A/N: Another chapter and close to 300 hits! As usual, this is Unbeta'd but I hope to remedy that soon. While this update is quite soon after my last, it probably won't be happening anytime soon. Well, enjoy the new chapter and I hope it's good.

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Harry Potter slowly stood up from his Bed in the Leaky Cauldron. He had been moved to Diagon Alley a week and a half ago, and had just now finished the second Occlumency exercise: reviewing all his memories. As he kept going backwards into his history, his memories became easier to view as he had more practice. He had even seen the events that lead to his parents deaths on that fateful Halloween night twelve years ago. His parents had been sitting with him in the living room, when his father had suddenly looked up in alarm.

"Lily! He's here, take Harry and run!" He father had exclaimed reaching for his wand.

"No James, I can't leave you behind!"

"I'll hold him of Lils, you have to take harry to safety. One of us has to survive to take care of Harry!"

His mother had gathered him up off the floor and dashed up the stairs, but not before kissing the life out of her husband. When she reached the second floor landing, she rushed into the nursery and gathered up a few of their belongings, the attempted to apparate out. Harry had felt the begging of felling pushed through a small tube, when they seemed to run into a brick wall. She then tried an emergency portkey, but that too was met with failure. Realizing that Voldemort must have warded the house, she reached in the closet for a broom before clumsily climbing aboard. Her attempts to open the window were met with failure, and knowing the house had been warded against spell damage, hadn't even bothered to blast a second exit.

The heard a commotion from downstairs, and what sounded like an exchange of violent spells before a sudden disconcerting silence, then a high pitched laugh. Now frantic, his mother had reached into a pocket and pulled out a book before hastily flipping through the pages. She apparently found what she was looking for, because she had stopped, then began drawing strange symbols all over his skin. What he realized was an extensive rune scheme slowly covered his exposed skin before slowly fading away.

Just as his mother finished straightening out his clothes, the door to the nursery exploded off its hinges and banged into the opposite wall. An imposing black robed figure almost glided into the room, its red eyes, blazing from under a hood, the only discernable feature. As the Dark Lord entered the room, his mother slit her wrist and wiped it on his forehead, which glowed almost unnoticeably.

"Step aside woman!" Voldemort's unmistakable high pitched voice commanded.

"No! Please not Harry. Kill me instead!" his mother pleaded.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort incanted, the deadly green light speeding out of his wand before impacting Lily, she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Voldemort smiled as he turned his want to Harry. "So this is the child of prophecy, 'the one with the power to vanquish me' eh? How pathetic. Now you to shall die like your Mud-blood mother. Avada Kedavra!"

As the green light approached him, Harry saw the runes light up, before the unforgivable curse seemed to halt in mid-air, before turning around and impacting its castor. Harry last memory before blacking out was of the Dark Lord exploding into dust, the shade he remembered from his first year barreling out of the hose, like the hounds of hell itself were after it.

Harry smiled as remembered all the times his parents had doted over him, lavishing him with gifts and love. One of the most uncomfortable memories was his first. HE shuddered. His first memory was of his birth. He also happed to remember a conversation his parents had with a couple of their friends. A conversation about switching secret keepers…

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At the same time in France:

It was nearing the middle of July, and Hermione Granger was getting frustrated. Her parents were still at the dentistry conference, and they were enjoying themselves. While she too had been having fun, she'd been feeling lonely. This was alleviated slightly by the regular correspondence she'd shared with Harry since she'd sent him the warning a week ago. She was ecstatic; she had succeeded in the first Occlumency exercise and had just started the second.

She'd been disgusted when Harry warned her she would be experiencing her own birth, but the benefits far outweighed the cons. Near Photographic memory, instantaneous recall, and defense against mental intrusion. Wasn't that worth a little bit of squick? When she heard of Sirius Blacks innocence, she had been appalled at the failing of the legal system. After some research, she had determined that Black hadn't even been given a trial.

When she had shared this with Harry, he had guessed that Pettigrew was probably still alive in hiding and resolved to find him. After hearing about the horrors of the Dementors, she too had pitied an innocent man being a victim of their hospitality for twelve years.

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Harry stepped out of the shower. As he stopped in front of the mirror, he marveled at his now shoulder length hair. After purchasing a book about metamorphmagi from the book store, he had been practicing the techniques descried in the book in addition to his Occlumency exercises. The calm feeling he got from the flame and void greatly helped with his focus, a when he recommended the art to Tonks, who he had started meeting to practice when she got off work, she had hugged and kissed him in thanks of the now easier transformations.

He had come to see her as an older sister figure and they had developed a playful relationship, with her teasing and flirting with him on a regular basis. As he walked out of the bathroom he stopped in shock. Speaking of the devil, Tonks sat on the edge of his bed, wearing a Weird Sisters band shirt with purple spiky hair.

