A/N- I've finally done Chapter 5. I believed it was the worst chapter for multiple reasons, but hopefully, you'll find this update to be much better!

Disclaimer: Don't own it.


Chapter 5- Legionnaires

January 25th, 1996

Hedwig flew gracefully through the air, taking the path she had ritually followed ever since she and her master were first united. Her master had been quite troubled lately, so she was bringing him back a dead rat to cheer him up.

Strangely, when she flew into the room they shared, he no longer occupied the desolate, bland room. It was painted a tasteless white, a colour associated with purity and goodness. However, she saw through the portrayed innocence of the room, red stains marred the walls: blood spilled from one particularly brutal night.

You see, Hedwig was an intelligent bird; a prodigy of her kind. She was well aware of the pain her master endured at the hand of the "man downstairs" as she often liked to call him. Or chirp if you rather.

After many hours of waiting—all spent wisely preening her lustrous white feathers—master had still not come back to the room. It was nighttime; he was never this late.

Like an overprotective mother, Hedwig flew out into the warm night sky, looking for her wayward child and preparing to give him an earful for being out so late.

He was her familiar and vice versa, but she had the added ability of being able to sense his location. He wasn't that far away; only somewhere in London, but it was strange that he didn't at least leave out treats if he knew he was going somewhere. Something wasn't right and Hedwig quickly flew towards London, her glistening white form an oddity against the midnight of her surroundings.

After several minutes of graceful flight, Hedwig reached the marvelous and majestic city of London. She followed the "signal" to a phone booth where she had often seen magicals in London. She came through this area often—it was filled with succulent rats thriving in London's filth. This was her destination.

Noticing that the signal seemed to be coming from beneath her, Hedwig dived into a sewage grate. The space was cramped and dirty, leaving little room for movement causing her vibrant feathers to be defiled with the foulness of nearly seven million inhabitants.

She finally exited the dark, subjacent tunnel and came out in a massive room—one that could possibly be larger than Hogwarts. The ceiling was the only thing in the room—minus a statue or two—that wasn't wood. Even the fireplaces were wood—which was highly dangerous and rather idiotic—she was a bird and even she knew that wood and fire didn't mix.

It was strange; master seemed to be further up, so Hedwig, luckily spotting a peculiar but convenient staircase, flew up two flights of stairs. The signal was stronger now; she knew she was close. Obviously, someone had taken master and she was going to make sure they didn't get away from it without a few pecks of well-deserved courtesy.

Two men wearing black robes, with a hint of red in them, tried to stop her, but she put on a burst of speed, barreling past them and into a room large enough to rival the great hall of Hogwarts.

The room, as previously stated, was large enough to accommodate a few hundred or so people with steadily ascending levels of benches. Every single bench was occupied and many others crowded on the few and far between steps that connected the levels. And even more massed against the cool, dark stone wall, which was crying a river of perspiration.

The room was hot with the carbon dioxide outtakes of a thousand breaths. The sweat that was pouring off of the majority of the occupant's faces served to worsen the sweltering temperature.

Master was held into a deplorable looking chair, ensnared by the coiling chains. Few had yet to notice her entrance, but of them, Harry was one. His frustrated eyes banished every ounce of despair and was replaced by the radiant glow of happiness and hope.

"Hedwig!" he cried, with a sort of passion as if they hadn't seen each other in years.

His face quickly turned panicky when a portly looking man yelled: "What's a bloody bird doing in here? Kill the beast!"

Naturally, Hedwig could hear the words, but despite her prodigious intelligence, she didn't quite understand the meaning. All she knew was that master's mood had changed drastically by this man's startled remark.

Her mother side came out full-fledged and she dived threateningly at master's intimidator. The man cowered before she was even in range, but she managed to snatch his strange green hat. She knew that she probably wasn't going to be able to get close to him again, so she tore apart his hat, as a sort of consolation.

