A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers. Just thought to mention that I won't be insulted if you tell me this next chapter really sucks. I think it's a little boring too. (by the way, I burst out laughing when I saw that review that said something along the lines of; 'this story is beginning to sound a lot like something JK Rowling would write if she were really bored.' Whoever said that, it's a classic!) Don't worry, the story does pick up again. Every once in awhile I went into a sort of 'Hagrid's Tale' type phase. I promise, I was well out of that sort of nonsense by the end.

Hufflepuff Disclaimer: Well, it's really not the money that matters, is it? I mean, The best part about this sort of writing is finding out how much fun everyone is having reading it. It's about being a real chum to people like JKR who let us borrow her characters. Er... Isn't it?

Chapter Twenty -

Good Advice

Harry's eyes opened to stare into the laughing ones of Remus, who was leaning over the side of the bed looking slightly green. "Good morning. Did you know that you twitch and growl while you sleep?" He asked, ruffling the big bushy mane weakly. "Did you have a dream about chasing mice or something?"

Greymane purred his laughter. In fact, he'd been dreaming very happily about chasing an engorged fly, but he thought it might be too silly to mention. He yawned and stretched, then changed back into Harry.

"What time is it?" Harry asked groggily.

"Just after eleven."

"S'too early." Harry grumbled.

"Too early for who? A vampire?" Remus croaked, sounding no closer to waking properly than Harry felt.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked him cautiously giving him a quick once-over to see that he had no broken appendages or anything. After hearing the horrible cracking sound Remus' bones had made when he was turning back into a human, it was a bit of a surprise to now find everything completely intact.

"I'm all right, considering. It's usually much worse just after I change back. When I'm nervous about it the night before, my muscles don't relax properly, and it's painful. The transformations are hard, but recovering is more difficult if I've hurt myself. And because you were there, I haven't hurt myself at all."

"That's good. Do you need anything?"

"No thanks. I'll probably just apparate back to Headquarters from here, once I'm feeling up to it, and then maybe I'll sleep for another few hours."

"Before you go..." Harry walked over to the makeshift desk he had made out of a small mouse infested cabinet. "I was hoping I could talk to you a bit."

"All right." Remus said. "First, do you mind casting another heating charm around this room? It's a little cold."

"All right." Harry heated the room with a wave of his hand, and Remus smiled.

"You've been practicing."

"I have. I can do quite a lot without a wand and without sound now. I still find it better for dueling and more comfortable to use my wand, but it's getting easier. I find it easiest when I'm doing charms like that one." As if to demonstrate, he also put a silencing charm on the room using nothing but a finger twitch. Remus must have felt the spell go up, because he smiled broadly. Harry grinned back. "Hermione is better at transfiguration without sound and wand but I was able to make it work for my animagus."

Remus smiled. "Good. Now what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Here." Harry handed over the envelopes he'd created earlier that morning, and Remus looked at them questioningly. "I was wondering if I could ask you to be the arbitrator of my will."

Remus gaped at him.

"I know it sounds awfully premature of me to be thinking of this sort of thing, but it feels important that I do this."

"Why?" Remus looked at the letters in his hands. They were labeled 'Eyespy', 'Sidetrack', 'Sabertooth', 'Wrinkles', 'Stickyfoot', and a particularily thick one labeled 'Moony.'

"It's because of the prophecy." Harry sighed, and sat down next to Remus, and resigned himself to telling the prophecy again. He couldn't help but wonder if now that he felt comfortable talking about it, he might be telling too many people, but each of the people that knew of it's contents were people he trusted wholeheartedly, and they were stronger people for the knowing.

He had now told the story so often, that he didn't even wince when he came to the part that said 'And one must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives.'

"All right. I'll do it." Remus answered. "This doesn't mean that I believe in prophecies, or that I believe that you're going to come out the loser if it is true, but just that I understand how important this is to you. I know you just want to be prepared for any eventuality. Just understand, Harry, that I believe this world to be a sad place indeed, when a sixteen-year-old is worried enough about his own death that he writes out a will and final letters to his friends."

