All recognizable content, characters, etc...go to J.K. Rowling

Harry awoke to a pounding head and suspiciously dry mouth. Instinctively he fingered the scar on his forehead. It didn't seem tender. Voldemort had been blessedly silent the past few weeks since his resurrection. Harry tried to think of that as a good thing. After all, that meant Voldemort had finally picked up a new habit other than Harry haunting. Unfortunately for the rest of the world Voldemort's favorite habits included murder and mayhem. Harry tried to keep his eyes peeled for any news of suspicious disappearances, unusual murders, anything that was simply unexplainable without magic. Nothing. It was as if the man had returned to drop off the face of the globe.

Still the absence of any overly strange dreams was nice. It was true he was more haunted now by Cedric's death than anything else but he guessed that Voldemort would be pleased by that. Speaking of strange dreams, that pill that Aunt Petunia had chocked him with must have messed with his head. The only clear portion of last night's dream Harry could recall was a vivid image of bleeding out on Tom Riddle's gravestone as Dumbledore looked on pensively. Yeah, whatever she had dosed him with could not be trusted again. After all, there's no way Dumbledore would have done nothing if he had known that Harry and Cedric left the grounds that night. The very idea was laughable.

An indignant squawk brought him to full wakefulness as a large snowy owl soared through the open window. A large raven with silver tipped wings followed in her wake. It had a velvet pouch attached to its leg. Hedwig made sure to cuff his cheek as she settled on the bed, holding out a foreleg with a scroll of parchment attached. He rewarded her with a few strokes down her back as she made to nibble on his fingers. A screech from the windowsill interrupted their reunion. "Ok, I'll get to you now", Harry said. He untied the velvet pouch from the raven's leg and gestured to the water pan he had set out on his desk for Hedwig and other visiting owls. Sirius usually used a large variety of owls as he traveled to throw the ministry off his trace. The raven shook his head and picked up the pouch. "Impatient, aren't you?" Harry said. He untied the pouch. Inside he found a letter and a hunk of dried meat. "I assume this belongs to you?" Harry said. The raven took the offered meat gratefully and took off through the window. He unfurled the scroll, the letter was from Sirius.

Harry,

That Voldemort isn't concerning himself with you should be a relief not a cause for concern. I for one, am glad your scar hasn't been hurting as much. To answer your second question, we should be together again by the end of the week. I'll send some old friends to collect you. Don't let the muggles give you too much grief. This group should be able to blend in seamlessly. I hate to say it but the more "normal" the better for something like this. Also, your 15th birthday is coming up. Let me know if there's anything special you would like…or I'll be forced to surprise you Marauder style. I know we haven't had much time to just hang out and get to know one another and I'm looking forward to getting to know the young man who would have made his parents and grandparents proud. I know you make me proud.

Love,

Snuffles

The password for your travel itinerary is Peverell. Don't run off with any unknown muggles without it. More details to come.

Harry's heart leapt in his chest. He was getting paroled from Dursley Prison Inc. by the end of the week. He frowned when he realized that this would severely limit the time he had to explore his mother's trunk. With that in mind he picked up a quill to respond to Sirius.

Snuffles,

That's great news. It'll be awesome to see you again. I never truly unpack when I get to this place so I'll be ready whenever you are. How did that chore Dumbledore gave to you at the end of the year go? All's quiet here, except for one thing: I found my mother's Hogwarts trunk. Who would have guessed that after all these years it was floating up in the attic? I haven't had a chance to properly go through it as I only found it late last night but I can honestly say that this is the second best thing to happen to me here in fifteen years. I even found her journal. I'm not sure how she would feel about me reading her private thoughts but I can't pass up the chance to get to know her better. One more thing, do you recall anything funny about my parent's marriage? From what I've read so far she didn't seem too fond of dad.

Love,

Harry

He figured that would do without getting too explicit. After all, he didn't want to change Sirius' opinion of his mother and he wasn't sure how his godfather would react if he truly knew nothing about Lily's search for a "suitable match". Harry then turned to read the letter Hedwig delivered. It was from his best friend Ron.

