Harry and Lupin walked towards the Gryffindor tower side by side.

"Harry, I'm truly sorry for what happened to you earlier, I feel somewhat responsible…"

"Why?" Harry cut him off. "You couldn't have done anything and you had no way of knowing."

"But if I had walked you to your tower after our session…" he trailed off.

"Then no one would have been able to see you either, or they might have waited until later when I was asleep, I know they can get into the common room and then I wouldn't be talking to you right now." Harry tried to look reassuringly at Lupin, but he wasn't feeling very safe at the moment. He couldn't fight this enemy, and unless they could outnumber the Zlam, by a large margin, he didn't feel even the instructors here could help. The ministry certainly wouldn't be offering their services any time soon either. Harry tried to shake these thoughts away as there was nothing he could do about any of this now, when he heard Lupin speak again.

"Did you hear much, of what Professor Snape and I were talking about, when you first saw us?"

"Yes," Harry said quietly. "He doesn't trust me at all, does he? Even after last year."

"Well, no matter how much he trusts you, I know he doesn't want to see you dead. You heard that certain ingredients were stolen from him, right? You know what they can make, and what they can do to you?" Lupin asked sounding very concerned. Harry just looked at him in shock.

"I thought you were on my side! You sound like you believe I stole them, well I didn't!" Harry almost yelled.

"I didn't mean that," Lupin said looking at Harry very seriously. "I didn't doubt you at all. I was actually thinking that whoever stole them, might be making it to use on you." Harry just looked at him for a moment in shock.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get angry with you, it's been a rough day."

"Apology accepted, now I know you ran into Draco Malfoy carrying certain ingredients the first time Snape's office was stolen from. Do you think he did it this time as well?"

"I don't know," Harry said quickly. He wanted to tell Lupin, but he didn't want to get Ginny in trouble. Lupin looked at Harry carefully, but didn't say anything. They had reached the portrait of the fat lady now, and so each of them said goodnight, and Harry stepped through into his common room.

Harry barely slept at all that night, when he dragged himself out of bed the next day, he received curious looks from both Ron and Hermione.

"Long session last night?" Ron asked.

"Not exactly," Harry said. "I'll tell you downstairs."

When they were all in the great hall, and Cho came over to sit with Harry, as she had been doing for quite while now, he told them as best he could what had happened. After he finished, he looked around at their very concerned faces.

"Do you think they'll really kill Tytros?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. He looked pretty bad last night, but all I can do is hope that he found some way to escape," Harry said feeling guilty again.

"He must really believe in you, to be willing to keep putting his life on the line like that," Cho said. They couldn't continue the conversation much longer however, breakfast was over and they needed to get to their classes.

Harry spent most of the day trying to stay awake, but somehow managed to make it through all of his classes. When he headed for Lupin's classroom at the end of the day he was surprised to see Dumbledore waiting for him.

"What's going on?" Harry asked immediately. "Did something happen to Professor Lupin?"

"Calm down Harry, Remus is just fine. I'm here because I decided to switch with Professor Lupin's sessions. Due to the events of last night, I feel it necessary."

"Why, what are you going to show me?" Harry asked. He had been wondering about this since he first heard Dumbledore tell him he would be giving sessions as well. Dumbledore looked at him for a moment before speaking.

"I want you to understand, what I'm doing is something we do not teach students at this school. Because of the abilities you have shown in the past, I believe you possess the power necessary to perform this magic."

"What magic?" Harry asked eagerly.

"I am going to teach you…the unforgivable curses."

Harry just stared at him in shock.

"But…well…I'm not sure if I could…" he stammered.

"I pray you will never have to use them, and I know you are aware they are not even allowed to be used. I'm showing you these for two reasons. One is you have to learn as much as possible about our magic and this, while it may be horrible, is a big part of it. The second is, because of the way the Zlam can isolate you so that we can't even see you to help you, you may have no choice but to…use one of these…on them. I trust your judgment," Dumbledore said very seriously.

"It's just that…okay, maybe the Imperius Curse I could use, only in defense, but I don't think I could ever…ever, bring myself to use the Cruciatus Curse on anyone. I could never cause someone so much pain and suffering, knowing what it feels like."

"I am very sorry that you ever found out what it feels like. More sorry than you know," Dumbledore said looking into Harry's eyes.

"And Avada Kedavra," Harry continued, shuddering involuntarily when he said the words. "I could never use that one. I know it."

"But the fact remains that if it is the only way to save your life, you may need one of these, and you need to know all you can about our magic."

Harry just looked away, staring at the wall behind Dumbledore. He knew what he was telling him was right; there was no way around it. He had to learn everything, even these, if he wanted to transfer the knowledge. But he hated the idea of using one of them against another living thing, for any reason. The only exception he could even think of, would be Voldemort, but other than that, no one. Not even if the Zlam came did he think he could use one of them except the Imperius Curse, and would that even do anything? It seemed as though they had extremely advanced powers of mind control and he didn't think they'd have any trouble breaking whatever hold the curse might have on them. He was snapped out of his thoughts though, by Dumbledore's voice.

"Harry, I know you weren't prepared for this, but I hope you can see that it is necessary."

"Yes, I do see that it's necessary, and you're right, I truly wasn't prepared to hear this tonight. Would it be alright, do you think, if we started with the practical lessons tomorrow night?" Harry looked up at Dumbledore, waiting anxiously for his answer. Finally he nodded.

"Yes, I suppose we can wait one night, but no more than that. We truly don't have much time to waste and can't delay any further. We will meet at the same time tomorrow, in my office." Harry filled with relief and thanked Dumbledore as he left the room. He couldn't explain the dread that filled him when he thought about actually doing these curses, but he was glad he wouldn't have to do any tonight.

Harry had only been walking for a few minutes, when he heard someone in the hallway he was about to turn into. Not again, he thought to himself. He pressed up close to the wall and peered around it, he could just make out two figures a short distance away, both students. He breathed a sigh of relief that they weren't Zlam and started down the corridor, just as the two went down a side hall, but as he neared that hall, he heard them talking. He recognized one voice immediately as Draco Malfoy, and stopped to listen.

"It's in here," Malfoy whispered and Harry heard a door open. He looked around the corner and saw them stepping into a room. He turned quietly down the hall, and moved close enough to the room so he could hear better.

"Are you sure this place is safe?" came another voice, which Harry didn't recognize. "What if someone comes in here and finds all this stuff?"

"First of all," Malfoy said, "This room is barely used for anything, even storage anymore. I doubt even that no-good Filch would bother to look in here for cleaning supplies let alone students. Secondly, if someone does find this, we have the book from that Weasley girl, and we'll just make sure that it's found soon after, so no blame can be put on us. That's the whole reason for doing this so far from the dungeon area, we're much closer to the Gryffindor tower right now, it'd be much easier to blame one of them this way."

"What about if someone finds this place while we're in it. It'll be a little hard to blame her then, won't it?" the other boy asked.

"If that happens, which I doubt, we just say we happened to find all of this stuff in here, and we found the book as well. Again, it'll all lead back to the Weasley girl."

Harry could feel anger rising inside him as he listened, but he held it in, he knew that he couldn't reveal himself yet. He heard the other boy sigh heavily.

"I'm still not sure about this. What about getting from here and back to the dungeons each time we have to check on it? We can't blame our being out after curfew on someone else."

"Then don't get caught," Malfoy hissed. "And if you do, it's your own fault. You'll just have to take whatever punishment you get, just remember it'll all be worth it when we're done. Now if you don't think you'll be able to keep this a secret on the chance that someone finds you then tell me now, I'm not gonna let you or anyone else ruin this because they don't know when to keep their mouth shut."

"No, I can keep it a secret," the other boy said quickly. "But don't you think Snape will figure it out?"

"Parker," Malfoy sighed sounding both angry and frustrated, "he can suspect all he likes, but he won't be able to prove anything by the time we're finished."

"I guess I'm in…" Parker said sounding a bit reluctant. "How long did you say this will take again?"

"We'll be done by the beginning of May…so we'll have some time to spare," Malfoy answered. "C'mon, let's get going, I'll explain what you need to do on the way back to our room."

Harry turned and sprinted as quietly as possible to the end of the hall and turned the corner. He heard them close the door to the room they had been in and he headed off quickly to the next corner before they came into the hall he was in. Harry peered around back into the hall and watched the two of them head off in the direction of the dungeons, then he ran the rest of the way back to the Gryffindor tower, anxious to tell Ron and Hermione what he had just heard.

As soon as Harry stepped through the portrait hole, he headed straight over to where his friends were sitting.

