Meetings Part 2

Saturday morning at breakfast, a raven came with a letter for Lyra. It was a quick note from Brandt about their schedules for the weekend. He would be arriving with Arcturus shortly after their breakfast to have a meeting. After lunch, Harry would continue his detention, and Auror Jameson would be visiting Lyra to continue with her reading and writing lessons. She was nearly up to speed, but there were occasionally things she had difficulty with. On Sunday, Brandt would visit again with Augustus to work on their offensive and defensive magic. After lunch, Harry had detention again and Lyra would be getting another tutoring session on fashion.

Knowing it would be a long day, they made sure to eat a large meal before heading back to their common room to find Brandt and Arcturus enjoying a glass of mango juice near the grove.

Arcturus smiled at them, "Good morning, both of you. Today you're going to be learning a bit about the history of the Black family, both about the traits you observed at the party and our history of business. First, however, let's go back to the room we were in at the end of the night for a more secure conversation."

Lyra looked a bit nervous about returning to the room where she had met her mother but followed along. She relaxed a little after they entered and sat down at the desks while Brandt stood in the corner and Arcturus sat at the teacher's desk at the front.

He smiled at the two children while running his hands over the desk, "I don't think I ever had the desire to be a teacher, but I can see a bit of the appeal to it."

Looking seriously at Harry, he said, "I expect everything that you learn here today to be kept secret from all but other members of the Black family. Mr. Potter, you are only learning about it due to your relationship with Lyra. Normally, you would be too far removed from having any Black blood to learn about our family history. What you two witnessed in Miss Nymphadora Tonks at the party is what is called a Metamorphmagus, often shortened to being called a Metamorph. It means that she can change every feature of her body by will alone to become whatever she wants. She can even grow or shrink in height to a certain degree. Six hundred years ago at least one in four of every Black had this ability. Today, she is the first one in three generations to be able to," he frowned a bit at the loss of such a great talent.

"Many of the stronger members in our family still possess some form of self-transfiguration," he turned to Brandt and gave him a nod.

Brandt stepped forward, "Watch my face."

Slowly, his eyebrows began to move around his face like worms. After they got back to their starting points, he sprouted a beard that went down to his collarbone before it shrunk back into his chin, and a mustache sprouted to hang down the corners of his mouth. After that retracted, his eyelashes grew to a length of nearly six inches long before going back to normal.

"I can also do my nose hair, but it tickles," the children giggled a bit at that. "I can manipulate any of the hair on my face, but I can't change the color or move anything on my scalp or below my neck. I have no idea why, but that's how my magic works."

"My ability is a bit scarier," Arcturus said, then opened his mouth wider than should be possible as his teeth grew longer and sharper, then he grimaced as they turned into hundreds of tiny needles, then he returned them to normal. Harry and Lyra did look a bit scared but interested too.

"Does Harry's hair count?" Lyra asked.

"Why? What does it do?" Arcturus responded with curiosity.

"If it gets cut off, it grows back overnight, it always stays the same length, and the silver streaks were originally woven demiguise hair, but now it's natural," Harry informed Arcturus.

Arcturus thought for a little bit, "I don't think it would count as a type of metamorph. Can you control it by thought? Could you make your hair longer or shorter?"

"I did try a few times, but it didn't work."

"So, no, you would not be a metamorph. Though Brandt will look into the ability to see if it has been cataloged somewhere else or in your family in particular."

"What about Lyra? She can light her head on fire," Harry asked.

To show the point, Lyra concentrated hard and her head burst into flame. She moved around with her long hair swaying back and forth like a tail of fire then focused on putting it out.

"The sparks the other night were quite interesting, the fire even more so," Arcturus told Lyra. "Can you do it without the feathers in your hair?"

She wasn't sure, so Harry helped her take them all out. This time it took her a little longer to focus, but eventually, her hair caught fire down near the tips and slowly spread back to her head. It also took her much longer to put the fire out, but she did that too and there was no harm to her platinum-blonde hair or her scalp underneath.

Arcturus smirked a bit at the sight, "While I don't believe that is a metamorph power either, it will also need to be something we research. The feathers seem to act as a focus or amplifier. I suggest you practice without the feathers until you can do it just as well that way."

Harry helped Lyra put the feathers back in for now, as Arcturus continued, "There are many who do not have any metamorph powers in the family and are instead encouraged to become animagi. There is now a course at Hogwarts, but I will recommend you do it privately in case you wish not to disclose your forms when you change. If you are ever discovered, unless you are committing a crime, the only punishment is a fine. Since you both can afford the cost of it, it is better to keep it a secret."

"We were planning on doing it the summer after next year back home," Lyra informed her uncle. "We've been preparing for it for a year already."

"Interesting, would you both mind if Brandt joins you on your trip home for the winter break? I would like him to see how you would perform the ritual to determine its safety. He may also be interested in doing the ritual as well."

Harry and Lyra had a quick non-verbal conversation before Lyra responded in a very serious tone, "If he comes, he won't be the one protecting us. We will protect him, the island is very very dangerous."

Arcturus gave a strong nod to Brandt who returned it before saying, "I will follow all of your precautions, though my education wasn't a walk in the park itself either."

Harry reinforced Lyra's position, "The last time someone ignored our precautions, an entire team of professional warders and curse breakers nearly got killed. The luckiest of the injured nearly had his spine severed, the worst had a hole through him the size of my arm."

Brandt swallowed hard and agreed to follow their directions on the island.

"Moving on," Arcturus took the lead of the conversation again, "to business. The Black family has recently squandered a lot of its wealth on frivolous pursuits. Each Black child gets a trust vault, like Lyra's, and they can do with it what they want. Nearly all of the current Blacks have squandered it on pointless ventures, debauchery, or wasted it funding the last war. There is still enough wealth to start many new ventures, and a lot of the fixed wealth comes from holdings of land and real estate around the world that are rented out to others.

"The origins of the Black fortune come from two main sources. Prior to the Statute of Secrecy, the Black family advised many of the muggle kings and royalty of the regions we lived in. These advisors amassed a great deal of wealth by helping these muggles defeat their enemies and steering them to defeat ours as well. No Black has ever bowed at the feet of a muggle but we will certainly work with them to enrich our coffers. As we began to see the Statute of Secrecy take shape, we abandoned the muggle royalty we had previously been working with and turned to a more lucrative pursuit, piracy."

Arcturus grinned broadly, "The younger generation of the Blacks in the late 1600s and early 1700s dedicated ourselves to raiding the ships and colonies being set up by the royals we used to support. The Blacks had ships operating in the Caribbean, the African Coast, the Saudi Peninsula, and the Indian Subcontinent. We used much of those funds to build the base for our wealth as it is today. Each part of the family in those parts of the world built networks of property and small businesses in those parts of the world."

