A/N: Okay, Part 2 has taken like, a month, to get up

A/N: Okay, Part 2 has taken like, a month, to get up. My apologies [Poppy]. It's considerably longer than Part 1 [at least, I think so] and should explain a good chunk of the plot. Thanks to everybody who reviewed, it made my job a lot more pleasant and easier. Special thanks to Juanita for posting my fics for me 'cuz my dang Mac can't post on fanfiction.net. Here goes!


"He's the only one who can stop the Dark Lord." Flitwick sounded exasperated.

"But, but, after all these years!" Minerva McGonagall gasped. "It's just... so... shocking."

"I know, I know."

"But..." Flitwick continued, "the hardest part is still in front of us. James is our spear, our cannon, our main- and most importantly- secret weapon. We will fight He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named with all of our power. James, here-" he nodded towards him-" is the last, and most powerful of Slytherin's descendents, besides The Dark One, that is. He must be the one to kill him, or the Dark Lord will never be truly defeated."

"How?" Professor Sinistra whispered, her voice barely audible.

"We're not exactly sure... yet. We'll find a way." Flitwick looked alarmed suddenly as he turned and saw the glazed look on James' face.

******

James was flying high, and fast. He glanced behind him, and swore. The Gryffindor Quidditch team, reserves, and all, were playing a scrimmage. Lily Evans Archenemy #2, second only to Severus Snape, had just [expertly, as he had to admit] swung a bludger to pelt directly at him.

"Shoot!" He swerved dangerously, narrowly avoiding the speeding black cannonball, and, in that moment, he spotted Ernest Higglesworth speeding towards the ground at breakneck speed, reaching out his hand. James turned and spurred his Silver Arrow 3500 as fast as possible towards the reserve seeker, but he knew his efforts were fruitless. Cheers rang and echoed through the dismal field. James glared at Lily. He really, REALLY hated that girl. In a flash, after they had landed, James was all over her, strangling her, but briefly, as not to do permanent damage [though he wanted to] and hurt her badly enough to be expelled. As soon as he let go of her, though, she threw him a punch across the face that stung. She had a good arm from wielding the bludger bat. Without a moment's hesitation, they were rolling on the ground, a mad scuffle of swinging arms. Madame Hooch came running over, pulling them off one another. James had a cut lip and a nasty gash above his eyebrow. Lily was suffering a bad bruise across her cheek and a cut on her arm. They surveyed one another, giving each other a look of utmost loathing, but, as the Gryffindor Quidditch Capt. Quentin Carmichael replied,

"If looks could kill, James would be a goner."

"To the Headmaster's office. NOW."

Lily and James were marched to Dumbledore's office, watched by a myriad of expressions.

As they entered the room, Dumbledore smiled and chuckled.

"No need to ask, Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter. Please sit down whilst I arrange your punishments. I would think by your 5th year, you would know better,especially you, James. My impression of teenage boys was to try to snag girls, not beat them up. You won't be impressing any of them if you are too busy beating up Lily, while she mercilessly attacks back."

James was utterly embarrassed, but Lily looked smitten, full of contempt.

"You two will be assigned to the tethering of a slightly deranged and escaped hippogriff. Together, yes, and 10 points from Gryffindor."

"But-"

"Professor, please-"

"Nothing to be done about it. If you would kindly meet Ogg at the south side of the lake near his cabin at midnight, I would be appreciative. Oh, and don't go pulling one of your shameless pranks either, both of you. I won't have Mistress Pomfrey tending to braids transfigured in to snakes-" he glanced at James- "or have students reporting squid tentacles hanging from their beds." Lily reddened.



Sirius was rolling on the floor, laughing out loud. James was fuming. Not only had his best friend witnessed the escapade on the Quidditch field, but he had seen Professor Poplin, master of Potions class, mercilessly pair them for a project in the class, with a smile. Sirius had reason to believe that Dumbledore had given the teachers special orders to make the loathing duo as miserable as possible.

James picked him up by the neck, breathing fire, and threw Sirius a nasty punch that stung like heck.

"What did you do that for?!"

" 'Cause you're being the black hairy bottom of a jackrabbit [A/N: Okay folks, take a moment to figure out what I'm implying there]!"

Sirius simply stood there and laughed.

"Have fun tonight!"

James groaned. He had completely forgotten his punishment in the Forbidden Forest over the embarrassment and grief his friends were giving him, as well as a good many other Gryffindors. Tonight was not going to be fun. At all.



