On the train ride back to school, Harry was happy to note that ever since the attack on Mr. Weasley, Ron was treating Henry in a friendly manner. They weren't friends per say anymore, seeing how Ron was spending more time with Dean and Seamus and Henry was spending time with Neville but they would share pleasantries whenever their paths would cross.

He left Henry and went to look for Draco who was saving him a seat in Daphne's compartment. She'd given him the book that he'd wanted back in summer as a Christmas present, he had given her an icing kit that he'd found at Harrods.

He found the compartment and entered it, Daphne's laugh made his heart skip a beat.

"You are so mean D!" Tracey pouted blushing profusely.

"What! Blaise said he kissed you because you were under a mistletoe. I simply pointed out that he doesn't need that excuse to kiss you!"

Tracey scowled but her eyes lit up when she saw Harry. "I could easily find mistletoe at Hogwarts, though I doubt Harry needs an excuse to kiss you!"

Daphne immediately lost her carefree attitude and glared at Tracey.

"Thank you for the book." Harry said, taking a seat next to her.

"I marked the ones that would interest you."

"I noticed. Thank you."

A shiver ran down her spine at his words, he sounded genuinely grateful.

"Err, how about a game of exploding snap?" Draco asked.

That night in the dorm Tracey finally confronted her best friend.

"What's wrong with you Daphne? He clearly likes you and isn't afraid to show it and he surpasses that stupid list of yours in every way! Then why are you acting so cold towards him?"

Daphne buried her face in her pillow. "I don't know! He just scares me okay!"

Tracey ogled at her friend. "Are you serious? The guy who always has the easy going smile scares you? Merlin, he's so freaking cute and hot that if I wasn't crazy about Blaise I'd be hitting on him big time."

Daphne groaned. "I can't explain it. There's just something okay, I just need to figure it out."

Tracey sat on her bed and placed her hand on her back. "D, don't take too long to figure things out."

Ginny and Hermione were discussing Harry as well in their common room.

"He's just changed so much ever since Harry showed up, it's like the Henry Potter we've known for the past four years was just an act."

Hermione nodded as she watched Henry approach Parvati. He said something that made her laugh, a minute later Lavender joined the conversation as well. "What on earth could he have to say to those two?"

"That's exactly my point. It's like he suddenly wants to surround himself with a fan club."

Hermione suddenly laughed. "Oh Ginny, don't you see what's really happening? Henry is trying to copy everything that Harry does, he's scared that Harry will reject him if he's too different and all these new people are only cozying up to him because they want to know Harry."

It was the next day that Hermione got her first bit of surprising news.

McGonagall was handing out the results of the mock OWL that they'd taken before the holidays. She stopped in front of Neville and congratulated him on the improvement in his wand work. Then she stopped in front of Henry.

"Mr. Potter, I'm glad that you are finally putting an effort in your school work. If you carry on like this, you may even get an O in your Transfiguration OWL."

At dinner time Hermione found herself shuffling through Henry's belongings. After McGonagall, Professor Frost had given him an EE and said that he could get an O if he was more careful when preparing his potions. The nail in the coffin though had been the EE that he received in history.

He'd spent the past four years sleeping during their history of magic class, she knew that he was somehow cheating.

She was about to give up her search when she found his cheat sheet. There were cheat sheets on every subject, including the electives that he wasn't taking.

"What are you doing?" Henry asked, walking into his dorm.

Hermione lost her nerve for a second seeing all his belongings strewn on his bed but she quickly shook off her guilt and turned to face him. "I should be asking you that!" She snapped showing him the papers she'd found.

Henry frowned at the papers.

"I can't believe that you of all people would cheat!"

"How's this cheating?"

"You've got a list of OWL questions."

"Yeah, so? You can find the papers in the library."

"I know that!" She snapped. "Unlike you, I've actually been preparing for the OWL's."

"What's your problem Hermione? This is just a list of questions that will most probably show up again. I'll focus more on these when revising than on the rest of the curriculum."

"My problem is that you are trying to take a shortcut, that's cheating. If you want to really do well then study and work hard. I expected better of you, ever since Harry showed up you've changed. It's like you are constantly trying to impress him. If he doesn't accept you for the way you are then he isn't worth it."