Harry was stunned. Pirates? He remembered Dudley had often pretended to be a pirate when he would steal from other children in the neighborhood, one time using a Halloween costume as part of the Harry Hunting game.

Noticing Harry's reaction, Arcturus added, "You don't like pirates? Remember that before, our family was assisting muggle kings and leading armies to fight battles that caused death on an even larger scale. It was a different time and most of the wealth the older magical families possess comes from bloody wars and criminal activity. Your friend, Longbottom, his ancestors were Vikings; raiding and pillaging was their method of amassing wealth. They later used that wealth to become well-known shipbuilders. They might say publicly that their family name comes from shipbuilding, but it is from the long-bottom boats of their Viking clan. Not that there's anything wrong with what they did, as like I said, it was a different time. Many old families still support themselves through exploitation and criminal activity as they haven't been able to transition to something less deviant. Those are the ones you should focus your ire on."

"What about the Potters?" Harry asked, then added with a bit of sadness, "I don't know anything about my family, just something about a hair potion."

"That was more recent, the Potters have never really amassed wealth. They have always been comfortable but not wealthy. They owned two properties that I am aware of and both were destroyed in the last war. Their original business was in potion-making. Long ago, their ancestral profession was as potters as the earthen containers were the easiest to store potions in and enchant for magical use. Glass containers didn't become widely used until later. This profession also had them doing business with muggles in many things involving clay and construction. A good deal of the Potter family were inventors of potions and enchantments, but nothing that garnered a lot of wealth until your grandfather, Fleatmont Potter, invented Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. He sold the potion to a company called GGS Cosmetics and you receive royalties for it to this day. No one has been able to create a better hair straightening potion since then."

Harry thought about that for a while. He felt better knowing that his ancestors weren't criminals.

Lyra whispered to him, "Ask about your hair potion."

Turning back to Arcturus, "I invented a hair growth potion over the summer. Dumbledore told me I should try to sell it."

Arcturus had heard rumors of a new hair growth potion, and the two people who were connected to it, it made perfect sense now that Harry was the brewer of the potion.

"From what I've heard of your potion with the results in Auror Nevitt and Mr. Olivander, it should make a lot of money. Have you perfected the recipe?"

"I might need some more help adjusting it. Though I wouldn't trust anyone else to brew it, except Professor Snape. The base ingredient is my own hair."

"Huh. That's interesting," Arcturus remarked. "You would be the only source for the potion in the entire world, and every time you harvest the ingredients, they regrow overnight," Harry nodded. "I've seen pictures of what happened to Mr. Nevitt, and I've been informed of the length of Mr. Olivander's hair. In the case of the wandmaker, how much of your hair was required for that dosage?"

Harry thought for a moment before Lyra provided the answer, "Eleven hairs."

"Well, that simplifies things." Arcturus smiled. "You could make one large batch at a time and control the supply to see how much demand there is. I'll warn you not to tell anyone else that the potion contains your hair. If you need to tell someone, all you should say is it comes from a rare magical creature that belongs to the Potter Family."

Harry would need to speak to Dumbledore or find someone else to introduce him to the cosmetics company. Maybe Professor Snape could help him with that. Thinking of Dumbledore brought his thoughts back to the other things they needed to discuss with Arcturus that Molly Weasley had mentioned.

"One of the other things we wanted to talk about. The mother of the Weasleys had mentioned a Black betrayed my family. Who is he?" Harry asked.

Arcturus sat up straight, "My grandson, Sirius Black III. He was best friends with your father, James Potter. They were friends throughout school and fought together against the Dark Lord Voldemort. However, it turned out that he was a spy for Voldemort and when your parents went into hiding, he gave away their location to Voldemort, which led to their deaths… and to the Dark Lord's." He paused for a moment to watch Harry's reactions. Lyra reached over to hug Harry.

"So that's why Mrs. Weasley doesn't like Lyra? Does she think my sister is going to betray me too? That would never happen," Harry said with certainty. "What happened to Sirius?"

"My grandson tracked down another friend of your father's, a man named Peter Pettigrew, they dueled in the middle of the streets of London before Sirius cast a dark explosive spell that killed Peter and many muggles nearby. He was arrested afterward and now resides in Azkaban, Magical Britain's prison."

Harry's face didn't give away any emotion. He just sat there for a while, thinking, before saying, "Professor Snape said there was a Black in prison who was never getting out. I assume that's him."

Brandt made a face, scrunched up like he was thinking, "Lord Black, you've mentioned Sirius before but I didn't know the details. You're saying a member of an Ancient and Noble House killed a commoner and some muggles, that he didn't use any unforgivable curses and his only other crime was being a Death Eater, correct?"

"Where are you going with this Brandt?" Arcturus queried.

"I know you stayed out of the Death Eater trials to avoid showing favoritism for the other members of House Black on trial but imagine if you killed a random commoner and thirty muggles using no unforgivable curses. How much time would you spend in Azkaban? If you beheaded the Minister of Magic with an axe in his office with a dozen witnesses, how much time for that?"

Lyra looked horrified at the hypotheticals, and Harry too. Arcturus just stared at Brandt with an indecipherable expression.

"Huh." was his only reaction after a minute.

Seeing the children's confusion, Brandt addressed them, "Azkaban Prison is the worst place on earth. Most people would prefer to be dead than be there for more than ten minutes. As a result, most sentences are lighter than you would imagine they would be in any other prison. If your uncle committed the same crimes as his grandson, I imagine he would be there for no more than twenty years, while ten or fifteen is more likely, while employing a good solicitor. The only crimes you would be sentenced to life in Azkaban would be unforgivable curses and very specific dark rituals. So even for the crimes that he committed and the post-war attitude, Sirius Black should not be in Azkaban for life."

Harry thought for a moment, "Brandt, you said Arcturus could send mail to Azkaban back when Draco signed his contract. Can we send something to Sirius? We can ask him, and I want to know why he betrayed my family."

Arcturus answered the question, "I'm noticing that you have an excellent memory, Mr. Potter. I can't send mail to prisoners with life sentences. If they're permanent residents, there's no point in sending mail. Only the Minister, Cornelius Fudge, can arrange communication with them."

Remembering another detail, Harry jumped on it, "Alastor said that Fudge only moves based on who is leading him. That's why we needed you and Dumbledore to help Lyra at her trial. Can't you push him to arrange something?"

The old man chuckled, "I have a better idea. You do it."

"What?!" Harry and Lyra both exclaimed together.

