Yo? So sorry about the wait! I promise I didn't forget about this! Even though I wrote all except the first two paragraphs today... Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

A week had passed since Harry and Voldemort had come to an arrangement, and Harry was finally feeling healthy again. He and Voldemort had decided to wait a few days for him to fully heal up, and make arrangements with their people for the new shift in dynamics.

So far, things were going well and now he was well enough to agree to the arrangement via a magical contract, which would have been a terrible idea while Harry had been unwell, because it was a very magically draining action, and he'd been told he had been suffering from magical exhaustion on top of everything else.

So the Dark Lord and Boy-Who-Lived once more met in the former's study, going over terms as Voldemort pulled out the contract he'd had written a few days earlier. He had attempted to add in a few loopholes, but Harry, who had had the chance to examine it beforehand, had sent it off to a friend, who had pointed those holes out, and now the two were negotiating again.

Though Harry didn't know it, Voldemort had placed those loopholes there on purpose, not to deceive Harry, but test him. And by doing what he had to find those loopholes, Harry had passed that particular test. It was an encouraging thing, really, that he hadn't simply agreed to it without asking for a second opinion first.

Luckily for Harry, Voldemort seemed quite intrigued by his intentions on discrediting and humiliating Dumbledore, and for now, seemed willing to help him out, and let Harry help him in return. And so, because of that, the contract was finally agreed upon and signed, officially sealing the deal between them.

Harry had a few discussions with his trusted companions, and then, on the first of August, once more met with the Dark Lord in his study.

"You now have free reign over my manor," Voldemort told him. "I have informed my Death Eaters of your current neutrality in the war, and they know not to harm you, or they themselves will suffer the consequences."

Harry nodded. "Thanks for that." He set the roll of parchment that had been resting on his lap, onto the desk between them. "This is a list of the...members on my own side. As I said before, we'll remain neutral for the time being. If our plans continue to coincide, then I have no doubt we will begin to call ourselves Dark. Until we're able to take Dumbledore to court, we would rather our positions remain...quiet, for a lack of better words."

Voldemort pulled the parchment towards him, unrolled it, and scanned through it, a brow rising when he saw some of the names on the list. Some of them were quite surprising, some not so much, and there was one in particular that most certainly caught him off guard. He looked back up at Harry who was watching him carefully, no doubt gauging his reaction. "I thought he was dead."

Harry didn't have to ask for him to elaborate-there was only one name on the list that he could be talking about. "We faked it."

"Why?"

"According to some, he was beginning to have a bit too much influence on me-influence Dumbledore didn't exactly...agree with. If we hadn't faked his death, it was only a matter of time before he would have ended up dying in an accident of some kind. We figured the best thing to do was to get ahead of the game and take care of it ourselves."

"I see..." Voldemort ran a finger over his chin, thinking. "You do have some people of influence on your side, but not nearly enough, especially with some of their ages and lack of experience." He paused, then said, "Do you know what titles you inherit besides Potter?"

Harry shook his head. "I had plans to go to Gringotts this summer, but the Order thought it would be a good idea to threaten my uncle, which resulted in you finding me the-the way you did."

"...Why did they believe their threats would aid you?"

"Because Dumbledore's idiotic and doesn't think blood would ever willingly harm blood?" Harry replied with a shrug.

"Ah." Voldemort didn't question that. He had forgotten it, but he already knew this. After all, that was the very reason why he had never done anything to help Severus when he had been a child, suffering through terrible abuse at the hands of his own father. It was Voldemort who had helped the child when Lucius had brought him to him.

"Still," said Harry, "neglect towards cases of child abuse are just another thing we're planning on having him face in court. My own case is, of course, likely going to be the most influential and concrete, but I know of a few others as well, from current and old students both who have confided in either me or one of my friends."

Voldemort made a mental note to speak to Severus and see what he thought about this. His own childhood had been made infinitely worse because of the Headmaster refusing to believe or help him. If he agreed, then he too could testify, if that was what Potter was going for here. It would certainly help his case against Dumbledore, especially if one of the old man's own staff members was taking part.

"Speaking of, what else are you planning on accusing Dumbledore of?"

Harry ran his fingers through his hair distractedly, and then crossed his arms over his chest, clearly debating on exactly how much he wanted to reveal right now. "To be honest, a lot of it will depend on what the goblins discover."

"Goblins?"

"Yeah. I'm planning having them check me for blocks and such. My closest friends have noticed odd things about my magic over the years, and suspect he may have done something to cause those, well, things. That was another reason why I wanted to go to Gringotts. They're pretty much the only ones who can check for this sort of thing, or so I've been told."

"And if they discover nothing? What then?"

Harry leaned back and smirked, looking quite confident. "I have a few other things in mind, no matter what else Dumbledore may or may not have done to both me and others. Are you sure you want to learn about them now and ruin the surprise?"

