Harry woke up firmly tucked into one of the comfortable Hospital Wing beds, the starched sheets still crisp despite a full night - and most of a morning - of sleep. She could only attribute that to the vial of Dreamless Sleep that Madam Pomfrey had pushed into her hands with a no-nonsense glare. Harry hadn't even pretended to not want it; she drank it so fast that Madam Pomfrey had raised an eyebrow that promised a long talk when she woke up, but by then Harry was already falling asleep and couldn't bring herself to care.

Fully awake, she put her glasses on and glanced around. The Hospital Wing had emptied out seemingly overnight. Only the bed next to her had someone in it; like her, Cedric had been given a Dreamless Sleep, and like her, he'd taken it. The rest of the students, drugged by Quirrell on Voldemort's orders, had been successfully revived by Snape, probably that morning, and released to their respective rooms, some of them for the first time in two months.

"Finally awake, are you?" Madam Pomfrey asked, bustling over from a wide-open cabinet, which had stacks of sheets, pillow-cases, and an entire shelf of bedpans. "How do you feel?"

"Fine." Harry's wrist had been healed with a simple tap of the wand, although she'd had to wear stiff bandages overnight, and the cuts and bruises had likewise been treated the night before. All that was left were the memories.

"No, you're not." Madam Pomfrey drew her wand and set up curtains, and then made the motions that Harry remembered as being Silencing and Privacy Charms. "What happened down there? Professor Snape brought up the remains of Professor Quirrell early this morning, and you didn't have your clothes on."

Harry shook her head. "Nothing happened. Cedric found out about - you know what, but he swore not to tell." She wasn't going to tell anyone what had almost happened, least of all Madam Pomfrey and her brother. The former would try and assign her some sort of exercise - writing in a journal, maybe - and her brother would go ballistic.

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips in a very McGonagall fashion but nodded. "Very well. I took the liberty of having an elf bring you a change of clothes. As soon as you eat, you're to go to the Headmaster's office. The password is - " her mouth twisted sourly " - Chocolate Trap Biscuits." Harry gave a humorless scoff at Dumbledore's choice of password - really, even Acid Pop was better - but agreed.

So after eating under Madam Pomfrey's intense gaze, she dressed and left the just-rousing Cedric to Madam Pomfrey's care. The corridors of the castle were largely abandoned; she presumed that most of the students were either outside enjoying the warm weather, or in their common rooms catching up with their friends and current events. She could only imagine the gossip that would be flying around the castle in the three days before they left for the summer.

The gargoyle slid aside obediently at the muttered password, and she climbed the spiral stairs up to the door. She hadn't even raised her hand to knock when she heard the Headmaster call out, "Come in!"

The ink had been cleared from his desk and the floor around it, and the phoenix's stand had been straightened, but besides those two small differences, everything was the same.

"Mr. Potter, I am glad to see that you are feeling better." Professor Dumbledore didn't look like he'd been knocked out by a giant chess piece for the better part of an hour less than half a day ago.

"You too, sir."

He nodded his thanks for the platitude. "Lemon drop?" he offered as she took a seat in one of the chairs. She shook her head, full from the amount of food that Madam Pomfrey had insisted she eat. He popped one in his mouth and looked at her for a good thirty seconds before heaving a sigh.

"I am very sorry for putting you in such danger, Mr. Potter," he said at last. "Had I known that I would not reach the last room alongside yourself and Mr. Diggory, I would not have brought you with me."

"But I wanted to go!" Harry blurted out.

"That does not make it acceptable," Professor Dumbledore shook his head, "As both Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout have seen fit to inform me." Something akin to a wry smile flitted across his face. "Your Head of House also saw fit to notify your father of your stay in the Hospital Wing, and the reason behind it." Harry felt all the blood leaving her face - had her father come to visit her in the Hospital Wing? And if he had…

Her train of thought was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore's continued words. "He replied promptly to the both of us: a polite note to Professor McGonagall for the notification, and a scathing letter to me for taking you in the first place. In fact, he threatened to withdraw you if I ever led you into such a situation again." Harry felt like giving a huge sigh of relief - he hadn't come to see her - but didn't.

