So, this story is now up to date. Future chapters may be a little while, depending on the results of my poll.

Nura chapter 3

"Honestly!" Hermione fumes as she reenters the compartment, "I try and help him and this is the thanks I get!"

"So, he didn't do anything?" Harry smirks.

"No he didn't!" she huffs, "He just said that he'd do it eventually. He didn't even want to ask any question about the history homework you know he didn't pay attention to!"

"That sounds like Ron." He shrugs, "Well, we'll just get everything done before we get back to London then. I don't know about you, but I'd like to enjoy as much of my summer as possible, and I think that between the two of us, we can finish everything."

"You're right." She grins, "Then let's worry about the Potions essay next. I know how much you hate it."

"Don't remind me." He groans, taking out his potions textbook along with the assignment sheet, "let's see…. Ten inches on the applications of essence of Wigenwald in basic potions."

So began the nonstop homework fest during the train ride home. Helped along by Hermione's tips and considerable knowledge, Harry had just placed the last period as the train grinds to a halt, "Finally done." Harry chuckles, "Well, this summer should be fun."

"Well, I'll be able to study up on next year's course work." Hermione says as she puts away her books, "Or maybe I'll do some research for the electives we pick at the end of next year."

"Let me know what you find out." He says, storing his own supplies and climbing off the train, "Have a good summer, Hermione."

"You too." She says as she takes her own trunk and passes through the barrier.

Susan stumbles out of the floo at the Bones family manor, where she is immediately tackled by her two little sisters, "Sarah, Michelle!" she laughs as she hugs them. Sarah was eight years old, and had inherited their father's black hair, which like hers, was long in the back, and her mother's crystal blue eyes. Six year old Michelle was almost her spitting image, "Is Auntie or Mom around?"

"I think mom was upstairs." Sarah answers, "Why? Did something happen?"

"Not really." She lies, "She just asked me to tell her about my first year."

This seemed to appease them, as they gave her another quick hug before running off and playing in the yard. Sighing, she climbed the stairs. 'I hate having to lie to them.' She thinks as she shifts to her yokai form, 'but mom doesn't want them to know yet.' Knocking on her Mother's study, the door opens wordlessly.

"Hello, Susan." She says as she motions her in while in her human form, which looked like an older version of her, "What is it? You don't normally show your true form around the house like this."

"I thought that it would be appropriate for this conversation." Susan answers, walking into the room. Closing the door behind her, her mom assumes her own yokai form.

"Then I shall do the same." She says as she sits across from Susan, "So, let's talk."

"A couple of days ago, at the end of the school year, there was an event." She starts, unsure how to phrase it.

"An event…" her mom repeats, looking at her closely, "Continue."

"I woke up in the middle of the night when there was a sudden, intense yokai aura." She replies, "When I investigated, I found a yokai the likes of which I've never seen before. Just based on that one meeting, I could tell that he was stronger than Nott's entire night parade."

"So strong?" she gasps, "Are you sure?"

"It appears that one of the professors was possessed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but this yokai crushed him without even trying." She nods, "His aura alone was strong enough to cause nightmares even for those that had no ability to sense it."

"And you believe that this person is one who can help us?" she says calmly, looking deep into Susan's eyes.

"I do." Susan says firmly, "So much so that I have already joined him."

"I see…" She says softly, with a trace of anger, "Who is this person?"

"Harry Potter." Susan replies, and her mother gasps.

"I would like to meet him." She says after a moment, "I want to see for myself whether he is as powerful as you say."

"That was his intention as well." Susan replies, "He also wishes to meet with the Abbotts, Longbottom, and brown, after defeating Nott and possibly recruiting Malfoy and Parkinson, he'll use that combined force to defeat Diggory."

"I see he has quite the plan." She nods approvingly, "Inform him that Amelia and I will meet with him next week."

"Alright." Susan nods, "I'll send him a letter,"

"Good. Then I'll make sure the Amelia knows."

Daphne was met by her father as soon as she got off the train. With her trunk in hand, she grabs a hold of his arm and they disapparate without a word. As soon as they reappear at the house, Daphne is attacked by her younger sister, Astoria.

"I missed you!" she laughs, throwing her arms around her.

"I missed you too." Daphne smiles, "So, have you been keeping up with your practice?"

