A/N It's been a while! I'm afraid life has been happening and the muse deserted me. But I'm back and I actually have some time to write. I hope you like it.

Previously,

Ragnok simply smiled at her and nodded before turning to Harry. "Speaking of goblin customs Harry, I was looking at your memories. I found your challenges to your opponents exteremely verbose. In challenging a Goblin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap into the battle."

Harry just stared at him. "You scream and you leap," said Harry. "Great."

After that, Harry and Hermione left Gringotts and proceeded down Diagon Alley under glamours, since they didn't want to be recognised. Luna apparated back to Hogwarts promising to let Harry and Hermione tell people what happened when they chose to. They walked into the offices of the Daily Prophet and dropped the glamours and asked to see the acting editor. After a while, an extremely portly man walked out to meet them 'Merlin,' thought Harry to Hermione, 'he makes Uncle Vernon look thin.' Hermione just replied with a mental snort of amusement.

"Lord and Lady Potter, I am Mr Arthur Creosote, acting editor. How can I help you?" he asked somewhat nervously.

Harry shook the hand of the rather nervous man, who was obviously concerned about getting arrested.

"Don't worry, Mr Creosote, nothing serious. I just wanted to let you know that Madam Bones is going to issue a statement about events that occurred yesterday that involve my wife and me. Provided you tell the truth, I have no problem with you publishing what she releases that includes us."

Mr Creosote's shoulders drooped in relief. "Thank you for letting me know Lord Potter." He said "I'll let the editorial staff know." With that, he went into the office and did as promised. After that, he thought he deserved a nice big lunch and with a brief "I'm going out, I may be some time," he headed off. He went to most exclusive restaurant in the Alley, Adipem Populus, which was affectionately known as Poppi's for short. As he entered, the moustachioed and very tall Maître'D rushed over to seat him and he thought, 'h'mm maybe I'll start with some fish.'

Meanwhile Harry and Hermione walked up the street and had an ice-cream at Fortescue's. Since they had the opportunity, they went into muggle London for a while and shopped for clothes for Harry and had lunch before heading to the ministry.

Harry started to tense up as he became unhappier the closer they got to Madam Bones office. Hermione could sense exactly what the issue was and calmed Harry down as much as she could. 'Harry, think about what would happen to Jacque.'

Harry sighed, 'I know'.

After meeting with Madam Bones, they all went to a conference room in the DMLE area where the Zabini pair were waiting. Harry walked in first and saw a very haggard Madam Zabini, looking completely unlike her normal assured self. As soon she saw Harry, she dropped to her knees and looked up at him. "Forgive me Lord, please I didn't know what he would do, I-." At that point Hermione appeared from behind Harry. Madam Zabini looked at her completely shocked and promptly fainted. Harry sat her in a chair and re-enervated her. After she stirred, she looked at Hermione again and asked in a shocked voice. "H-How?"

"How is unimportant, suffice it to say my wife survived," said Harry.

With that, Madam Zabini sobbed tears of relief. Things weren't as bad as she had believed, still she knew that even an attack on one of the heroes of Hogwarts and a soul-bonded woman would still bring the wrath of the public down upon her family. She was however truly sorry for how she had raised her son. That he could do such a thing horrified her.

With heart-felt relief she spoke. "Lord and Lady Potter, I am very happy to see you both well. Thank Merlin you survived Lady Potter." As this point she dropped her head in shame. "I must apologise my Lord and Lady. Not just for the actions of my son, but that I raised him to believe such a thing was acceptable."

'Do you think she is sincere?' Harry asked Hermione.

'Definitely,' replied Hermione. 'Look at her face, she hasn't been sleeping from guilt and also worry about Jacque.'

"Madam Zabini," here Harry paused until the lady in question looked up at him. "I accept your apology. I do so partly because you seem sincere, but mainly because of your remaining son. He is blameless in this and punishing you would punish him when he has done nothing to deserve it."

"Th-thank you Lord Potter" she stuttered, almost collapsing with relief. Harry nodded in reply.

Hermione spoke up at this point. "Is it still your wish to become a vassal of House Potter?"

Lady Zabini glanced at Hermione with a stunned look before looking for Harry's reaction. Harry's face was covered in a swarm of conflicting emotions before it settled into a determined look.

"Damn that man," Harry muttered to himself. He then focussed on the woman in front of him.

"Lady Zabini, I was once challenged by a man I much respected at the time to do what was right rather than what was easy. I will accept your vassalage," here he glanced at Jacque, "because it is right."

With that, Madam Bones was summoned to witness the oath and House Zabini became a vassal of House Potter.

