Chapter XX - Another Flash of Harry's Life

The celebration of Gryffindor's first victory of the season lasted well into the night. The whole house was in an uproar as they cheered the team. To Harry's discomfort, someone had pasted pictures of Harry up with Witch Weekly's title of Sexiest Teen Wizard Alive all over the common room. Girls were giggling and laughing all over the place. Ginny was curled up in his lap for most of the evening as they were congratulated on such a wonderful game. They had managed to get a good head start for the year and to Harry's surprise, not a single player was injured. The thought made him smile; there really was a first time for everything.

When Ginny went upstairs to bed later on in the evening, Harry decided to stay downstairs and join in the festivities for a while longer. He was only remotely surprised when he was handed a drink by a pretty blonde girl. He didn't think much of it as people had been handing him food and drink all evening. He muttered thanks and Hermione ripped the drink from his hand and gave him another one, causing the girl to burst into tears and run up the stairs to her dormitory.

"What did you do that for?" Harry asked.

"She was just being nice. Wasn't she?" Hermione shook her head in disgust. "Honestly Harry, didn't you learn anything from last year? Romilda Vane and her love potions … I saw her put something in you're drink and I'd bet money it was a love potion. Ginny would hardly approve of you declaring your love for someone else."

Harry laughed. "Oh … thanks then. I wasn't thinking. I guess I'm a little tired or something. Besides that wasn't Romilda?"

Hermione smiled. "Or something. I just used Romilda as an example, Harry; there are other girls that like you; especially now that Witch Weekly has given you such a nice title."

Harry glared at her. "Shut up, Hermione; that is hardly something I should be proud of."

Hermione laughed. "Sure it is, after all, you are now the Prince of the Wizarding World." She laughed at the look on Harry's face and decided it was best not to comment further. "Look, Ron and I are going to clear this room out. It's almost three, go up to bed."

Harry smiled as he watched Ron usher people out of the room. "I think I will. Thanks, Hermione, for saving my life … again." He stood up and kissed her on the cheek. "Don't let Ron get you too upset, or I'll hurt him. You know you're the sister that I never had, right? I love you."

Tears pooled in Hermione's eyes as she threw her arms around Harry. "Oh, that was the sweetest thing. I love you too, Harry; it's nice to know I have a brother as well as friend looking after my well-being."

Harry grinned at her. "Always. Goodnight Hermione."

Hermione smiled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Goodnight Harry."

Harry headed upstairs to his dormitory to find that Neville, Seamus, and Dean were all still celebrating Gryffindor's victory and discussing the moves made in the game. Harry closed the door behind him and grinned.

"Come on guys, I know were all happy, but let's get some sleep! Seamus great job out there today, I want to see that speed in every game."

Seamus grinned. "Thanks, Captain! And I'll try my best."

Within fifteen minutes the four of them had quieted down and were all tucked into their beds. Neville was snoring soundly as Harry stared up at ceiling. It all felt normal, he realized, just normal to be able to sit here and celebrate a victory of a Quidditch game with his friends. He was far from normal, especially with everything he was learning. But Ginny made him feel normal. He sighed as he worked on the blocks in his mind, making sure they were firmly in place before he closed his eyes and prayed for sleep.

Harry stood in the living room of Grimmauld Place a week later for his next lesson with Lupin. They were taking a further look into the power that Harry possessed when it came to doing wandless magic. He had so far only managed to perfect the skill of lighting a fire along with some other simple tasks. He could light a fire and make the fire disappear quickly. The fire would also last for hours at a time, proving that his power was very strong. Harry also managed to learn how to turn off and turn on the lights in a room or in an entire house, as well as to cause the lights to flicker at will instead of this happening in his anger. This control also helped him to harness his power, harnessing the power was very crucial to everything related to wandless magic. Lupin was doing what he could to help Harry learn how to control and to harness his power, but the problem was that Lupin could only do some very simple wandless magic and Harry was already past him in wandless magic skills. Therefore Lupin's ideas could only take Harry so far in this new found skill.

"Harry, you're doing an excellent job. You're power is increasing more and more with every lesson. Do you find that these lessons with me are helping you?" Lupin asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, they are. Actually, they're helping me out quite a bit. But I just can't seem to progress onto any powerful spells. The wandless magic is allowing me to do simple everyday things, but it's not allowing me to take that next step into something more powerful. You know what I mean?"

Lupin nodded. "Yes, I do. I know that you must be frustrated, but I just can't help you out any further because I have never been very good at wandless magic. However, I think I know who can. Harry, both of your parents were excellent when it came to wandless magic, so you do come by the talent naturally, however, I don't know how much help they can be as a portrait. Do you want to go to Potter Manor and see if Lily and James can offer you any helpful advice?"

