Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk, surveying the three men sitting across from him. He trusted all three, although with different things. He had never heard of anyone called Lady Door before, and she and her companion, Richard, were quiet unusual. They were both remarkably well informed about the Wizarding World, and the changes they implemented were quiet brilliant.

But now they had other things to concentrate on. He looked again at Remus, Severus and Alastor Moody.

"A few days ago, I received the following letter," he began, and quickly read aloud Remus' letter. Moody nodded, already knowing what was written within the letter - he was the recipient of a copy of the letter. Remus, too, knew about this - he was the one who wrote the letter. Severus, however, frowned.

"What, pray tell, are horcruxes?" He asked. Dumbledore explained, quickly summarizing the facts - soul shard, hard to kill, must be destroyed. There was a moment of silence, and then Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Are you certain we can trust this information, Albus?" He asked, sneering at Remus. Remus raised his wand in response.

"I swear on my magic that the person whom we call Lord Voldemort, also known as You-Know-Who or He-who-must-not-be-named, has made horcruxes. I swear on my magic that to the best of my knowledge, apart from the soul-shard in Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort has made five other horcruxes." There was a moment to let this sink in, then Remus raised his wand again. "Lumos." The faint beam of light proved that Remus hadn't lost his magic, and that everything he had said was true.

"Well then," Dumbledore began, "Let us begin with a trip to Voldemort's life, gathering in the form of memories of those who knew him. We'll watch the memories in my pensieve, and if it's too late when we're finished watching, we shall meet again in my office tomorrow, at the same time."

"And everyone swear that they won't tell anyone about the horcruxes or tomorrow's meeting time or place! Constant Vigilance!" Mad-Eye added. After the oath, Albus pulled out his pensieve, dropped the first memory inside, and everyone leaned in.

That night, Remus returned home shaken. They had watched Bob Odgen's memory of Merope, seeing how important the ring and the locket were to Marvolo. They had watched Tom Riddle's penchant for collecting treasures when Dumbledore first told him about magic. They had seen Slughorn's false memory about Tom asking him about Horcruxes, and they had watched Tom and the old woman with Hufflepuff's cup and the same locket.

Thankfully, Richard and Door already knew about Horcruxes, so he could safely tell them about all he learned without breaking his oath. By God, he was tired...

And then Harry entered the room. Remus felt faint - judging by Harry's slightly disturbed expression, he had heard everything that Remus had said.

"I want to get my wand tomorrow. I'll need to fight this Tom person, I heard you talking, so I need to start fighting now. I've read your books on wand-making, Uncle Moony, so I know everything that you do, now. Teach me about wards, with my wand, so I can make wards to protect all of us, and teach me how to fight. Properly. Uncle Moony, it's obvious you don't know much about wand-making, because after I read your books, it's obvious you don't know anything except what's in your books. So PLEASE just buy me books on warding and get me a wand and teach me to fight!"

Remus' first response was...

"You're so young!" Door whispered. But Harry wasn't - not really. He had been around adults most of his life, Fleur was three years older than him, and Ingress was, to his young-ish mind, practically adult. Tom's horcrux had been giving him power and information, further influencing his maturity. And lastly, Richard and Door treated him as a young adult - they simply thought of him as responsible. Or rather, they left his education up to Remus and simply took him around to different pockets of Time where he was expected to act responsible. The only one who treated him as a child was Apolline, and even she expected him to be Fleur's age.

"All right. We'll get your wand tomorrow. And the warding books. But I don't want your French slacking! Or your Occlumency or Animagus training... even if you already know the first due to Tom and are getting no-where with the second due to your age." Remus sighed tiredly. Richard nodded. He didn't fully understand all of this "Occlumency" and "animagus" stuff - so, Harry wanted to study one branch of magic instead of the other. Sure. Why not. He's a kid, Richard decided, he has time to figure it out.

