I do not own Harry Potter

My apologies for the very long absence, I had hit several roadblocks in this story, and made several breakthroughs in my original fantasy story, and it ended up being months before I returned. As much as I'd like to juggle two writing projects, this is not the way I'd like to go about it.

Chapter 6

Fleur Delacour, Beauxbatons Champion, walked to what she thought was the meeting place that Ares Flamel had set for them. She looked at her best friend, Aimee, and raised her eyebrows. "Well, there's the picture of some fool trying to teach trolls ballet, and we are on the seventh floor. Now what?"

Ares Flamel had asked her to represent Beauxbatons in a student meeting to talk about a Magical Defense student organization, and to bring a friend with her. She and Aimee were both eager for the chance to practice some more at Defense, considering the inexcusable events at Hogwarts that had happened. Even if Filius Flitwick, one of history's greatest duelists, had started personally training her and Ares, she would still gladly take more practice.

"We're fine, your friend Ares probably just wanted to lead us to the meeting place instead of telling us where it is. You know how paranoid he is." Aimee said, "We just got here super early." They'd left just after finishing their dinner on the Beauxbatons carriage, leaving early since they were unfamiliar with the less frequented areas of the castle. Even after several unfortunate weeks living in Hogwarts before Ares had killed the dementors, the Beauxbatons students still often got lost in the maze that the British sent their children to. The two of them had ended up arriving to the hall they'd been sent to fifteen minutes early.

Since it seemed like no one else was going to show up anytime soon, Fleur showed Aimee what Professor Flitwick had taught her. She couldn't do most of it herself, especially not his ability to harness his magic to jump around super quickly, and because of that, she just taught Aimee a few of the stories she'd heard. "He taught me to do the trick he used to beat Harold and Jessica Smith in the duo's finals at Amsterdam in '78! Let me try to show you that."

Flitwick had been alone, his partner out early, and the Smiths were a force to be reckoned with, then more than ever. The couple were trying to flank him, using their perfect coordination to trap him, but he'd used seemingly wandless magic and a bit of transfiguration to bring up several objects to shield him from any shots that he wouldn't have been able to dodge. His method had saved him three times that day, and many analysts were still trying to figure out how he'd been able to do it.

Turns out, Flitwick had just used a single basic spell in a unique way to exploit an inflexible enemy. He'd altered a spell that flung objects in a straight line and made it work more slowly. What appeared to be wandless was instead him predicting how Harold would move and casting a charm that made several transfigured shields stay between them. It wouldn't work against most people, or in most situations, but Fleur had convinced Flitwick to show it to her while Ares was still unconscious from the dementors.

They worked on this for a few minutes, trying to change the normal incantation enough to slow the object's flight. There wasn't much room to work, but it didn't matter. They practised until a pair of identical redheads approached, chatting with another teen wearing the same uniform as them. They waved at her and Aimee when they rounded the corner. "Thought we heard French around here," said one of the redheads, "I see you got here early too."

The third person, someone with a prefect's badge on his Gryffindor uniform, introduced himself as David Beren, and the redheads as Fred and George Weasley. After they got there, an entire crowd of people started arriving. Ares got there two minutes late, talking with Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass. Ares held Draco back a few feet away from the group of people, holding his hand on his shoulder and speaking quietly. Unfortunately for them, she could pick out individual voices extremely well, and was able to hear Ares say "Tell your father it won't affect me for the trial." Fleur tucked that information aside, another piece of the puzzle of who Ares really was.

Those three were the youngest people there so far, since Ares had said that he was going to have the meeting be solely about discussing the possibility of a Magical Defense class, not actually teaching people yet. Looking about her, she noticed that all of the legitimate Champions were there. Iris Potter seemed to have not been invited, and another oddity was that there was only one Slytherin there other than Ares, Daphne, and Draco. She'd seen that Slytherin was quite disliked. Maybe the lack of them was because Ares was trying to appeal to the other houses in Hogwarts by not being partisan.