The air was soon ablaze with spell-fire as various wizards and witches sent some aggressive spells at her. She easily dodged them—the air was her attribute after all—and she even dived at a few of those in range as a counterattack.

Just as she was retreating from one of her vicious counterattacks, she dodged a rather slow moving reductor curse, but that put her directly into the trajectory of a well-timed blasting hex.


Harry awoke with a shout, feeling Hedwig's feathers sticking to his sweaty skin. Upon further investigation, it was in fact not Hedwig's feathers—she had died nearly seven months ago, but the now soiled covers.

The door creaked as it was closed in a rush, something Harry did not miss. He hated that his terrible experiences were shared with the rest of the household through unceasing night terrors, even if it was just a grumpy witch and a few—rarely seen—house elves.

Despite the dark turn his thoughts had recently taken, nothing could get Harry down today. He'd been invited to lunch with Tonks's in Diagon Alley today. He hadn't remembered there being any restaurants there, but he was excited nonetheless.

He and his new aunt had corresponded multiple times over floo, and he could honestly say that he enjoyed their conversations. Andromeda had a healthy dose of both logic and emotions and was always able to give him the best possible answer.

Mr. Tonks on the other hand was rather dorky, but he was often just fun and had even shown to be quite knowledgeable on a few obscure subjects to Harry, namely, the legal system. Apparently he was a lawyer for both muggles and magicals. If only he could've represented Harry during his trial…

Tonks wasn't fully healed but had been released from the "hospital" and was supposedly resting at home for the next two weeks. She was placed back on the active duty list four days ago by an extremely reluctant Amelia.

How Tonks had managed that against the strong-willed Amelia was beyond Harry; it showed Tonks's gargantuan perseverance.

Tonks was for lack of a better word…interesting. The bubbly and always excitable young woman had in a week replaced both Ron and Hermione. Her natural inquisitive attitude had pried much harder into Harry's life than he would've expected and she now knew more about Harry's childhood than…well anyone.

'Ugh,' Harry grunted as morning sunlight cascaded through the white curtains. Harry hated mornings, no doubt courtesy of his stay at the fantastic vacation resort called Azkaban. Thankfully, he'd manage to avoid dreaming of his time in hell, during the past week, though the dreams that replaced them weren't much better.

After a few necessary stretches, Harry steadily completed his morning ritual and made his way to the kitchen for breakfast.

He struck a deal with the persistent house elves which basically claimed that they could clean up his messes if he was at least allowed to make his own food. An omelet was briskly procured by his nimble and experienced hands and he enjoyed his first meal of the day in solitude. He needn't overeat; the lunch would occur in a couple of hours.

As the elves took away his empty plate with a flash, Harry was left to ponder the frivolous details of his lunch visit: what he'd wear to the lunch, how he'd pay (his trust fund had been emptied into the main Potter vaults by this point), and how he'd even get there in the first place.

"Good morning, Harry," a voice elicited from behind him, causing him to start. He whipped around to find himself face-to-face with Amelia, dressed in average everyday green robes.

Harry had expected her to be at work; being the leader of the law enforcement branch left her little time to actually spend at home, which according to the house elves, was rarely used by Amelia whilst Susan was at school.

Noticing Harry's surprise, she explained, "I thought I'd take the day off. Honestly, I'm surprised they let me, even though there haven't been any attacks, that doesn't mean the enemy won't strike again."

Harry snorted condescendingly. "That tends to happen when your politicians are the enemy." His view on life was largely pessimistic these days.

"Anyways, I was thinking of joining you to lunch. That is alright, right?" she said somewhat shyly, not forgetting the tense end she had brought to Harry's last visit with the Tonks.

Harry was still rather wary around her, for as long as he knew her, she'd been prone to rather furious mood swings. "I doubt they'd mind too terribly," he answered, still watching her cautiously.

Honestly, he had no clue how the Tonks would feel; she had tried to hex them, after all.

