"Rattle his bones over the stones. It's only a pauper who nobody owns." - T. Noel, "The Pauper's Drive"

{~~~~}

"I'm coming with you," Rossi said, moving into step with Harry.

He groaned. "You don't even know where I'm going!" His direction was pointing him out the Great Entrance, though, so it wasn't like he was being subtle about his general plan.

"Out, and you'd be an idiot to go alone in the middle of a war."

"Where are we going?" Prentiss asked as she appeared on Harry's other side.

"I'm going to go talk with some of the creatures in the Forbidden Forest," Harry sighed. "Some of them have expressed interest in helping, but I need to make sure that they're on our side and communicating with us."

"Why don't you ask Hagrid for help?" Prentiss asked. They went out the large doors, not bothering to try to muffle the booming noise as the wood slammed closed behind them.

"He's not so good at negotiations," Harry said.

"Does anyone know you're coming out here alone?" Rossi asked pointedly, hiding a grin.

Harry rolled his eyes towards the sky.

"I'll tell your dad later, then."

"Don't you care about me at all?"

"Yes, which is why I'm telling him before he finds out on accident and comes to strangle you with overwhelming love."

"Who are we going to talk to?" Prentiss asked before Harry could protest.

"The acromantulas. Hagrid started talks with them but I need to confirm a couple of things. The centaurs. I don't have a clue how that's going to go. Probably going to get some foreshadowing from them about how we're all idiots, which, hey, that's not wrong. The werewolf pack. ...Also no clue. Not even sure how we're going to communicate. I think that's it."

"Why didn't you bring Elle to talk with the pack?"

"...Because then she was going to tell someone else I was going out of the castle."

Rossi and Prentiss exchanged an amused smirk, and then Prentiss pulled out her phone and started typing. "I'll tell her your plan and she can go handle it. Your canine skills need work before you start conducting negotiations with them."

"Thanks."

"Do you know how to find the others?" Rossi asked.

"I think I can remember how to find the acromantulas. The centuars are probably going to have to find us rather than the other way around."

Their walk took them deep into the forest. Despite the morning sun, it was soon almost completely dark in the forest. Creatures flitted around them, sometimes yipping or snarling but mostly quiet. Their footsteps sounded unnaturally loud, but their attempts to muffle the noises failed. Harry almost wanted to cast a charm around them to hide the telltale sounds of their trespassing, except then the centaurs would have little way of knowing they were there.

A rotten smell drifted towards them from their left. After a few paces, a dead creature came into view, half-torn apart. Three enormous horselike creatures stood around it, bony and winged, ripping pieces of meat from the carcass. One lifted its head and stared curiously at them as they passed.

"Uh," Rossi said and left his statement there on the forest floor to be picked up by anyone who dared add to it.

Prentiss took the statement and followed it with, "Well."

"Threstrals," Harry said. "I think. We've got the only tamed herd in Britain."

"What are they?"

"Huge winged horses."

"If a student gets smacked in the forest and there's no one around who will tell his father about it, did it really happen?"

"Well, if it didn't, the student won't learn a lesson from it," Prentiss pointed out.

Harry paused. Prentiss came to a halt beside him before she could even tell why he was stopping. A small threstral, whose shoulder barely came up to Harry's sternum, skittered across their path to join the others by the carcass.

"Awww," Rossi began, and then as the threstral ripped a piece of flesh off, "Ewww."

"Circle of life," Prentiss said. "Come on."

"Hey."

All three jumped as Elle grinned at them from Rossi's side.

"I almost screamed," Rossi told her, "and trust me, that's not something you wanted to hear."

"Your dad's planning on murdering you when you get back," Elle said, patting Harry's shoulder. "FYI."

"Oh joy," he muttered.

"Good luck. I'm off to find that pack. Anything specific you want me to ask them?"

"Just want to know what they'd be willing to do. And tell them that, if it's dangerous out in the forest, it might be less dangerous in the castle but they'll have to lend a hand."

"I'll try to translate that into barks," Elle said. She patted Harry on the shoulder, then darted forward and, with a painful series of cracking bones, transformed into a wolf and limped off for a couple of paces before sprinting more confidently as the pain wore off from the transformation.

The trio walked on in silence, listening to their surroundings more attentively now. They couldn't tell what animals were around them in the slightest, but at least they were making some sort of effort now. Harry wished Blackwolf was with them – he definitely would have been able to tell them what sounds were worrisome. Or he would have messed with them the whole time about venomous bats and man-eating bugs. Or he would have been totally honest and traumatized them with potential creatures that various sounds could be. Maybe it was good that he wasn't with them.

When the hooves came thundering, however, Harry didn't need Blackwolf to tell him what the sound meant. Rossi and Prentiss stopped without him saying anything and they waited as the centaurs made a half-circle around them before diving through the trees, weaving past them by inches and miraculously not running into each other or anything else. The agents stayed still beside Harry, who struggled not to put up a shield charm that the centaurs would surely find an insult to their dexterity. The sprint past them, after all, was surely a display of strength and unity.

Finally, the centaurs slowed until their herd was encapsulating the three in the center. Two in front of Harry stepped aside, revealing an enormous black-haired centaur stepping furiously towards them.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"Just want to talk. We're trying to keep the castle safe and you're trying to keep the forest safe, and our territories are close enough together that we're sharing troubles. It doesn't make sense for us not to try to cooperate."

"We don't need the help of humans," he snarled.

