Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything in the Harry Potter universe

Fresh Start Ch 12

Scarlet looked around at his surroundings, this was the address he requested the Knight Bus drop him off when he looked out the window he was tempted to not get off, but he had promised to do this so there was no going back.

The neighbourhood was very boring, every house within site was the exact same two-story building, the paint was the same, the lawns were the same, and even most of the cars were of the same type. Scarlet wasn't sure how anyone could live here, it would drive him loony.

He looked at the piece of paper with the address written on it. "4 Privet Drive." He said to himself. He walked over towards the door, he wasn't even sure if anyone was home. It was midday so most adults were most likely at work, and he doubted Harry was the studious type to stay indoors reading than outside playing.

Hermoine had written to him yesterday asking him if he could check up on Harry, apparently, he was not responding to anyone's letters, he didn't care much for the boy but Hermoine had seem devastated in her letters, and he owed it to her to figure out why the git wasn't responding.

He reached the door, and pressed the doorbell on the side, he waited for a few moments before the door opened. A thin woman with an absurdly large neck answered the door; she looked down at him in confusion. "Hello, are you one of Dudley's friends, I don't remember seeing you before. He's out at the moment with his father." She asked.

"No, I'm not friends with Dudley, is this the residence of Harry Potter?" Scarlet asked.

He saw the women narrow her eyes, and looked at him top to bottom. Scarlet wasn't sure what she was looking for. "You look to normal to be a freak." She finally said.

"Pardon?" Scarlet wasn't sure where the hostility was coming from.

"No, he's not here." She stated before slamming the door on him. Scarlet wasn't sure what to do, he didn't think he said anything rude, or done anything to warrant that response. Part of him wanted to shrug and go back home, tell Hermoine he did his best, but another part of him was curious to what was going on.

Scarlet eventually walked down a few houses, out of sight from the window. He quickly morphed his hair blonde, made his hair curly, and made himself a little taller, and changed his eye color from blue to hazel. He removed his sweater and tied it around his waist; he looked over a nearby puddle satisfied he couldn't be recognized

He waited ten minutes before walking back to the familiar door and ringing the doorbell again. The same women from before answered.

"Hi, I'm a friend of Dudley's is he home right now to play?" Scarlet hated how childish he sounded right now.

"I'm sorry Dudley isn't home right, he should be back in a half an hour." She told him kindly.

"Would it be okay if I waited for him here? My mum just dropped me off and I don't know the neighbourhood." Scarlet asked putting on his best innocent possible.

"Of course dear come in." She motioned Scarlet in and led him to the living room.

He looked around, it was a normal family home nice furniture and pictures all along the walls. What he noticed quickly was no pictures of Harry anywhere, something wasn't right.

"Now I'm a bit busy making dinner, but just entertain yourself with the television and they'll be home very soon." The women walked out of the room and he could hear her moving pots.

He turned on the television on a random channel and waited a few minutes. Once he was sure the woman wasn't going to come back he stood up and walked into the hallway. He looked up the stairs and noticed several bedrooms upstairs; he figured that would be a good place to start.

Once he got up he checked the first two bedrooms and found them empty, the next was a bathroom, that only left one door, it was the only one closed. He carefully knocked.

"Coming Aunt Petunia!" A voice he recognized as Potter, he quickly morphed back to his base form before he opened the door. Potter was clearly surprised by his appearance, so he quickly shushed him pushed him inside and changed.

"What are you doing here?" Potter asked.

"Here to find out why you're too busy to write to any of us." Scarlet stated, he looked around the room, just like Potter's skills in magic it was depressing. Scarlet was genuinely confused, he was told the Potter family had some wealth, so why did it look like everything he owned has second used.

"I haven't received any letters, from none of my friends." Potter sat on his bed facing him.

"Don't be ridiculous, I know for a fact Hermoine has sent you several, and I've written personally to you one or twice. I can't believe I'm saying this but if I can find your house, than my owl can, takes an absurd amount of pride in its work." Scarlet muttered the last part to himself.

"I honestly haven't received any, I've been bored this summer wondering what they've been up to." Potter sulked.

"Well then why didn't you write then?" Scarlet asked simply and sat down on the chair.

"My aunt and uncle don't want to let Hedwig out." Potter said, he seemed careful on the right words to say. "They're not particularly fond of magic." He finished.