Hey mate,

How have you been? I'm just writing to tell you that Hermione and I are together now and I hope you'll be able to join us soon. I hope the muggles are treating you alright. Fred and George have been absolute terrors this summer testing their new products. I think mums about ready to have kittens. Percy is still a prat but Bill and Charlie are home so that makes up for it. Ginny sends her love. Oh and Hermione is threatening to strangle me if I don't remind you that "next year is absolutely critical for our futures" and that therefore we shouldn't leave homework until the last minute. Does she realize we just got of school three weeks ago? Anyway, hope to see you soon

Ron

Harry smiled. He knew Ron would never admit it but his best friend had been more than hurt when his older brother decided that the best career advancement move he could ever make was to cut ties with his family completely. As for Fred and George, he was glad the twins seemed to be putting his tri-wizard winnings to good use but he hoped Mrs. Weasley never found out where they got the funds. And Hermione, well, if the apocalypse was scheduled for Wednesday and their exams were Tuesday Hermione would insist they studied if only to inspire who or whatever came next.

"Boy! Get up!" his aunt's voice shrieked up the stairs. "I'm up Aunt Petunia" Harry called down the stairs. He hadn't undressed from the night before but he didn't think Aunt Petunia would appreciate seeing him without a shower so early in the morning. "BOY", his uncle's voice joined the chorus with his wife. Harry decided to forego the shower and trudged down the stairs. With any luck his uncle would hand him his list of impossibly long chores to be completed in 24 hours and then be off to "work" at Grunnings.

Harry stopped short on the third step as he took in the scene of his Uncle's immense bulk nearly smothering Aunt Petunia in the narrow entryway. He fought a smile and wondered what his mother would have thought of that particular "interesting combination". He decided to cover up his thoughts with a sugary sweet "You called Aunt Petunia?" His aunt wasn't moved. "What do you mean by it?" she hissed. "What do I mean by what?" Harry asked, now genuinely confused. Wordlessly, his aunt gestured toward the kitchen.

The countertops were covered in black beetles. Their tiny bodies scuttled to and fro occasionally falling to the floor with a thud. "Come off it boy we know that this a result of your freakishness." his uncle said to his shocked expression. "I pay you one small kindness and this is how you repay me? By inviting those things to run rampant over my kitchen. I should have remembered that kindness is wasted on your kind. Now you will return this kitchen to rights and then you may work on the attic for the rest of the day. You'll have to fend for yourself for meals as obviously we will going out. And don't even think about complaining to those freaks that we're ill -treating you. You know better than to display that abnormality outside of that god forsaken school or have they finally gotten rid of you?"

With that his aunt turned on her heel and stalked to the door pulling her overly large husband behind her. Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be on the verge of adding something to his wife's diatribe had to settle for shooting Harry a dirty look as they left instead. As they left Harry decided to complete his trek into the kitchen. The beetles were odd as Harry could never recall seeing their type near Privet Drive in the past. Then again, all living things seemed to avoid this place with an efficiency Harry could only envy.

He swept the straggler beetles into a pile and dumped them in the rubbish tin. Then with a flash of inspiration did the same to the counters, smiling at the thought of Aunt Petunia's face if she saw the broom on her pristine counters. Of course a few lucky survivors managed to escape into the cupboards but Harry figured he would be long gone before they were discovered as his aunt rarely used the kitchen when Harry was away. He swept the last few beetles onto a plate, put a cookie on the other side for decoration, and covered the plate with a lid.

On his way up to the attic Harry paused at his cousin's bedroom door. The grumbling sounds emitting from it ensured him that the fat oaf was still asleep. Quietly he checked the lock, surprised when it clicked open with no resistance. He placed the plate on top of schoolbooks that looked as if they're spines had never been cracked. Closed the door and continued up to the attic. Yes that was childish, Harry thought, but if I have to practically save the world every year I deserve to do some childish things.

He pushed open the door to attic and didn't bother with the pretense of cleaning this time, instead heading straight to the trunk. He braced himself for the nip to open the trunk but was greeted with a warm sensation on his hand instead. He pushed the robes aside and settled for looking through the books. He had push back what seemed like a dozen Arithimancy, Ancient Runes and Charms leaflets before he found what appeared to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts book, The Light in Shadows: The Craft of Self Protection. Oh great, it was one that hadn't been gifted to him in his ever expanding library of DADA books.

Sighing contentedly, Harry settled in for a bit of light reading. He found a few notes scribbled on the inside cover, but they were written in something other than English and Harry's foreign language skills were nonexistent. A piece of parchment was sticking out halfway through the book. Harry pulled the bookmark out and smoothed the aged piece of parchment. Stick figures miming wand movements dominated the left side of the page.