Henry sighed. "So this isn't about the list, it's about Harry."

"It's not! You need to give this to McGonagall."

"And if I don't?"

"You should or I will." She said, crossing her arms.

Someone cleared their throat making them both jump and look at the door. "You can tell McGonagall about these lists that we've made and she may or may not inform the OWL testers of the pattern that we've found. However, if you do, I will tell her how you abused your prefect position and secretly went through Henry's personal trunk."

Hermione did the perfect impression of a fish as she tried to wrap her head around Neville's threat. Gone was the shy boy who could barely string two words together.

She felt tears prickle her eyes as she stood there completely helpless. Eventually she ran out of the boys dorm.

Henry and Neville made a pact to keep the incident between them. Hermione on her part decided to ignore their existence.

It was a week later that Henry was looking for a book in the library when he bumped into Padma.

"Parvati told me that you apologized to her."

"Um yeah, I was going to apologize to you as well before the break but um…"

"Ron's dad got hurt and you had to leave."

"How did you know?"

"Rumor mill, plus my sister loves to gossip."

"Right." He said rubbing the back of his neck "look, I'm sorry for the way I or Ron treated you at the ball…"

"You could make it up to me."

"Err, okay. How?" He asked, feeling extremely nervous.

"Buy me a Butterbeer on the next Hogsmeade weekend."

Henry grinned, extending his hand to shake hers "done." He said completely oblivious to the amused look that she gave him.

The Hogsmeade weekend was right before Valentine's day, so the village would be filled with young couples strolling around holding hands.

Harry, much to Daphne's disappointment, had to go with Arcturus. Tracey and Blaise had already left for the village, it was going to be their first official date. Draco and Susan were once again planning some prank on a select few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, so they were busy with their secret meetings. Neville was helping Professor Sprout with some project and Henry was meeting Padma, he'd asked Daphne and Hannah to join them.

She decided to walk to the village instead of taking a carriage. It took her a good half hour to reach but she had time to kill. She stopped by the jewelry shop to see what was new, then she went to the clothes shop. She'd been wandering around for an hour when she finally decided to go to the Three Broomsticks. She spotted Padma, Henry and Hannah sitting on a table along with Terry Boot, for some reason it felt wrong to intrude but there weren't any empty tables around.

She went back out and started walking towards another pub that she'd seen in the past. Entering the Hogshead wasn't a pleasant experience, there were a couple of seventh year students sitting in the corner but most of the clientele looked questionable and the place looked like it could use a thorough cleaning and maybe some more light.

Not wanting to attract attention to herself she asked for a bottle of butterbeer and took a seat in the corner. Trying desperately to avoid touching anything around her, she even cast a cleaning spell on the bottle not trusting the dirty rag that the barkeeper had used to clean it with.

Half an hour later she had finished her drink and was about to leave when a conversation in the booth behind her caught her attention.

"The plan worked, the boy's gone. Now all we need to do is cause a distraction and nab his useless brother." A man's voice said.

"The others are ready and are waiting for a signal." A woman replied.

Daphne felt her heart pounding in her ears. Were they talking about Harry and Henry? Was there going to be an attack in Hogsmeade?

She didn't have a chance to think over it as the two hooded figures stood up and started walking out of the pub.

She followed them out and spotted a group of third years giggling about something. The village is full of kids, if something happens they'll all be slaughtered, she realized as she hurried after the two cloaked figures. They were walking into an alleyway behind the Hogshead.

Drawing her wand and not really having a plan she hurried after them, their backs were facing her.

"Stupefy!" She cried out as her spell hit the man but the woman turned and started firing spells at her. Daphne paled when a green spell hit the trash can she was hiding behind.

"Silencio" a familiar voice bellowed from behind her.

"Hermione, she can cast silently! Alert the Professors at the Three Broomsticks." Daphne screamed.

Hermione looked at her wide eyed hesitating a second too long. A spell hit her, Daphne could see the blood oozing out of the side of her head as she lay motionless on the cobbled floor.

