AN: Jesus Christ... Okay. Sorry about that, my laptop's been... more of a pain in the ass than usual. I will freely admit to taking a few elements from various stories, seeing as there's a lot that can be done with any story. Thank you, to everyone who – hopefully – will allow me to continue with this story. If you don't like the fact that I use those elements... please, send me a PM. I don't accept flames, but if the story truly is bad enough, then I may change my mind. Thank you for reading this, if you ever do, and I hope you enjoy reading.

Chapter One

Harry spun faster and faster, elbows tucked tightly to his sides, blurred fireplaces flashing past him, until he started to feel sick and closed his eyes. Then, when at last he felt himself slowing down, he threw out his hands and came to a halt in time to prevent himself from falling face-first out of the Weasleys' kitchen fire.

"Did he eat it?" asked Fred excitedly, holding out a hand to pull Harry to his feet.

"Yeah," answered Harry, straightening. "What was it?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer..."

The tiny kitchen exploded with laughter; Harry looked around and saw that Ron and George were sitting at the scrubbed wooden table with two red-haired people Harry had never seen before, though he knew immediately who they must be: Bill and Charlie, the two eldest Weasley brothers.

"How're you doing, Harry?" said the nearer of the two, grinning at him and holding out a large hand, which Harry shook, feeling calluses and blisters under his fingers. This had to be Charlie, who worked with dragons in Romania. Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it.

Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Harry's hand. Bill came as something of a surprise. Harry knew that he worked for the wizarding bank, Gringotts, and that Bill had been Head Boy at Hogwarts; Harry had always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy: fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around. However, Bill was – there was no other word for it – cool. He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring with what looked like a fang dangling from it. Bill's clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except that Harry recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragon hide.

Before any of them could say anything else, there was a faint popping noise, and Mr. Weasley appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder. He was looking angrier than Harry had ever seen him.

"That wasn't funny, Fred!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything," said Fred, with another evil grin. "I just dropped it... It was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."

"You dropped it on purpose!" roared Mr. Weasley. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet -"

"How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

Harry and the Weasleys roared with laughter again.

"It isn't funny!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons -"

"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" said Fred indignantly.

"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," said George. "Isn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly.

"That's not the point!" raged Mr. Weasley. "You wait until I tell your mother -"

"Tell me what?" said a voice from behind them, as a muffled boom and curse was heard upstairs, which everyone but Harry ignored. Harry looked up at the ceiling, wondering what that explosion was as a fine dust drifted down off the ceiling.

Mrs. Weasley had just entered the kitchen. She was a short, plump woman with a very kind face, though her eyes were presently narrowed with suspicion.

"Oh, hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him ad smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"

Mr. Weasley hesitated. Harry could tell that, however angry he was with Fred and George, he hadn't really intended to tell Mrs. Weasley what had happened. There was a silence, while Mr. Weasley eyed his wife nervously. Then two girls appeared in the kitchen doorway behind Mrs. Weasley. One, with very bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth, was Harry and Ron's friend, Hermione Granger. The other, who was small and red-haired, was Ron's younger sister, Ginny. Both of them smiled at Harry, who grinned back, which made Ginny go scarlet – she had been very taken with Harry ever since his first visit to the Burrow.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice.

"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Mr. Weasley, "Fred and George just – but I've had words with them -"

"What have they done this time?" said Mrs. Weasley. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes -"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" said Hermione from the doorway.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron," in my room, he slept there last -"

"We can all go," said Hermione pointedly. "Hopefully the ceiling won't collapse like last time... Siegfried's really getting into her project... Whatever that is..." She trailed off with a cross mutter. Harry caught the words "utterly insane" from her mutterings.

"Siegfried?" asked Harry curiously.

Hermione just sighed. "If the ceiling in Ron's room gives way again, you'll meet her. She's eccentric, but incredibly powerful, if her previous grades and the notes she'd brought with her are any indication."

"Oh," said Ron, cottoning on. "Right."

"Yeah, we'll come too," said George.

"You stay where you are!" snarled Mrs. Weasley.

