See end of Chapter #1 for main author's notes.

Thought for the Day: Only the Insane Prosper.

Chapter #7

Soundtrack Theme #15

Artist: Bill Conti

Title: Gonna Fly Now

Album: Rocky

"Come on Harry! You owe me one more rep!"

Teeth clenching with effort Harry brought the weight down to his chest one last time before exploding with effort to suspend it above him. Finally, he gently set it back on the rest over his head sat up on the bench.

"Seventy kilos Harry. That's pretty good but you've got a way to go." Mr. Reynolds said while helping Harry take off the weights.

"You've got some stamina, but you lack power. In boxing you don't push your opponent around, you punch him. That means you got to smash him into submission, and the sooner you can do it the less time he has to do the same to you."

With the lighter weights on the bar Harry began to do his latest set. This time he had less weight, but more reps to go through. At first Harry had a much easier time lifting these weights, but by the time he got to his last rep the fatigue from all the reps before caught up to him and he was struggling again. His left arm especially was having trouble with keeping up with the work his right was doing, causing the load to become unbalanced.

"Come on, Harry! This is where the stamina comes in! Are you going to let these stupid hunks of metal beat you?", his coach demanded to encourage him.

With a final burst of strength Harry completed his set and replaced the bar back onto the cradle. Quickly getting back up he helped the coach unload the bar.

"Alright, Harry. You've done well today. How are your ribs?"

"Fine."

"If they were killing you I don't suppose you'd tell me. Well, go run six laps around the building and I'll be out in a couple minutes to see if you dropped dead from a punctured lung. Anyway, it should be about time for you to go home then and you can do your cool-downs and stretches. Don't let Vernon try to rush you; I'm holding Dudley here so you'll have the time to cool down properly like I showed you. Good practice and we'll start sparring next week."

Harry smiled at this before running outside to do as he was told. With a light heart he began sprinting around the building as fast as he could without slipping on the wet concrete sidewalk. His senses were alive, taking in details of his surroundings in a manner not unlike when he flew on his broom during Quidditch. The seemingly uniform grey of the urban industrial area differentiated itself into a hundred different shades to match the threatening clouds above.

Harry pushed himself, trying to complete his six laps before his coach came out to check on him, but started to flag midway through the fifth lap with a stitch in his side.

"Come on Harry! Last fifty meters and you can pack it in!", the coach yelled.

After a last burst of speed Harry reached his coach who began jogging with him around the building. After their first circuit his coach told him, "That was a good run, Harry. Big improvement over last week. Too bad you're at Hogwarts and all we're training you to do is boxing. We could make you a cross country or track'n field star with your build. When I'm done you'll just need a little more practice to enter you into a Decathlon. In the mean time Harry you're going to need to focus on boxing. You and Dudley have your first fight next Friday and we really haven't done much sparring yet. Your bag work is pretty good but your going to be really sore by the time Friday rolls around and because we're short on time I need you and Dudley to do your running and calisthenics on your own time. Don't sit on your asses this weekend, or else you'll regret it on Monday."

With grunting being the only response he could give Harry continued with his cool-down exercises. Slowing his jogging down on his last lap he and Mr. Reynolds went back inside and Harry began to stretch out his muscles before hitting the locker room to shower and change.

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A short, quiet ride found the three men home around five in the afternoon. Pulling up in the driveway Harry saw a strange man mowing their lawn while another trimmed the hedges. A small truck and trailer was parked along the frontage of the house and had a sign advertising a lawn service.

Harry followed Mr. Dursley and his son out of the car and noted that the man didn't say a word to the yard men. When he reached the door he was surprised that it opened before he could reach the knob.

"Hello, sir! Your wife and I are glad to welcome you home today!", said a pretty young blond woman in her twenties that Harry had never met before. Her accent was difficult to place, but it reminded Harry of Victor Krum, the star Quidditch Seeker for Bulgaria so he figured she was from Eastern Europe.

"Here is your mail, sir!", she said handing Mr. Dursley a wad of bills as he began to walk past her with a grunt of annoyance at her perky attitude.

"This is for you, young sir!", she said handing Dudley a letter, before turning to Harry and saying "And this, young sir, is for you".

Harry glanced at the envelope, which said that it was from Mr. & Mrs. Granger. Stunned that they were the people that had written to him he looked back at the woman. "Who are you?" he asked her.

Soundtrack Theme #16

Artist: Jethro Tull

Title: Like a Tall Thin Girl

Album: Catfish Rising

"I'm the new maid the Dursley's hired. My name is Anna." the too-perky lady said. "I help do cleaning and cooking at house, but I go home at night to family. What is your name?".

Dudley took this moment to introduce himself to her before giving her a sly look and saying, "Your pretty cute. Do you have a younger sister?"

The apparently genuine smile Anna had plastered to her face vanished and Dudley's mail was grabbed out of his hand so that Anna could beat him over the head with it. When Dudley began to race up the stairs Ana decided to not give chase.

Feeling that he needed to say something on his cousin's behalf Harry clear his throat before saying, "I'm sorry about my cousin. He goes to an all boys' boarding school and doesn't know how to act around ladies."

Anna turned to face Harry. The glower she had while watching Dudley had escaped her wrath by running up the stairs softening somewhat as she looked at him and heard his words. Finally she grinned as she handed him Dudley's letter before saying "Tell Dudley I have a sister a year younger than him. She is the same tallness..." she said while gesturing to herself "as me. Her dresses are small than me.", she said putting her hands above her hips before bringing them in front of her and closer together, indicating a smaller waistline than herself. "But she has much more here.", she frowned as her hand moved up her sides before cupping her... attributes.

Harry's eyes where mesmerized for a moment before he shook his head and tried to focus back on Anna's face. He was surprised that Anna was smiling at him as she seemed flattered that she had this effect on him. His blood ran cold as she continued, however, saying, "And if he ever asks me again about her I will tear off his gonads and serve them to him for dinner!"

Sprinting up the stairs Harry missed Anna chuckling to herself as she smiled in what was apparently her usual manner and headed back into the kitchen to help with dinner. Instead he was to busy pounding on the door to his Cousins room.

"What do you want, Harry? Dudley asked after letting Harry into the sanctuary of his room.

Harry rushed into the middle of the room before handing Dudley his extremely wrinkled mail. In answer to Dudley he replied, "That Anna is a scary woman! I found out the answer to your question, but I don't think you're going to like it."

"Well don't keep me in suspense! I sacrificed too many brain cells to the beating that woman gave me not know the truth!", Dudley yelled in a purposefully overly-dramatic manner while moving in front of the door as if to block Harry's escape.

Harry repeated the conversation he'd had downstairs, complete with the interesting accent and physical description of the younger sister and what Anna would do to Dudley if he ever went near the young lady in question.

"You know what Harry?"