Turn your wand arm left, swish and flick upwards. The explanations on the right were written in the same incomprehensible language: Um das ewige Feuer zu kontrollieren ... but the incantation was written in english, though it appeared to have been crossed out several times. Finally Rigem Ignem was scrawled at the bottom. Harry bit his lip, he had never heard of such a spell. He flipped to the index but it offered no clues as to the spell's effects. Stymied for the moment Harry refolded the parchment and turned to the first chapter.

Interestingly enough, the first section was on wandcraft. Apparently, the wand core that chose the wizard offered a good clue as to the orgins of a witch or wizard as the species distribution of magical creatures had it's own varied and unique history.

The unicorn is one of the last species of equuis spiritus. They hail from the elvin realm of Ifranmel. Few know of the true origins of the unicorn's curse but legend has it the first unicorn appeared in the realm of men as a reward for a Prioress' help in solving a dispute between elves and vampire after the battle that parted the seas. The unicorn willingly gave it's lifeblood as a sacrifice for the priestesses to continue their good works and as a result the women of that priory enjoyed an unusually long life. The legend grew of a snow white horse with a horn carved of diamond whoose blood could heal all manner of diseases and soon every stripe of theives and vagabonds began to molest the priory. One day a warlock disguised himself as a priest to gain access to the priory and accosted the priestesses demanding the location of the unicorn. He slew every preistess when they refused to give up the unicorn's location and then came face to face with the beast itself. Distraught at seeing her mistress' dead the unicorn slew the warlock, suffering only a small nick on her neck for the trouble. Ever since it has been said that those who would take the blood of the unicorn are cursed and unicorns have never consented to consort with man again. Nevertheless, they can be tracked and loose hairs are inevitably caught on brambles. Of the two dangers in collecting unicorn hair the unicorn itself is obviously the greater but wood sprites also treasure these hairs for the building of their nests and can deliver a nasty bite...

Harry was pulled from his book by a squawk from below followed by his cousin hollering "Mom, Get The Freak."

"What's that boy done now son? I swear we should have beat that freakishness out of him when we had the chance." Vernon grumbled. Harry felt the vibrations of his uncle stomping of the stairs to confront him. Gulping, Harry closed the book and replaced the trunk lid covering it with the blanket again. His uncle slammed on the attic door a half minute later. "Boy, what did you do to my son?" He wheezed. His uncle's face was beet red but whether it was from anger or exhaustion from climbing the stairs Harry couldn't tell. "Get out, and don't dare come back to this house before nightfall", his uncle said.

Harry obliged and stepped into the oppressive June heat. Mr. Tibbles, his next door neighbor's tuxedo cat nearly tripped him up as he headed off down the street towards the park. He thought there was an indoor section there if he recalled correctly from his few guided expeditions of the park.

Dudley and his game usually kept him away from all the playground equipment under the guise of playing tag so Harry usually retreated for cover wherever he could find it. Harry kept his eyes trained to the ground as he passed row after row of cookie cutter houses that were indistinguishable from each other save the number that adorned their front. A cloud rolled over providing blessed relief from the heat.

Harry saw a group of kids who were playing tag stopped for a moment and just enjoy the rest. And Then..."No, no, not Harry please not Harry. Take me instead. Kill me instead. Stand aside you silly girl. Stand aside. No, not Harry please not harry. Cold invaded every part of his being as the sky turned from day to night. There were a hoard of dementors in Surrey.

Harry reached for his wand but lost his feet as he grasped the handle. A black skeletal hand pulled him back to his feet "kill the spare, wormtail, kill the spare". Harry grasped the handle of his wand „"Expecto Patronum" he mumbled, a sickly silver mist escaped his wand but the dementor did not respond. „"Bone of the Father, you will resurrect your son" The dementor pulled his face close and Harry begin to jab his wand blindly at the thing. The dementor paid no heed to the sparks.

Shutting out the images in his head as best he could Harry concentrated on his most recent happy memory, finding his mother's trunk. He seized on the words on a scrap of parchment: Rigem Ignem. "Rigem Ignem", harry chocked out. A flash of blinding white fire errupted from the end of his wand, setting the dementor ablaze and forcing a scream of inhuman rage from the creature as it disintegrated. Unfortunately, the blast had also set the surrounding trees on fire, and Harry found that the three little kids who had been playing were staring at him with wonder.