"Exactly what I said. You need to retake some of the political power the Potter family used to have. I can't think of a better way to do that than to intimidate a spineless Minister of Magic. While I am curious about the situation, we can use it as a teaching tool for you. If you're motivated to get answers, then let's do it. I'll inform Severus to take over your last two detentions for your part in the duel with Draco. He is one of the best people I know at both subtle and overt intimidation tactics."

Harry couldn't argue with that. Snape did seem to intimidate pretty much the entire student population. He had also already collected plenty of feathers and other potion ingredients from the owlery and would be back there this afternoon for more. Harry nodded enthusiastically at the change of detention venues.

"Now there was one more thing you wanted to discuss," Arcturus broke Harry out of his thoughts. "You wanted to speak to Dumbledore about the placement with your relatives."

Harry nodded. "Dumbledore isn't Fudge. He won't bow to your wishes and questions with a little push or even big ones. If he hasn't told you about it already, he won't tell you any more than he wants to, if anything at all. I suggest you deal with Minister Fudge first and then figure out how you want to approach the Headmaster later."

Harry was disappointed but understood the reason. He would need to focus on the minister and that assignment before Dumbledore.

After lunch, Jameson showed up to help Lyra with her studies while Harry reported for detention. He had been dreading the return to Filch's office but to his surprise and relief, outside the door were the bucket and tools with a note on the message board

"Harry Potter - Saturday Afternoon Detention, Owlery."

Harry gathered the equipment and made the long trek up to the owlery. It had only been a week but he could barely see the places he had cleaned up the previous week. Enough owls were roosting there that if they wanted it to be totally clean, they would need four or five students cleaning it daily to keep up.

An hour into his work, he took a break to write a letter. He wrote a quick piece to Nestor that he and Lyra would be showing up on December 23rd at some point and if the people in the government wanted to speak to him and Lyra, to give them a week of reunion with their family before arranging a meeting. Just as he was adding a note to McGonagall to have it passed on to the Philippines, he heard footsteps approaching. So he stuffed the papers back in his pocket and got back to work.

"So this is where they put you," Harry looked up to see Draco standing there with his friend Vincent. Hestia and Flora Carrow, twins who had been in Harry's year group, were standing just behind the two boys, looking a bit apprehensive at the undertaking. Draco had two purple dots on his face, one above his right eye, the other below his lip. Harry stood up as tall as he could with his tools in each hand.

Vincent sneered at him, "This is the perfect place for you, cleaning shite off the walls like the son of a mudblood you are."

"So that's how it is?" Harry smiled back, "You can't say your favorite words, so you walk around with proxies to do it for you? Do you have letters to send or did you just come up here to spend time with me?"

Draco tried to look intimidating but it failed to make an impact on Harry. He waited for a few moments for Draco to respond then when nothing happened he went back to scraping the walls, dropping a large amount of owl droppings into the bucket.

"Don't you turn your back on me!" Draco yelled.

"He wants to curse you in your face, squib!" Vincent chimed in.

"Are we doing this again? Fine, take your best shot." Draco hadn't drawn his wand yet, though Vincent looked like he was hiding his in his sleeve. Harry's wand was stuck on his arm and he already had the scraping tool and the bucket in his grasp. He really didn't want to fight Draco again, especially with backup. Half of him wanted to make the damage from the next fight permanent, but he also didn't want to disappoint Newt.

Draco tried to stare down Harry but then reached for his wand in a holster on his arm.

Seeing Draco reach, Harry threw the bucket in his right hand at Draco hitting him square in the chin. The twins screamed and ducked as owl droppings flew everywhere from the bucket. Vincent's wand dropped out of his sleeve into his hand. As he raised it, Harry threw the scraping tool at him, burying the end of it into his shoulder and causing him to drop his wand. Harry kicked him in the stomach so he fell backward down the stairs, then grabbed the boy's fallen wand and threw it out the window by the owl roosts.

The twins had managed to get their wands out, though Draco seemed to be more focused on getting the owl droppings off of him. Harry didn't want to attack the girls, but he drew his wand anyway and ignored them as he walked over to Draco.

"Let me help you with that," pointing his wand at the blonde boy, he incanted, "Scourgify!" A blast of soapy water got rid of the droppings on his face and uniform. Harry then placed his foot on Draco's chest and pointed his wand at the boy's face. "Say the words, Draco."

He stared at the wand pointed at his eyes, then at the Carrow twins who were pointing their wands at Harry but doing nothing else. Back at Harry, he snarled, "I give up."

"Not those words. Call me the son of a mudblood. Call me a squib." Harry pushed his wand into the bridge of Draco's nose.

Draco looked very afraid, but yelled out, "Son of a mudblood! Ahh!" He yelped in pain which seemed to originate in his leg somewhere. Harry still had his wand pointed at the boy, so he yelled out again, "Stupid squib! Aaaah!" That one seemed to have been on his stomach.

Harry reached down and picked up Draco's wand and tossed it out the window as well. Then walked down the steps a bit and yanked the scraping tool out of Vincent's shoulder causing him to regain consciousness and groan. Then he picked up the bucket and went back to where he had been working before.

Looking back at Draco, he just said, "You can leave now," Then he picked up his wand and started casting Scourgify on the places where his bucket had spilled when he threw it at Draco. Draco got up and limped down the stairs to pick up Vincent and pull him away. The twins were still frozen with their wands pointed at him.

Harry smiled at them, "Thank you for not attacking me." He reached into his pouch and pulled out two of the crystalized pineapples that he had taken during his meeting with Lockhart. He tried to hand them to the girls but they were still in shock. Very cautiously, he took out his staff and froze the two candies in the air near the top of the stairs, then stored his staff back in his pouch, and continued to work. Once his back was turned, he heard the girls scamper away and when he looked, he saw they took the candy.

Looking back over the scene, there were still droppings from the spilled bucket. The scraping tool was also covered with Vincent's blood. Using his wand, he cast the blood-vanishing spell until it was all gone, then looked around and made sure there wasn't any on the stairs, then cleaned up the rest of the mess.

He continued to work until the end of his detention time and then cleaned the bucket and the floor as much as possible. As an afterthought to the encounter with Draco, he took the scraping tool and cut his own hand, smearing blood on the metal edge, then cast a scouring charm on it. Heading back to Filch's office, he cast dozens of scouring charms on the floors to clean up bits of gunk he saw in the corners. Other students had been doing the same thing after Lockhart's lesson on the spell and as a result, the castle was a lot cleaner. Harry placed the equipment back in front of the office and went to the infirmary to get his hand looked at.

The healing of the cut on his hand only took a matter of seconds, and he went back to the common room to wait for dinner and do some homework. Shortly before dinner, Newt and Tina entered and approached Harry.

