A/N (yes, at the top, annoying as it is you can skip it): Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou for the reviews. I hope this story is somewhat entertaining to you.

Apologies for not posting on the weekend like I meant to, nice and regular. And it's only one chapter not two like I prefer, though it is longer. This is down to the fact that a) I have my yearly exams this week and next, and b) I thought of a rather exciting non-fanfic story idea which I am preoccupied with.

The story jumps ahead a lot in this chapter, because I want to get where I wanted to get to. The Malfoy plot line will be followed later. Harry hasn't done anything much in terms of spying/horcruxes, because he is not in a very likely position to do so, stuck at Hogwarts. Regulus is doing all the work (though they will go Horcrux-hunting in a little while I hope).

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Regulus had not explained to Harry why or when he had become so determined to bring Voldemort down. But Harry understood. He was beginning to feel the same way, as Malfoy and the other Death Eater Slytherins gave him shifty looks now and then in class. When a teacher mentioned You-know-who, they would all keep their eyes on their desks, smirking slightly. Harry couldn't stand it. He wished that he wasn't one of them. The worst was when he heard of a Death Eater murder or kidnapping. Every time he would remember that Muggle he'd tortured and wondered if these latest victims weren't just as human. But of course they were, and often times murdered in cold blood too, and the fact that he might almost have done it himself, or might be forced to, was repugnant.

The previous night, The Headmaster's Office

'Sirius.' Daniel panted, bursting into the room. He noticed another man standing by his godfather's desk. 'Mr Dumbledore.'

Sirius appeared concerned, but not surprised. He guessed easily what was bothering Daniel. 'Daniel, I'm sure he has good reasons. He doesn't support You-know-who any more than you do.'

Daniel merely glared. 'So you were in on it too?'

'It wasn't like that.'

'How can you say that? He's a bloody Death Eater! No one does that sort of thing unless they mean it. You trust him, you think he's -.'

'Daniel,' cut in the older, white-bearded wizard. 'I think you should calm down. You don't really feel that way about your brother and I'm sure if -.'

'I do. I hate him.'

Sirius pressed his lips together worriedly. 'Well, you'll just have to get over it. You can hate him all you want, but I won't let you explode and curse him in the corridors.'

'Oh yeah?' Daniel snapped, defiant.

'Yes, Mr Potter. You see, I have a friend,' (Dumbledore glanced at Daniel, to ensure he was not about to erupt again, then continued), 'He was most unwilling to come here, to take upon himself the responsibilities of Potions Master. But I persuaded him. I convinced him that it would be necessary for the war effort, and he agreed.'

'You can't mean Snape,' Daniel said, voice full of contempt.

'Oh I do. He was furious when he Flooed me last night to tell me that you had, again, missed your Occlumency lesson.'

Daniel bit his lip, not in shame, but anger. 'What do you expect? I only just recovered from being poisoned. And, to make me have lessons with that slimy git – you're mad.'

Dumbledore frowned slightly. 'Mr Potter, do you remember the conversation we had a year ago?'

'No,' said Daniel, not quite managing to pull off the lie.

'About the prophecy?' elucidated Dumbledore.

Daniel turned his gaze to the floor. He sighed, and his whole body heaved with barely controlled emotion. 'Yes,' he said shortly.

'You know that you can be our only chance?'

Sirius stared at the two. He'd heard a faint inkling of the prophecy concerning Daniel Potter, he hadn't known very clearly what it involved.

'Mr Potter, answer me.'

'Yes.' Daniel scraped his hands through his hair, then looked up to meet Dumbledore's eyes. 'Yes sir. I do. I'm – I'm sorry.'

Dumbledore looked satisfied.

'Then I may now do what I came here to do. Sirius, will you please excuse us?'

Sirius gave Dumbledore a questioning glance, which the older man politely ignored, and quietly exited his own office.

'Good. Now, Mr Potter, since Professor Slughorn was cajoled into taking the Defence position last year, I have often tried to worm a certain memory out of him, but even when tied down in one place, he still managed to avoid me. Finally, this Monday, I met success.'

Dumbledore indicated a Pensieve which Daniel had never seen in this office before, and gestured for him to enter it. 'You first.'

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Time passed. James Potter went missing during a Ministry raid. Daniel was horrified when he found out but his father's disappearance finally gave him the necessary motivation to apply himself in his Occlumency lessons with Snape. The vivid nightmares he'd been having were also an incentive.

Harry Potter found out about his father's disappearance second-hand. He was infuriated, and went to Sirius.

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Tell you what?' Sirius looked older than usual, and somehow haggard. 'Oh… about that. I'm sorry, I just assumed someone else already had.'

