The next few weeks passed in a blur of classes, training, and research. Harry had shown his friends the runic project in Godric's study and Daphne had become incensed when several trips to the library failed to produce results. The runes weren't Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Sumerian, or anything else she could think of. Even the books in the other founders chambers didn't prove helpful, as they were advanced and beyond the comprehension of the four teens. Finally admitting defeat, Daphne had given up on the project and moved on to other pursuits.

Harry, however, felt that solving the founders' puzzle could be the key to their success and thus persevered. Thinking of his allies, he owled Gringotts and Amelia asking for help. Amelia soon owled back saying that she'd ask the unspeakables to look into it, and Ragnok replied that he'd have Griphook search the Goblin library to see if they had anything helpful.

Days passed with no news and Harry began to grow agitated. Things were going well, yes, but almost too well. His friends quickly picked up on his agitation and dragged him into the chamber to practice dueling.

They'd all continued to improve, but the one making the greatest strides was Harry. Not only was his arsenal of spells extensive, but he was also able to cast them all silently. His favorite was a hex spoken in parseltongue that he'd found in Slytherin's journal.

It turned out that using parseltongue to cast spells didn't actually altered the magic itself, just as casting in Gobbledygook didn't alter the spell. However, it being its own language and own branch of magic, there were several spells invented by Slytherin himself that had no English counterpoint. One of these was the hex Harry had named the reverser. When cast correctly, the opponent's control of his actions was affected. When he went to move his right arm, his left would move instead. If he went to step backwards, the wrong leg would step forwards. A simple finite wouldn't counter it, and it took very little energy to cast.

Reading the journals of the three founders had actually unearthed several new or lost spells that would prove useful in combat. Rowena had invented a charm allowing the caster to read the victims thoughts for five minutes. It was passive and undetectable but took a lot out of the caster. Godric had written much about his favorite spell, the spell of justice. It called upon magic to judge the victim and then enact punishment. Harry was interested in using it on Voldemort, but it was difficult since it took a lot of energy to cast and had to be cast at close range. Plus, Harry didn't want to do anything to Voldemort until all the Horcruxes were gone.

Speaking of the horcruxes, they were making excellent progress. The diary had been destroyed in second year and the piece in his scar was destroyed during the goblin ritual that summer. In addition, the goblins had retrieved and destroyed Hufflepuff's cup, the Gaunt family ring, and Slytherin's locket. Daphne and Cyrus had retrieved Ravenclaw's diadem and Ragnok had personally destroyed it. According to their calculations, the only one left was Nagini, who Snape said was never far from the Dark Lord's side. They'd have to work out a plan to get to her.

A note from Cyrus confirmed Harry's thoughts that something was going on and that things were not as good as they seemed. The day had started so well, too. He'd woken late Saturday morning with a sleeping and naked Daphne in his arms and Dobby had brought their breakfast to them in bed, waffles with fresh fruit and whipped cream. He'd defeated all three of his friends in a group duel and spent the time before lunch reading Slytherin's journal. Lunch, that day taken at the Hufflepuff table, had been just as delicious and was full of laughter and fun.

Cyrus's letter immediately ended the laughs and the look on his face led Harry's friends to immediately somber up. They retired to his personal quarters to hear the contents of the note, hoping for the best but expecting the worse.

"What is it," Neville asked when the door had been locked and privacy charms had surrounded the room.

"It's from Cyrus. He says Dumbledore's up to something at the ministry but he has no idea what. He asked Amelia to look into it but the old fool's covered his tracks well and has been one step ahead of her the whole time. The only thing she'd been able to find was that he'd made several trips to the Department of Child Welfare and that he was interested in gaining custody of someone. He was also spotted in the annex of the ministry that houses all the files on magical families."

His friends shared grim but confused looks.

"Who the hell could he want to get custody of? Certainly not you?"

Harry shook his head. "No, not only am I emancipated, but I have too much support now for him challenge me. Not to mention I outrank him and he's hanging onto his job by a thread. No, he wouldn't risk pissing me off at this point."

