AN: Thanks again to my dutiful beta!

Chapter 6 Trouble with the Order

The same day an emergency Order meeting was called in.

They were still assembled in the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black.

"Albus, what's the matter?" Remus asked.

"Harry!" he said gravely and handed Remus the letter.

"That's the letter you send him to inform him that he was coming over here." Remus stated as a matter of fact.

"Turn it to the backside!"

Remus chuckled, "What did you expect? That he would be happy to come back here?"

The aging headmaster sent him a stern look while Molly asked, "What is it?"

"Harry politely declined to come here." Remus said still grinning and handed her the letter.

"How can he do this?" she yelled.

"Molly!" Remus reprimanded her, "Even if you don't like it, Sirius was more family to him than you could ever be. It is only logical that he doesn't want to come here where he is reminded of him in every corner."

She gasped but than looked down in shame. She remembered too well how she had treated Sirius, even in front of Harry. She regretted it very much. Even if Sirius wasn't very responsible, Harry did love him nearly as much as a father.

"I'm sorry." she muttered.

"It's ok, but don't ever behave like that in front of Harry! Trust me, you wouldn't like his reaction." Remus said seriously.

"Why doesn't anyone go over there to look for him?" Hermione asked.

"I was there Miss Granger." Dumbledore said gravely, "There was nobody there. It seems to be, that his relatives left suddenly on a holiday a few weeks ago. Arabella never did anything because he was there, at least most of the time, I think. He only moved away today."

"You think? What about the tracking charm?" Snape spat.

"What? You have a tracking charm on him?" Hermione asked glaring at the headmaster, "That's an invasion of his privacy!"

"His privacy is of no concern, his health and well-being are much more important for us."

"Yeah, but maybe not for him!" she replied and crossed her arms.

"It doesn't matter anyway because somehow he removed the charm and placed it on a chair in his room." Dumbledore explained.

Ron laughed hard, "Yeah! Way to go Harry!"

"Did any of you inform him of his ability to practice magic?" Dumbledore asked accusingly.

"No, but now it's one more reason for him to hate us." Hermione sighed.

"Yeah, I've had enough of your manipulations to our friend, headmaster, with all due respect but I won't take it anymore. If we keep on like this he won't be our friend for much longer." Ron stated firmly.

Snape snorted.

Hermione sighed and added quietly, "If it's not already too late."

"You're both right." Remus said, "But have no fear. I will tell him how you stood up for him, even if it is a bit late. He's a forgiving person."

Hermione didn't seem so sure about that. "Harry has changed over the last year. He's matured even more than in the previous years and maybe the death of Sirius led him to think that he's on his own now. Your restriction of our mail to him would have made it only worse."

The headmaster sighed, "Maybe it was another mistake of mine. There is only one thing to do now; to find him before Voldemort does."

"And he is looking for him." Snape added with a sneer, "Besides the newest victim on his wanted list of course."

"And who is that?" Ron asked.

"Bellatrix Black." Snape answered with a sneer, "She defied him after Rudolphus was killed."

"LESTRANGE!" Ron shouted while Remus seemed lost in thoughts.

"Remus, was is it?" Hermione asked curiously as she saw his lack of reaction.

"She claimed that Sirius' death was an accident. She only wanted to stun him." Remus answered.

"She's a Death Eater if there ever was one!" Ron yelled, "She is lying."

"You can't lie under veritaserum!" Remus stated.

"But … it has to be taken voluntarily" Ron stammered clearly surprised.

"Exactly, that's what's bothering me. Why should she do that?" Remus asked.

"What's even better is that she has the right to live here!" Snape spat.

"What?" Ron asked.

"Yes, as the last true Black she does. And I still don't know who is the new Head of the House of Black.." Dumbledore growled.

They heard a crack in the foyer and the painting started to scream.

Even before they reached the door to see who was there, they heard a loud voice say, "Reducto maximus!" followed by a loud explosion.

As they opened the door; there was silence in the entrance hall.

They looked astounded at the big hole in the wall where Mrs. Black's painting once resided.

In a cloud of dust stood a dark haired teenager with black rimmed glasses, and he was coughing.

"Sorry about that, but I couldn't stand her." the teenager stated.

