-scene break-

The Gryffindor Hufflepuff game had gone well. Not that any in the House of the Lion had expected a different outcome, even with Snape refereeing. So on the plus side it'd been a nice rest of the weekend. That pleasant, peaceful weekend did not in any way explain why he was spending the first Monday of the month in Dumbledore's office, but then again he had wanted to ask Dumbledore some questions anyway. It seemed though Dumbledore had questions of his own.

As it happened the Centaurs swore oaths by the stars in the sky. The books that he had read on the subject had said it was because the stars were always there, that they moved so slowly that it could take them thousands of years to move an inch. Or so it was said at least.

It seemed though that Mars had kept on getting brighter, enough that the Centaurs in the Forrest had brought it to Dumbledore. It seemed a warning that Dumbledore was taking seriously at least, which might just meant the headmaster was being cautious or there was something serious to centaur warnings. Well time would tell.

The old headmaster wasn't toying with something when Harry got in, but he did look rather pensive pondering over a burdensomely heavy looking book sprawled over his desk. "Ah Harry right on time, I should think," He commented closing the book with a thud as the cover shut. "I know that against all hopes that things haven't quieted down, which is the pity," The rumor going around was that Dumbledore had scheduled meetings with the Head Boys of each house on Sunday, but given Harry hadn't talked to the Gryffindor Head Boy he had no way of knowing whether such was the case. In any event Dumbledore took a minute to adjust his glasses, "While I am sure there is a lot to discuss, I would begin with that while many have begin to think otherwise Hogwarts defenses are quite formidable. However they are not perfect, and there are a number of things that Minerva would like me to discuss. I know that certain issues have been skipped over,"

"Like the sorting thing?" Most of the muggleborns hadn't noticed, and purebloods it hadn't been such a big deal. A Potter in Gryffindor hardly a shock. It still had gotten noticed, and Harry had found out about the traditional sorting ceremony eventually.

Dumbledore took it instride, "Yes, that, amongst other things, the wand to" He'd gotten a letter from Ollivander earlier just before the Holidays, and Minerva as well. He hadn't brought it up prior to this because well it was an easily explained oversight, the attack on Diagon Alley and all neatly explained failing to get a wand, "but lets begin with the sorting then." The headmaster pulled the ragged patched hat from the shelf, "You see the Founders of Hogwarts needed a way to sort incoming students impartially, occasionally there were exceptions to this," Not that he was going to bring up these exceptions were by no means recent, but at least he could make a claim to prescedence if pushed on the issue. "In your particular case, and given the situation I thought that well simply placing you in your parents' house was a quick and expedient way of settling the matter given Pomfrey thought you should be in the Hospital Wing."

"... ok..." Harry did a half blinking gesture, right magic hat sorted people he'd already known it did that. He had kind of pondered on the reasoning behind missing the sorting... briefly when it had been brought up in conversation briefly months before, but it just hadnt' been that interesting a subject to bother with.

Dumbledore took the opportunity presented to change the subject, "I know Minvera has brought up the matter of not growing up in the Wizarding World," He paused, "I know that it bothers you, but growing up in the muggle world was the best thing. There is old magic in blood, and the Dursleys, Petunia, and your cousin are your closest kin. There is magic there, protection from all the terrors our world could offer while you were growing up. Its true you've got other family, the Potters are old blood, yes but," Dumbledore shook his head sadly. When he'd been a boy there'd been a dozen Potter branches, by the time he was a man it'd been down to half that, and not just because of war and fighting. By the time Grindelwald had fallen six branches had been whittled away, married into other pureblood wizard lines, or dead against Grindelwald's men. Those had been hard times, and then Tom had risen. "these last two centuries have been hard, and your closest wizard kin are cousins of yours who sided with the Dark Lord." That was the honest truth, the Blacks especially had gone over to Voldemort during the last war.

So Dumbledore went on. He broached the subject of magic further, and teaching amongst other things, and all the wonders of teaching others, but also of the resposibility. The headmaster once again brought up that in the dark times of Voldemort's school years, when Grindlewald had been running amuck. What Dumbledore had gone about was magic, not especially dark magic, but powerful magic that not every was truly ready for, but studies because they felt they had to. Finally though he broached the last issue.

