Summary…Just days after the DOM a mysterious letter arrives and Harry is faced with a decision. Reject the offer and continue on the path Dumbledore has set for him or forge a new one and challenge every opinion ever forced on him.

SLASH. Creature fic, new school, Grey/Powerful Harry… Oh if anything warning worthy develops I will put the warning in the authors note. I'll also try to highlight it in the text. K?

A/N…Right as stated in the summary this is SLASH so i would hope that anyone whose got to this point has got that by now, so remember if you don't like it don't read it. HBP and eventual DH spoliers, but I think most people will have read that by now, so just in case. Will mention Mpreg but it isnt likely it will actually happen in the story. Could do but i doubt it.

Sorry I havent mentioned anybody here, i'm going to try and reply to everyones review directly instead of in the chapter. The only time i'll put a reply in the chapter is when it addresses something that I think needs explaining.

Pairing news...So far i have had several votes for some canon males and even a few for oc's. Its still wide open though one person is in front by a couple of votes so at the moment he's the favorite. At the moment i'm not sure whether i'll just use the one with the most votes or whether i'll create a poll a bit further into the story when i've introduced some oc's. Anyway keep nominating and now onto the chapter.

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A/N...I was asked about Harry and his children. Harry can impregnate a female or submissive male of his species. If he chooses someone from another species or a wizard then he has to carry the child. Does that make more sense? Oh and for those of you who are waiting for the next chapter of Banshee's Balls, I promise I will get it up this week.

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Mysteria

Chapter Four

They made a quick stop at the trunk shop Madam Malkin had suggested on their way to Gringotts. After a lot of internal debate Harry decided that he really didn't need a new trunk as for now he could manage his stuff easily with shrinking charms. He did buy a special bag with several compartments and expansion charms as he didn't feel like shrinking and unshrinking everything he needed before and after each lesson.

Gringotts was a necessary stop before they left the alley as Harry needed to withdraw some money, Silay had hinted that he might want to bring quite a bit. Silay had explained earlier that they couldn't leave during the holidays without special permission, so Harry wanted to get everything sorted now.

Apparently he also needed to sign some paperwork but he didn't know that at the time.

They entered Gringotts without bothering to read the inscription; they'd both done so many times before and joined the queue for the tellers. When Harry handed over his key and asked to be taken to his vault, the goblin looked at him strangely for a moment before requesting that Harry follow him. Harry just shrugged at Silay's enquiring gaze and followed the goblin to one of the back offices. The sign on the door proclaimed the goblin inside to be the Head of Creature Related Inheritances.

The old goblin behind the desk like the majority of his kind got straight down to business.

"Mr Potter." He inclined his head formally. "I am afraid there are some details pertaining to your vaults that need to be taken care of."

"Vaults?" Harry questioned.

"Indeed Mr Potter. Your case is quite a complicated one, as you are no doubt aware a Witch or Wizard does not come of age until the day of their seventeenth birthday. When a Witch or Wizard comes of age they are given full access to their family's vault. However in certain cases the age of said coming of age is reduced to that of sixteen. The four cases involved all pertain to your own situation, unfortunately each one has a loophole. In the Wizarding world the early coming of age can be contested by certain parties. We thought it wise to inform you of these so that you might take precautions. The first that applies to your own situation is the case of a Witch or Wizard without immediate family. As you have no immediate family in the wizarding world a secondary branch of the family can petition for custody of you. In this case that would be your muggle relatives, who could decide you are not able to take care of yourself and then take appropriate action. The second is in the case of a creature inheritance, any related creature can also petition for custody of you. This is not so much of a threat to you as your creature breed according to the information provided shortly after your birth is quite rare, it is therefore unlikely that there are any living members with enough of a blood relationship to make a claim. Third is by being a Pureblood…"

Harry interrupted before he could stop himself. "But I'm not a Pureblood."

"I am afraid Mr Potter that you are. In Wizard Society the Creature blood outranks the Muggleborn blood within you. This combined with your purebred ancestry on your Father's side makes you a pureblood. In the Wizarding world an orphaned pureblood is eligible to have full control of their monetary assets from their sixteenth year as they often have to take over the running of estates. The problem is that the law states that any pureblood family due to their inter-relatedness could also petition for custody. We would have been sending you a letter within the next couple of days to apprise you of the situation but your arrival here today has saved us the trouble."

