Warning: Underage Lime.

Chapter 7

1st of September:

Reaching the station at a quarter to ten they were shocked to find that the portal to Platform 9¾ refused to let them through. "Any ideas what's going on?" Harry asked as he looked around to make sure no one was looking at them, he wasn't expecting an answer.

However, Hermione did have an answer, as she said, "I've read in Hogwarts: A History, that the portal to Platform 9¾ has occasionally malfunctioned in the past."

"Is there a way to get onto the platform?" Emma asked her oldest daughter.

"From what I read there's always an active Floo Connection nearby, just in case." Hermione explained as the others followed her to the waiting room. But as they were about to step inside Hermione stopped and said, "I'm afraid this is as far as Mum and Dad can go; there're Anti-Muggle Wards around the Floo Connection so Muggles won't find it. We'll see you see you at Christmas." Hermione said her goodbyes quickly, not meaning to be rude but they were already running late and the portal closing was making her antsy. She hugged her parents and Flooed to Platform 9¾, followed by Melody, who did so at a much more sedate pace.

Once they were through, Harry said his goodbyes too. Emma surprised him with a sudden hug and a warm smile. "Don't think that wasn't meant for you too, you're officially invited to stay at the Granger residence for Christmas."

"Thanks Emma, as long as nothing comes up I'll be happy to come." Harry said with a happy smile. He liked the Grangers, they treated him well and he was really glad they'd invited him back.

"That's good to hear, and please look after our girls." Emma requested.

Harry shook his head with a fond look, "I hope you mean that rhetorically; you don't even need to ask." He said over his shoulder as he slipped through the Floo.

The remaining Grangers turned around and both grabbed each other's hand at the same time, exchanging a loving look as they revelled in the feeling of knowing their daughters would be looked after by someone they trusted. They were almost bowled over a second later as a frenzied looking ginger boy ran past them. They tried to follow him with their eyes, but they did not seem to be able to. It turned out to be unneeded though as they heard the meaty thump of a body slamming into a wall and could guess what had happened.

The two walked away, unaware that adolescent wizard did not know about the emergency Floo and would end up stealing his dad's flying car and flying to Hogwarts, breaking the Statute at least a dozen times in the process.

o0OoO0o

Once the three of them got through to Platform 9¾ they went in search of Harry and Hermione's friends, and if not at least empty compartment. With luck, they found Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and Su Li in a compartment a few cars from where they entered the train.

Su nodded to them before getting back to her book, but Susan was the first to speak. "Hi guys!" She greeted with a wide smile, "How are you three?"

"We're not too bad." Harry replied, summing up all three of their opinions. "So where are the others?"

"They're visiting their friends and they said they would meet us later." Hannah answered just as they felt the train move begin to move.

As Harry and the girls sat down, Hermione and Melody sitting on either side of Harry, Susan asked, "So Mel, I think we forgot to ask when we met up before but what do you think of the Wizarding World so far?"

"It's not too bad from what I've seen so far. Although, I think Mages-" Seeing the confused looks on the faces of everyone except Harry and her sister, she realized they did not know what she was talking about. "Mages are what I call Wizards and Witches. Anyway, they could be more up to date with the Muggle, or as I call it, Mundane, World. Both worlds have things they're better at, and it seems kind of silly to completely disregard the advances Mundanes have made in entertainment, technology and even medicine, just because Mages don't want to put the effort into researching them."

The three Witches had families that had close ties to the Muggle World, so they knew what she was talking about. "Why Mundane?" Su asked, speaking for the first time.

"Well, you three might have been brought up with these titles all your lives but I find them somewhat insulting." Melody revealed. Since the three girls looked thoughtful, she pressed forward. "Harry and my sister agree with me, though they didn't say anything about this before because neither of them thought about it until I talked to them about it this holiday."

Hermione send her sister a grateful look. Hermione herself had realized how insulting the name could sound but had not been in any kind of situation to go against the current, so to speak, without immediately being labelled an outcast.

Before Melody could ask the magical raised occupants of the compartment their opinion on the matter the compartment door opened and Malfoy and his two goons walked in, "Well lads, look what we have here, Scarhead, a couple of Half-Blood sluts, a Blood Traitor, and a Mudblood." Draco said with a sneer. The insult instantly angered the group, those not magically raised having learned what "Mudblood" meant when they met up with Harry and Hermione's friends, and warned Melody what to expect. "Bones, I thought even as a Blood Traitor, you would think more of yourself than to be around these kind of people." He stopped when he saw Melody and suddenly smirked. "Oh, what we have here, another whore for Potter?"

"Leave my sister alone." Hermione snapped.

"Another Mudblood, Hogwarts really is going to the dogs." Draco scoffed, ignoring the bushy haired girl.

Susan, Hannah, Hermione and Su were glaring at the youngest Malfoy while Harry appeared far calmer, at least on the surface. Under the calm facade he felt a sudden and intense urge to kill Draco, but resisted since the last thing he needed was to be arrested for homicide.

"I think I prefer Newblood, actually." Melody mused thoughtfully aloud.

"New what, Mudblood?" Malfoy asked with a sneer.

"Newblood, you albino git." Melody said back calmly, not rising to the bait. "My sister and I are the first generation of magic users in the Granger family. If you can take pride in your old bloodlines and get a fancy title for it I think we should be able to do the same - at least my title is less insulting. I take pride in being the first Mage in my family. It's odd though, you take such pride in being 'pure' but I'll bet if you looked back a few centuries in your 'noble' family line you would just another group of peasants, Mudbloods if you prefer, just like everybody else."

Malfoy turned crimson as he pulled his wand out while the others, apart from Harry who pulled his own wand out at Malfoy, looked at Melody in shock. No one, not even the most avid Muggle supporters and Anti-Malfoy factions had ever told the Malfoys their family came from Mudbloods. "H-how dare you, you'll regret this! I'll-" Malfoy sputtered indignantly, only to get cut off.

"You'll do nothing, Malfoy." Harry interrupted with fire in his eyes. He had made a promise, and Malfoy was trying to hurt one of the people Harry was protecting, albeit only emotionally, since Malfoy was too cowardly to hurt anything physically. Thoughts from deep inside the recesses of Harry's mind, where his darker thoughts resided, the ones that he ignored, told him that he was Melody's Master, and as such no one apart for him should be allowed to hurt her. "Now leave before you and your goons get hurt. Unless you've been stricken blind since we last met, there are only three of you and six of us, if you even count those brainless lumps, who I know have a hard time casting magic and are only good for brute force. By my count each one of us is worth at least twelve of you. The math isn't looking good for you." He finished with a cocky smirk, knowing it would get under Draco's skin.

As much as Draco hated to admit it, Potter was right, he was out manned and out powered, should something happen it would not go his way. So, for once, he used his Slytherin side; when things are not going your way, retreat, regather and plan again so the next time it does go your way. Before turning to leave, Draco sneered as he said, "You should watch out Potter, it's not going to be the same as last year… you and your Mudblood Whores won't be safe."

"Whatever Malfoy," Harry said dismissively, as Malfoy left the compartment.