"Mr. Potter, you're going to need to come with us," Newt informed him, he looked very unhappy and a little disappointed.

When he tried to inquire why he was just told that it would have to wait. The three of them walked to Newt's office and upon entering, he saw Professor Snape sitting with Draco and Vincent. Vincent had his shoulder wrapped in numerous bandages and his arm was in a sling. Harry sat in the chair that was set out for him.

"Harry, Draco informs us that you attacked him and his friend," Newt began with a very disappointed look towards Harry.

"I've been in detention all afternoon, cleaning the owlery. The two of them came to insult me while I was working, Draco called me a squib and the son of a mudblood." A look of anger appeared for a second on Snape's face before vanishing as if it was never there. "He didn't seem to care about the pain that the contract he signed gave him and he was stung on his leg and stomach."

"That's a lie!" Draco screeched. "He made me say it!"

Tina turned to Draco, "He made you say it? Please show us your legs and stomach."

"I will not expose myself because some Yank tells me," Draco sneered at her.

"Ten points from Slytherin for your disrespect," Newt informed him angrily, before turning back to Harry, "Mr. Crabbe says you also stabbed him with your cleaning tool and pushed him down the stairs."

Just as he finished the accusation, there was a knock on the door, and Mr. Filch entered carrying Harry's cleaning tools. He passed the scraper to Newt saying, "There's blood on this Mr. Scamander." He gave an evil smile to Harry and went to stand next to the window.

"I cut myself when I was putting the tools away," Harry explained and showed the palm of his hand. There was still a small red line on it. "I went to the infirmary after my detention to get it healed. I tried to use the scouring charm on it, but it didn't get all the blood off."

Snape reached out and took the tool from Newt, "There is a spell I can perform to determine if the blood on the blade here is from you, Mr. Potter." Seeing no reaction from Harry, he held the tool next to Harry's arm and used his wand to draw a circle of red in the air around his arm and the tool. When the circle was complete, it glowed and vanished. "This is your blood, Mr. Potter, though that doesn't mean it is the only blood on it." He went and performed the same charm while using Vincent's arm, though this time the red circle just fell away when complete and didn't glow at all.

"Well, I think that concludes the investigation," Tina announced. "Is there anything else you want to add, Mr. Potter?"

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the remaining vial of the Pinocchio tincture he had left and swallowed it in front of everyone. The taste was just as horrible as before and when he could make a straight face again, he said, "Everything I have told you just now was true."

Everyone looked at his nose, but it stayed the same size.

"No, it's a lie!" Draco screamed, "He threw a bucket at me and threw my wand out the window! Vincent's too!"

Thinking very carefully about what he was saying, Harry responded, "Draco caused my bucket to spill everywhere. I have no idea where their wands are." He really didn't know where they were, they could be anywhere now.

"You didn't verify the potion! That could be anything you just drank!"

Harry just rolled his eyes and said, "Draco Malfoy is my best friend."

Everyone watched as Harry's nose grew a few inches.

"He's a liar, I'm telling the truth! The Carrows were there too, they can verify what I'm saying!" Draco continued to object.

Harry nodded, "They were there, I just didn't want to get them in trouble. They had their wands pointed at me but didn't do anything. After Draco and Vincent left, I thanked them for not attacking me and gave them some pineapple candy."

Harry's nose still didn't change size.

Snape spoke up, "Well, that's enough. Draco, and Vincent, you both will have fifty points taken from Slytherin for both taunting Mr. Potter during his detention and for the fabrication of this story. You both also have the remaining weekend afternoons in the month cleaning the owlery in place of Mr. Potter." Turning to Harry, "I will be taking over your last two detentions and you will be scrubbing cauldrons in my classroom."

He pulled both Vincent and Draco to their feet. Vincent showed no signs of pain in his bandaged shoulder at being handled in such a rough way.

"We will be going back to the common room now where you will need to explain to your classmates how you just lost 110 house points. I will be there with you to make sure you tell the truth," Snape dragged both boys out of the room. Filch took the cleaning equipment and followed after, he looked a little sad.

Once they were gone, Newt sat down next to him, "I'm sorry for suspecting the worst of you Mr. Potter. I will endeavor to believe you in the future."

Harry felt a little bad about deceiving Newt and Tina, but it had to be done. Just then, the potion wore off and his nose shrunk back to its usual size.

"I didn't have a chance to use magic, even to shield. The girls had their wands out but looked scared. I just let them insult me and leave. I was happy the girls didn't attack me, so I gave them some candy I got from Professor Lockhart."

Tina still looked a bit suspicious but said nothing. Newt let him leave and he headed back to the dorm. When he arrived, he found Lyra in a tree and told her everything.

She was furious, "What is his problem? I need to talk to him. If that's what he wants, he's going to get it."

Before Harry could do anything Lyra jumped down from the tree and walked into the upper boys' dorm. Lee was standing there shocked in his underwear, but Lya just walked right by him to Greg at his desk.

"Greg!" she yelled, causing the boy to jump. "I need you to pass a message to Draco. He is to meet Harry and me out in the courtyard after dinner. This is his only chance to speak with me."

Greg jumped up and immediately ran out of the room, presumably to pass on the message. Lyra walked back past Lee who was holding his hands over his body to somehow try to hide that he was half-naked. Harry caught up with her right by the door.

"What did you just do?" Harry asked.

"We're meeting him tonight after dinner. If he has something he wants to say to me, he can do it then."

Harry stared her in the eyes for a few moments, "Fine. I'm sending a letter to Arcturus now to let him know." Lyra started to object but Harry interrupted her, "I'm not stopping you. I will be there and he will get to meet with you, but your uncle needs to know."

Lyra stared back at Harry with the same intensity he was giving her, "Fine, go. I'm going to my room."

Harry ran off to the owlery and scribbled out a note:

Draco tried to attack me again but got himself in trouble instead. Lyra is furious and has arranged a meeting in the courtyard with him for tonight after dinner. I will be there to protect her. Just wanted to inform you beforehand.

-Harry

He stuffed the letter in an envelope and wrote 'Arcturus Black, Black Manor' on the outside, then looked up to the owls roosting. Looking around at all of them, he just asked, "Who's the fastest owl?"

Without hesitation, a great horned owl swooped down to the windowsill in front of him. The owl was mostly an amber color with black spots, and the tufts of feathers on his head were almost golden in color. He was wearing what looked like a leather vest with a brass plate under his chin that read 'Hermes.'

Harry read the plate but didn't know the significance of the name, "That's a nice name, I guess it means you're really fast."

Hermes puffed his chest out to show the pocket on the front of the vest. It seemed a bit small, but the letter was able to fit all the way inside.

