Notes: Okay, so here's the last chapter for book 3. Look out for chapter 1 of book 4 in my works on the 24th of October. Enjoy!
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The weeks passed after the joyous win of Gryffindor. Harry and Draco went on another date, this time two days before Valentine's Day, in Hogsmeade, where they discovered that Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, which was meant to be the romantic date venue, was in fact tacky and quite horrifying. They both promised never to go there ever again, and ended up having a make-up date on Valentine's Day in the Room of Requirement; Draco picked the 'location' this time, and so they spent the evening sat at a table on top of the Eiffel Tower. It was obvious to Harry that Draco was a true romantic, and he vowed to be more romantic with him in the future.
February turned to March, and Ron's 14th birthday, which was celebrated in the Gryffindor common room with as much food as could possibly fit, and a bunch of presents from the majority of Gryffindors. Ron had truly come into his own during his time at Hogwarts-he had mellowed out from the slightly petty, easily jealous person he'd been before, and was friendly with most Gryffindors and the odd Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Harry knew that Ron had secretly expected to go on all sorts of adventures with Harry and Neville, but as he simply didn't know about any of the mysteries Harry and his friends got into, he had settled down and started to enjoy being at Hogwarts like the aspiring social butterfly he was.
April Fool's Day was the twins' birthday, and this meant that the Marauders' Recruits went on an all-out pranking spree; filling bathrooms with skin colour-changing soaps, watching E.T. in History of Magic, and convincing the house elves in the kitchen to put huge googly eyes that were enchanted to move on each food. Fred and George commandeered a spare classroom on the fourth floor and invited everyone in the school, even the staff, to party with them. As was expected of the twins, all the foods were pranked, and the twins showed off the products they'd been working so hard on-Fred smashed an Instant Snow-Day bottle and the room was filled with flurries of snow, which led to a snowball fight (in which everyone learned that McGonagall had a wicked throwing arm), and George let off some of his more mild Wildfire Whiz-bangs at the very end of the party.
The week after was the Easter Holiday, which wasn't really a holiday at all, since no one actually went home because they had been flooded with homework and exam revision, and the following weekend was the Quidditch final. It turned out to be an incredibly close game, and Ron got his first taste of a proper Quidditch game when a Bludger knocked out Oliver in the last ten minutes of the game. He did quite well, considering he'd only ever been the reserve Keeper and even though he'd been to every practice, it couldn't compare to having the stands packed with students and having to try to defend the goal hoops from the cheating Chasers Slytherin had this year. After a gruelling match, Harry caught the Snitch and was carried away to Gryffindor Tower on the backs of his teammates. This time, Sirius was at the game, and was one of the people to help carry Harry away from the cheering stands.
The month of May was filled to the brim with frantic exam studying, at least on Hermione's part until she was taken into a side room the Room had created for Fred, and she came out after a while with a giddy grin and a much more relaxed air. After that, the studying was much more fruitful and full of laughter and conversation, although Hermione still insisted they actually study, instead of just talking, as that could be done at any time. It was helpful that their group was made up of some of the members of three year groups, because the fifth-years helped the third-years, who helped the second-years, meaning that the third-years and second-years had a much better idea of what was in their exams, and the fifth-years found they could recall things easier when they walked the younger years through their exams. On the fourth of May, Potions classes were cancelled, and Severus took Draco to St Mungo's because Narcissa had gone into labour. Early the next morning, Draco slipped into Harry's bed, waking him up. "Wuzzit?" he murmured sleepily.
"I have a baby sister!" Draco whispered, tired and happy. "I got to hold her in my hands-she's tiny!"
Harry smiled and embraced him. "Congratulations, Draco. What's her name?"
"Alyssa Grace Prince," Draco said. "She's going to be the most spoilt little girl in the history of spoilt little girls. I can't wait to teach her how to pull pranks."
*
One other thing happened during May: all of them managed a partial Animagus transformation, as Sirius had made it a point to sneak into the school every fortnight. Harry had managed to get a tail, and his fingernails and toenails had become claw-like, like his ermine form; Draco had been horrified when he realised his entire head had turned into a snake head, but after getting over it, had spent the afternoon talking to Enya in his newly-developed Parseltongue; Hermione's arms had transformed into owl wings; Fred and George had been covered in fur which had the distinctive chipmunk markings on their faces and down their backs; Both Luna and Ginny ended up with horse manes and tails, although Luna's were a stark white and Ginny's was mostly red, but it had white patches, so Luna decided that meant Ginny was a Skewbald horse; Neville developed a huge, dark red and gold mane which he took delight in shaking around; Colin ended up with the ears and snout of some sort of rodent, although Sirius comforted a panicking Colin that it didn't look like a rat's ears or snout; and Blaise, who didn't have an animagus form due to his Veela status, simply sat around and laughed at all their attempts to function with limbs that were not their own.
