Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the Harry Potter universe

The rest of the summer passed rather quickly. Hermione had made a schedule for me once she learned that I would be joining them at Hogwarts. I found most topics incredibly easy. Mentioning it to Hermione, she nodded and said that it didn't compare to the amount of work required in the muggle schooling system. I was quickly caught up to fifth year material.

I decided to bring Hermione into the horcrux hunt. I didn't exactly tell her about the horcruxes, but with her having access to the Black library… well, let's just say I wasn't holding my breath. I decided that there had to be a way for us to remove the horcrux in Harry without him being hit by a killing curse. That was Hermione's research. I managed to swear her to secrecy when I brought up the fact that it was for Harry. She was still hesitant giving her oath, but when I explained further, she jumped into her research.

I had gotten the locket horcrux, but I didn't have any way to destroy it, so I had given it to Kreacher and told him to hide it somewhere no one could find it. He was loathed to listen to a muggle born, as he somehow knew that I was one, but heeded my words after Mrs. Weasley threw out a bunch of old dark objects. I had promised him that once I got a way to destroy the locket, I would call him and we could destroy it together.

Harry was almost constantly practicing Occlumency. I was sure that he had mastered the subject. One, because he could display a perfectly blank face, even through the twins funniest pranks. And two, because Sirius had tested his shields and was completely rebuffed. Nonetheless, Harry continued to practice and decided that the rest of us should aswell. We all started about a week after Harry, but most of us were rather accomplished by now. My wand had more effect than I had initially thought. Fire was almost constantly on my mind now, and I had decided that fire would be my Occlumency shields. And not just any fire, fiendfyre. I didn't want anyone getting into my mind and if they got burned, shame on them for trying to read my mind.

Ginny and I grew closer. I still wasn't quite sure how her crush on Harry transferred to me, but I wasn't arguing. She had a cute button nose, and a tight, toned body from playing quidditch. She and I had started sneaking small kisses and hugs by the end of summer. Mrs. Weasley seemed disappointed that Hermione and Ron hadn't gotten together, but after she figured out that Harry and Hermione were together, along with me and Ginny, she stopped trying to force Ron and Hermione together.

Mrs. Weasley did have us clean some, but when she realized that we were all studying for the upcoming semester, she toned it down quite a bit. I had used a couple of situation where she had asked us to clean as a session to learn cleaning charms. Ron had even taken to studying with us. I'm not sure how it happened, but Ron had suddenly turned into a studying fiend. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but he studied just as much as the rest of us. Maybe he was finally growing up… maybe.

The day to go back to Hogwarts was here… and the Weasley's were running around trying to find the oddest things. At one point Ginny had walked past with a bra in one hand and a jar of jam in the other. Harry wasn't quite as bad as the Weasley's, but he had spent the better part of the morning packing. Hermione and I were both neat and we had both packed that night before.

Harry appeared levitating his trunk in front of him.

"Hope I didn't forget anything," He muttered, setting his trunk down by Hermione's. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and a quick hug.

I waited until they were done snuggling and said, "Check with a summoning charm."

That's what I had done.

"Accio," Harry said. Hermione was suddenly jerked towards Harry and a belt came flying out of the library.

"Something Hermione's wearing and a belt from the library?" I said with a raised eyebrow. "Are you two getting… frisky?"

"I was wondering where this had got to after…" His face turned a brilliant red. Quickly he stuffed the belt into his trunk, "Anyway…"

"Are you wearing his boxers Hermione?" I asked with a grin.

"They're comfortable," Hermione muttered. She too was blushing.

Sirius started to walk past, but when he saw our expressions, he stopped. "This I gotta hear."

"Oh," Harry said awkwardly, "Well it's not really that funny."

My grin grew. "Harry," I asked, "How did you lose a belt in the library?"

Sirius' laughter echo throughout the entire house. It was loud enough for Mrs. Weasley to stick her head out of the kitchen, frown and finally ignore that whatever it was that had happened.

Sirius meandered away after taking the mickey out of Harry for a number of minutes.

"So, Hermione," I said, "Did you find anything further on our project?"

Hermione's eyes widened and she blushed brilliantly, "Oh, well, I… erm… I did find something."

She was super embarrassed. This was going to be fun. "So, care to share? Or does Harry need to leave for a few minutes?"

Hermione glared at me and Harry looked shocked. He quickly looked between Hermione and me.

"He's joking Harry," She growled, "In fact, it would be easier to tell you than him."

"Oo, do tell," I said.

Hermione huffed, "Well I found a ritual powerful enough to rid the soul of… foreign contaminates shall we say? The problem is the requirements… eh, it requires… um… a virgin sacrifice."

I was shocked. I really hadn't been expecting that. "Oh… so like Harry would have to kill-"

"No!" Hermione shouted. Then blushed at her outburst, "Someone needs to sacrifice their virginity with Harry during the ritual."