"I don't think you do," Harry agreed. "And you definitely wouldn't have needed our help if our dipshit government hadn't been so inept as to let a war start under their noses without even trying to stop it. But the war's started, and it's bleeding over into the forest."

"You're not here to offer aid and you bring representatives of the very government you speak ill of. We need no reminder of the war, not when our blood shines as red as Mars when your kind spills it on the leaves of our home. Human – what do you want?"

"Neptune's return."

The centaur tilted his head, irritated but with a new edge of consideration. He stomped his back hoof and flicked his tail hard, hair smacking briefly against his thigh before settling down again.

"I've seen a lot of kids dying before they were adults, and I've seen a lot of parents leave children behind. But if we stop fighting, if we don't keep Hogwarts as a battleground simply because we don't want blood here, we'll lose. Hogwarts has been my home away from home for a long time, but I can't imagine having this kind of bloodshed in my own home. I don't understand your pain. But I do understand that I can't claim I'm not responsible for a large part of it, so I'd like to ensure that all of this sacrifice hasn't been useless."

The centaur's ear flickered but his expression didn't.

"If Riddle wins, the war for the humans stops," Prentiss said. His gaze turned towards her even as his head stayed still. "It won't stop for you. When this war ends, we want all the bleeding to stop. We aren't going to wipe out nations of peoples just because they're not human. He will."

"He is mobilizing the werewolves and giants," the centaur said.

"He's not mobilizing you," Rossi pointed out. "He knows you're smarter than the giants and you'll see through his plots. The werewolves are serving him out of bloodlust. They killed ten students and tortured another twenty-three, an atrocity you would never commit for sport."

"Humans are the only kind who place pain upon their own species in that way," the centaur snarled. The skin above his eyebrows, beside the bridge of his nose, and just under his nostrils was all connected in a way that made the skin wrinkle when his nose pulled up, baring his teeth and displaying a fierceness that contrasted oddly with his words. At the same time, he was correct. The centaurs rarely had love for humans, but then, they weren't human themselves.

"Yeah, we suck," Prentiss agreed. "But we protect our children. My home is in America. You said Rossi and I are from the British government – we're not. We're here to protect the children we claimed as our own when their parents were killed or rejected them. We had spent over two years trying to mend their pain after the werewolves attacked them when this war broke out, and we came here to do what we could. We don't even have magic. We're just here to save as many people as we can."

The centaur stepped forward. Prentiss almost stepped back but just managed to hold her ground. He bent his torso so he was at eye level with her. Rather than making the motion self-deprecating by lowering his height, he performed it with enough disdain to emphasize how much of a difference there was in their sizes.

"So you thought you'd come in and save the day with regular human arrogance and fortitude?" he sneered. "Your tactics do not impress me."

"Five of us came," Prentiss said. "We work as profilers. We analyze human behavior and we predict future moves they will make. Because of our focus in psychology, we are skilled at helping others repair their mental strength after battles. We've also managed to nonviolently take down many of the Death Eaters by appealing to their motives to convince them that working for Riddle is going to end badly for them. We don't need physical strength."

"Only five of you came?"

"A sixth could do more work from us at home by researching the Death Eaters and a seventh was pregnant. She actually showed up anyway and gave birth at the school, but she's returned home to protect her son from the war."

The centaur leaned back up to his full height. "Hm. And you come to us now for information."

Prentiss nodded. "Yes."

"The wards around the school are the weakest at the edge of the forest. Each new attack comes from here. Sometimes we pick them off as they fly overhead, but more often than not, they are already through the forest by the time we are aware of them. If they wish for stealth from you, they dip into the forest, but if they wish for stealth from us, they have to go over the treetops. You often are too oblivious to notice them until they have reached your doorstep."

"They cloak themselves with Disillusionment Charms when they come near," Rossi said. "We can't see them?"

"Because you only rely on sight," the centaur snarled. "You fools."

Harry felt like he was talking to a taller, less passive-aggressive and more aggressive-aggressive version of Blackwolf.

"You came with an offer to extend aid. We do not accept it. We do not need your help."

Harry didn't think arguing with that today was going to get them anywhere. He nodded in acceptance.

"However. The acromantulas are also interested in protecting the forest. They guard sections of the trees that we never get to. We will cooperate with them to prevent the Dark from entering our lands. If complete bloodshed is about to occur in the castle, we will come to protect any children you have not managed to save."

Harry nodded again, this time in relief. "Thank you."

"You are the one they call Harry Potter."

"Yes. With me are David Rossi and Emily Prentiss."

The centaur's eyes flickered briefly to them. "Profilers."

Prentiss nodded.

His eyes turned back to Harry. "I am Magorian. You are not Harry Potter."

Harry frowned briefly. What the...? "What do you mean?"

"Those of strong magic are never from magic, and your fate is a sevenfold appearance."

"So...you mean that I couldn't have been from a magical family." Magorian looked at him like he was an idiot. Harry made a gamble. "My name is Hotchner. But we kept the truth quiet to protect my family."

"Look to the southwest before daybreak, towards the blue Neptune, if you care to know of yourself, then. But be careful, little lord, of what comes with knowledge."

"I was never gifted at foretelling the future," Harry said.

"When Mars' height is level with Neptune's, it bleeds. You have pain coming, pain you are not ready for. You cannot yourself for it. You cannot save yourself. And it will leave you destroyed in a way that Death herself is not capable of."