"Why are you so dismissive toward him Harry?" Melody wondered.

"As much as he would like to make it out that he's all powerful and someone nobody messes with, he's all talk," Harry said dryly, with the others nodding in agreement, even Hermione. "Whenever something doesn't go his way, he goes to Snape, or says 'Wait until I tell my father,' or 'My father will hear of this,' he never acts. He's all bark." Harry explained before he took one of his books from his bag. "Forget about him, lets relax and have some fun, we don't need to worry about that waste of time."

Apparently, Harry relaxed and pulled out a book just in time because the girls took his words as cue to start girl talk amongst themselves.

o0OoO0o

While Draco made his usual visit to Harry's compartment, in another compartment several doors down three friends - Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini and Tracey Davis - were talking about Harry.

"Are you sure about this?" Blaise asked. He was a tall boy for his age, he was dark-skinned young man with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes that put a chill in the air, almost covered by his black hair. He was from an Italian family, evident is his very faint accent. "We're already outcasts in Slytherin for not bowing down to Malfoy or following him in some fashion, but doing as you say and publicly siding with him will make us even even more so than we are now, and some of the… aggressive factions of the school will make our lives hell. The Weasley twins don't pull any punches when it comes to Draco 'My Father' Malfoy and his cronies and they might see us as such."

"I have to agree with Blaise, Daph." Tracey supported. She was a girl with shoulder brown shoulder length hair, soft sky blue eyes, blemish free tan skin, and supple lips. She was a beautiful girl, but compared to her two friends she felt ordinary at times. "If we do this, we'll always have to look over our shoulder, more so than usual."

"I know that, but we need his help, especially you two." Daphne sighed, she had blonde hair that went over her shoulder and light green eyes. Her skin was silky, her lips soft and her curves were developing already and showed no signs of slowing down; in general she was stunningly beautiful, and would likely only grow more so. Many of the girls her own age, mostly in Slytherin since Daphne - and her two friends made themselves scarce when class was not in session - would kill for looks like hers. "Blaise and I have a good family name and money. But Blaise, for all that power, still gets beaten up for liking boys. He can barely handle himself, no offense, much less also protect you. If he didn't, he would be able to give you more protection. I can only do so much to help you, as my family name is the only thing stopping me from being a plaything to the Slytherins. With both of us having our own problems we can't spare the time to cover for you all the time, we need help."

"With how our world is right now, people like the Notts, Malfoys and the Parkinsons can do whatever to us and we can do nothing about it. So if we want to be protected, we need someone who's got a better family name than they do. That's where Potter comes in." Daphne sighed; she wished it was not the case but it was.

"But why Potter though?" Blaise wondered, "I'll give you that he's the Boy-Who-Lived, and the Potter Heir, which I would like to point out he doesn't wear his Heir Ring so might not even know about, but that's not enough for us to join his boat. Being a Potter alone won't help us, unless you know something that we don't, I say we're better by ourselves."

"I agree with Blaise, Daph," Tracey supported again, this time with a sigh. "Unless you know something we don't, we're better by ourselves."

"Do you think I would suggest this if I didn't have something planned, I'm a Slytherin after all," Daphne said a bit hurt that her friends didn't think she couldn't plan out something so simple. "Blaise, I think you're right when you guessed Potter is ignorant of his position, or should I say positions." Her friends raised an eyebrow at this revelation, "Yes, plural, more than one. Do you think I wouldn't do my research before deciding to side with Potter? He was raised by Muggles, if the stories are to be believed, so it's very possible he's unwillingly ignorant. Being raised by them he couldn't have known to ask about the Potter Heir Ring, let alone the other Rings."

Her friends nodded, picking up her train of thought as realizing it would explain a lot of Potter's actions.

"Anyway," Daphne continued, "From what I found out his father's mother was none other than Dorea Potter nee Black, from the main Black Family Line. So unless Sirius Black, Potter's Godfather, has a son soon, Potter will become the next Lord Black, not Malfoy like he keeps telling people. The way I see it, unless Black gets out of Azkaban, which is very unlikely, and has a son in the next few years - if the Dementor exposure didn't make him sterile after this long, as it's known to - Potter will become the next Lord Black. So, being Lord Potter AND Black, he'll have enough power to protect us from people like Malfoy completely." She saw her friends smile at this, the Potters and the Blacks were two of the most powerful families, going back to the Founders, not even Malfoy could say that.

When they looked at Daphne once again, they saw a smirk that said that she decided to save the best for last. "Okay, what's that smirk about?" Tracey demanded, "It's that damnable 'I know something you don't' look."

"You're right Trace." Daphne said with a smirk, "I looked more into Potter Family Line to see if there is anything else that could be useful." By 'useful' she actually meant 'anything that's beneficial for her in some way, and/or blackmail'. "Well it seems that Potter is related to one of the very first known wizards in England, the Peverells."

"You're kidding!" said Blaise and Tracey together in shock.

Their shock was understandable as the Peverell line was thought to be lost decades ago with the passing of the last known Peverell who, despite his long life, never had any heirs. At least none nobody knew about.

"No, I was shocked when I found out about this myself," Daphne admitted to her friends, "but as you can see, with all these titles no one would dare touch him and those under his protection. So you see, going to him is the wisest idea we have. As long as we can teach him what he needs to know, which isn't much of a price for the potential gain."

"Alright, I'll admit, I'm sold on this plan." Blaise said, raising his hands in surrender. "I just don't like the idea of going to a Gryffindor for help. So how are we going to confront Potter, after what Malfoy and the other Slytherins have done and said to him I don't think he'll be too trusting towards us."

"It will be hard, that much is clear." Daphne admitted sadly, "But I think we can do it. Like you said, he doesn't have his Heir Rings on, so I think we can get to him through that. We can tell him about it, and teach him the things he would need to get along in our world."

"So when are you planning to talk to him?" Tracey asked.

"I don't know Trace, I hope soon," Daphne stated.

Tracey clapped, as if to dispel the somber mood. "Well, as a last resort, we can always just ask to join that study group of his, though it seems a bit… pedestrian. That aside," She grinned mischievously. "Blaise, any hits on the old gaydar recently?"

Blaise smirked, "More than you'd expect. Shame the majority are Pureblood. I have standards!" He exclaimed with a haughty look and a sniff, eliciting giggles from his friends.

Topics were much less grim for the rest of the ride.

o0OoO0o

It was hours later when the Hogwarts Express reached Hogsmeade Station. During that time Harry's other friends stopped by the compartment to check in to greet them and talk for a bit, but none ended up staying. When they left the train it was cold and everyone wanted to get back into the warm, so Harry and his friends huddled together and followed the rest of the school along the platform and out onto a rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students, each pulled by - well if he had had to give them a name, he supposed he would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian about them, too. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither - vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister - and yet Harry found them somewhat beautiful.

But as he looked around, most of the students had no reaction to them. Although it was cold, Harry pulled the group and he walked up to these strange creatures, and began to stroke them. "I thought the older students said these stagecoaches were horseless, so when did they get these beasts and when did they get them. And what are they, for that matter?" Hermione nodded in agreement, wondering all this herself. Su and Susan seemed to know what they were, but were not fully sure about it.

