"Daisy!" 

"What was all that screaming and yelling about?" 

The door burst open and Harry, Sirius, Ron, Hermione, Kylie, Emily, and Dean filed into the room, glancing around with their wands held high. Their eyes all fell on me, being held by the twins, on Lee, who had buried his face in his hands, and on Terry, who was clasping the briefcase closed, scrubbing tears away from his face with his jumper sleeve. 

"What the fuck happened?" Sirius asked the room. 

"The Unbreakable Vow." Terry said quietly. "It - it -" 

He seemed unable to continue, and my heart sank as he turned away, his body shaking. He was crying again. 

"I don't believe that I love Riddle anymore, so the Unbreakable Vow tried to kill me at midnight." I said. "Thanks to these guys, I drank a love potion and saw my Boggart and I'm still alive." 

There was a pause. Then Harry fell forward, grabbing Terry and enveloping him in a hug, repeating in a strained voice, "Thank you, thank you, thank you..." 

Terry turned, looking surprised through the wet streaks down his cheeks, and hugged Harry back. 

"So you don't love him, after all." Fred said softly, his hands tracing up and down my sides comfortingly. "Told you so." 

I laughed. I reached up, brushing first his, then George's, tears off of their cheeks. Lee had looked up, and managed to crack a grin at me; I flipped him off. 

Sirius sat down on Terry's bed in relief, smoothing his hands across his face, pinning his hair back. Emily joined him, sending a nervous look at the briefcase. 

"Guys." I said, sitting up straight. "I need to tell you something. Riddle's not in Hogwarts anymore, he's out in the country looking for me." 

Harry turned from Terry, eyebrows raised, and Hermione's eyes widened. 

"He was interrogating Muggles, I saw; the scar is sometimes helpful, y'know." I joked feebly. "I'm sorry, Georgie... that girl from the paper shop that you liked impressing with your card tricks..." 

I glanced at him sadly, reaching out for his hand. George stiffened, his jaw clenching. 

"She was innocent." He said roughly. "She had nothing to do with all this." 

"I'm sorry -" 

"That fucking piece of shit!" George stood up, grip still on my hand, and I was tugged up too. "I've half a mind to -" 

"No, he's not there!" I said quickly. "He's not at Hogwarts, George, but we'll track him down as soon as we destroy the diadem. We'll get the snake, then it's just him, we'll get him. I promise." 

"He's not there." Hermione repeated. "That's good. That means we can get in, get the diadem, and then just leave, right? No need to put everyone's lives in danger at the school." 

"Ideally." I said. "But we should probably help the situation there while we can. While he's gone. We should seize the chance." 

"Oh, hell yeah, Softpaw." Fred said, his eyes gleaming. "One last student uprising, eh? Drive Snape and the Carrows out?" 

"I like what you're thinking." George said grimly, squeezing my hand. 

"Come on!" Hermione said indignantly. "We're not seriously going to take the risk -?"

"What's life without a little risk?" Sirius smiled, looking around at me, and I grinned back. 

"We can't risk your GODDAUGHTER getting taken by Snape and the Carrows and handed over to Riddle again!" 

Sirius glared at Hermione, who was glaring back, panting, and opened his mouth. 

"Do you think I don't know the risks, Mynee?" I said quietly. "He was thinking of doing something horrific to me when I was in his head, but still, I'm going to take the risk, aren't I?" 

"What was it?" Harry said immediately. "What was he thinking of doing?" 

"Er -" I rubbed the back of my neck. "He was thinking of turning me into one of his Horcruxes." 

Terry flinched, then looked down at his hands. George moved closer to me; Fred stood up too, slipping a hand around my waist, closing in on my other side protectively. Both twins' jaws were clenched tight. 

"Yeah, let's NOT let that happen." Kylie said. "'Cause then we'd have to kill you in order to kill him..." 

Terry wrenched himself free of Harry and stalked over to the window, bracing his hands on the windowsill. I couldn't see his face; his back was to us. 

"Well, what's the plan?" Ron said. 

"I've no clue, to be honest." I half-grinned at him. 

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

"Pretty much." I said. "No plan, just get in, get the diadem. Destroy it when we have the chance. And help the others overthrow the Snape regime." 

"There's my warrior princess." Fred beamed at me. George's squeeze of my hand told me the same praise. I squeezed both of their hands in response. 

"Let's go get some sleep so we can prepare for tomorrow." Sirius said with an air of finality. 

The atmosphere in the room was now tense, full of a mixture of anticipation, dread, and excitement. Terry finally turned around again, his eyes shining with new purpose. New determination. 

