"General, the book's done!" Harry looked up from his daily lunch with Rose to see an obviously excited and enthusiastic Dumbledore in the doorway of the store. Harry pushed his plate away from him to receive the massive volume that Dumbledore was carrying.

"We couldn't get it to concentrate just on the children, so right now it's busy documenting every witch or wizard who displays magic in Britain. Once it's done recording them all it can concentrate on picking up the children. Look!"

Harry looked at the book, and was momentarily disturbed by the ink apparently writing itself. It brought back memories of the book that had possessed Ginny. But Harry pushed down those memories and decided that this book was more like the Marauder's Map.

Cygnus Black—Age 33—Wizard

Violetta Bulstrode Black—Age 31—Witch

Pollux Black—Age 10—Wizard

Cassiopeia Black—Age 7—Witch

Marius Black—Age 5—No magic yet displayed

Dorea Black—Age 2—Witch

Belvina Blak—Age 30—Witch

"As far as we can tell it's going through families to do it. This book really is remarkable," Dumbledore was staring at the book in admiration.

"This Marius Black. He's one of the kids we need to look for, especially if his little sister has already displayed magic. He could be abused in the hopes that it would bring about his magic, and if he doesn't get accepted to Hogwarts he is sure to be rejected from the family."

Dumbledore nodded, "Then we should see if there's a family who'd be willing to take him in."

Harry nodded, smiling. It was finally time for him to begin his task. After the eight months of waiting for the book to be complete, he was more than ready to begin.

"We also need to check to see if the child is being abused," Dumbledore said, "Possibly checking with their house elves like you suggested?"

Harry nodded, then had a sudden idea. "Kreacher, come here." Harry wasn't sure how it would work in the past, but in his own time if he said that, the vile elf had to come to him.

There was a loud pop in front of them, and Harry was surprised to see Kreacher appear to be somewhat normal, "Who is you that can call Kreacher?"

"It's complicated," Harry said after a moment, "I need you to tell me if your master hurts any of his children."

"Master would be upset if I told someone what he did," Kreacher said, his eyes twitching.

"Especially Marius. Does your master hurt Marius?" Harry pressed him.

"I—I want to help the little Masters, but Master will give me clothes if I talk!" Kreacher looked like he was nearly in pain from his statement.

"If your master gives you clothes then you can come to me, I am also your master," Harry said after a moment.

"You is my master?" Kreacher seemed skeptical.

"How else could I have called you here?" Harry asked him in return.

"Master is very cruel. Master hits all the little masters and mistresses. He hits Marius extra hard. He says that he will hit little Master until he is magic or dead. Little Master gets locked in his room without food. Master says that if Little Master is hungry enough he will use magic to unlock door. If other Little Masters help Marius, then they get hit harder."

Harry stared at Kreacher for a moment longer. "Kreacher, are there any other Black families that are not violent?"

Kreacher nodded after a moment, "Isla Black is not a Black any longer. Her daughter is a half-blood" Kreacher whispered the last word like it was taboo, "She is good, she is kind. She does not hit."

Harry nodded to Kreacher, "Return to your regular duties Kreacher, don't tell your master what you said here, but be ready to come to me again if I call."

Kreacher nodded before going away with another loud pop.

"Remarkable, do you have this much control over all house elves?" Dumbledore asked him.

Harry sighed, "It's complicated, but lets just say that Kreacher was given to me as a gift, but he still belongs to the Black family also. It won't be this easy with other children of purebloods. I need to go and speak to this half blood Black. If she can raise these children, there could be three more good purebloods in the world."

"Just three?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the list again.

"At ten, I'm afraid that Pollux is probably already lost. By the time we get everything arranged to get the children moved, Pollux will be ready to start Hogwarts. He's probably already learned everything that his father has taught him about pureblood superiority and such."

Dumbledore nodded sadly, "Let's hope that you're wrong though."

Harry stood in front of the house of Cordelia Hitchens—Cordelia Whitaker now that she was married. He knocked on the door and waited, hoping this would all go over well.

"Yes, how can I help you?" the door was opened by a woman with black bobbed hair who was probably Cordelia.

"Hello ma'am, my name is Henry Potter, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something?"

She looked at him again, "Whatever you're selling, I don't want it."

She started to close the door, but Harry put out his hand to stop it. "I'm not selling anything ma'am. And I really hope that I can talk to you about something."

She glared at him for a moment, "Fine come in, but honestly, I'm not interested in buying anything."

Harry followed her into the house, and she led him to a sitting room. "What do you want?"

Harry sighed, "I know that you are estranged from your family, but I wanted to talk to you about something…"

Harry trailed off at the look of confusion on her face, "The Black family," he supplied to her.

