Harry Potter and the Dark's Rise

By: Marshall Angmar

Fandom: harry potter

Summary: This story chronicles the rise of Harry Potter, the right hand of
the Dark Lord Voldemort. Features a dark Harry in Slytherin, from pre-
hogwarts to the end of the war. Harry knew nothing of the wizarding world
until a teacher from a mysterious school visited him and told him the tale
of his father, catapulting him into a world of intrigue, politics and Power.

Status: Completed

Fic type: Books/Harry Potter

Pairings/Main char.: Harry P., Voldemort, OC

Published: 2014-04-13

Last updated: 2015-03-31

Words count: 206,192

Chapters count: 35

Converted using www.FF2EBOOK.com

Date: 2020-09-28
1. Prologue

This is a new type of story for me, I've read a lot of Dark Harry Stories,
and I've found them to be excellent, so this is my attempt. I got my
inspiration from a load of other stories, too many to name really, but
hopefully you'll enjoy this!

I want to thank my brave and valiant beta, JohnFoxton, who miraculously

managed to read through the first drafts of these stories and not have a
heart attack from the quality of the writing!

I understand this story has been done before, hell I've read enough of
them, but I really think I have managed to steer clear of most of the
cliché's, or at least approach them in a novel manner.

The prologue is set 14 years after chapter 1.

Prologue: A Fresh Start.

The rain was lashing against the windows of Harry's office on September
2nd. Harry himself was sitting behind his desk, hurriedly attempting to
learn the names of all his new students. He checked the Clock, 8.55, five
minutes before his first day as a teacher.

He looked back down at the parchment, Babcock: short boy with black
hair, Wilson: Pale girl brown hair. He carried on reading through the
names until he heard the rumble of feet. This was it, Harry almost smiled
as he considered that he was more nervous about this class then he had
been about some of the battles of the war.

He picked up his lesson plan and the register before stepping out from
behind his desk. The class went silent as soon as he opened his office door.
Good, Harry thought, a reputation as a war hero may well keep some of the
rowdier students in check… for now.

He strode confidently to the front of the classroom, hands clasped loosely

behind his back. "Good Morning third Years and welcome to your first
class in Wizarding Politics and Modern History."

He placed his lesson plan on the desk, first things first he thought. He read
through the register quickly, all students present.

"Good, now please opens your texts to page 1, it would make sense to start
at the beginning." He paused "now, 24 years ago, Neville Longbottom
became the first person to survive the killing curse, Avada Kedavra, now
the curse itself you will cover in more detail next year. Now, take out
quills and ink, and get ready to copy this down" The class hurried to obey
and when they were all ready, Harry began to dictate.

The Class had gone well in Harry's opinion, he had ten minutes left before
the bell and he had managed to get as far through the material as he had
hoped, as well a start several interesting and relevant debates, which of
course was part of the aim of this new class, get the students to think for
themselves.

"Professor Potter, Sir?" Harry looked down at the class,

"Yes Miss, uh Blakely wasn't it?"

"Yes Professor, I was just wondering, you were at school with Longbottom
weren't you?" Harry stilled, this was not a line of questioning he
particularly wanted to answer.

"I was three years ahead of him, but I suppose I knew him well enough.
We were not friends though" Harry added the last bit quickly,

"Oh of course not, I didn't mean to suggest anything like that, I was just
curious, before the war, before, well everything, was he the same as we
understand he became later?"

Harry paused and took a deep breath, the war was over, but saying the
wrong thing now could still get him in a lot of trouble with the new
Ministry.
"Neville Longbottom is a fascinating individual, I won't say anything on
him for now, as we will be having a full lesson on his exploits during his 6
years at this school and his relationship with The Order of the Phoenix
next week. However, if you want to read into it further, I would
recommend 'The Rise of the Dark Arts' by Bletchley and 'individuals of
note during the Wizarding war: 1981 – 2009' By Davis. Both provide
interesting perspectives and are on the extended syllabus reading list." Just
then the bell rang, and the students stood up to leave, packing books and
ink into bags.

"Homework, 9 inches of parchment on why the corruption in the ministry

following the events of 1987 led to it being woefully unprepared for war."
The class filed out, and Harry closed the door behind them, 10 minutes
until his next class.

He had enjoyed his first class, and hopefully none of the students had been
too bored, however that class had been Slytherins and Ravenclaws, which
in Harrys experience tended to be the more studious of the four houses.

He stood up lazily flicking his wand to clear the previous lesson off the
blackboard, a second flick and the tables and chairs lined up neatly, whilst
any rubbish left behind sailed into the bin by the door. He leant down to
check his class schedule, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor 5th Years.

A few minutes before the bell rang, the doors burst open, and the students
poured in. Harry put down the book he had been reading and looked out
over the class, he kept quiet, merely observing and when the clock struck
ten, he stood, the Hufflepuffs and most of the Gryffindor's went silent, and
the remaining conversations quickly stopped.

Harry mused that unlike the previous class, these students viewed him not
as a Hero, but as the villain, he supposed he could play that role easily
enough.

"Good Morning. Please open your books to chapter 6, I trust you all did
the Holiday reading?" All the students nodded and Harry smiled, it seemed
a foreign expression to his face.
"Good, then who can tell what the night of broken wands refers to?" The
class was silent, "Anyone? Very well, you boy, any ideas?" The boy didn't
answer, instead just glowering at Harry.

"No ideas? Dear me. What's your name boy?"

"Archie Bones." Harry nodded,

"As Mr Bones is unable to answer, allow me to fill you in; The Night of
broken wands refers to the 743rd meeting of the wizengamot, when the
previous chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore, in collusion with the ex-head
of the DMLE had the heads of all ancient and noble houses arrested and
imprisoned without trials. It was for these crimes, as well as those of
treason and War Crimes that Madame Amelia Bones was tried and
executed for last year. But I personally think young Archie already knew
that don't you?"

Archie Bones glowered at Harry from his desk near the front, Harry raised
one eyebrow with a slight smirk. They stayed still a moment, until Archie
Broke.

"My Aunt was a good woman, she was murdered because she opposed
Tyranny!" Archie shouted angrily. Harry Smirked.

"She was executed because she was a traitor who opposed progress. Speak
out of turn again and I will have Mr Filch flog you, do I make myself
clear?" the 5th year Gryffindor sagged in his seat, though he still looked
murderous.

"Good, now back to the material, this term we aim to be covering the
repression of dark magic in society, and the impact the recent easing of
restrictions has had on crime rates in Britain."

No one spoke out of turn after that.

What do you think? In this story I aim to have very much a dark Harry,
with lots of similarities to the dark Lord. As you've probably gathered
Neville is the Boy who lived, and Harry is three years older. The next
chapter, chapter 1 will be starting from before Harrys first year. The first
three years I aim to cover in 2/30 chapters, as it will be his interactions
with Neville and the gang that will begin to pressure Harry, into making
his decisions regarding his future. Give me your thoughts!

MarshallAngmar
2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

The Morning of Harry Potters eleventh Birthday on July 31st started just
the same as any ordinary day might. But then again Harry Mused, St.
Hilda's Orphanage where he had lived his last 7 years would never allow
one of the boys to break the routine for something so mundane as a
Birthday.

He woke early, and was down to the dining hall before anyone else, he
grabbed a bowl of Shredded wheat from the counter, and sat down behind
one of the wooden benched tables. The orphanage had for the last 4 years
benefitted from the patronage of a very wealthy London businessman who
felt that some degree of philanthropy would do his enterprise good,
whatever the reason, Harry was pleased with the situation. This had led to
the entire building being perhaps not comfortable, but at least clean.

By the time the first wave of children entered the dining room, Harry had
finished his cereal and was watching the children attentively. The
relationship Harry shared with his housemates was frosty at best. It wasn't
Harry's fault, but whomever crossed Harry often ended up in a bad way.
One boy had once slapped Harry's food from his hands, and that night had
fallen into a coma. That was four years ago and he still wasn't awake.

There had been other examples of Harry's peculiar ability to control

things, and these abilities had, over the years developed, Harry could now
command animals without training them or make people hurt when he
wanted to. Naturally the other boys and staff had questioned Harry at
length, but they never had proof, He could disguise his emotions well. Too
well sometimes.

Aside from his mountains of book, His only real companion at the
Orphanage was Cecil, a runty little boy with a large forehead and bulging
eyes. Harry only tolerated his company as it amused him how easy to
manipulate he was, and Cecil benefitted as Harry offered him a great deal
of protection from the older boys.

"Happy Birthday Harry!" Called a voice from the door, Cecil bounced over
to his table, left conspicuously empty as the rest of the room started to fill
up,

"Thank you Cecil, I trust you slept well?"

Cecil, as always when Harry took an interest in his life, beamed, "Very
well, very well thank you"Harry smiled slightly. "I got you a present, it
took all this year's savings, but I think you'll like it."

"That was very kind, do you have it with you?" The smaller boys smile
didn't fade a bit.

"No no, it's in my room, I thought… if you wanted, we could maybe use it
this morning" Harry nodded, and Cecil settled happily into his bran flakes.

"Here you are" A Large rectangular box was thrust into Harry's arms. He
held it up to his ear and shook, Cecil grinned, "Just open it for pity's sake!"

As the wrapping paper was thrown to the ground Harry was left with a
cardboard box with the words "Risk: The Ultimate strategy Board game."
Harry cocked his head and looked at Cecil,

"It's a strategy game Harry!" Cecil grinned

"I am aware of that, I can read." The small boy flushed,

"It's a game, you pick a country and then fight other people to try to take
over the world. I thought it would be a level up from that chess board we
always use!" Harry smiled, he had been a great fan of strategy based
games and situations for as long as he could remember, and this gift would
certainly allow him to exploit his passion.
"Well come on then Cec, lets open it up!" Cecil immediately tore of the
plastic outer coating and pulled the lid of the box,

"Pick a colour Harry"

"Red." Harry answered as he peered at the small figurines in the box. Cecil
chose green and together they set up the board. Soon they were thoroughly
engrossed in the game, as in their chess games, Harry was wiping the floor.
Europe fell to the red soldiers, followed by North America, South
America, Africa and most of Asia.

To Harry the board was awash with possibilities, and Cecil's rapidly
thinning troops were unable to keep up with Harrys Voracious appetite for
conquest. The first game was over in 40 minutes. They played again, this
time Harry won in 30.

"One more Harry, I can't handle being destroyed too many times in a day!"
Harry grinned apologetically and they reset the board.

This match Harry played differently. Whereas before, Conquest had been
Harry's goal, this time he attempted to minimalize his casualties. Thus
over an Hour later, Harry commanded only 2/3rds of the board, however
his armies were more than three times the size of his enemy's. Cecil had
just launched a last hurrah invasion of Africa, in which Harry had easily
trapped and massacred Cecil's best effort with minimal casualties when
the door opened.

"Harry are you in here? Ah, Cecil, good morning," the Matronly head of
the orphanage, Mrs Phelps, poked her head around the door. "Harry you
have a visitor, from a school your parents put you down for."

Harry's looked up at the door, the gleeful expression he had had at the
possibility of destroying Cecil almost immediately replaced by an
innocent look of confusion. The Matron shuddered at the boy, he had been
nothing but trouble ever since she took him in 7 years ago.
The woman behind her was old, with her steel grey hair bound into a tight
bun behind her head, she had a severe, if fair expression on her face.

"Mr Potter, My name is Minerva McGonagall, I am a teacher from a

school where we would like you to attend." Harrys face remained politely
puzzled, however his eye showed a shrewd cunning that Minerva had
never seen on one so young, it was neither malicious nor friendly, it was…
unnerving.

"Yes yes, we will leave you two to chat, come now Cecil, you can play
your game later. Come come." Mrs Phelps called. Cecil left, promising to
clear up the game later. Harry ignored him, but pulled out a chair for the
teacher, and sat across from her at his small desk for homework.

"Mr Potter, I represent a… special… school, in Scotland called Hogwarts"

she paused to take a breath when Harry interrupted her,

"Special how?" the words were spoken calmly, but Professor McGonagall
couldn't help but sense that what she had said had set him on edge.

"Special as in it is for Wizards and Witches, that is to say, practitioners of

magic." Harry's eyes flickered from the Risk board, where he had been
silently reviewing strategy, straight back to the teacher. Neither said
anything, She waited for him to react, he waited for her to either laugh off
her poor joke or expand. Finally,

"Your Mother and Father, before, well, before they couldn't take care of
you they placed you on our lists. Have you ever managed something
incredible, impossible or unexpected when you felt strong emotions?" She
looked at him, seeing as how a fire suddenly lit in his eyes,

"So it's magic? I can do magic?" McGonagall nodded and Harry smirked
"I always knew I was different, they could never keep up with me, no
wonder if they were lesser beings." He said this mainly to himself, but
McGonagall interrupted,
"Would you like a demonstration of what we can do?" Harry's nod came at
once. And the aged professor smiled before pulling out her wand. She
noticed Harry's eyes stick to the thin stick of wood in evident envy. She
gave it a wave and all the chess pieces on Harry's board started to sing.
Harry blinked then grinned, a wide toothy smile.

"May I take it you are interested in pursuing your education at Hogwarts?"

asked McGonagall,

"I am certainly interested in gaining a magical education professor,

however I feel I would be a fool if I took the first opportunity presented,
forgive me, are there any other magical schools I could attend?" He said
this with a humble and embarrassed look on his face, and if McGonagall
hadn't been paying such close attention to his eyes she would have fallen
for it. She sniffed haughtily,

"There are other schools, certainly, however none are in the same league as
Hogwarts in Britain, as for international schools, most of them tend to be
rather… selective in their students." She said this as though it were a great
strain for her.

"Forgive me professor I did not mean to infer your school to be any less
than exemplary." McGonagall looked appeased.

"Anyway Harry, your parents did leave the school adequate funds to put
you through your education before the uh, incident." Harry looked at her,
for the first time a look of genuine puzzlement on his face,

"Incident professor, forgive me, I know nothing of my parents before they

died, and would certainly appreciate any insight you could offer." The grey
haired witch suddenly appeared strained.

"Mr Potter, Harry, Your parents, well your father, is not dead. He is… he…
I am afraid he has been incarcerated, he is in Azkaban. The Wizarding
prison, where he has been for the last eight years. I am sorry to tell you
this." Harry looked down at his lap, his gut had clenched tightly, his father
was a criminal. He opened his mouth to speak, but to his embarrassment
his voice wouldn't come to him.

"Why?" It was all he could manage, the single syllable sounded horribly
forced to the boy who prided himself on being able to bluff through any
situation.

"I should start at the beginning Harry, It is a long story, but I hope you will
forgive me if I give you a far more condensed version. It is not wholly
appropriate for a person as young as you are."

Harry nodded and the professor leant back, before continuing.

"Harry, you were born on the 31st of July 1978 to James and Lily Potter.
Your mother was one of the best witches, best people I have ever had the
pleasure of knowing, and your father, well I had thought him a good man
also. I know for certain that when you were born both your parents loved
you very much. However at the time of your birth, there was a war in
magical Britain. There was an evil, dark wizard who wished to control all
of Britain. And he was willing to use any means necessary to achieve his
goals of domination and subjugation." Harry raised his head,

"What was the dark wizard's name?" his voice was strained, but steady.

"His name, although I do warn you, it is not said in society often if at all,
is Vol... Voldemort" she gave a small shiver "and he had radical views on
Blood Purity. He believed that only wizards and witches with Pure Blood,
that is to say two parents with all magical ancestors were worthy of living
in magical Britain. When he was in school, yes, he was a student at
Hogwarts too," she mentioned when Harry's eyebrows rose, "When he was
in school, he was an exceptionally charming boy, with a brilliant mind and
a passion for knowledge. I did not know him personally, as the year he left
was the year I began teaching, however he was held in great esteem by
most every student who knew him. However, many years later, he returned
to the public limelight, but now as Lord Voldemort," she twitched again.
"A terrible leader with an army of sympathetic wizard's, witches and
beasts." She paused and took a long breath.
"When you were born the war had been raging for many years. There had
been thousands of casualties and most everyone was desperate. The first
few years of your life you lived with your parents in hiding. However
when you were 2 years old, Neville Longbottom was born. Now no one
knows why, but as soon as this happened, the Dark Lord began targeting
him to kill him." Harry looked surprised, and opened his mouth as though
to speak, but then quickly closed it again.

"Neville and his family were put into hiding and the Dark Lords efforts
were frustrated for over a year. However, on Halloween 1981 Your Father
betrayed them. He was one of the very few people who knew their
location, and he freely gave this information to the Dark Lord. That night
the Longbottom's were attacked. Frank and Alice, Neville's parents, were
both killed. However Neville lived… somehow he survived where no
others did and in his survival, the Dark Lord was slain. Whether he is dead
or merely in hiding is a matter of much discussion, however what is
known is that two of your father's friends, Sirius Black and Algie
Longbottom went to apprehend James and bring him to Justice. He killed
Algie and seriously injured Sirius. But he was captured and imprisoned."

"What happened to my mother? Or was she in league with my father?"

McGonagall's cheeks tinged red and her nostrils flared.

"Your Mother was not involved with your father. However when word got
out of your fathers crimes there was a public backlash," she sniffed loudly,
her eyes glistened, "a mob attacked your house, Your mother got you to
safety, but she… she was killed in the process." The normally stern witch's
cheeks were blotchy and Harry wondered if he should comfort her.

"You were sent here so no vengeful wizards could attack you like they did
your mother."

McGonagall finished her story and silence enveloped the small room.
Harry sat stock still his eyes fixed firmly ahead, McGonagall conjured a
handkerchief and dabbed her eyes and nose. A few minutes went by.
Before the Scottish witch tried to unsubtly change the conversation topic,
"So Harry, shall we get your school things, there is a magical alley in here
in London." She looked at Harry as he nodded slowly, then shook himself.

"I shall get my school things. You may leave, I would appreciate directions
however." The aged professor looked set to object, but then appeared to
decide against it.

"Very well, I understand you wish to be alone." She withdrew from a fold
in her clothes a thick yellow envelope and a small golden key.

"This contains a list of what you shall need, as well as a train ticket and
directions to the platform for the Hogwarts express." She put the envelope
on the table, "and this is a key to the Hogwarts Bursary vault. I am afraid
your family vault and all your family's properties were seized by the
government." Harry's lips tightened slightly but he nodded.

Silence enveloped them once more, before the professor stood and made
her way to the door. "I am sorry to bear such terrible news Harry, though I
look forward to seeing you at Hogwarts." Just before she had almost left
when Harry stopped her.

"Professor. What sort of treatment should I expect from Wizards?"

"It will not be easy Harry, but no one knows what you look like. I would
suggest anonymity is your best weapon at this point." With those
foreboding words she left.

Five Minutes later Cecil entered, peeking his head around the door.
"Harry?" The raven haired boy didn't move. "Harry?"

"Get out Cec." Cecil didn't move, but looked at his only friend concerned.

"I said LEAVE!" Cecil actually recoiled at the vicious look in Harry's eyes.
His voice was filled with rage and Malice and he scrambled to obey.
Hurriedly shutting the door behind him. Harry sighed and picked up the
yellowed envelope. Flicking through the sheaves of heavy parchment, he
stopped on the one with directions to Diagon Alley.
The Pub which claimed to be the only entrance to Diagon Alley was not
much in Harry's opinion. The floor was stained and the counter dusty, there
was a smell of old beer and stale tobacco over the whole room and Harry
wrinkled his nose. "Can I help you lad?" came a friendly voice.

Harry turned to see a bald, stooping man grinning at him, a rather

horrifying sight, seeing as how the man had only one wonky yellowed
tooth. However Harry smiled politely,

"I'm looking for Diagon Alley, am I in the right place?" his voice was
casual, whilst the hood he had covering his face kept him obscured.

"Course Lad, this is the place, the entrance is round the back, follow me,
follow me." They left the bar, and entered a yard at the back, filled with
dustbins and smashed bricks. "Pay attention to the sequence, get it wrong
and you'll feel a right muggle." The man gave a wheezy chuckle and then
tapped a series of bricks in the high wall before them.

Before his almost disbelieving eyes the wall disintegrating, leaving an

archway to a wide street filled with brightly coloured shop fronts. "Well
this is Diagon Alley lad, come by the pub for a spot of tea later if you
like." The old barman said with a smile before returning to his shop.

Harry stepped forward, eyes darting from side to side, barely maintaining
his composure. He shook himself. Plenty of time for sightseeing later he
thought. He strode purposefully towards a white Marble building that was
larger than any other in the alley, if the letter was correct, this was the
bank, Gringotts.

Stepping through the high doors into the cavernous bank entrance. Harry
let his eyes take in the sights, incredibly high and wide, Harry thought the
entire orphanage could fit into this room. He smirked, before joining one
of the long lines of people queuing for service. As he slowly moved
forward, he saw the tellers were not men, but instead were short
humanoids, with long pointed ears, long fingers and large eyes. 'Goblins!'
Harry thought, remembering his letter.
Reaching the front of the queue, he tried not to stare at the bored looking
goblin before him. "Key." Harry offered the small key he had been given
and the goblin gazed at it for a few seconds before nodding. "Riptooth!" he
cried and another Goblin scurried over. "Get me a sack from the Hogwarts
Bursary fund. Quickly!" the Goblin scurried off and a few moments later
returned with a small leather purse. "50 Galleons. Here is your key. Next."
Harry was pushed aside by the next customer and quickly pocketed the
purse and key. He felt hopelessly out of his depth, a feeling he didn't like
one bit.

He made his way outside before wandering over to a large bookshop

nearby, the sign Flourish and Blotts hung above the faded green door. "Can
I help Son?" asked a portly gentlemen who stood by the door. "I would like
the first year Hogwarts books please" Harry asked politely, "and also any
books on the Wizarding world, the government, culture, money and the
like." The man looked at him,

"Muggleborn eh? No problem, we have first year book sets in row 10 and
Wizarding world books are row 2, anything else?" Harry shook his head
and the man nodded before heading back to the counter.

The next two hours of the morning Harry spent devouring books in the
bookshop. He quickly learnt about Wizarding money. The money he had
would be adequate for his school purchases with maybe a little left for
extras. He had since read a brief introduction to government, which in his
opinion was too brief, but he didn't help much, but the other books on the
topic were too big to read properly.

Thus he was now sitting on one of the stools provided reading about the
Wizarding war. He wanted to know what his Father had believed in, but the
book wasn't helpful, providing a partial account of events. Harry sighed,
History is written by the Victors, he thought ruefully. He read the book
anyway, it wouldn't do for somehow to shock him at a later date by being
more knowledgeable.
Around 3 in the afternoon, after 3 hours of intense reading, Harry stood up,
purchased his first year books, and continued shopping, he hurried through
the rest of the shops, quickly getting his cauldron, potion ingredients,
trunk, telescope and robes. He looked down at his list. Parchment, Quills
and Ink, and a Wand he thought to himself. He saw a stationers two shops
away and soon all that was left was his wand.

Ollivanders appeared to be the only wand shop in the street and Harry
made his way over. He opened the door and the bell tinkled, there was a
family being served and he settled down to wait. Before too long, 3 red
heads entered the store, a matronly looking mother and two sons who
appeared to be twins. Harry kept his face in shadow and tried to remain
inconspicuous, it appeared to work, for as the first family settled their bill,
the red heads stood and approached the counter.

"Ah Mrs Weasely, how lovely to see you in here again, your sons have
grown" said the white haired shopkeeper in a soft voice, "However, it is
Mr Potters turn to be assisted, he has been in longer." Harry blinked as the
man's pale eyes came to rest on him. The Matronly redhead turned and
when she saw him seemed to swell.

"Mr Ollivander" she said loudly, "Is it wise to be providing him with a
wand? You know what his family did!" Harry glowered, but internally
knew this was to be expected, his family name wasn't the best in Britain
after all. The books he had read had rather reinforced that idea.

"Mrs Weasely, forgive me, but you should not judge the son for the sins of
the father. Do not let one bad apple sour your opinion." The pale eyed
shopkeeper said in his creepy voice. The twins on either side of the woman
were looking at him curiously, but not hostilely.

"I'm Fred, this is my brother George." Said the first brother. "Starting
Hogwarts this year?"

Harry nodded and the twins smiled again. Harry "We have three elder
brothers, Bills already graduated, but Charlie and Perce are still there."
Before Harry could reply, Mrs Weasely seemed to notice what her sons
were doing.

"Get away from my sons! Fred, George get over her NOW!" she screamed
with a hysterical note in her voice. Before Harry could respond with some
choice words he had on the tip of his tongue, Mr Ollivander interrupted.

"Let's get you a wand shall we? Well come on, step up here." Harry did as
he was bid, eyeing the Weasely woman warily. He didn't like the way her
hand was edging towards a fold in her robes, doubtless concealing her own
wand. When he returned his attention to Mr Ollivander, the tape measure
had dropped to the floor and the man was returning from between two
shelves with a high stack of thin boxes in his hands.

"Let me see, let me see. Elm and Dragon heartstring. 9 inches, pliable,
good for charms." Harry took the wand, and at the encouragement of Mr
Ollivander swished it through the air.

Nothing Happened.

Mr Ollivander smiled at this, and opened another box. "11 inches, Unicorn
hair and oak. Swishy, also good for charms." Harry waved this one and Mr
Ollivander yelped as the hem of his cloak caught fire. "No" he cried,
hastily waving his wand over the flames, restoring the cloak as though the
fire had never existed.

"Dragon Heartstring and Willow, 10 ¼ inches. Excellent for defensive

magic." Again nothing.

After 10 minutes of failed wands, Harry was beyond frustrated. However

Mr Ollivander appeared to be having a wonderful time. "Tricky customer
hmm, well let me see, let me see, when you do accidental magic, has it
ever been partial to a particular element?" Harry thought back,

"Well, I can make a room very cold when I'm angry, and if I concentrate I
can set things on fire." He saw Mrs Weasely look faint. But Ollivander
nodded a few times.
"Hmm, fire and air. Okay" his hands dithered over the remaining pile of
wands before him, before discarding half the boxes. "And your magic,
does it normally affect a specific object or the general environment?"

"Both really." Harry replied

"Neither one is more frequent?" Asked the wand maker, Harry shook his
head. A dozen more wands were discarded from the pile until just three
were left. The first wand was a disaster, smashing a vase on the counter.

The second wand produced no discernable result, and Harry looked down
at the third nervously.

"Phoenix tail feather and yew. 12 ½ inches, unyielding, excellent for

offensive spells." Harry picked up the wand and immediately felt a warm
feeling surge travel up his arm, blue and black sparks flew from the tip
and he laughed, exhilarated beyond belief. Mr Ollivander looked at him
curiously.

"Curious, but not surprising I suppose, look after your wand, do not feel
pressured into any path. Make your own destiny. The wand is 11 Galleons
please." Harry ignored the old man's parting words and left the sum on the
counter. His money bag now almost empty, he pocketed it and left the
Stale shop.

September the first dawned like any other, and for most, life in the
orphanage carried on as normal. For one particular eleven year old
however the day was anything but normal. Harry woke before his alarm
with a smile on his face.

He wasn't naïve, he knew there would be a faction that would hate him, but
Harry was brilliant. He would figure something out, he always did. His
heavy trunk was packed to the seams with clothes, books and the few
personal possessions he owned. As he slipped out from between the coarse
cotton sheets he shivered.
He had left the window open the night before and the cold September air
had left the entire room frigid. Harry sighed, slipping his feet into a pair of
comfortable shoes before picking up a toothbrush and his other essentials.
No one else was in the bathroom when he arrived and for this he was
grateful. He didn't enjoy the communal aspect of his living. He was one of
the few children who possessed a single room, no other student wanted
him near whilst they slept. Harry smirked, it hadn't taken long to teach the
students respect.

When he reached the dining room for breakfast the other students had
already arrived. Harry sat alone as usual and tucked into a meal of toast
and scrambled eggs. The room was loud around him, but the raven haired
wizard tuned out the noise. His eyes were on the large clock on the wall in
front of him, as he waited for the minutes to tick away. He sat still glaring
at the clock for over an hour, before eventually the clock reached 9.30. He
stood, his stiff joints creaking. Mrs Phelps helped him carry the trunk into
a waiting taxi and gave him his allowance.

Harry wasn't an idiot, he knew the woman, hell most of the occupants of
the orphanage would be delighted he was going. Except Cecil he mused to
himself, he briefly wondered if he should say goodbye to the bye, but
dismissed the thought quickly, Cecil meant little to him, he would not
waste his time with people who were going anywhere. The Cab pulled
away, heading towards the nation's capital.

The taxi pulled into the busy station and assisted Harry shifting his trunk
to one of the trolleys, the man gave him a smile, assured him that Mrs
Phelps had already settled his bill and drove away. Leaving Harry before
the large stone building. He pulled the crumpled parchment with
instructions out of his pocket and pushed his trolley forward.

"platform 5, platform 6, 7, 8 and 9" Harry stood still for a moment, the
barrier before looked very solid and Harry was hardly prepared to rush
into a potentially embarrassing situation. Slowly he pushed the trolley
forward until it was an inch from the barrier. He paused again, pulling the
instructions from his pocket again, he was just rereading it when a voice
interrupted his thoughts.

"I don't mean to hurry you lad, but there is a queue you know, the train
leaves in 20 minutes, I'd rather like my boy to be on it." Harry flushed
slightly, turning around he saw he did indeed have a queue of disgruntled
looking children and amused parents behind him, he forced out an apology,
closed his eyes and took a step forward. Then another, then another. When
nothing stopped him he carried on forward opening his eyes, inside the
barrier it was very dark, but a few steps later he came out on the other
side.

The platform was long, and decorated elegantly with stone carvings. The
track looked old in design, but the magnificent scarlet train upon them
looked brand new, steam was slowly issuing from the chimney at the front,
whilst hundreds of children were scurrying around. Parents tearfully
hugged children, and hefted trunks up the steps to a carriage, meanwhile
attempting to dodge the veritable menagerie of cats, rats, owls and many
other pets who were present.

Harry took all this in quickly, before he pulled his hood up to mask his
face and lugging the trunk forwards. He reached the penultimate carriage
and bent his knees to try and get his belongings up the steps.

It was a futile effort, the trunk was barely leaving the ground. Harry pulled
again and would have slipped and fallen if not for a hand reaching out and
grabbing the strap on the trunk. Together he and his saviour successfully
manhandled the case onto the carriage, he turned to thank the man who'd
helped him out, it was the man who'd spoken to him at the barrier.

"Thank you sir." He said respectfully, the man smiled kindly,

"No problem lad, the names Amos Diggory, is this your first year?" Harry
nodded and Amos pulled his son forward,

"This is my boy, Cedric, he's starting his first year too. Are you a
Muggleborn?" The question surprised Harry, but he shook his head,
"Halfblooded sir. But my parents are um, away" He prayed the man would
leave him alone and luck was evidently with him that day.

"Sad, well why don't you and Ced find a compartment, the train leaves in
five minutes." He gave Harry another wave before helping his son with his
trunk.

"Good, Ced, write often, you know how your mother gets, she will expect
constant information, don't leave her wanting alright lad!" Cedric laughed
and then the two new first years moved their trunks into a compartment,

"What's your name then?" asked Cedric curiously, Harry still had his hood
slightly up. He imagined no one would know what he looked like, but he
would cross that hurdle when it came up.

"Harry, your Cedric Right?"

"Cedric Diggory, at your service" Cedric gave a short bow and Harry gave
a small smile.

"Have we met before Harry? Your face is familiar…" Harry shook his
head,

"I doubt it, I grew up on a muggle orphanage. I only discovered magic in

July." The Wizard opposite him whistled.

"That must have been a surprise!" Harry shook his head ruefully.

"That day was full of surprises. Learning about magic was almost a small
sidenote" Cedric peered at him slightly confused. But his eyes cleared
shortly. Trusting Harry thought, But kind.

"So, have you read all your school books?" Cedric asked. Harry nodded,

"All bar the astronomy one, I just wish I had more books. I feel very much
unprepared for this world. I know nothing of the politics customs or
anything. I am afraid I may look a fool!" Cedric nodded understandingly.
"It must be weird. Did you not get books on the subject?" Harry sighed,
shaking his head.

"Sadly the Hogwarts Bursary fund does not contain much in the way of
extra spending money."

They spent the next hour or two speaking in relative comfort, a few people
poked their heads in the door, but no one stayed, Harry got a few lingering
looks, mostly by the upper years, but no one said anything.

Around Lunchtime, An elderly lady pushed open their door.

"Anything from the trolley dears?" she asked kindly, Harry eyed the
trolley, it was filled with a combination of bizarre looking sweets and
cakes, and a selection of sandwiches.

"What could I get for…" he emptied his money bag into his hand, it was a
pitifully small pile, and the witch sighed,

"Not much I'm afraid dear" Harrys chin rose, and he glared at the seat
opposite. Putting his money pouch back in his pocket, he forced a smile to
the trolley lady and sat back in his seat.

"I'll get two ham and mustard sandwiches and two pumpkin juices please"
Cedric spoke up from next to him, Harry eyed him in shock as he pulled a
bulging pouch from the pocket of his jeans.

"Here you go Harry, have you had pumpkin juice before?" Harry shook his
head dumbly. Nobody had ever bought him anything before. Except Cecil,
and he barely counted as human in Harrys eyes, the wretch.

"It's good, they sweeten it a lot when you get it bottled, but homemade
always tastes better. My Mum always makes litres every year and then
leaves it in stasis." Harry took a sip of the orange liquid.

"It's different" Harry spoke carefully. "It is quite sweet though" Cedric had
been watching him closely.
"Like I said, not as good as Homemade, but drinkable." Harry nodded and
smiled.

"Cedric, there's something I have to tell you." He paused. "You're the first
person who I would say is my friend, I barely know you, but you seem like
great guy." Cedric looked at him confused,

"You didn't have friends at the orphanage?" He asked slowly.

"No, not really, but that isn't the point of this. Ced, I'm sorry I didn't tell
you before, but you should know, I'm Harry Potter. My father was James
Potter." Cedric recoiled and Harry's chin rose defensively. "I am not
ashamed of my Father. I don't remember him."

Cedric said nothing, only looking at him slightly cautiously. His eyes
flickered to the door of the compartment before returning to Harry's. He
took a deep breath. Harry squared his small shoulders.

"I don't hate you for this Harry, I'm slightly concerned. But surely an
eleven year old who doesn't know his parents cannot be judged for his
Fathers acts?" He shook his head. Before a small smile crossed his lips and
he stuck out his right hand.

"I'm Cedric Diggory, Pleasure to meet you." Harrys chin rose and he
released the breath he hadn't known he had been holding.

"Harry Potter, the pleasure is mine." They shook hands and Harry allowed
himself to relax. He took a deep breath. It had been a risk telling Cedric,
one of the few times in his life he made a decision without considering
every outcome. He cursed himself for being in such a vulnerable position.

"So, what do you know of Hogwarts Harry?" Cedric asked, Harry laughed.

"Subtle Ced, but thanks. Next to nothing really. I read the letter they give
to new students and the first couple of chapters of Hogwarts: A History in
Diagon Alley. But that only covered the founding of it."
"Well then, allow me to begin your education of the Wizarding world." He
sat back in his seat and looked out of the window before continuing. "The
four school houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. I
don't know how each student is chosen for their house, but It's something
to do with personality."

"Gryffindor's are supposedly the Brave self-sacrificing ones, Ravenclaws

are the smart students, Hufflepuff is the Loyal House, where hard work
and loyalty is chosen, and Slytherin is for the ambitious and cunning."

Harry nodded slowly, processing the information. From what Cedric said,
he would fit into Slytherin best, he was neither obsessed with book
learning, heroic and brave and he certainly wasn't loyal. "How many
students are at Hogwarts?" he asked

"I'm not sure, several hundred though, I guess we find out when we get
there."

"And does the school play uh… Quidditch?" Cedric laughed

"Yeah, there's an inter house cup each year, and any student can try out."
His eyes had lit up as he spoke about the sport.

"You play?" Harry asked,

"Seeker." Cedric confirmed, at Harry's puzzled look Cedric began to

launch into a full description of the game. After that it moved onto the
British Quidditch league, and then onto the international circuit, Harry
paid close attention, absorbing all the knowledge he could about this new
world. Eventually Cedric seemed to run out of things to say and fell silent.

"I'm impressed Ced, 90 minutes of pure talking. That was interesting,

thanks." Cedric beamed at him, still riding his Quidditch high.

"Do you know any of the teachers at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, Cedric
nodded his head.
"Well McGonagall teaches transfiguration, Dad says she's really strict, but
fair to all students. Then there is Professor Sprout, she teaches Herbology,
she's a friend of my parents, and shes really nice. Just don't mess up her
plants!" Harry Laughed as the lecture went on.

As it grew dark outside and the yellowed gas lamps in the compartment lit
up, the two boys changed from their normal, Muggle Harry corrected
himself, clothes into the Robes of their uniform.

The rest of the journey passed in companionable conversation. Around 7 in

the evening, the train pulled into a dark platform, there was a little drizzle
falling outside, but nothing serious. The two boys got off the train and
stood on the platform looking around.

"Firs' Years. Firs' years Over 'ere!" Came a great booming voice, halfway
up the platform stood a giant of a man, at least 12 feet tall, in his hand was
a bright lantern. Harry looked at Cedric.

"That must be Hagrid, the Game Keeper, Merlin, he's enormous!" Cedric
said awed. The two boys joined the rapidly growing crowd of terrified
looking first year around the Giant.

"Right, I think tha's all of Yeh's. Now Follow Me." He led down down a
winding path to a vast lake.

"No More n' four to a boat. Hop in!" They all got into the boats, Harry and
Cedric ended up with a girl with long brown hair and a boy tall blonde boy.

The fleet of rowboats suddenly started forward, gliding noiselessly

through the water towards the enormous brightly lit castle ahead.

After arriving at a dock, and unloading the first years were transferred to
the custody of Professor McGonagall. She led them through a vast
entrance hall, just as big as the hall at Gringotts, this one was lit by
thousands of floating candles that hovered just over their heads.
"In a moment you shall all be sorted" Began Professor McGonagall,
"There are four houses to go to, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and
Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and whilst you are at
Hogwarts they will be like your family. Good deeds or excellent work in
class will gain you house points, whereas any rule breaking with lose
points." The first years listened intently.

"I suggest you smarten up. I will return in a minute and when I do, we
shall go into the great hall." She left and Harry listened as the children
around him discussed theories on the sorting process. There were many
outlandish theories, such as entrance exams, or fighting other students.

Before too long, McGonagall returned. She stood at the front of the mass
of first and pushed open the great doors.

The room beyond was spectacular, it must have been 60 feet high, but it
was impossible to be accurate due to the ceiling looking just like the
overcast sky outside. This room too was lit by hundreds of bright candles
floating above their heads. At the far end was a long table, where Harry
saw the staff assembled, in the middle of this table sat an ancient looking
wizard with bright blue eyes, resting upon a magnificent golden throne.

Arrayed before the teachers were four long tables, filled with the students.
Arranged Harry assumed by house. At the head of the line McGonagall
had placed a patched and frayed hat on a three legged stool. Harry stared at
the Hat non plussed, until a rip near the brim opened up and the hat began
to sing.

Harry tuned out the words, but clapped with the others when it was over.
McGonagall unrolled a sheaf of parchment, and spoke.

"When I call your name you will come forward, sit on the stool and put the
hat on your head." She cleared her throat,

"Atley, William" A nervous boy stepped forward and the hat fell over his
eyes.
"Ravenclaw!" the hat shouted out, and the blue and bronze dressed table
burst into applause. This continued, for a while, Bole went to Slytherin,
whilst Bradley went to Ravenclaw. Clearwater went to Ravenclaw, whilst
Cedric was sorted into Hufflepuff, Harry zoned out for a while and when
his attention returned it was to hear Ogden, Frederick get sorted into
Ravenclaw.

"Potter, Harry" Called out McGonagall, the mutters and whispered

conversations around the hall ended abruptly. The silence was deafening,
and when Harry started to walk towards the stool, he heard one of the
Gryffindor's next to him loudly whisper "Potter? Is he the traitors son?"
Harry's jaw tightened, but he kept his head held high and strode
confidently to the stool.

He sat, back ramrod straight, and the last thing he saw before the hat
covered his eyes was the hostile looks being directed at him.

"Interesting, you have a wonderful mind Mr Potter" Came a deep rich

voice in his ear. "Lots of Talent, goodness yes, and dear me, you certainly
won't fit in Helga's house, you would sell your own soul if it got you what
you wanted." Harry was about to retort, before realising that arguing with
a hat would be stupid.

"Now then, you're brave, but not reckless, vicious and ruthless but not
cruel, very intelligent and driven, but don't seek knowledge for its own
sake. Tricky. You analyse everything in a way I have never seen before, not
in all my thousand years. I must say this is interesting, It's extremely
evident where you belong, Merlin forbid I sent you anywhere other than
SLYTHERIN!"

This last word was shouted to the whole hall, but unlike the others, this
was not met with cheers, one lone boy at the Slytherin table cheered, but
the sound seemed hollow and he stopped quickly.

Head held high, and face entirely blank, Harry stepped towards the table of
Green and Silver.
End of Chapter 1

Feedback is always wanted, give me your thoughts, opinions where you

think this story should go, etc.
This is a story I've always wanted to read, but haven't quite found
anywhere, so I decided to write it!
I haven't got the whole story planned out yet really, just a series of
scenes in my head, so I would love any ideas you have!

Yours

MarshallAngmar
3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

As Harry stepped towards the Slytherin table he was intensely gazing at

the faces of his new housemates. They seemed split into three groups:
those who looked at him unpleasantly, those who looked at him somewhat
welcomingly and those who were neutral. Harry eventually decided to sit
himself between two boys, both first years and both not looking at him
distrustfully.

He remained silent as the sorting finished, McGonagall put the stool and
hat away, and the Headmaster stood up.

"Welcome students, to a new year at Hogwarts, May you fill your heads
with wisdom and your bellies with food. Tuck in."

As soon as he finished, the golden plates on the tables filled with a vast
array of succulent looking foods. Harry inwardly marvelled at the vast
mountains of meats and piles of parsnips. Imitating the rest of the house
he reached forward and spooned a generous helping onto his plate.

"Excuse me?" Harry turned to the boy next to him,

"Yes?" Harry responded carefully

"I'm Charles Warrington."

"Harry Potter, How can I help you Charles?" The boy gave a somewhat
nervous smile,

"It's just I heard you lived with Muggles, that must have been awful!"
Harry smiled, thankful that he had skimmed over those books on
Wizarding customs in Flourish and Blotts.

"Now Charles, forgive me If I am wrong, but you must be a pureblood?" at

the boys slow nod, Harry continued,
"Yes, I lived with Muggles, and whilst it was certainly not pleasant, it was
neither what you might call awful." The boy looked at Harry puzzled.

"What I mean is that the Muggles did not understand me. They didn't
know magic, and as such were confused as to why bad things happened to
them when they displeased me. Humans fear what they don't understand,
and they didn't understand me. However when you fear something, you
tend not to antagonize it. They left me be for the most part. Some needed
to learn a lesson in discretion from time to time however." Charles nodded
looking slightly puzzled, whilst an older boy, Harry guessed 15 or 16
looked at Harry interested.

The conversation continued, and the first years near Harry introduced
themselves. The boys he was sat next to were Charles Warrington and
Terrence Higgs, then there were two other boys, Marcus Flint and Aiden
Montague. The girls of Harry's year had yet to introduce themselves to
Harry, but he figured there was time for that later.

The Feast eventually ran to a close and Harry followed the other first years
down to their common room.

"This stretch of wall is what stands between our common room, our
sanctuary and the rest of the school. It is protected by a password. The
easiest way to remember which patch of wall is the common room is that
if you look closely in the top right corner, you will see a carving of the
Slytherin crest."

The Prefect who had introduced herself as Bonnie Moran paused. First
Years heads all looked up and saw what she spoke of.

"This Year the Password is champions, as the house has so far managed to
maintain possession of the quidditch cup for 2 years and the House cup for
3. Passwords tend to change every couple of weeks."

The wall slid open silently and the awed first years filed in. Harry took a
moment to look around the spacious common room. The walls were made
of sheer grey stone, and the ceiling was quite low, however there was a
pleasant light filtering over the room and lots of comfortable looking sofas
and arm chairs. Harry thought it all looked magnificent, he could see
himself being very comfortable here.

Most of Slytherin house seemed to be in the room, filling chairs and

leaning casually against the walls.

"Traditionally Professor Snape will address the house on the first night of
the term, he's also the potions professor here and I should warn you, he is
very strict. Always be respectful around him."

"Thank you Miss Moran. That will be all." Several of the first years
jumped at the silky voice that came from just behind them.

"I am professor Severus Snape. Welcome first years, to Slytherin." The

man was tall, thin and his face was framed by lank hair that fair carelessly.
He had a large nose and deep set black eyes that gave nothing away. He
strode to the centre of the room from where he would be visible to
everyone in the room.

"Welcome back Slytherins, I trust you have all had a pleasant summer and
have managed to complete any assigned work. I will not be kind should I
hear any reports of failure." The room was silent, Snape had a talent for
maintaining quiet seemingly without any effort on his part.

"For our new Slytherins, I shall inform you of our House rules, for our old
students, I trust that you shall remember them all very well." Harry almost
smirked, but restrained himself.

"First, Slytherin House enjoys a rather negative reputation from the rest of
the school, however we must display a united front. The other houses will
be rather unwilling to go against any of you if they believe you have the
rest of your house ready to support you." Harry could accept that, it made
sense, and he believed that he would need all the help he could get
considering his reception from the rest of the school at dinner.
"Second, Slytherin does not openly judge its members for what they could
not choose. Except of course if you're a muggle" The students laughed and
Snape let the noise continue for a moment before raising a hand and
immediately restoring quiet. "This means that whatever your politics,
wherever your sympathies lie, whatever your Fathers may have done," he
looked at several members of the house intently, before finally resting on
Harry, who met his gaze freely, "Slytherin will not ostracize you."

He finished his speech before turning to the first years. "My office is down
the hall, my door is always open to my snakes should you have need of
me, that does not mean you may speak to me because you miss your
mother, or any other ridiculous notions other houses perhaps enjoy." He
gazed at them all for a few moments more before gliding to the door,

"Mr Potter, with me if you please." He motioned for Harry to walk before
him and together they left the common room.

"Mr Potter, It would be remise of me not to warn you to expect some

hostility from this school. I shouldn't have to tell you that your family
name is not exactly the best in the business, however prove yourself to the
school, to your house that you are worthy of being here and they may
come to accept you"

"Yes Sir, I understand"

"Good, and Mr Potter, like it or not, thanks to your father you have
something of a reputation here. Other teachers and other students will be
watching you far more closely than they would any other student,
therefore if you are planning anything… not in line with the rules, you had
best ensure you do it out of sight of the rest of the students and faculty."
Snape was looking at him intently and Harry understood the gravity of the
situation.

"Professor, I have no intention of gaining anymore of a reputation than

you say I already have, that being said, I will not curb my education and
activities because of my father. I am not James Potter." The tall professor
nodded approvingly before turning and leaving, gliding silently away.
Harry sighed, running a hand through his unkempt hair before turning to
the wall and speaking the password, as before it slid aside on silent hinges.

The rest of the first years had taken seats around the roaring fire, and
Harry was pleased to note that they had left a pillow empty for him. As
Harry sat down one of the girls spoke up,

"Now we're all here, I thought it might be a nice idea to introduce

ourselves. After all we are going to be housemates for seven years, it
would do us good to make friends early." The girl who spoke was short,
with long light brown hair falling down her back. "I'll go first shall I?"
Seeing no argument, she started.

"My name is Olivia Moran, you already met my sister Bonnie. I live in
Donegal in Ireland and like music" Harry thought this a pleasant enough
exercise and continued to listen as the rest of the girls introduced
themselves.

There was Clara Montague who he learned was half Spanish, then Georgia
Hart who loved to sing, finally there was Honoria Vasiley, who hated her
name and wanted to be called Honour. After the girls had their bit, they
looked expectantly at the boys, Terrence went first, then Marcus Flint, who
Harry learned had a passion for Quidditch, Charles Warrington, and then
Graham Montague, who was Clara's twin brother, despite not looking
anything like her.

Finally all eyes turned to Harry, who cleared his throat. "My name is Harry
Potter, I grew up in a muggle orphanage near London, and I like strategy
games like chess."

Introductions out of the way the nine eleven year olds began chatting, and
the topic, as Harry had expected, soon got onto his Father.

"I didn't know him, and thanks to my upbringing, I don't even know who
he betrayed, the books I read were too vague." The other children nodded
understandingly. Harry watched Clara and Graham look at each other for a
few seconds before Clara turned to him
"It's terrible that a wizard from such an ancient family as yours should be
forced to grow up with Muggles. But don't worry Harry, me and Graham
will teach you everything you need to know."

"Graham and I" her brother rebuked mockingly, Clara just stuck her tongue
out.

"Now Hold on!" cried out Flint, "Why should you teach him, your family
has been neutral for ever and spent most of the last century in Spain, Harry
will need a teacher from a fine British Family!" several of the others
nodded, It appeared that a full blown argument was going to break out,

"Do I not get a say in this?" asked Harry and his year mates paused to look
at him.

"Sorry Harry, would you like us to teach you in the ways of magical
culture and Politics?" asked Clara sweetly, her brother just rolled his eyes.

"Well, I would like to be taught certainly. But I want only the best teacher."
Almost immediately the entire group except for Honour starting
clamouring to be the one to teach him. Harry smiled and let them sort the
matter out themselves. After a few minutes of them all arguing Harry
stood up.

"Why don't you sort this out between yourselves, I must go study for
tomorrows lessons." He walked away, leaving the others still arguing, he
made his way over to the steps to the boys dorms and had almost made it
when a hand grabbed his arm.

"That was impressive Potter, almost artful to watch." Harry smiled up at

the girl who had his bicep in her firm grasp. She was incredibly beautiful,
tall with dark blonde hair reaching mid back. Her face was flawless and
perfectly proportioned. But Harry missed all of this, he was too entranced
by her eyes. They were a bright, almost unnatural blue, and cold as Ice.

"My name is Miranda Rookwood, We have something in common Potter."

She whispered quietly,
"And what might that be Miss Rookwood?"

"Well Potter, we both have Fathers locked in Azkaban." Her answer

surprised him, but he did at least now understand why she would seek him
out.

"Oh, I see. Now may I ask what you found so impressive?" Miranda
laughed, his question seemed to genuinely delight her,

"Perfect, oh Mr Potter, You will be fun to have around, I was simply

referring to the beautiful manipulation of your new year-mates. People
who barely know you arguing over who gets to spend time with you. Most
enjoyable" Harry smirked, he liked it when his work was appreciated.

"You remind me a lot of myself Potter, when I joined this school most of
the teachers wanted nothing to do with me, and students tried to curse me
in the halls." She paused "I imagine you have that to look forward to
tomorrow. But if you like, I can show you how to overcome that" She
smirked at him, he narrowed his eyes at her.

"And what is your reputation now?" Harry asked, Miranda smiled widely,
flashing very even and very white teeth,

"Now Mr Potter? Now I'm top of my year, respected throughout all the
upper years and feared by the younger. In four years I have turned what
could have been hell on earth into a paradise." This gave Harry pause. He
shook his arm loose from her grip and slowly walked over to a sofa. He sat
down and quirked an eyebrow at her. Miranda smiled at him again, before
walking over, her hips swaying with exaggerated motion. Harry's lips
twitched.

"Well then Miss Rookwood, May I inquire as to what caused such a

dramatic turnaround?"

The girl paused, looking down at her hands which were neatly folded in
her lap. For the first time she seemed to be thinking about the best way to
answer his question. Eventually her Icy blue eyes found his again.
"It's simple Mr Potter, I showed the rest of this school that I was the
meanest, toughest and most ruthless bitch in this place, and that crossing
me would be a very bad idea." They gazed each other in the eye again, his
green eyes cold and calculating, hers blue and ruthlessly cunning.

Eventually he slowly proffered his hand. "I think..." he allowed a small

smirk to grace his lips "this could be the start of a beautiful relationship
Miss Rookwood." The girl's eyes for the first time showed some emotion,
and she smiled almost maliciously.

"Meet me here tomorrow after supper. Bring your wand." She elegantly
rose, her hand gently brushed across his face before she laughed softly and
walked away, her entire body swaying enticingly. The words 'Deal with the
Devil' briefly crossed his mind before he shook such notions from his
mind, and finally making it to the sanctuary of his dorm room.

The next day, at supper, Harry had the chance to reflect on his first day of
classes, as both Professor Snape and Miranda had predicted, neither
teacher nor student had been kind to him, Students from other houses had
always given him a wide berth, and in classes Harry often heard whispers
about the traitors son or words to that effect.

The teachers, with the exception of Professor Snape and Professor Sprout
had been acting as though he didn't exist, refusing to answer his questions
and not letting him answer there's. Whilst most of his mind continued to
seethe in anger at the injustice of being judged because of someone else, a
small part revelled in the challenge of increasing his self-image and
popularity. It was the most difficult game he had ever played and he
thoroughly looked forward to all the intrigue.

The classes themselves had been rather dull for Harry, So far he had had
Potions, Herbology, transfiguration and charms. The two wand based
classes had been theory, theory which Harry had all but memorized weeks
ago, Herbology and Potions Harry thought went hand in hand, as Professor
Sprout taught them the individual properties of each plant, whilst Snape
taught the interaction of each plant with another, or in a cocktail of
different specimens. Harry thought the two classes could develop into
something much more interesting.

During his musings Harry had missed the fact that his new housemates had
joined him at the table. He gifted on them a rare smile, before going back
to his delicious Lasagne.

"Harry, we have decided who will teach you everything you've missed
about the Wizarding world." Harry looked at them with a quirked eyebrow,

"We will!" Clara chirped, her brother who was next to her rolled his eyes
and sighed,

"What she means, Harry, is that we all will, we thought we could form a
study group, work on homework and the like, as well as getting you up to
speed." Harry nodded,

"That sounds really excellent you guys, thanks for this, I promise to be a
good learner." The others laughed,

"So we were thinking of having our first meeting tonight, after supper?"
Harry shook his head,

"Sorry guys, I already promised to meet Miranda tonight." Charles

frowned,

"Miranda?"

"Miranda Rookwood, she's in her fourth year." The 8 first years looked
surprised,

"But, my sister told me that she's a pyscho, and knows more Dark Arts
than most of the seventh years! Are you sure that you want to hang out
with her… alone?" Olivia said quickly.

"She's right Harry," added Higgs, "one of the 7th years told me that she
once put half the Ravenclaw fifth years into the Hospital Wing, she takes
after her father I'm telling you!"

"I can assure you that those Ravenclaws deserved it. Besides Terence
Higgs, didn't your parents tell you not to judge people prematurely, it can
lead to… painful results." Higgs paled as he felt a warm hand upon his
shoulder.

"Good evening Miranda." Harry said, a hint of warning in his voice,

Miranda's answering smirk displayed just how unintimidated she was,

with reason Harry supposed, he was woefully ignorant in magic.

"I had come by to ask if you were ready to go Potter, but evidently your
new… friends, would prefer I didn't." She gazed at him speculatively.

"I do not break my promises Rookwood, I am ready if you are." She

smirked and motioned with her head. Harry stood and the two of them left
the hall, not paying any heed to the stares that were directed at them,
some, mostly from Harry's new friends were concerned, others,
particularly Dumbledore, watched Harry's choice of companion with a
degree of concern.

After a few minutes of navigating the dark halls of the dungeons, the two
of them found themselves in a disused potions laboratory, Miranda swept
the desks to one side and conjured 2 comfortable looking chairs. Harry
supressed his desire to question her on how such magic worked, he
assumed he would learn it eventually.

"What did you expect me to teach you tonight Harry?" Miranda asked after
she had settled herself in the seat opposite him, one leg crossed elegantly,
her back straight. Harry didn't answer for a second, gazing at the empty
blackboard behind her.

"I have experienced the pettiness of my year mates and teachers, I had
hoped you would show me an effective way of stopping them from doing
anything too… excessive."
"A good answer, and what I had initially planned to show you." Harry
nodded his head appreciatively.

"Potter, I…"

"Call me Harry, It makes this feel less formal."

"And you are looking for something less formal?" Harry chuckled,

"I have had a great deal of experience, both today and before Hogwarts of
people hiding insults behind formal language. I had hoped that we could
pass beyond such tedious behaviour."

The blond said nothing, merely gazing at him speculatively. She

straightened a small crease on her blouse before responding,

"Potter, part of winning this fight is to be better at such subtleties as your

opponents. If you thought I would only show you how to defend yourself
from physical assaults, perhaps I overestimated you." This gave Harry
pause, he had hoped to be shown how to defend himself, but his mind
quickly accepted the validity of Miranda's words, he could hardly use
violence every time a professor belittled him.

"So you show me how to beat them at Politics and word games?" Miranda
nodded pleased,

"Correct, however that is not all, your typical boorish Gryffindor first year
will not be cowed by harsh words, in this situation violence is necessary,
harsh measures must be meted out to destroy any opposition to your
progress." Harry nodded. Everything she had said so far made excellent
sense.

"I am not discussing the typical spells that a first year might use. To stop
these attacks you must prove yourself to be the meanest and cruellest out
there. I am saying spells that rend flesh and break bone must be
employed."
This gave Harry pause, and he wondered if maybe he was in over his head,
it was after all only his first day and he was already contemplating dark,
violent and most probably illegal magic's, he considered walking out, but
then he looked into the beautiful girls eyes.

He looked into her eyes, and for the first time saw something behind the
ice cold exterior. He saw fear. He imagined the first year girl, who barely
knew her father yet was violently attacked by strangers for his actions.
That would ruin someone, he thought. Miranda learnt this because it was
the only way he reasoned, and her father is not anywhere near as infamous
as mine. He needed this so he would not turn into her.

"Very well Miss Rookwood, I am ready to learn whatever you deem

appropriate."

Miranda smiled and for the first time since he had met her, he thought she
looked pleased.

Over the next few months, Harry's life found itself in a taxing, but
enjoyable schedule. He spent most of his free time in the library, where the
librarian Madam Pince, prevented anyone from speaking loudly or using
magic and thus he was safe from the many who wished to do him harm.
His lessons continued to be slow and rather dull, but Harry was diligent,
often coming top of his class in Charms and Transfiguration. He thought
he deserved the top spot in Defence against the Dark Arts, however the
teacher, Professor Diggle, was one of those who had fought against
Voldemort in the first war, seemed determined to punish Harry whenever
possible, often mocking him because of his father and generally being
antagonistic.

As per the advice he had received in his evening lessons with Miranda, he
had not responded, she had informed him of the results of going into an
argument and losing, it would result in his loss of respect, and respect, she
never hesitated to remind him was something he had very little of in the
first place.
The other first years had been incredibly patient with Harry and he would
now describe them as friends. Every day, for two hours after lunch, they
would sit around a table in the Library, studying and finishing homework,
and then spend the last 30 minutes teaching Harry the nuances of
pureblood culture. After three weeks of this, Harry was up to speed with
the basics of Wizarding politics and customs, as well as correct procedure
in various situations Harry could find himself. So this time became used
instead for chatting, topics covering everything from Wizarding sports to
music.

When the Christmas holidays arrived, Harry truly felt that he belonged,
perhaps not in Hogwarts, but certainly in Slytherin, some of his professors,
such as Flitwick and Sinistra, had overcome their initial suspicion
concerning him, and in the case of Flitwick, now treating Harry like he
was some kind of Prodigy at his subject, which suited Harry fine.

On the evening of December 14th, three and a half months after joining
the school, Harry was sat opposite the Montague Siblings playing them at
chess. Whilst the two were good, and seemed to have a psychic link
considering how in tune with each they were, Harry was managing to beat
them relatively easily.

"Surprise Potter, Check!" crowed Clara jubilantly. Harry was casually

lounging on his chair, his eyes surveying the board. The moving pieces of
the House chess set were looking up at him hopefully, so far as their
general he had yet to lead them astray.

"Rook to A5" Harry dictated, the pieces moved accordingly, Clara scowled
as her bishop was destroyed.

"Knight to B4, Check." Graham said, he was far more introverted than
Clara and watched the board nervously, undoubtedly concerned by their
surprising good fortune thus far.

Harry's face revealed nothing as he continued to spin his trap, leading the
siblings into a sense of security with small sacrifices of irrelevant and
expendable pieces. Before long the inevitable happened.
"Queen to D1" Clara called triumphantly, Harry finally allowed a smirk to
cross his features.

"Queen to D1" Harry said in a passable imitation of the half Spanish girl.

"I do not speak like that Harry, now shut up and make your move!" Harry
held her gaze until Graham nudged his sibling.

"Clara, he made his move…" Clara's triumphant expression faltered as she

looked at the board in time to see her queen being knocked off the board,
her expression fell as she looked at Harry.

"Checkmate."

"Potter, don't look so smug you insufferable bastard!" Clara cried,

springing up from the board

"Language Miss Montague." Rebuked Professor Snape as he walked

through the door to the common room, Clara quieted her tirade but
remained glowering at Harry

"Now Slytherins, I have the list here for people who are going home for
the Christmas Holidays, please form a queue so I may take your names if
this includes you." When he finished, most of the house filed towards the
man, Only Harry remained in his year, none of the second or third years,
Miranda and a fourth year boy and then several students who didn't want
to be distracted from exam preparation in the upper years.

He left them to it, plucking a book he was currently half way through from
his book bag, "shields and counter jinxes, a beginner's guide to defensive
magic" by Wilbur Slye, It didn't teach anything dangerous or effective in a
duel, but Miranda had stressed that wand magic required a strong
foundation before learning anything more advanced.

He perused the book as his year mates returned and went back to their
activities, occasionally he earmarked a page for later review but mostly
just read in silence.
Three days later and Hogwarts felt empty, there were perhaps forty
students remaining and Harry was enjoying the break in glares and
whispers that were no longer following him everywhere he went.

Harry was walking back from lunch that afternoon, making his way down
a narrow staircase he turned a corner, only to see a flash of electric blue
light come into contact with his chest, tripping jinx he had time to think,
just before he collided with the stone steps hard and fell crashing to the
bottom of the stairs.

His body hurt, and his head felt dizzy, he lay there for a moment, trying to
shake the dust out of his head, he opened his eyes, eight feet were in front
of his face, he blinked, and realised he was seeing double, four feet. 2
people.

He tried to rise, but one of his assailants feet came down hard on his hand,
he cried out as he felt bone break. Clutching his hand to his chest, he rose
unsteadily to his feet, facing the two boys, He didn't recognise them, but
could tell they were Ravenclaw fourth years.

"Why aren't you at home Potter?" asked the first, his friend chuckled,

"That's right, you don't have a home do you?" Harry said nothing, he had
very few options at this point. Miranda had taught him a few spells, but
they were fairly basic and would not incapacitate effectively, considering
they had already attacked him, Harry also thought it unlikely he could talk
his way out of it. He scowled, hadn't he promised himself to not let
himself become weak? Failure was not an option.

"I'm surprised that they even let you into the school, but then again,
Dumbledore is a great wizard, you must be his charity case." These words
almost made Harry lose his self-control, he was no one's charity case, and
he would teach the world to fear his name one day.

"Not so talkative are you Potter? Anyway, I'm afraid this is going to hurt.
Quite a lot, which is too bad really." The boys laughed and the first
levelled his wand "Chaura!"
The jet of blue light of the burning curse, designed to make the victim feel
like he was burning, but not leave any physical signs, struck Harry in the
shoulder. Immediately, he felt as if his skin was melting, and he cried out,
his legs buckled out underneath him and he collapsed to the floor.

The agony was terrible, but Harry was used to pain, he tried to remember
that it wasn't real pain, but it didn't have much effect, it felt like he was
under the torture for hours, although in reality it was only a few moments.
Eventually the spell was released and Harry lay there panting, his hair was
stuck to his sweaty face, and his palms were bleeding from where his nails
had cut into them making fists.

"You alright Potter?" asked the second Ravenclaw, a slight grin on his face.
"I think He's fine mate, hit him again!" the first boy grinned and raised his
wand again.

"Chaura!" Harry watched as if in slow motion as the blue spell sped

towards his face, however before it struck him, it was intercepted by a pale
green shield, which flared briefly as it absorbed the spell.

"Davies and Bradley. Torturing first years now hmm?" The two fourth
years turned, and paled immediately. Before them stood Miranda, Her
wand was drawn and held loosely at her side, her face was relaxed and
beautiful as always, but her eyes promised vicious retribution.

"This doesn't concern you Rookwood." The one named Bradley said,
though his voice shook with fear.

"Come over here Harry." Her voice was soft, but it was definitely a
command, Harry stood on trembling legs, and limped over to his saviour.
"I had been meaning to give you a demonstration of exactly how to
incapacitate an opponent, and Thomas and Steven have kindly decided to
oblige us, thank our volunteers Harry." She looked at him expectantly.

"Thank you." Harry said as politely as he could, but his voice wavered.
Miranda bestowed a quick concerned look at him. The first of its kind
Harry mused.
"Now Harry, the most important part is preparation, first we prepare the
patient." Faster than his eye could follow, the blonde girls wand sped
through the air, two jets of red light leaving its tip. The boys crumped at
once.

"Next we prepare the surroundings, in this case with a silencing charm, we

wouldn't want anyone to hear us and come investigating." Her wand sped
through the air again, the charm went up, and then Miranda woke up the
two boys.

"Thomas, Steven, wakey wakey" she said mockingly, the Ravenclaws

struggled to their feet, eyes on Miranda nervously.

"Ossus Fragmentum." The dark grey coloured curse struck them in the
knees and they both fell, screams silenced by the ward.

"That was a bone breaker, it can be lethal, or just used to incapacitate."

Miranda lectured, whilst Harry watched in fascination. "Next, the
bombarda spell, this is just a concussive curse, and not quite as powerful
as the Reductor curse."

"Bombarda!" she cried, it hit each boy in the face, resulting in a spray of
blood from their noses.

"Now then, to finish I think we should give them a taste of their own
medicine, What Harry is the purpose of the Chaura curse?"

"It makes the victim feel like they are burning alive" Harry responded,
voice more steady now.

"Good, Chaura." The boys flailed on the floor, whilst Harry watched
dispassionately, It was like Miranda had said, if punishment wasn't severe
and immediate, they would just do it again. There was no place for mercy
or forgiveness in Harry's world.

A few minutes later, Harry and Miranda were in the Infirmary, "What
seems to be the matter Miss Rookwood?" asked the Healer.
"It's Harry Professor, someone set upon him in the dungeons, I'm not sure
what they did, but I thought it best to bring him up her." Harry was almost
shocked at Miranda, her voice was nothing but concern and kindness,
whilst her face showed earnest fear for Harry. Not that he believed it,
Miranda was a survivor, and to Harry's benefit, she was apparently
working for his survival too,

"You did the right thing Miss Rookwood, 5 points to Slytherin for taking
the time to help Mr Potter. Now let's see," she waved her wand in a
complicated series of gestures, paused then waved it again, before running
the tip up and down Harry, as her scans progressed, her eyebrows rose
steadily higher.

"Mr Potter, It's a miracle you are still standing, concussion, 2 cracked ribs,
3 shattered bones In your hand and a concussion, that's just the physical
damage, you have the burst capillaries and high blood pressure typical of
someone who has undergone magical torture," Miranda scowled, her Icy
eyes glaring out the window.

The Matronly healer bustled off to get some potions, and Miranda helped
Harry over to a bed. She didn't say anything, but she rested her hand
protectively on his shoulder, and from his closed off Slytherin companion,
that was as good as a hug.

Madam Pumfrey returned shortly with 5 vials of Potions, "Drink these,"

she said handing him 3 " then go and get some sleep, take the next two
when you wake up, please come and see me tomorrow morning, just for a
checkup." After promising he would, he downed the vile tasting potions
before walking back with Miranda to their common room.

"This won't happen again Harry, We will get them to leave you alone, just
like they leave me alone." Miranda murmured, Harry smirked up at her.

"Never knew you cared Rookwood" the older girl sniffed, but didn't
remove her hand from his shoulder.

"Slytherin looks out for her own."

Christmas morning dawned, and with it, the first snow of the year, Harry
woke up from a rather uncomfortable sleep to discover that he had
managed to fall asleep on one of the sofas in the common room.

He awoke to see a pair of enormous green eyes just in front of his face. He
gave a startled yell, and the creature yelped frightfully, falling off of him
onto the sofa.

"Middy is Sorry Master, Middy is sorry!" its voice was slightly high
pitched and it's looked terrified,

"Are you a house elf Middy?" Harry asked, he had heard that they were the
creatures who maintained the school and took care of the students but he
was yet to meet them.

"That is correct master sir, can Middy return to her duties?" Harry nodded
before standing. He stretched out his shoulders and back, sighing in relief
as the bunched muscles and tight joints popped. Twenty minutes later he
was in the Great Hall, it was empty except for the Headmaster and
Professor Diggle, who were engrossed in their own conversations.

The rest of Harry's morning passed rather slowly, he sent out letters to all
of his year mates, including Honour Vaisley, who had never been
particularly friendly with him, He would have liked to send gifts as well,
but that was hardly an option considering his financial state, hopefully his
friends would understand. The rest of the morning he spent in the Library,
his nose deep in several texts concerning advanced transfiguration.

Miranda had told him that Battle Transfiguration was easily some of the
most effective ways to disable someone, however it required immense
concentration. Harry sighed, whilst his proficiency with a wand was now
well ahead of his year mates, He was still only a first year. And any
opponent with a modicum of experience would not be defeated by his
limited variety of spells.

Miranda had been magnificent in her assault on the two Ravenclaws, and
he wished that he could get to be that powerful, to have those boys look at
him with the same looks of fear that they had looked at him with.
Following the incident with Bradley and Davies, Harry had been called
into Snape's office. Miranda was already there, looking perfectly innocent
and confused as to the nature of why she had been called to see Snape.

"Mr Potter, I trust you are feeling better after your incident yesterday?"
Snape had asked, his eyes on Harry,

"Yes thank you Professor, whatever was in those potions worked

miracles." Snape's lip quirked,

"They were a bone regrowth draughts and a few potions designed to reduce
any swelling in the brain, for your information Harry." The raven haired
first year suppressed a smile and nodded his head appreciatively.

"Now I have called you here, because yesterday afternoon, two Ravenclaw
fourth years, Thomas Davies and Steven Bradley were attacked, much like
you were Harry, only far worse. As you were also attacked, I had hoped
you may have any information on the matter." Harry schooled his face into
confused uncertainty.

I'm afraid not sir, I didn't see who attacked me, and Miss Rookw…
Miranda arrived a few minutes after they left, so she wouldn't have seen
anything." Snape didn't say anything, and Harry almost smirked,

"Surely you don't mean to suggest that I attacked them as some sort of
Revenge attack? I wouldn't be able to do anything to fourth years!" Snape
curled his lip and was silent for a few moments.

"Indeed." He paused and his gaze switched to Miranda, "Miss Rookwood,

your time at Hogwarts has been dogged by those who wronged you ending
up in the infirmary, am I to simply chalk this latest incident up to
coincidence also?" The Blonde sniffed, her chin held in a regal pose,

"I simply helped an injured student, The halls can get dangerous Professor,
we may never know what happened, I assume Davies and Bradley said
nothing?" Snape nodded to her question, and the ghost of a smile flit
across her beautiful face.

"You may go Miss Rookwood, Mr Potter, and do try to look after

yourselves."

Harry smiled as he remembered the incident. Snape obviously knew it was

them, but with no way of proving it, he would not investigate. Revenge
was the Slytherin way.

Christmas lunch that day was a loud affair, and Harry had a wonderful
time, even though there was only one other first year present, a loud
mouthed Gryffindor named McClaggen. None of the other houses seemed
interested in talking with the Slytherins, most of whom looked surly at the
childish antics going on around them. Dumbledore wore a flowery
pinafore, whilst he had won from a cracker, whilst Professor Flitwick had
wrapped a neon blue cloak around his diminutive shoulders.

That afternoon, when they got back to the common room, Harry was
delighted to discover a small pile of Presents sat upon his usual desk at the
corner of the room, He had never received presents from people who
mattered to him, and he wasted no time in ripping off the paper.

From the Montague siblings he had received a wizard's chess set, the
pieces far more decorated than the house set had been, from Warrington
and Flint, he had received a selection of Wizarding sweets, and Olivia
Moran had given him a book on great Quidditch moves, He had sat next to
her at the first Quidditch game in which her sister Bonnie played as
Slytherins star chaser, Olivia had patiently explained the rules and some
basic strategies, Harry had listened interested.

One gift that had been a surprise was from Cedric Diggory, he and Harry
had spoken a few times since the term began, but Hufflepuff house didn't
seem to trust Harry one bit, and Cedric seemed under pressure to distance
himself from Harry. However Cedrics gift was more than welcome, an
elegant Notebook, bound in Black leather and embossed with his initials in
gold.
Hi final gift was from his unofficial mentor, Miranda had given him a
black bound book with the words "Concealment and detection" by A.
Sinistrum, Harry had flicked through the book and very much looked
forward to finishing it properly.

The next few days, Harry got into a rather pleasant routine, He and
Miranda would continue to discuss how to out talk any would be bully,
whilst also teaching him duelling and offensive spells. Following the
attack by Davies and Bradley, Miranda had thrown herself into improving
Harry, they now spent four of five hours each day working on magic,
recently too, she had begun to teach him the basics of the Dark Arts, spells
powered by negative emotions. They were hard certainly, but when he cast
dark magic, Harry felt a rush of Elation and power, it was intoxicating.

In the Evenings, Harry had taken to reading Olivia's book on Quidditch,

and carelessly noting down Quidditch plays in his new notebook. He found
the concept of strategies when each player was mounted on a broom far
more difficult than he had expected, and he relished the challenge.

The evening before the rest of the school came back for the new term,
Harry was to be found curled up on the sofa in front of the fire, journal in
one hand, quill in the other, scribbling down ideas and diagrams for the
Quidditch pitch. At his feet sat Miranda, who sat as elegantly as always,
her blonde hair slightly damp following a recent shower. She was reading a
book on advanced potions, and seemed rather uninterested by it.

Soon before the bell for Curfew rang, Harry was surprised when he felt
someone hug him from behind, he jumped, his focus had been entirely on
his journal, and he turned around, surprised to see Olivia.

"Surprise Harry, Bonnie and I arrived back today! How was Christmas?"
asked the brown haired girl,

"Fine thank you, thank you for your gift, I've already read it" The girl
blushed at his compliment,
"Thank you for your letter, I hope you weren't too lonely Harry." As she
said this, her eyes fell on Miranda, who pointedly kept her eyes on the
book in her hands.

"I've been very happy, it's been nice, almost relaxing." The girl smiled and
gestured to the journal in Harry's hand,

"What are you working on there? It looks like Quidditch." Harry gave a
delicate shrug of his shoulders

"its a few strategies and such I've come up with, nothing exciting, just a
way to fill up my time." Olivia grabbed the book from his hand, ignoring
his protests, she leafed through the pages, brows furrowed as she read what
was on them.

"Bonnie, Check this out" she called to her sister, who was chatting to some
of her fifth year friends, Harry tried to protest, reaching out to snatch the
book back from his friend, but the girl just danced out of reach, laughing
at his attempts. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Miranda smirking at
his futile efforts and sighed. Sitting back down and awaiting the book to be
returned to him.

"These are good Liv, where did you get them from?" Bonnie asked, Olivia
just jerked her head in Harry's direction, the Brown haired Prefect looked
back down at the book in her hands, before shouting "Urquhart!"

The enormous figure of Julian Urquhart, Slytherins Quidditch captain and

beater lumbered into view, despite his vast muscles and intimidating
demeanour, Harry knew him to be personable and very intelligent. He had
captained Slytherin for three years, and had one each time, quite a record
in most peoples opinion.

"What is it Moran?" asked the 6"4 captain. Comparatively, the lithe and
athletic Bonnie looked like a child.

"Potter wrote out a few Quidditch plays. I thought you might want to take
a look. They're good" Urquhart grunted, but took the book, he read silently
for a few minutes before looking up at Harry.

"I'm borrowing this Potter. I'll give it back later." Harry nodded dumbly,
before turning to Olivia,

"See what you do to me?!" The girl giggled, before collapsing down on the
sofa next to him, and launching forth into a tale of her Christmas.

With the end of Christmas, the Easter term began. Harry quickly fell back
into his old routine of work and socialising, although now he was expected
to join the Slytherin Quidditch team on the pitch each and every practice
as their tactical advisor. As the effectiveness of Harry's plays became
apparent, his role began to develop into more of a coach, he practically ran
the practices and had even been entrusted with the vaunted Slytherin
Quidditch Play book. Flattering as all this was, it did mean he had very
little time for relaxation.

To make matters worse, Miranda felt that he wasn't spending enough time
working with her, so had responded for increasing the length of their
sessions together, the large amount of magic he expelled during these
sessions always left him tired and sweaty, but he could tell he was
improving fast, and he would always be grateful to the Beautiful blonde
for her help.

In this way, the Easter term flew by, and before Harry knew it the Easter
Holiday was over and summer was upon them. This meant studying for the
exams, preparing for the upcoming Quidditch final against Gryffindor and
also maintaining his excellent academic record.

This was proving to be a Herculanean task, Urquhart was a hard

taskmaster and kept the team for hours at a time practically every day.
However Urquhart's dedication was paying off, the Slytherin team had
improved tremendously and Harry was pleased that it was in part his plays
that had allowed Slytherin to develop so much as a team.

The day before the Quidditch final, Harry and Miranda were in their usual
abandoned classroom. Harry had just learned to properly cast the
Nightmare curse, a dark spell designed to trap the victim with their
nightmares for several hours, and Miranda had decided that this was
enough progress for Harry for one evening.

They were sat on comfortable stool facing the blackboard at the front of
the classroom, simply chatting, which was a rare occurrence for the two of
them.

"What are your plans for the summer then?" Harry asked, he knew about
her father, but other than that Harry knew little of his mentors home life.

"I will be at home, I have an apartment just off Diagon Alley, It will be
nice to escape the constant stress of Hogwarts." Harry hummed his
agreement,

"Do you live with your mother then?"

"No, my mother died when I was very young,"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Miranda scoffed, the most unladylike gesture
Harry had seen from her.

"Don't be, I don't talk about my home life. I live on my own, and that's
how I would like to continue. Will you return to the orphanage?" Harry
sighed, running his hand through his messy hair,

"Unfortunately so, I would give anything to leave, but with my financial

situation, I'm afraid that just wouldn't be possible."

"That's unfortunate, when Father was captured, they confiscated our

money, but left the manor and grounds intact. I sold the house in my
second year, and now live off the money left over." She looked proud of
what she had accomplished, but Harry thought it must be quite lonely on
her own… not that he would ever mention that to the girl, she had a
tendency to get quite temperamental at times.
The conversation paused, stretching into a comfortable silence, before
conversation returned to far safer areas. Such as what McGonagall would
look like when she was denied the Quidditch cup for the third year in a
row.

The game had taken an unexpected turn. Harry was watching the match
keenly, whilst Slytherins chasers were far superior to Gryffindor's, Harry
was frustrated to see that Gryffindors star Seeker Charlie Weasely was
managing to prevent the house of green and silver from using some of
their best moves.

The game was currently 160 – 60, after 40 minutes of play, and at the rate
that the seekers were going, Weasely would be the one to catch the snitch.
Slytherin needed to get a 160 point Margin, or all their hard work would
be for nothing.

He watched in silence for another five minutes, during which Slytherin

scored twice, before his heart sank, The Gryffindor seeker was diving
straight down for the snitch, whilst Perview, Slytherins seeker was at
practically the other end of the pitch.

Slytherins hopes of Quidditch glory however were saved, when a well-

placed bludger from Urquhart struck Charlie on the back, making him lose
concentration and lose sight of the snitch. Harry sighed, that had been too
close.

Signalling to Madam Hooch for a time out, Harry mounted his broom and
sped upwards towards the team.

"And Slytherins uh… coach, Harry Potter has signalled a time out, clearly
that near miss with the snitch has shaken him quite a bit!" came the
announcement over the loudspeaker, Harry tuned it out and looked at each
of his players.

"That was too close, We need to get 40 points before Weasely gets the
snitch, and our current tactic isn't working. Counterattacks are too slow,
we need to get on the offensive, Blake, you're doing fine in front of the
posts, keep at it, you're about to lose some defence, keep a beater playing
defensively to cover him." The players he had mentioned nodded,

"Moran, this is your shot, you can do this, we will play Gauntlet, then
Trident. If they are successful, then carry on with attack pattern 3, we need
those points. Perview, you've got to accept that's he the better seeker, mark
him hard and don't let him lose you, interfere with his game, and don't take
risks." He signalled to Madam Hooch that he was finished and play
resumed.

It became quickly apparent in the following minute that Harry had made
the right call, the team were playing a far more aggressive style, and the
points were showing that it was paying off, within 10 minutes, Slytherin
was 150 points ahead, but Harry was not one to accept a tie.

It seemed however that the fates were against him, as Charlie Weasely and
Nathan Perview were neck and neck, diving towards the fluttering golden
fall, Harry stood from his seat, binoculars trained on the two figures
plummeting down, they were seconds away, both had a hand stretched out,
as they dropped lower, Harry momentarily lost sight of them.

He heard a great roar from the crowd and watched intently as the two
seekers rose up, mere metres from the ground. It was too far to tell facial
expressions, and Harry's heart had risen to his mouth. Then, in a moment
of majestic triumph, Perview raised his closed fist, snared tightly around
the tiny, fluttering golden snitch. Harry let his eyes flit over to the large
scoreboard.

Gryffindor 60, Slytherin 360.

Letting out a woop of Joy, Harry grinned maniacally as the team landed.
The stadium was cheering loudly, even the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs
were seemed caught in the moment, the Gryff's looked put out, but the
Slytherins had lost their usual decorum and were screaming to the
heavens. If one looked closely enough, they would see professor Snape
punch the air in celebration, although he would deny it if anyone ever
asked.
A smiling professor Dumbledore handed Urquhart the golden cup, and the
Slytherin beater raised it in his hands, the Slytherins cheered louder than
ever as the cup was passed from player to player, finally coming to rest
with Perview.

When Harry joined the celebrating team, the seeker handed Harry the
heavy cup with a pat on the back. "Wasn't good enough you were saying eh
Coach?" Harry laughed at the nickname, they had insisted on calling him
that ever since his stratagems had yielded results in their earlier games.

"Party, Slytherin common room tonight." Shouted Moran, the normally

reserved girl flushed in glee. Harry smiled, they deserved a party, no one
had one 3 years in a row for 50 years. 5 years more of victories and they
would have a record.

Following the excitement of the final, the rest of the year passed relatively
dully. Harry felt like he had aced most of his exams, and Miranda had
finally decided that he was skilled enough in intrigue and conversations
that he didn't need her help any more.

That didn't mean he didn't see her, but now they only practiced spellwork
and enjoyed relaxed conversation. Since Harry's revelation, he was now
pretty convinced that Miranda was quite lonely, and enjoyed the
opportunity to speak with someone in a similar position to she had been.
Harry never brought it up, the blonde had taught him the most useful skills
he had gained at Hogwarts, and he was incredibly grateful.

However, all good things must come to an end, and for Harry this meant
returning to the orphanage. He had requested of Professor Snape that he be
allowed to remain at Hogwarts over the summer, but his request had been
denied out of hand. However, as Harry stepped back into his old bedroom,
he supposed that things could have been worse. He had raided the library
of several books, and was determined to return to Hogwarts fully prepared
to start learning advanced magics.
4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

The summer had passed relatively quietly, he had received a few Owls
from his friends and had replied to them quickly. The Montague siblings
had been sending him boxes of sweets and homemade food, they were
convinced that the orphanage didn't feed him enough.

His favourite letters were from Miranda however, she didn't write
regularly, and when she did the messages were always short and to the
point, however the fact that they arrived at all was a great success to Harry,
he would never have expected any correspondence from the incredibly
closed off girl. He always replied with long letters, letting her know just
how insufferable the Orphanage had become after the magnificence of
Hogwarts, and also how tired he became of the constant prattling of the
Muggles.

He had finished his homework the day after his exam results came in, O's
in everything except Herbology (E) Astronomy (A) and History of Magic
(E). He was pleased about this as it gave him time to study the books he
had pilfered from the library. Most of them were on Spells, Intermediate
Transfiguration and charms, the fifth year texts, made sense to Harry, as
did Advanced Defence, which was designed for duellists and his personal
favourite so far Charms: More than just making things float which
provided suggestion on how ordinary charms could be used in a combat
situation.

However, as July ended and August began, Harry's desire to actually

practice magic grew whilst his supply of unread books ran out. On August
the fifth, when Harry awoke, it was to find two owls sitting on the end of
his bed. He blinked tiredly, he sat up and yawned widely. He recognised
the first owl, a handsome tawny belonging to Miranda contained a large
parcel and a letter.
He relieved the Owl of its parcel and it flew off immediately, not waiting
for a reply, the other owl ruffled its feathers importantly, glaring at Harry
as he removed its thick letter embossed with the Hogwarts crest. He sighed
deeply, slitting open the Hogwarts letter, he browsed what it said.

Dear Mr Potter,

We are pleased to inform you have been accepted into your second year of
Magical Education at Hogwarts….

He discarded the first sheet, and looked at the second, a book list. Most of
the books on the list he had already read and learned, maybe he could use
Transfiguration and charms as a chance to improve his own learning…
Not likely considering McGonagall, but still a possibility.

The Parcel from Miranda was interesting to him however. He opened the
letter first, it was typically short, and written in his fourth year friend's
elegant script.

Dear Harry

I imagine that you will have recently received your Hogwarts letter,
therefore if you were interested in shopping together for our things, I
would not be opposed and could be found outside Florean Fortescue's at
midday tomorrow.

This book is one I would recommend learning, If my suspicions are

correct, it will defend you from both Professor Snape and the Headmaster.

Regards

Miranda Rookwood.

Harry resisted the urge to snort ungracefully at the letter, only Miranda
would ever write something like that. However he missed his friends (not
that she would ever admit they were friends) dry wit and arrogant self-
assurance. He would meet her tomorrow.
Turning to the package, he ripped off the brown travel paper to discover a
thick and ancient looking book: Defending your mind: The Complete guide
to Occlumency. He read through the foreword, and thanked Miranda in his
head, If Dumbledore and Snape could truly use the skill legillimency, then
learning this skill became imperative and took priority over all his other
thought.

The rest of that day was spent trying to learn Occlumency, however he
quickly discovered there was a reason the book for this skill was so thick,
it was not a skill to learn overnight. The first step required him to clear his
mind of any thoughts, which was itself very difficult. Whenever he nearly
got there, his brain celebrated and he had to start over.

By the end of the first day he had made no progress, but, he reasoned, he
had a month to develop the skill, hopefully that would be enough.

The next day Harry met Miranda just outside Florean Fortescue's. She was
sitting in one of the outside booths, a copy of The Daily Prophet elegantly
folded over her arm and a steaming cup of white coffee in front of her.
Harry took the seat opposite her at 10.55, and she looked up at him with a
small smile.

"Good Morning Harry." She offered politely.

"Good Morning, Thank you for the book, I only wish you had shown it to
me earlier!" Miranda inclined her head slightly,

"I would have, however your magic wasn't developed enough, I imagine
you will find it difficult to manage even now, however I won't show you
any of the more interesting spells in my repertoire until you have it
mastered." Harry could see the sense in that, she was taking a risk in him
every time she showed him something illegal.

"Would you like anything sir?" asked a waiter, and Harry idly ordered a
Latté, emptying his money bag completely to pay. Miranda quirked an
eyebrow at him with a hint of laughter ghosting over her lips. Harry
scowled at her, hiding the conspicuously empty money bag under the
table.

They sat in silence for a little while, occasionally breaking it for questions
on the others holiday so far, but aside from that it was comfortable quiet.
When both had finished their respective drinks, Miranda dabbed her lips
with a napkin and stood up, Harry quickly followed suit and the two of
them walked over to the large white Marble structure of Gringotts, they
stepped up to one of the free tellers, Harry showed his key and was given a
new bag of galleons, this one he was told containing 55 Galleons, he didn't
comment, grateful for the small increase.

Miranda was taken to her vault, whilst Harry waited in the foyer and when
she returned, the two of them began to shop, Because he had no need to
purchase a wand, scales or Telescope like last year, Harry was able to
spend far more in the book shop. Thus when he left, his bags were full, in
addition to his school purchases, he had added So you think you can duel?,
Useful spells every man should know, Taking the fight to the enemy, An
introduction to Runes, What you can get from Wards and many more, A
most productive session, they went through the Apocathery quickly, and by
1.30 had finished their shopping.

"Lunch Harry?" Miranda asked when his belly has rumbled, Harry nodded
as his tummy gave another rumble.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked, eyes looking up and down the street,

"I thought we could go to my apartment, I have plenty of food there for

both of us." Harry looked at her in surprise. She had never been
forthcoming about her home life, and often denied letting him see her
spell journal, so the idea of letting him see her house, which was hers and
hers alone, was certainly a milestone in their friendship.

"That uh, that would be lovely Miranda. Thank you." She nodded,
distractedly and together the two of them headed down Diagon Alley, they
reached Latter Alley, and she took him towards a grand looking four storey
house.
"My Apartment is on the fourth floor" she told him as she took him up the
steps, when they reached what Harry assumed must be her door, she
paused, hand poised on the door knob, but after a few seconds she opened
the door to him, revealing her home within.

Harry's immediate reaction was that it was exactly what he had expected.
Spartanly decorated, the furnishings and walls were all shades of beige and
cream. They had entered into what Harry assumed to be her sitting room,
through a door to his right he could see a bedroom, not a thing out of
place, and to the left a kitchen. Straight ahead of him were wide open
windows, looking out over the shoppers of Diagon Alley and the Muggle
world beyond.

"Mistress is Home. Will Mistress and Mistress's Mister be requiring any

Lunch from Minny?" came a squeak from the floor in front of Harry, He
looked down to see a House elf standing before them,

"Yes Minny. Lunch for two, put something together." Miranda replied
carelessly, she walked into her bedroom, calling over her shoulder

"Make yourself comfortable Harry, I'll be back in a moment." Harry

walked further into the room, he was about to sit on the sofa when he
spotted 3 framed photographs on the Mantelpiece. He studied them for a
moment, one was of a beautiful witch with Miranda's Rich blonde hair
holding a chubby baby in her arms, laughing at the camera.

The second revealed the same witch wearing a wedding dress, looking up
at a handsome man, with high cheek bones and a straight nose, who was
evidently her groom. The third picture was a picture of Miranda when she
was around four Harry guessed, the beautiful witch was gone but her father
was chasing her around the shot as she rode a toy broomstick, Harry
smiled at the picture.

He suddenly became aware of Miranda standing behind him, he hastily put

the picture down, and turned to face her. Her normally flinty blue eyes had
gone soft, and it looked almost unnatural on her face.
"My Parents" she said simply, in all their lessons on conversation, Harry
had never learnt how to deal with a situation like this.

"Your Mother was very beautiful." Harry said simply, Miranda smiled at
him,

"She was. She died following complications to her second Pregnancy.

Neither survived." She swallowed deeply, and for an awful moment Harry
thought she would cry.

However she didn't. She pulled herself together, "I'm sorry Harry, you
were not supposed to see that." Harry gave her a sincere smile and sat
down at the table.

The rest of their lunch they deliberately stayed on very safe topics, never
straying from school, summer holidays or learning. Towards the end of the
afternoon, She began to instruct Harry in Occlumency, speaking softly to
help him clear his mind, he had some success, but could never keep his
mind clear for more than a minute or so, the book said not to progress to
the next stage until he could stay in that state for 15 minutes at least.

As Harry understood it, to reach the first level of competent Occlumency,

he needed to reach four intermediate levels of success, Step one was
clearing the mind of all thoughts, step two was compartmentalising his
memories, this would stop random bursts of emotion from interrupting his
concentration, step three was to focus his conscious thought on one thing,
be it a memory or an image, the final step was to maintain this constantly
and be able to continue normal behaviour whilst maintaining it
indefinitely.

Needless to say it would take a lot of time, especially considering that that
was only the first chapter of the book, and there were six chapters.
However Harry hoped that it would get easier as his basic knowledge of
the mind arts increased, otherwise it could take him years.

The rest of his summer passed quickly, he spent most of his time in deep
concentration on the mind arts, and by the first of September had reached
stage 3.

He maintained regular communication with all his year mates, whilst

Miranda had occasionally sent her Elf, Minny, around with home cooked
meals, always denying it in her letters of course, citing the Elf's lack of
control as the reason.

He hoped his progress would be enough, he was certain that if someone

attempted Legillimency on him he would at least be aware of it, and have
time to raise his defences… Hopefully.

As the train pulled out of Platform 9 3/4 on September the 1st, Harry was
sat on his own in a compartment near the back of the train, nose stuck in
his book on Occlumency, but his mind elsewhere, he was looking forward
to returning to Hogwarts, or at least he was looking forward to returning to
Slytherin, He had never felt like an outcast in Slytherin as he had the rest
of his life.

Before too long, the carriage he was in began to fill up, first Cedric came
in and they spoke for a little while, before the Hufflepuff bid his goodbye
to return to his friends, as he was leaving, Terrence and Charles came in,
both looking thoroughly put out.

"Those bloody twins!" shouted Terrence.

"Good to see you too Higgs, what have Graham and Clara done this time?"
Higgs looked at him like he had grown a second head.

"What? Oh, no, not those twins, the Weasely bastards. They've got
Filibusters fireworks and thought it'd be hilarious to fire them at passers-
by." Harry choked back a laugh at the murderous look on his friends face,
but let it go.

Soon after the two had sat down, Olivia and Bonnie Moran walked in.

"Potter, a word if you don't mind." Asked Bonnie, Harry stood up

gracefully, and stepped out of the compartment.
"Potter, I'm Slytherins new Captain," Harry smiled at her,

"That's great… Big shoes to fill, literally and figuratively." She rolled her
eyes at him.

"Whatever, I think you have a talent, and I plan to exploit it, you did
excellent work last year, so I just want to tell you that you should expect
the work load to lighten up. Have a nice journey Potter." Harry Sighed, he
had thought that being the soft spoken girl that she was, Bonnie would
prove to be a calmer captain the Urquhart, however that clearly wasn't the
case… maybe the badge was cursed to make the wearer obsessed?

The rest of the journey passed calmly, the rest of their friends arrived, and
they spend some time chatting and relaxing before the term began.

Harry had been correct in his belief that all Quidditch captains
automatically became crazy. They were three weeks into the term, and
Bonnie had already successfully found replacements for the two chaser
and beater who had graduated the year before.

Despite there not being a match for another six weeks, Bonnie had them
training three days a week, and if there were especially heavy rain or fog,
she called in extra practice so they could experience 'adverse scenarios'.
Needless to say, Harry was rather unimpressed by her attitude, He wrote
her plays, and had described each one to her in detail, so he didn't see why
she wanted him present on the pitch each and every practice.

However, aside from Quidditch, Hogwarts life had fallen back into its
typical routine: Wake up at 7, shower, breakfast, Class, Break, Class,
Lunch, Library with other Second years, Class, Quidditch, Session with
Miranda, Supper, Homework, Sleep.

In this way, the days became weeks and the week's months, and before he
knew it, Christmas was upon him. He was once again the only second year
Slytherin spending the holiday in the castle, but unlike last year, this time
he had little fear of being ambushed in the corridors, He had learnt vast
amounts of offensive and defensive duelling manoeuvres, as well as
having the protection of the Slytherin Quidditch team, and through them,
much of Slytherin House.

Thus when Christmas day dawned, Harry was in an unusually cheerful

mood, he hummed through his shower, and walked down the steps with a
spring in his feet. As he arrived in the common room, it was to find most
of the house who had remained, only a dozen or so, waiting in the common
room, Harry looked puzzled briefly, before the house noticed his arrival
and stood up.

"Come on Potter, we were waiting for you!" Harry grinned, and together,
the Slytherins made their way up to the great hall. It was once again
splendidly decorated, festoons of Holly and at least 12 enormous
Christmas tree's filled the Great Hall. After a lunch that would have filled
Hagrid, Harry returned to his room and practiced his Occlumency, he was
now nearing starting chapter 3, "How to provide false memories to a
Legillimens".

Around lunch time, he descended the steps, to find a pile of presents

beneath the large House Christmas tree. Several of the other older
Slytherins were already crouched beneath the tree sorting them all into
piles.

When Harry received his, he was delighted to find it larger than the year
before. He got the usual sweets from Georgia And Honoria, which was
expected, he didn't speak to them much, Flint and Higgs had joined
together and bought him a year's subscription to The Daily Prophet, From
Olivia he got a framed picture that had been taken a few weeks earlier of
all the Slytherin Second Years in front of the common room fireplace.
Harry smiled as his picture self blushed at something the others said,
whilst they all roared with laughter.

The Montagues had bought him a copy pf Gilderoy Lockhart's latest book,
Gadding with Ghouls, The man was supposed to be a Defence Expert and
Harry was excited to read about his exploits. Finally, from Miranda he
received a book called Words are for Wusses: A guide to nonverbal spell
casting. He looked over at the blonde and thanked her gratefully, she
nodded kindly,

"Read it properly Potter, that's the next stage for your education." Harry
grinned at her, and placed the relatively thin book on the pile with the
others.

That afternoon, Harry had a breakthrough, he was in his bedroom, the

windows were closed and the room was dark. He was lying on his back,
mind fiercely concentrated on his Occlumency, the step he was involved
with was forcing his magic into forming a defence around his memories. It
wasn't dangerous, nor was it particularly complex. He knew what he was
supposed to be doing, but his magic was being uncooperative.

The problem was that whenever he immersed himself in his raw magical
power, he got drunk of the exhilaration and almost immediately lost his
concentration.

After attempting the stage for what must have been the tenth time that
afternoon, Harry finally got it. This was an excellent achievement, as it
meant that he would be able to block Legillimens from accessing his
mind, whereas before all he could have managed was to be aware of the
foreign presence, but be powerless to prevent them.

The Rest of the Holiday progressed slowly, now that Harry had reached an
acceptable stage of proficiency in his Occlumency he was no longer
working quite so hard at it, concentrating instead on his school work.

The Days melted together, and Harry was slowly gathering a reputation for
being somewhat bookish. He spent a large amount of time in the library,
studying and pouring over texts, his grades, which had always been
excellent, had skyrocketed. When the spring term had begun, nearly all of
his teachers had commented on his improved skills.

Whilst his extra studies had helped him in his academics, an unexpected
side effect of his skill in the mind arts was that he found his mind clearer
and was able to draw up memories and answers far more easily. His
friends were jealous of his recent success, but pleased for him, as more
and more teachers seemed to be won over by the polite, brilliant if cold
child.

As the weeks progressed However, Harry began to grow rather frustrated

at the Library, despite the vast number of books available, the actual
content which he could learn was frankly limited. Almost two thirds of the
books were on History, a subject that whilst interesting, held no special
interest to Harry.

It was with in mind therefore, that Harry found himself on a cold spring
day in April outside of Professor Snape's office. He breathed in deeply to
steady himself, raising his Occlumency shields, before finally raising his
hand and knocking on his Housemasters door. There was silence for a
moment before

"Enter." Harry twisted the elaborate door knob and entered the confines of
Snapes office. The walls were still covered with curious looking Potion
ingredients and the lighting was still somewhat poor. However, Harry liked
the room, it suited the bat-like professor perfectly.

"What can I do for you Mr Potter?" Harry kept his face straight as he
looked at his Housemaster, not in the eye of course. He had thought about
his best way of going about this, and had come to the conclusion that
Snape was a master of deception and intrigue, an honest approach was
more likely to succeed.

"Professor, May I have permission to browse the restricted section of the

library please?" Snape's eyebrow rose, he looked surprised at the request,
though not angry or displeased which Harry thought could only be a good
sign.

"Any why would I grant you this Mr Potter?" Harry smirked mentally. No
outright rejection, definitely a good sign.

"Well professor, I have read most of what interests me in the Library, and
believe the restricted section will hold what I want to discover now."
Snape curled a lip in amusement.

"Mr Potter, the Library contains twenty thousand books, I'm sure you
haven't read all of them." Harry raised his chin,

"Sir, Much of the Library is History, a subject I have little interest in!"

"You should have an interest Potter, it's imperative if we are to avoid the
pasts mistakes." He paused, looking at Harry intently, as though there were
some unspoken message in Snape's words, it passed straight over Harry's
head.

"never the less Potter, there are still at least eight thousand books on Spell
work and other subjects in the Library, have you read them all?" Harry
sighed and shook his head.

"No Professor, I am yet to read up on some topics, Arithmancy and

Ancient Runes for example are still relatively unknown to me." Snape
nodded slowly.

"Then why not read those subjects, a mind as brilliant as your own should
be versed in as many topics of magic as possible. Do not blinker yourself
to one branch of magic." Harry nodded his thanks at the compliment,
before reaching into his book bag, he withdrew 8 thick tomes and placed
them on the desk,

"I will read those books, don't worry professor, but I want to extend my
studies in the classes I currently take!" Snape nodded his understanding
before looking down at the pile of books.

"An interesting collection Mr Potter, I assume there is a reason behind

them, or have you simply decided to leave dust on my desk?"

"Well professor, look, An Anthology of Transfiguration published in 1048,

and here, the same book, but published eighty years later, and again a
century later." He picked up the last book, "This is the latest issue,
published in 1978 and is currently used for an NEWT reference book, the
rest of these…"

"Are quite useless Mr Potter, I understand, Nevertheless, I cannot issue a

pass for the restricted section unless you have a specific book in mind.
Open Passes are extremely rare, used only for students looking for their
Mastery." Harry smirked,

"Perhaps If I were to return with a list of books I would like to check out,
you would be able to have a look and sign off on it?" Snape smirked at the
Slytherin boy,

"An adequate compromise, you may return to me with a list, be warned, I

will not blindly release them to you." His tone was warning, but Harry
wasn't intimidated. He nodded his thanks, before hurrying up to the
Library.

Over an hour later, Snape's marking was distracted again by knocks to his
door. "Enter!" he called loudly, and to his lack of Surprise, the Potter boy
walked in, head held high, eyes as cold and calculating as ever and a long
list of Parchment in his hand. Snape gestured to the list impatiently and
Harry passed it to him.

"Let me see, let me see," his eyes scanned the list, his brow rose
occasionally, and he smirked at others,

"This is a complicated list Potter, although I am impressed if you think

this to be your level of knowledge." Harry shrugged humbly,

"My theory is at this level Professor, my practical work is sadly behind

however."

"Understandable, Our Magic develops as our bodies do, do not exert

yourself Harry, It would be unwise at this stage of your life." Harry
accepted that piece of wisdom, his studies had said practically the same
thing.
"Mr Potter, I am prepared to sign off on five books from this list. Once
you have finished them, I will consider allowing you more." Harry almost
smiled, but nodded demurely.

He took the list back from Snape, and with a quill slowly underlined the
five titles he most wanted:
Mind Magic: Develop your Occlumency vol. 2 by Veronica Neurom
Advanced Duelling Practices and their applications by Vindictus Crow
Magical Detection and Concealment Vol. 6 by Octavius Sinistrum
Battle Transfiguration vol. 2 by Phineas Nigellus Black
A Thesis on the enhancement of Wizards through subjugation of Muggle
Kind By Gellert Grindlewald

"You are aware Mr Potter, that without already having a strong foundation
in Occlumency, the first book on your list would not help you?" He
watched his charge intently,

"I understand that without Occlumency the book is useless to me sir, But
it's on my list." Snape's eyes bored holes in Harry's skull, and for the first
time since the conversation began the two of them made eye contact.

For Harry, this was the first time his Occlumency shields had been tested.
He felt the pressure of the Legillimency probe on his shields and to his
relief they held steady, Snape's mind probed a little, but withdrew shortly
afterwards. Harry stared at the Potions professor impassively.

"10 points to Slytherin Potter, Are you self-taught?"

"Largely Professor, May I have the books on my list?" Snape reviewed the
list once more, his eyes lingering on the final entry before he nodded
curtly, Harry gave him a final nod of appreciation before heading to the
door, he halted when he was on the cusp of leaving,

"Professor, Is it legal to use Legillimency on a minor without

permission?"

"No Potter, is that all?"

"Yes Professor, Good Evening." Harry left, allowing a victorious smirk as
he looked down at the slip of paper in his hand, which book to take out
first?

Bonnie Moran's first year as captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team had
gotten off to an auspicious start. Following a triumphant victory over a
strong Ravenclaw team in the final, Slytherin had once again taken control
of the much prized Quidditch cup, For Bonnie however there was much
more than just that to celebrate. She had been approached at the end of the
game by the Cork Coyotes. One of the stronger teams in the Irish League,
that night therefore there was double to celebrate. The party went on long
into the night, and Harry enjoyed the festivities, although he did retire at
midnight in order get some sleep for the next day. The first day of the end
of year exam was in two days, and Harry was determined to get the best
marks possible for himself.

It was perhaps due to his dedication that when Harry left the hall of his
last examination that he felt so confident. All of his papers had gone well,
and with the notable exception of Astronomy, which he viewed as next to
useless, he felt like had quite well. The rest of the summer went by
quickly, having no lessons, and the Quidditch cup being over left Harry
with very little to do, he spent a few days reading up on his Electives that
he could take next year, before eventually deciding on Arithmancy and
Ancient Runes.

However, despite his boredom of the last two weeks, when Harry got onto
the train to head back to London, it was with a great deal of regret, he had
once again asked Professor Snape if there was any chance he could spend
the summer at Hogwarts, only to be refused once again, therefore when he
boarded the train, his thoughts were darkened with anger and resentment
about having to return to the Muggles

It was late evening when He eventually made it back to the old brick house
on the outskirts of the capital. The Orphanage hadn't changed at all, and
for whatever reason this upset him slightly. The Taxi driver helped him
remove his trunk from the boot, before driving off.
As Harry entered through the front door, it was to see a tired looking Mrs
Phelps at the front desk, she looked up at him, and he spotted dark bags
under her eyes. He nodded his head cautiously. She gave no response.

"Welcome back Harry," the old Matron greeted him coldly. Her voice not
so subtly hinting that she wished he hadn't returned.

"Mrs Phelps. I trust you are well?" The matron eyed him suspiciously, as
though suspecting him of mocking her.

"Harry, I'm afraid I 'ave some bad news." Harry raised an eyebrow, "Harry,
Cecil is dead." Harry blinked slowly, but gave no further response, she
took this as leave to continue,

"Killed 'imself last week, 'ung himself in his bedroom. T' say it's made life
complicated is an understatement, child services, NSPCC, the police, the
place has been in uproar, I'll be lucky ter keep my job!" if she expected
sympathy, she had approached the wrong person, Harry only glared at her
from where he stood,

"Why is he dead?" he asked, voice soft, yet ice cold. Mrs Phelps shivered,

"Well, he were always a weedy little one weren't he? When you left ter that
school he had noffing to protect him right? It got pretty bad, and when you
ignored him last summer, well, he just gave up, nasty business." Harry'
eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly,

"Are you suggesting this was my fault Phelps?" he asked slowly,

"Well, not just your fault, but well, you were 'is only friend, and ya' left
him, he couldn't protect 'imself right."

Harry returned to his room in a rage. Whilst Harry had never considered
himself friends with Cecil, hell, he barely considered the boy human, the
boy had been under Harry's protection, and that had to mean something.
He had to remind his fellow orphans that he was not to be messed with.
The next two weeks were filled with curious events that effected nearly all
the residents of St Hilda's Orphanage. Boys suffered from spontaneous
fluctuations in shower temperature, or the stairs became inexplicably wet,
causing falls.

At all of these events, Harry Potter had been present, but never close
enough to be accused of what was happening, however the entire building
had become on edge around the raven haired boy. It didn't take long for
Harry to view the situation as being back in the correct social order. Even
Mrs Phelps was on edge around him, unnerved by his intensely cold gaze.

It didn't take long for Harry to sink into a pleasant routine. He left his
room only for meals and to partake in exercise, which he had started as a
way to fill up some of his spare time. He often wrote letters in response to
those of his friends, and had enjoyed relatively frequent correspondence
with all of his year, as well as Miranda and Cedric.

The summer passed rapidly, three days after his birthday, he received his
Hogwarts letter and was pleased to discover that he had come first in his
year, with O's in everything except for Astronomy (A) and History of
Magic (E). Unlike last year, he got no offer to go shopping with Miranda,
and he rather felt she was still uncomfortable over how vulnerable she had
become the year before. The Blonde girl was an enigma to Harry,
sometimes using him like a confidante, and sometimes cursing him like he
was the source of the world's problems.

He supposed that as he was her only friend she expected him to fill all the
roles of friendship, whilst at the same time she acted in total denial that
they were friends at all, it was a rather frustrating situation for the Raven
Haired boy.

He postponed returning to London for most of the Holiday, he had read all
the books on his list and thanks to his Occlumency had them practically
memorised. Therefore, on the thirty first of august he found himself once
again in Diagon Alley, he picked up his galleons and made his first stop
Madam Makin's Robes for all occasions, from where he had all his robes
extended, He couldn't afford a new set, but the kindly lady inside had
worked miracles to get them to reach a more suitable length, after he was
finished there, he picked up second hand sets of his school books, before
returning to Tom the Barman, thanks to his thrifty shopping he was able to
rent one of the cheapest rooms for one night, which suited Harry perfectly.

The next day he arrived early on the Platform and arrived just in time to
meet up with Oliva and together they made their way through the barrier,
the train wasn't due to set off for another hour, so together Harry, Olivia
and Bonnie made their way to a carriage at the back.

"So I understand it's been a Quidditch Filled Summer for you Miss
Moran?" Harry asked the Irish seventh year teasingly, she smiled brightly,
before launching into a long discussion of how wonderful the professional
leagues were, and how she wanted to show Harry some plays that he might
like to work into Slytherins match strategy, to which Harry jokingly
reminded him that she was the captain and her word was technically law
when it came to Quidditch plays.

"Yes Potter. But with your making our match strategy we have never lost, I
would be a fool to ignore what you tell me. I am winning the cup, we have
won the Quidditch cup every year I've been on the team and I will be
damned if we lose it now!" Harry chuckled before promising to do his
best.

Not long after that, the rest of the Slytherin third years piled into the
carriage, and Bonnie Left to find her friends.

The train set off and the nine friends chatted brightly, catching up on all
that they had missed during the summer and suggesting what might
happen in the next school year. This whiled away the time most effectively
and before long the train was pulling into the station.

The feast passed in typical fashion, Dumbledore gave a short speech

introducing the new defence teacher, Professor Parker, a rather odd
looking woman, with long auburn hair tied back into a messy ponytail.
Harry didn't have high hopes for her lessons.
It became quickly apparent that Harry's initial assessment had been
accurate. The woman insisted on telling long winded stories about her own
experiences with the creatures they were supposed to be learning about,
often the tales ended with her running away from said creature in fear.

The rest of Harry's classes however were progressing well, he was

enjoying Runes and Arithmancy, both were very difficult and Arithmancy
in particular required his constant attention. The first term for both
subjects was simple introduction to the material, the practical application
would happen after Christmas.

Harry was also very pleased when both Marcus and Terrence made it onto
the Slytherin Quidditch team, they were both passionate about the sport
and Harry knew that this was a dream come true for them.

Thus the term progressed, Harry had found a new passion in Runes and
spent much of his time reading up on it, and it was time well spent in his
opinion.
Slowly the months fell before him, September became October, and then
November, and with it came snow, before long it was Christmas day, Harry
sat at the Slytherin table enjoying a big lunch, to his left sat Miranda and
to his right Bonnie, who had elected to stay at Hogwarts to work on her
school work.

The Irish chaser now had to travel to the Cork Coyotes pitch 3 times a
week for training, and her academics were suffering because of it. He
finished his meal, and the three of them headed back to the common room
for the traditional present giving.

Harry got his usual small pile of presents, sweets from Georgia, Olivia
gave him a ticket to Bonnies next professional match, and the boys had all
banded together to buy him New casual robes. He had been complaining
about his lack of a casual wardrobe, and was touched that his friends had
been paying attention. Cedric bought him a magical wrist watch that
would never break or unwind.
There was nothing as a gift from Miranda, and he turned to her surprised.
She grinned before leading him back to their traditional practice
classroom. Once inside she gestured to a chair in a somewhat sinister
fashion. Harry sat cautiously.

"Potter, for Christmas this year I have taken pity on you, and decided to do
what should have happened years ago." Harry was perplexed, especially
when she drew her wand.

"Relax Potter, I'm just going to do something about your god awful
haircut." Harry chuckled, this was absolutely not what he had expected,
but he had never been happy with his hair, and if the blonde knew what she
was doing, he wouldn't complain.

The next hour was curious for Harry, he'd never had a magical haircut
before, Miranda's wand travelled across his wand, slicing hair off behind
it, it was a slow process, but eventually the Beautiful teenage girl seemed
pleased with her work. She conjured a large mirror and held it in front of
Harry's face. Harry blinked, he looked very different, his usually long
untidy hair had been tamed.

Gone was the fringe that had constantly gotten into his eyes, his hair was
short, about half an inch long, with the sides and back being ever so
slightly shorter than the rest. He looked infinitely more mature, and the
shorter look suited his face. Harry had never fancied himself a vain man,
but he couldn't help but admit it… He looked good.

As the term continued, several of his friends informed Harry of their

approval of his new look, he wore his new robes, and the new hair well,
and whenever Miranda heard a compliment about him, she would smirk
condescendingly at him.

Shortly after the Christmas Holiday, Harry read about a complex and
dangerous piece of magic which could yield enormous results if he pulled
it off. It was a method of forcing his magic into his eyes, allowing for him
to see if an object was enchanted or whether or not Wards were protecting
a certain area. However, the operation was risky, if he put too much magic
into it, he would risk blinding himself.

As soon as he read about it, he was eager to try it, however he was not the
sort to go into anything without giving it a good deal of thought, he
returned to the library to read up on it, he couldn't discover much about it,
except that many of the more experienced Aurors had undergone it, and
that it had been invented by Dumbledores mentor, Nicholas Flamel.

However, despite the risks, Harry was too tempted, therefore one evening,
when Harry and Miranda had been having one of their small Dark art's
sessions, Harry had asked for her to watch over him while he tried the
spell.

Harry was sat in one of the comfortable chairs he had conjured, Miranda
opposite, speaking softly in a gentle voice, as he slowly sank deep within
himself. Once he was properly centred, he gathered his magic and pushed
it towards his eyes. He met resistance but simply pushed more magic
forward, willing the change to occur, however whatever was preventing
him succeeding was strong. Harry growled and with a Herculanean effort
managed to flood his eyes with magic.

The Pain was intense, but Harry managed to focus and using sheer force of
will attempted to bend his magic to his direction.

Almost 15 minutes after he had descended into his consciousness, Miranda

heard Harry give a cry, his closed eyes suddenly opened, and a bright white
light shone from them. Miranda very nearly panicked, but was unwilling
to do anything in case it effected the result of his experiment.

The bright light in his eyes began to dim after a few minutes, but Harry
remained unconscious, using a levitation charm, the blonde hurriedly
marched him through the corridors to the infirmary, ignoring the few
curious people who she passed along the way.

Once inside, Pomphrey immediately bustled over.

"What happened this time?" she asked hurriedly, Miranda shrugged,

"I don't know, but when I found him, he was clutching his head and it
appeared his eyes were the source of the problem." The Healer nodded and
waved her wand over her charge. Her brow furrowed, and she waved her
wand over Harry's face and eyes, whatever she found upset her,

"What a stupid boy!" she muttered angrily, before Hurrying over to the
fireplace and floo calling Professor Snape. The bat like professor appeared
quickly, and he and Pomphrey began a hushed conversation which Miranda
strained to hear.

"… very depleted magic…" Pomphrey whispered,

"Any idea of a cause?" came Snapes silky voice.

"Some It would appear…. Sight, If I had to hazard a guess" Snape scowled

angrily,

"…success?" he asked,

"It would appear so, but…. At least three days is typical." Snape sighed
once more.

"Thank you Madam Pomphrey, wake him up, I think this Slytherin and I
should have a chat."

Harry awoke quickly, his breathing rate increased and his face frowned.
His eyes flickered open, before Harry closed them, opening them slowly,
the normally ice cold and blank orbs were now empty. A flicker of fear
shot across Harry's face.

"Miranda?" he called out, "Miranda? I… are you there?"

"I'm here Harry, are you alright?"

"I, I can't see Miranda, It's all white." Miranda took his cold hand in hers
and squeezed it gently.
"Mr Potter, 10 points from Slytherin for sheer stupidity. And I will expect
you to serve detention with me every night for a week after you leave the
Hospital Wing." Harry's head shot in the Potions professors' direction.

"Professor Snape?" he asked cautiously

"Indeed." Harry's head fell back against the pillow.

"Is the blindness permanent professor?" he asked, his voice deceptively

strong, but it was hard to miss the notes of fear that existed within.

"Somehow Potter, despite your absolute stupidity you actually succeeding

in your ridiculous task, you should have full use of your vision within
three days." Harry smiled in relief, and Miranda gave a small squeeze to
his hand again, then seemed to realise what she was doing and hastily
released his hand. Harry chuckled.

"Potter, I should warn you, I have taken a blind eye to you and Miss
Rookwood's little practice sessions as you have always shown at least
some restraint in your actions, However if you ever do something this
monumentally stupid again, I will have you out of this school before you
can say Blackmail, am I making myself clear?" Harry looked past Snape
and nodded, the potions teacher seemed satisfied and left.

Three days later, Harry had regained practically all of his sight back, it
was a blessed relief to no longer be helpless to everything that was going
on around him.

That evening was his first detention with professor Snape. At 8 o'clock he
knocked on the professors door, and entered when summoned. The hook
nosed man was waiting for him, and gestured for Harry to sit.

"Mr Potter, you are top in your year, far ahead of the rest of your peers in
terms of magical knowledge and skill, what in Merlins name possessed
you to perform such a dangerous task?"
"It looked interesting Professor, I thought the benefits of such a magical
tool would be enormous, I knew the risks and deemed them acceptable."

"And what if you were now blind Potter? What then?"

"The risks were acceptable." Snape sighed, he couldn't fault the boy, and
Snape had done exactly the same as Potter shortly after leaving Hogwarts.

"Potter, during these detentions, I am going to teach you how to properly

use your new talents, It is a process that could take years to master on your
own, so you best be prepared to work hard." Harry couldn't believe his
luck, and nodded his confirmation at the potions instructor.

Snape hadn't been joking, his sessions had been long and extremely tiring,
but now Harry was able to summon his magic sight (for he had no better
name for it) at will, it caused a coloured shimmer around the object the
spell was cast upon, or if it was a ward, the entire area would light up with
a coloured haze.

Harry often walked around the castle, looking at the blue haze that
surrounded portraits, or the purple around the moving staircases, it was
fascinating, and Harry believed it to be well worth the risk, no one would
be able to trick him with a cursed object, or trick him into taking a portkey
unwillingly.

Harry's third year passed far quicker than the rest, before Harry knew it, it
was the leaving feast and Dumbledore was giving Slytherin the house cup
for the sixth year in a row. Slytherin had once again got the Quidditch cup,
having narrowly beaten Ravenclaw in a thrilling final two weeks earlier.
The Feast wound to a close and the happy Slytherins returned to finish
packing for the train.

"Have you heard Harry?" Graham asked, Harry looked up,

"What?"
"Neville Longbottom is supposed to be starting next year" Harry groaned,
Longbottoms presence was likely to set tempers flaring up at him yet
again, something he had practically stopped in his three years at Hogwarts.

"What a joy, I can't wait" he responded sarcastically.

The train ride was dull for Harry, no one really spoke, and Harry spent
most of it with his nose in a book, a few games of Chess were played, but
it got boring for the others when they always lost to the Green eyed boy.
When they finally reached Kings Cross, it was with a heavy heart, he
always missed seeing his friends, and writing to them wasn't the same,
especially when he was made to live with the Muggles. He sighed, bid his
friends farewell and headed out through the barrier. It was looking like
another happy summer.
5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

Harry Potter was not exactly happy with how his summer was progressing
thus far. Whilst he had been away, it became evident the other Orphans had
decided to take a policy of completely ignoring him, this would have been
fine with Harry, except that it did at times leave him feeling rather lonely.
His letters to his friends became more frequent, and as the weeks went on,
more and more desperate.

On the evening of July the 24th Harry was to be found lying back on his
thin mattress, a book lay discarded over his chest, hands folded behind his
head. His eyes were closed and his breathing even, His face looked
completely relaxed, the lips which were so often nowadays raised into a
sneer were smooth. He had, much to his displeasure become rather lazy
over the summer, whilst he still read his books and exercised his body, he
found that he still had hours left in the day, which he often spent in this
relaxed state.

"Potter!" a rap of sharp knuckles signalled the end of his rest.

"Potter, open the door." Harry's eyes darted open, and he rose steadily.
"Potter!" came the voice again, a warning note rising steadily.

He opened the door slightly, and noticed Mrs Phelps standing before him.
He opened the door widely and the woman entered quickly, her eyes taking
in the meticulously clean room before her. "I know it was you Potter, I
don't know 'ow ya did it, 'nd I dunno know why, but I know it was you."
Harry's confusion was not faked,

"Mrs Phelps?" the woman scoffed at him, raising her hand to rub her
temple, he noticed just how hysterical she looked.

"You've been a nightmare 'ere Potter, from day 1 hmm," She swallowed
and her bosom swelled as she took in a deep breath. "Noffin's ever normal
with ya is it Potter? All the broken bones, injuries, young George
Nayland's still in a coma, I don't know what ya are, but I thought if we left
ya be, you'd leave us alone." Harry wasn't surprised that she was blaming
all these incidents on him.

"Then there was poor Cecil last year, he only ever looked up at yer, why
would yer abandon 'im?" Harry's attempt to defend himself was lost on the
irate woman, "I've 'ad Potter, I've 'ad it. And now, yer had to kill all the
pets?" Harry was surprised, He hadn't done anything to the Orphanage's
small shed which housed the chickens and hamsters which were there for
the boy's enjoyment,

"Why kill 'em? They didn't do anyfing!" Harry felt a pit open in his
stomach, his mind had analysed the situation and he quickly figured out
where this was going.

"I've made up me mind Potter, I want ya gone. Tonight, I'll give ya a fare
for a cab ta London, and then I never wanna see ya again. Ya hear me?
You'll just be another kid lost ta the system." Harry's jaw tightened, his
fingers itching to grasp his wand concealed in his shirt sleeve. "Ya Hear
me Potter?!" asked the woman, her face very red.

"I hear you." Harry responded quietly, his voice filled with Malice. "Now
If you will leave me, I have to pack." The woman opened her mouth as
though to shout some more, but seeing the look on his face wisely thought
better of it, and left quickly.

Harry could have yelled in frustration, he had often dreamed of leaving the
orphanage, but he had nowhere to go. He wasn't yet 14 and was facing
Homelessness. Not a pleasant prospect. He hurried around, stripping his
drawers and putting all his clothes into his trunk. It was a difficult task.
And he was forced to bounce on the trunk to close it properly.

Dragging the Heavy trunk behind him, he made his way down to the front
desk, where Mrs Phelps and the aged receptionist sat looking at him
angrily. He stood straight as he stood before them. "I trust you have me a
taxi?" the matron nodded, motioning with one of her bony hands to a car
waiting outside.
"Don't return Potter, ya won't be welcome here no more." The Receptionist
obviously agreed, as she nodded her head quickly.

"This is not the last you will see of me, I will return and I will see you
burn for making me suffer this ignominy" both women recoiled from the
look on his face, his Emerald eyes seemed to burn with barely repressed
scarlet rage, the sneer twisting his handsome features looked alien, Mrs
Phelps recovered first.