As soon as Ares came around the corner, every person in the hall oriented themselves to face him, and to step out of his way. There was an air of anticipation as everyone waited for him to speak. When he did, he barely looked at anyone, and instead paced the hall. "My parents, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, told me about a room in Hogwarts that accommodates itself to the needs of its inhabitants. It is called the Room of Requirement, and it is right... Here." A door appeared in the wall opposite the picture, an ornate double door that Ares pushed open as he explained the Room to his rapt audience.

The Room of Requirement was currently a large room divided into two parts, one a training room with padded walls and flooring, and a much smaller area with comfortable chairs that looked almost like a comfortable sitting room. Ares led them to the second area, then sat down at one of the padded chairs, which she noticed was angled specifically to allow him to have his back to the wall. It was the only chair that had a desk in front of it, and Ares needed to push it in and out of position to sit down. Draco and Daphne sat to either side of him in chairs that were probably specifically placed near him, and the other chairs were set like the room knew how large the group was. If this room knew exactly what seating arrangements were best, then Ares' grand explanations about the room that fit its users fell quite short of reality.

Fleur and Aimee sat down in a set of two chairs near Ares and then waited for everyone else to sit and for him to begin. "Well, um, I think that we all know what we're here to talk about. Oh, first, I suppose we could all introduce ourselves... I am Ares Flamel, and in case any of you didn't know, I was the one that came up with the idea for this." He pointed at Daphne to his left, and around the circle it went, each person saying their name and their position in the school. Fleur noticed that every person from Hogwarts was someone important to the student body, like prefect or quidditch captain, with the sole exceptions being the Weasley twins. As soon as the introductions were done, one of the Weasleys asked about it.

"Ha - Ares, if you don't mind me asking, why are the two of us here? Everyone else makes sense, they're all mildly important people around here, but we're about as far away from that as possible. We aren't complaining mind you, but if you want a ginger, you should ask our brother Percy. He's the ambitious one of the family."

Ares raised an eyebrow, then said "I don't agree with you. I haven't been here long at Hogwarts, obviously, but I've heard legends of two genius pranksters that have never viewed a single rule as anything other than a suggestion. I intend to get the school staff's approval to start this club, but a war is coming, and I won't let it harm the students, not if I can help it. Should the staff intend to be unreasonable, I would like to make full use of your talents.

Fleur had seen firsthand how little Ares cared about rules, having seen him stagger around, possibly drunk, at night, just after apparating into Hogwarts grounds. She knew that broke most of the more important school rules. In addition, she had asked her father (the Deputy Minister of Magic in France,) and he had confirmed that it was illegal to apparate in Britain without a permit, which minors could not get, so Ares had broken actual laws as well.

Even with all of that, however, it was still surprising to hear him admit that he was willing to break school rules to teach people how to fight. It gave her a better look into the mystery that was Ares Flamel, though there were still a hundred unknowns about his history, his motivations, and his plans. How did he know how to fight so well? Why was he really at Hogwarts? She was growing to suspect that the only reason he went was to stop the plans of the remaining death eaters, yet that theory had holes in it too. If he was there simply to fight, why was he, a child, fighting, rather than his parents? What secrets did Draco and Daphne know that she did not?

She suspected that she was only missing one or two critical pieces to the puzzle, and that if she only knew them, everything else would fall into place. However, she wasn't holding her breath on that front. Since he wanted those aspects of his life kept private, she wouldn't pry too much or spy on him. Even if she was willing to violate his wishes and intrude upon his privacy, she wouldn't. She wanted to know more about Ares, but she also had her own life, and her own priorities. She needed to win the upcoming Tournament of Champions, she needed to finish her last year of schooling, and she needed to improve at dueling in case she was ever forced to fight again. Sure, he was interesting, but she had bigger fish to fry, and they came first.

Aside from the insight she gained into his personality, the meeting was mostly uneventful. They all were willing to help Ares, but not if they had to let their real work be left undone. To that end, they decided to have two regular meetings a week, accessible to any student from any school. These meetings would not be mandatory to attend, and people could come and go as they wished. In these, the older students would help the younger ones, and Ares would be directing them when possible. Everyone there agreed to help with the meetings, save for the attractive female auror Fleur had seen tagging along with Ares frequently, who said that she would if she could clear it with Mad-Eye Moody, who had become a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Aside from the main two meetings a week, there would be a third meeting, reserved for only the students that helped to teach the other two. They would feature more direct input from Ares, and would be far more enjoyable, since they wouldn't need to account for the lower skill levels of all the other students. The discussion about when in the week to have the third meeting lasted at least twenty minutes, and ended in the obvious decision of just deciding on a week by week basis, with those left out the week before granted more input on the next meeting.