"Of course!" she glares, "I'll beat you next time!"

"Looking forward to it, shortstuff."

"Don't call me short!" she says angrily.

"Then grow a few inches." Daphne laughs, ducking under a thrown vase that her father caught effortlessly.

"That's enough." He says sharply.

"Alright." Astoria pouts, rushing up stairs.

"Father." She says, drawing his attention, "I need to talk to you."

"About?" He asks calmly,

"There are at least two yokai at school." She explains, "Susan Bones didn't look all that strong, but the other one…"

"I'm assuming that they're strong?" he says softly, "YOU wouldn't bring them up at all unless they were."

"Very strong." She nods, "I'm not sure that any of us could fight against it. I can't even figure out what it was, but it effortlessly crushed one of our professors that was possessed by Voldemort."

"Is that so?" he says grimly, "Well, who is it?"

"Harry Potter." She answers.

"Potter? I've never heard of any yokai in the potter family. His mother perhaps…. No I went to school with them. They weren't yokai, neither James nor Lily. So why now?" he mutters thoughtfully, "Thank you for giving me this information, Daphne. I'll make sure to mention it to the others. Speaking of, I want you at the next family gathering. They'll want to know what you've discovered, this not the least."

"Yes father." She says before running up to her room.

Harry sighs as he sits in the back of the Dursleys car. 'This summer is going to be hell.' He thinks as Vernon rants about every little thing and how all of it is Harry's fault, or that the wizards were to blame, 'As long as they don't find out about me not being able to use magic, it might actually be livable, but…'

"BOY!" his uncle shouts, "You hear me?! If you want to keep going to that freak school of yours, you'll find you own bloody transport! No longer will I be inconvenienced by your bloody kind!"

"That's fine." Harry says lazily, "I'll just make sure to turn your car into a fish before I leave."

The car grinds to a stop, and Vernon's purple face turns to face him, "What did you just say?!" he glares viciously.

"Has the fat grown over your ears already?" he smirks, "If you want to be petty, I will too. It's no inconvenience for you. Your work is less than a hundred feet from the station, and it's only two days a year. You could take me with you to work and I'd walk the rest of the way."

"I've had it with you, boy!" He growls lunging at harry from the front seat. At that moment, Harry's blood boiled.

Instantly, Harry glares back, and he jumps in surprise. His eyes had darkened, pupils scarlet against the black eyes, and his hair had grown slightly longer, streaked with red throughout, "Back off Vermin." Harry says coldly, "I will not allow you to walk all over me anymore. You will take me back to that bloody building you call a house, and I will go to my room. Afterwards, neither you nor your family will bother me. If that fat tub of lard you call a son tries to attack me, he will regret it. I will handle my own meals and you will do your own chores for once in your life. This should be a fair deal, right? I do what I want, and you can keep breathing."

"Are you threatening me?" Vernon whimpers, though visibly pale.

"Maybe the fat really has grown over your ears." Harry chuckles, "It's not a threat. It's fact. I already killed one man this year. I've got no problem adding a walrus to that count."

They glare at each other for five minutes before Vernon looks away and drives the car again.

"See? I'm glad that we could be reasonable." Harry smiles, "You hold up your end, and I'll hold up mine."

"As long as you don't eat my family's food." Vernon hisses.

"I've got more money then you'll ever have, so I can feed myself." Harry replies, shaking his money bag full of gold, "In fact, if you uphold your end without any issues, maybe next year we can work out rent."

"Fine." Vernon says as he turns onto Privet Drive, "We have an agreement, Potter."

"Wonderful." Harry says as he turns to normal, "I'll take my stuff upstairs then." He adds after the car had stopped at Number Four.

Dumbledore stood in the final chamber for what must have been the hundredth time since the battle between Voldemort and Harry. 'What did I miss?' he thinks, casting every spell he could to try and decipher this, 'Traces of the stone's magic scattered everywhere. That supports that the stone was destroyed, but it seems almost too weak. Even destroyed, the traces should be much stronger.'

A shocking thought entered his mind, "Could Voldemort have absorbed that power?" he asks aloud, "But how?" this loops back into another question he's asked himself time and time again, "How did he survive?"

