Johnny. "They set up that spell to tell them we'd come. I reckon they've done something to keep us here, trap us-"

"What about dementors?" called another Death Eater. "Let'em have free rein, they'd find them quick enough!"

"The Dark Lord wants Potter and Grindelwald dead by no hands but his-"

"'An dementors won't kill them! The Dark Lord wants their lives, nor their souls. They'll be easier to kill if they've been Kissed first!"

There were noises of agreement. Dread filled Johnny: To repel dementors they would have to produce Patronuses which would give them away immediately.

"We're going to have to try to Disapparate!" Hermione whispered.

Even as she said it, they felt the unnatural cold being spread over the street. Light was sucked from the environment right up to the stars, which vanished. In the pitch blackness, he felt Hermione take hold of his arm and together, they turned on the spot.

The air through which they needed to move, seemed to have become solid: They couldn't Disapparate; the Death Eaters had cast their charms well. The cold was biting deeper and deeper into Johnny's flesh. He, Harry, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall trying not to make a sound. Then, around the corner, gliding noiselessly, came dementors, ten or more of them, visible because they were of a denser darkness than their surroundings, with their black cloaks and their scabbed and rotting hands. Could they sense fear in the vicinity? Johnny was sure of it: They seemed to be coming more quickly now, taking those dragging, rattling breaths they detested, tasting despair in the air, closing in - Johnny raised his wand: He couldn't, wouldn't suffer the Dementor's Kiss, whatever happened afterward. "Expecto Patronum!"

The silver Wolf burst from his wand and charged: The Dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from somewhere out of sight

"It's him, down there, down there, I saw his Patronus, it was a wolf!"

The Dementors have retreated, the stars were popping out again and the footsteps of the Death Eaters were becoming louder; but before Johnny in his panic could decide what to do, there was a grinding of bolts nearby, a door opened on the left-side of the narrow street, and a rough voice said: "Potter, Grindelwald, in here, quick!"

They obeyed without hesitation, the four of them hurried through the open doorway.

"Upstairs, keep the Cloak on, keep quiet!" muttered a tall figure, passing them on his way into the street and slammed the door behind him.

Johnny had had no idea where they were, but now he saw, by the stuttering light of a single candle, the grubby, sawdust bar of the Hog's Head Inn. They ran behind the counter and through a second doorway, which led to a trickery wooden staircase, that they climbed as fast as they could. The stairs opened into a sitting room with a durable carpet and a small fireplace, above which hung a single large oil painting of a blonde girl who gazed out at the room with a kind of a vacant sweetness.

Shouts reached from the streets below. Still wearing the Invisibility Cloak on, they hurried toward the grimy window and looked down. Their savior, whom Johnny now recognised as the Hog's Head's barman, was the only person not wearing a hood.

"So what?" he was bellowing into one of the hooded faces. "So what? You send dementors down my street, I'll send a Patronus back at'em! I'm not having'em near me, I've told you that. I'm not having it!"

"That wasn't your Patronus," said a Death Eater. "That was a wolf. It was Grindelwald's!"

"Wolf!" roared the barman, and he pulled out a wand. "Wolf! You idiot- Expecto Patronum!"

Something huge and horned erupted from the wand. Head down, it charged toward the High Street, and out of sight.

"That's not what I saw" said the Death Eater, though was less certainly, "Curfew's been broken, you heard the noise," one of his companions told the barman. "Someone was out on the streets against regulations-"

"If I want to put my cat out, I will, and be damned to your curfew!"

"You set off the Caterwauling Charm?"

"What if I did? Going to cart me off to Azkaban? Kill me for sticking my nose out my own front door? Do it, then, if you want to! But I hope for your sakes you haven't pressed your little Dark Marks, and summoned him. He's not going to like being called here, for me and my old cat, is he, now?"

"Don't worry about us." said one of the Death Eaters, "worry about yourself, breaking curfew!"

"And where will you lot traffic potions and poisons when my pub's closed down? What will happen to your little sidelines then?"

"Are you threatening-?"

"I keep my mouth shut, it's why you come here, isn't it?"

"I still say I saw a wolf Patronus!" shouted the first Death Eater.

"Wolf?" roared the barman. "It's a goat, idiot!"

"All right, we made a mistake," said the second Death Eater. "Break curfew again and we won't be so lenient!"

The Death Eaters strode back towards the High Street. Hermione moaned with relief, wove out from under the Cloak, and sat down on a wobble-legged chair. Johnny drew the curtains then pulled the Cloak off himself, Harry and Ron. They could hear the barman down below, rebolting the door of the bar, then climbing the stairs.

