***Annie's hairstyle & outfit*** 

They flew through England for God knows how long. Finally, Harry sensed that they were dropping down. 

"We're dropping!" he shouted anxiously over the roaring wind. 

"What do we do?!" Annie asked, clutching onto Dante's hand for dear life. He clung tightly to her hand back. 

"WE JUMP!" 

Annie glanced down at the lake beneath them. Her stomach curled with nausea. She still had not gotten over the fact that she had fallen, mid-air, during an important Quidditch match. And she had never gotten over her fear of heights. But at the same time, she knew that her brother was right. They had no choice but to jump. 

"When?!" 

"NOW!" 

They slid over the edge of the dragon's back with Annie still clinging to Dante for dear life. But unfortunately, Annie had to let go of his hand as the gravity pulled them down into the lake. Fortunately, Annie was able to keep her head above the surface and she desperately tried to swim to shore. By the time they had gotten onto dry land, they were soaked, chilled to the bone. 

"He knows," Harry declared. "You-Know-Who. He knows what we took. He knows that we've broken into Gringotts. And he knows that we're hunting his Horcruxes." 

Annie stared, dumbfounded and full of disbelief as she fumbled through her bag for some dry clothes. "How is it that you know?"

"I saw it." 

Annie continued to stare in disbelief. "You let him into your head again? Harry, you can't do that! That's —"

"I can't always help it, Sis!" Harry insisted. He paused for a second, thinking things through. "Well, maybe I can. I don't know." 

"Never mind that, for once," Dante snapped, running his fingers through his tangled, matted hair. "What happened?!" 

"Well," Harry answered, thinking through his answer. "He's angry. And he's scared, too. Now he's going to make sure that the other Horcruxes are safe." 

Annie smirked. "How will he react when he find out that at least four of them have already been destroyed?" 

Harry shrugged. "I suppose that he'll do anything to stop us from finding the rest of them. And there's more, too. One of them is at Hogwarts." 

"What?!" Annie exclaimed, flabbergasted. How could one be at Hogwarts when they've clearly been into nearly every single room in the castle? "You saw it?!" 

"In the castle," her brother concluded. "And I think that it has something to do with Rowena Ravenclaw, I don't know. I think that it might have something to do with her. And we have to go there, now." 

"Hold on a minute," said Annie as she tried to think this through the logical way. "If we have to go there tonight, we have to make some sort of plan! We can't just sneak into Hogwarts when there could be possible charms and enchantments that could detect who we are —"

"No offense, Sis," Harry interrupted. "But since when have any of our plans actually worked? We tried, we failed. We tried, and we failed again. In other terms, all Hell breaks loose." 

"I'm afraid that Harry's right, mate," said Ron apologetically. "But there's one problem, now. Snape's headmaster of Hogwarts. We can't just walk through the front door without being seen." 

"We'll go into Hogsmeade. Get into Honeydukes cellar. There's . . . . There's something wrong with him. In the past, I've always been able to follow his thoughts. And Annie, I'm sure that you've been able to, as well. But now everything is beginning to become a bit disconnected." 

Dante looked thoughtful as he changed into a fresh, clean shirt that came from Annie's bag. "Maybe these Horcruxes. Maybe, because we're destroying them, maybe he's dying. He's growing weaker." 

Harry shook his head. "No. It's more like he's wounded. If anything, it makes him feel more angry and dangerous." 

After the girls had changed by taking turns underneath the Invisibility Cloak, they Disapparated when they could. But once they'd touched down on Hogwarts soil, an alarm immediately began to blare off. 

"THERE! RIGHT THERE!" a Death Eater screamed. 

"POTTERS!" roared some Snatchers.

"RUN!" Annie shrieked over the loud siren. 

They followed Annie's lead. Annie had no idea where she was going, but she knew that they had to get away from the danger they were in. She was not going to let her, her brother, and her friends be taken to Voldemort. 

Annie bounded for the nearest gate, but found it locked. She groaned and kicked at it in frustration. Hermione came up behind her, panting and clutching at a stitch at her side. 

"They — They knew we were coming," she wheezed. "They were clearly ready for us." 

A door to their let opened, spilling light outside. Annie tensed, reaching for her wand. But instead, the voice sounded more urgent, rather than threatening. 

"Psst! Twins! Come inside, quickly!" 

Annie glanced over at her friends. Her brother shrugged and ducked through the door. They got inside the comfortable pub, which Sera immediately recognized as the Hogs' Head, where she and several other Gryffindors had sneaked in to plan their revenge on their ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge. 

"Shh," the man warned them again. 

They stood around. Ron stared at Sera, his mouth slightly open. He closed it before speaking properly. 

"Did you see him?" he hissed. "For a split second I thought that it was —"

"I know," Hermione breathed. "Dumbledore. You clearly weren't the first one to notice this, Ron." 

Annie, however began to look around. She caught sight of a mirror, which was shattered in several places. She did a double-take when she saw her brother's eye in the broken mirror. She glanced over at her brother, confused, before looking back in the mirror. 

"Hey, Harry. I — I can see you in this." 

Harry turned to his sister's gaze and saw the same mirror. He was about to say something about it, but the man returned, scowling at them. 

"You bloody fools!" he growled. "What did you think — about coming here? Did you even think about how dangerous it would be for you to be sneaking into Hogsmeade here at night?" 

"We knew the risks, Sir," Annie answered politely. "And trust me. We may be teenagers, but we're not as dumb as we might look." 

Harry quickly butted into the conversation as realization dawned on him. "You're Aberforth, aren't you? Dumbledore's brother. It's you that I've been seeing in this mirror. You're the one who sent Dobby!" 

Everything seemed to be coming together, completing the pieces of a puzzle. The man turned to Harry with a tight smile on his face. He gave Annie's brother a slight nod. 