A man-loathing centaur was warning him. This wasn't a simple prediction by Trelawney in class; this was real, this was happening, and this was unavoidable.

"I'm one person," Harry said. "Why is my fate in the stars?"

"Sevenfold, boy. Your fate is sevenfold in the stars."

"But why? What does that mean?"

Magorian stomped his hooves impatiently. "You are one of the two most important souls to be born across the worlds and you are ignorant as a newborn!" He waved a hand sharply towards the forest canopy above them. "Time is a river, not a line! One occurrence here has another occurrence there! It is all interconnected, but few see how it relates! You are one of those who will have the potential to know. You will meet yourself before the year is over. And you will know by then of what I speak, since I am not capable of drilling understanding into your brainless head without cracking open your skull."

When Harry blinked, he tried not to look as foolish as Magorian was making him feel. "If my fate is in the stars, does that mean it's going to impact everyone else?"

For a moment, he thought Magorian was going to turn and gallop away from him in a dismissal of his life as a lost cause. Instead, he put both hands to the side of his head and then threw them towards the sky in exasperation. "So man is capable of thought!" Harry thought that might mean he was on the right track. "But you miss the finer understanding. It is...acceptable, for now." He looked down at Harry again, grudgingly. "You do not see. But you will."

"I understand that the stars do not tell details," Harry said carefully, "but...can you tell me if it's likely that Mars is bleeding because we will lose Hogwarts?"

"Mars will bleed into you," Magorian said. "I do not need to look at the stars to know that. You are an empty vessel, Hotchner. Blood will fill you before the month is over."

So soon?

"You will feel your heart break open with the force of your blood. Your lungs will drown in blood until you can't breathe. And your head will be bathed in blood until all you hear is the pounding of it in your skull and all you smell is the coating of it on your skin and all you see is the red tears swelling in your eyes-"

"Stop," Rossi interrupted.

Magorian turned to him, sneering. "All I wish to say is that I am utterly aware of what is happening." He looked at Harry again. "But I do not care for your pain. You will be unmade before the moon is full again."

"I was already predicted to die," Harry said. "That's come and gone."

"This is not a physical death. But as before, so it will be again. You will return stronger. This is not the end. This is the beginning." He shifted, tail swishing behind him. "Even so, I do not care. Take the warmongers from our forest and all will be satisfied."

Harry nodded slowly. "I do not want any in my protection to die. And although you don't accept it, your forest is under what I want to save."

"Tell me when the Dark killer is dead." He tilted his head curiously. "I would also be interested to know when your hunter reveals himself."

"The leopard spirit?" Rossi asked.

Magorian glanced at him. "Yes. He has drawn ever closer to you. He is near. But I don't think he's ready to make his move. His ninth life has not yet come."

"What's important about the ninth life?" Prentiss asked.

"It is when the leopard has sacrificed himself nine times. It is when the leopard is at his strongest and when he is aware of what he is. It is when his enemies will perish."

"You can see that in the stars too?" Rossi asked, failing to hide his skepticism.

Magorian sneered. "No. It is in his eyes." He turned to Harry. "The leopard is hunting. You had best not be standing still when he finally reaches you."

"Are you saying he's coming in the next month?"

"No. He is not near enough yet. Do not concern yourself with him until your more immediate threat is past." He snorted, almost in amusement. "You should not overburden yourself with all your fears. You have enough that they will crush you if you attempt to manage them all at once."

At some wordless gesture, the centaurs stepped away from them. The outskirts of the herd began cantering back into the forest.

"We will speak to the acromantulas. Do not return here unless you have news that we must hear."

Magorian turned sharply, front hooves leaving the ground for a moment, and then jumped away, body extending as he took off. Within moments, the trees around them cleared, and a final red tail disappeared in the distance with the sound of pounding hooves.

"Well," Rossi said. "I don't understand half of what was said, but I feel like it was informative."

"What's Neptune?" Prentiss asked Harry. "You said you wanted Neptune to return."

"It generally refers to healing and dreams. I was trying to say that I wanted recovery. I think it worked. He at least talked to us." He turned around and started heading back in the direction they had come from. If the centaurs were going to discuss matters with the acromantulas, then there was no purpose in conversing twice.

"How reliable are the centaurs?" Rossi asked.

"They're loners, but they like their territory and they won't let anyone take it from them." He hesitated. "The centaurs take their ability to read the stars very seriously. They would never lie about what they've seen, even to upset someone."

"So whatever they said... That is what they saw?" Prentiss said slowly.

"Yeah. There's a slight chance that they could be wrong, but Magorian seemed pretty certain."

"What are you going to do?" Rossi asked.

Harry shook his head. "I can't stop something when I don't know what it is. We'll just have to work admirably and hope we can negate the damage." He blew out his breath. "I just hope that whatever's coming is only going to hurt me."

When they got back, Harry spent most of his day finding activities that would keep him occupied so he wouldn't have to talk to his father, who had surely heard about what he'd done by now and was ready to lecture him for walking off into a dangerous forest filled with man-eating creatures alone. The rest of the day was spent being handed activities to do, which further kept him busy.

If he didn't go to the Room of Requirement to sleep, his father was going to track him down at least to make him get rest. But if he went, he was handing himself over to his father for the lecture. Putting it off would be more painful in the long run but...well, he'd get to put it off.

