I do not, in any way, shape, or form, own Harry Potter.


Harry threw a pinch of floo powder (there had been a small pouch of it on the mantle) into the fireplace, stuck his head in, and called "the Burrow!"

Luckily for him, Mrs Weasley, who had been working on dinner, was the only one on the first floor, which held a combined kitchen and dining room, as well as the living room where the fireplace was located. Hearing something that she assumed was the floo in the living room, she left her charmed cooking utensils to their own devices to investigate.

"Oh, hello, Mrs Weasley!" Harry called brightly, nearly giving the poor woman a heart attack. He seemed to notice, for he immediately apologised. "Sorry! I was just wondering if I could floo over? I have to talk to Ron, and there's someone I'd like you both," the fact that Ginny was evidently not invited was by no means lost on Mrs Weasley, "to meet."

"Of course, Harry dear. Just come over and make yourselves at home. I'll go upstairs and get Ron."

"Thanks, Mrs Weasley."

A few minutes later, Harry, Aderyn, Ron, and Mrs Weasley had all been introduced to each other and were seated comfortably.

"So what's up Harry? You just drop by for a cup of tea?" Ron asked eagerly.

"If you're hoping for news about the war," Ron grinned, remembering Harry's stunt with the cage, "I'm going to have to disappoint you. The good news is, it's something way better. How'd you like to be quidditch captain?"

"Seriously? I'd love to! What about you, though?"

"Seriously, mate. I'm gonna be pretty busy next year, anyway. That's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about: McGonagall asked me to start the DA up again this year, but I don't know what to do with it yet. Aderyn and I've talked about it a bit, and McGonagall said a few things about it, but I think it's mostly up to me to decide."

"Are you asking for help running it?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"Not exactly, no. What I really need now is ideas about how to run it. Some logistical stuff, but mostly the curriculum. Do you think that you guys could all give it some thought over the next few days?"

"Of course, Harry," Mrs Weasley replied while Ron chimed in with "We'll take care of it, mate."

Harry thanked them and the four spent some time chatting before Harry and Aderyn had to return to the castle for dinner. Throughout the meal, Aderyn was impressed with the way Harry and the professors spoke with each other. They all seemed to treat him like an equal, and Harry called a few of them (by their invitation, he later told her) by their first names.

After dinner, Harry and Aderyn went back to the Gryffindor common room, and Harry found himself once again pleasantly surprised by how comfortable he felt with her.

"I'm serious!" he told her as they climbed a staircase up to the third floor. "My godfather was a wanted criminal."

"No he wasn't," Aderyn replied, exasperated.

"Yeah, he was," Harry said, sounding almost offended. Like having a criminal for a godfather was something to be proud of. "Well, he was innocent, but everyone thought he was guilty."

That explains it, Aderyn thought. "So what was he accused of?"

"Betraying my parents to Voldemort and murdering a wizard and twelve muggles with a single curse," he replied casually. It wasn't until he noticed that Aderyn had stopped walking that he realised how that must have sounded. "Er, like I said, though, he was innocent."

"That's not really my issue," she said. She sounded almost . . . faint? "How can you be so casual about that?"

"Well," Harry said, running a hand through his hair uncomfortably, "I met the man who actually did it. I learned the truth and I told the world when it was ready to listen. I guess I've just moved on from it? When you live my life, you get used to it."

Aderyn began walking again and took Harry's hand, seemingly without thinking. "I'm sorry, Harry."

"Don't worry about it," he replied, still feeling somewhat awkward, but giving her hand a small squeeze regardless. "Things are looking up for me now. I've got some good friends, I'm done dealing with Voldemort, and I just have to get through one more year of school and kill Rabastan Lestrange before I can fade from the public eye and just live my life."

She chose not to voice her surprise that Harry could talk about killing someone so easily. "You must be looking forward to that. Not having to deal people watching your every move."