"Where have you left him?" 

Harry's voice cracked upon the memory of burying one of his closest friends. 

"He's dead." 

Aberforth gave Harry a sad smile. "I'm sorry to hear about that. I really liked that elf." 

"You weren't the only one, sir," Dante added, nodding in agreement. "When I lived in Malfoy Manor after my father had been murdered and my mother passed away from the shock, he always kept me company when I was being locked away in my room for a good majority of the day." 

"How did you come by the mirror?" Harry asked, interrupted it. 

"Mundungus Fletcher. About a year ago." 

"Dung had no right to do that! It belonged to —" 

"Sirius. Albus told me. He'd also told me that you'd likely be hacked off if you ever found it here. But ask yourself: Where would you be if I didn't have that mirror, hmm?" 

Dante paled. Annie could feel the tension around Dante change. He shifted uncomfortably on the spot, looking at anywhere but at Aberforth and his friends. Had it not been for Dobby and Aberforth, he would still be tormented at Malfoy Manor. Or worse, he would be dead by the clutches of his horrific aunt. 

Aberforth noticed Dante's uneasiness. He clapped his hands, catching everyone's attention. Dante finally looked up at him, his face dusted pink with embarrassment. 

"Right. I'll bet you're probably hungry. Let's get you fed and then figure out what we should do next." 

Aberforth returned with the tray of breads and cheeses, and set them on the table. Hermione was the first to get there. Aberforth poured himself a drink, which Annie recognized as some sort of Meade. 

"Do you hear much from the others? From the Order?" Annie asked as she helped herself to some bread and cheese. 

Aberforth turned to face Sera, giving her a cold, hard glare. "The Order's finished. You-Know-Who's won. We all know that. Anyone who says otherwise would be kidding themselves." 

"We need to get inside the castle. Dumbledore gave us a job to do, and we're intent on finishing what he started. And Dante's determined to finish what his father started, as well." 

Dante nodded firmly as Aberforth eyed him. 

"Did he, now?" Aberforth mused. "Is it a nice job? It's easy, I assume?" 

"Complete opposite, sir," Annie answered politely. "We've been working on this job for about a year, now." 

"We've been hunting Horcruxes, if you know what those are," Harry butted in. "We think that one of the last ones is in the school. But we'll need your help to get inside without being spotted. If we can find it and kill it, then we can end this war once and for all. We need to get into Hogwarts tonight." 

Aberforth scowled at them. "It's not a job my brother's given you. It's a suicide mission!" 

"Sir, we have been through more suicide missions than you might think," Annie reminded him. "We're Annie and Harry Potter. Of course we're going to be having suicide missions every year until You-Know-Who is destroyed." 

Aberforth ignored her. "Do yourself a favor, boy. Go home. Live a little longer." 

"It's not as easy as you might think, sir," Annie reminded him. 

"Dumbledore trusted me and my sister to see this through." 

"What makes you think that you can trust him, hmm? What makes you think that you can believe anything that my brother told you? In all the years that you knew him, did he ever mention you my name? Did he ever mention hers?" 

He pointed to a moving picture on the wall. A young woman only smiled at them. 

"Why should he —?"

"Be keeping secrets?" Aberforth finished. "You tell me."

"I only care about the Dumbledore my sister and I once knew. I trusted him. Annie and I — we trusted him with all that we had." 

"Did he, now? And why is that?" 

"Why should we —?" 

"That's a child's answer! A pair of twins, who go off in search for Horcruxes on the one man who wouldn't tell them where to start. You're lying! Not to me, which doesn't matter. But to yourself and your sister as well. That's what a fool does. You don't strike me as fools, Annie and Harry Potter. So I'll ask you again: There must be a reason. Why do you two trust anything that my brother had to say? Why?" 

The twins glanced at each other. Harry finally swallowed. 

"Because I need to. Because if I don't, then I don't know who I am anymore. And Annie won't know who she is. My sister and I have lost too many people to lie down, now. I'm not interested in what happened between you and your brother. I don't even care if you've given up at this point. I'm going to see this through and through. And Dante, here, had promised himself that he would get his father revenge after You-Know-Who had killed him in his own hands." He paused. "My sister and I need to get into the castle. Tonight." 

Aberforth eyed Harry and Annie suspiciously. Finally he walked up to the portrait that he had pointed to earlier. 

"You know what to do." 

The woman merely smiled. She nodded and walked away. Everyone watched as the woman's back retreated. 

"Where have you sent here?" Sera finally asked. 

"You'll see. Soon enough." 

"That's Ariana, isn't it?" Hermione asked. "Your sister. She's beautiful." 

Aberforth finally smiled. "She'll always be beautiful in my eyes." 

"She died when she was very young, didn't she?" 

"My brother sacrificed many things during his lifetime, Mr. and Miss Potter, during his journey to find power. Including her. She was devoted to him, he gave her everything but time." 

"Mr. Dumbledore? Thank you." 

Aberforth only nodded and walked away. Everyone gave her quizzical looks. Hermione chose to explain.

"Well, he did keep an eye on us through that mirror. He did save our lives — twice, if I may say so." In a harsh whisper to the twins, she added, "That doesn't mean like someone's going to give up, does it?" 

Dante squinted at the portrait and pointed out that Ariana was returning.

"Hey, look. She's coming back."

"But who's that with her?" Ron added, confused. 

The portrait door opened to reveal none other than — 

"Neville!" Annie exclaimed in shock. "You look —"

"Like hell, I reckon?" Neville finished, grinning broadly. "That's nothing. Seamus has had it worse than I have, though. You'll see. Hey, Ab. We've got a couple of more people who are wanting to come through." 

Aberforth nodded in the background. Neville helped his friends through the portraits.