Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise or any part thereof.

I woke to someone nudging my side and growling, "Up you lazy lout."

I open my eyes blearily. What the heck! A guy with one massive electric blue eye and a normal looking eye nudged me again. That's Mad-eye Moody! Shacklebolt stood behind him with his wand drawn and pointing it directly at me.

"How did you get here?" Mad-eye barked.

Good question. I thought to myself, looking around quickly. I was laying on a couch in a dark room. There was a bunch of other furniture in the room, but what stood out was how dark it was. It seemed like the darkness was overpowering the light, rather than the other way around. Must be Grimmauld Place, I thought.

I cleared my throat as I saw both Shacklebolt and Moody were getting nervous, "Um… I don't know. Is this number 12 Grimmauld Place?"

That was definitely the wrong thing to say, I thought as two red bolts of magic crashed into me.

"Albus, I'm telling you that he needs to be memory wiped, he KNEW where he was!" In my still clouded mind, I thought it might have been Moody.

"We can't just wipe his memory," I had no idea who that was, it was a woman though, "We don't even know who he is."

"He's awake," Someone else said quietly.

"Then ask him to join us."

That was definitely Dumbledore.

I opened my eye and blinked owlishly at who must have been Arthur Weasley. I was laying in a cot off to the side in the kitchen. Arthur standing close enough to intervene quickly, but not close enough for me to get the drop on him. His wand was also in hand and pointed directly at me.

I looked around the room and noticed that everyone was gathered around the table, which seemed much too long to support itself. It's magic you idiot, I said to myself. I saw Tonks, Remus, Moody, Shacklebolt, Bill and several others… including a sneering Severus Snape shrouded in shadows. Wow, he looked even more unpleasant than I thought he would.

"Come here, my boy," Dumbledore said, patting the table next to him, "I'm sure you have a fascinating tale to tell."

"Not really," I muttered, "All I did was wake up, say the wrong thing, get stunned and then wake up again. Not fascinating at all." I sat up and went over to the seat by Dumbledore.

Everyone just kind of looked at me like I had two heads, except Tonks. She giggled and changed her hair from purple to a bright pink. I grinned and gave my attention back to Dumbledore.

"I was wondering how you knew that this was the Grimmauld Place," Dumbledore asked.

That was a good question… unless it wasn't under the Fidelus yet. "Well… that's a good question. It's under a fidelus right?"

Moody shifted nervously and I'm sure he had his wand pointed at me under the table. Dumbledore nodded his head.

"Well then that is strange, because I'm sure I didn't read any of your notes…" Suddenly, for some reason I just had a memory of reading one of Dumbledore's hand written notes with the secret of 12 Grimmauld Place on it. "Um… for some reason, I suddenly remembered reading one of your notes." What the heck, how in the world would I have read one of his notes? I just got here!

"Maybe he was memory charmed?" Tonks put forward.

"That still doesn't explain how he got the secret," Moody said, "He's probably lying."

"He is telling the truth," Dumbledore said, calming the sudden rage of emotion from the group.

How would he know… oh yes, mind magics. "Are you using legilimency on me?"

Everyone in the room froze. The twinkle in Dumbledore's eye brightened, "My dear boy, even though I am rather accomplished in mind magics, I do not need legilimency to see the truth in your eyes."

Wow… what an accomplished politician. He never answered the question, but it seems he satisfied everyone's curiosity on the subject. "Oh," I replied, "I didn't know I was that easy to read." With a shrug of my shoulders, I asked, "Is there anything else?"

Wait… where is Sirius? I looked around at the people in the kitchen.

"Is there something troubling you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah, what year is it?" I replied, dreading the answer.

"It is 1995."

I let out a relieved sigh, "So where is Sirius?"

Everyone suddenly froze. Me and my big mouth. I braced myself for several stunners only to look really stupid for several seconds. I cracked an eye and saw that everyone (well almost everyone I saw that Tonks was laughing at me) had their wand pointed at me, but no one had let their magic loose.

"What do you mean where is Sirius?" Moody demanded roughly. I felt Arthur's wand tip press against my neck.