"Hey," Ron said as he saw him, "Lupin let you out early?"

"What? Oh! No…I actually was with Dumbledore tonight, he switched with Lupin," Harry said, having completely forgotten about it after what he had just heard.

"Why?" Hermione asked immediately, "What is he going to show you?"

"Um…the unforgivable curses…" Harry said, not really wanting to discuss it.

"But the school isn't allowed to teach those to students!" Hermione said with alarm.

"Oh, come on Hermione!" Ron said looking annoyed with her, "I'm sure Dumbledore knows what he's doing. And if there's anyone here who would ever need to know how to use them, it's Harry."

"Even if I needed to, I don't know if I could," Harry said. "That's what I told Dumbledore, that's the reason he let me leave early, I asked him for some time because I don't feel…ready. But he's very serious about it, and we're starting tomorrow, whether I'm ready or not."

"You don't think you could use them? Even against…" Hermione trailed off.

"Voldemort? He's probably the only one. But against anyone else, I think the Imperius Curse would be my only option. I couldn't use the Cruciatus Curse, especially knowing what it feels like…and I could never use…" he lowered his voice, "Avada Kedavra…not for any reason that I can think of," he said shuddering.

"Then why is he teaching you, why the rush?" Ron asked.

"Because of what happened with the Zlam last night. These are the three most powerful curses of our magic, and he feels it might be my only defense against them, if I ever get in another situation like that. But like I said, I would only use the Imperius Curse, if at all…and against them, I don't even know if it would have any effect."

Ron and Hermione looked at him, unsure of what to say.

"It doesn't matter right now, I'm going to learn them and that's that. I hope I don't have to use them," Harry said shaking off the bad feeling that had settled in his stomach. He looked behind his friends to see Ginny walking over, and remembered what he originally wanted to tell them.

"Hey guys," Ginny said as she sat down with them. "What's going on?" Ron and Hermione started to shake their heads and say nothing, but Harry spoke up quickly.

"I heard something tonight, on my way back from Lupin's office, that I think you guys will want to hear," he said smiling at them.

"We need that book back!" Ron said as soon as Harry finished. "Now that we know exactly where Malfoy is going to keep everything that was stolen, that's the only thing stopping us!"

"He's going through an awful lot of trouble to make sure it looks like Ginny did this." Hermione said.

"Yes he is, and he's obviously not doing it alone. I wonder how many people he's letting in on his plan," Harry said.

"I'm so sorry, this is all my fault," Ginny said. "This never should have happened."

"Ginny," Harry started, "I understand that you're upset but we can't think like that right now. All we can do is figure out what to do to stop him and not get you in trouble in the process."

Ginny looked at Harry and nodded. The four of them talked for a while longer about what they could do to get back the book, and before they realized it, they were the only ones left awake. Hermione looked around the empty common room, then at her watch.

"Oh my, it is very late, we should really get some sleep. Let's continue this in the morning, okay?" she asked the others.

"You're right Hermione, I don't want to sleep through another day, today was bad enough," Harry said, stretching. The four of them said goodnight, and headed up to their dorms.

When Harry and Ron stepped into their room, they saw that Dean, Seamus and Neville were all asleep. Ron went over to his bed, but didn't get changed, he just stood there, thinking for a minute. Harry watched him as he pulled pajamas out of one of his drawers. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

"What?" he asked Ron, "What are you thinking?"

"Well…" he answered slowly. "You said that where they had put everything was close to here, right?"

Harry just looked at him.

"You want to go tonight, don't you?"

"They might have left the book there! We could have it tonight and be done with it!" Ron whispered urgently. He looked at Harry almost pleading with his eyes and Harry knew it was because he needed the invisibility cloak.

"Oh alright," Harry said at last, pulling the cloak out of his trunk. "We'll both go."

The two of them snuck quietly back down the stairs, and through the portrait hole.

Harry and Ron got all the way back to where Malfoy and Parker had been a few hours before and went into the room. They pulled off the invisibility cloak and started looking around.

"Jeez, it stinks in here!" Ron whispered loudly. "And all this dust is gonna make me sneeze."

"Just try not to make too much noise, and don't scream if you see any spiders," Harry said looking through some of the shelves on one of the walls.

"Spiders!" Ron exclaimed, looking around nervously. "Where, did you see any?"

"No, and keep your voice down. I only said it because this would be the kind of place I'd expect to see them, and I wanted you to be ready, but if you can't stay quiet than wait in the hall and I'll come out when I'm done."

"No, I can handle it," Ron said unconvincingly. He started searching in through the shelves as well, but kept glancing around nervously.

"This is pointless," Harry said after a few minutes. "If it was here, they probably wouldn't have buried it under things because they would want it to be found so Ginny gets blamed. And besides that if they had, the dust would be disturbed or something. Let's go, we'll check back again some other time, when we know they've been back or something."

"Maybe we should take something…" Ron said looking at the bottles of ingredients.

"I don't think that's a good idea, it would only cause Malfoy to turn Ginny in, and we're trying to make sure he takes the blame, remember?"

"I know…I just hate to leave everything here. It feels like we're not doing anything to stop him."

"We will stop him," Harry said looking directly into Ron's eyes. "I promise."

Ron looked back at Harry and nodded, he glanced once more at all of the bottles and sighed lightly, before getting back under the cloak with Harry. They left the room and shut the door silently behind them.

They had barely started moving when Harry saw something that made him stop dead in his tracks. He grabbed Ron by the arm to stop him from walking out from under the cloak.

"What?" Ron whispered.

"Look over there," Harry said pointing. Ron followed Harry's outstretched finger a short distance to their left, and gasped.

"Is that…?"

"Wormtail," Harry said gritting his teeth. A few feet away, there was a small rat with a silver paw. The only thing going through Harry's mind right now was catching him, so Sirius could be freed. He slowly took a step in that direction. Now it was Ron's turn to grab Harry's arm.

"What are you doing? This could be a trap!"

"I have to…" Harry started.

"Why else would he be here? And why right here in this hallway? If you think about it this isn't where we'd normally be this time of night so why is he here?"

Before Harry could answer, Wormtail squeaked and ran further down the dark hallway.

"C'mon!" Harry said, pushing forward. Ron moved with him only to keep them both under the cloak.

"Can he see us through this?" he whispered.

"I don't know," Harry said, trying to find where he had gone, but the hall was very dark now.

"Harry, let's just go tell someone, we can't just…" Ron started.

"Tell them what? That we were taking a walk in the middle of the night and just happened to see Wormtail? We'd have to tell them why we were out here."

"Well if you catch him we'd have to tell them too," Ron pointed out.

"But I don't care, then! If we catch him it means Sirius is free! Don't you see why I have to try?" Harry almost yelled. Ron put his hands up to hush him and they both continued down the hall.

"I think we lost him," Ron said after a few minutes of nothing. "We should head back, we might've missed him, it's so dark down here…" he trailed off. Harry was determined to find him though.

"Okay, we can head back, but only to retrace our steps, if we don't find him we come back down here."

"Harry…"

"No! If you want to take the cloak and go back that's fine with me. I'm not leaving." He said. Ron knew that there was no changing his mind so he just shook his head.

"Then I'm not leaving either."

"Accio Cloak!" a voice rang out from behind them. They both grabbed their wands and spun around, but before they could do a thing, they heard another cry.

"Expelliarmus!"

Both of their wands flew from their grasp, and into the waiting hand of Peter Pettigrew.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, then at Wormtail. They were both ready to take a run at him to get there wands back, but before either one of them could move, they felt themselves pushed backwards, into the wall behind them, then to the floor. As they tried to stand up they both realized they couldn't, Wormtail had but them in a partial body bind, and they couldn't move their arms or legs.

He stepped over to them, holding Harry's cloak and looking at it thoughtfully.

"I remember when James used to sneak around using this, him and Sirius and Remus. Always off together, having adventures. I always knew they only included me out of pity, they never really considered me their friend," he sneered.

"Well you certainly proved them right, didn't you?" Harry asked in a very low voice, barely controlling his temper. "Now take your filthy hands off of it."

"You are in no position to be telling me what to do!" he hissed. The two glared at each other for a moment, until Wormtail looked away.

"I didn't come here tonight to reminisce," he said dropping the cloak on the floor a few feet away from them and putting their wands on top of it.

"Why did you come then?" Ron spoke up. "You won't be able to get out of here with Harry, someone will catch you!" he said trying to sound convincing.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not taking him with me, isn't it? I only came here to repay my debt…" he said looking away from them.

