A/N: I'm back. Wrote some Naruto fanfiction and decided to take a break until the ideas completely gel. So I re-read the old story and thought why not. Already know I'm going to get questions on this: there will be no harem. Just because Harry connects with someone as a friend, does not always mean it will be more. Patience, young ones.

/~/

Harry woke up still angry. Learning that Dumbledore sent him to live with the Dursley's was a wound that would only fester, he knew.

The moon was peeking through the curtains, hoping to get a look on the lonely boy who was torn from his home.

Harry was no stranger to sleepless nights, nightmares, and memories that stayed in the darkest corners of the mind until he was already bathed in darkness. These memories were the cement that would pull a drowning man to the bottom, where he would remain.

He'd been at the bottom before, and it was Perenelle who saved him. It was Perenelle who loved him. It was Perenelle who would hold his terrified, shaking body until he was calm and the alligator tears dried up.

He was a momma's boy, and he missed his momma.

He closed his eyes and tried to get comfortable again, but it just wouldn't work; Harry sighed, rolled over, and ripped back the blinder's surrounding his bed-wanting to go on a walk to clear his mind.

He disillusioned himself and slipped out of the dormitories, down the steps, and out into the hall. Like in his room, the moonlight shone through the windows; unlike his room, there were no curtains in the hallway to block out the light which made the old cobblestone shine silver.

Harry walked mindlessly to and from in the halls, and ended up at the bottom stairs near the Great Hall. Searching for something, anything, that would take his mind off the Dursleys.

Ask and you shall receive, the old saying goes.

A silver-haired girl walked down the stairs, almost floating-like an angel from above. The heavenly girl got closer to Harry, and closer.

The graceful, heavenly girl was only a few steps from Harry, and she tripped, her head on a straight path to the stone banister.

Before he even had time to think he threw his hand forward with and levitated her stopping the girl from certain brain damage.

The girl reacted well to being saved by an invisible spell; she straightened her robes, flapped her hands a couple of times, and walked directly to where Harry was standing; staring at space, but somehow directly in his eyes.

"Hi, I'm Luna. The nargles are infested in your head, I've never seen so many." She said dreamily, reaching up with both hands to hold Harry's skull and inspect it. Thankfully she didn't mention anything about wandless magic.

He canceled the illusion, "How'd you know I was here? And nargles? What are those?" He questioned.

"I just know! Nargles are mischievous little creatures that like to take things and mess with people's brains. They're mostly harmless."

"And I have these mischievous creatures in my head?" Harry questioned, sincerely.

"Yes! Your head has more than most men. Right now there's more than you had earlier, before grey-beard's speech!" She said sleepily.

"Before grey-beard's speech?"

"Yes! When the Headmaster was talking about Harry Potter." She said, her body language turning from silky to attentive in a moment, like a snap..

"I'm sure everyone had more nargles than usual when the Headmaster said Harry Potter was missing." Harry replied smoothly.

"Yes, yes. I've enjoyed talking to you, James." She said and narrowed her eyes at him. "Your nargles were different, though. Goodnight, James." Luna said, before walking down the remaining steps and past Harry

"Hey Luna! It was nice to meet you!" Harry called out as she walked away.

"She's nice, weird… But nice." Harry said to himself once she'd gotten out of hearing range.

Luna had only raised questions with no answers, but it was a nice distraction. Harry felt better already, more clear minded. With a small smile, he walked to the great hall and out the doors to the open, sprawling grounds of Hogwarts.

That creepy forest he'd walked past earlier loomed out from the darkness on the edge of the grounds, almost drawing him in.

Looks like Harry found a place to train.

He walked into the outer-line of trees, and the presence of the forest called out to him. He pulled his wand out as if by instinct and lit it up. Moonlight couldn't permeate the blockade of trees, but soon enough the thick trunks opened up to a large clearing.

The clearing was circular in shape, with a small lake in the middle. Large rocks were piled high along the edge of one clearing and would make a nice seat for when he was taking a break from training. Moonlight broke through the openings in the trees and bathed the forest floor, ensuring there was no need for anything but natural light.

Harry shrugged off his robes so he wasn't weighted down by the bulky material, underneath, he wore simple muggle clothes-shorts and a t-shirt. He started jogging around the clearing, trying to get warmed up and ready for the harder parts of his workout.

Nic had taught him that most wizards didn't like exercise, hell, Nic didn't even like exercise. Most of them were slow and couldn't dodge too many spells easily, preferring to just run or transfigure objects in front of them. The few that were fast were dangerous, and Harry wanted to be fast.