Sirius got up, taking a step towards me, and lowered his voice. "Your father would have been proud." 

I tilted my chin up. "I'll try my best to avenge him. My very," I clenched my fists, white light spilling from in between my fingers, "fucking best." 

~~~ 

We all slept through the night and into the morning, me in Fred's bed in between him and George. We spent the better part of the next day training, basically just reassuring ourselves that our skills were the best they've been, predominately focusing on sneaky and evasive spells and charms, for when we were trying to find the diadem. We dug out our Hogwarts uniforms from where they'd been buried in the back of our wardrobes, and by the evening, we were ready. 

"We all know the plan?" Sirius asked over our heads as we all moved into our little groups, ready to Apparate. 

"What plan? There is no plan." George said, and everyone laughed. 

"Hilarious. Right, everyone remember, Apparate into Aberforth's bar; that's where Kylie escaped out of the Room of Requirement, and he's to be trusted." 

We all nodded. I moved closer to the twins and Terry, grasping Fred's arm. 

"See you all on the other side." Sirius grinned at me, then took Emily and Harry's arms. I could see the excitement of a battle twinkling in his eyes, and I had to admit, the prospect was inviting to me, too. Driving Snape and the Carrows out of Hogwarts was going to be fun as hell. 

We twisted on our heels, and a loud CRACK later, we were standing on the grimy, dusty floor of the Hog's Head. The barman, who I assumed to be Aberforth, glanced up at us all and shook his head. 

"Black, Lancaster, I'm not sure what you're doing here with this lot." His eyes moved over us all, and landed on me. They were strikingly blue: just like Dumbledore's. I'd been told they were brothers. "And with Potter of all people. Go on, go back where you came from, I don't care what noble cause you think you're fighting for." 

"What? How could you tell us to do that?" I said before Sirius could say anything. "I thought you were fighting too, you're in the Order of the Phoenix -" 

"I was." Aberforth said. "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, Potter, he wants you too badly. So go abroad, go into hiding, save yourself. Best take this lot with you." He jerked a thumb at my group. "They'll be in danger long as they live now everyone knows they've been working with you."

The thought of that seemed... quite inviting. A house in the hills in Spain, overlooking the valley... Sirius and Emily living next door, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Kylie on the other side of us, Lee and Dean living in a little annex, Terry and Draco and the twins and I all living together, Terry and Draco in the room down the hall, while Fred, George, and I all shared a queen-sized bed... 

We could travel to the beach nearby, secluded enough so that it was private, and we could skinny dip at night... late summer evenings on the terrace, sipping fresh cocktails in the sweltering heat... getting sweaty, having to take a shower, all three of us, making the bathroom steam up, and we'd have to make sure none of our neighbours could see the handprint on the glass as I was bent over and - 

"That's a risk we're all willing to take, here! We're all willing to die for this, everything else be damned!" Sirius roared, and I snapped out of my fantasies to see Emily laying a hand on his arm. 

"I can't leave." I said. "I've got a job -" 

"Give it to someone else!"

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

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

"No." I said. "No, he didn't tell me everything, but I've figured out most of it on my own. I know what I have to do. What we're doing is going to help end Riddle once and for all." 

Whether it was Sirius's glowering glare or my finality when I spoke of ending Riddle, Aberforth inclined his head slowly. 

"There's only one way in now." Aberforth said. "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."

Aberforth turned to the portrait behind him, of a young girl with soft blonde hair, and said, "You know what to do." 

"Sir, is that Ariana?" Harry asked, pointing at her as she walked away. 

"My sister." Aberforth confirmed. "She died young." 

There was more to the story, it was obvious, but I wasn't about to ask. I knew how painful it was to dig up past traumas. 

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

A tiny white dot reappeared at the end of the painted tunnel that Ariana had walked into, and now she was walking back toward us, 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 the last time I'd seen him. 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 uniform ripped, clambered the real Louis Barnock, who gave a roar of delight, leapt down from the mantelpiece, and yelled, "I knew you'd come back! I knew it, Daze!"

"Hey, Lou!" 

Louis greeted the others, particularly Terry and Kylie, with joy as he stepped forward to hug me. The longer I looked at him, the worse he appeared. One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, and there were gouge marks on his face. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of me and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling Draco and Ginny it was a matter of time!"

"Louis, what's happened to you?" Kylie asked, eyes wide. 

"What? This?" Louis dismissed his injuries with a shake of the head. "This is nothing, Neville is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going then?" 

"Thanks." I told Aberforth. 

I then clambered up onto the mantelpiece, behind Terry, 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 we walked, our shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.

"Daze, I didn't get a chance to ask at Hagrid's party - is it true? Did you guys break into the Ministry? Did you break a load of Muggleborns out? It's everywhere, everyone's talking about it, Seamus got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"

"Yeah, it's true." I grinned.

Louis laughed gleefully.

"I got this," He indicated a slash to his face, "for asking Alecto Carrow how much Muggle blood she and her brother've got in Muggle Studies." 

"Nice." I high-fived him. 

"Blimey, Lou." Kylie said. "There's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."