"Oh, them. They don't even know I exist. What is this about?"

"Cygnus Black is abusing his children," Harry said, "Especially his son Marius, who is five and has not yet displayed magic. I'm hoping that if I can take action and remove them from his custody, you'd be willing to take them in?"

"Why me?" Cordelia asked him.

"Because your mother was a white sheep of the Black family. You're a halfblood. Your father was a muggle, you understand both sides of it all. If Marius does turn out to be a squib, then he'll need to learn how to be comfortable in both worlds. The other children need to learn that just because they're pureblood doesn't mean they're better than anyone else. I could look elsewhere if you are unwilling or unable to take care of them, but legally it would be best to have them go to a blood relative. The other pureblood relatives aren't likely to be much better, so you'd be the best choice."

"How many children are there? I knew Cygnus in school, but I'm not in touch with my family. You keep saying 'children' he didn't have seven or anything, did he?"

"There are four children, Pollux is ten, Cassiopeia is seven, Marius is five, and Dorea is two."

Cordelia sighed before she responded, "If you can get them away from their parents, I'll take them. With the exception of Pollux. If he goes to Hogwarts and is sorted into any house but Slytherin, I'll take him. If he's a Slytherin, then he's not the sort of child that I want in my house."

Harry nodded, "I thought that it might be that way. Thank you. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I don't approve of children being in environments like that."

"No one should," Cordelia replied, "I'm surprised that my mother turned out the way she did from that environment."

Harry paused for a moment, "I'm not. For every bad person in the world there are at least two good people. The odds are that one or two of the good people will pop up even in bad families."

Cordelia nodded, "I just hope that in this day and age we can find all those good people."

Rose was putting new merchandise out on one of the shelves when Harry came back from his errand. She set down the items to go and ask him how it all went. "Well General?"

"The first battle is won," Harry replied with an ear to ear smile.

"That's wonderful!" Rose said, her smile almost matching his own.

Her smile was for a different reason though. She was happy to see Harry happy. She respected his quest in life to help others, and really appreciated what he did for her. If she was completely honest with herself, she was falling for him. Hard.

Rose really had no idea what to do about it. She had asked him to go to dinner with her, and they'd done it quite a few times since. She didn't know what else to do. She had some hope though, because the Ginny-looks were getting less and less frequent.

The Ginny-looks were hard for her to stand. They were the moments when Harry would look at her with a far away look in his eyes, and she could clearly see hurt, pain, longing, and love in his eyes. But it wasn't love for her, it was love for someone else.

There were Rose looks too, and even while they were getting more frequent, they had just as much power to hurt her. Some days the look was so full of friendliness that Rose wanted to die. Other days there seemed to be something else there, the glimmer of something that would fuel her hope, and then the next day he would be just a friend. He was driving her up a wall.

"Let's go out somewhere to celebrate tonight," Harry was saying as Rose stood there in her reverie, "My treat."

"Sounds great," Rose said with a smile. Harry was focused internally now, there was no telling if he meant his invitation in a friendly manner or more, "I'll meet you after work after I run home and change."

Rose watched Harry go up the stairs to his place with a sigh. She didn't think she'd ever understand him, especially since he seemed to hardly ever talk about his past. The rest of her shift was a blur, and it wasn't long before Rose was able to close shop and head home. She debated various outfits before deciding on one that was flattering without being too inappropriate.

Rose walked back towards the store wondering what the night was going to be like. No matter what she was determined to have fun. Harry was a friend, even if she wanted more she had to remember that he was a friend and they could still have fun together.

"Hello General," She smiled at Harry leaning against the wall of the store.

Harry made a face, "It's no fair that you have a nickname to call me, and I have nothing to call you."

"What, like 'Lieutenant' or something?"

"No, I wouldn't want you to be my subordinate. And you need something prettier than that. How about…" Harry trailed off for a moment, "Blossom."

Rose could feel herself blushing but was powerless to stop it, "It's pretty."

"Not as pretty as you," Harry pushed away from the wall and offered her his arm, "Shall we?"

Rose slipped her arm through his and followed him down the street, but they were headed out of Hogsmeade instead of into it. "Where are we going?"

"That, is a surprise," Harry grinned down at her. Rose felt butterflies in her stomach as he looked down into her eyes, and couldn't wonder what the night had in store for her.

Rose was so caught up in speculation that she almost didn't see what was in front of her. A piece of cloth was spread out on the ground, and candles floated in the air surrounding it. There were silver domed platters that she assumed held the food, and roses all around.

"What is all these?" She asked, too stunned to say anything intelligent.