He slowed, puzzled, as he saw Dumbledore approaching him. The halls in this part of the castle were mostly empty, so the headmaster must have been relying on paintings to find him.

"The time has come, Harry. The departure team is waiting in the Astronomy Tower."

Harry paused. The horcrux hunting departure team? He'd just heard about that yesterday. "So soon? There are a lot of things I need to take care of first."

"Your DA is wonderfully organized. I expect they can handle it themselves. Nothing is happening right now, and the practice of independent management would be good for them."

Probably, but that didn't mean Harry's instincts weren't screaming at him. But, if anything happened, they could contact him by patronus, so it wouldn't be a big deal. "...All right. Let me just get Hermione." As his second, it would make sense for her to stay where she was, but if she was with him they could get the horcrux mission over faster and return back to the castle.

"I will be heading that way shortly. Allow me."

"Why?"

"I need to go tell Agent Hotchner about the new arrangements."

"I can come with you," Harry said.

"I'd rather you think about the away team. Agent Hotchner can handle himself, and you haven't had time to decide how you're going to lead a new group you haven't often worked with before."

As Harry walked up to the Astronomy Tower, he couldn't help but think about how weird it was going to be to have his own father in a team he was leading. At the same time, he wondered why Dumbledore didn't want him to return to the Room of Requirement before he left, but promised himself he'd find a way to slip down there anyway.

At least his father was going to be distracted from the matter of the Forbidden Forest for a while.

The team he'd been promised was already waiting. Sirius was grinning from ear to ear, ecstatic to be given a special assignment. Harry wanted to remind him that this was going to be dangerous and everyone needed to stay calm, but he didn't want to kill any lightheartedness either, since they were going to need to keep their chins up. Besides, the man did still think of himself as Harry's godfather since he didn't know Harry was fully aware that he wasn't.

Remus, however, was much more composed. "Harry," he greeted. Tonks' hair flickered from orange to purple beside him as she beamed at him. "Who else are we waiting for?"

"Not quite sure. Hermione and Hotch, at least. Two others." Who he needed to pick, so now he had his excuse to head back to the Room later. He glanced around. Kingsley was the only other one waiting with them. "How long have you guys known about this?"

"Three weeks," Kingsley said. "Albus thought it better to keep you focused on the castle until now."

Harry paused. "Okay," he said, "but I'd really rather know about these things in advance than last minute. You guys wouldn't have known if there was an issue with me leaving until it was too late to call things off."

"...Is there an issue?" Sirius asked reluctantly.

"By good chance, no. Just...tell me next time, even if Dumbledore doesn't want you to. I'd like time to actually prepare."

Why the hell was he being told so late in the game?

"Do we know where we're going?"

"We're going back over some of the places that Voldemort went to when he was younger," Remus said. "He used to work at Borgin and Burkes, and there are a couple other places we can trace him back to. Albus thinks he's leaving horcruxes in locations that mean something to him."

Harry nodded slowly. "I would agree with that." He was liking this plan less and less. They didn't need him for this mission. Why was he being sent away from the castle?

Because he wasn't destroying horcruxes here, he realized. He wasn't actively finishing off Voldemort. He wasn't completing the prophecy like Dumbledore had thought he would. He was acting like the profilers, doing the logical thing and staying put to protect a home base rather than coordinating preemptive strikes to take out Riddle's safety from underneath his feet. Dumbledore thought he would be better off doing the dramatic thing, running around killing Riddle piece by piece.

That was why he'd sent such a small team. Sirius, who was connected to his supposed father and would hopefully keep him energized. Tonks, who would also keep him entertained, with Remus, who had a level head and would keep the group focused but was also supposedly a friend of his father's. And Kingsley, who would probably remind Harry the most of the profilers but would still push Harry to do the job. Finally, anyone Harry wanted, to give him the illusion of complete control over the mission when it was really being run by Dumbledore.

He did not like this at all.

"But it sounds like you guys know what you're doing," he said. "The larger the group is, the more likely we are to get caught."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "but we've got a small group."

"Not small enough for something like this."

"Well, we could just go without anyone from the DA," Sirius said. He grinned at Remus briefly, before turning back to Harry. "This is going to be fun, won't it?"

Dumbledore arrived about fifteen minutes later with Hermione. If the expression on her face was anything to go by, she'd been filled in on what was happening and was just as disconcerted as Harry was.

"Looks like we're good to go," Sirius said chipperly.

"Where's Hotch?" Harry asked.

"He won't be coming with you," Dumbledore said. "Now-"

Harry glanced at Hermione, whose eyes had flickered in surprise at the statement. She would have been in the Room; she would have seen it if Dumbledore had approached Hotch. Nothing of the sort had happened.

Well...the horcruxes did need to be destroyed...

He'd rather do it himself and know it was done, and avoid putting anyone else in danger...

Hermione was still staring at him.

But Jack had just been bitten...and Hotch was not going to be happy if he lost temporary control over anyone he was trying to protect. It wouldn't hurt to just talk to him for a minute.

Dumbledore had been speaking the whole time. Sirius looked even more elated, if possible, as Dumbledore went back over the mission again for the benefit of Hermione and Harry, who weren't really paying attention.

Harry waited until Dumbledore was done before saying, "There are some people I need to talk to before we leave." His tone left no room for argument. "I'd rather not be worried about the situation here while I'm away. It'd be distracting. This won't take me more than a couple minutes."

"Please make it quick," Dumbledore said.

