Deck of 53

Chapter III: The Ace of Spades.

Harry quickly conjured a Protego shield to block a contingent of spells and ducked behind a pillar as a blasting curse sailed through where he was. He threw a blasting curse of his own. He heard stone crumble as it must have hit another pillar. He conjured a mirror to see around the corner.

The corridor he was in was in shambles. It had seen far too many offensive spells. Some of the main support pillars had been completely obliterated. It was only through a feat of magic that the roof hadn't caved in already.

His eyes narrowed as he spotted his opponent at the end of the hall. He took quick aim and fired a stunner. It struck him in the chest and his opponent hit the ground. Harry allowed himself a small smile as he turned and fired another stunner in the face of his opponent. Just like the one at the end of the hall, he hit the ground in a heap. As one, the illusions flickered and disappeared.

He walked back into the hall, keeping a look out for the original. His opponent liked to use illusions to instill fear. It had worked in the beginning, but now Harry was used to the stress of combat, and the illusions were proving to be mere nuisances.

He closed his eyes and calmed himself. He spread his awareness over the battle field, searching for magical signatures. He wasn't good at it and could only sense for magic within ten feet of him. His eyes snapped open, and he whipped his wand to the right. Unbidden, a stone wall jumped out of the floor to block a dark green curse, which upon contact, vaporized the hastily constructed wall.

'A vaporizing curse. That took some power.' He fired a few concussion curses in the general direction of where the curse came from. Naturally, he hit nothing, but the wall. His opponent had long since vacated his previous position. Speaking of which, Harry had spent too much time standing in one place than was necessarily safe.

He ducked under a violent purple looking curse and rolled behind another pillar. He popped out some more shots, all of them weak spells as there was no point in tiring himself with spells that weren't going to connect anyways. Patience is the key to a battle where the location of your opponent is unknown. He transfigured a piece of rubble next to him into a dog, a beagle to be more precise. He then layered it with a compulsion charm to sniff out his opponent and bark when it finds him.

While his concentration was on the transfiguration, a cutting curse glanced off his forearm. The cut was shallow, but painful enough to elicit a sharp hiss from Harry. He quickly evacuated his current position. He took a moment to bind his injured arm, while keeping an ear out for his canine assistance. He didn't have to wait long. A long, loud baying came from his right. He whipped his wand in that direction and sent a widespread vaporizing curse which tore through through anything in its path.

Before it could go to far, a stone wall rose from the floor. The curse impacted with the wall and completely demolished it, but didn't have enough power to keep on its destructive path. It did have the desired effect of drawing his opponent out into the open. For a split second, Harry's green eyes locked with the blue eyes of his opponent and teacher.

That second was all they allowed each other before their wands blurred into motion. Curses, counter curses, charms, and Shields of all colors flew through the air. Transfigured animals fought and destroyed each other. They steadily drew closer to one another until they were practically wand tip to wand tip. In a moment of pause between spells, Harry capitalized on the opening and took the extra step to close the distance between them and pointed his wand at the older man's throat.

"Looks like I win this time." Harry said with a grin. It was the first time he had gained the upper hand in a fight against him. There was always the close call, but Joker always came out on the better end of it.

Joker's face lit up with a jovial grin. "Not quite my young pupil." he said with much mirth in his voice.

Harry's brow furrowed. He blinked as bits of rubble and dust got in his face. With a slight bit of dread, he looked up, which funnily enough is where his opponent was pointing his wand. His face paled when he saw a bit of a pillar, that weighed at least a ton, hovering over them with nothing visible supporting it. If he had delivered a killing blow just then, the pillar would have crushed both of them.

"I would call this one a tie, Mr. Potter." Joker piped up. Humor had never left his voice. Only when he was teaching Harry something very important did the Joker act seriously. Other than that, it seemed as if he considered everything a game.

Harry frowned. He had been so close to an actual win. Grudgingly, he lowered his wand and stepped back. "I almost had you."

"Almost only counts in gobstones and exploding potions." was the witty reply, as he lowered the large pillar to the floor. "Still, I must give credit where credit is due. You have improved. I think it's time I gave you your own power limiters. That last vaporizer was particularly nasty."

By power limiters, he was talking about the black wrist bands he always wore. Apparently they were used to restrict the amount of power used in spells, so that his Primary Core would be forced to grow. It really tore at Harry's pride that he fought against a wizard with a handicap and still lost.

"Does that mean I'm almost ready to conclude our training?" he asked as they both turned to leave the room.

"Almost. I still have one more thing to teach you. Did you do the research I told you to last night?" Joker asked, which garnered an affirmative response. They stopped near the door, and he put his left hand on the wall. A large squiggly scar on the back of his hand glowed blue as he charged it up with magic. Then, with a slight push, a blue shock wave went through the entire 'dueling hall' as they called it.