Su look at Susan and said/asked, "Thestrals?"

"I think so," Susan confirmed, nodding slowly, "But I didn't know they had any at Hogwarts, some say they're really, really unlucky."

"What are Thestrals?" Harry asked as he looked away from the creature.

"Oh no, that's just superstition." Someone familiar behind them. They turned to see Fred and George. "They aren't unlucky or a sign of a bad omen, in fact they're dead clever and useful!" Fred complemented.

"Sadly they're only used to pull the school carriages though." George noted glumly. "It's tradition, probably. Though I can't imagine what else they would do. Thestrals are amazingly powerful war mounts, but we're not exactly at war right now."

"They only get a bad reputation because people can only see them when they've to seen death." Fred revealed, changing topics after a thoughtful silence. "After seeing Quirrell die last year we're not surprised you lot can see them."

"How do you know about them?" Harry asked in shock, as far as he knew, the twins were only interesting in pranks.

"It might surprise you…" Fred smiled mysteriously.

"… But we do have other interest other than pranks…" George said, mimicking his brother's smile before the identical boys hopped into a stagecoach with their friend Lee.

Harry and the girls blinked in shock, apparently they did not know the twins as well as they thought they did. They the issue into the back of their minds though for now, they were cold and wanted to get into the warm school. So, after seeing Melody to the boats, Harry, Hermione, Su, Susan and Hannah climbed inside and shut the door the coach set off all by itself, bumping and swaying in procession. The coach smelled faintly of mold and straw.

The carriage trundled toward a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates, flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars. The carriage picked up speed on the long, sloping drive up to the castle; Hermione was leaning out of the tiny window, watching the many turrets and towers draw nearer, tossing out random facts she'd read about in Hogwarts: A History and other Hogwarts centric books every so often. At last, the carriage swayed to a halt and they got out.

Once they were out, the five of them joined the crowd swarming up the steps, through the giant oak front doors, into the cavernous Entrance Hall, which was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors. There were also echoes of footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.

The four long house tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starry and clear night ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. For some of the students entering third and fourth year it was also time to check out their fellow students bodies; Susan was certainly getting a fair amount of attention as her robe did little to hide the fact that the breast fairy had given her a generous helping.

After splitting up, Harry and Hermione went to the Gryffindor Table. The two found seats together about halfway down the table where they found their friends the Weasley Twins, with the Crimson Vixens sitting not far away.

As Harry looked around he was shocked to see that Ron wasn't at the table. He proceeded to question the twins about this. "So where is Ron? Don't think I've ever heard of him missing a feast before." Not really caring.

"Not sure…" Fred said as he looked around once more.

"… Couldn't find him on the train." George commented.

This made the group talk about all the ways why this was, all of them were silly as the next one. Ron had tripped and fallen and could not get up, his metabolism had suddenly caught up with him and he bloated to the size of a small car from all the food he had eaten, the Cart Lady from the Express had kidnapped him and was experimenting with new candies on him. It was a great way to pass the time, and even some of the students nearby piped in ideas occasionally.

It was not long before Harry's attention had been caught by Hagrid who had just appeared behind the staff table; he worked his way along to the very end and took his seat. That meant the first-years must have crossed the lake and reached the castle, and sure enough, a few seconds later, the doors from the Entrance Hall opened. A long line of scared-looking first-years entered, led by Professor McGonagall, who was carrying a stool on which sat an ancient wizards hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim.

Harry was surprised to note that the Sorting Hat sang a different song. Oh the message was the same; it's better to be united then driven apart by your differences, and then proceeding to list the Houses differences - Gryffindors are brave, Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws are wise, and Slytherins are cunning. As the Hat sang its song Fred whispered, "Oh, Harry, we should warn you…"

"… Our sister Ginny is starting this year." George continued, sounding just as reluctant as his twin.

"And, well, she has a thing for…"

"The Boy-Who-Lived." The twins whisper together.

Harry let out a groan mixed with a hopeless sigh; that was exactly what he needed. He had hoped to get away from fangirls. Hopefully Ginny would not sneak into his bed and rape him while he was asleep…

Before he could say anything about this the Hat stopped his song, and he knew he would have to wait. So Harry sat and watched the First Years get Sorted, the first few were of no interest to him, it was until Melody's name was called, began taking note of things. He hoped that the Hat would Sort her into Gryffindor.

o0OoO0o

'Hmm, what do we have here?' Melody heard in her head as the Hat was place on her head.

'Who's there? Who's in my head?' Melody demanded.

'It is I, the Sorting Hat.' The voice of the Sorting Hat said with a chuckle. 'Oh you're so much like the one you call Master. At least you don't desire to model yourself after beings of pure evil. Though, even knowing this you wouldn't care and would still follow him. Loyalty that should be admired, or maybe feared? Not often I see a girl with a fetish for Evil. Last was that Metamorph girl, though she had no idea she possessed it…' The Hat sighed before continuing, 'But I'm getting off topic; where should I place you, to make new magic and skills shows you have the ambition for Slytherin.' The Hat shuddered when he thought of Harry and how he would react to such a thing, 'Potter would probably set me aflame if I put you in the 'snake pit'. You're loyal to your family and your Master, and you're a hard worker too, you would do well in Hufflepuff. It helps that you know two people in the House already and consider them friends. Although you're not as brave as your sister, you would do well in Gryffindor. But I think Ravenclaw will do you the best. It would help you and your Master make those new powers and skills you're attempting to recreate.' The Hat bargained.

The Sorting Hat could not place an unwilling student as long as that student was consciously aware that they had a choice, or was open to the idea of any of the Houses. If they were dead set on a particular house and would not accept no for an answer, there was little he could do. This was a failsafe in place for safety reasons so, to use a modern situation, a Muggleborn would be protected from being placed in the modern day Slytherin House, even if they were ambitious enough for it.

This was unknowingly exploited by a number of people, Slytherins being the most common offenders, becoming what some referred to as the 'legacy system', sometimes called the 'choice system', completely perverting the intentions of the House System. Barely any of the current Slytherins belonged there. In the Sorting Hat's opinion there was no Slytherin House anymore. Not a solid group at least, almost every one of the real Slytherins were spread out amongst the other Houses by this point.

'No!' Melody snapped, 'I want to be with my sister and Master, place me in Gryffindor.'

'I think you underestimate how useful Ravenclaw could be for you. The Gryffindor Head of House is too swamped in work delegated to her by the Headmaster to be a true Head of House, but Professor Flitwick is a very attentive man, he would be delighted to help you create a new branch of magic.' The enchanted cloth insisted.

Melody shook her head. 'You're under the impression we want help. We can do it ourselves. If we depend on other than they'll know what we're doing. That really defeats the purpose of a trump card, doesn't it?'

The Sorting Hat sighed, knowing this girl would exploit the failsafe and the power to choose her own house. No argument he made, no matter how effective, would sway her on this. 'In that case it better be…'

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Hat shouted. Harry and Hermione both clapped the loudest, but all Harry's friends who knew who Melody was clapped and cheered as the happy first year walked over to them and sat down between them in the seat they made.

