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.

We are getting so close to the point where I don't know where the story is going to go. Luckily I'm going back to school and my suitemate sounding board soon.

So for the inside joke about the Defense professor. Just a warning, it's not that funny unless you were sitting in our suite because a lot of things are funnier when you're stressed out and escaping your room and avoiding work. Ichy is short for Ichabod, his last name of course being Crane from the Legend of Sleepyhollow. I believe he gave a different name to the class, Sartoris I believe because I was studying muscles of the fetal pig when writing that chapter. It was a fake name to disguise his identity, but Harry couldn't think of him by that name, so I didn't try and force him. giggles Must stop listening to my characters. Anywho, the whole point was that my Jenny Bear left the answer in her review so she'll get the cookie of her choice, but she cheated since I told her, so Maggie gets a cookie too. Hugs and kisses to all.

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Harry curled on top of the table and pulled his robe closer. Why did the dungeons have to be so cold?

"Are you okay Harry?" Chris brushed the hair off his forehead.

"I'm just so tired. I can't wake up." He forced his eyes open but they drifted back down.

Chris pressed the back of his palm against Harry's forehead. "You have a fever. I'll get a cooling potion."

Harry pressed his hands to his ears. "Be quiet. Why won't they stop talking? It hurts."

The footsteps moved toward him, echoing through the voices. Two fingers pressed against his neck. "No one else is in the room Harry. They went to get supplies and talk to Severus."

Harry shook his head. "I hear them. They're everywhere. I can't get away. It's never quiet. Why can't it just be quiet for a minute?"

"Harry, where are you?"

He pulled his robe closer and moved his knees closer to his chest. "It's too cold. Why can't it be warmer? He pressed his forehead to the floor. The stone was cold. Everything was cold. He was so cold. He was hot. He was-- "Cali." His eyes shot open.

"What?" Chris's hand froze on his cheek.

"She's cold and sick. We have to get her out."

The door slammed. Jason dropped the bottles on the first table he passed and hopped onto the table next to Harry. "Where is she?"

"I don't know. Would I bother with the potion if--"

"Close your eyes. Where are you?"

"I'm sitting in a bloody potions--" He scrunched his forehead. "I'm underground. It's not a dungeon. A basement. I can hear people moving outside the door. There are always voices. I think there are guards outside the door." Harry opened his eyes and sighed as he pulled his robe closer around him. "I guess I was right. Seeing through her eyes isn't going to help us find out where she is."

Chris grabbed Harry and Jason's chins and turned them toward him. "What is going on? How can you see that?"

Harry shrugged.

Jason pushed Chris's hand away. "The connection they formed was so powerful that it had some residual effects. Cali used to have flashes of what was going on here."

Chris rubbed his forehead. "And no one told me of this because?"

"Because you'd get mad?" Jason shrugged. "She said it was like having premonitions of the present. The connection was there, but she couldn't turn it on when she wanted. It just happened. And it only happened two or three times, so it wasn't serious. She said it felt like it was breaking down. Have you ever had flashes of Cali?"

"No." She doesn't even bother to tell me what's happening.

"If Harry's seeing her now then the connection is probably failing even more. Cali was getting flashes because she initiated the connection. It's breaking down and back lashing in the opposite direction."

"Harry?" Hermione shifted on her feet in the doorway. Ron stood next to her, eyes darting around. The eleven were scattered around, dropping ingredients on the various tables.

Damn. I don't think I needed them to think I'm any weirder than they already thought I was. He shook his head. "What?"

"Are you all right?" She chewed on her thumbnail.

Jason ruffled Harry's hair. The warming charm spread all the way to his toes.

Harry stretched his arms over his head. It felt wonderful to finally be warm. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Do we have everything we need?"

Remara pulled the sucker out of her mouth with a slurp. "We're only missing the wolfsbane."

Professor Snape stood in the doorway. "Well well, if it isn't three little Gryffindors out of bed."

Ron's face turned white. "We were--"

"And it's amusing that you believe I care. Move."

Hermione grabbed Ron and pulled him to the side.

Professor Snape stalked over to Chris. He pulled a jar out of his robes and set it on the table. "Wolfsbane as you requested. What are you planning to do with it?"

Chris smiled, pulled a copy of the calculations out of his bag, and handed it to him.

Professor Snape's eyebrows rose. "This is--there is no possible way that it could--" He dropped into a chair as he ran his finger across the page. His forehead crinkled. "Something is wrong."

