AN: Okay, it's been a while, but don't despair! My muse has ran dry for my other main story, so while I'm taking a break, I'm going to update this one for a while. I did consider starting a new story, either a FEAR and Harry Potter crossover with heavy Devil May Cry influence, or a Naruto and Final Fantasy one that would be more light-hearted. I'm still wondering if I should do them or not... Anyway, this chapter is a bit of an odd one, as it's a sort of bridge between two events without being too significant by itself. Also, kudos to anyone who can guess what I've done with Helena (Ha! I bet you forgot about her, kind of like Harry did with all of the Chamber nonsense), and I'd really love some help with ideas as to what Harry's boggart would look like.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 11 – The Next Morning

The next morning found Harry waking up still sandwiched between Reinforce and Isis. As gently as he could, so he didn't wake them up, he wriggled out from between them, letting them latch onto each in other when they reached out to cuddle him some more.

Of course, as always seemed to be the case, Loki was up and about at roughly the same time as Harry. It had been said before that 'the early bird got the worm', a joking reference to Loki's previous species. Harry could only imagine how much more he'd hear that if his own animagus form was a bird, or if he learned an avian shapeshift.

Not that Harry was thinking about learning another shapeshift, simply shifting into a guinea pig was proving difficult enough, but Harry believed he almost had it. Coincidentally, he also believed that he was about ready to do his first, full animagus transformation too.

"You want to spar?" Loki asked. "Work off some stress?"

Harry sighed heavily, blowing a few strands of hair out of his face. "No, thanks for the offer though. I think I'm going to go through some of the stuff that Riddle's horcruxes added to my Tome, sort some of it out and see if any of it is at all useful to me."

"Anything in particular?" Loki asked Harry, once again writing things down in that notebook of his. "And if you're not going to question him, could you summon your shade so I can?"

A brief flare of Tiet, and Harry's shade rose from Harry's shadow before him, one claw held over its heart and slightly bowed, indicating its subservience to its master. It straightened up once fully summoned, before regarding Harry with its sharp, violet eyes.

"You have called for me, master?" The shade queried.

"I did, but it will be Loki who questions you, please answer him as well as you can." Harry instructed his shade.

"Very well." The shade answered, before turning to the raven familiar.

Harry tuned the two of them out, Loki would tell him of anything important turned up. Instead, he began to search through the things Harry had added to his Tome from Voldemort's horcruxes. Specifically, he was looking at enhancement rituals, and whether any of them were at all palatable.

Unfortunately, many weren't. While rituals in general weren't dark or evil, they had gained such a reputation due to how easy a lot of sacrificial rituals were, and because of that ease they became more well known and common. Of course, rituals had fallen out of fashion mostly because no one could really be bothered setting them up when a few flicks of a wand and a spoken word could achieve so much and be far simpler.

A few rituals later and Harry had to keep himself from vomiting. Say what you want about the man's morals and desire to control, Voldemort had been a formidable wizard, one of the strongest in history, and one of the reasons for that was undoubtedly the way he had done absolutely anything for more power.

There were rituals here that required someone to sacrifice a woman in the process of giving birth, and then ritualistically torment the newborn child before sacrificing that too. There were rituals that had all sorts of requirements, many of them depraved and fowl, but the memories obtained from Voldemort's soul fragments suggested that he had undertaken them sometimes multiple times.

Harry was feeling somewhat thankful that Terran magic didn't tend towards massive spells, and that Voldemort didn't dabble too much in Arithmancy and spell-crafting, because some of the things he could have done with his enhanced reserves, magical density, regeneration rate, and lack of morals was rather scary.

There were a few rituals, however, that didn't have too much of a price to turn Harry away from them. He didn't need any more power, his reserves of mana were more than large enough, but increasing the density of his mana, its potency, sounded like a good idea, and all it would take was fasting for a week and losing the pigmentation of his skin, leaving him pale. A few more rituals, ones to slightly increase eyesight, reflexes, and a few other things had minor costs, such as his appendix or wisdom teeth.

