Harry Potter and The Shades of Grey

by Ravenwood240

Harry has lost his strongest supporter and has to chart his own course. Someone is going to make him an offer he can't refuse, even if it feels like dealing with the devil. STATUS Change: This story will be finished as written... The other SoG will be renamed and changed.

11. Revenge and Retribution

This is your only warning: The Death Eaters are going to be evil this chapter, and there is going to be death and torture. The descriptions will not be graphic, but anyone with the slightest imagination should get the point. After the chapter, I will have more to say, but saying it now would give away the story, and I don't want to do that. Now, on with the end of the duel and the aftermath.

A quick note, regarding the amount of time this took to be posted: The day after I sent this off to the Betas of Great and Amazing Ability, my laptop's cooling fan died a quick and painless death. Getting the poor thing into the shop, and more importantly, getting it back out took a wee bit of time, and I am informed that the poor beastie is on its last incarnation. If anyone out there knows where I can get a cheap laptop, please drop me an email.

Harry Potter and the Shades of Grey

Chapter Eleven

Revenge and Retribution.

OoOoOoO Harry, Ginny and Miranda, The Fifth Level. 2146, 08JUL97 OoOoOoO

Harry and Ginny hurried through the door that had led Miranda to the chamber where she had fought Bellatrix and opened the door. Miranda still sat on the floor, holding Bella's head and looking at nothing. She glanced at Harry and Ginny before gently laying Bella's head on the floor and rising. "Mr. Potter, Bella asked me to ask you if you would bury her in the Black cemetery, next to her mother."

Harry and Ginny crossed to Miranda and Harry nodded. "I will, although it will be a private affair. I don't want people despoiling the other graves there looking for her burial site."

Miranda nodded. She turned slowly to Harry. "And with that finished, I think I need a healer."

Miranda collapsed, sliding to the floor as if she was suddenly boneless. Ginny beat Harry to her by a step and cast a spell Harry didn't know on her. A minute later she looked up at Harry. "We have to get her to a healer now. Most of the ribs on her right side are shattered. She's bleeding out internally."

OoOoOoO Voldemort, Somewhere in England, 2140, 08JUL97. OoOoOoO

Tom Riddle turned to the last of the Lestranges and spoke calmly. "Take your team and do the job I gave you." Voldemort had limited contact with everyone that bore his Mark, and he knew that Bellatrix had died. He would have to wait to find out if she'd taken the Defender with her, but he'd known as soon as she died.

Rudolphus Lestrange nodded and turned to leave, anger crossing his face. That they were going on this mission meant that Bella had failed and was dead. Rabastin had been married to her, and Rudolphus hadn't even particularly liked Bella, but she was family.

It was time to make somebody pay for her death.

Voldemort watched Lestrange leave and thought. When the news of Bella's death hit the public, his standing was going to take a huge blow. Bellatrix's insane power had been one of the things people whispered about at night while looking over their shoulder. He took a minute to wonder if she'd done as she said she was going to do and given Potter the message before the duel. He'd know soon enough, he guessed, if Potter was serious about the offer he'd made.

He looked around. "Lucius. I have a job for your family. Bring Narcissa and Draco to me tomorrow."

Lucius nodded. "Yes, my Lord." His face was blank, but Voldemort could almost feel the fear in the man. He knew his place was slipping and he had to be wondering if he would be alive this time tomorrow.

Voldemort decided to ease those fears so that Lucius didn't try to flee now. "If your mission succeeds, Lucius, your place at my right hand will be secured for many years to come, despite young Draco's failure at Hogwarts. If you fail..." Voldemort cocked his head, considering Potter's actions lately. "I don't think you'll return."

Lucius bowed, relieved that he would be getting a chance to redeem Draco's mistake. "Thank you, my Lord. I will not fail you again."

Voldemort nodded and looked at Severus Snape. "Potter has become a serious problem, Severus. I am going to take steps to negate that, but I want you to do something for me, just in case."

Snape bowed. "With pleasure, my Lord."

"I still have a few people inside Hogwarts. I want you to brew your best poison, one that can be given to Potter without my agent being caught."

Severus Snape smiled. "I have a very nice poison in mind, my Lord." Snape was already running through the things he would need to brew the poison known as Betrayal and the time it would take. "It will be ready in three weeks."

Voldemort nodded and told everyone to go. After the room was clear, he began going over everything that had happened in the last few days. Potter was obviously under new management. Dumbledore had not wanted to increase the fighting, willing to take the long view and satisfied to hold the ground his people had won while he tried to find the least damaging way out of the war.

Whoever was guiding Potter now was not made of the same material. Potter's group was actively recruiting and more than willing to fight. That in itself was not good. Voldemort only had a limited number of followers that he could risk, as most of the ones that had not been fingered as Death Eaters were in important positions in the Ministry and other places, and replacing the influence they had now would be difficult if not impossible. He could get better use out of them where they were than as fighters.

Voldemort spent a few minutes speculating on who was guiding Potter. It only took him a few minutes of review to figure out that Potter was running his own life now. That was both good and bad. Potter was basically an unknown leader. Dumbledore had been too well known and too set in his ways to change, but Potter was young and most of what Voldemort knew about him came from highly biased sources like Snape and Draco Malfoy. On the other hand, he would not have any practical experience and he would have the impatience of youth working against him.

What little he had learned about Potter from their link had mostly been his fears and nightmares. Those could be used, but they did not give Voldemort a full picture of Potter. He needed more information and for this subject, he only had one source to go to.

Voldemort left his sanctuary and Apparated to a rarely visited home. He walked inside and sneered at the adults there. Due to the spell Voldemort had taught the young man living here, they couldn't even see Voldemort. "You are about to prove your value to me."

The student bowed. "Of course, my Lord. What do you desire from me?"

"Right now, you will tell me everything you remember about Potter from first year on. Later, I may have a task for you after you return to Hogwarts."

Just before dawn, Voldemort left and the young man went to his room. He sat in his chair and thought. The Dark Lord had something important going on and he would be a part of it. After the Dark Lord won, he would finally be out of the shadow of his more famous peers.

He daydreamed for a few minutes and then sighed. He still had to finish the Tranfiguration essay for the summer. His Head of House would not be happy if her essay was his only unfinished homework.

OoOoOoO Harry, Ginny and Miranda, The Fifth Level, 2150, 08JUL97. OoOoOoO

Harry looked at Miranda and started to search her for the Portkey that they had used to get here.

"That will not be necessary, Mr. Potter."

Harry straightened up and whirled at the unexpected voice. He was raising his wand when the uniforms on the three people that had appeared in the room registered on his mind and he stopped. All three of them were wearing the same leather armour that Miranda wore when she was working.

Two of them were men, one tall and broad shouldered, with an easy grace and a sword strapped diagonally across his back. He was standing a bit in front of a shorter man and a petite woman.

All three of them had the sense of implacable determination that Miranda had, but it was the woman that Harry's eyes stopped on. She was small, barely to his chin, but power flowed from her. She reminded Harry of Professor Dumbledore. Both of them radiated power and authority, and Harry knew that this woman was in charge here.

His thought was borne out as she started giving orders with the easy assurance of someone who's words had been listened to for a very long time. "Charles, take Miranda to the Infirmary. Take Miss Weasley with you. Make sure that Xantha knows that Miranda is working and gets her on her feet before we have to assign someone else to her job."

The taller man nodded and levitated Miranda carefully. "If you would follow me, Miss Weasley."

Ginny looked at Harry, who nodded. Ginny followed Charles out a door and Harry turned his attention back to the woman. "Michael, make sure the room sensors captured every bit of the battle and started breaking it down for the trainees. This was something special in a duel and I want it ready for teaching as soon as possible."

The shorter man nodded and crossed to a wall. Tapping it with his wand, he opened a concealed door and took out a small crystal that had been in the niche revealed behind the panel.

"Mr. Potter, if you would come with me, I would like to talk to you." Harry looked at the woman. She was looking at him with the same bland face Miranda had when she was hiding her emotions.

She started toward a door, and Harry followed her. "Mr. Potter, I will ask you not to talk about anything you see here. We have a good many rules and even more restrictions. You should not be here, but this duel was far too important not to record."

Harry followed her down a corridor and into a door before responding. "Since all I have seen is a couple of hallways, one large room and this office, I hardly think anything I could say would damage you."

Harry had looked at the office when he came in, and it was almost normal, compared to some offices he'd seen in the wizard world. It had a desk and four chairs in front of the desk, with a cabinet and a small table against one wall.

"My name is Lucinda and I currently train the Defenders. By the rules laid on us by the International Conference of Wizards, you should not see even that much of this facility. I am making an exception for you because Miranda speaks very highly of you and because that duel was something I wanted to see." She sighed, a wistful smile on her face. "I would have loved to have been the one that fought in it."

Harry blinked, remembering the power and violence of the bloody fight he'd witnessed. "You can have it," he said dryly.

Lucinda shrugged as she sat back and observed Harry thoughtfully. "You have asked Miranda about the Defenders, Mr. Potter, and you may have noticed that she has avoided talking about them. That is not an insult, merely something that the International Conference of Wizards requires. I will tell you as much as we are allowed to say."

Harry sat back. "Since I'm a captive audience until Ginny and Miranda come back, go ahead."

"The Order of Defenders was started in 1192. The original purpose of the Order was to supply neutral bodyguards to Wizards and Witches who happened to be Royalty. As the world changed, and fewer magical folk were born to the royal lines, they became bodyguards for anybody that could afford one." Lucinda paused as a tray floated into the office and she served Harry tea.

"That stopped in 1567, when a Dark Lord rose and used three Defenders as fighters in his attempt to rule. After he was stopped, the International Conference of Wizards was going to disband the Order, but after two years of debate, it was decided that the Order would remain, albeit under a few restrictions." She took a sip of her tea.

"A Defender may not start a fight except in the direct defense of their charge. They may not offer any opinion or make any statements about political situations that do not directly affect their charge. No more than one Defender may be hired by any one Wizard or group of Wizards. No Defender may train anyone in the methods or skills of a Defender and lastly, they may not speak of the training they have received."

Harry looked up at that part. Miranda had set up a schedule with Hermione and Mad-Eye to train Harry for three hours a week. It sounded as if she was breaking her own rules, not that Harry was going to say anything about that to this woman. He was aware of her staring at him with a small smile. "I know Miranda has made certain arrangements with you, Mr. Potter, and I trust you will keep those dealings secret. We have discussed the situation you are in, and it has been decided that you are in need of more help than we should give."

She sighed heavily. "We don't know everything, but the situation between yourself and the so-called Lord Voldemort is fairly plain. For some reason, he has failed to kill you on several occasions, making you unique in that regard. We are unable to find anyone else that he has set out to kill and then failed to do so." She regarded him curiously. "His Death Eaters have failed on occasion, but Voldemort himself has only failed to kill one person that he was after and that person is you."

Harry shrugged. "My mother's protections were very helpful in that regard," he said noncommittally.

"I am sure they were, but they are not the only reason he has failed. My researcher believes that something more than a curse scar binds the two of you." She raised her hands at the look hi pinned her with. "I'm not asking, although the fight you had in the Hall of Mysteries leads to certain conclusions being drawn."

Harry sighed. "I swear, that is the most open secret in the world. Yes, there is a prophecy, although you will understand if I don't tell you any specifics. I don't know you that well."

Lucinda smiled. "If you want to keep secrets, Mr. Potter, go to the Muggle world. Wizards are almost impossible to hide things from, given the number and range of spells you can use to ferret out information."

She studied him again. "We are assuming that you and Lord Voldemort will meet again, and we would prefer that you win that fight, as the common thought is that Voldemort would be bad for business, even if in fact he didn't try to directly interfere in our organization." She paused again as Michael came in and laid a handful of crystals on her desk.

He looked at Harry for a second, and then at Lucinda. She nodded slightly, wiggling her fingers at him. He made a short sign with his hands and spoke for the first time. "All the crystals recorded the fight and I am about to begin the analysis of the spells used and the overall fight."

"Thank you, Michael. Let me know when you're finished. I am very eager to see exactly what happened."

