The next few days at the Dragonsrest ‘mini-school' were taken up with identifying runes for their projects and writing up essays on them. Investigating interactions was more difficult, as the many runes could be combined endlessly in different combinations and interactions could vary widely, depending on the spells used. The boys were too busy to notice that Tom, though he had a quill in his hand, seemed too busy watching Dora to write a great deal. Dora also seemed busy gazing at Tom much of the time.

With their essays done and presented to her proudly, Dora had hesitated. Runes could be dangerous, if improperly used. After the cauldron incident - Dora flicked an apologetic glance at Tom, reading a letter from Bill Weasley - Dora was reluctant for another near-tragedy to happen. Luckily, they had an expert in runes close at hand.

"I think I need to run these by Mr. Malfoy, to make sure they are, indeed, safe." Dora said. Dudley and Harry looked okay with this but Draco looked horrified.

"But he'll know we're working on runes - he'll guess it's for Christmas." He protested.

"I'll be careful to say we're looking at interactions and how to avoid them, and that I want to check our work to make sure we don't end up with an explosion or worse." Dora said.

That silenced the protests quite well and Draco nodded reluctantly. They all followed her out of the room and hung over the rail, so they could watch her approach Lucius.

Lucius and Petunia were looking at a map of Hale and Spinners End, plotting over what shops could be added to the town, disguised as muggle type stores. Potions and potion ingredients could easily pretend to be a Homeopathy shop. A bookstore could front for a wizard bookstore. They would just need wizards that knew how to deal with the muggle side of things as well.

Lucius took the essays with a nod and looked them over carefully. He took a never-over quill and made a few notes on each. Talking to Dora in a low tone, who nodded in understanding. He finished and handed the parchments back with a small smile.

Dora bounced up the stairs with a smile and they took their places around the worktable. Dora took a brief second to shoot Tom a sultry smile, to watch him squirm a little, and then they went over the essays. Lucius had pointed out a conflict in two of Dudley's runes, mentioned better spells for Harry's and a more powerful rune to put in place of one of Draco's.

They re-configured the runes carefully and pulled out the objects for the runes to be drawn on. Harry had a lot of canisters to do, but the runes and spells were relatively simple, and he only needed to carefully etch them on the canisters with a diamond-tipped pen. The boxes would have to have the runes carved in, and the boys wanted to inlay their carved runes with silver - for Lucius, and gold for Petunia. Dora figured they should all be done about the same time.

Everyone broke for lunch, and the adults pretended Tom and Dora weren't flirting over glasses of eggnog. The boys thought they were acting funny, but weren't really interested in why they kept looking at each other.

Lucius decided it was good he was meeting with Andromeda after lunch. He wanted a word with her.

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Lucius had left and several owls arrived - one with a moderate sized box for Harry. Harry grinned - he'd gotten several snitches from the company from Godric's Hollow with a rather gushing note from the Manger ‘who was so pleased to be of assistance'. He had one snitch each for Draco and Dudley, and he was intending to send one to Mafalda and one to Cho since they had expressed an interest in being seekers.

He had a couple extra, since Lucius said last - minute presents being needed often happened.

Another owl was carrying a heavy parchment letter with a wax seal that Harry recognized as belonging to the Krum family. He hesitated; his dad had opened the other one first, as he was wary of mail from strangers. But they weren't really strangers, now, he thought. They had bought that castle and asked to visit some time.

Harry finally compromised by having Tom look it over, first. Tom waved his wand over the parchment. He had never been a slouch in defensive charms and spells, and he'd brushed up on them further at every opportunity. He determined the letter to be harmless and Harry opened it.

It was, indeed the Krum family, who planned to visit an older daughter's fiancé's family in Scotland and hoped to visit Harry in the coming week while they were in the UK. Harry read the letter to Tom and Petunia. It was a very nice letter that repeated their thanks for him selling the Krum castle back to them and hoping to meet ‘although they understood if during the holiday season, he was unable to'.

