Author's Note: This is the sequel to my AU story A New Path and covers Harry's second year at Hogwarts. This story is a significant AU so read A New Path before this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter everything original is mine. I get no profit from this.

Prologue: Portents

September 10, 1986

Death is something everyone fears in some way and something that most everyone has to come to accept at some point. I had thought that I had already accepted it. From the moment I held Jack in my arms I knew it was coming for me, an unstoppable presence at my back. I knew it would happen. But now I feel the blade at the back of my neck all that clearer. It was like the lightning bolt scar became the blade of cold steel I can feel even now.

Even now I still can scarcely believe that we found Harry Potter in that house. A drill company, Harry Potter thrust into our path because of a drill company! Galan had quite the laugh. Emily was shocked even though she was the one that had me buy the company. But it happened. I could barely speak when Jack pulled Harry out of that cupboard. A magus! It shouldn't have been possible. There shouldn't have been anyway for Harry Potter to be a magus, but it's not the only thing that has made me wary lately.

But it's the only one that has unnerved me this much. My death is coming for me, I'm completely sure of it. I can't explain why but I know and seeing Harry Potter standing there in rags made it certain. Even though she hasn't said anything, I'm almost positive that Emily knows it as well. She has been very quite lately when we talk of the future. We are going to die, and probably within a year.

It scares me to leave Jack when he is this young. Father dying when I was nineteen was hard enough, but six, hopefully seven? I can't begin to think what it will do to him. That much power and responsibility is too much for a kid his age. Erlor and Galan will help him, and Lucius in his own way, but still I worry.

I see everything that has happened lately as portents of a change in the world. If it is what I think it is, it is what our family has both hoped for and feared for a long time. An impossibly uncertain chain of events and choices lies in the future and Jack will have to deal with it. I pray that he can survive it and do what is necessary.

Over a millennium of research by the family and Father figures out a way to break the seals on the well springs a year before he dies. And Jack is the strongest person born into the main line in ten generations. And I found Harry Potter because I wanted to go to Hogwarts and became interested in the British Isles. No it's no coincidence. If I didn't know better I would be tempted to call it fate. But maybe, maybe it was all just inevitable, that all the arguments about starting this since the well springs were first sealed were irrelevant, because it was going to happen anyway. As certain as death.

In all of it, though the question of why Harry Potter is the trigger that troubles me the most.

Darian Cronos

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The beat of hooves on the dirt and the rustling of manes were the only things that could be heard in a walled in clearing deep in the Forbidden Forest. The herd of centaurs stood at the top of the depression along the engraved boulder wall, waiting solemnly for the three people in the center of the enclosure to begin.

Jack stood at the edge of the pool in the center of the depression with Erlor Dragus and Haridan, the centaur elder, next to him. Erlor held a dagger of what appeared to be crystallized light in his hand. Flowing and flickering across the surface of the blade were runes that soon like rainbows from a prism. The trio stepped into the pool and approached the smoothed pyramidal stone and withered tree that stood in the center.

"It is only right that you have the honor, Elder," said Erlor as he held the dagger out towards Haridan. "You only need to pour magic into it and drive it towards the well."

Haridan nodded as he took dagger and moved right to the base of the stone. The crystal veins running through the stone pulsed with a dull inner light and the otherwise still air in the clearing was stirred into a breeze that swept around the boundaries of the clearing at a slow, ponderous pace.

"Magic is everything and flows through us all," Haridan's voice rang clear as he shook his braid of long silver hair so that is draped down his back. "This place is one were the magic comes into our world, but it was sealed long ago for reasons I do not know. Our people have stood watch over it for generations upon generations in hope that one day we could help bring the magic of this place back into the world. That time has now come. Lets us always remember this as the day we helped bring magic back to its full strength in our world."

The watching centaurs gave a resounding yell of support and then fell silent again as Haridan took the dagger in both hands and raised it above his head. The dagger began to glow with a pure white light as he poured magic into the blade. In one swift motion Haridan brought the blade down towards the surface of the stone. It slowed as if meeting a large resistance as it got within a foot of the stone. A flash of red light came out of the very air around the blade as it stopped an inch before the tip tuched the stone.