The Sortings seemed to fly by with only two exceptions. Lovegood, Luna, when her name was called, wandered up to the stool with her naturally wide eyes on the ceiling the whole time. McGonagall tried to place the Hat on her head, but Luna snatched it out of the woman's hands instead.

"Hello Mr. Hat." Luna greeted.

The Hat chuckled, a large grin splitting the seams that made up his mouth. "So much like your mother, Ms. Lovegood, how is she?"

"She is fine Mr. Hat," Luna said happily, "she sends her greetings."

"Thank you, Ms. Lovegood." The Hat replied. "Ravenclaw, I take it?"

Luna nodded, smiling widely with pride. "Oh yes, please. That would be lovely!"

"Then so be it, please send my regards to your mother." The Hat asked, to which Luna nodded and the Hat called out, "RAVENCLAW!"

An amused McGonagall took the Hat from the Lovegood heiress and allowed the girl to skip over to her table.

Harry zoned out again until another familiar name was called. Weasley, Ginny was the last name on the list, meaning she was already incredibly nervous. What really pushed her over the edge though was when she glanced over at the Gryffindor table to look to her brothers support she saw Harry's intense green eyes focused completely on her.

Her legs turned to jelly and her ankles seemed to twist together. Ginny Weasley tripped and fell right in front of the stool.

Her fangirl-ness making itself readily apparent, Harry promptly lost interest. Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor, whether through the idiotic Legacy system or through real merit he was not sure, and took a seat about two dozen people away from him and proceeded to spend most of the feast staring at him and blushing.

Speaking of which, the feast itself was surprisingly uneventful. Dumbledore made a speech welcoming everyone back and introduced the newest addition to the staff at Hogwarts. Lockhart made a big show of accepting the cheers from the majority of the females inhabiting castle Hogwarts.

After the feast they were excused back to their Common Rooms for the evening by Percy Weasley. As they got to the Tower, Melody wanted a full tour of both the girls and boys dorms, however, Percy would not allow her up to the male dorms, saying it was inappropriate. Harry just scoffed at this; Hermione, more often than not last year had come up into his dorms to wake him up. the other boys in his year both knew about this and were even grateful for it, since it woke them up on time too. Musings aside, Harry smiled at what Melody tried to do, he had no trouble figuring out why she wanted to see the boys dorms; she wanted to know exactly which bed he slept in. Oh well, it would have to wait until later, he would show her later, unless Hermione came up to his room sometime tomorrow like she normally did.

The only other eventful thing that happened was the rumours of Ron Weasley flying a car to school being proven true. The portal had closed on him, so he decided to take his dad's flying car. Everyone seemed to be impressed at this. While the trio had shook their heads, they hoped this fifteen minutes of fame would mellow Ron out. It was unlikely, but they could hope. They each promised to never do anything stupid, since from what they heard, about dozen Mundanes had seen him. They silently slipped away and went to bed, allowing Ron his time.

o0OoO0o

2nd of September:

The next morning, Harry woke up early to start running with Melody. Before beginning Hogwarts the two decided they needed to build up their stamina so they can last longer in fights and because it was, in general, good for their health to be fit. They tried to convince Hermione to join them but, as expected, were unable to.

The run went well. Melody briefly pulled him into a small alcove to suck him off once they were done with the run, not minding that he was sweaty from the activity. One enjoyable release later, Harry and Melody made their way to Great Hall for breakfast. Along the way, they met up with Hermione and when they got into the Great Hall they found the Weasley Twins in the midst of a brainstorming session with Lee, so they sat by themselves.

Sadly, it was an actual rule that the students could not go to another table to eat until they got their class schedule, but the trio accepted the rule easily and happily because it was logical; if the Head of House was unable to find them all in one place, it would increase their workload, as well as the chance that the student would be without a schedule. The second they got their schedules their friends came over to talk about what classes they had together.

During their talks, Harry learned that Ron had crashed into a tree called the Whomping Willow, and had damaged it. Both him and the Granger sisters thought Ron was an idiot for accomplishing this, as he should have used the Floo like them. As they were talking, Ron had entered the Great Hall and sat next to them but did not say anything.

During breakfast the mail arrived, Neville had gotten a package with things that he forgot to bring from home, much to his embarrassment.

"Errol!" Ron cried, pulling the bedraggled the family owl out by the feet from the bowl of mashed potatoes he'd crashed into. Errol slumped, unconscious, onto the table, his legs in the air and a damp red envelope in his beak.

"Oh, no-" Ron gasped.

"It's all right, he's still alive… I think…" Hermione announced as she prodded Errol gently with the tip of her finger a few times.

"It's not that - it's that." Ron said, his voice filled with dread as he pointed towards the red envelope. It looked quite ordinary to Harry, but Ron and Neville were both looking at it as though they expected it to explode.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked.

"She's - she's sent me a Howler." Ron muttered faintly.

"You'd better open it, Ron." Neville spoke up in a timid whisper. "It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and…" He gulped, "It was horrible."

Harry looked from their petrified faces to the red envelope.

"What's a Howler?" He asked, wondering what the big fuss was about.

But Ron's whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners.

"Open it," Neville urged. "It'll all be over in a few minutes -"

Ron stretched out a shaking hand, eased the envelope from Errol's beak, and slit it open. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears. A split second later, Harry knew why. He thought for a moment it had exploded; a roar of sound filled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling.

"- STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE -"

Mrs. Weasley's yells made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen.

"- LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME! WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS! ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED - YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!"

A ringing silence fell. The red envelope, which had dropped from Ron's hand, burst into flames and curled into ashes. Ron sat there stunned, as though a tidal wave had just passed over them. A few people laughed and, gradually, a babble of talk broke out again.

Hermione closed Voyages with Vampires that she had been reading and looked down at the top of Ron's head. "Are you alright Ronald?" Hermione asked softly. She may not have forgiven him for last year, but it didn't mean he deserved the Howler in front of everyone.

"I-I'll be Hermione." Ron whimpered. "Just… Just need some time."

Everyone was shocked at Ron, he didn't seemed to be rude towards her like he was last year. They had to wonder what was going on. "Ron why didn't you use the Floo in the Waiting Room to the Platform? I thought that being raised in the Wizarding World, you would have known about it."

"I didn't know about it." Ron admitted sheepishly, "If I did, I would have used it." Everyone was shocked that Ron didn't snap at her, and once again wondered what happened to him over the summer. Before anything could be said Professor McGonagall came along handing out their course schedules.

Harry noted that he had double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first and was glad for a chance to talk to his Hufflepuff friends. Professor McGonagall suddenly said, "Mr. Potter, Professor Dumbledore would like to talk you after classes are done today."

"Do you know why Professor?" Harry inquired.

"I do not, sorry." Professor McGonagall admitted, "I can escort you to his office after your last class today."

"Thank you Professor, I'll see you then."

"I wonder what that was about?" Hermione wondered as her favourite Professor walked away.

