I still do not own Harry Potter. 

Changes, Drastic and Otherwise

Harry Potter was furious. No, furious didn't even come close to describing the rage that burned in Harry's heart. Harry's rage was such that odds were he would have come out on top in a staring contest with a Basilisk. Harry was so mad infact, that it was almost impossible for him to even think about the many events that had conspired to royally piss him off.

The trip to Diagon Alley had been a rousing success. It should have left Harry feeling quite pleased. Instead the events that had occurred in the few short hours since leaving the twins joke shot had destroyed all of Harry's happiness.

The Problems all started back at Grimauld Place when Hermione had an idea. Actually in all fairness Hermione's idea wasn't the problem, it only served to direct Harry's attention to the first of many painful discoveries that night. The small group of student's had barely returned to headquarters when Hermione had started furiously flipping through the books on Healing Magic she had selected for Harry to purchase.

It didn't take the young witch long to find what she was looking for, and after a few minutes of study she had asked Harry if she could perform a diagnostic charm on him. Harry, feeling fine, had of course assented. Before Hermione cast the charm, she had explained that this particular diagnostic charm was hardly ever used; as its only purpose was to make sure that nothing was interfering with a child's natural growth.

Harry thought it odd that Hermione wanted to cast the charm but still wasn't overly concerned. As soon as Hermione had spoken the incantation all hell broke loose. The charm, unlike the diagnostic charms madam Pomfrey used, Hit Harry hard enough to render him unconscious for a moment. When Harry had pulled himself off of the floor he was surprised to see a lifelike copy of himself standing where he had been. The main difference between Harry and this copy were that first of all the copy was glowing light green. Secondly the copy of Harry was at least a good foot taller than the real thing.

Hermione had stared in horror at the green Harry for almost a minute before finally bringing herself to explain that the copy represented the height that Harry should be. After a quick check of the book Hermione, choking back tears, explained that the green glow indicated that growth had been stunted due to extreme malnutrition in early developmental years. Harry remembered that as a child, meals had frequently been few and far between. He had never thought about how that had affected his physical development.

The Healing book that had contained the diagnostic spell also mentioned a potion to cure the problem, however try as she might; Hermione had been unable to locate the potion in any of the potions books before she had returned home. Before parting for the night, Harry, Hermione and Ron had split up the potions books to look through in hope of finding the brewing instruction. Ron had even vowed to return to Diagon Alley and "buy every bloody potions manual in the whole Alley" if he had too. Ginny, who had heard very little about Harry's childhood was so distraught that she had hardly said two words after Hermione's revelation.

While Hermione was scouring Potions texts, Harry suffered his second blow of the night. While glancing through one of the books on Occlumency that Hermione had purchased Harry learned that one of the first steps of mastering Occlumency involved the consumption of a rather complicated Potion. Learning this made it obvious why Dumbledore had sent Harry to Snape to learn the art, but as Snape had never given Harry the Potion, he had never had a chance of learning to protect his mind. This of course only served to make an already angry Harry even more furious. A great deal of Harry's anger was focused on Professor Dumbledore. The failure's caused by the Headmasters habit of not following up to make sure things were being done properly really rankled Harry. If the headmaster had checked to make sure Harry was being cared fore as a child, Harry might not be stuck as a midget. If the headmaster had followed up and checked on Harry's Occlumency training, Sirius might still be alive.

As if all of this wasn't bad enough, Dumbledore was held up with whatever he was working on, and as a consequence had sent none other than Professor Snape to escort Harry back to Privet Drive. When Harry saw professor Snape his anger had reached new heights. He was so mad he hadn't even been able to say goodbye to his friends for fear of exploding at them.

The last and final straw however had been when Harry had returned to the loving care of his Aunt and Uncle. Snape had for some reason insisted on following Harry into his home. This would have set Vernon off under any circumstances. However, as fate would have it, Harry had forgotten to change out of Fred's clothing. Harry didn't know it at the time, but this was actually a good thing as he had Sirius' letter in one pocket of the gaudy trousers, and five thousand muggle Pounds in the other. Vernon took one look, and instantly started yelling at him about what the neighbors would think if that had seen him in "that ridiculous costume." While Vernon was yelling at Harry about his appearance, Petunia started in on him about the obvious strangeness of Professor Snape and the disgrace of bringing such unnaturalness into her home.

Everything had become too much for Harry, and he had finally screamed out one word. "STOP!!!" Now normally this wouldn't have had much effect on Harry's family, but this time along with his shout, every item of glass, china and ceramic in the kitchen shattered, the Television in the living room exploded, and the dining room table literally split in twain. In the stunned silence that had followed the burst of uncontrolled magic Harry had wordlessly dragged his trunk up the stairs and into his bedroom.

Even a decent nights sleep had done little to sooth Harry's emotions. In fact as Harry's mind reviewed the events of the previous day he found himself becoming even more upset. Harry attempted to calm himself by remembering the positive things that had happened since his visit to Diagon Alley. First there was a different idea of Hermione's. She had numbered all of the books that were purchased in triplicate, there were quite a few, and devised a brilliant simple and almost unbreakable code. Each of the three was given a different set of books to peruse. If they found something that they considered immediately vital, or even just interesting to discuss, they would instead of mentioning the topic of discussion simply write the book number, followed by page number and line number, counting from the bottom of the page. This way unless someone was able to get hold of one of their book sets even if the owl post was intercepted no one would know what the three of them were working on.

