"You remember the memory of the battle in the Ministry we showed you? The battle with Voldemort? Well if Dumbledore was so bloody positive I'd survive, why did he stop the killing curse from hitting me then? At first I thought it was the Elder Wand, but that couldn't have been the original plan," Harry explained.
"He had meant for the power of that wand to die with him so he had no reason to suspect I would be the owner of it and it would be in Voldemort's hand at that time. No, it was purely the curse and Voldemort having my blood that saved me. I would have survived it in the Ministry."
"Why'd he do it then mate?" Neville asked.
"We don't know," Hermione responded honestly.
"We have several ideas though. If Harry had survived another killing curse then Dumbledore would have had to explain how it had happened. He couldn't use the blood protection excuse again. It wasn't until he was dying that he mentioned these soul fragments to Harry.
Another possibility is he suspected that if Harry survived again, the populace would have put too much focus on Harry and uncovered a lot of the issues that had happened to him over the years.
A third possibility was he hoped he could exploit the link between Harry and Voldemort on additional intelligence like when Mr. Weasley was bitten. But truthfully, we really do not know."
Luna and Neville sat there digesting this revelation. Opinions of their Headmaster were dropping rapidly in both of their minds. A thought occurred to Neville and he asked. "The killing curse killed the soul fragment in you right Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"And didn't destroy your body?" Neville persisted.
"Of course not."
Hermione's smile lit up the room as she realized where Neville was guiding them. "If we can do a killing curse on the Diadem then maybe it will kill the soul piece without damaging the object," She looked at Neville. "That's excellent thinking Neville."
"Thanks," He blushed and his cheeks turned even redder, when Luna gave him another kiss on the cheek.
"The only problem is we can't do the killing curse," Harry said. "It would get us put in Azkaban even if we could do it."
"We aren't going to do it Harry, but we know people who can," Hermione replied. "If, when we are ready to find it, we give it to Dumbledore and suggest that is a way to destroy it. He could have Snape perform it. We both know he is capable of it."
A green flash from the end of Snape's wand hitting Dumbledore played again in Harry's mind. "True," He quietly agreed.
"The only fragment we are going to have trouble with getting is the Cup," Hermione said to Luna and Neville. "It's currently in Bellatrix LeStrange's vault."
"How'd you get it before?" Luna asked.
"We snuck in polyjuiced as her," Harry replied. "We had a few problems and left in an unconventional manner," Hermione snorted at the last comment.
"Unconventional?"
"We rode a dragon out of the bank Neville. Destroying half of Gringotts on the way," Hermione replied. "Something I am NOT doing again," She said the last while looking at her husband.
"Yes dear," Harry replied.
After dinner, they studied for the Defense OWL that would happen the next day. Thanks to the DA and his new wand, Neville was really doing well. After a couple of hours, Neville left to escort Luna back to the Ravenclaw tower before curfew. Harry and Hermione ended up with Prefect rounds that evening.
"How seriously do you take cleaning out the closets Hermione?" Harry asked as they started walking hand in hand down the corridor.
"The last time, I was pretty serious but this time..." She stopped and gave Harry a small peck on his lips. "I now sort of know what I was breaking up."
"Would it matter who it was?"
"It shouldn't," Hermione replied, "But it does. I'd love to catch Ron in one of the closets."
"With Pansy?"
"Oh Merlin, I doubt if I'd stop laughing before the end of the OWLs tomorrow," Hermione replied.
"Let's get the map and see who's in them," Harry pulled Hermione back to the tower and he quickly retrieved the map from his trunk and sealed it back up. By habit he still carried his cloak with him where ever he went.
They started walking again and Harry watched the map. The closets they knew were occupied, they would knock on the door to get the occupants' attention and then disappear under the cloak to make sure they left the closet.
"Seamus and Pavarti?" Harry whispered.
"You never did pay attention to who was leaving the DA meetings together did you?" Hermione asked.
"Not really."
Finally they saw a name they both really didn't want to deal with but knew they had to. Turning the corner they came face to face with Draco and Pansy. They both had a couple of bandages on their body.
A sneer immediately appeared on Malfoy's face. "Potter seems to have forgotten about curfew," He said to Pansy.
Harry cut off her reply with his own. "It's actually you who has forgotten. Me, I'm a temporary prefect," He pointed to the badge attached to his robes with the P on it. "You on the on the other hand, are not allowed out of the Slytherin dorms after curfew."
"We are both prefects," Pansy hissed.
Harry pointed at their badges neither of which had a P on it. "Professor McGonagall said she is not allowing any Slytherins prefect responsibilities outside your dorms. See no P on your badge."
"Planning on making me Potter?" Malfoy said.
"Don't get mad love," Hermione said gently in her mind. "He's trying to irritate you and make you do something that he can take advantage of. Think of this as smiling at Snape."
"Since you are not Prefects in the hall tonight, I will gladly take points from you," Harry responded evenly. "Flitwick's office in right down that hall and I can summon him if necessary. If you truly want to be stubborn, I can always go see if Ron Weasley is willing to join you two. You three would make a wonderful family."
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