Disclaimer: If you think I own Harry Potter, you're a dunce.

Harry hunched over the book at the table. Draco had gone with the rest of the guys to the Hogs Head after work, and had yet to return, Harry, however was banned from it until such time as his Great-great-uncle decided to return to work (Varan had stopped coming around the Department after a few weeks) and thus opted to return to the quarters and continue studying the Soul-Ripping spell. He wanted to know how it was that both the caster and the victim were able to look into the astral plane when the spell was cast.

It was a thoroughly interesting subject, everything having to do with the astral world. There were some spells that would allow you to become your astral form which were paired with spells that kept your body temporarily alive without a soul. Your astral form couldn't stray three hundred meters away though or all control would be relinquished and it would be returned to your body, though your ability to do magic would be greatly lessened for a while. There were other versions of this, most of which involving blood sacrifices and the like and thusly were considered Dark Arts.

Harry, who had strayed into the Dark Arts before, made a vow to never lower himself into using any of those, and stuck with the first spell, which would allow him to legally accomplish this task. Then there was his other main interest, which was finding a way to allow himself to see without his eyes open. This, however, he had already spent much time debating on and had located a spell. However, he had yet to study it. Pushing aside the first book, he pulled a second even older black leather bound book with gold writing on it. He opened the book to a pre-marked page.

Close-eyed vision

Inspicio

Inspicio is a spell that allows you to implant astral eyes onto an object, thus allowing you to connect the nerves in your body that would open your eyes to make them open the 'eyes' on the object so you would see from it's point of view.

Short, sweet, and to the point.

And just what he needed to boot.

Harry read on for almost an hour more, studying the spell in a second book. Suddenly, his concentration was broken. "Alright Potter," Harry jumped to his feet. He turned so quickly that he almost lost balance and found Draco standing behind him. "A duel, come on!" Harry, who hadn't had a proper duel in a while, was quick to accept, despite the thick obscuring fog of a hangover. Why not try out his new spell?

Standing back to back, Harry and Draco silently waved their wands, clearing the room of all obstacles. After a moment's inspection, they began to take ten paces. At his silent count of ten, Harry rounded on Draco, closed his eyes and pointed his wand at the ceiling. Inspicio, he thought.

After a moment where Draco, confused, hadn't attacked, Harry tried to open his eyes. It was a success, he could now look down on the rest of his body, however, it left him shaking in trying to take a step forward as his mind tried to counteract his body. "Well, come on Draco," he hissed, "let's not wait for the grass to grow."

Draco didn't waste anymore time. He waved his wand in an equally silent manner and a flash of red flew from the tip. Harry tried to dodge left, but in his mind's confusion, fell to the ground, the stunner hitting the wall harmlessly. Harry forcefully made his legs go under him and stood again. Again he saw Draco's confusion but his silence. Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Draco. Restriegue!

A score of ghostly brushes suddenly began to scrub at Draco, and Harry knew from experience that this sensation he was feeling right about then would be distinctly uncomfortable. In the moment of confusion it caused Draco Harry racked his brain for a quick spell, light, or 'dark' and thought, Tarrantellegra! Draco, freshly clear of the brushes swung his wand upward.

"Munio!" The spell bounced off the shield, diffusing into smaller pieces and hitting the walls of the room. Harry turned his 'eyes' on Draco whose look of confusion was gone, replaced by a distinctly uneasy look, one Harry couldn't really figure out. Harry turned and began to cast another series of spells that Draco was getting worse and worse at dodging. Harry knew that if he kept his barrage up, the boy would get clipped with a spell, and Harry could end the duel.

"Reducto! Reducto!Incendio!" Each spell missed, but only barely, just as Harry went to cast another, he was hit by one of Draco's, causing him to hit the wall behind him hard, shattering a mirror behind him. Harry looked up, expecting a spell to be flying at him.

Draco brought his wand up and pointed it at Harry. His spell was a mumble, and whatever it was did nothing whatsoever, because Draco repeated the mumble twice and looked curiously at his wand. Harry, rather perturbed by this display redoubled his enthusiasm. He pulled a mirror shard from the back of his own skull painfully.

Levicorpus, and with this thought, Harry watched Draco shoot up into the air by his ankle. The duel was his.

"Alright, let me down, Potter." Harry flexed his wand once more Liberacorprus, and Draco fell to the ground managing a semi-graceful roll to a standing position.

"What was that about," Harry asked after a moment of silence, still looking down at Draco from the cieling.

"What was what," Draco looked confused, yet nervous.

"You tried a spell twice and it did nothing!"