The second positive thing that had happened At Grimmauld Place was when Harry had given Hermione and Ginny their new brooms. He was pleased to see that Ron had purchased brand-new quality cleansweeps. They might not be the best broom on the market, but Harry knew they were rugged and would last. Harry had handed Hermione her broom first. She had tried to decline pointing out that she wasn't all that fond of flying, to which Harry had responded that the ability to fly was an important one in that it gave her a means of escape from potential danger. He added that he wasn't willing to watch his friend die just because she had refused a broom because she didn't like to fly. Hermione had been sufficiently cowed by this argument and had taken the proffered broom.

After hearing Harry's remark to Hermione, Ginny knew better than to refuse the broom Harry gave her. Even though she took it, Ginny didn't look at all happy at first. Harry was surprised when Her scowl was suddenly replaced by a mischievous grin that reminded Harry eerily of the twins, and she had said, "Oooh, mom is going to be soooo mad at me."

When Harry had asked what she meant she had responded, "I'm going to tell her I made you buy this as an apology for yelling at me."

Harry couldn't figure out why Ginny would want her mom mad at her until Ron had explained that when Mrs. Weasly was upset, besides yelling she cooked. More specifically she cooked desserts and lots of them."

The last good thing that had happened had been that Harry had started his language lessons. He had decided that he would start out by learning Latin since a lot of spells were in this language. He was surprised to find that the way the L.L.'s worked was that while talking one of them would repeat everything he said in the desired language. The other one would repeat whatever was said too Harry. This sounded like it would be highly distracting. But due to the magic of the L.L.'s who were related distantly to fairies and pixies, their whispered words went completely unnoticed unless Harry intentionally focused on them. After only a couple of hours of this, Harry found he could already recall quite a few phrases and words in Latin. Harry wasn't sure how they did it, but when he read a part of his mind saw the words in the new language as well, this aspect was actually quite disconcerting if Harry attempted to focus on both languages, but if he relaxed and just worried about the English the Latin seemed to just slide into place.

Harry poured over his Potions books until the smell of sausages from downstairs caused Harry to decide that it was time to face his relatives. When Harry reached the bottom of the stairs he was surprised to find that all of the damage from the previous night had been fixed. Vernon and Petunia were however avoiding the table, as if it was contaminated now that it had been repaired with magic. Instead they were sitting at the kitchen counter. Their fear of magical contamination however didn't seem to spill over into plates and glasses, as each of them had a full glass of juice and a plate of sausage and eggs.

When Harry entered the kitchen Vernon glared at him. "I'm sorry boy, but breakfast has already been served and we don't appear to have any left for you. I guess you can have a glass of water. Be thankful that you are getting that after last night."

Harry didn't even bother responding to his uncle, instead he picked up a fork, walked over to where his uncle was setting, and speared two of the sausages off of his uncles plate and ate them. Vernon had turned a rather interesting shade of purple while watching Harry eat, When Harry reached over to grab a bite of egg off of his Uncles plate Vernon finally stood up and started yelling, "I have had quite enough of you boy, I am locking you back in your room until I decide what punishment best serves you. You insolent little brat." Having said that, Vernon grabbed Harry's left wrist.

Instead of trying to pull away like he would have when he was younger, Harry actually stepped closer to Vernon and pressed his wand into the fleshy throat of his uncle, "No, uncle." Harry spat the word as if it was the most foul of obscenities. "I have had quite enough of you." Harry stepped closer, and was surprised to find his uncle retreating. "Yesterday I learned that my growth has been stunted, maybe permanently because of the lack of nourishment you gave me as a child, and I won't stand for it any more." Harry took another step forward and jabbed his wand harder into his uncle's throat. "You pride yourself on being normal. Well from now on you will be. You will give me a normal portion of food at every meal. You will treat me like a normal person. You will not yell at me, or abuse me in any way. I am not your slave and have done enough chores around here for multiple normal children. In light of that fact, I will not be doing any chores this summer. You will leave me alone to study. You will not call me a freak. You will not lock me out of your house or in my room, and you will stop telling people that I am a criminal. If you cannot behave like a normal sane individual, you will learn first hand exactly how not normal I am. Do I make myself clear?" With each repetition of the word normal Harry had taken a step forward with the result being that his large uncle was now literally cowering against the wall.

Vernon tried to regain some of his composure, "If you d'd'do anything unnatural you will be kicked out of school."

Harry's voice was like cold steel, "I will be kicked out of school. You Vernon will still be dead, and world will be a better place for it. Your choice."

Vernon didn't respond, just turned and fled the room. With a wail Petunia followed after him short moments later. Dudley however continued to sit at the dining room table eating breakfast as if nothing had happened. After swallowing a bite of food Dudley turned towards Harry and Said, "'s about time."

Harry was shocked, "What did you say Dudley?"

"I said it's about time you strapped on a pair and stood up for yourself. You should have done that years ago."

Harry stared at Dudley incredulously, while the anger in him started to mount again. Suddenly it was like a dam had burst inside Harry, and instead of rage he found himself laughing. He laughed at how good it felt to finally be free of his fear of his uncle, and he laughed that for the first time in Harry's recollection, Dudley was completely and absolutely right.

"So I guess that Professor Snape fixed everything after I went upstairs last night?"

Dudley looked puzzled, "Who? You mean that bloke that was with you? Nah he left right after you did. Some strange looking bird with pink hair and a pigs nose came in and fixed everything."

Harry grinned at the thought of Tonks changing her nose into a pig's snout just to irritate the Dursley's. Harry knew he should head back upstairs and dive back into the potions book to continue looking for the potion he needed to take to correct his "little" problem. However he decided to first take a quick walk to clear his head.

Harry's walk around his block was interrupted when he saw Remus leaning against a lamppost. "Hey Harry, I heard that there was a bit of wandless magic floating around town last night." Harry blushed, which caused Remus to burst out laughing. "Don't worry about it, I don't think the ministry even noticed, what with the way everyone is running around shouting that the sky is falling, so no harm no foul."

