Hey everyone, it is me again. So I have gotten a lot of pm and reviews with people complaining about the last chapter involving Harry and Hermione's meeting. Guys, please settle down, I love how invested you all are in this but I'm not sure that i'm actually going to give Harry a love interest at all, their meeting was just that, a meeting. I just wanted him to meet at least one the characters from the trio, I am not going to just all of sudden, make those two characters fall in love (although it could or could not happen, I don't know). But please don't read much into it, for now at least.

Anyway please read and as usual i welcome constructive criticism so please review

Disclaimer: Unfortunately Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.

CHAPTER TWENTY

ANOTHER PLOY?

"You have got skills, kid" Moody said as he led Harry out of his training room.

He had been training the boy for over a month now and from he could see, the boy was a natural. In fact, he was so advanced in his training that during a couple of their duels, the boy had actually beaten him.

Harry smiled at the rare but sincere compliment, which made the exhaustion he was feeling worthwhile.

"Thanks"

"Now, tell your guardians that I will sending them an update on the Order later this week after we have had a meeting at the headquarters" the Auror said before watching the boy disapparate.

"Lily, James…you did good with this one even if you aren't here to see him" he thought aloud to himself. He really was proud of how the boy had turned out despite what life had thrown at him. He was even beginning to think of him as a son.

Meanwhile, Harry after arriving back home at the Manor met his friend, Lucas, waiting for him.

"Hey! How long ago did you arrive?" he asked as he plopped himself down on the couch next to his best friend while stealing a piece of popcorn from the bowl he held in his hands.

"Not long ago" was the reply he got. "Anyway, Sirius said to tell you that he had to go out and will be back later tonight and Remus is somewhere in the Manor"

"I bet you Sirius has gone out on a date with one of his muggle girlfriends…he has so many of them, it is a miracle that he can keep track of them all" Harry pondered with a fond smile.

"You're one to talk, Harry" his friend said as he playfully shoved him.

"Hey! I am not that bad" Harry protested shoving his friend back.

"Yes you are, Harry. You had a different girlfriend every week at school…you even slept with a few seventh year girls which is unheard of for a fourth year student" Lucas replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Well…there weren't that many girls…I think you're exaggerating" Harry said but had to threaten to hex his friend when he started to list the various girls' names that he had been with.

"Ok…ok fine! You win" he said raising his hands to surrender.

"Of course I do…those girls are going to be so sad when they find out that you graduated this year and that you aren't returning in September" Lucas said with a smile.

"Well I was that good" Harry replied with a smug smile which earned him an eye roll and a scoff from his friend.

"Anyway, how was the training lessons today?" Lucas asked as Harry moved to fire up the Xbox game console.

"It was good…I beat him twice in a duel today"

"Seriously, Harry, I am so jealous! You get to train with one of the best Aurors that ever existed. How cool is that?!" his friend gushed.

"It is pretty amazing actually. He told me a few stories of battles that he had had with dark wizards. The man is awe-inspiring"

"I wish I could have come along"

"Hey, how about I show you a few duelling techniques today…you are staying over right?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes, I am actually staying for the whole week…my folks are travelling to Wales tomorrow for a week and asked your folks if I could stay here"

"Oh cool! Hey, we could go to Diagon Alley tomorrow…I heard the new Firebolt broomstick has been released."

"Really? Maybe, you can talk your folks into getting you one" Lucas suggested.

"Oh yes! I know for a fact that Sirius wants one" Harry replied with a sly smile, already plotting ways on how to convince his guardians to get him the new broomstick.

Meanwhile back at Hogwarts…

"What do you mean you saw Remus Lupin at the Ministry and you didn't think to contact me immediately?" Dumbledore asked in an eerily calm voice.

"Albus, I had to be very careful so that he didn't see me" Arthur Weasley replied.

"Fine!" Dumbledore said rubbing his temples in exasperation. "Were you able to find out what he wanted?"

