**Hello again everyone. 11th Chapter? Is it possible? Duh, course it is. Yeah, yeah I know it has been a long time but this is exam week you know. Well, basically. Anyway, I have loads of stuff to say before I start and some of it's actually important, so you might want to read it.

1st, thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday! (I did kind of push the issue, didn't I?)

2nd, I am thinking of starting an unofficial mailing list. So, if you want to be on it, tell me in a review and I will tell you each time a new chapter comes out.

3rd, OH yeah, another reason for celebration, over 250 reviews!!! An extra thank you to everyone who did.

4th, French exams approach so sorry if I take an absolutely ridiculous time posting. Well, there's no such thing as a ridiculous time to post but you know what I mean.

5th, for those of you who don't know, 5th book comes out 21 June people! Not much to get excited about since that's a whole 5 MONTHS! I hope I can finish this fic before then…

6th, damn I forgot what I was going to say.

7th, on with the fic already!

Harry woke up at about half six the next morning. It was nice not to have a throbbing pain in his hand when he woke late. Well, late for him.

Sleeve was already up, for a change.

"Morning", said Harry.

"If you say so."

"I do."

"All right, then."

Harry chuckled and got dressed.

"When did you say the people who live over there," he flicked his tail briefly to the other boys' beds "are arriving."

"Tomorrow."

"You sound pleased."

"I am. I haven't seen Ron or the others for ages."

"Like a family, you mean."

Harry smiled. Snakes did not understand the meaning of either friend or family. Harry had been doing his best, but still hadn't managed to convince his snake that you didn't have to ignore anyone who was not related to you by blood.

Sleeve had grasped the blood thing straight away. From there, the going was decidedly slow.

Harry's argument was that Sleeve was Harry's friend, but then Sleeve pointed out that Harry could speak his language, and in a snake's eyes that made them practically brothers already.

He decided not to pursue the subject right at that moment, or at least until he got the sleepy dust out of his eyes.

"Mind if I transform?" he asked his friend when he was washed.

"Be my guest. Just desist from changing into anything that looks appetising."

A couple of seconds later, the black cat was standing where the boy had been.

"How remarkable. I still think you should hurry up and study snakes. That way you can turn into something that at least looks attractive."

Harry was only a little disappointed. He knew that it took a lot to get his slithery friend excited, and besides, there were other people he could impress when the time came. If he ever decided to, that is.

Harry ran outside and scratched at the portrait hole until it opened. "I say," said the Fat Lady, "where did you come from?"

Harry ignored her and ran down the stairs.

 It was glorious to run, to see the usually average sized paintings and suits of armour towering above him, to soar rather than run across the floor, his padded feet only touching the stones very slightly.

He streaked past Professor Flitwick, more by accident than anything, causing him to squeak with fright as a small black thing sped across his path.

He reached the Entrance Hall at seven on the dot, and he was first. His sense of triumph increased enormously just by that tiny thing.

Having already resumed his normal form outside the Great Hall door, just in case, he sat down and started the breakfast that appeared as soon as the big hand touched twelve.

The teachers all looked surprised as they filed in to see him already there.

They were also pleasantly surprised to see the amount of food on his plate, which was visibly larger than usual, so they promptly ignored the fact that his hair was in an even worse mess than usual.

"Hungry, Harry?" asked Hagrid as he sat down.

"Yeah," said Harry, swallowing quickly. He was ravenous. The transformations took more out of him than he had expected them to.

Sensing his good mood, the teachers engaged him in polite conversation, mostly about his lessons with Wendy. Or rather Alula.

Wendy herself stayed quiet, except when someone talked to her. She kept glancing nervously at her pupil.

Harry felt he knew why. She was wondering whether Remus had told him about her relationship to Sirius or not.

All the teachers were shocked when Harry told them of his progress with Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms. They had already had proof of the havoc he could wreak with Transfiguration.

Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall both agreed not to show Harry up in class, but only after he'd asked them very nicely.

By the fact that she didn't mention it, Harry guessed that Professor McGonagall had not seen the new addition to her classroom's décor.

He supposed that she either didn't set foot in her classroom until term started, or she was just to scared to see what he, Wendy and Remus had done in there the day before. He had a hunch someone had been dropping hints.