"It's at 12, right?" Her tone had taken an ominous undertone.

"…Yea."

"Then why on earth did you eat breakfast this late!" she chided furiously.

"Bugger me!" Harry cried out, pinching the bridge of his nose in over dramatization.


They landed in the middle of a boisterous crowd and the day immediately took a turn for the worst after Amelia was almost knocked over.

"Budge off, you gallivanting monkeys!"

After rudely insulting everyone within ear range—which was quite a lot as she was very loud—she had pulled a now disgruntled Harry through the crowd to their destination: Engelmann's Eatery.

It was past Gringotts near the back of the alley. Harry was surprised about the amount of people navigated the Alley; surely they must be afraid of death eater attacks! But then Harry received his answer, in the way of armed guards in front of every shop. Aurors.

Amelia noticed his gaze and answered the unasked question, "Better safe than sorry. Things aren't going to get better till they get worse and I'd rather be prepared to face it."

Harry was nodding his head in agreement when he finally realized the grim reality of it. The Wizarding World was at war within itself. Martial Law—the best way to describe this act—had been proclaimed.

The occasional auror would notice Amelia and would snap off a surprisingly muggle salute and return to their duties. Harry decided in that moment that he'd never be an auror; he'd make his own decisions in his career, thank you very much. He put that thought to a stop before it could continue. He sounded very much like his much-despised relatives.

The eatery was a medium-sized building, about the size of Ollivander's. They were quickly greeted by a nervous looking young woman, not too long out of Hogwarts.

"Welcome to Engelmann's. How many?"

Before Amelia could answer, an incredibly rude person slipped between them. "Five please!"

"Hey…" Harry began to protest, but the bright mane of pink hair that accompanied the intruder whipped around, bringing the tauntingly smiling face around towards him.

"Of course it would be you, Nympha…ah, I mean, Tonks."

Even though Harry had managed to rectify his mistake, Tonks still leaned in with her full of malice and hissed, "I don't care if you're my cousin and are marrying my boss, I'll still hex you're bits off."

"Hehe…no need to get drastic…" Harry said, laughing nervously.

Tonks morphed back into her friendly persona, causing Harry to ponder if changing facial features was all that metamorphmagus's could change.

"Wotcher, brass!"

Amelia cocked an annoyed eyebrow at her employee. "How many times have I told you that I find that incredibly disrespectful, Tonks?"

"Well, you're like my…!" She paused as she attempted to determine their new relation. "Cousin now!"

"Nymphadora! How many times have your father and I told you not to run off!"

Tonks turned indignantly towards the doorway. "And how many times do I have to tell you that I'm 23, not 8?!

Andromeda stood at the door, next to a huffing Mr. Tonks. Thankfully, there was no one else in the restaurant, but to the waitress, they must've been making quite a scene. As if proving his theory correct, the waitress cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I can seat you now."

"Sure, Michaela Winthrop!" Tonks sang. The waitress whipped around and looked inquisitively at Tonks before becoming downcast.

"Nymphadora Tonks. How could I not have noticed?"

Tonks amiably put her arm around her shoulders. "You've forgotten your eternal rival! I must say, that offends me a little. Neither of us ever did snag Charles did we though?"

Michaela blushed furiously and as soon as they were seated, she scampered off to what Harry assumed to be the kitchen.

Amelia sat next to him and the Tonks family spread out on the other side, with Tonks directly in front of him. Amelia still seemed a little irritated about Tonks's comment about being family and Harry made sure to keep a healthy distance.

"So, Harry, how are you today?" asked Andromeda with a sweet smile.

"I'm actually doing quite well. And you?"

Harry exchanged similar pleasantries with Ted, whose eyes flickered occasionally to Amelia, who was unleashing undeterminable amounts of annoyance.

Tonks, being well Tonks, naturally couldn't keep quiet for long and proceeded to interject into the conversation. "So Harry, have you had any wicked adventures this week?" she asked excitedly.

