Harry slammed the door behind him as he entered his room, yanking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Difficult, but it had paid off. The old man had had it coming for a long time. The Eye was Harry's now. He would figure out a way to get the missing parts on his own. That the Minister might have a way to forgo needing Ravenclaw's Staff only helped cement the idea that he no longer needed Dumbledore's help. In fact, if he were to sit and rely on Dumbledore, who knew when he would be able to advance.

He had been hoping that Snape would have been around, but no dice there. Snape was the old man's right hand and a master of potions to boot. Harry just hoped no further confrontations between the two would arise over this. They had almost gotten on friendly speaking terms.

Almost.

'That was impressive!' Cried a voice from inside his head.

'Yeah, I felt your little burst of applause as I was leaving.' Harry thought, sitting on the edge of his bed and setting his glasses next to him.

'Well, you really dressed him down. Did better than I did when he showed up back 'home!''' The voice said.

'Things need to change. Albus Dumbledore is a man slow to react. He's a romanticist, not a leader. He thinks everyone and everything can be saved. He's lost the rational ability to see the forest for the trees. Scrimgeour, on the other hand, seems to think like I do.' Harry thought, letting his eyes unfocus.

'Yeah, he's a grizzled old bastard. I like him, too. I noticed you said you were working on a possible method to eliminate the Altered. Had a change of mind?' Asked the creature.

'Maybe. I've thought about splitting it, like you said. Tell me something, though.'

'What?'

Harry looked up, staring off at the door to the bathroom. 'You said something about encasing ourself in the light. Can we use that and chain the big spell off it? Somehow create a buffer for it? Something that won't tax our magical core?'

'Can't be sure unless I test it. And I don't think you'd like what it would mean to train.' Said the creature, its hollow voice sounding annoyed. 'It would be taxing on both of us and I can promise nothing.'

'What kind of a strain would it put on our core?' Harry asked.

'Mild, if all we're going for is the first part.' Replied the creature. 'And since the Minister is obviously on our side, there's a good chance we could practice it here.'

"And if something goes wrong?" Harry murmured aloud.

'I'll focus all of our energy to our core to begin healing. It's not looking terrible, you know. It just received a few really nasty cracks the last time. And that was only because our emotions were wild and we weren't focusing. I could help keep things in line. What have we got to lose?'

'Do you really want me to answer that?' Harry thought as he blew out a sigh.

'Nah. Just sayin'. You just dressed down Albus Dumbledore. If anything's gonna come and bite us in the ass, it'll be that. So... wanna try?'

The look in Harry's eyes intensified as he stood up. 'What do I need to do?'

'Think of it like your Dementor training went, because the same general idea applies. But we need to work off a different emotion.' Said the voice.

'What emotion?'

'Anger.'

'Anger I can do.' Harry thought, smirking.

'No wand will be used. My only concern is our... lack of consistent wandless magical talent. Still wanna give it a shot?'

'What have we got to lose?' Harry asked. He could almost feel the creature grin.

'Instead of summoning a Patronus, we're going to channel its power to surround our body. A sort of Patronus Armor, if you will. In theory, anything that gets near us would be destroyed by our light. It's going to start being silver. The better we get, the closer we'll get to achieving a perfect forming of it. Then it will be pure white. I won't lie - it's going to take an enormous amount of energy to sustain, if I've done my calculations right. You're gonna be worn out no matter what. As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think we're strong enough to hold the form for very long.'

'Have we thought of an incantation for this Patronus Armor?' Harry asked.

'Patronum Contego.' Came the reply.

'Doesn't sound right.'

'It isn't my fault we're not a scholar of Latin.' Groused the voice. 'It was the closest we could get. Shield, armor, it's all the same in the end. It will guard us.'

'Okay, so if we do succeed in this spell... then what? What's the big one? The one that could do us real damage?' Harry asked.

'A purge. Light cutting through and absorbing the darkness. A giant ball of pure, white light. If I understand the concept behind the Patronus itself, it'll cause severe pain or outright death to the Dementors. That includes those Altered bastards.'