"What Dudley?"

"The pain might be worth it."

"You know what I think, Dudley?"

"What's that, Harry?"

"I think your nutters." Harry stated while looking over Dudley's shoulder at the now-opened door. Standing just outside the room was a frowning Anna holding a tray with an energy shake for Harry, and a diet one meant for Dudley.

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While Dudley was busy taking yet another shower (this time to get the protein shake out of his hair) Harry returned to his room to read and answer the letter from Hermione's parents. Sitting at his desk he opened the letter and took a sip of his rather bland drink before leaning back to read.

A few minutes later Harry realized that he had made a mistake, albeit an honest one, in writing to Hermione. She had told her parents that she was going to the Burrow to spend the summer with both Ron and Harry, so while they tend to not be nosey people, when they got a letter addressed to Hermione from Harry with a return address in Surrey they became concerned. Finally deciding to open their daughter's mail they now had a whole host of rather awkward questions to ask.

Because Ginny had already written to Harry concerning how incoming and outgoing owl post at his location was being watched by Dumbledore's guards Harry still couldn't write Hermione to ask her what lies she wanted him to tell them!

"'Why are you not at the same location as our daughter, and why do you not know where she is? Has our daughter run off with the Weasley boy? In your letter to our daughter you mentioned how Ronald Weasley was jealous of our daughter's Yule Ball date, Victor Krumb. Is our daughter dating either of these two boys? How has this evil wizard come back to attack you? We thought that this 'Lord Voldemort' was dead by your hand as a child? How did Cedric Diggory die? Why can't you contact any of your other friends? Our daughter has written to us a few letters this summer and at least once a month during the school year, and at no point has she hinted at anything that you discussed in your letter!'", Harry read this aloud while cursing his bad luck and wondering how he was going to get out of this mess with Hermione still attending Hogwarts next year.

An hour of staring at the Grangers' letter still failed to give Harry any ideas of how to respond. His ignorance of what excuse Hermione gave for not writing her family during the three months she was turned to stone by the reflected gaze of a basilisk in their third year had Harry stumped.

'Did she tell her family about the polyjuice potion accident in second year, or how we almost got killed during the fight to get to the Sorcerers' Stone in first year? What did she tell them about Prof. Lupin and Uncle Sirius? Do they know anything about the Tri-wizard Tournament? Damn it, Hermione! I need to co-ordinate with you if we're going to make it out of Voldemort's war alive!'

Disgusted, Harry tossed the letter on his desk where it landed in the puddle of condensation formed by his now lukewarm energy shake. Leaning forward with his elbows on the table and his face in his hands he heaved a sigh.

"What am I going to do! Hell, maybe that's the wrong tack. Umm, what would Sun Tzu do?"

Glancing at the book Dudley gave him Harry thought hard about just what a man almost two and a half millennium dead would have to say about his situation. Maxims of the long dead scholarly warrior began to jump to the fore of his mind as well as the anecdotal stories of those that wrote commentaries dealing with his work. Grabbing the book he set down to read and came to some startling conclusions based on the text and the current events found in Ginny's smuggled copies of 'The Daily Prophet'.

'If Fudge was considered the ruler in the manner that Sun Tzu speaks of then the Aurors and the DMLE are his generals, while Dumbledore and his other Department Heads are his civilian administrators. Because Fudge has the 'mandate of the people' he can do a lot of damage by 'hobbling' his army, giving out false information about Voldemort's return and giving out orders for 'his army' to stand down. None of his 'generals' are willing to be fired for doing the right thing and acting on the facts so then it falls to Dumbledore and I to tell people what the facts are. But we can't order the 'generals' to do their jobs because the 'sovereign' won't let them and he's undercutting both Dumbledore and myself.'

Harry studied this logical model he'd come up with to try to better understand just what the hell was going on in his life.

"But why is Dumbledore cutting me out of the loop. He's one of the few people that believed me about Voldemort's return so shouldn't he be talking to me more to see if I have anything else to say about what happened that night at least?", asked Harry aloud. If Dumbledore was intercepting and actually reading his mail then he should have read the letter to him concerning his nightmare/visions that he had about Voldemort. If so, why had he not written him back?

The answer came to him in a flash of insight. A little voice with a Far Eastern accent quietly stated, "All warfare is based on deception. It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order. He must be able to mystify his officers and men by false reports and appearances, and thus keep them in total ignorance."

Well, Harry had to hand it to Dumbledore. He seems to have a better idea of what to do than Fudge did. It stood to reason that if the Ministry was not willing to take on the fight against Voldemort then it would fall to Dumbledore to lead the fight. Using the 'old crowd' that he mentioned at the end of last year as his army and officers it only made sense that he was now acting like a general. The reaction of Fudge to the news that Voldemort had returned had forced Dumbledore's hand, and as a consequence of Dumbledore's words and preparation Fudge had to undermine both he and Harry to maintain his own power.

'Fudges stupidity makes a little more sense now when I think of it in these terms.'

A simple fact about the whole situation gave Harry pause, however. Just because Dumbledore was right about how he had to deal with both Voldemort and the ass-backwards Ministry of Magic did not give him leave to keep ignorant Hermione's parents of the dangers she was in every year at school any more than it did the old man the right to block his Owl Post! If he wanted to command an army to fight Voldemort then he should damn well let his soldiers know what they were getting into before they sign up for it! Hey, maybe his soldiers' aught to at least volunteer first, before he starts including them in his plans.

Sun Tzu might agree that sharing every detail of the battle plan with those under your command was just asking for a spy in the ranks to cause an army's destruction, but so to a total lack of info lead to a mutiny, and a complete lack of direction to defeat!

The little Sun Tzu in Harry's mind was also berating him at the moment for failing to create a dependable network of spies loyal to himself and not Dumbledore. Hermione was intelligent and would tell him what was going on but tended to want to follow the dictates of those in authority, while Ron was generally content to follow her lead on anything that didn't have to do with Quidditch or studying. Remus and Sirius both loved him as he was the son of Lilly and James Potter, and Sirius was sworn as his Godfather, but both were apparently part of the old crowd and Harry supposed that they owed their fealty more to Dumbledore than himself.

Ginny was the only person who was loyal enough to him to be willing to work as his agent in what Harry was coming to term as 'Dumbledore's Camp'. However, she herself was not a part of the Dumbledore's group directly but rather had been dragged along by one or both of her parents, nor did he have a way to contact her.

Harry stood up and began pacing about his room. His train of thought had derailed failing to give him an idea of what to do, and like the opening of the Grangers' letter raised more questions than it answered.

"This isn't working.", Harry moaned aloud. "How the hell am I supposed to come up with something to answer them? I mean, I can't tell Hermione's parents the truth…"

Harry ceased pacing.