"More than you know," Harry said, somewhat bitterly. "Sorry," he said suddenly. "I didn't mean to get all weird on you there. Anyways, what were we talking about, again?"

"You were telling me about your godfather," she told him.

"Right," Harry replied, grinning down at her. "Sirius, my godfather, and Remus, my godson's father-"

"You have a godson?" she asked, looking at him in surprise.

"Yeah, Teddy Lupin. I've been visiting him and Andromeda, his grandmother, all summer. Anyways, they were best friends with my dad when they were all in school, and the four of them were them-"

"Four?"

Harry ran his hand through his hair again, which Aderyn had noticed a while ago he did whenever he got nervous or agitated. She was about to apologise, but he started explaining before she could.

"Yeah, there was a fourth. They . . . sort of had a falling out," he muttered. While he acknowledged it as a major understatement, he didn't particularly want to get into the details then and there.

"Anyways," he said again, "while they were at school, they were the greatest pranksters in Hogwarts history. Called themselves 'The Marauders.' Any prank you see someone pull, they did it first."

"Are pranks common here, then?"

"Not so much since the twins left," Harry replied, sounding somewhat bittersweet.

Torn between curiosity and delicacy, Aderyn let that comment slide for the time being, but made a mental note to ask Harry about it later. Preferably when he hadn't been discussing his parents' murders, his presumably orphaned godson, and his dead godfather. Harry, however, saved her the trouble.

"That's right, you wouldn't know about them, would you? Sorry, I keep forgetting that you're new here. The Weasley twins, Fred and George, were the best pranksters since Dad and Sirius. They left partway through their seventh year to open a joke shop, but before they left, everybody loved them. George still runs the store over in Diagon Alley.

"Which reminds me, I've been meaning to go over there."

"What for?" Aderyn asked. Harry hadn't really struck her as the prankster type. Mischievous to a point, but not the sort to go around pranking others.

"The twins started developing defense products, almost by accident, for the last war. I'm almost out of Darkness Powder, and I had a little something I wanted George to make for me."

"What's that?" Aderyn asked as the two of them climbed through the portrait hole. As the school year hadn't yet started, there wasn't yet a password for any of the common rooms. Harry, contrary to Aderyn's opinion, had taken the opportunity to sneak into the Slytherin dorms and set up a few surprises for one Draco Malfoy.

Harry grimaced slightly as he led to his favorite group of armchairs by the fire. "Well it's pretty gross, but do you know what a Hand of Glory is?" Aderyn shook her head. "It's a severed hand holding a candle," He said distastefully. Noting Aderyn's disturbed look, he went on. "I know, believe me. We found out about a year ago that they're the only way to light up a space affected by Darkness Powder, so I asked the twins to figure out a way to replicate it. George owled me a few days ago to tell me that he finished it."

"So how'd he do it?" Aderyn asked, curiosity overpowering repulsion.

"He didn't," Harry replied, once again sounding slightly disgusted. "He turned the hand into a pair of goggles, and they'll let me see anywhere, no matter how dark it is, even if someone's using Darkness Powder."

"That's brilliant! So what's the problem?"

"He had to use the hand to make the goggles. They're made out of a dead bloke's hand."

"Right."

"Right."

The two of them talked for a few more hours, but as Harry was an early riser and Aderyn was still somewhat used to New York time (where she had spent the last two weeks of her summer vacation), they both decided to turn in early. Before they did, the two them agreed on a schedule for the next day.

"We need to be here for breakfast and dinner, but they won't mind if we're out at lunchtime," Harry explained. "I'm visiting Teddy and Andy tomorrow for lunch, after that I'll drop by the shop to talk to George.

"You're coming to the shop whether you like it or not," (Harry was only half kidding about this) "but it's up to you if you want to meet Teddy and Andromeda with me."

"You don't think they'd mind if I did?"

"Definitely not," Harry told her sadly. "Andromeda'll welcome any company she can get at the moment, and Teddy's too young to really notice either way. Unless he likes you, then he'll never let you leave if he can help it." Harry grinned, remembering the first time he had met Teddy in person.

