A/N: So, my beta and I have a bet. I'm not going to say what the details of the bet are, just that the winner of it will be based on the comments of the first week of reviewers of this chapter. So, read, review, and I'll let you know who won in the next chapter.

Harry Potter sat in the Headmaster's office, his eyes moving around to the different objects that were always in motion. For a moment, his eyes rested on the empty perch of Fawkes, the Headmaster's phoenix familiar and the summoned Esper of Nicholas Flamel.

It had been nearly a month since Harry had descended into the bowels of Hogwarts to repay the debt he owed to the Aspect of Life. Nearly a month since Harry had almost died multiple times, coming out alive but changed. He had gone down there as a second year student, summoner of Shiva. Together, the two of them had defeated the possessed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who had died because of the battle. Harry had then descended to what was Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.

The biggest secret of that chamber had been it was truly the Tri-Throne of Bahamut, King and Aspect of Dragons. Harry had claimed the Tri-Throne is a desperate bid to save his own life, and nearly lost it in doing so. But he had lived and killed the basilisk that had once guarded the throne before being subverted to the will of mortals.

And he was still unsure if that fulfilled the debt he owed to Phoenix, because he couldn't speak with Fawkes to find out, as the firebird was never in the Headmaster's office when he was. And Mr. Flamel had taken the materia for Phoenix home with him when his wife absconded with him from the Hospital Wing.

It was quite unfair.

A nudge into his shoulder by Shiva pulled his attention forward, to the Headmaster sitting as his desk. Even this long after having called Phoenix to resurrect Mr. Flamel, he still looked a bit haggard.

"Were Madam Pomfrey's results any different today, Mr. Potter?" The Headmaster asked, but his attention was split between Harry and Shiva.

That was another change. Since taking the Tri-Throne, Shiva had not dispelled her physical Esper body very often, and when she did, she was quick to ask him to resummon her once more. Harry didn't see the harm in it, as the magic he expended returned to him eventually, unlike if he had summoned an Esper for Phoenix.

"No sir. She said that nothing's different." Harry shrugged. "Beyond the fact that I'm growing up quicker, I don't think it's a problem."

Dumbledore shook his head. "Your magic has significantly changed, Mr. Potter. Though your body appears to have tried, you are not an Animagus. You cannot spontaneously become one. You refuse to change Professor Snape back-"

"If I could, it'd be a different story, sir. I can't." Harry interrupted.

"You refuse to change Professor Snape back, Mr. Potter. Anything a wizard does, he can undo." The headmaster emphasized.

"Headmaster, I don't think there's a way you can get me to the point where I'll have control over the magic from the Tri-Throne, and wanting to fix him." Harry frowned. This was the third time he'd had this conversation with him, in three weeks.

"All the more reason to fix whatever you did to yourself, Mr. Potter. When we undo whatever this is, I am hopeful it will reverse your ill-advised transformation of Professor Snape."

"Undo it?" Harry growled, draconic instincts rousing at Dumbledore's new statement. A calm hand was placed on his shoulder.

"This is the first time you have actually mentioned this, Headmaster." Shiva's voice was cool. "Not considering that you have not the power to do so, what makes you think it is necessary?"

Albus met her gaze evenly. "Every student, every child, should grow up on their own time, madam. They should not be forced to be an adult before they have to be."

"Excuse me? Voldemort tried to kill me, remember? Twice." Harry could almost feel his hackles rising, but clamped down. Nothing was going to take the Tri-Throne from him, he kept repeating mentally. "I was forced to kill Professor Lockhart. Yes, I'm twelve. But a child? That stopped last year, Headmaster."

Dumbledore watched calmly as Harry flexed his fingers into the arms of the chair, gripping it heavily. "Perhaps you have a point there. But even more than that, you have changed. Of your own admittance, even." He held a hand up to forestall Harry's comment to that as well. "As I now know, Harry, fifty years ago the Chamber of Secrets was discovered by another student. He descended into the Chamber, and eventually became Voldemort."

Harry frowned.

"Whatever power he took from there, it apparently has you as well. Regardless of what you call it, I will not let another student lose themselves to the Dark, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore's voice was raised now, a hint of power and anger behind it. "Not even if I have to go down there, and bring the entire Chamber down."

