As the rain poured down one could see the rows of people standing in the rain, looking right ahead at the coffin which was placed on a raised platform made from raising the ground itself.

Inside it rested Amelia.

Beside the coffin were Sirius, Susan and Kingsley and facing them, the group of people was none other than the entire auror department. While they each displayed an expression of grief and sadness over the loss of someone they truly respected it didn't go unnoticed how alert they were, too.

The location was undisclosed, away from Susan and Amelia's safehouse but somewhere in one of the Bones' properties. It was an old land owned by the family which had been left out of care years ago.

Everyone who was attending the funeral was as alert as they could be for if word had got out somehow that Amelia's funeral was taking place here than Voldemort might come and attack them. They didn't know whether or not it had but it wouldn't hurt to be careful.

It was a private funeral done formally by the aurors as they all stood in lines, one hand on their chest whilst the other held their wands upright.

Harry was also present along with Hermione, Luna, Neville and his grandmother. They had all been given excuses for the day to pay respects to Amelia and be there for their friend Susan who stood beside Sirius by the coffin.

Kingsley stepped forward, holding back his tears as he looked at everyone who came. He wouldn't forget Dumbledore's absence today and he couldn't ignore Moody who stood at the small hill far away from the place looking at them. Kingsley almost smiled looking at the retired auror knowing how bad Moody was with these things or any type of social gatherings. But the fact that he had come, spoke for itself as Kingsley knew the man would visit Amelia when no one was watching.

As Kingsley began his eulogy Sirius held Susan closely who couldn't stop crying. The man himself was barely holding back his tears. Harry and the rest stood with the aurors as they paid their respects to Amelia. Harry kept looking at his godfather thinking what he must be going through right now. The man showed a resolute, strong demeanor but only because of Susan. If he were to break down now who would support her?

As King ended his eulogy he turned to look at Sirius and Susan if either of them had something to say but they didn't so he went on with the process as he took out his wand in full formal fashion as the rest of the aurors followed his lead. They were all in their formal auror uniforms, their cloaks soaked in the rain as they all raised their wands up towards the sky before casting a lumos charm altogether.

It lit up the space beautifully before they all fired their small sparks of light towards the sky, lighting the dark clouds like stars. After that they each went ahead to personally pay their respect to Amelia. After about an hour all of them were done as Kingsley lowered the coffin into the ground.

Once everything was done and most of the people had left Harry approached Sirius. Susan was talking to Neville and Augusta so the man was on his own. "Sirius," Harry said slowly. "I'm so sorry."

"Me too, Harry," said the man with a shaky voice. "Had I not tried to…"

"It wasn't your fault," Harry said immediately knowing his godfather would blame himself. Harry would've done the same if he was in Sirius' place but he knew that was not true. "Don't let anyone tell you that."

"Thank you for coming," said Sirius.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world," Harry said.

"He did it," Sirius said. "He killed her…like the monster he is. Do you think she would've been alive if we hadn't gone ahead with that raid?"

"It wasn't your fault or anyone's," Harry said. "It was Voldemort and Voldemort alone. Don't blame yourself. Do you think Amelia would've wanted you to do that? If you do then who will look after Susan?"

"She will be better off under Augusta's care," Sirius said. "Why do you think she's is talking to Susan for so long?" Harry looked at them and could see the two in deep conversation. "Besides, that should be the way. I don't think I am in any position to look after a ward."

"Let Susan decide that," Harry said as they saw Augusta and Susan coming towards them. "Madame Longbottom," Harry said with a nod.

"Lord Potter," said the old lady. "Lord Black."

"Madame Longbottom," Sirius said with a nod before he looked at Susan.

"Madame Longbottom proposed that I go under her care," Susan said looking at the man. "I just wanted you to know…that I declined."

Harry couldn't help but smile as he looked at Sirius who was surprised hearing that. "But…why did you?" said the man. "I don't think I can take care of you, Susan."