Harry and Ron edged out of the kitchen, and they, Hermione, and Ginny set off along the narrow hallway and up the rickety staircase that zigzagged through the house to the upper stories.

"What are the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as they climbed.

Ron and Ginny both laughed, although Hermione didn't.

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that..."

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," said Ginny. "We thought they just liked the noise."

"Only, most of the stuff – well, all of it, really – was a bit dangerous," said Ron, "and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make more of it, and burned all the order forms... She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected.

O.W.L.s were Ordinary Wizard Levels, the examinations Hogwarts students took at the age of fifteen.

"And then there was this big row, Ginny said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop."

Just then a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.

"Hi, Percy," said Harry.

"Oh, hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know – I've got a report to finish for the office – and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs." Another explosion rocked the top stories of the Burrow, making Percy scowl up at the ceiling. "Let alone with that crazy woman in here..."

"We're not thundering," said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."

"What are you working on?" asked Harry, curiously.

"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," said Percy smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin – leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year -"

"That'll change the world, that report will," said Ron. "Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks."

Siegfried stared at her latest project irritably, before looking around her room, rather, attic, taking in the blackened metal lining her work-space, before focusing on the project again. "Hopefully it'll work this time," she muttered, her voice soft yet melodic as she started inputting code after code in a computer. There was a soft whine as her project started up, and she crouched, ready for any explosion that may happen.

When no explosion occurred, she cautiously peered over the table to the now-functional suit of armor. She smiled slightly. "Start verbal log, day three hundred thirty seven," she said, loud enough for a microphone to catch her voice, "the prototype of the Adaptive Combatant Armor is showing no signs of melt-down or detonation. I will be stepping inside the suit to test it's capabilities soon, but I have one more function to test first. Pause log."

She stepped into the suit, and the back of the ACA carapace slid into place with a soft clank. Siegfried looked around, taking in the smooth transition, and looked down at her gauntleted hands, which she moved, turning, gripping, spreading apart. She grinned, before giving a very long and very specific series of blinks and chin presses, which resulted in the armor starting to collapse into itself, except the right gauntlet, which stayed in place, as the armor plates snicked into place inside the gauntlet, which didn't appear to expand any. "Yes!" she shouted, punching the air with her gauntleted hand, when all of a sudden her steel-reinforced floor gave out. "Dammit!"

She landed flat on her back in the middle of four teenagers, who were staring at her in various degrees of shock. Siegfried sat up and rubbed the back of her head with her gauntleted hand sheepishly. "Um... Hi."

"Hi Siegfried. Mind if I introduce you properly?" asked Ginny.

"Go ahead, Gin." Siegfried grinned at the stunned and slightly frightened look on Harry's face. "Yo, you got nothin' to worry about with me. I may be eccentric, but I'm not dangerous... to the people who I consider allies."

"Harry, this is Alicia Jackson, or, as her colloquial nickname is, Siegfried. Siegfried, this is Harry Potter," said Ginny, smiling slightly.

Siegfried sized up Harry, having noticed the eyes, hair, and scar. "You could use some toughening up, Harry..." she trailed off as she eyed him. "Height wouldn't hurt either..."

"Hey!" objected Harry, scowling at her. "Not everyone can be six foot something."

"Six foot seven, to be more precise," she corrected absently. "On second thought... forget the height... I think just toughening up would do." Siegfried shook her head suddenly. "What the hell was I thinking..." she muttered. "Nice to meet you, Harry."

Harry stared at the strange woman, this 'Siegfried', who'd been sizing him up just a second ago in something akin to shock, before shaking himself internally and examining her. Six foot seven he could agree with fairly easily, he admitted to himself. Willowy build, but that contoured black, silver, and gold gauntlet that covered not just her hand but her arm from the elbow down made him decidedly nervous, despite how it seemed to move fluidly, like either her arm was truly inside the gauntlet or the gauntlet was her arm. He stopped that train of thought quickly, before looking into her eyes. Her violet eyes, which had an amused look in them if that slight smile on her lips was any indication. "Cat got your tongue, Harry?" she inquired, her soft and melodic voice sounding decidedly amused. Almost like bird song, or a piano playing, Harry mused before slapping himself mentally.