"Er. Sorry about him," she said uncertainly. "He's a little protective about us after…" she trailed off, and he nodded knowingly.

"After Lily. It's perfectly understandable, and not at all anything you should worry about apologizing for. In fact, I am currently awaiting what will no doubt be a Howler from Mr. Diggory's mother. I would not be at all surprised if Mr. Diggory's father didn't show up personally. If I remember correctly, he will praise his son for his accomplishments in serving the school, and threaten to out me from the Wizengamot for putting his son in danger." He shook his head in what Harry could only describe as amusement.

"What about the Stone?" she asked when it became clear that Dumbledore was waiting for her to start the conversation back up again.

"Ah." His eyes dimmed a little behind the half-moon spectacles. "After you so excellently prevented Voldemort from stealing it, I felt it best to remove it from the castle as soon as possible. I sent a mutual friend of ours to France to deliver it to its rightful owner."

"Nicholas Flamel?"

He chuckled. "It is pleasing to know that students do their work properly. Yes, the Flamels are back in possession of the Sorcerer's Stone, and will no doubt think up some terribly clever method to protect it from another attempt at thievery. Although I very much doubt that Voldemort would be so daring - or indeed, predictable - as to try the same plan twice." He sighed. "The reason I requested your presence, Mr. Potter, is to ask you to keep quiet about Voldemort's continued existence." She made a noise of protest but he silenced her with a raised hand and explained. "By all means, you may tell those who knew of the Stone's existence - Mr. Longbottom, Miss Granger, and Mssr's Fred and George Weasley - but pass along my warning to them as well. The last thing we need is a mass panic about Voldemort's status."

Harry nodded hesitantly. "What about Lee Jordan?" she asked. "He knew most of what we knew."

"Then he may know as well. But no further than that."

Harry and Dumbledore sat in - for her - uncomfortable silence for a few moments before she asked, "Is that all?"

"Unless you have something you would like to say, yes, that is all."

She shook her head to indicate that, no, she didn't have anything to say, and stood. She'd almost reached the door when he called out to her. "Mr. Potter. I know I already gave you and Mr. Diggory points last night, but let me add twenty points to each of your houses, as well as thirty to the four of your friends found guarding the third floor. It shows great bravery and loyalty to the school and each other that you would be willing to risk your lives for such a matter."

"I'll let them know, sir, and thank you." She slipped from the office, and all but ran up to Gryffindor Tower. The Common Room was mostly empty, as many of the Gryffindors were outside, and made a beeline for the twins room. As expected, they were all there, even Cedric, who had a disgruntled look on his face and a glimmering supervisory spell floating like a pink halo around his head.

After receiving a hug from a nearly-sobbing Hermione and telling Fred and George off for teasing Cedric, she took her now-customary spot on Fred's bed and told them almost everything that had happened, skipping only those details pertaining to her most important secret. Neville fell off the window ledge when he heard about the points he'd earned for Gryffindor - the most he'd ever earned - and Hermione flushed bright pink. Fred and George just smirked and muttered something about, "finding a way to lose them again".

The next two days were the laziest days Harry had ever spent at Hogwarts. Like most of the rest of the student population, the whole group of them - minus Cedric, who for appearance's sake stayed with his Hufflepuff friends, and Lee, who wanted to spend the last few days of school with his Ravenclaw chess group - lounged around on the shore of the Black Lake, venturing in whenever they got so hot that even Hermione's Cooling Charms didn't help much.

Oliver hosted a pick-up game of Quidditch for all the Houses. Harry's team - herself, Oliver, two Ravenclaw Chasers, a Hufflepuff Chaser and a Hufflepuff Beater, and the largest of the Slytherin Beaters - won against the other two teams both times. Cedric laughed off the defeat when she caught the Snitch while he was on the opposite side of the field, saying that she had earned it. Then George - or maybe Fred, it was hard to tell from a distance - hit a Bludger at them, which started a round of Catch-Me-If-You-Can, culminating in a spectacular dive by Harry that had Hermione shrieking from where she and Neville sat in the stands and Cedric staring at her wide-eyed. Apparently, no matter what he'd said in the chamber, he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Harry was a girl, and played Quidditch better than he did.