Harry grinned, "That reminds me, when you see Tonks could you tell her thanks for me?"

This time Remus blushed, "Why do you think I am seeing Tonks tonight."

"I didn't say anything about tonight." Harry grinned, "So, what are you and Tonks doing tonight."

Remus blushed even brighter, "It's not a date. It is just two friends having dinner together."

"Moony, I hope you were better at keeping secrets while you were in school or else I think I know why my dad and Sirius spent so much time in detention," Harry chuckled. "Not that it is any of my business, but is something going on between you and Tonks?"

Remus grinned sheepishly, "Well, not that it's any of your business, but yea. At least I hope there is." Remus suddenly straightened up, "Oh before I forget Snape was suppose to tell you last night, if you need to talk to the order member on guard just place Hedwig's cage on your windowsill and head outside. If it is an emergency throw a school robe over the cage; and we will come in, wands at the ready."

Harry and Remus continued to chat for a little while before Harry headed back to the Dursley's. After hours of paging through potions text Harry wasn't any closer to finding the potion he was looking for, he had however found a completely different potion that he thought held quite a bit of potential. It was titled Dreamless Draught, and Harry had almost passed it by think it similar to the Dreamless sleep Potion that Madam Pomfrey had given him. Upon closer examination he had learned however that this potion prevented dreams by preventing sleep. Or more accurately greatly reducing sleep. The potion was to be taken once every four weeks, and caused a person to require only four to six hours of sleep per week. The potion was non-addictive and had almost no side effects except that it was nigh impossible to wake a person during their weekly sleep. The text even pointed out that 'instructors at a number of prestigious Magical boarding schools rely heavily on this potion so that they have time to grade papers, and patrol the halls for students who are out after curfew, all without having to deal with fatigue.' Harry thought to himself that if he could make this potion that would give him over forty more hours a week to prepare. Suddenly his and Ron's plan of learning Runes over the summer didn't seam quite so far fetched.

Harry was so caught up in his planning that he barely even noticed the ringing of the telephone until Dudley's voice bellowed up the stairs, "Harry, phones for you. It's some girl."

Harry curiously left his room and headed down the hall to where a phone stood on a small table outside his aunt and uncles bedroom. With more then a little trepidation Harry picked up the phone and answered, "Hello, this is Harry Potter."

He breathed a sigh of relieve when Hermione's voice responded from the other end of the line, "Harry, I found it. Descartes is bringing the book to you right now. It looks fairly difficult to make but I am confident you can handle it if you concentrate. You need to take a dose of it every day for the next Two months, but it stores well, and a cauldron full will cover the full dosage. There are some warnings with it so you need to read all the instructions carefully. Do you have something to write with handy?"

Harry noticed that Petunia kept a pen and a notepad next to the phone so he responded, "Yes I am good to go."

"Ok, Harry, you will find what you need on page four hundred and seventy four. Oh, and let me give you my phone number in case you need to call me."

After Harry wrote down Hermione's information and returned to his room, he made a quick decision and took the book with the Dreamless Draught potion in it down to the room that Vernon referred to as his office. Harry had only been in the room a couple of times, but remembered Vernon bragging about the printer he had purchased that also doubled as a copy machine. It took Harry a couple of tries to figure out how to use the copy feature on the printer, but when he was done he was happy to see that he had an easily legible copy of the brewing instructions for the draught, as well as all of the information about it's use. He returned to his room and scribbled a short note on a piece of parchment.

Ron, call off the search. Hermione found what we were looking for. I noticed this in one of my books and thought that it might be useful in completing that other project you and I talked about.

Harry.

He placed the note with the copied potions instructions in an envelope, and sealed it. After a moments hesitation Harry handed the letter to Hedwig, "Could you take this to Ron dear?" Hedwig cooed in consent before flying of out the window on her way to Ron's house.

The letter to Ron reminded Harry that he still hadn't read the letter from Sirius. So Harry summoned his courage and collected the letter from the trousers he had worn the day before. Before giving himself time to think too much he ripped the envelope open, and started to read. The letter was completely Sirius. It was equal parts complete insanity mixed with bone chilling sobriety, and sprinkled throughout with irreverent humor.

As Harry read the letter, he at times laughed and at times cried, but by the time he was done he felt his resolve once again renewed. On the back of the last page of the letter was a separate note titled, A Dead Man's Last Request followed by a numbered list of tasks that Sirius wanted Harry to complete.

1. Prank at minimum 10 people during your next term at school. (Only 5 of them may be named Malfoy)

2. Date no less then two girls by the end of next term, and snog no less then four girls during that time.

3. Remind Dumbledore that he is not perfect at least once.

4. Break a school rule that doesn't involve you trying to save the world.

5. Play Quidditch, even if your ban is still in place. You were born to ride a broom.

6. Learn to dance. (It's actually fun once you get over the awkwardness, and the ladies love a man that can dance.)

7. Take time out to appreciate your friends, you will miss them when they are gone.

8. Teach Snape a lesson, (I leave the details up to you)

9. Take care of Moony. He isn't as strong as he pretends.

10. Kill Voldemort. (Hey no biggie right? Should be easier than number 2.)

Harry shook his head at the list, but knew that he would do his best to accomplish everything his Godfather had asked of him, but first he had some potions to make. Harry carefully laid out all of the ingredients necessary for the Dreamless draught, and the Occlumency potion, as well as a general healing potion that sped up the body's natural healing process. He also laid out four of the portable potions stoves he had purchased the day before.

Harry decided to start with the easiest potion on his list, which was the basic healing potion, and started to work. He was almost done with the potion when two owls flew through his window. He recognized one of them as Hermione's owl, but couldn't place the second owl. He didn't give too much thought too it though as he turned is focus back to the potion he was brewing.