After that was settled, Ares left, as he had to meet with Headmaster Dumbledore. As he went, he brought a nervous Fred and George along with him to talk to them about something, and Draco and Daphne tagged along behind them, as always. After the five left, Fleur turned to the rest and started organizing them to do some of the basic drills that Professor Flitwick had taught her.

She didn't expect to learn much from the club, but she owed Ares a debt, and she would pay it pack if she could.

I

At that very moment, Harry was walking down a hallway flanked by the Weasleys, trying to figure out how to play the situation. He had heard one of them, he thought it was Fred, start to say his real name, then stop himself. Combine that with the fact that they probably had the Marauder's Map in this world too, and nothing could hide the fact that they almost certainly knew who he was. In case they did not know, however, he wouldn't start off by saying anything like "So have you told anyone that you know that my real name is Harry Potter?" He decided to start off with the most neutral thing he could imagine.

"So," he said to the one on his right, "Your name is George, correct?" He'd lost the ability to tell them apart after their horrific deaths a few years into the war, and hadn't regained it yet. He could still see their bodies, still remember the mistakes he had made that would have saved them, still see Molly Weasley looking at him, when she found out.

"Actually," the other one said, "He's Fred, I'm George." It didn't seem like they were trying to do the name switch prank that they had always found so hilarious. Were they actually taking this more seriously than usual?

Harry didn't want to be late for his meeting with Dumbledore. No matter what he thought of the bumbling idiot in general, it would not do to arrive later than normal, unless he was forced to. That meant being more direct. "Do you have a map in your possession, apparently an old piece of parchment, yet one that turns into a map of the castle that shows the location of everyone on Hogwarts grounds?" He had trouble meeting their eyes for a moment, but he was able to force himself to after a calming breath. Their corpses, mangled and broken, disappeared when he tried hard enough to not remember.

Harry assumed that they still had the Map in this dimension, even after Iris' third year. He had not only never seen them with her yet, he knew that Iris had been through different trials than he had. Instead of Hogwarts being guarded by Dementors seeking Sirius Black, Hogwarts had been guarded by a small auror force watching for Bellatrix Lestrange. That meant that Iris, he assumed, had never been barred from Hogsmeade like he had. Even if she had been, though, it was unlikely that she would have had the space, ability or the inclination required to sneak off to a potentially dangerous situation for a bag or two of sweets. Even though James and Sirius might have encouraged it, judging by their reputations, her mother's temper was legendary, and Iris seemed smart enough to not risk it.

"Yes... We do. Did your parents make it?"

"They helped to make it, but that isn't why I'm asking." Harry paused for a moment for effect. After Fred's slip of the tongue when talking to him earlier, he knew that they had seen his true name, and no one could convince him otherwise. But should he tell them everything, or should he try to keep them in the dark? Was Perenelle right about him becoming Dumbledore by keeping others from knowing important information? Yet he would do it, if it kept people safe. Harry knew that it would only make things worse, but he had trouble knowing it in his heart. No time to decide now. Whatever he told them would have to wait until he had more time, thank God. "Have you seen my name on the Map?"

They both looked at each other with wide eyes. "That, yes. We haven't - and will never - tell a soul about that, Ares." The exaggerated way they used his fake name was about as covert as if they had shouted 'see what we did there? We can keep your secret.' Harry knew he wasn't known for his subtlety, but he hoped they thought better of him than that.

Since he didn't want to talk to them more right then, he needed to leave soon. He told himself he needed more time to personally gain a feel for the twins before he told them anything valuable. However, he at least knew that they were probably telling the truth about not spreading his secret around. They enjoyed pranking people, but everything they did was, in their honest opinions, harmless.

