There was a definite hierarchy to the kids' table, with Percy and me at one end, a buffer of the twins, then Ron across from Neville, and finally three young girls, each with a different hair color: the redhead was the youngest Weasley, but I didn't know who the other two girls were. From the way the dark-haired one periodically stuck her tongue out at or otherwise tried to distract Neville, though, I assumed she was a Longbottom.

"Chin up, Ron," Fred told his brother. "At least you ducked."

"Yeah," grumbled George. "Mad-Eye has actually hexed us before."

I nodded. "You did a good job, Ron. If it had been ten seconds later I'd be covered in food too."

The tiny blonde at the end of the table interjected, matter-of-factly, "That would be very bad. You're already surrounded by nargles. You shouldn't give them a food source, or they'll nest."

I noticed everyone else had a look like they weren't surprised she'd said it, but didn't believe her. "Oh?" I asked, "Why do you say that?"

She explained, "They're attracted to emotional nodes, and your aura has plenty of those for them to draw from. I don't think they're attached yet, but they're trying."

Ginny Weasley quietly cautioned the girl, "Luna, what did we talk about?" To me, she boldly stated, "This is Luna Lovegood, my Girl Friday. She has some—interesting—ideas but she's very smart. She's probably going to be in Ravenclaw."

"I'll be sad to miss these Gryffindor parties, when it's certain I'm an eagle instead of a lion," Luna shrugged.

"I don't know. I think certain Ravenclaws will be invited next year," I said, eyeing Percy. As our adventure earlier in the week had proven, getting Penny out would have been a challenge, and I didn't think either was ready for her to meet Percy's whole family yet, but next year, when she could apparate on her own, might be a big difference. "But, anyway, thanks for the warning, Luna. Do you think being behind wards would make a difference?"

The blonde absently twirled a long strand of hair while thinking, before stating, "Maybe. But extension charms make it worse. You should get some charms to target them specifically."

I nodded, considering, only for Ron to scoff, "You're not taking this seriously? Luna's mental!"

Percy snapped, "Ronald!" while Ginny punched him in the arm. Luna tried to seem like she wasn't bothered but I thought I caught a twitch of being hurt.

"I think what Luna's referring to as nargles are the air-based equivalents of nixies," I lectured to the table, most of whom didn't seem to believe her even if they were less rude about it than Ron. "They both would have a hard time existing outside of the Nevernever for long, and would be functionally invisible, so easy to miss when they do get through." I was honestly making most of that up as I went, but wouldn't be surprised if Nevernever pests were constantly hovering on the other side of the veil from wizards, trying to draw off their energy. If the girl could see that kind of thing, it would be a very useful gift and would probably make her seem crazy to people that didn't have it.

Her already-prominent eyes got huge, and a smirk of validation twitched on Luna's face. "Clearly, the Rotfang Conspiracy hasn't gotten to you yet, Harry, unlike the rest of them. I'll talk to daddy about getting you a subscription to the Quibbler so you know what else to look for."

The table conversation continued for a few minutes, but I was distracted by seeing that Dumbledore and McGonagall had arrived. The headmaster was clearly working his way through greeting all of the adults at the other tables, but our head of house made a couple greetings then headed in our direction, Mrs. Weasley in tow. When they got close, McGonagall produced a pair of envelopes and handed them to Percy and me. "Normally these arrive later, but I was checking in with Griselda and mentioned I'd see both of you today–"

"It's your OWL results!" interrupted Mrs. Weasley, thrilled.

Everyone clustered around Percy as he shivered with anxiety opening his results, and that gave me a minute to myself to look mine over. The biggest surprise was that I'd scraped out Acceptables to pass history and astronomy. Everything else was about where I'd expected it: scratching the bottom of Exceeds Expectations in herbology and transfiguration, better EEs for charms and potions, and a range of Outstandings for defense, runes, arithmancy, and muggle studies.

From the squeals at the other side of the table, Percy had done as well as I'd expected. "Twelve OWLs!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, "Second one in the family! I'm so proud of you, Percy!"

"From Griselda's intimations, Mr. Dresden also did quite well," suggested McGonagall, after Percy's mother had gotten all the hugging out of her system.

I nodded, handing over the report. "Ten, though at least two of those Percy basically carried me on."

"While part of me wished you'd done less well so a lesson would be learned about homework," McGonagall began, staring me down, "I am nonetheless quite pleased. Congratulations to both of you."

We discussed it for a couple more minutes, before Dumbledore spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear, "If everyone is done eating, perhaps the younger members of our gathering might wish to go play while we have a boring adult meeting?" It was probably about seven, but that still meant plenty of sunlight. The twins and Ron were obviously torn about being dismissed and not getting to hear adult secrets, but looked longingly at their broom shed.

"It's fine," I shrugged, wondering why Dumbledore was so bad at figuring out kids. He should have said it was everyone's annual time to figure out their taxes. "I can finally show you guys how bad I am on a broom."

"Actually, if Harry and Percy could stay," suggested the headmaster, "you might be able to provide some insight on a few matters we're to discuss."

Mrs. Weasley looked like she wanted to argue about our inclusion, but he just gave her a quelling look and she grudgingly relented with, "Everyone else, go play." Just as grudgingly, the younger kids wandered off, though the boys shot Percy and me glances like they expected a blow-by-blow later.

