Author's Note: Alright, so I'm sorry I was a little slow getting out this chapter today, had a rough day at school and then ended up walking home for half an hour... Point is I had some stuff come up. Some of you have expressed concerns in regards to Tonk's Accent, it was a temporary thing, an act she put on if you will, meaning it's done now. Second thing, some of you expressed concern in regards to Hermione being a bit...naive. Look back at how she was behaving at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix, she was pretty damn silly to follow Dumbledore's orders as she did. She's smart but still a teenager, but relax, she'll wise up over time. Now what was another concern...I can't remember right now, I'll have to take another look back. Regardless I want to warn you all right now, this update rate is temporary, I managed to rewrite the prologue and about ten chapters in the last month, and now I'm releasing them in a bundle, Hopefully I can manage about the same amount next month. I nearly burned myself out permanently trying to do more than that in the original version, and thats probably why the quality and the direction of the story took a hit. Point is once a month I'll release what chapters I've written unless I get lucky, If by some miracle I'm really rocking' it, I might put out chapters more often. Just a warning.

BTW. I have had these chapters beta'd but sometimes the computer reverts to a pre-editted version. I honestly have no earthly idea why...and it's driving me nuts. More nuts than usual.

Oh! One last thing, some all time favourites fan fics and where to find em', I'd love to find more good stories. Tell me what you like about em.

Chapter 4: Shadows in the Dark

Many hundreds of miles away in a hidden shrine beneath an old and shattered monolith of dark stone, stood the man, if such he could be called anymore, who had once been known as Tom Riddle. He didn't like to be known by that name, in fact he despised it. He preferred to be know as Lord Voldemort. And for the first time since his death at the hands of the pathetic Potter brat, He felt fear. Not the slow nagging fear he always felt in regards to the concept of death, but the sharp gnawing fear he'd only felt a handful of times previously in his unnaturally long life.

But he felt it now, a calling had come into his blood and he had come as he had every time since the striking of his first pact. He imagined it was a similar feeling to that which his Death Eaters felt when he summoned them.

And though it irked him to no end. He now heeded the call of the one he knew to be his master. Like a dog on a leash, or slave on a chain. No Death Eater save himself knew this place, he only ever came here alone. As was demanded.

He came bearing a dead child, a pathetic whelp which had complained and whined bitterly before the end. But it was necessary for his needs, he needed the blood of a virgin innocent, to perform the rituals needed to answer the summons. He cast the limp body onto the cold stone of the circle at the centre of the shrine. And began his preparations. It was simply intolerable to be made to bow and scrape and fetch like a serving wench. But one did not ignore the call of his master, no, not even he, with his carefully crafted immortality, dared that.

He took some of the blood pooling from the corpse and wrote the required runes around the edge of the circle. These were not the runes you'd learn in a text book or tome, you could only be taught these runes one way, by being shown, by one who also served the master.

He completed the runes, and ignited them with fiendfyre. He bowed his head in supplication dropping to a knee in the shadows cast by the magical flames. He did not have to wait long, there was a twitch from the corpse before it rolled, over. And a chuckle emanated from its lifeless throat as it came to its feet. "Must you be so careless with your sacrifices Tom Marvolo Riddle? I do prefer it when my little puppets are not so bruised, I like them able to dance should I feel like it." The oddly echoing voice that issued forth, chastised. Voldemort was uncertain how to respond to such a query so he remained silent. It chuckled again then tutted under its breath as it paced within the circle. "And must you always select such substandard subjects? I would much prefer you choose something which wasn't so gelatinous as this little cretin." It pondered.

"My—Lord, I have heeded your summons what is you order?" Voldemort tried.

The little body stopped pacing and gave him an annoyed smirk. "So eager for me to leave are you Tom? Ah I do love how you shudder when you hear that name, delicious. But you are not entirely wrong, we do have business to discuss. My orders, unchanged, wreak havoc, conquer magical Britain and the world if you can manage it. But that is not why I summoned you here is it?" It taunted. "But first. Pain." It said an odd inflection on that last word. And Voldemort fell and started writhing on the ground. The creature returned to pacing as it eventually released its hold on Voldemort. "You know, you really have grown too bold in my absence, forgotten your place…I could for instance have snuffed out your miserable little half life with a word and there would have been nothing you could have done to stop it. But you fancy yourself a king now, a lord among men. I felt how much it chafes for you to answer my call. To submit." It said again that odd note entering its voice and Voldemort fell to his knee, his head bowed. It was a full minute this time before the word was lifted.

"You need to remember Tom, you are expendable, you are replaceable, you aren't needed, not truly. A useful pawn in the right place, and the right time, to cause a little havoc." It said disdainfully. "But we have other pawns, by the thousands. And Rooks, Knights, and Bishops as well. What is a pawn in the grand scheme of things?" It reminded him, and chuckled again.