"Is that a threat Potter?" she asked, although the tremble in her voice gave
away her fear.

"I'm glad you're paying attention." Harry said with a smirk, his features
retracting back into their usual calm. He turned on his heel and dragged
his trunk out into the Summer Rain. His shirt became soaked through
quickly, and he hurried across the gravel car park to the waiting black cab.

"Charring Cross please" he told the Cabbie, who nodded with a smile and
hurried to help lift his trunk into the back of the car.

They trundled off in silence up the road, the only noise the drumming of
heavy rain drops upon the roof of the vehicle.

That evening, Miranda Rookwood was just changing out of her clothes and
into a far more comfortable dressing gown and white fluffy slippers. It
was dark outside, and the rain outside had poured down for most of the
day. She settled herself onto the beige sofa, curling her feet under her,
whilst turning the Wizarding Wireless onto a classical music channel.

The doorbell rang, but she remained seated, Minnie would deal with it, she
continued to immerse herself in the symphony being played over the radio.

"Please Miss, Minnie is sorry to be disturbing you, but we has a visitor

miss."

"Who is it Minnie?" she asked the elf in a tired voice,

"I don't know Miss, he's outside and asked for you miss." Miranda sighed,
but stood up and tightened the dressing gown cord around herself. She
walked over to the door and looked down at her nose at the sight of a
soaking wet man, a dark blue cloak thrown over his head and a well-used
looking trunk behind him.

"May I help y… Harry?" The man had thrown back his hood to reveal the
short raven hair and startling green eyes of her only friend. His teeth were
chattering and his lips blue. "Potter what on earth are you doing on my
doorstep?" Harry tried to force a grin, but it came out as more of a
grimace, he looked up at her and did a double take, evidently surprised at
her informal outfit, she tugged the dressing gown further around herself,
embarrassed.

"D-d-did you m-m-miss m-me?" He asked the blonde witch at an attempt

at cheekiness.

"Greatly Potter" she replied sarcastically "But you haven't answered my

question." Harry's body twitched as a shiver ran down his frame, she
looked at him with a slight smirk as the normally reserved boy stood
before her looking quite so vulnerable.

"T-t-trouble with the M-m-m-Muggles, th-they don't seem t-to enjoy m-

my company as much as y-y-you!" she looked at him, eyebrows raised in
disbelief.

"Well you better come in before you catch a chill." Harry nodded
gratefully, and she let him pass her, feeling the cold emanating off his
frame. "And try not to get water on the carpet Potter." She called
mockingly after him. He ignored her.

Together the two of them made their way into the living room,

"Minnie, Harry needs a hot bath and quickly, then hang his things up in the
spare bedroom, It looks like he will be staying with us for a while." She
saw the look of gratitude in her friends face, but tried to ignore it. "I think
he would also like something hot to eat and drink." The House elf bowed
and popped away.

They stood in silence, Harry's shivering becoming slightly less

pronounced as the water in his clothes dripped into the pristine carpet.
Before too long the elf returned and with a bow led Harry through to the
spare bathroom, like the rest of the house, it was decorated tastefully, a
large white bathtub was the centre piece of the room, gold tap fittings
covered the surfaces.

"The bath is hot sir, and If Minnie would be permitted, may I take your
clothes'es for washing and drying please?" Harry quickly shrugged off the
soaking wet cloak and shirt, before shimmying out of his trousers,
struggling as the wet fabric stuck to his skin.

Before long he stood in his Boxers, which didn't offer much privacy as the
white material was equally soaked through, the elf bowed and picked up
his clothes before popping into another room. Harry disrobed entirely, and
sank down deep into the hot water.

He sighed in contentment as the warmth entered his blood again, washing

away his fears. He lay in the deep bathtub for what felt like hours, before
finally standing up and wrapping a thick fluffy towel around his waist.

He stepped into the corridor, coming face to face with Miranda as she left
what Harry assumed was her room. She had changed into a well-fitting
white blouse and tight dark blue jeans. Her eyes fell upon his bare chest
and a small blush graced her cheeks,

"Your room is the one on the right, Minnie has hung all your clothes up,
come through to the living room once you're changed.

Harry dressed in a comfy pair of button down jeans and a loose fitting t
shirt, in the living room, he found the table had a large plate of steaming
steak pie, and he smiled in appreciation.
"Tuck in Harry, Minnie would be distraught if you let it go cold!" Harry
smiled and sat at the table, taking a forkful of the sumptuous looking pie,
he began to eat. The food was good, and he savoured every mouthful.
Miranda let him eat in Silence, filing her nails to a perfect crescent as she
waited for him to finish.

When he finally finished his meal, he dabbed at his lips with a napkin and
looked up at the gorgeous blonde expectantly. She ignored him for a while,
a smirk present at the corner of her lips. She finished her last nail and
looked at them critically,

"Well I suppose I would be remiss if I weren't to ask you how it is you

came to be dripping on my Carpet." She looked pointedly at him, and he
nodded his head in agreement,

"Well, as I'm sure you are aware, Muggles are not the most understanding
of beings…" he continued his story, telling everything from when he had
first received his Hogwarts letter to how Cecil's suicide and finally to how
he was kicked out. Miranda listened in Silence, occasionally interjecting
with a short question which he answered as well as possible. At the end of
his tale, she looked at him curiously,

"Why did you return there each year? If it were so awful for you?" Harry
sighed, running a hand through his short hair,

"It was never awful, I kept to myself, and they kept away from me, but
looking back I should have seen this coming, I did push them all rather far,
I simply forgot that they could snap back, an embarrassing oversight on
my part certainly." She chuckled at his admission.

"Well I suppose you can stay with me for the rest of the summer, I have
some of my homework to finish, so do not disturb me, but perhaps it
would be nice to have someone else around here." Harry was incredibly
grateful. At that moment Minnie showed up with two steaming mugs of
hot chocolate which she left on the table with a bow before exiting.
Miranda took a long sip and sighed in contentment, and together they sat
together, drinking the sweet thick liquid.

Living with Miranda was far better than the Orphanage Harry had
discovered. The last month had flown by, they had gone out for Harry's
birthday to a small Wizarding restaurant across from Miranda's apartment
that served French food, then on August the 18th, Miranda's birthday, they
had gone together to the Wizarding High street in Edinburgh, and got
caught up in the celebration of the Edinburgh Eagles recent victory over
Puddlemere united.

Three days before they were due to take the express back to Hogwarts,
they finally decided to get their act together and do their shopping. Their
first stop was Gringotts, it was extremely busy and Harry and Miranda
queued behind a chubby boy who looked around eleven and his formidable
grandmother.

When eventually they did reach the front of the queue, Harry received his
usual sack of 55 Galleons, and waited whilst Miranda was taken down to
her vault to collect hers. Together they slowly ambled towards Flourish
and Blotts to collect that years text books, the new defence book was Dark
Arts Defence: A Guide to Self-Protection, a book Harry had read two years
ago and found to be an excellent source of Material for basic defence, so
he hoped that he may finally be able to enjoy a decent defence professor.

Having collected all the course books for the year they both collected a
few books for their own study, Miranda had dropped potions for her
NEWT's, so she headed off to collect a new set of Robes whilst Harry went
to the Apothecary.

Once his purchases were complete, he headed off to meet her at Madam
Malkins. The tinkle of the bell signalled his arrival, after assuring the shop
assistant that he wasn't there to be served, he sat down next to Miranda
who was on a stool having her new robes being pinned to her. On the stool
adjacent to his friend stood a Pale blonde boy. As he waited for the blonde
to be finished he heard the bell tinkle indicating a new arrival.
"… and then a new Cauldron I suppose, Neville, then it's just a wand left."
It was the chubby boy with his grandmother that he had queued behind in
Gringotts. She pinned the assistant with a stare,

"My Grandson requires new robes, immediately please."

"Of course Madam, unfortunately both our fitters are busy at the moment,
however they should be available shortly." The Old woman sniffed, but
they took the available seats next to Harry.

"Oh, it's you. How very nice to see you again Longbottom." The blonde
boy next to Miranda called over. Harry started, turning to look closer at the
boy next to him. Behind a curtain of curly brown hair he noticed the
famous lightning bolt scar. Though Harry would never admit it to the boy,
he was disappointed by the saviour of the Wizarding world. He looked
rather arrogant, and had a weak face.

"Malfoy, always a pleasure." Neville replied, his voice oozing sarcasm, his
grandmother gave him a sharp warning look,

"Young Mr Malfoy, I was unaware you were to be shopping today. Where

are you parents?" she asked imperiously.

"Mother is collecting my Potions ingredients, whilst father is looking at

brooms." Harry supressed a snort, the boy was clearly a spoilt brat.
Unfortunately this drew the attention of the room to him.

"I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced. I'm Draco Malfoy." Called over the
blonde, harry nodded his head, whilst he may not like the look of the boy,
he was hardly fool enough to risk injuring the pride of the heir of such an
influential family as the Malfoys.

Longbottom's Grandmothers nose flared as she looked at him closely, "You

boy, you look rather like…" she trailed off, so Harry finished for her.

"Rather like my father? Yes, I have been told, but I assure you, my
temperament is far superior" he finished with a wink, The old woman
seemed to swell, and Immediately rounded on Madam Malkin who was
now watching them with a perplexed expression on her face.

"Madam Malkin!" began Madam Longbottom, "I always thought this to be

an upstanding law abiding establishment!" Madam Malkin was cut off as
she tried to agree, "And yet here I find you serving Traitors and
Murderers!" Harry thought this a little harsh,

"If you would recall Madam, It was my father who had the less than
savoury reputation, not me."

"Do not speak back to me Boy!" cried the old woman, standing up, "It was
your father that got my son killed!" madam Malkin looked Horrified at the
revelation.

"Bless my soul" she whispered quietly, the room went quiet and the silence
stretched uncomfortably,

"Well Madam Malkin, I think this colour clashes horribly with my hair, do
you have it in a lighter shade of blue?" Miranda suddenly asked, the
shopkeeper seemed to have forgotten her.

"What? Oh yes, I… In the back, I shall just fetch it for you, hold on a
moment dear." She bustled off through a door, leaving the room back in
silence.

"Well done girl, we must always act civilised unlike this… boy" she
gestured down at Harry, Miranda gave her a charming smile.

"Thank you Madam Longbottom."

"What's your name girl?" asked the old Matriarch, her tone far lighter than
it had been earlier.

"Miranda Rookwood, I believe your Son knew my father too?" Madam

Longbottoms smile disappeared at once, she seemed to have lost the
ability to speak, she visibly deflated and collapsed into her seat, hand over
her Heart.

Neville apparently took this as his invitation to speak, for he sneered at

them all, the expression looking comical on his round chubby face.

"Well, this is quite the Death Eater Reunion isn't it? A Potter, Rookwood
and Malfoy in the same room, should I be scared?" The three of them were
saved from answering when a distinguished voice sounded from the door.

"Now now Mr Longbottom, That's quite an accusation to make. No Malfoy

has ever been convicted of being part of that group of terrorists" Standing
in the doorway stood a tall, distinguished man with the same blonde hair
and grey eyes as Draco. This must be Lucius Malfoy, Political powerhouse
and one of the richest men in England.

"I came to see how you were doing Draco, You had been taking a while."
The young Malfoy greeted his father respectfully, before filling him in on
what had transpired.

"Indeed?" asked the Malfoy Patriarch, a curious glint in his eyes as he

gazed at Harry speculatively.

"Mr Potter, I understand you are to begin your fourth year in Slytherin?"
Harry ignored Neville when he sneered out

"Where else would he be?" and greeted the Blonde man politely,

"A Pleasure Mr Malfoy, your information is correct." The Blonde man

smirked at him a little,

"Well do look after Draco if he too joins Slytherin, he has a nasty habit of
poking his nose where it does not belong." Ignoring Draco's protest, he
turned tail and left the shop. Soon After the two of them were ushered out
by a flustered Madam Malkin who had hurried Miranda through the rest of
her fitting.
"Well, with Longbottom at the school, I doubt anything will be dull!"
Harry laughed, Miranda smirked,

"Just watch your back Harry, We just mocked Augusta Longbottom to her
face, she has a lot of Political clout, you don't want her as your enemy.

The Opening Feast at Hogwarts started in its typical way, when the school
was seated, McGonagall opened the doors and led the terrified looking
first years down the hall. The sorting hat was sat upon its little stall and
began to sing

Oh you may not think me pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm theHogwartsSorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.

You might belong inGryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
SetGryffindors apart;
You might belong inHufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patientHufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise oldRavenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps inSlytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!

The Great Hall burst into applause and the hat bowed to each of the house
tables.

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put on the hat."
McGonagall called out

"Abbot, Hannah" the first little first year walked forward and put on the
hat, at this point Harry lost interest and quickly returned to his previous
conversation with Olivia. His attention sporadically returned to the Hat, he
watched as Terry Boot went to Ravenclaw, whilst Daphne Greengrass
joined him in Slytherin.

When Longbottoms name was called, the hall went silent, unlike the
silence that had greeted Harry's name, this silence was more of awe.
Longbottom confidently walked forward and put the hat on his head. It
took a while for him to be sorted, and Harry could just make out him
muttering "Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin" under his breath, much to the
consternation of the house of the serpents. Eventually he was sorted into
Gryffindor, much to the cheers and adulation of the House.

Malfoy went to Slytherin and yet another Weasely went into Gryffindor,
Harry heard Olivia mutter that if this Weasely was the same as the twins
then she would scream. Finally the sorting was over, Dumbledore gave a
short speech and then the feast appeared, Harry and the rest of the fourth
years tucked in, and Harry was soon sucked into a conversation about
Quidditch.
"Now that we are all fed and watered" called Dumbledore once the feast
was over, "It comes to me to give a few start of term notices. First of all
Mr Filch would like me to remind you that the list of items now banned in
the corridors has been expanded to include Fanged Frisbees, Screaming
YoYo's, and Ever bashing Boomerangs. The full list can be viewed on Mr
Filches door and consists of I believe some 437 objects." He paused and
his expression turned grave.

"This year, I will inform you that the third floor corridor on the right hand
side is out of bounds to all those who do not wish to die, a very painful
death." Harry's eyebrows rose, that certainly merited investigation,
Dumbledore's speech continued, but Harry soon lost interest.

The First week of class passed by pretty quickly, despite Harry's high
hopes, the new Defense Professor, Quirrinius Quirrel was nothing but a
disappointment, he may have known a lot of material, but his sever stutter
prevented any accurate form of communication.

The First years had settled in quickly and split into two factions, those
who followed Malfoy like a puppy and, well, those who didn't. The rest of
his classes were going well however, Professor Babbling was hailing him
as a prodigy in the art of runes, he dedicated a lot of time to it, seeing as
how it was so useful in many areas of magic.

In fact, Harry would have said the year had gotten off to a perfect start, if
it weren't for the fact that he and Miranda had very little time to chat
anymore, she was simply swamped in Homework, but they still made time
for the occasional conversation here and there.

Nothing really happened until the first Quidditch match of the year. It was
Slytherin who fielded practically the same team as the year before, Moran,
Flint and Adrian Pucey as chasers, Derek Bole and newcomer Derrick, and
Terrence Higgs as seeker, Miles Bletchley was their keeper. Harry thought
they were an extremely strong side, and capable of taking the cup if they
worked hard enough.
The Gryffindor team had two new members, a chaser by the name of Katie
Bell and Longbottom, who had done something to impress McGonagall,
and she had responded by putting him on the Quidditch team. The match
was due to start, and Harry was just giving his final pre-match pep talk.

"The Gryffindor chasers are good, there's no denying it, however they are
also small, we can use our size to force them off the Quaffell if we need
to, Bonnie, just do your thing, you fiend on a broomstick" they all
chuckled and Harry turned to the beaters.

"Those weasely twins are fiends with those bats, so you have to make sure
you keep the bludgers in our possession, hit them hard, hit them straight
and by god hit them accurately." The beaters nodded and Harry turned to
Higgs,

"Terrence, you've done this before, you know the tricks that Longbottom
doesn't know. This is his first match, exploit that, pressure him into
making mistakes, and don't worry, the chubby bastard probably can't catch
a cold." The team laughed and Harry turned to Bletchley, who gripped his
arm in a friendly manner and laughed out

"I know I know Potter, keep my eye on the snitch and don't be an idiot and
let the Quaffell in!" Harry grinned at the team, wished them luck and
headed back to the stands.

"And their Off!" called Lee Jordan, the new commentator, "the talk of this
match is Neville Longbottom is Gryffindor's secret seeker, youngest
seeker in a century, let's see him prove why he deserves the spot!" The
Gryffindors cheered,

"Slytherin has possession, Pucey passes to Flint who shoots… no it's a

feint, passes to Moran, Moran shoots, and it's a goal, 10-0 to Slytherin."
The green and silver clad supporters cheered,

"But Gryffindor counterattacks, the lovely young Angelina Johnson has

the Quaffell, passes to Spinnett, ouch! Hit by a bludger from Bole, she
drops the Quaffell, which is intercepted by Flint, he's going on his own,
COME ON WOOD!" screamed Jordan, he then groaned "20 – 0 to
Slytherin."

The match proceeded this way, Moran led the team sublimely, calling out
plays and executing stunning aerial manoeuvres. The Gryffindor chasers
were good, but they couldn't compete with the Irish professional.

30 minutes into the game, the score stood 160 -50, and the Gryffindors
were starting to get dirty, or at least the Weasely twins were, they fired two
hard bludgers at Bletchley in goal, one hitting his stomach and the other
his chest. He fell from the room, and would have fallen to the ground if
Harry hadn't managed a quick Levitation charm to halt his descent.

Fortunately Bletchley soon recovered enough to play again, and Madam

Hooch issued two penalties for the twins attack. 180-50.

Harry was scanning the pitch intently, looking for openings when he saw
Longbottoms broom give a massive lurch, he chuckled, Longbottom had
done nothing but circle the pitch high above the play so far, and now he
was unable to control his broom. It was pathetic.

However it soon became evident that Longbottom wasn't unable to control

his broom, rather the broom seemed to be unable to be controlled. Most of
the players on the pitch were watching Neville now, forgetting the game
completely. Harry gestured wildly to Flint who had the Quaffell and he
cheekily scored Gryffindor 20 more points before Hooch noticed and
called a time out.

Suddenly, just as soon as it had started, the bucking broom stopped. Harry
noticed what appeared to be a fire in the teacher's stands, but couldn't
accurately see what had happened. Neville clambered back onto the broom
and play resumed. By this stage it was 200-50, and Harry called a time out
almost as soon as Hooch had resumed play.

He flew up to the team, "right, one more goal and we play a full defensive
game, don't give them an opening and leave the game up to Higgs,
excellent play, we'll play Beggar's Drift first and then follow it up with
Dragon Defence. Everyone with me?" he got nods, so returned to the
ground.

"And Play is resumed again, after Slytherin coach Potter has a quick word
with his team. Pucey has the Quaffell and is storming up the pitch,
Johnson and Bell move to tackle, Pucey passes to Moran, who passes to
Flint, back to Moran, Back to Flint, who passes to… Nobody? No Pucey
came out of nowhere then, Pucey scores. Slytherin lead by 160 points."
Harry smirked at the successful application of his newest move. Distract
the opposition chasers so they leave one player open.

Slytherin then clearly changed to defensive play, No matter how many

times the Gryffindor's tried to find an opening, they were rebuffed by the
flexible shield of the Slytherin chasers.

"And it appears Longbottom and Higgs have seen the Snitch, they are
zooming after something, yes, there it is, Higgs has the advantage, he's
going to catch it, no, he's hit by a Bludger from a Weasely. Longbottom
reaches… Oh sweet Merlin, he's fallen off his broom, Longbottom is in
the dirt after a nasty fall" The Slytherins were falling over themselves
laughing, however they stopped when a dusty fist rose into the air, Neville
had the Snitch in his hand. The Gryffindor's cheered loudly for a second
before realising they had still lost the match.

"And Slytherin Win, 210 – 200, after an uh… unorthodox catch by Neville
Longbottom."

Harry cheered, making his way down to his team mates. They laughed and
he joined them all in a group hug, suddenly they were enveloped by a
massive pair of arms, Harry turned,

"Julian!" he cried out in surprise, Julian Urquhart, the captain who had led
Slytherin to three consecutive winning seasons was behind him, "What are
you doing here?" Julian laughed,

"I'm playing for the Wimborne wasps now, I had a free weekend so I
thought I may as well come and see my old team!" he laughed and ruffled
Harry's short hair, "You've still got it I see Superstar!" Harry grimaced at
the nickname.

Together the team plus Urquhart made their way back to the common
room for the traditional party.

That had been a party to remember, and Harry had discovered for the first
time, how lethal Firewhisky could be for an untrained drinker. He had
ended up being put to bed by Miranda at 3.30, after Olivia had tried to
teach him River dance, it turned out he didn't have a natural talent, and
after he had knocked over a table Miranda had decided he'd had enough.

With one arm firmly around his waist, she lugged him up the stairs,
vowing to take revenge as soon as she could, and at the same time
deciding that Harry's leprechaun impression needed some serious work.
6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

When Harry awoke the next day with a pounding headache, he groaned
loudly, and heard a corresponding groan from the foot of his bed, he
looked down and was bemused to see Charles and Graham were asleep by
his feet, still fully clothed and looking rather worse for wear.

"Wa time 'sit?" Asked a groggy Charles, his voice slurred and eyes half
closed.

"Er… round eleven I think" replied Harry, his voice sounded too loud and
he closed his eyes again, letting his head fall back onto the pillow.

Half an hour later, the three boys managed to make their way down to the
common room. It was evident the elves hadn't yet cleared up after the
party, empty bottles were littered on the floor and there were more than a
few passed out bodies on the sofas and chairs.

"Harry!" called out Marcus, then winced at the volume. "I have headache
draughts, Snape came round earlier. He umm… wasn't impressed." Harry
accepted the potion gratefully, drinking it down as fast as possible. His
head cleared quickly and he grinned at Marcus.

"Quite a night right?" he asked with a small grin, Marcus shrugged

embarrassed

"I uh… I don't remember too much of it I'm afraid." The others chuckled
and together they made their way up to the great hall for a spot of late
breakfast. It seemed all of Slytherin were trying to appear as normal as
possible, but it wasn't quite working, many of the teachers were looking at
them with disapproving looks on their faces.

"Halloween tonight right?" asked Olivia from beside Harry, she looked as
bad as he felt, even with the Headache draught, her makeup was smudged
and her eyes bloodshot. Harry grunted non-committedly, not fully
comfortable with words yet.

"Thank Merlin it's Saturday came a grumble from behind them, Harry
turned and saw Bole and Bletchley stumble into the hall, robes crumpled,
and red marks on their faces from where they had slept.

The meal took far longer than usual, every bite took an age to settle in
Harry's stomach, therefore it was nearly midday by the time He got up
with the rest of his year mates and headed back to the common room.

He was intercepted by an irate blonde in the Entrance Hall. Miranda

grabbed Harry's arm and bodily dragged the taller boy out onto the lawn in
front of the castle.

"3 years Potter, I have been trying to get the concept of self-restraint
through your abominably thick skull for three years, and yet first time
someone offers you alcohol you are up on the table trying to river dance.
River Dance Potter!" Harry shuffled his feet embarrassed, looking up to
meet her eyes.

She was looking down at him with a mixture of exasperation and

enjoyment, it wasn't often now that she was able to get one up on him like
this nowadays, and she liked to enjoy every opportunity.

"Sorry." He replied simply and she rolled her eyes.

"You're lucky most of the rest of the house was equally inebriated, else I
might be seriously unhappy." Harry grinned up at her and she swatted his
arm. Together they made their way back to the common room. During
breakfast someone had cleaned the room back to its normal state, the
smell of beer and sweat had been removed, and the upturned tables
righted.

They separated once inside and Harry went upstairs to have a shower and
try to wash some of the smell off himself.
Most of the house was back to normal that evening. They put on their best
robes and made their way up to the Halloween feast. The Great Hall had
been decorated superbly, pumpkins the size of carriages were littered
around the corners of the hall, whilst strings of cobwebs were strung
around the floating candles. Most impressive of all were the swarms of
live bats that danced their way around the air, forming images of skulls
and spiders in the air above them.

The Feast was as excellent as was usual, Harry's appetite had returned full
force and he happily helped himself to two enormous plates of food, as the
food and butter beer flowed, he became more and more at ease, laughing
and joking with the his house, with his friends.

Just as he started to tuck into a thick slice of treacle tart however,

Professor Quirrell burst into the Great Hall, he sprinted up the divide
between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, shouting as he did so

"TROLL! TROLL, In the Dungeons… thought you ought to know!" after

he had finished he collapsed in a dead faint, a few of the seventh years
snickered at his fate.

The rest of the hall however had erupted in pandemonium, Harry watched
as the Malfoy heir cried out in panic, his face becoming even paler than
usual, the scene was similar at most other tables, though Harry noticed
that Longbottom and his faithful sidekick Weasely were looking at each
other guiltily.

BANG! BANG!

The Hall went silent and Dumbledore lowered his wand. "Prefects will
lead their houses back to their dormitories. Immediately please." Three
houses hastened to obey as the teachers hurried off to deal with the troll.
Slytherin stayed put. Harry overheard Bonnie Moran and Patrick Dwight,
the tweo seventh year prefects having a hasty conversation.

"Obviously not Dwight" Bonnie was saying, "There's a troll down there!"
"Well fine, why don't we stay put?"

"No, let's go to the Library. I need to pick up a reference book for

Arithmancy anyway." Several around the pair chuckled, and together the
house made their way upstairs to the Library.

They were stopped on the second floor when a terrified looking Ronald
Weasely pelted around the corner, bouncing off the opposite wall. He
slowed to a stop when he saw the amused looking Slytherins.

"T-t-ttroll!" he cried, pointing back the way he had come, as if to Support

his declaration, an inhuman bellow sounded from around the corner,
shaking the castle walls. Nobody moved. Suddenly Longbottom appeared,
looking equally terrified, his arm wrapped securely around Granger. They
pelted through the Slytherins and Ron quickly followed after his friends.

There was an eerie silence, as everybody looked around, not sure what to
do. However that was soon changed when a horrific smell began to waft
over the school children, followed by the sound of enormous feet running
down the Corridor. Bonnie took charge quickly.

"Everyone back. Seventh years to the front and cover the rest. MOVE!"
Everybody hurried to obey. Harry stayed put however, unwilling to leave
his closest friend to hold off a troll. They beat a hurried retreat, but the
troll was faster.

It rounded the corner, and saw them. It was huge, 12 feet tall at least,
small piggy eyes glared at the children, from its small head. The seventh
years and Harry stayed still, not daring to breathe. It had lumpy grey skin
and large stubby fingered hands in which it held what appeared to be the
trunk of a good sized tree. The troll cocked its head and blinked stupidly,
before taking a step forward and raising its club menacingly.

"Kill it! Kill it now!" cried Bonnie, and a hail of lethal spells, most
borderline dark slammed into the vast creature. It howled, enraged, but
seemingly unhurt. It began to lumber towards them, club raised to strike,
the seventh years continued to pelt it with spells, whilst Harry ran up to try
and help out.

It swung its club, narrowly avoiding Bonnie, who with Quidditch trained
reflexes managed to roll out of the clubs path. Harry sent a cutting curse at
its neck, but it was absorbed by the creatures hide. It swung again,
catching Terry Blake on the arm, he cried out, and collapsed, limb clearly
broken. Harry Grabbed his collar and was able to drag him out of the
combat zone quickly.

"Aim for its Eyes and Mouth, quickly!" shouted Bonnie. Miranda managed
to strike the beast with a conjunctiva curse, and it flailed blindly. To
Harry's horror, he saw the club swinging towards Miranda. There was no
way she could escape in time.

Harry reacted on instinct, sending an exploding curse towards the Club,

but the spell struck too late. The huge club struck his best friend in the
chest and she was sent flying backwards, she struck the wall hard, and
didn't move. Harry's curse struck the club and it exploded in a shower of
Splinters.

Releasing a primal cry, Harry began to advance towards his fallen friend,
keeping up a solid stream of curses, each one darker and more malicious
than the last.

"Ocular Putresco, Hastis Glacis!" He cried, the first spell struck the trolls
eyes, causing them them die and rot instantly, the troll howled in pain,
whilst his the spear of ice he had conjured struck it in the shoulder. It
bellowed, and hurled the end of its club at Harry, it struck him on the
shoulder, and he felt the bone grind and shatter. His vision flashed white,
but he gritted his teeth and managed to send out one last Ice spear before
his knee's buckled.

Fortunately his aim was true, the long icicle shot from Harry's wand and
struck the beast in its open mouth, it easily slid through the unprotected
tissue and emerged from the other side of its head. The troll gave a groan,
and collapsed forward.
However, Harry wasn't out of the woods yet, as the corpse had fallen right
on his exposed left leg, Pinned, and with his shoulder and leg broken,
Harry blacked out.

He awoke several hours later in a bright white room. He had been changed
into uncomfortable cotton pyjamas, and his leg and shoulder both ached
horribly. He looked around, five unconscious figures were in the beds
around him, he recognised a few faces, Bonnie lay to his right, her head
wrapped in a white bandage. However he couldn't see Miranda amongst
them.

He felt his heart tighten and beat rapidly, his stomach clenched as he
thought of what that could mean.

"Potter, you're awake. Good." Harry looked up, Madam Pomphrey was
before him, Professor Snape to her right and the grave countenance of the
headmaster to her left.

"How are you feeling Potter?" asked Snape, his black eyes looked almost
concerned.

"I'm quite well Professor, thank you for your concern." He snapped his
Occlumency shields up, feeling the peaceful emptiness that they left in his
mind. Being emotional right now would not help him.

"I will be the judge of that Potter" the healer interrupted, wand out as she
performed several charms on him. He ignored her, his attention returned to
his head of house.

"I can't help but notice Miss Rookwood is not here Professor, yet she was
injured by the troll, is she alright?" It took all of Harry's very considerable
self-control for his emotionless mask not to crack.

"Miss Rookwood is fine Harry my boy, or at least she will be. She has been
transferred to St. Mungo's hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. She
suffered some internal damage and madam Pomphrey didn't wish to take
any risks." The headmaster said with a benevolent smile, though it didn't
reach his eyes.

"I see, and the rest of the Slytherins?" Harry asked, looking around at the
full beds.

"All will make full recoveries, Mr Potter, Miss Rookwood was the worst
hit." The potions master said with a nod towards Harry.

"Well I would like to see her. As soon as possible." Madam Pomphrey

looked askance

"Absolutely not Potter, you suffered severe injuries, your leg is healed but
your shoulder is still in about 30 pieces! You will remain in that bed until I
release you." Harry scowled angrily, his green eyes suddenly changed from
emotionless to furious in less than a second.

"My friend is in Hospital with severe injuries and you expect me to do

Nothing?!" He growled angrily, Madam Pomphrey took a step back,

"Harry, don't be angry or upset, Madam Pomphrey simply wants what is

best for you. You can look after your friends after you have looked after
yourself." Harry ignored the Headmaster and turned to Snape.

"Have you found the bastard who let a troll in Professor?" Madam
Pomphrey looked horrified at Harry's language, but Snape sighed,

"Not yet Potter, but we will find him, and he will be brought to justice for
what he did." Harry nodded. Forcing his emotions but under control

"Have you considered Professor Quirrell? As the only member of staff not
present in the Great Hall when the troll was released, he is the most likely
candidate, also the thesis he wrote in 1988 does rather seem to suggest he
has an affinity with trolls." Snape looked impressed.

"My my, Harry, that's quite an accusation to make" said Dumbledore, his
smile gone now, "However I am impressed by your knowledge." Harry
nodded briefly at the Headmaster.

"It was not an accusation Headmaster, merely an observation." Snape

nodded, and the Headmaster seemed appeased.

"We are considering all avenues Mr Potter, I assure you this incident will
not be forgotten." Snape said, trying to pacify the boy.

"We shall leave you to rest Harry, you may visit Miss Rookwood when you
are fully recovered. I will also award yourself and all those who fought the
troll 25 points each for your bravery this evening." With that, the three
teachers turned and left. Harry sighed letting his head fall back onto the
pillow. His shoulder ached something terrible, but his leg was at least
feeling better. He closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.

The next morning when Harry awoke, it appeared all of Slytherin was in
the Hospital Wing. It seemed most of the Seventh years had woken up,
When they saw he was awake, the rest of his year mates hurried over.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"I can't believe you killed the troll!"

"Is your shoulder okay?"

"You are a fucking Hero Harry!"

The shouts and praises of his year mates gave Harry a smile, and he
attempted to return the gentle hug that Olivia had given him. Marcus gave
him a pat on his good shoulder, whilst Clara sat on the end of his bed.

"The whole school is talking about it! Dumbledore announced at breakfast

what happened, why did you stay behind? You could have been killed!"
Clara scolded him, he gave her a weak grin,

"I was concerned about Miranda, I couldn't leave her!" he tried to appease
them, the half Spanish girl sniffed,
"I still don't see what you see in that girl, is it just because she has big
boobs?" Harry almost choked, whilst the somewhat prudish Olivia looked
horrified.

"She was the first person to try and help me become stronger. It's thanks to
her that I am who I am. She deserves my respect. Her big boobs are merely
a plus." Clara merely sniffed disdainfully again, but leant forward to give
him a gentle hug as well.

They all stayed around Harry's bed for a little while longer discussing
what had happened with the troll, however before too long, the bell for
classes rang, and they had to leave him, promising to return before too
long.

The day passed excruciatingly, when his friends had returned after lunch,
Terrence had thought to bring along several books for him from the library,
and that helped while away the hours.

As night fell, Harry's shoulder began to itch terribly, then it felt like he had
severe pins and needles in it, Madam Pomphrey assured him this meant
the bone was knitting itself back together and gave him several potions to
help speed up the process.

"It's a good thing Mr Potter, It means I can probably release you tomorrow
morning."

The healer was correct once again, Harry's shoulder, whilst not perfect,
was at least at a stage where he was able to be released the next day. He
was given a large regimen of potions for the next week, but Harry was
pleased to be free.

He waited for the Healer to leave, before hurrying over to her fire and
flooing to the hospital.

He joined a long queue at the reception, waiting to be shown where to go,

the man in front of him seemed to have had his arms replaced with
flippers, whilst the man being helped at that time appeared to have dozens
of little squid suckered onto his face.

It took a while, but eventually Harry reached the bored looking

receptionist.

"whats the problem sir?" she asked in a bored drawl.

"No problem miss, I was hoping to visit my friend, she was brought in a
couple of days ago." The woman brought out a list,

"Whats her name then?"

"Rookwood, Miranda Rookwood." The receptionist flitted through the list

before finding her name.

"Floor 3, Intensive care ward. Next." Harry walked towards one of the
waiting lifts and pushed for the third floor. The life rose quickly, and
pinged when it stopped.

"Floor 3. Intensive care ward and permanent spell damage." Came an

automated voice. Harry stepped out and walked down the open ward. A
round faced, cheerful looking healer stopped him,

"Can I help you?" she asked kindly,

"Er yes, I'm looking for Miranda Rookwood, I was told she was on this
floor." The healer nodded and gestured down to the end of the Ward,

"You're in luck, she just woke up, she's still very weak so be careful."
Harry thanked her and went to where she had pointed.

"Good morning Potter." Miranda greeted him, her voice weaker than he
had ever heard it before. Harry smiled, she looked pretty terrible, her chest
was tightly wrapped in cotton bandages, and she had an extremely
unpleasant looking bruise across the right side of her face.

"Good to see you too Rookwood." There was a moment of silence

"They said…"

"I was so…" they both spoke at once. Harry gestured for her to continue,

"They said you killed the troll, I hope you don't get a big head after
beating me at something." Harry forced a smile, but it was clearly fake,

"Merlin Miranda, I'm glad you're okay, I thought you died!" Harry blurted
out. Miranda smiled softly and held out one hand, Harry took it and she
brought him into a hug, they stayed that way for a long time.

Harry lay on the thin Hospital bed next to his best friend as she slowly
stroked his hair, his head upon his chest, the two of them gaining comfort
from the other after their Harrowing ordeal.

"I can't believe you thought I would die Potter, I'll always be there to bust
your balls, don't you doubt it." Harry gave a short laugh,

"You better be, god knows where I would be if you weren't around!"

"Hole in the ground most likely" she replied casually,

"Most likely" Harry agreed, before they fell silent once more. The hospital
continued to bustle around them, and the sun slowly sank behind the cloud.
The two lay in silence, however too soon, they were interrupted.

"Mr Potter, I thought I had told you that I would take you to see Miss
Rookwood when you were feeling better, not when you thought it most
convenient."

"Come to collect you wayward student professor Snape?" Miranda asked,

her voice still very weak,

"Indeed Miss Rookwood, It is good to see you awake once more"

"Thank you Professor. You had better go Harry, It's never a good idea to
keep Professor Snape waiting." Harry got up, his joints stiff after having
lain still for so long, and together he and his housemaster returned to the
castle.

The next six weeks introduced a new element to Harry's time at Hogwarts.
Miranda had returned to Hogwarts, and to celebrate her return (for it
marked the end of the slight depression that had gripped the house after 7
of its members were hospitalised) they had organised a party, it was not
wild like after a Quidditch game, but they stayed up late drinking and
eating, sitting around the fire and toasting food in its embers.

The change came however, as Harry and Miranda began to get closer, they
had always been close, and their relationship had changed from Mentor
student, to friends and equals, and then to best friends, and now it seemed
to have changed again, but Harry wasn't sure what it had changed to. They
had become a lot closer since the troll incident, and their relationship had
a new tactile element to it. Hugs were given where none would have been
before.

Harry was not, no matter what Clara would like to think, naïve in the ways
of relationships, however he refused to even consider attempting anything
like that with Miranda. She was too important to lose.

Thus November turned to December and the Christmas holidays began,

most of the House left, leaving just half a dozen Slytherins and Harry grew
to enjoy the peace and quiet that the empty house offered. He quickly
finished his homework, and then delved into his latest favourite subject.
The dismantling and creation of ward detectors and defences. It was tricky
work, requiring great patience and logic, Harry relished the challenges.

Christmas morning dawned bright and cold. Frost had turned the lawns in
front of the castle white and bristly. Harry rose early and took a long
shower. When he entered the Slytherin common room, it was to discover
that the remaining Slytherins were waiting for him, he joined them on the
Sofa and awaited the last few members of the house.

After a long breakfast filled with jokes and laughter, they all retired to the
common room for the traditional presents.
It was an excellent haul in Harry's opinion, from Marcus he received The
Quidditch Players Playbook, whilst the Montagues had given him an
elegant wand wrist Holster made of dark brown dragon hide. From
Terrence he had received a book called Taking down trolls: a must have
guide for any troll hunter with a note inside reading

For next time.

Harry had smirked at that, but the book could certainly offer excellent
advice on trolls, he already knew how fearsome opponent they could be.

Olivia had given him a large representation of a Quidditch pitch in which

he could better demonstrate his plays.

His other friends had given him sweets, and a few books, but his gift from
Miranda had surprised him. It was a simple, unadorned Silver Crucifix on
a thin silver chain. He had once confessed how he retained many Christian
beliefs, seeing as how it was a Christian Orphanage, and he was touched
by the fact that she had clearly been listening.

He turned to her and gave her a firm Hug which she returned.

"It's enchanted, it'll warm up if there is poison in your food, and will go
cold if someone near you is using magical methods of concealment."

"Sentimental and Practical. Thank you so much" she just smiled,

"Can I put it on you?"

"Of course." He bowed his head, and she fastened the silver chain behind
his head, then tucked the cross into his shirt. Patting his chest where it lay.
Before giving him a peck on the cheek and returning to her present pile.

The next night, on Boxing Day, Harry was sat upon his bed in his empty
dormitory, trying to get to grips with the new take on his friendship with
Miranda, as the clock struck midnight, Harry sighed. He would take a walk
that would settle his mind. He changed his clothes into a pair of dark
trousers and blue shirt.

Slipping out of the silent dormitory, he made his way up the stairs to the
corridors. He heard footsteps up ahead and quickly cast a disillusionment
and silencing charm over himself. However whoever it was didn't pass
him, so he carried on walking. After 15 minutes of walking or so, he saw
an open door to one of the disused charms classrooms.

Inside he saw a curious sight. Neville Longbottom was sat upon the floor,
looking up at a mirror with a look of absolute longing on his face. Harry
thought this was a peculiar expression to have whilst looking at a mirror.
Harry knew the boy-who-lived was arrogant, but anyone would think the
boy wanted to marry himself.

Whatever it was that was happening in the room, it was more interesting
than whatever was happening in the corridors, so slipped inside. The door
creaked a little when he hip brushed it, and Neville whirled around,
however he clearly didn't see Harry through the charms for he quickly
turned back to the mirror.

Harry sat upon one of the disused desks and watched. It was very dull, but
Harry was hardly in a position to sleep. His interest was piqued however
when he thought he saw a shimmer in the air by the door. He quickly used
his magical vision to determine that there was indeed someone entering
the room, also under a disillusionment charm.

After a few minutes of watching, Harry saw the disillusionment fall to

reveal the Headmaster.

"Back again Neville?" asked the white haired Wizard. Neville spun, and
looked shocked to see the headmaster.

"Headmaster, I, I'm sorry to be outside sir." The headmaster waved his

hand cheerily.
"Do not worry my boy, it is Christmas, I am prepared to overlook this one
excursion."

"Thank you Headmaster, I didn't see you come in." Dumbledore chuckled.

"Yes, funny the things we don't see when we are invisible." Neville paused
before asking

"What's this mirror do?" Dumbledore paused, clearly thinking hard,

"That" he began, "is a difficult question, The Mirror of Erised holds many
secrets, however, may I ask what you see in the mirror?"

"I see… I'm head boy and Quidditch captain, everybody is impressed by
me!" Dumbledore nodded

"Yes, and you're friend Ron saw himself as greater than his brothers, he
who has always been in his family saw himself becoming greater than all
of them. So tell me Neville, what do you think the Mirror shows us?"

"It shows us… what we want, what we really want?" Dumbledore sighed,

"Yes and no, let me put it like this, the happiest man on earth would look
into the mirror and see himself as he is. The mirror shows nothing less
than our deepest and greatest desires." Neville looked just as confused by
the explanation.

"I would suggest you return to bed Neville, It is getting late. So put on that
remarkable cloak of yours, off you trot." Neville stood and put his
invisibility cloak around his shoulders. Harry was shocked to see that it
made him invisible even to his magical sight. Just as the chubby boy
reached the door, Dumbledore called him

"Neville, It is not good to dwell on dreams, no matter how pleasant, the

mirror will be removed from here tomorrow, and I ask that you do not look
for it, men have wasted away before it, and it would not do for you to join
them."
"Yes Professor…. Professor?"

"Yes Neville?"

"What do you see in the mirror?" The headmaster chuckled,

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick woollen socks. I never have enough
pairs, another Christmas has passed, and yet people insist on sending me
books." He finished mournfully, before his eyes fastened on Neville, "Now
bed Neville." The boy left and left Harry and Dumbledore alone.

"He's an interesting young man isn't he Mr Potter?" asked the Headmaster,

Harry cursed himself for thinking he could have remained hidden.

"Well he's certainly something" he replied cautiously.

"I must say, I had hoped his dearest ambition would have been a bit
greater." Harry had to agree with that, the saviour of the Wizarding world's
dearest ambition was to be head boy, it was a bit pathetic in Harry's
opinion.

"Have you looked in the Mirror Harry?" asked Dumbledore, he shook his
head and the aged Headmaster motioned with his hand for Harry to stand
before it.

Harry nearly gasped by what he saw. The mirror showed an image of

Harry, he looked older, perhaps early twenties, in this image, Miranda was
held tightly to his side, with his friends arranged around him. They all
looked proud, confident and successful. Before them were many thousands
of people, looking up at him with awe and wonder. It took Harry a long
time to tear his gaze away from the image.

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

I show not you face but your hearts desire.

"What do you see Harry?" Asked Dumbledore, Harry almost answered, but
then he looked at the headmaster, the man's face looked just a little too
interested in the answer and Harry became suspicious.

"That is an incredibly personal thing to ask." Harry replied evenly

"Is it? I am just curious." Replied the elderly man, eyes twinkling in the
dark. Harry didn't buy it for a second.

"To know the greatest desire of my heart? I would have described that as
personal yes sir."

"Well, Will you tell me what you see?" Dumbledore tried again, Harry
considering making up a story, but dismissed the idea.

"No."

"Very well. Then may I suggest you return to bed?" Harry nodded, but then
turned back to the mirror, he kept his eyes away from the glass, instead
using his magical sight to examine it.

He quickly identified several rune clusters, each of which contained

dozens of runes, the whole mirror was surrounded by such strong magic
that Harry ran his hand over the frame, trying to feel the warmth of the
latent power it possessed.

"Harry, the Mirror is ancient, older than you or I, It was made by an old
friend of mine, Nicholas Flamel, one of his greater creations in my
opinion, do not try to understand it, it would take a lifetime of study."
Harry paused at that

"This mirror was made by Nicholas Flamel? Then it could be ancient!

Although I would hardly suggest that this mirror is a greater work than the
Philosophers stone."

Dumbledore's eye twitched at the mention of the stone, something Harry

picked up on. The man suddenly looked uncomfortable.
"The stone could grant one immeasurable power, Wealth, Immortality."
Harry pressed, carefully watching the Headmasters expression. It was a
very dangerous game he was playing, he wasn't arrogant enough to assume
he could beat the Headmaster and veteran politician at the game of words.

"Yes, Harry, the stone is powerful, but power is nothing without a cause,
the mirror could give one that cause." Harry considered that, the mirror
was powerful in a sense, it could be used on enemies to exploit their
hidden desires.

"So you suggest that neither should be used without the other?" Harry
pried,

"I would certainly believe that the mirror and stone do coexist to a certain
extent."

"Then they should be kept together, to stop one being used without the
other, the mirror to grant cause to power, the stone to prevent someone
being destroyed by being unable to achieve their dreams?" Dumbledore
looked extremely uncomfortable, and shifted slightly on his foot.

"Well, certainly." He said cautiously.

"Well does that mean the stone is in Hogwarts? If you do not believe they
should be separated, then you would do your utmost to keep them
together?" Dumbledore's eye twitched again, and Harry knew he had got to
the truth.

"The Stone and Mirror sometimes must be separated, as in this case, to

prevent a greater evil." The headmaster said, his voice strong and If not for
Harry's strength in Occlumency, Harry may have been overcome by the
slight compulsion charm laced into the headmaster's words. As it was,
Harry was able to ignore it.

"Yes Headmaster"

"Good Harry, now may I suggest you go to bed."

"Yes Headmaster." He replied, and left through the door. However, his
midnight walk had done nothing to calm his mind, instead it now raced.
The Philosopher Stone, arguably the most powerful object in Magical
Britain, was in Hogwarts.
7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6

The next morning Harry awoke late, he yawned widely and stretched out,
hearing the satisfied crack and pop of his muscles. He looked at his clock,
it was eleven in the morning and Harry sighed, he would have to rush to
get any breakfast. He skipped his shower and went straight to brushing his
teeth.

When he arrived in the great hall it was just in time to see the food
disappear from the table. He cursed his bad luck and slowly walked back
into the entrance hall.

"Missed Breakfast?" he turned, and to his surprise saw Cedric behind him,
he grimaced and nodded and Cedric laughed at his misfortune.

"Don't worry Harry, do you know where the Kitchens are?" Harry shook
his head and Cedric put his arm around Harry's shoulders and led him
through a part of the castle Harry had never been to before.

"So how have you been Harry? I only ever see you in Transfiguration and
you always ace that!" Harry laughed

"That's pretty much it I'm afraid, I've been doing pretty well in school so
far!" Cedric grinned at him, Harry truly like the Hufflepuff, they didn't
speak much, but Cedrics constant and genuine friendliness made it easy to
like him.

They carried on chatting about nothing, until they arrived at a painting of a

bowl of fruit.

"Tickle the pear Harry." Cedric ordered with a small smile on his face,
Harry did so, and to his surprise it giggled and formed a doorknob.

Inside Harry was shocked to find a full size replica of the Great Hall.
Inside were hundreds of House Elves, they were mostly washing up after
breakfast, but a few hurried over.

"How can we's be helping sirs?" they asked, looking up excitedly.

"Harry here slept through breakfast I'm afraid." The elves looked Horrified
that someone had missed out on their cooking and quickly led him to a
table. Cedric slip onto the bench next to him, and together they carried on
chatting.

Three Hufflepuff sixth years casually wandered in as they were chatting,

looked around and waved at Cedric, they sauntered over and casually fell
into the bench opposite.

"I thought I saw you at breakfast Leo?" Cedric asked one of the boys, he
looked someone surprised that Cedric was talking to him, but grinned
happily,

"Felt like some cheese scones…" Harry blinked, the boy didn't seem all
there, and Harry noticed his two friends looked the same. He raised an
eyebrow at Cedric

"Ced… are they normally like this?" he asked puzzled, Cedric shrugged

"Most of my house is, don't worry, you get used to it," they were prevented
from further conversation as their food arrived. Several bacon sarnies for
Harry, as well as sausages, toast, Marmalade and some Sautéed potatoes.
Harry grinned at his pile of food and tucked in with relish.

Cedric received a slice of toast and jam, and they ate with some small talk,
before lapsing into comfortable silence, interrupted occasionally by the
nonsensical chatter of the Hufflepuff's.

When they were both full, Harry promised to chat with Cedric soon and
then returned to the common room.

He sat on the sofa, and was soon lulled deep into his thoughts by the
soothing fire. He was deep in thought about his conversation with
Dumbledore. The Headmaster had as good as admitted that the Stone was
somewhere in Hogwarts, and to Harry that meant it was most probably
under heavy guard in the forbidden third floor corridor.

If Harry were a Gryffindor, or maybe if he didn't like to analyse any

situation before he threw himself into it, he would have immediately gone
to explore. However, Harry was not like this and he was lost in his mind
trying to remember everything he knew about the corridor.

Out of bounds to all those who do not wish to die, a very painful death.

Well that made it easier, if he was caught he merely had to state he had a
desire to die a painful death and he was out of that one. Useful as that was
however, it did not help in getting him past whatever obstacles might
exist.

He wanted that stone, with it, he could become so much greater, money,
long life, this was a one in a million chance to elevate himself to
greatness.

He sighed to himself, it would appear that he would have to go through the

door and go through the obstacles, a less elegant approach certainly, but it
would be effective. He had the whole year to discover how to reach the
stone, more than enough time. However, even if he could reach it now, it
would be unwise to do so, He didn't wand Dumbledore to have too much
time to consider who took it, he needed to be out of the picture as soon as
possible.

After exams, the whole school would be busy relaxing, making it easier to
sneak in and out without being missed. That would be the best time to do
it. He also decided not to probe the defences until at least May, that way
Dumbledore wouldn't be alerted to the problem. Until then, he would act
like a normal Fourth Year.

The rest of the year passed fast, Harry was being pressed by Bonnie to take
a greater and greater role in the Quidditch team as she crammed for her
NEWT's, Harry was okay with that, he took a more proactive role in
training the team, managing the practices, ordering which plays would
work and who should do what and when. Bonnie took it as a blessing, as
she simply got told what to do, and didn't have to think.

Professor Snape had come down to watch the practices and had been
impressed with how the team fared, they had been working hard, all of
them knew what they had to do, Slytherin had held the Quidditch cup for
five Years and none of them would want the ignominy of being the team
that lost the cup.

It was becoming apparent that Gryffindor were the biggest competition,

Oliver Wood had always been a Quidditch fanatic, and now that he was
captain had a zealous devotion, there had been several clashes as
Gryffindor and Slytherin both tried to take advantage of bad weather
conditions.

One Morning in Early February, Harry had been informed by Bonnie that
today was heavy rain, weather that the Slytherins were unable to play at
their optimum in, and that there were be an unscheduled practice after
lunch.

When Wood and the Gryffindor's arrived to take advantage of the same
conditions, wands had been drawn, and it was only the timely intervention
of Madam Hooch that spells were not cast. However, thanks to their mad
schedule, Harry was pleased to say that his team were able to pull off
plays he would never have considered before. It was looking good for six
years of Slytherin Glory.

The year progressed steadily, Harry maintained excellent grades without

too much sweat, whilst at the same progressing in his studies, which had
now been expanded to include anything that would get him a certain stone.
To that extent he had gone over several detailed maps of the castle that
showed that the forbidden corridor in fact contained a trap door that led to
an otherwise inaccessible part of the castle, the ideal place to set up a
spread of defences.
On April the 24th, Harry was sat in his usual seat in the common room,
Bonnie on one side of him and Marcus on the other.

"I'm telling you Harry, send me and Moran to the left with the Quaffell,
and then Pucey might be left unmarked!" Marcus was exclaiming loudly,

"Marcus we already have that move, its beggars Gauntlet. We practiced it

today." Moran had said with a quirk of her lips. Marcus looked
embarrassed.

"What about this" Harry drew several lines on the blackboard they were
studying, "we send two chasers here" he jabbed at one part of the model
pitch at their feet, "with the Quaffell, with one chaser too far away from
the action for the others to consider him a threat. Chasers throw Quaffell
to the seeker, who gets it to this chaser." Both of them studied the move.

"The seeker isn't allowed to handle the Quaffell Harry."

"He doesn't have to, just use his broom like a bat, if not that then replace
the seeker with a beater, who has an actual bat."

"It's very simple." Bonnie said cautiously.

"And nothing like it has been done on the Hogwarts pitch in the last four
years." Harry exclaimed "No one will see it coming!" Bonnie opened her
mouth to say something when they were interrupted by a first year.

"Excuse me Miss Moran" the girl asked timidly,

"What is it Tracey?" Bonnie asked casually, still paying attention to

Harry's suggestion.

"Draco Malfoy says that Longbottom and the oaf Hagrid has hatched a
baby dragon." The three on the sofa looked at the girl in shock.

"A… Dragon?" Bonnie asked sceptically. Tracey nodded

"A Norwegian Ridgeback he says." Bonnie let out a frustrated sigh,

"Very well, bring him over here." Tracey scurried off and a few seconds
later, Draco Malfoy swaggered over, looking incredibly pleased about
something.

"Malfoy, Tracey Davis says you saw a dragon. Is this true?" Malfoy gave a
wide grin.

"Well yes, the oaf hatched it tonight, I saw him Longbottom, Granger and
the Weasely down at his hut." Bonnie looked at him confused.

"What were you doing in Hagrids Hut?" she asked,

"No, I was outside the hut, I saw it through the window." Draco explained,

"Why were you spying on Hagrids hut?" Harry asked equally confused,
Malfoys cheeks pinked,

"Well… I was looking for dirt on Longbottom, make him lose some house
points."

"You don't need to spy on him for that, from what I hear, he loses enough
points in Potions as it is." Marcus spoke up, the four Slytherins all
chuckled.

"Let me get this straight, at this very moment, there is a baby Norwegian
Ridgeback in Hagrids hut?" asked Bonnie, Malfoy gave several quick
nods.

"Hagrid lives in a wooden house…" Marcus said slowly,

"Well he's never had much of a brain has he, probably bought it in one of
his drunken binges." Harry added his two pence, the others laughed.

"So… what do we do? Asked Malfoy, "Tell Snape?" Harry shook his head.

"If revenge is what you want, merely telling Snape won't be enough,
plausible deniability, Only Hagrid would be punished. We need Snape to
catch them at it."
Bonnie smirked, "since when have you had it out for Longbottom?" she
asked

"Since he insulted me in Madam Malkins this summer." Harry told her.

That night, Harry sent two letters, one he scrawled in a passable imitation
of Hagrids untidy writing and sent to the Golden trio of Gryffindor and the
other went to Snape.

The first read,

Neville,

I need help tomorrow, come to my house after class

Hagrid

The second:

Dear Professor Snape

It has come to my attention that certain illicit practices will be taking

place in the gamekeeper Hagrid's hut tomorrow after class. I would
appreciate if you could investigate this matter fully.

Thank you

He didn't sign the second letter, but knew the Potions Master would know
it was from him. This would be fun, he had never really had time to prank
people before, and whilst potentially getting four people in trouble with
the law for illegal Dragon breeding, harbouring a Class A restricted
species and unlawful possession of an endangered magical creature was
not the typical sort of Prank, Harry thought it quite fun.

He, Bonnie Marcus and Draco therefore were hanging around in the
Entrance hall as soon as class ended. Neville, Hermione and Ron all
hurried out to the Hut with concerned expressions on their faces, and not
three minutes after Snape, looking particularly malicious followed them.
He gave the four Slytherins a nod before heading down.

Satisfied the deed was done, Harry led them back down to the common
room, the Gossip mill of Hogwarts was so effective he was sure he would
hear about any punishment soon enough.

To his surprise however, he didn't discover the fate of the Gryffindor's and
Hagrid through the Rumour mill, instead it was through an announcement
at Supper.

"Students, Students!" Dumbledore shouted, his countenance grave, the hall

quickly fell silent.

"It came to my attention that there would seriously illegal events

occurring at Hogwarts. Mr Hagrid, gamekeeper and keeper of keys here at
Hogwarts has been found harbouring a baby dragon at the school."
Whispers and concerned murmurs erupted around the Hall, but
Dumbledore carried on regardless.

"As this was not his first incident involving dangerous magical creatures,
he has been taken away by Aurors until such a time as he Ministry sees fit
to release him." This caused yet more Whispers.

"It also falls to me to let you know that due to certain students being aware
of these illegal deeds, I have had no choice but to take 300 points from
Gryffindor." The large hourglass filled with rubies suddenly emptied
leaving only a small pile in its place." There was stunned silence in the
Hall, and all eyes turned to the Gryffindor table, where Neville, Ron and
Hermione were sitting looking miserable.

Suddenly, a couple of seventh year Slytherins began to clap slowly, the

applause spread through the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables, the
Hufflepuff table looked bemused at Gryffindor's plight. Hermione Granger
suddenly stood up and fled the table in tears, Harry caught Neville's eye
and raised his Goblet in a mock salute, the boy flushed scarlet in anger.
After the exciting events of April, spirits were high in the Slytherin
common room, with the loss of 300 points, Slytherin had no realistic
opposition to the House cup. However it didn't take long for the joyful
mood to diminish.

It was exam season.

For five days, Harry and the rest of the school slaved away over papers,
Harry was extremely confident that he had aced the wand based classes, as
well as Ancient runes and Arithmancy, but the other classes he was far less
sure about. As he left the great hall of his final exam, he decided to go
down to the lake to relax.

He was just returning to the Slytherin when he overheard a fascinating

conversation and stopped to listen.

"No Longbottom you can't. The headmaster has been called away on
urgent business at the Ministry, he will not return until tomorrow at the
earliest." Dumbledore was away? This would be the ideal time to make a
bid for the stone Harry thought, he carried on listening though as
Longbottom blurted out,

"He's gone? But he can't be, it's practically an invitation for Snape to steal
it!" he cried in apparent panic,

"Professor Snape Potter, and steal what?"

"The Philosophers stone!" the Weasely cried out, Harry blinked, they
thought Snape was after the stone? They were even stupider than Harry
had thought!

"How do you know…." McGonagall began, but cut herself off, "Professor
Snape is not after the stone, I assure you Longbottom, he helped protect
it." Evidently she was about to be cut off because she said loudly,

"No Longbottom! I will not hear about it, go outside and enjoy the
weather, and please don't attempt any more ridiculous heroics, Gryffindor
can hardly cope with another loss of points!" Harry sniggered.

The conversation was over and Harry hurried back to the common room.
There was little he could do until this evening, and so he picked up his
book, Gadding with Ghouls and walked slowly out of the Common room
to the lake to while away the hours before the biggest night of his life.

That evening, at around 10pm, Harry was restlessly sat in the Common
Room, he was trying to appear relaxed, however it was impossible, his
stomach was churning and he felt bile at the back of his throat whenever
he swallowed.

"What's the matter Harry?" Miranda asked slightly concerned, Harry

grinned at her,

"I might just change my fate tonight." He replied, she looked at him
confused, and put her hand on his forearm,

"It's not going to be dangerous is it?" she asked, he squeezed her hand
softly,

"I don't know, probably quite dangerous though. However I promise,

Promise Miranda that if this pays off, our fate will be forever changed for
the better." The beautiful blonde looked at him deep in his eyes and saw
the excitement and passion in them. She gave him a small smile,

"How can I help?"

"You can't, I don't want you involved, if I get caught then things will go
catastrophically for me." She nodded slowly,

"So I can do nothing?" she asked.

"No… Yes, Your House elf can apparate into Hogwarts can't it?" He asked
hopefully, the girl blinked,
"I've never tried, Minnie!" she called and with a crack the elf appeared
before her.

"How can Minnie serve mistress?" the elf asked, bowing low.

"Minnie, you are to obey all of Harry's commands tonight as though they
are my own, come when he calls and do whatever he asks. Do you
understand?" the elf turned to Harry and nodded,

"Minnie is to treat Mistress' Harry as though Master Harry is Mistress." It

said quickly, Miranda thought through the phrase before she nodded.

"Exactly Minnie. You may go." Minnie bowed low and then vanished with
a crack, "anything else I can do to help?" she asked, Harry thought for a
moment. "I need a detection ward on Quirrells door by tomorrow morning,
preferably tonight, I have a feeling he will be involved in this." Miranda
nodded once.

"Well if that's all I can do for you, then at least take this." Miranda reached
in around Harry's neck and pulled the Crucifix he still wore out from in his
shirt. She gave it a lingering kiss, then placed it back in Harry's shirt.

"Good Luck." She said, then walked away, up to the girl's dorms, Harry
watched her go, and sighed to himself, this was it. Harry waited until
eleven before hurrying up to the dorms. He changed into a pair of black
trousers that offered plenty of movement, as well as a black jumper, then
hurried back down to the common room, he cast a disillusionment charm,
Silencing charm and odour removing spell upon himself and stepped out
into the hall.

He reached the third floor and examined the door. He saw nothing, but
turned on his magical sight and as he expected saw a tiny detection ward
scheme on the door frame. He drew his wand and carefully nullified it,
before opening the door.

The room beyond was long and low, and Harry caught sight of the trapdoor
he planned to investigate. However, there was a problem, a giant three
headed problem.

The first layer of defence was a Cerberus, Harry dared not breathe, but
fortunately, his anti-detection spells worked, with nothing to see, hear or
smell, the dog was oblivious to his presence. He crept to the trapdoor, and
opened it as quietly as possible, the hinges squeaked, and Harry froze.
Fortunately however the beast was clearly sleepy and ignored the noise.

It's a rough road that leads to the heights of Greatness, Harry thought to
himself as he fell through the blackness. Fortunately this rough road had a
smooth landing and Harry took a few moments to recover, however he
quickly took out his wand. "Lumos" he whispered and to his horror found
that in the darkness long green vines had wrapped around his legs.

He cast his mind back to what this plant was, his mind supplied Devils
snare. He had studied that in first year… first year? He thought, perplexed,
however he brushed off the easy obstacle, casting a low powered incedio
to force the vines to retreat.

He clambered out of the vine pit and headed towards the only door. He
found himself in a brightly lit chamber, it was quite small, but with a high
ceiling. Above his head dozens of shiny… things fluttered. He walked over
to the door on the other side and tried the handle. It resisted a simple
unlocking charm, and Harry tried to think up a solution. He looked back up
at the flying things.

What were they? Birds? Insects? Suddenly he realised. Keys! Winged

keys! He looked around the room and saw by the door he had entered in by
a broomstick. This was frustrating, Harry was no seeker, this wouldn't be
easy, however he'd come this far!

He examined the lock, and determined he was most probably looking for a
big old key. Silver, and at least 3 cm's high. He kicked off from the ground
and quickly ascended to the other keys.

He looked around the chamber, and saw the key he was after. He flew after
it, but after five minutes of chasing it wildly, he had achieved nothing and
now was hot and sweaty.

He examined the keys angrily, in frustration he drew his wand and cast a
wide area flame spell, to his delight it worked and a great swathe of keys
caught fire, the feathers of their wings burning to ashes, making the keys
fall to the ground. Harry burnt the rest and landed, sifting through the pile
of Keys, which were rapidly regrowing their wings until he found the one
he wanted. He fit it into the door and it unlocked smoothly.

The keys had already returned to the air, wings fully reformed, and Harry
released the correct key.

The fourth layer of defence was fairly obvious in what he had to do. It was
a giant chess set, each piece at least seven feet tall. He tried to cross the
board, but one of the pieces moved to intercept him. "Only the Victor may
pass" rasped the king in a gravelly voice.

Harry nodded his head, at least this was something he was good at. He
took the place of a Black Bishop, and the game got underway.

His opponent was good, it didn't fall for many of Harry's obvious traps,
and tricked Harry into losing a few of his pawns early on. However, Harry
wasn't Slytherin's reigning chess master for no good reason, and for every
piece he lost, he took three from the whites.

20 minutes into the game, Harry had the king in check mate, It had been a
fun game, and Harry wished he could play the opponent in real life more
often, it was more of a challenge than most people offered him. Once the
King dropped his sword and Crown, Harry was allowed to pass through to
the next chamber.

He smelt it before he saw it, a horrendous stench filled the room. In the
room before him stood a 13 foot tall troll, larger than the one from
Halloween, this one also held a club filled with rusted nails sticking out of
it.
Harry mentally thanked Terrence for his book on Troll hunting, he hadn't
expected the Next time to be so soon, but he was glad to have read it.
Trolls are highly resistant to traditional magical attack he remembered,
however they have no special defence against elemental or physical
damage.

After reapplying the silencing and disillusionment charms, Harry went on

the offensive. Imbrignis! Harry thought, wordlessly send the spray of
flaming liquid at the troll, it stuck to the trolls skin, and before long the
beast had become a raging inferno, bellowing and swinging it's club wildly
as it slowly burnt to death.

Hurrying forward, Harry passed the still twitching corpse and entered the
next room.

If the troll was Quirrells defence, then this must be Snapes, it was a riddle,
simple as that. A test that might stump some more foolish wizards and
contained none of the foolish wand waving that Snape so deplored.

However, Harry's analytical mind made short work of the simple riddle,
and he picked up the bottle and drank, advancing to the next room.

This was evidently the final test. Before him, impressive as the last time
he had seen it stood the Mirror of Erised. Harry slowly advanced towards
it, gently stroking one hand down the frame.

The mirror was clearly the key, but how. Harry thought back to what
Dumbledore had said. "The Mirror and stone do coexist to a certain
extent" was it possible the stone was in the mirror? He looked into the
glass, and once again saw himself, Miranda pressed to his side, friends
behind him, but this time the mirror Harry held the stone.

Presuming his guess to be accurate, Harry tried to will the stone out of the
mirror. It was unsuccessful. He tried a different tactic, trying to force his
will to tell the mirror that he wanted to use the stone to right an injustice,
as he presumed that was the sort of rubbish that Dumbledore would
approve of.
Nothing happened, except the Mirror Harry wagged its finger
condescendingly at him. How long he stood there, trying to persuade the
mirror to give up its prize he didn't know, however he was interrupted
from his thoughts by a voice.

"So I see the lure of Wealth and Immortality have attracted you as well
Potter?" Harry turned slowly, behind him stood Quirrell, however, he
wasn't trembling now. He stood calm and confident, Wand held loosely at
his side.

"Good Evening professor" Harry greeted politely, drawing his wand from
its holster.

"Have you had any luck with the mirror yet?" the professor asked, walking
down the steps towards Harry.

"Not Yet I'm afraid. May I offer you the chance however?" Quirrell nodded
his head and stepped up beside Harry, he looked deep into the mirror and
frowned.

"I see myself with the stone. I see myself…." He trailed off, looking at
Harry suspiciously.

"Will you help me with the mirror Harry?" he asked politely, "I am given
to understand you are a prodigy at Runes and Arithmancy, both skills will
be needed here!" Harry ran a hand through his hair.

"It's a tempting offer Professor, One I would have agreed to before

Halloween." Quirrells face frowned, "It was your troll professor, wasn't
it?" he asked

"It was." Harry nodded,

"Normally that wouldn't bother me. However it attacked my friend,

hospitalised her for a week. And now, out of some sympathetic notion of
pride and vengeance, I cannot help you." Quirrell sighed,
"That is a pity, I assume you know the other option?" Harry chuckled
darkly.

"I presume we duel to the death, and the winner continues to try and take
the stone?" Harry asked chuckling,

"Indeed, although it seems a great waste. You have a great deal of talent
Mr Potter." Harry nodded his head at the compliment,

"And your acting skills were sublime professor, I especially enjoyed the
feint at the feast, very moving." His lips twitched in a smirk, and the
Professor flushed.

"Reducto!" Quirrell said lazily, Harry blocked it with a shield.

"Aguamenti!" Harry returned, overpowering the spell so a great surge of

water flooded out of his wand. It struck the Professor in the chest and he
lost his balance, Harry tried to follow it up with a cutting curse, but the
professor recovered quicker than he thought possible.

"Avada Kedavra!" cried the professor, Harry dived to one side as the bright
green curse sailed past.

Vermillious Tria! Harry silently sent at the professor, but Quirrell blocked
the electrocuting curse easily. He returned fire with a bombardment hex.
Harry managed to deflect it into the wall.

Stupefy, Reducto, Rictumsempra, Tarrantelaegra, Hastis Glacis! Harry sent

the spell chain at the professor in an unbroken stream. Quirrell's shield
held, but he was forced to stop casting.

"Well Potter, I am impressed, you have surpassed my expectations!"

"Thank you Professor." Harry didn't stop to think that maybe he should cut
out the honorifics seeing as how the man had tried to kill him.
"Professor Quirrell? Potter?" Came a voice, the two combatants stopped
the spells they were casting and looked around. Longbottom stood at the
top of the steps, looking Horrified at what he was seeing.

"L-l-l-longbottom, h-h-help, P-potter is trying to st-steal the stone!" Harry

rolled his eyes at Quirrells ridiculous attempts. Unfortunately, Longbottom
was both stupid and gullible enough to believe him.

"Don't worry Professor! REDUCTO!" he bellowed, Harry sent a stunner at

Neville and dodged Quirrells disembowelling curse.

"Ulcus!" he snapped out at Quirrell, the blood boiling curse deflected off
Quirrells shield curse and to the horror of all three combatants, struck the
mirror. There was an almighty crash and the plate glass exploded into a
hundred pieces, Glass shot like shrapnel around the room. A piece struck
Harry on the side of the head and he gasped in pain, Quirrell still had his
shield up, and survived unscathed.

Harry and Quirrell looked horrified, however, at the same time they both
saw the glint of Ruby in the shattered glass on the floor. Quirrell was
closer and picked it up.

"I can't believe that worked!" Harry muttered darkly, he had wasted 20
minutes in front of that mirror.

"I have it master, I have the stone!" cried Quirrell, seeing no master for
Quirrell to be speaking to, Harry prepared to continue the duel, blood from
his head wound trickling down his face.

"Well done Professor!" called Neville, patting the Defence Professor on

the back. To Harry and Neville's surprise, Quirrell began to smoke out of
his mouth. When Neville saw his teachers pain, he grabbed both his
shoulders to attempt to see what the matter was.

As Quirrell slowly turned to Ash before their eyes, Neville turned to Harry
in anger.
"What did you do you slimy snake?" He cried. Raising his wand wrathfully

Stupefy. Harry shot silently, the spell struck Neville in the chest and he
collapsed.

Harry walked over to the pile of ashes that had once been professor
Quirrell, and looked down for the stone. To his horror, a spirit rose from
the pile and shot straight through Harry and out of the wall. Harry blinked.

So… that just happened he thought, this night was turning out to be plain
wrong.

He picked the stone out of the pile of ashes and grinned, holding it up to
the light. The ruby red stone radiated power and felt warm to the touch,
just holding it was intoxicating. It's beautiful he thought, reflecting the
light from the torches a thousand times on each facet of its face.

"Minnie!" he called, and with a crack, Miranda's elf appeared before him,
he handed the small elf the stone. "Discover any tracking spells on this
stone and disable them, then hide it in the most secret place you can think
of. Tell no one where it is except myself. Do I make myself clear?" The elf
nodded. "No one, bar you and I, may know I have this!" The elf nodded,
ears trembling, and vanished with a crack.

Harry grinned, he could still salvage this. He turned to Neville. And

pointed his wand at the boy. "Obliviate!" he cried, and willed the spell to
remove any trace of the stone appearing from the mirror, but other than
that all the events remained the same.

Satisfied that his work was complete, Harry collapsed onto a stone step,
exhausted. He lay his head in his hands and tried to work on strengthening
his Occlumency. Not twenty minutes after Obliviating Neville, A frantic
looking Dumbledore hurried into the room.

Everything moved very fast after that, and Harry was exhausted. He was
led up to the Hospital Wing by Dumbledore, who was also carrying the
unconscious Neville behind him. Madam Pomphrey had appeared wearing
a frilly yellow nightgown and horrified at the thought of injured students
so late at night, after reviving Neville, and healing Harry's gash so he
simply had a small scar over his left eye, Pomphrey released them and
Dumbledore took them up to his office.

Harry was surprised to find Ron Weasely and Hermione Granger waiting
for them in the headmaster's office, they both looked tired and bruised, but
were looking at Neville with concern.

"It is a very situation we have here tonight" began Dumbledore, looking at

the four students over steepled fingers with grave eyes. "Neville, Ron,
Hermione, tell me exactly what happened."

Neville looked at the others, and together they launched into a tale
encompassing the whole year, how they had discovered fluffy, to Hagrid
informing them about Nicholas Flamel, their growing suspicion that Snape
was going to steal the stone to all their events surrounding that night.

Harry listened intently to Neville as he described the events in the mirror

chamber. "I saw Potter and Quirrell duelling, Quirrell asked for help, so I
sent a few curses at Potter, in all the confusion, one of Potters spells
bounced off Quirrells shields and hit the Mirror, it smashed headmaster.
I'm sorry!" Dumbledore nodded and gave him a benevolent smile,
gesturing for him to continue,

"Well, Potter and Quirrell both were distracted by the breaking mirror, and
I went to check on Quirrell, I put my hand on his back, and he just… well
um…. Disintegrated Headmaster. Into nothing but ashes, whatever it was
that happened exhausted me because I passed out not too long afterwards.
"Harry nodded in satisfaction, the memory he had given Neville was
clearly passably realistic.

"Thank you Neville, you and your friends were all incredibly brave." The
Gryffindor trio blushed, and Dumbledore turned his gaze to Harry, who
raised his chin.
"Harry, none of this explains how you came to be in the chamber in the
first place." The old man's eye began to twinkle madly.

"No Professor" Harry replied, "Was there a question in that statement?"

Hermione gasped at the thought of someone giving the headmaster cheek.

"Well my boy, would you care to tell me how you came to be in the
forbidden corridor?" Dumbledore asked with a small curl of his lips.

"Of course. I suppose it all starts with that troll. I told you I had my
suspicions about Quirrell at the time, and after the staff took No Action for
the rest of the year, I resolved to deal with the situation myself. I put a
small detection ward on Quirrells door, and when he triggered it tonight, I
moved to confront him." Dumbledore looked concerned by Harry's story
but gestured for him to go on.

"I was about 10 minutes behind Quirrell, The dog was still asleep, Devil's
snare is hardly an obstacle, I burnt the wings off the keys, beat the chess
board, killed the troll and Snapes riddle. I met Quirrell in the mirror room,
I asked him about the troll and he confessed to being the one to release to
help him get to the stone."

"Quirrell wanted the stone?" Neville asked in horror, looking at

Dumbledore askance.

"Yes Neville. Quirrell, like so many others was eager for the power and
wealth of such a device. Now do go on Harry."

"Well, Quirrell confessed, but he asked me to look in the mirror, I did so,
the image in it was the same as before, and when I told Quirrell this he got
angry. We duelled, and about five minutes in, Captain Gullible arrived."
Dumbledore tried to suppress a smirk and Neville flushed crimson. "He
fell for Quirrells attempt to trick him and got involved in the duel, Neville
told you what happened next." Dumbledore looked at the two of them
carefully.
Harry met his gaze head on, reinforcing his Occlumency shields to their
maximum. Neville looked down at his feet in apparent shame.

"All four of you have broken so many rules that I don't know where to
start." The Gryffindor trio looked miserable,

"Forgive me Professor Dumbledore, but by my reckoning, I only broke

two rules tonight…" Dumbledore looked at him in puzzled amusement,

"And how do you reach that conclusion Harry?" he asked

"Well, aside from being out after curfew and Magic in the corridors, I truly
believe that I didn't break rules." Dumbledore chuckled,

"The forbidden corridor?" he asked,

"Never forbidden, I had a death wish, and you said only those who wished
to remain alive should stay out of it." Dumbledore looked deep in thought,
before a small smile graced his lips,

"Attacking Professor Quirrell?"

"Self-defence, he cast the first spell." Dumbledore nodded,

"Well Harry, evidently we could go through this all day." Harry just
shrugged "However, let me instead cut to the end." The Gryffindor trio
looked nervously at one another.

"All four of you shall receive 50 points to your respective… Yes Harry?"
Dumbledore paused as Harry cleared his throat loudly,

"Well Headmaster. I hardly think points are the correct way of dealing with
this situation!" Harry took a breath "We broke rules, acted in violation of
your advice and far exceeded our mandate as Hogwarts students."

"That is true my boy, but you also prevented a dark wizard from gaining
one of the most powerful objects in History!" Harry shrugged
nonchalantly.
"Nevertheless, points would be a terrible reward. It would suggest to other
students that rule breaking in certain situation is okay. Neville killed a
teacher, and you want to reward Gryffindor in response." Neville flushed
and Dumbledore looked down his crooked nose at Harry.

"Well then Harry, what would you do?" asked the Headmaster

"Well, for those three, they were brave certainly, but ultimately useless.
Longbottom merely made a nuisance of himself in the chamber." Neville
looked at him angrily, "So perhaps points would be in order." Dumbledore
nodded.

"And what of yourself Harry?" he asked, eyes back to twinkling in full

force.

"Well, I defended the school from someone who would harm it, protected
Neville from Quirrells wrath, unmasked the man who released the troll
and generally saved the day."

"You did indeed." Replied the Headmaster,

"I want a slightly more permanent reward, that could regain my name
some of its honour." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he seemingly
remembered what Harry's father had done.

"The services I did to the school have been rather special headmaster, so I
would like to be awarded for that." Dumbledore's mouth thinned, and he
appeared deep in thought. He once again steepled his fingers and looked at
the four students for a long time.

"Very well, Neville, for your bravery, I award you fifty points, Hermione,
for your wisdom in the face of Adversity, I award you fifty points also.
Ronald, you, well, for following your friends, and… playing an excellent
game of chess, I award you 50 points." Harry tried to hide a laugh behind a
cough, the redhead's ears had turned bright pink, and he looked
understandably humiliated.
"Mr Potter, for courage, heroism and defending the school from a terrible
man, I am going to give you a special award for services to the school, and
50 points to Slytherin." Harry nodded his head graciously.

"So the stone is lost forever then?" Neville asked looking at the
headmaster.

"It would appear so, perhaps that is for the best. It is too powerful an
object to simply have lying around."

"But your friend, Nicholas Flamel, he will die without it!" Dumbledore
chuckled,

"He will die, but Neville, when you live for as long as they have, death is
simply like going to bed after a very, very long day." Dumbledore said
with a twinkle of his eye.

"Now, you four go to bed, it is very late, well it's very early, and you need
some sleep." With that dismissal, Harry stood and quickly returned to his
dormitory. As he lay back on his bed, he allowed a wide grin to spread
across his face, tonight had been a quite marvellous success.

The next two days passed quickly, Miranda had been curious, but after a
Harry had indicated that he was probably being watched she had shut up
about the whole situation.

Three days after the events surrounding the stone, was the Quidditch final,
Slytherin vs Ravenclaw. The match was not exciting by any stretch,
Ravenclaw played well, but the Slytherins played with a fervour that could
only occur when the possibility of retaining the cup for a sixth consecutive
year was on the cards. The final score had Slytherin winning by 190 points
after just 25 minutes of play.

After that, time raced forward and too soon, Harry was at the leaving feast,
having just gorged himself on an enormous meal, when Dumbledore stood
up and motioned for silence.
"Another year has passed, and once again we find ourselves looking
towards leaving Hogwarts. To all students who will be back next year,
work hard and I look forward to seeing you next year, to our Seventh
years, it has been a privilege and a pleasure to watch you grow and
develop, and I wish you the very best in your future endeavours." There
was a round of applause.

"Now, onto certain matters, as some of you are aware, there was some
drama surrounding professor Quirrells departure from Hogwarts, what you
don't know is that Quirrell in fact tried to do great harm to the school, and
it was in no small part due to some students that he was stopped, therefore
I have decided to give A Special Awards for Services to the School to
Harry Potter. Which will remain in the trophy room, from this day
forward." Most of the school clapped politely, and Harry ducked his head
in a show of humility.

"Onto the exciting matter of the house cup. In last place, with 206 points,
are Gryffindor, in third place, with 358 points, Hufflepuff. Second, with
415 points is Ravenclaw. Therefore our winners with 427 points are
Slytherin!" The house of green and silver cheered, as the drapes from the
ceiling changed to Green and Silver, Harry grinned. It had ended well this
year. It had ended very well.

That night, Harry finished packing up his trunk, and sat down in the
Common Room. "What are you planning for the Summer Potter?" asked
his best friend from next to him on the sofa "Still not welcome with the
Muggles?"

Harry shook his head and Miranda sighed,

"Well lucky for you, I rather enjoyed having a housemate, I suppose you
can stay with me again if you like." Harry smirked at her,

"You are too kind to sacrifice so much for me" Harry said dramatically, the
blonde laughed and swatted his arm.
"What can I say?" Miranda said with a smile "I'm just excited to see
whatever it is that you've recently acquired."

Harry smiled. "It's worth it. This is game changing Miranda, We will want
for nothing!" The blonde only grinned and leant against his side. It would
certainly be an interesting summer.
8. Chapter 8

Dear All,

Welcome to the latest instalment, I will again give a great big thank you to
my long suffering Beta, the incredible John Foxton (check him out!)

anyway, on with chapter 7...

Chapter 7

Harry and Miranda arrived back at her flat in the early evening on June the
27th. It was a warm evening and the two of them decided to go out to get
some Supper. They went to a small café they had found the year before,
and enjoyed a simple, though delicious meal.

"Well Harry, I've waited long enough! What is this thing that you've
managed to get?" Miranda asked, and impatient edge to her voice, Harry
grinned at her,

"When we get back to the House. Trust me, it's worth the wait!" She
grumbled good naturedly, and they continued their meal. When they were
finished Miranda paid their bill, this would soon be the last time he was
dependent on anyone! He thought to himself, before they stood up and arm
in arm returned to the flat.

Once inside, Harry shrugged off his light summer jacket and hung it up on
the hook. He walked into the Living Room and sat down on the sofa,
looking at his friend with a smirk playing on her lips. The girl frowned,
hands on her hips, just daring him to try and postpone this any further.

"Minnie" Harry called, not taking his eyes of the girl. The elf popped into
existence and gave a short courtesy.

"Mistress' Master called?" she asked,

"Minnie, the object I gave you to hide, I would like it please." The elf
bowed low and vanished. The silence was absolute, Harry hardly dared to
breathe as he considered what he was about to get his hands on. Wealth,
immortality. Power.

20 Seconds later, the elf popped back into the room, a package wrapped in
a brown hessian sheet, the elf passed it to him with another curtsey and
Harry held it up to Miranda.

She took the package slowly, before slowly unwrapping it. As the stone
became revealed she gasped. And held it up to the light. The light shone
through the brilliant rock, and shone upon her face.

"It's beautiful!" she whispered, entranced by the power radiating from the
stone.

"It's more than beautiful Rookwood. It contains such power!" Harry

replied quietly. She looked at him confused.

"What is it?" Harry grinned broadly at her

"What do you know of Alchemy?" he asked her,

"It's the process of turning any metal to gold, but it's supposed to take
years of study to be able to do anything with it unless you have…" she
gasped and looked at the stone again

"Unless you have a Philosophers stone." Harry finished for her. The girl
blinked and laughed, she threw her head back and laughed. Harry grinned
at her. It took her a few moments to recover.

"You stole the most powerful object in the Wizarding world from under
Dumbledore's nose?!" she asked, Harry grinned and nodded.

"Do you know how to use it?" she asked pensively, Harry shook his head.

"We will figure it out, don't you worry!"

However, despite Harry's optimism, the process of figuring out the secrets
of the stone was far harder than he had hoped. The days turned into weeks,
and there was still no success. No Gold had yet been created, and they
were both getting pretty frustrated.

Then, in the first week of July, Harry had a breakthrough. He had placed
the Lead ingot they were practicing with into the fire on the stone, in the
hope that the heat would facilitate the change. To his disappointment
However, the Lead retained its dull grey colour. Frustrated, Harry took the
stone out of the embers and placed it in a glass of water he had next to him
to cool off so he could try a new experiment.

He opened his journal to write in his latest failure. Experiment 198,

Medium Heat & lead. Failure. No discernable change.

He turned back to the glass to fish out the stone, when he stopped. The
water the stone was in had turned a rich golden colour. He could just make
out the stone at the bottom, and took it out with the fire tongs, unwilling to
touch this strange new concoction.

"Miranda" he shouted,

"Success?" came an answering shout from the other room.

"Not exactly, but you may want to come check this out…" The blonde
walked into the room, she was barefoot, wearing a small t shirt and tight
fitting black jeans. Harry couldn't help but admire the view as she walked
over.

"What is it?" she asked, Harry gestured to the cup. She picked it up and
examined it under the light.

"How did you make this?" she asked, her ice blue eyes bright with
excitement. Harry explained and she grinned at him, "I presume you're
thinking the same thing as me?" she asked,
"Elixir of Life was my thought" Harry said nonchalantly, Miranda grinned
at him,

"We need to test it on something." She declared "Minnie!" the elf appeared
and bowed low.

"How can Minnie serve Mistress?"

"I need an animal, a small one, preferably a rat or rabbit." The elf bowed
low, and a second later popped back in with a small grey rabbit. Harry took
the rabbit from the elf and held it before the girl, who had drawn her wand.

"Diffindo." Miranda said, her wand slashing down. With a spray of blood,
a long gash appeared on the creatures back. Harry took the goblet of the
Mysterious golden liquid and poured it into the creature's mouth and along
its wound.

They watched intently.

At first, nothing happened, but suddenly, the long gash that had been
oozing blood began to heal before their eyes. Skin knitted together, and in
less than three seconds, the deep cut had healed without even a scar.

The two best friends looked at each other, slowly, identical broad grins
appeared on their faces.

"So… we can live forever." Harry said, his smile broad.

"Forever." Echoed the blonde. "Together." Harry smiled widely, suddenly

he laughed, and she mirrored him, he pulled her tight for a hug.

"Want to take some elixir?" he asked, he felt her nod against his chest, and
Harry passed her the Goblet and she took a long sip, before passing it to
him.

It felt… Wonderful, every ache, every pain and every single flaw he felt
and didn't feel suddenly vanished, he felt the old scars he had on his body
slowly vanish. He opened his eyes. The world was so crisp, everything was
so in focus. Harry had never had trouble with his eyes, but now, now it was
like a veil had been removed from his eyes.

He glanced at Miranda, she had her head thrown back, and her eyes closed.
She looked down at him suddenly, eyes snapping open. Had her eyes
always been such a bright blue? He thought to himself. The two looked at
each other, before, at practically the same time they rushed each other.

Her lips met his in a wonderful chorus. Caught up as they were was in the
rush of feeling the elixir had given him, Harry felt all his doubts
concerning the stunning girl within his arms wash away. He kissed her
with everything he had and she returned the gesture.

After what felt like an eternity they pulled apart, looking deep into each
other's lowered his head once more, and slowly placed his lips upon hers
again, this time it was different, slower and more sensual.

Long into the night they stayed up together, caught up in the wonderful
feelings of the elixir and the feel of the others body.

The next morning, Harry woke up feeling exhausted. He opened his eyes,
he was in Miranda's enormous bed, with the girl in question cuddled up to
his side. He took a brief look under the covers, and blinked.

They were both naked.

Now Harry was by no means innocent in the ways of the world, but at that
moment, 10,000 thoughts rushed through his head at a speed that made
him dizzy, He closed his eyes and sank his head back onto the pillow.

For a man who always tries to think through every situation, Harry
thought, you've been doing a lot of reckless acts lately. He quickly tried to
clear his mind and run through every situation.

Option 1, try to act like this never happened and pray to God and Merlin
that he salvaged his friendship after this.
Option 2, make sure that Miranda knew he had a good time, but try to tell
her it was a onetime thing.
Option 3, Try to have a relationship with Miranda.
Option 4, react to how Miranda acted and play it by ear.

Harry sighed, much as he wanted to take the third option, Miranda was
three years older than him and had left Hogwarts. He didn't know what
would happen when she got a job and he was left at Hogwarts. That left the
only option left to be option 4.

You Coward! He thought to himself. He was shaken from his musings

when he felt the girl at his side stretch against him, he opened his eyes to
see her smiling serenely at him, he gave her a small smile, and returned
the kiss she gave him.

"This was unexpected" she said in a deadpan voice.

"That would be one way of putting it." Harry replied with a sarcastic edge
to his voice.

"That Elixir is powerful stuff!" Harry tried to joke, but was cut off

"Don't!" she cried, eyes wide and looking at him "Do not try to blame this
on the Elixir, You knew what you were doing when we did this."

"Miranda" Harry started, his usually stoic friend for the first time that
Harry had seen looked totally open, all the layers of her incredibly
complex personality stripped away like so much wrapping. Her Ice blue
eyes had lost the cold and dark look, replaced with a look of pain and
loneliness, Harry thought he could see the innocent girl who had once
walked into Hogwarts, nervous and excited as everyone else. The girl she
could have been, before her father's name got in the way, and stamped
those hopes, those childish dreams into dust.

"I Love you Miranda." He said simply.

It was much later when they eventually left the bedroom.

They finally cracked how to create gold three days later. It was a simple
Idea that Harry had had, but it was anything but in practice.

Harry used the stone like a wand, forcing his magic into it, and allowing
the stone to focus the power, before pressing it down onto the Lead. The
stone glowed bright, a fire from within illuminating Harry's hand and
throwing red light onto the walls, When the stone touched the lead, there
was a bright red flash, and then, where once plain grey lead had rested,
was now a solid lump of bright gold.

Harry had laughed loudly, his smile threatening to tear his face in half. He
and Miranda spent the rest of the morning transforming the numerous
metal ingots they had purchased to practice on into solid gold. After that
they had placed it all into a weightless sack they hurried to Gringotts.

"How may I help you?" sneered a goblin down at them,

"We have gold Goblin, we would have it converted to currency." Harry had
said disdainfully.

"Ripblade!" the teller called and a short, old looking Goblin hurried
forward. The teller whispered in his ear, and the elderly goblin led them
towards a small desk in one corner, where a solitary Goblin sat, looking
bored.

"How can I help you?" the bored looking Goblin asked,

"We have Gold, we would have Galleons." Miranda replied, voice hard.

"How much Gold?" the Goblin asked suspiciously, Miranda nodded at him,
and Harry upended the sack onto the desk.

There was a loud crash, as the 18 Gold Bars, each one weighing 1
kilograms fell onto the desk. The Goblin blinked. His eyes widened and he
carefully picked up one of the bars. He turned it over in his hand.
"Call Bangak." He snapped at the Goblin who had escorted them over.
They waited a few moments before an ancient looking Goblin slowly
walked over. His hair was long and white, and his face so wrinkled it was
hard to see his features at all.

"My Lord Bangak. These Humans have brought Gold. I need to know its
purity and value." The ancient goblin, hobbled over and picked up one of
the bars. He viewed it practiced skill, peering down a long nose.

"It's definitely gold, pure too." He announced after a moment, he then

withdrew a small hammer, a file and several vials of Potion. After
tinkering with the bar he looked shocked.

"This is pure. At least 99.95%. Very rare and very expensive. How much
do they have?" he asked the teller

"18 kilograms." The goblin replied.

"Well, it's worth a lot of Galleons, let me see, A typical Gringotts Bullion
bar is 12.5 kilograms, and we sell those for 22,000 Galleons each, so 18
kilograms is… let me see, around 31 and a half thousand." Miranda
gripped Harry's hand tightly in shock, it wasn't a fortune, but it was far
more than she had in her vault at that time.

"Gringotts would be prepared to buy your gold, for 27,000 Galleons." The
Goblin said with a wicked grin at them. Harry smiled calmly back,

"I think 30,000 would be more reasonable. That is not all we have, if you
want continued business, It would be in your best interest to give us a good
price." The Goblin scowled.

"The Gold is worth 31500 Galleons, but the cost of converting it to

Galleons reduces that. 29000?"

"Done." Harry and the Goblin grinned.

"And we would like a new vault to be opened for these new funds." The
Goblin nodded,

"Of course although…"

"Let me guess, there is a cost involved in doing so?" The Goblin grinned
wickedly, showing sharp teeth.

"Indeed."

The two of them spent much of the day in the bank, hammering out the
details of a final price, a Vault opened in both their names, as well as
key's. It was a long process, but when Harry was taken down to his new
vault, He was mollified by the large pile of coins that greeted him upon
entrance. Miranda grinned at him, and he picked her up and span around,
laughing all the time.

"Well Potter, It's about time you finally learnt proper shopping!"

The rest of that day was one of the best of Harry's life, He finally could go
wherever he wanted, and buy whatever he fancied, he bought Miranda
Jewellery and himself a whole new wardrobe, each outfit carefully
selected by the blonde.

That evening, Miranda apparated the two of them up to a small Wizarding

restaurant in Aldeburgh, It was lovely, the warm summer air permeated the
buildings, whilst a cooling Sea Breeze kept the temperature comfortable.
The restaurant specialised in sea food, and they both ordered happily.

"So" Harry began, taking Miranda's hand across the table, "I suppose I will
address what we've both ignored so far…" He looked down at the table,

"What happens to us?" she finished for him. He sighed,

"We can do this, can't we?" He asked, tentatively looking her in the eye,
she smiled.
"I don't know Harry, I never took Divination. But we can try can't we?"
Harry nodded, and she continued "We've been friends for years, you don't
have any dirty secrets left from me most likely." Harry chuckled, "I don't
know if we have a future Harry, but I think I love you."

"I have never had to do this stuff before," Harry began, his voice cautious.
"But I promise you, if there is any small chance of us staying together, I
swear to you, I promise you, I will take it, and I will fight for this."

"Potter, you're so corny it makes me ill."

"Thank you Rookwood." The two of them smiled. This would be

interesting.

The summer passed quickly, they had decided against creating tonnes of
gold, else they come under suspicion from either the Goblins or the
Ministry, however, they kept their account around a very respectable
100,000 galleons, more than enough for the two of them to live
comfortably.

With regards to their new relationship, Harry reflected that very little had
changed in his life. Certainly, the sex was a new element, and the random
acts of affection that they littered on each other were a rarer event, but
really, the honesty, the jokes and the affection had always been there.

As July turned to August, their Hogwarts letters arrived, Harry was

surprised to discover in his two surprises. He had been made a prefect and
Quidditch Captain. He had shown it to Miranda and expressed his surprise.
She had laughed,

"Harry, you've been practically running the team since second year. This
should not be a surprise, I know for a fact that Bonnie suggested you to
Snape."

Miranda had received her NEWT results, three O's and an E, and she now
had to consider employment. Harry was preparing for a new year of
Lessons, and both of them were feeling the strain of potential separation.
"I can see you at Hogsmeade weekends,"

"And I will write all the time."

"Besides it's for the best; you'll be too busy settling into your new job to
bother with me!" Miranda laughed, and kissed him,

"We'll be fine. We just keep talking to each other." Harry added,

"And we can go away for Christmas, somewhere Hot, somewhere exotic!"

Miranda suggested, Harry just grinned.

"We'll be fine."

However, despite their assurances, it was a very melancholy Harry that

kissed his girlfriend goodbye on the platform and stepped onto the train.
He found his friends on one of the back carriages and settled down with a
sigh.

"Potter, could you settle an argument for me?" asked Terrence, His lips
quirked, "Marcus here doesn't believe that you were just kissing a certain
Slytherins ex-resident bitch." Harry looked at Higgs with a bemused
expression

"And if I did?" he asked, Marcus laughed, "But what's it like… does her
breath freeze your soul when you kiss her?"

"Whose Harry kissing?" asked Clara walking through the compartment

door, Graham just behind her.

"Hello Clara, good summer?" asked Marcus brightly,

"Good, yes, very nice. Now Potter, spill." Harry blushed

"He's kissing Rookwood?" Clara looked surprised, "Does that mean you
warmed her frozen heart? How Romantic!" Harry threw a cushion at the
Girl who dodged it.
"Potter's finally learned how to read signals from a girl?" Olivia asked,
walking through the door, "Took his sweet time!" Everyone in the
compartment bar Harry roared with Laughter.

"Can we change topics?" Harry asked, a disgruntled expression on his face.

He looked around, and spotted a Prefects badge on Olivia's robes, his
attempts were less than subtle, but everyone laughed and accepted the
change in conversation.

"I can't believe Snape made Potter a Prefect!" Charles said with a laugh, "I
mean, it won't look good to the other houses, the son of the second most
infamous man in the last decade, and Slytherin makes him a prefect!"
Harry chuckled, the boy did have a point.

"Give Snape a break, he didn't really have much of a choice, Harry is the
best candidate by a long way. He's known throughout the house thanks to
Quidditch, he's top of our year academically, and now he's got a special
award for services to the school, what have you got Warrington?"
challenged Olivia, throwing Harry a wink, he grinned back.

"Hey, I'm not complaining!" Charles argued, throwing his hands up in

mock surrender, "Simply looking forward to the fireworks!" Graham and
Marcus laughed,

"Talking of Fireworks, did any of you see Longbottom and Lockhart in

Flourish and Blotts?" asked Clara, looking at them with a grin,
"Longbottom looked like he would start crying, whilst Lockhart
practically raped him onstage"

Clara gave a very disturbing re-enactment of her description which had the
whole compartment howling with laughter, it took a few minutes, but
eventually Harry was able to calm down, he wiped the tears from his eyes,
and clutched the stitch in his chest.

"Why have we been assigned so many Lockhart books?" asked Marcus,

who appeared to have contracted the Hiccups.
"Are you serious?" asked Olivia, looking at him with a confused look,

"What?" the large boy asked, looking around the compartment to see all
the disbelieving looks,

"Marcus, have you ever read a newspaper in like… the last three weeks?"
Harry asked conversationally, the Quidditch chaser flushed. He didn't need
to answer.

"We have been assigned Lockhart's books, because Lockhart is our

teacher." Clara explained exasperatedly

"Our teacher made us fork out a shedload of Galleons on his own books? Is
this some sort of sick way of boosting sales or something?" Marcus asked
incredulously.

"Did you manage to get all your books Harry?" Clara asked, her voice
filled with concern, not ridicule, all his friends were aware of Harry's
financial state, and had often stepped in in the past to help him out when
absolutely necessary.

"No problems Clara, thank you." The half-Spanish girl nodded kindly.

The rest of the train ride passed quickly, it was a time filled with joking
and conversation, towards the end of the journey, when the sun was setting
behind the mountains, Harry pulled out his wizards chess set and
everybody rolled their eyes, eventually Harry was forced to watch and not
play, but he enjoyed giving both sides hints.

Stepping into the great hall that night, Harry was pleased to be back at the
first place he viewed as Home. The six Slytherin fifth years walked over to
their table, sidestepping an anxious looking Granger and sat down.

Eventually, after five minutes or so, the doors burst open, and Professor
McGonagall led in the first years,
"Fuckers get smaller every year." Harry whispered to Marcus, the older
boy nodded sagely, before returning his gaze to the line of awed looking
eleven year olds.

The Sorting hat began to sing, and Harry and Marcus spent the time
waiting discussing the upcoming Quidditch trials. Their attention was
returned to the front when they heard the sorting proper begin.

Around three quarters of the way through the waiting students, the whole
halls attention was suddenly diverted to the doors into the great hall.

Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasely had just thrown them open, and
were walking to the Gryffindor table, they looked completely relaxed and
slid into the empty seats at the Gryffindor table.

Their relaxed expressions were suddenly replaced by those of fear, when

Professor Snape came up behind them and took them by a shoulder. The
three left the Great Hall, and the sorting slowly resumed, though now
punctuated by whispers as rumours of what the two had done flew around
the room.

The sorting finished, and this was followed by the Feast. As the final
plates of food, Harry stood up, and together with Olivia began to herd the
first years in the direction of the Common Rooms. The New students
seemed like a nice enough bunch, they chatted quietly amongst
themselves, and there were no unpleasant words or tones to be heard.

Reaching the door to the common room, Harry stopped the group and
raised an eyebrow at Olivia, she winked and began to speak,

"Welcome to Slytherin First Years, My name is Olivia Moran, and this is

Harry Potter" this got a few murmurs "and we are your fifth year prefects.
This is the entrance to the Slytherin Common rooms, if you look in the top
corner, you will see the Slytherin crest, that is how you can identify which
bit of wall." Olivia looked at Harry, and took over
"The password at the moment is Ambition, and it will change every two
weeks approximately. When we get inside, Professor Snape will give a
short speech and explain the house rules, Professor Snape is very strict,
but fair, so make sure to work hard in Potions and not to get into trouble,
and you will stay on his good side. As fifth year Prefects, it is our job to
ensure that you fit in, and we will help get you accustomed to the house
and school, however we are not your babysitters, Slytherin values
ambition, and so we will not hold your hand."

He opened the common room door and led the first years inside, enjoying
the expressions of awe and wonder they had when they looked around the
comfortable room.

"First year dorms are on the first floor, Boys on the left and girls on the
right." He noticed Professor Snape enter behind them, and nodded
respectfully to the man.

"Thank you Mr Potter, Miss Moran, I can take it from here." The bat like
professor said, and the group looked at him.

Snape gave his usual introduction and explained the House rules, once he
finished, he dismissed the group and called Harry over,

"Mr Potter, I trust you know your duties as Quidditch captain?" he asked,
Harry nodded,

"I know, I will make sure to look after the team sir," the man nodded,

"I will leave you to it then Potter, I rather like Slytherins current collection
of Silverware, please make sure we don't lose any of it." Harry smiled and
nodded, and the professor left.

The week got underway quickly, Harry got used to the routine fairly
quickly, the time that in previous years he had spent with Miranda he now
spent on his own learning magic, although he doubted the magic he was
teaching himself was on the approved syllabus of any magical school,
even Durmstrang.
One thing that Harry could never have been prepared for was the… unique
style with which Gilderoy Lockhart taught defence against the dark arts.

They fifth year Slytherins and Ravenclaws were walking up from breakfast
to the defence classroom laughing at the fate of Ron Weasely, who had
received a howler from his mother over stealing a flying car to take to
Hogwarts. To add to the problem, Gryffindor had had one hundred points
removed, meaning it would be very difficult for them to catch up with the
other houses.

The inside of Lockhart's classroom was bizarre Harry had decided, the
walls were decorated in lilac and turquoise, whilst the portraits on the
walls all depicted the same man, Gilderoy Lockhart. The pictures were all
winking and grinning roguishly at the camera, and at the front of the room
stood the man himself.

Lockhart was beaming down at his class, revealing every one of his
perfectly white teeth.

"Settle down, settle down!" he called jovially, "I thought we would start
this year with a little quiz, just a way for me to understand how well you
learned my books over the summer." Harry sighed, he had had the
painstaking task of reading each of Lockhart's books. Whilst the methods
and spells he had used to take down each opponent were correct, the
flamboyant writing style made it painful reading.

"You have one hour. Begin." Harry sighed and looked down at his paper. It
was worse than he had thought. 1) What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite
colour?

With a sad sigh, Harry used his Occlumency to drag up the correct
memory from his mind and began the quiz. 1) Lilac. 2) Honorary member
of the dark force defence league 3) Ogdens best firewhiskey, 4) World
peace 5) Hair care 6) going out in public with Hair curlers.

The list went on and on, each question getting worse and worse. Finally,
Harry wrote the last answer, 49) peace between all magical and non-
magical races and lay down his quill. Lockhart was still at the front of the
room, smiling broadly down at them all. The class however was doing less
well.

Marcus appeared to have gone into shock, looking at the page with a look
of horrified disbelief, Terrence was writing what appeared to be you're an
idiot as an answer to every question, whilst Olivia, who had been the most
excited to have Lockhart as a teacher was drawing pictures of rabbits on
her quiz, looking thoroughly bored. Finally, Lockhart took in the question
papers,

"Let me see, let me see!" he called roguishly "Well, I'm afraid to say the
class average isn't looking too good. However, Mr Potter? Well done, full
marks." Harry felt like he wanted to melt into the floor, the whole class
looked at him with horrified expressions.

"Potter? Potter? Where have I heard that name before?" Lockhart asked,
looking deeply down at the paper,

"Mr Potter?" he asked, looking around, Harry raised his eyebrow, and the
teacher zeroed in on him.

"Mr Potter, have you done anything to get in the news?" Harry shook his
head "Well, did you appear at one of my book signings?" he asked with a
perplexed expression, Harry was amazed,

"No Professor, although you probably have heard of my father in your line
of work." The Slytherins and Ravenclaws laughed,

"Ah, I see, so your father is involved in the fight against dark magic?"
Harry smirked,

"Not exactly." Lockhart looked at Harry intently, but then appeared to give
up,

"Well It doesn't matter, on with the class." He produced Travels with trolls
from his desk and held it up, "Please turn to page 6, today we shall learn
about me."

The lesson passed slowly, and Harry wanted to cry. So far, all Harry had
learned in terms of defence, was that Gilderoy Lockhart's own brand of
hair spray, Gilderoy's Lockhair was available for only 3 sickles from most
stores. Harry scratched his previous thought, so far for defence he had
learnt nothing.

The next month, Harry learnt that whilst most teachers seemed to be
increasing the work load for the OWL students, Lockhart didn't seem to
have been told about there being an exam at all. Going on and on about
himself each lesson, often leaving his exploits behind and instead
describing in pain staking detail his distressingly complex hair and teeth
routine each morning.

The most exciting event of the first couple of months was the Quidditch
try outs.

30 students turned up to compete, Marcus, Adrien Bole, Derrick and

Terrence were all there to defend their Positions, leaving Harry especially
eager to find a new Keeper and chaser.

"Good Morning hopefuls, we are especially looking for a chaser and

Keeper this afternoon, so if you play those two positions, then please stand
on the left."

Around 20 of the students made their way to where Harry had indicated,
"Excellent, we will do Chasers first, then Keepers, followed by beaters and
finally a seeker." The chasers audition went perfectly smoothly and they
quickly gained their new chaser, a third year named Amelia Milliken, and
a reserve from sixth year, Dominic Kahn.

The keepers were very quick also. Harry had each keeper block twenty
shots, those who were consistently good or those who clearly had potential
were kept, three remained, and Harry had a shoot out to decide, To Harry's
delight, it was Graham Montague who won, and thus Slytherin had its new
keeper.
The remaining students all attempted to steal either the seeker position or
that of beater. Harry gave them a fair trial, but it quickly became apparent
that those currently on the team were the better players.

Harry looked over his new team, six boys and one girl and gave them a
smile, they smiled back, pleased with their success, although the smile
quickly diminished when they saw Harry's training schedule. Three times
a week, with that being increased to five the week before a match.
Together, the new team made their way down back to the common room,
however they were all stopped on the way back.

"Well congratulations." Came a sneering voice, the team turned around,

and saw the small form of Draco Malfoy. He was casually stood against a
tree, with his usual companions of Crabbe and Goyle by his side.

"Thank you Malfoy, I understood you wanted to join the team this year,
why didn't you appear for a trial?" asked Amelia, Malfoy only grinned,

"Oh Milliken, I do want to be on the team. But I didn't think a trial was
quite my cup of tea." Harry's eyes narrowed as he looked at the smug boy.

"Well how do you intend to impress me if not by trialling?" he asked,

Malfoy laughed and sauntered towards them, Harry noticed for the first
time that Crabbe and Goyle were carrying a bundle between them.

"I intend to impress you like this potter." Malfoy laughed, gesturing to his
lackeys. The two boys put down the bundle and removed the cloth
wrappings.

Seven Nimbus 2001's. The wood was stained a dark brown, the twigs
perfectly sculpted. Harry glanced at the brooms, keeping his face
expressionless.

"I see." He said, Malfoy smirked wider.

"Do we have a deal?" Malfoy asked, Harry looked at him curiously,

"Should I say no… what then?" The pointed face boy looked confused,
"Would your father return the brooms? Or having forked out so much gold,
would he just go ahead and let the team use them?"

Malfoy spluttered, and Harry raised a brow, finally the blonde recovered
and spat out

"These brooms come on the condition of my inclusion on the team." He

said angrily. Harry nodded,

"And what position would you like to play?" Malfoy smirked, clearly
thinking he had won.

"Seeker Potter, I would rather like to be the one to beat Longbottom."

Harry nodded and turned to Terrence,

"Want to defend your title once again Terrence, the fifth year smirked
broadly and nodded,

"Well then Malfoy. Simple, you and Terrence, both on school brooms, will
play a best of three game. The winner of that competition will get the
spot." Draco looked surprised, how arrogant is he? Harry asked himself,
but he led the team back to the pitch.

The competition was interesting, Malfoy did know how to fly, and was
very good, but there was little argument that Terrence was better. Of the
best of three, Terrence won 2, and Malfoy the third. However despite
Harry's previous comments, he was not about to give up on such a great
advantage as those brooms, so, with Terrence's blessing, he gave Malfoy
the spot on the team, making sure he understood that if he failed to
maintain Slytherins winning streak he would be off the team before he
could say "My Father".

In the weeks that followed it quickly became apparent that Harry had
made the right choice, whilst Malfoy was skilled on a broom, he was
undeveloped, but Terrence had sportingly agreed to help the arrogant
blonde get into shape. The other seven players though, they were loving
their new brooms, moves which previously had been impossible now
became possibilities, and Harry was confident that he could whip the team
into shape.

It was a cold afternoon that Halloween, the Slytherin team were just
returning from their final practice of their week, as they walked past the
Great Hall, they watched the school house elves feverishly preparing the
decorations. Harry, Terrence and the seven players tiredly walked into the
common room and promptly collapsed in a heap.

Harry had worked the team hard and it showed, they were all muddy and
exhausted, although the excitement of the Halloween Feast seemed to have
brightened their spirits.

"Excuse me Potter?" came a voice from behind Harry, he turned and saw
one of the second years, Daphne Greengrass behind him.

"Yes Daphne?" he asked politely and she smiled shyly

"This arrived for you, I hope you don't me collecting it." Harry looked at
the envelope in her hand, He immediately recognised Miranda's elegant
curved calligraphy and took the letter, thanking the brunette Slytherin.

Dear Harry

You will be pleased to hear that I got the Job, I am now officially employed
by the Ministry of Magic in the department of experimental charms. I start
work on Monday, and thought you should be the first to know.

I got our first investment quarterly today, 2.3% growth, not too bad I think,
as per your advice I am holding off on our next delivery of the product
until Christmas at the earliest.

I met up with Bonnie today, I'm sure you already know from her sister, but
she has been scouted for the Irish World Cup side in two years, more than
a little exciting, she offered us tickets for the group stage match she's
playing in this Easter, Ireland vs Lithuania, I said we would love to, so you
have that to look forward to distracting you from Revision!

Write soon

With Love

Miranda

Harry grinned down at the letter, he was sure that his girlfriend would
have spent hours debating over how to write the letter in a not totally
formal way, and for the closed off girl, Harry rather thought she had
succeeded.

He folded the letter, and put it in his book bag, deciding to reply the next
day. He stood up and stretched, checking his watch, 6.35. He still had time
to have a shower and change out of his Quidditch robes before Halloween
dinner proper started.

The feast was excellent, the food perfectly prepared and overflowing in
quantity, but Harry couldn't enjoy it, his mind was miles away, with a
certain blonde witch. He sighed and tried to enjoy the conversation around
him. At least she was happy, and had finally got herself a job, many of the
places she had applied to had rejected her out of hand, unwilling to employ
anyone with the name of Rookwood.

Before long the evening grew late, and Harry stood with the rest of the
school to return to the common rooms. However as they were just
descending the stairs to the dungeons, they heard a scream, and most of
the Slytherins about turned to investigate.

Up on the second floor a crowd had gathered, Harry forced his way to the
front and was confronted by a most interesting sight, he first spotted
Longbottom, Weasely and Granger, all looking guilty, gazing at the wall
next to them, The chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir,
beware. Was written in what appeared to be blood.
Possibly the most sinister of all was the dead looking cat hanging from a
torch bracket, it was Mrs Norris, Filch's cat. Harry looked back at the
words on the wall,

The Chamber of Secrets?

AN. So... that's chapter 7, The chamber of Secrets has been a far
harder book to write than the first one. So much of it involves Harry
(well more Hermione) doing some deductions, so for my Harry to be
able to reach the chamber realistically, it's been tough!

anyway, please please please review, even if it's just a line or two. A
massive thank you to those of you who have already left a review, the
story's been online for 14 hours and I already have 5. it makes a writer
(or wannabe writer) extremely happy!

Marshall Angmar.
9. Chapter 9

Hello Again, I've decided to Publish a new chapter every time I finish
a chapter. I just finished chapter 10, so you lucky readers get chapter
8!

As I stated previously, This whole book was very difficult to write,

however I would like to think it's ending (which will be the next
chapter) is quite good, the interaction between Tom Riddle and Harry
was particularly fun to write!

To my kind reviewers, I just want to say a massive thank you, It's all
been remarkably positive and that is exactly what keeps me writing,
I'm glad you're enjoying it, and if you want more quickly, keep
reviewing!

What I will say is how close to the mark so many of you were, some of
the theories you suggested for future chapters were exactly what I had
in mind, whilst others were brilliant idea's that I think I may have to
implement, so all of you reviewers, have a nice cup of tea on me!

To the person who suggested I pair Harry with Fleur, not in this story I
am afraid, but I do have plans for our favourite Veela, never fear, she
does have a fairly important role!

Anyway, without further ado, and with no more gilding the lily, I
present... chapter 8!

Chapter 8

The Chamber of Secrets? Harry thought to himself, he had never heard of

it, but looking at the faces of those around him, he was in a minority, the
looks were of fear, wonder and awe.

"Enemies of the heir beware, you'll be next. Mudbloods!" Harry looked

around, it was Draco Malfoy, he was standing at the front of the group,
eyes looking alive. Harry sighed, Whilst Draco certainly was proficient on
a broom, he had yet to learn that perhaps announcing his support for the
eradication of a significant proportion of the school was perhaps not the
smartest idea.

"What's going on? What's going on?" came the wheezy voice of Argus
Filch, pushing his way through the crowd of onlookers. He saw the words
on the wall, then his eyes flickered to his cat.

"Mrs Norris?" he asked horrified, then he rounded on Longbottom

"You!" Neville looked horrified

"No!"

"You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you! I'll…"

"Argus!" Dumbledore rounded the corner, his eyes quickly took in the still
form of the cat and the writing, and his face paled. He quickly dismissed
the students, and took Longbottom and his friends away to Lockhart's
office.

This event understandably became the major topic of the Hogwarts

Rumour mill in the following week, not many suspected that Longbottom
was responsible, but that didn't change the fact that it was the most
exciting thing to have happened that year.

However, Harry didn't have time to speculate on the development, he was

far too busy trying to whip Slytherin into shape before the match against
Gryffindor, The team were good, better than Harry had expected, and the
new brooms made them excellent, so long as they played like they did in
practice, Harry was certain that Gryffindor wouldn't know what him them.

The match day dawned bright and cold, a thin frost had formed on the
ground under his feet and there was not a cloud in the sky, ideal conditions
for chasers, although Harry mused that Draco would struggle with the
glare of the sun.
By 10.30 am, the entire team was assembled in the changing room wearing
their green and silver Quidditch robes. Harry stood at the front of the mass
of players, he was wearing his own Quidditch robes, instead of a number
however, Harry had COACH written in bright silver lettering.

"This is it, the start of our campaign." He looked around, the chasers were
sat together with their heads bowed; the beaters appeared to be practicing
swings, only Malfoy looked confident.

"We have the best brooms, the best players and the best coach in the
school!" there were some good natured laughs directed at him, and Harry
grinned. "We have our strategy, I won't bore you by going over it once
again, but what I will say is this, do not think that these brooms give us the
victory, we must be better than them. We must be more alert than them. Do
you understand?!"

"Yes Coach!" came the shouted response, Harry nodded, a calm smirk on
his face.

"Good, Slytherin on three." They all put their hands in and on three gave
the shout. The seven stony faced players then stood up and made their way
to the pitch. Harry stopped Malfoy just before he left.

"Malfoy. This is your moment, sink or swim, Slytherin has held the cup for
six years, and I will be damned if we lose it in my first year of captaincy."
Malfoy gave him a smug smile

"Relax Potter, I've got this."

"Malfoy. I will say this once, and only once. Get The Fuck Over Yourself."
Malfoy looked at him askance. "If you fail to catch the snitch because you
are busy fawning over yourself or mocking Longbottom, I will have you
off the team, no second chances."

"With me go my brooms." The blonde pointed out, Harry shrugged, and

gestured for Malfoy to follow the rest of the team.
The cheers that met the teams arrival to the pitch were muffled by the
boo's that came from the other three quarters of the stadium. Harry
ignored them, and instead met Madam Hooch in the middle of the pitch
with Oliver Wood.

"Gentlemen, I expect a clean game, obey my whistle at all times, the

captains have three time outs they can call. Other than that, any foul I
don't see, or don't call, I expect you to ignore, I will not tolerate any
disrespect towards myself. Now, captains, shake hands." He and wood
shook, Wood trying to crush his fingers, Harry gave him a bemused smirk,
refusing to show pain to the opposition.

The game got underway, and the Slytherin team's brooms suddenly became
evident, they were able to outmanoeuvre the Gryff's easily, and the new
moves that Harry had designed allowed for quick goals.

However, it was not the chasers game that Harry was paying attention to,
his gaze was focused on his seeker. Malfoy appeared to be laughing at
something, and when Harry followed the Second year's gaze, it became
apparent what at.

Longbottom was being chased around the pitch by what appeared to be a

rogue bludger. Harry allowed himself a smirk, before glancing at the
scoreboard, 60-0.

He allowed himself to relax, the match was going well, He watched as his
chasers executed a sublime Hawks Head attack, and cheered with the rest
of his house. Longbottom still hadn't evaded the Bludger that seemed
determined the kill him, but Harry didn't care, what did get Harry agitated
though was when he saw Malfoy still laughing and throwing insults at the
Gryffindor seeker.

Harry growled, keeping his eyes on his seeker, the pale boy wasn't even
watching the pitch, throwing his hands up in frustration, Harry called a
time out.
"And the Slytherin coach calls a time out, I can't think why, His team is
already 90 points ahead, but say what you will about Potter, he does know
how to win at Quidditch!"

The team assembled around Harry, whilst the Gryffindor's attempted to

shield Neville from the bludger.

"What's the matter coach?" asked Adrien,

"Yeah, we've got this, these brooms are keeping us miles ahead!" agreed
Marcus, eyes bright, Harry raised his hands to pacify them,

"It's not our chasers I'm worried about, nor our Beaters, or our keeper…
not that he's had much to do!" they all laughed, before Harry rounded on
Draco.

"Malfoy, I told you about this, Ignore Longbottom, focus on the fucking
game." The team looked shocked as the normally mild mannered Harry
raged at Draco. "I've been watching you, you haven't been watching the
game, searching for the snitch, anything, you've been laughing at
Longbottom." Draco looked angry, but said nothing. Harry growled, "Pull
your head out of your arse Malfoy, Or I will take you off the pitch."

"Empty threat Potter." Malfoy growled with a sneer,

"Try me you inbred bastard." Harry responded with an equal sneer,

"Harry…" Marcus warned, Harry raised his hands and nodded,

"Chasers, change to attack pattern 7, they haven't seen that before, it'll
keep them on their toes, Malfoy, you have one job, find the fucking
Snitch!"

"I don't know what that was about, but Coach Potter has clearly had
strong words for his team, evidently a ninety point margin after 20 minutes
isn't enough for some people."
Play resumed, and it immediately became clear that Harry's words had had
the desired effect. Malfoy was circling the pitch, looking furious, but
focused, whilst Longbottom was still struggling with the rogue bludger.

As Harry watched, he saw the heavy Iron ball slam straight into Neville's
arm. There was a loud groan from the red and gold supporters, whilst
Harry smiled.

The score continued to mount up, and Neville was now barely conscious,
he was clearly in a lot of pain, merely circling the pitch low down. Before
long, the inevitable happened. After 45 minutes of gameplay, Draco caught
the snitch and ended the game, final score 310 to 50.

That night, Slytherin enjoyed its usual victory party, Harry however left
early, eager to deliver a letter to Miranda before Curfew. He ascended up
out of the dungeons when he heard raised voices.

"Tom, this is wrong, I shouldn't be doing this. What if my mum found

out?" came a female voice, Harry's eyebrows rose, he could guess what
this conversation was about. As a prefect, it was his job to stop students
from engaging in such acts, with a jovial grin, Harry left the two students
to enjoy their evening. Who was he to get in the way of true love?

The next morning there school was rife with news, a Gryffindor first year
by the name of Colin Creevey had been attacked and petrified the night
before. Apparently he had been headed down to the Hospital Wing to visit
Longbottom, when whatever happened, happened.

Harry also received a reply from Miranda, evidently, the chamber of

secrets had been opened fifty years ago, and on that occasion a
Muggleborn had died, it was thought to have been constructed by Salazar
Slytherin himself when the school was built, but none but his heir knew
where it was or how to open it.

The days following the first human attack were filled with panic, students
began to buy amulets and other objects which they hoped might protect
them. Harry had examined one of the amulets, and found that the only
protection it contained was a mild itching curse, the worst part of all of the
panic was that the Slytherins had become outcasts to the rest of the school,
and Harry, as the most infamous Slytherin was dealing with the worst
fallout.

A few days after Creevey's attack, a notice went up in the Slytherin

Common Room. There was to be a duelling club starting the next week.
Open to all years, Harry immediately signed up, it would be nice to get
advice on his duelling technique from a new source, Miranda knew a lot,
but she was only a student, whereas Professor Flitwick was said to have
been a duelling champion.

The week rolled by, and on the evening of December 17th, Harry, Terrence,
Marcus and Olivia made their way to the great hall. Harry however was
disappointed by the choice of Instructor, It was not Flitwick, but Lockhart.

He bounded happily into the great hall, looking superb as ever, not a hair
out of place. He strode onto the duelling platform, throwing his cloak into
the crowd as he did so.

"Gather round, Gather round! Can you all hear me? Can you all see me?
Excellent!" he beamed widely at the crowd, teeth glinting dangerously
bright.

"When I heard the terrible news about the chamber of secrets, my

immediate response was to request to Professor Dumbledore that I be
allowed to form this little club in order to train each and every one of you
how to defend yourself from the monsters that I myself have faced
numerous times, for full details, see my published works." He gave
another roguish grin, which caused some of the girls in attendance to titter.

"Now, for this evening, I have the great pleasure to introduce you to my
assistant for the evening, Professor Snape!" Snape walked onto the stage,
looking murderous, although Lockhart missed it.

"He claims to know a little something about duelling himself, so I thought

why not have him help out?" Harry smirked at the look on Snapes face,
and it appeared that Lockhart had finally noticed too. He cleared his throat
nervously

"Right, um, well how about a demonstration first, I shall duel Professor
Snape to show you how it's done by a semi-professional honorary member
of the Dark Force Defence League." They took their positions on the stage.
The duel was… anticlimactic.