Looking over at his Space Marine models Harry knew exactly what these men of a fictitious future would do in a similar situation. It just so happened it dovetailed with what Sun Tzu, and all those good generals that were mentioned in those commentaries would do.

"That's it! I don't have to lie! I can be honest with them! If Dumbledore doesn't like it, then the Hell with him! If I do this right I won't have to loose Hermione as a friend because I must convince her parents that the safest place to be in spite of the danger is still Hogwarts. I just have to tell them the truth about how much more danger they all will be in if she gets pulled out of school, and then can't defend them or herself from the Death Eaters!"

Harry realized that he shouldn't be happy about this as the truth about all the students' of Hogwarts vulnerabilities to Death Eaters, especially for the muggle born was terrible to bear. Still, wizards were right when they said Hogwarts was the most secure place in Great Britain. It wasn't so much that a person with ill intent couldn't enter it's wards so much that it was rather difficult for such a person to do so, much less get back out alive and free after the fact. Considering that most homes of wizards were apparently easy for Death Eaters to break into, and even Gringotts' Bank goblin defenses were not an insurmountable obstacle, hiding among the herd of students at Hogwarts while training to defend oneself in the same manner as a commander model leading (or rather 'hiding in') an infantry squad in Warhammer 40,000 was the best way to survive.

Unless of course the Death Eaters learned the value of field artillery in which case bunching up into a tight herd for safety resulted in everybody getting slaughtered when the shells started to fall.

About that time someone knocked on the door. Crossing the room Harry opened the door to see a newly showered Dudley standing there waiting to ask something. Grabbing his arm Harry dragged him into his room.

"I need to pick your brain!"

"Will it involve thinking?", Dudley asked.

"Yes!", Harry replied.

"Well I'm on vacation, so if you'll excuse me…".

Thinking fast Harry decided to tell him that it involved applying Sun Tzu and Warhammer 40,000 knowledge to a real-life situation. He went on to explain what he needed to do with the letter.

"That's great, Harry. But why are you telling me this?", Dudley asked.

"Because I need to run this by another muggle so that I answer any of their questions before they have chance to ask them. I need to make a convincing argument for why I think Hermione needs to stay at Hogwarts when there are several hundred pureblood witches and wizards that want people like her dead just because her parents are muggles. So I'll write a paragraph and then read it back to you. If you don't get something I want you to tell me and I'll try to explain it to you. If you get it then two adult dentists shouldn't have too much trouble."

"Okay…", Dudley agreed reluctantly while wondering how he got himself roped into this.

Grabbing a roll of parchment and a quill Harry sat back down and prepared to write. "I'll start by telling them about getting my Hogwarts letter before my first year, and work my way up until the end of last year."

"Oh, joy.", Dudley said with a sigh as he tried to find a comfortable spot on the floor.

"What, you have something better to do?", Harry asked.

"Besides clean what's left of that shake off the floor? No."

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Five hours later found the two teens finishing up on Harry's letter. While Harry wrote Dudley had entertained himself by looking over the various army lists he had assigned Harry to compile that week in preparation of the coming campaign they would be participating in with Dudley's friends.

At times Dudley's questions had been both a hindrance and a help. For instance, Dudley had a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that the self-propelled artillery piece used by the Imperial Guard army called a Basilisk was named after a not-so-mythical giant snake whose gaze could kill.

"The name fits, though. If that artillery piece can see something, the chances are that whatever it is will be blown away by the next game turn.", Dudley opined.

Harry decided to continue in this thread, asking "So if I mentioned a Chimera?"

"You wouldn't be talking about an Imperial Guard APC with a ten-man transport capacity.", said Dudley

"Right."

"Um, Harry?"

"Yes?"

"How did you beat the Basilisk?"

"I killed it. With a sword."

"Bloody Hell!", said Dudley, at that moment sound very much like another friend of Harry's. The phrase became a steady litany every time Harry got to describing the culmination of his school year adventures From the tale of Ginny and the Basilisk, to saving his innocent Godfather Sirius, and finally the most impressive and depressing tale of his showdown with a reborn Voldemort Dudley made it clear that he was suitable impressed.

"I'm not sure which is worse, the First Task with the Dragon or Voldemort's rebirth.", Dudley mused.

"In the first task I was afraid for myself. I actually preferred that to the way I felt when we had the second task. Being afraid for others is a much worse feeling. The only thing that made it better was that I didn't know what was really going to happen beforehand, otherwise I'd have been a basket case."

"Going into the third task I was almost confident that things were going to be okay, and as far as the task itself went I was correct. Everything that happened after Cedric and I touched the Portkey was a nightmare, and I wish I could say that it will never happen again. I know that I will never allow my friends to be killed again!", Harry said fiercely. Feeling the track of the tears he hadn't realized he was sheeding race down his cheeks he wiped at them in irritation before finishing with, "But I'm afraid that I probably will have to face Voldemort again."

Dudley glanced over at Harry's Space Marine figures. Standing up walked over to the end of the table they were sitting on and grabbed a squad.

"How many of these guys did you loose in the last battle with my Orks?", Dudley asked.

"All of them.", Harry replied quietly.

"And were they able to fight well?"

"No, they didn't. They didn't even get in a turn of shooting.", Harry mumbled while looking at the floor.

"Do you think you will do better next time?", Dudley asked.

"Yes. I can't do any worse than last time.", Harry grumbled, getting annoyed at this line of questioning.

"And why is that?", Dudley asked not unkindly.

"Because I'm a better player now!", Harry shouted as he got up in Dudley's face.

It was obvious that Harry had had enough, but Dudley wasn't about to let things lie. He simply stood his ground and asked Harry another question.

"And why is that?"

"Because I know what to expect!", yelled Harry again.

"Exactly!", said Dudley as he pointed a finger into Harry's chest while being carefull to cradle the models in his other hand.

"You know what to expect so you can start preparing for it. From everything you've told me Voldemort is an overconfident asshole with only three spells he likes to cast in battle, and unlike you he's not going to rush off to a library to look up new spells to kill you with. Rather than blame himself for you getting away he will blame his followers the way some gamers blame their crappy units or bad dice rolls for their losses rather than their bad tactics. He's probably going to spend the next year coming up with an elaborate way to trap you again,and worry about actually how he will take you out when he comes to it."

"You Harry," Dudley shouted while poking Harry hard in the chest, "will spend the next year looking for spells with which to turn the tables. You will protect your friends, and when the time comes you will kill Voldemort or die trying."

"But I don't want to be a murderer!"

Harry fell back into the chair and twisted around to bury his head in his crossed arms on the table. The tears were soaked up by the pages of his letter while Dudley looked at Harry in surprise.

Lips pursed in thought Dudley finally sighed before saying, "If my parents' murderer walked free I'd see to it that he made it six feet under as soon as possible."

"Then I'd just be like him", said the muffled voice from where it was buried.

