Currently unfinished chuckles I have yet to finish this chapter, but let me know what you think.

Disclamer: The usual Harry Potter disclamer belongs here... Oh, and this was co-written with a friend of mine... So kudo's to her although I may continue on my own due to busy scheduals.

Lost and Found

Chapter 1: The lost

It was oddly comforting, the silence that surrounded him as he walked back from a late-night detention with Professor McGonagall. While he still did homework, played Quidditch, went to class and got detention like other students, Harry Potter felt oddly outside of everything. Compared to the whirlwind of events during the second term of his fifth year, his sixth had been oddly quiet. Yes, Voldemort was still out there, still wanted him, but he seemed content to wait for the moment, amusing himself by gathering followers and killing the occasional Muggle. Harry's summer back at 4 Privet Drive had been as fun as ever, though Dudley was now absolutely terrified of him, refusing to stay in the same room. Harry didn't mind this at all, preferring to spend his days wandering the neighborhood, knowing full well that there was a wizard or witch from the Order tailing his every move. He didn't care to look for them. He didn't care about much at all. Having lost the last of what he could honestly call his family, Harry was very angry with the world in general, and several people in particular. Sure, it wasn't really any one person's fault that Sirius was now gone, though he still wanted a crack at that Lestrange woman. He understood that Sirius had died on his own terms, fighting and protecting his best friend's son. But that didn't make it hurt any less. Now in his sixth year, things were still out of focus for him. He had done well enough on his O.W.L's that he could still possibly become an Auror, and he was determined to do just that. There were a lot of people that had to answer for the things that had happened to him, and Voldemort was at the top of that list. He was brooding once again when he came across a pair of cloaked figures sneaking out of the dungeons, one carrying a package of what was probably things filched out of Snape's personal stores. At first he thought it may be Fred and George Weasley, but then he remembered that the twins were out of school and working on their joke shop. Following after them, he could hear their hushed voices. It was a pair of girls, or maybe women, and one was practically dragging the other behind her. "Come on," One of the women said in a hushed voice. She looked around a bit and Harry ducked into the shadows of the hall. Harry's eyes narrowed as the woman's blue grey eyes looked into his corner, and let out a puff of breath as she turned on and continued pulling her friend. They had left the dungeons doors open and knowing Snape as he did Harry knew that whatever was missing would be blamed on him. Harry knew he should have turned around and headed back to McGonagall's office to let her know what was going on but part of him, so like his father and Sirius himself, had him following the two. They led him far from the grounds, down a very familiar dark corridor and into a dark room full of blue lights. Harry knew this room, he was in the Department of Mysteries, and he'd lost Sirius in one of these rooms not quite half a year before. Harry felt a growing unease as he continued to follow them. He really shouldn't have come here, what if it was another trap set by Voldemort? But follow he did, down dark steps into the place where he'd lost Sirius, Death Chamber. Harry melted into the shadows; this wasn't right what were they doing here. He watched as the two women pulled out a caldron and mixed small amounts of things from vials by the light of the fire under the caldron. He gaped as the blue-grey eyed woman handed the potion to the other and told her to drink, and then cast some strange spell on the veil. The veil glowed a silvery color as did the other woman; a rope of white slowly formed around the woman and one end vanished into the veil. "You're going to have to pull yourself Birdie," Blue eyes said no longer in a hushed voice. "I can't risk it breaking by helping you... You can do it though, you know better than anyone what it means to have Black-" She didn't finish since Harry had let out a deafening roar of anger and charged her. The woman stepped back in shock and pulled out her wand to defend herself as spells came hurtling at her from Harry. "You Won't Get Sirius!" Harry roared attempting to stun the woman only to have her duck and avoid it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other woman pull on the rope, and turned to confront her. The hood fell away in the woman's struggle and showed shock white long hair falling softly from under the hood in the light of the veil. Harry raised his wand to strike as a section of the veil darkened in the shape of a man's body. "Stupe-" He started to say but then saw nothing but darkness as the other woman's stunning attack hit him, and he went down into the darkness thinking of how he again let Sirius down.

