Chapter 6 Running Through the Fire

A/N: I really like the reception Aggro Harry has gotten.

" Alright guys, we need to start getting ready to attack Malfoy Manor. Preferably, we should take it out while the Dark Lord isn't there, but if necessary, we will attack him with full force. Nobody One Vs One's him except me. Got it?"

The Order nodded its consent. Harry continued, " I've got Severus on full duty at Hogwarts. He says that the Carrows are going a little nuts with their new positions of power. I will be commissioning a strike on Hogwarts tonight. Who wants to volunteer?"

Lupin immediately volunteered, as did Arthur and Kingsley. Hermione asked, " May I go?"

Harry glared, " No. I need competent warriors. Not bushy haired wannabes. Hey? How about you there Charlie?"

Charlie smirked, " On duty, captain."

Harry smirked, " Excellent. You will be fighting alongside of me. I got Severus to disable the wards for me, so we can get in with no trouble. We take out the Carrows, and any Slytherin fools who decide to fight with them! Got it?"

Lupin asked, " But what if they aren't Slytherins? I mean, this should be an assassination mission."

" That's exactly what it is. Me and Charlie will be going in via the Headmaster's personal Floo, which is a secured connection. I will personally take out Alecto, Charlie can have the other one. I've heard some rather disturbing things about both of them, and they deserve nothing short of the death they say the eat anyway."

Ron muttered as Harry left, " Damn Harry's turned brutal here lately. Did us leaving him in the woods really affect him that much? Or is it something else?"

Fleur heard Ron, " No, Ronald. I think zis is who 'Arry really is."

Ron's eyes opened slightly, " But…but this is nothing like the guy who didn't want a thing to do with his fame and glory. He just wanted a family. And…."

Arthur looked upon his son with a tad bit of sympathy for the first time in weeks, " I don't think any of us were willing to believe that Harry might have a darker side, or that his somewhat happy, lonely personality was really just hiding something."

Lupin chipped in, " I've seen it come forth before. All those times you guys just thought he was being a moody teen, were really just small flashes of his true, ruthless personality that he suppressed all those years. I would hazard a guess to say he got it from the Dursleys."

Ron looked down, " That would mean…"

" That the Harry all of us thought we knew was just an illusion, similar to the way Luna Lovegood behaves. If it is, then the Dursleys have affected him in more ways than any of us ever thought. Cursed muggles,", Lupin spoke with a venom in his voice that was generally reserved for Death Eaters. Most everyone else at the table flinched at the tone of his voice.

Hermione looked downcast. Ron put an arm around her, " I don't know where he gets off using the Cruciatus on Hermione. "

Lupin frowned, " I'll be honest, that's the one thing Harry's done that I didn't really approve of. But nonetheless, the mission was a success. I've reports of uprisings all over Magical Britain. The People are rising up. The Dark Lord's already lost thirty men in violent uprisings. There haven't been many civilian casualties yet, but the reports are that they are starting to gather together. Forming a vigilante rebellion group of sorts."

Arthur looked at him, " Is that so? Good. This war may be over faster than anticipated."

Lupin frowned again, " I wouldn't count on it Arthur. This may just be the beginning."

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( Harry)

" Alright Charlie. I want you to get Alecto. I'm going after Amycus. We get in, we get out. Got it?"

Charlie nodded, " Got it captain."

" Let's rock."

Harry slung his Invisibility cloak on and stalked into Hogwarts. Snape and Flitwick had already disabled the wards, allowing easy access into the school via Apparation. Stalking through the corridors, Harry quickly made his way up to the fourth floor. He ran back into Charlie, because apparently the Carrows roomed together. Just making things easier.

Charlie commented as they waited outside of the door, listening, " This should be simple."

" Never underestimate the enemy. 3….2…..1"

Harry blasted the door open, and caught Amycus with his pants down. Literally. Harry smirked as he AK'd the Death Eater. He heard Alecto shouting, " Amycus? What's going on?"

