Harry sighed as he looked around the Dragon Preserve. This was not his type of work. At least Daphne was enjoying her work helping the Preserve's Potions Mistress do her work. The two were quite a pair, and had been for the past weeks since Harry and Daphne had arrived.

Harry was currently walking with a team of dragon handlers and warding experts, as they had to go into the preserve itself with the ferocious beasts to check on the ward stones that held the magic of the entire wards. If these stones went down, then the entire preserve would be without wards, meaning the dragons could leave and the Muggles would be able to see the dragons.

This was the last part of the warding for Harry, and this entire contract would be worth thirty thousand galleons for Harry alone, not including the rest of the warding team, most of whom were employed full time by the owners of the preserve.

As they approached the warding stone, Harry froze as he felt a tremendous source of magic. He waved his hand and the entourage stopped, with some of the warders, mostly those hired through other sources, nervously looking around.

"What's going on," Charlie Weasley, one of the escorting handlers, asked.

"Charlie," Harry said. "Why is there a lot of ancient magic?"

"Ancient Magic?" Charlie asked, frowning. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"It does feel like a pyramid," one of the warders said, looking around. "It's not Egyptian Magic, but something more powerful."

"Something that predates Ancient Egyptian Wards," Harry said, as he looked around with his mage sight. He extended his senses, finding out that his animagus form was the reason he had mage sense. He closed his eyes and extended his aura until it was in the near visible range. If he had his eyes open, he would have seen the Dragon Handlers and the other warders look at him in awe for the sheer amount of magic pouring off of him.

With his eyes closed, he could sense magic much better. It was as if he had another set of eyes. Strangely, he could see the landscape's magic, and could see the sources of radiating magic. He turned until he found the source of the magic. It was a cave in the mountains.

"What's that cave," Harry asked.

"There are no caves there," Charlie said. "The warding stones are in that cave," he added, pointing in a direction that was ten degrees east of where Harry currently looked.

"There's a major source of magic if it's not a cave," Harry said. "But with my experience, it's a hidden place."

"How," one of the warders said. "How in the name of Merlin can you do that, James?"

"It's a secret," Harry said, with a smirk. "I want to examine it after we check the warding stones."

"Do you think it's dangerous to leave the source of magic there?"

"No. It has been there for several centuries at the least," Harry said. "It wasn't made recently, and it is very powerful."

"Why wouldn't we feel it," Charlie asked. "We come through here all the time when handling dragons."

"I don't know," Harry said. "But you may not be in tune with this type of magic. I can almost assure you anyone who has gone to Egypt to break curses, such as your brother Bill, would be able to sense this magic. Without that kind of sense, you don't make it a year, much less make it to team leader like your brother did."

The redhead shrugged his shoulders, and Harry continued on, following Charlie to the small cave that held the central warding stone. Harry stopped at the entrance to the cave and took out his wand. He cast several detection spells to be safe and he nodded in satisfaction when the results came to him. The cave was protected by several wards like the plans indicated. These wards would be temporarily disabled while they went in to check the primary warding stone with the Preserve's Chief Warding specialist, a former Gringotts Curse-breaker.

Two hours later, the warding job done, Harry and Charlie headed toward the cave. The others went back to start the beer drinking early.

"I've heard quite a bit about you from my brother," Charlie said. "He said that you helped him learn curse-breaking as a team leader."

"Yes," Harry said. "He's a great guy, though sometimes can't hold his drink."

"What do you mean? We Weasleys can always hold our drink."

"Well, he had the bad idea to flirt with my wife," Harry said, with a raised eyebrow. "Wondering hands left him in the hospital in Cairo for about a week when she got done with her punishment."

"You didn't do anything?"

"And risk being punished myself? No thank you," Harry said, as his alert eyes scanned the area. "Wait here."

Charlie nodded and turned his attention away from the mountain. They were in a safer area of the preserve, but there were still dragons who could make it in this area if they really wanted to. They were rarely seen here, but it didn't mean one wouldn't try to find them.

While Charlie watched for dragons, Harry used his wand to get a feel for the magic. He just held his wand out and let his senses take over. Sometimes, the wand was a good conduit of magical energies from the environment. It was one of the methods Harry chose to use since he had good magic senses. His self-preservation wouldn't allow him to cast spells or even touch an area with unknown magic until he was sure it was safe to touch.

With a practiced eye for detail, Harry slowly memorized what his senses were telling him. With magic this powerful, there was no need to get hasty and try to hurry through something. This could easily take weeks or months to figure out a safe way of breaking the curse.