"That's right, you don't," she said. "You are a man-child and you are broken which is why someone has to stay and look after you."

Augusta couldn't help but let out a chuckle when she heard that while Harry and Neville smiled at their friend. Sirius, on the other hand, looked at the girl with wide eyes. "And how will you do that?" he asked.

"By keeping you distracted…until the time is right," Harry said as his godfather looked at him in confusion. "We discussed something together…for you. Madame Longbottom, if you will tell Sirius what it is?"

"I pulled a few strings and managed to convince the majority of the education board," said the old lady, "and now, Lord Black, you will be teaching the course of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, if, that is, you want to."

Sirius couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But…But how can I?" he said. "I am in no shape to teach or…or do anything!"

"Don't worry," Harry said. "It will be fine. Everyone knows that you will be far better than Jacob Mallard."

"Even the Slytherins will agree on that," Neville said.

"What…about Dumbledore?" Sirius asked.

"It's the decision of the education board," Augusta said. "Dumbledore has no say in this and if he wants to object then he will have to do so by risking his seat of Hogwarts' headmaster which he won't so I suggest you don't think too much about it and just take the offer."

"This way I can be around you and look after you," Susan said. "See, didn't I say so?"

Sirius hugged her tightly as he broke down completely, letting go of everything that he had been holding ever since he received the news of Amelia's death. "I'll try to be better," he said looking at her.

"I know," she said hugging him back.

"Kids these days…they grow up so fast," Kingsley said as he came and stood beside Harry. "Madame Longbottom," he said with a nod. Augusta nodded back.

"When circumstances prevail, they have no other choice," Augusta replied as she looked at her own grandson. Harry didn't miss that as he realized that she must know about Griffin being inside Neville. "Fudge didn't come and neither did Dumbledore."

"We don't need them," Harry said grabbing everyone's attention. "They are two people who value their own image and importance over everything else. The best way to make them pay is to not let them have those two things. How about we start a stir, Madame Longbottom?" he said looking at her with a smirk.

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The news about Amelia's death spread like wildfire and while the Prophet – under the minister's order – didn't print anything that could relate the murder to Voldemort it had people second guessing the exact same thing.

This also was the case inside the ministry as well where the aurors were doing their best to spread rumors about Voldemort's return and while it wasn't exactly rumors but for most of the public it was and after Amelia's death many had started to believe the rumor to be true.

While no one who had strategized this to make something out of Amelia's death but it was necessary. If Fudge wasn't willing to see the truth then the public needed to and once they did then Fudge would either have to agree as well or better, resign.

The rumor mill finally reached Fudge's ears who had been ignoring everything up until now as he saw his image about to be tarnished and in his haste and with no one (Lucius) to advise him on how to handle a situation like this he went ahead and called for a press conference, all thanks to Kingsley's indirect hinting who had been at it ever since moving over to the seat of Amelia's – the head of DMLE.

This had allowed the man to be in direct contact with Fudge which Kingsley had used to put their plan's second phase into action by advising Fudge from time to time. He also made sure to do it in the absence of Fudge's annoying senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge, the woman who everyone in the ministry hated.

She was a master manipulator and someone with deep discrimination towards those who weren't 'proper' wizards or witches. It was funny seeing how she herself was a half-blood witch.

The press conference turned out to be a disaster as Fudge began to be asked about Amelia's murder and whether or not Voldemort had returned. The man tried his best by ignoring any and all questions about Voldemort while answering little to nothing about Amelia's murder. In total it was a complete bust.

The articles and news pieces which followed the following days made Kingsley and others smile. Fudge's image had been torn apart by the reporters who not only got any answers to their questions but also felt somewhat humiliated for being called to cover a press conference to get nothing in the end. Clearly they'd all been shouted by their editors who didn't get anything good to report and so they went ahead with what Harry, Sirius, Kingsley and others thought wouldn't be possible at least this early in their plan.