Once the seven of them were clearly out of earshot, everyone pulled their mismatched chairs and benches into a circle, Dumbledore conjured himself a large, plush chair, and he started up. "First, allow me to again thank Alice and Molly for continuing to organize these get-togethers. While the current situation is worrisome, it might not have reached a level where I was comfortable reconvening the group over it. But since we're already gathered," he gestured fondly at the assembled crowd, "we might as well begin to mobilize."

"How much has everyone else heard?" asked Frank. "Neville told us about what happened, and he's not prone to exaggerating, but…" he trailed off, upset by what we'd lived through.

"Harry was also an eyewitness, so perhaps could elaborate?" prompted the headmaster.

I shrugged, and tried to keep it brief, "Voldemort," I paused as a few people took in shocked gasps, "tried to possess me last summer. When that failed it looks like he possessed Professor Quirrell. He spent the year trying to get the Philosopher's Stone. He eventually started killing unicorns for their blood as he burned Quirrell out. While the headmaster was briefly out of the school a few weeks ago, he went for it. The kids tried to stop him, and managed to distract him long enough for me to get there. We fought."

I was thinking about whether to try to break down the whole fight when Dumbledore suggested, "If you're willing, it may be a benefit to replay the event so there are no questions?" I gave him a confused glance and a shrug, so he reached into an expanded pouch and withdrew a large box, which he opened to reveal a rune-etched basin. "This is a pensieve. It allows one to display memories for others to view."

Moody interjected, looking at the Longbottoms, "Have we made any progress getting them approved for law enforcement?"

Mr. Longbottom shook his head, "Given that Albus has the only functioning one in Britain, there hasn't been a lot of political will to look into it, even if he'd be willing to share. The Dark contingent has greatly oversold how easy it is to fabricate memories." He shrugged helplessly, "If that's the political battle we want to fight, I can try harder. But there are a lot of powerful interests that don't want us to have that option."

The scarred auror snarled, cursing the Wizengamot under his breath, while Dumbledore continued, "Fortunately, we are not so limited. Mr. Dresden? If you will, simply recall the battle and I'll withdraw it." I nodded and did as he touched his wand to my temple, pulling loose a silvery strand. Honestly, the ability to encode sense memories into a fluid was more interesting to me than the playback device. I'd have to ask Bob if there were any other uses for that trick. "Our gathering is sufficiently large that I think I'll just play it back above the basin. Anyone that wants a more detailed look is welcome to one afterwards."

At the tap of his wand, a hologram of my fight with Quirrell began to play. If I'd known that's what would happen, I would have visualized Princess Leia asking for help instead, just to see the reactions. After the playthrough, which had only taken a couple of minutes even though it seemed longer while I was doing it, several people asked to view it in more detail. They stuck their faces into the basin and disappeared for less time than the memory took to play at full speed but longer than made any sense. What was this artifact?

"'Just a mouse,' Harry?" Percy muttered, having seen my patronus in the memory.

I shrugged and grinned apologetically, having undersold the bear-sized dog I'd produced to drive off the spectre of Voldemort, "I didn't want to psych you out for your OWLs."

When everyone had returned, Dumbledore added, "While this was happening, I had been called to the Ministry under false pretenses, where Walden Macnair attempted to sneak up on me and attack with a dagger. He missed, but got away in the confusion."

"Told you to keep an eye on that bastard," Moody grumbled.

Dumbledore nodded and allowed, "I believe it was, indeed, my constant vigilance about the man that allowed me to avoid his strike. I also believe he was rushed into attacking, because a portkey activated to extract him shortly after the attempt, otherwise we would have caught him." With the auror mollified, he continued, "Examining my own memory of the event, I believe he was attempting to steal my blood, not assassinate me. I'm currently researching what he hoped to do, but if anyone else has the time to research into blood rituals, your input is appreciated."

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken…" muttered Remus. When he realized he had everyone's attention, he explained, "It's a pretty common dark ritual component that comes up a lot in mastery-level defense. It can make it hard to determine if a person was killed by vampires or dark wizards."

"I hadn't realized you'd finished your mastery, Remus," Dumbledore pinned him with his gaze.

"Not quite," he demurred, "I'm hoping to have time to finish it off this year now that I'm between book commitments to my publisher."

The headmaster frowned, and looked at the rest of the crowd, "And I suppose the rest of you are still unavailable to teach?" A bunch of head shakes and muttered excuses led him to explain, "Quirinus was already a poor choice to teach defense, even had he not been possessed, but he was the best option I had last year. This year, the school board is putting forward a choice I have even less faith in. Surely any of you would be an improvement…"

"Figure out how to dispel the damned curse, Albus," insisted Moody. "Going toe to toe with Death Eaters every night, our survival chances are still better than spending a year teaching that class."

I'd heard about how the defense position had trouble keeping teachers, but I'd assumed the students were exaggerating. If all the adults were worried about it too, it might be interesting to look into. What kind of entropy curse would you need to ensure that there would be a different teacher every year, that wouldn't be immediately obvious? But in the meantime, I asked, "Does it just affect the official teacher?" Everyone nodded cautiously, so I suggested, "We were already doing defense tutoring for some of the kids on the weekends. Having grown-ups come help with that would probably be a lot better than what Percy and I can manage?"

Everyone seemed to like that compromise, and Dumbledore gave me an appreciative nod, "Very well, we shall give the board's suggestion a chance, though I have worries about young Mr. Lockhart's actual teaching capabilities…"

Percy and I shared a look of horror, while Mrs. Weasley beamed in delight.