Siegfried laughed, the bell like sound making Harry not quite want her to stop laughing. Her fairly thin, heart-shaped face was full of life. Harry smiled hesitantly, not understanding why she was laughing.

"We should probably head downstairs," said Siegfried. "Now that my main project's complete, I can probably work on the rest somewhere that I don't need to worry about accidentally blowing the top floors out..." She looked sheepish, as she looked away, her gauntleted hand coming up to scratch her neck gently.

Ron and Harry agreed, nodding. The three of them went downstairs, Hermione and Ginny having gone down while Harry was too absorbed in taking in Siegfried, or Alicia, to notice. They came down to find Mrs. Weasley alone in the kitchen, looking extremely bad-tempered. "Hey, Mrs. Weasley," called Siegfried, waving her gauntleted hand at her. "My project's finally done, so you don't need to worry about me accidentally removing your roof with extreme prejudice."

"Good, but we're eating out in the garden," she said when she spotted them, her mood marginally better. "There's just not room for twelve people in here. Knives and forks, Harry, Ron," she said to Ron and Harry, pointing her wand a little more vigorously than she had intended at a pile of potatoes in the sink, which shot out of their skins so fast that they ricocheted off the walls and ceiling.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," she snapped, now directing her wand at a dustpan, which hopped off the sideboard and started skating across the floor, scooping up the potatoes that Siegfried had missed when she started catching them carefully with her gauntleted hand, muttering something about not wanting to crush them. "Those two!" she burst out savagely, now pulling pots and pans out of a cupboard, and Harry knew she meant Fred and George. "I don't know what's going to happen to them, I really don't. No ambition, unless you count making as much trouble as they possibly can..."

"Molly, you know what I said on that subject," said Siegfried, depositing the captured potatoes in the sink again. "The way you're going on, it's like you have no humor. They do have ambition, but you're trying to force them to take after their father. They want to have a joke shop because they have good humor and know when to stop."

Mrs. Weasley snorted through her nose as she slammed a large copper caucepan down on the kitchen table and began to wave her wand around inside it. A creamy sauce poured from the wand tip as she stirred. "And you know my view on those jokes, Alice," she returned, making Siegfried scowl.

"Call me Siegfried, for the thousandth time," she said flatly. "At Hogwarts, I'll go by Alice, but that's because that's how everyone will know me."

"You're going to Hogwarts this year?" asked Harry, curiously.

Siegfried nodded. "Part of the transfer system my old school had set up. All I have to do is keep working on my tech/magic projects."

"Tech/magic projects?" asked Ron curiously.

Siegfried nodded, indicating her gauntlet. "This is one such project. I call it the Adaptive Combatant Armor, which allows the wearer or operator to adjust faster to any given situation. Giving it a certain command, such as disengage, for instance-" The gauntlet expanded to about twice it's original size, and she smoothly pulled her arm out of it, "will tell the gauntlet to disengage from the operator." She slipped the gauntlet back on, and it automatically sealed itself to her arm again. "On the other hand, reengage will snap it back into it's full suit form." As she spoke, metal plates started expanding out of the gauntlet, each piece sealing to her skin-tight bodysuit, and more plates expanded out of that, until she was covered in the armor, with the exception of her head and neck, which stayed unarmored until a couple seconds later, when the armored components of the neck and helmet slipped out of the collar and sealed to her neck. The helmet pieces came as more of a shock, as so many different pieces slid out of the gorget and started interlocking, until her entire head was covered. The black, silver, and gold armored Siegfried nodded at them, as they took in the incredibly complex system of metal, some pieces appearing to be solid metal, others seeming to be interlocking pieces to allow movement. A strange blue barrier appeared around her, before slowly fading away again.

"What was that?" asked Ron, as Mrs. Weasley just stared at the fully-armored Siegfried.

