FFOmega

Part I: Bitter-Sweet Dreams

Chapter 17

The axe has always been an interesting weapon. The force of a hammer, with the ability to cut like a sword. The abilities of two weapons in one, and if used correctly, a devastating weapon to wield. Most people take axe-wielding incredibly serious, as it can be a dangerous weapon to use for the user if they know not of the proper ways to handle and do battle with one.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, was having a hell of a time watching the axe collect dust in the corner of his room. He had made good progress since he had taken the axe from Kasus, even landing a solid punching combination into the Guardian's chest armor, denting it, before even knocking the creature down with a harsh crescent-kick. He was almost immediately leveled into unconsciousness by a right cross followed by an uppercut that sent him up a few feet into the air afterwards, but he was progressing.

He had been down there for what was feeling about a week, and there were some days he opted not to challenge Kasus, but to instead train himself. His hold over his Demonic energy was increasing to the point that he found he had an easier time sending a concentrated blast of energy out when not using a focus, or more, not using a focus made for magic. His gloves where his focus. And he found something very interesting as he progressed in training himself. The more he used or was around something, the more his natural energy warped it, changing it. He was seeing it going on in the room he was sleeping in, and even in the axe, and he hadn't even used it.

The morning of his last fight with Kasus, he had awoken, giving off so much Demonic energy that his very footsteps warped the floor. Squaring off against Kasus, the world had slowed. Harry had chosen to take the axe with him, and had leapt up, leveling a kick toward Kasus. He caught the large Guardian in the chest, before spinning while still in the air and hitting Kasus in the side of the head. As Kasus fell, the large Guardian placed the staff on the ground to lean on it. Harry kicked it into the air, and used one light kick to push him up into the air, and snatched the staff. While still in the air, he pointed it at Kasus. As he was there, he felt his Demonic energy flare a bit, and he blasted a burst of it at Kasus.

The large Guardian covered himself with his wings, and the dark energy hit the wings, and seemed to start to warp and alter them. While in the air, Harry tossed the staff as he started to fall, and pulled out the axe, which was strapped on his back. He flipped and slammed the axe into the intersection of the wings, and they shattered like glass. And in the dark fragment rain, Harry came down and leveled an even slash across Kasus' chest armor. And as the fragments began to descend, he spun around and laid a harsh kick into the midsection of the large Guardian. And time seemed to speed back up, launching the large form that was Kasus back and into the far wall.

And before he could even celebrate his win, Harry fell to his knees in the middle of the circle of slowly dropping flames. He dropped into a curled up position, shaking on the ground. Flame-like wisps of black energy, with splashes of sky-blue licks came up from the ground around him, making what almost seemed like a gyroscope around him. And it steadily grew larger, as well as more solid. And finally, it closed around him, a swirling ball of black energy with sky-blue mixed throughout, never mixing with the dark energy. And the ball was large and spinning before suddenly shrinking to cover Harry like some kind of skin-tight suit, covering every inch of him in pure black. And he stayed huddled up in that, what seemed almost like a tight cocoon, losing all sense of time.

It would be a week before he woke up.

-----

Baretta paced. He was pissed off, and it was never a good idea to piss off someone who had the accuracy of a sniper rifle with a handgun. But yet, the person had pissed him off.

All he had wanted was a bag of Cheetos, and it had turned into this. Right when he was in front of the cashier, getting his change, some idiot had burst in with a gun, attempting to hold the store up.

"Everyone put your hands up, this is a fucking robbery!"

Baretta looked to the man. He was easily defined as short, and the pantyhose he wore on his face did absolutely nothing to hide his appearance. All of this was happening as Baretta was supposed to be getting his change. And he had no intention of putting his hands up.

"Hey you, buddy, in the long coat! Who the fuck do you think you are, some kind of superhero in that thing? Who the fuck wears those anymore, it's the middle of summer! Put your hands up, I'm robbing this place!" Baretta eyed the man incredulously.

"With a fucking .22? You couldn't hold up a lemonade stand with that piece of shit, and I have no intention of jumping through hoops for someone who doesn't even have the respect enough for me to try and threaten me with something that has the ability to cause damage equal to a hole puncher." There was a collective gasp from everyone in the store. The owner was trying to whisper for the tall man to not cause any trouble, but Baretta ignored him and reached into his coat. "Now with this, you might be able to hold up a store of convenience, such as this." And Baretta held in his hand a Desert Eagle, which he turned around in his hand a few times, as if looking at it, before leveling it at the robber.