Snape sent a disarming charm at Lockhart, which struck him in the chest
and sent him spinning back onto the floor. He sat there for a little while
before shaking himself and groaning.

"Good job Professor Snape, although if you don't mind me saying, it was
painfully obvious what spell you were going to do, I just thought the
students would like to see the effects of that spell!" Harry smirked again.

"How about we next have an exhibition match between two students?"

asked Lockhart, he gestured to Longbottom and Malfoy, who were both
near the front of the crowd.

"Mr Malfoy, Mr Longbottom, how about a duel between you two?" he

asked, smile back in full force, But Snape stepped forward,

"Longbottom would fail at even the simplest spells, why don't we have
some older students, with more experience?" Snape curled his lip, and
Lockhart beamed at the suggestion.

"Excellent Idea Professor Snape, any volunteers from fifth year and
above?" He looked at the crowd, "Mr Sylvar? How about you?" A seventh
year Gryffindor strode up onto the stage to cheers, Lockhart looked at
Professor Snape,

"Fancy choosing his opponent Professor Snape?" Snape smiled

vindictively,

"Potter." Lockhart looked at Harry nervously, he had finally remembered

why he recognised Harry's name, and recently in class had taken to
informing Harry of exactly how he would have defeated James Potter if
they had ever met.

"Very well, very well, Mr Potter, Mr Sylvar, are you aware of the duelling
rules?" Both Harry and the Gryffindor nodded, and Harry stepped onto the
stage. Harry removed his robes, leaving him in a pair of black jeans and a
blue shirt.

"You will bow to one another… Good, then take fifteen paces away from
one another." Lockhart instructed, and Snape stepped forward.

"This is a duel which will follow the international rules. No dark curses,
and no immediately fatal curses. The duel is over when one of you is
unable to continue. Obey my instructions at all times, defend yourselves at
all times." He stepped back, Harry and Sylvar bowed politely, before
taking the requisite number of steps back.

"3, 2… 1 begin!" called Lockhart.

The first few seconds of the duel, nobody moved, Harry had his wand held
loosely at his side, whilst Sylvar had his pointed at Harry.

Sylvar suddenly sent a stunner at Harry which he dodged, neatly

sidestepping the spell, Harry responded by sending a short spell chain
down the Platform, Stupefy, Bomabrda, Relashio, Impedimenta.

Sylvar quickly erected a shield and blocked the volley. The first few
minutes passed like this, both testing the others defences, neither willing
to use their best spells until they knew what they were up against.

Casting silently, Harry sent magical ropes at Sylvar, who responded with a
wide area flame spell, incinerating the ropes, he followed this up by
sending a bludger sized lump of metal at Harry. Harry transfigured the
metal into a wolf, which quickly reversed direction and charged at Sylvar.

The Gryffindor smirked and with a cutting curse decapitated the animal,
which he in turn transfigured into a lion, which charged at Harry. Harry
banished the lion at the seventh year, who was forced to fall the floor to
dodge it. Standing and turning, the Gryffindor sent a bone shatterer at the
lions skull which crumpled.

In the confusion, Harry cast a disillusionment charm on himself and

vanished. Sylvar stood and looked about warily, He quickly realised
Harry's tactic and sent a dozen conjured rubber balls towards the other end
of the platform, one of which hit Harry in the chest, knocking him down
and breaking his concentration for the disillusionment charm.

Lying on his back, Harry narrowly avoided a cutting curse by rolling onto
his side, and jumping to his feet. Bombarda, Reducto, Glacis, Caecus the
string of spells left his wand and smashed the Gryffindors shield,
unfortunately the force of the bombardment hex knocked him out of the
way of the rest and Sylvar rose with only a bloody nose.

The seventh year snarled viciously and cast a string of high powered
cutting curses at Harry, he shielded the first three, but the fourth crumpled
his shield, and the jet of blue light opened a nasty gash on his thigh, the
final curse struck Harry on the chest, rending a deep wound.

Harry gasped in pain, but with a muttered cauterisation curse managed to

stop the bleeding from his leg. He conjured a flock of small birds and sent
them flying down the platform, the Gryffindor's incendio was too late, and
he was soon attacked with the tiny beaks and claws of the animals.

Harry took the moment where his opponent was distracted to repair the
damage to his leg more thoroughly, his chest was beyond his level to heal.
When he was finished he looked up to see Sylvar just finishing the last
bird and turning back to Harry, his expression furious and wand slashing
down in an aggressive swipe. From the end of the wand sprung a dozen
razor sharp knives, which the seventh year sent speeding down towards
Harry, who conjured a large lump of Granite which the blades thudded
against.

Lockhart bound onto the stage, "Steady now boys, steady! That is against
the rules Mr Sylvar!"
Harry looked at Snape, who gave him a nod, high praise indeed from the
aloof potions professor. Lockhart signalled for the duel to continue, and
Harry immediately sent a furious jet of water towards Sylvar, who
responded with a high powered flame charm.

The water and fire met in the middle of the platform, hissing and spitting
as the water boiled and evaporated from the intense heat. Harry felt a bead
of sweat roll down his brow, he couldn't keep this level of exertion up for
long.

After a minute of constant effort, Harry knew he would have to finish the
spell, his legs felt like jelly and his wand arm trembled. Fortunately,
Sylvar broke first, and the fire vanished, Sylvar was struck by the jet of
water and knocked off his feet, Harry gasped out for breath, cancelling the
spell, and sucked in a deep breath.

Sylvar stood, sopping wet, water and blood mingling together to form a
pink puddle at his feet. They were both out of breath, and bleeding from
numerous scrapes and cuts. They stood in silence, Sylvar glaring, Harry
emotionless as they looked at each other.

The room was silent, all the spectators holding their breath, they could
sense the end was near. The two duellists suddenly brought their wands up.
Harry sent a suffocating hex at the boy, whilst Sylvar responded with a
bonebreaker.

Harry gave a strangled cry as he felt his thigh break, the pain was
incredible, but he managed to keep his spell going. Sylvar had one hand at
his throat, his wand hand meanwhile furiously trying to cast the tricky
counter curse. Finally, after over a minute, Sylvar threw down his wand
and glared at Harry, who was kneeling on the ground.

Harry allowed the suffocating curse to finish, and the Gryffindor fell to all
fours, breathing deeply and coughing. The crowd was silent, before the
Slytherins cheered loudly, Harry raised his wand in triumph, and carefully
sat down, trying to keep his agonising leg as steady as possible.
Lockhart hurried over, wand drawn. "Allow me Harry, broken legs are my
Speciality." He was looking at Harry with awe and envy, but Harry
immediately pushed him away.

"I saw what you did to Longbottoms arm, no way are you doing anything
to me!" Lockhart laughed and moved to perform the spell, but his arm was
caught in Snapes grip.

"I believe Mr Potter told you not to perform magic on him, perhaps Mr
Sylvar would be more receptive to your ministrations?" Lockhart nodded
and quickly retreated.

"Well done Potter, Well done, I was concerned you may use something
darker than a suffocating curse." Harry gave a weak smirk,

"The thought did cross my mind." Snape's lip curled,

"Indeed. Now, Miss Moran can take you to see Madam Pomphrey." Harry
nodded, and together he and Olivia carefully made their way to the
Hospital Wing. The healer helped Harry into a bed, and he was shortly
followed by Sylvar, the two boys lay back as the healer regrow skin and
muscle and repaired bone. The process was long, taking over an hour, but
when she was finished Harry felt good as new, if exhausted.

"How the hell did a fifth year beat me?" asked the Gryffindor, looking at
Harry, he looked equal parts impressed and disgruntled. Harry gave him a
tired smirk,

"Slytherin secrets…" he replied, the Gryffindor just snorted and lay back
on the pillows.

"Now then boys, I want you both to spend the night in here, you can go
tomorrow, you're exhausted, and I don't want you doing any magic, at all
for at least 24 hours." They both nodded to the healer, and tried to get
while away the hours.
Late that afternoon, Harry was visited by all of his friends, who brought
him up to speed with the rest of the day's events.

"So after you left, Lockhart had all of us practicing a few spells, then had a
duel from two people in every year. You are never going to believe it,
Longbottom is a Parselmouth!" Harry looked at Olivia in surprise.

"Longbottom?" he asked sceptically, but the others nodded fervently.

"So let me guess, the rest of the school now believes Longbottom to be the
heir of Slytherin?" Harry spoke sarcastically, but when he saw the
expression on the faces of his friends he groaned,

"Seriously? Longbottom? The boy who lived is a suspect?!" he asked they

all nodded, from the other bed Sylvar added his thoughts,

"Well Parseltongue is the sign of a dark wizard, he-who-must-not-be-

named was one after all!" Harry shrugged, he still didn't buy it.

"How did Longbottom use it then?" he asked and all the fifth years
immediately started a tale of how Neville attacked a Hufflepuff with a
snake conjured by Draco. Despite the evidence, Harry wasn't convinced,
but he kept quiet, only asking for his friends to deliver a letter to the
owlery for him, and then being left alone.

Around nine that evening however, the evidence surrounding Longbottom

became a whole lot more damning, Harry and Sylvar were playing a game
of chess when Dumbledore and McGonagall walked in, they were followed
by Snape and Lockhart who were carrying something between them, Harry
quickly identified it as a body, petrified by the looks of things, which was
wearing Hufflepuff robes.

"Poor Finchfletchley" Lockhart was saying, his voice sounding anything

but sorry, "I wish I had been there, I faced a very similar situation in
Columbia last year, a local witchdoctor was petrifying the inhabitants of
their town, fortunately I defeated her, but only after a sixteen hour duel."
The other staff ignored him.
"Is it the same as the others Albus?" asked McGonagall, voice expressing
her worry.

"I'm afraid so. I would like to see Mr Longbottom Minerva, whilst I do

doubt him to be the suspect, it would be remise if I were not to explore
every possible lead." McGonagall nodded and hurried off, Snape gave
Harry a piercing look before he too left, Lockhart was still prattling on
about his sixteen hour duel, but then realised he was alone, and thus he too
hurried out, looking slightly pink.

"So Longbottom threatens a boy with a snake, uses Parseltongue, then that
same boy, a Muggleborn ends up as petrified later that day. How
wonderful." Sylvar looked at him like he had lost his mind, but Harry
ignored him, he walked over to where the Hufflepuff lay and examined the
body.

No markings, nothing to indicate spell damage, his skill was cold as ice
and hard as stone, his eyes were unmoving but wide open, the look on his
face unmistakable terror. Harry activated his magical sight and saw that
the entire body was surrounding by a weak green glow, the likes of which
Harry had never seen before, he drew his wand and cast the few diagnostic
charms he knew, the boy was dead, but still alive.

He had no heartbeat, no brain activity, and was not breathing, but every
charm came back the same, he was alive.

He returned to bed, just in time as Pomphrey turned out the lights and put
them all to sleep.

That Christmas, Harry ended up staying at Hogwarts a few days late. He

had discussed it with Miranda, and they had decided that Harry would
return on Christmas Morning, as she was busy up until then.

Thus on that Christmas eve, Harry was in the Common Room, having just
eaten a large dinner, Draco Malfoy was opposite him, and they were going
over some seeker moves for their match against Ravenclaw. Draco had
finally learnt his lesson, and when it came to Quidditch at least, had
matured and now took Harry's word as law.

"Draco, have you ever considered practicing a Wronski feint?" Harry

asked, Malfoy looked puzzled by the name.

"It's a diversion tactic. You act as though you've seen the Snitch, tricking
the other seeker into following you and then plough them with a dive."
Draco looked excited by the prospect,

"It sounds excellent, and you think it'll work?" Harry nodded,

"Chang is good at stealing the snitch, she'll follow you everywhere, letting
you take the lead, then use her smaller size to steal it from you. Draw her
close and then pull the feint. It'll work, but you need to make it
convincing."

At that moment, Crabbe and Goyle walked in, both looking around
awkwardly, before they lumbered towards Malfoy.

"Malfoy, can we talk?" asked Goyle, looking edgily at Harry, Harry

smirked at them,

"I was under the impression that you were one for talking Goyle?"

"Draco? Talk?" Draco nodded distractedly,

"20 minutes Goyle, I'm busy, what's the matter with you tonight?" he asked
frustratedly at his lackeys.

"Anyway Harry, I remember you talking about a move, Flash Hammer you
called it, could that work, it would also be beneficial if Chang was
marking me like you said?" Harry took the Slytherin play book from his
robe pocket and flicked to the page Draco spoke of.

"It won't work, the Ravenclaw beaters are too good, they would stop it
before we started. It's a nice idea though" he paused, looking at Draco
thoughtfully, "Isn't one of them a Mudblood though?" Draco nodded, "with
any luck the heir will get him before the match." Draco laughed, and Harry
saw the looks of outrage flash on Crabbe and Goyles faces.

"So Potter, Who do you think the heir is?" Crabbe asked nonchalantly.
Harry paused, having never seen Crabbe pull any face other than confused
stupidity. Harry looked at him for a long time, carefully keeping his face
emotionless.

"What do you mean Crabbe?" Harry asked, the boy looked puzzled,

"Well, you're a prefect, surely you have ideas?" asked Goyle

"You two are acting very strangely tonight" Draco added, he too was
looking at them suspiciously.

"Don't worry Draco, it would appear your friends are finally growing up,
Anyway Crabbe, I thought we had sorted the whole chamber of secrets
fiasco out already, we know who the heir is." Harry subtly elbowed Malfoy
in the ribs and he caught on quickly.

"Yeah, we do. Don't tell me you've forgotten already?" Draco added, the
two boys sat forward with looks of excitement on their faces.

"Yeah, we've forgotten. Remind us" Goyle said impatiently, his eyes
flickering to his watch

"Well, it's you Longbottom, we all know that." Harry had guessed who was
impersonating the dim witted duo, but evidently had assumption had paid
off. The boys paled, before standing up and sprinting to the common room
door.

Harry was faster, and with two lightning fast stunning spells the two were
unconscious. Draco looked horrified as before their eyes, the two boys
shrank into Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasely.
"Get Professor Snape Draco, actually wait, let's figure this out first." He
pointed his wand at Weasely and magical ropes appeared. Renervate!

Weasely groaned, eyes opening dazedly. The first thing he saw when he
awoke was Harry's foot impacting with his ribs.

"Good evening Weasely." He drawled with a smirk, "Care to tell me why

you're hiding under polyjuice in the Slytherin common room?" Weasely
coughed, but said nothing. Harry kicked him again and Weasely groaned
loudly.

"I'm not happy Weasely, you've interrupted my evening." He kicked the

redhead again, and then again.

"Why are you here?" Weasely glared at him defiantly, Harry nodded,
before stamping on Ron's hand, not hard enough to break bone, but hard
nonetheless.

"Alright! Alright! We thought Malfoy was heir of Slytherin!" Weasely

blurted out, voice strained from pain.

Harry kicked him again. "Sorry Weasely, that's just ridiculous, Tell The
Truth" Harrys voice was cold and harsh, and Weasely released a sob,

"It's true, I promise, He hates Muggleborns, and he's always such a git, we
figured if it wasn't him, he at least might know who it was." Harry sighed,
what a disappointing reason he thought to himself.

"Get Professor Snape Draco." He said simply, before stunning Ron again
and going about healing the boy, it wouldn't do for Harry's interrogation to
be visible on the redhead.

Snape came and quickly took the two away, when Harry passed the points
hourglass the next day, it was to the pleasant surprise of Gryffindor having
been docked an impressive 200 points, It was almost too easy to beat the
Gryffindor's to the house cup recently.
That day Harry returned home to Latter Alley, and to his apartment with
Miranda, after an enthusiastic greeting they had a large meal, and that
night Harry reflected that it was good to be back.

The Christmas holiday passed too quickly though, and before long Harry
was back in the castle, his mood was rather melancholy, and he had grown
rather short tempered.

One morning in early February, Harry walked in on a rather unpleasant

scene, he had been walking to lunch from transfiguration with Olivia,
when to his disgust he encountered four Gryffindor's surrounding a lone
Slytherin.

"What's going on here Miss Greengrass?" He asked calmly, the small

blonde second year looked extremely relieved to see him.

"They were going to attack me." She replied in a quiet voice.

"Is this true?" Harry asked, his tone icy,

"She's a Slytherin, you all seem to think this is a big joke, people get
attacked, but the slimy stinking Slytherins who get to enjoy it!" Ron
Weasely shouted,

"Listen to yourself!" Harry shouted, Olivia was shocked to see the usually
so calm and reserved Slytherin prefect appear actually furious, "You four
are picking on Daphne, a twelve year old girl, as though she's a dark lord
or something!" Harry's breath came fast,

"Well she's a Slytherin." Argued an Irish boy in his second year,

"So that's it? Her house?" Harry shook his head, "she was put into
Slytherin by a hat, a one thousand year old piece of Cloth, it is a hat which
tells you who you can or can't like, and the funniest part is that you listen
to it! Grow some bloody perspective!" he glared at the four Gryffindor's,
Ron Weasely, Ginny Weasely, Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, he
would remember them.
Following his rather embarrassing outburst, Harry was quite quiet,
although Olivia said that it was the closest thing she had seen to the real
Harry Potter in three years, whatever that meant.

The next week flew by, and on Valentine's Day, an event made ridiculous
by Lockhart, Harry stumbled upon possibly his greatest discovery of the
year. He was walking with the rest of the Slytherin fifth years when Ginny
Weasely rushed past, her book bag, already frayed and worn caught on
Marcus's cufflink and tore in half. Books, ink, quills and spare parchment
went flying, Marcus got furious and turned to shout at the redhead.

However Harry's eyes were drawn to one of the books that had fallen. It
called to him and acting on instinct he went to pick it up. As soon as his
finger made contact with it he felt a great surge of dark magic, it was so
primal, so raw, that he relished the feeling for a moment, he quickly
pocketed the book, before turning to the others and motioning that they
should go on.

Marcus frowned once more at Ginny, but left with them, Harry kept his
hand on the book in his pocket and hurried around the corner, as far away
from the red head. This book needed serious examination, he smirked to
himself widely as he left, life at Hogwarts was never boring.

AN. There you are, the penultimate chapter of Chamber of Secrets, the
little rant Harry had about the ridiculousness of the whole house
prejudice thing is something I've always kind of disagreed with, but it
makes for easy drama if you're a writer I suppose...

Anyway, Please review, if you liked it, didn't like it, or just have a
suggestion for what I should do next!

All the best

Marshall Angmar
10. Chapter 10

So this is it, the first time Harry meet's Tom. I quite like the
encounter, as as you will see from the next chapter, I do want to draw a
distinction from the Tom Riddle of the diary and Voldemort who is
currently a spirit. Whilst Tom and Harry will consider themselves
near equals, Harry and Voldemort will not,

Anyway, I completed the eleventh chapter just now, so here is chapter

9, enjoy and review, I love it when you do!

Chapter 9

Late that night, Harry was to be found in his dorm room, heavy wards on
his bed prevented any sound or light escaping. In his hands was the
mysterious diary he had acquired from Ginny Weasely, it was an
innocuous little thing, plain black, rather scuffed from regular use, and
Harry would probably have thought nothing of it, if it weren't for the dark
magic he could feel oozing out of every page.

It was addictive, the feel of the book, throughout the day Harry had found
himself stroking the spine, just to get a stronger connection to the power it
contained.

He opened the book to the first page, and to his disappointment found it
blank, he flicked through the first few pages, then through the whole book,
to his frustration the entire book was empty.

He sighed to himself, and put it face down on his lap. It was like that that
he noticed something new, a name, in faded gold lettering. Tom M. Riddle,
Harry knew the name.

Tom Riddle had received a special award for services to the school, his
shield was right next to Harry's own in the trophy room, Tom had been
head boy of Hogwarts fifty years ago and then vanished, why would such a
wizards diary have ended up in Ginny Weaselys care? Harry sighed and
drew his wand.

Finite Incantatem! Nothing happened, but Harry was not put out,
apparecium! Again nothing,they were after all, the simplest of detection
spells, Magicum Revealio! This time a bright spectrum of colour danced
across the book, before it was all sucked into the diary, leaving just black
and dark grey left. That at least confirmed what Harry already knew, the
book was dark, very dark.

He put down his wand and picked up a quill. He inked the tip and opened
the book to its first page. He paused, considering what to write and then
decided,

Tom Riddle
Head Boy of Hogwarts – 1945
Special award for services to the school – 1943
Slytherin House – 1938 – 1945

The ink lingered on the page as Harry mused over what to write next, and
as Harry leant down to continue his thoughts, the words he had written
were sucked into the page, Harry watched fascinated as the ink vanished
before his eyes.

Suddenly, just as fast as it had vanished new words appeared in the book,
words that Harry had never written, in Handwriting Harry had never seen
before.

Why do you write my name? Harry was shocked, but he eagerly dipped his
quill back into his ink,

I am interested in you. (H)

You are not Ginny Weasely I assume? (T)

I am not. (H)
Then you have me at a disadvantage. Who are you? (T)

I am a Slytherin. I wish to learn about this diary. (H)

This diary contains many secrets. (T)

Obviously. (H)

I grow tired of these games, if you truly have the best interests of Slytherin
at heart, you must return me to the Weasely. (T)

I imagine that the whims and fancies of an eleven year old girl are hardly
the most stimulating conversation for you? (H)

No, but she is necessary, she is the arm with which I strike. (T)

Harry paused and looked down at the page, it wasn't possible this book was
the heir of Slytherin!

You are the heir of Slytherin? (H)

How perceptive (T)

I was given to believe the dark lord was the heir of Slytherin, are you he?
(H)

I must get back to Ginny Weasely. (T)

Fuck. Harry thought, this was not good, he possessed a vessel that
contained Lord Voldemort's consciousness. Harry's mind raced, if he gave
this book to Dumbledore, he would be praised and almost guaranteed
protection from the Headmaster, on the other hand, if he gave the book to
Ginny, she could finish the heirs work, Voldemort would return, and he
would be rewarded.

Voldemort or Dumbledore? Harry's mind wanted to say the dark lord, he

certainly agreed with he-who-must-not-be-named on many issues, whilst
Dumbledore came across as Naïve and manipulative.
Dark or Light?

Harry could give the book to Ginny, it was unlikely the book would reveal
its secrets, besides it appeared to have a plan. Giving Ginny the book
would get him into no trouble really, Dumbledore wouldn't find out, and it
would gain favour with he-who-must-not-be-named, Win-Win… or so
Harry hoped.

I will give Ginny the Diary. He wrote, hand shaking slightly.

Good, I will not forget this. Who are you? (T)

Harry Potter. (H)

You will not regret this. (T)

Harry looked down at the book, he certainly hoped that he wouldn't.

Harry had given the book to Ginny the next day, the way she had snatched
it from him, and the feral look in her eyes gave Harry an idea of the level
of control the book had over her. Harry covertly cast a very powerful
tracking charm on her, and another on the book. The spring term passed
quickly, to Harry' surprise there hadn't been an attack for several weeks.

It wasn't until the eighth of May that anything interesting happened, Harry
was sitting in the Quidditch stands, excitedly awaiting the Hufflepuff –
Ravenclaw match that would decide who Slytherins competitor in the final
would be. He was surrounded by his team, who he had instructed to watch
the game carefully.

"THIS MATCH HAS BEEN CANCELLED, ALL STUDENTS WILL

RETURN TO THEIR DORMITORIES, IMMEDIATELY PLEASE." Came
the magnified voice of Professor McGonagall. Harry raised his eyebrow,
an announcement such as this could only mean another attack, and he
wondered who it was.
He quickly discovered the identity of the victims, Penelope Clearwater, a
rather pretty Ravenclaw in the year above, and Longbottoms friend
Granger. Harry's tracking charm on Ginny had shown that she was
somewhere under the school, maybe in the dungeons? Harry mused that
they were large enough to vanish in if the hidden chamber entrance was
there.

Following the announcement of this double attack, Dumbledore was

removed as Headmaster and Hagrid was arrested, Harry wasn't sure if this
was he-who-must-not-be-named's aim, but it was certainly beneficial.
Harry had begun to believe Dumbledore may be watching him. At meal
times he had frequently caught Dumbledore staring at him, and he also
seemed to have a shadow in some portraits. It had prevented Harry
practicing any dark magic, which only added to Harry's bad mood.

The following weeks went by remarkable slowly, the entire school was on
edge, and there was a strong feeling of depression hanging around. On
several occasions Harry had stumbled across groups of students openly
weeping in the hallways, there was also a strong distrust of Slytherins
evident. Younger students would be escorted around the halls by prefects
or seventh years, whilst no one was willing to sit next to a Slytherin in
class anymore.

Harry ignored most of this. He had taken to stalking the Weasely girl, she
was looking worse every day, and Harry could feel the strength of the diary
growing, a dark, malevolent feeling surrounded the red head's bag.

On Saturday, Harry was sitting in the library with his eyes only half
focused on the book in front of him. He had his OWL's coming up and
knew he should be revising, but this seemed to be a far more interesting
project.

In front of him was Ginny, around three tables away. She looked
exhausted, and her hair had lost much of its red lustre. Harry looked up
just in time to see the girls eyes flash red, before she stood up and began to
walk mechanically towards the door. Harry smirked, this could be his
ticket into the chamber.

He stood and surreptitiously cast a disillusionment charm and silencing

charm on himself. Before quickly walked into the hall and following the
redhead.

Harry was behind her down to the second floor, then watched curiously as
she began to paint words on the wall outside Moaning Myrtles bathroom.

Her Skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.

Well that's only a bit sinister. Harry thought to himself, but he said
nothing, merely following the red head into the bathroom. What did shock
Harry however was when she spoke what Harry could only assume was
Parseltongue, hisses and spits came from her mouth, and to his
amazement, the sink she spoke to opened up.

A wide hole, easily four feet wide appeared from the sink. Harry smirked
as slid in, Harry gave her a few seconds head start then followed behind,
slowing his descent with a feather weight charm. When he arrived at the
bottom of the long, dark pipe, he discovered himself to be at the end of a
wide, high corridor, it was rounded and filled with skeleton bones and
slime.

Harry listened intently, but from the sounds of things Ginny was already a
good few hundred feet ahead of him. Harry hurried to catch up, reapplying
the silencing charm to his feet. He followed the girl for what felt like half
a mile, from the way the amount of moisture increased he guessed he must
be somewhere under the lake.

Eventually they reached the end of the passage. A large dark door blocked
any entrance, it was pure black with six silver serpents like spokes around
the centre. Harry couldn't see a doorknob, but when Ginny spoke again in
Parseltongue the serpents slid inwards, and the door swung open on silent
hinges.
Harry followed behind Ginny, the chamber was stunning Harry thought,
around one hundred feet long, and easily twice that high, it was elegantly
carved from a dark grey stone, flanking a central walkway were a dozen
beautifully carved serpents, each over 15 feet high.

At the far end of the chamber was an enormous statue, as high as the
chamber itself, it depicted a young man, his beard was well trimmed and
his hear reached his shoulders, he wore outdated but well-fitting robes.
Harry knew this must be Salazar Slytherin, and Harry knew he must have
been in the chamber of secrets.

He was startled out of his reverie at the image of the founder of his house
when he saw Ginny standing at the feet of the statue. She held out her
hand, and with a flick of her wand sliced open her palm. Harry watched
fascinated as the flow of blood poured onto Riddle's diary at her feet. The
book glowed white, absorbing the red liquid hungrily.

After only a few seconds of this, the Gryffindor first year lay down,
crossing her hands on her chest, and closed her eyes, as if to sleep. Harry
watched intrigued as a figure began to slowly materialise at her feet.

The figure was tall, at least two inches higher than Harry, and
unmistakably male. He appeared first as a hazy outline, and Harry watched
transfixed as the figure gradually gained definition and an outline.

After 30 minutes of not moving, the figure rose from its kneeling position.
Harry was write, it was male, around six feet tall, with pale skin and soft
black hair. He was dressed in black robes decorated with the Slytherin
crest and held in its hand Ginny's wand.

The man, Riddle Harry guessed, turned to the direction in which he stood
and quirked his eyebrow.

"And have you found the chamber satisfactory?" he asked, his voice was
smooth, refined and hinted at a dark cruelty. Harry inhaled quickly, before
dropping his concealment charms and striding confidently forward.
As he got closer to Riddle he began to notice his features further. High
cheekbones and full lips, his face was well proportioned and Harry would
have described him as handsome if it weren't for his eyes. They were the
same eyes that Harry had first seen in Miranda, then later in himself.

They were the eyes of a man who had seen pain, and learnt to harm others.
They were the eyes of someone who would kill without question, and hunt
his enemies without remorse. Unlike Miranda's eyes however, they
showed no loneliness behind their ice cold exterior.

"I presume you to be Tom M. Riddle?" Harry asked, his voice matching
Riddle's.

"I am indeed, and may I guess you to be Mr Harry Potter? Son of the
traitor?" Harry gave a smooth half bow

"At your service." Riddle's lips twitched,

"I must confess, I asked Ginny about you after our brief talk, from what
she described I did not expect to see you down here." Harry smirked coldly

"I did warn you against the conversation of an eleven year old girl."

"Indeed. But tell me Potter, what did you expect to find down here?" He
cocked his head as he looked at Harry, Why had he come down here? He
asked himself, it was completely out of character for him, there was no
significant gain to be found, it wasn't like last year where the reward was
immortality and wealth, this year the prize was… nothing.

"I don't know." He replied honestly. Riddle looked at him surprised.

"You don't know?" he asked, lips stretching into a cruel imitation of a

smile, "You don't know?" The boy began to laugh, and Harry felt his smirk
broaden into something more resembling a smile. Riddle laughed for a
long time, the noise was high and cold,
"You do surprise me Potter," Riddle eventually said, Harry nodded his
head as though accepting a compliment.

"I suppose it was the diary." Harry eventually said, and Riddle nodded,

"A rather brilliant piece of magic if I do say so myself. The diary is the
culmination of over a year's hard work." Riddle looked down at the diary
clutched in Ginny's hands. "To freeze my own consciousness in paper, to
create an immortal vessel from which my sixteen year old self could
reside, could create flesh given time and effort. Rather brilliant." Harry
nodded in agreement, though he still kept his eyes on the boy in front of
him.

Riddle suddenly stopped looking at the diary, his face again peering at
Harry in that creepy, intrigued way, "you helped me before, Harry Potter."

"I did."

"And thanks to your assistance, I will find once more gain a body." Harry
didn't let any emotion be show on his face, clamping his Occlumency
shields down as hard as he could.

"I must say Potter, we are awfully alike." Came Riddles voice, Harry
quirked an eyebrow,

"Both Orphans, or at least raised in Orphanages" Riddle began,

"Both Slytherins" Harry continued, Riddle smirked,

"Both practitioners of dark magic's." Harry raised his eyebrows, "Oh yes
Harry, I feel the darkness in you" Riddle said, eye's firmly glued to Harry's
face.

"Both with special awards for Services to the school." Harry continued,
Riddle bowed his head graciously,

"Both finding a home in Hogwarts which we had not experienced before."

"Both Prefects."

"Both disliking Muggles."

"Both intrigued by Power and immortality."

"Both from poor backgrounds."

"Both highly skilled in offensive magic's"

"Both with a significant dislike of Dumbledore" Harry shrugged his

shoulders with a smirk at Riddle's final comment,

"Hell, Riddle, we both look the same, you've aged impeccably in fifty
years." Harry said with a wry smirk, Riddle laughed coldly before
nodding.

"It is almost eerie is it not?" Riddle said quietly, his voice breathy, he
stepped towards Harry,

"quite" Harry whispered, he drew his wand and examined it carelessly in

the dim light, Riddle stopped quickly, then threw his head back and
laughed, this was not the cold laugh of before, but instead a full rich
sound,

"Yew and Phoenix tail feather?" Harry nodded and Riddle wiped away a
tear, "We are alike Potter, near perfect copies."

"We could achieve much together." Riddle said, caressing the words as he
said them. Harry felt his chest freeze, he knew where this was going, and
he didn't know what his answer would be.

"I imagine so." He said carefully. Riddle looked at him, sizing him up.

"Join me Potter, join my army, you are strong, and you have a brilliant
mind." Harry released his breath, and something in his face must have
displayed his interest for Riddle pressed on,
"Think of what he could achieve, the World would lie at our feet, we could
cleanse the stain of corruption, treachery and Muggles from Wizarding
Society, we would subjugate out foes, you desire magical power and
immortality? Together we could learn secrets of magic previously unheard
of!" Harry's chest felt light, his breath came rapidly and he clenched his
lips.

"Join me Potter, wealth, power, an army behind you." He paused, a smirk

tugging at his lips, "The world would kneel at your feet, if you would but
kneel at mine." Harry's looked up at the ceiling of the cavernous chamber,
his heart was beating a mile a minute and his brain was in overdrive.

Light or Dark?

Through the stone he already had wealth and immortality, but he knew in
his heart that Riddle… no, that Voldemort, had the drive, the ambition and
the power to force his goals through, he briefly considered Miranda, what
she would want, but then remembered that she had already told him.

Her first loyalty lay to herself, and then to her father. She would follow
Voldemort when the time came.

Power, fear, respect.

His eyes slowly fell to Voldemort again, Riddle's eyes were on him
speculatively, his posture filled with righteous strength. Harry, for the first
time in over three years completely lowered his Occlumency shields, he
saw Riddles face fleetingly show surprise.

Taking a final deep breath, he allowed his legs to slowly bend, knee's
making hard contact with the stone at his feet, he allowed his head to
elegantly fall forward. Above him he heard Riddle take in an excited
breath. The words deal with the devil briefly flashed across his mind.

He glanced up after a long moment of silence, Riddle was looking at him

curiously and his countenance appeared genuinely surprised.
"From all I knew of you Harry Potter, I did not think you would kneel,
perhaps we are not as alike as I would had thought, no matter… rise Harry
Potter, rise and accept your destiny." Harry stood, his entire body
thrummed with anticipation.

"I will have a corporeal body in less than an hour, when Ginny is dead,
then I am become whole. Then I am become death." Harry resisted rolling
his eyes at the flamboyant language, "Upon regaining my full body, I will
leave the school via one of the tunnels which leads out." Harry nodded,
and Riddle paused.

"You will remain in school, it would be useful for me to know exactly

what is going on." Harry nodded again, Riddle opened his mouth to
continue speaking, but paused, they both heard the sound of hurried
footsteps coming down the passage. Riddle sneered,

"Well, it would appear Longbottom, our intrepid hero approaches, hide

Harry, I would not have you revealed yet." Harry quickly replaced the
charms that had him covered previously and silently glided over to lean
against the wall of the chamber.

Less than two minutes later the sound of the massive chamber door
opening resonated around the cavernous room. Longbottom strode in, he
was alone, and covered in slime and mud. He looked around the room in
horrified awe before spotting the prone form lying at the vast statues feet.

"Ginny!" he cried, rushing forward, his feet splashed loudly against the
wet tiles.

"Ginny, wake up! Please wake up!" he cried, his voice sounded strangled,
he reached the red headed girl and collapsed to his knees next to her.

"Please don't be dead! Please wake up Gin!" Harry smirked as he saw the
phantom Riddle materialise behind Longbottom.

"She won't wake." He said softly, and Neville jumped, he quickly turned
and drew his wand.
"Tom?" he asked with an incredulous expression, Harry raised his
eyebrows, he had not expected Neville to know Riddle!

"Hello again Neville." The spirit said, its voice appearing polite but filled
with scorn and derision for those who knew what to listen for.

"What do you mean she won't wake Tom?" Neville asked, then his face
paled "She's not…"

"She's not dead, but she will be soon." Neville looked startled.

"Then help me get her to the infirmary, there's a basilisk here, it could turn
up at any minute!" Harry blinked, a basilisk? That explained a lot.

He looked around cautiously, whilst Riddle would probably not order the
beast to attack Harry, a beast like a Basilisk could kill him by accident! He
drew his wand, looking around cautiously.

"It will not come until it is called." Riddle said with a smirk, Longbottom
appeared to have finally realised the danger he was in. Riddle twirled
Weaselys wand mockingly between his fingers.

"It wasn't… Tom, you... you?" Longbottom asked, his voice shaking in
fear.

"Me." Harry almost laughed at the petrified expression on Neville's face.

The chubby boy-saviour raised his wand fearfully. Riddle chuckled
ominously.

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Neville, the blue spell left his wand and sailed
towards Riddle, who deflected it into the wall without even blinking. He
flicked his wand at Neville and the boy sailed ten feet backwards before
landing in a deep puddle of water. He floundered for a moment before
rising to a standstill, sopping wet.

"You won't get away with this Riddle!" Neville cried, though he made no
further moves to attack Tom.
"And who will stop me? You Neville? The boy who defeated the most
powerful dark lord in a thousand years?" Riddle chuckled darkly again,
"How did you do that Neville? How did a baby defeat such a powerful
figure as a Dark Lord?"

"Why do you care? Voldemort was after your time." Neville asked, his
curiosity plain on his face.

"Voldemort is my time, he is my past, present and future." Riddle then

proceeded to spell out his name in fire in the air. Harry was interested,
must be a modified flagrate spell he thought to himself, filing the
information away.

"You… Tom, you are Voldemort?" Neville asked, horrified, he then stood
slightly straighter, "I am not afraid of you, Dumbledore can still defeat
you!" Riddle suddenly looked furious, his handsome features distorted in
rage.

"Dumbledore was driven from this school by the mere Memory of me!" he
shouted angrily, snapping his wand again at Neville and sending him once
more into the puddle.

Neville rose on shaky legs, but suddenly the chamber was filled with
haunting song, and a beautiful gold and crimson bird soared down the
length of the chamber. The Phoenix Lament Harry thought, He felt a sharp
pain in his chest at the sound. As a practitioner of dark magic, his soul was
too corrupted to be uplifted by the pure noise of such a light creature.

The phoenix, which had circled the room above their heads suddenly
landed on Neville's sodden shoulder, dropping what appeared to be a sack
of cloth into Neville's hands.

"Fawkes?" Neville asked, Riddle appeared concerned about the sudden

addition to the group,

"What's that it gave you? What is it?!" Neville looked down at the package
in his hands, holding it up he revealed it to be the sorting hat. Riddle
laughed but Harry frowned, Fawkes was Dumbledore's phoenix, which
meant that Dumbledore had sent Neville the sorting hat, Dumbledore,
whilst old and altogether too forgiving, was undoubtedly wise and
extremely powerful.

"So this is what Dumbledore sends his great protector?" Riddle laughed,
"A songbird and an old hat?" he cackled loudly. Before catching himself,

"Ah well, shall we match the might of Lord Voldemort, heir to Salazar
Slytherin against that of Dumbledore?" Neville looked confused, but held
his wand at the ready. Riddle turned to the statue and spoke in
Parseltongue, his voice harsh spits and hisses.

Harry didn't understand what was said, but suddenly a large… something,
could be heard slithering behind the tunnel. Harry suddenly realised what
was coming, and shut his eyes tight.

"Run Longbottom, flee before the beast of Slytherin, fly from the king of
Serpents!" Riddle cried and Harry heard Neville's feet pounding on the wet
stone, he opened his eyes minutely and saw the Basilisk.

It was sixty feet long, seven feet high and its mouth was large enough to
fit a man in whole, it was sliding after Neville as he ran down a side
passage, after a few minutes, there was silence and Harry carefully made
his way back to Riddle's side.

"I would be careful Tom, Dumbledore would not have sent the hat to
Longbottom if it weren't of some use." Riddle looked at him, but nodded
slowly. His eyes briefly looked around the chamber for the hat, but it had
vanished along with the phoenix.

"You will protect my diary, Potter, as well as Miss Weasely, the process
still requires ten minutes or so." Harry nodded and with a wave of his
wand summoned the little black book into his hands. It still radiated
darkness, but not as powerfully as before. He slid the book into one of his
pockets before turning back to his… he frowned, was Riddle his master?
His Lord? The young Lord Voldemort had given him no hints on etiquette
at this point.

The two teenagers stood in silence side by side awaiting the return, of boy
or beast neither could be sure, although Harry privately thought the
chances of Neville defeating such a monster were minimal at best.

Around ten minutes after Neville had run off, the boy saviour returned. His
eyes were bloodshot and he was terribly out of breath, but he didn't appear
to be injured in any way. His eyes widened comically when he saw Harry
stood next to Riddle,

"You!" he cried, Harry gave him an elegant wave

"Good Evening Neville."

"You're with him?" He asked, and Riddle chuckled.

"He is with me." Neville looked horrified, but drew his wand carefully
aiming at the two Slytherin Boy's.

Harry prepared to raise a shield, when from behind him came a massive
shriek. Harry turned to see the Basilisk rising from one of the vast pools of
standing water. Quickly closing his eyes he heard Riddle speak to the
snake.

"You may open your eyes Harry. It won't look at you." Harry carefully
peered at the Basilisk, which was currently doing battle with Fawkes.

The next few minutes passed in a rapid blur of violence, blood, cries and
death. The phoenix blinded the Basilisk, before Harry killed the bird… or
at least forced it to be reborn with a killing curse. Somehow Neville
acquired a sword, although from where Harry didn't know, then to his and
Riddle's amazement slew the basilisk by stabbing it through the eye.

Neville pulled the sword from the beast's eye with a vicious yank. He was
soaking wet and freezing cold, coated from head to foot in grime, sweat
and blood. Holding the sword in his right hand and wand in his left, he
approached the two Slytherins in front of him.

They were a terrifying sight, both had identical cold, hard expressions on
their faces. Wands held loosely at their sides. Neville wasn't arrogant
enough to think he could take either of the two boy's on in a duel, he knew
them both to be prodigies with magic, but he would go down fighting, as
his parents had.

Riddle started to clap mockingly, whilst Potter grew a smug smirk that set
Neville on edge.

"Well done Neville, you have killed the monster, but surely you don't
really think you can defeat us?" His voice was high and cold, his eyes
alight with vicious amusement. Neville didn't reply, but held his weapons
at a more ready position.

"Fight him Harry. But do not kill him, I do not want him dead… just yet."
Neville stood rooted to the spot as Potter took three steps forward, before
suddenly flicking his wand at Neville.

The Gryffindor felt like he had taken a bludger to the chest, collapsing to
his knee's he gasped, sucking in air through gritted teeth. He rose as
quickly as he could, just in time to see Potter point his wand at him again.

"Protego!" Neville shouted, his shield flaring as it blocked Harry's

invisible spell. Potter smirked, but giving his wand a twist and loop,
created a bright jet of orange light that flew at Neville, who wasn't able to
shield himself in time.

The spell struck the boy-who-lived in the chest and he felt like a thousand
volts of electricity were flowing through him. Every muscle in the boy's
body contracted and he cried out in agony. Harry kept the spell up for
twenty seconds before releasing it. Neville lay on the ground, tears were
streaming down his face and his throat was raw from screaming.
He lay panting, before suddenly he felt all the air in his chest leave his
lungs and he choked violently. He saw Potter standing over him, and with a
smirk the boy flicked his wand at Neville sending him spinning across the
room, back into one of the large puddles.

Neville stood quickly and hurled a disarming hex at Harry, the boy
chuckled as he sidestepped the spell. Neville merely snarled.

"Rictumsempera! Desaugeo! Engorgio! Expulso! Expeliarmus!" To

Neville's dismay, his stream of jinxes and cursing were all dodged by the
fifth year Slytherin. Potter then sent the same electrifying curse at the
water Neville was stood in, and he screamed in agony as the blue arcs of
lightning flew across his body. When Potter eventually stopped the curse,
Neville's entire body was steaming.

"Enough Potter, although I must say, a most entertaining display."

Neville looked up to see Riddle standing before him, but Riddle's outline
was no longer wavy and indistinct. He was solid, and very much real.
Neville felt like crying again, but held himself back.

"Until we meet again Neville. Obliviate."

When Neville woke up an hour later, he was alone. He saw the dead
basilisk, and looked down at his hand, the diary was covered in ink, and
impaled on Gryffindor's sword.

He suddenly remembered, he remembered entering the chamber and

discovering Tom on his own. The fight with the Basilisk with Fawkes,
stabbing the basilisk and killing it, before duelling Riddle. Then stabbing
the diary, which destroyed Riddle. He looked around the deserted chamber.

"Ginny!" He cried, hurrying over to the motionless girl, she didn't move.
He fell next to her and felt for her pulse. There was nothing. He shook her
by the shoulders but she didn't move. "Ginny, wake up! Come on, wake
up!" but she didn't. Neville felt tears stream down his cheeks, he put the
sword through his belt before picking the girl up, he tried not to think
about how cold she was as he carried her out of the chamber, and he tried
not to think about the expression on the Weaselys faces when they
discovered the fate of their only daughter.

Harry allowed himself a rare smile, he had finished his exams, and
tomorrow he would finally be going home, back to Miranda, and back to a
life where he was free to live as he wished, without any of the masks he so
often used at Hogwarts.

As he left the great hall after breakfast, he passed Longbottom and

Weasely. They were both looking extremely dejected, Harry supressed a
grin, whilst the events in the chamber were undoubtedly some of the most
important in Harry's life, he had made a choice, and not one he could ever
easily back out of.

He had left Tom that night. The newly reincarnated boy had returned Harry
to the outskirts of Hogwarts, before leaving to gather strength and his old
followers. His instructions to Harry were very clear, he was to check in
with Riddle at some point of his summer, other than that, simply stay in
school and keep an eye on Hogwarts.

With a smug smile on his lips, Harry was about to head down the stairs to
the dungeons when he was stopped by a voice behind him.

"Mr Potter?" He turned and smiled charmingly at Professor McGonagall.

She smiled kindly back at the transfiguration prodigy.

"Good Morning Professor, may I help you?" he asked politely,

McGonagall gave him a sympathetic shake of the head.

"No Harry, but I think it best if you follow me to the Headmasters office."
Harry's charming smile instantly vanished, replaced with cautious
concern.

"Don't worry Potter, you are not in trouble." Harry felt his concern reduce
slightly, and emptied his face of all worries and concerns as he followed
the deputy Headmistress.
"Ice Mice." McGonagall spoke clearly to an ugly Gargoyle, which stepped
aside immediately, revealing a curving spiral staircase. The two of the
stepped forward, and together they stepped into the headmaster's office.

"Professor Dumbledore sir." Harry greeted the old man respectfully. The
headmaster bowed his head in kind. Harry thought he looked exhausted,
his face was lined and his blue eyes, normally so bright and alive were
dimmed and had a look of immense weariness in them.

"Harry I am afraid I must become the bearer of bad news." Harry looked at
the elderly man carefully. Making sure to keep his face empty.

"Harry, at eleven o'clock last night, there was an incident at Azkaban."

Harry showed no expression, except perhaps for a slight tightening of his
eyes.

"Nobody knows exactly what happened, but the end result is, well, Harry
my boy, your father has escaped." The fifth year Slytherin felt dizzy, he
looked carefully at Professor McGonagall and saw that her lips were
pursed so tightly that they had gone white.

"Am I in any danger Professor?" Harry asked neutrally, Dumbledore shook

his head ruefully,

"I cannot tell you that Harry, for I do not know the answer, it's possible
that your father will come after you, in some attempt to regain that which
he has lost, but it is equally possible that he will seek only his fallen
master." Harry sighed bitterly, but said nothing, Dumbledore then appeared
to age before Harry's eyes,

"However, given the nature of what he would say in his sleep in prison, we
fear that Neville Longbottom is the target of your father's wrath at the
present time." Harry and Dumbledore stared at each other for several
moments, the silence stretching between them.

"Is that all Professor?" Harry finally asked, Dumbledore shook his head
slowly,
"No my boy, Professor Snape tells me you have often asked to remain at
Hogwarts over the Summer Holidays in past years?" Harry nodded and
some of the old life appeared in Dumbledore's eyes. "I think, that due to
the delicate situation we find ourselves in, Hogwarts could stretch the
rules for you this year, if you want it that is?"

The headmaster looked at Harry almost hopefully, but Harry shook his
head, "The offer is kind headmaster, extremely kind, and I would have
most certainly taken it up two years ago, but I cannot now, things change."
Dumbledore nodded sadly, as though expecting the answer,

"Well, it is always nice to return to our loved ones, it must be difficult to

go so long apart from Miss Rookwood?" Harry stiffened at Dumbledore's
words, and the aged headmaster raised his hands calmly, "I have not been
keeping tabs on you Harry, I merely checked to see where you had your
address down for after last night's debacle."

"Thank you headmaster, and you are correct, I have missed Miranda lately,
it will be nice to see her again." The Headmaster gave him a wry smile,

"It is our ability to love that set's us so much higher than the others Harry,
never forget Love, for it is our greatest weapon against the darkness."
With a graceful nod, Harry agreed with Dumbledore.

"Before you go Harry," Dumbledore began, "I feel I would be remiss if I

did not ask you if there was anything you felt you should tell me." Harry
frowned, looking at Dumbledore carefully, the old man's face was
completely open. He was peering at Harry over his half-moon spectacles,
looking as sincere as could be.

"I don't understand Professor?" Harry asked slowly, Dumbledore sighed,

leaning back in his chair,

"There was a student I once taught who was just like you Harry, Muggle
raised in an Orphanage, poor, but brilliant, parentless, but so brave, a
school prefect and a model student. However I failed that student, and
everything that happened since is my fault to a degree, I would not like to
fail you as well my boy."

"Who was this student?" Harry asked, even if he already had strong
suspicions of who Dumbledore spoke of.

"Tom, Tom Riddle." Dumbledore said, Harry allowed only amused

recollection to show on his face,

"I know that name, his special award for services to the school is just next
to mine!" Dumbledore nodded slowly,

"Indeed, that is just another thing that the two of you would have in
common." Harry gave the aging headmaster a small smile.

"I thank you for sharing headmaster, however, you needn't worry, there is
nothing I feel you need to know." Dumbledore nodded sadly, and with a
wave of his hand dismissed Harry.

Just as Harry's hand opened the door, Dumbledore spoke again, "I know it
must be so hard for you, and I know you won't let me help you, but I wish I
could Harry, I wish I could."

Harry ignored the resigned yet desperate words of the headmaster, and
made his way down the stairs.

Writing Dumbledore was hard, It's hard to make a balance between

the forgiving grandfather, and the man who will stop at nothing to stop
Riddle. Any questions, criticisms or queries, give me a review and I
will try to answer them.
11. Chapter 11

Well here we go, chapter 10, not my favourite chapter I think, but
necessary, and it contains Tom, who is one of my favourite characters
to write. Please remember that the interaction between Tom and
Harry is far more informal than we will see between Harry and
Voldemort.

Thank you for all the reviews, they have all been incredibly positive!

Chapter 10

Harry released a loud sigh when he finally was able to place his trunk
down in his bedroom. The journey from Hogwarts had been the worst yet,
his father's escape had been published in that morning's issue of the Daily
Prophet and it was all anyone could seem to speak about. First years
squeaked and ran at the sight of him, whilst older students reignited the
old taunts of "Traitor" when they passed him.

However he was home now, in the perfectly decorated and comfortable

home he shared with Miranda. He left the bedroom and took a seat on the
deep sofa, stretching out like a cat on the luxurious cushions.

"Minnie" he called, and the loyal house elf appeared before him at once.

"Minnie, fetch me something to drink, tea… actually a glass of wine,

white please." The elf bowed and Harry released a gentle breath, crossing
his feet at the end of the sofa.

The elf quickly reappeared, a glass of Muggle Sauvignon Blanc in her

small hand. Harry accepted it with a nod, and took a small sip of the
perfectly chilled liquid, he turned on the wireless on the table next to him,
and allowed the soothing tunes of Spelllight, the popular Wizard jazz band
to flow over him.
He wasn't lay there long, perhaps twenty minutes by his reckoning, before
the door opened. Miranda walked in, looking as aloof and arrogant as ever,
although that expression quickly faded once she saw him, replaced with a
look of subdued delight.

"Harry!" she exclaimed "Get your feet off my sofa." Harry gave her a
lopsided smirk, but stood up to greet her. He looked her over, noticing the
dark bags under her eyes, covered as they were with makeup, and her eyes
displayed a deep anxiety.

"It's good to see you again" Harry murmured softly, taking her into his
arms for a deep hug, she quickly responded intensely, gripping him tightly.

"So you're father's out." She stated, and her face took on a somewhat
disgruntled look, "Seems you get everything hmm Potter?"

"Are you jealous that my father is an escaped convict?" Harry asked, a

twinkle in his eye, Miranda hid a grin expertly

"Escaped beats imprisoned every day of the week." Harry rolled his eyes at
her.

Harry sat down and summoned Minnie for two more glasses of wine. They
spent a few minutes discussing the possible ramifications of James
Potter's escape, whilst Harry tried to impress upon her that it didn't change
anything.

"That's all very good Harry" she sighed, looking at him critically, her ice
blue eyes glinting dangerously, "But the fact is that there is an incredibly
dangerous criminal on the loose, who has ambitions of killing Neville
Longbottom, a boy you will be sharing a school with in the coming
months."

"I know darling, but it doesn't mean I will ever meet him." Harry
explained patiently. Miranda glared at him angrily,
"You're right, you probably never will meet him, but the rest of the country
doesn't know that. Anything James Potter does, you will be implicated in
by default. You do understand that don't you?"

Harry remained silent mulling over his girlfriend's words. She did make a
lot of sense, and he allowed his mind to rapidly run through the likely
scenarios, each one agreeing with the blonde. He nodded curtly and
Miranda smirked in satisfaction at her small victory.

"I'm glad you have finally seen sense dear." She said, her voice sugar
sweet, Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead his took a deep sip
of wine.

"I have to tell you something else I am afraid." Harry began, he felt his
chest flutter nervously, but ruthlessly supressed the feelings. The blonde
looked at him quizzically, her face showed a small amount of concern
when she saw the look on his face,

"What is it Potter?" she asked, her voice cautious. Slowly, Harry told her
about his meeting with the boy Voldemort, and his vow to serve the Dark
Lord, Miranda listened in absolute silence, her eyes on the cold wine glass
in her hand. Her face gave nothing away. When Harry finished, he took a
long draught of wine and drained the glass. Miranda looked at her own and
similarly emptied it, before summoning Minnie and requesting a full
bottle.

Their glasses reloaded, Miranda took a deep breath, then slowly released
it, before she gave Harry a quick kiss on the lips. "Don't worry Harry, you
had no real choice, besides, I always thought we would join the Dark Lord,
although to be honest I had expected such a decision to be made in several
years."

"You did? I always thought he was dead" Harry replied, his voice revealing
his surprise.

"Of course, The Dark Lord was the most powerful sorcerer for a thousand
years, you didn't truly expect him to be defeated by an infant did you?"
Harry gave a small embarrassed shrug, and Miranda shook her head.
"Hopeless."

Harry smirked, but said nothing, "So why didn't the Dark Lord kill
Longbottom in the chamber? From the sounds of it you had him at your
mercy"

"I don't know" Harry admitted, "But I have suspicions." Miranda looked at
him with a raised eyebrow, "Well, I believe that Riddle, sorry, the Dark
Lord, wishes for Longbottoms death to be a public display to the world, a
declaration of his might… although having duelled Longbottom, I really
don't think him much of a challenge." Miranda suppressed a snort, but
cuddled into his side,

"I leave you for one year and look what happens, It's a good thing you're at
least half-way competent, else I'd have to break you out of Azkaban!"

Harry laughed, and listened as she caught him up on her own recent
events. From the description, Experimental charms was rather dull, as
most of the time it involved bureaucracy and paper pushing, although
Harry was interested to learn about his girlfriend's application to join the
Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

The First week of the summer flew by, Harry spent most of it on his own,
reading through books, although he did do something new, for him at least,
he joined Olivia, probably his best friend in his year at her house in
County Cork, before watching the Ireland vs. Peru world cup play off.
Whilst Harry rather fancied himself to be a genius at Quidditch tactics,
and had watched a couple of matches between professional league teams,
the Irish internationals were in a league of their own.

The match had Harry on his feet from the first time he heard the
Commentator announce "And For Ireland, Give a big hand for Ryan,
Quigley, Connolly, Troy, Mullet, Moran aaaaaannnnndddd Lynch!" The
Irish chasers had moved as a single fluid unit, constantly adapting and
playing outside of set Quidditch parameters Harry had always considered
absolute.
When Harry returned from the match and bid goodbye to Olivia, it was to
return to a somewhat tense house. As soon as he stepped out of the floo, he
sensed that there was something up, he left the entrance room and quickly
made his way to the Sitting Room. Miranda sat there, her hair was done up
in its professional work bun and she had discarded her robe, wearing just a
white blouse and grey trousers.

She looked up at him, and Harry was surprised to see an element of fear in
her eyes. He opened his mouth to ask what the matter was, but before he
could speak she gestured to the coffee table, Harry glanced at it and saw a
plain white envelope on the table. It was addressed to him, but it was clear
that Miranda had opened it already, Not that he minded, the blonde liked to
imagine herself to be in control of her house, and Harry had learned to
simply go along with some of her whims.

Picking up the offending envelope, he examined it. The address was

writing in elegant sloping calligraphy with black ink. Harry carefully
pulled out the letter, which was written on expensive and starched
parchment and began to read.

My Dear Harry,

I trust you are well, and that you have enjoyed the fresh air away from
Dumbledore's meddling control. I have recently arrived back in England
from Albania where I understand my other half currently resides. It was a
fool's errand I am afraid however I have plenty of time on my hands so am
not in the least concerned.

I read in the paper about your father, I am sure you are most excited,
however I must ask you not to look for your father. I have plans for you,
and I will not risk having one of my most useful assets arrested at this
delicate stage. We will discuss this in greater detail on Thursday. I will be
joining you and Miss Rookwood for an informal Dinner at your residence
along with one of my followers at eight o'clock sharp where we will
discuss the future at length.

Do not reply to this message

Your friend and Master

Tom. M. Riddle.

Harry read the letter several times. It was certainly not what he had
expected from Riddle, the young dark lord had indicated that he would
allow Harry to continue with his life unimpeded for the last two years of
his education. However clearly that was to change. He looked up at
Miranda who had lost the nervous look from her face and had now
replaced it with a look of calm detachment.

"So" Harry said, not sure how to continue he fell silent, the silence
between them deafening.

"Well Harry, this is a rare event, It's not often you have the most powerful
dark wizard for hundreds of years joining you for Dinner." Miranda said,
her tone indicating her sarcastic amusement.

"For what it is worth, he is only sixteen, younger than you." Miranda

looked at him with her eyebrow elegantly raised.

"Point taken, I'm sorry, dark wizard. Dinner. Very serious." Harry said, his
smirk returning with full force. Miranda nodded quickly.

"Well, we have two days to prepare for this, who do you suppose he means
by 'a follower'?" Harry shrugged,

"Probably Lucius Malfoy, Riddle told me that the diary was in Lucius'
possession before he gave it to Weasely."

"Well, we had best do some preparation." The fanatical gleam in the

gorgeous blonde's eye had Harry more than a little concerned.

Thursday evening finally arrived. Harry and Miranda had cleared their
house and cleaned it to perfection, as well as loaning two additional house
elves to ensure everything ran smoothly, Minnie had been very disgruntled
by the new elves, perceiving it as an insult that her quality of work was not
good enough.

Dressed in a tight fitting light blue shirt and black trousers with a dark
grey robe over the top, Harry felt that he had stressed the informal nature
of the meal highly, but thought that if his guess was correct and Lucius
Malfoy were to be joining them, his dress code was appropriate. Miranda
had her Golden blonde hair elegantly arranged, with a pale blue dress robe
accentuating her eyes wonderfully.

Sat in the living room, the two teens were nervous, Harry caught Miranda's
eye and had to stifle a chuckle, he quickly failed and soon the two of them
were laughing together, the ridiculousness of hosting a dinner party for the
dark lord having finally struck them.

As the clock struck the eighth chime on the hour there came a knock from
the door. They heard Minnie open it and offer to take coats. Harry and
Miranda stood and he gave her a confident smile which she returned. He
clamped down his Occlumency shields and felt his emotions leave him.

His assumption had been correct, Tom and Lucius entered the room
together, Harry noted with a wry smile that his assumption about the elder
Malfoy's wardrobe had been correct, the man wouldn't look out of place at
a formal ball. Tom however was more understated, a blood red shirt, black
trousers and a black robe, his outfit screamed understated wealth and
elegance.

Out of the corner of Harry's eye, he saw Miranda give shiver ever so
slightly at the dark look in Riddles eyes. He looked like a predator, and
Harry wasn't sure what his prey was, it didn't appear to be either him or
Miranda.

"Harry, you look well." Riddle said stepping forward with a small smirk.
Harry took the proffered hand and shook it firmly, keeping his own face
carefully neutral.
"Good evening Tom, welcome to our home, please allow me to introduce
you to my girlfriend, Miranda Rookwood." Harry noted with a vicious
sense of satisfaction Lucius Malfoy recoil at Harry's use of the dark Lord's
given name.

"Miss Rookwood, a rare pleasure." Riddle said charmingly, brushing his

lips over Miranda's knuckles. "Harry, Miss Rookwood, have you met
Lucius Malfoy?" Harry shook Malfoy's hand and gave a small bow, whilst
Lucius gave a nod of his head.

"Would either of you be interested in a drink?" Miranda asked, easily

slipping into the role of hostess.

"If there was a chance of a glass of red wine…" Riddle asked charmingly,
immediately one of the hired elves, Moby, appeared with a bottle in his
hands, Riddle examined it with a critical eye before nodding, "1973
Chateau Bergerac, I am impressed, please don't tell me you bought this for
me, it's always been my favourite vineyard." His tone was light and
teasing, but Harry could always see the cruelty and vicious edge lurking
beneath the surface, Harry found himself drawn to it, wishing the more
malevolent side of the sixteen year old wizard before him would show
itself.

"Mister Malfoy? A drink for you?" Harry asked, his voice, like Riddles
contained just a hint of mockery, but not enough that anyone could call
him on it.

"Whiskey and Soda." The elder politician requested curtly, his drink
quickly appearing by House elf.

The four sat down and there was a moment of silence, before Tom turned
to Miranda, his charming smile returning in full effect,

"So, I understand you have graduated Hogwarts, and now work for the
ministry?" he asked, Miranda nodded her head politely,
"Your information is correct, I now work for the Department of
Experimental charms, but I have intentions of transferring soon to the
DMLE." Miranda's voice sounded perfectly confident, but Harry knew her
well enough to sense the underlying tones of fear in her voice, she had
evidently seen in Riddle the same thing as Harry.

"Indeed? Well if Ministry bureaucracy is the same as it was in my day, any

department change takes months of paperwork!" He gave a short laugh,
and the others joined in softly, Riddle then continued "However, Lucius
has many contacts at the Ministry, I am sure he could manage something."
Lucius shifted imperceptibly at the mention of his name.

"Of course My Lord, I could easily hurry such a move." He said with a
forced smile.

"Excellent, well shall we have dinner, I for one am absolutely famished!"

He smiled widely and Harry chuckled in response, before standing. Lucius
and Tom led the way to the dining room, and Harry and Miranda looked at
one another. They exchanged a quick look, this meeting, polite and cordial
as it seemed was in reality anything but, and the room was steeped in
tension, Harry knew that Riddle knew this, and from the look in the Dark
Lords eye, it was clear he relished the fear that he invoked.

The meal got underway, the elves had worked perfectly, whilst the meal
was being served, conversation remained on safe topics, Harry's education,
Lucius's business interests, how Miranda was finding work at the ministry.
But as the final bowls were cleared away, talk took on a far more serious
note.

They were sat around the dining room table, Harry next to Lucius, Tom
next to Miranda, there was silence whilst the elves offered around Port and
cigars, which they each accepted, except Miranda, who declined the cigar.

"Harry, I have been speaking to Lucius at length on the topic of your

father." Harry nodded at Tom, and gestured for him to continue. "Now,
until I have combined with my other self, I do not have the memories of
my elder self, therefore I cannot say whether or not James Potter acted
upon my orders or not." He inhaled from his cigar and exhaled a deep
breath of the pleasant smoke.

"However, Lucius is quite insistent that James Potter was not among my
army of loyal soldiers. However, as I am given to understand that Potter sr.
was in Dumbledore's little vigilante group, the order of the phoenix" he
snorted softly at the name "It is quite possible that James Potter's name
was never brought up at meetings to ensure his cover remained intact."
Harry nodded, this all made sense to him so far.

"So, my father's loyalty to you is sceptical at best." Harry stated, and

Riddle gave a short laugh,

"Exactly, therefore, if you should uh, stumble upon your dear daddy during
his escape, I would prefer if you were not to embrace him too quickly."
Despite the mild manner in which Harry was told this, it was extremely
clear that this was a command.

"Of course, I would hardly incriminate myself on a whim though Tom."

Lucius scowled again, and Riddle, evidently aware of the game Harry was
playing with the elder statesman smirked.

"Now onto the main reason as to why I came here tonight, except of course
to meet the lovely and oh so beautiful Miss Miranda Rookwood." He
placed his hand delicately on her own, before removing it. Miranda gave a
polite smile and bowed her head graciously.

"It has come to my attention that Neville Longbottom was able to defeat
me thirteen years ago, due to a protective blood magic spell. His mother
sacrificed herself to offer her only son protection from me. To my
frustration, this protective magic still flows in young Neville's blood." He
gave a small laugh, and his eyes burned with an intense fire, Harry was
hooked on his words. Riddle spoke in a way that truly captivated the room,
his voice was deep, smooth and rich, his hands gestured slightly; the
young Dark Lord was a master at keeping the attention of a room.
"In what turns out to be a happy turn of fate, the ritual required to
recombine the two versions of myself requires blood from an enemy,
which will then flow in my veins." Riddle paused at Harry's expression, "I
plan to use Longbottoms fresh blood, which means that until further
notice, your instructions are to keep Longbottom alive."

"Understood, and I assume you are talking of the ritual of Bowmont? It

hasn't been performed for half a millennium?" Riddle shrugged his
shoulders in a display of careless elegance, "It would recombine a
shattered soul into one body, I assume you will retain your current body?"
Riddle nodded, "blood of the enemy, Will of the vanquished, Spirit of the
Subjugated, a difficult combination of ingredients to gain, I never
understood how to take someone's will or spirit, but I will leave that bit to
you." Riddle smirked broadly,

"I am impressed, I did not discover the ritual of Bowmont until my sixth
year." Harry shrugged, "Did you find it in Rituals of the Arcane?" Riddle
asked, his lips dancing in a smirk,

"Ancient magic's and cultures" Harry said, a small smile around his
mouth.

Miranda was terrified, not that she would ever admit it to anyone, she even
had a hard time admitting it to herself. Whilst Riddle had been nothing but
the epitome of polite charm, she could sense in her the same malevolent
will that she often sensed in Harry, and knew existed in herself. However
whilst Harry's darker urges were often concealed behind his many other
feelings, Miranda doubted Riddle had any urges that were not cruel,
oppressive or callously uncaring.

She knew Harry was feeling the same thing, but whilst Miranda had opted
to hide her fear behind a wall of manners and demure correctness, Harry
appeared to have released his own inner malice, relishing the power that
was the Dark Lord.

If Miranda were not currently at a dinner party with the most powerful
politician in Britain and the Dark Lord, she would have rolled her eyes, her
boyfriend was currently engaged in what could only be described as a
'lively' debate with Riddle over the finer points of magic.

Miranda had always known Harry was a brilliant student, but listening to
the two men discuss the theory of advanced sentient non-sentient
transfiguration application had amazed her, the two were discussing magic
so complex that she didn't understand the exact topic, from the
uncomfortable look on Lucius Malfoy's face, it was clear he was in a
similar situation.

"Yes, yes, I am perfectly aware of Arinbad's fifth law!" Harry was saying,
his eyes alight, "But whatever the man claims, transfiguring a dog, say,
into a human would not result in something with near human intelligence."
Riddle shook his head, and Miranda was surprised to see that the cruel
look in them had gone, replaced instead by an excited frown.

"No, no, I do not mean that a transfigured dog would be as intelligent as

the caster, but it would have the intelligent mind of the species." Harry
frowned at Riddle,

"Well that's absurd." Lucius paled dramatically at Harry's words, but

Riddle didn't change his facial expression, "Consider this, If I were to
transfigure you into a dog, you would retain your memories, your
knowledge, that is a well-documented fact, therefore, I declare that
Arinbad's law was wrong, I would declare that the reverse would be true.
The dog would be a dog's brain in a human body, and no amount of
training would change this!" Riddle sighed and the argument continued.

Both men had long abandoned their drinks, so caught up as they were in
the academic argument, however as the clock chimed midnight, Riddle
slowly began to wind down his argument, the excitement leaving his eyes,
and cold appraisal replacing it. He stood up, and Miranda, her leg's stiff
hurried to imitate, as did Harry and Lucius.

"Harry, Miranda… I may call you Miranda?" Miranda nodded and Riddle
smiled, "Miranda, I thank you for a delicious meal, and some wonderful
conversation, Miss Rookwood, Miranda, I apologise that we simply spoke
academics, I trust you weren't too bored!" He laughed, the sound high and
cold, and Miranda felt the hair on her neck rise in apprehension, even as
she smiled graciously.

"Do not fear Miss Rookwood, I will soon have command of my old
strength, and my old army, and when that occurs, I will return your father
to you, I am sure he will be very impressed by the woman his daughter has
become." He gave Harry a final nod, and then left with the Malfoy
patriarch.

Miranda waited a few minutes after they had left, before sliding down the
wall, she gripped her arms tightly as a sob shook her, never before had she
felt so vulnerable. The man was a power, and whilst Miranda respected
that greatly, she was simply unable to bear such a concentrated dose of the
man's strength for such a long evening.

Dimly she felt Harry slide down the wall next to her and grip her shaking
shoulders, he held her tightly against his chest, and held her for over an
hour until she eventually recovered. She moved to push away from him,
but he resisted, instead picking her up and carrying her to their room.

She sat on the edge of the bed, enjoying the feeling of Harry slowly
running her brush through her long hair as he brushed out the intricate
designs. She fell asleep that night dreaming of cruel eyes and high pitched
laughter.

The rest of the summer passed in a much more subdued manner, true to his
word, Lucius had managed to rush Miranda's paperwork, and in less than a
week the Blonde was reassigned to a managerial position overseeing the
budgeting for the department. Miranda was certain that it was only thanks
to Lucius's influence that she received such an important role, but was
Happy, and enjoyed her new work colleagues.

Around the end of July, Harry received a pleasant surprise in the form of
his OWL results, they were certainly what he had hoped for, O's in
everything except astronomy, where he received an E. The results were
accompanied by a note from Professor Snape expressing his
disappointment and stating that it was expected that Harry improve in the
future, Harry gave a soft snort at the standards of his head of house.

Harry had spent most of the summer reading up on the Dark Arts. Whilst
he couldn't practice the spells, he memorised wand movements and
incantations. Due to the shady nature of the work he was doing, Harry had
become a regular down Knockturn Alley. Despite the street's rather
unpleasant reputation, and frankly terrible maintenance, Harry had come
to rather enjoy walking the dark and dilapidated area. There was a
camaraderie amongst the inhabitants, they all knew they were on the
wrong side of the law, and despite coming from the dregs of society, many
of them were proud of the living they scratched.

In this way, Harry whiled away the months of summer, there continued to
be rumours about his father, and many of the papers and gossip rags
spread stories about how James Potter was behind the spate of
disappearances that had recently sprung up. Hestia Jones, Mundungus
Fletcher and Sturgis Podmoore had all vanished without trace in the past
two months. As August faded into September, Harry found himself once
again at Platform 9 ¾'.s. He stood opposite Miranda who had taken the day
of work.

She gave Harry a tender smile as he held her hand. "Do try to avoid any
more life changing decisions this year Harry, or at least before Christmas.
I do like a quiet life secretly." Harry gave her a smile and gently brushed
his hand against her cheek, she leaned into the caress and he captured her
lips for a final time before he left.

"Having fun Potter?!" Harry quickly pulled away from Miranda and turned
to see Marcus and Terrence grinning behind him, Olivia next to them and
rolling her eyes.

"Good morning boys, Olivia." Miranda greeted, her face and tone once
again cold and aloof,

"Good Morning Miranda," said Olivia politely, whilst the two boy's merely
shuffled their feet and looked uncomfortable.
"You better board the train Harry, it leaves in a couple of minutes."
Miranda said, Harry gave her a last smile, pecked her lips and then left to
grab a carriage.

When they sat down he saw Marcus open his mouth and glared "Don't
even bother Flint, or I swear I will hex you."

Marcus shut his mouth. Wisely.

The train set off and soon the four were joined by the rest of their normal
gang, Clara, Graham and Charles all arrived at once, and they sat down for
the long journey.

It was around five in the evening when the train stopped. It was evident
that they hadn't finished their journey but nevertheless the train had
ground to a dead halt.

"What's going on?" Clara murmured sleepily, raising her head from
Terrence's shoulder, Marcus gave a confused shrug, Clara groaned and
went back to sleep. Harry and Olivia paused their game of Chess and
watched as Charles stuck his head out the compartment door.

"No one's out there, I don't know what's going on." He replied, his hair all
over the place from his awkward sleeping position.

"It looks like people are coming aboard." Graham muttered, his eyes on
the frosted window. Harry frowned and peered out as well, Graham was
right, tall hooded figures were indeed making their way onto the train.

They sat back, and waited for the unexpected passengers to all get on,
when suddenly the lights went out. Marcus and Charles, who already had
their wands out quickly cast lumos spells, whilst Harry conjured a glowing
ball of white light. Marcus gave a good natured grumble of "show-off" but
settled back as well.

They had been waiting only a few minutes when they felt it. Ice cold air
seemed to have permeated the compartment, and their breath came out in
visible puffs of mist. Harry suddenly felt something tug at his Occlumency
shields, and he reinforced them quickly, whatever it was however managed
to batter the mental shields away after twenty seconds of trying and Harry
soon felt terrible.

The feeling grew worse, until suddenly he spotted a grey hand, made of
what appeared to be rotten flesh pull the door to the compartment open.
Whatever it was, it was eight feet tall at least, clad in a dark black cloak
that concealed its face, it seemed to absorb light. It took a deep long
rattling breath and turned to face the occupants of the carriage.

Every bad memory he had, from his time at the orphanage, to the
loneliness and cruelty he had experienced as a first year fell upon him.
Harry was suddenly besieged by a new memory, a memory that he didn't
remember at all,

A beautiful woman with red hair and bright green eyes was holding a
toddler tightly, she was crying, rocking backwards and forwards on her
feet, outside the windows of the small room she was in Harry could see a
mob of wizards shouting and casting ward dispelling curses at the house.
The woman gave a loud cry as the wards shattered.

She ran out of the room, sobs wracking her delicate frame and clutching
the small toddler to her tightly. She reached what seemed to be a sitting
room and hurried over to a fire. Before she reached it however a blue jet
of light struck her leg and she crumpled with a scream as the bone
shattered.

The pot she was holding fell from her grip and floo powder spilled all over
the floor. She wept harder, as she hurried to collect the silver/grey powder
in her hands. She took the boy in her arms again, and dragged herself over
to the fire.

"You are so loved Harry" she said, despite her pain and tears her voice
was soft "so loved." She put the baby in the unlit fire and threw in the floo
powder.
"Hogwarts!" she shouted. Just before the young toddler vanished, Harry
saw a purple flash of light hit the woman on the back, and she screamed, a
deep wound bisecting her back, she fell again, a spray of crimson blood
hitting the boy on the face, milliseconds before he was whisked away in a
flash of Emerald Green Light.

"Harry! Harry!" came a voice, Harry blinked, he was still sat in his chair,
fists clenched painfully on his knees, and the thing.

"I'm okay." He replied, his voice remarkably steady considering what he

had just seen.

"What was that thing?" Olivia asked from the spot beside him, Harry
looked at her, her eyes were wide and she was clearly terrified,

"It was a Dementor, one of the Azkaban guards, no doubt checking the
train for my father." Harry heard a horrified gasp from the door and looked
up to see a man looking into their compartment.

He was young, Harry would guess mid-thirties, with wavy shoulder length
black hair, and a handsome face. "Your Father?" he asked "They are
looking for James Potter."

Harry gazed at the man with cold eyes, "Like I said. My father."

The man took a hurried step back. "Harry Potter?" he asked, his voice
breathy and near a whisper, Harry gave a curt nod, and the handsome man
looked horrified. He spluttered something before quickly running down
the length of the train.

What do you think? I put in the whole scene with Lily, because I
thought it would be a nice little expansion of what was otherwise
glossed over in the first chapter, coming up: Sirius, Lupin and Harry
all meet, with the problems of an escaped convict looming over them!

Please review, much love

Marshall Angmar
12. Chapter 12

Dear All.

I suppose I should start off with a massive apology for this slow
update, It wasn't what I wanted but merely a fact that I have been
away for a night and couldn't update in time.

Now then, I regret to say that from now on I think I will update only
twice a week, rather than daily. This is due to a request from my beta,
John Foxton, who has constantly been on my back over the crazy
schedule, but somehow (and this deserves real praise) manages to
correct my chapters and get them back to me within hours of having
sent them off! he is a real trooper!

I will say the usual thank you to my reviewers, they are truly amazing
to read and never cease to make my day. So if you want to make an
exhausted students day, please leave your thoughts in a review!

without any further ado,

Enjoy!

Chapter 11

"… And following that delicious feast, I hope you will all take a few
minutes to listen to an old man." Dumbledore said, his bright blue eyes
twinkling. Harry was sat back in his seat, his stomach felt inordinately full
and all he fancied was curling up in his four poster and trying to forget
about the whole Dementor Incident.

"First off, I feel I have to inform you that the list of banned objects in
Hogwarts has increased yet again, and now includes Dive bombing Darts,
Singing Snails and the eloquently titled Bang Bang Basher. The full list is
on Mr Filch's door, and can be viewed at any student's pleasure."
Dumbledore gave a small smile, and paused taking a sip of water.
"It is also my great pleasure to welcome to the school three new teachers,
first of all, Let's hear a big hand for Professor Hagrid, who will be nobly
filling in for Professor Kettleburn as care of Magical creatures teacher.,
who is sadly retiring." The Gryffindor's gave a mighty cheer and standing
ovation. The Ravenclaws and Slytherins looked put out, the half giant's
penchant for vicious creatures was well known.

"In addition, following last year's rather uh, lacklustre defence instruction,
the governors and I have decided to try a new system, For NEWT students,
please welcome Professor Black, and for fifth years and below, Please
Welcome Professor Lupin." Harry saw the man from the train wave,
Professor Black, whilst another man who looked exhausted and wore
rather shabby robes sat next to him, Professor Lupin.

"Finally, due to the situation of a certain escaped criminal, Hogwarts will

be playing host to a number of Dementors of Azkaban. These are not
creatures to be trifled with, they know not fear, pain or mercy, I urge each
of you to stay away from them wherever possible." He paused and looked
around the hall, his expression grave.

"Whilst this criminal is on the loose, I expect this school to remain

vigilant, however, should anyone be persecuted for being perceived as
potentially aiding Mr James Potter, their persecutors will be punished
severely." His eyes flickered to the Gryffindor table, where several
students had been throwing Harry dirty looks. "Now I believe that is all the
announcements for today, off to bed."

The first week passed quickly, Harry was not pleased by the new found
hostility he experienced from the rest of the non Slytherins. Wherever he
went whispers followed, and younger students would clear the hall where
he walked.

So far nobody had attempted to harm him, thanks to his reputation as a

prodigy in all wand magic's and duelling, but Harry believed that his
reputation would not protect him forever. His frustration at his treatment
was not doing wonders for his mood. A scowl was often to be seen on his
face, and he frequently snarled out at students who came close.

The other rather annoying facet of his new year was Professor Sirius
Black. Sixth year Defence against the Dark Arts was predominantly
practical, learning duelling techniques and the like. The new teacher was
like a reverse of Snape, showing blatant favouritism to the Gryffindor's
and he seemed to have a grudge against Harry from the first.

"Welcome sixth years." He had begun, before taking a register. When he

got to Harry's name, he had looked at him with a glare, before continuing.

"As you know, there is a vicious criminal on the loose." He had begun,
lecturing from the front, "this man is cold blooded, and would have trouble
in betraying his friends and family for power." He looked coldly at Harry
as he spoke, clearly hoping for a reaction, but thanks to his Occlumency
shields, Harry kept his face carefully blank.

"This year you will be learning advanced techniques of defence, putting

together the spell knowledge you already have in ways that will give you
advantages in an actual fight." He looked around, rubbing his hands
excitedly.

"Now then, can anyone cast silently?" he looked hopefully, no one raised
their hands, Harry kept his down too. "Pity, well in that case, we shall start
there. Stand up, wands out!"

They spent the rest of the session practicing silent casting, and by the end
of the class nobody had managed it. Professor Black seemed relaxed about
the failure though.

"Practice it for homework, I'm sure you'll have it soon, not to worry!"

After defence Harry had transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs. He sat in his
usual seat next to Cedric, and the two boys took careful notes on
Inanimate-organic animate transfiguration. Harry sighed, he had been
proficient at this skill since his fourth year.
"I will give you all a lump of granite, you have the rest of the session to
transfigure it into a cat." McGonagall announced, dispersing the rock with
a wave of her wand. Harry sat back, watching the rest of the class, none of
them seemed able to get it, and McGonagall was going around offering
suggestions and advice.

Next to him, Harry saw Cedric glaring at his rock intensely, "Mutare!" he
cried, a bright jet of blue light left his wand and struck the rock.

Nothing happened.

The flash had caught McGonagall's attention, and she made her way over
to their desk.

"Show me again Mr Diggory if you please." She asked, Cedric cast the
spell again and the Professor hummed.

"You're pronunciation and wand movement are perfect, the fault therefore
lies in your intent, you must visualise the transformation and will it into
being." The Scottish woman lectured, her voice kind, she then turned to
Harry, who gave her a charming smile.

"Mr Potter, why are you not attempting the spell?" she asked, but the fond
smile she wore ruined any other feeling she was trying to convey.

"I must confess Professor, I taught myself this part of the course in my
fourth year." Harry said with a humble shrug of his shoulders, McGonagall
looked shocked.

"In you fourth year?" she shook her head, "Once again you surprise me,
you truly are one of the most skilled practitioners of transfiguration I have
ever taught." Harry ducked his head in a show of humility. "Please show
me your transfiguration." Harry nodded and a careless wave of his wand
later, a large tom cat sat on his desk.

"Marvellous, excellent detailing, the fur feels real, and oh my, it purrs,
truly magnificent. Ten points!" Harry smiled gratefully.
"What level are you at Harry?" the aged professor asked, instead of
replying, Harry merely waved his wand again, saying nothing, everyone in
the room's granite suddenly became a perfect cat.

"Show off!" Cedric Muttered, Harry merely grinned at him. Before flicking
his wand and wand and transfiguring the tom cat on his desk into a full
sized lion.

"Bravo! Bravo!" McGonagall called out, her eyes excited. Harry had
always been one of her best students, and she had developed a soft spot for
him over the years. The rest of the class past quickly, with a bit of help
from Harry Cedric soon mastered the spell, and earned Hufflepuff points.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

The weeks rolled by with little drama, people continued to avoid Harry,
but after hospitalising two Gryffindor fifth years with a subtle trauma
curse, no one seemed willing to get on Harry's bad side. Harry therefore
set his mind to the Quidditch season, he was frustrated because Draco had
gone and got himself injured by a rogue Hippogriff, Harry was only
minorly mollified when he learnt Draco's father intended the have the
creature which interfered which his Quidditch schedule executed.

On the seventh of October Harry called together his first Quidditch

practice of the year. It was an unseasonably warm day and there was not a
cloud in the sky. Harry surveyed his seven players, exactly the same team
as it had been the year before and gave a brief smile.

"Seven Years gentlemen, Lady." He announced, "Slytherin has held the

Quidditch cup for seven whole years, a feat which I think will not be
repeated for many decades!" He clapped his hands together, and
straightened his back.

"Today, as Draco hasn't fully recovered yet, we will merely be practicing

basic drills and moves. Everyone on brooms, you know the drill, you have
ten minutes to warm up. GO!" He shouted the last bit and the seven green
clad players kicked off. Harry watched the fly, he was pleased to see they
all looked just as good as they had the year before.

Draco was still a little uncomfortable using his right arm, but Harry hoped
that he would recover soon, else he would need a new seeker.

With a thought of Sonorous Harry's voice became magically amplified.

"Alright. All of you to get to the East set of posts." Harry had the team
practice some basic passing drills, beaters and seekers included with the
Quaffell, before making things a little more difficult.

"Marcus, Run Opposition, rest of you carry on." The team were playing
well Harry noted, whilst the drills were still extremely easy and basic, the
fluidity and ease with which the team moved around the pitch gave him
hope.

"Derrick, Bole, grab bats." He released a lone bludger and had the two
beaters rally it between them. He kept the game going for fifteen minutes
before grinning.

"Get down here!" he yelled. "Alright, good practice, it was nothing special,
just a warm up, I expect you all here for next practice, which is…" he
consulted his journal "Thursday at four. Well played, go shower and
change. See you in the common room."

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

Despite Harry's best hopes, Draco's arm didn't recover fully in time for the
match with Gryffindor, but he was able to successfully negotiate with
Cedric to switch the Hufflepuff – Slytherin match with his own. This it
turned out was a good move.

The weather had turned foul during the match, Heavy rain lashed down
and the visibility was awful. Hufflepuff were good, Harry thought, but
Gryffindor were better, as the match approached the thirty minute mark,
the score was 80 – 50 in Gryffindor's favour.
Suddenly, Harry felt an awfully familiar sense of cold descend upon him,
it was like ice within his very bones. His Occlumency shields suddenly
came under aggressive attack, but Harry knew what to expect this time,
and through great effort managed to defend his mind. His vision blurred
from the effort he was putting in, but he saw dozens of tall black shapes
gliding onto the pitch.

His concentration was almost broken when he heard a scream from nearby,
he looked up and just made out the figure of Longbottom falling to the
earth, remembering Tom's instruction, Harry whipped out his wand and
caught the boy with a feather weight charm, causing the boy to slow his
descent and float gently through the air.

With another lazy flick of his wand, he banished the floating Longbottom
towards the teacher's stands, where he landed on Professor Black with a
crash.

After the excitement of the match, Harry made his way to the Library, he
was disturbed by the way the Dementors affected him, and he vowed to
learn to defend against them. However, after reading through half a dozen
tomes, he had learnt only that it was bloody difficult to do so.

The Dementor is a near immortal creature, they are intelligent, fast and
invisible creature. No Spell or curse is known to kill it, although they can
feel pain if burnt.

One book had mentioned, whilst another suggested they were impervious
to all forms of pain. The only thing he learnt that was useful in his opinion
was that there was a charm, the Patronus Charm, which was said to repel
the monsters.

Therefore that evening Harry found himself outside Professor Flitwick's

office. He knocked and entered the small room.

"Good evening Mr Potter, How may I help you?" the small wizard asked
kindly.
"Good Evening Professor. I know that your time is valuable, however I
have read about a rather advanced charm and hoped for some assistance
with it." He said a charming smile on his face, the charms instructor
beamed, Harry was his best student, and Filius Flitwick enjoyed helping
students with their academic struggles.

"Of course Mr Potter, It must be very complex if you are struggling!"

"Well, it may not be complex at all, it is simply that I can find little
information on it." Harry said with a grin, "The spell is the Patronus
charm, and all I know of it is its name I am afraid." Professor Flitwick
gave a deep nod, sighed, before indicating for Harry to take a seat in one
of the available chairs.

"I do indeed know of the Patronus charm, as I am sure you are aware, it is
used for repelling Dementors and is one of the hardest charms to fully
master that I know of." He stood up and walked over to one of the
bookshelves.

"If nearly any other student were to come and request my assistance I
would say they stood no chance of ever mastering the charm, but I believe
you can do it Mr Potter, I truly do." Harry smiled appreciatively and
allowed a small flush to appear on his cheeks.

"Don't be so modest Harry, you're without a doubt the best student I have
taught in many decades, I wouldn't be surprised if you gave the
headmaster a run for his money when he was your age!" Harry's flush this
time was not faked.

"Ah, now, here we are, the Patronus charm." He handed the heavy book to
Harry who saw an image of a Silver Swan bursting from a wand and
driving Dementors away.

"The incantation is Expecto Patronum and requires for the caster to focus
strongly on positive emotions, The Dementor feeds off your negative
emotions and feelings, the Patronus acts as a shield of positive thoughts. A
master of the charm can drive the Dementors away by creating a
Corporeal Patronus, which takes on the image of an animal."

"Expecto Patronum?" Harry asked

"Exactly, the wand movement doesn't matter, but you must focus your
intent. Think of your happiest memory and use it to fuel your spells."
Harry nodded,

"So it is the opposite of Dark Spells? Which are fuelled by negative

emotions?" Flitwick looked at him oddly, and Harry realised his slip.

"That is correct I suppose Harry, do you want to give the charm a try
now?" Flitwick asked, although his expression was still troubled. Harry
nodded and drew his wand.

"Positive thoughts Harry, Positive memories." Harry thought back, he

discarded his life before Hogwarts, there was little happiness there, and he
discarded memories such as his first Quidditch victory, he contemplated
the time he had won captured the stone, but realised that was malevolent
joy, rather than pure happiness.

Eventually he decided upon the time he and Miranda had gone to

Edinburgh, and both had tried their hand at the local Kaylee he
remembered the look on her face as they reeled around the street. He felt a
grin cross his features, and forced his emotions to mingle with his magic,
as he did when casting dark magic.

Expecto Patronum! He thought, a silver mist shot from his wand and
formed a round shield in front of him. He frowned, and forced more magic
through his wand, the mist remained hazy and indistinct, so he tried
putting more emotion behind the spell. He used his Occlumency to replay
the memory in his head, forcing the emotion from it into his wand.

Before his eyes the mist coalesced into a more solid shape. It wasn't the
animal he had hoped for, but it had formed a more solid barrier. He
released the spell, and rubbed his hand across his brow, upset to discover a
sheen of sweat. He had to work on magical endurance.

Flitwick was clapping beside him, "Excellent, Excellent… that was an

incredible first effort, well done!" Harry nodded

"I don't know what I did wrong Professor, I put a lot of power into it, and I
used the emotion in the correct way, mixing it with my magic and sending
both through my wand…" He suppressed his feelings of frustration, and
looked at the diminutive professor.

"Harry. That is not the correct way to use the emotion." Flitwick said
cautiously, Harry looked at him puzzled.

"That's not true is it Professor, all the book's I've read state that emotion
must be used in that way." Flitwick wrung his hands before him.

"Harry, that is the correct way to funnel the emotion for dark spells." Harry
blinked, "but not for this spell."

"Professor…" Harry began, but Flitwick waved him away.

"Don't worry Harry, I know about the sorts of pressure you must be under,
and I am not concerned, regular practitioners of Dark Magic become
corrupted by it, it can be addictive, and the feeling of power that comes
with practicing the spells. I think we all experiment at one stage of our
careers." Harry looked at the man shocked.

"Don't look so surprised!" Flitwick said with a jovial grin, "I thought that
it would give me an edge on the duelling circuits." Harry nodded with a
cheeky grin.

"I will not tell you what you should and should not do Harry, you are
obviously a brilliant student. But be careful, Dark Magic is fun until it
controls you, twists you into a bitter and violent shell of what you once
were." Harry repressed his emotions, and instead nodded slowly.
"Now, for the Patronus charm, the emotion and magic must be separate."
He looked at Harry curiously, "Do you know Occlumency Harry?" Harry
gave a nod and Flitwick laughed, "yet again, you know magic the ministry
would really rather you didn't!" Harry gave a grin and the small professor
continued.

"Use the positive feelings like you would use Occlumency if you were a
beginner. Let it fill your mind, leaving no bad thoughts available for the
Dementor to feed upon, then cast the spell, try again."

Harry did as he was bid, he brought up the memory, drew his wand and
with a vicious flick cast the spell, this time, there was no mist, instead a
bright white flash filled the room, and coalesced into a very solid looking
shield.

"Excellent Harry, Excellent!" called the charms professor, and Harry ended
the spell, taking a deep breath.

"Now, You have the theory, and clearly are already far more proficient than
most people who know the spell, all I can suggest is practice. Now I
believe it is nearly curfew. You should get to bed Harry. Now, take twenty
points to Slytherin, and please think on what I said Harry, these things
must be done in moderation." Harry nodded and shook the professor's
hand.

"Thank you Professor Flitwick sir, I will be careful." Flitwick sighed sadly
and dismissed him.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

Harry was awoken that night by one of the third years. "Professor Snape
want's everyone in the Common room right away, he seems really angry!"
Harry groaned and quickly slipped on a black jumper and dark grey
trousers. He pinned his prefect badge on and walked down to the common
room.
Most of the house had already been gathered. Professor Snape stood at the
front of the room looking extremely grave. Harry quickly sat down in one
of the chairs by the embers of the fire and looked at the clock. What is so
serious that they would wake us up at 12.30 in the morning? He thought
bitterly, thinking of how comfortable his bed had been.

"Slytherins, for the remainder of tonight you will all be sleeping in the
great Hall." Murmurs of interest sounded around his room at this,

"Silence." Snape called and the room instantly quieted.

"This is because James Potter this evening was spotted trying to enter the
Gryffindor Common Room. SILENCE!" Snape roared at the whispers his
pronouncement created.

"Prefects will escort the house to the great hall at once. Any deviation, bad
behaviour or failure to obey every instruction a prefect or member of staff
gives will result in two months detention. Am I Understood?" Everyone
nodded, and Snape gestured for the House to leave.

The great hall was full, the tables had vanished and instead there were
rows of Sleeping bags on the floor, it appeared Slytherin was last to appear
and they were left the patch of floor closest to the doors.

"Potter, with me." Professor Snape called, and Harry turned to his head of
house. The potions master gestured for the two of them to leave the Great
Hall.

"Potter, you will be accompanying me tonight. We are to search the

Dungeons along with Mr Filch and Professor Sinistra."

"Professor? Are all the Prefects searching the school?" Harry asked, a
small smirk playing on his lips.

Snape scowled at him, "No, However I hardly trust you to remain in here
protected when your father is loose in the school, at least this way I can
keep an eye on you." Harry flashed a grin but nodded.
"Very well, lead the way Professor." The two of them walked off, making
their way down to the cold dungeons.

"I trust you have no intentions of finding your father alone Potter?" Snape
asked,

"I would like to meet him at some point Sir," Harry replied, his voice
cautious

"Azkaban changes men Potter, he may have gone in your father, but after
12 years in Azkaban, he will not be the same man." Harry looked at the
Potions Master interested, and the greasy haired man expanded.
"Continued exposure to the Dementors ruins the mind Potter, most of
Azkaban's inmates go mad after a year or two."

Snape paused, pointing his wand into a storeroom and checking for anyone
inside, it was empty and the two quickly left.

"Whilst Occlumency can keep you safe from their effects for a while, the
strain of maintaining mental shields under attack for a long time will kill
you quicker than starvation or dehydration, there is no defence Potter." The
man gave Harry a piercing gaze.

"I do not tell you this to upset you Potter, just to drive it into your skull
that the man who escaped that accursed prison is a bent and broken shell
of a traitor." Harry nodded slowly,

"If he is as damaged as you think, how has he remained concealed for so

long?" Harry asked, Snape looked down his hooked nose as a rat ran past
his ankles,

"I would imagine that if you strip away all the kindness, the humanity
from a man with formidable magical talent, the resultant being would be
near unstoppable." Harry felt a deep sense of cold which had nothing to do
with the chilly air of the dungeons.
The search continued for another couple of hours, before Harry and
Professor Snape returned to the Great Hall. They were met there by the
Headmaster, who peered at Harry carefully from behind his half-moon
spectacles.

"Good Morning Severus, Harry, how went the search of the dungeons?"

"No sign." Snape answered and Dumbledore sighed,

"I am not surprised, I hardly expected him to linger." Snape quickly peered
at Harry next to him,

"Headmaster, you will recollect the conversation we had before term

began about appointing his best…"

"My beliefs have not changed Severus." Dumbledore said warningly.

"Of course not." Snape bit out. Dumbledore sighed,

"I do not think anybody who is in this castle would have helped James
enter it." They were joined at that point by Black and Lupin. Black gave
Harry his usual angry glare, whilst Lupin merely smiled pityingly at the
sixth year.

"Headmaster, Sniv… Snape." Professor Black said in greeting, "Is it wise

to have Him" he gestured to Harry, "in on this conversation." Dumbledore
gave a small smile,

"Mr Potter has been helping Severus clear the dungeons." Dumbledore
said calmly.

"Well those two clearly have Hogwarts best interests at heart." Sirius said
sarcastically. Harry resisted the urge to glare, instead maintaining his
neutral mask.

"I will say again, If I did not trust anyone in this castle to act in its best
interest, I would remove that person without question." Dumbledore's
voice radiated authority, Black was silenced, and Harry was reminded that
behind his friendly exterior, Dumbledore was very much a powerful and
experienced warlock.

"I will call off the search, I never expected it to work, Join your
housemates Harry, good night." Recognising the dismissal, Harry made his
way over to an empty sleeping bag, and with a flick of his wand
transfigured it into a mattress and duvet, he heard Dumbledore chuckle
behind him, before he lay down and closed his eyes.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

The next morning, the school got back into routine quickly, although to
anyone who was paying attention it was clear that there was a great deal of
fear throughout the student body. Most of the younger students had taken
to wandering the castle in groups, something which Harry thought was
ridiculous, how could ten first years have any chance of defeating a single
determined wizard skilled in the dark arts?

Following the attempted break in by his father, Harry dived into the Dark
Arts. He was careful not to practice to much lest the corruption Professor
Flitwick had mentioned took him over, but it was difficult with each
entrails expelling curse, blood boiler or dark cutting curse, Harry felt more
and more powerful.

During one session in the dungeon classroom Harry called his practice
room, he was discovered by none other than Professor Snape.

He had conjured a dozen dogs and had used a compulsion charm so they
could run around, helping improve his aim.

He dodged and rolled as though avoiding incoming spell fire and cast spell
after spell. Diffindo, Reducto, ossus explodum, Corprohibus, uclcus
oculus, Avada Kedavra!

He stopped after the last spell, feeling the rush of power flow through him,
and to his horror heard slow applause behind him. Harry turned slowly on
the spot, a stunner and obliviation spell on the tip of his tongue.

"Most Impressive Potter." Snape had said, his voice mocking,

"Thank you professor." Harry had replied cautiously, wand still slightly at
the ready.

"And may I compliment on your excellent use of wards protecting the

door."

"clearly not excellent enough." Harry replied cheekily, Snape smirked,

"Indeed." They looked at each other for a moment before Snape began,
"Potter, you will find that very little happens in my dungeons that I am not
aware of. I know you have been practicing… questionable magic first with
Miss Rookwood, and then alone." Harry frowned at this, but said nothing,

"I have done nothing about it because I know that the lures of such powers
can be great, and that each man should have to teach himself the dangers."
Harry felt a strong urge to roll his eyes.

"I am aware of the dangers Professor." He said slowly, Snape frowned at

him

"And yet each night you spend several hours practicing dark spells." He
took a slow breath, "I am concerned that you are starting to become
affected." Harry chuckled,

"I am not Professor, I have been careful, my Occlumency will have

protected your mind." Snape sneered at him,

"I am sure the Dark Lord thought much the same thing when he first
started to use the Dark Arts intensively, and yet when he was defeated he
was a psychopathic megalomaniac, hardly the charming political idealist
of his youth." Harry frowned at that,

"What would you recommend?" he asked casually,

"Ideally, I would ask you to stop using Dark Magic, however I think we
both know you would not listen, therefore, how about a compromise?"
Harry gestured for the man to continue.

"I will teach you some dark magic, nothing obscure, once a week alone. In
return, you are not to use dark spells outside our lessons unless absolutely
necessary."

Harry considered it, Snape was rumoured to be a very powerful dark

wizard, with a great repertoire and was even said to have created his own
spells. Harry knew the value of knowing magic others didn't. It was a good
deal, his head of house hadn't told him he couldn't practice other magics in
the evening.

"Deal." He eventually said, and in the dim light it almost appeared that the
potions instructor looked relieved.

"Excellent, I will see you the first week of term after Christmas." He
turned and left, leaving Harry to clear up the blood stains and corpses that
still littered the walls of his practice room.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHP

As he got onto the train, Harry smiled, Miranda had taken a holiday from
her work, and they were planning to go to Israel together to celebrate
Christmas, Harry was in a jovial mood lately, the opportunity to leave the
school for a month was something he was thoroughly looking forward to.
As he stepped off the train, he considered that it would be very nice to get
away from the glares and cruel remarks that his school mates had been
subjecting him to since the news of his father's escape had surfaced.

There you are, please don't hate me when I say that the next update
will either be tuesday or wednesday, depending on how busy I am, If I
can update before then, well obviously I will.

Much Love
Marshall Angmar
13. Chapter 13

Bienvenue!

Welcome to the penultimate chapter of the book that has been the
cause of so much discussion (well a bit of discussion) the Prisoner of
Azkaban!

This chapter is dedicated to the two lovely ladies who inspired this
work, Olivia and Clara, who are like slave drivers behind me as I type,
it's awful!

Anyway, I hope the delay wasn't too awful, I know John Foxton, the
beta who bravely decided to venture into the quagmire that is my
unmoderated writing, so thank you to him, Please check him out!

Anyhoo, here you go, chapter 12...

Chapter 12

"4.47 to Moscow will be departing in five minutes"

Harry sat on the hard seat tiredly, though in relief the hard wood was a
relief, he thought he had spent all of his first day back for Christmas on his
feet. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing for him, however the fact that he
had been queuing for quite so long was grating on the sixteen year olds
nerves.

He was in the international portkey terminal in Dover. After having paid a

substantial sum (not that it affected either of their bank accounts) Harry
and Miranda were scheduled to depart for Tel Aviv international portkey
station in just under 20 minutes. They had already been waiting for an
hour, and Miranda was currently reading a book next to him, looking
bored and frustrated with their progress.
"4.47 to Moscow has departed, the next departure will be the 4.53 to
Tokyo, departing in six minutes."

Harry suppressed a groan, the hall he was in was large, easily the same
size as the great hall in Hogwarts, and filled with files of hard wooden
chairs. There were numerous Aurors covertly keeping track of everything
that was happening.

Harry idly plucked at a loose thread on his jacket and tried a wandless
non-verbal spell to fix the small tear. The thread wobbled slightly, but
other than that nothing happened.

"The 4.53 has left, the next departure is the 5.01 to Charleston, departing
in eight minutes."

Harry perked up a little, there's was the one after that, and Harry quickly
nudged the blonde next to him, she looked at him tiredly, Harry pointed to
the large board at the far end of the hall indicating which portkey left
when.

"Finally, if I knew how hellish international travel was I would never have
agreed to this ridiculous holiday in the first place, looking over Ministry
Fund Request forms is more entertaining than this." Harry gave her a grin
as he pulled her to her feet, she swotted his arm playfully.

"Have you ever been to the Middle East before?" Harry asked, Miranda
shook her head but said nothing, Harry rolled his eyes, "I hope you're this
talkative throughout the whole trip." Miranda gave him a good natured
glare.

"The 5.01 to Charleston has left, the next departure is the 5.05 to Tel Aviv,
which leaves in four minutes."

"Come on, we'd better Hurry!" Harry called, quickly making his way
towards the departures area, Miranda sighed as she too hurried along,
though still looking as dignified and elegant as ever.
They arrived at the portkey, and placed their hand on the six foot long
piece of Rope. "Everyone holding on?" asked a bored looking assistant,
there were around a dozen people crowded around the portkey, and they all
replied in the affirmative.

"Excellent, well you are departing in 4, 3, 2, 1" Harry felt the jerk behind
his navel of the portkey, and suddenly found himself swirling through the
air.

Five minutes of stomach churning vortex travel and Harry landed. He was
able to land on his feet, but a portly middle aged man next to him was less
successful and collapsed onto his bottom. Everyone was looking extremely
flustered, except Harry noticed, for Miranda. She looked just as refined as
she had when they set off, without a hair out of place.

Harry looked disgruntled down at his own clothes, heavily rumpled and in
need of a severe iron.

"The 7.05 arrival from Dover has arrived"

They had arrived in an almost identical terminal to the one they left,
although this was far emptier and warmer. Harry and Miranda quickly
made their way out of the terminal and found themselves in a busy street.

It was much hotter than London, Harry guessed it must have been around
twenty degree's and he quickly shrugged off the thick winter jacket he had
been wearing.

"It's incredible!" Harry murmured, as he looked up and down at the yellow

stone buildings and highly decorated shop fronts. He looked at Miranda
and smirked at the awed expression on her face.

The street was far longer than Diagon Alley, stretching as far as the eye
could see, the shop fronts were gaudily decorated with bright flashing
lights in Arabic, and meanwhile small stalls were set up all along the
street selling all kinds of merchandise, from children's toy broomsticks to
trays of sweets, street performers entertained avid audiences of small
children with displays of magical manipulation, whilst bright fireworks
were flying out of one man's jacket as he performed acrobatics for a
crowd.

"What do you want to do first?" Harry asked, squinting his eye's against
the evening sun, trying to take in the myriad sites. Miranda didn't answer
for a while, Harry turned to face her, but she just grabbed him and gave
him a long kiss.

"Thank you?" he asked unsure, she just gave him a smirk before dragging
him into the nearest store.

The shop owner gave him a toothy grin and watched as the two of them
perused the aisles. Harry quickly realised that the Israeli's had a far more
liberal guide to acceptable magic's than England, books showing rather
gruesome images were on some shelves, whilst another held daggers and
axes.

"Vertendi Verbus Ingles" Harry whispered, and the unreadable script

suddenly translated into English.

Harry picked out a book which looked interesting, Magic's of the ancient
past, and was about to start reading when Miranda suddenly tugged him
out of the shop.

"Come on, we can hardly spend all day in the first store we see, besides I
would rather like to make it to our hotel before nightfall." Harry blinked at
her authoritative tone, but allowed her to take the lead, he knew how to
make sure he had an easy life.

The hotel was easy to find, being the largest building on the stretched up
for several floors, and had a well-kept and clean exterior. Stepping through
the doors, they immediately felt the effect of cooling charms, and Harry
shivered slightly at the sudden change in temperature.

"Good Evening." Harry smiled at the man behind the desk, "We have a
reservation under the name of Rookwood?" the man looked at them
confused.

"Reservation?" Harry said slowly, and the man smiled,

"Ah, yes, Reservation… er… name please!" Harry grinned at Miranda who
was examining a frieze on one of the walls.

"Rookwood."

"Mr and Mrs Rookwood, yes yes. Room 433!" He said excitedly, handing
Harry a pair of Keys, Harry smiled and walked towards the stairs.

The hotel room was large, with an enormous bed, spacious bathroom and
large balcony overlooking the beach. Harry grinned as he dumped his
shrunk luggage down on the bed.

"What do you think?" Harry asked, turning to the statuesque blonde next to
him, she just grinned and jumped him.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP

They spent their days in what Harry could only describe as luxury, despite
the time of year, it was still hot enough to relax in the sand and swim in
the sea, and when they bored of relaxation, there was a bounteous supply
of magical attractions to visit.

They toured the Sinai desert, passing groups of Bedouin travellers, with
which they traded knowledge and food, learning much of the local
folklore. The Bedouins focused much more on the runic forms of magic
neglecting wands to the extent where only one member of the tribe owned
one.

Harry had visited several shops, some specialised in enchanted weapons,

others offered spell books and lessons in various arts. Harry was, initially,
particularly interested in some of the books on Necromancy, which was
completely illegal in Britain, but after reading the first couple of chapters
he decided against it. Necromancers needed to devote decades to the art
before they had any significant results, and Harry frankly didn't want to
limit his education like that.

Five days into their holiday and it was Christmas day. They spent the
morning in bed, only rousing for Lunch when Harry's stomach started
rumbling loudly. Rather than leave the sanctuary of their room they
ordered up room service and ate the disgusting looking, though delicious
tasting food with equal smiles on their faces.

"Presents?" Harry asked hopefully when he had finished and Miranda gave
him a grin,

"Don't ask me like that, it makes me feel like your mother!" she said in
mock admonishment, Harry grinned, but said nothing, instead picking up a
large package from the end of their bed. He gave it a rattle, and grinned at
the sound.

Ripping off the paper he was shocked by what he saw. It was a truly
beautiful dagger, the blade was blue/silver steel, with a black leather
wrapped handle embossed with an Eagle. It came in a plain sheath, and
Harry grasped it with awe. The handle wasn't adorned with gems or made
of solid gold, its design was pure precision. Perfectly balanced and lethally
sharp, every aspect of it screamed functionality and in Harry's opinion that
made it hauntingly beautiful.

He handed Miranda his gift to her, and smiled when he saw her open it, it
was a necklace, made of gold with a charm fashioned in the shape of a
rampant Griffin. Harry had spotted her eyeing it in a shop the day before,
and had snuck back to but it for her last night.

"Thank you, although I hope you're not suggesting something with the
charm however, what if Professor Snape saw?!" She said in mock horror,
Harry chuckled,

"Please do not bring up Professor Snape when we are in bed… it's just
doesn't seem fair to rub in how little action the man must be getting."
Miranda chuckled quietly, but allowed for Harry to put the necklace on her.
"Merry Christmas Harry."

"Merry Christmas Miranda."

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP

The rest of their trip passed quickly, and when, on New Year's Day, the two
returned to London, it was with considerably heavier bags than when they
left, filled as they both were with books and other objects which had taken
their fancy.

When Harry returned to Hogwarts at the end of the holiday, it was sadly.
Miranda always managed to bring him balance, especially after a term of
constant stress.

The Easter term began in much the same way as Christmas. People
watched him from the corner of their eyes, and first years still avoided
him in droves. Professor Black still seemed to hate him, whilst the other
professors hailed him as a prodigy.

The lessons with Snape were proving to be the highlight of Harry's week,
the man had been truthful, the spells he was teaching to the Green eyed
sixth year were certainly not the obscure aspects of Dark Arts, but instead
he taught Harry how to use old spell's in new ways, or how to manipulate
the effects of a spell to make it a useful tool in a duel.

Their very first lesson, Snape and Harry had duelled, Snape was only using
spells which were taught in their first three years at Hogwarts, and whilst
Harry had been successful and defeated the Potions Master, it hadn't been
easy, and Harry had been eager to learn the finer points of duelling from
the greasy haired wizard.

The school term progressed in much the way that it always did, around two
weeks after the beginning of term Harry led Slytherin to its first win of the
Quidditch season against Ravenclaw. Draco had lost out on catching the
snitch to Cho Chang, but the Slytherin chasers managed to allow the
Slytherins to win 260-240. It was a close game, but nevertheless, Harry
thought, a victory was always a victory.

Following the match, Harry had five weeks before Slytherin played
Hufflepuff, and during that time he allowed his attention to wander. He
was walking along the banks of the Lake one Saturday, glad to be outside
the castle and enjoying some unseasonably warm weather in early April
when he was joined unexpectedly by Professor Lupin.

"Good morning Mr Potter." The bedraggled looking professor had greeted,

his voice carefully neutral.

"It is a good morning is it not Professor?" Harry asked, his voice

charming, although his senses were alert

"I was hoping you and I could have a little chat?" Lupin asked, his voice
sounded tired, and Harry noted that his face was wrinkled and eyes looked
bruised.

"Of course Professor." Harry replied courteously, and followed the

Professor up to his office on the third floor.

"Tea Harry?" Lupin asked, fussing over a small dented metal kettle in the
fire.

"Yes please, milk, no sugar." Lupin nodded and after a few moments
placed a steaming mug in front of him, Lupin sat opposite him and took a
small sip.

"I thought it best I had a conversation with you Harry, as I suppose if

things had turned out differently, you and I could have been very close
friends." Harry raised one eyebrow carefully and Lupin expanded.

"Professor Black, myself and your father were fast friends throughout
Hogwarts." Lupin explained, "When your father, well, when it happened,
we were all horrified, although Sirius took it especially badly, he had
always viewed James as a brother you see" Harry listened attentively to
the older man's story,

"Of course, as soon as he heard, Sirius rushed off with Algie Longbottom,
Algie died and Sirius cracked his head open, they thought he was dead for
sure, but Sirius was always a fighter, he recovered far quicker than anyone
thought possible." Lupin reminisced with a wry smile, "He doesn't
remember a thing about the fight though, part of the amnesia." He said as
an afterthought.

"How did my father betray them? How can anyone be sure that it was
James who told the Dark Lord of Neville's location?" Lupin sighed and
took another long sip of tea,

"Neville and his family were placed under a spell, the Fidelius charm,
which…"

"Hides something behind a secret, I understand, James Potter was the

secret keeper I assume?" Harry finished, Lupin nodded,

"Yes, James was decided to be the secret keeper."

"Is it possible that James was not the real secret keeper? He only led
others to believe it to protect the real secret, from what you said, nobody
remembers the showdown between Algie, Sirius and my father, so how can
his guilt be proven?" Lupin smiled tiredly, but it didn't reach his eyes,

"It is possible of course that James is innocent, but, well… it is highly

unlikely." Harry nodded, and opened his mouth to speak when the door
opened, Harry turned and saw Professor Snape walk inside.

"Good Morning Mr Potter, I have your Potion Lupin, drink it quickly

whilst it's still fresh." Snape handed the Defence professor a steaming
tankard and Lupin sighed sadly.

As it passed Harry inhaled and immediately recognised the distinctive

smell of the Potion. He looked at Lupin surprised, the defence instructor
drank the whole potion in one and grimaced when he was done, though he
looked at Harry with a smile,

"It's a shame sugar makes it useless." Harry merely shrugged with forced
nonchalance,

"We do what we must to keep the wolves from our door Professor." Behind
him he heard Snape laugh loudly, an alien sound, whilst Professor Lupin
frowned deeply, his eyes worried,

"I suppose so Harry."

"We were discussing my father" Harry prompted after Snape had left.

"Indeed we were, Harry, I cannot begin to fathom why James betrayed you
and Lily to he-who-must-not-be-named, however, whatever his reasons
they must have been powerful, for James loved you and Lily very much,
very much indeed." He gave Harry a piercing look,

"And now?" Harry asked, looking the defence professor deep in the eye,
Lupin frowned, and looked at his hands.

"Now? Who knows, Azkaban has a way of twisting men's souls, I would
not be surprised if the man who escapes bears no resemblance to the man I
called my friend. I'm sorry." Harry waved the man's apology away,

"I must say Harry, you are taking the whole situation remarkably well, I
don't think I would be anywhere near so calm if I were in your seat." Harry
sighed softly.

"Perhaps not, but I have had six years to come to terms with his actions."

"Of course, you live in a muggle orphanage do you not?" he asked, Harry
shook his head,

"I used to. I live with a dear friend of mine now."

"I hope that it wasn't too hard for you, had Sirius not been so bitter, it
would have been his duty to take you in, he is, after all, your godfather."
Harry raised his eyebrows.

"From the way he treats me in class, you wouldn't have believed it." Lupin
frowned sadly,

"No, I would imagine not, you look an awful lot like your father Harry,
your presence no doubt reminds him of the deepest betrayal he has ever
suffered. I ask you not to view him too harshly."

Despite Lupins declaration, Harry refused to forgive such a petty man,

"May I beg my leave Professor? I have homework to attend to."

Lupin waved him off, and Harry stood quickly, he nodded respectfully to
the Professor and then quickly returned to his common room, where he sat
for several hours in his usual seat in front of the fire, staring deeply into
the flickering flames as he considered everything he had been told.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP

The day of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw

dawned bright and warm. The outcome of the match was extremely
important, at the moment, Slytherin were in first place, with Ravenclaw a
close second. In order for Slytherin to remain in first place, Gryffindor had
to win by over 80 points.

Harry took his usual seat in the front row of the Slytherin stands, Marcus
on his left and Olivia on his right. The Ravenclaws started well, much to
Harry's annoyance, quickly scoring twice. Harry focused his omnioculars
on the seekers, Cho evidently hadn't learnt her lesson from the many times
she had been buried by Draco, as she still was marking Longbottom
closely, not that Harry really understood why, Longbottom was riding one
of the old school brooms, and from the looks of things was suffering some
performance issues.
"The Longbottoms are a wealthy family aren't they?" asked Marcus beside
him,

"They are, I don't know why Longbottom doesn't have a new broom, I wish
the little bastard still manages to catch the snitch!" Harry said, slightly
frustrated at the Gryffindor seekers weak performance.

Harry looked in surprised horror when he saw two Dementors glide out
onto the pitch, Dumbledore's rage following that event was so severe that
Harry was amazed any would dare return! There were screams around the
stadium, but he watched with a great deal of interest as Neville drew his
wand and shot a full corporeal Patronus at the cloaked figures, the large
silver boar was impressive thought Harry, though he rather fancied the Doe
he could produce more elegant.

The boar rushed down towards the Dementors, and Harry was confused to
see the two stumble, before falling over, he quickly focused in on the two
large figures with his omnioculars.

Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Theo Nott. They were standing on each other's
shoulders and wearing a long black robe. Harry felt a well of rage grow his
stomach.

"Harry? Where are you going?" asked Olivia, her voice concerned, Harry
turned to face her, and she nearly shrank back at the furious look in his
eyes.

Harry stalked down to edge of the pitch where McGonagall was currently
shouting loudly at the Slytherin third years. Harry sidestepped the
shouting woman and with a flick of wand, knocked the four boys off their
feet.

"Mr Potter, what is the meaning of this?" asked the woman, her voice
shocked, Harry ignored her and turned back to Draco.

"I presume this was your idea Malfoy?" Harry asked, his voice bubbling
with anger. Draco looked up at him with fear before he nodded.
Harry glared at him for a few seconds.

Ructo

Harry's nonverbal retching curse struck the blonde in the face and he
immediately doubled over, vomiting violently.

"I told you we wanted Gryffindor to win, and yet you deliberately tried to
sabotage them! I told the whole team last night!" Harry said quietly, his
voice dangerous. "I told you this, and yet you disobeyed me. Explain."
Malfoy said nothing, and Harry sent the curse at the boy again, eyes still
livid, however a shield flashed before the grey eyed third year.

Harry turned to the transfiguration professor, and she was shocked by the
red glint in his irises and rage twisted features. Before she could say
anything, Snape arrived and with a firm jerk of his arm dragged Harry
away from the others.

"Potter you fool, calm down immediately." Harry glared at the Potions
master, but Snape just raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Calm down now,
before you get in anymore trouble."

Harry took a deep breath, and some of the alien anger he had been feeling
dissipated. Snape gazed at him carefully.

"I thought I had told you no more use of Dark Magic unless supervised by
myself." Harry glared, before he finally relented, looking down slightly,

"I'm sorry Professor." He finally said, Snape just curled his lip.

"Well I'm glad you're sorry, but I have now got to explain why the top
student in the school just lost his nerve and attacked four students in front
of a teacher!" Snape's voice was loud and spit flew from his mouth. Harry
frowned,

"That was because of the Dark Magic?" He asked, "I became angry so
quickly, that was the manipulation you spoke of?" Snape calmed a little
and nodded.

"Correct, to use dark magic, we must use negative emotions, anger, hate,
vengeance. Repeated use of this makes those emotions surface rapidly and
unexpectedly." Harry nodded slowly, trying to calm himself by using his
meditative techniques.

Snape looked at him with what could only be disappointment in his

expression. "I am sorry Potter, but I cannot allow you to practice any Dark
Magic for the rest of the year. If you do, I will report it to the headmaster,
this is my final word." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Snape cut
him off.

"My final word Potter! You've caused enough of a headache for me

already. We will continue our lessons each week, but you will also be
serving detention twice a week with Professor McGonagall until the end of
term." Harry nodded, accepting his punishment. The potions professor
sneered at him angrily and stalked off.

Harry sighed, running his hand through his short hair and sighed, it was a
good thing Snape had intervened when he had, else Harry was sure he
would have cursed McGonagall where she stood. An action which would
probably have ended in his arrest, and definitely his expulsion.

"Where did you go?" asked Olivia when he returned to the stadium, Harry
shrugged, "being a good prefect and dealing with Malfoy."

Olivia didn't look convinced, but Harry gave her a disarming smile, which
she hesitantly returned, and together they got on with the game.

"And they've seen the snitch, Longbottoms in a pretty shaky dive, with
Chang catching up fast." Harry quickly looked at the two seekers,

"Chang reaches for the snitch, She's got it…. No, no she hasn't she misses,
and Longbottom, yes Longbottom has the snitch!"
Harry looked hopefully up at the score, maybe despite Malfoy, Gryffindor
could still win by 80 points. Sadly luck wasn't with him,

"And Gryffindor win by ten points, 190 – 180. This means that Ravenclaw
is currently leading the Quidditch rankings, with 42 points, Slytherin are a
close second with 39, followed by Gryffindor with 35 and Hufflepuff are
currently last with 34 points."

Slytherin had two games left, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, whilst

Ravenclaw had only one, He could still do this, this was his year… again.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP

The next morning the school was abuzz. Ron Weasely had apparently
spotted James Potter within the Gryffindor dormitories. But the escaped
felon had vanished yet again. His detentions with McGonagall had got
underway, despite his misgivings about having to spend so much time with
the formidable witch, his detention was actually remarkably educational.

He had initially been set to write lines, but twenty minutes into the session
had managed to start a discussion about complete human self-
transfiguration, which Harry was delighted to learn had been the subject of
McGonagall's transfiguration mastery.

The Professor and student had got into a lively debate about such topics,
several hours later, McGonagall checked her clock and hurriedly
dismissed him, promising to continue their discussion on Animagus
transformations later.

So continued the term, his detentions quickly became solely used as

advanced transfiguration lessons, which McGonagall seemed perfectly
happy about, towards the end of March, Harry had begun quizzing her on
battle transfiguration and this quickly became one of Harry's main
focuses.

The Slytherin – Hufflepuff game came and went, Slytherin, even without
Draco, who had been banned for one match following the Dementor
incident, quickly showed their dominance, Cedric beat Terrence to the
Snitch, but Harry's extremely aggressive strategy paid off, leaving
Slytherin with a comfortable 50 point lead, meaning they were tied with
Ravenclaw for first place, requiring only a win or draw in their match
against Gryffindor in the Summer.

The Saturday of April the sixteenth came very quickly for Harry, the entire
school was abuzz with excitement. Longbottom had finally replaced his
broom, and Harry was furious to learn that the little boy-saviour had got
his hands on a firebolt. The fastest broom on the market.

"Boys." Harry began, his eyes landing on each green clad player in the
changing room, "this is it."

"We've seen Gryffindor play, they've barely changed their team in three
years, and we have beaten them every single bloody time we've faced
them." He paused, "Draco, you can do this, the broom's fast, sure, but the
rider is nothing special, you've got to get into his head, keep the bastard on
edge, don't let him find a rhythm and keep him away from the Snitch."
Draco nodded curtly, he had been rather edgy around Harry ever since the
Ravenclaw Gryffindor match.

"Marcus, Adrien, Amelia. We have the size advantage, Christ knows we've
practiced well enough. We can do this, Bole, Derrick that goes for you
too!" he turned to the keeper,

"Belby, you've got to admit it, you haven't had much to do during games
this year," there were laughs from the team, "but you can do this, keep
calm, keep focused and stop anything coming near the posts. Simple
yeah?" he asked with a grin, Belby gave a confident grin.

"Slytherins, this is our season, it's our cup, and I will see you all at the post
match party!" The team cheered and walked out of the changing rooms,
faces excited, but focused.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP
"Longbottom dives, my god that broom is fast, Malfoy is chasing, but can't
seem to get the edge on the Gryffindor Seeker." Harry unconsciously
crossed his fingers,

"Foul!" cried Lee Jordan, "Malfoy deliberately elbows Longbottom, and

yes, it's a penalty." Harry smirked, as a seeker Malfoy had no need to stop
for fouls, it was a good move by the blonde.