While the Healing potion was cooling off, Harry relieved the two owls of their burdens. Hermione's owl, Descartes, had obviously brought him the potions book. The second owl it turned out was from the twins who had sent him two items they thought might be useful after his and Fred's talk of the day before. The first Item was a Weasly invention named Smello Tape. The instructions explained that when stuck to the floor, the tape created a low powered ward that prevented odors from passing over it. While Harry could really care less about the smell from his potions brewing bothering his relatives, he himself didn't want to have to deal with the smell all of the time, so he quickly sectioned off a portion of his room with the tape. The second item that the twins had sent him was a powerful banishing potion, designed to dispose of any unused, or unusable potions with only a drop. The twins pointed out that it wasn't always safe to go pouring potions down the drain.

After a quick lunch Harry set to work making the remaining three potions. It was almost dinnertime before Harry was finished, but surprisingly all of the potions looked exactly like they were suppose to. When he had bottled all of the potions into doses, he joined his family at the table.

This was the first time since the fight that morning that Harry had seen his aunt and uncle, and he was curious as to how they were going to treat him. During dinner they both did their best to pretend that Harry didn't exist, while at the same time making sure that he had a helping of everything on the table.

After Dinner was over Harry turned to Vernon, "I need you to call an eye doctor and make an appointment to see about corrective surgery for my vision."

Vernon choked on the glass of water he was drinking before spluttering, "I'm not paying for surgery for you. I don't care what you do."

Harry decided to take a gamble, "I will pay for it. I just need you to set it up."

"Where did you get money boy?"

Harry looked Vernon straight in the eye and told a half-truth. "My godfather left a small amount of money to me when he died."

Vernon got a greedy gleam in his eye, "Well then, it's about time you paid some rent don't you think?"

Harry coldly replied, "No, I don't. Have you forgotten about our discussion from this morning." Harry decided to raise the ante a bit, "Of course I could give you the money. It is up to you really. I plan on having my vision corrected this summer, and I can either do it the Normal way, or I can do it the Magic Way. The Magic way of course will require multiple Visits from Wizards and Witches, all of which will come during the day and will expect to use the front door so which would you prefer?"

Harry watched Greed struggle against Vernon's desire for normalcy. The decision however was made by Petunia who exclaimed, "I will not have my house turned into the neighborhood freak show." Vernon seemed to sag a little at hearing he would not be getting the money from Harry.

After Dinner Harry put Hedwig's cage in his window, before heading out to wander around the front yard for a bit. He didn't have long to wait before he heard Kingsley Shacklebots deep tones from under an invisibility cloak, "Do you actually need something or are you just testing the signal out?"

Harry replied, "Actually I have a couple things that I thought whoever is on guard duty should know. First I am going to start an exercise regime that will include morning runs. I also plan on spending a bit more time out and about than normal. I just thought that you guys should know. The second thing is that sometime soon I will be going to the muggle Eye Doctor, and it is quite possible that I will return with bandages over my eyes, this isn't a cause for alarm, but when that happens I may spend a couple of days indoors."

After a few silent moments Kingsley replied, "Thanks Harry, that is good to know. It wouldn't do to have Mad-Eye or Fletcher on duty while you are out running. Moody would have trouble keeping up with his leg, and Fletcher wouldn't even try. I will keep the bandages thing as quiet as I can, we wouldn't want you know who to know that you might be disadvantaged for a little while. Of course we don't want to start a panic among the order when some idiot reports that you are blind either. Anything else?"

Harry grunted, "Nope" before heading back inside.

Back in his room Harry downed his first dose of Dreamless Draught, as well as his first dose of Growth Restoration Serum. The Exercise program wasn't really something that Harry was looking forward to, but the Growth restoration serum had warned that unless High levels of physical activity were maintained while taking the potion a patient was likely to grow out as fast as he grew up. Harry knew that the fear of looking like Dudley would ensure he stayed active. The upside of the deal was that if Harry exercised hard during the time that he was taking the potion, he would end up with the body he would have had if he had been exercising for the last six years or so.

Feeling refreshed from his potions, Harry set to work on conquering the tedious study of Runes. After the first couple hour Harry turned towards Bob and asked, "Can you guy's help with this, I mean the runes are like a language aren't they?"

Bob replied, "We are helping, although we can't do as much with Runes as we can with normal languages. After all the Runic tongues aren't spoken anymore and it isn't so much the language as the art form that you need to grasp. By the way, judging by the today I was going to say you would be a three weaker for Latin. If you aren't going to sleep though we might be able to get that in close to two weeks"

Jezzie spoke up, "Oh I think two weeks definitely, and the more languages you learn the faster you will be able to learn them. You don't speak any other languages than English do you?"

"No, well not unless you count parseltounge, but I didn't really learn that it just sort of happened."

Jezzie continued, "Hmm, interesting, we may explore that later."

After four hours of Runes Harry felt like his head was going to explode. He put the runes book away for a little while, and riffled through his old trunk until he found his notes from the D.A. meetings. He sat them on the desk opened his new trunk to the library feature and positioned it so the books were easily reached from the chair at his desk. He then started the long and tedious task of rewriting all of the D.A. lessons from the previous year, starting at the beginning. He expanded each lesson by including not only the spells and how they were performed, but also his own experience with the spell. He combined this with what he had witnessed from the other members of the D.A. and extensively research each topic with the all of the books at his disposal.

After about Five Hours of this, Harry carefully put everything away, tidied up his room and went for breakfast. After Breakfast he headed outside to start the Dreaded workout. He was just starting to do some warm up stretches, and feeling rather silly while doing them, when his concentration was interrupted.

