Last Time: Harry has returned Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone and in the process learned how close to death he brushed when fighting against Mephistopheles.

Book 2: Pestilence

Chapter 2

Harry sat in the study at Potter Manor, checking over his work carefully. It had been four weeks since his excursion out to France, making it early July. When he got back, he immediately set about the work that he had been neglecting since he got out of Hogwarts.

Through Gringotts, for a fee of course, he managed to get enrolled in summer classes that would keep his mundane education up. For the past few weeks he had devoured the knowledge necessary and set about doing the work. A summer's worth of work he did in four weeks.

He was finishing it up and making sure it was all up to the flawless work he did at Hogwarts. He refused to allow his work to be substandard. He had slept, ate, and rested during that time frame. But he was back to only sleeping five hours a night, waking up before the crack of dawn. He couldn't really work out just yet, his stitches hadn't dissolved, but he was able to focus on his mundane work.

He sealed everything into the envelope and sent it off to his Account Manager at Gringotts. They would, of course, be able to finalize everything and send it off to be graded and returned to him. His mother had done much the same he found out, doing work under Horace Slughorn to earn the extra money in order to pay the fees associated with such a thing.

Gringotts, after all, could forge the necessary documentation for Hogwarts to make it seem like a prestigious and private boarding school of the mundane with… unorthodox classes.

Harry stood up and headed downstairs to get some lunch. Millie, the Head Potter House-Elf, always had excellent food for him, and had taken to his preferences without a problem. Of course, she also didn't have a problem cooking more for him when he had come back from his excursion to France.

And four weeks of eating just a little bit more each day had done wonders for him. He had more energy than he had felt in years, and his ankle had healed itself up well enough with his salve that it didn't leave too bad of a scar.

As Harry ate his lunch of a BLT on toast, his mind wandered to what he should do with his time. He should probably check on Sirius. He mentioned that he had a friend he wanted Harry to meet. Of course that meant going to… To…

Wait… To where?

Harry's brows furrowed as he continued to eat. He could have sworn he knew where Sirius lived. Sirius lived at… It was something to do with the Blacks, but the location didn't come to mind. He couldn't think of an address or even the location.

Harry's finished his food and pinched the bridge of his nose a moment, thinking hard. He knew… He knew where it was. It was… it was a whisper in the back of his brain, but he just couldn't bring the words to his lips. The location was lost in a fog that shouldn't be there.

Dust cawed at Harry's mental probing. The crow could not remember either, something that was impossible. Dust remembered everything.

Harry thrummed his fingers on the table. It was disconcerting not knowing something he should have known. It was disconcerting to know that Dust had forgotten as well. It had to be an incredibly powerful charm to erase the existence of… whatever it was from their minds.

Harry stood up tall and proud with all the poise and grace of a pureblood, even if he was in a pair of trousers with a simple black t-shirt and a pair of black trainers. "Kreacher!" he bellowed out. As Heir Black, the House Elf should respond to his calls.

With the call, Kreacher popped into the kitchen and bowed low enough his long ears brushed the floor. "Minor Master calls Kreacher?" he asked as he straightened up. The crazy old elf had taken a liking to Harry after the purging of the Horcrux from Slytherin's locket.

Harry knelt down in front of Kreacher, looking into the large tennis ball like eyes of the House Elf. "What has happened?" Harry asked firmly. "I know Sirius is where he's supposed to be, but I don't know where that's at. I can't… I can't remember Kreacher. I can't remember where I met you. Where is the Black home?"

Kreacher's ears drooped as his head hung low. "Kreacher cannot say Minor Master. Bad disgraceful Master Black has done something to…" Kreacher's mouth worked to say the words, but nothing came out, and it wasn't something intelligible enough to attempt lip reading. "But Kreacher cannot say where it is Minor Master, Kreacher is sorry."

Sirius had done something? Harry frowned thoughtfully. It was not like he expected Sirius to tell him everything that he did as Lord Black, but something like this should have warranted a warning, an explanation, something other than Harry just figuring it out one day.