"Not particularly."

"Bloody well then! Next time you go toe-to-toe with some death eater goon, I want to be there!"

Amelia fixed her with a glare that unbelievably silenced the bubbly woman. Before she could rebuke Tonks on her use of "death eaters" in public, their food arrived.

"But how…?"

"At a wizarding restaurant, the menus read your mind. And naturally it's so fast due to house elves that work in the kitchen," Amelia explained in a rare bout of calmness.

"Will that be all?" Michaela asked, obviously afraid of what Tonks might say.

"Yea actually," Tonks said speaking up, "How do I know that you didn't…salivate in my food. I was the first one to snog Charlie after all."

Michaela glared at Tonks, turning Tonks into a cackling mess. She stomped off and Andromeda immediately reprimanded her on the use of foul language with guests.

"Well mum, it's not my fault she's still sore about it! Maybe if she'd jumped on the dragon with me and Charles, she'd be the one gloating about it!"

Harry immediately perked up at the mention of the fiery beast. "You rode a dragon?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course! It was loads of fun! Well rather, it was for about ten meters. That's when it noticed us and…well needless to say, it became a little less fun. Me and Charles managed to fight it to a standstill though!" she said, gleaming with pride.

Amelia gave her a stern look. "Strange, I remember the story differently. I remember getting a call about two Hogwarts students who had let a dragon loose that was wreaking havoc on Hogsmeade."

Tonks suddenly had a sheepish expression. "Ummm…you've probably got this confused with…"

Amelia didn't let her finish, as she immediately finished her story. "And after the dragon was subdued, thankfully with no casualties, I actually interviewed the perpetrators."

"That was you?" Tonks's confidence was completely gone now.

"Yes. In fact, I ordered you to provide restitution for the damages."

"Nymphadora! You told me it was for new school supplies!" Ted said indignantly.

"It was over 1,000 galleons," Amelia provided, obviously enjoying this quite a bit.

"Merlin, Edward! A thousand galleons! Are you mental?" Andromeda shrieked.

Harry sat awkwardly as Ted feebly tried to defend himself against his furious wife, Amelia chuckled hysterically under her breath, and Nymphadora tried to stop her mum from hexing her father.

Eventually, Andromeda stomped out of the restaurant, followed quickly by Tonks and Ted, who both said quick goodbyes to Harry before their departure.

"Ah…that was brilliant," Amelia said with glee. She looked like nothing could get her down…at least, until she noticed that the ones who were supposed to pay had made a hasty exit.


They left the restaurant, with Amelia still grumbling about having to pay for their five meals, three of which had barely even been touched. Harry, nervous about walking around with a powerful auror who looked ready to hex the next passerby, became determined to make Amelia feel better. And all women like shopping right?

It turned out that Amelia was no exception. As soon as he pitched the idea, Amelia dragged him all over Diagon Alley, causing Harry to become increasingly moody. It only became worse, when she began shopping for Harry, claiming that he needed an updated wardrobe. Harry was inclined to agree with her, as he'd been wearing her brother's old robes from the 60's and resolved to pay her back later.

At one point, Harry noticed a curious object in the corner of Twilfitt and Tattings—Amelia's main choice for shopping. Dragonhide, Amelia called it. Upon further investigation, Harry determined it was indeed the scales of a dragon—he would know; he had faced one head-on before—but was a bit too pricy for his empty wallet and vault.

It was in the middle of this shopping spree, that Harry noticed two familiar figures appear out of Gringotts. Harry grabbed hold of Amelia's arm, who was attempting to walk up to some sort of jewelry vendor. He nonchalantly nodded his head towards the two men.

"Sirius and Remus."


"Sirius, perhaps angering him wasn't your best way to get information," Remus said, sighing at the impulsiveness of his friend.

"He had no right to withhold that information," Sirius argued back, matter-of-factly.