Harry shook his head. "I have no idea, aside from the train incident with Draco I haven't done anything warranting a visit with the Headmaster. I doubt Draco would tell anyone about it, since he ran away with his tail between his legs." He reasoned.

Susan suddenly blurted excitedly, "Come on, we've got Double Herbology first, lets go!"

The group laughed at her enthusiasm and followed after her. Halfway to the Greenhouses Melody split off from the group to go to her first class.

o0OoO0o

The day was easy enough for the first day back, in Herbology they met up with Gilderoy Lockhart who was trying to tell Professor Sprout how to heal the Whomping Willow that was nearby. Upon seeing Harry Lockhart beat a hasty retreat, which prompted a surprised but grateful look from Professor Sprout. In the class, they went to Greenhouse Three. There was a murmur of interest; they had only ever worked in Greenhouse One before - Greenhouse Three housed far more interesting and dangerous plants. Today class was about Mandrakes, and how to repot them, before actually repotting them themselves. Mandrakes looked like an infant child, only huge, fat, made of plant material, covered in wrinkles, and possessed a wail that could, if they were fully grown, kill a child. adults were resistant to the cry, but could still die from continuous exposure.

During lunch, Harry met his first fanboy, Colin Creevey, who ignored any request to leave be left alone and wanted to take photos of Harry. It was only a threat of never even thinking about giving him a chance for any photos that Colin left Harry alone. Unfortunately that left Harry open for future photo requests. Well… at least that was future Harry Potter's problem, not his.

After lunch they had two classes, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. In Transfiguration, they had to turn a beetle into a button, which Harry and Hermione found easy enough. But Ron had a problem, his wand was broken from the night before, and was not working as it should. He had patched up his wand with some borrowed Spellotape, but it seemed to be damaged beyond repair. It kept crackling and sparking at odd moments, and every time Ron tried to transfigure his beetle it engulfed him in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs. Unable to see what he was doing, Ron accidentally squashed his beetle with his elbow and had to ask for a new one. Professor McGonagall was not pleased.

Fortunately for Ron's continued health, Hermione and Harry had earned a total of twenty five points, fifteen and ten, respectively, for mastering the spell first and second, which offset Ron's loss of five points.

After class, Ron was told he should write home to get a new wand, but he refused as he did not want to get another Howler from his mother for what happened to it.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was something Harry bemoaned taking this year, and rightly so as he soon found out. The class had to do a pop quiz all about Lockhart. Then the bloody idiot, after the quiz, let loose Cornish pixies in the class. And after make a mess of thing trying to recapture them when they got out of hand left the section of the class that was not cowering or panicking, i.e. Harry and Hermione, to capture them.

After class was over and Harry had properly vented, along with Hermione and every other annoyed Gryffindor that left the classroom without being dismissed, Harry split from Hermione and headed towards Transfigurations.

Harry did not know any of the students leaving the classroom as he arrived, but they were first year Hufflepuffs, so that was not much of a surprise. McGonagall followed behind the students, reminding them of their homework for the evening - a two page essay on how to properly cast the match stick to needle transformation spell - and noticed his presence with a lack of surprise, like she had expected him to be there at that moment.

"Five points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, for excellent timing." The Gryffindor Head announced as she turned on her heel and began walking.

Harry fell into step behind her, shaking his head at the blatant favouritism. McGonagall was nowhere near as bad as Snape, no person alive could be, but she definitely had her moments. At least hers was partially justifiable to level the playing field for the House Cup. "So, am I in trouble for something?" Harry wondered.

"Not from what I can tell. Why, have you done something to warrant paranoia?" McGonagall wondered back.

Harry grinned and decided he may as well be honest. "Don't know, sort of, I think. On the Express Malfoy paid me his traditional visit, called my friends sluts, whores, Mudbloods and Blood Traitors before I reminded him that there were six of us and three of them. You know, nothing out of the ordinary." He snarked.

"Take fifty points for standing up for your friends with a cool head. I believe that shall be two hundred points from Slytherin for offensive language and behaviour." The older woman almost growled, her expression furious as she continued staring straight forward.

The rest of the journey was silent as they made their way towards the Headmaster's Office.

When they arrived it looked like his Head of House was going to leave after giving the password to the stone guardian, so Harry spoke up. "May I request you sit in on the meeting? I'm not sure what the Headmaster wants, but it would be nice having some back up if Malfoy did whine to Snape about what happened. I'm sure his story would be wildly different than my own."

Her face darkened for an instant before she schooled it, but Harry knew he had chosen his words correctly before she even responded.

"Of course, Mister Potter." She said calmly as she started walking up the spiral staircase, followed by Harry.

o0OoO0o

Albus 'too many titles' Dumbledore, was sitting in his office with Severus Snape awaiting for Harry Potter, his Pawn in his game of the Greater Good. As he sat there and waited, he thought about how things did not seem to be going his way lately. All his plans to rule the Magical World seemed to be crumbling around him. It all started with Gellert Grindelwald; he felt that the Wizarding World should be controlled, as if it wasn't their way of life would be destroyed by the Muggles changing their beliefs and way of living.

Although Gellert might have had a good idea, but the way he went about it was all wrong. It was a great shame that he had to defeat Gellert, his best friend and lover, and put him into Nurmengard - the prison that Gellert made. With the defeat of Gellert, Albus realized how he could win, people treated him almost like Merlin and thought of him as the Leader of the Light. However, he could only do so much with this new power and respect people were giving him. He knew that if he wanted to control the Wizarding World, he need to become more powerful and respected than Merlin himself. So over the years he trained and trained, until he was the most powerful person in their world. Over the years he was able to gain the titles of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. However, even with these titles and control he had, he still limited, he needed something more.

That was when Voldemort came along, and people look upon him to deal with the new Dark Lord. And Albus knew that should he be able to defeat Voldemort, they would do whatever he wanted. But the problem came along in the form of the Horcruxes and the thrice damned prophecy. Without destroying all the Horcruxes, Voldemort would be unable to be killed. And then there was the prophecy saying that only one person would be able to defeat the new Dark Lord. Worst of all, it described someone other than him; it was two unborn children that fell under the prophecy's description. Instead, it was either a child from the Potters or Longbottoms, which he was later informed were named Harry and Neville, respectively.

It was not until Halloween of 1981 that he found out the Prophecy Child was Harry Potter. It was luck that the Potters were killed and he could control what happened next, but now he had to think how to control the young Potter so that he would be weak but loyal to him. He knew that anyone in the Wizarding World would treat him very well, and possibly make it so Potter would think for himself and use his fame to get what he wanted for himself. But luck seemed to be smiling upon him, as he remembered about Lily's magic hating sister Petunia Evans now Dursley. Luck was even further on his side, as her husband was a bully and hated anything that could not be called normal, leading Albus to correctly believe he would also hate magic, and consequently Potter because of it. It was the ideal breeding ground for a meek child ripe for brainwashing in the form of a 'saviour'.

Once he left the with the Dursleys he used his power as the Potter Heir's Magical Guardian to get the money from the Potter's Vault. It was less than half a percent of the money available to Harry himself, barely skimming the interest, really, but it was just enough for what Albus needed it for. He was also able to blackmail Severus Snape into working at Hogwarts, so when Potter came to Hogwarts Snape could treat him badly, which Dumbledore would counteract by being using his usual grandfatherly routine, further indebting the boy to him.

