I'm Still Here

by kathryn518

The second war with Voldemort never really ended, and there were no winners, certainly not Harry Potter who has lost everything. What will Harry do when a ritual from Voldemort sends him to another world? How will he manage in this new world in which he never existed, especially as he sees familiar events unfolding? Harry/Multi eventually.

11. Faces of the Enemy

I'm Still Here

~Chapter 11~

Faces of the Enemy

Harry registered the way Faux-Moody's face showed just an instant of surprise before tightening immediately. Harry knew that very moment, that every plan he had for dealing with the Death Eater was gone. Now was the time to act. He was moving even as the imposter's wand came up to fire a curse at Iris Potter, the girl who had just blown his cover to pieces in the middle of the defense room.

Harry's wand snapped into his hand and he cast a silent disarming spell at Crouch even as he vaulted forward and body tackled both Iris and Neville, not half a moment before a spell whizzed through the area they had been.

The three of them ended up tumbling into the people on the other side of the desk aisle, where Tracy Davis and Daphne Greengrass were both sitting. This had the effect of all five of them tumbling over into a mess of chairs and bodies.

Even as Harry was tumbling forward he could hear the distinctive crack of a cutting curse hitting the wall at the back of the classroom, followed by screams that erupted all around them.

For just a moment Harry found himself staring into several startled faces, Tracy and Neville both were looking up in shock, while Daphne was out of sight underneath them both. However Harry's eyes locked on Iris's for just a fraction of a second. Harry could read the shock and fear there, followed by relief as she saw that her friends were alright. Her gaze snapped back to Harry's, and he saw a familiar, steely determination.

He heard Draco's voice shouting, "Expelliar-rgh!" and cut off by a cry of pain.

Harry instantly shunted all these thoughts to the back of his mind, as a spell slammed into the desk above them and conveniently between them and Faux Moody.

And just like that, Harry was back in his comfort zone.

He was back at war, and his body was moving with instincts he no longer had to fight to keep under control. The only thing that was different here was that there were innocent bystanders around that could be hurt or killed. It only brought him the slightest amount of hesitation when he realized that this was the first fight in a long time where there were others around that he needed to keep safe.

Harry didn't wait to see if Draco was still alive. He was already back on his feet with his wand moving and spitting out spells towards Faux-Moody, even as he felt a shower of stone shards impact against the back of his exposed neck from a spell that had shot past before Harry had gotten back to his feet.

Faux Moody was little more than a dozen feet away and was surprised by Harry's reaction time, but was only caught flat footed for a moment as Harry rolled to his feet firing spells. It was not enough time for Harry to press an advantage.

The two began to cast spells and shields back and forth at a rapid-fire pace. Neither of them took the time to voice incantations, as that would only slow them down.

Harry was surprised by the level of skill displayed by his opponent. No one he had faced, save for Voldemort and possibly Bellatrix, had been this skilled on his old world.

He had no idea if the Barty Crouch of his world had been much of a duelist. The man had been taken apart by two spells, from Dumbledore, though he'd been more than a little distracted that night by the prospect of his lord returning from the dead.

That lead Harry to a chilling question, was Barty just that good? Or were the Death Eaters on this world better than their counterparts? It was a question Harry would save for later.

This Barty Crouch was also different from almost all of the Death Eaters Harry was used to facing. There were no flashy movements, no dramatics, no insane declarations or speeches between spell flurries.

"Give up boy, you've no idea what you're up against!" Faux Moody growled out as he tried to twist out of the way of a spell but was unsuccessful, and was forced to hastily toss up a shield that managed to block the spell though his shield shattered on impact before he returned spell fire.

Ah, that had me worried for a second. Harry thought sarcastically, though he noticed that speaking didn't cause a hitch in the spells and shields that were going back and forth.

Harry didn't bother responding to Faux Moody, he couldn't think of anything off hand to taunt someone when he wasn't supposed to know who they were. Instead without breaking his own casting he called out through gritted teeth. "Malfoy, are you dead?"

Draco's voice came back, "No P-, just took a cutting curse to my arm!" Draco was aware enough of his surroundings to be relieved that his response came out as "Nope" rather than finishing what he was about to say.

Harry didn't even nod in response, just half-snarled, "Good for you, get off your arse and get everyone out of the fucking room!"

Harry already felt sweat running down his neck. He was at a massive disadvantage here, and it was precisely why he hadn't wanted to take Faux-Moody in a fight in a public place.

Faux-Moody only had to shield himself, and had the ability to move, however hindered he may have been by the body he now inhabited.

On the other hand, Harry was having to constantly toss a shield out that spanned the width of the classroom. He couldn't allow a single spell to get past him or it might have fatal consequences for anyone behind him. If he put a shield up and just tried to hold it, he'd be able to stop all these spells fired, but Faux Moody would not only have time incant his more powerful spells, but he would use it to no doubt start firing Unforgivables. The more powerful spells Harry felt his shield could probably take. The Unforgivables on the other hand would zip right through his shields.

Out of the chaos, Harry heard a shouted Stupefy from behind him that was aimed toward Moody but was stopped by Harry's own shield which was up at the same time.

"Finnegan you moron! A shield works both ways!" He thought he recognized that as Iris' voice, but he wasn't sure. Harry wasn't sure at all of what was happening behind him, he could just hear screams and the scraping of chairs and desks as students reacted the chaos they were suddenly thrown into.

"Either's he's got the room sealed, or a curse hit the door frame or something, it's jammed shut!" Draco's voice called out urgently over the hubbub of the room.

Faux Moody's mocking laughter did nothing to help Harry's temper as a red cutting curse slipped past his shield, he saw it out of the corner of his eye. But before he could react he felt a slight surge in his magic and a desk flew up in response, to intercept the curse.

It only took him half a second to realize that it wasn't his own magic that he had felt. He caught a glimpse of Iris with her wand out holding the desk lengthwise in case it needed to be used to shield against another curse. He didn't acknowledge her, instead calling out, "Malfoy, I swear that if you're beaten by a bloody door, I'm going to-"

The rest of his threat was cut off as he saw Faux Moody's spells falter for a brief moment. A second later, he managed to regain his composure, and Harry cursed to himself, because it wasn't enough of an opening for him to press an advantage.

Suddenly Faux-Moody jerked again, this time only barely managing to get up a shield to stop Harry's quick volley, before returning several of his own spells. Harry noted that they were all quick cutting curses.

The polyjuice is wearing off. Harry realized, preparing to press his advantage when it happened again, hoping to end the fight.

Faux Moody stepped back, and then his body jerked again, this time he threw himself behind his own desk to give him some cover. Harry's spells hit the desk immediately. But before he could blast through it, or move around to get a direct line of sight to hit the man and end the duel, he heard a loud "Bombarda Maxima!" Faux-Moody's first verbal incantation since the duel had begun.

Harry felt as much as saw the powerful exploding curse as he threw up his shield, but for once Harry and the students weren't the direct targets. The direct target was the ceiling overhead.

He watched almost in slow motion as the spell detonated against the ceiling, with enough power to immediately turn a huge section of it into dust and rubble. The closest point of impact was almost directly above Harry, and the impact was quickly spreading nearly the entire length of the room.

Harry instantly scrambled backward as the ceiling began to collapse bringing with it rocks and whatever was above the classroom. He ignored the screams of terror that once more filled the air, and quickly cast a powerful immobilization type charm above himself even as he moved backward, trying to keep as much of the rocks and debris as he could from falling onto the fourth year class.

But it didn't stop everything, as there was now a huge pile of rubble as well as two statues that had tumbled down onto the teacher's desk as well as the first two rows of student desks, turning them into a mesh of stone and wood.

Harry couldn't let his concentration wander, he had to maintain the immobilization charm along with all the weight he was suddenly attempting to hold back, while trying to cast sticking charms at the ceiling as well. He had to do it quickly, he wasn't certain if the Death Eater was buried in the rubble or not.

It took several repeated sticking charms to make sure the ceiling would hold. A few students aided him in doing so, Malfoy, Hermione, Iris, Daphne, and Blaise Zabini. It took at least a minute to stabilize the entire thing.

After he was convinced the ceiling would hold, Harry was immediately looking around and making sure everyone was showing some signs of life. However Harry's attention was immediately drawn by Draco.

"Son of a bitch…" Draco said, pointing toward the front of the room.

Everyone looked toward the front of the room where there was now a huge pile of rubble, spanning nearly the width of the entire room, but they're attention was drawn to one corner.

The pile of rubble kept them from having too clear of a view, but there some thick glass, and enough of a gap to see a man who was definitely not Alastor Moody cast another blasting curse. Only this time it was at the wall, shattering part of the wall and window on his side of the divide.

He took a moment to sneer at the students, before he leapt out of the newly opened hole on the castle wall. There was another gasp, since that side of the castle was partially over a cliff drop and featured a steep and lethal drop to the grassy expanse below.

There was only a moment's hesitation from Harry. "Fuck that!" he spat as he burst into action.

He was not going to be bested by a Death Eater like that. As he sprinted toward the window on the same side of the classroom that Crouch had jumped from. Harry was still muttering curses under his breath as he passed the combined rubble of the collapsed ceiling and the floor above them.

Harry didn't even pause or break stride, casting a small blasting curse ahead of him. He leaped through the air behind the curse, and through the shattering window. He felt part of a piece of glass scrape his cheek and another catch his right pant leg, ripping the fabric as he leapt through the broken glass.

He was in the air, and in free fall only to find himself surrounded by fire.

Harry felt the heat and quickly cast a flame freezing spell even as he was falling. Other than a bit of heat, Harry had cast quickly enough that he doubted he had more than a second's exposure to the fire. Crouch had obviously cast a fireball of some sort at the window he had come through.

Harry knew his leap was reckless but he was determined to stop the Death Eater's improvised escape. He was just lucky it was a normal incendio that had been cast, or at least something of a similar nature, and not fiendfyre.

Leaping headfirst into fiendfyre wasn't something Harry had ever done before. But he guessed it would have been more… problematic.

Even as Harry fell, he could see on the valley below that Crouch had already landed and was off running, far faster than he would ever have been able to as Moody.

As Harry descended toward the valley floor, he also made a mental note to himself that he should return to keeping his broom shrunk and on a necklace for easy access. He hadn't used it since he lost his eye. Too hard to fly without depth perception. Harry knew if he had it he could have easily caught the Death Eater, especially now that he had a fully functioning body again. He pushed those thoughts aside for later.

Plummeting face first, Harry cast a quick arresto momentum on himself, as he neared the ground, slowing his descent even as he was twisting to land on his feet in a crouch, his hand hitting the ground and absorbing some of the impact.

He noted that his robe only had token spell resistance and had never been intended for standing up in any sort of duel. It was slightly tattered from the flame. He wondered if after this he should just take to wearing his armor everywhere again.

Harry wasn't distracted by his idle thoughts for long, as he took off running after Crouch. The grassy plain he landed on was slightly sloped downward giving Harry a slightly higher vantage point. While Crouch had the advantage of being taller, Harry was quicker as he set off after the fleeing Death Eater. He cast a small bombarda of his own over the Death Eater's head, to hit the ground in front of him, forcing Crouch to change course a little bit and allowing Harry to make up several steps of ground on him.

However, Crouch now knew someone was following him, and turned around to protect his flank. Harry saw the flash of surprise on Crouch's face when he saw it was Harry who was chasing him, but that surprise didn't stop him from casting spells towards his pursuer.

Harry no longer had people he had to protect, so he was no longer at quite as severe a disadvantage as he had been before. The only thing Harry didn't have going for him now was time. He wanted to stop Crouch before he escaped. Crouch was headed for the forest and clearly hoping to make it to the edge of the ward lines, and Harry was determined to stop him.

With the far larger distance between them, nearly fifty meters, the spells were not in quick succession and each person had time to move or dodge. As Harry continually pressed forward toward the Death Eater, he occasionally fired curses behind the fleeing figure to try and box him in. Though it was only slowing Barty, not stopping him.

Barty for his part was also firing several more powerful curses, though he was grinning maniacally as he did it, having time to call out the incantations with the wider space between them.

Harry noted that Barty's favorites seemed to be ones Voldemort from his world was fond of using. The Killing Curse. Torture Curse. Entrail Expelling Curse. Blood Freezing Curse. Blood Boiling Curse. However, beyond those spells, there were still others that Harry couldn't identify.

Barty also wasn't lacking in strategy. He used some of Harry's own tactics against him, casting exploding spells in front of him and forcing Harry to go around, giving him some more space between them as the race between the two continued.

The two combatants were both so focused that they were unaware that they had several different audiences that were close enough to observe, though none had tried to intervene.

From the disaster of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, most of the fourth year class watched the fight happening below them through the large hole where only the vague shape of the window frame remained. Four students had nudged their fellows out to watch the continued battle.

There were several injured students in the room, though none of the injuries appeared to be fatal. When Harry had jumped through the window, Draco had copied his idea and cast a smaller bombarda on the door to open it. Dean Thomas then raced out of it to find a professor. Hermione was busy checking the students, though only one was unconscious, there were several broken bones or bloody gashes from people who had been hit by large pieces of debris.

Iris, Daphne, Neville and Draco had gathered around the opening, with several members of their class pressed in behind them to watch. Those four watched watched with unimpeded vision, though none seemed brave enough to hop out the window as well.

When the battle continued, and Crouch sent several exploding curses at Harry, Draco snarled in a hushed whisper, "Damnit Potter, you reckless idiot."

Iris looked shocked at the sudden vitriol, but Draco didn't follow it up or take time to say anything else. He spun around, pushing through the gathering of students before sprinting out of the defense room.

He blew past Professor Flitwick who was just arriving to the classroom, barely a step ahead of Dumbledore. He ignored the shout of "Mr. Malfoy" from Flitwick as he sprinted through the castle.

Not all of the battle's audience came from within the castle.

The loud explosion of noise had quickly drawn the attention of two other groups of people. The first one was a group of third year Gryffindors and Slytherins. They were outside, near the outskirts of the forest with Hagrid for their Care of Magical creatures class. They rushed out to see what the huge commotion was, only to see the skirmish happening farther down the line of trees.

The other group of students was the Beauxbatons contingent who exited their carriage to stare. They were looking in shock, first at the side of the castle that now had a giant hole in it, then at the person that had leaped from the hole to land on the grass, who was followed by another slightly smaller figure that leaped from the same height. They were completely baffled at the running battle taking place in front of them.

It took Fleur all of half a second to guess the identity of the second figure jumping from an insanely high height, through fire and chasing after the second figure.

Harry wasn't cognizant of any of this as he dodged a third set of exploding curses sent to the ground in front of him. Clearly Crouch had realized that Harry could shield or dodge most of his curses including a handful of killing curses he had fired off. However, casting exploding curses close enough to make Harry shift his approach, but far enough that tossing a shield out to stop them was difficult, made the whole exchange far more demanding for Harry and only gave Crouch more breathing room.

This time when the man who had been impersonating Moody cast the exploding curse, Harry tried a different tack. Merely hitching his step slightly to give a moment's pause after the impact, allowing the dirt and stone to shoot in the air, before he leapt over the site of the spell's impact, he emerged from the billowing dirt, barely breaking his stride and once more surprising Crouch.

A few moments later, Crouch once more shot exploding spells in front of Harry, and Harry once more hitched his step slightly before leaping through the airborne dirt to continue his pursuit… and ran face first into a Cruciatus curse.

Harry gasped out in pain as he tumbled to the ground, his muscles all jerking and spasming as the nerves fired uncontrollably.

Through the extreme pain of the curse, Harry heard a shout of anger to his side, it took him a moment to identify it as Hagrid.

The curse dropped after only a moment, but Harry's momentum hadn't come to a complete stop. He continued rolling as a curse spat into the ground where he had initially impacted. Harry saw the grass immediately turn black and knew the curse must have been a decaying curse. If it had hit him, he'd only have minutes, perhaps less to use the appropriate counter-curse or die a horribly painful death.

Most magicals when hit with the Cruciatus curse would be incapacitated for a time while the muscles recover from the involuntary spasms. With most wizards the length of time they were under the torture curse would be directly reflected in the amount of time it took to recover. The longer the exposure to the curse, the longer the recovery time. Still even momentary exposure to the cruciatus curse had most wizards down for several minutes.

However, most wizards hadn't been hit with the curse more times than they could count. Unless of course they were opposing an insane dark lord… or ironically in service to him.

Harry's place in the former category gave him plenty of experience. And while there was no denying that the curse hurt it also wasn't nearly at the level of Voldemort's. Thus as the curse stopped after only a moment he was able to continue his roll and return to his feet, albeit with a bit of a stumble.

He was just in time to see an incensed Hagrid charging towards Barty Crouch, only to be caught in the chest by a powerful Expulso curse. Hagrid had no time to dodge as it hit him center mass. The curse blew him off his feet and sent him tumbling, his body knocking over several of the third year class behind him.

Only Barty not stopping to smirk in satisfaction, and instead whirling around to continue running saved his life as Harry's own curse as it whizzed through the space the Death Eater had been only a moment before.

Harry was enraged, he had no idea if he had just seen Hagrid getting killed or not. The spells that had been flying from his wand before were nothing compared to the onslaught now. He felt his own rage fueling the spells as he cast them. In the classroom he was limited by spells he could cast non-verbally, and limited by constantly having to shield the area.

Out here he thought that there wasn't going to be anyone close by. He hoped to capture Barty, hoping to use him to determine where Voldemort was. That desire had just gotten Hagrid, the analogue of the person that had been his very first friend, hurt or possibly killed.

Barty was shocked at Harry's sudden reappearance after being hit by a Crucio. He was far more stunned by the spell onslaught he found himself under. When his first two shields shattered under single spells from Harry, Crouch was forced to dodge repeatedly, shielding only when he couldn't dodge from the series of powerful cutting curses and expulsos Harry was sending at him almost blindingly fast.

As Barty reached the line of trees along the Forbidden Forest, Harry knew that Barty was getting closer to the line where the anti apparition wards ended.

Crouch was desperate as the amount of close spells that nearly hit him were increasing rapidly. In his desperation, he dodged around a cutting spell which sliced deeply into the tree behind him and he fired several curses toward the area where the Gryffindors and Slytherins were.

Harry snarled and had to stop his onslaught of spells. Turning and concentrating he muttered "Aegis!" and managed to conjure a shield of magic into existence between Crouch and the students. The shield, a brilliant emerald green and roiling with energy, was nearly opaque and stopped the spells as they slammed into it.

It wasn't a protego, and was a spell that was incredibly hard to cast. It wasn't because of the amount of power required, though the demands were more than moderate. It was due to the amount of concentration required to hold the protection spell, and doubly so because it wasn't oriented on Harry and wasn't protecting him.

There were other methods of blocking harmful spells that were far less taxing on the caster, but they were infinitely less reliable than an Aegis barrier. The most commonly known, but least understood by common wizards was the idea of hovering debris in a battlefield up to intercept an incoming spell.

When others had proclaimed that Harry and her simply needed to practice precision levitation more, Hermione had been there to finally put the arguments to rest. She explained that it was similar to the idea of banishing objects to stop spells being fired, only the shield was there instantly.

Hermione had once likened it to the muggle game of baseball, saying it was the equivalent of trying to catch a ball travelling in excess of 100 miles per hour by throwing a glove at it. This was complicated by the fact that most duels statistically occurred between the distance of fifteen and thirty meters, which was shorter than a standard pitching distance. This meant that a person usually had less than a second to levitate something less than halfway between the opposite caster into the path of the incoming spell. They were much more effective in battles that weren't one on one and there was alot of area spellfire.

Of course, then she'd had to explain that analogy to Ron several times.

Ultimately, Hermione had never managed to conjure an Aegis spell the size of a wall, as she never had the sheer magical power that Harry possessed, so it was all relative. It was a powerful shield that could handle multiple impacts.

The main difference between an Aegis barrier and a Protego was that a Protego always used the caster as a center point. It was anchored to the caster, so it no matter what direction you cast it, it was always oriented to protect the caster. An Aegis on the other hand could be oriented any way the caster chose. In this case it was oriented between the spells Barty fired and the group of students who had already scattered.

However it suffered from the same weakness all magical shields did. They couldn't stop unforgivables.

Harry ignored the screams of terror coming from the students, Harry held the shield as another spell impacted against it. The other downside was that it wasn't something Harry could reliably flick in and out of existence, like he could a protego.

Barty was stunned by the magical display, but also took advantage of the situation. He saw that Harry wasn't firing spells at him while he held the shield, and used the opportunity to continually back away. He fired several more spells at the Hogwarts' students who were already moving behind trees for safety, before firing several more at the only slightly more distant Beauxbatons carriage.

He didn't hear the incantation but he easily recognized the green of the killing curse shoot toward the students. His eyes widened in surprise his free hand jerking out reflexively toward the Beauxbatons carriage as if willing the curse to stop. While hoping the students weren't so caught up that they couldn't move out of the way.

Without really having an option, he did what he tended to do in times of extreme stress. He called on his magic for a solution.

And like it had so often in the past, his magic responded to the force of his will.

Harry grunted with the effort, the ground itself surged up in a wall of rock and dirt in front of the Beauxbatons contingent who were watching. The suddenly appearing wall took the green spell in an explosion of dirt, followed by several more spells that surged into the barrier. Although it wasn't in time to stop all the spells. One of the exploding spells made it past before the dirt wall was up completely.

He could have sagged with relief as the spell impacted against a fairly strong protego. Madame Maxine had stepped forward, and had recognized the danger her students were in and stopped the spell in it's path. Her look was grim and looked like she would have attacked in that moment if it hadn't been for the need to keep her students safe.

Harry turned his full attention back to Barty. The transfiguration of the ground took more than a little effort, even if he hadn't been entirely sure what he was doing or how he had done it. Harry was familiar enough with that feeling. All too often in the past it had occurred when he had ended up doing something he hadn't really intended with his magic through sheer desperation.

The respite had given Barty Crouch time enough to get far enough along the path to escape the apparition wards. Crouch turned and snarled at Harry, "You will pay for this boy. No one defies the Dark Lord and lives!"

His choice to take time to boast was a costly one as a spell impacted his shoulder right as he finished the statement. Barty let out a cry of shock and pain as his left arm was severed from his body. He said nothing else and with a twist apparated out, just as two more spells sliced through where he had been standing moments before.

Harry growled as he sagged forward and bent over at the waist, gripping his knees while he took several deep breaths. The fight, while intense had not been a significant drain on him. However, as so often happened when he just willed his magic to act without a real focus, the wandless surge of magic that pulled the ground up had certainly been stressful.

However, he didn't have time to rest at the moment, instead he pushed up from his knees and headed over to the Hogwarts students who were staring at him in a combination of fear and awe.