They sauntered somewhat dejectedly down Diagon Alley, though their despondency was not great enough to stop Sirius's quips. Their trail had gone completely cold.

But Fate had a way of forcing her ways upon the world and Sirius just managed to make out a tuft of fiery red hair in the crowd. He could recognize that hair anywhere, as creepy as that sounded.

"Amelia!" Sirius jumped up and waved his arms furiously, so that she could get a better view of him.

"Bloody hell! They've spotted us already," Amelia explained.

Harry clamped down on Amelia's arm and turned the nearest corner into an alley next to Ollivander's, keeping them low as he did. The crowd was much thinner here, but it offered the wisest escape route.

"How far till you can apparate?" he asked as he swiftly continued through the alley.

"If there's an empty space, I can!"

"Whatever does that mean?!"

Amelia growled with frustration and pulled Harry into a feeder alley. "This should do…"

"Took ya long enough, Love!" Sirius yelled mockingly, slightly panting, leaning casually against the building. Remus stood beside him, with a small smile at Sirius joking, which quickly fell off when he looked at Harry.


James and Lily giggled conspiratorially, as they whispered sweet nothings to each other and Remus suddenly regretted coming along. Sirius had "auror" business to do (he was probably snogging some shapely witch senseless) and he declined the Potter's offer of an evening walk.

Pettigrew was out of his apartment, they'd floo called and even went by, and Remus having being begged by James to come along, had finally conceded.

Perhaps the night would have been better, if not for the very real threat that lie in the shadows. The war had picked up and the aurors were overstretched.

Remus remembered the days at Hogwarts, when he had not a care in the world for death eaters. They were just stories, rumors even, then. Even when the war was brought to their doorstep, when the death eaters raided Hogsmeade, they still seemed little more than a small band of malcontents.

Now anyone and everyone could be a death eater. They were well hidden in the shadows, and attacks occurred every night. Probably not the best attitude to have on a walk with some of his mates.

Up ahead, there was movement and the tell-tale sign of apparation. Remus breath caught in his throat and he drew his wand as James and Lily quickly mirrored him. A figure dressed in black appeared with a bag.

Remus watched warily as the wizard or witch carelessly tossed the bag on the ground and without another word apparated away. The trio of friends shared a brief look of curiosity.

James and Lily pressed forward towards the thrown object, leaving Remus to contemplate what they should do. He had almost been sorted into Ravenclaw after all.

"Prongs, Lils, wait!" Remus called frantically as he noticed his friends had moved forward without consideration of the possible danger.

"Just checking it out, Moony," James said exasperated, but then gave a smile as if to show that he was grateful for Remus watching out for him.

Remus joined them finally and the three of them cautiously peered into the bag. Inside lay a small child, not much older than a day or two, and Remus retracted his head in shock.

"How could they…?" Lily said what they were all thinking. How could they just throw a poor defenseless baby?

The baby's eyes opened after Lily's exclamation, and Remus was mesmerized by its eyes. Most babies' eyes were blue, but this one's were a dazzling purple…


Remus was looking into the same eyes of that night, a deep violet that stood out, even amongst magicals. He knew in that instance.

"Harry?" he asked delicately, but knowingly.

The teenager's face of surprise quickly melted off to be replaced by anxiety and a touch of fear. His expression hardened however and he attempted to glare down Remus. Remus was not to be intimidated and quickly overpowered the glare with a weak smile.

"How did you find out?" Harry asked, his head sulking slightly as he realized he was found out.

Sirius and Amelia had turned to them at this point, Sirius with an open mouth and Amelia with a worried expression that had mirrored Harry's earlier one.

Harry gave a dramatically loud sigh. "I suppose you're going to take me back to Dumbledore? So that I can continue to be a pawn, just like you two?"

The sheer spite held in the words for Dumbledore did not escape Sirius and he internally nodded approvingly. He was, of course, still quite confused about this kid (who looked quite differently than the Harry he remembered), but he trusted Remus' judgement.

