“Let me know what he says.” said Luna as she kissed Harry gently on the lips.

“Will you be here when I get back?” he asked her, his eyes glistening.

“Yes, I’m not leaving to go back home until later on this evening.”

“Good.”

Harry smiled as he pulled her into a gentle hold, and kissed her on the cheek and whispered. “I’ll see you later.”

He entered the fireplace with his floo powder in grasp, and said clearly. “Headmasters Office – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

The whirling sensation always made Harry feel ill, he hated it every time and forgot how pain enduring it was to his sensitive stomach. As the grates passed one by one, Harry closed his eyes and prayed it would end soon. “Bloody floo travel.” He mumbled while willing himself not to be sick all over his trousers.

Suddenly he hit the deck with a smack, and moaned as he scrambled out of the fire, falling face down on the familiar red carpet that graced Albus Dumbledore’s office.

“HARRY.” Shrieked a voice, but one that he did not recognise as belonging to the headmaster. He smiled. “Karis.”

She threw her arms around him and held him tight.

“Karis, it would be nice to breathe.”

She giggled. “Sorry. It’s just, I haven’t seen you for over two weeks – how are you coping?”

Harry wanted to say terribly, but he delved into her dark eyes and he felt that he had no right to feel self-pity anymore, if anyone should be in a bad way it should be Karis – afterall, Severus was practically family to her and she seemed to be coping, but then Karis seemed to be a lot of things.


Suddenly Harry remembered the conversation he held with his Mother in Karis’ artefact chamber, and how she had told him that Karis hides her many fears and feelings, she is strong, and yet weak. Harry believed that they should have been blood related – they were both alike in so many ways.

“Thank you for what you did, Karis. You and Severus made it happen, if it wasn’t for you both, I….”

“Shhhh.” whispered Karis as she held her finger to his lips. “We did what we had to do – we did it for the calling of the Order, we did it for Love Harry, you don’t need to thank me or anyone else because we all worked as a team.”

Harry started to feel his eyes well up – she made everything sound so simple. Maybe it was?

“Welcome Harry, please sit down.” said Dumbledore, hoping to break the emotional hush that was so obviously uncomfortable for them both.


Harry immediately got his act together and felt himself stiffen. “I’d rather stand, Professor”.


“Very well, but you might prefer to sit down Harry, you seem to look rather pale.”

“Bloody floo travel,” blurted out Harry before engaging his brain.

Karis let out a small laugh. “I don’t like it either – once I learnt to apparate, I promised myself never to floo again.”

Harry did as he was told, he didn’t want to play smart at the moment, not in-front of Karis, he owed her more than that. So he played the good boy, and sat down opposite Albus Dumbledore, while Karis took the seat beside him.

Dumbledore nodded and whispered his approval “Very good.”

“Now sir, can you please tell me what it is you wish to discuss?” asked Harry.

Karis tensed beside him, Harry noticed out the corner of his eye, as she grasped her hands together and took a deep breath.

Dumbledore eyed her carefully and sent her a small reassuring smile.

“I think it’s time Harry that we discussed everything that happened, and why, there are things that you still do not know and Karis and I believe that you should.”

“What things?” asked Harry with a frown, as he turned to look at Karis too, unaware that she had been keeping secrets from him.

“Now it is time Harry, for you to know everything.”

“I’ve heard that from you before, Professor – if it wasn’t for the fact that Karis was in this room I would say this was a severe case of de ja vu.”

“Harry!” warned Karis.

“Sorry.” He mumbled.

“Do you want to start or shall I?” asked Dumbledore, looking at his Grand Daughter.

“You can, I’ll just intervene at the Tonks scenario.”

“Tonks!” Exclaimed Harry. “Where is she, what about Tonks? Oh my god is she alright?” he asked in panic.

“Harry, I suggest you listen to what we have to tell you, but I warn you now, you may find some of it a little bit of a shock.”

Harry felt his hands wring with anger as he listened to Albus’ accounts of what happened beforehand at Malfoy Manor, and how Tonks had betrayed them all and nearly got Karis killed by Bellatrix Lestrange before being taken and bound as a prisoner in Lucius’ bedroom.

Karis then went onto explain how Severus had guessed of her betrayal and managed to escape Voldemort unharmed in order to rescue her and apparate from the roof of the manor, to Hogsmede.


“I can’t believe it,” said Harry, almost inaudibly, as his clenched fists turned white. “Why Karis? How could she do something like this?” He nearly choked on his words as he noticed that Karis had a few tears trickle softly down her face.

“Voldemort is a very persuasive wizard, Harry. And he praised her highly, accepting her half muggle bloodline due to her incredible gift of metamorphagy. Being able to change into any person or animal that would help him spy on the Order was a great asset to him and he respected her highly.”

“How much do you think Voldemort knew?” asked Harry.