"You didn't see her." Louis said. "She was talking so much shit; 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 you did it, Daze."

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

Louis shrugged.

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

We turned a corner and there ahead of us was the end of the passage. A short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. Louis pushed it open and climbed through. As we all followed, I heard Louis call out for unseen people:

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

As I emerged into the room behind the passage, there were several screams and yells: "DAISY!"

"It's Potter, it's POTTER!"

"Daze!"

"DAISY POTTER!" 

"Fred! George!" 

"Ter-bear!" 

"There's Kylie Ford!" 

"Daisy?!" 

I had a confused impression of coloured hangings, of lamps and many faces. The next moment, all of us were engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, our hair ruffled, our hands shaken, by what seemed to be a huge number of people. We might have just won a Quidditch final.

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

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Louis called, and as the crowd backed away, I was able to take in our surroundings. 

The Room of Requirement was still the same as I'd left it, only it had increased in size, and several more dorm rooms had popped up beside the original one. Familiar faces were beaming all around at me: Draco, who had just finished snogging Terry; Blaise and Theo, who were grinning with twinkles in their eyes; Ginny, her arm around Luna; Suzanne, clinging onto Harry tight; Shannon and Pansy, Colin, Lavender, Parvati, Bonnie and Connie, Neville, whose face was puffy from bruising, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs of our year, and many from the other years, and a vast majority of Gryffindor House. I looked around; Seamus was snogging the face off of Dean, and I was taken aback for a moment. 

"Wow." I said. "Who woulda thunk." 

"They were always pretty close in the dorm." Harry shrugged at me. 

I sniggered. "Indeed." 

"Naturally." 

"Tell us what you've been up to, Potter." Blaise said. "There've been so many rumours, we have been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch." He pointed at the wireless. "For example: you didn't break into the Ministry?"

"They did!" Louis said. "And the Grand Escape's true too!"

There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops; I took a bow.

"What were you after?" Shannon asked eagerly.

Before any of us could parry the question with one of our own, I felt a terrible, scorching pain in my lightning scar. As I turned my back hastily on the curious and delighted faces, the Room of Requirement vanished, and I was standing on a street in Godric's Hollow. I was staring slowly around, eyes moving over every building... 

With an enormous effort I pulled out of Riddle's mind again, back to where I stood, swaying, in the Room of Requirement, sweat pouring from my face and Fred and George holding me up.

"Are you alright, Daisy-flower?" Draco was saying. "Want to sit down? I expect you're tired, aren't -?" 

"I'm okay, thanks, Dragon." I put my hand up in thanks, wearily leaning against the twins. Blaise, Ginny, and Colin all exchanged a glance, raising eyebrows at each other, and I blushed, knowing what they were thinking. I shifted against George. 

"Getting a bit close with Daze since you've been on the run, eh, George?" Seamus smirked, and I glanced down, following his gaze. Oops. George swiftly moved his hand. 

"Watch out, Fred, your twin brother's coming for your wifey." Dean chortled. 

I felt my face flush further at the 'wifey' comment, and Fred opened his mouth, grinning, again. 

'Should I make some joke about sharing is caring? Or maybe I'll confirm that George'll be coming for her, alright. Or, I could comment on the 'wifey' thing... oh, the possibilities...' 

My eyes widened. My weird mind-reading thing always decided to come out at the least helpful moments. Why couldn't it tell me what Riddle was thinking, instead of Fred? 

"So here's what we're gonna do, lads." I said hurriedly, before my boyfriend could make a joke about any of the things he was thinking about. "We've got to find the tiara I was wearing on my wedding day. Yanno, the illegitimate wedding between a captive and her captor." 

"Shitshow." 

"Shambles." 

"Exactly." I nodded at the unsettled group of students. "We have to destroy it, it's important. Then, after that's all done, we're gonna help you overthrow Snape's regime once and for all." 

There was an immediate uproar, and my fellow students soared forward again, cheering and thumping my back, chanting and clapping and whistling. 

"Yes, Daisy!" Louis roared. "It's about time!" 

"Let's get rid of these bastards!" Neville yelled. 

"Guys! Guys!" Fred called over the chaos. "First we have to find this tiara thing. It'll help us bring an end to big Thomas." 

The room quietened. Several people took seats again, perching on the edge of sofas, listening. I took a deep breath. 

"I can't even really remember what it looked like that well." I said quietly. "It... the trauma of what happened, I think, it -" 

"It's okay, Softpaw." Terry said, moving to my side. "There's a statue of Ravenclaw in my common room, she's wearing a replica, I could take you up to it and show you if you need." 

"We're coming, too." Fred said. "We've no idea what this thing is supposed to look like." 

"Besides, the more, the merrier, right?" George grinned. "You need extra hands to protect this precious cargo." 

His warm brown eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled, and my heart thumped in my chest. 

"We'll stay here with the sword." Harry said, raising Gryffindor's sword in his hands. "You go hunt for the diadem. We'll rally the troops for your return." 

We made eye contact, and nodded once at each other, determination blazing in our eyes. The other members of Dumbledore's Army were nodding, some enthusiastically, others solemnly. A couple of them rose from their chairs again to demonstrate their willingness for immediate action. 

"Be careful." Sirius told me, kissing my forehead. 

"I'll try. No guarantees, though." 

"Daze." Harry called. I turned, just before the door. "Be safe." 

"I'll try." I repeated, sending my worried brother one last smile before following Terry and the twins outside. 

