A/N: I sorry the last chapter was so short and boring and sappy. This chapters longer and way more exciting. Ahem, and now I present to you, the chapter in which the short, feminine, cute Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts! Happy new year to all, and I hope everybody had a fab Christmas.

The rest of the summer passed by in a blur of sunsets, magic, and a sense of belonging Harry knew he'd never felt before. He didn't remember what his life had been like before Azkaban….in fact he still didn't remember much of Azkaban. It was mostly just a haze of cold, rage, and fear that lingered in the back of Harry's mind. Some evenings he'd just watch the sun set and try to sort out the blurs of memories in his mind.

Harry didn't feel disoriented or confused…He knew who he was and he knew the important people in his life. But he couldn't remember anything before Azkaban.

Sometimes he would have little flashbacks of a girl with curly brown hair and a group of red heads smiling warmly at him. It was a family…a little family all his own. And then sometimes he saw them laughing demonically at him, screaming, and stoking the flames higher and higher. The white bird was splattered with red and somebody would always be screaming.

Whenever he saw the bird tears would always well in his eyes and whenever he heard that person screaming he want to find them, and hold their hand. Those screams were always so raw and primal…so torn and betrayed.

And those screams, for some reason, reminded him of his late godfather. Sirius…his name was Sirius just like that star in the sky. Any mention of betrayal jerked his mind back towards his godfather. Harry didn't quite understand why his mind was wired like that, he couldn't remember anything specific about Sirius and betrayal…but he knew his god father had been wronged….

Harry now was lying on his bed at Malfoy Manner starring vacantly up at the ceiling, slowly petting the hybrid that was lying on his chest. It was the last night of summer and tomorrow he would be off to Hogwarts. His birthday was the best he'd ever had, although he couldn't remember the other ones….he felt something about this one was special. Whether it was the intense and suffocating feeling of having a real family or watching Remus fall face first into his birthday cake, Harry had no idea. But he knew, deep inside that something that was missing, had been replaced.

Quetzel cooed loudly and Harry looked down at him, "Problem?" He asked the little creature. The silver thing nodded at the door. His master frowned and carefully sat up. Absent mindedly the teen dislodged Quetzal from his chest and set the half breed on the bed, eyes locked on the white door. A thin stream of golden light trailed under the wood and into his dim room. Who would be at the door at midnight? And who would be at his door without knocking….

A low growl rose in Quetzal's throat and a familiar choking feeling rose in Harry's chest. He started to sneeze again. He waited patiently for the sneezes to subside, but they never did. Emerald eyes became red and blurry with tears and an unknown irritation. He doubled over as violent coughs ripped his lungs and tore his throat.

Quetzal's growl turned into a tender coo as he crawled over to his master and tenderly he crawled around Harry's neck. The teen collapsed to his knees clutching his chest, desperately for the sneezes and coughs to stop tearing him open from the inside.

His head swam violently and the room became a blur of greens and whites. Suddenly the sneezes and the coughs subsided and the room a deathly silent for a moment. Harry noticed that the golden light under the door was suddenly marred by a shadow. The handle of the door twisted and dead built in Harry's thick raw throat. He was hit by another violent fit of coughs and fell forward, bracing himself with shaking arms and trembling fingers. Tears blurred his vision and he vaguely saw a humanoid shape enter his room.

The door closed behind the figure and Harry's coughs stopped. The teen didn't notice Quetzel slither down from his neck and under the door. Harry finally peeled his eyes open and saw the white carpet below his mouth stained red. The teen gasped for breath and backed away from the blood he'd spat up. He looked up, eyes a raw irritated red and burning the salt of his tears.

It was a man…or a very tall woman with thick, shining black hair. That shade of Raven made Harry momentarily think it was Snape…but those eyes were a burning shade of red so unnatural that no human could possibly own them.

He knelt before Harry, a smirk twisting his pale lips, "I thought it might be you," He said softly, his voice was strong and powerful. His voice was so harsh and smooth and creamy and thick…it was almost palpable "You do always interrupt my dreams."

Harry's eyes cleared a little bit and pale, pretty features swam into his vision. He yelped and scrambled back from the Dark Lord who currently kneeling in the spot of carpet that was soaked red with Harry's blood. Pale blue lips curled into a smirk and his garnet eyes narrowed. "I thought Lucius would betray me, he was always such a selfish man."

"You stay the hell away from him!" Harry snapped instinctively. He was still gasping for breath and his eyes were still teary, he was clutching his chest, and he was sitting on his ass, obviously far weaker then the powerful man kneeling in front of him. Despite it all Harry was never going to back down, he would never let Voldemort get the last word and he would never let that snake bastard hurt anybody important to him again.

