Disclaimer: I own nothing, I make no money. It all belongs to J.K Rowling.

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Harry jumped up at Hermione's scream. He wasn't in the common room, he was…in the Hospital Wing?

He sat up in bed and Madam Pomfrey bustled over to him.

She tsked, "You made it a whole week without ending up in here. You were about to set a record!"

Harry stared at her confused, "What...how-" he cut off when he finally noticed the pain in his head! Pomfrey shoved a potion into his hand and then went to open the doors to the Hospital Wing. He was drinking when Hermione and Ron rushed into the room.

Harry tensed. Was he in here because something went wrong with the Oblivation?! Then why was Hermione here and not on her way to Azkaban!?

Hermione threw her arms around him but pulled back when she saw that he wasn't giving into the hug. She said, "Harry, are you okay? They told me you hit your head pretty good, but Madam Pomfrey said-"

Harry cut her off, "Hit my head! Was that before or after you obliviated me?! How could you do that?! We were friends for four years and-"

"Mate?!" Ron said bewildered, "What the bloody hell are you talking about?!"

Madam Pomfrey came over when she heard what Harry was saying. She performed some spells on him and said, "Harry, when you came back from Saint Mungo's you tripped coming out of the Floo and hit your head against the Headmaster's desk. You were knocked unconscious and I had to keep you under to check you over for a brain damage. Luckily it was just a mild concussion and the potion I just gave you should fix you up in no time. But everything else was most likely just a dream."

Harry looked at her incredulously, "It felt so real. Can you check me over to make sure?"

"Harry!" Hermione said crossly.

"What?! I'm concussed! Just humor me!" Harry said.

Madam Pomfrey did so, and shook her head at him, "You have not been obliviated. But if you are still not sure, tell me, were you seeing things from other people's point of view? Was time skipping around? Were you in one place and then suddenly in another?"

Harry thought back and sheepishly remembered being Hermione, leaving the Great Hall and getting caught up by Ginny. He smiled winningly at Hermione, "I'm sorry. It just felt so real."

"Real?! How could it have felt real? How can you think for a second that I would attack you?"

"I don't know! Dream Hermione spun me a whole tale about having used me since the day we first met so that she could ride my fame to become the first Muggleborn Minister for Magic. She wanted to make life better for all muggleborns."

Ron was looking pretty amused now, "Mate, how many eleven-year-olds do you know that are that diabolical!? Hermione is the smartest, most fearsome person I have ever met but…come on!"

Hermione pinked at the compliment, "Eh…Um, Anyway, Ron is right. I was just a kid, I couldn't be that deceptive and besides Ministers are a slave to public opinion and the Wizengamot. I can do much more for muggleborns in the DLME or by becoming Chief Witch."

Harry slumped back into bed, to say he was relieved was an understatement. He could deal with being manipulated by everyone else, but not Ron and Hermione. They had been through too much together. He had so much on his mind that it's not surprising that his concussed mind would conjure up such a nightmare, being betrayed by his friends and someone finding the books, were some of his worst fears.

"Besides," Hermione continued, "You think I would run around with you, risking my life, if I really didn't consider you my best friend."

Harry's eyes widened, "That's what Dream Hermione said!" Harry threw his arm around Ron's shoulder and screamed, "We gotta get out of here before she attacks!"

Ron scooped him up bridal style and ran around the room with him. Hermione chased them screaming something but Harry and Ron were laughing too hard to hear her. Madam Pomfrey ran back in when she heard the commotion, and almost popped a blood vessel.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" She screamed.

Ron and Hermione skidded to a stop and then the three of them looked at each other, looked at Madam Pomfrey, then starting howling. Harry laughed so hard, he was sure he cracked a rib. Hermione had tears running down her face, and Ron almost dropped Harry twice. Madam Pomfrey charged at them, so Ron deposited Harry into his bed, and he and Hermione fled the room amid shouts to never come back.

Madam Pomfrey was giving him the fiercest look of disapproval, but Harry couldn't stop laughing.

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Dumbledore was annoyed, all that commotion with Harry bashing his head in had made him late for his appointment. He opened the door to the Magical Children Advocacy Department and walked over to the young man behind the desk.

The man looked up, and his eyes almost fell out of his head. The great Albus Dumbledore was standing right in front of him! "I…Hello sir!...What can I do for you?!"

"Hello, my boy. I would like to start the paperwork to assume guardianship and advocacy of Harold James Potter. I have an appointment with the Head of this Department." The Head, Marcy Waters, had agreed to help him fast track the paperwork through the proper channels.

The young man felt something niggling in his mind, 'Harold James Potter… didn't I just file paperwork for that name?' The man disappeared into the file room behind him and picked up the file he was staring at not twenty minutes ago. "I'm sorry, sir, but it seems that Harold Potter already has a guardian. He hasn't been declared unfit so there would be no point in you filling out the forms."

Dumbledore almost snapped at him, but he kept his tone jovial, "I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. His current guardian has fallen ill and as such, I am here to step in for him until he recovers."