The barman entered the room.

"You bloody fools," he said gruffly, looking from one to the other of them. "What were you thinking, coming here?"

"Thank you," said Harry. "You can't thank you enough. You saved our lives!"

The barman grunted. Harry approached him looking up into the face.

"It's your eye I've been seeing in the mirror."

There was a silence in the room. Harry and the barman looked at each other.

"You sent Dobby."

The barman nodded and looked around for the elf.

"Thought he'd be with you. Where've you left him?"

"We don't know, he disappeared," said Johnny, "Spain maybe?."

The barman turned away, lightning lamps with prods of his wand, not looking at any of them.

"You're Aberforth," said Harry to the man's back.

He neither confirmed or denied it, but bent to light the fire.

"How did you get this?" Harry asked, walking across to Sirius's mirror, the twin of the one he had broken nearly two years before.

"Bought it from Dung 'bout a year ago," said Aberforth. "Albus told me what it was. Been trying to keep an eye out for you."

Ron gasped.

"The silver doe," he said excitedly, "Was that you too?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Aberforth.

"Someone sent a doe Patronus to us!"

"Brains like that, you could be a Death Eater, son. Haven't I just prove my Patronus is a goat?"

"Oh," said Ron, "Yeah... well, I'm hungry!" he added defensively as his stomach gave an enormous rumble.

"I got food," said Aberforth, and he sloped out of the room, reappearing moments later with a large loaf of bread, some cheese, and a pewter jug of mead, which he set upon a small table in front of the fire.

Ravenous, they ate and drank, and for a while there was sound of chewing.

"Right then," said Aberforth when the had eaten their fill and Johnny and Ron sat slumped dozily in their chairs. "We need to think of the best way to get you out of here. Can't be done by night, you heard what happens if anyone moves outdoors during darkness: Caterwauling Charm's set off, they'll be onto you like bowtruckles on doxy eggs. I don't reckon I'll be able to pass of a wolf as a goat a second time. Wait for daybreak when curfew lifts, then you can put your Cloak back on and set out on foot. Get right out of Hogsmeade, up into the mountains, and you'll be able to Disapparate there. Might see Hagrid. He's been hiding in a cave up there with Grawp ever since they tried to arrest him."

"We're not leaving," said Johnny. "We need to get into Hogwarts."

"Don't be stupid, boy," said Aberforth.

"We've got to," said Harry.

"What you've got to do," said Aberforth, leaning forward, "is to get as far from here as from here as you can."

"You don't understand. There isn't much time. We've got to get into the castle. Dumbledore- I mean, your brother- wanted us-"

The firelight made the grimy lenses of Aberforth's glasses momentarily opaque, a bright flat white, and Johnny remembered the blind eyes of the giant spider, Aragog.

"My brother Albus wanted a lot of things," said Aberforth, "and people had a habit of getting hurt while he was carrying out his grand plans. You get away from this school, and out of the country if you can. Forget my brother and his clever schemes. He's gone where none of this can hurt him, and you don't owe him anything."

"You don't understand." said Johnny again.

"Oh, don't I?" said Aberforth quietly. "You don't think I understood my own brother? Think you know Albus better than I did?"

"I didn't mean that," said Johnny, whose brain felt sluggish with exhaustion and from the surfeit of food and wine. "It's... he left Harry and I a job."

"Did he now?" said Aberforth. "Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you'd expect two unqualified wizard kids to be able to do without overstretching themselves?"

Ron gave a rather grim laugh. Hermione was looking strained.

"I-it's not easy, no," said Harry. "But we've got to-"

"Got to? Why got to? He's dead, isn't he?" said Aberforth roughly. "Let it go, boys, before you both follow him! Save yourselves!"

"We can't."

"Why not?"

"We-" Harry felt overwhelmed. "But you're fighting too, you're in the Order of the Phoenix-"

"I was," said Aberforth. "The Order of the Phoenix is finished. You-Know-Who's won, it's over, and anyone who's pretending different's kidding themselves. It'll never be safe for you here, boys, he wants you both too badly. So go abroad, go into hiding, save yourselves. Best take these two with you." He jerked a thumb at Ron and Hermione. "They'll be in danger long as they live now everyone knows they've been working with you."

"We can't leave," said Johnny, more firmly. "We've got a job-"

"Give it to someone else!"