Harry made a note of these rituals, and would discuss the advantages and disadvantages of them later. He'd speak with Fate, Nanoha, and Hayate about it, of course, but also Lindy and Shamal, the latter of which would be able to check if there were any health reasons that would prevent him going through with them.

Once he'd finished that, Harry pulled out all of his golem plans and began to mentally critique them.

His Beelzebub golem was the one he used most frequently, and had so far proven to be the most adaptable of them all. Granted, it wasn't very powerful or durable, but that was expected given that it was a swarm of small, flying creatures. Its reconnaissance value had decreased now that Harry was using small zombified creatures and his shade in place of them, but their value as a support golem was immense, especially when used in conjunction with his Fog of War support skill.

Dante the Cannon, in comparison, was a very situational golem. Against a slow moving or stationary target, it was absolutely devastating, but anything that was fast or could get close enough to assault it with a weapon wasn't overly threatened by it. It also failed against anything that could blast it from a distance, as the golem itself was not exactly speedy.

Vritra the Serpent was an odd one. Rather than the magically-resistant alloy the other golems were made of, this one had been crafted from the skeleton of the dead basilisk, and used more Necromancy than Animation in its construction. It was the most independently intelligent of his golems, and it was also very cheap mana wise. The fact that it could turn surrounding materials, both solid and liquid, into the 'flesh' of its body gave it a regenerative ability, but that only took the edge off the fact it was also one of the more fragile golems for its size.

Herakles the Legion, now that was an odd golem. Floating metal balls with four arms, they were definitely simple. In fact, Harry had created them more for mundane things than actual combat. They made good workers, and had done most of the construction on Harry's new home in Japan. In a fight, however, they were little more than basic golems, capable of holding a weapon in their hands, but also easily taken out. Not a combat golem, but still useful.

Now, the last golem, Siegfried the Knight. It was odd that Harry's first golem, the one that he'd lost to the basilisk and what this one was based off, had so far seen the least combat. This second 'incarnation' of the knight-type golem was fifteen feet tall, unlike the twenty foot tall original. Also unlike the original, it didn't have any fingers, its weapons being a physical part of its body. On its left forearm, there was an AMF enhanced kite shield, and attached to the end of its left arm, with an articulated wrist, was a broadsword made to fit the golem's size. The sword itself had been enchanted with a rather potent, if a little grey, cutting curse to make it more effective too.

"Perhaps I should look into making just one more golem." Harry mused to himself. "Or I could make a few more of Siegfried, it would be more effective if it had others to fight beside it, perhaps three more for a total of four?"

Pulling up a blank piece of paper, Harry began sketching a few ideas out. "Why not both? I'll have to see how much metal I have left, but I can always get more. Three more units for Siegfried, and... what sort of golem should this new one be? Perhaps something that uses some form of magical attacks? My other golems are either physical, or they only use minor bits of magic..."

xxxxx

Loki watched with a fond smile as Harry began to design his next project.

He had finished questioning the shade, and some of what he had been told was a little worrying. Firstly, there was no indication of how Dumbledore had found the Potters the previous night, and the ability to locate someone was a very underrated ability.

Secondly, Dumbledore seemed to have some sort of interest in not only Harry, but Brian and Rose as well. Perhaps, Loki mused, it was because of the prophecy, though now that Lily and James Potter had prevented Voldemort killing them on Halloween twelve years ago, had they defied him four times now? If that was the case, Rose might be exempt from the prophecy, especially as she was born after that Halloween night. Still, the only one physically marked by Voldemort had been Harry with his thunderbolt scar.

Dumbledore had managed to calm James down, if only a tiny bit, from his 'must kill Harry' way of thinking. He was trying, though with little success, to get James to rethink his desire of calling for Harry's 'death', or destruction as he'd termed it. They would have to see what James did during the upcoming Wizengamot meeting to really know what the man's intentions were.