"Little Harry's telling me what to do?" Voldemort snickered. "Please, Harry. We both know you can't do anything to help him."

"Why are you such a coward!" The boy who lived hissed suddenly. "You want me! I ruined you, I fucked up your stupid death curse!" He reached out and jerked the wand that hung in Voldemorts free hand over his own heart and faced surprised fiery eyes with reckless emerald ones. "Now all you have to do is say the word and you win!"

Voldemort was silent. He looked at the wand and then at Harry's exposed heart. All he had to do was say the words…and Harry Potter would be no more…He wanted to kill the boy, he wanted Harry Potter dead…but….

"What else could you possibly want?" Harry whispered sadly. He honestly couldn't comprehend what was happening. Voldemort should've said Ada Kevarda…Harry should be dead. But he was still alive, and doubt still clouded those red eyes. The teen fixed his gaze on the floor miserably, did he really want Voldemort to kill him that badly? It was good that Voldemort didn't want him dead…right?

"Killing you doesn't seem just." Voldemort finally said. "You aren't good enough for that."

Harry's eyes widened and he looked up from the floor. "What…."

In a blur the taller man yanked Harry to his feet by his shirt and flung the teen against the wall. The teen hacked dark red blood and before he crumpled to the floor he was pinned to the wall by a body much larger and stronger then his own. Eyes of fire burned into his own eyes and Harry mewed weakly in protest.

"You murderer, you cheating lying bastard." Voldemort snarled. Harry tried to face Voldemorts' dark accusing eyes, but he couldn't. His arms suddenly felt so heavy and his legs were like bricks. His heart pounded violently in his chest, threatening to rise in his throat. Bile boiled in the pit of his stomach.

"What did I ever do to you," Harry managed to rasp.

"You left me alone with that bitch," The Dark Lord hissed, smacking Harry roughly. "You let her kill me, you let her die."

Emerald eyes swam out of focus and his world swam in violent harsh shades of crimson. "I don't know what you're talking about," Harry spat. "I never did a thing to you."

The Dark Lord slammed Harry's head against the wall with a snarl, "liar!" For a moment the boy who lived saw stars flash around Lord Voldemorts' head and he groaned. "I know what you did to me, I remember it all." The taller man's voice echoed in Harry's mind, and for a moment Harry recognized it from somewhere, where had that voice came to him before? Of course he knew Voldemort's familiar rasp…but suddenly it had changed, it was deeper, richer, so familiar, so painfully familiar.

"I'm the fucking victim here, you sick bastard!" Harry hissed. A sudden wave of anger overrode his exhaustion and fear. His vision cleared, just for a moment, and rage tingled through his blood. His skin was boiling with heat and his face reddened. Slender fingers wrapped around Voldemorts' throat. A wild scream escaped the taller man's throat as his skin started to black and writhe underneath the throtteling grip.

He fell back from Harry, screaming and clutching his throat. The skin was smoking and charred where Harry's hands had been wrapped just seconds before. In a moment of strength Harry stood upright and a single thought filled his mind as Voldemort lay on the floor writhing. He wanted Voldemort to die. He wanted to never see those burning red eyes again or hear that disgusting rasp in his dreams again. He wanted to be free from the nightmare that haunted his mind in day and night.

The air around Voldemort started to hiss and crackle as if it were on fire and his screams were renewed. Harry's emerald eyes never left the writhing body and he smiled grimly in triumph. He was right, he was being just. He was killing a murderer. Images of Bellatrix's broken corpse flooded his mind.

The teen fell back against the wall, drowning in emotions he couldn't name. He didn't feel bad for killing Bellatrix, he was right and she was wrong. He looked back at Voldemort and clutched his skull. He was doing it again! Murdering another person, but was he right for killing? Was he reducing himself to their level? Was he becoming a murderer?

The door bust open and the habitants of Malfoy Manner stood in the door in various states of undress. They all stopped still at the gruesome sight in the room. Harry clutching his knees to his chest, leaning against the wall, eyes fixed on a dead, smoking snake that lay in a huge pool of blood in the center of the room. The pool of blood was far to wide for a snake that small…the creature wasn't any larger then Quetzal.

"Is it right to kill a murderer?" Harry asked softly.

Lucius whirled around and dashed to the fire place in the room, gears in his mind whirling. SnakeVoldemort, if Voldemort knew Harry was at Malfoy Manner then he also knew that Lucius was a traitor. He quickly made up a fire and called Dumbledore.

