The end of term exams were always the worse test to complete. But Harry was convinced that this year's end of term was doing its very best to be even worse than usual. They had one week of double classes and a ton of revision homework before they were thrown into the deep end. The only breather the students of Hogwarts could get from the slew of exams or revisions were on Wednesday and weekends, and even that felt strained thanks to everyone's sudden devotion to studying or preparing for the next exam while cursing Dumbledore for putting their classes on hold for so long.

Harry had found himself studying in the Room of Requirement more and more often. Unable to sit in the common room or the library with everyone grumbling about how Dumbledore should have just let Fudge question him instead of dragging everyone into his tangled web of lies, or trying to goad Harry into admitting something he shouldn't. Believing that Dumbledore had been keeping Harry and Ness in the loop before he fled Hogwarts.

Of course, after Ness had given the few brave souls who tried to ask him a death glare they wisely went after Harry. Someone they knew they could handle when he was angry compared to the ticking time bomb known as Earthbound. Hermione and Ron did their best to keep those less interested in their studies at bay but it was pointless and they were forced to give up and focus on keeping Harry company when they didn't have their noses buried in their books.

However, as the end of June drew closer the number of exams every student had to complete dwindled. Easing the tension in the castle as Harry pushed his scrambled eggs around, not looking forward to his final Potion exam or Divination exam as he wearily looked around.

Noticing that Ginny was dozing on the dining room table and that Ness was nowhere to be seen. He was about to wonder where the boy was when Ron sat down beside him, bemoaning, "I know you're not going to want to hear this, but why couldn't Dumbledore have run off after the exams?"

"Because then it wouldn't be a problem for Hogwarts." Harry answered, swallowing his irritation at Ron as he shoved some eggs into his mouth. "Where's Hermione?" he asked trying to keep his spirits high as Ron shoveled some grits and fruit onto his plate.

"Dunno, I thought she came down with you." Ron admitted, "She's probably off studying in the library for her ridiculous Muggle Studies exam."

"Probably." Harry echoed, lapsing into a tense silence as everyone chatted with one another or bemoaned how they were most certainly going to fail.

"At least we only have two more days of exams before we can just relax and get ready to head home." Ron stated a smile forming before he caught the look on Harry's face.

"Right, home." Harry echoed, his mood thoroughly destroyed as he stabbed his eggs with a bit too much force.

"Sorry mate, I sort of forgot that you and…" Ron started, trailing off at the growing gloom on Harry's face before he changed the subject, "Well, if you want to spend some time away from the Dursleys, I'm pretty sure mum wouldn't mind you coming for a visit."

"I guess." Harry admitted, "Honestly…I completely forgot about Sirius in an attempt to get good grades."

"Right, you're aiming to be an Aurora." Ron recalled, "Ugh, good luck with that mate. I'll be happy getting a simple job at the Ministry. Well, if the Ministry hasn't imploded by the time we grow up."

"Yea…" With some prodding from Hermione and Ness he had grumpily written Sirius the list of people he had spotted at the graveyard and sent it to him in an envelope. The thought of his Godfather's betrayal still a fresh wound as he did his best to avoid Ness's curious gaze and Hermione's unsure fidgets as he sent Hedwig to Lupin.

A small part of him did want to ask why Sirius had back-stabbed Dumbledore but a louder part insisted that everyone should just shut up about Dumbledore and let everything go back to normal.

"Hey uh, Harry." He glanced up, a little surprised at Ron's suddenly soft and almost vulnerable tone as the Weasley nervously pushed his fruit around his plate.

"I know you've probably already forgotten but ah," Ron hesitated before saying, "I'm really sorry for losing my head like that and taking it all out on you and HermioNE!"

Harry jumped as someone—Hermione, practially knocked him over with a low suffering whine as Harry turned his head and gawked at Hermione's disgruntled state.

"Did Earth—the castle attack you or something!?" Ron exclaimed as Harry propped her up and nervously tried to smooth out Hermione's wrinkled robe.

"Wha? Oh, no." Hermione yawned, pushing herself into a sitting position and running a heavy hand through her bushy hair which looked like a lion's mane that was being poorly tamed by a scarlet headband with sliver hues.

