Prologue

Hogwarts. A school with heritage and prestige, which children cheer about going to. Every year, take a look at the attendees, and the list is incredible:

The early Potter line, who were known as a line of free-spirits, adventurers and heroes.

The Ambrosius line – halting in recent centuries, of course, with the families departure from England and eventual formation of Thessaloniki wizarding centre.

Thomas Riddle, the only of my Snakes to come speak with me.

Albus Dumbledore – despite my hate for the man, he was exceptionally powerful.

More recently, the resumption of the traditional freespirited Potters. James could have amounted to much but for a few mistakes, mostly trusting Albus Dumbledore.

Finally, the latest Potter. Harry, the one with as much potential as any on this list, the one with the understanding to know the enemy, and finally, his truly light personality.

And he is leaving. These are dark days for my school.

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Author: Jacobim Von Styluss

Disclaimer: Nope, nope, not mine, it belongs to a very nice woman called Jo. Shame really, if it was mine, I would be set for life instead of spending my weekends finding practical joke fake bombs in football stadiums (really did happen). Ah well... I also don't own Lullaby by The Cure, despite my ardent wish to do so.

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Harry woke with a weight upon his stomach.

"Urggh... Dobby? What're you doing here?" he mumbled, without opening his eyes.

His first answer was a lick in the face. The second was Dudley saying "Who's Dobby?"

Once Harry was fully conscious, he realised two things. One, it was his birthday. Two, he now had a very small but cute puppy spaniel called Alexander. However, neither of these was going to stop Harry from going back to sleep. He had a late night, for gods sake.

"Whoa, no. You, young man, are going to explain why on earth you arrived back here in a police car, completely unconscious. And then, you are going to show us everything you got from downtown."

"Why did I arrive unconscious in a police car? I fell asleep on the ride home. As to your other request, bugger off, I'm tired." he replied, and fell back to sleep. He was successful in a sense, as he managed to sleep for another sixteen minutes and forty-two seconds, in which time Dudley managed to find a small bucket, fill it with ice cold water and upend it on him.

Petunia burst into a hysterical fit of laughter, joined quickly by Dudley. She managed to gasp out "Revenge! Remember in the bank when you woke me up by spelling a load of ice water on me? Well, now you know what it's like."

Just to add another grievance to Harry's already rather long list, A small green something suddenly appeared on Harry's stomach.. Just heavy enough to knock the wind out of his lungs.

'Bloody hell,' thought Harry. "Some sodding birthday this is," he grumbled, smiling to himself.

"Harry Potter sir! Dobby needs to tell... Mr Harry Potter sir?"

"Yes Dobby?"

"Why are you all wet?"

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As it turned out, Dobby was delivering information of Dumbledore, which truly didn't surprise Harry. However, there were various little nuggets of info, that surprised Harry. For example, he definitely wanted to get more information on this 'Collar'. It sounded like a cursed item that probably created an Imperius curse or some other similar suggestion curse. One thing which seemed certain, was that it certainly wasn't legal. Yet another crime to add to the sheet.

He wrote down all the information in a small notebook that he was using as a convenient way to keep things in perspective. Using a little charm, he copied the information and sent it to Grillkrup, who after all was his legal advisor.

Then he picked up his sketchbook. He had done a couple of pictures of Snape a while ago, and digging out the best, got dressed. The police arrived shortly afterwards, and he gave them the picture.

"Not bad, not bad at all... Well, if you're sure that this is a good likeness of him, then we can try to apprehend the man."

Harry made eye contact with his aunt and nodded very slightly.

"Wait a second... that looks like Severus Snape," Cut in Petunia. "I knew him a few years ago."

"Are you totally sure?" asked the officer. "Yes, he's definitely a recognizable face." she replied. Harry smirked inwardly. Perfect.

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"So," Declared Harry's aunt, as soon as the police officer had left. "Now you are going to tell us what that was all about, and show us what you bought."

Harry sighed in resignment, and proceeded to explain the developments. It took a quarter of an hour, and throughout the monologue, his relatives grew paler and paler.

"They know we are in London now?" Asked Dudley.

"Not quite. The story I gave to the police was slightly different to what the Headmaster will be expecting. Firstly, we are Welsh – Don't worry, anybody who begins to wonder suddenly 'realises' that our accent is Welsh, it's a very useful spell – your name is Rob, mine is Gareth, we are brothers, and your name" he said, now indicating petunia, "is Holly. According to the story, you are also my mother. I thought by using your middle name, Dudley, a name similar to mine and your real name, Aunt Petunia, we could keep up the façade easier. In public, it's important to refer to ourselves as our fake names. Also, whenever we leave I will apply the glamour charms to make us look only slightly different. After all, if my hair changed to blonde, they'd know something was up. Snape was certainly chasing a boy with dark hair."