Harry grinned. "Yeah, anything that can help. Both of my parents could do wandless magic?"

"Yup, both of them. I never really played around with it though, while they did. Even Sirius was pretty good at it."

"Neat, at least that tells me it can't really be that hard. Can Voldemort do wandless magic?" Harry asked.

Lupin shrugged. "I honestly don't know. But the more prepared you are for everything the better it is."

Harry nodded as he followed Lupin into the kitchen and they quickly flooed to Potter Manor, surprising Dobby who was on a step-ladder and cleaning the mantle of the fire place. Harry reached up to grab him as he began to tumble off.

"Thank you, Harry Potter, sir, I is not expecting you to come in through there, sir." Dobby replied as he grinned at both Harry and Lupin. "It is good to see you both, sir, Mr. Lupin is doing well, yes?"

Lupin smiled at Dobby. "I'm fine. Harry and I didn't mean to startle you; it was a rather unexpected visit."

Dobby grinned. "It is fine, sir; can I get Harry Potter and Mr. Lupin a snack?"

Harry shook his head. "No thanks Dobby. Remus and I actually just need to talk to my parents' portraits so you can just continue whatever you were doing. We'll be fine."

Dobby's grin widened. "Alright, sir. Dobby will not disturb you."

Harry and Lupin grinned at each other and then at Dobby before they headed down the dining corridor to stand in front of the portraits of Lily and James Potter. "Hey Mum, hey Dad."

"Harry, Remus, what a nice surprise." Lily said, smiling.

Lupin smiled. "It is, isn't it? Well, Harry and I actually came to discuss something with you two if you don't mind. We're hoping that you might be able to give Harry a bit of help."

"Well, we can certainly try, Moony." James replied. "What do you need help with, Harry?"

"Well," Harry began. "Dumbledore thinks that I have great potential in learning wandless magic, which I actually can do pretty well, at least when it comes to simple things. I can light a fire, turn on or off the lights, flicker the lights, levitate things, summon things, you know, really simple spells, but I just can't seem to do anything bigger than that. Remus can't help me anymore because he says that he never got that far in his wandless magic skills. But he does say that both of you did. Am I making any sense at all?"

James laughed. "Yeah, you're making sense and I see where the problem would arise. Good job with the wandless magic, Harry, especially if you've managed to do simple spells on a regular basis. You're mother and I did hope that you might pick up on some of our more difficult talents I suppose you can call them. We'll both gladly try to help you out. But before we do that, tell me what you're doing now when you try to do wandless magic over a simple spell, like lighting the fire?"

"What do you mean by what do I do?" Harry asked.

Lily smiled. "Like tell us exactly what you think and what you feel right before you do a simple spell without your wand."

Harry nodded. "Oh, okay. Well, I'm not sure exactly. I guess I sort of glance towards the grate and will it to light up and while I'm doing this I'm focusing my power into my hands so the power comes out there."

"Wrong!" James said. "That's why you're not making progress, Harry, you're doing it wrong."

Lily nodded. "You don't focus the power going into you're hands. It makes it harder to do anything when you are concentrating all of your power into one spot. How can you control the power otherwise if you're busy focusing on it?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, I never really thought about it."

James grinned. "It's alright. Okay, Harry, you don't want the power or the energy to just be focused on your hands. You want your whole body to feel the heat of the power; that spark of energy and that slightly untamed lick of power that comes from you're heart, body, mind, and soul. Now stand back a little, more into the middle of the corridor and just concentrate on letting the power flow through your entire body, not just in one place. But everywhere."

Lily nodded. "Just feel the power, Harry. It should be like a sizzle in your blood and you should be able to feed on it and to feel it flowing in your blood. Do you feel it?"

Harry nodded. He could feel it and it was wonderful. His body felt like it was on fire in a purely powerful way, not the same way that Ginny could make his body burn, this was more of a powerful energy that was warming him up for what he knew was the big show. It was the building up of energy, like the nerves that came into your system before something important. He could feel this energy running through every piece of his body and he loved it.

"Yeah, I feel it."

James grinned. "Feels pretty amazing, eh? To know that what you're feeling is only your power and that you are the power and that that energy inside of you is what keeps you going." When Harry merely nodded, James laughed. "Alright, now I want you to think of a more powerful spell, something that won't cause damage to poor Moony here, but something powerful like a weapon of some sort. Maybe try a stunning spell."