"We can't. It's got to be me or Harry, Dumbledore explained it all-"

"Oh, did he now? And did he tell you everything, was he honest with you?"

Johnny wanted him with all his heart to say "Yes," but somehow the simple word wouldn't rise to his lips, Aberforth seemed to know what he was thinking.

"I knew my brother. He learned secrecy at our mother's knee. Secrets and lies, that's how we grew up, and Albus... he was a natural."

The old man's eyes traveled to the painting of the girl over the mantelpiece. It was, now Johnny looked around properly, the only picture in the room. There was no photograph of Albus Dumbledore, nor of anyone else.

"Mr. Dumbledore" said Hermione rather timidly. "Is that your sister? Ariana?"

"Yes." said Aberforth tersely. "Been reading Rita Skeeter, have you, missy?"

Even by the rosy light of the fire it was clear that Hermione had turned red.

"Elphias Doge mentioned her to us," said Johnny, trying to spare his fiancé.

"That old berk," muttered Aberforth, taking another swig of mead. "Thought the sun shone out of my brother's every ocrifice, he did. Well, so did plenty of people, you four included, by the looks of it."

"Get fucked," Johnny scoffed, pulling up the sleeve of his left arm. "He wanted me as a spy."

"And by the looks of it, you accepted."

"I was forced and tortured by my own father and his friends," Johnny said quietly, knowing Hermione didn't like hearing this story. "My step-mother saved me,"

"Professor Dumbledore cared about Harry and Johnny, very much," said Hermione in a low voice, after several moments of silence.

"Did he now?" said Aberforth. "Funny thing how many of the people my brother cared about very much ended up in a worse state than if he'd left 'em well alone."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione breathlessly.

"Never you mind," said Aberforth.

"But that's a really serious thing to say!" said Hermione. "Are you- are you talking about your sister?"

Aberforth glared at her: His lips moved as if he were chewing the words he was holding back. Then he burst into speech.

"When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, by three Muggle boys. They'd seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: She was a kid, she couldn't control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw, scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn't show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it."

Hermione's eyes were huge in the firelight; Ron looked slightly sick. Aberforth stood up, tall as Albus, and suddenly terrible in his anger and the intensity of his pain.

"It destroyed her, what they did: She was never right again. She wouldn't use magic, but she couldn't get rid of it; it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn't control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless."

"And my father went after the bastards that did it," said Aberforth, "and attacked them. And they locked him up in Azkaban for it. He never said why he'd done it, because the Ministry had known what Ariana had become, she'd have been locked up in St. Mungo's for good. They'd have seen her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy, unbalanced like she was, with magic exploding out of her at moments when she couldn't keep it in any longer."

"We had to keep her safe and quiet. We moved house, put it about she was ill, and my mother looked after her, and tried to keep her calm and happy."

"I was her favourite," he said, and as he said it, a grubby schoolboy seemed to look out through Aberforth's wrinkles and wrangled beard. "Not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up with his correspondence with the most notable magical names of the day,"

Aberforth succored. "He didn't want to be bothered with her. She liked me best. I could get her to eat when she wouldn't do it for my mother, I could calm her down, when she was in one of her rages, and when she was quiet, she used to help me feed the goats."

"Then, when she was fourteen... See, I wasn't there." said Aberforth. "If I'd been there, I could have calmed her down. She had one of her rages, and my mother wasn't as young as she was, and... it was an accident. Ariana couldn't control it. But my mother was killed."

Johnny felt a horrible mixture of pity and repulsion; he didn't want to hear any more, but Aberforth kept talking, and Johnny wondered how long it had been since he had spoken about this; whether, in fact, he had ever spoken about it.

"So that put paid to Albus's trip round the world with little Doge. The pair of 'em came home for my mother's funeral and then Doge went off on his own, and Albus settled down as head of the family. Ha!"

Aberforth spat into the fire.

"I'd have looked after her, I told him so, I didn't care about school, I'd have stayed home and done it. He told me I had to finish my education and he'd take over from my mother. Bit of a comedown for Mr. Brilliant, there's no prizes for looking after your half-mad sister, stopping her blowing up the house every other day. But he did all right for a few weeks... till he came."

And now a positively dangerous look crept over Aberforth's face. His eyes met Johnny's as he spoke.

"Gellert Grindelwald. And at last, my brother had an equal to talk to someone just as bright and talented he was. And looking after Ariana took a backseat then, while they were hatching all their plans for a new Wizarding order and looking for Hallows, and whatever else it was they were so interested in. Grand plans for the benefit of all Wizardkind, and if one young girl neglected, what did that matter, when Albus was working for the greater good?"