Hermione was bouncing on her toes. She took a deep breath and walked up next to Harry. "There's nothing to tie the potion together. The separate components will work separately, but there's nothing to combine them and allow them to work as one spell."

Professor Snape frowned and glanced down again. "She is correct."

Ron's eyes bulged. Harry spoke before Ron could say something stupid. "Is there any way to fix it? And is it really that big of a deal?"

Professor Snape glared at him. "Have you learned nothing?"

Harry sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. "Apparently not. Why don't you educate me on why I'm a moron this time?"

Snape folded his arms over his chest. "Without something to connect the components together the separate products created by the individual reactions will continue to react and with the products in this combination it would be likely to level half of the school."

Harry rubbed his forehead. "Oh. So without a connection it's not only useless but dangerous. Damn." He growled. "I told you guys I couldn't write spells. Just write a spell Harry they say." He crinkled his nose. "Is there any way to make the potion do what I want it to do?"

Hermione jumped onto the table on Harry's other side. "All of the options I looked at would alter the nature of the components. The parts are so different that everything seems to affect at least a part of it."

Megara chewed on her pen cap. She pulled it out of her mouth slurping the spit off it. "Isn't there something that connects potions without interacting with anything? We used it in that potion, um; the one that turned pretty rose when it was ruined, so half of us ruined it."

Professor Snape rolled his eyes as Chris snorted. "I thought I'd almost blocked that out. What potion was that?"

Harry scratched the back of his neck. "It was the experimental healing potion, wasn't it? When Kevin sprained his ankle and we couldn't take his whining anymore?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah, that's it." He cringed. "That never did work, did it? We were trying to avoid mixing anything that would alter the mistletoe. The connector was--" He scratched his head and snapped his fingers a few times. "I have no idea. Wait. Isn't that the time you refused to tell me what you were putting in? You would only say that you were almost sure it wouldn't explode."

Professor Snape made a choking sound. "You let them--Are you insane?"

Chris shrugged and dropped into a chair. "I have to accept that they know what they're doing, or I wouldn't allow them to make half of the potions they do."

Diana chewed on her thumbnail. "Maybe, possibly, just this once, you should have stopped us."

Kyle shifted his weight from foot to foot. "She does have a point. This once."

Chris pushed himself to his feet and looked around the room. Everyone avoided meeting his eyes. "Tell me. Now."

Harry cleared his throat. "We might just have used, um, my blood." He dropped his head as he mumbled the last part.

"You did what?!"

Everyone moved back a few steps. Harry slid back to the edge of the table.

Chris growled. "I am going to kill you."

"That would not work." Professor Snape stood and cut off Chris's rant. "Human blood will not tie a potion together."

Jason slid off the table and took a few more steps away from Chris. "In general that's true and we never did get to potion to function as it was meant to, but that was more of a balance problem then anything else. Harry's blood isn't normal. We did blood tests when he sat in on our biology lab. His blood is infused with magic. We tried it in a few basic combination potions. The magic tied everything together and the blood didn't alter anything."

Hermione stared at Harry. "Do you think the killing curse altered his blood?"

Marcus slowly moved closer to Harry. "That may be part of it, but mostly it's a muggle born magic suppressing thing. We've tested a number of people, and muggleborns sometimes have magic currents in their blood while we have yet to find anyone from a magical family with any. We think it might come from the fact that if you grow up in a magical family you expect to be able to do magic and so you're more likely to do accidental magic. Harry's blood is the most magically concentrated we've found. Repressed magical ability turns inward and ends up in his blood." He shrugged.

Harry scooted to the edge of the table. "Look. None of this is important. Either it will work or the spell is a loss. So how do we figure out if it will work?"

Professor Snape tapped his fingers on the table. He stood and walked to the far cupboard across the room. He came back and handed Harry a glass vial and a knife. "I'll need a sample of your blood. It will take a day and a half to finish the tests."

Harry nodded and handed the vial to Marcus and yanked the blade across his palm. He tilted his hand and let it flow into the glass.

When it was half full Marcus pressed his palm against Harry's. He walked over and handed the vial to Processor Snape.

Professor Snape corked the vial and slipped it into a pocket of his robes. "Should anyone be concerned that you can do that without flinching?"

Harry caught the rag Marcus tossed him and wiped the blood off his hand. The pink line ran across his palm. "Years of getting thorns embedded in my skin had to be good for something." He smiled and shrugged. "Plus, I learned some very cool tricks." He licked the pink line and held the unmarked skin toward them. He giggled.