It had been a few days after the final battle of the previous war, and Andromeda had already been informed of Remus and Tonks' deaths. As soon as Teddy had seen Harry, his hair turned black, his eyes turned green, and Teddy had grabbed Harry's finger and refused to let it go for several hours. It wasn't until he fell asleep for his nap that Harry was able to escape his death grip, though he had stayed by his side for the rest of the day regardless.

"Anyways," Harry started again, "if you want to come, you're more than welcome."

"I want to meet your godson," Aderyn told him eagerly. "And if his grandmother's cooking is anywhere near as good as you say Mrs Weasley's is . . ."

"Maybe not that good," Harry conceded, "but pretty good all the same. What about the rest of the day?"

"We'll figure that out then, yeah?" Aderyn yawned. Harry wanted to protest, but he was interrupted by a yawn of his own.

"Fine," he sighed. Aderyn's triumphant smirk did little to help the feeling that he had just conceded a point that he perhaps shouldn't have.


At Aderyn's suggestion, they spent much of the morning after breakfast flying, Aderyn getting a feel for the larger pitch, and Harry getting used to flying cooperatively with her. He was pleasantly surprised to find that she compared favorably to Katie Bell, the chaser with whom he had worked longest, and absolutely blew Demelza Robins, his only chaser at the moment, out of the water.

Andromeda, as Harry had predicted, was more than happy to meet Aderyn. She offered the two of them some wonderful beef wellington and insisted that they both eat three helpings (which she always did whenever Harry came over as a matter of course: like Mrs Weasley, she had taken it upon herself to help him gain the weight that he had lost by living with the Dursleys).

Teddy, when he first saw Aderyn, immediately copied her hair and eye colour, before seeing Harry and changing to copy his, instead. After what looked like a few moments of painful deliberation (insofar as a several month old child can experience it), he settled for copying Aderyn's eyes and Harry's hair. For reasons that the latter didn't understand in the slightest, the former started blushing slightly when she noticed.

Harry found Andromeda's knowing smirks throughout the rest of the visit rather unnerving.

After a few hours with Teddy and Andromeda, Harry and Aderyn used their floo to travel to Diagon Alley.

"You ever been here before?" Harry asked as he tapped a brick wall with his wand, causing the bricks to rearrange themselves so that they formed a door rather than a wall.

"Once," Aderyn replied. "When I was just starting out school. Flackter Alley, that's the magical alley in Wales, didn't have all the basics I needed for school, so my family had to come here to get some of it."

"So Flackter had everything you needed every year after that?"

"Yeah, but the only stuff I ever needed was new books and stuff. We didn't have a uniform at my old school."

"Wish Hogwarts didn't have one," Harry muttered wistfully. "The only reason I can get away with ignoring it is 'cause I'm me."

"Why do it, though?" Harry raised his eyebrows. "I mean, why use your fame like that? You hate being famous, so why abuse it?"

"Why not?" Harry shrugged. "I figure I've earned it at this point. After the Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, the dementor debacle, the TriWizard, Umbridge, and everything last year, I reckon I've earned the right to wear what I want.

"Besides," he added as an afterthought, "I never know when I may get into a fight, and robes are really inconvenient if you're trying to take someone out while trying to keep them from killing you.

"Anyways, you need anything while we're here?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Aderyn replied, still taking in what Harry had just said. Mentally shaking her head to clear it, she thought for a moment and said, "I've got all my books, but I might want to restock on potions ingredients, and I'll need a uniform."

"Right then," Harry said decisively, "Madam Malkin's first, since that'll take the longest, then we can go to the apothecary. After that, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."

Aderyn took a mercifully short time getting her new uniform (she had wanted a new set of dress robes as well, but Harry had discreetly indicated that there was a shop with a better selection in Hogsmeade), and the two were in the apothecary for less than five minutes.