Michael nodded and left with one more look at Harry. Lucinda studied Harry again. "Miranda has offered you high praise, Mr. Potter, and yet I do not see why. On sight, you're a slight young Wizard. Your aura shows you to be slightly more powerful than normal, but not to any degree that would stand out."

Harry shrugged. Before he could say anything, she continued. "However, you have beaten a Basilisk, survived a Killing Curse, won the Tri-Wizard Tournament and survived at least two duels with a very powerful Dark Lord. That says a lot more than what is apparent on the surface."

Harry shrugged again, not sure what to say. Lucinda was about to say something else when Charles entered the office. "Miranda is resting comfortably, and will be up tomorrow. Do we need to assign a Defender to her position tonight?"

Harry frowned, not liking the idea of an unknown person in his room or knowing more than everyone seemed to know about his business already. Lucinda caught the frown and shook her head. "I don't think so. If this was a normal hire, I would assign someone, but Miranda made a private deal."

Charles grinned. "And made out very well in it."

Harry blinked in puzzlement as the two Defenders smiled. Lucinda grinned at him. "Mr. Potter, I understand you don't know a lot about Wizard money, but you should know that the average wage in the Wizard world is just thirty Galleons a week. A family of three can live quite well on that. You are giving Miranda thirty-five Galleons a week, plus room and board, and the protection of an old Family and a name in another Family. People have given tens of thousands of Galleons for less. Miranda might well be the highest paid Defender in the history of the Order, once you count up all her benefits."

Charles shook his head. "Not might be, Lucinda, she is the highest paid. In 1734, Drake Meyers paid sixty thousand Galleons to join the Hooch family, and they are nearly three hundred years younger than the Potters and far below the Blacks in social standing. Miranda's benefits are probably worth close to one hundred thousand Galleons."

Harry blinked, staring at the man. "How much do you know about the Potters?" he asked, curious as to why he did know so much.

Charles frowned at him. "Surely you've read the Potter Histories by now?"

Harry sighed. "No, actually, I haven't," he said, ignoring the startled looks the two of them gave him. "I just found out about them a few days ago and Mr. Sharpstar hasn't gotten back to me about them yet."

Charles nodded slowly. "I study the old families, Mr. Potter, so I know a bit, but the true story will be in the Potter Histories, which only a Potter may read. I can say that the Potter name was first recorded in 550, and has been a name ever since. It has never been a large family, but it has always been a light side name until now. With your additions, people are going to wait to see what happens now." He looked at Harry. "I think you'll face a great many challenges to your ideas and methods, especially among the old families, who are a bit more conservative than most."

Harry shrugged. "I have certain plans and ideas that I will do, and some of my friends have changes they want to make. I think that before we're done that we might just offend everyone in the Wizard world."

Lucinda smiled. "After Miranda's contract runs out, if you wish to hire another Defender, please let us know. We can figure out something."

Harry sighed, his eyes far away. "By the time her contract runs out, I hope I don't need to worry about things like that anymore."

"If you'll trust us with Miranda tonight, Mr. Potter, I'll have Charles escort you home. If Miranda is not ready to work by ten, someone will be along to take her place, but if Xantha says she'll be ready, she will be."

Harry nodded. "You haven't killed her yet, despite what she implies about the training, but I would like to see her before I go. I imagine Hermione will be interested in her condition."

Lucinda nodded. "Of course. Charles will take you to the Infirmary." She stood up and held out her hand. "It was good to meet you, Mr. Potter. I have the feeling that I will be hearing a lot more of you in the years to come."

Harry shook her hand and looked at her seriously. "Personally, I hope the last thing you hear about me is that I defeated Moldywarts. After that, I'd like a nice quiet life, raising children and watching my ladies do whatever they want to do."

Harry followed Charles out. After the door closed behind them, a Wizard came out of a concealed room behind Lucinda. "What do you think, Micah?"

"I think Mr. Potter needs to learn Occlumency badly. Someone has ruined his natural shields, and he is nearly broadcasting to anyone with a decent grasp of Legilimency." Micah sat down in the chair Harry had just vacated, looking thoughtful. "He doesn't think much of himself, counting his survival as luck and his friends. He was abused in many ways growing up and there is a core of steel under that mild exterior. If you really want to make him angry, though, attack his friends. Mr. Potter doesn't even realize how deep his loyalty to them runs. He's also looking into something called an Aestuomagius, or something like that. Mr. Parkinson started that line after he and Harry and him met to make an alliance to defeat Voldemort."

Lucinda blinked at the flood of information. "You got all of that in just a few minutes? His shielding must be gone entirely."

Micah frowned. "Not entirely," he corrected. "Some things have so much emotional baggage attached to them that it acts as a shield. The person that tried to teach him to protect his mind is one of those, and Bellatrix was another. I could only get around the edges of anything to do with Voldemort, and that only because Voldemort is in everything he does."

Lucinda frowned as she thought about what Micah had said and what she had felt as she talked to Harry. "Miranda says that had we prepared him, and caught him early enough, he would have been a great Defender."

Micah shook his head. "He has the strength and the will, but he would never sit back and be content with protecting one person. Mr. Potter would go looking for trouble if it came anywhere near him. If it touched anyone he considered a friend, he'd go after them. Mr. Potter believes in a good offense."

Lucinda sighed. "Pity. I was hoping to keep an eye on his children, but if he passes that attitude down to them, they wouldn't work out well either."

Micah smirked. "You might want to put a watch order on them anyway. Mr. Potter is seriously considering relationships with three different women, and they seem to know about it. At least, I get that impression from the emotional aura around the women closest to him in his mind, and from his memories of waking up with three women at once."

Lucinda blinked. "Really? You'd never know it to look at him."

Micah looked at her. "What does he look like? I've seen his mind, not his body."

Lucinda opened the shields around her mind and let Micah see Harry in her memories. While he was in her mind, Micah passed the things he'd learned from reading Harry's mind to her. When he was done, he watched as she thought about it all. "We'll put a watch on Mr. Potter and his ladies. Few bloodlines have the potential that his does. We can always use more Defenders."

"Speaking of that, we've located a potential Defender at Hogwarts. He'll be starting this year."

With that, the two leader of the Order of Defenders changed the subject from Harry to everyday business.

OoOoOoO Rudolphus Lestrange, The Nanny's Home childcare center, 2200, 08JUL97 OoOoOoO

Rudolph savored the screams and cries rising about him as the Death Eaters killed the children. There had been three attendants here tonight and thirteen children, mostly under ten. He looked at the ceiling where the last living adult hung, suspended by his spell. She was beyond screaming now, sinking into shock as she beheld the carnage below her.

The other two attendants had died quickly, both of them hit with Killing Curses as the Death Eaters entered. The youngest children, the ones in cribs, had gone just as quickly, falling to cutting curses and bludgeoning hexes.

Only three children were left now, and the Death Eaters were taking a few minutes to terrorize them. One of the Death Eaters, a new man named Harold Bole, was making an infant with its head missing walk around the children. Two more of them were levitating two bodies, smashing them together in mid air and laughing as the blood flew from them to rain down on the living.

Rudolphus looked at the woman again and then shrugged. From the look in her eyes, she wasn't even home anymore. "Move over," he told the Death Eaters and looked at the children that still lived. They were quiet now, shocked into silence and from the looks on their faces, they were not much better off than the woman. He brought the woman down from the ceiling and stood her in the middle of the room, holding her there with a full body bind and a conjured stick.

Rudolphus tied the three living children to her body and piled the rest around them as the other Death Eaters left the building. He stopped in the door and snickered. He cast four Incendios and watched as the fires began moving toward the bodies in the center of the room.

One of the children could still manage a scream, and Rudolphus smiled as he sent the Dark Mark up.

This would show Potter that he couldn't protect everyone. He rejoined his group and they watched the fire until the first flames licked through the windows. All four of the living were screaming now. On his command, they Disapparated.

Behind them, the screams cut off as the roof fell in.

OoOoOoO Harry and Peter, Harry's room, 2240, 08JUL97. OoOoOoO

Harry looked at Peter. As Harry had asked, Dobby had reminded him about Peter when he got back, and Harry had talked to Shacklebolt. Armed with his information, Harry had Dobby bring the cage out and let Peter out so he could transform. Harry was torn between vengeance and humanity. Part of him wanted to kill Peter for all the things he'd done and another part found the thoughts he was having disturbing.

"I have a problem," Harry said quietly. "You gave us a lot of information today, and we are going to use some of it. I can't release you because you would return to Moldywart, thereby negating most of the information you gave us. If I kill you, I take another step closer to being like him and I don't want that. That only leaves giving you to the Ministry. If you're lucky, they'll only send you to Azkaban. If not, they'll have you Kissed, which is not a fate I would wish on anyone, even Moldywart."

He looked at Peter again. "What should I do with you?"

"Obliviate me. That way, I can't give up the information I gave you, but my death is not on your head."

Harry frowned as he thought about that. "Voldemort will try to recall those memories."

Peter nodded. "I know. I also know what happens to people when you do that. I was there when the Dark Lord tore the information out of Bertha Jenkins about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I think I am useful enough to him that he won't do that to me."

Harry frowned. "That would give Voldemort another follower, which is just as bad in my eyes. I had thought about locking you in your rat form and letting you go."

Peter stared at Harry in horror. "Please, not that." Peter was shivering now. He'd been a rat for years, but even then he could sneak away sometimes and become a man if he was careful. The idea of never being able to change again filled him with terror.

Harry had already decided on the only thing he could think of that satisfied all of his requirements. He didn't want to kill Wormtail in cold blood, he couldn't allow him to return to Voldemort's service as he was and after hearing Sirius talk about Azkaban, Harry didn't want to send anyone there.

"This is what we're going to do, if you want to go free. You will swear an oath on your magic that you will not harm anyone in any way, ever. If you do that, I will let you go. If not, I will have no choice but to give you to the Ministry."

Peter thought about it. "I can still serve Him, I just can't hurt anyone?"

Harry nodded. "I know this may not be the best course, but it's the best I can do and still look in the mirror."

Peter sighed. "I'll need my wand."

Harry looked at Moody. "If he does anything but make the oath, he's yours." Moody smiled and pulled his wand while Harry asked Dobby for Pettigrew's wand. Dobby brought it and Peter took it carefully, fully aware of Moody watching him like a hawk.

"I swear on my magic that I will never hurt anyone again in any way." Harry watched as a glow spread over Pettigrew from his wand that slowly faded into his skin.

Harry made Wormtail transform again and Dobby took him away so that Pettigrew didn't have to use the Floo.

Harry offered a silent prayer that he hadn't done the wrong thing by setting the rat free. Hopefully Voldemort would be so angry at Wormtail that the rat wouldn't survive telling him that he'd given away all that information.

OoOoOoO Various People, Harry's room, 0700, 09July97. OoOoOoO

"Harry, wake up."

Harry yawned and rolled over. He'd gotten back around eleven last night and telling the people that had been there waiting what had happened had kept him up until nearly three. He didn't know what time it was, but he just knew it was too early. "Harry, please wake up."

That got his attention. Hermione sounded worried and horrified all at once and the sleep fell away from Harry. He sat up, automatically reaching for his glasses. "What's wrong, Hermione?"

Hermione was crying silently, Harry saw, and a chill passed through him. "What is it? Did someone get hurt?"

Hermione sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "The Death Eaters attacked again last night."

Harry closed his eyes, expecting to hear about another Muggleborn attack. "Was it anyone we knew?" he asked softly.

Hermione gave a choked sob. "No." She looked at Harry and he felt the chill again at the despair and horror in her eyes. "They attacked a nursery."

Harry stared at her for a minute, his mind not able to process what she'd said at first.

When he did understand, Hermione yelped and ducked as every bit of glass in Harry bedroom exploded. Harry's magic was swelling, filling the room and out in the main room they heard more shouts and screams as glasses on the table and the mirror and every other fragile object started quivering. Some of them broke and Ginny and Pansy rushed into Harry's room.

"Harry!" Ginny was the first to land on the bed and hug Harry, with Hermione and Pansy just an instant behind her. The magic flowing from Harry was nearly a physical thing as the three girls tried to calm him.

Harry didn't even notice them until he tried to stand up and couldn't. He looked at the girls holding him and he could feel their fear. He took a deep shuddering breath and tried to control his magic.