Loki dismissed the shade, and seeing that Harry had no further orders for it, the shade was willing to return to its post in James Potter's shadow. Once it was gone, he wandered over to Harry and began to look at his notes, sketches, and plans over his shoulder.

Magical engineering and puppetry weren't Loki's specialities, that was more something Harry enjoyed, but he could still understand the notes already scattered across the paper. From what he could see, Harry was finally stretching his more 'artistic' side, designing something that both covered a 'speciality' his current golems didn't, and actually looked elegant while it did so.

Loki also knew better than to disturb Harry when he got like this, and since even Breakfast was hours away, there was no reason to rush him. In fact, this would give Loki a chance to look through his notebook once again, tweaking some of the ideas and plans that it held.

He knew that Harry had been curious about what he was writing in his little book, and if he had asked, Loki would have divulged what he'd been working on. Loki was also aware, however, that a lot of what he had prepared would be... unpalatable to Harry.

Still, if things did degenerate too quickly, Loki would ensure that Harry survived the fallout, no matter what. His devotion to his master was scary in its intensity and focus. In fact, if anyone actually knew of it, they may even compare it to Bellatrix Lestrange's fanaticism towards the Dark Lord, though with less of a focus on killing people and more of a focus on their master remaining whole and healthy.

Loki had already considered the possibility of slipping the children, nephews, and nieces of prominent families distance-activated curses in case he ever needed a hostage or two. He could even think of several methods he could use to get them to his targets, but he held back for now, it hadn't been necessary, and Harry's anger would be immense.

Now, with the Potter threat hanging over them – mostly Harry – perhaps he should look into such possibilities once again...

xxxxx

Whispers followed them as they walked through the halls of Hogwarts, the only reason they weren't getting lost being the fact that they followed some of their house mates down through the castle. It was already confusing the both of them, as they knew the entrance to their common room was on the seventh floor, yet they'd gone down two staircases and up three, and had somehow managed to end up on the ground floor.

Rose Potter stuck closer to her brother than she probably ever had before. She hadn't exactly had the most 'fun' introduction to her house ever. Everyone seemed to crowd around her and her brother, asking them so many questions at once that she couldn't even hear one to give any sort of answer.

Even when she'd headed to her dormitory, the girls there descended on her like rabid sharks. Rose herself might not have been one for gossip, but she knew the stereotype of her gender. Her female year mates however, the pure and half bloods that knew who the 'Potters' were at least, put that to shame.

It had been difficult for her to get to sleep, and she had been the first up in the morning as well. Heading straight down to the common room, she'd found her brother waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. Thankfully, there weren't many people in the common room, what looked like a couple by the fireplace and a bushy-haired brunette that looked around Brian's age, and so no one saw them leave through the portrait hole.

Of course, this is the point where they got lost. Walking down the corridor, they'd look out a window to see the sun, and a few metres further down, they'd look out of a window that showed them the castle's shadow, and those windows were on the same side of the corridor!

The inhabitants of several paintings tried to help, giving them directions and instructions, but that didn't help much. Eventually, they found some more Gryffindor students, Brian and Rose having been lost long enough for them to get up and ready, which the followed to the Great Hall.

The two of them quickly took a seat at the Gryffindor table. Coincidentally, when they looked up, they had an unobstructed view of Harry Ritter sat at the Ravenclaw table. He had his familiars with him, and even a ghost as well. They didn't know who the ghost was – a female one dressed entirely in grey – but Harry didn't look entirely happy with what she was saying to him.

A short way down the table from Harry, the new blonde third year was sat. Her red eyes were looking around curiously, though they often landed on Harry himself and the Hufflepuff table for some reason. The girl looked an odd mixture of nervous and curious, though Rose privately thought she was very pretty. Brian also couldn't help but think of how attractive she was, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

They picked at their food, wondering how their day was going to go, and the two of them, Brian especially, wondered how long it would take an owl to travel from Scotland to Canada and back. They did, after all, want to keep in contact with the friends they'd made growing up, though the whole not really being 'Evans' but 'Potter' thing might make things rather awkward.