"Well… I guess that's a little better than what I was thinking…" Harry nodded in agreement, "So… you two haven't… er… haven't consummated your relationship… have you?"

Hermione glared at me, and Harry blushed, looking else where. "That's none of your business," Hermione ranted, "But, no, we have not!"

"Sorry," I said. I'm sure my face was burning, "But after the belt in the library and you wearing… well I just wanted to know if the ritual would work."

"Why are we talking about this again?" Harry asked quietly, looking down at the floor.

"It's for you," Hermione said, cuddling up to his side, "We'll tell you later… when no one else is around to hear."

To make her point, Tonks and Remus walked by, soon followed by Moody.

The Weasleys eventually got packed up. Before we left, I had each of them perform a summoning charm, much to Mrs. Weasley's consternation, but, after Ron summoned three shirts, two robes, a pair of trousers, several chocolate frogs and a bunch of other miscellaneous things, she was fine with the others performing the charm.

The trip to Kings Cross was uneventful. We wound our way through the crowd, the others occasionally waving to another student. Eventually we all got on the train and found a compartment with Neville and Luna.

"Come on Ron," Hermione said after we had got their trunks stowed, "We need to get to the prefects meeting."

I had forgotten about that… and Ron was still a prefect. I had hoped that with my quick word to Dumbledore about avoiding Harry, he might have decided that Harry would actually make a good prefect. Apparently not. Well, maybe Ron would grow up this year and be fair to everyone… fat chance, but one can only hope.

"This is Luna Lovegood," Ginny said before Hermione left, "See lives just over the hill from us."

Luna, complete with an upside down Quibbler, peered over the top of her magazine.

"Luna, this is Ben, Harry and Hermione, and you already know Ron," Ginny finished.

"A pleasure," Luna said dreamily.

Hermione blinked a few times at her, but quickly left, pulling Ron with her. I sat on the bench across from Luna.

"So, Luna," I said as Ginny sat down next to me. If she was any closer she would have been in my lap. I wasn't complaining, mind you. "Are you looking forward to another year at Hogwarts?"

She lowered the Quibbler and looked at me for several seconds with her head cock, "The nargles told me that if you discipline the blibbering humdingers quickly, my year will be most enjoyable."

I nodded. As I thought, Luna used her imaginary creatures as euphemisms for people who picked on her or made fun of her.

"I'll get Harry to help me," I replied, "Is it just the two main ones that need punishing?"

Luna tilted her head back and forth, considering, "No, snorkacks all have a herd mentality and tend to follow the blibbering humdingers. If you only punish the blibbering humdingers, others will take their place."

"So… they all need to punished?" I asked.

Luna shook her head, "Babies don't need to be punished." She tapped her lip thoughtfully, "If they're over three, they should be punished."

I understood, but I noticed that Harry and Neville were looking between us like we were crazy. Ginny had a faint smile on her face. I don't know if she understood, or if she just thought I was being nice to Luna.

I turned to Harry, "Want to do some serious pranking on some bullies?"

"Eh… only if it on bullies, I suppose," He replied.

We chatted for the next couple hours. Ron and Hermione had returned shortly after the prefect's meeting, with Ron stewing about Malfoy being made a prefect. Malfoy did stop by to insult everyone, but didn't know how to respond when I made it clear that He-Who-Has-No-Nose was cowering in a maze of daisies because he couldn't smell his way out. Malfoy had left with a confused sneer on his face.

We arrived at the Hogsmeade station without any other incidents. In the bustle of students, I saw a strange looking woman calling out, "First years over here!"

"Where's Hagrid?" Harry called loudly.

"Tone it down a bit Harry," I whispered harshly to Harry, "It'd be best to not draw attention to it."

Harry looked at me curiously.

"You know where he is," Hermione stated.

"Indeed," I replied, "But I'll tell you guys later."

Harry looked like he was about to protest, but he seemed to realize it would be better to not draw attention to it. Harry needed to bring out his Slytherin side more often. I hoped that with occlumency, he would be able to be more cunning, rather than the brash Gryffindor he was right now. The hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin after all.

We all managed to squeeze into a single carriage. Of course that was with Ginny sitting on my lap and Hermione sitting on Harry's. I whispered jokes into Ginny's ear, so she was giggling the entire trip.

I was hoping that I'd be able to convince the hat to put me in Gryffindor with Harry and Ron, otherwise I'd probably end up in Slytherin because of all of the plans I had for Harry. Snape was waiting for me at the front doors.

I had seen him several times after our initial… conversation, but he didn't seem to know how to respond to my clearly pleasant greetings. He still looked like he didn't know whether to sneer at me or not.

"Mr. Button."

"Professor Snape," I said in reply, "Looking forward to another year of teaching?"