"That still leaves the question of who he's trying to gain custody of, and why," Susan stated.

"Well, let's think about this logically. What would he gain by taking custody of someone," Daphne asked.

"Control," harry answered quietly. "Control of the child, the funds, the power, everything."

"Alright, so what does he want control of?"

"Me," Harry answered again.

"No," Daphne argued, "it's too late for that and he knows it. What else?"

"Hogwarts," Neville stated uncertainly. A bell went off in Harry's head and he suddenly sat up, McGonagall's words replaying in his mind.

"When I talked with McGonagall a few weeks ago she said that Dumbles had run off to research something after talking with me. I'd told him that I wouldn't tie him into the wards even if I could, since only the controlling Founder's heir could connect."

Daphne gasped, immediately understanding the problem. "Harry, you're only heir to three of the founders. That means…"

He nodded grimly. "He's found the fourth. He's found Hufflepuff's heir."

"Shit," Susan swore. "Just what we need, another person running around, getting in our business and reporting to Dumbledore."

"What if we got to them first," Neville said suddenly. "We could get them over to our side and protect them against the headmaster. If we claimed they were under our house protection he couldn't touch them."

"That's a good idea, Nev, but there's one problem. We have no idea who the hair actually is."

"Oh. Right. Well, why not ask the house elves what books Dumbledore's been reading. If he can find the hair from some books, then so can Daphne."

"Yah, but will she be fast enough? I don't mean to question your abilities, Daph, you know I love you, but we don't have time to play it safe. We need help."

"Who do you have in mind?"

He looked at her gravely, anticipating her reaction. "Hermione." Daphne immediately scowled and when to shoot the idea down but Harry was too fast for her. "I know you don't like it, but think about it. Hermione knows that library like the back of her hand and can tear her way through a book faster than I can catch a snitch. With both of you on the case we'll find the heir in no time." The scowl remained on her face but Daphne nodded grudgingly.

"Fine, but for the record I think this is a bad idea." Harry nodded at her and kissed her hand.

"I know love, but we don't have much of a choice."

They found Hermione in the library, reading a large book on magical underwater creatures. Seeing the four of them approach her with three large books, she marked her page and set her book aside.

"Hermione, we need your help." She eagerly accepted the opportunity to show up the Ice Queen and help her best friend at the same time.

"What do you need me to do?" The look of relief on Harry's face made her feel quite smug, as did the scowl on Daphne's face.

"We need you to find Hufflepuff's heir from these three books." She looked at the books in question. The first was a history of the founders and their known descendants. The second was a record of all wizarding families in Britain in the last five hundred years. The third was a magical directory of all magical children born in the UK. Normally it wasn't accessible by students but the castle had given it to Harry willingly. She nodded in determination and set to work, not even sparing a glance for the blonde bimbo next to her. She'd show them who the smartest witch of their age was, and it certainly wasn't a slytherin.

It was just five hours later when Hermione gave a triumphant cry and help up a piece of parchment. "I've got it!"

The four teens instantly jumped up and surrounded her, ignoring the disapproving look from Madam Prince. "Who is it? Someone in the school?"

Hermione shook her away in the negative. "No, actually. You see, I traced the Hufflepuff line down as far as I could to here," she pointed to a diagram of a family tree, "where the line supposedly died off. However, this book," she pointed to another text, "states that Daniella Morton, daughter of Alexander Hufflepuff, gave birth to a squib. They shunned her, or course, the pureblooded bigots, and all trace of her disappears. However, a footnote in this text," she pointed to the book with the diagram, "reports that the daughter was rumored to marry a muggle by the name of Kent. It's a stretch, but there is a Katie Kent listed here in the magical directory. A little further research revealed that she was born to nonmagical parents five years ago but was born a witch, not a muggle. Her parents died in a car accident soon after her birth."

"That must be who Dumbledore's after," Susan said. "That's why he was in the annex, he was looking for her address!"

