AN/ My apologise on the huge wait, I started uni this month as well as work, so things have been more then a little hectic. For those of you reading FMM, don't worry, I'm working on that one as well, it is just the updates may take a little longer then they did originally, although I will try to limit that as much as possible. But I would rather not ruin these stories by rushing them to get in faster updates, so bear with me please. Huge thank you for the reviews, and also for your patience, hope this was worth the wait. (Snicker) I added a new twist into this one, I hope you enjoy, heh heh.

Disclaimer: …. Yeah, not mine.

Chapter 6

Complications and Plans

With a hiss of rage the disembodied spirit seized control of the mind it found itself inhabiting and completely absorbed the resident soul. Swearing sulphurously he skimmed the most recent thoughts of his new mind then stuttered to a stop in shock. Blinking in disbelief he investigated further and found other sensations that were familiar. The feeling of utter weakness, the frustration of living off another and the link that connected him to the current creature that did his bidding. It had been many years since he had felt the sensations of the parasitic mind link he had shared with that idiotic young fool Quirrell, but he remembered it well and feeling it once more it began to occur to him that something had happened when the boy had killed them both, something neither of them had expected. Somehow he had been sent back and as his mind skimmed over all the implications of what was happening an evil mental grin began to form. If he had been sent back there was only one person he could think of that was responsible, meaning the other was here as well. He would have to be cautious because in the state he was in he would be no match for the brat, no matter what form he took, but soon; oh yes soon, "Soon Harry Potter, I shall have you within my grasp, and this time…"

Harry lurched out of a deep sleep screaming, visions of torture and death echoing in his mind as his two consciousness's jumbled in confusion from a nightmare born from old memories and new fears. From down the hall he heard his uncle yelling for him to shut the hell up and he sat in his bed shivering in reaction as he regained control.

"Damn." He whispered, then flinched as a sharp stab of pain shot through his scar. The particular lurch in his mind came and he found himself staring into the haunted eyes of his older self;

"Are you alright Harry?" he muttered. Harry rubbed at his scar and sat back against the wall;

"Yeah I'm fine. Not the most pleasant of nightmares though."

The older spirit snorted softly, "Not far wrong. Sorry about that. I thought I had managed to shield off the worst of those memories but it looks as though some of them are going to leak through regardless."

Harry just shook his head tiredly, "Doesn't matter." He sighed then frowned, "What has me worried though is the pain in my scar. From what you showed me it wasn't until the freak was resurrected that you had any trouble from that quarter unless he was real close to you."

The spirit frowned and rubbed at his own head reflectively, unconsciously echoing the movement of their shared body, "Tell you the truth I overlooked that." He admitted ruefully, "I have lived with that pain for so long that it is odd when I don't feel it. But now that you mention it, this can't be good.

"What do you think is going on?" the spirit frowned in thought then shook his head, his face mirroring the concern Harry felt;

"I don't know." He answered finally, "I have a feeling that if Voldemort is pissed enough for us to feel it now, as weak as he is, then something is definitely wrong."

With a grimace, Harry rubbed at his tired eyes then glanced over at the small clock beside his bed. Five thirty, "Not much use trying to go back to sleep." He mused to himself, his other self giving a soft snort of agreement. Sliding off the bed he padded over to the dresser to a bundle of cloth sitting well back from the edge. It was one his daggy old shirts that he had inherited from his cousin bundled carefully up around a hot water bottle he had filched from the kitchen the night before. Touching the cloth mound, he found it still slightly warm and he gave a small smile at the soft grumble coming from the depths of the material. Would you like to stay with me today? he hissed softly. Somehow the revelation he could talk to snakes hadn't really come as a big shock to him on top of everything else, so speaking to Tabitha seemed as natural as speaking to the spirit that still projected an image of himself sitting on the bed, a tolerant smile on his face. The cloth shifted slightly and a bright green head appeared, the golden diamond surmounting it glinting in the early morning light, You are going out today? she hissed at him curiously.

Once I have put a few things in order, yes. she considered him for a moment the slipped her head back into her cocoon, Then I will wait here until you are ready.

Chuckling at her independent streak, Harry padded over to his wardrobe and considered the new robes hanging neatly over the stack of his ragged muggle clothing, "You know, we should have gone shopping for muggle clothes yesterday as well." he mused out loud.

The spirit gave a rather noncommittal snort, "We can take care of that today." He answered offhandedly, "First things first though, we should send Hedwig to the ministry for those tutor papers. Once that is out of the way then we can get down to the serious planning."

Harry nodded in agreement and pulled out a set of his ragged old clothes. Considering them for a moment, a rather wicked idea came to him and an evil grin spread across his face as he put them back then lifted down one of the plain robes he had brought the day before. The spirit snorted then full out laughed as he pulled the robes over his head then turned to face his projection, "You really are revelling in not having to cater to the muggles anymore, aren't you." He stated more then asked, his usually weary voice light with amusement for a change.

