Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. All I own is my original characters and settings that will come up later is the story.

And we have another chapter. It got typed despite being dizzy from the pain killers I'm on. I just got four wisdom teeth pulled, so I'm vegging mostly right now. But I'm trying to write and keep going. I don't know how long the next chapter is going to take, but it's at least two weeks of no computer on top of the two weeks of no computer I just finished. Everyone cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Thank everyone so much for the reviews. They are keeping me encouraged and forcing me to write because I know that there are people out there waiting for the next chapter. I'm trying to finish this story before the summer ends but I don't know if that is going to happen. I'm going to give it my best shot though. I at least know the direction it's going in.

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The book was useless and boring. What was it about locator charms that inspired authors to share every insipid comment that came into their heads? Harry dropped the book to the table and slumped in the chair.

"No luck?" Jason turned to the next page of his book and dropped his chin back to his palm.

"I found nothing that could help find her. Even if we do find her we could set off alarms that make them change locations. Even assuming that we don't trip any alarms and they do stay there, just knowing where she is isn't going to make removing her from the hands of a bunch of bloodthirsty Death Eaters any easier."

Jason blinked, shook his head, and looked over. "What was that? I wasn't really listening."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You know exactly what I said and I'm not gullible enough to fall for having to repeat everything and end up putting it in a different and better light."

Jason shrugged and snapped the book closed. "Oh well. All good things must eventually come to an end. Here's your problem. You're thinking like you old self again. Remember? The one who thought that one action had one corresponding spell. Magic is more complicated than that and so is life. There is more than one solution to this problem."

"Like what?"

He circled his hands. "Write a spell then cast it and poof, Cali's complaining and stealing your clothes again."

Harry glared at him. "You know very well that my ability to write spells that actually do what they're meant to is nonexistent."

Jason shrugged and reopened the book. "There's always room for hope. I for one am currently hoping that I can find a way to go back in time so I can ask historical figures to be more concise in their writings so I can read them quickly and understand them."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Your example of hope is not at all heartening."

"No, it's not, is it? Oh well. How about I give you directions and the password to where we're staying? Will that help?"

Harry smiled. "Yes." He glanced around and leaned closer. "Sometimes I just need a break from everything here." He shrugged. "Though this is the first time that that has ever actually been an option."

"Don't we all." Jason tore a sheet out of his notebook and handed it to Harry. "You have to memorize this and then destroy it since we're not technically supposed to tell anyone. But it's you so I'm going to assume you don't fall under the rule or wouldn't follow it if you did."

Harry giggled and banished the words off the page. "So we've got to find a way to find her, opening the next door to the idea of a rescue, without letting them know we're trying to find her." He tapped his fingers on the table. We could try a tracking potion; send smoke of some kind out with Cali as the anchor. If we attached a compass spell we should be able to find out where it goes. Though even if you make the smoke translucent there is still a slight odor that they could pick up. We could see through her eyes, but dark dungeon with blood on the walls isn't very helpful when trying to find someone. Hm." Harry chewed on his lip as he flipped his quill between his fingers.

"At least you're seeing the big picture now. Now if you don't mind I'm going to continue to learn about Kashmir. Did you know that the sweaters are made of goat fur?" He scratched his head. "I think I may be translating wrong though. Maybe the word I think is goat actually means annoying foreigners or something."

Harry snorted and pulled out a sheet of parchment. He dipped his quill in the ink and jotted down what he wanted the outcome of the spell to be and various aspects that might make it work.

Madam Pince stopped next to the table holding a stack of books in her arms. "Dinner is starting soon. You might want to head that way."

Harry glanced at his watch. "Thank you."

She nodded and moved into the stacks as he shoved his books into his bag. "Are you guys coming?" They nodded and packed up their stuff. The trek to the Great Hall was silent except for Jason's mumbling about historians. "Do they really have to tell us everything that happened? I for one could get by just knowing the country exists. Why do I need to know it major exports?"

Jessica coughed and stepped away from him. "So how are things going Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "Well this year the school doesn't think I'm a lunatic, a liar, or trying to kill students, so it's been a good year so far." Harry shook his head. "I'm sure there will be a new degrading rumor flying about in no time."

"Especially with us here." She grinned and giggled.

"Especially with you here, but I've gotten used to it. And this time if it gets too bad I can always escape to you guys. Unless you believe it too."

Jessica snorted. "Not likely. I think we know you a little too well."

Jason slipped up behind them. "But they've known him for five years. They wouldn't believe anything insane about him any more than we would."