Harry had some final words for the Dowager before he departed. "We will discuss the Wizengamot and how I would like you to vote, as well as other matters, later. For now, I think you probably know from who I surround myself with that I do not hold with bigotry or prejudice. I expect the same from my vassals and I expect you to raise Jacque free of the same attitudes, this extends across all sentient species. I realise you may struggle with this, but it is not negotiable."

Madam Zabini was a little stunned by the scope of the declaration, but simply bowed her head and said, "it will be as you say, my Lord."

"Thank you," said Harry. "Contact us if you need anything from us." Madam Zabini curtseyed and Harry and Hermione left. Looking at his retreating figure, Madam Zabini said quietly, "you're a good man Lord Potter."

"He certainly is." Replied Madam Bones.

As she left the room, a junior Auror rushed up to the head of the DMLE. "Madam Bones, there's been an incident at Poppi's... What did they call it?" Here the Auror looked at his notes, "a Catastrophic Gastric Containment Failure. They are asking for assistance, they need a healer, a clean-up crew and Obliviators."

"Obliviators?"

"Yes, apparently, whatever happened, a lot of people don't want to remember it."

Returning to the Daily Prophet, they asked for Mr Creosote, only to be told he hadn't yet returned from lunch. She called out another member of staff, a 33 year old named Alix.

They explained briefly about the results of the meeting at the Ministry. "Please let the journalists know they should include something about House Zabini becoming a vassal of House Potter along with the information about yesterday's incident. We bear the remaining members of the house no ill will."

"Of course, Lord Potter, that will be big news."

Harry nodded his thanks and they returned to The Leaky Cauldron where they floo'ed to the Headmistresses office. Harry looked up at all the portraits that were still asleep. The rebuilding of the castle had taken a huge amount of magic and the drop in magical energy, despite Hogwarts being on a Ley line, had caused the castle to put the portraits to sleep aside from the necessary ones guarding doorways.

Sitting down with the Headmistress, they had started to go through the events of the previous few days. The professor gasped and turned white when she found out that Hermione had been hit with the killing curse.

Suddenly Harry heard a voice that he hadn't expected to hear just yet, not that he particularly wished to hear it now.

"Harry. You can't kill people, you must learn to forgive."

Harry spun around, his eyes narrowing. "So, you're awake again." Harry spat out, looking at Dumbledore's portrait.

Dumbledore was a little taken aback by the venom in Harry's voice, but continued. "Harry, you shouldn't have killed Mr Zabini."

"Why not?"

The portrait gaped, "what do you mean why not?"

"I mean why not? He cast the killing curse at Hermione. He would have kept casting them until he was stopped. I stopped him. It just so happens he died. He would have gotten the veil or a kiss anyway. I won't apologise, especially not to you."

"Harry, I fear you are going dark."

Harry laughed coldly, "really? Is that your standard response to anyone who doesn't agree with you?"

'Harry,' said Hermione with a warning tone.

'No Hermione, this time I'm going to say what I feel. Especially after our recent revelations about his behaviour.'

Hermione wasn't certain this was a good idea, but could feel that Harry wasn't going to be swayed in this case. She simply sent her love and affection to him to support him and stop him blowing a fuse.

Dumbledore had frowned after Harry's reply. "Everybody deserves a second chance, Harry."

Harry nodded, "Yes they do, but ONLY if they show remorse. All those little death-eaters at school. All those times when your actions, either directly or supporting Snape, prevented them from being punished for what they had done. They learned that their actions didn't have consequences for them, that they could do what they liked."

The ex-headmaster argued back. "They were only schoolyard pranks."

Harry snorted. "Maybe in first and second year, but with the example of the older students, by third year they were roughing up the firsties. It started with name calling, pushes and shoves, then by fourth or fifth year it was hexes and curses. Those are not schoolyard pranks."

"I had to give them the opportunity to return to the light, punishing them would have pushed them towards the dark."

"You don't get it do you, they were already dark. Not punishing them only proved to them to correctness of their beliefs. It also meant you let the rest of the students get hurt, it's a wonder no-one died. I can't believe how much support you showed for Voldemort."

Dumbledore looked thunderstruck. "I have never supported a Dark Lord. I have always fought for the light!"

"Really? By supporting Snape's actions in making sure his students weren't held accountable for their actions, you made it easy to recruit them to his cause. You did more to expand the ranks of the death-eaters among the younger witches and wizards than anyone else!"

"You showed them that behaving immorally wasn't punished. You showed them that the pure-blood philosophy was correct and they weren't held accountable to the same standards as anyone else, so they must be superior. That they could hurt other people with impunity."

"No one was seriously hurt by their actions."

"Really? Does the name Katie Bell mean nothing to you? If we hadn't gotten her to Madam Pomfrey quickly she would have died. Oh, I forgot, she's not a Pureblood is she. It doesn't matter if she gets injured or killed provided the pure-bloods are let off scot-free." Harry snapped.