Harry's grin just got wider, "What do you expect?" the other shook his head, both of them knowing that the older version would have done the exact same thing if he had been given the chance at all. "So, what do we do to organise the paperwork." Harry asked, slipping into the chair at his small desk. There was a slight twist in his mind and the others voice came from inside his head once more, "Take out a sheet of parchment and then let me take over to write out the request. I can make sure that the handwriting is different enough so as they will not get suspicious. Not that they are likely to notice anything but we need to be careful in case the headmaster starts to nose around once he gets wind of some of the things we are going to put into motion. I have the feeling that if he comes across the request forms and finds your handwriting on them then we are going to have some rather awkward questions to answer."

Humming in agreement, Harry slipped a sheet of parchment out of the drawer along with a quill and a bottle of ink then let his spirit slip back as the other took control.

"We are going to inform the headmaster at one point, aren't we?"

Picking up the quill, Harry smoothed the parchment then laid out the careful request for tutor forms, half his mind on the conversation with his younger self, "I have a feeling that we will have to tell him eventually anyway." He mused, "After all, it is not like we are going to be able to hide the fact that things are very different to what he expects. Once we move from here, I believe that he is going to go fishing for answers and quite frankly, I would rather he worked with us then tried to hinder us. If he jumps to the wrong conclusions we could end up being under house arrest for our own 'protection.'"

The younger spirit snorted in mild horror at that thought then 'looked' at what the other was writing, reading along with him as he went over his request.

"So, do you think they will buy it?" he asked curiously as he rolled the parchment and secured it with a blue ribbon from his drawer.

Harry considered the question as he tied the letter to Hedwig's gravely extended leg. "I don't see why not." He answered as he launched the eager bird out the window, "The idiots that work for that department don't really pay that much attention to the names listed on the forms at all, all they are interested in is if the magical signature that comes back to them on the application doesn't match one of their underage wizard records." He considered his own words for a moment then snorted, "Rather stupid system really, not that I'm complaining."

Walking over to the dresser, he lifted the shirt back and ran a finger down Tabitha's bright green scales, smiling slightly as she arched her back in appreciation, Are you ready to head out then, pretty one? he hissed. The green reptile rubbed her head along his hand without comment and slid up under his long sleeve to wrap herself around his arm,

"So, how about we go and see if we can scare Aunt Petunia into taking us clothes shopping?" his younger spirit chuckled in delight and the two of them merged their minds once again.

Checking to make sure that his sleeve covered Tabitha completely, Harry opened his door then made his way down to the kitchen. Unusually, Aunt Petunia was up already and she and rummaging around in one of the cupboards. When she stood up with a frypan in her hands Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise, she wasn't making his cook this morning?

The pan never made it to the cooker however, for as she turned she caught sight of Harry and dropped it in shock as she took in his clothing, "What on earth are you wearing, boy?" she almost shrieked.

Harry glanced down at his deep green and gold robes and held back a smirk, pasting a look of mild confusion on his face, "This is the best set of clothes that I own, Aunt Petunia, I brought them yesterday. I heard from the neighbours the other day that they were rather disgusted with what I wear, something about you and Uncle Vernon not having enough money to turn me out in decent clothing, even though it is your obligation to do so." He held back a smirk with difficulty at the scandalous look that spread over her face, it was a low blow and he knew it, but frankly he couldn't find it in himself to really care.

A furious look came over his aunts face and he watched her curiously, wondering how she was going to get around the humiliation of being the talk of the neighbours and her inherent resistance of offering him anything that could possible be called decent. She finally scowled at him and snapped, "Go and get dressed in something normal and I shall take you to the shops. I cannot allow you to be seen in that get up."

Harry grinned to himself as he skipped up the stairs and followed her instructions, being careful to wear a long sleeved sweater that, like all of his hand me down clothes, was several sizes to large and stretched out of shape. He didn't really care how the thing looked however, he was more concerned about making sure that Tabitha remained hidden.

The trip into the city wasn't really one he would be willing to duplicate, after all spending time with his aunt was not his idea of an ideal outing but he managed to make the best of it. After he managed to distract her looking at possible presents to buy her 'Duddykins' to make up for spending money on Harry, he slipped into the clothing department and picked out a few sets of more respectable clothing. Taking them to the cashier and adding the excess amount over what his aunt gave him out of his own pocket from some of the money he had exchanged his first trip into Diagon alley. The ride home was rather quiet and Harry felt he had actually accomplished a fair amount, he had even managed to chip away at her shields a bit more, to the point where she looked very thoughtful and kept throwing looks in his direction that were not her usual condescending sneers but considering and even a touch nervous.