Tom sighed and summoned a parchment and quill to pen a query to Severus about it. Petunia frowned "Dudley and I will likely be gone some of next week. We promised to allow Marge a few days with Dudley and I want to be nearby, so I'll take a room at a hotel close to her house. Well, since it's in the outskirts of London I can do more Christmas shopping." she smiled bravely at Dudley's concerned look.

Harry and Draco gave Dudley sympathetic glances, but he shrugged. "Some of the time Aunt Marge is okay - I just need to keep her off the subject of Harry or mum." Dudley had decided that Aunt Marge was simply his cross to bear in this life. He was fond of her - when she wasn't on a rant, and he'd just hope the Christmas season and a well-spiked wassail bowl would keep her sweet.

Draco frowned, he had gotten used to being here at Dragonsrest most days instead of rattling around in Malfoy Manor, alone. He didn't mind home, when dad was there, he just read or played games in Lucius' office and kept close to him.

Harry watched Draco's face - had gotten used to reading Draco a bit. Draco hadn't gotten good at masking his thoughts or feelings, like Lucius had. He knew Draco hated staying alone at the Manor, but Dora was going to be busy with holidays and her family soon and Aunt Petunia and Dudley would be gone - so no ‘school time'. It would just be Tom and Harry at Dragonsrest next week. Draco knew that, and had been sulking whenever it was mentioned.

"I hope you'll still come over most days, Draco. I'm going to need coaching in how to act in a formal setting - and I'm guessing the Krums will sort of expect that." Harry smiled as Draco lit up - smiling in relief, then Draco swiftly donned a neutral look.

"Of course, Harry, I'd be happy to assist you in any way I can." Draco said casually.

Harry smiled at his friend fondly - Draco never liked to show any weakness.

Tom and the three boys wandered to the Reserve compound after lunch. They had taken to doing this several times a week to check on Hazelette and seeing how the stock of deer carcasses was going. The wizarding world had decided to be ‘charmed' by the ‘child-protecting' dragon and the request for donations for money to buy deer for the ‘ailing dragon' had hit a soft spot in their hearts, since it was the Christmas season.

A toy factory had asked to sell a ‘Hazelette' stuffed dragon toy attached to a small illustrated book for children telling the story of how she'd saved ‘The Boy Who Lived' - a portion of the proceeds going to the Reserve, of course. Yuan had shown the book to Harry, for his approval. The story had been fairly accurate if a bit fanciful in the illustrations, so he'd shrugged and said ‘as long as his father was okay with it...'

Yuan had been surprised at the size of the proceeds from the toy companies venture - the toy and book must be selling as quickly as they could be made.

He'd also noticed a huge upswing in visitors willing to pay handsomely to visit for a day or two. They'd had to clean out a couple guest houses they usually didn't need. Everyone who could afford it wanted a look at their dragons - especially Hazelette. Yuan imagined they also hoped to glimpse Harry Potter.

Tom stopped at a few places along the way. He liked to see the different areas of the Reserve, as he couldn't decide exactly where he wanted to end up working. Rigel and his boss worked on potions to assist with healing, etc. There were two or three dragons who were interested in this and the two of them talked to the dragons constantly.

They had all made friends with several Dragonriders, especially after Halloween, of course and the four of them greeted several on the way to Hazelette's shelter. Tom stopped and chatted with several. The riders knew Tom was intending to join the Reserve at some point and they were eager to encourage that. All the dragons liked and supported Tom, and that was enough for them to support him as well.

They eventually got to Hazelette's part-cave, part-barn which she shared with Astrid. As a dragon who could do healing, she stayed close to the compound, and since she was elderly - the Dragonkeepers wanted her close, anyway. Astrid, being her ‘apprentice' stayed with her. Hazelette was currently sunning herself on a rock, with a group Reserve visitors watching her with awe. One smaller child was clutching a toy that looked suspiciously like Hazelette.

Tom went up to sit on a rock near Hazelette's forelegs, with the boys arrayed behind him. "How are you feeling, Hazelette?"

