Last chapters: Harry, Fred and George tried to find more information on Tom Riddle, a man who turned Harry Potter in one of his horcruxes. In their search, they went to the restricted section of the library but Professor McGonagall caught them. As punishment they had to help Hagrid in finding out what was killing the unicorns.

Something set the forest on fire. George Hagrid and Harry found safety by a lake. Fred is still in the burning forest but to find them, they need some blood for the tracking charm.

-= Lucius Malfoy, 30 May 1992, Almost midnight =-

Lucius was sitting at his desk, working on his financial administration. It was a boring task but one that had to be done regularly. Although the goblins would collect the rent for him, he had to allocate funds for reparations to make sure that his fourteen houses were in a good state. He also needed to evaluate the rent yearly. By law this was only allowed at the first of July, but he had to inform his tenants a month before.

He was interrupted with the important task when an owl flew in. He looked at the owl and quickly saw that it came from Hogwarts. The letter however was not signed with the Hogwarts seal. In fact there was no seal at all.

The conclusion was simple but also not very useful. Someone used an owl from the owl wing to send him a letter.

Given that there were at least a hundred people with access to the owlery, he had to be careful. He doubted most first and second years knew any dangerous curses, but the upper years could cause a bit of damage. Therefore, he checked the magical aura's whether there were any curses on the letter.

After casting a few charms, he found one spell on the letter. Not a spell which he would expect though. The font scrambling spell would make it impossible to connect the handwriting to a person.

What kind of fool did that? The only reason to scramble your handwriting is to be anonymous, but the spell itself would leave a magical signature. With a bit of work that could be connected to the caster. So much for anonymity.

He opened the letter and read

Dear Lucius

The person who wrote this didn't use his titles or even his surname. That was very informal and showed an immense lack of respect.

As you may have heard from your son, the groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid is illegally breeding a dragon. He is With your position in the Wizengamot I would like you to put charges against him and, if possible, Dumbledore. The rumors should come out, on the night between 30 and 31 of May.

He indeed did get a letter from his son a few days ago. Knowing the dirty secrets of potential opponents was very useful. He read further to find out what the writer would offer him.

To make your case stronger, Rubeus Hagrid had been charged for the murder of Myrtle Warren on 14 June 1944. The murder weapon was an Acromantula that he had as a pet. Dumbledore's word and some inconsistencies in the story got him out of prison that time.

I have included reference materials for both the case of the Acromantula and the Dragon.

That was interesting and would indeed make the case stronger but the man wasn't offering anything yet.

Don't disappoint me.

What? There has been no offerings at all. It was almost like he was ordering him, Lucius Malfoy, head of the Ancient and Noble house of Malfoy. This man clearly knew nothing about politics.

Your Master

PS: If you have any doubt, check whether the signature on this letter matches that of the diary.

Oh shit. This wasn't the amateur he made him out. This was Voldemort despite that the man should have been dead.

He didn't really need to check the signature to verify the claim, but would do that in any case. He had told nobody of the diary and it was unlikely that the dark lord told someone before he died. Still, spending his time verifying the signature could help ordering his mind.

He really needed to think what he should do. The history of the death eaters was a violent one and one that had cost him a lot of his money. Not that he couldn't miss it, but he gained little in return for his services.

When his father was young, they weren't as violent. From as far as he could tell, Voldemort created a student group called the Knights of Walpurgis that strived for a complete separation of the wizarding and muggle world. They tried to achieve this in a mostly political fight.

Somehow, the leader changed and became more violent. The man delved into contract magic. At first the contracts only enforced secrecy but they slowly became more and more demanding.

The conditions in breaking the contracts were not favorable at all.

When his father indoctrinated him, the death eaters were already a group of murdering and raping terrorists. Not that he saw it at that time.

Although some of the activities had been fun, he was a professional politician now. If he would be caught in such a plot, he could end up dead and his house could be ruined. In addition he would probably be tortured several times a week.

Not something to look forward to.

