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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters, ideas, and situations created by JK Rowling and owned by her and her publishers. I own the original elements & characters. No money is being made by me, and no trademark or copyright infringement is intended.





Ron didn't see much of Harry during their first week on the island. Ron had never been a very good morning person, while Harry was up and exercising at 6:30 local time, when it was actually still dark at the high latitude. They spent an hour every morning practicing apparation together, with Tom Lawrence as their tutor. While no one could apparate to the island group, it was possible to apparate on the island istelf, and to five smaller islands, all within just a few miles of each other. Once the other students arrived, they would be practicing even longer, and making their first jumps off-island.



Tudor Myrddin would coach Harry in advanced dueling techniques all afternoon, while Ron and Sabrina were coached by Lloyd Trowbridge, Remus Lupin, and Tom Lawrence. Tabitha and Tonks would be arriving with the other students, and the students' dueling would intensify. Master J would take Harry aside every evening after dinner, and work with him until it was time to go to bed.



To Ron's disappointment, he didn't have much free time with Sabrina, either. Tom was coaching him through his homework, while Lloyd was doing the same for Sabrina. As Tom had pointed out, "If things pick up this August, you don't want to be behind when things settle down again. Work now, fight later, and then you can do your N.E.W.T.s."



Ron wondered if life would ever get easy.





The only time Ron and Harry had any real time together was during the period before lunch. Every day, after apparation drills, Harry would take to the sky on his Firebolt. The weather didn't matter (since they didn't have any thunder storms). Rain or shine, no matter what the wind, Harry flew. Ron preferred not to fly in very bad weather. Their third day had a downpour with heavy winds, and Ron stayed in a shelter, watching Harry challenge the elements.



"I thought I had seen the best flyers around until I saw him," Tudor said, coming up to Ron.



"He is amazing," Ron agreed. "I just hope he doesn't get blown off the island."



"I don't think he will," Tudor said proudly. "Too bad the ocean is so cold. Do you know the Muggle sport called surfing?"



"No, what's that?"



"It's a way of riding the breaking waves while standing on a specially constructed board," Tudor answered. "It's quite exhilarating. Harry would enjoy it, and there are wizarding versions that I think Harry would get a real kick out of."



"Is it anything like wave-skipping?" Ron asked.



"Not really -- that's more trying to fly low enough to touch your toes to the top of the wave without dropping in. Don't use a good broom for that."



"Personal experience?"



"Regretfully, yes."



"I know Harry will win," Ron said after a moment's silence. He switched from watching Harry to looking Tudor right in the eyes. "What are the odds of his coming out of the confrontation alive and . . . unbroken?"



Tudor thought that over. "I don't know, Weasley. That worries me. He's been under so much pressure for so long at such a young age." The older man shook his head in regret. "If we include his extra training from the time he started practicing for the Third Task in the Tri-Wizard through the end of this summer, he will have crammed something like a minimum of six years of training into these few years, maybe more. Still, part of me really hopes that any final confrontation will wait for a year or more."



"Could Harry hold out that long?" Ron asked.



"I don't know," Tudor admitted. "That's why only part of me wishes for that. We have a lot of people researching options for Harry, no matter when he wins."



Ron smiled. "In a hurry, aren't we?"



Tudor held Ron's eyes, and Ron flinched a little. "Your whole culture seems to glorify the amateur, Mister Weasley. Everything done on a shoestring, with a strong belief in muddling through and done on the cheap. Take your father, for example. His old office should have had a minimum of two administrators, three clerks, and at least eight investigators. He was half the entire staff." He shook his head.



"How many did you leave it with?" Ron asked.



"One administrator, two clerks, and five investigators," Tudor said ruefully. "We did the best we could with the time and resources we had. I hope what little we did accomplish won't be undone in a decade."



"Any raises?" Ron asked.



"For Department heads on downwards," Tudor replied. "The senior people were so overpaid the positions shouldn't need to even think of a raise for thirty years or more."



"Somehow, I don't think it will take that long," Ron said.



"The people we left in charge should be good for at least twenty years, if not a lot longer," Tudor said.



"If we're lucky," Ron pointed out.