Too soon, though, it was time to pack their trunks. The End-of-Term Feast was boisterous, as Gryffindor won the House Cup for the first time in years. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff applauded their victory, simply pleased that Slytherin hadn't won. Harry privately thought that the Great Hall looked much more festive in scarlet and gold than it would have looked in green and silver.

Somehow, the seven of them crammed themselves into a single compartment on the Hogwarts Express for the journey back to Platform 9 3/4, although admittedly it required Harry and Hermione, as the smallest of them, to share a seat, which led to rampant teasing from Fred and George that only ended when Harry threatened to send them a Howler the next morning at breakfast.

"Is your brother going to be at the platform?" Hermione asked as the train began to slow down. Harry tugged nervously on her tan slacks and pulled at the back of her tucked-in shirt. She wasn't sure if her father was going to be there; if he was, there would be no preventing him from figuring out what she and Alex had done. The two of them hadn't made any preparations for the end of the year, relying instead on their father's obsession with his job. But with the recent letter from Professor McGonagall…

"Harry?"

"What? Oh, I don't know. He was supposed to be coming back this morning too, so I'm really not sure. I came here by myself in September."

They pulled into the station. Cedric and Lee left right away, as did Neville after Hermione made him promise to write. The twins made a show of their goodbyes, going so far as to offer deep bows to Hermione, although they spent just as much time ruffling up Harry's hair.

"Have a good summer!" Harry called after them as they carried their trunks off the train. "Don't get into too much trouble!"

Fred made a vaguely rude gesture, and Harry responded in kind, earning a tsk from Hermione.

"You'll write, won't you?" Hermione asked, biting her lip as she watched Harry struggle with her trunk. She hadn't grown much over the year, and the trunk was just as heavy - or maybe even heavier - as it had been in September.

"Of course," Harry said. "Wouldn't - "

"Harry!"

She spun to the door. "Alex?!" With an enormous grin on her face, she left her trunk where it was and flung herself at her brother. If she hadn't grown very much, he hadn't grown at all. She now stood a full two inches taller than him, although he was still stronger than her and managed to lift her up with the strength of his hug.

"How was it?" they asked at the same time, then laughed. Harry had missed her brother more than she'd thought, and being with him made her remember everything she'd missed out on for the past nine months - speaking at the same time, knowing what the other was going to say before they finished saying it, instinctively knowing each other's moods after only a few moments together.

"Amazing," Alex grinned. "Rémi wants to meet you, and Jonah is coming to London for two weeks in August before school starts again. Simon wanted to but - "

"Ahem." Hermione cleared her throat and stared meaningfully at Harry.

"Oh," Harry said, remembering that Hermione was still there. "Alex, this is my best friend, Hermione Granger. Hermione, this is my twin, Alexander."

Alex and Hermione shook hands. "So you go to Asclepius Academy?" Hermione asked with blatant interest.

"Yeah. It's really great."

"What are the classes like?" Harry rolled her eyes as she finally gave up on manually lifting the trunk and levitated it off the train, Alex and Hermione (who had, after glancing cautiously out the window at the many students also doing magic on the platform, done the same) following along after her, deep in a discussion about the classes offered and the special programs at Asclepius. On the platform, Harry lowered her trunk to the ground and waited as Hermione listened to Alex describe the library (and it's lack of a Restricted Section). A few minutes later, though, Hermione bid them goodbye and vanished through the barrier to find her parents, leaving Harry and Alex standing together on the mostly-empty platform.

"Is Dad still at work?" she asked, not sure whether she wanted him to be or not.

Alex nodded. "He's never back this early."

With a sigh of mixed relief and disappointment, Harry followed Alex to the far end of the platform, where Triss was waiting to take them home.

Wow. I can't believe this one is done. Before you all panic and ask for a sequel, let me say this: a sequel is already in the works. However, I like to have the entire thing written before I post - it makes it so that even if real life gets really super busy, you won't be shorted by poor writing or no postings. It may take me a few months to finish, but it will get done, so don't fret. I'll update this story one last time when I release the first chapter of the sequel, so I suggest you either follow the story, or me as an author, since I'm pretty sure either one will let you know when I update. Once again, thanks for reading, and I hope your September is filled with many spectacular FanFics!

I'm out.

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