The people in the store watched in awe as the smaller man with the woman's pantyhose on his head panicked and dropped his gun. And Baretta did something very weird. "If you don't do anything stupid, and let me out of here with my damned snack chips, I'll give you this and you can go about your robbery, agreed?"

The man could do nothing but nod. Baretta picked up his chips and started toward the door. He handed the gun to the man, before he started out of the door. However, before he could make it, he heard the gun click and heard the man tell him to stop. Turning, Baretta saw the man leveling what had been his own gun at him.

And thus, the Fallen became pissed off. It had been a fair enough deal, and the stupid human had taken it, only to turn on the deal that he was given. And if there were one group of humans he hated, it was the ones that didn't know when to just take what they can get and move on.

Always have to keep pushing for that extra inch.

The man had put Baretta in the back of the store, and went about his robbery. The tall, duster-clad man paced, to keep himself from growing far too angry for his own good. Truthfully, he cared little for the other people in the store when he pulled out his guns. However, he heard the police sirens coming, and all he needed was for the police to plaster his face everywhere, saying it had been him trying to hold up the local 7-11. So, placing them back, Baretta located a display that housed miniature souvenir baseball bats from the local baseball team in the area. He lifted one, casually wondering what the fuck was wrong with Americans, naming their sports team something so stupid as the "A's" and he casually wondered where the B's, C's and so forth resided.

Forgetting that train of thought, he silently stalked up to the man robbing the store and pulled his arm far back, holding in his hand the small bat, which was about the size of a police billy-club, before he brought his arm forward and cracked the would-be robber in the back of the head. The man fell forward, hitting his head on the counter before sinking to the ground, the back of his head and the pantyhose atop it turning a dark color as blood seeped into the material. Baretta looked down at him and kicked him, before dropping the small bat onto the man's prone body and then walking away, eating away at his bag of chips.

-----

Harry awoke some time later to see Kasus standing in front of him. The large guardian wasn't wearing the armor he wore the whole time, but instead was clad in old-styled cloth pants and nothing else. There was a large gash across his chest that was healed but had a black tint against the man's reddish-brown skin. He sat on the floor with his legs crossed, using a rock and sharpening the axe that lay in front of him. Kasus had incredibly long hair, and from the sides of his head stood long pointed ears. Kasus jerked the moment Harry awoke, and looked to him, smiling gently.

"How long have I been out?" Harry asked, standing and stretching. It seemed like his back made a cracking and popping sound for each of his individual vertebrate. He cracked his knuckles, before cracking each finger without touching them to any other fingers, something he had seen Kyoto do. He grinned despite it at being able to do such a frightening action. He did a few test hops to ease the creaks out of his legs, before he looked to see Kasus standing as well.

"Ah, about a week." Harry was going to act shocked, but he wasn't, not at all, he seemed to have developed a good sense of time, and he knew what time it was for some odd reason.

"So, what happens now, Kasus?"

"Well, basically you can come and go as you please in and out of the Chamber, and others can come as long as you vouch for them. The real chambers will be open to your use, which I took liberties to open for you as you were asleep. This Chamber, for the most part, is now Harry Potter's Chamber of Secrets, or some other such cheesy name, you have become the rightful heir to it by beating me. Also, I will be here as a guard, as well as a tutor if you like."

Harry was silent for a moment before thinking about his sword. He had this feeling that he needed to learn to use it and not fear it. He wanted it, but he had no want to go up to the main school to get it. Suddenly there was a pop and the metal case fell down in front of Harry. Harry stared at Kasus, before the pieces fell into place.

"House elf?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. That was what I was in a previous life, before such measures were taken to unbind my abilities from strictly servitude." Harry looked intrigued before he shrugged.