Either way, Harry hoped she'd notice before he had a class in there. He didn't want to have to explain in front of all the fifth year Gryffindors.

When the post arrived, everyone looked up with apprehension, but there was nothing menacing, only a couple of notes and a copy of the Daily Prophet as usual.

Professor McGonagall looked up at Harry before she opened it.

"There shouldn't be anything in there," said Harry, though his throat was tight and he was secretly praying there wasn't.

But it was safe. The front page was simply a picture of Cornelius Fudge who kept trying to keep his bowler hat from falling off, and dashing in and out of the picture now and then to catch it when he threw it away in frustration.

Below him was the heading:

'CORNELIUS FUDGE: WORRIED BY NEW ATTACKS'

"Well, at least he's starting to sit up and take notice," said Professor Sinistra.

"What's the betting he doesn't do anything about it?" said Harry, feeling malicious. He hated Fudge. It was partly his fault that the attacks were going on in the first place.

Would you rather freeze to death…?

"I'd say it's about ten thousand to one," said Professor Dumbledore, looking even grimmer than Harry.

"Never tell me the odds," squeaked Professor Flitwick.

When Harry had finished eating, Wendy stood up, having hardly eaten anything herself.

"You coming?" she asked with a weak – and very fake – smile. "Or are you bunking off today?"

"No fear!" said Harry, with a genuine grin. "But I thought we'd covered everything."

"Not by half, cheeky."

Harry made a face that made Hagrid chuckle, and Professor's Sinistra and Vector start giggling, an odd pastime for teacher's their age, Harry thought.

He followed Wendy all the way up to her own classroom. She didn't speak to him the whole way, but he understood her silence.

Once they entered, Wendy made sure the door was firmly closed before looking back at Harry.

"He told you?" she blurted out quickly.

"Yah," said Harry with an offhand shrug.

"You don't… you're not…?"

"I don't care," said Harry. Then, realising that that sounded not only childish but also unbelievable, he added quickly. "I mean, you can't help who you're related to, can you?"

Wendy paused in thought, then embraced him in a tight hug that reminded Harry of Sirius more than anything else had done so far.

"So you don't mind still working with me?" Wendy was saying. "You honestly don't mind? I mean, he tried to kill you…" her throat closed and she started at him pleadingly. 

"Of course I don't mind. I've seen and met enough Death Eaters to know you aren't one."

"No one knew about Crouch," said Wendy slyly.

"How did you know about that?"

"Honestly, Harry, did you think I was completely ignorant? Dumbledore filled me in on everything that happened last year – and before."

Not everything, thought Harry. "Ok… but still Crouch wasn't…you know, nice."

Wendy hugged him again.

************************

When they had got over their joyful (or rather embarrassing) re-acquaintance, they got down to business.

"Well," said Wendy. "We have come a very long way this week, obviously – but I had this thought last night. What I'm going to teach you today, Harry, is probably one of the most important lessons you'll ever learn."

For some reason, that sent a brief chill down Harry's spine. He could remember that, in all different voices… weird…

"Obedience is a virtue I'm going to have to teach you before you die…"

"I'll have to give you a little lesson in manners, Harry…"

"Come here boy! I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget!"

"This is one of the most important lessons you'll ever learn at Hogwarts…"

"Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you listening?"

"Yeah! I mean yes, I am."

"Ok… well, as I was saying, you know how do shields in all kinds of different ways by now, which I'm sure you've been practising."

Harry nodded, but he was lying. He already knew them, and he wasn't a Hermione look alike yet.

"Ok, but it still takes you a second or two to raise them, and they won't do any good if someone hits you from behind without warning."

"Right…" Harry couldn't really see where this conversation was going.

"So what you're going to do is raise a shield that is up constantly."

Harry laughed. "Are you mad? I can't go around covered in silvery light the whole time! Despite the fact that I'll look unbelievably stupid, I can hardly see through them – plus, they're hard to keep up. How am I ever going to do anything with an effort like that?"

"No, Harry I'm not mad, despite all appearances. And this shield will be invisible, and effortless to hold. You get on with your normal life through it, and you make it so that anything except spells and possibly weapons can get through."