He ignored the ones who were staring, knowing that they weren't injured enough for it to matter. He saw that the few that Hagrid had hit were all conscious and moving, so he passed them without a word, his wand still in his hand,

He stumbled slightly when his gaze fell on a familiar redhead who was standing next to Hagrid. She had obviously been checking on him, when she looked up at Harry's approach. Harry found himself staring into the familiar bright brown eyes for just a moment. However, the moment he met her eyes, a flash of memory assaulted him.

The same brown eyes staring up at him, lifeless and empty. Her face spattered with blood and her mouth open, but what she might have been going to say forever lost. One arm lay across her blood drenched robes over her chest, the other splayed carelessly above her. Her legs were bent in odd angles, but that hardly mattered since they lay nearly ten meters from the rest of her body. The sick horror Harry had felt as he was on his knees and staring in utter shock.

Harry clenched his jaw and once more buried the emotions at the back of his mind, forcefully looking away from Ginny Weasley and to Hagrid who was laying with an arm over his stomach against the tree. Harry noticed that Ginny looked like she was going to speak up, but Hagrid beat her to it.

"'ere now. Are ye okay?" Hagrid asked, though his face grimaced as he spoke and the arm over his stomach tightened slightly.

For just a moment Harry paused seeing his old friend there, and couldn't stop a small smile on his face before he controlled himself and his reaction. "I'm okay Professor Hagrid. What about you? You look like you're hurt."

Hagrid instantly shook his head ignoring the question, though he couldn't manage to hide a grimace on his face at the pain the movement caused, "Are th' kids alrigh'?"

Harry nodded a little bit, "Yeah, they seem okay, a few bumps and bruises it seems like. You didn't answer my question, Professor Hagrid." Harry was doing his best to keep his tone formal.

"Naw, it's jus' a scratch, a few minutes to catch my breath and I'll be fine." Hagrid protested.

Harry frowned a moment, he had seen the spell cast, and the fact that Hagrid was breathing pretty much said it all. If he had been human he'd have been dead. The magical resistance granted to a half-giant certainly saved his life. Harry surmised that it must have been the impact of the spell and the force it pushed Hagrid back with, that caused the actual injuries, since otherwise it took an incredible amount of physical impact to damage a giant or half giant.

Harry was also sure Pomfrey would bully the kindly professor into getting looked at.

"Zat was very brave of you Mister 'agrid." A cultured feminine voice spoke up from behind Harry.

Harry frowned, as he turned around to find himself facing Madame Maxine, or rather facing her belt buckle. He hadn't even sensed or felt the approach. He tilted his backward to look up at her and idly noted that she still had her wand out, and though it wasn't pointed at him, she was tense and ready to cast at a moment's notice. Harry also noticed that there were several students that had followed her, one of whom was Fleur, who was staring at him intently.

Hagrid was actually blushing despite his injury, "No it wasn'. I didn't righ know wha' was happenin', but gotta protect the students." he said modestly, but honestly.

Madame Maxine regarded him for several moments before she focused her full gaze on Harry. "Zat was some impressive magic, young man. 'owever, I would like to know exactly what was 'appening."

"That, my dear Madame Maxine is a question I think we would all like an answer to." spoke a firm voice as he approached the group.

Harry stiffened slightly at the sound of Albus Dumbledore's voice. Harry shifted to look past the large Beauxbatons Headmistress, who helped slightly by obliging and stepping to the side.

Harry saw that Dumbledore looked anything but amiable and friendly at the moment. He was accompanied by McGonagall and slightly further behind was Snape. Lily Potter had just emerged from the castle, hurrying to catch up with them. A moment after her, he saw Draco running out from the castle.

"I was jus' introducin' one of my third year classes to Buckbeak, when we heard tha' commotion! Came ou' tah find this one fightin' with some bastard." Hagrid said pointing to Harry.

"Who was it, Hagrid?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes intent on Hagrid for the moment.

"I dunno. I didn' recognize him… I though' it might have been a duel... but I saw the bastard cast Unforgivables, so I charged. I didn' get to him though. He hit me with a spell." Hagrid looked somewhat chagrined at explaining what happened to him, though he also gripped his ribs gently throughout his description.

"Zat was not a duel that got out of hand, deadly spells were being cast!" Madame Maxine said, speaking up as all attention turned to Harry once more.

Harry was only barely paying attention to what was being said. After making sure that Hagrid was likely to survive, Harry was struggling to contain his absolute rage.

His left hand was clenched so hard it was shaking. He wanted to take out Crouch with surprise and without possible casualties around. He wanted to capture Barty to find out where his master was. Harry had thought he might be able to imprison Voldemort before he got a body.

He had badly miscalculated. He had no idea what that miscalculation might do. The majority of his knowledge of his events from here on out was effectively worthless. He was pulled from his thoughts as Draco ran past Dumbledore and up to him, breathing heavily.

"Ha..ha…" Draco was trying to get out as he needed deep gulps for air before finally settling on "Are… are you oh… okay?" His question interrupted by his panting for breath.

"I'm still here." Harry said absently as he glanced at Malfoy and managed to keep from snapping any number of sarcastic remarks that occurred to him.

Draco looked like he was going to make a comment, but Harry cut him off by lifting his arm, the sleeve in tatters and soaked in blood, "Malfoy, are you alright?"

Draco seemed to come back to himself and stopped trying to talk, jerking his arm out of Harry's grasp for some semblance of pride, while he caught his breath, though he nodded in response.

Dumbledore's voice brought the attention back to him, his voice was firm, and more than a little cold. "Mr. Flamel, I have several severely injured students in the infirmary and an injured professor. You will explain what happened here, immediately." The comment was not a question, but a demand.

Harry was not the slightest bit intimidated by Dumbledore's demand or his cold voice. Instead he frowned, none of the students had looked too terribly hurt in the classroom when he'd left.

He momentarily ignored the headmaster. Draco's arm had reminded him of something. He pointed his wand in the direction that Crouch had disappeared in and wordlessly summoned the arm he had hit. He had no qualms about displaying his proficiency on a simple summoning spell, especially after the display that had just happened, he was bound to have to deal with questions anyway.

The dismembered arm zipped into his outstretched hand immediately, still covered in the sleeve of the oversized coat Crouch had been wearing. The end was still dripping blood and it spattered on Harry and several other people standing there.

Once he held the arm, he turned his attention back to Dumbledore with a challenging gaze and matched Dumbledore's voice with one equally as cold. "I would be happy to explain Headmaster. Though first I prefer to hear why someone at Hogwarts fired a deadly curse at his students." He emphasized his point by gesturing with the severed arm, which splattered blood in an arch, adding more blood to several people, including Dumbledore's robes.

That seemed to shock everyone there, though Dumbledore met his eyes evenly. "Those are the circumstances I am attempting to ascertain."

Harry shrugged a little bit, "Well, I don't feel the need to repeat the story. So I will just wait for the Aurors to arrive."

"The Aurors will be contacted shortly, I prefer not to wait for their arrival to hear your explanation." Dumbledore asserted.

It was at that point Draco interjected, "I ran to the common room and I floo called the Aurors. They should be here any moment."

That caught several of the teachers off guard as they stared at Draco Malfoy, and Harry couldn't resist the small smile of amusement that crossed his face. He was certain that the idea of Draco Malfoy contacting the Aurors was more than a little shocking. It pleased him that the surprise helped keep Dumbledore off balance.

Attention from him was diverted slightly when Lily spoke up from where she was casting medical diagnostic spells on one of the third years. "I also sent a patronus to my husband."

Harry tilted his head and glanced at Draco before looking back, "Are all the students that were in the defence classroom alright?" Harry inquired curiously, trying to keep his voice steady.

Now that the adrenaline was gone, he could feel himself crashing a little bit. He was used to the feeling but that, combined with his nervousness as to whether he had missed any of the spells in the classroom had him really worried. Dumbledore had said there were severely injured students, but he hadn't seen any that were too bad.

Lily glanced up and regarded Harry for a moment a scowl twisting her face, though it wasn't directed at Harry at the moment, and was about to reply when there were several soft cracks that heralded the arrival of aurors, only fifty meters or so from their location.

The group of aurors looked around in unison as they got their bearings. Harry barely managed to restrain a sigh and a roll of his eyes. If he had wanted to hurt them, he would have had a good five seconds to rain spells on the apparating group.

Harry's irritation was distracted by the fact that the auror group was lead by James Potter, who Harry noted was the only one with his wand up and in a defensible position. Even from this distance, Harry could see the bit of resemblance there, though James Potter was wider in the shoulders, than he was, and he currently had wire rim glasses. He also sported a dark goatee, one that had the first hints of grey in it.

After the aurors got their bearings, the group as a whole ran to the group that was gathered around Hagrid. James, seeing his wife easily outdistanced the others by a few strides, stopping as he took in the whole situation. His first questions was immediately directed at his wife. "Are the kids okay?" He obviously didn't bother asking if she was okay as he was looking her over for any signs of injury.

Lily nodded, relief clear in her expression, "Our kids are fine, but we have some pretty badly hurt students Poppy is working on in the infirmary. She was summoning two doctors from Saint Mungo's."

That statement caused confusion on both Harry and James' face. Harry was wondering how he missed several badly hurt students.

James took a second look around in confusion, "I got your patronus right after a floo call to the auror department demanding help. What in Merlin's name happened here?"

One of the other aurors, one Harry thought looked familiar, though he couldn't place him immediately, spoke up, "And why would a Malfoy of all people call the auror department?"

"We were just trying to determine that James," Dumbledore interjected, "My student was just about to tell us what happened." Dumbledore gestured at Harry for emphasis.

The aurors turned as one to look at Harry. His cheek had a gash along it, his skin was slightly darkened and his school uniform was slightly singed from the momentary exposure to the incendio when he leaped through the window, and his pant leg was ripped and stained with blood. He looked just a little nervous. He was holding the severed arm at his side, so as not to draw too much attention to it at the moment.

Harry wasn't nervous about facing the aurors, however he had just come face to face with the analogue of his father who was regarding him with narrowed eyes and suspicion.

Harry froze for a moment. Draco took over in the hesitation speaking up from beside Harry. "We were in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and the professor attacked us."

That caused some confusion, and some exasperated looks around the group.

James Potter hesitated before he looked around in shock, "Moody did this?"

One of the Aurors, John Dawlish, Harry recognized, spoke up with a sneer "I told you that Moody was too unstable to teach a class. Did one of the students cast a lumos spell in his direction and he thought he was being attacked by dark wizards?"

That was enough to push Harry out of his momentary shock at being confronted with the James Potter from this world. Someone he had to fervently remind himself was not his father. "Um. No. He was in the middle of demonstrating the unforgiveable curses to the class-"

Harry was cut off by the hubbub that exploded at that. Not just from the Aurors, but from several of the teachers as well. "He was doing what? That man has no business being around children!"

He noted that even Dumbledore seemed surprised by that revelation, rather than let things devolve as they seemed intent on doing, Harry spoke up loudly his voice snapping and gathering the attention of all there, "He was demonstrating the cruciatus curse on a spider in front of Neville Longbottom."

The auror that had spoken up asking about Malfoy had stiffened at that, though didn't stop Harry from continuing. "When Iris Potter stood up and pulled Neville away and accused the teacher of not being Alastor Moody. Turns out… she was right."

"How do you know?" James asked Harry, his voice icy calm and almost accusatory.

"Well, he fired a dark cutting curse at Iris Potter and Neville Longbottom. That was sort of my first clue." Harry said sarcastically in response, "Then when we were dueling. He changed. I would hazard a guess and say that his polyjuice potion wore off."

"Polyjuice? Are you certain?" James asked, his eyes narrowed.

Harry nodded, "He dived behind a desk when he started to change otherwise the fight would have been over. You could always check this and use the spell to find out who it belongs to." Harry said as he gestured with the severed arm he held. Once more blood spattered on several aurors.

Harry had never actually seen the spell cast before, but knew that it could be done. Sirius had explained it to him once, that was how they were able to identify Pettigrew's finger at the scene of the explosion that killed all the muggles. There was a reason they were certain they found Pettigrew's finger at the explosion. The magical world didn't do fingerprints.

"Where did you get that?" Dawlish demanded.

Harry looked at the auror and didn't restrain a roll of his eyes. Moody had once told him that Dawlish was the reason that he was so insistent that people not carry their wands in their pockets.

Apparently, the story of blowing off a buttocks was not just hyperbolic.

He had also been a Death Eater in the Second War. Harry had no inclination to be nice.

"Oh, it's the newest fashion style. Severed appendages. You just carry them around wherever you go!" Harry said, his voice full of sarcasm and derision.

"If you pay a bit extra, they even come with their own dark mark!" Harry tugged the sleeve off the arm revealing through the blood, a clear and very visible dark mark on the arm. Harry tossed the bloody sleeve at Dawlish who let out a little cry as he fumbled with it, finally pushing it to the ground.

Several of the aurors snorted in amusement despite the seriousness of the situation.

Dumbledore took the opportunity and stepped forward, his eyes on the arm, wand in hand and already moving to point at Harry. Harry had a wand in his hand instantly and had it pointed at the headmaster who froze in his tracks in surprise.

Dawlish, apparently trying to save face, spoke up in defense of Dumbledore. "Put down that wand boy, before we arrest you for interfering with an investigation by the authorities."

"Well since I was just attacked by someone in authority, I think I have a right to be cautious." Harry spat back at the man.

James Potter shook his head and stepped forward. "It's okay, this really needs to be done by an auror to be official anyway."

Once Dumbledore stepped back, his wand disappearing in his robe and Harry lowered his hand, James pointed his wand obviously downward at the arm Harry was holding out, which caused Harry to relax slightly. "Revelare Identitatem"

Harry raised his eyebrow, he had never actually seen this spell being cast before. There was a small shimmering and beside the arm a ghostly representation of the man Harry had just fought slowly faded into view. It was life size.

"Tha's him! Tha's the bastard." Hagrid spoke up immediately.

"Barty Crouch Junior!" James voiced growled out before a frown of confusion crossed his face. "He's supposed to be dead."

Anything further he was going to say was cut off by a voice that caused Harry to raise his eyebrow due to the sheer coldness in the tone. "Barty… Crouch… Junior… was near my son?"

James whirled around to see several other aurors staring at the man who had spoken.

It was then that Harry realized he had seen this face before. Harry had seen a picture of him at one point, only he had not been as worn and… hard in the picture. It also didn't bear the nasty scar down the side of his face. But Harry finally placed the face. It was Neville's father, Frank, and Harry could clearly see the man was absolutely infuriated. He looked like he might leap on someone and try and rip them apart with his hands and teeth

"Frank. Neville is allright. Just a little shaken up. I saw him with my own eyes." Lily's tone was sharp as she spoke loudly, getting the Auror's attention and providing reassurance to the man before he did something precipitous.

Frank clenched his hands tightly and looked down. He took several deep breaths before he looked back up, and nodded slightly at Lily before focusing on James and Dumbledore both. "I want to know how the bastard is still alive. I vividly remember when I raised a glass when I heard of his death in Azkaban prison."

"He obviously didn't die in Azkaban, not only is he alive, he was somehow out and walking around." James frowned and looked at the ghostly image still floating in the air for several more moments, "We need to get Amelia here. Then we need to go speak to Barty Crouch Senior," he said decisively.

He turned a bit and raised his wand, pointing it and saying quietly, "Expecto Patronum."

Harry blinked in surprise when he saw the sight of the familiar silver stag that burst from James Potter's wand. He managed to say nothing, though couldn't entirely keep the look of shock off of his face.

"Amelia, I need you here at Hogwarts immediately. We have a major situation here." James said. After a moment the silver stag zipped through the air with the message to quickly disappear.

"She should be here in a few moments." James said firmly.

"I would still like to know the rest of what happened." Dumbledore spoke up, his voice still firm.

James glanced at him and nodded in agreement and then looked to Harry with a raised eyebrow.

Harry shrugged a little bit, "Not much else to tell. We dueled. His polyjuice wore off, he blew up the ceiling. He ran, I chased him. I wasn't good enough to stop him, though I managed to take his arm before he apparated away."

"You dueled with Barty Crouch Junior?" James asked, his expression one of surprise, and suspicion.

Harry rolled his eyes, ignoring the minute little pang that the doubt in James Potter's expression caused him. "Well, I have a few dozen witnesses." Harry gestured at Hagrid, and Madame Maxime, the students, and then at the castle obliquely.

There was a pause and then several more cracks filled the air. Harry turned his head and saw several more people in Auror's uniforms appear in nearly the same place the original group had arrived.

The aurors took a few moments to orient themselves before turning and hurrying over to the group. Harry watched James hurry to meet them and have a quick exchange of conversation, with someone that he remembered vaguely from presiding over his case for underage magic. Amelia Bones looked identical to how he remembered her, though she didn't have the hat worn by all wizengamot members. Harry also noted that Kingsley Shacklebolt was accompanying her. It took less than a minute before they were both rushing towards Harry.

Amelia had her wand out and pointed it at the arm Harry was still holding. Harry tensed but managed not to have a repeat moment from earlier. Without preamble she cast the same spell that James had a few moments earlier.

When Barty Crouch Junior's image floated into the air next to the arm, Amelia stared at it for several moments.

"Fuck." Was the first non-incantation word Harry heard her say.

After a few moments staring Amelia, whipped around, "I will find out more of what's happening here. Auror Potter, you and Auror Bla-." Amelia allowed a brief flash of frustration cross her face before she shook her face slightly.

She turned and looked at Frank Longbottom before shaking her head slightly and turning once more and addressed one of the Aurors that arrived with her, "Nevermind, Auror Shacklebolt, you and Auror Hammer take four others and go to the Ministry and arrest Barty Crouch Senior. I want him in magic suppressing chains immediately."

Kingsley frowned a moment and asked, "What sort of force is permitted against Director Crouch?"

Amelia shook her head, "I want him alive, and if he's at the Ministry, try and avoid anyone else getting hurt if he fights back."

She frowned a moment and then shook her head, "Actually, don't give him the option of coming quietly, just stun him first if you can. We can always explain and ask questions later."

Shacklebolt nodded, and turned, after pointing to several other Aurors, "You're with me. Let's go."

Harry watched as they ran away from the group toward the point they had arrived, probably the closest point they could apparate from given the wards. He couldn't help but approve of the Amelia's orders, a no-nonsense witch who dealt with the problem head on.

She turned away from the retreating group and back to Harry. She regarded him for several moments, and Harry saw a brief flicker of surprise cross her face, "You don't have to carry that arm around now."

Harry glanced down at the severed arm, and then nodded, before nonchalantly tossing it in Dawlish's direction. "Oh, well. There you go Auror. Try not to lose it."

Dawlish jerked and fumbled by the sudden presence of the severed arm as he fumbled it before dropping it to the ground. He glared at Harry with a look of pure loathing on his face.

Harry just raised his eyebrow at Amelia, he could see the brief bit of humor flash in her eyes at Dawlish's fumbling. However it was quickly replaced by a serious expression. "James Potter has filled me in, but I would like to hear what happened from you, Mister…"

Harry shrugged a little bit, noting that she didn't seem to be trying to get his cooperation through intimidation.

"It's Flamel, Ares Flamel. And… It was pretty much like I explained to the Auror. Iris Potter identifying that Moody wasn't who he was pretending to be, seemed to upset him for some reason. He attacked, we dueled, he blew up the room to escape." Harry jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the castle.

"I don't appreciate people attempting to kill me, so I gave chase. He escaped, but stopped to taunt so he didn't leave in one piece." Harry said dryly.

Amelia frowned at the rather detail-less retelling of the story. "I was hoping for a bit more details than that." She said with a frown.

Dumbledore stepped forward with a frown on his face, "If you would like Amelia, I have a pensieve in my office, if you would like to accompany me there, perhaps we could examine his memory of what happened."

Amelia nodded at the option of using an artifact like a pensieve, "That's a good idea." She glanced around and then gestured toward the castle, inviting Dumbledore to lead the way.

Dumbledore had just turned to lead the group to the castle when Harry spoke up dryly interrupting their plans. "Uh, I'm going to have to go with 'no'."

That froze everyone in their tracks as almost as one, they turned to look at Harry. There were frowns and raised eyebrows from nearly all the aurors and professors, as well as the students gathered around. With two notable exceptions. Snape hadn't even turned toward the castle when the professors had. He was watching Harry with an evaluating expression, and Madame Maxine who was looking at him with a focused but curious expression.

Amelia had looked more than a little pleased by the idea of using a pensieve rather than jumbled witness accounts. She was drawn up short by Harry's blunt refusal. Her look was mirrored on Dumbledore's face.

"My boy, we must see that memory to learn more about what happened." Dumbledore spoke up, his voice calm..

However, Harry scowled slightly in response. That was a tone he was far too familiar with. He didn't find it calming. He thought of it as condescending. It was Dumbledore's patented 'I know better than you and you should let me make all the decisions' tone of voice.

"That's all well and good, Headmaster. My answer is still no." Harry replied, trying to keep his tone level.

Dumbledore frowned a little bit, he was clearly not used to dealing with someone who was telling him no on direct requests. He straightened slightly and his voice turned more firm. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist."

Harry's expression didn't seem to change, but it got cold. "Oh, well in that case Headmaster, I will of course agree."

That relaxed everyone present, including Dumbledore, who even nodded slightly in approval, for just a moment, however Harry wasn't done.

"That is of course after you agree to allow me to dose you with some veritaserum brewed by an alchemist of our mutual acquaintance. Then you can answer some questions as I'm most interested to find out several things." Harry's voice was ice cold and had every person's attention.

"Starting with why students were endangered in a school where you are responsible for the safety of the children. I was attacked by a professor you hired." Harry's eyes flickered with hostility.

"You already claimed that you believed the professor was under a polyjuice potion." James interjected into the argument, though he couldn't help but be a combination of amused and impressed at someone who seemed completely without any awe at all towards Dumbledore.

"Of course, who could expect that the headmaster possibly know that someone was impersonating one of his professors? I mean how could Dumbledore know something was wrong? It's not like they were old friends or anything... oh… wait." Draco finally interjected into the conversation in a patronizing tone.

That drew the attention of Dumbledore and several of the Aurors at Draco's comment.

Harry bit his tongue for a brief moment. On their old world Draco was an irritation most of the time, but this was him at his most arrogant and condescending worst, or best. All said with the typical Malfoy sneer. However at the moment Harry could see just how effective it could be at helping people break their cool.

Harry's flat look said it all as he met Dumbledore's eyes, "So yes, would you care to take Veritaserum and let me fire questions at you for an hour?"

