AN

I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out. I was sick for a while (still am actually) and this was a bit complicated to write. I'm putting a lot of info into this chapter, soI wanted to get it just right.

Many thanks to all the encouraging and/or helpful reviewers from the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this Christmas present from me.

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Chapter 8

Plans for the Future

It's dark, cold. Spells of all colors are flying everywhere, like some kind of fancy muggle light show. Sirius and Bellatrix taunting each other. A jet of red light hits Sirius' chest. As if in slow motion, he falls backwards.....

Then everything goes dark. A strange shift, and a jolt. The Death Chamber again, but it's empty of the battle there previously. The veil flutters in an unseen breeze. A whisper of voices is heard, too low to make any words out.

The veil shifts slightly, and Sirius walks out. He starts forward. He looks truly awful, far worse than even when he had just escaped from Azkaban. His face is literally as pale as a ghost's, and his eyes are sunken and expressionless, no longer the warm eyes full of mirth and mishief his godson remembered. His body is so skinny that it's possible to see virtually every bone in his body with frightening clarity.

His gaze sweeps the room, and he spots his godson to one side. He stares at him with sightless eyes, making him cringe in guilt and horror. Sirius opens his mouth and croaks, "Harry, how could you? You killed me. It's all your fault"

Everything went dark once again. Another stange shift and a jolt, and Harry found himself once again in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Sirius was there already waiting for him, sitting at the Gryffindor table. Harry could feel the tears streaming down his cheeks, and the weight of guilt and sorrow still seemed to be resting heavily on him.

As soon as Sirius saw him, he leapt up and pulled him into a tight hug. "Bad one tonight huh?"

Harry nodded onto his shoulder. "It's so hard, Siri. It seems so real, and you always tell me it's my fault. And I always believe it."

Sirius just held him for a moment and let him cry it out. "We have to do something about this soon. It gets worse every night."

Harry pulled back. "It's getting worse during the day too. Ever since he possessed me, I have this almost constant sense of him. It's not always foremost in my thoughts, but it's always somewhere, like a thought hovering in the back of my mind. I think my connection to him is growing stronger, and I think he's the one strengthening it."

Sirius looked worried. "Why haven't you mentioned it before?"

"I wasn't sure it was really him," Harry said sheepishly. "I wanted to be sure before I brought it up."

"Harry," Sirius gave him a look that was both stern and exasperated. "You don't have to worry about being embarassed around me. If something comes up, no matter how small, I need to know about it. We can't take chances kiddo."

Harry just nodded contritely and changed the subject. "So what was it we needed to talk about tonight? You've been going on about all your plans for days."

Sirius gave him a long, searching look and motioned for him to sit down at the table. When they were seated, he turned to face his godson with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face.

"I am going to tell you everything that Dumbledore has kept from you." Harry opened his mouth, but Sirius held up his hand for silence. "Please. Just, let me say all that I need to say. You can ask questions of me later.

"I want you to understand, that Dumbledore is still a good man. Whatever else, he is still a good man beneath it all. The problem is that he has seen so many years of death, and pain, and destruction that he has forgotten. Forgotten what it is like to be the soldier fighting for someone you've never met. Forgotten what it is like to be the man sent to his death and never told why. Forgotten perhaps even what it is we are all fighting for.

"For you see, he has been seeing things in terms of facts and figures, death tallies and survivor numbers for so long, he's become indifferent to the individual. He seems to see everything through a 'fewer losses' glass. What he has forgotten is that he is throwing men's lives away for what he deems 'the greater good'.

"Dumbledore has not seen you as a man, with feelings, dreams, and hopes of your own for some time now. To him, all you are is a statistic. Another soldier who will sacrifice his own life to end the reign of the Dark Lord. While it is a noble thing to die for a thousand unnamed faces, one cannot expect the soldier to just throw his life away without a second thought. A man needs to have a reason. He needs to have something worth fighting for, something worth dying for. He needs to know why he is being sent to his death, and be presented with the choice. The choice of giving his life for others. And if he chooses death, he needs to know that he will not have died in vain, that those that follow will live, and more importantly, be free because of him. He needs to know that he will have died with honor, and his friends, his family, those he holds most dear, will be free to live their lives without fear because he did so.

"Sometimes, there are things more important than just living, Harry. Dumbledore doesn't seem to remember that. He's proven it time and again in the way the foremost thought in his mind seems to be to make sure as many people as possible live, even at the cost of the lives of others. Even the enemy he lets live. But he doesn't see. He doesn't see that we are losing this war, just as we were losing the last one before you defeated the Dark Lord as a baby. Voldemort grows more powerful every day, and his reign this time will be greater and more terrible than ever before. Yet, Dumbledore continues to stun, not kill. Continues to bind, not cut. Time and again the enemy's fighters are captured, and time and again they escape, or are broken free. And each time they do, the Dark Lord's recruiters gain a few converts, who see no consequences for their actions if they join Voldemort.

