A/N: OOPS! Sorry! I missed a day ;3; I got messed up because I gave you two chapters in one day for getting me 100 reviews. P: Ohmai, I'm looking at these chapters and I keep going, "Okay, we're getting to the good part, woo- oh, I forgot I've written more than I've posted..." xD

Anywhos, thank you to all of my loverly reviewers who boosted me to 100 reviews after THREE chapters! x)

DISCLAIMER: Hehe, I own nufink. ^-^

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The New Dawning

Chapter Five: The Punishments.

"Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment." ~Robert Baden-Powell

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January 2, 2000

Harry wobbled unsteadily, a sleeping toddler on his hip. His chest was aching something terrible, but he'd had worse, and so he tried to ignore it (all the while wondering what the hell it might be). He shielded his godson for the most part from the snow with an amazing amount of clothing and his fingers, but it would still be best to get him inside soon. It wasn't exactly safe to apparate with toddlers, even sleeping ones, especially when you were planning on hopping the pond, so to speak. So Harry had decided to slip off to the Ministry of Magic, where an International Port-Key was set up and ready to take them to America.

Teddy had never been out of England – save for once, to go to Scotland for the War Memorial when he was one. Andromeda had hated it and swore never to go back, but Harry went every May 3rd – mostly because it was expected of him, but partially because he felt obligated to meet the families of those heroes who had been lost. So this was a first for the little boy, going all the way overseas where he didn't know anyone except Harry – maybe there were other children in La Push that would like to associate with Teddy? Harry didn't know how it worked, but when they were younger, Petunia had always organized play-dates for Dudley. Maybe Harry could do that...

The Atrium had always seemed kind of golden, but now it was even more so. All of the lights hit the new gold-plated bronze statue of a group of creatures: one wizard, one centaur, one House-Elf, one goblin, a werewolf, a vampire, and a muggle. There was also a faerie, but it had fallen off and so the sculptors were making a new one.

It was late enough that there weren't many people bustling about the Atrium, but there were enough around him that his heart beat heavily. He didn't like the Ministry, not even now that there was a trusted Minister. It was too corrupt, had hurt him too many times – not to mention that his godfather had died several years ago deep beneath his very feet, and had not had his name cleared for years after that. All of these were reasons that he hadn't become an Auror. The Aurors were, of course, a government-run group, so they had connections to the Ministry and that was just something he couldn't handle.

(Not to mention he was tired of fighting and hadn't passed the psyche screening when Ron had dragged him along. He'd still been scarred from the war, as it had been only days after the Final Battle)...

"This way," a voice said at his elbow, and Harry looked up in shock to see one Draco Malfoy next to him.

The blond boy and himself hadn't had any animosity between them for a few years now. It was mainly because they'd gone through a horrific accident together – actually, it wasn't really that horrific, it just seemed that way at first. They had been arguing in Potions class (luckily Slughorn was teaching and liked them both, otherwise Harry would have had a thousand detentions from Snape) when Draco tried to rip the Newt Tails out of Harry's hands. They slipped into the cauldron, which then exploded over them both. When the burns and welts from that had been healed, Madame Pomfrey was able to see that both of them had been mutated – they'd grown ears and tails. Literally tails – more than one.

It wasn't so bad after a little while, knowing that Snape and Pomfrey and Slughorn (who was truly upset) were all trying to find a cure for it. They couldn't just chop the extra limbs out because the tails were attached to their spines, which could (at best) leave them paralyzed from the waist down. The ears, at least Harry's extra ears, had overrode his hearing through his normal ears, so it would be catastrophic to his hearing to just take them out.

After a long time (six or seven months), a cure had been found, but neither of them had really gone back to being enemies. They'd realized how childish they were. And it wasn't like they had anything to fight about, really.

"Oh, hi," Harry murmured, shifting Teddy's weight from one hip to the other.

"Come on," Draco responded, taking Harry's elbow and practically dragging him off to the side of the Atrium and into an antechamber. "Have you heard?"

"Heard what?" Harry wondered, busy unfastening the outer layer of Teddy's clothes. It was going to get warm, and fast, in this room.

"Bellatrix Lestrange,"Draco muttered, sounding exasperated. "She's totally fallen off the grid."

Harry cocked an eyebrow, but even now he felt his blood run cold at her name. He tried to play it off as indifference, but inside, he felt a cool hatred for the woman who had hurt so many...and hadn't gotten Kissed, executed, or anything other than time in Azkaban. The Dementors weren't even there anymore, they'd pretty much died out – there was only human guards now, which was no-doubt how she'd escaped in the first place. It made Harry flaming angry that she – and all the other murderers – would never have any punishment other than Azkaban time. It was like heaven to the Death Eaters, he bet.

"Well," Harry muttered. "If I find her before the Aurors do, you can bet your arse that they'll never find her."

Draco knew better than anyone how Harry felt. She'd murdered his mother – her own sister. In front of Draco, no less. All three boys in the room had been hurt by Bellatrix Lestrange, and Harry was going to get revenge – even if he went to prison doing it.

"Ah! Early!" called a boisterous man coming through the door. "Yes, I have your Port-Key here, hold it tightly as it will go off as soon as I say the words!"

"See you," Draco murmured quietly, but there was a vicious sort of hope in his eyes that told Harry that Draco, at least, hoped he'd find Bellatrix Lestrange before the Aurors.

Harry took hold of the Port-Key in one hand and tightened his grip on the toddler in his arms. Closing his eyes, he heard the man say something and then he was spinning.