Dumbledore frowned, "This is hardly the same thing. I am merely trying to determine what happened, so that I may better protect my students."

Harry knew it was a relatively small point overall, Dumbledore would be able to view the memories from others. He was certain that the Headmaster would find students who were willing to show the memory. However, Harry wanted to make it clear that occasionally the headmaster didn't get what he wanted, just because he wanted it.

He was also surprised that Dumbledore had made no attempt to use legilimency on him yet. He almost expected it on the spot when he initially said no.

Seeing that standing there wasn't going to get him anything, "You should take lessons from your Professor Hagrid, or Madame Maxime, Headmaster Dumbledore. They did exactly what the head of a school is supposed to do. Attempted to protect the students from danger first and asked questions later."

Dumbledore frowned and looked a little bit taken aback by Harry's words, and actually looked pensive as he considered the words.

Harry knew Dumbledore would hear the hostility in his voice. Harry also knew that he was taking some of the anger at the Dumbledore from his own world out on the Headmaster from this world, but couldn't help calling out the same mistakes he saw being made. Dumbledore unilaterally making decisions and people just going along with those decisions because he was Dumbledore. Harry was determined to do his best to stop that, especially since he knew what the mistakes lead to.

Harry noticed that John Dawlish prepared to speak up, but he was cut off by Madame Maxime speaking up, "Eet iz true. Though Mister Flamel also 'elped protect your students and my own. I will be contacting our own government to discuss what 'appened 'ere."

Harry noticed that both Dumbledore and several of the aurors winced at that declaration. It was Amelia who spoke up though. "Are you sure that's necessary?"

Madame Maxine's eyes narrowed at Amelia as she stood up to her full height, "Zis Barty Crouch Junior attempted to kill my students. I will not 'ide this from their parents."

Amelia held up her hand placatingly, instantly realizing her mistake. "I'm sorry, of course. I was not trying to imply you should." She rubbed her forehead, wondering what the fallout at the Ministry was going to be when Fudge heard about this disaster.

Harry rolled his eyes, knowing that the group could stand here and argue about it all day. Harry glanced at Draco and tilted his head toward the castle. Draco caught the look and nodded quickly before Harry began to walk away from the group and back toward the castle, Draco falling into step behind him quickly.

"Mr. Flamel, Mr. Malfoy, where do you think you're going?" McGonagall called out as she was the first to react.

"I assumed you could get Professor Hagrid and the rest of the others to the Hospital Wing, without my help. So I'm going to go back to the castle, and probably end up doing more of your jobs while you all figure out how to stop sitting on your thumbs and do something productive." Harry said snidely. He couldn't help it. His irritation with the behavior of people, plus his simmering rage at himself for letting Barty escape had his temper broiling.

He kept walking toward the castle, ignoring the people behind him. He glanced over at Malfoy as he attempted to calm his anger. "Flooing the aurors, Malfoy?" Harry couldn't help but ask. That was not an action he expected Draco to take.

Draco shrugged a bit, "I was hoping they would have managed to help you trap Crouch, not to mention now it's sure to get outside the castle, no matter what Fudge says." Draco hesitated and his own voice was somewhat exasperated, "I also wasn't going to jump out of the window after you, and into a damn spell fight."

Harry nodded grudgingly. He hadn't been concerned with shielding for anyone behind him. He had been dodging and twisting around spells as well. It was been entirely possible that Malfoy could have been killed jumping into the firefight. It had also meant that there had been one less thing for Harry to worry about.

Draco continued, his voice thoughtful, "We're going to need to talk about the fallout of this and what it means. Try and figure out what to do."

Harry sighed a little bit as he nodded in agreement and entered the castle proper. "We'll talk about that after we get you checked in the hospital wing." Harry said with a glance around as he headed up the stairs.

Draco frowned a little bit but nodded slightly, however his nod gave way to confusion. "Um… The hospital wing is in the other direction." He said, pointing over his shoulder.

"I know. We're making a quick side trip. With the common sense wizards seem to lack it might take days for them to think of this." Harry replied as he walked through hallways, more than once passing groups of students who stared at the two of them.

Harry ignored the stares though more than once Draco glanced around self consciously. "How do they already know?" Draco asked, with a scowl.

Harry shrugged, "Hogwarts rumor mill. I assume that other students and paintings heard or saw, so everyone already knows." Harry came to a stop in front of a metal door that was dark and foreboding.

"What's this?" Draco asked with a puzzled frown.

"These were the quarters Barty stayed in." Harry replied absently, casting a few spells at the door. He noticed several charms and spells on the door, though no actual wards. Harry wondered if wards just didn't fall into Barty's skill set. Rather than take the time to try and undo the curses and spells Harry when with the simple expedient that seemed to have become the norm for the day.

He blew the door inward with a small bombarda. After checking to make sure there were no wards inside of the room, he stepped in. The room looked exactly the same as the last time he had been brought here, after the tournament, Voldemort's resurrection and during Moody's reveal as Crouch.

The foe glass still stood against one wall, alongside a broom. Harry noted a sneakascope, secrecy sensor, and several other objects that he only vaguely recognized. Harry quickly focused on the large black trunk standing in the room.

After a quick check for more curses and spells, Harry made a show of looking around the room before saying loudly, "If Crouch was hiding Moody's body somewhere, I bet it's that trunk."

Without waiting for a response Harry began unlocking the trunk with his wand, compartment by compartment. One compartment contained piles of books, another compartment, contained parchment, broken sneakoscopes, quills, and a silvery invisibility cloak. He quickly glanced in the compartments until he insured Moody wasn't in there before moving on. When he got to the seventh compartment he paused.

Inside the compartment that was expanded to a huge degree, both Draco and Harry looked over the edge and saw at the bottom of the compartment was Alastor Moody, looking up at them with a scowl on his face. He held up one hand to cover his empty eye socket and was squinting upward.

"Who are you?" Moody demanded immediately..

"We're here to get you out." Harry replied, quickly checking to make sure there were no curses that might go off if he pulled Moody out of the trunk.

"Don't worry about me, go warn Albus! Crouch probably knows you broke in here and could be back at any moment." Moody replied quickly.

"Nah, he's gone." Draco replied.

"How?" Moody asked suspiciously.

Harry rolled his eyes at the familiar actions of one of his old mentors. "How about we get you to the infirmary? Then you can ask questions to your heart's content."

Harry didn't wait for a response, he quickly cast a spell into the trunk, levitating Moody up out of the space slowly, not wanting to jostle him too much.

As he got closer to the top of the trunk, Harry could see Moody's good eye squinting as it tried to adjust to the sudden exposure to light "Potter?" He asked as he floated upward.

Harry didn't respond to the question, just finished levitating the man out of the trunk. After a moment Moody blinked a few times in the light, shaking his head as if to ward off some cobwebs. "Sorry… you look like Potter."

His head turned and focused on Draco, immediately falling into a scowl of mistrust and hostility. "You're Lucius' boy, aren't you? What's a Death Eater spawn… oh i'm sorry… 'poor imperius victim' spawn, like you doing here?"

Harry guessed that if Moody wasn't being levitated he might have physically attacked Draco no matter what his condition.

"We're here pulling your wrinkled arse out of a trunk, you old has-been. Maybe you should try saying 'thank you.'" Draco shot back.

Harry snorted slightly, but didn't let the conversation devolve from there. He knew that the insults would fly if he let them, but didn't feel like mediating. He was also aware that in their own world, getting trapped in his own trunk was one of Moody's most embarrassing moments. Draco also was no fan of the old auror. Though Harry suspected that was because he still carried a grudge from Crouch turning him into a ferret.

Harry was glad that levitating Moody out the door cut out a lot of the argument, and that Draco didn't try to continue to antagonize the old auror.

The stares that they had gotten before when they had walked through the castle, were nothing compared to the stares they got this time with Harry following a floating Moody, sans his trademark eye and fake leg, through the halls of the castle toward the infirmary.

ooOoOOoOoo

By the time they had arrived at the infirmary, Harry's anger had subsided, at least temporarily. Floating Moody through the halls was humorous for everyone's reactions, and for Moody's repeated attempts, insisting that he could get by on his own.

Students and teachers were in the hallway, and nearly every one of them stopped and stared as they saw Moody being floated in front of them, toward the infirmary They didn't even take the time to protest, though Harry assumed that was partially because even without his trademark eye, Moody was still incredibly intimidating.

Harry pushed through the infirmary doors, and found himself surprised to find a dull roar of chaos. Most of the other times in the infirmary, things were kept relatively quiet and respectful, though most of his visits usually involved him actually waking up already in the infirmary.

Harry's attention was drawn by Dumbledore, Madame Maxime, and Amelia Bones who were talking with James Potter and three others whose backs were to him. He saw Dumbledore's eyes widen in surprise as he levitated Moody into the room, and his surprise drew the attention of the others, all of which turned to stare.

Harry tripped slightly, and almost managed to lose control of the levitation spell, when the aurors turned to face him. Two he had seen just moments before, Frank Longbottom and John Dawlish, but the other was the one that threw him off.

Sirius Black

He was not in the uniform of an Auror, but Harry only idly noted that. This Sirius Black was on first look, so different. His dark hair was cut almost exactly the length that Harry remembered. He was easily recognizable. But his expression wasn't lined and prematurely aged. He was broader in shoulders, and even taller than Harry thought he remembered. He sported a goatee, much like James Potter.

But Harry saw at first glance, the most striking differences, were the stance and the eyes. The grey eyes were not haunted by constant reminders of his time in Azkaban. His stance reflected that as well, this was a man confident in himself without the brooding air Harry had observed when Sirius interacted with people.

Harry's attention was forcefully pulled away when Dumbledore spoke up, "Mr. Flamel w-"

Harry didn't bother to let him finish his question, speaking up firmly, "Oh, Don't mind us Headmaster. As I told you, we would no doubt end up doing your job for you."

There was a snort and then a guffaw from Moody as he heard the comment, "I like you, boy." he said as he turned his head around from his position floating in the air.

That comment did not seem to please Dumbledore, though it did focus his attention on the floating Moody. "Alastor what happened?"

Moody's expression turned serious. "Ghost from my past. Barty Crouch Junior. I thought he was dead."

Dumbledore nodded solemnly, "We've discovered that as well. How long were you captive?"

Moody scowled, and looked thoughtful, "I'm not sure, what's the date?"

"It is September seventh, Alastor." Dumbledore replied gravely.

Moody frowned, and didn't restrain a growl, "Almost two weeks then."

"How did he get you?" Amelia asked, her eyes narrowed. Moody was a friend of hers as well, and he looked very pale and weak. But what was more shocking was the idea of someone managing to actually get at the paranoid retired auror.

Harry rolled his eyes, "As fun as this is, do you mind if we get him to a bed, and let Madame Pomfrey take a look at him? Then you can question him all you like."

That seemed to jolt the others and James immediately stepped forward, "I'll take him off your hands and get him to a bed."

Without really waiting for a response he swiped his wand in the direction of the retired auror and Harry felt the weight his magic was lifting lighten up. Harry released the spell and let Moody be guided away to a bed.

He finally got a good look at the inside of the infirmary, or more specifically the beds, and he noticed that there were a lot of students in beds. Harry's brow furrowed in confusion when he recognized several Gryffindors, and some Ravenclaws. It looked like members of the fifth year. Harry didn't remember the name, but recognized the face of one of the Gryffindors with a prefect badge.

Harry turned in confusion to look at Dumbledore and Amelia, he studiously avoided looking at Sirius Black who was watching him closely. "What happened?" He half asked, half demanded, pointing at the beds.

Seeing the confused look on Sirius face, Harry expanded. "They weren't in our class. and they weren't outside when we fought." Harry was confused seeing all the injured trying to figure out where the hell they came from.

Dumbledore turned his attention back to Harry but it was Amelia who spoke up. "They were apparently walking in the corridor that runs right above the Defence classroom when it was hit by an explosive curse… several were caught in the blast."

Harry looked stricken and a sick feeling developed in his stomach. "Are… are they okay? I mean… Did anyone…" he trailed off with a swallow as rage once more threatened to take over.

"We don't know yet," Amelia said grimly, "Everyone is accounted for, but some of the injuries are critical. The students were right where the corridor was impacted and it managed to destroy several suits of armor in the process. Poppy knew she couldn't handle them alone and brought in some outside help."

That probably explained the chaos in the infirmary, Harry thought as he looked around, his face now grim and jaw clenched angrily. Idly noting details from the infirmary, Harry saw two doctors, a man and a woman, working feverishly over two separate patients, though Harry couldn't tell who they were working on.

"Mr. Flamel, Mr. Malfoy, I would like to know how you knew where to find Alastor Moody." Amelia Bones asked. Dumbledore looked like that was the least of the questions he wanted answers.

Harry's scowl deepened as he thought about it, though he didn't look Dumbledore or Amelia Bones' way when he replied. "As we said earlier, we thought the professor was under polyjuice."

"That's correct." Amelia replied with a frown on her face.

"Well, polyjuice has a shelf life of one lunar cycle, before it goes bad. Ingredients off a person are good for 6 months max, and ingredients from a dead person are useless." Harry replied, for once thankful for all the lectures Hermione had enjoyed giving to distract the times they were waiting for Voldemort to show himself or for their own injuries to heal.

"That made us think that Moody might be here. We thought we'd check his quarters, and lo and behold, we found him in a trunk." Harry finished up dryly and then managed a slightly abashed look.

"Oh… we sorta blew his door off the hinges. That's going to need repaired, so… sorry?" Harry said in what might have registered as the one of the most insincere apologies of all time.

James Potter walked back up just as that statement was made and had to resist a chuckle.

Madame Maxime looked at both Draco and Harry with a frown, "'ave either of you seen a 'ealer yet?" She asked with a frown of concern on her face.

Harry glanced over at Draco's arm, which he was still favoring. Dumbledore saw where Harry's eyes wandered and took the opportunity to flag down Madame Pomfrey, who was allowing the two doctors space to continue their work on their patients. The rumblings from the students and argument between the adults had stopped so it had quieted down a great deal.

"Poppy, Mr. Malfoy here has been hurt by a cutting curse I believe. Could we prevail upon you to examine him?" Dumbledore asked as she moved past.

Madame Pomfrey glanced at the gathered group for a moment before she fixed Draco with a piercing stare for a few moments as her eyes went unerringly to his arm, before she nodded, "Of course, Mr. Malfoy get into a bed, get out of that robe and I'll be with you shortly." Poppy glanced at Harry and then the group he was standing with before heading to her potions cabinet.

Draco glanced down at his arm before glancing at Harry and then shrugging and heading over toward a bed on the other side of the infirmary.

"I do wish you would let us look at your memory Mr. Flamel, you're the only one who was there from start to finish." Amelia ventured.

"Are you not going to 'ave the 'ealer examine you as well?" Madame Maxine asked, ignoring the statement Amelia had made.

Harry ignored Amelia's statement as well, and shook his head slightly and swiped his hand over his cheek where he knew he had been cut when he dived through the window. His fingers came back with only a little dried blood. "Hardly. That's barely a scratch, it's already healed."

"You were 'it with ze cruciatus curse! Zat is not a mere scratch!" Madame Maxine looked deeply disturbed and her statement was punctuated by several gasps from around him.

"You were hit with an unforgiveable!?" Sirius Black's voice demanded immediately.

Harry blinked in surprise at the sudden entrance to the conversation, of the man who had been his godfather in another world. He sighed and shook his head, "It was only for a moment, I'm clearly okay."

Amelia however would have none of it, turning around quickly until she spotted Pomfrey who was in the process of bustling back by them with a tray of potions. "Poppy, we need you to examine Mr. Flamel as well."

Pomfrey nodded almost absently as she passed by the group once more. Harry frowned slightly, since the Poppy he remembered would be immediately making sure he was ready to be checked out. However the fact that he was avoiding more of her tender care for the moment was worth it.

Harry watched absently as Madame Pomfrey went and checked with the two doctors still working, giving them what he clearly could tell were blood replenishing potions. He was brought out of his musing by Dumbledore.

"Mr. Flamel, I'm afraid, we really are going to need to insist to see your memory, since you were the only one with a close up view both in the classroom and outside of it." Dumbledore said.

"That's great for you. Really. Insist all you'd like. Your answer is still going to be no." Harry replied absently as he watched Pomfrey head over to treat Draco.

Dumbledore frowned, truly not understanding what the issue was. "Mr. Flamel, we won't be taking your memory. You simply deposit a copy of the memory in a bowl and we view it. We won't be going into your mind or anything."

"I am well aware of how a pensieve works. As my mind and memory are my own, my answer is still no." Harry replied dryly, a trace of annoyance in his tone from sounding like a broken record.

"It's easier just to cooperate with us, kid. We could demand to see your memory legally!" Dawlish demanded loudly as he finally made himself known in the conversation.

Harry scowled a little bit and restrained the urge to blast Dawlish in his bug-eyed face. He also wasn't a naive innocent kid. He knew some of what the laws had been in his old world, as useless as they had turned out to be in the end. "Of course you can. You could put the matter up to the Wizengamot, in order to violate the rights of a minor. Which would set a precedent allowing you to do it to any heir of an Ancient and Noble family. I'm sure that would go over really well, Duckish."

That seemed to completely take the air out of Dawlish, though he swelled up when Harry got his name wrong. He didn't say anything further, and Harry noted with a slight smirk of amusement that both Amelia, and James Potter were glaring at the moron.

Harry was distracted by the odd expression on Madame Pomfrey's face as she ran her wand up Draco's injured arm, drawing a yelp from him at the end. He wasn't sure how to characterize it.

Amusement?

Perhaps Draco had pissed off Madame Pomfrey sometime in the past as well. The gesture with the wand was followed by an imperious gesturing at a potion that Draco quickly downed with a disgusted face.

Not that Draco upsetting people was all that surprising. He seemed to have an innate knack for doing so to anyone. It was something Harry was able to appreciate a little bit when viewing it from his side of things. He chuckled slightly to himself as Madame Pomfrey finished a follow-up diagnostic spell that he recognized before making shooing motions and all but shoving him off his bed.

Harry tuned out the small debate that had begun between Dumbledore, Maxime, Amelia, and James about collecting other memories from students who had seen everything. He also ignored the subtle and not so subtle comments made about it being easier and so much less hassle if he would just cooperate.

Draco scowled as he practically stomped over toward Harry. "Bloody tyrant, that woman is." Then he blanched as he realized Dumbledore was right there.

It was Poppy's voice that called out to him, "Mr. Malfoy, stop your moaning. I fixed you right up! Stop complaining about an ickle little cut. You can go!"

Draco rolled his eyes and looked expectantly at Harry. Harry frowned slightly at the mocking tone from the school healer, it seemed off. Though he remembered her saying something similar during his third year. Harry nodded absently, turning to leave but was cut off by Amelia Bones.

Amelia stepped forward, and cut off their escape, calling out, "Madame Pomfrey, Mr. Flamel was hit by the cruciatus curse, as well, he will need examined."

Pomfrey nodded almost absently as she bustled through the group toward the back of the infirmary, "Get him on a bed. I'll examine him in a moment. Though I doubt a widdle bit of Cruciatus exposure did any long term damage to the boy."

Harry froze, his eyes widening in shock as he stared at Pomfrey. Once at Draco, who admittedly could be a bit of an ass, was possibly mocking. Twice was something more. Beside him, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sirius's eyes widen as well.

His eyes took all of her in for just a moment, that was frozen in time. His eyes zeroed in on the wand in her hand. Then shock jolted through him when he saw on that hand a very familiar ring with an odd looking stone on it.

Pomfrey had frozen as well as she looked back at the group, though her attention was on Sirius' reaction. That moment stretched out for just half a second, but it seemed like forever.

Sirius gasped even as he whipped his wand into his hand at the same moment Harry had done the same.

Pomfrey was faster, especially with her wand already in her hand. She snapped off three quick spells even as she dived for cover at the corner of the infirmary.

Harry and Sirius both tossed up a shield. Harry shoved Draco back and out of the way with his free hand, He didn't know what spells she snapped off but he was acting with caution to be safe. He also noted that Sirius had done the same thing he had, shoving James out of the way in nearly the same manner. Thankfully to Harry, the shield took one of the spells effectively.

Harry frowned only to realize that only one of the spells had been headed their way, the other two spells headed for the doctors who had been working on the two most serious patients. The female doctor was on the ground unmoving and the other was clutching a shoulder that was soaked in blood.

Harry noted Dumbledore already striding towards the pillar where Pomfrey had secreted herself only for one of the doctors to get his attention. "No! The kids, stop the blood flow or they'll bleed out!"

Dumbledore whirled to the two students in the bed, raising his wand and casting quickly. Sirius and James had moved forward to begin to flank the pillar. Sirius raised his voice, "Give up you're surrounded!"

There was an eerily familiar laugh that sounded nothing like any laugh that had ever come from Poppy Pomfrey's mouth, and Harry felt his own rage rise inside him. However, before he had time to do anything, he heard a very familiar voice call out with a cackle "Never, Blood Traitor! Fiendfyre!"

A burst of fire came out from behind the pillar quickly forming into a large feline of some sort.

Over the burst of the fire, and Sirius Black's cry of "Oh fuck!" Harry heard Pomfrey/Bellatrix yell loudly, "St. Mungo's emergency! Go go!" followed by another cackle accompanied by the distinctive woosh of a powerful portkey.

Harry saw Dumbledore's head whip toward the pillar for just a moment with a glare Harry had rarely seen on him. Though it was only a brief moment before Dumbledore turned back to the two patients.

Now the infirmary really had descended into chaos. Dumbledore was trying to keep two patients stable, though now that Harry was able to see the patients, he could see why. One had two pieces of metal sticking out of his chest, the other's face and chest was covered in bandages that were soaked in blood. Dumbledore clearly had his hands full.

James Potter and Sirius Black were both holding a large shield in place as the Fiendfyre feline, who already stood taller than a human on all fours, pounced and scratched against the shield.

Amelia Bones and Madame Maxime had only been caught off guard for a few moments and had students being levitated out of the room. Amelia was currently levitating the large and unconscious form of Hagrid out of the infirmary.

A small part of Harry's mind wondered what the hell kind of potions they had fed him that knocked someone with his physiology out.

The doctor with a bloody arm had managed to halt the flow of blood from the slice in his shoulder. Now he was kneeling over his female colleague who had been struck by one of Bella's curses and was completely unmoving.

Harry hesitated only a moment, calling out "Malfoy! Help them!" as he sprinted over to the doctor kneeling on the ground. Harry didn't know of anything that could stop the fiendfyre for long. So they had to work quickly.

"What's wrong with her?" Harry demanded even though his wand was out and already casting diagnostics on the doctor who was unconscious.