The day before the third-year exams started was June fifth, Draco's birthday. Harry woke him up with a hand-made card and a hazelnut-chocolate cupcake with a candle on it, to which Draco jumped on him and kissed him senseless as their dorm mates cooed and laughed. The party that night was only with the other Recruits in the Room of Requirement, which had taken the form of a small wooded area with a clear pond in the centre, perfect for swimming.
Then, the exams started. On Monday, they had Transfiguration and Charms, on Tuesday, they had Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy, on Wednesday was History of Magic (the exam had been given an extensive overhaul by Myrtle and Remus), and Herbology, on Thursday they had Defence and Ancient Runes, and finally, on Friday, they had their last exam, Ancient Runes for Harry, Draco, and Hermione, and Muggle Studies for Neville.
The week after exams, Dumbledore hinted that if Remus didn't resign, he'd be fired. Apparently Dumbledore wasn't happy with the lack of information on Harry he'd received from Remus during his year as the Defence teacher, and had decided to be petty. Reluctantly, Remus resigned. This threw out all of the plans the adults had had-Severus had wanted to resign at the end of that year and begin his own potions-making business, and Narcissa had been prepared to apply for the job her husband had left, allowing them to still have two adults from their group to watch over their children. However, with Remus' resignation and Narcissa's pregnancy and subsequent birth, their plans had to be changed, quickly. Sirius had decided to take a sabbatical from his job as an Auror and apply for the new Duelling teacher position Dumbledore had made available, as well as the Defence teacher position. He was reluctantly given the Duelling position, as Dumbledore had already found a Defence teacher, but was keeping their identity a secret for now.
The exam results were received the Friday after exams had finished, and their group was ecstatic that they had all passed with flying colours, then the next day they travelled back to London on the Hogwarts Express, ready for the Summer Holidays.
*
They had been planning the ritual for months now, and finally, the summer solstice had arrived. Bellatrix stood in the middle of the Stonehenge as the sun approached its zenith, under incredibly powerful notice-me-not and Muggle-repelling wards, and started chanting. Today was the day of the sun, fire, and the sacred masculine, according to the Old Ways that no one except the oldest pureblood families even remembered any more, let alone practiced. To her, Antonin, and the newly recovered Barty Crouch Jr., their Dark Lord was the sacred masculine, and the power of life or death followed him, and all those who were his loyal servants.
Almost directly across from her, Antonin stepped forward, holding their Lord's Horcrux ring, and started chanting in tandem with her. After five minutes, Crouch Jr., who held the Homunculus form of the Dark Lord, stepped forward, completing the triangle they had planned on forming around the small bonfire in the centre of their circle, and started chanting as well. Antonin passed the ring through the fire to Bellatrix, who passed it back the same way, and Antonin then passed it to the skeletal hand of the Dark Lord. As soon as the ring touched his skin, the metal of the ring melted, passing the soul piece on to their Master, whose body started to morph as their chanting grew to a crescendo and the sun reached its peak. The ugly black stone that had been on the ring fell to the ground and was ignored by all of them, even though unbeknownst to them, it was the sole reason their ritual had worked as well as it did, restoring life and body to Lord Voldemort, the last living heir of Cadmus Peverell.
There before the last free Death Eaters stood the old body of Lord Voldemort-inky black, neat hair, red eyes with a slit pupil, and perfect, pale skin. He was, for the lack of better words, the perfect specimen of a man, were it not for his blood-red eyes and his evil nature. If the Resurrection Stone had not been used, he would have been much more serpent than man; as it stood, the only serpentine feature he had was the way his pupils were shaped.
"My dear, loyal servants," Voldemort's high voice greeted them. "How magnificent it is to be in a true body once more. Bellatrix, your arm, please."
"It would be my honour, my Lord," the insane woman simpered, pulling up her sleeve and showing her Dark Mark for all to see. Crouch Jr. bowed low and handed him his bone-white wand, which he pressed to Bellatrix's Mark, calling all of his Death Eaters to him.
*
Luna Lovegood woke up, sweating and panting. What she had feared, yet had known would come, had happened. Voldemort was back-she had to tell Harry.