More students drifted into the Great Hall in ones, twos, and groups, before drifting off to their own house tables. Even if they were blind and deaf, neither Rose nor Brian could possibly fail to notice the attention that was focused on himself, his sister, and their disowned brother. If his parents had been there just then, they would undoubtedly be the object of much scrutiny as well.

"Mr. Potter." A female voice made Brian jump, as he'd been trying to block everything out.

He looked up to see Professor Mcgonagall standing there with something in her hand, a small stack of them held in her other arm.

"Your timetable, Mr. Potter." She handed it to him. "Lessons start tomorrow, so I would advise you to ask another student to tell you how to get to all of your lessons, especially as this castle can be rather confusing." She handed another timetable to Rose. "The same advice applies to you as well, Miss. Potter."

"Thank you." Brian mumbled, far more polite and subdued than he used to be back in Canada.

He didn't say anything else until Mcgonagall had moved on, but when she was out of earshot, he turned to his sister.

"Do you think we should ask Harry how to get around?" He asked her.

"Is that a good idea?" Rose asked him back. "I mean, what would mum and dad say if they knew?"

"He's been polite with us so far." Brian replied, though he was a little uneasy. "And, well, he's not... as in your face as our house mates were last night too." They both shivered as they remembered that, the sheer amount of attention focused on them had been rather unpleasant, and pretty scary too. "As for mum and dad... ah, I won't tell if you don't?"

Rose shifted about on the bench, biting her lip as she thought about things, before nodding firmly in reply to Brian's questioning statement. The two of them were in this together, as brother and sister, and they would do things their own way, not following their parents' every word.

This was partially due to the fact a small, unacknowledged part of them sort of resented their parents at the moment. Whether the blame was truly theirs or not, it was their parents' decision to do what they had with their brother's corpse – Brian in particular was really uncomfortable with how easily it could have been his body used, he and Harry were twins after all – and their parents had also made the decisions to both flee Britain, and return like they had done.

"Can we just go up to him and ask though?" Rose asked, feeling uncharacteristically nervous. From what she could see, people seemed to stick to their own house tables, and no one seemed to be going from one to another. Did none of them have any friends in houses other than their own?

"Maybe we should wait until he gets up to go." Brian agreed with Rose. "Ask him in the entrance hall, or the corridor, or something? I think we should just have breakfast right now."

Rose silently agreed, before reaching for some buttered toast and jam.

xxxxx

Harry, after receiving his own timetable from Professor Flitwick, turned back to the Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw, a troubled expression on his face. He had good reason to wear that expression though, as it had slipped his mind that last Halloween she had stated her desire to 'unravel the mystery around him'.

"So what is your answer, Harry Ritter?" Helena asked, a smug smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes. "I have haunted you for ten months now, and I know more than anyone else what you hide. Will you still deny my request? Will you still squander my offer, or will I have to force things."

The look Helena threw at the head table made it quite clear what Helena would do if Harry said no, and he really couldn't afford to have any of his secrets out in the open. Just one minor thing that showed him a bad light may be his undoing in Wizarding Britain, and the less said about such things as his necromancy the better.

Stalling for time, Harry reached for his Tome of Shadows, pulling it out and silently searching for anything relevant to ghosts and similar apparitions. He discarded everything to do with the theory of why ghosts exist and what they truly are, instead flicking through anything that related to affecting them in some manner.

Helena didn't interrupt him, instead choosing to remain silent and wait for Harry's answer. She did not expect it to take long, and she had insisted that Harry make a decision before he left the Great Hall. Due to haunting him, she knew quite well about his studying habits, and she wasn't going to risk him finding some way to silence her before she got what she wanted.

Why was she a Ravenclaw again and not a Slytherin?