'Who? You're not talking about Daniel? I can barely go near him without him trying to curse me.'

Sirius glanced down at his fingers, crisscrossed together, then looked up again. He was angry.

'You weren't exactly on the best of terms with James, were you? Harry, why tell you when you probably don't particularly care?'

'Of course I care!' Harry exclaimed. 'That's the whole point. It's worse this way. He's dead, and I'll never be able to make up with him. I told him I hated him. That was the last time I saw him, and now he's gone.'

'He might not be gone. Don't talk like that.'

'Missing is always dead. Unless you're a Death Eater. So, it's pretty obvious he's dead.'

With that, Harry, dry-eyed, but shaking with anger and grief, left Sirius alone. He was upset about his father's demise. It hurt that he'd never been able to prove himself to the man, and that James had died still thinking lowly of him. But it wasn't just that – even if Harry didn't adore him, James was still loved by Sirius and Daniel and that witch he'd started seeing, and now he was dead, yet another of Dark Lord's victims. Harry wondered when someone would finally put an end to him. No one seemed to be doing much, not the Ministry, not Dumbledore. They didn't even know about the Horcruxes, so if they did do something, it would have been near futile anyway.

Harry's morale was also low because he'd had trouble finding anything to do with Horcruxes or the Hogwarts Founders. All his leads, all his ideas, had dwindled to nothing, and Regulus too sounded like he was having difficulty coming up with anything tangible.

However, that changed completely when Regulus invited Harry to visit him one Saturday over the Christmas holidays. He showed Harry into his sitting room, sat down, produced a small golden cup and waited calmly for Harry to react.

'Solid gold,' Harry said, curious, 'and with a badger engraved on it. It isn't –?'

'It is.' Regulus Black lifted the cup up and turned it round in his hands, a slightly complacent expression on his face. He didn't smile.

'Where did you find it?'

'In a marsh in East Anglia.' Regulus rubbed his shoulder, grimacing with pain. 'It was not pleasant. I believe it is where the Dark Lord first employed his Dark Mark. It was an important gathering; he killed a man as part of the ceremony. I suppose that isn't really surprising. He'd been away from the country a long time, and he wanted to make an entrance.

'I'd heard about this from my great uncle before he died, as he was one of the Death Eaters, but I didn't find the location until I discovered an article about an odd will o' the wisp above the swamp in a local Muggle newspaper. They said it looked like a skull.'

Harry nodded, taking this in. 'Who was the man they killed?'

'The Minister for Magic at the time – he was the second Muggleborn Minister in history.'

'You didn't have difficulty getting it?' Harry indicated Regulus' shoulder with concern. 'You aren't hurt?'

'Nothing that I can't live with. Anyway, I might have a chance to destroy it in the next few weeks.'

Regulus permitted himself a small, rather evil grin – unusual in the habitually grim man. Harry waited, interested, for him to explain. The way – the foolproof way – to destroy a Horcrux was to use a simple Killing Curse. Nothing would block it, and it would dispatch the piece of the Dark Lord's soul with ease. But unfortunately, there were side-effects. The Horcruxes would doubtless have deadly curses bound to them, which would be released when they were destroyed.

But Regulus Black simply kept his lips tightly together, and would not say where or how this opportunity would arise.

'I am not sure of it myself,' he said as he and Harry parted for the same place – a Death Eater, gathering. Regulus rubbed his Mark as if the burning was no more than an itch. 'It's just based on a story, a nothing. You'll find out if it comes to fruition in the end.'

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Severus was especially irritable in his sixth year Potions class the next morning. He'd just seen the Dark Lord last night, and it hadn't gone well at all, and now Daniel Potter was being his usual infuriating self. The boy had no natural talent in Potions, but had somehow scraped an Owl, and that and his godfather's support had been enough to get him into Potions. It wouldn't necessarily keep him there, Severus thought vindictively.

Potter, back to Snape, was talking to Granger and barely paying any attention to his simmering cauldron. There was going to be an accident. Severus strolled over, ready to be in the right place to take points when something went wrong with Potter's sleeping draught.

'… tell Dumbledore,' he heard Granger say. Severus moved imperceptibly closer, casting a quick spell to improve his hearing. What were they talking about?

Potter haphazardly tossed some dehydrated Hydra necks into the cauldron, then said, 'I've tried to once already. It's really hard to reach him, and Sirius doesn't think it's a big deal, cause he doesn't really know about my scar or the dreams. Only dad did.'

Severus scowled. The stupid boy still wasn't Occluding before he went to sleep.