"Wotcher Harry. I was beginning to think you weren't going to show. When Shak said that you were going to start running every morning I volunteered to take all morning shifts. I like to run in the mornings too, although I normally run a little earlier than this. Getting the blood flowing helps to wake you up." Tonks grinned evilly at Harry, "Also it's best not to run on a full stomach."

Harry quickly found out what Tonks meant, and also realized that he was in worse shape than he thought. When Harry returned to Privet drive, Dudley was waiting for him. "Harry, I reckon I would be Jail if not for you so I owe you, follow me." Having said that Dudley led Harry out the back door, and to a new shed that had been build over the past year. Dudley opened the door to the shed, revealing a small number of strength training machines. "If you really want to get in shape just running isn't going to do it. I don't think you are trying to lose weight, so this is the type of stuff you need to be working on."

Dudley then proceeded to show Harry how to operate the machines. When he was done with his demonstration, he added. "Dad bought this so I could train over the summer, but with being required to join a summer boxing program I will be doing most of my training at the Fitness Center Downtown. So feel free to use this whenever you want." Dudley looked at his watch, "Shoot, I'm almost late for my first community service." Dudley turned to leave, and then turned back. "This doesn't mean we are friends or anything like that. Just returning a favor."

Harry was deep into his Occlumency books when he came across an odd reference that triggered his anger, while at the same time sparking his interest.

Occlumency when properly practiced will protect ones mind from invasion from even the most skilled of Legilimens. A Legilimens should not be confused with someone casting the Legilimens curse which while it shares the name and a few attributes is not directly related to the art of legilemency.

When Harry had read this he started skimming through his book to find more information about the Legilimens Curse. Finally he found it in an appendix in the back of the book, The Well Ordered and Controlled Mind.

The Legilimens curse is used to open up a persons mind to make it more receptive to suggestion, control and manipulation. The spell is however as dangerous to the casting party as it is to the individual being attacked with it. When a person uses the Legilimens Curse he risks the chance of revealing a piece of his soul to his victim. After enough pieces have been revealed a skilled Occlumens can assemble the pieces similar to a puzzle until he or she has a full understanding of the nature, motives, and thought process of the individual casting this spell. One way around this is if the caster of the curse is a sufficiently skilled Occlumens, he may hide a key as it were within a memory, and remove the key memory to a temporary containment device such as a pensieve. This makes it impossible to gain a full understanding of the castor unless the target of the curse is able to gain access to the Key memory. It is of interesting note that if the Key memory is not returned in a timely manner irreversible brain damage will occur.

Harry slammed his head onto his desk. That worthless bastard had been intentionally opening his mind up for Voldemort. Suddenly the import of what Harry read struck him. He had seen the memory that Snape had hid his key in. If he mastered Occlumency he would know why Snape had done this. He would know without a doubt which side Snape was really on.

Harry was surprised when his uncle showed up for Lunch, since Vernon seldom came home during workdays. Vernon ate his lunch quickly and glared at Harry, "Well boy. I did it. And it just so happens that the doctor has some last minute openings today, something about a family changing vacation plans or some such rubbish. Dr. Bonebreak is willing to see you for a consultation, and if you are a candidate for the procedure he is even willing to operate today. So Hurry up and lets get this over with."

Harry couldn't help but feel that there was something underhanded going on with the doctor being willing to operate so quickly, but his London office was clean and professional looking so Harry decided to throw caution to the wind and chance it. Even though The doctor had been willing to Operate immediately he hadn't expected Harry to want both eyes done at the same time.

The doctor had tried to get Harry to reconsider, pointing out that if he had both eyes operated on he would be effective blind for seventy two hours while his eye's healed. Harry had sweetly replied that he would rather suffer through that inconvenience than force his uncle to take another day off of work.

Harry managed to pay for the procedure, without letting his uncle see how much money he really had. If the receptionist found it odd that Harry paid in cash she didn't comment on it. Harry did his best to hide it, but he was beginning to have serious doubts about the upcomming procedure. He was glad that the doctor was operating almost immediately because Harry knew that if he was given too much time to think about what was about to happen he would probably lose his nerve.

The procedure itself wasn't as bad as Harry had expected, and soon Harry was blindly sitting in his uncle's car on the way back to Privet Drive. Harry had decided to keep his old glasses, and have the lenses swapped out for plain glass. He did this to prevent his enemies from learning that he had overcome this weakness. At least he hoped he wouldn't need glasses any longer.

Harry didn't realize how terrifying being blind would be for him, until he had to rely on the assistance of he Uncle to get to the car. Of course Vernon's directions were supplemented by the thoughtful commentary of Jezzie and Bob. Jezzie and Bob became indispensable when Vernon pulled into number 4 Privet Drive.

Harry's uncle had been at least marginally helpful while they were within sight of the surgery. Now that they were back on his home turf, Vernon didn't even spare a thought as to how Harry would find his way from the car to the house. Harry idly wondered how normal it looked to their neighbors that Vernon would allow his temporarily blind nephew to make his own way to the house.

When Harry had finally made his stumbling way back to his bedroom, Bob and Jezzie were kind enough to grab the potions that Harry had previously brewed. Harry downed the healing potion, calculating that the bandages should be ready to come off in twelve hours instead of seventy-two. He then downed the Occlumency Potion and settled cross-legged into a deep trance on his bed.

Harry found his disembodied consciousness in a large spacious area with countless floating Balls in a myriad of drifting around. Harry remembered reading that each person envisioned his or her memories with a different symbol. At first floating balls didn't make sense to Harry, until he saw a small one with wings fly by. It suddenly dawned on Harry that his memories were represented by Quidditch Balls.