The man consulted the file, "You are speaking of Sirius Black of course. We are aware of his state, but it seems that before he had fallen ill, he appointed someone who would assume temporary guardianship in his absence. That person confirmed the appointment about a half an hour before you got here." The man kept chattering but Dumbledore wasn't listening anymore. Damn that Black! Even comatose he was getting in the way!

"What's this person's name?" Dumbledore said curtly.

"Um, I'm not allowed to give you that information."

Dumbledore was through wasting time; he peeked into the fool's mind and read the name 'Sebastian Dunham'. He abruptly turned and left. He was walking down the hall, pondering. Who was Sebastian Dunham? He knew the name of every person who graduated from Hogwarts during his time there, so how could he not recognize that one? Did this person not go to Hogwarts? And if they didn't, how did Sirius know them? What did all this mean for his plans? If something happens to another one of Harry's guardians then people will get suspicious. But there were lives at stake, the world was at stake, he couldn't afford for an unknown entity to come in and gum up the works.

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On a floor high above that awful man, Amelia Bones and Kingsley Shacklebolt were in her office having a discussion.

"Hold on, Amelia, run all of this by me again," He said shocked.

"Okay," Amelia started her tale over again, "At his hearing, Potter said that Malfoy and his ilk were servants of the House of Riddle, and as you know, if that is the case, if they are bound to serve a House that isn't a part of the Wizengamot, then they must be dismissed from the body," Kingsley nodded so she continued, "I went searching for this House but all I could find was a kid that was Head Boy in Hogwarts decades ago. I decided to stick with this lead and I found that during his time at Hogwarts the Chamber of Secrets was opened and that it was him that accused Hagrid of being responsible! Complete hogwash of course, because Hagrid is literally a gentle giant and he would have never hurt anyone. Not only that but the monster that they claimed he set on the girl was an acromantula! They kill by biting but there was no mark on the girl! It was clear that Hagrid wasn't responsible and that the authorities were latching on to the chance to kick this half giant out of Hogwarts."

"So I was thinking that maybe it was this Riddle person that opened the Chamber and that he framed Hagrid, but how could he have done so? The legend says that he has to be an Heir of Slytherin and the Slytherin line ended with a family called the Gaunts. But then I thought what if this Tom Riddle was an illegitimate Heir of the Gaunt family? I started looking into that and I found that there was a girl named Merope Gaunt, a girl that ran away with a wealthy mundane named Tom Riddle!"

Kingsley couldn't believe this. Amelia went on "Apparently it was a huge scandal, it was all over the Little Hangleton town paper! Look!" She handed over the copy of the paper that she was able to find. It was good for her that mundanes felt the need to hang on to everything. She was able to find a copy of the original paper in one their libraries. Kingsley devoured the article.

Amelia continued, "Something must have happened because a year later, this article appears." She handed it over to him, "It says this Tom Riddle claimed that he was bewitched or hoodwinked and that he forced to run away with that girl! The town scoffed at him, but of course, we know better. What could this handsome, wealthy non-magical man, do against a desperate, besotted witch? I couldn't find any other record of her, the girl Merope Gaunt, but months later a Tom Riddle ends up in an orphanage in 1926, and eleven years later he winds up at Hogwarts."

Kingsley's mind was blown, he wondered if Albus knew all of this! This information was gold, but Amelia was still talking so he tuned back in, "The story doesn't end there! Apparently five years later, when this Riddle was sixteen, the wealthy Tom Riddle and his parents were found dead in their home with no marks on them and Merope's older brother Morfin confessed to the crime."

Kingsley leaned forward in his chair, "So what we're thinking is that Merope forced Tom Riddle to be with her and eventually when he realized what happened, he abandoned her. Alone and pregnant, her child ends up in an orphanage and when this child grows up and starts looking into his family he finds out that his father was rich and living the high life while he was stuck poor and in a children's home! But he's smart enough to cover his tracks, so after he kills them, he frames the Uncle. It's not like he's not in the habit of framing people, he did so with Hagrid! Amelia, you are a genius!"

Amelia could barely hold back her blush. There was a reason she called on Kingsley first when she learned all of this. They had been dancing around each other for months, ever since the Department Christmas party when she invited him back to hers for some firewhiskey. I'm sure that you can imagine what happened, but she was his boss, and them being in a relationship was inappropriate. She tried to forget about that night but Kingsley was smart, handsome, talented, and he wasn't like the other men in her department who kicked up a fuss about being ordered around by a woman.

She had been alone for so long, her fiancé, brother, and sister-in-law were all killed in the first War. She suddenly had a niece to raise and she was rising quickly through the ranks at work. She was always too busy to think about men, and then Kingsley bulldozed his way into her head.

She must have lost herself in thought because Kingsley was suddenly in front of her, wondering why she wasn't answering, "Sorry, I was miles away. There's more that I have to tell you," she said excitedly.

"There's more?!"

