Author's Notes: Hello boys and girls, The Rotten Writer, here again with another little update just to hopefully round off the term and move things along. Not a big update but there's some moving along of the story and that'll get us to where we need to be to really advance things.

In other news, I have someone helping with Beta work for the first time. So everyone give a big thanks to Rhys Thornbery for his awesome work in helping me out with this. Should make for some more concise and better reading overall.

Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter or anything related to the franchise… whew!

And we're off! Here be Chapter 36 of Soul Scars

Soul Scars Part Three

The Greengrass Problem

By,

Rtnwriter

Glowing green eyes met steady, vibrant blue with a far less even gaze. Deep blue, ice blue, and cinnamon brown darted back and forth from one still figure to the other, worry clear in all three gazes.

On a bed nearby, Neville snored, quietly.

Harry started to fidget under the weight of his guardian's gaze, while Amelia sat perfectly still, only blinking occasionally. Ten minutes ago, Harry woke to, once again, find himself in the Hospital Wing, the rest of his friends occupying beds of their own with Amelia sitting in a chair next to him. Five minutes after opening his eyes, he found himself embroiled in a silent battle of wills against Amelia.

Finally, after minutes of staring, he was the first to break, and looked down at his hands where they were twisted in his lap.

"Do you understand the position you've put me in?" she asked, eventually, the first words spoken between them since he woke and he shrugged.

"Ummm… not… not really?" he admitted, uneasily.

"If this had been a normal investigation, what you did would, almost certainly, be considered interfering in an Auror investigation, aiding and abetting a known fugitive, with the possibility of you even being charged as an accomplice," she ground out, ignoring his wide eyed sputtering protests. "The only thing saving you right now is that fact that, officially, there was no investigation ongoing, and the fact that I know that Sirius never had a trial in the first place."

"What about the fact that he's probably innocent?" he finally got out.

"Completely unimportant at present, since the lack of a trial makes his innocence or guilt a moot point. That makes the Ministry, technically, guilty of kidnapping, illegal detention and a host of other charges and puts Fudge, in particular, on the hook. His 'kiss on sight' order could become attempted murder charges, if it's shown he knew about the lack of a trial, and, if Malfoy Senior had any part in that decision, he could be looking at attempted line theft."

Harry had been about to speak but closed his mouth, confusion written on his face.

"Narcissa Malfoy was born Narcissa Black, she's Sirius' cousin. If Black dies without an heir, and as a wanted criminal, then it doesn't matter if he's designated an heir in his will, Draco Malfoy will become the next Lord Black as the closest living male relative," she explained. "The Black fortune is said to be extensive, and I see that as plenty of motive for Lucius to try to engineer Sirius' death. Don't you?"

"None of this really matters, though, to you and this mess we find ourselves in. I'm still trying to decide what to do about your blatant obstruction." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment, hoping to relieve some of the headache she'd developed in the last couple of hours. "Do you not trust me, Harry?" she finally asked, a note of hurt entering her voice, and he jerked in his bed as if she'd reached out and slapped him across the cheek.

"No!" he blurted out. "No, I do. You've been awesome, Amy. You've been more honest with me than almost anyone. Really!"

"Then why? Why couldn't you trust me to handle this? Why couldn't you trust that I was doing my best?"

There was no stopping his shameful squirming or the guilt that gnawed at him over that.

"I don't know," he mumbled. "It isn't that I don't trust you, it's just… I… I can't just sit back and not do something. This all affects me, at least indirectly, and Black… he probably has answers to questions I have. I need to talk to him. You're about one of the only adults that's ever been really honest with me, and I know you're trying, but am I supposed to just sit aside, like a good boy, and do nothing if there's something I could be doing to help?"

His expression was pleading, begging her to understand, and understand, she did. It was the same mindset that plagued her, the inability to sit idly. Harry and Amelia were both people that would always prefer action over words. At times, however, the desire for action needed to be curbed, a lesson that had been slow and painful for her, but one she had long ago taken to heart. Sometimes you needed to let the experts handle things.

She let out an explosive sigh and leaned back in her seat, considering him seriously as he squirmed again under her accessing gaze..

"Dammit, kid, you're gonna be the death of me, I swear." She grumbled, studying him carefully for several moments before sighing again. "All right, here's what we're gonna do. I want to see all O's on your end of term tests, EE would be acceptable for your problem subjects so History and Arithmancy, and when you all come home for the Christmas break, you're grounded. And I mean that literally, I'll be holding onto your broom until you come back to school, understand?"