"But I grow impatient," It spat. "I tire of my confines, as do the others, we wish to dance and play beneath the stars. And it is growing closer to a time which we might do that, but not if our pawns do not obey their orders…Tom, I can hear one of my brothers across the waves even from here. We are so very close to achieving what we need to press forward, and all it requires is…THAT YOU DO YOUR FUCKING JOB!" It roared, causing Voldmort's bones to squeal with pain, and the earth to tremble around them. "You have been tasked with bringing a single nation to its knees, and crushing the rebellion from it. And what do you do? You chase after a boy, because of a prophesy. You waste time, time that could be used completing our mission. Do you know what happens if you fail to do as we've instructed? All your pretty little baubles housing shitty little fragments of your sundered soul are destroyed. Your obsession is costing us, Tom. You have caused this battle to stretch on long enough across dozens of fields of combat. The enemy has grown wise to our machinations, they bend their will to support their champion, and we have expended too much to counter all their plays. You will do as you must and find your damn prophesy, as is destined, then you will DO YOUR JOB! And if you cost us to much you will die whether you succeed or not Tom. So my advice to you is this. Stop wasting time, and ask for what we can spare…" It ordered.

Voldemort stumbled to his feet. "My…Lord. I request aid in my mission." He said dutifully, The terror of death singing in his blood.

The creature laughed "Then you shall have it, some of it at least, we will withhold three of the remaining five until you complete your little hunt for the bauble. You will be faster, you will be stronger, you will be more cunning. You shall have the knowledge of how to make servants from dead flesh. Now use these gifts to speed us on our way? Wouldn't you dear Tom?" The voice taunted and Tom doubled over as his body warped with magic emanating from the creature in the circle. When he next stood he was broader and more heavily muscled than before, though not brutish by any stretch, his body was now more honed than his resurrected form had managed. An advantage that would augment his magic as well as raw physical ability. "Now, then make your plans, free your little pets, and get the job done. And remember,, I will not be forgiving should you delay?" The voice sighed, and then the body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

It was gone, the spell had run its course and its tenuous connection to the world severed, but still Voldemort trembled and remembered to say his parting benedictions as was expected. "Yes, My Lord"

Shadow stepped, quite appropriately, out of the Shadows and hurried across the open floor to the figure standing beneath the chambers lone spot light. The bright lamp casting deeper shadows from the two agents cowls.

Senior Agent…an esteemed rank within the organization. Not many made it to Officer, let alone Agent, so Senior Agent said just how skilled this particular agent was as compared with the rest of the rank and file. But the figure now standing across from the Senior Agent was something different, something special, A Director. That rank was only held by the chiefest operators of the institution, the top echelon, the spy master, the King Spider.

Shadow shifted uncomfortably, the Director glanced at its new companion and shook his head tiredly. "So what is your opinion on what you've observed of the subject?" He asked loosening his shoulders by rolling them idly.

Shadow gave an eager nod. "Dangerous as hell sir," this was said with a touch of awe. "And he's just a boy sir, roughly the same age as your daughter."

The Director chuckled indulgently. "Dangerous as hell" is that your professional opinion Shadow?"

The Senior Agent's mouth quirked slightly in the small barely illuminated area beneath the cowl. "Possibly unstable sir, and highly destructive when provoked, I went over the scene once the others had left," The Agent explained. "I'm sure I wasn't seen mucking about, never seen anything like it. Took down fourteen of those whoever they were's, and actually killed a soul sucker, I've never heard of that before." Shadow stopped to considered for a moment, "Pretty impressive repertoire of spells from what I can tell, didn't get a chance to catalogue, Had to be careful with the Aurors and that Director of theirs around…"

Director Hill nodded pleased. "Good, it makes my job a hell of a lot easier when that's the case." He considered, "Should we intervene then? We can remove him if it comes to that?" He asked.

There was a pregnant pause, eventually venturing an opinion, "I believe that would be an overreaction at this point sir, he believed his friend had just been killed, people do crazy things when they're hyped on adrenaline and fear." Was the observation.

"Okay then, as Agent in place in that arena, what would your recommendation be Shadow?" The Director asked pacing.

The Agent considered. "Observe and reevaluate, let's get a better look at what he's made of and who he is, then make a decision." Was the conclusion Shadow came to after a good minute of silent thought.

Hill laughed skeptically. "And how do you recommend we observe him on such an ongoing basis?" He asked.

"We need someone in that school sir," Was the honest reply.

"Oh? Is that all?" He replied chuckling. "You know how that old man is, especially after that incident we caught wind of." He pointed out, thinking of the intel they'd received following an incident the previous spring and summer.

"I believe I have a potential in sir, I've been working on an avenue…" The Sergeant offered hesitantly afraid to put it out there.

Hill thought that over, eventually nodding. Shadow was not prone to falsehood or unjustified self promotion, in short, Shadow could be trusted when making such claims. "Run with it, but I want to know if failure is imminent, I want to know if he's a rogue element in the making, if you can't handle it if that situation arises, call for support and well handle it for you." Shadow was silent contemplating the possibility of the boy being killed. Hill sighed shaking his head. "Then you'd better do your job well if we want to avoid that, hadn't you?" He intoned.

They stood in silence for a time beneath that light. Shadow turned hesitantly, preparing to leave. "Shadow?" The Director called and the Agent stopped.