He woke with a start, sitting bolt-upright in his bed. Looking around, it took him a moment to realize he was in the boys' dormitory, safe at Hogwarts. He let his face sink into his hands, trying to concentrate on the dream even as it faded from his memory. The faces were starting to fade away, but he was sure he'd seen Blue Eyes somewhere before. The other woman was familiar too, but he was sure he'd remember someone with shockingly white hair. Maybe he was just tired, studying for N.E.W.T.'s and from the world in general, as Voldemort was getting bolder by the day. Wait! The women in his dream, had they been trying to pull Sirius from the archway? Why would they want to do that? Were they working for Voldemort? Did he want Sirius that badly that he would have two of his Death Eaters try to resurrect him? Somehow, though, he got the feeling that the white-haired woman wasn't evil. The look in her eyes had made it seem like she had a personal stake in this. The dream was fading faster by the minute as dawn broke. Harry gave up trying to remember it after a while, but he did not go back to sleep. He was too awake now, so instead he dressed and went down to the common room to look over his notes. Hermione would be impressed, he allowed himself to smile. But the dream still occupied his thoughts, even as he later followed his friends to the Great Hall for breakfast. Breakfast was the usual fare. Hermione was reading her notes, propped up against a jar of marmalade, Ron was scribbling the last paragraph of an essay due in less than an hour, and the others were all eating and chatting as if nothing was out of place. At the Head Table, Dumbledore was chatting idly with Professor McGonagall, and you could think that it was a scene out of his first year, the way they were so relaxed in front of the students. Snape looked extra grumpy, but that was hardly out of the ordinary, as the man was never happy. But at least Harry didn't have to take Potions with him anymore. That had quite possibly been the highlight of his sixth year, not taking Potions anymore. Everything seemed normal, but something nagged at the back of his mind. Looking down the row of teachers, he took in Professors Flitwick and Sprout engaged in some particularly animated conversation, and Professor Vector was asked something of Professor Harin. She was one of the new staff members that had come just this year. She'd taken over for Professor Binns when he finally realized it was time to move on. History of Magic had been much more interesting now that she taught it. "It's certainly more lively," Ron had joked, getting a groan from Harry and Hermione. Of course, they had yet another new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Professor MacCalin was strange, with the scars running down the left side of his face and neck, and his dark demeanor. Not that he seemed like an evil person. He was simply rather gruff with people, and apparently had been in Slytherin with Snape when they were at school together. That was another strange thing. All of the new staff members had been at school with his parents. That included the new 'nurse'. Madame Pomfrey was still running the Hospital Wing, but Miss Anderson was now helping out the older witch. She was also doubling as a sort of counselor for the students, though the staff was more than welcome to talk to her. He hadn't been to see her just yet, but a few of the other students had, having nothing but good things to say about her. She was soft-spoken, very understanding, and could reason around just about any problem there was. When his eyes came to her at the opposite end of the table from Haggrid, he froze. Her shocking white hair, falling just to her shoulders, framed a face that was hauntingly familiar. Had she been the woman in his dream? Honestly, how often did you see a woman with white hair at such a young age? Miss Anderson was quietly picking at her food, her deep blue eyes not focusing on anything in particular. Curled at her feet was her white Scottish terrier. It was interesting when she first came to Hogwarts with the little dog faithfully following her wherever she went. Little Scooter never left her side; it seemed, except when either Mrs. Norris or Snape was around. That had been interesting, seeing the little dog bark and snarl at the Potions Master when they happened to cross paths at the beginning of the year. Miss Anderson had tried to keep him back, though he could have sworn that laughter had been dancing in her eyes all the same. "Oi, Harry, you in there?" Ron's voice brought him back to the present. "Huh? Yeah, what is it?" he asked, turning back to his friends. "I asked if we were still having practice in this awful weather," Ron repeated. "Of course, you were too busy staring at Miss Anderson up there to listen to me." "I wasn't staring at her, Ron. I was thinking," he replied. "Hey, I don't blame you if you were. She's certainly easy on the eyes," the redhead grinned, glancing up at the Head Table himself. "Ron, she's old enough to be your mother!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "Besides, I think she's married anyway." "What makes you say that, 'Mione?" "Maybe the ring on her left hand?" she replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Man, that must be one lucky guy..." Ron sighed, earning a smack on the shoulder from Hermione. "What?" He asked with a grin. In an attempt to keep yet another argument from breaking out between the Head Boy and Girl Harry answered his friend's first question. "Of course we still have practice," He said with a smile. Half the time the other members of the Quidditch team that had known Wood had groaned and complained that Harry was just like him. "We've got to keep ahead of things if we want to beat Slytherin again." "Speaking of Snakes," Ron said in an amused yet quiet whisper to both Hermione and Harry. "Did you hear that Draco's been given two weeks detention already? He also lost 10 points from Slytherin, all from the new Dark Arts teacher." "Wasn't he supposed to have been in Slytherin?" Hermione said shocked that a former house member would dock his old house points for any reason. "I heard that Professor MacCalin didn't like his housemates that well," Ron continued. "And that he liked Malfoy least of all." At the mention of Malfoy all three looked over at the Slytherin table where Draco was smiling and plotting something with Crabbe, Goyle; their gazes often drifting to the head table. "I think they're planning how to get back at Professor MacCalin for giving Malfoy detention." "Wouldn't surprise me too much," Harry said with a sigh and a shake of his head. He didn't really care, at the moment, what nasty trick Draco was going to try and bully someone with. His dream was still fresh in his mind and he had yet to tell the others he'd had it again.