"If we're lucky," Tudor agreed.



Harry swooped in front of them. "I know it's wet, but the wind makes it a lot of fun!" he called out. "Come on! We can all take some Pepper-Up when we finish!"



"You're crazy!" Ron called back.



"Since when have you been sane when it came to flying?" Harry demanded.



Ron looked at Tudor, who grinned back. Ron grinned and grabbed his broomstick. "I'm daft if you are!" he said to the older man. Tudor grabbed his broom and did a running take-off. As he passed by Harry, he slapped the teen's shoulder. "Tag! You're it!"





"Honestly! I can understand when teenage boys like Harry and Ron do something incredibly stupid, but you should know better!"



"You weren't supposed to be here until later tonight," Tudor complained.



"As if I would leave poor Rina alone for long with you testosterone-poisoned lunatics. Flying in a nearly-freezing downpour like that! And allowing those two. . . ."



"But!"



"Hush and get your feet into that bucket of hot water and potions before I dump it on your head!"



"Yes, dear."



Ron and Harry peeked around the door frame.



"Come in boys, and meet the wife. She's going to be here until Monday."





In her own quiet way, Gwendolyn Myrddin was as strong and determined as her husband or the rest of the band of friends Harry had grown to respect from the International. She did not overwhelm Harry with affection, as Molly Weasley tried to, nor did she even have the slight maternal overtones Tabitha Spellman projected at times. Instead, Harry quickly came to think of her manner as 'auntish' -- just the right level of feminine solicitude for his welfare, balanced by the knowledge that she didn't have any real authority over Harry nor did she want any.







Sunday afternoon local time, the other students and adults showed up. The adults all greeted Gwen enthusiastically, and the entire group went off for coffee and chit-chat. Ron and Sabrina quickly went off on their own, leaving Harry to welcome the other Hogwarts' students.



Many Hogwarts students would have recognized their greetings. Harry hugged and kissed Hermione warmly, exchanged the ritual handshake/arm/shoulder grab with Neville, hugged and kissed Ginny on the cheek, and then fell into Luna's arms.



When Harry came up for air, Hermione asked in a bewildered tone, "Where are we?"



They were obviously on a shoreline. While it was day, dusk was unequivocally not too far off in the cloudless sky. The sea in front of them was unbroken (the smaller islands in the group were not in the line of sight), and the waves were breaking on the rocky beach with some power.



Behind them, short jagged cliffs of basalt rose. Like the mountain they had stayed in over Christmas, this area was also obviously riddled with tunnels.



"Well," Harry said, "Master J said this is the about the most unplottable place on Earth. It's a small group of islands, somewhere in the Southern Ocean. My guess is that we're somewhere south west of Australia."



"I thought we were going to America," Ginny complained. There would be no shopping or sight-seeing here.



"I think that's what they told Dumbledore," Harry said. "I think the only people who know we're here are the people here, and maybe a few of Master J's people."



"You can't mean they don't trust Dumbledore," Hermione said, slightly horrified.



"I don't know," Harry said frankly, "and I really don't care." He looked out over the open sea. "I like it here."



The three girls looked at each other, startled. Luna put her arm through Harry's and took his hand. "Come on then," she urged gently. "Give us the grand tour."



The tension in Harry's face and posture melted. He took Luna's hand and smiled. "All right."





Harry didn't take them around the entire island. It was not large by any stretch of the imagination, but neither was it that tiny. The island group had obviously been a large sea volcano that had destroyed itself at some point in the distant past. The major island was perhaps a mile across at the widest and four and a half miles from tip to tip. The group of six islands formed almost half a circle, with the largest one in the center. The largest of the other five islands was only a few hundred feet off the tip of the major one, with a next to smallest trailing behind it. The other three were off the other end of the island, the smallest really was just a large rock, it's base partially eroded away by the tides, sticking some fifty feet above the waves at high tide.



Hermione looked at Harry, as he looked over what had been the great caldera of the volcano. The sun was almost set, the waves showed small whitecaps as the breeze picked up to a real wind. "Harry?"



"Yes?"



"Why do you like it here?"