Harry winced, but agreed, thinking that it easily could have been worse.

"There will also be no visiting your friends over the break. They can come to the Boneyard now and then, but consider yourself on House Arrest for the duration of the break."

That, Harry felt, could be a severe issue, and his eyes shot in Daphne's direction for a moment.

"Uhhh…" he mumbled, to Amelia's confusion.

"Amelia?" Daphne asked. "Could you place a privacy ward or somehow prevent me from being able to hear you? I think Harry and the others have something important to tell you and I can't know about it."

"Ohhh boy… this had better be good," Amelia muttered. A minute later privacy screens had been pulled around Harry's bed, leaving enough room behind them for Amelia, Susan, and Hermione to sit, and she'd hit those screens with all the privacy and silencing charms she thought necessary. "Okay, spill," she ordered after they were all seated.

"Lord Greengrass has decided that he'll be signing a betrothal contract for Daphne to the Malfoy's on Christmas Eve. Draco already told her and I was able to confirm it. I've already set up a meeting for that day as an 'interested party'."

"You're going to make a counteroffer?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said, hedging his way around the question.

"Harry, don't you think it's past time to ask for a little more help?" Hermione cut in. "The three of us, Neville, and Blaise can only do so much. Amy might have some incite to offer."

"I get why you wouldn't just come to me, really," Amelia offered as Harry looked unsure of the suggestion. "No interference in House Business means I wouldn't have been able to directly do anything about the situation. But Hermione is right in that I might at least be able to offer some advice on this plan of yours. It's fairly obvious that you have one."

With occasional input from Susan and Hermione, Harry laid out the plan they'd worked out based on his initial idea, and by the time he'd finished talking, Amelia's eyebrows had disappeared behind her bangs.

"That's… that has got to be one of the more audacious plans I've ever heard of," she admitted after a few minutes. "A mixture of Slytherin cunning and Gryffindor brashness, no doubt."

"But will it work?" Harry asked.

She frowned at that, pinching her bottom lip together as she thought it over. "It might," she finally decided. "Timing and misdirection will be critical. And if it does, you realize you're going to make yourself a powerful enemy, right?"

"An enemy with most of his teeth pulled," Hermione pointed out.

"Greengrass won't be completely without power, though," Amelia disagreed. "And if he figures it out, he'll be absolutely furious. But it's House Business, so I have no legal leg to stand on and try to tell you not to do it, just… be careful. If this big plan of yours doesn't work, though, do you have a backup plan?"

Harry made a face at that but nodded. "I've already had a contract drawn up as a counteroffer to the Malfoy contract. It's got as many escape clauses and fair treatment clauses as I could think of, and even a few that the goblins added in after I explained to Sharpshard what I wanted."

"And the Bride Price? You know you'll have to outbid Malfoy."

He hesitated, but eventually just said it. "One-hundred-thousand Galleons."

"Holy fu-"

"Amy!"

They ignored Hermione's outburst as Susan started coughing, having accidentally inhaled some of her own spit in her surprise and Amelia just stared, dumbstruck, at a confused Harry.

"Uh… is that not enough, do you think?" he asked, concerned.

"Not eno- not enough!? Harry, the highest Bride Price ever paid was fifty-thousand Galleons, and that bride was a princess. The groom was a prince from another country that had been barely avoiding war with the brides. That whole thing made the two countries allies, avoided a bloody, protracted conflict, and that's why it was such a high amount."

"I don't care about the money. I just wanted to make sure that Malfoy didn't offer more than I did. And you're right, if the first plan doesn't work, Greengrass is gonna be pissed, so I figured I'd offer him a price too high for him to be willing to turn down just to spite me."

"Well… okay, I can understand that, but still, one-hundred-"

"That was the combined total interest for the Potter Family Vault last year," Harry interrupted in a cold tone. "It is, literally, no actual loss from the main body of my fortune to offer, and if needed, I'd empty the entire vault if that's what it took. Daphne, Hermione, or Susan, they're all worth it if that's what it came to."

Amelia nodded, slowly. "I didn't mean to imply that Daphne wasn't worth that kind of money, or more," she said. "It was just a surprise."