Later, tramping back into the common room after a particularly wet practice, Harry and Ron slumped into the couches before the blazing fire, too tired at the moment to make it up the last steps to the dormitories. Practice had been a normal affair, aside from the howling winds and driving rains. Ron had complained loudly about the weather to Harry, both because he was trying to egg on the rest of the team, and because no one would have heard him above the storm otherwise. "Still can't believe you made us practice in this awful weather!" he made one final complain, shaking some of the remaining raindrops from his damp red hair.
"I've played matches in worse weather, so you can practice in this weather," Harry replied simply, pulling off his shoes and proceeding to peel off the soggy socks beneath. He hadn't actually been paying very close attention to his team as they practice, thoughts about his dream still nagging at his brain. "Well I hope none of our matches are in the rain. I nearly slipped of my broom, everything was so wet!"
"I'm sure Hermione could come up with a glue charm for you."
"There's a pleasant though. Having a broom permanently glued to my arse. That's as close as I'd ever come to having a stick up my arse like Snape." "And you'd be far more fashionable," Harry laughed a little. "We'd better get out of these robes before Hermione comes storming down here ranting about catching colds and such." The pair made their way up the spiral staircase and into the room they still shared with Neville and Dean. Both got dressed for bed, but while Ron climbed into his four-poster and fell straight asleep, Harry sat there in the dark, thinking. After a few more moments, mainly to assure that his roommates were all indeed asleep, he pulled his Invisibility Cloak & the Marauder's Map out of his trunk and made his way out of the Tower, stepping as lightly as he could. Something had finally occurred to him that made him wonder why he hadn't thought of it in the first place. When you needed information that you couldn't find in the regular stacks, check out the restricted section of the Library. Of course, there was no way to cook up an excuse for looking in there, and he wasn't feeling very patient right now. So, with map and cloak in hand, he silently crept into the Library and towards the restricted stacks. Since the end of fifth year, no one had given him a straight answer about what that veil had been. Lupin had seemed quite sure that it was a one-way door, but a door to where? Everyone had tried to dissuade him from thinking on it further, and he'd succeeded in putting it from his mind for a time, but the dreams had brought it back to the forefront with a vengeance. Scanning the shelves, he looked for anything about veils, death, or anything related. None of the titles leapt out at him, until a particularly dusty volume caught his eye, crammed into the bottom corner of one of the shelves. The dust around it had been disturbed some time ago, maybe a year or more, and its ancient cover read 'Veils: Gateway to the Netherworld'. Vaguely wondering who in the world had last read this volume, he started flipping through its pages. A creak of a distant door made him loose his grip on the book, and he barely caught it before it hit the stone floor. Sighing in relief when no one appeared, he looked back down at the book. He'd caught it underneath, so the pages themselves had fallen open to what seemed to be a random page. Upon further inspection, he noticed that it had been pressed open recently. Whoever had taken this book last had been interested in this particular page. Scanning the words, his heart skipped a beat. This particular passage was talking about pulling someone back through a veil, but it required a peculiar creature to pull this off. "Valkyries, the little known group that are descended partially from phoenixes, form a bond with their mate at the age of 15, and this bond lasts the entire lifespan of the Valkyrie. If severed by the death of the mate, the Valkyrie most often dies. However, if the circumstances are right, she can survive. Furthermore, if a veil was involved in the death, often times the mate can be pulled back through the doorway."
This was starting to sound exactly like his dream. He read further, hoping more and more that he was right. The next passage was detailed instructions on pulling someone back through the veil. There was a ridiculously complicated potion, and a relatively simple chant. Its effects sounded exactly like what he'd seen. "After the mate has been pulled back through to the world of the living, the Valkyrie's hair will return to its natural gold and red state. This spell must be accomplished within a year, however, or there is no hope of pulling anyone back through the veil and the Valkyrie will, in most cases, die." Harry sat back, leaning against the dusty shelves and resting the book in his lap. It was possible. But it would have had to have happened at the end of last term or earlier. And if it had happened, why wouldn't anyone have told him? Then again, the way the women had been sneaking around, maybe no one knew. That would be quite a feat, considering it was hardly a simple matter to keep anything from Albus Dumbledore. But he hadn't heard even a whisper about it from anyone, so it was still possible. Before he could consider it further, he heard another creaking noise. Hurriedly, he shoved the book back into its place and pulled the Cloak around his shoulders. He tried to walk as fast as possible without making any noise, which was proving to be harder than it seemed. Glancing at the map, he saw no one nearby, but was silent all the same. He was almost to the portait hole when a shadowy figure stopped him in his tracks. "May I ask what is so important that it couldn't wait until tomorrow morning?" the figure said, its voice the voice of a woman. Harry didn't move. He was under the cloak, so he couldn't possibly be seen. "I know you're standing right there, Harry. You can take off that cloak," the woman continued. She stepped forward, and Miss Anderson's pale face was illuminated by the flickering torch light. The red flames danced across her features and in her white hair. White hair....