"That's rather disturbing." Scarlet's idea of Potter was slowly unhinging, this house his room, his guardians is not what he expected it to be. Add to the fact he wasn't sure why Potter wasn't able to receive any letters. 'To many questions not enough answers' He thought to himself. He looked out the window and silently cursed, it was getting late he needed to leave very soon. He pulled out the letter Hermoine wanted him to deliver. "Here this is from Hermoine, and this is from me, happy birthday." Scarlet pulled out a small bag of candy, Hermoine had mentioned it was the boys birthday soon, he figured he should at least get him something small.

"Thanks, Scarlet, I'm glad we decided to be friends, I'm really glad to see you." Potter thanked.

"Um, likewise? See you at the station." Scarlet hastily said goodbye before leaving the room. He quickly morphed back and exited the home before anyone else saw him.

XXX

"And that's the end of it." Scarlet was currently at the Granger residence, she wrote that her parents were out and that she wanted some company today. He had just finished his story of the events the other day to her. She seemed quiet, clearly going over every detail he had told her.

"I don't know much about magic as you, but is there a way an owl can't deliver someone's mail?" Hermoine asked.

"I'm not sure, there probably is. I'm sure certain people on the run don't want owls somehow finding them, there has to be some sort of spell." Scarlet theorized. He had read over some of his books trying figure out a solution to their problem but hadn't found any.

"Maybe Tonks knows how?" she suggested. Scarlet was tempted to ask Tonks, but he didn't want to bother her, she was probably too busy anyway.

"She's to busy preparing for the Academy I'd hate to bother her." Scarlet said putting away his books. "Are we still on for picking up our books together?"

"Yes, my parents are trying to find a day that's good for them, probably around the last week of summer, is that alright?" She asked.

"That's fine, would like to read ahead but I have plenty of books at home that I still need to go through." Scarlet started to put away his homework.

"Till then, I'll just have to settle writing to just you and Ronald." She started to clean up the table they were working on.

"I can just imagine the intelligent conversation that must be." He said sarcastically.

She playfully smacked him on the arm for the comment. "Ronald might not be as focused when it comes his study's as us, it doesn't mean we have nothing to talk about."

"Really? I have a hard time imagining he has anything interesting to write, other than Quidditch." He shook his head at her.

"Honestly Scarlet, you promised to give him a chance." She scolded.

"Fine, what has he written to you." Scarlet sighed in defeat. This friendship thing was getting harder and harder.

"Did you know that Ron's oldest brother is a curse-breaker and that he's currently stationed in Egypt, going through pyramids, and underground temples? Also that his second oldest is a dragon tamer in Romania!" Hermoine started to get excited about the subject.

Scarlet couldn't help but smile at her excitement, whenever she learned something interesting, she would always put her full attention to it. He wondered if he would ever get this excited over something.

"Alright, alright, I yield. A lot of that stuff does sound interesting. Although I think he does embellish some of it to make it far more interesting." He pointed out.

"Yes, but I imagine Ronald gets very excited when talking about his older brothers, he does look up to them." She giggled.

"Anyway this has been fun, but I figured your parents will be home soon." Scarlet started to put everything in his bag, but he heard Hermoine clear her throat.

"Actually my mum and dad want to meet you, I told them you'd be coming here for dinner." She said shyly.

"So you invite me here under the pretence of socializing and work, then since I'm already her take this as an opportunity to keep me here further for dinner, to meet your parents…how Slytherin of you." Scarlet couldn't help but nod at his bushy friends approached.

Hermoine had the decency to blush in embarrassment. "I wasn't sure if you would agree ahead of time. They've honestly wanted to meet you since I wrote about you back in Halloween. Please!"

"Fine, but only because I'm so proud that my cunning is starting to rub off on you." Scarlet smirked at her.

"You prat!" she smacked him again.

XXX

He could feel a slight shift on top of him, he grunted in annoyance and tried to fall back asleep. He could feel the same shift again only a bit more forceful, again he ignored it. When it continued he rolled over onto his stomach hoping it was now over.

If an owl had the ability to have facial expression, then one could see clear annoyance on Ghosts face. The owl had just arrived home after bringing a letter with it; it was instructed that it was important and that Scarlet needed to open it right away. However, his owner wasn't cooperating and was still in bed. Ghost had originally thought to land on him would wake up his owner, but that effort was for nought. Ghost repeated the process several times before giving up. This was his job, to deliver letters back and forth, and currently Scarlet was denying him of that!

Ghost looked around the room contemplating its choices before it moved over onto Scarlet's shoulder, a plan already decided. It gave its owner one last chance, but Scarlet continued to sleep. Ghost reared his back before pecking his owner s face repeatedly.

