Two young people stand along the mountainside, looking over Hogwarts School. "He's in there?" the man asks.

"According to my sources." the young woman replies, "But we can't risk going in. The headmaster is powerful; we'd never be able to escape without killing almost all of them."

"I haven't been here in so long." he man sighs.

"You've been here before, Reiji?" she asks.

"Once, when I was working for Claudia. My target was one of the teachers, who witness one of my previous kills. Luckily it was at the height of the war with Voldemort, so he thought I was just a death eater. Only time I've ever been grateful to Scythe for making us wear masks on our assassinations." Reiji jokes, make Eren laugh.

"What was it like?" she asks, watching the students walk across the lawn.

"The classes were fun, most people were nice. I was in Gryffindor, so Slytherin hated me, but still, it's a wonderful school. I'd rather not kill him there if I can help it." Reiji sighs.

"What should we do?" Eren asks, opening the box she was carrying. Extracting a tent, a stove, and some food, she starts breakfast.

"You stay here and watch the camp. I'll scout around the wards and place a few of our own." Reiji says, waving his wand to set up the tent.

"Reiji,-" Eren says tearfully, "Do you think they're in there?"

Reiji stops what he was doing and gives his wife a hug, "I'm sure they are. And I'm sure that they'll be fine. Scythe wouldn't try anything because he knows that we'd kill him."

Eren nods, choking back more tears, "Maybe we'll get a glimpse of them."

"I'm sure we will."

-

September and October seemed to fly by, and Harry was having the time of his life. He was again at the top of the class, with his group of friends behind him. Ron, who had mysteriously broken his wand arm after the first dueling club meeting, was at the bottom.

Ron's group seemed to be the only people in school that had a problem with Professor Giuseppe's lesson. Each was better than the last, and compared to Quirrell's classes, they were making great strides towards actually learning defense against the dark arts. Tori seemed to be improving even more, as she was already able to overwhelm all the other students in her class.

Before Harry could believe, it was almost Halloween, and Flint was angrily crushing out the other members of the team for not reminding him about quidditch before now. "Alright, we've got less than a month until the match with Gryffindor. From now on, all of you had better get ready, because I've booked the pitch four days a week, until the game." Flint said as he lugged the balls out onto the field. "Get in the air, and let's play. Harry, try and catch the snitch, then let it go and repeat. Beaters, volley the bludgers between you and take practice shots through the other goals. Chasers, take runs at the goals!"

So began what would be called 'the practice from hell'. Overall, harry found it enjoyable, if exhausting. Harry caught the snitch eight times in two hours. Finally, Flint called, "Harry! Catch it and bring it in!"

Harry saw out of the corner of his eye, something good. Turning, he saw that it wasn't the snitch, just someone familiar walking across the grounds. Before he could think any further, the snitch flew in front of his face and he chased it to the ground. After he shoved it back in the box, he looked back towards where he'd seen that person.

There wasn't anyone. He just shrugged it off as nothing and went to the locker rooms.

"How was practice?" Daphne asked, looking up from her essay for transfiguration.

"Not bad. Flint tried to kill us because he forgot about quidditch." Harry said, reaching out his own essay.

"So did you." Susan points out.

"So did the rest of the school." Harry sighs, "What do you expect? We've got a dueling club!"

"Think you'll survive to the game?" Daphne asks, rolling up her completed essay.

"Doubt it. Flints booked the pitch four days a week for the next month." Harry answers, massaging his sore muscles.

Both girls wince. "Well it could be worse. Imagine if you had dueling club any of those days."

Tori runs into the room, "The next dueling club is on Halloween." she says excitedly.

Harry groans, "That's the next quidditch practice."

Three days later, Harry and the team are walking into the great hall, complaining to flint about being sore. Harry sits down at the back of the hall, waiting for his friends, and instead finds an unwelcome site. "Hello Potter. Bet you think you're so great, just because that you're that old fools favorite."

"Weasley, I don't care what you think." Harry says loudly, "You and everyone else in here knows that you can't beat me, so get over it!"

"I can beat you? That's a laugh. My mum has thought me spell you could never even imagine." Ron laughed, "What did your parents teach you? Nothing!"

The hall was quiet. Even the teachers were speechless. Then spells started flying. Weasley was hit by two jelly legs jinx, a tempest jinx, and a pumpkin head jinx, courtesy of Susan, Daphne, and the twins.

"Mr. Weasley!" Giuseppe yelled, reversing the spells, "That was completely uncalled for! You are banned from the club until-"

"No." Harry says calmly, "He's mine."

Ron paled as he looked from Harry to the professors. Giuseppe looked at the other teachers, than nodded, "Very well. Potter and Weasley, right now."