"Do you think you would be able to teach me how to use this damned sword?" He asked, undoing the fasteners on the metal box and taking the weapon out. As he did, he could feel its energy giving off. It was powerful energy, he could feel it even more at the time. As soon as he lifted it, he felt and literally saw his energy go from his hand, the black with sky-blue in it swirling around the sword in a helix-like form with the olive-green energy the sword was giving off. The black blade pulsed, and the runes at the bottom in gold glowed in a nonexistent light.

Kasus watched in curiosity before nodding resolutely. "I will do all I can to teach you. But I have a very interesting feeling that this may come more naturally to you than anything else, using a sword in this Chamber, and it might be the best place to have taught you." Kasus smiled, before standing and picking up his staff. He pointed it at the sword and seemed to cast a spell. A cushion spell as it was, was cut through immediately, destroyed as soon as it was cast. Kasus shrugged before picking up the axe and holding it in his hand, and it seemed to melt into a long, curved blade. He was silent, with his eyes closed for a moment, before he squared off with Harry. "Defend yourself."

-----

Harry had progressed quickly, and was finding it very interesting how his body was making slow, but noticeable changes. His fingernails were growing harder and more to a point, and his hair was a bit longer than normal. His hair hung to around his collarbone, and was a sleek black color. His eyes shone brighter than he thought they ever had, and he noticed that when he allowed his Demonic energy to flare up in the middle of the night as he laid about to go to sleep in his new bedchambers, they seemed to emit a bit of a glow.

His use of his Demonic abilities was not progressing as well as his self defense was. Kasus had taken to teaching him a fighting technique the House Elf turned Guardian had created in the centuries he had been in the Chamber. And that training had birthed the first return of Knight. The voice of what Harry called his darker side was often there, but usually only echoed Harry's own thoughts, and stayed dormant for the most part. But after Harry kept getting blasted into a wall as he failed to learn a move, Knight took over. And it was then that Harry realized exactly how powerful Knight was. Kasus had shown how powerful he truly was by staying alive and fairly unharmed during the assault, but not without cost, as every bit of the Guardian's armor was rotted and destroyed by the end of the conflict.

Whatever the sword, Phearamos, that Kyoto had given Harry was, it was powerful, quick, and seemed to only have the effect of rotting and decaying what it hit in Harry's hands. Kasus was able to hold it and attack, but it did little outside of cutting, while in Harry's hands, he had pretty much turned a stone wall into dust with one strike, as the rocks decayed and turned into fragments.

Harry awoke on what would be his last day there wondering about his classes. He had worked on his Demonic energy projection, but very little if any conventional magic. He was capable of making a Demonic shield that stood up to most magic, strengthening the shield in the process, but it wasn't flawless. Any spell that had more power than a stunning spell still broke through.

However, with what Fate had told him the night before, warning that the time of The Call was coming soon, he realized that the world was bigger than Hogwarts. That he couldn't fight a war with levitation charms and the ability to turn a porcupine into a pincushion. And he knew that any abstract ability he could acquire would be well received as something that only he could do, and therefore only he could defend against.

Awakening, Harry stood and showered before he dressed himself. Kasus had gotten him his trunk, and he had dressed himself in some black, baggy cargo pants he hadn't had the opportunity to wear over the summer due to the heat. He pulled on a simple black t-shirt, and then his coat that he received from the Patils on his birthday. Kasus took his sword, and fitted it into a sheath made of dragon-hide that the once-house elf had then wrapped in strips of black cloth that he simply said would keep the sword safe from him as much as him from the sword. It was left with a strap tied on that he slipped over his shoulder. Harry did just that, before he turned to Kasus. The large Guardian smiled at him.

"You have grown well, Harry, amazingly, and I am happy to have been here for that."

"Will I see you again?" Harry asked.

"The Chamber is now yours, and I, therefore, am your Guardian. If you come here, I will be here, and I will always do all in my power to help you." Harry smiled as he heard this and nodded, before shaking hands with the Guardian. "The plus about once being a House Elf is that I can always know when you need me. And I will do all in my power to get there and help you if you are in dire need of my help.

"Now go on Harry, I think there is a girl in desperate need of you, right now." Harry nodded before heading out of the Chamber through the exit he had found some time before, which, oddly, led him directly into the main corridor of the school.

Breathing deeply, Harry pulled his hood up and walked to the door of the Great Hall, before he pushed the doors open.