"Don't worry Remus." Harry waved a hand in dismissal. "Everyone has to die eventually. Just think of this as a disease or something where I have a thirty percent-or-so chance that I'll survive."

Remus shuddered. "I don't like those odds at all."

"Yeah, but what can I do about it? I mean, other than just go completely insane and run after the most dangerous dark lord ever to have risen in a total murderous rage?"

"You can practice and learn as many defensive spells as necessary, then keep them all as secret as possible."

"What do you mean?"

"Well that thing you said about having power the dark lord knows not. If you keep more things about your abilities secret, then you have more options regarding what your power is that he doesn't know. I mean, I'm sure it's something to do with love and friendship like Dumbledore suggests, but knowing other things that can help you understand and use that strength can only be a positive move. As long as no one else knows you're sort of training yourself to do this."

"That makes sense, it's sort of what I was thinking anyhow. I just hadn't really made the consious decision."

"Maybe if you experiment a bit. Try out some spells of your own invention, you could hike up those odds as much as possible, and you would have an eighty or ninety percent chance of surviving."

Harry nodded. "I've never invented a spell before, but eighty percent sounds better than fifty percent."

"Try to think up or research spells that use emotional magic. Spells like the patronus spell that make you remember that you are truly a light wizard."

Harry snorted with laughter. "Don't ever say that in front of professor Vector."

"Big fan of yours?"

"Just very enthusiastic about 'light wizardry'." Harry explained.

They sat in silence for a moment, before Remus said suddenly, "So where was Sabertooth hiding all that time? Did she tell you?"

Harry laughed. "She said she's keeping it a secret until next time. We're all going to have to gang up on her to discover it."

"Hmm... I think that could be fun."

"Sidetrack and Eyespy were trying to draw it out of her this morning. They started to get a little angry when she refused to let them know." Harry paused, thinking about what he had just said. It was almost second nature now to be thinking of his friends in their new nicknames, and Harry smiled at the thought.

Remus sighed, breaking the silence. "Well then, I think I'm feeling well enough to apparate. Help me up?"

Harry held out his arm, and Remus got unsteadily to his feet. "Goodbye Harry. Think about what I said, and I'll be sure to put these in a safe place."

"I will think about it. If I need to change some things about those in the future, I'll let you know. I'll be seeing you at Christmas."

They clasped their arms around each other, then Remus nodded, and popped out of the Shrieking shack.

000000

Inventing spells, as Harry quickly discovered, was a refined art.

In order to create a spell, one needed to first know what spells were available, and try to combine, or to alter those spells just enough to make them more useful in a specific setting.

Harry spent a good week in the library with nothing but a pile of basic arithmancy books and his wand.

The first two spells Harry made up, Hermione patiently informed him that they were already in use, and she demonstrated a far simpler version of both. Harry went back to the library feeling defeated.

The third spell was actually quite ingenious, but Harry felt a little guilty about the results. He was especially dismayed because of the fact that it had nothing to do with emotional magic. It was what he called the mastication charm, and it was meant to cause people to bite their tongues.

In essence, Harry thought that if the enemy couldn't speak, it was less likely that they would be able to curse him, unless they were very advanced at soundless magic. Not a bad goal in itself.

Of course, Hermione had to remind him that there was the 'silencio' charm available, making sounds disappear, but Harry argued that biting one's tongue gave the attacker something a bit more painful to think about than just the fact that he or she couldn't speak. He pointed out to her that she had been injured in the Department of Mysteries by a Death-Eater who had been supposedly silenced. It had only had an effect on the intensity of Dolohov's spell, not on the spell itself.

Mind you, he hadn't intended this new charm to be quite so successful.

He hadn't wanted to practice the spell on just anyone, in case something happened that he couldn't forsee, but for a whole week, he kept the spell in the back of his mind, waiting for his chance.

Draco Malfoy provided the perfect opportunity.

"They'll never know what hit them." Harry overheard Malfoy telling Crabbe and Goyle just outside their afternoon Potions class on Monday afternoon. He simulated crushing something with his hands, smacking them together and making a squishing noise with his mouth. Crabbe and Goyle burst out laughing.