The trash can disintegrated and Daphne looked up to see her attacker laughing maniacally. Bellatrix Lestrange hadn't played in a long time, this was going to be fun.

She caught a glimpse of the kids she'd seen before peering into the alleyway. "Death Eaters. Alert Professors!" She screamed at the scared looking kids as she avoided being hit by another barrage of spells.

She started casting Bone Breakers and putting up shields but Bellatrix had revived her partner, who had taken over while she cast the Dark Mark.

Daphne vaguely heard screams coming from the village as Bellatrix joined the game and hit her with a Crucio.

Daphne felt like she was being burnt alive as she screamed her lungs out. The pain suddenly stopped, tears blurred her vision but she saw a pair of green eyes burning with hatred looking right into her soul before passing out.

The man took Bellatrix and vanished on the spot before Harry could react.

Sirius was there seconds later.

"Bellatrix!" Harry said without looking up. His eyes were fixed on Daphne.

"Why don't you take her and I'll take Hermione to the hospital wing."

"Can you ask someone else? I can't." Harry replied in an unusually detached voice.

Sirius who was checking on Hermione looked at him, he was shaking in rage and his green eyes were glowing bright.

"I'll do it," Remus said, entering the alley as Harry disappeared. "He won't do something rash will he?" He asked, looking worried.

Sirius shook his head. "No, though grandfather may have to renovate the house again."

Daphne awoke in the hospital wing, every inch of her body hurt.

"Hey." Harry whispered.

She looked at him and remembered what she'd seen before passing out. But for the life of her she couldn't imagine seeing so much anger and hatred in his eyes as she thought she had, now they were brimming with concern. "Henry." She whispered remembering what had caused all this.

"He's fine, everyone's fine." He whispered back.

She blacked out once again.

She awoke the next morning and was disappointed to find her father sitting next to her bed instead of Harry. Cygnus who usually wore his black hair with white streaks gelled back, was looking disheveled. He'd clearly spent the night with his hand in his hair worried over her.

He fussed over her all through breakfast, she assured him that she was fine but he grudgingly let her go when Madam Pomfrey gave her the all clear.

She was surprised to find Hermione waiting for her outside the hospital wing.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked her.

Hermione nodded nervously. "I wanted to apologize, I wasn't thinking straight and I could have gotten us both killed."

Daphne laughed, only stopping when her sore chest hurt. "I wasn't any better, I stupefied him for Merlin's sake. It took her less than a second to get him back up."

Hermione nodded looking pensieve.

"What were you doing in the alley?" Daphne asked.

Hermione felt her cheeks heat up. "I was at the Hogshead as well, it's a nicer place to visit when you are all alone."

They both walked to class lost in their own thoughts.

After dinner that evening, Henry and Harry were sitting in Dumbledore's office along with Arcturus and Sirius.

"I'm afraid that I will have to cancel all future Hogsmeade visits." Dumbledore said, looking grave.

"You can't do that. If you do that they'll think that they've won, you are not going to let a bunch of bullies force everyone into hiding are you?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Harry, you must understand that I am responsible for the safety of the children at Hogwarts."

"And how are they safe when there are Death Eaters in the school itself?" Harry countered.

Remus had heard the group teasing Henry with Padma, he'd later mentioned it to Sirius. Sirius had immediately dropped everything and had come to have a drink at the Three Broomsticks with Remus.

When Denis Creevey had run into the Three Broomsticks screaming Death Eater attack a couple of seventh year Slytherin's and a Ravenclaw had tried to grab Henry.

Henry had been quick and had hit one's leg with a bone breaker and had broken a chair on another one's head.

Sirius had immediately contacted his team and had run out while Remus rounded up the three new recruits.

They'd caught ten more new recruits in the village before they could cause any real damage.

Dumbledore looked at them sadly "sometimes people make the wrong choice but everyone deserves a second chance."

Arcturus scoffed but Sirius cut in. "I'm sorry Dumbledore but I've already taken the ministry's permission. I am now authorized to check and arrest any and all Hogwarts staff members or student body members that have taken the mark. As for Hogsmeade, my team will patrol the village when the students visit."