So after years of waiting, the young Potter finally arrived at Hogwarts he was lonely, albeit a bit too independent for his liking though not too much. More importantly, the boy was desperate for friends. Already knowing this would happen, Dumbledore collaborated with Molly Weasley so her son, Ronald Weasley, would become friends with young Harry.

Albus knew from the start that his plans were falling apart, but he hoped that he could at least rework his plans to fit around the complications. He had hoped that, being the incredibly lazy boy Ronald was, it would be passed on to Harry. That plan, sadly, bore no fruit; Harry's study habits were already too ingrained. Ronald still did part of his job at least; informing him of most of what the last Potter was up to.

Another problem was when the young Potter made friends with the school's new know-it-all, Hermione Granger. At first, they had a rocky start; she was a bossy girl, with a know-it-all attitude, which Albus thought would break their friendship, but the tentative friendship survived. Dumbledore was surprised when Potter was able to break her of her bad habits after a while; he was supposed to have too little confidence to do something like that according to the plan. The solid friendship that was born between the two was the start of his plans falling apart. Not even having Ronald try and split them up worked, in fact all it did was cause Potter to break his friendship with Ronald. So not only had that entire branch of plans failed, they backfired spectacularly.

Another problem was when Granger took the Potter Heir to be checked over by Madam Pomfrey for the abuse by the hands of the Dursleys, and thus, got the potions to fix the damage done to him. He needed that damage to stay! Quite a bit had been invested in masking the abuse from Muggle authorities. One way to keep him meek was to stunt his growth; self-confidence was hard to maintain when you looked down at yourself and saw a scrawny runt.

Another thing was that Harry wanted more than making friends with just Granger. He began to make friends with people that Albus wanted him to avoid. The combination of all these events completely shattered his plans for Harry's first year, and Dumbledore now had to think of ways to alter the situation to fit the new plans. His plan for the Philosopher's Stone made a poignant example. Because Harry listened to his new friends and they helped him of their own accord, without prompting and independent of Dumbledore, the trap was easily thwarted. The trap had been disarmed, not even snapping shut early and getting anything, but simply made useless.

However, he was able to quickly devise a new plan for the boy. He planned it so Harry returned to the Dursleys, he would cast a few spells on the magic hating Muggles to make them even more abusive. Harry would obviously write to him for help, and Dumbledore would assure him he would try his best to get him to the Weasley's a few weeks before Hogwarts started, which would be the 'best he could do', even this kindness would certainly drive Harry's opinion of him ever higher.

However, when he went to the house to cast the spells on the Dursleys, he found that the Dursleys were not there, and there was no sign his pawn had even returned to the house. Where the boy had gotten to, the holder of far too many titles to be legal did not know.

It was a great relief to find the boy had returned to Hogwarts alive and well. Now he could plan how to regain control of the situation. He already set it up so that Ronald could get back with into Harry's good books; Molly and he had given the youngest male Weasley a talk over the summer and by the looks of it, it was working. He now had to find out where the Potter Heir disappeared to over the summer.

Before Albus could think more about the matter, the wards informed him that someone was near his door, and by the signatures they belonged to Harry and McGonagall. Before they could knock, he called, "Come in Minerva, Harry!"

o0OoO0o

Harry was shocked when he heard the Headmaster tell them to enter, not only did he know they were at the door without them knocking, but he also knew it was them. Since he had arranged the meeting it was easy to guess it was Professor McGonagall and Harry, but how did he know they were there?

Putting that thought aside as they entered the room Harry looked around; the room was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard's hat - the Sorting Hat.

As he was examining the room he heard McGonagall say, "I've brought Mr. Potter, Headmaster."

"Thank you, Minerva." the Headmaster said with a grandfatherly smile, "You may go."

"Mr. Potter asked me to stay, and as such, I will be standing in on this meeting and fulfilling my duty as his Head of House." McGonagall said officially.

"And to be honest Headmaster, I would prefer that she does." Harry stated, "Especially if Professor Snape is staying. As far as I know I've done nothing wrong and if anyone is meant to be here, it's Professor McGonagall."

"Why you arrogant brat, just like your father." Snape sneered instantly.

"He's right, Severus, he's well within his rights to ask you to leave, since, judging by the lack of Slytherin student in this room, I can only guess you serve no purpose here in the professional capacity and will only serve to interrupt this meeting every time Mr. Potter speaks to show the rest of us just how petty you are." Minerva intervened, glaring at the sallow faced man. She was still angered by what Harry had told her, it seemed, to attack the man so blatantly.

"That might be true Minerva, but I've asked Severus to be here." Dumbledore explained. What he intentionally neglected to tell her was that he wanted Severus' help to cast a few spells on Harry to regain control of him, and make sure no more of his plans were ruined. Now that Minerva was here at the request of the young Potter, though, that path was blocked for now. Regardless, the Headmaster would not be stopped from finding out where he was however, so with a grandfatherly smile he inquired, "Now Harry, can you tell me where you were this summer?"

"No offence sir, but what concern is it of yours where I was over the summer?" Harry asked politely, "You're my Headmaster, that's a fairly personal question to asking for the relationship we have."

"Why you rude arrogant-" Snape started building up steam, but was stopped by a look from McGonagall. "Severus, Albus might have asked you to be here, but unless you have something useful to contribute, be silent." The Gryffindor head snarled, her normally calm facade cracking under the constant barrage of reminders that her co-worker was a downright horrible human being, and so were some of his students. She seamlessly changed the subject, "Mr. Potter is right again, Albus. When he isn't inside the castle you have no authority over where he stays and what he does. "

Albus mentally sighed at this, this wasn't going the way he wanted, not at all. "I might be his Headmaster, but I'm also his Magical Guardian and as such it is my job to make sure he is safe. I went to his home to check in on him but when I got there I found that the Dursleys weren't there, and you never returned to them. So I was wondering where you been Harry."

"May I ask why you care where I was?" Harry asked coolly, "You may be my Magical Guardian, but you've never been there before, so why bother now? I can handle my own affairs."

"Harry you need to be at the Dursleys for your own protection." Dumbledore said with a sigh.

"Some protection," Harry growled. "What did it protect me from? It sure as hell wasn't my family."

Unknown to Harry, McGonagall give Dumbledore a dark look, but remained silent in front of Harry. She pointedly neglected to reprimand Harry for his abrasive attitude, which was all Dumbledore needed to know about her feelings, even if he had missed the look.

"From Death Eaters Harry, Voldemort's followers." Dumbledore said with another sigh, he had not wanted to say anything, but if he wanted the boy back to the Dursleys another half-truth would be needed. "I've put wards up around your home to protect you and your family from magical attacks, and as long as you think of it as home, the place would protect you all. You will have to go home every year to recharge them. You would only have to stay for a few weeks, a month at most. At the moment they are weak and if not recharged soon, they'll fall. That's why this Christmas, you'll have to go back to the recharge the wards."

