"Are you sure he is dead?" Mundungus Fletcher asked, strangely disturbed. His sneaky manner was gone for the moment, replaced by an impression that his whole person would collapse inwards if the answer to his question would not come fast.

"Mundungus, I certainly do not appreciate you questioning my competence at the moment." Professor McGonagall tensed her shoulder muscles slightly, sending tiny shakes down her arms.

"Minerva, please, excuse all of us for not quite behaving up to our standards tonight," came the soothing voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt. "The news you sent us has been a shock."

"I'm sorry, dear colleagues, you have the right to demand the results of my tests," Professor McGonagall admitted. "Albus is most likely dead. The diminishing curves of magic residues of his deceased body are standard. Although my magicmeter is a simple one, its results lack the precision of the speed of disappearance of magic, not the accuracy of decline or rise in the slope of change in the magic residues. I might rerun the test with Albus's instrument. His magicmeter is so much more sophisticated. A work of art almost. Yet, the results still could not compare to the details in magic background traces that Albus distinguished with his hands."

Minerva's voice broke, she sharply inhaled with a gasp and her exhale came as a tiny sob. After securing the most important issues in Hogwarts, and calling an emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, informing them that their member and important spy, Severus Snape, murdered their leader, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall was emotionally, mentally and physically drained. She was still holding on, but only with substantial effort.

"Now, Minerva, now." Kingsley Shacklebolt awkwardly patted her shoulder with the tips of his fingers.

Professor McGonagall focused her eyes on her clenched fingers on the table and continued, "So, Albus's diminishing curves of magic residues are standard, but not the Avada Kedavra curve. Its past projection should have peaked at the time when the curse hit Albus, but it does not."

"How could it be?" Mundungus lightened up with hope. "Wouldn't it mean that the Killing Curse missed and never hit him?"

"Not really. It could just have hit him earlier than Potter told us, hence making his report and especially his refusal to provide details of this evening events suspicious," Shacklebolt explained matter-of-factly.

"I projected the curse residues two days back," Professor McGonagall continued, "just to check that possibility. I'm certain that Albus was alive those last two days as we repeatedly met. The past projection is continuously flat. All it shows is a strong, but diffused background noise approximately at the time that Mr. Potter indicated."

"Most interesting." Shacklebolt was leaning forward on his elbows, a thin line deepened between his eyebrows. "Very consequential. How can a Killing Curse without a distinct time peak result in a standard decline of residual curves of the deceased body?"

It was not a question meant to be answered, but Minerva McGonagall slowly shook her head and said, "I don't know."

"I will have Tonks look into it straight away. Mundungus, please, inform Molly and Arthur. Minerva, you should ensure the safety of remaining students."

"Yes, I should. Kingsley, Mundungus, thank you. I shall now return to Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall rose with support of her hands, regained her composure with a deep inhale and left the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Let me get this straight, my dear," Molly Weasley addressed Nymphadora Tonks in a full kitchen at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. All members of the Order assembled to listen to Tonks' explanation. The rumour went that Dumbledore was dead, but nothing killed him.

"I don't have the Auror training and your science of magic is hard to comprehend. What you are saying," Mrs. Weasley continued, "is that Severus's curse killed Albus although any curse could end his life?"

"Precisely, Molly."

Two transparent cubes were floating in front of Tonks slightly above the table so everybody in the crowded room would have a clear and unobtrusive view of their insides.

"So, in these charts of yours, a strong healing charm will appear in this upper front corner, but a weak pain-inflicting curse would mark the lower back corner?" Mrs. Weasley was trying hard to understand the magical charts that, she hoped, would ease her pain of losing a friend and a leader.

"Indeed."

"And if the victim is hit by a weak pain-inflicting curse in the morning, you would find a mark in the lower left corner at the back of the cube. But if he was then healed by a powerful Healer in the afternoon, there would be an additional mark in the upper right corner at the front of the cube?"

"Yes, Molly, that is the principle of how we track the succession, nature and force of curses of the victims on the sides of a cube chart," Tonks said and waited for others to process her lecture.

"Let’s now go back to Albus's death probability chart." Mrs. Weasley looked at the second floating cube. A queer opalescent shape filled its inside rather than two small marks in the opposite corners of the first cube. The shape started at the upper left corner at the back side of the cube, quickly spread downwards and as the surface approached the middle, it widened to completely fill the front half of the cube. "Two days before Albus's death, it would take a very strong pain-inflicting curse or an Avada Kedavra or a prolonged exposure to Cruciatus to kill him. Whereas later on, Albus was so severely weakened that even a mere hex could end his life?"

"More than that," Tonks emphasised, "any charm could cause his death."

"If someone tried to levitate Albus to help him on his feet, the Levitation Charm would kill him," Mad-Eye Moody interjected. "If someone tried to warm him, he would have died of a Warming Charm."

"And if someone tried to heal him, he would have still died from and due to the Healer's effort," Remus Lupin added with grieving finality.

The Order of the Phoenix was quiet until Minerva McGonagall asked, "Could Severus have known?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Mrs. Weasley, it still does not make sense." Hermione Granger lowered her wand and turned to face the small, lively figure of a witch who was giving her, Ron and Ginny a lesson on behalf of the Order. "Why was Professor Dumbledore's body ejected over the railing of the Astronomy Tower if it was indeed an Avada Kedavra that killed him? When someone is hit by the killing curse, they just quietly drop down dead. Professor Moody showed us in the class."

"We are not going to discuss this any further, children," Mrs. Weasley said, clearly agitated. "The consequences of Professor Dumbledore's death were explained to you against my will. I strongly disagree that children should participate in a war."