"Malfoy is in the lead, oh, Katie Bell scores from the penalty, Malfoy is
feet away from the Snitch, and he's going to catch it."

Harry felt like a freight train had hit him when Malfoy triumphantly raised
his closed fist, the tiny golden ball gripped tight, wings still fluttering.

"Slytherin wins, 330 – 40, which means for the eighth year in a row,
Slytherin will win the Quidditch cup!"

The cheers from the Slytherins were so loud Harry could feel the stands
vibrate. He pumped his fist into the air, and ran out into the pitch to
congratulate the Landing team, they quickly enveloped him into a tight
Hug and Harry grinned, hugging them back.

"And here comes Professor Dumbledore to present the Quidditch cup to

the Slytherin Captain and Coach, Harry Potter." Harry accepted the cup
from the old headmaster with a wide smirk, holding it high above his head.

The Slytherins cheered and the rest of the school clapped politely, Harry
looked down at the large silver cup, and grinned when he saw the words

1995 – Slytherin, Harry Potter (C)

1996 – Slytherin, Harry Potter (C)

Eight years of Slytherin victories, six of which Harry had had a hand in, it
was certainly not a common feat.

The party that night was one of the best ever. There was plates of food
covering all the available tables, Barrels of butterbeer had appeared from
seemingly nowhere, whilst over a dozen bottles of firewhiskey were piled
next to them.

The Slytherins partied long into the night, Harry enjoying the chance to
finally unwind after quite such a tense year, and when Harry finally fell
asleep at six o'clock in the morning in Terrence's bed, it was cuddled in a
weird hug with Marcus, Terrence, Charles, Draco, Clara, Olivia and
Georgia.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP

The party took a long time to recover from, Snape had not been amused
and had prevented the house elves from cleaning up, forcing the Slytherins
to carry all the rubbish up into the entrance hall to be taken by the elves
before he would give out any headache draughts.

However, after that excitement the year wound down, with no important
exams that year, the sixth years found the summer term to be extremely
dull, Harry's highlights to his week were still his lessons with Snape, and
his detentions with McGonagall, even though Harry's detention had come
to an end several weeks before, neither student nor teacher felt any urge to
stop attending their little private lessons.

On the evening of June the ninth, Harry was having detention with
Professor Black, unlike his detentions with McGonagall, Harry would
never voluntarily attend anything with the bitter defence instructor, Harry
was currently being punished for having mastered a spell too quickly and
distracting the class. Harry would have complained, but he rather enjoyed
the professor's reaction when he failed to get a reaction from the green
eyed prefect.

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

Harry's hand was aching, he had been writing the same line out for over an
hour, and had successfully filled three rolls of parchment, Black was
sitting at the front of the classroom marking exam papers and occasionally
looking up to glare at Harry.

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

I must not disrupt the class

Harry dipped his quill back into the ink and prepared to continue writing,
he was distracted however by the door behind him being thrown open.

"He's here Padfoot, He's here!" came the excited voice of Professor Lupin
as he burst through the door. He stopped quickly when he saw Harry sitting
there, but quickly recovered and hurried up to Sirius, producing a battered
old piece of Parchment and waving it under his eyes.

Black's eyes widened comically, and together the two professor's began
discussing quietly under their breath.

Harry cast a silent eavesdropping charm with a subtle flick of his wand.

"… You know the map never lies Sirius! He's in the forest!" Lupin was
whispering,

"I know, do we get Dumbledore? Let's not, I want to kill that bastard
myself. It's my right!"
"Calm down Sirius, Prongs already beat you once, and we can't afford to
be fools, Neville is with Hagrid, he's in real danger and we've got to be
logical about…"

"Fuck Logic!" Sirius hissed, "I want to see that man's life leave his eyes
after I finally end him!" with that the black haired professor stormed off,
and quickly headed out of the door.

Harry carefully packed up his things, making sure to ignore the werewolf
before him, before he stood up and left. Mind racing Harry let a small
frown grace his features.

If James Potter was loyal to Voldemort, then Harry had an obligation to

protect him, if he wasn't, well he could deal with that situation when it
developed.

So... A bit of a cliff hanger, the next chapter is written and I think
fairly awesome, writing James was a real challenge, but I took an
approach I have never seen anywhere before, I've also decided to stop
keeping two chapters ahead of what I publish, as that way I can take
review feedback and implement it more immediately into the story...

That means of course, If you have suggestions, you have to review!

kisses and cuddles

Marshall Angmar.
14. Chapter 14

So, dear reviewers, when I posted last nights chapter, it was just before
I fell asleep, and when I awoke this morning it was to the delightful
surprise of several very positive reviews, which is awesome! literally
the best present I could wake up to, so thanks so much!

On to more serious matters. THIS IS IT... (Dun Dun Duhhh...) the

showdown, it's been the subject of a lot of discussion, and because of
that I've been so worried about finally getting this chapter right, will
he? won't he? I really am quite proud of this chapter, it's longer than
any other, and without a doubt the hardest I've had to write so far, so
please, I would really love feedback on it... To all the people who
speculated on how it would end, have I done the rest of the story
justice?

The patch of this chapter which is entirely Dumbledore's thoughts is to

quell any idea's you may still have about this being a Dumble-bashing
fic, because Dumbledore has very few aspects to his character in
Canon that can be bashed, I am trying to keep my Dumbledore as
similar as possible to JK Rowlings!

Thanks again to my beta.

here it is...

Chapter 13

Harry hurried back to the common room, it was full at this time of the
evening and Harry spent a few minutes trying to avoid the many
conversations he was sucked into. Reaching his dorm room, he kicked off
his black school shoes and trousers, slipping on a pair of dark grey fitted
jeans and a black bomber jacket, which he zipped up to his neck.

Satisfied he would be able to hide in shadows Harry quickly kicked open

his trunk, rooting around in the depths before finding the duellers wand
holster which Clara and Graham had given him for Christmas in his fourth
year. He strapped the black dragon hide to his left forearm and slid his
wand easily into the channel. Satisfied with his outfit, he made his way
back out of the common room.

It was nearly curfew and the corridors were deserted, Harry was easily
able to avoid the few teacher patrols. He made it to the great front doors,
slipping past the grumbling form of Filch who was standing watch over
the front Lawn. Harry found himself on the expansive fields overlooking
the Lake and Hogsmeade.

At first glance it appeared to be deserted, but then Harry saw what

appeared to be running shapes. One was obviously human, tall and most
probably male, whilst the other appeared to be a large dog. They were
sprinting towards the forbidden forest, and Harry decided to, as sneakily as
possible, give chase.

He broke into an easy run, relying on the disillusionment charm to keep

himself hidden. The dim evening light would help to keep the slight
distortion the charm left in the air from being visible. He made it to the
forest and fell into a low crouch, the woods were eerily silent, the dense
canopy blocking nearly of the light out of the sky. Harry's eyes scanned the
area carefully. Nothing was moving, and with the exception of a few birds,
not a sound could be heard.

"Ron, for goodness sake!" The sound was unmistakably feminine, Harry
whirled around, three people, and from the distance Harry was standing
from them, they were unmistakably Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasely and
Hermione Granger, had stopped halfway down the lawn.

From the looks of things, Ron had tripped over his untied shoelace, face
planting into the dewy grass. Harry watched the trio carefully, his
instructions from Riddle at the front of his mind, Neville Longbottom had
to survive… for now.

A sound behind him suddenly drew Harry's attention, a rustle coming from
a dense bush behind him. He turned on the spot, stalking slowly towards
the site where the noise had come from. He squinted carefully in the
darkness, but couldn't see anything, he activated his magical sight and
nearly gasped. Something was in the bush, something very large and very
magical. He made a rapid motion to draw his wand, but before he could,
the thing suddenly charged.

Harry had a brief image of a four legged antlered animal before it struck
him on his shoulder, he was knocked aside like a sack of potatoes, falling
painfully on his back and knocking the wind out of him. He lay on the
floor gasping for a little while, straining to get air into his lungs.

Rolling onto his front he raised himself back into a crouch, eyes alert and
wand raised in case the… Moose? Deer? Made another pass. Fortunately it
appeared to have gone. Walking over to the treeline, Harry looked out.

It became immediately obvious where the beast had gone. Neville and
Hermione had scattered, shouting in panic as the animal, which Harry
could now make out to be a half starved looking Stag, rushed at Ron,
catching him in the stomach with its antlers. The gangly red head was sent
head over heels, but the stag carried on attacking him, it pushed the
obviously injured third year towards the whomping willow. Just as it made
it to the trunk, both Stag and boy suddenly vanished. Harry blinked,
looking closely at the area from which they had disappeared. Nothing, no
flash of disapparation, nor the hazy blur in the air typical of a
disillusionment charm.

Harry continued to puzzle over their sudden disappearance as he watched

Neville and Hermione attempt to dodge the flailing limbs of the
Whomping Willow. As Harry watched Hermione and Neville made a mad
dash to the trunk before they too suddenly disappeared. Harry frowned in
absolute confusion. Either he was being exceptionally dense, or there was
powerful magic here he had never even heard off, to hide multiple figures
with no noise or light.

To his mild surprise two more figures had suddenly made a mad dash
towards the tree, it was Lupin and a his dog, Harry watched as Lupin
waited on the lawn whilst the dog went up and touched the trunk, freezing
the flailing limbs, then both man and dog charged the trunk and without a
sound were gone.

Harry stood where he was for five minutes at least. His father was out here
in the forest somewhere, but the mad stag clearly presented a very real
threat to Neville, he dithered for a few moments, balancing on the balls of
his feet.

Screw it he thought, before sprinting over the lawn towards the Whomping
Willow. The tree evidently sensed him coming, for its branches whipped
and crashed a few feet from Harry, who had wisely stopped a few feet from
the tree's effective range.

Stasus!

The stasis charm had no immediate effect, and Harry poured more and
more power into it, eventually the tree, whilst still not stationary, had
slowed it's movements enough that Harry could dodge the branches with
ease.

Cautiously approaching the trunk, Harry studied it for hidden doors,

finding none, he checked the ground and quickly found a wide opening
that clearly led into the bowels of the earth.

I suppose that answers my question he thought wryly, I'm just incredibly

dense.

Harry grinned as he dived into the hole, it slid down for several metres
before levelling out, leaving Harry in a long, low tunnel.

Reapplying his concealment charms, Harry hurried down the passage for
what felt like half a mile, before he finally ended up in what appeared to
have once been a rather plush living room. However that must have been a
long time ago, the windows were boarded up and most of the furniture was
smashed to pieces with bite marks and long scratches, more than that,
Harry could sense several wards that had been erected for the sole purpose
of keeping something, locked inside the house.

Lupin Harry thought, it made sense, what do you do with an angry

werewolf but lock him up in a grimy old house?

Following the trail of footprints in the dust, Harry quickly found himself
approaching a set of stairs. It was clear from the clear patches in the dust
that many pairs of feet had been up the once elegant stairway recently, and
with great caution Harry began to ascend slowly.

As he climbed, he began to hear voices, they were raised in anger and

Harry strained to hear them,

"… Your son? Is that what you wanted?" that was unmistakably the calm
and reasonable voice of Lupin.

"Professor, He's losing a lot of blood, what should I do?" Granger, Harry
thought, he had seen no other girls enter the passage.

"Silence Girl, Silence and step away!" Harry didn't recognise that voice, it
was harsh, and gravelly as though it had not been used often.

There was suddenly the noise of a scuffle, and from Harrys spot outside
the closed door, Lights and flashes were suddenly visible beneath the gap
of the door. Evidently a spell fight was going on, Harry decided against
entering the room in the middle of a fight, instead he took the time to
centre himself, clearing his mind of emotion and raising his chin.

There was a pained shout, followed shortly after by a rich bouquet of

graphic swear words, which were quickly silenced. The spell light abruptly
ended and a harsh laugh sounded throughout the room.

Harry took this as his cue. He turned the doorknob, and with the feeling of
butterflies in his stomach pushed open the door.
The room was large, clearly it had once been the master bedroom, Ron
Weasely lay on the bed, his face pale and a large amount of thick scarlet
blood pouring out from a wide antler sized puncture wound in his stomach,
Neville and Hermione crouched over him, their expressions showing
terror. Professor Lupin was unconscious, his tall frame lying against the
wardrobe, eyes closed, with a nasty looking bruise developing on his face.

Sirius black was tightly bound in ropes, bleeding from his nose and a split
lip, a rough gag forced into his mouth. He was lying on the floor, glaring
up at the final occupant of the room.

Tall, with lank shoulder length hair, his frame skeletally thin stood a man,
Harry at first didn't think he was a man at all, his skin was a sickly yellow,
stretched tight over sunken features that may once have been handsome.
He wore just a black coat and torn pair of trousers, which did nothing to
hide just how skeletally thin he was.

Harry took all of his features, but his eyes rested on the man's eyes, they
were alive, dancing in the fire, they didn't show hate, rage or anger, indeed
they showed only pure delight and insane joy.

The room went suddenly silent at his entrance. The two conscious
teenagers looked at him in shocked surprise, Black looked at him in
resigned acceptance mixed with rage, whilst the skeletal man, who Harry
assumed could only be his father merely looked at him with a sort of
interested confusion.

"You!" cried out Hermione, Harry gave her a small shake of her head and
she fell silent. Neville however didn't get the hint,

"I knew it, I knew you must be in league with him Potter!" At this James
gave a strangled gasp.

"Potter?" he croaked, Harry, for the first time since he could remember
made eye contact with his father.
"Harry, James, Potter." He enunciated slowly, and James gave a wide,
insane grin, revealing crooked yellow teeth.

"Come to meet dear old daddy?" he asked mockingly, Harry gave a

noncommittal shrug.

"I've come to learn where your loyalties lie." He said, James said nothing,
instead turning back towards Sirius, apparently delighted in the groans the
defence professor made with each kick to the ribs, the man had evidently
lost interest in Harry.

"Potter, um, Harry?" he turned to face the bushy haired third year calmly,
she looked terrified, but was evidently trying to keep her cool, and Harry
gave her a nod to continue,

"Could you help Ron? I think he may be dying!" Harry took a brief look at
the red head, he knew very little of healing, but agreed with Hermione's
assessment. He drew his wand and cast a diagnostic charm. They were
right, If Weasely didn't stop losing blood soon he would die, whilst he had
no real desire to continue the redheads life, he supposed it wouldn't look to
good to the rest of the school if he had deliberately allowed a third year to
bleed to death.

With a small sigh he pointed his wand at the boy, conjuring a small ball of
blue fire, which he used to cauterise the wound, it wasn't pretty, and it did
nothing to help the internal wounds, but Harry hoped it might keep him
alive long enough for further medical attention.

"Why you doing magic hmm?" asked James, his attention returning to his
son when the wand had been waved.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked, his voice ice cold, James gave a laugh,
the sound coming out like a strangled bark,

"Why am I here he says?" the elder Potter suddenly performed a quarter

turn and ducked his face into a closed hand,
"What do I say Lily? What's I here for? He's our son and he's a slippery
Slytherin! Hagrid was right, schemers… plotters… Potters ahaha, no
Potters meant to be in Slytherin Lily, oh no!" Harry was taken aback at the
sheer level of insanity the wizard before him was showing.

"Why are you here?" he asked again and James gave him a lopsided grin,

"To finish my little job, oh yes, someone has to, wouldn't do for job's to be
left half done now would it?" he asked, giggling to himself.

"What job? What must be finished?" James looked at him curiously,

before raising his hand and pointing an accusing finger at Neville.

"The chubby one, and he is fat Lily, oh yes, Master couldn't kill him, so it
leaves James to finish the job" he turned again and spoke into his hand,

"Oh Lily, I always was the best, wasn't I? I always knew what to do, no
wonder the Dark Lord wants James to finish the job!"

Harry took a deep breath. It was terribly clear that twelve years in
Azkaban had left James Potter quite insane, and Harry could have yelled in
frustration as he realised he would most likely never learn the reason for
his father's betrayal. It was also clear that James was a servant of the Dark
Lord, which meant Harry really ought to let him escape… not that the man
would be much use to anyone in his current state.

"Go. Leave now Potter, Quickly, before the Dementors arrive." James
looked at him curiously,

"Oh James will go, oh yes, he'll be off in a moment, just as soon as the
chubby one dies!" With that James sent a cutting curse straight at Neville,
he moved very fast and Harry was only just able to raise a shield in time.
James glared at him, looking for all the world like Harry had stolen his
biscuit.

"why did my son stop the spell Lily? Why did you stop my spell boy?"
"Leave now James Potter. And leave Longbottom alive!" James gave a
wild cackle and with another flick of his wand sent a barrage of spell's at
Harry.

Protego Maxima! He thought, watching as the cascade of spell's splashed

against his shield in a kaleidoscope of colour.

James kept up his offensive for several moments, casting silently and
cackling madly, Harry's shield eventually broke and he dove out of the
spell's path.

Stupefy! Furnunculus, petrificus totalus! Harry thought, returning fire with

his own barrage of spells, although unlike James's lethal selection, Harry
was aiming to incapacitate only. James however moved faster than he
would have thought possible, he dodged Harry's spell chain, but carried on
firing his curses at the same time, forcing Harry on the defensive once
again.

Several minutes later and Harry was tiring quickly. Despite his time in
Azkaban, his father was easily the most formidable opponent Harry had
ever faced, he moved jerkily but quickly, and every one of his spells was
dead on accurate.

In the few moments that Harry had been able to cast offensively, he had
been forced to abandon spells to disarm and incapacitate, returning fire
instead with his own lethal brand of Dark Arts and transfiguration.

Ossus fragmentum, Hastis Glacis, Commudo!

Whilst the trio of deadly spells were headed towards James, Harry took the
opportunity to change the three chairs at the vanity table into a pack of
wolves, which with a powerful compulsion charm quickly charged James.

The elder Potter had blocked the three curses with a maniacal laugh, but
didn't seem to notice the three dogs. The first dived on his back, digging
its claws into the older man's skin. James gave hoarse yell, before using a
flame whip to quickly dispose of the three beasts.
Turning back to Harry, James gave a mad grin, blood dripping to the floor
at his feet.

Sangulcus! Ossus explodum Harry thought quickly, both spells leaving his
wand with a bright flash

Harry and James both cast at the same time, Harry attempted to dodge the
violet coloured curse coming at him, but it struck his left hand and he felt
a searing agony. Looking down, Harry saw the skin start to rot before his
eyes, and with a hurried stasis charm, he prevented any further damage,
however it didn't stop the terrible pain that Harry could feel radiating from
the wounded appendage.

James laughed as he saw Harry's hand. "Did Harry's hand go bye bye?
Does he want Daddy to curse it properly this time?" he asked mockingly,
Harry ignored him. Instead summoning a trunk that had been pushed up
against the wall, the heavy leather bound box struck James in the back and
he pitched forward

"Father please, leave. I am sorry but I can't let you kill him" Harry said,
feeling almost desperate, "Just go, please father, leave!" James stood
slowly up, clearly in some pain

Harry knew from the look in the skeletal man's face that this duel could
only possibly end one way.

"Avada Kedavra!" James suddenly roared, whipping his wand at Harry. The
raven haired sixth year dived to one side, and snapped out a cutting curse
as he fell.

The cutter found its mark. Harry watched in detached disappointment as

the red curse struck James right in the neck. The escaped convicts head
snapped back, a great burst of crimson suddenly exploding outwards.

Hermione, who up until this point had been in silent horror screamed
loudly as the spray caught her straight across the face, Harry ignored her
though, his eyes were focused on his father. The man was still standing,
blood pouring from a jagged tear across his whole neck, his eyes were
wide in silent surprise, mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

In slow motion, the man fell to his knees with a dull thump, before he
collapsed forward. Harry watched, not allowing anything of the whirlwind
of emotions he was feeling to show on his face. Sheathing his wand as
casually as possible Harry turned to Hermione and Neville.

"We need to get him to the hospital wing." His voice was dispassionate,
and Hermione nodded once fearfully.

"Diffindo, Enervate." Harry called, releasing Professor Black and waking

Lupin. Black immediately jumped to his feet, hurrying to help Lupin
stand. Harry looked back at the corpse of his father, eyes taking in the red
puddle that had formed beneath his head. He would never know, never
know why his father had forever branded Harry traitors son.

It suddenly felt as if the air was unable to reach his lungs. His throat felt
tight and his eyes stung. Harry blinked and ignored the feeling of the lump
in his throat.

Mobillicorpus. Harry thought, and the body rose as if on invisible strings,

a sick parody of a living being. "Let's go." He said, Black looked like he
might argue but said nothing, instead he just levitated the unconscious
Ron, and together the two of them left for the hospital wing.

They were a strange group. Harry led the way, the corpse of the eldest
Potter following behind, still dripping blood, Granger and Neville
followed, both looking like they may be sick at the sight of the floating
body. Weasely was hovering just behind them, carried by Black who was
supporting Lupin.

No one spoke, and they made their way out of the Whomping Willow in
silence, arriving on the dark lawns next to the forest.

They had barely gone five steps when it happened.

"Remus?" Sirius asked, his voice nervous, Harry turned, and saw the
stationary form of Professor Lupin, his entire body was strained, and
Harry suddenly knew why. He looked up at the clouds and as they parted
saw the bright full moon shining in the sky, "Remus, did you take your
potion tonight?"

Harry scowled, but as turned as calmly as possible to the confused looking

third years.

"Longbottom, get behind me, slowly and with no sudden movements." The
chubby boy saviour looked at him in confusion, "Now Longbottom." Harry
said a bit more forcefully, fortunately it appeared Granger was the smarter
of the two, for she dragged Longbottom by the arm whilst summoning Ron
as she did so.

Harry turned back to Lupin, the professor was crouched over in obvious
pain, and Harry watched in awed fascination as his hands elongated,
fingers growing into vicious looking claws. His legs were growing and
bending whilst his face stretched into a cruel looking muzzle.

The werewolf gave a pained cry and ripped the skin off its back, revealing
coarse dark fur. Transformation complete, the beast paused for a moment,
and Harry watched curiously as Sirius attempted to reason with it. Sadly
this was unsuccessful, and with a vicious swipe of its large front paw
Professor Black flew through the air and landed with a vicious crack.

Harry held his breath as the Werewolf sniffed the air. He had his wand
gripped tightly in his hands, and he could feel the blood pumping through
his veins as his heart beat a mile a minute.

Behind him Harry heard Longbottom and Granger whimper as the

enormous beast raised its head and glared at them. With a sickening
inevitably, Lupin took one slow step towards them, its countenance
screaming that of a predator. Harry raised his wand

Flagrate flagellum!
With a bright flash a fifteen foot whip of white hot flame burst from the
end of Harry's wand. The werewolf paused momentarily before taking
another step towards them. Harry cracked the whip loudly, and the beast
howled angrily pausing just outside the weapons range.

Harry suddenly felt the irrational sense of rage he associated with dark
magic overuse overcome his senses, and his vision blurred as a red filter
seemed to settle over his vision. He narrowed his eyes angrily.

What was this beast to threaten him? He thought, he took a furious step
forward and raised the whip, bringing it slashing down towards the wolf's
chest. Lupin dodged it narrowly, but Harry quickly brought it down again,
striking the beast on its rear legs and tail.

Lupin gave a pained howl as the acrid smell of burned hair and flesh
reached Harry's nose. He smiled in pleasure and brought the whip down
again, Lupin however anticipated the strike and dove furiously straight at
Harry.

With only feet to spare, He just managed to hurl himself out of the
Werewolf's path before it crashed into him, lying on the ground he brought
his whip down again, and with a cruel snap, the smoking rope of white hot
flame opened an angry looking wound on the Professors back. The wolf
fell to its knees in agony.

Harry brought the whip down twice more, opening brand new smoking
lines of burned and scarred flesh. By this stage Lupin was laying on its
belly, whining pitifully like a dog locked out of a house.

Harry cancelled the whip with a thought, and stalked to the stand by
Lupins head. The oversized wolf looked at him, its eyes were still those of
the mild mannered professor, and it looked at him fearfully, clouds of mist
exited it's nostrils from its rapid breaths.

"Potter. Don't!" Hermione called, Harry turned to look at her, she looked
like she was about to be sick, tears running down her cheeks.
"Just leave him, he's still a man!" she cried, Harry gave her a grin, it was
wide and displayed all the cruel malice he was feeling at that moment.

Apsorio

The werewolf's head suddenly imploded violently, brain and blood leaking
from every orifice. He heard Hermione's cry of horror and Neville's
angered shout. As the puddle of blood began to spread, Harry felt the alien
emotions slowly fade, leaving him tired but satisfied, his body still
thrumming with the power that dark magic provided.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Albus Dumbledore was sat behind his desk at midnight that night, he was
nearly ready for bed, dressed in a sapphire blue nightshirt and matching
cap. His eyes were skimming over a long page of parchment describing
some of the early plans for next year's tri-wizard tournament.

He put the parchment down with a weary sigh, deciding to finish his
reading in the morning when he was better rested. Clearing his desk to a
respectable state, he was about to retreat to his private quarters when he
heard the chime that alerted him when someone was ascending the stairs.

Dumbledore frowned when he saw the time, it was rare for him to receive
visitors at past midnight, and when they did arrive they tended to bode
rather bad news, he sighed again, recalling the last time he had received
such a late night visit. The poor Weasely family had yet to recover.

He sat himself back down, and schooled his features into a kind, if weary
expression, awaiting the knock to his door. The knock however never
came, instead the door was opened immediately and Dumbledore watched
in concern as the young Harry Potter entered the room.

For as long as Dumbledore had known Harry, the boy had always carried
himself like a king, displaying no weakness and for the most part, no
emotion whatsoever. It worried the aged Headmaster therefore to see
Harry now, his posture was slightly slumped and he wore what seemed to
be a somewhat lost expression, his eyes, always so sharp and cold, now
appeared empty and glassy, whilst his clothes were rumpled and torn,
stained with blood and dust.

"Harry? What may I…" Dumbledore began, before his voice trailed off in
shock. Floating behind the sixth year prefect came two corpses. One was
unmistakably a werewolf, whilst the other was a man, both steadily
dripping blood.

Harry floated the bodies into the middle of the room before cancelling the
spell, dropping the two bodies to the floor with a muffled thud.
Dumbledore kept his features calm as he looked upon the features of his
former student and friend James Potter, the werewolf was Lupin, of that
Dumbledore had no doubt, even though its features had been bludgeoned
beyond recognition.

The silver haired headmaster looked at the boy in front of him with shock,
but his feelings soon morphed into pity as he looked at the child, Harry
hadn't moved, and his eyes appeared to be stuck on his father's face.

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked, the green eyed teen didn't move. "Harry?" he
asked more forcefully and the boy looked up, Dumbledore watched in
resigned acceptance when the Prefect's face became suddenly blank, the
lost expression in his eyes vanishing behind an ice cold shield.

"It would appear you have had an interesting evening my boy."

Dumbledore said carefully, keeping his eyes carefully on the young Potter,

"Indeed." The boy replied with a smirk, and Dumbledore nearly frowned
as the cold smirk graced Harry's face, it was a valiant effort the
headmaster thought, but Dumbledore had played Politics since before
Harry's father had been born, and saw through the expression easily.

"I will not ask you what happened tonight Harry just yet." Dumbledore
began, "go to the hospital wing immediately, your hand is in serious need
of assistance before the damage becomes permanent. He saw Harry look
down at his hand, the flash riddled with black, green and purple patches as
the skin rotted away slowly, even under the effects of Harry's stasis charm.

The boy nodded and turned on his heel, Dumbledore sighed, resting his
weary head on his hands, Harry Potter had always been a cause of
Headaches to the headmaster. He was so unlike his father and mother, so
unlike anyone Albus had ever met before, even the young Voldemort.

When Minerva first regaled him with the tale of meeting Harry in the
orphanage, he had been concerned that the boy was a carbon copy of the
dark lord, however from the first day in the school, Harry had proven
himself to be different, better in many ways than the young orphan boy
Tom Riddle.

Dumbledore had watched with delight as Harry made friends, even Miss
Rookwood, who was unmistakably closer to the dark than the light on the
magical spectrum, was a positive influence on the boy.

Dumbledore had said it before and would say it again, Love was the
greatest weapon he possessed over Voldemort. Harry's love for his friends,
and especially the intense love he felt for the beautiful Miranda Rookwood
was what kept him safe, kept him strong and kept him free from being
overcome by darkness.

That didn't mean that Dumbledore wasn't concerned about young Harry
Potter, the boy was brilliant, of that there was no argument, he was a
prodigy in most every subject and Dumbledore listened to glowing reports
about his progress near daily from his staff. No, If Harry had only been an
academic prodigy, it would have been fine, but Harry Potter had a long list
of adjectives to describe him:

Cold, cunning, ruthless, ambitious, charming, controlled, powerful,

charismatic, logical, relentless were but a few.

Dumbledore knew in his heart that should the boy desire it, he could win
Voldemort the war, he could probably take over the country in a matter of
years if he wished it, and Dumbledore was an old man, he didn't have the
power to take on two Dark Lords.

Despite Dumbledore's best efforts, Harry had slipped further and further
from where he wished. The headmaster knew he was practicing dark
magic, and Albus strongly suspected that the young Potter had only been
partially truthful with his story about the philosopher's stone two years
ago.

And now there was this, Dumbledore refused to jump to conclusions, but it
appeared that the sixth year had killed his father and a professor.
Dumbledore felt a tear run down his cheek when he remembered the look
in Harry's eyes earlier. Whatever had happened, whatever the crime, no
child should have to bury their father.

"Albus?" Came a shout from the fireplace, Dumbledore looked and saw
Madame Pomphrey's head in his grate,

"Poppy, Mr Potter has arrived I take it?" he asked, his voice very grave, the
healer shook her head quickly,

"No, is he on his way then? I think you should come down here, I have
Longbottom, Weasely and Granger with me, as well as Professor Black."
Dumbledore quickly dismissed her with a promise of being down shortly,
He had to get to the bottom of this matter, and fast.

Throwing a pinch of floo powder into the fire, he alerted the Minister and
Auror office of the developments, before hurrying down to the Hospital
Wing.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The first thing Harry noticed when he awoke was that something was
tickling his nose, and whatever it was smelt delicious.

He opened his eyes slowly, closing them quickly at the harsh light before
opening them again slowly. He was in the hospital wing, and the thing
tickling his nose was in fact a head of blonde hair, which was sleeping on
his chest.

With startling clarity, Harry remembered the events of the previous night
and felt the feeling of failure and despondency spread through his whole
body. He closed his eyes again, and to his very great shame felt tears leak
from the corner of his eyes.

He blinked furiously, reaching up to rub such evidence of ridiculous

sentimentality out of his face. Unfortunately the movement stirred
Miranda and she looked up at him with sleep filled eyes. She blinked
blearily, before her eye's filled with amusement.

"Are you crying Potter?" she asked, Harry shook his head quickly, but she
cackled slightly before shaking her head,

"I was merely unused to the morning light!" Harry replied, feeling a small
smirk play across his face at the familiar banter.

"Really? And the light caused the redness in your cheeks and that
delightfully runny nose too I take it?" her tone was innocent, but Harry
could see the smile on her face.

"Yes." Harry replied, keeping his expression stable, Miranda eyed in

carefully,

"Alright." she bent down and gave him a kiss over both his eyes, before
lazily smiling at him, "I thought you might have gone soft on me!"

Harry grinned at her and gave a roguish wink, "No chance!"

At that point there was a commotion by the door and a large group of
people entered at once. Madam Pomphrey, the Headmaster, Snape,
McGonagall and Black, as well as a tall man in expensive robes who was
twirling a lime green bowler hat in his hands, Harry recognised him as
Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic.
"Mr Potter, I am glad you have finally decided to stop sleeping." Snape
said, his tone mocking, Harry removed his smirk, instead keeping his face
carefully clear.

"Yes yes, we were all very worried about you! Cornelius Fudge Mr Potter,
Minister for Magic" added Fudge quickly, his voice slightly whiny and
grating, Harry gave a polite nod, and Dumbledore looked down at him.

Harry looked at the Headmaster and saw that the aged man's eyes were not
twinkling, they were looking hard and fast at Harry, the expression very
grave.

"Harry, as I'm sure you understand, we have to know what happened last
night." Harry nodded, and idly noted that Professor Black's expression
appeared both pained and upset.

"I don't quite know where to begin Headmaster, Minister." Harry began,
his tone neutral even as he held on tightly to Miranda's hand. "I suppose it
started in Professor Black's defence lesson. I disrupted the lesson by
accidentally mastering a spell to fast, and was understandably given
detention."

Harry saw with vicious amusement Black's cheeks turning a colourful

shade of pink as the other turned to give him reproaching glares,
Dumbledore's eyes regained a small amount of their lost twinkle as he
urged Harry to continue.

Harry told his story with only a few modifications, he skimmed over his
duel with his father, stating only that he was forced to duel the man to the
death, and carefully leaving out any mention of the questionable nature of
the spell's he had used.

He then moved on to the incident with Lupin, describing the Professors

transformation, and subtly inferring that had Harry not acted as he had, the
four students would be dead, which was true, although he rather suggested
that he had only attacked where absolutely necessary.
When he finished his story there was silence in the room and he suddenly
realised just how tightly he was gripping Miranda's hand, he quickly
loosed it, sending her an apologetic smile.

The minister was the first to recover, and he smiled benignly down at
Harry. "Mr Potter, Mr Potter, do not worry, you did the right thing, to go
against such a dangerous wizard to defend fellow students is so very brave,
and against your father as well!" He beamed widely,

"have no doubt either young man, about trouble with the law, no one is
blaming you for killing the werewolf Harry, they are dangerous creatures
and it is a real achievement for any wizard to survive an encounter, I don't
know what one was doing teaching here! You should be very proud Harry.
If I have any say in the matter you'll be getting an order of Merlin Second
Class, Merlin's beard, perhaps even first class, you are a hero Harry, and
don't you forget it." The portly man gave Harry a comforting squeeze on
the shoulder and Harry resisted rolling his eyes at the man's actions.

Harry looked to Snape, and saw the man was looking at him with a look of
impressed relief, the greasy haired man quickly nodded when they made
eye contact.

"Harry, you have without doubt been very brave, and I will echo the
Ministers words, you will not be punished for your actions, but I expect
you to join me in my study this afternoon, at three o'clock." Harry nodded
and the teachers left, leaving Harry, Miranda and Madame Pomphrey.

"When did you get here?" Harry asked the blonde,

"Around one the Headmaster flooed me, when I got in Pomphrey was still
working on Weasely." Harry looked to the healer,

"Is Weasely alive?" He asked, his voice casual, Pomphrey fixed him with a
stare,

"Yes, thanks to you, although it was still a very close thing, your method
of healing is… crude Mr Potter, but it saved his life, so well done." Harry
shrugged and turned back to the blonde.

"So..." he began, looking at her "Plans for summer?"

She rolled her eyes, "Well, We could watch a few Quidditch matches,
Ireland got through to the quarter finals so we could beg tickets from
Moran, other than that, I have to work, so I'm afraid I can't fit in another
international trip!"

"I'm touched that you came to visit me last night Miranda, though be
careful, else someone may think you actually cared." He grinned and the
blonde adopted her usual haughty expression.

"Don't get used to it Potter, Slytherin look's out for her own." Harry gave a
smile as she repeated the words she had last said to him six years ago. "I
have to go, I've missed an hour's work already."

Harry gave her a lingering kiss and then she left, Madame Pomphrey
bustled over as she vanished in the fire, performing her usual battery of
diagnostic checks.

"Well Potter, you're fine, have some breakfast and then I'll dismiss you."
Harry accepted the tray of food and ate it quickly, before dressing and
heading quickly out of the door. He was greeted warmly by his friends,
who evidently had heard about what happened, it has apparently been
published in The Daily Prophet that morning that the hero Harry Potter
had killed his traitor father in a duel valiantly defending Neville
Longbottom.

Several students who Harry had never met came up to him in the hallways
to hug him, which Harry allowed with a sort of bemused acceptance, The
biggest surprise came from the two Weasely twins, Harry had only spoken
to them very rarely, but like the rest of the school he was very aware of
their reputation, they had approached him as he left the charms classroom
to shake his hand.
Harry told them that saving Ron was nothing and that he did what anyone
would do, the twins however had clearly been grateful, especially after
Ginnys death last year.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Arriving at Dumbledore's study, Harry knocked smartly on the door and

waited, shortly after there came the voice of the aged headmaster and
Harry pushed on the door.

"Good Afternoon, I must say, you look far better than you did last time you
were in here." Dumbledore said, his blue eyes watching him intensely even
as his tone remained jovial.

"Thank you Headmaster, I feel much better too, Madam Pomphrey healed
me up very well." The headmaster studied him briefly. "Sorry about the
mess I left." Dumbledore waved his apology with a careless hand gesture.

"Yes, Poppy was most surprised that with the exception of the wounds you
suffered last night, you are the picture of health, you must live a very
healthy lifestyle." Harry refused to let anything show on his face as he
nodded, did Dumbledore know about the stone?

"I look after myself headmaster." He said neutrally, and Dumbledore

smiled.

"Of course, now then Harry, I believe we should get to the crux of the
matter."

"And what is that Headmaster?" Dumbledore sighed and looked at Harry

carefully

"I believe you know Harry." Harry shook his head carefully, keeping his
head carefully blank,

"Well Headmaster, are you referring to my going out after curfew last
night? The fact that I fought my father or how I killed your defence
professor?" Dumbledore looked frustrated at the games they were playing
and bit out sharply

"Remus Lupin, you killed Remus Lupin last night." Dumbledore almost
immediately regretted his words when he saw the flash of pain appear in
Harry's eyes, before his mask snapped back into place.

"As you say headmaster." Harry finally replied, his eyes cold and hard,
Dumbledore sighed, it appeared that after his outburst he had lost Harry,
not, he mused, that he had ever had Harry in the first place

"I did not wish to speak in front of the minister Harry, but, well, Mister
Longbottom and Miss Grangers accounts of last night do differ slightly to
your own." Harry frowned but said nothing,

"They agree with all the events regarding the duel with your father,
however they seem to believe that you killed Professor Lupin in cold
blood, as well as the rather questionable nature of much of the magic you
displayed, I reviewed their memories, and I must say, I agree with them."
Harry stayed quiet, his eyes focused on something over Dumbledore's
head.

"Headmaster?"

"Harry, I am not here to punish you, what happened last night must have
been torture, to have to defend yourself from your father, to have to kill
your last relative, the man whose blood flows so strongly in your veins.
Harry please understand you have my most profound sympathies."

"Thank you headmaster." Harry's voice was polite as ever, but decidedly
stony.

"Harry my boy, I do feel I would be remiss if I did not at least ask if you
were alright?" Harry's eyes finally flicked back to Dumbledore's face, but
they remained ice cold.
"I am quite alright thank you Headmaster, I do not regret any of my
actions last night, I did the right thing." Dumbledore sighed and aged
before Harry's eyes.

"I do not believe you believe that Harry." He said, his voice kind, Harry
resisted the urge to sneer.

"You are mistaken." Dumbledore didn't let his disappointment show on his
face and instead smiled.

"Harry…" he paused, clearly struggling with what he wanted to say, "I am

sorry Harry" he said finally.

"Thank you Headmaster, but I assure you, I am alright." The two looked at
each other for a moment, before Dumbledore looked away.

"Whilst I cannot personally condone your actions Harry, the school

governors are very impressed by your heroics, and have decided to give
you a second Special Award for Services to the School." Harry blinked in
surprise, before nodding his head graciously.

"That is unexpected sir." Dumbledore's eyes remained fixed on Harry's

face,

"It is. I must confess that I for one do not approve of rewarding patricide,
however… I will bow to the will of our good governors on this occasion."

"Is there anything else Headmaster?" Harry asked, Dumbledore said

nothing, and Harry made as though to stand.

"One last thing Harry, I know I asked you this last year, but I will once
again ask if there is anything you would like to tell me, anything at all."
Dumbledore's voice sounded almost pleading to Harry's ears, but he
ignored it.

"Thank you Headmaster, but I once again have nothing to say to you."
Dumbledore sighed, but didn't look surprised.
"Very well Harry, in case I don't see you again before the summer, have a
very nice holiday." Harry nodded and just before he reached the door,
Dumbledore offered one last piece of advice,

"We are never past redemption Harry, never follow a path because you feel
you have no other choice." His back to the old man, Harry did finally roll
his eyes, the man was just filled with helpful, vague tidbits of information.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The leaving feast that year was a sombre affair. Instead of the Green and
Silver for celebrating the Slytherin house cup victory, the hall instead was
decorated with black curtains in remembrance of Professor Lupin, as the
last plates vanished Dumbledore stood up, he wore a sombre expression
and looked around the hall sadly.

"Students, the year is finished. It has certainly been a year of up's and
downs, First, I suppose congratulations are in order for Slytherin for
winning the house cup for the ninth year running, which is officially a
record, so well done Slytherin!" There was a loud cheer from the Slytherin
table, but it sounded hollow in the sombre, black decorated room and came
to a halt quickly.

"It is a very great loss to us all, that Professor Lupin died last week, I think
it is safe to say that anyone who met the man was impressed by his
kindness, selflessness and eagerness to pass on his knowledge, his death
was unfortunate, and our thoughts are with him as he starts on the next
great adventure we all must take in life, therefore may we all raise our
glasses to Remus Lupin." The hall quickly raised Goblets,

Remus Lupin

The words were said in hushed tones, and Harry saw some of the first year
Gryffindor's weeping. Dumbledore let the silence continue for a moment.

"I wish you all a very good summer, and hope you return to Hogwarts for a
new year with minds full and ready for what is to come, to our seventh
years, I wish you all the best with your lives outside these halls, and I am
sure you will all be a credit to your school and chosen profession."

Okay then...

it's over.

Book three is over!

What did you think, have I spoiled the fanfic and need to redo the
chapter? was it believable, did it show characterisation, did Harry's
more human and feeling side disappoint or please?

PLEASE READ THIS PART!

the feedback has been so great lately, and I want to make sure that my
fans, who have praised me for so far avoiding the big steaming piles of
cliche, are not disapointed.

I haven't read many dark Harry fics set in Goblet of Fire, so what
things should be avoided at all costs, and what part is a necessity?

Help me good reviewers, you're my only hope...

Hugs and Kisses

Marshall Angmar.
15. Chapter 15

Hello, Hello Hello!

Welcome to the latest chapter of the story, this one focuses mainly on
the summer before 7th year.

Thank you all so much for the reviews you've left, we've nearly
reached 100, which is far higher than I had expected! you are all so
kind and helpful, especially those who wrote in suggestions on what I
should and should not do!

Please don't stop writing in your thoughts, and feel free to criticise, I
can't improve if I don't know what's wrong!
Anyway, I'm glad so many of you were pleased with the end of
Prisoner of Azkaban, I tried to keep you all guessing as long as
possible, and most said it was a bit of a surprise, so that's pretty
awesome.

Here we go then, Chapter 14.

Chapter 14

"…and you know you always come first, It feels like I've been struck by a
curse."

Harry frowned as he heard the poor rhymes issuing from the wireless in
the living room, he checked his watch in confusion, Miranda wasn't
supposed to be home for another couple of hours.

With slow and cautious steps Harry moved to investigate the source of the
music, and when he arrived in his sitting room he frowned. Riddle was sat
there, elegantly reclined on the sofa, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the soft
tunes.

"Good Afternoon Harry." Riddle greeted, his eyes still closed,

"Good Afternoon Tom." Riddle opened his eyes, and Harry stood slightly
straighter, Riddle had the ability to create a sense of awe from him, and
embarrassing as it was for Harry to admit, he was rather eager to impress
the man.

"You will address me properly Harry, I let you have your fun with Lucius,
however, I expect you to treat me with the respect you owe." The Dark
Lord's voice was soft, his eyes however indicated that this was an order to
be upheld always.

"Of course, my Lord." Harry finally said, the words sounding strange on
his tongue, Riddle let out a small smile.

"Excellent, now from what I hear you have had a most interesting year,
therefore I expect a full report." Tom stood up, his body straightening out
as he stood tall.

"Now my Lord?" Harry asked, Riddle released a small grin,

"Not now, no. I am holding a gathering at the Malfoy residence tonight for
all of my loyal followers. You shall attend, alone, be there at eight o'clock
sharp, I despise tardiness." Harry nodded and the Dark Lord made to walk
over towards the door.

Harry waited for him to leave before he summoned Minnie to request a

glass of the elixir of life, his hand which his father had cursed had been
itching terribly lately, and whilst Madam Pomphrey claimed in would heal
with time, Harry would rather speed the process up.

The elf handed him a small tumbler filled with the golden liquid and Harry
drank it down in one gulp, feeling the familiar sense of euphoria as the
enchanted liquid spread throughout his body, clearing every problem he
had in a matter of seconds, he watched the remaining scars on his left hand
vanish into unblemished skin and grinned to himself.

The evening passed quickly, Harry told Miranda about his meeting with
the Dark Lord that night, and he was surprised by her reaction, rather than
being disappointed and frustrated at not having been invited, she seemed
relieved, Harry considered that perhaps the time they had had the Dark
Lord and Lucius over for Supper had been more scarring than he had
thought.

At 7.55 exactly, Harry walked over to the floo, he gave the blonde a quick
kiss before stepping into the fire with a pinch of powder. "Malfoy Manor!"
he called loudly, and with a whirl of green flames he vanished, his last
image being the slightly concerned face of Miranda.

Stepping out of the floo, the first thing he noticed about Malfoy Manor
was the incredible wealth on display, he appeared to be in some kind of
Antechamber, the walls were tastefully decorated, although the colours
were rather subdued and sombre.

The room was empty, so Harry walked towards the only door in the room,
brushing a grey spot of soot of double breasted grey coat as he did so.
Pulling open the door, Harry's first impression was that the antechamber
had been positively Spartan in comparison to the incredible wealth on
display in here.

Vast pillars of white speckled black marble rose from the floor, stretching
all the way up to the ceiling around 40 feet above his head, the floor was
black and white chequered marble and with every step he took, the clack
click of his shoes seemed to echo around the vast room. Covering the
walls were extravagant oil paintings and murals, whilst Golden Statues
and sculptures lurked around the room.

"Mr Potter?" came a regal sounding voice, Harry turned, next to the large
staircase that dominated the room was a beautiful woman, her dark hair
was arranged elegantly around her face and her robes were an indication
that, like this room, she had money, and lots of it.

"Yes, I don't think we have been introduced." Harry answered, his voice as
charming as he could make it, the woman gave a polite smile,

"Narcissa Malfoy, Mr Potter, I believe you know my son and Husband."

"I do, it is a pleasure to finally meet Draco's mother." Narcissa smiled
rather aloofly, before indicating with one of her hands to one of the many
doors that littered the room,

"The meeting is through there, I do not believe he has arrived yet, so you
are not late." Harry knew exactly who Mrs Malfoy was referring to and
nodded politely, walking confidently towards the door.

The room was long, with a low ceiling and elegant black light fittings on
the walls and ceiling. The main feature of the room was a large table,
easily able to fit twenty people Harry thought, although currently only five
were in attendance.

Harry recognised Lucius immediately, although the others were unknown,

one was tall, his light brown hair close cropped over thick features and
scars which crossed all over his face, next to him was a short rat faced
man, he had watery pale blue eyes and a shiny bald patch on top of his
head.

Harry however was far more interested in the man sitting opposite Lucius,
he was medium height, with a dense, athletic frame, and from the toned
muscles he could see, it was clear that this man was stronger than he may
first appear. The last man had blue green eyes and black hair, his face was
handsome, although he had a rather dangerous look in his eye as he eyed
Harry warily.

"Mr Potter." Lucius greeted coldly, Harry gave the man a neutral nod and
took a seat next to the man opposite Mr Malfoy.

"Potter?" asked his neighbour, Harry nodded and the man him an
interested look. "Evan Rosier." Harry shook the proffered hand, feeling the
strength in the grip.

"Why is he here? He's just a kid!" asked the scarred man, Harry kept his
face clear of emotion, before turning his ice cold eyes to look at the brute,
"Well," he drawled, "I was invited here at the Dark Lord's behest, so
evidently he thinks I can be of some use to him." The man frowned,

"Who do you think you are kid? People who talk to me like that don't tend
to survive very long come full moon." He leered at Harry and Harry raised
one mocking eyebrow, the man stood angrily

"That will do Fenrir." Called the commanding voice of Riddle from the
door. As one the Death Eaters and Harry stood as the Dark Lord walked
past them towards the high backed chair at the end of the table.

"Mr Potter, as he correctly pointed out, was invited by myself, as such, his
loyalty and presence is beyond contestation." The Dark Lord kept his voice
smooth, but the authority in his tone filled the room and the wizards all
wisely kept silent.

"Now, to start with I have good news. I have found myself, that is to say,
the part of me who was defeated 14 years ago." A few whispers were
exchanged at this piece of news, but Harry kept his eyes on the Dark Lord.

"The ritual to combine us will have to be done on the summer solstice,

which sadly passed us by two days ago, therefore it will have to wait for
one more year." Riddle gave a frustrated little hand gesture but no sign of
anger appeared on his face, Riddle faced his followers with a quirked
eyebrow, evidently waiting for input, Lucius quickly opened his mouth

"My Lord, There is no reason why we cannot begin operations again

immediately, we may currently be few in number, but if you would permit
me…." he began, but silenced himself immediately when Riddle raised a
hand.

"No Lucius. We shall not be repeating the same mistakes of the last war."
Harry frowned at this, but Riddle continued immediately after.

"This time around, we shall gain power not by force, or by might or by

violence. Whilst they can gain an empire, they will rarely allow for you to
maintain it." He looked at each of the confused looking Death Eaters
around the table.

"I have considered this at length and have decided that we shall adopt a
more… legitimate approach. Through the wizengamot we shall gain our
strength, using force only where necessary." He smiled widely, and Harry
was surprised, but then remembered Snapes words, Tom Riddle had been a
political idealist, it was only the corruption of Dark Magic that made him
the megalomaniac he had become.

"However, we shall not be pursuing this just yet, the main topic for tonight
is the coming year. Barty?" The shifty looking man at the end of the table
looked up sharply and nodded.

"My Lord. This year at Hogwarts is the Triwizard tournament as you know,
I currently have information that 'Mad Eye' Moody is to be returning to
Hogwarts as a teacher. Under the disguise of Polyjuice Potion, I shall take
his place, whilst at the same time controlling my father."

"That's risky." Rosier pointed out from next to Harry, "to make someone
appear realistic with the Imperious it needs your full concentration, it's
risky."

"Don't worry Evan, I can handle it." Barty's voice was calm, confident.
These five were evidently part of the Dark Lord's closest band of
supporters, and Harry knew Riddle would never take advice from anyone
who was anything less than extraordinary.

"To maintain such a strong imperious, and to remain able to fool

Dumbledore as Moody is a difficult task indeed." Mused Riddle, gaining
silence from the room, "Pettigrew, you will assist Mr Crouch with any task
he gives you. Am I understood?"

The weedy looking man nodded quickly, his eyes flicking furtively around
the room, frequently coming to rest on the door.
"Barty, you will get Neville Longbottom made one of the champions of the
tournament, If I remember correctly the names will be chosen by an
impartial goblet, so perhaps a confundus charm, I will leave the specifics
to you. Once he is in the tournament, it will be far easier to make him
vulnerable."

"It will be done my Lord."

"It had best be." Riddle smirked cruelly, his eyes on Pettigrew, "Now Now
Peter, from your body language, one might almost think you didn't want to
be here."

"My Lord!" the ratty man cried in terror, "Nothing could be further from
the truth! I am overjoyed by your return!" the man's voice was squeaky,
high pitched and roiling in terror.

"You are a Liar Pettigrew, and a poor one at that." Riddles voice was
darkly amused, he drew his wand, which Harry recognised was still Ginny
Weaselys, and pointed it at Peter, who paled and fell from the chair to his
knees.

"My Lord, please, I have not deserted you, I have missed you, I swear my
Lord." Riddle's lip curled disgustedly, slowly the tip of Riddles wand
began to glow an ominous green.

"Get out you disgusting little worm." Pettigrew was sobbing and Riddle
chuckled darkly as a dark stain became evident on the man's trousers.

"Leave." The wretched man stood and scuttled to the door, hurrying out
with several deep bows.

"I am sorry to saddle you with him Barty, I trust he will not get in your
way too much?" The rest of the room, which had been in awed silence
suddenly returned to normal, Crouch assured the Dark Lord that it did not
matter and the meeting resumed.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
By midnight that night, it appeared that the plan had been settled. Harry
would continue his vigil over Longbottom, ensuring he stayed safe, whilst
assisting Barty wherever possible, Whilst Barty was to enter the Boy
Saviour into the tournament. It sounded to Harry like a rather convoluted
plot, however Riddle was clearly in possession of some information that
the rest were unaware of, for he seemed satisfied, despite the rather
obvious problems.

"Excellent Gentlemen. You may leave, Mr Potter, stay behind. We have

much to discuss." The room emptied quickly, most of the Death Eaters
giving Harry lingering glances as they vacated the room, leaving Harry
alone with the Dark Lord.

"You are not satisfied with the design I have come up with tonight?"

"It is not my place to disagree my Lord." Harry replied, though his tone
indicated that he did have a problem.

"Don't be absurd Harry, I have no time for sycophants or yes men. Speak
your mind."

"Well, it seems rather unnecessarily difficult, I do not understand why we

must put Longbottom in the tournament at Halloween. This gives
Dumbledore much of the school year to discover any plans, with the
current plan, Dumbledore's suspicions will be raised, that is inevitable,
and we cannot underestimate Albus Dumbledore."

"Why did you not voice these concerns earlier?" Riddle asked, his tone
slightly mocking, although his face expressed some interest.

"It was clear that you know something you aren't telling us."

"You are correct." Riddle steepled his fingers in front of his face, leaning
forward in his seat, the flickering lights of the torches casting his face in
shadow.
"As I am sure you have discovered Harry, there are some rather severe
problems with the overuse of Dark Magic." Harry nodded, "Well, my
counterpart has clearly suffered rather greatly at the hands of this
corruption."

"You are concerned that it will affect you both if you are combined."

"Correct, this plan leaves me free to search for an answer without having
to manage operations at the same time."

"I was under the impression such purification was impossible." Riddle
frowned slightly, his eyes being lost in shadow.

"It is said to be permanent yes. However, I believe that with enough time, I
will find a ritual to cleanse my other half, or failing that, I will create a
new one." Harry blinked in surprise,

"And would you be generous with this new information when you gain it?"

"Aha, have you begun to have problems?" Harry nodded, and Riddle
grinned,

"It is most frustrating isn't it? I remember once cursing Felicity Howlett
because she suggested herself to be the best potions brewer in Hogwarts,
most mortifying. I would be prepared to share the knowledge with you,
should you continue to serve me well."

They fell into a brief silence, whilst Harry watched the flickering light
dance across the walls and Riddle studied his face intently.

"I do not hold it against you for killing your father."

"You don't?" Harry asked, mildly surprised,

"No, Azkaban did a number on him, from what I know of his mental state,
he would have been useless to me."
Harry kept silent, he was embarrassed by himself as he felt his emotions
boiling beneath the surface, Anger, Pity, Guilt.

"I suppose we have a new thing we can add to what we have in common."
Harry frowned curiously, Riddle gave a cruel grin, "I too killed my father
in my sixth year, and he was a pathetic wretch."

Harry was shocked, all the time Harry had known him, Riddle had
volunteered very little of his life story. The two stared at each other,
Riddles eyes looked red in the firelight and Harry repressed a shiver at the
strength the orbs contained.

"As for the Werewolf, Good Riddance, Lucius tells me that Remus Lupin
was a thorn in the side of my operations for many years, Congratulations
on your order of Merlin, Second Class, most impressive, perhaps you
should kill some more of your teachers." Harry nodded at the praise and
smirked slightly.

"I trust you will enter the tournament?"

"I thought Neville would represent Hogwarts?"

"Unlikely, it would be far easier to trick the judge into believing Neville
represents a fourth school, rather than force the cup into accepting a
specific candidate, it will be an excellent challenge to take on the best of
Europe." Harry nodded, and with a small grin agreed that entering the
tournament would be enlightening.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Following the meeting, Harry had enjoyed a rather relaxed summer, the
highlight of which had been his seventeenth birthday, he had a great deal
of fun simply charming objects around the house, after all, who would
walk to pick up a plate, when he could summon one, or conjure one, or
transfigure one, or gain a plate in at least a dozen other ways.
He had very little planned, with the exception of joining Olivia in the
family box for the Quidditch World Cup final. Ireland were playing
Bulgaria, and it was speculated to be the best match of the decade.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

As Harry and Miranda appeared at the campsite, where they would be

spending the night after the match, Harry grinned. The camp was so
incredibly magical that it was laughable that anyone could ever think it
not, As Harry passed a patrol of Aurors laughing at a couple of Dancing
Leprechauns, he realised that the Ministry must have abandoned the effort
for subtlety.

They spent the day comfortably, several of Harry's friends were there, and
as he wandered the campsite that afternoon he caught sight of what
appeared to be most of Hogwarts. He greeted friends and argued the finer
points of the game of Quidditch, and which team was superior. There was
so much to do in the international magical gathering that the whole
afternoon was spent busy. Before too long, the light had faded and the
match was about to begin.

A hush had fallen over the entire camp as the mass exodus towards the
enormous stands began. Cheers and cries in a multitude of languages
swam out towards Harry's ears and he grinned widely in anticipation,
caught as he was in the middle of the Irish cheering and singing.

"Tickets please." Asked a harassed looking wizard, Harry and Miranda

handed over the shiny yellow pieces of parchment and the wizard looked
at them under a light from his wand.

"Players box, penultimate floor, just below the top box take these stairs
and keep climbing. Next."

The man hadn't been kidding, the staircase seemed to go on forever.

However finally on level 34, they finally reached the box with the label
Players Box
Reserved.

It was a large and rather spacious room they found themselves in, at least
20 metres long, with one wall open to the environment, of the one hundred
or so seats available, around twenty were already filled, and the two of
them walked over to Olivia, who was completely decked out in green
merchandise.

"Harry! Miranda!" she shouted happily, quickly pulling Harry into a hug,
"isn't this amazing?" Harry grinned and nodded, Miranda tried to hide her
smile behind a hand, but was rather unsuccessful.

"Do either of you want something to drink? We've got butterbeer, pumpkin
juice, chilled water or firewhiskey." She offered, gesturing to a crate at her
side, if her attitude was anything to go by, it was apparent she had already
had quite a lot to drink.

"I'll have a whisky, Miranda?"

"Butterbeer, I think it wise if one of us stays sober." Harry rolled his eyes
theatrically at Olivia as he accepted the generous measure of the amber
liquid, sipping it deeply.

They got to chatting as the seats filled up around them, a family of surly
Bulgarians sat next to Miranda, and given the outfit of the young son in
the family it was clear that they were supporters of Viktor Krum,
Bulgaria's seeker.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Came a loud shout, "Ladies and Gentlemen,

Quiet Please!"

Slowly, a hush began to fall over the vast stadium, capable of seating
90,000 people.

"Welcome to the final of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup!" The quiet was
replaced by a gargantuan roar, the crowd bellowing their approval, shaking
the very walls of their box. Harry cheered whilst Olivia next to him was
performing a small Irish dance and attempting to drink from her very full
glass at the same time, the result being a large amount of firewhiskey
pouring down her MORAN jersey.

"Without Further ado, let's introduce the teams, Representing Ireland…

Ryan, Quigley, Connelly, Troy, Mullet, Moran" (this was greeted with a
huge roar from Harry and Olivia, whilst Miranda Whooped, somehow
appearing refined as she did so.) "annnndddd….. LYNCH!" There came a
massive cry as the seven players shot out into the stadium.

The players appeared merely as seven green robed blurs, and Harry
focused the omnioculars on Bonnie's face, she was looking very
determined, and had her hair tightly done up.

"And Representing Bulgaria, May I present… Volkov, Vulchanov, Dimitrov,

Levski, Ivanova annnndddd KRUM!"

The Bulgarian seeker received a huge hand as his name was called and the
cheering got louder and louder, the mascots were introduced, but Harry
didn't pay them much mind, he was fearful that appearing too interested in
the Veela could spell his downfall, what with the rather short tempered
witch next to him.

When asked in the future what had happened in the match, Harry would
honestly struggle to recall in detail, whether this was because he and
Olivia had together managed to drink most of a bottle of Firewhiskey
between them or because he had been too caught up in the events, he
wasn't sure, he knew that Ireland won, and that Krum had caught the
snitch, but that was about it.

Following the victory, Harry, who was holding hands with Miranda was
dragged by Olivia back to congratulate her sister. The mood in the Irish
tent was euphoric, there were press, families and friends singing and
cheering and crying.
Standing in pride of place amongst the happy players stood the World Cup.
It was enormous, easily twice the size of the Hogwarts Quidditch cup, and
glowed with a soft Golden Light.

The celebrations continued long into the night, around one in the morning,
the large party had all apparated to a vast mansion which had been chosen
as the ideal place to spend the evening. Harry and Miranda, being two of
only four English people in attendance were slightly out of their depth as
the Irish team and supporters forced them to jig on the table, which,
considering the amount of alcohol consumed, was a rather bad idea.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Harry?"

"…"

"Harry!" Harry jerked awake with a start, he immediately regretted his

decision as his head pounded painfully. He cracked open his eyes, groaning
painfully at the light.

"For Goodness sake Potter, here." Harry felt a goblet being passed into his
hand and sipped softly. He recognised the flavour as that of a Hangover
Draught and quickly gulped the rest down, feeling better immediately.

"Good Morning Quidditch Champion." He grinned weakly, Bonnie rolled

her eyes as she put her hands under his arms and lifted. Harry was
impressed by her strength as she easily picked him up off the floor.

"You made a right fool of yourself last night Harry." She said with a grin,
"Fortunately so did everyone else, so I doubt you'll get too much trouble!"

Harry took a moment to take stock of his surroundings, he had been asleep
under a bench behind the house, a large empty bottle of Mead next to his
bed and a snoring Olivia passed out on top of the same bench.
"Where's Miranda?" he asked dazedly, rubbing a hand through his short
hair.

"She left bloody hours ago, I don't think she fancied looking after you
really." Harry took a deep breath to calm his roiling stomach.

"What time is it?" he eventually asked,

"10.30, everyone's just getting up, I think we're having breakfast soon."
Harry nodded, breakfast sounded good. Followed by a shower. Then sleep.
Maybe sleep, then shower.

Harry roused his unconscious Irish friend and together they made their
way inside, stepping over the scattered bodies of unconscious Quidditch
players, and wading through the empty bottles.

Simply following their noses proved enough to find breakfast. The dining
room table had been piled high with sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, beans
and other fried food.

With a grin, Harry set about making himself a large sandwich, four rashers
of bacon, two sausages, a fried egg, grated cheese, another egg, two more
slices of bacon and then a spoon of beans, the signature Potter post party
food.

As soon as the greasy food struck his stomach he felt better, and also less
likely to throw up at any moment. He yawned widely, which set off a chain
reaction, as down the table, the twenty or so witches and wizards each
yawned just as widely.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Following the rather extravagant post match party, Harry discovered that
he was rather in the doghouse with Miranda, apparently trying to prove he
could dive off a broomstick into a swimming pool was not the correct
behaviour for a man of his age. The fact that Harry had no memory of this
incident, indeed, no memory of nearly the entire night made no difference,
Harry was guilty.

He therefore spent much of his time acting as the perfect boyfriend to

Miranda, he took her out for spontaneous dinners-, listened (with genuine
interest) as she complained about her job, and the corruption in the
ministry. Harry rather thought that Miranda was having a bit too much fun
punishing him, but dared not bring it up, lest she give him another lecture.

Harry was rather delighted when, in addition to his usual Hogwarts letter,
Harry received the Head Boy badge, considering Dumbledore's growing
scepticism of his morals, Harry rather suspected that the board of
Governors had had a rather significant role in choosing him.

When the end of the holiday arrived, Harry spent a long time giving
Miranda a tender goodbye, before with a final grin he apparated to
Platform 9 3/4s, taking his usual carriage and kicking out two Ravenclaw
second years.

Before long, Harry was joined by Clara and Graham, both of whom had
clearly just returned from a holiday. They were followed shortly after by
Olivia, then Marcus and Terrence. The group easily chatted about their
summers, and there was a lot of envy directed at Harry and Olivia for
being able to party with the Irish Quidditch team, which they had taken
with only a few smug smirks.

"I don't believe you." Clara shouted at Harry as he showed her his head
boy badge.

"You kill a teacher and the natural response is to make you the most
important pupil in the school!" Marcus joked,

"Naturally." Harry smirked broadly, the ribbing continued and Harry

enjoyed the familiar sense of normalcy, his summer this year had been
filled with rather obscure and concerning events, the opportunity to simply
relax with his closest friends was someone rather enjoyable.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"… And I regret to announce that this year, there shall be no Interhouse
Quidditch cup, this is because…" Dumbledore was forced to stop speaking
as the roar of protest rose in the Great Hall. The noise and shouts
continued for a few minutes, before Dumbledore used his wand to make a
blast like a cannon, instantly quieting the student body.

"As I was saying this is because of an event being held at Hogwarts this
year. Although it has been two centuries since it was last attempted, we
have decided to reintroduce the tri-wizard tournament to Hogwarts!"

There was silence for a moment, followed by a sea of whispers. The

Weasely twins shouted "Your Joking!" from the Gryffindor table and
everyone laughed,

"I am not joking Mr Weasely, although that does remind me of an

excellent one I heard over the summer, A witch, a warlock, a goblin and a
hag all go into a bar…" He noticed McGonagalls frown and Dumbledore
cleared his throat with an embarrassed chuckle, "Another time perhaps."

"The Triwizard tournament for those of you who do not know is a

competition between the three top magical education institutions of
Europe, Hogwarts, Beauxbatonss and Durmstrang." Dumbledore raised his
hands for silence before continuing.

"This year, in addition to the normal three tasks facing individual school
champions, we shall also have an interschool duelling tournament with
two school champions, one of whom will be the individual school
champion, organised by professor Flitwick, an Interschool Quidditch
Tournament organised by Madam Hooch, and an academic school
tournament run by Professor Sinistra" This got loud cheers and
Dumbledore smiled widely.

"Because of the dangerous nature of the tasks, only those in their seventh
year or who are seventeen may enter the individual main tournament, the
other aspects are open to all ages. I ask for students to ask the professors
mentioned for information regarding applications, This is a very big event
for our school, and for the Duration of the Year, Hogwarts will be playing
host to a delegation from each school, who I am sure will be treated with
the greatest of respect."

"The final announcement tonight is that I am very pleased to introduce our

new defence against the dark arts teacher, Professor Moody, who will be
replacing Professor Lupin, teaching the lower years defence, whilst
Professor Black remains teaching our NEWT students."

Professor Moody, who Harry knew to be Barty in disguise gave a gruff

wave to the crowd but said nothing.

As the Seventh Years made their way back to the common room, the main
conversation was on the upcoming tournament.

"I'm entering!" Marcus stated strongly, "Everything but the academic

competition, Quidditch, Duelling, Individual tasks are all right up my
street!"

"What about you Harry?" asked Clara, "If you enter everything, you'll
spoil the fun for the rest of us, it wouldn't be fun if no one else represents
Hogwarts!"

"I wouldn't get onto the Quidditch team Clara, have you seen me on a
broom? I can barely catch a Quaffle!" They all laughed,

"I thought I'd enter the Duelling, Academic and individual tasks, I might
get one that way." The conversation continued excitedly, all the way back
to the common room, and then long into the night as they tried to decide
who would best represent Hogwarts.

There we go, It's more of a filler for you guys, just to answer some of
the questions posed in reviews, Some of you suggested there being no
purpose to me writing a triwizard tournament, as Voldemort wouldn't
waste a year waiting for Neville, which I agreed with, but I hope the
reasoning behind this year of is okay.
Please review, just to give me your thoughts. You will be pleased to
know that I have now completed my skeleton outline for post
Hogwarts, It is quite cool, but I'm sorry to all those who requested it,
at the moment Harry will not be doing a world tour, however there
will be some travelling.

Much Love
16. Chapter 16

Here we go!

It's chapter 15, the big one, the one we've all been waiting for.

I know some of you are angry that I put the tournament in in the first
place, but its such a great literary device, a way that I can demonstrate
Harry's skills and power without him seeming like a pyscho nutter, so
I hope you understand that.

I also would like for people to try to understand how Harry feels about
the fact that he killed his dad. He is a closed off person, even at his
most emotionally vulnerable he would still be considered cold on a
normal scale, therefore he has repressed all these feelings and this
hurt and attempts to deny he even feels it, although of course it can
bubble up at the most inopportune times!

shout out to sarah-rose76646 who was the 100th reviewer of this fic, I
read them all and love the feedback, especially those of you who review
frequently, you really have helped develop the story as I write it and I
would name you all, however I fear I would forget something and
upset one of you, which really would not do.

Anyhoo, enjoy!

Chapter 15

The excitement surrounding the announcement of the Triwizard

tournament lasted for several weeks. Harry had passed at least two dozen
conversations involving students declaring that they would become school
champion or one of the duelling champions, whilst every Quidditch player
seemed convinced that they would represent Hogwarts. In Harry's eyes it
was comical that anyone below a sixth year would become a duelling
champion, and he had chuckled when he passed by Draco Malfoy and
Ronald Weasely arguing about who would get a spot on the duelling team.
The first day back, Harry noticed that several notices had gone up in the
board, requesting students to apply for the Triwizard event they wished to
attempt to get. As could be expected, the entire Quidditch team plus
several others applied to play Quidditch, nearly every student in the school
applied to the duelling team and there were hardly a lack of applicants for
the academic team as well.

Harry had considered it for only the briefest moment before signing
himself up for the academic and duelling aspects. Whilst he was confident
he was the best duellist in the school, he tended to neglect his academic
work in non-spell subjects, and thought it unlikely that he would be picked
to be part of the six man team.

The duelling try-out quickly became the top topic of discussion in the
rumour mill as it appeared that every student from second to Seventh year
had applied. There was only one duelling spot available, the other
Hogwarts duellist position would go to the school champion. Nevertheless
on Saturday morning at 10 am, Harry made his way down to the great Hall
for the start of the selection process.

The great hall had once again been stripped of the chairs and tables, and
now there stood 2 amateur duelling strips and two Duelling Rings. The
Rings were large circles, with a radius of 30 feet, allowing the combatants
far more manoeuvrability than in the school strips. The room was packed,
and the noise deafening as every student boasted to his or her friends about
their apparently prodigious skills.

"Good Morning Students!" greeted the ever cheerful Flitwick, as he

stepped up onto the stage, making his diminutive stature visible to all
those gathered. He was joined onstage by Professor Black, Professor
Moody and Professor Snape, Black looked cheerful, Moody typically gruff
and Snape bored.

"I thought we could work through the year groups" called Flitwick, "Then
the best four from each year will continue, and from then on we shall
whittle you down to one. Now, I have somewhere…" he rifled through the
large stack of Parchment he was carrying for a moment,

"Yes, here. This is the list of second years who have put their names
down." He looked at the list for a moment, "Mr Blake onto ring number
one with Miss Brown, Miss Choke and Miss Allison, Ring two, Mr's
Thomas and Rowland, strip three and Mr Wilson and Miss Wigan, strip
four."

The second year duels took a long time, the students knew very few spells,
and the few they did know they bellowed out with large flourishes of their
wands. Unfortunately, only half the second years knew how to disarm their
opponents, and only two of them knew a basic shield, leading to painfully
dull, long winded duels.

Finally the second years were reduced to four and the third years began, it
was slightly better, most of them could disarm and had toned down their
screaming for spellcasting, but they were still dull and lacked style, the
same could be true of the fourth years. By fifth year, most students knew
shield charms and had an array of offensive charms and curses at their
disposal, however very few appeared to have any effective duelling
techniques, instead hurling spells around and hoping for the best.

When the sixth years finally finished, it was lunchtime and Harry was
starving. He knew that he could beat anyone he had seen duel so far with
one hand tied behind his back, but as he knew, it was only during the
summer term of one's sixth year that students were actually instructed in
good duelling techniques, so it went without saying that the good
opponents would be in his own year.

Professor Flitwick had arranged for a service of House elves with

sandwiches to be delivered to the students, and Harry sat down on the floor
with the rest of the Slytherins and wolfed down several with a glass of
pumpkin juice.

"Excited Harry?"
Harry looked over his shoulder and saw Professor Flitwick smiling
broadly at him. "Very Professor, I'm glad that I'll finally be able to do
something, it's been a long morning!" Flitwick laughed,

"I agree, I don't understand how a second year thought they could out duel
the crème of the continent, however, We must give everyone a fair shot,
thank goodness we didn't have any first year applicants, none of them
know any spells and it tends to be shooting sparks for half an hour." Harry
grinned and the small professor chuckled warmly.

"Can I offer you a sandwich professor, you are welcome to join us for
Lunch if you wish." Harry asked charmingly. Flitwick smiled
appreciatively and sat down.

"Thank you Harry, Ah, Mr Flint, Miss Moran, I'm glad you are here, as
with you Mr Higgs, all very talented at charms, so I'm sure we will have
some excellent duels this afternoon!" The small professor's enthusiasm
was infectious, and the Seventh Years enjoyed their conversation.

"Well, I think that's it, let's get on with the seventh years hmm?" he
grinned broadly before hurrying off and hopping onto the stage with
elegance unexpected from his size.

"Students, I think the seventh years have waited long enough, so shall we
have our first duels?" there were cheers from the crowd, the seventh years
duels would obviously be the most exciting and there was a high amount
of anticipation in the crowd.

"Mr Berridge and Mr Flint, Ring one, Miss Walters and Miss Walters,
Ring two, Mr Wale and Mr Stone, strip three and Miss Montague and Mr
Diggory, strip four."

Harry cheered happily as his friends began their duels, it quickly became
apparent that Clara was far outclassed by Cedric, he had her on the
defensive from the first spell, However Marcus was proving to be quite the
opposite. His aggressive tactic of bombardment and reductor curses
prevented Berridge, his opponent from managing to get a single spell off.
The first round ended, with Marcus and Cedric progressing, alongside
Walters and Wale. Harry made his way over to check which round he was
in, and discovered it to be Ring two, in round three and that he would be
against Roger Davies.

Harry glanced up, and easily found the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, the
boy was looking at him nervously, Harry's duel in his fifth year had
become legend amongst the students, and Harry gave the boy a cruel smirk
as they waited for the end of the second round.

"Ring one, Mr Montague and Miss Colne, Ring two, Mr Potter and Mr
Davies, strip three, Mr Higgs and Miss Johnson."

Harry shrugged off his light jacket, leaving him in a tightfitting blue shirt
and beige trousers, he grinned and rolled up his sleeves, cracking his neck
as he strode up to the centre of the ring, where Professor Flitwick awaited
him with Davies, who had started to sweat slightly.

"Mr Potter, Mr Davies, this duel will be like the others, following
international Duelling laws, are you aware of the rules?" Both Combatants
nodded and Flitwick continued, "Okay then Gentlemen, shake hands."
Harry shook Rogers's hand, smirking wider as he felt the boy's clammy
palm.

"On Ring two, Our Head Boy faces Ravenclaw prefect Roger Davies.
Gentlemen, are you ready?" Flitwick called loudly, his voice carrying
across the hall, Harry was pleased to note that theirs was the halls main
attraction.

"Gentlemen, obey my instructions at all times, defend yourselves at all

times. Three, two, one… Duel!"

Harry anticipated that Roger, being inexperienced would send the first
Volley, and he was proven right as three red stunners flew towards him,
Harry stepped lightly to the left and avoided them with ease,

Furnunculus, Stupefy, Rictumsempera.

Roger hastily erected a shield and Harry grinned, he took several steps
forward, maintaining a constant barrage of silent stunning spells as he
advanced.

When he was only was only feet from roger, Harry sent a quick Shield
breaking curse, which caused the Ravenclaw to stumble. Quick as a flash
Harry darted forward and with a hard jab hit the boy in the face with his
fist. Roger blinked twice, before collapsing in an unconscious heap at
Harry's feet.

Harry smirked and checked his watch, 29 Seconds, not bad.

"With Mr Davies unable to continue, Harry Potter advances to the next

round!" Announced Flitwick from behind him, Harry turned and shook the
professor's hand with a small smile.

The wait for the Seventh year's first rounds didn't take long, by two thirty,
Only 16 students remained. Harry was paired up against Marcus and was
easily able to beat his friend with only the smallest bit of finesse.

His next opponent was Gryffindor Chaser and head girl Alicia Spinnet, she
looked confident striding around the stage, and Harry gave her a grin,
which she returned.

"Mr Potter, Miss Spinnet, Obey my instructions at all times, defend

yourselves at all times. 3, 2, 1… Duel!" Cried out Professor Black, as he
looked murderously at Harry.

Alicia did nothing, and Harry stood stock still, balanced on the balls of his
feet. Ten seconds passed, twenty, thirty. Harry caught Alicia's eye and
winked as he saw the look of intense concentration on her face.

With a sudden feint left, Harry dived right and snapped out a blistering
charm. Alicia ducked below the spell and responded by summoning a
flock of birds and sending them at Harry.
With a flick of his wand, the eight little finches suddenly merged into one
eagle, which Harry sent towards the Gryffindor with a flick of his wand.
Alicia gave a shriek as she saw the bird of prey racing at her, large talons
extended.

With a broad stroke of her wand, the bird was sawn in half and fell from
the sky in a puff of crimson and feathers, Harry dodged her volley of
banishing and cutting curses and transfigured the dead bird into a tiger,
which he had dive at the Gryffindor. Just as the tiger was about to be
struck by a blasting curse, Harry transfigured it again into two dozen rats,
two of them were caught in the curse, but the rest landed all over the
Gryffindor. Alicia screamed and tried to shake off the rodents. Harry took
his opportunity and with a casual stunning charm had the girl on the floor.

"Miss Spinnet is unable to continue. Potter wins." Ground out Black,

glaring at Harry with such intensity that Harry almost laughed.

"Well done Harry!" Called out Olivia when he stepped off the Platform,
"You're in the final twenty four, and half of those are incompetent!"

Olivia was proven correct in the afternoon's duels. To weed out the weaker
members, the second years were paired with fourth years, the third years
with fifth years and so on. Harry was up against a pretty Chinese girl
called Cho Chang, however, despite her looks, the girl was hardly a
capable opponent for Harry.

Neither it turned out, was the person Harry faced after her, Neville
Longbottom. Neville strode out onto the strip and stood opposite Harry.
The boy, in Harry's opinion, looked confident and held his wand ready.
Harry shook his head.

"3, 2, 1… Duel!" called Snape, his voice curt.

Harry immediately sent a blasting curse at Neville, striking him in the

stomach and knocking him clean off his feet.
Neville staggered to his feet, and yelled out the full body bind, Harry
lazily raised a shield and responding with a retching curse.

The duel lasted only two minutes, by the end of that time, Neville had
spent most of it on the ground, and by the end had tears in his eyes and
was still twitching from Harry's electrocution curse.

"Longbottom has released control of his wand. Potter Wins." Snape

Drawled, his eyes glimmering softly. Harry smirked broadly.

He had the next round to himself, and sat back, enjoying the chance to
catch his breath, not that he had expended too much energy in the last few
duels as it was. He watched with interest as Terrence was defeated by
Cedric, Leaving Harry and Cedric as the two finalists for the schools
position of duelling champion.

However, whilst Harry hadn't been struck by a single curse, and aside from
a patch of soot on his arm, He was blemish free, Cedric had a cut shoulder
and appeared absolutely exhausted. He staggered over to Harry, and
grinned at him through a bruised eye.

"Why do I get the feeling you haven't even broken a sweat yet Harry?" he
asked with a grin, Harry said nothing, instead he drew his wand, and with a
muttered incantation cast the strongest healing charm he knew on his
friends shoulder. Cedric winced, before rolling his arm experimentally.

"Thanks mate. Not that that will make it any more even!" he said with a
grin.

"Indeed, you are buggered Diggory." Harry deadpanned with a wide grin,
Cedric gave him a friendly smack on the shoulder.

"Potter, one day I will beat you at something, and when that happens I
want you to remember this moment." Harry grinned,

"It's not today though Cedric!" the Hufflepuff shrugged and sat down,
catching his breath.
"Mr Potter, Mr Diggory, I believe it is time." Called Flitwick from the
stage.

"Gentlemen, this is a standard duel according to international rules, obey

my instructions at all times, defend yourselves at all times."

"3, 2, 1… Duel!"

Cedric immediately sent out a varied string of cutters and blasting hexes at
Harry, the head boy dodged to the left, keeping his profile low, whilst he
reflected as many of the curses as he could at the tired Hufflepuff. Cedric
kept his barrage up for several seconds before jumping right and casting a
smoke hex. The dense grey fumes completely concealed the Hufflepuff
and Harry growled.

He stabbed his wand straight up before pointing it at the smoke, a sudden

gust of wind slowly dissipated the mist, leaving Cedric exposed. Before
Harry could cast however, Cedric released a navy blue spell that Harry
didn't recognise, diving to the left, Harry dodged the curse, feeling the air
crackle as it just passed his head.

Harry stood and sent a silent gouging hex at the Hufflepuff at the same
time that Cedric sent a stunner at him, the two spells collided in mid-air
with a noise like a cannon and exploded, saturating the area with magical
energy. Cedric dived to the left to avoid Harry's impediment jinx and fell
awkwardly.

Harry gave a complicated twist of his wand, conjuring a dozen rubber balls
from mid-air which he shot at Cedric. This was a tactic Professor
McGonagall had told him about, when he couldn't find anything to
transfigure in a fight, it was a perfectly viable option to create something
entirely new.

Cedric evidently knew of his tactic, for he quickly vanished half the balls,
the rest however Harry quickly formed into hundreds of flies, which he
had swarm around Cedrics face. If Harry was feeling vindictive, he would
have done the same thing, although with hornets or wasps.
"Incendio!" shouted Cedric, burning much of the swarm with a sweep of
his wand, Harry saw an opening and quickly sent a blasting curse at
Cedric. The spell caught his thigh, and he yelled as the bone cracked
loudly. As the boy dropped to the floor, Harry sent a disarming charm to
finish the duel and caught the wand as it flew towards him.

Ignoring Professor Flitwick's announcement that Harry was the winner, the
boy hurried over to his downed Hufflepuff friend, with two waves of his
wand, he was able to numb the area and straighten the bone. Cedric sighed
in relief as the magic stopped the pain. Harry gave him a guilty smile and
Cedric chuckled.

"And that was necessary was it Potter?" he asked jokingly, Harry shrugged.

"You left your defences open, you can't blame me for taking an opening."
Cedric growled, although the effect was ruined when he broke out into a
smile.

"Good duel Harry."

"Indeed Mr Potter, your technique is fascinating, it's masterful to behold!"

chipped in Professor Flitwick from behind Cedric. Harry blushed slightly,
he held Professor Flitwick's opinion very highly, and as such felt the praise
to be truly earned.

Following the announcement of Harry as Duelling champion, the head boy

immediately cancelled his application to join the academic team, it
wouldn't do after all to have too busy a year.

The weeks towards the arrival of the foreign students passed quickly for
Harry, when he wasn't being worked to the bone by his teachers in
preparation for NEWT's, he would find himself training with Professor
Flitwick and Professor Moody in Duelling.

Harry knew that Barty was a good fighter, and evidently he was eager to
teach Harry, because the disguised man spent many hours a week
instructing him. The two professors had very different styles of duelling,
given his small stature, Flitwick relied on superior agility and speed,
dodging spells and shielding rarely. Moody on the other hand followed a
completely different tactic. He stood in the centre of the ring, cast the
strongest shield he could and proceeded to wear his opponent down with a
withering hail of brutally powerful spells.

Harry had lost his first duel to Barty. The disguised Death Eater had years
of combat experience, whilst Harry tended to limit himself to accepted
duelling techniques. The defence professor taught him irregularity and
surprise, stopping him finding a rhythm an opponent could understand,
whilst Flitwick taught him speed casting, the ability to fire off three curses
before your opponent had drawn their wand was an obvious advantage
indeed.

Whilst Harry loved the training, and often spent several hours in the
library researching new techniques, it did have the problem of exhausting
him for hours afterwards, and sadly few of his teachers, Professor Flitwick
included, didn't seem to agree with him that the training sessions were a
valid excuse for missing homework.

On the evening of October 30th, the exchange students finally arrived and
Harry stood at the front of the body of students on the front lawn waiting
to greet them. As head boy, it was Harry's job to act as a sort of student
overseer to the students, alongside Alicia Spinnet who stood next to him.
The night was cold, and whilst Harrys warming charms kept him at a
balmy temperature, the green eyed Slytherin was secretly chuckling to
himself as his female counterpart next to him shivered frequently.

"Aha!" called Dumbledore, "unless I am very much mistaken, it would

appear that our friends from France have arrived!" Harry looked around
but saw nothing. He followed the direction of the pointed fingers around
him and saw an enormous carriage being pulled by a dozen winged horses
begin to descend onto the lawn.

Harry quickly realised that his initial assessment about the carriage was
wrong, it wasn't enormous, it was vast, gargantuan, a behemoth, it could
have fit a modest town house in itself with ease, and the horses that pulled
it were easily twice the size of normal beasts.

The contraption landed with a smash and slowed to a gentle halt, Harry
watched impassively as from within appeared an enormous foot, followed
by an equal large leg, which it was soon revealed belonged to a giant
woman.

"My dear Madam Maxime!" greeted Dumbledore, his voice echoing

around the lawn, "Welcome to Hogwarts. I must commend you on your
excellent carriage, a magnificent contraption!" the old headmaster kissed
the giant's hand, barely needing to bend his neck to reach her massive
knuckles.

"Thank you Dumbleydoor, It eez a pleasure to return to 'ogwarts." Her

voice was deep and heavily accented, behind her, Harry noted that around
15 people had gathered, given their powder blue uniforms and age, Harry
guessed that they must be the pupils of Beauxbatons.

"Dumbleydoor, my pupils are very tired and cold, if zey could be allowed
inside?" she asked, Dumbledore nodded and turn to Alicia,

"Miss Spinnet, perhaps you could escort our guests to the Great Hall?"
Alicia nodded and walked forward smiling, she greeted the French
students warmly in French, before leading them and Madam Maxime
towards the castle.

Silence returned to the lawn as they awaited their guest. Harry frowned as
he looked at his watch, the Durmstrang pupils were already fifteen
minutes late.

"Patience Harry, Patience, you too would perhaps be late if you had
travelled quite so far." Dumbledore told him kindly, his voice filled with
wisdom. Harry said nothing, only straightening his back and standing tall
as he waited.
Eventually, after several minutes there came a loud sucking noise, and the
Hogwarts students gasped in horror as a vast three masted sailing ship
burst forth from the depths of the lake, vast great waves being thrown up
as it sailed towards the bank.

As it neared the shore the ship slowed to a halt and a large anchor was
dropped from the front.

"Albus!" came a loud eastern European voice from the deck, "How are you
my dear old friend?"

"Blooming thank you Igor, and yourself?" The man, Igor, stepped along a
broad wooden plank and onto the lawn before the headmaster.

"Very good, I must say it is good to be back. Dear Old Hogvarts!" His
voice was unctuous and oily and reminded Harry of the smell of rotting
flowers.

"Aha, I see your pupils are joining us!" Dumbledore cried happily as
fifteen large figures disembarked. They marched in a militaristic fashion,
coming to a sharp halt a few feet behind their headmaster.

"Yes. Yes, they have had a rough journey and look forvard to the comforts
of food!" Igor laughed loudly, the noise was nasally and unpleasant.

"Of course. Madam Maxine has already arrived and awaits us in the hall.
Harry?" Dumbledore turned towards him and gestured. Harry approached
the Durmstrang contingent confidently.

"This is Harry Potter, our Head Boy, and he would be happy to show you
the way towards the great hall." Igor twirled his finger around his goatee
and smiled at Harry, showing rather crooked teeth.

"Thank you Mr Potter, I am Highmaster Karkaroff." Harry shook the man's

hand confidently, feeling the rather weak grip the man exerted.
"If you and your students would follow me Highmaster?" Harry asked
politely. Karkaroff turned and with a few harsh words of what Harry
believed to be German the Durmstrang students followed Harry in the
same martial step, their movements contrasting with Harry's own graceful
steps.

The great hall was pleasantly warm after the cold air outside. Harry
invited the students to sit at whichever table they wished before settling
himself at the Slytherin table.

Soon enough, the tables were filled with children once more and the feast
began. Harry noted with interest that there seemed to be a larger variety of
plates on offer than usual and he presumed this to be aimed at impressing
their new guests.

"You eat like this each day?" asked a sharp faced Durmstrang girl next to
Harry, he shook his head.

"I am afraid not, this is a special feast, but typically there would be an
impressive spread of food available." The girl looked impressed, "You do
not have such variety in Durmstrang?"

"No, we have food, of course. But is more simpler." Conversation was a

little awkward between the aloof Slytherins and hard Durmstrang
contingent at first, but as the meal progressed and people loosened up a
little, Harry noted that conversation seemed to flow a little easier.

"Harry!" called Marcus in a stage whisper, Harry turned to face with an

amused smile, the boy was jerking his head at a Durmstrang boy and
mouthing something at Harry.

"Crumb?" Harry asked puzzled, Marcus slapped his forehead in

frustration,

"No, Krum, Viktor Krum!" Harry looked at the boy Marcus was gesturing
at in shock and realised the Slytherin Chaser was right, Viktor Krum, the
best seeker in the world was sitting just six chairs away from Harry. He
seemed to be studiously ignoring the whispering going on around him, and
was sat between two large boys who appeared to be taking on the role of
bodyguards.

"Act natural." Harry mouthed to Marcus, who clearly understood as he

went back to his food, although he did frequently steal glances at the
Durmstrang champion.

Harry went back to his plate, picking up a forkful of garlic stuffed

mushroom and putting it in his mouth. As he was chewing, a girl with dark
blonde hair caught his attention, she was gazing around the hall, her gaze
shrewd and calculating.

"I don't believe we've been introduced." Harry greeted her when they made
eye contact. She smirked broadly at him, her features looked like those of
a predator.

"Mariya Lytvyn, You are Potter." Her voice was so heavily accented that it
took Harry a moment to understand what she was saying.

"I am." He said carefully, she grinned at him, showing sharp teeth.

"Don't mind Mariya, Potter, she is err… different." Harry turned and to his
surprise saw it was Krum talking to him.

"Much of your school seems to be familiar with me." Harry asked

cautiously, to the best of his knowledge he had met no Durmstrang
students except when leading them up to the castle.

"The Highmaster, saught it best to know of opponents." His English was

good Harry noted, although accented.

"And I am an opponent?" Krum looked thoughtful,

"Order of Merlin, zwei avards to school, yes you are opponent." Harry felt
rather flattered that he had been studied as a potential foe." He was about
to answer when the food vanished from the plates and Dumbledore stood
up.

"Welcome Students, teachers, ghosts and most importantly, guests!" He

gestured broadly with his arms, a wide smile on his face.

"It gives me the greatest pleasure to welcome you all to Hogwarts, in a few
moments I shall reveal our impartial judge for the individual school
champions, however before that, may I introduce to you all Mr Bartemius
Crouch, from the department of international cooperation, and Mr Ludo
Bagman from the Department of Magical Sports." The two men stood up,
Crouch looking severe and imperious, Bagman looking chubby and
cheerful, there was a small round of applause from the students.

"Mr's Crouch and Bagman will be officiating the tournament as Judges.

Now, Mr Filch, the casket if you please." The lights dimmed and Hogwarts
watched as the wheezy caretaker dragged a heavy looking casket covered
in gemstones to the front of the Hall. Dumbledore stepped forward and
with a wave of his wand, the cask fell away, leaving behind a stone chalice,
filled to the brim with dancing blue flames.

"This is the Goblet of fire." Announced the Headmaster, "Any student

wishing to enter the tournament must write their name and school on a
piece of parchment and place it in the goblet, the winner for each school
will be announced at dinner tomorrow." There were murmurs of interest in
the hall

"I feel I should perhaps remind the more forgetful of you all, that only
those over the age of seventeen, or those in their seventh year may put
their names in the Goblet, I will personally be drawing an age line around
the Goblet, and I should warn you, any attempt to trick the Goblet will be
punished severely."

There was a collective groan around the hall and Dumbledore's eyes
crinkled as he chuckled.
"Finally, a warning, the tournament is not to be entered lightly, it is very
dangerous and designed to test students to the very limits of their
imagination, strength and daring, once your name is chosen to represent
the school, it is set in stone, and you are bound to compete." There was
silence following this rather sinister announcement.

"Now, off to bed, the lot of you, chop chop." As the students struggled to
lift full bodies off their chairs, Harry remained seated, waiting for the
crowd around the door to thin. As he sat in his seat, Marcus and Terrence
sat next to him, "Got any Parchment Harry?" they asked in unison. Harry
checked through his pockets and withdrew the letter he had received from
Miranda that morning,

"Entering your names already?" he asked amused, they grinned and he

shook his head, tearing off a corner of the envelope and handing it to them.
Marcus conjured a quill and they wrote their names down.

"Going to join us Harry?" Marcus asked, Harry sighed and tore off another
piece of the envelope,

"I suppose I've got to, God forbid either of you became Hogwarts
champion!" Terrence rolled his eyes and together the three of them made
their way to the goblet, each chucking their names in. the blue flames
turned red, and the parchments vanished, before quickly returning to blue.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH

"Stay behind Potter!" called Professor Black from the front of the room,
Harry sighed packed away his books. He had been expecting this moment
for a while, Black had been glaring at him near constantly since term
began, and evidently the man had reached the end of his tether.

When the classroom emptied the two men sat staring at each other. Harry
tried to ignore the angry grief in the Defence instructor, instead focusing
his eyes on a point to the right of the man.
"Remus Lupin and I were friends for 21 years Potter." Black finally said.
His voice tense. Harry said nothing, keeping his eyes on the wall.

"I saw the memories that Longbottom gave. You didn't kill Remus, you
murdered him." Harry felt his jaw clench, and he could feel a vein beating
in his temple.

"I did what I had to Professor." Harry answered, his voice even

"LIAR!" shouted Black, slamming his open hand against the desk. Harry
flicked his eyes towards the man and saw that his face was furious.
Surreptitiously, Harry felt to make sure his wand was still easily
accessible.

"It sickens me Potter, to see you walk around, Head Boy, order of Merlin,
special award for services to the school, like some sort of fucking hero,
when you are nothing but a cold murderer." Harry shook his head at the
Professors words but Black evidently didn't notice, he was too caught up in
his rant.

"The papers write it like you saved the fucking world, Remus was down,
injured! You could have bound him, you could have stunned him, but you
had to fucking kill him, because your nothing but a traitorous bastard, just
like your father."

"I AM NOT MY FATHER!" Harry finally yelled out, cutting Sirius off, the
man glared at him, and Harry stood up, his chair clattering to the floor
behind him.

"I understand that your friend is dead, and I am sorry, Remus Lupin was a
good man. He was kind to me, and I killed him. I know that, you don't
have to fucking remind me Professor. I killed my father and a good man in
the same night. You don't need to tell me Professor, It's not the sort of
thing you forget." Professor Black seemed stunned for a moment.

"Get out Potter." Black drew his wand and Harry tensed, but the man only
flicked it viciously, causing the door to burst off its hinges, "get the hell
out now!"

Harry left quickly, he was furious at himself for losing control, the feeling
in his throat grew more pronounced as he remembered the look in Blacks
eyes. Turning a corner, Harry stopped and leant his head against the wall,
taking deep breaths as he regained control of his emotions, forcing them
behind a shield of Occlumency.

He stood there, leaning against a wall with his eyes shut for a few
moments, ridding himself of the emotions of self-pity and grief. As he
finally got a grip of his emotions, he heard the familiar clunk clunk that
mean Moody was approaching.

"Alright Lad?" the imposter asked, Harry nodded and Moody nodded
gruffly, "Follow me."

The two made their way down to Moody's office on the floor below. The
room was littered with objects, Harry recognised the sneakoscope and foe
glass, but others, such as the thing that looked like a little satellite dish, or
the piece of string balanced between two poles was alien to him. Harry
waited as Moody flicked his wand and erected a few advanced privacy
wards

"Is it done?" Harry asked, taking a seat in front of the desk, Barty took a
long swig from his hipflask and grimaced,

"Disgusting stuff." He wiped his lip with the back of his hand, "aye, it's
done. Four champions." Harry nodded,

"He can't back out? There's no loophole?" Moody shook his horrifically
disfigured head.

"It's a binding contract, his name and magical signature are on that cup, no
escape." Harry smirked and gave the man a nod.

"Good, we had best get to the feast, it starts shortly." Harry stood and left,
Moody following a few minutes behind, and made his way to the great
hall.

The feast had already begun as Harry took his usual seat at the centre of
the Slytherin table, greeting his friends warmly he filled up his plate and
ate slowly as he awaited the end of the feast. He felt a small knot in his
stomach as the anticipation for the announcement began.

Finally, after what felt like an age, the puddings were cleared away and
silence instantly fell across the hall. Dumbledore stood proudly, his eyes
twinkling madly and his face showing delighted excitement.

"I believe the hour has nearly come for us to learn the identity of our
individual school champions." He paused, "whoever is chosen, I wish the
very best of luck, I am sure you will represent your schools to the very
best of your ability." There were scattered bursts of applause, but for the
most part, the school was silent, staring in excitement at the dancing blue
flames.

Suddenly, with a flash, the flames turned white and a piece of parchment
burst from the body of the goblet. With a deft hand, Dumbledore snatched
it from the air and unfolded it.

"The champion for Durmstrang, will be Viktor Krum!" There was a storm
of applause and several whistles, Krum stood from the Slytherin table
looking surly and slouched over to Dumbledore, who directed him through
a side door off the hall.

The hall went silent again, and waited for a few moments, when the flames
turned white again, Harry noted with surprise that the parchment which
flew up from the goblet was pink and seemed to be decorated with patterns
of leaves, Dumbledore's eyebrows raised as he caught the ugly paper, but
he unfolded it gallantly.

"Representing Beauxbatons, shall be Fleur Delacour." The hall applauded

again, the boys especially so, as Fleur gracefully rose Harry understood
why, the girl was flawless, with platinum blonde hair and perfect features.
To Harry's surprise, he saw that the rest of the Beauxbatons students
looked rather unhappy with the decision, indeed, two girls had actually
burst into tears.

Fleur disappeared through the door, and the hall fell silent once again. The
entire student body seemed to be leaning forward, eager to learn who the
Hogwarts champion would be, and Harry felt his heart hammering in his
chest.

The Goblet flashed white again, and a singed piece of white parchment
flew through the air, with a sharp grab, Dumbledore caught it in his closed
hand. The aged Headmaster unfolded it with nimble fingers and his entire
countenance seemed to take on a rather resigned appearance.

"The Champion for Hogwarts shall be… Harry Potter."

There you have it, usual plea for reviews, I think It will take around
4/5 chapters for year four, and we get into the second arc of this story

Love you all

Marshall Angmar
17. Chapter 17

Okay, Okay. Hold up!

I know what you must be saying: "Marshall! two chapters in less than
24 hours? that's like 12000 words, what are you? some kind of typing
machine?"

The answer is yes. Yes I am.

I intend to complete fourth year in around 5/6 chapters, and then I will
move onto the next stage of the story, many thanks to my reviewers,
they are all so kind and provide excellent feedback, I also once again
give praise to my incredible beta, John Foxton, who has now asked me
to tell you not to read his fanfiction, as it is apparently not his best
work, and he is now much happier working as a beta, rather than an
author. his words.

The reason this chapter came so fast, is because it is either fanfiction,

or exam revision, anyone out there dealing with A levels?

On with the story!

Chapter 16

"The Champion for Hogwarts shall be… Harry Potter."

The Slytherin table around Harry leapt to their feet to scream their
approval. Harry put a broad smile across his face and stood up. The rest of
the school was cheering to, except for some of the Gryffindor table Whilst
Harry may not be popular outside Slytherin due to his father, his
prestigious skill and power were renowned throughout the student Body,
and Harry rather believed that most students would rather have a Slytherin
Triwizard winner than a Gryffindor Triwizard loser.

With a straight back and head held high, Harry strode confidently to the
front of the hall, he nodded to the headmaster and then to Snape, before
following Krum and Fleur into the side room. As he passed through the
door, he found himself in a small, well lit withdrawing room. There was a
fire burning merrily in the grate and several portraits lining the walls.

Harry took note of the other champions, Fleur was sat on one of the sofa's
examining Harry with an air of aloof disregard, whilst Krum had ignored
Harry entirely, leant against the wall next to the fire, staring deep into the
depths.

"'arry Potter, Madam Maxime did razzer suspect it would be you who was
made champion." Fleur stated with a small smile. Harry gave her a smirk

"And yourself? Did you disagree with her?"

"mais non, I was sure it would be you, you 'ave an impressive record."
Harry gave her a charming smile. Krum strode over and looked at Harry
and Fleur with a small smile.

"So, ve are the best of our schools. It is a gut thought no?" he asked, Harry
chuckled and nodded, whilst Fleur blushed delicately.

"eet is a nice thought." Harry opened his mouth to agree, when suddenly
the door opened. Harry turned around and hid a smirk when he saw
Longbottom. The boy looked torn between shocked horror and jubilation.

"What eez the matter?" asked Fleur, looking confused, "do zey want us
back in the 'all?" Neville shook his head slowly, and collapsed against the
wall.

Suddenly the door burst open again, and a storm of people entered, the
three heads of school, Snape, Moody, Bagman and Crouch. Maxime strode
in and immediately started talking in rapid French to Fleur, whilst
Karkaroff stood next to Viktor in silence.

"Neville," began Dumbledore calmly "Did you put your name in the
Goblet of fire?"
"No! I swear Professor, I don't know what happened!" Dumbledore looked
at him intently,

"Did you get an older student to put your name in for you?" Neville
reddened,

"No, of course not! Professor I swear!"

"But of course 'e is lying!" chimed in Maxime,

"I agree. He must have tricked the Goblet." Stated Karkaroff, twirling his
goatee angrily.

"Evidently Hogwarts wanted two bites of ze apple!" agreed Maxime, "I

demand that we be allowed to enter anozzer champion for our schools!"
Karkaroff nodded brightly.

"An excellent Idea Madam Maxime, it is only fair Dumbledore7!"

"If I may Headmistress, Highmaster." Harry spoke, and the room went
silent as they all turned to look at him, Madam Maxime gestured for him
to continue.

"Well, from Hogwarts perspective, this is a bad thing surely?"

"How do you figure that? Hogwarts now has half the champions!" Spat
Karkaroff angrily,

"Well, from my understanding, the champion and one other are to take part
in the duelling competition, Hogwarts, with two champions, must now
enter myself and Neville into the duelling ring." Karkaroff quickly
cottoned on, and smirked coldly, but Maxime evidently didn't understand
where he was going.

"Well Madam, Neville is a fourth year, and a subpar student at best, that
would give the other schools an overwhelming advantage in that aspect of
the competition at the very least." Neville bristled at being called subpar,
but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Mr Potter, perhaps it would be wise not to make such derogatory

accusations about other students whilst I am present." Dumbledore stated
firmly, Harry held up a hand as an apology.

"Perhaps the boy has a point my dear Olympe, perhaps this is a blessing
for our schools." Karkaroff stated, his eyes alive as the reflection of the
fire glinted in them.

"Perhaps." Maxime conceded, "but they will still have two people in the
main tournament!" Karkaroff shrugged,

"Are you suggesting your champion will be unable to best a fourteen year
old boy?" Asked Moody from the door, "Because if so, perhaps
Beauxbatons is not quite the school I thought it was!" Maxime flushed.

"We can certainly beat 'im, 'e is a little boy, nozzing more." Neville
flushed a deeper scarlet.

"Perhaps we should consult our judges, instead of arguing our cases like
this." Suggested Dumbledore, the three heads of school turned to face
Crouch.

"We must adhere to the rules." The man stated firmly, "and the rules state
clearly that those whose names come out of the Goblet of fire are
magically bound to compete." Dumbledore sighed gravely,

"I had feared as much." He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Well then
Neville, much as it pains me to accept, I am afraid you will simply have to
do the best you can."

"Professor?" Neville asked shocked,

"I am sorry Neville, the age limit was only introduced to add a level of
safety to the situation, rest assured I will investigate this matter fully, you
will remain as safe as I can ensure."

"He vill not be given special treatment in the tournament." Karkaroff

stated firmly, "He vill be treated the same as the rest of ze champions."

"Agreed." Stated Madam Maxime, and Dumbledore, Crouch and Bagman

nodded. Dumbledore turned to face the two ministry men.

"Gentlemen, as it is unlikely we will sort this out tonight, perhaps we

could instead inform our champions of their impending task?" Crouch
stepped forward,

"Yes. Agreed." His voice was clipped and business like, "The first task of
the main tournament will be held on November 24th, one week before this
shall be the first round of the duelling tournament." He spoke as though he
knew everything, and without any inflection at all, "The first task shall be
a test of your cunning, your daring and your ability to cope with danger in
the face of the unknown. Therefore, you shall not be informed of the
nature of your task. You may only bring your wands."

The meeting dispersed soon after that, Fleur and Maxime hurried off,
talking together in low undertones in rapid French. Krum slouched out the
door, throwing a nod in Harry's direction before leaving, Karkaroff
followed soon after his champion.

"Harry, Neville, I would suggest that you return to your common rooms, I
am sure there is plenty of celebration awaiting you." His eyes twinkled a
little bit, and Neville grinned. Harry kept his face clear and left the room.

As he approached the steps down to the dungeons he was stopped,

"You're wrong Potter." Called Neville, Harry turned to face him and found
the Gryffindor was standing against the banister,

"I beg your pardon Longbottom?" he drawled,

"You're wrong about me, I won't be a liability." Harry grinned mockingly,
and turned, calling over his shoulder as he left

"I pray you're right Longbottom, I pray you're right!"

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHHPPHPHPHPH
PH

Dumbledore had been correct, as soon as Harry opened the wall to

Slytherin, he was bombarded by shouts and cheers. He strode through the
door and smiled broadly at his friends, accepting a butterbeer from Marcus
and taking a long swig,

"Was Neville expelled Potter?" Malfoy asked jokingly,

"Sadly no, but he is forced to compete" There were groans sounded from
amongst the assembled Slytherins, and one boy chimed up from the back,

"Don't look so glum, maybe he'll die!" Everyone laughed, and the party
started properly, there was drink, food and music, and several students
ended up partying all night and going straight to lessons on zero sleep the
next day.

With less than a month until the first task, and only seventeen days until
the duelling tournament, Harry and Neville were worked hard by the two
professors. Moody was focusing on Neville, whilst Harry was drilled by
Flitwick in form and agility, which he discovered was incredibly effective
at tiring him out.

Whilst Harry didn't like Neville, he was impressed by the boy's work ethic.
Moody was a harsh taskmaster, duelling Neville into the ground several
times a day, often leaving the boy dripping sweat and covered in painful
boils, despite this however, Neville did consistently try his utmost, and as
time progressed, his improvement became more obvious.

Whilst Neville was by no means capable of Duelling Harry evenly, he was

probably better than the rest of the fourth years, and maybe some of the
fifth years.

November passed in rather an unpleasant manner for Harry, he woke early

each morning to exercise, where he joined Viktor Krum for his workouts,
went to breakfast and had his lessons, which remained extremely taxing,
the professors were determined to prepare the students for the upcoming
NEWT's.

After lunch, he would report to Moody and Flitwick for two hours of
duelling training, followed by afternoon lessons. In the evenings he would
laze around the common room, resting his aching muscles and attempting
to complete the mountain of homework assigned on time.

On the fourteenth of November, Harry was pulled from his transfiguration

teacher by a terrified looking third year.

"Please Professor?" he asked, McGonagall gave him a raised eyebrow and

he quivered,

"Professor, Mr Potter is needed upstairs. I believe it's for the tournament."

McGonagall nodded and smiled at Harry.

"Good luck Potter, you are exempt from Homework, off you go." Harry
nodded and quickly packed up his books. The two boys walked in silence
to the fourth floor and reaching an unassuming door, the third year
gestured for Harry to enter.

It was an old classroom, inside were the judges and other champions, who
both looked up at Harry as he entered.

"Ah, Mr Potter, welcome, welcome!" called Bagman, bounding forward

and grabbing his arm. "We are all here for the weighing of the wands
ceremony. We've got to make sure your wands in working order, it's your
most important weapon after all!"

Harry nodded and shook himself free of the man's grip, it didn't appear to
deter his enthusiasm, as he just grinned wider,
"This is Mr Ollivander, our wand expert, and this is Rita Skeeter, who will
be writing a small piece for the Daily Prophet on the tournament."

"Maybe not that small Ludo." The reporter said, eyeing Harry as though he
were a piece of meat, Harry flashed her a charming grin, which seemed to
take her off guard.

"If we are all here?" asked Dumbledore from the front, "Perhaps we can
begin."

Ollivander stepped forward, he looked just as wispy and frail as the last
time Harry had seen him. "Mr Krum, perhaps we could start with you?" he
asked. Viktor stepped forward and proffered his wand hilt first to the wand
maker.

Ollivander took it in both hands, holding it up to the light and running his
hands across its surface.

"A Gregorivitch creation unless I'm much mistaken?" he asked curiously,

Krum nodded, "Hornbeam and Dragon Heartstring, quite rigid, 10 ¼
inches?" He summoned a fountain of wine from the tip and deemed the
wand to be in fine condition before summoning Fleur.

"Hmm, Rosewood, with a core of… dear me" he looked at Fleur in

surprise, "A Veela hair?" he asked, Fleur proudly nodded,

"one of my grandmuzzers." So Fleur is a Veela, I suppose that explains

things then.

"well, I've never used Veela hair, I find it makes for rather temperamental
wands, but each to their own." He summoned a bouquet, and handed
flowers and wand to the French girl, who accepted them with a small
curtsey.

"Mr Potter?" Harry stood up and handed over his wand with some
reluctance. "Ah, this is one of mine!" he smiled happily, "Yew and Phoenix
tail feather, 12 ½ inches, very unyielding. I remember it well!" Harry
nodded with a smile, smirking to himself as he saw Dumbledore's look of
horrified recognition at the description of Harry's wand.

"I am impressed Mr Ollivander."

"I remember every wand I have ever sold Mr Potter, and yours was a most
curious case. Anyhow, your wand is in excellent condition." He produced
ringlets of smoke from Harry's wand before returning it to him.

Harry was bored by the rest of the proceedings, and couldn't wait for it to
end. However just as he was about to escape, the reporter declared that she
needed photo's.

The photos took forever. First it was group shots, followed by headshots,
followed by shots of the champions with their headmasters. Eventually,
well into Dinner, they were released and Harry was finally able to breathe
a breath of fresh air.

The day before the duelling tournament, Harry slept late and missed
breakfast. When he arrived in charms, it was to discover that many of the
students were wearing badges. Upon further inspection he realised that
they all stated the same thing,

Support Harry Potter, the real Hogwarts Champion.

Harry suppressed a grin, and fell into his usual seat. Marcus turned to him
to flash the badge, Harry waved him off,

"That's not all they do mate, Look!" Marcus touched his finger to the
badge and the words changed, they now read

Longbottom is a nob.

"Subtle." Harry complimented, Marcus shrugged,

"They get the point across, Malfoy was handing them out." Harry rolled
his eyes, but chuckled to himself. The day passed quickly, as the first
round of duels were the next day, Harry and Neville were given the day off
by their Drill Masters, instead of duels, they were treated to a lecture.

Moody was stood at the front of the large classroom they used for their
practices.

"The duelling champions are the best of Europe." He stated fiercely,

glaring at both Harry and Neville, "Fleur Delacour is probably the worst
duellist you will face tomorrow, but don't underestimate her, she is very
skilled in charms, she took her OWL a year early in the subject, and is
reckoned to be the best student practitioner in Western Europe. The other
duellist from Beauxbatons is a tricky bastard, he won the French National
duelling competition last year, from what I know, he's one of those
cunning little shits, loves deception and tricks, but doesn't have too much
power to back himself up."

"is he the biggest threat out there?" Harry asked, paying close attention,
Moody gave a bark of a laugh and grinned at Harry,

"You fucking wish. No, the biggest threat will be the Durmstrang addition,
Krum and Lytvyn. Krum is a monster, overpowers his spells and wears you
down, no finesse, no skill, just a battering ram who will hit you so hard
your grandkids will feel it, and unfortunately he's the weaker of the two."

"Lytvyn I imagine is rather good." Harry mused, considering the girl, she
held the air of someone dangerous. Moody nodded coarsely.

"Damn fucking right, all my information tells me that girl is borderline

psychotic. She won the Eastern European championship in her fifth year,
and became European under 21 champion this summer. She's fast, she's
smart and she knows every counter and deflection to the basic spells.
Longbottom, I won't beat around the bush. You're fucked." Harry snorted,
and Neville turned pink, but evidently the training with Moody taught him
to keep quiet, because he wisely kept his mouth closed.

"Potter, You can probably do it, but Christ boy, keep your guard up around
all of them, but especially Lytvtyn, that girl is bloody psychic at times,
don't fall for her traps, don't try to trick her. She's especially good at
transfiguration, but expect a lot of borderline dark magic, she's knows the
rules, and knows what she can and can't get away with."

When Harry left the classroom, he was feeling very conflicted, on the one
hand, this would be a true challenge, but on the other, he couldn't afford to
look weak and lose.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHHPPHPHPHPH
PH

The next day, Harry woke with a tight feeling in his stomach. As he rolled
out of bed, he discovered that a black duelling robe had been left on his
bed, the garment was clearly brand new, with green accenting and his
name written across the back.

He pulled on a pair of tight fitting black trousers and a white t shirt,

slipping the robe over the top. It was well fitted, allowing him unrestricted
movement, and he could tell that it contained numerous cooling charm as
well as weightless charms.

Heading down to breakfast, he received several pats on the back, and

muttered Good Luck's from well-wishers. As he entered the hall, he noted
Krum and Fleur were also wearing duelling robes, as were Mariya Lytvyn
and a wiry looking boy, with thick curly hair, and a rather vacant
expression.

Breakfast was a tense affair, Harry ate little, he didn't want to risk it all
coming up on the way out if he was hit by a retching curse.

The duels were to be held in the grounds. At 9 am, Harry and the rest of
the duellists were led out to a small tent, where Bagman was bouncing on
the balls of his feet.

"Greetings, the duels will follow the international rules, does everyone
know them?" they all nodded and Bagman beamed, "excellent, well, the
stands are set up, and you each have front row seats when you aren't
duelling." He proceeded to explain the location of the medical tent, who
would be judging, and the way points would be distributed,

10 points for a win, 0 for a loss, with 2 points available for each direct hit
onto an opponent.

When they were all lead out onto the stage, Harry had to admit he was
impressed. It was large, able to seat far more than twice the population of
Hogwarts and completely full. In the centre of the stadium was a full sized
duelling ring. Bagman lined them up in the centre of the arena before
casting the sonorous charm on himself.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first round of the Triwizard

tournament duelling competition!" There were cheers from the crowd, and
Harry closed his eyes and took deep breaths.

"Representing Beauxbatons, French duelling champion Jean Du Crest and

Fleur Delacour! Representing Durmstrang, she's from Ukraine, she's the
champion of Europe, it's Mariya Lytvyn, and he's the international
Quidditch Superstar, Viktor Krum!" There were deafening shouts, cheers
and boos from around the stands.

"Representing Hogwarts, He's head boy and Order of Merlin, Harry

Potter! And joining him, the boy-who-lived, Neville Longbottom!" the
Hogwarts students cheered wildly and Harry raised one hand in greeting.

"The first duel of the day is between Fleur Delacour and Neville
Longbottom, beginning in 15 minutes." The duellists all made their way to
the reserved section of seating for them. Harry was pleased to see that
some of his friends were there in support, Marcus, Olivia, and he was
especially pleased to see Miranda, who he greeted rather enthusiastically,
to wolf whistles from the crowd.

"Mr Longbottom, Miss Delacour, are you ready?" asked a professional

looking official, the two nodded, and the referee took a step back to the
edge of the circle,
"Obey my instructions at all times, defend yourselves at all times. Duel!"
the match was over depressingly quickly, despite a good opening from
Neville, Fleur easily overpowered him and within two minutes it was over.

Lytvyn fought Jean Du Crest next, and Harry learnt what Moody been
trying to impress on him, Jean was good, he used distraction and quick
casting very effectively, but Lytvyn didn't even blink, she circled him,
countering his curses before he sent them, and forcing him on the
defensive. Her movements were so controlled, so minimalistic, she made
no movement unless absolutely necessary, avoiding the few curses he got
off with only small jerks of his body.

There could be only one outcome, and three minutes later, Du Crest was
carried off the ring on a stretcher to have his wounds tended to. Harry
stood, squeezing Miranda's hand as he strode onto the ring against Krum.

The boy looked ready, his eyes were alert, and his movement's fluid, Harry
shook his hand before retreating to his position.

"Gentlemen, are you ready?" asked the referee, they both nodded, "okay,
obey my instructions at all times, defend yourself at all times. Duel!"

Krum immediately went on the offensive, and Harry quickly brought up a

shield. When the first reductor curse hit it, Harry blinked in surprise, the
spell was powerful, really powerful, and it was followed up by two more
equally strong curses.

Dropping his shield, Harry rolled to the left, snapping off two cutters at
the Bulgarians legs, Krum paused the relentless stream of curses and
shielded, barely pausing before he continued to hurl the powerful magics
at Harry.

Obscuro

Harry thought and the black curse shot at Krum who raised his shield, the
spell hit the invisible barrier and spread like a splash of ink, remaining in
the air, even after Krum dropped the shield.
Evidently Krum didn't know this spell, because he fumbled for a moment
trying to counter it, and during that time Harry was able to slip a piercing
curse through his defences. The curse struck him in his right arm, and
Viktor grunted in pain as a hole the width of a pencil and three inches deep
cut through him.

Finally removing the obscurement jinx, Krum continued his bombardment

of Harry. Rather than shield against the freight train of spells, Harry kept
mobile, dodging left and right and scoring points of small hits against
Krum. After several minutes, Harry managed to hit the Bulgarian with a
disarming charm, and Krums wand flew from his hand.

To Harry's surprise, this didn't appear to phase the Bulgarian, because he

simply charged straight at Harry, arms raised, The Slytherin boy dived to
his right and caught Krum with a stunning spell in the back, the Quidditch
star dropped to the floor with a grunt.

With the first round of the day over, Harry sat down and caught his breath,
sipping on some water and munching on a snack bar.

"At the end of the first round, Durmstrang lead with 18 points, Hogwarts
and Beauxbatons tied with 16 points."

"Who are you up against next?" Marcus asked, squinting at the board
which held the schedule,

"Delacour, which I'm told shouldn't be too hard." Marcus chuckled and the
two of them started a discussion about the impending Quidditch match.
Hogwarts was to be playing Beauxbatons the day before the first task.

"The next duel is between Neville Longbottom and Mariya Lytvyn." Called
the announcer and Neville stood up. Harry immediately grabbed the round
faced boy's arm in a tight grip,

"Longbottom, you're going to lose. Try to fail quickly, the longer you are
out there, the more opportunities it gives her to rack up points." Neville
scowled at him angrily and shook of his hand, Harry sighed and sat back in
his seat, dreading the outcome of this bout.

It was painful to watch, Lytvyn was toying with the boy, she sent
disfigurement charms and low powered cutters at Neville, most of which
he failed to block, after only 4 minutes of duelling Neville was sporting
antlers, purple hair, his robes had been slashed open from numerous
gashes and the boy saviour was bleeding heavily.

Harry saw Marcus next to him palm his face in exasperation as he looked
at the scoreboard. Lytvyn had already scored fifteen hits, putting
Durmstrang far in the lead.

"Bombarda!" shouted Neville pointing his wand at the girl, she neatly
sidestepped and returned fire with her own knee reversal hex. Neville
tripped and fell over, his wand falling out of his hand and skittering over
the floor. Neville stood up slowly before raising his hands as a sign of
surrender, ending the duel.

"That was exciting" Miranda declared sarcastically from next to him,

Harry smirked and nodded, Longbottom did have a rather magnificent lack
of skill, and thanks to him, Durmstrang had just gained over 40 points.

The duels carried on for several more hours, Harry beat the two French
students, managing to score respectably, despite the appalling record by
Neville, by the time of the final fight of the day, Harry vs Mariya,
Durmstrang were leading with 74 points, followed by Hogwarts with 48
points, nearly all of which were thanks to Harry, and Beauxbatons were a
close third with 44.

"Duellists, are you ready?" called the referee, Harry nodded, swiping his
wand experimentally from through the air.

"Obey my instructions at all times, defend yourselves at all times. Duel!"

The Ukrainian took a step to the right, Harry mirrored her, and the two
students began a steady circle around each other, wands held ready,
waiting for an opponent to make a mistake.

Harry feinted left, the girl mirrored him, Harry frowned, and they
continued their steady circle, the audience watching in eager anticipation.

Occulo Obscurus!

With a blinding flash of light, Harry attempted to blind his opponent, but
the girl was ready, she shut her eyes tight, and as soon as the light was
gone cast three piercing hexes at Harry's chest.

The spells flashed against his shield doing no damage. With a savage wave
of his wand, a ball of iron the size of a bludger flew at the Ukrainian,
which she avoided with a careful step to the left, returning fire with a
swathe of blue flames.

With a casual flick, the flames were dissipated, Harry and Mariya stood
opposite each other, neither had any wounds or marks, and Harry saw the
feral grin on her face.

With a sudden wave, Harry cast a smoke hex on the platform, obscuring
himself completely in the dense fog, dodging the three curses she sent as
his last location, Harry quickly cast the gemino charm, creating a mirror
image of himself to his left.

The fog vanished with a wave of the girl's wand, revealing the two Harry's.
She frowned cautiously, before unleashing a punishing volley of spells at
both the Harry's opposite her. The boy was careful though, making sure
that both he and his twin avoided the spells. It was difficult given the
precision and speed of the girls casting, but Harry managed it.

Imbrignis

The spray of sticky flaming oil shot from Harry's wand, rather than aim
directly for the girl, he used the intense flames to pen her in, restricting
her movements. Before too long, The ring had been reduced to a sea of
writhing flames.
Lytvyn was stood opposite him, sweating from the heat and glaring at
Harry. With a mocking gesture Harry invited her to continue the attack, an
invitation she duly took up.

The following exchange of magic would go down in Hogwarts history as

the most violent, bloody and incredible duel in living memory. The two
students hurled lethal spells around with brutal elegance, shielding,
dodging and counterattacking with eye watering speed.

After ten minutes of relentless spell casting, both Harry and Mariya
realised the end of the duel was near. They were exhausted and bleeding
from dozens of wounds, the blood running down their faces as they
continued to fight with relentless aggression.

Harry had to admit that the girl was very impressive. The sheer variety and
speed with which she shot her spells was terrifying. Harry had been forced
onto the defensive several times already. With a muttered incantation,
Harry summoned a whip of fire, and grinned as he saw the Ukrainian girl
summon the same.

The strings of white hot flame flashed and collided, bright sparks and
screeches echoing around the stadium as the intense magic fought against
each other, Harry drew his arm back and sent the whip flying at the girl,
she dodged quickly and efficiently, dropping her own whip and casting a
blasting curse at him, Harry intercepted the curse with the rope of fire
before dropping the spell.

What happened next was so fast and intense that Harry couldn't fully recall
the exchange of spells, what he did know was that he had cast over a dozen
spells in twenty seconds, which the Durmstrang student had matched.
Harry felt a piercing hex pass through his shield, and gasped at the
stabbing feeling in his abdomen, evidently however he had also
succeeding in breaking through her shield, because the girl was thrown
through the air, crashing hard into the barrier that protected the crowd.