Chris moved and took his arm. He stretched the skin, but it stayed whole. "You always refuse to stick with what is possible. You are aware of the consequences of your actions, are you not?"

Harry yanked his arm back and scratched his palm. "No healing for two to three weeks after such a spell is cast and two to three months with decreased potency. I didn't do any spells before I had an alternate option. I didn't do anything overly dangerous or stupid so I wouldn't get hurt just in case I was still affected from the summer." He tilted his head and smiled. "I even stayed in my dorm after curfew. Well, most of the time anyway."

Professor Snape stood and rolled his eyes. "I suppose we must appreciate the small favors in life. I am going to leave this insanity and go start the tests." He stalked out of the room, the door slamming behind him.

"Severus is such an open and friendly man." Chris pressed against the table in front of Harry and leaned next to his ear. "I ever see you with a knife like that again and I will lock you in a room with Biara, understand me?"

Harry sighed. "Yes. Can we get on with figuring out this potion now?"

Chris messed up his hair and pushed away. "Let's do it guys."

Harry pulled Hermione out of the room. "Hermione, you have to go to class in the morning."

She pulled back toward the room. "So do they. Why do they get to stay? I want to work on the potion more."

Ron rolled his eyes and grabbed her other arm. Harry pulled her forward and up the stairs out of the dungeon. "They can sleep through class or reschedule. They're all in the same classes and there's no one else in most of their classes. They work through the breaks and over the summer. You on the other hand have to go to class with people who like to avoid work and do as little as possible. Now you will go back to the tower and go to sleep or I won't let you go back tomorrow."

"What is going on here?" Professor McGonagall stood at the bottom of the stairs with her arms crossed over her chest.

Harry kept his hand around Hermione's arm. "I have a note." He pulled the paper from Chris out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She glanced at it and sighed. "Mr. Potter, I had thought we made it clear--"

Harry pulled out a second paper and handed it over. Good thing I talked with Dumbledore about all this.

Professor McGonagall handed the papers back. "Then what problem are you having returning to the dorm?"

Hermione ducked her head. "Nothing. We should hurry. We've got classes tomorrow.

Professor McGonagall frowned and gestured toward the stairs. They scrambled toward the tower. Harry pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.

They stumbled into the common room and Harry fell to the floor laughing.

Hermione crossed her arms. "It's not funny."

Harry took a few deep breaths and stood. "It really was. One second you're refusing to leave and the next you're bolting up the stairs."

Hermione clenched her teeth and spun. "I'm going to bed. You aren't copying my notes if you fall asleep in class." She stamped up the stairs.

Harry shook his head as he covered a yawn. "How long do you think it will take her to realize tomorrow is Saturday?" He shrugged. "I'm off to bed. Are you coming?"

Ron nodded and headed up the stairs.

Harry jogged to catch him. "What's wrong?"
Ron shrugged. They walked into the room.

Harry closed the door slowly.

Ron grabbed his pajamas and climbed into bed, pulling the curtains closed.

Harry frowned and grabbed his pajamas.

"Harry?" Neville squinted in the darkness.

"Yeah, it's me." He dropped his clothes onto his trunk.

"Is everything okay?"

Harry smiled. Trust Neville to worry about me. It's nice that someone is acting like I expect them to. "Yes. I'm fine. I wasn't even breaking curfew because I had a note allowing me to be out."

Neville smiled. "That's new for you."

Harry laughed. "Yeah. It is, isn't it? Good night."
"Night Harry." He pulled his curtains shut.

Harry climbed into bed and squirmed under the covers. We've sorted out the steps of the potion, got all the ingredients, and started preparing everything. Once we get the results back from Professor Snape we can either start making the potion or trash everything. It will work. It has to work.

Harry walked into the Great Hall and filled his plate.

Hermione sat across from him picking at her plate silently.

Harry tapped his fork on his plate. "I'm sorry for laughing Hermione, really. It's just that you were so determined that you didn't even realize it was Friday."

Hermione frowned. "I know. I was acting like a foolish child. It's just--" She stabbed at her eggs.

"What?" Harry bit into his toast.

"You were a different person last night. I don't know if I've ever seen you so relaxed." She buttered her toast and took a bite. "It was strange. It made me feel like I don't know you anymore. I feel like I missed something important."

Harry reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "You do know me. You've helped me through classes and evil wizards. They just happened to be there to help me through having more freedom than ever before. It turns out I like choosing where to go, what to do, and when to eat." He smiled.