"AGH!" Scarlet jumped in reaction to the vicious pecks. Unfortunately, he was lying at the edge of the bed and landed heavily on the carpet floor, his face once again becoming reacquainted with the floor. "Ghost! Why did you do that!" Scarlet groggily asked his bloody bird.

Ghost merely tilted his head at him, as if he was giving Scarlet an innocent look. Scarlet narrowed his eyes at the bird. The past few months he realized something about Ghost, he took his job very seriously. At first, he thought he picked out a good bird as Ghost was usually quick with delivering his letters. But when Ghost started to deliver letters back to him he realized the issue. The bloody bird wouldn't stop pestering him until he opened the letters, not when he untied it from his leg, but actually ripping the envelope open and reading them. The problem was when Ghost would arrive back sometimes he wouldn't be in a position to open them right away. For instance, when he was cooking dinner last week and Ghost started knocking over his pans to get his attention, or when Scarlet was in the shower and Ghost out of nowhere dropped in scaring the magic out of him, or right now when he was sleeping.

Scarlet slowly stood up and untied the letter from the bird, it hooted at a job well done and flew into a different room. He sighed at his bird's antics and checked to see who had written to him. The colourful ink clued him to the fact his favourite Metamorphmagus had written to him.

In truth, Scarlet didn't see Tonks as often as he would've liked this summer. Since seeing her, Jess, and Rebecca with their families at King Cross Station he had the feeling to keep his distance. He didn't want to take up much of the girl's time, she had just graduated from Hogwarts and he wanted her to be celebrating with her family. Along with preparing to join the Auror Academy, Scarlet didn't want to get in her way.

They had still managed to write back and forth from time to time, and she invited him to dinner with her parents, which he enjoyed greatly. Scarlet had noticed Tonks giving him odd looks when she thought he wasn't looking, and at times seemed to want to say something to him.

He sighed in annoyance at the letter, he had an idea of what she had written to him.

Wotcher Scarlet!

Hope you're enjoying your summer! You promised that you would let me take you to Diagon Alley to help you pick out your textbooks for this year! Don't write you have plans to study with Hermoine because we both know you finished your assignments in the first week. Plus I wrote to the sweet girl and she's currently spending the day with her parents at Diagon Alley, so HA! Stuck with little ol' me!

I told Ghost it's very important that you get this letter immediately as I'm going to pick you up early today. So hopefully by the time I arrive your icy self will be ready. I'll be there at 9 see you soon!

Love Tonks

Scarlet looked over at the clock, he still had an hour to get ready. Now fully awake thanks to Ghost, he got ready for the long day ahead of him.

He had just finished getting ready and was finishing breakfast when he heard his front door thrown open. 'Knew giving her the key was a mistake.' Scarlet chuckled to himself. He could hear her walking through the house, trying to find him. There were two entrances to the kitchen, the living room, and the hallway, Scarlet was hoping for the former.

His hopes were realized as he heard the all to familiar sound of his footstool knocked over, quickly followed by a loud thump. Scarlet tried hard to not laugh out loud at her, every time she came over, she managed to trip over the exact same footstool, even though he always moved it.

"Wotcher Scarlet!" Tonks announced walking into the kitchen

"Wotcher Tonks. You know most people knock Tonks." Scarlet said while cleaning the dishes.

"Most people aren't as awesome as me." She said nonchalantly, sitting down at the table.

"Can't argue with that logic." He muttered in good taste.

"Oi! Don't make me smack you silly, I can use magic now!" Tonks jokingly threatened.

This time Scarlet couldn't hold in his laughter, he'd missed this. "I'm almost done with the dishes then we can leave for Diagon Alley." Scarlet said finishing up.

"Actually was hoping we could talk before leaving." Tonks said, her tone shifting to serious.

Scarlet inwardly sighed at that, he knew what she wanted to talk about. He may act older than his age, but there was always a primal fear in kids, when an adult catches you doing something wrong. He sat down facing her from across the table.

The two stared at one another for a few minutes. It might've been immature of him, but he wanted to delay this conversation as long as possible, he wasn't going to make the first move.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" Tonks finally asked, fed up with the silence.

"I haven't been avoiding you, I've written and visited you a few times." Scarlet stated.

"Yes, but often you'll say you're busy with homework, errands, or seeing Hermoine." She replied.

"Just trying to keep busy during the summer."

"Yes part of that is true, but there's more. My mother saw you that day at the station." Tonks said. Scarlet narrowed his eyes in thought, he didn't think anyone noticed him; they were all too busy celebrating. "She saw you walk over to us, then turn around. Why?" She finished.