Oh yes, her ruthlessness was limited to her desire for knowledge, that was it.

Harry was just about to agree with Helena when he came across something that looked familiar. In fact, it was the ritual he'd used to summon his shade, what it had referred to, derogatory, as 'magical' necromancy, a mere shadow of true necromancy.

Harry tapped a gloved finger on one of the knives on the table, cleaning it. Another tap and a whispered spell sharpened it. Removing his left glove and putting his hand under the table, Harry began to cut a runic circle into his own flesh. He ignored the pain as best he could, and avoided getting blood everywhere.

It took several minutes, but eventually Harry had cut the circle onto his hand. It wasn't identical to the one he'd used to summon his shade, but elements of it were the same. Rather than summoning a spirit and binding it to him, with said spirit's agreement, he was instead binding a spiritual entity in a way that bore slight similarities to the Unbreakable Vow, though the consequences would be less harsh.

Harry held out his hand, palm up to Helena, who began examining the circle he'd cut into it.

"I will agree to share my knowledge with you, what I possess currently and in the future, if you agree to be bound to never divulge information of mine that could prove detrimental to me, or if you have harmful intent in mind." Harry made his own offer to Helena, hoping she would accept it.

He also hoped the circle he'd just painfully cut into his own flesh would work like he intended it to. He didn't exactly have a lot of time to figure out all of the details, or look for something better, or even to consult with Beth and Septima, both of whom knew more than he about such things.

Helena laid one ghostly hand in Harry's bloody one, before nodding her agreement. Loki, having thrown up a few misdirection spells when Harry first began cutting into himself, put up a few more, and tried to ensure no one saw what was actually going on. If someone did see... well, suffice to say, they would have questions.

Isis, for her part, was glaring at Helena, mostly for the way she'd backed Harry into a corner, partially because it had caused Harry self-harm, but also because of the way Helena's hand was placed elegantly on top of Harry's, as if she was agreeing to a dance at a ball or something.

Bast was also glaring at Helena, though not as heavily as Isis was, and she kept an eye out for those who might be looking at Harry, like a proper bodyguard would. She was also wondering if there were any spells that would let her physically 'hit' a spirit, as she couldn't afford to have a hole in her defences, and an inability to deal with non-physical enemies was a big one.

Harry channelled a small amount of mana and tiet to his bare hand, doing his best to 'hold' the ghost's hand in his own. Their clasped hands started to glow slightly, and Harry thought that was it, until he felt a sudden jerk inside his chest, as if someone had just got a fishing hook into him and pulled hard on it.

It was latched onto... his mana and tiet?

The glow between Harry's and Helena's hands suddenly went from mild to incandescent. The pull on Harry's immense mana reserves, and his slowly growing tiet reserves, made Harry shake with pain. His body was not meant to handle the vast amounts of power flowing through him, or at least not all at once. The pathways his magic and life-force moved through was stretched to bursting with the enormous quantity of power forced through it every second.

Loki, once again, began to rapidly layer as many misdirection charms as possible, as fast as he possibly could, in an attempt to keep whatever the hell was going on between Harry and Helena a secret. However, those wizards who were adept at detecting magic did notice something, if the way Dumbledore and Flitwick sharply swivelled their heads in their direction.

Thankfully though, the light show calmed down very quickly, having only lasted a couple of seconds from start to finish. When the light died down, there was nothing visibly different about either Harry or Helena, aside from the obvious exhaustion on the side of Harry, who looked as if he hadn't slept in a week now.

Helena tilted her head to the side curiously. "I'm going to take a guess and say that wasn't meant to happen." She stated, before examining her own hand with a frown marring her brow. "Strangely, I feel different, though what your little ritual did escapes me."

"It bound us." Harry managed to yawn out. "It bound our promise, but... I feel like it did more than that." He gave her a rather upset look. "This is what happens when you rush me, things get weird. I am going to fully blame you for any 'unexpected surprises' that occur as a consequence of this."