"So what does this mean then?" He asked trying to get his head around it all. He didn't understand the most of it but he understood enough. Either the Dursley's, unknown creatures or any number of pureblood families could petition for control of his life.

"It means Mr Potter that if you were to sign the document that I have here then you will have full control over the entire Potter estate." Harry looked up shocked. "This is the fourth situation Mr Potter and it provides you with a safe alternative. One that few people are offered."

Harry thought over his options before answering. "If I were to sign that would I be still under the guardianship of my Aunt and Uncle?"

"No Mr Potter, according to this document another unnamed entity has taken over your guardianship from your relatives." He said shooting a quick glance at Silay. "This entity will release you from its guardianship at the end of your seventeenth year. This is the fourth case I mentioned to you earlier, the entity which I know myself to be a school we have had dealings with in the past has petitioned for your guardianship based on your magic potential. By accepting this guardianship you have full control over your estates, it also protects you from further threat of being petitioned. It also safely breaks your contract with your former school removing you from that Headmaster's jurisdiction."

"I am thoroughly confused." Harry sighed rubbing his eyes. "So from what I can gather, this early adulthood thing is subject to change. The Ministry doesn't like the idea of a "child" being in charge of their life at such a young age and have made several loop holes to prevent this. If my relatives found out about my having money they could again claim guardianship over me. I'm guessing they could even withdraw my money and convert it into Muggle money if they found out about it, thereby making me dependent on them and preventing me from returning to Hogwarts or any other Wizarding school as I wouldn't have the money to pay the tuition." The goblin just nodded.

"In the case of creatures, I know nothing about them, the way they live or their possible intentions but I would rather not be beholden to anybody anyway. The possibility of a pureblood family petitioning is the most worrying. Especially as most of them would be Deatheaters intent on delivering me to their Master. Although the Weasleys could always petition as well I suppose." He broke away from his musings.

"You are correct Mr Potter several Pureblood petitions have already been made. The Weasley family being one, the Malfoy's, Longbottom's. Parkinson's and Nott's being a few of the others. Petitions are not limited and could even come from other countries."

Harry nodded. "I had already decided to go to the school before this information came to light, but if it can protect me from ending up in Malfoy Manor I can't wait to get there."

"Very well Mr Potter, please sign here." Harry did and that was that. His new 'guardian' protected him from all his other would be guardians and gave him the full rights of an adult.

"Very well Mr. Potter, there is just one other thing we have to discuss, then you can go down to your vaults. One Sirius Orion Black, recently deceased has left his remaining estate to you. This includes both the Black vault and the Black properties. As per his wishes ownership has already been converted to you. Further more, by being the last surviving member of the Potter bloodline you are also given access to one other vault, the vault containing the combined assets of the family. This includes their monetary values, investments and properties. The familial relationship was recently discovered during our centenary clear out. How it was missed beforehand we don't know. We found the vault and looked for any remaining blood relations, the Potter family is the last and as per law the families assets become yours. The Peverell family." Here the Goblin paused as though Harry should know the name. He didn't. He cleared his throat and continued. "Quite a notorious family. You are the last remaining descendent of the third Peverell son. It may be a wise idea to look up this familie's history Mr Potter. We are currently undertaking a mass inventory of all your assets and will send them on to you when we have finalised them."

Harry nodded his head to show he'd understood. He couldn't believe that Sirius had left him everything, he felt sure that he would have left Remus something.

"Sir, did Sirius Black leave anything to Remus Lupin?"

The goblin regarded him for a moment and Harry realised that technically they weren't allowed to answer that question.

"He left him a large amount of gold and a single property in London."

Harry nodded, pleased that his Godfather had done that. After a few more minutes of talk he and Silay headed down to check out the Potter vault, leaving the new ones for another time.

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As they journeyed through dark tunnels Silay wondered why he was allowing Harry to look through his vaults. Originally they had only been going down for money but after hearing that he had full access to his vault Harry wanted to have a good look around. After all this wasn't school business, but then again the haircut and wardrobe hadn't been school business either. He supposed the reason was more than just the fact that the lad reminded him of himself when he was younger. He was actually really enjoying Harry's company. He liked him.