Clutching a hand to his bleeding stomach, Harry staggered a little, but

managed to cast a stunning charm at the girl, the red jet of light struck
Mariya just as she was opened her eyes after the fall, and she slumped
back unconscious.

"Durmstrang unable to continue. Hogwarts win." Called the slightly awed

referee, his eyes wide as he inspected the incredible damage to the
duelling ring. The once pristine surface had been pockmarked with holes
and the decorative surface had been completely burnt off.

Four Mediwizards hurried onto the stage and assisted both Harry and the
unconscious girl out into the healing tent.

Harry sat back in his bed with his eyes closed, feeling his skin knit itself
together as the healers waved their wands and forced potions down his
throat. Miranda walked in with a frustrated look on her face as she looked
critically at the pinks patches of flesh on his chest where the wounds were
freshly healed.

"Potter, when I dated you, I was under the impression that you were a
competent wizard." She looked away from him and inspected her nails,
Harry chuckled softly, the noise hurting his bruised ribs.

"Apologies Miss Rookwood, I understand how my defeat of the under 21

European duelling champion demonstrates incompetency on my part."
Miranda shrugged, not looking up from her hand.

Olivia evidently thought however that his achievement was worthy of

more praise, she skipped over and gave him a tight hug, ignoring his gasp
of pain,

"You were amazing Harry, I wouldn't have lasted ten seconds! How do you
move like that?!" Harry gave her a grin but didn't answer, instead shifting
to a more comfortable position and shrugging his shoulders.

"How many points did I collect in the end?"

"26, that Russian bitch got 10, so Hogwarts is a comfortable second."

Marcus informed him, still looking somewhat in awe of Harry's display.
Harry was thankful Lytvyn spoke so little English, as he was sure the
powerful girl wouldn't like Marcus's description of her.

"I can deal with second" Harry said with a smile, stretching out and
closing his eyes.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHHPPHPHPHPH
PH

The following day was the first Academic match between the three
schools. Harry attended to support the school, as was his duty as head boy,
and watching the students answer obscure questions on Astronomy and
Muggle studies, Harry was very glad that he hadn't joined the team, how
the hell was he supposed to know what effect a new moon had on the
growth of the rare African herb Mudgie Fakab?

The week passed pretty quickly and the first task drew near, two days
before it was due to begin, Harry was taken to one side by Professor
Snape. The man had a serious look on his face as he led Harry back to his
office.

"Potter. What I am about to tell you is highly confidential, and I want you
to understand that my telling you is not meant to be interpreted as you
being a subpar wizard." Harry looked in surprise at the greasy haired
Professor.

"I always suspected you considered me something of a dunderhead

Professor." Snape sneered at him, though it lacked his usual venom,

"Over the years you have developed to be… adequate Potter." Harry
grinned, and bit his tongue to stop himself releasing a sarcastic comment.
Snape sat back in his high chair and surveyed Harry over his long hooked
nose.

"Potter, it has come to my attention that the first task is to involve the
champions going head to head with a Dragon." Harry blinked, using his
Occlumency to quash the look of surprise that would otherwise have
shown on his face.

"A dragon? Am I allowed to know the breed?" Dragon breeds varied a lot,
even with Harry's limited magical creature knowledge he knew that.

"I do not know, although several have been imported into Hogwarts
grounds, one for each champion I presume." Harry nodded,

"How did you acquire this information professor?" he asked respectfully,

Snape looked into a corner of his office, and Harry saw a slowly bubbling
cauldron.

"I have been requested to brew large amounts of burn salve for the Dragon
Handlers, I thought it prudent to inquire what it would be used for." Harry
nodded and leant forward, staring into his housemasters eyes.

"Why are you telling me? I thought it against the rules." Snape smirked
coldly,

"Like I said Potter, It is not because I was concerned for your welfare…"

"I'm touched." Harry responded sarcastically, Snape quirked an eyebrow,

"10 points from Slytherin for cheek Potter, I know for a fact that Karkaroff
knows, and Hagrid showed Longbottom and Maxime the beasts last night,
so the other champions know, I would not allow a Slytherin to be beaten by
Longbottom, Minerva would never let me live it down." Harry chuckled
and thanked the Professor.

"Potter, it hardly needs to be said, but do not be a fool, a dragon is a very

dangerous beast. I would prefer for Hogwarts to keep its current Head Boy.
Harry nodded and stood, shaking Snapes hand.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHHPPHPHPHPH
PH
There you go, Chapter 16, It's something of a filler, and also starts up
a few plans I have in the pipeline for this book.

I have also begun to flesh out my plans for post hogwarts, and in my
humble opinion, it's quite cool. Voldemorts rise has a lot of historical
precedent, so it should be realistic. But I will endeavour to make it
more exciting.

Quick Question, should Post Hogwarts Harry be a politician and gain

Power legally, or be more of a terrorist like Voldemorts first rise to
power was? leave answers in reviews, as well as any thoughts,
comments or criticisms! thank you!

Marshall Angmar

PS, I've been advised that a great way to gain more interest and air
time for a story is through communities, so if anyone knows of a
community this story would fit in, or has a community they would like
to add this story to, that would be terrific! Thank you.
18. Chapter 18

Good Evening Folks... actually it's morning, Good Morning folks,

Here is the latest instalment, after some complex maths and chin
scratching, I have decided that the Goblet will actually be completed
in two more chapters, rather than the four I had thought,

Anyway, You all asked for something epic for the fight vs. the dragon,
and I hope that the way I did it was realistic, but cool, as I could
hardly have Harry stand against the dragon and curse it into oblivion,
as I would no doubt be criticized for being unrealistic. (Actually, I did
write it like that, but then realised that it was absurd and so rewrit it.)

Please Enjoy

Chapter 17

Harry sat tiredly in the Library, the entire school was seemingly deserted,
all the students and teachers had gone to watch the match between
Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, but he had chosen to remain behind. There
was an impressive stack of books on his table on dragons, and a piece of
parchment on the desk before him, he flicked through one of the books and
read the page quickly, before jotting his findings down on the yellow page,

Dragon Breeds:

Welsh Green: Traditionally docile, poor in flight and relatively slow on

land. Powerful fire and strong hide.

Chinese Fireball: fast on land, incapable of flight, very powerful fire,

weakest hide.

Ukrainian Ironbelly: Slow on Land and in Flight, medium fire, Very strong
Hide.
Swedish Shortsnout: Average in most every regard

Hungarian Horntail: Fast on land and in air, strong fire, relatively weak
hide. Horned tail

Peruvian vipertooth: Very fast on land, medium in air, weak hide, weak
flame, very poisonous bite.

Hebridean Black: endangered, smallest breed, fast in air and flight, weak
flame and hide.

The page held only limited information, but Harry knew that to go against
any breed unprepared could very well be deadly, he groaned as he saw
quite how large the pile of books before him was, with a sigh, he returned
to the first book and began to read on effective ways to subdue and
overpower the majestic beasts.

Three hours later Harry gave up on his reading as he heard the trampling
of hundreds of feet on the stairs. He stood and stretched, working the
stiffness out of muscles that had remained still for too long and made his
slow way back to the dungeons.

When he entered the common room, it was to find a bright and cheerful
mood, and it quickly became evident why, as Marcus came over to him
and threw his arm around his neck, crooning about how he had scored six
goals against Beauxbatons.

"Marcus, stop singing for fuck's sake, you sound like a troll!" The chaser
frowned, but did as he was bid and closed his mouth.

"Final score then?" he asked with a wry smile, Marcus grinned,

"580 – 320, we creamed them, bloody frogs didn't know what hit them!"
Harry grinned, and gave the massive boy a pat on the back.

"That's what Hogwarts stands for, destruction of the French, great job!"
Marcus chuckled before wandering off to regale the rest of the house with
stories of his brilliance.

Harry sat down at a table in the corner and continued his research on
Dragons, hoping to find something that could help him.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Well now, each champion must take from this bag a model of... the thing
you are facing, Ladies first." Bagman held out the bag to Fleur, who
cautiously placed her hand inside and withdrew a small figure of a dragon,
Harry recognised it as a Swedish Short snout. Bagman offered the bag to
Harry and he carefully put his hand into the bag and drew his own model.

Iron Grey and stockily built, Harry found himself clutching a moving
replica of a Ukrainian Ironbelly, the beast looked at him and opened its
mouth in a silent roar.

Krum picked out a Peruvian Vipertooth and Neville chose last, getting a
Chinese fireball. Harry could have chuckled from the look on the boy's
face, it had turned a sickly green, whilst his hands were balled into fists so
tightly that they had turned white.

"Excellent, excellent, well now that we all know what the opponent is to
be, I can tell you that the object of the exercise is to capture a Golden Egg
from a nesting mother. The egg will be within a clutch of real eggs, and
your objective is to collect it, without dying. Any questions?" Bagman
looked around excitedly,

"How are ve scored?" asked Krum, his face displayed its usual surly
boredom, although his eyes were alert and fixed on the figurine currently
in his palm.

"ah, yes, the five judges will each score you out of ten, points are given for
the time taken and the complexity of magic displayed, points will be taken
for any damage you receive and if you damage any of the real eggs whilst
performing the task."
With no further questions, Bagman hurried off, warning Krum that he
would be first, followed by Fleur, then Harry, and finally Neville.

Around ten minutes after Bagman had left, there came a bang like a
cannon. The Bulgarian squared his shoulders and strode towards the tent
flap, wand clutched tightly in his hand.

Harry could hear nothing from outside the tent, and the silence was
somewhat unnerving, he looked around, Neville had sequestered himself
in the corner, he was sat on one of the uncomfortable chairs and looking at
the canvas ceiling with a look of despair on his face, Harry almost felt
sorry for the boy.

Fleur was standing around eight feet from Harry, her eyes were closed and
her lips were moving silently as she recited something to herself. Around
twenty minutes after Krum had left, the cannon boomed once more, and
the stunning blonde Veela's eyes flashed open.

Harry watched impassively as the girl left through the flap, as it opened,
Harry heard the booming cheers and roars of the crowd, but as the heavy
canvas fell closed once more, all noise was cut off, leaving just the two
Hogwarts champions in the room.

As the minutes slowly ticked by, Harry felt the nervous pit in his stomach
begin to grow, the canvas walls of the tent felt like they were closing in
and Harry paused to take a deep breath, when he released it, it came in
shuddering gasps, and Harry could feel his hand shaking.

Ukrainian Ironbelly, very large, slow, near impenetrable hide, dangerous

fire attack, typically rather stupid. Attack Plan 3. Harry replayed his
strategy in his head, praying to God, Merlin and whoever else was
listening, that they watch over him

BOOM!

Harry blinked, and sucked in a deep breath, drawing his wand and cutting
it through the air experimentally. He strode out through into the enclosure.
When Harry had grown accustomed to the dazzling sunlight, he found
himself in a great stone pit. It was easily 80 metres in diameter and
surrounded on all sides by cheering supporters. Across the open space in
front of him sat Harry's dragon.

The first thing he noticed was that reading in a book that something was
vast didn't really prepare one for the thing itself. The dragon was easily 20
feet tall, and three times that long. It's iron grey hide glimmered dully in
the bright morning light, each leg thicker than Harry across and held four
great claws as long as his arm.

The dragon was crouched protectively over the clutch of eggs beneath it,
its enormous head eyeing the stands cautiously, searching for danger, with
slow inevitability, the monsters head turned and its eyes landed on Harry.

For a second boy and dragon stared at one another, then the dragon opened
its mouth and released an ear splitting roar, Harry felt his entire body
vibrate and resisted the urge to cover his ears.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The crowd watched the Hogwarts champion puzzled. Harry Potter was
known throughout the school to be incredibly powerful and able to think
on his feet. However as they watched the task, the Hogwarts champion was
simply crouched behind a rock.

"Get on with it!" someone shouted and several people laughed. Evidently
Harry decided to follow the advice, for he stood and sprinted over to a
second rock, crouching behind that one to.

"Well Harry Potter, piqued as the favourite for this tournament has
apparently stumbled at the first hurdle" Bagman announced with his
magically magnified voice. "Despite high hopes, it would currently appear
that he is not capable of completing the task."

The crowd laughed again at the commentary, watching in puzzled

amusement as Harry ran from boulder to boulder and crouched behind
each one. After 6 minutes of this, the assembled masses had grown bored,
and began chatting amongst themselves.

"Well, apparently Mr Potter has finally decided to act!" cam Bagman's

voice, The Hogwarts head boy had stood and walked into the open, He was
facing the dragon calmly, his head held high, completely ignoring the
laughter from his school mates.

With a slow movement, Harry raised his wand to the heavens and yelled
something, the sound lost over the cheers of the crowd. Slowly, the two
dozen boulder he had been crouched behind began to shift and rattle.

Harry kept his spell pointed firmly in the air, and when he saw the slow
speed with which the boulders were moving, he jabbed his wand hard into
the air. The rocks flew together, forming an enormous hillock before him.
Striding forward, Harry waved his wand before plunging his fist into the
dirt at his feet.

"Sweet Merlin!" shouted Bagman in amazement, and it appeared to be a

sentiment shared by most of the crowd. With a massive rumbling crunch,
an enormous figure rose from the pile, 25 feet tall, with rough limbs the
size of tree trunks made of stone.

Harry smirked broadly as his golem took shape, it had been an incredibly
taxing piece of magic, each stone had required a dozen runes, numerous
charms and the monster had even required some very tricky
transfiguration.

Harry stood at its side, barely reaching the behemoths knee, and with a
smug smile pointed his wand at the nesting dragon.

"Oppugno!" In the silent stadium, his shout could be heard by even the
furthest spectators. Harry grinned broadly, as with enormous crunching
steps, the golem began to advance and it closed the distance between itself
and the dragon in seconds.
The Ironbelly responded almost immediately, as soon as the stone giant
was in range, it opened its mouth and belched a torrent of raging flames.
Harry's creation didn't even flinch, it carried on its advance, and when the
flames finally died away, it revealed red hot, glowing stone. Harry watched
pleased as his monstrous creation hurled a heavy punch into the Dragons
neck, and Rocky hand crunching heavily into the beast's thick hide sending
the beast reeling.

Ignoring the fight for a moment, Harry cast silencing, disillusionment and
anti-odour charms on himself and hurried forward. As he reached the
dragon nest, he could feel the heat of Dragon flame, as the Golem and
Dragon continued their epic fight. Dodging enormous feet that stampeded
around the enclosure, Harry clambered over the nest.

The Golden Egg was very easy to locate, it lay right in the middle and
Harry scooped it up. The dragon didn't notice anything, for Harry's stone
monster had managed to catch it in a headlock, and was currently
pounding away at the Ironbelly's shoulder with its enormous stone fists.

Harry hurried out of the fight zone, and when he was what he judged a safe
distance away, he dropped his concealment charms and severed the
connection between his magic and the stone behemoth. With a rumbling
crash, the monster crumbled to the ground, where it remained as inanimate
and innocuous stone.

Harry grinned as he watched the wounded and exhausted dragon collapse

to the floor, its breath coming in heavy pants. Turning on his heel, Harry
left the enclosure to the roaring cheers of the stunned crowd.

Finding himself in a medical tent, Harry shook off the Matronly healer
instead walking to join the crowd. He saw the waving of his friends and
wandered over to join them, yawning as he did so, summoning a giant
made of stone was taxing work.

"That was incredible Harry!" Clara shouted, "Did you see it when it
punched the Dragon? Just… Boom!" Harry grinned tiredly and collapsed
into an available chair,
"Boom." He agreed, chuckling at the excitable half Spanish girls antics.

"And, following that mind boggling display of control and power, Mr

Potter collects his egg in fifteen minutes, a minute faster than Miss
Delacour but two minutes slower than Mr Krum, it should be noted, that
during Mr Potter's trial, no eggs were smashed, and Mr Potter himself was
harmed in no way."

"How do they score the champions?" Harry asked,

"Judges shoot the score out, judged out of fifty, Krum got 42, as some of
his eggs got busted, and Delacour got 39, as she got burned." Marcus piped
out, Harry nodded and turned to face the table of judges. The five of them
were consulting together and seemed to be disagreeing over something.

"And we, the judges, have decided upon scores for Mr Potter." Bagman
shouted, Harry watched intensely.

Maxime was first, and with a wave of her wand shot a nine out of the end
of her wand. Dumbledore gave him a nine, Karkaroff gave him 7, Crouch
10, and Bagman 10. Harry nodded his head pleased.

"Mr Potter therefore has a score of 45 points, putting him in first place."
Harry grinned and sat back to watch the final champion.

Neville's approach was… unorthodox, Harry decided. The boy had

summoned his broom and was attempting to tempt his dragon into flying
after him. Unfortunately for the boy Saviour, his dragon, the Chinese
fireball was incapable of flying, and instead watched him from the land,
sending long steams of fire at him.

After ten minutes of watching Neville bait the dragon, Harry began to
grow bored, unless Longbottom changed his tactic, he was going to end up
human barbeque, several of the fireballs… fireballs had been extremely
close to frying him.
Eventually, Neville evidently agreed, for suddenly he dived down, dodging
a spurt of flame, the Boy-wonder attempted to fly beneath the Dragons
outstretched talons and collect the eggs. Unfortunately, Neville once again
revealed his ignorance of Dragon Breeds, in this case, the fireballs
incredible speed.

Quick as a flash, the long neck of Neville's dragon lashed out towards the
boy and its long teeth caught the tail of his Firebolt, crunching the
streamlined twigs. Harry winced as Longbottom lost all command of the
broom as it steered off in an uncontrolled dive and crashed hard into the
rocks surrounding the nest.

Dragon Handlers swarmed from hidden alcoves as the Boy-Who-Lived

bounced several times on the hard rocks, coming to a halt in a completely
exposed patch of stone, apparently unconscious.

The dragon handlers were successful in subduing the dragon, and Harry
watched as one of them grabbed Neville and hurriedly dragged him out of
the way, whilst his companions fired dozens of stunning spells into the
relatively weak hide of the Chinese Fireball.

When the judges gave Neville the score of 15, Harry couldn't suppress his
incredulous look, No special magic, and the boy had even been unable to
complete the task, whilst he would never admit it to the unpleasant
Durmstrang Highmaster, Karkaroff's score of 1 seemed most fair to him.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The school gradually returned to normal after the first task, Harry had
postponed working on solving the egg clue, which simply screamed at him
with no discernible pattern or words, until the Christmas holidays.

Harry was rather enjoying the current lull in activities, even if some of his
friends were fretting over the recently announced Yule Ball. Harry was
rather enjoying watching as most of the population panicked over the
night, Harry was feeling none of their concerns.
Scarcely an hour after Snape had announced that there was to be a ball
held in celebration of Yule, Harry had received a letter from a rather fierce
looking owl.

Harry,

I understand there is a ball this Christmas, and you will be pleased to

know that I accept the invitation you have no doubt been planning to send
me.

I will send you acceptable robes shortly.

Miranda

Harry had read the short note with eyebrows so high, that Terrence who
had been sitting opposite him, had felt the need to read the letter that
created such a reaction. Harry was then forced to endure the rather crude
jokes made by his friends. Only Harry's promise of informing his
girlfriend about their comments finally shut them up.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Harry was sat in the library, reading a book on the development of the
Wizengamot as he wasted time waiting for Dinner. Putting down the
tedious tome with a sigh, he watched in detached surprise as a thick cloud
of dust flew from the wrinkled yellow pages.

Laying his head back against the uncomfortable chair Harry spotted Viktor
lurking behind some book shelves.

"Krum?" he asked with a puzzled expression on his face, the Bulgarian

looked up and saw Harry studying him, he flushed and stalked over
towards Harry.

"Good afternoon Harry,"

"What are you doing?" he asked, trying to sound casual. Harry chuckled
when he saw the Quidditch superstar shuffle his feet. Since their duel,
Harry and Viktor had developed a sense of easy camaraderie, they
exercised together each morning, and had developed into, if not friends,
certainly close acquaintances.

"I vas… that is to say, I vas looking for a book." Harry eyed him
suspiciously, his green eyes locking onto Viktor's steel grey ones.

"Perhaps I can help. I know the library well, what book is it?" Harry
grinned as he watched the Quidditch Player blink quickly as he thought up
a suitable answer,

"Magical Languages. It's for the Second task." Viktor looked almost
hopeful that Harry would believe him

"For someone looking for a book, you looked rather sinister Mr Krum,
next time browse instead of lurking, it'll be good for your image." Viktor
glared at him, but said nothing, merely looking at something over Harry's
shoulder.

Harry turned, but saw nobody except for the bushy haired Granger, the girl
looked up at Viktor and her face burned red, before she hurriedly went
back to her book, burying her head in its ancient pages. Harry turned back
to the Bulgarian with a small smirk,

"Granger? Really?" the seeker looked determinedly at his hands and said
nothing. "I take it you want to ask her to the Ball?" Viktor still refused to
look at him, but nodded minutely.

Harry stood up, and smirked at the panicked look in Krum's eyes. He
walked over to the Gryffindor fourth year, and examined the book he was
reading: Subjugation and suppression of Magical Creatures.

"Granger." Harry greeted, the girl looked up at him stonily, her gaze
meeting his head on, the level of dislike in her eyes confused Harry, had he
ever done something quite so malicious to her to cause such a feeling of
dislike? He didn't think so, last time they had met, he had saved her life…
twice.

"Yes Potter?" she asked in clipped tones, Harry smiled charmingly, which
seemed to disarm the renowned bookworm.

"What are you reading such a terrible book for, the author was an idiot."
Hermione glared at him,

"The author was not an idiot, just because his point of view disagrees with
the generally accepted truth, doesn't make it any less valid!" she lectured,
her voice was rather condescending and bored,

"Granger, chapter eight of that book puts forward the supposition that
wizards and witches are repressed by Muggles, he's an idiot."

"He presents a new idea that differs from yours, and you declare him a
fool. That's rather close minded of you!" Harry chuckled,

"He presents a notion so ridiculous, that to do anything other than reject it

out of hand shows you to be a naïve little girl who can't use her mind to
develop intelligent thought about what she is reading." Hermione flushed a
deep scarlet but said nothing, Harry stood there, briefly looking over the
notes she had written for something called SPEW, but decided that
extended conversation with the girl would give him a headache.

"By the way Granger, Viktor wants to ask you to accompany him to the
Yule ball, please say yes so he will stop lurking in here, it's rather off-
putting." Harry turned back to the Bulgarian, and smirked as he saw the
International Celebrity slowly banging his head against the table,
bemoaning the day he had ever met Harry Potter.

Hermione fluttered,

"Me? I don't know, I hadn't planned on going, but I suppose, that is to

say…. I barely know him…" Harry headed off what had the potential to be
the entire thought process of a lonely fourteen year old girl by holding his
hands up.

"Granger, for Goodness sake, I don't want to know your answer, Vikors
just a coward, I like doing him favours."

Harry then turned and left, offering the Bulgarian a pleasant smile as he
left the room.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

It was Christmas day, and this year it appeared that the whole school had
decided to remain for the celebrations. The staff had evidently decided to
put in extra effort with the celebrations, so in addition to the usual twelve
enormous Christmas trees, the entrance hall had been enchanted to snow
gently, suits of armour would recite Christmas carols and live fairies were
dancing around the corridors sprinkling their dust wherever they went.

It was seven thirty, and the ball was due to start in thirty minutes, Harry
was waiting in the Entrance Hall for Miranda, whilst Viktor and Fleur were
beside him.

Viktor was wearing a deep crimson, martial jacket, covered in Gold braid
and decoration, and Harry rather thought he looked rather intimidating.
Fleur was dressed in a stunning silver gown, which flowed elegantly down
to the floor, the dress was completely backless, and her date, Roger Davies
looked to be unable to take his eyes off her. Harry himself was dressed in
exactly what Miranda had sent him.

Rather than dress him up in the traditional Dress robes, Harry was instead
wearing a double breasted dark grey, fitted jacket that did up to the collar.
The buttons were connected by lines of lines of a silver material, and the
entire jacket's piping was in the same silver. Not that Harry would ever
question her taste, but he did think he looked slightly pretentious

Longbottom was off to one side, talking quietly to a pale eyed blonde, who
was dressed in rather peculiar outfit, Harry would have thought she looked
pretty, but the fact that she wore a necklace made of butterbeer corks, and
radishes in her ears rather put him off.

From the Grand Staircase, two figures suddenly appeared. Hermione

descended, her dress was a light pink and her apparently untameable hair
had, somehow, been tamed. It was unfortunate therefore that she had
chosen to reveal herself at the same time as Miranda.

Whilst Harry thought she had always been beautiful, tonight he thought
she looked stunning, her golden blonde hair was elegantly arrayed in
ringlets that cascaded elegantly down her back, whilst her dress was a dark
grey and accented with silver in the same way as Harry. As she reached the
bottom of the stairs, Harry approached and gave her a short bow, she
smirked smugly, and accepted his proffered arm.

"Champions! Champions, Oh hello Miss Rookwood, what a pleasure to see

you again!" greeted Professor McGonagall, "Champions and their partners
need to line up, Mr Potter first, then Mr Krum, Miss Delacour, and finally
Mr Longbottom, chop chop!" They all hastened to obey the formidable
Scots woman, and Harry grinned as he looked at the angel beside him.

The Great doors to the hall opened, and Harry plastered a cheerful smile
onto his face, with confident and assured steps, Harry strode through the
corridor of happy students and made his way onto the dancefloor.

Whilst they waited for the musicians to start their song, Harry felt
Miranda squeeze his hand tightly in her own. "You had best be proficient
at Dance Potter." She kept her happy smile on her face,

"So long as it's not Riverdance." Harry responded caustically through his
teeth. The dance struck up a slow tone, and Harry led Miranda gracefully
around the dance floor, at one point nearly getting crushed beneath the
enthusiastic prancing and twirling Hagrid and Maxime were passing off as
dance.

The song ended, and Harry clapped politely along with the rest, before he
led his date over to the champions table for dinner. To his dismay, he found
himself sat next to the preening Minister for Magic. Fudge smiled at him
like he was a favoured grandson and initiated conversation. Harry,
knowing the value of friends in government, responding with the perfect
amount of flattery and charm, and by the end of the main course, Harry
felt that the tedious man would eat out of his hand if he asked.

"I find it incredible that you have managed to maintain your position for
so long Minister, coming on for 14 years isn't it?" Harry asked, cutting a
slice of his steak into a manageable portion,

"Indeed, most Ministers last for far shorter terms, around eight years or so,
fortunately the government has found my conduct to be satisfactory, and
have deigned to keep me in office."

"Minister, you are surely to modest, It is your excellent record of

managing government that has kept you in office, the public is a vicious
beast, and would surely have called for your removal had you been
anything less than perfect!" Fudge chuckled with a smile, lapping up the
blatant flattery with a practiced wave of his hand.

"Harry, you are too polite, you should become a politician yourself!" the
man laughed heartily and patted Harry benignly on the shoulder.

"Indeed, Mr Potter would make a fine politician Cornelius, he has most of

the staff here singing his praises!" Dumbledore offered from the other end
of the table. Despite the friendliness of the Headmasters words, His usual
friendly tone was gone, in its place, Dumbledore spoke coldly, his words
sounding like more of an accusation

"Headmaster, you are too polite, from such a veteran politician as

yourself, that is high praise indeed!" Next to him, he felt Miranda squeeze
his thigh warningly, his gaze was directed towards the Headmaster, and he
had a friendly smile on, though his eyes displayed his anger at the subtle
challenge from the Grandfatherly old man.

Harry was amazed to discover that despite the rest of the meal being
steeped in tension between Harry, Miranda and Dumbledore, Fudge had
remained completely ignorant. He continued prattling on about the first
piece of legislation he ever passed, and the joy he got every time someone
praised his actions. Even Delacour, judging by the piercing look she was
aiming in Harry's direction, had noted the curious exchange.

When Supper finally finished, the tables stood up and began to dance
again, Harry had Miranda tightly pressed against him, and they held a
whispered argument throughout the first song.

"… Reckless, I thought you knew better," she hissed,

"Reckless? The man challenged me in front of the minister!"

"The man is the most politically powerful man in Europe you fool, It
would be best to have him on our side."

"On our side, open your eyes Miranda. Dumbledore still have moved past
me killing… you know, last year." Harry murmured, running the corner of
his mouth against her ear.

"No, but there is no need to antagonise the situation, if he works against

us, the future could get… sticky. Very sticky."

"Dumbledore will move to attack us until we are a direct threat, of that I

have no doubt." Harry stated firmly, Miranda sighed,

"You're probably right."

"Thank you, now let's dance."

They danced together for two more songs, before Miranda begged off to
collect a drink. Harry collected Olivia from Graham, and the two of them
danced together for a couple of songs.

"You look very nice Harry, I like this outfit." Olivia complimented, Harry
looked down at the intricate braiding of the jacket,

"I feel like a toy soldier." He grumbled, Olivia grinned,

"I don't know Potter, the Military looks suits you, it matches your
reputation."

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

By the end of the dance, Harry was exhausted, he had danced with all of
his friends, and as the evening progressed from formal dance to more of a
rock concert when The Weird Sisters turned up, Harry found himself in
desperate need of fresh air.

The gardens outside the front door had obviously been custom designed
for the event, there were numerous twisting alleys, and dark corners for
doing dark deeds.

Harry and Miranda walked in silence, Harry had unbuttoned his jacket, and
wore it casually draped over one shoulder like a half cape. As they were
waling Harry suddenly overheard hushed voices which sounded to be
arguing.

"Severus, surely you have noticed! It is back completely. He has returned,

it is undeniable now, ve must act!" came the hissed tones of Karkaroff.

"Don't be a fool Karkaroff, if you were to return to the Dark Lord he would
kill you immediately, If I were you I would return to Durmstrang. The
Dark Lord does not have the strength to launch any sort of international
campaign."

"Vhat of yourself Severus? Your reputation is not so good now is it?"

Karkaroff tone was mocking, and Harry could imagine a sneer curling
Snapes lip.

"I will throw myself to the Dark Lords mercy, and trust in his wisdom to
not judge me too harshly."

"Does Dumbledore know of his return?" Karkaroff asked, his tone

distracted,
"He suspects, it is hard not to when members of his order of the Phoenix
vanish without trace, but the Dark Lord has been keeping a very low
profile, I imagine there are very few who could confirm his return."

With a jolt Harry realised that the voices were rapidly approaching in his
direction, thinking fast, Harry grabbed the listening Miranda around the
waist and swung her into one of the alcoves, kissing her firmly until the
danger was passed.

"I suppose you thought that was very suave don't you Potter?" she asked
disgruntledly running her fingers through her hair, Harry shrugged, his
mind was a whirlwind over this new information, Snape was a Death
Eater?

With his mind still reeling, Harry led Miranda back up to the floo In
McGonagall's office and together they returned Home for the Christmas
holidays, Harry for one, looking forward to a time where he could finally
relax without worrying about dragons or mysterious eggs or duels.

There you are, not an especially important chapter, but necessary, I

hope you enjoyed it, If you have suggestions for how Harry should beat
the other tasks, give me a review or PM.

Lots of Love.
19. Chapter 19

Good afternoon everyone, I am so sorry for the slow update, this

chapter was difficult to write, and I was also dealing with a lot of exam
pressure at the same time, However as an apology, this chapter is 7000
words, so longer than is usual, hopefully that is enough to get you to
forgive me!

I hope you are all satisfied with this chapter, I tried to take on board
the requests of several reviews. To those of you who will be thinking
I've made Harry too weak, I disagree, Mariya Lytvyn is a prodigy just
like Harry. I wanted my Harry to be brilliant, and probably the best,
but not like so far ahead of everyone as to make for dull reading, every
hero needs rivals and weaknesses.

I won't write too much here, but what I will say, is that the AN at the
bottom is very important, so read it please!

Chapter 18

"Incendio!" Harry's command was harsh, and with a whistling sound, a

great spurt of flame issued from the end of his wand. The Egg slowly
began to heat, and within a few seconds, the golden metal had become red
hot. Sadly, the increased heat did nothing to alter the wailing moaning
sound that seemed to mock him with every note.

With a mental curse, Harry cancelled the spell and looked down at the
screaming egg with a frustrated frown, Mothering dragons breathed fire on
their hatching eggs, and Harry thought it was an obvious way of receiving
the clue, maybe too obvious.

This was his second day of testing the egg, and so far everything he had
tried had failed, there was no rhyme, rhythm or pattern to the wails, its
only purpose seemed to be to give him a headache.
Harry sat down on a rock, he was in a secluded part of the grounds, hidden
from view by a dense copse of trees. Placing his chin on a fist, Harry
closed his eyes and let the horrific sounds wash over his ears, struggling to
recall if he had ever heard such a noise.

With a sigh, Harry closed the egg with a flick of his wand, the latch
snapping shut, at once the squealing silenced and Harry's ears began the
slow process of recovery. Bending down to pick up the offending object,
he withdrew his hand immediately as he felt the heat still radiating off the
golden object.

Aguamenti he thought, the spray of water instantly evaporating into mist

as it was boiled on the eggs surface. Once the hissing stopped, Harry cast a
drying charm and picked up the now cool charm.

Once back in his dorm, Harry placed the egg in his trunk and returned
down to the common room, sitting himself down in front of an impressive
pile of books. Opening the first one, he immediately flicked to the back,
and scanned his eyes down the long index, squinting slightly at the small
writing.

Transanimation
Transfiguration
Transmutation
Translation

Bingo. Harry thought, noting the page and flicking back through the book.
The Translation Charm he read, is a relatively simple piece of magic,
capable of altering the casters perceptions of a written language into the
casters own. It will not affect the casters reception of spoken tongues.

Well Fuck. Harry threw the book down in disgust, before picking up the
next, flicking again to the pages labelled translation, Harry began to read,

The language charm can be used to rapidly increase the casters ability to
pick up and learn a new language…
Harry threw that book down to, and moved onto the third book in the pile,

The audio alteration charm, can be used to convert sound in foreign

languages into the casters own tongue, there are limitations, as it cannot
translate sounds not used in the casters language, for example, the clicks
present in Xhosa.

Harry grinned as he finally found something useful, shifting into a more

comfortable position, he began to read. The book was little more than a
glorified spell book, and it took only around a quarter of an hour to extract
all the pertinent information.

Hurrying up to his dormroom, Harry opened his trunk and withdrew the
egg, Harry eyed the thing thoughtfully, before opening the latch and
allowing the golden casing to fall aside. At once, the room was filled with
the cacophony of wailing and screeching.

Audatio! The egg flashed blue as soon as Harry cast the spell, but to his
annoyance, the accursed egg remained wailing in a language that was
definitely not English.

Or was it? He thought speculatively, could it be possible that the

translation charm had failed because the egg was already speaking
English? But the words could only be heard under specific circumstances?
That would make sense wouldn't it?

Sitting down on the end of his bed, Harry closed the egg with a jerk of his
wand and began to think, what would make sense as a way of concealing
the eggs sounds?

Dragons were traditionally considered beasts of air and fire, and Harry
knew that neither wind nor flame would release the eggs secrets, which
meant it could be another one of the elements, he could bury it or flood it,
and if that failed…. He could deal with it when the situation arose.

He moved to put the egg back into his trunk, before changing his mind, it
wouldn't be hard to run the egg under the tap in the bathroom and discredit
his water theory would it?

Hefting the heavy weight in his arms, Harry left his dorm and headed for
the plush communal bathrooms. Entering one of the bathing cubicles he
turned the cold tap to full power and placed the egg under its streaming
jet. Another flick of his wand had the egg open, and to Harry's delight,
instead of the strangled wailing that he had expected, a muffled voice
seemed to be ringing, what had Harry particularly pleased however, was
the fact that the sounds were most certainly in English.

"…seek… voices… ground… ponder this…"

Harry could have danced, all those hours of wasted effort when all he
needed to do was put the egg under a tap. With very little hesitation, he
stuck the plug into the hole and turned the hot tap onto full power. After a
few seconds he got impatient, and with a wave of his wand a blast of cool
water flooded into the tub.

With the three streams, it took very little time for the bath to be filled,
cancelling the charms and turning off the taps, Harry stripped off his shirt,
and stuck his head under the water, immediately, his ears were filled with,
beautiful song, It took Harry a while to wrap his head around the fact that
the noise the egg made above water, that off a cat having its tail trodden
on, was the same as this melody.

Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour - the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.When Harry raised his head above
the water and sucked in a gulp of air, apparently he had been under for far
longer than he thought, so caught up in trying to decipher the lyrics.
He would have to search for something, presumable under water, and he
had a time limit of one hour. That made sense, and the only local body of
water large enough for something to be hidden in was the Lake out front,
this then raised the question of exactly what would be guarding the objects
that would be taken, The lake was filled with creatures, Gryndillows,
snaffle fish, Merpeople, the giant squid… Harry could list many more, but
realistically, he thought the only lake dwelling creatures capable of
negotiating with Humans to take part in the task would be the Merfolk.

When Harry went to sleep that night, it was with a feeling of far greater
confidence in the future than he had had before, after all, the most
concerning part of the egg was that it was seemingly incomprehensible,
and with nearly two months until the task began, Harry was near certain
that he would be able to come up with a suitable method to win.

The weeks flew past, and almost without realising, Harry found that it was
February. The frost that seemed to have been permanently settled on
Hogwarts throughout the Christmas period finally broke, although the air
remained very cold. On Saturday 13th, Harry joined the rest of the school
and attended the competitions second round of academics, and was once
again stumped by the insane difficulty the questions posed, whilst he was
confident enough on the theory of wand magic, advanced care of magical
creatures was far beyond him, although he did chuckle when Hogwarts was
posed with the question

"Why is it a bad idea to attempt to outfly a Chinese Fireball?"

A week following the academics, It was the second round of duelling. This
round seemed much the same as the first, in that Neville lost every round,
Fleur lost to everyone but Neville, Du Crest beat Fleur and Krum, and
Harry and Mariya beat everyone.

In the build up to the second round of duels, Harry had noticed that The
Daily Prophet had been suggesting that the match between Harry and
Lytvyn was some sort of grudge match, and that there was a great deal of
hate of both sides towards each other, Harry had thought this ridiculous,
seeing as how he hadn't spoken to the Ukrainian girl since before
Christmas, nevertheless, in the eyes of the British Public, the showdown
between them was the most exciting thing to happen in a while.

Harry may have considered such ideas ludicrous, however when Mariya
and himself stepped foot onto the gaudily decorated stage, it became
apparent very quickly that the girl didn't share his sentiments. She was
baring her teeth and snarling like some kind of rabid dog, and the thought
briefly crossed his mind if she was going to be able to abide by the rules
for this match, certainly from the look in her eyes, she wouldn't be happy
until she was drinking wine from his skull.

"Duellists, are you ready?" asked the referee, a tall thin man with a very
large forehead, Harry nodded courteously, whilst the girl opposite merely
snarled more fiercely, evidently the referee considered this an affirmative,
as he started the duel thereafter.

In hindsight, Harry realised that he had gone into this match with a sense
of complacency, he knew the girl was dangerous, she was European
champion after all, but after three very easy victories, he had rather
thought himself a bit too powerful.

The initial few volleys had been typical, however, rather than wait for him
to make a mistake, after only a few rallies of curses being sent back and
forth, the girl had gone onto a heavy offensive, evidently attempting to
wear him down. Unlike Krum, who had little else going for him other than
incredible power, Mariya could back this approach up with clinical
precision and terrifying agility.

The duel lasted over a quarter of an hour before it was ended. Neither of
them were unconscious, and both still had their wands, nevertheless, when
the referee declared the duel a draw due to medical concerns, The
Hogwarts head boy was remaining upright due only to sheer will power.

He had taken several reductor curses to the chest, and was confident that
he had at least three broken ribs and a cracked scapula, judging from the
slow leak of blood from his mouth, he must have punctured a lung, this
was all in addition to the several thick and bleeding gashes.

However, he had given as good as he got. Harry had caught her left hand
with a bombarda, and shattered most, if not all of the bones, whilst two
piercing hexes next to each other on her shoulder had reduced the limb to a
lifeless hunk of profusely bleeding flesh. Her right thigh also had a nasty
burn from a flame curse, and above her left eye was a deep cut, with a
quite alarming flow of bright red blood pouring into the socket.

Whilst Harry was frustrated at the fact that he had been forced to finish the
duel, it was nothing to how the Ukrainian was evidently feeling, as soon as
he declared the match a draw she started screaming at him in furious
Ukrainian. The referee was unrepentant, ignoring the Durmstrang girl and
instead taking down the protective wards to allow the healers in. Lytvyn
ignored them, brushing past the crowd, and limping her way into the
medical tent, where Karkaroff was waiting.

"Could you sit down Mr Potter?" one of the healers asked, Harry sat on the
conjured chair whilst the Healers had a look over his tattered duelling
robes at the warzone that was his body beneath.

"It's a good thing it stopped when it did Mr Potter, You've done a lovely
job of ruining your lung, its going to take a couple of days to get back to
normal, if you're lucky." Harry waved off the reprimanding tone, and
allowed himself to be led to the medical tent, where he ignored the
wrathful glances of the girl sitting to his right.

After around thirty minutes of constant potions and healing charms, it was
decided that Harry was in as good a shape as they could manage, and left
him alone on the bed. Viktor and Miranda walked in, the first looking
amused and the latter bored.

"You did Mariya a great insult today Potter." Krum announced, taking the
seat next to Harry's bed and throwing his legs up onto the starched cotton
sheets.
"By teaching her humility?" he asked with a weak grin, wincing as he sat
upright and shifted his ribs, Krum chuckled,

"I suppose, but I vas thinking of you not letting her beat you. She has been
eager to show she is best since last duel. You ruin her day." Harry smirked,
and threw a wink at the Ukrainian, who was still glaring at him, she spat
on the floor and turned away.

"She's charming." Miranda deadpanned, Harry grinned and sat back,

"Your English has improved Viktor." He complimented after a silent pause,

"Thank you, Hermi-own-ninny has been good teacher, she is err, patient."
Harry rolled his eyes at the mention of the tedious girl, they spent a few
minutes discussing the Quidditch Stars opinion of England, before moving
onto the second task, where both of them denied having any idea what the
nature of the task was, and both theatrically lamenting the fact that they
had only four days to discover the clue.

"… And I vill always be just Quidditch Player!" Viktor cried, throwing his
hands up, Harry laughed, which hurt and set off a coughing fit, which hurt
even more. He gingerly placed a hand over the damaged ribs and closed
his eyes. Before long, Miranda stood up to go, evidently bored of listening
to boys prattle on about inconsequential things. As she left the tent, she
turned to Harry,

"Oh, I almost forgot Potter, I brought you this, figured you might need it
after today, you have an impressive lack of self-preservation." With an
underarm throw, she tossed a small vial of gold liquid towards Harry,
which he caught easily, smirking as he watched the Blonde leave with a
small flick of her hair.

Harry unstoppered the vial, and immediately guzzled down the Elixir,
closing his eyes in ecstasy as the aches and pains of a day of violence were
washed away, when the feeling passed, he opened his eyes to see Viktor
watching at him in confusion, Harry smirked and tapped his nose
conspiratorially, Viktor took the hint and didn't press the matter.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPH
PHPH

"The aim of the champions is to retrieve a hostage that has been taken
from them, and left at the bottom of the lake within the time limit of one
hour." Announced Bagman from a Platform far out into the lake.

"The Champions will be awarded points on the complexity of the magic

used to survive underwater, the speed with which they rescue the hostage
and the skill with which they defend themselves from any threat in the
lake!" There were cheers, and Harry suppressed a shiver, he was clad only
in a pair of loose swimming trunks, the dagger he had been given by
Miranda for Christmas the other year was strapped to his calf, whilst his
wand was on his thigh.

"Champions, you have one hour, your time starts…. NOW!" There was a
cheer as the bagman lit a large cannon, which went off with a boom.
Neville, who was next to Harry immediately swallowed down the tangled
strands of what appeared to be Gillyweed, before diving into the lake and
vanishing beneath the grey surface.

With a savage flick of his wand, Harry felt the bones in his feet begin to
stretch, the skin growing, as he transformed them into long, broad flipper
like appendages, his body began to morph, becoming more rounded and
smooth, Harry felt agonizing pain shoot through his back and neck, as a
pectoral fin and gills grew. His skin turned a dull, wet grey, and after
twenty seconds of terrible agony, he had transformed into a man-fish
hybrid. He tried to breathe, but found himself choking on the air, he
coughed, and with a hasty dive fell into the icy blackness of the water. He
opened his mouth, and a feeling of relief flooded his body.

Transfiguring fully working gills onto his neck had not been easy, and
there was a difference between practicing in the bathtub and performing
under pressure. He gave a kick of his flipper like feet, and grinned as he
was propelled quickly down into the murky depths.
He had very little idea of the geography of the lake, but guessed that he
should be looking for the merpeople in the deepest sections of the icy
waters. He reached the bottom and quickly swam through vast forests of
thin green weeds, stretching for twenty or thirty feet into the water, Harry
was cautious, perfectly aware of the potential risk of Gryndillows in such
ideal ambush condition, in his hands, he held the knife and his wand.

His caution was justified, for as Harry navigated his way through a
particularly dense area of plant life, a hand suddenly gripped his leg, he
turned quickly, and spotted the ugly green skinned water demon gripping
him tightly, with a wordless charm, he sent a jet of boiling water at the
Gryndillow and it released him immediately.

Two more, however, took its place. The first sank its sharp little teeth into
his calf, and Harry snarled, with a swipe of his knife, the enchanted blade
cut straight through the beings thin, bony arms and it fell away, blood
pouring from its stumps. The second apparently had second thoughts at
seeing the fate of its companion, for it hastily beat a retreat. Increasing his
speed, Harry hastily navigated his way through the remainder of the weed
forest, and soon found himself out into the open.

As he took in another inhalation of water, he didn't so much taste, as sense

what he knew must be blood in the water. He didn't know how, for if there
was blood, which he was sure there was, it would have to be in such tiny
amounts as to be unnoticeable normally.

With rapid strokes of his powerful flippers, he chased after the scent and
within twenty seconds found the cause of the problem. Fleur Delacour was
engaged in a brutal fight with at least fifty Gryndillows, they were
attacking in waves, and it was only due to some truly incredible charms
work that had held out as long as she had. Harry saw through her bubble
head charm the total panic on her face as another wave swarmed towards
her.

With a swipe of her wand, the weeds surrounding her suddenly came alive,
and they wrapped around the Gryndillows, hurling them away into deeper
parts of the lake not to return.

The charm, whilst very effective was unsuccessful, there were simply too
many of the beasts and within seconds they were all over her, ripping at
her robes with their sharp little claws. Harry watched in concern as she
gave another desperate wave of her wand, boiling streams of water burned
several, but they were simply too many and carried on their assault.

Harry weighed up whether or not to assist her, he had wasted enough time
already down in the depths with his own Gryndillows and watching Fleurs
struggle. If he was to have any hope of getting a good score, he would need
to hurry up his search, and fast.

His mind was made up however, when a vicious attack from one particular
Gryndillow popped the bubble protecting the beautiful part-Veela's face.
The Girl let out a torrent of bubbles, as she struggled to breathe and get to
the surface before she drowned. The Gryndillows were relentless however,
snagging her down and keeping her from escaping.

Harry swam forward at once, with a wave of his wand, his summoned the
French girl into his outstretched arm. When he caught her, he cast the
most powerful area effect banisher he could, blasting most of the water
demons back into the depths. The rest moved to swarm Harry, but with a
quick jab of his wand, dozens of small rocks on the bottom of the lake rose
and slammed into the massed ranks of the beasts, forcing them to bid a
hasty retreat.

When the area was safe, Harry quickly turned to the French girl. She was
unconscious, and her lips had turned blue. Harry frowned, before quickly
recasting the bubble head charm, she remained unconscious, and as far as
he could tell, she still wasn't breathing. He frowned, wishing he knew
more advanced healing techniques, with a careful jab of his wand, he sent
a weak banishing charm into her chest, the improvised healing spell
worked, for the Veela coughed violently, lake water poured from her
mouth and nose, and she started breathing again.
Satisfied, Harry wrapped his arm securely around her waist and began to
hastily swim for the surface, just as the black waters were beginning to
lighten up, Harry felt Fleur stir next to him, he made eye contact with her,
and attempted to give a reassuring smile, though with his grey skin and
fish like features, he wasn't sure how effective it would be. Evidently she
got the message however, for she returned the smile, albeit rather weakly.

When he reached the surface, he located the platform and quickly hurried
over, dragging the still woozy French girl behind him. Cancelling the
transfiguration for gills, Harry quickly passed her up to a couple of
healers, hastily explaining what had happened and what he had done,
waving off the thanks of Madam Maxime who had hurried over to check
on her champion, Harry looked at the large clock indicating how long he
had remaining and cursed, 52 minutes had already elapsed, and Harry
thought it unlikely that he would be able to find the mervillage, rescue his
hostage and make it back within eight minutes.

With a frustrated sigh, he recast his transfiguration and dove deep down
into the lake once again.

By the time he returned once again, his arm tightly clasped around Olivia
this time, he was twenty minutes late and the last champion to arrive.
Despite his poor performance however, there was a loud cheer when it was
announced he had made it back. Giving the bleary eyed, if soaking wet
Irish Girl a hand exiting the water, Harry cancelled all of his
transfigurations, and gratefully accepted the offered hand from the French
Headmistress.

The enormous French Woman nearly wrenched his arm from its socket, as
she bodily lifted him from the water and dropped him on the platform.
Harry spluttered, rising unsteadily to his feet and looking around tiredly.
Krum and Neville were already back, Krum held a bedraggled Hermione
Granger, who looked to be extremely shy what with all the attention she
was receiving, whilst Neville was stood next to Ron Weasely, who
appeared the opposite of Granger, and was basking in the attention.
With jolting movements, the exhausting Harry drew his wand from its
thigh sheath and cast drying and warming charms on himself and Olivia,
who was shivering under a blanket. He replaced his wand and gratefully
accepted the glass of pepper up potion that was handed to him.

"'Arry?" Harry turned and his drooping eyelids landed on Fleur. He gave
her a small bow, which she seemed to ignore, instead pulling him into a
tight hug and kissing him on both cheeks.

"You saved my life 'arry, I wanted to say thank you." Fleur blushed, her
arms still wrapped around him in a rather sensual hug. Whilst Harry was
too much of a gentlemen to ask her to get off, he did cautiously crane his
neck around to look for his own fiery blonde, as he really didn't want to be
murdered by Miranda right after completing the task. When he didn't see
her, he returned the hug, although keeping things strictly platonic.

"And so," came the booming voice of Bagman, "With the Slowest time,
Harry Potter rescues his hostage after 1 hour and 19 minutes." There
came applause from the crowd and Bagman paused until it finished.

"We Judges have finally counted the scores for each champion, and award
points as follows: Mr Viktor Krum, who finished first after 57 minutes,
used partial transfiguration to great effect, and also fought off a
marauding band of Wobble-Grabbers, we have decided to award him 47
Points."

The Durmstrang students cheered, whilst the guests and other students
clapped politely.

"Mr Neville Longbottom used Gilly-Weed, and was second to reach the
hostages, he arrived back slightly with a time of 1 hour and 4 minutes, we
have decided to award him 39 points."

The Hogwarts students cheered loudly in support, Neville appeared rather

pleased with himself, even though his overall score was still laughably
bad.
"Miss Fleur Delacour used the bubblehead charm, however she was
attacked by an unusually large pack of Gryndillows, and despite showing
incredible skill and resourcefulness, was overcome by the sheer numbers.
For her courage and skill, we have decided to award her 25 points." Fleur,
who was still clutched to his side, gave a frustrated sigh,

"I deserve zero!" she muttered, more to herself than anyone in particular.

"Finally, Mr Harry Potter used a very advanced form of animal-human

transfiguration to hybridise himself into a half man, half fish. He was on
track to complete the task in potentially the fastest time, however he
sacrificed his victory in order to save his fellow champion, later returning
with his hostage in a time of 1 hour and 19 minutes. For his skill,
selflessness, courage and heroism, we the judges have decided to award
Mr Potter 49 points."

There was a storm of applause, and Harry felt his eyebrows rise, a small
grin forming on his face.

"even when you lose, you bloody well win don't you Harry!" Olivia joked
from next to him, Harry chuckled, hugging his Irish friend close and
smirking broadly as the overall scores came up on the board,

1st: Harry Potter, 94

2nd: Viktor Krum, 91
3rd: Fleur Delacour, 64
4th: Neville Longbottom, 54

Harry shook hands with Viktor, prised himself out of Fleurs grip and
together with Olivia trudged his way back to the castle, where Harry
luxuriated in a long, hot bath, enjoying the feeling of the grime and slime
of the lake coming off his body. When he finally got out of the steaming
water, the tub was left a light grey, so Harry decided to take a quick
shower to wash that colour off his skin.

Without paying too much attention to what he was doing, Harry changed
into his pyjamas and collapsed onto his bed at 6.30 in the evening, he later
discovered there had been a party to celebrate his victory, though he had
slept straight through it.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPH
PHPH

The next day was a Sunday, and Harry slept straight through breakfast, and
nearly missed lunch. By the time he made it down to the Great Hall, the
room was nearly full. As his presence became noticed by the Hogwarts
students, several began to cheer and clap, soon the whole room was stood
clapping, even the Beauxbatons students. Harry placed a bashful smile on
his face and ducked his head in a show of humility.

When he reached the Slytherin table, he wasted no time in tucking into a

full plate of Steak and Kidney pudding, mashed potatoes and a healthy
sized portion of grilled leeks.

With a contented sigh, he put his knife and fork across the plate and leant
back, enjoying the full feeling of his stomach. He was about to stand up to
take a walk around the grounds, when Professor Snape approached him
looking serious, Harry stood up straight and greeted his head of house
neutrally, his mind running through what he could possibly have done to
merit such and expression on the man's face.

"Follow me Potter." The man said tersely, striding off before Harry could
answer. They made their way into the Entrance hall, however to Harry's
surprise, they didn't head down towards Snapes Office, and instead the
Potions Master led him onto the grounds.

"Where are we going professor?" Harry asked calmly, although slightly

confused by the afternoon's events.

"Potter, when you arrived at this school, you were an Apathetic little brat,
do you remember?" Snape asked, his tone hard.

"I do Professor." Harry responded neutrally, confused as he finally realised

where they were headed,
"I wish today that had never changed, I do not like my students being
summoned to the Beauxbatons carriage."

"Is this in some way connected to my assistance of Miss Delacour

yesterday?" Harry asked carefully, Snape gave a curt shrug,

"I believe so, however I don't know very much about it myself." The man
ran a hand through his greasy hair, "be careful Potter, Jean-Sebastian is a
political powerhouse in France, and I believe he is waiting to speak to
you." Before Harry had the chance to ask just who the hell this Jean-
Sebastian was, they reached the Beauxbatons carriage, Snape knocked
sharply on the door, and one of the boys from the school opened the door
immediately.

"Potter is to see Madam Maxime. Immediately." Snape drawled, the boy,

having no experience in dealing with a Snape glare paled, and immediately
moved to let Harry in, Snape turned on his heel curtly and left, leaving
Harry in the tastefully decorated carriage.

It was magnificent, decorated in Blue and gold, several tall windows lit the
interior, an interior which was far larger than the outside, with a warm
gold light. The French boy led Harry up a staircase, and into through to a
large, unmarked door.

Rapping his knuckles smartly upon the dark stained wood, the boy gave
Harry an inquisitive nod, before leaving him standing there. After a few
seconds, Harry heard a voice commanding him to enter, and he cautiously
opened the large door and walked inside.

The centrepiece of Maxime's office was an enormous desk, behind which

the Headmistress herself sat, her face set in a concerned and contemplative
expression, opposite her sat Fleur, who looked scared, and a tall,
powerfully built man with silver streaked black hair.

"Ah, Monsieur Potter, do come in, 'ave a seat." She offered, indicating one
of the available chairs strategically placed between herself and Fleur.
"Monsieur Potter, I am sorry to 'ave called you away from Lunch, 'owever
there is a matter most urgent we must all discuss." She looked over at the
man, and he nodded.

"'Arry, I will not be vague, I will tell you the truth. A I am sure you know,
when a wizard or witch saves another wizard or witch, a life debt is
formed between them." She paused and seemed to think about what she
wanted to say. "When you saved Fleur from the Gryndillows yesterday, a
life debt was formed."

"That is not necessarily a problem, wizards can live their whole lives with
life debts unclaimed. It all depends on the nature of the wizard who does
the saving." He recollected, Maxime nodded and the man opposite her
took over.

"That is true Mr Potter, for Wizards and Witches." He began, his English
was excellent, with only the barest hint of a French accent. "Forgive me,
my name is Jean-Sebastian Delacour, I am Fleur's father." Remembering
Snapes warning, Harry nodded his head respectfully.

"Yes, anyway, with wizards and witches, a life debt forms, and it may pass
unnoticed by either party, the only real condition is that the saved cannot
kill the saver." Harry could almost feel the but… coming up, but kept his
face as clean of emotion as possible.

"But Harry, You see Fleur is part Veela, and life debts to Veela mean rather
a lot more." He paused, "They tend to mean a bond of servitude to the
saver Mr Potter." The man looked extremely tense, and his eyesight was
fixed firmly on Harry.

The Slytherin champion said nothing, his face was kept carefully clean of
emotion as he looked past the group sat at the table. Inside he was reeling,
his mind rattling through solutions, idea's and questions. Finally he opened
his mouth and turned to Madam Maxime.

"Madam, please may I use your Floo?" The giant woman looked surprised,
though nodded, gesturing to a fireplace next to the door. Harry stood and
took a pinch of powder,

"13C Emrys Gardens!" he called clearly, the flames turned green and he
stuck his head in. The living room was empty, "Miranda?" he shouted,
there was no response, "Minnie?" he tried, and the elf immediately popped
into view in front of the fire.

"Master Harry sir, How can's Minnie be helping you's?" she asked happily,

"Minnie, I need Miranda, can you get her for me?" the elf nodded it's bat
like ears and hurried off towards the bedroom. Returning a few moments
later, followed by the elegant looking blonde who looked confused by
Harry's call.

"Harry? Why are you calling?" Harry shook his head with a wry smile.

"Honestly, it would take far too long to tell you through Floo, can you
come through, you will want to hear this, I'm in the Beauxbatons carriage."
The girl nodded and Harry smiled gratefully, pulling his head back out of
the grate. He stood up and cast a quick scourgify on himself, removing all
traces of dust and ash from his robes.

Ten Seconds later and the girl appeared, she stepped out of the grate as
easily as though she had simply walked through the door, her eyes
widened briefly when she saw exactly who was waiting for her.

"What's going on Harry?" she asked cautiously, he gave her a weak smile,

"I'm just finding out now… It's to do with the second task, the one where I
was disappointed that you aren't considered the thing I would miss most."
He told her with a wry smile, she shrugged casually,

"Dumbledore did ask, but I had just had my hair done and Frankly, I don't
love you that much." Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead he
pulled one of the chairs out for her.
"Mr Delacour, Madam Maxime, this is Miranda Rookwood, my girlfriend,
I thought it wise for her to be present." The adults nodded and the
Frenchman began to speak once again.

"Mademoiselle Rookwood, like I was telling Mr Potter, when Harry saved

Fleur from the lake, he created a life debt bond between himself and
Fleur." Judging from the look on Miranda's face, she evidently knew
exactly what that would mean,

"Will the fact that your daughter is not a full blooded Veela affect the
situation at all?" she asked, her voice hard, the man shook his head with a
frown,

"Sadly no. To the best of my knowledge it will have no effect." Miranda

nodded and looked pensively at the Beauxbatons champion, who had said
nothing so far.

"Forgive me Mr Delacour, I am not as well read in Veela traditions, what

exactly will this bond mean?" asked Harry, trying to keep his voice calm,

"It… well, as you may know, Veela are very… sensual creatures. A lot of
their magic and power comes from err… Passionate emotions, love, lust
and the like, this has traditionally meant that the life debt bond will tend to
be itself a…. sexual partnership." The man looked rather sickened by what
he was saying, not that Harry could really blame him.

Beside him Miranda let out a scornful laugh, and he turned to her with a
raised eyebrow, she looked between Fleur and him and smirked, almost
daring him to try something, seeing the ferocious look in her eye, Harry
felt like the air in the room got a very thin very quickly.

"Well that's out of the question." Harry eventually stated, bringing his eyes
back to the Frenchman, both Delacours seemed to sigh in relief at Harry's
pronouncement. "However, if not sexual in its nature, what should I
expect?"
"Well, Fleur's magic will push her into being loyal to you without
question, she will not become mindless, nor will she lose her free will, but
she could never disobey you, betray your secrets."

Harry and Miranda shared a meaningful glance, and she nodded subtly at
him, he understood the message. "Monsieur Delacour, may I talk to Fleur
alone?" he asked, the man nodded quickly and stood up, Maxime and
Miranda followed soon after, leaving the two champions sat alone together
in silence.

After several long moments, the French girl looked up at him, and Harry
saw she had tears in her eyes,

"I am sorry 'arry, I never meant for this to happen."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, of that I can assure you." Harry sighed
and rubbed his hand over the back of his head, "Fleur, I am afraid it is me
who should be apologising…" he began, but the girl cut him off,

"Mais non! I am so very grateful, I…" Harry raised a hand to silence her,
and she quieted instantly.

"Fleur, before I say anything further, I will need an oath from you that
what your father said today was true." Fleur frowned in surprise, but
quickly made the oath, the flash of magic satisfied Harry that she would
not be able to betray his secrets.

"Fleur, I suppose I should say… I am not the textbook definition of a good

man." The Slytherin boy looked at Fleur over steepled fingers. "I have
plans, which if discovered will land me in Azkaban, and I know things that
if found out will lead to the arrest and deaths of many people."

The French girl said nothing, but her eyes widened significantly, Harry
watched her for a few moments, with three quick waves of his wand, Harry
raised powerful privacy charms before continuing.
"The truth is Fleur, I have pledged my life to the Dark Lord." Fleur gasped
in horror, "And in his name, I have intentions to take this country for the
cause." Fleur was frowning deeply, her eyes wide,

"So… you are… Evil?" she asked, in the heightened sense of her emotions
her accent was very strong. Harry gave her a broad smirk, and remembered
what his master had once told him.

"Fleur, There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak
to seek it. I chose the side who I am sure will win." Fleur went silent,
though she still eyed him fearfully. They stared deep into each other's
eyes, Harry's cold green meeting her turbulent blue. The silence went on
for a while, before Fleur blinked several times.

"Why are you telling me this?" Harry gave her what he hoped was an
honest smile.

"Because Fleur, I would like you to join me, of course, if that is not what
you want, I will never bring it up, and you can live your life never needing
to hear from me again, providing you tell no one of this little chat."

The Veela looked down at her hands for a few moments, and Harry could
nearly hear her brain whirling as she tried to decide what to do. After
twenty seconds she looked up, her eyes bright and resolute.

"You saved my life 'Arry, and no matter what, I will always owe you. It
would be a… betrayal of my principles if I were not to help you."

Harry's smile was cold, and his eyes shone with dark amusement. With
two flicks of his wand, he lowered the privacy charms and opened the
door, allowing Maxime, Jean-Sebastian and Miranda back into the room.

Maxime took her seat behind the desk, looking between the smug smile on
Harry's face and the resolute acceptance on Fleur's. Harry briefly caught
Miranda's eye and nodded very slightly, she smirked and gave the Veela a
cursory examination.
"Madam Maxime," Harry began, "I see no reason to let anyone outside of
this room know what has happened in here."

The French Headmistress eyed him curiously, "Would it not be prudent to

let Dumbleydoor know of the nature of the relationship between yourself
and the young Mademoiselle Delacour?"

"I see no reason to. This life debt will not affect school matters, and I am
already above the legal age of majority, I do not believe it affects the
Headmaster in the slightest." Maxime looked surprised, and turned to the
elder Delacour, who shrugged his shoulders with a small smile.

"Very well, If that is your wish Mr Potter. Fleur, do you agree?" The Veela
nodded quickly, "Then it is settled, Jean-Sebastian, do you have anything
to add?" The Frenchman shook his head. Shortly after that, the meeting
ended, Miranda and Mr Delacour vanished in the Floo and Harry left.

As he strolled through the corridors of the opulent carriage, he whistled a

jaunty tune. With Fleur under his command, he had a great deal of
leverage over Monsieur Delacour, who, if Snape was correct, was very
influential in the French Ministry. Then of course he had a new follower in
Fleur, one who was completely loyal to him, with her bond to him being
known to only four people.

Harry involuntarily let out a very broad smirk, it was cold and hard,
Sometimes, Harry thought, It was so good to act the hero.

A.N
PLEASE READ!

Okay, so as you probably recall, I requested suggestions a few chapters

back as to whether or not Harry is to be a Politician or terrorist to
gain his power, most of you chose Politician, so that's what I am going
with. The Problem is, whilst I am a Politics and History student, John
Foxton, my beta, admits to being ignorant of the subject.
I don't want to publish anything without having it checked over, so If
you are knowledgeable of Political stories, please send me a reivew or
PM, and we can discuss whether or not you can help. either by
checking out my skeleton plan for the chapters, or becoming a new
Beta if that's what you'd prefer. Thank you!

Those of you who think that the whole new aspect of Fleur in the story
is unnecessary and that bonds between Veela and Harry are just an
annoying cliche, that's kind of what I went for. A lot of this story is
about approaching cliche's and then turning them on their head. the
life debt bond is the same. I have never seen a story where Fleur gets
bonded to Harry and he makes her a spy or agent for himself, It's a
new take on a potentially flagging theme.

As usual, usual request for reviews, they're like crack to me.

Kisses and Cuddles

Marshall Angmar
20. Chapter 20

Howdy Folks,

Ok, first off, I suppose an apology is in order, I finally have realised

that actually these bloody exams are fairly important so I've been
revising, add to that the fact that it was the Masterchef semifinals,
McBusted concert (awesome)... all in all, it's been a busy couple of
weeks, so I hope you will accept my apology, this story is not!
abandoned!

Here is the latest chapter, coming up, we have the political arc, the
next chapter will be a short description of the wizarding political
system, and it will be uploaded at the same time as the next actual
chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 19

It was a beautiful day on May 29th, the sun was shining and there was a
cool breeze in the air. Harry was sat with the rest of the school for the final
match of the interschool Quidditch competition: Hogwarts vs Durmstrang.

Whilst Harry was obviously supporting Hogwarts, it was difficult to not be

entirely enraptured with the Durmstrang Seeker. Krum was a machine, he
flew as though he and broomstick were one and the same. Swooping,
ducking and pulling off impossible turns that left Diggory far behind.

At the current moment Hogwarts were leading 200 – 170, however Harry
was perfectly aware that unless some kind of miracle happened, Krum
would catch the snitch soon, he had already caught sight of it once, and it
was only sheer luck that it flew into a knot of chasers just as the seekers
were hot on its tail.
"My Word!" cried Bagman, who was commentating, "Has Diggory seen the
snitch?" Harry's keen eyes followed his Hufflepuff friend as he fell into a
steep dive. Harry looked carefully, but could see no sign of the tiny golden
ball. Krum however clearly agreed with Cedrics assessment, for he threw
himself into a dive after the boy.

"In the confusion, chaser Marcus Flint manages to score another goal,
Hogwarts now lead by 40 points, Hogwarts hopes of Victory rest solely on
the shoulders of Cedric Diggory."

Harry suddenly caught sight of the snitch. It was only one or two metres of
the ground and zipping forward with rapid flaps of its tiny wings. There
was a loud groan from the Hogwarts crowd and Harry looked up to see that
Krum was pulling away from Cedric in the race for the golden ball. Krum
was only 10 metres away, having left Diggory several yards behind.

"It's looking like Krum's going to catch the snitch and finish the game!"
shouted Bagman excitedly, "He's closing fast, 6 metres…. 4 metres!"

The snitch suddenly veered right, but Krum remained tight on its tail,
pulling such a tight turn on his broom the likes of which Harry had never
seen before. Cedric, attempted to make a turn of the same angle but lost
control of his broom, nearly flying to the dirt. By the time he managed to
correct himself, Krum and the Snitch had left him far behind. The chase
had become even more of a one horse race.

"Krum is on top of the Snitch, and yes! He's caught it, Durmstrang win,
320 – 210." There was a storming round of applause from the Durmstrang
students, whilst the other schools clapped politely.

"That means that the final ranking for the Triwizard tournament is as
follows, in third Place, Beauxbatons academy of magic." The Beauxbatons
team made their way out onto the pitch, there was a round of applause as
they received their medals and shook hands with the assembled Ministry
officials and Headteachers.
"In second Place, the hosts of this tournament. Hogwarts school of
Witchcraft and Wizardry!" The exhausted looking team followed the path
taken by Beauxbatons to a rousing cheer from the students, Cedric grinned
as he ran a hand through his hair rakishly, shaking hands with a pompous
looking fudge, the French Minister and the German Minister.

"And let's hear a big hand for the Quidditch champions, the undefeated
team from Durmstrang Institute!"

The stands rocked as the Durmstrang students howled their appreciation.

Harry joined the rest of the audience in delivering a standing ovation to
the scarlet clad champions. Viktor stood at the front of the crowd, his
hands raised in a triumphant gesture, a broad grin on his face as he
accepted the Quidditch cup from Dumbledore.

The Headmaster had his usual benevolent smile on as he congratulated the

Quidditch star, Viktor nodded in appreciation, before raising the cup to the
heavens.

If possible, the cheers got even louder, the whole stand seemed to vibrate
as Viktor grinned widely, his smile threatening to break free from his face.
He passed the cup to the boy stood next to him and the entire team took
turns in holding the cup to raucous applause.

As Harry made his way over to the castle following the match, Harry
reflected on the last few months, his interaction with Fleur had been
minimal, she seemed to be avoiding him, which suited him just fine, in
order for the girl to be useful, she needed to distance herself from Harry as
much as possible.

One of the small advantages that Harry was really rather grateful for was
the fact that he had no need to take his NEWT's, instead, his end of school
grade would be determined by how he performed in the tournament.
Whilst he didn't really understand how the judges were going to be able to
judge his competency in potions from what he had been doing, he assumed
there had to be a system.
However they were going to judge him, Harry was grateful that he didn't
need to be pouring over pages and pages of notes like his friends were,
snapping out at anything that came near. Exams were starting in a week,
and it seemed like everyone was on a very short fuse.

Harry on the other hand was rather enjoying the fact that exams seemed to
have distracted people's attention from him. He had grown rather tired of
people following behind him, giggling as they read the latest Rita Skeeter
article. The woman seemed to get off on attacking Neville and making him
out to be some sort of God. Harry had enjoyed the descriptions of himself
as "The mysterious and powerful Head boy" or the headline
"Misunderstood bad boy sacrifices victory to save opposition." However,
the constant stream of praise got rather grating after a while.

That lunchtime, it was announced that there was going to be a party for all
the seventh year students, including the overseas guests as a celebration of
the Quidditch tournament that night.

After Dinner, Harry and his friends hurried down to the Slytherin common
room to change into something more appropriate. When they arrived at the
dorms, Harry slipped into a faded blue shirt, black jeans and a black
waistcoat, chuckling as he watched Marcus and Terrence perform a duet to
the latest Weird Sisters Ballad.

The party was excellent. There was plenty of alcohol, and a live band
which Harry had never heard before, whilst he rather thought Unforivable
would never win prizes for their poetic lyrics, they had an excellent beat to
dance to and there was a writhing mass of students dancing wildly,
enjoying the chance to blow off steam before the exam season began
properly.

"Harry!" called a rather inebriated Olivia, "come on, let's dance!" Harry
smiled at the bubbly Irish girl and allowed himself to be dragged into the
sea of dancers.

"How are you drunk already?" he asked bemusedly as they moved in time
with the music, "The party's only been going for half an hour!"
The Irish girl gave him a smack on the arm, "I'm not drunk, I'm just
having fun… you should try it sometime."

"Right…" Harry responded, catching her as she tripped over herself, and
carefully putting her back on her feet.

"Okay, maybe I've had a few drinks, but no more than you!" she giggled,
Harry rolled his eyes, as he shouted back over the loud beats.

"I'm twice the size of you, you elf!"

"But I'm Irish." She responded with a tone that rather suggested that her
answer merited no further discussion, on reflection, Harry rather supposed
she was right.

The song came to a very loud end, and the small girl grabbed his hand and
dragged him off. "Come on, I'm parched, let's get a drink"

"Are you sure that's wise?" Harry asked with a grin, she ignored him,
instead helping herself to a generous glass of Firewhiskey and Gillywater.
Harry took the same, and they sat down on one of the benches, before long
they were joined by Marcus and Graham, who were red in the face and
wore identical wicked grins.

"Hey Harry, Olivia." Greeted Graham, sitting next to them, "Have you seen
who Terrence is with?"

Harry followed the direction of Marcus's eyes and nearly choked on his
drink when he saw the normally subdued boy making out with Mariya
Lytvyn. Next to him Olivia cackled loudly, a stream of whisky and Gilly
Water pouring from her nose, she immediately started to choke, Marcus
patted her on the back with a grin.

"I feel sorry for the boy, that girl will eat him alive." They all chuckled,
and watched their friend with the Durmstrang duelling champion, after a
few more seconds the two broke apart and they broke into furious laughter
again at the glazed expression on the Slytherins face.
"Sweet lady, may I have this dance?" Graham asked with a coy smile,
Olivia chuckled and stood up, accepting his proffered arm with a curtsey.

The two of them left, and Marcus followed shortly after, leaving Harry sat
alone watching over the happy students with a wistful smirk on his face.
After a few seconds he saw Fleur walk over, she looked as stunning as
usual, although her face looked troubled. She sat next to him saying
nothing, and Harry didn't react.

"Harry?" He turned to look at her, she seemed to be struggling to say

something, and Harry looked at her, "I…" she paused,

"Yes?"

"I… nothing, do not worry. Would you like to dance?" Harry nodded and
drained his glass in one gulp, before standing and offering her his hand.
She accepted with a smile, he led her to the dance floor and they swayed
against each other to the slightly slower beat of the tune.

Keeping his hands firmly above his waist, Harry fell into the music and
smiled, Fleur was an excellent dancer, far better than him, and she seemed
to be having a good time, When the song came to the end, Harry clapped
along with the rest of the students, but he was taken by surprise when he
suddenly felt the lips of the Quarter Veela on his.

"Fleur…" he said warningly, pushing away from the French girl, "I thought
you understood how this was going to work?" he asked carefully,

"I… I am sorry." She whispered, before tearing herself out of his grip and
hurrying out of the hall. Harry sighed in frustration, running a hand
through his short hair as he thought over what to do. With a muttered
curse, he followed the French girl out of the hall and onto the lawn.

"Fleur!" he shouted, but she ignored him. Harry easily managed to catch
the girl, as high heels were hardly appropriate footwear for the dewy turf.
"'arry, please, I am sorry, but please just let me go!" Harry held onto her at
arm's length, looking at the distraught looking girl critically.

"Fleur, I thought you understood what this bond would mean." He asked,
his voice cold,

"I do, I do!" she rubbed a hand across her eyes quickly, "but… my magic
wants… It expects for me to…" she paused and blushed, Harry chuckled,
and the cold look in his eyes warmed,

"Fleur, I understand, I do, but please, please try to control yourself. If

Miranda had seen what happened in the hall, she would probably murder
me." He grinned as she chuckled, "I'm serious, utter pyscho that girl,
terrifies me most of the time.

She laughed, although it came out like more of a sob, Harry put his arm
around her shoulders and gave her a brief hug. She responded carefully,
and he was pleased to see that this time she kept her hands well above his
waist.

"Do you think we could go back inside Fleur?" he asked with a smile, she
shook her head,

"I will go to bed, I think it would be best." Harry nodded, and pulled away,

"Good night then." He gave her a short bow before turning and leaving.

Back in the hall he was confronted almost immediately by an Irate Irish

girl, "What did that French skank think she was doing?" she asked
furiously, though the intended effect of anger was muted somewhat by her
gentle swaying.

"She, like so many women, fell under my impressive charms." Olivia

blinked at him suspiciously, before nodding slowly,

"I hope you taught her better." Harry grinned at her and laughed as she
nearly collapsed, Harry helped the dizzy girl into a chair and conjured a
goblet full of water, she sipped it gratefully,

"I thought you were Irish Moran!" he joked, "and yet here you are, looking
ready to pass out and it's not even midnight!" Olivia waved him off with a
wild gesture of his hand. Harry left her sat there, returning to the party. By
the time McGonagall and Professor Sprout arrived at two in the morning,
the atmosphere had quieted considerably, Unforgiveable had left, and in
their place, someone had turned on a wireless to a channel that only
seemed to play love songs.

As the room began to disperse, Harry made his way back over to his Irish
friend, who was sat where he had left her, head lulled forward and
unconscious, completely dead to the world. Harry sighed and picked her
up, carrying her back down to the common room.

He left her on the sofa with a blanket covering her, before making his slow
way to bed, yawning widely the whole way there.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPPHPHHPPHPHPHP
HPHPPHHPHP

Following Hogwarts coming second place in the academic competition to

Beauxbatons, there was a lot of pressure on Harry to win Hogwarts the
duelling trophy, whilst most of the school had finally accepted that Neville
was incapable of out duelling anyone in the competition, they still seemed
to have a lot of expectations on Harry to win the individual competition.

His efforts had thus far been successful, he once again successfully
defeated everyone he faced, and once again, the organisers had decided to
leave himself and Lytvyn as the last duel, seeing as how it was the one
everyone wanted to see.

The Ukrainian girl had been vicious in her first few duels, in the run-up to
facing Harry, she had severely injured Neville and Du Crest. Neville so
badly that he had to be taken to St Mungo's to help with a severe
concussion. Harry was sat in the competitors roped off area's rolling his
wand between his fingers in a casual display of relaxation. Opposite him,
on the other side of the ring, sat the Durmstrang girl.

Unlike the last time he had faced her, the girl was not looking at him like
she was looking forward to gorging on his intestines, instead she had her
head bowed and her body tensed. Harry allowed his eyes to leave his
competition and look at the crowd.

"2 to 1 odds on Potter, 3 to 1 on Lytvyn, come on People, do none of you

want to make money?" asked one of the Weasely twins who was holding a
thick sheaf of parchment, his brother next to him was holding a sack of
Galleons which he jiggled invitingly at anyone who came near.

Harry raised his eyebrows as he saw Professor Sprout place three Galleons
on him to win. At least I'm the favourite. He thought ruefully. Finally the
wizards who had been restoring the wards around the ring finished their
work, and Bagman bounded onto the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the final duel of this tournaments

competition, Durmstrang are entering this match with a fairly substantial
lead of over 120 points, however, whilst the school in red may win the
school cup, the individual competition is much closer."

There was a loud cheer from the assembled students, and Bagman held up
his hands for quiet, a sign which was ignored and he had to wait for the
roars to quiet.

"With an Individual score of 168 Points, I present the European Duelling

champion, Mariya Lytvyn!" The Durmstrang students stamped their feet in
support as the girl nimbly hopped onto the stage,

"And the current leader, with 176 points, I present Harry Potter!" The
Hogwarts masses howled their support as Harry stepped up onto the large
circular ring. He shook hands with the Ukrainian girl, who he was pleased
to see, had regained the vicious look on her face as she squeezed his hand
for all it was worth, Harry winked at her, she growled at him.
"Mr Potter, Miss Lytvyn, this will follow the international duelling rules."
Came the referee's voice as he stood between the pair. "Please take your
positions." Harry and Mariya walked over to the edge of the ring and
stood, wands drawn, Harry drew his through the air experimentally a
couple of times.

"Ready?" Harry nodded, "Ready?" Mariya gave a jerk of her head. "Obey
my instructions at all times, defend yourself at all times. Duel!"

Harry launched into a chain of conjurations, summoning rocks, bludgers,

animals and chains and hurling them at the Durmstrang girl. She blocked
with ease, Harry grinned as he saw the pile of junk grow around the ring,
transfiguration is a lot easier than conjuration, and also takes less time,
with a quick flick of his wand, the dead dog at the girls feet turned into a
nest full of wasps, which begin buzzing immediately. The Durmstrang girl
reacted quickly, sending a blasting hex at the papery structure back
towards Harry.

With a flick of his wand, Harry cancelled the spell and neatly sidestepped
the corpse of a dog that flew towards him, the Ukrainian followed her
banisher with a medley of blasting and exploding hexes.

Protego! Harry thought, blocking the incoming volley, each spell causing a
bright flash as it impacted the invisible shield.

The audience was sat in silent amazement as the two students continued to
hurl increasing violent spells at one another.

The ring was quiet, as each student only used nonverbal spells,
occasionally the blast of a spell hitting the arena floor echoed around the
stadium, as well as the whip/crack of magical discharge when their spells
collided in mid-air.

Harry suddenly sent a jet of water at the girl, she responded with a
powerful freezing charm, followed by a banisher, blasting the block of ice
into hundreds of fragments which were sent hurling towards Harry.
The Hogwarts boy raised a visible shield and when the deadly shards
struck it, they seemed to evaporate into a thick mist.

The ease with which Harry had so far managed to block all of her curses
clearly was frustrating the girl, she sent a sickly orange curse at the
Hogwarts champion, which he was forced to dive away from,

"Fault!" shouted the referee, "Illegal spell use, two warnings remaining!"
Mariya nodded an apology at the referee, and the duel got underway once
more.

With surgical precision, Harry sent a barrage of rapid piercing curses,

their electric blue light slamming into the girls shield with audible cracks.

Mariya's shield broke, and one of Harry's curses drilled it's hole straight
into her knee. The Ukrainian girl crumpled in agony, and Harry allowed
his relentless barrage to cease. He may be ruthless, but Harry was still too
well brought up to curse a girl when she was on the floor.

With a cry of pain, the Durmstrang girl cast a series of complicated

charms on her knee, the bleeding stopped, but it clearly still was very
painful. She stood up shakily, gesturing for Harry to continue.

Tonare!

The blasting curse wasn't aimed at the girl, but at the ground in front of
her, Lytvyn yelled as the rubble burst out from the crater and flew up at
her, she shielded her face, but several small pieces hit her in the chest,
leaving bleeding wounds. With a furious growl, the girl transfigured one
of the Iron bludgers Harry had summoned into a bear, whilst the rubble he
had just created mutated into a pack of wild looking mongrels.

"Oppugno!" She shouted, and the herd of beasts charged at him. Deeming
the enormous brown bear the greatest threat, Harry dispatched it with a
butchering curse, which opened a long gash along its abdomen.
Before Harry was able to deal with the dogs, he found himself blocking the
furious attack of the girl. Her aim was off, and Harry guessed the wound in
her knee was making her rather delirious with pain, nevertheless, whilst
she was not on top form, she was desperate, and her curses flew with a
speed that Harry was struggling to block against.

Harry grunted in pain as one of the Dog's sank its sharp teeth into his calf.
An area effect cutting curse easily dispatched the hounds, but in his
distraction, the Ukrainian managed to hit him in the shoulder with a bone
breaker. He yelled out as pain radiated down his entire left side. Gasping
with every movement Harry muttered a quick numbing and petrification
jinx, managing to dull the pain and prevent further damage.

The duel reached a quick lull in activity. The two competitors, both
bleeding surveyed each other, the quiet didn't last long, as quickly the two
began a rapid exchange of curses, several hitting, but the vast majority
being shielded. Neither Harry nor Mariya was now fully capable of
dodging with their wounds, and instead held their ground, both hurling a
brutal cocktail of withering magic at the other.

As the exchange entered it's fourteenth minute, Harry realised he would

need to finish the duel, and quickly. His left arm, already useless was now
bleeding from a cutter, whilst a flame whip had caught around his right
calf, almost completely restricting his movement.

Fortunately Lytvyn fared little better, her face was covered in deep
scratches from a flock of birds Harry had conjured, and her right eye was
oozing pus from a conjunctivus curse she had only partially blocked.

When they began their next exchange of curses, Harry thought that they
both knew it had to be their last. Neither had the strength to keep this up
much longer, and if they wasted too much time, the officials would call
this match a draw also due to blood loss.

Reducto, Hastis Glacis, Bombarda, Imprignis, Valero, Progeo! The first

curse in the colourful stream struck Mariya's with the customary
crack/snap of two spells colliding. The rest however were more successful,
the second struck her shield, the spear of ice crunching into pieces, the
third also struck her shield.

The fourth spell, when it hit the tired barrier of magic seemed to bat it
aside, leaving the fifth struck her in the stomach, she blinked a few times,
before bending forward in pain. The spell was made the victim feel as
though they were experiencing the throes of childbirth, and was used in the
training of birthing healers.

Mariya gave a yell of pain and anger as she saw the red stunner flying
towards her face, just then a spasm of pain shot through her and she
couldn't react in time.. When the girl was unconscious, Harry grinned
slightly wincing as the motion hurt his bruised jaw. He fell to one knee,
barely conscious, but aware that there was a legion of healers descending
on the two duellists, the last thing he remembered was the shout of the
referee declaring him the winner before he passed out.

When he came to, his body felt stiff and sore all over, his shoulder was in
agony, feeling like a thousand tiny needles were repeatedly being stabbed
into his skin. With a groan, he tried to sit up, but Pomphrey's hand on his
good shoulder kept him down.

"Easy Potter, you're in no position to go anywhere!" she barked

imperiously, Harry ignored her and tried to get up again.

"I can hardly waste time in here Madam, I have things I need to be doing!"
Pomphrey frowned at him,

"I think you will find Mr Potter, that when I tell you to, you jolly well will
stay right where I tell you to. Am I understood?!"

Harry nodded and collapsed back onto the bed, grunting when the
movement jarred his bad shoulder. He lay there for what felt like hours,
though in reality was only around 20 minutes. During that time, Pomphrey
stayed next to him, forcing a disgusting combination of horrendously
coloured potions down his protesting throat.
Just as he was about to yell in frustration, Snape glided through the door,
looking as much like an overgrown bat as ever.

"A satisfactory performance Mr Potter." The hook nosed man drawled,

Harry attempted to school his features into a cheeky smile, but suspected
it rather looked like a pained grimace,

"I'm pleased to have not disappointed you professor." He said, his voice
rather gravelly,

"You will be pleased to know that you won the individual competition, it's
a pity your…" his lip curled "teammate, was such a disappointment."

"Where did we come overall Professor?" Snape seemed to glower,

"Last Potter, Beauxbatons was able to beat us by four points." Harry

sighed in frustration, before nodding slightly, it could have been worse, at
least people would remember him for his victory. Nevertheless, it was a
rather new feeling. Losing, he wasn't sure he was fond of the alien feeling.

When the ceremony for the duelling awards did eventually take place, It
was a rather subdued event, Neville still hadn't returned from St. Mungo's,
Harry's arm was in a sling and Lytvyn was walking with the aid of a
crutch.

"After one of the most spectacular duels I have ever witnessed, Harry
Potter has become the individual duelling champion!" Bagman announced
happily with a wide grin, Harry stepped forward and accepted his large
silver trophy in his good hand, holding it up in the air with a flourish, the
Hogwarts students cheered loudly, and Harry smiled broadly.

"However, despite Mr Potter's valiant efforts, the runaway winners of this

year's competition is Durmstrang Institute!"

Harry restrained from covering his ears at the bellowed cheers of the
eastern Europeans, several of them fired spells from their wands in
jubilation, the conjured fireworks making terrific light displays in the
afternoon sun. Krum supported the limping Ukrainian onto the stage and
together they held up the enormous golden trophy, easily the size of the
Quidditch cup, pumping the air with their free hands, whilst reporter's
camera's flashed in a dizzying display.

That night there was a small party in the Slytherin common room to
celebrate the victory, but it was short lived due to the exams which were
only days away. Harry went to bed that night, satisfied and happy, though
still incredibly stiff from his healing body, he wished Miranda could have
turned up with some elixir for him, but evidently she had been at work.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
HPHPHPHPHPH

The day before the final task of the Triwizard tournament was a
Hogsmeade Saturday, the exams were over and almost everyone in the
castle seemed eager to escape the oppressive studious atmosphere that had
overcome Hogwarts. Harry however was not relishing the opportunity of
freedom like his friends were. The day after the duelling final, he had
received a note. The short missive was unsigned and had been delivered to
him by Draco Malfoy who had received it with a delivery of sweets from
his mother.

My Dear Harry,

It has come to my attention that you are a duelling champion, I had no

doubt you would be successful, I extend my most wholehearted
congratulations.
I am under the impression that this Saturday is a Hogsmeade weekend, you
will take this an opportunity to meet with me in the same place as last time
at two o'clock.
I look forward to seeing you.

Your Friend.

That note had led Harry to where he was now, in the dusty, unkempt lounge
room of The Hogs Head. With a flick of his wrist, he threw two sickles to
the grey haired barman and stepped into the floo.

When he was ejected at the other end, he very nearly lost his balance,
looking around, he was glad to see nobody waiting for him in the opulent
receiving room of Malfoy Manner. With a quick cleaning charm to remove
the remaining ash, Harry swept out into the manors extravagant main hall.
The large black and white marble room was empty, and each of Harry's
footsteps echoed loudly.

With a false bravado that he was in no way feeling, Harry strode

confidently around the wide staircase and into the small side room where
he had last met the Dark Lord. Harry was evidently just in time, almost all
of the thirty seats in the room were filled with witches and wizards, Tom
sat at the head of the table, his pose elegantly casual as he reclined in the
deep mahogany seat.

"Harry, Excellent timing, I was beginning to get worried." The Dark Lord
said charmingly, a broad smile on his face as he surveyed the Slytherin
student, Harry nodded in a respectful greeting looking around to find an
empty seat,

"Here you are Harry, there's a seat free next to Evan." Harry looked down
the table and saw Rosier sat immediately next to the Dark Lord, next to
him sat the cowardly form of Wormtail, Harry suppressed a smile as he
realised what was expected of him, and internally thanked the Dark Lord
for this small opportunity to display his strength.

With calm and confident steps, he strode down the length of the table
ignoring the interested looks he was receiving from the other followers of
Voldemort. Stopping directly behind the rat animagus, Harry glared at the
weak man and cleared his throat, the man made no movement, evidently
desperate to save face.

Harry said nothing, but in the blink of his eye had transformed the chair he
was sat in into two dozen snakes, the man squealed as the harmless
serpents slithered over his body. Harry smirked as Wormtail crawled
pitifully away from the table, taking a new seat at the very far end of the
room, with another swish of his wand, the chair had returned, and with a
graceful movement, Harry sat himself back down.

The Dark Lord was smiling at the display, chuckling in a cold, high
pitched manner. Taking their cues, the other death eaters followed suit and
gave a low chuckle, although they stopped immediately when the Dark
Lord lapsed into silence. The mood in the room grew gradually more
nervous as the silence drew on, eventually the Young Man at the head of
the table rose.

"My friends," He spoke warmly, his eyes flitting around the room, "We are
nearing the fulcrum of our plan, tomorrow is the third task of the tri-
wizard tournament, all of our plans, all of our schemes, they lead to this
moment." He paused, and his eyes flickered around the room,

"Tomorrow, with the generous help of Mr Neville Longbottom, I shall

return to full strength, and together we shall return to absolute power. It is
a long road of effort before us, but if we all keep together, I have absolute
certainty that we shall have the nation at our feet." There was a small
round of applause as Riddle spoke, his voice carrying easily to all corners
of the room. The Dark Lord seemed to bask in the limelight, and after
several moments held his hands up for silence.

"Tomorrow night, I shall call all of my followers, and those who return
shall become a part of the future we shall construct, those who do not will
be destroyed like the oath breaking traitors they are." There was a slow
moment of silence as he slowly walked the length of the table.

"Lucius?" he called suddenly, the blonde man looked up immediately,

"My Lord?"

"What is the current situation of the Ministry?" Harry knew Riddle was
extremely well versed in the government's state of affairs, so this must be
for the sake of those less well informed who were present.
"The Ministry is a broken machine, corruption and ineptitude exist on
every level and it is a miracle that even the smallest advances are made.
The Wizengamot is fragmented into myriad parties and ideologies, it is
only through the political strength of Dumbledore that Fudge has any
check on his policy." He paused, and Voldemort gestured for him to
continue,

"I believe that with only a little pressure, most of the ministry would
collapse, most departments are near bankrupt and led by fools. The public
is tired of their government's inability to act, and I am sure will be
sympathetic to a united, effective force." Riddle nodded with a broad
smile,

"So you see my friends, the world is ours for the taking, and take it we
shall, not through force, or violent civil war, but through the very system
that would have us destroyed."

It was clear from the looks on the faces of the death eaters that many of
those gathered held strong opinions on this new plan for takeover, many of
the rougher looking types had been hoping to display their strength and
create havoc around the country, others however, those like Lucius Malfoy,
Evan Rosier and others were clearly pleased at their new direction.

For another hour, the assembled followers planned for the future, Riddle
played the consummate politician, he was charming, respectful and
listened to each point presented, offering excellent opinions and gradually
swaying those who disapproved of his plans to his side.

Finally, as the clock approached three thirty, the meeting drew to a close,
the death eaters bowed low as they left the room, Harry however remained
in his seat, with a swish of his wand, the door closed behind the last black
clad death eater, and Harry was alone with the man.

"You did well Harry." Tom praised with a small smile, Harry nodded, but
said nothing, waiting for the man to continue. "I am sure many of my loyal
followers are displeased with the fact that I have taken someone so young
and untested into my confidence, however I am sure you will prove you
worth very shortly."

"I am pleased by your faith in me." Harry responded with a small smirk,
the Dark Lord chuckled,

"indeed." He surveyed the boy before him in interest. "Has Barty informed
you of the plans for tomorrow?" he asked casually, Harry shook his head.

"No. I have attempted to keep myself distanced from Crouch, Dumbledore

watches me closely, and it would not do for that observation to pass onto
Professor Moody."

"That is wise, very well, tomorrow is the third task, Barty has already
placed the tri-wizard cup into the maze, the cup is a portkey and will bring
Neville to where the ritual will take place, it is therefore imperative that
Longbottom touch the cup first. Am I understood?"

"Of course, My Lord."

"Good. Given the… ability that Longbottom has shown so far, you may be
required to engineer his victory." Harry nodded in understanding,

"I will succeed. I will hunt down Krum and prevent him reaching the cup."

"What of the Delacour girl? Do not underestimate her."

"Fleur will not be a problem, I will tell her of the need for Longbottom to
reach the cup." Riddle frowned curiously,

"The girl is sympathetic to our cause?" his voice was calm, though there
was an element of warning in his tone.

"Not entirely by choice." Harry informed the wizard with a smirk, at the
Dark Lord's confused look Harry explained about the life debt, at the end
of his story Riddle was laughing lightly, his expression one of pleased
delight.
"Excellent, excellent, well in that case you must indeed focus on the
Durmstrang champion. Krum has shown himself to be a powerful
adversary. Barty will ensure that the majority of obstacles will be removed
from Longbottoms path. Well, I believe that is all?" Harry recognised the
dismissal, but remained in his seat,

"My Lord, forgive me, but… but have you had any luck with the purging
ritual?"

"I have, we may perform it after the task, I was in Sardinia recently, a
village elder told me of this ritual, after a little… persuasion." Harry
nodded and tried to keep the relief of his face, it had been a great concern
to him, whether or not he would suddenly lose control of his emotions and
do something untoward.

"That is good news my Lord." He finally said, Riddle smirked,

"Indeed. Well, you had best be off, it would not do for the meddlesome
headmaster to note your absence."

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
HPHPHPHPHPH

The evening was dark, the grounds littered with shadows. Whilst the rest
of the grounds were enjoying the mellow transition towards evening, the
Quidditch pitch was alive with noise and excitement.

Instead of the usual stadiums which only fit the school, new stands had
been erected which had tripled the capacity, hundreds of people had turned
up to see the final competition, students, teachers, officials and politicians
among them. Harry was sat on his own, rolling his wand between his
fingers whilst he waited for the task to begin.

He looked around at his champions, Krum was talking to a man who Harry
recognised as the Durmstrang students father, Fleur meanwhile was
holding hands with her sister and clearly in earnest discussion with her
mother, when Harry saw the veelan champion, his mind briefly flicked
back to the conversation they had had earlier that day.

He had cornered Fleur in an abandoned classroom, the girl had looked

confused as to why Harry wanted to talk to her, and her confusion only
grew as he threw up a variety of very advanced silencing and other anti-
eavesdropping spells,

"What is ze matter 'Arry?" she had asked, a slight element of fear in her
voice,

"Fleur, what I am about to tell you is extremely important, and you must
promise to obey me on this." The girl nodded, but Harry wasn't taking any
chances,

"Swear it Fleur!" he all but shouted, the scared French champion quickly
made the oath,

"You are not to win this tournament, It is absolutely imperative that you do
not touch the tri-wizard cup first." Fleur bristled at him,

"You zink that you can exploit this bond between us to improve your own
chance?" Harry glared,

"I will not touch the cup either, it must be Longbottom, do not ask me why,
but it has to be Longbottom!" the girl looked at him confused,

"Longbottom? But why?!"

"It doesn't matter, but swear to me, that if you reach the cup, you will not
touch it, and if you see Longbottom, you must not incapacitate him." The
girl was confused, but she nodded and Harry let out a small breath,

"Good, in that case I wish you good luck this evening Fleur."

Harry had read up on the Veela bonds, and knew that even without making
her swear an oath, she would have been forced to obey him, but it couldn't
hurt to make sure.

"Ladies and gentlemen, It has taken a year to get here" Bagman shouted in
his magically magnified voice, "but we are now looking at the final task!"
there were cheers from the crowd,

"The champion's job is simple. In the centre of this maze lies the Triwizard
cup, the first champion to reach the cup and touch it will receive fifty
points. The champions who arrive second, third fourth will receive only 25
points. In the maze lie all sorts of magical traps, beasts and enchantments
and our champions will be made to show all of their cunning, strength and
ability to reach the centre."

Harry stood up as he saw McGonagall gesture to him and the others.

"Champions, you will enter the maze in order of position in the rankings,
Mr Potter will go first, Followed by Mr Krum, Miss Delacour and finally
Mr Longbottom. When the cannon sounds, the task has begun." The four
students nodded in understanding, and McGonagall left them standing by
the entrance, whilst his competition was surveying the vast hedges in front
of them, Harry took the opportunity to subtly cast a tracking spell on the
Durmstrang champion.

"So, without any further ado… The First champion will enter…. Now!"
There was a boom from the cannon and Harry quickly ran into the maze,
his wand was held carefully in his right hand, and his eyes darting from
left to right.

Taking a quick left, followed by a right, Harry hurried through the dark
corridors of the challenge, after five minutes he encountered his first
obstacle. An enormous thing stood before him, at least 10 feet tall, it
looked rather like an armoured scorpion crossed with a lizard, Harry had
never seen anything like it, before he had a chance to properly examine it,
one of the beasts tentacles suddenly shot a great gout of flame at his head,
Harry dived to the left, feeling the heat across his cheek, raising his wand
the Hogwarts champion quickly shot a severing charm at the monster.
The spell shot from his wand and struck the thing on its thick armour
plating. Harry groaned in annoyance, rising quickly to his feet, he brought
his wand down in a vicious slash, expelling from its tip a razor sharp
blade.

The knife sped through the air, and with a dull thump, buried itself in the
armour. The animal squealed loudly, but wasn't brought down, Harry
advanced on it, sending a constant barrage of missiles, the scorpion
retreated before the withering hail, its eyes and soft underbelly being
pummelled by Harry's conjured spikes, rocks and knives.

With a final slash of his wand, Harry summoned a six foot long ice spear,
which shot forward, and with surgical precision struck the monster in its
right eye, the beast was down in a heartbeat, stone dead. Harry smirked as
he strode around the corpse, quickly breaking in for a run as he carried on.

With a muttered spell, his wand span in his palm before coming to rest
pointing towards his right, that had to be the direction that Krum was in,
Harry hurried down the first right turning he came to, searching with all
his senses for a sign of the scarlet clad Bulgarian.

As he turned around another corner, he found him, Krum was busy

fighting off a giant spider, the acromantula was large, Harry guessed it had
to be at least 5 feet tall, with long black pincers and eight shiny eyes that
were sunk into its hairy head.

Viktor shot a ribbon cutter at the animal, severing three of its legs, the
beast went down, Whilst Viktor was busy, Harry quickly sent a stunner at
the boys back. The Quidditch champion crumpled seconds after a
bludgeoning curse left his wand and disposed of the spider.

That was easy. Harry thought with a savage grin, he sent a jet of red sparks
up at the sky before hurrying past the Durmstrang champion and the dead
beast.

The night was dragging on, Harry felt like he had defeated dozens of traps
and slain just as many of Hagrids pets, including one very frumpy sphinx,
he had seen no sign of either Fleur or Neville, but when passed by a dead
pack of dogs that had clearly been finished by some very advanced charms
work, he thought that had to be Fleur's handiwork.

With tired legs, Harry ran on forwards, his senses alert and his wand held
ready, as he rounded a corner, he across a long straight passage, at the end
was a light, which Harry could just make out to be the cup, slowly, the
Hogwarts champion strode up the path, easily dispatching yet another
acromantula that tried to get him, when he was only twenty feet from the
pedestal on which the cup was sat, he heard sprinting footsteps behind
him.

Turning, he saw the bloodied form of Longbottom limping down the path,
his face looked exhausted, and his wand shook in his hand. Harry stopped
and watched the boy.

When Neville saw Harry, it seemed that his flagging endurance left him.

"Potter!" He cried in despair, Harry smirked,

"Good evening Neville." he greeted him,

"Aren't you going to get the cup?" the boy asked tiredly, Harry grinned
widely,

"Of course not Neville, you are." The Gryffindor looked at him in utter
confusion,

"Is this a trick?" he finally asked, Harry suppressed a smirk,

"Of course not, It's simple, you touch the cup first and get fifty points, I
touch the cup second, and get twenty five points, thereby Hogwarts comes
first and second in the overall rankings, and I still win of course. It's
simple school pride." Neville looked at him nervously, and Harry
internally crossed his fingers that Neville would fall for such a ridiculous
plan.
The two boys watched each other for a few seconds, before Neville seemed
to fall for it, he nodded, and without turning his back on Harry, he slowly
made his way to the cup.

Just before the boy touched the cold metal, he looked at Harry one last
time, the Slytherin kept his face impassive, and with a cautious finger,
Neville touched the cup.

In an instant he vanished, sucked into a vortex to Voldemort, Harry

supressed a chuckle and sat down on the pedestal, he was Triwizard
champion.

Please Review!
21. Political Landscape

So, as Promised, this is an overview of the British Magical

Government system, if any of you have any questions or parts they
think are unclear, feel free to drop a review and i will endeavour to
answer your questions.

Political Landscape

As this is a work of fanfiction, I have decided to take a few liberties (shall

we call it artistic licence) with the political system of the Wizarding
world, whilst Mrs. Rowling goes into very little detail about government, I
have decided to add in a parliament of sorts in magical Britain, otherwise
there would be virtually no 'civilian' oversight of the ministry and it would
be a very peculiar government system indeed.

First off, the Wizengamot will act as both a court and a governing body,
the fifty judicial members we see in Order of the Phoenix are chosen from
amongst 211 members who make up the full wizengamot.

The Wizengamot contains several parties, these are unlike modern parties
in Britain, and hark back to the loosely associated politicians of 1860's
Britain, the members of each party have no obligation to follow their
parties instructions and are far less well organised than we might expect in
the muggle government, however they are allied under a banner of
political idea's.

The majority of members of the wizengamot (150) are elected from the
population in elections held every two years, a citizen does not get elected
for a constituency, instead they simply campaign across the country and
the most popular individuals are chosen. The remaining 61 seats are filled
by members of Ancient and most noble houses such as the Blacks,
Malfoys etc.

The main parties are as follows:

The British Peoples Party (75 seats): This is the largest party in the
wizengamot, with Fudge at its helm, the BPP is very much a moderate
party, their policies are relatively neutral, and they have remained in
power for a long time due to the fact that they avoid controversial idea's
and keep the status quo wherever possible, many members are chosen
because of their loyalty to Fudge rather than their political savvy. They
wear Grey Cloaks in the Wizengamot meets.

The Progressive Party (50 Seats): This party is smaller than fudges and
led by Dumbledore. The members of the progressives are not especially
united, and have many differing views, however they are all followers of
Dumbledore's doctrine, and whilst they may not always approve of his
actions, Dumbledore's personality is just about capable of keeping order.
They wear Blue cloaks in wizengamot meets.

The Traditionalist party (50 seats): of equal size to the Progressives, the
traditionalists are led by Lucius Malfoy and the majority of its members
come from old pureblood families who wish to limit muggle influence on
society, as well as ensure that the old families remain in a strong position
of power, unlike the Progressives, the Traditionalists are a well organised
and united party, with a strong sympathy for Voldemort's ideals, they are
also the best funded party in government. They wear black cloaks in the
Wizengamot meets.

In addition to the main parties, there are several small parties and
individuals who vote solely to advance themselves.

The Head of government is the Minister for Magic, he has the power of
Veto over any bill put before the Wizengamot, in addition he is
responsible for leading debates in the Ministry and acting as Liaison to the
Muggle world. The minister is elected from the wizengamot, and therefore
is almost unilaterally the head of the most popular Wizarding Party. He
can only be removed from office following a vote of no confidence.

The Chief Warlock is chosen from amongst the members of the

Wizengamot. The Minister nominates a candidate, and this is then voted
on by the government. The minister is also the only person capable of
starting a vote to remove the Chief Warlock. The responsibility of this
position is to act as an impartial voice in government, as well as retaining
order in debates and ensuring that all Wizengamot activities are performed
correctly. In the Judicial Wizengamot, the Chief Warlock acts as Judge and
in the event of an individual performing crimes against the Wizarding
state, also as lawyer for the prosecution.

The final position in government is the Master of Ceremonies. This is a

position typically given to an older statesmen incapable of performing
more rigorous roles within government, it is a position of honour, however
has no real responsibility or power and is more of an honorary role than
anything else.

The wizengamot meets twice a week throughout the year, with the judicial
aspect meeting whenever required.
22. Chapter 22

Okay, here we go, chapter 20, a fairly important one, it marks the end
of Hogwarts and the transition into the wizengamot, please review, and
give me your thoughts, especially on how detailed you want the debates
to be, how much political intrigue you want etc, if you would prefer i
steer clear of the realms of intense political debate, tell me that as
well!

Many thanks to GreenGrizzly and Mrmacattac who have been

brilliant in helping me out with this part, I doff my cap to you.

Here you go

Chapter 20

Albus Dumbledore had always considered himself a very level headed

man, indeed, he often fancied himself one of the most controlled men in
the country. However, when he received the news that Neville Longbottom
had vanished from Hogwarts grounds after touching the Triwizard cup, he
very nearly lost his cool.

"… an Outrage, I expected better of you Albus!"

"Indeed, the boy is a national icon, have you any idea what this would do
to my approval ratings?"

"Who is behind this?"

The cacophony of noise was deafening on Dumbledore's tired ears, he

sighed loudly and held his hands up for silence, Augusta Longbottom,
Cornelius Fudge and Amelia Bones fell silent at once, Dumbledore looked
each of them in the eye, the usual glint in his eye had vanished, replaced
instead with a look that screamed strength of will.
"Ladies, Cornelius, I must insist that you quieten down, shouting will
solve nothing." Augusta looked furious at him, whereas Amelia, who had
always been a very professional and intelligent woman nodded.

"What do we know Albus?" she asked, indicating for one of the Aurors
behind her to begin jotting things down,

"At 10.48, Neville Longbottom vanished after touching the Triwizard cup,
given the magical signature left over, it was clear that the cup was a
portkey, although we know not who charmed it." The Auror nodded,

"I understand one of the other champions witnessed the whole thing?" the
head of the Department of Magical Law enforcement asked,

"Indeed," the aged headmaster's countenance suddenly turned grave,

something the veteran woman immediately picked up on, "Harry Potter,
the other Hogwarts champion saw the whole thing." Fudge perked up,

"Harry eh? Excellent, excellent, he's a very bright man Amelia, I'm sure he
can provide a great deal of information."

"Albus?" the woman asked,

"Harry Potter is an enigma Amelia, but he is brilliant, he may well shed

light on this event."

"You don't suspect he might be involved do you? It would be

understandable, his family isn't exactly the most reputable." Fudge bristled
in indignation,

"If that boy has proven anything during his time at Hogwarts, it is that he
is an upstanding and model citizen. Head boy, order of Merlin, two special
awards, his academic record surpasses all!" Amelia blinked in surprise,

"You seem rather taken with the boy Minister?" she asked curiously,

"He has a bright future, I of course like to foster young talent."

"Indeed, well shall we meet this boy then? Aurors." The party left the tent
they had all been in and headed towards the hospital tent. The stands were
still packed, everyone eagerly discussing the latest development, Albus
ignored all the voices that called to him, instead leading the grandmother,
the Department head, the minister for Magic and two Aurors to see the
Hogwarts champion.

The tent was large and well lit, Madam Pomphrey was carefully tending to
the French champion, who appeared to have suffered a burn to her thigh,
Viktor Krum had already been dismissed, and Harry Potter was sitting
casually on his bed. He didn't appear to have a mark on him, looking
completely at ease at all the panic which had overtaken the school.

Dumbledore's concerns about the boy magnified when he saw the light
smirk dancing across the boy's mouth. Albus met Harry's eyes and the two
stared at each other. It was subtle, and the aged headmaster almost missed
the look, but it appeared that the Potter boy was gloating, his smile, and
the set of his eyes, to anyone who knew what to look for, it was clear that
the boy had just achieved something, and that alone set the headmaster on
edge.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPP
HPHPHPHPHPHHP

Harry's mental barriers were struggling to contain his intense feelings of

success, he had just been a part of a plan to steal the most important part
of Dumbledore's plans from right under the man's nose, and now, seeing
the old Headmaster before him now, Harry was almost overwhelmed with
happiness.

"Good Evening Harry, congratulations on winning the tournament, terrific

work, truly terrific!" Harry smiled warmly at the Minister, firmly shaking
the outstretched hand, Fudge was really too pliable.

"Mr Potter, my name is Amelia Bones I'm the…"

"Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, It's a pleasure to
make your acquaintance" Harry finished, offering her his hand with a
smile, the monocle wearing woman shook it.

"Indeed Mr Potter, I need to ask you a few questions about what happened
with Mr Longbottom, you were, after all, the only witness to what
happened." Harry nodded with a calm smile,

"Of course. Well, I was the first to reach the cup, but before I could touch
it, Neville appeared, I allowed him to be the first to touch the cup." Harry
was cut off by one of the Aurors,

"You allowed him to touch the cup? May I ask why?"

"By allowing Neville to touch the cup, I knew that Hogwarts would come
first and second in this tournament. With fifty points, Neville beat Viktor,
and with the 25 points that were gained by reaching the centre of the maze,
I would still win the tournament overall." The auror looked surprised, but
accepted the reasoning,

"So, you allowed Neville to touch the cup?" prompted Augusta, who was
looking at Harry with a look of intense suspicion, Harry nodded,

"I did, Neville vanished, I assume the cup was a portkey, I sent up sparks
and waited to be taken from the maze, Madam Pomphrey took me into this
tent, and then you showed up, I'm sorry I can't provide more information,
but that really is it." Fudge nodded and gave Harry a comforting squeeze
on his shoulder,

"Not to worry Harry, you've been very useful. You did the right thing, and
showed a great deal of school…" he was silenced by the sudden cries that
could be heard outside the tent, a young auror suddenly poked his head
through the tent flap,

"Minister, Madam Bones, he's back, Longbottom just appeared!" The

adults all immediately hurried outside, Dumbledore sent Harry a last
penetrating look, which Harry returned with a lightly raised eyebrow.
Harry stood up quickly, there was nothing really wrong with him now, so
with relative ease he slipped into his torn Triwizard robes, and with
deliberate steps he strolled out into the dark grounds, there was a large
crowd gathered around a figure, which Harry assumed had to be
Longbottoms corpse.

Pushing his way to the front, Harry almost lost his composure by what he
saw, Neville was sat on the ground, Dumbledore leaning over him, whilst
Fudge was rubbing his palms together nervously. Whilst the boy was
covered in blood, his leg appeared broken and his eyes were bloodshot, he
was very much alive, which to Harry at least made no sense, the Dark Lord
surely wanted him dead? And Neville was a terrible duellist, there should
have been no situation in which Neville survived the ritual.

Someone suddenly grabbed his arm and he turned quickly, it was Moody,
who looked just as concerned as he felt, together the two of them escaped
the crowd and hurried off to an empty portion of the stands, with several
quick waves of his wand, the area was warded against disturbance.

"How can this be Potter?" Barty asked nervously, his eyes flickering back
and forth at an alarming rate,

"I don't know, did the dark Lord mention anything to you?"

"Nothing, nothing. How is he alive?"

"I don't know, Barty, you had best get out, the portkey's back now, it
wouldn't take too much investigation to discover it was you who created
it." The imposter's eyes flashed widely before he nodded, he clasped
Harry's hands in his worn, scarred ones and squeezed firmly,

"I will return to our Lord, Luck Potter."

"Luck Barty." With speed that belied his crippled frame, the withered form
of Mad Eye Moody hurried towards the gates of the castle, his wooden leg
swinging madly as he ran.
As subtly as he could, Harry joined the crowds of students milling back
towards the castle, whilst he was sure that nothing he had done would be
able to directly link itself to him, Harry was still very much concerned
about the mere fact that the frustrating boy was still alive, Dumbledore
clearly suspected him, and he wasn't sure how long he could manage under
constant scrutiny without slipping up.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPP
HPHPHPHPHPHHP

As it turned out, Harry had been right to be concerned, the very next day it
became apparent to Harry that Dumbledore was keeping a very close eye
on him, wherever he went, there were whispers in Portraits, and many
followed him around the castle, being remarkably unsubtle in their efforts,
where the portraits were unavailable, Dumbledore possessed many, far
more covert servants, from time to time, Harry became quite convinced
that he had caught sight of the great tennis ball like eyes of house elves
peering at him from behind.

All in all, his last two weeks at Hogwarts had led to him becoming rather
paranoid, he was on constant alert, and the never ending fear of being
spied upon was fraying at his nerves. The ministry was denying the return
of the Dark Lord, stating that Neville was simply deluded after all the
trauma he had experienced during the trauma, they had wheeled several
mind healers who were all in agreement that the best solution would be for
Neville to seek professional help.

Three days before the end of term was to be the official prize giving for
the tournament, the ministry was apparently eager to get a great deal of
press out of the fact that Hogwarts had won, and were planning some
extravagant event.

When the day finally dawned, Harry discovered that his guess of the
ministry milking the event for all it was worth was rather accurate. The
great hall tables had been removed and replaced with rows and rows of
seats, whilst a raised stage had been created for the legions of ministry
officials and representatives from all three schools who were appearing.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, honoured Guests, it is my great pleasure to welcome

you all to Hogwarts on this auspicious day." Began Fudge, his robes were
perfectly pressed, and his smile immaculate in the flash of all the press
camera's around him.

"Today, we have the very great pleasure of congratulating some of the very
best wizards and witches in Europe. This year's tournament has been
mired in controversy, and been the cause of much media and public
excitement, throughout all of this, our champions have remained level
headed, calm and intelligent, therefore I think I speak for all of your
respective nationalities when I call for us all to take part in a round of
applause!"

The crowd burst into a rousing ovation, Fudge lead from the front,
clapping his hands enthusiastically, whilst still maintaining the idea that
he was superior to those around him, as many politicians are wont to do.

"In Fourth Place in this year's competition, from Beauxbatons, is Fleur

Delacour." Fleur gracefully stood up and accepted a certificate from Fudge
with a broad smile, whilst the minister held her hand for slightly longer
than was appropriate.

"Third Place goes to Mr Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang." Krum slouched up

to the stage looking surly and accepted the medal he was offered with a
small smile, the crowd clapped loudly, and Fudge beamed for the cameras
once more.

"Well, in second Place comes Neville Longbottom, who surprised everyone

with his unexpected collection of the Triwizard cup." The crowd cheered
happily at the sight of the second Hogwarts champion as he collected the
silver plate for Fudge with a nervous smile. Longbottom had clearly been
affected rather a lot by the incident with Riddle, he seemed constantly on
edge, and if the dark bags under his eyes were any indication, he wasn't
really sleeping.
Fudge seemed unwilling to be too closely associated with Neville, shaking
his hand for only a second before hastily hurrying through the presentation
of his gifts, Harry supposed that with Fudge currently attempting to side-
line Dumbledore and everything he stood for, Fudge's actions did at least
make sense.

"And Finally, Our winner this year, also representing Hogwarts is Mr

Harry Potter, Our Head Boy and Duelling champion." There were cheers
from the crowd, and Harry smiled softly and he strode up to Fudge, the
Minister caught his hand in a vice like grip, whilst his other arm went
around Harry's shoulders, forcing the boy to face the camera's, with a
friendly smile, the Hogwarts champion waved to the crowd, allowing
Fudge this little opportunity to gain some positive publicity.

"Mr Potter impressed us all with his truly remarkable abilities and quick
thinking, he has remained in the lead for every one of the tasks he faced
and stormed to Victory in this tournament." Fudge smiled down at Harry as
though he were an old friend, before turning and accepting the massive
Cup from an aide.

With a great deal of flourish and pomp, the gold and silver cup was handed
to the Hogwarts head boy, who accepted it with a broad grin, turning to the
crowd, he held the cup high over his head, there was a roar of approval
from the Hogwarts students which shook the Great Hall and felt as if they
might break the windows, Harry punched the air with the cup before
turning back to the minister, who was calling for quiet.

"Yes, yes, well done Mr Potter!" Commented Fudge, "However, not just
through the course of this tournament, but throughout his entire magical
education, and all his time in the magical world, Harry Potter has
demonstrated intelligence, bravery and goodness of spirit, he had worked
hard to remove the stain that has been left upon his family's name due to
the actions of his father, and for this, I applaud him."

Harry had no idea what was happening, Fudge had mentioned none of this,
he briefly looked up at the minister and stopped a frown appearing on his
face, but only just, the Minister was looking like the cat who caught the
canary, a smile across his round face.

"In recognition of Mr Potter's achievements, contributions and dedication

over the last seven years, it has been decided that the Potter Family seat
on the Wizengamot shall be reinstated to Harry, effective immediately!"
Harry's impressive Occlumency shields very nearly broke, he was in
shock, amazed that Fudge would do something like this.

"Congratulations Harry, and thank you, for everything, I hope a long

career in politics is ahead of you!" Fudge said with a small wink. Harry
blinked slowly, before plastering a grateful expression on his face and
firmly shaking the minister's hand once more, smiling for the cameras.

As he walked back to his seat, the heavy Triwizard cup held firmly in his
hand, Harry never noticed the group at the back of the hall who were
watching him with a degree of trepidation, Dumbledore sighed in
frustration at Fudges antics, if the Minister believed that adding Harry to
the wizengamot would gain him a new seat, well, the man was clearly
delusional. Next to him, he saw Black and the real Moody displaying more
visible disapproval, whilst Amelia Bones was watching the boy
sceptically, still not entirely convinced by Dumbledore's accusations at the
boy.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPP
HPHPHPHPHPHHP

Four days later, Harry was back in London, for the first time since he
could remember, his future was not set out for him, he didn't have Mrs
Phelps ordering him about, nor did he have school. Whilst he knew that his
ties to the Dark Lord would limit some of his options, he was still
relishing in his new freedom. He looked up at the clock, he was due to be
meeting with Riddle shortly, Harry hoped in order to perform the purging
ritual, as well as strategize for the future.

With a muffled sigh, the raven haired man rose and stepped out onto the
street, it was a lovely June day, the sun was beating down on his head,
whilst a light breeze played with his short hair, with a simple motion,
Harry drew his wand and turned, vanishing into the void. Where he
appeared, Harry had no idea, it was on the side of an unkempt hillside,
beyond the hill, he saw a small town bustling below him, a church spire
rising well above the rest of the buildings.

Behind him, Harry discovered what he had come for, a tall manor house,
once it must have been magnificent, however now it seemed rather run
down, green moss grew on the white paintwork, and several windows had
been smashed and hastily boarded up. Harry took a few steps forward
cautiously, but to his surprise he could feel no wards defending the
property.

"Quite a place isn't it Potter?" came a voice from the door, Harry looked
up and nodded at the speaker, Evan Rosier was leaning against the
doorframe, his dense frame looking completely at ease.

"It's certainly something." Harry replied noncommittally, Rosier chuckled

and nodded, before waving Harry forward,

"Come on, the Dark Lord is waiting for you."

"What happened on the night of the third task?" he asked, Rosier shook his
head with a frown,

"I won't tell you, but you will be pleased to know that everything went
according to plan, except of course that the Longbottom shit somehow
managed to survive." Harry chuckled and followed the elder man through
the long corridors of the impressive building, they reached a small door,
and Rosier hesitated with his hand upon the handle.

"Potter, Harry, I feel I should warn you, the man waiting for you is not the
man you met before, behind this door waits the Dark Lord from 15 years
ago, you will find him far less.. Forgiving than you may be used to."

"I understand." Harry replied with a small nod, Rosier dipped his head and
pushed open the door. Inside was a magnificent room, the far wall was
made of floor to ceiling windows, through which the afternoon sunshine
poured through, bathing the room in warm light, a long table was in the
middle, each place filled by a Death Eater, whilst at the Head of the Table,
sat the Dark Lord.

It was immediately clear that this was not the same Dark Lord that Harry
knew, Voldemort had lost all of his casual elegance, instead he was sat,
leaning forward slightly, a cruel smirk on his face, his red eyes radiating
malice, Harry thought he understood what was meant by Rosier when he
spoke of a lack of forgiveness.

"Evan, Harry. Come in, sit down." The Dark Lords voice was soft, cruel
and hinted at amusement, with confident steps, Harry followed Harry to
what he now viewed as his customary seat, next to Rosier, just one place
away from the Dark Lord, and opposite Barty,

Voldemort began the meeting quickly, explaining to his assembled

followers what had happened when he fought Longbottom, both in the
Graveyard where the ritual had occurred, and when the boy-saviour was
just a baby. Indeed, it appeared that this new Dark Lord was rather fond of
his own voice, for half an hour he regaled them with tales of his strength,
praising some of his followers and punishing others with liberal uses of
the cruciatus curse.

At three o'clock, the assembled Death Eaters were dismissed, although

Harry, Evan and Lucius were held behind.

"My Friends, you have all proven yourselves to me" The Dark Lord began,
"Therefore, as a token of my pleasure, I offer you the opportunity to
undergo a ritual, this ritual will purge away the corruption of Dark Magic
from your souls, returning your mental state to that of a true light wizard."
Harry smiled slightly,

"Will any of you accept my gift?" Harry nodded and stepped forward,
behind him he felt the other two mirror his actions. "Excellent, then my
friends, follow me."
"My Lord, will you not undergo the ritual yourself?" Harry asked, keeping
his tone calm, the Dark Lord sneered,

"Of course not, I see no reason to, are you suggesting I am deficient
Potter?" The scarlet irises bore down on the boy angrily,

"No my Lord, merely I understood you had searched for this ritual for your
own benefit." The Dark Lord looked a little appeased,

"You are correct, I had thought to use it for myself, nevertheless, my

power now is without equal, my strength of will can overcome the effects
of the corruption."

"My Lord, it would be wise to rid yourself of all imperfections, thus

allowing you to focus on you goals." Harry suggested, as soon as he said it,
he regretted his words,

"Crucio!"

Harry had never experienced the torture curse before, and as soon as the
spell struck him, he prayed he never felt it again, the pain was agonising,
as though his every nerve was on fire, he held in his screams as long as
possible, but it was impossible, there was nothing, nothing in the world
comparable to the agony he felt now.