Harry nodded grimly and took out a piece of parchment. "I'll have Amelia look up the address right away. With luck we can beat him to her."

"Wait, what's going on," Hermione asked. "What do you mean you want to get to her before he does?"

"He wants access to the Hogwarts wards, Hermione, that's why he wants a founder's heir. Since the only one I'm not heir to is Hufflepuff, he spent the last few weeks doing what you've done today. We need to get to her before he does. The last thing the world needs is another child abused by Dumbledore."

"But Harry, surely the headmaster wouldn't harm the girl. He is headmaster of the school, maybe he just wants to bring her to safety. And surely he would be a better parent than you, after all, you're just kids!"

"Hermione, look at all that he's done to me and tell me you think he should be allowed access to another child."

She sighed in frustration. "That's the thing, Harry, there's no proof of anything he's done except the thefts, and the evidence suggests the girl doesn't have any money to her name."

"You're making excuses for him, just like everybody else."

"Just because he made one mistake doesn't make him evil."

Daphne had had enough. "No, but it makes you an idiot. Come on Harry, there's no use arguing. She's obviously too far gone to see reason, and we need to send that letter." Harry gave a longing look at Hermione but nodded sadly.

"If you value our friendship, Hermione, you won't tell Dumbledore what we've found." With that he took off for the owlery, his friends right behind him. Hermione sighed again and fought not to cry. Why was he forcing her to choose? Why couldn't things be like they were before, when they all got along and knew what they were doing?

Standing, she let a few tears slip and made up her mind. If she had to choose, she would chose her morals over her friendship, and her morals were telling her that a child deserved to be raised by an adult and not a bunch of paranoid children. Gathering her books she stormed off in search of Dumbledore, not noticing the big green eyes watching her angrily.

At the last minute Harry decided an owl wouldn't be fast enough so he ran to the nearest floo he could find, McGonagall's. At the look on his face she didn't even ask about his plans, simply pointing to the vase on the mantle when he asked where she kept her floo powder. She closed her eyes as the four teen's flooed away so that she could honestly tell Albus that she hadn't seen anything.

A surprised Amelia immediately granted their request to visit the annex and actually accompanied them, her curiosity getting the better of her. It was a good thing she went, too, for there were a lot of files to look through. Luckily she found it quite quickly and within minutes had created a portkey for the teens that would take them just next to the address listed in the file. Wishing them luck, she walked away briskly, heading to her floo. Cyrus and Augusta would want to hear this.

They arrived in a small clearing in what seemed to be a forest. Glancing around, they found that they could see nothing but could hear children laughing in the distance. After walking just a few hundred feet they reached the edge of the woods and viewed their destination.

The orphanage was small and poorly kept. It was a two story wooden building with a sagging roof and large dirt yard surrounded by a simple wood fence that was more for looks than anything else. The faded sign over the front door read "Little Denton's Home for Orphans". About five children were playing with a ball out back and several more could be seen through the old grungy windows. The teens were about to step out and announce themselves when none but Albus Dumbledore appeared with a pop just five feet in front of their hiding place.

Immediately they ducked down, cursing their bad luck. Noticing the papers in the old man's hand, Susan swore silently. "Those papers have the ministry seal," she whispered. "He must have gotten custody sooner than we thought. Once the matron signs them they're official and any interference will be considered kidnapping."

"Shit," Harry muttered under his breath. He'd been hoping for more time. "Alright, this is the plan. Nev, Sue, you distract the matron and Dumbles. Daph and I will find the girl and claim her under family protection. Got it?" After receiving three nods he wished them all luck and began to make his way through the woods to the enclosed area.

"So, how exactly are we supposed to distract him without giving ourselves away," Neville asked his girlfriend.

In response she gave him an evil grin and morphed into her animagus form. Neville, catching on to her idea, morphed as well and trotted right up to the headmaster, wagging his tail rapidly while taking in the conversation.

"I've already told you," Dumbledore continued in frustration, "these papers are entirely legal and grant me custody of the girl in your care known as Katie Kent.