"Debt?" Harry asked. He remembered what Dumbledore had told him after he stopped Lupin and Sirius from killing Peter the night he was revealed. That had to be what he was talking about. He watched as Wormtail reached into his robes, and pulled out something small, then walked over and knelt down besides Harry. He could see that Wormtail was very nervous, and sweat was dripping down his forehead.

"You spared me once, and in return for that I'm giving you this. My master is aware that the Zlam want you dead, and he needs you alive. If you die with the knowledge he'll have to wait until their next keeper is ready, and the knowledge is transferred again, before anyone has access to the spell he needs."

"So you're doing this to keep me alive long enough so I can die for Voldemort? Don't do me any favors," Harry snapped.

"Shut up and listen! This will glow green whenever a Zlam is near you. As they get closer, the light gets brighter. We used these, among other things, when we tried to locate the Zlam in the first place. This will warn you of their presence, and give you time to get away. Just watch the light to know if you're getting closer to them." He reached out then and Harry flinched and tried to move away as Wormtail put the cord that the charm was hanging on around Harry's neck. When he backed up, he looked at Harry for a moment longer, then stood and turned away. Both of them watched as he changed back into a rat, and scampered off down the hall.

"Dammit!" Harry said out loud, banging his head against the wall. He tried furiously to move his arms, but they wouldn't budge. "I can't believe he got away again."

"I'm sorry," Ron said looking at Harry, "if I had just shut up we wouldn't have lost sight of him and he couldn't have taken us by surprise."

"It's not your fault," Harry replied in a strained voice, trying to slide himself towards the wands. After a minute, he laid back, breathing quickly. "How long does this take before it wears off?" he asked.

"Not sure, but we were talking to him for a while, so hopefully not much longer."

"Why does nothing turn out right? I get Mrs. Figg killed, Mr. Fudge is insane, Tytros was caught and possibly killed, and now I miss my chance to catch Wormtail and clear Sirius' name…" Harry trailed off.

"Harry, stop. You're not helping anyone thinking like that and I'm not gonna listen to it anymore."

"Like you have a choice," Harry said grinning at him. Ron glared back, but after a few seconds they both started laughing. "I know you're right," Harry said after calming down a bit, "I think I just needed to hear it…again…"

"Well I'll be glad to say it to you as often as necessary…hang on! I think I can move my arms a bit…"

Harry looked over at Ron, who had regained use of his arms from his elbows down. He pushed himself away from the wall towards the wands, and was able to grasp hold of his own once he was over there. Ron lifted the curse from both of them and they stood up shakily, flexing their legs to get the blood moving again.

"Let's head back to the tower, we're lucky no one has found us yet," Harry said picking up the cloak. Ron nodded anxiously and when they were both underneath the cloak, they headed back down the hallway.

They reached the tower quickly and Harry immediately pulled out the Marauder's Map and activated it. After a few minutes he closed it up again and put it away.

"He's gone…we were so close too," Harry said to himself.

"Well it's just as well, we already had a close call tonight, no need to go looking for another," Ron said. "Come back downstairs for a minute, let's look at that charm he gave you."

Harry looked down at the piece hanging around his neck in disgust and tore it off; he tossed it to Ron.

"You can have it, I don't want anything from him."

Ron looked at Harry in frustration, then beckoned him downstairs again, when they were in the common room, Ron inspected it closer.

"Look at this, it's a glass ball with what looks like a snakes…skull inside."

Harry was intrigued upon hearing this, and grabbed it back.

"Well, Dumbledore said that snakes were something of a natural predator towards the Zlam."

"So their skulls will let us know when one is close? That's creepy…" Ron said. Harry handed the charm back to Ron and started to walk away.

"You can't tell me you're not gonna use this!"

"I told you, I don't want anything from him. He even said he only did it because Voldemort needs me alive, he never would've come if it weren't for that. We both know he only does things that benefit him. He's probably afraid of being punished or something if I'm killed by the Zlam."

"So you're gonna let them kill you because of that?" Ron exclaimed.

"No, I'm not. I just don't want his help."

"I think you're being stupid," Ron said quietly. Harry looked up at him and saw Ron looked very angry, and he was shocked.

"I can't believe you want me to accept help from the man who's responsible for my parents' death."

"If I was in your situation, and someone I hated offered me help, that might save my life, I would take it. I don't care if it came from Malfoy!"

"Well you're not, are you?" Harry asked a little too harshly. Ron just glared at him.

"No, I guess I'm not."

"Then you don't know what it feels like, and you can't say what you would do. I have a feeling if Malfoy were to offer you help of any kind, you would be too suspicious to use it."

"But he said he was repaying his debt to you! Doesn't that count for something?"

"Obviously it doesn't," Harry said, then turned quickly and headed for the stairs. "I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow."

The next morning when Harry woke up, he felt bad for getting angry with Ron the night before. He looked towards Ron's bed, but saw he had already gotten up. I'll talk to him at breakfast, Harry thought to himself as he dressed quickly. He headed off to the great hall and scanned the Gryffindor table for his friends.

Ron was sitting with Hermione, Cho and Ginny and they were looking at something between the four of them and talking. Harry had a feeling what Ron had done, and felt anger start rising within him. He started towards the table feeling ready to explode, but when he got there and his friends turned to look at him, his anger vanished. They looked at him with faces full of fear and concern. He sat down with them and stared at the table.

"Harry," Cho began, "Ron told us about last night."

"I can see that," Harry replied, feeling anger start to rise again, but he held it down.

"Why wouldn't you want to use the charm? It would definitely help you," she continued.

"You don't understand…" he began.

"That's right I don't! What I do understand is that I don't want you to die because you were too stubborn to use every means available to you to protect yourself!" Cho said fiercely, almost sounding angry as well. Harry looked up at his friends, then back at the table.

"Harry, will you keep this with you? Please?" Cho asked.

"We don't even know if it works!" Harry said.

"If it doesn't than you're no worse off than you are now," Hermione spoke up.

Harry sighed and glanced at Ron, who was avoiding his eyes, then he looked at Cho.

"Alright, I'll keep it with me," he said at last.

"Thank you," Cho said, smiling. Harry could see all of his friends were genuinely relieved. He still wasn't happy about it, but he could see their point.

After they finished eating and got up to leave, Harry pulled Ron aside.

"Harry," he started immediately, "I'm sorry but I had to tell them…"

"Don't worry about it. I know why you did it."

"You do? You didn't seem to want to listen to me last night, so I had to find someone who you would."

"I know, and I'm sorry about last night. I know I've been getting angry a lot quicker lately. I don't even really know why, either, and it's been with you, Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin…and probably a lot more too."

"It's just all the stress of everything. This hasn't exactly been our easiest year."

"I hope you're right…"

They stopped talking as they reached the classroom, and walked in together.

When classes had ended, Harry made his way to Dumbledore's office for their session. A feeling of dread had once again settled in the pit of his stomach that he tried hard to get rid of, but to no avail. He stepped past the stone statue and headed inside.

"Hello Harry," Dumbledore said as soon as he walked in. "Are you ready today?"

"Yes," Harry lied. He knew it wouldn't matter even if he had answered no. If he was going to get rid of the knowledge, he had to learn these spells.

"Are you sure? You've seemed very tired all day."

Harry looked at Dumbledore for a minute. He only remembered seeing him this morning so what did he mean all day? But he couldn't tell him about last night, so he just shook his head.

"No I'm fine. What will we be…using? For practice, I mean."

Dumbledore kept his eyes on Harry for a moment more, then turned and walked over to a corner of the room. He picked up a box and walked back towards the small table he had set up in the middle of the room, then proceeded to start taking jars out of the box and placing them on the table. Harry could see a spider in each jar.

"Why do we always use spiders?" he asked. "Professor Moody…er…Barty Crouch did the same thing."

"For two reasons. The first being that you can't see facial expressions on a spider. If you were to use a larger animal, no matter what it was, the facial expressions often hinder a person's ability to do the curse properly. Their conscience makes them unable to. The second reason is a spider's body is large enough to be able to see that the curse is working. You might have more trouble with an ant or a grasshopper."

"Well, facial expressions or no, I still didn't enjoy seeing what happened to them last time."

"I'm very glad you didn't. I'd be worried if you had," Dumbledore said smiling at him. "So we will start with the Imperius Curse and see how far we get with that."

"Okay," Harry said, taking a deep breath. "Let's get this over with."

By the end of the first night Harry had easily mastered the Imperius Curse. He was able to make the spider on the table do whatever he chose, just by thinking it. Dumbledore had showed him exactly how to hold his wand, and more importantly how to focus his energy.