After twenty seconds he felt the spell be lifted and he lay on the floor
panting, his throat feeling raw and his limbs spasming with his every
heartbeat, dimly he became aware of the Dark Lords voice above him.

"In the future Potter, perhaps you will not suggest me to be imperfect, it
would be unpleasant for you."

"Apologies my Lord." Harry gasped out, slowly rising to his feet.

"Despite your impertinence, your suggestion has merit, I will undergo the
ritual." Harry nodded, clasping his shaking hands behind his back.
Together, the four of them made their way through the house and up the
stairs to the first floor, The Dark Lord had evidently prepared the room for
the ritual, Harry saw many runes and rune clusters painted on the floor,
whilst a ritual circle had been created on the floor, in the middle of which
sat a bronze goblet. 0

The ritual was remarkably simple, and took only minutes, when it was
complete, Harry felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, his
mind seemed to be free, whilst he had felt fine before, now he felt…
better, no longer was there a constant anger bubbling in the pit of his
mind, it was magnificent.

The Dark Lord clearly felt it far more strongly than he did, indeed, in
addition to the mental changes, the irises of his eyes, which had been
blood red reverted to their previous slate grey, and he stood taller.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPP
HPHPHPHPHPHHP

"I do apologise Harry." The Dark Lord offered, "and I thank you."

"It was no problem."

"Now we are all complete, and I am in my right mind, I feel we should all
have a talk." Began Riddle, his blue eyes on the three sat behind his desk,

"Harry, you may choose what you wish to do, you may take a seat in the
wizengamot, held mould the nation in to how we want it, or you may give
your seat to one of my followers as a proxy, and work elsewhere. It is
thanks to you that I am whole, therefore this is my reward."

Harry didn't comment on how not forcing him into a career was a gift,
instead nodding appreciatively,

"I will join the Wizengamot." He finally said, fingers steepled before his
face, "it seems the most… elegant future." Riddle nodded once,
"Excellent, Lucius, you shall assist Harry as he needs it, though I am sure
it will not take too much effort on your part." Lucius nodded immediately,

"As you say my Lord, the Wizengamot meets on Thursday Mr Potter,

however I recommend you attend in a spectator role only, it would not do
for you to enter politics unprepared. When you do feel ready, It is
customary for each new arrival to make a short speech, this needn't be
world changing, however most members will judge you on it, therefore I
suggest you think wisely on what you shall say."

"I understand, what time on Thursday shall I make myself present?" Harry
asked, his tone interested and his attention fully focused on the man before
him.

"The meeting shall start at nine, however, it is the first meeting of the new
political year, so I would arrive early, there tends to be a greater interest in
the first meetings."

Lucius proceeded to drill Harry in the things he should look out for, which
factions existed in each party, who was popular or unpopular in their
parties, and other essential knowledge, Harry nodded several times where
appropriate and asked a few pertinent questions, but other than that
remained silent, listening intently.

When he finally returned home late that afternoon, it was to discover that
Miranda was already waiting for him, she listened in interest as he
described the meeting, and her eyes widened in concern when she learned
he had been subjected to the cruciatus.

"But the ritual worked?" she asked, "the Dark Lord is no longer…
affected?" Harry shrugged,

"I don't know, certainly he seemed far more like himself than he had done
previously, I think it safe to say it has had a strong effect, though I can't be
sure how long it will last." Miranda nodded slowly in understanding

"what of the Ministry, you surely do not plan to join straight away?"
Harry laughed slightly, "Merlins Beard no! Lucius suggested spending the
first several meetings in the observer's chambers, to simply learn how the
Wizengamot functions."

"I watched a few of their meetings, It is tremendously dull, perhaps if you

liven things up a little I will watch some more." Harry grinned and pulled
her in for a hug,

"Liven things up? Madam this is politics, the last thing we want is for it to
be fun!" Miranda sneered at him, before pushing her nose into the crook of
his neck with a loud sigh, Harry smirked broadly.

Early that Thursday morning, Harry found himself in an old phone booth
that he was told was the visitors entrance to the ministry of magic, with
careful fingers, he stamped in the code, and with a huge groaning creek,
the door began to slide down.

The descent lasted a long time, the loud coughing rattle seemed to vibrate
his very bones and when the grilled doors finally slid open, Harry was very
relieved to step out into the opulence of the Ministry welcoming hall.
With deliberate steps, Harry strode through the hall to the Security desk to
check in, the portly man behind the desk looked tired, in one hand he held
a scroll of parchment, and the other a steaming mug of coffee, evidently
the early hour was taking its toll on him.

"Good Morning Sir." Harry greeted respectfully, he got a nod of the head
back in reply.

"I am here to observe the Wizengamot meeting, I understand it is being

held this morning?" the man finally spoke in a gruff tone,

"'ats right, observers are on the third floor. I'll need yer wand." Harry
nodded and held the thin stick of yew out to the man, he took in carefully
and placed it on what appeared to be an old fashioned set of the scales,
there was a dull buzz before a strip of parchment shot out of a narrow slit,
the security wizard caught it with practiced ease.
"Yew and Phoenix feather?" Harry nodded, "and you are Mr Harry Potter?"
Again, Harry nodded and the man seemed satisfied. He handed Harry back
his wand, as well as a badge, Harry looked down at it for a moment with
raised eyebrows, it read

Harry Potter

Political Visionary

With a shake of his head, Harry pinned the black disk to his robes and
headed over to the bank of waiting lifts, there was a very short queue, and
before long he found himself inside the golden gates and making his loud
progress up to the second floor.

"Level Two: Department of Magical law Enforcement." Came a cheerful

female voice. Harry stepped out and found himself in a busy section of the
Ministry, Wizards and witches in the robes of the Auror corps were stood
and sat in deep concentration, whilst others were apparently swamped by
mountains of paperwork. Harry looked around, but saw nothing that would
indicate a place for observation of the Wizengamot.

"Are you lost young man?" came a deep rich voice, Harry looked around
and saw a huge black Auror looking at him kindly, Harry put an
embarrassed half smile on his face,

"I'm not sure, I was told this is the correct place to come if I wished to
observe the Wizengamot today?" The wizard nodded brightly,

"Aha, A politician eh?" he laughed deeply, "Gibbs!" The last words were
shouted loudly, and a young fresh faced wizard hurried forward,

"Yes Auror Shacklebolt?" he asked, given his limited knowledge of the

Auror department, Harry guessed he must have been a rookie.

"Mr…" he looked at Harry's nametag, and his eyes widened briefly, "Mr
Potter wishes to watch todays Gamot meet, please show him to the
observation room." Gibbs nodded and indicated for Harry to follow,
"So Mr Potter, do you have an interest in Politics?" the man asked,

"I do, but I thought it wise to know what I was getting myself into before
setting anything in stone." The young man nodded,

"I could never do politics… I get tongue tied far too easily!" Harry
chuckled, and nodded,

"Well many would argue that the Aurors are a far more important aspect of
the government than the Wizengamot." He argued, Gibbs blushed slightly
and smiled,

"I think you'll go far in Politics, you flatterer!" he laughed, Harry waved
off the comment, and the two briefly walked in silence, before long
reaching a plain black door,

"Right through here Mr Potter." Gibbs instructed, Harry nodded his thanks
and twisted the nob, entering the darker room inside.

There were already several people waiting inside, from the looks of them,
many were reporters, although others looked to be merely interested
members of the public. The observation room was high up on the back
wall of the Wizengamot hall. Before him, Harry could see hundreds of
benches lined up, arranged like a Greek auditorium, at the front of the hall
stood a pedestal, with three main seats and a dozen smaller seats arranged
behind.

The room was mainly empty, although several of the seats had begun to
fill up, every now and then, a wizard in the traditional robes would stride
through the door, wave to a few of their acquaintances and take a seat.
Harry briefly looked down at his watch, it was still only 8.10, another fifty
minutes until anything began.

Harry casually ran his hand through his hair, briefly considering the fact
that he needed a haircut, before taking one of the many vacant seats in the
front row, from where he was able to observe the entire Hall with ease.
Sitting back in a relaxed pose, Harry casually watched as the Hall began to
fill up, by 8.45, the trickle of bodies entering the hall had become more of
a stream, Harry watched with interest that everyone present appeared to
have their own set seats, and given what he knew of certain members of
the Wizengamots allegiance, he quickly realised that they sat according to
their parties.

The BPP, as the ruling party, sat in the middle their members all wearing
grey cloaks, it was fairly obvious that they were the largest party in the
room, to the left, the black clad Traditionalists seemed to be far more
alert, at the front of the group sat Lucius Malfoy, Harry watched as he
politely greeted a member of his party, and got engrossed in a debate.

On the opposite side of the hall sat the Blue Cloaked Progressives, unlike
the other groups in the hall, many of them seemed ill at ease with the
company they sat in, and Harry was interested to see several individuals in
what appeared to be heated arguments. On the fringes of the hall were a
number of smaller groups, the colours of their cloaks appeared a
kaleidoscope of colour, reds, purples and greens were but a small fraction.

With a scrape and rustle of cloaks, Harry watched as the assembled

Wizards and Witches rose to their feet, at the front of the hall,
Dumbledore, Fudge and a dozen aides strode into the hall. The Minister
and chief warlock took their seats in two of the three high backed chairs,
whilst the scribes and secretaries sat behind them.

Dumbledore stood up and walked to the front.

"Wizards and Witches, members of this esteemed governing bodies,

please sit." The hall sat, "I, Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the
Wizengamot, hereby call this, the first meeting of the 382nd year of this
government into session." He stopped speaking for a moment, pulling a
long sheaf of parchment out of his robes.

"The first item on today's agenda is as follows, following last year's spate
of Muggle Dragon sightings, the Dragon keepers Guild have requested an
increase in their funding so that they might increase the warding around
their preserves."

There was a mutter of interest from a few members, Harry watched in

interest as a member of Fudges party stood up to go against the motion,
only to be countered by one of Dumbledore's lackeys. Whilst at first he
was fascinated by the arguments, he quickly realised how dull this all was,
after an hour of the wizengamot meeting having begun, they were still
only on item number two, a proposal from the department of Magical
Transportation to restrict access to Muggle Fireplaces.

At one o'clock, there was a break of lunch, and after that, the meet
resumed. Harry watched in awe as Dumbledore argued, the man was
brilliant, his points clear and logical, it appeared no one in the hall could
match him, although Lucius Malfoy held his own against the headmaster
on several occasions.

Eventually, at four o'clock, the list was eventually abandoned for the day,
and the time arrived for individual members to propose arguments. The
first man who stood up was a mousy haired man from the Progressives.

"The Wizengamot recognises Mr Diggle." Called Fudge, the man bowed

shortly,

"Assembled Wizards and Witches." He called in a magically magnified

voice, "I am here to address a matter of grave National Security." There
was a rumble of interest "Evidence exists which proves the return of the
Dark Wizard, You-Know-Who, This government must act in order to
prevent our own destruction!"

The man was drowned out as loud calls of support and anger were heard
throughout the Hall. With a wave of his wand, one of the Aurors guarding
the room made a noise like a gun, which gradually silenced the room.

"Mr Diggle has a right to be heard!" Dumbledore called from the front of
the hall, Diggle nodded,
"I propose we send ministry teams to investigate all possible leads of his
return, as well as send envoys to the giants, werewolves and vampires.
Most importantly, I propose an immediate and substantial increase in the
funding for the Auror Corps, so we might better fight this Dark Lord!"

The hall became overwhelmed by the shouts and cries of the members,
Diggle stood proudly, nodding his head to the chief Warlock before sitting,
Harry watched in interest as much of Dumbledores own party appeared
unhappy with the proposals.

A furious looking Fudge stood from his seat, "Thank you Mr Diggle, for
your Proposal, The Wizengamot recognises Lucius Malfoy." Lucius stood,
looking as suave as ever, and bowed respectfully.

"Minister, Chief Warlock, Mr Diggle, The only evidence that supports

these ridiculous claims are the accounts of a traumatised fourteen year old
boy, I ask Mr Diggle if he believes the spending of millions of galleons is
required every time a teenager makes up a story?"

There were laughs around the hall and Diggle blushed red,

"Furthermore" continued Malfoy, "Mr Diggles suggestion of an increase

to Auror funding is not only unnecessary, but it is also ill considered and
offered without thought. This country does not have the financial stability
to divert large sums towards the Aurors, I ask Mr Diggle to tell us which
departments should lose funding to pursue his wild goose chase?"

There were cheers of support, not just from Malfoy's Traditionalists, but
also from the BPP and several of the fringe members clearly agreed,
Dumbledore stood up, and eventually silence was restored,

"Whilst Mr Malfoy speaks well, and raises excellent points, the fact stands
that Mr Longbottom has seen Lord Voldemort, has fought Lord Voldemort
and witnessed a powerful ritual which he underwent, we have pensieve
memories in addition to the boy's testimony, the evidence is too strong to
merely overlook." The aged Headmasters voice was reasonable and many
of his supporters clapped in the conclusion of his speech.
The argument carried on for much of the rest of the meeting, and it
quickly became apparent that Dumbledore was losing, Lucius provided
many eloquent arguments stressing the state of the economy and declaring
that any hasty action would bankrupt the nation, Fudge discredited much
of Neville's evidence, and after two more hours of debate, it became
apparent that the Progressives were fracturing over the point, splitting
approximately down the middle over who supported who.

When Harry eventually returned home at seven o'clock that evening, he

was exhausted, whilst much of it was dull work, Harry couldn't deny that
he had been fascinated by many of the arguments he had witnessed, and
found himself eager to take part in such debates himself.

All in due time, he cautioned himself, it would not do to act before he

knew exactly how the game was played.

A.N

Now then, to those of you who raised the very valid point that Harry is
unlikely to join with Voldemort because he would have no reason to
support the genocide of Muggles, this is my response:

Voldemort initially used Muggles as an object of persecution around

which he could unite people by giving them a common enemy, I am
declaring he had no genuine hatred for them instead their persecution
was merely a means to an end, it was due to the corruption of Dark
Magic, that eventually Voldemorts feeling morphed into genuine Hate.

For those of you who have studied it, Voldemort initially used
Muggles, Like Otto von Bismark used Catholics in the Kulturkampf...
does that make sense?

please review!
23. Chapter 23

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, I am tonights entertainment...

Here is the latest chapter, give me your thoughts, it's simply the
groundwork for what will become the real issues later on.

The question to ponder as you read is this, I am planning on doing

another chapter to finish off Neville's fifth year at Hogwarts in
chapter 22, then I would throw in a cheeky time skip to around 4 years
in the future, when Harry has gathered a very strong postion, and the
story gets interesting in terms of battles, successes etc.

The question is, do you want to follow the story of Harry's steady rise,
or would you prefer a time skip?

Enjoy.

Chapter 21

July melded into august seamlessly, and after almost a month of studying
the power plays and format of Wizengamot meets, Harry finally felt ready
to take part instead of merely observing.

"I don't think the ending is suitable." Miranda informed him, he had been
reciting the speech he would be expected to give as a first time member,
and whilst he thought she had been far more interested in the copy of
Witch Weekly, apparently she had been able to leave one ear open.

"What's wrong with the ending?" Harry asked as he scanned the parchment
in front of him for the fault the blonde had found,

"Well, your tone seems to change, it starts off fairly neutral, then suddenly
gets accusatory towards the end, you can't seriously plan to attack
important ministry officials on your first day can you?" she asked, her
eyes still glued on the magazine on her lap,
"Fine, your right, I suppose alienating myself on day one would probably
go down poorly…"

"Of course I'm right, why don't you leave it open ended?" Harry frowned at
the thought, by keeping the tone open, he could start a debate over his
words, which would likely create more interest in what he had said.

"That is a fine idea, thank you." The girl simply smiled up at him sweetly
before returning to the far more interesting article on… Harry craned his
neck to read over her shoulder and rolled his eyes, the far more interesting
article on Celestina Warbeck's inspiration for her third album.

The two sat together in silence, the only sound being the scratching of
Harry's quill as he altered the closing of his speech to make it less
aggressive and more likely to interest other members of the government.

"Done." He announced as the clock struck two, Miranda looked up and

held her hand out, one eyebrow slightly raised, Harry smirked and handed
across the sheet, watching her intently as her eyes scanned the page.

"It's good, not ground-breaking, but it shouldn't upset too many people,
you don't propose anything too radical at least." Harry bowed his head,

"The lady flatters me." He said in a sickly sweet tone, a slap on the arm
was all he got for his troubles,

"What did you expect, for me to burst into tears? It's a speech on Ministry
finance, not a ballad on lost love and heartbreak." Harry conceded this
with a grin, whilst he hoped he had avoided making it too stuffy, the girl
did have a point.

The afternoon was gorgeous, Harry had opened the wide windows and a
gentle breeze was running through his freshly cut hair, the noises of people
shopping in the alley across from the apartment were muffled, Harry took
a sip from his glass of water as he reread the speech, in his mind
imagining delivering it to the hundreds of witches and wizards.
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Harry was sat in the back row of the Wizengamot hall, as he hadn't
officially chosen a party yet, he wore robes of no affiliation as he waited
for Fudge to announce his presence, it had been a dull day so far, no
discussions of particularly interesting topics, only the debate over the
standardisation of cauldron thickness, which had apparently been the cause
of some contention for over a year.

"Members of the Wizengamot." Fudge called as the list for the day was
finally finished, Harry looked up, this could be it, "We have a new member
joining our ranks today, following the reinstatement of his family seat,
please join me in welcoming Mr Harry Potter to the Wizengamot." There
was a small round of applause for him, as Harry stood and bowed to Fudge
and Dumbledore.

Taking a deep breath, the youngest member of the Wizengamot mentally

sent a prayer up to whoever was watching over him and began to speak.

"Minister, Chief Warlock, and honourable members of this assembly, I

would like to thank Minister Fudge for his words of Welcome, as well as
all of you for the kindness which has been shown to me since I arrived
here. On this, the first of what I hope is many addresses to you all, I wish
to address what seems to be an alarming trend which exists within our
Ministry." He paused and looked around, everyone who he could see
appeared to be listening with mild interest, which he thought, could only
be a good thing.

"In the past month, since the Wizengamot began for this year, I have heard
many reports and accounts of the poor state of the Ministries financial
situation, yet none have provided sensible suggestions on the correct
action to take on the matter, I may be inexperienced in these hallowed
Halls, yet I feel maybe I can provide a solution." He looked around, and
noted that he had gained the attention of much of the hall, he focused on
remembering the next words of his address before continuing.
"There are many departments of the Ministry which are, quite frankly, far
overstaffed, the most glaring example I can think of would be the Centaur
Liaison office. Whilst off course, all Intelligent Magical Creatures deserve
representation within our government, I ask whether or not it is strictly
necessary to employ twenty two full time wizards and witches, especially
since in the office's entire 138 year history, not one Centaur has passed
through its offices, or even filed a report." There were mutters around the
hall, and a few small laughs,

"The list of apparently overstaffed departments is significant, and whilst

many do indeed do sterling work, I ask whether it is necessary to divert
hundreds of thousands of galleons towards offices which could survive
with a fraction of the budget. Whilst perhaps Mr Diggle would prefer us to
use the saved Galleons on funding his wild chimera chase," there were
several laughs from around the entire hall, even Fudge cracked a wide
smile,

"I would instead propose that by saving this money, we could lower the tax
rates this government imposes on its people, encouraging growth in the
commercial market, and easing the burden so many less well-off families
struggle with in our current system. I again stress that I am no expert in
these matters, however, I believe the time has come for action in helping
our nation, rather than simply pointless rhetoric." When he finished, he
felt the tense knot in his stomach begin to uncoil.

Around the hall applause began to sound out, he looked at Lucius and saw
the blonde man nodding in approval, Fudge was beaming at him with a
look of familial pride, even Dumbledore appeared surprised at the nature
of his address. After a few minutes the hall began to slowly quieten down,
and Fudge once again rose to his feet.

"Thank you Mr Potter, I ask you now to join those in this hall with which
you would like to be associated." Harry bowed to him once more, before
joining Lucius and the other Traditionalists on the left hand side of the
hall.
He saw what appeared to be surprise flit over the Ministers face and
smirked, did the man expect Harry to join his party of sycophants? He
shook his head as he greeted the wizard who he had sat down next to, a
man he vaguely remembered, Cyrus Greengrass, father of Daphne in
Slytherin.

Fudge quickly regained his composure and looked around the hall, "Does
anyone have any responses to Mr Potters suggestions?" he asked loudly,
there was silence, before the scraping of chair legs could be heard as a few
men stood up,

"The Wizengamot recognises Mr Lucius Malfoy." Called Fudge,

"Thank you Minister. I address this hall in support of Mr Potters claims,

the man may be young, but he has provided an intelligent suggestion of
what should be done. Perhaps some fresh blood has done this body well, a
new insight, new perspective on affairs, the youth are often described as
people of action, and Mr Potter lends credence to these claims." He
bowed, before sitting down to the applause of his supporters.

"Does anyone here have issue with Mr Potters suggestion?" asked Fudge,
there was an extended moment of silence, however, just before Fudge
opened his mouth to speak again, Dumbledore rose.

"Whilst I do of course support the easing of others burdens, I must ask

whether the method proposed by Mr Potter is correct. Whilst many offices
indeed could be downsized, what would happen to those who lose their
jobs? What would happen if we downsized a department mere days before
its services became sorely needed? Whilst the economy requires urgent
attention, I beg the hall not to be hasty, but instead to think through each
and every potential implication of our decisions. Thank you."

There was scattered applause, and whilst Harry knew he was taking a risk,
he stood up, and presented himself to Fudge, the minister sent him a smile
before indicating his permission to speak.
"Chief Warlock Dumbledore is of course correct, every decision we make
has potential consequences, however I ask this, whilst he would have us
debate and ponder every potential outcome of every decision, the people
outside of these halls are suffering, and every day we delay their
assistance is an insult to the hardships they suffer." There was a loud
round of applause as Harry sat down, from well over three quarters of the
hall, and the boy allowed a small smile to cross his face.

The debate continued on for another half an hour, however it appeared that
Dumbledore's pleas of patience were falling on deaf ears, and when Fudge
finally proposed the drafting of a bill for limited downsizing of the
Ministry, it was supported by a large majority, Harry smiled, whilst he had
hoped to make his name known to the members of the Wizengamot with
his speech, having it progress to a bill was certainly unexpected, though
without doubt a great achievement.

It was just passed six o'clock when the meet finally came to an end, Harry
smiled and shook hands with all of the witches and wizards who wanted a
word, both from his party and from others, he even said a few words to the
waiting journalists, keeping his statements short and concise, making sure
what he said could not be spun into false ideas.

Following the excessive meet and greet, it was nearly seven by the time he
finally returned home. He was tired and hungry, and when he entered
through the floo, it was to the smell of delicious cooking.

"How was it?" Miranda asked from her seat on the sofa, Harry grinned
tiredly and sat beside her.

"Exhausting, but good I think, the speech seemed to go over well."

"Well done, Minnie's making chicken for supper, I hope that's alright?"
Harry smiled and nodded,

"Sounds excellent, I'm starving!" as he spoke his tummy rumbled loudly,

Miranda giggled and set aside the forms she had been reviewing.
"I had thought you might be having supper with one of your new party
members." Harry groaned theatrically,

"It was certainly offered, but frankly I thought I might just pass out at the
table! I am having lunch at Malfoy manor with a few members tomorrow,
you are invited if you like." The blonde frowned for a brief moment,

"That should be possible, it is looking to be a very quiet day at the office

tomorrow, I suppose I could take the afternoon off." Harry smiled and gave
her a small smile,

"Thank you, the idea of socialising with all those politicians without some
moral support sounds terrifying."

"You'd best get used to it!" Miranda laughed, and Harry held the back of
his hand to his forehead in a fake swoon.

"Don't remind me!" he smiled, "How was work today?" the blonde sighed
and moved a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Nothing special, though how I am supposed to balance the Aurors costs

when Fudge keeps to trying to cut their budget and they keep on
overspending is a mystery!" She leant into his side before picking up her
stack of forms.

Harry looked over her shoulder at the charts of numbers, but quickly gave
up, the files of numbers might as well have been gobbledegook for all the
sense they made. The pair sat in silence for a while, Harry absently
playing with a lock of the blonde's hair, whilst she frowned and cursed at
her papers.

Before too long, Minnie announced Supper to be ready and invited the two
of them to the Dining Table, Harry stood and helped Miranda up, the meal
looked delicious, and Harry's hungry stomach rumbled again as he looked
at the spread.
They ate in silence, and when Harry had finally polished off his second
helping Miranda looked at him with a smirk,

"You look dead on your feet Potter, if you are supposed to be having a
formal lunch tomorrow, I recommend getting some sleep."

Harry rolled his eyes, but agreed, he did feel pretty drowsy. With slow
steps he dragged his weary body towards the bed and changed into his
pyjamas, before sliding into the soft cotton sheets, he was asleep within
minutes of his head hitting the pillow.

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Harry slept in late the next day, briefly waking up when Miranda left to
work, but closing his eyes and falling asleep soon afterwards, indeed, he
slept so late, that at around midday he was awoken by his treacherous
girlfriend pouring a glass of water over his head.

He spluttered, hurling himself with impressive speed out of the icy wet
sheets, turning, he gave Miranda a look of betrayal, which she ignored,
before hurrying through a shower and dressing in what he hoped would be
adequately formal robes.

With a roar of the elaborate fireplace, Harry and Miranda stepped into the
Malfoys greeting room, where they were at once greeted by Narcissa and
Draco. Harry smiled and kissed the elder witches cheek before offering his
hand to Draco, the fifth year student seemed surprised to see him, but
evidently his lessons in etiquette had been drilled into him for far too long,
as he said nothing, only nodding his head politely.

"Harry, Miss Rookwood, welcome, welcome!" greeted Lucius Malfoy as

they stepped through into a lavish drawing room, Harry bowed his head
slightly,

"Lucius, thank you for your invitation." He offered politely,

"Of course, think nothing of it." The man replied with an elegant wave of
his hand. Harry bowed his head again.

"Miss Rookwood, I don't believe you know everyone here." the elder
Malfoy stated crisply, "Allow me to make some introductions."

"Thank you. That would be nice."

"Miranda Rookwood, might I introduce Mr William Nott, Mr Alex

Montague, Mr Valentine Gibbon and Mr Thorfinn Rowle." Miranda
politely greeted the four elegantly clad men with all the charm in the
world, whilst Harry merely shook the men's hands, having already met the
members of Lucius' political inner circle the evening before.

As Lunch got underway, Harry surprised himself by actually enjoying the

meal. The food was as delicious as could be expected from such a family
as the Malfoys, whilst the conversation was also thoroughly entertaining,
evidently with the Wives and girlfriends in attendance, this meal was
merely to solidify friendships rather than discuss politics.

Harry found himself sat between Amanda Rowle and Bethany Montague,
it was clear the two women were close friends, and Harry enjoyed the
casual exchange of conversation. As the pudding was eventually cleared
off the plates, Lucius stood up from the head of the table,

"I hope you will excuse me my friends, however I wish to make a quick
toast to Harry Potter, the latest addition to the Traditionalist family!" The
others assembled at the table laughed, but raised their goblets and spoke
the words, Harry nodded his head in gratitude.

Very briefly, Harry made eye contact with Lucius, and with a startling
clarity, Harry realised exactly what the Veteran Statesman was doing.
Harry was being introduced to the table not as a new member of the party,
but as someone who held influence, the elder Malfoy was clearly sending a
message to his closest advisors that Harry could be trusted, and he was
incredibly grateful.
After the meal was over, Lucius made a quick announcement, "Ladies, if
you would forgive me for speaking Politics I would be incredibly
grateful!" there was some laughter and Harry smiled, "Gentlemen, the
time has come for our party to become rather more proactive. We've done
little to advance our cause in these last few years, but now that must
change, I hope you are all prepared to act in this coming year!"

Of the assembled men sitting at the table, it was clear that only Alex
Montague was unaware of the Dark Lord's return, he was looking between
Harry and Lucius, clearly thinking that Harry was the cause of this new
direction for the party.

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A BREATH OF FRESH AIR?

By Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent
1st August

Yesterday marked the beginning of young Harry Potter's political career in

the Wizengamot. My readers will recall that following Mr Potter's victory
in the Triwizard tournament, Minister Fudge returned to him his seat in
recognition of all that he has achieved during his seven years of magical
education.

Whilst many budding politicians opt for a neutral entry speech, Mr Potter
decided to address the matter of Ministry spending head on, to widespread
support from the other members. Mr Lucius Malfoy, head of the
Traditionalist party, which Mr Potter has now joined spoke to me briefly
following yesterday's meet, "I am very pleased to have Harry join us and
look forward to a strong partnership and friendship in the future."

Whilst the bill proposed by Mr Potter is very minor, the man in question
has hopes that it may pave the groundwork for more substantial reform.
Cont. on page 3, col 2.
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Traditionalist's support BPP in Education Reform.

By Emma Riley, Educational correspondent
4th August

When Minister Fudge announced two days ago that he has plans for
increasing the Ministries involvement in the Hogwarts educational system,
it was met with a deal of scepticism, both within the Wizengamot and from
the Public at large. Many of the readers of this paper believe that
Hogwarts should be self-governing, however, this morning, Lucius Malfoy
announced his parties support for the proposal.

"For an institution as important as Hogwarts to have near total autonomy

is absurd, the public and the government have a right to know what
happens within its ancient halls, and to ensure that the quality of education
remains as high as it has for these past years."

Whilst this reporter is concerned about the government taking over the
education system, Educational Decree number 22 does make sense,
allowing the ministry to appoint teachers when the headmaster fails may
help to prevent ill prepared teachers taking the post.

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MINISTRY REFORM BILL PASSES

By Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent.
10th August

Following Harry Potters suggestions of a reduction in the ministries size,

the young traditionalist politician has been working hard with the ministry
legislators to create a bill to achieve his aims. The Ministry reform act is
small, resulting in the downsizing of eleven ministry offices, and the
termination of only fifty ministry jobs, however Mr Potter is enthusiastic
for the future.
"I am ecstatic to have had this bill passed, the Ministry have tried to
maintain its unnecessarily large size and influence even as the economy
dwindled, I strong belief a strong, efficient ministry is best for all the
people."

Cont. page 11, col 1

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MIRANDA ROOKWOOD WOWS AT MINISTRY GALA

By Susanne McNab
August 27th

With her boyfriend being Harry Potter, 18, a rising star within the
Wizengamot, there exists a lot of pressure on Miranda Rookwood, 21, to
support him whilst at the same time maintaining her difficult position
within the Ministry, however, impress she did, wearing a stunning Marine
Gladrags gown, the gorgeous blonde was looking radiant at last night's
Ministry funded St. Mungo's fundraising Gala.

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THE NEW MAN OF THE PEOPLE?

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent.
September 18th

Following his offering of full support towards Minister Fudge's

declaration to bring oversight over Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and
Wizardry, Harry Potter has gone from strength to strength, whilst many of
his suggestions in the Wizengamot have been shot down, Mr Potter has
continued to make no secret of his desire to help the people of the magical
Britain.

"If I make enemies" Mr Potter said to me yesterday, "then that proves I am

stepping on toes, getting noticed and hopefully making an impression, I
knew there would be controversy, this country has allowed itself to settle
into this cycle of acceptance, I ask for the people to question their
ministry, to expect results, for only then do we have democracy!" strong
words indeed.

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Potter accused of Hypocrisy!

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent
October 27th

Yesterday evening, Mr Pius Thicknesse, one of the progressive's most

influential figures, and deputy head of the Department of Magical Law
enforcement, accused Mr Harry Potter (trad.) of hypocrisy, "Harry Potter,
for months now, has been swanning around, declaring himself to be a man
of the people and suggesting he is following the will of the public, yet was
he elected? Have the public been asked for their opinion? Until Mr Potter
allows the public to choose him for their representative, he will have to
forgive me if I do not consider him a true 'people's politician.'"

As of this moment, Mr Potter has declined to comment on the issue,

nevertheless a source close to him has stated that Mr Potter is deeply
offended by these accusations. With Ministry elections only three months
away, Mr Lucius Malfoy will soon discover if the new proactive direction
Mr Potter has led his party in has been successful.

Cont. page 3

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Harry sat behind his desk late on the night of Friday, November 3rd and
blinked tiredly. He had been in the Ministry all day, and had spent most of
it reading through mind meltingly dull Ministry appraisal forms.

Whilst spearheading the effort for a smaller ministry was a very effective
way to expand his public image, Harry couldn't help but think that there
had to be better ways of going about it. Every time he recommended
scaling down a Department, he was forced to listen to the declarations of
the members of said department, all of whom strongly believed that the
work they did was integral to ministry functioning.

It was exhausting, whilst Harry still very much disliked the Headmaster,
he was very impressed that the man had managed to keep on top of his
work as Headmaster, Chief Warlock and as supreme Mugwump of the
ICW.

With a sigh, Harry put the parchment into one of the drawers of his desk,
stretching widely in his chair and stood up, he briefly caught hold of the
wood as he felt lightheaded after sitting down for so long before he walked
to the door of his office.

Walking through the empty halls of the Ministry, Harry made his way
towards the ranks of fireplaces in order to make his way home.

"Good night Mr Potter." Offered the night guard,

"Good night William." Harry returned with a nod, with a cry of his home,
Harry found himself spun away through the floo, stepping out moments
later into the small living room he shared with Miranda.

The lights were all dimmed and Harry guiltily looked at the clock, it was
12.35, and Harry presumed Miranda would already be asleep, stepping as
lightly as possible, Harry made his way into the kitchen and opened one of
the cupboards, rifling through the contents whilst he searched for
something to eat, his hand grasped a pumpkin pasty, and quickly he ripped
off the cover, munching slowly on the fleshy meat within.

After washing up after himself, he tiptoed through the hall to his bedroom,
whereupon he quickly changed, and slid in between the sheets, wincing
with every creak the bed made. Eventually he fell into a comfortable
position and closed his eyes, falling asleep quickly in his tired state.
The next morning, he awoke early, the sun was shining through the wide
windows, and the muffled sounds of early shoppers could be heard. Beside
him, he felt Miranda stir, and turned to greet her.

"What time did you get in last night?" the newly awakened girl asked,

"Late, I didn't wake you did I?" Harry replied, she shook her head no,

"Fortunately not, if you ruined my sleep, you would have been made
aware."

Harry grinned, rolling his eyes, Miranda yawned broadly, watching him as
he rolled out of bed,

"Why are you getting up?" she asked, blinking at him blearily,

"I need to send some letters." Harry replied vaguely, Miranda sneered at
him,

"It's Saturday Potter, even the great People's Politician has weekends off."
Harry chuckled at the nickname,

"This is true, I suppose I could postpone writing those letters for a little
while." He turned on his heel and returned to his girlfriend, the sun was
somewhat higher in the sky when he did eventually dress.

HPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPPHHPPHPHPHHPPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHPHP

My Dear Harry

That is a very generous offer, thank you ever so much. I will have to meet
you to discuss it all in more detail, but I love the sound of getting a job
with you. You described it as mostly administrative work, as well as
organising your schedule and the like, which is all fine, would it be
possible to meet with you this week, whenever you are available is fine, the
joy of being unemployed is that I have a lot of time on my hands.
Much Love

Olivia

Harry's eyes skimmed over the short note and he smiled, he had been in
rather desperate need of an assistant, his paperwork was mounting up, and
he had been dangerously close to missing some rather important meetings,
he knew the very organised Irish girl would be perfect for what he had in
mind.

Harry briefly checked his watch, it was 2.45, he still had fifteen minutes
until he was expecting company, and with a sigh, he reached to the
wireless on the table next to him and turned on the wireless, briefly
fiddling with the nobs, he quickly tuned to the Wizarding Wireless
Network and heard the familiar smooth tunes of Wandlight wash over him.

At 3.00 exactly, Harry heard a sharp rap on his door. He stood and quickly
opened it up, smiling broadly as the figures of Evan Rosier and Marcus
Flint stepped inside.

"Marcus!" Harry greeted warmly, embracing the large boy tightly,

"Good to see you again Harry, I must say, you have been busy!" Harry
grinned and smirked,

"I have, but it's certainly better than growing bored!"

"I can vouch that boredom is certainly not all it's cracked up to be."
Marcus admitted with a frustrated shrug.

"Well, things change, it's good to see you too Evan, It's been too long."
Harry said with a small smile.

"Good afternoon Harry, how are you?"

"I'm good, now then, could I get either of you a drink? Water, wine?"
Marcus asked for a glass of water, whilst Harry and Evan both requested
wine.

"What's this about Harry?" Marcus asked with an interested expression on

his face, Harry chuckled,

"Straight to business then? Very well." He paused and looked at the two
men. "As you may know, Pius Thicknesses recently called me out on being
a hypocrite." Harry began,

"But none of the public believes it, they love you right now!" interjected
Marcus with a confused frown,

"Exactly, they love me right now, but if the Progressives get too much time
to work on this, it could fester and become a major problem." Evan nodded
in understanding, but Marcus seemed a little confused.

"Marcus, the Traditionalist party, as I am sure you know, has a rather

unsavoury reputation, in order to truly overcome the issues facing the
party, we must from now on present a spotless image, I cannot allow for
this to become a problem." Marcus finally appeared to realise what was
going on.

"I suppose that makes sense." He conceded, "but what does any of this
have to do with me and Mr Rosier?"

"Well, the best way to rebut Mr Thicknesse is by getting myself

democratically elected." Harry replied with a grin,

"You plan to put yourself forward as a candidate?" Evan asked with an

impressed smirk, Harry nodded,

"I do, and I would like you two to help make it happen."

"I'll help, what did you have in mind?" Evan asked with interest.

"I want you to start a group of Traditionalist supporters, advertise in the

papers, start committees, forums, meetings for supporters, that sort of
thing, just make sure that the entire public knows what we stand for,
knows about our new direction, that sort of thing."

The two men were looking at him in interest, Marcus looked excited, Evan
intrigued.

"It's a fantastic idea, however, I do of course have some questions." Harry

nodded and gestured for him to continue.

"Well, first off, is something like this even legal? I was under the
impression Fudge banned all political organisations during the last war to
legalise the on the spot arrest of Death Eaters."

Harry nodded and smirked broadly,

"That is correct, however, as this new group would be an offshoot of an

already existing political party it would technically be exempt and
therefore legal, so long as you openly declare yourselves Traditionalists."

"Alright, well, in order for any sort of campaigning to be successful, it

would need to be a national affair, and that would get expensive, there
would be costs for advertising, events, wages…" he trailed off and Harry
nodded,

"I agree, I was thinking that you could charge a small fee and become an
official member of the party, of course, I will fund it, and Lucius also
recognises it's potential and has promised gold."

There was silence as the two men looked interestedly at their glasses,
Evan's remaining practically untouched. Eventually, after several minutes
of silence, Marcus spoke,

I'm in, it's a magnificent idea, there's body in the Wizarding world like it,
however I can, I will help with this." Harry smiled and patted his friend on
the arm in gratitude.
"Thank you Marcus, it means a lot." The two of them looked expectantly
at Evan, who still had his eyes focused on his glass.

"May I speak to you privately for a moment Harry?" he eventually asked,

Harry looked at Marcus, who nodded. Harry stood and gestured towards
the hall.

When the two of them had set up the usual privacy wards, Harry turned to
the death eater expectantly.

"Have you considered what the master will think of this?" he asked
quickly, Harry frowned.

"I am not asking you to set up an army under my command, I am asking

for a glorified advertising agency." Evan chuckled and Harry placed his
hand on the older man's arm. "Don't worry. I will deal with the Dark Lord
should he have issue."

"I am not concerned for myself, I know Marcus' father. Adrien Flint is a
power-hungry bastard, If Marcus is anything like that…" Harry laughed,

"Marcus has always been like that, the boy takes a mile when you give him
an inch, which is exactly why I chose him for this." Evan looked at him in
confusion,

"If he is so ambitious as you believe, how can you be sure he won't betray
you?" Harry looked at Evan very seriously,

"Marcus and I have been friends for near enough eight years." He began, "I
trust him implicitly, he will endeavour to succeed in this, and should he
step out of line, I expect you to curb him."

The two stood in silence for a moment before Rosier nodded, "very well.
I'll help you."

Harry grinned, "Excellent. Shall we return?"

Marcus looked at them interestedly as they returned through to the sitting
room. Harry smiled,

"Evan has decided to join our little venture, I suggest you two go away and
plot, plan and do whatever you think necessary, shall we meet in say… a
week, whereupon you can tell me what you think you will need, in terms
of staff, finances etc?" the two men nodded, and Harry stood to show them
out. As he reached the door, he shook both their hands and smiled, pleased
that the next step of his plans were working.

Three days later, just as Harry was leaving the Wizengamot, following the
conclusion of the days discussion, Harry was accosted.

"Mr Potter?" called a familiar voice, Harry looked up, and gave a polite
smile as he saw Thomas Audley, the prophet reporter standing before him.

"Good evening Mr Audley." He greeted,

"Mr Potter, have you got time for a few words?" Harry heaved a sigh
internally, though he kept his smile on.

"Of course, shall we go up to my office?" Thomas looked surprised at the

offer and nodded with a smile. The two walked together, enjoying polite
small talk about nothing in particular, when they reached the first level,
Harry held the door to his comfortable office open, ushering the man
inside.

The two got comfortable quickly, the journalist setting up a dicta quill on a
long roll of parchment, whilst Harry relaxed into the dark red leather chair
behind the wooden desk.

"Mr Potter." Audley began, "rather a frustrating day for you I would
imagine?"

"Indeed, I had hoped for rather more support from the BPP, however, I am
not too unhappy."
"Your latest piece of proposed legislation was the relaxation of certain
Dark Creature Laws, a very controversial topic indeed!" the journalist said
with a laugh, Harry shrugged,

"I didn't ask for any relaxation, I merely asked for review of the current
system, would it not be wise to grade Dark Creatures, based on their
danger to society, and their vindictive nature, rather than declare them all
to be equally dangerous?"

"I don't understand." Audley admitted,

"I merely feel that a 30 days of the month, A vampire should be

considered a greater threat than a werewolf, and a Veela should not be
considered as dangerous as either creature, by adding a grading system, we
could prevent hundreds of men and women, affected by these conditions
from starving in unemployment."

"It does seem a noble goal." The reporter admitted, Harry shrugged.

"I can understand why it was unsuccessful." The two laughed briefly.

"Harry, many of your critics declare you an idealist, or say you are simply
too naïve to properly care for this nation, what do you say to those
people?"

"An idealist?" Harry laughed, "I would have to agree with that, is not an
idealist not someone who strives for the very best things, rather than
settling for compromise after compromise? I would say to those critics
that this country has seen far too much compromise in the last decade,
maybe the day of the realist has passed and now it is the Idealist's age!"
Harry frowned slightly as he finished,

"Although," he continued, almost on an afterthought, "will say that

compromise is necessary, I will not stand in the way of progress, simply
because it is not as encompassing as I had hoped for."
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PHPHPHPHPHPHP

First Day of Voting Begins

William Holt, People's correspondent.
23rd January.

Today marked the beginning of the latest series of Wizengamot voting. The
outcome of these votes has been speculated upon widely, and all experts
agree that we should expect to see big changes in the Wizengamot come
February.

The Dark Horse of this year's election is Harry Potter, who announced his
intentions to stand for public voting in October, should Mr Potter receive
a popular vote, it would lend credence to his very active presence in the
Halls last year, Our Political editor, Walther Wildes, said "For an ancient
and Noble seat to run for a voted seat in nearly unheard of, Mr Potter is
gambling a lot, should he perform anything less than spectacularly, it will
damage, possibly irreparably, his entire standing in the Wizengamot."

Whilst the Traditionalists have been busy within the halls of the
Wizengamot, their supporters have been equally proactive across the
whole Nation. The newly formed British Action League, said to be the
brainchild of Mr Harry Potter, has created storms across the country, with
well-publicised Rallies and meetings, it has been difficult to remain
ignorant about the Traditionalist's new stance in todays election.

For a breakdown on the major parties stances: page 3, col 1

For the most likely candidates to succeed: Page 11, col 3
For the Actions of the British Action League: Page 3, col 4

I hope you enjoyed that, It was a challenge to write, but I really liked
the chance to do something different!

Please Review!
24. Chapter 24

Okay, Wow, that was some really positive feedback about the last
chapter, which is great, the vast majority of you seem to like the
direction I am taking the story in. The main complaints are that there
is little magical fighting and physical conflict, to those people, I say
wait, this story has a lot of violence planned, give it... perhaps four
more chapters!

This chapter was something of an experiment in that a lot of it is not

written from Harry's point of view, we get to see it from Harry, Neville
and Dumbledore, which was very difficult to write, so I would like to
hear if you want such a style to continue.

For those of you missing the Harry/Miranda action, don't worry, next
chapter... hints in this one...

Here we go... Enjoy!

Chapter 22

Harry had to admit it to himself, he was nervous. He was sat with his eyes
closed, hands clasped loosely in his lap, listening to the hustle and bustle
around him.

Malfoy Manor had been converted into the headquarters of the

Traditionalists for the announcement of the voting results, Politicians,
secretaries and aides scurried around like rats as they made sure everyone
had all they needed.

Harry's own rather small staff was sat around him, a small island of
relative calm in a sea of frenzy.

To his left sat Olivia. The Irish girl had taken to her new role as Harry's
personal aide like a fish to water. Whilst he found his schedule was now
far fuller than when he had organised it, the Irish girl left him just enough
room to breathe so that he had no reason to complain, and for that he was
grateful.

To his right sat Marcus, who technically was not affiliated with Harry
professionally, but was well known to follow nearly all of Harry's
suggestions when it came to the British Action League.

"QUIET!" someone shouted over the din, and the whole room froze,
everyone turning to the front of the room. It was Cyrus Greengrass who
had spoken, the middle aged statesman had been sat close to the large
wireless listening intently, when the room quietened down fully he reached
down and twirled the dial, magnifying the volume.

"Well, the votes have been counted, and It's clear that there has been a lot
of interest in these elections, initial estimates are saying that almost
seventy percent of those eligible voted, which is the highest number since
1882."

The two hundred or so witches and wizards in the room had all sat down in
silence, many of them watching the big speakers in avid concentration.

"Well it's understandable that they would generate such excitement. The
whole country is split over what will happen, but all experts agree that we
may be in for big changes. The Daily Prophet seems to be behind the BPP,
whilst many others are suggesting a new Traditionalist government."

There were cheers from some of the assembled wizards and witches,
followed by a few laughs.

"Anyway, without further ado, in ascending order, I present the 150 most
popular Wizengamot members."

The air in the room seemed to hum in anticipation, Harry felt himself
almost unconsciously lean forward.

"in 150st place, Nigel Watts, a newcomer, 149th is Edwin Truffle, BPP,
148th is Lucille Coombs…"
Keeping one ear open, Harry watched the large enchanted board that had
been erected at the front of the room, every time a name was mentioned,
Harry watched as the graph indicated would grow to show which party had
gained a member.

The Traditionalists, already having over 43 ancient and noble houses to

their name held a significant advantage in the early stages, however it was
clear the other parties were slowly gaining on them.

Every time a Traditionalist was called, a small cheer would rise

throughout the hall, and Harry felt the butterflies in his stomach increase
with every second.

The worst case scenario here would be for him to not be unelected, it
would ruin him, probably absolutely, at the very least it would take
decades to recover his position, if he was elected, however in a low
position, it would undermine him, however Harry was confident that he
could overcome such a position with time.

"77th is Michael Shift, of the Traditionalists…" A tall and wiry man near
the front of the room clapped loudly, whilst his staff shook his hand.

"You did remember to campaign for all of the Party members didn't you
Marcus?" Harry asked with a small grin, the large ex Slytherin scowled,

"Of course." His answer was spoken in clipped tones, and Harry turned to
look at the large boy,

"You alright?"

"Fine." Harry shrugged, he could understand Marcus's concern, should the

BAL prove to be ineffective at garnering votes, Marcus would no doubt
have to be replaced, whilst the group had been successful at gaining media
attention, and had held several popular rallies, they were also proving to
be rather expensive, something several Traditionalist backers had been
quite eager to point out.
"34th, Dedalus Diggle, Progressives…" Harry rolled his eyes as Diggle
was announced, the man was a pitiful sycophant of the first order, with
few thoughts of his own, but always willing to spout out Dumbledore's
Doctrine.

Harry suddenly realised his leg had started to jiggle where he sat, and it
took a conscious effort for him to keep still. To distract himself, he looked
over at Olivia beside him, she was steadily writing something down on a
script of parchment, and when Harry studied it, he realised it was a press
statement.

"Whilst I am certainly disappointed that the public did not vote in my

favour…" was all he read, as he realised what she was writing, he felt an
irrational giggle boiling inside of him, the Irish girl suddenly became
aware of his gaze.

He caught her eye and gestured to the page, the girl shrugged. Harry felt
his nerves returning again.

They were in the top ten of the lists now, and Harry began to feel a sort of
excited dread. He still hadn't been called, which either meant he had done
very well, or he had failed, he looked down briefly at his open robes and
watched the steady flutter of his shirt from his erratic heartbeat.

"In 4th place, Amelia Bones, Progressives, In 3rd Place, Cornelius Fudge,
BPP, Runner up is Harry Potter, Traditionalists, and Albus Dumbledore,
Progressives, wins this year's election, his seventh victory in a row."

Harry let out a very long sigh he had been holding and allowed a broad
grin to stretch over his face. Standing up, he clasped Marcus in a tight hug
and slapped him firmly on the back, before turning and hugging Olivia,
who he was pleased to see tear up her speech.

Pausing in between the congratulations he had been receiving, Harry took

a moment to look up at the large board at the front of the room.
British Peoples Party: 65 Seats
Progressive Party: 53 Seats
Traditionalist Party: 57 Seats

Harry looked around the room in interest, Lucius appeared pleased, and
was smiling broadly, shaking hands, and laughing at a joke someone had
told him.

Harry though was disappointed, whilst he himself had been very

successful, the party itself had only improved a little, something that
frustrated him, whilst he wasn't such a fool as to believe that he could
achieve success in only a few months, it was incredibly frustrating to
know that he wouldn't be able to truly progress for another two years.

"Harry?"

"Yes?" he turned and saw a smiling Olivia fighting her way over to his side
through the crowd.

"You have a celebration rally in Bristol, it's a BAL event." Harry nodded
and fought his way to Lucius' side. The blonde haired statesman was still
basking in the success of his party, though he turned to Harry when he
noticed the black haired teen.

"Congratulations Harry, to be more popular than the Minister of Magic is a

great success indeed, you should be proud."

"I am Lucius, thank you." He shook the outstretched hand firmly,

"We were planning a late lunch to celebrate, could I offer you a seat at the
table?" Harry shook his head slowly.

"Thank you, but I must decline, I am expected in Bristol."

"That is too bad. Congratulations again Mr Potter, you deserve it!"

Harry shook the man's hand once again, before turning and striding to the
fireplace.

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3 Months later

April 1st

Behind his great wooden desk, Albus Dumbledore was sat deep in thought,
his hands were resting beneath his chin, and his brilliant blue eyes shone
brightly in the dim light.

The object of his thoughts was smiling broadly and waving from the front
page of The Daily Prophet in front of him. The blaring headline read out

HARRY POTTER SECURES EASED WORK RESTRICTIONS FOR

WEREWOLVES

Whilst he was very concerned by the seemingly unstoppable rise of Harry,

Dumbledore couldn't help but but admire him.

There was little to no doubt in the headmasters mind that Harry's act was
nothing more than that, an act. Perhaps arrogantly, the man believed he
knew Harry, he had watched him grow up and truly believed that the ideals
the ex Slytherin was now championing were not his own.

Unfortunately, whilst Dumbledore was resolute in his concerns, very few

others were. Even his own party had been charmed by the charismatic
eighteen year old and Dumbledore himself had been backed into a corner,
either support Harry's proposals, or risk appearing bigoted and outdated.

Albus sighed deeply, he pushed the offending newspaper away, and stroked
his chin deep in thought. The Old man was certain that given time and his
full concentration, he would be able to expose Harry for what he was,
though what exactly that was, Dumbledore was uncertain.
Unfortunately, offering anything his full concentration was impossible at
the present time, when he wasn't sitting on the ICW or keeping the various
factions of his party satisfied, Dumbledore was still headmaster of
Hogwarts.

'For Now" he thought ruefully, Albus knew that Fudge wanted him out of
the school, and with the support of Potter and the Traditionalists, the
Minister had been able to impose several new Educational Decree's which
granted Cornelius far more power over the school than he would have
liked.

Delores Umbridge was proving to be a true pain in his side. The woman
was clearly waiting for him to slip up and make a mistake, and the grey
haired man was convinced that Harry had suggested to Fudge that he act in
this way.

Knock knock.

Dumbledore looked up, mentally scolding himself for being so absorbed in

his thoughts to miss the warning wards.

"Come in." he called, there was a brief pause before the heavy door swung
inwards, revealing Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Aha, come in Minerva, Severus, could I offer you a sherbet lemon?"

"No thank you Albus." The transfiguration Professors nostrils flared and
Dumbledore grew concerned.

"Well do take a seat, what may I help you with?"

It was Snape who replied, his voice was as calm as ever and if Dumbledore
had been anyone other than a Veteran Politician and master Occlumens, he
may have fallen for the man's act.

"Umbridge knows." The greasy haired potions master scowled ever so

slightly, "apparently Draco Malfoy got his hands on one of Miss Grangers
false Galleons."

"indeed? That is indeed problematic."

"Problematic? Albus, this is what Fudge has been waiting for! Neville will
be expelled for sure." McGonagall pinked slightly as she finished her
outburst.

"No Minerva, Neville will not be expelled, I will not allow it." The
bearded man's voice was so powerful, so authoritative, that it brooked no
further argument.

"Perhaps not, Headmaster, however, consider name of this group, Fudge

will pin this on you. Without doubt" Snape peered down his long nose and
Dumbledore sighed.

"Dumbledore's Army." Dumbledore chuckled, "Whilst Fudge, I am sure

would love to remove me from office, I rather suspect his political allies
would prefer for me to remain right where I am."

McGonagall looked confused, whilst Snape nodded sagely.

"Albus? As headmaster you wield enormous influence, any of your

political opponents would love to have you removed!"

"Perhaps you are right, maybe I am being optimistic. Thank you for telling
me this Minerva." The two teachers nodded, both recognising the
dismissal.

"Severus, a moment please." He called, the hook nosed man paused,

turning back to his seat. The two waited for the Deputy Headmistress to
leave before continuing.

"You suspect Potter will ensure you remain at Hogwarts?"

"I do." Dumbledore said tiredly, reaching into the bowl on his desk and
taking a sherbet lemon, he gazed at Snape whilst he slowly unwrapped the
yellow sweet.

"It makes sense I suppose, with you stuck here, it limits the time you can
move against him." Dumbledore nodded, sucking on the sweet slowly.

"My thoughts exactly, and Potter now has considerable influence with
Fudge. Our good Minister is riding the political wave that Harry has
created, though I rather believe he may be reaching the end of his
usefulness."

The two men sat in silence for a few moments, the only sound being the
soft trills of the Phoenix on his perch.

"Potter concerns you greatly." Snape finally said, his beady black eyes
staring at the Headmasters bright blue. Albus nodded, his face looking
apprehensive.

"I must confess he does, you know him better than I did, does he not
concern you?" the Potions master chuckled,

"Whilst I know you disagree, I can think of few men better capable of
managing this country effectively." Dumbledore looked frustrated, but
smiled wryly,

"I suppose he has proven he can get things done." They both looked down
at the newspaper between them. "However I rather fear he is not acting for
himself."

"You believe Potter to be a servant of the Dark Lord?" asked Snape in

surprise,

"The thought has certainly crossed my mind. Has Voldemort tried to

contact you yet?" Snape shook his head,

"Not since the night of his return, and none of those he has called will
discuss anything with me, it is clear the man is keeping a low profile, to
the best of my knowledge, only thirty of his death eaters are aware of his
return."

"Precisely." Dumbledore said slowly, "Only thirty, Malfoy, Nott, McNair,

Rowle, surely you see the connection?"

Snape looked confused, and Dumbledore smiled as though he were

explaining a point to a particularly dense student,

"The vast majority of his new death eaters are either Politicians or work in
the Ministry."

Snape paled as he realised what Dumbledore was getting at, Voldemort

would never allow Potter to gain such influence in the party that contained
many of his supporters unless Potter was closely affiliated to him.

"Well, we had best be prepared." The hook nosed man finally said after a
very long pause.

"Indeed we had."

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2 Days Later

"That's brilliant everyone, great job!" Neville shouted from the front of the
room, his eyes following the trails left by the dozens of floating
patronuses that were circling the room, he chuckled as he watched an otter
and a dog play fighting, whilst a bright silvery eagle soared by.

"Oh it's pretty" Neville turned and smiled as he saw a Hare burst from the
tip of Luna's wand,

"Well done Luna, you've got it!" Luna smiled dreamily, but soon the
expression faltered,
"Oh dear, It's running away, doesn't it like me?" Neville suppressed a
laugh,

"No, ahem, it's checking for Dementors, it'll come back." The two of them
watched the Patronus for a few minutes, it appeared to be chasing
something, and Neville felt puzzled,

"I've never seen a Patronus chase nothing before…" he trailed off, as the
Hare suddenly pounced,

"Don't worry, it's probably chasing the Nargles, Bad Hare, Bad!" Neville
felt his mouth fall open slightly in surprise as the girl continued to scold
the Patronus. Suddenly, he felt a tugging on the hem of his robes, he
hastily closed his mouth and looked down.

"Dobby?" he asked in surprise

"Master Neville Longbottom sir, Dobby is sorry to be distracting you sir."

Neville waved off the elf's apology,

"Get on with it, have you found something?" the elf nodded, wringing the
hem of it's outfit nervously.

"The Umby has found out about the DA, Umby is coming here now!"
Neville frowned,

"The Umby?" he asked puzzled, "What is the Umby?" Dobby frowned,

"Umby, the Miss in Pink, teacher of defences." Neville felt like an anvil
had been dropped in his stomach.

"Umbridge?" he asked quietly, Dobby nodded quickly, "UMBRIDGE IS

COMING!" he bellowed, the room fell silent at once staring at him in
horror,

"are you sure?" asked Fred and George at the same time, Neville nodded
and twins at once took over,
"Right, everyone scarper, don't go to common rooms, go to bathrooms,
classrooms, the library, the grounds, anywhere, disperse and get the hell
away from here!" they paused and no one moved,

"What are you waiting for?" shouted Neville, "Run!"

There was pandemonium, the magical door for the room expanded
suddenly and with a great squeeze the room was emptied in seconds.

Neville was left alone for a second before he ran as fast as he could from
the room, the hall was emptying rapidly, and Neville pondered briefly
where to go. There was a secret passage on the floor below which would
lead to the prefect's bathroom, he could hide there for an hour or two.

With a sudden burst of speed he turned right and pelted for the stairs. He
was halfway down the second flight when he felt the effects of a tripping
jinx, he collapsed and bounced down the last few steps, coming to rest in
an undignified heap on the landing.

"Longbottom." Neville froze as he heard the characteristic drawl of his

least favourite person in the world. "Incarcerous." the spell was said lazily,
and within seconds Neville was trussed up like a turkey.

"I had so hoped I would be the one to catch you." Drawled Malfoy, as he
strode into Neville's line of sight, a smug smirk on his lips and a manic
gleam in his eyes.

"Fuck you Malfoy!" Neville spat furiously, Draco smiled wider,

"Tut tut, Longbottom, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" he
paused and laughed, "oh that's right, of course you don't."

Neville glared, and Malfoy carried on grinning down at him, "Well no time
for chit chat Neville, we have a date with the High Inquisitor."

Neville was carried through the halls by Malfoy, who made sure to bang
him into every available corner he could, eventually they reached the
Defence Classroom and Neville felt the seeds of panic bloom.

"Draco? Aha, excellent job Mr Malfoy, truly excellent, take twenty points
to Slytherin, no, take thirty points!" Draco smiled appreciatively as he
dropped the Boy-who-lived onto one of the desks.

Umbridge removed the ropes binding him with a vicious smile,

"Your days of terrorising the school are over Longbottom, over!" she
giggled to herself, before hurrying over to the fireplace, Neville heard a
shout of Ministers office before the toad-like woman's head vanished.
After only a few minutes she removed her head and took a seat at the front
of the classroom at her customary desk.

They waited in silence for a long time, Umbridge sitting at her desk,
reminding Neville strongly of a frog sitting on a lily pad, staring at him
like he were a juicy fly. Neville kept his eyes firmly on the clock above her
head, watching the hands slowly tick by, 4.04… 4.05… 4.06, his eyes
flicked back to Umbridge, the woman hadn't moved, her expression
remained smug as she stared at him.

Behind him, he felt Theo Nott, who was stood to his right, shift slightly on
his feet. He turned, Malfoy and Nott were stood behind each of his
shoulders, standing like guards. Nott looked bored, whilst Malfoy had his
chest puffed out, the Inquisitorial Squad shining brightly on his robes.
4.09…

With a burst of green light, Umbridge's fireplace suddenly came to life,

quickly expelling Kingsley Shacklebolt, a tough, wiry looking man and the
Minister for magic, the three men all stepped through and Umbridge rose
to her feet quickly.

"Minister, excellent, shall we go to the headmaster?" her voice had turned

into a simpering sycophantic tone,

"No Delores, we are still awaiting a few more people." He smiled when he
saw Neville, "Mr Longbottom, I understand you are in rather a lot of
trouble aren't you?" he chuckled,

"He should be expelled Minister, look at this." The pink clad woman thrust
something into the Ministers hands, and Neville was horrified to see it was
the participation list for the DA.

"Dumbledore's Army?" Fudge looked up at Neville sharply, "what was the

purpose of your little army? Planning to take over the Ministry hmm? I
can have you arrested for this!"

Neville said nothing, though he felt his stomach roiling, this was it, he
thought, he would be arrested, probably without trial and thrown into
Azkaban for the rest of his natural life. He felt like he might cry, but
forced himself not to, he still had Dumbledore on his side.

The fireplace brightened once again, and Neville watched in surprise as

Harry Potter stepped out of the flames with casual elegance, looking
around in polite disinterest.

"Minister, what is this about? I was very busy." Neville watched as Fudge
beamed at Harry,

"Harry, glad you could join us. We've just caught Mr Longbottom doing all
sorts of criminal acts." Potter raised one eyebrow as he eyed Neville with
cold eyes.

"Really?" Fudge nodded and handed him the note. Harry took it and his
face took on a look of surprised pleasure as he read the first line.

"My my, Delores, this group would appear to have been operating for
weeks, if not months, are you telling me you have only just discovered
such an operation?" The young Politician spoke with such insolent
amusement that Neville thought the High Inquisitor would have slapped
him.

"No no Mr Potter, I have been aware of this group for almost a month, I
just never had the proof to act until now." Harry nodded, his eyes still
scanning the parchment.

"Madam Umbridge, I have helped give you the authority to stamp out any
such dissent within Hogwarts, next time you discover such a situation, I
expect you to notify the Ministry immediately."

"Of course Mr Potter." The woman simpered, Harry handed the paper back
to Fudge and smiled warmly, the sudden change from the cold
authoritarian to that of favoured nephew he had taken on was shocking to
Neville, though Fudge seemed not to notice.

"I believe we have a date with Professor Dumbledore Minister."

The group made their quick progress up to Dumbledore's office and within
a matter of minutes, they were outside the Gargoyle.

"Ice-Mice." The gargoyle sprang aside and Neville was pushed up the
stairs.

"Cornelius? What a pleasant surprise, do come in. oh, and you've brought
friends, excellent, the more the merrier." Dumbledore welcomed as they
made their steady progress up the steps. Neville felt a small smile grow as
he saw the happy expression on the man's face. How could he ever have
been concerned when he had the greatest sorcerer in the world on his side?

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Harry was the last one to enter Dumbledore's study from the little group,
Dumbledore saw him, and didn't appear surprised, Harry looked around
and saw Snape and McGonagall already in the room, clearly this
showdown was not unexpected.

"Dear me." Dumbledore called cheerfully, "It would appear our current
seating arrangement is woefully inadequate." With a flick of the
headmaster's wand, his desk grew and expanded into a far larger version of
itself, whilst opulent conjured chairs appeared from thin air. Harry
smirked at the not so subtle display of the man's power.

"Whatever is this about Cornelius? Your visits have become so very

sporadic lately."

"Bad business Albus. Bad business. Delores, please show him the
parchment." Umbridge handed Dumbledore the form and Harry carefully
the man's expression as he read it.

"Most interesting." Dumbledore said mildly.

"Interesting indeed" agreed Snape as he read over Dumbledore's shoulder.

"hmph." Was all McGonagall added, Harry carefully maintained a neutral

mask.

"So." Began Fudge, "Mr Longbottom has clearly been training students in
offensive magic's and tactics, in clear violation of numerous Ministry
laws, he must be detained, or at the very least, expelled." Next to the
Minister, Umbridge nodded vigorously.

"Neville here is not at fault Minister." Dumbledore said, in a tone as light

as though he were discussing the weather, "I am rather afraid it is mine."

"Yours?" asked Fudge, looking completely baffled.

"Mine, you see, I asked Neville to form this group, as I rather suspected it
would become necessary to have a force standing ready for the future."
Harry blinked, and Fudge looked crossed between ecstatic and horrified.

"You created a private army for use against the Ministry?" he asked,

"Not just the Ministry, but in essence, yes." Fudge gaped at him,

"Dumbledore no! Minister, he had nothing to do with it!" sputtered

Neville, Harry noticed Dumbledore send a warning glance at the boy,
before his face returned to its previous calm detachment.
"Most noble of you Neville, but obviously untrue, Neville was only
following my instructions."

"Very well Dumbledore, As Minister for magic, I hereby declare you under
arrest, Aurors, take this man to Azka…" Harry cut him off quickly, Fudge
looked at him curiously,

"Minister, I feel we must not be hasty in our actions." He began, Harry saw
that Dumbledore looked unsurprised in his interruption, evidently
Dumbledore expected him to argue for something, "Professor
Dumbledore, whatever his confessions today, is still a highly respected
wizard."

Harry saw that the Headmaster looked almost amused at Harry's words,
and he realised Dumbledore had expected him to argue for him to remain
as Headmaster.

"we must therefore deliberate any action we take. the man deserves to go
on trial, given his popular support, any action taken will be scrutinised
heavily. Therefore, whilst we await an outcome, I recommend stripping
Mister Dumbledore of his titles of Headmaster and Chief Warlock and
rescinding him as our representative in the ICW, until such a time as he is
found innocent or guilty of Treason, High Treason and sedition to commit
insurrection, he should be held in a ministry holding cell."

There was silence when Harry finished, the smugly amused look in
Dumbledore's eye had vanished and he instead looked very grave, Neville
looked horrified, as did Professor McGonagall, Snape looked just as calm
as ever, though his eyes were rather narrowed.

"An excellent suggestion." Fudge said, breaking the spell of silence, "and
Mr Longbottom?"

Harry thought for a moment, "I think Mr Longbottoms crimes are only
those of showing incredible loyalty to his school and Headmaster,
something that should be applauded." Neville looked at him in shock, as
did Fudge.
"Surely he deserves some punishment?"

"Of course minister, however I feel that any punishment should remain
within Hogwarts, no need to give the boy a criminal record." Harry paused,
"Although perhaps it would make sense… given Mr Longbottoms…
history, for him to have regular school enforced meetings with a St
Mungo's sanctioned Mind Healer." Fudge brightened considerably.

"An excellent idea Harry, your input is once again proving invaluable."
Harry nodded, smiling slightly,

"Very well." Dumbledore suddenly spoke, Harry saw him look covertly at
his phoenix.

"Headmaster." He called sharply, "Be advised, should you evade arrest,

your actions will result in your being tried in absentia." Dumbledore
frowned for a moment, before nodding slowly.

"Aurors, please escort Mr Dumbledore to a holding cell, until such a time

as he can be tried before the courts." Fudge said loudly. Harry smiled,
raising his eyebrows victoriously at the defeated looking wizard.

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Dumbledore Arrested!
William Wilbur, Judicial Correspondent

In what is possibly the most unexpected arrest in Britain long and

distinguished history, Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the
Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of
Wizards, Headmaster of Hogwarts, Order of Merlin (first class) has been
taken into ministry custody for Treason, High Treason, Sedition and
conspiracy to commit insurrection.

The accusations have been levelled after it emerged yesterday afternoon

that Dumbledore (114) had created and developed an illegal Paramilitary
organisation, known as Dumbledore's Army, or the DA for short at
Hogwarts. Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge gave this statement
yesterday

"The arrest of Albus Dumbledore is as shocking as it is serious. The entire

political system has been thrown into disarray by these events. The trial of
Mr Dumbledore will be a cause of great contention, but I urge the public
to remain calm."

Following the statements released, this publication attempted to reach Mr

Harry Potter, a political ally of the Minister, but he was unavailable for
comment, a source close to Mr Potter did state that he would watch the
outcome of these events very closely.

Should Mr Dumbledore be found guilty, he will spend the rest of his life in
the maximum security wing of Azkaban Prison. The organisation known as
Dumbledore's Army, however given their status as students at Hogwarts,
they will face no criminal prosecution.

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New Hogwarts Headmistress!

Samantha Warwick, Educational correspondent.

Following the highly publicised arrest of Mr Albus Dumbledore last night,

Delores Umbridge, Defence against the Dark Arts teacher and Ministry
appointed High Inquisitor has been unanimously voted in as the new
Headmistress of Hogwarts by the board of governors. Taking her place as
professor for Defence is Percival Weasely, previously of the Department of
International Magical Cooperation.

Cont. page 3, col 4

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Miranda put down the paper in amusement, "I'm impressed." She
murmured, "I didn't think you would be able to do it."

"a-thanking yous." Harry drawled with a grin. The two of them were
relaxed on a wooden table overlooking the sea in Portsmouth. The small
Wizarding settlement in the town was quiet and Harry had taken the two of
them out for afternoon tea.

"You must admit it went better than you had been expecting." The blonde
pushed, Harry grinned,

"Alright, yes. It went very well, and this could be the event that gets Fudge
out of the picture." Miranda frowned,

"Fudge? You have Dumbledore arrested for high treason, the trial will
likely be a farce, you know the current administration has been after him
since he started spouting Voldemort's back, and yet you are using this to
dispose of Fudge?" The gorgeous girls tone was incredulous and Harry
chuckled,

"I think that's fair enough, don't you?" he asked innocently, Miranda glared

"Isn't it obvious?" he imagined steam pouring from the irate girls ears and
he held his hands up in surrender, "alright, alright! Fudge ensures it's a
show trial, Dumbledore gets sent to prison in disgrace."

At that point the waiter arrived with a steaming pot of tea and two mugs,
the two paused as Harry poured two mugs, giving himself a generous
splash of milk before handing over the jug and taking a short sip.

"So, Dumbledore is found guilty in a sham trial, Fudge is publically tied to

the outcome, I campaign for its falsehood, get a retrial, Dumbledore found
innocent, Fudge disgraced, and I am the hero of the hour. Easy." Miranda
looked at her mug of tea as she thought deeply.

"Easy." She eventually agreed, "And does a certain benefactor agree with
you? I imagine he would prefer Dumbledore dealt with." Harry nodded
slowly,

"I haven't run it by him, but I would imagine it would take some
convincing to get him on board." Harry chuckled, before holding up his
white china teacup.

"Here's to us." He offered, she smiled at him puzzled, before tapping her
glass to his in a cheers.

"To us." She echoed. They both drank the hot liquid, holding each other's
gaze. "We need a holiday." Miranda eventually said, breaking the silence.

"I wish we could, but with everything going on, I don't know when we
could go." Harry frowned, but Miranda didn't look upset or surprised by
his answer,

"Don't worry, I know it's practically impossible right now, It was merely an
observation." She laughed lightly and Harry grinned.

"A full holiday may be impossible, but I could always whisk you away for
a passionate weekend of love sometime, that wouldn't be too tricky."
Miranda smiled softly,

"That would be nice." She agreed, and they leant in for a quick kiss. The
afternoon was growing late, and as the sun fell through the sky, the
temperature descended with it, Miranda shivered slightly in the chilly
April weather.

"Ready to go home?" Harry asked, dreading the pile of Papers he was sure
to have waiting for him.

"Almost." Miranda drained the last of glass and stood up, Harry mirrored
her motion, digging into his pocket he threw a few Silver sickles down
onto the table, before taking Miranda's hand, in a sudden vortex the two
vanished.
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Ministry Holding Cell

June 6th

Dumbledore had been a captive of the Ministry for two months, and they
had been a very dull two months for the aging Headmaster, he had many
visitors, Fudge had dropped by a few times, to gloat mostly. Dumbledore
had indulged the Ministers whims but the man's air of self-importance was
rather draining after a while.

Then many members of the order had appeared, Mad eye, Sirius, and many
others, whilst Molly Weasely often brought in samples of her delicious
cooking, for which Dumbledore was incredibly grateful. The days dragged
by, with nothing but a daily copy of the Daily Prophet. Dumbledore had
read the paper cover to cover every day that he had been a prisoner.

There were few articles of any particular interest, a Mind-Healer had

diagnosed Neville with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and that had
been the subject of some interest, most of the articles that Dumbledore
read however were concerning himself.

Most irregularly for the Prophet, they appeared to be acting in a rather

impartial and balanced approach. The Letters to the Editor section was
filled with gossip and debate and whether or not his guilt was true, and he
had felt his heart rise in pride as he saw so many of his past pupils and
friends staunchly defending him.

What had interested the aging headmaster however, was the fact that Harry
Potter had not declared himself a side in the saga, merely stating that he
was very interested in the debate and would be watching the proceedings
carefully. For a man who considered himself a political genius,
Dumbledore was baffled as to why Harry would distance himself from
such a high profile event which he had played such a key role in.
There came a loud knock on the door, and Dumbledore looked up,

"Come in!" he called in as strong a voice as he could. A youngish looking

wizard poked his head through the door,

"Good Morning Mr Dumbledore sir."

"Good Morning Edmund, How are you?" Albus replied in as warm a voice

"Well thank you sir."

"Good, and the wife, she must be nearing her due date surely?" the man
smiled broadly,

"Very nearly, I have the bag packed, you should see her sir, she's fit to
burst!" the young jailer laughed and Dumbledore smiled happily.

"I am sure you will be an excellent Father."

"Thank you, You have a visitor, Mr Potter has asked to see you."
Dumbledore smiled, speak of the Devil… he thought briefly.

"Show him in, I would hate to leave such a high profile guest waiting."
The jailer gave him a final nod before backing out, locking the door
behind him.

There was a brief pause during Dumbledore attempted to straighten his

robes and neaten his hair, less than two minutes later, he heard the sound
of the keys jangling in the lock and on silent hinges the heavy door swung
open.

"Good Morning Harry." Dumbledore greeted neutrally. Harry nodded in

greeting, looking around the room carefully.

"Good Morning Headmaster, I love what you've done with the place, I
hope you didn't go to all this effort on my behalf." The eighteen year old
laughed loudly, transfiguring one of the hard backed seats into a far
comfier looking version of itself, Dumbledore remained sat on the bed,
watching Harry closely.

"Very amusing Harry. I trust there is a reason for you visit?" he asked,

"Not really, I thought It would be remiss if I weren't too visit at least

once." Dumbledore nodded, surprised, he hadn't pictured Harry as the sort
of man to gloat.

"Well, I am grateful for your presence Harry, it's a welcome distraction."

Harry nodded with a cold smile,

"Thank you, though it would appear you have already had plenty of
distractions." He pointed at the pile of old newspapers.

"Indeed, though one does get bored of current events eventually, no one
has yet brought me a book, I would so appreciate a nice juicy romance."
Harry was watching him as, clearly wondering whether or not he were
joking.

"I will have one delivered, don't worry." Dumbledore nodded his thanks. "I
understand my party has not done well in my absence?" Dumbledore spoke
as the silence drew on. Harry laughed,

"Not as well as I imagine you hoped." He chuckled, Dumbledore knew

exactly how badly his party had done in his absence, the many different
factions had all split apart and the original core of the progressives was
now numbering just 23, and they lacked any form of unifying leadership.

"No, it is a pity, Elphias has been coming down here near every day to ask
for advice."

Harry rolled his eyes, "why you would choose him to succeed you is a
mystery to me."

Dumbledore smiled slightly,

"He has a very good heart." He eventually said, Harry sneered,

"The man is as clumsy as he is stupid." Dumbledore gave a noncommittal

shrug of his shoulders

"Perhaps, though I imagine you are rather pleased." Harry smiled coldly,

"I am very pleased."

"And acting head of the Traditionalist party, that is a big promotion."

Harry nodded slowly,

"When Lucius was promoted to acting Chief Warlock, he evidently felt

that I had the necessary skills to steer the party in the correct direction."

Dumbledore said nothing for several moments, merely peering down his
long crooked nose at the boy in front of him,

"The Dark Lord is back Harry." He eventually said, Potter's face didn't
move an inch, his eyes remaining emotionless.

"So you say."

"I find it unlikely that he would allow just anyone to take control of the
party within which he holds such influence." Harry once again kept his
face carefully blank,

"I imagine he would be rather selective." He eventually agreed.

"The Dark Lord must see a great deal in you if he gave you command of
the Traditionalists."

"I was chosen by Lucius Malfoy." Harry immediately replied, Dumbledore

felt such a strong surge of pity surge towards the green eyed youth before
him,

"I am so very sorry Harry." He eventually said, his voice entirely sincere.
"Your pity means a great deal to me." Dumbledore sighed forlornly,

"How is Miss Rookwood?" Dumbledore felt pleased when he saw a flash

of warmth pass through Harry's eyes.

"She is well." He carefully said

"Any plans between the two of you in the future?" the ex-headmaster
asked calmly.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Well I believe it's fair to say you are on the fast track to becoming the
next Minister for Magic Harry." Dumbledore said with a wry smile, Harry
chuckled,

"I am glad you have such faith in me." Dumbledore waved away his
comments,

"What I mean to say, is that there has never been an unmarried Minister,
the public view such a person as far more grounded." Dumbledore saw the
barest hint of a flush rise through Harry's neck.

"If I were to marry Miranda, it would not be for any reason to do with
Politics." He stated quite coldly.

"Of course, I was merely making an observation."

The silence fell again, and the two men watched each other carefully.
Finally, Dumbledore took in a long breath, and Harry sat straighter in his
chair.

"You do know Harry, that I myself can never allow a servant of Lord
Voldemort to take over this country. I will do everything necessary to stop
such an event, however much I may despise the action I am forced to
take." Harry stood up carefully, returning his plush armchair back to it's
spindly origins with a flick of his wand.
"If I find any Servants of the Dark Lord running for the office, I will be
sure to pass on the warning. Good Morning." With that, he knocked three
times on the door, and ten seconds later the door was closed, he was gone
and Dumbledore was alone once again.

Bing bang boom, what do you think?

Please leave a review, whether or not it's a criticism, suggestion or just

praise, I love them all and take them all to heart.

Thank you

Marshall Angmar
25. Chapter 25

Here we go...

this is the last chapter before the ball starts rolling, from here on out,
Harry will start making gains, and become more powerful, I also think
that the violence and war aspect will be along in 2/3 chapters, so hold
on, it's not long now!

Thank you to all my readers, we are on 223 right now, lets so if we can
reach 250!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 23

Harry was pacing before the closed door in frustration, following the
atrocious week he had had, the last thing he had expected was to be left
waiting for twenty minutes, and had it been anyone else behind the door he
would have protested,

"If you're not careful, you'll wear through the floor." Harry turned and
glared at Rosier, before his expression softened slightly, and he chuckled,
walking over to the seat next to the older wizard.

"Very well Evan, let us wait like civilised men."

The two sat together, the silence growing more and more tense, Harry
glared at his watch and noted that another ten minutes has passed since he
had sat. With a muttered curse he stood up, and was about to resume his
relentless pacing when the high doors swung open.

"Harry, Evan, Good Morning, I trust you haven't been waiting long?" the
Dark Lord asked, a wide smirk playing across his lips, Harry bowed
slightly,
"Of course not my Lord, it was no trouble." Beside him he felt Rosier nod
in agreement.

"Well please, do come in, we have a lot to talk about."

The dark haired young man stepped aside and ushered his two followers
inside. Harry found himself in the Dark Lords study, the high bay windows
showering the room in light, illuminating the many high bookshelves
filled with countless tomes.

Harry strode through the room with a familial sense of disregard, barely
giving the elegant room a glance, taking a seat in one of the carved
wooden seats that stood in front of the large mahogany desk, Harry used
his Occlumency shields to suppress the feelings of irritation he still felt
bubbling below the surface.

"I do apologise for the wait Harry, I merely thought that given your current
status, you were at risk of losing all humility, which we just can't have now
can we?"

"As I said my Lord, it is no trouble."

"Quite." The Dark Lord surveyed him for a moment, Harry met his gaze
strongly, and the two men appraised each other. Eventually the Dark Lord
looked away, and when his scarlet eyes met Harry's again, the amusement
was gone, replaced by cold, angry orbs.

The Dark Lord picked up a copy of The Daily Prophet from his desk and
threw it to Harry,

"Explain." The words were hissed out slowly, and Harry's eyes flicked
down to the Headline,

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES!

"Fudge was smarter than we thought." Harry replied evenly, keeping his
eyes firmly above the Dark Lords head.
"We?" asked Riddle, "There is no we. This was your doing. Your mistake."

"Of course My Lord." Harry took a deep breath, "I had thought that Fudge
would have ensured Dumbledore's arrest. The man surprised me by
organising a fair trial, perhaps he is not as incompetent as we had thought.
It will not happen again."

The Dark Lord surveyed him for a long moment, his face impossible to
read,

"I cannot blame this entirely on you Harry, Lucius supported your plan of
course. It is sometimes easy to forget you are only 18." Harry kept his face
impassive, whilst the Dark Lord watched him.

"It will not happen again." He repeated, Riddle frowned at him slowly,

"No, It won't…" Harry knew what was coming a second before the Dark
Lord sent the silent curse at him.

Once more Harry felt his entire body experience pain beyond pain, he was
dimly aware as he slid out of his chair and onto the floor, he scraped his
hands across the polished wood, registering as his nails cracked and broke.
After an eternity of agony, it was suddenly gone, leaving Harry with a
pounding heart and painful throb in his hands.

On shaky legs, He pulled himself back up to his chair, clasping his shaking
hands together and drawing in a wavering breath.

"Apology accepted." Harry looked up at Voldemort and saw the man

leering at him. The Dark Lord stared at him for a few seconds, "how do
you plan to move on from this failure?"

Harry swallowed, "I will have to follow a new tactic, Dumbledore is

clearly aware of my connection to you my Lord, I am concerned about
future reprisals."

Riddle laughed, though the sound was cold and lacked any emotion,
"Dumbledore is a fool, he doesn't have the strength to kill those who get in
his way." Harry shrugged,

"I don't think so, the man may be altogether too forgiving, however I
believe he would destroy those he feels present a true threat to him."
Beside him, Evan, who had been quiet up until this point spoke up.

"My Lord, I believe Potter may be correct, he has learnt the lessons of the
last war, I fear we cannot rely on his pacifist doctrine anymore." The Dark
Lord turned to Rosier slowly, the tall fair haired man looked down at the
table quickly.

"Indeed?" he nodded, "I have heard similar reports also, Dumbledore has
always believed Death to be a blessing to many…"

Harry looked at Evan and the older man nodded,

"Precisely my Lord, I believe that many of the high profile members of

your organisation are at risk from assassination attempts from the Order of
the Phoenix." The Dark Lord waved away the suggestion airily,

"Whilst I am prepared to accept the idea of Albus killing on the

battlefield, the man still has some morals, he would never sanction
assassination."

"Perhaps not, but Mad-Eye Moody would, Sirius Black would, indeed,
most of the survivors of the first war would happily end any sort of
conflict before it begins with a well-timed curse."

Voldemort eyed him carefully, after around thirty seconds, the he nodded,

"Agreed." He laughed to himself, "I assume you have a plan?" Harry

nodded.

"That is why I have brought Evan here." Riddle glanced at Evan quickly,
before he nodded for Harry to continue.
"I would like to form a new group, technically under the control of the
BAL, but in practice under Mr Rosier and I's direct control." The Dark
Lord surveyed him curiously,

"And what would this group do?" Harry took a deep breath,

"They would be a disciplined, militant force, tasked with protecting High

Value public figures in the Traditionalists." He released the breath slowly,
watching Voldemort's face intently, the Dark Lord looked amused,

"You wish me to sanction the creation of an army loyal to you?" he asked

with a small smirk, Evan quickly jumped in defence of the idea,

"No my Lord, not an army, merely a bodyguard service, it would not need
to be more than… sixty members." Rosier looked at Harry, who nodded in
agreement at the number

"Consider it my Lord, a very visible, very disciplined display of our

strength, it would serve great Political value."

Riddle watched the two of them for a very long time, neither Harry nor
Evan dared to breath.

"Very Well, but I expect a full list of members, and I expect you to ensure
that this group's loyalty is to you two, it would not do for some uppity
Politician to gain ideas above his station."

"Yes my Lord." The two men murmured, Voldemort nodded slowly,

"You may go. Harry, do not fail me again."

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When Harry returned to the flat that night he was furious. He slammed the
door violently, and strode straight across the sitting room to the tall
grandfather clock. Opening the stand, he revealed a modest variety of
bottles. With scarcely a look at the labels, he pulled one out and filled a
conjured glass with the amber liquid.

"Bad day?" Miranda asked, sauntering around the door from the bedroom.

"You could say that."

"Were you not seeing him today?" she asked, Harry nodded, grimacing as
he took another generous gulp.

"That bad hmm?" the blonde asked carefully, Harry shook his head, tiredly.

"I can handle the pain, it's just the nerve of the man, I have been in the
government for one year, in that time I have made myself incredibly
popular, passed over a dozen pieces of legislation and revolutionised the
way the party works, and now I make one mistake, which has no political
ramifications for me…" Harry sighed, running his hand through his dark
hair angrily, he refilled his glass with another generous measure and
knocked it back in one.

Behind him he felt Miranda embrace him tightly from behind.

"Don't be such a fucking weakling Potter." Harry snorted, "You knew the
Dark Lord was an megalomaniac when you joined him"

"True enough." He replied,

"And besides, when we win, you will still hold influence, then all we need
to do is wait, the Dark Lord is mortal, and will eventually die," she
murmured into his shoulder, Harry turned and looked into her shining blue
eyes,

"Whereas we will live forever." He whispered, "Together." The girl smiled,

"Precisely, who could be better suited to inherit the nation than the Dark
Lord's most trusted lieutenant? 0We shall rule together, forever."
Harry smiled broadly, before he swept down and captured the girl's lips
into a passionate kiss, carrying her through to the bedroom, kicking off his
shoes as he did so.

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3 Months Later

On a chilly day in September, Harry reflected that forming a bodyguard

unit was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. He and Evan had
been working whenever they had time to create their vision.

There had been problems with the financing, problems with the training,
problems acquiring uniforms, problems with the legality of the issue, but
finally, after many sleepless nights, Harry's Legion stood before him.
Harry had inspected their training only a few times, as whilst he had been
working on the bureaucratic side of things, Evan, who had far more
combat experience than Harry, had trained them, hard, for the last three
months.

There were more than sixty of them, their numbers counted 94 at the last
check, but Harry was pleased with each and every one of them. The Dark
Shield had surpassed all of Harry's initial expectations, selected from the
best of the surge of volunteers they had received, the legion comprised of
only wizards aged between 20 and 30.

He had received an owl from Rosier that day, in which the man had eagerly
told Harry that they were ready. Harry had wasted no time, immediately
apparating to a windswept patch of moor in Devon. The training camp was
small, with two dozen magical tents set up, as well as a well-trod Parade
Ground, at the head of which Harry currently stood.

"Magnificent aren't they?" Evan asked, his voice filled with pride, Harry
nodded in pleasure, the soldiers lined up before him were certainly
impressive.
Each man looked resplendent in a fitted double breasted black Jacket,
decorated in silver thread, with a high stiff collar, sown onto which were
the letters DS. They wore loose black trousers, decorated only with a
single red strip running down the outside leg, and highly polished knee
high leather boots. Beside him, Evan was dressed in the same uniform,
though with gold in the place of silver on his jacket.

"Magnificent doesn't do them justice." Harry murmured, his green eyes

shining, "This is the Parade uniform I presume?" he questioned,

"Correct, for field duty they have far less extravagant outfits."

"If they fight as well as they parade, then they must be fearsome indeed."
Harry complimented, Rosier chuckled,

"Perhaps a demonstration?" Harry grinned and nodded, Evan smiled

lightly,

"Dark Shield." He shouted, the men before him came to attention in a

single hard movement.

"Dark Shield, Mr Potter would like a demonstration of your prowess."

Evan surveyed his soldiers with a proud smile, "Who would care to
volunteer?"

As one the entire unit took a measured step forward, Harry laughed,

"I can't fault their enthusiasm." Evan flushed lightly,

"Jackson, Morris and Leeche, step forward." Three men stepped out of the
formation and took up a clearly practiced situation, Rosier turned to Harry
to explain,

"The Dummy there is supposed to be you Harry, Leeche and Jackson will
try to kill you, whilst Morris will keep you alive." Harry nodded slowly,
"So our men are also trained in the termination of defended targets?" he
asked, Rosier's smile became suddenly more sinister.

"I thought it best to be prepared for any eventuality." He deadpanned,

Harry nodded, and returned his attention to the Demonstration.

The men were good, they moved fast, the two attackers fluidly probing
defences whilst the defender danced around, keeping the Dummy safe.
After five minutes of combat, Evan called the display to an end. The three
men immediately stopped what they were doing and saluted, before
stepping into line once more.

Harry turned to Evan with a wide grin, "How fast can we have them in
service?"

"Tomorrow." The fair haired man said confidently, Harry clasped him on
his shoulder, feeling the stiff decoration of his jacket under his hand.

"Make it happen my friend." Evan nodded seriously,

"It will be done, I cannot wait to see Dumbledore's face when he learns of
this." Harry laughed and nodded, clapping Rosier on the back once more,
before disaparating with a crack.

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Traditionalists Defend 'Dark Shield'

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent.
September 10th

The halls of the Wizengamot this morning were rocked with controversy
following the announcement of the Traditionalists having formed an elite
unit of bodyguards. Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated Chief Warlock of
the Wizengamot, Headmaster of Hogwarts and Supreme Mugwump of the
International confederation of Wizards, immediately decried the existence
of the Dark Shield, stating
"For a political party to require a paramilitary force in any situation is
laughable, the only reason this Dark Shield exists is for Political
Bullying."

Lucius Malfoy, who has recently retaken his place as head of the
Traditionalists, following Dumbledore's return to the position of Chief
Warlock, however defended his party's new force,

"The Dark Shield are not an offensive force, they exist to ensure the safety
of the Parties members."

This journalist was able to talk to Harry Potter last night and ask what his
response to Dumbledore's attack on his Dark Shield, an organisation he is
rumoured to have worked to create.

"I cannot understand Dumbledore's complaints, isn't every concern he has

about the DS (Dark Shield) equally applicable to the Chief Warlocks own
'Order of the Phoenix?' A far more aggressive paramilitary force, which
exists to fight Dark magic with or without Ministry support."

Cont. page 9, col. 1

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Trade mission to France named

Bernie Sprocket, Business Correspondent.
September 31st

The ministry today announced the names of the eight witches and wizards
chosen to travel to Paris and refresh Britain's trade agreement with the
French Wizarding republic.

Of those named, two are politicians, Edwin Truffle, BPP and Harry Potter,
Traditionalists, and they shall be joined by William Pennyside and Jane
Fairweather, both of International Magical Trading Standards agency.
In addition, several members of leading British businesses shall be present
as well, as yet unnamed, they shall represent members of the Nimbus
broom company, Flashtravel Floo powder manufacturers, Weights &
Measures Cauldron Design and Gladrags Wizardwear.

The trade mission is due to leave on tomorrow, and according to ministry

sources, will spend approximately two weeks in the French capital.

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Harry looked around the large room in frustration, though he made sure he
kept his face carefully blank as he did so, it would hardly do to insult their
hosts at the present time.

"… so of course, any reductions in tariffs would be highly appreciated."

The steel-haired woman from the Department of international Magical
Trading standards agency was speaking, the Frenchman opposite her held
a smug expression as he perused the sheet of parchment in his hands.

"Well of course, 'owever, any reduction in a tariff would lose the French
Ministry many s'ousands of Galleons."

Harry tuned out the conversation, it wasn't as if he was expected to provide

input in these arguments, his role was expected in the evenings, where he
promoted closer ties between the British and French governments.

From his comfortable seat at the long table, Harry imagined the smug look
of satisfaction on Dumbledore's face. He knew that it was the Headmasters
recommendation that had resulted in him being here. Albus clearly wanted
him out of the picture whilst he rebuilt his party from the ruin it had
become. Harry would have applauded such a successful move on the
veteran statesman's part, had it not resulted in him having to attend these
mind numbing discussions.

On the seat to his right, Harry snorted softly as he watched Edwin Truffle
preen, the man was a second rate politician who had done nothing to make
himself stand out, in short, the sort of man who would typically go on a
trade mission with a Nation Britain had been comfortably trading with for
hundreds of years.

"D'accord."

Harry blinked and looked up, everyone appeared to have a smile on their
face, and Harry assumed such an expression could only come from the end
of the meeting. He smiled brightly and shook hands with his opposite man,
the French Politician looked just as bored as he did, and the two men
rolled their eyes at each other.

"Lunch?" Harry asked, the man laughed loudly and nodded,

"Mon dieu, I 'ope so."

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"I propose a toast," Harry announced from the Dinner table, "At the end of
this, the first week of negotiations, to our ever gracious hosts."

There were calls of agreement from the rest of the dinner table as the rest
of the English delegation raised their glasses. Harry sat back down with a
smile,

"I must say, it is rather a pleasant surprise to have you here Mr Potter." The
young woman next to him said, "When my father invited me, I had rather
thought I would be surrounded by boring suits." Harry smiled at her, the
girl was young, Harry guessed early twenties, and quite beautiful, in a very
continental way.

"I do aim to please, may I compliment you on your English, it is quite

phenomenal." He replied, the young woman waved her hand casually,

"I attended Hogwarts for my last two years of Education, my father

thought it wise given his position."
"Your Father is a wise man, clearly." The girl smiled,

"Well, being the ambassadeur de commerce to England does involve

interaction with your country from time to time." She laughed, Harry
nodded his head at the point.

"Well you may thank him for me, I like you, had feared this would be an
event for overweight old men, your presence is a delightful surprise."

Harry's interest in what the girl said to him next was lost as he saw who
entered the room late. Jean-Sebastian Delacour strode in and looked
around, his eyes lingered on Harry for a moment before he smiled and
opened his arms wide,

"I am sorry I am late, I hoped I haven't missed too much!" he called

warmly,

"Not at all, Monsieur Delacour, we have only just started our main
course." One of the French Businessmen said quickly,

"Excellent, well, I hope it would be alright if I were to join you?" A chair

was brought out for the man, and a place hastily laid by frantic looking
house elves. Before long the conversation got back underway and Harry
turned back to the girl he had been listening to before the Jean-Sebastian
had walked in.

"That's Jean-Sebastian Delacour, he is the Head of the département de la

coopération magique internationale, though Papa says the President listens
to him for almost all his decisions."

"I know of Mr Delacour, his daughter and I are… friends." He murmured,

eyeing the Frenchmen predatorily,

"Fleur?" the girl asked, Harry nodded distractedly, "she was two years
below me at Beauxbatons, how is she?" Harry shrugged,
"I haven't seen her in a year or so, last I heard she is working at Gringotts."
This set the girl off on a long diatribe on what Fleur had been like at
school, Harry listened with half an ear, not too interested in the girl's
conversation.

Eventually the meal came to an end and Harry smiled politely at everyone,
shaking hands here and laughing at unfunny jokes there. When he finally
managed to get to his bed, he was exhausted, his eyes were sore and his
stomach felt bloated, he didn't think his English constitution agreed with
the French diet, not that he would ever dare say anything to this effect
when his hosts could hear.

The next day was Sunday, and the English were treated to a tour of some of
Wizarding France's major commercial areas, they were shown the
expansive enchanted forests, from which wand woods and broomsticks
were fashioned before flooing to the south, and touring the vast
greenhouses where France grew its main magical export, potion
ingredients.

However, the remarkable day ended, and all too soon Harry was back in
the tedious boardroom, listening to debates go back and forth on the
standardisation of Exports, whatever the hell that meant.

In this fashion the days progressed, the evenings were spent in opulent
luxury, listening to speeches and drinking expensive wine, which almost
made up for the tedious days spent in agonising tedium. On the final
supper of the delegation, Harry was accosted just minutes after the meal
finished.

"I had been meaning to talk to you Mr Potter." Harry turned and to his
pleasure saw Jean-Sebastian Delacour smiling at him,

"You almost missed your opportunity." Harry joked,

"Well, I have you now." Harry nodded his agreement. "Have you found the
talks satisfactory?"
"I think both parties are very satisfied with the outcome." Harry replied
smoothly, Delacour laughed,

"An excellent answer, you needn't lie, they are rather grating aren't they?"
Harry smiled and chuckled,

"I am curious why you are here Mr Potter, you are not the typical
candidate for a trade mission." Harry raised one eyebrow,

"Oh? And why is that?" The elder Frenchmen smirked and looked at
Truffle who was currently talking to the two French Politicians,

"I'd have thought that obvious Harry, you are relevant." Harry smiled

"Thank you, I suppose." He paused and looked the tall man in the eye,
"have you been interested in my career Mr Delacour?"

"Of course." The man lowered his voice, "given your relationship to Fleur,
I had thought it expedient."

Harry nodded, and Jean-Sebastian saw the boy's expression shift ever so
slightly, becoming more predacious, the Frenchmen stiffened ever so
slightly, and the air between the two became suddenly colder,

"Mr Delacour" Harry began, "I think we both know that I am not here by
choice, and I feel it would be a waste of two weeks if I were not to get
anything out of this trip."

"And what do you expect from me?" he asked, his tone cautious.

"Oh, I am sure you will think of something." Harry replied airily, though
his insides were roiling, "How's Fleur?" he asked deceptively calmly,

"She is fine." The Frenchman replied, his voice hard and with a dangerous
edge. "She is engaged to an Englishman, Bill Weasely."

"Wonderful." Harry's voice remained soft, though his eyes told a very
different story, "I imagine you must be very happy."
"Her happiness means more to me than I could say." The man growled out,
and Harry let a mocking smile grow on his face,

"As it should be for any father." He leant in closer to the Frenchmen, "I
would prefer excellent publicity from this event Jean-Sebastian, if not…
well, I don't think anyone will be attending Fleurs wedding in the near
future."

The man was silent, glaring down at Harry murderously, and Harry quickly
checked to make sure the two DS-guards who had accompanied him on
this trip were nearby.

"I have worked in Politics for 31 years Potter." He eventually ground out,
"And in that time I have never been so insulted as I am now."

Harry kept his face calm, and prayed the man couldn't hear his wildly
beating heart.

"I will do what I can, though I warn you, should you ever use my daughter
against me again…" he trailed off warningly,

"You will do exactly what I say, for you are a good father, and a good man.
Whilst I have the benefit of being neither, Good day Jean."

With deceptively calm steps, Harry strode away, his two guards in their
immaculate uniforms quickly falling into step behind him. When he found
himself alone in a corridor he stopped and leant against the wall.

Idiot. He rebuked himself silently, what the fuck were you thinking?! To
blackmail the one of the most important men in France was foolish in the
extreme, he could only blame his frustration in the entire situation, having
been sent on a mission he deserved to be no part of, and then to sit through
hours of torturously dull meetings had clearly done a number on his mind,
there was no other explanation.

He silently thanked whatever god's existed that he was going back home in
less than an hour, he wasn't sure he would be able to handle seeing the
honourable Frenchmen again.

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Closer ties with France?

Valerie Truman, International Correspondent
October 15th

Following the successful renegotiation of the Franco-British trade

agreement which concluded last night, The French foreign office has
suggested that closer political and economic ties between England and
France at this time were a strong possibility thanks to their success.

Many have suggested that Harry Potter's presence on the Trade Mission
have been responsible for this new direction on the future of Diplomacy,
Jean-Sebastian Delacour, the French head of the Department of
International Magical Cooperation spoke following the conclusion of
events last night,

"Mr Potter spoke to me of the idea of an economic union between our two
great countries and I found myself intrigued by such an idea, he was very
persuasive, and hopefully our governments can work together to make his
powerful vision a reality."

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Results of our competition come in!

Sophie Kale
October 26th

Last month, Witch Weekly asked its readers to write in to and tell us who
fit certain categories, well, today the results came in, and they are very
interesting,
Most Successful Singer: Celestina Warbeck (38)
Once again, our favourite singing sorceress has topped our poll, with her
sell-out tour 'Spellbound', Celestina has been the nations favourite for
eight years now.

Most Influential 'Power Couple': Harry Potter (19) and Miranda

Rookwood (22)
The first time we've had a politician in our polls, Harry Potter has taken
the country by storm, however, we all know that his charismatic charm and
good looks would mean nothing without the stunning Miranda Rookwood
keeping him on track.

Most Influential Female: Glenda Chittock (29).

Hosting the enormously popular Witching Hour on the WWN, Glenda has
been a part of every witch's life for the last three years, her special brand
humour and investigative journalism make her great fun and a hugely
successful host.

Most Influential Male: Harry Potter (19)

The runaway winner in our little competition, Harry Potter has clearly
been impressing our readers with his popular ideas and genuine outlook, it
probably doesn't hurt that he's so easy to look at too.

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Dumbledore was pacing angrily in his study at Hogwarts, despite his

success in getting Harry sent off to France for two weeks, the old man had
still been unsuccessful in reforming the Progressive party. Many of his old
allies had returned to his cause following his short stint in prison, however
it wasn't nearly enough, from the original body of 53, the Progressives
now counted only 39 members.

Whilst Dumbledore wouldn't have been too concerned, he still had another
year before the elections after all, he was concerned about the fact that
some of his old supporters had defected to the Traditionalists, citing that
they would rather be part of a party that got things done.
Dumbledore sighed angrily as he collapsed into his chair, kneading his
temples with his withered fingers as he desperately thought about a way
out of the current situation.

The easiest way to achieve this would be to prove the Dark Lord had
returned. Were the public to discover that he had been right all along, he
was certain that his parties support would skyrocket. However, that proof
was proving to be very hard to achieve. The Dark Lord had revealed
himself to only a few of his most loyal servants, and this time was
engaging in no violence, no muggle tortures and far fewer disappearances
than he had expected.

Even Dumbledore's closest allies were beginning to doubt Neville's story

of Voldemort's return, after all, it had been almost eighteen months and
nothing, recruitment to the order of the phoenix had all but dried up, and
Fudge was still having the Prophet write slanderous articles about him. It
was infuriating.

"Professor Dumbledore sir?" Albus looked up and smiled wearily when he

saw Neville's head poking around his door.

"Aha, Neville, do come in." he greeted warmly, and waited until Neville
was sat opposite and comfortable,

"Now, Neville, I imagine you have been wondering what I plan to teach
you during these lessons?" he asked with a small smile,

"Yes sir," he responded politely, Dumbledore smiled,

"I imagine you have some theories?" he pressed, Neville flushed a little
and nodded,

"Well, Ron thought perhaps, some powerful magic I could use to defeat
Voldemort…" he trailed off, Dumbledore motioned for him to continue,
watching him calmly,
"Well, Hermione thought you might know something, a secret, which you
wanted to tell me." Dumbledore clapped his hands together happily,

"Once again, dear Hermione has proven herself to be quite brilliant."

Neville looked up,

"She was right? You know something?"

"I know many something's, it is the benefit of having lived rather a lot of
years." Dumbledore replied with a wry smile, Neville blushed

"yes sir, but…" the headmaster cut him off,

"But I also know several things about Lord Voldemort, things I believe you
would be better off knowing." Neville nodded, an excited look on his face,

"I suppose the wisest place to begin would be the beginning, it seems
prudent to me, does it not?" he asked casually, Neville nodded and
Dumbledore smiled, he pulled open a drawer and withdrew a wide shallow
basin.

"Do you know what this is Neville?" he asked, Neville nodded,

"That's a pensieve, we have one at home." His voice was proud and the
Headmaster nodded sagely,

"You are correct, and you are also very lucky, for very few pensieves exist
nowadays, their creation is a lost art I am afraid, so guard yours well!"
Neville nodded hastily,

"I am going to show you one of my memories first, which I am sure will
answer a great many questions you no doubt have, are you ready?" Neville
nodded, with three quick flicks of his wand, Neville saw a misty figure
rise out of the basin,

"That's…"
"Professor Trelawney. Correct, now listen closely" Dumbledore finished
for him, Neville watched in amazement as the Divination Professor spoke
in a cracked, croaky tone,

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to
those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the
Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark
Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither
can live whilst the other survives."

There was silence when the figure finished speaking, and Neville watched
Dumbledore in confusion,

"Did that mean?... Did she mean…"

"She meant you Neville, of that there can be no doubt." Dumbledore

watched the sixteen year old before him carefully, his eyes filled with pity,

"But... so, I have to die?" his voice was quiet and Dumbledore at once
leant forward and gripped his hands tightly,

"No!" he shook Neville ever so slightly, "No, did you not listen to the
prophecy? He will have a power the Dark Lord knows not. You have a
power Neville, you can defeat Voldemort."

"But, I don't have any powers, I think I displayed my incompetence at the

Triwizard tournament!" He mumbled the last bit and his cheeks pinked,

"Neville, that was two years ago, you have grown since then, besides, there
are many forms of strength, many forms of power." Neville looked at him
in confusion and Dumbledore sighed,

"What do you have that Voldemort will never possess?" Dumbledore asked
simply, Neville frowned,

"I… I don't know." He finally admitted, Dumbledore looked unsurprised,

"You have Love Neville, and I assure, there is no greater power in the
world."

"Love?" the teen sounded Dubious,

"Yes, it was love that saved you as a baby, and it is love that protects you
even now, Voldemort cannot feel love, he doesn't understand it, and that is
his greatest weakness."

"So, I can defeat him with this love?" he asked, still sounded unconvinced,

"This power makes you far greater than him Neville, I assure you of that."

The boy nodded slowly, though he still looked confused, Dumbledore

sighed,

"Neville, I would like to discuss with you something else if I may?"

Neville nodded distractedly,

"What do you know of Harry Potters exploits since leaving Hogwarts?" the
headmaster asked, Neville looked thoughtful for a moment,

"He's done quite a bit, very well respected politician, always seems to be
at these high society parties with his girlfriend… Miranda. And isn't he in
charge of the British Action League? That group which goes around having
rallies and attacking people who campaign against the Traditionalists, he
doesn't seem to get on very well with you though, didn't he say you think
rather than act or something?" Dumbledore chuckled,

"He did indeed, and you have most of Mr Potters past couple of years well
summed up." He smiled in praise at Neville, "However, I am afraid that at
some stage since leaving Hogwarts, Harry Potter allied himself to the Dark
Lord." The Headmaster frowned for a moment, "although perhaps ally is
the wrong phrase, the Dark Lord has no allies, nor has he friends, he has
servants."
"Potter is a Death Eater?" Neville asked horrified, Dumbledore nodded
sadly, "Then arrest him, or kill him, or something!" Dumbledore shrugged
his shoulders sadly,

"He is too powerful to arrest, and I wouldn't kill him even if I could,
though his new guards would make any attempt nigh impossible." Neville
frowned,

"But he's a death eater, surely you could get a group together and just…"
he mimed stabbing someone and Dumbledore frowned,

"He may be a death eater, but Harry Potter is not irredeemable, I will not
try to kill him until I have no other choice." He spoke firmly, and Neville
appeared cowed.

"Yes sir." He eventually agreed, Dumbledore nodded.

"The problem for you Neville, is that as you know, Harry Potter is a very
capable wizard, he could outduel nearly anyone in the country when he left
Hogwarts, and since then I am sure he has been training regularly with
many veterans of the previous war."

"You think he will become another Dark Lord?" Neville asked nervously,
Dumbledore chuckled,

"I doubt Harry Potter would survive long if Voldemort believed him a
threat or disloyal, what concerns me most about Mr Potter is Miranda
Rookwood."

Neville looked at him in confusion, "You mean her father?" he finally

asked, Dumbledore shook his head,

"I do not mean Miss Rookwood herself, I mean what she represents. Harry
Potter, whatever his other faults, loves Miranda very much, and that gives
him a certain strength, I believe she is what he fights for, and she also
keeps him grounded." Neville seemed to realise what he was saying,
"And you said love is the most powerful force in the world." He
murmured, Dumbledore nodded sadly,

"Correct, do not naively assume that the good side has a monopoly on
love, Harry Potters love makes him, in many ways, far more dangerous
than the Dark Lord."

Neville gulped slightly as he remembered Potters skill and power from the
tournament.

"How am I supposed to defeat both Potter and Voldemort?" he asked, a

note of panic in his voice, Dumbledore chuckled,

"My dear boy, don't get ahead of yourself, the prophecy states you will kill
Voldemort, you have no responsibility towards Harry Potter, do not
worry." Neville forced a weak smile,

"What I don't understand is why you haven't attacked." Dumbledore

looked at him curiously, "Well, you know his followers and the like, why
not attack them now?" Dumbledore frowned lightly,

"Neville, Voldemort is not attacking indiscriminately anymore, he is

staying in the shadows, if I were to attack now, I would be attacking the
Traditionalist Party, please do not forget that Britain loves Harry Potter, he
is 'The Peoples Politician' any attack we make on him right now will make
us look like we are in the wrong, until Voldemort himself acts, Harry
Potter is free to do what he wants." Neville looked lost when Dumbledore
finished, and the silence between the two of them grew larger and longer.

"What can we do?" Neville finally asked, his voice very small,
Dumbledore leant forward and looked the teenager deep in the eyes.

"We can wait, we can watch, and we can prepare."

AN
I really hope you enjoyed, please review and give me your thoughts, I
love reading them, I really do.

For those of you interested, the links on how I picture the DS-Guards
Uniforms are on my profile...

Please review, you must know how much I love them, any author really
does, so please spare me a few moments!

Love and kisses

Marshall
26. Chapter 26

Hello again,

Good News, This chapter is the final of the Political Arc, so those of
you who have been eager for the violence and pain and gore to begin...
next chapter!

There is a lot going on in this chapter, over a dozen hints for the
future, some obvious others... less so.

Anyway, I would like to thank all of you who reviewed, the last chapter
got the second most reviews of anything I've posted, please enjoy this
chapter, and I beg of you to leave your thoughts!

Chapter 24

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Midterm Poll results come in!

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent
January 21st

British Peoples Party: 36%

Progressive Party: 26%
Traditionalist Party: 35%

The results for the Wizengamot midterm polls have come in, and have
caused a lot of speculation and discussion already, the significant losses
shown by the Progressives have been expected, for the party has still
failed to reunite following its fractioning last May.

Many analysts however have expressed their surprise that the

Traditionalists have not shown greater gains. Following a highly
successful and well publicised year, they were expected to be the runaway
leaders in these polls.

Full analysis: page 4

Future Predictions: page 21

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"…unexpected, however we have shown significant growth, I am confident

that given another year, we will be the largest party in government."
Lucius stated, his chin held firmly and hands clasped behind his back.

"I had expected more Lucius, why have we not shown greater progress?"
The Dark Lord looked around at the ten wizards in the room, they were all
silent, and with a resigned sigh, Harry stood up, everyone in the room
suddenly turned to look at him,

"Yes Harry? Do you have something to say?"

"I do." Harry said neutrally, he turned to the Malfoy patriarch, "Mr Malfoy,
I mean no disrespect, you have served this party, and our Lord very well, I
do not wish to belittle that in any way." Lucius nodded his head jerkily and
the Dark Lord gestured for him to continue.

"My Lord, The Traditionalist party has long had a stigma attached, many
still view it as the party of the death eaters, and are unwilling to vote in
such an organisation, our liberal direction of the last year has simply not
been enough to change that." The Dark Lord nodded, stroking his chin in
thought as he considered Harry's words.

"Is this true Lucius?" he eventually asked, Malfoy looked uncomfortable,

"Whilst it is true that the Malfoy name is not as widely respected as it

once was…" he trailed off and looked a little embarrassed, "for the most
part it is true, yes my lord."
Voldemort cackled at the refined man's discomfort and Harry felt the
corners of his lips twitch.

"Very well Harry, what would you suggest we do?" Harry paused and
looked down the length of the table, taking in the interested faces of the
men and women looking at him,

"My suggestion would be to entirely refresh the party's image, I mean a

new name, a new leader, a new symbol. We create ourselves again, only
this time without such a negative image." There were loud mutters around
the room, and Harry heard phrases such as outrageous and preposterous
being thrown around, he held his hands up in a calming gesture,

"I am not proposing the removal of any members of the party, merely a
rebranding." The mutters quieted and Harry turned to look at Lucius and
Riddle.

"Lucius?" the Dark Lord asked, his tone curious.

"It could work, certainly." The man replied, he sounded cautious, not that
Harry could really blame him, "However, it would require a great deal of
effort, we would require the full cooperation of the BAL, else we are
unlikely to get enough publicity before the elections."

Harry sat back as the debate began in earnest, it became immediately clear
that the majority of the room was in agreement with him, however there
were a few who were firmly standing by their beliefs and their faith in the
Traditionalist image.

Eventually however, Harry persuaded everyone to his side, though it took

rather a lot of effort, and he was certain a few of them were unhappy to
have sided with him. Nevertheless Harry didn't care, for now he had far
more important things to worry about than a few disgruntled members.

When the meeting came to a close, he quickly hurried outside the Malfoy
home, barely noticing the four DS-Guards who took up in formation
around him. As soon as he was clear of the wards, he turned on the spot,
vanishing in mid-air with a soft pop.

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"You seem frightfully cheerful today." Miranda noted as he strode through

the door,

"The party leaders agreed, as did he."

"So the party is yours then?" The blonde asked, looking up from the
newspaper she had been reading, Harry smiled broadly,

"As good as, Lucius accepted that he is viewed too negatively by the
public to ever gain enough of a popular backing to rewrite the
constitution." Miranda smiled and stood up, Harry quickly walked over to
her and pulled her into a tight hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning
around, the girl laughed,

"Put me down you insufferable oaf, you haven't done anything yet!" Harry
chuckled but acquiesced, putting her back on her feet with a huff.

"Do you want to go out to Supper tonight? My treat, you choose wherever
you want to go."

"My my, how very generous of you, I accept." Harry bowed low,

"And where would the lady like to go?" he asked with a simpering voice,

"You may escort me to Gilbert & Grants, we haven't been there for a
while." Harry smiled and nodded,

"Agreed. Shall we say eight o'clock?" Miranda shook her head,

"7.30, some of us have to work tomorrow." Harry nodded and smiled,

swooping down to plant a chaste kiss on the girls cheek before turning and
walking towards the bedroom.
The meal that evening was delicious, once they had successfully polished
off two courses, Harry and Miranda sat in quiet conversation with a bottle
of wine between them.

"And a name?" Miranda asked, Harry shrugged,

"Not sure yet, but something like the National Conservative Union, what
do you think?"

"Maybe, it's alright I guess." Harry chuckled,

"High praise indeed." He teased, the blonde rolled her eyes,

As they began to make some more headway into the bottle of wine, Harry
felt his heart rate begin to rise steadily, Miranda looked at him funnily,

"Are you alright?" she asked, "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine, how are you?" he replied quickly, the blonde looked at him
quizzically,

"Fine, what's going on?" Harry was silent for a few moments,

"Miranda, we've always said that we were going to rule together didn't
we?" Harry's hands felt clammy, and his breathing came in shallow fast
breaths.

"Yes, and to the best of my knowledge that hasn't changed. It hasn't

changed has it Potter?" her voice suddenly became flinty, and she glared at
Harry suspiciously, he smiled at her, and shook his head,

"No, I simply wanted to know if you were as committed to the idea as I

was." The girl's look of confusion returned,

"What do you... oh." She went suddenly silent when Harry revealed the
diamond and sapphire ring in its blue velvet box.
"Will you marry me?" he asked, looking deep into the blonde's wide blue
eyes.

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Harry Potter Engaged?

Felicity Bowman
January 2nd

Witch Weekly has long predicted that Harry Potter and Miranda
Rookwood would be getting married soon, and yesterday it appeared our
predictions have been proven correct.

Harry, 19, has been in a relationship with Miranda (21) since he was 15
and sources close to the couple state that they had been close for years
before that. Whilst neither Mr Potter nor Miss Rookwood have directly
confirmed their engagement, there have been several pictures showing an
engagement ring on Miss Rookwood's ring finger. If this is proven to be
true, it comes at a major turning point in Harry's Political career.

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BAL members arrested!

Percy Blake, Criminal correspondent
February 7th

Three members of the controversial British Action League, the

organisation which exists as a support network for the Traditionalist Party
have been arrested this morning for casting curses in public, after they
attempted to disrupt a Progressives conference. The individuals have not
been named by Aurors, however they are expected to go on trial later this
month.

The BAL has seen significant growth in the past year, and now has an
estimated membership of 5000-6500, this is not the first time that the BAL
have been involved in attacks on other parties and their supporters, in
December, Thomas Baker and Seamus Wright were found guilty of burning
down a BPP party headquarters building and sentenced to six years in
Azkaban.

Cont. page. 2

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A New Era!
Thomas Audley, Political correspondent
February 20th

The Traditionalist Party today announced their complete overhaul. Mr

Lucius Malfoy shocked many by stating that he would be stepping down as
head of the Party, declaring Harry Potter to be his successor,

"The Politics of today belong to a new generation, Mr Potter has proven

this dozens of times since joining the party and I have therefore decided to
step down from my position within the Traditionalists, and pass the mantle
of responsibility to him."

Following the announcement, Mr Potter addressed a large crowd in

Camelot Square, Bristol, where many thousands of his supporters cheered
his new position.

"Today represents a most important event, to all the citizens of Magical

Britain I tell you this, no longer will I allow for the Wizengamot to stand in
the way of progress, so long as I am in a position to change things, I swear
I will. Britain is One Nation, it is One People, and I offer it One Leader."

The Traditionalist party has also announced its dissolution, in it's place
Mr Potter has created a new Party, called the National Traditionalist
Front (NTF), which he states is the party of the Future, working to better
the quality of life for its people, without destroying the traditions upon
which this nation was founded.
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"Minister? Dumbledore is outside, he would like to see you." Cornelius

Fudge looked up from the novel he was reading and smiled at Umbridge,

"Thank you Delores, send him in." Fudge quickly put the book back into
one of his drawers and pulled out a packet of Paperwork he was supposed
to be looking over. Not ten seconds later, Fudge looked up to see the
twinkling Blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore, Come in." Fudge greeted cordially. Whilst the Minister still
didn't trust the man, he had long ago decided that Dumbledore was simply
too popular to alienate, and therefore had slowly begun to offer a degree of
respect back to the ancient wizard.

"Minister, thank you for seeing me."

"Of course, please have a seat." Fudge indicated one of the squashy
armchairs that sat before his desk and Dumbledore smiled, sitting back
and releasing a long sigh.

"Minister, I thought I might take a little bit of time out from you in order
to discuss Harry Potter." Fudge's countenance brightened, Harry had been
one of his closest Political Allies in the last year,

"What about him Albus? I know you don't like him, but I truly believe you
should give him a chance, he's a brilliant young man." Dumbledore's lips
quirked down and he frowned lightly,

"I may not approve of some of his methods, however I cannot ignore his
political prowess, that's why I am here to talk to you now." Fudge perked
up and watched Dumbledore with interest.

"Indeed?" Fudge asked excitedly, Dumbledore nodded sagely,

"Mr Potter has proven time and again that he can get things done, I would
like to suggest that he may be the ideal candidate to fill the role of Master
of Ceremonies in the Wizengamot." Fudge looked surprised,

"Master of Ceremonies?" he asked curiously, "We haven't had one of them

for years, why would Harry want to fill it?"

Dumbledore chuckled and shook his head wisely, "Harry is young, and the
youth relish a challenge, I believe he would be very honoured if we were
to offer him this role."

"Well, it can't hurt I suppose, besides, If we give him the position, it would
mean that all three of the main parties in the Wizengamot have a position
of power, I am sure the press would love such equal representation."
Dumbledore smiled widely,

"I quite agree Minister, it would give a platform for all of our parties to
exist on an equal footing, the traditionalists, forgive me, the National
Traditionalist Front would undoubtedly be very pleased with such a
position."

"Then it's settled, I will offer the position to Harry tomorrow, would you
like to be here when I do?" Dumbledore nodded,

"I can see no reason why not, shall we say two o'clock?"

Fudge nodded and Dumbledore stood up to leave, the two men shook
hands, and then Dumbledore strolled out the door, whistling softly to
himself as he strode through the busy corridors of the Ministry.

It's a rather desperate move Dumbledore remarked thoughtfully to

himself, however I have to do something. He had been becoming rather
desperate lately, despite the old Headmasters best efforts, Harry Potter
seemed to be going from strength to strength, his rallies received huge
crowds and the tabloid press couldn't get enough of him. Dumbledore
knew Harry unlikely to ever accept the position of Master of ceremonies,
however, he hoped that if he were lucky, his greatest political opponent
would be chained to a useless position, from which his influence would be
greatly reduced.

As the headmaster stepped through the Floo, he smiled to himself, whilst

he was certainly very concerned about the developing situation with the
Dark Lord, the man couldn't deny that sparring with an opponent as skilled
as Harry was definitely one of the most exciting things the man had done
in his time in the Wizengamot.

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"Can you confirm this?" Harry asked, looking up at Evan, the man looked
extremely uncomfortable, not that Harry could blame him.

"I have not witnessed it myself, however some of my best agents collected
this information." Harry sighed, and ran his hand through his hair in
frustration.

"And your agents are reliable?"

"They are." Rosier replied stonily. Harry shook his head,

"I have said it before and I will say it again, Marcus Flint and I have been
friends for the last nine years, unless he directly act's against me, I will not
break the trust I have in him." Rosier opened his mouth to argue but Harry
held up his hand,

"I don't care what the evidence says Evan, it could have been forged, it
could be interpreted in a number of different ways, besides, Marcus is
ambitious, but he isn't a fool, he knows that if he tries to seize power he
would be unsuccessful." Evan looked unhappy but nodded,

"Very well, but I will post several more agents into the BAL, I want to
know if anything is happening."
Harry nodded, "fine, fine." The head of the DS nodded and stood up, as he
was about to open the door Harry called him,

"Evan?"

"Yes?" Harry rested his head on his hand,

"Have you told the Dark Lord about your findings?" Rosier shook his head
and Harry smiled,

"Please don't, I see no reason for this to go beyond the two of us, do you?"
Rosier sighed,

"I don't like it Harry, but for you, I'll keep quiet, for now." Harry nodded
his thanks, Evan hesitated for a moment, then left quickly, his Leather Jack
boots sounding loud in the deafening silence left behind him.

Harry groaned as he looked down at the thick file Evan had left behind,
loathe as he was to admit it, the evidence that Marcus and the BAL were
planning some kind of takeover was pretty damning, he had photo's,
memories and records of conversations. Whilst Harry was very unhappy
with the evidence he had been presented with, he still couldn't deny, The
DS had proven themselves very skilled at gaining information.

He spent the next hour reading through the file in silence, Olivia had
clearly realised that he didn't want to be disturbed and had cancelled all of
his appointments that afternoon. When the clock read 1.45 however, Harry
heard a knock on his door.