He sneered at me, "Teaching first years the fine art of potion making is like teaching an acromantula to dance."

"Well," I replied, "We must accept the good with the bad. Look on the bright side, you could be suffering the cruciatus at the moment. Instead, you skulk in this castle with a bunch of whiny brats trying to teach them potions!"

"Sometimes, I'd take the cruciatus," Snape muttered.

I laughed, "Well, as I've never been under the cruciatus, I cannot argue one way or another. But from the description, I think that is a gross exaggeration."

Snape glared at me.

"But then again," I continued, grinned at him, "Your entire life is one be gross exaggeration."

Snape sighed dramatically while pinching the bridge of his nose, "Wait here for the rest of the first years. You'll be sorted after them."

As he turned to leave, I said, "I'm sorry Professor." He merely raise an eyebrow, "I have plans for Harry and being in Slytherin would be detrimental to those plans."

"You think you would be in Slytherin?" Snape asked incredulously.

"I know I would be sorted into Slytherin," I replied, "But I'm not going to let the hat put me there."

He really didn't know how to respond to that and quickly left.

The sorting went by without me recognizing anyone's name. Finally, after everyone else had been sorted, Professor McGonagall calling out, "Button, Benjamin."

Apparently all the girls thought I looked hot, or that's what I gathered from their looks. One girl I walked past, I think it was Daphne Greengrass (which was really weird as she was supposed to give everyone the cold shoulder), actually looked me up and down and licked her lips.

I eventually made it to the stool and put the hat on my head. After about ten second, with nothing happening, I cautiously lowered my Occlumency shields.

About time you realized what the problem was, The hat grumbled.

Yeah… hehe, sorry about that, I said sheepishly.

No harm, no foul, The hat replied, Now let's see where to put you. Hummm… very Slytherin, and slightly Gryffindor and slightly Hufflepuff.

You better put me in Gryffindor, I said with a very noticeable edge to my voice.

Oh, ho ho, The hat laughed at me, Have no fear, I know to sort you to Harry Potter's house.

Okay, I breathed a sigh of relief, I do have a question though.

Let's hear it then, The hat responded.

Is the Headmaster making plans for me?

The hat really laughed now, The Headmaster is making plans for everyone. Not only is he a great politician, he is also a great actor.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted before I could question him further.

I plastered a grin on my face and made my way over to Ginny and the others. This would take careful consideration if Dumbledore was playing everyone for the fool. Especially if the entire encounter at Grimmauld was just a charade. I really hoped that Dumbledore's grandfatherly persona wasn't a facade.

My thoughts were interrupted by Dumbledore's welcoming feast speech and, "Hem hem."

Damn!

I had no idea how she was made the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. After Fudge and Umbridge's embarrassment at the trial, I had hoped that they would have had a competent teacher installed, rather than Umbridge.

"Harry," I hissed leaning over the table, "The same thing goes for her classes as with the trial. She is going to do everything in her power to rile you up, but you can't do anything about it." Harry scowled at this, "I know you don't like it, but when ever she insults your mother, or Sirius or even the headmaster, you need to let out your inner Slytherin and subtly erode her standing amongst the students."

"Eh… how?" Harry whispered back.

I suppressed my annoyance, "It differs with each case. You'll have to wing it."

Harry nodded seriously at me. I sighed. Hopefully I'll be able to get Harry to think more like a Slytherin.

I pulled Harry and Hermione aside in the common room after she had sent all the first years to bed.

"Alright," I said, knowing that they were chomping at the bit for any information on Hagrid, "I have good-ish news and I have bad news."

Harry just crossed his arms and looked stonily at me. Hermione said nothing, probably knowing my perchance for the dramatic.

"So… the good news is that Hagrid is fine and is looking to curry favor with the giants." Harry and Hermione must have assumed this as they nodded, "The bad news is that Voldemort is also trying the same thing and I'm pretty sure that Voldemort's bootlickers curry favor with the right Gurg."

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, just now remembering that Hagrid brought his brother back with him.

"Umm… Gurg?"

"That's the name of the leader," I replied, "Basically means whoever is the biggest or killed the biggest giant." After a pause, I continued, "Unfortunately, I have some more bad news."

"And what's that?" Harry was noticeably warmer to me now that his worry over Hagrid was sated.

"Hagrid's going to bring his half brother back with him when he returns in… November, I think."

"Oh dear," Hermione gasped.

"Is he…" Harry didn't really know how to put it, "Um… big?"

"Very," I sighed, "And he's going to want to introduce you to him as well. Ugg, okay, let's worry about that later. I have further homework for you," I told Hermione in a hushed tone, "You need to see if there's anything that could possibly interfere with the… er, task that you've found."

Her expression was blank. I guess she didn't switch gears that quickly. "You know," I said, trying to think of euphemisms for the Soul Cleansing Ritual, "The one that washes away a stain?"