"It sounds impossible."

"There's no such word."

"Want to bet?"

"Too right. Ok, I'll talk you through it."

Harry reluctantly closed his eyes and concentrated on her words.

"Raise a shield."

Harry did so instantaneously, holding his hand out in front of him with the silvery threads of light streaming from his fingers.

"Now move your hand closer to you."

Harry brought the shield closer to his chest as his elbow bent.

"Turn your hand towards you."

If Harry had been in a normal state of mind, he would have refused, but even as he was, he was in a kind of trance.

He turned his wrist so that his palm faced him. What should have been blistering heat but was now comfortable warmth enveloped him.

"Touch your hand to your heart."

Harry tried, but the shield seemed to be resisting. It didn't want to do what Harry wanted.

"The shield is yours, Harry. Order it around."

Harry hadn't ever really had anything to order around, so he was still a little slow in persuading the shield that it was going to do what he wanted, not what it would prefer.

The silvery light blossomed against his robes as his hand met his upper torso. It covered him all over, and then slowly seeped into his skin, strand by strand, until the little piece covering his eyes vanished, and the room was normal again, except his glasses seemed to have fallen off.

"Is it gone?" he asked.

"Yep!" said Wendy happily. "No one should be able to get through that, now. It's as solid as rock. You're even stronger than I thought, Harry, and I should know, after all."

"But I've never been strong before," said Harry, fumbling on the desk top for his glasses.  "Why right now?"

Wendy shrugged. "I don't know… maybe its puberty – hey, that's an interesting theory I should look into… are you all right?"

Harry had moved onto the floor in his search. "I'm looking for my glasses."

Wendy laughed. "Don't be an idiot, Harry. They're on your face."

Harry stood up and raised his hand to his eyes instinctively. The familiar shape of his frames was there.

He squinted. "I don't think this shield is working. I can't see through it properly."

"Try taking them off."

Harry did so.

"Hey! I can see!"

"Good for you."

"Did you know it was going to do that?"

"No. I've never seen anyone do it before."

Harry looked at her sharply. "You'd better not have made that spell up."

"Would I do that?"

Harry eyed her suspiciously, but said nothing. "Why do you think it cured my eyes?"

"I don't think it went that far. It's just neutralising your eyes, that's all."

"It's the same thing."

"Well, I don't think its permanent."

"How would you know if you've never seen anyone do it before?"

Wendy thought about that. Then, unable to find anything wrong with it, she admitted, "Well, you're probably right. Just… carry a pair of glasses around just in case, that's all."

"Whatever."

Harry suddenly realised that although the shield he had created in his skin was not a living thing, he could sense its presence.

If he probed around in the area where he got his magic for the shields for, he could almost see the power of it, like a steady pulse of magic inside him.

"Right. Now comes the fun part."

Harry groaned audibly.

"That's right! Fun for me. We get to test your shield."

"Hallelujah."

At this, Wendy assumed her 'Death Eater' robes of black, which didn't surprise Harry in the least seeing as she'd taught him how to do that only a couple of days before.

"And no fighting back," said the Dark Figure in a voice that didn't suit it.

Nerves seemed to be making him feel light-headed, or that might just have been the loss of his glasses.

Accordingly, Harry flicked his wand and his new jeans and T-shirt were replaced by green combat robes (Wendy had shown him hers) with gold trim.

"Very stylish," said the 'Death Eater' with only a very small amount of surprise. "Have at ye! Expelliarmus!"

His wand flew out of his hand and into hers. Oh well.

When Wendy sent the first curse flying at him he threw up a shield that impaired his vision by a hundred per cent, but still swallowed the spell. Harry decided he was going to have to work on that.

"Petrificus Totalus Mortem!"

Harry's shield deflected the curse, and it went spinning back towards the sender.

Wendy only just jumped out of the way before it hit the wall and vanished, burning rather a large hole on the way.

Harry's sense of triumph barely had time to surface before Wendy apparated to the opposite end of the room.

He did not have time to even turn around before another curse shot straight at his back. Instead, it hit his new permanent shield.

The force made him stumble, but he was otherwise unharmed. He reached inside himself for the power source of that shield and found it slightly depleted.