Harry paused in the doorway to the Great Hall. "You'd be surprised." He shrugged. "I'll come by later with the plan I'm working on. There are a few obvious problems I want to work on before I try and figure out if there's anyway it would ever work."

"See you then." Jessica glanced around the tables, sighed, and walked in. Everyone else followed, and Harry broke off from the group and slid in next to Hermione.

"Talk with Draco didn't go well." Hermione leaned closer.

Did Draco come in looking mad or something? He glanced back. Draco was talking calmly to the people around him. "It went fine. I was just in the library working on some things"

"Oh." Hermione turned back to her dinner.

Harry sighed and turned to his own plate. What was wrong now? Shouldn't she be happy that I'm spending more time in the library? He finished eating as fast as he could and headed to the tower. He pulled the curtains shut around his bed and flipped through his potions book. A few ingredients cancelled each other out and he needed them all if there was any chance it was going to work. Nothing. He tossed the book to the end of the bed. Maybe a charm to keep their chemicals from converting into useless, unreactive forms would work. He grabbed his charms book and checked the table of contents. The book was too general and too low of a level to have what he needed. He yanked a book off the bottom of his trunk. He checked the contents and flipped to the page while humming to himself. He jotted down the charm and the side effects and put the parchment back in his bag. He slid out of bed and headed down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Ron and Hermione sat in the chairs by the fireplace.

"I wanted to find--I'm going to check--I'm going to study. In the library. Where it's quieter. I'll be back later. Bye." He smiled and walked out. He held back his grimace until the Fat Lady swung shut. Sometimes he could lie in someone's face without twitching and sometimes he really just sucked at it. He shrugged and jogged toward the stairs. They were staying halfway between Gryffindor Tower and the dungeons. He stopped at a blank wall between two paintings and pressed his hand against the round stone at the center. "Haven." His arm slipped through the stone and he stumbled into the room. It looked like the lounge at the Academy, only twice as big, with tables filling the other half of the room. Moonlight shown through the arch windows with the blue curtains pulled back. The tables were full of students writing on lined paper with ballpoint pens. Harry smiled. It really was a beautiful thing. The younger kids were gathered in front of the couches watching a movie. The only problem came from the fact that there was no screen and no TV. The pictures were emanating directly from the videotape cassette.

"Cute spell, huh?" Diana bumped into his shoulder.

"How did you manage that?"

She shrugged and polished her nails on her shoulder. "Well it is amazing what you can do when you're trying to memorize Latin verbs and there are fifty screaming little kids running around and playing tag. I wrote a spell and lookyhoo, it's a movie."

Harry smacked her shoulder. "Well then I guess it's a good think you're on my team because your genius will make up for my utter stupidity in this area."

"You just don't believe that you can do it. That's all that's holding you back." She shrugged. "So why have you joined our odd little family this night?"

He dogged the nerf ball that smacked into the wall behind him. A boy, around twelve, had his eyes locked on his paper and kept shifting in his chair. "I'm trying to combine like six different spells and tweak them to all work slightly differently than they're meant to. The problem is that parts of one spell cancel out parts of other spells. I think I've found a way to balance things out, but it's going to take awhile and it has to be done very carefully."

Diana nodded and threaded her arms through his bent elbow. "Well then let's work this out and get our girl back." She pulled him toward the middle couch and pushed him down into the pillows.

He pulled the piece of parchment out of his bag and handed it to her.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a spiral notebook off the end table. "You've gone back in time again Potter."

He shrugged. "We have to adjust to the environment we're in."

"All right, but you're not going to see me writing with a quill anytime soon." She pulled her pen out of her hair, waved it in his face, and transferred his notes to the notebook. She picked up and parchment between two fingers and dangled it in front of his face.

I associate with freaks. He grabbed the parchment, ripped it in half, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the garbage can. "Happy now? The evil parchment has been disposed of."

She nodded, gave him a wide grin, and started humming as she perused the page.

"Sh!" Lila, sitting on the floor between them coloring, smacked her leg. "This is the best part of the movie." Belle descended the stairs in her very large yellow dress. All the girls, including Diana, sighed.

Harry shook his head. Girls were strange no matter what country they came from.

Diana muttered something and pressed her hand to the page. The words glowed for a moment before fading back to normal. She ripped the page out of the notebook leaving an identical page below it. She shoved the paper at Jason as he wandered by. Jason scanned it as he headed up the staircase in the far corner. She pulled the next sheet off and folded it into a paper airplane. It soared a few feet before crash landing next to Jessica.