Harry nodded in acceptance while Amelia got her thoughts back on track.

"Well, as backup plans go, that's a great one. Why not just start with that?"

"Because it benefits Lord Greengrass. If my first plan works, it saves Daphne, and cuts her father off at the knees. If I can do that and avoid giving him any more wealth than he already has, then I'm going to do it. The contract is only in case he finds some way to counter my first plan."

"All right. I take it House Duty is why Daphne is being kept out of the loop?"

"Exactly," Susan told her, recovered from her coughing fit. "We didn't want to put her in a position where she was stuck between loyalties."

"Smart move. Okay, you're under House Arrest, except for any House Business situations that need to be taken care of outside the manor."

Harry nodded again, and leaned back in his bed, relaxing for the first time since he woke.

"Can we bring Daphne back into the conversation now?" Amelia asked and with the kid's agreement, she dispelled the charms and sent the privacy screens packing with a few flicks of her wand. As soon as the charms fell, they could make out a few voices, pitched low in conversation, and once the screens were out of the way they spotted Shacklebolt and Tonks, once again in the young form they first saw her in earlier, sitting around Daphne's bed, talking to her.

"Oi, Potter," Tonks called out when they noticed the screens moving away. "Repeat that name you called me again and I won't be held responsible for how many days you end up spending in here."

Amelia glared at the metamorph. "Auror Junior Grade Tonks, please do not threaten my ward, at least not in my presence," she barked out and Tonks cringed but mumbled an apology. Amelia just rolled her eyes and turned her back on the other witch, who started drawing her finger across her throat while glaring at Harry over the Director's shoulder. "I can see you, Tonks," Amelia said in a long suffering kind of tone. Tonks let out an 'eep' and quickly sat on her hands, her face flaming a completely inhuman red as the kids chuckled quietly over her predicament.

"So, we skipped the usual, 'what happened' part of waking up in here," Harry pointed out once people had rearranged themselves. Hermione moved back to her bed on his right side with Susan taking the bed to his left, Daphne one bed further down on Susan's left. Amelia sat in a chair between Harry's and Hermione's beds, facing toward the two of them while Tonks took a seat at the foot of Susan's with Tonks in between Harry's and Susan's beds, keeping everyone as close together but with the girls in their beds. Amelia had insisted after their brief conference since she was reasonably certain that Madam Pomfrey would skin her alive if she let any of them stray from their beds for long without the Mediwitch's approval.

"Nothing much to tell," Tonks said with a shrug. "You kids were walking toward us when those Dementors swooped in. We started running and got off our Patronuses but all of you were down and out before we got there. No one was seriously hurt, according to Poppy, but she'll probably keep you all in here overnight anyway."

"What's up with the look?" Harry asked, glancing over at Tonks in her young guise.

"That is where I'm going to need you five to help," Amelia admitted with a look toward Neville who was still snoring.

"Should we wake him?"

"No, let him sleep, Shack. These four can fill him in later."

"So what's going on, Amelia?" Hermione asked.

"With Black getting onto the grounds and in the castle I want a presence here that isn't Dementors or people actively trying to kill him. So I'm going to be assigning Shack here as an onsite Auror for security purposes. Black has shown that he's trying to get into the Gryffindor dorms, and I'd already decided to assign Tonks as an undercover. She'll be posing as a third year student and I'm hoping that you all will allow her to join your group of friends."

The four of them exchanged a look and shrugged, nearly in unison.

"Works for us, I guess. So who is she supposed to be?"

Tonks stood and moved a little closer, her hands clasped in front of her and in Harry's eyes, she seemed to undergo a complete shift that momentarily made him forget that he already knew the girl in front of him and felt as if he was suddenly meeting a stranger for the first time. When she spoke, even her voice was different, deeper than her usual speaking tone and without the rough edges that usually colored her vocabulary.

"Hello," she said. "My name is Cedrella Black, it is a pleasure to meet you."

The four bonded blinked, shocked by the change in the woman and glanced at Amelia who simply nodded in their direction.

"Umm… Harry Potter, er, Lord Potter, that is. Head of House Potter and it is a pleasure to meet you as well."

"Daphne Greengrass, Heiress Presumptive of House Greengrass."

"Susan Bones, Heiress Presumptive of House Bones."

"Um… I'm Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you, too, Miss Black."