He reckoned it could stand two more of those spells before one broke through unless he strengthened it, and right now he really didn't have the time.

He spun around to block a very strong curse with an equally strong shield. The result was an explosion that made his teeth chatter.

The 'Death Eater' stumbled, and Harry smiled just a little. He was winning, and he still hadn't attacked her.

His instincts were screaming at him to just curse his teacher, but instincts weren't always that accurate, in Harry's opinion, and they could all simply get stuffed.

His most recent shield faded from his hands and he saw Wendy properly. She lowered her wand, but did not remove the hood.

"Is that it?" asked Harry, a little disappointed. Then he realised that his teacher wasn't looking at him, but at a point somewhere behind his left shoulder…

"Houndicastras!"

Caught by surprise yet once more, Harry went flying over a desk by the mere force of the spell that crashed into his permanent shield in the small of his back.

Strike two.

When he stood up again, mercifully unharmed aside from a sore arm and an injured pride, he saw there was another Death Eater standing in the doorway.

Of course, it wasn't a real Death Eater, or Wendy would be doing something about it, but it was still very lifelike…

Harry was by now so at one with his shield that he could feel its increasing weakness. It would shatter on the next turn.

It was also obvious that now, with two opponents advancing on him, it was unlikely that he was going to win by defence.

It was only a game.

But it was a game he wanted to win more than anything.

He threw up a large shield to defend himself while he tried to come to a solution – and just in time.

The two curse hit in unison, but Harry had put most of what he had left into that shield, and his hands held it firmly, the flashes of silver obscuring his new-found, perfect sight.

No fighting back.

Great.

The only other form of defence he knew was a Patronus, but that was also attack – sort of – and also wouldn't work.

He concentrated on strengthening his handheld shield as he tried to think what to do. He edged backwards until he felt his back touch the wall. No one was going to sneak up behind him this time.

When his visible shield was as strong as he could make it, with heard but unseen curses banging into it by the second, Harry reached into himself and found the core of power controlling the permanent one.

Bit by agonizing bit, he leeched his energy force to strengthen that shield.

The voices behind his defence were so morphed that there could have been four or five of them behind it for all Harry knew.

He kept his hands out straight in front of him holding up the silvery wall of light as he grew weaker and weaker but his inner shield grew so strong that it could have burst from his skin.

And then, he let the outer shield down.

He ducked as a curse flew his way, and spun on his heel as another came from the opposite direction.

He levitated himself and flew across the room and onto the ceiling like a spider. As Wendy and the other black robed figure tried to reach him without their hoods falling off, he floated down behind them very quietly and raised another very small silver defence.

It had the reflexive power of a catapult.

Harry smiled fiercely as the two combined spells whacked into his shield, killing it completely, and then flew straight back into the faces of their owners.

His opponents fell over backwards, and the castle wall was now decorated with two large burn holes in the stone.

"Ok, Ok! WE GIVE UP!" Wendy laughed in absolute exultation. "That was so much fun!"

Sure, fun for you, thought Harry, but he was only joking. He had beaten two full-grown wizards without cursing either of them. By pure defence.

"I enjoyed it," said the other figure, standing up and shrugging off his costume.

"Remus!" cried Harry. "You were in on it too!"

"I love that game," said Wendy with a huge grin on her face.

"We used to do that at school," said Remus when Harry looked at him in puzzlement. Then a dreamy look came over his face. "I never got to be the Death Eater."

"You were BRILLIANT!" Wendy announced, hugging him almost as tightly as she had Harry earlier.

Harry made a face. Wendy laughed. "Tell you what, Harry, to make it up to you tomorrow we'll switch roles, yeah? Hey, Harry, are you all right?"

Harry was starting to feel very weary, as though he'd just lifted a heavy weight. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired, I guess."

"You come with me then," said Remus, smiling like a ten year old. "We've got things to talk about."

"Ok then."

As they turned to leave, Wendy said, "Oh, yeah, Harry, tomorrow we'll play in the afternoon. I know you'll want to sort out your stuff for school and everything, and you know…" she blushed a little, glancing very briefly at Remus. "We both need our free time."

Harry grinned at her in reply and left after Remus.

They made the same trip as before. Harry was pretty sure he knew the way now.