So he did pushups, situps, pullups, and sprints. Sweat gathered on his brow dripped from his face and into his eyes, and he took deep breaths to try to calm his pulsing heartbeat.

He thought of Luna and her weird questions; the angelic grace that was so perfectly coupled with clumsiness. He vowed to talk to her more tomorrow, he knew from experience being different was a target on someone's back.

He was Harry Flamel, truly. A nod to the parents that died for him, with respect for the ones who saved him. Harry Flamel had people gunning him; from Voldemort to Dumbledoor, the bastards. Yes, Harry Flamel already had a large target, what was standing in front of someone else's and protecting them? Nothing, that's what. Luna wouldn't be bullied.

Having caught his breath, Harry pulled out his wand and got up to practice his wand-work. He had a methodical routine, and one that he followed for every incantation and spell he learned. He wasn't finished until he could do it both wordless and wandless. Right now, he was working on the stupefy spell. It was somewhat easy to learn, but honestly on the difficult side compared to how easily he got most things.

He could cast the spell with a wand easily enough, but he was still struggling to do it wandless. Nic had shown him enough times that he had the general gist of it: form spells in hands then shoot it out like a rocket.

He still hadn't managed to even turn it into a ball. Working wandless magic was different for every wizard, there wasn't just a simple guideline of steps to follow; although, many wizards formed the same spells in similar ways. There were always outliers to this general rule though.

The pile of rocks looked more comfortable by the minute and he was tired, so he went over to little pond was nice to look at, it had a certain type of peacefulness to it.

Nothing could make this moment more peaceful for Harry, until it did. Out of the gloom and darkness of the trees came a unicorn, white as snow and regal in a way words couldn't explain. The unicorn walked slowly across the clearing and turned to look at Harry, almost sizing him up. A noise from the forest must have spooked the unicorn; it's head whipped around to look behind it, then back at Harry, and ran off into the woods and away from the apparent danger.

"Incredible." He whispered into the night air.

His night finished much better than it started. Once he was back in his room, he slept soundly.

The next morning he felt light and happy, and the chubby boy rolled out of bed around the same time as Harry, both still in their pajamas.

"Morning Neville," Harry said with a yawn.

"Morning James, how are you liking Hogwarts so far?"

"It's ok. I miss home but magical law is magical law." Harry said with a wry smile. "It helps that Hogwarts is beautiful too. How are you liking Hogwarts Neville?"

"Oh, it's great! Living with my gran was alright, but it'll be nice to try to do some things by myself for once." Neville said.

"Yeah, I could see how that would be nice. Want to go get some breakfast with me, Neville?"

"Yeah, I'd eat. Once I find Trevor I'll be ready to go. He seems to have wandered off."

"I'll help you look if you want?" Harry offered.

"Yeah James, I'd like that."

Trevor was either amazing at hiding or Neville was a terrible pet owner. They searched the room for at least twenty minutes, and the frog couldn't be found. It was like it had simply disappeared.

Harry grabbed the letter he wrote the night before in case their chase led them past the owlery, and they left the dorm. Their search did in fact lead them past the owlery… And the entire first floor...And second...And third...and the fourth, fifth, and sixth floor. Their search led them back to the Gryffindor common room to get their robes for class with no breakfast and still no frog.

"Seriously, Neville." Harry questioned, pointing at Neville's pillow.

Neville looked at him, "What?" he asked bewildered, before looking at his bed. "TREVOR!"

The frog they had just spent an hour looking for, the frog that made them lose their breakfast, was sitting on Neville's pillow without a care in the world.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Harry questioned with a small smile at the situation.

Neville blushed, "Um… I don't really know how that happened."

"What am I going to do with you Neville? Lose your pet for a couple hours and he was just on your pillow?" Harry joked.

"Yea… I misplace things easily. Sorry James, we wasted a lot of time." Neville said sadly.

Harry put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I was only kidding Neville. We searched this room together and didn't find him so it's both our fault. Besides, I liked getting to know you." Harry said with a smile.

"Thanks, James. I liked getting to know you too."

The mood between them was much lighter than it had been before, even if Neville was still a little awkward with him. They'd bonded over searching for the frog and finding him in the likeliest of places.

The first class of the day was Potions with Slytherin.

"This is going to go well." He thought with a smile.

It did not go well.