Cedrella suddenly grinned and her posture shifted again and suddenly they were looking at Tonks in a disguise once more.

"Wotcher, gang," she said, grinning brightly.

"That is just too weird," Harry breathed out. "It's really like you were a completely different person. How did you do that?"

"Did I ever explain to you lot that I'm a metamorphmagus?" Tonks asked and the four of them shook their heads after a few moments thought.

"I've read about them," Hermione admitted. "That means you can change your features, right?"

"Right in one," Tonks told her. "My appearance is somewhat fluid, as is my identity, in a way. I have a base form, sort of, what I would look like without any alterations, but I don't use it much and being a metamorph is something that a person is born as, you can't learn how to be it like an animagus. Since I've spent so much of my life looking like different people, it's pretty easy for me to switch up things like posture, body language, and so on, so I can act and behave as a completely different person. Cedrella Black is an identity with a history and backstory all her own. She has her own mannerisms and ways of speaking so I can most easily separate her from Dora Tonks, that way anyone who might have met me while I was still a student here won't be able to recognize me as Cedrella."

"So what's the story for Cedrella?"

"Well, Sirius Black was a bit of a ladies man when he was younger. The story is that Cedrella is his illegitimate daughter. She's been hidden for years because the Black Family would not take kindly to the idea of her existence and she's being brought to Hogwarts to be under the care and protection of our illustrious Headmaster. With Black on the loose it has been decided that it would be safer for her to be kept here than to risk that Black might come after her otherwise."

Harry frowned, annoyed by that but Amelia shot him a look. "It's just a story, Harry. And once this is all done, Tonks will go back to her usual work and 'Cedrella' will disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. Right now, it's just a convenient excuse to give to people to explain a mid year transfer of a homeschooled student. That doesn't happen very often so people will ask questions. This way, there's a plausible explanation, as far as they know."

"It's just making him out to be the bad guy, again," he muttered and she sighed.

"I know, but it's really the most plausible story we could come up with given the circumstances. There almost no student that would be allowed to transfer in mid year without exceptional reason and something like protection from a potentially deranged murderer is plenty of reason to allow it. The School Board has no idea who she really is and neither does anyone at the Ministry. Only the Headmaster, and us in this room will know, not even the other staff will be told."

Amelia glanced at her watch and then stood, moving her chair away from the bed.

"Look, it's already after midnight and you lot will have a busy day tomorrow. Shack has the map and the passwords," she added the last with a sharp look at all of them, who at least had the grace to look a bit sheepish over the mild rebuke. "He'll be keeping an eye out for Black while he's here and Cedrella will be introduced to the school during Lunch tomorrow, so you'll get a chance to officially meet her, then. Please, keep out of trouble and we'll see each other for the Holiday break at the latest, possibly sooner if anything comes up that we can act on in regards to Black."

There were murmured agreements from the students and Amelia went around hugging each of them before she, Shacklebolt, and Tonks left the Hospital wing, giving Poppy time to bustle over and begin examining them, muttering darkly all the while over people keeping her away from her patients. By the time she'd left they'd each been plied with hot chocolate and a vial of Dreamless Sleep sat on the tables by each of their beds, even one for Neville who slept on through everything.

Susan laid down, doing her best to get comfortable on the thin, narrow mattress, when a voice distracted her.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, and the other girls turned their attention to him. While the three of them had been preparing to sleep, Harry was still sitting up in his bed, his blankets pooled in his lap and his hands clenched into fists atop them.

"I've been thinking," he said, a trickle of apprehension leaking part his Occlumency shields and over their bond. "I know, dangerous prospect, but I have. Ever since yesterday, every spare moment, my brain won't stop yelling at me. I feel like I've been arguing with myself, and losing."

He let out a self deprecating laugh and shook his head, his glowing eyes remaining fixed on the wall across from him.

"What does that say about me? Losing an argument with myself?" he mused, almost thoughtfully before he seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts. "Anyway, I've been thinking… Hermione, did you realize the glamour on your hand faded yesterday in the Room?"

Hermione blinked and glanced down at her hand without thinking, even though they'd reapplied their glamours before the Feast that night.

"No, I never even noticed."