Harry didn't have months. He only had three weeks before he had to be in London. And after that, there would be no way in hell he could escape from the watchful eye of the Order of the Phoenix, or what remained of it. And Molly Weasley would, no doubt, attempt to corral him in a place she deemed safe and take over ordering him around like Dumbledore used to do.

An independent Harry would not stand for it, and he would have to speak with Sirius and Arthur Weasley about controlling Molly's authoritative urges so that she realized that Harry wasn't one of her children she could order around.

But that wasn't now, and Harry returned his full focus and thoughts onto the matter at hand. When he opened his eyes, he withdrew his notebook and the miniature dictation quill. This quill was enchanted to read his thoughts, and only his thoughts, so he could write down notes on things without speaking.

He touched his wand to the small notebook and then began to replay his thoughts and observations about the magic. When he was done, he closed the notebook and placed it back in his pocket, done for now.

"What was that," Charlie asked, having seen his notebook.

"That's my warding notebook," Harry explained. "I use it to write down my ideas for warding."

"Why didn't you use a quill?"

Harry smiled.

"It's got an auto quill that is enchanted to work off of my thoughts when my wand activates it," Harry said. "I'm done for now," Harry said. "Let's get back to camp."

"Aren't you going to enter it?"

"You never enter a new area until you've had time to study it," Harry said. "Definitely not when dealing with powerful ancient magic like this. I want to consult a few of my notes and a few books I've found during my time as a curse-breaker."

"When do you think you can enter it?"

"It could be quite a while," Harry said. "My wife and I have appointments in the West we cannot miss, and I won't be around after August 30th."

Charlie nodded.

Over the next week, Harry studies his notes, books on ancient magic, and went back to study the area. It had garnered quite a bit of interest, and Harry was told that he would be paid handsomely if he could open the area and find out what was in it.

Several of the others who had been hired refused to stay beyond this just to study some ancient magic when they didn't know if it held anything of value. Harry, on the other hand, knew that something valuable was there, even if it wasn't gold or jewels. Sometimes, knowledge was a value all its own, and he had come to love learning.

And something with these powerful wards was very important in the scheme of things.

So far, he'd narrowed down the wards of a type that Merlin was thought to have used. There were few examples of wards that came from Atlantis, and Harry suspected this was one such ward. He had never seen one, of course, but he was familiar with the magic type. It was a defensive ward for sure, as defensive wards had a similar feel.

Each type of magic had a distinct feel. But each spell could feel slightly different in another area of the world due to the way magic flowed through the Earth's crust and atmosphere. Older magic had a different feel than younger magic, and it wasn't known if that was because of the construct of the magic or the age of the magic.

At night, when he wasn't studying the magic, Harry was studying his wife's lovely body, and enjoying ravishing it. She enjoyed it as well, and she knew he had a potentially great find: he'd always have more endurance when he was excited about something he was studying. It was strange that way, but Daphne loved it when he was breaking curses or studying warding. His excitement would lead to fantastic love making when he was around her. Not to mention she excited him that way quite a bit too.

With a week to go, Harry felt he was ready to try to enter the ward. He felt that it was an intent-based ward, and he wanted to test it out. Daphne insisted that she go along with him, just in case. And she lugged a bag full of potions and other medical supplies.

The dragon handlers and other warders went with them to protect Harry as he worked, and to assist him when possible.

At the ward site, Harry, for some reason, held out his hand and touched the magic, to the shock of everyone else. He had always said that it was dangerous to just touch magic, and Daphne was ready to ear bash her husband for his stupidity, should he survive.

But they were shocked into silence when a door shimmered into being in front of where Harry stood. The young man examined the door closely and then disappeared inside it. The door shimmered closed again, making Daphne swear.

The other curse-breakers attempted to do what Harry did, but they were thrown away from the area. They weren't hurt, but were quite shaken up at the negative feelings the wards gave them.

It was three hours before Harry returned. And during those three hours, Daphne was biting her nails and planning on kissing her husband before she bashed his ears for making her worry so much.

When Harry felt the door open, he felt his magic come into contact with the magic of the ward. The ward seem to think he was an old friend, and he entered the door after seeing something on a table. He turned when the door shimmered shut, and looked around while his wand was pointed at the ground, in a ready position, yet not in a threatening position until he knew what he was dealing with.