-----

The morning had begun interestingly. Between Ginny Weasley screaming to the entire Great Hall that she knew Harry was still in the school and that she had had a tryst in the broom closet with him the night before, to Blaise getting up from her chair and tackling the redhead onto the ground and laying a solid slam of her fist into her face, it was looking to be an interesting day. Bella had literally had to pick a flailing, cursing and screaming Blaise up, with some help from Daphne, and cart her away.

Cleo had kicked Ginny in the side a few times before Hermione had had to run over and carry the small 1st year away, as Cleo had moved to kicking Ginny in the head.

And just to further make the morning more awkward, was the entrance of a very unexpected person. Harry Potter. But this was not the Harry Potter who had disappeared. This was a completely different person.

Walking into the room was a tall form, his head covered by the hood of his long, sweeping wyvern-hide coat. Strapped to his back was a large weapon of some kind, what seemed to be a sword, but it was impossible to tell exactly as it was wrapped up on his back. He was dressed completely in black, and his head was down, his hair coming out from the cover of the hood. He walked with purpose into the hall, and went to his normal seat at the Gryffindor table. The seat was occupied by someone, who looked to the wraith-like form behind him before jumping up and fleeing down the table.

The moment he sat down and removed his hood, the entire table stared at him. He didn't look too different than he had when he left, but there was something about him. He wasn't wearing school robes, and McGonagall walked toward him. They had given up searching for him, and they had no reason to reprimand him over the incident with the Headmaster, but his disappearance was warrant for question. However, as she was about to talk to him, she felt a cold sweep over her. He had sat down and grabbed the most rare breakfast steak and had eaten it quickly but very cleanly.

The moment she had been about to talk to him, he had stood and pulled his hood back up. He seemed to be thinking for a moment before heading off in the direction they had pulled Blaise and Cleo off in, and there was no way that he could possibly have known which direction that was.

-----

Blaise was fuming angrily, when the door to the room that she and Cleo were being held in opened, and in walked a form she knew. He looked different, that was for sure, but she could tell by the feel of him the moment he had entered the room. Her left arm shot out on its own, and her grabbed it in his right one, and pulled her toward him. And he held her close to him. She breathed in deeply as he held her, and everyone in the room watched, fascinated, as Harry stroked her hair softly. And then, as if in some kind of unspoken arrangement, she wrapped her arms around her neck as he lifted her up with an arm behind her knees and one across her back. And he carried her out of the room and down the corridor and away from their view.

-----

Blaise awoke sometime in the afternoon in what was Harry's chambers in the Chamber of Secrets. He had taken her there and introduced her to Kasus, before he pulled her into the room, closed and locked the door, and proceeded to tell, and show her, how much he missed her.

Upon awakening, she saw Harry doing some push-ups. He was topless and wearing the black cargo pants she had seen him wearing earlier the day, and his boots and gloves. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, just to get out of his eyes. He seemed aware of her waking up, and stopped his exercises and stood, stretching. "Well, you missed almost all of your classes for the day, and I chose not to try and wake you so you could go to Advanced DA, and if you feel the need to be angry at me for that, so be it, but I'm never going back to that class. We have enough time to get ready and get to our Tutorial periods, if you so choose. You can stay here, Kasus can get you anything you need, but I need to at least see what this Dark Arts Tutorial class is all about."

Blaise smiled and nodded, before standing and stretching, going from leaning back into rolling her body into a "bridge" and then going into a handstand from there, and back to standing on her feet. Harry rolled his eyes, muttering, "Show Off" as he headed to the door. Blaise growled and ran after him, intending to jump on his back. He didn't fall as she thought he would, but turned and caught her in his arms. He looked into her eyes and kissed her deeply before lifting her and tossing her onto the bed.

"Get dressed. We can come back here and I can show you some of the things I learned and tell you everything that has been going on. For now, however, we need to go."

Blaise was ready soon after, and Harry took her hand, and walked her down to the dungeons. He walked her to the Potions class, and opened the door and ushered her in before heading out toward his class. However, Professor Snape followed him out and called after him. "Mister Potter, where have you been these past 2 weeks?" He almost seemed to demand. He was going to start another sentence, but seemed to stop and stare at the boy in front of him.