'How giant are we talking here?'

'Bigger than Azkaban Island is now.'

Harry sucked in a breath. 'Are you sure the Patronus Armor will protect us?'

'It should. We'll be light, after all. ...Think of it as changing our entire body into a ball of light if you'd want. Essentially, that's what's going to happen. That or the power will invert when we try and as a result we'll shatter our magical core, unchain all my wild magic, and bring death to everything in a mile radius.'

'What?!'

'Relax. We aren't going to try anything until we've perfected the Armor. Trying it would just be insane, even someone like me knows that. Our light must be pure if we're to walk through darkness itself and come out unharmed.'

'So how the hell would we practice?'

'Smaller bursts of energy. We'll build, we'll see how large we can get it. When we hit any form of major resistant, we'll stop. We'll have to build it slowly. If we were to try for the maximum sphere, who knows what the hell might happen. For all we know, the negative energy absorbed by the light would be channeled into our own body. And when talking about things that devour souls, you get into dangerous territory. Two souls were never meant to occupy one body.'

'So how do we deal with it once we invoke the spell?!'

'Look, this is all based off theory. We'll cross that road when we get to it. We are talking about the finished product here. Chances are, if we become strong enough to invoke the thing's full power, we won't haveto worry about what happens - it'll come to us.'

'Okay, okay. You're right. No sense thinking that far ahead. One step at a time.'

'Then let's embrace the light.' Purred the voice.'I'll be coming forward to assist, if that's alright. I promise I won't try to gain control. This time.'

'You're so thoughtful.' Harry said, scowling. 'Right, help me mold this thing. Here's to hoping, eh?'

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Back downstairs, the adults had filed out of the living room, chasing after Dumbledore to try and get more to the story that had unfolded in front of them. This left Harry's friends sitting around wondering just what in the hell they had witnessed.

"Wonder what got into him." Hermione said, leaning against the back of the couch now. "I don't think I've ever seen Harry like that."

"He's a focused man. His goals are different from the old man's." Malfoy said. "He's clearly irritated with how Dumbledore is doing things."

"Yes, but... to talk to him like that..." Hermione said, chewing at her lower lip slightly.

"If annoying Dumbledore was an expellable offense, we would have been kicked out our first year." Fred said, grinning crookedly.

"Ah, the good old days." George added, looking wistful.

"I should probably go up and see how he's doing." Tonks said, rubbing at her temples. "Think I should?"

"I think it would do the idiot better than sitting up there on his own." Pansy stated.

"Hopefully he's in a bit less snarky mood." Tonks muttered, getting to her feet.

"How are you going to get in, anyway?" George asked.

"Yeah, you gonna go find Gin and see if she can open-sesame the door?" Fred asked.

"Boris is with me!" Tonks said, tugging the sleeve of her shirt up a bit. Boris was lazily curled around the girl's upper arm.

Just then, a shock wave rippled through the house. Moments later, books flew off their shelves, the furniture began to rattle, and an ungodly scream echoed from upstairs. Everyone in the living room froze to the spot. Tonks and Pansy exchanged a glance and were the first to bolt from the room, getting to the stairs just as the swarm of adults began to spill out of the kitchen.

"What the hell was that?" Kingsley asked as the Weasley twins flew by.

"Probably Harry!" Called Fred.

"You know him! Always getting into wacky hijinks!" George added.

Tonks got to the bedroom door first. "Okay, Boris, open it up! Hurry!"

Boris hissed for what seemed like a minute before the door clicked open. By that time, the everyone in the house had gathered in the hallway behind her. She cracked the door open a little at first, just to make sure nothing would fly out at her. Once she saw what was happening inside, however, she threw it open and rushed in.

"HARRY!"

Everything in the room was off the ground, hovering a few inches above the floor. Harry stood next to the bed, his body glowing silver. He looked planted to the spot, as though moving would cause him to dissolve into ash. His eyes were solid green, as was his mouth, which was still open from the scream he had let out. He seemed to also be made of static, as he kept flickering in and out every few seconds.

"Let me in." Said a voice from somewhere in the hall.