"But after a few weeks of it, I'd had enough, I had. It was nearly time for me to go hack to Hogwarts, so I told 'em, both of 'em, face-to-face, like I am to you, now," and Aberforth looked downward Johnny, and it took a little imagination to see him as a teenager, wiry and angry, confronting his elder brother and his brother's lover. "I told him, you'd better give it up now. You can't move her, she's in no fit state, you can't take her with you, wherever it is you're planning to go, when you're making your clever speeches, trying to whip yourselves up a following. He didn't like that." said Aberforth, and his eyes were briefly occluded by the fireflight on the lenses of his glasses: They turned white and blind again. "Grindelwald didn't like that at all. He got angry. He told me what a stupid little boy I was, trying to stand in the way of him and my brilliant brother... Didn't I understand, my poor sister wouldn't have to be hidden once they'd changed the world, and led the wizards out of hiding, and taught the Muggles their place?"

"And there was an argument... and I pulled my wand, and he pulled out his, and I had the Cruciatus Curse used on me by my brother's best friend- and Albus was trying to stop him, and then all three of us were dueling, and the flashing lights and the bangs set her off, she couldn't stand it-"

The color was draining from Aberforth's face as though he had suffered a mortal wound.

"-and I think she wanted to help, but she didn't really know what she was doing, and I don't know which of us did it, it could have been any of us- and she was dead."

His voice broke on the last word and he dropped down into the nearest chair. Hermione's face was wet with tears, and Harry and Ron was almost as pale as Aberforth. Johnny felt nothing but revulsion: He wished he hadn't heard it, wished he could wash is mind clean of it.

"I'm so... I'm so sorry," Hermione whispered.

"Gone," croaked Aberforth. "Gone forever."

He wiped his nose on hiss cuff and cleared his throat.

" 'Course, Grindelwald scarpered. He had a bit of a track record already, back in his own country, and he didn't want Ariana set to his account too. And Albus was free, wasn't he? Free of the burden of his sister, free to become the greatest wizard of the-"

"He was never free," said Harry.

"I beg your pardon?" said Aberforth.

"Never," said Harry. "The night that your brother died, he drank a potion that drove him out of his mind. He started screaming, pleading with someone who wasn't there. 'Don't hurt them, please... hurt me instead.' "

Johnny, Ron and Hermione were staring at Harry. He had never gone into details about what had happened on the island on the lake.

"He thought he was back there with you and Grindelwald, I know he did," said Harry, remembering Dumbledore whispering, pleading.

"He thought he was watching Grindelwald hurting you and Ariana... It was torture to him, if you'd seen him then, you wouldn't say he was free."

Aberforth seemed lost in contemplation of his own knotted and veined hands. After a long pause he said. "How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn't more interested in the greater good than in you or the young Grindelwald? How can you be sure you both aren't dispensable, just like my little sister?"

"I don't believe it. Dumbledore loved Harry and Johnny," said Hermione.

"Why didn't he tell them to hide, then?" shot back Aberforth. "Why didn't he say to them, 'Take care of yourself, here's how to survive'?"

"Because," said Johnny before Hermione could answer, "sometimes you've got to think about more than your own safety! Sometimes you've got to think about the greater good! This is war!"

"You're seventeen, boy!"

"I'm of age, and Harry and I are going to keep fighting even if you've given up!"

"Who says I've given up?"

"The Order of the Phoenix is finished," Johnny repeated, "You-Know-Who's won, it's over, and anyone who's pretending different's kidding themselves."

"I don't say I like it, but it's the truth!"

"No, it isn't." said Harry, standing besides Johnny. "Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who and he passed the knowledge on to Johnny and I. We're going to keep going until we succeed- or we die. Don't think we don't know how this might end. We've known it for years."

"I'd prefer not to die," Johnny added in with a wince. "I got a one month old daughter waiting for me to come and sing her a lullaby."

They waited for Aberforth to jeer or to argue, but he didn't. He merely moved.

"We need to get into Hogwarts," said Johnny again. "If you can't help us, we'll wait till daybreak, leave you in peace, and try to find a way in ourselves. If you can help us- well, now would be a great time to mention it."

Aberforth remained fixed in his chair, gazing at Harry and Johnny with the eye, that were so extraordinarily like his brother's. At last he cleared his throat, got to his feet, walked around the little table, and approached the portrait of Ariana.

"You know what to do," he said.