Harry stood up to his full height once more. He checked his wrists for his wand and his knife before he held his hand, with the Black Heir ring, out to Kreacher. "Take me to Sirius, Kreacher." If the elf could not say where it was, then he would have to just take Harry to Sirius for Harry to attempt to beat the information from the man.

Kreacher bowed before taking the hand. With a pop, they vanished from Potter Manor to a home. Harry felt it looked familiar. He could swear he had been there before, but it was like the memories were purged from his mind as he stepped through the home.

He could hear a bustle of activity coming from one of the rooms and he began to make his way over towards it. He pushed the doors open and all activity stopped. Harry's eyes panned over the large congregation of people and he felt his temper flare and his Aura begin to build.

At a quick head count, he counted over fifteen people, most of them strangers who he had no idea who they were. Then there was Dumbledore sitting at the head of the congregation. He had been speaking with Alastor Moody. Filius Flitwick was there, sitting near Minerva McGonagall and Rebeus Hagrid, having a discussion.

Sirius sat near a ragged looking man with brown hair liberally streaked with grey and Harry charged in towards the man, frost forming at each foot step as he locked onto Sirius' eyes. He could also see Kingsley Shacklebolt with a younger looking witch with neon yellow hair.

"What is this?" Harry asked, his voice a snarl. "What in the world is going on through your brain Sirius?" he asked. His anger was a biting, cold like a frigid blizzard. "First, Something occurs that makes me, your Heir, forget all about the location of this place. Even now I can't recall where I'm at, all I know is it is in some connection to the Blacks.

"Then, then you invite a load of strangers in beyond the wards?" Harry couldn't help his fury. Worse, the frost had begun to spread beyond Harry's feet, turning into a patch of ice. He could tell people were drawing their wands on him. "Are you out of your mind?! This is not done Sirius!"

Sirius stood up quickly. "Pup, Harry." He said putting his hands on Harry's shoulders, staring down to the furious emerald green eyes. "A moment." He moved off to Dumbledore and got something. "This should help clear some things up." Sirius said, passing Harry a scrap of parchment.

Harry looked to it. 'The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is at Number 12 Grimmauld Place.' Something clicked in Harry's brain and he remembered that he was inside the Black Ancestral Home. He was in the drawing room of the place which had been cleaned to the point the wooden floors shined.

Kreacher did good work in six months.

Harry passed the slip of paper back to the man. "Headquarters?" he asked. "What is the Order of the Phoenix?" His tone was still ice cold, his fury at the man still quite poignant.

"The Order is a clandestine organization that's committed to battling the forces on the Dark side of Magic." Sirius said quite proudly, maybe thinking it would impress Harry. It didn't. "It was founded back during the war with Grindelwald and continued against You-Know-Who. After the events at the end of your first year, Dumbledore decided to bring the Order back. Something about the entity he fought, we're trying to find out more about them."

Harry gritted his teeth a bit. He wanted to snap at everyone there that they were attempting to deal with forces that they had no idea about. They couldn't fathom the powers of those Beyond the Veil. But Harry could not be connected with Death like that. "And you didn't think to ask my opinion to turn the Black Ancestral Home, a place that has stood at this location for over two hundred years, a place that the Goblins renovated at my insistence into the Headquarters for this group?" he barked at Sirius. Such a decision, without even being informed of it before the decision occurred, did not endear Sirius to Harry.

"Please Harry." Sirius said softly, trying to placate his young Heir who seemed very angry and very powerful. Just by being within arms' reach made things bitingly cold for Sirius. It felt like he was back in Azkaban, suffering near Hypothermia during the brutal winters. "I wanted to do something useful, and I've never liked this house. It can be put to good use."

Harry turned on his heel and stalked between the members. His footsteps were still light and silent but ice formed under each step, and Harry was certain his eyes glowed something fiercely

"Harry, where are you going?" Sirius asked, moving to catch up with the young man.

"I'm leaving. I will have no part in such nonsense." Harry said fiercely. And that was what it was to him, utter nonsense.

"It's not safe." Sirius said stepping after Harry and trying to keep him from leaving the house. "These things feed on Magic Harry, and you're quite powerful already. I don't want you getting attacked."

Harry glared at Sirius. He had been angry the entire time, something he needed to speak with Dust regarding. He however moved towards the door anyways.