"It's time you took the fight to the enemy, Harry. I have a plan - one that I've been working on ever since your fourth year, when Dumbledore told me about your meeting with Voldemort in your first year. It became clear to me then that Voldemort would return, probably soon, and that something had to be done. It also became clear to me that Dumbledore wasn't going to be the right man to lead the fight.

"After he told me about your first year, I started visiting a few old friends around the world. One of the most important of which was in America. In America, unlike here in England, there isn't a seperate government for the magical world. Instead, they just have a Department of Magical Affairs, with a Secretary of Magic - this is all kept secret from the muggles of course.

"For this reason, the American government and our own Ministry of Magic have always been somewhat at odds with each other. They see clearly what wizards and witches in England, who've had hundreds of years of prejudice to blind them, do not. They see that you cannot just allow the magical world to take care of itself, separated from everything else. It causes major problems. Just look at me! I was sent to prison for life without any kind of trial, and I was innocent! So, the American President decided that I could not be considered a criminal, and they didn't hand me over to our Ministry when I turned up with a proposal over there. This had to be done secretly, of course, or they'd be openly showing a refusal to cooperate with our Ministry, and that causes a lot of political problems.

"Anyway, I knew Dumbledore wouldn't give you the training you really needed to develope your powers and stay alive in the fight. Inevitably he'd have someone like Snape teach you and you'd learn very little. I also knew that he'd continue to hide things from you, and he would continue to use the 'catch and detain method' against the Death Eaters (thus brainwashing you into doing the same). So I asked that you be allowed to be trained there as soon as I felt it was time. Even all the way over there your adventures have been rumoured of, and they agreed to train you with one of their special magical/muggle military units.

"Unfortunately, Dumbledore must've suspected something, since he kept me locked up in that damn house for a whole blasted year." A look of surprise came over Harry's face, causing Sirius to ask incredulously, "You didn't honestly think that he kept me there for the reasons he said did you? I could easily have gone out in disguise or under an invisibility cloak like everybody else."

He paused to let his godson take in all the information he'd been given. Harry just sat there with a pensive look on his face, trying to let it all sink in. Finally, he managed to ask, "So when do I start all this, and do I have to go over to America to do it?"

Sirius gave him a proud look. Harry had managed to cut right to the heart of the matter and ask the right questions immediately. "You'll start as soon as the summer's over, and yes, you'll have to go to America. We'll have to do this in secret of course, or Voldemort will know all about it (and we don't want Dumbledore to know either for that matter). Once you're back inside the castle, the headmaster will think you're safe and not worry about making sure you don't wander by keeping all his little guards all over the place. Then we'll be able to use your wonderful new 'ability' to get to America every day."

He gazed long and hard at his godson before he spoke again. "You do realize that your schedule will be filled to the bursting point with all this don't you? You might even have to give up quidditch. It's fortunate you already know the curriculum for the final two years of schooling, or your homework would be near impossible."

Harry just nodded and a terrifyingly determined look came over his face for a moment. "I'll do whatever it takes Sirius. I need to kill him, as soon as possible, if the wizarding world is to have any chance at all."

Several emotions battled for dominance in Sirius' mind. There was pride, as he saw how willing Harry was to do whatever was necessary for the people he loved to live in a safe world. There was sadness, as he thought of how his godson was having to shoulder this burden so young. And there was fear, knowing that Harry could easily be killed before this was all over.

Outwardly, he just nodded and once again started to speak, "There's a lot I need to tell you that Dumbledore hasn't, Harry." He ignored the darkening look that passed over his godson's features as he continued, "You know how you've been having all these 'Accidental Magic' episodes?" Harry nodded, albeit a little confusedly, and Sirius pressed on. "Well Dumbledore's not being entirely truthful about that. It's not accidental magic really. You see, you have an aptitude for Wandless Magic."

Harry just stared at Sirius for moment, before spluttering, "B-but, you have to be..."

"Extraordinarily powerful, yes, I know." Sirius interrupted him. "And you are, Harry, you should know this by now. I expect you don't know just how powerful you really are.

"Harry, by the time you come into your full powers, you will most likely be the most powerful wizard on earth."

'And again he gives me the goldfish impression,' Sirius thought amusedly. 'You'd think he'd be used to surprises by now.'

Harry finally manged to recover, and he looked very very angry now. "Why hasn't he told me this?" he hissed through clenched teeth.