Traveling down to the edge of the forest with Lily, James yawned.

"Tired, are you? Maybe you'll be good bait for the ghastly beast!"

"I am not fat!" James drew himself up in defense.

"I wasn't talking about that, though, now that you say so..."

"Just shut up." They had reached Ogg's cabin. He stood outside of it, grinning at the though of being relieved of unpleasant duties. He was obviously a bit drunk as well. In fact, he had been known to provoke or advise irritated students to pull pranks or start fights with one another he knew they would get caught doing so many times, so that he had much free time to himself in his gamekeeping duties.

"Ready?! You two will be having loads of fun tonight!" Ogg lead them around to where a path made an eerie opening in to the army of trees awaiting them. He handed them each a magical whistle, which acted as a compass towards one another when they blew it if they got lost, and a large tether, which Lily made James haul over his shoulder. Ogg sent them packing with a cheery, if somewhat dizzy, wave and a toothy grin.

Ambling through the foliage, Lily and James kept their eyes peeled for any sign of the hippogriff. All of a sudden, James, with a grunt, dropped the tightly coiled tether.

"Go on ahead. I'll catch up with you in a minute."

"Okay." Lily's voice wavered a bit.

"Scared?"

"Not one bit." She said with defiance. She turned back and made her way forward through the overgrown path. A few minutes later, though, James wasn't with her again. She grew worried.

"James? Hey, James?! Where are you?" She called out.

*****

He crept past the cabin, his intentions utterly evil. He heard Ogg singing inside in a loud and drunken voice, a dirty ditty he had obviously picked up in an Irish pub. Sneaking in to the forest he took the path he had watched them travel down. This would be entertaining. Only a moment of surprise would it take to get the reaction he suspected would occur."

" Aarrrrggghhh!" James screamed, dropped the rope, and ran forward, blowing on the whistle, feeling its magnetic pull, and not looking back. At the same time, Lily made up her mind and was just turning back to James when she was jerked forward. She could feel the whistle humming in her hand.

SMACK! they ran headlong in to one another.

With much difficulty, James uttered,

"That- was- painful."

"And the world has been given another piece of informational crap."

"Shove it!"

"Up yours? I'd be more than glad to."

"Ahem. Cough. Cough." James and Lily looked up synonymously and apprehensively. Standing there was Sirius.

"YOU! Why, you bugger!"

"...And you didn't expect me to tag along and watch the action on your first date, did you?"

"My first...what?! Why don't you stuff yourself up somewhere that you belong?"

"Touchy, touchy, aren't we, Prongs, my friend? Then why, may I ask, are you lying in the configuration you are?" He was utterly calm, but barely suppressing insane laughter.

They gawked at each other. Indeed, it was a rather odd and suspicious way for them to be lying on the ground, with James having bowled Lily over in their panic and was now lying on top of her, his arms on her abdomen to keep himself from falling on her any further. He quickly jumped up off of her. He looked sheepish, while Lily looked annoyed.

"Well, now that I've had my fun, I'll just leave you two to yourselves."

"Yeah, your fun, I was just planning on running up behind Lily myself and getting a good scare out of her."

"Just what makes you so certain I would have been scared?! I could smell right through your little scheme there."

"Yeah, with the honker you've got."

"Oh, really?!"

"Yeah!"

"Sure, are you?!"

"Positive."

They went on arguing on this tangent for some time, and Sirius, in his usual sarcastic humor, made the occasional stupid comment.

"Just why don't you go back to the common room so James and I can finish the work we set out- or, rather- were sent out to do?"

Sirius snickered.

"It's really not so-" she gasped- "SIRIUS!"

Siruis leapt around in time just to see a bright flush of feathers and steely talons before they leapt upon him. All 3 screamed. Lil fumbled with her wand, dropped it, but James yelled,

"Stuepefy!" The hippogriff froze, but it was too late.

"NO!" James and Lily rushed over to Sirius and the hippogriff, still bleed profusely though he was obviously dead from bites and being torn to shreds. His abdomen was slashed open, and Lily recoiled at the disgusting sight of his small intestine. James wailed in agony. Lily was his best friend, and had even been nice to her occasionally- and he was good looking, too.

But through the trees, something rustled as if a cloak was running over the ground covered with dead leaves. A voice, hissing an d barely audible, whispered,

"Your gift is death, James Potter! The Dark Lord will rise again, through his heir, and only another with blood links through misconception, can stop him. You too will die, James Potter."