'Horcrux, stone, and the Blade. Those are the three most likely causes of Voldemort's immortality.' He ponders calmly, 'of those, the stone could be ruled out, as if he had a stone, he wouldn't need to steal Nicolas'. Horcrux seems most likely, but that doesn't explain how he could have absorbed that power. A spirit has no powers of its own, save possession. It would have taken weeks to absorb this much latent magic without direct contact. Is it the Blade? If so, that could be ruinous.'

"Fawkes!" he calls out to his partner, who flames to his side at once, "Forgive me, my friend, but I must ask you to do me a favor." He says to the beautiful bird, "Track down Voldemort to wherever he is hiding. I must know what state he is in."

Fawkes lets out a soft note before bursting into flames and vanishing. "No sense in letting fear cloud my mind." He says as he continues his examination, "Dark Magic is covering this place. Voldemort must be very powerful, even now, to cause such damage. These walls will be stained for many years to come after this. It will be quite a while before even the ghosts come back here…"

This brought back another memory of that night. The panicked cries of the ghosts, urging him to the third floor. "What in the world happened in this room!?" he shouts in frustration, "What kind of magic could frighten even a ghost?"

It's been three days since Harry had returned to number four, and the Dursleys seem to be keeping their word. No one had bothered him, and even when harry went out, none of them even said a word. Dudley had also taken what his father said to heart, as whenever harry ran into him on the streets, even with his gang at his back, he would find some way to weasel out of attacking harry.

Luckily, harry found a nearby bank that, apparently, catered to Wizards as well. It was purely by chance, but harry saw the Gringotts logo imprinted onto one of the bricks by the entrance. Walking in, feeling more than a little stupid, he asks one of the tellers if they dealt in gold. The teller immediately redirected him to a specialist in the back.

This 'specialist', was in fact a goblin wearing a clever disguise that made him appear as a former soldier who lost his legs in a war. It wasn't difficult at all to trade some of his galleons to pounds, and even get a muggle credit card. It cost him about three galleons total as a service charge, but with the added convenience of a credit card, he wouldn't even have to worry about the Dursleys trying to steal his money.

The very first thing he bought was a new wardrobe. It was unbelievable how good it felt to wear something that actually fit him for a change. Sure the robes had fit, but it wasn't the same. After that, he bought a small fridge for his room, since the Dursleys likely wouldn't want him using 'their' fridge. It had been a struggle to get them to let him use the stove. With that taken care of, he got enough food to last him about a week and sat down to a nice home cooked meal, made all the sweeter when he found out later that, after five years of making Harry do all the cooking, Petunia had forgotten how and burned everything.

He'd spoken with his Yokai self a few more times since then, but nothing really came of it. He was slightly worried that there wasn't any word from Susan yet, but apparently he could tell that she was still alive, so he let the matter rest.

It wasn't until the third night that anything happened. Harry went to bed, the same as he did every night, and was greeted quickly by his inner Yokai.

"Still nothing, huh?" he shrugs, "Well, no biggy. I'll worry about it if we haven't heard back from her by the end of the month."

"Mind if I ask you something?" Harry asks, taking his seat at the stands that appeared on the edge of the field.

"Well, you just did, but ask away." He says pleasantly as he starts showing off, flying in a spiral backwards.

"Malfoy and the others." Harry says, "What will we do about them at school? Would people think that it was strange if I just started hanging out with them?"

"probably." He admits, "But that's your call, isn't it? If you like, I'm sure they could continue pretending to be your enemy, or you could stage something to mark the 'start' of your friendship. Remember that you are the one in charge, not them. Just because the Dursleys raised you to think you weren't worth anything doesn't prove that you are. It proves that they are weak, pathetic fools too petty to ever realize their mistakes. They're blinded by their jealousy, much like many yokai, who will be envious of our power. Some will devote themselves to you, in recognition of your power, others will believe themselves stronger, and wage war against you. Take control of the Dursleys, and you'll learn to deal with them as well. The weak you crush. If they change, accept them. If they don't, destroy them. It's that easy."

"And that goes for the Dursleys too?" Harry smirks.

"Well, in a way. They probably won't change, but that's no reason to kill them, since they'll never amount to a threat against you. For them, you just threaten, and if that doesn't work, beat them into submission. You might not be able to use magic outside of school, but my power isn't controlled by the ministry, so use that to your advantage."