He tried to soften his tone and not seem like he was threatening them. "Not to be rude or anything, but I will need you to stick to your word about that, or there will be bad consequences... I mean... other people than you would get hurt, I wasn't threatening you." He floundered mentally even worse as he tried to figure out how to go from accidentally threatening them to giving them a fond farewell. At least the conversation would have trouble ending worse than it was now. He decided to just give up his attempts to sound good. He said "Well, look at the time, I'd love to talk more, but I have to go meet the headmaster."

Harry turned around and walked away, leaving four surprised people behind him. He was also walking the wrong way, unfortunately. He corrected quickly, and took side routes to get to Dumbledore's office. As he walked, he felt the sensation of his strange wild magic. He had become more used to it over the time that he had felt it, ever since shifting worlds. It mostly manifested when he was feeling strong emotions, usually rage, but it didn't always. Right now, it washed through him unused like waves on a calm seashore. Well, it wouldn't be like this for long, if his previous meetings with Dumbledore were any indication.

III

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, alone. What to do about Ares Flamel? That was the question he had asked himself time and time again, and now, it might be too late to ask again. Albus was known as the world's most powerful wizard, yet he now knew the truth. He was not the most powerful, he was, at best, second. He was likely no better than third. Voldemort was undeniably alive and might be as powerful now as he had been at his former height.

Albus knew him well enough to know that Voldemort was more powerful than he, and no one else was both powerful enough to break into Azkaban, and influential enough to gather the Death Eaters. Albus thought he was more familiar with Tom Riddle than anyone else in the world, and he knew every nuance of every plot that could possibly be attributed to that madman, and the breakout from Azkaban was done by Voldemort.

On the other hand, Ares Flamel was a mystery at every turn. One of the only certainties about him was that he would someday become more powerful than Albus, if he hadn't surpassed him already. His motivations were unknown, his end goals impossible to figure out, and even his origin was mysterious. The only thing that Albus had been confident about on the subject of the Flamel heir was that his body was not taken over in some way by Voldemort, based on the lack of a turban. It was even likely, he had thought, that Ares was serving Voldemort.

In the aftermath of Ares' display with the dementors, he was fully convinced that he was either the world's best hope, or its next great enemy. He wasn't, as Albus had supposed, a lackey to anyone, and Severus had been quite clear that Ares did not like Voldemort. Ares had apparently found out the story of Tom Riddle, and had no love at all for him. That had made Albus trust him less. After all, very few people in the world had access to that information.

Ares was certainly no friend of his. He had on every occasion showed that he liked frustrating him, and was very good at it. That was likely with the willing help of the Flamels. They had acted worse toward him after his complete failure with the Sorcerer's Stone, and that was reasonable, but ever since the first known meeting of the Flamels and Ares, they had been anything but.

Looking back on that day with the aid of the pensieve, Nicholas had certainly manipulated him into being more interested in Ares, and after that, both Nicholas and Perenelle had been downright rude to him most of the time, and spent the rest avoiding him. They'd been their normal selves in front of everyone else, but Albus still worried that he was being played. His suspicion was that Ares, whoever he truly was, had begun controlling the Flamels somehow. They were the perfect targets for such an attack, they were well known and trusted, and were fairly well connected yet extremely mysterious, and weren't known for any combat skills.

Ares could have, with some work and an extreme amount of skill and power, found and controlled them, then directed them to give Albus the cold shoulder to hide any differences in personality, as he was the only living wizard that knew them well. They had then started befriending the Potter family, which was one of the most powerful families in Britain, and Ares had reportedly rarely been far from Draco Malfoy, who had himself been extremely changed this year.

In fact, now that he thought of it, that day that Alastor had tested the Imperio curse on the fourth years, Draco had been one of just two people to resist the curse without any trouble. Alastor had later said that it felt like the curse was possibly being cancelled out by another spell. That was another piece of evidence against Ares.

Another was the fact that Albus was quite confident now that Ares was the one that had fought the death eaters at the World Cup. At least one of the death eaters had died from that, in a brutal assault likely done to cut down on the number of followers Voldemort had. If he had also been the one that started the wards that made all of Slytherin scared of stepping out of line, which he certainly had been, that would also likely be about giving himself followers and stealing them away from Voldemort. Severus thought that they were put in place solely to stop the bullying - and worse - going on there, but Albus knew better.