It took him a minute, but the magic finally receded. It was still there, still exploring everything around him with small fingers, but it wasn't nearly as scary anymore.

In the back of her head, Hermione was cataloging the differences in Harry's magic. It still felt safe and warm to her, but behind that soft touch was a fire, burning higher than she'd ever felt it and looking for an outlet.

Harry looked at the girls around him and then up at the other people around the room. When the flare of Harry's magic had been felt, most of the people in the other room had come rushing in.

Remus was standing next to Tonks and one entire side of his bedroom was filled with Weasleys. Bill, Fleur, Fred, George and Ron were clustered near the bathroom near a face Harry had not seen in a while. He nodded at Charlie. "I thought you had to go back to Romania," he said quietly.

Charlie nodded. "I did, and two days later, I was asked to come back to England. The Gringotts goblins specifically requested me for a Dragon Handler position, at twice my old pay rate, I might add. Would you know anything about that, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. "This is the first I've heard of it. Maybe Bill knows something."

Bill shook his head. "I was just as surprised to hear about it. I seem to be out of the loop on a lot of things. What just happened, and why did my glass explode?" He frowned. "And what kind of a spell are you using, Harry? I don't recognize it, and I thought I knew most of them."

Hermione looked up, absently shushing Harry. "You can see what Harry is doing? What does it look like?"

Bill shrugged. "A lot of the old curses have visible traces and Curse Breakers are taught a spell to see those traces, then trained in telling the various types of magic apart."

Hermione let go of Harry and advanced on Bill. "Tell me what you can see." Hermione had a very familiar look on her face and Ron and Harry looked at each other before they grinned at Bill.

"You're in for it now, Bill," Harry said.

"Just teach her the spell," Ron advised him. "It will save you a lot of time and talk in the long run."

Bill was watching Hermione, who had pulled a parchment and a quill from her robes and was scribbling something on it. She looked at him. "I do want that spell, but right now, I want your impression of Harry's magic and what you see. Unbiased second party reports are important in the study of unusual phenomena, and Harry's Aestuomagius abilities are that."

Bill looked blank. "His what?"

Fleur snapped her fingers. "That explains something I have been wondering about. Veela magic is emotionally driven, and Harry has reacted like a Veela, but I didn't know how to ask him if he had a Veela in his family. Being an Emotion Mage would account for it."

Harry looked at her. "You could have just asked, but as far as I know, I am not a Veela."

Fleur rolled her eyes. "I know you're not a Veela, Harry, I would be able to feel it if you were, but you might have had a Veela in the family tree somewhere."

Hermione had ignored the asides going on to interrogate Bill. "Harry looks normal, but there are tendrils of magic extending from him, like the arms of an octopus. They just kind of wave around, unless they touch someone." Bill frowned. "They do something to that person for a second, and then they leave them and continue to move around, but they're leaving a this thread of magic attached to the person they touched." He hesitated. "I can't explain it any better than that."

Hermione was scribbling furiously. "Hold on." She cast a muttered spell and Harry's room lit up with the spiderwebs of spells, much as the meeting room in the Hogsmeade Inn had. There were far more webs here though, and they were far more intricate. Hermione looked surprised for a second. "Darn," she said mildly. "I was hoping that Harry's magic would show up, but nothing here matches your description. I didn't know there were this many spells here though."

Bill was looking at the spells glowing on the walls. "That's an anti-Apparation Ward, keyed to a few people, and that's a Wizard warning Ward, keyed to a lot of people, but what is that?"

Hermione was looking at the wards as well. "How can you tell how many people are keyed to the wards?"

"Gobbly-gook gogg, whatamalcallit aradlithr magic." To everyone but Hermione and Fleur, that's what Bill's sentence sounded like, pure gibberish. Hermione nodded and responded with even more Gobbly-gook.

Harry sighed and got up. "I think we've lost them for a few hours. I'm going to have breakfast."

He tossed a robe on and headed out of the room, stepping around Hermione, who was still babbling at Bill in incomprehensible English.

In the other room, Amanda Wilkes and Shacklebolt were talking to Moody. They broke off their conversation to look at Harry. "I see you've heard the news," Moody said quietly.

Harry nodded shortly and then looked at Moody again. He sat down and Dobby had a plate in front of him almost before he was seated. Harry continued to look at Moody for a minute and then he looked at the other two Aurors. "You two might want to be somewhere else today."

They looked at Harry and then at Moody. "Just what have you got going on in that Slytherin mind of yours, Harry?" Amanda asked him suspiciously.

"If you don't ask, you can honestly say you didn't know if anyone asks you." Harry gave nothing away.

Pansy was frowning and Ginny was quiet. Ginny was almost certain that Harry was going to respond to last night's attack somehow, and she was a bit worried about him asking the Aurors to leave. That implied that what ever he was planning might not be entirely legal.

Shacklebolt sighed as he thought. "I am assigned to watch over you, Harry. I can't do that if I'm somewhere else."

Harry shrugged. "I offered you a chance," he said and turned to Moody. "Can you find a Death Eater's home?"

Moody looked at him. "I know where a couple of them are, provided they aren't under a Fidelius. Why?"

Harry grinned tightly. "I want to send a message to Voldemort, one he can't mistake."

Most of the group was sitting at the table and they looked at Harry in shock. Ginny frowned and spoke softly. "Is that really a good idea, Harry?"

Harry looked at her for a very long time and then began to speak. "I don't know, but I do know that allowing any bully to get away with hurting people merely encourages him to do it again. Voldemort's group is nothing but bullies with magic, and most of them are cowards, hiding behind Voldemort's reputation and their masks. If we can show them that every act of violence they do with be met with retribution, some of them may change their minds about what they are doing." Harry looked at Pansy. "Like Blaise's father, who followed Voldemort only because he thought Voldemort was going to win." He looked at everyone. "We have to do something to curtail the violence and if anyone here can think of a better way than destroying something they hold dear, please, speak up."

Moody looked at Harry. "Destroying?" he quoted while a smile grew on his face.

Harry nodded. "Destroyed," he confirmed. "I don't want them to be able to do anything with the remains of the house but banish them and start over. If anything is intact at the end, I'll be disappointed."

Moody smirked. "I know just the Wizard for that job. He's been dying to try out a few toys."

Harry shrugged. "I don't care how it gets done, but don't kill anyone that isn't attacking you. Anyone who does attack you, you may deal with anyway you see fit. All others are to be removed from the house and left unhurt."

Moody frowned, but nodded. He got up and started toward the fireplace. "Harry," he said, turning back, "how many places do you want taken care of?"

Harry looked up at him. "If you can find and do it without getting caught, one house for every person they killed last night, and one more for the Burrow. In the future, if this tactic works, we'll destroy one for every attack and another for every person they kill."

Moody nodded and Flooed away. Harry looked at the silent group. Just then Winky removed Moody's plate and Harry frowned at her. "Dobby," he called.

"Yes, Harry Potter Sir?" asked Dobby, who had appeared without a sound.

"Dobby, you know what Moody is going to be doing, don't you?"

"Yes, Harry Potter Sir. I heard the conversation." Ron was staring at Dobby in disbelief. The ragged and cringing house elf that had been Dobby was changed dramatically. Dobby stood straight and his clothes were neat and pressed. If it was not for the fanatic gleam in his eyes when he looked at Harry, Ron would have never recognized the house elf that had served Gryffindor Tower.

"Go with him, Dobby, and warn the house elves what is going on. Try to save them, but do not get hurt doing it. Don't let them interfere, but don't get hurt. If they want to come here, we'll find work for them or somebody to bond to if they insist."

Dobby frowned. "They cannot leave their family, Harry Potter Sir, not even if the family treats them bad. They have to be freed."

Harry smirked. "I know that, Dobby, but after the house is destroyed, a smart house elf might find a way to be freed while the Death Eaters are angry about the loss of their things."

Dobby stared at Harry for a few seconds and then bounced a couple of times, showing that the changes in him were not yet total. "Dobby understands," he said excitedly, "Masters will be angry and smart elves can show up at just the wrong time and say things to increase that anger. Dobby will tell them." Dobby disappeared without a sound.

"Harry, if Hermione ever finds out that you had a free elf and let it bond again, she'll hex you in ways you've never dreamed of," Ron said with a grin.

"Is it truly slavery, if both sides want it to be that way?" asked Luna, before Harry could say anything. "It seems to me that in a normal bonding, both sides get something out of it. Look at Dobby and Harry."

Harry frowned at Luna, casting a glance back at the bedroom where Hermione and Bill were still talking, a low murmur that could just be heard. "Dobby is a free elf," Harry reminded Luna.

Luna shook her head. "He has the same magic about him that Winky does, and that the Hogwarts house elves have. He is bonded to you, Harry." Luna took a sip of her juice. "I think the bonding is something he cannot control, and when he chose to serve you, that started the bond."

Harry frowned. "How come he didn't bond to Hogwarts?"

Luna smiled. "Harry, Dobby never served Hogwarts, he served you. How did you think he happened to end up in Gryffindor Tower?"

"I am so glad to hear that." Everyone turned and stared at Hermione. Hearing Hermione say she was glad a house elf was bonded was like hearing Ron say he wasn't hungry, or Harry saying he wanted to study with Snape. She looked at them. "I'm not happy that he's bonded," she clarified, "but I am happy that the anomaly in my data is cleared up. I've been studying the house elves and I had a theory about them and their magic, but Dobby was skewing my data. If he is bonded though, that makes my data correct." She looked at Luna. "We need to talk. How-."

"Hermione," Harry interrupted, before she could get started. "Save that for later. Right now, I have a couple of things I need people to do. You can talk to Luna later."

Hermione frowned at Harry but sat down, reading the parchment that she'd been writing on while talking to Bill. Harry smiled at her and brushed an errant lock of hair out of her face, a gesture she didn't even notice.

Harry looked up at the rest of the group. "Bill, how are the wards for the Burrow going?"

"The design is finished, but the builders won't be starting for a couple more days. I'm going to do some wards for another Gringotts customer today and tomorrow, and then I'll do half the wards in the foundations. After that, I have to wait until the new Burrow is completed to finish all the wards you want." Bill looked at Harry. "Just remember, until the senior living Weasley or their second allows it, nobody is coming through those wards alive. Visitors not keyed to the wards will end up just off the property, while a tone in the house will alert us that someone is waiting."

Harry nodded. "A little annoying when unexpected company shows up, but very good for unwelcome company."

Bill snorted. "Very good for that, and I would almost like to see someone try to break the wards. I've never been able to build wards like this, and I am curious to see what it will look like, from a safe distance anyway."

Harry sighed. "You may get your chance, if we don't end this thing quickly." He looked at the window as Hedwig hooted softly. "Someone want to let the owl in, please?"

The black owl flew to Hermione, who took the letter it carried. She looked at it and looked at Harry. "The Horcrux team is ready, and Mr. Parkinson has a few fighters for you when you get a chance to talk to him."

Harry frowned. "You'll have to wait to start looking for those things. I don't want you getting hurt. Wait for Miranda to return before you do anything except brief your team."

Hermione nodded. She looked at a much folded and battered parchment. "Harry, give me a few minutes and I'll have the list of appointments you have today, and a couple of things that you need to do that you don't have appointments for."

Harry sighed. "How many appointments do I have?"

"Just two. Mr. Sharpstar needs to see you about something, and the Comet Broomstick people have the photographer ready for your pictures." She looked at Ginny. "Make sure he doesn't wear all black today."

Fred and George looked at each other. "It's a shame, Gred."

"It is indeed, Forge. A crying shame."

The twins matched their words by pretending to sob on each other. Harry watched them. "Does anyone understand what the tacky tainted twin tailed toads are talking about?"

Fred and George looked at Harry sorrowfully. "You, poor boy," Fred said.

"You've fallen into the hands of organization and schedules. You're doomed to a humdrum life, following a list of Things To Do."

Ginny smirked at them. "And you two are so jealous." She looked at Hermione. "Would you tell them what items nineteen and twenty are for Harry?"

Hermione blushed and muttered something. She looked at all the faces watching her and winced. "Nineteen is quiet snogging time and twenty is sleeping with us time." She looked at Harry. "That was a nice alliteration, Harry." He grinned at her while Ginny continued twitting the twins.