When they entered the cheery room where Remus had taken up residence, Harry collapsed into an armchair.

"You could see it, couldn't you?" he asked Remus with his eyes closed.

"I most certainly could."

"Then why didn't she?"

"She was having too much fun. You should not have put so much into that shield."

"Well I realise that now…"

"Do you really?"

"I think the fact that my legs feel like they've gone through a grinding machine convinced me."

"How is your shield now?"

"Solid as rock. Which is more than I can say for me."

"All you need is rest. You needn't move. Just lie there, and tell me all about the animal you studied last night."

Harry groaned.

"Come now. Imagine what all this is going to be like on top of your school lessons."

"I'd rather not, if it's all the same."

"I don't mind in the slightest. Where are your glasses?"

"Don't need them. Shield cured them. Sort of."

"Ok," he only sounded a bit surprised. "So, what did you choose to talk to me about today?"

"Sleeve said I ought to look at snakes."

"Sleeve?"

"Yeah, my snake."

"Oh yes. I seem to remember Ali telling me about that." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Was he really curled around Snape's Dark Mark?"

"Yep."

"But that means…"

"Yeah. The Dark Lord issued them. All the Death Eaters have them."

"But surely, Snape is no longer…"

"He's spying again. For Dumbledore. He makes a show of going to the meetings and that, and he's sometimes on missions with the other Death Eaters, but he's usually just here. Voldemort thinks he's spying for him. Like before."

"Harry, how on earth do you know? I'll bet no one told you."

"No one tells me anything. I work things out for myself."

Remus seemed to sense that Harry didn't want to go into any detail, although he had his suspicions on how Harry had obtained his information.

"So, snakes, right?"

"Yeah. Sleeve reckons that I don't need to learn anything because I'm a snake already."

Remus laughed. "And what did you tell him?"

"That I doubted it."

Harry then launched into a long, revised speech on the basic anatomy and behaviour of snakes. Then he moved on to different species. By the time he was repeating himself, still flat out on the armchair with his eyes closed, Remus had had enough.

"All right, all right. You've worked hard."

"Not really. Sleeve was sort of right, anyway. I knew half of it already, without realising I did. Freaky, right?"

Remus thought it was, but he was certainly not going to say so. He had not learned of Harry's Parselmouth abilities since that article in the Daily Prophet. A quick note to Dumbledore had confirmed the facts.

Not that he really minded, as Remus had never ever had any non human prejudices, (not that he could) but still, Parseltongue…

"Well, whatever it is, you know enough about snakes now to try it whenever you want, all right? Only I'd wait until you can at least stand up."

Harry smiled and opened his eyes. "I feel better now. Not up to a new transformation, but I think I'll make my way up Gryffindor Tower on four paws. It seems faster that way."

"Whatever you think best. But don't go exhausting yourself before tomorrow. I'll see you at dinner."

Harry nodded and regretfully pulled himself off the chair. His tiredness, though irritating, was also strangely calming. His transformation was a little slower than usual, but what mattered?

He rubbed against Remus' legs once, then hopped out of the hole in the wall as the Gargoyle opened for him.

Rather unfortunately, he hadn't gone more than a few steps before he met Professor McGonagall.

"Hello there!" she said in an odd voice that he hadn't heard her use before. "What are you doing here, you beautiful thing?"

Harry couldn't help stretching out with pride a little at that.

She knelt down and stroked his glossy black fur. She cooed as though talking to a baby, praising him.

He started to feel a bit uncomfortable after a while. He tossed his head as best he could, and gave her a pointed look.

She appeared to understand, and talked to him in normal speech. "I'm headed north. Are you coming?"

Harry hopped up onto her shoulder, making her giggle. Harry would have laughed if he had been able to. Professor McGonagall giggling?

She stood up, and walked quite normally in the general direction of Gryffindor Tower.

When they reached his stop, Harry hopped off gracefully and sped off on his appointed course, hearing a rather disgruntled "oh, fine then," from the Transfiguration Teacher, who took a different turning.

Someone very familiar was waiting for him when he got back.

As soon as he opened the door to the dormitory, he was almost bowled over by a figure that only came up to his knee wearing some very unusual clothes.