Harry had seen this process twice before and and was still as amazed with the outcome as when he first saw it. The scar was the magical Egyptian rune of stone. With it on the back of his hand, he could manipulate the stone to do what he wanted. In this case, he ordered all the stone in the room to repair itself. Joker had another scar on his other hand, but Harry wasn't privy to the information on that one.

"Come on. I already had the bands made, and they just arrived today. All we have to do is attune them to your magical signature." with that, the chipper man made his way down the many halls of the building.

Harry didn't know where most of the corridors led off to. He had only been in four of the rooms in the entire time he had been there: the kitchen, a bedroom, the dueling hall, and Joker's office. The last of which they were heading for right now. The solid oak door opened on its own accord as they approached.

"Put these on your wrists." Joker said, throwing the bands at him. He tapped them a few times with his wand, and they re sized to fit snugly against his skin without being too uncomfortable. "Okay now. Perform a spell"

"Any spell?" Harry asked, pulling out his wand. Once he got the nod, he threw out a weak disarming hex. He didn't feel any different, and he voiced his thoughts.

"They work. If you want proof, blow up that chair with that vaporizer you almost killed me with."

"Nidor!" Harry called out and pointed his wand at the furniture. He poured enough magic into the spell to completely wipe the chair from existence. To his surprise, the spell barely scratched the wood.

"Believe me now." Joker asked with a smug smirk. Harry's glare only served to widen it into a full blown grin. "Those bands allow one fourth of your magic into the spell. They absorb the rest."

The mirth in the man's voice pissed Harry off. In response, he poured four times as much power as he had last time and bellowed, "Nidor!" The following destruction of the offending piece of furniture caused Harry to throw his own smirk.

To Harry's chagrin, Joker did little more than shrug and say, "I guess you get to stand up then." He sat down behind the desk and completely ignored the indignant look on the boy's face. "Now, tell me about what you read last night."

Noticing the serious look on his teacher's face, Harry realized it was time for business. "Magical suggestion is very obscure. Not much was mentioned in any of your books. All I could find is that by using it, you can either intimidate the people around you, or do the exact opposite by effecting the subconscious. Kind of like Veela except their powers are far more potent and they can't decide what message to send out."

"Precisely. Albus Dumbledore, as well as myself, use magical suggestion in the same way. We both use the eye twinkle to get people to mellow out and trust us. I'll teach you how to do that if you want, but I mainly want to teach you an effective intimidation tactic. Watch."

Suddenly, Harry's instincts were telling him to run. There wasn't anything physically different, but he felt that his life was in danger. Before he lost control of his bladder, the feeling disappeared, and Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"If you can get your opponent to freeze up in battle, you've won. If your opponent fears you, you've won. This technique will work on most of Tom's forces, except for his inner circle."

For the next twenty minutes they worked on magical suggestion. By the end he could create an aura of fear that might scare first-years, but not much chance against a Death Eater. However, to his great amusement, he was able to create the eye twinkle. He couldn't wait to use it on Dumbledore to freak him out.

"Very good. The only thing you can do now is practice." He took a swig out of a silver flask and threw it at Harry so he could do the same. He made to hand it back, but Joker waved it off with a muttered, "Keep it". He took out his wand and, with a few flicks, conjured a chair to replace the other one.

Recognizing the gesture for what it was, Harry sat down across from the desk. "What's on your mind?"

"How long have you been here? A month, right?" He received a nod. "Alrighty then. It's time for you to leave."

Harry's eyes widened. "Are you sure? There's so much that I don't know and..."

"Then learn it." Joker said, cutting him off. "Don't mistake this as me saying that you're ready. You're not. This is me saying that you are ready to take over your own training. I don't have time anymore to train you. I have to set up my own army because Tom is getting stronger."

"What is my role in this army of yours?" Harry asked. He had been dying to ask that very question since the day at the ice cream parlor.

Joker smiled his good natured smile and pulled out a box from his desk drawer. He flipped the latch, opened it, and puled out a stack of muggle playing cards. "Did you ever wonder why my alias is 'Joker'? No? Because this is how I'm setting this entire thing up. I'll have four aces acting as my generals. They will have the jack, queen, and king as their lieutenants. Their subordinates will be the number cards. Anybody that isn't a card is under them. That is the chain of command."