"Well," I began hesitantly, my voice wavering from having Arthur's wand press against my neck. He wasn't supposed to be scary as hell. "This is his house, isn't it? And he's a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

Dang it! I wanted to bash my head into the wall. Maybe I should just put several layers of duct tape over my mouth, yeah, that would work.

"What do you know about the Order or the Phoenix?" Arthur's voice was soft and deadly.

Holy crap! This guy made me want to curl up and shiver in fear, forget Voldemort.

"I… uh… I know that Dumbledore spearheaded it as a major offensive against Voldemort," Nearly everyone in the room flinched. The wand on his neck remained steady, "And I know that he's restarted it because the ministry refuses to acknowledge Voldemort's return."

"Anything else you want to tell us?" Arthur continued in his deadly silent voice.

His voice scared me so much that I just let loose, "Remus is a werewolf, Sirius escaped Azkaban in his animagus form to protect Harry from Pettigrew who was Ron's pet rat, Moody was impersonated by Barty Crouch Jr then entire school year, Cedric was killed by Pettigrew, Pettigrew used a dark ritual to resurrect Voldemort with Harry's blood, Harry killed a basilisk and Quirrell and duelled Voldemort and probably has PTSD from seeing Cedric die…"

My legs gave out and I fell to my knees.

"Damn," Remus said.

"Poor Ginny," Tonks said, "She'll never get married."

"What's PSTD?" Sirius said, suddenly appearing. Cool, must be a disillusionment charm.

"It's PTSD," I replied, my voice still shaky, "It stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Basically you never deal with the emotions from situations… like watching Cedric die… and they just bottle up and… bad stuff happens."

"What bad stuff?"

"I actually don't know, but sending him back to the Dursley's definitely didn't help. Rather, they probably made it worse. I think it has something to do with expressing emotions, which Harry has trouble with as it is."

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, looking apprehensive.

"What? Didn't Harry tell you anything about the Dursley's?" Sirius shook his head and everyone in the room was listening. I huffed in annoyance, "I don't know how bad it actually was, but Harry was abused. He lived in a cupboard under the stairs until Hogwarts, and he only got the second bedroom when Hagrid forced them to."

"He was not abused," Dumbledore interrupted.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes," Dumbledore replied calmly, "The wards would not allow it. Even an attempt to harm Mr. Potter would result in the attacker being forcibly ejected from the house."

Calmly as possible, I wanted to rail against the Headmaster, I asked, "Do the wards prevent animals from harming him as well?"

Dumbledore thought from several seconds and then nodded, "They would."

"Then the wards are not functioning properly," I replied, "On numerous occasions, Vernon's sister's dog has attacked and bitten Harry while the Dursley's laughed."

It was almost comical how white Dumbledore's face got, but considering the topic… Sirius whirled to face Dumbledore.

"Wait," Moody's voice cut through everyone, effectively silencing both Sirius and Dumbledore, "How do we know that this is the truth and how does this kid know it?"

Kid? I thought indignantly, I'm twenty one! Then I looked at myself and realized that I looked like I was mid teens, probably about fifteen or sixteen.

"Does anyone have a mirror?" I asked.

Dumbledore flourished his wand and a full length mirror materialized in front of me. I looked like I did several years ago. Dang it, puberty again! No wonder I've been blurting stuff out and feeling all… angsty.

"Well boy," Moody growled, "How do you know all this stuff?"

I opened my mouth to tell them about the books, but I couldn't say anything. I frowned but decided to try telling them something else about my life, but nothing came out. "Um… I can't."

"Maybe he was cursed?" Remus murmured.

"Well then, it's a good thing we have a resident curse breaker present," I said, looking pointedly at Bill.

Bill shrugged and walked over to me. Slowly he waved his wand over me and after many flashing lights, glowing appendages and a slight pain in my stomach, he stood back with a sigh. "Well, there were several curses on you, and a couple of blocks on your magical core."

I have magic… I couldn't really think about anything else after that. I could feel the magic coursing through my body, flowing through me, changing me. I was now sure that I could change any part of my body. I could have Tonk's pink hair… My eyes flew open and I saw everyone staring at me opened mouthed.

Bill nodded slowly, "One of the blocks blocked any kind of self-transfiguration."

I looked up and noticed that my hair was indeed the same pink color as Tonk's. My face flaming, I quickly changed it back to it's usual brown. I noticed Tonk's pouting out of the corner of my eye.