The male doctor looked panicked, "I don't know! No wounds, and she's breathing but her body temperature is plummeting! A warming charm has done nothing." The doctor hadn't even glanced up to see who was addressing him.

Harry's jaw clenched for just a moment, "Blood freezing curse." It was a rather exotic curse, and it had been one of Bellatrix's favorites.

His attention was distracted momentarily when he heard Draco's voice call out, "Accio Moody!" Nor the accompanying shocked shout from Moody as he flew across the room, followed by the sound of one body hitting another and shortly after two pained groans.

Harry sighed in a corner of his mind. Clearly thinking under pressure was not one of Malfoy's strong suits. He would have to work on that, but with a bit of effort he put those thoughts aside for the moment.

The doctor finally looked up at him, his movement's pausing for a moment at Harry's assessment of the curse. He blinked in surprise at seeing Harry's youth, but Harry ignored the look directed his way, his own wand already moving in complicated motions. He twisted his wand and pointed at the woman, "Ferventem sanguinem!"

He had never found a true counter curse for this spell, but had seen it enough to develop an effective work around. Harry's attention only split for a moment when he heard a shout. He glanced away though his movements didn't stop.

"James! Sirius!" Lily Potter had rushed into the infirmary from a side entrance carrying a tray of potions with Snape walking right with her. He saw both of them drop the potion trays, which fell to the ground with a clatter, potions spilling on the stone floor, as they both ran forward casting to help with the shield.

His focus returned to the doctor on the ground, he was amazed the other doctor hadn't tried to stop him. Then again he probably didn't recognize the spell Harry used. It wasn't a counter-curse, or a cleansing spell.

Harry was effectively using the channeled version of a blood boiling curse to counter the blood freezing spell.

He just had to be very careful, if he held for too long the woman would die as her body cooked from the inside. But if he didn't hold it long enough it wouldn't counter the curse.

The only positive from the current situation was that he was casting it on someone else and not himself as he'd been required to do in the past. Casting it on himself made it easier to tell when the curse was gone, but made it infinitely harder to channel while heating his own blood.

It seemed far too long but was probably only thirty seconds later when he finally released the spell. Harry stopped with an exhale, followed by a quick check to make sure the blood freezing spell was gone. The other doctor did his own diagnostic spell before looking up at Harry with a shocked face.

Harry didn't wait for the man to talk, he pointed at the still unconscious doctor. "She'll be fine. Get her out of here!"

The doctor hesitated only a moment before scrambling up. Harry saw him levitate her, but even that spell was shaky as he nearly dropped the weight twice. Clearly he was in a great deal of pain and was going to be useless for healing for the moment.

Harry's attention was drawn to Dumbledore who was slowly moving the two other students out of the infirmary, their beds floating as he moved them. Harry saw the sweat rolling down the old man's face. A clear sign of just how much the effort was taxing him.

Harry couldn't help but be impressed despite himself. It wasn't the power Dumbledore was displaying as much as it was the sheer amount of magical control required to keep not one but two patients stable with serious wounds and move them at the same time. Dumbledore was obviously frustrated but didn't have time to let anyone else take over.

Harry turned his attention back to the other side of the room, and his eyes widened. The fire cat had grown to nearly twice it's original size.

Fiendfyre.

Harry grimaced, his knowledge of fiendfyre was fairly extensive given the amount of times he had seen it cast, or had it cast at him. He knew the shields were merely stopgaps against the fire, and that fiendfyre fed on the magic of shields making it stronger.

Few wizards ever cast fiendfyre. Casting alone requires a decent amount of power. Casting it and not having it turn and immediately eat you requires a decent amount of power and an exceptional amount of will. It started under the will of the caster and from the instant it formed it fought and strained against the will of the caster, because it was quite literally sentient hellfire.

Fiendfyre had one focus, to destroy everything it could in the area. It's primary focus was always to destroy the initial caster; which also happened to be one of the reasons it was so rarely used. The caster's only advantage was that he or she started off with that control and the fiendfyre had to break it. However once it managed to break free, it rarely ended well for the caster.

Of course none of that was an issue when someone like Bellatrix Lestrange managed to cast it and hold control long enough to portkey away.

One very little known fact about fiendfyre was that it was actually far stronger when completely unbound. When it escaped the control of it's summoner (and usually ended up killing them in the process) Fiendfyre could and usually did end up consuming anything within 100-300 yards. So of course when the initial caster doesn't stick around it can be an absolutely devastating attack.

And that's when it wasn't cast inside a highly magical school in a castle that was infused with centuries of latent magic.

Harry was looking around desperately, there was no water he could use to combat it here, and any thought of transfiguring his surroundings was moot. There was no way he would have managed to transfigure enough of the transfiguration resistent castle to stop a giant cat made of fire, which continually pounded against the shields that had been erected.

Harry's attention was drawn to the now five people attempting to hold the fire back as Amelia Bones had joined the efforts now that the majority of the the other students were out. He didn't move to increase the shield because his mind was still focused on finding a way to actually stop the hellfire. There was no telling how much of the castle it would destroy when it got through.

James Potter had his wand raised, the tip glowing white as it powered the shield. Though he was clearly straining to put as much power into the shield as he could when he called out, "Lily, get the hell out of here!"

Her response was instant, "I'm not leaving you! You can't hold it without me!" Her own voice strained from the effort required to hold the shield against the onslaught of the devastating spell.

James growled at the stubbornness of his wife, "Sirius, take Lily and go!"

Sirius voice was cracking and his entire body was shaking in exertion, "You go Prongs, I can hold it long enough!"

Time seemed to slow down for Harry as all five holding the shield shuddered simultaneously as a ripple went through the shield and it began to buckle.

James yelled, this time, desperation in his voice, "Lily take the rest of the students and go! Run! I'll hold it off!"

Harry stiffened as his oldest nightmare flashed through his mind. James' voice, panicked and urgent as he yelled out, "Lily, take Harry and go. It's Him. Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Harry saw the shield began to collapse and saw James and Lily reach for one another with their free arms even as they poured more power into the shield trying to hold it for a few more seconds.

Even as the shield collapsed and the Fiendfyre surged forward right towards James, Lily, Sirius, Snape and Amelia; Harry's wand was jabbing forward.

The anguished snarl of "No!" escaping him was certainly not an incantation but both Harry and his magic were reacting to his longest running nightmare.

A bolt of pure magic forged by Harry's anger and will smashed into the fiendfyre feline. To outside observers the magic quite literally stopped the forward progression of the fiendfyre where it stood.

In an instant Harry's entire perception of the world disappeared in flames as he quite literally entered the mind of the sentient fire.

Harry's mind flashed back to something Hermione had said after the last time they had faced a torrent of completely unbound Fiendfyre. She had said that conjuring and controlling fiendfyre was like trying to subjugate a griffon, given that it would fight the caster for the slightest sign of weakness. Trying to control fiendfyre that wasn't under someone's will would be like trying to leash a wild, full grown dragon, mid flight. It was impossible.

This had been right after the fight in the goblin tunnels that had cost Bill Weasley his life.

That brief memory was pushed out of Harry's mind as he suddenly found himself engulfed in a battle of wills with sentient hellfire. His mind was under assault by something he could only describe as purely malevolent, primal and absolutely enraged at Harry's temerity.

It was furious at the gall of some wizard to summon it, and now at the attempt to stop it from destroying all in it's path. It attacked Harry's will and mind without hesitation or mercy.

Harry knew that the pure mania and primal rage of the hellfire would have probably incinerated any occlumency shields on any Death Eater Harry had ever encountered within a few moments.

His foe was hatred and fury given scorching and painful life. He couldn't even see the walls of Voldemort's occlumency defenses holding out for long against this onslaught.

However, Harry had never managed to learn Occlumency. His mind didn't have conventional walls or shields as defenses at all.

He had spent too many years with his mind being repeatedly and viciously violated again and again. He had spent the first 16 years of his life with a soul leech attached to his own head, a piece of Voldemort's soul that consistently and constantly, if usually subtly, attacked his mind. It was one that his mind was always fighting against at an unconscious level.

That wasn't all though; he had spent an entire year when he was eleven, with Voldemort repeatedly attacking his mind while he existed as nothing more than a face on the back of Quirrell's head. Every defense class and many meals were spent with Quirrell exploiting the connection the presence of the leech allowed by it's mere presence.

A connection that was increased and deepened when Voldemort used Harry in his resurrection ritual. The nightmares he'd gotten where he'd seen Voldemort's plans were merely the first symptom of the damage irrevocably done.

Snape's "lessons" during fifth year were simply the straw that broke the camel's back. While the lessons might have worked to teach occlumency faster than the several year timeline usually required, they were not meant for someone whose natural mental defenses were naturally cracked and eroded. They utterly and permanently destroyed his ability to build occlumency walls and shields in his mind.

Now, his mind was once more being attacked violently. It didn't try to throw up weak or ineffective defenses, like walls or shields. It had long learned from experience that those didn't work.

His mind responded like it did to every sort of intrusion.

The unstoppable force that seemed to be the rage of the fiendfyre didn't meet an immovable object. It met a force directly counter to it. Force was met with equal force.

Harry's mind attacked the intruder with extreme prejudice.

There was no thought of defending his mind at all. Every mote of Harry's magic was instantly dedicated to the subjugation and destruction of the opponent that would try and assault his will.

It wasn't a defense that Harry controlled consciously, and it wasn't something he could let down. His unconscious mind had responded to the constant violations by protecting the mind where the conscious mind couldn't.

His unconscious defenses, which were bolstered by a lifetime of mistreatment, abuse, neglect, disappointment, failure and pain, were now also joined by Harry's own conscious will, his magic, and the chaotic swirl of his own emotions.

That force met the primordial fury of the fiendfyre, summoned quite literally from hell, head on in a battle for supremacy in which there would only be one victor.

Harry's entire world was fire and agony as the primeval will attempted to crush his own. He felt it surround him, push at him and do it's best to break him. But he had long ago learned to deal with pain and he refused to be beaten.

He felt the intense heat from the fiendfyre all around him. That didn't scare him either; he had spent several years surrounding himself in fire when he flamed. He could almost imagine those same flames enveloping him now.

There was a roar of defiance as the fire began to be beaten back and it felt itself start to lose the battle. There was one last surge as Harry felt the fire now try not to fight but to escape. However, that moment was all Harry's mind needed. In that moment Harry's will asserted itself over the fire and took control. He gained command of the conflagration and once he subjugated the blaze and cemented his hold, he then ruthlessly crushed it out of existence.

There was a soft woosh, and Harry felt the flame disappear.

ooOoOOoOoo

The people on the outside were watching the spectacle and were stunned. Harry's bolt of magic had hit the fiendfyre feline. It was only meters away from the group when its forward momentum stopped.

Sirius, James, Lily, Amelia and Severus all scrambled away from the now stationary fire. Even as they moved, they were looking back and forth between the student with his wand held out seeming holding the hellfire at bay.

Suddenly the flame cat leaped forward.

Lily and Amelia both let out shocked cries as the flames from the feline engulfed Harry. The blaze surrounded and completely obscured Harry from view. as the cat became a dome of pure inferno; roiling and burning, but somehow seemed to be confined.

After a few moments hesitation Lily, James and Amelia all tried what they knew to be futile attempts to aguamenti the fire dome. Steam came up, but didn't seem to dilute or slow the fire at all as it swirled around.

It was several moments later that Dumbledore returned, and stared momentarily incredulous at the dome of burning fire. The venerable Headmaster waved his wand with an expression of concentration. The fire in the dome seemed to recoil before a brief gout of flame headed Dumbledore's direction in response. Dumbledore cast a shield but it was unnecessary, the gout of flame seemed to freeze halfway toward the Headmaster before the pillar was sucked forcibly back into the dome.

Dumbledore prepared to cast another spell, clearly trying to dispel the fire when there was an inhuman roar of fury that emerged from the dome of flames as it gave another surge.

There were several confused looks as the air seemed to fill with the roar of fire, but also seemed to hold softer tones of the song of a phoenix. Though it only happened for a few moments, causing those who managed to hear it to doubt their own senses.

However, it seemed to be the fire's last gasp, because in the next moment the flames completely vanished, leaving only thick black and choking smoke.

Dumbledore blinked in surprise before using his wand and vanishing the dark smoke that obscured everything.

When the smoke cleared, the entire area the dome covered was blackened and charred in a circle. In the center of that circle covered completely from head to toe in soot was Harry. For just a moment it looked like the fire had utterly crisped him.

After a moment however Harry blinked, and moved, looking down at himself and the wand still held in his hand before looking back up at the people around him, without really seeing them.

There was a dazed expression on his face when he incomprehensibly chuckled, "Impossible, huh? Whad'ya know? She was wron-"

His words slowly dwindled until they cut off as his legs crumpled beneath him and he collapsed to the ground as he lost consciousness.

ooOoOOoOoo

Albus Dumbledore took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose slowly. He was having a horrible day and it just did not seem like he was able to catch a break to breath and process. Hell, he was still having trouble putting together all the facts.

He had had a Death Eater seen inside his school that was supposed to have died inside Azkaban a decade earlier. Not only was the murderer alive but had taught classes at Hogwarts while polyjuiced as his old friend.

Several of his students had been injured during the day. Nearly a dozen were seriously wounded, and two were now in critical condition. The seriously injured students were mostly still in the infirmary, though Perenelle was starting to release them.

The two critically injured students they had almost lost when Bellatrix had cursed the doctors before casting Fiendfyre in the infirmary. Dumbledore had barely managed to keep both students from succumbing to their injuries by keeping their bodies in a sort of stasis. Holding a person in a magical stasis wasn't the hard part, doing it for two people was a level more challenging, out of question for anyone but those with the most advanced medical skills and sufficient power to back it up. Perhaps a dozen people alive were capable of doing it.

However the stasis spells that were literally keeping the bodies in a state of unchanging, inevitably required they not be moved. Suddenly needing to move them and managing both the stasis spell and levitation spell required a level of spell work and magical control on the spells that few if any would be capable of. Doing it for two people made the level of concentration and control nearly impossible. Never in his life had he even pondered moving the patients while performing two simultaneous stasis charms.

Dumbledore sighed to himself, he didn't want to admit it but Perenelle Flamel's willingness to help out in the infirmary in the aftermath was a relief. And not just because it directed her focus someplace besides an opportunity to be angry with him.

The damage to Madame Pomfrey was significant and still being untangled; though it didn't seem to be life threatening. The woman had yet to regain consciousness. Of course, that wasn't surprising considering that Saint Mungo's was still in an state of utter chaos. After Bellatrix had rampaged through the hospital killing several, cursing others and destroying an entire section before she reached a point where she apparated away.

The fact that both she and another death eater had been in the castle had Dumbledore facing a very unique experience in his life.

People who were usually supportive of him were not pleased at all. Frank and Augusta Longbottom had both arrived to express their displeasure. James and Lily Potter were in a similar position, and along with James came Sirius Black. Though Sirius didn't have any children at the school, he might as well have given his relationship with the Potters. And… if rumors were to be believed, it was likely that nuptials were in the future for him and the widow Greengrass. Amelia Bones also was unhappy, though her niece Susan hadn't sustained more than a cut from the entire experience.

However, what made it really trying, was that these traditional supports had found themselves unlikely allies in Lucius Malfoy of all people. That was what had really confused him.

Dumbledore was well aware that Malfoy would likely try anything and use any event or circumstance in an attempt to force him from his position as Headmaster. Malfoy constantly attempted both overtly and subtly to weaken Dumbledore's powerbase. Dumbledore was usually able to take steps to neutralize his influence, but it was a constant battle.

The Headmaster knew that if anyone was likely to know that Barty Crouch Junior was not only alive, but in the castle, along with Bellatrix Lestrange it would be Lucius Malfoy. However, there were two things that had Dumbledore questioning that thought. Firstly, his son Draco was at the scene where both members had been revealed. While that would normally be suspicious, Draco had been in legitimate danger both times.

While Lucius' behavior from their second year proved that he would be willing to risk his son, at least in the periphery, Draco had never struck Dumbledore as someone who would be willing to risk his own neck.

Not only that, but in the chaos in the infirmary, Draco Malfoy had actually saved the life of Alastor Moody. Owing a life debt to a Malfoy of all people, was something that irked the paranoid retired Auror almost as much as getting outsmarted by Crouch and locked in his own trunk. A fact that he had made abundantly clear several times in the aftermath of the events the afternoon.

The second reason he doubted it was that he had seen and read the surprise on Lucius's face when he was told that Barty Crouch Junior was alive and in the castle. That same surprise was evident on the man's face when the presence of Bellatrix was mentioned. Dumbledore knew Lucius was a conniving man, and a proficient actor. but he believed that the shock manifested so briefly on his expression was genuine.

The Head of House Malfoy was genuinely shocked when he had been told. Dumbledore had been sure of that. There was also genuine anger when Draco's injury had been mentioned. Though Dumbledore wondered if that anger was at his son for being injured, at Crouch for casting the spell, or Dumbledore for not being there.

That lead Dumbledore to one of his two biggest conundrums. Ares Flamel.

There were so many things about the boy that just did not fit, and no matter how many times Dumbledore had tried to look at the pieces, Ares was still an enigma. (He very carefully stayed away from calling him a 'riddle.')

The Headmaster thought he knew both Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel well enough to be sure that they didn't subscribe to the belief in blood superiority. He doubted that their adopted son would be raised to hold those beliefs either.

And yet… in his one conversation with Ares, the boy had let slip that some of his natural family members were clearly squibs who hated magic and had obviously made no secret of it. Ares' disgust for that family and total lack of interest in his own heritage had alarm bells ringing in his mind.

Nor were either Flamel truly vicious or vindictive. Nicholas Flamel was a potioneer and an alchemist and to Dumbledore's knowledge, his old partner did not really work with lighter or darker magic. Perenelle's knowledge of rituals may have given her the knowledge of some of the darker variety, but her disgust for them was also evident. However, Perenelle could indeed hold a grudge and make someone's life miserable, but she would never truly work to actually destroy someone's life.

The fact that Ares had so quickly and obviously fallen in line with Draco Malfoy just increased Dumbledore's worries. That had pushed his suspicions even farther. Nothing seemed more important to the Malfoys than the superiority of their blood. Draco was even more brash and brazen than his father when it came to making that clear. The boy didn't even seem to understand the meaning of the word 'cunning' much less possess an ounce of it.

For the young Flamel to connect so quickly with Draco seemed to speak about his inclinations in a loud and clear message. Albus wondered whether Nicholas and Perenelle were encouraging supremacist beliefs, or merely failing to curtail them… or whether the young man was hiding them from the Flamels altogether.

He had watched the two discreetly during meals and it was subtle, but obvious if you knew what to look for, that Draco not only regarded Ares as an equal, he deferred to Ares. The behavior of the Malfoy scion falling into a subservient role to another wizard, was another warning sign and was one of the biggest ones that had him truly wondering about Ares' parentage.

The Flamels had arrived at Hogwarts within minutes of Ares collapsing. It was clear that Ares' status as the Heir of house was genuine. Dumbledore hadn't thought about it until after the fact but wish he had been astute enough to get a sample of blood from the unconscious boy to verify his suspicions. He had made a mental note to do so if the opportunity arose again.

The fact that the Flamels were not pleased with Dumbledore was loud and clear as his mind flashed back to the conversation he had just had with Nicholas less than an hour prior. Nicholas had entered the office to speak to him, several minutes after Dumbledore had gotten the other parents out.

Normally Nicholas was very humorous and affable, even when the discussion revolved around serious matters. Rarely had Dumbledore ever seen him truly appear to be upset. However the silent stare and crossed arms told Dumbledore that upset was probably a major understatement.

It had merely been a very small grace that Perenelle seemed to have elected to stay in the infirmary. She was keeping an eye on both Ares and the infirmary as a whole after the disaster Bellatrix Lestrange had caused at St. Mungos. There were simply not enough certified medi-witches or wizards to cover St. Mungos and Hogwarts. Perenelle's qualifications were slightly dated but she hadn't seemed to have gotten rusty as she moved among the injured and dosed people with potions.

Dumbledore had sighed wearily from behind his desk under the forbidding stare of his old friend. "Nicholas, I'm so sorry for what happened to-"

"Albus." Nicholas interrupted, cutting him off sharply in mid-sentence.

He winced slightly. Nicholas always had the ability on the rare occasions he got upset to make Dumbledore feel like a boy who had just made the mistake of dumping too many porcupine quills in a simple potion.

"First, let's be clear about something. It is not 'what has happened'. It's 'what you allowed to happen'." Nicholas eyes had narrowed as he fixed Dumbledore with a pointed stare. His voice remained firm but the tone didn't change at all. There was no emotional accusation, simply what he viewed as a statement of fact.

"I… what?" Dumbledore's jaw dropped at the statement. And once more remembered how all too often he had felt like a novice compared to the man. It had nothing to do with magical power. To be honest, Dumbledore felt he far outstripped the elder Flamel in terms of magic power. It was the weight of experience that Nicholas' words carried.

"You deny it?" Nicholas had simply tilted his head, in curiosity, though his expression was unchanging.

Dumbledore was still taken aback by the accusation and sputtered another moment before he regained his equilibrium, "What? Of course I do Nicholas! I had no idea someone was impersonating a professor and our school medi-witch!"

"Ah, of course." Nicholas replied dryly. "And the danger that the students were in?"

"How was I to know? I'm not omniscient!" His voice was sharp now, his temper starting to fray with yet another person demanding answers.

"That was never more obvious than in this moment." Nicholas shot back at him, not intimidated by Dumbledore's rising temper.

"Don't speak to me like a child, Nicholas. If I could have prevented people getting hurt. I would have."

"Are you, or are you not, Headmaster of this school?" Nicholas demanded from the man immediately.

Dumbledore stood up, his face set in an uncharacteristic scowl. "I don't need patronized, and I don't need you being asinine!"

"Are you, or are you not?" Nicholas repeated, his tone hardening, though he didn't wait for Dumbledore to answer. "A headmaster's primary responsibility is the safety of the students within its halls and security of the school as a whole."

"I am well aware of my responsibilities." Dumbledore responded in an icy tone to his old friend.

"Really? Then why did Ares have to do your job for you… twice?" Nicholas snapped back sarcastically. "This has become a distinct pattern for you, Albus. If the rumors that Ares has been told since he arrived hold the smallest shred of truth. The Potter child has done your job for you two of the last three years, and I can't say i'm pleased to learn now Ares has apparently had his turn at the same."

"I can't be expected to be everywhere at once! You know that!" Dumbledore protested, though it rang a bit hollow to his own ears.