"And what is my position in this chain of command?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

He only flipped over the top card in response. Harry glanced at the card and took a sharp intake of breath. Innocently laying there was a black Ace of Spades. "This card signifies the commanding position of a small tactical force. In all of my plans, there are only two combat oriented suits. The Clubs will be the large fighting force that will fight his forces in the large, public battles. The Spades, your suit, will be more specialized. I want you to organize a well trained unit that can go after key members of Tom's organization." He handed over a quarter of the deck. "Choose people that you believe can track down these people, break down whatever wards they are hiding behind, and capture and/or eliminate them."

Harry was visibly alarmed at the responsibility that was being handed to him. "Why are you picking me for this job?"

A smile flitted across the scarred visage. "Because I believe that you are the best man for the job." he held a hand up to silence any argument on the young man's lips. "You underestimate yourself, Harry. While you do need a hell of a lot more training, you also have what nobody your age, and a lot of people older than you, absolutely do not have."

"Really?!" Harry asked, sarcasm dripping out of his mouth. "And exactly what do I have that so many people don't?"

Joker frowned at the tone of his voice, but answered him anyways. "Courage, determination, a sharp mind, and the raw power to back it all up. At fifteen years old, your already a force to be reckoned with. You've faced the Dark Lord on multiple accounts and survived with your life. I can count on one hand how many people that applies to. Give it a few more years, kid, and you won't have to worry about Tommy boy. You'll have to worry about all the adoring fans throwing themselves at you." He said the last part with a very mischievous smile.

Harry ignored him, but couldn't help being pleased with the much needed ego boost. He blushed at the thought of people, especially people of the female persuasion, throwing themselves at his feet. He quickly pushed those thoughts away for more solumn and pressing matters. "How long do I have before this will all have to be ready?"

"That is not really known." Joker replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I think he's laying in wait. He can conduct his business unopposed as long as he remains in the shadows. I'm going to give you this next year. Be ready by then." He sat up straighter in his chair and started digging around in his desk.

"How am I going to recruit people?" Harry asked.

"Simple." he said, distractedly. "Talk to them."

"Really!" He really was becoming awfully sarcastic. Not as bad as Malfoy, and no where near in the league of Snape. "If I had known it was going to be that easy, I would have already had the entire roster filled up before the Third task of the tournament."

"Quit being a snarky little smart ass. I'm better at it than you are." He pulled his head up with an 'aha', and he handed Harry a familiar golden chain.

"Why are you giving me a time turner again?"

"Because I'm sending you back. We can't afford anybody to know about this." he said motioning to the cards on the desk. "So you are going back to your relatives and to wherever Dumbledore's safe house is. Apparate to your relatives house and turn it four times. It works in weeks, and if I'm right, you'll arrive ten to fifteen minutes before your escort."

"What should I do when I'm there?" Harry asked.

"Keep your head down, for one. Use the time turner to leave without being noticed. Other than that you have your orders."

Harry nodded and, with a dismissing wave from Joker, left the room. With a muffled pop, he disapparated out of the building.

***

With another muffled pop, he arrived at the doorstep of Number 4. He pulled the time turner out of his shirt and turned the little hour glass four times.

It was a little disconcerting when he arrived. Simply because there didn't appear to be anything different except that it was darker and colder. The dementors must have just been driven off. Sure enough, when he looked around, Harry saw Joker driving the last of them off.

He didn't get to see what form the patronus took before it disappeared. Joker gave him a little wave as he disapparated with a sharp crack.

He sighed and walked into the house. The first thing he noticed upon entering was his relatives cowering in the corner of the room.

"What the hell did you do, boy?" his uncle asked in a scared whisper.

He rolled his eyes. It figured his uncle would automatically point the finger at him. He was in no mood to play the blame game, so he decided to cut this off at the pass. "I didn't do anything, but save your sorry asses. Dementors came and that is why these things happened. I drove them off so that they couldn't suck out your souls." It was mostly true. He might not have been the one to drive them off, but if he was getting blamed for it then he was going to take the credit for it.

His uncle's face colored at the disrespect shown, and he started sputtering nonsensical things until he regained his composure long enough to spit out, "Don't you lie to me, you little freak. I know it was your freakishness that caused this to happen, so don't try to act all noble because we're not buying that rubbish."

"Believe what you will." Harry said with a dismissive wave. He was halfway up the stairs when an evil thought occurred to him. "Oh and by the way." he yelled down the stairs. "I wouldn't eat any sweets, especially chocolate, for the next few weeks. It could cause a fatal condition."

Okay, so that was a lie. However, he couldn't bring himself to feel bad about it. These people had treated him horribly, and he would take any kind of revenge he could, without hurting them of course.

Once his evil persona was done ensuring the discomfort of the Dursleys, Harry made his way to his room. Upon entering, he found a large red and gold bird perched on his bedpost.