She smiled, turned, and walked away, not as people in portraits usually did, one of the sides of their frames, but along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her. They watched her slight figure retreating until finally she was swallowed by the darkness.

"Er- what-?" began Ron.

"There's only one way in now," said Aberforth. "You must know they've got all the old secret passageways covered at both ends, dementors all around the boundary walls, regular patrols inside the school from what my sources tell me. The place has never been so heavily guarded. How you expect to do anything once you get inside it, with Snape in charge and the Carrows as his deputies... well, that's your lookout, isn't it? You say you're prepared to die."

"But what...?" said Hermione, frowning at Ariana's picture.

A tiny white dot reappeared at the end of the painted tunnel, and now Ariana was walking back toward them, growing bigger and bigger as she came. But there was somebody else with her now, someone taller than she was, who was limping along, looking excited. His hair was longer than they had ever seen. He appeared and torn. Larger and larger the two figures grew, until only their heads and shoulders filled the portrait.

Then the whole thing swang forward on the wall like a little door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed. And out of it, his hair overgrown, his face cut, his robes ripped, clambered the real Neville Longbottom, who gave a roar of delight, leapt down from the mantelpiece and yelled.

"I knew you'd come! I knew it, guys!"

"Neville- what the- how-?"

But Neville had spotted Ron and Hermione, and with yells of delight was hugging them too. The longer Johnny looked at Neville, the worse he appeared: One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living enough. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!"

"Neville, what's happened to you?" Johnny asked when Neville hugged him too.

"What? This?" Neville dismissed his injuries with a shake of the head. "This is nothing, Seamus is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going then? Oh," he turned to Aberforth, "Ab, there might be a couple more people to the way."

"Couple more?" repeated Aberforth ominously. "What d'you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? There's a curfew and a Camwaulding Charm on the whole village!"

"I know, that's why they'll be Apparating directly into the bar," said Neville. "Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot."

Neville held out his hand to Hermione and helped her to climb up onto the mantelpiece and into the tunnel; Ron followed, then Neville, then Harry. Johnny addressed Aberforth.

"I don't know how to thank you. You've saved our lives twice."

"Look after 'em, then," said Aberforth gruffly. "I might not be able to save 'em a third time. And when you get out, you tell your daughter it was me."

Johnny nodded and chambered up onto the mantelpiece and through the hole behind Ariana's portrait. There were smooth stone steps on the other side: It looked as though the passageway had been there for years. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as they walked, their shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.

"How long's this been here?" Ron asked as they set off. "It isn't on the Marauder's Map, is it? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school?"

"They sealed off all of those before the start of the year," said Neville. "There's no chance of getting through any of them now, not with the curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and dementors waiting at the exits." He started walking backward, beaming, drinking them in. "Never mind that stuff ... Is it true? Did you break into Gringotts? Did you escape on a dragon? It's everywhere, everyone's talking about it, Terry Boot got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"

"Yeah, it's true," said Harry.

Neville laughed gleefully.

"What did you do with the dragon?"

"Released it into the wild," said Ron. "Hermione and Johnny were all for keeping it as a pet."

"It'd look nice in the Manor," said Neville, causing them to burst into laughter.

"But what have you been doing? People have been saying you've just been on the run, boys, but I don't think so. I think you've been up to something."

"You're right," said Harry, "but tell us about Hogwarts, Neville, we haven't heard anything."

"It's been... Well, it's not really like Hogwarts anymore," said Neville, the smile fading from his face as he spoke. "Do you know about the Carrows?"

"Those two Death Eaters who teach here?"

"They do more than teach," said Neville. "They're in charge of all discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows."

"Like Umbridge?" Johnny asked. "Yeah, she's dead."

"Nah, they make her look tame. The other teachers are all supposed to refer us to the Carrows if we do anything wrong. They don't, though, if they can avoid it. You can tell they all hate them as much as we do. Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, except now it's just the Dark Arts. We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions-"

"What?" Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione's united voices echoed up and down the passage.

"Yeah," said Neville. "That's how I got this one," he pointed at a particularly deep gash in his cheek, "I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time they've ever been top in anything, I expect."

"Alecto, Amycus's sister, teaches Muggle Studies, which is compulsory for everyone. We've all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drive wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being reestablished. I got this one," he indicated another slash to his face, "for asking her how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got."

"Blimey, Neville," said Johnny, patting his friends back, "there's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."

"You didn't see her," said Neville. "You wouldn't have stood it either. The thing is, it helps when people stand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when Harry or Johnny did it."