He closed his eyes to let his senses out, and the magic had an entirely different feel than it did earlier. It no longer was potentially dangerous. It was if this magic was an old friend. Harry smiled. To him, magic was an old friend. He didn't try to force magic to do anything, nor did he think magic served him.

Magic and wizards were mutually supportive. Wizards supported and protected magic, while magic supported and protected wizards when necessary.

Harry opened his eyes and continued to slowly move forward. He reached the table and saw a book was on it. The book was laid in the center of the table, almost as if it was an altar of some sort. The table was plain, and there were no other items in the cave. And he knew the cave was man-made centuries ago.

Instead of touching the book, he held his hand out over it to test to see if it was cursed. The book held powerful magic, but it wasn't anything that was dangerous. It was as if the magic recognized Harry as the proper owner of the book.

Surprisingly, the book, upon inspection, seemed to be well-kept. The binding and parchment made it quite old, possibly dating back to the Founders of Hogwarts or even before, from Harry's practiced eye. On a whim, he opened the first page of the book.

He read the first page and was shocked. He shook his head to clear it and then read the first page again.

Dear Reader,

This book is a book of great power. It contains a list of all of the magic I have managed to write down before my death. Magic users, as I write this, are slowly dumbing down magic and outlawing spells of great power they cannot use. The contents of this book contains many spells that are illegal in my day.

This book is in a protected place, and I suggest that you leave it, as only those pure of intent and pure of heart may enter. Only those with the ancient magical abilities may even open this book. Currently, only those shifters with a phoenix form are powerful enough to use this magic.

Anyone who gains a phoenix form has the ability to use ancient magic as my ancestors used before an evil wizard and their greed destroyed my ancient homeland of Atlantis. To assist you in studying this book, you should make a copy and key it to yourself using the spell on the next page. Once that is done, leave this cave and anyone who witnessed you enter the cave shall forget you entered it unless you can trust them with your secret.

Please study and use this magic well.

May Magic Continue to serve you well and you serve her.

Merlin

Harry was definitely in shock now. This was a book written by Merlin himself. He turned the page and spent some time studying the spell on the page. The next three pages taught him how to use a wand to use the spell, and how to properly use the spell to copy the book. It was the only spell that could get through the ancient protections on this book and many more, giving Harry an idea of how to copy books that he wanted from Hogwarts.

After all, with his experience and education, Hogwarts would be easy for him, and he would have plenty of spare time to study things that caught his interest. Things such as Ancient Magic.

With an expert wave of his wand, Harry had a copy of the book. This copy looked like a book directly from a printer, and he grinned. This would be a great way of giving him copies of old books to protect them. And the spell could be used on any form of written record, making an exact copy of it in book form. If he could modify this spell, then archivists and those who study magical ruins would be able to copy entire walls with a wave of their wand and then have a concise book to read.

Harry got caught up in reading the book that he realized three hours had passed.

"Shit," he muttered. "Daphne's going to kill me."

With that, he pocketed the book and exited the cave. The door shimmered and disappeared. From the looks on everyone's faces, all but Daphne, they had forgotten what happened.

"What happened," she whispered to him. "They don't remember."

"I'll tell you later," Harry said. "There was an amazing find. I'll keep it for us."

Daphne grinned, and, soon, they were on their way back to the main camp, where the warders and dragon handlers were cursing at the lack of a find. To them, it had turned out to be nothing but magic bleeding off from a ley line they had not known of before.

In their tent, Daphne looked at the book in shock. She could read the book, and the note had changed to tell her that she could only read and study the book, not use the magic. At least not use it at this time. With Harry's help, Daphne would begin to change the spells and rediscover ancient spells, at least weaker ones, that made certain things much easier. It was a task the Slytherin very much wanted to do. Not to mention it would make them famous for rediscovering and modifying ancient spells so they could be used by the common wizard.

With a laugh, Daphne looked up at her husband, who was engrossed in his own copy of the book.

"Harry?"

"Yes dear?"

"You know, Granger would probably have multiple orgasms if you let her even see this book."

"I know," Harry said, chuckling. "But she can't see it. I'll let her in on a few books I've gathered over the years."

"The ones that aren't family books?"

"Yes," Harry said. "And this is…"

"A Family Secret," Daphne said, together with Harry. With both of them saying it together, magic flashed to recognize the command by the Lord and Lady of the House, and the book was named a Potter-Greengrass Family secret. That meant no non-family member could see it without the joint permission of Harry and Daphne.