"Fawkes?" Harry questioned. He was always happy to see Dumbledore's overly large familiar. It may have to do with the whole saving him from the basilisk, but he was happy to see him whatever the reason. Harry started to pet the mythical creature's plumage and saw a letter in the bird's talons. Harry gave him some water and took the letter.

'Harry.

I'm sending somebody to pick you up. Until then, don't leave the house and don't perform any more magic.

Dumbledore.'

His headmaster's loopy script was never a more welcome sight. Joker had been right: Dumbledore had immediately made a plan to get him the hell out of Privet Drive. He looked up to find Fawkes had taken his leave, and Hedwig had flown back to her cage upon returning from the future.

He took his trunk out and resized it. It wouldn't do to have people asking him about his luggage being shrunk when they got here. He set it beside his bed and laid down for the wait. He absently heard a car door open and close and then the sound of the engine speeding away. His relatives must be trying to get as far away from him as possible. It made the slightest hint of a smirk come into being on the boy's face.

Quickly growing bored, he turned his attention to finding something to do while waiting for his 'guard'. He found this entertainment in the form of a bouncy ball that lay discarded on the floor. Wandlessly, he levitated the ball and banished it at the far wall. He had finally had a modicum of success with the obscure branch of magic about a week after the 'Core Lesson' as he dubbed it.

For the next ten minutes, Harry banished the ball into the wall, moving his hand like one would move a ping pong paddle to 'hit' the ball whenever it came back towards him. It was a lot more fun than he thought it would be and he kept at it for ten minutes. Even then, the only reason he stopped was because he felt the arrival of several magical people at the house.

At that moment, he heard a crash from downstairs and several mumbled voices. He immediately grabbed his wand and headed to the stairs. He peaked around the corner and saw seven dark silhouettes. Everything was so dark he couldn't make out the identity of the intruders. A muttered 'lumos' from the group fixed that problem.

The girl that was holding the lit wand had the most shocking head of spiky, bubble gum pink hair he had ever seen. He didn't recognise her, but he would recognise the grizzled old form standing next to her any day of the week.

"Professor Moody?" he called out from behind the corner. He had ducked his head back before any of the party had seen him.

"Aye Potter?" came the reply.

"Care to tell me the name of that cute girl next to you?" he hollered.

A few choked coughs and snickers met his comment. He was beginning to think that he wasn't going to get an answer when a decidedly feminine voice carried up the stairs.

"My name is Auror Tonks."

Gathering up his courage, Harry continued his game. "Nice to meet you Auror Tonks. I am Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Have-An-Obnoxiously-Long-Hyphenated-Name. Not that I'm not pleased to see such a fine young woman in my home, I really hope that the next time we meet you are not breaking into my relatives house." Quiet laughter met this comment.

"Not to interrupt your fun, Harry, but we have to go." a weary voice he could place anywhere drifted up the stairs.

"Professor Lupin! How nice to see you again. How's my favorite teacher been?" Harry called, remaining in his protected spot.

"About as well as can be expected. Tonks is going to come up and help you get ready to leave."

"Are you sure that is wise professor? I don't know if she'll be able to keep her hands off me." after a pause so they could quiet their laughter. "Of course professor. Auror Tonks is allowed in my room anytime she pleases. She just has to promise not to frisk me too much."

"In your dreams, Potter." came the reply from the auror. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"I wish! My dreams aren't even that good." he popped off before her figure made an appearance at the top of the stairs. He beckoned her to follow him back to his room. "I'm already packed. I'll just tell Hedwig to find me wherever we're going."

He followed his familiar with his eyes as she flew out the open window. He smirked as he turned back to the spunky looking auror who was looking in his cracked mirror. She was frowning, and then she screwed up her face. Her hair shifted from the bright pink to a dark purple.

Tonks turned away from her reflection to the teenager. He was looking at her with a friendly twinkle in his eyes that was eerily similar to the headmaster's own eyes.

"A metamorph. Can't say I was expecting to meet one of those while fleeing my house." Harry said, smiling good natured.

Tonks' eyebrows hit the roof. It wasn't too often that somebody recognised the rare gift she had. She composed herself quickly. "Yeah well, I can't say I was expecting to one day be sent as a special guard to the Boy-Who-Lived, only to find out that he was a shameless flirt."

Harry just smirked in response. Maybe Joker was being a bad influence on him. He couldn't say that he would have been nearly as confident before his impromptu training trip. "We all have our gifts Auror Tonks" he said. He turned to retrieve his trunk, leaving the young auror to contemplate how much that answer sounded like Dumbledore.

T.B.C.

I kind of like this story. I think it is going pretty well. Plus the plot has been in my head for the past three years. I just haven't been able to get it out of me.