Vampires, being Angelic in nature, have a natural method of sensing anything that is labeled as "Dark" but is in fact just the opposing energy of Angelic energies. Snape could feel Kyoto's when he was in the Demon's presence, and could even get a glimpse of the power that the Demon held. However, the contempt Harry held for the man in front of him was causing his aura to flare even though he tried to keep it in check.

And this meant that Snape was able to feel more than Harry wanted him to be able to. And this told the man, in very clear words, to shut his mouth if he wanted to continue living, breathing and keep all higher brain functions. So he shut his mouth and turned and walked away. His curiosity was piqued, and he wasn't magically scared of Harry, but there was always the issue of Harry's Demonic abilities. Snape knew nothing about them, and knew nothing to expect. So, turning away, he walked back into his classroom.

Harry sighed before finding his schedule. He pulled it out, before finding which room he would go to for his Dark Arts Tutorial. The class was being held in small tutorial rooms that were rarely, if ever used, and it took him a moment to find the room.

When he entered, he saw the room was empty except for one person. Standing in the front of the room was Ms. Madison. "Ma'am?" He spoke unsurely as he entered, and she smiled softly at him. Her long hair was down, brushing her lower back, and her piercing hazel eyes locked on his.

"It's good to see you back, Mr. Potter, classes just weren't the same without my favorite student." Harry raised an eyebrow at the woman, but she simple smiled softly. "You are here under the pretenses of having a Dark Arts Tutorial, an idea given by Professor Dumbledore and, indirectly, Minister Fudge, to test your aptitude for Dark Arts. It is a class idea I have no intention of following through with, because it's a lose-lose situation. If you seem to be naturally good, or at all able to do the Dark Arts, they will assume you have done them before, or are too dangerous to be allowed in the school. If you aren't good at them, either this period will be wasted, or I will be ordered to drill them into you until you can at least do them, and then we are back at the first situation. Therefore, I intend to either let you work on other things in this tutorial, or I can get you started on spell creation and, or, enchanting."

Harry was silent for a moment, before asking the woman about enchanting. She smiled and reached to her hair, and pulled her hair up. And strapped to her back were a pair of sword scabbards. She pulled from her back, two curved katanas. They were not long, like Harry's single sword, but were beautiful. And along the blades there were runes, on one sword the runes were along the blade, and on the other, they were along the non-sharp side.

"These are two swords that I have had for years. They were enchanted to work very interestingly. This blade," she held up the one with only one set of runes, "is the blade of the two. It had quickening runes on the handle, and on the blade are runes for enchanting in a cutting charm. When the weapon hits, it casts a cutting charm, causing more damage than average. And this sword," she held up the sword with the two sets of runes on the blade, "is the shield. It has been laced with a strengthening charm on the blade. It makes it slower than the other, naturally, but stronger. And the blade has been enchanted with an altered Protego charm, that can block certain physical attacks as well as magic. They work as a shield and sword would, but both can double as the other if need be. This is what enchanting does. Attack me."

"Uh…I don't think that would be a good idea, Ms. Madison."

"First of all, you will call me Angel in this classroom, and nowhere else. Secondly, go ahead and do it, you should be able to use that thing if you walk around with it."

Harry shook his head, before pulling the sword off. He noticed runes glowing on the black wrapping, and realized what they were. They were blocking the effects as well as the energy of the sword. He slipped it from the cloth-wrapped sheath, and as the sword came into view slowly, Ms. Madison breathed in deeply. The black blade was beautiful, and she saw runes along the blade, in a language she knew nothing of. All but for two things. One was what looked like a very altered Alchemist circle on the bottom of the handle, and the other, "A Restraining Hex…no, a Captivity Curse? What is this thing?" She asked reverently, and with a touch of fear in her voice.

Harry took the sword, and looked to one of the wooden chairs, before striking it with the sword. The chair slid apart with the evenness evident in the beautifully sharp blade. And Ms. Madison watched in shock as the chair's wood began to decay and rot, leaving bits of sawdust and warped and knotted wood.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, before covering her mouth. She blushed and made to apologize, but Harry brushed it off. She asked to see the blade, Harry handed it to her, and she was able to cut a chair, but nothing happened. She looked in confusion, and Harry sighed. He trusted the woman, he immediately did once she revealed the truth of the class he was in, so he asked her to sit down. And he began into the story, spanning the start of his summer, all the way to him coming back, explaining all of the major things that happened.