~~~ 

"You're going to end up exposing us before I can even properly start dating George." I told Fred accusingly as we climbed the staircase. 

Fred laughed. "I don't think it's gonna be an issue. It's pretty obvious that you and Georgie are smitten with each other, I dunno how I couldn't have seen it before." 

"What -" 

"Don't lie, baby girl, you've always had the hots for us both." Fred smirked down at me as Terry and George chatted. "Having the first threesome with us was something you'd been thinking about for years, I'm willing to bet a thousand Galleons on it." He leaned in closer and whispered, "You were wetter than you'd ever been before -" 

"Shush!" I gasped, my cheeks flaming. 

Fred burst out laughing. "It's true. It was incredibly arousing." 

We turned a corner, and Terry consulted the Marauder's Map. He nodded, directing us ahead. 

"And it's not just sex. He truly cares for you, I can see it when he interacts with you. He even said..." Fred trailed off, sending a cheeky grin at George, who was laughing at something Terry said. "Nevermind. That's for him to say himself. But you're the same, babe, and I know you and I are always going to be endgame, and we have a love like no other, but you care for him too." 

"I suppose I do..." I watched George laugh, the mirth in his face, his handsome grin... the fluttering in my heart told me everything I needed to know. 

"I want to give you everything you could ever possibly want, baby girl. You deserve it. And if that's a relationship with me and my twin, who I've always shared everything with anyway... that's fine by me." 

"Is it?" I said. "Fine by you? What about the future, y'know, marriage? What do we tell your mother? And... uh... kids." 

Fred blinked. 

"Er - if that's what you want." I clarified hastily. 

"Of course I want it, baby!" He said, reaching out and taking my hand. "I - uh - I don't have it all figured out, but wizarding law allows polyamorous marriages, as far as I know, and kids are something we could figure out after that. Maybe we'll alternate between me and George. Or maybe all children but one will be mine, because I'm obviously your dominant partner." 

"Freddie!" I said, scandalised, and the redhead grinned. 

"As for my mother... well. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." 

I felt a huge swoop of anxiety inside me at the thought of what Mrs Weasley would say about me after finding out that I'm fucking two of her sons. Would she be disappointed, old-fashioned, angry? Would she think I'm a huge slut who's not worthy of her family? 

The anxiety was pushed to the back of my mind as we approached the Ravenclaw door with the bronze eagle door knocker. Terry knocked once, and in the silence it sounded to me like a cannon blast. At once the beak of the eagle opened, but instead of a bird's call, a soft, musical voice said, "Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?"

"Hmm... what do you guys think?" Terry said, looking thoughtful.

"Girl, I have no idea." 

"Well then, I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning."

"Well reasoned." The voice said, and the door swung open.

"Nerd." I said. 