"Very well." Dumbledore said looking resigned.

Henry found Hermione waiting for him in front of the portrait hole when he reached Gryffindor tower.

"Can we talk?" She asked.

He nodded.

"I've been thinking, with You-Know-Who back we need to learn to defend ourselves. I have already spoken to a few people who'd be interested…"

"Remus is a good teacher." Henry cut in.

"He is! But he's preparing us for our OWL's but we need to learn more…" She tried reasoning.

"Don't worry Hermione, Sirius is placing security at the village."

"But what happens when we are alone!" She snapped. "What if they attack us when we are at home or in Diagon Alley or something."

"You should talk to Harry."

"But I'm talking to you." She sighed, tugging at her hair in frustration. "Look, I know you and you are the best in our year at Defence. Harry is good too but he's busy with his secret missions and stuff, you can teach us. We can ask Professor Lupin for permission to make a club. Please just think over it."

Henry wasn't convinced but he nodded.

Harry too found Daphne waiting for him in the corridor.

"Can we talk?" She asked, looking unusually nervous.

"Of course." Harry replied with his signature smile.

"I want to apologize for being so cold towards you. It's just, you scare me at times. I know you are always really nice and sweet to everyone but there's this part of you that's always ready to show itself. I finally saw it yesterday and I was terrified. I've never felt so much anger and hatred radiate off anyone else before."

Harry looked away, "I'm sorry." He whispered, he wanted to run and scream but he felt her fingers on his chin forcing him to look at her.

"I've never felt that safe before either." She whispered.

Time seemed to stop as they both stood there for an eternity looking at each other.

"I want to get to know you, Harry Potter, all of you. The good, the bad and the ugly. Will you lower your guard and let me in?"

He could feel her heartbeat against his chest. "Will you?" He asked as he breathed in her sweet and spicy scent.

She smiled and stepped back, holding out a cupcake that was frosted like a white daphne. "I thought this would make for a good start."

Harry smiled and accepted her gift. He took a bite and teasingly said "This is really good. A bit dry though…"

She smacked his arm and laughed "l'll try a new recipe next time."

"Next time? Wow I'm going to become fat ain't I?"

The next morning the clear blue sky of the great hall was replaced with a thunderstorm as Sirius Black marched in.

A few younger year students yelped in fear while the rest looked at the man in awe.

Harry rolled his eyes when Sirius flared his magic making it swirl around him but he had to admit that the man looked impressive.

It was a trick that Arcturus had taught him as well, "always make yourself look powerful. People will rally for you and your opponents will cower in fear, you will win half the battle before even starting." He'd preached.

"My team and I are here to make sure that anybody with the Dark Mark is arrested and anybody planning on getting marked is dissuaded. If you are marked I strongly suggest that you hand yourself in before we start checking. If I find out that you were trying to…"

"Fiend…"

Crab who'd jumped up to attack Sirius never got to finish his incantation as Harry twisted his wand arm behind his back and rammed his head into the table. Checking his left arm he found the mark. Crab yelled in pain as he felt his arm break."

"Enough!" Dumbledore's voice boomed through the hall.

"The bastard was going to murder every single person in this hall." Harry said, his eyes ablaze as he twisted the broken arm making Crab scream and soil himself.

Harry grabbed his hair and rammed his face into the table three more times, finishing off with a kick. Everyone heard the crack of Crabs ribs breaking as he collapsed bloody and unconscious on the floor.

He looked up, breathing heavily, his wand in his hand and his knees bent ready to attack the next person who tried to attack or escape.

Five people, including Goyle who'd wet himself, threw their wands and raised their arms, surrendering.

"You stole my thunder." Sirius remarked with a pout as Kingsley handcuffed the five boys.

Harry shrugged and took his seat.

Dora along with four other Aurors started checking everyone's arms. She even stopped in front of Dumbledore and told him to show his arms.

They found two sixth year Gryffindors who were marked and a seventh year Hufflepuff. The three were dragged out of their chairs unceremoniously.

"I'll be conducting a weekly check!" Sirius threatened before leaving.