Hedwig was waiting for him when he skipped up to his room and he threw his packages onto his bed to eagerly retrieve the letter she held out for him. He gave the faint twist of his mind, separating his two halves as he opened the ministry sealed envelope,

"You're up I would say."

The spirit snorted and took over control. Closing his eyes, he concentrated and the younger Harry watched with interest as their merged magical aura, which he could see as a swirls of colours in his minds eyes, shifted slightly until the colours split, leaving two distinctive separate aura's. If one looked closely enough it was possible to see they were one and the same but you would have to know what you were looking for.

"Well, that is impressive."

The spirit snorted again and a smirk spread across their face, "The beauty of this trick is that it is one I came up with myself." He commented in amusement, "So there is little chance of someone even considering the possibility that we changed it."

Laying the ministry application on the desk, he placed his hand on the parchment and let the magic from one side of their aura imprint on it. There was a faint flash of light and the lines on the parchment filled themselves out with flowing script, naming one 'Mr Evan James' as a registered tutor. Smirking, he laid his hand on the page again then used the other half of their aura and again the form filled itself out stating that Mr James was responsible for the magical tutoring of one Harry Potter.

With a faint chuckle, he rolled the parchment then tapped it with his wand and it folded itself into a paper plane and flew out the window without further prompting.

"Well that takes care of that. Within the hour we will be free to do any magic that we wish."

There came the faint twist again and the older Harry appeared on the bed once more and the younger sat back in his desk chair, "So, I suppose we should go through those papers to work out where to go from here." He mused but he spirit shook his head,

"Not much point really. I know what is in that box but I think the first thing we should do is contact Remus. Moony may have some ideas on how to get Sirius released and we really should find out what Dumbledore is up to at the moment. I have no idea what the Order was doing up until Voldy was actually reborn. I think we should find out exactly how active they are before we stumble into anything unprepared."

"Okay. Besides, we might want to see if there is any information he can gather for us. After all, with what happened this morning, something might have changed."

The spirit looked thoughtful for a moment then frowned lightly, "That might not be such a bad idea. The fact that we are able to sense the snake at this stage is disturbing. It might just be that we're more sensitive to the connection after the merger, but I think it would be better to be cautious."

Sitting back at his desk, Harry drew another sheet of parchment out of his drawer and with the spirits prompting wrote out a carefully worded letter to one Remus J Lupin.

After carefully sealing the message he tied it to Hedwig's leg and carried her to the window, where with an affectionate nip at his fingers, she launched herself into the air.

Watching her fly out of sight, a faint speck from the opposite direction drew his eyes, "What do you think that could be?" he asked.

Even though the spirit was projecting an image of himself on the bed, he was still able to look out of Harry's eyes and he gave the impression of a mental shrug, "My guess would be the reply from the ministry. That is the only owls we're really expecting. The headmaster shouldn't be contacting us yet so I don't think there is any reason to be concerned."

Sure enough, the owl that flew through the window was one of the standard ministry ones and it waited around only long enough for Harry to relieve it of it's delivery before launching out the window once more.

Harry slipped his finger under the ministry seal and scanned through the letter, a pleased grin spreading across his face, "Well my new tutor," he grinned over at the projection on the bed that had an echo of the same grin on his face as well, "What shall we do now that we are free from ministry supervision."

"Oh, I don't know," the other answered airily and his grin grew even wider, "I think we can come up with something suitable."

Sitting wearily back in a faded, patched armchair Remus Lupin closed his eyes and let loose a sigh. It was only a week till the full moon and he was feeling the effects even now, despite having access to the potion that had been developed to help with his, 'little problem.' Chuckling at his own thoughts, he ran his hand through his silver streaked hair then looked around his sparse quarters in resignation. He had a week in which to come up with some way to convince his current employer not to fire him for being sick over the full moon. It was becoming increasingly difficult to receive employment as the wizarding community soon worked out his affliction, meaning there was no hope of meaningful employment there, and more often then not it was hazardous to try. Muggle employers on the other hand did not have the knowledge of their magical counterparts, so it was easier, not to mention safer, prospects there, but even muggles were only tolerant of absences to a certain point and after the first few necessary sick days, they started to become annoyed. His current employer was close to that point now. He had noticed that Lupin was becoming ill once again and he had been throwing rather irritated glances at him for the past few days and Remus knew it wouldn't be long before he was respectfully asked to find other employment.

Sighing once again, this time in resignation, he heaved himself to his feet and shuffled over to the window, propping it open more to let in more of the morning breeze. Before he turned away, his keep eyesight caught onto a snowy white owl flying low over the rooftops and he raised an eyebrow in curiosity. There were not that many wizarding folk in this area, and sure enough, as the bird drew closer, it was easy to work out that it was heading for his window. As it drew close, Remus stepped back from the window, clearing the way for the magnificent bird to ghost through to land on the back of his chair and tilt her head at him curiously.