"Then I guess that after Voldemort kills you Harry he'll just retire from being 'Mr. Bad Wizard'. Maybe he'll take up gardening, or maybe he'll volunteer at soup kitchen and hospitals…"

Harry perked up at this, his head popping up from it's hidey-hole to turn and look at Dudley.

"No, he won't stop until he rules the world. Both the magical and muggle world.", Harry said with certainty.

"Oh, so I guess the Ministry of Magic well catch him then, and put him and his followers in prison – even the ones who have jobs or influence with them you told me about. After all, they've done such a good job of doing this so far. They even imprison innocent men like your Godfather in the hopes that not one guilty Death Eater walks free! Right Harry?"

"No! They're led buy a bunch of crooked politicians only interested in staying in office! They care nothing for justice or the innocent that may be killed because of their incompetence!", shouted Harry.

"That's right!"

Harry jumped to his feet. Dudley quickly moved behind him to replace the models while Harry reached under his bed for the newspaper clipping Ginny had mailed him that last week.

"Look here Dudley. This man here" he pointed at the picture of Fudge, "calls Dumbledore and I mad for trying to warn him and the world that Voldemort has returned. But he and his toadies in the government and the news reporters piss themselves every time Voldemort's name is even mentioned, and even the common witch or wizard shivers when they're forced to say the name 'You-Know-Who'".

"Sounds like little children to me.", Dudley added from his spot next to the desk while smiling.

"It's worse than that. They're sheep! They believe everything they read in the papers, and cower when they see Death Eaters marching around. There were thousands of witches and wizards at the World Quidditch Cup last summer, but when a dozen drunken Death Eaters came marching through the campground torturing the muggle camp host family and casting spells willy-nilly left and right nobody tried to fight them. No of them stood their ground and fought. They all ran screaming, and waited for a handful of Aurors to show up after the Death Eaters had gotten away unpunished! They're cowards! They depend on others to defend their freedom!"

"Amen!", Dudley shouted, grinning widely now.

"They ask me to defend them and their children and then have the nerve to ridicule me! They, who have not faced what I've faced or fought what I've fought! And now, when it comes time for them to finally face it with me they stick there heads in the sand and tell me all is well!"

"Hail the Emperor!", Dudley yelled.

"They – what was that, Dudley?", Harry stopped mid-rant to ask.

Continuing to grin Dudley bent over and grabbed the Warhammer 40K rulebook from the middle of Harry's stack of GW stuff on the floor by the desk. Open the book to a certain page he handed it to Harry and pointed out a certain passage in the margins which Harry read aloud.

"You are not free whose liberty is won by the rigor of other, more honorable men. You are merely protected. Your freedom is parasitic; you suck the honorable man dry and offer nothing in return. You who have enjoyed freedom, who have done nothing to earn it, your time has come. This time you will stand alone and fight for yourselves. Now you will pay for your freedom in the currency of honest toil and human blood." Inquisitor Czevak - at the Council of Ryanti.

Dudley then slapped him on the back, saying "If it were just about revenge, then yes, you might be correct about your motives. But you see, what you are doing is necessary. Just as I will never become the worlds greatest boxer by sitting on my ass all day playing video games rather than toiling away practicing boxing, so to will the world be free of men like Voldemort only through the efforts of people like you. From the sound of things, your greatest revenge would be to stop this madman cold, and the only way you're going to do that is to kill him."

Harry took a few moments to digest this. With a sigh of acceptance Harry nodded and closed the book. Laying it back on top of his stack of GW stuff he sat back down at the desk.

"Thanks Dudley, for what you told me. I came to the same conclusion a while ago, but I just didn't think I was right. I wish I wasn't right.", Harry said.

"I'm da hand of Gork and Mork, dey sent me to rouse up da boyz to crush and kill 'cos da boyz forgot what dere 'ere for. I is Mag Uthrick Thraka. I'm da profit of da Waaagh an' whole worlds burn in my boot prints.", said Dudley as he thumped his chest with his right fist. "You juss lost the True Orky way, I hadz to set youz right!"

Harry and Dudley returned to writing the letter. Dudley questioned everything. From Accio to Zonko's. Harry found that he was going to have to write a glossary for the letter to explaining all the terms and items he was using. This slowed their progress by quite a bit until Harry decided to write the terms on another sheet and finish the glossary later.

While he found the story of Harry's life interesting at some point Dudley got bored and so started to talk like an Ork to 'liven things up' as he put it. "Ya know, that's lots of work explain' to dem hummies that if your fighten shooty or sneaky enemies you'ze gots ta get stuck in right quick!"

"What?"

Dudley sighed before repeating himself. "I said that it's a lot of work explaining to Hermione's parents that their daughter is safest staying in the middle of things. It's just like when I'm playing my Space Orks against your army or the Imperial Guard. My boyz are strong and tough, and do their best fighting hand to hand where the enemy can't concentrate their fire on them, and because of this against most players I have to get my boyz in close as fast as possible or else they get shot to pieces."

"Makes sense.", Harry agreed.

"And like I showed you in our last game, it's usually better to charge your enemy that let him charge you.", said Dudley, reminding Harry of how his own troops were swamped by the sheer amount of dice Dudley was rolling for his Orks attacks as a consequence of them getting in a charge against his Marines.

Leaving Harry to finish off his letter Dudley returned to his room to play a game on his computer. Harry had asked him if he could make a copy of the letter in case it was lost or his watchers started to look at his muggle mail, and Dudley had agreed saying, 'As much work as we put in the thing I'll be damned if we have to write it again because some uppity, dress-wearing buffoon thinks it's funny!'

After a couple hours work on the glossary Harry was introduced to the fun that could be had with a flatbed scanner. Making the electronic copies took hours, but the peace of mind it brought helped Harry relax.

Leaning back in the plush, executive style chair in his room Dudley spun it to face Harry, who was standing over the scanner before saying, "Harry. You did a good job with those army lists you wrote up."

"You mean all one hundred and fifty of them?", asked the now exhausted Harry.

"Yes. I think you made a mistake though. Most of the lists have the guys armed with wargear that you don't have glued on the actual models. The guys and I tend to stick hard and fast to the rule: WYSIWYG."

"What?", a perplexed Harry asked.

"'What You See Is What You Get'. It keeps players, especially your opponents and sometimes you yourself from forgetting exactly what you paid points to arm your characters and units with.", Dudley explained.

"Oh.", said a now depressed Harry who realized that about half of his work was done incorrectly.

"It's no problem. I forgot to tell you, so the guys will just have to lump it. In the meantime, you can start fixing the problem."

"How would I do that?", Harry asked.