Ginny smirked again. "How many ladies are scheduling time to snog you two?"

Fred and George looked at each other and then at their ladies. Katie and Angelina shook their heads. "Don't look at me," Katie said, "half the time I don't know what I'm going to be doing in ten minutes."

Angelina sighed. "I only wish I was organized enough to schedule anything."

Ron grabbed a piece of toast as he stood. "As much as I enjoy watching Ginny tormenting you two, I've got to be going. Harry, I'll see you tonight, mate." Ron stepped over to the Floo and left.

Amanda Wilkes sighed. "I've got to be going also. Another wonderful day of cataloging the things that have been confiscated over the last twenty years."

Harry frowned. "Why is an Auror of your skill doing that?"

Amanda flushed a bright red. "Someone might think that I was the one that sent Umbridge a Howler, suggesting that she might want to pull her head out of her fourth point of contact and stop sucking up to anyone with a title."

Shacklebolt snickered. "You shouldn't have used that term then. You're the only person in the Ministry that uses it. Not to mention, you should have sent it to her in her office, not in the middle of a meeting with the department heads."

Fred and George looked at Amanda with smiles. "Gred, what a brilliant idea."

"I agree, Forge. Now all we have to do is find out one little thing."

They looked at Amanda and spoke in unison. "What is a fourth point of contact?"

Amanda smirked. "It's a Muggle term I heard a Muggleborn Auror use once. I liked it, so I use it now."

Hermione sighed. "Honestly," she said with a smile, "a little thought should give the answer. Where do most people have to pull their heads out of?" Hermione looked completely innocent. "I'll even give you a hint. It's a body part that Muggle call the Gluteus Maximus when they're being facetious."

Fred and George blinked at her. They frowned for a second and then Fred lit up. "I know, it's her ---."

Katie clapped a hand over his mouth. "Yes, Fred, we get it. You don't need to be crude."

Harry was staring into space, thinking about something and Ginny put her hand over his. "Harry, what are you plotting now?"

Everyone turned their attention to Harry, who looked at Ginny. "I had forgotten about her, in the press of things to do. I think I may have found the price I want to charge the Minister for appearing to support his Ministry, or at least part of the price. Miss Wilkes, would you be kind enough to ask the Minister if he can see me tomorrow?"

She blinked. "Why me?"

Harry shrugged. "Two reasons. First, you're going to be in the Ministry today, so it will be easy for you to do. Second, it tells the Minister that you're a friend of mine."

Pansy smiled and kissed Harry on the cheek. "Which may cause him to look at her assignment and put her to doing something more in line with her skills. Very Slytherin of you, Harry."

Most of the Gryffindors winced. "Stop trying to steal the Gryffindor Golden Boy," said Katie.

Pansy smirked at them. "Harry did it," she defended herself, "don't make it my fault he's so good at being a Slytherin."

Harry frowned at everyone. "Actually, I would prefer to be a student, not a House. That artificial division of the school has to end. Working with Hermione, Ginny and Pansy these last couple of weeks has shown me just what Hogwarts could be, if the Houses would do something besides fight."

Pansy snorted. "I still want to know what the Sorting Hat was thinking when it put Hermione in Gryffindor. She's close to being the perfect Ravenclaw."

I've got a better question," Luna said quietly. "How did Ron end up in Gryffindor?"

The others looked at her in puzzlement. "Weasleys always go to Gryffindor," Fred said. "Even Percy got in Gryffindor."

Luna nodded. "Harry, I heard you talking once about the Mirror of Erised. What did Ron see in it?"

Harry frowned at the apparent change of subject. "He saw himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain, holding the House Cup after winning the Quidditch Cup."

Luna nodded. "Ron is a Pureblood, and in that first year, his main focus was to be better than any of his brothers, to make a name for himself as something except the youngest Weasley boy." She looked at her oatmeal and continued to shape it into some sort of animal. "That sounds like ambition to me."

Hermione blinked as she thought about it. "And the house for ambitious Purebloods is Slytherin."

Harry was thinking about that. Hogwarts was the first place he'd ever called home, and it was one of the most important places in the world to him. If something was disturbing it, he wanted to fix it. "Maybe we need to examine the recent Sortings closely. Let's see if there are a lot of people that are in odd houses. After all, the Sorting Hat is a thousand years old. Could the enchantments that make it work be wearing out or breaking down?"

"Or does it have something besides what's in your head to go by?" asked Hermione thoughtfully. "Neville didn't seem to be a Gryffindor that first year either, but look how he turned out. Can the Sorting Hat see some or all of your future?"

Harry shook his head. His list of problems was growing at an insane rate. "We'll have to table that discussion for another time. Right now," he paused as the Floo flared.

Miranda stepped out and looked around. She walked to the table and sat down in her usual seat next to Hermione. "Good morning, everyone," she said calmly. "Miss Black, I apologize for being late this morning. I had an interesting evening."

Harry and Ginny choked at that. 'Interesting evening' was not the way either of them would characterize dueling Bellatrix Black. Miranda also got a lot of stunned looks from the people that had only heard about the fight from Harry or Ginny. Hermione was becoming used to Miranda's odd sense of humour, though. "I suppose I won't fire you this time," she said, smiling at Miranda. "Don't make a habit of it though." She looked at Harry pointedly. "I already have one friend who spends entirely too much time in the Infirmary at Hogwarts."

Fred looked up. "Speaking of that, Hermione, do you want your normal day in the pool?"

Hermione nodded. "Of course."

Ginny looked at Fred. "I have my day, right?"

Fred nodded. "Of course. Would we forget our favorite sister?"

Ginny snorted. "If it made you a few more Galleons, yes."

Pansy looked at Harry. "Do you have the faintest idea what pool they're talking about?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't have a clue. Fred, would you mind telling me about this pool, since it seems to be an ongoing thing?"

George shrugged, flushing slightly. "It's been going on since your second year. The first pool is on the date you first end up in the Infirmary. After that it changes to how many times in the year you end up in there."

Fred nodded. "There's also on how many days total you spend in there, one for how many rules you break, and the number of public arguments Ron and Hermione have."

Harry just shook his head. "I should have known. How come I was never let in on the Ron and Hermione one? I see most of the fights, and I can give you the most accurate count."

Fred shook his head. "Because you, Mr. Potter, are entirely too smart. If we'd have told you about that one, you would have figured out that there were more and possibly what they were. Since we weren't sure how you would react, we kept you in the dark."

Pansy was thinking. "Is the twenty-third of September taken yet?"

Fred dug a scroll out of his robes. He scanned it and shook his head. "No, it's not. Do you want it?"

Pansy nodded. "Yes, and give me," she thought for a minute, "Six stays, totaling nine days on the rest of it. For the argument one, give me fifty-nine."

Fred and George blinked. "Only fifty-nine?" George asked. "Most of the numbers in that one are in the hundreds."

Pansy grinned. "Things will change this year," she predicted calmly.

Hermione frowned. "We never had a hundred public arguments," she said in annoyance.

Fred coughed. "Actually, Hermione, you and Ron are averaging two point three arguments a day right now. You can count the number of days in the year, so you figure out how many arguments that is."

Hermione thought for a second. When she was done, she blinked. "Are you sure about that?"

Fred nodded. "Of course, it's probably higher than that, as we only counted the ones somebody saw or heard besides you, Harry and Ron."

"Harry Potter Sir," Dobby said as he appeared next to Harry, "Mr. Moody is wanting the oldest Weasley boy and the Dragon Weasley."

Pansy was staring at Dobby in disbelief. "Harry, are you insane?"

Harry turned innocent eyes on her. "What?"

Pansy sighed. "Dobby, show everyone your shirt." Dobby grinned and floated off the floor, spreading the t-shirt he was wearing so everyone could read it. There was silence when they were done, as they stared at the shirt and Harry.

The shirt read:

H.E.A.V.E.

House Elves Against Voldemort's Evil

Proudly standing against the excesses of the Mudblood Dork Lard!

One the back of the shirt was a drawing of a house elf standing on a body. Every few seconds, the body would rise up and become Voldemort. The house elf would then jump up and down on the Dark Lord until he collapsed into a broken pile again.

Dobby smiled. "I like socks," he confided to the room, "but Harry Potter Sir is giving me nice shirts. Dobby has three now."

Hermione was glaring at Harry. "Harry James Potter! You're going to get him killed!"

Harry looked at her for a second and then looked at Dobby. "Dobby, what are you going to do if a Death Eater or Moldywart tries to do anything to you?"

Dobby made a strange gesture with his hands, similar to the one that had knocked Lucius Malfoy on his rear when Dobby was freed. "Harry Potter Sir has told Dobby to defend himself as he would Harry Potter Sir. Dobby may try to escape first, but he can defend himself."

Hermione blinked as she thought about that. With the things she had learned about the house elves from Winky and Dobby, Harry's belief that Dobby would be safe made sense. "I'm sorry, Harry. I jumped to a conclusion."

Harry brushed the back of his hand across her face gently. "You?" he teased her. "Jump to a conclusion? Never."

Almost everyone smiled at that. Pansy was still frowning, and Harry just knew he would hear more about this.

The rest of the breakfast meal was quiet as people began leaving. Ginny went to the Shades of Grey office to continue working on the charity fund list and the twins took their girlfriends to Weasley Wizard Wheezes to start their work day. Bill and Charlie left to go find out what Moody wanted. Hermione left with Miranda to go meet the researchers that would be looking for Horcruxes and ways to destroy them. Fleur was going to the Longbottom estate to spend the day with Molly as they began to order new furniture and things for the Burrow. Luna and Neville were going hunting for some things Luna wanted for her potions.

Finally, only Shacklebolt, Tonks and Remus were left. The three of them were discussing the map Hermione wanted to make to track Apparations. Shacklebolt looked at Harry. "We're going to need some help. If we don't give anything away, I want to get a friend of mine to help us. He's an Unspeakable named Croaker."

Harry winced. "Do you trust him?"

Shacklebolt hesitated. "I do," he said slowly, "and I don't. He won't tell anyone what we're doing, but he may use the idea to make something similar for himself or the Unspeakables."

Harry thought about that. "If you think you really need him, use him." Harry grinned. "Just don't let him know you're working on a way to mask all of our people from the map, or anything like it."

Shacklebolt nodded and the three of them left, leaving Harry and Pansy alone. Pansy looked at Harry. "Care to tell me about H.E.A.V.E., and what the other shirts Dobby has are?"

Harry smirked. "Dobby has an Azkaban Death Wanker shirt, the H.E.A.V.E. shirt and another one. I have been thinking about the first shirt, and I liked it enough to make a few more with Fred and George's help."

Pansy frowned. "How does sending Voldemort into rages help us?"

Harry sighed. "I want his attention on me this year. Between us and a couple of things Hermione found in Professor Dumbledore's books, we can give Hogwarts the strongest defenses in the world. The Horcrux hunters won't have that and neither will the families. I want them safe and alive when this is over, even if I'm not."

Pansy nodded. She could fully understand wanting to keep your family safe. She felt a pang at the thought of Harry not being safe and alive at the end of the war, but pushed it away to consider his reasoning. "You don't mind Dobby wearing those shirts because you think he's strong enough to escape if someone attacks him."

Harry nodded. "I do. I've talked to him a couple of times and as far as he knows, no Wizard can stop him from using the house elf type of movement. It's not Apparating and he's never had any problems going anywhere he wants to go, even inside Hogwarts."

Pansy sighed. "Just do me a favor and let me know before you do something like this again, please? I hate surprises."

Harry grinned and went into his room. He came back a minute later with another shirt. He tossed it at her. "There's only one of these. It's mine."

Pansy held up the black t-shirt and read it. The front of the shirt had a picture of Voldemort, as he currently looked. Above the picture was a single line:

"Have you seen this Dork Lard?"

On the back of the shirt was:

Wanted: Moldywart, Dork Lard and half breed. Accused of stupidity, cowardice, impotence, ignorance and bad hygiene. If seen, please call 1-800-KILL TOM.

Warning: The half blooded freak is not human and will not act in any rational way. He can be dangerous, unless you're a baby. He will steal the candy from babies though.