"You're wearing a headband Hermione." Harry pointed out, "You only wear those after an intense night study session!"

"You did go to bed after our study session, right?" Ron questioned, his tone dipping into a no nonsense one as Hermione yawned again and rubbed her eyes. "Well, I tried too—honest Ron! Don't give me that look, but I woke up a few hours later after this weird dream."

"A dream?" Harry echoed looking at Ron who frowned but leaned back a bit, "Was it related to the Unspeakables? We've already warned Moony and Snuffles to the others but…"

Hermione shook her head no and grabbed a pear, "It was hard to make sense of. I ended up having to write it down and thoroughly examine it before I could make heads or tails of it."

"What was it about?" Harry prompted, frowning as Hermione took a bite out of her pear and reached into her robe pocket to pull out a wrinkled piece of parchment. He blinked at the messy lines and sloppily written sentences and gave Ron a worried look before they tried their luck to make heads or tails of it. They managed translated a message about a stone maze before they gave up and poked Hermione who was about to use her empty plate as a pillow.

"Just use English 'Mione, your sleep gibberish is looking like another language." Ron pleaded.

"Hmm? Oh, alright." She yawned and sat up a little straighter.

"So, I feel asleep trying to figure out where that Herbology book came from and for a moment, I thought I had just dozed off." Hermione explained, "I woke up in bed with the book on my chest and decided to turn in for the night when I heard someone walking down the stairs, for some bizarre reason, I felt compelled to find out who it was and found Ginny having a whispered conversation with Ness."

Ron pursed his lips but didn't voice his thoughts as Harry glanced at Ginny who was nibbling on a piece of toast.

"So, I was going to scold them for being up at such a ridiculous hour when I overheard Ginny state something about Ness's master."

"Ness doesn't have a master." Harry interrupted, frowning when Hermione's gaze sharpened and she huffed, "As far as we know. Whoever brought those things to Hogwarts-,"

"Earthbound." Ron interjected.

"Was their master, which means that Ness was once a follower or maybe opposing him at one point." Hermione finished, glaring at Ron who simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Opposing." Harry stated. Remembering how uneasy and almost scared Ness had looked when he had that weird dream about the Daily Prophet, while he cured him of his PSI inflected alliments. "He mentioned something when I had to go to Madam Pomfrey's after the dream of the Daily Prophet and looked pretty spooked about it."

"He did?" Hermione questioned looking a little confused as Ron and Harry exchanged a frown and moved to remind her that they had already mentioned to her, when she shook her head and stated. "Never mind, that's not important." Before resuming her story, "So, Ness or Ginny suggest that they should confront him and left the common room and I went to get you guys—no, you weren't there or…" Hermione's frown returned before she once again shook her head.

"I decided not to get you guys since I thought they were just sneaking off. So, I followed them not thinking their not being serious and they head to the Room of Requirements, but when they opened the door they walked into this official looking hallway and start walking to this numbered door. I start to think that I should go and get you guys but then the door closes behind me and Ness and Ginny disappear."

"Which leads the floors and walls falling away and me realizing that this wasn't a dream and someone's—something's talking to me and then, I woke up."

"Is that it?" Harry asked, frowning as Hermione's gaze grew unfocused and her mouth silently moved before she sharply shook her head again.

"No—er, yes. I woke up and I sort of thought I was still dreaming so I went to make sure that Ginny was still in bed. She was but when I came back, I found…I found…" she trailed off, biting her lip in frustration as she mumbled, "I found something. Something important and related to…to stars."

"Space?" Harry supplied while Ron looked up at the ceiling in thought before he offered, "Astronomy? We did have our final Astronomy exam yesterday."

"It was…space." Hermione slowly stated her, nervous and unsure fidgets growing more and more frequent as she fumbled for her answer, "But it felt…wrong, it felt like nothing. But there was something that shouldn't be there."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look before Harry slowly started, "Hermione, I think you need to visit Madam Pomfrey."

She jerked back, almost as if she had been slapped and looked at him in disbelief, "Harry we have a potions exam! I can't skip that!"