"Yes" Arthur replied, his eyes lighting up at being able to give a positive answer to the question. "He was looking for a job. Wanted to know if there were any vacancies"

"Hmmm…" was all he got.

"Thank you, Arthur…you may leave. I will be dropping by later for the Order's meeting"

As soon as the man took his leave, he began to pace the floor, the wheels in his head turning as he tried to figure out what to do with this newly acquired information.

"Ha!" he exclaimed excitedly as he summoned a piece of parchment and quill. Sitting back down, he put quill to parchment and began to write with a big smile on his face.

Meanwhile back at the Prodigy School…

Deputy Headmistress Gwyneth Dresden was sitting in her office taking care of some paperwork when an owl flew in through the open window, an envelope attached to its beak.

As she grabbed the envelope, the owl took flight again. As she opened the letter, she began to read its contents causing her to gasp in shock as she finished reading.

Grabbing a few things as she got up, she headed straight for the fireplace in the office, taking some floo powder with her as she went along.

Throwing the powder into fire before stepping in, she shouted "Diagon Alley" before vanishing into the fire.

As soon as she arrived at Diagon Alley, she hurried on towards Gringotts Bank. As she made her way up the white flight of steps of the snow white marble building, she thought aloud to herself, "How on earth is this possible?"

Entering the vast marble hall of the bank, she headed straight for the counter where the goblins are sat, attending to people.

As she approached a free goblin, she said "Hello, I received a letter this morning from the bank addressed to me from Merlin!"

"Do you have the letter?" the goblin asked.

"Yes, I have got right here" she replied, handing the letter over.

She watched as the goblin read the letter carefully before handing it back to her.

"Very well, I will have someone come and deal with this, hang on" the goblin said as he waved over another goblin before whispering something that she couldn't hear to the other goblin.

"Please follow me, madam" the other goblin said before leading her to a set of doors. They went through one of the doors that led into a brightly lit room which had a set of couches and a wooden table in the middle.

"Please have a seat, madam" the goblin gestured to the couches before taking a seat himself.

"Thank you" she replied as she took a seat. "This letter is supposedly from Merlin and had been in the bank's care for years, centuries even…how is that even possible?"

"Madam, this was a special situation as it was supposed to be delivered to whom it was addressed to, today. Despite the fact that it has been in our care for all these years, we don't know why it was done that way or the reason the author of the letter wanted it sent today, all we know is that it has been in our care for decades and was to be sent today which we did. And if the letter says its author is the renowned Merlin, then it must be because as you know we don't condone liars or forgery at Gringotts"

"Do you have any records to prove that the Merlin wrote this" she asked brusquely.

"Of course. I'll be back in a few minutes" the goblin replied, before leaving the room.

She has always known that Harry Potter was a special child, right from the moment that she had met him, and not for the obvious reasons of being responsible for vanquishing the Dark Lord. The boy was in one word, remarkable. He was tremendously talented, smart and has never for once let his fame get to his head. In fact, she was sure he despised his fame. But to thrust upon this kind of responsibility at such a young age, it is really mind boggling.

She has always known that he was going to be burdened with this eventually, she just didn't realise how soon it was going to be. If she couldn't wrap her head around this, how was the boy going to take the news?

Deputy Headmistress Gwyneth Dresden had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice when the goblin came back into the room, until he cleared his throat loudly to capture her attention.

"Madam, here are the records for the date the letter was brought into our safekeeping" the goblin said, handing her a thick, really old looking piece of parchment.

Her eyes widened as she saw Merlin's signature on the parchment.

"So now that you have your proof, shall I go over the procedures of fulfilling the demands of the letter?" the goblin asked as soon as she was done perusing the parchment.

Nodding in reply, she sat back still slightly stunned, as she listened to the goblin talk her through the procedures of the letter.

Meanwhile back at the Manor…

"Bloody hell, Harry! I still can't believe you actually got your dad to buy you the Firebolt" Lucas said as he gazed longingly at the broomstick laid out on his best friend's bed.