Pansy looked at Harry. "If Riddle ever gets his hands on you, Harry, he's going to make you as immortal as he is, just so he can torture you longer."

Harry shrugged. "As long as he doesn't kill me. I am the only one that can kill him, so the longer he tortures me, the longer I have to escape and do something about him."

Pansy blinked as she had a sudden realization. "That's what all this is really about, isn't it? You're trying to make sure he doesn't just cast a Killing Curse at you again."

Harry looked at her. "You will not repeat that in front of anyone else. They mustn't know."

OoOoOoO Hermione, Ginny and Pansy, Diagon Alley, 11JUL97. OoOoOoO

The three girls had gone out to escape the flood of papers Harry was currently dealing with in Mr. Sharpstar's office. They had helped Harry go through it, but the rest of Harry's time there was to be signing things and minor arcane rituals to seal those papers for Harry's coming of age, less than three weeks from now.

"So, Pansy," said Hermione, as blunt as always, "when are you going to tell us what's wrong?"

Pansy blinked and avoided the eyes of the other girls. "I don't know what you mean."

Ginny smirked. "Fine. Hermione and I will discuss it, since you don't know anything. Hermione, does it seem to you that Pansy has been different the last couple of days?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I noticed that. She's often staring at Harry, studying him, and she seems to enjoy the flirting a lot more." Hermione looked around and lowered her voice. "She's also been asking me to show Harry how to play that game we like so well."

Pansy's face was flaming by now but she stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

Ginny continued. "You know, she reminds me of someone, but I just can't think of who."

Hermione snickered. "She reminds me of a certain redhead I know, quite intimately."

Ginny made a face. "She most certainly doesn't act like Ron."

Hermione froze and then glared at Ginny. "Not that redhead, you git."

Ginny grinned and looked at Hermione with a shocked expression. "Just how many of-"

"Finish that sentence and you'll be sorry." Hermione was fingering her wand. She smirked. "The redhead I mean is the one with a cute little strawberry birthmark on her butt."

Ginny blushed. "That's enough about that, thank you." She looked around. "Fred and George have forgotten about it, and I want it to stay that way."

Pansy grinned at her. "You do have to admit, it's awfully cute though. I've never seen a butterfly birthmark before."

Ginny blushed a deeper red and glared at Pansy. "At least it's something I was born with. Where did you get a magical tattoo anyway?"

It was Pansy's turn to blush as Hermione giggled. "There's a place in Knockturn Alley. They do excellent work."

Ginny looked down the street, toward the entrance to Knockturn Alley. "How long does it take?"

"I don't think so. Not today." The three of them looked at Miranda. "I would prefer to take it easy for another day or two, until I am fully functional again. Miss Granger will not be tempting fate today."

Hermione sighed. "Fair enough. We can always do it later." She looked at Pansy. "I just want to know, why that tattoo? I would have thought you would get something more Wizard like."

Pansy blushed again and muttered something. She glanced at the other two out of the corner of her eye and sighed. "I just like bunnies, ok? They're soft and cuddly, and if you ever repeat that where anyone else can hear it, I'll hex you every day forever."

Ginny snorted. "Right. Like anyone would believe that Pansy Parkinson, Bitch Queen of Slytherin, does anything with bunnies but rip their heads off and drink the blood."

Hermione sighed. "Speaking of Pansy, this started with a request, Pansy. Are you going to tell us that you might like to stay with Harry after the war is over and you don't need him anymore?"

Pansy froze, closing her eyes. "He has you and Ginny. He doesn't need me."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're nearly as thick as Harry, aren't you? If you haven't noticed, Harry kisses you the same way he kisses us."

Pansy shrugged. "Harry enjoys kissing us, but that's just sex and hormones. It doesn't mean he likes me for anything more than that." Pansy frowned, looking away from the other two. "We made a deal, and I will keep that deal. I help him, he protects me and when Voldemort is dead, I go back to my family."

Hermione and Ginny looked at each other as Pansy quickened her step. "The nice thing about deals," Hermione said thoughtfully as they hurried after her, "is that they can always be changed with the approval of both parties."

Ginny tapped her on the shoulder. When Hermione looked at her, Ginny grinned. "I think this deal should include us. We are affected by what happens between them, aren't we?"

Hermione smiled. "So very true. Let me think about this for a few minutes." The two girls caught up with Pansy.

OoOoOoO The Diagon Alley Defense Group, 11JUL97. OoOoOoO

"Alright, quiet down, everyone. Fred and George are at the Inferno right now, so I'm running the meeting tonight." Lee Jordan looked out over the people that could make it to this meeting. Almost half of them were training with Fred and George tonight and the rest of them were going to train tomorrow night. "First, do we have any new business?"

"I've got something strange, but I don't know what it means." Harold Brooks was a storekeeper who sold magical trunks and baggage. "Narcissa Malfoy was in yesterday and bought four multiple compartment trunks. She paid cash, but had them delivered to an address that was not Malfoy Manor."

Lee frowned but wrote that down. "Any other Death Wanker activity in the Alley this week?"

The other shop keepers denied anything unusual. While some of the suspected Death Eaters and their families had been in the Alley, they only bought normal everyday things.

"I've got something, but it doesn't have anything to do with Death Eaters. Has the Ministry been around to any of you?" Sheila Grayson was a healer, specializing in family style ailments that didn't need St. Mungo's, but were a bit too serious for the average family to deal with. "They came by and asked me a few questions about any conspiracies in the Alley. I think they're looking for us after the battle."

Lee Jordan looked around. "Anyone else been approached yet?"

Several hands went up, all from people that had been in the Battle of Diagon Alley. "They weren't asking me about conspiracies, though," Diana Lightfoot said. "They were warning me that openly defying You-Know-Who could have serious results for my shop, and letting me know that the Ministry was going to be raising the shop tax again."

The others nodded. "I got the impression that if I wasn't involved in any more incidents and I didn't talk about the battle, my taxes wouldn't go up."

Lee frowned as he considered Jerry Hall's words. "I think it may be time to start gathering information on the Ministry and their actions in the Alley. Talk to a few people and spread the word about the tax increase. Let's see if it's a real hike, or a way of pressuring us."

"Any old business?"

"Just one thing," Sheila looked around. "Does anyone have a friend or relative that needs or wants a Potions Apprenticeship? Supplying the potions for the Inferno training is running through my stock faster than I can make them."

Jerry Hall winced. "If that's the way they trained Aurors back in the day, I am very glad my wife talked me out of becoming an Auror." He rubbed his shoulder. "Or is that just Mad-Eye's way?"

Lee grinned. "If you think Moody's bad, wait until your session with Harry. He's becoming downright scary."

OoOoOoO Voldemort and Harry, a meadow in northern Scotland, 12JUL97. OoOoOoO

Harry looked around the meadow, using the magic in his glasses to locate his people and look for enemies. His magic was exploring the surroundings as well.

Harry was about to meet with Voldemort.

For the very first time, every one of Harry's advisors agreed on something. This was madness.

He had laid out his reasoning clearly and concisely, again and again, until his patience began wearing through the knee-jerk reaction about dealing with Voldemort.

It had taken three days, but finally, the details were set and the meeting was just minutes away now. Harry had brought Hermione and Ron of course, and Miranda was standing next to Hermione with that blank face that meant she was in full Defender mode.

Ginny had begged off this meeting. She wasn't afraid to see the dark lord, but she was worried that some lingering trace of him from her first year would allow him to reach into her mind and learn things that Harry didn't want him to know.

Moody had not even been told where the meeting was going to happen, as Harry didn't want the old Auror gathering the other Inferno trainers for a sudden surprise attack. Harry did have nearly twenty people around the meadow, all of whom had been required to swear an oath not to do anything without a signal from Harry.

The only person out here on Harry's side that could start a fight were Harry himself and Miranda, simply because she refused to swear any oath that might interfere with her protection of Hermione. Since the first thing she would do if something went wrong would be getting Hermione out of there, Harry didn't mind that a bit.

Harry stopped thinking about the security around the site as the crack of multiple Apparations sounded.

Voldemort was standing in the middle of the meadow. Next to him were the three Malfoys and two more Death Eaters, both with their masks on.

Voldemort looked at Harry and then looked around the meadow. "An interesting place for a meeting, Potter. Why would you want to meet way out here?"

Harry moved up to stand about ten meters from Voldemort. "I have several reasons, Voldemort. Since I am not going to spend the day chatting with you, shall we get to business? I have other things to do today."

Voldemort nodded. "You made me an offer, Potter. You would give me the full prophecy in exchange for all three Malfoys, alive. Are you still willing to make that deal?"

Harry nodded and reached back. Ron put the small bowl he'd been holding in Harry's hand. Harry held it up. "You recognize this, don't you?"

Voldemort nodded. "It's a Pensieve. I assume you'll place the memory of the Prophecy in it and allow me to examine it?"

Harry smirked. "Better. I have placed Albus Dumbledore's original memory of listening to the Prophecy being spoken in here."

Voldemort's eyes flared. "Why does that worry me? Why would you give up such a valuable memory?"

Harry shrugged. "Valuable to whom? I have watched it so many times that I can quote it word for word. It means nothing to me anymore, and any clues you might get about Professor Dumbledore wouldn't do you any good now, since he's dead."

Voldemort nodded. "And Snape already told me the first two lines and the prophet's name, so nothing else in there will do me any good what so ever."

Harry nodded. "Since I know the prophecy and I don't need this one, I would prefer to give it to you, so that you don't have one of my memories. We have too many connections already, for me to be comfortable giving you further insight into my mind or ways of thinking."

Voldemort watched Harry for a few minutes. "You are growing up, Potter. I wonder what kind of team we could be, if you had accepted my offer that first year."

Harry shrugged. "We'll never know, but somehow I think we would have come to blows anyway. You don't share very well, and I don't agree with some of your policies." Harry gave a half smile. "Not to mention, that even if I became like you, sooner or later, I would have started eyeing your throne, and you would have tried to eliminate me, just to protect yourself."

Voldemort studied Harry. "True. It would have been a glorious few years though. How do you want to work this trade?"

Harry looked at the Malfoys. "I have a few people that will take the three of them and watch them for an hour. They will also be running a few other tests on them. When Moody is convinced that these are in fact the real Malfoys, I will give you the Pensieve, and wait while you verify that you do have the Prophecy. At that point we will both leave."

Voldemort snorted. "Do you think I am a fool, Potter? As soon as you have the Malfoys in your hands, you'll all disappear."

Harry sighed. "Then we go to plan two, which is just a bit more annoying. The people will come here, and examine the Malfoys while we all stand around. I will have to place certain anti-Apparation and other spells on the Malfoys, so they don't have a chance to evade my hospitality. After the hour is up and we have the real Malfoys, I'll give you the Pensieve."

Voldemort considered that. "You're an honest person, Potter. I'll do that." He looked at the Malfoys. "Go, perform your last duty for me."

Lucius, Narcissa and Draco hesitated and then started toward Harry slowly. Lucius had the look of a man approaching the gallows. Draco was sneering, and Harry almost smiled. The ferret never changed. Narcissa was the same as every other time Harry had seen her, composed and icily calm. Harry had to admire her composure under stress.

As they passed the Trio, Draco glared at Harry and was about to say something. "Quiet." The softly hissed word came from Narcissa, and it held enough venom to close Draco's mouth.

Just behind Harry, four members of the Windenmere fighter's group appeared and they started examining the three Malfoys in silence.

Voldemort hissed as he watched. "I was very upset about you stealing my people, Potter. I see you're still using them to do your dirty work, just as I did. How do they feel, exchanging one master for another?"

Harry smiled. "They haven't. They are their own people, but everyone has to make a living and they work well, if you pay them enough." Harry shrugged. "Between the money I pay them and the favor they owe me for protecting them from you, they do good work."

Harry was deliberately underplaying the relationship between the Windenmere group and himself. If everything went wrong, maybe they could save themselves from Voldemort. If Voldemort thought they were important to Harry, they'd never be able to hide.

The next hour passed slowly, with Voldemort making comments about various subjects and trying to draw Harry out, trying to get him to give some bit of information. Harry parried the questions, answering some truthfully, some with lies, and others with a mixture of both.