"The tester can let you take it later, 'Mione." Ron soothed, his voice carefully calm and composed as Hermione shot him an angry glare, "But right know you seem like you need some more sleep. Maybe a calming draft."

"I'm fine!" Hermione insisted.

"Hermione, what day is it?" Harry questioned, his frown deepening as Hermione opened her mouth with a smug smirk and then snapped it shut, her eyes growing foggy and an annoyed frown appearing. "It's…Monday." She finally answered with an unsure air of smugness.

"It's Thursday." Ron corrected, "And you need some more rest."

"But-!" Hermione started when Harry and Ron grabbed her by the arms and dragged her to the Hospital Wing. It was disturbingly easy to do so, every time Hermione would struggle and fuss, she would abrutply stop and looking around with a confused but annoyed expression on her face as Harry and Ron reassured her that they were just visiting Madam Pomfrey. The pair growing unnerved by her sudden loss of focus and the need to repeatedly ask where they were going and why they were dragging her there.

"Madam Pomfrey," Harry called, kicking the door open as Hermione began another bout of struggling.

"Coming!" the tired nurse called, bustling out of her office with a cup of tea and a basket of chocolates for the few First and Third year students who decided that hexing their quills or buying a quill that knew the answers was a bright idea.

"What's wrong with Miss Granger?" Madam Pomfrey questioned, frowning as she handed a small boy a piece of chocolate and watched as Hermione abruptly stopped struggling and looked around in confusion. "Harry, why are we in the hospital wing? We have an exam to attend!"

"That. That's wrong." Ron answered as Harry gently answered Hermione's questions and tried to offer her a piece of chocolate. "She woke up late looking like a mess and when she tried to tell us about her dream, she kept losing focus and struggled to remember what day it was when we asked."

"She doesn't use any cheating hexes and when we went to bed, she was perfectly fine." Harry added.

"No one slipped her anything at dinner? She wasn't near a prank gone wrong performed by the Weasley twins?" Madam Pomfrey questioned, ushering Hermione onto a cot as the girl tried to insist that she was fine.

"She was sitting with us at dinner and Fred and George were busy studying for once." Ron answered, "She didn't interact with anyone that night but us. And right after dinner we had a cramming session before we all turned in for the night."

Madam Pomfrey gave a distressed hum and offered Hermione another piece of chocolate, "That is troublesome. I would say that this is a focus charm or even a studious potion gone wrong but…" she trailed off with a small huff before she shook her head, "Exam season, the stress always brings the out worse symptioms from frazzled or tired students. You boys go off to your exam, I'll keep an eye on Granger and see if her condition worsens."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine!" Hermione snapped, looking a little frustrated as Harry and Ron exchanged unsure glances and nodded.

"We'll come back after Potions." Harry promised, giving her an assuring smile as Ron chirped, "Yea! So just focus on getting some rest 'Mione!"

"I said-," Hermione started when Harry closed the door behind him and gave Ron a worried look, "You don't think she ran into whatever I did at the Daily Prophet dream, do you?"

"I mean…maybe, but it could also be Hermione just being burnt out." Ron said, "I mean, she was pretty out of it in our third year. Remember?"

"Yea, but she was using the Time turner then." Harry reminded him, "All she did today was have a weird dream."

Ron frowned but didn't argue, instead saying, "Madam Pomfrey will fix her up." Before they picked up the pace and hurried to their exam.

Making a point to clearly explain to the beady eyed woman in charge of overseeing their potion exam about what happened to Hermione before they sat down and started to work on their assigement. An hour later they were stumbling out of the classroom, gasping for air as Neville squeaked apologies for blowing up his sixth potion in a row before the woman decided to test Neville separately to properly grade the students who weren't blowing things up.

"Good thing Hermione wasn't there, whatever she has would have been worsened by Neville's botched relax-a-mist potion." Harry grumbled, trying to get the taste of sour beans and rotten greens out of his mouth as Ron gagged, "It's a bloody miracle that no one had to be rushed into Madam Pomfrey's office after that disater."

Harry nodded in agreement and glanced around at the students rushing to their next exam or revision class. "Yea, we should go check on her before our next exam."

