Disclaimer: If I owned any of it do you think I'd be letting people read it for free? Well maybe, but then again I'd have a lot more money from the books, movies, merchandise, etc.

Chapter 5

Harry was in the kitchen preparing dinner while Madam Bones and Tonks tried to calm down with another firewiskey, something that had become a ritual after exiting the pensieve. As they had progressed through his third year Tonks had become almost as angry as Amelia, and Harry had found out that Sirius was her cousin. She had known he was innocent but to have Fudge dismiss everything on the word of Snape and for Dumbledore, the head of the Wizengamot, to tell the kids that there was nothing that he could do had her joining her boss in some very painful sounding tortures for the old man. If Harry had a wand he would have gladly sworn an oath to never upset these two women, he would prefer to die from the oath than by their inventive minds.

His fourth year had them wondering if old age really was starting to effect Dumbledore's mind. They had both spotted several things that were well out of character for Alastor Moody and felt they should have been easier to spot by his oldest friend. The resurrection ritual left them too stunned to continue their inventing any more "Corrective Attitude Adjusters" as Tonks had named their tortures. The bombshell that Amelia had dropped on them after seeing the dementor attack on Harry and his cousin had Tonks coming up with some new ones that had Harry excusing himself to the kitchen, he really wasn't prepared for that in depth of a lesson on female anatomy. Madam Bones had revealed that the order for the dementor attack had come from Delores Umbridge, the Senior Undersecretary for the Minister of Magic, someone that she would apparently be very happy to torture for many hours.

Harry had spent the time in the memories to see if the theories he had come up with while being isolated at Privet Drive were worth anything or just something his mind had fabricated while it had nothing else to do. He had come to the conclusion that the Headmaster of his school was doing one of two things, either he was setting up these situations to test Harry, or he was actively trying to get Harry killed. He was leaning towards the killing Harry idea because if it was a test then surely he would have been closer each time to make sure Harry didn't get as close to death as he always seemed to. The only help from any of the adults had been in the form of slips of the tongue by Hagrid, and why would the Headmaster keep telling him secrets when everyone knew that he couldn't keep them.

His third year he found himself watching Hermione closer than anything else. He started noticing as she slowly worked her way to a complete mental breakdown while using the time turner for all of her classes. The added stress of researching Buckbeak's case and the isolation imposed by himself and Ron because of a broom had him wondering if it might not have been a little poetic justice being thrown at him this summer. Then there was the fact that trusting authority figures seemed to be as much a part of her physical makeup as her need to research everything. It was just Hermione being Hermione. So if Dumbledore had told her that it was for the best that she not write to him, she might question it in her head but never out loud.

Fourth year she had been the only thing keeping him from getting killed. She had tried her best to take care of him and make sure that he came out on the other end of Tournament alive. Not to mention being the only one to never even question whether or not he had entered his name. He also noticed something had changed in the way she looked at him while she worked to prepare him for the tasks. He had included his memories of the Yule Ball because Tonks had threatened to practice some Corrective Attitude Adjusters on him if he didn't. Amelia hadn't been any help because she wanted to see if she could catch a glimpse of her niece Susan saying that a picture just wasn't enough. Harry watched again as Hermione walked down the stairs looking, well, perfect. Both Madam Bones and Tonks noticed that he had the same look while watching the memory as he had when it originally happened.

While watching her he couldn't help but notice Ron. His other best friend was constantly starting fights with Hermione and almost always apologized to her right before his homework was due. Harry was happy to see that he would only ask her to help correct his homework and not to do most of it like Ron would. But was ashamed that not only would he not stick up for her when he knew Ron was in the wrong but would often follow along with him. There was also the fact that Harry had to be very careful of what he said and did around Ron because of the jealousy. He watched as the redhead would act a lot like Dudley towards most everyone else. It looked like he thought everything was owed to him and should just be handed over without question.