Neville broke the silence that ensued his exit by standing up and clapping. Slowly and steadily the entire hall was clapping and cheering Harry's name following the Weasley twins' example.

The first class after breakfast was canceled as McGonagall called for a staff meeting to discuss security measures.

Hermione took the opportunity to drag Henry with her to meet Lupin.

"I think that's an excellent idea." Remus said after hearing them out.

"But you are the Professor of DADA, you should run this club or maybe Harry." Henry said, trying to reason with him.

"And that's the problem. I am a Professor and Harry is well Harry. Look if I teach the club it'll just feel like another class. If Harry does it, a lot of students will just presume that they can never match his skill set. But you, everyone knows you are a natural at DADA yet you are approachable. Not only can you teach them things but you can inspire hope and confidence in them. I will of course supervise your meetings."

"Fine." Henry said in resignation. "But I'm Henry Potter, I'm not the most popular person around, I doubt too many people will show up."

Hermione beamed and took out a parchment. "Forty five people have signed up so far. Now that we have Professor Lupin's permission, we can hang up sign up sheets in the common rooms."

Harry found himself in a staring match with Dumbledore. Right after breakfast, Dumbledore had asked to meet him in his office.

As usual, Harry walked into the office and went to greet Fawkes first. After stroking the bird he took a seat and waited for Dumbledore to say what he had to say.

The headmaster, however, was simply looking at him in disappointment.

"Violence isn't always the answer." He eventually said.

Harry didn't grace him with a reply.

Dumbledore removed his spectacles and sighed. "I used to be like you in my youth. Full of fire and passion but I ended up paying a very costly price."

"I am not in love with Voldemort and Henry will most certainly not die by his or my hand."

He wasn't surprised to find out that Harry knew about his past he'd expected as much. "Harry, my boy, I'm just trying to save you from yourself. Had I not stopped I may have ended up taking Gellert Grindewald's place. You are a very powerful young wizard, but power can consume you and before you know it you're gone. You may wake up one morning and realize that you don't recognize the man in the mirror…"

"Headmaster, I imagine that you called me here to give me my punishment. I will not go around hurting random people but I will hurt anyone who deserves it. There's no point in lecturing me, I'm way past the point of return."

"Very well, you will serve detention with Mr. Filch every night for one month."

Daphne was waiting for him near the gargoyle that led to the headmasters office.

"Care to walk with me?"

"Always." Harry replied with a grin.

"How many nights will you be spending in detention?"

"Why do you think I was given detention?"

Daphne smirked. "I read people remember. I believe you called it perception."

"Sometimes you scare me."

Daphne raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow, she could see the laughter in his eyes.

"I'm serious," he said earnestly. "I feel naked around you. You can read me like an open book."

"I'm looking forward to reading every single page."

They carried on walking aimlessly. Her fingers brushed against his making her blush and take a steadying breath when she felt his fingers intertwine with hers.

"What are they doing?" Harry asked entering the common room.

"I suppose Professor Lupin gave Henry permission to start the club after all. I signed up last week when Hermione asked if I'd be interested."

"What club?"

"He's starting a defense club." She was suddenly very aware of Harry's eyes on her "I don't like feeling vulnerable."

He squeezed her hand gently. "You never have to give me any explanations, I think it's a great idea."

"Oooooo! You two are holding hands!" Tracey all but screamed across the common room making several heads turn.

Daphne pulled her hand away and rushed up to her dorm saying something about books and assignments.

"You should take her to Madam Pudifoots on our next Hogsmeade weekend." Draco said as Harry took a seat, getting a questioning look from Blaise and a nervous giggle from Tracey.

"I didn't see it when we were there last. Do I need to make a reservation?"

"Don't you worry, I'll do it." Draco replied as he rushed out of the common room.

"Is it just me or is he acting stranger than usual."

"You'll figure it out, eventually." Theo replied without looking up from his book.

"You know, it'd be nice if you set aside your novels once in a while and hung out with us." Tracey said with a pout.

"Shhh. The story's just started getting interesting."

Tracey rolled her eyes. "I'm going to go tease Daphne. Miss me." She said to Blaise and gave him a quick peck.