"Nev, you're gonna make me cry," Johnny pouted.

"But they've used you as a knife sharpener," said Ron, winding slightly as they passed a lamp and Neville's injuries were thrown into even greater relief.

Neville shrugged.

"Doesn't matter. They don't want to spill too much Pureblood, so they'll torture us a bit if we're mouthy but they won't actually kill us."

"The only people in real danger are the ones whose friends and relatives on the outside are giving trouble. They get taken hostage. Old Xeno Lovegood was getting a bit too outspoken in The Quibbler, so they dragged Luna off the train on the way back for Christmas."

"Neville, she's all right, we've seen her-"

"Yeah, I know, she managed to get a message to me."

From his pocket he pulled a golden coin, and Johnny recognised it as one of the fake Galleons that Dumbledore's Army had used to send one another messages.

"These have been great," said Neville, beaming at Hermione. "The Carrows never rumbled how we were communicating, it drove them mad. We used to sneak out at night and put graffiti on the walls: Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting, stuff like that. Snape hated it."

"You used to?" said Harry, who had noticed the past tense.

"Well, it got more difficult as time went on." said Neville. "We lost Luna at Christmas, and Ginny never came back after Easter, and the three of us were sort of the leaders. The Carrows seemed to know I was behind a lot of it, so they started coming down on me hard, and then Michael Corner went and got caught releasing a first-year they'd chained up, and they tortured him pretty badly. That scared people off."

"No kidding," muttered Ron, as the passage began to slope upward.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't ask people to go through what Michael did, so we dropped those kinds of stunts. But we were still fighting, doing underground stuff, right up until a couple of weeks ago. That's when they decided there was only one way to stop me, I suppose, and they went for Gran."

"They what?" said Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione together.

"Yeah," said Neville, panting a little now, because the passage was climbing so steeply, "well, you can see their thinking. It had worked really well, kidnapping kids to force their relatives to behave. I s'pose it was only a matter of time before they did it the other way around. Thing was," he faced them, and Johnny was astonished to see that he was grinning, "they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, they probably thought hey didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway," Neville laughed, "Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run. She sent me a letter," he clapped a hand to the breast pocket of his robes, "telling me she was proud of me, that I'm my parent's son, and to keep it up."

"That's great, Nev," said Johnny.

"Yea," said Neville happily. "Only thing was, once they realised they had no hold over me, they decided Hogwarts could do without me after all. I don't know whether they were planning to kill me or send me to Azkaban, either way, I knew it was time to disappear."

"But," said Ron, looking thoroughly confused, "aren't- aren't we heading straight back for Hogwarts?"

"'Course," said Neville. "You'll see. We're here."

They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. Neville pushed it open and climbed through. As Johnny followed, he heard Neville call out for unseen people:

"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?"

As Harry and Johnny emerged into the room behind the passage, there were several screams and yells: "GUYS!"

"It's them, it's THEM!"

"Ron!"

"Hermione!"

Johnny had a confused impression of colored hangings, of lamps and many faces. The next moment, he, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, their hair ruffled, their hands shaken, by what seemed to be more than twenty people. They might have just won a Quidditch final.

"Johnny!" Cried Pansy, tears running freely down her face as she wrapped her arms around her best friend.

"Hey, P," said Johnny, smiling widely as he kissed his friends forehead. "How's the Godmother of my child doing?"

"Your child!?" Yelled several voices, their eyes shifting between Johnny and Hermione. The pair laughed as Johnny brandished his wallet, opening it to show the picture of Winona and Hermione.

"She's so cute!" Selena squealed, shoving the wallet in Mia's and Sam Auras's faces.

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Neville called, and as the crowd backed away, Johnny was able to take in their surroundings.

He didn't recognise the dorm at all. It was enormous, and looked rather like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a gigantic ship's cabin. Multicolored hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from the balcony that ran around the dark wood-paneled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings. Johnny saw the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the silver snake of Slytherin, set against green; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow; and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, a large wood-cased wireless.

"Where are we?"

"Room of Requirement, of course!" said Neville. "Surpassed itself, hasn't it? The Carrows were chasing me, and I knew I had just one chance for a hideout: I managed to get through the door and this is what I found! Well, it wasn't exactly like this when I arrived, it was a load smaller, there was only one hammock and just Gryffindor hangings. But it's expanded as more and more of the D.A. have arrived."

"And the Carrows can't get in?" asked Johnny, looking around for the door.