He'd partnered with Neville, and Draco and Pansy took the table next to theirs. Harry and Draco talking only seemed to infuriate the redhead and confuse the rest of the class.

Draco Malfoy willingly talking with a Gryffindor was...strange. To see him being civil was outright weird. The black haired professor from the feast strode in the door, his hair flowing behind him in a greasy wave, and introduced himself as Professor Snape.

Snape asked the class a few questions, made a few Gryffindor's look stupid, and gave them the directions for their first potion. A simple bug-bite itch repellant.

"Hey, James. Are you any good with potions?" Neville questioned nervously.

Draco cut in, "James? Good with Potions? HAH!"

"Draco. Screw you." Harry said.

"You're only mad because it's true! You can't brew to save your life." He said before he turned back to Pansy.

"James, we might be in trouble then. I can't brew potions well either…" Neville trailed off.

"Really?" Harry questioned, starting to get nervous too.

"Like, I can't brew at all." Neville said honestly, looking Harry straight in the eyes.

"This won't be good."

"No, it won't." Neville agreed.

They chopped up the ingredients and started to brew. It was going well, lots of laughs were shared between the group of four and Harry and Neville's potion was actually the color it was supposed to be; until the potion blew up in their face.

They turned to look at each other, hair on end and faces stained black and erupted in laughter.

Snape yelled at the both of them for being incompetant and made them stay after class to clean up everyone's cauldrons. They told him they would be late for charms, but he didn't care.

They barged into charms ten minutes late; thankfully, Professor Flitwick was very understanding-he knew Snape quite well.

They were some rather simple course material and just going over the basics, Harry tuned the lecture out and pulled out his own book: Introduction to the Theory of Intermediate Magic. In all of the great Nicolas Flamel's wisdom, learning theory was the best way to figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Harry found his advice to be true. After all, magic is simply experimentation and the spells and methods used were simply the results.

The class period ended soon enough, and Harry and Neville walked together to the Great Hall for lunch, their bellies rumbling from the missed breakfast.

The banter at the Gryffindor table was loud as always, and Harry was enjoying the opportunity to get closer with some of his house-mates. The two Weasley twins were rather funny once you got past the rehearsed one liners and quirky entrances and exits. He was looking forward to their so-called legendary pranks too; he was looking forward to one on Snape, if that ever happened. Merlin, Harry wished it would happen; Snape had not done himself any favors today.

Harry noticed Draco heading towards the table and caught his eye, Draco titled his head back and waved Harry over. Harry nodded back and excused himself from the table, telling Neville that he'd be back by this afternoon's flying lesson-which was only an hour after lunch.

they talked about how they liked Hogwarts, and how they were enjoying their houses-old friends.

"What'd you need Draco? Surprised you're alright with being seen with a Gryffindor in public." Harry joked.

"I'll tell you outside, more private." Harry nodded his consent then followed him to the hallway, Draco pulled him into an empty classroom.

"Let me guess, you need help with something?" Harry teased.

Draco looked at Harry dryly, "Will you shut up."

"Yes, Lord Malfoy." Harry said with a bow.

Draco smirked at Harry, "Better get used to it. I will one day be Lord Malfoy." He said dramatically.

"Whatever, Malfoy. Now that we're alone, what do you need?"

"I propose an alliance between your house and mine." Draco said with a smirk.

"Ambitious. Just like a Malfoy. What's the reasoning behind the alliance, what do we gain?" Harry questioned, he knew how well Malfoy's mind worked but he always enjoyed the chance to pick his brain.

"I haven't finished. An alliance between all houses, in our year." Draco said, eyeing Harry closely for his reaction.

"Cmon Draco, I know you love to be dramatic but spit it out. We got flying lessons soon, yea?" Harry said; he didn't want to be late for the second class of the day.

"It's quite simple actually. We just make friends with student's in each house. Once the relations are good enough, you train them."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Draco. I feel like the Headmaster would not approve of me training students spells that could cause damage, especially first years."

Draco looked at Harry incredulously, "You're kidding, right?"

"Yea, I'm kidding." Harry said smiling at his best friend, "I could care less what that old coot thinks. It's a good idea, Draco."

"I've only told you the plan, not the reasons." Draco added.

"All right, what are the reasons?" Harry asked and rolled his eyes.

Draco was so damn dramatic for no reason.

"You, and your power." Draco said simply.

"C'mon don't talk about me like that." Harry pleaded.

"Look, you don't like it but you know it's true. I'm a real enough friend to tell the truth. And you know it's true even if you wish it wasn't. You can teach them how to be strong and people will follow you for that. As well as your strength. You give them a chance for greatness." Draco said.