Fluffy the cerberus, and whatever he was guarding"The item Nicolas left here is perfectly safe, and I have told the Head Boy for your own as much," the headmaster didn't even seem to be bothered by this, "Naturally though there is a tendency to rashness,"
"Its a weapon isn't it," Harry asked, the issue had been bothering not as much as others, but the idea it was being brought up left him anxious with curiousity.
The older wizard perked, "I'm sorry what was that?"

"I asked if Flammel's thing is a weapon, its something to do with Alchemy?"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "It is something to do with Alchemy yes, but not a weapon," he took a minute to pause to consider, "well not in the conventional sense I suppose, but I suppose it could be used as one."

That sounded like a yes to Harry.

-scene break-

Quirrel seemed to have come down with something over the next couple of weeks, as he started to loose some weight, and was rather pallid in color. Ron naturally claimed that Snape was torturing the professor for the secrets of whatever was under Fluffy's trapdoor, which was a tad absurd even by Ron's standards. The muggleborns figured it was probably just the floo, especially for when he had had the coughing fits the first week of February.

The meeting with Dumbledore that Harry had, had went well. The same could not be said for Ron, who for whatever reason seemed to think Snape had somehow hoodwinked Dumbledore. In all honesty though Ron was probably just sore over the recent potion classes. Thankfully those had been wonderfully lacking in explosions.

Harry had had other things on his mind, "You have a tapestry right?" She asked. Most Pureblood families did after all. "Can't you just look this up,"

"I don't care when they died," What was important was how they lived, that and one was at school and couldn't get back to London easily, not without asking McGonnagal. There was little chance she'd allow him an excursion to London and he knew it. So for now he was reading through texts in the library. "Did you know Malfoy is related to me?"

Daphne looked at him, "You didn't?"

"No," He rolled his eyes. In truth this was the first serious delving into the matter, and surprisingly Draco was reasonably close. Draco was like his grand nephew or something, that was kind of weird, but then again a couple of members of Voldemort's inner circle had been first or second cousins as well.

Hermione swung around, "So has there been any luck with you guys about Flammel? That lead about being an alchemist really helped narrow it down, did you know he worked with-"
"Dumbledore yes we did," It was included on the back of ruddy Chocolate Frog cards, of course they knew especially after the massive explosion, not literally, of candy on Valentine's day the past week. "twelve uses for dragon's blood, and all that," Harry had looked it up, as it was there were other uses for Dragon Blood, but Dumbledore and Flammel togethers research had been much more profound a discovery. It had also been research that had been revolutionary for the time. Today though well it was news that only accademics cared about, because Dragonblood while it had uses in various speciality fields was to rare to be abundantly available, and its uses just weren't mainstream enough to reach the bulk of the wizarding population. This was especially true given that Dragonsblood was ministry constrolled substance.

Hermione proceeded to stick her nose into what he was reading. Ronald had stopped being such a prat when he figured that the bushy haired witch was good at researching stuff, and well the situation with the other houses helped integrate the Gryffindors together. "So whats all this?"

"Its family history."

"Well charms is like in fifteen minues," Hermione pointed out hefting her own book bag, and Harry groaned, and reached down.

He picked up his bag and dropped it on the table. She had a point, and with the way things were while skipping might have been sorely tempting, "What do you have?"
"Binns, its no big deal," Daphne responded, "I can handle reading this,"

For once was wishing he actually had History to look forward to. On the plus Charms would probably be interesting enough... maybe depending on what all they had to go over. The class was less theory heavy than Transfiguration tended to be. "I'll see you after then," Charms well there was no telling. Some times it was stuff like levitation, and others it turned into stuff for household upkeep... which didn't interest Harry at all... well most of it the tea charm was semi useful... he supposed. Still class was class, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to potions tomorrow either, Harry headed out of the library and start towards the Charms Corridor on the third floor.

Harry Potter was hardly the only one, and not just in the House of the Lion, that was dreading Potions with Snape down in the Dungeons.

