I mention a name in the first few paragraphs and pretty much state who he is, but in case people have trouble figuring it out; Roger Vick is the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Also, judging by the stats, a lot of you have skipped Chapters 18 and 19. Since Chapters 17-20 were posted within a week, many of you probably didn't realize you skipped entire chapters. Go back and read them. Please and thank you.

Chapter 21 Setting Things In Motion

Amos Diggory casually browsed the photos sitting on the mantle. He recognized all the faces smiling up at him; some of them had been co-workers and others had been fellow students while he was at Hogwarts. The Bones family was one of dozens that had been decimated by the war. Voldemort was fighting for the purebloods, but his war had wiped out more families than any other war, and whittled numerous more families to only a handful of members.

The Potters. The McKinnons. The Blacks. The Bones. The Prewetts. The Rosiers. The Moodys. The Princes. The Gamps. The Longbottoms. The Averys. The Crouchs. The Blishwicks. The Goyles.

Hell, even the Diggorys. Amos had lost a younger brother, an older sister, a brother-in-law, a nephew, two cousins, an aunt, an uncle and both his parents.

And a son.

Amos scowled. His family had now been whittled down to him and his wife. The Diggorys had once been numerous and proud. How could Voldemort ever say he was championing for the pureblood cause?

Amelia Bones entered her sitting room to see Amos Diggory staring into space, scowling.

"Amos, thank you for coming over," Amelia stated, breaking the man out of his unpleasant reverie.

Amos turned toward Amelia and nodded his head. "The school year is reaching an end. We need to start making moves so we can increase safety when all the students are sent back home. Patrols, quick response times, monitoring muggle-born homes..."

Amelia indicated the couches in the room; Amos taking one and she taking another. "I have the support of Rufus in getting rid of Fudge, though he dreams of being Minister himself. Also have the support of the leaders in the Aurors, Hit-Wizards and Magical Law Enforcement Squads. Some, like Gaiwan, want Rufus to be the new Minister, but all agree Fudge needs to go."

Amos nodded his head. "Good. It will make things go a lot easier if we have the fighting force on our side. I talked to Roger Vick and we have his support, as well as most of the ambassadors and representatives in his department. He's told me that the ICW is growing tired of Fudge, especially with these interviews Potter has been giving. Imprisoning Hagrid for the Chamber of Secrets incident without a trial, that has a lot of people in the international community pretty upset."

"I've put tails on Avery Jr. and Selwynn. Several other Ministry officials have been spotted going to that manor you mentioned. I have their list of names written down, a few lower level ones in the Department of Magical Transportation but Edward Pierce is one of my Hit-Wizards."

Amos winced. Hit-Wizards were the best they had. That one of them was working for Voldemort, it wasn't good. Especially if Pierce was just the tip of the iceburg. It was just one more thing they were going to have to do when they got rid of Fudge; systematically sweep through the entire Ministry and test everyone's loyalties.

The two of them had discreetly yet, quickly moved throughout the Ministry and gathered allies to their cause. Both had already talked to their political allies in the Wizengamot about the issue as well. It looked like the board was set.

"We need to approach Dumbledore," Amelia stated. "See if he'll be the Minister when we get rid of Fudge. Even if he refuses, we'll need his political backing. Despite Fudge's efforts, Dumbledore is still quite popular."

"We have to talk to Potter as well. While I have no doubt that he will back us up, its best to make sure. If you combine Potter and Dumbledore's power with our own, Fudge doesn't stand a chance; even if the Death Eaters back him."

Amelia acknowledged that with a tilt of her head. "Potter is good friends with Susan. I can go through her to reach him when he gets back from his suspension."

His suspension had officially ended and Harry was on his way back to Hogwarts. To be sure, Dumbledore had told him to floo directly to the Headmaster's office. Harry had decided he was going to floo to the Three Broomstick's instead. As usual people stared and whispered at the sight of him. He nodded his head to Rosmerta, who was serving a booth, and made his way out into the village. The streets were fairly empty but he had been told that besides the weekends the Hogwarts students swarmed the village, it was usually pretty empty.