Harry nodded and decided that a stunning spell was a pretty good idea. He pointed his hand at Lupin, holding it up so that his palm faced him and he thought: stun him. Harry felt the power radiate from his body, flowing upwards and swirling through his bloodstream before bursting from his fingers and outwards. The next thing he knew, Lupin was lying on the ground, quite obviously stunned.

James grinned. "See, there's nothing to it. Now wake him up doing the same thing."

Harry did so and Lupin stood up, grinning as well. "Excellent, Harry, it looks like we've tapped into that power."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, looks like. Thanks Dad, thanks Mum."

Lily smiled. "It was no problem, honey."

James nodded. "No problem at all. Now you just have to practice."

Lupin grinned. "Which he will be getting lots of. But Harry and I have to get back so I guess we'll see you two later. Thanks again for the help."

They waved goodbye and headed back into the entrance hall, just as Harry remembered apparition. "Remus, I just remembered. You said before that once I turned seventeen we could set up the proper security measures over who could and who could not apparate into Potter Manor. Do you think that we could do that now, just to get it out of the way?" Harry asked, as Lupin searched his pockets for the little bottle of floo powder that he had brought along.

Lupin nodded. "Sure, Harry, I actually forgot about that myself. It really is a simple spell and it's already all set up you just need to change a few things. The security is already in place and has been for many centuries; it is simply altered and changed with every owner. Let's just go get the original list, Maddy should have it, or know where it is."

"Great." Harry said as he headed towards the kitchens in search of Maddy.

Maddy was standing on small stool at the kitchen sink and she was washing dishes, while humming quietly to herself. Winky hurried around the room, dusting and cleaning looking cute in her new tidy maid's uniform. Harry realized that Dobby had probably been in uniform too, but he was so used to seeing him in clothes now he never really thought to look. Harry grinned as he watched them work; house elves really were quite efficient.

"Hey Maddy," Harry said from the doorway. "Do you think that you could help me out with something?"

Maddy turned around and smiled at Harry. "Of course, sir, what can I do for you?"

Harry grinned. "First off, thanks for getting the uniforms in order for Dobby and Winky, they look great." Harry replied as he looked over at Winky who was beaming at him. She really was very pleasant when she was happy. "Alright, you see Remus and I are going to set up the new security measures for the house. We we're wondering if you knew where the original list was?"

Maddy smiled. "I is getting it for you, sir, one minute." She hurried off and Harry turned to Lupin.

"Remus, is it possible to control the floo network as well?"

Lupin nodded. "In this house it is. The floo network is usually hooked up to the Ministry of Magic, but one of you're relatives managed to set up a private one so that no one from the government can ever know who is coming and going from Potter Manor. Since I've traveled with you and since I was on the previous list I don't have a problem getting into Potter Manor. However, anyone who enters Potter Manor without you and or who is not on the list is automatically kicked out. They are either lost in the floo network, ending up somewhere else, or they are just blown back to where they originally came out from. You can deny access to anyone who is not on your list."

Harry grinned. "Cool, that sounds really neat. I want the security to be as tight as possible here, especially since I tend to have so many enemies and I'm not exactly a fan of the Ministry at the moment. Especially with the minister, Scrimgeour just pisses me off. He's still not doing much about anything, is he?"

Lupin shook his head. "You got that right. Scrimgeour has got to be the worst Minister of Magic anyone has ever seen. He may have been a good law enforcer but he's not minister material. Don't worry about him, Harry; just be thankful he's not trying to get you on his side again."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I am thankful. I swear. Here comes Maddy, are we going to set up both security measures for apparating and floo?"

"Yeah, it's really simple and it won't take long."

"Here Harry Potter, sir, I've got the list." Maddy replied as she handed it to him.

Harry smiled. "Thanks Maddy. That's all for now, you can go continue whatever you were doing before."

He turned to Lupin and grinned. "What about the house elves do they have to be approved?"

"No, they are automatically in there. They also have protection over the house, they use their powers to do so. Okay, so who is currently on the list?" Lupin asked.

Harry opened up the parchment. "I don't know, let's take a look. It's not a very long list. There's me, my parents, my grandparents, you, Sirius, Wormtail, well that's odd, my Aunt Petunia is on here, also Dumbledore, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and Laura Casco. Who's Laura Casco?"

Lupin nodded. "Alright, well Laura Casco is dead. She was a friend of you're grandparents. Take everyone off the list who is dead or an enemy. To do so, just point you're wand at the parchment, state who you are and then declare who you want to be removed from the list and why."