Harry jumped to his feet, the nearly direct threat against the Tri-Throne enraging his other half. His hand was half raised before he felt like his entire body was dumped in ice, as Shiva engulfed him in a thin sheet of ice magic. The sensation was enough to jar him out of the rage, at least momentarily.

"You are laboring under some delusion, Headmaster, that whatever power Voldemort has, might have come from there. You do not believe either of us, when I say Harry is the King of Dragons, do you?" Shiva's voice had dropped several dozen degrees, along with the temperature of the room.

"No." Dumbledore's voice was tight, and a feel of magic pushed back against the cold. Power negating the energy Shiva was using.

"Perhaps we are going at this wrong. Do you know what I am? I am almost certain you have tried to look into it yourself." Shiva asked, letting up on her own magic.

At the apparent change of subject, Albus had a puzzled look. "Yes, I did. Given your name and powers, I would assume you are an extremely powerful yuki-onna, captured and bound to that gem in Potter's Folly long before the Folly ended up what it is now. I would even suggest that you are the basis for the religious figure of Shiva, in India, given the Frozen Palace in the Himalayas that has claimed the lives of many explorers."

Shiva gave the Headmaster a nonplussed look, before giving a glance to Harry. "It might have been quicker to ask him." She mentioned, before returning her focus to Dumbledore. "Possibly close, and yet the truth is much different. I am Shiva, and as I said before I am the Empress of Ice and Snow. I do not know what a yuki-onna is, but that is not what I am. I am an Aspect of Nature, the Aspect of Ice and the frozen world."

Shiva held her hands up, palms facing each other. In the space between them, moisture in the air froze under her command, shaping into a globe. "I have seen maps of the world as it stands, and it is not how I recall." The globe shifted, ice rising in places to create mountains. The globe depicted an alien world with no recognizable landmasses. "It as if Titan and Leviathan had decided to rearrange the world without any plan!"

Dumbledore stared at the globe with interest. "And your proof that you are not just a yuki-onna that has gone mad with age and loneliness? You have shown no powers that I would not expect from a yuki-onna, should I be so lucky as to speak with one, albeit yours are quite a bit more powerful than have been recorded."

The icy globe shattered between her hands. "Excuse me?" Shiva looked over to the empty stand that Fawkes usually perched on. Harry watched as Shiva raged. "I know you are bound to that Phoenix Esper. You literally revived the other Summoner, Flamel, through Phoenix's power. Has the Esper of the Aspect of Life taught you nothing of what we are?"

"Fawkes has been remarkably evasive when it comes to how Nicholas acquired him originally, and seeing as how I assume you are yuki-onna, there was never reason to ask a being of fire about one of snow." The answer actually made a fair bit of sense to Harry, considering what he knew the Headmaster thought now.

"Since Phoenix is not here to ask, then I will give you your proof. And then you will leave Harry alone about the Tri-Throne, for he is now the Aspect of Dragons." Shiva turned to the window, and it was knocked open at her touch.

"I recall that you froze the Black Lake once already. Such is within a yuki-onna's power, on a smaller scale." Dumbledore reminded her.

Shiva shook her head. "That was magic designed for my personal offense. No, that is not what I am going to do."

Shiva stepped onto the window sill, the cold wind of the Hogwarts' January weather whipping in. The wind streamed through Shiva's many long braids, some few actually coming undone in the growing winds. She looked back at Harry for a long moment, before turning once more to the rapidly worsening weather, already gloomy skies turning black with billowing clouds. "I am but an Esper, a fragment of the power wielded at the Throne of Ice. May the magic I call not overwhelm the body I inhabit."

"Shiva..." Harry started, but didn't make more than two steps before he felt the materia in his armlet become drowned in magic.

The Aspect of Ice glowed with her own inner light as Harry could see her direct strands of magic around her, before they floated off of their own accord into the sky. Shiva continued to pull strands of magic through the materia that linked Esper and the Throne of Ice together, freezing temperatures billowing away from her as she crafted her spell.

"I am Shiva, Ice and Snow. The frozen lands are my domain and in my domain I stand. Land before me, sky above me, rejoice in the spirit of snow, this I command!"

For a moment, the whipping winds paused and the boiling clouds froze. A light snow began to fall.