"Yes, Director?"

"I heard your report on that incident on the roof we heard about, what's your take on that?" He asked idly looking at his hands.

Shadow sighed. "I worry they're getting close sir, we've been seeing more and more incidents like that with their people,"

Hill nodded sombrely. "Me too, that is to say, I worry about that as well, we shall have to figure out something to do about that won't we? They can be quite destructive, if we hope to survive a conflict with them, we must outthink them, our intentions must remain secret" With that he dismissed the Agent with a wave of a hand, and the Senior Agent merged with its namesake.

Sadly, Harry did not get two night in a row without nightmares. He woke in the middle of the night shortly after midnight when he had another one. This one was slightly different than the previous ones. This time his mind added a new terror, Hermione fled from him in terror, following an argument, and this time it was the fear caused by him that killed her, not torture by Bellatrix, it ended with him finding her lying on the ground still clutching at her chest in agony, her eyes vacant. At which point he'd practically flown out of bed howling.

He sat there for close to half an hour, before his own heart truly started to calm down. He was still too wired to go to sleep so he worked for a time on his Occlumency in the hope of tiring himself out again. While he worked he thought. At least while I'm awake I'm better. Seeing Hermione, alive and well today? Like no other feeling in the world. He admitted a little happier just thinking about it.

He thought of all the times they'd spent together over the years. He considered himself incredibly lucky, all things being equal. Not many people could hope for a friend as unerringly loyal as Hermione.

It was with that happy thought in his head that he eventually fell asleep again.

—-

Harry didn't know it, but his episode had woken Hermione herself and Kara in their room next door. Hermione shook her head as she lay back against her pillow, "That was a really bad nightmare from the sounds of it," She noted worried, to the other girl who was looking pretty spectacularly frazzled by the wakeup call. "Do you think I should go check on him?"

Kara was silent long enough that Hermione wondered if she'd fallen asleep. "No, I don't think so, he'll probably be wanting privacy while he gets himself under control, and he may be embarrassed if you bring it up.

Hermione sighed nodding, that fit with what she knew of Harry, he didn't like to make a spectacle of himself, now that she was paying attention, she wondered why that was. Previously she just dismissed it out of hand as shyness or introversion. "Something's wrong, he didn't used to be like this," She noted tiredly.

"Considering all the things it sounds like he's been through, are you really surprised?" Kara asked. "I mean, seeing someone get killed in front of you, and then being blamed for it? Then getting ambushed, not once but twice, by people who look to be working for the government? It's amazing he's not had a major breakdown" She noted tiredly.

Kara wasn't wrong, she just didn't know how true that statement was. Harry's parents were killed when he was a child. He'd been forced to live in the home of relatives he disliked for the next eleven years. At school he'd been set upon by bullies almost immediately. Then defeated a troll…for her no less. Then battled a dark wizard to the death. Then he'd battled a Basilisk, with a sword of all things the following year, fought Dementors, an apparent madman, and ran from a werewolf the following year, and then gone through the tournament and associated mess last year… She would have expected him to go off the deep end in a big way sooner than this. Regardless, she would need to watch him, but she'd need more information before she could really come to any conclusions. She was going to thank Kara for giving her advice but the girl was snoring softly once again. Hermione smiled thinly then rolled over and went to sleep herself.

—

Harry woke up tired and more than a little sore then next morning. He'd fallen asleep propped up against his pillow, so now he had a crick in his neck on top of everything else.

He stared up at the ceiling trying to figure out just where he was for a good ten minutes before his brain switched on properly, and he rolled out of bed. He stumbled to his feet and shuffled out into the hall towards the showers. He stopped when he almost ran into Kara going the other way. "Hey, how's our resident Angel doing?" He asked yawning tiredly.

She smirked, then replied croakily. "Careful saying that bone head. I'm fine, a little blown away by it all still. Being dead for years will do that to you." She explained.

"Just how long had you been gone?" Harry asked curious.

She waggled her head. "It's sort of up in the air because of how messed up time is, not only between streams, but within the afterlife itself, where it's not precisely linear as well? But giving you a rough answer to your question. If you judged it by my home timeline five-six years? If you judged it by here, only a year, if you take into account the time in the afterlife, around twenty." She laughed as his brow furrowed trying to figure out how that would work. "See? I told you it was complicated. It'd be better if I wasn't suffering from jet lag." She admitted.

"You know you never gave me the details of how you got here, where you got dropped and how you got to England I mean." He clarified.

She shrugged. "Woke up in a hotel room at the airport, had some tickets and such on the bed beside me, instructions on how to get to get to Diagon from Heathrow. Didn't expect to run into you there, they had a room lined up for me at the inn. But I guess sometimes you get lucky? Anyways, I was too happy to ditch Newark as fast as I could. Place is…" She sighed. 'It's awful, lets just leave it at that?" She said. "I took a plane here, ate too many of those cadbury mini eggs, got ridiculously sick. Got here, followed the directions and thats the story really." She said. "I had enough money to keep me up there until school comes around." She noted dryly. "Guess now I can save it for a rainy day huh?" She stopped as the floor boards in the next room creaked.

