The next morning, Harry returned to the typical routine of his Hogwarts schedule. He woke up early and got some last minute work done before going down to breakfast with Hermione. Thankfully, Ginny wasn't present while he was there so he could focus on eating in silence instead of whatever would happen when he finally got around to talking to her. Looking around the Great Hall, it seemed that Minerva's prediction had been right. Never before had Harry seen The Great Hall look so empty with the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables particularly empty. Harry supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised that the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws remained. Gryffindors were notoriously stubborn and Ravenclaws valued education over everything else.

Still, it was a strange experience that was accented by the fact that Harry could hear almost every voice in the room individually, almost of whom seemed to be talking about the same thing: the attack on Hogsmeade. While it seemed like it had been forever since that day, Harry knew that it had only been a few weeks. Plus, it had happened the last time everyone had been at the school which immediately brought it back to the forefront of everyone's minds.

As Harry ate, he sat and listened to Parvati and Dennis as they talked about what they had done over Christmas break. Just as Parvati began an astounding story about visiting her cousins in Delhi, Bill approached Harry.

"Harry, would you mind observing the fifth year Defense class this afternoon?"

It was a strange request, considering Bill knew Harry's schedule and also knew that Harry was required to do just about anything Bill asked. Still, he supposed that Bill was just being polite and thought nothing more of it, nodding his head in affirmation.

"Great." Bill said. "Class starts at three."

Before Harry could observe that class, however, he had his own class to attend: Transfiguration with Professor Viktor Krum. Krum continued to force new material down their throats, wasting no time getting into the details of Animagus transformations and the many potential dangers involved in performing the transformation poorly which included (but were not limited to) being stuck as a half-person/half-animal, permanently retaining features of the animal, the loss of vital human or animal organs in the transformation, losing control of the animal and failing to return to human form, complete inability to return to human form and death.

Needless to say, Harry was not looking to become an Animagus anytime soon.

After that, he observed the First Year Defense Against the Arts class, where they were working on learning the basic classes of dangerous and Dark creatures. Overall, it required almost no work from Harry, who simply sat in the back of the room and watched eleven year olds struggle to identify a Hinkypunk from a Grindylow.

Harry ate his lunch quickly before racing up to his dorm to work more on his Transfiguration homework. His essay on Human Transfiguration, or his part of his group's essay, was already almost four feet long and he still had another few months of research before it would be completed. By the time it was done, it would be, by far, the most complex assignment that Harry had ever completed.

Finally, Harry put all of his materials away and returned to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, arriving precisely at three to see Bill and Fleur in the front of the room with the entire class already in their seats. Harry had never once seen any class completely on time on the first day back from break in his entire six and a half years at Hogwarts.

However, he quickly found out why they were in their seats. The moment Harry walked in the door, he noticed that everyone in the room was staring at him, including Bill and Fleur. Suddenly, Bill lifted his wand and silently cast a Stunner.

Harry had only a second to think before he dropped to the floor, casting his bag to his side and drawing his wand. Immediately, he knew what this was: it was a test. Bill and Fleur were also using it as a demonstration, which is why everyone had been ready to go. Knowing that the students were expecting a show, Harry stood, not wanting to disappoint them and ready to make Bill suffer for attempting to surprise him.

That was until Fleur suddenly brandished her wand at him, a single coil of rope flying from them in Harry's direction. With a quick slash of his wand, Harry cut through the rope before he launched a series of curses and hexes in Fleur's direction, pushing her back towards her husband. This allowed Harry to defend from only one direction but it also meant that the power of the spells hitting his shields was that much stronger, considering it was usually two spells at once.

Throwing up shield after shield, Harry stepped forward after a particularly nasty Banishing Charm hit his shield. Whipping his wand over his head, Harry mirrored Fleur's tactic, hitting her Shield with a Banishing Charm that nearly knocked her off her feet. Fleur growled in frustration and then fired back with a series of charms that Harry could barely block. By the time the last spell in the series got to Harry, all he could do was step out of the way, hardly able to lift his wand to defend himself.