"Yes, a lot more. I decided to check out Little Hangleton because it's where all of this started. But every time I went to check out the Manor, I would remember I had something urgent I had to do and would apparate away. I must have done this three times before I realized it was warded, and it was warded very well. There's no record of a wizard or witch living anywhere near that village and all magicals have to register their address if they live in the mundane world so we know who to point the finger to if there is any magic done in the area. Someone is hiding out in that manor and who else could it be but this Riddle Junior, holed up in the home that he felt should have been his."

Kingsley suddenly had a thought, "But …Amelia…You-Know-Who always claimed that he was the Heir of Slytherin!" Kingsley knew he was back of course, but he didn't know any of this! If Voldemort and Tom Riddle were the same person than that meant…

Amelia saw that Kingsley had arrived at the same conclusion as her, "I know. This means that Potter might very well be right that Voldemort has returned, and that we know exactly where he is."

Kingsley sat down hard, they knew where he was! They for the first time had the upper hand! "Well, what are we going to do about it?!"

Amelia said, "Those wards are most likely connected to whoever is in that manor and if it is Voldemort, then he'll know we are on to him. He'll feel us breaking through and he'll run and we'll be back where we started. We can't squander this opportunity, but I don't know how we can go about it."

Kingsley could see the problem, how would they get a team of trustworthy Aurors into a Manor warded to high heaven to defeat a man that the government was saying was dead. He could feel a headache coming on.

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When Harry was released, the first thing he did was what he meant to do before his head got acquainted with a desk. He went to check the books for Sirius's attacker but the pages were blank and had no words after the present. This wasn't too odd, this had happened many times before. Harry was just guessing but he assumed it meant that the future was up in the air and there were too many paths to take and choices to make. The words would appear again when he settled on one.

He left the Tower and made his way to the Great Hall for dinner. He couldn't believe it was just this morning that he went to see Sirius. But at least he was sure of who did this to him. Harry was sure that it was Dumbledore. Anyone that could stand by and let a child be abused without lifting a finger would have no problem with putting someone that was in his way into a coma.

Harry knew that Dumbledore wanted him to die for the Wizarding world, and while Harry knew that he would survive, Dumbledore didn't! Dumbledore wanted to sacrifice him, and the Harry that he used to be would have gone right to the slaughter. Dumbledore was probably convinced that Harry needed to be weak, downtrodden and convinced that everyone's life was worth more than his for him to stand in the way of the Killing Curse. Why he couldn't just be honest with him, Harry didn't know. What did Dumbledore think, that Harry would have run? That he would have let Voldemort wreak havoc on the World! It wasn't the dying part he had a problem with, he would die if it meant he could take the man that killed his parents with him.

It was the being manipulated into it that was the problem. It seemed that Dumbledore didn't want Harry to know he had to die until it was too late to do anything about it. This whole thing was obviously years in the making, so every time Dumbledore twinkled at him and said 'my boy', in the back of his mind he was planning his death and that was just all kinds of screwed up. This was Harry's destiny, the prophecy said nothing about meddlesome old codgers! Kidnapping him as a baby, not giving him to his legal guardian, leaving him on a doorstep, not doing anything when Mrs. Figg told him that he was abused. Dumbledore was rotten, he was foul to his core, and Harry would find a way to force him to release Sirius from his coma.

Harry was almost to his destination when a hand reached out from a dark alcove and pulled him in. Whoever it was slammed him against the wall and pressed their wand to his neck, but Harry wasn't too concerned yet.

He had his wand pressed into their side but he almost dropped it when he heard, "How did you know?!"

"What?! Malfoy?! What are you talking about?!"

"How did you know about me?" He hissed, "How did you know I was…"

"Was what?! I don't know what you're talking about! And get off me!" Harry shoved Malfoy away from him. He could see Malfoy's face and took note of the frantic look in his eyes.

"You know what I'm talking about!" Malfoy took a deep breath and forced out, "I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry for everything I've done over the years! So please, stop with the jokes! Stop acting like we're together! If my father finds out-!" He cut himself off, obviously not wanting to think about what would happen if his father found out.

Harry finally got it, "If your father finds out that you're gay," he completed.

Malfoy flinched at hearing it put so bluntly, "Yes okay, so please! I won't bother you anymore, I promise…just stop… I'll lose everything."

Harry tried to fight it but he felt a sliver of pity, "Fine," He finally said, "You leave me and mine alone and the jokes stop. I don't tell anyone and we both go about our lives."

Malfoy looked confused. "That's it? That's all you want?"

"Yes it is, but if we don't get out of this alcove before someone sees us then all the rumors will be confirmed anyway."

Malfoy leaped away from him and quickly strode to the Great Hall without looking back. Harry straightened himself back up and waited a while before following him in. There was still five hours left of what was shaping up to be one of the most horrible and baffling days of his life. Maybe if he kept his head down then he could get through the next five hours intact. He walked into the Great Hall and saw Umbridge, standing on the stage facing the school, she was in the middle of a speech.

"-And you will see this in the paper tomorrow morning, that I have been confirmed to the newly made position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor." She gave a ghoulish- I mean, girlish laugh and sat down to no applause. Yep, definitely horrible and baffling.

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Thanks for Reading!