Holly smiled, and drew the teens into a hug. "Even if it's not real, it'll be nice to hear you call me mum, Harry," she offered with a slightly shaky smile.

"It'll be nice to use the word, Lord knows it's something I've always wanted to have the chance to call someone."

Holly wiped a small amount of water from her eyes, and changed the topic. "Right, well you've got some shopping to show us, don't you." Harry groaned. "Tell me about it, I got cornered by a rabid shop assistant in a shop called Spaz's House. Sells alternative clothing-"

"Explains why you came in with eye-liner on last night, if you've been visiting goth and punk shops, Ha- Gary," sniggered Dudley. Harry blushed a bit, and mock-glared. "Not my choice, that was Erin's." Holly arched an eyebrow. "Erin? Is she your girlfriend?" she teased. He held his head in his hands. "NO! She is the rabid shop assistant that I spoke of a second ago."

"First name terms already Mr. Potter? You're quick off the mark..." smirked Dudley.

"Gods almighty. What did I do to deserve this?" he asked, raising his eyes to the heavens.

"You went shopping and got cornered by your new girlfriend, etc etc." snickered Dudley, he loved teasing Harry.

"Gah! It's was rhetorical." he replied, scowling. Holly and her son exchanged a victorious grin, while Harry's glare intensified as he caught on. "HEY! She is not my girlfriend," he grumbled.

"Not the sharpest tool in the drawer, are you Harold?" sympathised Holly in a sickly sweet tone, patting Harry's shoulder and grinning.

Harry's glare faded into a pout. "Stop bullying me," he sulked, and stuck out his bottom lip as far as it could go. "It's supposed to be my birthday, my sixteenth. No fair bullying me on my birthday." Harry's pout turned into a feral grin, making his relatives pale slightly. "After all, my revenge is much more impressive." He got up, picking up his dog and scratching his ears. The dog licked at his fingers and wagged it's tiny little string of a tail, making Harry smile softly. He'd never really experienced the simpler delights in life, like having a pet or a mother's hug. Petunia saw this and smiled. Even if it was all they could get him, both she and Dudley knew this was the greatest gift they could possibly give.

"GIT!" yelled Dudley suddenly, glaring. He'd caught sight of himself in a window's reflection, which showed his face, but with blue hair. "But Duddikins dearest, it looks so nice," said Harry. "Although you should calm down. Red doesn't go well with you new hair style for the week."

If possible, Dudley's glare intensified, and his face turned an even darker shade of crimson, before losing all colour. "The whole week?" he stuttered. "Yep!" declared Harry. "Except when you are outside of course, but every time when we get back here, I'll return it to blue."

Petunia laughed at the look on her son's face, or at least tried to. No sound came out, however.

"And now, Auntie dearest, you find my punishment for you. You won't be able to talk for the next hour or so." Harry grinned once more, and turned to leave the room with complete silence. Dudley was dumbstruck, and Petunia's yells were in vain.

In the doorway, he turned around with his puppy in his arms, and gave an evil laugh.

Dudley regained his bearings. "You aren't Blofeld yet, Harry." he grinned, shaking his head.

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They stayed in the hotel that day, Harry showing Dudley a few useful beginner charms, allowing him to use his wand. The reaction to Dudley was better than he expected, and Dudley was nearly at the level he would reach with his own wand. It certainly appeared that Dudley's wand would be similar to his own. He wondered if this would happen to all relatives. After all, Ron's always functioned passably during first year, despite being Charlie's old wand.

A few days passed, without incident. Harry enjoyed life as an ordinary boy for once, although was occasionally spotted by an avid newspaper reader, who recognized him as the boy involved in the Snape case of assault;

The Times had a rather excellent article on it, page four;

Mass assault committed in London

A man is wanted for questioning in connection with an assault that happened on the thirtieth of July. A sixteen year old welsh boy known as Gareth Evans gave this story to the police:

"I'd just been shopping around the city, finding some new clothes. I'd just finished and was heading back to the hotel where me and my family are staying, when I saw someone in very dark clothing following me. I shrugged it off, presuming it as coincidence, perhaps he was heading to the same area as me. However, just in case, I decided to circle round the block a couple of times hoping to shake him off. To my dismay, I found the man still following me, so I started to run. He began to run as well, and it broke into a full blown chase around London. I've long considered myself a fit person, and do some long distance running for fun. However, the man still managed to gain on me. That's when I, in truth, got lucky. When a group of... slightly merry locals came out of a pub, they stumbled straight into the man. He seemed furious, certainly quick tempered. He proceeded to, for want of a better term, beat the brains out of the lot of them bare handed. I ran into the bar they had just vacated, and yelled for somebody. In the end, you" - the police - "were called."