" Get her Charlie."

Charlie nodded, and silently cast Sectumsempra to behead her. Harry commented, " Sloppy. You need to get used to the AK, Charlie. Cleaner and not as painful. Harder to trace too."

Charlie grimaced, " Damn Harry. You've really become a professional killer haven't you?"

" Necessary evil. For there to freedom, there must be Black Fire."

Charlie shuddered, but they began to make their way towards the Headmaster's office. When they entered, Snape smirked, " Did you get it done?"

" Any doubt Severus? They were no match."

Charlie chuckled, " Yeah, we caught Amycus with his pants down, so he was easy, and Alecto got curious George'd."

Snape nodded, and threw some Floo Powder into the fireplace, " Report your success to base."

Charlie ran into the Floo, and was gone in an instant, leaving Harry with Snape. Severus hissed, " So, you took down the Carrows'? You do realize that the Dark Lord's probably going to send someone even worse next right?"

Harry chuckled, " Not if you hire someone else first."

Snape glared, " Are you insinuating…"

" Yes, I want you to hire me, under an alias of course, before the Dark Lord brings his fist down. I'll handle the Defense class. I know enough Dark Arts as well to teach for the Dark Lord. And I could certainly handle Ancient Runes with Rune Reading."

Snape took a look at his roster, " Funny how you know all three of my openings are Ancient Runes, DADA, and Muggle Studies. You want all three?"

Harry glared, " Fuck no. Two's stretching it. I'll see if I can get Hermione to do it. Which she probably will, because she's been doing everything but shag me to get back in my good graces. Speaking of which, she's still right good ways away."

Snape whispered, " So she is. How's the other two?"

Harry smiled at the Potions Master turned Headmaster, " Can't get over the fact that your two best snakes fell for the biggest Lion out there eh?"

Severus frowned slightly, " At least you live up to it now. You know the saying though. Lion with small penis must compensate with big roar."

Harry's expression instantly darkened, " Please don't make that joke again."

Snape raised an eyebrow, " Hmm, makes one wonder though…."

" So you going to hire me or what?"

Snape laughed, " Of course! Who else? Lucius Malfoy?"

Harry called out Fawkes, whom he'd forgotten was his "familiar" and flashed to Grimmauld Place. It was at this moment that Snape felt his Mark burn.

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(Dark Lord)

Snape's mouth dropped when he walked into the Dark Lord's Inner Sanctum. There were TWO Dark Lords! One turned to him and smiled, " So you've noticed, Severus. This is my, well, I guess, my twin brother. Marcellus Riddle."

The other tilted his head like an owl, " You might actually say that we are the same man, just opposite natures reincarnated. Yes, we know about that little ritual you and Potter did in the woods."

Oh fuck, Snape thought as he looked at the twin atrocities standing in front of him. Voldemort laughed cruelly, " Oh how nice it is to see you squirm, Severus. We actually approve, otherwise, we wouldn't have this lovely little development."

Marcellus started now, " We have the same power, same everything. But we are also two, and yet we are also one. Mental link and all. It is like Magic saw fit to level the playing field with Potter once more. I suppose you are familiar with the Balance Theory?"

" The Theory that all Magic creates balance in the battles. In order for there to be peace in the world, there must be a previous conflict between a Dark Lord and a Light Lord. Also, if a Light Lord should forsake his Light, and become a Dark Lord, then Magic shall balance that by creating a Chosen One. A Chosen One shall have the power to defeat the re-designated Forsaken One. Should a Dark Lord betray the Darkness and become a Light Lord, the same shall be done for the Dark side. However, if both should happen within a reasonable amount of time, then something far more powerful shall be created. A Grey Lord."

Both Voldemort and Marcellus smirked at Snape. Marcellus was the one who finished it off, " A Grey Lord is created when a Light Lord becomes a Dark Lord, and a Dark Lord becomes a Light Lord. Since Dumbledore was born to Darkness, but served light, and we were born to Light, but served Darkness, Potter was born to the Grey. A Grey Lord shall command the power of both Light and Darkness, yet serve neither. He shall be the one who balances the equations. Given our caliber, Potter was given more power than he should have. Thus, my essence was cloned during the Destruction/Restoration Ritual, and there are now two of me."

