Home Again con't

All was quiet in the sixth year dorms that night. Despite that only Darian's light was on none of the boys were asleep, silent, but not asleep. Perhaps the dull scratching of Darian's quill in his "diary" was keeping them awake, but not likely. Better off placing a bet on depression, especially for Ronald. They had attended Harry Potter's funeral not long ago!

If they had looked over his shoulder they would have seen not an account of his thoughts but a rather extensive list of mishaps, more accurately described as a chart. Column one was cause, second was victim, third was what happened and the last was solution. For example, under cause it said "spontaneous", under victim it said "shelf", under what happened it read "toppled over and nearly squashed me and Ron" and under solution it had in minute writing "I wandlessly put it upright, and nobody saw a thing". This took a good hour of his time it was that bloody long.

Darian's corner of the room was quite impersonal; it had to be this early on. Anything he owned was Harry Potter's and thus had been confiscated by either Moony or Dumbledore. All he really had was a golden snitch, multiple WWW jokes, some chocolate frog cards and a picture of his "parents" the Everson's who (forgive the author for forgetting to mention) had died over the summer. This was convenient in a way; it made more sense for Darian to live with someone other than his direct family.

Because The-Boy-Who-Was-Supposedly-Dead had to write that damned diary thing for Dumbledore he hadn't gotten to sleep until late. In consequence he was awoken by a rather loud "Darian! You are going to be late! I'll give you a D!" loudly yelled from the mirror residing on his dresser. With a yelp his body jumped out of bed in a rush to get out from under the covers succeeding only in landing with a hard thump on the floor. The blanket disappeared and he frantically opened the dresser drawer, grabbed a shirt and slipped it on. He pulled out the first pair of pants he saw and put those on as well, or rather tried to. Hoping on one foot he dragged the pant leg up and in doing the same with the other leg lost his balance and met the floor again on his rump.

"Moony! Bloody Hell why didn't you get me up sooner you git!" Darian grumbled, clearly not a morning person.

"Easy on pal, I had a class to prepare. Besides, Prongs never fell out of the bed like that! Well… Not often. He was rather used to the abuse. Come here for a sec." Harry picked up the mirror.

"What?" Harry asked, none to pleased.

I thought so. Your eyes tend to change colours do they? Is Ron in there with you?"

"Wha-?" Harry sputtered having stopped dead, in the middle of getting his cloak off; he had it on inside out.

"Uhhhh ya. I didn't sleep good" Ron's voice said directly behind him. Harry quickly grabbed his wand and whispered the charm to fix his eyes while Remus talked loudly about tardiness and then smiled in the mirror satisfied. Turning around Harry saw Ron sitting on his bed calmly and still in his pyjama's. Under Harry's blue eyed gaze Ron got up and slowly went to his own drawer, clearly about to get ready to go. Quite frankly, Ron was acting weird. Darian ignored this however and finished getting ready. He slipped on his wand holster, which now had a charm on it so the students would simply not notice it. If they saw it and the wand they wouldn't pass it a second thought. He carefully slipped on his boots, aware of the dirks hidden on the inside. Lastly he pocketed the mirror and slipped on his time turner with Remus nagging him about moving faster and waited impatiently for his friend.

2 minutes later Darian and Ron were racing down the halls in an attempt not to be late for the first defence class of the year, Ron no doubt ready to blow Darian away with his talent in that field from his training with the famous Harry Potter. Harry was in much better shape and thus had to wait up for Ron who was soon panting and out of breath. "Come on, hurry up!" Darian pleaded, not wanting to go on ahead without Ron. This was all well and good as technically he didn't know the school off by heart yet. Right?

Give it another 10 and they reached the door, Harry skidded to a halt neatly and Ron who wasn't nearly as coordinated slipped and landed hard on his back right behind Harry or to everyone else, the new kid. This naturally only made the embarrassment worse for the unfortunate Ron and the full class burst out in laughter at the scene.

"Calm down class. Darian, Ron, glad you could make it." Remus, sorry, Professor Lupin said with a smile. Every girl in the room with a spare seat was waving him over and inviting him to sit next to them. This was something Harry was completely unfamiliar with, fame sure. Piece of cake. But popularity and being famous are two very different things. Blushing furiously for the state of his arrival and the generous amount of feminine attention he hastily took a seat next to Hermione. All the while Ron was busy prying himself from the cold floor.

"I'm okay. Don't worry about me." Ron said and to his extreme disappointment, nobody did.