"Reparo!" he said and the wall repaired itself, this time without the portrait.

"HARRY!" Hermione yelled and ran over to him.

She promptly ran into a shield and fell on her bum.

"What..?" she asked confused.

"I only let my friends touch me, sorry." He said with a cold accusing voice then turned around and went up to the upper level without another glance.

"HARRY!" Ron screamed but ran also in the shield.

Harry didn't even look at him.

Remus chuckled, "Harry?" he asked.

This time the teen stopped and turned around, "Hi Moony."

"What are you doing here? I mean, I just received your message."

"Oh that! I'm only stopping by for a visit. Sirius left me something. I'm going to get it and be on my way."

"But you could stay." Remus suggested.

"No, you WILL stay!" Dumbledore demanded sternly.

Remus rolled his eyes and Harry saw it as well as the accusing glances of his former best friends.

Harry smirked at the old man, "Says who?" he asked.

"I do and you will obey me!"

"I only obey myself, old man. I will get my things and be on my way. Have a nice evening!"

He went further up the stairs while Ron coughed to hide his laugh. Hermione proved herself to be a friend to him by not reprimanding him for once.

Ten minutes later, he was back with a charmed bag. Moony stopped him, "So that you know it, Harry, your friends stood up for you. Okay, they only did it today but they did."

"Thank you." He said and looked down the stairs at his friends and said, "Maybe I will forgive them of their betrayal with time. They still let me down when I needed them most. That hurt me deeply and I am not as forgiving as I once was. Others will be soon feeling that too." His voice sounded of steel with the last sentence and even Remus shuddered.

"Now, I have to go. Be careful!" Harry said with a smile and twinkling eyes and went down stairs.

Naturally Dumbledore and Snape were awaiting him.

"Harry, please stay here! You are not safe on your own!" Dumbledore tried the nice approach.

"No, thank you, Professor." Harry declined, keeping his voice as polite as the headmaster… his thoughts were another matter. He was beginning to get angry and had to remind himself to keep calm.

"You will stay!" the headmaster demanded now with a hard voice.

This impertinence was too much and the teenager had enough.

"Fuck off!" Harry said now enraged. All the others gasped at his tone as well as his power that was suddenly radiating off him.

Snape had his wand out, "You will not speak in this way to a Professor!"

"I think I just did!" Harry stated unimpressed, "We are out of school and he has nothing to say about me. Same goes for you of course."

"I won't let you out!" Dumbledore's eyes lost their legendary twinkle.

"It isn't your house, Dumbledore." Harry replied still barely restrained.

"I still can put up wards to prevent you from leaving and apparating."

Harry smirked, "No you can't. At least not against the will of the head of the family. Without his consent only the owner is able to do that and Moony would never do this to me."

Remus nodded but he was uncertain.

"See you guys… have fun!" Harry said and wanted to go, but at that moment the door opened and a dark haired woman with an evil grin marched in.

As Remus saw the woman, he turned around quickly to restrain Harry but he was only looking curiously at the woman.

"Well, what do we have here? A gathering of some kind? This wouldn't by any chance be a meeting of the legendary Order of the Phoenix? Severus! What are you doing here? Does the Dark Lord know of your involvement in this? Oh and little Potty is here too." She muttered in her teasing baby-voice.

But Harry grinned only coldly, "You can stop your act, Bitch! I have heard about your whining performance in the court. You aren't as tough as you made us think!"

The eyes of the woman narrowed dangerously.

"Care to prove that?" she asked now coldly and flicked her wand out.

All of Harry's friends watched in terror, because they thought he would enter this fight without thinking. But he didn't.

"Don't bother, Black! I was leaving anyway. We are going to meet again, maybe then I will take you on your offer. Bye and have fun with the gathering of the fried chicken!"

He disappeared without a sound in front of the unbelieving eyes of the headmaster.

Ron couldn't help it; he chuckled and nodded to Hermione, "He's definitively changed."

"The question is, to the better or the worse?" she stated, "He wasn't as rash but he was much colder."

"Hey, Lupin! You are the new owner, right?" Bellatrix disrupted her musing.

"Uhm, yes."

"Where can I move in?"

All the occupants stared at the woman as if she was insane.