Tonks noticed Scarlet mutter something but was too quiet to hear anything. "Say that again."

"I didn't want to be a distraction!" Scarlet said a bit louder.

That surprised Tonks, that wasn't the answer she was expecting. "Why would you be a distraction?" She asked.

"I knew you all were going out to London to celebrate if I had walked over you would've invited me along." Scarlet said.

"Yes, we would because we care about you, what's wrong with that?" Tonks was confused at where this was going.

"After what happened last time I didn't want to go back to London, at least not for awhile." Scarlet muttered.

"That's not an issue, we could've moved it over to someone else's house." Tonks said kindly.

"It is an issue!" Scarlet shouted, abruptly standing up. "That day was your day, to enjoy seven years of hard work finally completed. It's not right for me to inconvenience you because of my problems, I would've felt guilty." Scarlet finished sitting down.

Tonks started to get a better idea of what the issue was. Scarlet wasn't used to the idea of people caring about him, he was afraid if he pushed himself onto them too much he might lose them. Of course, that was a ridiculous notion to her, nothing he could do would drive her away. However, Scarlet was still very young and had been alone for half his life, he didn't have a firm grasp on relationships and that left him with a lot of insecurities, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

She stood up and walked around the table over to him, and pulled him up into a hug. "You silly boy, if I've taught you anything is that you're not getting rid of me anytime soon. You're stuck with me for life, for better or worse." She said.

"You're going to be busy with Auror training soon." Scarlet's voice was a bit muffled, but she understood what he said.

"I will be busy, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be out of your life forever, we can still exchange letters and see each other during the summer." She pulled away and looked him in the eye. "I promise if you ever need me, I'll drop everything and come to Hogwarts in a blink of an eye."

"Promise?" Scarlet asked. She nodded at him and pulled him back into another hug.

"Now enough mushy stuff, we need to pick up your books, it's going to be packed with kids. So hold my hand and be a good boy." She teased.

"I am so not holding your hand, I don't want people knowing I purposely associate myself with you." Scarlet started to walk to the front with Tonks close behind.

"I'll have you know there are perks to being my friend." She held up her face in a dignified manner.

"What perks? And you can't say Metamorphmagus training, that only applies to me."

"Well if you happen to mention my name at Witch's Wear Unmentionables you get 15% off on everything pink at the store." She added with a smirk to her face.

Scarlet couldn't help but shudder at the mention of the store, he'd passed by it a few times, he didn't go in but he could get an idea of what the store sold through the windows.

Once he finished locking up the door she grabbed his arm and they apparated to Diagon Alley.

True to her word the Alley was packed full of people, he ended up having to hold on to Tonks to not get separated. Once they walked a bit the crowd started to thin somewhat.

"You ready for the Academy?" Scarlet asked trying to pass the time.

"Honestly not sure, I have no idea what to expect." She replied, Scarlet noticed there was a sense of nervousness in her, she was always so confident so to see this side of her was new to him.

"I'm sure you'll do fine if I learned anything from you is that you can do anything, and if not you can most certainly charm your way into anything." Scarlet responded.

"Very sweet of you Scarlet, I'll tell you how the first week goes in my letters." She said. "Who knows maybe it'll inspire you to become an Auror. I could always use a side-kick." She joked.

"If I become an Auror then I'll end up being your boss. So you better be nice to me now." He smirked back.

"At the rate, your magic is growing, you would make a very powerful Auror."

"You serious?"

She looked down at him and looked him in the eye. "I'm serious, Scarlet I've never seen someone of your age pull off incredible feats of magic, you perform a Glacious Duo at eleven! I couldn't do that spell until I was fifteen. You could do a lot of good if you choose to be an Auror." She complimented.

Scarlet had thought about a career as an Auror since Tracey mentioned it to him, but right now he was still years away from it, he may change his mind several times before then. "I'll keep it in the back of my mind, but right now I just want to survive school."

"Don't think of as surviving, I had a fun-filled experience at school." Tonks said simply, she had a smile on her face, as she seemed to relieve a couple memories.

"What kind of fun?" He asked eagerly. Scarlet noticed her cheeks start to redden.

"Um, erm, you're not old enough yet for those stories." Tonks started to quicken her pace.

Scarlet was left confused but shrugged at Tonks antics.

The plan was to meet up with Hermoine and her parents at the bookstore in an hour, so they stopped at the other shops to restock his school's supplies first. Luckily most of the shops weren't as busy, he found out why as they finally arrived at Flourish and bolts, and saw the large crowded gathered inside.