In a blaze of light and motion a web of red runes appeared wrapped around the stone and the tree. Branching trails of runic characters curled around branches, bent around the edges of the stone, and followed the crystal veins. Four of the trails came off the corners of the pyramid and went to the edges of the pool before forming a circle of larger runes around the edge.

Giving a cry of determination, Haridan poured more magic into the blade. With a burst of light the tip pierced the seal and touched the surface of the stone. From where the blade had pierced the runes of the seal turned white. The change continued in a wave that traveled along until the entire seal was the color of starlight before shattering and turning into a rain of small star like pieces of magic.

A pulse of magic burst from the stone and hit the boulder wall resulting in a deep sound like a gong. Soft blue light began to light the crystal veins and spread across the clearing as the last of the rain of light disappeared. As it passed through the watching crowd of centaur and hit the carvings on the boulder wall they seemed to come alive.

Another pulse of magic came from the well and as it left the clearing the light of the stars in the night sky seemed to stretch down from the heavens toward the well. Threads of starlight came down and wrapped themselves around the withered tree and sunk into its bark. A third pulse of magic shattered the threads as the tree came back to life. Thin lines of silver seemed to dance in the rich brown bark as leaves the same color as the starlight threads grew on the branches. Soft light falling came off the leaves and illuminated the clearing while the centaurs looked on in awe. The air itself felt heavy with the magic that was now pouring out of the well.

"It is done," said Haridan as he walked over and handed the dagger back to Erlor. "On behalf of my herd, I cannot thank you enough for making this possible. We will guard the well and prevent anyone from ever attempting to seal it again. You are always welcome here and if you ever have need of our help do not hesitate to ask."

"Thank you Elder," said Erlor, as they made their way out of the pool and to the exit of the clearing. "May your herd be safe and prosperous, and if you ever need assistance send word to Jack at the castle. Now will leave you and your tribe to celebrate. Jack and I have a few more wells to unseal before we leave the country."

"I wish you well. It is a great thing you are doing returning magic to its proper place in this world. I wish you luck," Haridan replied before bowing and moving back in to the clearing to celebrate with his people.

Jack and Erlor began walking out of the centaur village and towards the edge of the forest.

"Let's break the one below Hogwarts next," said Jack.

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Lucius took another sip of wine as he sat in his study. His contacts at the ministry had informed him that Arthur Weasley was leading another push to investigate those people under suspicion for owning dark artifacts. He did of course, most were family heirlooms that were already documented by the Ministry. Several, though, were things the family had never admitted to owning or left over from his days as a Death Eater during the first war. And then there was the small book locked and warded in the deepest corner of the manor.

Even if Weasley and the Ministry lackeys searched the entire manor they didn't have a chance of finding anything, but still it weighed heavily on his mind. The Dark Lord had entrusted it to him with a severe warning that it never be touched until the Dark Lord specifically gave instructions about the book. Lucius had no idea what the thing even did, and he hadn't tried to find out either, just locked it away as ordered.

But now it worried him greatly. Something had happened at Hogwarts a few weeks ago. Jack and the Potter boy had both ended up in the hospital wing for several days after something happened below the castle. He hadn't been able to get anything out of Dumbledore and Jack had given him a stern look and asked him where he stood on the issue of the Dark Lord. He was not having that conversation.

Lucius didn't regret taking the dark mark that he was sure of, but if he had to do it again he would probably have listened to Darian and avoided joining the Dark Lord directly. In the end it hadn't benefited him much and put his family under a large amount of stress after the war ended.

His conversations with Severus lately had been disturbing and centered on the Dark Lord's possible return. Based on that and the incident at Hogwarts he was very wary. If the Dark Lord returned things would get very interesting and not in the best of ways.

Sighing, he set down his wine glass. Things were getting uncertain and Lucius needed to be careful. With the way things were going in the Ministry and at Hogwarts any association with the Dark Lord, no matter how little chance of discovery, could not be tolerated. He needed to get rid of that book, and a few other things, but how?

AN: So here is the start of the second story. Its short but I wanted to do a few things before diving into the main story. I had planned to get more written this weekend, but got stuck spending time with family.