That was the primary reason that the girls still kept themselves covered at all times. Glamours were useful, but tricky things, especially self-cast glamours. They had to be cast over the skin without actually coming into contact, otherwise the magical signatures would cancel each other out, as with the cutting curse that Professor Lupin had cast at his own head in class. They also had to be extremely thin and conforming to the shape of the body, otherwise the illusory effect would be clearly noticeable to an observer and defeat the purpose of their being a glamour in the first place, and, like with many charms, they faded over time and needed to be recast.

"I cast one on you while you girls were talking," he explain. "But it made me think, it reminded me that you share all my scars. I mean… I knew that, obviously, but I hadn't really considered what it meant, before."

The girls exchanged a look at that. What it meant? As one they climbed out of their beds and moved to sit on the edge of Harry's, Hermione on his right with Dap9hne and Susan on his left.

"What do you mean?" Susan asked as gently as she could.

He looked up, finally meeting their eyes, one after another before sighing.

"If there's anyone in the world that deserves to hear about them and how I got them, it's the three of you. You have all these scars, but no idea what happened to cause them. No idea why you have them."

"We know the 'why', Harry," Hermione disagreed with him, shaking her head.

"The 'why' is because your relatives are horrible, awful examples of the human race. There is no other 'why' that matters. Nothing you did, or didn't do, would ever be a reasonable excuse for any one of those scars." Daphne's voice was low and angry when she spoke of the hated Dursleys, but her expression was kind, showing nothing but the care she felt for him.

"You understand why I don't want to talk about them," he said, staring at the blond in their number and Susan leaned away, slightly, so that her body wouldn't block the line of sight between the two of them.

"It was painful, and terrifying, and you've said you feel ashamed of them," Daphne whispered.

He nodded at that before he took a deep breath. "All that's true, but you're you're all correct, and so is Healer Gant. I know that. I know I should let you three know more. But it's not easy. So… if you can agree to do this my way, let me set the when and how… I think I can tell you a little bit, at least."

There was absolutely no hesitation in their agreement. All three of them were more than willing to go at his pace on this, however he needed to be comfortable enough to let them in behind the barriers he'd built to keep everyone around him at arm's length. They were closer to him than anyone in the world, but there was still that wall he'd built, that shield that he kept up that not even they had been able to fully breach. He sat silently for a moment, judging the honesty in their willingness to abide by his wishes before he sat up straighter and slowly shrugged his way out of the unbuttoned striped pajama top that Madam Pomfrey had put on him. She was still concerned over him overheating with his constantly elevated temperature.

Once he had that removed he draped it carefully, deliberately over his left forearm, then let his hands rest on the thin blanket that covered his lap.

"One scar," he said in a trembling voice. "Any of the ones that you can see, right now. Each of you can ask about one scar and I'll tell you how it happened… if I can remember, exactly."

The three girls looked to each other, cautious hope and apprehension filling them as they stood on the threshold of major progress for their bond mate and wondered, which of them should ask first?

Eventually, Hermione cleared her throat and slid a little closer to the head of the bed where she sat on the edge of the mattress, close enough that she could reach out and trace the large, roughly circular, burn scar that covered much of his right shoulder.

"This one," she all but whispered, her voice barely reaching even the girls that sat on the other side of the narrow bed. "I remember… I was seven when this one appeared, and it hurt so much worse than the others. I could feel the heat of it and I've wanted to know how that happened ever since."

Harry winced but nodded, a muscle in his jaw ticking slightly as he gritted his teeth but, slowly, he forced his mouth open and the words dropped from his lips, at first in a trickle that stuttered and stopped before finally becoming a flood as the entire story poured out of him.

"Dudley had decided that he wanted fresh fish and chips at some party that his parents were throwing for him and his friends. Of course, I was made to do all the cooking, even though I wouldn't have been allowed to eat any of it. I was as careful as I could be, but one of the last batches that I pulled out of the fryer was heavier than I meant it to be. I dropped the basket and spilled the fish on the kitchen floor.

"Vernon was screaming at me and Dudley was going on about how the… the freak was ruining his party. Petunia dragged him off to the rest of the kids who were all outside playing in the backyard and she took them all out for ice cream, or something, I don't exactly remember. Anyway, Vernon hit me a few times and eventually he held me down on the floor, grabbed a pot holder and picked up one of the pieces of fish and dropped it back into the fryer.