Most the first years were dreading the upcoming double session on Friday with the Slytherins. Of course the Slytherins weren't looking forward to it either, word was one of the upper years classes on Wednesday had started something with Snape. Nobody seemed to be able to be able to agree on just what had happened. Everyone could agree that Snape was in a foul mood, probably as a result of whatever it was that had happened.

Charms though, well that was another story. First thing first was getting settled. A couple of people scrambled to make some last minute changes or additions to their homework before the bell tolled signaling the start of class, and the dimunitive professor scurried about to call for turn in. After the roll call, and the homework collection Flitwick started handing back graded homework, and that either got people compliments or for some to work harder. For the most part though today's class was just book work, reading up for what they were going to be covering next week. Naturally this meant Harry read the section, and went back to look at his returned homework.

This branch of magic had useful theoretical applications. Katie had said that most the elemental related magics she could think of all fell under the broad classification of Charms. Reviewing the first, and second year charms textbook more or less confirmed this. They'd even gone over a fire creation spell as well, that'd gone on to bring up the subject of wandless magic, and silent casting. It turned out Flitwick could do it as well, though he was more adept at silent casting, than not using his wand. Dumbledore was supposed to be able to conjure fire without needing his wand or an incantation amongst other spells as well.

Still today's class was mostly theory, so everybody was glad to get out of it when it was over. When they got out there was one of the older Gryfindors waiting for them, "Meetings in the common room, come on, all of you." He grunted, "Hurry up,"It was like he didn't want Flitwick noticing he was leading them off. He also seemed rather instant enough that even Hermione didn't object to much, which was saying a lot considering she'd been spending much of her time studying.

Richard was pacing in front of the fire by the time they got there, "We don't got much time I'm afraid, teachers going to notice something soon," He stated hurriedly, "And we can't keep that quisling Percy busy for much longer. This is how it is, we've got to do something, whole school is going ruddy mad. This is a rally for all the true lions of Hogwarts." Westerman declared, "The crows, and the snakes are doing the same thing," He punched his palm, "I'm sure of it. We've got to teach the snakes a lesson. We know that there is something about Alchemy, Nicholas Flammel or whatever. I think its a book myself, but we don't know. What we know is that we cant let those dark buggers get it."

Richard's proclamation proved accurate enough, while not as dramatic as Gryffindors 'rally for true lions' a lot of the Ravenclaws had gotten together. Slytherins had also had some kind of conversation, and though there was no evidence to it well it was reasonable the badgers probably had as well. The big touch off had been the following Monday. A couple of third years who had been with Fred and George had gotten caught up after a prank on the Slytherins.

Some Slytherin from their upper years had jumped in, and put two in the Hospital wing for three whole days, when all the rest had mostly gotten away with scratches, and bruises. Still that had been just because everyone had been lucky.

"Its going to get worse,"

That was a statement of the obvious if there ever was one, Harry thought, Richard was talking about getting past Fluffy and having a look around. Then again he was also talking about creating a Lion Defense Squad, and training in magic. "They're talking about watching out for the the Slytherins, like thats going to do much good." Watch out for the whole rest of the school was more like it, and then there was all the talk of the Death Eaters. Harry grabbed at his coffee, the caffeine was amazing he could stay up all night, and class, and nap in the afternoon. It was great. "Then there is all the other shit." He grunted, "I mean-,"
"I know, Richard and some of the others are blabbering on about securing what is ours," Katie responded, and that was just one side of the argument. That didn't even bring up Percy. "Having the teachers patrol the school its pointless."

It rather was most the fights had been in the morning, or afternoon between classes mainly, "Yeah well they also cancelled our Hogsmeade weekend this weekend, can you believe that," Fred grunted irritably, "I was looking forward to that." He grumbled.

-scene break-

March had started off like a cool down period. The new measures the teachers had introduced had calmed things down, and the third years and up had gotten their visiting the village privileges back, which had made a lot of people happy. So happy that there hadn't been any incidents in Hogsmeade, which must have been a good sign. There was one problem with the optimists. That was that the older years were still sore, and Richard still wanted to get past the defenses.

"Could you pass your homework over, I want to look at it."