Harry walked calmly onto the stage, while Ron was still looking around for some way out. Finally, he laughs, "Professor, you should probably rethink that. I'd probably kill Potter."

"Weasley shut up and fight." Daphne said angrily.

Ron strode up to the stage, trying (and failing) to act tough. "Ready when you are, Potter!" he said when he finally reached the stage.

Harry had just about had enough. When Ron said that, he snapped, "REDUCTO!" he yelled. The orange blast soared past Ron ear, blowing a crater in the wall behind him.

Ron fires the same Black jet as before. Harry waved off the teachers, dodged, and fired a bone breaker that hit him in the leg. Ron screamed and launched a hot pink stream of fire that Harry barely dodged, and ended the fight with an over powered Stupefy.

The scarlet jet blast Ron off his knees, launching him off the stage where he fell in a heap, unmoving. The teachers converged on Ron and started trying to revive him. Across the hall, people started muttering that Harry had killed him. Finally, after a full five minutes, Ron's heart started beating again.

It took over twenty minutes for him to regain consciousness, and when he was finally aware of his surroundings, Harry said loud enough for the entire hall to hear, "Weasley, my parents taught me not to let some bastard walk all over me. Next time you insult them, you'll wish you were dead."

Ron didn't say another word before he was escorted up to the hospital wing by McGonagall and Flitwick. For the remainder of the club, everyone avoided him, except for the Slytherin and his friends. "Potter, a word please." Snape said from behind him.

"Tori, keep practicing with Daph, I'll be right back." Harry says, walking towards the potions master, "How can I help you, sir?"

"That demonstration earlier was terrifying." he says, "Unlike last year where your magic went out of control when you were angry, you were in complete control during that duel. I feared that you would kill him inadvertently, not realizing your power."

Harry shook his head, "There was never a chance of that. If I'd wanted him dead, he wouldn't have survived. Thanks to my training over the summer, I have a pretty good idea of my strength, though I had no idea is stop his heart with that last spell." he admits.

"In the future, please try and avoid dueling when you get like that. I doubt it would be in anyone's best interest for a student to die for making you mad." Snape concludes, sending Harry back to Tori.

"Daphne, can you help Tori for the rest of today? I was tired before, but now I'm exhausted." Harry asks, collapsing into the chair.

"Sure, get some rest." Daphne says, correcting her sister's wand movement. Harry thanks her, and staggers out of the hall and into the dorm. He falls asleep the second he hits the bed.

Harry wakes up that night, being shaken by Daphne. "Harry! Harry! Wake up!" She says, still shaking him.

"Daph?" he asks sleepily, "What's wrong?"

"Professor Snape needs you. Its urgent." she says, as he's getting out of bed.

Harry followed her down the stairs and Snape was waiting in the center of the room. "Potter, the headmaster would like a word."

"What's going on?" Harry asks, stifling back a yawn.

"I'll explain on the way." he says, walking through the door, Harry behind him. "Earlier tonight, Mr. Filch's cat was attacked. A message was left in blood. 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware.' The chamber is believed to be Slytherin's hidden chamber, and you are the only Slytherin student that has no alibi for tonight. Someone appears to have told the headmaster that you left the dueling club early."

"Malfoy." Harry spat.

"Most likely. Obviously, it doesn't look good. I'll ask now. Were you involved?"

"No. As soon as I left the club I went to bed and have been asleep since." Harry says truthfully.

"I believe you. When you are talking with him, remember that you are Lord Potter, which makes you his boss. Answer his questions like a good student, but don't let him cross that line." Snape cautions him as he steps in front of the gargoyle that guards the headmaster's study. "Lemon drop." The gargoyle springs aside and the two of them walk up.

"Come in, Professor Snape, Harry." Dumbledore's voice says as soon as they reach the top of the steps. They walk in and sit on the two chairs that had undoubtedly been left for them.

Looking around, Harry sees Professor Dumbledore, grandfatherly smile replaced with a grim look of a teacher confronting a problem child, Mr. Filch crying in the corner, Professor McGonagall, standing beside them, Draco smirking by the door, and Giuseppe behind the headmaster. "You have, of course, been told what has happened?" the headmaster asks.

"Yes sir. Someone attack Mr. Filches cat." Harry says, and the old squib in the corner screams, "Not someone! You!"

"Argus!" the headmaster scalds, "As you can understand, we must ask you a few questions." Harry nods, so he begins, "Were you involved?" he asks.

"No."

"Where did you go after the club tonight?"

"Bed. I'd just come from quidditch practice, and had a rather intense duel with Weasley. I was exhausted."

"Yet you clearly had Mr. Weasley outmatched. Why did you deliberately break his leg, and overpower your stunner, nearly killing him?"

"I thought Weasley would prefer a broken leg to bring expelled, and he would never have died unless the teachers ignored him."