"While it was in there, he ripped my shirt off and kept yelling and smacking me for a few minutes until he pulled the fish out of the hot oil with a pair of tongs and then he just smashed it against my bare shoulder. He was almost sitting on me so I could hardly move and he used the pot holder to protect his hand and smashed it into my skin, grinding it in until it fell apart. Then, he threw another piece in the fryer and did it again. Four of them, one after another until all the pieces I'd dropped where smashed into a pulp. Then he yelled at me about the mess and made me clean it all up. When I was finished, he threw me in my cupboard and locked me in. I think it was four days before he let me out again, that time..."

#####

Albus Dumbledore stared at the door of his office from his seat behind his desk. He wasn't actually seeing the door, just staring, his blue eyes without their amused twinkle as he gazed at something far away from the cluttered environment that surrounded him.

While his eyes took in nothing, his mind was spinning rapidly, idea after idea coming into existence for a brief moment before it was quickly examined and, eventually, discarded.

"Think, you old fool," he admonished himself, suddenly, speaking for the first time in more than an hour. "You've already failed that young man, spectacularly, it's high time you got something right."

He blinked, his brow furrowing in angry thought as he sought some way to bring Sirius Black's situation to light. He needed some way to get the man a trial that could circumvent the Minister's office. If they attempted to go through official channels, Cornelius would be made aware of it by one of his, most likely many, moles scattered throughout the various Departments. Once that happened, he would do everything possible to block them. So, how could they get around one of the most politically connected individuals in their entire government?

Slowly, a new idea began to form, and Dumbledore carefully studied it. Like a puzzle, he added pieces and took away pieces, mentally turning it this way and that to be examined from every conceivable angle until, in the early hours of the morning,he finally felt that he might have a workable solution. It just required some careful setup.

He sighed, a moment later, reminding himself that his idea also required that they catch Black, alive and unharmed, and at present, he had no idea that they were trying to help him.

"First things first," he muttered. Worrying about catching Black would have to wait. First, he needed at least some sleep, then, tomorrow, he would need to go to the Ministry to begin setting the stage.

#####

The morning of November 1st was strange for Harry. Strange in that, when he woke up, he didn't feel awful. Physically and emotionally he actually felt… okay. The previous year's Halloween, he woke the next day still recovering from Dobby's bludger attack. The year before that? Troll. 'Nuff said, really.

But this year, this year there were Dementors, and he woke the morning after feeling pretty good if he did say so himself. He had to admit, even if in the privacy of his own mind, that unloading about the three scars the girls had asked about probably had more than a small amount to do with how light he felt, as if some measure of a burden, that he'd been carrying around for so long he didn't even notice it anymore, had been removed from his shoulders.

He wondered if he would feel so much better after every time he told them something more about his life with the Dursleys.

Getting in some practice with the Patronus charm that morning wasn't going to happen, unfortunately, since Madam Pomfrey held them all hostage until it was nearly time for lunch before finally letting them go, despite his, many, protests. Together, the five of them made a quick journey to the Tower to shower and change before lunch, only to find their way barred by the strangest portrait of a knight they'd ever seen. Luckily, they'd been supplied with that mornings password and Sir Cadogan, reluctantly, allowed them entry into a Common Room that they were surprised to find completely filled with students.

"Hey!"

They five of them turned to find the twins approaching with their red faced younger brother on their heels and Harry groaned mentally at the thunderous expression on Ron's face.

"What's going on?" Harry asked the twins as they came to a stop in front of them. "Why isn't anyone in class?"

"The whole school-"

"-spent the night in-"

"-the Great Hall."

"Rumour has it that Sirius Black-"

"-attacked the portrait of the Fat Lady."

They blinked at that for a minute, exchanging a few confused looks between them.

"So… why is no one in class?" Neville asked, unsure if there'd been any kind of explanation in the twins delivery.

After exchanging a surprised look they turned back and explained.

"Since it was such a weird night-"

"-the Headmaster gave everyone-"

"-the day off of class. So, most of us have just-"

"-been goofing off, or hanging around."

"Makes, sense, I guess," Susan said with a shrug. "What's with him?" she added, nodding toward a still fuming Ron.

"Your stupid cat ate Scabbers!" he suddenly roared, catching the attention of the entire Common Room as he shoved past his brothers and attempted to get in Hermione's face. Attempted, since Neville and Harry both immediately stepped to the side, standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the bushy haired witch as they leveled matching glares at Ron.