When they got to the Medical Wing, Hermione was doing a bit better. the fog in her eyes had cleared up and her focus not wavering as badly as it had been during breakfast. But it was still abundantly clear that something was wrong as she combed her hair while murmuring something about a door.

"Oh! Harry, Ron! How was the exam?" Hermione asked, perking up and lowering her brush when she spotted them walking over to them.

"Awful, Neville kept screwing up his potion and I'm pretty sure I got a D." Ron lamented, sitting on the bed while Harry shoved his hands into his pockets. "I think I did alright. But I'll probably have to work harder next year." Harry answered before he asked, "How are you Hermione?"

"Good," Hermione answered before she glared at them, "Madam Pomfrey found nothing wrong, so I'm cleared to head to my next exam."

"Muggle Studies. You'll ace that one easy." Ron said, shying away from her glare as Harry said, "We just wanted to make sure you weren't self-destructing or anything 'Mione, you were acting really weird this morning."

Hermione seemed to disagree with that statement but didn't argue, instead she got up and simply said, "I was just tired, maybe a bit too tired I suppose." Before giving them a smile, "Come on, we're going to be late and we only have two more exams before the school day's over."

"Thank Merlin for that." Ron sighed, "Potions is the worst to study for."

"Everything is the worse to study for." Harry reminded him, "I'm not looking forward to our Herbology exam."

"Knowing Professor Sprout it'll probably be taming some wild plant beast and writing a poem about it." Ron joked earning an eye roll from Hermione.

"Maybe today won't be so bad." Harry thought, relaxing as they walked to their exams while talking about how awful Herbology would be with Hermione snipping at them and defending Professor Sprout.

"Never mind, I was horribly wrong." Harry mentally groaned as he found himself sitting in a classroom thick with burning with thick wood smell, rosemary and a sharp acid smell that Harry guessed was lemon. It left a misty fog in the classroom as everyone sat at their desks with tea leaves and other Divination tools.

Their instructor—a woman who could give Profess—Ms. Trelawney a run for her money in terms of odd outfits was sitting at the desk droning about how the final exam would work. They would pair up with a partner for the first half and go through the first year basics before moving into their second year lessons and finish by writing a prediction based on the stars and what they had seen in their tea leaves.

"Next year I'm officially dropping this class." Ron mouthed. The classroom dead silent as everyone quietly worked with their partner.

"Same." Harry wordlessly agreed, struggling to stay awake as the odd scent floating around the room and the quiet calm in the room weighed heavily on his tired limbs and mind. It was so…peaceful and soothing. Maybe too peaceful as Harry's body lost the battle to stay awake fell into a dreamless slumber.

"This is actually…quite nice." Harry thought a small smile forming as he floated in the darkness with soft orbs shining around him. "Why can't every night be like this?" he wondered, leaning back in the abyss the best he could as he heard muffled footsteps and then the sound of a door opening.

Suddenly the darkness shifted into light and when he opened his eyes. He found himself peering down from some high wooden perch, looking at an unfamiliar stone floor and a bookcase filled with foggy crystal balls.

"Why am I here?" Harry wondered, paling as a forked tongue peeked out of his mouth and he felt his body bunch up. He was a snake and the only snake he had ever had the pleasure of sharing minds with was Nagini. But that was impossible, Nagini should have been with Ness! At Hogwarts! Not in some stuffy old room filled with crystal balls!

"We need to leave! Nagini! Ness needs you!" Harry urged, hoping that his thoughts could somehow interfere with her mission as she gave a low hiss. "Ness does not need me." Nagini said—Nagini thought. Her voice calm and collected as another door opened and someone quietly made their way through the maze of shelves.

"This is a nice nap." Nagini hummed, leaning forward as someone with wild hair walked down the hallway, a wand out and their head turning to look for any caretakers of the weird room lurking in the dark corners. "Wouldn't you say?"

"It WAS a nice nap!" Harry snapped, "Leave him alone Nagini! He hasn't done anything to Ness!"

"No, my master has given me a mission. And I must carry it out." Nagini stated as the man grabbed a crystal ball and breathed, "This was too easy,"

"It was?" Harry wondered, jumping as Nagini pulled back just as a spell fired off and the man yelled, "Protego!" before the spell could hit him.