The headline at the front of every news piece read just one thing – Voldemort was back and he had murdered Amelia Bones for investigating into the matter.

The articles also discussed Fudge's inability to control the situation and didn't spare the poor man in the slightest by criticizing everything that he had done and not done. The reporters didn't give an ounce of care for their readers as they openly wrote about Voldemort's return. Obviously the public panicked and in a few days they crowded in front of the ministry building demanding to see Fudge and what his plan was to tackle the situation.

The said man was in his office, sweating from head to toe thinking when everything had gone wrong. He wasn't allowing anyone inside the office and wondered what was taking the aurors so long to disperse the crowd. He regretted not listening to Amelia when she was telling him about her theory of Voldemort's return. He knew that wasn't true and neither was it this time.

Someone wanted him off the seat of the minister and fudge knew that. He was so confused and afraid that he broke down in tears and after crying like a baby for ten minutes only one thought came to his mind – resignation.

At least this way he would be spared from further criticizing for any step or action he took to bring this situation under control. Yes, his image had been tarnished but if he continued he was sure that it will ruin his image so bad that people will hate even seeing him. At least this way he was making a decision where he could let people see that he wasn't fit to tackle a situation like this and unlike other power hungry people he let go of his seat.

Surely people would understand that, right?

And so with the formal piece of paper with his name signed on it with the blood quill Fudge walked out of the ministry building much to the shock of the high ranking ministry officials who recognized the paper in his hand as he stood facing the angry and panicked crowd and raised his hand which had the resignation form.

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Harry put down the paper with a smile on his face. Because of Fudge's resignation and the aurors' efforts to link all the attacks which took place in the last few months to Voldemort and his way of kidnapping and killing people a committee was set up to appoint a new minister of magic without holding a public election so that things could be brought back to normal as quickly as possible.

The members of this committee were the members of Wizengamot and Kingsley whose department had been given special recognition to be a part of the committee seeing how the DMLE had been actively investigating into all of what was going on.

While the dark pureblood families tried their best to appoint someone whom they could control on behalf of their dark lord the ultimate decision was made to appoint Rufus Scrimgeour the new minister of magic. He wasn't the ideal choice for the post according to the light side and definitely not the dark side as well as Harry came to know through Sirius and Augusta but he was their best choice from the ones given.

He was an overall decent man with a good track record when he was an auror back in the day until when he became the head of DMLE instead of Moody who refused to take the position. According to Kingsley they had no one else other than him who was experienced enough to qualify as a candidate for the minister's position and so with a very narrow win on their side Rufus was appointed as the new minister of magic.

For Sirius things turn out to be not so bad ever since he accepted the position of the DADA professor at Hogwarts. Dumbledore said nothing but humbly welcomed him as a new faculty member of Hogwarts although Sirius could tell that the old guy wasn't happy with this. But focusing on Sirius being a professor in his school while the whole nation out there was panicking over Voldemort's return, Dumbledore knew well which one to prioritize first and he chose the latter.

Harry couldn't be happier for his godfather especially after everything that he had gone through. With Scrimgeour as minister now the man took quick actions and rapidly began to recruit as many aurors as he could to strengthen the ministry's power against Voldemort so Sirius was spared to join Kingsley on the many auror raids which took place from then on, capturing hundreds of death eaters at a time. It looked like the ministry was making a difference but in reality it was not as Harry, Sirius, Kingsley and Rufus new that what they'd captured was nothing compared to what Voldemort had in his arsenal. But something was better than nothing as it started to give people hope that more and more death eaters were being captured under Rufus' administration unlike Fudge's who had taken a wrong guess again as people openly despised him.

It became so bad that Fudge had to leave the country a month after he had resigned as the minister of magic.