Harry had entered the pensieve to help explain things to everyone and to try to answer some of his own questions. He left with more questions of a different type and the more he thought about them the more confused he became. He finally came to the conclusion that Hermione was once again right, he needed to talk to someone about all of this.

Harry had everything on the table and called the ladies to eat when there was a knock on the door. When he opened the door there was a lady a little taller than him with shoulder length brown hair and ice blue eyes that narrowed the moment they came to rest on him.

"You are supposed to be in bed resting. Would you like to explain why you aren't?"

"Uhm, who are you?"

"I'm the one who spent the better part of last evening putting your pieces back in their proper places. Now why aren't you in bed?"

"Oh, you're Rebecca; it's nice to meet you. Thank you for helping me last night, would you like some dinner?" Harry stepped back and opened the door wider to allow her to come in. She kept her glare on him as she walked past.

"I would like to know why you're not... What's that smell?" Harry led her to the kitchen to find the others just standing there looking at the table.

Madam Bones looked up. "Harry, what's this?"

"Chicken parmesan with angel hair pasta. I had to make a couple of substitutions for the sauce and used regular bread for the garlic bread, but it shouldn't be too bad."

Everybody just looked at him before Tonks spoke. "He's my prisoner, you can't have him." They all sat and started eating.

Rebecca turned to Harry. "Harry this is going to probably sound rude but how can you be so malnourished being able to cook like this?"

He stared at his plate for a moment. "I had to cook the meals, but wasn't allowed to eat them."

"I'm sorry. We'll talk after dinner ok?" He just nodded and the rest of the meal passed quietly. Once they were through Tonks and her boss volunteered to do the dishes while Rebecca checked Harry. Once she determined that he was healing well she questioned him about his diet and not eating like she had suggested. While she wasn't happy that her advice had been ignored she did like that he wasn't gorging himself like he normally would at the opening feast and told him that he should be ok as long as he built up to eating large amounts.

If Harry thought that she was unhappy with his eating habits he was sure she was irate about his activities that day. Once the other two were sitting with them Rebecca unloaded on them.

"What the hell were you doing to him today? I remember telling the both of you that he should only be out of bed when absolutely necessary, not jumping in and out of a pensieve reliving his most dangerous memories. There's a reason that bed rest is recommended for patients in his condition, the body and magic need time to rebuild themselves. I have no idea how he can be in as good a shape as he is with everything he's been doing today." Harry broke in at this point.

"I'm kind of used to it. I spend a lot of time with injuries and have always been a quick healer. Lying in bed all day tends to drive me nuts and seems to make the healing take longer."

"That would mean that your magic automatically takes over to boost your body and heal you quicker. That means you're too used to being injured and brings us to the next thing I want to talk about. I want to prosecute those so called people but Ams said I have to see what you want first."

Harry thought about it for a few moments before answering. "I don't care what happens with Aunt Petunia or Dudley as long I never see them again. But I want Uncle Vernon to hang. I can forgive just about anything, but not killing Hedwig. I want him hit with everything that you can get him with and before he's locked up I want to make sure he knows why I'm doing it. Make sure he knows that all of it is because he killed her and that if I could torture him for it I would." His voice was filled with hatred and he was shaking with rage by the time he finished.

Tonks turned his head towards her. "Was Hedwig bonded with you as a familiar?" Seeing confusion in his eyes she continued. "Did it seem like you could understand each other even without speaking at times?" Harry nodded. "She was your familiar. It's a bond between you that grows with time. Eventually you would both have been able to feel when the other needed you. Her death will also affect you more than if she were just a pet. It'll feel like you've literally lost a piece of yourself."

Rebecca spoke up. "The breaking of the bond will affect your judgment towards anyone involved with it. It will make you want revenge at the cost of everything else. In this case I feel justified in using that to get him behind bars, but you'll have to be kept away from him for a long time or you could do something before thinking and make the case against you instead of him, so I'll handle as much of the questioning without you as I can, all right?"