On the other side, if he would defy Voldemort, he would take his revenge. And that monster could be very creative. Given what he knew, the monster wouldn't just take revenge on him. No, his whole family would be begging for death.

He could go to Dumbledore and ask for his protection. His old friend Severus got the man's protection but he didn't know how far it would extend. Would Severus survive Voldemort's punishment when he was back. He didn't know.

He wasn't sure how that would play out, if he would go to Hogwarts. First of all, there wasn't really anything Albus wanted of him. He had no real new information like Severus used to have. Sure he could give some names, but all of his 'friends' already escaped justice so those names weren't valuable either.

The second problem was more troublesome. Since the letter had been send from Hogwarts it meant that the school wasn't safe. The dark lord would be there and probably hidden, some way or another. If he would go there, he had the possibility to encounter his master. No that wouldn't be an option.

That left as only option to fulfill the dark lord's wishes even though he would hate to get into those plots again.

-= Harry Potter =-

"So, we can't use a tracking charm because we don't have Fred's blood."

"True."

"And you are Fred's twin brother."

"Yes, how long did it take you to figure that out?"

"And twin have the same DNA." (1)

"What is Dee-en-ay?" George asked "Whatever it is, I don't think we have that."

"It is in your blood, just like everyone." Harry explained in simplified terms. "It is what muggles use to identify people based on their blood."

"They can do that?"

"Yes, they read out the information in for example the blood, and see if it matches. My guess is that the tracking charm may also work with DNA."

"Are you sure?" George asked while taking his potion knife. The redhead seemed unsure whether he should cast the spell.

"Nope, but it is our best chance." Harry said.

George closed his eyes while he pierced his knife in the top of his finger. Harry could see the pain in his eyes when the knife touched the skin. The boy led three drops fall from the new wound on a small stone. After muttering an incantation, two straight lines of silver light appeared. Both lines started at the stone with the drops of blood. One line ended at George's heart. The other line, which was from Fred, pointed towards a part of the forest that was not completely divulged by flames. The pointing charm seemed to work and Fred seemed to be in the forest.

"Here we go" George shouted with new courage, while walking out of the water to follow the line. Harry and Hagrid quickly followed him wondering how far away Fred was. The only thing they had was a line, but they didn't know the distance.

Smoke and ash pained their vision as the maneuvered them through the bushes that were on fire.

Their wet clothing soon dried again in the heat of the flames, which was a pity as the wet clothing seemed to protect them a little bit. However, now they knew wet clothing could make the travel a bit more bearable. With the frequent usage of the water conjuration charm cast by George, they could at least bear the heat a little bit.

After maybe twenty meters, they found him. Between a burning log and some flaming bushes lay the redhead. Half of his hair was gone presumably to the same fire that was now playing with his robes. The left side of his face was covered in an ugly red wound. Harry had difficulty looking at the unconscious boy.

George was staring with wide open eyes at his brother and could only mutter. "Fred? Fred? FRED?"

As George seemed to be frozen and Hagrid wasn't doing anything useful either, Harry shouted "George, extinguish the flames."

"Eh, …" he responded with fear in his eyes. Luckily he started doing something again "Agua … Aguamenti"

Although his wave was okay, the stuttering didn't help the incantation. Like any spell that is cast incorrectly, nothing happened and the flames had time to continue playing. The flames didn't seem healthy and if the boy wasn't dead, he was surely dying.

"Hagrid?" He asked.

"No wand" was the response of the large man. He also didn't seem to have his umbrella with him. Even though he didn't think it was useful to give Fred a pigs tail, he would bet that Hagrid could do more with his umbrella. However, he probably left it at home.

Fred was dying and he had to do something. He never used the conjuration charm before but he had seen George use it. In an attempt to conjure the water, he called up all magic that he could collect and concentrated on what he knew of the water conjuration charm.

He felt the nice presence of Hermione in his mind guiding what he should do. The connection felt more alive and more magical than ever before.

As he needed all the magic he could get they both concentrated on the spell. His soulmate was mentally guiding him through all the steps as he made the wave and said the incantation.