Her eyes lit up, "Oh I've found-"

"Not now!" I hissed, interrupting her, "You also need to find spells that check for controlling potions, tracking charms, and monitoring charms. There's always a chance that someone might try to be listening."

Hermione nodded, her eyes almost comically wide, "I'll get right on that."

The first Defense class was as terrible as I thought it would be, but in preparation, I had read the entire book (aided by Occlumency) and so had Hermione, Harry and Ron. She of course open with saying how terrible our education thus far had been and how our great minister Fudge was now rectifying the situation. As expected, she told us to put our wands away and read our books.

Parvati was the first to break. I had told the others how class was going to go, and told them not to question it.

"Yes, dear," Umbridge said in her sickly sweet voice, "Did you have a question?"

"Yes professor," She responded, "I was wondering when we were going to practice these spells."

"Why ever would you need to practice these spells?" Errg. She made me want to punch her right in her flabby toad face.

"Well, for protection and-"

"Why ever would you need protection?" She continued in her sickly sweet voice, "Aurors are standing by at all times to protect you."

I raised my hand. But Ernie burst out, "But what about our OWLs?"

"Five points from Hufflepuff for speaking out in class," She said, ignoring his question, "Yes, you have a question Mr…?"

"Yes," I replied, pretending not to notice she was asking for my name, "What if we want to be aurors? Shouldn't we have good, practical knowledge of what you are teaching?"

Umbridge laughed a high pitched, shrill laugh, "None of you are auror material."

"Excuse me?" I said, "I thought I just heard you say, after not even seeing any of us use a wand, that we were not auror material. How can you even say that?"

Umbridge blustered for a bit, "I know full well-"

"No you don't," I interrupted her, "You walked in to class and told us to put away our wands. You have no idea how any of us are with wands." She looked ready to go off, so I quickly continued, "I have a proposition for you. If the smartest person in the class can cast an unknown spell on the first time, I'll take back everything I've said and proclaim Minister Fudge as the greatest Minister since Merlin. But if they are unable to cast the spell, you allow us to practice the spells in class."

"No," She said smiling sweetly (at least to her), "Detention, for questioning a teach."

"No," I replied, "I did not question you, merely put forth a proposition to see if your teaching method worked."

I had her. From the look on her face, she knew I had her. If she rejected what I was saying, she was basically saying that her entire teaching method didn't work. Her only choice was to accept my proposal or lose face.

"Very well," She said, trying to keep an ugly look off her face… and failing, "How do you propose to find the smartest student in the class?"

I shrugged, "Do you want the smartest person overall? Or do you want the best person at Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

"The best person at Defense Against the Dark Arts," She replied without hesitation.

"Okay," I said, "That's Harry Potter."

She laughed again shrilly, "Harry Potter is a mediocre student at best."

"Professor," I interrupted her, "I don't know where you are getting your information from, but you sound like a school yard bully trying to pick a fight." Then turning to the class, I called out, "Who here thinks that Harry isn't the best at defense?"

No one raised their hand.

"Well Professor," I asked, "The class vote is unanimous, do you still want to continue insulting Harry Potter?"

She visibly gulped, "No, I suppose that Mr. Potter will have to do."

"Alright, come on Harry," I said, walking to the front of the room.

"Why me?" Harry complained, but grudgingly followed me.

"Alright class," I said, taking the role of a teacher, "The ministry's view point is that if theory is thoroughly understood, you should be able to cast any spell. So, I'm going to make sure that Harry understands the theory behind the spell before he tries to cast it. Alright Harry," I turned to him, "You've memorized the textbook, are there any spells in there that you don't know how to cast?"

"No," He replied, "I know how to cast them all."

"Very well," I replied, "Did you have another spell in mind?"

"Actually, yes," Harry responded, "Hermione could you grab my Dark Lords and how to Defeat Them?" She quickly pulled out a rather thin book (for magicals, it was still about an inch thick) and brought it to Harry. He murmured his thanks and flipped to a page, "This is the spell I want to cast."

"Aegis Fortis?" My eyebrows crawled to my hairline. It was a real spell. I had seen it every now and then in fanfiction, but I was sure that it was never mentioned in any of the Books.

"That spell is entirely too complicated for any of you to cast," Umbridge broke in, "Very few aurors have even mastered that spell."

"Actually," I said, reading quickly through the theory, "It says here that it used to be taught as a fifth year spell, so Harry should be able to cast this with ample understanding of theory."

She growled, ripped the book from my hands, and, after reading that it was indeed a fifth year spell, grudgingly gave it back.

"Alright, Harry," I said, "I want to make sure that you have a firm grip on the theory of this spell."

I spent the next five to ten minutes quizzing and trying to explaining questions Harry had about the shielding charm. Sometimes we had to get Hermione to help explain. The Aegis Fortis shield was similar to protego, except that it was specifically designed to protect against dark spells, and it blocked nearly every spell (except unforgivables).