"Why would he have been expelled?" the headmaster asks, interested.

Giuseppe answers, "During the first club meeting, Weasley used a certain dark spell, one which Grindelwald used to try and kill you over fifty years ago. I informed him I would expel him of he used it again. Mr. Potter waved me off when I tried to tonight after Weasley used it again."

"He only used it because he thought Potter was trying to kill him!" Malfoy yells.

"I never tried to kill him. Otherwise I would have hit with my first spell." Harry says coldly.

"We're getting off topic. Do you have any witnesses to you going to bed?" the headmaster asks, ignoring Malfoy fuming in the corner.

"No, all the other students were at the club, in the library or in the girls dorms."

"Very well. Back to bed. I may have more questions later, so please be available." the headmaster sighs.

"Yes, sir. Just let me know, though I would like Professor Snape to be here for any questioning."

"Naturally. Mr. Malfoy, you may go back as well."

"You're just letting him go!" Malfoy tells, "We all know he did it! Maybe after he kills me you'll take notice!" he screams, stomping out of the room, Filch following him, muttering about locking Harry in chains. Harry walked out without another word, Snape behind him.

-

"Albus, do you really think he did this?" Giuseppe asks his old friend.

"I do not know what to think." comes the reply.

"I examined that cat myself; no student could have done that. I only know of four wizards alive today with the magical power and knowledge for such a spell, and two of them are in this room, one is locked in Nurmengard, and the last is a shell of his former self in Albania."

"And we both know potter is more powerful than any of the four." Dumbledore sighs, sucking a lemon drop.

"There was no dark magical signature at the scene, nor anywhere else in range of the wards. This isn't the work of a wizard. You know as well as I do what is in that chamber."

"What would you have me do? I have no way of finding the chamber, all I can do is protect the students, and increase patrols."

"Make the dueling club daily. Allow the students to learn to defend themselves. This isn't just a normal school year."

The old man sighs, "Very well, but please, be careful. I will be informing Mr. Weasley that he will not be welcomed back into the dueling club."

Giuseppe leaves the room and goes not to his quarters, but to his office. Closing the door already warded against eavesdroppers, he smiles, "What do you think? Isn't she a wonderful specimen?"

"She's got talent, but her teaching is lax. She wouldn't last two minutes in our world." Cal says, "Though that nephew of mine got better. If only he wasn't so strong willed... Oh well. Just means I get to kill him someday."

"And the other two?" scythe smiles.

"Not at the same levels as their parents, but they've got potential. Way better than Zane, that's for sure." Cal says, playing with her pocket watch.

"Speaking of, I'll need you to resume watching the prisoner. I need Zane for a job."

"What kind of job?" she asks suspiciously.

"One of our agents infiltrating the ministry is showing signs of going rogue. While there is no risk of information being leaked, he still has equipment, and Intel that they could retrieve. You are known to him, Zane isn't." Scythe explains, handing her the information.

She reads it quickly, and then sighs, "Covert? Let him take it. What's the point if you can't have fun? I'll give it to him now."

She jumps out the window and he smiles, "Now, how should I improve her training?"

-

The signs went up the next morning. To protect students, the dueling club would now be daily. This was a point of excitement for most students, though the quidditch team wasn't thrilled. Luckily Flint was able to trade with most of the other captains for mornings instead of nights, so they would at least have some time to rest.

November passed without incident, aside from Ron and Malfoy trying to convince everyone Harry was the next dark lord, until the morning of the Quidditch match against Gryffindor. The team was excited, as a victory here would allow them to return to a normal training schedule.

"Alright, now we just found out what their roster is going to be. Seems they couldn't find a new seeker this year. Wood's decided to take it while everyone's favorite git is playing keeper." Flint sighs and the team got it at once, "Weasley."

"I'm afraid so. Beaters, I want both buldgers at him the second he's out of the keep area. Potter, wood used to be reserve seeker for Gryffindor until he got the keeper position. Don't let your guard down. We don't know what to expect from Weasley, so don't count on us scoring a lot of points."

Everyone mods, and at hooch's whistle, they flew onto the pitch. Harry flies high above the pitch, and begins looking for the snitch as soon as the quaffle is in play. Out of the corner of his eye, he just makes out Wood eyeing him closely as he looks on his own.

He briefly forgoes his search for the snitch as Flint takes the quaffle from Johnson and bolts towards the Gryffindor goals. Flint feints easily, and Ron falls for it easily, and Slytherin scores. The green and silver cheers, and Rom flies out of the keeper area to get chewed out by Wood, only to get hit in the arm by two bludgers. One was sent by the Slytherin beaters, Warren, and the other was mistakenly hit by Gryffindor (Though both twins claimed credit for it after the game.).