Sirius hesitated a moment. "Harry, I'm really, really sorry. As Lord Black, I decree you cannot leave."

Harry's spine stiffened and his movement paused. He turned to stare at Sirius in part disbelief and part anger. The Wards were now on heavy lockdown regarding Harry and Harry could not rescind the Lord's decree. Harry moved towards a window and splayed his hand along it. He focused his powers of ice on the window before he kicked it. The window didn't even budge an inch.

Harry spun and charged towards Sirius, grabbing him by the front of his robes and slamming him into a wall. It didn't matter that the man had at least foot and a half of height on him. Harry was strong for his size and he let his fury build inside of him and empower him. "Release me!" he snarled at the man, not even caring if there was an audience of strangers.

Harry was not some Paragon of Good, he was a human being.

"No." Unfortunately, so was Sirius and humans were prone to moments of profound stupidity.

Harry snarled and drew the man back only to slam him into the wall again. Slowly he let go of Sirius' robes. Harry's face was an icy mask and he allowed his emerald eyes lose any and all fury to them. His fury was cold as ice, and the words cut deeper than any physical word. "Very well Lord Black, I shall retire to the library. Do not send for me."

And with that, Harry stalked up the stairs to the library, no longer leaving ice in his wake. But the moment the door was closed, he blasted it with his powers over ice, sealing it just as effectively as any ward might have.

Sirius sighed softly. Things had not gone over as he had hoped they would. But he was honestly worried about Harry and he wanted his godson to be safe. Not much was known about the things Dumbledore encountered alongside this… personification of Death. Sirius believed Dumbledore when he said the old man encountered an enemy unlike anything they had ever encountered.

And if they gained the attributes of things the ate, like Death told Dumbledore… Sirius shivered slightly and it had little to do with the cold he was still feeling from his Godson's magic. Sirius had noted, almost immediately, that Harry was magically powerful. Sirius felt like a man coming upon a glacier.

As big as it was outwardly, underneath there was far more to be had.

Surely someone as powerful as Harry would be bait for something that fed on magic. So Sirius wanted to try and protect Harry. He knew, with the Order's headquarters being at his home, many older witches and wizards would be there to help protect Harry if one of those things came looking for a meal.

It meant that Harry couldn't leave and it had killed part of him to bring up the wards on his Godson like that.

"It is for the best." Dumbledore said, having come up behind Sirius, placing a hand on the young Lord Black's shoulder. "He is safest here, where we can protect him."

In truth, Dumbledore didn't want Harry without an adult around him. If his fears of Harry being Death were true, then Dumbledore didn't want Harry to be swayed to the darker aspects of magic. The last thing he wanted was for Harry to become like Tom. And there were many similarities between Tom and Harry already.

-Scene Break-

Over the next few days, Harry was not idle. Being Heir Black, and a Black by Blood through his paternal Grandmother, Harry had access to the Black Library. More specifically, he had access to all of the Black Library. It was filled with all sorts of useful, albeit questionable books.

He gathered a tome on battle spells and another on ancient runes, but for the most part he stuck with something that he wanted to look into more than anything else.

Spell creation.

He wanted to make a powerful ice spell that would give even one from Beyond the Veil pause. Unfortunately, until he got back to Hogwarts he couldn't practice it. He was regulated to looking for how the various pieces fit together in other spells, looking through notes and notes and tomes upon tomes.

It wasn't like he could do anything else.

Molly Weasley had attempted to get him to come out of the library when she arrived with many of her children in tow. He hadn't even released the ice from the door at her speaking. Ron had attempted to coax him out as well, but that had been even less successful.

Especially since Harry couldn't take Ron to his promised sponsored Chess tournament. Harry hated being made out to be a liar. It was something he would have to rectify the moment he got out. Harry already had his way out, he just had to be patient with it.

Harry knew Sirius was savvy enough to keep an eye on Harry. Various members of the Order did so. And through Dust's eyes, Harry was able to tell precisely who was keeping an eye on him. Dust, after all, was not forbidden from leaving. So Dust had left through a window in the Library and flew to a window at the hallway where he could keep an eye on the changing guards.

