A/N: Thanks for reviews! Sorry the last one was so short and this one too... I have a question about that at the bottom of the page, please read it and tell me what you think.

Anyway, on with the story. Chapter 17 with a bit of Evil!Dumbles' schemes. Hope you like it! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

'Thoughts'

"Talking"

Sky ran through the woods silently like a shadow. He was surrounded by a thick fog, making him nearly blind, but it didn't matter. His other senses were high alert and he could feel his surroundings with his magic. He knew he was getting closer to his target and his magic tingled under his skin in anticipation, ready to let loose.

His mission was simple: find the target and retrieve it.

Sky departed from the woods and hid in the shadows; staring at the foggy space where he knew his target was located. Though he was surrounded by the thick mist, Sky knew he was in the right place and could almost see the linings of the building his target was in.

He disillusioned himself, just in case and silently advanced towards it, all the time keeping an eye on his surroundings. As he was only a few feet from the building, the fog dissolved and revealed his destination: it was an old shack.

Sky froze.

The scene in front of him was familiar – too familiar. It reminded him of the fateful night he lost his family – the first real family he knew at the time.

Sky stared at the shack, seeing the first real home he ever had, frozen in shock and suddenly he found himself drawn into that night. He saw himself walking happily with Blake back home from the cemetery and heard Dora chatting with Fox in the shack. He saw three people clothed in black robes behind the shack pointing their wands at it before shouting: "Fiendfyre".

The fire spread fast and Sky saw Blake and himself get thrown to the ground by its force. He saw and heard Blake's scream as he burned alive, right in front of him, while Sky himself was protected by a shield made of the little magic he could access at the time. He could hear Fox screaming from pain, trapped in the shack and the next thing he knew was darkness.

"– good, thank you for your report, Panther, Tricia." Marcus said. The Team Five had just returned from a scouting mission and were reporting to his office. "You may go." He continued, arranging his desk. "Oh, and can you tell Z and Blade I want to see them?" He added before the two women could leave.

"Sure. I think they're in the training areas with Shade." Panther said.

"Still trying to create a mission Shade can't pass?" Marcus asked amused.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Whose turn is it today?" Marcus asked waving his hand on a monitor on his desk. It started humming quietly and slowly a mist started forming above it creating a picture of the training areas.

"Seems like Z's." Tricia said.

They watched as Sky advanced through his mission and reached his destination, stopping in front of it.

"What is he doing?" Marcus muttered as he watched his son just standing there while the enemies and Dementors started attacking him.

"Why doesn't he fight back?" Panther asked worriedly and the three stared intently at the monitor just as Sky collapsed. The mission quickly dissolved as someone shut it down and they could see Blade and Z hurrying towards Sky's motionless form. Marcus swore and muttered some words under his breath opening a secret passage from his office to the training areas and hurried to get to his son with Tricia and Panther on his heels. They entered the training area and ran to Sky who was still unconscious regardless of Blade and Z's waking attempts.

"Don't use magic on him!" Marcus roared as Blade took out his wand in order to cast the wakening charm.

Blade put his wand away with a questioning look, which Marcus ignored, before the two men moved out of the way as Marcus reached his son and knelt beside him. He scanned him with his wand, but found nothing physically wrong with him, he was only unconscious.

"What happened?" He asked.

"We don't know." Blade said. "One moment he was doing just fine and the next he just froze and collapsed."

"Show me the mission." Marcus said and Blade complied. It was a standard mission, nothing special. What could possibly have happened to make Sky collapse? Marcus thought. His mind was working rapidly trying to find the answer and then it hit him; the shack. The shack must have triggered another memory in Sky's mind and most likely the one about Fox and Blake's deaths. Marcus cursed himself for not thinking about it before. It had been a long time since Sky had gotten a memory back, though they had known his memory wasn't complete yet. After all, he remembered nearly nothing about his time with Lily and James after he was six-months-old or the night Fox and Blake died – well, until now it appeared.

Marcus took Sky into his arms and stood up.

"I think it's best if I take him home." He said. It would be better if he tried to wake him up back at the Manor and possibly to get Dora there. Sky would need assurances that at least Dora was alive and the girl would be the best candidate to help him through the trauma.

"Is he going to be okay?" Panther asked worriedly.

"Yes, he'll be just fine with a bit of rest." Marcus said dismissively and altered the wards so they allowed him to apparate straight from there back to the manor. "Alert me if something crucial happens." He said to Blade who was left in charge. "I'll be back in a few." And with that he disappeared in the spot.