Harry nodded. "Thanks just make sure he goes away for a long time."

"Oh, I can pretty much guarantee that."

Amelia spoke next. "We also need to talk about your hearing coming up."

"That's easy. I'm going to agree with everything, hand over what's left of my wand and accept the expulsion. It should only take a few minutes so I'm going to go in early and see if Madam Hopkirk will let me just get it over with."

"What?" Tonks practically shouted. "You can't do that, you were defending yourself. We have proof that Umbridge sent them after you. We can finally hand Fudge his walking papers. You can't just accept it with the way he's been treating you in the Profit, you have to fight it."

"Tonks you've seen my time at Hogwarts. What's going to be thrown at me this year, especially with Voldemort having his body back? I'm tired of coming close to getting killed every year and I know that Dumbledore and the other professors won't do anything to help, they never do. After Cedric was killed this year, I started thinking about all the injuries that my friends have had just because they are my friends. Now that he's back it's only going to get worse and I'm tired of watching people I care about get hurt and killed. I'm tired of the nightmares and don't want any more. Who's going to be the next one to die because they're close to me? Who's going to be the next one that has me waking up screaming? I can't do this anymore; I don't want to do this anymore. I'm done. The only way I can see that happening is if there's no way I can go back to Hogwarts. Dumbledore won't have anything to appeal if I confess and accept the punishment so he won't be able to legally get his hands on me again. I know Voldemort will still be after me, but he'll have a harder time finding me in the muggle world than the magical one."

Amelia spoke up. "You need to go back to Hogwarts to learn how to defend yourself against him."

"You've seen my defense lessons at Hogwarts. I've had two teachers that have taught me anything and one of those was a dead Death Eater who tried to kill me. So that makes one defense professor who tried to obliviate everything since birth, and three who tried to kill me, even if I don't hold it against Lupin because he had no control, it still remains four for four on defense teachers. And then we add Snape to the mix. That man truly hates me only because of who my father was. He goes out of his way to make my life as miserable as possible and none of the other teachers or the headmaster will do anything about it. I've got four years of potions lessons that will show you that he can do anything short of an unforgivable on me and no one will say a word about it. I have my doubts if anyone would do anything if he used the Imperious or Cruciatus on me either, after all Moody wannabe used the Imperious on the entire school and got away with it. So as far as I can see the only reason I have to go back to Hogwarts is if I want them to finish me off, and I could have just smarted off to my uncle a little after he finished his last beating if I wanted that."

"As far as defending myself against Voldemort, how many of your best Aurors stand a chance going wand to wand against him? Ten? Five? One even? And yet for some reason people think a fourteen year old can do it. They think that I did something spectacular as a baby that killed him the first time. I've got news for them, I just laid there. It was something that my mum did that caused him to die. If they want proof I've got the memory that they can watch. I get to see it almost every night since third year when those wonderful dementors forced me to remember it. When they say the boy-who-lived, I hear them saying the boy-with-no-parents. My whole claim to fame is the fact that no one seems to be able to kill me properly, not even the psychopath with one of the highest body counts on the planet can get it right. But it seems that because of that bloody name everyone out there wants to give it a try, and I'm tired of it. I'm not playing this game anymore; everyone close to me seems to get hit in the crossfire, and I refuse to be the cause of another death. I'll help Bill find and destroy these Horcrux things and get this one out of my head and then I'm done with the magical world, someone with a lot more experience than me will just have to figure out how to kill Voldemort. Hell most of his bloody soul will already be dead so it should make things easier for them."

By the end Harry found himself shaking and out of breath, he put his head in his hands and tried to calm himself. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him and let himself be pulled into a hug, wrapping his own arms around the body that held him and not caring who it was. After a few minutes he pulled back and saw it was Tonks.

"Sorry about that. I seem to get angry really easy since the graveyard."