Dudley reached up onto a shelf on the wall above his desk and grabbed something. Setting it on the desk Harry noticed that it was his Ork army Warboss model, with a few loose painted bit of metal sitting on the base. Before Harry could ask what he was doing Dudley removed the model's hand holding a large axe and replaced it with a hand holding a gun that was one of the parts sitting on the base.

"I don't know if you can see it in this light but I've drilled into both the hands and the arms and glued a piece of wire for attaching the hands into the slot in the arm.", Dudley explained. "I like to use the gun, or 'shoota' rather than the axe, or 'choppa', when I'm fighting against Tyranids as they're better in hand to hand than my boyz. You have to put the arms on models you want to do this with so that the wrist is elevated, otherwise the hands tend to slip off."

"That explains why all your Ork character models have one or both of their arms up rather than carrying their gear down low, but how did you drill them out? Those models are metal, and it would take forever to use the hand drill I've got to do it.", said Harry.

"I tried it that way at first then I found out about these…", Dudley said while reaching under his bed for a box. Opening it up, he pulled out a Dremel toll and several drills, cutting disks, and sanding parts. After a short lesson in proper safety and drill use Dudley handed him the box and his letter and told him to go have fun.

"What are you going to do, Dudley?"

"I'm going to bed, Harry. You told me that we have to get up at our usual time to go running and stuff, and that means I have to go to bed soon or else you're going to have to carry me out of bed and down the stairs in the morning."

Seeing as Dudley was right Harry decided to go to his room and go to bed. He put the box on the desk and put the letter on in the already addressed envelope before sealing it.

A half-hour later he was asleep.

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Harry's eyes opened around four in the morning as the result of a 'normal' nightmare. He figured that it was spawned as a result of his anxiety concerning Hermione's parents pulling her out of Hogwarts. The strange dream featured an angry Hermione being dragged out the gates of their school by her parents as he chased after her, all while the disembodied head of Sun Tzu followed behind him saying, 'Your buggered!' in accented English.

As he was wide awake Harry decided to begin his day early. Knowing he needed to be quiet so as to not disturb the Dursley he gently sat up and climbed out of bed.

All thoughts of stealth fled his mind upon seeing though the dim light what was happening on his desk.

"Hold it steady Brother-Sergeant. If we're going to do this hand-swap right the two holes must align perfectly."

On the desk Harry's Techmarine model held above his head with all the arms on his servo-harness Dudley's Dremel Tool while standing over a now handless Veteran Sergeant model. A white-armored Apothecary Marine looked on the proceedings while holding an unpainted but pre-drilled power fist that was going to be attached to the Sergeant as soon as the drilling was completed.

All across the desk Harry could see many painted models carrying unpainted wargear that had just been recently added. Some appeared to be showing off their newest pieces of 'bling' while others were less than enthusiastic to the point that they were taking it up with their superior officer models.

"Brother-Librarian Potter! Sir, my fellow squad leaders have gotten power weapons and plasma pistols as upgrades, but all my gear has actually been downgraded to just a bolter! I know it is our standard weapon for raining righteous retribution upon our enemies but why are you taking my good gear away?"

The blue Terminator armored model turned away from a squad he was inspecting to face the other model. "It's nothing to worry about, Brother-Sergeant Joel. Where just giving our commander some options. You might never be asked to give up your other gear, we just want to be prepared. For questioning the wisdom of these orders, however, you shall report to the Brother-Chaplain for your requisite chastisement and penance."

"Yes, sir!", shouted the Sergeant as he hurried back to his squad before he could be assigned any further punishment.

Unable to believe what he was seeing a wild-eyed Harry hurried from the room stopping only to grab his workout outfit before heading to the bathroom.

'It's just the early hour. I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I just need to go on a run to clear my mind. That's all, nothing else.' Harry tried to reassure himself.

Hurrying over to Dudley's room Harry forced himself to gently knock on the door rather than bash it with his had as he was want to do. Eventually giving up on the subtle approach after a minute of being ignored by a Dudley that was pretending to sleep and was snoring loader so as to drown out the noise, Harry open the door and began dragging the covers off.

"Get up big D!"

"Wawawahat!", Dudley plaintively whined semi-coherently.

"Get off your ass! We gotta move. Get up, the daylight's wasting."

"Not in this time zone. It may be morning in Moscow but it's not light here yet.", a now awake Dudley argued.

But Harry would not be deterred. His only thought was to get out of the house, and Dudley was getting in the way of that objective. Finally, after five minutes of pocking and prodding a bleary-eyed Dudley into his workout clothes the two stumbled down the stair and out the door to do their warm-ups on the dew-covered grass.

"Nothing like an English morning to make you appreciate the warmth of a musty old gym.", Dudley groused.

"We have to make sure we keep warm and don't over-do it, or we'll pull a muscle. I refuse to carry you home Dudley so watch yourself or I'll leave you for the wild dogs.", Harry joked.

"Yeah, I'd make a fine meal for all those packs of feral French poodles we've got around here.", Dudley returned with a smile.

Hopping up the boys began running down the street into the blinding light of rising sun.

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"I am really freaking bored with this", Dudley complained.

Harry and Dudley had been alternating between short sprints, push-ups, sit-ups, and long jogs of several kilometers for hours and it was already ten in the morning. Once again on a long jog the boys were beside each other with Harry setting the pace slightly faster than Dudley would have preferred.

"Two more hours and we can quit for lunch, Dudley. Think of that half-meter long sandwich roll sitting in the ice-box with your name on it.", Harry spoke between puffs.

"Can't we stop now?", Dudley whined.

"Do you want to go jogging after eating a foot-long sandwich?", asked Harry.

"No. That just means I'll have to hurl up a…"

"Never mind, don't answer that!", shouted Harry.

"Damn, I'm not hungry now.", said Dudley.

"Neither am I, you inconsiderate jerk!", said Harry.

Dudley answered with a smile.

"Speaking of inconsiderate jerks, I've got a question for you, Dudley."

"What is it Harry."

"Why aren't you treating my like an inconsiderate jerk now?", asked Harry.

"Would you believe me when I said that it's because you're a wargamer, and we're such a rare and different breed that we'll tolerate even the weirdest people so long as they're a good opponent?", Dudley asked in return.

"If I didn't know that you had a small collection weird but wonderful wargamers already to play with I might, but right now that sounds like an excuse to me.", Harry replied.

"Weird… wonderful… wargammers… that's a …simile?", asked a now huffing Dudley distractedly.

"No, it's an alliteration, and I got it from those twins that flooed through your dad's fireplace with their dad to come get me and that gave you those magical candies all those years ago.", Harry explained.

"Oh yeah! I remember those assholes.", Dudley said lightly.

Harry got the feeling Dudley was trying to change the subject and in Hermione-like fashion refused to be deterred from his line of questioning. Clearing his throat at Dudley's insult to his friends Harry continued with "That's beside the point. Why are you being nice. Most summers you can't share a civil word with me, but this summer has been totally different since the fight."