Despite this, they still managed to attract the attention (or, more accurately, Harry managed to attract the attention) of numerous shoppers, which was something of an accomplishment, given that the Alley wasn't particularly busy at this time of year. Most Hogwarts students had already purchased their equipment for the coming year, so the only customers at most of the stores were adults looking for odds and ends.

"I said we're busy!" Harry snapped at one particularly annoying witch a few years younger than him. "Now shove off and don't follow us!"

The witch, whom Harry belatedly recognised as Romilda Vane, who had attempted to use a love potion on him in his sixth year. Ron had accidentally eaten the sweets she had spiked instead, and the whole incident had seemed funny until he had been poisoned. It became even less amusing when Harry had learned about Hermione's duplicity.

"Was that really necessary?" Aderyn asked, slightly taken aback by Harry's sudden harshness.

"She tried to use a love potion on me in sixth year," Harry reported, his voice sounding more annoyed with every word. "Ron took the potion by accident, and he got poisoned after that."

Aderyn raised her eyebrows but didn't comment. Harry made enough references to misadventures like this that she was beginning to take them in stride.

"Anyways," Harry said loudly, hoping to broadcast as widely as possible that the two of them were leaving, "let's get going. We still need to get to Flourish and Blotts."

Aderyn took a second to recognise what he was doing and why before nodding. A few minutes later, the two of them found themselves outside of the twins' store, or at least, that's what Harry called it. He still thought of it as belonging to Fred and George collectively, despite the fact that the former had died several months ago.

After fighting their way through the crowds (WWW was the only shop in the Alley to do consistent business until the very end of the summer holidays; the inside was packed with Hogwarts students who seemed to have come to the Alley for no other reason than to browse the twins' wares), Harry and Aderyn found themselves in the backroom.

George had been working there almost exclusively, leaving the floor to a few trustworthy employees, and working hard enough on new inventions to make up for the fact that he was working alone. When he heard the door open, he looked up to see Harry and a girl he didn't recognise.

Grinning, though it was still somewhat forced, he greeted them. "Harry, mate! I've been wondering when you'd drop by. And who're you?" he asked Aderyn, though not unkindly. He knew Harry well enough to know that anyone who he brought to the backroom was a decent person.

"Aderyn Price, I'm transferring to Hogwarts," she replied. George, who had never heard of a transfer student before, frowned slightly but didn't say anything.

"You want the goggles, then?" he asked, turning his attention back to Harry.

Harry grimaced slightly but nodded. George, seeing his reaction, gave a more genuine grin and said, "don't worry, Harry. I transfigured them from the hand. You won't be wearing a dead guy's hand on your face."

Harry slumped in relief, but straightened up almost immediately. "You might've mentioned that in your letter," he said, almost sternly.

George's grin only grew. "I might have, yes."

Harry glared at him for a moment before muttering, "just gimme the damn goggles, mate."

George grinned more widely still as he rose from his seat and walked over to a small box in a corner, out of which he pulled a small package, which seemed to be covered in a white cloth. Throwing the package to Harry, he retook his seat and crossed his legs, looking at Harry expectantly.

Harry, meanwhile, was unwrapping the cloth with an enthusiasm that was at complete odds to his previously sour demeanor. Revealing a pair of small, white goggles with a black strap, Harry eagerly placed them on his forehead, covering his bangs and his scar.

"Any chance you'll tell me what you're working on?" he asked hopefully.

George, however, just snorted. "You'll know when it's ready. Don't reckon I'll put it on the shelves until November, but I should finish them mid-October. Hell, I've had the prototype done for a week."

"So you just need to perfect it and mass produce it?" Aderyn asked curiously. She had never been much of an inventor, and didn't really understand how one person working alone could make all the products in the store.

"I've . . . got a few kinks to work out," George said uncomfortably. "I didn't expect it to . . . well, you'll see when it's done."