"We no longer work for the Order, H-Harry," said Sirius, finding it strange to call this kid Harry, "But perhaps this is not the best place to talk about this."

Harry looked questionably at Amelia, who after a few seconds of thought, agreed. "Perhaps my manor will make do?"

Harry sat in the comfortable plush seat and stared blankly at the far wall. Remus had just finished the story of how he was found. Everyone kept their eyes gaged on him, waiting for his reaction. Perhaps before Azkaban, he would have screamed at them, telling them how wrong they were.

"May I be excused?" he asked, feeling rather uncomfortable about the stares. Amelia looked at him expectedly and nodded her head. However, both Remus and Sirius looked slightly surprised, probably preparing themselves for a Lily-type reaction.

He left the room behind and as soon as he was out of sight, he took a shuddering breath. Not wanting to be caught out in the open, he retreated to the safety of his room. He lay on the bed and stared out the window.

He was only alone for a mere five minutes before Sirius opened the door and, rather rudely if he might add, let himself in.

"Harry," he called softly. Harry ignored him.

Sirius sighed and sat down on the bed next to Harry. "It doesn't matter who your parents are, Harry. You're still the same old Harry Potter."

"But I'm not really, am I?" Harry challenged fiercely. He didn't know why, but he was suddenly in an aggressive mood.

Sirius seemed taken aback by his answer and fumbled with a response. Harry didn't plan on letting him speak.

"I'm Herakles Black; not Harry Potter! My parents are Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange; not James and Lily Potter!" Sirius' jaw dropped. "As far as I'm concerned, Harry Potter died in Azkaban. He died as the Dementors ravished his mind, forcing him to relive horrible memories each and every day. He died as hunger racked his emaciated frame and his body struggled to survive. But mostly, he died when he gave up hope that his friends would eventually see the truth and rescue him. When his godfather would embrace him and apologize for not seeing the truth!"

By this point, both occupants of the room were crying tears of pain and when Harry pounced at him, Sirius hadn't the will to fight to him off. He'd die at the hands of his godson, which he likely deserved.

It was rather a surprise then, when Harry wrapped his arms around his godfather's neck and cried for all he was worth.

"I never had a family, Sirius!" Harry bawled. "I thought once I found out I wasn't their child, I might find someone who actually loved and wanted me. But I didn't; the family that I thought I could only find in my dreams, turned to only want to kill me!"

Sirius had managed to regain his cognitive functions and shushed the child before he could say more. "You've got us, pup. I want you. Remus wants you. Hell, I don't think even Amy minds having you around. I'm sorry I let them throw you in there, Harry. I promise, you won't ever have to see that horrid place again!"

After a few moments, Harry detached himself from Sirius and looked embarrassedly at the floor. When had he become such a crybaby? He surely didn't want to make bawling in people's arms a weekly thing.

Sirius decided to change the subject, which Harry gratefully accepted. "How about I give you a present? You could call it a makeup gift, I suppose."

It was going to take a mountain of a present to make this up, but Harry nodded his head all the same. Sirius pulled out a wand from his cloak and Harry immediately went frigid, afraid that perhaps all this had been a ruse to capture him and take him back to Order Headquarters.

Sirius realized his mistake and quickly held it out to Harry, the tip facing towards Sirius.

"It's a holly and oak wood mixture and although I'm not quite sure of the core, my Aunt Druella…er…your grandmother, told me that it was something rather rare."

"Mixture?" Harry asked, suddenly curious.

"Yeah, some crazy bastard in Russia…" Sirius began to explain the wand to Harry, who listened intently.


Harry waited patiently, though clearly overcome with anxiety, by the fireplace, looking much better in his new clothes than her late brother's baggy ones. She was surprised, but happy, to see a wand in Harry's black and yellow robes. This was good, as she wasn't quite sure how she could train harry if he didn't have a wand.