Draco's head snapped upward, his face turning red. "How did you see that, your eyes were closed," Harry pointed to the approximate position of his 'eyes' on the ceiling.

"My eyes are up there. And on that note…" he raised his wand, closed his ceiling eyes, and said, "Finite Incantatem, I won't have to look at those Gorgons to fight them now, I might be able to find a way to beat them. I just have to find a way to remove their eyes. I would try Conjunctiva, but I'm not so sure it'd work on them. Just call it a hunch."

"Could you try adseroanima on them? We can us it like a test run for when we find a Horcrux, whenever that shall be," Harry hummed silently.

"I could try, but speculation is that they don't have souls." Then he sighed and with one broad sweep of his wand summoned all the furniture back into place, allowing himself to move over and sink down onto the couch. Next he pulled each shard of mirror from his head piece by piece before repairing the mirror. "We need to find those Horcruxes soon too; He-Who-Has-No-Brain is wreaking havoc on the Ministry, now will you heal those cuts for me?"

Draco took a long, hard look at him, as if examining his sanity "He-who-?"

Harry smiled softly. "It's something Gin used to call him, a long time ago."

Draco silently raised his wand and healed his partner's cuts. He could see Harry was in some mental pain as well as physical.

Harry, as Zanan continued studying each night after work, and continued going alone to the Three Broomsticks, including during a Hogsmeade weekend where he spotted Ginny and Hermione sitting alone at a table in the back. He'd kept his eye on them, and as soon as he'd found a dark alleyway, had turned back into Harry and returned to spend the day with them.

Together they'd gone to the Shrieking Shack out of pure boredom and Harry had talked with them while repairing the inside of the old building. He wouldn't be sure why he had done it when he looked back, but it was kind of like a testament to where he'd first met Sirius.

He recalled their first meeting of Sirius to Ginny as he worked, and even showed her the room it'd taken place in, repairing the bed and door that had been damaged, and cleaning the bloodstains that had accompanied the meeting.

But his life wasn't just trips to Hogsmeade and work. Zanan had indeed begun to fall under public eye, and he'd been in several meetings with the Minister himself, during which his dislike for the man grew exponentially. Scrimegour really was scum, but nowhere near as bad as Fudge had been, at least he was trying to get rid of Voldemort.

Harry and Draco made a public appearance several weeks later, as Harry and Draco, not Zanan and Marks. "It really has been a nice visit, Minister, but we left some jobs unfinished in Romania, and we are very tired," Harry, who was indeed tired,— of dealing with the Minister— took a deep breath, "By the way, how would I get a pass to visit a prisoner in Azkaban?"

The Minister became incredibly flustered looking; indeed Harry didn't think the former Head of Aurors should become quite so flustered. After a long moment, he said, "There'll be no need. We've reviewed his case, and we will be setting Stan Shunpike free at midnight." It couldn't be clearer to Harry that Rufus had made this decision on the spur of the moment. However, Harry could tell that no matter how sudden of a decision it had been, he would keep his word and release what was left of Stan at midnight. If the man wasn't insane by now, he might file complaints against the Ministry.

Harry might find it in him to back the man up as well.

For now, however he had to go. In front of a group of reporters, he shook hands with Scrimegour, as did Draco -very reluctantly- and they then Apparated off. Back in the quarters, Harry cast the spell and returned himself to the image of Zanan, which he had begun to get attached to. He could now go out in public without drawing as large of a crowd, though he was still well noticed, Junior Head of the Department of Mysteries wasn't a position you could hold and be passed over.

"I'm tired, we've visited Scrimegour, gotten an idiot out of Azkaban and I've got scratches all over me from our duel last night. I'd rather just go to bed." Harry shrugged as the man went into his room and shut the door. Harry himself picked up the Prophet, lit a couple of candles with a flick of his wrist and began to skim it.

Something caught his eye in the add section.

Dueling tournament

There will be a large dueling tournament open to everyone from ages 17 upward in England in two time. Signup with Ludo Bagman in the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

At first, he was going to put it down, but then something prodded him in the back of his mind, and a plan began to form. "Draco," Harry yelled quickly. After hearing a noise, Harry turned and saw Draco, as Marks open the door to his room.

"What is it," Harry grinned at the annoyed look on his roommate's face.

"Get dressed and out of your disguise, we're going back to the Ministry." He threw the paper to Draco, who took one look at it then looked at Harry, obviously confused. A moment later, Draco Malfoy's eyes widened. His face grew indignant.

"You're not- wait, it's the bloody boy-who-lived, of course you are." Draco disappeared back into his room for a moment.