That was bad enough, yet it had gotten more confusing when the sorting hat had declared Ares the Champion of Hogwarts, after a period where Ares had been alone with it. The hat was probably not very secure from attacks, no matter how advanced its magic was, and Ares had already proved that he had knowledge no one else did. Was it really a stretch to say he had put an enchantment on the hat that was undetectable by him?

He would never be willing to say his suspicion out loud, but Albus suspected that Ares was some extremely powerful wizard of at least fifty years of age, one that had spent his life away from the spotlight, where he had studied the finest magical texts in the world, and even developed new techniques. He might not be British, or even European at all, if he was already disguising himself.

If he was what Albus suspected, then he might have come to Hogwarts because he had seen the power struggle between Dumbledore and Voldemort, who had been that wizard's most likely enemies, and he had decided to join in the conflict to manipulate it for his own ends. He might try something like attempting to destroy both of them. If he did, though, he would find that the man that defeated Grindelwald wasn't gone yet.

In any case, whether or not his predictions were correct, he needed to change how he approached Ares. Albus had always gone from the same general script, that of an old and wise wizard, jolly yet still stern when he needed to be. There was more to it than that, of course, hundreds of little nuances that made him who he was, yet Ares had read every word of his script and could counter it perfectly.

It was past time to change his approach. Before, he had acted too adversarial toward him, as he had been fearful that Ares would become another Voldemort if left unchecked. Now he knew that he needed to give every indication of being apologetic for his past behavior; whether Ares was a secret master of evil or not, it couldn't hurt to be polite. So, as Ares and his 'parents' came into his office, he ushered them to their seats amidst his crowded office, eschewing his normal habit of offering his visitors a candy from his center table as he sat down at his desk. At the same time he felt sweat going down his back, he gave off a perfect imitation of being jovial. His sparkling? Twinkling? Whatever they were usually described, his eyes did their thing.

"Nicholas, Perenelle, Mr. Flamel," The last time Albus had met with him, he'd called him 'young Ares,' to which Ares had responding by calling him 'ol Albus. After Minerva had asked the child to not call him that, Ares had responded that he'd assumed they were on a first name basis. Albus had been forced to correct himself and had been put in the back seat for the talk, while Ares had become the one in control of the conversation. That would not happen today.

"Please, sit down, we have much to discuss." Albus didn't look at the Sorting Hat. It couldn't read your mind. Yes, he'd confirmed that when it told him to not use magic on it. The blasted thing was probably worried about him making the Hat forget the entire meeting with Ares. That wasn't true, he'd only wanted to check if Ares had cursed it, and since Albus wanted to get in his good graces, he hadn't pushed the issue.

The Flamels sat down with Ares at the front, and with Perenelle at his right hand. Ares didn't seem inclined to start any conversation, so Albus continued. "I must first make my apologies. I apologize for how I have treated you thus far, Mr. Flamel." He paused for the appropriate amount of time, and lowered his shoulders and head a bit. "I... I saw your power, and, regrettably, saw only your resemblance to a young Tom Riddle. I understand you know his story."

Ares, arms crossed and gaze fixed, nodded but didn't volunteer information. A pity, Albus hadn't expected him to, and it wouldn't do to pry yet. "Whenever I heard my staff praising your incredible talents, I heard the echo of Riddle's deeds here, and I responded wrongly. For that, and everything else," Albus looked at the elder Flamels in turn. "I plead for your forgiveness. I hope that we will be able to start over, you and I."

"You can certainly try."

"Before we get any further, how much do you remember of the day that you defeated the dementors?"

"I remember what the hat there did." He nodded to the shelf to Albus' left. "Did it tell you what I am?"

"It informed me of your new status as the Champion of Hogwarts. Half the reason I called this meeting was to discuss the ramifications of that with you, and to give you a history lesson, should you need it."

"I don't need a history lesson, I was already informed of what my appointment means."

"I see, and there can't be anyone better to inform you of the Champion of Hogwarts than your parents, who lived during the last time there was one."