Meanwhile Snape was disposing of the snakes body while Remus and Draco coaxed Harry from his fetal position at the wall.

"Harry…" Draco asked carefully. "Come over here,"

The teen on the floor shook his head. "Is it right to kill a murderer?"

"Harry listen to me," Remus murmured softly, "Murder isn't right or wrong. Nobody can justify taking another persons life away, be it through murder or imprisonment. But nobody can say it's wrong."

"How can it not be wrong?"

"Because nothing is right or wrong, those are just words Harry, they can't rule your actions. It's like describing you by just saying your Harry Potter, it just can't be done."

Harry looked up at the werewolf, and then back at the dead snake. "But he said I hurt him."

Draco loosed an exasperated sigh and tramped across the room. Harry looked up at him with growing confusion. Suddenly the taller boy yanked his arm, "The man's a delusional nut case who gets turned on by torturing people, I don't think you should listen to a thing the psycho says."

"Really?"

"Stop being so insecure!" The blonde snarled. "Now haul your ass up and get dressed, we need to go now."

"But what if I'm a murderer!" Harry insisted stubbornly.

Draco whirled and around to face Harry, eyes icy and demanding, "So what if you are,"

Harry looked up at Draco in a mixture of shock and confusion, eagerly waiting and dreading the aristocrats' next words.

Draco's eyes softened and he said warmly, "The Harry I know doesn't give a rats' ass about what other people think of him." Harry let Draco haul pull him to his feet and he let Draco dump a pile of clothes into his arms

Harry changed numbly and finally he settled on a thought. I'll think about it tomorrow. So he let the dead snake on the ground drift out of his mind and let his physical needs in. He was hungry…really, really hungry. "I'm hungry."

Remus grinned weakly and gestured towards the fire place with his head. "Well come on, kiddo, we're outta here."

"Where are we going?"

"King Cross train station," Snape yawned irritably.

"Why?" Harry asked in an adorably clueless way.

"Well we can't stay here," Lucius growled. "Voldemort probably won't try another attack so close to the Diagon alley one."

XoXoXoXo

Fifteen minutes later the group was sitting at King Cross train station on a wooden bench. Harry was happily sitting on the floor, sipping a steaming hot chocolate, Remus was lost in his thoughts, eyes vacant and fearful. Lucius's mind was whizzing through ideas, situations, consequences. Snape was snapping at anything anybody said, and Draco was still coping with the shock of being discovered by Voldemort.

"So we wait here till the morning train comes?" The blonde asked with a yawn. His exhaustion was beginning to override his numbness and fear.

"Yes." Severus snapped.

"But it's only like midnight," Draco pouted. "Trains not till eight."

"Well entertain yourself!" Snape growled.

"…But I'm bored."

"Go play on the train tracks."

Harry yawned and lay down on the floor, head pillowed by his tangled hair. The teen quickly slipped into a dreamless sleep as Draco watched the adorable little teen in confusion. Because it wasn't everyday you just saw somebody randomly decide to lay down and sleep…something fishy was going on. The blonde eyes the adults on the bench beside him suspiciously.

"Get some sleep Draco," Lucius said surly.

"But first have some hot chocolate." Remus handed the blonde teen a steaming coffee cup and Draco sipped it eagerly. It was warm and good. His muscles started to relax and he leaned against the bench.

"Hey, what was in the hot chocolate?" Draco growled drousily.

"Sleeping drought," The werewolf said cheerily, "It's time for the students to get their beauty sleep."

Draco murmured thickly, "I'm pretty without sleep," and then his head promptly rolled forward onto his knees where he fell fast asleep.

The adults on the bench loosed a sigh of relief, the children were asleep, they could finally get down to business.

"What did Dumbledore say?" Remus asked as he slipped down to sit on the floor. He started to root

"Nothing useful, he frowned and said to take the train to Hogwarts." Lucius shrugged. "Bloody wanker."

"The Dark Lord found us," Snape growled. "I don't think you realize this, wolf-boy, but that means my cover is blown. If he knows Lucius is a traitor he'll automatically assume I'm one to."

Remus stood up and milled around their trunks, checking to make sure they had essentials such as money and clothes. "Not necessarily…" He pondered, "But he will be suspicious of you Severus."

"How clever of you," Snape hissed sarcastically.

"We're all tired," Remus growled, as he absent mindedly rooted through Lucius' trunk. He didn't even realize that he was folding the messy tangle of clothe he found in the blondes trunk. "Please be a little considerate."

Snape growled, opened his mouth to respond, and then settled for crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Remus. "Something needs to be done about Harry."

