Harry and Hermione spent the rest of the break either skiing together, having snowball fights (usually magic enhanced), or studying the watch. Even with their books from the future, the two still had no ideas about the weird rune-like symbol. It didn't help that Hermione was depressed because of her parent's rage over the fact that she was already married.

Under constant prodding from Harry, she had told her parents about their soulmate status. She had dosed her parent's coffees with enough calming potion to knock out an elephant beforehand, but her parents had still blown up at them. She'd been left in tears and her parents had stormed out, actually renting a new room on a different floor of the hotel. Harry had found the hotel manager and discretely paid him for everything, hoping to smooth things over.

The atmosphere was so tense that the two Potters couldn't wait for the break to be over. They were very happy when they arrived at Platform 9¾ to ride the Hogwarts Express.

The two found their own compartment and settled there. It wasn't long after they set off when the door slid open, seemingly for no reason. Harry's Temporal magic gave him an instant of foresight. He held out the arm with the watch, not quite sure why. Then, an orange jet of light smashed into an invisible barrier that the watch projected. Fire splashed across the shield and were sucked into it.

Hermione quickly cast a spell that would render invisible things visible. Nothing happened. Harry had a sneaking suspicion of what was happening. Unfortunately, before he could act on it, Ron Weasley burst through the door and fired off an Stunner at Hermione. She managed to block it and fire off a Stinging Hex. The hex was deflected as a shield appeared. Weasley shouted "Stupefy!", but Hermione blocked it. She was in the middle of saying "Impedimenta" when a voice that Harry recognized whispered "Diffindo". A jet of light flew towards the back of Hermione's neck. Harry hurled himself in front of the light and his watch absorbed it.

If his magic wasn't enhancing his senses, he would never have heard the voice of Neville Longbottom His suspicions confirmed, Harry waved his wand, creating a gust of air that exploded towards where the voice had come from. Harry saw Neville appear as he was thrown into one of the walls. A silvery cloak fell to the floor. Harry pressed his wand to the fallen boy's wand and with a huge magical effort, vanished the core. The wand was rendered useless. Harry pointed his wand at Neville as Hermione disarmed Ron and stunned him.

"How dare you get Dumbledore arrested!" Neville shouted at him, ignoring the wand. "You must've used the Imperius curse on the judge! Dumbledore's the best Light wizard ever! He would never do anything bad! He was going to teach me how to use the Bone-Breaking Curse over the break!"

"Oh you poor boy." Hermione said, her voice sickly sweet. "Here, I'll show you." She pointed at Neville's knee. There was a horrifying "SNAP" as the boy's leg was suddenly pointed backwards. She silenced the compartment as he screamed in agony. "Want to see it again?" She asked, her fury now showing through. "Don't you dare try anything like this again." She spat, despite knowing that it was futile.

Harry walked over to the Invisibility Cloak and picked it up. He still had the one from his other timeline in the equipment compartment of his trunk, but he didn't think that it was a good idea to have multiples floating around. He put it into his trunk.

"HEY!" Neville shrieked, forgetting about his pain for a moment. "DUMBLEDORE GAVE ME THAT! HE SAID THAT YOU DIDN'T DESERVE IT! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT WAS YOUR PARENT'S! DUMBLEDORE SAID THAT I SHOULD HAVE IT!"

Harry was furious. His aura manifested slightly. THAT OLD BASTARD!!! HE DARED TO GIVE MY DAD'S CLOAK TO THIS LITTLE-! Before his anger got the better of him, Hermione stepped on Neville's broken knee, making him revert to mindless screaming. Then, she walked over to Harry and gave him a hug.

"It doesn't matter. We'll get that bastard back for this." She whispered. She pointed at Weasley. "Enervate." As Ron came to his senses, she barked at him. "Take him back to whatever rock you idiots crawled out from under."

Seeing Neville's broken knee and the blazing aura around Harry, Ron made the first wise decision of his short life and obeyed. Once they got out, Hermione sealed the compartment. If Malfoy came by to annoy them, Harry would probably end up killing him. It wouldn't do… yet.