-----

Angela Madison was a child prodigy in terms of magical theory. At 32 years old, she was one of the first classes to benefit from graduating into a job market not held in the iron grip of a war-time civilization. Meaning, for her and her ability, she was able to work anywhere she wanted.

She had seen many things in the Department of Mysteries, where she took up a residency, working on the confusing mysteries that no one had yet found an answer for. There, she was a fresh mind into an old subject, the mysteries of spell creation. And that fresh perspective allowed the biggest theoretical leap in centuries.

She had seen many things, from ones she could explain hundreds of different ways, to others that she was still as confused about years later. But the story she was hearing as she sat there, watching this boy who was literally half her age, was causing her to seize up. She hadn't cried since the first fall of Voldemort, and vowed to never do it again. The tall form in front of her recounted how he had started the summer off a thin, average height boy who people only knew for his scar, and had become a half-Demon, and finally had the power to defend the people he cared about. And as he described his feelings, she found her eyes tearing up. No one deserved what he had lived through, and if becoming, partially, a "dark creature" was what kept him going, then she wasn't going to judge. For that matter, she wanted to meet this Kyoto, and hug the hell out of him.

When Harry ended his story, she smiled at him softly, before looking at him as if sizing him up for a moment. "Harry, I am going to teach you both enchanting and spell creation. At the same time. This is something that I had vowed never to do, because the two ideas are similar, and few can resist the urge to try one using the other. And normally these would be different ideas, but for some reason to me, it seems like you don't exactly have all the time in the world to get as powerful as you can. War is coming, and I will be damned if you aren't as prepared as I can make you."

Harry smiled at her, and opened his mouth to thank her, but she silenced him by slamming a box on the table. He opened them, and inside were piles upon piles of what looked like conventional "ninja stars", or by their real name, shurikens. "You will start enchanting these, and we will see how well that goes."

"Yes Ms. Madison."

"Call me that again in this classroom, and I will make you swallow one of these things."

"Alright, Angel." Suddenly, as Harry stared at them, he opened his mouth, gasping at his lack of wand, but before he could even say anything, she grinned.

"Enchanting doesn't use a wand. If it did, what would be the point when you could just use your wand?" Harry smiled and nodded. "Now, we will start on basic theory…" Angel went to the chalkboard and began to write.

-----

The second day Harry was back, he walked the halls once more in his coat and sword, but he had decided to strap both knives to his forearms again. Also, as well as that, he was wearing several shurikens. He hadn't started enchanting yet, but he had found that the weapons worked well for some distance fighting, and he had started liking them.

He was late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, due to Ms. Madison's insistence. She said that something had happened, and she wanted to see a reaction from the class. He entered late, and saw his chair missing. He looked around, and saw the Zacharias Smith sat on the other side of the room. He was the only one sitting in a chair that hadn't been before. He rolled his eyes and spoke. "I'd like to challenge Zacharias Smith for his seat." Was all he said, and he walked up to the front of the classroom, and moved the two about to start a match out of the way with a look. Smith rose and walked up, seemingly wobbling some.

"Single Duel, Smith has no weapons…" Mr. Long was cut off by Harry removing his long coat, revealing a sleeveless black t-shirt. He took off both knives, and threw them at Smith's feet.

"Yes, he does." Harry said forcefully, before he cracked his knuckles, and then his individual fingers before doing his neck, making several people, who heard the cracking, flinch.

"Harry Potter has no weapons but…" He was cut off by Harry raising his hands. His gloves were there, and his nails were pointed and looked clearly sharp. "Fine, damn it, just fight already!"

Harry stood there, before pulling out a small throwing knife, and seemed to be filing his nails, looking very unimpressed by the impending match. Smith grew angry and rushed Harry, both knives raised. Not even flinching, Harry leapt up and spun 180 degrees and kicked backwards in midair, right into the middle of Smith's chest. He rolled back across the floor, before jumping up. He charged again, to be kicked in the side, sending him across the floor and back in similar, easy fashion for Harry. After this happening a few more times, Smith grew angry, and pulled his wand on Harry.