Hermione laughed. "All right but one day you're going to tell me what happened this summer. Now exercise your freedom and eat." She pulled her hand back and dug into her food.

Harry followed her lead. "We've got a few hours before wand less defense. What do you want to do?"

Hermione sighed. "I suppose working on the potion isn't an option, huh?"

Harry laughed. "No. I doubt they'll be up for a few more hours."

"Why are you up then? I thought you'd sleep in."

"I couldn't sleep. I've got all this extra energy. It always happens when I lose blood. In the hospital wing it always seems that if I lose blood she knocks me out, so I don't get the fun energy high. It's too bad really." He downed his pumpkin juice.

Hermione bit her lip. "That idea of magic in blood was strange. I mean, how do they know? What does the magic look like? I've had blood taken before, wouldn't it show up?"

Harry snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hermione breathe. In order to see it you have to have a centrifuge and mix in the wrong chemicals. We had a little lab accident that was half accident and half boredom with my blood. That's the only reason we found it. It just kind of shimmers under a black light after it's been treated. It's not even that noticeable. Their ministry has an experimental lab with high tech equipment that gave us a way to measure it. The magical content of my blood was several times what the other muggleborns from similar backgrounds had. It doesn't coincide with magical strength. The only other hypothesis they had was that it was affected by how much your magic was suppressed by your surroundings as a child, but those of us in that situation don't usually like to share the extent of our crappy home life."

Hermione glanced around. The table was nearly empty this early in the morning.

Harry held up his hand. "I wouldn't tell them and I won't tell you. It's over and I'd like to leave it in the past." He shook off the hand she laid on his arm. "I'm fine. I promise. So what are we going to do this morning?"

Hermione sighed. "I have homework to do."

Harry groaned. "You always have homework to do. I do too for that matter. Damn. Okay. I'm in. Should we work in the common room or go to the library?"

Hermione smiled and jumped to her feet. "I think I like you being this willing to study. And we should be just fine in the common room until Ron wakes up and starts complaining that no one should work on a Saturday."

Harry shoved the last of the toast in his mouth and followed her toward the door.

The common room was empty. Harry and Hermione separated to grab their books and flopped into the chairs by the dark fire.

He pulled out his potion book and flipped to the right chapter. "There should be a spell that would do all our work for us."

"Then we wouldn't learn anything Harry."

He sighed. "Yeah, but it would be nice every once in a while not to have anything to do." He pulled parchment out of his bag and scratched out the introduction for his essay.

"Why are you two doing homework? It's Saturday." Ron dropped into the chair across from them.

Harry blinked and glanced at his watch. "Wow. We have to go if we're going to get to wand less defense on time."

Hermione glanced at the clock and packed her books. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Harry slung the bag over his shoulder and followed her out of the tower. They walked into the huge open room in the defense corridor.

Ichy was the only one in the room. "Welcome, welcome. How are you three doing this wonderful morning?"

Harry smiled. "I'm fine. Have you caught up on your sleep yet?"

Ichy snorted. "Yes. You should take that into consideration if you're thinking of repeating your dismal performance in her for one more week." He swept a sword off the table against the wall and slashed it through the air in front of him. "If I see you take one more punch you and I both know you can damn well block or duck you're out."

Hermione frowned. "Professor, he's getting better and--"

"Potter have you got your friends so in the dark that they don't think you can't even duck a punch? Even if--you have a cousin for goodness sakes. Even in regular families you would have learned to get out of the way."

Hermione's eyes widened but Ron snorted. "Or learned when your brothers are in too good of a mood for you to be safe."

Ichy laughed. "Oh that lesson. Yes I learned that one well. My teachers were my students though. After you've had your desk disappear a few times and been stuck to the ceiling you get suspicious of the smiles." He shook his head. "Seriously Potter, I want you working to your abilities."

Harry growled. "I'll hurt someone."

"No you won't. I wasn't any worse for wear after our little altercation."

Harry looked away as Hermione's jaw dropped. "No."

Ichy shrugged.

He's not fighting back or even arguing. That was way too easy. He dropped to the ground and rolled as the sword flew past his head. He jumped to his feet and bent double to the side to avoid the kick aimed at his face. He grabbed Ichy's fist and twisted. Off balance he swept Ichy's legs out from under him and dropped his arm as Harry started to overbalance. He fell back into his fighting stance and tossed the hair out of his eyes. His eyes widened as he ducked the punch from behind and spun.