The cool spring breeze flowed over Harry's body, running through his hair and generally making him feel relaxed. The sun was setting, casting a reddish haze in the sky. The walk was made in solitude as he contemplated his entire suspension. He now knew everything there was to possibly learn about Voldemort. He had learned how to take on vampires, giants, werewolves, goblins and trolls in fights and walk away victorious. He had also been put through the ringer from Moody, who drilled him in all the tactics used by the Death Eaters in the last war, as well as showing him how unpredictable and dirty fights to the death were.

The gates of Hogwarts opened at his approach and closed behind him as he walked on through. He was pretty sure the gates didn't do that for anyone besides him and Dumbledore, but he had come to see that Hogwarts held him in higher regard than most. He didn't really know why the slightly sentient school seemed to like him, but he gathered it had something to do with killing the basilisk that haunted its pipes. He imagined there was a dirty joke in there somewhere, but he wasn't Seamus so he couldn't find it.

His pace was leisurely, as he was in no rush to get back to Hogwarts. He didn't have to push open the huge entrance doors either, as they did it on their own accord. Maybe being friends with a building wasn't so bad after all.

The doors to the Great Hall were open and Harry could hear hundreds of voices as the school sat down for Sunday dinner. He strolled through the doors with his hands in his pocket. Some of the students stopped talking as they noticed him, prompting the teachers to take notice. Harry noticed Dumbledore frowning at him, no doubt having been told by Moody that Harry had floo'd to the Three Broomstick's, ignoring what he was explicitly told.

A few Hufflepuffs started clapping at the sight of Harry and they were joined by a handful of Gryffindors but both groups stopped at the looks shot at them from McGonagall. Harry supressed the grin that tried making its way onto his face. It seemed a lot of people were overjoyed that Snape was gone, no matter how it was done. Harry doubted it would endear him to the Slytherins anymore, but besides the four he was friends with, he didn't care much for the rest of the house anyway.

He made his way to the Gryffindor table, where Dean scooted over and made room for him to sit next to Hermione. Harry nodded his thanks to his roommate before turning to Hermione and giving her a quick kiss on the lips. He felt glares on him and knew not all of them were from the Slytherins. Parvarti was pissed about Harry and Hermione dating and since Lavender was her best friend, Lavender was pissed too. That made things a little awkward for Ron, who wasn't dating Lavender, but was snogging her on the regular. Then besides the Slytherins, Parvarti and Lavender, there were those who supported Voldemort outside of Slytherin who hated him for oppossing the egomaniac. Finally, there were those who probably believed everything the Prophet and Ministry was saying about him.

Why come back to all this?

"How's everything been going?"

Hermione squeezed his thigh underneath the table.

Oh yeah, that was why.

"It's a good thing your back mate. Things have been getting nasty between us and the snakes," Seamus stated, nodding toward the Slytherin table, who was glaring heatedly at Harry.

"Yeah, I guess me putting Snape in the hospital didn't improve house unity did it?" Harry asked, sarcastically.

"Well, it certaintly made the Hufflepuffs love us more. Snape was almost as bad to them as he was to us," Ginny added.

Neville scratched the back of his head. "A lot of Ravenclaws are happy that Dumbledore took over because he's a much better teacher then Snape is, so grades should go up at the end of the year, especially for OWLs and NEWTs. So I guess while they aren't happy with the way you've gone about it, the Ravenclaws are thankful as well."

"So you're saying I did the school a favor."

Hermione frowned and slapped him on the shoulder. "Attacking a professor and putting him the hospital is nothing to be proud of Harry."

"Unless that professor is Snape," Ron added, with a grin.

Harry laughed but quickly turned it into a cough as Hermione glared at him and Ron.

"I have something in my throat," Harry meekly defended at Hermione's look.

Harry stood in front of the thirty-six students he trained with, trying to get a judgement on how they all viewed him in the wake of his attack on Snape. There was no hatred or contempt in anyone's eyes, so he guessed that was a good thing. However, he did see fear in some people's eyes; nothing over-powering but it was clear his attack on Snape had made many people wary of him, including his own friends. That actually hurt.