Finally, one of the fighters approached Harry. "They are the Malfoys."

Harry nodded and looked at Voldemort. "You've kept your end of the bargain, now it's time for me to keep mine." Harry picked up the Pensieve and stepped toward Voldemort. He was aware of everyone tensing up, but he tried to relax as much as he could, considering the thing in front of him had made a hobby out of trying to kill Harry since before Harry had memories.

Voldemort felt the touch of Harry's magic, a fiery lash that barely touched him before it was gone again. He felt something touch at the edge of thought, but it was lost as Harry held out the bowl.

Voldemort took it and looked at the memory inside. He looked at the two Death Eaters with him. "Watch them. If any of them point a wand in this direction, kill them." The two Death Eaters didn't respond in words, they simply separated a bit and watched Harry's people.

Voldemort looked at Harry one more time and bent over the bowl. Harry turned to his people, ignoring the Death Eaters. "Take them away. Follow the plan and go, now."

The fighters grabbed the Malfoys and in less than a minute, they were gone. Soon, only Harry, Hermione and Ron remained. Harry looked at Ron. "I'm counting on you, Ron."

Ron nodded at looked at Hermione. "Sorry," he said, as he laid a hand on her arm and activated the hidden Portkey he was wearing. Harry winced. He was going to be in so much trouble when he saw her again. He looked at Miranda, who had known what was going to happen.

She prepared to Apparate to the rest of them, but paused to look at Harry. "You had better not disappoint me, Mr. Potter. I would hate to have to tell Pansy to start spreading all those rumours she's been making up." She disappeared before Harry could say anything. Harry turned and looked at the only three people left in the meadow.

Voldemort was still deep in the memory and the two Death Eaters were watching Harry closely. "Why shouldn't I just kill you right now?" asked one of them and Harry stiffened. He knew that voice.

Harry glared at the Death Eater. "Please do, you slimy scum-sucking scurrilous shithead. But before you do, you might want to ask your master to tell you the whole Prophecy. I'm sure he can break it down far enough that even your miniature mind will be able to grasp it."

Voldemort stood up just then and stood still for a few seconds. He turned to Harry. "You and I, Potter? That all it is? I could have told you that. You're the only person to ever trouble me since I started this war." He looked around and then back at Harry. "You're the only one left, Potter? Why shouldn't I kill you now?"

Harry looked at Voldemort. "First, you're wrong. I am not the last person on my side here and second, do you really want to start what might be our final fight right now, right here? I could have done something to the site or the meadow itself that could do more damage than you can dream of. You lived through the second World War, Voldemort. Muggles have improved their bombs a great deal since then."

Voldemort stared at him. "Another time then, Potter. I will be looking for you, in a place of my time and choosing."

Harry gave a small nod of his head that might have been a nod or just a nervous twitch. "Another time."

Harry disappeared without a sound.

Voldemort hissed. "He didn't stay for the last part of this meeting. We'll just have to send it to him." Voldemort gestured at the silent Death Eaters and its robes flew away.

Voldemort looked at Pettigrew and smirked. "Go, find Harry Potter. Kill him."

Pettigrew made not a sound as he began walking in the rough direction of London. With every step he took, his head snapped back and forth. It was plain that Wormtail's neck had been broken.

"Do you really think the Inferi will kill him, my Lord?"

"Of course not. It will remind Harry that I can do things he can't though, and hopefully, it will do enough damage to be noticed. I am going to make people afraid of the night. Take a dozen Death Eaters and find me a wizard. Every night, we're going to take a Wizard or Witch and turn them into an Inferi. Sooner or later, we'll either run out of people, or one of them will get lucky and kill Potter."

The two killers left, disappearing with the cracks of Apparation.

OoOoOoO Harry and others, The Inferno, 13JUL97. OoOoOoO

Harry ducked the red beam coming in from his left, turning the duck into a roll and coming up out of it nearly two meters from where he dropped. "Reducto," he hissed, firing at the target before him. The target dodged and returned fire with a speed that Harry couldn't match. Harry gritted his teeth as his body slid around the corner and the Cruciatus Curse was broken. He staggered to his feet and started moving again, knowing that the targets in the maze never stopped moving.

He came around a corner and stopped the curse on his lips as he recognized the person standing there. "What are you doing in here?" he asked Fleur.

Fleur smiled. "I am the innocent you have to protect and help escape. Mr. Moody says it will be good for you."

Harry snarled. "I'll give him good for ," he said and spun as a cold chill went down his back. His Reducto hit a split second before the target's curse and it dropped, stopped for two minutes, when it would automatically be fixed and return to the hunt.

Harry looked at Fleur. "Can you run?" She nodded and Harry grinned ruthlessly. "Then I think I'm going to change the rules, since Moody wants to play games."

Harry reached inside himself, picturing Fleur under the Cruciatus. He put his wand away and stared at the wall for a second, raising that power he'd touched a time or two before. He threw his hands out in front of him as he yelled "Reducto!", putting every bit of his frustration and worry behind the words.

The cutting curse that erupted from his hands was nearly a foot across and it tore through the wall and then the walls behind it with ease, like a knife though butter. Harry shook his hands, which were smoking slightly, and gestured to Fleur. "After you."

Fleur blinked the bright spots out of her eyes and stepped through the new doorway Harry had made for her.

OoOoOoO Harry and the Malfoys, Nicholas Sharpstar's office, 13JUL97. OoOoOoO

Harry stared at the Malfoys. "You are a convicted Death Eater," he told Lucius coldly. "I have no use for you, nor would it help you to try and convince me that you did everything you did under the Imperious. I can throw it off, and most of my people, after repeated practice, can at least resist it enough that the rest of us can tell when they're being affected by it. As far as I can tell, you are either an evil, lying bastard or a weak willed wimp with no redeeming qualities. In either case I don't need you. Keep your mouth shut until I finish talking to these two, and you might not be given to Moody for his amusement."

Lucius flicked a glance at Mad-Eye, who was standing against the wall and watching Harry and the Malfoys while fingering his wand. He remained quiet, though, as there wasn't anything else he could do. His wand had been taken when Voldemort had given him to Harry and he still didn't know where it was. His mission would have to wait until he got it back, or got his hands on another one.

Harry looked at Narcissa. "I have no personal quarrel with you. My people tell me that you do not have a Dark Mark and to the best of my knowledge, you have never done anything to me. Is there anything that might change my mind?"

Narcissa glared at him. "Besides that fact that you have taken my name from and I hate you for that? You have prevented me from getting the things that Mother said she would leave me, destroyed my family and are ruining the social standing of the Blacks. Other than that, no."

Harry nodded. "Then your part of this meeting is simple. My terms are not for debate. You either accept them, or I simply turn you out now, with only the clothes on your back." Harry pushed a parchment toward her. "You will sign this, and make an Unbreakable oath to support the Light and the Black family in their endeavors until your death, as directed by the head of the family. If you do those two things, I will reinstate you in the Black family and give you an annual income and Grimmauld Place to be your home."

Narcissa stared at him for a second and then picked up the parchment. She began to read as Harry turned to Draco. "You have been convicted of a dozen crimes and your punishment is set. You will be Kissed as soon as the Ministry finds you."

Draco paled, slumping in his chair as his fate was given. Lucius paled as well, but then his eyes narrowed and he looked at Harry. "You are plotting something, Potter. You can save my son."

Harry glanced at him. "I can."

Draco looked at him, hope crossing his face, followed by suspicion. "What's the cost, Potter? I know you're not going to save me out of the kindness of your heart."

Harry shook his head. "I have no kindness for you, Draco, not after the part you played in Professor Dumbledore's death. I do have three conditions that you will meet, or I will take you to the Aurors and watch as the Dementor Kisses you."

"What are your terms?"

Harry looked at Lucius. "The first term is yours to do. You will sign the Malfoy fortune, and all of its assets over to me right now. Everything Malfoy will become mine, to do with as I please. You will each be allowed to take three things away from the estate. Your wand, your clothing and one item of your choice, not of a dark nature."

Harry turned back to Draco. "The next two things are yours to do or not do. First, you will swear an Unbreakable Oath never to return to any British land, possession, ally or colony. Included in that oath will be a clause that you will never attack another being except in self defense or the defense of another. The second thing you will do is leave Britain forever. I have a small house in a Japanese magical town that will be yours, along with a small annual stipend. It will feed you and clothe you. If you want anything more than that, you'll have to work."

Harry looked at their stunned faces. "The choice is yours, but remember, if you leave this room without signing those sheets and swearing those oaths, you'll be given to the Aurors, and this time, Voldemort will not save you." He looked at the three of them. "In fact, Gawain Robards and three of his people will be here in ten minutes to have a talk with me. I believe that he's planning on taking both of you directly to Azkaban and having you Kissed so you don't escape again."

Narcissa looked up from the parchment and spoke. "I sign this, make your oath and I am free to be a Black, within your rules?"

Harry nodded slowly. "I will not even tell you who to be friends with or control your life at all, except to make sure you stay on the light side."

Narcissa nodded and signed the parchment. She took off her wedding ring and handed it to a stunned Lucius. "I am leaving you, Lucius. My Family Head has broken all ties with your family."

Lucius looked at Harry. "What will I do, if I agree to your terms?"

Harry looked at him. You have two choices, if you take my terms. You can go with Draco, or you can accept a house and a stipend somewhere else. If you go with Draco, I will set someone to watching you forever. If you take the other house, I will not waste the time to have you watched, as Draco cannot enter that land by the oath he will swear."

Lucius thought about his mission and sagged, beaten, or so he appeared. The only way he was going to getting his wand would be to agree to Potter's terms. Signing the fortune over didn't mean anything if Potter died. The fortune would revert back to the Malfoys unless Potter had a will already, and Lucius didn't think he did. "We'll take your terms, Potter."

Lucius looked up. "One day, I hope to hear the Dark Lord has killed you. When that day comes, I will have my revenge."

OoOoOoO Harry and DMLE Head Robards, 13JUL97. OoOoOoO

"So they are on their way to the places I have arrainged for them."

Gawain Robards frowned at Harry. "It sounds as if you were rather lenient with them. I still think they should have been Kissed."

Harry smirked. "Lenient to us, maybe, but I think Lucius and Draco will be regretting accepting my offer within the year."

Head Auror Robards looked at Harry and his smirk before looking at the three girls that were always with Harry these days. All of them looked like cats with full cream bowls. "What did you do to them?"

"Draco is moving to Japan, to an old Wizarding town. It just so happens that it's also a Pureblood community, still run by Samurai and the Code of Bushido."

Robards frowned for a second and ten grinned, a grin that turned into laughter. "Since Draco Malfoy is a foreigner and not Japanese, he'll be a Mudblood there, won't he?"

Harry frowned. "I don't like that term, but yes, Malfoy will have the same status as one for the rest of his life. The only job they would allow him to have will be as a manure handler."

Gawain Robards looked at Harry, still smiling. "And Lucius?"

Harry sighed, looking at something in the distance. "I got him a nice little house in America, in a Progressive Wizard community, one where advancement and social status is based purely on your merits and community work. They also raise sheep there."

Gawain Robards thought about that. "You sent Lucius to a farming village that admires hard work and friendliness?"

Harry and his friends smirked. Robards shook his head. "Mr. Potter, if I ever annoy you, just curse me, please. I don't think I like your ideas of justice."

Harry gestured at the girls. "Hermione, Ginny and Pansy worked out the details, I just paid for it." Harry grinned. "Actually, the Malfoys are paying for their own punishment. By the way, would you like to buy a Manor, after we clear the Dark things out of it?"

Gawain laughed and shook his head. "No thank you, Mr. Potter." He turned serious. "That was a very interesting story in the Quibbler and The Bludger. It's started a serious uproar in the Ministry though."

Harry shrugged. "I think, that over the next three or four days, more than the Ministry will be in an uproar over it."

OoOoOoO Interlude, The Bludger, 13JUL97. OoOoOoO

Harry Potter Speaks!!

Yesterday, one of the most historic meetings since Merlin met with Arthur took place in a small meadow in Scotland. Harry Potter met with the man most commonly called Voldemort or the Dark Lord. His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle and that is how the Bludger will refer to him.