"Mum, Hermione and Ron are of age. They turned seventeen months ago. And I will be shortly too."

"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley shot a stern glance at her only daughter, then turned back to answer Hermione, but her husband intercepted her.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt could not explain that either, but it is of no consequence to our task today. The Order decided that you should master the Patronus Messaging for your better protection and so you will fully co-operate to learn it as soon as possible.

"Now, Ron, I want you to concentrate on the message you are to send," Mr. Weasley continued to instruct his son. "Remember that the message must invoke happiness in you. You must force yourself to be ultimately happy about the message you are to transmit."

"Expecto patronum!"

Ron's whitish, mighty Patronus shot out from his wand and leaped quickly to Molly. It ran around her twice and disappeared. Mrs. Weasley twitched as if trying to listen.

"Your Patronus did not say anything, Ron. Did you feel the message make you happy when you conjured it?"

"Yes, of course! I couldn't conjure a Patronus without a happy thought, could I?"

"But the message, Ron. You must feel the happiness of the message," Mr. Weasley instructed.

"Perhaps you should try again." Mrs. Weasley's patience was being tried. Trial after trial, all three young wizards failed to transmit a simple message through a Patronus over and over again. Endless practice. She was no tutor, and moreover the Patronus Messaging was a complicated task to learn. It required lots of inner discipline and mental strength. The proficiency of her youngest children in conjuring Patronuses surprised her, and she was proud of their skills with such advanced magic. It certainly helped her to teach them to transfer messages using a Patronus. Nevertheless, it was no easy task even for a qualified teacher, but she understood that she and Arthur were the most logical choices to teach the children to communicate with other members of the Order. Hermione came to the Burrow after just a brief visit with her parents and so Molly and Arthur were the closest ones that could allocate the necessary time for tutoring.

"Expecto patronum!" Ron shouted again, and this time he grinned as he recognised that Mrs. Weasley was listening and actually hearing his message.

"Wonderful, dear, wonderful! Your Patronus is messaging!" Mrs. Weasley joyfully hugged her son. "Just you were supposed to send me 'It's a sunny day,' not 'How wildly I would fly on such a fine day.' Try again, please."

Ron frowned, wishing his parents would switch their attention to Ginny and Hermione again and give him a break since he just first made his Patronus talk, when he noticed how the sun shone through Hermione's hair, giving her an ethereal quality. That's something that made him happy about that bloody message!

"Expecto patronum!" Ron's Patronus merrily jumped straight to Hermione to deliver his message. Hermione looked up to meet his eyes and smiled for one short frozen moment. She quickly realised that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were watching, flashed a look in their direction and blushed.

"Dad, why did Ron's Patronus run to Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"He apparently," Mr. Weasley cleared his throat, "strongly associated the happiness of a sunny day with her, overriding his intentions to send the message to his mother."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Ron received a letter from Harry this morning confirming that he intends to stay at his uncle's until his seventeenth birthday," Arthur Weasley informed McGonagall, Tonks and Dedalus Diggle at a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix.

"It is very likely that You-Kn-...Voldemort," Mr. Weasley's audience twitched a bit, "will try to seize him as soon as Lily's protection expires. We should anticipate his actions."

"Alastor, Kingsley, Tonks and I should enter the house to retrieve him, while Minerva, Mundungus, Arthur and Molly cover the neighbourhood. We should bring him to Grimmauld Place, where he would be safe until the end of summer holidays," Diggle suggested.

"Perhaps, it would be a better idea to replace Molly with Bill," Mr. Weasley commented.

"Isn't Bill preparing for his wedding?"

"Not really. Rather Molly is very busy organising. She wants to join Fleur on her trip to France to bring her parents to the wedding. Whereas Bill would be pleased to get away from the preparations and opt for some action. Once Fleur's family arrives, he will attend to them, of course."

"All right," agreed Diggle, "so Bill will join Minerva, Mundungus and you in the neighbourhood protection."

"Thank you for Molly. Furthermore, I must add here that Harry also writes that he will not return to school this year."

"He hasn't given up on the idea then?" Minerva's voice was disapproving.

"I'm afraid that is precisely what he is doing, Minerva. He is giving up the idea of his classical education."

"We will just have to teach him individually, then," Professor McGonagall sighed.

"If he lets us," Tonks pointed out.

"He does not have much choice. He must take his Apparition test, otherwise he will have not only Voldemort, but also the Ministry officials at his heels," Professor McGonagall explained. "And while he is waiting for his appointment, I intend to have him learn the Patronus Messaging. By the way, how are the children progressing, Arthur?"

"Well, I suppose. All of them already managed to transfer a message, and they are now working on the details and specifics. Ron has problems with directing his Patronus Message to a specific person, and Ginny is unable to conjure any message that involves Harry. Hermione mastered the technique fairly well, and she is now working on intercepting Ron's and Ginny's messages. This should help them to learn to make the message very specific and to strengthen the direction of the message to a certain person. However, we will not know how proficient they are under pressure until the need arises."

"Oh yes, it is kind of fun to be happy about the fact that Voldemort is just attacking me," Diggle recalled ironically.

"It's a question of phrasing and perspective. You can be happy about 'I just ducked Voldemort's Killing Curse'," Tonks smiled, "but not about 'You-Know-Who just sent an Avada Kedavra in my direction'."

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Author's notes: Thanks to KD for beta reading this story, to Asli for running the Perfect Imagination directory and to Southern for provoking me to write. I hope you will enjoy this. Please, read and review.