"What are you on about?" Nevilled demanded.

"That beast she calls a cat," Ron bellowed, waving his arms wildly. "I found blood on my pillow and some orange cat hairs and I can't find Scabbers anywhere."

Harry and Neville glanced at each other for a moment.

"Scabbers? You mean your rat?" Harry finally asked.

"Of course I mean my rat, what'd you think I meant?"

Harry shrugged. "No idea, really. I've never paid it much attention but I have heard you go on about how useless and stupid it is. Besides, you don't have actual proof that Crookshanks did anything at all."

"No proof! I found-"

He cut off when a pair of hands landed on each of his shoulders and he was suddenly lifted into the air, a twin on either side of him.

"Sorry about him," one of the twins said, smiling apologetically.

"We'll talk to him and see what we can figure out about this whole thing."

With that, they dragged off their spluttering and protesting brother, both handily ignoring everything out of his mouth with the ease of years of practice.

"It isn't impossible that Crookshanks could have attacked Scabbers," Hermione pointed out quietly after the three of them disappeared up the stairs towards the boys dorms.

"No, it isn't," Daphne agreed, pulling Hermione close to her with one arm around the other girl's shoulders. "But that doesn't give him the right to come screaming at you as if you did it or caused it to happen intentionally. He has the right to be upset, but he needs to learn how to talk to people better."

"And aside from that, there are other cats in this school, as well as Owls. Any of them could have attacked a rat like Scabbers. His only proof was ginger colored cat hairs and we all know how Crookshanks seems to like coming and bugging me at times so we know he's been in the dorm before. That doesn't mean, immediately, that Crooks did it."

Hermione looked a little happier at that and the five of them split up, heading for their own dorms and ignoring anyone that tried to ask where they were all night so they could shower and change. Half an hour later saw them heading for the Great Hall where 'Cedrella' was going to be introduced.

#####

"Thank you, for letting me sit with you," Cedrella said in a soft voice, sitting primly on the bench at the Gryffindor table with her delicate looking hands folded in her lap.

"It's no problem," Harry assured her, reminding himself that this young girl in front of him was actually Tonks. The transformation she underwent when she fully assumed a role was nothing short of amazing and he couldn't help but wonder how long it had taken her to develop such a skill. Her morphing abilities were a part of her, but acting? That was something she had to learn and cultivate and spoke of unknowable hours of practice that he found somewhat awe-inspiring.

"We are always happy to welcome a new member of our House," Neville added from his seat beside Cedrella.

They ate and talked quietly, Hannah and Tracey sitting to Neville's right with Cedrella on his left while they all discussed the castle, their classes, and other, mostly safe topics one uses when meeting someone new for the first time. Harry couldn't help but notice the stares being directed toward the new girl, though. Some were openly curious while others seemed hostile. These stares weren't from any one table or House, either. All four Houses seemed to have a fair mixture of reactions but one recurring theme was that she was definitely the subject of quite a lot of interest.

Concerns over Sirius aside, Harry question whether claiming to be related to the man was really the best idea, and commented on that later when they showed her the Room of Requirement, which changed into a new, comfortable sitting room. With their number now six, the corner of the Common Room by the fire just wasn't big enough.

Hannah and Tracey had claimed a need to return to their own dormitories and none of them felt like arguing, since they wanted to get Tonks alone to talk to her.

"It might seem like it'd just draw attention, but it's kind of like hiding in plain sight," Tonks explained after she'd gotten over her surprise at the Room itself. "It's a reasonably believable story. Most people won't think twice about it and while I'll be a curiosity for a while, eventually most people will move on and I'll just be another face in the crowd. Only people like you, Harry, can't seem to slip back into anonymity when you want to," she added the last with a smirk in his direction.

#####

Harry had grumbled, loudly, about Tonks commentary on his own continued fame, and even more so when over the next few weeks were explanation was proven true. At first there was quite a bit of interest, and several children of old Houses came by to talk to her, either to insult, feel her out, or to attempt to get closer to her, seeing her as a link to the powerful and still well known House of Black. She handled all comers with ease and, eventually, most people just started to ignore her as any other student.

Blaise had stared, just short of being rude when he met her, while Luna stared far past the point where it was rude. Cedrella had responded by staring right back until Luna suddenly smiled and hugged her saying, "I think pink is a good color for you."