"Unfortunately, the curse that prevents him from speaking to us is tied to his magic AND his soul," Bill said, "In order to remove the curse, I would have to remove his magic and his soul, effectively killing him. The only way is for the curse to be satisfied."

"And what are the requirements for the curse to be satisfied?" I asked.

"For you to die probably," Snape sneared from the corner.

I rolled my eyes at Snape, "Voldemort Isn't here, you can drop the whole Death Eater attitude."

I then ignored his glare and turned to Bill expectantly.

"I'm not sure," Bill said slowly, his eyes darting between me and Snape. "The requirements were so complicated that even with the original curse, I'm not sure I could unravel it."

"That leaves us one problem," Arthur said from behind me, "How do we know he's not a Death Eater?"

Bill frowned at his father, "His magic has been bound since birth, I'm pretty sure he's not a Death Eater."

"All that matters is that Harry is still at the Dursley's!" Sirius yelled, "We need to get him out of there now!"

I frowned, "There is something…" I muttered to myself. Something that was tickling the edges of my memory. Dementors! "Quick, get Harry out of there now!" I yelled. Everyone stared at me.

Sirius nodded sharply, "See, he agrees."

"Umbridge sent dementors to attack him," I yelled, "Get over there now!"

Dumbledore took charge, "Arthur, stay with him, Bill, Shacklebolt and Moody." He grabbed a tea cup and muttered portus and suddenly they were all whisked away.

Snape scowled and started muttering under his breath. Everyone else stood in shocked silence for a heartbeat before they started talking among themselves.

I went over and sat across from Tonks. "Hi Tonks," I said brightly.

She smiled back, "Hi… Mr. Know-It-All."

I snorted. These magicals and there hyphenated names. I realized that I never introduced myself, "Benjamin, but I just go by Ben."

She grinned, "Okay Benjamin but I just go by Ben."

I narrowed my eyes at her, "I could call you Nymphadora if you'd rather."

Suddenly her expression was very cold and her wand was pointed at me. I suddenly understood why people in the books respected her wish to be called Tonks. "You would regret doing that."

I managed to get around the lump in my throat, "Yeah, I think I would at that." I quickly changed the subject, "So I happen to be a metamorphmagus."

Tonks leered at me, "How far can you go?"

I wasn't quite sure what she was asking, "What do you mean?"

Her grin became bigger, if that were possible, "Can you change into a girl?"

I shrugged and decided to try and change into her. I closed my eyes and felt the magic coursing through me and willed myself to change into Tonk's likeness.

"How was that Tonks?" I said opening my eyes.

She sat there with a goofy look on her face, "Wow, I'm so hot."

I snorted at her and shifted back into me, "Yes, Tonk's, you can see yourself in the mirror though." I realized that Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins were probably upstairs. I asked to confirm my suspicions.

"They are," Tonks said, "How you know all this stuff is pretty amazing. I didn't even know that Harry kill Quirrell."

I shrugged, "With Quirrell, I'm pretty sure that it was accidental magic. Dumbledore insisted that it was his mother's sacrifice." I shrugged again, "I don't know how that could be, I'm sure a lot of mothers sacrificed themselves for their kids and it didn't end up like that."

Our conversation was interrupted by twin cracks which I recognized as apparition. "Wait, there isn't any apparition ward around headquarters?"

Tonks pursed her lips, "I guess not. I thought for sure that Dumbledore said there were."

Arthur made his presence known by pressing his wand into the back of my neck again, "Don't even think about it," He hissed.

"I don't know how to apparate," I managed to stammer.

Fred and George walked in. Despite having the most terrifying person in the world having me at gunpoint… or wand-point… I managed to grin.

"Oh look,"

"Sleeping beauty has awoken,"

"Except it's a guy,"

"Too true my roguishly handsome brother,"

"And he's not really a beauty,"

I turned my nose up at them and turned into Malfoy, "I'll have you blood traitors know that I am the epitome of pureblood breeding. No one can even come close to hair as fine as this."

The twins stared for a several seconds before loudly guffawing and buckling over in laughter. I grinned at their antics and turned back to Tonks. "That's my cousin you're insulting."