Kevin lashed out again and Harry jumped to the side and kicked him in the stomach. Kevin doubled over and pulled air into his lungs. Harry slid on his knees past the gasping boy and rolled past the kick that grazed his cheek.

Kyle struck with another drop kick that caught him on the arm. Harry's elbow collapsed and his shoulder slammed into the ground. He flipped from his back onto his feet and threw his fist toward Kyle. Kyle blocked the punch easily and missed Harry's foot smashing into the side of his knee. His leg collapsed and Harry shoved him backward until he overbalanced and hit the floor. An elbow caught him in the middle of his back and he threw his arms out barely keeping his head from slamming against the stone floor. Harry groaned and tried to shake the spots out of his eyes.

Jason leaned next to him with a smile. "You have got to learn to watch your back, or at the least put up a perimeter charm." He held out his hand and pulled Harry to his feet.

Harry rubbed his neck and scowled. "I wasn't planning on getting attacked."

Jason snorted. "You weren't planning on getting attacked while learning how to attack and be attacked?"

Harry pushed him away. "I wasn't planning on getting attacked by anyone I couldn't flatten while baking."

"And therein lies the problem Mr. Potter." Ichy had the sword back in his hands.

Harry glanced around. Most of the class had shown up sometime during the fight. They looked shell shocked. Malfoy's mouth kept opening and closing. Crap. I was trying to hide this for a reason. I don't need another reason for people to look at me like I'm dangerous.

"And for goodness sake, aren't you going to do anything about the bleeding?"

Harry squinted at him and turned to glance at Kevin and Kyle. They looked fine. "They aren't bleeding sir."

Ichy rubbed his forehead. "They aren't bleeding. Correct Mr. Potter. I, however, was referring to you."

"Referring to me about what?" What was he on about? Maybe he hit his head when I knocked him to the floor.

"Look at your bloody arm Potter!"

Harry looked down. The robe of his sleeve was slashed open. The fabric around the tear was wet. He poked it and his finger came up red. He poked it a few more times harder.

"What are you doing?" Jason grabbed his wrist.

"It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt at all." Harry shook his arm. "Even knowing it's there. The delayed pain thing isn't kicking in."

Jason took a deep breath. "I think I'll take him to the hospital wing to get all patched up."

Ichy sighed and waved them out. "Go. Everyone else pair up as normal and start with the exercises from last week."

Jason put his arm around Harry's shoulders and led him out of the room. Kevin and Kyle stayed behind and Ichy seemed to be pointing them toward the mats against one wall.

"What were you doing there anyway?" Harry leaned against Jason as the walls shifted.

"Ichy wanted us to work on our falling."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to pull you out or anything. I can get there on my own." Harry shook his head. "Wait. Why are we going to the hospital wing? Madam Pomfrey can't heal me."

"I had to say something to get you out of the room that people would believe. We'll go up to the dorm. Our lounge is like a med station. Mom's not going to be too happy if she's around, but if she sees you all woozy she'll jump to the rescue and fix you up the muggle way and you'll be just fine."

"Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonagall froze in the doorway to the staff room.

"Hello Professor. Can you do something about the spinning? It's making my head hurt. The walls should be more courteous."

Jason cleared his throat. "Um, it's complicated. He's okay even though he isn't acting like it right now. I've got to get him back to the dorm to sort things out. I have to hurry sorry." He yanked Harry forward and dragged him up the stairs. "I'm really really sorry if this hurts but we have to get in the dorm before she recovers and follows to ask questions. I don't think you want to explain why no healing spells or potions will work on you."

"You mean the whole wand less magic thing? She knows."

"What?"

"I made a box of mice invisible."

Jason pulled him through the wall that marked the separate entrance into the lounge they'd eaten Chinese food in. "So when you said you didn't do any magic that would impair your healing ability until we were around to fix you up what you actually meant is that you did use wand less magic and figured out you wouldn't be able to heal normally only after the fact."

Harry frowned. "I was on all those pills and anyway I wasn't using my own magic. I was screwing with the ambient magic of the place so my body wasn't altered enough to reject healing potions."

Jason pushed him onto the couch and grabbed a first aid kit off the wall. "I don't even want to know right now. Take off your robe. God only knows how much blood it's absorbed by now."

Harry pulled it off and Jason tossed it on the table. The blood trickled down toward his elbow. "Why doesn't it hurt? And why do I feel so weird? I haven't lost enough blood from this little cut to be so out of it."