What surprised and frightened Harry most was how exhilarating it was. He felt almost natural performing the curse. He was almost anxious for the next session, but at the same time he hoped it never came. Dumbledore seemed shocked as well at the ease that Harry exhibited in controlling the power and energy required to perform the curse.

"It must be the knowledge," Harry said seeing the way Dumbledore was looking at him after one demonstration with the curse. "I won't be able to do it like this when it's gone, right?"

"That is a possibility. You've never tried to do this before, so we can't be sure until then."

"But you do think it's just the knowledge, right?" Harry asked.

"Truthfully…no. Since the first time you used the knowledge in class, and every time since, it only showed you how to do the spell. If you didn't possess the power, you wouldn't be able to have done any of it in the first place."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means you possess great power, at a young age. There are many wizards, both good and bad who can perform these curses. I can completely understand your resistance towards learning them, because all of these have been used on you at one point or another, but being able to perform them doesn't make you evil. It's very important that you understand this, that you know it," Dumbledore said looking hard at Harry.

"I do know it, I just didn't expect it to feel so…natural…" Harry replied, but he felt somewhat relieved that Dumbledore had known exactly what he had feared.

"That is the way of any magic you master. You didn't feel strange when you did well in one of your classes, right? Or the first time you flew?"

"But those are…"

"Those aren't used to hurt others," Dumbledore interrupted. "That's the difference. Don't doubt yourself, you are no different then anyone else who has learned these spells. The fact is you are a good person, and have no desire to use them against another, which is how it should be. The only reason I felt any surprise was because normally, someone of your age, has a harder time with magic of this magnitude."

"Well, we haven't gotten to the hard ones yet," Harry said.

"I doubt you will have any trouble with the energy required for those either. It's your conscience that would be the hindrance. But we will save that for tomorrow as our session is done for today. Please get more rest tonight then you did last night," Dumbledore said.

Harry said goodnight, again wondering how much Dumbledore really watched him while he was here, and left the office. The dread he had been holding in all day had at last dissipated, and he wasn't feeling as bad about coming back tomorrow.

"I can't hold it!" Harry exclaimed, releasing the spider from the Cruciatus Curse. He was at his next session and as Dumbledore had expected, he had easily mastered this curse as well, but he couldn't keep it going for long.

"You can, but you don't want to," Dumbledore answered.

"That's right I don't," Harry said quietly. "I can't stand to see something experiencing that kind of pain, and knowing I'm causing it, for no other reason then I need to learn how to do this."

"We can take a break then," Dumbledore said simply. "If you'd like."

Harry didn't answer but just looked at the spider that was scrambling madly across the table, dragging one of its legs. Why did there have to be any magic this painful? Wasn't it enough that wizards and witches could perform magic? Did they really need this to show the extent of their power? He shook his thoughts from his head though, when Dumbledore spoke again.

"Do you want to stop for a few minutes or continue?"

Harry looked up at Dumbledore, then back at the spider.

"I'll continue," he replied curtly. He reached over and grabbed the spider, placing it back in the middle of the table, then raised his wand.

"Crucio."

He watched as the light came out of his wand, and shut his eyes. If he had to do this, he wasn't going to watch, it was the only way he'd ever be able to hold it. He didn't move for about half a minute, then lowered his wand and opened his eyes. He didn't look at the table, but at Dumbledore, who was looking at him very seriously.

"The purpose of these sessions is to make sure you know how to do the curses, and because of that I'm not going to make you keep doing this. Understand that if you are in a life and death situation, closing your eyes would not be a wise decision, but for now I know that you can do it, and that is enough."

"Thank you," Harry replied.

"You can go back to your tower now, and tomorrow we'll begin on the last curse. If everything goes along as it has been, it will be our last session together."

"I hope you're right," Harry said more to himself. "Goodnight professor."

As Harry left Dumbledore's office after the third session he thought back to what he had just done. It wasn't as if he'd never killed a spider before, there were plenty of them in the cupboard when he had slept there on Privet Drive, but this was different. He had never done it with magic before.

He walked through the halls and just kept seeing the flash of green light that had come from his wand when he had said the words. Avada Kedavra. It was the curse that had killed his parents and given him his scar, the words that changed his life, before he even knew it. He sighed with relief as he walked, knowing the lessons with Dumbledore at least, were done. He could look forward to the weekend, and next week begin the sessions with Lupin again.

When he stepped through the portrait hole he spotted Ron, Hermione and Ginny and went over to them.

"You're done, already?" Ron asked.

"Dumbledore didn't think I needed to do this one more than once. Thankfully," Harry replied.

"But you really did it?" Ginny asked wide-eyed.

"Yes," Harry said looking down. He was getting a headache, and figured it must be from all the stress of the week.

"Well, at least the weekend's here," Ron said cheerily. "Time away from your sessions and all."

"Yeah…" Harry trailed off now pressing his fingers to his head.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked sounding concerned.

"What…oh yeah…I'll be fine. I have a headache," he said.

"Your scar?" Ginny asked in a small voice.

"No, just a headache," he replied trying to smile at her as the pressure in his head increased. He sat back in the chair and didn't move.

"Harry I think we should go see Madam Pomfrey…" Hermione started to say.

"I don't exactly feel like moving right now, okay?" Harry snapped at her. Nobody said anything, but he could feel them all looking at him, and he instantly regretted what he had said. Why was he so angry lately? His thoughts were interrupted though by a blinding flash of pain that shot through his whole body. Harry stiffened in his seat and held in the cry that was threatening to escape from him. It passed, almost as quickly as it had come, and he relaxed shakily into the chair.

"What just happened?" Ron asked after a few moments silence.

"I don't know," Harry replied opening his eyes and looking at his friends. "But I hope it doesn't happen again."

"I bet it was because of the knowledge," Hermione said, "because you said it wasn't your scar, right?"

"Right," Harry answered, "and I'm sorry I got angry with you. I don't know why that keeps happening."

"It has to be connected," Hermione replied. "Maybe it means you're closer to being able to make the transfer."

"Well there's that, or it's closer to killing me. I just wish I knew which one."

No one said anything to that; they just looked at each other, fear showing on their faces.

"I'm going upstairs," Harry said, standing. "I'll talk to you guys later."

No sooner had Harry shut the door to the room then he heard it open again, when he turned around he saw Ron standing there.

"Tired?" he asked, not really expecting that to be the reason Ron had followed him.

"No. We need to talk about this. There are too many things we're not telling Dumbledore. If you're not going to ask for their help then what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, but telling Dumbledore and Sirius about what just happened wouldn't help because they know as much as I do and that isn't saying much. Why worry them?"

"Why not? Maybe one of them will be able to figure something out, how can you be so sure they can't do anything?"

"Ron, just let it go," Harry said glaring at him. Ron stared back and then started speaking again.

"I won't. I'm not going to tell anyone anything you don't want me to, but I'm not going to let this go. You're acting ridiculous."

"Oh am I? What happened to you? You used to take my side now you're always against me! Hanging out with Hermione too much, are you?" Harry said loudly.

"What am I doing that's so bad? I told you I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm not going to stop trying to help you." Ron said through clenched teeth. Harry just turned away, feeling furious.

"Why are you so angry lately?" Ron asked after a few moments of silence. "I can't remember you ever getting like this before, not over small things, anyway."

"This isn't exactly small…" Harry started.

"I didn't mean it was. I just meant...you're the one who's always trying to get me to hold my temper. The last time I saw you this angry was when you found out Sirius was your godfather and you thought he'd betrayed your parents. But now you seem ready to explode at the thought of your friends trying to help you, and we're all a bit confused by it."

Harry stared at his friend, no longer feeling angry, just sad. He walked over to his bed and sat down. Ron walked over to his bed as well, sat across from Harry, and waited.

"I've noticed that too," Harry said finally. "I've been thinking about it very much lately."

"We all have."

Harry and Ron looked over their shoulder to see Hermione standing in the doorway.

"Harry, could you come downstairs for a moment?" Hermione asked, then without waiting she turned and left the room. Harry and Ron looked at each other questioningly, then followed her.

When Harry and Ron got downstairs, they saw Hermione waiting by the portrait hole, beckoning them over. As they got closer she swung the door open and stepped through, then started walking. Ron started to ask her what was going on, but she just raised her hand, and kept going. They all walked in silence until they got to the hallway where the Zlam attacked Harry.

"This is where you said it happened, right?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Harry said slowly, "but what does that…"

"Do you know when you started getting angry all the time?" she interrupted him. Harry just looked at her for a minute, thinking.

"It started that night, actually. I remember getting angry with Sirius, but I didn't say anything to him. Then again afterwards with Remus when he was walking with me back to the tower."

"So it started immediately then," Hermione said quietly.