After exploring for a little while, Harry came to the conclusion that the Bludger shaped balls represented painful, memories, while the Quaffle shaped balls represented normal memories. The fast moving snitch shaped memories were the memories that touched Harry the most. These memories were the type of memories that he was willing to seek after. Harry couldn't make head nor tails of the importance of the coloring of the memory balls, and when he saw a pastel pink Bludger sail in front of him he simply gave up trying to understand.

Harry didn't know how long he drifted among his memories before he came to his senses and remembered that he had a task to perform. Harry willed himself towards the edges of the memories, and started constructing a series of bookcase-like structures to hold his memories. Harry had chosen bookcases after reading that it was important that the memories be easily accessible. The books had commented that placing memories in boxes or closed containers of any kind actually blocked the mind from accessing those memories entirely. The construction of these shelves without material, or even without a physical form to manipulate material with, was unlike anything Harry had ever tried before. Each set of shelves was forged by sheer willpower.

When Harry had a large number of shelves formed, he began collecting memories one by one. The first memory Harry looked at was one of the charms he had learned in third year. He quickly labeled one of the bookcases Charms, and placed the memory on it. He then chased down the next the memory. After a little while, Harry learned that here in his mind he was truly Lord and Master. He discovered that he could will the memories to come to him faster than he could go to them. Harry worked with the speed of thought, organizing, categorizing and sorting memories. Before long the numerous shelves that Harry had created were all labeled. Harry decided not to stop to mass-produce more bookcases. Now every time Harry grabbed a memory that did not fit into one of his already existing categories, he was forced to create a new set of shelves for that memory. After a while Harry lost himself in his work. Summon, identify, classify, and shelve. Harry repeated those steps thousands upon thousands of times. Time stopped having any meaning, the world outside of Harry's meditative trance disappeared, and all that was important was the task of organizing memories. Harry would have continued on in this manner indefinitely had his concentration not suddenly been broken by the annoying sound of his alarm clocks ringing.

Harry looked with dismay at the jumbled contents of his mind before he was ripped out of his trance, and back into the real world. With despair he realized that the alarm clock's ringing signaled the passing of twelve hours. Twelve hours of concentrated work, and Harry wasn't even close to completing the organization of his mind. Harry's spirits drooped as he contemplated that sorting and organizing ones memories was only the first step of Occlumency, and by all accounts the easiest step as well. The texts had mentioned that a skilled Occlumens could accelerate the process for their pupil, but hadn't mentioned how this was done. In the end, Harry resigned himself to many more hours of organizing. His last sardonic thought before opening his eyes was that if it took this long to organize the memories of a fifteen year old, it was no wonder that most adult wizards didn't attempt this form of magic.

Harry opened his eyes to complete blackness, and for a moment panicked. The panic passed quickly when Harry realized his eyes were still covered. With a great deal of trepidation, Harry slowly removed the bandages from his eyes. The light hurt. Harry blinked tears of pain out of his eye and thought to himself that maybe he should have given himself a few more hours to recover. When Harry's eyes had stopped watering, he was more than pleased with the results of the surgery.

Harry looked around his room in wonder. He could easily make out the gossamer strands of a spider web in one corner of his room. On the desk he could see one of his books, the title plainly visible, and easily read. In amazement Harry realized that he could actually see better now than he could previously with his glasses on.

Harry downed his daily growth potion, and as an afterthought also downed another dose of the healing potion he had made. At this point his stomach reminded him that he had skipped dinner the night before, and that potions were less than filling.

Harry grabbed his now non-prescription glasses, and put them on his face. He then went outside to meat Tonks for his morning run. After the run was over, Harry turned to Tonks with a question. "Are Fred and George members of the order?"

Tonks shook her head. "No, although it's not from lack of effort on their part. Since they never graduated Dumbledore has declined their offer of service, much to Molly's satisfaction. Why do you ask?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Well if they were in the order then I thought they might have shifts guarding me, and I sort of wanted to talk with them."

"I could relay a message to them, and have them meet you here after one of our run's." Tonks face suddenly brightened, "And I can make you a copy of the guard roster so that you know who is on duty at what time. Would you like that?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, I would really appreciate that."

Tonks smiled, happy that her suggestion was well received. "Oh, and Harry, I was wondering if we could set a better routine for our run's. What I mean is that we need to set a specific time that you will meet me, so that I am not just waiting around for whenever you decide to come out."

"Well, when do you normally get here in the morning?"

"Oh, I am here from five to eight every morning. Then I go to work. I am actually taking a short shift, but since no one else wanted to run with you, no one has complained."

"How does five fifteen sound to you then?"

Tonks beamed. "That sounds great."

Harry decided to skip strength training today instead opting to take time for an extra large breakfast. He then returned to his room for long tedious hours of ancient runes study. The truth was that the runes were actually rather interesting. It was just the need to cram three years of study into one summer that was making the task odious.

Lunch was a solitary affair, as Harry had decided to fill his plate and return with it to his room. Petunia had not been happy at the amount of food her nephew was consuming, but was more than pleased not to have to eat with him. AS Harry Ate, he put away his Runes and organized everything for the defense project that he was working on for the D.A. Lessons.

After dinner, which Harry also took in his room, Harry rummaged through his old trunk until he finally found his almost unopened copy of Hogwarts, a History. He had gotten the book at Hermione's insistence years ago, but had never been able to make it past the first tedious chapter.

Now Harry eagerly flipped through the book until he found the section on the organization of the school. Harry read through the school charter multiple times, then reviewed the list of organizational changes made to Hogwarts over the years. Finally he perused the section on the authority, power, and responsibilities of the Hogwarts board of Governors.