"Okay." Harry said. He pointed his wand at the parchment. "I am Harry James Potter the sole owner of Potter Manor. Because of death and betrayal the following names must be removed and denied access to the estate: Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, James Potter, Lily Potter, Andrew Potter, Gwendolynn Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and Laura Casco." A light appeared on the paper and the names vanished.

"That means that it worked. To add names to the list do the exact same thing except you don't have to give a reason why, but you do have to repeat the names of the people who are already on the list and make sure you clarify that they are already there." Lupin explained.

Harry nodded. "Alright." He pointed his wand at the parchment again. "I am Harry James Potter, the sole owner of Potter Manor. The current list of people who are allowed access to Potter Manor is: myself, meaning Harry Potter, Remus Lupin, Petunia Dursley, Minerva McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey. Adding to this list, I am allowing access to Potter Manor to the following people: Ginevra Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Bill Weasley, Fleur Weasley, Fred Weasley, Charlie Weasley, George Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Vernon Dursley, Dudley Dursley, Luna Lovegood, and Nymphadora Tonks." Each name was lit up with a golden light as it appeared on the page and then it would go out.

"I'm surprised that you added the Dursleys, Harry." Lupin replied.

Harry shrugged, why did he add the Dursleys? They would never come visit him. They were gone from his life now. He didn't want them to be part of his life anymore. They had treated him terribly his entire life, yeah, but they are the only family that you remember having as a child, a small voice said in his ear. Harry shook the thoughts from his head and turned back to Lupin. "Yeah, actually I am too, but its okay for now. So what do I do for the floo network?"

Lupin smiled. "Just bring the list over to the fireplace and basically do the same thing."

Harry grinned. "Great." He quickly repeated everything again and once he was done, he turned back to Lupin. "I guess we're done for now then."

Lupin grinned. "Yeah, we are. Come on, you've got to go back to school."

"Hey, at least it's Friday! See you later, Remus." Harry said as he stepped into the fire and flooed back to Hogwarts, landing in McGonagall's office. "Hello Professor." Harry replied as he stepped out of her fire.

McGonagall smiled at Harry. "Hello Potter, just getting back from your lesson?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, it went well. Professor, do you mind if I hang around and talk to Dumbledore's portrait. I have some things that I need to discuss with him that I just haven't got around to doing."

McGonagall nodded. "Of course, Potter. I have a staff meeting to attend in the lounge anyway. So please, take your time."

Harry grinned. "Thanks." He watched McGonagall gather up her notes before leaving the room, closing the door behind her. Harry grabbed a chair and pulled it over in front of Dumbledore's portrait.

"Something on your mind, Harry." Dumbledore asked, peering down through his half-moon spectacles.

Harry nodded. "Yes, sir, quite a few things actually. I've realized that I've been so preoccupied with my life lately that I haven't really got a chance to discuss with you the horcruxes and about what happened the night you died. Well, besides my outburst that first evening. Sorry about that by the way. I was … well angry."

Dumbledore smiled. "It's okay, Harry, I understand your anger, and you were perfectly entitled to it. So what do we need to discuss?"

Harry sighed. "First off, before we head into the ugly confusing stuff, did you know that Fawkes came to me?"

"No, I did not. Did he take blood from you?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, on my seventeenth birthday. Hagrid said that he was making himself mine now."

Dumbledore smiled. "He must have really taken with you, Harry; phoenixes are a very rare pet for any wizard. How does Hedwig get along with that?"

Harry shrugged. "Hedwig? Oh she's fine with it. I don't see much of Fawkes or anything; I don't know what he does."

"If you call him, he will come to you, it doesn't matter where he is."

"Cool. Alright, next, my lessons have been going well and I am learning everything you wanted me too. My animagus forms are strong but I'm still working on disguising myself in that form. And I've been curious about a few things. Mostly that the school has very few Slytherins this year. I've also noticed that Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, and Theodore Nott have not returned to school. Does that mean that they have become Death Eaters?"

Dumbledore sighed. "It is very likely. I am sure Draco was tortured for not going through with his task, but Voldemort would be too happy that I am dead, so I doubt he would go on with his threat. Lucius was much too good of a follower."

Harry nodded. "Oh, that's what I was afraid of. There is one huge problem though, and it has to do with the horcruxes, I don't know where to look at all." Harry explained.

Dumbledore nodded. "I was wondering when you would bring up the horcruxes again. If I hadn't surprised you with everything concerning my death and Severus, I suppose we would have discussed it in some length that evening. Alright Harry, together we managed to obtain another horcrux that evening, did you destroy it?"