Needless to say Rufus got many anonymous death threats and even booby-trapped letters and packages from Voldemort's followers both inside and outside the ministry but he was smart enough to evade every time. He had learnt from Moody to always be vigilant even though the two of them didn't see eye-to-eye. No one knew why the two held such rivalry against each other but everyone knew that they both respected each other as well as they recognized each other's talents and skills as fellow auror.

With everything going on winter finally came and so did the winter holidays. Along with Harry's plan to visit the world's library he also had set a meeting with Draco. It felt weird meeting the boy like that but he knew Draco was under rigorous training by Snape for when he will have to face Voldemort. Harry couldn't wait to meet him and see how far he'd gone with his training. Perhaps he could get a pointer or two from him as well.

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It hadn't been going well for Voldemort. His plan for the element of surprise had been completely ruined with the ongoing operation of the aurors' department and the appointment of the new minister of magic.

He didn't know Black would take such a step after losing Bones. Voldemort had thought that the man would go insane and angrily come to attack him where he would savor torturing Black but he had gone ahead and used Amelia's death as an impulse to convince everyone of his return.

And the fact that everyone now believed it was baffling for Voldemort.

Seeing that he won't be able to enjoy his element of surprise anymore Voldemort decided not to hold back. If the people had been fed the belief that he had returned then he would let them witness it. But first he needed to do something about the traitor.

The fact that Bella had found who the traitor was the only thing that had kept Voldemort from going berserk after reading the news about his return in the papers. But the fact that according to Bella it was Snape, it had not surprised him that much.

Voldemort always had a suspicion towards Snape simply because he played the spy for both sides, feeding both parties information about the others so one couldn't really tell where Snape's true loyalties lie.

So when Snape received a summon form the dark lord he wondered what did Voldemort want from him. He knew that Bella had been assigned a secret mission from Voldemort and he had failed to figure out what it was but being the kind of man that Snape was he had prepared for the worst. He had never ignored his gut feeling or his instincts which both screamed that it wasn't going to be good for him if he went to see Voldemort but he had no other choice. If he didn't then it would be suspicious in the eyes of Voldemort and that would definitely be bad.

So he walked through the gates of riddle manor and headed straight for the throne room. He passed the many rooms housing many death eaters and dark creatures in the manor which had been magically enhanced to accommodate them all before he reached the throne room and walked in.

He saw Voldemort sitting there sipping from the cup which contained Nagini's poison. So the snake was also here which meant the ring would be, too, thought Snape.

"You called for me, my lord?" Snape asked getting on his knees and bowing in front of the dark wizard. He couldn't see Voldemort's uninterested reaction so he didn't know what was going on but he knew something was off. It wasn't always that he was called out of nowhere by Voldemort but there had been a lot going on like the aurors and the public knowing about his return so it was possible that Voldemort had called for him because of that.

Without any warning or words from Voldemort, Snape felt a jolting pain throughout his body. Previous experiences told him it was the cruciatus curse as he fell on the floor writhing in pain. Voldemort ended the curse before getting off of his throne and casually walking over to where Snape lay panting on the floor. He looked down at the man with a boring, uninterested look before he turned Snape's face using his foot so that he could look at him in the eyes.

"You thought I wouldn't know?" he said slowly as he leaned closer to the lying man. "Tell me, Severus, why would you betray me?"

Snape felt as if someone had punched him through and through. He didn't know how Voldemort knew about his betrayal as Snape had been very careful covering his tracks but it no longer matter. The fact was that Voldemort knew and there was nothing Snape could do about it.

"TELL ME!" Voldemort shouted before mercilessly stomping his foot on Snape's face, breaking his nose and stabbing one of his eyes using his long toe nail in the process.

Snape let out a gut wrenching cry of pain as he lost an eye and felt the pain of his broken nose, combined with the slowly fading spasms from the cruciatus curse. He knew dying by the hands of Voldemort wouldn't be easy but the thought of being able to see Lily again gave him hope and strength to bear this pain.

He wouldn't tell Voldemort anything.