Someone like Alastor Moody or Kingsley Shacklebolt were vigilant in their watch. Even the Witch with bright Neon Yellow hair that changed to electric blue with streaks of silver was rather vigilant, if a bit bored some times.

Harry liked her, she entertained herself by changing shape.

However, Harry also refused to allow anyone, including Flitwick inside the library while he was studying and practicing. In truth, it was because of the complex nature of what he was studying and the volatile components of spell crafting.

Spell crafters usually worked in impregnable bunkers that would have no outside interference while they worked on their master pieces. Harry had a library.

And Apparating, as Sirius had found out, was dangerous. Harry would unleash an icy flurry of spears and lances at whoever tried to Apparate into the room. Harry had almost ensured he was to be the Black Heir when one of the lances almost castrated Sirius.

That had been an accident since Harry had reacted without really looking.

He set his pen down, looking to the parchment that held his notes regarding his spell before he nodded ever so slightly to himself. It was as good as he was going to get without trying it, and there would be no trying it until he got back to Hogwarts.

Not because of some useless underage restriction of Magic, but because of the sheer devastating potential for his spell. He was calling upon the highest entity of Ice Magic.

Harry stretched himself out slowly. He would probably be more receptive to visitors now that he was done working on his spell. He stood up and twisted himself carefully. He usually waited until everyone was asleep before taking care of his needs.

Straight to a shower and then back in the library. Kreacher brought him food and the pillows and blankets to make a pallet.

He was still furious with Sirius, but he had channeled his anger into something productive.

And he had found out through Dust that the locks on his emotions had been irreparably shattered. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't used to the bubbling swirl of emotions inside of him. His anger had been something rather great.

Dust said it had likely occurred when Adrian had 'died'. Harry would have to learn more control.

He heard a soft knock and polite knock sound at the door. He frowned a moment and closed his eyes. Through Dust's eyes, he could see the bushy haired form of Hermione Granger. Shaking his head, he allowed the ice to shift apart, folding into an arch with irregular pieces. He opened the door.

Before she could speak however, he yanked her in and the door slammed shut, his knife was out and at her throat. "This past Halloween, I saved you from a troll." He said. "Before that, I was dressed as what?" he asked.

Hermione's brown expressive eyes were wide with fear as she trembled. They welled up a little with tears as she swallowed. "T-the Grim Reaper." She said.

Harry sighed and stepped back, tucking his knife away. "Sorry Hermione." He said shaking his head a little bit. "I've been stuck in this house for a few days, I've been under a lot of stress, and there's someone here that can shapeshift. I've even seen her turn into a replica of Alastor Moody. Suffice to say, I'm a little cranky with people trying to come talk to me, and I'm still angry with Sirius."

Hermione trembled a little bit longer and Harry gave her a moment to compose herself and let his words sink in. "I'm sure Lord Black and Professor Dumbledore have their reasons Harry." She said softly.

Harry shook his head. "No reason is good enough for this. They aren't infallible." He said.

Hermione nodded. "You're right, Lord Black is worried about you though." She said softly. She did not have some sort of belief that those in authority were always right. They were still human after all.

Harry shook his head, looking around the room with obvious disgust. "This place is a prison Hermione. A nice one, but a prison all the same." He looked to her brown eyes a moment. "And I hate being cooped up."

He hated being in the house truthfully. He was usually able to drown the feelings out, the knowledge that if his claustrophobia got to be too much he could go outside and fly around for a bit on Despair. But being trapped inside Number 12. It was…

It was driving him to be angry even more.

"Have you told Sirius that?" Hermione asked stepping closer.

"Course not." Harry said, shaking his head. He sighed. "I know I'm being stupid and pigheaded about this Hermione, but I hate admitting my weaknesses. Even telling you I hate being cooped up bothers me." Having to actually say it to Sirius who might not keep such a thing secret…

No, better to just escape as soon as he could.

Hermione lightly placed her hand on his arm. "Be careful Harry." She said softly. "I got asked to try and coax you out, but I think I know better. I'll go see if Kreacher wouldn't mind showing me the family tree." She said.