"And I've told you," the Matron replied frostily, "that your paperwork is absolute rubbish. Even if I did believe your little tale about magic being real, you would still be required to follow the regular system of contacting child services and going through their adoption process. You can't just storm in here and take a little girl for your own fun," she finished in disgust.

Dumbledore's cheeks colored at the insult but he bravely continued his argument. "That system applies only to muggles. Our government has its own procedure and has granted me custody of the child."

"Well I don't recognize your government. Anybody can print out official looking papers and spin a good story, after all, although they're usually much saner than yours."

"I assure you these are the real thing," he replied in agitation.

"And I assure you that I take my duties very seriously and won't sign any paperwork let alone give you access to a child until I can confirm that you are who you say you are and that your papers are legal and official."

"Then I believe we are at an impasse," Dumbledore stated blandly.

"Indeed," the matron said tightly.

"Very well then, I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice." The Matron's eyes grew wide in fear and the tip of his wand appeared out of Dumbledore's robes. Suddenly the Matron stiffened and her eyes glazed over. "Sign the paperwork," Dumbledore commanded. As she reached for a pen to obey, Susan struck.

Albus had no idea how a ring tailed lemur came to be in that part of the forest, or why it seemed so intent on taking his papers. All he knew was that it would take too long to go back to the ministry for copies; the Granger girl had warned him that the boy had become aware of his plans and was making plans of his own. Thus, it was a desperate headmaster that chased into the forest after the lemur that had stolen his papers. He would have used his wand to catch it, but the dog had assumed it was a toy and had grabbed it soon after the lemur had grabbed the papers. With them running in opposite directions, Albus was forced to chase the lemur down the muggle way and hope the dog brought his wand back later.

As soon as Dumbledore disappeared out of his sight Neville changed back into his human form and went to help the Matron. Unfortunately, the only way to snap someone out of the Imperius was a six-week potion therapy or the death of the caster. Well, the caster could also end the spell, but Neville wasn't betting on that working out, since he didn't plan on returning Dumbledore's wand.

As Dumbledore ran through the woods, Daphne and Harry were having a discussion with a small girl with light brown hair and big brown eyes.

"Hi there," Daphne said with a smile. "Are you Katie Kent?" The little girl clutched her worn teddy bear a little more tightly but nodded all the same. "Hi Katie, my name's Daphne, and this is my friend Harry. We'd like to talk to you if that's alright?" The girl nodded and sat at a rickety table, Daphne and Harry sitting across from her.

Harry took that moment to examine her. She was small for her age and seemed shy, always curling in on herself when spoken to. Her hair was shoulder length but clean, and her dress had once been yellow before years of washes turned in a dull tan. Despite the grubby conditions, she seemed well cared for. Harry was optimistic about their chances, then.

"Are you taking me away," Katie asked quietly, startling Harry out of his observations.

"We'd like to," Harry replied, "but it's up to you."

"The man with a beard said he'd take me away to a magical castle. I want to go with him."

Daphne nodded understandably. "That's a great choice. My friend Harry and I actually live in the magical castle."

Instantly Katie's face lit up and she looked at them in awe. "You do?"

Harry smiled at her and nodded. "We do, and it's even more amazing than it sounds. The portraits on the walls actually talk to you, and one of the teachers turns into a cat, and the staircases move."

"Wow. Then he was telling the truth? The castle is real?"

"Oh yes," Harry said, nodding, "it's very real. But let me ask, Katie, did he say why he wanted to take you there?"

"He said that my family used to go there and the castle would talk to me," she said brightly, not noticing the dark looks her guests were giving each other.

"Well, Katie," Daphne began softly, "we wanted to warn you about the man. You see, he isn't a very nice man. The castle talking to you is actually real, and it's done through something called wards. But once you're linked, you can't tune them out. There will be voices and knowledge in your head all the time. I'm afraid that you're so young that the power and knowledge might overwhelm your brain and hurt you."