"How many times are you going to give people a random sheet of motes without telling then what it's all about?"

She giggled. "As many as I have people who don't ask why I'm throwing pieces of paper at them. How about an origami swan?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Can you do origami?"

Diana frowned and turned the paper around in front of her eyes. "No. Shouldn't it do it by itself or something?" She shook it. "Be a swan."

Harry laughed and grabbed the page from her. "Let's see if I can make a plane. I must practice the important things I learned this summer." He folded the paper and sent it toward Kyle who was building an erector set tower base in the corner. It landed on his foot. Harry sighed. "Oh well. Close enough."

Diana sent the rest of the papers flying to the far corners of the room. "Now let's take a look at what I can do here." She started filling the page with equations. Calculus people. They think math is the solution to everything.

Harry slid off the couch and Lila handed him a coloring book and slid her box of crayons closer to him. He pulled out brown and started coloring the dog's fur.

Lights surrounded the beast and lifted him into the air as he shifted back to his human form. The servants retook their old forms and the celebration began. The picture retreated into the tape.

Hands clapped three times. "Little ones it is time for bed. The rest of you tone it down. No silencing charms this time. Just don't be as loud." Biara leaned over the back of the couch. "Hello Harry. I see you had no trouble joining us. What are you working on?"

Harry chewed on his lip. I don't want to get her hopes up, but I want her to know that we're doing something. "I'm trying to combine some spells to be able to find her."

Biara moved over and kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair. "Wonderful. Come Lila, it's time for bed. Curfew is soon so you should head back to the Slytherin dorms."

Lila put her crayons back in the box and pushed it under the table. "Fine. I'll go."

Biara put her hands on her waist. "Don't use that tone with me young lady. You want to be back before Severus gives his speech and your absence is noted. You need to head back too Harry."

Harry stacked his book on hers and pushed to his feet. "I'm going. I'm going."

He and Lila walked to the door. He glanced back at Biara ushering a group of girls up the staircase in the center of the wall. "Are you doing okay with the Slytherins?"

She stepped through the wall and he followed. She glanced back over her shoulder at him. "Are you doing okay with the Gryffindors?" She walked down the stairs to the dungeons.

Harry sighed. "Touché." He walked down the hall and climbed the stairs yawning. He gave the password and the Fat Lady swung open. Everyone in the common room looked up at him.

McGonagall stood by the fireplace with her arms crossed over her chest. "It is after curfew Mr. Potter."

I always get caught. I think I need to work on that part of sneaking out. I've got the out part. Now I need to get the in part. "I was in the library."

She pursed her lips. "None of the students in the library saw you there."

Crap. I guess I need to work on alibis too. Why can't they just leave me alone? "I was in a dark corner. It's not surprising."

McGonagall took a deep breath and nodded. "The Headmaster has asked the heads of the houses to speak to their students to deal with any questions or concerns that have come up during the day or anything that you didn't feel comfortable asking in class. And of course you are always welcome to come see me one on one if you have any questions or concerns. Does anyone have anything to ask?"

Pointless questions filled the common room. It wasn't like McGonagall could answer questions about whether they had found out why the attack happened, how they had breached the wards, or what protections Hogwarts had that the Academy didn't. Why don't we just send the Death Eaters a manual, how to breach the Hogwarts wards and stage a successful attack.

Dean raised his hand. "Are the students going to be joining our classes?"

Professor McGonagall shook her head. "Their program of study is slightly different then ours. They will be continuing their classes as before in the empty classrooms around the castle." She paused and looked at each person. "You may see or hear some things that you think are strange. They study muggle subjects alongside magical ones and they have clubs and activities that may seem odd. Their culture, in both the magical and muggle communities are quite different from anything that we are used to, so I ask you to be very careful of your reactions. I have been told that that they are not easily insulted, but you would not want someone to insult how you lived your life if you were far from home. Their situation is not one they chose and you would do well to remember that. Now, it is getting late and you have classes tomorrow, so you should all head to bed." The common room emptied and Harry followed his dorm mates up the stairs.

Dean whistled as he pulled on his pajamas. "It's too bad they won't be in our classes. I saw some really cute girls at breakfast this morning."

Harry laughed and pulled on his pajamas. Girls on the brain. This should be an interesting game. Perhaps I should warn them that the girls all take self-defense and that two months of wand less defense won't protect him from them. Harry smiled. Nah. Hedwig flew in the window and landed on his bed. "Hey girl." He petted her hand and untied the letter.