"Please, tell me you don't mean that!" Remus groaned.

"Well, I don't want to hear an old fool stuttering all day so I won't stay here permanently. Besides it is not very healthy to be around a werewolf on certain days a month. But I want a room to stay in whenever I want."

Remus sighed and nodded, "If you give me some time, I'll figure something out. I just received the message of your new right to live here. But I warn you, any nonsense and I will kill you! Especially if it's against Harry!"

"Nah, why would I want to hurt little ickle Harriekins?" she said reverting back to her insane baby-voice.

Then she became more serious, "I give you a week! After that, I may pay you a visit any time. Besides sometime I have to arrange a meeting with the new head. I am very interested to get to know him. Ah... and before I forget it, I want a large room with a nice queen sized bed! I don't intend to stay alone for long!" With that she disapparated.

"Bloody Hell!" Snape cursed, "My security is in danger."

"Keep calm, Severus!" Dumbledore pleaded, "Don't forget, she hates Voldemort!"

"Albus, that woman is insane! We can't trust her on this!"

"What should we do? How did she find us anyway?" Dumbledore muttered.

"That is surely the Black-Magic." Severus said quietly, "They were an old family and had powerful magic. With her innocence proven and the 'divorce' of her husband she has been once again named a true Black."

"That is clearly possible." Dumbledore muttered, "Maybe we should bring her into the Order?"

"No! I will not allow that insane woman to enter the Order!" Molly protested. "Ask her and my whole family will quit! She may have been freed of charges but she is still a dark witch!"

"Well, it was only an idea." Dumbledore defended himself, "Now we still have the problem of Harry. We have to find him!"

Ron, Remus and Hermione nodded to each other and went upstairs, "Without us. He was here, he was well and he doesn't want to stay here. Mission over!" Remus said and was away before Dumbledore could shake himself out of his stupor to reply.

"That's insubordination!" Snape bellowed.

"I'm to old for that!" Dumbledore sighed, "Severus! Keep your eyes open and see if Voldemort has planned something for the boy. We will meet again tomorrow and talk again when all are cooled down."

With that he disapparated.

Harry was already placing books in bookshelves. He had gathered nearly four dozen books in the Black secret library after he got the directions from Bellatrix.

He jumped up, his wand drawn as a silent crack was to hear behind him. He came face to face with a woman who was laughing like mad.

"Did you see their faces, Harry?" she asked.

He laughed as well and nodded his head.

"Dumbledore's face was priceless!" Harry agreed and then laughed again, "And Snivellus! His face as you accused him of being a traitor!"

"Yeah! That was my best one! And your coolness at the sight of me, that surely blew them off their hinges."

She strolled over to him and grabbed him on his collar.

"But there is one thing bothering me, Mr. Potter."

"What?" he asked and gulped. She had a clearly wicked expression in her eyes.

"You called me a bitch!"

His eyes widened, "Bella! I..."

"You called me a bitch!" she stated and pulled him roughly to her.

Her stern expression was suddenly replaced by a wicked grin and she licked over his whole cheek with her tongue and snickered, "As long as I am your bitch, you may call me that, but only if we are alone. Understood?"

"Sure!" he said. He was slowly becoming more confident in dealing with her and pulled her to him. With one hand he pulled her to him and with the other he grabbed her ass. Then he kissed her with heavy use of his tongue.

"Hey, you are becoming too bold! I'm going to have to show you your place little Harry!" she said and pushed him away slightly. Before he could react, she tore apart his shirt and opened his pants in a matter of a second.

They did it right there in the library of the ancient manor which at one time belonged to Gryffindor himself.

After they were finished, she took a look at his books. He had chosen a wide spectrum of the darkest of the dark, but nearly half of the books were on one topic only... "Necromancy! Bloody Hell! Harry!"

"I know it is a really black art and it is dangerous. But it's very powerful as well, and Voldemort does have an army so we have to find one of our own."

"But nobody has mastered it in over thousand years, it was even before the founders!" she gasped.

"Then it's time to do it again!" he said determined.

She was once again astounded to see the raw magical power shining through these emerald green eyes.

Slowly she nodded, "You would have a real chance if you could really become a necromancer. I will help you as much as I can, but I don't have enough power to do it."