Having sat down Darian loosely put down his bag and grinned sheepishly at Hermione fully expecting her to roll her eyes and sigh in frustration, like she normally would. She did not. Instead she giggled and brought her hands up to cover her mouth and blushed a deep red. Deciding to ignore this strange behavior he turned to see Ron take a seat grumpily next to Neville a few seats down the row and more too his surprise, Ron shot him a death glare. What Ron was mad at him for, he had no idea.

"Okay, I don't remember all of you so when I call your name indicate that you are present, preferably with the traditional "here" alright?" Remus was about halfway through the list when it caught fire for no reason at all. Ooops. Harry thought wearily. It was very amusing to see the teacher jump out of his chair like he had got nipped in the butt by something, presumably with sharp teeth. Remus whipped out his wand and shot water at the paper in a vain attempt to save his effort. Instead all he succeeded in was drenching the top of his desk. Panting slightly Remus called out "class dismissed". Nothing more needed to be said as everyone, save Darian Ron and Hermione was up and out in a flash.

The three got up and walked to their teacher's desk, Darian a few steps behind. "Professor Lupin what happened?" Hermione asked worried, always the curious one.

"Probably just some accidental magic Hermione. I am teaching a class of hormonal adolescents you know." Hermione cast a drying charm on the desk which dried in a moment, although all the papers on it were ruined, even if they hadn't caught fire. "Thank you." Remus said, probably feeling stupid for not having thought of that one himself. An uncomfortable silence came between them; Moony and Darian wanted Ron and Hermione to leave so Harry could hand off his diary and maybe laugh about it while the afore mentioned friends liked their professor and probably wanted to hear about the Order and the war but couldn't with Darian standing there. They were at a stand still. Remus spoke first. "Excuse me you two." He began, indicating Ron and Hermione. "But Darian and I have to talk about some guardianship things so…"

"Guardianship?" Hermione asked, leaving the question in the air. Oshitoshitoshit. The very last thing he needed was to make up some lie about what happened. Moony had apparently assumed that Harry had mentioned his history a little already. Guessed wrong.

"I'll explain it later. Promise." Harry heard himself say.

"No pressure mate. We'll see ya later." Ron said. This was surprisingly understanding of him. They left together and Harry turned back to Moony.

"What are you going to tell them?" Remus asked.

"Errrr, I got dropped off at your house by a stork?" Harry replied.

"I doubt they'll be convinced. I've got to bring this to Dumbledore anyway so we'll figure it out on the way." Remus said and picked up Harry's diary.

"Dumbledore? Can't I just stay here?" Harry asked, not liking the idea. He just didn't like the Headmaster anymore, which was completely understandable. He was way too manipulative to do him any good. Who wants to bet Dumbledore is the reason why Remus and Moody were forbidden to tell him anything that happened with the Order so as not to upset him? Among other things he just didn't want to think about. All thoughts related to Dumbledore lead to a rather nasty headache.

"He doesn't bite." Remus said, steering Harry out the doorway. Remus said a silence charm Harry didn't know but apparently made people around them unable to hear their conversation. Dumbledore's office was a ways away after all, no point in being overheard.

"Are you really sure?" Harry pressed. "I mean, theoretically he does bite. If he gets too close, nothing good comes of it." At this Moony laughed, it was a good sound. That man needed to laugh more often. "Honestly though! Anytime he wants to speak with you it's never to ask how your day was, he's always gotta bring bad news, a change in plans or-" Here Harry stopped again, only this time because Remus was leaning against the wall for support he was laughing so hard.

"Stop, please!" Moony begged between gasps for breath.

Harry wasn't laughing. "You can't mean to say that you aren't the least bit angry with him? For what he's done? Sure, the guys only human but he's made huge mistakes with things he had no business being in! Did he have the right, to keep me from a life with Sirius? Or you? And to keep me in the dark all last year? How about now, huh? I'm dead right? The dead don't talk, hell nobody even asks dead people things. And still I can't know anything! And even this summer, he made me go with Mad-Eye knowing full well where I wanted to be." Now Remus wasn't laughing, but looking straight at Harry, Darian, at a very angry wizard.

Remus felt the cool wind rush past his face, and he took in the darkness flickering around the boys face. He heard the suits of amour, statues and candle holders fall over all around with a crash and some distance down the hall a group of girls yelled and their footsteps faded around the corner. Harry seemed to be radiating magic, a power that was just begging to be let loose, and slowly had been. Every time he knocked over a shelf or set a paper on fire unintentionally. His magic needed to be used up; like a child with too much energy. A very dangerous one. Panicking slightly he said "Calm down Harry!"