"Dobby?"

"Harry Potter, sir! Harry Potter!"

"That's my name, Dobby."

Dobby stopped hugging him and stood back.

"Dobby had to come and see Harry Potter," he said excitedly. "I is offering to do the last dormitory check so that I can be staying longer."

"That's… that's great, Dobby."

"Yes sir! But… Harry Potter is looking different…"

Harry wondered what he was talking about for a minute.

"I don't need my glasses anymore."

"Oh."

As Dobby mulled over that, Harry looked around the room. It was almost spotless.

"You didn't have to do this, Dobby!"

Dobby looked affronted. "Oh yes, Dobby did sir. It is Dobby's job, sir. But there was just one thing, sir…"

"What was that?"

"It is this, sir," Dobby pointed out the huge black patch in the carpet. Harry winced.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"Of course not, Harry Potter! It is against the rules! But, Harry Potter, I can not get rid of it. It is not moving, sir."

His lip trembled as if he thought Harry might be angry with him for it.

"Did you try using magic, Dobby?"

"Yes, sir. Dobby is allowed, sir, because Dobby is a free elf, and is allowed to do all sorts of things… but it is not working sir. I is not knowing why, sir."

"I tried that too…" said Harry. "Tell you what, why don't we try it together?"

"You will help me, Harry Potter sir?" his eyes shone with tears.

"It's just a bit of spilled ink," said Harry. "Come over here a minute."

Dobby moved towards the ink and knelt down beside Harry, who whispered to him to try his strongest cleaning spell and sustain it.

Harry himself, found that little core of magic inside him. As Dobby stuck a long finger to the floor, Harry fed him a little of that magic energy, as much as he could spare at that moment.

It was enough. Dobby squeaked, and the black patch on the carpet faded, and turned back to red.

Dobby pulled his hand back and sucked his finger.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked quickly. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, Harry Potter sir," said Dobby with wide eyes. "But that is a lot of magic Harry Potter is giving Dobby."

"It's all I can spare, I'm afraid," said Harry. "Enjoy it while you can."

"I will, Mr. Harry Potter sir!"

Dobby waved his hand, there was a crack, and the curtains straightened, the bed neatened and the carpet was even cleaner.

Dobby danced out of the room with a hasty goodbye, and Harry heard loud 'cracks' all the way down the hall as the house elf quickly neatened all the other rooms.

Harry barely had the strength to move. He flopped onto his bed and fell instantly into sleep.

***********************************

It didn't last long. Far too soon, it seemed, someone was shaking him awake.

"Mmmm?"

"Get up you lazy thing! You'll miss dinner."

"I don' care."

"Well, Madam Pomfrey does, and don't think I won't tell her."

Harry let Wendy drag him out of bed.

"You were more tired than you let on, weren't you?"

Harry only grunted and rubbed his eyes.

"Come on, then!"

Harry glared half-heartedly after her as she bounded down the stairs. He hated anyone with energy at that point.

When they finally got down there, Harry had resorted to making faces at Wendy's back. Professor Sinistra smiled, Hagrid and Remus laughed outright.

"What's so funny?" Wendy turned around and looked at him.

Harry gave her a blank, innocent look. Even she burst out laughing at that.

"You look just like your father when you do that, Harry!"

Harry smiled a little and plonked himself down in his chair. Snape glared at him. Oh well, what was new?

The meal had already commenced. Remus looked a little sad. Harry guessed it was because it was his last time eating dinner in the Great Hall. He was going to have all his meals in his room until he left.

What fun. Harry supposed there was a reason for Remus' stay, but no one ever told him anything.

Remus nearly choked on his pie when Professor McGonagall said: "has anyone else seen a black cat around the school?"

"I did!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. "This morning. Of course I didn't get a very good look at it…"

"Yes, I reckon I've seen it around," said Remus, doing his best not to look straight at Harry.

Harry thought it would be proper to take the suspicion off himself at the offset.

"Me too."

"Beautiful creature," mused Professor McGonagall. "I wonder where he came from?"

"I suppose it's entirely possible that it has lived here for years but hasn't wanted to be noticed before now," said Dumbledore. "Hogwarts is full of surprises like that."