“Almost everything.” replied Albus as he massaged his temples with outstretched fingers.

Harry frowned, “What do you mean, almost?”

Albus stood up and started to pace behind his desk, going from one end to the other in silence.

Harry and Karis shared a worried look before pressing him further. “What did he not know is what we should be asking you Grandfather?”

Albus expressed a small twitching to the mouth and Harry thought for a second he may actually smile.

“Indeed - that is the correct question, Karis.” replied Albus before continuing. “Voldemort did not know of the prophecy but I do believe that if he had heard it he still wouldn’t have understood what it meant. I feel that the part of the prophecy where, you Harry, would have a power that he would know not was indeed the potion. You and your friends thought things through when you decided to make that vanquishing concoction because it was definitely something he missed.”

“It’s amazing isn’t it – after all his power, that he wouldn’t have thought of a simple vanquishing potion.” replied Karis, her eyes wide which danced with glimmering light that sprayed in from the large square window.

Harry nodded. “It wasn’t even my idea Professor. Hermione and Luna worked it out between them and it also derived from something that Professor Snape taught us in class only a couple of months ago. Ron also thought it was a good idea due to Voldemort being known for his impeccable wand magic, but I knew the priori incantatem would be a problem, but the downfall of the potion is that it would….

“Only work if the victim was unarmed.” said Karis with a smile, finishing off Harry’s speech.

“Exactly!” replied Harry with a glint in his eye.

“It amazes me how two sixteen year old girls, one ironically a mugblood - would play a vital part in the downfall of one of the darkest wizards of all time.” said Karis in an almost disbelieving tone.

“Amazing!” repeated Albus Dumbledore while continuing to pace.

Harry sat there and for the first time in a while he recounted the prophecy in his mind.

`The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies, and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives .The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.’

And finally he realised what it meant. The teamwork that derived originally from friendship and a shared idea of learning how to protect oneself made for an amazing battle between good and evil. It’s also when Harry realised that he was foolish to act the way he has been for two weeks, this wasn’t about just him and his feelings, because if truth be known, it was Ron, Hermione, Luna, Severus and Karis that saved him from Voldemort and a vanquishing potion that was mastered by Hermione and Luna. Harry at the end of the day only threw it.

Harry stood up from his chair. “That prophecy was not just aimed at me and Voldemort. The Power the Dark Lord knows not, is not me, it was never supposed to be!”

“What are you saying Harry?” asked Karis.

“It was always about the uniting of Dumbledore’s Army, the three houses! That power is unprecedented, believe me!”

Karis nodded “With a little help from me and a few friends of course!”

Albus chuckled. “Yes well, I daresay it wasn’t the easiest battle I’ve fought, but the prophecy was highly misleading and yet correct, it just shows you Harry, that things happen for a reason,” advised the old man,

“What’s happened to Tonks?” asked Harry, as his mind slipped back to the woman who betrayed them – the only person who Sirius trusted out of anyone else in his family and whom still turned out to be in alliance with the Deatheaters. He felt his shackles rise again and had a sudden urge to hit something. Instead he decided to pace towards the window and look out into the brightly sunlit grounds.

“Her memory has been wiped…..” started Albus.


Harry turned around on his heel, his face suddenly burning puce. “WHAT?” he bellowed. “HER MEMORY WIPED – IS THAT ALL? AFTER WHAT SHE DID! SHE… THAT CALLOUS, BETRAYING…..”

“And her magical powers extinguished.”

This silenced Harry for a few moments. “So what of it?” he spat with a hint of vehemence.

Karis stood up and walked towards the window and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Harry.” She started. “Nymphadora Tonks has had her memory wiped and her magical abilities taken away from her by the highest powers at the Order of Merlin. She has been put in a hospital for the mentally ill for the time being until she is stable enough to rebuild a new life for herself.”

Harry scoffed sarcastically. “Right – she has been given the chance to start a new life with a new name, that isn’t a punishment for what she did!”

“Is it not a punishment in your eyes, Harry?” she asked with a raised frown. “Having no one at all, no name, no family, no idea of who you are and then being thrown out into the big muggle world with no idea of how to survive. She is fully human now, a muggle who will have to try and rebuild a life from nothing. She is alone and suffering and not understanding why. Now tell me Harry, is that not punishment? Remember, there are worse things then death and in my own personal opinion that is one of them.”

Karis then turned around and retook her seat opposite her Grandfather. Silence gathered the room like newly lain dust and it choked Harry to the point of admitting his own petulance and agreed that Karis was right. And as by doing so, a sudden round of applause was heard to echo throughout the headmasters office, as the generally sleeping portraits had suddenly and most mysteriously, come to life.

“Oh shut up, all of you.” retorted Harry with a frown which unmistakeably turned into a small upward smile.