After that Luna accepted her presence as only Luna was capable of and Cedrella frequently found herself dragged into discussion over nargles and blimering humdingers, as if these were common conversations to have.

As the weeks wore on and November turned into December friction continued to grow in the Tower as Ron continually took every chance to make snarky comments about Crookshanks eating his rat. On more than one occasion Harry came within a hair's breadth of punching the boy again but he was always stopped, either by the girls, or by Neville. They started spending less and less time in the Tower and more time in the Room, just to avoid the irritating red head.

Tonk's showed herself to be an excellent friend when it came to their schoolwork, something that the rest of the bond mates found themselves extremely grateful for as Hermione was able to distract herself from Ron's hurtful commentary by pumping the former Hufflepuff for everything she could get on their OWL and NEWT exams. She helped them go over their spells for class and even started assisting in their morning and evening spell practice. She'd been most intrigued over Harry's wandless abilities, and tried to help him their as much as she could.

With Quidditch practice, classes, homework, training in the mornings and for an hour in the evenings, his Friday meetings with Healer Gant, their standard Sunday appointment with Madam Pomfrey, that had shown no changes in their bond since the end of the previous year, and their Saturday practice with Moony on the Patronus Charm, it was with no small amount of surprise that Harry realized the next day they would be leaving to head home for the Christmas Holidays. He had been so busy that the days had just slipped continually past him and it bothered him that in the intervening month and a half since Halloween there had been no further word about Sirius.

"I don't get it," he complained the night before they were set to go home. "Where the hell is he?"

"No idea, but it's really not your concern, Harry," Tonks said, still in her guise as Cedrella since they were all sitting in the Common Room that night instead of the Room of Requirement. She'd taken to assuming her normal form when they were in the other Room since it was just them and it was considerably more comfortable for her than compacting her larger and more developed body into a thirteen-year-old frame. "Kingsley has been keeping me posted and we've been taking turns with the map. We can't watch it every moment of the day but he takes the day shift and I watch it as much as I can at nights. Hasn't been even a blip of Sirius Black on that thing since Halloween and until we catch sight of him again, there's not a lot to be done."

"Come on," Susan said, cutting into Harry's dark mutterings. "It's getting late and we should get to bed."

Harry and Neville both groaned at that and scowled irritably.

"I think Nev and I will probably just stay down here for a while," he muttered.

"Ron still being difficult?"

"If anything, he's gotten worse," Neville, almost, smarled. "It's just not worth being anywhere near him when he's conscious. We'll probably just wait till it's late enough that we can be sure he's asleep before we head up."

Tonks and the girls wished them good night and headed up to the dorm while the boys turned their attention to the fire, each lost in their own thoughts as soon as the girls were gone, leaving them alone in the Common Room, save for a few upper year students who were studying or reading at a few of the other tables scattered about.

Time passed, and eventually, the room emptied. Once the last Seventh Year had made her way up to her own dorm room, Neville turned to Harry. "Three days," he said. Tomorrow is the 21st. Are you sure you're ready?"

Harry didn't need to ask what Neville was talking about. He knew immediately and nodded.

"I've been practicing. I'm as positive as I can be that I've got everything down. I know what I need to do and what I need to say. I just hope it works. You're certain that Daphne will be there?"

It was Neville's turn to nod. "I asked her about it last week. Her Father wrote her and let her know he was expecting her to be there. That's just further confirmation that Lord Greengrass intends to sign the contract that day. Daphne's presence isn't required throughout any other part of the negotiation process until it comes time to sign."

Harry nodded again, but had nothing more to say and, finally, Neville could no longer fight off a jaw cracking yawn.

"You should get some sleep, Nev," Harry told him, a small smile on his face. "You don't need to sit up with me."

"Are you sure? I don't mind-"

"It's fine, Nev. I'll probably be up in a little while too. I'm just gonna enjoy the peace and quiet for a little longer."

Neville considered his friend for a moment, weighing his options before he shook his head and settled back in his chair.

"Nope. You want peace and quiet, I can sit here and enjoy it with you, I'm not just gonna leave you alone. I'll go if you want me to, but not if you think just you're holding me up or anything. I'm perfectly fine sitting here, quietly."

Harry didn't answer and the two of them just sat, watching the fire die down long into the night. When the girls came down the next morning, it was to find both boys sound asleep in their respective chairs before a cold fireplace.