– – –

Paul, who had been walking along the edge of the forest with Sam and Jared, suddenly jerked to a stop. He gripped his chest, because there was a suffocating feeling there – replacing the sharp pains that had indicated Harry was much too far away – and he couldn't breath. Jared and Sam looked on with big eyes as, for a second, Paul gaped like a fish and then suddenly regained his ability to breath. There wasn't any pain in his chest now, just a tight feeling. Paul knew what that meant: Harry was back in Washington.

"He's back," Paul told Sam simply, but a big grin darted across his face. He quickly covered it, hiding his embarrassment as the three men continued along. They were headed toward the forest, into a sort of no-man's land to confer with the Cullens a second time. Tension was high among the wolves because of the sheer amount of vampires in their territory. It was so bad that, if you heard something behind you and you knew that it wasn't your packmate, you just turned and attacked. There were no questions asked, because it literally was life and death when you were dealing with vampires.

"I still can't believe you imprinted on a boy," Jared snickered teasingly.

Paul rolled his eyes. The topic of Harry had been touchy for him at first, but after all of the teasing he'd endured, he'd gotten over it. "Yeah, well, neither can I. I'm just glad he's back."

Jared hummed. "How old is he?"

Paul cocked his head. "Nineteen, I think. Almost twenty. I thought he was fifteen at first, but Seth told me otherwise."

"Seth?"

"They're friends," Paul grumbled, wrinkling his nose.

"Be nice," Sam warned him, rolling his eyes as he led them to the clearing. Seth was visibly shaking, but not with anger – excitement. Paul knew, instinctively, that Harry had somehow contacted Seth so the boy knew that Paul's imprint was back. Paul also knew that Seth would probably be at Harry's house as soon as the meeting was over.

Paul snarled lowly, and Seth looked at him with bright eyes.

"Paul!"

"Seth," Paul murmured, voice deep.

"No, Paul, listen. Harry's okay again!" Seth chirped, bouncing on his toes like he was a two-year-old instead of a huge, fully-grown man (who happened to only be sixteen).

Paul cocked an eyebrow. "I know. He's back."

"No, I mean," Seth sighed. "You know how I told you he'd get custody of his godson when he was healthy again?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, he has custody of his godson!" Seth beamed.

Paul stopped short, wrinkled his nose, and groaned loudly. He really didn't like kids that much. And now he had to work around a child and Seth in order to even spend time with his imprint.

"Balls," Paul muttered as the Cullens appeared.

Emmett looked at him, amused. "Okay, then."

"He's just being grumpy," Seth informed them, smirking as Paul took a hit at him and missed. He didn't expect the second punch, which hit him in the ribs, knocking him onto the ground. He stood, scowling, and then threw a punch back – then they were in a full-blown fight over what, Seth had no idea.

"Stop," Sam growled, alpha voice shining through. Though they could have kept going if their wills were strong enough, almost no wolf is stupid enough to go against his alpha's orders, and so they stopped. Seth wiped some blood from his lip, glaring. "Paul, how many times do I have to tell you? You'll be running double patrol tonight – with Jacob and then Embry – and Seth... stop provoking him. Just don't do it. Next time you're going to be running double patrol, too."

Paul didn't react to Sam's words at all. Instead, he just sneered at Seth. "You stay away from him, you hear?"

"You can't force me to stay away from my friends," Seth called back, a challenge in his eyes. He didn't care if he would have to run extra patrol – Seth was done allowing Paul to push him around. "He doesn't even like you, believe me, I tried to get him to come around."

Paul's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"That night before his ex-girlfriend's birthday? Yeah, we were laughing when you sat down because I had just told him that you liked him."

"You what?" Paul roared, lunging at Seth. The Cullens, standing at the edge of the clearing, were so confused.

"Hey!" Leah snarled, trying to separate them. "Punch your own brother, you idiot!" she got pulled into the fight, and all three of them were rolling around on the ground now. The sound of flesh against flesh could be heard, and grunts of pain as fists collided with guts, noses, jaws, anything really.

Sam, Jacob, Emmett, and Jasper went to work breaking up the fight. Sam was angrier than anyone had ever seen him, shaking as he tried to calm himself down.

"You two," he whispered, voice deadly calm. "Until you can work out whatever is wrong between the two of you, you'll both be running patrol – every hour on the hour."

"What?" Seth yelled, sitting up onto his knees.

"I warned you!" Sam growled, knocking Seth back into the dirt. "I warned both of you, I've warned you dozens of times. Maybe wearing yourselves out patrolling our land will remind you of why we're packmates in the first place. Get your sorry asses up and listen to the meeting, and then go patrol."

"But what about-" Paul began.

"No." Sam growled. "Neither of you will be seeing Harry until both of you can get along with each other. If you're going to act like three year old children, that's how you'll be treated. Get."

Paul and Seth rejoined the line of wolves. They were all somber and wouldn't look at either of them – though, Paul knew, they were all probably rejoicing at being relinquished of their patrol duties.

If one night of patrol every hour on the hour is bad, Paul thought, and two nights of patrol every hour on the hour is terrible, how the fuck am I supposed to survive for the next who knows how many days and nights of patrol?

Patrol was always bad. You had to skirt around the whole forest, making sure no vampires were in the area, every single hour for twelve hours. They patrolled in pairs, usually with people they worked well with. His favorite partners were Jared, Sam, and Leah – but he'd never been partnered with Seth before. And now he had to patrol with the chipper idiot for maybe weeks. Every hour. On the hour.

I am not going to survive this.

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Review por favor

Last chapter's answer for me: Dangerverse by whydoyouneedtoknow, of course! ^-^ Though someone did recommend me an amazing fic called The Rise of the Drackens, which may just very well be my new favorite. xD I really want to write about Drackens But I'll hold off till this story is finished ;3 Or at least till I've written like...most of it. I would hate to leave you guys hanging again!

New Question: Along with your favorite stories (YES, keep sending them in, please), what country do you live in?