"You froze moisture in the air, to cause a bit of snow? That-" Dumbledore began, but stopped as the light snow suddenly wasn't. In the tower that was the Headmaster's office, the outside view of the world disappeared in a whiteout.

Shiva stood there, body visibly straining as she maintained something. Harry, still feeling the magic pulsing through the materia, stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder and silently urged her strength in what she was doing.

After several long moments, the air outside the window cleared and Shiva fell backwards, Harry awkwardly catching her limp body.

Outside the window was a vast plain of snow. The walls of Hogwarts stood firm against them, and not a single snowflake was actually in the inner courtyard. The gates out were open, and even now you could see panicked students streaming in from the snow. Beyond the walls, the entire area looked to be missing, buried under at least forty feet of snow.

Harry looked up from the exhausted form of Shiva to the Headmaster, who stared out at the serene landscape with astonishment, before Harry saw worry creep across his face.

"Do...not worry. I left...paths in the snow..." Shiva whispered, and Harry had to repeat it for the Headmaster to hear.

"Are you happy now, Headmaster?" Harry demanded, anger still in his own voice, but overlaid was worry about the nigh enfeebled Shiva he still held.

The Headmaster reluctantly turned from the seeming winter apocalypse that had befallen the school. When he spoke, his voice held a note of somber realization. "It is not usually a happy thing to have the veil pulled from your eyes, Harry."

Harry nodded, before returning his attention to Shiva. "Dispel?"

Shiva shook her head weakly. "No, just rest."

Harry helped stabilize Shiva, nodding. "Are we done, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore nodded, then shook his head. "Unless you want to trek back through a school of likely panicking students, I would offer my sitting room." He motioned to a bookcase which slid aside, revealing a moderately sized room with a table and several chairs.

Harry thought it looked more like a conference room, but didn't argue. "Thank you."

With a subtle twitch of his wand, one of the chairs flowed into the shape of a bed, complete with a heavy comforter and thick pillows. "Rest as long as you need to." Dumbledore sighed, looking out the window once more. "I will have to deal with this."

Harry helped Shiva into the bed, pulling up a chair next to her. He didn't bother to watch as the Headmaster started down the stairs, conjuring silvery phoenixes that took off further ahead.

An hour or so later, Harry was talking with the still resting, but finally sitting up, Shiva when a ball of flame appeared in the office. "Finally, I can finally pin down Fawkes." Harry grinned.

When the fire receded though, it was not just Fawkes that had appeared. Both of the Flamels and Iris were there as well. Nicholas was looking around, curiously. "Albus?"

"He's not in right now." Harry called out to him. "I think he's still getting rid of the snow."

Both Flamel's looked out the office window and did a double take. "That's... a lot of snow." Nicholas commented with a low whistle. Perenelle just stared for a moment before shaking her head. She then looked into the sitting room and noticed Shiva still in the bed. "You've got a story behind this, don't you?"

Shiva shot a glare at Fawkes. "You have had since Harry showed up for school last year to explain what we are, Phoenix. Why have you not, forcing me to provide that proof?" She waved a hand weakly towards where the window was in the other room.

Fawkes trilled a contrite song, drawing a look of disbelief from Nicholas. "Don't pin this one on me, Fawkes. You knew what Shiva was before I even got involved. You could have corrected his notions well before I was hurt."

This time Fawkes' song was longer, and Harry found he could understand it. "I did not think that Albus needed to know. Had the youngling not been so insane as to claim the tri-throne, there would never have been an issue."

"Bull." Harry interjected. "Even before this happened, I knew I'd need someone's help to get to India, to Shiva's throne. No one is going to help a twelve year old get half way across the world without a very good reason. The Floo network doesn't cross water, and I don't have a way to get an International portkey."

"His debt to you is fulfilled as well, Phoenix." Shiva's voice would brook no opposition, even constrained to the bed as she was.

"I have no claim of debt against the King of Dragons, and against your mortal soul all debts are removed." Fawkes sang once more. The phoenix hung his head for a moment. "I had expected to help you, but the magic provided by Albus and the other were barely enough to resurrect my summoner. My fragment was left with little in the way of recourse, and no other fragment of mine is as attuned to this location as Fawkes. Even Iris would not have been able to get to you there."