Harry made sure Hemes knew the location, "This is going to Black Manor. It needs to get to Brandt or Arcturus Black. Do you know how to get there?" The owl just bobbed his head. "Get back to me by the end of dinner and I'll make sure to give you a treat."

Hermes launched himself from the window and flew out over the grounds. Harry watched him disappear around the side of the castle and into the night before remembering the other letter he needed to send to Nestor.

This time he just asked the owls, "Who wants to visit Professor McGonagall?"

This caused a bit of a scramble for the birds and finally one of them flew around the other competing ones to land on the sill in front of him.

Tying the letter to the owl's leg, Harry instructed the owl, "I know this says 'Nestor Balindong' on the letter, but it goes to Professor McGonagall." The owl nipped his finger playfully and jumped out the window going into a freefall before spreading its wings and soaring around the tower.

When he got back to the common room, it was empty, and he couldn't enter Lyra's room to check on her. So he went to his project room where he found Whispers munching on a raw flobberworm.

"How are you doing, little guy?"

Whispers scampered over to the fertilizer bin and pulled out another flobberworm, "Gooood bugs… yooo brin hom."

Harry took the flobberworm from him and tossed it back in the bin. "Good idea, I bet the others would love them too." He would need to ask Newt about bringing flobberworms to the island. They could build their own bins for making fertilizer there.

When it was time for dinner, Harry waited in the common room for Lyra to come out and they walked together to the great hall. When they entered, quite a few people hushed up quickly as they entered. As they sat down, Greg joined them immediately, sitting on Lyra's right side.

"I delivered the message, he'll be there after dinner," Greg started to play with the mashed potatoes in front of him but wasn't eating. He just fidgeted and glanced around the room.

Harry and Lyra were on edge as well, but not nervous. They both ate a full meal, but when it came time for dessert, they motioned for Greg who joined them to walk out of the hall, quite a few people stared after them. The three of them walked past the common room and out into the courtyard. A few people were standing out there already, all of them turning to the three Scamanders as they walked out to the center of the area.

Lyra started to stand behind Harry but he quickly pushed her forward, "This is your meeting. I will protect you but you're not going to hide behind me."

"I'll be here too," Greg said with slight hesitation. So the three of them stood in the middle of the courtyard, with Harry to Lyra's left and Greg to her right.

Quite a few other students came out to watch, as word had spread quite quickly, and after they had been there for five minutes, Hermes swooped down into the courtyard and landed on Harry's shoulders, his talons poking Harry just a little, but not drawing blood.

"Hey Hermes, I'll meet you in the Great Hall later to give you your treat." The owl took off towards the castle. Speaking to Lyra and Greg, "He just got back from delivering the notice to Arcturus."

Even though she hadn't wanted to send the letter, she still looked a little relieved. A moment later, Draco, Vincent, and the Carrow twins came into the courtyard. There was quite a crowd from all the houses gathered around the walls of the area. Harry even spotted Hermione crowded among some other Ravenclaws. The four of them walked up to Lyra, Draco had a triumphant smile on his face, as if he had just won something. Vincent was practicing his usual sneer, and the Carrow girls were trying to look scary but they were definitely frightened.

"Can we not do this in such a public place?" Draco asked.

Lyra looked back towards Harry and after exchanging a look they both pulled out their staves. All of the observing students took a collective breath in. Draco and the Slytherins looked afraid but didn't dare back down. Harry pulled a black and orange feather out of his pouch and threw it straight into the ground between them. Then he and Lyra pointed their staves at the feather and concentrated on their respective magics. From Lyra's staff came a rush of shadows that poured out the top of her staff into the feather on the ground, it pulsed and created a dark cloud that surrounded the two groups of students. From Harry's staff, a beam of light hit the feather, creating a dome of black clouds inside the circle and illuminating Draco and Lyra's groups.

The Carrow twins started to panic and tried to run out of the circle only to run into the shadow black wall around them. Vincent looked a bit afraid, but kept his cool, simply walking to the edge of the circle and knocking on the side. Draco had the same look as his friend which alternated between anger and fear. Greg was also scared, but he just took two steps closer to Lyra.

"You have your privacy Draco, what do you want?" Lyra demanded.

"I want to take you home, what else could I want? You don't have to live with Potter or blood traitors. You're a Malfoy, like me. I'm your brother, not him. I should be the one protecting you!" Draco yelled at her.

Harry stared at Draco, was he that stupid? The answer, of course, was 'yes, yes he was.' Lyra seemed to be thinking the same thing and just stared at him, her mouth slightly open in disbelief. Suddenly there was a series of loud thumps from the outside of their dome. All of them looked around but couldn't see out anyways. There were a couple of knocks from outside, but then nothing.

"You've never protected me before. Why now? Because I have magic, right?" Not giving him a chance to answer, "Before I was just a squib, not worth protecting, right? And now that I have magic, you're the one who needs to protect me? Do I look like I need protection?"

Lyra waved her staff and fire spewed out the bottom and into the dome of shadows surrounding them. The fire swirled and mixed with the shadows creating a vortex of shadow and flame. The Carrow twins curled up on the floor next to each other and started crying. Vincent started pounding on the walls to get out but burnt his hand on the fire.

Draco looked terrified. Lyra marched right up to him as her hair burst into flame, "Tell me, what do I need protection from? Why do you get to make any decisions for me? Harry will protect me if I need it. Greg will protect me if I need it. You will go back to your bedroom and cry yourself to sleep."

With her piece said, Lyra looked back to Harry and nodded. They both raised their staves and slammed them into the ground. Harry's bubble vanished while the fire and shadow dispersed like smoke. Lyra extinguished her hair a second later. Looking around them, there were nearly a hundred other students along the walls of the courtyard, though right outside, where the bubble had been, were Arcturus, Augustus, and Greg Goyle Sr., all mounted on top of thestrals.

As soon as the bubble vanished and the thestrals saw Harry, they started to rear up on their back legs. Handling them like experts, the three adults pulled them by their reins away from the children and towards the walls of the courtyard, scattering a group of Hufflepuffs that had been standing there. Arcturus dismounted and marched over to them. Harry could feel the pressure coming off him as he walked straight up to Draco and backhanded the boy across the face, sending him crashing to the ground, and the slap echoing through the courtyard. Vincent turned and ran as fast as his legs would take him back into the castle.

Turning back towards the castle entrance, Arcturus called out, "Severus, come get the boy and take him back to his room."

Professor Snape crossed the distance quickly, grabbed Draco by the robes, pulled him to his feet, and then back into the castle. The Carrow girls were still crying on the ground. Greg approached them slowly and tried to comfort them.