"I know it's a week before school but this is ridiculous, looks like every witch between the ages of eleven to sixty is there…Did I miss a memo?" Tonks pondered.

Scarlet saw a poster on the window, it was a notice of Gilderoy Lockhart appearing at the bookstore this very day. Scarlet was very much looking forward to meeting the man.

When he first heard of the man and his book series, he was sceptical. Putting in a little research he found the events depicted in the books were real, the fact no one was suing Lockhart for stealing someone's work proved that he was the real deal, and the books were factual. Scarlet would never admit it openly but he looked up a little to the man, he was very excited to learn that he would be their new DADA professor, Scarlet could learn so much from him.

"Gilderoy Lockhart is signing autographs today." Scarlet told Tonks.

"LOCKHART!?" Tonks ran over to the window to check on her appearance, she morphed her hair to look nicer, and most disturbing she expanded her chest. Scarlet shook his head at her; if he dated someone they would never have to change for him.

Scarlet was able to find the books he was looking for as the clerk packaged books together depending on the year. They soon moved over to the line to meet Lockhart. Unfortunately, Tonks stumbled over a dropped book and bumped into a woman ahead of her.

"So sorry, tripped over a book." Tonks apologized.

The woman turned around, and Scarlet recognized the woman as Narcissa Malfoy, he didn't get a chance to talk to her at the party. The gaze she gave Tonks was familiar to one she gave to most of the people there.

"So you're Andromeda's daughter, bad hair, poor clothes, I still wonder why your mother gave up so much for you and your mudblood father." Narcissa said with distaste.

Tonks narrowed her eyes at the statement. "I still wonder why it took her so long to leave you lot." She bit back.

Scarlet had never seen Tonks this angry before, if she was like this in combat then he worried about any dark wizards who crossed her path. Scarlet looked over and saw the Weasleys, Granger and Potter walk over to them.

"Your whore of a mother is a stain on a proud and noble family!" He heard Narcissa shout. She didn't get a chance to continue her rant as Tonks tackled her. Soon a brawl broke out between the two of them, he took a step back toward his friends.

"Narcissa, you're better than this!" Lucius Malfoy stepped into the scene with Draco close behind. He didn't know who looked angrier, him or his wife.

The fighting didn't stop as both women lost balance and crashed landed on him and his groups of friends, knocking everyone over. Scarlet was dazed for a moment before someone picked him up, he looked up and saw who he presume was Ron's father, he nodded to the man in thanks.

He looked over at the mess and saw Lucius pull his wife off Tonks and out the door, he saw Draco glare at some of them before following his parents.

He walked over to Tonks to help her up. "You okay Tonks?"

"Yeah just a few scratches, those bigots have the sharpest nails I've ever seen." Tonks wiped the blood off her chin with her sleeve.

"Tonks are you okay?" Hermoine walked over to them.

"Don't worry Hermoine, I've had worse." Tonks checked herself over to make sure her appearance was in order. "Now that that's over I have a good looking man to meet." She marched over across the store passing by onlookers to stunned to move.

"Boy Charlie wasn't lying when he talked about Tonks."

"She does have a fiery temper brother.

"Much like our Gin-Gin." George joke, receiving a glare from said sister.

"Good to see my favourite group of redheads, been awhile." Scarlet surprisingly did miss the twins, he could always count on them to bring him amusement, always at the expense of others…..He liked that part especially.

"Scarlet old chap good to see you!"

"Doesn't feel right pulling a prank without our partner in crime!"

"We missed you!" They dramatically cried. The twins surrounded him and crushed him in a hug on both sides.

"I didn't miss you that much." Scarlet's muffled voice said. He was uncomfortable at the scene being caused, and the people staring. He quickly broke up the hug.

"Ahem." A throat cleared behind. Scarlet looked behind him and saw the same redhead that helped him, holding a stack of books. "I believe you dropped all these." Scarlet quickly grabbed the books off the man.

"Thank you, I'm Scarlet Shade." He introduced.

"Arthur Weasley, my sons have said good things about you, nice to finally meet you." The man introduced. "This is my daughter Ginny, she'll be going to Hogwarts this year."

Scarlet looked down and saw a small red hair girl, with freckles; she was a Weasley all right. "Nice to meet you, Ginny, do you need help carrying your books?" The girl just shook her head, in fact, she wasn't even looking at him. He turned his head and saw what held her attention, Potter.