Harry started down the stairs. Hermione, without saying anything, followed. When they were about halfway to the end of the hallway, the flicker of a patronus went shooting past them. Neither of them spoke until they had reached the major staircases and started descending to the level the Room was on.

"What's he hiding?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know, but I'll bet that patronus was meant to stop us from finding out," he said grimly. "He didn't want me to talk to Hotch for some reason. I don't think he wants Hotch going with us."

"Is he worried about Hotch's influence on you?"

"Maybe, but he seemed genuinely surprised yesterday when he realized I was closer to Hotch than he thought. I think he just wants to get Hotch less involved in what's going on."

"Why? He hasn't caused any problems."

"But we're acting more logically, and I don't think that's how Dumbledore likes to do things. He works off of intuition and bravery. He wants me to do the same, so he put me on an assignment that's going to take me away for potentially weeks, surrounded by a group of people who'll make me more like James Potter."

"Are you going to go?"

"They could do this mission without me. I'll prove that quickly and then come back."

Hotch was not in the Room of Requirement. On second glance, neither was anyone else from the BAU. Ron saw the two of them and hurried over. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"Long story, we'll tell you on the way," Harry whispered. "Where'd my dad go?"

"He got a patronus, grabbed the rest of the BAU, and walked out. Why?"

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look.

"Okay," Harry said crossly. "If that's how we're going to play... Expecto patronum. Find my dad."

His patronus led them down the stairs and through the halls until Harry realized they were heading back to the headmaster's office. Harry frowned. There was no reason for them to have been brought there, unless Dumbledore was definitely trying to make sure Harry wouldn't have come across them before he left.

"Why do I have the feeling that we're all going to need to freshen up on our protection charms in the next five minutes?" Ron whispered to Hermione behind him.

There was faint, confused talking inside the office that became more audible as they climbed the short flight up the door. Harry opened it without knocking, revealing the entire BAU, including Elle and Gideon, as well as Moody and McGonagall.

"Would any of you happen to know what's going on?" McGonagall asked, irritable about the hour.

"I've got a feeling, and I don't like it," Harry responded. "What were you told?"

"Just to come here and wait."

Moody was staring meaningfully at Harry. The young Hotchner stared back and asked, "Do you know?"

"Watch yourself," Moody said in warning. "You don't need to make enemies in the castle."

"What's going on?" Rossi asked.

"We're about to have issues," Harry said. "Lots."

Dumbledore walked in behind him through the open door. His eyes flickered around the room, and then settled on Harry. "I thought you were just going to the Room of Requirement," he said calmly.

"Decided to talk to the BAU before I left," he replied.

"Left for where?" Hotch demanded sharply.

Harry tilted his head at Dumbledore, trying not to send off too much sass but aware he was failing. "So you didn't tell them."

"I did not think I had the time," he replied as the rest of the away team slipped in behind him, evidently having followed to see what was holding Harry and Hermione up.

"It would have taken a couple minutes at the most."

"Hey," Morgan snapped. "Where's Harry going?"

"Horcrux hunting," Harry replied, "apparently."

"Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to wait until Riddle's temporarily killed and then go after the horcruxes?" Rossi pointed out. "He's the only one who knows what needs to be defended. With him gone, a mission like that would be much less dangerous." Pause. "Much less dramatic too, but safety first."

Sirius shifted.

"If he realizes we're close to finishing him off," Dumbledore said, "he may put more protections on the horcruxes."

"Yeah, or move them, and then we wouldn't be able to get to them at all," Sirius chipped in.

"He already knows we're after the horcruxes," Prentiss said. "If he was going to put protections on them, he's done it."

"This won't take long. We'll be back within a couple weeks at the most," Sirius said. "And then when we take Riddle out, that'll be the end."

"Okay, but you'd be sending some of the best fighters away from Hogwarts, where a bunch of kids are fighting," Morgan said. "This needs more protection."

"I was afraid of this," Dumbledore said.

"Yes, the BAU is attempting responsibility," Harry said dryly, ignoring Moody's and Hotch's warning looks. "I have nightmares about being stopped from running off on harebrained missions too."

Sirius stared at him, hurt. "Harry... We could bring about Voldemort's end here."

"We're already doing that!" Harry argued. "We don't need to run around England for months! Just because it sucks and it's boring to sit here for weeks doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do! You guys can go on this mission if you really want to, but I'm not leaving. There's more to do here than there is out there, and it would kill morale if anyone thought we were jumping ship."

Sirius recoiled like Harry had punched him, and Harry would have felt sorry for snapping at him if not for the next thing he said. "Your father would have wanted to go for the sake of a mission," he told Harry sullenly. "He wouldn't have cared about the danger."

"Yeah, well," Harry shot back, "I'm not my father, and I want to live and keep everyone else around me alive, so you're just going to have to learn to deal with disappointment."

Sirius stared at him, mouth sliding open into a gape. No one else spoke, though Morgan's eyebrows went up and he turned his head to the side awkwardly. Prentiss stared down at the table with a 'Yikes' expression. Remus didn't look up to arguing against Harry.

Moody, meanwhile, was staring at Dumbledore, trying to tell him not to say it.

"Harry," Dumbledore spoke, causing Moody to roll both eyes to the ceiling in exasperation, "the fact remains that you not only need to do this mission, but are obligated to."

"Obligated by what?" Hotch demanded.

"Obligated by his duty to the school."

"His duty to the school keeps him here, actually."