For Voldemort it meant more anger towards Snape. Why did everyone had to make things so difficult for him all of a sudden, he thought as he fired cruciatus after cruciatus at him filling the entire room with Snape's gut wrenching cries.

After a full ten-minutes of hellish torture Voldemort stopped for a moment to catch his breath as he looked at the unconscious man on the floor before calling in a few of the death eaters who were shocked to see Snape lying there in that state and wondered what he could've done to receive such a punishment from the dark lord.

"Take him to Fenrir," Snape said. "It has been quite some time since Fenrir turned an adult into one of his lackeys."

The death eaters shared a horrifying look before looking at Snape with pity before they each grabbed one of Snape's arms and dragged him out of there.

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"Where will you two be going?" Harry asked Susan and Sirius as they all got off at King's Cross. One could see the effect of the news about Voldemort's return as not many were there at the platform. Not to mention there was a considerable number of aurors roaming around, some in their uniform while some in casual civilian clothing so as to not let anyone know who they were. Harry recognized a few as he, Sirius and Susan headed towards the exit. Daphne, Hermione and Neville had left with their parents and guardian.

"I've still got the Grimmauld Place," Sirius said.

"You wouldn't like it there," Harry said looking at Susan which made Sirius give a hurtful expression. "You don't like it there either," Harry said looking at his godfather. "You know there's always a room for you back at Potter manor."

"We don't want to be a burden on you," Susan said.

"Well, then I guess you will have to floo over every day to my place in order to train," Harry said.

"Train?" Sirius said looking at the two of them.

"We've decided to train and make ourselves as strong as possible," Harry said. "This holiday will serve a great opportunity for that as I have full intention of using the time warp ward to its full extent."

"You make the call," Sirius said looking at Susan.

"If it is not a burden for you then I guess we can stay at your place," she said.

"It will be my pleasure to be your host," Harry said. "Besides, like I said, that place is too big for me to live there all by myself. It gets sort of scary at night. Can you imagine living all by yourself at a place which is larger than Hogwarts?"

The two could understand what Harry meant as they apparated over to the manor. As Harry placed his belongings in his room he thought about asking Neville, Draco and Luna to join him on a trip to Bibliotheca Mundi. They could each discover something new about their divine beasts even though they could talk to them without a problem. He didn't know if they would all agree but he could try. It was better than going there all by himself. Maybe he will ask Daphne and Hermione to tag along as well.

He came downstairs once Temmie had made dinner for them all and they ate in silence. Sirius talked about finding a new and more secure place while Harry told him that the Potter manor will always be his home whether he wanted it or not.

After coming back to his room Harry decided to head down to the basement and practice some occlumency. He wasn't feeling all that tired so he decided to utilize the time warp ward to get more done in less time. That way he could always go to bed in time while practicing for hours before bed.

He activated the runes and the wards were set up before he walked in and sat down, closing his eyes and clearing his head of all sorts of thoughts and everything else. He could now do so with much ease compared to back when he had started.

He dived deep into his psych plane, a mental place which one could achieve after almost mastering the occlumency art as Harry looked around at all the thoughts and memories else inside his head arranged and shielded with his occlumency barriers. However, his motive was to try and see if he could still talk to the Yayu as he saw the black patch amongst his memories and thoughts. This was the one thing he hadn't been able to move or access ever since from the start. He knew it was the collection of the Yayu's own memories and thoughts and it had been there since the night the Yayu had made him his vessel.

Harry slowly headed towards the black patch being careful and alert as he knew how this thing could react in order to protect itself. It was unstable and dangerous so Harry couldn't be more in risk trying to access it.

As he neared the patch it moved like a glob of highly viscous slime. Harry stopped, examining it from the distance. When he saw nothing happen he took another step while simultaneously raising his occlumency shields all around his own thoughts and memories in case this thing decided to go after them seeing that it couldn't push Harry out of his own psych plane.