Harry thought about that for over a minute. "I'm not certain. It's beautiful. It's natural, in many ways. I also think it's because I know what I'm supposed to be doing, and I really do trust the people training us."



"They have their own agendas, Harry," Hermione pointed out.



"They probably do," Harry agreed. "Don't think I hate Dumbledore, because I don't. I just think we all put him on too high a pedestal. We expected too much from him, and he let us down, or at least he did me."



"I can understand that," Hermione admitted.



"There aren't any overtones here," Luna said into the short silence that followed Hermione's remark.



"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.



"This island has obviously been inhabited," Luna pointed out. They all nodded their agreement. The amount of tunneling into the highest bluffs showed that. "In places where people have lived, there are echoes of their lives, and especially of their deaths. I wonder if it's possible that no one has ever died here?"



"None have died a violent death, or even led a violent life, at least," Master J said, coming up to them. "Few people have ever lived here for any length of time, either. My people's ancestors, and the ancestors of the other native peoples of Australia, have been coming here through projection for tens of thousands of years. We first traveled here physically, according to legend, just over eleven thousand years ago." He looked at Hermione. "You no doubt question that, considering what you know of Muggles at the end of the last great Ice Age and the lack of written documentation."



Hermione flushed slightly, but said nothing.



"I apologize," Master J said to her.



"No, you're right," Hermione admitted. "I never knew how much oral tradition and such were preserved by the Old Believers, which has been proven mostly true by magical archeologists. How can I doubt your oral traditions are any less valid?"



"But it's not easy for you, is it?" Master J asked kindly.



"No, it's not."



Master J smiled. "And that is a good thing. Blind faith is not always a good thing, any more than total skepticism is. Finding a balance is rarely easy."



"Perhaps that's why we rubbed each other the wrong way at first," Luna said. "We were both too extreme at the time."



"Maybe," Hermione agreed. "We both had blind faith in some things, and too much skepticism in others, just in totally different areas."



"Wasn't there one area you both had great faith in?" Master J inquired. Luna and Hermione looked at each other, slightly puzzled.



"Of course you did," Ginny told them. "Just like I did." The two teens transferred their puzzled expression to Ginny.



Ginny sighed, while Neville laughed. "I don't get it, either," Harry complained.



"Of course you don't," Neville said with a grin. "That's because the one thing we all have faith in, if not blind faith, isn't a thing at all. It's you."



"That's true," Hermione said, while Luna and Ginny nodded. "Even when I was asking you to go slower and think things through, I still had faith you would lead us and lead us very well."



"And we all know how well that went," Harry grumbled.



"You haven't always succeeded as much as you wish you had," Hermione told Harry, "but you have never, ever failed."



"You have never failed me, or anyone else," Ginny added.



"These moments of self-doubt are perfectly natural, Harry," Master J reminded his pupil. "You are getting much better at over-coming them."



"Thank you," Harry mumbled.



"Are you ready to come in and have dinner?" Master J asked.



"Our rhythms are a bit off, but sure, why not," Hermione said after a glance at the others.



"Good. We have a potentially interesting discussion scheduled afterwards," Master J told them.





Quite a large group assembled that night by Master J: Tudor and his wife Gwen; Remus; Tom; Lloyd; Henry (who would be leaving the next day), Tabitha, and Sabrina; and Harry and his five friends.



"Now is the time we must start a discussion," Master J intoned. "Voldemort has the power to summons Harry to his presence once Harry returns to Britain. He could not do it before, as Harry was underage. To put it simply, the spell is based on a potion, made with Harry's hair, which was gathered by some of the Fifth year girls last February." That caused a bit of a rumble from the students as they figured it out.



After they had quieted down, Johnson went on. "At our best guess, Voldemort has enough to try and summons Harry five times at most. He will no doubt try at least once if not twice while Harry is still here. Those will fail, as we doubt it can work at distances more than a few hundred miles. Voldemort is unlikely to try a third time until Harry is assured to be within the summonsing area."



"Meaning the First of September and after," Hermione stated.



"Correct," Johnson agreed. "Because of Harry's power and the community spell, he can learn to fight it."