"Calm down eh? Why? Do you need to give me more drugs? That was real lame of him. It was Dumbledore's idea, wasn't it?" Harry stated. Remus made no objection. "Thought so." Harry moved back against the opposite wall and still failed to notice the magic around them. Luckily he had that silencer up, nobody had heard them but any minute teachers were bound to wonder who was knocking over the suits of armour, those things sure made a racket when they went down.

"Let's go outside for a bit. I'll bet a good broom ride will make everything look better." Remus suggested, knowing that Harry hadn't been on one since Mad-Eye's a whole two days ago. That kid loved to fly; it should calm him down enough to talk rationally a little later.

"I don't want it to look better Moony, because it won't be better. That's a false hope that will just lead to another death. Grim, but that's it." Harry said the last with a bitter laugh, a sound that a boy his age shouldn't know how to make. Despite his negativity towards the idea the boy turned and went in the direction of his dormitory. Sighing with relief Remus followed, watching the thrown objects bounce back into place after Harry was far enough away. The wind died down and he appeared normal by the time he got upstairs, Remus in tow. "I'll be right back." And Harry went to get his broom.

What Harry had said was all true, and he knew it. But Harry was a bit hard on Dumbledore, clearly he couldn't understand that this was a war and Dumbledore was the coach. Sometimes he had to make tough decisions and it could only be him. He was touched however that Harry had wanted so much to live with him, wished that he had lived his life from childhood with him. That meant a lot to a lonely werewolf.

Harry came back a few moments later carrying his broom with one hand and a golden snitch in the other, ignoring the people in the common room offering to fly with him. All the pretty girls even! The pitch was empty and Harry took flight. It nearly made Remus sick just watching Harry go upside down and pull even with the ground after a dive moments before he would have collided with it. And not once did he get himself hurt. The time dragged on and soon lunch time came. Harry was in a better mood and even apologized for what he said; blaming it on the fact that he had missed breakfast, which he pointed out was in fact Moon's own fault for waiting till class started to call him.

Darian's lunch hour was much like the former day, more of being introduced to people. Now though he was really meeting people he had never met or even seen, there were a lot of people at this school. Today his tour guides were all girls, Parvati and her crowd. They had seemed extremely happy when he agreed to have lunch with them, and to his confusion Hermione looked furious. He had caught sight of Dean and Neville and his crowd but when he moved to go near them, the girls would suddenly find someone new to introduce him to. They must have been possessed or something! Not that he minded it was rather nice to hold a girls hand! He met up with Malfoy as well, but upon seeing his clingy girls decided to let him be, for whatever reason. Knowing Malfoy, he probably thought Darian was dating them all. Lunch ended and not once had he looked to Moony for help, he had rather enjoyed himself. (Typical guy)

Next up he had charms class with Flitwick. They didn't actually do a whole lot, mostly Professor Flitwick just lectured them on their NEWTS in seventh year and told them all of what they would be going over this year. Big mistake that; Hermione would have it all down by the end of the week. The Charms class was packed, not many had failed it like defense, you sure wouldn't see many Slytherins in that class. Sixth and Seventh years had classes combined with all the houses too, not just paired up. Because of this, Malfoy had tried to catch his eye and sit with him, an action Darian pretended not to notice. Malfoy is a prat.

Last of the day he had Phys Ed, a class he hadn't been in since elementary school. It was hard to forget how to play muggle sports though; they were for the most part pretty straight forward. But now he was pure-blooded and supposedly had never head of football or frisbee. This class would be interesting.

"Everybody here? Good. Some new faces here this year. For those of you that don't know me, I am Madam Hooch. We will be learning and practicing muggle sports as well as some wizarding sports. You are not to perform any magic during this class, you will leave your wands in the change rooms, they won't be needed. Is that understood?" At everyone's nod the teacher continued "this is a fifth, sixth seventh year gym class. Today obviously nobody is prepared so we'll just do some flying but tomorrow be ready to play some soccer."

That said she requested that everyone take off their jewellery and valuables and their wand and put them on the ground. Darian off course had a problem with this. Not only did he not want to leave his wand, time turner and mirror down there where anybody could take them, but he couldn't take off the necklace Dumbledore had given him.

Day after Dumbledore's last visit

Harry was getting ready for a quick soak in the shower. He was having a bit of trouble with his necklace though. Growling with frustration he marched into the backyard, wearing only a pair of jeans and the necklace and said in a hurry "Mad-Eye, help me get this off?"