Dumbledore made his way into the room, gently moving Tonks behind him as he got between the group and Harry. "Harry, can you hear me?"

Harry's head turned, letting out a crackling hiss as it moved, as he looked towards the headmaster. For a moment, the glow began to fade. But then, just as suddenly, the glow became stable, and all the objects in the room lowered back to the floor. He stopped fading and even began to move, turning to face the headmaster properly. His eyes closed then, and he extended his arms out to the side. As he did, the glow seemed to begin leaving his body, moving towards his hands. Once it was all located in his hands, his eyes opened once more. As they did, the glow vanished entirely. He let out a long breath, one that was accompanied by a green mist.

"Sorry. Took a bit of doing to get that under control." Harry said, his voice sounding hoarse.

"What on earth were you doing?" Tonks asked, rushing over. "And what happened to your eyes and hair?"

"What?" Harry said. Frowning, he stepped into the bathroom for a moment to look into the mirror. He found his reflection to be a bit different than he remembered, as his hair and eyes were both an ashen grey color now.

'Explain!' He yelled mentally.

'Side effect, I guess!' Replied the creature.

Scowling, Harry took a moment to try and readjust the color of his hair and eyes. But it was no use. Whatever his attempt at invoking the Patronus Armor had done, it had screwed up his Metamorphmagus abilities. At least the ones that governed his hair and eye color. Heading back out of the background, he shrugged. "Side effect."

"Yeah, but what were you doing?" Tonks asked again.

"Secret weapon." Harry said, grinning. Glancing over at Dumbledore, his eyes narrowed slightly as he continued, "We told you we had a potential one to fight the Altered, didn't we?"

"And I would guess that you have no intention of telling me what it is?" Asked Dumbledore.

"You're welcome to try and guess. Can't be that hard to figure out." Harry said, heading to the bed and throwing himself back on it. "We'd imagine we're going to get a letter from the Ministry for that. Someone forward it to us when it comes in. We can write to Scrimgeour directly when it does. He'll grant us a full pardon if we tell him what it was."

Malfoy snorted as he slipped into the room. "You have the new Minister in your pocket, Potter?"

"We see eye to eye is all." Harry said, grinning. "He'll understand. Better thansome people standing around, I'd reckon."

Dumbledore's gaze was blank, but Harry thought he picked up a faint hint of tension when he spoke next. "Whatever you're doing - be careful. As it would seem you are trying to create a spell of your own, you need to know the dangers behind it."

"This isn't the spell we're trying to create. This is the spell we're going to use so the spell we are trying to create won't backfire and kill everything in a mile radius if the power inverts."

The twins let out a low whistle.

"That's very risky, Harry." Dumbledore said.

"We're up against unknown enemies that can't be hurt through any conventional means. We're merely trying to find a way to touch the untouchable." Harry replied.

"Are you sure you know what you are doing?" Dumbledore asked.

"We're pretty sure it's the right method to take." Harry said, a strange, very faint echo finally rising in his voice. "We'll just have to proceed at the correct pace and train hard in order to harness its power. Then Azkaban can be taken."

"Azkaban can be taken?" Repeated Pansy. "What, you're planning to build to a full-scale assault on the place?"

"We are." Harry said, grinning as he looked over. Traces of his real eye color were breaking through the grey. As he spoke, the emerald green bled through further. "When the Armor is perfected, the Altered cannot touch us. When the Purification can be unleashed, we will render the Dementors extinct. When our light has become brightest, Tom won't be able to touch us. We will invade the island, steal the Soul of Balthazar, and destroy the Orb of Daedelus so that the island comes crashing back to the planet where it belongs!"

"'We'? Harry, are you feeling alright?" Tonks asked. "You've been using plural pronouns for awhile."

"Perfectly fine." Harry said, sitting up again. "Why?"

Malfoy walked over, leaning over and peering at Harry, who blinked at the Slytherin.

"What are you-- HEY!" Harry cried as Malfoy shoved him back down, pushing his wand up under Harry's chin.