The man is described as about six foot tall, and was wearing peculiar black clothes, resembling a robe of some sort. The picture below is drawn by the boy himself from memory, to save police time in drawing a portrait of the man. He has been identified as Severus Snape.

Anyone with information on the incident, please contact Crimestoppers.

Harry was proud of getting the newspapers involved. At very least, Dumbledore was going to give Snape a hard time, for becoming a muggle fugitive. Harry wished he could rub it in that Snape was now in exactly the same position that Sirius was, except that he committed his crime, instead of being framed.

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Harry lay back on his bed at the hotel, on the third of August, feeling content with the world. It was the first time he had truly been content in his life, because before Hogwarts he was never allowed creature comforts, and during it, life was stressful, with quidditch, homework, deranged Dark Lords, politics, to name but a few of the tasks and obstructions between him and happiness.

Finally he could feel normal. He'd addressed Aunt Petunia as mum during the trips, as they'd agreed. He forced all thoughts of the truth out of his head for a moment, and it felt wonderful. For those split seconds, he convinced himself he had a mother. He'd never realised that it was such a wonderful feeling.

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On candystripe legs, the spiderman comes

A man, clad all in black strode silently past the hotel doors of the boy's relatives. His steps were long and precise, the footsteps of a man who knew exactly what he was doing.

softly through the shadow of the evening sun.

He occasionally looked outside, seeing nobody, but checking all the time. This was mostly procedure; he was a talented spy.

stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead

Every time he stepped past a window, his face was illuminated in the moonlight, revealing him as Severus Snape.

looking for the victim, shivering in bed

Nothing was in his way, between him and his target. He had been ordered to collect the boy, by any means necessary.

Severus Snape grinned as he inched closer to the boy he knew was Potter, despite the Welsh alias he used. The boy slept quietly, seemingly happy enough in his dreams. Severus fingered a portkey in his pocket and reached out for the boys wrist. All he had to do was grab the boy and port him back to Grimmauld Place.

His arm inched towards Harry, and grasped his wrist. Speaking the activation word, he smirked in triumph, as the portkey sent them to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

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Harry blinked awake.

'What the fuck? Where... Oh hell no!'

And thus, Harry realised exactly where he was. And, more importantly, who wanted him here.

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Harry was thinking fast, about how to get out of there before the shit hit the fan, so to speak. However, just like this morning, he was caught unawares. He hadn't even managed to get any shred of reasonable plan off the ground before Dumbledore, with Snape, McGonagall, Ron and Hermione entered the room.

"Harry..." He started, in a petulant voice. "I've told you many times, you cannot leave you relative's house. You will be endangered."

Harry stood up, brushed himself off, and, strode up to the man. "By who?" he whispered in Dumbledore's ear. Raising his voice, he spoke clearly; "The gig's up Dumbledore. You and I both know that Voldemort is not the real enemy, is he?"

"I, I don't understand what you are talking of, dear boy," replied the headmaster of Hogwarts, stuttering only slightly, as if truly shocked. Harry had to hand it to him, he was a fine actor. He even complimented the bearded old man on the skill.

A flash of anger crossed his brow, before settling into his normal highly occluded state. Hermione was not so calm, however. She strode straight up to him, and slapped him hard in the face. "What right do you have to treat Headmaster Dumbledore with such disrespect?" she sneered.

Harry reeled back a little, but recovered quickly. "I think... I have as much right as I want. And before I forget, I let you off with that one. You try it again, well, lord knows, I do things a little, rash, shall we say, in the heat of the moment. We wouldn't want something painful to happen to you, now would we?" he answered, whispering the two words. Hermione, already walking back to where she stood next to Ron, who glared at Harry, looking down his nose at him, visibly shivered. Dumbledore's face showed his anger, and he whispered something into Snape's ear, whose face was unreadable.

Snape was beginning to step forward when Ron charged at Harry, swinging a fist. Luckily, the Claro Calx was still on his person, and thus he was able to see the punch coming, and, bending backwards to avoid it, reach up and grab Ron's arm. He then twisted it, and kicked Ron in the space where all dirty fighters aim for. All males in the room cringed, except Harry who let loose a feral grin.