"I do. Do you?" Nicholas responded simply, the irritation gone from his voice.

The sudden response and change in demeanor threw Dumbledore long enough to confuse him, and a puzzled expression crossed his face. "Do I what?"

"Understand that you can't possibly be everywhere." Nicholas clarified for him, once more using the tone universally recognized by teachers as the one required for explaining something to a slow student.

"Of course I know that. Despite what some people may claim in the press, I have never attempted to claim that I am infallible." Dumbledore snapped again, once more sounding irritated with the entire conversation.

"Oh really? It's interesting to hear you say that. Because I wasn't sure that you knew that Headmaster. Or do you prefer Chief Warlock? Or Supreme Mugwump? Am I missing any titles?" Nicholas asked.

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes He had almost mentioned his title of 'Grand Sorcerer', but figured it would not help his case at this time, but the insult still could not go unanswered, "What exactly is your point, Nicholas?".

"You have three jobs and I'm less than impressed with your performance at any of them." Nicholas retorted with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm aware that I have many responsibilities and that I can't be everywhere." Dumbledore's voice was suddenly weary. He was tired of having to feel like he was on the defensive end today. It was definitely wearing on him.

"Albus." Nicholas said quietly, a note of remonstration in his voice.

That seemed to be enough to cause Dumbledore to snap slightly as he slapped his hand on the desk. "What is it you want me to say Nick? I messed up! Is that what you want to hear? Of course I did."

"Children almost died Albus! They would have if not for the intervention of a student!" Nicholas leaned forward and met Dumbledore's eyes fearlessly as he slapped his own hands on the desk. "And all you have to offer the parents is 'Oops, my mistake everyone!'"

"How was I supposed to know that the Ministry had allowed another Death Eater to escape! They reported that Barty Crouch Junior died in Azkaban prison!" Dumbledore protested, leaning forward and matching Nicholas' angry stance, both hands flat on the desk as he met the man's eyes.

Nicholas' sighed a little bit, his angry posture slumping a little bit, conveying his disappointment with a shake of his head. "So your defense is 'How was I to know the Ministry screwed something up?' That should tell you everything you need about how badly you failed your duties. The Ministry is of course known for being a paragon of competence."

Dumbledore had nothing he could say to that, and Nicholas just shook his head, and turned away heading toward the exit of the office.

Dumbledore shook off the troubling thoughts for a moment and called out. "Wait, Nick. I was hoping to talk to you about Ares and who you had instruct him."

Nicholas stopped at the door and turned to look back at Dumbledore with a shake of his head. "I'd say you have other things to focus on. You're lucky Perenelle let me express our displeasure. If she had it her way, she'd have been up here tearing strips out of your hide. But We figure you'll have enough people ready to do that."

Dumbledore winced at that thought and Nicholas had left him with that parting shot. When he had left Dumbledore had slumped back into his desk chair and had begun rubbing his temples to dispel his headache.

He had hoped to make the apology to Nicholas and get some information on the enigma that was Ares Flamel. Unfortunately, the conversation hadn't allowed any further insight. Dumbledore had watched the battle in the classroom multiple times. The memory had been supplied courtesy of Iris Potter,

He had watched the duel multiple times with interest. For a moment a suspicion had dawned in his head that it had been a set up, but he saw the reaction times and speed of Ares and saw the genuine anger and reactions that both people had.

James Potter had emerged from the pensieve the first time with an amazed mutter, "he might be faster than I am."

The spell use was also telling as neither person had time to use incantations. No one without experience should have been able to cast so quickly and all non-verbally. Since neither had time to give the other to cast. He had never seen a child that young that was so capable. Dumbledore desperately wanted to find out exactly how the boy was trained.

He wanted to know how the Flamels had him trained, and by whom. He had obviously been trained to the point that he could hold his own in a fight against a fully adult and skilled Death Eater. And the fact that the constant barrage of spells and shields didn't exhaust him told Dumbledore that the boy was very powerful.

Then there was the fiendfyre. Dumbledore had never seen it dealt with in that manner before. He wasn't sure exactly what the boy had done. He had reviewed the memory. There was no incantation, and he didn't think accidental magic could ever account for something like that. Somehow the boy had managed to stop the hellfire spell and had managed to do so without it destroying the entire infirmary. Dumbledore wasn't even sure he could have managed that feat quite so well.

The facts adding up were more than a little disturbing to Dumbledore. The boy was a Slytherin, he was clearly powerful and incredibly skilled for his age. Dumbledore was honest enough with himself to admit that even he hadn't been that skilled at that age.

On top of that the boy seemed incredibly poised and self-possessed in front of groups. He had shown no nervousness when he was sorted. He showed no nervousness when Dumbledore met with him one on one. He hadn't shown the normal touch of awe most people did, or the occasional sneer that Slytherin's occasionally used when talking about him.

Minerva had even mentioned an altercation in her classroom. He had challenged her dressing down in a way that even most Slytherin's would never have dared.

It had him worried more than anything about Ares' true parentage. Dumbledore didn't think Tom Riddle had ever deigned to have a child. It didn't fit his personality, it would have been admitting a physical need which would have been a weakness to him. He certainly would never have spawned a child with someone with any acknowledged squib or muggle relatives. It also would have been a concession in Tom's mind that he was not as immortal as he always claimed to his followers and tried to present.

But it added up in a scary picture. The power, the seemingly natural skill in magic. He was in Slytherin and seemed to be apathetic to people older than him, confident in his own power, and he had Malfoy seeming to fall into step behind him seamlessly. Ares even looked like a little like a young Tom Riddle.

However, completely confounding all of that was that Fawkes had definitely been happy to meet the boy. Not just happy but pleased. And Ares had complimented Fawkes in return. If Ares was following in the footsteps of Tom Riddle, there was no way that Fawkes would have welcomed him. Ares was a giant mass of walking contradictions.

Dumbledore shuddered slightly, he considered himself adept at reading signs and portents and putting together small events to figure what was happening on a larger scale. His ability to read the signs and portents that meant very little to most people, but to him they were the lifeblood of his daily decision process. Being able to do so was a skill that had served him well for years and allowed him to thwart many of the plots and machinations of the darker families.

He had long ago learned that magic worked in strange and seemingly unpredictable ways. And he was among the very few who both understood this nature of magic, and had made it the foundation of his day to day living philosophy. Only he could see the big picture and understand the ebb and flow..

Dumbledore was never one to condemn someone because of their parentage, and firmly believed that everyone deserved another chance and could be redeemed. But... if Ares was the offspring of Voldemort, unwitting or not, he could only hope he could keep him from following the same path as Tom Riddle. He couldn't help but hope that his suspicion was wrong. He would have to research to try and find more.

However, Ares Flamel wasn't his only concern, or truth be told even his biggest concern at the moment. His bigger concern was what caused the problem in the first place. What were Barty Crouch and Bellatrix Lestrange doing in Hogwarts?

He never imagined that someone would manage to best his panoid old friend who was still as sharp as ever when it came to dealing with dark wizards. Dumbledore truthfully hadn't spent much time around the man masquerading as Moody since he arrived at the school. The man had been working on "security" for the tournament. Dumbledore wondered if he'd have to recheck the wards. What had Barty Crouch Junior really been up to?

That followed right by the question about Bellatrix Lestrange and what she had been doing here. Poppy Pomfrey had a lot of time she could spend on her own unless needed for injuries that inevitably arose from magical instruction. She hadn't spent a lot of time around the staff with all the events of the new year, so even Minerva wasn't aware of her friend's replacement.

He had already checked with the house elves to make sure that neither of the poly-juiced staff members had tried to slip potions into any of the food or drink of the students or other staff. Thankfully they hadn't. He had made a note to see if Perenelle would stay around long enough to check every student treated by Bellatrix since the start of the year.

But what he couldn't understand was what they were doing here. The year before Bellatrix Lestrange had been attempting to kill Iris Potter. She had nearly succeeded. If that was the goal this year they both had multiple opportunities within the first week to accomplish the objective. If they had wanted to capture her, Bellatrix had Poppy's portkey, created by him as Headmaster with the ability to get through the wards. She could have grabbed her and made off with her at any time. But they hadn't.

He couldn't figure out what was going on, and what their motivations were. It was driving him crazy.

Dumbledore rubbed his temples, wishing he could get rid of his pounding headache.

His fireplace floo flared to life suddenly and Cornelius Fudge's voice came out of the green flames, in a shout filled with a combination of urgency and anger. "Dumbledore!"

The Headmaster groaned and barely resisted the urge to bang his head on his desk.

ooOoOOoOoo

Iris looked up from where her quill scratched across her parchment. She was in the Potter's quarters, working on some extra research for a charm Professor Flitwick assigned. Across the table, Hermione sat quietly working on the same thing, though Iris had frequently caught her friend looking over at her with concern on her face.

Iris was relatively certain Hermione could tell how tired she was. Though she wasn't alone; the last few days had taken their toll on the entire Potter family.

Her father was sitting on a chair attempting to do some reading, though from the expression on his face, he was finding less than total success. Though Iris had thought it was a little bit of an improvement. Previously he had been freezing and looking around with a suspicious glare on his face at every unexpected sound. He also kept glancing toward Iris as if expecting her to disappear.

Her godfather wasn't far away, staring out the window and occasionally making a half hearted attempt to sit down and read one of several books, only to put it down a few moments later. Sirius made a few attempts to talk to James, only to not be able to get much of a response. Then he would pick up her baby sister, Rose. The five year old delighted in the attention, and it seemed to manage to bring a smile on James' face as well, even for a few moments.

Remus Lupin wasn't around, though Iris expected he would turn up within the next few days. The full moon had just been recently and he wasn't usually around for a week or so surrounding it.

Her mother was currently out of the quarters and in the infirmary, where she was helping with all of the students hurt by the Death Eaters who were masquerading as professors.

Iris was still beating herself up over it. She had just been so mad when she had witnessed Neville practically being taunted by Moody. She wasn't particularly close with the retired auror. He was paranoid and reclusive for a reason, but her father was friends with him - or as close to friends as one could be with someone like Mad-Eye - and he had visited the manor occasionally. She knew he would never do that and she had just reacted.

She and Neville had nearly died because of her impulsiveness, and not only had a Slytherin saved her but one that was friends with Draco Malfoy. She was still trying to wrap her head around that one.

That same boy apparently had then saved the lives of both of her parents and her godfather.

She had visited the infirmary twice, once to be checked briefly, by the mother of the Slytherin who saved her, no less. And once ostensibly to check on her mother, but in reality to thank the boy if he was awake. Unfortunately he hadn't regained consciousness.

Iris knew they had reviewed the memory of the battle, more than once since she knew they had viewed it in Dumbledore's pensieve, and again multiple times in the Potter family pensieve. All of this had occurred within that very first day, and all the activity and concern had led to her going to bed absolutely exhausted that night.

Which hadn't helped matters.

The first night she went to sleep, she had been sucked into another vision of Voldemort. The second such one she had experienced.

While in the nightmare, she had been unaware that her magic was reacting. Hermione had woken up as all of the furnishings in their room began to shake and rattle as Iris had tossed and turned in her bed. Hermione had tried to wake her friend up. Even going so far as to smack her cheek lightly.

When it hadn't worked she had used the communications mirror to contact the Lily Potter who had still been up in the infirmary. Lily had beaten James and Sirius who she had contacted immediately on the move, to Ravenclaw Tower by a mere few seconds as they rushed to the room.

When they had gotten there the furnishings were no longer rattling. They were now outright floating off the ground. Though the windows still were. Lily attempted to wake Iris the same way Hermione had, and then tried an ennervate, which didn't seem to have any effect either.

She and Hermione were both trying to shake the girl awake when Iris snapped back to wakefulness with a gasp. Unfortunately, this also included a powerful burst of accidental magic. One that blew out the window in the room, blew the furniture into the walls, and blew both Lily and Hermione violently across the room.

Only the quick reactions of James had cushioning charms behind the two girls to keep them from being hurt badly, and the quick reactions of Sirius had kept the two men from being flattened by furniture blown in their direction.

Lily hadn't waited and scrambled right back for Iris who was looking around wildly, trying to figure out where she was. Hermione was only a moment behind, and was somewhat relieved when her friend seemed to recognize her and almost collapse against her.

"Iris… what happened?" Lily asked carefully, after letting her daughter take deep calming breaths.

Iris had her hand on her head, right above over the infamous scar on her forehead as she winced, the pain flaring from the curse scar.

"It was another…. nightmare." Iris said, her voice scratchy and hoarse.

Lily's eyes narrowed slightly, "Another nightmare like the one you had this summer?"

Iris nodded a little bit, still rubbing her scar, while Hermione's arms tightened around her. Lily exchanged a look with James for a brief moment before turning back to her daughter.

Iris's eyes had widened in shock as she glanced around the room at the devastation and then at Hermione and Lily realizing that she had just blasted them across the room. "Oh Merlin! Are you two okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!"

Lily quickly shook her head reassuring her daughter as best she could, "We're fine. You didn't hurt us."

She glanced quickly at her husband and then at the furniture. A message he received as he began repairing the damaged furniture quickly. Sirius joining him a few moments later.

She turned back to Iris who was still looking around, a little bit bit of shock still present. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Iris hesitated a moment, even as Hermione gave her a reassuring squeeze about her shoulders. Her mom was on her knees next to the bed giving Iris' hand a reassuring squeeze.

Iris had nodded a little bit and began to haltingly describe what she had seen.

This time she had viewed things from a corner of the room. The same man she had seen earlier in the day when he jumped from the remains of the defense classroom was on his knees before a large chair with what looked like a small pile of cloth on the seat. Only the cloth moved and held a wand. Holding the man under a cruciatus curse for several long moments at a time.

The man, she had discovered was Barty Crouch Junior, when Sirius had told her earlier in the day, had writhed around on the floor before slowly shifting back to his knees. He was panting slightly but kept his head bowed even as he kept a grip on the shoulder without an arm, though it wasn't bleeding on him anymore.

"How… could you let yourself be dissscovered?" The raspy voice demanded from the pile of cloth where a small spindly arm was all that was visible, holding a wand pointed at Barty.

Barty bowed his head, "The brat knew Alastor Moody. She knew that I wasn't him."

Voldemort was infuriated. He had already pulled the answers from his follower's mind. His own mistakes had gotten him caught. The Death Eater's innate sadism, so valuable while showing the muggle and mudblood filth their place, had exposed him when he couldn't resist torturing the Longbottom child when the opportunity arose. Normally Voldemort would have been pleased by this. It was one of the things that made the death eater so effective. However not at this critical juncture when plans were still in flux.

"You know I don't tolerate failure." he rasped, in a voice filled with menace.

"I did not fail my lord! I did as you directed, and completed my task." Barty replied with his head down.

This caused Voldemort to pause before he replied in a voice that was somewhat mollified. "You are sss-ertain? Nothing mussst be left to chanccce." He stated slowly.

"I am certain my lord!" Barty replied immediately, then his voice fell. "I just won't be there to guide things further."

"Yesss. I am pleasssed. However, further guidance will still be necessary. I have just the person for the task. they should be able to keep an eye on thingsss for me. You will sssend for them ssshortly." The voice demanded imperiously.

"Of course my lord." Barty said, his head still bowed.

"I have another task for you my most loyal servant." Voldemort said after a long pause.

"Yes, my lord?" Barty asked, dreadful eagerness in his voice.

"You will find my other loyal servants. I do not want them to disturb my plans, inadvertently or not." Voldemort hissed.

"Of course, my lord." Barty replied with a bow of his head.

"And that's where the vision ended," Iris said in a very small voice after she finished relating what she had seen and felt.

Lily was staring at her with a frown on her face as she clearly considered her daughter's words.

Iris rubbed her scar and shook her head a little bit, "These don't feel like nightmares. What is going on?"

Lily glanced over at James whose face was attempting impassiveness but failing to keep the worry off of it. She turned back to Iris and shook her head. "I don't know, Iris. Albus said the first dream was likely not anything to worry about, but you're right these aren't just dreams. I'm… just not sure what else could be going on."

Iris stared at her mother for a moment before nodding a little bit, at least her mother was being honest with her, even if that honesty didn't do anything to reassure her at all.

Of course it wasn't helped either by the events of the next night. The Potters had brought Iris back to their family quarters for the evening, though it was likely as much for their peace of mind as it was for Iris. Hermione joined her as a matter of course. It didn't do any good.

She had another vision the second night.

Though this time the furniture in their room in the teacher's family quarters hadn't fared any better than the ones in her Ravenclaw room, Lily had the forethought to be ready to toss up a protego as she woke up. Which was a good thing too, since even her mother's protego buckled slightly under the magical backlash.

This time it had been Sirius that had been next to her with Hermione. He had apparently already been up when he first heard the furniture rattle.

"Iris, what happened? Was it another vision?" Hermione had asked even as she wrapped her arms around her best friend.

Iris was rubbing the scar on her forehead furiously as she shot her friend a glare. "No, I was dreaming of moonbeams and chocolate frogs!" she snapped.

Almost immediately after the words left her mouth her expression softened to one of surprise and apology. "Hermione, I'm sorry I didn't-"

Hermione just waved the apology off, certainly not going to hold a grudge for a snap after whatever her friend had just seen, though the concern didn't leave her gaze.

"What did you see?" James asked quietly from the doorway.

Iris shuddered a little bit as she began to recount what she had seen.

She thought it was the same room. It was dark, and the room seemed small, with bookshelves along the walls. Only this time instead of feeling like she was watching from a corner of the room, Iris felt like she was watching over the shoulder of the chair.

The smile pile of cloth she could see on the chair beneath her seemed oddly shaped as it thrashed. There was a hoarse cry of rage emanating from it.

"What?! Tell me what happened!?" demanded the small figure.

Before the chair on his knees once more was Barty Crouch Junior. He was no longer clutching his injured shoulder, though it was clearly still missing from the way the sleeve of his coat hung.

The man bowed his head, "My Lord, I snuck home today after the Aurors raided the family manor looking for us. When they left, I bypassed their alert wards by simply apparating in. I gathered some potions my father kept stocked, and some other odds and ends that might be useful. While I was there I saw today's Daily Herald."

Barty chanced a look up before he continued his story. "I thought for certain that it would be about my presence and escape. However, it proclaimed there were two escapees from Azkaban had caused chaos at Hogwarts. Bellatrix was masquerading as the school nurse."

"What happened?" Voldemort demanded, his voice going soft.

"She was discovered polyjuiced, and then used the nurse's emergency portkey to St. Mungos to escape. There's no word of any casualties from Hogwarts but she killed nearly a dozen people at St. Mungo's before making her escape from there." Barty kept his head bowed.

There was silence for several moments from the thing in the chair. "Barty. I gave you this task and plan, and told no other. How did Bellatrix find out the specifics of that plan? That… is not something she would come up with herself."

"I do not know my Lord. I swear to you that I have not seen her since my escape." Barty replied.

"Look at me." came Voldemort's hoarse but commanding voice.

Barty looked up obediently, his eyes going wide after a moment and his entire body jerked stiff but there was no other sound from either of them for nearly fifteen seconds, before Barty seemed to slump slightly, breathing a bit heavier.

"You speak the truth." came the voice.

"Of course, my Lord." Crouch replied, once more bowing his head.

"What was she doing?!" Voldemort's voice suddenly hissed in rage. "Bellatrix is many things, but she is hardly ever been one for the subtlety required to come up with a plan like that… much lessss have the control to implement it! I told her that I had other plansss in motion, that she wasss not to attack the girl again."

There was another pause before the voice sounded even more enraged, clearly from a build-up of frustration. "Why has she not responded to my sssummonsss in monthsss?!"

"I don't know, my Lord!" Barty responded immediately.

"Curssse this damnable half-form. Or I could sssummon her! Or Black! You said he escaped. Why has he not tried to seek me out? Why do they ignore the tugs on their marks even if that's all I can manage?" The hoarse voice demanded in a shrill cry.

"I don't know, my Lord." Barty replied once more.

"Find out Barty. I want them found. I want them brought here to exssplain themssselves." Voldemort demanded with a soft and dangerous voice.

Iris felt herself somehow sliding down closer to the pile of clothes obscuring whatever hid beneath before she abruptly snapped awake.

Iris was still rubbing her forehead slowly before she looked up er expression a little bit angry but unable to hide the fear that lingered there as well. "These aren't just nightmares. What is happening to me?"

James shook his head slightly and glanced at his wife, something Sirius mirrored at the exact same moment.

Lily saw everyone turning to look at her, and was hardly surprised by the actions. "I don't know. There's obviously a connection there. Though how that's working, I have no idea."

"Her scar has something to do with it." Sirius said, gesturing at Iris still rubbing the scar.

Lily nodded, "Yes, but we've had it examined by every curse specialist we could find. They said pretty much the same thing that Albus did. It's dark magic and the remnants of the killing curse."

"Obviously that's not all it is. Not if she's having these… visions." James responded, moving over to sit on the bed a look of concern on his face as he gave his daughter's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Lily sighed and ran her hand through her hair as she looked at her daughter. "I'm not sure what else to do. The curse experts don't know. I've looked through every book in both the Potter and Black library, for any information and even asked Severus to keep his eyes open for anything he might come across. There's just… no precedent for what she's going through, and I'm not sure where else to look."

Sirius and James both nodded at that, neither showing any adverse reaction to Lily mentioning Snape, well aware of her friendship and while they weren't friends with him, the hatred that had existed was long gone.

"I wonder…" Lily's voice broke off thoughtfully.

"Wonder what, Lils?" James asked while everyone turned to look at her at the sudden lilt in her voice.

"It's… just a thought. But I wonder if we might have Perenelle Flamel take a look." Lily said, her voice speculative as she considered the idea.

There were frowns all around at that statement, but Lily looked up at them. "I got to speaking with her in the occasional quiet times in the infirmary today. She knows alot about rituals and obscure effects that the magical community hasn't heard of or seen in centuries. She... might have some insight."

James frowned a little bit and then nodded slowly. "I guess I can't see how that hurts. I... need to speak with Nicholas Flamel anyway."

Lily tilted her head and frowned at that statement with a puzzled expression on her face. "Why?"

James glanced at Sirius before shrugging slightly, knowing that if they didn't tell her now that she would insist on knowing later and that she likely would share it with Iris anyway. "Their son saved Iris, and saved the two of us. We owe them not one but three life debts."

"Life debts?" Hermione asked with a suspicious frown.

Sirius spoke up, looking at Hermione. "It's an old tradition. Someone risks their life to save yours you owe them a debt."

"How do you pay that debt?" Hermione asked, her curiosity coming to the fore as she looked from one adult to another attentively.