Seeing his opportunity, Bill attempted to Stun Harry once more. Too tired to raise a shield, Harry dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way, choosing to hide behind the large demonstration table at the front of the room. Hiding on the far side of the table, Harry could feel several large spells hit the desk above him and saw even more go flying over his head as he did his best to catch his breath.

He had been in several duels before but never against two people and certainly never against two duelists anywhere near as good as Bill or Fleur by themselves, let alone together. Much like Elizabeth and Ethan, he stood no chance in a fair fight against the two of them.

But Harry, having recovered as much as he was going to in a few moments, was not about to give them a fair fight. Leaning out around the desk, Harry aimed his wand at Bill's feet, silently casting a Knot Tying Charm on his shoes. Harry then launched himself out from behind the desk, rolling to his feet before sprinting up in the middle of the class where the students were sitting. He knew that they couldn't cast anything dangerous with him standing up there, giving him a clear advantage for the moment.

He was also able to press his advantage when Bill attempted to run towards him, only to fall flat on his face. The class laughed as Harry sprinted back towards the front of the room, silently throwing a rope that tied Bill to the floor, his wand just out of arm's reach. Noticing that it was now one-on-one, Fleur attempted to reach her husband before she could do that, Harry was throwing every non-lethal and legal curse and spell in the book at her, barraging her with more spells that she could handle.

Unfortunately for Harry, even all of that couldn't bring Fleur down and left Harry utterly and totally drained. Having survived Harry's onslaught, she turned and returned the favor, throwing at least fifteen spells in Harry's direction. Harry was able to fight off the first five before a succession of spells hit him, throwing him backwards against the wall and knocking him unconscious.

When he awoke, he saw a concerned Bill and Fleur Weasley standing around him, surrounded by the entirety of the classroom. Harry could feel a pounding in his head as tried to get to his feet. However, Harry had used so much magic that the moment he reached his feet, he could feel his head start to spin once more. Immediately, Fleur tucked her head under Harry's arm and dragged him to a chair at the front of the room.

"I thought you were teaching Charms now." Harry grumbled to Fleur as she deposited him in the chair.

"Bill wanted my 'elp with zis lesson." Fleur replied, a wicked smirk on her face. "I said I would be 'appy to 'elp."

"Go away." Harry groaned as he leaned back into his chair while Bill started to lecture his class on the values of preparedness. Despite not having any idea this was coming, Harry had been ready to defend himself at a moment's notice, a trait that had been instilled into him by years of training.

In that regard, Bill wasn't wrong.

The class spent much of the next hour dissecting the duel with various students pointing out Harry's successes. A few of them even managed to bring up good points regarding strategies that Harry could try if he ever found himself in a similar situation. Harry had to say that he was impressed by Bill's students. They thought rationally and appeared to be quite observant, especially considering the fact that none of them had uttered a single word during the duel, which meant that the students had to analyze everything without knowing what spell someone was going to cast until they saw it.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang and Bill dismissed the students, leaving Harry alone with himself and Fleur.

"Harry, I assume that you understood this was a test of your skills as well as a demonstration."

"Yeah, I guessed that."

"Before we tell you what we thought, 'ow do you feel you did?" Fleur asked.

Harry considered that for a moment. In the end, he had lost but he knew that he had handled himself well.

"I played your game for too long. I should have been looking to isolate one of you sooner." Harry said as he thought more about it. "Also, I wasn't thinking about what I was casting at the end. I was just throwing everything I had at Fleur."

"On ze uzzer 'and," Fleur countered, "you 'andled yourself quite well against two people who knew ze test was coming."

"In fact, I would say that there are probably only a handful of people in the whole country who could survive as long as you did against a surprise attack from the two of us. With a bit more work, you'll would be able to beat us with ease." Bill added.

"You think so?"

"Harry, I know quite a few good duelists and I would put you right alongside the best."

Harry knew that he was talented when it came to Defense. But it was even better when it came from your professor, especially one that he truly respected. It made him worry just a little less about the stress of taking over for Bill in just a few short months.

The first week of classes flew by. Eventually, Harry and Ginny settled into a comfortable silence. Neither of them went out of their way to talk to the other and when they did speak, neither dared mention Ginny's actions on the train. Harry knew they were being stupid. They had been together once already and the world hadn't fallen apart.