He looked up from his notebook, and kicked his bag over, and went back to writing. What did he care if Daphne's tag along wanted to look at his charms paper, it had been a boring assignment any way. Flitwick had given Gryfindor a couple extra points for the 'fire trick' during their review, and well Su, and Daphne would probably get points for their houses if they hadn't already. "Its not that interesting," If he got compared to his mother one more time he was going to kill Flitwick, he thought it was annoying, and more than that it didn't help. He'd never known the woman but getting told repeatedly about oh Lily was a genius at charms was not helping his concentration.

He'd, when he'd been younger searched foolishly Privet Drive for anything of his mother's. Now that he thought about it that had been rather stupid Vernon had bought the house from a realtor friend when Petunia had been pregnant with Dudley. So looking back obviously none of his mother's stuff would be there. He'd never met his maternal grandparents, but obviously it would be there he could find stuff.

Daphne looked at him, "He still-"
"Yes," He hissed back snipilly, "Yeah," He added a bit softer in tone, "Alright hand it over," Harry sat the notebook aside and took the potions text, "This is what Snape has you all brewing, fire resistance potions, wow." It showed some foresight. Everyone in the damn school seemed to be able to cast incedio, the fire creation charm. "And he's doing this because he thinks, my usage will encourage the others?"
She nodded, "Yes, Snape thinks that the Gryffindors will attempt to show off. He also has us drilling the Flame Freezing charm, we got extra points from Flitwick for that,"

"Fat lot of good that will do," Fred said with a snort, "The charm I mean, Harry throws fire way to fast for the charm to work."

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I think Professor Snape is intending it to help for people other than Harry to be throwing the fireballs."

"eh," George shrugged, "Well you know, maybe Snape's right, we'll see, don't see why you got to worry," The red head remarked, "You've got basic wandless fireball creation down, throw that and even most The House will scatter out of the way," By The House naturally he meant his own house of Gryffindor, "Hufflepuff of course would probably bolt immediately."

His brother looked back, "Ravenclaw might be the problem, though. He looked over, "Hey Su you think they're taking the same precautions." She nodded, not really bothering to look up from her own book, "Yeah figures, Flitwick is the charms professor, and their head of house. Its going to be a mess."

That was the one thing everyone aggreed on. "Ok enough of this," Katie called out, "I'm tired of hearing of Richard's nonsense plans, and the other houses picking fights," The other last Gryffindor in the group had her transfiguration book out in front of her, and had spent the better part of the morning quizing Fred and George on the end of year tests. "We've got tests coming up, and quiditch to practice for, and my mom wants me to make sure to do really well in McGonnagal's class." That was the issue McGonnagal had gone and sent out letters to parents, of the Gryffindors, which had resulted in a few howlers from the more uptight parents. It had been an unpleasant way to start the week for sure.

"You know they're just going to keep piling the homework on," George interjected, "I mean Easter hols aren't even here yet,"
His brother nodded, "She's right about Quiditch though, we smashed Hufflepuff good, which again still leaves Ravenclaw, and the Snakes." The truth was though... the constant loss of points meant that house scores were some of the lowest they'd been in over a century. It was just one small consequence to all the infighting. "You should come to practice Harry,"
"Yeah what if the Snakes try something," George, and Fred both laughed, "Thats what Wood is all worried about, the big bad snakes creeping out of the pitch's stands and jumping on us,"

Harry shrugged, and Daphne looked up rolling her eyes, "So do you think its true Draco's dad is killing off members of the Black Family."

"Tch, yeah right Aunt Lucy never was in the best of health, to begin with," Fred grunted, "She was always getting sick,"

Daphne came him a look, and shoved the Daily Prophet article at him, it was dated this past tuesday and had the usual pro Pureblood spin, "Cygnus Black died last sunday, he along with Lucretia, and Arcturus make him the third Black dead this year."

"Well maybe Harry is killing them," Fred joked, "the Blacks were wankers anyway, all of them backed the dark lord, I mean Aunt Lucy was a bit batty, but dad always said Arcturus was a wanker and a big supporter of the pureblood movement."