Studying her carefully for a moment, Remus was mildly impressed, she was a magnificent bird, "What can I do for you, lovely one?" he asked softly. She gave him a soft hoot and hopped forward slightly, holding out her leg and he caught sight of the letter ties to the ring on her ankle.

Reaching out, he carefully relieved her of her burden but before studying the letter she had delivered he pulled a box of owl treats from one of his cupboards and handed one to her.

While the owl ate, he flipped the letter over in his hands and raised his eyebrow. Across the front, in neat flowing script was written;

Mr R J Lupin

Address unknown.

Reading that, he gave the owl on his chair a more respectful glance, she really was a magnificent bird, many post owls still required at least a general location in which to deliver a package, it was only some of the best that had good enough tracking senses to be able to find a person at an unknown location.

Flipping the envelope, he broke the plain wax seal and unfolded the letter and nearly dropped it in shock as he read the message;

Dear Mr Lupin,

I am not sure how much you know of me, but I recently came across some information about my parents and your name came up in some of the paperwork. I was wondering if it would be possible to meet with you over the next few days to work out a few details. The goblins at Gringotts have allowed me access to my family's assets and seeing as you are mentioned in some of my parents private papers, I thought perhaps you might be able to help me.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely

Harry James Potter.

Sitting abruptly down in his chair, he stared at the signature for a full minute, his mind going numb, "Harry." He thought to himself.

Memories flashed through his mind of the small toddler, his messy black hair, those startling green eyes staring up at him, all of it overshadowed with a complex mix of pain, grief and old anger.

Shaking his head, he gained control of his emotions and a sad smile spread across his face, "Well lad, it looks as though you have come into your own faster then we expected." He read through the letter again and shook his head, "I wonder how he managed to talk the goblins into allowing him access after all the restrictions Albus and the ministry put down."

Looking up he found the owl studying him patiently and he smiled at her, "I suppose you are under instructions to await a reply." He stated rhetorically, but to his mild surprise she bobbed her head at him, for all the world as if she understood his question. Shaking his head in bemusement, he reached for parchment and quill to answer the intriguing letter. "Well Harry, I would be very interested to hear what it is you have to say." Signing the bottom of the parchment, he carefully folded it then handed the letter to the snowy bird, "Take this back to your master, if you would." He told her as he carried her over to the window, "This should prove to be interesting."

Watching the bird fly out of sight he smiled to himself. It had been over ten years since he had seen the boy and in all that time he had come to miss him greatly but because of wizarding law and Dumbledore's request, he had kept his distance from his best friends son. But now, Harry himself had contacted him and orders from Albus or no orders from Albus, there was no way he was going to ignore the request to meet him.

Enshrouding his mind in shadows, the entity known in hushed whispers as He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named, seethed to himself and planned. He blocked off the connection to his host in an effort to block out the chatter of the useless man's inane thoughts and also to keep his plotting to himself. The original plan had been to use the man to sneak into Hogwarts and get hold of the Philosophers Stone that Dumbledore had hidden there. He had even attempted to get the thing while it was still in Gringotts, figuring that even the security at the bank would be easier to overcome then anything the craft old headmaster came up with once he was truly motivated but he knew already that plan would fail. After all, it already had. Instead he shifted his focus. With the possibility that Potter had retained his old memories just as he had, then there was the danger of the boy coming after him while he was very much venerable. He would have to find a way to protect the horcux's to begin with, as Potter knew the location of them, meaning that in the very least they needed to be moved as soon as possible. He would also need to get rid of this host, he was too conspicuous. With subtle nudges at his hosts mind, he directed the man in search of a more suitable host and as he searched, not knowing that his life was forfeit once he found what his master was after, the entity in the back of his head plotted what his next move would be. All in all he was rather pleased with the situation, this would prove to be a worthy challenge. "Well Potter, lets see if you are able to protect those important to you when I know where all your weaknesses are."

...

Sitting on his bed flipping through one of the more obscure books he had purchased in Knockturn Alley, Harry frowned and rubbed at his forehead as his scar throbbed lightly, "What on earth is that?"

There was a vague sense of dread from the other spirit that shared his mind and he felt a slight chill run through him, "I'm not sure, Harry, but I have a feeling that something is very wrong."

……………………………..

AN/ ha, so hows that? Voldy got brought back as well. Makes things much more interesting this way. BTW, I'm sorry if the characters are too OOC, I will try to limit that, but hopefully it won't be too much of an issue. Anyway, thank you for reading, and always, comments are welcome.

See Ya.