"No," said Axel Leroy Smith, who they hadn't recognised until he spoke: Axel's face was bruised and puffy. "It's a proper hideout, as long as one of us stays in here, they can't get at us, the door won't open. It's all down to Neville. He really gets this room. You've got to ask for exactly what you need- like, 'I don't want any Carrow supporters to be able to get in'- and it'll do it for you! You've just got to make sure you close the loopholes. Neville's the man!"

"It's quite straightforward, really," said Neville modestly. "I'd been in here about a day and a half, and getting really hungry, and wishing I could get something to eat, and that's when the passage to Hog's Head opened up. I went through it and met Aberforth. He's been providing us with food, because for some reason, that's the one thing the room doesn't really do."

"Yeah, well, food's one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration," said Johnny, causing Hermione to smile shyly at him and kiss his cheek.

"So we've been hiding out here for nearly two weeks," said Seamus, "and it just makes more hammocks every time we need room, and it even sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up-"

"-and thought they'd quite like to wash, yes," supplied Mia. Now that he looked around properly, he recognised many familiar faces. Both Patil twins were there, as were Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, Samual Auras, and Michael Corner. Gabrielle Walker, Blaise, Theo, Daphne, Pansy, Tom and Mia made up the Slytherin's. Nick Sawyer, Kieran Winston, Selena, Summer Carlton and Lavender Brown were among the Gryffindor's. Justin Felch-Fletchly, Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott were among the Hufflepuff's.

"Tell us what you've been up to, though," said Ernie. "There've been so many rumors, we've been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch." He pointed at the wireless. "You didn't break into Gringotts?"

"They did!" said Neville. "And the dragon's true too!"

There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops; Ron and Johnny took a bow, both laughing and gave each other a high five.

"What were you after?" asked Seamus eagerly.

But before any of the four could answer, Harry collapsed, but luckily Johnny caught him before he hit the floor.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Neville was saying. "What to sit down? I expect you're tired, aren't-?"

"No," said Harry. He looked at Johnny, Ron and Hermione, trying to tell them without words that Voldemort had just discovered the loss of one of the other Horcruxes. Time was running out fast: If Voldemort chose to visit Hogwarts next, they would miss their chance.

"We need to get going," Harry said, and their expressions told him that they understood.

"What are we going to do, then, Harry?" asked Seamus. "What's the plan?"

"Plan?" repeated Harry. "Well, there's something we- Ron, Johnny, Hermione, and I- need to do, and then we'll get out of here."

Nobody was laughing or whooping anymore. Neville looked confused.

"What d'you mean, 'get out of here'?"

"We haven't come back to stay," said Johnny, rubbing his Dark Mark, trying to ease the pain. "There's something important we need to do-"

"What is it?"

"We can't tell you."

There was a ripple of muttering at this: Neville's brows contracted.

"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?"

"Well, yeah-" said Harry and Johnny in unison.

"Then we'll help you," said Pansy firmly, folding her arms.

The other members of Dumbledore's Army were nodding, some enthusiastically, others solemnly. A couple of them rose from their chairs to demonstrate their willingness for immediate action.

"You don't understand," Harry and Johnny seemed to have said that a lot in the last few hours. "We- we can't tell you. We've got to do it- alone."

"Why?" asked Kieran.

"Because..." Johnny found it difficult to gather his thoughts. His Mark was still searing. "Dumbledore left the four of us a job," he said carefully, "and we weren't supposed to tell- I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the four of us."

"We're his army," said Gabrielle. "Dumbledore's Army. We were all in it together, we've been keeping it going while you four have been off on your own-"

"It hasn't exactly been a picnic," said Ron.

"I never said it had, but I don't see why you can't trust us. Everyone in this room's been fighting and they've been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down. Everyone in here's proven they're loyal to Dumbledore- loyal to guys," said Gabrielle even more firmly.

"Look," Harry began, without knowing what he was going to say, but it didn't matter. The tunnel door had just opened behind the,.

"We got your message, Neville! Hello you four, I thought you must be here!"

It was Luna and Dean. Seamus gave a great roar of delight and ran to hug his best friend.

"Hi, everyone!" said Luna happily. "Oh, it's great to be back!"

"Luna," said Johnny distractedly, "what are you doing here? How did you-?"

"I sent for her," said Neville, holding up the fake Galleon. "I promised her and Ginny that if you guys turned up I'd let them know. We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution. That we were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows."

"Of course that's what it means," said Luna brightly. "Isn't it, boys? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts? By the way, Winona is fine, Mrs. Potter loves her."