"I shouldn't have done what I did to Snape but there are...issues between Snape and my family that have been kept from me. When these issues came to light, well my anger got the best of me. However, I want to state I don't regret what I did to Snape. Some of you might not be able to deal with that. Some of you might think I'm too dangerous to be around. If you think that, you are free to leave with no hard feelings."

No one moved, even those who were now wary of him.

"Good. Now, lets get this session started. There are things I learned during my suspension I want to teach you guys."

They all started their warm-up stretches, curious as to what Harry could have possibly learned while suspended. Harry chatted idly with Wayne Hopkins as he ran, since the muggle-born had built up his stamina to go along with his speed, making him the only one able to keep up with Harry's fast pace. Apparently Wayne had been attacked again by cloaked figures, except this time there was only two of them and Wayne was able to defend himself properly.

"I have you to thank for that Harry," Wayne stated between heavy breaths. "If you hadn't agreed to train me, I would have been in the Hospital Wing again, or worse."

Harry and Wayne came to a stop, both bending over and putting their hands on their knees as they breathed heavily to catch their breaths. "You had the skills and talents Wayne, I just...I just helped you hone them."

"So what's this new thing your teaching us?"

Harry smirked at the Hufflepuff as slowly, one after another, the rest of the students came to a stop. Harry scrunched up his face and suddenly a twelve foot tall mountain troll popped into existence. In one of its hands it clutched a large club, almost as long as the troll was tall. Everyone jumped back, some letting out screams of fear at the creature in front of them.

"Its ok guys, its not an actual troll. Its just a dummy I'm using to help you learn what I'm going to teach. This is your standard mountain troll, the biggest and dumbest of the troll family. If you were to run into your run of the mill troll you can easily beat it, doing something any first year can do."

"Jump on its back and shove your wand up its nose?" Ron asked, sarcastically.

"I was eleven and it was only two months into my first year," Harry stated, defending himself as he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "Getting back to the lesson, you can cast a simple levitation charm on its club. That takes away its weapon and then you can proceed to drop its club on its head, as Ron effectively demonstrated Halloween our first year."

"You guys fought a troll as first years?" Hannah Abbot demanded.

Ron and Harry shared a look. "Well yeah," Ron said, in a voice that seemed to ask 'doesn't everybody?'

"However, most trolls who work under humans, whether they be security trolls or trolls under the service of a dark lord, most likely had their weapons enchanted to prevent anyone from using magic on them. Luckily, though resistant to magic somewhat, your average troll isn't anywhere as resistant as a dragon or giant. That means your average witch or wizard can take down a troll, if they overpower their spells. A bludgeoner to the face of a troll would be like a powerful right hook to one of us."

Harry indicated for Wayne to demonstrate what Harry meant. The Hufflepuff stepped forward and took aim with his wand; "Feri."

The jet of light hit the troll dead center, snapping the trolls head back and sending blood flowing down the trolls face. After Harry was sure everyone got a good look at the damage caused, he made the room put the troll back into perfect health.

"Any overpowered spell can cause damage to a troll. Colin, think of a spell and use it."

Colin stepped forward, launching a cutter right at the troll's stomach. It cut through the skin of the stomach, opening a large gash, blood pouring from the wound. Harry allowed everyone to get a shot, fixing the troll after every spell caused its damage.

"As you can see its pretty easy to take down your average troll. However, at the start of the last war Voldemort," almost everyone in the room shuddered, "realizing the general ineffectiveness of trolls in long distance battles started equipping trolls with armor."

Suddenly the troll had on a metal helmet that covered its entire head except the eyes and mouth, and most of its neck, and a chest plate. Harry waved his wand, shooting a spell that hit the chest plate and dented it, but caused no damage to the troll. He tried a few more spells, each having the same effect when hitting the metal plate.

"Now, unless the armor is made by an idiot, it will most likely be enchanted to be resistant to magic. You can still target the arms, legs and neck of the troll. It will take a lot of damage and spells to kill a troll by way of one of its limbs because most people aren't powerful enough to cause significant damage with one spell in its torso, let alone its limbs. As for its neck, well you're most likely shooting these spells from at least twenty-five feet away since the twelve foot club, added to its seven foot reach, makes for at least nineteen feet you should have between you and it. The gap between chest plate and helmet is inches. How many people think they can hit such a small gap from twenty-five feet away?"