A quick glance at the clock said that it was a little passed nine at night. Harry made a quick decision, and hoping that it wasn't too late, grabbed Hermione's phone number, and headed downstairs.

"Aunt Petunia, I am going to need to make a quick phone call, if that is alright with you." Harry saw that Petunia was about to object, and interjected, "Of course if you would prefer, I will just continue to send my owl."

That did it. Harry knew that Petunia especially hated the thought of her neighbors seeing Harry's owl leaving and returning with letters clutched in its talons. With a sigh of resignation Petunia replied, "Fine, use the one in the Kitchen, and don't make any foreign calls."

When Harry had dialed the number he waited impatiently while the phone rang three times before being answered. "Hello?" A woman's voice called out from the other end of the line.

"Ugh. Hello. Is, is Hermione there, this is Harry. Harry potter from, well I'm a friend of hers from school."

"Oh, Mr. Potter, I'm Hermione's mother. It is nice to hear your voice. Hermione talk's about you all the time. Do you mind if I enquire about what you want my daughter for, it is rather late."

Harry Groaned inwardly, "I apologize for the hour Mrs.," Harry suddenly remembered that Hermione's Parents were both Dentists, "I mean um Dr. Granger. It isn't anything urgent, I was just working on a proposal for school, and needed Hermione's advice. I don't sleep much these day's." Now that is the understatement of the year, thought Harry. "I am afraid that I didn't think. I can call back tomorrow if it would be more convenient."

Dr. Grangers musical laughter filled the lines, "No, no. That won't be necessary. Hermione seldom goes to sleep much before eleven anyways, let me go get her for you."

"Wait!" Harry blurted out before Dr. Granger could put down the phone.

"Is there something else you need?"

Harry took a deep breath, "Actually yes. I am afraid that my friend Ron and I may rely too much on Hermione's Help. I know that she loves to learn, but I fear she will burn herself out trying to help us with our projects, and pursuing her own interests. I don't really know how to say this, but could you make sure she takes time this summer to just have fun."

Harry heard Hermione's mother sigh, "It actually makes me feel better that you are worried about her too. I will make sure she takes a break from studying this summer, even if I have to lock away all of her books. It would set my mind at ease if I knew that you were doing the same at school."

"I swear that I will do my best."

A short while later Harry was explaining his plan to Hermione. After he had detailed what he wanted to do he asked her, "So, what do you think."

"Harry, that is insanely ambitious. I don't think a student has ever successfully attempted anything even remotely close to what you are talking about. Putting that aside, I think that you are right. We need something like this. What do you want me to do?"

Harry grinned, delighted that Hermione thought his idea was sound. "I was hoping you would proof read everything before I make my proposal. I will write everything up, but I will need your help to polish it before I talk to the Board of Governors. Also, do you know any members of the D.A. that had an interest in art or design?"

Hermione paused to think for a minute, "Well Parvarti and Lavender all always talking about wanting to design clothes after they graduate, I can't really say that I know of any one who does normal drawing type designs, why do you ask?"

"I would sort of like to get a Logo designed and a letterhead before my presentation, don't worry about it. I will take care of it."

After Harry's conversation with Hermione, and a quick shower and change of clothes, Harry sat down at his desk and started writing short letters to all of the members of the D.A. that would still be in school. By the time Harry was finished it was nearing twelve o'clock.

Harry sat his clock for four forty five in the morning, and settled himself onto his bed. Harry Concentrated on the pathways of his mind that had been opened by the Occlumency Potion, and after a time found himself once again found himself a thought, floating among his many memories.

Harry instantly went to work sorting and organizing his mind. The further he progressed the faster he was able to go, as he needed to stop fewer and fewer times to create a new classification for a memory. When the alarm once again broke Harry's trance, He was finally beginning to see some progress, as the random thoughts and memories floating through his mind seemed less crowded.

Harry was outside stretching, when he heard Tonks' boisterous laughter. "Harry, you are doing that all wrong. Here let me show you."

Tonks joined Harry, and started walking him through a set of stretching exercises, before leading him off at a brisk jog. By the end of the run, as usual, Harry was sweating profusely, panting like a dog, and barely able to stand, Tonks on the other hand hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Hey Tonks, before you agreed to run with me, how far were you running every morning?"

Tonks shrugged, "Three miles, why do you ask?"

Harry's heart sagged, "Our little jogs aren't helping you much then are they."

"Well Harry, they aren't as strenuous as I am use too, but don't get discouraged. You are actually doing far better than I did when they started us on our first run in the Auror Academy. Now I have a surprise for you. Fred and George have agreed to meet you, and should at this very minute be waiting in that little work out shed you normally go to."

With renewed vigor, Harry rushed off to see the twins. When he entered the shed that housed the exercise equipment he saw Fred and George hunched over one of the machines whispering fiercely.

Fred and George turned to Harry with matching dark looks on their faces, "What is this place?" George demanded.

"Yea, and do they use these things." Fred added.

"Vernon had this shed built for my cousin, but Dudley lets me use the equipment."

The twins shared looks of Horror, "Blimey Harry, who do you use it on?"

"You didn't Kidnap Malfoy did you?"

Harry shook his head, "What are you two on about, I don't use this stuff on anybody. I work out on these machines myself, although I have only done so a couple of time so far."

Fred looked bewildered, "Work out?"

George cocked his head to one side, before slowly asking, "So these aren't muggle tortue devices?"

Harry threw his head back and Laughed. Wiping tears from his eyes he shook his head, "Well some people might disagree with you on that. These are muggle strength training machines"

The twins looked at the different apparatus for a couple of minutes before Fred started nodding, "I think I get it."

George turned back towards Harry, "So what did you want to talk to us about?"