Iris smiled from beside her, if anything could be counted on to make her feel normal, it was her friend's curiosity.

Sirius shook his head a little bit, "There's... no real set price. Acknowledging the debt is more a formality than anything. It means that we owe them, and generally they can set the price for fulfilling debts . In the past sometimes that debt is paid in galleons, sometimes it is paid in magical artifacts, or in certain actions, It has been paid in business deals, or betrothals."

"Betrothals?!" Iris echoed with surprise, seeing the surprise matched on Hermione's face.

Sirius nodded solemnly, his voice somber, "Yes, they can request a betrothal contract between the family drawn up sometimes to be filled between two specific people, or sometimes if certain circumstances are met... like people of opposite gender within a certain age range of one another."

James nodded along with his friend, "It was seen as a great way to unite families' bloodlines and create allianc-OWW! Hey!" James demanded hopping slightly and rubbing the back of his head.

Sirius echoed his yelp of pain and was rubbing the back of his head as well.

Lily was scowling at her husband and his friend."What they are not telling you... is that any family doesn't have to give into a specific requested price. That many times an alliance is all that's needed, or that it is just acknowledged as a general debt for a favor to be named later. And finally, that James and Sirius both know that our family will never sign off on any forced betrothals. Ever. The Potter only use those things when a relationship needs to be formalized."

Her voice made it clear that there was no room for discussion and that she didn't appreciate her husband and his friend giving the two girls more things to worry about.

"Your father and godfather were just trying to tease you." She said the last part with a glare at the two men, who for their part looked abashed for trying to lighten the mood with a bit of humor by twisting Iris and Hermione up. Iris and Hermione both glared at the two men, though a bit of a smile crossed their faces, as it seemed to have done it's job of breaking the tension of the evening.

That was kind of the break for the night, and thankfully there were no more incidents. However, even though it had seemed like the tension had gone down for the evening, the next day had been full of nervous energy with everyone moving around and talking like they were on eggshells waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Her parents, and Sirius, as well as Dumbledore had all asked to see the memories of her vision in a pensieve. They had all come out of it with pensive expressions. The memory was hazy around the edges, and didn't give them any more details than Iris' recounting of them, though Dumbledore looked particularly troubled. Sirius and James were both disappointed they had hoped the visions might provide some sort of clue as to where all this was taking place. Unfortunately there was nothing identifying a location of any sort. Sirius had commented that the chair seemed a bit beaten up.

Iris sighed and glanced toward her father before shaking her head and setting her quill down. Her movement attracted the attention of everyone in the room but Rose, who was trying to climb onto the couch next to her father.

"We're going to go to the library." she announced as she gathered up some of her parchment, with a glance at her friend. She needed to get out of the apartment, and a glare at her father let him know that she did not want him trying to follow her. She didn't give him a chance to interject before heading toward the entrance of their quarters.

Hermione looked at her friend in surprise, though she couldn't keep the concern out of her gaze, after a quick glance at James Potter who seemed to ready to protest, she hurried to catch up to her friend. Normally she would have tried to make a comment about the library hardly being dangerous, but obviously couldn't in light of events two days ago.

Hermione couldn't keep the concern out of her gaze as they walked out of the quarters and headed towards the library. She half expected the door to their quarters to open from behind her. Hermione didn't say anything as they walked through the castle toward the library, she could tell that Iris didn't want to talk walking through the halls. They passed more than one person, though most people didn't give them more than a second look.

There were far better things to gossip about at the moment than the 'Girl Who Lived'. They weren't even gossiping about the events of two days ago, with the injuries to students and revelations of Death Eater's in their midst. Though Hermione was sure that topic would come back up sooner or later.

Right now, the greatest bit of gossip apparently involved half a dozen people snickering and pointing at a broom closet that was open to reveal two sixth years too 'involved' to realize they had an audience for the supposed secret liaison.

They didn't bother to stop and watch the inevitable explosion that would occur when the two sixth years realized that they were being watched. Iris led Hermione into the library and toward their favorite table, absentmindedly grabbing a book as she did. She wanted to make it look like they were there for something academic. Iris set the book down firmly, though didn't quite cross the line to slamming it down, lest they invoke the wrath of a certain librarian. She slumped in the chair, not even bothering to open the book.

Hermione sat down more gently across from her, glancing around as they settled down at the table in a rarely traveled portion of the library that had been mostly theirs the past three years, though it had been often occupied by Daphne Greengrass and Ares Flamel working on some project that Hermione could see required lots of arithmancy. Though they hadn't figured out exactly what that project was. She turned her attention back to look at Iris and was struck by just how tired her friend looked, now that she was slumped in her chair and staring off into space.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked quietly.

Iris turned to focus on Hermione, taking a moment and running her hand through her dark hair. "I… haven't been sleeping well."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, and the seriousness of the situation kept her from smiling wryly. "I sort of noticed, if you'll recall."

"No… I meant… longer than that." Iris responded slowly, a guilty tinge to her voice. Hermione didn't say anything in response, she just raised her eyebrow. She generally had a good ear when her roommate was having a nightmare.

Iris had the good sense to look abashed as she murmured, "I've been using silencing charms around my bed."

"Iris!" Hermione half sighed and half shook her head in disappointment. "You know I'm there for you when you need me, especially when it's nightmares like the past two nights."

"No, they're not the same." Iris said quickly shaking her head.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked with a frown on her face.

Iris leaned forward, her expression intense. "I mean, the past two nights have been different. When... I woke you up those are more like… visions. Like I'm really there in that moment. Those have only happened four times. The past two nights and then this summer those two times, one a few nights before the World Cup, the other the night before the World cup… but the last one was obviously different too."

Iris paused a moment and took a breath, her frustration had sounded clearly in her voice when describing that last vision, before continuing. "I've been having other nightmares… worse than even my old nightmares for a while."

"How long?" Hermione asked, watching Iris' expression.

"About two weeks." Iris said reluctantly.

"Two weeks," Hermione said slowly. She didn't chastise Iris for keeping something like that to herself, as there were plenty of people in the Potter family nearby who could take up that role if need be. No, Hermione began to think back, to just what exactly happened two weeks earlier.

"The World Cup," she said softly, and she didn't seek a confirmation, not needing it to know a significant event.

Iris shrugged slightly, "They're not like the visions where everything during the entire thing is clear, these are more disjointed, and don' show more than glimpses and they're hazy, I only remember bits and pieces of what I saw."

"What do you remember seeing?" Hermione asked softly.

Iris attempted to open the book before her, then immediately slammed the book shut, more because of a bit of nervous energy. Luckily the out of the way location prevented the sound from spreading and risking the wrath of the librarian.

"Death." She finally said.

Hermione had both eyebrows raised this time, she let the silence hang for a long moment before she asked quietly "Whose?"

Iris put her hands on the table and seemed to stare into the woodwork as if searching the patterns of the wood for some sort of answer to her problem. When she replied it was soft and filled with reluctance. "Everyone's. People I recognize. People I don't. People I know but are older than they are now but not by much. Again and again."

Iris couldn't meet Hermione's eyes, the dream of seeing her best friend fighting Bellatrix and winning, only to succumb to her wounds afterwards had plagued her thoughts for days since it had cropped up the first time in her dream. Hermione's last words continued to ring inside Iris' mind in a way that was haunting and horrible. "Because she hurt you."

Of course that wasn't even those bizarre part of the dreams. She had seen flashes or little blurbs of other people in ways she never would have imagined them before. Ron Weasley fighting with her and then jumping and intercepting a spell aimed at her back. Dying for her. The gruesome death of several of the Weasleys. Luna Lovegood, a friend of her sister's.

"Are you sure they're dreams?" Hermione asked, though she didn't know what else they could be and she certainly wasn't a believer in divination especially after hearing all about the fraud Trelawney in action.

Iris froze for a brief moment, and Hermione's eyes narrowed at the expression on her face only to be replaced a moment later by concern. "Iris…"

Iris sighed and seemed to shrink a little bit inside herself. She couldn't bring herself to meet her friend's eyes. "I... don't know. They… might not be."

Hermione just sat there quietly, knowing that her friend would talk about it at her own pace or not at all.

"I saw him." Iris whispered quietly, her eyes still downcast not looking up to meet Hermione's gaze.

"Saw who?" Hermione inquired softly.

"That man… who was pretending to be Moody. Tuesday night before defense class." Iris' voice was strained and harsh. "I dreamed about him. I saw him talking about the 'Dark Lord' and a graveyard. I saw him start to shake and jerk. I saw Dumbledore hit him with a spell through a door. I saw Snape pick up that flask he had and say it was Polyjuice Potion, and I saw him change into someone else."

Iris voice was getting more upset as she spoke. "I... thought it was just… just a dream. But then class happened and I saw him make Neville watch him torture that spider and I knew. I knew Moody wouldn't do that. Not the same person that Dad and Mom both always talk about him with respect… and I knew my dream was right."

Hermione was frowning, but she reached across the table and squeezed her friend's hand, offering her the support she could. It was clear that the frustration and lack of sleep was getting to her friend. She had never seen Iris so frustrated and worked up over something.

There were tears in her eyes when Iris finally looked up to meet Hermione's gaze. "I knew I should have kept my mouth shut and then told someone later. If I had, then… then those students wouldn't be hurt."

Hermione squeezed Iris' hand firmly, "That was not your fault. That was the Death Eater's fault." Iris merely shrugged her shoulders uncomfortably in response. Silence descended on the table for several minutes while Iris calmed herself.

"Do you think you're seeing the future?" Hermione asked quietly. After a brief exposure to Trelawney, the two of them had significant doubts about seeing into the future, but Iris had to pose the question.

Iris shrugged now that she was a little bit calmer, closing her eyes "All I know is they not like any dream I've ever had before. In dreams, you sometimes realize, 'Oh hey, I'm dreaming about this because the pizza I ate is screwing with my head, or because Padfoot got caught licking his balls again', and then you just go along with the dream, sometimes you can even influence it when you're half awake. These are different."

She sighed, and looked helplessly at the ceiling, "But they can't be things that are happening, because I see the people in them afterward. Even though they've died in the dreams. And the dreams are weird too… some of the people I see I've never been friends with or I am and they're... different."

"Different? How so?" Hermione asked curiously, focused on her friend.

"I don't know. Like… Sirius. I've seen him… much older. And he looks horrible. Like he decided to be a hobo for a few years. Only he falls into this weird Stonehenge thing and disappears. I remember being upset. Or the Hufflepuff... Cedric Diggory getting killed in some graveyard by the killing curse. Or… even Ronald freaking Weasley being friendly and even sacrificing himself to save me."

Finally, Iris spoke in an extremely quiet voice, "This can't keep going on."

The bushy-haired girl could only quirk an eyebrow at that statement. "Talk to your mother about it. Dads are useless for that sort of thing, but your mom is sure to be able to help. Heck, if you don't want to speak to your mom, go to Madame Flamel. Maybe she can give you something to help you sleep that isn't addictive like Dreamless Sleep potions are."

Iris sighed a little bit and shrugged her shoulders slightly, "Yeah, I thought about saying something to her, if Mom gets her to take a look at my scar." She rubbed the lightning bolt through her hair subconsciously.

Hermione gave a half-hearted smirk at the comment, "You're just hoping to see if her son is conscious so you can talk to him, right?"

"No," said Iris immediately, and turned away from her friend. It wasn't so much the denial but the teasing tone in Hermione's voice that caused her to blush.

Hermione heard the quick denial, and jumped on it without thinking, knowing Iris would be eager to change the topic away from her nightmares, "Oh no? You don't want to talk to him about the fight and saving your life?"

"Hermione!" she protested, oblivious to their location. "He saved the lives of both Neville and I… and probably every other person in that classroom."

"Ooh, sounds like someone has a crush. Too bad he's in Slytherin and friends with Draco Malfoy." Hermione replied with a grin, ignoring the pang of… something that swelled inside her at that idea.

"He dueled a death eater, and then for an encore saved the lives of both of my parents. No matter what house he's in, that's impressive." Iris retorted sharply.

"Oh, I'm sure you were impressed with his wand work all right." Hermione grinned, enjoying being able to tease her friend like this, she doubted her friend was anything more than grateful, but the simple fact was that the change in topic had seemingly lifted Iris' mood.

Neither were aware that someone with a pair of dark blue eyes had overheard every word that they said.

ooOoOOoOoo

Harry slowly regained consciousness, coming out of a jumbled haze of subconscious thoughts and dreams that slipped away even as he awoke. He didn't open his eyes and kept his breathing slow as he tried to take stock of his surroundings.

When he breathed in he determined from the familiar smells that he was likely in the infirmary. A very slight shift had him realize that his wand holster was still on his arm. A good thing since he was the only person that knew the password to get it off. If it had been removed it would mean that it had been cut off with a very powerful and focused cutting hex.

Well either that or his entire arm was gone.

Harry shifted his muscles slowly and determined that he didn't really feel any lingering injuries, just the telltale stiffness of lying in a bed for an excessively long period of time. Something that usually came after he'd come off worse in a confrontation with Voldemort.

A moment's more concentration and he could feel the foreign and active magic inside of him. He managed to restrain a groan, he could feel his own magic fighting it. These weren't potions made for him. These were normal potions, so his body was spending as much energy fighting them off as it was getting benefit from them.

Finally he opened his eyes, and barely managed to restrain a soft groan, an entirely different world, different people, years more knowledge and experience and somehow he ends up in the same damn infirmary bed.

He looked around and saw that several other beds were filled. He could see three other beds with sleeping students, and he also assumed that the beds that had the privacy screens up had students behind them, bringing the number of students in the infirmary to an even half-dozen. He also idly noted that it was daytime, though probably early if he had to guess.

Harry finally sat up, he felt the stiffness in his muscles protest slightly even as he moved different parts of his body to shake off some of the stiffness. However his movement seemed to attract detention. There was movement from the nurse's office as he saw someone who was definitely not Poppy Pomfrey emerge.

Harry frowned in confusion as he saw Perenelle Flamel. She stopped only a moment as she exited the office and headed his way. As she moved next to the bed her wand out, Harry tensed, but only for a moment before consciously relaxing. If Perenelle saw the movement she didn't say anything.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as she cast a diagnostic spell on him.

Perenelle clicked her tongue slightly in irritation, whether that was at a result or Harry's question he was unsure. "How are you feeling?" She asked him, ignoring the question he had posed.

"How long was I out?" Harry asked, ignoring the question, having heard that one far too many times in infirmary situations, and knew that his response would likely be ignored either way.

Perenelle frowned at his frank evasion before she sighed slightly, "You were out for nearly three days and some odd hours."

Harry frowned as he absently made the mental adjustment for the days he missed and the time shift, "Is everyone okay?"

"Nuh uh. Not until you answer my first question." Perenelle shook her head stubbornly.

Harry frowned a moment before realizing she meant her question about how he was doing. "I'm not dead, obviously. I'm still here. What about everyone else?" Harry repeated his question more insistently this time as his eyes flicked to the infirmary beds that were currently occupied.

Perenelle hesitated, unsure of how to respond and followed his gaze to the other beds. After a few moment's hesitation she spoke up, "There weren't any deaths here."

Harry raised an eyebrow at her emphasis on both deaths and here, but he didn't say anything, just looked at her expectantly.

Perenelle sighed, her shoulders slumping a little bit, "Well, the person posing as the school nurse-"

"Bellatrix Lestrange." Harry interjected quickly his voice filled with anger and loathing. It might not be the same Bellatrix that had taken Hermione's life, but she was quite obviously still the same insane bitch.

"Yes." Perenelle nodded, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully at the hatred expressed in Harry's voice as he mentioned her name. "She used the nurse's portkey that Dumbledore provided in case of emergencies, one that had permission to go through the wards."

Harry nodded a little bit. He wasn't aware that Poppy had that. Harry couldn't even find it in himself to blame Dumbledore for that particular escape, since only took a moment's reflection to realize that it was sensible to be able to portkey in case of emergency.

Of course he could find it in himself to blame Dumbledore for not knowing his school nurse had been replaced in the first place.

"Unfortunately," Perenelle continued, "She arrived at St. Mungo's and killed several people, apparently as much out of irritation as out of any sort of need, and destroyed a large portion of two wings of the hospital before escaping as Aurors arrived."

Harry closed his eyes and felt his magic surge, quickly in tune with his anger. If possible it seemed that it was even closer to the surface than it had been before and he only barely managed to keep it from lashing out.

"How many?" Harry demanded, his voice low and intense.

Perenelle's eyes widened as she could feel the magic surge in response to Harry's anger. She only hesitated a moment before responding. "Nine were killed, with another dozen suffering from different curses of various sorts that they're still trying to recover from."

Harry closed his eyes and breathed deeply. More deaths on his conscious and because of his actions. And more lives added to the reckoning that was coming for Bellatrix. Harry didn't bother how she had managed to kill so many or why the Aurors took so long to respond, since it was entirely possible that she had done that all in a matter of minutes.

"You didn't answer my original question." He observed after a few long moment's silence. When Perenelle responded with a puzzled expression, Harry repeated himself, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh. Well, initially Nicholas' ring warned him that you had lost consciousness due to some sort of magic." Perenelle responded, before she seemed to realize that it had interrupted her running diagnostic spells on the boy.

Harry frowned a little bit in confusion, a look of suspicion easily blossoming on his face. "How did his ring warn you?"

Perenelle glanced at Harry, looking slightly startled that he didn't already know the answer, though her brief distraction didn't stop her from continuing to check his health. "Your ring lets the Head of House know when serious things like that happen."

"Is that… normal?" Harry asked with a suspicious frown still etched on his face, the idea that they were keeping extra tabs on him was a bit worrisome.

"Most old family rings do that for at least the heir." Perenelle nodded, finally dropping her hand, her scans done. "In some families the head of house ring is capable of letting them know when any of the recognized family members is in such a state."

"Huh." Harry said eloquently glancing at his hand where that ring and the others, combined into one were all hidden unless he needed them. Finally he looked back at Perenelle with a raised eyebrow, and an expectant look.

After a moment Perenelle realized what he was waiting for, "Oh… yes. Well, we came here quickly. Floo'd right into the headmaster's office. We-"

They were interrupted by the door to the infirmary opening. Harry and Perenelle both turned to look up at the new arrival.

Lily Potter walked in carrying a tray of flasks, she first headed toward the nurse's office but then turned as she saw Perenelle next to a bed. "Here's some more potions, Madame Flamel."

Perenelle waved her over, though at that moment Harry's face caught her attention. It had gone from curious to completely blank as a mask dropped into place as soon as Perenelle had said the name.

"Oh! I see he's up!" Lily said with a pleased tone as she made her way over to the bed, her eyes on the boy on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she approached the two of them.

Harry was determined not to get entangled with the Lily Potter of this world. His reply was slightly brusque. "I'm still here." He replied, his tone not exactly full of warmth or encouragement of continued discussion.

Before she could ask a follow-up question, Harry addressed Perenelle again, "What happened to the school nurse? Madame… Pomfrey?" He said, faking a bit of unfamiliarity with her name though he had genuine concern in his voice so he didn't have to fake that.

Perenelle was frowning a bit as she observed Harry's expression. She had a look of concern on her face, but it wasn't concern so much for his physical health as she was about the absolutely blank face and the cold response he was having to Lily Potter. That tacked on to his complete unconcern for his own health had brought into clear view all of the little things Perenelle had observed since they found him.

What she had seen had confirmed her suspicions. It showed her just how unhealthy Harry's emotional state was, how thoroughly he was determined to isolate himself. Since he shared his basic history, she knew that he had never had a chance to know his parents or family. This intentional shutting out was just the final of a multitude of signs that he wasn't mentally healthy.

She and her husband had agreed to help Harry. Nicholas had been more excited than he'd been in centuries in their activity the past two weeks. She also loved her husband and knew he was a good man. But he had the emotional sensitivity of a rock.

He wasn't concerned with Harry's outlook or what his prospects might be. At that moment, Perenelle had affirmed her decision to begin meddling. The few moments pause as these thoughts coalesced didn't stop her from responding to Harry's question.

"Bellatrix Lestrange had Madame Pomfrey prisoner." Perenelle said, seeing Harry's all too brief worried look had her shaking her head. "No, she's... alive."

Harry didn't look relieved at that statement, rather just waited for the other shoe to drop. Perenelle hated to meet his expectation, but had no choice. "Unfortunately she has extreme cruciatus exposure as well as other curses that St. Mungo's is still struggling to sort out."

Harry winced at that thought, Pomfrey had always been one of his favorite people. Lily also flinched at Perenelle's statement, but she certainly wasn't going to try and contradict it.

"It doesn't help that now St. Mungo's is extremely short staffed because of the devastation that Bellatrix wrought. Madame Pomfrey is out for the foreseeable future, several weeks at the most optimistic." Perenelle scowled slightly at the thought before shaking her head

"Also because of the sudden shortage of available and capable healers, I shall be responsible for the infirmary in the interim." Perenelle stated.

"What?" Harry blurted out, looking surprised for a moment, before narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

Perenelle tsked softly and shook her head, "Well, like I said, there's a massive shortage. And I certainly have plenty of experience as a healer to fulfill the role."

Her eyes narrowed more than a little bit, as she fixed Harry with a firm stare, "I suggest forgoing any sort of age related joke that may come to you from that comment." She said dryly.

Harry never considered himself the most socially astute person in the world. Spending one's formative years shoved in a cupboard, spending time with the Dursleys or in a school of magic punctuated by occasional life threatening adventures did not tend to equate to great social skills. However, even he wasn't socially inept enough to make a comment about Perenelle's age, especially in these circumstances.

"Perenelle has been a godsend with all the injuries." Lily interjected into the conversation suddenly. Harry turned to look at her but managed to keep his reluctance from showing.

"We even had to take some of St. Mungo's injured for a while." Lily finished with a glance down at the other beds.

Harry nodded a little bit, turning back to Perenelle, not wanting to do anything to encourage interaction with Lily. "It's been two whole days. What's been go-"

Harry was interrupted as the infirmary doors opened once more, this time it's Nicholas Flamel who pushes through the door. He looked toward the bed and couldn't help but shake his head, "Looks like someone decided to stop napping. It's about time you stopped being lazy."

Lily shot Nicholas a surprised look at the blasé statement and the lack of concern he exhibited as he made his way over toward the bed, though she shifted slightly to give Nicholas a bit of respectful space as he approached.

Harry's response was equally as unconcerned, "As I was asking, it's been two days, what's been happening?"

Nicholas blinked a moment and then grinned, breaking out in laughter, "'What's been happening' he asks!"

He shook his head before pulling up a chair with a grin "Well, where should I start? I must say it's been quite a fun few days."

