Lights Will Guide You Home (And I Promise I Will Burn For You)

21

When Harry and his friends woke up the next morning, it was to find the sun streaming through the windows. Harry wasn't sure when the last time was that he had slept this late. It had to be midmorning already!

When they arrived at the Great Hall, it was clear that they weren't the only ones who had decided to have a bit of a lie in.

The head table was about half full, with Dumbledore's chair being the most conspicuously empty.

Minerva was seated to the right of the headmaster's chair, and waited until the room was full before she stood up. "May I have your attention please?" It only took a few seconds for the room to quiet down, everyone was eager to hear any information the deputy headmistress would give them. "First of all, everyone who fought last night did a commendable job, and I assure you, any damages to the castle will be repaired. I want to assure everyone that Headmaster Dumbledore will recover, though he will need to spend some time in the Hospital Wing. For the rest of term, I will be filling his role." She paused and looked around the room. Every eye was turned towards her. "In light of recent events, the Hogwarts Express will be leaving tomorrow morning, rather than at the end of the week."

There was some muttering at that, but no one seemed particularly surprised. It would make sense, after all, to have the students removed from the school after a Death Eater invasion.

Minerva sat back down, and everyone returned to their breakfast.

When the meal was nearly over, Harry looked at Ginny and the others. "Can you get the others and meet in the Room of Requirement in a few hours?"

They nodded, looking confused. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked as he stood up and stepped away from the table.

Harry glanced back. "I'm going to talk to Aunt Minerva for a while. I'll see you later."

Hermione looked back at Ginny as Harry followed Minerva out of the Great Hall. "What is he going to talk about?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "He wants to get a more in depth account of how Dumbledore is," she replied. "Probably a few other things about the attacks on the castle and Diagon Alley as well. He'll tell us when we meet this afternoon. He wants to meet with all of us in the Room of Requirement, so let's tell the others. In the mean time, if we're leaving tomorrow, I need to pack."

Hermione nodded, and elbowed Ron, distracting him from the third helping of eggs he was currently inhaling. "Come on, Ron, we need to start packing." She didn't ask Ginny how the younger girl knew what Harry wanted, used to the level of understanding those two had through their soul bond by now.

Ron grumbled, but he followed Ginny, Hermione, and Neville out of the Great Hall, stopping first at the Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff, then Slytherin tables to inform their other friends about the meeting that afternoon. Taking care to ensure no one else overheard, of course.

XXX

Harry and Minerva walked to the Transfiguration professor's office in silence. Once there, Minerva enacted several privacy wards before turning back to Harry.

"Albus will recover," she said. "He suffered several broken bones, including broken ribs and a broken pelvis, but Poppy assures me he will be right as rain in no time."

"That's good," Harry replied neutrally.

Minerva nodded slightly. "Poppy is hesitant to use too much magic to speed up the process, with his advanced age, but fortunately, his injuries will be able to heal the muggle way." Harry wasn't really sure what he felt; he didn't like the fact that he was somewhat happy that the headmaster had been injured, though he thought it was probably more because it had happened as a direct result of one of his cursed second chances.