"Ahh, Tom - you're such a nice young man. Reminds me of my first rider - a bit young but so very earnest. Took excellent care of me...my stomach is a bit uneasy ... Astrid dear could you bring me a nice doe? ... that will settle it well." Hazelette sent poor Astrid scurrying for the snack. "He's such a nice young dragon ... well, not really young, but very attentive."

Yvane snorted in the back of Tom's mind and muttered about malingerers. Tom shushed him and smiled at the old dragon. He had a soft spot for her, as she had saved the three boys standing behind him. "Is your foot healed as yet?" Tom inquired.

Hazelette stretched her foot forward for Tom to inspect, making the visitors who were watching, gasp in trepidation. Tom leaned in and looked at the scabbed over laceration on the top of the claw. He didn't really know what they were looking at, but all four of them murmured appropriate expressions of concern.

"I hope it heals up quickly, Hazelette." Tom said to her.

Astrid arrived with the doe, distracting her from any answer, and they moved away to avoid getting chunks of deer sprayed on them. This placed them with the enthralled visitors, and their amused dragonrider escort.

"See, I told you it was Harry Potter ... and that Tom fellow." One visitor was saying in a loud whisper.

Harry flushed a little, but smiled at them tentatively.

"Did she really save your life?" One child blurted out to Harry, eyes wide.

"Yes, she sure did." Harry answered with a grin. With this reassurance, the children at least turned back to peer at the enthusiastically eating dragon with awe.

Tom hustled Harry and the others away, before the adults could recover and ask for pictures. They stopped by the compound library. It was not as huge as Tom had hoped it would be when he discovered it, but there was a room off the main library that was full of Dragonrider's old journals and scroll after scroll of accounts written down by riders and keepers of memories told them by their dragon friends.

Tom looked at the grumpy, squint-eyed old dragon keeper who oversaw the library. He never let Tom have more that one journal or scroll at a time, and sometimes even that was a struggle. He had yelled when he saw Tom copying a scroll, once, and banned him for a week. Tom was careful to never do that in front of him again.

Tom returned that last journal he'd borrowed and went to find another, while the man glowered at the boys. Harry, Draco and Dudley browsed through the stacks, looking for books they hadn't seen before. Draco found one on the Hebrides and they gathered around it, reading while Tom tried to pick out the next journal.

There were so many, and he want to read them all, but where to begin? He wished he could live here at the library at times.

"Perhaps this is where you belong on the Reserves?" Yvane asked.

The thought struck Tom. Him, a librarian? He chuckled, the other - Lord Voldemort - would likely die of mortification if he heard that. He might go with the idea just to kill off the Dark Lord with embarrassment.

"Actually I was thinking that you could be the one to bring the Dragon Reserves libraries and journals of memories into this century - or at least this millennium. The idea of preserving memories in pensieve vials isn't new, but few have done it and no one has tried to organize it." Yvane said in disparagement.

Tom froze, clutching a journal he'd been skimming. He recalled when Yvane had first given him a glimpse of the dragon's collective knowledge and memories. He'd been overwhelmed by the glittering vastness of their world of memories. Now Yvane had shown him a brilliant future. He could see himself presiding over a vast library full of Dragonrider's journals and rooms full of memory vials. He had the financial resources to make it happen and now he just needed to be old enough and educated enough to convince the Reserves to let him have at it. He could think of nothing better to dedicate his life to - gathering the dragon's memories and knowledge.

It would be brilliant, Tom thought.

Yvane laughed. "It may be more difficult than you think. Dragons and their riders and keepers can be a bit miserly with their knowledge, most only journal it in advanced old age, when they want to record ‘their great deeds and wisdom' for posterity. You'll have to be subtle - more cunning than even your ancestor, Salazar, to get them to open up."

That was alright, if it was easy it would not be nearly as fun or as satisfying, Tom thought. He took the journal he'd been looking at to the keeper, gracing the befuddled man with a brilliant smile and went out the door, the boys scurrying after him.