Daphne and Harry shared a look, and the books were shut gently and placed on tables right before the two lunged at each other in giddiness over the book. Surprisingly, the two could become excited at things such as seeing rare tomes and it led to a very active sex life, especially after Harry had discovered a parseltongue book covering sex magic they could do.

For the next three days, those who wondered by the Smiths' tent muttered 'lucky bastard' or things like that. Harry and Daphne hadn't been seen for three days and those who wondered by could hear loud moaning, religious epithets, various swear words, and other loud noises of joy.

Charlie Weasley was one of those, and he frowned as he thought about this. The couple was quite active, and he was quite jealous of James, who was a good friend of both Bill and himself. Charlie had also heard about how a Mr. Smith had spent a day in Diagon Alley and destroyed a Death Eater hunter-killer team using rare magic. Obviously, to him, it was this very man, as he and his wife had disappeared for a couple of days around the time the Death Eater attack had occurred.

With that knowledge in mind, Charlie wanted to ask him about what he was doing and why he did that to the Death Eaters. And, of course, he would send word that the man and his wife were staying in Romania. But then there was the deal with Dumbledore. Charlie wasn't so sure about how to deal with things now that Dumbledore was gone.

The Order of the Phoenix had essentially collapsed, though there were a few like McGonagall and Flitwick who continued to organize people to watch over certain areas. Without the Aurors, it was impossible to get a good force for anything, as Mundungus Fletcher had been booted from the Black Manor for attempting to steal things.

Charlie knew that, and he knew that his job was important in Romania. He would want to help out when he could, but it was quite impossible for him to do much while in Romania. The best he could do was to keep an ear open for how the locals and other dragon handlers viewed the war.

Most of them didn't like Voldemort at all, but didn't want to get actively involved in the fight in England. But if it came here, Charlie knew that there would be quite a few who would defend the Dragons. There were a handful here who Charlie didn't trust at all, as they seemed to be blood purists.

As he entered his post for the day, Charlie shook his head to clear it. It was dangerous to have his mind on something else.

When Harry and Daphne showed their faces, both looked quite satisfied. The couple had come out the day before they were returning to Western Europe, and they went to the dining hall to eat with the dragon handlers one last time.

Charlie smiled at his friend as he sat down.

"So, how was your break?"

"It was brilliant," Daphne said, with a bright smile. "James has the best endurance I have ever heard of and he's even shagged two pureblood Veela into a stupor before. In one night."

Charlie looked at him incredulously.

Daphne saw Harry smile and nod.

"It's true," he said. "I would swear an oath on it."

Charlie's eyes went wide, as did those of the others who heard it. And the male dragon handlers had a new role model.

"And how long did he last in the past few days," one of the more ribald men asked.

"He lasted long enough to give me multiple…."

Most knew what Daphne was going to say, but her words were drowned out by an explosion. Everyone jumped up, wands in hand, to see what was going on.

Harry immediately extended his senses with his eyes open. It wasn't as accurate, but it was safer for him.

"Death Eaters," Harry hissed. "And the Dark Bastard is with them."

A shiver of fear went down the spines of the Dragon Handlers as a group of Death Eaters burst into the room, only to have their remaining parts sprayed onto their friends and the walls when Harry and Daphne unleashed a hail of blasting spells.

The other Death Eaters were shocked, but one of them recognized Harry immediately.

"It's Smith!" he yelled. "AVADA…"

Before he could finish, the man gurgled as he had a nice hole in his throat from Daphne's wand.

"Do not attack my husband," Daphne hissed, in an angry voice.

With that, the two went toward the Death Eaters, firing off a barrage of spells that would take several curse-breakers a week to identify and remove from certain, still living, Death Eaters.

Twenty minutes later, all of the Death Eaters were down for the count. Most of them were dead, and Voldemort himself had fled when James had hit him with a bone breaker, destroying his right arm and removing his wand hand with a cutting spell. James bent down and took the wand for safe keeping, knowing it was a nice thing to have.

The Dragon Handlers, few of whom got injured in the fight, looked at Harry and Daphne with awe. Charlie knew he had a report to send in to his brother and the Order of the Phoenix, as Moody had told them to report any intelligence to the Order so it would be passed on to Sirius, who was leading the search for Death Eaters.

None of the dead or captured Death Eaters were Inner Circle Members. Those had positively fled when Voldemort had been wounded and used his emergency portkey.