Sirius himself was feeling quite angry at that moment, and he replied somewhat forcefully, "As you know, Wandless Magic is controlled mainly by your emotions. Only extremely powerful wizards can use it at all, and even then they have to be very good at controlling their emotions to keep from blowing themselves up. Put simply, Dumbledore didn't trust you to keep your emotions in check, and opted to wait to tell you until you were older."

Harry closed his eyes and visibly tried to calm himself down. There was no use getting angry now, he didn't even have the old man around so he could yell at him. After several deep, calming breaths, he opened them again to look at his godfather. "Alright, what else hasn't he told me?"

Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment. "Let's see now, you found out about the vault already, and I told you about your Wandless Magic (which we'll get started on tomorrow by the way), I don't think there's anything else, except whatever he's keeping from you about the Order right now."

Before Harry could ask any more questions, Sirius moved on to the next thing they had to discuss. "Right, about your sister. This'll have to be absolutely secret from anyone except the two of us, as Voldemort won't hesitate to go after her." Seeing the look Harry was giving him, Sirius hastened to add, "And you can tell your little girlfriend too of course."

Harry gave him his best 'you're-going-to-die-for-that-one' look, at which Sirius only grinned cheekily.

"You'll be wanting to find her of course," Sirius said. Harry just rolled his eyes as if to say 'naturally you imbecile.' Sirius gave him another cheeky grin and decided to get down to business. "Right then, we should start getting some private investigators on the case. You've got enough money to go all-out in the search and never even notice any change in your account, so don't worry about that part of it. The hardest part will be making sure the investigators don't let anything slip to the wrong people, and that they don't know too much that's sensitive just in case."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, and Sirius continued, "We'll get to that the day after tomorrow. I've also got to tell you about that stone we got from the vault."

Harry's ears perked up curiously, and he gave Sirius his full attention, keeping his thoughts from straying to his sister, as they had been a moment before. "The first thing you must know is that I'm the first non-Potter to even know about that stone for about 300 years. I found out by accident, and James ended up telling me the whole story eventually.

"Not a lot is known, since this stone is an absolute secret, but one thing we do know is it was made by one of your ancestors centuries ago because his newborn son was too powerful for his own good. You see, every hundred years or so the Potter family has a habit of turning out an extraordinarily powerful new Potter. When they do, they use this stone to lock away a good portion of his powers until he is older. If they didn't, the young Potter would most likely destroy himself (and his family) simply because he has no control. That's what Lily and James did to you, though Dumbledore doesn't know it.

"It was tradition for these Potters to be allowed their full powers on their 16th birthday, as by that time they usually had gained enough control to handle them. That's why I had you get the stone, so we can use it to unlock your full power on your birthday. Even without this, you are a powerful wizard, but with it, your power easily rivals that of Voldemort, perhaps even surpasses it."

Harry looked suddenly hopeful. "Does that mean..."

Sirius shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, I don't think it will be that easy to defeat him. It's not just a matter of power, but also skill and knowledge, of which you have some but not enough. Then there's the fact that he can't be killed by conventional means. Just look at what happened the last time he was hit by a Killing Curse! We will have to find some different way to kill him, I'm afraid. Don't worry though, I'm sure together we'll be able to come up with something."

Harry hung his head. "I don't know if I can beat him, Siri. I have to do it, I know I do, but sometimes I just don't think I can do it."

Sirius just patted his back reassuringly. "C'mon now, none of that nonsense. I know you'll beat him, Inferno old boy. You got me don't ya? We're Marauders! No task is too great, no enemy too cunning. We'll beat him, I'm sure of it."

This seemed to bolster Harry's courage once again, and he got that determined glint back in his eyes. "You're right. Thanks, Siri. Speaking of Marauders, are we going to let Moony in on all of this? I'm sure he'd be the most likely to help us."

Sirius snapped his fingers. "I almost forgot! Thanks for reminding me! Moony knows all about the training in America and the Wandless Magic, and he's firmly on our side. After he lost your parents, Peter, and me all within a couple of days, he started to doubt Dumbledore's judgement. Once he heard everything I had to tell him after I came back, he told me he was with us in whatever we decided to do. Alastor Moody is also on our side. No one knows better than him how dangerous the Dark Side is, and how important it is that we start being realistic about fighting fire with fire."

Harry nodded his head thoughtfully. "Good, we need as many people as possible to be with us on this. I think also we may be able to convince the Diggorys, perhaps Neville Longbottom, and of course Ginny to join us in this. They've all either experienced the Dark Lord firsthand, or lost someone close to them because of Voldemort. They'll know that it takes more than a stunner to take care of a Death Eater, and they'll most likely be willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that what happened to them never has to happen to anyone else."