"I know you're tired." Malfoy said, his voice rigid. "But gain dominance again. You're slipping, Potter. Whatever he's telling you, I think you should ignore it and carve your own path to victory."

"We have no idea what you mean." Harry said, eyes glancing down at the wand. "We've simply reached an agreement. When we're training, I'm allowed a bit of freedom. Until we finally merge back together, it's going to be something you people will need to get used to. We're two seperate beings operating out of one body. Get off of me, Draco."

"How can the rest of us be sure you won't fly out of control?" Malfoy asked, not budging an inch.

"Because we need to merge before the Gauntlet is reforged. Otherwise Iwill be shackled down and hewill suffer because of it!" Growled Harry, the echo in his voice growing. "We were never intended to be split apart like this! But until he can overcome his self-imposed ignoring of the situation, it cannot be fixed. He's trusting me for now. I don't know how long this will last."

"Um. Can someone please tell the rest of us just what in the world is going on?" Hermione asked.

Malfoy stood his ground a few more seconds before pushing himself away and pocketing his wand again. He extended a hand, which Harry took. Helping the Ravenclaw to his feet, Malfoy looked over at Hermione and said, "Potter's got himself a bit of a double identity crisis going on. What he did at the Ministry, what he did at his relatives' house... that was something else. From what he's told me, it's more or less the personification of his wild magic. And until Potter accepts that a part of him enjoys exacting revenge, they'll remain seperate beings.This is not Harry Potter. This is the other one."

Harry bowed, his eye color almost fully back to normal. Little fracture-like green lines extended out from his iris. "Well, it's certainly nice being able to get this out in the open. Good day, everyone. Given how exhausting this training is going to be, we're probably going to be alternating personalities regularly!"

"All you need is two more. Then you'd have a Harry for every season." Fred commented.

"Ooh, does this mean we get to think of a name for this guy?" George asked.

"It very well could!" Fred said.

Harry gave them a withering glare. "The two of us aren't thatdifferent. In fact, that's the problem. He just needs to get over it. It should be obvious who's 'in charge,' so to speak, at any given moment. I won't lie - we're going to need to focus a lot of our time on training this year. It's going to leave us tired."

"So what happens? One of you just goes dormant to regain your strength while the other comes forward?" Hermione asked, sounding highly interested in this new oddity.

"Something like that. He switched off to me just after we left the bathroom. I wonder why the Armor affected our hair and eye color..." Harry pondered, frowning thoughtfully. "...Well, in any case - that's where we stand. Your student-side leader of this war is a guy with twin personalities, both of which are focused solely on taking that damned island out of the sky as soon as possible."

"I suppose it is asking too much if I were to request to be present during these training sessions?" Dumbledore asked.

"We aren't very happy with you." Harry said, affixing the headmaster with a faint glare. "But we know the dangers of this training. We will allow you access if time permits you to be there on two conditions. The first being that the Pit get its guardian as soon as possible once we return to Hogwarts. The second being that we will probably train more times than you will be able to attend."

"I dislike the thought of a potential catastrophe engulfing my school." Dumbledore stated.

"And we dislike the thought of you sending off people to die. People don't always get what they want, do they?" Harry asked, a grin splitting his face. "We won't be ready for the first attack, sadly. We still need practice. But once we get the Armor stable, you won't be able to send anyone out after the Altered without us joining the fray."

"I cannot allow that to happen." Dumbledore stated.

"You cannot stop us!" Harry yelled. "We can get through your barriers!"

"But that's impossible." Hermione said. "No one can apparate in or out of Hogwarts grounds."

"We're well aware of that." Harry said, his tone more polite again. "However, think about this - house elves get around the school just fine. Why? Because wizards don't think to disallow it because of the nature of house elves. In other words, the barriers don't cover every potential form of teleportation. I take it everyone felt the shock wave that was sent out? That was... an unexpected side effect of engaging the spell for the first time."

"What do you mean?" Asked Tonks.