"Come in." he called, Olivia walked in,

"The minister wants a word Harry, and I've postponed your appointment
with Thomas Audley from the Daily Prophet until this time tomorrow."
Harry smiled up at his Irish friend and nodded,

"Thanks, did the minister say what it was about?" the girl shook her head,
"No, Umbridge just said he wanted to see you at two o'clock." Harry rolled
his eyes,

"Alright, can you come with me?" the girl laughed,

"Afraid of the big scary Minister?" Harry shrugged and she laughed
harder,

"Behind that green bowler hat lies a heart of pure ice… probably." Harry
wisely informed her,

"Alright, I'll keep you safe, don't worry!" Harry grinned,

"You're a lifesaver, shall we go then?"

Together the two of them went up to the Ministers office, flanked as ever
by two stone face DS-Guards, Madame Umbridge was clearly waiting for
him when he arrived, and when she caught sight of him she simpered,

"Oh Mr Potter, you're early, well go on in, Minister Fudge is waiting for
you." Harry smiled and nodded politely at the unattractive woman, before
knocking on the door.

"Enter." Came Fudges voice, Harry pushed open the door and plastered a
broad smile on his face,

"Minister, how are you this morning?"

"Good thank you Harry." The minister turned to Olivia,

"I don't think you will need Miss Moran to be present for this meeting
Harry." He smiled at Olivia who nodded politely back,

"We have a meeting very shortly after this, bringing her along seemed
simpler." Fudge chuckled,

"Not to worry, not to worry, the more the merrier. We are just waiting for
Albus and then we can get started." No sooner had he finished speaking
then his fireplace flashed green and the figure of Albus Dumbledore
suddenly stepped out.

"Sorry I'm late Cornelius, Good to see you again Harry."

"Good Afternoon Headmaster." Harry greeted, Dumbledore quickly sat

himself in one of the thick chairs opposite Fudge,

"Now, Harry, The Chief Warlock and I have brought you before us in order
to discuss a possible future for you." Fudge began, Harry kept his face
interested as he watched Fudge speak,

"Harry, we would like to offer you the position of Master of Ceremonies in

the Wizengamot, if you would like it."

The two men watched Harry interestedly, Harry remained silent for a
while, watching them, Fudge looked slightly uncomfortable offering him
the role, which made Harry suspect it was Dumbledore who had suggested
the idea in the first place, this idea was supported when Harry turned to the
Headmaster and saw him watching Harry very carefully.

"I am shocked." Harry said carefully, "I was under the impression that this
position was typically offered to more… seasoned statesmen." Fudge
shifted slightly,

"Well normally yes, that would be the case, However we believe you have
the necessary qualifications to perform more than admirably." Harry
frowned slightly, He couldn't understand why Dumbledore would expect
him to take the role, he had no reason to.

Which meant, he presumed, he was supposed to turn down the position, so

Dumbledore could suggest… something. Harry tried to think what
Dumbledore would be able to gain from his saying no, there didn't seem to
be any benefit to the aged headmaster at all. He sighed audibly.

"Minister, Chief Warlock, I am afraid I cannot in good conscience accept

this role." Beside him, he saw Dumbledore stir as the twinkling of his eyes
suddenly became less apparent, did that mean Dumbledore had expected
him to accept the role? He was confused.

"Given the rather precarious state of affairs that currently exist within the
NTF, it would be reckless and disrespectful of me to those relying on me
to abandon them, however, when I am in a more stable position, I would
be happy to reconsider."

Fudge nodded, looking unsurprised whilst Dumbledore frowned,

"I can't say I'm surprised Harry, I thought I would offer it despite my
doubts anyway, I hope you understand."

"Of course Minister, I am very flattered by your consideration." Fudge

waved away his words,

"Well, don't thank me, it was Dumbledore's idea really, you should thank
him." Harry turned to look at the Headmaster,

"Indeed?" Albus nodded wisely,

"I had thought it a nice next step for your career, I apologise if it came at a
bad time for you Harry." His words were polite, but his eyes frosty, Harry
smiled politely,

"Not at all, like I said, it is very flattering to be offered the role." Harry
stood up, "Minister, If you will excuse me, I must be off."

"Of course, My wife and I are having a dinner party tomorrow for some
gentlemen from the Ministry, we would be very happy if you were to join
us, of course you are welcome to bring the future Mrs Potter." Fudge
winked at Harry,

"Thank you Minister, I think we would both be very happy to attend."

Harry and Olivia left quickly, and when they were out of earshot, Olivia
turned to him,
"What was that about?" she asked confused, Harry shrugged,

"I'm not sure, but I have a suspicion it was a very clumsy attempt by
Dumbledore to side-line me, however I have a feeling there may have been
more to it, nevertheless, I am not concerned." Olivia nodded and Harry
shrugged, running his hand through his short hair as he considered just
what the hell Dumbledore had hoped to achieve.

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2 weeks later.

For possibly the first time since he had joined the Wizengamot, Harry
truly didn't know what to do, he was sat outside Voldemort's study, and this
time he truly couldn't care about being made to wait, in his hands he held
the piece of paper that had turned his life quite so upside down.

To whom it may concern.

The actions of the organisation known as the British Action League have
become damaging to the reputation of the Wizengamot, Should the BAL not
be dealt with in a matter found suitable to the writers of this here warning
by Sunday, March 6th, the BAL and all associated groups, parties and
affiliates will be deemed illegal and dealt with as such.

Signed,

Albus P.W.B Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

Amelia E. Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Harry reread the note again, even though by this stage he had it essentially
memorised. It was clear that his faith in Marcus had been woefully
misplaced, the BAL had become more and more aggressive in the past
month, with fights between it's members almost commonplace, Harry
could have simply blamed this on Marcus's inability to control the group,
however given the ever mounting pile of Evidence Evan was delivering to
him, it was becoming clear that Marcus was a liability. A dangerous
liability with a rather large, rather violent force at his back.

"Harry?" He looked up to see the grim visage of Evan,

"Hey Evan." He greeted tiredly,

"I just got the news Harry, I'm sorry." Harry shook his head wryly,

"It's alright, maybe the Dark Lord is feeling lenient today." Evan looked
unconvinced,

"Maybe…" he hesitantly agreed, Harry laughed,

"Marcus has no chance does he?"

"There's always a slim chance…" Rosier suggested, but from the tone of
his voice, Harry knew what the man's thoughts really were.

Harry didn't have a chance to reply before the doors opened with an
ominous creaking.

"Harry, Evan." Called the Dark Lord, "Come in."

The room was brightly lit, the Dark Lord sat elegantly relaxed in his dark
green leather chair and surveyed the two men before him. His gaze
eventually came to rest on the file in Harry's hands, and he gestured
quickly.

Harry calmly handed it over, and Riddle immediately flicked through, his
frown becoming more pronounced as he read further. The silence dragged
onwards and it was only after ten minutes that the Dark Lord finally put
down the file. There was no amusement in his face, he looked furious.

"I believe you know what must be done Harry?" he asked in a deadly calm
voice.

"Marcus must be dealt with."

"Not just Mr Flint, but his lieutenants, his aides, his officers, anyone who
may have in any way influenced this plot of his. I want them dealt with
permanently."

"Yes My Lord." Harry replied woodenly,

"You had placed a lot of trust in Mr Flint hadn't you?" Harry nodded and
the Dark Lord's mouth stretched into a vicious smirk, "you were a fool."

"My Lord, I had no reason to doubt him, none at all." Voldemort sneered
but said nothing,

"Having formed your little army, you might as well have Evan use them
for this little task." The Dark Lord turned to Evan and gestured in a
dismissal, Harry was surprised therefore when the fair haired man turned
to look at him.

"Harry?" he asked carefully, Harry nodded once,

"Do what must be done… Do not hesitate… Show no mercy." Harry's

voice was firm, his countenance grave. Rosier nodded sharply, pulling
slightly at the collar of his black Jacket as he stood up. He bowed to the
Dark Lord and left without another word.

The noise of the dark closing behind him sounded very final in Harry's ear.

Oh Marcus he thought sadly, you have been a fool.

"If that is all my Lord?" Harry asked as calmly as possible, Voldemort

nodded and he quickly got up and left, making sure his steps were even
and his back straight. Marcus had betrayed him, he tried to think and there
was no greater crime than treachery.

The words sounded oddly hollow in his ears.

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Harry didn't sleep at all that night, he sat on the small balcony he had in
his flat, a bottle of firewhiskey on the table and eyes trained on the silent
city sprawling before him. It was very quiet, but Harry's ears could make
out sounds in the dark.

In his drink addled state, he imagine each and every sound he could hear
was that of the DS removing another one of Marcus's lackeys. He cursed
his weakness silently, pouring himself another drink and returning his eyes
to the bright lights that stretched for so many miles before him.

The sun began to rise at six o'clock that morning, Harry remained where
he was, the sudden brightening of the sky seemed to shake him out of the
deep melancholy he had found himself in. He looked at the now nearly
empty bottle that stood next to him, he stared at it listlessly for a few
moments before carelessly emptying it into his glass and downing it.

He grimaced at the burning sensation, but it passed quickly and he stood

up, his muscles protesting from the sudden movement after so long
remaining still.

With very deliberate steps, he walked to the kitchen and quickly spelled
clean his glass, before filling it with water. He chugged back the contents
and refilled it, repeating the process three more times until he thought he
wouldn't be able to drink another drop.

Checking his watch, he cursed under his breath, it was 6.35, and he was
expected to be at work and functioning in less than 2 ½ hours. Whilst he
was sure that Olivia would take pity on him and give him a fairly empty
schedule, he would undoubtedly still be expected to report to Dumbledore
and Madam Bones to inform them that he had dealt with the BAL.

As he sat there musing about what a chore the day would be, Harry became
aware of a sudden tapping on the window, he turned and saw a post owl
glaring at him, a rolled up newspaper held in its talons, he threw open the
window with a flick of his wand, quickly trading the birds paper for a few
knuts.
The bird blinked imperiously at him before flying away with a hoot, with
another flick of his wand, the window closed and Harry was once again
left alone. With deft movements he undid the string keeping the paper
rolled and flattened it firmly against the work surface.

7 Muggles killed by Rogue Fire tongs.

Read the headline, Harry looked over the front page in surprise, there was
no news of the events of the night before, he flicked through the rest of the
paper quickly, and to his surprise found that there was no mention of
anything related to the BAL.

The morning passed quickly, and Harry left for the Ministry very early,
leaving before Miranda had even woken up, he spent the time behind his
desk reading over files and reports, most were extremely dull, regaling the
events of some event or other that someone somewhere believed Harry
ought to be aware of.

Almost at nine o'clock on the dot there came a knock on the door, he
looked up and saw Olivia walking in, her light brown hair tied up in a
professional looking bun.

"Merlin Harry, you look terrible... Are you alright?" Harry nodded tiredly,

"Fine, fine, but I'd appreciate a quiet day if you could manage it." Olivia
nodded sympathetically and Harry smiled in appreciation.

"Of course, you have a meeting with Andrew Bloom at 10, but I could
cancel that if you liked?" Harry nodded quickly,

"That would be nice. Thank you."

"Of course." The Irish girl made a quick note, "Dumbledore left a rather
cryptic message, he wants to see you whenever it is dealt with, I'm afraid I
don't know what it is however." Harry felt a twinge of guilt but forced the
feeling to the back of his mind,
"I understand what he means, thank you, was that it?" Olivia nodded and
Harry smiled,

"Thank's Liv." The girl nodded and left. Harry looked back down at the
reports and was about to return to reading when there came another knock
on the door.

"Come in." he called loudly, the door swung inwards, and a DS-Guardsman
walked in, Harry recognised from his uniform that he was one of Evan's
Lieutenants, though he didn't know the man's name.

The black leather Jack boots clacked loudly against his wooden floor as
the man came to a precise halt and saluted.

"Yes Lieutenant?" Harry asked looking up at the man in interest.

"Sir, I have a message from Captain Rosier, he states the mission was a
success, and that all the loose chickens have been rounded up." Harry felt
the corners of his lips twitch, slightly,

"Thank you Lieutenant, if that is all?"

"Sir." The man saluted again and left, his boots clacking on the floor once
again,

"Lieutenant?" Harry called, the man halted and turned, his hand resting on
the door knob,

"Sir?"

"Could you get Miss Moran in here please?"

"Yessir."

The door closed behind him, but not ten seconds later was open again, an
amused looking Olivia glaring at him,

"You summoned me?" she growled good naturedly,

"Yes I did." He grinned at her, "And frankly it took you a long time to get
back here, please improve in the future."

"Don't push me too far, else I might just quit, and frankly you need me to
take over the world." Harry chuckled,

"Could you possibly tell Dumbledore I have completed the task he set me
please?"

Olivia frowned, "The chief warlock wants you to see him in person." She
reminded him, Harry sighed and shrugged,

"I really can't face Dumbledore right now, could you just pass on the
message?" The Irish girl nodded quickly and smiled,

"Course I can." She left, and Harry let his head fall back against the
padded leather of his seat. He ran his hand through his head tiredly, before
returning his attention to his reports.

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BAL leaders Missing!

Simon Annick, criminal correspondent.
March 6th

The leading members of the support group the British Action League,
which has become a hugely popular pro-NTF organisation, have vanished,
according to officials within the Auror corps, the missing individuals
include Marcus Flint, Selwyn Belby, Victor Arcwright, William De Silva
and James Copefield, whilst as many as a dozen more are still
unaccounted for.

The BAL, which has received several warnings from the government for
their aggressive behaviour and anti-social antics, have failed to respond
to the incident, however Harry Potter, leader of the National Traditionalist
Front stated
'This event is both unexpected and tragic, Marcus Flint and I have been
friends since we were eleven years old, and I ask all members of the public
and the Auror corps to keep looking, and bring either joy or peace to the
missing peoples families.'

Cont. page 6, col. 1

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Fudge's Popularity at all-time low.

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent.
April 18th

The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has once again come under fire
from both his political enemies and also the public following his attempt to
pass the hugely controversial Magical Creature registration act.

The act, which would require all non-human creatures of near-human

intelligence to submit for registration, regardless of whether the species is
considered to be dangerous, has been fought virulently by members of
Magical Creature welfare groups, as well as Fudges political opponents.

Cyrus Greengrass of the National Traditionalist Front said 'for a British

Minister to attempt to pass such an outdated and unnecessary law is
ridiculous, Fudge has clearly demonstrated a total lack of compassion and
understanding.' His comments have been supported by his party
leadership.

Cont. Page 2, col. 2

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"Harry?" The raven haired man looked up,

"Yes love?" he asked, the girl had a small grin on her face as she was
looking down at a long scroll of parchment.

"I think you might want to see this." Harry stood up from where he had
been sat cross legged on the floor, a book on advanced duelling techniques
open on his lap. He walked over and looked down at the rows and columns
of figures on the blondes report.

"Fascinating." He breathed, his expression looking enraptured.

"Right?" Miranda asked, looking equally excited, Harry turned to her

slowly,

"I haven't a clue what this is trying to tell me." He deadpanned, the girl
scowled at him, dragging on his arm and forcing him into the empty seat
beside her.

"These" she indicated the top row, "Are dates."

"I guessed as much." Harry replied sarcastically, Miranda's lips twitched

slightly,

"Right, these" she pointed to the left column, "are items."

"Again, I could have guessed that." Harry replied,

"Oh shut up." Miranda snapped, though her grin rather spoiled any effect
she was going for. "The figures here are costs, look at them."

Harry dutifully obeyed, "okay, someone has been spending quite a lot of
money recently." He looked at the title of the page, "The Minister has been
spending quite a lot."

"Exactly," Miranda paused, and her smile became more malicious, "Fudge
has been spending a lot of money… and it's all the taxpayers." Harry froze
and looked at her in shock, before quickly snatching the scroll back from
her.
"He spent… 8000 of the taxpayers Galleons… on clothes… in a month?"
He asked, his mouth open in shock. Miranda nodded quickly, "how did you
get a hold of something like this?"

"Fudge's accountant is away for whatever reason, the files were bumped up
to my office." If possible, Harry's mouth fell open even wider,

"You mean… he's not even hiding this?" he asked, his tone completely
amazed, Miranda grinned and shook her head. Harry stood up and quickly
grabbed her around the waist, pulling her up off the sofa, she shrieked and
grabbed hold of him.

"You are brilliant!" he told her, his face centimetres from her own,

"Of course, though in this case, I think it's more Fudge's stupidity than my
genius." Harry smiled and leant in for a long lingering kiss, when they
finally pulled apart, Miranda smiled,

"Was this worth my distracting you?" she asked with an impetuous grin,
Harry chuckled,

"This time perhaps. It may be enough to get Fudge removed from office, If
I play my cards right."

"Whoever could replace him?" Miranda asked with a serious look on her
face, Harry smirked,

"Who indeed?"

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"Well Harry, you requested this meeting, how may I help you?" asked
Riddle, the two of them were walking through the well-kept gardens of
Malfoy Manor, the sun was high in the sky, and a cool breeze was blowing
through the manicured hedge rows.
"I believe I need your help." Harry replied, his tone as neutral as he could
keep it, "We are very close my Lord, perhaps just weeks away from total
control." Voldemort looked at him with carefully disguised glee.

"Indeed?" The Dark Lord smiled, "They are rather large words to boast,
especially considering your recent… failures."

Harry said nothing, his eyes watching a bumblebee landing on a large

purple flower, next to him the Dark Lord stirred,

"Very well, what is it I may be able to do for you?" Harry straightened up

from his examination and turned to face the Dark Lord.

"Chaos." The Dark Lord blinked, and Harry expanded, "Well, some chaos,
enough to force Fudge to act." Voldemort gazed at him in interest,

"I can manage that, may I inquire what sort of chaos you would like?"
Harry waved one hand

"Preferably something big, and public, though not Dark Lord returns and
destroys city big…"

Riddle smirked softly, "I can manage chaos, it would be nice to stretch my
legs after all these years. When do you want this to happen?"

Harry shrugged, "As soon as possible, within the week would be best
though, Fudge is desperate right now, I would like to capitalise on that."

"Understood. You will have your chaos, I assure you of it."

Harry allowed his smile to grow into a wide smirk, he could almost taste
the success in the air.

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Mass Breakout from Azkaban!
Simon Annick, Criminal Correspondent
April 21st

In the Early hours of this morning it has been reported that there has been
a mass breakout from Azkaban Prison, currently, ten prisoners have been
named as missing, and none have been caught or sighted.

'This event is unprecedented' Rufus Scrimgeour, Head of the Auror Office

said, 'before today, there has been but one breakout in all of Azkaban's
history, the Auror office will be working around the clock to ensure that
the dangerous criminals who escaped are recaptured, and would like the
public to know that should they see anything remotely suspicious to report
it at once.'

Amongst the escaped prisoners are the Three Lestranges, Bellatrix,

Rudolphus and Rabastan, all confirmed death eaters, also escaped are
Antonin Dolohov who was captured in 1981 and Augustus Rookwood, who
was captured in 1980.

The minister has not yet released a statement, however an emergency

meeting of the Wizengamot has been organised for tomorrow afternoon in
order to discuss an appropriate response.

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"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Have you seen him?"

"No, I haven't seen any of them."

Had it been any other situation, Harry was confident that he would have
been rather enjoying Miranda's nervousness, the normally so reserved girl
was holding his hand very tightly, and he could hear her shallow breathing
from where he stood.

"You will stay with me the whole time?" she asked, looking at him
nervously,

"Of course. I will stay as long as you want me."

"Thank you." They reached the high wooden doors of Riddle Manor, and
Harry casually pushed them open, Miranda squeezed his hand even tighter
as they entered the dim house and she looked around nervously.

"Harry?" Lucius Malfoy called, "Miranda, good, your father has asked to
see you."

Miranda smiled as politely as she could,

"How is he?" she asked, her tone wavered a little, but Harry was impressed
by her self-control,

"Well enough, he's still rather weak, but that will go, mentally he has
survived his ordeal incredibly well, far better than the others to be honest."

"Truly?" she asked, Lucius nodded,

"Indeed, though I am not surprised, Augustus worked in the Department of

Mysteries, if there is any way of resisting the Dementors effects in the
long term, I suspect the Unspeakable's are aware of it." The tall blonde
man smiled, and Miranda nervously returned the gesture.

"May we see him?" Harry asked, Lucius nodded and motioned with one
arm for them to follow him. They rose to the second floor and the Malfoy
patriarch halted outside a plain wooden door.

"I will leave you here, Harry, Miranda, he would appear to be mentally
well, however I would recommend you keep your wands at the ready,
Azkaban changes people. Never forget that." Harry nodded, remembering
the mad look in his father's eyes and turned to look at Miranda.

The girls ice blue eyes were wide, and she was looking at Harry nervously,
Harry smiled encouragingly and squeezed her hand, whilst his other rose
and knocked three times on the door.

"Come in" croaked a voice. Harry pushed open the door to reveal a
medium sized brightly lit room, all the windows were open, and warm
light was diffused across the entire floor. There was a large bed in the
centre, and a small desk opposite it.

A tall man, with curly fair hair was sat in a window seat with his eyes
closed. His face was deathly pale, and in the bright warm sunshine, his
skin appeared almost translucent. He turned to face them and Harry saw
that he had the same bright ice blue eyes as his daughter, though his were
sunken and appeared weary.

"I hadn't seen the sun for 17 years." He stated in a low, gravelly voice. "I
had forgotten how warm it was." He turned back to the window, and smiled
widely. With one hand at the small of her back, Harry gently pushed
Miranda forward until she was around five metres from her father.

With a very deliberate motion, Augustus turned back to look at them in

silence, his bright eyes taking in every detail of Miranda's face, he
completely ignored Harry.

"You look just like your mother, perhaps you are even more beautiful than
she ever was." He croaked, he stood up slowly, and Harry saw that
although he had been washed, groomed and put in elegant robes, it was
obvious that the man was very thin and weak.

"It is good to see you again father." Miranda replied formally, the man
smiled, revealing rotten yellow teeth,

"As it is you my daughter, I have been awaiting this moment since my

imprisonment." He raised one skeletally thin hand, and gently ran his
fingers down her cheek, "just like your mother." He croaked once more,
more to himself Harry thought.

Slowly, the man pulled Miranda into a hug, at first she looked shocked, but
quickly reciprocated hugging him back with gusto. With slow steps, Harry
retreated, giving the two some privacy.

"And who is this?" Augustus eventually asked as he pulled back from the
hug. Miranda turned to Harry and smiled. Stepping forward, Harry offered
the man his hand,

"Harry Potter sir. It is good to see you free once more." The man laughed,
the sound was rough and coarse, like gravel crunching underfoot.

"Sir? I don't think a convict like me deserves titles boy, but I agree with
your second point, it is good to be free." Harry smiled as the man too his
hand and shook it, Harry was surprised by how strong his grip was.

"So, my dear, who is this? Your boyfriend?" his voice wasn't aggressive,
but Harry made sure his wand was in easy reach, even as the man
continued to tightly grip his hand.

"He is my fiancé father." The elder Rookwood blinked,

"Fiancé?" Miranda nodded, Augustus looked at Harry shrewdly, "Are you a

good man Potter?"

"Probably not." Harry replied honestly, Miranda's father laughed again,

"At least he's honest, I knew your father Potter, he was a right bastard,
even for a death eater." Harry said nothing, and Augustus finally released
his hand, Harry retracted it casually, ignoring his desire to rub the painful
appendage.

"Have you got money Potter?" the man asked,

"I do."
"what about a job?"

"Harry will probably be Minister for Magic next week." Miranda replied, a
touch of pride in her voice.

"Indeed? And what are your intentions towards my daughter?" Harry

snorted slightly,

"I have asked her to marry me, I would imagine that would indicate my
intentions well enough." Augustus cackled,

"True, true, I like you boy." Harry nodded at the compliment, "When's the
wedding?"

"We haven't set a date." Miranda replied, Augustus nodded and opened his
mouth to ask something else when there came a knock on the door.

"Come in." The elder man called, the sound slightly less hoarse than it had
been. The door swung open and the Dark Lord walked in, closely followed
by a tall witch with curly black hair and a heavy brow.

"My Lord!" Augustus knelt slowly, clearly struggling, beside him Harry
felt Miranda stiffen,

"Rise my friend, rise." Rookwood stood, though the motion was rather
wobbly. "I see you have met your daughter, she has grown into an
excellent woman, you should be proud."

"I have my Lord, and I am, she has become a fine young Lady." Miranda
smiled slightly,

"Indeed, and of course, Mr Potter." Riddle looked at Rookwood, clearly

waiting for an opinion, Augustus looked at Harry quickly,

"He seems adequate." Voldemort chuckled and nodded,

"Harry is one of my most trusted, whilst he has been trying on occasion, he

is rather brilliant. Your daughter chose well." Harry dipped his head
slightly at the compliment, whilst the elder Rookwood looked at him with
newfound respect.

"Harry, Miranda, this is Bellatrix." He indicated the woman behind him,

who was looking at the Dark Lord with such adoration and unadulterated
love that Harry was surprised she wasn't humping his leg. From the look in
her eyes, which were glassy and somewhat unfocused, Harry realised
quickly that she was rather like James Potter had been, and wondered if
the Dark Lord knew some secret to cure people of such problems.

"Harry, if you don't mind, I would like a word." Harry turned to look at
Miranda, who smiled at him and nodded confidently. Harry gave the back
of her hand a gentle caress and then turned back to the Dark Lord,

"Of course My Lord, I would be happy to."

"Good, we can leave the Rookwood's alone to catch up."

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One day Later

"Indicative of your entire reign as Minister." Diggle was shouting, "You

have failed to heed our repeated warnings and now, now you have paid the
price!" There was a smattering of applause from the right hand side of the
hall, whilst the rest of the room booed loudly.

"Mr Diggle, I resent your accusation, to suggest that the attacks of the
other day were the actions of you-know-who is outrageous." Fudge replied
"there is no evidence to support your claims, you are merely trying to
incite a panic!" The BPP clapped and nodded, Diggle stood up again to
defend himself,

"Are you suggesting that it was coincidence that ten death eaters all
decided to escape at the same time?" Diggle shook his head, "It is because
of your constant budget cuts to the Auror that have caused this problem,
under your watch Minister, the Ministry can no longer keep the streets
safe."

The Progressives clapped loudly, and when the NTF saw Harry in support
of Diggle, they quickly began to cheer as well. Fudge looked at them,
anger shining in his eyes. Harry nudged Lucius and the man stood up.

"May I ask, that instead of acting like petulant children arguing over who
stole the cauldron cake, we may discuss what measures we must take to
ensure the safety of our people?"

Whilst Lucius' words had the desired effect of starting a debate about what
to do, it was slow to make any progress, Harry sighed as the Minister and
Dumbledore bandied around words over who should be let go to fund the
Aurors. Harry sighed as the conversation carried on and on.

Eventually, after over an hour of useless argument, Harry stood up. He felt
a surge of pride in himself when the entire hall fell silent and turned to
look at him.

Taking a deep breath, Harry turned to look at Fudge.

"Minister, Chief Warlock, honourable members." He bowed slightly, "The

Minister has correctly stated that something must be done, the escaped
convicts are of course, a terrible problem, and must be dealt with as soon
as possible." There was a mutter of agreement.

"However, I must ask the Minister how he can justify shutting down
Ministerial positions to fund the Aurors." There was a murmur of
confusion,

"There is not enough money to increase the size of the Aurors and not
reduce the size of the rest of the Ministry." Fudge said, as though he were
talking to a child, there were laughs around the hall and Harry smiled good
naturedly, holding his hands up to ask for quiet, the Hall quickly fell silent
and Harry continued.
"You raise a good point Minister, I have heard countless declarations by
members of this body, members of British industry and too many citizens
of our country to name, state how we are in such a weak economic
position." The hall was deathly quiet, a sixth sense had pervaded the very
air of the country, as everyone could tell that something big was coming,
Dumbledore looked curious, Fudge nervous.

"And Yet!" Harry called loudly, drawing a tightly wound roll of parchment
from within his robes, "and yet, I have here evidence that our Minister and
numerous members of his party have been illegally stealing tax payers
money and using it to fund their extravagant lifestyles and opulent
hobbies!"

As he was finishing, he was forced to shout as a storm of protests rang out

around the hall, members of the BPP were shaking their fists furiously at
Harry, a few had drawn their wands. In less than a second Harry was
surrounded by half a dozen DS-Guards, who kept their wands sheathed but
watched the opposition carefully.

BANG! BANG! Dumbledore's wand went off with a start and the hall was
startled into silence.

"Mr Potter has a right to be heard, and must be allowed to finish!" he

called loudly, the BPP gradually returned to their seats, though they still
muttered loudly amongst themselves.

"Thank you Chief Warlock." Harry nodded, "The proof I have for these
claims are a matter of public record, and I would happily share with
anyone who wishes it, It details members of the British Peoples Party
accepting bribes, siphoning millions of Galleons away from near every
department and having the taxpayer foot the bill as they went off dragon
hunting in Chechnya!"

There was a fresh round of shouting, though it lasted nowhere near as long
as the first.
"The worst part of this heinous crime, I say is not necessarily the fact that
they stole this money, oh no, it is the fact that those sour apples that exist
within our government, are so confident, nay, so arrogant, that they made
no effort at all to hide their crime. The BPP is a party founded on a lies
and empty promises, they have proven themselves in the last decade and a
half to be institutionally corrupt and sacrificed their principals on the
Alter of Expediency. I therefore call…"

His voice was overwhelmed by the storm of shouts and protests that
erupted from the centre of the room. Harry kept calm, even when a bright
orange spell was sent from someone on the inside of the mass of furious
bodies, Harry merely flicked his wand and the jet of light dissolved in
mid-air. The shouting and counter shouting from the rest of the hall grew
in volume, Dumbledore's cannon like wand bursts made no effect.

Eventually, after seven or eight minutes of shouting, and several

exchanges of curses, the great doors at the far end of the hall burst open,
and two dozen Aurors burst inside, their blue and black uniforms snapping
as they hurried to form a barrier between the BPP and the NTF. They were
joined a few seconds later by 30 black clad DS-Guards, the Aurors seemed
suspicious at first, but evidently decided the situation was rather too
perilous to bother arguing at that point.

Finally, when the Aurors had installed silence once more, Harry was
allowed to continue. He strode forward, hopping up onto the stage and
walking to stand before Fudge, who looked completely betrayed, and more
flustered than Harry had ever seen him.

"The BPP has proven their true colours today, they are arrogant, corrupt
and thuggish. I therefore feel it is my duty to call for a Vote of No
Confidence in our Minister and his Government!"

AN

As some of you appeared to be bored of all the politicing, I decided to

finish the Second (political) arc in one very long chapter, rather than
two medium ones, so I hope you all appreciate that!
Please Review

Love you all

Marshall
27. Chapter 27

Hi Everyone!

I'm not dead! I've been really busy with exams, but they are over (yay)
and then I had a stint of hospital visits, but they too, are over (yay!) so
that means I can continue the story!

I hope you enjoy this one, It's the end of the Political Arc, and the
beginning of the concluding arc, a lot happens in not very long, so It
may feel a bit rushed, for this I apologise!

A lot of you have been criticising the grammar and writing quality at
the beginning, I agree, it's terrible, but don't worry, when I finish the
story I will redo it, make it better, less hurried and generally easier, I
will also try to correct the dialogue problems. I promise!

Love!

Chapter 25

Fudge Removed from Office, Election called!

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent
April 23rd

It has already been described as the greatest Wizarding scandal since

Merlin and Morgana, but yesterday, after evidence of corruption was
brought to light by Harry Potter, Minister for Magic Cornelius Oswald
Fudge was removed from office. Fudge, in addition to 37 members of his
party are now subject to a criminal investigation concerning accusations
that they siphoned as much as 25 million Galleons of Taxpayers money
into their own bank accounts illegally.

Following their dismissal, the wizengamot has called for a general

election to be held to determine his successor. The runaway favourite to
win is Harry Potter's NTF, with some predicting they could gain as much
as 85% of the vote. The voting process will begin on Monday 27th

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Potter Says Enough!

Edwin Fox, Political Editor
April 24th

It is a testament to how much controversy currently exists in our political

system, that Harry Potter could make a claim as controversial as changing
our constitution, and yet have the news be relegated to page 6 of the
prophet.

Potter, who is expected to storm to Victory in this week's election has

publically stated that should he be elected, he will begin legislation to
seriously undermine the influence and necessity of the Wizengamot,
instead putting himself into a position of near absolute power.

'We are in a time of crisis.' Potter told a 5,000 strong crowd this morning,
'If today's recent events prove anything, it is that our government can lie,
cheat and steal and none can stop it. It will not be enough to merely
change those in power, we must wipe out the problem at its source, and its
source is the Wizengamot. If elected, I promise change, I promise to take
the power to steal from the corrupt old men who rule this country. I
promise Justice!'

Potter has so far received nearly unanimous support from the public,
though some, most notably Albus Dumbledore, have gone against him, the
chief warlock today told the Daily Prophet,

'To trade a corrupt government to an absolute Dictatorship is not an

improvement, we must remain firm to our democracy.'
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Riddle Manor, April 25th.

"I must confess… I am impressed."

"We are merely fortunate that Fudge was a fool." Harry responded, there
were chuckles of amusement from around the hall.

"Perhaps." Voldemort agreed, "But we must also accept that you have
managed to outsmart Dumbledore at nearly every turn."

"I will not celebrate until my Inauguration." Harry replied, a small smirk
playing at his lips, Riddle cackled,

"No. though we must confess we are all rather confident, are we not
Lucius?" The elder Malfoy nodded,

"Very Confident my Lord. The BPP is broken, there members rot in prison,
and Dumbledore still struggles with internal strife. The public love Mr
Potter." The blonde man nodded at Harry respectfully, Harry responded in
kind.

"It was not all my doing. I assure you."

"Who else can be praised for doing as much as you?" Evan asked from the
door, Harry turned to his friend in the Death Eaters,

"I rather think Miss Rookwood did her part." He responded with a grin,
beside him Voldemort laughed, his eyes glinting,

"Indeed, 'The Nations Sweetheart'" he quoted an article from the week

earlier, "She has certainly won over many for us." The Dark Lord looked
thoughtful for a moment before smiling,

"Might I propose a drink, at this, what could be the threshold to our era!"
As soon as he spoke three houselves popped into the room, quickly
dispersing glasses of an amber liquid to everyone.

"To the Future, may it belong to us!" Voldemort held his glass up and
everyone smiled,

"The Future!" Harry drank, enjoying the pleasant burning sensation the
liquid.

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April 27th. Diagon Alley Voting Station.

There came a great hush throughout the entire crowd when over a dozen
DS-Guards suddenly appeared out of nowhere. People all over the square
realised who the black clad soldiers were at exactly the same time and
thousands of whispers suddenly began to rise up.

The Guardsmen dispersed, some guarding the doors, others eyeing the
large crowd carefully. A few seconds later, the crowd gave a loud ear
splitting roar of support as Harry Potter and Miranda Rookwood apparated
amongst them. The young Politician smiled broadly, holding his hand up
and waving happily.

Harry's walk to the doors of the voting station was slow, every step or so
he had to stop and shake someone's hand, a few had him sign something,
whilst others still wanted a hug.

He took it all in his stride, laughing and joking as he progressed, chatting

with anyone who wanted his time. Eventually, after twenty minutes
amongst the crowds he reached the station. Accepting a quill from an awe
struck attendant, he quickly put a thick cross through the box that read

Harry Potter

And held it up for everyone gathered to see, there came another loud
cheer, as well as the flashing of dozens of bulbs as the press who were
assembled took photo after photo.

He placed the square piece of paper into a metal chest through the slit and
stood straight, his eyes gazing over those who had assembled, With a
hopeful gesture, He held his hands up for quiet,

"Today!" he shouted over the still loud crowd, "Is a great day!" there came
a cheer, "For today, we stand on the precipice of our future! You have the
chance to vote us out of this black chasm that exists, and to claw this
nation back into the light! One People, One Nation, One Leader!"

He was going to say more, but the cheers of the crowd grew so loud, that
he decided against it, instead just waving once more, posing for photos and
waiting whilst Miranda also voted, hopefully for him. Together they
smiled and Harry waved proudly one last time, before they and the DS
vanished with a pop.

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Harry was nervous on the day it was to be announced, rather than face the
news surrounded by his party, he was instead sat in his flat, the radio was
playing on a soft volume whilst he was sitting, holding his head in his
hands.

"If you don't get elected" Miranda stated from her seat just opposite him,
her elbows resting on his knees, "I will abandon magic and become a
muggle." Harry smirked up at her with a grin,

"Bold words… bold words" he chuckled and leant forward for a brief kiss.
"Thanks."

"Anytime."

Just then the traditional jingle that announced the start of the news came
on, the music caused a fresh round of butterflies to boil in his stomach,
almost two years of struggle to get to this point, he prayed that it would be
worth it. Almost unconsciously, his fingers wrapped around the crucifix
around his neck.

"Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to WWN 1's political
update. The votes have been counted and to say that this is anything but
extraordinary would be a lie."

Harry took a deep breath as his insides began doing flip flops.

"For the first time since 1799, the Wizengamot does not have 150 elected
members. The nation has only voted 73 people into office."

Miranda and Harry both looked at each other in surprise, though when he
thought about it, he realised what it could well mean.

"Indeed, so, in ascending order, in 73rd Position is William Wilkes,

Independent, 72nd, Calum Ribber, NTF, 71st, Julian Styles, 71st, NTF."

With every NTF name, Harry felt his smile widen further and further, with
the 39 members of ancient and noble houses they already had, Harry's
party was looking set to win a massive majority.

"30th, Nigel Blake, BPP, 29th, Rachel Hart, NTF" Opposite him, Miranda
had her eyes shut tight, Harry assumed she was mentally tallying up how
each party was doing and he shook his head, only an account he thought
ruefully.

"10th, Dedalus Diggle, Progressives."

Harry began to bounce his left leg up and down with ever increasing speed.
Miranda opened her eyes and glared at him. He grinned guiltily and kept
his leg still, though his hand took its place, tapping a sharp staccato on his
knee.

"8th, Oliver Rix, NTF"

"Potter I swear to Merlin, shut up, you're making me nervous."

"6th, David Hughes-Humber, BPP"

Harry's hand clenched tightly around the crucifix, the sharp edges of the
silver hurting his hand even through his shirt.

"4th, John Spencer, NTF, 3rd , Amelia Bones, Progressives 2nd, Albus
Dumbledore, Progressives and First, with an Incredible 62% of all votes
cast, is Harry Potter, of the National Traditionalist Front."

Harry released a breath as his name was read out and smiled so widely he
thought his face would break, he looked at Miranda, who appeared to be
completing some last minute calculations in her head, eventually she
looked up and nodded, Harry pulled her towards him, kissing her deeply.

"And that's it, of the three main parties, in 3rd place the BPP have secured
8 seats, the Progressives 9, and the runaway winners with 54 seats are the
NTF. This means Harry Potter has the popular support to change the
constitution as he has expressed a desire to do. This is Waldo Higgins, for
the WWN's radio channel 1."

"Well." Harry stated, as he struggled to keep his face straight.

"Indeed." Miranda replied.

"Quite."

"As you say."

"Truly"

"Rather"

"Indeed."

"I already said that."

"Well I'm sorry." Harry bit back with a grin, "I have support to take this
country for my own."
"I can't picture Harry Potter, the smug little bastard first year I once knew
as the new Leader of Britain."

"I was not smug." Harry responded snarkily,

"You were smug and you damn well know it, you were a little brat whose
daddy was in prison, and you somehow felt like this gave you entitlement
over the rest of the world." The Blondes tone was biting and cold, Harry
glared at her.

"Fuck you."

They stared into each other's eyes, hers ice cold, his maliciously shrewd,
they broke at the same moment, diving at each other, Harry took her face
in a firm grip, kissing her deeply, Miranda put her arms around his waist
and pulled him close.

With fumbling fingers, Harry undid her loose robes whilst she made quick
work of his shirt. Harry fell back, landing on the sofa, and Miranda
quickly fell on top of him, straddling his chest.

"Oh…"

Harry turned his head to see Olivia standing in the doorway, her face
beetroot red and a folder in her hands.

"It's not what it looks like…" Harry responded quickly, casting around for
an excuse.

"It's exactly what it looks like." Miranda informed her, as she quickly
redid the buttons on her blouse.

"Yeah… sorry."

"It's my fault Harry, you have to address the Wizengamot for your
inauguration." Nodding, Harry carefully manoeuvred out from under
Miranda, throwing off his shirt as he did so and walking into his bedroom
to change.

"Have you got my speech?" he shouted as he pulled out a more appropriate

dress code.

"I have it here, not to worry" the girl informed him,

"What time am I expected?"

"You requested the meeting, so right now, I think everyone is waiting."

"Oh bugger, not to worry, I'll be there in a moment." Harry hurried out of
his bedroom, straightening his wizengamot robes as he went. Miranda
rolled her eyes, walking up to him and straightening his tie.

"Good luck, I'll see you at the rally in Diagon Alley in 30 minutes." She
murmured. Harry nodded, leaning in for a peck on the lips,

"Looking forward to it. Love you." They pulled apart and he turned on the
spot, vanishing into thin air and reappearing just outside the main doors to
the wizengamot halls. Two DS-Guards who were posted outside saluted
quickly.

"Congratulations sir." One of them stated, Harry smiled,

"Thank you." The man smiled slightly and pulled open the door. Harry
strode in, the hall falling silent as soon as he did. The overwhelming
majority of the hall were dressed in black cloaks and began a slow clap as
he entered. Harry stopped and looked around.

The NTF had replaced the BFF at the centre of the room, and compared to
the small fringe parties appeared a vast group. Harry spied Dumbledore at
the front of the Hall, sat in his large throne as chief warlock, whilst the
other two at the front of the room remained conspicuously empty.
Harry smirked coldly, striding up the centre aisle of the hall, marching up
the stairs with a martial step and coming to rest in the centre of the stage.
He smiled broadly to himself before wiping his face clean and turning
around.

"Chief Warlock, Honoured members of the Wizengamot." He bowed

slightly, "Not for many years has the public been so unambiguous in their
desires." He kept his voice neutral, though his tone came off slightly
pleased.

"With the removal of our previous Minister, I hereby call for a vote and
humbly put myself forward as candidate for new Minister." He smiled and
turned to Dumbledore, bowing slightly again. The old man shook his head
wearily.

"Honourable Member Harry Potter calls a vote for a new Minister, would
anyone care to stand?" The hall was silent, and only Harry raised his hand,
Dumbledore's lips frowned ever so slightly,

"All those in favour of Mr Potter?"

All the NTF raised their hands, as did a large number of the fringe parties.
Harry turned to Dumbledore with a smirk and raised an eyebrow. The older
man frowned slightly, but other than that showed no negative emotion.

"With an overwhelming majority, the vote passes."

Harry nodded, schooling his features to appear sombre.

"My friends! Today is a great day. Today, we have been handed this nation
by its people, The public are tired, for decades they have lived under an
oppressive government, under a man who hid his criminality beneath a
veneer of respectability. This government will change that, this
government will bring Justice."

Even from amongst the press who were on the viewing balcony, which
today was packed with people, Harry heard cheers and claps, he nodded
and raised his hands for silence, his expression very grave.

"My first proposition as Minister is to pass the following amendments to

the constitution of this here government." He withdrew from his robes a
long scroll and unfurled it in his hands.

"First. The position of Minister shall have the power to supersede any and
all ministry employees and wizengamot representatives. Second, the
process by which parties are elected once every two years shall be
abolished, the current ruling party shall remain in power and all other
parties will commit to following the NTF agenda, or be declared disturbers
of the peace and criminal organisations and being barred from the
Ministry for magic. Third. The Department of Magical Law enforcement,
and all its officers, are placed under the command of the Dark Shield
organisation. Any field agent or investigative personnel must be a
qualified member of this organisation."

He paused and looked around the room, his smile nearly invisible to any
who weren't looking very closely. The NTF looked pleased, the BPP
resigned and the Progressives horrified. Harry turned and looked at
Dumbledore. The man had a sad look on his face, but he was saying
nothing. Harry held in a chuckle and continued.

"The position of Chief Warlock is to be abolished and replaced instead by

the position of High Commissioner, who shall act in the stead of the head
of government when the head of government is unavailable. This position
will be chosen at the discretion of the head of government." He paused and
rerolled the parchment.

"These may be extreme measures, but we live in uncertain times, we must

act fast and strongly, lest we become overrun by the faults in our system.
As a gesture of the vow I make to the people to work for their benefit, I
also move to make the position of Head of Government be renamed Lord
Protector, so he may ever be reminded of his oath to the people."

When he finished there was a storm of rousing applause, Harry caught

Lucius Malfoy's eye and saw the man smile and nod approvingly. The
blonde man stood.

"I move to second Minister Potter's motion." He called loudly. Harry

turned to look at Dumbledore with a smug smirk. The Chief Warlock
appeared about to rebel, but eventually appeared to crumble from the
inside, his posture slumped,

"All those in support of Minister Potter's proposition please raise your

hand." The Man's voice sounded so defeated, so unhappy that Harry almost
smiled. Once again, nearly all the hall voted in his favour, even those who
were not of his party apparently were unwilling to be seen publically as
being against him. Only the Progressives and a handful of independents
voted against. Dumbledore sighed loudly.

"The motion passes. Lord Protector Potter has the floor." Harry bowed low
to his party.

"Thank you Chief Warlock, you are dismissed." Dumbledore, with as much
dignity as he could manage stood and slowly walked down the steps, re-
joining his party on the right edge of the room.

"I hereby appoint Lucius Malfoy of the National Traditionalist Front as

High Commissioner of the British Magical Dominions."

Lucius stood up and bowed, Harry smiled and with gestured for Lucius to
join him on stage. There was a loud round of applause, and when the
senior Malfoy had reached him, Harry gestured for silence.

"I hand this session over to the High Commissioner, for I must address the
citizens of this Nation." Harry strode back out of the room, not fifteen
minutes after he had entered it, only this time he left as the absolute head
of state.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPPHPHP
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHP
"I stand before you today, Humbled." Harry called out over the vast mass
of people who had turned out to listen to him. The whole of Diagon Alley
was packed, Harry guessed at least 12000 people were below him staring
up as he addressed them.

"For too long have you been forced to endure suffering, hardship and for
far too many of you, poverty, whilst the men and women you elected lived
an opulent life of luxury." There were angry shouts of agreement from the
crowd and Harry nodded understandingly.

Behind him, Miranda, Olivia and the rest of his staff clapped politely, and
Harry turned to give them a small smile,

"I cannot see the future, I cannot promise you never-ending improvements,
I cannot tell you the road will not be rough, but I can promise you that
your government will be fighting for you every step of the way, no longer
will your politicians merely work to better themselves. The NTF exists as
the manifested will of the people, we will return Britain to its former
glory, and no longer will austerity and minimalism be the order of
business."

The crowd cheered so loudly, that Harry felt like he might be bowled over.
He smiled broadly, holding his hand high above his head and grinned.

"One Nation, One People!" he shouted, and the chant was quickly taken up
by the crowd,

One Nation, One People, One Leader, One Nation, One People, One
Leader!

Harry raised his arms and allowed the chants to wash over him, he stood
before these people their elected leader, they had chosen him as their
absolute ruler, and to Harry, that was a feeling beyond compare.

One Nation, One People, One Leader!

Harry looked down at the crowd suddenly, he felt rather than saw danger
approaching, he scanned the crowd, but saw no one suspicious, however,
as he watched the group intently he suddenly saw something that made his
insides freeze.

One Nation, One People, One Leader!

Just next to the wall of Florean Fortescues Ice Cream Parlour he could see
a very faint shimmering in the air, the sort of shimmering that could only
be caused by a person under a disillusionment charm. He drew his wand
surreptitiously, gesturing as subtly as he could to one of the DS-Guards
that was in front of the stage what he could see.

One Nation, One People, One Leader!

Evidently however, his gesture was not subtle enough, for all of a sudden,
from all around the crowd spells flew at him.

Harry dived down, conjuring a wall of Marble as he fell to block the volley
that was flying at him.

The crowd screamed and within seconds most of them disapparated,

vanishing into the air, Harry dived out from behind the wall, and ran down
the steps to join the fight with the Dark Shield. His fifteen guards were
fighting an equally sized force of what Harry assumed to be the Order of
the Phoenix.

Harry spied Sirius Black and Mad Eye Moody at the front of the fray,
ferociously duelling the black clad men. Harry approached the front of the
group and engaged a small woman, her hair was pulled back into a tight
bun, and her eyes flashed when she saw who was attacking her.

Bombarda, Relashio, Reducto, Stupefy, Expulso!

Harry's spell chain was initially blocked by his opponent and the woman
snarled, casting a series of stunning and disarming charms at him. Harry
growled, with a flick of his wand thirty knives appeared and he sent them
careening at her.

The woman screamed, the sound cut short suddenly as the razor sharp
edges buried themselves into her soft flesh with a wet thump, she fell to
the ground dead, rather resembling a human pin cushion. Harry stepped
forward and saw Sirius Black sending his opponent sailing off his feet, the
guardsmen landed awkwardly against the erected stage Harry had spoken
from and lay still.

"Black!" he shouted, the man turned and glared at him, his features
distorted in hate.

"Avada Kedavra!" the man shouted, Harry dodged the spell and returned
fire, the two quickly becoming engaged in a brutal spell fight, Harry was
furious with himself, he knew that two years ago Black would have been a
simple opponent to defeat, but now, following years of comfort and
politicking, he found that his skills had dulled with time.

Black was good, but Harry was still better, and slowly but surely, the man
was being pushed back, Harry was joined by one of the DS-Guards, and
together they put the Dog animagus completely onto the defensive. Harry
launched an Ice Spear and countered Sirius's cutting curse before it even
left the man's wand in a single movement.

He raised his wand for an organ expelling curse when he suddenly saw
something that made him stop dead in his tracks. Moody who had been
duelling two DS-Guards and Miranda suddenly sent a powerful cutting
curse at the Blonde girls exposed torso. Harry yelled in horror as the blue
curse sailed between the two of them, and struck his fiancé across the
chest.

The magic cut through cloth and flesh and bone like it was butter, and
Harry choked when a great spurt of blood sprayed violently out of her
small frame. The girl was thrown off her feet and collapsed to the floor,
where she lay very still, blood quickly pooling around her.
In his rage, the noises of the Alley were suddenly dimmed to his ears, his
vision faded to red and he quickly abandoned Black to the guardsmen,
with quick and powerful strides, he closed the gap between himself and the
horrifically scarred ex-Auror.

Harry's face was set in stone, his shocking green eyes blazing in a glorious
vision of terrible fury. Moody blinked when he saw Harry's approach, but
before Harry could engage the man Moody vanished in a swirling vortex,
his face a broad smug grin as he locked eyes with Harry.

For a second Harry stayed still, his eyes focused on where Moody had
vanished from, his breath coming in low growls. It didn't take long before
he snapped out of it and sprinted to where Miranda Rookwood lay
sprawled on the cobblestones.

She was still alive, and that fact alone made Harry almost cry with relief.
Her breath came in sharp shallow pants, and her heartbeat was very weak,
but she was still alive. Harry tried to think of any healing spells he knew,
but nothing would be able to close the wide, deep wound that rent her from
breast to hip. He raised his wand, hoping to at least cauterise the wound
and stop the bleeding when he was roughly pushed to one side.

"Out of the way sir." The guardsmen called, Harry looked around, the
battle had stopped, and Harry saw that several healers had appeared, Harry
thanked God as the young man who had pushed him immediately began
waving his wand over Miranda. As he watched, the wound stopped
bleeding and its edges scabbed over.

Harry was sat on his knees, watching as his fiancé was slowly put back
together when he felt someone shake his shoulder.

"My Lord… My Lord!" Harry shook himself and turned, it was a young
man who Harry recognised as being part of the DS-Guard unit which was
supposed to be keeping watch over Lucius Malfoy.

"Yes?" he asked, his voice dazed,

"Sir, the Order of the Phoenix is attacking the Ministry." Harry looked at
the man shocked,

"Alert the Aurors at once, we must stop this, call every available
Guardsmen!" the man frowned,

"Sir, A large contingent of Aurors have rebelled under Amelia Bones, the
Ministry has already fallen, Madam Bones and Dumbledore have arrested
the NTF, I only just got out, there was still fighting when I left!" Harry
could have yelled in frustration,

"Very well, very well." He stated, his voice deceptively calm. For several
moments he sat silent, before he nodded once "Go to Riddle Manor and
Inform the Dark Lord, tell him that I am requesting all available troops he
can muster." The man nodded and bowed, Harry looked around;

"Levett!" he yelled and another Guardsmen hurried over,

"Yes My Lord?"

"I want every available Auror still loyal to me to get to the Ministry
Atrium at once."

To the man's credit, he didn't even blink, merely snapping a smart salute
"Yes My Lord."

The man hurried off and Harry quickly turned back to Miranda, to his
delight she appeared conscious, though evidently in a great deal of pain.

"Miranda." He whispered urgently, leaning in close to her. "Thank God."

He kissed her quickly on the brow

"can't… be rid.. of… me… that easily." She wheezed, Harry smirked and
chuckled,

"I can never get any peace from you woman." He tried to reply cheekily,
though the words came out rather hollow.
"Don't… you forget it… Potter." She rasped and Harry nodded.

"Never. Don't you worry." The healer who was looking after her looked at
Harry,

"Sir, she's going to be fine, I've stopped the bleeding, and most of the
internal damage was superficial, we got very lucky, but we need to get her
to St Mungo's as soon as possible." Harry nodded, and returned his gaze to
the blonde.

"Miranda, they're going to take you to hospital, I will be with you as soon
as possible with some elixir, don't worry, you'll be right as rain soon." The
girl nodded,

"Come… with me." She breathed, Harry felt his face twist into a pained
grimace,

"I… I can't, I have to sort out the Ministry. I will be with you soon, I
promise." Miranda nodded slowly, the motion clearly causing her some
effort.

"I'm… very proud of… you." She whispered, Harry forced a smile as he
saw a lone tear track through the dust and blood covering her face.

"Don't say that." Harry told her forcefully, "You know the plan, you and me
hmm?"

"Together." The blonde mumbled, Harry nodded.

"Sir?" The healer sounded urgent and Harry nodded, taking a step back
from his fallen fiancé, with a pop, the two vanished in a vortex, leaving
Harry in the middle of the scene of devastation, there was blood, chunks of
broken masonry and bodies littering the floor, Harry counted seven
corpses lying broken, and the same number again being treated by healers.

As he stood, he felt a feeling of such anger, such rage and hate that it
almost overpowered him. He gestured to the Guardsmen who remained
and they surrounded him. "To the Ministry Atrium." He stated, the stony
faced men all nodded, and together they vanished with a pop.

The Atrium held hundreds of people, Harry guessed around 350 in total,
Aurors, DS-Guardsmen, Wizards and Witches he recognised as Death
Eaters, though fortunately in plain robes, and supporters of the NTF who
clearly wanted to help rid the Ministry of the traitor scum.

At the front of the room, seemingly coordinating everything stood Evan,

his uniform was slightly ruffled, and his blonde hair thick with sweat, he
was gesturing angrily and shouting at a couple of Aurors. Harry slowly
made his way over to the man, keeping his steps as calm as possible, even
as he felt the ocean inside of him roil.

"Good to see you Harry." Greeted Evan, "We've managed to regain control
of much of the Ministry already, we estimate that Bones and Dumbledore
have around one hundred men left." Harry nodded,

"Do we know where they are?" he asked, his voice ice cold. The Auror
next to Evan opened his mouth.

"My Lord." The man bowed pompously, "We have managed to contain the
rebels within the lower two levels, they have destroyed the lift, so the only
way in or out is through the North or South stairs."

"Thank you Auror?..." Harry asked,

"Dawlish, John Dawlish, Auror first Class." He responded, Harry nodded,

"What is you plan gentlemen?" He inquired, Dawlish and Rosier looked

uncomfortable.

"The Order have the lower levels very well guarded, given the sort of
terrain down there, and how long they've had to prepare, it would be
suicide to even attempt to force our way through." Evan replied, his voice
sounding tired.
"Could we throw up an Anti-Apparition ward, and starve them out?" Harry
asked curiously, Dawlish shook his head,

"Dumbledore's doing… something, interfering with the ward, it won't

stick." The short wizard explained, Harry grimaced.

"Be frank Evan, what casualties would we be looking at if we forced our

way through?" The blonde man was silent for a few moments,

"Ideally… 250, but with Dumbledore down there?" the DS commander

sighed, shaking his head ruefully.

"What of the prisoners?"

"Still in the Wizengamot to the best of my intelligence." Harry cursed

under his breath. He nodded at Evan, before turning on his heel and
stalking away. He saw Olivia standing uncertainly at the side of the
Atrium, the fountain of Magical Brethren merrily gurgling behind her.

"You don't have to be here you know." Harry told her, she jumped at his
voice and turned to look at him,

"It's no bother." She replied, her voice just a bit too airy, Harry saw
through her easily.

"Go, this isn't in your job description." Harry's voice was gentle but firm,
the girl shook her head quickly,

"I want to." She sounded determined, and Harry knew just how obstinate
she could be when she wanted, he opened his mouth to agree when he
heard someone clear their throat behind him.

"Harry?"

The raven haired man turned and saw Evan stood behind him.

"Evan" Harry greeted, "have you come up with an idea?" The blonde man
shrugged,
"We have, but I wanted to suggest you leave, this isn't where you are
needed." The DS commander seemed uncomfortable as Harry gazed at him
in surprise,

"Not where I'm needed?" he repeated, "Everything I have worked towards

for the last God knows how many years is resting on success today."

As he spoke, Harry's voice grew steadily in volume, Evan stood straight at

attention, his eyes focused just above Harry's head.

"I understand my Lord, but you are too valuable." Rosier's voice was calm,
reasonable, but Harry wasn't paying attention,

"Too valuable?" he glared at the handsome blonde, "I will be worth

nothing if you fail."

"Please consider, My Lord, what the public will think if you fight today,
you promised to stand fairly, hunting down your enemies personally will
not help you."

"The Public love a hero!" Harry responded fiercely.

"He's right Harry." Olivia piped up behind him, "fighting now will just
look like you want revenge, you are already a hero for the battle in Diagon
alley, don't go too far Harry, please." She pleased

Harry looked at the two of them, Olivia's face desperate, Evan firm, and he
sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Very well. So what… I should just wait here?" he tried to keep his tone
light, but he knew it sounded cutting.

"It would be best if you were nowhere near here Harry, I would find
somewhere else to wait." Evan advised, clearly pleased by Harry's
agreement.
"Very well." Harry said again, "I shall be in St. Mungo's should I be
needed." He paused and turned to Olivia, "stay here and keep me posted
will you?" the Irish girl nodded and Harry sighed, before turning on the
spot and vanishing with a pop.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHP
HPHPHPHHPHPHPHP

"Name of Patient?" the portly receptionist asked,

"Miranda Rookwood." His voice calm, Harry watched as the woman

checked the list she had on her table,

"I'm sorry sir, Miss Rookwood has restricted access to visitors at the
moment." Harry sneered,

"I am sure she will see me." He replied, the receptionist looked up and
nearly fell backwards off her stool.

"Harry Potter!" she squealed, her piggy eyes wide, "It's an honour sir, of
course you may see her, she is in a private room on the seventh floor."

Harry nodded and quickly made his way into the first available lift,
avoiding some of the staring hospital patrons.

The metal rails on the lift doors opened with a clatter and a ping, revealing
to Harry a long, well lit and sterile white corridor, several doors leading
off from either side. With purposeful strides, Harry made his way down
the ward.

His right hand, buried deep within his pocket was rolling the bottle of the
Elixir of Life end over end as his eyes scanned the names on the doors.
Eventually, around three quarters of the way down the hall, he came across
the door,

Miranda Rookwood.
Highly Restricted Access
Was emblazoned in red letters on a square plaque. Harry raised his hand to
the door knob, only to have the white door suddenly swing inwards,
revealing a young looking wizard in a white robe. The man looked tired
and had a faint sheen of sweat across his brow.

"oh." He blinked, looking up at Harry, suddenly his eyes widened, "Mr

Potter!" he whispered in shock,

"Good Afternoon." Harry greeted neutrally, "I'm here to visit Miranda, this
is her room?" The healer nodded dumbly but didn't get out of the way.

"Mr Potter…" the young man began, his voice reedy, he cleared his throat,
"Mr Potter, there were complications…"

Harry felt his stomach lurch as he turned to the young healer.

"Complications?" he asked, his Occlumency struggling to maintain a

veneer of calm.

"The curse which hit her…" the man tugged at the collar of his robes, "It
caught her aorta, just nicked it…"

"Yes yes, but the Healer said she would be fine, he stopped the bleeding!"
Harry tried to keep the rising panic out of his voice.

"No… Yes, no… The stress of transport…" the man gestured feebly
behind him and Harry pushed him out of the way, forcing himself into the
room.

Miranda lay on the pristine sheets, her long blonde hair was arranged
around her head like a fan and her bright blue eyes were closed.

"… upon apparition, the stress caused an Aneurysm in her abdomen…

where the curse nicked it…" Harry tuned out the voice as he stared in
blank horror at the girl before him.
He remembered reading somewhere that the dead look as though they are
sleeping, but Harry realised that wasn't true, Miranda was dead. There was
no doubt. She was too still, not a breath of movement anywhere.

Behind him the healer was still babbling softly, though Harry was only
catching snippets of words.

"Cleaning the wound… Catastrophic haemorrhage… bled out in

minutes… nothing we could do."

With halting, jarring steps, Harry moved towards the bed, feeling as he did
so the the rising pressure in his body, his tongue felt thick, his stomach
empty, and his eyes stung.

He blinked twice, and felt tears carve wet tracks through his cheeks.

They had cleaned her body, the dust and grime and blood was gone, and in
death she looked just as pristine, just as perfect, as she had always strived
to achieve in life. Her hands were clasped together on top of her chest and
Harry slowly reached and touched her exposed arm.

It was still warm and soft to his touch and Harry carefully intertwined his
fingers with hers, the free flowing tears splashing against her arm
carelessly.

With shaking fingers, Harry drew the Elixir, and with a thought sent the
stopper flying out of the bottle. Carefully parting her pale lips, he emptied
the vial into her mouth and waited.

For twenty minutes he sat still, his eyes focused on her body for the barest
hint of movement: a twitch of an eyelid, the flexing of a finger.

She lay quite still and Harry slowly felt the hope leave him, he had failed.

He sat in his despair, his tears wetting the sheets, the only sound in the
room his sniffing and frequent blowing of his nose. How long he sat there,
spiralling into a deep depression he didn't know, however much later that
day, when the sun had set outside the room, Harry heard someone
tentatively knock on the door.

He turned and saw Evan standing there. The tall blonde looked horrified as
he saw Miranda, but his professional outlook quickly took over.

"Harry." He stated, his voice strong. "We've got him. Dumbledore."

BOOM!

How many of you saw that coming? I like to drop a bombshell

everynow and then, although the more forward thinking of you may
have seen it coming a mile off!

Please review, thoughts, feelings, criticisms etc, Love it all... except

flames, but I do read them all!

Love you guys!

x
28. Chapter 28

Dear All,

A very large apology to start with, the story isnt dead, merely the
update time pushed back. The reason this took so long is many fold,
the main reason is that I have never undergone the sort of tragedy that
Harry has, and it is therefore difficult to write properly, I have instead
based it on my observations of one of my dear friends who did lose
their partner, the lack of direction and sudden outbursts are I hope
accurately portrayed.

Chapter 26

As Dumbledore sat chained to a chair in one of the Ministries top security

holding cells, he tried to remember exactly why he had thought it a good
idea to get himself captured.

Certainly it had allowed for dozens of his supporters to escape, Kingsley

had escaped with Neville, whilst the entire Weasely clan had survived, as
he thought of those who had lived, his thoughts inevitably turned to those
who hadn't been so lucky,

Hestia Jones, all members of the Tonks family, Emilene Vance and Elphias
Doge were but a few, he sighed deeply as he remembered all the fighting,
all of it in vain apparently, for Harry yet lived, The public supported him
and his last throw of the dice had been defeated in a matter of hours.

The ancient headmaster looked around the cell tiredly. aside from his
chair, a table and a rickety wooden seat were his only company, the room
was well lit, four torches burned warmly on brackets high up the sheer
whitewashed walls.

Dumbledore stood up, feeling the weariness of the battle stretch his tired
joints. With slow steps, he began to pace around the small cell, his brain
whirring as he ran through dozens of possibilities about what to do.
Moody's patronus had been brief, stating only that Potter had survived and
that seven of his men had been killed, Dumbledore knew that in the battle
for the Ministry, himself and Amelia had lost over one hundred wizards
and witches, leaving him with around two hundred loyal supporters left.
When compared to the legions of supporters Harry had gained in the past
few years, the number seemed woefully inadequate.

His musings were interrupted when there came a rattle at the door, the
sound of heavy bars being pulled clear of a lock, he wondered who was to
visit him this time, so far his only visitor had been an old Auror he didn't
recognise who had delivered a glass of water. With a heavy whoosh of air,
the metal swung outwards revealing the sterile corridor outside.

Dumbledore ignored his visitor, instead taking a seat and waiting for
whomever it was to speak. The room was still, only the steady breathing of
the two occupants.

The visitor took three steps forward and finally Dumbledore saw who it
was. Harry Potter, dressed in dirty, blood stained robes. With a deliberate
slowness, Dumbledore raised his eyes and met Harry's gaze.

It was clear, even to someone who knew nothing of reading people, that
something was terribly wrong. For as long as Dumbledore had known him,
Harry Potter had been cold, closed off and emotionless, his stride had been
purposeful, the set of his jaw strong and his head held high. Yet now, the
man before him looked tired, broken and lost.

"Good Evening Harry," Dumbledore greeted neutrally, "forgive me, Good

Evening Lord Protector"

Harry remained still and silent, standing above the chair on the opposite
side of the desk to the ancient headmaster. Dumbledore continued to study
Harry, searching for some clue that could provide insight into what had
happened to the once indomitable man before him.

Summoning the most delicate legillimency probe he could, Dumbledore

subtly brushed Harry's mind, for a split second, Dumbledore felt such pain
and loss that he nearly cried out, before the Potter's impressive mental
shields returned, closing his mind to any intrusion.

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked, putting on his most grandfatherly voice, "you

seem troubled."

"Is Mad Eye Moody loyal to you?" Harry eventually asked, Dumbledore
frowned at the question,

"Yes, I believe he is."

"And he follows your instructions?" Dumbledore felt a sense of

foreboding, but tried to keep any sign of his discomfort off his face.

"For the most part certainly, though I must be honest and…"

"You are responsible for his actions today?" Harry asked, cutting him off.
Dumbledore stared for several seconds at the boy before him, Albus' warm
blue eyes met pained green as the two men kept eye contact.

"I told him to put an end to you yes." He ran a hand through his long white
beard, "I never thought I would sanction such a move, but you left me
little other choice Harry." Dumbledore smiled, as he might at a student,
"You should be proud to have driven me to such desperation, few others
ever have."

"Why?" Harry asked, the single syllable was drawn out, his voice sounding
hoarse, and catching in his throat. Dumbledore didn't think he had heard
such emotion ever as he did in that single word from the raven haired man
before in his life.

In a moment of startling clarity, Dumbledore realised what must have

happened, the only thing which could have caused such pain in the cold
hearted dictator.

"Miranda." Dumbledore uttered, his fears being confirmed as Harry

flinched in on himself ever so slightly. "Harry…" he began, he opened his
mouth, but paused. What could he say to the man opposite him now, a man
who had lost the one he loved?

"I'm sorry."

Evidently this was the wrong thing to say, for the next thing he knew, the
back of Harry's hand struck Dumbledore's cheek and sent the old man's
head sharply back. Dumbledore ignored the stinging of his cheek and
stared deeply at Harry

"I did not tell Mad Eye to kill Miranda." he said firmly, "I do not hold her
responsible for your actions."

Harry had sat back down, his head slightly set, his eyes on the table
between the two of them,

"Nevertheless," Dumbledore continued, "I admit, I am just as at fault for

her passing as Mad Eye is. I know you don't believe me Harry, but I am
sorry for you loss." Dumbledore paused, "I know some of what you are
going through, I know how it hurts."

"You know nothing." Harry snapped back, his eyes alight, the pain
replaced with fury, Dumbledore calmly sat, watching Harry
sympathetically. "You are nothing but a naïve fool, what do you know?"

"I was a young man when your great grandfather was born Harry, I have
known my share of pain, of loss" Dumbledore paused, his eyes shining,
"Have I ever told you how I lost my sister?" The old man sighed, "I highly
doubt it, it is not a tale I tell often." Albus' voice was faraway, and his eyes
shone brightly. Harry said nothing and the ex-chief Warlock interpreted
this as permission to continue.

"It happened very shortly after I left Hogwarts. I was naïve then, but oh so
arrogant." Dumbledore began, his voice slow, "My friend Gellert and I, we
had such plans, such visions for the future, but we eventually disagreed,
and our argument turned violent. For a long time we duelled, Gellert, my
brother Aberforth, and I. It was bloody and long, and caused my sister, my
dearest Ariana to panic."

Dumbledore saw that he had Harry's full attention, and with a sad smile
continued,

"Ariana was… sick, she was attacked… as a child by local muggles and
never really recovered, when she saw Gellert, my brother and I fighting…
she tried to get us to stop. In the confusion, she… she was struck with a
curse and died." Dumbledore's voice cracked ever so slightly, Harry kept
silent, watching the Headmaster carefully.

"So you see Harry, I do understand you pain, for nigh on a century I have
lived with the knowledge that I could have killed my sister. She was
dependent on me, and I failed her." They were silent for a long moment
after that.

"She was my everything." Harry eventually stated quietly,

"She was a brilliant girl."

"She was."

The two sat quietly for a moment, before Dumbledore sighed, "Death is
not the end Harry, I have always viewed it as the beginning, death can only
ever separate us from the ones we love if we allow it to."

Dumbledore smiled as he considered the absurdity of the situation, for

here he was, consoling Harry, the man who for so long he had viewed as
his most dangerous enemy, but as the old man sat, he couldn't bring
himself to hate Harry, he could feel nothing but pity.

"Why are you so set against me?" Harry asked, Dumbledore looked up
surprised,

"Why?" he asked, "I am not against you Harry, so much as who you…
work for."
It was with a sense of trepidation that Dumbledore saw that Harry's grief
and pain had been vanished from his face, in its place was simmering rage,
fury which was directed at the Headmaster, and that was something that
worried the one hundred and fourteen year old wizard deeply.

"But" Harry pressed, leaning forwards in his chair, "the Dark Lord is
content to have me in command, this would be my nation, with he-who-
must-not-be-named remaining in the shadows." The raven haired teen
shrugged, "have I not been good to these people, steered them in the right
direction?"

Dumbledore frowned, "nothing good can come of dictatorship Harry,

repression of the people is not the future."

"Repression?" Harry laughed, the sound cold and ringing, reminding Albus
eerily of the Dark Lord as a young man, "I am loved by these people, they
are freer now than ever before!"

"As long as I have breath in my body," Dumbledore stated firmly, "I will
not allow Britain to be corrupted by the Darkness you serve!"

"But why?" Harry argued, "Why are you so virulent in your attack?" Harry
smirked coldly, "Democracy failed! Look at Fudge, his corruption lasted
decades, who are you to stand in the way of the public?"

Dumbledore was silent, after all, Harry did have a point, this was not like
the last few wars he had been in, during Grindlewalds rise and Voldemorts
first war, Dumbledore had had the support of the public, if the old man
was truly a man of the people, then should he fall in line?

No. Albus thought firmly, the power Harry took from the people had to be
returned to the people, he may be hated now, but Dumbledore was
confident that history would remember him as a hero.

"I simply do what is right." He replied, Harry giggled, and when he spoke,
his voice was bubbly and light
"What is right? Such fanatical absolutism Albus, I'm shocked." The young
man chuckled again, scratching his cheek, Dumbledore watched
impassively, "Well, let's see who wins, the young, handsome political
idealist or Albus, the dying relic of a forgotten era."

"Harry. Don't let this happen, don't get caught up in your lust for
vengeance, worthy or not, the public have given their freedom to you, and
you have a responsibility to them." Dumbledore sighed, "You may be a
fantastic politician Harry, even a brilliant soldier and of course, you have a
brilliant mind, but I'm sorry Harry Potter, you have become a terrible
man."

Harry said nothing, his face was flicking between cruel rage and grief
ridden despair. Suddenly the heavy steel bolt on the door slid open again,
and a sharp faced young man stuck his head through the door.

"Excuse me My Lord, but a Lord Riddle is outside, he would like to talk to

you." Dumbledore saw Harry's eyes flash with fury at the name, but he
nodded, standing up carefully.

"I will destroy you Albus Dumbledore, you and everything you stand for, I
will burn down your home and sow the grounds with salt, I will erase you
from the Histories and make it punishable by death to even utter your
name." Harry took a deep shuddering breath, "I will take from you
everything you love, as you did to me, this I swear to you."

Dumbledore frowned deeply, this was exactly what he feared, but he

nodded his head sadly, "I understand Harry, but please, knowing there is
more to life than fighting, knowing there is something clean, something
bright, that isn't violent and cruel underneath this all…" The weary old
man smiled softly, "don't be overcome by darkness, you know that isn't
what Miranda wanted."

The change was sudden, in the blink of an eye Harry was on the old man,
his hand clasped tightly around Dumbledore's throat, "Do not speak like
you knew her!" he shouted, his hand squeezing, whilst his left slammed
into the headmasters cheek, hard. "you are nothing, an old man."
With a final squeeze Harry let go, standing back up, and leaving the blue
faced Headmaster gasping heavily as he picked himself up off the floor,
the chains around his arms clinking as he did so. Clutching the arms of the
chair for support, the old man felt all of his 114 years as he sat there
massaging his throat.

"I think it is time for me to leave." Dumbledore said hoarsely to the young
guard left in the room, "clearly I have overstayed my welcome."

"You aren't going any…" the man began, but he fell silent as in a bright
flash of flame, Albus Dumbledore vanished, leaving his chains hovering
for a second in mid-air, before they fell to the floor with a clatter.

Dumbledore appeared at the head of the wooden table in the staff room at
Hogwarts, clearly interrupting a meeting of the remaining senior members
of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Albus!" cried the relieved voice of Molly Weasely, "We were so worried,
you've been gone for over an hour!"

"I do apologise Molly" Dumbledore wheezed, "I was talking to our new
Lord Protector." The group around the table muttered in interest and from
a seat to his right, Mad Eye Moody spoke up.

"Anything we should know?" Dumbledore gazed at the grizzled ex Auror

for a long moment,

"It was a very revealing meeting." He finally said, all the faces around the
table watched him expectantly, "perhaps it would be best if you told me
exactly what happened with your attack Alastor."

The scarred man nodded, "It went wrong from the start, Potter spotted
Cubbins under her disillusionment charm and she panicked and attacked
early." Moody growled under his breath, "Those DS are good, and after he
blocked our first attack, none of us could get at Potter properly, when it
was clear we weren't going to win, I ordered a retreat. We lost seven
people." Dumbledore nodded slowly,
"And… did you manage to get anyone notable?"

Moody frowned, "Black said he got the Leader of Potters guards, just a
lieutenant, not Rosier, and I caught Rookwood with a cutter, but she was
still alive when I left."

The corners of Dumbledore's lips fell in a pained grimace and Moody

stared, "What is it Albus?"

"You're curse was… successful, Miranda Rookwood was pronounced dead

at St Mungo's." The table was silent for a long moment, Dumbledore saw
expressions vary from Professor Snape who looked pained to Sirius who
looked happy,

"With a family like hers, it's no bad thing." Molly Weasely stated firmly
from her seat,

"Quite right." Dedalus Diggle agreed, there were a few more nods around
the table, but Dumbledore shook his head.

"You don't look pleased Albus." Noted Moody, Dumbledore opened his
mouth to reply, but was beaten to the punch by Snape.

"Had you bothered to actually consider what killing Miranda off would do,
perhaps you wouldn't be looking so happy either Moody." The greasy
haired potions professor drawled, his lip curled in a sneer,

"Why don't you illuminate then Snivellus," jeered Sirius, "seeing as how
you know so much about it?"

"Sirius, now is not the time for such school yard rivalries." The white
haired headmaster stated firmly, "Severus is right, Miranda Rookwood was
something of a balance for Potter, whilst I cannot be certain, I am quite
sure that it was thanks to her that Harry never acted to firmly."

"Never acted to firmly?" Sirius asked incredulously, "the trail of bodies he

left behind, his own father amongst them is pretty firm to me!"
"With the exception of Remus's death," Dumbledore replied, "I believe
that nearly everything Harry has done since he was eleven has been
planned carefully thought out, and during that time, Miranda Rookwood
has acted as Harry Potter's friend, his confidante and his lover."

"So you think this will unhinge him?" asked Bill Weasely, "Isn't that a
good thing?" he sounded uncertain and looked around the table for
support,

"Perhaps… perhaps not, I am afraid I simply don't know" Dumbledore

replied, his brow furrowed, "I am sure this will do something, however,
whether that is for our benefit I don't yet know." The Old man stroked his
beard, "I fear however that we have made this war personal, when you
destroy what someone loves… well, Harry will not compromise or
surrender, he will fight us until he dies, or until we are all ashes."

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Diagon Alley
April 26th Evening

The crowd was hushed, word of the Dumbledore rebellion had spread fast
and a large group, many hundred strong had gathered in order to hear the
new government's response, at the front of the mass stood dozens of
reporters, cameramen and other journalists, all jostling to the closest to the
stage.

"Silence! Silence Please!" came a loud voice, the crowd hushed at once,
eyes trained on the well-lit stage in front of them, peering through the
evening light at the figures.

"All will stand for the Lord-Protector." Came the shout, and the few
kneeling cameramen struggled to their feet, hefting the heavy pieces of
equipment with them.
"Good Evening." Came the amplified voice of Harry Potter, "I come here
tonight, straight from the Halls of the Wizengamot. Today, the Magical
Nation of Great Britain and Ireland was attacked from within by the very
institutions we had thought protected us." The silent crowd murmured in
horror to one another.

"Led by Madam Amelia Bones and Albus Dumbledore, a rogue section of

Aurors and traitors declared war on our Nation and Government, their
treachery was unsuccessful, thanks to the bravery of the Dark Shield and
Loyal Aurors." The crowd gave a smattering of applause, but it died down
quickly.

"Unfortunately, during the battle, many of the leaders of our enemies

escaped, and are still on the run, each with a 5000 Galleon Bounty to any
witch or wizard who brings them to justice." Harry steeled himself,
clearing his mind with Occlumency and forcing himself to continue, even
when all he wanted to do was lie down and never get up.

"Following these attacks, it has become apparent that the situation we have
inherited from the previous administration is still unable to deal with such
a unified and trained threat. However, I promise you, my determination
has never been stronger!" The crowd cheered, and Harry raised his arms
slightly, letting the sound wash over him

"As such, in order to maintain stability, security and to give us a firm

foundation from which we can grow, and fight off any and all threats, The
Wizengamot will be reorganised into the first British Wizarding Empire,
for a safe and secure society!"

The cheers grew and grew, camera's flashed and reporters shouted into
recording crystals, Harry stood at the front, arms spread wide, and a cold
expression on his face, the applause and celebrations having no effect, at
the very back of the crowd stood Kingsley Shacklebolt, and he watched
with mounting dread as he looked into the wrath fuelled eyes of Harry
Potter, the new Emperor.
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Wanted: Dead or Alive

Thomas Winter, special correspondent
28th April

Following the terrible atrocities of yesterday, (see page 1) the ringleaders

of the rebellion have been declared enemies of the state, Albus
Dumbledore, Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody, Dedalus Diggle, Arthur
Weasely and Kingsley Shacklebolt are amongst those listed as enemies of
the state, members of the public are encouraged to provide any
information as to the whereabouts of these men, but are warned against
engaging them unless properly prepared, as they are considered highly
dangerous.

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Miranda Rookwood Killed!

Emma Gilbert, personality's correspondent
28th April

Miranda Rookwood, fiancé to the Emperor Harry Potter, it has been

confirmed was killed yesterday following injuries received during the brief
battle in Diagon Alley. Harry Potter has as of yet refused to comment,
however sources close to Mr Potter are saying he has taken the loss of his
long term friend and confidant very hard.

"Mr Potter is trying very hard under very difficult standards," said Olivia
Moran, Mr Potter's personal assistant, "To lose Miranda after such a
successful moment made the moment especially difficult, however he is
incredibly set in his resolve to see her killer brought to justice."

Whilst the official position of the government states that current Law
enforcement units, which now comprise of the Dark Shield which have
merged with the Auror Corps, is satisfactory in putting down this
rebellion, Sources within the government have indicated special tasks
units are being formed to fight more effectively.

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Rookwood Funeral and Memorial held

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent
1st May

The body of Miranda Rookwood, fiancé of Harry Potter, Emperor of

Wizarding Britain, has been laid to rest in a small private ceremony in
Essex. The funeral service, attended by only 25 individuals was closed to
all members of the press whilst a far larger public service was held later
in the day. Mr Potter refused to comment, and his appearance today
showed signs of immense stress.

"Even the untrained can spot that Mr Potter is suffering," reports our body
language expert Albert Hoax, "His stooped shoulders, drawn expression
and bruising around his eyes indicate lack of sleep."

Cont. page 3, Column 1

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Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Diagon Alley.

May 2nd

"This is a particularly tricky case," hummed the old goblin whom Harry
sat next to. "As she left no will, Miss Rookwood's property should fall to
her next of kin, her father, Augustus Rookwood."

"I understand" Harry replied, his voice quiet

"Hmm, however, Miss Rookwood and yourself shared a joint bank

account, so naturally that falls to you, also it appears that since you
were… fourteen you have been living together, that would give you a
strong case to claim the property should you seek it." The goblin watched
Harry attentively,

"I don't want the flat." Harry stated firmly, "Augustus can have it."

"You are sure Mr Potter?" the diminutive white haired figure asked, Harry
nodded and the Goblin made a small note, "What of the familial
heirlooms, they were stored in your vault, will you…"

"I don't want them."

"Very well, that is all really, Miss Rookwood did not hold very many
assets, what of the object contained within vault 817?"

Harry's brow creased, vault 817 housed the philosophers stone, just
thinking of what the stone had once offered Miranda and Harry caused the
green eyed mans throat to tighten.

"Keep it safe, I will be keeping that."

"Then that is all. Once again, Gringotts offers our most sincere
commiserations at this troubling time Mr Potter, and we hope that you will
continue to bank with the Goblin Nation." Harry ignored the insincere
apologies of the elderly goblin, instead standing up and turning towards
the door.

"Ready to go sir?" asked one of the guards who waited outside, Harry
nodded tensely and the group quickly fell into a practiced formation.
"Where to your majesty?"

"Riddle Manor. I have a rather overdue conversation." The guards nodded

and with a loud pop the group vanished into nothingness.

Harry landed gently, and countered the momentum of the apparition with a
well-practiced step forward. The building before him was as impressive as
ever, however, unlike the last time Harry had visited, the entire estate was
now covered in a dense web of wards and defensive charms, Harry could
feel the crackling magical energy from where he stood, ten feet away from
the gates.

With deliberate steps, Harry strode to the heavy Iron Gate and touched his
wand to the lock. With a creaking groan the metal structures swung
inwards, allowing Harry and his companion's access to the large Victorian
structure ahead of them.

He strode with a confidence that denoted a familiarity to the building, and

Harry made his way through the narrow corridors to the Dark Lords study,
the door was closed and the hallway outside deserted. Raising one fist, the
Raven haired man knocked firmly on the mahogany. Less than a second
later the door opened up revealing the well light office behind.

"Come in Harry." Riddle called. With stiff steps Harry obeyed, clearing his
mind of the bubbling resentment he could feel.

"Have a seat."

"Thank you." The two sat in silence for a moment until the Dark Lord
smiled,

"Well, your imperial highness, I suppose congratulations are in order." The

older man's voice was rich and slightly mocking, Harry frowned,

"Congratulations?"

"Of course. We have succeeded, everything we have wanted has come to

fruition." Voldemort smiled coldly, "Is that not worth some celebration?"

"I suppose so." Harry conceded, "What will you do now?" he asked,
peering at Riddle carefully.

"I am content with the current arrangement, you will rule, and I will
suggest the correct way to deal with the future situation."
"Very well."

Voldemort frowned, "You do not seem as pleased as I had expected." He

stated, watching Harry closely.

"Are…" Harry paused, reining in his temper, "I am of course pleased." He

finally stated. "What will we do to catch the traitors?"

"I am sure your new army will manage that." The Dark Lord smirked,
"Evan was in here just hours ago describing to me what he had planned."

Harry nodded, Voldemort sighed frustratedly, "I trust this period of

melancholy will pass Potter, it is awfully tedious."

Harry glowered furiously, and the anger and resentment he had been
feeling for years suddenly broke forth.

"Are you truly so ignorant?" He asked, his voice thick with emotion. "She
died Tom, she died because of your lust for power."

Any trace of mirth vanished from the Dark Lords face and his face became
suddenly dark and cold.

"You may be an emperor now Harry, but do not forget whom you serve."
He warned, his voice cold and delicate. "Collateral damage occurs in every
conflict, you should have readied yourself for…"

"She was not just another death!" Harry snapped out, Voldemort raised one
eyebrow pointedly.

"I will chalk these recent outbursts onto the fact that you are not yourself
right now. You are fortunate I am in a forgiving mood, else I would not
stand on such disrespect." His gaze drilled into Harry's face. "Do not
forget that this was just as much your dream as it was mine, you are just as
responsible for her fate as I was."
Harry was furious, how dare the Dark Lord try to suggest this was his
fault, it was Dumbledore himself after all who stated that he had only
opposed Harry so virulently because of the fact that he was in league with
Voldemort.

With steady feet, Harry rose from his chair, and turned to the door.

"Sit down Potter. We are not finished."

"We are finished My Lord" he spat out the last bit, his voice hard with
derision. Before he made it to the door, Harry was struck in the back.

The curse seared through his, causing every one of his muscles to cramp
and burn, his heartbeat thrummed painfully through his ears and he
collapsed against the door, his eyes shut tight against the agony. Finally,
after what felt like an eternity, the pain lifted, and Harry was left panting.

"I think." Voldemort began, his voice calm and soft, "It is time to review
your position within the new government Mr Potter." He stated, Harry
glared from the floor as he dragged himself upright.

"I am the Government." He responded caustically.

"Tomorrow morning," continued Voldemort, acting as though he hadn't

heard Harry's comment, "You will announce your resignation from your
current position, in your place, I will reign." The Dark Lord smirked
coldly, "You will retire to oversee the new DS-Death Squads, from where
you will hunt down the rest of the traitors, once that is complete, you will
retire to a career outside of government." Harry glared, and his hand
twitched towards his wand minutely.

"Do not be such a fool Harry" Voldemort growled, "I do not tolerate
disrespect, I am granting you this one chance to make good on your recent
failings in recognition of your previous successes, but make no mistake, If
I hear even the faintest trace of sedition… I will destroy you." Harry
nodded slowly and Voldemort sneered.
"Remember this as the day that Lord Voldemort brought down an
Emperor, Harry Potter, none can stand against me and live." The defeated
man said nothing, his expression cold and stony.

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Harry Potter Abdicates

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent
May 4th

In yet another twist to the political world, Harry Potter, the Emperor of
Wizarding Britain, has abdicated from power. Lord Potter nominated his
successor as Thomas Riddle, a political unknown. In a speech delivered to
the Wizengamot Halls, The Lord Potter, said

"I must do this. The government needs strong, dedicated leadership, With
my recent personal trauma's, I do not feel myself to be the best candidate
for this position, I shall instead be taking a role heading up the taskforce
bringing the remaining enemies of state to justice, bringing peace to our
great nation."

The new Emperor, Thomas Riddle, has awarded the Lord Potter the Order
of Merlin, First Class, the Order of Merit and also proclaimed him Lord
Marshall of all Imperial peacekeepers.

Cont. page 8

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AN.

I am looking for a new Beta, John Foxton is no longer working on this

story and I would like to find someone new, someone who could go
through each already published chapter and work with me to correct
the myriad mistakes that are within it.
If you fancy such a task, send me a PM,

Thanks in advance.
29. Chapter 29

I am so sorry for taking so long, I have now started University and this
was my first opportunity to publish, We are approaching the last few
chapters, one more to complete this story arc, and then a final short
arc and then finished, perhaps 4 chapters left!

Thank you all for reviewing, I agree with what many of you have said,
I will be altering the prologue, It does need changing, so thanks for the
advice!

A small word of warning, this chapter does contain scenes of Torture,

but it isn't especially graphic, so just be aware!

enjoy!

Chapter 27

2 Years Later

The broken stone crunched under Harry's highly polished black boots, the
hardened leather heel loudagainst the yorkstone beneath his feet. Harry
stopped and looked around the ruined house with distant eyes.

Around him, black clad figures bustled around, but Harry ignored them,
his eyes had become fixed on an upper floor window from which dark grey
smoke billowed out, staining the air, and making the young commanders
eyes burn slightly.

"Sir?"

Harry started slightly, and turned to his side, a broad shouldered man of
around 20 was stood at his shoulder, his body held stiff at attention,

"What is it Brooke?" he asked calmly, the man, Walther Brooke, served as

Harry's aide-de-camp and Adjutant, he was professional and courteous, but
a ready soldier and fierce in battle.
"The final report just came in, a total of fifteen dead, six of ours, as well as
four prisoners." Harry nodded and turned his eyes to the doorway, where
four defeated looking Witches and Wizards were being escorted by a small
number of grim looking DS-Guards.

The prisoners looked tired, not that Harry could blame them, it had taken
his forces over two days to break through the enchantments that covered
the building.

"Take them to headquarters for processing."

"Yes sir. And the dead?"

Harry frowned slightly, "Identify and burn the traitors, follow procedure
with ours."

Brooke nodded and snapped out a salute, which Harry returned, before he
walked off, once again leaving Harry alone in the middle of the chaos.
With a soft sigh, the commander of the British Wizarding forces strode
forward, heading towards the door of the defeated house.

The inside of the building held all the signs of a recent battle having taken
place here, smashed furniture, rubble and gaping holes where entire walls
had been blasted to oblivion, the heat from the still slightly smouldering
outside walls was intense, and Harry tugged slightly at the neck of his
jacket, allowing a small breath of air to reach his chest.

He was in a small living room, the place smelt of blood and fire, and
though any bodies had long since been cleared, it was still possible to see
where they had lain, the dark red-brown stains on what had once been a
beige carpet belied where Imperial and Traitor alike had met their end.
Harry carried on forward, leaving the living room and entering a hall, his
boots once again clacking against the dusty wood of the floor.

The noise seemed oddly magnified in the quiet house and Harry felt
almost like he was defiling a sacred place with his mere presence. He
snorted slightly, and shook such feelings away as he carried on. His
examination of the property was quick and not particularly thorough, but
he felt it would be an insult to the memory of the men who had died under
his orders if he did not at least walk the path they had taken.

In the past two years, Harry's life had changed dramatically, though the
public still adored him, and many wished he would return to the imperial
throne, his influence within the upper echelons of the government had
waned to almost nothing.

Following his meeting with the Dark Lord all those years ago, Harry had
been assigned to the position of commander of all the government
peacekeepers. The job was often dull and required especially long hours,
however Harry enjoyed it. The paperwork and endless meetings had kept
him distracted from the other things in his life, and gradually, over the
course of many months, the constant anger and hate that he had felt had
mellowed.

The Year before, Harry had added to his list of responsibilities, assigning
himself as Captain of the latest DS-Death Squad, the Nephilim, It was a
role that allowed Harry to get his hands dirty, to experience the same
things as the Witches and Wizards whose exploits he had read through on
so many occasions in mission reports.

Initially, there had been dozens of battles, with neither side able to defeat
the other, however as the months had progressed, the government's
resources had begun to win the war in a way that soldiers just couldn't.

The Empire had authorised the expansion of the DS until its number were
over a thousand, with dozens of Death Squads constantly searching for
enemies of the state and pursuing any leads that had been provided by
helpful citizens. These had become so numerous that Harry had been
forced to create an entire office whose job it was to read through these
statements and determine which were credible.

Pitched battles had become a thing of the past, as the Order of the Phoenix
and their allies had found themselves facing overwhelming numbers of
well trained professionals. The vigilante group now resorted to guerrilla
tactics, sharp raids conducted on Government personnel and offices. Given
the difficulty of protecting the hundreds of potential targets, Harry had
ordered that the location and termination of any safe houses that the Order
operated from a top priority.

It was tough work, and successes were few, but gradually the Order was
being pushed back, in the past two months alone, four locations had been
put to the sword and with each success, the public felt slightly safer than
they had done before. However, it was precisely due to the slowly relaxing
mind set of the public that Harry was feeling under more and more
pressure to end the war quickly, lest a change of mood sweep the nation
and put his leadership into question.

With a last look at the ruined home, Harry turned on the spot, disaparating
and appearing on the cobbled forecourt of the DS Headquarters, the many
flags that lined the walls of the imposing granite grey building snapped in
a slight breeze, the imperial eagle and cross blaring out to all who looked.

With a purposeful stride, the young commander strode into the fortress
and quickly made his way down the stairs to the quarters which housed the
prisoners. The men and women who passed stopped and smartly stood to
attention, he ignored them, focusing instead on making his way down the
long winding staircase to the dimly lit temporary prison which housed any
captives believed to hold relevant information.

"Has he said anything?" Harry asked the duty-guard, who stood outside a
bare iron door on a corridor which held dozens of identical doors.

"Not a word yet sir." The grizzled veteran replied, "The persuaders in with
him now."

Harry nodded, The Persuaders were the men who used less savoury tactics
to gain Intel, whilst Harry may not have liked the methods they used, he
couldn't deny that the results they achieved made them a necessary evil.

"Thank you sergeant. Open the door please."

"Sir." The man replied curtly, placing the tip of his wand on the door
handle. The doorknob glowed blue for a second before returning to its
original state and the guard twisted and pushed, revealing the sterile white
interrogation room beyond.

The Persuader was tall, with thin cheeks and wispy brown hair. He glanced
up from his seat opposite the prisoner and nodded briefly to Harry, who
motioned for the interrogation to continue.

"Mr Creevey, you have been with us for nearly a week now." He paused, "I
must applaud your resilience, however you do realise how futile it is?"

Creevey, who Harry vaguely recalled from his years at Hogwarts said
nothing, his eyes downcast, and his hands, bound and resting on the table
shook slightly.

"Do you believe we will kill you if you don't talk?" the persuader asked,
his voice soft and soothing, Creevey shook slightly,

"Yes?" he replied, and Harry could hear an almost hopeful tone in his
voice, the persuader laughed, slapping his hand down on the table, Creevey
flinched at the sound,

"I'm sure you would like that wouldn't you?" he asked, "however I am
afraid that won't happen, in fact we have some very skilled healers in this
facility who will keep you alive for a long time, so we can have our little
chats for months and months."

Creevey quivered slightly, but raised his head defiantly, his bloodshot eyes
glared at Harry, who stood slightly behind the persuader,

"Lucky me." He attempted to growl out, when he opened his mouth, Harry
saw a mess of bloody gums and broken teeth.

"Dear me Colin, this could be so much easier if you just cooperated, surely
you are tired? Hungry? We could give you a bed and a feast, all you have
to do is answer my questions. What do you say?" Colin said nothing,
instead spitting a bloody globule onto the table.

The persuader sighed and stood up, shaking his head ruefully. "Don't say I
didn't warn you. Guard!" the last word was shouted and the door opened a
few seconds later.

"Yes Sir?"

"Unbind Mr Creevey's hands please."

"Yes Sir."

The sergeant moved forward and quickly removed the chains on Colin's
arms before leaving the room and closing the door.

"You are a muggle-born aren't you Mr Creevey?" the persuader asked, his
tone light, Colin said nothing,

"Well it says you are in my file, so I wonder if you recognise this?" With
an elegant sweep of his hand, he pulled a long rectangular club out of his
robes and lay it on the table with a clatter. Colin's eyes widened and his
breath came in short gasps.

"It's called a cricket bat, and Muggles use it one of their games." The man
frowned as he ran his hand over the polished wood, "a bit clumsy, certainly
not as easy to manoeuvre as a beaters bat, but I think you can get more
power behind a swing. Exposimise."

The sticking charm struck Colins hand, gluing it to the table. "Will you
tell me what I want to know Colin?" the man asked, Creevey released a
small sob, but shook his head, tears streaming down his bruised cheeks.

"Pity." The persuader stood up and took a position next to prisoner, raising
the bat above his head, "Last chance Colin…" Creevey had shut his eyes,
but tears still leaked down his cheeks, and his breath came in short pants.
Crunch

The hand which the bat hit resembled nothing more than mashed flesh, the
crushed bones and joints stuck out from ragged tears and the shocking
white was quickly covered by the rapidly growing pool of blood.

Colin gave a pitiful shriek, his entire body shaking, blood fell from his
mouth from where one of his few remaining teeth had bitten into his
tongue.

Crunch

The blood stained bat hammered back down onto the ruined hand, and
Colin slumped forward in his chair, unmoving, though his eyes were still
open and his mouth closed and opened like a fish out of water.

"Enervate." The persuader spoke carelessly, waving his wand at the

helpless boy. Colin immediately came out of his trance and promptly
vomited down his chest.

"Please answer the questions Colin, I promise to end it all if you do." The
young man in the chair didn't seem to know where he was, and as his eyes
slowly focused onto the persuader in front of him, his body shook
violently.

"I…" he began, "Yes."

"Yes what Colin?" the Persuader asked in a smug voice.

"Yes, I will… talk." The words came out garbled and almost indistinct,
Harry smiled broadly, Colin Creevey was by no means one of the Orders
best, but he worked for Dumbledore by passing information from inside
the Department of Magical Transportation, where he had worked. Harry
wished that the ancient ex-headmaster hadn't thought to teach the young
man Occlumency, had his mind been less well defended, three drops of
Veritaserum would have sufficed and Colins ordeal would have been over
far easier.
"Wonderful, I'm glad you have seen sense Mr Creevey. Lord Commander
Potter, perhaps you would like to take over now?" the man asked, Harry
nodded and slid into one of the available chairs on the opposite side of the
table to Colin and slid a sheet of parchment across the table to him, on the
parchment four faces stared up at him, Alastor Moody, Sirius Black,
Kingsley Shacklebolt and Albus Dumbledore.

"Mr Creevey, do you know the location of any of these men?"

With his undamaged, though shaking hand, Colin picked up the paper and
held it close to his face. He frowned in confusion as he stared at it,
blinking slowly. Finally he lowered it and looked across at Harry, blood
still leaking from his mouth.

"Dead."

"Dead? Who?" Harry asked leaning forward slightly, Colin shook slightly
before his finger jabbed down onto the Parchment. Harry followed the
direction his finger pointed in and blinked.

"Dumbledore?" Harry asked, keeping his voice from showing his surprise.
Colin nodded, "When did he die?"

"Eight… eight months ago."

"Dumbledore was involved in a skirmish not six weeks ago Colin, Please
don't lie." Harry's voice was cold, his eyes hard, and the prisoner trembled
violently, before coughing violently.

"No, no, no… Not Dumbledore, Polyjuice, I promise, Morale, couldn't let
others know."

For a long moment Harry was silent, staring at Creevey carefully, if what
the young man said was true, then this would be the moment to strike,
Dumbledore was the Orders greatest weapon, the ancient sorcerer was
capable of taking down entire death squads with ease, and the ex-
headmaster had demonstrated his formidable skill in battle on several
occasions.

"Colin, I need to know everything. Tell me everything you know, and I

assure you, you will be treated well."

Creevey smiled slightly, the movement splitting a scab on his lib and
adding a new source of blood dribbling down his chin.

"Water… please" Harry sighed, but quickly conjured a large glass full of
cool water. Colin sipped it slowly, much of it dribbling down his ruined
shirt.

"Speak Colin."

"Dum…. Last year… Dumbledore was away lots, searching for…

something with Longbottom." The man paused and took a deep breath,
wincing as it stretched his bruised ribs. "They were successful… found at
least 3 things, I don't know what…"

Harry had withdrawn a sheaf of parchment from the inner pocket of his
jacket, and quickly noted down everything Colin was telling him.

"What were these objects?" Harry questioned intently, Colin shuddered as

he took another breath.

"A locket… A cup… gold cup, and a tiara…" Harry frowned, having no
notion about what such objects could be for.

"And how did this kill Dumbledore?"

"They were after another, Longbottom said it was a ring, Dumbledore put
it on and was cursed."

"A ring?" Harry queried,

"Yes."
"And you're sure these were the objects?" He looked down at his
parchment, "A locket, cup, tiara and ring?"

"Yes."

"And the curse? It killed Dumbledore?"

Colin sobbed, tears leaking out of the corners of his puffy eyes as he
nodded slowly. Harry paused, looking between the parchment and captive
slowly.

"What of Black, Moody and Shacklebolt…. What of Longbottom?"

"Longbottom is still hunting those things." Colin slowly explained, "I don't
know about the others… they travel around."

Harry nodded, he expected as much, no one seemed to have much

knowledge of the three order member's movements.

The interrogation continued, Colin proved a very valuable source of

information, Harry quizzed him on recruitment, the locations of safe
houses, the nature of the information Colin was passing on, as well as
many other topics. Two hours after he'd entered, he left with several
sheaves of parchment and a satisfied smile on his face.

As he strode up the wide main staircase towards his office, Harry was
formulating how to respond to the new information.

Dumbledore was dead. That single fact would change the war forever. The
ancient Headmaster, the man whom Harry had schemed and plotted a
hundred times about how to defeat, had been killed by a mere cursed ring,
a most ignominious ending for an admittedly great man.

He passed the information he had collected from Creevey onto his

secretary and strode into his office, the small smile on his face quickly
replaced with a frown as he saw the mountain of paperwork on his desk.
He sighed as he fell back into the dark green leather chair, picking up the
top file and reading through the short mission report held within, when he
had finished reading through it, he signed with a practiced movement, and
moved the file into the out tray.

When he had finally finished each and every file that required his
signature, the sun had long since set and the view of the DSHQ's courtyard
outside his window was lit up with gas lamps, sending a warm yellow light
onto his roof. Harry stretched, grimacing as his shoulders popped and tired
muscles protested the movement.

Finally able to think for himself, he rested his chin upon steepled fingers
and allowed his mind to drift away. Without Dumbledore, The order
possessed no single advantage over the DS. Creevey had told him that the
Weasely home had become the main location of the Rebellion, protected
under hundreds of powerful enchantments including the Fidelius, the once
humble farmstead had become a veritable fortress, with the order housing
most of their troops there.

Sadly, it was precisely due to the Fidelius charm that Harry was unable to
get anywhere near the building. Colin hadn't known the location of the
secret keeper nor even his identity, which meant that they were stuck.

Or were they?

Harry knew for a fact that Bill Weasely was a member of the order of the
phoenix, and if he was in the Burrow, then it was almost guaranteed he
would have brought his wife along with him. He hadn't spoken to Fleur for
a long time, unwilling to risk the identity of his most secret servant. But
now, with the end of the war so very nearly in his grasp, and with Fleur
potentially holding the information that he needed, he would be a fool not
to use her.

With sudden energy, he pulled open a drawer and pulled out a single sheet
of unadorned writing paper, somehow he didn't think the order would let
the part Veela off without question if she received Paper embossed with
From the Office of Harry Potter OM1, MV
Supreme Commander Imperial Forces

With a smooth hand, he penned the brief note to the woman,

My Dear Fleur,

I will keep this brief, I understand you are in a location which houses most
of the remaining Rebel troops, however this building is under the Fidelius
charm. I would like to know the identity of the secret keeper. I need to
know the approximate location of the Weasely home and I need to know
approximately how many are currently inside, including any individuals of
note.

The war is almost over, and your assistance will not be forgotten, so long
as you remember the debt that you owe to me.

With a powerful charm, Harry ensured that only Fleur would be able to
read the note, before he folded it up, slid it into an envelope and sent it by
way of Minnie to a public post owl.

Smiling slightly, Harry stood up and left via the floo. He had moved house
almost immediately after Miranda's death, and now lived in a comfy two
bedroom house in the heart of the small town of Aldeburgh. As he stepped
out of the fire, he became aware of just how late it was, the clock on the
mantle read eleven thirty, and Harry groaned as he considered that he was
expected to be up and available in less than nine hours.

With quiet footsteps he ascended the hardwood stairs, wincing every time
his heel echoed loudly against the bare wood. When he made it into his
bedroom, he sat down on the end of his bed and pulled off his boots,
sighing in relief as the supple leather released his toes, before moving onto
his stiff jacket, swearing under his breath as he attempted unsuccessfully
to undo the button at his neck.
"Struggling?" came a sleepy female voice behind him. Harry froze, turning
around slowly, a guilty expression on his face.

"Did I wake you?" he asked quietly,

"I was barely asleep, don't worry." She responded, the slight Irish accent
becoming more pronounced in her drowsiness.

"Well anyway, I'm sorry Liv." Olivia huffed under her breath before lying
back down and leaving Harry to struggle with the last of his buttons. When
he eventually got the last of his uniform off, he left it in a pile for Minnie
and then climbed into the soft bed, exhaling slowly as his back sank into
the deep mattress.

"Tough day?" Olivia asked, Harry shrugged, or attempted to at least.

"Not really, just messy…"

"You smell like smoke." She observed, Harry chuckled, glad that smoke
was all she could smell on him.

"Like I said, messy." Harry frowned, "But it won't be much longer, I

promise, I found some information today, that if true, will bring the
conclusion of this war into days and weeks, not months and years."

"That's nice." The Irish girl mumbled sleepily, Harry chuckled, kissing her
on the brow and slowly moving her head onto his chest.

The next morning Harry was rudely awoken by his alarm, the charmed
eagle statuette next to his bed screeching loudly to announce the time,
Harry opened his eyes quickly, sighing as he saw the source of his
disturbance.

He rolled out of bed, his toes curling deep into the rich carpet on his floor
as with shuffled steps he made his way over to the shower, allowing the
steaming spray to wash the last of his sleepiness away with it. The sun was
still very low on the Horizon and Olivia was asleep, having slept straight
through the alarm, Harry shook his head ruefully, before he stepped over to
his wardrobe, pulling out a pristine and perfectly pressed uniform from its
cavernous depths.

He dressed slowly, first the plain white, collarless shirt, then the black
trousers, adorned with only a single red stripe down the outside leg, before
adding the black jacket, heavily adorned with gold piping and decoration.
Finally, he pulled out a pair of black boots, which he briefly inspected for
any signs of marring, finding none, he pulled the supple leather over his
calves, before straightening out the rumpled material of the trousers.

When he was done, he stood in front of the large floor length mirror and
examined his reflection, from his cold face, to his short black hair, finally
sweeping over the immaculate uniform. Satisfied, he opened the door and
sauntered over to the floo, already looking forward to the cup of coffee
that would be waiting for him.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPPHPHPHPHPHHPHP

He noticed it as soon as he sat down, it was on top of the small pile of

paperwork that greeted him every morning, a single plain envelope with
only his name written in curving elegant calligraphy, handwriting he
recognised almost immediately.

With a steady hand he picked up the envelope and slit it open, tugging the
folded parchment out excitedly.

Harry,

I of course will give you this information, though it pains me to do so, I

only ask that you grant Bill and myself mercy, however, I know that I have
no reason to ask anything of you.

The Home is called the burrow, and Mad-Eye Moody is the current secret
keeper. It is located approximately half way between Ottery St Catchpole
and Stoats Head hill in Devon. At the time of writing this letter, there are
thirty one people staying here, including Neville Longbottom, Sirius Black
and Mad-Eye Moody himself. Kingsley I believe will be returning in eight
days' time from Newcastle.

Yours in faith

Fleur.

Harry read the letter several times, his mind deep in thought. Moody
himself was the secret keeper, which was interesting, the grizzled ex Auror
was tough, Harry knew that first hand. Even if they captured the man,
which was unlikely, the chances of them managing to get the man to talk
before the Order discovered his capture and left the Burrow was almost
zero.

Unless… Harry thought suddenly, his mind whirring as he thought of what

to do, was there any chance of catching them in transit? He sighed loudly,
massaging his temples gently, before he opened his eyes and quickly began
to pen a new letter to Fleur.

Fleur,

Thank you, Of course I will do anything I can to keep you safe and well,
the information was very useful, I merely need one more piece of
information, if the location of the Burrow were to be discovered by my
forces, to which location would you go, and are you aware of the
protections that currently defend it?

Please reply soon

When the letter was safely sent away Harry could feel his heart fluttering
nervously as he considered what he was doing, in order for his plan to
work, he would need some patience and a great deal of luck, but it could
just work.
Sitting back in his comfy chair, Harry looked at his desk and smirked as he
saw the relatively small pile of paperwork that was currently waiting for
him, hopefully he would get some time to spend with his Death Squad, the
Nephilim would be enjoying some well-earned R&R after their last week,
and Harry thought about joining them at their barracks in Bristol.

Halfway through his musings, Harry was interrupted by the sudden

slamming open of his door. He frowned, as he looked up at who had so
rudely interrupted. The glowering face of Riddle glared down at him, and
Harry almost immediately stood to attention and snapped a salute, Riddle
said nothing, merely throwing a piece of Parchment onto Harry's desk.

Harry frowned and looked down. It was the interrogation report from
yesterday, glancing up, he looked at the Dark Lord puzzled.

"Majesty?" he asked, "this is the report of my interrogation yesterday."

"Is it accurate?" the Dark Lord spat, his eyes glowing red.

"Of course, my men are very effective." Harry replied, slightly insulted
that Voldemort would question his forces abilities.

"And what will you very effective men do about this?" Riddle snarled,
Harry kept his back rigid when he replied,

"With regard to Dumbledore's death, I plan to crush the rebellion in a

single move, force the Order out of their fortress and fight them on an
open battle, catch them by surprise, get them vulnerable." When he
finished, Harry looked at the Dark Lord, expecting the man to look
mollified, however he was mistaken, for Voldemort looked more furious
than before.

"The part where the prisoner speaks of Objects Dumbledore was hunting,"
he began, clearly fighting to reign in his temper, "you must stop
Longbottom destroying them."
"Of course my Lord, However, in order to protect them, I will need to stop
Longbottom, according to Creevey, the exact nature of the objects is
known only to Longbottom, and previously Dumbledore."

"They MUST be saved!" Riddle roared, Harry blinked, but snapped off a
salute

"Yes Sir." Riddle growled under his breath but nodded, turning on his heel,
slamming the door violently behind him. Harry sat back in his chair.

Just what were these objects that mattered to the Dark Lord so much? If
their loss weakened the Riddle in any way, Harry considered that a good
thing, clearly it would be in his best interest to allow these objects to be
destroyed, or at the very least to make sure Riddle didn't get his hands on
them, Harry had seen it in the man's eyes, for the first time since Harry
had known him, Riddle seemed Vulnerable, he knew of his weakness, and
that alone excited Harry.

The next few days were spent by Harry in an agony of waiting, he was
desperately awaiting Fleurs letter, and needed to know the information it
held before he could finalise any sort of plan. Finally, two days after he
had sent out his second letter, Harry received a reply.

Harry,

In the event of the Burrow becoming compromised, the current plan is to

move to the home of Bill and I, it is called Shell cottage, in Tinworth,
Cornwall, the property is currently under heavy warding, but not the
Fidelius charm, this would only be a temporary move, before we moved to
a more permanent new building.

For your information, Mad Eye will be launching a raid on the Colchester
training facility this Friday, the attack will be small, only a dozen men or
so, and aims to collect information.

I hope this helps,

Fleur.

Harry smiled, today was Tuesday, so in order to act on this information, he

would need to act extremely fast. He touched his wand to a block of wood
on his desk.

"Yes Sir?" came the deferential tones of his secretary,

"Jonas, I want a meeting of High command, today. Make it happen."

"Yes sir." He removed his wand and lay the thin stick of Yew against the
desk, Jonas was very efficient, Harry liked the man, he never asked
questions, and never complained.

The meeting, when it was arranged was set for nine o'clock that evening,
the dozen men who made up the DS high command were assembled
around a long oak table which was easily capable of seating a two times
that number.

"Gentlemen" Harry began, his eyes skimming across the immaculate black
and gold uniforms of the men in front of him, "With the Death of Albus
Dumbledore, I believe now is the time to strike. The Order is currently
located in the Burrow, protected by the Fidelius charm, however, if the
secret keeper were to be captured, this would force them to move to a new,
far less heavily defended location."

He smiled at the growing looks of comprehension on his general's faces

and smiled. "According to my source, this new location would be Shell
cottage in Cornwall, which I am told, whilst heavily fortified, is not under
the Fidelius."

Evan Rosier looked up from the file he was reading, "Mad Eye Moody will
not give away the secret easily." He warned,

"Agreed." Murmured a few of the assembled men,

"I also agree Evan, however, he does not need to, so long as Moody is in
our custody, I believe it will be too great a risk for the Order to take by
remaining in the same place."

"How reliable is this evidence that Moody will be attacking Colchester, it

is a small facility after all." Warned General Bletchley, Harry shrugged,

"I believe it to be reliable, I haven't used this source before, but her loyalty
is beyond question."

"In that case. You have my full support Commander." Evan stated with a
small grin, Harry smirked and nodded his appreciation.

"Excellent, In that case Gentlemen, here is my plan…"

AN

Okay, what did you think? I put in the torture as a reminder that
whilst Harry is not necessarily evil, he is Dark and is part of a Dark
regime, so they would do what is necessary, please give me your
thoughts, any questions you have, and I will answer them in the next
chapter.

All my love

Marshall Angmar
30. Chapter 30

Okay, well, we are getting dangerously close to the end, perhaps three
chapters, and then I have an idea for a short continuation, maybe 4
more chapters, just to wrap things up, but then thats it, scary huh?

Anyway, enjoy, I hope you like this chapter, big things are coming, big
changes.

Chapter 28

Alastor Moody sighed in relief as he forced his wooden leg into a more
comfortable position, freeing the pinched skin of his ruined thigh. Before
him sat a dozen of his men, though he would barely consider them such,
boys and girls fresh out of Hogwarts who fancied a life of violence and
fear and battle… Gryffindor's mostly.

He growled slightly as he forced himself to stand, a lifetime of old wounds

protesting the sudden movement. When he was finally up he glared at the
group before him.

"Our target today is simple." He began, his voice a coarse growl that
penetrated the low murmur that had filled the room, "There is a small
training facility for recruits into the DS located in Colchester. The facility
is lightly guarded, and given the lack of training operations currently
there, we expect no more than ten to be stationed there."

He paused, glaring around the room again, the dozen before him were
recruits and it was his job to break them in, give them a soft target where
they could experience battle without necessarily facing too much danger.

"The plan is simple, you will separate into two groups, I shall lead the first
whilst Cedric Diggory will lead the second. My group shall engage the
facility from the front, goading the enemy into attacking us. When they
have committed, Diggory will attack them from the rear, trapping them."
Just then the door opened and the handsome form of Cedric walked in, his
light brown hair artfully messy. The recruits before him turned at the noise
and the young man waved casually, a relaxed expression on his face.

"Forgive my lateness Mad-Eye, Molly needed some help with the spuds."

"Not to worry lad, I was just going over the plan."

"Then don't let me stop you, please continue." Cedric offered, a trite
expression on his face, Moody frowned, but did as he was bid and carried
on.

"Now, given how our main advantage is surprise, it is imperative that we

wait until the last moment to throw up the anti-travel and anti-
communication wards." He looked at Cedric who nodded his agreement,

"However, as soon as the wards are up, the enemy will be alerted to our
presence and will respond to our threat. Remember that the witches and
wizards we go up against are well trained, and will defend themselves with
deadly force. Don't get cocky, don't drop your guard, because if you do,
you will die, and I won't waste my time wiping your brains of the floor
when you do. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

The group jumped, though Cedric, used to Moody's catch phrase barely
flinched. When the group was recovered Cedric took over.

"We move out in five minutes, I recommend you make any last minute
preparations, check your kit, give your wand a polish, whatever, just don't
be the idiot who turns up to a fight without his shoes, it's happened before,
and you'll never be allowed to live it down!"

The group laughed and Cedric grinned boyishly back at them, with a great
scraping of chairs, the dozen young members of the Order of the Phoenix
rose to their feet, and made their way to the door, a babble of excited
voices breaking out. Moody waited until only the two veterans remained
before he spat on the floor and shook his head.
"Children. I'm going to turn children into killers." He growled to himself
and spat again.

"We need the men, we're losing this war Alastor, we've lost eleven men
this last month, if we start turning down recruits we'd be in a dire
situation." Cedric's voice was smooth and calming, but Moody remained
sullen.

"I just wish Longbottom would hurry up, the sooner he does, the sooner we
move on the triumvirate."

"Neville's doing the best he can, Merlin knows Dumbledore left him an
impossible task, and the triumvirate can wait, they're not going anywhere."

"They aren't, but what about us? We can't fight forever, we need to finish
this soon." Cedric said nothing, which Moody took as silent agreement, the
situation was hopeless, but once Neville had destroyed all the Horcruxes,
then the order could finally move on the triumvirate of Harry Potter,
Lucius Malfoy and Lord Voldemort.

The order was convinced that without its three leaders, The Empire would
crumble, Dumbledore had been convinced right up until his death that the
new government had no foundation, and was built entirely on the
personalities of the three men.

"We'd best get out there." Cedric spoke, cutting Moody's thoughts off, the
grizzled ex Auror grunted in affirmation and together the two men left the
room, entering the large kitchen where much of the order members
currently in the Burrow were, a half dozen were crowded around the stove,
laughing as Molly Weasely told a story whilst stirring a pot.

The room was crowded but fell silent as the two men walked in.

"Good Luck Ced, Mad-Eye" called Bill Weasely from the kitchen table,
the sentiment was echoed by several others, Cedric nodded appreciatively
whilst Moody remained stoic, his magical eye spinning around the room.
At the kitchen door, they were made to wait as Fleur came through, the
beautiful blonde looked very pale, and her usually flawless skin was
marred by dark circles around her eyes, as though she hadn't been sleeping
well.

"Bon chance Cedric, Moody." She murmured quietly, not looking either in
the eye, Cedric looked after her concerned as she hurried by, but Moody
gripped his arm and dragged him out the door and into the pale mid
morning light. The dozen mages assigned to this mission were already
assembled, and Cedric quickly walked over to them, pushing Fleur to the
back of his mind, there could only be the mission. Distractions cost lives.

"Group 1 to Alastor, Group 2 to me." He called, pulling a long piece of

string from his pocket. Moody did the same and together they patiently
waited whilst everyone positioned themselves to where they could touch
the portkey.

"Ready?" Cedric called, both groups nodded and Moody smiled like a
shark.

"Activate"

The familiar feeling of a hook behind his navel caught the ex Auror and he
felt himself jerked away from the Burrow and into the spinning colours of
the Portkey. As suddenly as it had started, the group slammed into solid
ground, Moody rocked a little, but retained his balance, unlike much of his
group who fell with a splash into a dirty puddle at his feet.

It was raining in Colchester, not heavy rain, but a constant drizzle with
quickly sank into his heavy robes.

"Get up." He growled, "We move now." He led the group in silence,
quickly leaving the ruined church they had landed in and making their way
down a narrow, deserted alley. Behind them, Moody heard the sounds of
cars trains in the busy town.
Eventually, after a quarter of an hour of walking, they reached their
destination, protected under a series of Muggle repelling wards, the
training facility was simple, merely a large drill square surrounded by a
half dozen red brick, rectangular buildings.

"Disillusion yourselves" Moody whispered, quickly performing the charm

on himself. "Position yourselves along this edge of the square. Our target
is that building straight ahead, it's the instructor barracks."

There was the shuffling of feet, and Moody followed the movement of his
cohort with his Magical eye, watching carefully before he joined them in
position.

They knelt there, on the edge of the square for several minutes, before
Moody felt a buzzing in his pocket. With grasping fingers, he withdrew a
small brown sphere of wood, which vibrated on his palm, Cedric was in
position. With a steady hand, Moody removed the Wardstones from his
pocket and activated them, the sudden increase in air pressure, and the
slight feeling of static around him signifying the wards were active.

"MOVE" he bellowed, drawing his wand and standing in one motion,

before sending a powerful bombardment hex at the building. The orange
curse slammed into the wall, which crumbled away in a haze of fire and
smoke. Beside him, he heard the shouted curses and pounding feet of the
rest of the order, the multi-hued stream of curses heading at the building
flying true, and pulverizing the barracks building further.

From within the building suddenly emerged eight wizards, sloppily

dressed in DS uniforms, most with buttons undone, or still tightening
belts. The two groups met two thirds of the way down the square, and the
DS, having recovered from their initial surprise were gaining the upper
hand, having already stunned two of Moody's men.

Right on time, there came a stream of curses from the rear, and the DS
were thrown into confusion once more as Cedric led his band into the fray,
quickly pinning the disoriented Imperial troops between the two groups.
As the battle progressed, with the DS being forced into an ever tighter
circle as they worked to defend every side against the onslaught of Order
spells.

Moody felt it before he realised what it meant, the slight bumb in the air,
the crack he felt in his pocket, the Wardstones were broken, the Wards had
been destroyed.

Less than a second after they had been destroyed, Moody felt the presence
of far stronger wards going up, Wards that had nothing to do with the
Order or this operation. A feeling of dread suddenly filled his stomach,
though none of his men other than Diggory seemed to realise that anything
was amiss. With a series of pops, the source of the new Wards was
revealed. All around the square appeared the black and grey uniforms of
the DS-Death Squads, the elite of the imperial forces, tasked with hunting
down and executing any threat to the Imperial throne.

The fighting stopped almost immediately, the Order looking around in

horror at the force of around eighty that had them surrounded. The rain
continued to drizzle down, dampening any noise and making the square
eerily quiet.

Suddenly, from the front of the DS-Death Squad in front of him, Moody
spotted a solitary figure step forwards, even with the distance between
them, it was impossible to mistake the tall, green eyed figure before them.
Moody narrowed his eyes as Harry Potter surveyed the scene.

"Members of the Order of the Phoenix" he called in clipped tones, "you are
impossibly outnumbered. Surrender and you will live." The young order
members looked at Mad-Eye in terror.

"Fuck off." Moody barked back, both his eyes glaring into the dark haired
man before him, Potter smirked, the expression ice cold, his eyes glaring
at Moody with intense rage and hatred.

"I hoped you would say that." Potter replied, his voice carefully controlled.
"I want them alive." He addressed to his men, "proceed."
From around the square, came a hurricane of red stunning spells, the jets
of light slamming into the Orders shields, half of Moody's forces
collapsed immediately, unable to hold against the withering hail of
spellfire.

As Moody began to return fire and fight against the impossible odds, his
mind was racing, he had been betrayed, who was the traitor in the order?

HPHPHHPHPH HPHPHHPHPH HPHPHHPHPH HPHPHHPHPH

HPHPHHPHPH HPHPHHPHPH

It was, mused Harry, a short fight, within thirty seconds only two men
remained standing, fifteen seconds after that and only Moody remained,
his expression fierce as he poured power into his shield, the air around him
crackling at the discharge of Magical energy.

"Come on Potter!" Moody bellowed, "I know you want to fight me

yourself!"

Harry frowned, The man was correct, he had dreamed of bringing down
the one legged man for two years, comforted himself with the thought that
one day Alastor Moody would lie broken at his feet, punished for his
actions against Miranda.

"Cease fire." He ordered sharply. The men immediately stopped, and

silence once again took over the square. Moody rose from his hunched
position and glared down his mangled nose at Harry.