In the course of their meeting, Harry Potter released a prophecy that was spoken to Albus Dumbledore and concerns Mr. Potter and Riddle.

Harry Potter is the only person that can kill Riddle, just as Riddle is the only person that can kill Harry Potter. (See the full Prophecy on page 5.)

Mr. Potter gave the prophecy to Riddle to ransom one of the people that had been forced to follow Riddle. Narcissa Black-Malfoy married Lucius Malfoy and when he became a Death Eater, she was forced to follow the wishes of her husband, or lose her family and son forever.

As the new head of the Black family, Harry Potter couldn't allow the continued subjection of one of his family, and ransomed the former Mrs. Malfoy from Riddle.

After the meeting, Harry Potter gave an interview to this reporter and Luna Lovegood, a reporter for the Quibbler. (See pages 7-13 for the full interview.)

Mr. Potter has stated his determination to finish his NEWTs at Hogwarts this year and find the information he needs to beat Riddle, who has had a bad month. In the last month, Mr. Potter has been a constant thorn in Riddle's side. He has defeated an attack on Diagon Alley with the help of the Windenmere group and a "Diagon Alley Defense Group", and Mr. Potter is hiding more than four hundred people who have fled the service of Riddle.

In addition to that, Mr. Potter assisted Hermione Granger-Black in capturing Severus Snape, the murderer who killed Professor Albus Dumbledore and he gave the testimony that convicted Snape of that crime before his escape from the Aurors.

In other news, Mr. Potter has allowed the Comet Broomstick Company to take pictures of him riding the new Comet 310, and he will be using that Broomstick to play Seeker for Gryffindor this year. Mr. Potter also funded the creation of this paper, which will report the news with all the blunt honesty of a Bludger.

Mr. Potter has also opened a line of communication with the Ministry, and they are discussing ways to alleviate the current annoyance that is Mr. Riddle. Mr. Potter is confident that the Minister of Magic will find a way to use the Aurors to the fullest extent possible in defending the people of Britain.

Lord Black, also known as Harry Potter, (See page 4 for a full list of Mr. Potter's titles,) has reported the death of Bellatrix Black-Lestrange in a Duel with Miranda Riddle (No relation to Tom Riddle) Black. Miranda Black is recovering from injuries received in the duel.

Lucius Malfoy, in a deal to save his life, has signed the Malfoy assets to Harry Potter and left Britain forever. His current whereabouts are unknown. Draco Malfoy is also missing. Narcissa Black has divorced Lucius Malfoy and has sworn an oath to follow the rules of the head of the Black family, who is Harry Potter.

In the last few weeks, Harry Potter has begun doing things in anticipation of the changes that will come around when he comes of age at the end of the month. His Solicitor, Nicholas Sharpstar, has asked the Wizengamot to consider two new laws, both of which are aimed at improving Wizard society in tangible ways. The first will prevent unlawful imprisonments, such as happened to Sirius Black, by requiring any prisoner of Azkaban have a trial before the Wizengamot, including the administration of Veritaserum before sentencing.

The second will allow anyone damaged by the actions of another to ask the Wizengamot for damages and fiscal reparations in direct proportion to the damage suffered, which should make people less eager to make damaging accusations about others or to be caught serving the various so called Dark Lords that pop up in our society.

This paper will be very interested in watching the votes on those two bills, as the only reason one can think of to vote against those bills is a desire to hide or diminish the consequences of illegal or Dark actions.

This reporter thinks Harry Potter will be a breath of fresh air in the Wizengamot next month and for a long time to come.

Lemos Veritaseek.

OoOoOoO The Light Side, Everywhere, 09-30JUL97 OoOoOoO

Over the next three weeks Harry and his allies settled into a routine. The Order Without a Name spent four hours a day training with Moody and the other retired Aurors at the Inferno. Fred and George's Diagon Alley group spent the time they could, after working and doing all the little things that people, even Wizards, have to do to survive.

Harry had gone to Miranda's first session expecting it to be similar to Moody's training. Twenty-one minutes later, Miranda called for Luna and gave Harry to her. Luna had checked on Harry and called for Moody's healer, the irritable old Auror that had seen Harry after the incident in the Inferno. The two of them had spent nearly thirty minutes healing Harry with a variety of spells and potions. When Harry woke up the next morning he blinked, looked around and saw Miranda standing behind Hermione. He stared at her for a minute. "You were trained like that?"

Miranda shrugged. "Sort of. I took it easier on you than they did on me. You don't have the preparation or training I did before I started that level of training."

Harry blinked again. "That was taking it easy?"

Miranda nodded once. Harry shook his head. A sly smile crossed his face. "Are you certain we can't let Moody in on this? I'd be very interested to see how long he'd last." Harry's respect for Miranda had gone up another notch. Already high after the duel with Bellatrix, it went up again after the training session, short as it had been.

"Will you be back for the next session, Mr. Potter?" Miranda was watching him with that blank face she was so good at.

Harry looked at her and shrugged. "Of course." He sighed. "I think we'll have Luna on hand next time though. I think I'll be needing her."

Miranda nodded. "I would have had her on hand this time, but you surprised me. I thought this would be a quick lesson, and you would not be too badly hurt this time. You lasted almost four minutes longer than I thought you would, and put up a much stronger resistance."

Harry was just starting to smile when Miranda shrugged. "That just means I'll have to make the next lesson that much harder."

Harry winced and looked at Luna. "Make sure you've got all the potions you need. I think I'm going to need them."

Luna took the stuffed dragon she had tucked in with Harry the night before. "I think," she said, as she put it away in her bag, "that Miranda's trainers have read an old Muggle book. Their training seems to be right in line with a quote from that book."

Hermione and Ginny were crossing to the bed to join Harry and Pansy was standing in the corner. Miranda looked at Luna. "Would you elaborate, Miss Lovegood? I am not sure what you mean."

Luna looked at her. "You'd have to owl father for the author and book, but the quote is "Whatever does not kill us, only makes us stronger.""

Harry looked up. He stared at Luna while he thought about that. "That's a very cold viewpoint," he said quietly.

"It is," Miranda said, "but the truth is not always warm and fuzzy. Sometimes the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow."

Hermione looked up from the Wizard papers she was reading. "Voldemort was quiet again last night. I think he must be re-evaluating his strategy, since you started destroying the homes and things that belong to his followers."

Harry grinned at Moody. "I was hoping for that. How many houses are gone now?"

Moody smirked. "Twenty-six Death Eater abodes have been completely destroyed, with nineteen deaths on their side and only three injuries on ours. All of those injuries were in the last battle, as it appears that they've started staking out possible targets. Having Dobby pop in before we hit a place, so we know how many people are there is helping a lot."

Harry frowned as he thought. "Make sure everyone is careful tomorrow, I suspect Moldywart may try something as a birthday present."

Moody snorted. "Already handled, Harry. Ron thought of that a week ago, and has been listing possible Wizard targets ever since, in the order Voldemort's likely to attack them."

Harry smiled at the thought of his friend. "His training has really changed Ron. I almost wish I could get some of it."

Ron had changed dramatically since he started doing whatever he was doing. He didn't brag about the training he was getting, or talk about what he did all day when he was gone, but it was obvious to anyone that had known him for very long. To Harry and Hermione, his closest friends for nearly seven years, it was like Ron had been replaced with another being. (Hermione had actually checked, to make sure it was actually Ron and not an imposter under a spell or Polyjuice potion.)

This new Ron treated everything as if he was playing chess. Every move was planned out in advance and Ron had an idea of the strategy he was going to be using before he made his first move. He was still as loyal and friendly as he ever was, and his passion for Quidditch was still there, but he'd started talking with Katie and the other players about strategies and plays. He already had nearly forty new plays that he was eager to try.

The biggest change in him was a willingness to wait before he made a judgment call on a person. He no longer automatically assumed that Slytherins were evil, or that Gryffindors would be good. Hermione had nearly fallen out of her chair the first time he admitted that not all Slytherins were going to be Death Eaters, and Ginny had fallen over the chair she was about to sit in.

Percy was the only Weasley that had not been surprised at the changes in Ron. While the rest of the Weasleys had been known to stare at the new Ron in bemusement sometimes, Percy took it all in stride. "Ron is learning that not everything he knew as a child is true," he said when Harry asked him about it. "He is learning that there are many things that are not openly admitted or said."

Harry had nearly fallen over at Perfect Prefect Percy's next sentence. "A good many things in the Wizard world are treated like masturbation. Everyone does it, everyone knows they do it, but no one talks about it."

Harry tried to ignore that because he was having serious problems in that area himself. Pansy and Hermione were in his bed every night, and Ginny was there as often as she could arrange it, which was great and frustrating at the same time.

After they had started dating, before the death of Professor Dumbledore, Ginny had very explicitly told Harry that she would be a virgin on her wedding night. Harry had agreed and they had snogged and occasionally gone a bit further, but they had not done anything else. Harry had promised Ginny that she would be the first woman he made love to, and that it would be on their wedding night.

That, of course, was before Hermione, Pansy and Ginny had gotten comfortable enough with him to be sleeping nude with him. They were not completely nude, as Hermione was large enough in the chest that she preferred wearing a sports bra and panties to bed, while Pansy usually wore only a very tiny pair of panties. Ginny had taken a little longer to get that comfortable, but now she also only worn panties to sleep with Harry. That was where Harry was having problems. Having three warm and quite willing females pressed up against him every morning when he woke up was every teenage boy's fantasy and Harry wasn't going to deny that he liked it a lot.

It was also insanely frustrating when they kissed him, and he had to stop them after a few kisses and a bit of gentle touching. Harry had to stop them because all of them were willing to explore the next level of their relationship. Hermione was teaching Harry about the games she and Pansy played and while Harry could act as a Dominant, he was not as good as Hermione, who really enjoyed being the Top. Pansy would submit to either of them, but for those games, she preferred Hermione, who had a natural touch for it. Ginny had come to an acceptance that the other two girls played games, but she wasn't interested in that. She had gone a bit further with Pansy and Hermione than she had with Harry, but that was only adding fuel to the fires of desire.

The rest of the Order Without a Name was watching the four-way struggle with amusement. Harry and Pansy had gotten a little too loud one night and everyone knew exactly what was going on.

The Weasleys were happy to know that Harry was not doing anything with Ginny, and the twins were in awe of Harry's willpower. That they thought he was barking mad for turning down the girls was also a given. Neither Fred or George could imagine turning down one pretty girl in their bed, and the thought of refusing to do anything to three willing ladies was as foreign to their nature as being serious.

Given that Lee, Fred and George were now openly sharing a flat with Angelina, Katie and Alicia, that said possible things about the sleeping arrangements in their flat at night that Harry preferred not to think about.

Tonks had started the pool this time, and Harry had listened with amusement at some of the dates people had chosen. The twins were already out of the pool, as they had sworn that the girls would break Harry's resistance within two weeks, and that deadline was gone.

Betting pools were becoming a standard amusement for the Order Without a Name. Someone was always willing to start another pool about what ever was going on that day and most of the people in the Order were willing to risk a Galleon on the pool of the day.

Harry set those thoughts aside and looked at Hermione. "What have we got to do today?"

Hermione smiled. "Nothing."

Harry stared at her. "Nothing?" he parroted in surprise.

Hermione nodded. "Tomorrow, we're going to be running around all day and doing thirty different things, so today you have nothing you have to do."

Harry nodded and smiled. "Well, then today we'll go do a couple of things I've been wanting to do but haven't have the time for. First, I want to see the offices of The Bludger."

The Bludger was the paper Harry had financed. Nicholas Sharpstar had done all the work, finding a place to build the offices and hiring honest people who were willing to follow Harry's rules for news as well as buying the equipment the new paper needed.

Harry had laid down just three rules for the paper. They were not allowed to let anyone sway their coverage of the news. If Harry screwed up and it was news, he expected them to report it just as it happened. They were not allowed to use anagrams, false titles or any way to refer to a person except their name. That meant that Harry didn't have to see the "Boy Who Lived crap in this paper, and Voldemort was called Tom Riddle.