Sirius just grinned at his godson as he continued to ramble off ideas and plans. "Excellent, my dear little Inferno. We're definitely on the right track with all of this. Now, there's one more thing we need to talk about. We've got to keep that old bugger out of your head. I felt his presence tonight when you had your vision. He's trying to push me out of your mind so that he can have better access. If he succeeds, he'll be able to read your thoughts and memories. I'm taking a big risk as it is telling you everything that I know, as he'll be able to find out all our plans if he pushes me out."

Harry was (understandably) quite troubled by this piece of knews, and immediately went into contemplation mode. "How long...." he finally managed to start but trailed off before he completed his sentence.

"I can hold him off for a while yet if that's what you're asking," Sirius said. At Harry's nod he continued, "it'll probably be another two or three weeks before he manages to push me out. It gets harder and harder every night to break through your vision and pull you in here. We've got to find a solution soon though. We don't want him doing this any more than we have to let him."

He gave Harry a searching look. "Any ideas on how to block him out?" When Harry just looked lost, Sirius decided to start the reasoning process. "You said he possessed you that night at the Ministry. What drove him out eventually?"

"Professor Dumbledore said it was my heart," Harry said quietly. "My thoughts were so full of how much I had loved you that he couldn't stand it and had to leave."

Sirius contemplated that for a moment. "Alright, so let's try this: every night before you go to sleep, concentrate on how much you love all your friends. The Weasleys, me, Moony, anyone you feel close to. I don't think it'll keep him out, but it might buy us some time until we can come up with something better.

"Meanwhile, maybe we can use some muggle meditation techniques to allow you to explore the connection between the two of you. That may give you some perspective on the whole thing and come up with some sort of permanent solution. I don't know a lot, but I did learn a little bit about it when I took Martial Arts."

Sirius suddenly stood and pulled his godson out of his seat. He put his hand to Harry's head and said, "Time for some more knowledge from good old Hogwarts, and then we'll get started on the meditation."

AN

There it is. I'd like to explain the fact that I'm portraying America in a positive light in this chapter. In no way am I trying to make a statement that America is a better country in real life. I merely think that the magical government in the UK, as portrayed by JKR, is a corrupt, biggoted, and ineffective system. Therefore I decided that Harry needed to get help elsewhere.

My essay teacher always told me that a good writer writes about what he or she knows. Since I know a lot more about the US than I do about England, I naturally turned to that as a solution for Harry's help. I do not intend to pull some 'Harry moves to America and gives up on England' thing or some such rot. A large part of this fic is Harry attempting to fix parts of the magical world that are messed up, such as the Ministry.

In case anyone tries to tell me that the whole Wandless Magic bit is overused, I'd just like to say that I'm only putting it in there at all because I honestly believe that that is the direction JKR is taking in the books. You can see it when he blows up his aunt in book 3, and also in book 5 when he 'lights up' his wand even though he isn't touching it (during the dementor attack). If it weren't for that, I'd leave it out altogether because it's become cliche to use it in fanfics.

Once again thanks to all my reviewers. I'd thank you individually, but I'm sure you'd rather I wrote the next chapter instead! So if you're not in the following review responses, consider yourself thanked from the bottom of my heart!

john: Don't worry about his sister. Her purpose in this story is not an all-powerful witch, but just to add a bit of drama to the whole thing. And Harry's emotions will continue to fluctuate throughout the story, particularly his anger.

Yavinbase: yavin, old buddy, old pal. Glad to see you made it here! I'm not sure the Marauder's Map will have any significant importance, other than the fact that it's still Harry's main way of sneaking around the castle ;)

loudndproud223: You know, you're right. There do seem to be a lot of fan fiction writers that are female. I have seen a few male ones, but they're few and far between. If you like my story, you may like dbzdragonlanceman as an author. He's a guy, and his stories are pretty good too. As for the HG stuff in my story, I'm going to try not to make this too much like a fairy tale. It's going to be hard though, since I can't writethelove storyfrom firsthand experience (having never fallen in love to the best of my knowledge). So realism will be hard to find in that part of my story. I can only promise my best effort.

thephantom114: Nope. Not Hermione, sorry. She's going to be an original character. Good guess though.

SweetPixi: I guess it's true what they say: your toughest critic is always yourself. Thanks for the encouragement.

athenakitty: I think I did cover Harry asking whether Sirius knew about Katherine in chapter 7. I don't know about the twins.....do you think Harry should prank them a few dozen times first? Harry will most definitely meet his sister, though I can't guarantee when. I love your questions, and to answer your last one, I like a lovely mix best.