Arcturus turned back to Lyra and Harry and asked, "Did you hurt any of them?" Lyra shook her head. "Then I will see you tomorrow when Augustus returns for your lessons." With that, he mounted his thestral again and the three of them leaped into the sky, flying off into the distance.

Harry and Lyra approached Greg with the twins. Harry passed a couple more of the pineapple candies to Greg who gave them to the girls. They ate them and slowly allowed Greg to walk them back to the castle. Harry and Lyra went straight to their common room, all of the watching students giving them a wide berth.

A few of their classmates met them back in the common room, Newt and Tina among them.

"I need to know what just happened," Newt addressed Lyra.

"Draco has been wanting to speak to me since school began, I didn't want to. Harry went in my place the first time and told Draco that if he wanted to speak to me, Harry would need to agree to it. So Draco has been after him to get permission, I guess. After what happened today, I got fed up and wanted to confront him. We didn't hurt him, but I think he finally realized that I don't need or want him in my life."

"What was that magic you used to make the bubble?" Newt asked.

"It came from our staves," Lyra supplied. "Mine has magic to hide, while Harry's has magic to protect. In the potions club, we use the same spells to guard our project table. When I was mad at Draco, the fire just kind of got mixed in."

"But no one was hurt?" Newt asked again.

"I think Vincent burnt his hand pounding on the side," Harry interjected.

"That was his own fault then, not yours," Tina defended them. "Though the two girls looked terrified, I suggest you apologize to them to avoid making new enemies."

Lyra and Harry nodded, and Newt and Tina let them speak to their classmates. A lot of them had similar questions, which they answered. After many of them had left, Arthur and Luna came to them as well. Arthur had been holding Whispers, but he was getting too big to hold by him as well. When they got close, the Hidden jumped from his arms to Harry, who swung him onto his back. Luna passed Lyra a chunk of mango to eat as the two girls walked back to their dorm.

As they walked away, Harry could hear Luna telling his sister, "Don't worry, Draco is no dragon, fire cannot hurt a dragon."

The next day, there were a lot of whispers around Harry, Lyra, and Greg as they ate breakfast, but no one approached them. Draco was not looking in their direction at all during breakfast as he usually did from time to time, and there was a large red bruise on the side of his face where Arcturus had struck him. Halfway through their meal, Hermes landed on Harry's shoulder and gave him a nip on the ear. Remembering his promise, Harry loaded up a plate of bacon and sausage and let the bird eat its fill

When they were done eating, they returned to the common room to find Arcturus, Brandt, and Augustus waiting for them. Before they went inside, Arcturus passed a note to Greg saying it was from his father. He read it and smiled before putting it in his pocket. When they entered the dueling room, Arcturus and Brandt sat to the side while Augustus took over.

"First I'd like to work with Greg, step onto the platform, please." Greg hesitantly stepped over the trench around the dueling area and drew his wand. "You won't be needing your wand right now. I've been told that your family has a great history of strength in your blood. I'm going to cast a spell at you, and I just want you to use your willpower to resist it." Greg looked scared and turned to Harry who just made a fist and punched himself in the shoulder and nodded.

With the boost of confidence from Harry, Greg gave himself a small punch on the shoulder before turning back to Augustus and putting his wand back in his pocket.

"Let's start with something simple. Somnium!" He cast a small wisp of red light at the boy in front of him. Greg panicked and put his arms in front of his face as the spell impacted him. He swayed on his feet a bit and fell to his knees, before falling to the side and unconscious.

"Rennervate!" Augustus sent another blue spell at Greg which had him jump to his feet as if he had just been splashed with cold water.

"You need to focus on standing strong against the spell, don't panic, it won't hurt you. Do not try to shield yourself with your arms, it is your willpower that will protect you." Augustus told him.

Greg looked back at Harry who just gritted his teeth and gave him a strong look. Greg turned back to his teacher and also gritted his teeth. The next time when the red spell hit him, he shook a bit and fell to his knees but was able to catch himself with his arms before he fell over completely.

"Good! Good! Go to Brandt now, he's going to take you to Harry's project room to continue working with you and check your resistance to other spells." Harry met Greg as he was exiting the platform and patted him on the shoulder before he headed out.

Augustus called Harry to step up next, "Have you attempted to cast the same spells with your wand that you can with your staff?"

Harry nodded, "The shield is a lot smaller, but I can get quicker cast times for the air gusts from the wand."

"It's not air or wind that you're channeling," he told Harry, "it is magic, just a very primal force of magic. It is like the base of a potion, and eventually, you may be able to mix other elements in, but for now, it's just a punch of magic. Go ahead and throw some of them at me, don't worry about injuring me, if I get hurt it will be my fault, not yours." Then he shot off a small spell at the obelisk to the side and activated the wards.

Harry pulled his wand from where it was stuck to his forearm and took a second and a half to cast a small punch of magic at his teacher. It flew quickly, but the man just reached out and caught it with his bare hand. He held it for a second before releasing it and causing it to fly out into the wards. He shook his hand a bit after.

"Nice, that had a bit of power to it, do some more."

Fully understanding that it wasn't going to hurt the man, Harry started casting many more at him. Most of them he dodged, some he caught and threw away, and a few he didn't dodge at all and let them hit his chest, occasionally staggering a bit at the shock.

When Harry slowed down, he raised his hands for Harry to stop. "Good, now show me the strongest you can manage, take all the time you need to channel the magic."

Harry nodded and pointed his wand forward, placing both hands together while he focused, Augustus cast some kind of shimmering spell on himself and then a yellow shield over both his hands, then stashed his wand. Harry continued to channel his magic until he felt something click and then he launched the projectile at his teacher.

Augustus braced himself for the impact and put his yellow glowing hands out to catch the spell. The spell got caught in his hands and he struggled for about three seconds to control the ball of magic before he threw it upwards, where it dissipated on the dueling wards. Harry was shocked by the man's power to just play with his magic like a football and just smile afterward.

"Excellent, that was impressive. For your offensive practice, I would like you to come to the dueling ring as often as possible and practice two things. The first is to continue to work on making the shots from your wand as quick and powerful as possible. The second is to work on channeling your magic while moving."

"I need a perfect or an adult with me in the room to use the dueling room, so it's hard to arrange times when it's not the weekend."

Arcturus spoke up from where he was sitting with Lyra, "Ask Mr. Scamander to get prefects from the other houses to help. It would allow them to use your dueling room for their houses and spread to other houses that you are getting lessons in dueling and you are not to be thought of as soft targets."

"Moving on to defensive lessons, let's see your shield with your wand."