"And why wouldn't he wish to?" Luna asked. Seeing the surprised looks around her, she explained. "Harry must fight Riddle some time. It is very stressful to just wait, and Harry is mentally ready to fight now." She held Harry's hand, while he looked down at his shoes, embarrassed. "The longer he waits, he will be stronger magically, but the stress will have taken its toll as well."



"If Harry is just taken, Voldemort will be totally ready, but Harry could be disoriented," Ron pointed out.



"True," Luna agreed.



"And if Voldemort fails, at least the first time or two, he'll lose face with his followers," Ginny pointed out.



"Also true," Luna acknowledged. She looked at Johnson. "Now, what's the main reason?"



Master J smiled ruefully. It was hard to fool a seer like Luna when she was concentrating on a person. "If Voldemort fails on that third attempt, we believe he will likely wait until September Nineteenth."



"Which means those hussies turned over some of my hair as well," Hermione stated. "I won't be able to resist. They'll kidnap me, and force Harry to rescue me."



"Most likely. He would not be bringing you for a duel, but kidnaping you, and for that you must be at least eighteen. One of his followers would then try and claim you by rape. However, no matter where you are, no matter what the wards, Harry can come to you, and then draw the rest of his community," Master J stated.



"So, you want Hermione to be kidnaped, raped, tortured, and possibly killed, just so Harry can materialize and bring us in, rather than having Harry taken and bringing us in before then?" Tom demanded angrily.



"No," Johnson said calmly, "I am merely pointing out those seem to be our two options."



"Nonsense," Tom spat. "I can anchor Hermione to Hogwarts no matter what the summonsing spell is."



"Can you really?" Johnson asked, surprised.



"Of course I can," Tom retorted. "I didn't know you had so little respect for my powers."



"I can assure you, that is not true," Johnson said.



"Let me show you the spell he's using later," Tabitha said. "Then we'll know our options." Tom nodded.



"In any event, should we let Harry. . . ." Johnson saw the look building in Harry's face, and changed his line of thought. "Excuse me. Should we all decide that Harry may be taken or lured, the question then is, what should be his plan of action, other than swearing to bring in the rest of his community?"



"In other words, how should I plan on killing Voldemort?" Harry restated the question.



"Exactly."



"Harry, I think you need to start keeping a small knapsack magically attached to you at all times," Tudor said. "No matter where you are whisked away to, the knapsack will follow."



"The downside to this is that it can never be more than twenty feet away from you, or else it will not appear next to you," Henry added.



"It should have that stone bottle that Cadfael gave you, to send any captured dementors off," Tudor went on, but this time he was interrupted by Tom.



"If you should disembody Voldemort, you can also use it against him."



Tudor glared, but went on. "True. We can also pack it with a few things, like water and chocolate, just in case, and a spare wand." He pulled a short wand out and handed it to Harry. "Give this a swish."



Harry glared at the adults, but took the wand and did as he was told. As he grasped it, he realized that it felt good. He swished the wand hard, and an entire rainbow of sparks erupted from it, stunning most of the people watching, not to mention Harry himself.



"What's it made of?" Harry asked.



"The wood is hickory," Tom explained. "Instead of using a single magical ingredient, the Hidden have somehow learned to distill the power of multiple objects down. How they do it is not known, but it works. Only wizards of great power, magical and personal, can make them work. They always have twenty-seven ingredients. This one has eighteen different phoenix feathers, including one from Fawkes, a heart string from two different dragons and a griffin, a hair and a feather from your friend Buckbeak, a feather from your owl -- they try to use something from a familiar if they can get one -- and one hair each from your friends Firenze and Dobby, and one from Luna."



"Oh, that's what you wanted that for," Luna said.



"That is not just any wand," Tudor said in amazement. "Only the Hidden Centers have them. I've never heard of anyone, not even another Hidden, having one."



"There was at least one," Tabitha said.



"Who was that?" Hermione asked, since most were too stunned.



"Merlin," Tabitha replied. Total silence followed that.



"Will this wand help me destroy Voldemort?" Harry finally asked.



"It will help you duel Voldemort," Tudor stated. "Because it has the essence of the same type of phoenix feather as Voldemort's wand, any of his curses, even the Killing Curse, can be stopped by a strong enough shield."