"Dumbledore," the man—Sirius growled, "Here to ensure that Harry stays in the dark?"

Dumbledore? What was he doing here?

"He isn't ready Sirius." Dumbledore stated his voice calm and collected as if he was talking with an old friend instead of the man who had thrown him to the wolves and betrayed his trust.

"He'll be the judge of that!" Sirius snapped, "He's old enough to decide and it's his life on the line!"

"He is much too young-"

"Now you care about him being a child!? A child who needs to be in a healthy household instead of an abusive death trap and convincing himself that taking risks that no child should is the best way to be treated like an adult!?"

Dumbledore faltered at this, allowing Sirius to sneer, "The Prophet was right—you are a manipulative scumbag who's just trying to play hero. I bet if the Dark Lord wasn't stirring up trouble, you'd be pushing Harry to become the Minister of Magic."

"Dumbledore wouldn't do that!" Harry protested, scowling as Nagini quietly challenged. "Would he?"

"Sirius, this isn't the time or place." Dumbledore tried when Sirius cut him off, "Shut up and get the hell away from me Dumbledore. I'm doing what Lily and James wanted and they didn't want you raising their child to be a martyr!"

"Sirius." Dumbledore's tone was sharp, almost deadly as Sirius and Harry jerked back in surprise at the sudden change in attitude. "Men should really look up…" Nagini hummed, "It's how I got the drop on Ness after all."

"Wha-," Harry started when Nagini gave a loud feral hiss and threw herself off the shelf, landing on top of Sirius and wrapping her body around his neck with the intent of squeezing the life out of him.

"Sirius!" Harry yelled, his anger at the man long forgotten as he tried to scream at Nagini, begging her to let go of him as Dumbledore raised his wand and gave a scream as something blood red slammed into his back.

"Nice of you to join the party Dumbledore," a voice Harry never wanted to hear again stated as Nagini looked up, practically preening with joy to face Voldemort standing over Dumbledore's writhing body.

"NO!" Harry yelled, feeling himself fall and land hard on the cold floor, his leg getting caught in something wooden as he heard yelps and screams of surprise around him.

"Mr. Potter, are you alright?"

"Wha?" Harry breathed, forcing his eyes to open as he realized he was on the classroom floor and that his scar was searing his skin and brain. Making spots dance in front of his eyes as he sat up and found himself looking up at the tester.

"Mr. Potter, are you alright?" the woman repeated, frowning as Ron joined him on the floor asking, "Are you alright mate? You just dozed off and had some sort of fright."

"Muh scar," Harry murmured, reaching up to touch it before he stopped himself and looked at Ron. "Do you need-," the woman started when Ron cut her off, "I'll take him to Madam Pomfrey. He has a migraine."

"A migraine-," she started to ask when Ron pulled Harry to his feet and looped one of his arms over his shoulder. Allowing Harry to lean on him as they hurried out of the classroom.

"Where to?" Ron whispered, glancing around the empty hallway as Harry tried to focus on breathing, "Somewhere with a fireplace. Sirius and Dumbledore are in danger."

"Another vision?" Ron asked.

"Yea, I saw it through Nagini—Nagini!" Ron jumped and looked at Harry with fear as Harry forced himself to stand upright, his eyes wild as he rambled, "Ron, Nagini betrayed Ness! He's there with Voldemort!"

"Where is there?" Ron pressed, pulling him into an empty classroom so no one would overhear them, "What happened?"

"I woke up in Nagini's head—she was talking to me while she waited for Sirius to enter this room full of crystal balls and labels. We overheard Sirius yelling at Dumbledore before she attacked him, and then Voldemort showed up and attacked Dumbledore before I woke up." Harry explained, "We need to get the Order's help."

"How?" Ron questioned looking sick as he looked out the window, "The common room will have a few stragglers and for all we know Nagini just slithered off to Voldemort without dragging Ness along."

"Ron, I didn't see him at breakfast." Harry argued, "He's with them!"

"He could have overslept." Ron argued, "We don't know for sure!"