But, Harry knew what was keeping him back: fear. He was no longer afraid of being rejected. Now, he was afraid of ruining things with her. Ginny had evolved into one of Harry's closest friends over the last few months. He knew that he likely only had one chance to make things work with her. If it failed, not only would he lose a girlfriend, but there was a very strong chance that he would lose a friend as well.

Still, he knew that he was being stupid. But the fact that Ginny hadn't said anything to him made Harry believe that she was likely going through the same thought process. He knew that eventually they would have to make a move one way or the other but at the moment, they were both content to steal looks at each other from a distance.

Thankfully, Harry had other things to keep his mind busy. Saturday morning, Harry found himself sitting in The Hog's Head. Per his instructions, Narcissa and Draco marched into the pub at just after noon. Judging based on the sensors that Harry had established around the bar, they came with nothing of any magical significance on them (except their wands, of course) and the only people who remained outside the bar were their Aurors, who had immediately set up patrols.

The Malfoys, surprisingly, had done exactly as he had told them.

They approached the corner booth where Harry sat, standing just on the opposite side of the table. Looking at them, Harry observed that they both looked a bit healthier than they had the last time he had seen them. He supposed that wherever they were being held, the food was better than while they had been on the run.

"Sit." Harry said, motioning to the seats across from him. Immediately, Narcissa guided Draco into the booth across from Harry before she sat down next to him.

"Now, before I hear you out, I want to make something perfectly clear." Harry said. "I do not owe you anything, Narcissa. The fact that you do not sit in an Azkaban cell today is due to my intervention and would have covered any debt I may or may not have had. Are we clear?"

"We are." Narcissa confirmed.

"Also, any deal that we make today is made under the agreement that both of you will testify against Lucius. You will remain in England until the findings against Lucius are made public. Is that clear?"

"Yes." Narcissa said.

"Good." Harry said before leaning back in his chair. "I have already spoken with the Minister. He has assured me that your protection will be increased. You will be moved to new accommodations later this week and you will be protected under new identities."

"Thank you." Narcissa said, relief evident in her voice. "Thank you so much."

"But, I want a few things in return."

"What?" Draco suddenly said. "We're giving you my father. What else could you possibly want?"

Harry ignored Draco, turning back to Narcissa. "You had said that you would be willing to grant me the Malfoy seat in the Wizengamot. How does that work?"

"It's quite simple. While Wizengamot seats are typically willed from one family member to the other, almost all of them have safeguards in place that protect their family should something happen to their family line. The few vacant seats in the chamber are almost all the result of either terrible misfortune or a severe lack of foresight. In the case of the Malfoy seat, it is set to fall to the executor of the Black Estate should the Malfoy line die out or should the final living heir refuse to take the seat."

"So Draco would have to recuse himself from the Wizengamot?" Harry said, unable to suppress the smirk that came to his face.

"That is correct." Narcissa said as both Harry and Narcissa turned to look at Draco. "There is no legal circumstance for removing a family from the Wizengamot. However, someone who is actively imprisoned is not allowed to sit in the seat. This means that Draco and I are the last remaining Malfoys. If we both recuse ourselves, then the Malfoy charter will revert to the Black Estate as expected."

"And Draco will do that?" Harry asked, continuing to ignore the pale faced boy sitting across from him.

"I'm right here, Potter. You can ask me to my face." Malfoy sneered.

Harry turned to Draco, a cruel smile suddenly forming on his face. "No, I won't ask. Here's what you will do, Malfoy. You and your mother will both recuse yourself from the Wizengamot. But before you do that, you will amend the Malfoy family charter so that all of the seats your family currently controls are passed to the Black Estate."

Narcissa looked at Harry in confusion.

"I don't know what you mean."

"What you didn't know is that the details of the family charters are stored in two places. One is in the home of the seat holder, the other is in the office of the Minister of Magic. Currently, the Malfoy Estate also holds the Gaunt, Lestrange, Rosier, Rowle, Sewlyn, and Yaxley seats. The Gaunt Seat was granted to the Malfoys in the event of Riddle's death while the others were also passed to Lucius in the event they went to prison."