Hermione looked at herself in the small mirror in the girls bedroom morosely. We look like a zombies from one of those horror flicks, minus the brains and blood spattered everywhere. Ugh, it's not like we'd ever be mistaken for a stunner Hermione, she told herself shaking her head. Then shook those thoughts from her mind, it wouldn't do her any good to dwell on them. She looked the way she looked and that was that. Plus thinking about it would damage her morale after a time.

She went to the door and stumbled out into the hall, nearly bumping into the two people who had been chatting quietly on the other side of the door. Harry and Kara had been standing, arms crossed loosely over their chests heads tilted looking at each other seriously. "Morning," She groaned yawning and rubbing at her eyes tiredly.

Harry smiled sympathetically at her. "How'd you sleep?"

She shrugged, she wasn't going to mention his nightmare woke her. "Does anyone ever really sleep well in this place?" She asked a smile touching the corner of her mouth.

Harry nodded in agreement. "My bed has this spring thats half rupturing out of it, it hits me right in the kidney," He noted sourly.

Kara was shaking her head at them for some reason, she eventually turned to Hermione, "Hermione, could you help me out with something?" She asked uncertainly.

Hermione nodded. "Sure what's up?"

"I talked with Sirius last night before we all hit the sack, they have this cream which is supposed to help with curse burns." She explained. "I got hit in the back with a curse when Harry and I got ambushed downtown. Its right where I have trouble reaching it." She apologized.

Hermione nodded understanding. "Sure, you have it with you?" She asked. Kara wiggled a small tub of the substance at her. "Come on then," She led the way into the bathroom as Harry wandered off in search of something…That reminds me, I really do need to keep an eye on him.

They closed and locked the door behind them and Kara turned away from her and rolled up her shirt. Hermione was surprised enough she actually whistled at what she saw.

First, was the scope of the impact burn. Roughly circular, the burns followed the blood vessels and nerve bundles creating a sort of angry red tree branch pattern.

Second was the tattoos. She had a massive and extensive back tattoo, of angel's wings. Six of them over all, two of which rode up on her shoulder blades and over upper arms, the second pair sat lower and curved around her sides and she could see flared up under her breasts. A pair of nicely full ones that had Hermione sighing jealously inside, as much as she tried to be above such things she couldn't entirely avoid a little bit of it. She apparently been concealing them under her baggy clothing, Hermione couldn't help but wonder why. The third pair curved lower under her rib cage and down over hips. "Huh. Angel wings?" Hermione asked grabbing the ointment and rubbing it into the wound.

Kara chuckled. "I know, not exactly angelic am I?" She noted, almost a touch sadly.

"What do they mean?" Hermione asked curious.

Kara stopped for a moment, "Personal stuff, I'm…not really comfortable talking about it just yet." She admitted shyly. In all honesty she didn't know what it meant, as a Reaper she'd only ever had two wings, why had Ezekiel added additional pairs when he reset her?

Six wings, the distinguishing feature of true Angels of God, the Archangels, the Seraphim. The Captains of Gods army? Me? I'm no leader, nor am I virtuous enough to be considered an Angel. She noted sadly.

Hermione nodded unoffended. "Huh. You hadn't struck me as the religious type."" She explained.

Kara laughed. "You find it surprising? You're a witch, living in a world of magic," She pointed out.

Hermione chuckled as she rubbed in the last of the lotion. "True, and I'm not opposed to the possibility, it's just I have to draw the line at what I know, otherwise, in this world I'd be reading the quibbler in no time,"

"Fair enough," Kara granted rolling down her shirt.

"I'm glad you believe in something, so long as it makes you happy, but thats a discussion for another time, now? I've got to kick your butt out while I grab a shower." Hermione said smiling, but still firmly pushing the girl out of the room.

Close to ten minutes later she shuffled out of the room again and into the hall way. She was about to head down into the kitchen, when she heard a clatter and an uproar in the room housing the owls, and changed course.

The room she'd come to think of as the messenger room, the place they kept the owls and where Harry had had the confrontation with Ron the previous day, was in a state of minor uproar thanks to a messenger owl. A hireling judging by the coin purse affixed to it's leg. The owls were staring at the new comer and fluffing their plumage, bobbing their heads uncertainly. Pigwidgeon, who was still hanging around was bouncing off the bars of the cage, trying to throw itself at the newcomer.

She payed the owl after taking the message from its grasp. A letter for her, from her parents judging from the handwriting. She took the message and headed downstairs.

As she approached the kitchen door she caught snippets of the conversation, "…Along to the hearing, you are a witness after all…" Harry trailed off hopefully. "Also it'd be nice to have some friendly company." He noted.

Kara snorted. "Of course, besides, seems I've got a mission which requires me to cover your ass." She noted sarcastically as Hermione paced through the door.

"Who's on a mission to save Harry's bum, because I think I've been on that mission for coming up on five years now?" Harry and Kara gave a start as a freshly showered Hermione shuffled into the room. She had wet hair, and was still in her pyjamas. "Cereal?" She asked groaning a little, still a bit groggy.