He hadn't noticed Harry, Ron and Hermione following them at a distance, trying to look discreet.

Halfway to the entrance hall, Harry shoved his books behind a statue of a surly looking witch, and quickly rapped himself on the head. He felt the disillusionment spell running down his back, and turned to see that Ron and Hermione had each performed the spell on each other.

"All right?" he asked, and he could see their vague shadows nod simultaneously.

"Where have they gone?" he heard Ron ask. "I didn't see."

"They're heading for the door." Hermione answered, and sure enough, the three Slytherins were moving toward the tall oak front doors, looking warily over their shoulders.

They definitely missed seeing the three Gryffindors moving towards them, and stopping less than ten feet away.

The Slytherins slipped out the door, cackling to each other, and moved out across the frosty grounds towards the quiddich pitch.

Draco moved directly toward the Gryffindor change rooms, and glanced around, grinning evilly.

Harry, Ron and Hermione moved closer, and stood as still as possible behind the broom shed.

"Portos maximus drac excrementos!" Malfoy muttered, pointing his wand at the door.

"Uh-oh." Hermione whispered. "We do not want that spell to function properly."

"I can imagine." Harry whispered back. Malfoy must have checked the bulletin board for quidditch practice times. Ron had booked the pitch for that afternoon.

"Is that Ben?" Ron whispered, his invisible head shimmered as it cocked to the side.

Harry listened. It certainly sounded like Ben Rogers was absently humming a tune in the changerooms, and the sound was moving auspiciously towards the door.

Hermione rapped herself viciously on the head, and leapt out from behind the shed. "Alohomora! Ouverte!" she yelled, effectively unlocking and opening the jinxed door, which set off a huge cascade of brown while also getting the perpetrators' attentions.

"Lashant!" Malfoy yelled pointing his wand angrily at Hermione, but Ron, who was still invisible, stepped in front of her, and blocked the whipping spell with a very visible advanced golden shield. It fired back toward the three goons, just missing Goyle's ear by an inch.

Harry knew this probably shouldn't turn into any sort of battle, so he stepped forward, also rapping himself on the head.

As soon as Draco saw Harry, he turned on him.

Harry knew he would be in danger if he didn't stop things quickly, so he pointed his own wand at Malfoy just as Malfoy was noticing him.

"Dentera!"

Malfoy howled. His head whipped back in sudden pain and he dropped his wand. The Slytherin screamed and brought his hands up to his mouth, which was spurting blood in all directions.

Harry grabbed Ron and Hermione, and pulled them back over behind the broom shed. He dissillusioned himself, and also rapped Hermione on the head.

"Ron! Get rid of the shield!" he hissed.

The large gold shield disappeared, and they waited, their invisible wands in hand.

Crabbe was busy trying to calm Malfoy down enough to look into his mouth, but Malfoy was having fits, and nothing Crabbe did was making any difference.

Goyle had wandered stupidly over to where the disillusioned trio were hidden. He had his wand drawn, but it wasn't all that well placed to defend himself if that had been their intention.

Nonetheless, Harry, Ron and Hermione stood deathly still, hardly breathing. As it was, he could feel Ron shaking with barely contained mirth at the sight of Crabbe, who was now trying to wipe the coating of smelly brown sludge off the bottom of his robes.

"There's no one here!" Goyle called over to Malfoy, but Malfoy was too distracted, and his tongue was too swollen and bloody to answer, and he just spat out a glob of blood, gave Goyle a disgusted glare, and ran away up to the infirmary with Crabbe hot on his heels.

Goyle peered cautiously beside the broom shed, but after a moment, shrugged stupidly, grabbed Malfoy's dropped wand, and followed his gang.

"Harry?" a familiar voice called tentatively from the back exit of the change rooms. Ben walked around the corner, avoiding the contaminated front entrance.

"Hey Ben." Harry called from the shadows.

"Harry? Where are you?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione re-isillusioned themselves all at about the same time, and Ben leapt back in surprise. "Whoa!" He yelled.

"Watch the pile there." Ron cautioned, pointing behind Ben's feet.