Someone changed the subject at that point before the Headmaster could launch into a speech about the room with the chamber pots.

When everyone had finished, Professor McGonagall gave Harry his Hogwarts letter.

"I know you already have the list," said Professor McGonagall. "But there is something else in there…"

Curious, Harry opened the envelope and took out the parchment. As he did, the 'something else' fell onto the table. It was a shiny silver badge.

"You're joking!" said Harry, turning over and looking at the emblazoned P on the front of it.

"Not in the least," said Professor McGonagall.

Harry looked at her, the badge clutched in his hand. "You do remember who I am, don't you? The one who lost over two hundred points in his first year?"

"And gained them again," pointed out Professor Flitwick.

Snape looked deadly.

"This is more like a passport, if you like," said Dumbledore. "It will give you more freedom around the school, and it has certain other… advantages."

"AND we believe you to have good sense and bravery," said Professor McGonagall, glaring at Dumbledore. Evidently, that was NOT what she thought a prefect badge should be used for.

"Er… yes, of course," said the Headmaster, giving Harry a look which said plainly 'can't argue with her'.

Harry fought the urge to laugh as he pinned the badge to his T-shirt. "Thanks a lot," he said, and meant it.

"You're very welcome Harry," said Dumbledore. "Do Hogwarts proud."

"Fred and George are going to murder me."

"If it makes you feel better, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have also been elevated."

"Great. So I get slaughtered third. They might have thought up a more ingenious way of doing it by then."

"If they do you can always take points off Gryffindor."

"Wendy!"

"Just a thought."

***************************************

"I still don't understand."

"What is it that makes it hard to understand? It just means that I get to move around the school without getting detention."

"Couldn't you do that anyway if you wanted to?"

"Well maybe, but now I can do it officially."

"What's officially?"

"It's allowed."

"Why must you do what is allowed?"

"Oh, I give up."

"Good choice."

"It's just a badge."

"I will accept that."

Harry shook his head at Sleeve and crawled into bed. It had been a good day. After a fashion. Tomorrow evening he'd see Ron again.  After he'd suffered death by twins.

**Oh my god that took a long time. I need sleep desperately. Oh well. I better finish while I'm ahead.

Here be thanks:

Shdurrani

Sky Chief: Lots of Remus' there! I'm glad you like him. And I like Harry's humour too. He definitely needs some sometimes.

Hypfan: no, no one knows except Remus and Dumbledore. Oh yeah, and Harry.

Harriet

AllAboutMe

Lupin's Niece AJ

Leaf

Gotta Luv Pippin

Badger Lord: yeah that would be kind of stupid if Harry was recogniseable because then there would not be much point in being animuchos would it?

Gandalfgrl86: yep the two destinies thing was a spur of the moment thought.

Ssjgoddesschico

Fizzysoda

Evil spapple pie: yeah yeah I know but I don't know any latin.

Tephra

Tigerdrake: thanks!

Karen

Jordan: he he you know I didn't think about that…

John: don't worry it'll be a scream.

Kateydidnt

WeasleyTwinsLover1112: hello 'gain.

SiLv[3]R

Musicgal2001: hmm yes kinda freaky…

Bumblebee Bucy: yes yes I knew. In the newspapers but not on the front page. Whyyy? Of course I forgive you! You won't miss this one cause it's very late.

K00lgirl1808

Autumn Dreams

Sabrina: whoops forgot the line.

Katani Petitedra

Lucerito-del-alba

Skahducky

Chanzo654

Jen

Centra-gal86

Chelsea Paton

Young Phoenix

Knight-Wolves

K. H. T.

The Queen of Fire and Ice

August wynd: yes, do you know why it's not a school day? Cause they reckon that kids will bunk off to go buy it first! He he dumb.

Shinystars007

Anon

NOT reader because you are just rude and horrid and mean and you can go jump in a hole.

Darienetta Stoke

Unknown(even to me

Lani Lathron

AllieSkittles: he he you pressed the button three times…

Angel

Chanzo654

Lanfear

Ok, ok that was long. Thank you everyone for the 52 reviews and stuff. Yeah cool. Sorry if I am seeming a bit short. Must… have… sleep…

Love ~Laterose~**