Sirius and Remus were there as well, the latter calmly reading, whilst the former talked to whoever was listening at the moment.

Her eyes and Harry's met and a silent understanding passed between them. "They want to come too," he said softly, referring to Sirius and Remus.

Amelia only nodded; it wasn't a bad choice. Remus had been the DADA teacher a couple years back and Sirius had a repertoire of effective spells that few could match.

The floo suddenly turned green and two people were forcibly spit out of the flaming menace. Two of the clumsiest people in the entire wizarding world lay panting on her foyer's rug. The Tonks's had arrived.

"Tonks, reporting for duty," Tonks said, jumping to her feet.

Amelia sighed. "This isn't an auror mission, Tonks."

She blushed muttering an apology before turning to a beaming Sirius. Her demeanor quickly changed back into her friendly persona and she enveloped him in a hug.

"Wow! You've grown, Nymphie!" Sirius exclaimed with a barking laugh.

'Oh shit.'

Tonks's demeanor changed once more, her hair and eyes changing with her growing anger. The flaming red hair and burning onyx eyes sent a clear message: run. 'If only she'd utilize this on the battlefield…'

"What'd you just call me?" Tonks growled.

"Uhh…Nymphie…"

Even Harry, whom Amelia had noticed was not the most perceptive lad in the land, pinched the bridge of his nose at Sirius's idiocy.

Tonks pulled out her wand and the abnormal group of four stood awkwardly together and chuckled as Tonks chased a terrified Sirius around the room, peppering him with stinging hexes. After witnessing the destruction of the majority of her beautiful foyer, Amelia was forced to break it apart.

"Susan is expecting us. We should go," Amelia finally said after everyone had settled down.

Harry was obviously nervous, though who wouldn't be? He was returning to the place that had rejected him on false beliefs, condemned him on false information, and ostracized him on false rumors. If they knew he was Harry Potter, would they even accept him?

Harry arrived through the floo last, procrastinating the moment that he'd have to reappear to his old friends, even if he wasn't really Harry Potter.

He came out into a large open room with several statues holding bullseyes. An unbelievable crowd of people stood towards the back of the room, chatting in awed, quiet tones. He never knew there was a room so large at Hogwarts!

Susan skipped up to their entourage with a beaming smile. "Whattaya think?"

"I thought you said that there were only a few people who supported me? What's all this?" Harry asked awed, still amazed at the amount of people.

"I just gave a little speech and a few more people joined," replied a blushing Susan.

"That must've been one hell of a speech, love!" Sirius guffawed. His exclamation was quickly followed by a whack to his head by Amelia who growled, "I can see you haven't changed your ways, Black! Don't you dare flirt with my niece!"

Susan gave a sweet chuckle and skipped back to her position in front of the students. She cast an effective Sonora charm to elevate her voice to a point where it could be heard by all in the room.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE!"

The crowd ended their conversations and turned to Susan, all giving her a respectful gander. She cancelled the charm since she had their attention.

"So for our first meeting, I'd like to introduce my auntie, the leader of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement!"

Amelia walked up beside her niece and gave a courteous nod of her head. The crowd stood silently, looking up in admiration.

"She'll be helping to teach us some of her tricks that got her the job in the first place. And to help her with that, we also have Nympha—"

"The names Tonks!" Tonks hissed from beside a laughing Sirius.

"Uhh…ok then. Auror Tonks will help as well," Susan amended, looking slightly frightened at Tonks's anger.

Tonks, giving everyone a dose of evil eye, advanced to beside Amelia. She almost tripped, causing several snickers, but fingering her wand made all the chuckles quickly die.

The excited chatters picked up in the monstrous multitude, realizing that they were going to be taught by an experienced auror and an auror that could obviously fight. Hell, Harry was excited and he wasn't even in the crowd.

"And returning from Merlin knows where is Professor Lupin who, for the ones that don't know, was our DADA teacher in my third year. Welcome back, Professor!"