"Oh please," I replied, rolling my eyes, "Your mom was cast out of the Black family. If anything Snape should be the one to take issue with it, Malfoy is his godson after all."

Snape sneered at me from the corner.

I rolled my eyes at him and went over to stand in the corner by him. I didn't look at him, I just stood next to him. I could feel his eyes on me.

"What do you want, Mr. Benjamin?" Snape queried, it didn't sound as annoyed as before.

"I was wondering how much you like yourself after putting down Lily's child so many times, you must feel like such a grownup."

His voice was practically dripping with venom as he replied, "You know nothing."

I ignored his statement, "Lily would be so proud of you, finally turning from the Dark Arts to the light… only to torture her child at every possible moment."

"He is no child of Lily's," Snape hissed. I was pushing it, but I felt that I had a little more rope to hang myself with.

"Don't worry Snape, Voldemort will probably kill Harry soon and you'll be free from the annoying reminder of Lily for the rest of your life."

Snape slammed me into the wall with a hiss, his cloying breath blowing over my face, "That child is the offspring of James Potter."

I blinked at him like I didn't understand, "But James is dead, thanks to you."

Snape released my shirt as if it burned him. Suddenly, I was slammed into the wall again, this time much more painfully, and his wand was at my neck. He froze though when another wand was pressed against his neck, "Come now Severus, play nice."

Arthur's deadly calm voice made a shiver run up my spine.

Snape reluctantly put away his wand and Arthur went back to sit at the table. I hadn't even seen him move.

"I thought Arthur Weasley was a gentle soul," I whispered hoarsely.

Snape sneered, "Don't be a fool. Arthur's kindly persona is only up when others are there to see it. He is probably more deadly than anyone here, besides Moody."

"Oh… kay, that definitely sheds a different light on things."

Further musings were silenced by the fireplace flashing green and Harry flying out and crashing into Sirius, who had been pacing in front of the fireplace. They both went down in a tangle of limbs as Dumbledore, Bill, Moody and Shacklebolt calmly stepped out behind him. My eyes darted between the three adults, all of them were pale and slightly sick looking.

Finally Dumbledore spoke up, "It seems our guest was indeed correct." Several gasps went around the room, "Unfortunately, we were not quick enough to prevent Mr. Potter from casting his own Patronus and it seems that Cornelius is using this situation to expel Mr. Potter from Hogwarts." Several more gasp went around the room. This was the Order of the Phoenix? I shook my head in scorn. "However, I will make him see reason, especially since three notable people witnessed the attack."

Dumbledore spun around called out "Ministry of Magic" and was gone.

In the stunned silence that followed, I said, "Shacklebolt, why don't you ask for an official investigation into why dementors were seen in Surry. You don't even need to mention Harry's name; this can be a completely separate investigation."

Shacklebolt nodded and vanished in a flash of green fire.

Sirius and Harry both struggled to their feet, "Blast it pup!" Sirius said, "How did you fly out of the floo?" Harry looked sheepish for a second before realizing that Sirius was joking with him. "Come here pup." I looked away a little awkwardly as Harry met my eyes over Sirius' shoulder.

"Who are all these people?" Harry asked quietly.

When no one looked like they wanted to answer, I piped up, "They're the Order of the Phoenix, Harry." Harry just looked more confused, "It's a vigilante group founded by Dumbledore to fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

Harry nodded, "So who are you?"

"Ben," I said holding out hand.

Harry shook it, "So… who are you?"

I shook my head in mirth, "I'm here to help you take down Voldemort… I'm not sure how I got here though."

Harry looked weirded out by what I said. Moody spoke up, "We found him on a couch in the parlour this morning. He knew stuff that he shouldn't have known, so we called the Order together and had a brief questioning session… in which he couldn't answer any questions about where he came from or how he knew what he knew. But he did warn us about the dementors in Surry."

"So how did you know about the dementors?" Harry asked me.

"I…" I tried to speak further, but no words would form.

"He has a curse on him that prevents him from saying anything," Bill interjected, "I looked him over myself. And before you ask, no I can't remove the curse without killing him."

Harry nodded, "Well thanks for sending Dumbledore over when you did. Any longer and he wouldn't have seen the dementors."