Harry pulled his wand and focused on the same shield as he would perform with his staff. Instead of a bubble all around him, the transparent white shield was just created as a curved wall that stopped about two feet in all directions from the tip of his wand. It was nearly a solid white right at the tip.

"Good, I'm going to cast a few spells at your shield now."

Without waiting, Augustus threw a few colored spells toward Harry, all of them disappearing like smoke as they hit the shield. One yellow spell went under the shield and tagged him in the foot, causing him to yell and the shield winked out.

"You need to watch the path of the spells and move your shield to match them. I'm going to start again."

As soon as Harry's shield was up, a tiny bolt of lightning was thrown at the shield. It hit right at Harry's wand tip where it glowed for a second before arcing to the sides and getting absorbed into the sides of the shield. Nodding a bit, he shot a stream of water at the same point in the shield causing it to be diverted to the side, but the shield did not diminish at the impact. Then he tried fire which quickly drained the power in the shield but Augustus stopped the spell before the shield collapsed.

"Take a quick break and take out your staff." Harry complied. "I'm going to cast the fire spell at you again but this time, I want you to point your staff toward the spell. Try to keep me from focusing the spell at the tip of your staff. Move it around like you're stirring a potion."

When Harry was ready, he tapped his staff on the ground and the bubble formed, but then he tilted his staff forward, causing the bubble to shift forward with the denser side of it facing forward rather than right over his head, it was like watching an eyeball change the direction it was looking. This time when the dueling champion cast the fire spell, Harry kept the tip of the staff moving, constantly shifting the center of the shield. As a result, he found that he didn't feel the drain on the shield, as he had before. The drain of using his magic was still there and eventually, it started to collapse. When Augustus noticed the shield failing, he cut off the flame.

"The fire spell seems to drain your shield quickly when the focus is in direct opposition. By keeping it moving, you are preventing the drain. Hopefully, by using this method, you'll exhaust your opponent or make them change tactics. For lightning, keep the center of your shield focused on the spell as your magic seems to work well to counter it. Now I want you to hold your shield at your feet, and make it as strong as possible."

Harry pointed the shield down, so now the weakest area was at his head. Agustus nearly jabbed his wand into the ground and a series of spikes shot up from the ground underneath Harry. All of them that were closest to his feet splintered off and shattered to the floor, but the rest broke through and encased him in a prison of earth.

Lyra jumped up and called out, "Harry!"

Augustus canceled the spell and the spikes turned to dust, "He's fine, Miss Black. Harry, see how the focus of your spell protected you, but it broke on the sides? Earth and Water spells will often target your feet, that is where you need to focus the strength of your shield. Work on that with your wand as well. Go ahead and take a seat, I'll work with your sister now."

Arcturus canceled the dueling wards and Harry switched places with Lyra. When she entered, Augustus tossed another spell toward the obelisk, activating the wards again.

"I had an idea about your magic I want to try out. I heard you cast an interesting kind of warming charm when you first arrived in England which covered the entire floor of a room, can you do it again here?"

Lyra pulled out her staff and lightly tapped the dueling platform, an orange light spreading in all directions until it covered the floor. Augustus slipped off a shoe and tapped it with his toes before putting the shoe back on.

"Interesting, can you make it hotter? Do it as hot as you can without hurting your own feet." He cast a few charms onto his shoes and waited.

Lyra focused for a few moments before slamming the staff into the ground. A darker orange spread across the platform and heat could be seen rising off the surface. Lyra didn't seem affected as smoke started to come off of Augustus's shoes. After half a minute, he shot a spell at the blue corner of the platform causing water to rush across the floor. Lyra continued to concentrate until steam started to rise from the water and it began to bubble.

Augustus surveyed the reaction and pointed his wand into the water and incanted, "Glacius!" The water at the tip of his wand instantly froze and spread to the corners of the platform. Lyra's feet froze in place, and the ice cracked near her before she lifted her staff, exhausted from the effort.

"Good job, that will be an interesting spell for a large area of effect. I know your wand is of a different firebird, but try to replicate it anyways, you might get a similar effect. Try also to do it while moving around or without striking the ground. Let's see that obscuring spell now with the black fur."

Lyra held her staff at an angle now the black fur started to move with an unseen wind. Arcturus threw a few spells at her which all missed. Focusing his eyes, he threw a purple spell at her which hit dead center on her chest, splattering purple paint on her robes. Not receiving the command to stop, she continued to focus harder, the fur on the staff moving even more now. This time, Augustus pointed the wand at his own head and cast a spell, then closed his eyes. He shot three of the purple spells at her, all impacted her chest and splashed the paint on her again. Then he lowered his wand and instructed Lyra to do the same.

"So the spell you are using now causes a person to lose the visual focus they have on your position. By ignoring what my eyes are telling me about where you are, I can hit you. By not using my eyes at all, I can also beat the effect. You should practice maintaining the effect while moving and also maintaining it while firing your own spells back which would allow an opponent no time to focus on ignoring the effect." The purple paint had started to vanish as he spoke.

"Now we'll move on to your fire. I already know how powerful it is, now I want you to work on precision. We are going to learn the candle-conjuring spell first. The wand motion is a continuous upward movement, slowly but with a flick at the end. It should be as long as you want your candle to be. The incantation is 'lucernascirsa,' lu-cern-ascir-sa. The 'sa' at the end should coincide with your flick."

He performed the summoning, producing a blue candle with a black wick about six inches tall. "It will be a bit difficult for you since it is a third-year spell, but you should be able to perform it with your wand."

For the next twenty minutes, they worked on the spell. Harry munched on a dried mango-flavored flobberworm. He offered one to Arcturus who accepted it and didn't seem grossed out by the flavor. Finally, Lyra got the spell. Harry had been practicing as well on the bench next to him and had been able to get a puddle of wax as a result.

"Practice your spell as often as you can. Eventually, you should be able to create multiple candles at once, like this." He waved his wand and conjured an entire field of candles, equally spaced at the center of every tile of the dueling platform in multiple colors. Then he vanished all but nine of them in a square.

"Once you manage to conjure this many candles, I want you to work on lighting individual candles with fire, from a distance of ten feet. The wand-extinguishing spell, 'Nox,' will also work on candles and other sources of localized light. So light the candles individually, then extinguish them and repeat. You can practice this as well during your tutoring sessions with the Irish boy you meet with on Mondays."

They ended the lesson there and went to lunch. Arcturus and Augustus sat with Dumbledore and had what looked like an intense conversation with him while they ate. A lot of other students looked like they wanted to speak with Harry and Lyra about their lessons, but were still a bit intimidated by him from the previous evening. Greg joined them halfway through the meal looking like he had run a marathon and hungrily dug into all the food in front of him.