"So-"Harry starts, but at that moment, the skies darken.

"Damn." His yokai glares, "Sorry, harry. But I need the body for now. Duty calls, and that's all there is to it."

Harry wakes suddenly, but immediately feels his control start to fade.

Susan's mother sat inside of the Nott Family Mansion, which was about the worst place for her to be, given what she was here for, and what her answer is going be. She'd hoped to be able to meet Harry Potter with her daughter and Sister in law before they asked for a meeting again, but maybe Jr. realized that Harry Potter was strong enough to pose a real threat and wanted to get all the help he could. It would explain them forcing the issue so soon.

"Well?" Theodore Nott Sr. sneers as he sits across from Susan's mother, Serene, "Have you given it your full consideration yet?"

"Yes I have." She replies coldly, "And I have not yet confirmed that this is the best option available for my family."

"It's the only option." Lucius Malfoy replies from his position at Nott's right.

"Not true." She replies, "There are many options available to us, and only one requires us to shatter the traditions we've held since this family was founded. I will not break them so easily unless there is no other choice, and I am not convinced that there isn't."

"Is that so?" Rapfel Parkinson growls, "And what choice might this be?"

"I don't know, but I stand by what I said." She glares, "Now, if you don't mind, I will be going."

"No you will not." Nott smirks, "Too bad. I was hoping that we might be able to join forces willingly, but no point in lamenting that now. You've doomed your family, Serene. Good Bye."

Before she could even comprehend what he's just said, an intense pain rushes from her chest as she's thrown backwards. Glancing down, she sees a pale blue bolt of lightning fly through her body, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. As she hits the ground, the blood that poured into her lungs was forced out, covering her face even as what little blood remained in her body left it through the hole in her chest. It wasn't even a minute later that she breathed her last.

"Parkinson, Malfoy, inform the others." Nott orders with a smile, "We attack the Bones family tonight."

"Yes sir." The two men bow as they leave the room.

"SUSAN!" Amelia shouts inside the house, "GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

It was only a moment later when the red head barrels down the stairs, "What is it, auntie?" she asks hurriedly, considering that her aunt was transformed.

"Your mother was killed." She says sadly, showing her right hand and the bones ring on it, "She had a meeting with Nott earlier tonight, and it looks like he didn't like her answer. Get ready. They'll be attacking soon. At this hour, any friendly place will have the Floos shut down, so we have to hold out until morning. It's up to me and you to keep the girls safe."

"Right." Susan nods, wiping a tear from her eye, "I'll go make sure their locked in their room."

"Good. I'm activating all the defenses. We'll need them. Even still, with just the two of us, we won't have the power to hold out against a full night parade until morning."

"If only Master were here…" Susan sighs.

"Well, he isn't. Let's hurry and get ready. They won't waste much time."

"Where are you going?" Someone asks from the opposite end of the hall.

"Master!" Susan gasps as he steps into the hall.

"I was wondering why I haven't heard from you before now." Harry grins as he turns to the older and much more powerful looking Ankou next to her, "So, who might this be?"

"Amelia Bones." She answers, eyeing him threatening.

"Her aunt. A pleasure. Now, what's going on?"

"My mother was killed by Nott." Susan sighs, "We think that they'll be here soon."

"My condolences." Harry nods, "So, the plan was to hold out until morning?"

"That's about right." Amelia says after a moment, "Susan said that you were strong. You certainly don't come off as very strong…"

"Of course not. I'm among friends, not enemies." Harry laughs, "If you doubt my power, then I'll let you see firsthand what I'm capable of on the battlefield."

An alarm blares throughout the house.

"Damn. They're here already." Amelia curses, "Susan, take care of the girls."

She looks to harry, who nods and materializes his swords. At that moment, an overwhelming power crashes down over the property, "Let's go, Amelia." Harry smiles, "If they want to pick a fight against a family under my protection, they'd better understand what that means."

Harry's night parade vs. Nott's next time. Again, my fight scenes aren't too good, so don't expect much. If you haven't already, there's a poll on my profile for which stories i should focus on. Vote for your top three. The top three are guaranteed updates. As always, R&R!