Harry passed the box and the milk. "Kara might have to come along as a witness tonight. They've scheduled my hearing for then. I have a hunch it'll be made into a mess by Fudge, but I'll head in early see if I can mitigate that at all ahead of time." He explained. "Oh and by the way I appreciate your years of service in regard's to said mission of saving my arse." He teased wearily.

She snickered. "No problem," She eyed them tiredly, then had a thought, "Do you want me to come along?" She asked semi-hopefully, she'd never been to the ministry before.

Harry nodded quickly, "Sure, if you want to, like I said I could do with some friendly faces," He noted, smiling slightly.

"See Harry, you'll have a friend in your corner now for your trial," Kara pointed out happily. Harry grinned back.

"Two, if you were serious about coming?" He asked. Kara blushed slightly at his implied declaration of friendship and smiled slightly at her bowl of cereal.

Hermione watched that for a moment, she peered closely at the two across the table from her. "So…You two," She started tentatively. "Harry, I've been wondering, you and Kara…are you two sleeping together cause I'm seeing some looks?" She asked shrewdly.

Harry smiled upon seeing Kara's wide eyed look, and chuckled, he turned to Hermione, "No, we had to share a hotel room though," He said simply, for some reason this made Hermione sigh in relief.

Kara smiled and laughed shaking off the shock. "Yeah, that's right. No fun of that sort. Not that I don't think you'd be rock'n in the sack." She teased Harry.

Hermione practically shot milk out her nose. "Ugh, don't do that to me when I'm eating. I didn't need to know." She complained smiling weakly.

"Hey your loss sister, great fantasy material this one, I'm sure." Kara teased.

"Dear God, Kara" Harry said shaking his head in reproach.

"What, you are, not that I've used you for that…yet." Kara said giving him a lopsided grin and winking at him.

"Your both kinda young for even considering doing that together, aren't you?" Hermione said concerned, at the sparks she was seeing.

"Nothing happened Hermione, besides I can't really help what just decides to pop into my brain, I'm a hormonal teenager after all." Harry replied dryly. Thinking of his actual age. He got lost in the math of calculating forty-seven resets. He settled on "sort of over eighteen."

"Not my first time, but I think he'd make me wish it had been." Kara responded. "As for too young, eh, I figure me and Harry are both pretty mature for our ages. So…yeah," She said with a shrug.

"Alright, I just worry for your sakes. Someones gotta do it." Hermione said simply, worried by their cavalier attitudes.

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Harry said sincerely, he thought of all the times Hermione had had his back. Sadly this also led into a more painful memory, and grimaced a little. Hermione noted it, and added it to the list of odd reactions she'd seen from Harry lately. Sirius chose that moment to shuffle through the door, he looked miserable. Harry nodded to him smiling a bit, "Hey Sirius," He greeted genuinely happy to see his Godfather.

Sirius smiled slightly, at his godson's enthusiasm at seeing him. "Hey pup, doing a little better today?" He asked dryly.

"In what way?" Harry replied equally dry. "I'm still unhappy with our illustrious leader, but am I in a good mood now? Sure…" Harry allowed looking reasonably relaxed.

"Well that's something," Sirius agreed. "You do know getting in Dumbledore's way is usually really stupid right?" He asked.

Harry snorted. "I'm not a moron Sirius, I know he's going to be difficult, but I bet I've got some tricks up my sleeves yet." He said smiling that knowing smile of his that made Hermione worried. "Pettigrew's status as secret keeper and my Lordship, weren't the only things I found out in my parent's will." He said in satisfaction.

Sirius was understandably preoccupied by that first part. But Hermione noted the next part and filed it away under the subject of things to ask about later. "You really think you can exonerate me with that? Dumbledore wasn't able to get a line on someone willing to represent me against the ministry when he made discrete inquiries." He noted.

"It may be, I'll see what I can't kick loose tonight," Harry promised. "But this all reminds me about something else. Who else is here?" He asked curious.

Sirius thought about it for a moment. "Tonks and Remus, Tonks crashed here after everything last night, Remus hasn't really got anywhere better to be so he hangs around here a lot, whenever he's not…Never mind." Sirius said realizing he'd nearly blabbed something. Harry knew it was about guard duty outside the Department of Mysteries, but he couldn't explain away knowing that so he feigned polite interest. But Sirius just waved it off uncertainly.

"Could you grab them?" Harry asked when more information wasn't forthcoming.

Sirius nodded and pushed back to his feet and walked out of the room.

—-

Tonks, was startled out of a particularly sound sleep by her cousin pulling open the curtains of her window and letting in the glaring morning sun. "Aghhhh, Why?" She groaned flipping over so the sun at least wasn't in her face.

"It's ten in the morning, also boy wonder wants to speak with you, me and Remus." He explained smiling at her distressed sound. "Come on Nymph, up and at her." He said laughing.

