Luna was cheerfully snuggling up against Harry, who didn't even register her presence in his personal space anymore. It was clear she was very lonely and just wanted a friend.

Xanxus snorted when he saw her with his little brother. The girl was already Active and drawn to Harry's Sky. By the time Christmas came around they would have a full bond.

The twins just needed the push to become Active themselves before their bond was formed.

Ron did not look happy seeing Luna so close to Harry. But he kept his mouth shut for the moment, too scared of Xanxus to say anything.

If the Hogwarts students vaguely recognized Xanxus on sight, it was nothing compared to how the French and Bulgarian students reacted to him.

Karkaroff, who had been so smug about bringing Viktor Krum to hopefully be chosen as champion, stopped cold and looked directly at a widely grinning Xanxus.

His face paled rather impressively when he got a better look at the boy under the candlelight. He wasn't the only one having a minor break down when the red-eyed teen was recognized.

Quite a few of the students he brought along shared looks before quietly confirming that the boy with the feathers and coon tail in his hair was in fact Xanxus.

Several of them were re-evaluating the potential worth of the Boy-Who-Lived when Blaize not-so-discreetly dropped that Harry Potter was in fact directly related to the current main family through his grandfather, who was the previous head's younger brother. And that the woman had confirmed Potter had inherited the family magics.

The French girls recognized Xanxus for similar reasons, though they were a lot more leery of approaching him. He had something of a reputation in the upper echelons. A reputation that was confirmed rather quickly by the Ravenclaws.

"I guess this means you can't swear in French anymore," joked Harry.

"Feh, still leaves me Russian, Spanish, and Italian," Xanxus countered.

"Don't forget Latin."

"Why are the Durmstrang students looking at our table like that?" asked Hermione.

"They probably recognize me. Not my fault that it was mostly the old bloods that knew who I was on sight... at least the snakes anyway," said Xanxus gruffly.

"Is your family really that famous?"

Harry started coughing on his drink.

"Hermione, if you had recognized him on sight I would have had serious questions about what exactly you haven't been telling us about your family or your parents," said Harry when he cleared his throat. "Or for that matter what sort of hobbies you could have."

"What does that mean?"

"Let me put it this way... our family has a firm view of the law. As in it's legal so long as the cops don't find out or bother us about it," said Harry.

"Close enough," said Xanxus grinning, ruffling Harry's head.

"Harry, you can't be serious!" said Hermione appalled.

"Why on earth would I want to be Sirius? Considering what I know of Auntie she's probably still giving him the riot act while acting like a total mother hen," said Harry without hesitation. Xanxus let out a loud bark of laughter.

"She would!" he said, cracking up. "And that was a horrible pun."

"Why thank you," said Harry, unashamed.

The second Harry heard about the age line and that the champions would have twenty-four hours to put their names in before Halloween (his least favorite holiday), his eyes grew cold and annoyed.

"...Xanxus, what would you say to guarding that damn cup and hexing anyone over the age of seventeen that gets near the thing and looks even remotely shady."

Considering Harry's luck on Halloween for the past three years, he didn't even have to think about it.

"We'll take shifts," he agreed.


Clang!

**Thud!**

Harry looked dispassionately at the unconscious form of the DADA sacri...er, teacher for the year.

"You owe me fifty pounds," he said to Xanxus.

Xanxus grumbled and pulled out his wallet, before handing over the money.

"Fucking hell... I thought you were kidding when you said you had a record with the temporary staff," said Xanxus. He could care less about the idiot who got his ass caught by a half-trained fourteen year old brat. "Where'd you get that skillet anyway?"

"I borrowed it from the house elves, where else? Not like I know a spell to transfigure a cast iron skillet to brain someone with," deadpanned Harry. "Now... what do we do with this trash?"

Xanxus grinned.

"I may have a few ideas. These elf friends of yours know a good place to interrogate someone?"

"Dobby!"

With a light pop, the odd elf appeared.

"Yous called for Dobby?" he asked rather eagerly.

"Do you know of anywhere we could interrogate this idiot and find out what the big plan was without interruption? Preferably somewhere away from the dungeons... I don't want to run afoul of any wards Snape has set for amorous students, let alone risk running into Filch."

Dobby nodded quickly, his ears flapping this way and that.