I nodded. There was no way that this was even going to trial with Dumbledore, Moody and Shacklebolt all having witnessed the attack. "At least Fudge won't try anything stupid with everyone having seen the dementors."

Harry nodded and looked around again, "So are Ron and Hermione here?"

"They're upstairs dear," Molly said bustling over. She wrapped him in a hug, "Why don't you go up and say hello. Diner will be ready in about an hour."

Harry thanked her and started out of the room.

"Harry," I called quietly. He turned and looked at me, "Do you think you could introduce me?"

Harry shrugged and nodded. He was quiet as we walked down the hall. As we reached the stairs he hesitated then asked, "Are you a… muggle?"

I laughed, "I thought I was, but Bill found a block on my magic and removed it, so no, I'm not a muggle. In fact." I changed my face to match his face, "I'm a metamorphmagus, just like Tonks."

"Eh… what's a meta-morph er… what was it again?"

"Metamorphmagus," I chuckled, "Basically means that I'm a shape-shifter."

"That's cool," Harry replied, "So how do you know all this if you thought you were a muggle?"

I smiled weakly at him, "That's covered by the curse, so I can't say anything."

We then heard a voice from down the hall say, "Honestly Ron, how should I know if he's a Death Eater or not." After a beat she continued, "But he only looked fifteen or sixteen and he was dressed like a non-magical. So I would assume he's just some guy… Harry!"

I was standing behind Harry, so they didn't see me until Hermione was hugging Harry and Ron was standing right behind her. Both of them froze.

Ron's demeanor suddenly became suspicious.

Hermione blushed slightly and held out her hand, "Hermione Granger."

I shook her hand, "Ben…" For some reason I couldn't say my last name.

"That falls under the curse as well?" Harry asked

"I guess so," I said with a shrug. Then continued, "Hello Ron, Ginny." Ginny was further in the room and for some reason blushed brilliantly when I said hello, and she wasn't even looking at Harry. Though, I thought she was over her crush now… something to ponder.

"Harry we're so sorry we couldn't write to you," Hermione fired off rapidly, "All the letters had to be so vague."

"It's alright Hermione," Harry said hugging her again.

I'm pretty sure my eyes bugged out of my head from that. I don't think the books mentioned Harry ever hugging anyone. Hermione must not have been expecting either because she let out a sound like "eep" but sighed and quickly snaked her arms around Harry.

"So Ginny," I said sneaking past Harry and Hermione, who were still hugging, "How has your summer been?"

Ginny blushed again, "It's been okay." She pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, "But mom's been having us clean the house."

What in the world? I was pretty sure that her crush on Harry had transferred from Harry to me. How does Ginny switch crushes so fast?

"That's too bad," I replied, "But I guess that's better than being attacked by Voldemort."

"Yeah," Ginny replied nervously.

I sat on the bed next to her and tried to see what she was writing, but she quickly closed the little leather book. "Sorry," I stammered at her glare, "I didn't mean to intrude."

"It's alright," Ginny replied, flushing again.

Twin cracks heralded Fred and George's arrival. "Ah, little Harikins is growing up."

I looked over quick enough to see Harry and Hermione break apart from their hug. They've been hugging this whole time? Good grief, they must really like each other.

"Everybody needs love."

"Too true my roguishly handsome brother."

"You said that earlier. We don't repeat lines."

"Ah, but you're such a sexy beast that I couldn't resist."

Hermione and Ginny both snorted at this.

I grinned and transformed into Draco again. "If you two blood traitors were anymore annoying, I'd swear you were part banshee."

Ron whipped out his wand and yelled, "I knew you were some Death Eater plot."

I rolled my eyes at Ron, "Congratulations Ron, you have caught me where I was able to slip past Moody, Dumbledore and Snape." I sneared at him as best I could, "You probably wouldn't even be able to hex me, blood traitor."

Ron turned bright red and fired some curse at me. I spun out of the way and immediately transformed into Snape, somehow transfiguring my clothes along the way.

"Mr. Weasley," I snarled, "That'll be fifty points from Gryffindor for attacking a teacher and detention for the rest of you miserable existence."