"Aguamenti" He shouted with all his voice while the magic flowed from his body to his hands conjuring water from his wand.

At that moment he realized he was not the only one who conjured water. (2)

-= Charlotte Ryers =-

Meanwhile a few hundred miles southwards, in Smelting Academy in a small two person dorm were two girls. Despite that Hermione Granger was in a not so mild panic, the other girl Charlotte Ryers happily asleep, unaware of the magical world. She wasn't dreaming, but she had a nice and deep sleep nonetheless. It was a kind of sleep that doesn't leave any memory but one that you still need for that happy feeling when you wake up, telling you that you have slept well. That is, unless you are woken abruptly.

~WATER~, Charlotte's brain registered while waking up. It only took half a second before she was sitting in her bed not knowing what the hell had happened.

The first thing she registered was her wet face. The next thing she found out is that her bed was wet as well. Her shirt was relatively dry as her blanket caught most of the water.

It was only then that she noticed Hermione being awake.

At the moment, she didn't care what her roommate was thinking. There was no excuse to wake someone in such a way.

"Hermione, do you think that's funny?" she shouted in a high voice while taking a towel to dry herself.

The girl quickly looked at her hands before saying. "No, It was an accident. I swear."

"An accident?" She shouted "How can you throw a bucket of water in my face by accident?"

"I had …, Fred was …, I am sorry." she said, starting a couple of times over, clearly trying to hide something. Normally she finished her sentences.

"Whatever. Don't think we are finished." She said. "And how do you think I should sleep for the rest of the night?"

"Sorry." she said without calming down.

"What?"

"I said I was sorry" she snapped. "Take my bed if you like. I don't think I can sleep much tonight anyway."

"And why is that?" The girl was keeping things from her. Normally she wouldn't have minded if Hermione kept a few secrets, but she needed to be sure that she wouldn't be woken abruptly.

"Nothing. Can't say."

"Sure you can't" she said sarcastically.

"Honestly, I am not allowed to tell you." She told her. That was a weak excuse. She would think more about it in the morning but now she would try to get asleep again.

It took her almost half an hour before she fell asleep again. True to her word, Hermione didn't wake her again. She didn't even try to sleep. The girl read through her biology book as if her life depended on it.

Sometimes, Hermione could be a strange girl. She knew the girl was a study freak, but this was crazy.

-= Harry Potter =-

"Where am I?" The boy who lost half of his red hair, asked in a dry voice. The ash in the air made the talking for him more difficult.

"In a burning forest." Harry said "Can you walk?"

The hurt boy tried to start a sentence, obviously confused "What? How?"

Harry said "Come on we need to get out of here"

"You can lean on me if needed." Hagrid said.

Fred stood up and said half-conscious. "I think I can walk, although my body hurts a lot. "

"There is a lake nearby. We will take you there."

Although the walking was difficult they somehow managed to get Fred to the lake. The fires were at sometimes dangerously close but water conjuration spells helped to make a safer passage. The real danger were falling branches. Now that they knew about them, they were actively looking up. Luckily none of them hit them.

After a travel that took too long, the three of them arrived at the lake.

The rescued redhead visibly relaxed when they stepped in the water. Slowly he became more and more conscious.

The three of them took a couple of minutes to rest. The water was relaxing but they had to keep moving. It wouldn't do to get under-cooled or fall asleep.

"I am worried about Fred." his brother said.

"We can take a look at his wounds" Harry suggested. "But I have no experience in first aid."

With a knife, the three of them cut the cloths of Fred away. When the pieces of fabric were gone it was revealed that the burn wound was much bigger than just the left-side of his face. It covered a large part of his torso and his upper left arm.

"Fred, my brother, you look bad." His brother commented.

"Well, it hurts a lot as well."

"What must we do?" Harry asked.

"Madame Pomfrey will know what to do." George commented. "I remember our first Quidditch match where …"

"She isn't here and we have no way to contact her." Harry reminded them. "Does anyone of you know first aid?"