Harry grinned wickedly, "Three things actually. First I hear that you are having trouble getting accepted into the Order?" The scowls on the twins' faces were enough to answer that question. "I say stop trying. Instead, join me. Dumbledore sees us as children, even if you are allowed into the order, do you think he will trust you with important assignments? Do you think he will even remember to call you forth to battle when needed? Or will he waste your talents as he tries to protect you from a war that desperately needs your help."

The twins stared at each other for a couple of minutes. Not for the first time Harry wondered if they could communicate in some way other than words. After a brief moment the two twins turned back towards Harry and drew their wands. The two then simultaneously knelt down on one knee. They then placed their Wands above their hearts. Bowed there Heads and the in unison recited.

"We pledge to thee our service, our wands, yea our very lives. For Victory and glory, or death and eternal fame. Lord Potter, we are yours to command."

Harry was shaken as the Magic of their combined vow slammed into him, permanently tying Harry and the Weasly twins together. "What was that?" Harry whispered almost reverently.

The twins looked rather shaken too, but after only a few moments, one of them replied, "Ancient Weasly oath, originally given to Lord Godric Gryffindor."

The other twin joined in, "We knew it was binding, but we didn't realize it was actually Magically Binding."

The twins seemed to be regaining some of their normal mirth as they continued, "So in the words of a muggle movie, 'what is thy bidding my master'"

Harry shook his head. "You know that I won't be able to really take the fight to Voldemort until I am of age. By that time I want to be ready to fight, so I need you to gather as much information as possible between now and then. Also try to recruit to our cause, but quietly. We need friends if we are to take on the Death Eaters. Also don't neglect your shop. We need the laughter, and it provides a great place for people to nonchalantly meet and talk."

"Also keep an eye out for anything you invent that could be useful for the war. I may even give you some non-joke related inventions to work on. First of all though, we need a secure way of communicating."

Harry paused before continuing, "I wasn't planning on discussing any of that today when I asked to see you." Harry removed his glasses and tossed them to George. "This is actually what I had in mind. I don't need those to see anymore, so I was wondering if you had any ideas for spells that could be added to them. I was actually thinking about Mad-eye's Eye, but figured you two were the best to ask."

George put the glasses on, and looked at Fred, "Well what do you think?"

"They really aren't you, but for Harry we might be able to do something."

George tossed the glasses back to Harry, "Give us a few days to think about it, I am sure we can come up with something."

"Lastly, I was wondering if I could use you guy's to mass mail things for me. I assume that since you have a mail order business as well as the shop you have access to multiple owls. There will be quite a few times over the summer that I want to send out letters to groups of people, and I really don't want to overtax Hedwig."

Fred responded quickly, "That isn't a problem Harry, we can"

"use the public post in Diagon Alley." George finished.

"Wait here then, let me grab the first batch." With that Harry Rushed back to his room, and collected the stack of letters he had written the night before.

When Harry returned, Fred and George eagerly accepted the letters. They insisted on staying to watch as Harry worked out on the muggle exercise equipment. Before the twins departed they presented him with an assortment of new joke items, including a small bottle of "Potter Pills" which they claimed would, of course, have no effect on Harry. Harry wasn't sure if the pills were real, or if the twins were just giving him a hard time.

After the visit from the twins, the week settled into a routine, with Harry spending between four and eight hours a night organizing his mind. Most of this time differed only in the memories that were sorted. One interesting exception had occurred though during one of Harry's Meditations. He had been sorting memories when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that definitely did not look like it fit with the quidditch theme of Harry's mind. Harry's consciousness chased after this anomaly until he found himself in possession of what looked like a piece to a jigsaw puzzle. Upon closer examination he realized it was one of Professor Snape's memories that had been transferred to him during the Legilimens curse. Harry wondered if it took the form it did because of the description in his Occlumency book but decided that the why wasn't important right now. Harry had mentally conjured a small desk in one corner of his mind and placed the puzzle piece on it. As Harry's mind became more and more organized, he continued to find more of these small pieces of Snape scattered among his memories.

Harry was also progressed rapidly in his physical training, especially his endurance in running, which amazed Tonks to no end. Harry didn't bother to tell the young Auror that his rapid improvement was a combination of the growth potion and the Healing potions that Harry was taking regularly. These two potions allowed Harry to build muscle mass more quickly than would normally be possible, as well as allowing quicker recovery from his workouts. Indeed by the time Harry was beginning to feel the need to take his first weekly nap, Harry could actually detect the changes in his body while looking in the mirror. This gave Harry hope that by the time the summer was over he would no longer look like a little boy, but like a young man.

Harry also spent at least three hours a day studying Runes. The remainder of his time was spent pouring over defense books, and working on the two D.A. related projects he had set for himself. He had been delighted to receive replies from all of the members of the D.A. stating that they were more than willing to continue with the club if Harry could get it sanctioned. Actually, most of the letters had included statements to the effect that even if Harry didn't get the club sanctioned they were interested in continuing with it. Even Marietta Edgecomb had tentatively agreed to continue with the D.A. on the condition that she and Harry have the opportunity to talk prior to her rejoining the group.

Hermione had been correct about Parvarti and Lavender's interest in clothing design, however neither girl was interested in design that wasn't related to clothing. To Harry's delight however Ernie McMillan, and Hanna Abbot had both responded that they loved to draw. Harry was surprised to learn that Cho Chang was also a budding artist.

He had quickly responded to those three students and asked them to design a letterhead, an emblem that could be used for a pin or a clasp, and a crest for the D.A. He told them that they could do as many designs as they desired, but that he needed their designs by the no later than the 10th of August, so that the D.A. Members could vote on which one's would become the official standard for the D.A.

* I actually know a Dr. Bonebreak. He is a general practitioner, and not at all underhanded.