"I knows a place! We elves calls it the Come and Go room!"

"Can you show us where it is?" asked Xanxus gruffly.

Dobby did better than that, he took them straight there.

"Just walk past three times by this portrait with an image of what you want, and the door will appear!"

"Ho... Let's check it out then. Good thing I have the map on me along with the cloak."

Once, twice, thrice...a dungeon style doorway appeared and Xanxus whistled when he saw what was inside.

"Now I really have to question your reading habits. What the hell is that thing anyway?" asked Xanxus.

"Scavenger's Daughter. Think a watermelon with one too many rubber bands pulled over the middle, except his guts are the melon and this is the rubber band," said Harry grinning.

"Uh-huh. And the bull-thing with a fire pit under it?"

"Can't really recall the name of what that thing is called, but the basic gist of it is that you throw some poor bastard inside, set the fire and let him slow roast until he dies," said Harry without hesitation.

"Again, I am seriously questioning your reading habits."

"Actually there was a book on medieval and old-school torture methods in Auntie's library. I think she was using it as a reference for something because there were a few pages bookmarked. It looked interesting enough."

Xanxus thought that one over. Either she was bored and wanted to give the Ninth nightmares of what his mother got up to now that she was retired or she wanted to get really creative and possibly ironic when it came to disposing of the idiots who had hurt Harry in some way.

Either way, not his problem unless she wanted to make a family bonding moment out of it where they disposed the bodies together.

Moody, or whoever the hell he was, certainly didn't expect to be caught so easily.

"...Bloody hell, when did the Doctor turn evil?!" said Harry in horror and disbelief.

"For the love of... Doctor Who is a TV show and everyone knows that they recently switched to Matt Smith, idiota," said Xanxus facepalming.

"Really? But still... this guy looks way too freaking much like David Tennant," said Harry.

"I'll concede that. Now... are we going to get some answers from this trash or not?" asked Xanxus, cracking his knuckles.

Perhaps it was the lighting, or the fact that Potter seemed so openly bloodthirsty... but Barty Crouch Jr. had a sudden premonition of pain and death his way.

"Runt... what's this tattoo on his arm?" asked Xanxus, noticing something on the guy's left arm.

Harry blinked, took one look at it before a cold smile came across his face.

"You know what I found very fascinating last year?"

"What's that?"

"The fact everyone seems to forget so quickly that I'm not just a Potter... I'm also related to Bellatrix fucking Lestrange. I'm sure a Death Eater can understand what I'm getting at here, correct? Especially since my grandmother Dorea was Bellatrix's aunt."

Barty Crouch Jr. paled very quickly at the blatant reminder. Something things ran blood deep... like the madness that ran through the Black family's veins.

"Bloody hell. I'm fucked, aren't I?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes. Yes you are. Maybe if you're lucky we might spare you to serve as a messenger to this twit you call a Lord."

"What message?" said Barty.

"Don't fuck with the Vongola, trash," said Xanxus with a sneer.

It was a good thing there were several silencing wards around the room... the amount of screaming the Death Eater let off would have drawn far too much attention from the adults...especially the bleeding heart known as Dumbledore.


"Anyone notice something strange about Professor Moody?" asked Hermione.

"You mean outside of the fact he looks pretty pissed off about something and keeps grumbling about falling standards?" asked Neville.

Hermione whipped her head towards the normally timid boy who shrugged.

"I blame Xanxus. If he can get away with swearing then why can't the rest of us?"

She muttered dark things under her breath at that.

"Good morning!" said Harry rather cheerfully.

"What's got you so cheerful?" asked Hermione.

"Won fifty pounds off Xanxus last night over something rather silly. Once is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern and I'm not stupid enough to sit and wait for it."

"Harry, the DADA teacher is not out to get you and your luck does not get worse during Halloween," said Hermione exasperated.

"If that's true, then why does Professor Moody look so ticked off with Professor Dumbledore and the others at the moment?" countered Harry.

Hermione looked and he wasn't kidding. Moody was giving Dumbledore some rather foul looks in his direction.

With Moody and the other teachers...

"How long would you say we've been friends Albus?"

"Give or take twenty years at least, why?"

"Then why the bloody hell didn't you notice a damn impostor with Polyjuice taking my place in your bloody castle?!"

Dumbledore choked.

"What?"