He knew that they should be getting on; after all they had several other items to procure outside of Britain. Then Harry had to visit his friends, if he chose to do so before they actually left for the school. And getting to the school wasn't easy, so having as much time to do it as possible seemed the best idea, but there was something in the back of his mind telling him it would be well worth his time if he allowed Harry to go down there.

He understood why the moment the trust vault, i.e. the one Harry had used since first year revolved out of the way. Gringott's vaults had several protections. The most well known protections were the tunnels, heavy doors and the dragons. In the case of underage patrons, the person's true valuables were hidden behind what was known as a trust vault, unable to be accessed until they came of age.

The trust vault contained the money that the child's family had set aside for their use before they came of age. Once the child was of age they could then enter the rest of the vault. The door would open on the trust vault which would then move out of the way to reveal a corridor. The trust fund vault would then disappear, not to be used until a later descendent of the Potter line needed it. Like as in Harry's case, after the loss of their parents.

The Potter's actual vault was massive, more like several vaults joined together than one single vault, surely it had some of the things they were looking for. The main room had several doors leading off of it which led to specific rooms containing certain things, the walls were covered with various pieces of artwork all with preservation spells, some of the pieces were really beautiful. Harry just looked at them for a while.

"Ok. Where do I start?" Harry wondered aloud.

"Well…" Silay began startling Harry who'd forgotten he was there. "Old pureblood families usually have veritable armouries of weapons in their vaults. Swords used by ancestors and such. Modern weapons aren't up to the same standard for magical use for some reason, so if you are agreeable we could look to see about a blade here instead of going to a shop selling antique weapons. That'd save some time, as we've already spent more here than I envisioned."

Harry shook his head and hid a smile, he was starting to wonder whether Silay wouldn't turn out to be a little mother hen-ish.

They started searching the many doors for the one that led to the armoury. They finally found it after trying about ten different doors. There were a couple still left to look in but they decided to leave that until after they examined the weapons.

Upon entering Harry was immediately drawn to the statue in the centre of the room. The figure was wearing stark black duelling robes, the Potter crest emblazoned over its heart. On the back was a large gold emblem of a snake-like dragon with claws on its wings and flames coming from its mouth. He couldn't get that good a look at it from the angle he was currently at though, but it looked pretty amazing.

The plaque beside the statue read…

Traditional duelling robes, worn by every generation of Potter's since their creation. The outer lining is basilisk hide (dyed black), denser and more versatile than Dragon hide, the inner lining has two separate layers of Dragon scales: Horntail and Chinese Fireball. Making them impervious to flame and giving a secondary protection against deep penetrating hexes. A velvet lining prevents the skin from chafing. All four layers have been compacted, reducing the chance of hindrance. This is one of the last great sets of duelling wear created by the Master Hara Kin, gifted by him to the Potter family for the use of any true Potter descendent. While the crest remains unchanging the emblem on the back will always represent the next intended wearer.

And beneath that it said…Last worn by James Potter.

Without hesitation Harry reached out and touched the fabric, there was a flash of light and the robes appeared at his feet neatly folded. With a shake of his head Silay got out the shrunken trunk he had been carrying for Harry. He then placed all of their shrunken purchases besides Hedwig's shrunken cage before motioning for Harry to place the duelling robe inside, near enough everything inside the trunk had been shrunk so that the new purchases fit.

"In Charms this year you will learn a shrinking charm that can be permanently attached to items responding only to your will. From the moment you enter the school the Ministry will only sense what we allow them to, but whenever you leave you must still refrain from using magic to keep yourself from being found."

"So I am allowed to leave the school then?"

"Yes, but only for short amounts of time. We use that as a way to weed out the unworthy, you'd be surprised how many people quit after finding that out. The school does not have a large summer holiday, instead the work is reduced allowing for more free time and fairly frequent short holidays are taken instead."

Both of them watched as Silvera slithered down Harry's arm and off into the racks of weapons surrounding the walls.

"What's she up to?" Harry mused aloud.

"I have no idea Harry, so if we could get back to the task at hand?"

Harry began searching through the racks of swords, none really catching his interest.

"Master…" Harry looked up trying to spot the snake. "Over here Master, by the big shield. "

Harry looked over and found Silvera wound around the hilt of a sword. Getting an idea of what she wanted Harry threaded his way towards her. Silay stopped what he was doing to watch. He had been gathering different types of smaller blades, daggers, knives and throwing blades.