When he was finally read to cast, I stepped back, "Alright Harry, this is it. You thoroughly understand the theory, so you should have no problem casting this spell."

Harry nodded, a grim, determined look on his face. He pulled out his wand, performed the movements perfectly, and growled out Aegis Fortis with such determination that I half expected the spell to cover the entire room.

Nothing happened.

"This is not acceptable," Umbridge stated, "I require a qualified student to perform this charm."

I shrugged, "That's fine, they were all paying attention as we went over the theory, so he or she should have no problem cast the charm. Who is qualified to cast this charm?"

"Draco Malfoy's father is an upstanding citizen of the wizarding world," She said, "He is fully qualified to cast this charm."

"Umm…" I was amazed at the stupidity of these pure bloods, "You realized that just because someone's father is an upstanding citizen, that that doesn't mean anything about the son." Umbridge stared at me with a stupid look on her face, "Right, well I have no problems with your choice. Draco Malfoy, would you please come show the rest of us worthless slugs how it's done?"

Now when he failed, we could make fun of him. He and Umbridge, along with a few other Slytherins, nodded their heads in a self-assured way, as if I was finally addressing the rest of us properly. What surprised me was the looks several Slytherins shot Draco. Obviously he wasn't well liked in his house.

Malfoy strutted up to the front of the room. He really was a ponce.

"Alright Mr. Malfoy," I said, trying not to bitch slap him, "Do you need any questions answered, a refresher on the theory perhaps?"

Malfoy sniffed and looked at me like I was mud to be scraped from his boot, "I am a pureblood, of course I don't need a refresher."

"Very well," I said, "We all humbly await the demonstration of your amazing magical prowess." Half the class snickered at my sarcasm, but Malfoy didn't seem to pick up on it.

"Aegis Fortis," Malfoy smirked, as if magic would do his bidding because he was a pureblood. His wand movements were sloppy, and he slurred the ending of aegis.

A farting noise erupted from his wand and the entire class burst into laughter… well all the boys. The girls were hiding their laughter behind their hands. After all, it wasn't proper for a lady to laugh at such vulgar displays.

"Well," I said, "I can honestly say that that was terrible. Your wand movements were all over the place and your pronunciation was terrible." A few snickers ran through the classroom, "It's not funny," I snapped at them, "Many of you share his poor wand movements and pronunciation. Everyone needs to work on it, not just Malfoy."

I noticed that Harry was standing off to the side, practicing the wand movements and pronunciation, "Well now that Harry has had time to practice, why don't we see if he can cast the shielding charm?"

"I hate you," Harry murmured without any real venom.

He stepped up, went through the wand movements quite a bit quicker than before (still without any mistakes that I could see) and called, "Aegis Fortis!"

A silver dome materialized in front of Harry.

"Well done Harry," I turned to Umbridge, "Professor, should we test Mr. Potter's shield?"

"Of course," She whipped out her wand, and with simply terrible wand movements, cried, "Ruptor!"

I had read about this spell, never tried casting it, but it was supposed to be a shield breaker spell and it was definitely in the Dark Arts because it caused your mouth to bleed. I wonder if Umbridge had some kind of weird fetish with blood. I shivered at the thought and wondered if I could get Hermione to Obliviate that memory later.

As the spell impacted Harry's shield their was a deep reverberation that ran through the room. Kind of like someone hitting a gong. Harry's shield held and Umbridge's shield breaking curse fizzled out.

The thing I had read out about the Dark Arts was that they were relatively easy to cast because they required a sacrifice. The sacrifice did one of two things. It either augmented the power of the spell or it eased the power required to cast the spell. The Ruptor curse was in the second category. The blood sacrifice (bleeding in the mouth) lowered the power required to cast the spell properly. The fact that Harry's shield held even under Umbridge's spell, was testament to Harry's power… or her lack of power.

"Bravo Harry," I said, ignoring Umbridge's flapping jaw. She had apparently expected Harry's shield to crumble under the power of her pureblood spell, "Obviously, everyone needs practice to properly cast a spell, as demonstrated by the Professor's poorly cast dark shield breaking curse."

"What!" She screeched, "I am a pureblood-"

"That's nice, but magic doesn't care," I interrupted, "Obviously being a pureblood does not allow you to cast magic perfectly on your first time. Your wand movements were sloppy. While you were still able to cast the spell, it was at a reduced power because of your poor wand handling."

"I know that," She snapped.

"You do?" I asked, "Because you received a Poor on your OWLs and were unable to take your NEWTs with such a low score from your OWLs."

She turned deathly pale and hoarsely whispered, "How did you know that?"

"My father is a legal consultant," I said, "He always makes sure to check and see if the teachers are up-to-snuff. When he pulled up your file, he was severely disappointed in the ministry."