"Get out first, I'm in my skivvies, I'll be down as soon as I've cleaned up." She said giving him a baleful squint. He threw up his hands in surrender and walked out closing the door behind him. She rolled out of bed and grabbed her clothes and pulled them on, she used her morph to fill her hair, with drawing it till it was basically a buzz cut then growing it out again to get rid of the knots. She yawned as the image in the mirror became semi tolerable and slipped out the door and wandered towards the kitchen. She could swear that Harry was out to get her…Well at least he wasn't shouting at her like he had at Dumbledore, the boy had big brass ones, that was for sure. Either that, or he was just crazy.

—

Harry and the girls finished their breakfast and sat in companionable silence waiting for the others. It took a little time, but eventually they rolled in together. Tonks still looking sleepy and Remus, predictably, looking pretty seriously haggard.

Harry, who was still carrying his copy of the will in his singed hoody pocket, something he had taken to doing in the interest of being able to read his parents words whenever he wanted to, handed off the folded letter to Sirius who read it and then handed it off smiling fondly in memory of his old friend. Remus' reaction was similar, laughing tiredly at a couple of points and protesting being given a whole property. Tonks was as expected a little more expressive than the other two, barking laughs and such at appropriate sections. She turned to Harry and smiled, "Your dad was right, I would have made an awesome big sister." She proclaimed proudly. "We would'a gotten into so much trouble."

"Saw a picture at my parents old apartment, not far from where we met," Harry said to Tonks. "Depicted a pair of adults with a young girl with pink hair. Looked like an aspiring hair stylist, any chance that'd be you?" He asked smiling.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, not noting Harry's odd twinkling eyes. Tonks beat her to it this time. Smiling slightly, "I'm not a hair stylist Harry, this isn't dye or a spell. I can change my appearance at will," She explained. "I'm a metamorph,"

Harry was silent for a moment as he considered that, then nodded, "Sounds like a useful talent to have in your line of work." He noted, thinking of some of her comments in his previous life.

Tonks was impressed, the first thing most people seemed to do, well meaning or not, is request a demonstration. That could get real tiring to say the least. Hey Tonks, change your hair colour, make it longer, make your nose bigger or smaller! Hey Tonks make your breasts bigger! That last one almost always resulted in an argument if not an outright fight. Harry just noted it's usefulness as a tool and left it at that. Not bad kid, if you were a few years older… she joked to herself mentally.

Harry noticed something and nodded to Hermione. "Got a letter?" he asked pointing to the letter in Hermione's hand as Sirius and Remus wandered off as the conversation turned general.

Hermione gave a start and looked at the envelope in her fingers. "Oh yeah, I forgot," She said sheepishly and tore the end of it to pull the letter out. She scanned it and sighed. "From my parents, I've forgotten to mail them as often as I should. They want me to send a message letting them know how I'm doing." She explained. She knew she shouldn't complain, her parents loved her, that was more than some people could say. And they were serious about that love for her. "Harry, can I borrow Hedwig? If they want to send anything, it'll be too heavy for Pigwidgeon." She noted.

Harry nodded. "Sure," He said simply as she got to her feet.

Hermione hurried up the stairs ignoring the laughter of Sirius and Lupin in the drawing room. She made her way up into the messenger room as she thought of it, and grabbed a quill some ink and some parchment. How badly she wanted a ball point and paper. But the Wizarding world got confused when you did that, with the exception of Harry of course. She started writing. She'd been thinking about it for a while last night and this morning. And as loath as she was to admit it, she simply didn't know enough to properly assess and diagnose what was going on with Harry, the trend of odd behaviour had continued today, even with those he'd clashed with in absence. She needed more…

So in her letter she told her parents about how she herself was doing and requested they send along some of their texts on mental health, and her laptop with its solar charger, if they were able. The texts would be a solid start, being back stopped by peer reviews and citations, then she could venture into the internet with some background in the topic and could avoid the worst of the falsehoods. Thankfully Grimmauld place, was not so magical, as Hogwarts was, as to prevent the use of electronics within it. The higher a places magical index was the harder time electronics had.

She folded the parchment and sealed it then handed it off to Hedwig, Harry's beautiful snowy owl and told her where to deliver it. Happy to be let out of her cage Hedwig gladly took off carrying her message.

—

"So what did they leave you, I know what the will said…?" Tonks asked curious as Hermione returned a few minutes later.

"A lot of money and a couple of properties, oh and a title." Harry replied ruefully. Kara snorted from the side lines.

"A lot of money, that's an understatement" she laughed.

"I'm not making a big deal out of it." Harry said easily.

"How much Harry?" Hermione asked curiously. She knew Harry hadn't exactly been flush with cash before, so if this made things a little easier on him…But why was he evading?

"I don't wanna go into it…" Harry complained.

"You are now speaking to Lord Harry Potter of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter owner of indeed a great many apartments and…" Kara pontificated, but stopped when she saw Harry's expression. "An unspecified but comfortable number of Galleons." She finished not missing a beat. "Isn't it nice to know you won't run out of cash in the next month?" She said smiling brightly.

"Yeah, but I don't wanna live in those houses necessarily. I'm mean they're empty, and full of my dead parents old stuff. Can anyone else say ick?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"Ick" said Tonks smiling brightly, leaning back easily in her chair and smiling at her cousin who was returning from his little chat with a werewolf.