Harry then watched the bushy haired girl leave the room. Immediately after she left, his icy arch turned into a solid sheet of ice blocking the door once more. Harry breathed out heavily. He would have likely turned her away had she tried to come in ten minutes earlier.

Harry set to work putting the books back and preparing to do something to pass the time.

Creating a runic way out to act as a decoy.

-Scene Break-

It was time. After a week and a half of being cooped up inside the Black Ancestral Home at Number 12, it was time for Harry to make his escape. It was the dead of the night, Moody was nowhere near the premises, and his guard was a poor excuse of a wizard who tried to pocket a few things, until Harry gave Kreacher permission to zap the thief any time that he tried.

Said wizard was asleep, snoring quite soundly.

Harry made plenty of room, pushing bookshelves aside. He needed to make plenty of room. The past few days, he had learned a few things. He talked about the Fidelius Charm on the place with Flitwick. It was an impressive piece of magic, if a bit tedious in Harry's mind.

But, it wouldn't matter to Harry's means of escape, and even if it did, he had a secondary means that he had worked on as well. With Dust on his shoulder, the cowl drawn up, and the Resurrection Stone on his hand, he would be a beacon. "Despair." He whispered to word out just before he pulsed his magic along his artifacts and his familiar.

His steed appeared in a whisper of green flames. Harry stepped forward and mounted the steed, stroking his pale neck. "Home." He whispered to Despair, and it soon whispered away again. No one would know he had left for several hours.

It would be a great mystery for the occupants of the house for some time.

-Scene Break-

Harry brushed himself off when he stepped out of the Floo. He had sent a note over to Susan two days ago, saying he was coming over. He apologized that he was coming rather unannounced as well as not giving her plenty of time in advance.

In truth, he hated being inside Potter Manor at the moment. He kept having people Floo call him, mainly people from this… Order of the Phoenix, that wanted him to return to the 'safety' of Number 12. Harry was perfectly safe at Potter Manor, where he had his full Death Regalia, as well as the wards and other defenses.

Besides, he wasn't going to be fighting another creature from Beyond the Veil yet. The Spirits of the other Pale Riders kept them back, at least for a time. It would take another gateway, like the Mirror of Erised, or one of the creatures breaking free from their prison on this plane.

Of course, they could also be summoned, but to be stupid enough to summon one… Harry never wanted to meet that person, he would be obligated to cull the gene pool of their stupidity.

Edmund, the Bones family House-Elf and sister to Millie, the Potter family House Elf, popped in. "Ah, Heir Potter, you made it." Edmund said with a bit of a bow before raising his hand and vanishing the soot and ash from Harry's form. "Excellent. The Mistress and Young Lady Susan have been worried… The Lord Black had thought you been kidnapped."

Harry kneeled down to the Elf in the suit, complete with a tailcoat. "Edmund, is the Lord Black here?" he asked curiously. If Sirius was there, Harry was gone. He'd go right back out the Floo gate.

Edmund shook his head. "Not at all Heir Potter. Now come, the Mistress would like to speak with you."

Harry nodded and stood up to follow behind the House-Elf. Hopefully he wouldn't be grilled by Madam Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He wasn't dressed for dealing with Law Enforcement.

When Harry donned the more regal clothes, he put on a persona. This ice cold, untouchable aristocrat that had no dirty secrets to be found that had all the right connections, that was Harry's persona. When he put on the formal dress robes, made from the finest materials and made by the finest crafters, Harry was Scion of House Potter and House Black.

When he was dressed in a pair of black trousers and a dark blue collared t-shirt, he was simply… Harry. No impending lordships, no titles, just… Harry.

And he wanted his friends, like Susan, to be more comfortable around him. To know he relaxed around them.

Still, Harry walked behind Edmund towards the drawing room, noting both Susan and Hannah almost immediately. However, it was Amelia Bones that drew his attention.

For just a brief moment, he could see why she had made it to the Head of the Department of Law Enforcement, even in the bigoted government that currently ruled.

Amelia Bones crossed the room in several long strides, all determined and battle ready grace. Her footsteps were light and he doubted she knew about the transition. "Mr. Potter, do you know how many people you have worried with your stunt?" she asked in a tight tone.