"Wotcher," she said as she saw him. "You've been working out I see. Trying to impress little old me?" she asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Whereas before Harry would have blushed and bowed his head in embarrassment, after knowing her for a week, he was prepared with a retort. "Old is right. I prefer someone with an expiration date that isn't quite that close."

"That was better than usual, but you'll have to think of better comebacks. It's not like I'm that old anyways. What would you do if you say this face when you walked out?" With only a slight bit of concentration, she morphed into a likeness of Professor McGonagall. In her best imitation of the transfiguration mistress she pursed her lips in a severe line then said, "Mr. Potter. I expect better decorum from my lions. It is improper of you to be so forward as to greet me in such a state of undress."

Harry cracked up before falling to the floor, his towel becoming unwrapped. He wasn't ashamed of his nakedness because of his practicing earlier with Tonks. In order to properly see the changes they were making, they had practiced their transportations in the buff. While it had been awkward at first, Harry having learned more about the opposite sex in the first hour than in his whole life, he had grown accustomed to it. He could honestly say he knew more about women than all of the boys in the Gryffindor dorm, having briefly turned into one.

As there was really nothing Harry hadn't seen before, Tonks stripped to her birthday suit before sitting across from him on the floor. They flowed into their routine, slowly changing their features on by one, cycling through colors of eyes, hair and skin. Adjusting their height, weight and proportions, they opened their eyes, and then started changing into each other, Harry into Tonks and Tonks into Harry. As they stood up, having finished their routine, Harry addressed Tonks using the name she allowed only him to use.

"Dora, we've cut down the time to only thirty minutes. Maybe by the end of the week we can get it to only fifteen."

"I hope. It will help me with my job; being able to change into someone else in the time it takes me to turn a corner."

"Relax, you still have time. You're only in your second year at the Auror Academy; you have one more year after this one."

"I know, but I can't help but be nervous. I'm so clumsy."

"That's because you're always messing with your height. You're center of gravity is always changing. Why don't you keep the same height but just change your other features."

"I'll try and see if that's the case. Regardless, I have to be getting back, my shift starts soon."

"Good luck. See you this weekend?"

"Yeah, maybe. Whenever I'm free."

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In front of Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, Harry was enjoying his freedom from the Dursley's. He had opened a book of runes, his interest sparked from the revision of his memories, and he had a butterbeer float; and idea he gave to Mr. Fortescue. He had dipped into muggle London and had come across one of his new favorite things: pizza and now had a large cheese pie that he had been slowly devouring. While by the pizza place, he'd purchased a few books on fitness techniques, and had even purchased a few martial arts manuals.

Harry had moved on to the third Occlumency exercise: sorting his memories into categories, and it was going along smoothly. Remembering the incident with his aunt Marge earlier in the summer, he was attempting to perform wand-less magic. It was almost impossible, and the most he could do was budge a quill slightly, but it could have been a figment of his imagination. As he kept trying and failing, he'd developed an almost boiling rage. In order to calm down, he'd practiced the flame and void and succeeded in burning the thoughts of his anger, but the feelings still remained. Again, his anger had latched onto what he was trying to do, shoving the quill he was attempting to move so hard, it imbedded into the wall of his room. After realizing that the ability was caused by heightened emotions, he had tried again, with minimal success. On the plus side, he could now do simple, low-powered spells with just a little bit of focus, and was hoping to improve the ability.

As promised, Tonks had come during the weekend, and after practicing their morphing, she had taken him to his first movie. It had been an eastern martial arts film, starring Bruce Lee, and had caused harry to want to be able to some of the things ninja's could do. In that vein, he had been attempting to do a low powered wand-less sticking charm to the bottom of his feet, so that he could walk on walls. He had no luck so far. He decided to put the idea on the back-burner for the moment.

His work-outs were paying dividends. His stamina and overall feeling of wellness had increased, and he could now run faster for longer periods of time. He had contacted Ron, Hermione, and McGonagall, about dropping Divination and taking up Runes and Arithmany, another subject he'd developed an interest in. Ron had replied that he would stick with Divination, but there was still no mention of Black. Hermione had been overjoyed, and McGonagall had commended him on dropping the useless rabble, that some 'crack-pot' named Trelawney taught. When he informed Hermione of this, she had dropped the class her idol thought as being useless like a hot coal. Harry had also got her to drop Muggle Studies, citing someone as ill-informed as Mr. Weasley teaching the class. She had agreed.

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Harry returned to His room in the cauldron, and finished his Occlumency and wand-less exercises. He had almost completed the cauterization of his memories, and could produce the faint glow of a 'lumos' surrounding his hand. With things looking up, Harry was content to lay back and enjoy the view of the setting sun. HE was in for a busy summer, but it was all going to pay off in the end. With his birthday approaching in two weeks, he made a mental note to do something nice for himself.

Remembering his upcoming lesson with Tonks, he cursed the fact that he was in puberty, because his Occlumency exercises had become less effective in stopping his natural biological reaction to the presence of a naked female…Damn Hormones!