Perenelle spoke up for the first time now. "We met Elizabeth Arcon, you know, after she graduated from Hogwarts. That was during that terrible period just before the Statute of Secrecy was put in place. You don't need to explain anything."

"Of course Perenelle, and you and Nicholas are likely the only two people to have met multiple Champions of Hogwarts. If you don't mind in fact, I'd love to talk to the two of you sometime about the matter more in depth. In fact -"

Ares cut Albus off. "Let's get to the point, Headmaster. What authority will I have to protect the school and the students?"

"That's a hard thing to answer, Mr. Flamel, but in general whatever you think is necessary for the protection of the students in these tumultuous times, however, please do talk to me before you do things, if possible. Speaking of which, Ares, I couldn't help but hear of your plans for a Defense club, and I quite adore the idea. You see, the reason the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching has generally been so poor in recent years is because Voldemort set a curse upon the position, making no teacher last more than a year. Your club will likely bring in additional tutelage to people who will desperately need it in the coming days. Should you need anything for it, please, speak to me and I will try to see it done."

"I need things immediately. I'll give you a list tomorrow, but for now, I'd like you to help me find a rotation of aurors to help me teach the students, starting with James Potter and Sirius Black, who I will approach tomorrow. Also, the Hat gave me the Sword of Gryffindor. As the Champion of Hogwarts, it is my right to start carrying it."

The three hostile Flamels looked at him as he thought. "Those are very good ideas, Mr. Flamel, and of course I will be glad to help you with both. If I may ask, however, with the Dementors gone, what is the reason you need the sword?"

Ares looked like he was very close to not answering, simply out of principle. He was smarter than that however, and didn't start confrontations. "Gryffindors and Slytherins don't get along, but if I have a sword that can only be possessed by a true Gryffindor, then I can have more support. The Sword is also a powerful magical item. It even has basilisk venom in it, from what I hear. Do you happen to know anything about that?"

"It does. And while you seem to be aware, Mr. Potter, of how it got the venom, you seem to have missed the fact that I had been ejected from the school for a time. While I made my fair share of mistakes that year, I was blameless of that failure of the school. Now, do you wish to claim the sword or shall I brief you now on what we know of Voldemort?

"I'll take the sword first, and while I'm at it, I must have a private conversation with the Sorting Hat. There is much that must be discussed."

Dumbledore stood up and stepped around to the shelf the Hat resided on, though perhaps it would now spend its days advising Ares and away from him. Would that be a good thing? It hurt to let anything potentially valuable leave his grip, yet he wanted to stop the feeling of eternally being watched that had come with his latest theory about Ares, and the goodwill of handing it over to him was vital right now, so he suggested that Ares keep it until further notice. He was about to grab it to hand to him, but what if the Hat could read his mind then? Much better to use his wand. He floated the hat over to him, pretending not to see the suspicious glances.

Ares reached up and touched the Hat's brim with his off hand, then set it on the floor so he could better talk to Dumbledore. "I'll talk to it later. For now, let's get this over with. The trial, what are you going to do?"

"That will depend on what you wish for me to do. I won't be able to stop the trial completely. However," Albus held up a finger. "I can, perhaps, convince my colleagues to interrogate you in a less invasive way than veritaserum. Do you wish for me to attempt this?" He would never actually work to stop them from using it on him, his secrets were too valuable. Instead, he would suggest the right questions to ask in front of the right members of the Wizengamot, then make a fuss about the rights of children on the day. He'd have his cake and eat it, too.

"I have nothing to hide."

"I... Of course, though my offer is still on the table anytime you want it. Do you want anything else of me before the trial?"

"I need information. I need you to tell me about every member of the Wizengamot that has significant power, and every known, living death eater. Starting with Bellatrix Lestrange."

"That might take a while, do you wish me to write up my assessments, or shall I tell you another time? Unless, of course, your parents have no objections?"

Ares didn't even look at his supposed father. "Nicholas, what is my bedtime?"