"We started on the other side of the bed." Harry said, glancing over his shoulder. "We were over on this side when you entered. We did not walkhere. Not sure how, but I'll be thinking the matter over after I go back in to hibernate next. But if I'm right - and I usually am, for better or for worse - then we will be able to break free of Hogwarts' barriers if the need arises."

"I will stop you from leaving." Dumbledore stated, that hard edge back to his voice.

Harry cocked his head to one side as he looked at the old man. Turning, he walked over to the headmaster. The green lines in his eyes spreading further towards the edges, he growled, "We'd love to see you try. We're younger, we're faster, and we're stronger than you."

"It would seem to me," Dumbledore began, "that I have, in the last few months, knocked you out twice. Your track record versus me is not what one would call impressive, Harry."

"Is that a challenge, old man? You haven't seen what we can truly do. Don't try to act like one of the reasons you originally wanted us to get the Gauntlet wasn't so you could effectively put a limiter on our power. We know your desire to remain as the 'leader' of the 'good guys' but your days are numbered, Albus Dumbledore. Be it from Voldemort's side or from me directly, someone will knock you in your place. If you'd like to make an official duel request, however... well... it's your life." Harry murmured, smiling darkly as he stepped away.

"I am not the type to duel with my students." Dumbledore said.

"You know you'd lose." Harry corrected, walking off.

"You would not be able to--"

Dumbledore never got a chance to finish his sentence. Harry had suddenly started to glow again. A moment later, the headmaster found himself sitting squarely on his backside, looking up at Harry, who was still facing away from him. Both of Harry's wands were spinning wildly in the air on either side of his body.

"I would not be able to what?" Harry whispered.

"Harry!" Lupin cried, moving into the room. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Asserting dominance." Harry growled, reaching up to pluck his wands from the air. "He's taking too long. He's using the wrong methods. He's completely incompetent and yet all of you follow him like lost puppies, unable to think for yourselves!"

Turning around, the group that was gathered could see that Harry's eyes were almost completely green again. "He's not fit to be our leader. He's not fit to command anyone."

"And you are?!" Lupin asked, glaring across the room.

"We can stop the Altered. We can put an end to this war. He cannot." Harry hissed. "He will sit back and send others to their deaths, all for the sake of his twisted sense of justice. We're dealing with unknown magic he's never heard of. We're advancing instead of growing stagnant. We'll knock Azkaban out of the sky, we'll render the Dementors extinct, we'll make Voldemort suffer for his sins. And if Albus Dumbledore thinks he can stand in our way, then we'll twist himout of reality as well!"

"You would not be able to beat me, Harry. I think we all know that." Dumbledore said, getting up.

"Says the man who just got knocked to the ground." Harry said, smirking.

"He obviously wasn't thinking you'd outright attack him!" Came Mrs. Weasley's voice from somewhere in the group that was still in the hallway.

"Our dear leader, being caught off-guard by a mere student at his school?" Harry asked, closing his eyes. "It doesn't say much for him, does it?"

"You wouldn't be able to stand up to him on even ground, Harry." Lupin said. "He may not always do the right things, but he isstrong."

Harry opened his eyes and stared into Dumbledore's. The green light had left them entirely. "I'd not only be able to stand up to him, I'd have to hold my punches to keep from rending him completely. I don't think any of you quite understand what I'm keeping chained up most of the time. I don't think any of you realize just how out of control my wild magic has become since Sirius died. Whatever triggered down there that day, I've had to expend a large amount of my energy to keep it from overflowing. I have no doubt that I'll be able to perfect this spell. I also have no doubt that it won't take very long to do so. I have more than enough magic to completely raze Voldemort's precious Citadel. It's all a matter of control, however. I don't have full control over it. Even when the other me is cooperating, we can't wield this power completely. He's as baffled by it as I am. It's why you felt the shock wave. It's why we were unstable when you entered. It's why I am one hundred percent sure that I could kill Dumbledore before he ever got a chance to blink. If I were to completely just shut all of my occlumency barriers off right now, this house would be flattened."

"You're basically calling yourself a danger to both yourself and everyone around you." Lupin said. "You know that, right?"