"Maybe I respect you for not taking my crap this year and fighting back…", Dudley hedged through puffs of breath.

"Bullshit. The old Dudley I know never respected me before when we fought, and if I'd somehow managed to beat you then you would have just complained to your parents about it."

As the pair came up to the entrance to the local park that Dudley had spent so many hours bullying the neighborhood children in Dudley came to a halt and turned to a still running Harry.

"If you want it to know all about it I'm got to be able to breath. Can we slow down some?", Dudley asked.

"If we jog slow until lunch we should be okay. We'll just need to stop to do push-ups every other block or so", Harry said while jogging in place.

Starting up again Dudley kept pace with Harry as they jogged beneath the park trees that lined the street. Looking up at the sky and cursing the sun that was now starting to make things uncomfortably warm for him Dudley began to speak.

"You know your friends Hermione and Ron?", started Dudley.

"What about them?"

"I… had a couple friends like them at Smeltings."

"I thought Smeltings was an all-boys school.", Harry asked.

"Well, yeah. But there is a all-girls school next to it. They share teachers and administrators, and we only have mixed classes when there is just a few students at each school that want to take that same class.", Dudley explained.

"You wanted to take a class?", Harry asked.

"Well, I had to take so many classes each term, and I tried to take easy ones that don't sound too boring. Anyway, there was this nerd named Mark, who looked kind of like you, Harry. I met him our first year there. I used to beat him up if he didn't let me and the guys from the neighborhood that went there too copy his homework, but we all started failing test because we couldn't copy off him then. Then he offered to tutor us if we protected him form everyone else that wanted to do the same thing."

"Anyway, we all thought he was a genius. Turns out he was working together with a friend of his on the 'other side of the fence'. He made friends with a girl named Alice who was in our grade at the girls-school, and because the girls were a little ahead of us boys in their classes she would tutor him in the things we would be taught that week in class as her way of studying for her tests on that same stuff."

Harry pondered Dudley's words before saying, "That makes since, really. You have to understand something before you can teach it to someone else so it's a good way to review for a test."

"And since she had just learned the stuff she didn't try to explain it to us like a teacher would. She used word even I could understand instead of all those technical terms used in the book that only the professors knew the meaning of.", Dudley continued.

"Sounds kind of like my friend Hermione. She always wants to review before our tests and often she has to re-teach Ron and I what we already covered. If doing so means she learns the work better and so she does better on the test I can see why she always wants to study with us.", said Harry.

Dudley took a deep breath before continuing, "Well, I ended up studying with them instead of hanging out with the other guys so much because I wanted more free time in the evenings, and learning with Mark and Alice saved a lot of time. I mean, yeah, I felt like I was the dumbest person in the room, but I got the work done quicker and my grades got a lot better from being around them so much. I even got to enjoy being around them, and it was Mark who showed me Warhammer 40K and his Space Orks. We'd talk like Orks around Alice. It used to drive her nuts, and she said it made her feel dumber having heard it."

"Well, it is one hell of a nasty accent", Harry said.

"It turns out that Mark came to regard me like a Boss Ork, and all the other guys as Nobz. We might have been big and dumb, but we were strong and tough, whereas he was smart but weak: kind of like a little gretchin. Anyway, we'd fight to protect him, and he'd keep thing running smoothly for the rest of us. After an hour of using small, simple terms explaining it to my old friends it turned out they liked the idea of it and started going around acting like Orks. Nobody else noticed a difference, really, other than the fact that we all started sounding even dumber when we talked and tended to shout 'Waaggghhhh!" at random times just for the hell of it."

"Judging by the way your talking in the past tense I'd say something bad happened.", Harry stated plainly.

Coming to a corner with a stoplight the pair stopped talking to do some pushups. After squeezing out twenty-five of them they pushed up and started running in place. While waiting for the light to turn Dudley restarted his story by saying,"Yeah, it all fell apart eventually."

"What happened?"

"We got a new kid in class.", Dudley said simply. "He was a little smaller than me, and not as strong. His dad had a little more money than mine does, and he had a whole lot less brains than mine I can tell you. And, the bastard kid was a lot meaner."

They continued to jog for a while in silence. Finally it was Harry that stopped causing Dudley to do the same. Drawing in a deep breath Harry asked Dudley, "And what happened then?"

"I spent more time with Mark and Alice, and he spent more time with my nobz. I didn't go smoke with the guys in the bathroom as much, and he started giving them kilos of white powder."

Harry was confused by this saying, "I don't know what…"

"Do you know how utterly futile it is trying to explain math to someone high on cocaine? The sky isn't the same color in their world as ours. My boyz were corrupted, and I didn't even notice it until it was too late."

"When I was the boss if we bullied someone it was for a reason. Maybe it was stupid, but we didn't permanently hurt people…much. Usually it was just childish things like stuffing a nerd in a dumpster or stealing his candy. What we didn't go around doing was seeing if we could break every bone is that nerds arm before he passed out from the pain."

"I got called in because it was my boyz that did that, and the only reason I didn't get in trouble for it was because I was with Mark and Alice in our elective class at the time. We were actually taking a class for the first time together and for once I was excited to go to a class."

"My boyz got in trouble though, and because I taught them all to keep their mouths shut whenever we used to get into trouble they did the same this time and were all put on probation while the nerd was sent home. It was that rich bastard who actually came up with the plan and did it, though, but the school wouldn't expel him because his parents were giving the school so much money."

"He'd been expelled from a lot of other schools and Smeltings was the end of the line for him. He was too smart for a public trade school though, and his dad's money made other schools at least give him a try before kicking him out without a refund."

"He sounds kind of like a Chaos Marine, Dudley.", Harry opined. He began walking again and Dudley began to follow.

"More than you know.", said Dudley. "He never challenged me straight up, just corrupted my boyz when I wasn't looking. He waited until April to really do anything else, though. I got sent home with chicken pox and because of the timing I was only going to return to take my end of year exams. While I was gone, though, he came up with this stupid plan to screw everything up for me."

"After getting the boyz high one night they all went out and… Well, I guess he was just jealous of the three of us, Mark, Alice and I. He never liked Mark or Alice because they were smart and he wasn't. They had no money, but their parents loved them and paid attention to them. Their's showed up on parents day while his own didn't. I guess he was kind of just, I don't know, ignored? I guess his parent ignored him. Maybe that's what made him do it. I don't know. Best I can figure, he wanted me gone so he'd be the Boss, and he hated Mark and Alice."

"The police said that one night in April he got the boyz drunk and high, and then they went out and ambushed my friends after class. Mark and Alice were starting to 'walk the fence' as we at the schools used to describe dating, and since there isn't much to do at either school they had gone for a walk in the gardens around the girls side classes which is breaking the rules but pretty normal."