"What did?" Ron asked. Hermione ignored him and continued to look at Harry.

"Tell me where you were standing."

"What?"

"When the leader, you said his name was Mensok, right? Where were you standing when he first came near you?" she asked. Harry and Ron looked at her strangely, but didn't say anything about her question. Harry took a few steps down the hall.

"About here."

"Are you sure?"

"I think so, though I did have other things on my mind at the time," Harry said rolling his eyes.

"You also said you didn't see him until he was right next to you, right?"

Harry thought for a moment.

"Yes, that's right, I didn't. I saw him step away from the others, and start in my direction. Then the next thing I knew, my hands were tied and he was holding my arms."

Hermione seemed to consider this, then she walked past Harry and looked at the wall behind him. After a minute she put her hands up directly in front of her eyes, and started rubbing at the wall. Harry and Ron glanced at each other, then back at her.

"Um…Hermione? Are you going to tell us what it is you're doing?" Ron asked.

"Are you positive that's all you can remember Harry?" she asked ignoring the question. He nodded.

"Hmmm…" she said, as she stepped past them. She started back towards the tower leaving the two of them staring at each other.

Harry and Ron tried to get Hermione to tell them what was going on afterwards, but she wouldn't say. All she would tell them is that she wasn't sure, and would need to look into it further. She spent the whole next day at the library, with her nose in a book. Harry or Ron would have to come and physically drag her away so she would eat something. That evening, they filled Cho and Ginny in on what had happened on Friday night.

"Do you think she knows what's wrong then?" Cho asked as the four of them sat in the great hall.

"No, not yet, but knowing Hermione, she'll have it all figured out soon enough," Ron said smiling.

"But she thinks it has something to do with the Zlam, right?" Ginny asked, then lowered her head, "The reason you're angry so much, I mean…" She glanced back up at Harry who was looking at her. He sighed heavily.

"I guess so. Though I can't understand why they would want to make me angry. I mean, what sense does that make?"

"Maybe they want you to get angry at one of the professors, and get detention again. That's how they got you the first time," Ron said.

"But they were able to get to me just fine the second time too," Harry said. "They would have succeeded if Tytros hadn't been there."

They all looked up as Hermione walked over to them.

"Look who's not in the library," Ron said cheerfully, smiling at her. "What happened? Finally get hungry?"

"The information I need isn't there," she said, ignoring Ron and looking at Harry. "I need to talk to Dumbledore."

"What? Hermione, you haven't even told me what's going on!" Harry exclaimed.

"That's because I'm not sure! I have an idea, but I don't know for sure, and unless I come up with a reason to get a book out of the restricted section, I need to talk to Dumbledore."

"Well, we could use the invisibility cloak…" Harry said quietly.

"Look where that got you last time you tried it, besides I'm not even sure it's there. You should tell him anyway, you know."

"If you're going to go and tell Dumbledore everything, I want to at least know what you think is happening. Will you tell me that at least?" Harry asked. He could feel his temper starting to flare again, and was holding it in. Hermione looked at him for a minute, considering, then finally nodded.

"Fine. Walk with me," she said beckoning him. Harry glanced at Cho, Ron and Ginny, then stood up and followed Hermione out of the great hall.

Hermione was walking so fast Harry had to trot to keep up with her. She stopped though, once again at the spot where the Zlam attacked Harry.

"What are we doing here? I thought…"

"Look here," she said pointing at the wall. Harry looked where she was pointing but didn't see anything. She sighed and rubbed her hand on the wall, then brought it up in front of Harry's face.

"So your hand is dirty. Better not lot Filch see you, he'll think you put the dirt there on purpose and make you scrub the walls."

"Look closer," she said pointedly.

Harry stared at her hand for a few minutes, then he saw something. He grabbed her hand and pulled her over to a more lighted area. Yes there was dirt on her hand, but there was something mixed with it, it was deep dark red and it was almost, glowing, now that he could see it better.

"What is it?" he asked still holding her hand up and staring.

"It's a very fine powder called Pyromus."

"What does it do?"

"Well, to put it simply, it makes someone act very much like you're acting now. You become hot-tempered. It's supposed to start off relatively slow and work through you. As time goes on, someone who's infected becomes dangerous, there've even been cases where they've killed."

"But I wouldn't ever kill anyone!" Harry exclaimed, dropping her hand.

"You wouldn't have a choice. You basically lose any control you would normally have over your actions."

"Well if this is what is making me act this way, then what do you need to ask Dumbledore? What are you unsure about?" he asked looking at her anxiously.

"Well, you're also supposed to feel it working, you would get very hot. But you haven't mentioned that happening yet. I've been doing research all day, and I can't find another person that didn't feel any heat, you know…inside them. Usually you feel the heat whenever you get angry, but you aren't feeling it."

"So maybe it isn't that then?" Harry asked hopefully.

"But I also can't find anything else that would do this…" she said trailing off in thought.

"Well, if the Zlam did this, there's a lot we don't know about their magic, it could be something completely different," Harry suggested.

"True, but this is what Pyromus looks like," Hermione said, holding up her hand, "and I can't think of a reason why this would be there, right where you were attacked, if they didn't bring it here."

"Okay Hermione, let's start over. Explain to me how someone becomes infected with this stuff, and what's supposed to happen afterwards."

"For someone to be infected they would need to inhale the powder. Not strongly, just a little bit would do it. Once you're infected, it starts to spread through you; the amount you inhaled determines how fast it spreads. You'll start to get angry much quicker at anything that happens, but you'll feel hot too. Most people that are infected complain about feeling overheated, they blame their short temper on that and the real problem goes unnoticed. As time passes, their anger becomes uncontrollable, and like I said before, people have been killed."

"So why would the Zlam give me this? They were planning on killing me…so they probably didn't expect me to be alive long enough for this to work, right?"

"Well…there's something else…" Hermione said slowly.

"Yes…?" Harry asked.

"The reason that you feel the burning sensation along with the anger is because, it really does burn you. Everyone that lives through the full course of the infection ends up dying because they are burned from the inside out. It kills you."

Harry looked at her for a moment, then it made sense to him.

"So they did this as a…precaution? In case I got away, this would kill me for them?"

"That would be my guess…"Hermione said. "But it isn't burning you, so do you see why I have to bring this up with Dumbledore? He might know of a case where this happened…or even some other explanation entirely!" She looked into his eyes, silently pleading with him. Finally, he nodded.

"Okay, let's go."

They set off quickly towards Dumbledore's office.

They ran past the statue and up to the office quickly, to find a completely full room. It appeared every instructor in the school was here for a meeting of some sort. Some of them gave disapproving looks to Harry and Hermione, while others just looked at them confused. Snape was looking particularly angry, but didn't say anything. Dumbledore stood up from his desk and came around to them, he didn't look angry, but he wasn't smiling either.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, you've interrupted our meeting. Is there something you need, or can this wait?" He had steered them almost completely back across the room now, next to the door.

"No it can't!" Harry said urgently, not wanting to say anything in front of the other instructors, staring at him.

"Well, what is the problem?" Dumbledore asked very seriously.

Harry looked at Hermione for help, and she understood his meaning. She raised her hand with the Pyromus on it and held it up for Dumbledore to look at. He looked at it closely, then quickly back to Hermione, recognizing what it was immediately. She nodded at him, then pointed at Harry.

"I'm sorry, everyone," Dumbledore said turning to the instructors, "but something has come up that I must give see to immediately. I will let you know when we can meet again. Minerva, Remus and Severus, I would like the three of you to stay, please."

All of the instructors started towards the door, murmuring to each other, but no one seemed too upset by the sudden change of plans. When they had all gone, Dumbledore turned to Harry and Hermione again.

"Please come sit and explain how this happened," he said urgently.

"What's going on?" Lupin asked.

"I might've been infected with Pyromus," Harry answered him as he took his seat. All three of them looked at him with wide eyes, even Snape.

"But, how?" McGonagall asked, "We don't keep any in the school."

"Someone could have brought it here," Snape said.

"What…one of the students?" Lupin asked.

"No, one of the Zlam," Hermione spoke up. They all looked at her as she explained everything she had found out up to this point, and also what she couldn't figure out about the burning sensation.

"Why didn't you tell us how you were feeling, Harry?" Lupin asked looking very concerned.

"How was I supposed to know this was the reason?" Harry asked quickly. "I thought it was stress…or something…"

"But why isn't it affecting him normally?" Snape asked, looking at Dumbledore.

"You don't have to talk about me like I'm not here," Harry said curtly. Snape turned and glared at him, and Harry returned it.

"You want to watch yourself…" Snape started quietly.