George turned, and chuckled, "So Harry have you been sneaking off at night to bump off evil relatives in the dead night?" Harry glared at him, "No? Well curses maybe it is old Lucius Malfoy if Harry isn't doing it." George joked, "its not really a big deal. I mean sure they weren't that old, but even Lucius Malfoy can't be responsible for every evil in the world." In truth Daphne was only concerned, because Harry had started looking into other relatives in the wizarding world. "So Harry whats all this about you fixing up a castle?"

-scene break-

"So Hagrid has a dragon?" Katie raised an eyebrow... Hagrid lived in a wooden cottage, mind you a very large cottage, but it was still made out of wood. Common sense alone should have told him that was a really bad idea.

There was some hemming, and hawing, from the other Gryffindor/ It was one of the twins' friends who had come up to them, "Well... its not actually a dragon. Well it is is but it hasn't hatched yet, its a dragon egg." Well that was only slightly better, as far as things went.

"That still seems like a bad idea," She added a bit unnecessarily, especially since the other Gryffindor had been clear that Hagrid was trying to hatch the thing.

Harry looked up, well guess he wouldn't be going to Hagrid's for a while "Well I'm not going down there," As far as he was concerned, magic uses for dragon blood aside, which could probably go buy at the store... hypothetically... maybe, dragons and him didn't need to be anywhere in close proximity. They were giant firebreathing engines of destruction, and he'd had enough problem from the troll. "Dragons, and me, probably don't mix well," Right now though he was more annoyed about not buying more coffee when he'd been off for Christmas. Then again he had no idea that two months worth of coffee was so much... then again there was only so much he could fit into the enchanted trunk. That was actually saying something given that it was larger on the inside than outside... oops. He needed to learn that shrinking charm for food soon, especially if he was going to bring enough for next year.

"Are you really making a shopping list?" Katie asked looking over his shoulder, "Should you really be doing that now?"

"I'm sending a letter to my aunt, she goes grocery shopping all the time," Freaking Petunia went shopping several times a week, it wasn't even like he was asking that much of her. He was even bringing money, he certainly didn't see what the problem was. "besides everyone will be going to the Ravenclaw Slytherin Game it won't be a big deal." He'd already talked with the twins, and they'd pointed him to the quickest way out of the school. It wasn't like he wanted to go down to Surrey, but he needed a new set of pens along with other things. If he didn't go he'd also probably run out of loose leaf paper by easter. "Anyway not like there is a choice."

"You're going to let Fred and George help Ron help Hagrid with hatching a dragon egg," She reitereated, "Which will hatch into a baby dragon,"

Now that she put it that way, "Well I'll just be gone for a couple hours at most it should be that big of a deal."

"Dragon egg," She repeated a bit more forcefully, and she did kind of have a point, truth be told about just how badly this could go sideways, "Fred and George are talking about looking stuff up for dragon care, and potions that use dragon scales to use in pranks."

On the other hand it was still a dragon, "I'm going to go grab a book on dragons from the library I think," If he lucky he could read it by Friday, on the other hand knowing his luck dragons probably grew absurdly fast, and countless other benefits. It wasn't like Richard, who everyone was calling the heart of the lion, wasn't enough of a problem, or any of the other issues.

As it stood the library was a weird mix of open space, and people crammed together. All four houses had taken the effort the to self segregate. One of the Gryffindors, probably Katie or maybe one of the twin's the year mates, tossed his fist in the air in greeting. One of the upper years waved him over.

"Snape gave Gwendelowyn." Harry assumed it was probably one of the upper year Slytherins, definitely someone in fifth year or above, but he still had no idea who she was. "a pass into the restricted section," The upper year remarked, "Don't like it, think we out to be careful." he whispered, "What are you here for?"

Harry sat down, "Dragons, you know any books on them," He asked, as it was it couldn't hurt to ask, and it might save him some time.

"You could hit the care of magical creatures section," He shrugged glanced at Harry, "well unless your looking something a bit more practical, then try the defense section book on the second shelf deals with rogue creatures." He shrugged, "There are some books by former dragon killers, that probably could help, if thats what you're looking for. Just watch out, don't think they'll start anything but after well you know..." The older Gryffindor jerked shoulders a bit.

Harry nodded and looked at the shelves, well it either this or run the risk of being unprepared for a dragon.