He seemed oblivious to the disapproving gaze he received from Perenelle for his complete lack of emotional care. Lily seemed even more appalled by his reaction, a reaction that was noted with grim amusement by Perenelle. The lack of surprise or hurt on Harry's face bothered both women.

Nicholas was oblivious as he looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, let's see. There were two convicted Death Eaters on staff here. "

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I sort of figured that out when one attacked a student with a dark curse and the other decided to use fiendfyre in the middle of the infirmary. I'm not exactly a registered healer or anything, but last I checked, fiendfyre isn't the cure for any condition a person could have… except... you know… living." Harry said sarcastically.

Nicholas laughed softly and nodded in agreement, and then sobered up a little bit. "Unfortunately both of them managed to get away. Aurors are trying to hunt them down but they could literally be anywhere."

Harry nodded a little bit. "I'm still pissed that the one impersonating Moody managed to get away." There was disgust present in his voice.

"You did a hell of a job though." Nicholas said, looking pleased.

"Not good enough." Harry's reply was blunt and ice cold, cutting Nicholas off before he could expand on his point."

Nicholas looked slightly disbelieving as he stared at Harry. He had forgotten in some of the past few days just how intense Harry could be, and as nothing major had happened at this point, he had not been exposed to Harry's intensity yet.

Perenelle's expression was far less surprised, especially as she was far more cognizant of Harry's emotion than her husband was.

The look on Lily's face was similar to Nicholas' only she had had no exposure to him before now. She couldn't help but blurt out, "You managed to fight off a death eater, one who no one knew was alive, one that participated in a number of battles and atrocities, and you managed to survive."

"Yes, but he escaped. So I obviously didn't do a good enough job of stopping him." Harry said flatly and sharply, refusing to say more. That seemed to take Lily aback and rob her of any immediate reply.

He wasn't thrilled on sharing with anyone, and certainly was trying to avoid any conversation in that direction in the presence of someone else. Perenelle easily picked up the way Harry's gaze avoided Lily's but made no attempt to dismiss Lily from the conversation.

"Well, quite the hornet's nest has been stirred up over this." Nicholas coughed slightly changing the topic. "It's all over the Daily Herald and several international papers as well."

Harry looked surprised but very pleased by that prospect. He was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't something else that got buried in the black hole that seemed to be Hogwarts' media presence.

Nicholas nodded and grinned a bit, "Dumbledore has been majorly lampooned for the rather blatant and very public show of incompetence. Mainly for allowing two staff members to be replaced and impersonated like that without anyone the wiser. I'm afraid his image has taken quite the blow."

Harry frowned, he couldn't determine how he felt about that. On one hand, Dumbledore had failed quite spectacularly in letting not one but two death eaters in the castle. On the other hand the man really wasn't omniscient and seemed at least a little bit more grounded than the Dumbledore of his world. Before he could sort it out, Nicholas continued.

"Of course, the past few days have been much much worse for our beloved Minister of Magic." Nicholas practically snickered.

"Oh?" Harry asked, a tinge of amusement in his voice.

"Oh yes. The press has been practically like a pack of wolves baying for his blood. It has become obvious that many people don't appreciate the job he's been doing. The public seems to be rather unhappy with the fact that two Death Eaters have escaped from prison, one putting him under suspicious circumstances." Nicholas nodded though his face was turning more serious.

"The escape of a third Death Eater that the Ministry had reported as dead has left Minister Fudge scrabbling for anything that might appease the masses." Nicholas said with disgust in his voice, as he glanced over at Perenelle for a moment.

Harry frowned and tilted his head, it only took him a few moments to piece things together. He sighed visible. "What did that moron do now?"

Lily blinked in surprise at the bluntness and the bit of exasperation in the tone, but was more surprised at the boy's accurate assessment of events, given that he had been unconscious for two days. Perenelle however was just nodding in firm agreement with Harry's statement.

"Our beloved Minister Fudge, in all of his infinite wisdom, has decided that the school and all its international guests should be protected at all costs. So he's stationed the same jailors that failed to keep these Death Eaters prisoner all around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade." Nicholas said sarcastically.

"Of course, Dementors all around the area where not one, but three schools filled with children and the Tri-Wizard tournament. What could possibly go wrong?" Harry grimaced and put a hand to his head, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Lily chose this moment to speak up. She had felt like she might be intruding, but had been buffered by Perenelle's welcoming smile, and she was waiting for a chance to thank Ares for saving her daughter from the curse Barty had cast at her.

"Fudge tried to do the same thing last year when Bellatrix Lestrange escaped Azkaban. He was insisting that they would help catch Bellatrix However, my husband and his friend Sirius Black did everything they could to block the move. Fudge ended up changing his mind last year." Lily's voice was earnest as she provided more background.

Her voice turned slightly disgusted. "James and Sirius did everything they could to block the move. But the Minister flat out refused to reconsider. The Minister ignored the protests of several Wizengamot members this time. And since Dementors are creatures under control of the ministry, there was really nothing they could do to block the decision."

Perenelle nodded a bit in agreement. "Despite a ton of people thinking it's a bad move, Fudge has gone ahead with it. International papers are pillorying the move. Though most international communities agree that the use of dementors as guards anywhere, even prisons, is inhumane in the first place."

Harry rubbed his temples for a moment scowling. He wondered why, if the Potter and Black name managed to stop the process the previous year, it wasn't stopped this time. After a moment he froze and blinked as a suspicion began to form in his mind.

Dementors could be efficient hunters at times. If they could be focused and were closely monitored. But in this world, it had been Bellatrix that escaped and not Sirius. Harry could almost see Lucius' manipulations at work here.

On his world, one of Fudge's closest advisors had always been the elder Malfoy. In Harry's third year, he would have been delighted if the dementors had caught and kissed Sirius Black. Lucius Malfoy wouldn't have wanted them to stop Bellatrix. But with the covers of both Death Eaters blown, maybe he just didn't care that Dementors were around.

Or maybe Fudge was desperate enough to be "seen doing something" that Malfoy couldn't stop his current course of action. Harry knew he never had any talent for politics, but he suspected that he wasn't far from the truth in this case.

"We really need to get Fudge out of office." Harry mumbled softly. It was soft enough that Lily couldn't quite catch it, though Nicholas was closer and had heard it.

Nicholas glanced up at Lily and gestured obliquely, "Mrs. Potter, would you allow us some privacy for a bit?"

Lily was surprised at the sudden bluntness of the dismissal. But she nodded and excused herself without complaint giving another polite nod to Perenelle. "I'll be back in a little bit with some more potions. Severus was supposed to be finishing up a batch when I left."

Nicholas was more surprised that Perenelle flashed him a brief but noticeable angry glance when he dismissed Lily Potter. After a moment's puzzlement though he made a brief gesture at the rest of the infirmary. Perenelle apparently understood the gesture though and pulled out her wand, casting several privacy charms in the area.

Harry frowned and after a moment's consideration, snapped his wand into his hand and cast his own privacy charm on top of the ones she cast. Harry was more than a little relieved that no one had tried to confiscate his wand, or tried to examine his holster too closely. Mostly because it would have caused more injuries, not serious ones, but burnt hands would ruin anyone's day.

Seeing the raised eyebrow on Perenelle's face at the casting of his charm, Harry shrugged a little bit sheepishly. "Call me paranoid, your charms would have stopped anyone from trying to listen in, but wouldn't have stopped any listening charms that were already in place."

Perenelle blinked a bit in surprise, Nicholas just chuckled a little bit before his expression turned serious once more. "We do have some things we really need to discuss."

Harry nodded and then glanced up as the infirmary doors opened once more, to show Draco Malfoy. Malfoy looked over toward Harry, and if Harry needed yet another reminder that he was definitely in some sort of bizarro world it was confirmed as a relieved expression briefly crossed Draco's face. The relief was quickly hidden under his normal arrogant and aloof expression and he immediately made his way over toward Harry.

The arrogant and aloof expression lasted until he got within a few yards of the bed and walked face first into the outside ward that Harry had thrown up over Perenelle's. It was like a glass bubble over the area and Draco walked face first into it. Harry suppressed a small snort of amusement and dispelled the bubble with a wave of his wand.

This time Draco reached out with his hand to make sure he could walk forward. Once he was inside, Harry waved his wand and once more re-established it.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Malfoy said rubbing a hand over his face with an irritated growl.

"Privacy ward," Harry replied with a roll of his eyes.

Draco seemed to shake off his small lack of composure and straightened up. "Good to see you're still alive P… Flamel."

Harry rolled his eyes again. "Malfoy, this is Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. And this is Draco Malfoy. He is from our original world, he is a full time prat and, because Hell has frozen over, he is an ally."

Despite Harry's sarcastic introduction of him, Draco's manners didn't desert him. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lord Flamel, I've already met Madame Flamel on my several earlier visits waiting for Harry to wake up from his nap."

"I probably wouldn't have been out so long if I hadn't been given whatever potions were administered." Harry replied dryly.

Nicholas had hesitated a moment before he reached out and shook Draco's hand briefly but firmly, turning back to Harry at his comment. "What do you mean?"

Harry shrugged a little bit. "Personal quirk. My body or my magic doesn't take potions very well, and spends as much time fighting them as it does actually utilizing them. Something that got worse the older I got."

Nicholas frowned and a puzzled expression crossed his face, "But you used blood replenishing potion and skelegro the night we met you."

"From my personal stock." Harry replied with a nod.

"What the difference?" Nicholas asked curiously.

"Those potions all have one small addition to their formula that makes them more effective for me." Harry chuckled a little bit.

Nicholas frowned, tilting his head thoughtfully and examined Harry. "Okay, I'll bite. What addition?"

"A few drops of my own blood to the final mixture." Harry replied.

Nicholas tilted his head thoughtfully and tapped his chin, nodding slowly. "Okay, I… can see how that might work out. It would make them more effective for you, but near useless, or possibly even dangerous for anyone else to use them given some of the properties of your blood."

"I had a tendency to get injured. We noticed that potions were getting less and less effective for me. One of my friends was brilliant in potions. Well... brilliant in pretty much everything." Harry corrected himself.

"Granger?" Malfoy asked with a raised eyebrow. Harry's only response was a quick nod.

Nicholas seemed to ruminate over that idea for a few moments, before shaking his head slightly and filing it away to consider for later. "Do you want him here for our discussion?" He asked gesturing to Draco.

"Might as well. I'd prefer he not blunder into something because I left him out of the loop. And who knows? Maybe lightning will strike and he might have a good idea to contribute. It has to happen sometime." Harry said blandly, without any real malice.

Nicholas nodded and glanced at Perenelle for a moment before he straightened his shoulders. "First off, your suggestion about the Minister. I agree Fudge is a complete lack wit. But..." He trailed off as he tried to figure out how to put his words into coherence.

"But?" Harry frowned at the clarification, genuinely uncertain why there might be any argument with that point.

"How would you do it?" Nicholas asked, bracing himself for an argument.

Harry tilted his head in puzzlement. "Er… I have a lot of gold. I figured I would use that to force him out. If I've learned anything about the wizarding world. Enough gold spread around and we could get him out."

Nicholas heaved a sigh. "Okay, you're right. We probably could get him out with enough gold, and that's one thing Perenelle and I also have in abundance. So we aren't in any danger of that running out. Let's say for the sake of argument that it was really that easy. Then what would we do?"

"Then we get someone in the Minister's office who isn't going to suck." Harry replied bluntly.

"You have someone in mind?" Nicholas replied curiously.

Harry chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought for a moment before a possibility occurred to him. "Amelia Bones, currently head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. "And you know she wants the job?"

"Well… no…" Harry replied with an unhappy expression.

"Putting aside that small fact, you're certain she's capable of balancing the politics that are required the job?" Nicholas followed up.

At Harry's puzzled expression, Nicholas continued. "You know the Bones family has no rivalries or feuds with other families, whether those feuds are declared or are more unofficial? And you're certain that she can manage to navigate things within the Wizengamot without upsetting one faction or another?"

Harry was silent at those questions, but Nicholas didn't stop. "You also know for certain that no factions will align against you to elect someone far worse to the position?"

"I get your point." Harry held up his hand as he considered that before his eyes narrowed and he looked up at Nicholas. "From everything you and Perenelle have said, you love messing with people politically. This sounds right up your alley."

"It's not that simple." Nicholas replied with a shake of his head. At Harry's brief betrayed look, Nicholas narrowed his eyes. "It's not that I won't help you. It's that I can't be of much help at the moment."

"Why not? I thought this was your area of expertise." Harry asked with a confused look, further irritated by the thoughtful look on Draco's face as he seemed to better understand what Nicholas was saying.

Nicholas nodded, "I admit I have some skill with politics in general. But that the ability to utilize that skill requires one thing I don't have a lot of at the moment."

"What's that?" Harry asked with a puzzled expression.

"Information!" Nicholas said bluntly.

"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded. "I've told you a lot about what is going to happen… surely that's a place to start..." Harry trailed off looking confused as Nicholas waved him off.

"First off, as we've seen with the appearance of Bellatrix, not all of your information is absolutely accurate. Secondly, I'm not talking about that sort of information." Nicholas sighed a little bit. "I'm talking about who's hiding what secrets? Who has what skeletons buried where? Who's sleeping with whose wife or daughters? What houses are allying with other greater or lesser houses? What rivalries exist between those houses?"

Nicholas stopped his listing and shook his head slightly, "All of that and so much more that comes by being involved and active in politics. With Perenelle and I absent for three quarters of a century, and mostly absent for decades before that, our information is pretty much useless. Even if I started right now to try and make up that ground, it would take years to get re-entrenched, maybe as long as a decade before I was able to really do anything politically effective."

Harry sighed in frustration. He was a complete novice when it came to politics, but even he knew that Nicholas was right.

It didn't help that Draco was nodding in agreement to Nicholas' points, before speaking up "He's right. I mean… I can help a little. I mean… I know where some of the skeletons are for some of the darker families. But my father never shared all that much with me, so I've only picked up bits and pieces. And no one is exactly eager to share information with a Malfoy. If you want to do this, you need a political ally that's much more aware of the minutiae of current events."

"There is however some good news on that front that will at least give us a little help in that arena and could be invaluable in others." Perenelle interjected seeing the flash of frustration on Harry's face.

Harry looked up at her with a raised eyebrow inviting her to continue.

"Well, you just saved the lives of several people. I'm guessing that once you've been awake more than a few minutes, several families will approach us to acknowledge that debt. It's a good way to begin inroads for what's ahead." Perenelle explained.

At Harry's continued confused expression, Perenelle gave a significant look at him, before she clarified her remarks "The people you saved fighting the death eaters?"

"What? No." Harry replied immediately and firmly.

Nicholas picked up the thread of Perenelle's comments. "Based on the memories we've seen you managed to rack up quite a tally in a few hours. Most, if not all, I'm going to guess are going to acknowledge debts. Iris Potter, the girl who lived, The Heir of House Longbottom, not to mention the current lords of both the Potter and Black Houses. Their help could be invaluable going forward."

Harry stared at the two of them for a few moments as if they had gone insane. "No. Not just no. But HELL no."

"I don't th-" Nicholas started to say.

"No." Harry cut him off. "No fucking way. I don't care what you have to do. They come to you with that crap, you refuse to accept it."

"That… could be insulting to them. Very insulting." Nicholas hedged a little bit.

Harry sighed in irritation, but refused to back off. "I don't care! If you have to say anything, make up something about repaying some old family debt or some other crap if you have to."

"And if they check or ask to know the details of the debts? Lying could be even more insulting. They co-" Nicholas started to reply only to be cut off once more.

"No." Harry's voice made it clear he refused to budge. "You won't even technically be lying. Multiple people in each of those houses are dead because of me. I'm not going to accept debts when it was my fault they died in our world. Whatever you need to do to get us out of th-"

"Enough." snapped Perenelle suddenly.

This caused both Harry and Nicholas to look at her in surprise. While she had been firm and even sharp from time to time around Harry, she had never actually snapped like that. It was more than enough to cut him off mid-tirade.

Perenelle sighed, but she didn't lose her serious expression. "Just… enough. You've already declared you're going to fight a war. What do you think true war is?"

Harry's eyes narrowed in anger. "I am well aware of what war entails, the fighting and sacrifice required. I have lived my entire fucking life in a war of survival. I know plenty about war."

Perenelle met his gaze unflinchingly, despite it being the first time truly seeing Harry angry. She went for the jugular. "By your own admission, certainly not a winning war."

Harry blinked in shock at the bluntly cruel words. Unfortunately they were words that he couldn't argue against because he knew the truth of them. They were the same words that reverberated within his own mind. Nicholas was a little surprised at the coldness exhibited by his wife, but didn't say anything, letting her take the lead.

Perenelle continued on inexorably, "War is not just about fighting and sacrifice. I would never say that you didn't understand that part of war. But that's only a small part of it. It's the least important part in the grand scheme of things."

"War is about economics, politics, intelligence gathering, strategy, subterfuge, sabotage, and above all others, alliances." She continued firmly, pausing a moment to let those words sink in.

"You did not fight a 'war' where you came from." Perenelle finally continued.

She didn't flinch away from Harry's suddenly furious look. He opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off. "From everything you've told me, and described to me, assuming your accounting of events was accurate, and I have no reason to doubt their veracity. It wasn't a war, as much as it was a rebellion, after a successful, albeit bloody, coup d'état."

"By your own admission, you were poorly trained and learned most of your useful skills while you were in hiding. You were poorly prepared, poorly funded and completely overwhelmed." Perenelle said.

Harry frowned, but then his eyes hardened as he glanced at the other infirmary beds. He prepared to argue, but Perenelle cut him off once more.

"Who do you think that woman who just walked away is?" Perenelle demanded.

Harry glanced toward the infirmary doors, where Lily Potter had departed a few minutes ago.

He opened his mouth to reply and once more Perenelle interrupted him, "Putting aside the relationship that exists there," when Harry opened his mouth once more to snap a reply, Perenelle talked a bit louder, deliberately steamrolling over him and not giving him a chance to reply. "And yes it does exist whether or not you wish to deny it."

"She's the wife of one of the most politically connected Auror captains in the United Kingdom. Her husband is an Auror Captain who's Lord of one of the oldest houses in Magical Britain. One whose annals can be traced back to the times of the Romans, and were amongst the groups that actually founded Rome, and later migrated here ahead of the Normans and were part of Camelot itself." Perenelle explained.

Harry had shut his mouth. He had never heard that before, and wondered if everyone knew more about his family than he did. His interest managed to stop his argument for the moment.

"By all accounts, that Auror Captain's best friend is another highly connected Captain, who is himself Lord of another Ancient and Noble House. Only this one has a lineage that traces its ancestry to those who directly served the Pharaohs in the one of the largest empires that ever graced the sands of the Lower Kingdom." Perenelle continued.

History and genealogy had always interested her in her plentiful spare time. Keeping track of bloodlines is something that she was able to do without much interaction. The goblins had always had better genealogy tracking, but Perenelle did hers by hand, and didn't have the advantage of magical families banking with her and confirming heirs and successions. Still, historically speaking her hobby probably kept far better track of the history of families.

"You think these are mere 'people' you're brushing off?" Perenelle demanded. "You think these are merely an Auror and his family and friends you're potentially insulting?"

"How many children of Ancient and Noble families were in that classroom two days ago when you successfully fought off that Death Eater?" Perenelle ignored the anger that flashed through his eyes.

She dropped her voice a little before continuing. "From what I understand you physically tackled the latest Longbottom knave out of harm's way. That's a family that anyone challenges at their own peril. If I recall the events correctly, they descend from a clan of magic wielding Viking marauders who wreaked havoc for centuries before they landed upon England's shores. Where they were defeated in battle by the ancestors of the Potters. Somehow they were... convinced... by the victors to move and establish themselves in England where they established themselves as the shield house of the Potters."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but Perenelle was on a roll and refused to relinquish the floor.

"There is also that minor issue of you having saved both daughters of the Deputy Minister of the French Ministry of Magic back during the fiasco at the World Quidditch Cup." Perenelle rolled her eyes a little bit and got side tracked momentarily when Nicholas spoke up.

"Though they don't know it was you. The hints are there, but how someone hasn't put enough together to at least start asking the question is beyond me." Nicholas shook his head in disgust.

"The Ministry is full of idiots who half the time can't figure out which end of their wand to use?" Draco offered, to which Nicholas smirked and nodded in agreement.

"Finally," Perenelle spoke up, refocusing the attention on her and getting back to the topic. "How many wives, husbands, or children of Aurors or people with political connections did you save when they were in this very hospital wing? You know… when you defied all known rules and conventions of magic as we understand it and actually tamed Wild Fiendfyre?"

Perenelle took a moment to compose herself from her exclamation. "You have already laid at least some political groundwork for this so-called war you're so single-mindedly focused upon, and yet you would throw it all away because of sheer stubbornness to satisfy your pride. And of course your own fears to keep the Potters at arm's length."

Harry frowned at her words, closing his eyes as he heard them, wanting to deny the truth of the, but unable to do so. It was true, he was doing everything he could to keep away from the Potters, not wanting to take them down with him when he inevitably fell.

Perenelle's voice was gentler as she continued. "It's obvious to me where this comes from. You mentioned in your history that you grew up with your... relatives... and Dumbledore never spent time teaching you anything. Did that include lessons on etiquette or diplomacy?"

Harry shook his head a little bit, his response provoking a shocked look from Malfoy but one he didn't notice.

"What about the laws of our country?" Perenelle probed.

Harry shook his head negatively, once more. "I picked up a few of those on my own after I was put on trial for the use of underage magic… but it was just a few tidbits."

Perenelle looked slightly exasperated, "What about Family traditions? The influence and impact that the will of Magic can have upon our lives?"

When Harry shook his head once more Perenelle growled a little bit and muttered. "Damn it, Albus. If I could reach across time and space, and worlds apparently, I would give that man a solid piece of my mind."

Her words were a reminder to all that the Albus that committed such massive acts of negligence wasn't the one in this world. But it didn't calm the anger in the words. An anger that matched the expression on Nicholas' face, though Draco's look was even more thoughtful than before.

Perenelle settled into a chair beside the bed with a sigh. "So then it's time for a bit more of a history lesson. Though this is much more… recent history than what we talked about when we first met. Let's talk about your family for a second."

Seeing she had his attention Perenelle smiled a bit. "James Potter is famous for barely paying lip service to much of the Pureblood Family forms and traditions. Demonstrated most highly by the fact that he married a first generation witch."

She chuckled a little bit, "Though he's hardly the first Potter to buck tradition. Potters have always been rather well known as being a law unto themselves. Choosing their own direction when most other ancient families would go in another."