"You're saying that we currently control seven seats in the Wizengamot?" Draco asked, a greedy look in his eyes.

"For the moment." Harry said. "But you and your mother are going to sign all of those over to me."

"Why the hell would we do that?"

"Because if you don't, I will have the Aurors lift up your left sleeve." Harry growled fiercely. "You know that anyone with a Dark Mark is getting a permanent stay in Azkaban, right?"

Harry turned back to Narcissa.

"Here is the deal: your testimony and safety during the length of the trail and then your escape from England for seven Wizengamot seats and a massive donation from the Malfoy Estate to Hogwarts."

"How much?" Narcissa asked, over the outraged groans of her son.

"Half."

"Half of what?"

"Half of everything the Malfoy Estate is worth." Harry said. "The two of you will be fine. But with that money, Hogwarts can live to see another day. A day that the two of you actively fought against alongside your husband."

"You're asking a lot."

"I am." Harry admitted. "But you owe a lot. I'm going to take those Wizengamot seats and I'm going to change policy. I'm going to change the backwards way we treat people who don't have two magical parents. I'm going to change how we treat non-humans and Muggles. And then when that's all done, I'm going to release those seats and the Wizengamot will become an elected body."

"You think you can do all of that with seven seats?" Narcissa said, failing to suppress a laugh.

"I already have pledged support for ten seats to start work on new legislation regarding Muggleborn rights. If I control seven more seats, that's it."

This was an opportunity that Harry had been looking for and it had dropped into his lap. When Harry had spoken to Kingsley about the deal that he wanted to make with the Malfoys for their seat, Harry had been operating under the assumption that they only controlled one seat, which still would have been valuable.

But when Kingsley had informed him that they had in fact controlled seven, due to the fact that they had passed to the Malfoys as a result of their seat holder being in Azkaban, it all fell in place, something that rarely happened so perfectly in Harry's life.

"You are changed." Narcissa said softly. "You are different from the boy I remember."

"Well, your husband was one of the people who made sure that happened." Harry growled. "Now, do we have a deal?"

Narcissa looked at Harry before turning to Draco. Neither said a word but Harry watched as they clearly communicated their agreement to each other but Narcissa turned back to Harry and nodded.

"Seven seats and half our gold to Hogwarts."

"Good." Harry said. "The Aurors outside will take you to your new safehouse."

"I thought you said it would take a week."

"I lied." Harry said with satisfaction. "I had that in my back pocket if you proved resistant to our bargain."

Narcissa considered Harry for a moment and then nodded, understanding that she had been beaten in this "negotiation" in every conceivable way.

"Change is not always a good thing, Mr. Potter. You have grown and become something different than you were before. But take care not to let your newfound confidence corrupt you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Harry said in confusion. However, before Narcissa could stand to leave, Harry asked one more question. "Why do you care one way or the other?"

Narcissa stood and put on her traveling cloak before looking back down at Harry and considering him once more.

"Your negotiation tactics. They remind me of my husband's."

With that, Narcissa and Draco walked out of the Hog's Head, leaving to go to wherever the Aurors had decided was a safer location for them. As they walked away, Harry could only think of Narcissa's final words. Certainly, he had been harsh with the Malfoys in his tactics. But if anyone had deserved that, it had been them.

Hadn't they?

Still, Harry was able to put that out of his mind with relative ease when he considered that he had just gained the future rights to eight seats in the Wizengamot that would allow him to change the wizarding world forever.

Between that and his surprise duel with Bill and Fleur, Harry had quite the eventful first week back at Hogwarts. However, the astonishing part about his last year at Hogwarts was that all of that could seem easy in comparison to the complexity of his classwork. Over the next few weeks, Harry would be challenged to his limits on an almost daily basis. In a way, he supposed this made a certain amount of sense. For most Hogwarts students, this would be their last year of school in their entire lives. If they didn't truly know the skills of their craft when they graduated, then there was no hope for them to be able to catch up with those that had been in the field for years, who had spent all that time learning on the job.