He fired a strong Dark pain curse, but it never hit Harry. Harry held his ground and pulled out a shuriken and launched it straight at the spell. It went through the spell and stuck right to the tip of Smith's wand. Harry dropped to the ground immediately, the curse going over his head, before he jumped up and dove straight at Smith before he could get off another spell. He dive-tackled the other boy, and pulled his arm back as if to punch him, and stopped his hand just before it hit Smith. The boy fainted.

"So, guess I win?" Harry asked as he stood. Ms. Madison nodded, smiling, while Mr. Long was grinning like a madman. Harry went to take the chair, but the conjuring job was horrible. He kicked it, and it fell apart. He walked over and Blaise conjured him up a chair, which looked oddly like a throne. He smiled in thanks and sat down, and took her hand.

"Good to have you back."

The class went over the plan. They would go into their teams, and find what would be the best battle plan for their particular skills. The teams were broken up, and it was the same teams as during the demonstration at the start of class. Harry sat down at the conjured table with Blaise and Bella and looked at them before smiling, grabbing both of their hands in his under the table and giving them a squeeze before he began.

"We all seem to have short-ranged weapons. I have been gone a lot, so what developments have happened with the weapons changing?"

Bella held up her gloves first. They had taken on a darker golden color. She put one on, before she squeezed her hand and did and said something, and from the plate of metal atop the hand, came a long, wicked-looking blade. She grinned darkly for a moment before nodding, and winking, and then slipping the blade back in with another few words. She said something else, and the blade shot out, but from the side, so it almost looked like she was holding a knife in her gloved hand from far away.

Harry grinned at Bella as the girl pulled the blade in and took the glove off. He turned to Blaise, who had her knives set out on the table. "I intended to not let these change too much, and oddly enough, they didn't." Harry looked at the blades, and saw one huge change. The blade was no longer silver in color, but had taken on a very white appearance, truly white. The names were still etched into the bottom, but pretty much everything else was the same on first sight. But Harry knew something was different. And he finally realized what it was some seconds later. The blades were giving off a Demonic aura. He chose not to let her know that information, and instead just held up his gloves.

No one in the class would know exactly how much they had changed, or were helping him. But the biggest change since what Kasus told him was his awakening, concerned the gloves.

He couldn't get them off.

He could get them off for a shower or other such things, but anytime he felt threatened or the need to defend himself, there they were, ready for use. Hell, anytime we went to lift anything, or even balled his fists, they appeared on his hands.

They were being used to channel his Demonic energy, and Kasus speculated that they would be able to come off once he had a firm grasp on the energy without them. The studs on the knuckles were adjustable, something he found out while doing a sparring session with Kasus, and the material they were made out of was unbreakable.

"We are, more than likely, going to be the assassins here." Harry smirked at Blaise. "We are silent, fast, and hard to pick up when no one knows exactly where to look. The least predictable, and the most likely to do what has to be done in the end." Harry was saying this to his group just as Professor McGonagall entered the room. She heard what he said, and had come to take him away, and what he was saying seemed to justify something in her mind. She asked him to go with her, and he sighed before standing and leaving with her.

-----

"Mister Potter, you will not be allowed another wand, and you will, furthermore, not be allowed to just leave school grounds whenever you want. Your recklessness will not be permitted to endanger the school."

Professor McGonagall was watching him like a cat stalks its prey. But sadly for her, Harry was as far from unnerved by this as possible. He had been doing the right thing, and everyone was against him for it. He didn't know what it was, but he really wasn't feeling like standing up for himself against everyone in the world. He would if he had to, but it wasn't something he wanted to do.

"You know what, Professor, whatever it is that has you acting like this, its gotten to the point that I don't care anymore. Feel free to start to hate me. But you might want to check your sources of these offenses you seem to think I have done. Also, you might also want to realize that I never left school grounds, you of all people should know that. The Chamber of Secrets is on school grounds."

"Whatever you say about this 'Chamber' Mister Potter. However, I think that you are being a detrimental influence on both my niece and Ms. Black." Harry almost laughed at the mention of Bella, but covered it with a cough. "Blaise pulled a weapon on another student in her Defense class recently, and Bella has been losing house points in her classes by cursing, in the muggle verbal sense, at others."