"It was your decision that stopped the order members and Aurors using anything more than stunners. Every death-eater that was re-enervated and then killed another person, that blood is on your hands old man. Everyone gets unlimited second chances, even when they don't deserve them! All because YOU desperately wanted a second chance to atone for Ariana. Your guilt over your sister got a lot of good people killed."

Professor McGonagall gasped at that, she had let Harry continue as she could see he was blowing of steam, but she felt that was too much. "Lord Potter, I would ask that you show the Professor some respect." Harry looked at her and studied her for a few seconds not saying anything.

Dumbledore took the opportunity to interject. "Everything I did was for the greater good."

Harry sneered at that point. "Ah, the greater good, the refuge of scoundrels and incompetents since time immemorial. The greater good as defined by one person clearly isn't. Besides, you let so many of the light side get killed, it became the lesser good. The greater good, wasn't that what Grindlewald said as well?"

"If we had killed them, we would have been no better than them."

"Implying that I was no better than a death-eater in killing Blaise Zabini? Tell me headmaster, do you think I enjoy raping, killing and torturing people?"

"No, of course not."

"THEN I HARDLY THINK I AM THE SAME AS A DEATH EATER!" Yelled Harry. "When I have killed, I have only done so in self-defence or in defence of another, old man."

"Lord Potter, Harry, please!" said the headmistress seeing Harry's magic flare slightly. She couldn't understand why Harry was so hostile to her predecessor.

"My apologies headmistress," said Harry as he calmed down a bit. However, he then looked from Professor McGonagall to Dumbledore, realising there was much she didn't yet know. His eyes narrowed and he said to the portrait coldly. "Care to talk about compulsion charms, Professor?"

A twitch quirked Dumbledore's face so briefly Harry would have missed it if he hadn't been paying close attention.

"I'm not sure what you mean, my boy." Replied Dumbledore with a jovial smile plastered across his face.

"Alright, I'll be more specific. Care to tell us about the compulsion charms you placed on Hermione and me?"

"WHAT!" exclaimed the Headmistress. Furious, she looked at the portrait. "Albus, as Headmistress, I command you to tell us about ALL of your manipulations of Lord and Lady Potter. That includes things that you did to other people that affected them as well as things you asked other people to do. You will tell the truth. You will not evade. You will not mislead. You will not try to make us draw the wrong conclusions by leaving out details. Do you understand?"

"Minerva, I hardly think this is necessary."

"I don't care what you think Albus." Replied the headmistress with some asperity. "You will obey me and tell us everything."

Dumbledore sighed and looked at all of them. "Do not think too badly of me." and he began.

Harry snorted and Dumbledore continued after a brief hesitation.

"The first instance was placing you with the Dursleys even though your parent's wills specifically said you were not to go there. I also allowed Sirius to go to prison, even though I knew he was innocent because he would have taken you away from the Dursleys." Dumbledore looked away from them all as he said that, not willing to meet their eyes.

"Why!" Demanded Harry.

"I was already checked the prophecy sphere and I knew it was still active and that Voldemort would return. I needed to keep you safe."

"Garbage, the Fidelius charm at Grimmauld would have done that. What was the real reason?"

Dumbledore obviously really didn't want to answer this question. The headmistress stepped in, "Albus, what did I say!"

"I wanted you to come here with low self-esteem so you would be prepared to sacrifice yourself when the time came. I suspected your scar was a horcrux. I didn't want you to have any reason to go on living, since the only way for the Horcrux to be destroyed was for you to be killed. Given the prophecy, the only person who could kill you was Tom."

"That's all you know, you manipulative old fool." Snarled Harry. "There were other ways to remove it. But of course, you wouldn't ask anyone else because you believed you knew best." Harry was getting so angry that his magic started to swirl around him. Hermione grew concerned and spoke up. "Harry, go to the Room of Requirement and set it to absorb your magic."

McGonagall spoke then. "The castle's ward room would be better; the central ward stone will absorb it safely."

Even in his enraged state, Harry knew this was sensible and nodded.

The headmistress called an elf. "Mipsy," when the elf popped in the Professor asked her to take Harry to the ward room and they popped out together.

Harry appeared in a chamber with no visible source of light that was dominated by a huge block of Obsidian covered in runes with four huge gems embedded in it, their colour reflected on the mirror like sheen. The gems were Ruby, Emerald, Yellow Diamond and Sapphire. The runes glowed with a soft golden light and Harry sensed immense power here and he could feel the wards magical energy being anchored and shaped by the stone.

There were two hand shaped indentations in the Obsidian and Harry placed his hands in them. He immediately had a sense of connectedness to the castle and… acceptance of his presence there. He could feel the excess energy being drained and a calming influence coming from Hogwarts itself as well as from his wife.