"Scarlet time to go!" Tonks was soon beside him dragging him out of the store. He said goodbye to everyone before walking out of the store with Tonks, and soon apparating home.

"Are you okay? We rushed out of there pretty quickly." Scarlet was concerned; this wasn't normal behaviour for Tonks.

"Yes, I just wanted to get what I needed and get out." She walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Is this about Narcissa Malfoy? Why did she seem so antagonistic towards you?" Scarlet didn't think Tonks knew many pureblood families to warrant a reaction like that.

She noticed Tonks clench her fist at the mention of Malfoy. "She's my aunt."

"EXCUSE ME!?" Scarlet yelled, he just didn't see the similarities between them.

"I told you how my mother was raised in a pureblood home." Scarlet nodded remembering the conversation. "Her former name is Black. Andromeda Black, she was raised by them with her two sisters, one being Narcissa Black." Tonks stood up and started pacing around the room.

"My mother was dating my dad during her years in Hogwarts, and as you may or may not know, its generally frowned upon as pureblood to associate with muggleborns, especially dating one. So when my mother told her family she agreed to marry my dad, they disowned her, and removed her from the family." She finished and soon sat down beside him.

Scarlet was fairly annoyed by that, family is all anyone has in the world, and to throw that away by something small as blood was ridiculous to him. "Based on your interaction with her, there's still tension between both sides."

Tonks snorted at his words." That's one way to put it, my mums happy with her choice, anyone could clearly see it. But there are times when I see her looking at her old photos, she still misses them." Scarlet put his arm around Tonks, he was going to support her as she did to him.

"Andromeda is a loving woman, she cares about anyone, and its what makes her an amazing person." Scarlet held high respect for the women, she treated him as blood when she didn't even know him, he always is greatlfull for what she did to him.

"Th, nks Scarlet I needed that." She held onto him and they just sat there in silence.

"Times like these I'm glad I grew away from this pureblood drama, who knows maybe were related?" Tonks laughed at Scarlets joke, he was glad she was loosening up.

"I think mum would take you in then and there, she always wanted a bigger family."

"Yes, but you know I enjoy having my bachelor pad, no mothers to embarrass me, I love it." Scarlet teased back.

"Don't tell mum that, or else she might visit you everyday for the rest of the summer." Soon both started to laugh, and the stress of the day melted away. Though there was still one thing nagging Scarlet.

"Tonks, you mentioned Andromeda had two sisters, who was the other?" He noticed Tonks stiffen at his question; clearly, he shouldn't have done that.

"Bellatrix LeStrange." She said quietly.

Scarlet had to hold his tongue at this revelation. He had read much about the previous wizarding war, and Bellatrix LeStrange's name came up often. Voldemorts second in command, she was a terrifying death eater, it had to take Dumbledore himself to able to restrain her, she had so much raw power no ordinary wizard or witch could match her. Luckily she was locked away in Azkaban. Scarlet thanked Merlin he would never have to meet someone like that.

XXX

Lucius Malfoy didn't know how to feel right now, he had done his job of transferring the book to one of the nit wit students, but it came at the expense of his wife engaging in a ridiculous squabble. When they got home Narcissa immediately left for a different wing of the manor, she was not in a good mood. Draco seemed reluctant to talk, so he left for his room leaving him by himself.

He quickly made his way towards his private office; he needed to make a floo call. Once he made the connection Nott answered.

"Good day Lucius, I trust everything is going well?" The man asked.

"Yes, the plans in motion, within a few weeks muggleborns will start to die." Lucius smirked. Now that the book was in possession of a student, the muggleborns would all soon die, and that oaf Dumbledore will be sent to Azkaban because of it.

"I've told everyone in our circle to warn their children, it won't do us any good if one of them gets caught in the crossfire." Nott warned.

Lucius silently scoffed at that, if one pureblood had to die for their goal then it was worth it in his eyes.

The two men continued their conversation unaware that a certain house elf was hiding in the corner listening to their every word. "I must help Harry Potter." It muttered to himself, before disappearing.

Authors Note: A quick apology for this being late. As I mentioned a few weeks ago my college and numerous more were on strike, meaning I had a lot of free time. With the strike ending 2 weeks ago, I've been busy with the heavy workload and tests I had to study for. Unfortunately, this means I won't be able to upload once a week, I'll still be aiming for once every two weeks.

Onto the story itself next chapter will officially begin the second year, and with that, I will be changing the title of this fic. Fresh Start was always a placeholder for me, and it represented my fresh start in the world of writing and also tied nicely to my main character. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and will see you soon.