Arriving at the manor he put Sky down gently on the sofa. It wouldn't do to try to wake him with magical means if it was a memory that made Sky collapse, and Marcus was pretty sure it was. Marcus had once tried that and the consequences weren't nice. Sky's mind protected itself better than anyone's Marcus had ever encountered and he had been out for three hours because of the magical backlash it created the last time he had tried to wake Sky up when he had gotten a memory back. He shuddered to think what would've happened if one of the team Five had tried to enervate him before Marcus reached them. It wouldn't have been pretty.

Shaking himself out of the thoughts he called for Shadow, who immediately appeared on his shoulder. Scribbling a short note he gave it to the phoenix and sent her to get Dora. He only hoped the girl would get there before Sky woke up.

Dora kicked a rock on her way bored as she walked around her back yard away from her house. She was dead bored and with the heat didn't have the energy to do much of anything. She wouldn't be able to see Sky until the evening as the boy was doing whatever he did when he wasn't with her and she didn't feel like training without him. Not with the heat anyway.

She slumped down on a bench by a small pond and let her gaze wander. She could see her parents' house out of the corner of her eyes. It was nothing special; just a normal three-floor-house with white walls and a small balcony. She didn't feel like going to there either. It was her home, had been for years now, but still it didn't feel right. She felt more at home at the Lux Manerium than in her parents' house and she had only been at the Manor for a few times.

Maybe it was the people that made a home and not the house itself, she often thought, but then again she lived with her parents and she did love them even though she didn't feel that close to them. No, it was more like wherever Sky was, she felt at home. Sky was the most important person in her life, always had been, even when she had thought him dead. He was her family no matter what. She trusted him with her life even when she knew he was keeping things from her, but she had confidence in him that he would tell her when the time was right. She couldn't deny feeling curious though, and had dropped subtle hints every now and then, which she swore had almost gotten Sky, but in the end had failed when Sky had caught himself before saying anything. Dora could admit she had been disappointed.

She shifted her gaze away from the empty house and looked at the glittering water of the pond, loosing herself in thought. Her parents were still at work and would be for who knew how long. Her mother was a healer at Saint Mungos and had to be on alert twenty-four/seven in case of an emergency and did long days at the hospital. Her father on the other hand worked for the Ministry as a – Dora didn't even know what he did there, not that she really cared that much anyway. The point is, he too was gone most of the time and Dora was left alone bored without anything else to look forward to than her training sessions with Sky in the evenings. Not that her parents knew about it. Sometimes they had to use a time turner to get her away for a few hours, if her parents happened to be at home, after all one can't every time get away with the excuse of visiting a friend every day at the same time.

Dora tore her eyes away from the pond as a flash of light caught her eye and she saw Sky's familiar Shadow appear next to her on the bench with a letter on her leg. She quickly took the note from the bird dreading its contents, thinking she would kill Sky if he cancelled their training session again without giving her a proper reason, especially now that she was dying of boredom. Opening the note she read through it raising her eyebrows at the request to come to the Manor immediately and the fact that it was from Sky's father, Marcus and not Sky himself.

"Can you take me there, girl?" She asked turning to the dark phoenix on her shoulder, who crooned in response nudging her to take hold of her feathers. Dora complied and soon the familiar yard of her house disappeared in a flash of light and she found herself in the kitchen of the Manor.

"Ah, Dora, good you're here." Marcus said entering the room as Shadow flashed away.

"Hi Marcus." Dora said. "What's up? Why did you call me here, my training session with Sky isn't for a few hours."

"Yes, I know." Marcus said. "Sky had a bit of an accident today while training… No nothing serious he just passed out…" He added hurriedly seeing Dora's worried face. "Has he told you of the memories he receives at times from his past?"

Dora nodded "Yes he has mentioned them. He told me he hasn't gotten any for a long time though."

"Yes that's true, but he did today, I believe." Marcus said. "He was going through a fake mission where he needed to retrieve an object from a certain destination, which happened to be an old shack, which, if I'm correct, triggered the memory of the night Blake and Fox died. I thought it would be best if you were here when he wakes up so that he won't panic and think you're dead too as sometimes some of his more traumatic memories make him think they're happening now."

Dora nodded in understanding.

"Where is he?"

"In the living room." Marcus said leading the way. As they entered the room Dora saw Sky lying on the sofa, looking very pale and troubled.

"How long has he been unconscious?" Dora asked stroking the boy's hair.