"Last night two Gryffs came into the damn classroom and got me out of the trunk that damn Death Eater had me in so he could use me as ingredients for the Polyjuice. One of them was rather flippant about being related to Bellatrix Lestrange and how I should have practice Constant Vigilance!" hissed Moody.

"Are you feeling alright, Alastor?" asked Dumbledore hurriedly.

Moody seethed.

"Which students?" asked Flitwick.

"Two brats from the Vongola clan in Italy," said Moody petulantly. "Never thought I'd end up owing them a favor."

"Vongola?" repeated McGonagall. She wasn't familiar with that family.

"If you know of it then you know that getting on their bad side is a very idiot and suicidal idea," said Moody flatly. "They've got more power than the entire Ministry and the old families put together... and that's before you bring in the Alliance."

McGonagall blinked before she groaned exasperated.

"Was one of the lions that saved you a fourteen year old with feathers in his hair and red eyes?"

"Aye, though he followed another. He seemed more disinterested than anything compared to the brat who openly admitted that he was related to Lestrange."

Snape choked on his drink. Flitwick helpfully patted him on the back, though he had a pained look on his face as well.

"I seems we all keep forgetting he's not just a Potter...he's directly related to the Black family as well," said Flitwick with sympathy. "I think it best we not ask what he did to the Death Eater, though at least he took initiative rather than wait for yet another mess to spring up."

"Took initiative?" repeated Moody.

"For the past three years, young Mr. Potter seems to have somehow ended up in adventures by the time Halloween rolls around. And every time the Defense teacher is involved, either directly or indirectly. In fact I dare say he's part of the reason we haven't been able to keep any of the last three teachers, though Lupin only resigned because someone let it slip about his condition," said McGonagall with a pained expression, shooting a glare at Snape.

Moody, rather than look annoyed at this, seemed to approve. Once was a coincidence, twice is bad luck, but three times was a pattern and clearly the boy knew that.

"Hmph. Seems I'll have some interesting assistants while I teach."

Like hell was he going to let the two cocky bastards who let him out and showed him the body of the idiot who captured him get away with being just students. If they were half as strong as he suspected, they'd learn more from being teaching assistants than students.

Besides, he hated paperwork.

"Teaching assistants! You're so lucky!" said Hermione.

"He said if we're skilled enough to handle a Death Eater with barely any training, then there's no reason we should waste our time with homework when we could be really learning something," said Xanxus.

"What."

"The guy who thought it was acceptable to cast all three Unforgiveables in class and even used the Imperius on us is a former Death Eater."

Hermione stiffened.

"WHAT?!"

"On top of that he apparently planned to enter me illegally in the tournament as a fourth champion. Unfortunately for him, I took matters into my own hands to avoid that fate," said Harry amused.

"Harry... what did you do?" demanded Hermione.

"Hit him really hard over the head with a skillet I borrowed from the house elves, then sent him to the DMLE," said Harry without hesitation. Which was half true.

The only reason they didn't tie his feet up and dump him in the lake was because he was sure the Bulgarians would have noticed it and he wasn't entirely sure on whether mermaids were real. Odds were that if they did exist (which was a high probability) then there would be some in the Black Lake...and they didn't have any concrete or proper chains to make sure that the idiot drowned.

Well...that and Xanxus immediately bitched about it being way too damn cliché for someone in a mafia family. Maybe if it hadn't been so popularized by the movies.

That seemed to appease Hermione, even if she didn't believe it for a second.

"Then why haven't I heard anything about a Death Eater being caught?"

"Hermione, think for a moment. Do you really expect the Ministry to want it to get out that a student caught a known Death Eater who was SUPPOSED to be in or rotting around Azkaban in the middle of Hogwarts during such an important event?" said Harry slowly. "They're still trying to deal with Sirius, after all."

"Point," she conceded. If they had sent the Death Eater to the Ministry, then there was no way they'd say anything in the Prophet. It would make them lose a lost of face.

As it was, Barty had been cheerfully sent via an illegal portkey to Daniela for her to play with. Since he knew she had been researching torture methods Harry was sure she'd like a live toy to play with.

Harry wasn't sure to be pleased or offended when Barty Crouch Jr. said that he would fit right at home with the Black family...he was just as ruthless and creative as Bellatrix at her worst, just far more sane.