It was a minor thing, but it still annoyed him just a bit to have had to have the issue pointed out, but Katie had a point as far as things went. The care of magical creatures section was fairly expansive, though it was rather obvious which sections got the most use. Kettleburn, from the rumors, taught the same creatures in sequence. Of course the rumors also said it was an interesting class, with plenty of interesting creatures.

Maybe it, the dragon, had been Dumbledore's idea. Or rather maybe Hagrid was going to hatch it and use it help defend whatever it was of Flammel's that was at the school. There was some rumors going around the school that it was a or the philosopher stone, but Harry doubted that. For one it would make no sense. Of course Harry was basing that argument on the assumption that the stone was Flammel's key to immortality, if Flammel didn't need the stone it might make sense to stash at the school.

Harry had asked Dumbledore why Alchemy wasn't taught at Hogwarts, and the response had been that it wasn't suited for young wizards. So maybe whatever it was being protected was an alchemic experiment, maybe they neededd something from a dragon. That could explain why they needed the dragon. He ran his hand along the rows of books looking for one with a title that jumped out at him, and didn't really see anything, so much for the second row. He stood up, and went on to the next stooped row of books, this looked slightly more promising.

-scene break-

On another day in another part of the castle other discussions were ongoing. It was one more day closer to the very anticipated quidditch match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. It was a bit of a shake up compared to the normal schedule but everyone good agree that this year had been a mess, and sports had been no exception. "Lucius you cannot keep doing this." Snape didn't mind seeing Lucius, but he was worried about the man's prescence touching off another spat of hostilities between the students.

"What coming to the school, I will if all this keeps up," The blonde shot back, "Its bad enough," he sighed, "Sev was it this bad when we were at school," Because he was honest he didn't remember it being this bad. Of course he could just be biased, Draco was a bit on the lazy. Lucius's father had been a lot harsher when it came to drilling magic into son, and so Lucius had been a lot better at magic, and duelling by the things heated up. Except there was the fact that Draco was only a first year, where as Lucius had been far closer to graduating.

The potions master shook his head, "This is a lot worse, just on scale." Back when they'd been in school no one had been openly fighting, until the absolute worst of it. These days though all the houses were at each others throats, "I told you Lucius I'm taking precautions. I am trying to take all possible precautions,"

"So about Westerman then? Lets start there,"
Snape shrugged, "I'm more worried, about next year. He's a sixth year right now." He sighed, "well he plays at being the knight in shining armor," The problem was that it was precisely kind of rhetoric got all the Lions loud and active for the cause. It was just that kind of attitude that they liked to see, and how they liked to think of themselves as. "Westerman shouldn't be an issue, if he does try and take a page out of Potter with the Fire, I think I've got that covered."

"Its good practice for all of them anyway." Lucius agreed. "I know Narcissa doesn't like it. She didn't like going to Lucretia's funeral either, it was distressing. Cassiopeia made a showing, first time I've seen the woman outside in years," Lucius shook his head, "She was prattling on about how we needed to be strong in these troubled times. I always wondered if Sirius had ever gotten some witch knocked up, but Cassiopeia is talking about getting all the young Black children together, evne Andromeda's girl."

Snape grimaced, "I doubt Black's bastards would be welcome, though honestly he could have had more than a few. Not really a way to tell without the ledger, or his blood."

"Its not a big deal," Lucius remarked, "just small talk, it does bring up the issue of sucession you know, Sirius being imprisoned." It was a complicated matter, "Officially he's the one, but well in practice its the same as ever."

The potions master eyed him, "Draco's not ready, he needs years at least, before he could even hope to pose a claim to the holdings. I mean there is talk Potter is trying to rebuild his family's castle, but thats probably just talk." Snape commented.

"The Black Family has lands out in the country though," Lucius remarked, the lands were no doubt fallow from disuse, but... "if things really do get worse then Draco could go there, you and him. He could use the time to train. Rosier isn't going to stop, and the ministry doesn't know what to do. We should have killed him years ago." The Old Rose had faked his death, and then, they suspected taken polyjuice with his son's hair and gone down fighting against the ministry. It'd given Evan Rosier the chance to escape, and gather some of the Death Eaters, and they were the problem now.

-scene break—