Only a dozen raised their hands. Harry smirked at them as square targets three inches big appeared twenty-five feet from them. He raised an eyebrow in challenge, waving an arm at the targets in a 'go ahead' gesture. Every student tried to hit the target with ten or so spells. Only four students hit it, and out of those four only one hit it more then once. Harry, the most accurate one in the group, tried it and only hit four out of ten.

"Its hard to hit such a small target from such a distance. So you can keep pounding at its limbs, hoping the damage will add up and take it down or you can try other tactics. The best one is try to use physical objects. Conjure large boulders and banish them at the troll. Try to tangle its feet with rope or something to bring it to the ground. Be creative."

Harry glanced at his watch. "Sorry guys, thats it for today. We've already ran three minutes pass our usual ending time."

Hermione came up to Harry, beaming at the lesson he had just taught them. "When you told us Dumbledore was having you learn some things to help in the war, I never thought it would be something like that."

"Yeah. McGonagall's nephew, James Macnie, showed me it."

Hermione grabbed his hand in her own, linking their fingers. She could feel the slight tension in his hand. "Whats wrong?"

Harry glanced around, slightly uneasy. "Its nearing the end of the year. Something always happens at the end of the year."

Hermione thought back to her years at Hogwarts up to that point. The Sorceror's Stone and the protections to get to it, the Chamber of Secrets, Sirius and Pettigrew, and the Third Task instantly popped into her head. Harry was right, something always did happen at the end of Hogwarts. At least, something always happened to him.

"I think we should have a way to get in contact with everyone. In case something happens. It would be nice to know that we wouldn't have to do things just me, you and Ron. That we would have others we could rely on."

Hermione squeezed Harry's hand in reassurance. "I'll come up with something."

Harry nodded his head before a frown overtook his features. "Hermione, when you visited me while I was at the Dursley's, why did you do it?"

Hermione looked startled at the question. "Because I wanted to be with you."

Harry looked in her eyes, searching for answers. He gently read her surface thoughts and emotions, skimming the edge of her mind. Unless Hermione had learned Occlumency without telling him, which was doubtful since he couldn't detect any defenses whatsoever, she was telling the truth. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Why do you ask?" Hermione questioned.

"No reason," Harry answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

Fudge allowed Umbridge to sit down before sliding a folder across the table. "Amelia has been acting strangely. She requested more money for her department and has accepted Gregory McDuff and Mike Norton, two amateur duelist, to be Hit Wizards. They are going through a quick basic program and will be available for service in two months."

Umbridge opened the folder and examined the few pieces of parchment within it. "Only six new employees have been accepted into Auror or Hit Wizard training in the pass five years. Why accept two so quickly?"

"I think she's collaborating with Potter and Dumbledore."

"You think she believes the lies about You-Know-Who too?"

Fudge looked at his Undersecretary as if she was an idiot. "What? No. McDuff was a good friend of her brother Edgar and Norton is a second cousin of hers. If there was a coup in the Ministry, they would side with her."

Umbridge stared at the Minister in mild-shock. "You think they are going to try to overthrow the government?"

"Yes! Dumbledore is rumored to have a vigilante group, Potter is training over thirty students to fight and Bones is securing the loyalty of most of the Magical Law Enforcement Department! Not to mention the political power all three of them have separately, let alone combined!"

Umbridge thought it over. Maybe the Minister was right, maybe Dumbledore had wanted to overthrow him and was using Potter as his pawn. Then the pawn roped him a powerful ally on the inside, joining together to create a powerful trio.

"We can't let this happen! We need to act quickly."

If Umbridge wasn't so devoted to Fudge, or even if she was halfway intelligent, she would be able to tell the signs of paranoia Fudge was displaying. She would dismiss Fudge's claims of an upheaval by a school Headmaster, a fifteen year old and a Ministry employee. However, she was a firm supporter of the Minister and hated Potter, Dumbledore and Bones as much as Fudge did. Even if she had doubts about such things being false, why would she pass up an opportunity to strike against three people she despised?