Amelia spoke first. "After seeing your memories and listening to you, you have every right to be angry about this. Look how mad Tonks and I got just watching those memories, you had to live them. To tell you the truth I'm surprised you weren't worse." She thought for a moment. "You said that you get angry easier since the ritual than before?"

"Yeah, why?" His eyes got bigger the moment he asked and his hand went to his scar. "Shite."

"Bloody hell, he's adding to your anger." Tonks caught on the moment Harry's hand moved. "The bastard can't even let you have a moment's peace."

"We'll talk to Bill and the goblins tomorrow, see if they can speed things up and get their experts here quicker." Amelia added.

Rebecca had watched the whole thing getting more confused as Harry went on. "Uhm, I don't want to set things off again but could someone please explain a few things to those of us who just walked in? Like the part where You Know Who got his body back. I thought he was dead. And what's this ritual and graveyard that you mentioned?"

Harry took a deep breath. "Voldemort wasn't killed the night he murdered my parents, he was just… I don't know, disembodied or something. He's been around as a spirit or something since then. At the end of the Tri-Wizard tournament the cup was a portkey that took Cedric Diggory and me to the graveyard where his father was buried. Peter Pettigrew killed Cedric and then performed a ritual that used my blood to give Voldemort a new body. He's back and probably really pissed that I got away again, especially since this time it was in front of his Death Eaters."

"What, wait, how did he survive?"

Madam Bones took this question. "Have you ever heard of a Horcrux?" When Rebecca shook her head she continued. "It's some very dark magic that basically splits off a piece of the person's soul and stores it in something giving that person an anchor to this world and making them essentially immortal. Bill Weasley works as curse breaker for Gringotts and checked out Harry's scar today. That scar is a Horcrux and has a piece of You Know Who in it, that's what your scan found last night. Harry destroyed another in his second year, even if he didn't know what it was. There seems to be four more out there that have to be destroyed before he can be killed. We're taking Harry to Gringotts tomorrow so that the goblins can use the one in him to try to find the others."

Rebecca had listened in horror until the last part. "The hell you are. That thing needs to be removed right now. You just said that it's affecting his emotions, there's no telling what else it will do."

Harry reached across to her and took her hand. "They can't just take it out. Bill said that there are only two goblins alive who know how to remove one without destroying the container. We have to wait for them to be brought here; in the meantime they can perform a ritual that will let them find the others so that they can be destroyed. Like Madam Bones said, it's the only way to kill him. I can have it removed once they find another and the experts get here. But not until then."

Rebecca squeezed his hand. "Then I'm going with you, I'll be damned if some goblin is going to perform some bloody ritual on one of my patients without me knowing exactly what it is."

"Would you be willing to check out someone else while were there? Bill's sister was taken over by one; he's bringing her to have her checked out. You spotted it in me so you might find something that they miss."

"What do you mean it took her over?"

"You wanted to know about the basilisk venom and phoenix tears?" Amelia asked. When her friend nodded she looked at Harry who just shrugged.

"Go ahead; maybe she can come up with some CAA's that you two haven't thought of yet."

While she reached into her bag to get the memory and pensieve Tonks jump up with a lot of enthusiasm. "I'll get the Firewhiskey."

"What? Why would we need Firewhiskey to view one of Harry's memories? And what are CAA's?"

Harry chuckled. "My memories tend to require a good drink after watching them. CAA's are Corrective Attitude Adjustors. It's what the ladies have come up with as a way to relax with the whiskey. They can think up some really painful tortures to inflict upon Dumbledore among others. You'll understand after you see it."

Seeing Tonks pour five shots the healer protested. "All right I understand looking through his memories today but I draw the line at one of my underage patients drinking."

"Oh, these three are for you, not him." Tonks said with a smile handing her one. "One to prepare for it, and two to recover from it."