'But are you sure?' Granger, ever cautious, was asking. 'I mean if we were wrong and we went to D –.'

'Yeah I'm sure – I mean, where else could it be? It's definitely the Ministry. The Department of Mysteries, probably.'

Severus decided he'd heard enough, as Potter's potion was frothing and increasingly unstable. He retreated back a few desks, and wondered how exactly the boy had got hold of that particular piece of information. He'd been neglecting to Occlude his mind, as usual, but how had he known that it was the Ministry he saw? Had his brother perhaps told him? No, the two had been looking daggers at each other for a month now, and Harry might not even know. And James, who ordinarily would have told the brat everything, was missing.

He glanced over at the other Potter boy. Harry had finished his sleeping draught and was calmly reading a book. Draco, at the next table, appeared to be doing his homework, but was actually trying to see what Potter was reading. Draco had been giving Potter oddly nasty looks lately. It was interesting and a little worrying. Did he suspect Potter of spying? No, of course not; the Order would know if it were that. It must be something else then, a petty rivalry for a girl perhaps.

Severus, feeling a pang of curiosity, said, 'Show me that book, Potter.'

Potter reluctantly exposed the cover. Severus read the title out, 'Rowena Ravenclaw: Thinker, Teacher, Founder. If you're so interested, Potter, why didn't you become a Ravenclaw? Didn't have enough intelligence?'

'No,' said Harry in a low voice. 'I had too much. I'm in Slytherin, sir – your house.'

And then Daniel Potter's potion exploded. Little yellow globs of it rained down on the classroom and some of the students. The quicker students managed to dive under tables and Snape noticed that Draco and Harry, well out of range, had not even looked up. Five years of Potions with Neville Longbottom would do that.

Snape took stock of those who had got the worst of the failed potion (unfortunately not Potter and his friends) and escorted them up to the Hospital Wing. He debated with himself whether he should punish Potter now or later, but decided that he'd wait until later. The boy would have his hopes up of getting away with it and he'd be able to quash them, always a satisfying feeling.

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The minute Snape left the room Daniel turned on Harry.

'What did you do that for?'

'Do what?'

'You were over near my potion five minutes ago.'

'So? That was five minutes ago.'

'You must have put something in.'

'Why would I do that?'

'The same reason you joined him.'

The room fell silent at Daniel's last comment. He had gone a step too far, and the students watched with nervous anticipation. Harry struggled to control himself, to put his mind under the calming blanket of Occlumency. 'I didn't do anything to your potion, Daniel. I was just getting some aconite.'

'Sure you were. You've done this sort of thing before.'

'I think you're confusing me with Draco,' Harry said coldly. 'At least get your facts straight.'

At that moment Daniel, overflowing with frustration – someone had been trying to kill him the past few months after all–, shot a curse at Harry, who replied in kind. There was a brief flurry of hexes. Harry, backing out of the way of a Leg Locker curse, stumbled over one of the tables. This gave Daniel the chance to hit Harry with an Impedimenta and gain the upper hand.

Harry glanced up and met Daniel's eyes. He read his brother's intentions clearly from his mind. The Impedimenta wearing out, Harry threw himself to the ground just in time. Daniel's cutting curse flew over his head. Harry was able to fire off a couple of wordless hexes before he rolled out of the way of another powerful curse from his brother.

Daniel was powerful, Harry had to concede that, and he was having a bad time out of it. His body was aching from all the drops and curses he'd endured and he was finding himself unable to get a spell in edgewise. Calm down, he told himself. You have plenty of advantage over him. Get him worked up.

'I can forsee everything you're about to do,' he said, with that express purpose in mind. He blocked Daniel's next curse with a Mirror Charm, and it bounced off and smashed some glassware on Snape's desk. 'You know how? You can't Occlude. You almost broadcast your thoughts for everyone to see. Fat chance you'll have against the Dark Lord -.'

'Shut up!' Daniel, furious, shot another hex at him and missed badly, almost hitting Draco.

'I'm only telling the truth. If you can't Occlude, that's your problem. Oh, you're about to cast a Stunning…' Harry broke off to concentrate on shielding himself. It wasn't actually true that he saw everything Daniel was about to do though Legillimency, it had been mainly a bluff, but he'd touched a sore point. Things started to go his way, and when Snape burst back into the room, Harry was on the brink of disarming Daniel.

'I would refrain from getting involved,' said Snape as the room went still and the two duellers looked at him with horror. 'In fact, you can attack each other as often and as severely as you like as far as I'm concerned. But not in my Potions classroom, and not when you damage valuable potions.'

He pointed to the shattered glass on his desk.

