A/N: This is an AU story in I suppose quite a big way, some of the events of the original HP series are kept others are not, the reason for this is that quite simply I picked and choose the parts I felt would be relevant for this story line, also I disagree with some aspects of the books and well if you don't like how a story is going then why not change it to suit your own needs, we are writers after all liberties with characters have been taken. I have a vague awareness of where this story is going, but it could of course change directions as I write it. I am aware that this type of story has been done before (what type of storyline for this series hasn't!) I am not intending to copy any others stories and if I have made any similarities they are purely accidental, if you find I have then please send me a link to the story and I will endeavor to correct this should they prove to be majorly similar. Constructive criticism is welcomed, flames will just serve to keep me warm when it's cold . I own nothing except OC's. Hope you enjoy – Stitch
"In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash."
~ Douglas MacArthur
It was understandably a shock. The irony was not lost on him at all. The parchment in his hand held limply. If this was someone's idea of a joke…well it was in very poor taste. At sixteen years of age (barely) Harry Potter had seen his share of sadness, felt quite strongly the longing for family, seen violence beyond imagine. Family he thought, it all come back to family. Had he been at Privet drive this whole situation would have most likely ended with him being sore for days, not sat staring off lost in thought. The war however that he had been training for since his second year when at a mere eleven years of age he had faced Voldemort for the second time in his short existence, was over. Had been for some weeks now. There had been losses on both sides, casualties of war they called it in The Daily Prophet.
Harry frowned, the war was over and he could be a normal 16 year old, well as normal as he could be. He wondered as he thought about the war if it could have been any other way, a way that didn't involve fighting Voldemort at Hogwarts, risking the lives of children, innocents in it all, regardless of their house, for if he knew anything it was that houses meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. He thought over that day and those leading up to it and sighed.
****flashback****
They had spent the summer as they had since third year and Sirius had been declared innocent, blood wards be damned after all what use are blood wards when they don't protect you from within. Sirius had paid a surprise visit the day he had been cleared and well, Albus Dumbledore was not a popular man that day as Sirius Black had found his nephew bruised and bleeding on the floor of his room. It had been quickly decided that Grimmuald Place would be more than secure for Harry to reside there from now on and so it came to be that the Dursley's reign of terror over their nephew ended and harry got a chance at a loving parental figure.
It was the summer after his fifth year and Voldemort had been back less than a year. The Order although at first disheartened at this given the mission they had been undertaking at the time, had rallied again with new determination. They had discovered in Harry's second year that Voldemort had made Horcruxes. It was how he had partially survived that night in Godric's Hollow when the killing curse sent at Harry had backfired. Harry had unwittingly found out when he had gone to see Dumbledore and discovered a small black diary on his desk; Lucius Malfoy had bought it to him, concerned by its dark aura. Harry smirked slightly at how shocked he had been to discover that Malfoy was a spy for Dumbledore, and had been since the first war. The diary had sung to him quite literally and when he had mentioned this fact to both men present, well they had been shocked and one quick spell later and their worst fears were confirmed, Harry Potter was a horcrux. Lucius had immediately contacted his wife, who despite her appearances was actually quite nice, and together they had discussed ways to rid Harry of his hitchhiker soul fragment. Harry had been relieved that Mrs. Malfoy was more than able to rid him of the soul fragment due to her family being descended from Asclepius son of Apollo. The ways of old and her being able to channel the old magic using the Asclepius' Rod, due to her ancestry made quick work of the soul fragment. With this knowledge in hand Dumbledore had dispatched several Order members to track down the remaining horcruxes. They had within the two year period of confirming the existence and Voldemort returning managed to uncover five horcruxes (six including the one within Harry that had been destroyed already) which they contained securely within Hogwarts, awaiting destruction. Lucius had obtained the Diary and the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff, which had been left for Lucius to safe keep along with other Dark Objects from various Death Eaters on their incarceration at Azkaban. Perhaps the most difficult one to find was the Diadem of Ravenclaw, which Voldemort had hidden in the Room Of Requirement. Lucius had heard of rumors that the object existed, somewhere in Hogwarts but not where. Luna was the cause of this discovery having heard rumors about the Diadem, she encouraged Harry to seek out Rowena Ravenclaw aka The Grey Lady and he managed to find out the Diadem's location, enabling Dumbledore to retrieve it, ready for destruction. Dumbledore himself learnt of the whereabouts of the Marvalo Gaunt's Ring and sent Severus and Lucius to retrieve it. The final horcrux they found was perhaps found in the most unusual way. Harry having been living at Grimmuald Place for some time now was trying to bond with Kreacher, Sirius' house elf. The elf was adamant that Sirius was a traitor and only when Harry took the time over summer during his fourth year, he got the elf to talk about his favourite Black family member, Regulus Black and he discovered that all was not as it seemed with the youngest Black son, who had in fact decided to break his ties with Voldemort and stole Salazar Slytherin's Locket from the cave where it had been hidden, leaving a fake in its place. He had given the locket to Kreacher and told him to destroy it, before his attempt to flee Voldemort, who found him and killed him. Harry assured Kreacher that he would see that the locket was destroyed and his master's goal finished and with this promise Kreacher had given the locket to Dumbledore for its destruction. It was the finding of this last horcrux that spurred the Order on and having determined that Nagini was possibly a Horcrux as well, the Order began plotting ways to separate her from her master. It mattered not however as by the end of the children's fifth year Voldemort would launch his final and fatal attack. One which would prove to be his mistake, made in desperation after feeling the destruction of his other horcruxes. It had been determined that they could be destroyed by Fiendfyre and thus the horcruxes were dispatched of quickly and efficiently, within months of Voldemort's return.
A lot had changed for Harry since his third year, he had gone to live with Sirius and in doing so been able to be himself. He had also developed his somewhat hidden friendship with Draco Malfoy, having discovered the year before that with the Malfoy family all was not how it seemed. Indeed Sirius was in secret the Godfather of Draco as well as Harry and the two had deemed themselves 'brothers'. In this friendship Harry and Draco discovered that besides a shared love for Quidditch they also both loved potions and with one Severus Snape not breathing down his neck, it was a surprise for Draco to find that the young Gryffindor was actually quite the natural. It was not unusual to find Harry to Sirius' surprise brewing in the lab which took up the whole of the Basement to Grimmauld Place at every given opportunity. Thus Harry steadily improved over the summers and was soon competing with Hermione and Draco for the top place in their year for potions. This of course didn't make dealing with Snape any easier as the man was difficult to please and still seemed to hold a grudge over Harry's father James, who as Sirius and Remus had told him had made Snape's life a living nightmare at school along with themselves. They had eventually grown up and apologized to Snape...well Sirius and Remus had, James not so much. Ron and Hermione too enjoyed a close friendship with Draco, once the air had been cleared over comments that both had made, and so it was the golden trio were secretly the golden four.
He had spent the summer following Voldemort's return at Grimmauld Place with Sirius, Remus and other members of the Order coming and going. Meetings where aplenty and secrecy was at its greatest as Winston Churchill once said "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies" and thus it was that the members of the Order kept their plans from the ever curious and as some would say interfering children that resided at Grimmauld Place for periods of time from days to weeks.
Occupied with his brewing, Quidditch and friends Harry found that the summer was whizzing by and so if he noticed the subtle changes that had been making themselves known in his appearance he easily explained them away or gave them no thought as he was simply too busy. It was easy to attribute his hair darkening to almost black and being somewhat greasy looking to the potions he was making on a daily basis, his somewhat pale complexion to could be passed off as a cause of long hours indoors. Other changes like the shape of his face well, everyone changes over time and maybe he was favouring more of Lily than James.