"No."

"I was afraid so. I guess we will need to work on instinct. Let's keep Fred in the water. It seems to ease his pain."

~Hermione, can you go to the school library when it opens at eight in the morning?~

~Sure.~

-= Albus Dumbledore =-

Professor Dumbledore was in a nice and peaceful dream. Like most dreams it didn't really make sense.

He was talking with his sister Ariana about all kind of socks. He didn't question how she was alive again as it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world. She just showed him a woolen sock that their mom used to wear. Even though it didn't really make sense, it was a happy dream.

That was when he was rudely awoken by a persistent knocking sound which was only interrupted by shouts of "Albus Dumbledore"

It took a few seconds before he realized that the talk about socks with his sister was a dream. Another few seconds were needed to realize that the knocking sound came from someone knocking on the door.

He mentally asked himself what the time was. Using one of his many devices on his nightstand he quickly found out that it was just before twelve O'clock at night.

What on earth did someone think to wake him at this hour?

"Who is it and what do you want?" He asked sleepy as he got out of bed.

"Minerva McGonagall" was answered with a loud and panicked voice. "The forest is on fire, likely with Hagrid and three students in it."

"Which ones?"

"The Weasley twins and Harry Potter." Was answered with a slightly irritated tone. "Does it matter who is in the forest?"

Of course it mattered when the boy who lived was in danger. That said, he couldn't show that favoritism. "A first and two third years know less spells than a newt student so they are in more danger. Mobilize the other teachers as well. Tell them to bring a broom."

"It will be done."

-= Harry Potter =-

Hermione's alarm clock showed 2:13, so it was early in the morning. She couldn't sleep at all, with her bonded Harry in the forbidden forest. The fire was still going on, although it wasn't as aggressive as it first was. Luckily, by being in the water, Harry and the other three boys were out of range.

Fred was doing relatively fine, meaning that his condition hadn't worsened. He seemed to be slightly confused though. Hopefully the log that went against his head, didn't do too much damage. It seemed even with magic that brain damage could be difficult to fix.

While in the lake, harry was on the lookout when he thought he heard a faint shout. It was something like "… ed … ere … you?" but he couldn't understand the words. Harry looked where the sound came from. At first he didn't saw anything through the flaming threes but after a couple of seconds he saw Dumbledore on a broom. Even though he seemed to look around, he hadn't noticed them yet. He was probably too far away.

"Dumbledore is there." (3)

"Where?"

"There, on a broom, behind that burning oak." Harry said while pointing to the flyer who was only partly obscured by burning trees.

"I don't see him." George and Hagrid said together.

"We need to draw attention to us." Harry observed. "Dumbledore is flying away again."

George took something out of his pocket that looked somewhat like firework. It wasn't true firework though as it didn't have a fuse. With this it swam to the shore and placed it on the ground, letting it point upwards. Instead of trying to light lit, he touched it with his wand.

The rocket emitted the sound of "Three", clearly counting down.

George ran to the water and dived in when the rocket reached the number "zero".

The rocket went up in the air, with a sound that almost appeared to be laughing. When it exploded, somewhat above the tree-line, there were sparks in many colors. Half a second later, the sparks exploded again, giving even more sparks. Orange, Blue, Pink, Green and white sparks were the most common.

Dumbledore who was almost out of sight, still noticed the sparks. He turned around and came came flying towards them, clearly looking what had created the firework.

When the headmaster was in sight, George shouted, with an amplified voice, to the headmaster getting his attention.

When the old man had seen then, he swept down and hovered right in front of them, above the water.

"Good morning all of you. I don't suppose anyone got Marshmallows." he said in a half-joking voice.

Harry not in the mood for jokes, immediately asked the critical question. "Professor, Fred is wounded. Can you do something?"

The headmaster seemed to switch to a little bit more serious voice. "I can do a few quick healing spells but I think that a visit to madame Pomfrey will be needed. I prefer not to cast healing spells that may accidentally make treatment more difficult later on."