After lunch, Harry headed down to the potions classroom for his next detention with Professor Snape. He passed by Filch's office on the way to see the message board showing the owlery detention changed to Vincent and Draco's names. After knocking on the door to the potions room, Snape opened it and allowed him in.

"Sit," Snape commanded him

There was a small wooden stool with three legs in front of the teacher's desk, one of the legs was shorter than the others which caused him to be a bit uncomfortable with his balance on it.

"You will tell me everything that happened between you and Draco yesterday as I know what you said in the office was only half the story. It was a truthful half, sure, but not the whole story."

Harry revealed the whole story to Snape, including throwing the bucket at Draco and vanishing the blood from the tool before putting his own on it, plus throwing the wands out the window.

Snape listened to the whole story and frowned, "First, why did you tell all of that to me just now?"

Harry looked confused, "Because you asked me to."

Snape shook his head, "I understand I asked you to, but what benefit did you get from telling me? You had already had control of the narrative last night. No one knew the full truth, there was no benefit in telling me."

"But you asked!" Harry argued. "If someone else had asked me, I wouldn't have said anything, but you did. Do I need to go back to cleaning the owlery now?"

Snape gave Harry a hard glare, "No, you will not. You need to learn to keep your secrets to yourself, even from me, when there is nothing to gain from telling. Arcturus seems to think you stand a chance at being intimidating and wants me to teach you some of the basic points of it. I personally think Lyra is much more frightening, but she is not one for subtlety, she is almost a Gryffindor in her approach, just burning things to the ground around her with threats like the one she gave Petunia. Now you might learn to be more subtle, you've seen how I affect other students, tell me what in this room helps me do that."

Harry looked around the room and strained his eyes looking for scary things. There were numerous jars of preserved potion ingredients around the room. Though upon closer examination, the ones that could be more easily identified as body parts or entire bodies of animals were closer to the teacher's desk. There were also sharper or larger preparation tools on display closer to the front of the room as well. The desk itself was on a raised platform that could allow Snape to observe the classroom easier, but also made the teacher appear larger to the students. Harry rocked back and forth on his stool before he thought that his comfort on the stool was probably also something.

He communicated all of that to Snape who nodded with a small grin, "There are a few other things as well, such as the exit to the room is closer to my desk than the back of the room. So anyone who wants to get out has to walk by me instead of fleeing out the back of the room. People also won't be intimidated by you if you haven't actually done anything intimidating. You've supposedly defeated a Dark Lord, but nothing else recently. Last night's display will have far-reaching effects, but you shouldn't rely on them as well. You should try to occasionally spread the news of your achievements, though make sure if a story about you isn't true that you never, ever, fully commit to the lie. Do you have any questions?"

Harry nodded, "How could I intimidate a politician?"

Snape gave him a strange look, "So that's what Arcturus wants you to do? Intimidate politicians? I assume he has a purpose for that, what is it?"

Harry was about to answer, but then thought back to when he had arrived and responded, "I don't know myself, he just thought it would be a good idea for me to learn."

Snape smiled, "I'm sure you're pleased to know that you're not a very good liar. If you're going to be intimidating politicians, you'll need to learn to get close enough to intimidate them. You need to get them to lower their guard before you threaten them. Every one of them has something they desperately want. Your first job is to find out what these things are. The second thing is to let them know you have what they want. Finally, you can either give it to them or withhold it from them to achieve your own goals. Do you have any other questions?"

"So it's like fishing?" Harry asked.

"In the most basic of possible ways, yes," Snape told Harry, making it clear that it was much more complicated than fishing.

"Can you teach me how to do that pressure thing that Dumbledore and Arcturus can do?" Harry asked. "When they get angry it's like the air around them trembles a bit. When Dumbledore introduced me to the Flamels, that feeling was around them all the time."

"It takes an extreme amount of power for others to feel something like that, and normally, only older wizards can perform it consciously. However, I did notice a tiny amount of that pressure when you threatened Arcturus the first time, and when Lyra was threatening Petunia. It may take you many years to master but if you focus on what you were feeling at the time, and practice, who knows what you might accomplish. You will need to involve someone else in your practice though as you won't be able to feel your own power for a very long time."

"Moving back to politicians, or leaders of any kind, the best way to turn their power on them is to exchange seats with them. I'm going to assume that you will be back here for many more detentions in your time at Hogwarts, so my continuing assignment for you is to get into a position where you will sit at my desk, while I sit on the stool in front of it. Though you will probably be able to switch seats with the Minister of Magic before you accomplish the task with me." Snape observed the twitch in Harry's eye when he mentioned the minister.

Professor Snape continued giving Harry advice on intimidation tactics and eventually ended the detention by having him actually scrub out two large cauldrons, while he gave a quick lesson, "You will learn as time goes on which potions you can use different cleaning charms on. Though most will need to be done by hand with a dragon hairbrush. Sometimes the magic in a scouring charm or another cleaning charm will react badly with the potion's residue and create a worse reaction. Go ahead and finish these two cauldrons and then I need you to talk to my snakes again before going back to your dorm."

Harry entered Snape's office and approached the larger snake he had spoken to before in its terrarium,

§Good evening, lesser snake§

It responded,

§Good evening, lordling§

There was no fighting in the snake's voice, but he asked anyway,

§Are you providing the man with your venom?§

§Is he rewarding you with food?§

§Are you telling the other snakes to obey him as well?§

The snake answered, 'Yes, commander,' to all the questions

To Professor Snape, "He is subdued fully. Make sure you continue to feed him and give him extra very sparsely to make sure he doesn't get greedy."

"Thank you, Harry, you have made my job much easier. I'd give you points, but you're supposed to be here for detention."

Harry thought he'd try a bit of intimidation, so he whispered to the snake, who climbed up his arm out of the tank to the point where he was looking the serpent in the eye. Then he turned back to his teacher, with the snake matching his gaze, and said, "You're right, though there is no reason you couldn't give me the points later during class." He stroked the snake's head and it hissed at Snape.

Snape felt a tingle in his spine as he was reminded of the Dark Lord with his familiar but played it off by chuckling, "I guess so, there is no reason I couldn't do it then. Please return my snake and go back to your dormitory."

Harry returned the snake and smiled as he headed back to his room.

Author's Note: I wanted to make it clear that Harry and Lyra have some specific power, but it's not all-powerful. They are more used to using their magic and are stronger than other children their age, but when faced with an adult, they would be swatted down like flies. A lot of Lyra's confrontation with Draco was theatrical to scare him.

Oh, and I had a fun thought while writing that scene, for Lyra… shadow and flame… could prove interesting later.