The two of them prodded him for a while, but might as well have been interrogating his desk for all the information they received. They eventually gave up and headed back into the store proper, Harry leading Aderyn to the section dedicated to defense.

"Shield clothes (they'll block minor spells), decoy detonators (they'll explode and cause a diversion for you if you need it) Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder (my new best friend)," as Harry pointed out the Darkness Powder, he grabbed about half of the total amount for sale. Aderyn's eyes widened slightly, though Harry didn't seem to find anything odd about his purchase.

"I should probably just start buying it in bulk from George's supplier myself," Harry mused.

"Can you afford it?" Aderyn asked skeptically.

"I don't reckon George can afford for me to not." Seeing the confused look on Aderyn's face, Harry explained. "I gave him and Fred their starter money, so they never let me pay for anything. I've had to charm and bully three different cashiers into letting me pay, and when they caught wind of what I was doing, they put up a few creative wards to keep me from doing it again."

Aderyn snorted, but said nothing. A while later, the two of them were leaving the store (the twins' wards didn't stop Harry from trying to pay for his things, only from actually managing to do so. He and Aderyn spent a good long while at the register) just in time to see a commotion a few doors down at the bookstore.

Harry frowned slightly and looked ahead to see what was going on. "Brilliant," he muttered.

"What is it?" asked Aderyn, who still couldn't see what was going on.

"Snatchers," Harry said, sounding mildly annoyed, as though a battle being waged a few doors down from them was something slightly inconvenient to be taken care of. "You ever been in a battle?" he asked, turning to face Aderyn, who shook her head mutely.

Harry grabbed her hand and apparated the two of them to the gates of Hogwarts. "Go inside the gates and don't come out for anything," he instructed her. "Anyone but me tries to apparate here, stun 'em. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Before Aderyn could process enough of what he had said to offer a protest, he apparated away noiselessly, leaving her confused and concerned at the gates of her new home.


In the alley, all was chaos. As Harry had frequently observed in past, few witches or wizards had much common sense, so rather than doing the logical thing and apparating away, most everyone who had been there stayed behind to run around in panic.

Harry narrowed his eyes. Did they learn anything from the last war? he asked himself rhetorically. Moving into action, Harry snapped his new goggles over his eyes, threw down a small amount of Darkness Powder, just enough to cover the area around Flourish and Blotts, and drew his wand from its holster.

People reacted to his use of the Darkness Powder almost immediately. The (supposedly) law abiding citizens in the alley all began panicking more, seeming to think that the snatchers were the ones using it. The snatchers also started panicking, as they were all well aware that Darkness Powder was widely regarded as Harry's trademark.

Leaping into the middle of the area affected by the Powder (which would have been an incredibly stupid move had it not been for the goggles), Harry began firing an array of curses into the group of snatchers. Nothing he threw was particularly deadly, just a few bone breaking curses, some reductors, a few stunners, a body-bind or two, and the odd incarcerous, but it served his purposes well: he was able to subdue the snatchers he managed to hit without causing untoward damage to any bystanders or property his wayward spells might hit.

After a full minute of Harry dodging curses and sending out his own in retaliation, the Darkness Powder failed. That, Harry reflected, was one of its main weaknesses: if used outdoors, especially during the day, the Powder wouldn't last long, and Harry, trying to keep from hurting the various shoppers, had used much less Powder than he normally would have, hoping to impact the smallest possible area.

When the area outside of Flourish and Blotts was light again, the snatchers all seemed to rally with the realisation that they really only had one opponent, and that his single largest advantage over them, his use of Darkness Powder, was now moot. Harry, who was unwilling to use any more of his newly purchased Powder so soon after buying it, decided that he had had enough playing around.

Most of the shoppers had fled by now, and none of the store owners seemed inclined to help, leaving Harry to deal with the seven remaining snatchers (or rather, the seven snatchers who remained and were in fighting condition) alone and mercifully unencumbered. For the first time since the war had began, Harry was about to cut loose: he had tried it Dumbledore's way, nice and polite, and now it was time to try it his.