Ben looked behind him, taking careful reference of where he was standing, compared to the large pile of dragon dung. He was only a foot away from the pile of rancid manure.

"I guess you guys were the ones that stopped this from getting me?" he asked.

"Yeah," Hermione explained, "if you had opened that door, then the stuff would have hit you spot on. I'm not sure he was aiming for you specifically, but all the same..."

Ben turned a little green at the thought. "Thanks for that."

"You're welcome." Harry answered.

"What was that spell you just used, Harry?" Ben asked, cautiously. "I've never heard of it before."

"Come to think of it, neither have I." Ron broke in. "It looked as if he tried to bite off his tongue."

Harry grinned sheepishly. "I made it up. I didn't mean for it to have quite that much effect. He was only supposed to bite it, not bite it off."

Hermione shrugged. "I'm just glad you tried it on someone like him first, and not on us."

"Where do you guys learn all of these spells?" Ben asked. "I've hardly seen any of them. Wasn't that shield you used auror grade?" he asked, turning to Ron. "That's not the sort of thing you learn here."

"Experience." Ron explained.

"And practice." Harry pointed out. "Something of which every good Gryffindor needs plenty." And he moved forward to speak with Ben in a very low voice.

After only a minute, Ben had decided he would be joining the DA at the next meeting. He didn't really know what it was about, or what he was getting himself into, but if it could get him casting spells the same way Harry, Ron and Hermione just had, then it was worth the wait.

000000

Harry had some research to do, and he needed help.

"Hermione, what do you know about crime detection and sleuthing in the wizarding world?"

They were in the library late Sunday afternoon after Harry's detention from Snape, and although Ron and Hermione were both actually studying, Harry had stopped, and was propping up his chin on his fist looking thoughtful. The encounter with Malfoy and his goons had caused something of an awakening in Harry's mind.

Hermione looked at him blankly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean like Sherlock Holmes or something. The way he just knows some things by analysing the facts, and that he can just be able to solve a puzzle by looking at it. And how he's always involved in the best sort of mysteries. Are there people like that in the wizarding world?"

"Sure-what who?" Ron asked.

Hermione tutted, and rolled her eyes. "Sherlock Holmes. He was a fictional muggle detective character." She turned to look at Harry with surprise on her face. "You know, I haven't got a clue. I know the ministry has some department for that, but..." She looked at the bookshelf behind Harry as though the information might just be absorbed through her skin. "I'll do some research for you. How's that?"

Harry nodded. It was more than he could have hoped for. With Hermione doing research she was likely to have anything in the library about wizarding detectives memorized by tomorrow.

"I suggest you ask the Fat Friar." Ron piped up, bringing his eyes casually back to his parchment.

Both Harry and Hermione stared at him in disbelief. When Ron's eyes lifted, he caught their gazes, and asked, "What?"

"Why the Fat Friar?" Harry asked. "What does the Ghost of Hufflepuff have to do with sleuthing?"

"Oh, Ernie MacMillain was bragging about the Fat Friar's career, and how back in the eleventh century, friars and religious leaders like him were sometimes more like detectives, since people would usually believe that the stuff they learned through detection was information sent to them by God. He said that the Fat Friar solved some pretty famous cases in his lifetime. He was especially useful because he could use magic means to do it."

"So obviously there are the same sort of detectives in the Wizarding world as in the Muggle world! There you go Harry! You can ask him!" Hermione grinned in excitement.

Ron pushed his half-finished essay away. "Are you thinking about becoming a detective or something?"

Harry darted his eyes around the library to make sure that no one was listening. "I was thinking that we should all become detectives." If I live that long. He thought to himself, but decided not to say it aloud.

Hermione and Ron gaped at him.

Hermione was the first one to pick her jaw up off the floor. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but why?"

"Well..." Harry began and cleared his throat. "We've all had a lot of experience with danger, and we're all pretty curious about what goes on around us. Ever since I found out about Aurors, I've wanted to be one, but I don't really want to work for the ministry." He paused to let the thoughts sink into their heads properly. "It seems to me that all Aurors do is get told which dark wizards to chase, then they have to go and do it. They never have much of a chance to actually research that dark wizard, and why he is the way he is. Whether or not he or she is in fact, guilty of the crime."