I had sneaked out one night and gone to the records hall in the ministry. I assumed the form of some poor sap I had seen coming out of the ministry and was amazed at how simple it was to lay five galleons on the record keeper's desk and receive a copy of Umbridge's OWLs.

The Hogwarts rumor mill was going to have a field day with this.

I don't know how, but I somehow made it out of that class without getting detention. As I expected, every student knew of Umbridge's Defense scores by lunch time and there was a steady stream of students going to and from the Owlery. Hopefully, with so many students owling their parents, Umbridge wouldn't last long in her Defense position. Or, if she did, her power base would be taken away and she would just be a normal teacher. Well, a sucky teacher, but one without the power to take over Hogwarts.

Nothing really exciting happened the first week of the school year. Hermione had looked up the spell to check for different types of potions and charms and after scanning each of us, found that Harry had three charms on him and the rest of us each had one. After that Hermione decided to scan each of us before talking about anything important and often found that the listening charms had usually been replaced.

Magic seemed really easy. I don't know why, but everything I tried just worked. Maybe others weren't visualizing it well enough, or something. Arithmancy wasn't as hard as multivariable calculus or even entry level calculus. It did have quite a bit of number theory and a lot of geometry, but was no where near the level of complexity of muggle mathematics. Care of Magical Creatures was… interesting, even if I didn't really learn anything pertaining to life. It was pretty much the same with Herbology and Astronomy, though Astronomy was important in rituals, so I tried to pay attention whenever that came up. Potions was… strange. It seemed that Snape was trying to reconcile what I had told him, how he had treated Harry, and his animosity of James Potter… And he still didn't know how to act around Harry. Sometimes he would snub Harry and take points away for stupid things. At other times he would point out how Harry was doing a great job. Everyone was on pins and needles around him, thinking he had finally snapped.

But really, the first exciting thing happened when Dumbledore asked to see me in his office. A note was given to me by a first year. I think she was from Hufflepuff. All it said was Smarties, 1 o'clock.

Heading up to the Headmaster's office, I was slightly worried. The sorting hat had said that Dumbledore was making plans, but he didn't say whether those plans were good or bad.

"Smarties," I whispered under my breath as I reached the entrance to the Headmaster's office.

Before I even had the chance to knock, Dumbledore called out, "Come in, Mr. Button."

I grunted and opened the door. His office truly was a wonder. Little trinkets and knick knacks litter shelves across the room. A large globe and an even larger telescope blocked out most of the view out of the windows. And then the books. There were shelves upon shelves of books and all of them looked ancient. Of course there was also the sword of Godric Gryffindor and all the portraits of previous Headmasters.

"Headmasters," I greeted the portraits. Then turned to Dumbledore, "And Headmaster."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw many of the portraits perk up at the respect I'd given them.

"Mr. Button, please have a seat," Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling like mad. "I've called you here to… consult with you about my current course of action."

I nodded. This was quite smart of Dumbledore. If it seemed like he was extending me an olive branch, I would feel required to share with him my knowledge. "Very well professor."

"I would like to know-"

"First," I interrupted, "I would like to test you and make sure that you are as good as everyone thinks you are."

Dumbledore's beard twitched. I assumed he was smiling, "I can assure you that I am not as good as everyone thinks I am."

"Good, because I would feel like I would need to kiss the ground before you, if you were," I replied. Then becoming serious, I said, "I want you to tell me how Voldemort was able to survive as a spirit without a body."

Dumbledore froze. He had been straightening several objects on his desk, but he now sat back and studied me closely. "I am currently unable to answer your question with a hundred percent certainty."

I stared at him for several more seconds before saying, "Very well, tell me what you fear Voldemort has done to achieve his supposed immortality."

Dumbledore gulped visibly. "Horcruxes," He whispered hoarsely, "I think he created seven horcruxes and spread them over Britain to protect himself from moving on."

"Unfortunately that is indeed what Voldemort has done," Dumbledore put his head in his hands, "Voldemort meant to create six horcruxes. The night he killed the Potters, I believe he only had five, but has since made Nagini a horcrux."

"So Harry-" Dumbledore immediately shut his mouth. I don't think he actually meant to say that.

"Harry… what?" I asked looking like I didn't know what he was talking about, "Come on Dumbledore, if you expect my help, I expect full disclosure in return."

Dumbledore nodded, looking quite his age, "I suspect - now that you have confirmed Voldemort has indeed created horcuxes - that Harry is a horcrux."

I stared at him blankly. I of course knew that Harry was a horcrux and had Hermione working through a solution to that problem, but I never really expected Dumbledore to come out and tell me.

I sighed, "Harry is indeed a horcrux. But-" I continued before he could say anything, "If you think that the only way to remove a horcrux is through his death, you are mistaken."

Dumbledore's mouth fell open at this.