Harry's paper had hit the populace like a lightning bolt, and few people had admitted buying them at first, but the subscription rate was growing in leaps and bounds. Harry wrote an editorial once a week, talking about some portion of the Wizard world that needed change as well as a short defense column once a week. He also had articles by anyone that could help the Wizard or Witch in the street. Molly had consented to do a weekly column on household management and spells.

Pansy was happily writing a gossip column, or at least her name was on it. Lavender and the Patils actually did most of the gossiping, as they were tied into almost every rumour mill, gossip chain or other informal news source in the country. Pansy simply visited with them once a week and got all that information from them, passing anything that Harry should know to him.

Hermione wrote two regular columns. The first was a basic informational article on magic, including theories about various forms of magic. In this column she covered the basics of each branch and type of magic she could find, from Arithmancy to construction of Wands and everything in-between. This column was aimed at Muggleborn Wizards and Witches, and was completely factual.

The second column was an opinion piece, and Hermione wrote about the things she perceived as injustices in the Wizard world, comparing some of the attitudes to the Muggles. In some things, she praised the Wizards, although not many. In most, she compared the two cultures and tore the Wizard biases apart. She was fair about it though, inviting anyone who had another opinion to write in and promising to print their viewpoint next to hers.

Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt and Amanda took turns writing a series of articles on Wizard law, pointing out ways for ordinary people to defend themselves against Death Eaters without breaking the law. Moody's ideas were as harsh as he was, but the last Death Eater attack, just a week ago had not been stopped by the Order or the Aurors.

A group of lower level Death Eaters had attacked the home of an older Muggleborn Wizard and he had holed up in a warded area and fought, using a crossbow and spells to hold the Death Eaters off until Harry's people had arrived. By the time they arrived, four Death Eaters were down and dying, three more were caught in various spells and only four were undamaged.

The Bludger had blazoned the fight over eight pages, showing the Wizard world that Death Eaters were not invincible and challenging everyone to fight back.

Harry's last rule was that if they made a mistake in the paper, or printed something that was later proven to be false, they would spend as much space reporting their mistake and apologizing as they had spent on the story originally. If The Bludger wrote and article about the Ministry over four pages, and it was later found to be wrong, they would spend four pages correcting the article and offering apologies to the Ministry.

Harry had challenged the other papers to match his paper in honesty and the Daily Prophet had ignored him, while Witch Weekly had openly scoffed at him, claiming that he was just using his fame to make more money.

Harry's attempts to buy both papers had fallen apart, and Mr. Sharpstar had James Michaels looking into who actually owned the two businesses. The Prophet especially, was far too deep in Fudge's pocket and too willing to make allowances for Death Eaters to be completely innocent.

"Harry, we've got a group Apparation."

Harry spun, looking at Amanda, who was monitoring the newest decoration on the wall of Harry's room. "How many? Do we have someone ready to Portkey in?"

Amanda was already charming one of the returning Portkeys Hermione had created for Harry. "Seven people, out past Hastings. None of them are Aurors to our knowledge." She held out the key and Charlie Weasley took it. "I am up for this one," he said and disappeared.

Hermione, Remus and Shacklebolt, with the assistance of the Unspeakable Croaker had created a new map. Based on the original Marauder's Map, this map was as far above that one as it was over a Muggle map.

This map was three metres long and just as high. It showed the British Islands most of the time. When the map detected an Apparation of more than three people to the same place, it would zoom in on that spot. Unlike the first Map, this one didn't show names, simply the number of people that were there and where they were.

It could detect the simple medallion that all Aurors wore as a badge of authority and would mark those people carrying one with a small ring around their dot. To get any more information, someone had to go take a look.

That was where the Granger-Potter Portkey came into use. A thick bracelet, it was covered in a Rune pattern that Hermione had worked out. Unlike a regular Portkey, this one was resettable to a new destination. Amanda had set this one to put Charlie down about fifty metres from the group.

Exactly five seconds after he arrived, Charlie would be brought back to Harry's room. The Portkey could be set for different return times, although the Runes had to be adjusted for that but five seconds was enough time to tell if the group were Death Eaters or something else without allowing the group enough time to see and target Harry's fighter.

Charlie reappeared and was smiling. "False alarm. It was a group of people from Witch Weekly doing a photo shoot."

The group relaxed. Harry sighed. "Hermione, could you duplicate the Marauder's Map here?"

"I might be able to, Harry," Hermione said, "but I won't."

Harry cocked his head, looking at her. "Harry, we are at war with a specific group. If I can figure out how to follow the Mark, like I did with the Auror's medallions, I will. Spying on the rest of the Wizards is just wrong and I will not help you do it." She looked at him. "You don't need to know what every wizard or witch is doing, or the names of the ones doing something that may or may not be legal, unless they have a Dark Mark."

Pansy smirked. "But Hermione," she started to say, only to fall silent at Hermione's look.

Harry sighed. "I suppose you're right. I do want something else though. Can you make a medallion for my people, that will show up on the Apparation map? That way, we can keep track of our people, in case something happens to them."

Hermione frowned, looking into the distance. "I think so. It might take a few days but if I modify the modified Protean Charm I used on the DA Galleons," Her voice faded away and she shook her head. "Give me a few days, Harry, and it may not be a medallion. Some of the guys wouldn't wear a necklace if you paid them to, and some of the girls would complain that it clashed."

She thought about it. "A ring with a minor glamour on it, so it matches whatever the person is wearing and does not look like everyone else's ring. That would give our people away."

Harry sighed. "Please remember to make at least one medallion, Hermione. I'm out of fingers for rings."

Hermione smirked and whispered something in his ear that made Harry wince and blush. "Forget it. That will happen the same day Snape and Ron willingly hug."

Hermione sighed. "Pity. It could lead to so many interesting experiences." Harry just shook his head.

"Harry Potter Sir, we have a new house elf. Apparently, his family threw him out when he was too old to serve them anymore. He's looking for a family to bond to." Dobby was standing near the door to the rest of the Dursley's house. Dobby had changed even more than Ron. He was neat and clean, and as calm and organized as Harry was.

Hermione had done a great deal of research, and she had finally revealed what she'd discovered about house elves and their magic. Dobby had said they felt good, like flying when they served when Hermione had first asked him about it, but that had been based on his vocabulary and state of mind then.

A house elf had to be bonded to someone or someplace or they went insane. If they were bonded however, they could do anything their master thought they could, within limits. house elf magic grew in direct proportion to their master's magic, allowing them to do whatever their master thought they could do. Harry didn't really think Dobby or Winky had limits, so their only effective limits were the magic they had.

Basically, the house elf magic made them what their master wanted them to be. Harry wanted them to be people, like the rest of his friends, so that is what he got. Wizards that just wanted a self propelled cleaning machine got what they wanted.

House elf intelligence was based on the master's opinion as well. Harry thought they were as smart as Wizards, so they were, for him. People that thought house elves were stupid limited their intelligence.

Hermione had noticed the changes in Dobby and Winky only because of her obsession with their welfare. Before the Trio, no Wizard had bothered learning anything about house elves for two thousand years. They were just there, and the abilities of the elves had been lost in the mists of time, until a Muggleborn Witch and a Muggle raised Wizard looked at them with new eyes.

Harry and Hermione were keeping that bit of news secret until after the war with Voldemort was over, as they didn't want to give the Death Eaters any ideas about using their house elves to fight or spy, as Dobby was doing for Harry now. Winky, would have done it as well, but the idea scared her, and Harry didn't even ask her to help in the fighting side. Winky spent most of her time now with Luna, helping her make potions and study healing.

Harry had told Dobby to leave her alone about that as well. "You're a Gryffindor type, Dobby," Harry told him, "and Winky is a Hufflepuff. She's doing what she can, and we'll do what we do."

Dobby had listened to Harry but it was Winky's announcement a week later that had quieted Dobby's feelings instantly.

Winky was going to be a mother.

Dobby had been so surprised at that announcement that he'd walked into a wall. The Wizards had taken it in stride, except for Hermione, who knew something about house elves that the rest of them didn't, except for Luna. Apparently, it took a little loving and several doses of a rare plant for both of the house elves involved to create a new life.

Luna cleared up that mystery for Hermione quickly. She had promised to give the two of them enough of the plant to procreate the night the Burrow was attacked, and she'd simply kept her word. Harry didn't understand why anyone but Dobby and Winky even cared if they had a family until Hermione told him that Winky would not be able to serve for at least a year after the birth and that after that year was up, Harry would have to find places for their children, who would be born bonded to Harry.

All six of them. Hermione told a flabbergasted Harry that house elf births were always in sixes, three of each sex.

Harry had promptly started asking people he trusted if they'd like to have a house elf. So far, he'd offered one to Tonks and Remus, Miranda, Amanda and a few others. He had thought about offering one to Molly, but Ron had quickly nixed that idea.

So far, none of them wanted an elf, and it looked as if Harry was going to have the cleanest home in the world when the young house elves started working for him. Harry would have at least eight house elves, not counting any that were on the various properties that he would be able to access on his birthday, all of whom were bonded to him personally.

"Harry," Fleur said, disrupting his musings, "what do you want to do about the Wizengamot reports? Are we going to share them with the Windenmere people?"

Harry looked at Pansy. "Do they have them already?"

Pansy looked at the ceiling. She looked at the floor, apparently not finding the answer in the ceiling. Since the floor didn't have the answer either, she looked at Harry. "It's possible that I might have alluded to the reports a time or two while talking to my father."

Henry James Michaels, the investigator that Solicitor Sharpstar used had compiled a series of reports on every member of the Wizengamot for Nicholas. The reports were used to judge how a member would vote on any particular law, so that Nicholas and Harry could determine the best way to sway, coerce or outright manipulate them into the right way of thinking. Usually, that simply meant that Harry would have a few words with the member in question.

Despite appearances, most of the Wizengamot was made up of decent people, willing to listen and judge laws and cases on their merits. There were a few of them that were Death Eaters and a few more that were so conservative that Harry believed they wouldn't change their underwear without being forced to. Those people had their opinions set in stone, no matter who talked to them.

Harry could talk until he was blue in the face, the Death Eaters could scream, bluster and threaten, but those few, (whom Harry called the Old Fogies,) wouldn't budge an inch from their ideas and convictions. They could be gotten around, though, simply by making any law look as though it appealed to their idea of how the world was.

Nicholas Sharpstar was excellent at Slytherin-wording the laws they wanted passed.

That only left one group, the ones that supported Voldemort. They automatically fought any law Harry entered Harry had not yet gotten to the point where his power base was strong enough to simply expose them all as Death Eaters, so he was forced to work around them.

Harry shook his head. He was easily sidetracked today for some reason. He looked at Pansy again. "I just wanted to know if I needed to send them the reports," he said mildly. "If you've given them to your father already, I won't bother sending them again."

Pansy sighed. "No, he doesn't have them yet."

Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? You're slipping, Pansy. I'd have thought sending those reports to your family would have been a priority. Go ahead and send them a copy today."

Hermione and Ginny were exchanging a long look after staring at Pansy. Pansy missed the exchange and smiled at Harry. "Thank you, Harry."

The Floo flared up then, and Narcissa Black stepped into the room. "Lord Black," she said, as formal as always, "I am uncertain if I hate you enough to curse you, or wish to compete with those three for your affections."

Hermione, Ginny and Pansy glared at her. Harry just cocked his head, remembering the meeting that had brought Narcissa into his family, again. Harry sighed. "What is the problem, Ms. Black?"

OoOoOoO Raven, At Home, 01SEP07 OoOoOoO

I don't like the thought of children or babies dying, but Voldemort was trying to drown out the death of Bella, and make it unimportant to anyone that heard about it. The violent deaths of a dozen children under ten would do that. From the viewpoint of a cold blooded murderer, who doesn't give a damn for anyone but himself, it's the perfect response.

You may have noticed a change in the writing style here. For the next couple of chapters, we're going to find out about things as the characters talk about things that have already happened, with occasional flashbacks to important events.

After the Hogwarts group returns to Hogwarts, the style will go back to current day first or second person, depending on what's happening.

Next, I am going to be working on BoB7, in which Harry will continue to do things. (What a Surprise that is, huh?)

I also have a pair of Bunnies in the works. One will show us Harry's vengeance on the Dursleys.

The second will show what Harry's friends do to them, when they don't think Harry went far enough.

Raven