"And…"

"And I think it would be best for all of us if you just distanced yourself from them."

The room ground into a halt, all motion slowing into stopping, including the next words about to leave Professor McGonagall's mouth. They never reached Harry, and it would end up being a very good thing, because the energy pulsing off of Harry was freezing the very room. The chair Harry was sitting on seemed to become surrounded by the aura that he seemed to be floating in, and reverted back to the wooden crate that it had been before it was transfigured. Harry stood and glared at her.

"I will not hurt you for that statement, because you were trying to do what you believed to be right. I will not kill you for that statement because it was out of love for Blaise. I will, however, hate you, because it was out of your place to make such a request of me. But make this known. The next person to try and split me up from Blaise, believing it will help either or both of us, will not like the consequences. But then again, they won't know what they are because they will not be alive to see what I will do to them. It would be in your best interest to realize this." And Harry turned from her, his back still to her. "Do not think any of you can control me any longer, Professor. It will not happen. This war is in my hands, and it will be mine to fight. I will not allow people to use me like a chess piece to do as they please, nor a bomb to throw in and destroy to get to an end by any means. This is now my war, and no one will treat me like I owe them anything.

"I lost any chance of a life I ever had, in saving all of you. Many times I wonder about the fact that life would have been a lot better if I had just died instead. But it doesn't matter anymore, this is where I am, and I finally have a reason to live. If you take that away from me, if anyone takes that away from me, they might not like the way this war ends. And that, I promise to you. Because if Voldemort is bad, you don't want me against all of you."

With that, he walked out of the door;

And onto her desk, Minerva broke down in tears.

-----

Baretta was bored. So bored that he wad taken to kicking Fudge around the room like a soccer ball. He eventually ended up doing a kind of Irish step-dance, and kicking the Minister about. The man had spoken very little outside of an intended government plot to attack and wreck Harry Potter's life, as well as how he had been the reason that Lucius had been able to get a hold of Harry at the beginning of summer.

The anger in Baretta's eyes was a put-on, as the man knew little outside of the fact that the boy had almost been killed, and Kyoto had saved him, and that had been the first run-in the two had had.

Fudge had apologized, and had even called into his office to step down, but Baretta had forced him to take that all back. All that the world needed was a governmental crisis in the middle of the war. Fudge was copping out, running like a mouse from a sinking ship. He would drown anyways, might as well hang around and see it through until the end.

Baretta was about to continue torturing the man, when he got a call on his phone. Only one person had that number. He pulled the phone out, and answered it with a select few curses. And he was almost embarrassed when he heard a woman's voice, but chose not to be, as he just didn't feel like it.

"Is that any way to talk to a lady?"

"What do you want, and why do you have the Demon's phone?" Baretta demanded.

"He's in a bad way, I didn't know who else to call." She sounded stricken. "I don't know how to handle a Demon's mental issues. What should I do?"

"Tell him to get the fuck over it, that's what you do. Now hang up the phone like a good girl and go cook or clean or whatever it is you do all day." Baretta commanded.

"You stupid fucking ass…" and Jamie went off on a yelling rampage into the phone for a good while, and Baretta listened, intrigued. He even put the phone by Fudge's ear, and the man went red and began to sputter, while Baretta just listened more. When she was done, he laughed slightly.

"You are perfect. You know what, I might come over there just to get to look at you and see what you look like. If you look half as good as you curse, then you might be that one perfect woman I have been hearing about." He chuckled. "But I don't know when I can do that, I have some things to do. I'll call on that phone before, and if, I come over there to check on his sorry ass. I have some vampires to go deal with. Good day, bitch."

"Same to you, you short-legged, pocket-pool-playing piece of shit." She replied through the phone. Baretta laughed as he closed the phone and put it back in his pocket. He turned to Fudge, smiling.

"That woman is fucking amazing. I love her already. Only, I don't, but its nice to meet a woman who can curse like a sailor, and can deal with us non-humans like its an everyday occurrence." Baretta smiled before heading to the door. "I'll be back, don't go anywhere." And he walked out and slammed the door.

Fudge sighed. He was hogtied and laying on the ground. He wouldn't be going anywhere even if he wanted to.

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