A thought occurred to Harry. "Hey that all reminds me. Tinker!" He yelled.

A moment later there was a clap and Tinker was standing in the middle of the table. "Hey Harry, how's it going…Whoa, this place has seen better days." She said eyes widening as she looked around. Kreacher paced out of the room again muttering about mudbloods, blood traitors, an irate mistress and such. "Hey watch your mouth mister, or I'll fireball you!" She shouted after the grumpy old elf.

Harry smiled at the antics. "Everybody, this is Tinker, one of the remaining family elves, she was my mother's assistant before Godric's." he explained, Tinker waved.

"Tinker this is Sirius, my god father, Tonks, Hermione, and of course you've already met Kara…Oh and the elf was Kreacher he came with the house, which has a screaming portrait which likes to give orders." He noted.

"Oh, dear that'd explain the muttering, elves are usually trained not to follow orders from portraits. Sure way to fall to the madness." Tinker said shaking her head sadly.

"How are you enjoying Hogwarts?" he asked, leaning forward a little and peering at the elf curious.

"It's great, got a few new staff members I think, and it's nice to work with others again, especially elves." She said bobbing her head happily. "Do you want me to remove the screaming portrait?" She asked.

Sirius was of course interested. "You can do that?" he asked.

"Of course, we'll put it in the screaming portraits lock up at the school." She agreed. Harry was willing to bet that place was one of the room of requirements many variants.

Harry waited for Sirius to start nodding enthusiastically before giving the go ahead. "Go for it, watch out for curses, and watch out for Kreacher. It's the portrait covered by the drapes at the end of the hall." He advised.

"Okay Harry," She said smiling brightly and hurrying out of the room. He didn't have to wait long before the ruckus started. There was loud clattering, a large amount of screeching from mistress black, bellowing and croaking from Kreacher, and then a whirlwind of motion as Kreacher streaked into the room, and about in circles, as Tinker, riding on his shoulders with the portrait covered and strapped to her back, used his ears to steer him about. She directed him into a cupboard door beneath the sink at which point he collapsed in a heap. She jumped off him. "Yup, he's definitely got the madness, you'll wanna talk to his owner about that." She said breathlessly, she snapped her fingers and the portrait disappeared. "I trust you remember what I was telling you about that?" She asked and Harry nodded. "Good, cuz' poor old elf's got only a short time left without that portrait unless you change things up for him." She advised.

"So what did you need Harry?" She asked happily.

"Uh, I was just wanting to introduce you mostly, could you send Dobby along from Hogwarts? I'd like to speak with him." He requested.

"Absolutely. Whooo, that was the most fun i've had in ages." She said happily then she apparated with a crack.

"Holy cow, that is the happiest elf I've ever seen," Tonks said stunned by all the cherriness.

"I think that's just Tinker," Harry noted as another crack occurred and Dobby appeared in his ratty little pillowcase, which he was already wringing nervously.

"Harry Potter Sir wished to talk with poor Dobby sir? Sir?" He said nervously, he had that odd tick under his eye still though it was significantly less intense than before.

Harry was as ever, happy to see the little elf, "Hey Dobby, I actually have an offer for you if you're interested. How'd you like to work for my family, you've met Tinker and her lot right?" He asked.

"Harry Potter sir is offering Dobby a job working for Harry Potter sir?" the elf asked agape.

"Yes," Harry agreed, smiling gently.

The elf threw himself at Harry and clutched tightly to his chest. "Thank you Harry Potter sir, Harry Potter is a great wizard and Dobby would be happy to work for him sir!" he babbled, tears leaking from his eyes.

"Excellent, then you feel free to join Tinker and the others, they know the orders." Harry said patting the elf on the back reassuringly. "Tell Tinker I give her the go ahead for any uniform she and you can dream up." He told Dobby, who saluted proudly sticking out his chest, before disappearing with a crack.

"And if Tinker was the most Happy, Dobby would be the most Neurotic." Sirius noted wryly.

"Poor soul used to belong to the Malfoys," Hermione murmured sadly, Sirius winced in sympathy. "He likes Harry though, rather a lot, so perhaps it's a good thing you're taking him on?" She speculated, a look of concentration as she eyed Kreacher's unconscious form. "Tinker talked about the madness. What is that?" She asked curious.

Harry nodded, understanding her interest. "Thought that might interest you. House Elves have been in "service" to wizards for a very, very long time. Long enough they've adapted mentally to working with us. Unfortunately for them, this is…detrimental when they don't have a master, or a clear set of directives." He explained, he noted even Sirius was nodding in interest.

"When they go without for too long…They crash, mental breakdowns, insanity, and eventual death." He finished. Hermione gasped. "Point is Elves are such now that they require a master to survive long term, to do without is to die eventually. Some would no doubt argue better to die free then live a slave, well, they'd die out if they were all freed out right, right now." He warned thinking of S.P.E.W.

"Oh no." Hermione said horrified.