"It was easy actually. I knew Padfoot would want one once he heard about its features and all I had to do was ask for one too" Harry replied with a smile.

"Have you flown it yet?" his friend asked.

"No, not yet" Harry replied with a frown. "I have been training pretty much every day with Moody that I haven't had time for anything else"

"Your parents don't mind you training so much?" Lucas asked, because he has seen how protective Harry's parents can be sometimes. Especially when they think Harry is pushing himself too hard with his studying. In fact, he knew from first-hand experience that they made sure his friend stopped studying and had fun, sometimes by taking him on vacation or anything fun that would distract him from studying for a while.

"No, not really" Harry replied. "But they know that I need to be ready whenever I finally meet Voldemort"

"So you really think you might have to fight him eventually?" his friend asked worriedly.

"To be honest, I'm hoping that it doesn't come to that but I want to be ready if it does" he replied, a slight hint of a frown marring his face. Wanting to change the topic of their conversation, he rearranged his features into a smile as he said "So do you want to take it out for a test drive?"

Lucas's face broke into a big smile as he nodded enthusiastically in reply, although he knew that his friend was trying to distract him from the present topic of their discussion.

As they bounded down the stairs, two steps at a time in their eagerness to go out to the grounds to fly Harry's new broomstick, they suddenly heard an angry shout from the living room.

Shocked and a little worried, they changed their course and headed down to the direction of the sound, where they found Sirius and Lupin angrily staring down at a paper which Lupin gripped tightly in his hands.

"What's going on?" Harry asked as he reach his guardians.

As a reply to his question, Lupin held out the piece of paper in his hands. Taking the paper from him, Harry and Lucas hurriedly read through it, both of them frowning as they did.

"Is this a joke?" Lucas asked, still frowning.

"He is actually offering you a job at the Hogwarts…what the hell does he want to achieve by sending this letter?" Harry said, still gazing at the letter in search of any sort of clues as to the intention of Dumbledore.

"We honestly don't know what to think, but if this is supposed to be a joke to mess with Moony's feelings, then he really is more deranged that we initially thought he was" Sirius replied, as he headed over to the little bar in the living room to pour a stiff drink for his friend who was standing stock still in shock and anger.

Taking the proffered drink from his friend, Remus hissed angrily "We need to get to the bottom of this". Walking out of the room, he said "I am going to find out from Alastor"

"Moony, wait!" Sirius called after his friend, who just ignored him and left.

Running his hand through his hair in agitation, he turned towards the boys and asked, "Are you boys going out to fly?"

"Yeah, we were but…" Harry began before his guardian cut in.

"Great, I will join you both...give me a minute to go and change. Also, Lucas, you can borrow Moony's new broomstick, he ended up buying one too after seeing our new brooms" He began to walk towards the staircase leading to his room, before turning back once more. "You're going to love it, it flies like a dream"

Once they were alone in the quiet living room, Lucas turned to his friend and asked "What the bloody hell was that about?"

"That's just Padfoot's way of dealing. He doesn't know how to help Moony in this situation and Moony doesn't seem to need or want anyone's help right now, so we are going to give him his space until he is ready…and well, I guess we are flying with Padfoot" Harry replied with a shrug. He was worried about Moony but he, like Sirius knew when to back off because Remus seemed really angry right now and clearly wants to be alone for now and until he is ready to talk to them, there really isn't anything either of them can do.

A few minutes later, Sirius strode back in with two Firebolts and as they headed out to the grounds, he handed one to Lucas who was already grinning from ear to ear.

Meanwhile, Remus was frantically pacing back and forth as he waited for a reply back from Mad-Eye Moody. The minute he had arrived in his room, he had immediately written a letter to the Auror to ask him if knew why the Headmaster would want to offer him a job, and if it was another one of his tactics to get to Harry.

Not only did he need a job, but he would really love to teach. But if this was a ploy to get to the Harry, the headmaster really was as cold-hearted as he had previously thought.