Madam Bones spoke next. "Trust us you'll need it. And Harry's only had two shots today. You'd need them too if you had just found out that someone shoved a chunk of their soul into you head." She looked at Tonks. "We really need to thank Bill for starting this tomorrow." Turning back to her friend who was drinking the shot with encouragement from Harry. "Now you need to remember that this basilisk has been popping up throughout the year and petrifying students. Were lucky none of them saw more than a reflection of its eyes. Ready?"

Harry had to help Rebecca into a chair when they came out of the pensieve. Tonks was putting a shot in her hand and raising it to her mouth. Even after the second shot the color hadn't returned to her face and she wasn't responding. Madam Bones lightly slapped her.

"Rebecca!"

She jumped and looked around blinking. "Tell me I'm being pranked, that thing wasn't real. Was it?"

"Yeah it was; it's still in the chamber if you want to see it."

"No, no that's alright. I believe you. Can I have another please?" After downing another she asked. "That book was a Horcrux?"

"Bill says it had to be for it to bring Voldy back like it was."

"That huge thing was roaming the castle and the headmaster didn't know it? He knows everything that happens there."

"That's what the CAA's are for. Were going to go after all of the people who seem to think it's Harry's job to protect everyone and make them pray that at some point Harry decides to save them again." Tonks had a huge grin.

"Yeah, like there's any chance I'd go near you two when you're doing those things. They hurt too bad just listening to them."

"Where did that phoenix come from?"

"That's Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. He seems to like me because he keeps healing me"

"Can't phoenix get past wards and take people from place to place really easy? Couldn't Dumbledore just send him to find you and bring you to him?"

The other three paled slightly looking at each other before Tonks said. "Harry, you said you think he likes you right?"

"Yeah, do you think he'd come if I called him?"

"One way to find out."

"Ok, Fawkes could I talk to you for a minute, please?"

Everyone jumped as a ball of flame erupted above them and formed into a beautiful red and gold bird that circled the room once before landing on Harry's lap and looking him in the eye. After a few seconds he let out a sad trill.

"I'm really going to miss her too." Harry said sadly. Fawkes sang a note that seemed to warm everyone and give them a feeling of comfort. "Thanks Fawkes, I really needed that, and I'd love to fly with you sometime."

"You can understand him?" Amelia asked.

"When he looks in my eyes I can, it's like he's putting images in my head of what he wants to say. He said that he was going to miss Hedwig; it seems that they had become friends and used to talk together a lot. He also showed me some of the times that they flew around Hogwarts together and invited me to fly with him. He says that it would be a fitting way to say goodbye to her, I agree." Harry tilted his head to the side still looking into the phoenix's eye before looking at Tonks. "You brought her here and put her under a stasis spell?"

Tonks squirmed a little. "Well the way you said that she was your only real friend I didn't want to just vanish her, I thought that you'd want to say goodbye. I was going to wait a day or two before talking to you about it, let you get a little better before I sprang it on you. Sorry."

Tonks was surprised as Harry grabbed her into a tight hug sending Fawkes into the air to circle around them. "Thank you." He whispered before letting go of her. Fawkes landed on her shoulder and nuzzled the side of her face trilling a happy note then looked at Harry. "Fawkes says thank you too. He'd like to know if we could go flying Saturday, he knows a spot a little ways outside of Little Whining where she liked to hunt and thinks it would be a good resting place for her. He says that he'll be able to hide us from muggles so we'll be safe and he can take us all there."

"I think we can do that. Would you mind if I brought Susan with us? I usually spend the weekends with her during the summer."

Harry was still looking into the phoenix's eyes let out a laugh. "You might see if Hannah wants to come too. It seems that Hedwig had her own fan club, Susan, Hannah and a few other girls would take treats to her whenever they went to the owlery. It seems they would get upset with me when I'd send her off with a letter and they didn't get to see her."

"That should be easy enough to arrange she's spending the night tonight so I can ask when I get home."