"Yeah, so we'll need to rework S.P.E.W a bit." He said in agreement, then turned to Sirius while Hermione explained what S.P.E.W to Tonks who was laughing uproariously at the name. "Sirius, unless you want Kreacher to go totally insane and then die, you need to act as his master properly from now on, he'll still be a resentful little clot for a while I'm sure, but it will improve as he gets used to taking orders from you and not a painting. That thing is likely the only reason he's lived this long." He explained and Sirius nodded agreement.

"Sure, I think I can manage that for the poor bugger." He said solemnly.

"Now then where were we?" Harry asked. "I was, talking about…Oh right, anyway's I don't really want to live in those old apartments, I imagine I'll sell them off once I've sorted through the stuff inside. So i'm kinda living out of my trunk and back pack until I get to Hogwarts." He finished his interrupted thought.

Sirius was looking sheepish. "Er…You know Harry, I know it's not the nicest place, but if you wanted to live here…" He offered gesturing around. "I know it won't be comfortable or whatever with the Order always under foot, but…I'd be more than happy to have you around." Sirius offered sincerely.

"I might just take you up on that." Harry said grinning. There was a clattering upstair and the sound of owls.

"I think that might be the mail." Hermione said. "I'll go get it." She hurried from the room.

Kreacher was starting to stir and Sirius got up and crouched beside the old elf as it struggled to it feet. "Hello Kreacher, I have instructions for you," He said formally.

Kreacher appeared dazed but nodded understanding. "Yes, Master Sirius, shame of mother's womb?" He croaked.

Sirius offered a wry smile at the insult. "I need you to clear the house's third floor of all curses. Be careful so as to not get yourself hurt. Once that is done clean that floor thoroughly and report back to me for new orders." Sirius said peering intently at the elf. Kreacher was still wobbling a little but nodded a little more firmly and staggered out. "Well hopefully that'll help the old sod." He said shaking his head sadly as the little fellow stumped out.

Hermione when she returned, with a daily prophet, was looking thoughtful enough Harry felt the need to ask what was on her mind. "What's up 'Mione? What are you thinking about?" He asked curious about what had the girls brow furrowing in concentration.

She gave a start at his addressing her and shook herself out of whatever was on her mind. "Oh, just thinking about what you said about the will earlier, you said you'd learned other things from it beyond what you mentioned at the time?" She asked circumspectly.

He looked at her thoughtfully and shrugged. "Among other things, I learned I wasn't the only one with doubts about Dumbledore's leadership," He noted. "Apparently dad wasn't so enthused either." The others were looking varying degrees of sour, with the exception of Kara who was idly staring at the ceiling. Harry smiled thinly and turned to Sirius. "Sirius? What was the state of the last war just before Voldemort was defeated?" He asked.

Everyone except for Kara, who smiled ruefully at him, flinched or squawked at his use of the monster's name. Sirius was the one to answer, "We were losing, he had us on the ropes." He said, quite possibly unaware that he was making a muggle boxing reference, causing Harry to smile thinly.

Harry nodded. "Exactly, and the only reason that changed was because of a fluke." He agreed. The adults looked dubious so he explained. "It was no strategy of Dumbledore's, or me who killed him last time." He said simply, "I was after all, only a baby, It was mum who beat him, but it came at the cost of her life. Did Dumbledore ever tell you how she did it?" He asked curious. The other shook their heads looking fascinated. "She used an obscure piece of ancient magic, a shield that could be fuelled by love. Love is powerful, something that we don't truly understand. Even I've heard the rumours about the DoM's research into it. They're still at a loss…Point is mum used her love for me and the act of sacrificing herself defending me with her dying breath to fuel the spell. It leant it strength that it would not have otherwise, rebounding Voldemort's magic on himself." He said simply. "Now I know Dumbledore suspects this much at least, but I've basically confirmed it through bits and pieces I learned through the years. Now the problem is that we can't replicate this defence as a strategy against Voldemort." He explained.

"The point of what I'm getting at is that Dumbledore's strategic capabilities are not the reason we "won" last time." He pointed out at their confused expressions. "In fact we were losing, so why are we still following his lead so blindly? Why are we using his tactics? If we intend to win this war this time without having to rely on a fluke, we need to do something different than we did last time," He concluded.

Hermione observed the reactions of the others to Harry's discussion. Tonks looked thoughtful, like she was finding some of his points to at the least be reasonable, and was nodding vaguely. Sirius looked more confused, clearly he'd had quite a long time following and trusting Dumbledore, but he wasn't blind to his failings either. Kara looked like she agreed outright, nodding sagely.

As for herself, Hermione noted that that was an unusually reasonable, and logical argument on Harry's part. The latest in a string of such arguments, though this was less vehemently voiced than the others had been. A promising sign. Harry had always had difficulty in the past putting voice to his theories and plans. Which left her wondering, What Changed? She added it to the list in her mind and nodded vague agreement at Harry who was looking to her expectantly. " I think you're right Harry, but if that's the case, what do we do now?" She asked, hoping he had an answer.

He smiled wanly at her. "That's the question isn't it?"

As always you savages, rate, review, comment, message, invite your friends, send me nudes (probably best you don't actually do that), maybe tell me where your think the story is going, I'm always fascinated by peoples predictions and ideas.