Still, between the hours of homework, studying, essay writing, and other general classroom work, Harry barely felt like he had time to breathe. He thought back to his previous years at Hogwarts and couldn't help but laugh. At the time, he had remembered thinking that his third year exams were impossibly difficult. He remembered feeling like he was drowning under the weight of his OWL exams, struggling to keep his head above water as he balanced the practical and written exams. Even just two years earlier, he felt as if there was no possible way for his schoolwork to be any more challenging than the last half of his sixth year.

Oh, if he only had the ability to see what his future would be, Harry thought to himself on a random Saturday in January as he stretched into his tenth hour of studying.

But even through all of that, Harry had done a better job of ensuring that he was balancing his time. Without exception, Harry and Hermione had joined the rest of his classmates for a weekly meeting of what was left of Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement each Friday evening. Originally born out of an idea to find a place where Luna would feel more at home, they realized that if they were meeting in the Room of Requirement, then they could invite more people.

So, members of Dumbledore's Army were encouraged to attend. However, unlike before, there was no academic emphasis placed on these meetings. They were simply there to have fun. No other members had been added to the group so everyone could let their hair down at the end of a long week of classes and just enjoy themselves for a bit. Even these once a week meetings, which had thankfully taken the place of Ethan and Elizabeth's detentions, were enough to let Harry feel as if he had some time to himself to simply relax and let the world pass him by, even if it was only for a moment.

These meetings would have been an ideal time to speak with Ginny. Unfortunately, she had only attended the first one. It seemed as if she was actively avoiding Harry.

Of course, Harry should have known that it was all too good to be true as it so often was in his life. In the beginning weeks of February, Harry was sitting in Charms, listening to Fleur ramble on about the foundational elements of magic and how to manipulate them in order to create new spells. While Fleur was a wonderfully gifted professor, there was still something so strange about her working in Flitwick's former classroom. Harry had realized a few weeks earlier that Filius Flitwick had been the only professor that had been at Hogwarts for all seven of Harry's time there. Even though Flitwick had never been a particularly influential part of Harry's life, he had always been there.

Now, after a brief memorial for the former Charms professor at the beginning of the term, the school's staff had completely turned over from his first year to his last with only one exception: caretaker Argus Filch. However, Harry knew that Minerva despised Filch and would likely remove him from the school soon.

As Fleur talked about the differences in wand movement and how they influenced the particulars of a spell, Harry suddenly felt something strange, a low growl that seemed to start low off in the distance but within just a few seconds, evolved into a loud roar that seemed to race down the halls towards the Charms classroom. Immediately, Harry stood and raced to the door with his wand in hand. Looking out the door, Harry saw that the hallway outside of the Charms classroom had completely caved in, the roof now a hole that Harry could vaguely see up to the next floor.

Immediately, Harry waved his wand and attempted to repair the ceiling. However, nothing happened. Even if Harry had lacked the power to fix such a drastic injury to the castle, something should have happened. Even a few of the blocks that had made up the ceiling should have repaired themselves. Instead, nothing.

Harry stared at the pile of rubble in the middle of the hallway, staring at the length of the hall to where he could see Minerva rushing to the other end. When she arrived at the other end of the pile, nearly three hundred feet away, Minerva looked up at Harry.

"Did you try to fix this?" she asked, concern evident on her face.

"I did." Harry said. "Nothing happened."

Over the course of the next hour, Harry, Fleur, Minerva and a dozen other people tried any number of different ways to fix the ceiling. All of them ended the same way: the ceiling would hold for a moment and then collapse into a pile of rubble once more.

Seeing no other options, Minerva barricaded the Charms hallway from students and declared that Charms would be moved to an empty classroom on the first floor for the remainder of the term. As everyone else left, Harry remained behind with Fleur and Minerva. Once everyone was gone, Harry turned to the Headmistress.

The look on Minerva's face was an immediate giveaway. She didn't look surprised. She didn't look upset.

She was worried. She knew something was going on. She knew why Harry couldn't fix the ceiling. She knew. The knowledge that Minerva McGonagall knew why something like this had happened but couldn't fix it was troubling. It meant that something was wrong with the castle. Hagrid had mentioned that the castle didn't seem right after the Battle and Harry knew that there were sections of the castle that had never been repaired but this was different.

Something was wrong with Hogwarts Castle and Harry intended to find out what.