"His school is asking him to leave on a mission, and since the school has custody over him, he is obligated to follow its orders."

"Obligated to follow your orders, you mean. And considering how quickly your government has fallen apart, I wouldn't use its legal reasoning as a basis for endangering a child."

"I know you don't particularly understand this society that well-"

Harry turned around and found a part of the wall to lean against. This was going to be a while. Hotch, however, had been standing and now turned to directly face Dumbledore. Incidentally, he half-blocked Harry from the headmaster's view.

"-but the youngest are often the bravest and most likely to succeed in war."

"No, I'm not protecting Harry because I don't understand that this society likes using children as martyrs," Hotch snarled. "I'm protecting Harry because children are the first to die in war and are the most likely to succeed at dangerous missions because they often feel like they have nothing left to lose and are easier to pressure into making stupid mistakes because they're told to by older people who should know better."

Shots fired.

Harry turned his head to see what the rest of the room was doing. Behind the headmaster's desk, Moody was sitting calmly, normal eye on the argument while the other was staring at the BAU.

Harry frowned. At some point, Elle had turned into a wolf, enraged by the discussion. Prentiss was physically holding her back, as was Reid. Morgan had gotten out of his chair and looked like he was ready to get involved, while Rossi hid a smirk behind one hand, eyes flickering between Hotch's situation and Elle's.

Harry glanced over at the other side of the room. Sirius still looked injured, Kingsley would rather be back in bed, Remus was blinking slowly in resignation, and Tonks would have had a video camera out if she had one.

He sighed and redirected his attention to Dumbledore and Hotch.

"I am sorry that you don't trust me," Dumbledore was saying, "but I am looking out for his best interests."

Harry turned to Hermione and Ron, who had drifted back towards him, and whispered, "It's funny how I'm completely capable of running an army right up until I do something they don't like."

"Something to add to the discussion, Harry?" Rossi called from across the room.

"I'll wait until they're done arguing so I don't have to shout over everyone," Harry replied, ignoring the way he was almost literally shouting over Hotch and Dumbledore.

"I'd say you're looking out for your best interests instead," Hotch snarled to the headmaster. "He's safer here."

"Voldemort will come after him if he remains alive much longer."

"We weren't planning on setting him up with a Mediterranean home for the rest of his life," Hotch snapped. "We're going to kill him when we get the chance, which is the same thing we would do if you went through with the horcrux mission."

"I understand your valid concerns," Dumbledore said, "but you have no responsibility over Harry."

For years afterwards, Harry wondered if Hotch and Dumbledore were so focused on their argument that they didn't even notice the cacophonous thumping noise as Reid and Prentiss all jumped on top of Elle to stop her from attacking, or if they just had an enormous amount of self control that stopped them from turning to stare.

Rossi's face was convulsing in barely suppressed laughter.

Morgan, however, was ignoring the dogpile beside him and glaring at Dumbledore, a muscle in his cheek twitching furiously.

"You have used your position over him to manipulate him for years," Hotch said, slowly, steadily, and in a tone describing just how close he was to snapping. "However, you have also allowed him to maintain a position of authority. You've created a paradox in which you've treated him as an adult, but only as long as he stays within your control. He's old enough to understand what's going on around him anymore. You can't use the excuse of his protection as a reason to keep information from him or to control his actions. If you continue like this, it's only going to become more obvious that you're using him."

"I assure you-"

"Hotch," Morgan interrupted. "It's only worth it if Harry is kept safe."

The secret was becoming useless. Hotch's validity for protecting Harry was practically null if no one knew why he was doing it. Revealing everything would force Dumbledore to back off, but they could do it now with their Secret Keeper dead.

But, in the long run, it could lead to issues that they couldn't now foresee, so Hotch hesitated.

Morgan looked at Dumbledore when Hotch didn't say anything. "Harry's not going anywhere tonight. The mission can go on if you really want it to, but he's not going with it."

Dumbledore looked past Hotch. "Harry," he said quietly, "see reason."

"I have. That's why I'm not running off to the Astronomy Tower."

"I can't ask for permission from your parents to allow you to leave," Dumbledore said. "The closest I can get is to ask your parents' friends. They have all expressed a wish for you to go with them."

"Are you really trying to use the memory of the dead to get me on this mission?" Harry flatly asked.

"Harry," Sirius said. "As your godfather, I've got to insist that you come. It's not nearly as bad as they're making it sound. I'm giving you permission to do the right thing. Don't listen to them – they don't know you like I do."

Harry's head snapped towards him. "You don't know me at all!" Sirius's eyebrows furrowed and he started to argue but Harry cut him off. "What do you think you know about me? That I like running into danger? No, I just keep getting caught in miserable situations because idiots are trying to control my life or because someone is in danger and the same idiots aren't doing anything about it. That I followed the Potters' example as much as possible? Well, from what I've heard, Lily Potter was quite different from James Potter, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to behave logically and run off thoughtlessly." He paused. "I can't even think of another misconception you might have because we never talk!"

"That's not my fault!" Sirius protested. "You're either at school or getting kidnapped by muggles!"

"They kept me safe!"

"You got snatched by a serial killer from his house!" Sirius pointed at Hotch.

"Yeah, a serial killer who saved me from another mass murderer who you guys should have known was after me and didn't do anything about."

"We'd never heard of him before!"

"Yes, you had! He was the reason I wasn't in England the summer after my second year! But because he wasn't involved with Riddle, all of you forgot about him!"