When the local authorities arrived, the Law Enforcement boss looked at Harry and Daphne with a nod after hearing what they had done.

"Good job," the man said, in heavily accented English.

"Thank you," Harry said, in slightly accented Romanian. The man smiled at Harry and started to question him in his native language.

Once the interviews were completed, Harry and Daphne knew they had to leave. It was time for them to leave, and they would use the goblin portkey to get to England.

"Charlie?"

"Yes James?"

"If you report this to your friends in the Order of the Phoenix, let them know that I will not work for a bunch of housewives and gossips. If they want my help, then they will arrange for me to have Auror status in the UK. Oh, by the way, your occlumency shields aren't worth shit."

With that, Harry and Daphne left a shocked Charlie Weasley standing at the portkey point.

Upon arriving in England, Harry and Daphne sighed with relief. They could become themselves again and Harry took out another portkey, holding it out to Daphne. This one would take them to one of the houses the goblins purchased for them in Scotland.

Several portkeys later, they were in the house and resting after a long battle.

That night, the Order of the Phoenix, or what was left of it, met with Charlie, Bill, and the Aurors at Grimmauld Place. They were going to discuss the latest information that Charlie had said he wanted to give them.

"Weasley, what is it you wanted to tell us," Moody asked.

"As you know," Charlie began. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been working at the Romanian Dragon Preserve. Mr. Smith is an expert curse-breaker and warder, and former Gringotts Employee. Mrs. Smith is a Healer and Potions Master. Both of them were in Egypt and Mr. Smith was Bill's team leader for at least a year."

Bill nodded.

"Why didn't you let us know this earlier," Sirius asked Bill.

"I didn't think about it," Bill said, sheepishly. And he didn't want to admit that he was too busy admiring Fleur's nice bum.

"This information would have been useful when we were trying to figure this Mr. Smith out," Moody said. "Ok, Weasley, go on."

"Well, Mr. Smith is the best warder I've ever seen. And he has magic senses that I've never seen a human have before. Or at least one I can verify. He was able to sense a magical ley line that none of the dragon handlers, in the decades of work there, have found. Further, he was able to detect wards quite easily and charge them up, as well as repair them."

"What happened today, Weasley?"

Charlie snorted. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith seemed to want some time alone, so they sequestered themselves for three days in their tent. Today, they came out to eat dinner with us.

"During dinner, we heard an explosion and Mr. Smith sensed Death Eaters and You-Know-Who were there. Before the Death Eaters could come in and attack us, Mr. and Mrs. Smith hit them with all sorts of blasting spells, killing five and fatally wounding six before anyone knew what they were doing.

"A short duel later, and ten more Death Eaters lay dead or dying, and four more were seriously wounded. The Inner Circle Death Eaters were around You-Know-Who, and he attacked them. He couldn't stand up to Mr. Smith, who hit him with a bone breaker and also cut off his wand hand. Mr. Smith has custody of You-Know-Who's wand."

The shock in the room was palpable. Before Sirius could say something about destroying evidence, a black phoenix appeared.

"A Royal Phoenix," Charlie said, in awe, as the phoenix trilled to greet Fawkes, who had arrived at the meeting.

The phoenix stopped in front of Sirius and held out a letter, as well as a small package. Sirius checked the package with spells and then opened it. A wand fell out as he read the letter.

"This is You-Know-Who's wand," Sirius said. "The strange thing, this letter is in Harry's hand writing. It seems he has been training under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Smith all summer."

"What is in the bottle," Molly Weasley asked.

Moody took one look at it.

"It's a copy of a memory," the grizzled Auror said. "Black, what does the letter say?"

"This memory contains Mr. Smith's view of the battle. The view his wife said was not different and they decided to send this one to me so it could help me with the investigation."

"We should watch…"

"This is evidence," Sirius said, shaking his head. "Moody and I will examine it and then we will decide who gets to see it. I'm sure Minister Bones will need to see it tomorrow, and I want to prepare for her. And I will take this wand in for forensics testing. Then we will destroy it."

"Shouldn't Harry destroy it," Tonks asked. "After all, he did lose his parents."

"Lass," Moody said. "We don't want to risk a Death Eater getting their hands on the wand. So we will do the testing right here and I will go and get Ollivander for the correct identification of the owner of the wand. Obviously, if it is You-Know-Who's wand, then he will be able to sense it."

There were nods of acceptance, and the Royal Phoenix disappeared, his job done. Fawkes also disappeared, going to stay with the Royal Phoenix.