Giving up, Harry let the cloak slip off, sighing in defeat. "Let me guess, a whole lot of points and detention for a month?" "Only 30, since I should dock points for being out of bed after hours. And only a night of detention. Going to the library isn't a capital offense, you know," she smiled softly. Harry was surprised to notice that Scooter wasn't prancing about her feet. "How did you...?" "Saw you in the library. I don't know what you were looking for, but please don't look for it late at night again," she replied. "As for your detention, you can clean the Trophy Room. Without magic of course. Tomorrow night at 7pm, and I will stop by to make sure you're there." She nodded a good night and disappeared down the hall before Harry could ask how he hadn't seen her in the library. Then it occurred to him what Dumbledore had told him back in his first year. "I don't need a cloak to become invisible."
"You got a detention? Harry, what on earth were you doing?" Hermione chided him the next day at dinner. He'd not told either of them until Ron asked if he was up for a game of chess that evening.
"Yeah! And why didn't you let me come along?" Ron added. "Ron! You are not helping!"
"Sorry..." "There was something I wanted to look up in the library. I got caught on my way back."
"What was so important that you needed to look it up in the middle of the night?" Hermione asked. "Just something I'd been thinking about. And it was in the Restricted Section, so I couldn't just walk in there during the day."
"Who caught you? If it's only one night of detention, it couldn't have been Snape, or even McGonagall!" Ron asked. "It was Miss Anderson. Wonder why she was up in the middle of the night. She was fully dressed and everything," Harry shrugged in reply. "I'd better get to the Trophy Room. It's nearing seven." Ron left with him, telling Hermione that he'd rather keep Harry company than work on the homework Snape had assigned when she asked where he was off to. The Trophy Room was more full than he remembered, having not been in here for some years now. Sighing to himself, he started scrubbing the nearest pile of plaques with the bucket and rag that had been left for him. It was nearly eight by the time Miss Anderson appeared, Scooter trotting happily behind her. She didn't seem all that surprised to see Ron there with him. "I see you're making progress. It's getting harder and harder to clean this place out. You'd think someone would put these things in storage somewhere, but no one ever does," she said, glancing around at the mounds of plaques and trophies. Scooter seemed particularly interested on one pile, but Miss Anderson called him back. "You ought to be finished soon, I expect. Once you're done, just leave the bucket here. Mr. Filch will take care of it." She left as quietly as she had appeared, closing the door behind her. "She certainly is strange. Beautiful, but strange," Ron remarked as Harry got back to work. "Oi, check out what that dog of hers was sniffing at! Old House Cup awards! And these are from the 70's!" "What?" Harry walked over to see what Ron was talking about. They were indeed from his parents' generation, and it looked like Gryffindor had won several years in a row when they'd been in school. He wasn't all that surprised to see Sirius's name on the plaque along with his father's. Of course he would have been on the house team. What was surprising, however, was two of the other names. There, as plain as day, were the names 'Serendipity Harin' and 'Robyn Avery Anderson'. While some would say that this was merely a coincidence, having seen what he'd seen over the past 7 years he was inclined to think it was more than a coincidence. So the two newer staff members had been at school with his parents. He was willing to bet that the other new professor had been as well. Something nagged at the back of his mind, some connection that was half made. "That's kinda neat. Maybe you can ask them about what they remember from school or something," he heard Ron say. He simply nodded and continued to clean the trophy he was working on.

"Morning Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley," Professor Harin said as she passed the boys to open the door to the History of Magic class room. "You two look rather... tired?" She said giving them a soft smile indicating that she knew that one of the two had, had detention the night before. "I trust you got your homework done, what with N.E.W.Ts coming this year and all..."
"Yes Professor," Ron said with a smile and Harry nodded briskly not quite ready to face the Professor that had been on the same team with both his father and Sirius. They walked over to their seats and were soon joined by Hermione. "What do ya think the golden perch over there is for Mione?" Ron said leaning around Harry to talk to her.
This caught Harry's attention and he turned his head to look where Ron was pointing. His eyes caught on the golden perch and he stiffened in his seat, not even hearing the start of the lecture for the day. It was exactly like the one he'd seen in Dumbledore's office years ago, the one that Fawks was reborn in every so often. Could she have a phoenix? Harry thought to himself turning and looking at Professor Harin. He was definitely going to have to look up more on these Valkyries.
"Oy... Harry... hello?" Ron whispered in his ear to get his attention.