"I decided that restaurants are overrated," Harry said with a shrug, "Too many people around." Rose swallowed nervously as Harry led her to one of the place settings then sat down across from her.

"So… so today went really well?" She asked lamely.

"It did. I don't think that she's going to end up taking the oldest boy, which is a shame really, but even taking the younger three is a great start. I know I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but just knowing that the kids have somewhere to go if I can get them taken away is a big relief."

Rose relaxed just a little bit. He was the same Harry that she ate with daily, even if they were in different surroundings.

"What do you plan to do next?" She felt it was a safe question to ask, she only wished that the butterflies in her stomach would stop fluttering around so much.

"Next I am going to serve you some of the linguini and clams I've prepared," Harry said, lifting the lid off of the platter that had obviously been charmed to stay warm.

"And then?" Rose asked for some reason that she didn't really know herself.

"And then we eat," Harry laughed at her.

"After that?" Rose pressed on.

"After that, we'll see," Harry said, slightly more serious, "Now dig in."

Rose grew silent as she ate the delicious pasta. Harry really had a knack for cooking. She wondered idly where he learned how to cook, and decided to put it into conversation. "You never really talk about your past," She started, and she noticed the way that he stiffened and his eyes darkened, but she pressed on, "Where'd you learn to cook so well, from your mum?"

Harry relaxed marginally, "No, I learned to cook from Danger when I was at university," He said with a shrug, "I should make you her signature pasta with peanut butter sauce some time."

"Danger?" Rose was confused by the name, it wasn't one that he'd ever mentioned before. "And that sounds disgusting."

"I met her when I was at university. She was a librarian there. We became friends, almost brother and sister really. And it's a lot better than it sounds."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Rose asked him, pressing for more info.

"No. I was my parents first child, and they probably would have had more if they hadn't died."

"Died? Oh Harry, I'm so sorry. When did they die? Do you remember it?"

Harry looked away from Rose, but answered anyway, "They were murdered when I was one. And I do remember it. If I'm too close to a dementor and don't get a patronus up quickly enough I relive their death."

Rose was wide-eyed in disbelief, and realized that there was a reason for his silence about his past, but she couldn't help but ask more questions, "Who raised you then?"

"Until I started school I lived with my mother's sister and her husband. I can't say that they raised me though, I mostly raised myself. They were muggles who thought that anyone with magic was a freak. My bedroom was the storage cupboard under the stairs. I lived there with hardly enough room to breath and only spiders for company. They used me as a slave. I cooked and cleaned for them, and their son tortured me. If I did anything to displease them they'd lock me into the cupboard without any food, sometimes for days at a time. After I started school it was a relief to be away for most of the year. One summer when I came back they locked me into the spare bedroom, bars on the door and window and everything. They fed me so little that I ended up getting my friends to send me candy to survive. Later in the summer they broke me out, and that only made my Uncle even more angry with me the following summers."

Rose couldn't do anything but stare at Harry as he spoke. He was obviously hurt by how he had been treated and it was clear in his voice. "So that's why you're trying to help these children?"

"It's one of the reasons."

"What are the other reasons?" Rose hoped that the conversation would get more cheerful if she moved it away from his family.

"Well, if a child is mistreated growing up they're more likely to become violent when they're fully grown. I thought in school that I wanted to become an Auror to stop the bad guys, but then I realized that there was a better way. Instead of waiting for people to go out and hurt others and then stop them I decided to try and circumvent the hurt of innocent people by stopping the hurting of innocent children."

Rose smiled at Harry encouragingly, "I think that is a much better idea than what the aurors do now."

"Thanks," Harry smiled back at her, "It's good to know someone believes in me."

"I'll always believe in you," Rose stated impetuously.

Harry's gaze rested on Rose, and she was glad for the candlelight to hide her blush.

"When I first met you I though that it would be like Danger and Hermione. Girl's that I'm friends with, practically sisters. I was attracted to you when I first saw you, but I learned in school that attraction didn't necessarily count for much. I dated some girls when I was in University—American girls seem to think they aren't complete if they aren't in a relationship—but none of them could compare to Ginny. I was certain that my heart belonged only to her, so I gave up on relationships. I know that I'll always love Ginny, but recently I've begun to realize that just because I love her doesn't mean that my heart has to be closed to everyone else forever."

"W-what are you saying?" The butterflies in Rose's stomach were in an uproar, and her heart seemed to be skipping a beat every few seconds.

"I'm saying that my heart isn't as closed as it used to be," Harry broke eye contact with Rose.

"And that means?"

Harry didn't answer with words.

Rose didn't mind.

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