Remus and Harry were standing inside Ollivander's Shop, with Remus dredging up what little he knew about Wards in order to tell Harry. He really needed more books on the subject.

a) they needed a power source.

b) they were three wards: 'compulsion' wards, 'alarm' wards, and 'activation' wards. A compulsion would 'hint' at you to act a certain way - although, once out of the ward's power, those compulsions will fade. An alarm ward would have some sort of magical tripwire and would warn you when someone would go through the tripwire. An activation ward would basically activate all your defense measure, which weren't wards. A ward wasn't a special wall that only let certain people through - it was a trip wire that only snapped when certain people crossed it, and then all your other defensive measures will be activated.

"So, for example, all of Hogwarts' halls were tripwires, and if the wrong person scampered across them, then they'd show up on the new maps and would probably get shot down by the new armed nymphs." Remus finished.

There was a moment of silence (except Ollivander's muttering about "This one? No, not rosewood...")

"How do wards get charged?"

"People's natural, ambient magic, I suppose. It's like body heat - the air around is get a bit hotter, a bit more charged with magic. Wards feed off that natural charge."

"Can you make wards feed off certain people? You said that the Hoggywards wards recognize people by their Dark Mark - so why not make wards feed off the Eaters? Like, in Diagon Ally and Vertic Ally and Re Ally and Knockturn Ally and Horizont Ally and Actu Ally and Numeric Ally, wards feed off the Eaters!"

"I'll suggest it to Dumbledore."

And thus Harry got his wand. Holly and Phoenix feather, brother wand to Voldemort, complete with a wand holster that strapped to the wrist. And new books on warding, of course.

While Harry was at home, struggling through all his new theory books (just because Tom was downloading information into his head was no excuse not to study NEWT- level potions and transfigurations and beginner's wards, which Tom never studied, according to Uncle Moony), Remus was with Mad-Eye, Severus and Headmaster Dumbledore.

"Why?"

"I'm sorry, Alastor," said Dumbledore, "I don't quiet understand the question."

"Well, I'm an auror, and Snape here's a Death Eater, and's far as I know, Remus got good marks on his DADA. But CONSTANT VIGILANCE! I refuse to just stroll into Little Hangleton, especially not into that old house. Naw. I spent all of this morning perfecting a new spell - it checks to see if there are horcruxes within a mile vicinity. And you know what? I say we go to Hangleton, cast the spell. If the Horcrux is there, we torch Riddle's old house with Fiendfyre."

"Not to mention," added Snape, "Who knows what traps that are inside that old house? No. Let's burn the entire house down, and then cast the spell again to check if there are any horcruxes left."

"Also, all of us casting the counter-curse to Fiendfyre should take care of it before it gets out of control." Added Remus. Dumbledore blinked.

"Well, that is certainly a far better plan. Let us go, then?"

All four wizards touched the pre-made portkey. Dumbledore glanced around, quickly taking in the village and applying notice-me-not charms on all of them and on the house with a snake nailed to its door. Mad-Eye cast the first spell, sending an iridescent blue hoop with it's center at his wand spreading through everything as it grew quickly. It reached a radius of a mile and quickly came back, sinking into Alastor's wand. A small black puff of smoke emerged from the wand, pausing in midair before fading away.

"There's a horcrux here, all right. Now we just have to destroy it. I'll say the Fiendfyre charm, and after thirty seconds, we all yell the counter, got it?" Mad-eye quickly took charge, and Dumbledore let him. Mad-Eye was younger and more paranoid. This was his forte.

"Three!... Two!... One! - FIENDFYRE!" A large fiery panther shot out of the wand and into the house, growing and spreading into more and more animals - a basilisk, a dragon, a beastly lion, all made of fire and all devouring everything in sight.

"NOW!" As all four wizards said the counter, the fire slowly disappeared. It took a long moment before the wizards caught their breath - all that was left of the house and the grass it stood on was a small pile of ashes and a single cracked ring, which Dumbledore was quick to place into his robes.

Mad-Eye cast his 'horcrux-sensing' spell again. This time, when the hoop came back, there was no black puff of smoke, and all four men once again portkeyed to Dumbledore's office.

"Listen," Remus began quickly, "we're all really tired from controlling Fienfyre and we got one horcrux. I say we come back tomorrow at the same time to track down a second one, after we've rested. Come on Mad-Eye, I'll walk you out."