Looking over at Dudley, Harry noticed the tears in his eyes as Dudley began to pick up the pace of his jogging. He didn't stop for breath though, as if the jogging was steadying him as he continued the story with, "Mark fought hard. He didn't retreat, and so they beat him to death. Alice tried to run, but they got her. They did some things to her, and then beat her until they thought she was dead too, and then tried to hide the bodies in a dumpster on the boys school side.

"The next day one of the younger years found them when some other bully tried stuffing him in the same dumpster. Being stored in a place like that, Mark looked pretty bad and his family had to have a closed casket funeral for him."

"Merlins beard!", Harry exclaimed.

"Alice is in a coma and they don't expect her to wake up. If she does then the doctors are sure that the blows she took to her head would cause her to have massive brain damage!", Dudley stated while practically shouting.

"Damn.", Harry muttered.

Taking notice of their surroundings Harry realized that they where practically sprinting, and that they'd blown through several intersection without stopping to even see if it was safe to cross. Looking at Dudley it seemed to Harry like he was running as faster than he ever had before, as if he could somehow outrace the memories that were haunting him.

A few minutes later and the guys were running up Privet Drive back to the Dursley's. Finally coming to a stop in the front yard Harry and Dudley flopped down on the ground and started stretching out their tired muscles.

"What happened to your other friends?", Harry asked when he finally caught his breath.

"Prison. Where else would they be. They all kept mum when the prosecutor tried to cut them a deal. The only one that took it was that rat bastard so he was sentenced as a juvenile. He'll be out in a few years, but all my other old friends were tried as adults. They'll be middle-aged men before they get out, and I don't really blame the government for wanting it that way."

Harry took a moment to digest this before stating, "I take it you won't be going back to Smeltings next year."

"No. It seems all my friends are dead, in a coma, or in prison." Dudley heaved a sigh before continuing. "I don't want to go back there, and after everything came out the school realized who used to be the 'big, bad, mean bully' around there and asked my parents not to send me back. I don't think it matters much, though. All the parents are pissed, and it looks like the boys school might close. The parents of the girls school a scared too, and barristers are starting to issue lawsuits. I might get named in a couple, but hopefully if I don't go back that won't happen."

"What will you do next fall?", Harry asked.

Dudley sat back, his stretching complete and began to pick at the well manicured lawn. "I'll go to a local school. All the guys that I knew around here that didn't go to Smeltings but rather the local school don't like me now. At the very least they think I'm bad luck while others have been talking to the guys that went to prison. They're all mad that I'm not there with them for some damn reason, and they think I betrayed them somehow because I testified at their trials. All I was asked was if I knew that they were doing drugs, and I said that 'I thought they were, because it was getting hard to tutor them, and they weren't asking to be tutored much, and they were starting to fail their classes, and they weren't hanging out with Mark and Alice and I anymore'. So I'm gonna be on my own here for a while."

"A nob without a Waaauuuugh?", Harry asked, trying to lighten the mood that was quickly darkening again. He noticed that Dudley was starting to pull up handfuls of grass by the roots in agitation.

"I like it that way, though. I'm tired of being responsible for the stupidity of others. People ask me to teach them, and I teach them all the wrong things. People ask me to protect them, and I fail because I am not watchful. People ask me to lead them, and I lead them to hell!

Dudley paused for a breath while trying to regain control of his emotions. "The only thing that I want to lead anywhere are my miniatures, because if I screw-up nobody dies and at least I've learned something from the experience."

At this Harry frowned. Where was the confident guy he had been talking to the night before, the guy that told him not to give up.

"So what was all that crap about you spewed to me last night, hmmm? I told you what was bothering me, how I wanted to just curl-up and die and you told me that it was the wrong thing to do! You said I had to hang tough, and that I shouldn't give in, but that's exactly what your doing now. The new school year hasn't even started yet and your already beaten? What the hell is wrong with you!"

Dudley at first quailed in the face of Harry anger, but quickly rallied to his own defense.

"Harry, I screwed up several different ways, and in the end while I didn't actually kill anyone myself I contributed to my friends hurting each other. I should have taught Mark to defend himself, and I should have at least tried to be less of a bully my whole damn life. I should have held myself and my big stupid friends to a higher standard than the morality of an Ork, and I should have put that asshole – who will remain nameless – in his place on day one."

"There are too many 'if only's' in my life right now, Harry, and I'm just your age. Too many regrets so while I know I will never be perfect I'm spending my time trying to see to it that I never repeat the same mistakes again. I'm trying to be less of an asshole to everyone I met, though I failed when you got home this summer for a while."

"You see, Harry, Mark used to remind me of you when we were little, and it kind of annoyed me that I had left a home where the little scrawny kid who I could beat one-handed physically could run rings around me in class, only to go away to some school to get treated to the same damn thing. But then I made friends with him, so when I came home in the summers I started to try to keep away from you because I could see that the way I treated you then was not how I treated Mark."

"After Mark was killed you came home and, well, you look a lot like him. It was like having his ghost around haunting me. Your screams when you had a nightmare kept me up at night and I wondered if that was what the last moments of Mark and maybe Alice's lives sounded like. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and that's when we boxed for the first time."

"You enjoyed the fight, didn't you?", Harry asked.

"Yeah. After you told me why you were having problems with Cedric on your conscience I felt we had a connection, but by then you looked like you needed a good scrap and weren't going stop till you had a one. I figured that I'd failed to teach Mark to protect himself so as part of the whole making myself a better person thing I figured I'd better teach you to fight."

"Which was kind of enjoyable before your dad put a stop to it.", Harry said while laughing.

"Yeah, it was. Dad doesn't know what to make of me anymore though. He and mom worry about me for a lot of reasons. Me staying inside and playing with miniatures and not hanging out with the guys around here has them really confused. They can't understand why I don't go around with my old friends anymore and why I spend anytime at all with you. They try to pay more attention to me because they think not doing so was what made that other boy grow up to be such a reprobate, but it just feels like they're smothering me."

They're your parents, Dudley. If you tell them what you told me I think they'll understand.", Harry said gently.

"I've tried Harry. They just don't get it. To them I was always perfect and the way I treated you in the past was normal and well deserved", said Dudley while looking right at Harry. Seeing Harry's face tighten up in anger he quickly went on.

"Because of this they feel that they have succeeded in every thing they have put their minds to and therefore have never failed at anything with the exception of beating your 'freaky' ways out of you. Except they don't really care for you, which means they don't care about this failure. Their will is undefeated with things like our coach beating the crap out of dad for the way he treated you simply 'the actions of a stupid, uppity, and ignorant freak'. They have never made a judgment call that was wrong – in their eyes, nor have they seen a core belief that they have based their lives and actions on proven wrong to them to a point where they accepted the lesson. At this rate I almost hope it never happens because the shock would kill them."