"Okay," Remus said loudly. The two hushed. "Now's not the time for that discussion."

Sirius scowled at the floor. Harry crossed his arms and set his jaw.

Dumbledore watched him sadly. "Harry," he said. "I know Agent Hotchner hasn't been too happy with some of our actions." Harry snorted at the understatement. "But he's not responsible for you. His actions have benefited himself more than they benefited you."

"Yeah, getting sent to an active war zone in a society you first heard about two years ago is a real plus."

"Be sensible. He's been abnormally invested in your life without reason. There is something he is not sharing with you."

"He's got his reasons."

"How did this conversation get turned on him?" Rossi asked. "We were talking about where Harry would be safest – oh wait, no, we were talking about where he could do the most damage. I forgot we'd degraded him from teenager to weapon at some point."

"I have never thought of him as a weapon," Dumbledore said sharply.

"But you knew he had a horcrux in him," Hotch snapped. "You knew he had a connection to Riddle, and you weren't surprised to learn that we were trying to remove something from his head. And since you weren't making any efforts to get it out of him, I can only assume that you were expecting Riddle to kill him."

Shock flashed across the faces of the few people Harry saw out of the corner of his eye, but his attention was focused on the verbal duel.

"I knew he would return," Dumbledore said instead of denying it.

"There's no way you could have known that," Harry said with a disparaging laugh. Dumbledore tilted his head towards him, a pause before a dramatic statement, but Harry pushed. "No, just stop! This is ridiculous! You can't honestly claim that you were trying to protect me from the horcrux, or you would have exhausted all other alternatives to get it out of my head. You didn't try anything! We still don't know why I returned, so you can't say that you knew I would come back! There wasn't any sort of precedent to suggest it!"

"Harry, when you destroy the rest of the horcruxes, then you'll understand. Horcruxes are-"

"Not something we know a lot about!"

"You've destroyed them before, Harry. They're pieces of the soul, and since your soul isn't connected to Tom's-"

"You've said before that it is!"

"It isn't anymore, Harry. You managed to break it. But now we need to find the rest of the horcruxes and destroy them as well."

"You don't need me for that."

"We do, Harry. We do."

"Stop saying his name," Hotch said sharply. Dumbledore looked back at him with a flicker of annoyance. "You're putting a verbal claim over him, and you're using it to increase a sense of familiarity. You don't use any of the other students' first names. You just use his when you're complimenting him and making him feel like you'll take care of everything – except you really mean that you'll take care of the small first steps and then leave him to do the hardest parts."

Dumbledore closed his eyes for a moment, giving off the appearance of someone exasperated by incompetence. "If you do not go," he told Harry, "someone else from the DA will have to take your place. The Order does not have enough members to send more people."

Harry pushed off from the wall and stepped forward angrily. "Don't you dare threaten me with that," he snarled. "My DA isn't going anywhere, and certainly not under your orders alone."

"You can't stand aside while Order members sacrifice time away from their families and friends on this mission," Dumbledore said. "This is not something you can ignore. If you don't go, someone else will take your place. They'll go out, with less protection and less experience, and they will be much less likely to return unharmed."

Harry gritted his teeth.

Dumbledore gestured with his hand towards the Order members. "Go with them. Some of them are the closest thing you have to family. You have a responsibility to stand by their sides during this task."

Harry shifted, but even before he was sure how that mission was going to be completed, Hotch flung his arm out in front of him and grabbed his opposite shoulder, rooting him to the spot. His arm seared across Harry's chest in a silent brand, burning with the same anger Harry felt in his heart.

"Don't think for a second that you can pick and choose who my family is," Harry hissed, words short and clipped.

"Your parents were James and Lily Potter," Dumbledore said lowly, firmly. "You can't turn aside from their memory. You can't forget them. Don't let strangers decide who you are. Be who your parents wanted you to be when they gave their lives for you."

"Harry's ours," Morgan snarled. "Everyone in the artificial family you tried to make for him hasn't stood up to inspection. He's ours now. You can't unmake that."

"You never even knew his parents," Sirius scoffed.

"You don't know him!" Prentiss shouted back.

"You've only known him for a couple of years!"

"You've known him for less!"

Hotch's hand tightened on Harry's shoulder. Harry reached up with one and wrapped it around Hotch's wrist reassuringly.

"This is a matter of his well-being, physical and mental! You can't just claim him because you want to be associated with him!" Sirius snapped.

"We took him in before we knew who he was!" Morgan shot back.

"I can see now that I was wrong to allow you to become so attached to him," Dumbledore told Hotch. "I thought you would not have such a negative effect on him." He turned his head, including the rest of the BAU in his next statement. "To prevent the fall of morale, we will be coming up with a reason for your departure from the castle. Begin gathering your belongings to prepare to leave."

"You can't force us out of his life by making us leave," Morgan snarled. "We've managed it for years now."

Dumbledore tilted his head slightly. He didn't seem so sure that he couldn't find a way around that.

Harry wasn't sure what was the final straw, but something did it. Maybe it was the blatant manipulation of a child, maybe it was watching Hotch not use the most obvious reason, maybe it was Sirius claiming that Harry's family didn't understand him. Rossi once told Harry, much later, that he thought Morgan had snapped because of the small...ish hero-worship that Morgan had cultivated for Harry's father, and that seeing Dumbledore and Sirius try to diminish Hotch's authority in the matter was what finally crossed the line.