"What do you propose?"

"Potter returned from his suspension eleven days ago. We need to strike sometime before school gets out, to get them all in one swoop. If I can get Dumbledore to the Ministry for several hours that would allow you to go into the school without much opposition. Bring every person in the Magical Law Enforcement who we know for sure is loyal to me with you and arrest Potter and his group of followers." Fudge sneered at the last part.

"Arrest them on what charges?"

"Plotting to overthrow the government!"

"Wouldn't it be easier to wait for them all to be out of school? Take them down one by one?" Umbridge questioned.

"Then you get parents and the students families involved in the arrest itself, which will cause too many problems. Not to mention some of these children, likes Bones, Longbottom and the Patils, live in manors that are heavily warded. The Ministry can't just waltz into these mansions like we can Hogwarts. No, better to get them put securely away before anyone realizes whats going on."

"What about Bones and Dumbledore? What do you plan on doing about them?"

Fudge rubbed his chin in thought. "I'll fire Bones and have a complete overhaul of her department. Get rid of every Auror, Hit Wizard and MLES member loyal to her. It might bring the department to half strength, but it will only take a few months to bring the numbers of Hit Wizards and MLES members back up to par.

"As for Dumbledore, I'll have him exiled from this country. I'll declare that any who communicates with him is committing a crime against their government."

"You will meet strict resistance Minister," Umbridge said, reminding the man of exactly who he was going after.

"It needs to be done for the safety of the government and the safety of this country."

"Harry, can I talk to you?" Susan asked, approaching the teen from behind as they wandered down to lunch.

Harry turned toward the redheaded Hufflepuff and smiled. "Of course Susan."

"Er, privately," she added, looking around the crowded hallway.

Harry glanced around him. There was a broom closet, but walking into one with Susan was going to imply things the Hogwarts gossip mill would run with. Harry didn't need that, especially with Hermione.

"Let's go in that room right there," Harry said, pointing at an old Defense classroom.

Susan led the way, with Harry closing the door behind them as soon as they entered.

"What's up Susan?"

Susan waved her hand at the door, casting a basic privacy charm. She made her way over to the dust covered teacher's desk and sat down on it. Harry moved over to one of the student desk and leaned against it.

"My aunt wanted me to talk to you. Her and Amos Diggory have been plotting to get rid of Fudge for two months now and they want to make sure they have your backing when it goes down in a couple of weeks."

Harry smiled. "Of course they do! Did they even have to ask?"

"What's that muggle saying? Better to be safe than sorry?"

Harry nodded his head. "I'll talk to the Broderick soon to let him know of the situation. He'll let the others know. Do they have an idea of who is gonna replace Fudge?"

Susan looked Harry in the eyes. "Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?" Harry asked. "I don't think he'll leave Hogwarts. He loves this school and its students, I doubt he'll abandon either."

"Amos is the second option, if Dumbledore doesn't accept."

"Do they need me to do anything else?"

Susan shook her head, standing up off the desk. "No, just back them when they call for his impeachment. They're going to need some good Aurors and Hit-Wizards in order to help fight but with your training, they'll have some good graduates to pick from."

Harry's mind went to Alicia Spinnet and Jeff Summerby. Both were seventh years who would make outstanding Hit-Wizards. He thought of Fred and George, who if they put their minds to it, could probably make some decent Aurors. He nodded his head at Susan's words.

The door to the classroom opened and Hermione walked into the room briskly. Harry assumed someone had seen him and Susan walk into the classroom by themselves, couldn't hear anything over the privacy spells and had told Hermione of the situation. She had come investigating, knowing that Susan had a crush on Harry.

"What are you two doing?" Hermione asked, a little stiffly.

Susan looked at Hermione with wide eyes. "Oh...its not what you...we were just..."

Harry approached Hermione with a wide smile, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Wonderful news Hermione! Susan was just telling me that her aunt and Amos Diggory are going to be getting rid of Fudge in a few weeks. They just wanted to make sure they have my backing, which of course they do! That incompetent lout will be gone soon. How awesome is that?"