"Who is it from?" Ron moved toward him and everyone else was watching them.

Harry smiled at him and pressed the note closed. "No one. Night guys." He hoped into bed and pulled the curtains closed. Hedwig's wings knocked papers to the floor and the window clicked shut. Harry unfolded the hello kitty stationary.

Chem class at six in the dungeons with Chris if sleep isn't your thing.

Jason

He ripped it into tiny pieces and dropped it in the trash. He set his alarm for five thirty and burrowed into the covers.

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The Great Hall was filling up for breakfast when they stumbled through the doors. Jason clapped Harry on the shoulder as they separated. "Six in the morning and no explosions. I think you're a good influence on us."

Harry stuck out his tongue and jogged to the table. "Hey guys." He piled eggs on his plate and covered them in pepper.

"Where were you this morning?" Ron stabbed at his food.

What's his problem now? "I was doing some extra work. I wasn't tired." He took a bite of his eggs. Yum. Spicy.

"You can't just keep disappearing all the time."

"Why not?" It's not like I'm doing drugs or practicing dark magic or something.

"I'm a prefect. I can't just let you do whatever you want." Ron dropped his fork to his plate.

Why not? You didn't do anything to stop Fred and George. Why are you trying to take this away from me? "If McGonagall has a problem with me spending my free time doing extra work then she can bring it up with me, but I won't take this shit from you." He pushed away from the table and stormed across the hall. He sat next to Jessica and filled another plate with eggs.

"Bad day?"

He sighed and dug into his food.

Jessica wagged a piece of bacon in his face.

He snorted, grabbed it, and popped it into his mouth. "Thanks."

She glanced behind her and patted his arm. "There's a school full of people that won't desert you not matter what Potter. Hogwarts isn't the only world you have access to anymore. It'll be all right no matter what happens."

Harry smiled and twirled his fork between his fingers. "That's really cheesy Jess." He gestured at his plate. "I'm trying to eat."

Jessica smacked his head and turned back to her bacon. "Bite me English boy."

Harry swallowed the last bite and stared at his empty plate. "That means I have to go to Potions now, doesn't it?"

Jessica looked at her watch. "Yeah me too." She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. "I think I'll have more fun though."

Harry groaned. "I have to miss Chris' potions class?"

She shifted closer. "Yeah, but potions lab is after curfew. He's spending all the time in between at his actual job. Janet took over the first level of advanced potions classes so that he could spend more time at the ministry since his commute time has increased a little bit."

Harry nodded and glanced around. "Maybe I'll come to lab."

"Won't you get into trouble with your little perfect friends?"

Harry glanced back as he picked up his bag. "Probably, but I'm not going to give up a chance to have time to actively work on finding Cali because they don't understand that I'm the same person that I was last year." He shook his head. "Optimism. The world is a happy and shiny place. I'm going to class. See you later." He headed out the doors and jogged toward the stairs.

"Harry, wait!" Hermione rushed up behind him.

"What?"

"You don't have to act like that." She pushed past him.

Harry sighed and bit back a groan. How do I always end up as the bad guy being overemotional in these situations? He jogged to catch up with her. "Hermione, wait. I was having a good time and then I got confronted and I overreacted. I'm sorry for that, but I'm not sorry that I got the chance to go to chemistry lab this morning and went."

"Chem lab?"

They walked into the Potions classroom. "Yes, but please keep it quiet. I'm pretty much supposed to stay out of it, but I don't want to. If I want to do twice the work then why shouldn't I?"

"Why shouldn't you what Mr. Potter?" Professor Snape moved down the aisle between the tables and pivoted to face them.

Harry took out his supplies and dropped his bag to the floor. "Why shouldn't I sit down, shut up, and learn about potions." He sat. "It seems like a wonderful idea."

Professor Snape shook his head and rubbed his temples. "Very good Mr. Potter." He moved to the chalkboard as everyone else streamed in. He flicked his wand at the board. "Begin."

Harry chopped ingredients while he waited for the base to boil. Professor Snape stalked around the room. He hovered over him. "Quarter inch slices Potter."

Harry glanced at his quarter inch slices and nodded. "Yes sir." Professor Snape turned to move on. "Professor? Is there a way to negate the acid in oranges from breaking up calcium nitrate?"

Professor Snape folded his arms over his chest. "For what purpose?"

"Increasing the range and duration of a potion while destroying the scent it would normally produce."