'That cannot be used, as it is now contaminated with dust. Who was the instigator of this fight?'

'Potter,' someone said, sniggering. Snape glared at this and fixed his dark eyes on Daniel. 'Well?' he prompted.

'It was Harry. He put something in my potion and so I -.'

'So it was you. Fifty points from Gryffindor for flagrant violation of school rules. Mr Potter,' He turned to Harry, making it clear who he was talking to. 'I understand it was self-defence on your part, so you will not have to share your brother's six weeks of detention.'

'Six weeks?' Daniel said, his voice high with disbelief.

'Every Monday, Tuesday and Friday.'

'But that's when Quidditch training -.'

'What an unfortunate coincidence. If you weren't such an arrogant fool, you'd think twice next time you're tempted to ruin a potion and start a fight. Wouldn't you, Potter?'

Snape, despite never having taught before this year, was clearly relishing it.

The rest of the day passed in agonising stops and starts. Lunchtime, in which Harry found a possibly useful chapter on a necklace belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw, shot by, whereas the particularly dull Transfiguration double dragged on for what seemed like days. Finally it finished, and Harry went down to the grounds in order to get some fresh air. Annoyingly, Draco came too.

Draco had been much too inquisitive of late. When they'd come back from the Christmas holidays, Harry remembered being asked by the pale boy whether he was interested in anyone.

'In what way?'

'As a girlfriend, Harry. Honestly, what did you think I meant?'

Harry stared at him. A girlfriend was the last thing on his mind at this time. He'd expected Draco to want to talk about the Dementor defection, or the Death Eaters who'd escaped from Azkaban over the holidays. For a moment he was too surprised to answer, then he said quite nastily, 'No. And, sorry to disappoint you, but I am most definitely not interested in you, Draco, so run off and leave me alone.'

Draco, instead of being offended, pressed on, 'Are you going out with someone already?'

'No.'

And then there was that day three weeks ago when he'd caught Draco trying to follow him. He'd been leaving the school to meet with Regulus, and he'd had a feeling of being watched. He'd taken a few sharp turns and ducked into a side corridor and when he'd looked back round the corner, he'd seen Draco. After that he'd been careful to check that he wasn't being tailed, and warned Regulus to do the same. He hoped Draco didn't know too much.

Now, crossing the snow-shrouded, deserted grounds of the castle, he watched Draco out of the corner of his eyes. Did he think – did he think Harry was a spy? Draco was a good Occlumens, and Harry wasn't a good enough Legillimens to tell what he was thinking. One thing was for sure: Draco didn't trust him.

As they came up to the Great Lake, an owl screeched and catapulted down on them from the sky. Harry flinched and held up his arms to protect his face and the owl landed heavily on them, clawing into his robes. It pecked at him urgently until he took its letter, then leapt back up into the air and away.

Harry scowled after it. What if he wanted to send a reply? But glancing down at the envelope, his irritation completely disappeared, and was replaced with a deep feeling of satisfaction and excitement. The seal of the letter was a snake, underneath a crossed sword and lightening bolt. This was a symbol they'd agreed on before: the meaning was clear. Regulus had found another Horcrux.

Harry thrust the letter in his pocket, not caring if it got crumpled.

'Aren't you going to read it?' Draco demanded the instant Harry put it away.

'No. I think I probably know what it is already. I've been getting nasty letters for ages now, ever since my dad disappeared, maybe before then. It probably has a hex.'

Then he started telling Draco about an idea for a curse he'd had, the return-to-sender hex. This was complete fabrication. He was always lying these days, and while in the past he'd found it diverting to create a good story, he just found it tiring now. 'No, I swear. It's for real… The charm is 'Renvoya'. You've got to wave your wand the right way to make it work, though.'

In the end, he achieved his goal, and Draco was sufficiently distracted not to inquire further about the letter. They had dinner, did homework, and went to bed. Harry lay awake a long time before he could sleep properly.

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That night, Ron was woken up by Daniel screaming. He struggled out from under his sheets and was at his friend's bedside in moments. He knew how serious Daniel's dreams were and shook his friend out of the nightmare, his own hands trembling.

'What it is?'

Daniel stared up at him, but it seemed his eyes were out of focus, like he was looking at something that wasn't in the room.

'My father… I saw him. He's in the Department of Mysteries, tied up. They have him!'

Daniel broke off with a sharp cry and gripped his head where his scar was.

'We have to go.'

'Let's get Sirius first, and I suppose Hermione and the others will want to come,' Ron warned.

Daniel, his face pale, his forehead drenched in cold sweat, did not reply. He gripped his wand and headed out the Dormitory door, one thing on his mind.