Dumbledore was not happy. When they'd gotten to the castle, Harry and Hermione Apparated directly to the Chamber, not even bothering to go to the feast. The Longbottom boy had been sent directly to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey had never seen such a severe break. He'd wanted to find Harry and convince him of his good intentions.

He had made false Pensieve memories, to make sure that Harry never knew, because his stay in Azkaban had been far easier than anyone would have anticipated, since pretty much treated as a guest of the guards, rather than a prisoner. He had even been allowed to request that books be retrieved from his personal library. The Dementors had been kept far away from his cell as well.

After leafing through Longbottom's memories like the pages of a book, he knew that meeting with Harry would not be a good idea. Neville had practically quoted the note that he'd attached to the Cloak. Harry would be furious. He cast a numbing spell on the boy then stormed out of the Hospital Wing. He had to make a new plan to control the prophecy.

Quirrell shrieked in his chambers. Agony ripped through his body as he clutched the black stone. He was not permitted to drop the stone until his fingers were no longer capable of holding it. His master was furious because he had been unable to condition the body during the break.

With Dumbledore gone, it should have made it easier. However, McGonagall had taken over with a zealous fervor and had paid a lot of attention to everything that had happened in the castle. She'd even monitored the teachers.

He would enjoy torturing the bitch once he had the opportunity. Even as the pleasant thought passed through his mind, his other hand reached down and picked up the stone again, causing him to scream as the torture began anew. His master was quite impatient.

Snape was getting to be a serious problem. It looked to Harry that this Severus Snape had absolutely no good in him. Since Harry had gotten away with destroying the man's wand, he'd begun to start his own personal war against all three other houses. He was winning.

Slytherins had been receiving points for utterly absurd reasons. There had been one occasion where a Griffindor had answered a question correctly, only to see Snape give four Slytherin students points for thinking about it. Slytherin students received one hundred points for each potion, no matter how wrong. A slightly imperfect potion turned into fifty points from your House and a detention.

Apparently, he had also begun offering points for anyone who successfully attacked members from other houses. There had been twenty in the first week back. Fifty-two students had been in the Hospital Wing for at least a day. Slytherin's point counter seemed to be skyrocketing while the Griffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff houses were in the negative.

Harry and Hermione negated as many of the attempts as they could, but not even they could be everywhere and Dumbledore had authorized him to make whatever punishments he saw fit. With the current rules, only the direct presence of an Heir could negate his punishments now.

The other teachers tried to do offset his changes, but they simply weren't capable of playing dirty. At least, not at Snape's level. Dumbledore had ignored the other teachers' pleas that he do something about Snape, saying that he trusted the "former" Death Eater. Things at the school were getting desperate.

Harry and Hermione left the Transfiguration classroom and headed towards the Great Hall. As they rounded a corner in one of the corridors, there was the sound of a glass shattering and they were engulfed in magical darkness. A dozen jets of light shot towards them from the shadows. Harry's watch absorbed the attacks.

With a wave of her wand, Hermione conjured a flare of light, but it was consumed by the darkness. As the darkness absorbed the light, began to feel despair, similar to the effects of a Dementor. Harry fired off his Patronus, which was now a Phenolisk. The darkness seemed to recoil as the silver creature ripped through it. Once the shadows were gone, the two saw a host of Slytherin students. It looked like a third of Slytherin House was about to attack them both.

Harry's wand began to glow as he gathered the strength for a devastating spell, then he let it fade, realizing that he was only fighting students. However, when a beam of shadow flew towards him and the watch absorbed it, it suddenly blazed with light. The symbol appeared in front of Harry, big enough to completely overshadow him. The castle itself seemed to shudder as every spell that the rune had absorbed was transformed into a wave of pure magical destruction that obliterated the Slytherin line. Not a single student had any significant damage. However, if one were to examine their current magical strength, they would find that their magical cores were totally drained. It would take a week before they could cast anything more than simple spells.

Harry and Hermione stared at the watch in awe. They resolved to redouble their efforts to determine what the hell the thing that had stuck itself on Harry's wrist was.

Not much to say here...

Next time, Quirrell's conditioning will be complete and he will begin his quest.

Still haven't decided on what's happening with Dumbles... Good or Evil?

It's almost time for the Harry/Hermione vs. Quirrelmort confrontation...

Keep on reviewing!