"MOSMORDRE!" With another pop, both the owner of the voice and the hippogriff disappeared. Above the two, the Dark Mark shone in the sky like a neon sign to a very, very bad bar. Lily sobbed.

"I'm scared, James. What is he going to do to us?"

"I don't know." In less than 5 minutes, the girl he had hated for 5 years had become his sole comfort in the world. "I don't know- but I'll protect you." He lifted her face with his finger to look in to his, and, suddenly, he wondered why he could have ever not found her quite so beautiful. Softly he pressed his lips to hers, and an electrifying sensation rippled throughout his whole being. The kiss became more passionate as they melted in to the night.

******

"First thing we will have to do to plan an army is make alliances with the giants and other current rebels of the Ministry. We can't let the Dark Side rope them in."

"What are we supposed to do- send an emissary to them?!" Cornelius Fudge, arriving on the scene, berated.

"What else?"

"I...I... have never been quite so astounded and perturbed in my life!" He stormed off as angrily as he had in.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to do without him. Fetch Hagrid for me, if you will. He will be our ambassador to the giants. I'll need Arthur and Molly Weasley, Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, you know the gang, Flitwick. It's time we take some action. Voldemort will be collecting his allies now, and we need to fortify our defenses."

"Shouldn't we attack?"

"No. We'll let him make a stab at us, and them we will know how to flush him out in the future."

"Severus-" he paused momentarily at the look of Snape's utter loathing, but, with a mix of admiration and subordination with it on his face- "Severus, I will need you to begin brewing all the Polyjuice and Veritaserum as you can. Flitwick, and Minerva, I'll need you up in my office. Sibyl, please retire in to your quarters and divinate to your limits. Any knowledge you can glean fo us would be greatly appreciated. The rest of you, please return to your houses and calm the students. After that, proceed to searching and investigating the grounds of Hogwarts."

As the professors attended to their tasks, Potter climbed the stairs to his- the Headmaster's- office. Horace and McGonagall trailed behind him.

"Hagrid will meet with me after we finish discussing... the matters of state. Minerva-" he paused and looked at her- "Horace and I have much to tell you. He is a lot further in on this plot than you may think.

"Well, he realized a long time ago that, from doing research in the library and from my special characteristics and powers- I am no ordinary wizard. I am a descendant from both Slytherin and Gryffindor."

"How did you find that out?"

"Well, there was information that somewhere along the Slytherin line there was an unknown bastard. No one knew of this daughter's true heritage, but apparently she married a descendant of the great Godric." Flitwick continued on James' line of thought.

"Because of this, he has a link to channeling the powers of both founders. We aren't sure who, or where, the illegitimate child is in the lines. We might try to find that out. It could be hundreds of years back, or James' own grandmother."

"I don't think that's nearly as important as figuring out what we are going to do against him. Personally, I feel that we need to rally allies first, then attack."

"But, Minerva, I think striking first while the iron's hot, before they are prepared, will throw them for a loop. We have to admit that when both sides are fortified, they will number greater."

"Oh, really?! Well-"

"Quiet, Minerva, James. If there is one thing that my height has taught me, it is that the obvious advantage is not always the best. especially when you used to have that obvious advantage, but are now supplemented with the stronger one. They may have the numbers, but we have the power. We are better trained to fight their kind, evil and darkness. They don't teach you, "Defense Against the Bright Arts."

"But it can be learned."

"Yes, but, we cannot split our priorities here, lest they attack when we are alone. I vote that we spy briefly first, get an idea of their movements, then attack quickly and stealthily, and as they regroup, we find our recruits. much more likely to come over to our side because we will have the first victory. After we deal the first blow, those who are not sure of coming to our side may make up their minds."

" Wait a minute. I get what you are saying and see the logic in it, but are you telling me you weren't born short?"

"No, I was not. James, you would remember. It happened during the few years when Minerva left to study advanced transfiguration and came back to teach. Dumbledore was so abashed with it happening that he gave me a job on the spot as soon as I completed my schooling. I gained so much knowledge that years later, when you went under the spell with Dumbledore, James, I had a fascination about your background and I began looking in to it. But, now, to tell you a story that I should have told long before. James, I did not really try to curse my warts away on my abdomen and accidentally shorten myself instead..."