"Weapons are often unstable. No telling when one will misfire or explode." Harry said, a grim tone to his voice. "Dumbledore has done well in attempting to raise me as his trump card. But he forgot one very important thing."

"That being?" Asked Dumbledore.

"I'm Harry Potter."

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Dear Minister,

I'm sure word has reached you that I've performed underaged magic outside of the set boundaries. If you'll refer back to the discussion we had on my visit to the Ministry, you'll have an idea of what was going on. I've gotten the weapon to activate, Minister. But I'm going to need leeway on when and where I can practice. We're at war. All wizards across the country should be allowed use of their magic at all times in situations like this. I know this would mean more work for the men and women at the Ministry, but if you're as good to your word as I hope you are, you've already cleaned out a few of the cobwebs, so to speak. I hope you will allow me this small bit of rule-breaking. In the long run, it could save countless lives. If you don't believe me, ask Albus. I knocked our dear pacifistic headmaster on his royal rump earlier. And I never had to lift a finger.

I'll hope for a reply soon. My friend's mother won't shut up until it arrives.

Signed, Harry Potter."

Rufus Scrimgeour smirked as he finished reading Harry's letter. It had arrived a few minutes ago. He had been expecting one. The boys downstairs had informed him of a severe energy spike, one that had sent a third of their monitoring devices completely haywire. Even as the letter to Harry was being written, Scrimgeour knew what had to have happened. Whatever the boy was working on, Scrimgeour wanted to see it.

He also wanted to know what had transpired between Harry and Dumbledore. Scrimgeour had had the pleasure of knowing Dumbledore a good many years, and he knew of the old man's strength. If Harry had been able to knock Dumbledore to the ground, something interesting must have taken place.

As he walked back to his office, Scrimgeour let out a gruff laugh. Voldemort's attacks were set to happen any time now, and the boy was already pushing himself. Whether Dumbledore wanted to believe it or not, Scrimgeour knew that Harry must have already taken a mindset to get his spell working as fast as possible. The boy didn't want anyone to die by the Dark Lord's hands any more than anyone else did. The difference between Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore was that Harry at least had the decency to acknowledge that not everyone could be saved. Scrimgeour knew this for a fact due to his many years with the Aurors. Sometimes you couldn't save everyone. Sometimes you had to force yourself to remain motionless, knowing full well the consequences of your actions.

Closing the door behind him as he entered, Scrimgeour walked over to his desk. Sitting down, he pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and grabbed his quill. After pausing a few minutes to think of what to say, he decided to be simple. From all he had seen, Harry Potter thought along the same frequency as he did. People like them simply knew things. He decided to keep the message short and to the point.

"I'll grant you full use of your magic whenever it's needed. Good luck in your work. And when you succeed in your ventures, let me know. If Albus won't see to your needs, I will. The sooner Voldemort is stopped, the better. From one man who has seen death far too much to another, I promise we'll pay the bastard back in spades."

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Author's Notes: This was definitely not the chapter I had in mind. Originally, I would have had Dumbledore explain his past to Harry, who would get an idea that yes, Dumbledore HAS, in fact, lost people close to him. But then I figured... nah. Too close to canon. I'm trying to distance myself from that now, after all. For the first few books, there wasn't too much I could get away with. But now that Harry's finally tapped into his full potential, he's decided to break free of Dumbledore's gravitational pull, so to speak. Losing his family was the last straw. He decided that day, as he sat on the stairs and waited for the Order to arrive fashionably late, that he would never follow Dumbledore again.

So Harry has become an unstable magician with split personalities and the potential to annihilate a mile of territory is his brilliant scheme backfires on him. I think that ramps up the tension a bit, don't you? And both his personalities hate Dumbledore. There are big things planned for this book. I promise we'll finally get back to Hogwarts next chapter. This chapter was when they SHOULD have returned, but that would make it ludicrously big. And the longer the chapter, the longer it'd take my slacker ass to actually upload the thing. So next time, back to Hogwarts. We've set the tone for the book, now it's time to move forward, close some side plots, make some new ones, and remove a few characters from the running.

Oh yes. There will be death.