Voldemort leaned back now too, smirking as well, enjoying this more than he thought he would. "Actually, no. Keep it to yourself for the time being. It will, no doubt be more entertaining this way." He straightened up a little again. "Now, which of my Death Eaters were you planning on having the aid of?"

"Malfoy, for sure," Harry replied immediately. "I think he's got the most influence out of them all, and he's the one I'm going to be talking to most. The others aren't quite as important, but since they're all Purebloods, they'll be useful anyway. A lot of them have seats that can be used in votes, and their voices do go heard more often than not. Still, in most of their cases, I'll basically just need them to know the gist of what's going on, and have them agree with whatever will be happening in the courts."

Voldemort inclined his head. "Then it seems that our first order of business is getting you to Gringotts."

"That'll be the first step, yes," Harry agreed. "And then, depending on what I learn there, all future steps may have to be changed."

"What do you plan on telling the Order once you return to Hogwarts in September?"

"My initial idea was to just tell them that I left the Dursleys to spend my summer with a Muggle friend-who I'll invent. You realized the blood wards were pointless because you now carry my blood in your veins, and went to kill me, only to discover I was already gone. Annoyed, you kidnapped the Dursleys instead, maybe in an effort to draw me out."

Voldemort was unwillingly impressed. Where had this Potter been hiding all this time? "And how will you get around the fact that it has been two weeks since I 'kidnapped' your relatives and you have yet to even attempt to aid them? In fact, if they now know that the house is sitting empty, they would no doubt notice that you did not even return."

Harry nodded in understanding, but again, smirked. "It shouldn't be at all surprising that I won't make any effort to help the Dursleys in any way. It was hardly a secret that we despise one another. I told Dumbledore more than once that they were going to end up killing me one day, but he never listened. And I've stated, again more than once, that I couldn't care less about what happens to them, just as they couldn't care less about what happens to me. There's no love lost between us at all.

"And sure, me remaining with my friend while they've been kidnapped by the Dark Lord might sound kind of callous, but neither Dumbledore, nor the Order, nor the sheeple populace have ever had to live with them. Once they've been locked in a cupboard for ten years while being starved and nursing broken bones, not to mention essentially being a slave, they can tell me how damn callous I am."

Voldemort listened to all this with interest, thinking things through. "If they attempt to investigate into this Muggle friend of yours?"

Harry blinked. Damn. He hadn't thought of that. And it was a stupid thing to forget about as well. If they really did look into it, it wasn't going to be all that long before they found out he was lying. He didn't have any Muggle friends, never had, thanks to Dudley, so it wasn't like he could get someone to pretend either. He could always say the friend moved abroad at the end of August. Trying to find someone living overseas would be far more difficult, especially if it was a Muggle.

Actually, that would work, wouldn't it? He could spend the next three weeks here, and then, the last week of August, return to Number Four to discover that the Dursleys were gone, and contact the Order while pretending to be surprised or confused. Or he could simply continue to ignore the Dursleys and go straight to the Leaky Cauldron once his 'friend moved', and spend the last week there. He could use that time to do his school shopping as well.

He relayed his thoughts to the Dark Lord.

"I see," he said once Harry had finished, running one of his sharp nails over his mouth. "Whether you discover your relatives are missing or not, both ideas have merit. You could give your friend a rather common name, which would make him more difficult to track down, if they do attempt it. And since few of them know how to interact with Muggles and Muggle technology on even the most basic levels, I doubt they will try too hard if they learn the friend has left the country-especially if they crossed the sea.

"Your age and what you seemingly went through last June gives you ample reason to rebel a little, and while they may become angry, there is hardly anything they can do to stop you. The worst they can do once you return to Hogwarts is revoke your Hogsmeade privileges, and as your godfather is supposedly dead, they may do that regardless."

Harry nodded. "That's what I was thinking too."

"We can go as far as to have one of my Death Eaters pose as this friend, in a disguise, naturally. Perhaps get a photograph taken of the two of you together for further proof-perhaps even at the airport. Not even Squibs require travelling by plane, so there will not be any wizards working there to help them."

"That works. I'll contact my more artistically minded friend and have her come up with a credible disguise."

"Good. When do you wish to begin discussing your court plans with Lucius?"

"Hmm, give me a couple of days. I'd like to speak to my more politically savvy friends, and get their thoughts on it. So three days from now, maybe?"

Voldemort inclined his head. "I will inform him of what to expect ahead of time."

"Alright. I have a couple of people you can talk to if you're really looking for Magical equality, and a Muggleborn friend of mine is very interested in your idea of starting up a primary school for those brought up in the Muggle world. She has a lot of ideas of her own that I think you should hear."

"Very well. I will meet with them the same day you speak to Lucius, if that is possible."

"I'll let them know then."

While it was true that they were only in the beginning stages of their plans, it couldn't be denied that so far, things appeared to be going quite well for them both. And if they were happy, well that meant a great deal to the Death Eaters and Harry's companions...