All in all, Harry had incapacitated Ron with one hand and one foot, and dodged a punch with ease. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hermione looked furious, while Snape looked mildly impressed judging by his facial expressions. However, something else burned within those eyes of his.

"Lets not forget, Mr. Potter, Ronald is hardly an able opponent. His height makes him unbalanced, and he is also, frankly, a moron." Harry nodded; he agreed with the man for once.

"Severus," Snapped Dumbledore. "Just get on with it, and stop insulting Mr. Weasley."

"No, no," interrupted Harry. "How could you try to stop this when we have finally found some common ground?" Snape's lips twitched, but he stepped forwards at the headmaster's reiteration of the command.

"So, Mr. Potter. Up for a fight?" smirked Snape. "I don't go easy on my opponents, though."

"I wouldn't expect any different," remarked Harry, looking surprisingly collected and calm. Inside, however, he was shaking like a leaf. 'He's gonna maul me!'

Harry tried to concentrate, to focus and hopefully predict Snape's attacks. Seeing no immediate movement, he took a swing. Which was one of the most painful mistakes he ever made. He didn't have a clue how it happened, but he found himself on the floor with a very painful ache in his ribs, and a foot on his back.

Snape had however underestimated Harry. Harry had an ace up his sleeve, and called out mentally and magically.

I NEED MY SWORD!

It appeared in his hand, still invisible due to it's charms. Thrusting it awkwardly upwards, he felt it connect with Snape's shoulder; and Snape sure felt it, too. Yelping in pain, Snape jumped backwards away from Harry, who called back his sword, jumped up, and before anyone reacted, threw a Reducto at the ceiling. Everyone was covered in masonry, and when the dust cleared, Harry Potter was nowhere to be seen.

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"Aunt Petunia, get Dudley and meet me at the Cauldron. We've gotta go, and fast." Harry said, into his mobile once he was a safe distance from Grimmauld Place. He snapped the phone closed, and jogged the rest of the way to the dingy old pub. When he arrived around twenty minutes later, he found Petunia and Dudley waiting for him just inside the door, with Alexander on a short lead next to them. Who promptly fell over, trying to scrabble across the wood flooring to go see Harry and possibly inspect his shoes

"Harry, whe-"

"Not yet, Aunt Petunia. I'll tell you when we aren't in such a hurry." Interrupted Harry, who then left through the back door, towards the Cauldron, followed by his relatives.

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Luckily, they weren't recognized despite a few funny looks – Most wizards didn't own a dog. However, they made it to Gringotts with relative ease – 'Finally, something going right,' thought Harry in relief – and got to the front desk.

"Can I help you?" the bored looking goblin asked, looking as if he really hoped the answer was no.

"Yes, I need to speak with Grillkrup."

"No, I am afraid he is busy right now." replied the Goblin, without even checking.

"Like shit you know that. There's thousands of you in here. Now tell him I need to speak with him. Even if he was busy, tell him I need him anyway."

The goblin rolled his eyes, then smirked as if hit with an idea. "I can't help you, I'm going on my break," he said, and pressed a button which began to raise a wall between the teller and Harry.

Harry didn't hear the declaration of "I'll talk to your manager!" from Petunia, nor the snort of disgust from Dudley. Too much had happened today, and he wasn't going to take anymore.

Harry was only partially aware of his own actions, and really wasn't quite sure what he was actually going to do to the goblin, but punched at the rapidly rising wall, forcing all his anger into that punch.

Quite a few things happened after that. For one, there was a minor explosion at the point of impact. Then the entire booth fell over, narrowly missing the goblin who had hopped back out of harms way.

"I- I'll g-get him now, s-s-sir" the now terrified goblin squeaked.

"Honestly, good service is so hard to find..." said aunt Petunia, not realising that her nephew was looking at his hand, absolutely gobsmacked. 'What the hell just happened...'

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Grillkrup shook his head in bemusement, while stroking his forehead as if developing a massive headache.. "Harry, I know you don't do things the normal way, but now you are breaking a Rule of Magic-"

Dudley interrupted. "What do you mean?"

"It's like rules of physics, only nobody yet knows why they are always true. Anyway, one of these rules is, and I quote from a derivative of one of Merlin's books of magical research, 'Once a Wizard has bonded with his focus, their innate magic is rearranged. This is often painful, and also pleasurable at the same time according to the accounts of others. However, I had merely a slightly warm sensation, and a feeling of rightness, which is a feeling probably existing in the usual bonding, but the pain and pleasure override it. It appears my bonding to my focus was unique.'