"Well let's find out then! Before Voldemort kills them!" Harry snapped, moving to leave when Ron stopped him, "How? Sure, we can find a fireplace but how can we confirm where Ness is?" Ron questioned.

"We can…we can ask Ginny!" Harry exclaimed, "She's usually with him!"

"How? We don't even know what exam she's taking!" Ron pointed out, earning a scowl from Harry until he remembered one of Ness's minions. "Broom, we need to find a broom!" Harry exclaimed, rushing out of the room and hurrying towards the closest supply closet.

"Harry! What are you doing!? Are you just trying to get Flitch on your case?!" Ron whisper-demanded, watching as Harry forced the door open with a quick "Alohamora." And began hissing, "Sweepy! Sweepy where are you?! This is an emergency!"

"Who the hell is Sweepy?" Ron questioned glancing around as Harry shook a broom and yelped as it suddenly jumped to life and snapped, "Do you mind?! I was taking a nap!"

"The broom is under Ness's control?!" Ron exclaimed before he shoved Harry into the closet and closed the door behind them.

"Oh yes, just INVADE my bedroom why don't you." Sweepy grumbled, leaning against the wall as Harry and Ron tried their best not to trip over a bucket and a few boxes of cleaning powders.

"Sorry Sweepy," Harry whispered, "But this is emergency."

"What. Did you break some china and need to sweep up the pieces?" Sweepy asked, sounding oddly excited as Ron murmured, "Why the hell would anyone make a broom a minion?"

"No, we need to find Ness." Harry explained, "He may be in danger."

"Ask someone else." Sweepy huffed, "I don't cross paths with him and I don't speak to him unless prompted. I have so much work to do!"

"You're the only one we can ask!" Harry argued, cringing as Ron shushed him and glanced at the closed door.

"No, I'm not, there's plenty of other people to ask and Selvis, he's resting at the library." Sweepy stated, making an odd gesture with half of the hay attached to the wooden handle as Harry grinned, "You're a life saver Sweepy!" and pulled out the Mauader's map to make sure the coast was clear before he moved to open the door.

"Wait a second." Sweepy stated, "That map, does it just. Show you where everyone is?"

"Yea, it's the Mauarder's map." Ron replied.

"Then why didn't you use that to find Selvis in the first place?! Or better yet, use it to find Ness!"

Harry blinked and then flushed with embarrassment, grumbling, "Ness doesn't show up on the map half the time and I just woke up from a nightmare."

"Which apparently took all of your brain cells away." Sweepy grumbled, hopping forward and somehow slamming the door shut as Ron and Harry sheepishly glared at the door before hurrying to the library. Careful to avoid large groups of students as they slipped inside and walked to the back of the library, where Karma was dozing on a table.

"Karma!" Harry whispered, jumping as Karma bolted awake and pointed his wand at Harry. Whisper shouting, "Aqua Eructo!" and spraying Harry in the face with water.

"Oy!" Ron hissed, glaring at Karma as the Slytherin blinked and then breathed, "Oh thank goodness it's just a student."

"Who else would it be?" Harry coughed, wiping the water away as Karma shrugged, "My father attempting to charm something he shouldn't and my mother cursing him out for it." Before he paused and gave them a glare, "But what do you two want? I doubt this is for a friendly chat."

"Where's Ness?" Ron questioned, frowning as Karma coolly regarded him, "At his exams with Ginny."

"Are you sure?" Harry pressed.

"What's it to you?" Karma retorted, "Are you trying to harass him or something?"

"Harass—no! Nagini may have kidnapped him and delivered him to Voldemort!" Karma flinched at the Dark Lord's name but frowned, the gears turning in his head as he tapped his Defense Against the Dark Arts book.

"And you know this, how, Potter?" Karma questioned getting to his feet and eyeing them with wary disdain as Ron spoke up, "He had a vision, and if he's right then Earthbound, Sirius and Dumbledore are in grave danger."

Karma frowned, tapped the book some more before hissing under his breath and saying, "We haven't seen Ness all morning. But we figured he was just skipping the exams."

"You haven't?" Harry questioned frowning as Karma shot him a glare, "Are you deaf Potter? We've all been busy with exams, so we haven't been able to check out our clubhouse for him."