The deserted Ravenclaw common room was just as I remembered from when I had broken in here to retrieve Terry once, in first or second year, I couldn't remember specifically. It was before he started becoming an honorary Gryffindor by sitting at our table and sneaking into our common room, anyway. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars, which were echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. There were tables, chairs, and bookcases, and in a niche opposite the door stood a tall statue of white marble.

The statue stood beside a door that led to the dormitories above. We all strode right up to the marble woman, and she seemed to look back at us with a quizzical half smile on her face, beautiful yet slightly intimidating. A delicate-looking circlet had been reproduced in marble on top of her head. It was exactly the same as I wore at my wedding, I was sure of it now. There were tiny words etched into it that I hadn't seen before. I climbed up onto Ravenclaw's plinth to read them.

"'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'"

"Which makes you pretty skint, you witless little whore." A cackling voice said.

I whirled around, slipped off the plinth, and landed on the floor. The sloping-shouldered figure of Alecto Carrow was standing before me, pressing a stubby forefinger to the skull and snake branded on her forearm.

The moment her finger touched the Mark, my scar burned savagely, the starry room vanished from sight, and I was standing in ruins, looking down at a blasted-apart, rotting mobile and cot, and there was a deep irritation in my heart - I told them to call for nothing other than the girl. If they were wrong... 

A loud bang brought me back to where I stood. Disoriented, I raised my hand, but the witch before me was already falling forward; she hit the ground so hard that the glass in the bookcases tinkled.

"That was noisier than I thought it would be." Terry said indifferently as Fred and George hoisted me up. 

And sure enough, the ceiling had begun to tremble. Scurrying, echoing footsteps were growing louder from behind the door leading to the dormitories. Terry's spell had woken Ravenclaws sleeping above.

"Guys, quick! We need to get under the Cloak!" 

"We'll never fit -" 

"Change into your Animagi, then -" 

I held up the Cloak as Terry darted underneath, and Fred and George transformed into two squirrels and scurried underneath the Cloak beside us. I let the Cloak fall back over us as the door opened and a stream of Ravenclaws, all in their nightclothes, flooded into the common room. There were gasps and cries of surprise as they saw Alecto lying there unconscious. Slowly they shuffled in around her, a savage beast that might wake at any moment and attack them. Then one brave little first-year darted up to her and prodded her backside with his big toe.

"I think she might be dead!" He shouted with delight.

"Awesome." Terry whispered happily, as the Ravenclaws crowded in around Alecto. "I've always liked little Frankie!"

"Yeah..." 

I closed my eyes, and as my scar throbbed I chose to sink again into Riddle's mind.... He was moving along the Main Street in Diagon Alley... He'd chosen to make sure I wasn't in my apartment before coming... But that wouldn't take him long... 

There was a rap on the common room door and every Ravenclaw froze. From the other side, I heard the soft, musical voice that issued from the eagle door knocker: "Where do Vanished objects go?"

"I dunno, do I? Shut it!" An uncouth voice snarled: Amycus. "Alecto? Alecto? Are you there? Have you got her? Open the door!"

The Ravenclaws were whispering amongst themselves, terrified. Then without warning, there came a series of loud bangs, as though somebody was firing a gun into the door.

"ALECTO! If he comes, and we haven't got Potter - d'you want to go the same way as the Lestranges? ANSWER ME!" Amycus bellowed, shaking the door for all he was worth, but still it did not open. The Ravenclaws were all backing away, and some of the most frightened began scampering back up the staircase to their beds. Then, just as I was wondering whether I should just blast open the door and Stun Carrow before he could do anything else, a second, most familiar voice rang out beyond the door.

"May I ask what you are doing, Professor Carrow?"

"Trying - to get - through this damned - door!" Carrow shouted. "Go and get Flitwick! Get him to open it, now!"

"But isn't your sister in there?" Professor McGonagall asked. "Didn't Professor Flitwick let her in earlier this evening, at your urgent request? Perhaps she could open the door for you? Then you needn't wake up half the castle."

"She ain't answering, you old besom! You open it! Fuck! Do it, now!"

"Certainly, if you wish it." Professor McGonagall said, with awful coldness. There was a gentle tap of the knocker and the musical voice asked again.

"Where do Vanished objects go?"

"Into non being, which is to say, everything." Professor McGonagall replied. 

"Nicely phrased." The eagle door knocker replied, and the door swung open.

The few Ravenclaws who had remained behind sprinted for the stairs as Carrow burst over the threshold, brandishing his wand. His tiny eyes fell at once on Alecto, sprawled motionless on the floor. He let out a yell of fury and fear.