In truth all the wards did was siphon Harry's magic to fuel the standard plethora of wards designed to keep magicals out. So it DID sort of do as Albus said it did, but it also weakened Harry while he was in it, making him a prime target for the magically enhanced abuse from his Relatives.

"I'm sorry Headmaster, but I have other plans for Christmas." Harry announced flatly. "And none of them involve going back to the Dursleys. They are not family to me, and Privet Drive has never been something I ever once considered a home, just a place I was forced to stay." Harry's growing frustration culminated in one of the devices behind Dumbledore, a weakly chugging chimney like tube, giving an almost silent wheeze as it finally stopped working. The intent ward connect to Harry and holding the ward scheme together finally failed as the boy outright denied the information that it needed to keep going. No one but Dumbledore noticed this, and the man was not happy about it; the sound informed him that the wards around the Dursleys had fallen.

Although he knew this, he still needed Potter back to the Dursleys, to keep him from learning too much and force him to be meek. It would also let him recast the wards if he could convince Harry to think of the house as home in any way. So with a sigh he said, "Harry I need to insist that you go, as you need to be protected." A growl was his response.

"Headmaster, I've been as polite as I can be, if you keep insisting on this matter I'm afraid I'm going to start becoming difficult." Harry said, knowing full well how difficult a teenager could be about things and using it to his advantage. "Nothing you say will make me want to go back to those… people. I have several options available to me, I can hide myself just fine."

Dumbledore sighed once more, he obviously was going to be unable to get Harry to change his mind this evening, so he changed tactics. "Can you tell me where you have been?"

Harry was by no means stupid. If he told the old man, he would try and block Harry from staying with the Grangers in the future. "That would defeat the purpose of hiding, wouldn't it? If there isn't anything else Headmaster, I've got homework to do." He promptly stood up to leave the office.

Snape's face was rapidly approaching Vernon-9 as Minerva's furious stare kept his tongue in check, and could do little but glare at the Potter brat for his arrogance

Dumbledore decided he needed to quickly change tactics to try to disperse some of the tension and animosity. "You're quite right, Harry. Before you go, could you at least tell me if you enjoyed your summer?" Appealing to the boy's sense of fun and showing a bit of concern could help begin the process of bringing him back into the fold.

A calmer Harry replied, "I did, in fact, enjoy myself this summer. I got to see many things and go many places I had never experienced before. It was possibly the best summer of my life." Harry had picked up on the prompt change in the Headmaster's attitude and decided to give him a suitable non-response. He would not bite the bait that the Headmaster was fishing with.

Quiet, furious mutterings met his answer before yet another sharp look from Minerva kept the greasy-haired one from mouthing off at the boy.

"… Very well, Harry, you may go." Dumbledore finally said with a long suffering sigh, using a slight smile to mask his true frustration. The meeting had been a complete failure. No information had been gained, verbally or mentally because he was barred from using Legilimency in Minerva's presence, Minerva was now suspicious of him, Potter even more at odds, and worst of all Dumbledore was the one who would have to listen to Snape whine and bitch about everything that had just happened, which would be like reliving this failure at least a dozen times.

The worst was yet to come, however, because when Harry turned and walked out of the office Minerva stayed behind, her expression still thunderous. When she took Harry's vacated seat he knew he was in for a very long evening.

o0OoO0o

The rest of the afternoon and evening passed quickly for Harry, mainly because he was frustrated at Dumbledore's attempts at fishing for information about where he was staying over the summer holidays. Why should the old man start caring now when he never had before? Harry was annoyed at how little he knew of Dumbledore's motives.

His frustration did not go unnoticed either, because when Harry got to the library to do his homework with his friends, his friends had noticed this easily and had asked about it, but Harry had just told them that the Headmaster was attempting to single him out due to his "Boy-Who-Lived" status, making sure that he was alright. It was not a complete lie and readily believable. Not to mention it was no secret that he disliked getting special treatment due to his moniker.

The group accepted his answer and proceeded to demolish their homework in short order.

While sitting in the library, Harry tried to focus on his Herbology essay on mandrakes. While citing uses for the plant, he came across the Purging Draught, which used mandrake in small quantities as one of its supplemental ingredients. The potion was intended to clear out harmful potions. The book Harry referenced cited loyalty potions, complacency draughts and suggestive potions. Just reading how potions could be used to manipulate people, specifically him, fueled his anger and frustration.

Harry knew if he was not careful, Dumbledore might go so far as to use potions to ensure cooperation. Thinking about why it might be necessary to keep him in line only fueled his darker thoughts. Dumbledore had never cared before, despite the abhorrent treatment Harry received at the Dursley's, so what make the situation different now?

No matter how hard Harry tried to push the thoughts to the side, they kept seeping in, causing him to clench his fist more than once, ruining quills. Eventually, a soft hand covered his, distracting him before he destroyed his fourth quill. Melody looked at him with concern. It didn't lessen his growing frustration, but it did distract him long enough to finish his work.

Soon enough it was nearly midnight, everyone was now in bed apart from himself and a few Prefects returning from patrols. Harry had been unable to sleep, so he read his books for hours, which was a mistake, as his shoulders and neck quickly grew stiff from leaning over desks and reading after so long. To try to relax, he took a nice, long, hot shower. This worked wonders for his sore back, but really made him aware of how tired he was. His arousal only brought to mind yet again how frustrated he was, so he headed to his dorm to relieve part of the situation.

He opened the curtain to his bed and slipped inside. He instantly noticed the curtain turn solid, as opposed to the slightly see through pattern it normally was and could readily guess why; someone already inside had activated the Ward scheme simply called the 'Lights Out Ward' that blocked all light from entering for those picky sleepers who needed total darkness. Harry was incredibly grateful the ward also blocked sound, both inside and out, but was annoyed with himself for taking two months to find it, since it meant he had to suffer Ron's snoring for that long as the ginger apparently could not be arsed to activate his. Just remembering those two months caused him to growl at the inconsiderateness of the ponce. Harry had no idea why, the curtain solidified enough that someone could knock on them, which the person in the bed could hear, so somebody could wake him up fairly easily if he asked.

"Mel, what are you doing here?" Harry asked in surprise. He wasn't expecting her to sneak into his bed like she did over the summer - Melody was very clearly a nymphomaniac, despite the lack of full blown sex yet. And they had only gone as far as they had because it did not feel right to go further for some reason. Still, she was an unexpected surprise to find in his dorm with all the others in the room. He assumed she would wait until they were alone, like they had been this morning, or pull him away for a quick 'chat' so their friends would grant them a bit of privacy.

"You were in such a bad mood today Master, so I thought I come to help you relax." Melody said sadly as she threw off Harry's Cloak of Invisibility, which she still had to make occasions like this far less risky than they normally were. "I would have been here sooner, but my sister wanted to make sure I was tucked in and delayed me, or I would have joined you in the shower. So, will you let me help you to relax, or do you want me to go back to my room?"

Harry had a brain blast, all that frustration he'd been feeling had no outlet, but now Melody was in his bed and was eager and willing to be that outlet. In the back of his mind he could swear seeing Lucy smiling at him.