Harry looked incredibly curious at this fount of historical information on things he had never heard or had explained to him. So Perenelle expanded a little bit.

"For example, James Potter was made head of his family when he graduated Hogwarts. Yet he didn't get the head of house status because his father passed. Even if a sitting head becomes incapacitated, usually a family will simply sit an 'acting head of house.' From what I recall reading, Charlus was far from incapacitated, he was older but still had several decades left."

Perenelle shook her head a little bit, "But James was young, talented and already becoming outspoken against Voldemort, I can't say that I know why he was given headship, but there was no schism or hard feelings. Charlus very publically turned over headship."

Perenelle laughed a little bit, "That made him marrying Lily Evans a scandal of the highest magnitude. It was the first time in Wizengamot history that a single sitting Lord took a 'muggleborn' as a wife, and as his first wife no less. In many quarters it was seen as a direct thumbing of his nose against tradition."

Perenelle shook her head slightly, her expression turning serious. "But not even James Potter will neglect to follow the Old Ways in an event such as this. One where you saved not one but three members of his family in a single day."

Nicholas finally interjected into her speech. "And for you to even ponder blowing off such a thing, would no doubt cause a scandal of truly stupendous proportions, and cause much embarrassment to Perenelle and myself."

"Besides, it doesn't matter whether they acknowledge it or not; or whether we accept it. Life debts are very old magic, and can influence lives and events. Sometimes in the most unforeseen of ways." Perenelle added quietly.

Harry had no immediate response to those statements as he turned over everything that Perenelle had said. Neither she nor Nicholas said anything while Harry considered.

The silence hung in the room for over a minute before Harry spoke up, his voice quiet but carrying a cold quality to it. "I am here less than two weeks. Two fucking weeks, and I almost get them all killed. At least last time it took me a little over a year after I was born to get my parents killed. I don't want them caught in the crossfire this time. If I can stop it, I want this war to have casualties on only one side."

"You may not be able to stop that." Perenelle's voice was soft. "In fact I've never heard of a war ever occurring in all my long years where lives were only lost on one side."

Harry looked up immediately. "I will do anything in my power to keep them from danger. Once was enough, I will not be responsible for their deaths a second time."

Once more that seemed to crack Perenelle's patience, as her eyes narrowed and she snapped, "Did you station the Death Eater to teach students in this school? Do you help establish the Death Eater here in this infirmary?"

"No, of course not." Harry replied immediately.

"Would the Death Eaters have been in this school regardless of whether or not you were present?" She immediately followed up.

Harry nodded but didn't reply to that statement. His head had barely finished bobbing before she followed up with another question.

"Was it your idea to publicly out the Death Eater impersonating your professor in the middle of a class?" Perenelle asked, her voice still harsh.

"No, I was trying to prepare a way to get him without any casualties." Harry replied absently.

"Did you direct Bellatrix Lestrange to cast fiendfyre? Did you use the imperius curse to order her to do so? Did you provide the portkey to Saint Mungo's that allowed her to escape and kill people there?" Perenelle was relentless in her questioning not giving Harry any chance to reply.

When Harry shook his head no, she followed up, her voice full of sarcasm and derision, "Unless you've been given a promotion to deity status, I am in agreement. So please… continue to try and explain to me how any of those events were your fault."

When Harry had no reply, Perenelle's voice turned soft and understanding once more. "You seem to act like you're the only one worthy of fighting in a war against that monster. That none of them, their families, their friends, their allies have suffered enough to be worthy of fighting Voldemort in this war."

Harry's head was down but he shook it quickly. "You're wrong. It's just the opposite. They've all suffered too much. On my world they gave everything to give me a chance to fight the bastard and in the end their sacrifices were in vain. Because I couldn't beat him. I will do anything I can so they don't have to make that sacrifice again."

He lifted his head, and his eyes were narrowed and filled with pain. "I will not let them die on my behalf or in a futile gesture. Not again." Harry's voice was filled with absolute belief and conviction.

There was another long silence before Perenelle replied, her voice very soft. "You cannot act like a petulant child wanting everything to go your way, or by ignoring people and pretending they don't exist. You also cannot deny them their right to make their own decisions and choices. You cannot deny them their own free will. You cannot decry the actions of the Albus Dumbledore you knew, then turn around and emulate him through your own actions."

Harry hesitated, her words were viciously blunt, taking the wind from his sails. All his anger drained from him and he slumped slightly, laying his head back on the pillow and staring at the ceiling.

As much as he hated to admit it she was right; on all counts. He had been acting like a child at times. He couldn't refuse and outright insult the Potter's and Blacks. As much as he felt like they needed to be as far away from him as humanly possible for their own safety. Alienating them might put them in as much danger as their presence around him.

It was even possible that if he hadn't refused the help of Hermione and Iris in working with the identifying the charms on the Marauder's map, they might have finished by now. They might have found the charm that would restart the map's active connection to the wards. If that had happened, then Harry might have been able to take out Crouch without everything that followed.

Harry didn't want anyone to have to sacrifice their lives but himself but in trying to accomplish that he had been acting like Dumbledore of his world had. Something utterly abhorrent to him. Thinking he was the only one with the answers and enough knowledge to handle things. He wasn't suddenly going to start sharing what he knew with anyone and everyone, but he had to stop thinking he could do it all alone without providing information to anyone.

Nicholas spoke up once more. "Just because they have debts doesn't mean anything. Magic has a way of working in mysterious ways to fulfill those debts. But many times alliances can always be proposed. Given our strength in the economic arena, most houses would be relatively eager to ally with us."

Harry just nodded slowly. He had barely heard the words Nicholas spoke, he was still too focused on Perenelle's words. It was far too often something he had thought about Albus Dumbledore, denying people the chance to defend themselves and fight when they needed. To find that he had slipped into the same habits was jarring in the extreme.

Silence descended once more and Perenelle looked like she was about to say something to change the subject when Nicholas read her intentions clearly and held up his hand, "Before we move on I do have a question."

Perenelle frowned but didn't say anything as Nicholas turned back to Harry. "We viewed your fight in a pensieve, as well as the… encounter with fiendfyre here in the infirmary. You certainly weren't kidding when you said you could handle yourself."

Nicholas grinned a little bit at his own understatement before he realized the other three people didn't seem to find the humor in his comment.

He coughed slightly and frowned, looking serious again, "One thing that several people who have viewed the memory have hinted at wanting to know. Well… let's be honest some have outright asked and others were merely waiting for propriety's sake until you woke up to approach me and ask. What spell did you use to stop the fiendfyre?"

"That is one question that both Amelia Bones and Albus have tried to corner me on several times. They have been most curious about it. I've kept avoiding the question and putting them off." Nicholas looked guilty for a second, "Besides… I'll confess, I'm… more than a little bit curious myself. I've never heard of someone able to stop fiendfyre like that."

Harry frowned and little bit and looked slightly embarrassed and slightly guilty, "Well…it wasn't really a spell per se. I mean there was no specific spell or incantation. I wanted to stop it from hurting my- anyone. So I just sort of reacted and tried to just stop it."

Perenelle frowned and looked at Harry, "How do you 'just stop it' with fiendfyre? Unless you as the caster focused your will and dissipated it, I'm not sure how you would accomplish that."

Nicholas nodded in agreement, "I don't claim to be an expert at charms or anything, but I would go so far as to say that it was impossible, especially with unbound fiendfyre."

"Er… I don't know how to describe it really... you sorta dive into its… mind? And then fight it for control?" Harry replied looking somewhat self-conscious.

Describing magic that he did without knowing incantations or specific spells was always difficult for him. It had inevitably lead to Ron shrugging and calling it a "Harry thing," while Hermione would spend hours, or days, to try and figure out what he had done before throwing up her hands in exasperation as she was forced to agree with Ron.

Nicholas, Draco and Perenelle all blinked several times as they took several long moments to process that statement.

Perenelle was the first to speak up, and made no effort to contain the shock or disbelief in her voice as she had to confirm what was said. "You… fought fiendfyre with… legilimency?"

Harry furrowed his brow and tilted his head as he considered those words. They weren't exactly accurate… it had felt like a lot more. But he couldn't put that into any sort of descriptive words. "I… yeah. I guess that sorta fits."

All three stared at him agape before Nicholas started laughing helplessly. "I love it!"

His laughter was quickly overshadowed by Perenelle's exasperated voice. "Who in their RIGHT MIND WOULD DO THAT? Who would have ever taught you to do something like that?"

Her voice was incredulous, and to say that she was upset would have been a major understatement. "I swear, that if you tell me Albus Dumbledore from your world, I'm going to march into the Headmaster's office right now and brain him, whether this one is actually responsible or not!"

Harry ran a hand through his hair slightly nervously at her outburst. "No, nothing like that. I've never actually seen it done or was told how to do it. I just…"

He trailed off for a minute before continuing, "Look, I didn't have anything else to work with. No water, and no caster to battle. So I had to make it up on the spot. I half wasn't sure what to expect, but it worked."

"You… made it up." Perenelle echoed dryly with more than a hint of a sarcastic undertone. "Well, that makes it all okay then!" She said as she shook her head.

Harry shrugged looking a little less self-conscious, "Yeah, that happens, when I don't know a spell to do what I need to do, I just sorta… wing it, and my magic goes with it. It's the same thing that happened with the ground I raised up wandlessly when fighting Crouch on the grounds. I've always said it was sort of like accidental magic."

Nicholas was still shaking in mirth and shaking his head while Perenelle settled back into her chair and just looked baffled.

"Doing impossible things with magic. And yet… claims not to be a true Lord." Draco shook his head with a tinge of exasperation to his tone. Harry did the easiest thing and just ignored him.

Nicholas finally calmed down and looked more serious, "Okay, look if anyone asks, you need to just tell them its 'family magic.'"

Harry frowned and tilted his head in puzzlement, clearly not understanding.

Remembering their conversation and about Harry's ignorance surrounding traditions and rules Perenelle spoke up, her tone more calm and patient with this topic. "Family magic is private magic of the family, and legally the Ministry is not allowed to push for answers to it. Just inquiring more deeply, once they've been informed that it's classified as 'family magic,' is grounds for massive fines."

Draco nodded in agreement, "And it's considered impolite and rude in the extreme for other people to inquire or insist on having family magic shared with them. Usually they only share it under secrecy oaths, and those usually only go with alliances between families."

Harry nodded slowly, relieved that there was an excuse for him to use that he wouldn't have to try and make something up, or actually try and explain what he had done.

Draco took the lull in conversation to reach into his bag. "Here, while you're here I've got something I need you to sign." Draco pulled out a parchment and handed it to Nicholas Flamel who took it curiously.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco expectantly, waiting for an explanation as Nicholas read it before passing it to his wife, with a puzzled expression on his face. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"What is it?" Harry finally asked impatiently.

Draco nodded at the parchment, "It's a permission slip… sort of."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm not really concerned with my ability to go to Hogsmeade."

"No, it's not for Hogsmeade." Draco shook his head, "It's a permission slip saying that you have permission to teach me dueling and self-defense."

"I… already do that." Harry said slowly, has hand shifting slowly to his wand, preparing to cast a spell and petrify Draco. That was something that Draco Malfoy should have known. He had already dealt with two people polyjuiced, a third wasn't out of the question.

Draco nodded, "Yes, but now we don't have to do it in the Chamber."

Harry relaxed slightly, obviously it was still Draco otherwise he wouldn't know about the Chamber. "Draco, the point was to be training in secret. The Chamber allows us to do that."

"That was before you put on a show in front of everyone." Draco retorted with an eye roll for good measure.

Perenelle suddenly looked startled. "I forgot all about... your guest! Does he have enough food and water for the past two days you've been out?"

Harry waved her off, "He has his demented house elf, and a picnic basket with enough meals for two weeks." Harry turned his attention back to Draco as Perenelle sat back looking mollified.

"I wasn't putting on a show. I was fighting a Death Eater." Harry replied shortly with narrowed eyes. "And not very well at that."

"That's the second time you've made that comment. Could you explain?" Nicholas' tone was curious rather than argumentative.

Harry's reply was softer than it had been earlier when that comment had been made. Perenelle's words about allies echoing in his mind. He didn't need to be rude to get a point across, especially since the Flamels had been nothing but helpful. "The first fight should have ended differently."

"How so?" Nicholas asked curiously.

Harry sighed a bit, "There was nothing I could do about the classroom. I didn't intend to confront him there, not with so many bystanders. But that was taken out of my hands. One mistake in getting up a shield or keeping him off balance could have ended up with someone dead."

"He was quick. Skilled and fought error free in the classroom when we were both limited; him by his body, me by the bystanders at risk. However, I could have ended it when we were fighting across the grounds. If I hadn't been holding back while trying to capture him alive, then he wouldn't have had time to hit Hagrid or use the bystanders against me."

Nicholas frowned a little bit, "When you stopped holding back, you got him though… or at least his arm."

Harry nodded, "But I was hoping to capture him to find out where Voldemort is hiding. If I had gone for the kill from the very first opportunity, he wouldn't have escaped. And we might have an idea of where Voldemort was hiding with his snake."

He hesitated a moment and then frowned, "Though that reminds me. I found where the ring Horcrux is. Bellatrix was wearing it disguised as Pomfrey."

"She was actually in contact with it? Was it possessing her?" Perenelle asked with a puzzled expression.

"I… don't know. It didn't seem like it, but with Bellatrix, she's crazy enough that it would be hard to tell and she'd probably do it willingly." Harry shook his head quickly, he wasn't even going to try and figure out what went on in Bellatrix's head. "The point is, we know who has that one, even if we don't know where the person wearing it is."

"But… if she's wearing it… then we can keep an eye out for it right? We would be able to tell if she was polyjuiced again." Draco asked with a frown on his face.

Harry blinked. "That… actually sounded like an intelligent thought Malfoy. Should I alert the press?"

Draco sighed a little bit rolling his eyes at the sarcastic jab, "Can we get back to my point?" He asked with a gesture at the permission slip Perenelle had waved her wand over, checking for hidden writing or anything.

"I hardly need a permission slip to tutor Malfoy." Harry said, still not seeing the point of the slip.

Draco nodded, "Yes, but this slip is signed by my father giving you permission to instruct me. He was quite pleased I was 'succeeding in a task he had set for me' by befriending you, he was only too happy to sign."

Draco saw the uncomprehending look on Harry's face and he expanded. "It gives you permission to work with me, granted by both of our guardians. The professors can't do anything to stop it provided I do not seem in imminent mortal danger."

Harry hesitated at that and looked thoughtful, so Draco pressed his advantage, "And this way we don't have to hide all the time. Sooner or later someone is going to get suspicious about the time we spend together."

When he still saw doubt on Harry's face, Draco sighed, "Think of it as a permission slip to fire whatever spells or curses you want at me at any time of your choosing, provided it doesn't disrupt class."

Harry's expression brightened. "Oh. Why didn't you lead with that? Sounds like a good plan to me!" There was just enough brightness in his expression to realize that he was being sarcastic.

Harry's eyes narrowed a few moments later, "What's the real reason, Malfoy?"

Draco sighed and gestured. "Look, you've proven publicly in front of the school that you can handle yourself. I'm hoping that if you teach me publicly, it will keep people wondering what else we're up to because we keep disappearing, at the same time sending a message not to mess with us."

"As well as increasing your own standing within your House." Harry replied dryly, though he didn't sound irritated.

"Now you're sounding like a Slytherin." Draco replied with a smirk. "Take every advantage you can. And… remember, it's our house."

Harry shrugged looking unconcerned at Draco's observation. His thoughts were on Draco's words. The idea that it would keep things fresh in people's minds. Harry rubbed his chin thoughtfully as a thought occurred to him.

His duel with Barty, and experience with fiendfyre was clearly going to be public knowledge if it wasn't already. He already had the notice of Death Eaters. Really the only thing he might have done to get more noticed was to announce his true identity. He was aware that people in the Slytherin house would have him in their sights as well. He was going to be a target.

Maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Being a target was something he was used to. His entire life he'd been targeted though Dumbledore didn't feel the need to really tell him why. This would just be targeted for a different reason. For something he'd actually done, rather than a prophecy and something his mother had done. Being a target would keep people focused on him, and while he doubted he could divert all attention from Voldemort or Death Eaters, every little bit he did would help.

Him working with Draco would be a constant public reminder. And Harry resolved that anyone who came after him, would quickly learn or quickly be in no position to learn.

Nicholas however had narrowed eyes, "I think this is a good idea. People tend to assume things when they aren't able to see them. If they see you that will decrease suspicions. It… will probably also have others coming to you for help as well."

Harry's eyes narrowed, and his voice was sharp. "The last time I taught a group of students, it was a disaster."

"But this time there's no Umbridge." Draco's voice replied quickly, showing that it was something he had likely already thought of. "And I wouldn't say it was a disaster you took a group of students that you taught against a group of Death Eaters where they had every advantage and you managed to survive."

Before Harry could reply Perenelle also chimed in with her opinion. "I agree with my husband and young Mister Malfoy."

When Harry's head whipped around to turn and look at her, she shrugged. "One of your chief complaints is that you were obscenely underprepared and undertrained. Unless you're trusting Hogwarts or the Ministry to change that… You might have a chance to help make sure students aren't in that same position. And you're not forcing anyone to do anything."

Harry flinched, knowing the truth of that statement, as he rubbed his temples. He couldn't even deny their statements. Making himself a target was going to have some downsides to it. "Okay, look, we'll see how it goes."

Draco blinked. "Huh, I thought that would take a lot more convincing."

Harry shook his head, "I'm not thrilled and I'm not going to go around getting people to try and join us like what happened with the DA. But Perenelle was right, I can't just try and keep people safe and ignorant. Besides, we're sort of stuck here in the interim since we can't go after another Horcrux right now. All three of them will be tricky."

Draco frowned, "All three of them? I thought you said he had Nagini and the ring. He was going to try and make another but he couldn't…"

Harry sighed a little bit. "We have Bellatrix who not only has the ring but is wearing it, the snake who was always near Voldemort, and of course Iris Potter herself."

Draco frowned a little bit. "What about her?"

Harry looked up in surprise, "I thought you would know. Voldemort left a piece of his soul in my forehead when he tried to kill me. Fair bet the same thing has happened here."

"Huh." Draco responded eloquently, before narrowing his eyes. "Why don't we start going after some of his supporters? If we start taking them out bit by bit we'll weaken him."

Perenelle shook her head, "You start killing people indiscriminately, several of which I assume will be people of some importance… and that might instigate the uncertainty that you're hoping to avoid and give Voldemort an easier route in."

Nicholas' expression was grim, "Not to mention the focus you might put on some people who might be suspected of doing it before you. And… if the sudden deaths of his followers convinces Voldemort he's under attack and legitimately under threat, he might hide one of his anchors in a place you'll never find."

Nicholas paused before nodding, "Perenelle and I have both been combing through our library for other ways he might have himself anchored. But it's... a very large library and we don't really have an idea of what we're looking for except that it prevents death. That's not even taking into account that he was, or is, a Dark Lord, so it's entirely possible that it might be something he managed to come up with on his own."

"There's a cheery thought." Harry muttered, "Voldemort creating his own ways to remain immortal."

Harry shook his head slightly clearly done with the topic for the moment. He looked around before looking at Perenelle. "So, if you're the school nurse, do I have permission to go? I've always hated being stuck in the infirmary." His tone was joking as he was already shifting to get out of bed.

Perenelle raised her eyebrow and an amused look crossed her face. "I don't know… there's several people who have been by to see you a time or two. Including a girl who's been by a half dozen times. A Miss... Greengrass. She seemed a little bit irritated at your extended 'nap,' and she was worried about you."

Perenelle grinned impishly. "She seems quite… intrigued by you. To be honest I'm tempted to strap you to the bed and allow her time to perform a private examination upon you. Maybe then you'll actually smile."

Harry actually blinked and then blushed, turning away and taking that as his cue to get up. That sort of banter was never one he'd engaged in, not with any success anyway. Nicholas snickering did not help matters at all.

ooOoOOoOoo

Author's notes:

*stands over the wreckage of the canon train tracks with Plums. I'm still carrying an armload of TNT and an aluminum bat while Plums leans on a copy of The Brotherhood he stole from some Final Fantasy X cosplayers before running them down in his car.*

Heh… well… at least they're still sorta headed in the same direction. at the moment. Kind of. A little. Maybe.

1) Once more a HUGE FREAKING CHAPTER. Seriously. Stop bugging me about my update times. 35k words. that's like… seven decently sized chapters. :P

2) Some of you have been a teensy bit unhappy with the mocking tones of my author's notes of all things. Saying that I shouldn't mock other author's works. Get teh eff over it. I make jokes. It's what I do. *GASP* the horror! No, there are very few fics out there I genuinely hate. But I make jokes about lots of things INCLUDING myself and my own works.

3) Also, The first few chapters have had some cleaning up done to them, fixing some inconsistencies and errors. Nothing essential to plot or anything of that nature, but simply mistakes I made or ideas that got changed elsewhere and I missed references to them.

4) For those of you who will inevitably message or review bitching about how Harry didn't beat the Death Eaters. Please remember, you don't know the skill levels of the opposition on this world. Also remember that Harry was first protecting students, limiting his options, and then trying to capture Barty alive.

5) Also for those reviewers messaging me about pairings, and lack of Fleur or Hermione. Please note two things. The story designation thing does not show ANY pairings yet. I promise nothing. Well… that's not true. I promise there will be no male slash and that I'm still planning on having this be a Harry/multi But outside of that. I promise nothing. (However, I don't think anyone can accuse me of just jumping into relationships or sex!)

6) Plums Piddles - My sole contribution of note to this whole chapter was envisioning Daphne in a nurses outfit at the end. Asexual Harry will not last on my watch.

BTW - if you like her stories… message HER. Messaging me about how awesome ISH is does no good. I'm just a collaborator who silently tries to get her to introduce lemons far earlier than she wants, writes outlines and other stories that will never be published with her, and always gets my ideas about 'good Bellatrix' shot down.

7) Plums lies. He had lots to add to this chapter. Including a massive change to the entire last section. He does keep trying to get nurses outfits and all sorts of other fun in though. And yes. There was very little relationship interaction this chapter. Worry not! Lots of interactions coming up! This was just alot of groundwork. :O

8) Rejected Chapter Titles:
Someone tells Dumbledore No
Just when you think you're safe, Hellooo nurse!
Getting hot and sweaty with Lily Potter
An ickle bit of Cruciatus never hurt anyone!- submitted by Bellatrix Lestrange
How the eff was I Saved by a Malfoy? submitted by Alastor Moody.
Here, ya go, Dawlish
Iris Dun F'd Up.

As always, read and review.