The plan was reckless, crazy, and was ridiculously long-term. It would require ridiculous amounts of help. It would also incapacitate most of the Death Eaters. Mad-Eye approved, and immediately Apparated Remus into Longbottom Manner.

There, Remus, Mad-Eye, and Lady Longbottom (Neville's Grandmother) went over the plan again. Then Remus went to get Andromeda Black-Tonks, and Andromeda got Amos Diggory (who, as a Hufflepuff with a son soon to be at Hogwarts, could be trusted), and then Mad-Eye got Amelia Bones, who got Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Then Remus repeated his plan. Of course, only he and Mad-Eye knew about Horcruxes. Everyone else thought this was to make sure they knew who the enemy was in case of a repeat of the war. And, of course, to punish the Death Eaters for hurting their families or otherwise being racist pigs.

Everyone put so many notice-me-not charms on themselves it was almost hard to look at someone directly. Disillusionment charms quickly followed, and then some Felix Felices from Lady Longbottom.

That night, the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and all of their counterparts, various manors of various Death Eaters were all re-warded. As was Azkaban.

All non-Death Eaters would be able to tell if a Death Eater was lying. A magic map of the ministry was handed to Amelia. It worked like the Maurader's map, but the code was different: Flint to open, and Chalk to close. After all, Amelia Bones had read Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching Series, and a witch from the chalk with bones of flint was something she remembered. Also, all the Death Eaters' names were red when they showed up on the map.

There were plenty of "be kind, don't judge, we're all equal" compulsion charms, but those didn't work as well on adults. Still, they were something. All the charms that kept the ministry running - kept the place clean and windows showing nice weather - were replied. The same wards and charms were applied to various Diagon and Knockturn Alley shops.

Years ago, Mad-Eye had figured out something important. Voldemort summoned his Death Eaters by placing his wand on a Dark Mark. And that wouldn't work unless there was some sort of connection between each and every Death Eater and Voldemort. Ergo, there was some sort of magical network, which was kept 'open' by virtue of the Death Eaters' and Voldemorts' power. And if all the wards took power only from that network... well, first of all, if it were just Death Eaters' magic powering the wards in the Ministry and all the Alleys, then they'd all collapse from magical exhaustion within the week.

But it wasn't Death Eaters. No, it was the network, which meant that Voldemort's soul-shards were also powering these wards. And if the shards ran out of magic, then there was nothing binding the soul to the object, so it'd fly off and join with the main soul - Voldemort himself. Which effectively eliminated Horcruxes. Of course, this was assuming that Voldemort didn't try something during this time period... but still, it definitely weakened the Death Eaters.

Then, after a bit of consideration, Mad-Eye added a quick specification to the Hogwarts wards: That their main source of energy was the Death Network, not student's ambient magic. After all, it could reach the Network through Snape, and even if Snape no longer showed up on the wards as a Death Eater, he was still connected to the Network - he was still, like as not, marked.

After a bit more consideration, Mad-Eye took the others to Azkaban, adding some wards - those who weren't Eaters would be able to tell if the Eaters were lying, everyone was highly paranoid in Azkaban, and Azkaban fed on both the Network and the Dementors' natural magic. Then, Moody decided that they couldn't just let Dementors fly around Azkaban at any moment. So he set up another round of wards, and conjured portkey-chains.

The portkey-chains were put into a box, and Azkaban was given another set of wards and charms: If any dementor was farther than a mile away in any direction from Azkaban, a single chain per dementor would appear on their arms, chaining them together. The dementor would be forcibly portkeyed to within Azkaban, where the chains would then fall off and portkey back to their box. And this particular set of charms and wards fed of the magic of a dementor.

Mad-Eye was very optimistic - "We don't know how much magic those things have, but eventually, those set of wards will kill them just by draining them of magic and we're safe from those dark creatures!"

For a moment, Remus was worried about genocide. Then he decided that the average IQ of a Dementor was about 40. It would be like killing off all the ants on the planet, but easier and more rewarding and with a better outcome.