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Molly sat in her knitting chair, absently spelling the needles to make another jumper for Ron. He'd wanted one in Gryffindor colors with a lion on it, instead of his initial. She could feel Ginny and Ron watching her in concern, but she was too disheartened to reassure them. It was evening and supper was over, but it wasn't the day's work pressing her down.

Arthur had come home in a strange mood the night before. She'd patiently waited for him to settle after the children had gone to bed. He'd slowly told her about Bill's visit to his work and Bill's tale of Tom visiting him. She'd listened with horror to the news of Neville and his Uncle Algie's treatment of him - and Augusta's apparent indifference.

She recalled spluttering a denial that such a thing could happen to Frank and Alice's child - the Longbottoms had always been a light family, supporting the Order of the Phoenix, even! But, even as she was saying it her mind was racing - she could well imagine that horrid rat Algernon targeting even his own nephew if he stood between him and a fortune in galleons, and Augusta...she was of the same mind as Muriel on the subject of squibs - out of sight working on a remote part of the estate or in some menial job, and hopefully out of mind as much as possible.

But even Muriel hadn't tolerated anyone tormenting Lawrence or trying to ‘frighten his magic into the open'. Would Augusta really blindly ignore Neville's life being on the line with these tortures to find out if he was a squib or not? The old wive's tales about needing to ‘scare the magic out' had been disproved centuries ago. Anyone with sense realized either the magic was there - or it was not. After all ... if it manifested, it had been there all along and the torments had been unnecessary - the child would have gotten their Hogwarts letter anyway. It was senseless.

Once she had stopped denying the obvious her temper had flared and she'd been trying to throw the floo powder on the fire to go to confront the Longbottoms, wand in her other hand and several curses on her lips. Arthur had managed to stop her with arguments to look into the situation further before resorting to unforgiveables - she could see Neville in their own home and question him about events. From there they could decide how to proceed.

Molly had calmed at that - Neville would be there in the morning to take lessons with Ron and Ginny until after lunch, and then return home. Molly had then grilled Arthur relentlessly for details on what Tom had said to Bill. Arthur had finally fled to bed, pleading an early morning. Molly had stayed up much later, drinking tea laced with a few drops of calming draught.

She was quite sure, now, that this was what had made Tom look so oddly troubled when he had spoken to her right after speaking to Neville at Honeyduke's. However he had learned of the situation he'd obviously looked to her as having the solution, but hadn't known how to approach her. Being around all those Slytherins had likely convinced the lad he had to do things in a round-about way, but he had gotten the information to her anyway, so she could forgive the craftiness.

She'd slept poorly, her mind going over memories of Frank and Alice's torture and how she had visited them a bit at first at St. Mungo's, but had given up - being so busy with the children and the heartache of seeing them so empty. She wished, now, she'd tried to keep an eye on Neville. But, again - she'd been swamped with seven of her own.

Morning had finally dawned, to her relief and had made a huge breakfast, delighting Ron. Arthur had looked at her more warily - Molly cooked all out for more than one reason. Sometimes when she was feeling motherly, other times when she was upset and trying to distract herself. He finally decided to join Ron and just enjoy it before heading to work.

Augusta flooed through with Neville just after breakfast. Molly managed a strained greeting to her. Luckily Augusta was anxious to meet Muriel at a tea shop and left immediately, leaving Molly to settle Neville at the table with Ron and Ginny.

Molly was unused to being subtle about things, but in the course of their studies it hadn't been difficult to steer the conversation. The subject of Neville's accidental magic manifestation had of course been asked about.

Molly shuddered and looped the scarlet yarn onto the needles, to get them started. Neville had told the tale of Algie hanging him out of the fourth story and ‘accidentally' dropping him and the resulting broken arm after ‘bouncing' very casually. As if it was a common occurrence. Molly had been almost literally sick to her stomach realizing that it very likely was a common occurrence.

Ron had snickered at Neville's story and Molly had almost walloped him - then she realized Ron thought that Neville was joking - making up an amusing tale. Ginny, however knew Neville was in earnest and had looked at Molly in alarm. Molly had waved a hand, letting her know they would talk later.