"And since you can't travel by flame, having Fawkes or Iris take you near the Frozen Palace won't work, will it." Nicholas added, looking thoughtful. "But that is an issue for another time, Harry. We came here to speak with Albus about his Defense class. I think I will go help him clear the snow you created, Shiva."

Shiva gave a weak laugh. "I did not have the power to create that much." She disagreed. "The rest of these lands will not have snow for a few weeks, I drew it all here."

"As a summoned fragment? You have more reign over your element than expected." Perenelle sounded faintly surprised. "I would like to discuss this with you, later, if that is acceptable?"

Shiva nodded. "I will be here. This school has become too dangerous to force Harry to expend half his magic if he needs me."

"Alright then. Perenelle, would you like to help unbury a castle?" Nicholas offered his arm to his wife.

She laid a hand against him. "It sounds fun, husband. Come Iris, this is no longer my first winter. No snowballs, I promise."

Two trilling laughs came from the phoenixes in the room, before the four took their leave of Harry and Shiva.

Half an hour later Shiva was feeling well enough that the two left the Headmaster's tower as well. Still early in the afternoon, Harry would normally have gone outside the castle to enjoy the winter air, but a single look out one of the windows proved that wasn't a sound idea.

The Headmaster, almost all of the teachers, both Flamels and their phoenixs, and a fair number of older students were still out there, vanishing the snow Shiva had called.

Harry watched them for a few minutes before a voice spoke up behind him. "Oh hello Harry, Shiva."

Harry turned and saw a smile on Shiva's face as she greeted Luna. "Hello Luna. How are you?"

The somewhat off girl gave the two of them a smile. "It's been bugging me for weeks, you know." She pointed a finger at Harry, then reconsidered and pointed two. "Ever since we all came back from the holidays, something's been different about you, something missing."

Harry gave Luna his full attention.

"Wings." She proclaimed, her voice happy she'd finally resolved the issue. "Where are your wings, Harry?" She frowned. "And why is that what you're missing? Daddy said growing up is confusing, but this takes the cake." She then gave a cute pout to Shiva. "He's not going to tell me, so will you? It has to do with the Headmaster boarding up that bathroom, doesn't it?"

Shiva gave Luna an interested look of her own. "More or less, yes. But how do you sense that something like that changed about someone?"

"Daddy says we're all children of the wounded world. Some of us just pay better attention is all." She then refocused on Harry. "When you decide to actually find your wings, can I see them?"

Harry nodded, bewildered.

"Goodie!" Luna pulled Harry into a hug, before letting go and hugging Shiva as well, before shaking a stern finger in her face. "Don't do that again. You throw things off balance." Luna then smiled once more, notebook appearing in hand. "So, where did we leave off last time?"

Three days later Harry walked into Potions with a grin on his face. Standing at the other end of the room was Nicholas Flamel, acting Potions Professor.

Rumor had sprung up since the two Flamels had appeared that Nicholas was going to take up the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, but Harry had thought better. He knew why Professor Snape wasn't showing up for classes, and Potions was a lot closer to Alchemy, he thought.

The room itself had been reconfigured as well. Gone were all the two seat desks for partner working. Instead, there were rows of long tables. Everyone sat down and faced Nicholas, who watched them with a slight smile on his face. Nicholas nodded to Shiva, who had leaned up against the wall near the door.

After everyone was seated, Nicholas began addressing the class. "Now, as you all are aware, Professor Snape has been indisposed and unable to teach classes. Your Headmaster and I are friends, and he managed to talk me into picking up the lessons for this class, until Professor Snape either gets better, or the end of the year, whichever comes first."

The Slytherins looked torn between glee over instruction from the master alchemist and dismay over losing Professor Snape's biases.

In light of that, the Ravenclaws managed to keep their cheers down to a muted level.

"Now, I have the syllabus for all the potions you have brewed for first year and this year. To test your knowledge of these potions, we're going to have a verbal quiz. Raise your hand when you know the answer to the question."

Harry winced. Pop quiz on day one with Mr. Flamel? Fun.

"In the boil cure potion, what do you do with the snake fangs?" Everyone's hand went up. "Put your hand down if your answer is anything but crushed." No hands wavered. "Good. Now, keep your hand up if you know why it should be crushed, instead of say, shattered."