"That is what I call a disruption field. In all actuality, it's a personal shielding system. I used some elements from other experiments for the shield generator. The field floats about an inch off the armor, excepting the gauntlets and boots because I still need traction," answered Siegfried, her voice sounding slightly quieter. The helmet was a masterpiece, Harry admitted, taking in the almost solid pieces of steel that made it up, though the small pieces of what appeared to be glass gave him a shock, though they were non-reflective. The solid steel pieces were black, the joints silver, and the decorative sections of paint were gold. The suit was surprisingly slim and looked to be quite agile.

"That's bloody wicked..." trailed off Bill, staring at the armored Siegfried, who turned to look at him, revealing the larger plates and the spinal reinforcement column along her back, the smaller plates there as well.

"Thank you, Bill," said Siegfried, a smile almost audible. "It took me almost a year to build this, and most of the explosions were from various parts detonating or frying as soon as magic touched them."

"Language, Bill!" snapped Mrs. Weasley.

Bill rolled his eyes. "Yes, mum." He turned back to Siegfried. "How do you return it to gauntlet?" he asked curiously.

"Simple, really..." Siegfried trailed off, as she quickly input a voice command for the ACA's gauntlet form. "Dawn of Time." The suit quickly disengaged from the bodysuit, with the exception of the gauntlet, which the ACA started tucking itself into, revealing the bodysuit-clad Siegfried, who just grinned at his dumbfounded look, before posing. "Like what you see?" she teased.

Bill blushed slightly, looking away quickly. "I want to say no... but I can't get the image out of my head... Damn you, Siegfried."

It was dead silent for a few minutes, before Siegfried started howling with laughter. "I got lover-boy!" she giggled with a fist-pump, before descending into gales of laughter, while Harry noticed something odd about the fingertips of her gauntleted hand. Her fingertips were pointed, almost like claws.

"Who got who, now?" asked Charlie with a grin, spotting the sheepish look on Bill's face, before he started chuckling. "I'm guessing the irrepressible tease known as Siegfried got to you, Bill?"

Bill nodded sheepishly, when he noticed that Siegfried had a very serious look on her face. "What's up, Siegfried?" he asked, curiously.

"I need some help testing the shields," Siegfried finally admitted.

Bill raised an eyebrow. "And we're involved how?" he asked.

"I need someone to cast spells at me. Strong spells, possibly deadly ones," answered Siegfried. "I need to know how well the shields hold up, and the only way I know that for certain is if someone's casting them directly at me, and personally... I'd really rather not field-test them just yet."

"So, let me get this straight," said Charlie, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You want us, Bill and I, to cast spells at you. Spells that may or may not take your life, for the sake of testing shields?"

Siegfried nodded, serious.

Bill sighed, looking at his brother. "Well, Charlie. I'm in. How about you?"

Charlie looked indecisive for several minutes, before nodding. "I am too."

"Engage." Everyone in the kitchen watched, as for the second time in as many hours, Siegfried ACA suit sealed itself into place, and the golden visor lit up. Less than a second later, the disruption field charged fully, the actual area of the shield about an inch off of all surfaces of the armor. Harry noticed that her left hand also had clawed fingertips, and suppressed a shiver. 'What is she preparing for? he asked himself nervously, as she walked outside, her boots barely making any noise on the floorboards, and only a soft crunching noise spoke as to whether or not she was outside. Bill and Charlie followed, giving each other looks that conveyed their misgivings.

Siegfried beckoned them, when they were in range, and both brothers nodded, raising their wands as one. Neither one of them spoke, as they started casting, only the jets of colored light that flew from the tips of their wands spoke to the fact that they were casting magic, and there were a few decidedly Dark spells that also smashed against the disruption field personal shielding system. Siegfried, meanwhile, was watching her shield bar, gauging how much each spell took from her shields. She took a deep breath, before raising one hand, signifying stop.

Bill and Charlie lowered their wands, panting slightly.

"I have one last test... and honestly, you should be glad that I'm not stupid enough to want to stay inside the suit while this test is run," said Siegfried, before disengaging her armor, and stepping out of it, before reengaging it. "I'll remotely activate the shields, then I want one of you to set up as powerful a warded area as you can. The last test is with the Avada Kedavra."