"Listen," said Johnny with a rising sense of panic, not catching the end of Luca's sentence, "I'm sorry, but that's not what we came back for. There's something we've got to do, and then0"

"You're going to leave us in this mess?" demanded Michael Corner.

"No!" said Ron. "What we're doing will benefit everyone in the end, it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who-"

"Then let us help!" said Neville angrily. "We want to be a part of it!"

There was another noise behind them, and they turned. Ginny was now climbing through the hole in the wall, closely followed by Fred, George, and Lee Jordan. Ginny gave Harry a radiant smile.

"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," said Fred, raising his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station."

Johnny's mouth fell open. Right behind Lee Jordan came Harry's old girlfriend, Cho Chang. She smiled at them.

"I got the message," Cho said, holding up her own fake Galleon and she walked over to sit beside Michael Corner.

"So what's the plan, guys?" said George.

"There isn't one," said Johnny, still disoriented by the sudden appearance of all these people, unable to take everything in while his Mark was still burning so fiercely.

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind," said Fred.

"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane-"

"We're fighting, aren't we?" said Dean, taking out his fake Galleon. "The message said Harry and Johnny were back, and we were going to fight! I'll have to get a wand, though-"

"You haven't got a wand-?" began Seamus.

Ron turned suddenly to Harry and Johnny.

"Why can't they help?"

"What?" the cousins said in unison.

"They can help." He dropped his voice and said, so that none of them could hear but Hermione, who stood between the three boys, "We don't know where it is. We've got to find it fast. We don't have to tell them it's a Horcrux."

Johnny looked from Harry, to Ron and to Hermione, who murmured, "I think Ron's right. We don't even know what we're looking for, we need them." And when they looked unconvinced, "You don't have to do everything alone, boys."

"All right," Harry said quietly after sharing a small nod with Johnny. "Okay," he called to the room at large, and all noise ceased: Fred and George, who had been cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, and all of the looked alert, excited.

"There's something we need to find," Harry said. "Something- something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?"

They looked hopefully toward the little group of Ravenclaws, to Sam, Axel, Padma, Michael, Terry, and Cho, but it was Luna who answered, perched on the arm of Ginny's chair.

"Well, there's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."

"Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."

"When was it lost?" asked Johnny.

"Centuries ago, they say," said Cho, and their hearts heart sank. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw and her husband. People have looked, but," she appealed to her fellow Ravenclaws. "Nobody's ever found a trace of it, have them?"

They all shook their heads.

"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" asked Ron.

"It's a kind of crown," said Johnny, motioning towards his head. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."

"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons-"

But Harry cut across Luna.

"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"

They all shook their heads again. Johnny looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione and his own disappointment was mirrored back at him. An object that had been lost this long, and apparently without trace, didn't seem like a good candidate for the Horcrux hidden in the castle... Before he could formulate a new question, however, Cho spoke again.

"If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry. Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."

"He's on the move," Harry said quietly to Johnny, Ron and Hermione after almost collapsing again. He glanced at Cho and then back at them. "Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know- the other one- safe."

Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"

"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily, as Cho sat down again, looking disappointed.

"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville.

"Over here."

"Wait, can I do my war speech?" Harry looked rather annoyed at Johnny's question, but nodded nonetheless. Johnny stood on the chair, clearing his throat slightly.

"When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year with his flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was told by someone, "there are bitter weeds in England." There are certainly a great many more of them since the British Expeditionary Force returned," began Johnny, earning a scoff from the people who recognised the speech.

"So I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our Castle Home," Johnny said after a moment of silence. He cleared his throat and carried on. "To ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone."

"The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death Hogwarts soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength."

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Death Eaters and all the odious apparatus of Death Eater rule, we shall not flag or fail."

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in the Great Hall, we shall fight on the bridges and the towers, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Castle, whatever the cost may be."

Johnny grinned as he received looks of admiration as they cheered his name.

"We shall fight in the courtyards, we shall fight on the stairs, we shall fight on the Quidditch field and in the forest, we shall fight in the hills."

Johnny raised his wand and set off a firework, creating the symbol of Hogwarts.

"We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Castle or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our friends beyond the seas, would carry on the struggle, until, in Merlin's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

"Three cheers, for his Majesty, Johnathan Grindelwald!" George yelled. "Hip-hip!"

"Hooray!

"Hip-hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip-hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Rousing speech, Winston Churchill," Hermione whispered in Johnny's ear, kissing his cheek.