Mad-Eye turned from the fence he was safety proofing and took in Harry's state. Wasn't hard to guess what he wanted. "Nah, leave it on looks good on ye!"

"I want to have a shower Mad-Eye, just undo the clasp for me?" now Harry had moved over to Moody and turned around so the auror could have easy access to the clasp.

Mad-Eye fingered the chain for a bit then started laughing! "You'll never lose this trinket that's for sure! Looks like Albus got rid off that piece!" Mad-Eye muttered a cutting curse and started laughing harder. "Unbreakable too! Take it up with your Headmaster, I can't help ye!"

Present day

So, Dumbledore had permanently charmed the necklace around his neck, why? NO idea, just another reason to avoid seeing Dumbledore. It's not like he'd get a straight answer anyway! Deciding to simply hide his valuables in his pockets, Darian only put down his wand. Not both of them of course, just the newer one he had.

Madam Hooch went through a quick lesson on how to fly and the proper positioning before letting them even mount up. Clearly some people still hadn't gotten a hold of it. Finally she had them do some very, very simple drills, which some people had problems with. Not just anybody could fly in a straight line!

Then they split the class in half and played a game. Darian and Dean ended up playing chaser on the same team. Seamus was a beater on the other team and the majority of his friends had Care of Magical Creatures, therefore not here. Darian and Dean worked well together, Dean being the better chaser. Darian was a way better flyer though and got around the beaters like nothing. That and he accidentally sent a bludger back at a beater, stupid magic. The beater was currently nursing a black eye. All in all it was a good game; nobody got the snitch though which was kind of sad. There weren't many pure bloods taking the gym, just a few. Maybe the muggle borns just didn't know how too fly well, tragic really.

At supper Hermione kept asking him about the guardianship thing, but he had no answer for her. They hadn't talked about it yet. "Something came up. We're gunna figure it out later, I think."

"Well, what happened Darian?" Hermione asked. She put down her fork and took his left hand in her right and squeezed gently. The blood rushed to his head and quite a few things on the table broke. The nearby potatoes were sent flying across the Great Hall but he bowl they were in was fine. Water goblets fell over spilling all over peoples food and the ketchup exploded, the biggest mess of all, covering those near it with red. Luckily Hermione took the blow of that one for me.

Merlin's unmentionables! Harry took a shaky deep breath hoping that it would help. So the question was, was that spontaneous stuff or accidental, sprang on by a surge of emotion. If it was the latter then what emotion? Ow, another headache. He could hear the students laughing, hell if he wasn't responsible he would have joined them! Rubbing his head in frustration he glanced up at the staff table where Moony was laughing enormously and Dumbledore was standing, about to say something.

"Sorry everyone at the Gryffindor table, there has been an accident in the kitchens, nothing to worry about. It will be taken care of immediately." Dumbledore then proceeded to summon some of the elves to clean up those whom my disaster had hit worst.

Wincing slightly Darian turned back to Hermione to examine the damage only to find she wasn't there. She had lined up with those in need of a clean up. Looking himself over he decided he was fine, just a bit of broccoli had landed on the shirt. Looking back the staff table Remus was pointing at his head subtly and looking straight at me. Confused I put my hand to my own head and felt my hair which was still pretty short. On top I felt more food and hastily brushed it off. Somehow I had gotten carrots in my hair as well, and some were even partially chewed. Sputtering in disgust I glared at Remus who was enjoying this all too much, must be the marauder in him. Now he was rolling in his seat laughing uncontrollably while all the other teachers were trying to get everything back in order.

Later that night Hermione helped him with his homework in transfiguration, all he needed was to figure out how to pronounce the damned spell right. She was giggly and even happy with him; he had expected her to be a bit down still. Either he was just that charming or something wasn't right, she was supposed to miss him! I must be real charming then he decided.

The week dragged by for Darian, understand that it is hard to lie to your friends all the time! Hermione hadn't changed, still giggly and sometimes touching his hand, these instances always resulted in something being blown sky high. He had decided though that he definitely didn't think of Hermione as a girlfriend figure, just a friend. Maybe Parvati or one of the other girls he'd met recently but with 'Mione it'd be just weird. HE still hadn't opened the things Sirius left for him. HE knew it would be a sad experience and was procrastinating.

Halfway through doing some wandless magic practice alone in his dorm he heard Remus call him from the mirror in his cloak.