"That's rather petulant of you." Helena admonished him, though her expression was more teasing than malicious.

Harry huffed as he healed the damage he'd done to his own hand and slipped the glove back on. He then stood up and went to leave the hall. However, before he did so, he looked back over his shoulder and gave Helena one last thing to think about.

"You'd better hope that whatever just happened doesn't cause any problems, you don't just 'test' bindings like that." He sighed, knowing that it was also his fault if something happened, he really should have been more careful. "Anyway, come by my room tonight. You can look through my tome then, and you can ask me whatever questions you have too."

"Farewell, little necromancer." Helena waved him off.

xxxxx

Brian and Rose saw when Harry got up to leave the hall and hurried after him. They did notice, though, that the blonde girl with red eyes and two Hufflepuff girls also got up to follow him, in addition to his odd familiars. They caught up to them in the Entrance Hall, where they had stopped, and Harry was giving them a curious look.

"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked.

Rose was the one to take initiative and stepped forward. "Me and my brother are new here, and we were wondering if you could show us around a bit, help us get used to the castle."

Harry shrugged. "I can do that, especially as I was going to show these three around anyway."

"Hey again." Hayate greeted them. "How was your first night here?"

Rose looked at Brian, her brother matching her stare, before both turned back to Hayate and spoke as one. ""Terrible.""

"What was so bad about it?" Nanoha asked, frowning.

"Our whole house pretty much got right up in our faces and started asking questions too fast for us to answer." Brian told her, shivering slightly at the memory. "It was pretty scary having eighty or so people focus on us like that. I swear, some of the girls had this hungry look in their eyes that made me think they were going to steal my underwear or something."

Hayate was the only one that laughed at the weak attempt at a joke. Nanoha just liked slightly perturbed, while Fate seemed to be the only one listen to Harry as he talked about the school. Harry's familiars ignored it, preferring to talk amongst themselves, Isis in particular having a serious expression on her face as she said something to Loki, who slowly nodded in response.

"Well, from what I've heard, the Potter name is famous, and not just in Britain either, but the entire world. I've still not quite worked out why it's that far spread though." Hayate replied to him.

Brian's eyes flickered to Harry for a moment. "I thought it was all because... Harry survived the killing curse where no one else has ever done so before."

"'Survived' is probably the wrong word to use." Harry called back over his shoulder, frowning. "After all, it's not like I was 'alive' in the first place." An annoyed look crossed his face. "Now, come on, I thought you asked me to show you how to navigate through the castle."

Brian nodded, before hurrying a little to catch up with Harry, who was telling them what was on the ground floor, and how the different staircases and passageways connected to the different floors. Thankfully, in Brian's opinion at least, there were some that didn't change much, unlike others.

Seriously, a staircase that takes you somewhere different on a Friday? A door that will only open if recite a haiku to it? A patch of wall that needs to be breathed on before it opens up into a passageway? Just what sort of insane person built this castle, or even bothered to enchant it in such a way?

His mumblings were heard by Harry, who decided to answer him.

"Think about it for a moment." Harry told him. "This castle is not just a place of learning, but a fortification as well, against both muggles of old and other magicals. While you will hear about a lot of goblin wars in History of Magic, there were also wars between different races, factions, and groups. Wizards and Witches the world over have a rather bloody history, which is continued even now, with the Dark Lords such as 'Grindlewald' and 'Voldemort'."

"If anyone ever invaded, and managed to get past the external wards, they'd be rather easy to separate and hunt down within the castle." Loki explained when he saw that Harry's words had gone over their heads. "The armour is animated, as are the statues, and there are many curses embedded into the very walls of this castle. Any invader would have to fight through all that if they wished to take the castle, getting lost and separated from his group will only make his death come all the swifter."

Brian looked a little queasy at the talk of death, and it was probably made worse with the casual way that Loki mentioned it. Nanoha and Hayate looked a slight bit uneasy too, but Fate didn't respond, except for the fact she let her eyes focus on the ground before her feet, refusing to look up and meet anyone's eyes.

