Chapter 4: Hello Merlin

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Harry Potter crawled under the covers on top of his lumpy mattress and tried to get some sleep. It had been a long day when all was said and done.

Even though he had spent most of the time talking to Dresden or listening to his two rescuers tell him stories about their adventures, it had been exhausting.

He supposed that might have been because he finally let the flood gates open and told them everything that he had gone through, starting way back with the troll in his first year right up to when he got back from the graveyard after the third task.

What was better was that they had believed him! Almost no one believed him outside of Hermione, Neville, Sirius and Remus.

As he thought about the day's events, he pulled the pentacle out of his shirt and fiddled with it. It had done something strange today that it hadn't done in a while.

It pulled him towards Dresden and Molly. It hadn't given him that strong a reaction towards anyone since he had become friends with Hermione.

It also gave him positive reactions towards a couple of other people like Remus, Sirius, and Neville, but those weren't nearly as strong.

It was more or less neutral to almost everyone but there were a few people it gave negative reactions too, trying to push him away from people like the Malfoys or the imposter Professor Moody.

After he had gotten beaten up a few times in primary school when he ignored the warning and went near the people who gave negative reactions he learned to trust it.

He suspected the runes on the chain did it, but he wasn't certain. It could be something inherent in him, but whenever it happened he got the distinct impression that the pendant moved to get closer to or further away from the people it reacted too.

That was probably why he had told them everything when he hadn't even told Sirius or Remus about all of the things that had happened to him.

It might also have to do with the adventures that they had gone on in the first place were just as bad if not worse than his, so they would understand better what he had gone through when he ended up in those situations.

He had even asked them to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts in the fall term and took them to the Leaky Cauldron. But he couldn't really help it they just felt like family.

BANG. Harry jerked upright as his door was thrown in.

Standing in the doorway was a tall lean form holding a wand and scanning the room. When the man's eyes reached the bed he spread his arms wide and shouted, "Harry!"

"Sirius! What are you doing here?" Harry asked as put on his glasses and was enveloped in a hug by his godfather.

"No time, come on we're getting you out of here." He said with an edge of haste in his voice, "don't worry about your stuff we'll have Dobby come and get it for us."

Harry nodded while he put on his shirt and pants, "where are we going?"

Sirius smiled with a twinkle in his eye, "It's a surprise, now grab my arm, I'm going to side along apparate you there."

The bespectacled youth took the older man's arm and with a loud crack they were gone.

"So, Mr. Dresden, how did you meet the young Mr. Potter?"

Harry Dresden leaned back in his chair and stared deliberately at the bridge of the Headmaster's nose. The man looked far too like the Merlin from back home to make him feel comfortable. And he still didn't know if the soul gaze worked in this world yet but he wasn't taking the chance.

It also gave him some measure of protection from mind magic, and he definitely didn't trust this man nearly as long as his beard was.

The two of them were in a private room at the Leaky Cauldron so they could have the interview without being interrupted by the many people who seemed to want to talk to this man.

Albus Dumbledore made him a little uneasy. He had heard about all of the kids' adventures since they had entered school in their first year, and Harry wasn't impressed after all the things 'Mister Potter' had told him about this man.

He knew from the moment the old man had arrived that he was being judged by the esteemed Headmaster of Hogwarts.

And he was powerful. The kid hadn't told him much about the Headmaster in their talks but he had told him that Dumbledore was probably the single most powerful wizard alive, and now Harry believed it.

He wasn't as powerful as all of the monsters that he had gone up against back home but this man was definitely as powerful as any of the other senior council members.

He didn't look as power mad as the Merlin, but looks could be deceiving, and he was more than strong enough to be able to tell if he was lying to him.

Now, he just needed to keep his trap shut. He could do that… Right?

"I was in the neighborhood when I found the kid being attacked by a pair of dementors. My ride drove them off then told me to take care of the kid before she ditched me and my former apprentice there. We took him to his house, he woke up, we shared stories, and then he took us here and set up this interview."

The Headmaster nodded his head, seemingly mollified with that answer and the interview continued.

"What sort of stories did you share with Mister Potter while you were with him?"

"I told him about what I did for a living. I am, or at least I was, a private investigator, and I did a lot of work with the local law enforcement. I've made a fair share of enemies while doing so. I've had less than pleasant dealings with trolls, vampires, werewolves, demons, and more than a few dark wizards. The kid told me about his past few years at Hogwarts, in particular the events of last year."

Harry fixed the headmaster's long and crooked nose with a hard glare, and gripped the staff in his hand a little tighter.

However, the headmaster completely ignored his little show completely.

"Do you believe everything he told you?" Dumbledore asked, his eyebrows furrowing. Apparently he believed this to be important.

"Is there any reason I shouldn't?" Harry asked incredulously as he leaned forward. Damn it, I'm losing my cool, and when the hell did I become so protective of the kid?

The headmaster seemed to be momentarily taken back before quickly masking his features again.