"So he's a bad man?" Harry and Daphne nodded. "But he said he would take me to a family. I've always wanted a real family," she said sadly, hugging her teddy bear tighter.

"Well, that's the thing, Katie. You see, Harry and I want to make you part of our family."

"But how do I know you don't want the same thing as the bad man?"

"Well, Harry's family used to go to the castle too, so he can already hear the wards. In fact, he's the one who put them up in the first place. So he doesn't need you for the wards at all."

"Oh. Well, who would I stay with?"

"Well, we thought you could stay with my parents," Daphne said with a smile. "They're very nice and have already raised two daughters. My younger sister Astoria is twelve. You could be my sister, too. Would you like that?" Katie nodded and Daphne beamed at her. "Okay little sister, I'm going to take out my wand and say a bunch of serious sounding stuff, but don't be afraid, alright?"

Katie nodded bravely and Daphne stood. "I, heiress of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass, do hereby proclaim Katie Kent a ward of the Greengrass family, to be given the same protections and status as all other members, hereby and forever more. So mote it be." A golden flash surrounded them before it dispersed.

With a whoop, Harry grabbed Katie and slung her over his shoulder and onto his back, eliciting a giggle from the excited girl. "Yay Katie, you're my sister now!"

"Are you a Greengrass too?"

"No, my name's Harry Potter, but can I tell you a secret?" Katie nodded and leaned closer to him. "One day I'm going to marry Daphne, and then I'll be your brother. But don't tell her that, yet, okay? I want it to be a surprise."

"Okay Harry, I won't tell. Is that the bad man," she asked, pointing at an enraged Dumbledore. Standing suddenly, Harry drew his wand and faced his opponent, trying desperately not to laugh. The man had twigs and leaves in his hair and beard, his glasses hung crookedly on his nose, and his bright blue robes were full of holes and chew marks. Both pieces of what used to be the elder wand were held in his hand, having been snapped by the dog at some point. Furthermore, the Matron had disappeared and the papers he'd collected were soggy and unreadable.

"What is going on here," he spat, fury radiating off of him in waves.

Harry held his ground. "Katie here has been named a ward of House Greengrass. Any attempt to contact her, control her, or even breathe near her will be met with the full power of the House of Greengrass, along with the Houses of Potter, Black, Peverell, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. Do I make myself clear?"

"That's impossible," he cried. "I've been granted her guardianship by the ministry!" He held up the soggy papers to make his point. Daphne stalked over and inspected them.

"Even if I could read them, you and I both know that the papers aren't official until the child has been signed over by her muggle guardian. I don't see a signature on here."

"I was just about to get it when you showed up!"

Daphne shrugged. "Too bad, headmaster. She's a ward of the House of Greengrass now and thus untouchable by you or anyone else." She turned her back on him and walked back towards Harry and her new sister.

"You did this," Dumbledore screamed madly, "You got the lemur to take my papers and took the Matron away!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Daphne said with a straight face, "but you'd better have evidence to back up your statements. The House of Greengrass doesn't take kindly to being falsely slandered."

Dumbledore was literally shaking with rage. "Give her back!"

"Headmaster," Harry interrupted, placing great emphasis on her name, "I'm confused as to why you are showing so much interest in this child. Yes, she's Hufflepuff's heir, but she couldn't be linked to the wards yet. They were overload her brain and kill her instantly, or leave her insane at the very least. Surely you know that?"

Dumbledore's guilt was written all over his face, but he said nothing.

"Well then, since you have no use of the child, there's no reason for you to be upset at losing custody of her. After all, now you'll have more time to a lot to your headmasterly duties, which I believe we'll be meeting about soon."

The headmaster nodded stiffly and turned to leave.

"Oh, and headmaster?" Harry waited to make eye contact before continuing, his voice hard. "This is your last warning. Go after me or one of my friends again and I'll destroy you. Painfully. Now," he said in a syrupy sweet voice, "if that's all, we'd like to go and get Katie settled in at home."