Nicholas finally showed his typical mischievous attitude that Albus had liked so much when they'd first met all those decades ago, back before Voldemort, before his mistakes. "Bedtime! My dear Ares, I haven't heard anything so ridiculous since before Albus was born. You stopped multiple death eaters, you are surely responsible enough to choose when to sleep. Wouldn't you say so, my boy?" He looked at Albus with an infuriating grin.

"You're right of course, Nicholas. I was more worried about myself, to tell you the truth, I'd be far more useful with time to prepare, yet this is not something that should be delayed overlong." Albus stood up and opened a few books and papers he had that dealt with the current Ministry and some confidential notes from the aurors about Death Eaters.

Ares seemed as knowledgeable about some events and people as he was obviously unfamiliar with others. He made Albus skip past Lucius Malfoy and most of Bellatrix's past, yet took extensive notes about her activities of the past few years. Regulus Black was the opposite, as Ares listened to every detail Albus would tell him about his time before he was broken out of Azkaban, yet insisted that he skip the current theories and investigations into the man. Dumbledore itched for the moment that they left so that he could look inside his pensieve and figure out the connections, why Ares didn't care about one death eater, yet went over every detail about the next.

Albus would, of course, need some time with the pensieve to say why, but he now felt even more strongly that Ares was a secret mastermind. It would certainly be reasonable for him to gather information on important people.

It was extremely late when he finished, and he hoped everyone else was as tired as he was. The pensieve would definitely have to wait till tomorrow, even if they all left instantly. Ares didn't look the least bit drowsy, but Perenelle was drooping a bit, Nicholas a little less than his wife. When he finished, Ares said "This is it, everything you know of the Death Eaters?"

"Yes, it is. Now, while I am happy to help you, Mr Flamel, I really must be going to bed now." Albus put on the role of the sympathetic old man to his words. "I have become more and more vulnerable to time as I have gotten older, and I must now rest."

Nicholas leaned back in his chair. "We'll need the Mirror of Erised, Albus. For study purposes. It's an interesting artifact, and I'd love to study it. The nature of its magic might even help us in the coming war."

"Not tonight, please. It is past a set of chambers on the third floor, in the same place I stored the Philosopher's Stone. I will show it to you when I get a chance, or you can ask another professor. A few of them know the way."

Nicholas was about to press further, then Ares put his hand on his arm. "That will be fine, thank you. That will be all for tonight, I think." Ares got up to walk away, then turned just as Albus felt relief. "Actually, one last thing, headmaster. I've heard legends of your fight against Grindelwald. I will need your knowledge in the coming days, if any of us are to survive."

Albus took a breath, then a risk. "I will be happy to do this, but I require something in return. Even after I apologized to you, you have remained hostile. I understand how you feel, but the world may be at stake, Mr Flamel. Please, give me a second chance, I beg of you."

Ares remained motionless for a moment, body half turned to Albus. "It won't be a second, or even a third chance." He moved back to Albus' desk and held out his hand. "But the world needs me. When do we start?"

III

Well, that's the end of this chapter. I feel happy about some parts of it, but I'm not as confident with it as I would like, considering the number of rewrites I've had to do. I wanted to a Fleur POV for a while, and this is the only time I will have the chance to until later, but I wish I could have figured out how to do it better, considering the plans I have for her later on.

Similarly, I am unhappy with the Harry POV I have here, but I needed to make him closer to Kathryn's depressed version of him, and I also needed to make note of Harry's wild magic again. I realized that the Weasley Twins would probably have seen him on the Marauder's Map as I was writing this chapter, and I immediately decided to add them in here. This time, they were quite a bit different than usual, but next time you see them, I would like for them to be closer to their normal selves.

Dumbledore's section, however, I do like. I tried to show him the same way Kathryn did, as a manipulative man with good intentions, but often poor planning and shady morals. In that light, I think it's easy to see how he came to the stupid conclusion I showed him coming to. He had started believing that Ares was evil, and so he shaped the evidence to fit his conclusion instead of the reverse.

I had a full outline for this story earlier, but I realized something that made me drastically change it for the better, and I think y'all will love it as much as I do. That required me to change this chapter again right as I was editing it, but it is worth it. I'm not good with dates, so I won't guess when the next chapter will be released, but I think that it will end with him walking it the Wizengamot meeting hall for his trial.