Hermione smiled back hesitantly, still suspicious of what she had walked in on. "That's great Harry."

"Tell your aunt she has my full support Susan. I'll get the ball rolling with my allies." Harry grabbed Hermione's hand, gave it a squeeze and led her out of the classroom.

"You have nothing to fear Hermione," Harry chidded gently, turning toward his girlfriend as soon as they were several feet from the room. "I may not act like the kind of guy you can trust in a relationship when I'm single, but I would never do anything to hurt you. You are my girlfriend and you are the only girl I'm interested in. Promise."

Hermione blushed. "I'm sorry it's just that..." she trailed off.

"That Susan has a crush on me? That when I was single it seemed like I was snogging every girl in Hogwarts?" Harry asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Hermione looked down. "In my defense, you kind of were."

Harry laughed. "Because I was single Hermione and I could do such things. I'm not single anymore. All relationships are based on trust. If you can't trust me around other girls, this isn't going to work out. I need you to trust me like I trust you."

Hermione looked into his eyes, searching for something. Apparently happy with what she found, she nodded her head and smiled. "Of course Harry. I do trust you."

Harry leaned forward and gave her a tender kiss. "Come on. We got that potions essay to work on, and we both know if mine isn't perfect, Snape's going to fail me."

"Fudge is acting more and more paranoid everyday." Lucius stated. "He's convinced Dumbledore, Potter and Bones are out to get him."

Voldemort looked thoughtful. He wondered if perhaps he should push back his plan to capture Harry Potter and wait to see what Fudge did. He quickly shook his head. He had put this plan ahead of all others. Why wait to see what Fudge could do when he had a plan to get rid of Potter once and for all?

"Let him go down his path of delusions. Fudge is of no consequence to us and will be taken care of shortly. And with Fudge killed, the Ministry will be in need of a new Minister. That is where you come in Lucius. You must either win the election yourself or make sure the new Minister is under our thumb."

Lucius eyes gleamed at the thought of being Minister. "I will make sure it happens my lord."

"Rhydian you will assist him."

"As you wish."

Voldemort sneered slightly at the lack of 'my lord' at the end of Rhydian's statement but let it pass. He usually let his old acquaintances from his Hogwarts days get away with more then the others. "Now I believe your son is right, Lucius, in that the easiest way to get Potter out of the castle, short of dragging him out by his hair, is by putting someone he cares about in danger outside its walls. What of Black?"

Rabastan, who had been keeping tabs on the members of Dumbledore's Order that had survived the first war, spoke up; "Out of the country my lord, along with the werewolf Lupin and another of the original Order members, the ex-Auror Doge."

"Then it must be either the Weasley boy or his mudblood. They mean as much to him as Black does. Contact your son Lucius and get him to instruct several faithful students to grab either one of them and drag them into the forest, where we will set the trap. Lucius what is your plan?"

"There is a clearing in the forest, a mile outside the wards where we will set the trap. I will set up most of my force under the Disillusionment Charm and hidden in the surrounding trees and brush. Only five or so of us will be visible to Potter and whoever he brings with him. Potter might have some others as backup, a reserve unit to back him up if he should walk into a trap. I don't dare give him that much credit but it is best not to underestimate him. I'll make sure our trap isn't sprung until we know the full manpower Potter has backing him up."

Voldemort nodded his head, approving of Malfoy's plan to capture Potter. The Head of the Malfoy family was right, it wasn't smart to underestimate Potter. He knew there was more to the plan, but he didn't care the details. He wasn't a tactician. He was a strategist, a warrior and a leader but not a tactician.

"Good. As for our assault on the village, I will send the Dementors in first to feast. When they are driven back, we'll move in two teams. One through the residential area and the other through the commercial district. The four giants will follow the teams, focusing more on the buildings then the people. I will stay back until we are sure exactly where Dumbledore is, then I will move to engage him."

Eager looks appeared on several of the Death Eaters faces, anticipating the fight that was to come. They had remained passive for fourteen years, it was time for them to spill blood again.