Taking it out he looked at Remus who said "Come to Dumbledore's office please Darian. The password is canary creams. We need to talk about a few things."

"You know, that's really not the best way to start a conversation uncle. 'We need to talk.' Really." Harry replied cheekily. Upon seeing Remus I am not amused look he added "Fine, I'm going. Tell him he is interrupting my education for this chat though!"

Harry grudgingly lowered the books he was levitating and made his way to Dumbledore's office.

Harry stood just outside Dumbledore's office in front of the stone gargoyle trying to remember the password. He hadn't actually been listening to Moony right then... "Canary Creams!" he said to the gargoyle. For some reason it just came to him. Just when he got to the stairs within he heard a good loud crash and upon looking back, saw that the nearby paintings had fallen off the wall. He wandlessly lifted them each back up properly and just in time as the stairs started revolving, taking him to the office. Ouch, that was close.

Once in the office he was politely greeted by Dumbledore and got a bouncy wave from Remus, which reminded him of Sirius. He didn't know either man very well, but he was sure they were much alike in these small ways. He took the empty seat next to Moony and again tried to appear mature. Not an easy task whatsoever.

Wanting to start the sconversation himself Harry asked "Why do you want me to keep this necklace on? Even Mad-Eye couldn't get the damn thing off me."

"Ah, I knew you'd ask that. It's rather ingenious really. It's for your safety. I placed a locator on it, if I ever need to find you the necklace will help me do that. It is also a portkey to a coffee shop just outside of Diagon Alley in muggle London. If the castle were attacked you could be easily brought to safety. To activate it all you need to do it tap it three times with your wand and say "pink lilies". That is not what I want to talk to you about however. I've requested your presence for several reasons Darian. The first of which being your growing magic. There have been several instances already where you've displaced immense amounts of power, do you have no control over it?"

"Well, no, not really no." Harry said simply, fingering the necklace chain.

"Mad-Eye informed me that you were practicing wandless magic. Is this true?"

"Hey, this isn't an interrogation! Yes, I have but if you want an interview ask for one instead of this bloody language dance!" Here Harry failed to note that again, magic was cracking in the air.

"Harry-!" Remus started, but was interrupted by Dumbledore.

"Alright. I have to say, I thought your temper would have cooled down a bit over the summer."

"A bit? Had help with that didn't I? What can't give me drugs here?" Finally realizing that several things in the office were about to break Darian sat back down, not sure when he had stood up.

"I have ordered that you be taken off them, but it is magic and will take time, smaller dosages every day. This may lead to more nightmares and visions, but I have sealed off your bed, no one will hear you in your sleep. It's unfortunate, but we can't have you on them forever."

"Unfortunate? Unfortunate!" Harry exclaimed loudly, his voice squeaking and was regardless entirely ignored by Dumbledore.

"About your magic though, I have a few solutions to this problem." Dumbledore indicated the nearby globe that had just stopped spinning. "We could hand you a device that would cancel out your magic completely and you could take it off in class. This is not the best solution as it limits your abilities to protect yourself. The other is much more challenging on your part. I would ask you to exert yourself both physically and magically. Maybe Professor Lupin could exercise with you in some way and supervise while you practice wandless magic, wandless because it is more draining. The idea is to tire you out so much throughout the day that you don't have the energy to do something unintentionally."

Moony and Harry sat staring at Dumbledore for a moment, then Remus broke the silence. "Albus, that would require too much work on his part, he can't work that hard just to prevent knocking over a chair or a shelf! Not to mention that I am a teacher with classes to teach!"

"I concur!" Darian said. He had heard Hermione use the word somewhere before and figured it fit there.

Dumbledore didn't look pleased with Harry's attempt to bait him. "I'll work out a schedule that suits the both of you. On a more pleasant note, you may try out for the Quidditch team, a few students know how well you can fly and that can't be helped.

"I may!" He repeated.

"Yes." Dumbledore said ignoring Harry's tone of disbelief. "However I feel that you have been getting to close to a young Miss Hermione Granger, I fear she may guess your identity. You will have to stay away from her from now on and-"

"No! I won't do it! She's my friend!" Harry protested.

"As is Mr. Weasley, who you have had very little interaction with."

Harry was shouting now. "Interaction? Never mind, I will hang out with whoever I bloody well want to! Where do you get off telling me what to do?"

"I assumed it was the safer course of action considering what happened last year!" Dumbledore retorted before he was knocked sideways from his chair onto the floor and the shelves fell from behind him. All the sudden the room was a prime example of why we don't piss off Harry Potter.