"Finally going to fight your own battles Potter?" the man asked, Harry said
nothing as he slowly undid the buttons of the jacket, rolling his shoulders
as he took it off. One of the men next to him quickly relieved him of the
black coat as Harry prepared himself.

"None are to interfere." He called loudly, "should I fail, your orders

remain, Alastor Moody is to be taken in alive."
With steady steps, Harry strode towards Moody, holding his wand
carefully at his side. When the two men stood twenty yards apart Harry
stopped, his eyes narrowed, Moody hadn't moved, his gaze focused
intently on Harry.

"For Miranda." He called calmly, Moody shook his head and spat on the
ground

It was Harry who cast the first spell, a bonebreaker aimed at Moody's
remaining leg, the ex Auror dodged with surprising agility and returned
fire, sending a stream of spells in Harry's direction.

For several long minutes the battle continued, Harry hurled an imaginative
selection of non-lethal spells whilst avoiding the far more dangerous
salvo's Moody felt kind enough to bestow on him. The battle was going
nowhere, Harry was limited by his desire not to kill Moody, and Moody
was unable to kill Harry as the younger man was simply the better duellist.

Harry's main concern at this point was that Moody and he would end stuck
in a deadlock, where the winner would be chosen by chance, as he sent a
severing charm at Moody's arm before swinging his wand upwards to
shield an organ expelling curse.

Following the curse, Harry suddenly spotted an opening in the grizzled

man's defence and sent a quick disarming charm, the spell sang true,
hitting Moody on his shoulder, the Aurors wand flew from his hand and
soared over Harry's head, landing ten feet behind him.

With a slight smug smile, Harry sent a stunner lazily towards Moody, only
to stop in shock when the one legged man danced elegantly away from the
jet of red and suddenly charged straight at Harry. For a second the young
commander was reminded of Viktor Krum during the Triwizard all those
years ago, but this time, Harry was too slow to bring his wand up.

With a mighty crash, Moody slammed his shoulder into Harry's chest, he
felt as his feet slipped on the slick ground beneath him and the Raven
haired man was sent spinning to the floor, he landed dazedly, wand
spinning out of his hand and far out of reach. Quickly as he could, he rose,
turning on his heel, just in time to see Moody launch a savage punch at his
gut, Harry slapped the hand away and dove at the ex Auror, tackling the
man to the ground.

This time it was Moody's turn to land awkwardly, his wooden leg getting
trapped beneath his thigh, whilst the Auror struggled to free himself,
Harry raised both his fists above his head and slammed them down on
Mad-Eyes face, the man's nose crunched, becoming even more mangled.
Raising his fists for another strike, Harry was taken off guard as Moody's
hand, holding the broken remnant of the Wardstone, hit him in the side of
his head.

The green eyed man fell dazed to the side, his vision white, head throbbing
and warm blood trickling down the side of his face. Harry shook his head
slowly, wincing as his head throbbed. When his vision returned, he saw
Moody struggling to rise, blood pouring down his face.

With a shaking hand, Harry withdrew his unadorned knife, given to him by
Miranda for Christmas nearly a decade ago, the blade had seen its fair
share of combat over the years, and Harry hoped that he would be able to
sink its magically reinforced steel into Miranda's killer.

Rising to his feet, Harry held the blade before him, Moody watched him
cautiously, his magical eye fixed on the blade, whilst the real one
remained glued to Harry's face. Moody moved first, feinting forwards, but
ducking back before the knife could reach him.

With a sweeping motion, Harry advanced, the blade scything through the
air, cutting the rain and leaving a shimmering trail in its wake. Moody
retreated again, only to dive forward, the knife getting caught between
them, Harry struggled against the weight of the larger man, but Moody
was unrelenting, Harry growled, slamming his head forward, catching
Moody square in the chin.

The older man gasped and let go, his jaw stained red. Harry clutched his
free hand to his forehead in pain, the ex-auror had a chin like steel. Moody
spat viciously, his lower incisors clattered against the stone ground.
Panting, Harry charged, Moody reacted half a second too slow, and the
knife blade plunged deep into his abdomen, with Harry's momentum, the
two men fell to the ground.

Despite the knife buried in him, Moody was far from finished, his hands
pummelled Harry's chest and head as he fought to unhinge Harry from his
position. With a frustrated yell, Harry caught Moody's head between his
hands and slammed it into the stone, before raising it and slamming it
down again.

Beneath him, Harry felt Moody go still, the fists fell limp, and Harry took
a deep shaking breath, shivering in the now downpour that was falling
around him.

He looked around, suddenly conscious of the men surrounding him, "bring

him in for processing, and for Merlin's sake keep him alive" He tried to
command, but his voice sounded far weaker than he was used to.

With shaking legs, he rose to his feet though he would have fallen if not
for the man who quickly caught him under the arm.

"Thank you Brooke." He said as strongly as he could,

"Not a problem commander, perhaps it would be best if we took you to St

Mungo's?"

"That may be necessary, stay here and ensure our prisoners are properly
taken care of, send Moody and Diggory to Headquarters, the rest can be
processed and incarcerated as usual." Harry commanded, fighting off the
growing wooziness he could feel.

"Yes sir" Brooke snapped a salute before turning his head, "Guardsman
Rayne, the commander is going to St Mungo's. Escort him."

A young guardsman immediately hurried over and replaced Brooke as the

man holding Harry upright. "Ready to leave sir?" the man asked, Harry
nodded slowly, and together the two men vanished on the spot, appearing a
second later in the foyer to the largest magical hospital in Britain.

"Sit here sir, I will find a healer shortly." Rayne offered, settling the still
woozy Harry into a comfortable seat before Hurrying to the front of the
queue, ignoring the protests of those waiting. Harry watched drunkenly as
the man fast walked back over, a young woman following closely behind
him.

"Lord Commander?" the healer asked in shock as she saw his face, Harry
grinned blearily and nodded, the healer shook her head. "Guardsmen, if
you could assist me in getting his majesty into a inspecting room?" she
asked, Rayne nodded and they went to either side of him, each taking an
arm.

"I'm not to be called Majesty anymore healer." Harry slurred out, "I'm a
humble supreme commander now."

"hmmph" the woman snorted, shaking her head angrily, "and I'm not a
fully qualified healer, still an apprentice, but we each have a true title, and
yours is that of emperor." Her voice was firm, and Harry blinked slowly,

"Dangerous talk Healer, best not to talk like that." Rayne advised, his tone
hard, the Healer swallowed nervously but nodded.

When they entered the sterile inspection room, Harry allowed himself to
be settled into an uncomfortable chair as the Healer proceeded to strip him
of his shirt and wave her wand over his chest, muttering under her breath
as she did so.

Eventually, after several minutes of quiet she rose to her full height and
looked down at the battered and bruised figure in front of her.

"An impressive collection of injuries commander, not really consistent

with magic, may I ask what exactly you were doing?"
"I believe that may be classified information Ma'am." Rayne spoke from
by the door, Harry shrugged slowly, but leant forward conspiratorially,

"He's probably right, but you should see the other guy." He tried to wink
roguishly, but the action only caused his head to throb painfully, the healer
chuckled,

"Well, aside from a rather severe concussion, you have a fractured skull,
several broken fingers, two broken ribs and ligament damage to your
shoulder." She shook her head, "I hope it was worth it."

"It was." Harry murmured, accepting a large bright red potion from the
healer. He drank the foul concoction with a grimace, and sighed in relief as
the pounding in his head died down. As he put down the empty goblet, the
healer handed him another, then another, and then another. After he had
finished them all, the woman began to gently run her wand across his
various injuries.

Harry smiled in relief as the aching in his fingers, chest and ribs was
healed. Once she was finished, Harry stood up,

"Thank you Healer." He offered, the young woman shook her head,

"There is no way I can allow you to leave in your present condition sir,
you need to stay for observation for at least twenty four hours." Her voice
was firm, her tone broking no further argument, or so she wanted. Harry
stood straight, his eyes ice cold.

"Ma'am, this is it. Tomorrow I want you to think back on how you tried to
stop me, and thank Merlin I refused." With a curt nod, he signalled to
Guardsmen Rayne and together the two of them left the room, leaving a
speechless healer standing in shock.

HPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHPHP

HPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHPHP
"Good to see you Harry, heard you had a little run in with Moody." Rosier
greeted, Harry smiled and shook his head, any remaining aches and pains
had long since vanished after a mouthful of elixir.

"I made it, he is still in our custody?"

"He is, hasn't said a word though."

"Not that that should surprise anyone." Harry mused, Rosier chuckled,

"Not that it matters." Evan paused, squinting at the afternoon sun, "any
word from your man inside the order"

Harry shook his head, "She is under orders to tell us when they decide to
leave, I have two Death Squads around Shell cottage at all times, so far no
movement."

"They will move though?"

"They have to, it's too dangerous to stay still, Moody could break at any
time, my agent is confident."

"I hope you're right, I'm getting bored of this war, and so is the public."
The older man's tone was light, but the meaning was clear, Harry shrugged
his shoulders and straightened a crease in his jacket.

"We're nearly there." He said simply, Rosier looked at him as though

expecting more, but Harry remained stoic, and eventually Evan nodded.
The two man sat in silence on either side of Harry's desk, watching the
London sky as they waited for news.

With a sudden flash of white light the room was thrown into uproar. Harry
rose out of his chair, hand in his wand, whilst Evan knocked his chair over
in his haste to stand.

With a bang the door slammed open, revealing two of Harry's guards who
had their wands out and ready, eyes wide. As the light receded, the source
was revealed, a translucent white sphinx was standing by the window, its
head cocked as it stared at Harry.

"Harry," the Patronus spoke with Fleur's voice, "The order has become
aware of Moody's capture and they are currently summoning all field
operatives to the burrow before we leave for shell cottage. Kingsley and
Black are to perform the Fidelius once everyone has arrived. Bill thinks
we will leave within the hour."

There was silence within the room and everyone stared as the sphinx faded
into thin air, leaving no trace it had ever existed. The silence drew out,
neither Harry, Evan nor the two guards moving a muscle. It was Harry who
recovered first,

"Summon High Command immediately, this is a top priority order, and

they are to drop everything. Send an Alert Readiness Order to Death
Squads 1 through to 10. Find Lieutenant Brooke that he is to enact
Operation Camlann. GO!"

The two guards hurriedly snapped off salutes and hurried out, the door
closing behind them. Harry retook his seat, Evan did the same, the thirty
year old Death Eater looked as excited as Harry felt, the man's grey eyes
shining brightly, his cheeks flushed, he looked alive.

The minutes snailed by, but finally the door opened again, revealing the
rest of the DS commanders.

"Lord Commander Potter, Commander Rosier, Is it time?" asked

Bletchley, his cheeks flushed, Harry nodded and the arrivals smiled
broadly.

"I've issued ARO's to Death Squads 1 through to 10, which should be

enough given our estimates of their strength, However, I want an
additional five squads on standby, ready to provide reinforcement if
necessary."

"When do they plan to move?"

"Within the hour, I want us to work under the assumption we have 25
minutes." Harry stated, his eyes flicking to the grandfather clock in the
corner.

"Yes sir." Bletchley nodded, "Permission to see to that now sir?"

"Of course, go." Harry turned to Evan,

"Rosier, go and take command of the ready units, I want them to move
now."

Evan rose and left quickly, his hands rubbing together maniacally. Harry
took a deep breath.

"Commander Dawlish, Please inform the Imperial office that Operation

Camlann is ago." The tall wiry man nodded and stood from his seat. Harry
nodded his head slowly.

"Gentlemen, this is it, I believe we may end the war."

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HPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHPHP

Fleur was scared, no Fleur was terrified. All around her people were
running around, shouting indiscriminately at each other, some packing
hurriedly, whilst other still were attempting headcounts.

Every minute or so another member would rush through the door, having
received the message to get back to headquarters.

"Are you alright Fleur?" came a voice from her side, the stunning blonde
looked to the speaker and let out a small smile,

"Yes Hermione, I am well."

"It's alright to be scared you know" the brown haired girl said with a smile,
"Goodness knows I am."
Fleur chuckled, and allowed the girl to lead her towards the living room.
"Do you when we are to leave?"

"Kingsley said less than forty five minutes about five minutes ago."
Hermione stated immediately, "Are you packed?"

"Oui, I did not need much, most of my things are still at Shell Cottage."

"Of course, It is very good of you and Bill to let us stay at your place."
Hermione said kindly, Fleur blushed,

"It is the least we could do to help, besides, it is only temporary."

"True enough I…" Hermione was cut off as they heard a shout echo
through the house.

"Fleur!"

"In here Bill" the French woman shouted, a few seconds later the eldest
Weasely stuck his head around the corner,

"There you are!" he stated with relief, "I thought I had lost you for a
moment, nothing important, just to let you know we're leaving in half an
hour." Fleur nodded and attempted another smile.

"I really don't see the rush." Hermione stated with a huff, "It's not like
Mad-Eye will say anything, he's too tough for that!"

Fleur attempted to calm her racing heartbeat by taking steady breaths, "It
is for safety. I for one don't plan to die today"

Hermione looked at the Veela curiously, before nodding her head slowly.
"It's going to be fine Fleur, we'll be protected by a new Fidelius in a new
location within the hour, you don't have to be frightened." The bookworm
patted Hermione on the hand slowly, and together the two sat in silence.

Twenty minutes later a shout sound like a gong was heard, followed by a
magically magnified voice, "ALL ORDER MEMBERS ARE TO REPORT
TO THE YARD IMMEDIATELY, PORTKEYS DEPART IN FIVE
MINUTES. EVERYONE TO THE YARD"

Fleur and Hermione stood up quickly, and exiting the empty room found
themselves once again caught in the middle of the crush of Order
Members.

"Hermione! Over here!" called Ron from over by the stairs, Neville stood
next to him, the Boy Who Lived and redhead were being pushed by the
crowd, a large rucksack was thrown over one shoulder and he looked very
intense as he attempted to forge a path through.

Eventually the group managed to make their way through the house and
were standing in the Yard, Fleur spotted the familiar form of her husband
and made her way over to him, twining her fingers into his as she waited.
As the crowd leaving the house thinned and eventually stopped, Kingsley
stepped forward to the crowd, which Fleur guessed numbered around
eighty.

"Given the fact that Mad-Eye has recently been captured by the Empire,
we have decided that it is necessary to move to a new location, Shell
Cottage. Once we arrive, the location is going to be put under the Fidelius
immediately, once we are settled we will return to normal operations."

When he was finished he drew out of his pocket half a dozen six foot long
pieces of rope and handed them into the crowd. There was the normal
jostling for position as everyone struggled to get a finger onto a rope,
however eventually the group was ready.

"Is everyone touching the rope?" Kingsley asked in his booming voice, "In
that case, Activate!"

Fleur felt the hook behind her navel and the familiar lurch as she was
catapulted through the air and away from the burrow. As she travelled she
thought about what would be waiting there, it was a possibility that Harry
wouldn't have been able to get ready in time, after all, it must be difficult
to move lots of men somewhere with only an hours' notice.
Fleurs greatest fear was that her friends would refuse to surrender, if Harry
even gave them that chance, and be killed, Harry had assured her that she
and Bill would survive, but what of Hermione? Ron? Sirius or Kingsley?
What would happen to them?

When her feet slammed into the hard ground she saw nothing to arouse her
suspicions, they had landed just next to the house, and from what she
could see, nothing had changed from the last time she had seen it, she
nearly sobbed in relief that maybe her friends wouldn't be killed today. As
she stood there on the sandy dirt, she felt a prickle run across her neck and
looked up.

Next to her, Bill had gone rigid, his wand drawn and his eyes narrowed,
similarly all around the group of Order Members, wands had been drawn
and people were craning their necks around to see what was happening.

Suddenly, someone screamed, and it was immediately clear why, from all
around them people had dropped their disillusionment charms, revealing
hundreds upon hundreds of black clad figures, all with drawn wands, all
pointing those wands into the midst of the Order Mass.

At the front of the group, Fleur spied a familiar Black Haired, green eyed
man, his wand was held loosely at his side, and a triumphant smile was
spread across his face. Fleur released the sob she had held for so long, it
was over.

Okay, there you go. What did you think? give me your thoughts,
queries and criticisms.

Lots of Love
31. Chapter 31

Okay, I think a fairly quick update, for which I hope you are grateful!
It's an important one, and really signals the start of our final story
arc, which I hope you have seen is coming, I haven't been too subtle
implying it is coming!

As we approach the end of the story I have a question... from

everything you know of the character of Harry Potter, will he retake
the throne for himself? Or will he merely depose Voldemort? leave
your opinions in a review, as I am pondering deeply!

Enjoy!

Chapter 29

"I must congratulate you." Rang out Harry's voice as he addressed the
order, "for such a small organisation you have surpassed my expectations.
You have fought the good fight, and fought it bravely. You should be
proud." He paused and surveyed the surrounded group before him, "But it
is over, you have lost, now please, do not throw away your lives, drop your
wands and I swear you will face a fair trial."

The group murmured quietly at Harry's words, and almost as one their
eyes turned to where Kingsley and Amelia stood at the front, eager to see
what their two leaders would do.

"There is no honour in dying on a beach in the middle of nowhere, you will

not become martyrs." Harry called loudly, "You will be lost to history,
forgotten relics of a forgotten war. Surrender, please, enough have died
already."

At the front of the group, Kingsley Shacklebolt nodded in Harry's

direction, "You give your word?" he asked, his deep voice rolling richly
over the sand, Harry nodded.
"I do, I do swear that each and every one of you will have a trial, before
either a civil or military tribunal." Evidently that was enough for the ex-
Auror, for he stretched out his wand and let the thin stick of wood fall to
the ground beneath him, where it landed with a muffled thud. Behind him
the rest of the order did the same, their expressions apprehensive, tears
streaming down several of their cheeks.

Harry smiled to himself, the expression carried no happiness, only relief,

relief and acceptance. "Guards, arrest these people, take them to HQ for
processing." He ordered, and the stone faced guardsmen who surrounded
the Order cautiously approached the defeated group, their wands held aloft
and eyes ready.

Harry joined them, walking amongst the tired and resigned prisoners as
they were placed in magic suppression cuffs and forced into columns by
their captors, As Harry strode amongst them, he spied a familiar head of
blonde hair and made a beeline for the Quarter-Veela.

Her husband stood next to her, his hands already bound, his face showed
his pain and anger at his failure. The man who had shackled him moved
onto Fleur, a pair of cuffs in his hands.

"Wait." Harry commanded, and the guard looked up surprised,

"Sir?" he asked in puzzlement, Harry merely motioned with his hand,

dismissing the confused guard who moved along to the next prisoner.

"What do you want?" Bill spat at Harry, the young commander shrugged
his shoulders and stared in silence at the couple for a few moments, Bill
seemed to squirm under Harry's intense gaze whilst Fleur seemed
unwilling to look him in the eye.

"Thank you." He finally said, "I hope you understand how important what
you did was." Harry's voice was soft and the emotion behind it genuine.

"You have nothing to thank me for." Bill stated angrily, though his tone
was speckled with confusion. Next to him, Fleur finally returned his gaze
and gave a hesitant smile.

"I know." She whispered, "It was important, it doesn't make it easier
though."

"No, I suppose not."

"Fleur, What did… no… Fleur, what did you do?" Bill asked from next to
her, his voice shaking slightly, "You… you're working with him… with…
You-know-who?"

"I'm sorry Bill, I had to" Fleur pleaded, her voice hysterical, "You have to
tru…"

"You're a fucking traitor!" Bill gave a pained cry, "How long have you
been a spy?" he yelled, spit flying from his mouth as he yelled at his wife.

"Bill please!" Fleur sobbed, "just listen…"

The red head cut her off again, "Shut up, I don't want to listen to any of
your lies, you Imperial Whore!" Fleur wailed loudly and clutched tightly
at Bill's robes, trying to pull him over to her. Bill swore loudly and pushed
her hard and she fell away, landing in Harry's arms.

"Never talk to me again." Bill stated firmly, his voice low and eyes
burning. "This is over." Turning on his spot, the eldest Weasely strode
away, joining the back of one of the lines waiting to be portkeyed to
Headquarters.

Fleur stayed pressed into Harry's side, sobbing heavily into the stiff fabric
of his jacket, whilst Harry stroked her back softly, waiting for the tears to
subside.

"You did the right thing Fleur." Harry murmured, "If you hadn't acted
dozens more would have died and the suffering would have continued." He
pressed a soft kiss onto the top of her hair, "You're a hero, whatever your
husband says."
Fleur continued to cry as Harry held her tightly, "I'll talk to Bill, make sure
he understands you were forced to help me, don't worry, If I can get him to
see reason then he will be released in a few days."

"I wasn't forced…" Fleur choked out in-between sobs, Harry raised his
eyebrows slightly,

"I'm… but the life-debt?" He responded confused, Fleur looked up at him,

her face tear stricken and eyes red from tears.

"I wanted to finish it… the war, it was 'orrible, people dying, and not
knowing if Bill would be next, I was grateful when you wrote, as it meant
that maybe it would be over… finally, and… I wanted to 'elp… you"

"Fleur, I…"

"Non, don't, I promised I would 'elp you and I did, that is all, please, leave
it at zat."

Harry was silent, staring down at Fleur's head, eventually he nodded, and
carefully pried the weeping woman away from his chest.

"Captain Walsh." He called, a short, stickily built man strode over

immediately,

"Yes Sir?" he asked, his northern accent strong.

"Captain, If you could please escort Madame Delacour to my office.

Afford her all courtesies to ensure she is comfortable."

"Sir? Shouldn't she be processed?" the man asked curiously,

"Negative." Harry responded, his tone ensuring the man obeyed at once.

"Understood. Ma'am, if you would like to come with me?" he offered,

Fleur took his proffered arm with one last look at Harry, who smiled
encouragingly.
The rest of the operation took less than an hour to complete, and when
Harry finally re-entered the austere Granite headquarters of the DS, it was
still only mid-afternoon. The young commander felt exhausted, his back
protesting from so long spent on his feet, and whilst his body was fully
recovered from his ordeal with Moody, his mind was weary and he
desperately wanted a very strong drink.

He descended the staircase to the prison blocks, and saw that nearly every
one of the plain doors on the corridor had a straight backed guard stood
outside it.

"William Weasely?" He asked,

"Here sir. Cell 14." Came the reply, Harry walked over to the door,

"How's he doing?" Harry quizzed the guard, the man shrugged,

"He only arrived fifteen minutes ago sir, but he was… uncooperative and
we had to restrain him." Harry nodded and gestured for the guard to unlock
the door.

With scarcely a creek, the magically reinforced metal door swung open,
revealing the sterile white room beyond. Bill was sat before the desk, his
body chained tightly to the chair he was sat on, which was itself chained to
the floor. Harry strode in, the heel of his boots loud against the sheer stone
of the floor.

"Good afternoon Bill." Harry greeted warmly, the elder man said nothing,
but Harry was unconcerned, "I imagine you must be rather upset right
now." He paused again as the elder redhead looked at him as though he
were a fool,

"Understandable! Of course understandable" Harry attempted to pacify the

man, "you think your wife betrayed you, your little rebellion was crushed
and you face either spending the rest of your life at the mercy of
Dementors… or death, neither of which are particularly pleasant options
now are they?"
Harry chuckled as he saw the veins on the redheads neck bulge as he
swallowed, "If you talk, there is a chance I can help you… either a reduced
sentence or merely banishment, but you have to help me Bill, you have to
work with me."

"Fuck off." The man finally spoke.

"Fine, I didn't expect results, but before I go, you need to understand that
Fleur didn't betray you."

"Save it…" Bill began, but Harry slammed his hand on the table, the
redhead jumped and stared at Harry surprised,

"Do you remember anything about the Tri-Wizard tournament?" He asked,

his eyes burning into Bills intently, "Specifically the second task and how
Fleur did?"

"What? The lake?" he paused for a second, then his eyes widened, "when
you…"

"Saved her life." Harry smiled coldly, "Yes, funny how these things
happen." Bill's mouth had fallen open,

"And a Veela life debt…" he began, the chains clinking as he slumped in

his chair, "You forced her to betray everything she believed in. you… you
bastard."

Harry chuckled coldly, thankful that Bill had understood, "You should
really have figured that out earlier William, Good men don't take
countries."

There was silence between them as Harry smiled coldly and Bill simmered
softly, finally he spoke, "Fleur has not been arrested, and will not be. She
has asked… begged me, to let you free," Bill looked up in surprise,
"Something I can only justify If. You. Help. Me." Harry finished, leaning
forward in his seat and coldly enunciating each word.
"I can't…" Bill whispered, his brown eyes glistening. Harry sat back,
sighing as he shook his head. With slow movements he stood up and
walked to the door, which opened before him,

"Wait!" came the sudden cry, Harry turned and saw the desperate face of
his prisoner, "Can I see her? Fleur."

The commander shrugged, "We'll see." With a loud clang the door was
closed behind him.

Harry's next stop was Cedric's cell, the Ex-Hufflepuff hadn't been
considered a major intel source and so mostly had been left to his own
devices, when Harry entered the cell, it was to find the handsome young
man leant against the wall, his head resting on his knees. He looked up
when Harry entered and smiled ruefully,

"Apparently I didn't learn my lesson." The young man spoke, his tone
light, Harry frowned lightly

"And what lesson was that?"

"Right after that duel, back in seventh year where you trounced me,"
Cedric began, Harry chuckled as he remembered,

"When I broke your leg right?" he asked, Cedric winced theatrically, and
clutched his thigh,

"That's the one" he laughed lightly, "Anyway, after that duel, I swore never
to go head to head against you again… I knew it wouldn't end well for
me."

"That's a good rule" Harry deadpanned, Cedric shook his manacled hands
and shrugged,

"I was always a slow learner." Harry sat down in one of the empty chairs
and looked at his childhood friend for a long time. Cedric returned his
gaze, his face showing none of the fear he must have been feeling.
"When did it come to this Ced?" Harry asked,

"Dad." The handsome man responded immediately, "He was going to join
the Order, but he was pretty useless with a wand… not exactly young
either, I persuaded him to let me join instead" Cedric shrugged and the two
lapsed back into silence for a while,

"Was I really that bad?" Harry asked curiously, his voice didn't sound upset
or worried, only curious, Cedric laughed loudly,

"Sweet Merlin Harry, are you questioning yourself?! Things have

changed," Harry laughed too, and when they had stopped Cedric wiped his
eye, "Honestly Harry? You were the best thing to happen to Britain in all
the history that I know."

"And yet… you chose to try to destroy what I made?" Harry asked, once
again sounding only curious, Cedric looked pained as he tried to come up
with an answer,

"No… not really… not at all actually, I actually voted for you… I guess I
was prepared to swap with Dad because… Riddle."

"Explain." Harry requested, the Hufflepuff frowned, holding his hands out
in frustration,

"He… I guess… wasn't you?" he frowned, "I think… we voted you in, and
then less than three weeks later you leave government… people felt…
betrayed, and Riddle, he doesn't seem to care I guess, he rules with force,
and people feel like they were tricked." Cedric shrugged again and Harry
frowned,

"Do many feel this way?" he asked, "Feel that I betrayed them?"

"uhh… Yeah, I think so, they don't blame you though, you're Harry Potter,
I think most people just want you back in charge, they know you've been
fighting in the war, and I reckon that's made half of them love you more,
but… you are… I don't know, Harry Potter, founder of the Empire, the
least you could do is rule it"

Harry looked at him surprised, his mouth slightly open as he looked at his
old friend in surprise, "So… you rebelled against me… to get me in
power?" he asked, Cedric shrugged,

"I guess so… pretty insane hmm?" he laughed, Harry merely shook his
head with a bemused expression on his face,

"Extremely Ced. But I am sorry that it ended up like this." The two men
immediately sobered up, Cedrics laugh dying on his lips,

"Yeah…" Cedric coughed, "me too." They sat in silence for a long while,
eventually Harry stood up,

"I'll… I'll see you later yeah?" Harry asked, Cedric nodded

"Sure, I'm not going anywhere…" Harry laughed at the poor joke and with
one last nod to his friend left the room, taking a deep breath when he
entered the corridor.

When he felt back to normal, Harry turned and with rapid footsteps strode
up the long corridor back to the stairs. In only a few minutes he was
approaching the corridor to his office. As he walked across the deep
carpet, Harry couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation build as he
thought about the cabinet filled with bottles in his office, spending an hour
or two relaxing with several glasses of Dwarven aged Cognac.

As his door came into view, Harry suddenly realised that such a moment
would be impossible as he spied two men, clad in Black with purple
piping, though he couldn't see it at the distance he was, he knew that the
two men would have the crossed sword and wand of the Imperial Guard
emblazoned on their collar.

Harry could have growled, The Dark Lord had decided to come and pay
him a visit now? He had seen the man twice in two years, and now the
Emperor decided to grace Harry with his presence twice in two weeks?
Behind him, he felt his own four guards stiffen as they realised who must
be within the room, but Harry was undeterred.

As he approached the doors, Harry felt his mood worsen when neither of
the two guards deigned to salute him, whilst Riddle's Imperial Guard were
technically under the command of the Emperor only, they were still very
much a part of the DS and Harry expected to be shown the respect his
position was owed.

With a forceful motion Harry opened his door and stalked inside, to his
irritation Riddle was sat behind his desk, flicking through a folder which
Harry knew he had left inside his locked drawer.

"Your Majesty." Harry offered crisply, bowing from the waist. Riddle
looked up and smiled slightly,

"Aha, the man of the hour." He drawled, "Congratulations."

"Thank you." Harry replied, keeping his eyes well above the dark lord's

"Longbottom is captured?" he asked, Harry nodded and drew a roll of

parchment from an inside jacket pocket,

"The full list of those captured today, ranked in what we thought of as

order of importance."

Voldemort took the sheet and unrolled it, crimson eyes scanning its
contents, "Bones, Moody, Black, Shacklebolt, Longbottom, several
Weasely's…" he looked up at Harry and smirked, "an impressive haul."

Harry said nothing, only nodding his head slightly, Riddle frowned, "Have
any of them told you anything?"

"They have been our captives for less than an hour, I'm confident that
given time they will reveal all." Voldemort didn't seem satisfied,
"What of the objects Longbottom was sent to destroy, have you recovered
them?"

"Not yet my Lord."

"Find them. That is your first priority."

"As you wish Majesty." Harry replied, forcing his tone to remain neutral.
Voldemort sat silent for a moment,

"As for the rest of the prisoners, I want them interrogated then executed,
all of them, all enemies of the empire die." His voice was hard and cruel,
his face twisted into a leer.

"I cannot do that Majesty." Harry replied,

"I beg your pardon?" Riddle replied, his voice low and cold,

"I said, I can't do that." Harry replied, hiding his dislike of the man
opposite him behind professional indifference.

"You can't do that?" the Dark Lord asked furiously, "How dare you, you
will obey me Lord Commander, or you will be replaced with someone who
will."

"I cannot sir, I promised them a fair trial, it was the condition of their
surrender." Harry was unyielding, though he knew he skirted a very
dangerous ledge, The Dark Lord was probably already looking to replace
him, and Harry would rather not die just yet.

"I am the EMPEROR!" Riddle roared, rising from his seat, "And I will not
abide disrespect!"

"I made an oath, and cannot sanction their executions unless validated by a
court of law."

Riddle glared at Harry, who stared resolutely at the wall above his head.
There was silence, the only sound the Dark Lords deep breathing as he
glowered. Finally, the emperor released a slow breath and nodded.

"Very well, they will be tried, and seeing as the punishment for treason is
death, I am sure they will be walking through the veil soon." Harry nodded
but said nothing, remaining stood crisply at attention as the Dark Lord
stalked across the room and slammed the door shut behind him. Harry
released the breath he had been holding and almost immediately walked
over to his drinks cabinet.

Pulling out the first bottle he saw, he read the label, Dalmore, Pure Malt
Whiskey 1920. Harry smiled as he looked down at the amber liquid and
poured himself a large glass, which he sipped appreciatively, basking in
the feeling of the drink going down his throat.

With the bottle in one hand and the crystal glass in the other, Harry made
his way over to his desk and sank down into his chair, sighing as the soft
leather enveloped him.

Just then, the door opened, revealing a nervous looking Fleur. Harry waved
her in and invited her to sit, "I spoke to Bill" he told her causing the
stunning blonde looked up at him cautiously,

"What did he say?"

"I let him know that you were forced to obey me thanks to our little bond,
he doesn't seem to hold it against you anymore." Harry told her, Fleur
looked troubled and her eyes fell to her hands, which she was rubbing
nervously in her lap.

"But… that is only part of the truth." She whispered, Harry shrugged,

"It's the part that matters if you want to keep your marriage Fleur." He
pointed out, the girl looked broken and Harry sighed, "Fleur I'm sorry, but
either I am the villain to Bill or you are, this way the two of you have a
future."
The Veela shook her head, "I can't let you lie to him, you have changed the
world Harry, whatever you think, whatever Bill thinks, you are a good
person and I am not ashamed that I chose to stand with you."

"Thank you Fleur." Harry said carefully, hiding just how much the girls
words had affected him, "If you want to, I can have someone take you
down to Bills cell, you can talk to him there if you like. Sort things out."
Fleur nodded and stood up, she hesitated by the door but said nothing,
closing the door softly behind her. Harry sighed as he saw another file
suddenly appear in his growing tray of incoming reports.

With a touch of his wand to the square of wood on his desk, he opened the
connection to his assistant outside,

"Yes Sir?" came the voice,

"I'm going to leave early today, now in fact, please reschedule all of my
remaining meetings today, and see if you can't make any progress on the
in-tray."

"Yes Sir." Came the reply, Harry smiled and stood up, emptying the glass
of whiskey in a single large gulp, within seconds he had crossed to the
fireplace and vanished in a flash of green flames before stepping out into
the humble living room of where he called home.

"I wasn't expecting you home so early." Olivia said from the sofa, Harry
shrugged,

"Busy day, I thought I'd escape."

"Did you catch them?" she asked, Harry nodded and the Irish girl smiled,
"Well done, what will you do now?"

"Not sure, I rather think our Good Emperor would like to see me killed
after today though." He chuckled darkly to himself and collapsed onto the
sofa, undoing the buttons on his jacket as he did so, Olivia gasped from
where she was sat and stared at him with wide eyes,
"What did you do?" she asked in shock, Harry waved a hand casually,

"Didn't let him order me about as much as he can everyone else…"

"Will he…" she mimed murdering someone and Harry laughed,

"Much as he may want to, I am still too popular to murder, I think he will
shove me off to another department where I wield less power than I
currently do, probably the Department of International Cooperation, or
maybe Hogwarts, I don't know."

The Irish girl relaxed, "Good." Was all she said, Harry sighed deeply and
closed his eyes. His relationship with the Irish girl was complicated to say
the least, whilst he viewed them as little more than friends who shared a
bed, it was becoming clear that she expected more from Harry than that,
something he was in no particular mood to give.

"I'm going to bed." He announced, rolling off the sofa and slowly rising to
his feet, Olivia shook her head,

"Good night then, I won't join you for about four hours, do you want to eat
anything later?" Harry nodded tiredly and the girl smiled, "Then I will
bring something up, I was thinking Ravioli tonight." Harry nodded tiredly,
his legs having already carried him nearly halfway out of the room.

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Peace in Our Time!

By James Monroe, Criminal Editor
June 7th

The Department of the Interior and the Department of Magical Defence

today released a joint statement that the Rebellion of the Order of the
Phoenix has been defeated. Reportedly the organisation was ambushed by
a force led by Supreme Commander Harry Potter and surrendered without
a single spell being fired. Commander Potter earlier stated
For the last two years, our nation has been under attack from an enemy
who attacked both military and civilian targets indiscriminately, those
people have now been brought to justice and will be tried for their crimes
against the Empire.

Commander Potter (23) also stated that the trials for the captured Order
members would begin next month, with Amelia Bones, Previously head of
the now defunct Department of Magical Law Enforcement facing the
courts first.

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Order of the Phoenix Sentenced

William Gilbert, Justice Correspondent
August 5th

Yesterday, at midday, after over a month of court proceedings, the results

of the cases against the members of the Order of the Phoenix, The tribunal,
consisting of representatives from the Military, the Unspeakable's, the
Imperial Office and the Wizengamot, reviewed the cases of over one
hundred and fifty prisoners who were captured over the course of the war.

Despite a popular calling for all the traitors to be executed, the tribunal
instead only sentenced the leaders of the Organisation to death, including
Sirius Black, Amelia Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody, Neville
Longbottom, Ronald Weasely, and Hermione Granger, the rest of the Order
have been sentenced to between 6 months and Life in Azkaban.

There have been protests that the sentences were too lenient towards many
of the convicted, However Harry Potter today spoke up in defence of the
Tribunals results.

Today, the last aspect of the War has been dealt with, many of the Witches
and Wizards who fought against us were forced to fight for an ideal they
did not believe in… with the end of the war we can look towards peace and
stability, not more death and pain for more families.
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August 7th

It was a sombre atmosphere in the Hall of Death. The normally quiet

Department of Mysteries had become host to over a hundred members of
the DS, Wizengamot and Imperial Office. Harry sat at the front between
Evan and Bletchley, all quietly awaiting the executions of the Order
leaders.

Before him sat the arch and the veil of death, it was an innocuous thing,
unadorned with decoration and looking so old it seemed a miracle not to
have collapsed, hanging from the archway fluttered a ragged black curtain
which fluttered despite the absence of a breeze.

The room suddenly hushed as the prisoners were escorted into the room
between two files of Guards who marched in perfect formation, the stamp
of their boots echoing loudly around the large rectangular room. Just
before the veil, the group stopped and Harry stood up.

"You have each been found guilty of Treason, High Treason, Sedition,
Conspiracy to commit acts of terror, Murder, Wanton destruction,
unauthorised use of the Unforgivable curses and crimes against wizard
kind. For these crimes, you have been sentenced to death by the Veil."

From the middle of the group, Harry heard a sob and with a start
recognised Hermione Granger, her usually frizzy hair fell limp and she
stood hand in hand with Ron Weasely, who was staring straight ahead
resolutely.

"Alastor Moody. Do you have any last words?" Harry asked, Moody spat
on the floor,

"My only regret is that I didn't get to kill you before I died Potter." The
man growled, Harry nodded to the guards next to him, and they clasped
Moody's arms. The scarred man shook them off with a powerful jerk and
stepped forward on his own, eyes closed as he walked through the arch, he
did not exit from the other side.

"Amelia Bones." He called, the stern Witch stepped forward and looked
around the Hall,

"Tyranny is not Government." She stated proudly before she too stepped
through the veil, the executions continued after Bones with Black, who
railed at Harry and The Dark Lord for over a minute before he was pushed
through the veil.

Eventually only Longbottom remained, Harry was impressed by his

resolve, despite just watching the deaths of his two best friends, he stood
tall, the only sign of his fear being the gentle shaking of his hands.

"Neville Longbottom." Harry called and Neville stepped forward. "Any

last words?"

"To anyone who looks to finish what I started, I will simply say that I have
destroyed all bar one of the Horcruxes, Only Nagini the snake remains,
Our Emperor, Lord Voldemort is for the first time vulnerable, destroy the
snake, then he is as mortal as I am."

Neville's speech had been rushed, the words tumbling over themselves to
get out, Voldemort, who was sat in pride of place at the centre of the
stands screamed in rage and with a vicious flick of his wand blasted
Neville off his feet and through the veil, the boy-who-lived's screams were
instantly silenced as he vanished, leaving just the echo which bounced
around the room in the silence of the Hall.

"None will speak again of what he just said!" Riddle screamed, his voice
high and with a definite edge of panic, "If anyone so much as breathes a
word of it I will have them flayed alive!" with a furious yell the Dark-Lord
turned on his heel and left, leaving a shocked hall behind him.

"Brooke." Harry murmured, leaning behind himself, "Ensure that everyone

in the hall gives a vow of silence never to reveal the information they
heard today, it would be best if none were to face the emperor's wrath due
to a slip of the tongue."

Brooke saluted quickly from his seat before organising for the guards in
the hall to prevent anyone from leaving without having given their
magical oath.

Despite his relaxed attitude, Internally Harry's mind was spinning,

Horcruxes, The Dark Lord had made more than one Horcrux, Harry had no
clue as to how many, but if Neville was to be believed, only one remained,
Nagini, the enormous snake Voldemort was reputed to keep by his side
nearly all the time.

Harry smiled coldly, he finally knew the Dark Lords secret, the man was
fearful because for the first time in decades the man was vulnerable,
whilst he had no intention of openly fighting the Dark Lord himself, he
had no problem with pushing another into such a position.

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Harry Potter resigns.

Edgar Herbert, Personalities correspondent.
August 13th

Today it appears, marks the end of the political career for one of the most
remarkable figures in British Wizarding History, at a rally in Newcastle
today, Supreme Commander the Lord Harry Potter announced his
resignation from the Department of Magical Defence where he has served
with distinction for the past two years. Mr Potter gave no reason for his
dramatic resignation, which comes just weeks after his moment of
spectacular success, that of capture of the Order of the Phoenix in June.

"Everything must end" Mr Potter said to the shocked crowd, "I have spent
two years now with violence and Death, and I am ready to leave that life
behind me."
It was later announced that the Lord Potter would be joining the staff at
Hogwarts to teach, whether this was to be a permanent placement or
merely a temporary sabbatical from his career of dedicated public service
is as of yet unknown, the Imperial Office is yet to comment on the issue.

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Our Insecure Emperor?

Anonymous
August 17th

It needn't really be stated thatwe here at Underground Magazine are not

exactly popular with our benevolent government, there third attempt to
shut down our press last week rather hammered that fact home, however,
even we were shocked when Harry Potter was given a kick up the arse and
shunted out of the public eye.

You may remember from our July issue that we are really rather fond of
Harry Potter, after all he cleansed Britain of Corruption, Cronyism and
introduced a very efficient and small budget ministry, all things we have
noticed that the Good Emperor Riddle has decided actually detract from
the Ministry and has subsequently reintroduced.

Perhaps we are wrong, perhaps Harry truly did wake up one morning and
realise his calling was to shout at children, however, for someone such as
Harry Potter, once an Emperor and Commander of all the forces in Britain
to resign to become a teacher... well to us that seems suspect.

The general consensus for Underground Magazine Is that Riddle is scared

of Harry's popularity, after all, nobody elected him, nobody sings his name
in the pub and nobody tells stories about how the great Emperor Riddle
saved the damsel in distress from an evil dragon, No. Truly Thomas Riddle
is most probably rather aware of Harry Potter, and we fancy rather
unnerved by the fact that Harry once commanded over 1300 trained wands
in the Ministry of Magical Defence.
Whatever his reasons for removing the true Emperor from his position, we
all hope that Lord Potter pulls his thumb out of his arse and takes back his
real position on the throne.

HPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

AN

Okay, so the next chapter would be the prologue, but I won't put it in
again, and I'm thinking of a time skip, maybe until May the next year,
what do you think?

Please review! I really like to read them!

32. Chapter 32

Okay, so as the more historically aware of you may have noticed I

drew strong parallels between Harry's rise to power and that of the
Nazi Party in germany, I have moved away from that, and I want to see
if anyone can see what the next two chapters draw their historical
inspiration from, the winner will get... satisfaction I guess.

Please enjoy

Chapter 30

30th May

"Professor Potter Sir?"

"Yes Andros?" Harry asked as he slid the pile of homework assignments

into his case,

"Professor? I was wondering if you could tell us about… the war." The
class, which had been noisily packing away their books quieted almost
instantly.

"I've been teaching you the war Andros." Harry responded with a puzzled
smirk, the sixth year Slytherin flushed,

"Yes sir… but not your war."

"My War?"

"Yes Professor, you commanded the army for the entire thing, and my Dad
says you always led from the front."

Harry shrugged his shoulders casually, "Was your father in the DS then?"

"Yes Sir, Death-Squad Wyvern." The young man sounded proud of this
fact,
"Wyvern? I may have met him then…" Harry trailed off as he remembered
the squad in question. "Very well Andros, what in particular did you want
to know?"

The entire class remained glued to their seats, eyes firmly resting on the
Slytherin boy, eager to hear which question he would ask first.

"Well Professor, I guess, what was it like? The books never mention a
battle felt, I suppose I just wanted to know what it felt like."

There was a collective intake of breath around the room as all the eyes
swivelled to face Harry. The young professor nodded slowly as he
considered the question. "The war was terrible." He began, but even as he
spoke an almost nostalgic smile graced his lips, "and at the same time…
wonderful"

"I can't fully explain it, what one wizard will do to another, what we did to
them, what they did to us, A battlefield is loud, its bloody and its
confused, in a proper firefight there are no organised duels, you could be
facing a dozen people at once or you could outnumber them five to one,"
he briefly looked down at the enraptured faces of the students before him,

"It is terrible, fear in the pit of your stomach, the smell of burning flesh
and screams of the wounded, but in that moment, when you are perhaps
seconds from death, when you have to give everything you have just to
stay alive… it's enlightening. You learn who you are, and what your limits
are."

He trailed off briefly, before chuckling mirthlessly under his breath, "of
course many couldn't take it, I think it's because they learnt who they
were… and that fact broke them, you can't hide yourself in war, whatever
you think, whatever you feel always claws its way out, some became
stronger for it, many didn't."

He sat behind his desk and stared down at his class, and the students were
shocked to see their normally cold professor's eyes burn with passion, his
lips slightly parted as he was caught up in the memories.
"Did you… enjoy the war Professor?" A Ravenclaw asked, Harry's gaze
pierced the girl fiercely,

"I think that is enough now, your homework is due on Friday at 4 o'clock,
ensure you get it in on time."

The class rose slowly and in silence. Leaving the room with many a
backwards glance towards the young Professor. Harry sighed to himself,
shocked at his own reaction to his memories.

With a few casual flicks of his wand, the tables and chairs were neatly
arranged and any litter soared across the room. Harry stood up, walking
down the partition of the room as he made his way out and down to the
Great Hall for dinner.

As he made his way down the stairs, he watched as the students quickly
parted before him, Professor Harry Potter was a well-respected member of
staff. He was impartial, strict and fair. Whilst his class wasn't considered
'fun', it was interesting enough that he rarely had to deal with absent
students and poor behaviour.

The Great Hall was already nearly full when he entered, the tables were
laden with the usual vast array of foods. With an easy stride Harry walked
up between the tables and took his usual seat at the head table, nodding to
Snape in the Headmasters chair as he did so.

"Good Evening Harry" Professor McGonagall greeted him kindly, The

transfiguration mistress had remained at Hogwarts throughout everything,
when Dumbledore had requested she join the Order of the Phoenix, Harry
understood that she had declined him, instead deciding to stay with the
school and attempt to keep Hogwarts functioning during the war.

"The same to you Professor." Harry replied, the grey haired witch shook
her head, long since passed persuading him to call her Minerva.

"You seem troubled Harry, did something occur in your class?" she asked,
Harry was surprised to hear a touch of concern in her voice.
"Not at all." Harry replied, "I have merely been recollecting on the past."

"The war?"

"Amongst other things, certainly."

"Well, it certainly is understandable, however dwelling on the past makes

for limited conversation Mr Potter."

Harry chuckled and nodded, "Well then, what do you consider to be a

suitable alternative?"

"Archie Bones, one of your fifth years," McGonagall began,

"I know him." Harry replied cautiously,

"I found a copy of Underground Magazine in his bag earlier." McGonagall

whispered quietly, Harry stiffened slightly,

"Ah, given how Mr Bones is still sat in this room, I presume you haven't
told anyone?"

"I thought it best not to."

"You're probably right Professor." Harry replied, "Nevertheless, this is not

the place to be discussing such things."

McGonagall nodded slightly, her lips pressed together tightly, "I have
confiscated the magazine, no one knows I have it."

"Destroy it McGonagall, it's not the sort of thing you want hanging over
your head."

"Very well." The elderly woman replied. The two lapsed into silence for a
short moment, next to him Harry heard the Professor inhale as though to
speak,
"What is it?" Harry asked, turning to look at the uncomfortable
transfiguration mistress.

"Well… no, it's nothing, forget I said anything"

"You haven't said anything yet." Harry reminded her, McGonagall pinked,

"Perhaps now isn't the time. I heard you had a visitor yesterday?" The
woman probed, Harry smirked at her less than subtle attempt to change the
subject.

"Yes, Fleur is still something of a lost soul." Harry replied, McGonagall

turned her head in surprise at his rather regretful tone.

"You have done everything you could for that girl." She stated firmly,
Harry chuckled,

"I may have done, but it doesn't change the fact that I am responsible."

"You know I don't approve of… certain aspects of your past." Minerva
stated carefully, "however, your actions that day saved dozens, if not
hundreds of lives, do not forget all the good you did because it upset one
girl."

The two sat in silence for a long moment as Harry pondered what his ex-
Professor had said to him.

"You sounded like Grindlewald." Harry stated with a smirk, McGonagall

looked at him in shock, indignation plastered across her features. "Only in
that you were supporting the 'greater good'"

McGonagall did not look especially appeased, "Many have believed in the
good of the many superseding the need of the few." She reminded him
rather forcefully.

"But few of them had it carved onto their prisons gates." Harry replied,
McGonagall's nostrils flared.
"And you didn't believe you were doing the greater good then?" she asked
him, Harry shrugged,

"During the War? I was a soldier, I followed my orders." Even as he spoke

the words he knew how hollow they sounded. Abruptly Harry stood up and
left the hall quickly, his plate left half finished behind him.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Now, as you know, the Economy was destroyed by the First Wizarding
War." Harry stated, "Lucius Malfoy states in his book that it was the
failure of Cornelius Fudge to repair this damage that ultimately cost him
his job." He paused as he looked around the room, "Do you agree?"

There were several moments of silence from the classroom before one of
the fourth years raised their hands,

"Scabier, yes."

"Well Sir, wasn't it the fact that he was corrupt that cost him his job?" the
boy asked, Harry smiled and nodded,

"Well yes, that is true, but if you recall we discussed the idea of 'tinder and
sparks' that often occur with history, do you believe that corruption was a
long term cause or a spark that lit the fire?" Harry asked patiently, the boy
before him frowned,

"A Spark sir." He finally replied,

"Good, now then can you think of any other long term causes that affected
his ability to get re-elected?"

Scabier looked down and Harry looked to the rest of the class, "anyone?"

"Professor?" asked a girl from the front, Harry motioned her to continue,
"Wasn't he… I don't know how to say it properly…" she began,
"Just say it however you can Alicia." Harry encouraged,

"Well, he didn't change anything and didn't make any decisions." She
suggested, Harry smiled,

"Well, not quite, he did make some decisions, but essentially yes, Fudge
was especially keen to keep the Status Quo," he agreed, "Why do you think
he did this?"

"The silent majority?" The Ravenclaw asked, Harry frowned slightly,

"Could you expand?"

"Well, there were only a few small groups at first who wanted changes, I
suppose the government thought that keeping things the same would keep
most people happy." Alicia suggested,

"Correct, five points to Ravenclaw" Harry smiled, "yes, Fudge thought that
by keeping things the same, he would be able to cause people to simply
want to continue with him"

Just then the bell rang, Harry returned to his position behind his desk and
had a brief look at his diary.

"Alright then, No homework is due next week as it is Memorial Day, I

expect all of you to look your absolute best, and I will punish anyone
misbehaving harshly. Off you go, have a nice weekend."

The class filed out, most muttering a thank you or Goodbye Sir. Harry
sighed as he considered the Memorial Day, it was a large event,
Voldemort's way of reminding people of his power with a full Military
parade disguised as a way to remember all those who had fallen in every
Wizarding conflict, but especially the most recent two.

Harry scowled to himself, knowing he would have to make a public

appearance, no doubt be made to smile next to the Emperor, much as
Voldemort may dislike him now, the man was still envious of Harry's
enduring popularity and attempted to gain from it whenever possible.

With a sigh the young professor pulled open his desk drawer and pulled
out a copy of the Daily prophet, the front page held several large faces of
haunted and gaunt looking individuals, staring out from beneath the
headline

PRISONERS RELEASED!

Amongst the released he spied the image of Cedric, who he knew was not
due to be released for another three years.

Today, to the surprise of many, thirteen prisoners from the Order of the
Phoenix were released by Imperial Edict. A source from within the
Imperial Office was quoted as saying "As we approach Memorial Day, the
Emperor wanted to continue to move past that great tragedy in our past by
releasing some prisoners who he believed would not be a threat to
society."

This move of great mercy and kindness is not the first time the Emperor
has stepped in to assist those in need, just six weeks ago he generously
donated funds to aid the McKennan family, after their eldest son Alfred
vanished from their family home.

Full story: page 11

Harry snorted as he finished the front page, he knew for a fact that Alfred
McKennan had been kidnapped and executed on the Dark Lords orders.
With a sigh he continued to flick through the paper idly, barely reading the
articles, he was looking forward to the weekend, a chance to unwind and
relax on the sandy beaches of the south of France, he could think of few
nicer ways to recover after the week of classes.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPPHHP
June 4th: 1st Imperial Memorial Day

Harry was bored. He sat in a swelteringly hot box, his eyes looking
unfocused towards the parade before him, but his mind still in France,
sipping a cold mojito and relaxing on the smooth sand. A veritable
paradise compared to where he was now.

Given his status during the war, he had been given a seat of honour
amongst the generals and key politicians of the Ministry as the DS paraded
before him, the polished boots and buttons glinting in the hot sun as they
marched in perfect rhythm.

He looked around idly, most of those with him looked drunk, their faces
flushed and large glasses of wine clasped in their hands. Evidently under
the new regime the top brass had little to fill their time other than such
unprofessional acts. He sighed and turned back to the parade, clapping
with everyone else as another Division passed by, the commander
elegantly snapping a salute towards the Imperial box as he did so.

As they marched past to the cheers of the crowd, Harry looked down at the
glass of wine in his hand, with a sigh he drained it, if every day for the
generals was as tiresome as this, he could understand why they drank so
much. With a snap of his fingers the glass was quickly refilled by a house
elf. As Harry went to drink this one to, a hand suddenly gripped his wrist.

"I wouldn't do that just yet." Came a low voice by Harry's ear, Harry
turned and to his delight saw Evan Rosier. The older man looked
immaculate, his black jacket decorated with Gold braid and piping, His
uniform looked identical to the one Harry had donned for the event,
though the young Professor's rather outnumbered Evan's in terms of
medals.

"Evan!" Harry greeted warmly, clasping his old friend in a firm embrace,
"How have you been? I haven't seen you in months!"

"I've been well Harry, if a little underworked." The new DS Commander

revealed, "Life in the military is rather dull when we don't have a war to
fight."

"I can imagine" Harry replied with a smirk, Evan shrugged,

"I apologise for not speaking to you earlier but I only just arrived, there
was a minor incident at HQ involving a misplaced file."

Harry looked at him suspiciously, "really? Just a missing file?"

"As intuitive as ever I see," Evan grinned, "I can imagine that those
students of yours can hide nothing from you." He chuckled whilst Harry
watched him intensely,

"Am I allowed to know what the actual issue is then?" he asked, Evan
shrugged,

"It's not classified just yet, I won't be too specific, however a rather
important file has gone missing, it's most probably lost in a drawer
somewhere, however… well, it would be best if it was found. And soon."

Harry nodded, accepting the vague explanation and for the remaining hour
of the parade was content to simply catch up with his old friend. With
decent company Harry could at last begin to enjoy himself, he appreciated
being amongst the Military again, they had a bluntness amongst them, an
ethos that he appreciated and didn't know he had been missing.

As the clock struck three in the afternoon, the Parade was over, to loud
cheers and cries of support. Harry joined in, whatever his feelings about
the Empire, he was still incredibly proud of the Army he had helped create
and forged to his high expectations.

From the imperial box, Harry watched as Riddle stepped forward. The man
was well dressed, his robes perfectly fitted, at once looking imposing and
approachable. The Dark Lord raised his hands with a practiced gesture.

"My Friends." He began, his magically magnified voice easily reaching

every each corner of the vast square in which they stood in carefully
organised rows. "Today, we remember the fallen, the Witches and Wizards
too numerous to count who have fallen in conflict over the years that
Britain has existed as a Nation."

He paused for a moment, head bowed. "But England stands. England Will
Not Fall. We are resolute in our sovereignty. Today, on the first Memorial
Day, we remember not only our fallen, but also our vow. A vow to never
fall to our enemies, A vow to not bow to any foreign oppressors. Before
me stands the greatest Military force in the Wizarding World, and to any
who may like to bring the fires of War to the shores of this Empire I warn
them to be ready. England Endures."

There was a multitude of applause, the thousands of Wizards and Witches

unknowingly cheering the man who less than two decades ago had been
the object of hate and fear. Harry shook his head at the speech and turned
to Evan,

"Because Britain has faced so many international threats recently," he

sneered, "The Dark Lord conveniently forgets that his only real concerns
are domestic."

Next to him Evan chuckled, "Give the Emperor his declarations. We are at
peace, let us be thankful for that." The Soldiers words seemed to oddly
hollow, and Harry rather suspected that Evan missed the war just as much
as he did.

"You're a soldier Evan, We don't know what to do with Peace" Harry

replied conversationally, there was a long moment of silence as both men
sat forward in their chairs.

"True enough, but that doesn't mean I'm not grateful we've got it." The
older man replied, Harry chuckled mirthlessly,

"I can't argue with that, to Peace." He raised his glass and clinked it
against Evans before taking a long sip, "I fear I will have to head off soon,
duty calls."
"Give 'em Hell" Evan replied sarcastically, Harry rolled his eyes.

"I'll do my best." He left quickly, exiting at the back of the box and making
his way hastily down the stairs, trying to escape before the swarm of
reporters inevitably descended. He made it to the Hogwarts contingent
relatively unmolested.

"Professor McGonagall" He greeted politely, the elderly Scotswoman

turned and did a double take,

"Professor Potter, I didn't recognise you!" she shook her head sternly, "I
hope you had an enjoyable day Harry."

"Enjoyable enough, I really can't complain." Harry replied, his tone light.

"Well you had the best seats in the house, whilst some of us had to stand
for the whole event." Harry shrugged, a smirk tugged at his lips.

"I was Emperor of this country once." He reminded her, "There have to be
some perks!" McGonagall let out a loud hmmph and Harry laughed, "What
do you need me to do?" he asked calmly,

"I suppose you could to help Professors Snape and Sinistra with the
Slytherins." She suggested. Harry nodded and made his way over to the
green and silver clad students.

"Headmaster." He greeted calmly, his ex-head of house turned to him and

smirked at his uniform,

"Good afternoon Mr Potter." He greeted, and Harry responded with a smirk

of his own.

"I trust you had an enjoyable afternoon?" he asked,

"If one enjoys watching young men walk around in formation for most of
the day, I imagine it was rather entertaining." Snape replied. Harry
smirked,
"You forgot the speeches."

Snapes lip curled. "Indeed, the speeches."

Snape turned away from him back to the students, many of whom were
watching Harry with awe and respect on their faces. Harry kept his face
carefully plain as he approached them, watching their eyes widen as they
saw the uniform he wore up close, from the expertly braided gold
Aiguillettes on his shoulder to the large number of medals pinned above
his heart.

"Did everyone enjoy today?" he asked

"Yes Sir." Answered one of the boys near the front, Harry smiled at him,

"Good," he paused and looked around, trying to see if anyone looked like
wandering off.

"I thought I might apply for the DS when I graduate." The boy stated
proudly, Harry nodded encouragingly.

"It's a noble career choice William, but they are very selective, you need
to pass several checks and tests just to be considered as a candidate."

"I know professor, but I think it's something I will attempt."

"Good man." Harry responded, "I believe we are just about ready to start
heading off." At that moment Professor Snape walked up holding several
long ropes.

"Please touch a part of the portkey" he told them in clipped tones,

distributing the ropes to the Slytherins, who quickly passed it along until
everyone could place a finger on it.

"Everyone ready? Activate." As Snape spoke the students vanished from

sight whirling away in a spectrum of colour and a rushing sound like wind.
"Miss Urqhart? Dare I ask what exactly you are doing still here?" Snape
asked exasperatedly, Harry turned and saw a young Slytherin first year girl
standing where her classmates had vanished form seconds before.

"My finger slipped." She whispered quietly, lower lip trembling. Snape
scowled and glared at her, but Harry stepped in,

"I will take care of this Severus. Not to worry." He stated firmly, Snape
turned his death glare to Harry but nodded slowly.

"Come here Emma." Harry commanded, the little girl obeyed immediately
and hurried over to stand next to him. "I'm afraid we can't leave just yet, I
have a few obligations first if you don't mind?"

The girl shook her head and Harry smiled as warmly as he could and
together the two of them walked over to the imperial box. They were met
at the gate by the half a dozen grim faced Imperial Guardsmen, who this
time Harry was pleased to see had the manners to salute him, a gesture he
returned.

"Lord Potter Sir, The Emperor is expecting you."

"Thank you Guardsmen." Harry replied, walking through the black

wrought iron which concealed the luxurious wooden steps up to where
Voldemort would be undoubtedly dealing with the press.

"Harry!" came a warm voice as he reached the top. Harry turned to see
Lucius was the one who greeted him and with a firm handshake Harry was
led up the last couple of steps, dragging the lost looking girl with him.

He spoke with the Veteran Statesmen for several minutes whilst waiting
for Voldemort to notice him. Eventually, after the Emperor had finished
with his photoshoot, he appeared to take notice of Harry standing there.

"Harry!" he greeted, his tone sarcastically deferential, Harry ignored him

and instead snapped off a salute, whilst wearing the uniform it seemed the
right thing to do, "And who is your friend?"
Harry looked down at the awed girl, "Emma Urquhart, one of our first year
Slytherins." He replied neutrally.

"Very nice to meet you Emma." Riddle greeted, his cold voice contrasting
with the warm smile on his face. Next to him a camera flashed, Harry
resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Your Majesty, It was an honour to see you again, but I really feel I should
return Emma to her Common Room." Harry stated, hoping he may be able
to escape the Dark Lords gloating before too long.

"Of course, perhaps a photo however, of the three of us."

Harry sighed but nodded, manoeuvring himself to be stood next to Riddle,

His posture strictly at attention and his hands clasped behind his back.
Next to him, Riddle was stood more informally, one hand on the young
girls shoulder and the other held casually, a practiced smile on his face.

Once the photo was over, Harry made his excuses before hurrying himself
and his charge down the steps and as soon as he was out of the Wards
protecting Voldemort's little compound vanished into a vortex,
reappearing less than a second later outside Hogwarts main gate.

The path was empty, the rest of the students long since having returned to
the castle, Harry sighed tiredly as he pressed his wand to the lock of the
gates, causing the wrought iron to swing inwards, granting them passage.
Less than ten minutes later, his young charge was back in her common
room and he was in his quarters, a glass of whisky in his hand and his
booted legs resting atop his desk.

He looked out the window at the sun which sat low in the sky, just then the
grandfather clock struck 5pm and he sighed, taking another sip of his
drink.

With a sudden movement he stood up and turned to the wireless which sat
on the table next his desk, with a few deft movements of the knobs the
device was blaring out some fast pop song, the lyrics were poor but the
tune rhythmic and catchy, Harry decided to stick with it.

He returned to his desk and the comfort of the bottle, which he quickly
used to top up his glass, It had been an exhausting day, though little
strenuous activity had been involved, and Harry was rather looking
forward to returning to the regular schedule of normal school life.

At that moment there came a knock on the door of his quarters and Harry
looked up in surprise. "It's open." He called, interested to see who would
be visiting him at this time. The door swung open and Harry was surprised
to see a beautiful young woman he recognised, but couldn't place from
where.

"May I help you?" he asked politely, swinging his still booted legs off the
corner of his desk.

"Harry? It's been quite some time, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't
remember me"

"I'm very sorry, perhaps you could refresh my memory?" Harry asked,
digging through his memory to remember where he knew the woman
from.

"Daphne Greengrass, I was three years below you at Hogwarts."

In a moment of clarity Harry remembered the woman exactly, though he

hadn't seen her in almost 8 years.

"Daphne! Of course, I'm sorry, lots of new faces lately, please forgive me!"
Harry offered, a bashful grin on his face.

"It's not a problem, I didn't think you would remember me to be honest"

Daphne replied, flicking a loose strand of blonde hair away from her face.
The two lapsed into a slightly uneasy silence, Harry studying the girl and
Daphne looking like she didn't know what to say, eventually Harry sighed.
"I assume there was a purpose for your visit, not, of course, that I don't
enjoy visits from old friends."

Daphne flushed, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "I had hoped I could
persuade you to come with me."

"Dare I ask where?" Harry asked, his tone cautiously polite. Daphne
looked uncomfortable.

"I represent a group of… people who want to meet you." She stated
carefully, Harry shrugged, secretive meetings were certainly more exciting
than anything else he had been doing lately.

"Certainly, shall we use my floo?"

Daphne looked shocked, "You'll?... yes, your floo would be fine."

Harry chuckled and stood up, Daphne looked at his uniform

apprehensively. With a carefully raised eyebrow Harry indicated his
fireplace and the woman walked over.

"The location is 11 Druid lane." She stated clearly before stepping into the
fire and vanishing. Harry sighed and took up a pinch of floo powder in his
fingers.

"11 Druid Lane" he called, throwing the powder at his feet. Almost
immediately he was spinning around, fireplaces flashing before his eyes as
he travelled. Several seconds later he was forcefully ejected from the floo,
though he caught his balance with a practiced step.

He had appeared in a large reception room, the walls were faded and it
appeared as though the entire building was in serious need of
refurbishment. In front of him stood Daphne, her hair was slightly ruffled
after her journey, though she had vanished any soot of her clothes already,
an action Harry quickly emulated with an easy flick of his wand.
"Shall we?" Harry asked, presuming this meeting to be taking place in
another room, Daphne raised her hand to stop him and he looked at her
curiously.

"Before we continue, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for a vow of
secrecy, I'm sorry, but we have to be cautious."

It dawned on Harry that this was probably the sort of meeting that his
attendance would result in a very public, and probably very painful,
execution. For a long second he stared at Daphne, the blonde squirmed
slightly under his intense gaze, before eventually Harry nodded.

"Very well, I, Harry James Potter, hereby swear to never reveal the secrets
of what occurs tonight to anyone unless they have prior knowledge or I
have permission so to do." When he finished there was a brief flash of blue
light indicating the vow had stuck and Harry looked at Daphne with a
raised brow. She nodded quickly and led Harry through the door and into a
long dining room.

The table was filled with people, at least two dozen, most of whom Harry
didn't recognise, though there were several faces of people he did know,
Cedric and Fleur sat quietly talking next to each other, Cedric looking thin
and pale after his incarceration, further down the table Harry spotted Cho
Chang, a Ravenclaw who had been two years younger than him.

The man sat next to Cho was the one who took him by surprise the most. It
was Captain Brookes, Harry's old Adjutant, the man hadn't noticed Harry
yet, too engrossed in conversation with the man next to him, it was
Terrence Higgs, who, as Harry knew, had since joined the Department of
Defence as Head of the Interior Ministry.

At that moment, Daphne coughed slightly from next to him, the room fell
silent as all eyes fell on her before sliding across to Harry. There was a
moment of silence, before a sudden grinding of chairs filled the room as
eight men stood up to attention, snapping off a formal salute.
Of the men, Harry recognised only Brookes, but he assumed the rest had to
be DS also, trying not to let his confusion show on his face, Harry returned
the salute.

Turning to Daphne, who hadn't moved from beside him, Harry decided to
address the matter head on.

"Miss Greengrass, would you be so kind as to tell me exactly what is going

on." He asked, his voice was calm, but his eyes were ice cold. Daphne
shuffled her feet.

"I'd have thought you would have figured that out already Potter." Came a
drawling voice from the far door, "This is what you might call a
rebellion."

Black robes billowing behind him, Harry stared in shock as Professor

Snape glided out from the shadows.

AN
Okay, so I thought this would be an interesting way of going about it, if
you have thoughts about what should happen next, please tell me, I
promise I listen to all your feedback, after all, I want people to enjoy
this story!

All my Love

Marshall Angmar
33. Chapter 33

There was a long silence, Harry stared at Snape and the elder man stared
straight back, his coal black eyes fixed on Harry's face. Suddenly, Harry
threw his head back and laughed a great belly laugh. The assembled rebels
shifted nervously on their feet as the young man clutched his stomach.

Snape, remained impassive, his beady eyes bearing down on Harry calmly.
Eventually, after Harry had managed to regain control of his senses, he
wiped his eyes and looked at the table.

"A rebellion?" he asked sceptically, his eyes flicking along the table
length.

"I do not believe I stuttered Potter." Snape replied, his voice stony, Harry
focused his gaze onto the Hogwarts headmaster.

There was silence in the room, Harry stared at Snape pensively, "No
Professor," Harry stated, the words were calm, the previous levity gone.
"You were quite clear."

The room shifted slightly as the tension seemed to grow exponentially.

"Mr Potter?" asked a voice from the table, Harry looked down at a portly
young man sat halfway down.

"My name is Nathan Briggs, and we here represent just a small section of
a much larger group, this rebellion is real, and whatever your feelings on
the matter, we would seriously benefit if you would help."

There were nods from the length of the table. Harry nodded slowly, and
when he spoke, he addressed his question to Cedric.

"What use could I be to you?" he asked,

"I think you know the answer to that Harry." Cedric replied, Harry
shrugged but said nothing, he wanted to hear his old friends reasoning.
"You're Harry Potter." Cedric replied simply, "You give legitimacy to
anything you associate with."

"What Mr Diggory means… "Nathan Briggs began to say, but Harry raised
a hand to cut the man off.

"I know perfectly well what Mr Diggory means." He stated, his eyes cold,
the man cowered,

"And what is the purpose of this rebellion? I presume to overthrow the

emperor? But what then?"

The room was silent for a long moment, several of them exchanged
glances and Harry rather got the feeling that this was a source of some
contention amongst them. "We are not yet decided." Cedric eventually
stated, though his tone suggested that he was very much decided.

"Undecided?" Harry asked. The room seemed to cringe as he fixed a fierce

glare amongst them.

"Potter," Snape drawled, "After two years of suffering under the current…
administration, if you think all of us will happily allow another into a
position of absolute power, perhaps you are not quite as intelligent as I had
believed."

Harry smirked, his lip curling in mirth, Snape mirrored the action. The
room was silent, though the air was not as tense as it had been.

"Gentlemen, Ladies" Harry began eventually, "I understand why you want
me here, As Cedric says, my support for you will rally a great deal of
public sympathy, and I also recognise your goals, Riddle is not a good
Emperor. Therefore I am prepared to assist you to the full extent of my
abilities… under certain conditions."

Around the room, the assembled group seemed to sigh in relief, stiff
postures relaxing slightly.
"What conditions exactly?" came a voice from the end of the table, Harry
looked at the thin wiry man whom he didn't recognise thoughtfully,
carefully keeping his face devoid of emotion as he appeared to size the
man up.

"Several things." He said vaguely, by now the entire room had focused on
him tensely. "You called me here, I believe, for multiple reasons." Harry
began, "First off, I retain the public support. Without me, any government
you installed would have to work to gain public trust, leading to several
years of instability and risk of revolution."

Harry glanced at Snape and saw in his coal black eyes that the Headmaster
likely knew exactly what he would demand.

"Second, to the best of my knowledge, none of the people in this group

have succeeded in overthrowing a government before, I have. Third, I have
connections throughout Britain, whilst I am sure have your own, you
would be a fool to lose more."

Cedric sighed theatrically from his seat, and Harry looked at his friend
who mimed a yawn and tapped his watch with a grin, Harry smirked back,

"Finally, I have experience in managing and winning a war." He spread his

arms slightly as he looked down at the group before him, his chest
gleaming with medals still pinned to his uniform.

"Therefore, My first demand is demand control of this organisation should

I decide to join it." Opposite him, Snape's eyebrows rose slightly at the
seemingly small demand that Harry requested, the young professor simply
smirked back.

"We do not have a definitive leader Mr Potter" Briggs stated quickly,

"Instead we have a council of those in the most influential positions, that
council you see sat before you."

Harry nodded and snorted softly, "I will only join you should you accept
all my terms." He said firmly.
"All your terms? There are more?" Briggs asked, Harry nodded,

"Well I think we should hear all of them before we make any kind of
decision." He stated, gaining nods of support from the table.

"No." Harry replied calmly, "You will accept each as they are presented."

"Very well, Very Well." Briggs snapped angrily, Harry remained

impassive, "all in support of Mr Potters demand?" of the two dozen sat at
the table, only three did not raise their hands, Harry nodded calmly,

"I also expect to be reinstated to my previous position of Emperor of

Wizarding Britain upon the success of this campaign."

It appeared Harry had reached the source of a great deal of contention

within the room, Harry guessed it was split with roughly two thirds in
favour of his demand, from what Harry could roughly tell, it was the
members of the DS, and the people who had known him who supported his
position, whilst the others seemed less keen.

"It is not an unreasonable demand." Higgs calmly stated from the front,
"Harry has shown himself to be an effective ruler."

"You cannot seriously be suggesting" began a sallow faced man who Harry
didn't recognise, "that we overthrow one Emperor just to replace him with
another?"

"With an elected Emperor!" Cedric reminded the man, "Harry was chosen
by the people as their ruler, what would you prefer? That this unelected
council rule?"

"It would be a more democratic system than having Potter as a dictator!"

"Bollocks!" Brookes shouted, "Lord Potter was democratically elected

remember, besides, the people of Britain surrendered their right to
democracy willingly two years ago?"
Harry watched the increasingly clamorous arguments impassively, stood
as he was with his back resting on the doorframe, a nervous Daphne
Greengrass still stood next to him, wringing her hands behind her back.

As Fleur shouted a particularly vile sentence loudly, Harry stood upright

and strode to stand before the table. The room seemed not to notice his
movement and Harry frowned, before slamming his open palm down onto
the hard wood, the sound echoed loudly and silenced the room instantly,
all heads turning to look at him.

"Like it or not." Harry said, his voice hard and firm, brokering no
argument, "I am your best bet at winning this war, however I will not lend
my services without you accepting my terms. Decide now, I tire of
waiting."

There was silence before slowly everyone around the table nodded, some
far more hesitantly than others, but it was enough, Harry smiled softly, and
when he spoke again, his voice was soft.

"Excellent, my final demand is simple, I expect every member of this

organisation to swear an oath, the wording chosen by me, simply in order
to prevent any… delays."

Harry was surprised when this demand was accepted almost readily as it
was the one he had expected to have to argue the most over, however it
seemed that most of his opponents had recognised the inevitability of
Harry taking command of the organisation and were afraid to act against
him.

When he had their agreement, Harry smiled broadly before taking the
vacant chair at the head of the table and sitting down. The first hour of the
meeting passed quickly, as Harry was introduced to each member of the
group he didn't know.

Having learned of everyone's role, Harry had to admit he was impressed,

the group contained some of the most influential people in British
Wizarding Society.
Aside from Snape and Higgs, there was the head of the Department of
International Magical Cooperation, the Deputy-Head of Military
Intelligence, the chief Editor of both the Daily Prophet and Underground
Magazine, two Generals in the Army, including the head of the reserve
army, and the Head of the Department of Citizen Protection.

The meeting quickly progressed to what Harry planned to do, a question

which Harry had no answer for as of yet, though he didn't let on this
problem. Instead requesting time to think. As the meeting drew to a close
Harry drew his wand and multiplied the piece of Parchment in front of him
two dozen times before distributing them amongst all those sat at the
table.

There was a moment of silence as everyone reached forward to read what

had been given to them, their faces initially displayed confusion, which
was quickly replaced with understanding, though in some cases anger and
disbelief.

"What the hell is this?" Briggs demanded angrily,

"The oath I expect every member of this organisation to make if you

intend for me to remain." Harry replied coolly, the portly man spluttered,

"When I agreed to an oath I didn't expect… this!" he cried indignantly,

Harry merely shrugged and turned to the rest of the table,

"Does anyone else have any objections?" he asked calmly, his voice the
same as though he were still taking one of his classes, the room shook
their heads,

"Potter," Snape said carefully, "I notice you have left very little room for
manoeuvre."

"No." Harry replied,

"And what if your conventional methods don't work? Sometimes a little

independence is required."
"I have limited independence very little," Harry replied in a bored voice,
"However I understand that given your particular areas of expertise, the
oath may need some work, say this one for now, we can modify it later."

Snape nodded, though his expression seemed to sour as he did so, Harry
smirked as he imagined how much the Potions professor must dislike
accepting his former students authority.

There was a brief silence until Harry motioned for the group to continue,
as one, the assembled witches and wizards began to speak, Harry watched
Snape with an interested expression, curious to see if the man would agree
to the full oath.

"I, Severus Tobias Snape, Swear upon my life and my magic that I will be
faithful and bear true allegiance to His Imperial MajestyHarry James
Potter, true Emperor of Magical Britain, His Heirs and Successors, and
that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend His Majesty,
His Heirs and Successors, in Person, Crown and Dignity against all
enemies, and will observe and obey all orders of His Majesty, His Heirs
and Successors, I recognise that by taking this oath, any previous vows are
forfeit and made obsolete. Under pain of Death, So mote it be."

Harry nodded his head slightly to hide the smile that was stretched across
his lips as each person at the table flashed a white light for a second as the
vow stuck, he had missed the political game.

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HPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Harry spent the next several days musing, often getting so caught up in his
thoughts that he failed to pay full attention to the lessons he was supposed
to be teaching.

It was a monumental task he had set himself. Voldemort's government

contained an immensely sophisticated internal security apparatus that had
perforated nearly every aspect of Wizarding society. Harry knew for a fact
how all-encompassing it was, seeing as how he had helped create it, and
didn't like his odds of simply inciting a rebellion through any of the
obvious means.

The problem, Harry had decided, was that his greatest asset was his public
presence and their love for him, however as soon as it became known he
was a rebel, the government would immediately move to execute him, thus
negating this advantage.

Or did it?

Was it possible that Harry could use the inevitable crackdown the
government would launch as soon as they discovered Harry's new
loyalties? It certainly seemed possible, illegal polls indicated that well
over two thirds of the population wanted him back in power, and Harry
was certain Voldemort knew this too. Riddle's administration would have
to destroy him as soon as the truth became known as he was quite simply
too popular to live.

This meant that Harry had to somehow use the resources available to him
(not inconsiderable he realised) to gain popular momentum and press the
governments hand.

With a sudden clarity, Harry stood up, he was sat in his office, dressed
simply in a blue t-shirt and beige trousers. With purposeful strides he
exited his quarters and set off for the headmasters study. In less than five
minutes Harry was stood on the revolving staircase and rising.

"Enter Potter" called the silky voice of the professor from within, Harry
turned the door handle and entered the spherical room, casting his eyes
upon the three occupants. Snape, McGonagall and Flitwick.

"Professors" Harry said distractedly, he quickly made eye contact with

Snape and pushed the thought of desiring a private meeting to the
forefront of his mind.

"They know Potter" Snape said calmly in response, Harry raised his
eyebrow,
"Indeed?" he frowned, "and this was not considered pertinent
information?"

"Not especially, It would not do for any one individual to know everything
after all." Snape replied, his voice bored, Harry sneered slightly, but
nodded.

"Very well, I thought I should let you know I have a plan, perhaps you may
want to organise a meeting."

Snape blinked, his black eyes showing some surprise, Harry kept his face
emotionless, next to him McGonagall had her lips pressed together in a
small smile, whilst Flitwick was gazing at Harry excitedly,

"Indeed?" Snape asked, his face blank once again, "Then I had better
hurry."

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HPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The meeting was the next day, Harry was once again in the old house, sat
at the head of the magically expanded table to accommodate half a dozen
new arrivals, to his left sat Brookes and Cedric to his right, the rest of his
closest allies arranged near him in a less than subtle symbol of where the
power in the room lay.

"Ladies," Harry began, his head angled down and his tone rich,
"Gentlemen, my intentions are simple, to remove our dear emperor in one
strike, simultaneously moving against all major obstacles to a revolution."

There were excited looks exchanged across the table, "In order to do this, I
do require certain assurances and items from some of you, particularly
General Hilliard," the Reserve army commander nodded quickly, Harry
then named Mark Richmond as head of Military Intelligence and
Germaine Flowers as Editor of Underground Magazine.
"My first request is possibly the hardest" Harry began, staring directly at
Richmond as he spoke, "I need incontrovertible proof of the Emperors
crimes, be they murders, corruption, something that will gain public
attention and outrage, something that will rattle Riddle if it became widely
known."

"I may have just the thing sir." The man stated carefully, Harry raised an
eyebrow and the man quickly summoned an elf, muttered a few
instructions and then waited as the elf retrieved whatever it was.

Less than thirty seconds later the elf returned and in its small hand was
clutched a yellow file, from the distance Harry sat he could make out the
imperial Eagle emblazoned on the front, as well as the large red words

HIGHLY RESTRICTED ACCESS

"This is a file I discovered a while back, I would have brought it sooner

however there is something of a witch hunt throughout the entire DS to
recover it, apparently the emperor has learnt it is missing and is rather
displeased."

With a sharp flick of his wrist the file was sent spinning across the table
and came to a halt in front of Harry who picked it up interestedly. The
folder was thick, containing perhaps a hundred sheets of parchment.

"It's a list of people Riddle has had murdered in the last year, most of them
are political enemies of his, but some, if you turn to page 43, you'll see,
some of them are whole families, some kids as young as three." Richmond
shook his head in disgust and Harry nodded, trying to keep his face sombre
as he gazed in giddy delight at the goldmine he had just been handed.

"And these are the orders to carry out these actions?" Harry asked, pulling
out and showing a formal looking piece of parchment,

"Yes Sir, signed and sent by Avery to one of the Special Enforcement
Squads" Harry felt the corners of his mouth twitch, Avery, as Riddles
Senior Secretary and head of the Imperial Office would have received
these orders directly from Voldemort.

"Thank you Richmond, this is exactly what I need. Excellent" still feeling
excited after the monumental discovery of the file, Harry turned to the old
soldier, "General Hilliard, one question, are your men loyal to you? Would
they follow you over the Emperor?" Hilliard chewed his lip for a second,

"No My Lord." He replied simply, Harry frowned frustrated, "but they

would follow you over Riddle. I believe all my men view you as their true
emperor." Harry smiled and nodded before he turned to the Illegal
newspapers editor,

"Germaine, your task is fairly simple, I need you to interview me, publish
some key pages from this-"he held the file up"- and make sure it has the
highest circulation possible."

The mousey haired woman nodded quickly, her bright blue eyes shining in
nervous excitement. Harry smiled encouragingly before turning to the rest
of the room.

"Our Emperor is many things," he began, "but most of all, he is a very

arrogant man, as soon as he learns of my betrayal I believe he will want to
kill me himself, though not without a significant amount of blustering
beforehand, therefore when I am captured-" he was cut off at the sound of
confused interruptions.

Harry frowned lightly and held up his hand for silence which was slow in
coming, "when I am captured, I will need it to be by members of the
reserve army, they will escort me to Voldemort personally, I estimate that I
have five minutes in that room before the Dark Lord will tire of taunting
me, therefore you General Hilliard have five minutes to secure the
Imperial Complex and enter the Emperors study, can you do this?"

Hilliard blanched, his face shocked, "take the complex in five minutes?!"
he appeared deep in thought, eventually he nodded. "Yes, I could take it,
the reserve army would be the first response call to an attack on the
complex anyway, our lack of response would delay a large scale
counterattack to around six minutes. Given the limited number of guards, I
could take it, however as soon as the DS arrived, I estimate we could hold
it for only ten minutes or so."

"That's enough time." Harry stated confidently, "If this works," he

murmured slowly, "we could defeat an empire in under quarter of an hour."

Of course, he thought wryly to himself, when did anything ever go

according to plan?

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PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHP

POTTER SPEAKS OUT!

Anonymous
June 24th

Our Emperor is Evil. A bold statement, and one we have made before.
However this time it is not us who make such claims, it is in fact Harry
Potter, our true emperor and the only real champion of the people who still
exists in Wizarding Britain.

"I discovered a document recently" Potter told us when we met in secret,

"which provided irrefutable proof that the Emperor's office had signed and
created orders for the sole purpose of abducting, torturing and murdering
civilians, these poor citizens are not criminals, they are simply followers
of a different political idea, and Riddle has killed them, and often their
families, including children."

The documents of which Lord Potter refers to are printed overleaf, and
display the evil nature that our current despotic regime truly is. The list
names 192 people, 46 of whom are below the age of 15, this is not the sort
of government we can follow. People of Britain, we beg you, rise up
against such a tyrannical oppressor, how can we be truly content, if we
must constantly fear for our lives and children?
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPH
PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHP

The article, Harry was pleased to say, had shaken Britain, people were
terrified now and there had been several small skirmishes with DS
guardsmen which had resulted in curfews and a heavy presence of DS men
spread throughout all of Magical Britain to enforce the peace and law.

An attack which was to happen today.

Harry stared deeply at his reflection in the mirror, he was dressed smartly,
a dark grey shirt tucked into beige trousers, his short hair combed through.
He looked the part he supposed, with a sigh he pulled out his wand and
placed it into a narrow box designed to hide its magical signature and
make it impervious to summoning charms, the box was placed into a
hidden pocket of the navy jacket that he pulled on.

From the table in front of him he picked up the elegant knife that Miranda
had given to him so long ago, he rolled the magically enhanced blade
between his fingers, marvelling once again at its perfect balance and low
weight. With deft fingers the blade was slid into a sheath concealed on his
forearm, difficult to spot, but easy to access.

Fully armed and prepared Harry once again looked at himself in the
mirror, his mind flickered back to the speech Snape had given him
immediately following the explanation of his idea,

"Potter," the hook nosed man said carefully, "I hope you understand how
insane your plan is. If it is your intention to die in a fitting manner then
perhaps this is the best plan, however, if by some small chance there is
more at stake here than merely reuniting you with Miss Rookwood, for
example, rescuing a country from the brink of terror, a terror you forced
on them, then I truly hope you have thought this through."

Harry took a deep breath to steady his nerves, was he walking to his death?
Was that a bad thing? Hadn't he given enough to Britain already? Why was
he so determined to take power, his desire to rule had cost dozens of lives,
Dumbledore, Miranda, his father….

Perhaps Snape was right, did he want to die in a fitting manner? To be

reunited with the only person he had ever loved?

No.

Harry wanted to be with her again, but more than that, Harry Potter wanted
vengeance against the man who had caused her death, Moody may have
cast the spell, but in Harry's eyes it was Riddle and his viciousness in the
first war that had led to Dumbledore allowing such action on Moody's part
and for that, the man had to die.

Harry straightened up and took a deep breath. He took one last glance in
the mirror before turning on the spot and appearing in the sparsely filled
streets of magical Newcastle. The town hall clock tower nearby rang for
two in the afternoon and Harry slowly began to walk towards the centre of
the town, ignoring the looks, a mixture of awe and excitement, he was
receiving from the townspeople. At exactly five past two, eight men, in the
distinctive grey of the reserve army appeared around him.

"My Lord." The lead one greeted, bowing his head slightly, Harry returned
the gesture politely, "General Hilliard has briefed us sir, I thought you
might like to know that we are all behind you sir, before it all begins I
mean."

Harry nodded seriously and forced a confident smile on his face, "I never
doubted you for a second. Shall we then?"

The man nodded and two of them clasped Harry's arms before vanishing
with him to reappear on the steps of the recently constructed Imperial
complex. The building was ugly, a contorted mass of stone and brick,
seemingly without thought or plan, simply built further when extra space
was needed, leading to a shockingly chaotic mess.
The men led Harry straight in, stopping at the reception to inform that they
had caught Undesirable Number 1 as Harry had come to be known. There
he was scanned for a wand, and any other casting object, and when none
were found, they were made to wait.

Very quickly they were shown up to the second floor, where Riddle had his
office, stood outside were half a dozen imperial guards who all watched
Harry warily, wands in their hands and clearly ready to curse at a
moment's notice.

"Bring him in soldiers" called the distinctive voice of Tom Marvolo Riddle
from within the room, the men walked Harry inside, forced him into an
indicated chair and left with a salute, leaving Harry in a room with only
Voldemort and Avery.

"I must say you have disappointed me Harry." Riddle stated smugly, "I
truly expected more if you were to rebel."

Harry said nothing, though he kept his face in a smirk which he directed at
Avery. Evidently the man had very little self-control for he quickly got
angry.

"What did you think would happen with that little stunt in the newspaper?
A glorious revolution, the oppressed masses rising against their evil
oppressors? I hate to disappoint Potter but this system is simply too well
constructed for such absurdities to occur in, surely you knew that. After
all, much of it is your system."

The aging man laughed, stroking his silvery black beard smugly, Harry
chuckled,

"You're correct of course, I did create this system, and it is excellent, but it
is not perfect." Avery seemed incensed, but Riddle curious,

"And would you care to tell us its flaws Harry?" he asked in a silky voice,
Harry grinned
"I will if you let me go?"

Riddle laughed, a high, cold sound that held no mirth at all, "Oh Harry, no.
no, you will die today, I'm afraid of that there is no doubt."

Harry checked the time on the clock resting on Riddles desk, he had been
in the room for 4 minutes.

"The problem with the system Master Avery, Your Majesty." Harry began
in a lecturing tone, as though speaking to a group of first years, something
that clearly irked Avery and amused Voldemort, "is that it requires a great
deal of manpower, it is simply not feasible to maintain the sheer level of
control over every aspect of public life as you do without large numbers of
personnel."

Riddle nodded, though Harry could tell that despite his blank face, the
Dark Lord was unsure what Harry was going on about.

"Why is that a problem? Thanks to your economic reforms we can afford

them!" Avery all but shouted, Harry stared at the easily angered man
mockingly.

"It's a problem because if they weren't spying on the public those witches
and wizards could join the DS and help maintain order in the streets."

"But we have the men to patrol the streets." Avery rebutted, his anger
replaced by a smug smile, Harry shook his head,

"You do, but in an event like this, where throughout the Empire there has
been rioting, you have had to send out large numbers of your men, I am
simply curious as to how many you have in reserve?"

"Any why would you want to know something like that?" Avery asked
curiously, Harry shrugged and looked at Riddle who clearly had realised
there may be a problem.
"Well Avery, If all your men are out patrolling the streets, who is available
to respond to an attack on say… the Imperial Complex?"

A look of dawning horror appeared on Avery's face and Riddles took on a

look of determination.

"In that case." Voldemort stated coldly, "You will have to die now." He
pointed his wand at Harry's face. "Avada Ked…"

The end of the spell was cut off as the door behind Harry exploded off its
hinges, cartwheeling across the room and striking Avery in the head,
knocking the older man cold. Through the now open doorway poured over
a dozen grey clad men.

"Lord Potter sir, the building is ours. Though General Hilliard requests
assistance downstairs sir, apparently significant DS forces have already
gathered outside."

Harry nodded and stood up from his chair, with a casual wave to Riddle he
turned to the men, "guard this man, if he moves. Kill him." the man closest
him nodded and the rest levelled their wands on Riddle, their faces grim.

Harry was downstairs quickly, stepping around the occasional corpse of an

imperial guardsmen without paying them much regard, though he was
interested to see the dark mark had been branded onto one man's forearm,
which would at least explain their fanatical loyalty to Riddle.

When he joined Hilliard in the foyer it was to find the older man sweating
slightly, and his hands shaking.

"What's the situation general?" he asked calmly, Hilliard blinked several

times,

"My men estimate over six hundred DS have assembled outside quicker
than anticipated Sir, We only have 250, I'm afraid we simply can't hold off
that many, we surrender or die."
Harry swore inside his head, thinking rapidly as he struggled to think up a
solution. Eventually he turned to Hilliard.

"There is a third option." He stated confidently.

"which is?"

Harry ignored the man, and taking a deep breath stepped towards the
closed doors to the square outside.

"My Lord wait!" called the general from behind, Harry said nothing and
instead unbolted the door and stepped out into the glorious sunshine.

He was met by quite a sight. From every surrounding rooftop and window,
every door and every street entrance stood a black clad DS guard. Their
faces were stern and they all had their wands pointed at the door he had
just come through, at him.

"Take Aim!" came a shouted command from a man Harry immediately

recognised as General Bletchley. Harry stepped forward and raised his
hands.

"My Name is Harry Potter." He called loudly, projecting his voice to all the
men, "And I am your true Emperor, founder of the Dark Shield and servant
of Britain."

"On my Order!" Bletchley shouted,

"If any of you can say you wish Thomas Riddle, who once masqueraded as
Lord Voldemort and terrified this nation for a decade as your emperor over
me, then I must truly have failed you. Therefore I say this now, If any one
of you would kill your emperor, I invite you to do so now."

There was a long pause where not a sound echoed across the square, before

"Fire!" Bletchley shouted. The square remained silent, Harry could feel his
heart thundering in his chest as he imagined hundreds of green bolts of
light tearing towards him, but none came. After several seconds Harry
lowered his arms.

"Thank you." He called, "Please, join this crusade against a dictator, make
Britain great once more!" there was a cheer from around the room and
Harry smiled broadly.

With a flick of his wrist he drew his wand and sent a cutting curse at
Bletchley, the overweight man stared in horror as the spell sped at him,
striking him in the neck, unceremoniously parting head from body.

The men around him cheered and Harry smirked as he turned back into the
complex, by the door he met Hilliard, the man looked shocked.

"That General." Harry said conversationally, "is option 3."

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PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHP

30 minutes later

"It's no good sir."

"Has he broken the anti-apparition ward yet?"

"We don't know, there has been very powerful magic in there, potentially
enough to circumvent the ward, it's impossible to know. But Horan
confirms sixteen dead by Riddles hand." Harry swore, once more he had
acted arrogantly and presumed his victory certain and now Voldemort was
safe within his office, and the repaired doors seemed to have been
protected by what seemed like impenetrable ward schemes.

"If we can't blast our way in, I suppose we simply have to knock." Harry
commented tiredly. Brookes, who stood between him and Cedric appeared
unconvinced.
With careful steps Harry walked to the office door and raised his hand,
rapping smartly on the hardwood three times. After a few seconds of pause
the door swung inwards. Harry turned around with an I told you so
expression and smirked at Brookes, who chuckled.

Harry, Cedric, Olivia and Brookes carefully entered the room to find
Riddle waiting behind his desk, the handsome man was gone, in his place
was a pale, waxy skinned, red eyed monster. And when Harry saw the
corpse of an enormous snake at his feet he understood why, Voldemort was
but one soul fragment now and very much mortal.

"I can give you everything Harry" the Dark Lord whispered, "just leave the
country, leave Britain in my command, and you will want for nothing."

Harry laughed scornfully, "Desperate begs Riddle?" he derided, I expected

more from such an esteemed Dark Lord."

"It is not a beg, merely an offer to you, as once we were allies, maybe even
friends, does that count for nothing now?" he asked, his voice becoming
slowly more serpentine.

"I'm afraid that counted for nothing the second you killed Miranda." Harry
reminded the Dark Lord with a cold smile, the man chuckled,

"Did I?" he asked flicking his wand at a side door on the right hand side of
the room.

"Sweet merlin," Cedric breathed,

"Impossible" murmured Olivia, Brookes merely blinked rapidly in shock.

Harry merely felt his throat constrict, his heart beat raced to a mile a
minute.

In the doorway, head bowed, looking tired and thin but very much alive
and with eyes that still exuded that Ice blue coldness stood Miranda
Rookwood.
34. Chapter 34

Wow.

Well, here we are. the End. Fin.

I hope you've all enjoyed this story, I've loved writing it, and loved the
feedback even more. It's been a priviledge and pleasure to be critiqued
by some of you who have clearly given it a great deal of thought, it
makes me so happy!

Now.

Onto this chapter, be warned, its short. Half the length of the others,
but I think it ends well. I have given it a very great deal of thought,
and I think this is the only way to finish it. there could be no other way.

Please Enjoy.

Chapter 32

Harry stood frozen in shock, barely conscious of the rest of the room. How
long he stayed like that, he didn't know, but when he came to again, it was
to see Riddle watching him carefully, the older man's scarlet eyes carefully
analysing his face.

With a herculean effort Harry held his feet from rushing to the woman.
Instead he turned his back to her and sneered at the Dark Lord.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" he asked coldly, "I'm afraid Tom that it

will take more than polyjuice to trick me."

Riddle face revealed nothing, "This is no trick Harry." He said simply,

Harry glared at him for several seconds before turning back to the blonde.
He didn't say a word as he strode across the plush carpet. Doing his best to
appear nonchalant he stopped a few feet away from her.

"Miranda?" he asked quietly, her head snapped up suddenly and she looked
into his eyes. At that moment, as he gazed into the icy blue depths he
knew, knew, that it was her, no one else could combine the look of smug
arrogance and disdain that, though now muted, was very much Miranda
Rookwood.

"Harry?" she asked, her voice strong despite her tired looking body. He
nodded and in a single movement she flew at him. Harry caught her easily,
choosing to ignore how emaciated she felt under her robes. He could feel
her sobbing against his chest and he slowly stroked her head, inhaling the
familiar scent of her hair.

"Why?" he asked, turning to Riddle, "How?"

Despite his best efforts, Harry was ashamed that his voice cracked a little,
something Riddle picked up on as he smirked.

"Why? Irrelevant, consider it insurance. As for the how, that wasn't hard, a
simple corpse under some tricky transfiguration… It doesn't matter how,
or why, my offer still stands Harry, will you leave?"

"No." the word was whispered but in the silent room it seemed to echo in
the heavy atmosphere.

"No." repeated Riddle, "that is a pity, but not as unexpected as could be

thought." Riddle chuckled. "What now then?"

Harry was silent, but he carefully pried the still sobbing blonde from his
side and walked across the room until he faced Riddle, seven feet and the
large desk all that separated the two of them.

Cedric watched in utter bewilderment, everything in the last two years of

his friend's life had been a lie, and the ex-Hufflepuff had no idea how to
respond to such revelations. His major concern though was Harry.
The man was an enigma, it was impossible to know him, in five minutes
he could go from heartless executioner, to charismatic leader and then to
tender lover. Harry Potter was undefinable, however Cedric was confident
that this ability was in part due to his analytical brain, there were very few
situations where Harry went in unprepared, and those situations tended to
result in bad consequences, either for Harry himself… or those around
him.

Cedric therefore felt he was justifiably concerned when he saw Harry turn
from the desk and turn to face him.

Harry's eyes, normally so cold and detached now blazed with life, Cedric
could see the swirling storm of emotions, confusion, rage, hope, joy,
misery, determination.

"Leave." He stated calmly, Cedric sighed and raised his hands.

"Harry…" he started calmly. Attempting to school his voice to sound

reasonable.

"Leave Cedric, all of you." They remained motionless. "NOW." The

command burst from nowhere, and with a sigh Harry's companions left the
room, leaving the Emperor, The Revolutionary and his fiancé alone in a
room.

When Harry returned his gaze to Voldemort, the Dark Lord was
unsurprised to see the phoenix feather and yew wand clutched in his hand.

"So it comes down to this." Riddle remarked calmly, "Two titans of their
generations battling head to head, I wonder, in a fair fight who would win.
It would certainly be an interesting show."

Harry frowned. But said nothing, Riddle appeared disappointed that Harry
hadn't risen to his jibe. Voldemort sighed and drew his wand, clutching the
stick of Yew delicately between three fingers. Harry immediately adopted
a more ready position, his wand held high, ready to come down in either
attack or defence.
"Kill him." Riddle stated calmly. With a sudden start, Harry saw the burst
of bright light from his right.

The bombarda curse struck him in the side and sent him flying through the
air, only to crash against the wooden panelling of the wall with a crunch
that sent splinters flying.

Harry staggered to his feet, each breath agony as he looked up to see

Miranda standing before him, her wand drawn, eyes vacant and unseeing.
She slashed her wand down and Harry was forced to raise a quick shield to
block the disembowelling curse that sped his way.

"What have you done to her?" he spat angrily as he carefully shielded

himself, sending frequent non-lethal spells in retaliation.

Riddle simply laughed, sat as he was still behind his desk. Harry growled
and sent a silent spray of stunners at the woman. She shielded silently,
returning fire with the bright green killing curse which Harry blocked with
a slab of stone.

"Will you kill her Harry Potter?" Riddle taunted, "If it allows you your
shot at me. She will kill you Harry Potter. She will kill you and eat you if I
ask her to."

Harry ignored the taunts, focussing instead on the duel, he dodged a blood
boiling curse, nearly falling to his knees as the movement strained his
broken ribs.

With great effort, Harry began advancing on the blonde, his shield keeping
at bay her relentless bombardment of lethal and dark spells. With
agonizing slowness Harry kept pressing on, wiping the sweat from his
brow with his trembling right hand.

When he was only feet away from her, Harry dropped the shield and
dodged left, diving on top of her, forcing her wand arm away. Her final
blasting curse struck the ceiling sending a hail of masonry and dust to fall
on Harry's back as both their wands flew from their hands.
He grunted in pain as the heavy stone struck him and Miranda took it as an
opportunity to push him off of her, rolling over until she straddled him.

Harry blinked his vision several times, trying to clear the blurred images.
His sight returned just in time, as he saw his fiancé raise a knife, a silver,
gold, highly decorated knife and plunge it towards his chest. He caught her
hand just in time, slowing the blade to a halt inches from his skin.

They lay there, the only sound laboured breathing, her on top of him,
pushing with all her might against the blade, whilst he, physically superior
though he may be, was unable to push her off with his battered chest and
was forced to put all her might into stopping the inexorable progression of
the blade towards his heart.

"It's okay." He whispered, staring deep into her eyes, "It's alright. Miranda,
it's alright." His words had no impact, her dull lifeless eyes continuing to
stare uninterestedly at his.

Harry could speak at length about Albus Dumbledore, and little of it would
be positive, however, he did recognise that the dead headmaster was a
brilliant man, his brain was near unparalleled, and if Dumbledore believed
that Love was the strongest force in the magical world, then Harry was not
above taking the old man's advice one last time.

"Miranda, you don't have to do this, you're stronger than him, I know it. I
love you Miranda Rookwood, and you love me. No amount of magic can
change that."

He thought he saw a flicker of something in her face, but he couldn't be

sure, evidently Riddle had seen something too however, as he suddenly
barked out

"Finish him Rookwood, finish this now."

Harry felt the pressure on the knife increase until the tip was cutting into
his skin.
"Please Miranda, don't give in to him!" he yelled it out, shouting in her
face.

It happened almost immediately, the beautiful blonde above him blinked,

and at once her eyes seemed full of life, her fierce personality raging
against the influence of the Dark Lord.

With a sudden cry, Miranda ripped the blade left, where it carved a path
across Harry's chest, Harry slowly loosened his pressure on her hands. His
eyes staring deep into hers.

Harry could tell it was about to happen. He saw her eyes suddenly return to
the lifeless blue they had been, and in that second the blade plunged down.
The magically enhanced blade cut through skin, muscle, bone and lung
until only the hilt remained visible from his chest.

He cried out in shock and pain, the sound accompanied by the gurgle of
blood and air escaping from the wound in his chest. His vision darkened,
even as his hands scrabbled wildly for the wand he had discarded
somewhere nearby.

He gasped once more, quickly followed by a cough. A spray of pink blood

flew from his lips onto Miranda's face. He lay there, barely able to feel his
limbs, vision tunnelling, his eyes focused on the beautiful face above him.
His breaths came fast, sharp and shallow, with each exhalation more blood
leaked from his lips.

Barely a minute after the knife had cut into him, Harry Potter slipped away
into the Blackness.

HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

Riddle felt a euphoric bubble rising in his throat as he watched the knife
pass into Potters chest. The greatest threat to his regime killed by the only
thing Harry loved more than power, Tom wished Dumbledore could have
lived to see how the greatest magic in the world had just failed to stop
Potters death.

Indeed, Riddle mused, it was the very fact that Potter loved Rookwood that
prevented him from killing her.

He turned back to the body on the floor, Harry was gasping on the floor,
his shirt stained red and face flecked by drops of his own blood. Potter was
frantically twisting, looking like a fish out of water, his hands grasping
futilely for the wand that was mere centimetres out of reach. He kept his
eyes on Potter, the greatest threat to his reign until the man stopped his
movements, his laboured breathing coming to a halt.

Emperor Thomas Marvolo Riddle, supreme leader of magical Britain

laughed as he watched his enemy die. With a careless flick of his wand he
cancelled the powerful spells on Miranda, laughing louder as he heard her
panicked cry as she saw her fallen love.

He had won. The DS may have promised themselves to Potter, but the
Dark Lord was confident that with the death of their leader, most of the
rebels would return to him. He would have to execute… a lot of them in
order to remind them of his authority, but he was confident he could regain
control of the situation within a matter of weeks.

Letting out another chuckle The Dark Lord rose, his tall, thin frame rising
elegantly from the leather chair. He turned his back on the corpse to stare
out of the window, smashed as it was from the battle.

The courtyard below was practically deserted, occasionally a man could be

seen running to the edge of the Imperial complex's wards, where they
vanished in the swirl of disaparation.

Riddle stepped closer to the window, enjoying the wind on his face,
carrying with it the smells of blood, fire and death, the smells of victory.

His lip curled in satisfaction as he inhaled deeply, savouring the rich scent.
It came as quite a shock to the man when his legs suddenly buckled
beneath him. He frowned as he crashed to his knees and looked down to
find the cause of his sudden fall. To his surprise, he saw several inches of
blood speckled steel protruding from the centre of his chest.

With great effort, the Emperor turned his head and frowned as he saw
someone standing above his fallen self.

"How…." He tried to speak, but all that escaped his lips was a shallow
gurgle. The tall woman above him wiped her red eyes, and Riddle was
reminded of the Valkyries, her blonde hair swirling in the wind, face set in
resolute finality, even as her eyes leaked tears.

"For Harry." She said simply. Her voice cold. Tom attempted to speak but
again found his voice failing. His mouth opened and closed several times
as he saw her draw another knife, this one black and unadorned, hilt and
blade worn from use.

"please…" he managed to wheeze out. Miranda was unimpressed and with

a single motion swept the blade across his throat. As his head flew back
releasing a spray of crimson, Miranda Rookwood kicked him hard,
sending his dying corpse out of the broken window to fall 50 feet onto the
hard stone below.

HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

REVOLUTION IN LONDON!
Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent

Yesterday, the nation was rocked by the rebellion of much of the DS and
the Reserve Army, to the shock of many, Harry Potter, previously of
Hogwarts was at the head of this force. Details at this time are scarce
however it is known that after securing the Imperial complex, The Lord
Potter fought the Emperor alone, resulting in both their deaths.
HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

POTTER KILLED, ROOKWOOD RESPONSIBLE

Walter Pickles, Criminal Correspondent.

To the horror and dismay of thousands of wizards and witches, it can be

confirmed that Harry Potter, to many the greatest wizard for a hundred
years has been killed. Yesterday the interim government, led by the
Revolutionary Council confirmed it, when Severus Snape, previously
headmaster of Hogwarts stated,

"It is with a heavy heart that I must confirm the loss of Harry Potter, Mr
Potter was killed whilst attempting to bring the Emperor to justice for his
crimes."

The most shocking revelation however, came when it emerged that Lord
Potter's Murderer was in fact none other than Miranda Rookwood, who it
was believed died over three years ago. Miss Rookwood is currently being
held in a maximum security cell until her trial for the murder of Harry
Potter.

HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

NATION VEERS TOWARDS WAR

Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent.

Following the successful overthrow of the Imperial Government last

month, it has emerged that the Revolutionary council has made no move to
introduce elections for a new one. Lucius Malfoy, previously head of the
Imperial Government has apparently allied himself with Evan Rosier, who
remains commander in chief of the DS-guard.

The two of them released a statement yesterday which many fear will
result in a second civil war.
'The revolution of last month was the work of Harry Potter, it is now known
and accepted that he intended to regain the throne before his tragic death.
Due to the failure of the Revolutionary Council to create a new
government it is our belief that they wish to retain power and rule as
despots.

In Mr Potters Will, which he failed to change following the believed death

of Miss Rookwood three years ago, he clearly names Miranda Rookwood
as his sole heir.

It is our position therefore that Miss Rookwood be released forthwith and

given the throne left to her by Mr Potter. This belief is supported by the
might of the Dark Shield.'

HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

MIRANDA ROOKWOOD EXECUTED. RESERVE ARMY

DECLARES MARTIAL LAW.
Vere Wikie, Judicial Correspondent.

HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

BRITAIN AT WAR.
Thomas Audley, Political Correspondent.

HPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHP

The End.

A.N.

There you go. the end of the story, I imagine a lot of you are currently
planning to violently kill me, probably with a cactus and croquet
mallet, but please dont. I truly think this was the best ending, it wraps
it all up, and most of all, given the sort of society, characters and
history that we have seen, I think it is the most likely scenario. If you
have any questions you can all PM me, I will try to reply!

Basically, If you've favourited this story, read it, whatever, please drop
me a review, just a few words with your opinion, it's been tough at
times to keep writing, and I want to know if you liked what i was
creating!

All My Love

PLEASE READ!

I have in my head the idea for a new story, it would be completely AU,
and would focus on the Secret Muggle Government branch who are
tasked with keeping wizards secret, by killing rogue mages and
keeping watch on muggle borns etc. The main character would be a
non magical Harry who is older than canon, and the fanfiction would
mirror canon's timeline, ie. what the Muggle government is actually
doing during the voldemort war.

If you like the idea, please PM me, if you want to be a beta for it,
please PM me too.

Happy 2015
35. An Alternative Ending

Well, I have received a fairly mixed reception to my posting of the final

chapter of Harry Potter and the Dark's rise.

A lot of you didn't like it, thinking it didn't answer any questions, or was
too open ended. therefore I have decided to publish this as well.

It is an alternative ending, I actually wrote this before the other ending

but didn't think it was how I thought the story should end. However, I
wrote this for you guys, and so If you might enjoy this more, I dedicate it
to you, an alternative ending, by popular demand.

Give me your thoughts.

Alternative Ending

Silence.

Loud, oppressive silence.

Harry stood motionless as time seemed to stop in its tracks. He stared, his
eyes gazing at her face with an expression of agony and joy. With faltering
steps he approached her unmoving form until he was just feet away.

Tearing his gaze from Miranda's face, he turned slightly so he could look
at the Dark Lord. The man was gazing at him closely. His wand was on the
desk before him, and his face was set in eager excitement.

"How?" Harry asked, his voice deceptively calm.

"it was nothing really, I simply..." Riddle was cut off as Harry raised his
hand demanding silence.

"I care not." He murmured, turning back to gaze into the cold blue eyes of
his fiancé. "Why?"
This time Riddle took far longer to answer, and when Harry turned slightly
to look at the man, he appeared in deep thought.

"Leverage." The Emperor answered finally. He paused and a small smile

appeared on his face. "Your betrayal was inevitable. And it was your dear
Miranda who was pushing for it… I simply captured one of your chess
pieces whilst simultaneously gaining the most valuable hostage possible."
The Dark Lord's smile grew feral as he watched Harry turn back to
Miranda.

With carefully controlled movements, Harry raised an arm and slowly

brought it up to cup her cheek, the blonde smiled at him warmly and Harry
smiled back. He could feel his throat tighten as he felt her soft skin
beneath his fingers.

He pulled her into an embrace with a savage intensity and blinked away
tears. Burying his head into her blonde hair and inhaling deeply.

He frowned, inhaling again before he froze. His body became stiff as he

held Miranda close to him, his right arm pressing into her back and
pinning her to him.

"Avada Kedavra" Harry whispered quietly, his wand pressed up into her
ribcage. Miranda gasped and he released her, allowing her to fall
gracelessly to the floor like a puppet with the strings cut.

"Harry?" Cedric asked shocked from behind him. The young professor
remained still, his back facing the rest of the room, he took a deep breath,
swallowing the tennis ball lump in his throat as he blinked furiously,
looking down on the corpse at his feet, Miranda's features frozen in
surprise, the normally bright eyes dim and lifeless.

"You know," Harry began, turning back to the rest of the occupants,
Voldemort had a look of disappointment, whilst Olivia, Cedric and
Brookes looked frozen in horror, "I remember every detail of Miranda
Rookwood."
His eyes, which had been calm suddenly erupted into vivid burning green,
"I know her well enough to know when I am being shown an imposter."
With a furious flick of his wand, the blonde corpse shimmered, her skin
rippling as the delicate features of his love returned to the heavy lidded,
dark haired Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Polyjuice?" he finally asked, his voice shaking with rage.

Riddle seemed to pause as he looked into Harry's burning eyes. Eventually

the pale skinned, red eyed Dark Lord shrugged, his mouth curling into a
cruel grin. "I'm impressed, perhaps you are not as weak as I had thought."

Harry slashed his wand at the dark Lord in a single violent sweep, sending
a violent surge of unchained magic at Riddle, his rage funnelled through
his wand. Riddle picked up his wand and cast a shield over himself.

The wave struck the shield with a sound like a cannon, exploding outwards
with a powerful shockwave, the windows were shattered and the large desk
in front of Riddle was reduced to splinters.

"Avada Kedavra!" Riddle roared from the dust, rising to his full height, the
spell flew at Harry who summoned the body of Lestrange into the path of
the green light, the corpse absorbed the killing curse, only to fly at the
Dark Lord as Harry banished her.

"Pulvio" Voldemort cast, turning Lestrange into a cloud of ash. He

followed up with a withering hail of spellfire, flashes of red, blue, green
and pink hurtling at Harry who was forced to dodge, shield and conjure
walls to weather the onslaught.

From his left, he saw his companions raise their wands and begin to cast a
series of spells at Riddle, the Dark Lord paused and raised his shield,
sending a swathe of black flames at the three who all dived out of the way
just in time.

Whilst not particularly effective, the distraction offered Harry precious

seconds to drop his shield and begin to fire strings of spells with such high
frequency it appeared that a single multihued string was flying from his
wand, forcing Voldemort onto the defensive.

He took a deep breath, allowing the rage to diminish in him as he forced

his mind to clear of everything but the duel.

'Reducto, Crucio, Diffindo, relashio' he thought, watching as the spells

were batted away from Riddle with ease. The Dark Lord Snarled, slashing
his wand at Harry who ducked, the orange spell sailing over his head,
striking Cedric on the leg as he was standing up.

The ex-Hufflepuff cried out in agony as the orange curse sped straight
through his limb, cleaving it off in a spray of crimson. Harry growled as
he saw his friend collapse, desperately holding the stump of his thigh
which was spraying blood like a fountain. Olivia quickly crawled over to
him, her face green, but mouth set in determination to help him.

Bombarda

Riddle laughed as he sidestepped, the curse missing by inches, and instead

slamming into the far wall, blasting a hole in the stone, revealing the great
courtyard below.

Protego Harry thought as Riddle sent a cutter at him, the shield held and
he returned fire by transfiguring the desk into a Minotaur and sending the
beast at Riddle.

The mythical beast exploded into flames with a wave of a wand and
crumpled to the group with a bellow. The two combatants paused,
glowering at each other, both unhurt, but both breathing deeply.

Riddle's expression darkened, and he turned on the spot suddenly,

vanishing into a cloud of black smoke that flew out of the broken wall.

"Not today." Harry growled, and he took off after Riddle, diving through a
broken window. His arms wrapped tightly around the Dark Lord in the
smoke, grappling until his fingers clutched at Voldemort's face, his fingers
gouging at his eyes. Riddle released a pained shriek and dived for the
ground. The two struck the grey York stone ground hard. Bouncing apart.
Harry was torn off of Riddle by the force of the impact, and he bounced
several times, feeling bones crack and break. When he came to a halt, his
body was agony, he turned his head slightly, wincing as he felt a scraping
sensation in his neck.

The Emperor appeared equally injured, his limbs at odd angles and blood
flowing freely from his nose and mouth. With slow movements Harry
looked down at his own body and winced, it was not a pretty sight, he
could see bone protruding over an inch from his shin, and his foot
appeared inverted. He took a deep breath, which turned out to be a bad
idea as his battered chest protested.

With shaking movements he withdrew from his pocket a vial of golden

elixir, struggling to remove the stopper with his broken fingers. With
several quick swallows he emptied the bottle and cast it away, where it
skittered several times on the ground.

He could feel the magic of the liquid work almost immediately, agony
coursing through his system as his bones shifted back into their correct
positions, skin knitted over and muscle grew. Five seconds after taking the
potion, he was as good as new, his body showing no sign of the intense
punishment it had just taken.

He rose to his feet, stumbling over to his wand which had flown several
feet away. Picking it up, he just had time to raise a shield as the Dark Lord
hurled a violet coloured spell at him.

Despite the impressive job Voldemort had done on healing himself, it was
clear that it was only due to powerful magic that he was still standing, his
body appeared stiff, as though many joints were bent out of shape,
numerous cuts and wounds still bled profusely. He appeared furious at
Harry's seemingly miraculous recovery and raised his wand again.

"Fiendfyre!"
Harry watched in fascinated horror as a vast serpent of flame exploded
from the end of Riddle's wand, it grew in size until it stood over twenty
feet high, Harry could see the air shimmering from the heat.

As the snake lunged at Harry he turned and disapparated, appearing twenty

feet behind the Dark Lord, just in time to see the snake smash down where
he had been standing only seconds before. Voldemort snarled like a dog
and the snake lunged at Harry again.

With a slash of his wand Harry forced the fiendfyre to retreat, hissing,
with a broad sweep of his wand, the creation of dark magic lost its
cohesion, burning up in the air until no trace of it was left.

"Why can you never just die?" Riddle hissed, his voice high and cold.

Harry said nothing, instead sending an electric blue beam of light at

Riddle whose eyes widened as he retaliated with his own dark red beam.
The two strings of magic collided with the force of a bomb, pulverising
the stone beneath where they struck to gravel.

The two spells raged against each other, arcs of lightening spraying out
into the surrounding air, making Harry's nose burn with the acrid smell of
ozone. The intensity it the magic was saturating the air, which shimmered,
the stone around the two men cracking as the earth itself seemed to
rupture.

Harry renewed his efforts, sending all his reserves into the spell which
burned even brighter, slowly, very slowly, the blue beam began to advance,
forcing the Dark Lords spell into retreat. Voldemort saw this and
screeched his frustration, stabbing his wand forward, the advance of the
blue beam slowed, but did not stop.

The magic in the air reached new heights, fires burned around them, stone
glowed red hot and overhead the sky darkened, lightning forking down
onto the surrounding area.
Harry felt the pressure in the air, felt his head ache as he continued to put
everything he had into the spell, his vision tunnelled and he felt the sudden
wind whipping his torn and burned clothes against his body.

As Harry's spell reached Voldemort's wand, time seemed to stop, Harry

saw the Dark Lord's eyes widen in horror and his face strain.

There was a second of silence, the pressure in the air vanished. Then,
suddenly, Riddle's wand exploded in a flash of white light, Harry was
thrown off his feet by the force of the explosion, landing on his back ten
feet back. He groaned, tasting blood as he bit his cheek. He stood up, his
feet unsteady and slowly advanced on his fallen adversary.

Riddle was a mess. His wand hand had been reduced to a bloody stump,
whilst his face had been broken and bruised until it no longer resembled
the man in the slightest.

The Dark Lord's eyes were open, his mouth gaping as he looked up at
Harry. The young man gazed at his most hated enemy for several seconds,
trying to conjure up the hatred and rage he knew existed, but he couldn't.
As he looked at the man who he despised so much he felt nothing but
exhaustion, a weight pressing on his shoulders.

"P…Po…" the dark lord took in a rattling breath, "Potter…" he finally

gasped out. Harry looked at him dispassionately, waiting for the man to
speak. After several seconds of nothing, Harry grew tired and raised his
wand.

"Wait!" was the gurgled cry, but Harry ignored him.

"Apsorio." He spoke the spell clearly, and Voldemort's eyes flashed as the
spell flew at him.

The pale blue light's effects were instantaneous. The Dark Lords head
imploded violently, his skull crushed as though a black hole existed in its
centre, as its effects finished, the Dark Lords face was destroyed, blood
and brain and bone mixed together.
Harry stood standing over the Dark Lord for a long time, he watched as the
rivulets of blood flowed into the gap between to paving slabs where it
formed a greater stream, flowing into a small red lake. He watched as the
bright scarlet light slowly dimmed to a dark crimson, before solidifying.

Eventually he felt several presences approach and he turned, it was

General Hilliard and Captain Richmond. He looked up at them calmly,
both approached until they were but feet away from him and then knelt,
dipping their heads in deference.

"Your majesty." Hilliard began, "It is done, the government is ours, the
party leadership has been arrested and all high command are currently
detained." He paused, and Harry could hear the relief in his voice. "We've
done it my lord. The Empire is yours.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

REVOLUTION: RIDDLE DEAD.

Thomas Audley, Political correspondent

Following the emergence of Thomas Riddle's crimes against the citizens of

Magical Britain, a coalition of allies led by Harry Potter has overthrown
the corrupt government in a daring attack against the imperial complex. In
the battle, Harry Potter personally defeated the emperor in a duel
described by witnesses as 'awesome and terrible'
as of right now it is unclear what shall happen with regard to the future of
the Government.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHHPHPHPHPH
PHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The crowds in the imperial plaza were hushed, Harry advanced slowly, he
wore his finest dress uniform, the fitted black jacket draped in gold,
medals pinned above his heart and an elegant silver sabre at his hip. He
was cloaked in black edged with ermine fur.
He strode with purposeful strides towards the stone steps before him,
where stood the Imperial High Command, the remaining loyal members of
the NTF, Olivia, and Cedric, though he leaned heavily on a crutch, still
unused to his new prosthetic. Harry smiled coldly as he reflected on his
journey here. Before him, four young Hogwarts first years walked, rose
petals gently floating from the tips of their wands, where they fell and
were trodden down beneath Harry's highly polished black boots.

Following the death of Voldemort, there had been a national cry for Harry
to regain the throne, so great had it been that Harry had felt confident
enough to order a national referendum on the future of the government.
The reply had been a resounding demand for Harry to return to the throne.

A demand he was now obeying.

With sure steps he made his way onto the raised stone and stood before the
assembled wizards of Great Britain, it seemed every magic user in the
country had arrived for his coronation, as well as thousands of foreign
dignitaries, press and tourists.

The square was packed, Harry estimated 20,000 people stood in awed
silence before him. He reached the centre stage and stopped,

"Citizens of Britain." He called proudly, his voice magically amplified, "I

must apologise." There was a murmur of confusion from the crowd.
"Three years ago I promised you that I would not let this country down. I
promised that Britain would rise to her rightful position"

He bowed his head slightly, "I was betrayed by one I thought could do this.
Thomas Riddle betrayed me as he betrayed each and every one of you and
I accept responsibility for this."

There came louds cries from the crowd, all in support of Harry and he
raised his head, he allowed the shouted support to continue for several
seconds before raising his hands for silence.
"I therefore proclaim, that I shall restore Britain, this shall become a land
of hope, a land of prosperity and growth, a land of freedom and a land of
pride."

There came loud cheers and he smiled slightly, once more he raised his
hands and silence immediately fell. From the velvet pillow in front of him,
he picked up the platinum laurel circlet, each intricately goblin carved leaf
seemingly alive.

"I, Harry James Potter, Marshall of the Imperial Forces, Lord Protector of
the British Magical Dominions and elected governor of Britain do hereby
proclaim myself, Emperor of all British Magical Dominions, from now,
until the end of my days."

As the final note of his voice rang out, he lowered the crown onto his head
and set his face into an austere mask, as the crowds bellowed their
approval and hundreds of camera's flashed. From somewhere in the crowd,
a bright white spell-flare was sent up and soon others copied, until the
orange evening light was illuminated by thousands of lights fired into the
sky.

"Long Live the Emperor!" someone cried, and others took up the chant.

"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

There you go. Finished.

Unless you want a sequel... which I am tempted to write. heres the

deal. if you want a sequel, review this chapter and put in which ending
you want the story to continue from, either the civil war following
Harry's death, or the growth of the empire as Harry develops his
position...

Love you all

Marshall Angmar.