Harry didn't back down or flinch from the cold gaze she was giving him. "I was not remaining there, regardless of what others thought." He said, actually taking a half step forward. "I will not be confined by anyone, anywhere. Do you know Albus Dumbledore actually had the gall to try and send me back to my mother's relatives?"

It had been a footnote, in Harry's mind, towards the end of the last year. He had dismissed the idea of doing so almost the second Dumbledore had brought it up. Harry had even walked out of the meeting when the old man had attempted to guilt Harry into going back, citing his relatives' safety.

Harry shook his head. "I will not be trapped." He said. "I will not be taken out of the magical world, and I will not be treated like a criminal when I have done nothing wrong. If I am not welcomed here, fine. I will take my leave. And if you try to hold me against my will, Madam Bones, I will escape again and my respect for you will drop to zero. And I hold you in quite the high regard." Harry was getting aggressive with his anger, he needed to practice his Occlumency more if this was going to be a common occurrence.

Amelia held her hands up, as though to stave off his verbal attack. "Sirius was just worried about your safety Harry." She said softer, trying to be reasonable. It seemed like a reasonable thing to her. She was also switching gears, remembering that Harry, for all his maturity, was still a child. He wouldn't like being told what to do.

Harry ran a hand through his hair, messing it up even more before it settled. Harry shook his head and looked to Amelia, slowly relaxing himself. It wouldn't do to get mad with her. "I saw what happened at the end of the school year, likely better than anyone. I was at a good vantage point and I had witnessed it since they took their fight to ground, before this… Death raised the undead." Harry said slowly, trying to make his point. He knew that Amelia would know, Harry had already given a statement to Kingsley regarding it.

"I watched as that creature took a blast from Godric Gryffindor, a blast of magic powerful enough to blow a hole in the wards of Hogwarts, wards that have remained standing for over a thousand years. And that creature stood back up, walked out of a crater." Harry looked up to the taller woman a moment, wanting to convey the horror he had felt at watching Mephistopheles rise.

"Dumbledore, Sirius, and this Order of the Phoenix thing want to research something like that?" Harry asked disbelieving. "I don't care if they had the backing of several countries, with the best and brightest minds available in every field of study. Something like that? What if they summon one, even by accident? What then?"

Amelia chewed on that nugget of information. She couldn't help but feel that Harry indeed had a point. There were too many unknowns, and it was… disconcerting. Dumbledore, for all his wisdom, knew next to nothing about these things, and the one person that did have an inkling to them had disappeared off the face of the earth. "And if another one were to come about?" she asked, using Harry more as a sounding board for the idea. "Say, the Order doesn't research them in the slightest and another one comes about?" she asked.

How did a wizard fight something like that?

Harry thought on it. He would be there, but he couldn't say that. He didn't want to have to try and fight his way out of the Bones Manor, nor did he want to have all of England after him. But she rose a point that would be difficult to explain. "Hope and prayers will only go so far." Harry said slowly, more to himself. He looked to Amelia's face a bit more. "You hit it with everything you can and hope it would be enough. I would focus less on the creatures, and more on what destroyed the one at Hogwarts." He said.

Even Harry didn't know precisely what he did. He knew it had been Soul Magic of some sort, but what precisely he would likely never know. The images he had seen had been disconcerting as well. They were not from the Harvester after all.

"That's not exactly comforting." Amelia said. While in the past, the Order of the Phoenix had been little more than a vigilante group that should have had its members arrested, they had done nothing wrong this time so far. "I'd rather them study it." She wanted to know its weaknesses.

Harry clucked his tongue slightly. "And what happens, Madam Bones, if they summon one of these things in downtown London? What then? These things would obviously not care about the Statute of Secrecy. We're talking about possibly thousands of Mundane seeing one of these things, thousands of Mundane getting slaughtered. Maybe more. London is a densely populated city."

Amelia looked stunned for a moment, thinking. As the Head of the DMLE, she knew why such a thing would be bad. Fudge might order them to try and Obliviate the Mundanes, give them memories of gas line explosions and such or isolated and random disasters, but the fact of the matter was that there would be too many for the DMLE to handle effectively.