"What of the Ministry employees we train my lord? Do you wish any of them to participate in the battle?" Mulciber asked.

Voldemort thought of it for a second. Were any of them actually useful? "The Hit Wizard, Pierce. He will be a good asset in a fight. The others, however, are useless. We'll save them for another battle."

"Of course my lord."

"Prepare yourselves. We strike on the first of May."

"We'd like to thank you Harry," Daphne started.

"You trained us to be better, treated us like everyone else and made sure everyone treated us like everyone else as well," Tracey finished.

Harry shook his heads at the two Slytherins. "People treated you the way they did because you talked to them and were nice to them. I may have asked them to look beyond the simple fact that you guys were Slytherins but its your personalities that made them accept you as friends, rather then training buddies."

Tracey smiled, liking how humble the Boy-Who-lived was. "We'd still like to thank you. Not to mention you improved my defense grade from a D- to an A. I may not be moving on to NEWT level DADA but at least I'm getting an OWL."

"You never know. I heard their including some dueling into the Defense OWL, meaning you have a shot to get an exceeds expectations. You're a pretty good duelist."

"I'm a good duelist because of you."

"We both are," Daphne added. "Along with almost everyone else we train with."

Harry would have responded but was interrupted as Anthony Goldstein came rushing over to Harry. The Ravenclaw glanced briefly at the two Slytherin girls before focusing fully on Harry.

"Harry I need your help."

Harry, Daphne and Tracey all shot Anthony a look. "Ok, what do you need help with?" Harry asked.

"I need your help with Kylie Jameson and Jessica Stiller."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "The sixth year Hufflepuffs?"

"Those are the ones," Anthony confirmed, nodding his head vigorously.

"What do you need help with?"

Anthony placed his hands on Harry's shoulders and leaned in, looking him eye to eye. "A double date. I get Kylie, cause she's prettier but Jessica ain't too bad looking either so you should be good."

Harry rolled his eyes at Anthony and shrugged the Ravenclaw's hands off his shoulders. "I'm dating Hermione. I doubt she'd appreciate me going on a double date with another woman."

"Yeah I don't think we need to be here for this," Tracey muttered.

"Too true Trace. Stay loyal to your girl Potter."

Harry gave Daphne a look, as if even suggesting him straying from Hermione was a smart decision. The two Slytherins walked off, shooting amused looks at Harry and Anthony as they went.

Anthony shook his head, looking at Harry in mock-pity. "She's already got you on a leash."

"What leash? There's no leash."

"Poor guy forced to react to the whims of his girl," Anthony continued, not even hearing Harry. "Harry, I really need your help to seal this deal."

"I somehow doubt that."

Anthony help up one finger, all but shoving it in Harry's face. "Fame. You're the Boy-Who-Lived everyone in our society all across Europe, and I'm sure across the pond as well, know your name." Anthony put up another finger, wiggling both fingers for Harry to see. "Money. The Potters are loaded, therefor so are you. Ladies love men with money cause that means they get lots of shiny things."

"Who doesn't love things that sparkle?" Harry asked, sarcastically.

"Three," Anthony emphasized his third raised finger, "is your power. Not only are you from a Noble and Ancient family but you are also the biggest bad ass at Hogwarts and have taken on elite competition in fights and won. Chicks dig a man with power. And finally, we get to the final reason."

Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "This should be a good one."

"You are good-looking. Not as good looking as me of course..."

Harry snorted. "Of course."

"But good-looking none the less. You got four things the ladies love. If I want to hook up with Kylie, I'm gonna need a heavy hitter like you to set up the date and keep her friend distracted."

"Yeah, Anthony while sounding like a sure fire plan, it will back fire because I'm going out with Hermione and not only am I afraid of her, I am not the kind of guy to cheat on a woman he cares for."

Anthony fell to his knees and clasped his hands together, looking up at Harry with puppy dog eyes. "Please Harry. I need your help."

"Ask Terry. He's a lord, has money and I'm told by the ladies he's quite good-looking as well. Not to mention he doesn't have a girlfriend."

"Fine but if I get turned down, I'm totally blaming you."