"What've they done, the little whelps?" He screamed. "I'll Cruciate the lot of 'em 'til they tell me who did it - and what's the Dark Lord going to say?" He shrieked, standing over his sister and smacking himself on the forehead with his fist. "We haven't got her, and they've gone and killed my sister!"

"She's only Stunned." Professor McGonagall said impatiently, who had stooped down to examine Alecto. "She'll be perfectly alright."

"No she bludgering well won't!" Carrow bellowed. "Not after the Dark Lord gets hold of her! She's gone and sent for him, I felt me Mark burn, and he thinks we've got Potter!"

"'Got Potter'?" Professor McGonagall said sharply. "What do you mean, 'got Potter'?"

"He told us Potter might try to get inside Ravenclaw Tower, and to send for him if we caught her!"

"Why would Daisy Potter try to get inside Ravenclaw Tower? Miss Potter belongs in my House!"

Beneath the disbelief and anger, I heard a little strain of pride in her voice and affection for Minerva McGonagall gushed up inside me.

"We was told she might come in here!" Carrow said. "I dunno why, do I?"

Professor McGonagall stood up and her beady eyes swept the room. Twice they passed right over the place where me, Terry, Fred, and George stood.

"We can push it off on the kids." Carrow said, his pig-like face suddenly crafty. "Yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll say Alecto was ambushed by the kids, them kids up there -" he looked up at the starry ceiling toward the dormitories, "- and we'll say they forced her to press her Mark, and that's why he got a false alarm... He can punish them. Couple of kids more or less, what's the difference?"

"Only the difference between truth and lie, courage and cowardice," said Professor McGonagall, who had turned pale, "a difference, in short, which you and your sister seem unable to appreciate. But let me make one thing very clear. You are not going to pass off your many ineptitudes on the students of Hogwarts. I shall not permit it."

"Excuse me?"

Carrow moved forward until he was offensively close to Professor McGonagall, his face within inches of hers. She refused to back away, but looked down at him as if he was something disgusting she had found stuck to the toilet seat.

"It's not a case of what you'll permit, Minerva McGonagall. Your time's over. It's us what's in charge here now, and you'll back me up or you'll pay the price."

And he spat in her face.

Anger suddenly pulsing in my veins, I snatched Terry's wand, pulled the Cloak off myself, and said, "You shouldn't have done that, fucker."

As Carrow spun around, I shouted, "Crucio!"

The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor. "The last time I did that, I was forced through threat of torture," I said, the blood thundering through my brain, "but now I see what he was referring to when he said you need to really mean it."

"Miss Potter!" Professor McGonagall whispered, clutching her heart. "Miss Potter - you're back! What -? How -?" She struggled to pull herself together. "Miss Potter, that was foolish!"

"He spat at you." I said.

"Miss Potter, I - that was very - gallant of you - but don't you realise -?"

"Yeah, I do." I assured her. Somehow her panic steadied me. "Professor McGonagall, Riddle's on the way."

"Greetings, Minnie." Fred and George said simultaneously as the boys, transformed back, pulled off the Cloak. The appearance of more outlaws seemed to overwhelm Professor McGonagall, who staggered backward and fell into a nearby chair, clutching at the neck of her old tartan dressing gown.

I handed Terry back his wand. 

"Awesome." He was whispering. 

"You must flee." Professor McGonagall whispered. "Now, Miss Potter, as quickly as you can!"

"I can't." I said. "There's something I need to do. Professor, do you know where the diadem of Ravenclaw is? I was wearing it at my - my wedding, and Riddle's kept it here, I was wondering if you've seen it -?" 

"I haven't, I'm sorry." She sat up a little straighter. "Miss Potter, it was madness, utter madness, for you to enter this castle -" 

"I had to." I said. "Professor, time's running out, Riddle's getting nearer - I'm acting on Dumbledore's orders, I must fuckin' find what he wanted me to find!" 

"You're acting on Dumbledore's orders?" She repeated with a look of dawning wonder. Then she drew herself up to her fullest height. "We shall secure the school against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named while you search for this - this diadem."

"Is that possible?"

"I think so," said Professor McGonagall dryly, "we teachers are rather good at magic, you know. I am sure we will be able to hold him off for a while if we all put our best efforts into it. Of course, something will have to be done about Professor Snape -" 

"Don't worry about that." I smirked. "We might not be the very best at magic, but us students are rather good at other things." 

"Yes, at rebelling, naturally." Professor McGonagall said, her tone still dry. 

Terry, Fred, and George's eyes twinkled back at me. I turned back to her with a grin. 

"Exactly, Professor."