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Dark Lord and Boy-Who-Lived, yet another meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was taking place-this one at least the fifth one over the past two weeks.

They had all but taken over Grimmauld Place after Sirius' death, and were seated at the large table in the basement kitchen, trying to figure out what to do now, not that their initial plans were off the table yet or anything.

Though Mundungus had once again failed in his guard duties (unsurprisingly) at Number Four Privet Drive, Dumbledore had many advanced spells and wards placed on the house, and one of his detectors had gone off, signalling the house had been emptied. That wouldn't have been odd in most cases. However, at the same moment, Mrs Figg had contacted him to inform him that the Dark Mark was floating in the sky above the house.

*Flashback*

Alarmed, Dumbledore contacted the available Order members immediately, and rushed to Privet Drive, only to discover, well, nothing. The Dark Mark was, as Mrs Figg had said, up in the sky, and the house, as Dumbledore had already known, was empty.

But there were no signs of a struggle. No bloodshed. Nothing dropped or broken even. The television was on, and there were two large and one small bowls of now melted and spoiled ice cream sitting on the coffee table before the television. It almost appeared as if the house's occupants had simply vanished into the night.

Dumbledore, standing in the middle of the sitting room, pulled out his wand and waved it in a complex pattern, only to discover that not a single spell had been cast in the house. ...Not cast with a wand, at least. Though he was displeased to learn that no dark magic had been used at all, wandless or not. It was clear that either Voldemort or his Death Eaters had been here, but the Dark Mark was the only proof of that.

And while he contemplated this, Remus made straight for the cupboard under the stairs, flinching at the sight and smell of all the blood on the dirtied floor inside the small space, even though he already knew it was going to be there. The knife Sirius had given to Harry still lay there, and he silently picked it up and slipped it into his pocket before anyone else could find it. Harry was going to want this back.

Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, and Arthur then joined Dumbledore in the sitting room, all of them looking rather grim. There was one question here on everyone's minds, though none of them were particularly willing to ask it. Or at least, it appeared that way.

"Why was no one watching over Harry!?" Remus questioned. "How could you have just let him be kidnapped!?" He himself had been sent on yet another mission in an effort to speak to the various werewolf packs, giving him ample reason to be upset, since he hadn't been there.

"Now, Remus, we don't yet know if Harry has indeed been taken away," Dumbledore replied calmly.

Tonks and Kingsley both exchanged a silent glance, but Arthur agreed with the Headmaster.

"He's a teenage boy," he said, as if it explained everything. "It's possible he's just out willingly." It made perfect sense to him, especially as he'd raised plenty of sons himself. "Once we find him, we'll have to be sure to explain why him leaving the wards around the house is a bad and very dangerous idea. I'm sure he'll apologize for his behaviour once he comes to understand our reasoning."

"And what about his relatives?" asked Tonks curiously. "Does You-Know-Who have them now?"

"I'll ask Severus," was all Dumbledore said in response.

*Flashback end*

But despite the days that had passed, and the investigating they had done, none of them had been able to really figure anything out, and this meeting was only further proof of that failure.

"I have already told you, Albus," said Severus, sounding quite irritated. "The Dark Lord has Potter's relatives locked in his dungeon, but has made no mention of Potter himself. In fact, he is incredibly angered that the brat was not there, and has others looking for him as we speak."

"We'll just have to look harder then!" Tonks exclaimed, her hand clenching into a fist on top of the table. "We can't let the Death Eaters find him first!"

Kingsley sighed. "I have no doubt he's in pain right now," he said in his slow, deep voice. "He just lost his godfather."

"But that's no reason to run off on his own!" said Molly firmly, her hands on her hips.

Ron scowled slightly. "I don't get why he's so upset anyway," he muttered. "They barely knew each other!"

Hermione bit back a frown and fought to keep silent. Ron didn't at all understand what it was like to grow up without love. He had his mum and dad, and five brothers, and a sister as well. Even if they fought sometimes, they still loved each other. He had only ever known love, and would never ever comprehend what Harry felt for Sirius. Hermione hardly understood it herself, having grown up with two loving parents, but she knew and acknowledged that, and would never dare to claim otherwise. Because it would be a downright lie and she knew it.

"You are still stationed at Gringotts here in London, William?" said Dumbledore suddenly.

Bill nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Keep an eye out for Harry, then. It won't do to have him wandering the bank on his own." There were plenty of things he could not learn of. Not quite yet, at any rate. The later Harry learned of these things, the better for everyone involved.

"Of course, Headmaster," Bill said smoothly, lying straight through his teeth.

And as yet another pointless Order meeting came to an end, and its members scattered throughout the house, no one noticed that a certain group of them locked themselves up in a bedroom on the top floor, having a second and far more productive meeting of their own.

Unlike the Order, they had much to discuss…

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!