"You wizards need to think," I muttered, rubbing my forehead, "What type of magic are horcruxes?"

"Dark magic," Dumbledore answered immediately.

I sighed. Yesterday Ron had gone off about about dark magic and I was kind of sick of hearing about dark magic. "Yes, yes, everyone understands that horcruxes are dark magic. What I meant was, what branch of magic do horcruxes fall under?"

Dumbledore frowned at my dismissal of dark magic. "I suppose it would be soul magic."

"You supposition would be correct," I replied, "Now, is there any way to purge foreign contamination from ones soul?"

"There are indeed several rituals to… shall we say, 'cleanse one's soul?'" Dumbledore slowly replied, "I'm not sure if I know of a ritual powerful enough to remove a horcrux."

Dumbledore got up and made his way to one of the bookshelves. After several moments, he removed a book and flipped to a specific page. He read for several seconds before asking, "What ritual did you have in mind for Harry?"

I wasn't surprised that Dumbledore realized that I had already looked in to this, "I believe that Hermione said it was called profunda anima purgare."

"You told Hermione?" Dumbledore was clearly shocked.

"Of course," I replied, "She is very good at research. And with the Black library at her disposal, I had little doubt that she would find a suitable way to remove Voldemort's horcrux from Harry."

Dumbledore nodded slowly, "I must stress how important it is to keep this information hidden-"

"Do you think me a fool?"

Dumbledore's shocked look would probably made me laugh under any other circumstances, "Pardon?"

"Despite your need to never tell any one person everything, I like to keep my friends informed, so that they may make their own decisions." I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, "Now, I know that Voldemort would most likely move his horcruxes if he found out that we were destroying them, but that doesn't mean that I don't tell anyone about them. But, to ease your concern, I made Hermione swear to keep it a secret, and we all learned occlumency over the summer."

Dumbledore's shocked look returned, "You all learned occlumency?"

"Indeed," I replied with a small smile, "Harry seems unusually adept at it, and I believe he said that he now has a full mindscape. The rest of us… we just have shields."

Dumbledore seemed to return to his usual unflappable nature, "May I test your shields?"

"I don't know if that is a good idea," I responded, "My shields are constantly set to a lethal level to protect… well, everyone."

Dumbledore considered me for a moment, "I would still like to test your shields."

"Very well-" Before I was even able to finish my statement, Dumbledore had sent a mental probe into my mind. Almost as soon as he did, he clutched his head and gasped. With his eyes closed, he stumbled over to a cabinet behind his desk, removed a vial of potion and quickly swallowed. After several seconds, the pain seemed to recede.

"I did warn you."

"That was… unexpected," Dumbledore, though somewhat better, moved cautiously back to his desk. "I must congratulate you on your highly irregular, but effective, occlumency barrier. You said everyone learned occlumency this summer?"

"Eh, I guess I should have been clearer," I replied, "I got Harry to learn it, he in turn got Hermione, Ron, Ginny and I to learn it after he did."

"Incredible," Dumbledore murmured, "For ones so young to learn something so difficult."

I shrugged, "I've found magic to be rather simple… if I have the right focus."

I noticed Dumbledore shift gears. Dumbledore peered at me, as if assessing how much to tell me. I merely raised an eyebrow.

"I currently have Remus talking with different werewolf tribes across England and Europe…"

When I realized that he was waiting for my input, I shrugged, "Good, I believe that he will convince them not to side with Voldemort, but I don't think he'll be able to convince them to fight against him. With werewolves, I think our main concern will be… eh, how shall I put it, unattached werewolves. With Voldemort, he'll look for people that hold a grudge against the ministry because of purebloods and their discrimination against other beings."

Dumbledore sighed dramatically, "That's what I was afraid of."

"I think what would help keep werewolves out of Voldemort's control would be to kill Grayback."

Dumbledore stiffened, "I don't approve of killing."

"I do," I replied, "I don't, however, approve of murder. We are at war, and it's time for you to realize that people die in war."

"They can be brought to the light."

"No," I responded, "Many of these people you are willing to forgive have killed in cold blood, have raped and generally committed crimes for which death is the only answer. They are cold hearted do these things for fun."

"What about the ones who have not done this," Dumbledore asked, "What about Imperius victims?"

"During war you cannot take chances," I replied, "It is indeed unfortunate that the Imperius curse will no doubt claim the lives of innocent individuals, but force must be met with force. After the war though, put them all on trial. Make sure that they were Imperiused. Give them all veritaserum and question them."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Dumbledore said.

"Why?"

"It is cost prohibitive. Veritaserum is very expensive."

"The cost would be much higher if you allowed them to walk free," I responded.

Dumbledore considered this for several moments. "I believe you are correct," He finally responded with a sigh.

"Something else I wanted to confront you about was the amount of bullying you allow in Hogwarts."