Professor Snape tapped his fingers on his arm. "It would require a buffer of some sort, ideally that would attach itself to one of the substances to prevent it's interaction with the second substance."

The calcium nitrate doesn't need to interact with anything, it works on it's own, so if I buffered that with something then that part should work out if the buffer itself doesn't interact with anything. "Thank you sir."

He nodded and moved to the Slytherin side of the room.

"Harry?" Hermione glanced at him before turning back to her potion.

Something just shifted. Harry shrugged and shifted closer, dropping the root slices into the cauldron. "It's a tracing potions to try and find Cali. I'm--well we're--working to alter it to have it act as we need it to. We have to combine a few potions with charms. It's like trying to balance a stack of books on one of those rubbed noodles."

Hermione snorted. "Rubber noodles? What are you talking about?"

Harry poured in two drops of bat bile. "Those fun noodle things. They're made of foam. They're pool toys. They bend a lot."

Hermione smiled. "Got it. Do you--do you need any help?"

Harry blinked, then smiled. "You'd be willing to help me with this?"

Hermione shrugged. "I flew on a hippogriff. In comparison this should be nothing."

Harry smiled and dropped in the next ingredient. He bit his lip and glanced around. "It will mean meeting after curfew."

"Why?"

"Potions lab is after curfew so Chris can spend more time at the ministry. Everyone will be in the same place at the same time with no younger kids to watch over or worry about. If you're not comfortable with that I totally understand and won't blame you a bit for backing out."

Hermione shook her head. "No. I want to help." She looked toward Professor Snape, still wandering around the Slytherins. "I want to know how--the atmosphere you spent the summer in, so maybe I can understand what changed."

He turned the heat under his cauldron down. "What about Ron?"

Hermione sighed. "He's not ready for this yet. He's too hostile."

"No shit."

Hermione smacked his arm. "You're mysterious, you disappear, and you never spend any time with us. You have to admit that he has reasons to be hostile. He always overreacts to things like this as you well know."

Harry sighed. "So how do I disappear after curfew without making things worse?"

"I'm afraid that's you problem. My roommates don't care where I go. I'm sure they all assume I'm in the library or doing homework in the common room."

"And they're wrong?" Harry ducked her arm and laughed. "Okay. Okay. You're a wild girl and go out partying in the middle of the night."

She filled her bottle with potions and closed it. "That's better." She grabbed his bottle and set them on Professor Snape's desk.

Harry cleaned out his cauldron and followed Hermione to Transfiguration. He sat next to Ron. Time to suck it up and be a good little friend. It's not his fault that he doesn't understand. "Sorry I acted like a prat this morning."

Ron tapped his fingers on the desk. "Are you going to stop doing it?"

Ugh. I say no, which is the truth, and he stays mad at me. If I lie he'll get mad when I disappear tonight. "Stop being a prat? It doesn't seem like a likely option considering my past interaction with that attitude."

Ron scowled. "You know what I meant. Are you going to stoop going out after curfew?"

Harry sighed. He's really serious about it this time. Let's try for the truth since lying doesn't seem to have accomplished much. "I need to feel like I'm doing something to find her. The only time we all have few is after curfew." Ron turned away and Harry pulled him back. "She's like my sister. What would you do if they had Ginny?"

Ron dropped his eyes to the ground. He swore. "Anything I could." He rubbed his head. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Not unless you've suddenly gotten good at potions. "Not right now. It's all experimental potions and combining different kinds of magic. I don't even really know what I'm doing. I'm just getting swept away in the tide and trying to give a different point of view on things."

Ron nodded. "You should try and get Hermione to help."

"Really?" Did he really just suggest bringing Hermione in on something he's being left out of?

"Yeah. Of course. She's better at potions than either of us. That is if you can get her to break curfew." Ron snorted.

Hermione smacked them both. "Stop saying things like that or I'm not helping either of you with your homework any more."

McGonagall entered the room and shut the door behind her. "We will be continuing out work from the last class. The problem most of you seemed to encounter was the unusual wand movement associated with the spell. Concentrate on that today. I will be helping you all individually."

Hermione pushed their wands down when they moved to cast the spell. "I have things to do that don't involve visiting either of you in the hospital wing, so why don't you practice the wand movement for awhile." She moved to practice with Padma.

Harry and Ron rolled their eyes. And flicked and swished their wands in the patter McGonagall had shown them in the last class.

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Please review to keep me writing and moving forward. I am determined to finish this story.