The headmaster scowled and stormed away, throwing the pieces of his wand into the woods on his way out. The sound of apparition signaled that he'd used his backup wand to depart. About three seconds later all four teens, two of whom were hiding in the woods, were laughing uproariously.

"That…was…awesome," Neville wheezed between laughs.

"Did you see his face when you snapped his wand," Susan squealed. "Oh, Harry, we'll have to pensieve it. It was priceless!"

"What's a pensieve," a little voice chirped, bringing them all back to reality.

"I'll tell you later Katie. For now, why don't we get you home?" They gathered her things and apparated to Greengrass Manor, waving goodbye to the smiling Matron. Evelyn had only had about three hours' notice of the situation, but she had already made up Katie's room and took great delight in showing her around it, cooing and fussing over the newest member of her family. Cyrus was right behind her, oohing and ahhing over all the toys and cracking jokes that had Katie in stiches. Harry and Daphne left soon after, confident that she would be well taken care of.

The next few days at Hogwarts were tense. Dumbledore glared at the four teens whenever he could, and the teens retaliated by telling stories of Katie and er new home within his hearing distance. The obvious chasm between the two forces created an awkward tension in the school that proved difficult to diffuse.

In the end, it was a book that did the trick, not because of its contents, but because the teens were too busy examining it to continue the petty feud between themselves and the headmaster.

The book in question had been sent by the Goblins and was a large, ancient tome. The tallow pages were crinkled and the binding was frayed, but the note accompanying the package assured Harry that he was indeed allowed to touch it as preservation charms had been liberally applied. It was the author that had the teens in awe. The book titled "Ancient Runes and their uses," was written by Merlin himself. Daphne in particular was in awe.

There ogling was interrupted by none other than the Gryffindor bookworm, who had seen the book delivered and approached them out of curiosity.

"What's that," she asked innocently. The four faces around her hardened and conversation immediately ended.

"Like we'd tell you," Daphne said in disgust.

"What did I do?!"

Harry stood at that and leaned in until their faces were an inch apart. "What did you do," he asked quietly, menacingly. "What did you do?! You handed over a little girl to a power hungry old man that wanted to exploit her heritage just to regain some control of the castle he's been using for his own ends. The wards, Hermione, he wanted to access the wards, which only a founder's heir could do," he growled, ignoring the dawning comprehension and horror in the girl's eyes.

"These same wards would have ripped her mind to shreds, the mind of a five year old girl, before killing her slowly and painfully. And when we tried to stop that from happening, you told! We trusted you, I trusted you! The Hermione I knew would have done the right thing and stuck by her friends. But no, you had to tell Dumbledore, of all people, because god forbid you deny the proper kowtowing to an authority figure. After all, no one in authority has ever misused their power! Gods, Hermione, do you even think for yourself anymore, or is Dumbledore doing that too?!"

"I thought I was helping," she sobbed, "I thought you were trying to use her, not Dumbledore!"

"Some friend," he said, looking at her in disgust. He turned to his real friends. "Come on guys, let's go. It's starting to smell in here, too close to the garbage probably." The four teens walked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the sobbing girl behind them who'd realized too late that she'd chosen the wrong side.

By the time they'd gotten back the Harry's rooms they'd worked off most of their rage and had turned their interest to their new book. "So, is it the same," Susan asked as Daphne compared the book to Godric's notes.

"Yup," Daphne responded with a grin.

With a whoop Harry quickly divided up the pages of notes between himself and his girlfriend and began the long process of translating the runes. Susan and Neville disappeared a few minutes after, presumably to visit some broom closets. Their friends were too engrossed in their project to notice.

A/N: Alright, I've got some bad news for you (but good for me!). I'm going on vacation out of country for a few weeks and thus wont have access to fanfiction. That means that my next post wont be until February. I apologize in advance and promise to make it up to you with a super amazing set of chapters upon my return. Again, I repeat, don't expect an update until February. Sorry folks, that's just the ways things are turning out. Until then, enjoy!