Damn Draco, why did he always have to plan in ways that would humiliate him, "It does make sense. I guess." Harry grudgingly said.

"Of course it does. And don't be so dramatic yourself, it's little more than a book-club with friends to learn and train with. They'll just be learning from you and most likely will end up looking up to you."

"Yea, yea. You just always make it sound terrible."

Draco was always a good friend to Harry, even if he showed it in different ways than most. But he did care.

"How are you doing? We didn't get a chance to talk after the news last night." Draco said a little awkwardly.

Draco was always a good friend to Harry, even if he showed it in different ways than most. But he did care. Draco and Harry were never the best at emotional talks, but it made Harry happy to know that his friend would still try.

"Not good at first. Yea… It pissed me off. Made me want to kill him, actually." Harry said.

Others might not like it but Harry was brutally honest with the good and the bad.

"Me too mate. Poison. That's my advice." Draco offered.

"Not bad advice. I'll have to look into it." Harry said with a smile.

Draco smiled back, "It was good to talk to you James."

"You too Draco, I'll let you know when I've got some people from each house. Then, we study."

"A plan has been made." Draco said.

Harry nodded in agreement, "And allies will be made."

They joked around with each for a little bit longer before Harry had to leave for broom practice. Broom practice was utterly pointless for him, but it was fun to watch the muggleborns fly for the first time. He imagined that's what he would be like if he would've still been living with the Dursleys.

It was a good opportunity to think about what his parents would do with the news of what Dumbledore did. Certainly never speak to the conniving bastard again, but he wasn't sure beyond that. Hopefully they had a good plan to help deal with him. He was just a pup compared to them and their experience after all.

Experience was moving your pieces to the right place, at the right time, and striking when the opponent was at their weakest and we at our strongest. War and manipulation was simple, at its base. They knew the art far beyond the base. Harry would be in over his head without his parent's help. Maybe next time he saw Draco he'd ask him to write Lucius. Two potential plans were better than one.

/~/

Dumbledore knocked on Privet Drive, House Number 4. A portly woman opened the door and saw that it was a wizard. She screamed and slammed the door on Albus.

"Ah, Petunia is just as I remember her." Albus thought with a smile.

He apparated into the house with no noise-a testament to his skill. "Petunia, my dear. I just have questions and then I'll be gone. You don't have to worry." Albus said kindly.

"You're a heathen! You need to get your freakishness out of my house!" She screamed.

Albus ignored her entirely, "Petunia, where is Harry?"

Petunia snorted and smirked, "Good as dead. Haven't seen him for at least four years, Praise God."

"You lie, Petunia."

"You wish, freak."

"Legilimens." (Dumbledore's response to every question one wouldn't answer.)

Dumbledore scoured every corner of her memory, looking for any details. He saw Vernon build the child's character up, he saw Dudley teach the boy how to be kind and Petunia taught the boy to be humble.

The ways that they went about this were not completely correct, Dumbledore would admit. But everything served a purpose.

Then just like Petunia said. One day he disappeared and the Durselys never saw them again.

"Obliviate."

The Headmaster apparated back to Hogwarts.

"Fawkes, what shall we do?" The Headmaster questioned.

The phoenix cocked it's head and chirped.

"Wait and see? That is our only option." Dumbledore agreed.

Dumbledore hoped Harry was dead, it would be the only solace to his old and worn soul. The boy was a horcrux. Feelings of sympathy, love, or understanding would be the final stakes stabbed through his heart. If Harry was alive, and Dumbledore was forced to kill him again, he would break. But no, that was a lie. If the boy were alive, and Voldemort was to be vanquished, Harry too would die.

The Headmaster didn't kid himself about what type of man he was. The public saw him as a Saint, a savior of the wizarding world. He was the man who would accomplish peace, and lead the savior to his destiny. If his soul was to be damned for the world to be saved, he was prepared to pay the price. That is what Dumbledore knew of himself.

"I just hope one day in the afterlife, James and Lily can forgive me for what I've been forced to do to their son. For what I will do to their son if in some way he survived. In the name of peace. For the Greater Good."

/~/

A/N: Reviews are appreciated. I actually like the way this story is developing. I might write further chapters actually, before Duality. I'd have to know you all want more though, and what you like and don't like. A beta would also be nice, I don't double check anything I write too closely, so don't be too harsh with the errors. Just getting back into the game.