When Harry got closer he saw a long thin sword with an embellished hilt. He held out his hand over it and felt a warm glow in his palm and a certainty fell over him much like it had with his wand. Silvera slithered onto his arm allowing him to remove the sword from its stand.

Silay came over to take a closer look at it. "It's a Swept Hilt rapier, looks to be Italian. It seems to have been commissioned for your family." He said pointing to the embellished hand guard which consisted of a motif of metal snakes and feathers. The blade had been cured with some sort of oil or something, Harry had seen them do it on TV, but he had no idea what the stuff was called. It gave the appearance of the blade being dipped in fire. The handle was crushed and moulded Mother of Pearl. It was beautiful.

"I've got a scabbard here for it." Silay said. "Grab the stand as well, it's good for storage. Then come over here and we'll look at other weapons."

In the end Harry ended up with two 17th century Italian Stilettos, two very thin daggers, easily concealed and good for thrusting in one on one combat. A Radaelli Fencing Sabre, button tipped to prevent injury, good for practice and lethal when the safety was removed. A 17th century Renaissance Ring Dagger or Parrying Dagger also joined the pile, the blade was stainless steel, it had a chiselled pommel and guard, the last in a vague "s" shape. Finally he had a third stiletto; it had tooled leather over a spiral grip and a leather and silver scabbard.

Harry also took away a European Portable Crossbow and a quiver of quarrels. They also found a 15th century Two Handed Gothic sword of German make; it had a fishtail pommel and hexagonal quillions. When he wore it, it would be fastened to his back, the rapier at his side. The final weapons he picked were two bows and corresponding quivers of arrows. One a short Recurve Bow, the other an English Long Bow. However Silay thought he should take the throwing daggers also, he decided to trust the man's judgment and added them to the trunk. Of course he wouldn't be carrying all the weapons about. If he did he'd be unable to move for the weight. Also it was likely that he wouldn't be able to use some of the weapons effectively.

They then made a quick check of the other rooms, in the one consisting entirely of books they found the rest of Harry's book list. Silay counted that as extremely good fortune. The fact that they were older editions wasn't a problem as they were self updating. They also found the necessary tools for blood magic, a shallow basin, several thick vials and a stout knife.

The other vaults seemed devoted to things Harry didn't really need at the moment like jewellery and pieces of artwork. Apart from the massive room that held his families gold, there was nothing else he needed to see. He'd come back and explore it at a later date.

It was almost half past four by then and since they had nothing else to get having found what they were missing in his vault, Harry could go and say goodbye to his friends if he wanted to. He felt Silvera wind tighter around his arm, as he thought about who he wanted to see for a final visit.

If he went to see Hermione, Ron or any of the Weasleys they would wonder why he was there early and if they found out where he was going they'd try and talk him out of going, except maybe the twins, Charlie and Bill. But they weren't always around; in fact if he remembered right both the older two had headed back to their respective countries for a visit. He thought about going to see Luna, but then he remembered that she was going on holiday with her Dad to find Crumple Horned Snorkacks. The only other person he had been certain he wanted to see was Remus. So with that decided Harry made sure Silvera was wrapped around him tightly, signalled to Hedwig who then landed on his shoulder and made sure he had a firm grip on the cat carrier before Silay apparated them to wherever Remus was at the moment.

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They landed outside a dilapidated shack in the middle of a clearing. The ground was muddy, the grass trampled and there were no flowers, the wood of the shack was old and flaking and the roof tiles obviously needed replacing. Remus couldn't live here surely?

Apart from the slightly homey look of the smoking chimney, Grimmauld place was definitely in better condition than this dump. Why wasn't Remus living there?

"Remus." He called as Hedwig again left his shoulder.

"Harry!" a hoarse voice answered from inside, a moment later his second godfather was at the door. Harry was about to step forward and hug him when he noticed the state Remus was in.

"Oh Merlin, Remus!" Harry exclaimed rushing forward to help the man back inside, leaving Silay to follow them in.

The inside of the house was worse than the outside, dusty and grimy, with very little furniture. Remus seemed to have been using a load of balled up blankets for a bed. He was in a right state. Harry knew it had been the full moon two days ago but he'd never seen Remus this bad before.