"I don't know," Dumbledore interrupted. Snape pulled his gaze away from Harry to listen, but still looked absolutely infuriated. "If I had to guess I would say it must have something to do with the knowledge, but it is only a guess."

"There's no possibility it could be anything else?" Lupin asked.

"Nothing that I know of," Dumbledore said, then looked at Harry. "So you can't remember anything from when Mensok was coming towards you until after he was already there? He didn't have anything in his hands at all?"

"If he did I didn't see it. All I remember is him heading towards me, and I didn't move. I don't know why, it was like the thought just never occurred to me. The next thing I knew he was there…my hands were tied…I don't remember him having anything in his hands at all, no wand, no powder or anything to hold powder in…not even a rope."

"But he could have done anything in the time you can't remember," Lupin spoke up. "We don't even know how long that was. It might've felt like a second, and been several minutes."

"What I want to know is what do we do about it?" Harry asked loudly, feeling frustrated and trying to control his temper, again. "I agree we need to figure out what happened, but first…how do we get rid of it? Is there a cure?"

Harry looked carefully at each professor's face, waiting for someone to answer, then looked at Hermione. She looked back at him and nodded, but there was something in her expression that made him think there was a problem.

"Yes," Dumbledore said at last. "There is a cure for Pyromus, one which Professor Snape could easily make for you, but I don't know if it is safe."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Harry asked.

"Because you aren't feeling the heat that normally accompanies the anger. The cure acts similar to that of a freezing charm, only magnified tremendously. It extinguishes the powder, making it completely ineffective. The problem is without the heat, you could freeze to death; the cure might kill you faster than the infection."

Harry thought about this for a moment, then spoke again.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's better than letting it get to the point where I want to kill one of you."

"Harry we can't decide this that way, we have to consider our options," Lupin said.

"What do you mean we? This is my life, and right now it seems a lot of people want it ended. If I'm really going to get so angry that I try to…to kill…then I'd rather be dead, because as I'm sure you know I've just been taught all about killing…" Harry trailed off glaring at Dumbledore. He turned away from everyone for a minute shaking his head. It was getting harder and harder to control his temper.

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall yelled furiously and stood up quickly.

"Calm down Minerva," Dumbledore said before she could say anything else. "We know why Harry's acting like this, so yelling at him won't help the situation any. In fact it will only make things worse." He walked across the room to where Harry was standing. "We will try the potion," he said.

"What?" Lupin exclaimed standing up. "It'll kill him!"

"And," Dumbledore continued giving Lupin a pointed look, "we will also use a warmth charm, to help your body to keep functioning while the cure takes affect."

"Will that be strong enough?" Hermione asked, her face etched with worry.

"I can only hope. But this is the only cure for Pyromus, and if we don't act soon, it will be too late," Dumbledore said, then turned to Snape. "Severus I would like you to get started on that straight away, if you need anything let me know." Snape nodded and got up from his seat. He walked past everyone silently and left the office. Dumbledore turned to Harry and Hermione.

"I want you both to be back here in three hours. Professor Snape will be done by then and I think we should do this as soon as possible. Do you agree?"

Harry was a bit taken back that Dumbledore had even asked this and felt his stomach knotting from worry, but gave him a nod, as did Hermione.

"Very good. I will see you then," Dumbledore said and turned back to the others. Harry and Hermione left the office quietly, heading back towards the great hall.

When they walked in they found the great hall was mostly empty, the few people there were finishing dinner. Ron, Ginny and Cho were no longer there; so Harry and Hermione sat down to eat. Neither of them touched their food much though, as they really didn't have much of an appetite. As they were getting up to leave, Harry heard a voice behind him.

"Now I don't think your girlfriend would be happy that you're cheating on her…and with a mudblood, too."

Harry spun around to see Draco Malfoy standing behind him, sneering.

"This is not a good time, Malfoy," he said through clenched teeth. Of all the things that could happen right now, he didn't need Malfoy to be instigating him.

"Harry, let's go. Now," Hermione said fiercely, looking very scared.

"Yeah, better listen to the mudblood Potter. Don't want to be caught by your girlfriend, do you?"

"If you don't shut up you're going to wish you had your two bodyguards with you."

"They aren't my bodyguards," Malfoy spat. "And I can handle myself! I could take you!"

"Is that a challenge?" Harry asked in an icy voice, menacingly stepping towards Malfoy, who was now looking warily at Harry. But he couldn't stop himself from giving his next answer.

"Yes. I challenge you to a duel," he said evenly.

"It's time to go Harry," Hermione cut in suddenly. She had come around to his side of the table and grabbed him by the arm. Harry looked at her infuriated for a moment, but she held his gaze until he realized what he was doing and lowered his eyes. He looked back at Malfoy.

"Some other time," he said quietly then stepped past him and started towards the doorway.

"I knew you were a coward! Scared to face me, are you?" Malfoy called after him. Hermione could see Harry getting ready to turn around again and she tightened her grip on his arm and began walking faster. They reached the door just as Ron was walking in.

"What's going on?" he asked seeing their faces.

"I'll tell you when we're away from here," Hermione answered, still holding Harry. Ron looked at them curiously but followed them as they walked out the door and down the hall.

"Where's Cho?" Harry asked Ron after a minute.

"She's in the library with Ginny," Ron said. "Where did you guys go, anyway? You were gone for so long."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"I'll tell you when we're with the others," Harry said. "How long do we have Hermione?"

"A little more than two hours," she replied.

Ron looked back and forth between them, but stayed silent. He knew they'd tell him soon enough. When they walked into the library Ron lead them to where Cho and Ginny were sitting.

"Harry," Cho said standing up as they walked over. "What happened?"

Harry walked over to her and pulled her close, just holding her for a moment. When he pulled back, she was looked at him with concern.

"Let's sit down back here," Harry said pulling her with him as he walked. "Back where not many people are sitting." They went to the furthest table in the library so they wouldn't be overheard. When they were all sitting, Harry and Hermione told them everything and there was only one hour left.

"But…why do we have to do this now?" Cho asked. "Can't we wait and try to come up with something better than a warmth charm? What if it doesn't work?"

"The problem…I think…is that the infection isn't working like it normally would, and it appears that it's spreading faster than any case that's been recorded," Hermione said. "Because of this we don't know how much time there is, until it's in full affect."

"You could die…" Cho said looking Harry in the eyes.

"If I don't do this, someone else could," Harry answered her. "I don't want to be responsible for someone else's death."

"Maybe you'd have control over it though…I mean if it isn't affecting you normally…" she began again.

"No. I have enough trouble controlling my temper right now, without the desire to hurt someone, well except for Malfoy in the great hall a while ago. That was the first time I wanted to…inflict pain…"

"Yeah…well, that doesn't mean anything. Who hasn't wanted to hurt Malfoy?" Ron asked. Harry couldn't help but laugh at that and smiled at Ron. He realized how nervous he was about what was going to happen. Would he die tonight? At least Voldemort wouldn't get the spell he wanted and the Zlam could have their knowledge back. But he didn't want to die, not yet. There were too many things he wanted to do. He shook these thoughts out of his head though, as they too were beginning to make him bitter and angry.

"I want all of you to come tonight," Harry said to his friends. "I'd feel better with you there."

"I was coming anyway," Ron said smiling at him.

"Same here," Cho said. Ginny and Hermione just smiled and nodded.

"Well…shall we head up then?" he asked, standing. They all got up with him and left the library in a group, heading towards Dumbledore's office. Harry held Cho's arm as they walked, hoping this wouldn't be his last trip there.

When they walked into the office, everyone was there already.

"Hello," Dumbledore said looking at the group of them. "Thank you for being on time, Harry. Are you ready?"

"No. But let's do it anyway," Harry said honestly. He walked over to where Dumbledore was standing with Snape, waiting for them to tell him what to do.

"Why don't the rest of you head back…" McGonagall started saying to the other students.

"I'd rather they stay," Harry interrupted her. She looked at him for a moment, then at Dumbledore, who nodded.

"They can stay if they want to, as long as you remember we don't know what's going to happen tonight. I need all of you to remain calm and not interfere with anything that happens. Is that clear?" he asked looking pointedly at all of them. Everyone murmured that it was and nodded.

"Mr. Potter," Snape began, "when you drink this you must do it all at once, don't go slowly or it will be more painful." He held a goblet out to Harry that was filled with icy blue liquid; smoke was lightly billowing from it. Harry looked from the potion to Snape and back.

"More painful…?" he asked.

"We don't know what you are going to feel, actually," Dumbledore said. "The fact is, this is normally a painful process and without the heat from the Pyromus to counteract the cold…we don't know what you will feel."