Meanwhile, up in the head's office. Hermione, with Harry listening through her ears, continued to question the former headmaster.

"What else headmaster?" Asked Hermione. She was having trouble maintaining her calm as well. "What was really going on with the Philosopher's stone?" asked Hermione.

"It was to introduce Harry to the idea of sacrifice and build him up slightly. During the chess match, I influenced Ron to play the knight and sacrifice himself. I also wanted to verify that the protections placed on Harry by Lily were still active."

"How could you influence Ron?" asked Hermione.

"You don't really believe I would fly to London on a broom do you? I was there, disillusioned."

"What else did you do?"

"After the troll incident in your first year, I was concerned about how close you were getting to Harry. I placed a compulsion charm on you to prevent you from expressing your feelings to him."

"You what!" hissed Hermione.

It was now Hermione's turn to become incensed. Her eyes widened as she realised. "Friendship and Bravery and Love! That's why I couldn't finish it! How dare you!" She already knew he had put a compulsion charm on her later on. She hadn't realised it had started in her first year at Hogwarts. She also felt Harry's anger spike briefly as well as a surge on magical energy from him. But it quickly dropped back to normal. She could also feel the calming influence coming from the castle.

"I couldn't allow Harry to have anything to live for. He had to die at the appropriate time, killed by Voldemort. I placed compulsion charms on you after the Troll incident. I didn't place them on Harry as there was too much chance that Madam Pomfrey would notice them."

Hermione and the Headmistress felt a pulse of magic pass through the room before quickly subsiding.

'Harry, are you ok?'

'If he wasn't already dead, I'd kill him myself!'

'Keep calm.'

'I am, I can sense a presence through the ward stone, it's helping.'

'I know, I can feel it too.'

Tuning back to the portrait. Hermione, with false calmness, got him to continue. Dumbledore laid out a continuing series of actions to mold the weapon that was Harry, to isolate him and control him. How the plans had gone astray and it was only pure luck that they had come across Snape and found out what Harry needed to do in the end.

Sickened, Hermione asked one last question. "When we started, you hesitated. What was it that you decided not to tell us."

"It really wasn't anything important."

The headmistress had been horrified that the man that she had trusted and supported could have done so many despicable things in his single-minded pursuit of his vision of the way forward.

"Damn it Albus just tell them!" she exploded.

Albus sighed. "I placed compulsion charms on Lily Evans for several years to prevent her from going out with James Potter."

"What!" ejaculated McGonagall. "Why!"

"If he married a pure-blood from a grey or dark family, it would have helped stop Tom. I placed the charms on Lily as James's family would have noticed. I gave up when I realised he wasn't going to change his mind and the compulsion would have failed shortly after she left Hogwarts anyway without me being able to reinforce them"

"That's attempted line-theft, what gave you the right!"

"It was for the greater good."

Sickened, Hermione asked with forced calmness, "Headmaster, do you know what the penalties are for interfering in a Soul Bond?"

"Yes, the veil or Azkaban. Why?"

"Because Harry and I are Soul-Bonded. Because of your hubris, it almost didn't happen."

Dumbledore's portrait looked horrified. "But… but…"

"I don't want to hear it Fumblemore!" She snarled.

"Because of you, it almost didn't happen! The soul bond would have pushed out the Horcrux out of Harry. "

"Because of you, he had to go into the forest and he might have died and not have been able to come back."

"Because of you, he didn't get the power boost that would have enabled him to defeat Voldemort in the graveyard!"

"Because of you, a lot people died needlessly."

"Because of you, we almost lost everything."

Dumbledore's painting looked stunned and confused before clearing. "It doesn't matter, my plan was for the greater good."

"Amazing, cognitive dissonance in a painting." Hermione said before her blood started to boil again.

In a low and dangerous voice, with the full agreement of Harry who followed her thoughts, she said. "Old man, you may have defeated Grindelwald, but your actions helped Voldemort rise. Your actions almost cost us the war. The only thing you have left in this world is your good reputation, and I'm going to take it away from you."

"Harry and I now have a controlling interest in the Daily Prophet. I'm going to make sure that everyone knows exactly what you did and what it almost cost us. Your name will become a byword for hubris, arrogance and blind belief in your own infallibility. All the families, on both sides, who lost loved ones because of your actions will curse your name forever."

With that, Hermione stalked out of the room.

Dumbledore looking shocked and horrified, turned his gaze to his former deputy and implored her. "Minerva, you can't let them publish that, what will people think."

Minerva glanced at the painting and in a calm soft voice that belied the rage and anguish she felt, replied. "Albus, I'll even proof-read the articles for them."

Well another gome. I hope you liked it. This story WILL be completed.

Oh, for those who didn't get the Mr Creosote look him up on youtube, but not after you've eaten! :)