Obliviators worked quickly. But the size of the population of London would mean that they'd be taking Weeks, and by then their work would be useless. And it was an eleven, almost twelve year old boy who thought of that. She needed to do some discreet inquiries with the Department of Mysteries through her Unspeakable contact. They might have a bit of information that she could work with.

For the time being however, she would need to shut down the Order of the Phoenix's research. She nodded slightly to the Potter Heir. "You have a sharp mind Harry, are you certain I can't get you as an Auror? Or a Hit-Wizard at least?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Business and Politics for me, I'm afraid." He wrinkled his nose slightly, but it had to be done. Someone had to become the Politician that could get equality. And he could, and would be the one to do it.

Amelia looked to the green eyed lad for a moment longer. "How did you escape from the Wards?" she asked. It was something that was bugging her since Sirius brought it up. The Wards should have had the young heir on lock-down.

Harry grimaced slightly and reached into his pocket. From it, he pulled a green marble and held it up. "This ugly thing." He said. It had been another creation he had worked on while he could.

He didn't sleep much and he never spent more than ten minutes eating. He had more time than he really knew what to do with, so he worked hard for the time he had been at Sirius' home. Even with a fifteen minute shower every day, he had still been looking upwards of eighteen hours a day of figuring things out.

Amelia took it and put her monocle in, immediately it began to register the runes carved very carefully into the marble as well as the sheer density of the magic surrounding it. She arched an eyebrow before looking to Harry. "Ugly?" she asked.

Harry inhaled slowly. In truth, he had escaped using Despair, but that would have been incriminating. So he had created something he could talk about easier. It wouldn't hold up to a thorough Legillimens attack or even hold up Veritaserum, but it was at least something physical that would keep people from questioning him so thoroughly.

"Runes are… advanced magic, and something like that wouldn't be beginning runes either." He started. "Essentially, it disrupts the wards surrounding a home. It doesn't break them, but more disables them. It's less brute force and more subtle manipulation.

"The downsides are it takes forever to carve the runes into that marble, the marble has to be conjured using my magic which was taxing." He didn't saturate himself more, but it had been taxing. "It's a one-time use only, because it'll break after being used, and it has to be within the wards it's disrupting. And you'll only get a thirty second window to escape."

To an experienced Rune Master, such a creation would have been quite ugly. It wasn't readily able to be mass produced, it took too much magic to create, it could only be used once, and it didn't last very long. Had he turned something in at NEWT level, he'd have received a Poor at best.

For a week with only studying Runes for a few days, it was quite the accomplishment.

Amelia looked to Harry. "What else?" she asked as though she already knew.

Harry's head bowed slightly and he shuffled his feet. No doubt she noticed it with her monocle and was giving him the chance to come clean. With a sigh, he looked up to her. "The Runes are sacrifice based and had to be powered. I used my blood to do it." He said, holding up his thumb to show the thin line that he had cut into it.

Amelia nodded and confiscated the marble, even if she couldn't stop him from creating more. "Sacrifice Magic, especially Blood Based, is illegal Harry. I'll let it slide, this one time, but if I catch you doing something like this again, I'm going to have to do something about it." She said.

She looked at the marble a little more. "I wish we had these against You-Know-Who though." She said softly.

"Riddle." Harry said in a tight tone. "His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle." He bit his tongue slightly. "And that was why I made them. His followers used Anti-Portkey, Anti-Apparation, and Anti-House-Elf wards. He had a mole in the Department of Magical Transportation that cut off the Floo network. A lot of good people died because they had no chance to escape and couldn't properly fight back." And it pissed Harry off.

Amelia nodded softly, holding the marble in her hand. "Harry, I won't force you to stay, but I would like it if you stayed until this weekend when I take Hannah and Susan shopping for their school supplies. I can get Lord Black to get your grades from Dumbledore when I speak to him later today. You're more than welcome to come with us." She said.

Harry thought about it before nodding softly. "I'll summon Millie to bring me some clothes and toiletries, and I'm sure Edmund would like to see his sister."

Amelia nodded and stepped around Harry to go get ready to head into work, letting the young Potter Heir sit with her niece and her niece's best friend. She had work to do.

-End Chapter-