Resuming his search, Harry briefly catches a glimpse of it, but lost it before he could make a move. Twice more this happens, and Slytherin scores eight times with Gryffindor scoring only three. The green and silver started sing a song that sounded like 'Weasley is our king'. Harry almost fell off his broom laughing as he listened to the lyrics.

Finally seeing the snitch again, Harry tears after it, Wood right behind him. Inching towards it, Harry rolls to avoid a bludger flying at his head. When he less than an inch away, the same bludger flies at him again, knocking him off course. The Slytherins are calling foul as wood tries to take advantage. As a last ditch effort, Harry rolled, kicked the bludger as hard as he could, sending it flying against Wood's skull, and just as it turns around to come at Harry again, he grabs the snitch and heads towards the ground.

As soon as he touches down, the twins are flying around him, taking a swing at the bludger whenever it tries to hit him. Daphne hugs him tightly as he winces in pain. Looking down, it's obvious that his foot is broken. "What's wrong, Harry?" Flint asks, landing beside him.

"Now that the adrenaline is wearing off, I think I might have broken my foot in that last move." he laughs, as madam hooch flies next to him and repeats the question.

She quickly conjures a stretcher, and the team escorts him up to the hospital wing, Susan, Daphne, Tori, and twins behind them.

As soon as they walk into the hospital wing, Madam Pompfrey quickly fixes he foot, and casts few charms. "You'll be alright, but I'd stay off that foot until Tuesday, you don't want to put too much weight on it until its back to normal."

"What about classes?" Harry asks, wincing at the slight pain he gets when he applies any weight to his foot.

"I'll get you cleared to skip class on Monday, though I would still have a classmate copy the notes for you. You can walk up to the great hall for meals, but under no circumstances are you to go to the dueling club. Take a few days off, and relax.

Harry nods, "Alright, would I be allowed to go to the dueling club, not to compete, but to help a couple of my friends? I've been helping Tori and the Sicarius twins since the beginning of school."

She thinks for a few moments, then hurries off to the cabinet and pulls out a few potions. "Take one of these each night before the club. It'll ease the pain for a few hours, but all the suppressed pain will be felt all at once when it wears off, so be prepared."

"Thank you, Madam Pompfrey." Harry says sincerely.

"If you want up thank me, don't get hurt so much. The best thing a healer can do is getting paid for doing nothing because it means no one is hurt." she smiles, before shooing them out.

"Owwwww." Harry complained that night after they'd come back from the dueling club. "Damn that hurt!"

"Serves you right!" Malfoy sneers from the corner of the common room, "Why do you keep lying? We all know you're the heir. Just tell the truth."

"Yeah, mate. If you're the heir, we won't tell anyone. Besides, if it's only filch's cat, who really cares?"

Harry is about to respond when he hears a voice, almost hissing, $Time to kill! After so long!$ Harry bolts up, and everyone looks at him, surprised. Daphne looks at him and whispers, "What's wrong?"

"Didn't you hear that?" he whispers back, and she shakes her head. Then Harry points towards the dorm, and says, "Sorry, I've gotta get some sleep. Good night."

The common room didn't seem to buy it, but they let the matter drop and continued the usual after match victory party. Harry went up to bed and Daphne and Susan joined him minutes later.

"I heard a voice." Harry said, getting straight to the point, "It said it was going to kill."

Both girls gasp. "Harry, what do you think it means?" Susan asks.

Harry rummages through his trunk and found the tattered parchment he's been looking for. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. " he said, tapping it. The map appeared, spreading from the point of contact, and they were closely looking over it. "No one out of dorms except prefects, teachers, and Colin Creevey." Harry thought out loud.

"And Colin's not moving." Daphne adds, "You don't think he's been attacked, do you?"

"I don't know, but we'll find out in the morning." he sighs, "Mischief managed." and the Map disappears.

Unfortunately, they missed two names that night. Standing beside Colin, name obscured by his, was Ginny Weasley. And on the grounds, where they weren't looking was Cyrus Greengrass.

-

'Finally!' Cyrus thought as he opened his eyes and found the trapdoor ajar. Acting quickly, he rushed down and sprinted through the long tunnel. After twenty minutes, several stubbed toes, a scrapped knee, and possibly a broken leg; he climbed out of the tunnel, and was attacked by a tree.

"Shit!" he cried as he hit the ground. He saw a branch about to come down on him. Using what little remained of his once honed quidditch reflexes, he rolled to avoid it, and to his luck, rolled out of the tree's reach.

After taking a minute to catch his breath, he steadily got to his feet. Looking around he saw the very familiar sight of Hogwarts castle. 'I'm saved!' He thought, until a silent stunner hit him in the back.

Cyrus collapsed unconscious instantly. Out of the shadows, Giuseppe quickly immobilized the tree and levitated his body back to the Shrieking Shack.