Dumbledore frowned at me, but otherwise did not respond.

"Luna Lovegood has been targeted since she started here and nothing has been done to curtail the bullying."

Dumbledore frowned at me, "Until you came here."

"You just condemned yourself," I hissed, "Obviously no one was doing anything to help out Luna, so Harry and I stepped in and showed those Blibbering Humdingers what it was like."

"Mr. Button," Dumbledore said patiently, "I cannot have you harming students-"

"But it's fine if they are doing the exact same thing to Luna," I interrupted.

"There was never enough evidence to-"

"Professor," I interrupted, "Everyone in Luna's house knew who did it. You can do what's easy, or you can do what's right. I chose to do what was right."

"You view stipping students and sticking them to the wall as doing what is right?"

"They were bullies," I replied, "The only thing a bully understands is force. Actually, that brings me to my next issue. Why are you allowing Snape to raise the next generation of Death Eaters?"

"What?" Dumbledore spluttered.

"A lot of the children in Slytherin's house are allowed to get away with anything," I replied, "They need to be punished to show that their action have consequences."

"I do not believe that punishing them would prevent them from joining Voldemort," Dumbledore responded.

"Neither do I… at least not now," I said, "They've been able to get away with anything for too many years."

"If we show them how forgiving we are, they will come to us when they realize that Voldemort is not what he appears."

"What about the victims?" I asked, "If you allow them to hurt students, what do you do with the hurt students? Tell them to forgive the Slytherins?"

Dumbledore wasn't sure how to respond.

"You know, there is a reason that no one in the Order likes Snape," I said.

Dumbledore frowned, "I realize that he is a rather hard person to get along with…"

"It's because he never showed anyone, besides you, remorse for his actions," I said, "He acts like everyone should be forgiving him, but he still acts like a Death Eater. He has never shown that he didn't like being a Death Eater, but rather continues to act like one, driving everyone in the Order to dislike, if not hate him."

"I…" Dumbledore swallowed hard, "I hadn't thought of it like that before."

"You trust and understand him, because he came to you and showed remorse for his actions," I replied, "You see a good person trying to act bad. Everyone else sees a bad person acting bad."

"I… will give what you have said some deep thought," Dumbledore finally said.

"Also," I added, "The Slytherins don't see you as the wise, forgiving person you try to portray. They see you as a fool because they can get away anything. If you want to be seen as good and powerful, you need to punish wrong doings and reward those who do good."

Dumbledore nodded in assent, "Let us get back to the topic at hand. Hagrid is currently parleying with the giants."

I couldn't help it. I snorted.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, no…" I replied, "Well, yes I guess there is. Voldemort also sent Death Eaters to convince the giants to join his side and, well… I'm pretty sure that the Death Eaters arrived a few days after Hagrid and gave… er… a sort of weapon to another giant who then took over." I trailed off, not knowing how to put the fact that Hagrid was bring his half brother back with him.

Dumbledore paled, "So they joined Voldemort's side?"

"Um… actually I don't know if they did or not. I think they might have actually killed the Death Eaters, but I think Voldemort will also manage to convince a few giants to join his side." I paused, trying to find a way to break Grawp to him. I decided to just come out with it.

"There is something else…"

"Yes," Dumbledore prodded.

"Hagrid… he found his half brother," I said with a wince, "He's also bringing said half brother back and wants to show everyone that giants are nice, friendly being."

"Oh dear."

"Yup," I said, "And when the centaurs find that Hagrid is keeping a giant in the forbidden forest, well, let's just say that it won't be pretty."

"Indeed." Dumbledore sat in thought for several minutes. I calmly looked around his office, giving time for Dumbledore to collect his thoughts.

I was also thinking, thinking about horcruxes. Obviously I could go and get the diadem, and I already had Kreacher on call with the locket. The diary was taken care of. That only left the Gaunt ring, Hufflepuff's cup, Harry and Nagini. Meh, Nagini and Hufflepuff's cup were going to be hard to get to. Hermione and Harry would perform the ritual and get rid of that horcrux. And then Dumbledore… I guess Harry and I would need to go with him to keep him from putting on the ring. Or maybe just Harry.

"Well, you have given me much to think about," Dumbledore said, "I'll let you get back to your friends."

"Quick question first," Dumbledore motioned for me to go ahead, "Is there a storage container that will negate compulsion charms and the like?"

"There are runic arrays that can be scribed onto containers to inhibit compulsion charms," Dumbledore replied slowly, "But the best way to contain artefacts which serve nefarious purposes is to use a iron box lined with lead."

"Thank you Dumbledore," I replied, heading out of his office.

"Benjamin."

"Don't worry about me," I replied, "Or Harry… or anyone really. I am taking no chances, but I am including them in most aspects of the destruction of Voldemort."

Dumbledore sighed, "Very well, just… be carefull."