"Harry, I don't think I am feeling good enough to visit the cottage. I understand if you want to visit it. I shall simply wait here for you." Sirius spoke out, a tiredness in his voice.

"No it is okay, I can come another day. Besides, I can simply apparate here whenever I want, now that I know where it is." Harry replied.

"You can apparate? "Sirius asked wondrously, "and that too, so young?"

"I have a couple of tricks hidden in my sleeve, Sirius. You don't know quite a lot about me." Harry replied, only to curse himself for not thinking before speaking. Sirius's expression, was downtrodden.

"I know Harry, I missed out a lot of years of your childhood. And now that I am back, you are already grown up. I missed my chance of corrupting you, Lily would be so smug." Sirius reminisced.

"It's all right Sirius. We can get to know each other."

"So tell me about yourself, my young mini marauder."

Harry smirked.

"Well you do know that I am Lord Slytherin." Sirius nodded, "and I turned into my animagus form for the first time when you intervened between me and Moony." Harry laughed. Sirius suddenly looked gobsmacked for a moment, and then almost yelled out, "Bloody hell pup, I almosy forgot you are an animagus, and that too a wolf."

"Dire wolf" Harry corrected.

"Yes that, seems like Moony finally won the bet. I will have to pay the old wolf five hundred galleons."

"What bet?" Harry asked curiously.

"Well there was this running bet about your animagus form. James said that you would be some form of stag or perhaps a lion, I had voted for a dog while Remus for a wolf. Seems like the old man won."

Harry grinned. "You were betting on my form when I was an year old?" He asked with amusement.

"Oh that was nothing. You should have seen the proud look on your father's eyes when you summoned him from the other room. He was the proudest father on the planet that day. Floo called everyone to let know just how powerful his baby son was. It was then that we decided to-"

Sirius blanched for a moment, and turned to Harry, "You did have a healing ritual done before taking your Lordships right?"

"Yes."

Well, not a complete lie. The Cleansing ritual was a kind of healing ritual, after all.

"Did you get to break your magical bindings?"

"I did. There were two."

"Two?" Sirius was gob smacked. "We put only one. It was supposed to be broken when you would be seven or eight years of age."

"Dumbledore put the other on me. He did that to prevent..." Harry hesitated before continuing, "he did that to prevent the effects of this scar from affecting my magic."

"And now it is gone?" Sirius questioned, his eyes narrowed.

"The bindings yes; the dark magic of the scar, no. The goblins could not do anything about it."

"Did Dumbledore mention anything about it to you?"

"We have talked..." Harry said dryly, "but not in details. Yet."

Sirius nodded. "Remus told me about your flying prowess. Told me you fly better than James did."

"You think so?" Harry asked, his eyes widening.

"Well Remus was the smartest one in the group. If he says so, must be right. Ready to leave?"

Harry nodded.

Sirius smirked. "Think you can apparate little old me to Black Manor?"

Harry smirked, rising up to the challenge.

He held out his hand, and Sirius held it tightly. With a soft pop, they apparated away.


"I swear this is one of my worst ideas!" Peter grumbled to himself as he scurried down the narrow opening of the cave. It was completely dark, and had he not had his wand with him, there was no way he would enter the cave. Wraith or no wraith.

He felt a cold wind blow and send a shiver down his spine. His rat instincts working overdrive, he bent down quickly as a cold wind blew above him. It was a wraith, the face blurry because of the motion. "My Lord?" he cried.

The wraith stopped midway, peering down at the pudgy human in front of him. "Who are you?"

"Peter, my Lord. Peter Pettigrew. Your faithful servant."

The wraith seemed to get angrier with his proclamation. It forced its way through the rocks, breaking them into pieces. "Don't lie to me! Had you been faithful, I would not have to survive in this form for so many years."

"I was in hiding my lord. As a rat, for the last decade."

The wraith seemed to ponder at the information. "Wormtail!"

Peter bobbed his head. This seemed a good sign.

"Where are the others Wormtail? Do they not care for their Lord? Do they not know how terrible my wrath is?"

"Some of them are in Azkaban my lord. And a few others out there, are busy collecting their own profits in your absence."

"TRAITORS! TRAITORS ALL OF THEM!" the wraith stopped moving and floated to a standstill.

"I have come to seek your return. My lord. The Potter boy-"

"Yes. Potter. He somehow overpowered me. Quirrel could not touch him. I don't remember everything correctly. My mind...fuzzy..."

"My lord... can I help you with anything?"

"Fetch me... an animal. A snake... if possible...I can possess... it. We can... travel..." the wraith uttered out some more, but Peter could not make heads or tails of it. He shook his head and went out of the cave. His first job. Fetch a snake.

Definitely not one of his better ideas.


Harry appeared on the gates of the Black Manor with his godfather in tow. Stepping away from his godson, he shook his head. "Damn pup, you are good. Apparation at fourteen, and nearly silent too. "He waggled his eyebrows, "What other powers have you been hiding eh?" repeating the last line from the Prophet article.

"Oh you know me! A couple of more stuffs." Harry smirked.

Opening the door, the duo went inside the hall. Daphne and Neville were busy playing a game of wizarding chess, she looked just like her mother, Harry observed. A single lock of hair fell off in front of her eyes. Harry subconsciously walked up to her and tucked it behind her hair. Daphne looked up to him and smiled. "Harry!"