"Fawkes says that we don't have to worry about Dumbledore sending him after me. He's already asked but Fawkes can't take someone against their will, he could only come and get me if I wanted to leave the place I was at. Dumbledore knows this so he also knows that I'm not being held by Death Eaters, Fawkes told him that I was safe and happy here and that he would watch to see if that changed. It seems that Dumbledore asked him to protect me and help me if I needed it. Thank you, I really appreciate the help." They continued to look in each others eyes for several moments. "Why didn't he say something? He knows that I'd help him if I could. Dobby."

A very oddly dressed house elf popped into the room in front of Harry. "The great Harry Potter calls Dobby. How can Dobby help the great Harry Potter sir?" The elf was bouncing up and down with a huge smile on his face.

"Fawkes said you haven't been feeling well, your magic is starting to fail, is this true?"

"Dobby needs to bond soon or Dobby loses his magic and dies. Dobby likes being a free elf and doesn't want to bond a master but Dobby doesn't want to die." He started twisting his ears tears building in his eyes.

"I don't want you to die either, would you be willing to bond with me, I don't want to be your master just your friend but I want to help you. You could keep working at Hogwarts if you wanted to."

"The great Harry Potter wants to bond Dobby as a friend?"

"Yes Dobby, if you want to."

"Dobby wants to very much. Dobby be the happiest house elf ever. Thank you Harry Potter sir."

"First of all friends just call each other by their first name so it's just Harry, ok?" They all thought that the elf's head might fall off he was nodding so hard. "Now what do we need to do?"

"Just hold out your hand Harry Pot…Harry, and Dobby do everything."

Harry held his hand out and Dobby took it in both of his hands. A soft glow surrounded them for a moment before he let go and grabbed Harry's leg with a hug. "Thank you Harry Pot..Harry. Dobby is happiest house elf ever."

"I'm happy to have you as a friend too. Now are you happy at Hogwarts, are you still getting paid and days off?"

"Oh yes, they have lots of work for Dobby to do. Dobby is still getting paid and days off and Dobby buys lots of yarn."

"Good, I'm glad you're happy. If I give you some more socks as a present will that hurt the bond?"

"No Harry, the giving of clothes has to have intent. You give clothes to Dobby to make Dobby happy now not free like with this sock." He pointed to the black sock on his foot. "So Dobby can take clothes from Harry Pot…Harry if he wants to give them. Dobby has to go now, the other elves needs help in kitchen."

"Ok Dobby, you take care of yourself. If you need anything just ask me all right?"

"Thank you Harry." With that Dobby popped out of the flat.

Harry looked around and saw everyone just staring at him. "What?" Fawkes trilled. "You stop laughing, Dobby's a good person, he deserves to be happy after the way the Malfoy's treated him."

Rebecca opened and closed her mouth a few times before words actually came out. "That was the strangest thing I've ever seen." Fawkes trilled again.

"You can quit laughing any time now. That seems to me my life's motto. Normal Not Allowed. I can't seem to do anything normal." The phoenix jumped back into his lap and looked him in the eyes again. "Fawkes needs to go back to Hogwarts too. He wants to know if either of you would like a ride home."

Rebecca answered first. "No, I drove here so I can just drive home, but I want you to take it easy tonight at least. No more…" She waved her hands around in the air. "Things happening, just relax for a while, all right."

"I can't guarantee that, 'Things' just sort of happen around me whether I want them to or not, but I'll try."

"I guess that'll have to do. I'll be here about noon tomorrow if that's ok?"

Amelia answered "That should be fine; we should know by then what time the goblins will be expecting us." With that she said her goodbyes and left.

"How about you Madam Bones, want a ride from Fawkes?"

"Actually I would. I've always wondered what it would be like to travel by phoenix fire. What do I need to do?"

Fawkes flew into the air and hovered in front of her. "He says you just hold on to his tail feathers and he'll to the rest." She reached up and grabbed a feather and disappeared in a bright flame before she could say anything else.

Tonks looked at Harry. "Well what do you want to do now?"