"I see," said a slightly irritated Harry before asking, "so what do we do now?".

"Well, we go inside and eat lunch."

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Even after the young men had their showers and got cleaned up Dudley never really got back his appetite after talking to Harry. Taking the sandwich from the kitchen up to Harry's room he split it with him and sat down to watch Harry finish writing the glossary.

"So what are you going to call that glossary, Harry? It's practically a book, an and about three times as long as your letter.", Dudley observed.

"I think I'll call it Codex: Hogwarts. It's about the right size, don't you think?", Harry asked.

"Well, looks more like the 'Wargear' section of a codex with all the definitions and such, though it's so long it would be like taking the wargear section out of every 40K codex and putting them together."

"You should probably drink your shake too, Harry. Coach will be mad if you show up Monday skinnier than he last saw you on Friday.", Dudley said.

"Na, I'll just tell him I burned calories running your ass off this weekend. He'll understand. He might send me to Ms. Edenton to make sure I'm healthy, though.", said Harry with a smirk.

Dudley smiled before replying, "You are a wise man, Mr. Potter. A toast – Harry. 'To kung-fu women! May they kick our butts only to later kiss our hurts!'"

At this Harry clinked his shake cup with Dudley's water glass, a difficult thing to do considering both their containers were made of plastic.

After chugging down a gulp of each of their not-so-chosen drinks Harry and Dudley sat back and rested their sore muscles from the morning workout. Looking at his work Harry grabbed his quill and with a minutes work finished the sentence he was working on. Studying his sheet he realized that his work was complete with every term he used in his main letter defined for Hermione's parents.

"Dudley I'm done. Mind if we use your scanner again?"

"That's fine Harry. You want to play some Warhammer 40K after than?", Dudley asked.

"Sounds like a plan. I was going to do some homework, but my hand is pretty tired from all this writing. I'd much rather take a break and do something else.", Harry replied.

Standing up to leave the room both of them were knock back into their seats by a wave a heat. The heat came from a ball of fire that suddenly appeared in the room, which quickly morphed into the form of Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes.

Fawkes called out with clear tones a song which to Harry sounded very much like the phoenix wanted to be noticed and that it was on a mission.

As Harry and Dudley sat their a little dumbfounded Fawkes extended a claw which held a letter rolled up in it. Reaching forward to grasp the message Harry asked, "Are you going to –"

As soon as the message was delivered Fawkes flamed out, a gentle cry and another wave of heat being the only warning to the two room occupants.

"- wait for a …reply?", Harry finished lamely.

"What the bloody hell was that!", demanded an astonished Dudley.

"That was a phoenix. Not just any, though. That was Fawkes. Dumbledore's phoenix."

"The one that helped you fight the basilisk?"

"Yep."

"Looked like it was in a hurry.", noted Dudley.

"Indeed.", was Harry's only reply. Unrolling the parchment Harry began to read. Harry hope that it was a letter would let him know that he would be going to see his friends soon or at least be able to write to them. Hell, if it said something about what Dumbledore and Hermione were telling her parents Harry would be happy.

Dear Harry,

Iapologize for not writing back to you sooner. I am afraid that my business has taken me far and wide and used up much of my time. However, I am not so busy as to not be disturbed by what you have seen in your dreams. I therefore ask that you continue writing me concerning them as lives could be at stake and every detail you can give would be much appreciated.

Enjoy your summer,

Dumbledore

Harry re-read the extremely short letter becoming more angry with every word. Dumbledore had failed to tell Harry when he would be going to the Weasley's. He had not told Harry about how his mail was being collected by him and his 'old crowd' and kept away from his friends, nor that he warned them not to try to contact Harry until he wrote them first! He even failed to mention that they were both being vilified in the news, nor did he offer a plan for combating Fudge and his cronies.

Harry stood up and handed the letter to Dudley before beginning to pace the room.

"Great man, this Dumbledore. He doesn't lie to you about these things you want to know, he just omits the details or ignores them.", Dudley observed after reading the letter. "Mind telling me about these dreams that Dumbledore is talking about?"

Halting his pacing and taking a deep breath Harry recounted all the details he could remember of both dreams that he had been having. Dudley looked horrified at the description of Harry's nightmare which always took place on the ground of the Riddle family mansion, though he didn't go on to describe the other to variations of the dream he had had. He didn't want Dudley to think he was completely off his rocker, what with his own Space Marine miniatures rushing to his aid and whatnot.

"What do you think Dumbledore is doing to fight Voldemort?", Dudley finally asked him.

"I think he's gathering intelligence.", said Harry.

"And doing what with it?", Dudley asked.

"Um, he's probably just… well that is he might be…"

"Sitting on it until it becomes old and unusable, maybe? You gave him and Fudge a list of Death Eaters that Voldemort addressed by name. Do you think Fudge has arrested any of them?"

"No.", said Harry.

"Has Fudge fired any of the ones actually working in the Ministry?"

"Not that I've read.", said Harry.

"And, have any of those Death Eaters names appeared in the obituaries section of that rag of a newspaper you read?"

"Not that I've seen." Dudley paused a moment to let this sink into Harry's mind before continuing. "No arrests, no firings, and no mysterious deaths which may or may not have been assassinations made to look like accidents. What does that tell you, Harry?"

"Dumbledore is on the defensive?", Harry asked.

"Worse than that. He's giving Voldemort the initiative. He's waiting for Voldemort to threaten whatever it that his group intends to defend, and pretty much giving up on defending everything else.", Dudley pointed out.

"He can't do anything else though. He'd be breaking the law if he attacked the Death Eaters.", said Harry. He wasn't sure why he was defending Dumbledore though.

"I'm sure that Voldemort and his supporters really care what the Ministry thinks is legal or not. When Voldemort does attack his active followers will disappear. Then Dumbledore's supporters are going to be the ones being assassinated with their deaths being blamed as accidents by a Ministry filled with Voldemort own picked men. Eventually, it will be the good guys like you that will be the outlaws, and then you will be in the position that Voldemort is in now. Only with little chance of clawing your way back into control of the situation."

"How do you know this?", asked Harry, looking at Dudley like he was suddenly as batty as his Divination professor.

"Elementary, my dear Watson!", Dudley replied. When he saw that Harry hadn't gotten the joke he stood up saying, "You've got five minutes to pick an army and get to my room. Were playing 1,500 points, and it's a Seize and Control Mission, Alpha level rules.

"You didn't answer my question! Why do you think that things will go the way you say?", Harry asked impatiently.

Dudley made it to the open doorway before turning back around and saying, "Somebody's gotta teach you tak-tiks and strajity, and I'm da Ork dat's gonna do it, hummie!"

Soundtrack Theme #17
Artist: Jeremy Soule
Title: 02 - Fallen City
Album: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Soundtrack