Neville had left after lunch, leaving Molly to wonder how to help him effectively. Just taking them to court wouldn't work. The court would be appalled at Algie's actions, but as he would likely say the acts ‘were meant to scare his magic out', the court would not see it as intentional harm. He and Augusta would get a stern lecture and maybe a slap in the wrist in the way of a fine, but Neville would not be removed from the home.

Confronting Augusta about things would be difficult. They would have to prove Algie meant to harm Neville - and was still a threat to him. Augusta had always been overly indulgent to her second son, and still saw him as a schoolboy. Getting her to see him as a dangerous murderer would not be easy.

She needed to talk to Tom, herself, she decided. Then she would get to Neville's grandmother by way of an old acquaintance of Augusta's that would not pull any punches - Minerva McGonagall.

Ginny looked at her mother in concern. She realized Neville worried her mum. The story he'd told had worried her. The boy seemed nice and was shyly friendly, once he relaxed with her and Ron. He already knew a lot about plants. He'd said his father and grandfather had liked Herbology.

Of course he wasn't Harry Potter, or even Draco Malfoy. She'd dreamed of meeting the ‘Boy Who Lived' for a long time, but the Malfoy heir was quite cute as well - and rich. The idea of going after a Malfoy would give both her parents strokes and the shock value alone had a lot of appeal.

She sighed, next year Ron would be gone, and then the following year would be her turn.

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Bill's letter arrived attached to a Gringotts owl at an awkward moment. Dora had cornered him again for more kisses after the boy's class and the owl had landed on Dora's purple hued hair, dropping the letter between them. Tom had snatched the letter out of Dora's cleavage and then flushed, realizing what he'd done. Dora had snickered and said she needed to head home.

"The holidays start soon, so I'll bring your present around tomorrow." Dora said as she left, leaving Tom in a state of panic. Present? He'd not gotten her a present! He hyperventilated a bit, and then decided he had time to buy something this afternoon. He'd have to be quick, though.

He opened Bill's letter with a sigh, then a joyful gasp, and reread the relevant passage.

"...anyway I thought the spell was Egyptian, and took it to my instructors in Egyptology. It took them a few days, as the spell had been modified. They had never seen it twisted to use on a live person, before, but they admitted the spell to mummify a corpse would kill someone ... although it would be a horrible death..."

Tom was giddy with relief - they had the counter-spell to the curse and he'd have another piece of his soul back.

"Merry Christmas, then, Tom." Yvane chuckled.

"Yes, it will be." Tom said with more enthusiasm than he'd had in awhile, and went to floo Lucius and owl Severus.

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Hard on the heels of Tom's owl regarding the Krums wishing to visit was an owl about the curse being identified. He thought swiftly. This could work out rather well.

He strode to the Headmaster's office putting his argument together. Albus greeted him with the usual candy and ordered tea. Severus endured the greetings and eventually was allowed to speak.

"I have good news Albus; the last curse on the ‘stone' has been identified. We'll be able to destroy the Horcrux very soon." Severus said to the delighted Headmaster. "There has also been a request from the Krums to visit Harry while they are here, to thank him for selling the Krum castle back to them."

"Yes, that was well done, the Krums are not overly affluent - though far from poor, either. However they have far - reaching connections in many countries and are quite influential. People know they will hear the truth from them." Albus nodded slowly.

"The students leave Tuesday for holiday. If I leave Monday - the only classes that day are first and second years that my advanced students can oversee. I'll make sure they are reviewing potions they've done before - it will be a good test of my new student assistant's abilities." Severus smiled at Albus' skeptical look. "I can deal with the Krums and the curse and then the Horcrux - in time for you to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday to see the stone."

Albus nodded slowly, he was eager to hold the stone, but also wary. He knew his weaknesses all too well. To have so much power in his grasp ... He wielded the Elder Wand, was holding James Potter's Cloak for Harry - and now the Resurrection Stone was almost in his reach.

He wasn't sure if his heart beat faster from anticipation or terror.

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