"Thank you for answering that for me, it is heartening to see anyone believing Mr. Potter at this time," he said with a grandfatherly smile, "Now what are your qualifications?"

"Personal experience," he responded with a neutral mask that seemed to throw the Headmaster off pace again, and just as the Merlin impersonator opened his mouth to ask him to elaborate, Harry continued.

"I didn't go to one of your magic schools, I didn't take your standardized tests, and I definitely am not from around here. I got my first wand a few days ago after the kid brought Molly and me here. I don't know anything about spells or the creatures here, honestly I can't teach DADA at your school like the kid wants me too."

Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore was, for the first time in a very long time, at a complete loss for words, as he tried to wrap his head around this new information. The man in front of him was clearly a wizard. He could feel the magic in him, and he was strong. Possibly as strong as himself or Tom Riddle, but he didn't know any spells.

But he said he was involved in the magical world. How could he be involved in the magical world without having been through the system? That meant he had been outside of the schooling system. So something that Harry Dresden had done had seriously impressed Harry Potter, a fifteen year old boy who had fought a basilisk, a dragon, merpeople, dementors, and Dark Lords. What was it then?

"What did you tell Mr. Potter that would make him want to be taught by you?" Albus asked as he came out of his thoughts.

"Because Headmaster, I may not know a lot of spells or creatures," Dresden said with a smirk as he conjured a flame in his hand without a word or gesture, "but I do know a lot about Magic."

Molly was sitting at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron, nursing a butterbeer as she watched Harry walk away with the Merlin wannabe and sighed.

No matter how messed up her life was, she was not going to start drinking before lunch… again.

She could feel the Mantle of the Winter Lady swirling softly around her; the cool feeling was definitely not as comforting as it could be.

And damn did she want to be comforted. There was just too much shit happening too fast.

First she had assisted in Harry's murder/suicide. And she still hadn't come to terms with that. Especially since he not only came back but he was stuck in the same position that he had been trying to avoid in the first place.

Every time she looked him in the eyes, she wanted to break down and cry. But she couldn't let him see her be weak.

Molly had to prove it to him that she had grown up, that she was a woman who could make her own decisions and be responsible. Not some whiny little girl who would come crying to him at the first chance.

For God's sake she was nearly twenty seven and still single. She would probably be single for a very long time since she was sort of immortal now.

At least she wasn't a virgin, though she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing yet. She had lost it while she was drunk with whatever boyfriend it was that she had back then.

Molly knew she wasn't in love with him at the time, hell she barely remembered the dude's face much less his name now.

She had been in love with Harry at the time. Even after he had dumped a pitcher of water on her head to turn her down when he had saved her from being executed by the Wardens she hadn't stopped loving him.

She had been doubly sure that she wouldn't lose her virginity to him after that, but she couldn't be happy in any of her other relationships since she was still holding onto her hope that maybe one day, the two of them could be together.

Over the course of a four hundred year life, a twenty or so difference in age doesn't really mean a whole lot, not that she ever had an issue with it even when she was just seventeen. She expected, wanted, the both of them to be around for a long time, so she used him to anchor herself.

And while Harry had been… gone… she had lost it. She went rogue and did so many things that she promised him she would never do.

She did it because it was her fault that he was gone. She could have protected him, could have shown him what he meant to so many people so he wouldn't do it. But she didn't.

Molly had used what Harry had taught her about the mind arts to lock away her memories and the bad emotions, instead of dealing with them like she should have.

When the Leanansidhe came to complete her training, she threw herself into it to use it as a distraction from her problems with Harry.

Harry was back, only this time as the Winter Knight. She hadn't known what to think of it back then and had no idea what to think of it now.

Her feelings for him were so wrapped up in guilt and anger and fear and happiness and relief that she didn't have any idea what was going on with her anymore.

And before she could even begin to think about what happened she somehow ended up as the Winter Lady!

She felt the mantle shift around her again.

It was a constant reminder of her new duties. One of which was to take care of the Winter Knight, the object of her confusion.

Then there was this mission that she was on. She was envious of Harry in that regard. His mission was so straight forward: find the Outsider and kill it along with its host.

Her mission was not so straight forward.

Molly sighed again and looked around to see Harry walking toward her while the old man strode out the back of the building.

He sat down next to her with a smirk on his face.

"We have a job Professor Carpenter."

A/N

Sorry this is such a short chapter but this is pretty much what was cut off from the last chapter.

The next chapter will be quite a bit longer as it will be Dresden and Molly's introduction to the castle and staff (Plus their reactions) as well as Harry's Birthday party and the rest of his summer with Sirius and Dobby.

The chapter after that will be Shopping in Diagon Alley, the train ride back to Hogwarts, the opening feast, and the first Order Meeting, all in all that chapter may end up being the longest yet.

I would also like to acknowledge my new beta, Sociopathic-Antichrist, for reviewing this chapter and going back and fixing the first three.

Anyway, please review, thanks again for all of the positive comments. Be on the lookout for new chapters.