Both Ron and Hermione had eyes as wide as saucers.

"Hermione, you said you didn't want to be an Auror, but you wanted to do somthing really worthwhile. I would say detecting is worthwhile. You could do lots of research that way, and still be in an active and maybe slightly dangerous job."

She nodded, looking stunned.

"And Ron, you're really good at strategy. I know you don't get the best marks and you don't feel like you stand out very much. Do you really just want to be an Auror for the ministry? Where all you get to do is what your superior tells you? Or do you want to apply your gift for strategy somewhere? Some job where you know people won't take advantage of you?"

"Harry this is genius!" Ron exploded at once.

"Thanks." Harry mumbled. "I think this could really work, if we know what we're doing. I mean, we've had a lot of experience just using our heads in tough situations, and we all tend to have pretty good fighting instincts..."

Hermione immediately slammed her book shut, and tromped off to the shelves.

"Did I say something wrong?" Harry muttered to Ron.

"I don't think so... She's looking for something specific."

Indeed she was. Harry had always been impressed with Hermione's ability to find any book she needed quickly, but this was getting rediculous. Hermione returned to their table after a search of about thirty seconds with a fat book titled 'Detection Spells'. "I think this could help." She flopped the book down in front of them.

"How do you do that?" Ron asked her amazed. "Do you have the whole library memorized or something?"

"Oh, well I was looking for something else earlier, and I came across this one. It wasn't what I was looking for, so I skipped it over. Now that I've looked closer, this isn't the only one. There are a few more like it on the shelf."

"You mean to tell me that you went through the entire library looking for one specific book? Bloody hell, Hermione! Did you ever find it?"

Hermione gave him a sharp frown, meaning she hadn't, and began to read aloud.

"This is the preface...right... 'The History of Wizarding Detection has been quite varied in its success. Because of this, not many wizarding detectives have been given notoriety, and the spells and methods are immediately seen as untrustworthy and easily falsified.'"

Ron sighed. "Well, so much for that. It was a good idea, but I don't want people to think I'm always lying to them. No offense Harry, but you've already been through that."

"Hang on..." Hermione scanned ahead a bit. "Ministry officials were forced to aknowledge the validity of detection in eighteen-fourty-six, and since then, the art of detection has been growing steadily in popularity. It is not yet recognized as binding fact in a ministry court setting, but British ministry wizards are now taking steps to remedy this dramatic oversight.' Hold on a minute... when was this published?" She flipped to the front page, and checked the publication date. "Eighteen ninety-four." She muttered. "I'll have to look up something more recent too, but for now..." she flipped back to the preface and continued to read.

"This text contains information on blood tracking, wand imprints, charm revealers, pensieve use, footprint and fingerprint dusting, image memorization, charms for sensing eavesdroppers, and the many detection potions that force statements and confirm veritability." Hermione's eyes opened wider and wider until it seemed that all they could see was her sparkling excited eyes. "Oh, Harry. Everything is here! This is so interesting!"

"Right. You read that then, and pass it on to us when you're done." Harry looked over to Ron, who looked just as excited. "We probably shouldn't tell anyone about this. I'm still not sure that this is what I want to do, but we'll stay quiet about it for now right?"

Ron began to laugh. "We'll call ourselves the Detective Agency! The DA for short!"

Hermione giggled. "Those letters do seem to fit themselves into the oddest of places. I guess if we say it in a certain context, then only the three of us will know what we're really talking about." She stood again and returned to the shelves. After a minute, she had retrieved another two books from the shelves. One titled, 'Amateur Sleuthing.' Which she handed to Ron. The other book she held was called 'A History of Wizarding Detection' and she handed it to Harry, saying, "Well, If we're going to be detectives we should know all the basics. We'll read them, and then trade. I'll ask Madam Pince if we can borrow some of these for over the Christmas holidays."

Homework was forgotten, and the now snowy outdoors could wait. The new Detective Agency remained in the library for the rest of the afternoon, and absorbed as many books on the subject as possible.