The applause was so thunderous that Harry hoped that the room was warded, or they would be having some unwanted visitors very soon. Considering Remus was without a doubt the best DADA teacher in a decade, everyone knew of him.

A startled Remus was pushed to the front by Sirius, who was giving his usual barking laugh. Remus gave a gracious bow and took his place in line, next to a still grumbling Tonks.

Amelia took the spotlight then, her expression immediately changing from friendly to that of a battle-hardened veteran. "This is not for those of the weak of heart. This is basically a crash course of the Auror training program."

Several of the students looked frightened at this, and one small girl even raised her hand, but Amelia continued without pause.

"There is little time for questions and even less for dawdling around. Are you maggots still here!? Get in line and start firing off stupefy!"


Over the next month and a half, the "legion" only managed to get in six training sessions. Amelia only had time for it on the weekend, but despite this obvious handicap, they grew into a rather capable fighting force. Though they had a disadvantage in just about everything, the one thing they did have was unity and cohesion. Each and every one had grown together. Each and every one would die for the other.

He was learning just as much as they were, even if he usually mastered the spell first. He had to admit, Percutio was by far his favorite offensive spell, able to pierce through objects—or on the battlefield, bodies—with reckless abandon.

They'd learned quite a bit about tactics as well from Amelia, which Harry would admit that he was not the best at, but the Ravenclaws took to it like fish take to water.

Sirius and Tonks had been instrumental in teaching them individual battle tactics. Despite being a force that knew they could count on the other, confusion in battle often separated people and they might have to fight for themselves. Having always had to be a quick thinker, Harry excelled at this, able to come up with effective and innovative strategies that was even starting to force Sirius to the limit.

He had eaten enough that his ribs no longer constantly showed and he suddenly had a tremendous amount of energy that he used mostly towards running. He'd always been an excellent runner due to his Dudley days, and he figured he'd better work at what he was best at.

Nagnok had sent his transcript only a few days after the legion's first meeting. The Potter's were quite rich, having about the same amount as the Black's. As Nagnok had stated in the accompanying letter, the Blacks had gained much like the Malfoys had—through questionable business practices.

There were a few discrepancies on the Potter vault as Nagnok had said, but they were so insignificant that it could barely be traced. Nagnok offered to follow it up, but Harry decided against it. It wasn't really his money to begin with and anyways, it was probably just small transactions that a family member had set up generations ago.

The Potter's vault contained about 15,000,000 galleons with an assorted amount of Knuts and sickles that reached another 10,000. The Black's vault was just as big, containing nearly 16,000,000 galleons, Knuts, and sickles put together. Amelia nearly fainted when she saw the amount.

He had literally nothing to spend such a massive amount of money on, though Sirius suggested a few…unsanitary methods; Harry began researching for some type of protection for the legion. Dragonhide armour was the first entry in the highly controversial, but helpful Magical Armours and How to Steal Them (Because there's no way you can afford them).

Harry put his trust in Ted Tonks, who being a lawyer, should have a way with words. Uncle Ted walked out of Twilfitt and Tattings with 619 orders of dragonhide robes for the rather insane price of 757,830 galleons.

They could stop most spells and were completely resistant to fire. Blunt objects would find it quite difficult to break through as well. Despite being almost completely impervious and rather light, they did have a couple of disadvantages. Upon being hit twice in the same spot, the armour would likely be penetrated. If a particularly destructive charm hit it, it most likely wouldn't provide much protection. All-in-all, however, it was loads better than the average robes the schoolchildren wore and would give another advantage as the death eaters at best wore only battle robes.

For now, it seemed as though they had time and they continued to train diligently. Death eater raids had been few and far between and the ministry was settling down into a false sense of security. The few times that the aurors had managed to catch a death eater raid had ended with only a couple of casualties on either side.

It was obvious Voldemort was recruiting. The question was: how long did they have? Unfortunately, it was about to be answered.