At any rate, Morgan snapped, "You're telling him lies based on a presumption you know to be false." Dumbledore's eyes narrowed in warning. "He's not a Potter. Don't tell him they're his family when they never raised him."

The room went quiet.

"H-Harry," Sirius started. "It's not true."

"I knew for a while," Harry said.

Dumbledore's gaze went to Hotch. "We never agreed to tell him."

"I don't need your permission to do anything," Hotch said.

Dumbledore looked over the group again. "You will be leaving tonight. You cannot make conjectures about his family life simply because we are unsure about who they really are. Since you knew the truth, you should have known that he will be claimed by another family once this war is over. It is pointless for you to try to convince him he should be yours. Now. Leave my castle."

Something changed in the air. Gideon nodded slightly at Hotch. Hotch glanced at Morgan. The rest of the BAU stilled. Morgan tilted his head curiously in acceptance.

"I might not be a blood relative of Harry's," Morgan said in agreement, "but I was given allowance by his family to stand with him no matter what. As long as he chooses to make his stand here, I will not leave him."

"We don't know who is blood family is," Sirius protested. "You can't claim that you know what they would say just because you think you know what's best for him!"

"I'm his father," Hotch said.

Dumbledore's eyes widened like those of a mouse caught in a trap.

Sirius's gaze flickered between Hotch and Harry, denying, denying, denying, but Kingsley just blinked a couple of times before nodding like he should have seen that coming. Remus was utterly calm.

And then McGonagall, who had not spoken since Harry had first entered the room, said, "Merlin."

"You must be joking," Sirius whispered.

"We've known for almost three years now," Harry replied. "We're positive."

Dumbledore stared at Hotch, who met his eyes unflinchingly. "Agent... He's not really your son. You haven't known him for that long. Your life will be destroyed if you continue on this path. Your efforts have been admirable, but you don't have magic and-"

Hotch gave an exasperated sigh and turned abruptly from Dumbledore to gesture to the rest of the room. "Everyone, back to bed. The mission's scrapped. You'd be better off getting some rest."

"Wait," Sirius said, voice starting strong but breaking in the middle. "I... How... Are you sure?"

"Yes," Harry said. "His blood wards have protected me multiple times." Sirius was wondering if he'd ever had a chance. Maybe the truth would hurt less than wondering, maybe it wouldn't. But they'd lied enough to everyone and Sirius needed the chance to work things out with himself. He looked at Dumbledore. "By the way, if they're leaving, so am I, so I'd cancel that eviction notice if I were you."

Hotch opened the door and walked out. He knew he didn't have to fight his cause any longer. Harry went after him. There was a pause, and then he heard steps behind him as the rest of the room filed out.

"That was awkward," Ron muttered as they started back towards the Room of Requirement. "Wicked, but awkward."

"Do you think Sirius is going to be all right?" Hermione asked.

"He needs to learn how to handle it," Remus said behind her. She slipped to the side, letting him walk between her and Harry. "It's rough, but he should have been prepared. He knew this would come eventually even if he didn't know that Harry had already met his father. I'll take care of him, Hermione. Don't worry."

He glanced over Harry's head at Hotch, who was staring at him evenly, waiting for Remus's inevitable response to what had happened.

"I'm glad it was you," Remus said. "I'm glad I was right."

"Why?"

"I've never seen a pair that was better matched with their strengths and weaknesses. You two complement each other. You both would have had a rough time without the other, I think. Everyone, have a good night."

He waved briefly before leaving them and walking back towards the office they had left, likely to find Sirius and handle the fallout. Before they could move on, however, McGonagall strode up to them, Moody right behind her.

"That could have been handled better," Moody said. Behind him, Prentiss was carrying a struggling Elle out. Harry didn't really want to know if Dumbledore had been in that much danger from Elle. "But I don't think it would have been nearly as satisfying."

"Probably not," Harry said.

"You and Remus both knew," McGonagall accused.

"Their body language was too familiar with each other," Moody said, "and they look a lot alike. I'm surprised no one noticed sooner."

"We avoided standing next to each other for those reasons," Harry said.

"Well, if you hadn't confirmed it today, I suspect most of the room would have figured it out eventually. You weren't exactly subtle. The secret protected you this far, but I hope you won't regret giving it up in the future."

"We'll deal with that when we come to it," Hotch said. Moody nodded briefly and walked past them, leaving McGonagall. "I suppose you wish we'd told you."

"I understand why you didn't. I'd like to know who the secret has been shared with so I don't spread this information further than you want."

"The QDA, the BAU, family, Snape, a couple random others who I doubt you know."

She nodded. "Good luck to you both. Harry, I'm glad you're not an orphan." Harry grinned at her. "And now, I'm going to get some sleep, because I seem to be the only person here who has not adjusted to these ridiculous hours."

"Goodnight, Professor," Harry said.

"And you."

The group waited after she walked away, but no one else came to talk to them.

"How pissed do you think Dumbledore is?" Ron asked.

"He's been planning for years with the assumption that I wouldn't know who my father is," Harry said as they turned and finally began walking towards the Room again. "I'll bet he's pretty ticked."

"Nothing he can do about it, though," Hermione said.

Harry smirked and glanced out of the corner of his eye at Hotch, who was wearing an identical look. "Nope. Not a thing."

[-]

Author's Note: Rather fittingly, I am about to go play Monopoly.