"What's wrong with him?" The werewolf asked stiffly. His fingers trembled on the shirt he held. With a swallow Remus continued to fold clothes. He didn't understand why he was folding Lucius' clothes…it was relaxing somehow, something so simple and domestic. There were no complications to folding clothes, no right or wrong way to fold them.

"He can perform wandless magic." Snape stated.

"Good."

"You know what they do to wizards who can perform wandless magic?" Sanpe said, voice still that same smooth deadpan.

Remus shuddered and looked down at the clothes. They….nobody knew who they were, the secret enforcers of the wizarding worlds' hypocritical laws. They traveled swiftly and quietly, they made no sound, they only killed and stole. They were the ones who stole Sirius away from him. "The unspeakables," Remus acknowledged shakily.

Lucius' silver eyes darted from Remus to Sanpe and then rested on the slender werewolf. He quickly decided which to protect, "The unspeakables haven't emerged in years Severus."

"They're always here, and they're always watching." The greasy haired man sighed, "You've seen them."

"You saw them!" The werewolf asked with a gasp. He whirled to face the uncomfortable looking blonde. "They can't be seen…they're invisible…."

"No," Lucius said softly, his eyes glazed over and he looked down at the dirty floor. "They wear black robes with black hoods, if you didn't know better they'd look like death eaters. But they don't wear the skull masks….their faces are pale as death and their eyes are as dark as night and glow from the shadow of their hoods. They walk in rows, they never miss a step, they never trip or stumble."

Remus looked away from the aristrocrat and went back to folding clothing, hands trembling on the fabric, and eyes glistening from fear. "How did you see them?"

"I was visiting my uncle over the summer. My younger brother and I. My uncle, he was researching the unspeakables, re-reading testimony's he'd stolen from the ministry…But when he finally stumbled up on what they really were…the doors and windows all bust open and he told my brother and I to run. I hid in the piano and my younger brother hid underneath a table. They came…I saw them through a whole in the wood of the piano.

"They murdered him, not using an unforgivable. One turned to my brother and lifted his hood. Then they left….I don't know how they got in or how they left. But I remember the beating of their footsteps…I remember how my brother screamed after that…my uncle was dead on the floor…he was bleeding, but I couldn't find any cuts on him…"

"There is only one killing curse Lucius." Remus growled. "That's not possible, there is only one….only one."

"No Remus," The icy blonde murmured sadly. "There are more then one. And only the unspeakables know them all."

"But the ministry-"

"advocates them," Lucius finished for the werewolf.

"So what do we do?" The amber eyed man asked weakly.

"We protect Harry and we keep his magic hidden from Dumbledore." Snape sighed.

Lucius pondered a moment. They did need to protect Harry because, for some unknown reason the Dark Lord was obsessed with the boy. This obsession would ultimately lead to the Dark Lords demise…but in the meantime. How did they deal with such a powerful being? "How can we protect him if he's at Hogwarts."

"We go with him." Both Remus and Snape said in unison.

Lucius sighed and rested head against the back of the bench and looked up at the roof, mind buzzing and body exhausted. "Who's the new defense against the dark arts teacher, they fired the one from last year right?"

"No," Snape sighed, "The idiots still there."

"Rhapsody, right?" asked Remus, "Thomas Rhapsody, a few years ago he did some pro-werewolf work."

"He's still an idiot," Snape muttered darkly. "Last year he took his 7th year class for a hike in the dark forest. Rhapsody wanted to run into some vampires, for educational purposes. Well they found their vampires, one of the students got bitten."

"It's illegal to intentionally expose minors to vampires," Remus gasped, "oh god…how come he didn't get fired!"

"All the student's memories were altered, none of them remembered the vampire portion of the trip. Dumbledore gave Rhapsody a slap on the wrist and then told him not to take anymore hikes."

"There's something wrong about that," the amber eyed man sighed.

"I'm sure Rhapsody works for the ministry," Lucius growled. He relaxed on the bench, toying with his platinum hair, slim fingers braiding and unbraiding it.

"I have a bad feeling about Hogwarts." Sanpe admitted grouchily. "Something is going to happen."

"Something always happens when Harry's there," Remus said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "All you can do is hang on and let the beast run its course, because something bad is going to happen…and there's nothing any of us can do to stop it."

XoXoXoXo

A/N: so they didn't quiet make it back to Hoggy warts. Sorry, please don't chase after me with pointed sticks. Anywho, I think I'm coming back to fan fic for a while so huzzah! Midterms are over, praise jesus. So now maybe I'll have some free time.