Snape swallowed the thick glob of spittle that had gathered in his mouth. This was bad. Really bad. Not that Potter had had it easy before, but the destiny of taking out the Dark Lord just got a lot worse. Two Dark Lords who were equal in every way, in fact, magical clones of each other, would be neigh on impossible. Unless Potter really had something going for him. Then again, Snape had come to really respect the boy's cunning as of late. He had taken to thrashing Weasley in chess, something that even Snape had trouble with. Perhaps Potter had some real aces up his sleeve? Either way, Snape would need to get this information to him quickly.

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( Harry)

" Harry, I just don't know how in the hell you beat me. Who the hell moves their king first?"

Harry laughed at Ron's frustrations, " A king must lead if he wants his subjects to follow, Ron. By the way, I think I just beat you in nine minutes. Time Hermione?"

Hermione checked the stop watch she had been using to time the match, much to Ron's chagrin, " Eight minutes and forty seconds."

Ron blushed red. Harry just loved playing with Snape, because Snape was a real chess player. Not just a Wizard's chess player. He toured the British Circuits, and had been a Grandmaster for a time. A grandmaster of chess was someone with a ranked ELO of over 2500, and played in tournament levels of 2600 or better. However, Snape's skill had lapsed a little. Harry actually enjoyed the fact that he could actually learn something, even if it wasn't actually useful, from Snape. Proved he wasn't that bad of a teacher.

Harry sighed as his watch alarm went off, " Well, I need to get back to Hogwarts. My new base for now. Don't contact me."

He called Fawkes and flashed out.

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( Harry Later)

He sometimes couldn't believe he'd ever thought of Hogwarts as his true home. Granted, it was always a welcome respite from the Dursleys, but the castle had, in its own strange ways, been just as cruel. In many ways, it had been worse. In these halls, were the constraints that prevented him from becoming the Grey Lord he was now destined to be earlier. He'd survived Voldemort a grand total five times, and several other attempts on his life, but it was no thanks to the naïve teachers of this castle.

He was sitting at the desk of the DADA office, as he wondered about McGonagall. Yeah, she was great Peace time teacher. But she was absolutely terrible as a wartime teacher. Seriously, she's teaching Seventh Years how to turn a rock into a china cup. That's not helping anyone on the battlefield. Even though Battle Transfiguration was considered above and beyond the standards of even Aurors, it still had its merits.

Then there was Flitwick. For a former Dueling Champion, his Charms didn't exactly help a lot on the battlefield. But then again, Flitwick himself had told Harry that his Dueling styles would have him killed in record time on the battlefield. So Flitwick was kind of excused.

And of course, there was the Defense. Shame there was an Offense class at Hogwarts, but Defense had been trash for years before Harry had come to Hogwarts. Even though Quirrel was on his second tour, he still had never served more than one year in sequence. The lack of a competent teacher that wasn't a Werewolf or a Death Eater in disguise was more than making for the reason why so many of his former classmates were dead, or injured.

The first student he sought out was Neville, because he just had a feeling that Neville had a resistance movement going. The old boy wasn't the greatest warrior ever, but he certainly knew how to get people to follow him around. Even if he was just playing around as Harry's Second in Command. Harry chuckled at that notion after he'd found Neville hiding in the Room of Requirement.

He'd gotten lucky, because Seamus had forgotten the old " And let no one enter this room" part of the requirement. Suffice to say, it was only his new fangled Grey Lord power empowering his Protego, plus some shield runes, that enabled him to survive the roughly thirty Stunners hurled at his persona. Of course, he also had to spend some time healing the ten people who got caught in his explosion trigger, but better safe than sorry in his mind.