******

Rain poured through the window. Horace peered through it, showing a vague, mist-filled view of the eastern side of the lake. He headed down with a sigh to the dungeons, for the 4th year Gryffindors Double Potions lesson with the Slytherins.

Professor Callahan announced, "Today we will begin work on a Concealing Potion. A Concealing Potion hides one object inside another, after complex steps. Today you will be making a simple shrinking solution, which must stew for three nights in order to proceed. After you have finished that, we will go over the finer aspects of how one goes about making and using a Concealing Potion. Mind you be careful; with the extra ingredients we'll be putting in, the shrinking solution stage of the potion is irreversible.

Professor Callahan was one of the few wizards that graduated as outstanding from the house of Slytherin. He began putting the students in to "potion pairs" as he called them, and casually said, "Severus, will you please assist Horace over in the back. I think your expertise in this class will help him better." He beamed benignly.
"Of course." Snape muttered, but, he paused a moment, apparently to stifle the urge to fling beetle dung in his face. He plopped his materials down next to Flitwick, sitting in the very back.

"I don't need your help." Horace grumbled.

"Well, who said I wanted to give it?"

"As the cauldrons around them began to simmer, the two haplessly began preparing theirs. Once it was good and going, Flitwick remarked,

" See?! I'm perfectly capable of making a simple potion and adding a few extra materials to it."

"Good for you, squidcrap."

"Well, at least I can play Quidditch, and be the seeker on the winning house last year." Their hatred was pure and obvious.

"Without talent."

"Excuse me?! I have talent!"

" More like excessive height."

"My 6-foot 2-inch has absolutely nothing to do with it. I have so much talent that even if I was short I could play seeker on the Gryffindor team."

"Oh, really?" Snape whispered. "We'll see about that."

In a whirl of motion, Flitwick was thrown violently in to the cauldron, with only a small splash, due to Snape's careful direction of where he shoved Flitwick. Horace sputtered, but, before he could say anything, Snape threatened him.

"If you tell what really happened, I'll report to the Headmaster that you've been sneaking down to Hogsmeade to gamble. You know they'll throw you out for that. Yes-" he caught the surprised and furitive look on Flitwick's face- "I know about that." He hauled Flitwick up out of the cauldron. He was- only about 4 feet tall! Snape muttered,

"Priori hydratio." Flitwick was instantly dry. "Now, you'll stick to the story that you tried to curse a wort off your abdomen and accidentally shortened yourself insead, or there wil be heck to pay." Snape even picked up Flitwick's wand, pointed it against the wall, and said a well-used curse for students to attempt removing unsightly body characteristics. It made a loud popping sound. Everyone looked up. There were gasps. Severus was turned away from Horace, pretending to be busy.

"Flit-"

"Oh my-"

"What the devil?!"

"Horace!"

"What happened, Horace?!" Professor Callahan demanded.

"I...I..." Snape turned around at that moment.

"What did you do?! I was just about to add the horned toad bile! Wait!" He paused for dramatic effect. "Don't tell me? Did you try to curse something off of you?!" Flitwick looked ready and willing to up and decapitate Severus.
"Ye-Yes. A wart. On my abdomen." He answered very softly.

"My goodness, Horace, is that what happened?! We must get you up to Doctor Garner immediately!"

Without waiting for anything, he himself shuffled Horace off to the ward, lecturing him about the dangers of underage magical cosmetic surgery.

Flitwick thought to himself,

"You're right, Snape. There will be heck to pay."

******

"Now, then, since I finished telling you the escapade of my height, we can finish discussing where each side stands. First off, James' power lies solely in analyzing the Dark One's strengths and hitting him with countering spells powered by the combination of his origins. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has his Dark Spells, but James has an unconscious knowledge of them, due to his Slytherin background, and how to block and protect himself from them, from Gryffindor. Our attacks, well, I... I... think our best bet may be to make stabs when we can, I fear this is a battle we may have to only defend, not win."

"You seem very informed on how to handle this war from our side, and I praise you for that. I think you should be appointed cadvridoc with James." Minerva commented.

"Cadvridoc?" James questioned, his vocabulary not extended enough to know that term.

"It means a war-leader, in the language of those long-ago descended from the Gauls and Celtics [A/N: For you who recognize the word, it predominantly used in Katherine Kerr's Deverry series.]." McGonagall explained.

"Oh. I see. I agree then."

Just then, the door opened. Hagrid stormed in.

"I hate to interrupt you, Professors and Headmaster, but there's been another murder."