He smiled and she could see that it didn't matter to him. He liked her for her and not because of her magical power. He had his own reasons. One of which was her trust in him and she swore to herself here and now that she would never betray his trust.

He smiled as if he had read her thoughts.

Her eyes widened as he said: "Thank you."

"But I didn't say anything." she replied.

"I know, but I could see it in your eyes." he said with a soothing voice.

She gaped at him, "What the hell...?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. I feel a bond developing between us. I also feel my power growing, Bella. It started shortly before my sixteenth birthday."

"No, it can't be possible! You ... you're entering your magical puberty."

"And that means what?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes once more about his ignorance of the magical world even if she knew it wasn't his failure but a failure or a manipulation of Dumbledore.

"Every wizard or witch at some time enters a magical puberty. Usually it is around twenty for witches and twenty-two for wizards and the growth in the magical power develops between six months and a year. The sooner that happens, the greater will be the magical growth spurt. And even now you're very powerful!" she gasped.

"Oh, that should be ok then." he stated coolly and she gaped at him.

"Doesn't it... you know... excite you or anything?"

"No, why should it? I don't really care about power. In fact, I hate it that I stand out against all others. To me that little fact has only two positive meanings, Bella. Firstly, I know very well that you like power and so I am happy that I have it for you so that I can keep you safe.

"The second reason is that it will help me against Voldemort. All other reasons to raise my power are not relevant."

She hugged him, "I appreciate that Harry. I like power but I don't like the consequences of power raising rituals. That was what let the Dark Lord snap. I don't want you to become insane."

She seemed to be in thought and at last she nodded, "You know, the powerful wizards of old didn't use wands. They simply couldn't withstand the use of that much power. For things such as necromancy they used staffs."

"Staffs? I think I've heard of something like that." Harry mused.

"But there is no one who is powerful enough to create one anymore. It would be better for you to create your own anyway so it would be better suited for you. I'll look into that and together we can create one for you. You need to concentrate on learning the magic."

He nodded and kissed her gently.

A month later a group of people cautiously entered the platform between tracks 9 and 10 at Kings Cross Station.

They disappeared in a wall between the two tracks.

On the other side they immediately started looking for a friend of theirs.

There were three significant people in this group, all teenagers, a read haired witch, a brown haired witch, and a red headed wizard.

"Where is he?" Hermione asked, clearly concerned.

"I told you he isn't going to come." the younger girl with the red hair muttered disappointedly , "I feel it."

"Why shouldn't he come?" Ron asked, "He has to complete his education!"

Hermione snickered, "I never thought you would say something like that."

"Gee, geroff!" he said but laughed with the two girls.

They still had to enter the train as the last signal sounded throughout the platform.

"Shit! He didn't come!" Ron swore.

They said goodbye to their parents, Remus, and Tonks.

Remus was concerned as looked over the platform.

"He'll be ok, Moony." Tonks whispered.

"I hope so." he said as the train started to move.

The disappearance of their saviour nearly caused a riot by the students of Hogwarts. Not all of them had liked him but most were losing their hope now. Adding to that, there were more and more reports about Death Eaters activities even if there weren't any murders yet. It seemed to the wizards that Voldemort was searching for his arch enemy intensively.

They all hoped, that he would not find him so soon and keep himself busy with his search.

Two weeks later a visibly stronger Harry Potter entered the study in Gryffindor Manor. His muscles had developed and seemed to come together with his magical puberty to compliment the growth of his magical power.

He also had a growth spurt over the last month. His girlfriend estimated he would reach the height of six feet within this year.

Said girlfriend sat in the study with many open books, some wood, and other materials. The green eyes of the young man became hard, as he saw that she was clutching her left forearm, exactly where the dark mark was placed.

"Damn!" he spat.

She hadn't heard him come in and her head shot up.

"Shit!" she cursed and took her hand away.

He pierced her with an accusing stare, "How long?" he demanded with a cold voice.

"Since my trial." she said and stared defiantly back at him.

He nodded and accepted that she hadn't wanted him to be concerned on her behalf or that she showed weaknesses in front of him or whatever her reasons had been. But now he knew and he was going to deal with it.