Loki, Bast, and Harry all noticed her reaction, with the latter laying a hand on her shoulder and giving her a slight, soft smile. Fate hesitantly returned Harry's smile, but it was clear to see that shadows still danced and twisted behind her burgundy eyes.

That small action did catch Hayate's eye, and she honestly wasn't sure what to make of it. A lewd insinuation danced on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it. Even without being able to see Fate's eyes from where she stood, she could tell that such a comment would be most unwelcome.

Instead, Hayate chose to 'glomp' the both of them, grinning widely as she did so. This earned her a disgruntled grumble from Harry, and an eye roll of all things from the demure Fate! Ah, would wonders never cease. Still, both seemed to realise what Hayate had done, in her own way of course, which earned her a small grin from both of them.

"That's the first floor done, if you paid attention to me that is." Harry spoke aloud. "Now, let's go up a floor, and we can go around all of the used rooms there. Honestly, there isn't many, one classroom per subject, one office per staff member, and a few clubrooms here and there. Apart from the kitchens, Great Hall, and dormitories, that's pretty much it."

"Don't forget the hospital wing." Isis chirped. "The bathrooms too, and the library."

"Okay, okay." Harry huffed. "So there's a few more places than that, but the fact remains that this castle is mostly made up of empty rooms. Seven floors above ground and three below, all for around three hundred students, a thousand when the magical population was at its height. So much wasted space."

"The castle does seem rather big." Rose agreed. Inside, she wondered just how much of that was actually to make an impression, they managed to fit the entire student body and staff into the Great Hall at feasts without trouble after all. She also wondered just how many people the castle could truly hold, and whether or not there'd ever been a siege or something that had required somewhere close to that number to reside within.

"Let's go, the next floor up is through this door." Harry indicated a rather innocuous looking wooden door off to their left. "It's used as a shortcut a lot, because it can take you to the fifth floor too. For now, simply knock on it three times before going through, and don't go through it in groups of more than four at a time."

xxxxx

Several hours later, Harry and his group ended up in the room that the 'study club' used. There were already a few people there, most of them finishing off their summer homework that they should have already done. A few asked Harry for assistance, or to explain something they didn't quite understand.

Harry, as he usually did, explained things to them in ways they could understand, whether that be a bullet point list of step by step instructions, or some form of metaphor didn't matter. Harry felt a smile curling his lips upward as he felt a surge of pride from Reinforce due to his tutoring skills.

Once everyone had been helped, Harry sat himself down and pulled out his Tome of Shadows. He began to look up anything he might need to make his newest golem work as he imagined it, making notes on a separate sheet of paper whenever something occurred to him, or some fragment of runes or magical theory caught his eye.

His familiars settled around him, as did the Uminari group and the Potter children. It was like this that Severus Snape found him in the middle of the afternoon. He held back his usual venomous and scathing remarks, feeling unsure whether he should still direct them at the now 'Ritter' boy, or transfer them to the 'new' Potter spawn.

"Mr. Ritter, the headmaster wishes to see you." Snape called out, his voice carefully neutral. "You know where his office is, and I'm sure you know of the Headmaster's fondness for wine gums, so don't be too shocked if he offers you one of those dreadful things." Harry picked up on the message that 'wine gums' was the password needed to enter the Headmaster's office.

As he bid farewell to his friends, acquaintances, and those that were in the room with him, Harry left the room, his familiars right behind him. However, Snape did have one last comment to make before he let him leave to see what the Headmaster wanted.

"I would advise you to not take your little animals to every lesson with you this year." The Potions Master said. "You already know how 'part-humans' are viewed in the magical world, and you should take care to at least appear to be a respectable member of society."

Once around the corner, Harry let the frown appear on his face.

"Did Severus Snape really just give me advice?" He muttered to himself.