The bonding process stops outbursts of Wild Magic, as the wizard's magic is not randomly scattered around the person, but ordered and usable. Wild magic is pure energy, that is focused only by the intent of the caster, rather than the binding and directing nature of the incantations and wand movements. It makes it a tad... unpredictable.

"Merlin, in his treatises on the nature of magic, noted that he found himself the exception to his own rule. He occasionally let out small bursts of magic when he was irritated, and was noted for his emotional turnaround. He invented occlumency as a method of blocking any rash emotions, mostly so he could channel raw magic and develop wandless magic. Merlin always was a scholar. However, when he died his final treatise was incomplete, the one where he tried to channel it properly, and occlumency was abandoned as only he even needed it. No other wizard was strong enough to have emotional wild-magic outbursts. Many years later, when legilimency was invented by a minor Dark Lord, a student of Merlin's treatises suggested it as a way to defend against mental attacks, and thus Occlumency is considered a way to defend the mind, rather than control it."

He then asked the one question he needed answering.

"Does your bonding match Merlin's, Harry?"

Harry, who was still looking a little lost, and like the small child he never really ever was, replied in a small voice. "Yes."

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And thus we end another chappie. Next chapter, they head off to Bulgaria, finally.

Competition:

I said that the competition would end now, and it has. Both answers have been got during the latest set of reviews;

The Narrator is 1) Salazar Slytherin

2) Bloody Baron

By this, I mean that the Bloody Baron is really Salazar, but since nobody would ever talk to him, he was never uncovered.

Well done, Skull Bearer & Saffron Cyanide! They get to create a character to be used in the fic, or they can have a chapter early (as soon as it's ready). If they want to, anyway. Saffron has already created a character, (of very high quality, btw) and he will be used fairly soon. Saffron actually got both, but Skullbearer got Salazar before saffron had reviewed. Better be quick though, I'm going to get to a part where I need extra characters soon.

Reviews

Skull bearer – I try to avoid Super!Harry, but I won't deny he is powerful. Note however, that I haven't done the usual of just starting the fic a year ahead of canon and pretending he knows everything, like most other ones. He has to be taught to use the sword, as well. I'm trying to keep it realistic (as much as possible, anyway – realism is a bit unlikely when the story is about teen wizards :) )

He only really talked in third person to keep his secret, err, secret. Anyway, it has been a thousand years or so since he was last called Slytherin. But yeah, you got one of them. Well done.

Athenakitty – Harry, Dudley and Petunia will all live together, yes. That's basically been taken for granted. They probably agreed on it during the hospital time. Voting's over, I'm afraid. Why were you reviewing so far back? The questions get answered further into it. He won't kick dumbles out of Grimmauld, but we will hear more on that line later.

Sweet-Little-Yugi – Hello again! Thanks for the compliments. I once asked Batsutousai how she got the Abandon/Reclaim chapters good every time. She said practise. While I've had much less practise, I generally try to see what works for other authors. The fast paced banter which happens from time to time is a tribute to Abandon, specifically the earlier chapters.

Slash... Well it's on the way. Next chappie they're in Bulgaria. So obviously that's where things begin to happen.

Also, great to know that the humour I'm trying out is working. When it works, humour the way I'm trying to do it, unlike the random manic craziness I've seen in some fics, is really good. Once again, a tribute to Batsutousai. She's a master of writing.

Sanda Kenobi – Thanks very much! I'll probably update more often now I'm in college again-during holidays I get lazy. The latest update took longer than any other, and that's inexcusable really. But it'll hopefully improve now I'm in a bit more of a working mood.

Starmns2 – 'Fraid not. Sorry.

Saffron Cyanide – Well, as I said in the E-mail... Bingo! Right on the money, as they say.

HecateDeMort – Not flamel, as the compo message says, but good try. Thanks!

Rea – Merlin... afraid not. Good idea though. Thanks for the compliments, and you are my fiftieth reviewer. Wow!

Flamegirl22 – Thanks! As the message says, yes, he is a ghost.

Sgammage – Thanks, although it is a surprise to hear it is fast paced. Suppose it must be that, to me each chapter take longer. After all, I'm not a particularly fast writer.

Rhennan – Thanks loads! By the way, when you see an inconsistency, mention it to me. I'll hopefully explain it or fix it.

Bit smaller than the last, but still big. Chapter 7 just didn't have a good place to end for a while, so it ended up rather huge. Hit fifty reviews – How great is that! Now I'm after three figures.