Ron's face went pale and his hands started shaking so badly that he nearly dropped his wand. I saw Harry whispering something to Hermione, probably that I was a metamorphmagus. My suspicions were confirmed when Hermione barely managed to stifle a burst of laughter. Harry still had an arm around her shoulders.

I slowly transformed back into my usual self, hoping that my clothes would un-transfigure as well. They did.

At Ron's confused expression, I laugh a pity laugh, "I'm sorry Ron, I couldn't resist teasing you just a little bit."

"Just a little bit!" Ron bellowed once he got his voice back, "You bloody well gave me a heart attack!"

"Ron, language!" Hermione scolded.

"Yes Ron," I grinned at him, "Watch your language or else Snape might actually give you detention."

"Professor Snape," Hermione corrected automatically.

I glanced at her, "I don't go to Hogwarts." But that got me thinking. Could I go to Hogwarts, though. I did have magic. I don't know if I could be placed in my fifth year with Harry and Ron though…

"Were you homeschooled?" Ginny asked.

"No, my magic was bound until Bill removed it just a little bit ago," I replied, "I've never even held a wand before."

"Here," Ginny said, pulling her wand out from the neck of her shirt, "Try mine."

I swallowed thickly and gingerly took her wand, "Ah… thanks."

After several seconds, Harry blurted out, "Well, try a spell."

"Harry," Hermione hit his chest… she was still tucked under his arm, "He'll get an under-age warning."

I shook my head slowly, "I don't think so… Ron just used magic and I don't see any warning about his magic use. I think it's because we're under a fidelus." I hope, I added silently to myself.

Then, bracing myself, I called out "Lumos!" I quickly averted my eyes as the wand tip lit up like a light bulb.

Hermione clapped her hands like a toddler, "You got it right on your first try!"

I cut the flow of magic from my core to my wand. "I'm going to try something a little more difficult," I said. But Malfoy was only in his second year when he cast it. Oh well, still more complicated and hopefully I get to see Harry speaking parseltongue.

"Serpensortia!" I called out. Rather than the constant trickle of magic I had felt before, I now felt a buildup of magic and then a sudden release as a black snake, easily five feet long, appeared.

Harry immediately started hissing at it. It was rather fascinating to watch. I tried adjusting my ears to see if I could understand what they were saying when, "... can you tell if he isss friendly?"

"The youngling who smellsss old doesss not wish you or your mate harm."

"My… mate?"Harry's face was burning bright red.

"The one with much fur," The snake hissed back. It seemed to nod at Hermione, who was still tucked under Harry's arm.

"Oh," Harry looked stunned, "Well okay… do you wish to be sent back?"

"Yesss speaker," The snake replied.

I nodded and flicked Ginny's wand, pushing magic through it. The snake disappeared. Harry nodded his thanks at me and then froze, "How did you do that?"

"What?" I asked, "Listen to your conversation?" Then I realized that I had just cast non-verbally. "Or the non-verbal casting?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to gape at me, "You understood what they were saying?"

"You're a parseltongue too!" Harry exclaimed.

I shook my head no, "No, I just kept adjusting my ears until I could understand what you were saying. I don't think I could replicate the sounds."

"Oh," Harry looked a little disappointed. I guess he was thinking that if someone else he knew was a parselmouth, he wouldn't stand out as much.

"So how did you do the non-verbal casting?" Hermione asked, "This is your first time with a wand after all."

I shrugged, "I just pushed my magic through the wand and wanted it to send the snake back from whence it came."

Hermione looked at me, puzzled for a second, then asked, "Lord of the Rings?" At my nod she started giggling. Everyone else was looking at us like we had two heads, besides Harry.

"Why don't you try a shield charm?" Ginny asked, sitting up on the bed. She looked at me with wide innocent eyes, probably trying to look cute. Well, she succeeded, I thought to myself.

Managing to tear my eyes from her's, I focused on my magic and said, "Protego!"

A reddish gold shape formed in front of me. Harry whipped out his wand and said, "Stupify!"

His stunner slammed into my shield and shattered it, but his spell was also absorbed in the clash.

"What'd you do that for?" I asked, but I was pretty sure of the answer already.

"I was seeing how strong it was," He replied, placing his arm back on Hermione's shoulders and drawing her closer.

Before I could get any remarks about their relationship in, Molly called up the stairs, "Dinner!"