Harry kept his hand up, recalling from the Ravenclaw study guides the difference. Most of the rest of his fellow Ravenclaws knew as well, while only two of the Slytherin students did.

"Alright, Mr. Goldstein, why?"

"Shattered teeth keep more of their potential, but do not evenly spread their effect through a potion. For the size of fangs we use and the cauldron size, we have to grind them until they are little more than dust." Anthony answered concisely. Harry watched Hermione give her housemate a friendly glare over the answer.

"Good answer. Those of you who didn't know that, may want to write it down." Nicholas nodded to the other students.

After a few more questions in that manner, where it became obvious that everyone knew what potion required what ingredient, but only the Ravenclaws could answer as to why, Nicholas stopped his questions with a sigh. "Alright, last question. This is for the students that couldn't answer the alternate uses. Can any of you name four methods of using any one potions ingredient? I don't care what it is, just four methods of using it."

As the Ravenclaws had known most of the previous answers, they stayed silent. For a long moment, the Slytherins did as well, trying to wrack their minds for potions that used the same ingredients in different manners. Finally, a single student raised his hand.

Nicholas gave him a smile. "Yes, Mr. Zabini?"

"Snake fangs. Whole, shattered, crushed, and each of those methods with and without venom." Blaise's voice was uncertain.

"Very good. Do you know the differences between each of those?" Nicholas asked, receiving a headshake in return. "Hmm. Did Professor Snape ever go over alternate preparation methods with you all, and why you should or shouldn't use them?" Nicholas addressed the question to the class.

A sea of heads shaking no was his answer. Nicholas pointed to one of the Slytherins that hadn't had any answers, beyond how to make a potion. "Mr. Nott. Please walk me through a day in which the class made a potion."

Theodore nodded, thinking. "We'd all come in and sit down in pairs. Professor Snape would assign us a potion with instructions on the board," he motioned to the chalkboard that was sitting against the far wall, "and we'd make the potion. One of us would usually prepare ingredients as the potion required, the other would make the potion. Professor Snape would walk the floor, making sure our potions weren't going too bad. We'd turn it in at the end of class. Sometimes we'd have to demonstrate our potions on ourselves."

"Did the potion instructions have detailed instructions on how to prepare each ingredient?" Mr. Flamel prompted, his face emotionless.

"Uh, no sir. We'd look those up in our books."

"Did Professor Snape spend the prior class going over the particular methods of preparing ingredients that you would be using on the next potion?" A slight frown had appeared on the Alchemist's face.

A silent headshake from Theodore.

"I see. Well, it looks like we've got half a year of work ahead of us." A wave of his hand and the differing cauldrons and measures on the tables disappeared. In their place, a variety of whole ingredients with cutting knives, mortar and pedestals, and other implements for preparing them appeared. "We'll start back at that. Now, I believe that there are at least ten different ways to prepare anything for use. If I don't know them all, it just means they haven't been discovered yet. The basics..."

With Potions over, Harry had to wonder at all the knowledge that Mr. Flamel had. That had been the most informative lesson ever, going above and beyond the knowledge that decades of Ravenclaws had put into their own study guide. And he had kept it at the point where the Slytherin's had been able to learn as well, not throwing them into deep water just to keep the Ravenclaws interested.

Harry entered the Ravenclaw tower to find the fourth year students already there, and apparently beset by the others who hadn't had a class the past hour. Thinking for a moment, Harry recalled they'd been in Defense.

"So, do we have a new Defense professor or something?" Harry asked as he joined those listening in.

One of the fourth years froze, and shook his head. "Nope, nothing like that. Mrs. Flamel isn't a teacher, a Professor, or anything of the sort." He was speaking as if quoting her directly. "She is simply killing time by amusing herself at our expense, and if we happen to learn a bit about how to defend ourselves, good for us."

Harry grinned. "What's she doing to amuse herself, then?"

"Curses and counter-curses, today." The older boy grinned ruefully back. "She'd curse the desk, break the curse on it, then before we knew what was happening, everything around us had the same curse and we'd have to break it. I didn't realize something could be cursed to hit you with Jelly-Legs if you looked at it too closely."

"Awesome." Harry breathed, echoed by the few other students that had made it into the tower after him.