"Close to a half an hour." Marcus said and Dora could hear a note of concern in his voice.

"Is that normal?" She asked.

"It's the longest time he has been unconscious after receiving a memory." Marcus admitted. "The last time he was out of it longer than usual was when he saw his biological parents get murdered by Voldemort, but even then it was only fifteen to twenty minutes."

Dora winced at the thought. If what Sky saw in his memory was worse than seeing his parents getting murdered, what horrors had he witnessed during that night they lost their family? Dora was broken out of her thoughts as she felt Sky move under her hand stroking his hair. Sky was mumbling something under his breath that Dora couldn't make out and a frown formed on his forehead. The mumbling got louder and louder until the boy sat up with a start screaming "No!" his emerald eyes looking around in panic.

"Shhh… It's okay Sky." Dora soothed him taking his face gently in her hands, making him look at her. "It's okay; you're safe; we're safe."

Sky looked at him for what felt like an hour before whispering "Dora" so quietly she barely caught it, and wrapped his arms tightly around her and started crying. He cried like he had never cried before and Dora held him tightly sharing his pain, not noticing the tears falling from her eyes too as Sky sobbed to her shoulder.

"—I w-watched him b-burn alive in f–front of me and d-did n-nothing." He cried. "I-I can still s-smell h-his burning f-flesh…" His voice broke. Dora couldn't imagine what it had been like, didn't want to imagine it. Her magic had apparated her out of the building right away. She didn't hear or see what happened to Fox, who had been inside the shack with her. She was rather glad she didn't.

Sky continued crying for long time until no tears came out any longer. Still he kept holding on to Dora for a few minutes before lessening his hold and letting her go. He leaned back and rubbed his face from the tear-streaks just as Marcus re-entered the room and handed Sky a glass of water. Dora found she didn't remember when he had even left.

Sky took a gulp from the water.

"You okay Sky?" Marcus asked gently from the boy he regarded as his son.

Sky shook his head slowly his eyes closed, his hand gripping the glass so tightly his knuckles were white and Dora thought the glass would break any minute. Sky opened his eyes and Dora was taken aback by the intensity of his gaze, the emerald orbs blazing with rage.

"Sky?" She said cautiously and the boy closed his eyes again, taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He opened them again, but the fire in his eyes hadn't dimmed a bit, instead it had increased.

"I saw them." He said in a deadly quiet voice filled with rage. "I saw who killed them."

And the glass exploded.

Albus Dumbledore was not a happy camper as he paced back and forth in his office. The past year had not gone at all like he had planned; in fact all his carefully created plans had gone wrong from Harry Potter's disappearance to losing the Philosopher's Stone. He was only thankful he had been able to prevent Voldemort's survival from getting out. A few memory charms here and there wouldn't hurt anyone – it was for the Greater Good after all.

Yes, the Greater Good. How Dumbledore loved those words. Words were power and those particular words gave Dumbledore the power to do what he wanted. He was the beacon of the Light, no one would question his decisions and would be happy to do small favors for him, even honored that he Albus Dumbledore the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Head of Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump with Order of Merlin First class, would lower himself to ask for help from them, lowly subjects. Oh how he loved that power.

But right now, his power didn't make him feel any better. His power couldn't help him find Harry Potter or find out what had happened to the Philosopher's Stone. No, it didn't help him even to punish those damned Weasley twins for pulling a prank on Quirrell and exposing Voldemort and ruining his plans. No, he couldn't touch the twins – he had to keep the Weasleys happy, they were one of his strongest supporters after all. Maybe someday though…

Well, that could wait. They weren't important right now. Now he needed to figure out a way to tell Nicholas Flamel his Stone was missing without having to deal with the ancient wizard's wrath. He wished he could just get rid of the old man, who refused tell him how to create his own Stone. He was his apprentice after all! A mentor should teach his skills forward to his apprentice. To him! But no, the greedy bastard refused! Yes Dumbledore wanted nothing more than to kill his former mentor… if it only was so easy.

And Dumbledore would be his sole heir… he was his latest apprentice after all. And should Flamel and his wife have a small accident… there was bound to be some notes about the Stone in the Flamel Manor. Yes, a small, tiny accident… Dumbledore grinned plopping a lemon drop into his mouth. Accident indeed.

A/N: Thank you for reading, please review and tell me what you think. Suggestions are welcome as always.

Also, I have a question for you: Do you guys want shorter chapters (like this one) and faster updates or long chapters and slow updates (like once a month, maybe)?

- Dalnim