"On your back. Now." Harry demanded, forgoing their usual banter, his perspective swapping as the girl in bed with him went from his friend Melody to his Apprentice whose current purpose was to please him.

Lime Begins: Skip if you're underage or not into this kind of thing!

Melody blinked in surprise at the sudden order, but her body had already twisted around and fell back onto the bed before she could consciously obey his order. A thrill shot up her spine as her peeved looking Master yanked off his clothes in seconds and crawled up on her. She greedily opened her mouth, preparing her throat for the imminent invader.

"Not yet." Harry growled as he leaned over and kissed her roughly, rougher than he had ever kissed her. It was a kiss of frustration, of anger, everything that was built up in Harry that afternoon and evening. As he used one hand to pull Melody into the kiss, he used his other hand to finger fuck Melody's pussy roughly.

As he was doing this, Melody was moaning up a storm into the kiss, her hands eagerly gripping his shoulder to keep him in place. Ever since puberty hit her, she had been feeling things that kids her age normally did not feel; her libido was in constant overdrive and no amount of fingering or whatever else she did to herself fully satisfied her cravings. She was saved when she met her Master, she knew he was the one that would sate her sexual needs, ever since he'd first seen her naked butt, the look he sent her for the barest second sent shivers down her spine and had attracted her initial interest. And did he ever please her! He was inexperienced at first, but so was she, so they learned together. Harry had not quite caught on to exactly how much she liked being roughly used, and even sometimes abused, but she was sure he would pick up the signs soon enough. Right now, for instance, she was in heaven as he completely dominated her, his tongue ruling her mouth while his fingers viciously stabbed at her pussy.

"I have such a wet Apprentice…" Harry commented as he pulled back from the kiss, "Do you like this?" Still fingering her roughly as he held her head in place.

"Oh y-yes Master, I-I do…" Melody said, squirming as an orgasm washed over her, "P-Please use me as you wish, use me, Master. This Apprentice is yours to handle as you wish. My pussy and-" She took his hand from her head and the hand in her pussy and placed both of them onto her ass, getting a brief respite from the fingering, enough to catch her breath. It was not much as Harry did not waste a second and was fondling her arse "Ah! My ass is yours too!"

She moaned in disappointment for a moment, only to gasp in surprise as he suddenly latched onto her budding breasts yet again squeezing them roughly.

Harry was growing incredibly aroused at her submissive claims and put even more effort in making her moan. He rammed his middle and index finger back into her pussy and curled his fingers lightly in the way he knew made her scream and worked on sucking and fondling her breasts. His efforts pulled a shriek from Melody, her back arching and a full body shudder passing through her. "J-just like… that Master… use me!" She panted, her tongue not working perfectly and her words coming out slurred slurred.

Unnoticed by her, as she was climaxing Harry had shifted both their positions so she was on her back and he was in the best position possible to use access her throat.

Melody once more moaned in disappointment as as her Master removed his hands from her breasts. But as she opened her eyes to plead with him to keep going all she could see was his descending shaft. An instant later his balls were resting and covering her nose while his cock tried its damndest to reach her stomach through her throat.

Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and her pussy started drooling heavily as her Master began almost bouncing up and down on her face, repeating cramming every inch of his length into her throat. As worked up as he was, and as hard as he was pumping his cock into her throat, it was only a short time before he began to cum.

Her hips jerked as she experience a minor orgasm as Harry pressed her pelvis against her face as hard as he could, grinding his length in as far as it could go. She could feel his shaft almost vibrate before he gave a throaty groan and the flood began. Swallowing around his cock as it spewed semen straight into her stomach she was very happy to note that his moans increased in volume.

Melody suddenly heaved as Harry pulled out at an awkward angle. He did so so he could climb into her chest, which she learned when she calmed her gag reflex down and felt her Master's slimy cock begin using her budding breasts to get himself off. She transformed, knowing her breasts were larger in her monster form by some quirk of nature. He failed to comment on her change, but his pace did speed up noticeably.

Harry growled as the soft hair from Melody's monster form further stimulated his cock. His increased pace coaxed him to higher levels of arousal. While holding her breasts around his cock, Harry gave them a rough squeeze causing her to moan in pleasure.

Feeding off Melody's moans, he squeezed and thrust harder, bringing both of them to new heights of pleasure. The harder he squeezed the louder she moaned. Minutes later his thrusts, her fur, her moans, and his dominance drove him over the edge. Harry exploded all over Melody's breasts, face and hair. Her immediate reaction was to lean up and engulf the tip of his cock with her mouth and suck down the subsequent spurts of cum.

As the flood subsided, Harry fell back to catch his breath. Swallowing the last remnants in her mouth, Melody shuddered in delight at the taste flooded her senses. "Master, you taste so good," She moaned, rubbing her breasts after his violent squeezing of them. "And my breasts, I love how you just mauled them."

Harry watched Melody rub the cum into her fine fur, moaning in delight. The sight brought him back to full mast before he growled, shifting to stand on his knees. He pulled Melody to sit up before grabbing her head, threading his fingers in her hair and roughly pulled her towards him. Her lips quickly engulfed him as he used his grip to thrust harder into her mouth.

His treatment of Melody grew rougher as he felt more stimulated by her mouth and tongue. He looked down, watching her lightning bolt shaped tail swishing back and forth before he got another idea. Releasing her head he grabbed her tail and pulled.

"Turn around." He commanded. Melody was quick to comply while bemoaning the loss of her mouth being full of her Master's tasty cock. His rough tug on her tail forced her arse up into the air and a quick push dropped her head to the bed.

She was revelling in her Master's treatment of her when she felt his hardness slip between her thighs. Her wetness running down her leg made them slick as he plunged himself between her squeezing thighs. His grip on her tail never slackened as he pulled on her hair to aid him in his thrusting.

Melody deeply wished he would just slam himself into her pussy, but he never did. She found it hard to feel annoyed or disappointed about this when her exposed clit took the full brunt of the veins of his cock, causing her thighs to squeeze together even harder though.

All in all, it promised to be a very tiring night. She was so glad she "liberated" that book on dirty talk from her mother's stash of trashy romance novels. Who knew it would be this effective?

Lime Ends: Read from here if you skipped the Lime!

After a few more hours of her Master manhandling her causing a number of orgasms she neglected to bother counting later Melody found herself besides her Master covered in his cum with him fast asleep holding her. Seeing as any more fun would have to wait for another night, she put her Master's Cloak of Invisibility on and left. She wanted to say her stumble was from a sore and overworked pussy, or ass, but her Master had not seen fit to bestow that sort of prize upon her yet, so it was simply her own tiredness showing. One lazy and sluggish shower later, she collapsed onto her bed, her dreams filled with her Master taking her remaining virginities over and over again.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Authors Note: Here ends another chapter of Vulcan, I thank you for reading and I hope that you keep on reading and enjoying the story as much as I enjoy writing this. I would like to hear your ideas if have any. The main ideas I'm looking for apart, apart from the plot related ones, are powers that Harry and his group can either learn, or just research. Even if they don't learn the abilities doesn't mean they can't research them and try.