Jason ripped open a package and wiped at the blood. He pulled the edges of the cut together with butterfly bandages and wrapped it all in gauze. "I think that it's Cali." He sighed. "It's the only thing that makes sense. You can't get this kind of cut from a fist fight and I saw Ichy throw the sword at you. It missed you completely and clattered to the floor. There is no way that it accidentally grazed you and especially not to the extent that it would do this much damage."

Harry sniffed and pulled his knees to his chest. "They're torturing her, aren't they? The dizziness is from not eating. I ate this morning. They're starving her." He poked the gauze. "And now they've moved onto physical torture."

Jason wrapped his arms around Harry and dropped his chin onto Harry's head. "Cali acts like a spoiled child, and in truth she is, but she can get through this. If for no other reason, she's been in your head. She knows what you know, and if I'm reading the signs right, which you know that I hope that I'm not, she'll now how to deal without eating for some time."

"The potion will take a month and maybe even two to make. If it's gotten this far already we don't have the time."

Jason chewed on his lip. "We were talking the other night. We came up with something that might speed up the potion, but we didn't want to try it unless it was absolutely necessary."

Harry yanked himself away and paced in front of the couch. "Cali is in the hands of bloody Death Eater scum, you have a way to find her faster, and you don't think it's necessary? Harry took a deep breath, collapsed onto the couch, and wiggled back under his arm. "Okay. I'm done. What is it?"

Jason picked at his teeth. "Do you remember when we left that potion assignment until the last minute and needed to speed it up so we could finish it in one night instead of over three weeks?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, but didn't that potion blow up?"

"If you want to get all technical I suppose you could call it an explosion, but it was just a little mishap. We think we messed up the calculations of how much we needed for it to work and we didn't understand it all that well. Remara worked out its chemical formula in the lab and we thought that we knew what effect it would have. It works like a time turner in liquid form only it condenses time instead of allowing you to repeat it."

"Then let's do it. The timing calculations would have to be redone. Depending on the proportion by which it speeds things up. Wait, why did it blow up the potion you put it in?"
Jason bit his lip. "We didn't have enough to cover the whole three weeks, but we thought we had enough to speed it up for two and a half weeks, and then we could say we had to start over again and hand it in a few days late. It turns out that it doesn't work like that. The whole potion has to run its course being sped up. The problem that is most prevalent here is that it's illegal. It's extremely illegal."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "So ignoring for the moment whatever this mysterious substance is, how did you get it last time?"

Jason laughed nervously. "We were working at the ministry lab. Someone grabbed the wrong vial when we were packing up. Aurors had confiscated it in a raid and brought it in to be analyzed. They didn't have any idea of what it was, so they thought the vial we mistook it for was the one they confiscated."

Harry took a deep breath. "Okay. So, what is it?"

Jason glanced around the room, pulled his wand out of his sleeve, and threw up four privacy and silencing spells. "It's centaur's blood."

Harry choked. "You're kidding me right."

Jason grimaced.

Harry dropped his head to his knees. "They'll probably get offended if I even ask."

"Ask?" Jason's eyes were so big they looked like they were going to fall out of his head. "Where do you think you're going to find a centaur to ask?"

He doesn't know. They're certainly aren't any running around New York. "There are centaurs living in the forbidden forest. They aren't exactly friendly though. Even less now than before. They'd attack if I dared to go into the woods. Firenze is teaching divination though. He might help if I told him what was going on." Harry snorted. "He also might tell me that Mars is bright tonight." Jason frowned and Harry shook his head. "I think it's a centaur thing. I'll find him tomorrow. That is if Uncle Sev can tell me if my blood will work to tie the potion together. If it won't then we can't make the potion anyway."

Jason smiled. "I wouldn't let him catch you calling him that. You do know that your blood will work, don't you? Even if it wouldn't normally work the bond between you and Cali might make it work anyway."

Harry laughed. "There's a reason I'm only calling him that within a well-warded room with someone who already knows the big secret. You think that even if his tests come back negative we should try the potion anyway? I guess that makes sense. It is our only idea at this point. I'd feel better if he thought it would work though." Harry curled up against the arm of the couch.

Jason leaned back and stretched his arms over his head. "You and me both."

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I love you!!! All of my reviewers!!! You guys are great and I really appreciate you taking the time to drop even a few words of encouragement. You're the reason I'm still plugging along at this.