Harry shook his head. "No, and there in lies the problem. The locket was a fake, Professor, not by Voldemort himself, but by someone else. After … after everything happened, I opened the locket to look at it and there was a note inside telling Voldemort that he had been tricked and that he was taking the locket away to an unknown location. It was signed R.A.B., Ron, Hermione, and I searched a muggle library, Hermione searched thoroughly the library at Potter Manor, and now I believe Ginny and her are both searching the library here for anything to help us get a clue as to who this guy is. But, the problem is, that we have no idea what we're looking for. What he may have done, or anything. We don't even know what he did with the original locket." Dumbledore nodded. "Hmm, now that is interesting."

He was silent for a long time, just scratching his chin, his blue eyes twinkling as he obviously mulled over the situation. Finally after about half an hour, he spoke. "I only know of five people with those exact initials and all of them were Death Eaters at one time if they are not still."

"Who are they?" Harry asked. "How do I find them?"

"I'm not sure, Harry. Three of them are dead. I have no idea what happened to the other two, or if they are dead or alive."

Harry's heart sank. But Dumbledore always knew the answers; Harry felt lost at that thought that this time Dumbledore might not be able to help him.

"So, now what do we do?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Now, you go back to you're dormitory, it's late and I know you missed dinner. I will think about everything that you've told me and when you come for you're lesson on Monday I hope that I can be of some help to you then. Goodnight Harry."

Harry stood up and nodded at Dumbledore. "Goodnight Professor."

He put the chair back and left the office, still deep in thought. If Dumbledore didn't know the answer, than how was Harry supposed to figure everything out? He sighed; he would have to think about it, after all, the final battle was up to him.

Ginny sat outside under an oak tree with Hermione doing homework from Ancient Runes. She was surprised that she had even managed to get Hermione to go outside at all. She was restless and she couldn't concentrate on her work. She knew why of course – Harry; but she couldn't do anything about it, at least not yet. She knew Harry well enough to know that he was noble and a gentleman and that he wouldn't push her into doing anything that she didn't want to do. It would be up to Ginny to make the first move. She looked over at Hermione, trying to give her a sweet smile.

"Hermione, do you think that we could take a small break for a while? I keep losing my concentration." Ginny replied as she watched Hermione rush through her work.

Hermione looked over at Ginny as if she was annoyed. "Ginny, homework is important. You're so much like Ron sometimes."

Ginny laughed. "Really? I don't think that was a compliment. Can we please take a break; I need to talk to you about something and who knows when we'll be alone again?"

Hermione looked up at her and Ginny saw the immediate concern in her eyes. "Of course, what's wrong?"

"Nothings wrong exactly. I just have some questions."

"About what?"

"Sex. I know that you've slept with Ron. Harry told me that he found you two in bed together at the Burrow, and besides that we have talked about it briefly. And well … I'm ready to take that step with Harry."

Hermione smiled. "Yes, I've slept with Ron. It happened … quickly, but it wasn't quick, I mean, we've been stepping around each other for years. He was my first and the only guy that I've ever been with. Are you sure that you're ready to take that next step, Ginny?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes, I'm ready. I just don't know how I can tell him."

Hermione grinned. "You don't necessarily have to tell him, just find someplace private and… show him."

Ginny laughed. "Show him? Hermione that was hardly the advice I was looking for."

Hermione smiled and reached over to hug her friend. "Alright, I know something, and I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell Harry."

"Cross my heart. What is it?"

Hermione grinned. "The next Hogsmeade trip, you know the one before Christmas, well in two weeks so the beginning of December, but it is still the one before Christmas."

"Hermione, spit it out!" Ginny said, grinning at her friend.

Hermione laughed. "Oh, alright. Well, he plans to take you to see Potter Manor. You'll be gone for the whole day, locked up in a big mansion all alone with Harry, minus the house elves of course."

Ginny grinned. "I see where you're going with this."

"Do you now?" Hermione replied, giving Ginny a knowing smile.

Ginny nodded. "Yes, and let's just say that it will be a day that Harry will remember forever … well as long as my nerves stay intact."

Hermione laughed and swung her arm around her friend. "Come on, let's go grab some lunch. And I'll tell you all about my first time with Ron … even if he is your brother."

Ginny laughed. "Alright, that sounds good to me, I guess. Was he a prat, and did he mess up everything?" She asked with a hopeful sound to her voice, but Hermione caught the mischief in her eyes.

Hermione shook her head. "Nope, he was a gentleman, sorry."

Ginny sighed as she closed her book and stood up. "That's what I was afraid of. Alright let's go."