With that done, Remus apparated home, told Richard and Door and a listening Harry what happened and fell into bed. He had used WAY too much magic.

The new wards on Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley found their way into the network via a small golden cup in Gringotts. They found that the Network had a lot of energy and quickly began to drain it. Since the wards were physically closer to the cup than the rarely shopping rich Death Eater Lords, they drew most of the magic they needed from the cup, although a fair amount came from the Network.

The new wards in the Ministry confused a lot of people at first. Suddenly, Minister Fudge knew exactly when Lucius, his trusted adviser, was lying, and when he wasn't. It was slightly odd. There were lots of other people that he could do that with... and an awful lot wanted to just use him to push the agendas they wanted, not to further his political career. Maybe he shouldn't rely on them quiet so much... Bones was too stuck up on principle, but he would listen to her sometimes. Besides, most of the liars seemed weaker and weaker each passing month.

The wards on plenty of manners and the ministry made Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkingston and other families rather weak magically, though they didn't know it. Malfoy, though weakened, wasn't loosing his breath at quiet the same rate - a certain diary in his home, being there all hours of every day, was more easily accessible to the wards, so they drained the Network through the diary, thus taking more of the diary's magic. Just in case, Andromeda added the same wards to the Black family house, just in case some Death Eaters came to hide there.

A locket quickly began to power the wards which would have been never started up otherwise - there were no humans, no ambient magics, at the Black home.

Bellatrix and her ilk were dead within six months. Oddly, Sirius Black persistent in staying alive...

In Hogwarts, a diadem was loosing magic rather quickly. While Severus Snape was loosing magic, he wasn't loosing magic nearly as quickly as the others - as his Mark was scratched over, no wards drew magic directly from him, only through the Network.

The next day, four wizards went to a certain cave. One of them, a man with a peg leg, muttered a certain spell. After it disappeared, the man cursed before telling the others "It's not here."

There was a moment of silence. Then,

"Well, why don't we go and check on what's over there, anyway? We might learn something new." After a short whispered conference, one of the men whispered something and all the water between the men and an island disappeared.

Corpses began to rise, groaning. Each man shouted "Incendio!" quickly, following the instructions of the one with the peg leg - "Let it run wild! We want to destroy them all, so don't try to control the fire, let it spread, let your magic power it as much as possible! We're not dying at the hands of some Inferni!"

It was nearly half and hour later before there was nothing but ashes on the ground. No one wanted to walk on that, but a quick spell from Dumbledore made the ground made of marble. A quick crossing later, everyone was looking at a bowl on a pedestal, in which was a potion, underneath which was the not-horcrux. After trying to get rid of the potion in various ways, Snape determined that the only way to get rid of it was to drink it.

Remus promptly conjured a rat. It only managed a few spoonfuls, so Remus conjured another one - and so all four men conjured various rodents to drink the potion for them.

A quick "Alohamora!" Opened the locket for them, and the note inside it made Remus' heart sink.

"Regulus Black. Si... Sirius' brother."

There was a long moment of silence, then -

"Well. Naturally, the mangy dog's brother was a bother as well as the dog himself. I suggest we ask Mrs. Tonks to take us to the family house tomorrow, but right now, I want sleep." Severus turned and left, leaving the other three men to do the same.

Harry frowned at his books. Random parts made sense to him, like the transfiguration and occlumency and all his school subjects and the dark arts, but then warding was so confusing! Remus explained it all really well though. He'll wait for Remus to come and tell him... even if he couldn't really control his magic yet, it was good to know how the wards worked. But for now...

"Hey Fleur! Let's duel some more! Expelliarmus!"

Oh, yes. Fleur was hard to beat. This would be fun, and eventually he'd beat her. And then she'd have to give him chocolate! Those were the rules - the winner of the deal would give the looser chocolate, and he wanted to finally get some instead of allaying giving Fleur some chocolate. Unfair. This time, he'd win.

Or not.

"How'd you say Stup'fe?"

"It's STUPEFY, stupid!"

"I'm not stupid! Rematch! STUPEFY!"

He was SO getting that chocolate.