He strode over to her and grasped her arm. His firm grip showed her, that he would not accept any resistance so she gave in. He had gained much more confidence since they were together. Once he set his mind on something, he wasn't swayed from it easily. They had more than one row during the time they were together but in her mind it was worth it.

He carefully looked over the black tattoo. The skin around it was deeply red and swollen.

He closed his eyes, concentrated on the point in his forehead where his famous scar had been and placed his right hand over the mark.

Both gasped as hot stinging pain shot through them.

Harry let himself feel the magic that was woven throughout the mark and her body.

He was using his connection to the Dark Lord at the same time and he knew, the pain Voldemort felt at this moment was at least ten times worse than what they endured together.

The combination of his growing power and his unique connection allowed him to nearly see the strands of Voldemort sickly green magic.

He let his own dark red, nearly black magic flow throughout his girlfriend.

His strands of magic were twice as thick as the green ones of Voldemort and wound around them. With a mental signal his magic tore the green strands of Voldemort's apart.

Bellatrix screamed in pain but he kept a firm grip on her arm.

He kept his grip until he had destroyed every single strand of foreign magic in her before he drew back his own.

She had screamed the whole time and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

He knew it had been hell, because his girl didn't scream lightly and nearly never allowed tears to flow. She had endured the Cruciatus from Voldemort himself without screaming but this had proven to be too much.

He still had his hand above the tattoo. He smiled and muttered, "Now we need to remove this ugly tattoo from your beautiful body... let's see... hmm... the original incantation was Morsmodre ... let's try this... 'ERDOMSROM'"

She yelped again and swayed visibly. A green glow was forming under his hand for a moment. As he took it away he smiled as he saw the red but unmarked skin on her arm.

"I am sorry for the pain, Honey!" he said and hugged her fiercely.

She leaned against his arms and sighed contently. She felt safe in his arms and the pain slowly drifted away.

"Thank you Harry. If I had known that you would be able to remove it, I would have told you about his torture long before."

"I know. I wouldn't have been able to do it long before, so it doesn't matter. You are truly free now. That is the only thing that matters." he said and stroked her back.

"I thought only the one who cast the mark in the first place can remove it." she said curiously.

He smiled, "I know. But I am still connected to him. I activated the connection to access the mark. There is one other thing that came out of this."

"What, besides the obvious?" she asked and looked in his amused green eyes.

"Well, Voldemort was connected to you through it. It should have hurt him much more then it did to you."

She laughed despite her pain and he laughed with her.

"Now, how is the staff coming along?" he asked.

"I know the needed spells and the most probable materials for you."

"The ones we selected yesterday?"

She nodded and began to explain the spells to him.

"Do you have enough power to try it?"

"I have to, Honey."

She rolled her eyes, "Don't call me that Drake!"

He smiled, "No? What shall I call you then? Princess? Angel? Beauty?..."

"Bitch!" she called him.

"No! I only call you Bitch if we are in bed or a similar situation!"

She slapped him and yelped, once again reminded of her oath.

"Well, you are a beautiful but vicious eagle owl. So I think I'll call you Talon. How's that?"

"Better."

"Don't kill me if I still use more lovely names for you, ok?"

"We'll see. I make no promises." she said with a smirk and meaningfully played with her wand.

"Anyway, I've learned a lot of spells, Talon. I can't go any further without practising them."

"Ok, let's try it.

They got it right on the first try and the resulting staff was magnificent. It was made of the tree of life, tail hairs of a old and wise griffin; freely given, heartstrings of a black dragon, and scales of a wyvern... in this case, of Harry himself in his animagus form. There was a blood emerald the size of a golf ball embedded in a stylised claw of a dragon.

A blood emerald was a emerald which wasn't green as usual but a dark glowing red. It pulsed lightly with the rhythm of his own heartbeat and he felt the power of it as he took it in his hands for the first time. He felt a wave of magical power washing trough him and he felt something else… it was a new connection to his staff… he had bonded to it.

They were truly and rightfully proud of their achievement and both relaxed that day and celebrated their success.

After that, he studied the practical portion of necromancy with new vigour.

And so the year flew by quickly after that.

AN: Sorry, I have not much time so I won't reply to your reviews separately. So thank you folks for all your reviews!