"So that means Nagini could have kidnapped him." Ron stated.

"Although I find it doubtful that Nagini could have dragged Ness around anywhere. I'll admit that's something's wrong." Karma huffed, packing his things and walking past them with a curt, "Come on, we need to check the clubhouse and message Black before we lose our heads."

"And just how are you doing to do that?" Ron questioned following after the boy as he pointed his wand at his robe and hair while murmuring, "Multicorfors." Changing the Slytherin green to a dull shade of red and his hair a darker shade of brown. Making him look like a completely different person unless you paid close attention to his face and noticed that his Gryffindor robes weren't the right shade of red.

"If Ness isn't in the Room of Requirements, that means we can summon a fireplace and contact whoever was last with Sirius." Karma explained throwing Ron a look as he picked up the pace, "Now come on, I don't want to miss my Ancient studies exam."

The walk there was quiet and felt far too long for Harry's liking. Every second wasted was a second Sirius was forced to be held prisoner by Voldemort, maybe even tortured.

"Here we are," Karma murmured, his pace stuttering as he walked by the wall three times and the door appeared with ease.

"He's not there." Karma stated, his eyes widening with horror as Ron opened the door and they stepped inside a cozy but bare bones room designed like a living room with a roaring fire and a bag of floo powder resting on a table.

Ron started to ask how Karma knew that Ness wasn't there, but Harry ignored them, focusing on grabbing a handful of floo powder and yelling, "Number Five Grimuald place!" and waiting with bated breath as he waited for someone to pick up.

After an agonizing moment someone finally picked up. Sadly, it wasn't Sirius.

"Krecther!" Harry exclaimed, swallowing the urge to glower at the house elf as he squinted and grumbled, "Oh great, the scarred one is calling Krecther, this won't do oh no, the mistress won't enjoy hearing about this-,"

"Shut up Krecther! We need to speak to Sirius!" Harry interrupted, "Where is he?"

"Out, hopefully dead." Krecther answered, "That boy was a disgrace to the Black name and broke his poor mother's heart. She couldn't sleep for weeks after he ran out of the house, couldn't sleep a wink."

"Out where?" Harry pressed as Karma sighed, "Potter you aren't going to get any answers from harassing that old house elf."

"Well if he would answer them!" Harry snapped, spinning to glare at Karma and then give an indigent yell as Karma shoved himself aside while saying, "Let me handle this Potter."

"I can handle this just fine-," Harry started to protest when Karma held his hand up to silence him and greeted Krecther with a lazy drawl, "So, you're Black's house elf?"

Krecther frowned and studied Karma with a wary glare, "Who are you? How do you know of Krecter?"

"My mother's grandfather—Aryan Morley was a popular party guest during the Dark Lord's rise to power." Karma explained, "Mother and Father were always lamenting how much of a shame the only survivor of the Black family was a bullheaded black sheep."

"You take that back!" Harry yelled, moving to pull Karma out of the fireplace when Ron stopped him, pointing at Krecther who's eyes were widening with recognition.

"Ah! Krecther remembers him now! He would entertain Master with various tales of India how fortunate he was to have married Miss Abigail when she was simply an overlooked Morley and fuss over his unborn children." Krecther gave Karma a pleased smile, "It's nice to see that some children follow in their parent's footsteps, young Morley."

"Indeed. Of course, Potter's being childish as usual, and he believes that my friend—Ness Earthbound, has been kidnapped alongside that horrible black sheep." Karma explained, making a point to throw Harry a glare before he continued, "Is Sirius in the house? Or has he left?"

"Oh, I wouldn't really know young Morley." Krecther replied, his ears drooping and his gaze darting away, almost as if he were ashamed. "A lot of people have been going in and out of the house and I rarely make a point to keep track of that ungrateful brat when he isn't being yelled at. I spent most of my morning trying to salvage some of the mistress's things."

Karma frowned, prompting Krecther to hurriedly add, "Although, I did overhear the half breed—Lupin—mutter something about an appointment Sirius had with the Minister to that loud red-haired fiend of a woman."

Harry had to grab Ron to prevent the red head from throwing himself into the fire to strangle Kretcher as Karma nodded his thanks, lavishly praising the house elf and before said goodbye.