"What happened?"

"It was the full moon the other night Harry."

"I know that, but you aren't usually this bad."

Remus snorted, then groaned as one of the cuts on his face reopened. "Dumbledore wanted me to go and talk to the Werewolf pack in the nearby forest. Unfortunately Greyback had gotten there first…"

"The one who bit you?" Harry asked.

"Yeah him." Remus grimaced. "He loved seeing me again, thought it was Christmas come early. "You, I haven't seen you since you were this high." He said motioning with his hand. "I was only four at the time. Bastard, what I wouldn't have done to be able to kill him." Remus growled. "Unfortunately the pack had given their loyalty to him, before I even got there. Doesn't matter who you are, you can't win a fight against a Werewolf pack, I had to run."

"How'd you get away?" Harry asked, looking at the many wounds littering Remus' torso and his waxy colour.

Remus gave a bitter laugh. "You don't want to know Harry."

"What can I do?" he asked.

"Nothing, I wish you hadn't come. You shouldn't be seeing me like this Harry."

"Rubbish." Harry said heatedly. "My Father and my other Godfather no doubt helped you recover after a transformation. What would they say if I left you like this? Now tell me what to do?" Harry growled. Remus looked incapable of answering for a moment so another voice did.

"First thing he needs is healing. I can do that while you get everything else sorted." Silay said stepping forward, after letting the little white cat out of its carrier for a run.

Harry looked like he wanted to protest for a moment before nodding. Silay crossed to the makeshift bed and sat down looking intently at Remus. "Ok Harry, first thing I want you to do is use a few charms to clean this place up a little bit, it doesn't have to be spotless." He said. "Just cleaner. After that can you get a mug and some water?"

Harry nodded turning away, knowing that Silay wanted him away before he started working. The man was fully trained. He could have all that done with a flick of his wand if it was that important.

Once Harry was away, Silay cast a quick silencing charm.

"I'm Silay." He said giving the man a slight smile. "How much of you needs healing?" he asked with a slight arch of his eyebrow. Remus understanding what he was silently asking nodded and said "Everywhere."

Silay sucked in a breath, but nodded before turning his wand on the man. It took him quite a while to finish healing all the wounds the man had, it made him wonder how this wolf had gotten into such a state. There were more injuries here than could be accounted for, but it wasn't his business to question. He was just finishing up when he became aware of Harry watching him. The man, Remus was in a healing sleep now, so he cancelled the silencing charm.

"He was worse off than he let on wasn't he?" Harry asked. Silay just gave a short nod.

Harry sighed. "I'm sorry then."

"For what?" Asked Silay puzzled.

"I'm afraid I won't be going to the school…"

"No Mr Potter you will be."

"But…"

"He will come with us." Silay said firmly.

"But?"

Silay smiled. "He's one of us Harry."

"What?"

"I'm a Werewolf. Even though I've never met him before, he's still pack. Though Werewolves form smaller packs and have small conflicts the entire species classes itself as a pack. Us and them, the pure humans who are against all creatures and us. I've got to take him with me; he can be healed fully there. We can give him some potions to make his transformations more bearable and maybe even lessen some of the scarring."

"He won't go for that you know. Remus is proud. There's no way he'd accept all that help without paying you back and he can't afford that." Harry said silently thinking that he'd ask Silay why he wasn't in a similar state to Remus after the full moon.

"Well we'll have to take him to the Headmistress. She'll allow him to be healed. Then she'll talk to him, if he has any skills we can use she'll let him work for what he gains. If not he'll still be healed, his memory of the school wiped and dropped back off here. Without a debt to be paid. And in answer to the question I can see in your eyes we have a bloody good healer. Another thing is that the transformation is worse for a lone wolf. If he was a member of a pack it would be easier on him. Because of the number of werewolves at the school both the teachers and students form a temporary pack during their stay."

"Ok. Are we going now?" Harry asked after a slight pause, wanting to get Remus to a healer as soon as possible.

"Yes, I think we'd better." He said lifting Remus as easily as a bunch of grapes. While he was doing that, Harry tracked down his cat and stuffed him back in his carrier. After checking on Silvera he followed Silay outside and called to Hedwig and once she had landed on his shoulder Silay apparated all of them away.

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