"Hey mate! You are back! How was the journey?" Neville asked. Harry mused that Susan might be somewhere with her aunt.

"It was... good. Kind of enlightening." Harry commented. "So what's the lead with the game?"

"Daphne's winning. So far. That is."

That's my girl.

"Well Neville, I suggest you up your game then. I have heard that Susan is as good as her, and unless you want to keep losing all your life from her at chess," Neville blushed at Harry's subtle implication, "I would recommend you up your playing style."

He went overboard and sat on his betrothed's side. His hands automatically finding their place on her waist as she melted into his body, her head resting slightly on your shoulders."

"You know, you are just as romantic as your dad was," came the slightly toned voice of the elder Bones.

"I smell a story, Amelia." Sirius intervened, his eyebrows waggling madly.

"Well, all you needed was to just sit beside Lily after one of her dates with your father. She would be melting away in reminiscence, similar to your betrothed." Amelia smirked pointedly.

Daphne blushed.

"Tell you some sound advice Harry, always allow your partner to be comfortable with you." Amelia sniggered.

"Well, Happy wife! Happy life!" Sirius exclaimed as his arms snaked around Amelia's waist from behind her.

Harry simply smiled, still holding Daphne tightly.


Peter had somehow managed to overpower a rather dangerous adder from the outskirts of the cave, and the dark lord had possessed it quite efficiently, he may add. Peter had been apparating in tandem all the way since then. Whenever he would get tired, he would simply sit and wait for some moments, manage to procure some food for them and milk for the snake; after all the dark lord had to be fed in this form.

After a two-day worth of travel, they had finally reached the village of Little Hangleton. Why his lord would choose a muggle village in the entirety of Britain, Peter could not fathom. He mused it was one of the many ... quirks of being powerful. He was completely shocked to find that his lord owned muggle property there. Now that was surprising. Perhaps his lord wasn't so pure of blood as he had claimed after all. Not that Peter would voice his suspicions. He was a Gryffindor at school, sure, but there was a difference between bravery and stupidity. Nah! Self-preservation was far better than both.

Reaching the dilapidated old manor, the Riddle Manor as the nameplate claimed, his lord had finally released the snake from his possession. Peter was not amused when his lord claimed the snake to be his new familiar, and that Peter, like the faithful servant he was, would have to feed Nagini, the snake just had he had been doing. Some point about Peter being good at such menial jobs or something, Peter could not fathom why.

"Find me a child. One that is less than two years old, but not less than a year of age."

Dark lords and the crazy quirks. Peter wondered if that was written on the Death eater manifesto, or was it something that his Lord had introduced newly. Grumbling to himself about insanity, recklessness and damned Severus, he went off for his latest hunt.


Harry had visited Daphne's family once more when he came to drop her back at her family manor. After spending the day there, he went back to Potter Manor, hoping that Dobby had everything ready and packed. He was supposed to be meeting with his charms Professor the next day morning at the Leaky Cauldron. He hoped that Dobby had checked and rechecked about the condition of the Potter cottage in Paris.

Nidhogg?

"Yes."

You sure I should avoid using fire attacks in the duel? They could give me a nice edge.

"Completely sure. I wonder why you are so worried. They are just a bunch of nineteen year olds. You are an elemental. Don't use fire, but you can use Chaotic energy to perform wandless spells."

Not a bad idea.

"What would you do without me?"

Not speak with someone in my mind?

"Arse."

Same to you.

The next morning, Harry got everything ready and packed up in his new multi-apartment trunk. Magic knew he was almost running through a lot of them. He already had his grandfather's trunk, his moke skin pouch, but he just had to, just had to buy the new trunk that he had seen on display. The new seven apartment trunk that came with much more amazing features. Although it cost him a bloody lot, harry still felt it was worth it. After all, he had all the gold lying in his vaults. If he had money, he might as well spend some of it.

Harry met with Flitwick outside the leaky Cauldron as they had decided previously. He had procured a nice little portkey to his cottage and no sooner had they touched the portkey and uttered the password, there was a flash of blue as they were portkeyed away.

Appearing with a crack, Harry stood his ground. Flitwick looked at him with suspicion as he remarked. "You seem awfully stable for someone who has just portkeyed for the first time."

Harry winked at his charms professor, "Ask me no questions, hear no lies."

Flitwick raised his eyebrows.

"It's a muggle proverb professor. Just thought of quoting it." Harry grinned.

Flitwick smirked, this was certainly James Potter's son.

"So where is this elf of yours?"

Harry nodded and called out, "Dobby?"

There was a soft pop as the elf appeared. "yes, master."

"Please take our luggage inside and settle everything."

Dobby bobbed his head twice and popped away.

"So Harry! Ever been to the 'La Ville magicus' in Paris?

"The magical village?" Harry translated.

Flitwick sent a pointed look at his protégé, not knowing previously about his skill at French.

Harry smirked. "No Professor."

"Let's get you a tour of it, then." Holding his protégé's hands, the half-goblin professor apparated.


### a short chapter I know. But I had to finish the part here before I properly begin with the tournament. Read and review!