The professor looked to Fred and after a quick examination of the wounds he asked "Can you ride a broom?"

"I think so."

With difficulty, Fred managed to sit on the back of Dumbledore's broom and together they flew away. Harry didn't know whether it was to the increased load or whether the headmaster was just careful, but they seemed to fly slower.

Ten minutes later, harry again saw brooms in the sky. This time it were two brooms and they seemed to know where they needed to go. When they landed, it was clear that it were professor Dumbledore, professor McGonagall and professor Snape.

"Harry, George, Hagrid" professor McGonagall asked in a concerned voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yes" Harry said "a bit tired."

Dumbledore took the word again and gave a couple of orders. "McGonagall, take George with you. Snape take potter with you. I will stay with Hagrid. He is too heavy for a broom."

Harry could swear, Snape looked with disgust to Harry when the headmaster told this. Maybe his head of house disliked it almost as much as he did.

-= Albus Dumbledore, 31 May 1992 =-

It had been a busy night for him and the other professors. Just like him, they didn't seem too happy. After all the lack of sleep was visible to the careful observer.

He noticed he had less tolerance to the noise the children were making during breakfast. Normally he enjoyed it. Now he was secretly wishing he was in bed. He hadn't had a lot of sleep last night. Getting Hagrid out of the forest proved to be tricky, as the half-giant really wanted to check on various creatures.

The man had been almost broken when he discovered that quite a lot of spiders died in the fire. His talk about how the forest will rise again, like a phoenix does, didn't really help his friend despite his best intentions.

He could clearly see that the rather large man sitting on his left, almost had a mental breakdown. Not surprising, based on what happened last night. After breakfast, away from the students eyes he would try to comfort the man again. His not so insignificant influence, would help, to make sure the ministry didn't learn about how the forest burned down. After all, if they would know about the Hagrid raising a Norwegian Ridgeback, he would certainly be sent to Azkaban.

No, Hagrid did not deserve that.

He was thinking what kind of story to tell the ministry tomorrow, when he suddenly heard the owls coming in. The sound of the students chatting was surpassed by the sound of the incoming post-owls. The flapping of the wings and the hooting of the owls who were satisfied when they delivered their letters.

One owl, in particular flew towards Hagrid. It was a brown owl with a ministry seal attached to his left claw. He dropped of a letter in a small envelope.

Hagrid was shaking with fear when he opened the letter. After reading maybe only a single sentence, he burst down in tears.

Dumbledore took the letter and read it. The letter raised a lot of questions. How did the ministry get this efficient? How did they learn about the dragon?

Clearly, someone in the ministry was being prepared for this. Who was it? And most importantly, could he keep Hagrid out of Azkaban?

He didn't want to say it, but he doubted it.

-= Hermione Granger =-

Meanwhile a few hundred miles southwards, in Smelting Academy in a small two person dorm were two girls. Despite that Charlotte Ryers was holding a glass of water, ready to throw, the other girl Hermione Granger happily asleep, unaware of the sudden wakening she would feel in a couple of seconds. She wasn't dreaming, but she had a nice and deep sleep nonetheless. The dream was not natural but instead worked because her soulmate Harry had drunken a sleeping draught. It was a kind of sleep that is deeper than any natural sleep. One that can help you process the memories of an eventful and dangerous night. That is, unless you are woken abruptly.

~WATER~ they both registered.

Author Notes:

(1): I am aware that DNA in twins is not exactly equal. Mutations typically cause a couple of differences between the DNA strings. Harry, having only limited knowledge of biology, is not aware of this. Luckily for the magic they are similar enough.

(2): Accidental magic that cannot be easily reproduced.

(3): I have chosen for Harry to have decent glasses that correct most of Harry's eyesight. His eyesight is still horrible without the glasses. This is based on the fact that Harry is a seeker in canon.

The release frequency will be changed to match my writing speed. Sorry guys but I can't write a chapter like this every two weeks so the schedule is now 1 chapter per 4 weeks.