The black glob moved again, this time shimmering a little which made it look a bit threatening as if it was warning Harry to stop. Harry did but moved again after a minute's pause. "Who is Gaanieda to you?" Harry asked knowing the Yayu shared a sort of bond with Merlin's sister. He saw the moment he mentioned her name the glob's shimmering stopped as if it had heard what Harry had just said. "I cannot help you unless you let me," Harry said again.

Suddenly the glob expanded like a black slime and engulfed Harry who was not expecting anything like this as he was left completely shocked and his mind couldn't think of anything to do as in a second he was wrapped completely by the black slime.

He felt suffocated, trying his best to fight out of this thing when he started seeing flashes. He stopped his struggle and became still, his eyes now cloudy and pupil-less as if he had been possessed by someone or something.

Harry found himself in a long, unending field covered in mud. It smelled horrible, like something was rotting somewhere around him when he noticed what he was standing on and gasped, stepping back all of a sudden out of shock and fear that he fell on his back in the mud as he looked at the mutilated body of Daphne in front of him, lying there on the muddy ground…dead.

He then start to notice everyone else lying around him in the ground, all of them dead – Remus, Sirius, Hermione, Neville, all the people he knew and many, many more as he realized the ground was filled with dead bodies. He then noticed that the muddiness and wetness of the ground wasn't due to water or anything else but from blood as he lifted his foot which had red, bloodied mud sticking all over it.

He began to panic as he looked around. He knew this wasn't real even though it felt like it.

He started looking around to see how he could get out of here. He even tried slapping himself, using occlumency…everything he could think of to get him out of this place or nightmare, whatever it was but nothing worked. Then he saw something in the distance slowly coming towards him and Harry stopped, his body becoming numb from fear and shock.

Slowly walking towards him was his demonic, monstrous form of which Harry had nightmares of but behind him was a huge, shadowy monstrous being with big red eyes. Harry recognized those eyes immediately as he had seen them before.

It was the Yayu.

"This will be your end," Harry heard a rumbling, bellowing voice all around him which made every organ in his body vibrate. "Stop your efforts."

However, Harry had had enough as he clenched his palms into fists and stood there with narrowed eyes looking at his demonic form approaching him. "You came to me…made me your vessel when I didn't want to do anything with it in the first place!" he shouted. "So it should be you who needs to get out of me."

Harry's other form and the shadowy beast behind him, both stopped as they looked at him with mild interest. "Do you see what is around you?" Harry heard the rumbling voice again. "That is your fate if you don't stop. And this is the reason that your friends will die." Harry noticed blood and guts dripping from the hands of his demonic form and he felt the chill down his spine.

Did he…was he going to be responsible for it?

"Why…Why did it have to be me?" Harry said in a shaky, low voice a she slowly looked towards his demonic form. "Why did you choose me as your vessel and not anyone else?"

"Because no one else was around and I needed a way to survive," said the voice.

"And if I kill myself?" Harry asked. "It would force you to leave my body. Where will you go then?"

"There are many more that I can choose from," the voice said. "And I will start with one of your dear friends."

"You're lying!" Harry said. "You cannot survive outside of me because you are not stable on your own! If I kill myself then you will die, too!"

"You sure know about it a lot," said the voice. "Why don't you go ahead and try it? That way I get to be free from you and you get your freedom as well."

Harry's anger rose hearing that. "You want to hurt my friends? I'd like to see you try," he said when he felt a powerful push and opened his eyes to find himself back in the basement. He took a few long breaths to calm himself down. This had never happened before. The Yayu had straight forward threatened him by killing everyone he loved.

But there was also one thing that Harry had been able to do right now which he couldn't before.

He had managed to get a glimpse of the Yayu's psych inside his head and he had picked up a familiarity of it. Thanks to his training the next time he enters the psych plane accessing the Yayu's memories and thoughts wouldn't be as hard as it was before.

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Thanks for reading…

A/N: If you are curious as to what the Yayu looks like see the cover image of this story…