"I thought nothing could block the Killing Curse," Hermione protested.



"Nonsense," Henry answered. "You can duck, of course. The AK doesn't chase you around. You can block it with a physical barrier, although it will certainly be damaged. Harry blocked it when he dueled Voldemort right after he was re-embodied. Harry and Voldemort's wands locked, even though Voldemort had cast the Killing Curse. That led to some very tricky testing, and behold! Using this wand, Harry can block the Killing Curse cast by Voldemort's wand."



"That doesn't answer my real question," Harry reminded them. "How do I destroy Voldemort?"



"If you cast the Killing Curse, you will more likely disembody him than totally kill him," Tom told him. "However, you can then send him to the Hidden, just like you can the dementors. They can destroy his essence. So, there's one choice."



"The same is true if you kill his body in some other way," Lloyd added. "If you ran him through with a sword, for example, you'd likely have to send his essence on as well."



"You can engage him in a Legilimency battle," Henry said. "If you can project the power of your positive feelings into his soul, you will likely burn him out. You hurt him badly last June, Harry. You're strong enough now to destroy him that way."



"If wouldn't have to even be a Legilimency battle per se," Tabitha said. "If you can make a bit more progress on your astral powers, you might be able to trace your link to him back to him. Using the powers of the group, we might be able to destroy him that way, or at least really hurt him."



"That would be the best scenario," Master J stated. "That way, we don't have to worry about Death Eater or other interference. It would also mean you wouldn't have to bear the burden of destroying him on your own, like a Legilimency battle would."



"Why is that?" Ron asked.



"In a Legilimency battle, we might be lending Harry some power, but the will and the feelings would all come from Harry," Tabitha explained. "In the scenario we'd prefer, well to put it simply, all our feelings and wills would be channeled through Harry."



"I don't want you to all have to become killers!" Harry protested.



"We don't all have to," Tabitha said. "Those of us in the group have the choice of contributing all, contributing real power, or just contributing a bit of power passively. You still have some time to go before we can even try that."



Harry looked at Master J, his unasked question obvious.



"If you keep working as hard as you have, you should be ready for the Legilimency battle by the time we go back in August," Johnson said. "We aren't certain if the astral battle will work, or if it will merely injure Voldemort. It has never been tried before."



"And if I'm not quite ready then, shall I stay until I am?" Harry asked. Seeing the surprised looks, he said, "N.E.W.T.s aren't that important. We need, I need, to be ready for this confrontation before the Nineteenth of September."



"Harry. . . ." Hermione tried to protest.



"No," Harry said simply, yet with a decisiveness none wanted to question. "I will not allow you to be kidnaped, not when we know it's a real possibility." He looked at Tom. "No offense, but if Voldemort failed on the first attempt, he'll just figure out some other way to kidnap Hermione or someone else."



"Then you want to go for the astral attack as Plan A?" Johnson asked.



"Is that the one most likely to work?" Harry asked in return.



"Mostly likely? To destroy Voldemort, yes, in theory. That would still leave Bellatrix Lestrange, any number of Death Eaters, and the dementors to deal with."



"Wouldn't that be true of the other plans as well?" Ginny asked.



Tudor shrugged. "In a big battle, almost anything could happen. I think we could bring in enough forces to wipe them out, but we'd take casualties as well."



"Couldn't someone like Master J here tag along, sort to speak, and identify where we're taking Voldemort down?" Lloyd asked. "Then those forces could move in before they realize Voldemort's been neutralized."



"'Neutralized'?" Tabitha asked, an eyebrow raised. "You've been reading to many Muggle briefings again."



"Nonetheless, the idea has merit," Johnson said. He turned to Henry. "You will be able to arrange 'forces' to be available?"



"Yes, sir."



"Inform Cadfael early," Tudor instructed. "His forces, the International hit-wizards, and a few people from the British Ministry."



"Yes, sir."



"Do we set a target date?" Lloyd asked.



"Not yet," Johnson said. "We'll consider a date on August Fifteenth. We'll refine and rethink things as we go along."



Harry nodded his understanding. It was good to know where they were going.