Neville had been surprised to say the least. He and Harry had been about to go to duel right there in front of everyone when Dean stopped them. Harry had hid his relief, because he was caught with only his Calligraphy pen and his Life Wand on him. The Wand of Life could never be used to harm any sentient living creature, something he'd found while being attacked in the woods. It was the opposite of the Death Wand in so many ways. So many unhelpful ways.

Harry continued to muse over his situation. He was the King of the Phoenixes, the Commander of the Resistance, the Knight of Britain. And yet he was scheduled to be teaching at a school? Somehow, it seemed rather counterproductive. He still had that Malfoy raid to plan, and he still needed more men. Even though he had sent several recruiting pitches over the reset Wizarding Wireless, he'd gotten maybe, two recruits? And he wasn't going to be writing home to Aunt Petunia about those two either, because Vernon had more tolerance for Wizards than they had magical talent between them.

Alas, the old DA wasn't going to be his personal army of Knights either. Some were powerful ( Neville) , some were skilled ( Lisa) , some were cunning ( Susan) , and some were walking spell books (Padma) , but none of them were the unique combination of the skill sets he needed. Plus, he still had a reluctance to send his classmates to the front lines. Even if he'd already seen both Susan Bones and Lisa Turpin in his bed, and he'd only been there a few hours, he still wasn't sending them to the front lines unless he needed to. Being a hero's tough sometimes.

It was at this time that Snape came back with a rather urgent expression on his face. Harry scowled at him, causing the batty Headmaster to glare back, " What, did I interrupt something?"

" Good thing you didn't show up an hour ago, or you would have been treated to a nice show."

Snape slapped his hand to his face, " Damn you Potter, you better not be screwing my students! Teachers aren't supposed to have anything more than a professional relationship with their students!"

Harry raised a sly eyebrow, " I'm not exactly a professional you know. I'm also a teenager that's had a lot put on his shoulders. Don't worry, it isn't like any of these relations are permanent at all. Just relieving some stress."

" You shouldn't treat women like pawns in chess."

Harry commented, " And you should say anything? Ah well, maybe I did use my new status as a Grey Lord and the press coining me the Hero of the Wizarding world. But hey, all's fair in love and war."

" I guess the aggression is not just at the enemy then. Well, hate to spoil your good mood, but…"

Harry cut him off, " Lisa climaxed too fast and Susan was a fish. I'm not in that good a mood."

Snape glared, " Getting a woman to climax isn't something to be upset about, you know that roughly thirty percent of women actually can't right?"

" Doesn't matter, I prefer to be in synch with my woman. And what do you know about sex anyway, Mr. Virgin?"

Snape flushed in anger at the jibe, but kept his tongue in check. He was clearly biting it pretty hard, so he decided to change the subject, " Well, the Dark Lord has a little surprise for you."

" What? An STD that can't be cured with magic?"

Snape darkened, " No, magic has created a Clone of him. There are now two Dark Lords. The new one calls himself Marcellus."

" Fuck"

A/N: Apologies for late updates and all. I've been working on other stories as of late, not to mention I was finishing Lord of the Marauders, a story I'm still rather surprised caught on as well as it did. That's when I remembered this story, and took a look at it. Then I remembered that I'd been so busy on other stories that I'd forgotten where I'd wanted this one to go. Thankfully, I took a look back at the original versions of Chapters 5 and 6.

Readers will remember that I got rid of the original versions of Chapters 5 and 6 because of the predominantly negative response they got, based mostly on the violence used by Harry on the Order Members who didn't want to cooperate with him and my own version of a Bond called the Trinity Bond. Well, I rediscovered a plot device in those chapters.

Voldemort's Magical Clone, the unintended side effect of the Restoration Ritual. As well as an explanation of the Grey Lord.

Grandmaster: A real international Chess title. It's as high as it gets, so if Snape was a grandmaster, he was a beast, and probably still is even if his skills lapsed.

Aggro Harry returns: Now more aggressive than ever, and not just against his enemies!