"Avada Kedavra!" Harry shouted, aiming at the only snatcher who hadn't yet received a single injury over the course of the battle. The snatcher, taken by surprise, was unable to dodge in time, and raised a simple protego, seemingly on instinct.

Harry gave a grim smile as his curse passed through the shield as though it weren't there. Harry turned to another snatcher and tsked at him. "He should have known that you can't shield against the unforgivables, shouldn't he?"

The six remaining snatchers didn't quite know what to do with this: it had been well documented in the Prophet, and confirmed by the few who had escaped his raids, that Harry never, ever, used deadly force. To see him not only break this rule, but do so casually and immediately act flippant about it, was rather alarming.

The rest of the battle passed in a blur for Harry, which, if he was being honest with himself, he found rather disappointing. It was the first time that Harry had gone all out in a battle since Riddle was killed, and it had been nothing short of exhilarating. Two snapped necks, eight broken limbs, twelve severed appendages, and one particularly nasty curse which caused its victims eyes to grow teeth and eat through his brain later, a very satisfied Harry apparated away, noting, as he did so, the rather pathetic anti-apparition jinxes that the snatchers had set up around the alley.

Bizarrely, Harry's last thought before he appeared in front of the Hogwarts Gates was of Aderyn. "She'll kill me for this. If I get out it alive," he said to the only snatcher still conscious (which Harry rather admired, truth be told: despite the fact that the man's left leg, as well as both of his arms, were broken, he simply refused to black out from the pain), "it'll be a damn miracle."


AN: I said next chapter would be longer didn't I? Sorry this took so long to get up, but between a number of things (including problems with my laptop forcing me to use the library computers to write, which have a two-hour-a-day time limit and me focusing on my other story), I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate it lately. Believe me when I say that I would like nothing more than to be able to sit down and write all day, every day, but I don't have that luxury. Also, sorry that this chapter is a little disjointed and weird. That isn't how I intended for it to go, it's just how things had to happen. There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to take care of before the other students started arriving, and I had some trouble mustering up the energy to write the stuff that had to happen before the start of term. I've been really looking forward to the start of the next school year (people's reactions to the new Harry will be entertaining, at least to me), so I'll admit that I haven't been very enthusiastic about this story lately. AND WE STILL AREN'T AT THE START OF THE NEW TERM. Ah well, such is life. Hopefully, the next update will be quicker, though I make no promises (I feel like I'm really starting to get somewhere with my other story, even if that somewhere is Halloween of Harry's first year). Thanks for reading! Duke out!

AN2: I got a question in a review about Harry's reaction to seeing Romilda Vane, basically saying that Harry's annoyance with her is largely unfounded, and that it seemed like Harry was angry with Ron for being poisoned. What I meant to get across there (and evidently didn't, so thank you Sakura Lisel for pointing it out) is that at first, Harry saw the whole incident as just another of his and Ron's misadventures. It starts off kind of funny, and Harry certainly sees some humor in the situation after Ron takes the antidote Slughorn makes him. But it becomes much more serious when a seemingly innocent situation leads to Ron's near-death and subsequent hospitalization, so Harry looks back on the incident as having been series from the start, even though it really wasn't. He certainly doesn't blame Ron for being poisoned. Also, I'd argue that spiking somebody's food with a love potion is a lot more serious than it would probably seem to someone to whom love potions were commonplace, so Harry's irritation with her would have been justified even if Ron hadn't been poisoned (which really wasn't her fault), but that's neither here nor there. Finally, Harry knows that Voldemort was conceived under the affects of a love potion, and he now knows that somebody whom he trusted implicitly was secretly using one on him for the better part of a year. So really, if anyone's gonna be annoyed at any mention of anything to do with love potions (except for his wonderful cure-all), it's the Harry in this story. Thanks for reading! This time, Duke really out!