"What about the warmth charm? You're still doing that, right?" Harry asked nervously.

"Yes, of course. We will start as soon as you'd like."

Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was it, now or never. He looked over his shoulder at his friends, at Cho, who was paler than he'd ever seen her. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, and looked back at Dumbledore.

"Okay, let's do this."

Dumbledore, McGonagall and Lupin all came close to Harry with their wands out, whispering quietly. When the tips of their wands were all glowing red, they touched them together and brought them down to Harry's shoulder. Immediately, Harry felt immense heat spread throughout him. He coughed from the dryness in his throat and tried hard to swallow, then reached up and wiped the sweat that was now running into his eyes.

"I'm sorry for that, but we decided we should do it together to make reinforce the strength of the charm," Dumbledore explained quickly, then turned to Snape. "Severus, the potion."

Snape came over to Harry and handed him the cup. Harry looked at it for only a second, before bringing it to his lips, tipping his head and gulping it down. No sooner had he handed the cup back to Snape, then he felt the heat inside him begin to cool. At first it felt almost refreshing, and he was glad for it, but then it started to get very cold.

Harry shivered and his teeth started to chatter. He went over to the closest chair and sat far back in it. He brought his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, rocking back and forth, trying to feel warm again.

"How long does this take?" Hermione spoke up suddenly, startling everyone in the room except Harry, who didn't seem to even notice she'd spoken.

"There's no way to know," Dumbledore said. "The potion works until the infection is completely extinguished. But without knowing how much of the powder he was given in the first place, we can't tell how long this will take."

Hermione nodded and looked back at Harry full of worry.

"Can't you do the warmth charm again?" Cho asked.

"No. Once the potion has been taken, any interference would completely stop the healing process, and what he's going through now would all be in vain. We would have to do it all over again."

"But…" she began again.

"Miss Chang, I told you when you came that you would need to stay calm. If you can't I need you to leave, because if you interfere it could endanger his life," Dumbledore said abruptly. Cho shut her mouth and stayed silent, though she looked as if she were growing restless with anxiety, and she wasn't the only one. Ron, Hermione and Ginny all seemed much more on edge than any of the professors, but after what Dumbledore had just said, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

Harry was now experiencing muc

h more than just cold. It felt like all the blood in his veins had turned to ice. He could barely move his arms anymore and just stayed huddled in his chair. It was more painful than he could have imagined, and he kept his eyes shut tightly and gritted his teeth, praying it would end soon, one way or another.

He was vaguely aware of the people around him. He could barely see them, or even hear them, but he was under the impression there was shouting going on, these thoughts were wiped from his mind though, when the icy feeling seemed to fill his lungs, and he began to gasp for air. It went on for what felt like eternity and he barely felt someone grab him and pull him forward, when he couldn't stay conscious any longer, and faded into the blackness.

Harry opened his eyes slowly. It was so dark he could barely see anything. He didn't move at first, just stayed where he was, trying to remember what happened. Was he still in Dumbledore's office? If he was then where did everyone go? Was he dead? After a few moments, he realized he was on his back and sat up very slowly. As he did so he felt enormous pressure on his temples, and pulled his hands up to his head. If I'm dead why am I still getting headaches? He thought.

He put his hands down after a few minutes and realized he was in a bed, he instinctively felt around on either side and found his glasses on a table nearby. When he put them on, he looked around, and found he was in a room he hadn't seen before. He was in the room's only bed, and there were many shelves against the walls filled with books. He saw a small table off to his left with several chairs around it, and someone was in one of them, with their head down.

Harry swung his legs to the side of the bed and slowly put them down on the floor, but as soon as he put his weight down, he found this was a bad idea. He could barely support himself and almost collapsed on the floor, he grabbed the side of the bed and started to pull himself back in, his headache returning in full force. The person at the table stirred when they heard Harry's movement and came over quickly to help him. When he was sitting back in the bed again, he looked up at the person next to him.

"Remus," Harry said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, "where are we?"

"We're still in Hogwart's, behind Dumbledore's office. This is where Sirius stayed last year before Dumbledore found him his new hiding place."

"Why am I here? What happened?" Harry asked trying hard to remember, the pain in his head had now subsided a bit.

"You're here because we felt it was the safest place for you," Lupin said. "As for what happened, Dumbledore will explain it to you when he arrives. Please try and rest more until then. We almost lost you the other night; we thought you had died. It's very important that you rest as much as possible right now and don't try getting up again. Promise?"

Harry looked at him, feeling beyond confused, but nodded and laid back on the pillows. He didn't realize how exhausted he was until just then, and was asleep within minutes.

The next time Harry woke, there were people in the room with him, talking. He sat up slowly and reached again for his glasses, the voices of the others stopped as they noticed he was awake. When he looked around, he saw Dumbledore, Lupin and Sirius sitting at the table, with someone else.

Harry couldn't believe his eyes.

"Tytros! What are you doing here?" he exclaimed.

"Tytros is the reason you are alive, Harry," Dumbledore spoke up. "He arrived just in time."

"No thanks to me," Sirius said in a low voice. He looked at his hands in shame.

"Sirius, you couldn't know, we tried to stop him too," Lupin said.

"What do you mean? I never saw you there…" Harry trailed off.

Tytros stood up and moved closer to Harry, then sat down again.

"I will explain what I can," he said. "I was able to escape from Mensok and the others before we reached our forest…"

"How?" Harry interrupted, looking amazed. "I thought you were dead!"

"I will tell you that some other time, I promise," Tytros answered quietly. "But in any case, I was not in good shape to say the least. I took shelter in different wooded areas, moving from place to place so as not to be captured again. When I was finally well enough I came back here, that was two nights ago."

"The night I took the potion?" Harry asked, not sure what day it was. Tytros nodded.

"When I arrived, I started looking for you, not letting anyone see me, of course, to let you know I was alive and that I was back, but I could not find you in any of the places I had always seen you. So I decided to try your headmaster's office. On the way, I passed your godfather, Sirius Black, and caught some of his thoughts as I went by…"

"Caught some of his thoughts?" Harry asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

Tytros looked at Harry for a moment, as if deciding how to explain.

"Can the Zlam read minds?" Harry asked, remembering how Mensok had known what he was thinking the night they almost caught him.

"Not exactly," Tytros said. "We can hear them, but only if you are thinking about something strongly. Like if you think something is very important, or if it shocks you. Thoughts that seem to scream out at you, above all other ones; they literally scream out to us, if we open ourselves to it."

"How do you open yourself to it?" Harry asked.

"You wouldn't understand. Just know that it is something any Zlam can do, when they choose. The other night I chose to in case anyone's thoughts would tell me where you were. When I passed by Sirius Black, that is exactly what happened."

Harry looked at Sirius then, who was still looking at his hands, then back to Tytros, nodding for him to continue.

"I heard that you had been infected with Pyromus, and that you were being given the cure, but I knew immediately it wouldn't work correctly, so I decided to show myself to try and find out more. I would have waited until I got to the office, but I thought it would be better to try and talk to one wizard then many. I knew they would never recognize me."

"I'm so sorry," Sirius said from across the room.

"You did not know," Tytros said simply, then turned to Harry. "Your godfather knew from the first that I was a Zlam, though he didn't realize I was here to help you. He had his wand out as he walked so was prepared, and when I showed myself, he used what you call the body bind on me, and I was unable to tell him why I was there."

"Luckily, I couldn't bring him anywhere as I couldn't let anyone see me," Sirius spoke up suddenly. "Otherwise…" he trailed off, shaking his head.

"He brought me exactly where I was heading to begin with, and I saw you were there, and had already taken the potion. I knew there wasn't much time, by looking at you and thankfully, your magic doesn't always work the same on Zlam as it does on humans, so by the time we arrived, the curse was close to wearing off."

"When I brought him into the room, I left him near the door and went over to Professor Dumbledore, to tell him I had found a Zlam in the school," Sirius said. "No one saw him right away."

"I was able to move again less than a minute after we arrived," Tytros continued. "I came into the room and immediately headed over towards you. The younger girl with the red hair was quite frightened to see me, and began screaming, and your professors realized I was free before I was able to get to you. Naturally, they too tried to stop me."

"Tytros was ready for us to try and stop him, though," Lupin spoke up. "Professor Dumbledore was the only one who was successful at raising his wand. He stopped Tytros where he was standing."

"I had intended to push him backwards," Dumbledore said, smiling a little, "but was unable to. Zlam are very powerful indeed," he continued on, looking at Tytros, "you were able to make four fully trained wizards unable to even move their wands, and my magic only barely worked on you. I believe in fact, that it wouldn't have even phased you, had you not been using much of your energy on the others."