"Well, we know that Sirius is indeed at the Ministry, but we don't know if he's in danger." Karma stated, turning to face them as he rubbed his face clean and undid the color spell.

"Why'd you lie?" Ron questioned as Harry insisted, "He has to be there! I saw him and we don't know where Ness is!"

Karma pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "First off, Weasley I didn't lie. My mother is a Morley. She just took my father's surname. Second, just because Ness is missing doesn't mean Sirius is missing as well. That appointment he had was probably with Fudge to go over that list and-,"

"The list!" Harry exclaimed, "He was probably using that to try and get that crystal ball!"

"What crystal ball?" Karma questioned, sounding annoyed as Ron bluntly explained, "Harry found himself in a room filled with crystal balls and Sirius and Dumbledore were arguing about it, apparently it has something Harry needs to know."

"A prophecy." Harry almost jumped out of his skin as Luna loomed behind them, her serene expression pinched into a frown as Karma moved to argue then stopped his eyes widening as he exclaimed, "That's it! Voldemort was after Potter's prophecy!"

"I have a prophecy?" Harry repeated as Luna nodded, "It'd explain a lot though. Why Dumbledore was having people guard the Department of Mysteries for so long, why he'd an Unspeakable on his payroll, why he would keep not one but two seers on hand—it was all to protect that prophecy someone predicted."

"And knowing your luck, it probably seals Voldemort's fate." Karma stated, looking worried as he hissed, "But why take Ness? Ness was staying out of this mess!"

"Probably got cocky—figured he could take out two birds with one stone." Ron replied, looking annoyed before he looked at Harry, "Now what? We know the where and the why, but how are we supposed to get into the Ministry?"

"We break in." Harry stated looking around the room as Karma's jaw dropped and Luna gave a worried hum, "We'll have to go before dinner—maybe even after but we can use the Therstals to fly there without getting detected."

"And how do we get into the Ministry?" Karma questioned, "In case you haven't realized it, but no one can get into the Ministry as if it's a simple trip to the library and we don't have Cloak or anyone to teleport us inside."

"Well…we could ask Sister Mary to guide us." Luna reminded Karma, glancing at Ron and apologetically saying, "The doll who was at St. Mundgo's." before focusing on Harry, "And I know how to get into the Ministry, so we won't have to worry about overcrowding the elevator there."

"You've been to the Ministry?" Karma asked, "Why!?"

"Father had to fight the Ministry a few times to get the Quibbler up and running." Luna explained with a small shrug of her shoulders, "He'd use to take me along as a field trip so Mother could test her more…volatile experiments in peace."

Harry flinched at the subtle reminder that Luna's mother was dead and focused on more important matters at hand. "We need to tell Hermione and Ginny about this and find this, doll. Before we can leave."

"I'll tell Ginny." Karma volunteered before he glanced at Luna, "Luna you get Sister Mary, she seems to like you best."

"We have nice little chats about the dangers of knowledge." Luna hummed her smile returning Harry nodded, feeling relived at having a plan as they split up to complete their tasks while also waiting for exams to finish so they could rush to the Ministry.

He really wanted to leave right then and there but it was too risky, it was barely lunch time and that Divination tester would have surely warned Madam Pomfrey about his nightmare.

"Hold on you guys." Harry thought, praying to whatever deity wizards had to watch over them to protect his family and friend.


With several people in danger it's up to the Golden Trio and the remaining members of Boundless to save the day!

Happy Halloween! Hopefully everyone can safely celeberate Halloween or enjoy the virtual festivals. I'm going to go run around trying to find Pumpkin in AC for the Gamecube once I stop being tired from work. :3

Reviews! :D
M1nhTre37: Here's your hint! (Or a very cryptic one since hints and I aren't friends) Ness already knows who it is and has met with him a few times both in game and in PIH.

HiIExist: I'm seriously considering moving to Archive of Our Own after I finish PIH, I've been reading a lot of fanfic from there and it feels so much easier to find stories and to read them since Fanfic has a weird layout when it comes to reading fics on your Ipod and computer.

Thanks for the reviews!