"While this was going on, Ron, Hermione and Cho were shouting at both of them to stop, and Hermione finally got it through that this was Tytros," Sirius added.

"I felt Professor Dumbledore let up instantly," Tytros continued, "and I in turn let go of my hold on all of your instructors. By the time I reached you, you were no longer even breathing, as the potion had frozen your lungs."

Harry who had been listening intently to every word spoken up to this point felt like he had been slapped in the face. His jaw dropped as he stared at Tytros in amazement.

"I was dead?" he asked.

"Not dead, just not breathing," Tytros answered. "The coldness had not yet stopped your heart, thankfully, and I was able to reverse its effects before it was too late."

"How…?" Harry asked.

"I merged with you," he answered, and seeing Harry's confused look, quickly continued. "When Corfay transferred the knowledge to you, do you remember what he did?"

"He…um…grabbed my arms…" Harry said, feeling nauseas from what Tytros was telling him. "It looked like electricity was running through him…"

"What I did the other night would have looked similar to that. Zlam are able to transfer many things back and forth to each other, thoughts, feelings, and energy. I gave you my energy last night, when this happens, a part of me goes into you, nothing physical or tangible, but it's there just the same. I took much of the warmth from myself, and put it into you."

"But, why would that work, and not another warmth charm?" Harry asked.

"Because the reason you never felt the heat in the first place, is because of the knowledge you are carrying. You may not realize it, but it has changed you to some extent. Again, not in any tangible way, but the infection worked through you as it would have if you were a Zlam. That's why I knew it was urgent that I get to you immediately, as you would have died otherwise. I did what I would have done for one of my own kind and as I expected, it worked as if you were one."

Harry just looked at Tytros, dumbfounded. He had saved his life twice now, and Harry didn't know how he could repay that. Finally he found his voice again.

"Thank you," he said weakly. "If there's anything you need from me…ever…" Harry started quickly but stopped when Tytros just shook his head.

"I need no retribution for this, I did what I felt I had to, nothing more."

Harry privately disagreed with him, and felt he would have to find some way to make it up to him, but nodded for the time being, then another thought occurred to him.

"Why am I here, in this room I mean? Why not the hospital wing?"

"That was somewhat Tytros' idea," Sirius said. "He suggested we put you someplace that not many people know of because of how easy it is for Zlam to get in."

"He also has been checking in on you regularly, making sure you were okay," Lupin said, looking gratefully at Tytros, who didn't say anything. Harry was about to ask another question, when Dumbledore spoke.

"Now I want you to get rest, if you are well enough, you can leave here tomorrow and go back to your tower," Dumbledore said. "We will all be up to check on you throughout the rest of today."

Harry looked at him and nodded, he wanted to talk to Tytros some more about everything that had happened to him the night he was taken, but decided it could wait for the moment. He watched as all of them filed out of the room, then settled back to think over everything he had just been told.

The next day, Harry was able to go back to his tower. His strength had returned faster than he thought it would have judging by the fact that he couldn't even stand the day before. He was a little disappointed that Tytros had not come to see him again, and he didn't know how to find him. When he asked Dumbledore if he knew where Tytros was, he was told he would be 'around.' Harry wasn't happy with this answer, but didn't push the matter.

He was up early the next morning so when he returned to his dorm, everyone was just getting out of bed.

"Harry," Ron yawned. "You're back. I didn't think you would be so soon."

"Neither did I but Dumbledore said if I felt well enough that I could come back, so here I am. Did I miss much?"

"No. Nothing that you can't catch up on," he answered. Then he opened his mouth to speak again, but shut it quickly.

"What?" Harry asked, noticing this.

"Did…did they tell you, what happened?" Ron asked cautiously.

Harry nodded.

"It was so scary, we thought you…"

"I know. They told me everything. It's a good thing Tytros showed up."

"So you talked to him to then? Did he say how he escaped?"

"No. I asked him but he wanted to talk about the other night first. Then when I tried to talk to him again, they all wanted me to rest. I swear I spend more time asleep then I do anything else. Anyway, I couldn't find him anywhere today."

"Oh," Ron said, looking as disappointed as Harry felt. He really wanted to hear what had happened, but had no choice but to wait.

The two of them got ready and went down to the great hall where they found Hermione, Ginny and Cho. They were all surprised just as Ron had been about Harry being back so soon, and talked a little more about the other night, but not much. When it was time for them to head off to classes for the day they stood up and left the great hall together, but Cho pulled Harry aside in the hallway.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she said quietly. "I wasn't sure you were going to make it, you were so…pale…and then you started gasping for air and then you just…stopped. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen," she said. Harry looked at her, and saw she was close to tears.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm alive and well again, see?" he said smiling at her.

"I know, I know. It's just…I've never experienced a feeling like this before…"

Harry smiled at her, and pulled her close to him.

"I feel the same way about you," he whispered to her.

When she pulled away from him they just looked at each other, in silence, but he could see she was smiling a little now. She leaned forward and they kissed briefly.

"I have to go…" she said quietly.

"Yeah…I better too."

They looked at each other a moment more, before heading off down separate halls, towards their classes.

As the weeks went on, Harry kept a constant lookout for Tytros, but was never able to find him. He even checked the Marauder's Map occasionally, but his name never appeared. He didn't know if this meant that Tytros was not on the school grounds, or if for some reason he just wasn't showing up. Finally he let it go, and figured Tytros would find him when he needed to speak to him, and he could ask his questions then.

By the time the third week of April had come around, he was still in his after class sessions with Lupin, but it seemed this would take the longest. They had been meeting for two weeks, because of the situation with the Pyromus he didn't have any sessions until the week after. But after two weeks it was apparent that this would take longer than any of the others. Lupin and he had spent all their time so far, going over the most dangerous creatures known to the wizarding world. They were supposed to start with dueling, but after thinking about it, Lupin had decided this would be better, as one dangerous creature had already almost killed Harry earlier in the year.

When he left his Friday session, after having learned about Kelpies and the best way to defeat them, by using a placement charm, he was anxious for the weekend to begin. He went back to his tower and sat down with his friends.

"Did you see Tytros today?" Ron asked anxiously.

"No, not today. I really wish he would show up soon, I hope nothing happened to him."

"I'm sure he's fine," Hermione said, matter of factly.

"I hope so," Harry said looking absentmindedly towards the window. He stood up suddenly. "I'm gonna check the map again."

"You've checked it a dozen times though, you never see him on it," Hermione said sounding exasperated.

"Well then it won't hurt to look again now will it?" Harry said, then turned and headed towards the stairs.

"Wait for me!" Ron said as he stood up and trotted after Harry, leaving Hermione behind shaking her head.

When they got upstairs, Harry pulled out the map and turned it on, using his wand. He spread it out on his bed and they both began searching for Tytros' name.

"No," Ron sighed after a moment, "Don't see him, maybe we should ask Dumbledore again?" he said looking at Harry, but he didn't answer. "Hello? Harry!" Ron said loudly.

"Look," Harry said pointing.

Ron looked at the map where Harry was pointing and inhaled quickly. Draco Malfoy was roaming the halls, and it looked like he was heading for his secret room. The two of them looked at each other, but didn't need to speak, Harry put the map in one pocket and the invisibility cloak in his other one. The two of them headed downstairs quickly, anxious to see what Malfoy was up to.

They came downstairs and headed straight for the portrait hole, Ron stepped through first and Harry was just about to when someone grabbed his arm.

"Where are you two going?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Malfoy's on his way back to the storage room, probably to work on the potion. We're going to see what we can find out," Harry answered her.

"Do you really think that's a good idea? You remember what happened last time you two went there?"

"We have the Marauder's Map this time, Wormtail, or anyone else for that matter, won't be able to sneak up on us. Besides that, whatever Malfoy is working on he must be close to finishing it. He said it would be done by the beginning of May, so there isn't much time."

"So let's go tell Dumbledore, that way he gets caught making the potion, and you aren't breaking any rules," Hermione said.

"But he still has my parents' book! He'll just use that to blame everything on Ginny!" Ron exclaimed.

"Not if he's caught working on it!" Hermione said, sounding frustrated.

"Okay, here's what we'll do. We're gonna see if we can find out anymore about what he's working on, if it looks like he's going to be there for a while, we'll go tell Dumbledore. Maybe we can even get the book back, if he's brought it with him," Harry said.

Hermione looked at him uncertainly, but nodded. She watched as Harry and Ron slipped the invisibility cloak over their heads, before stepping back into the common room.