AN: Okay, later than I intended it to be, and not quite how I wanted it to turn out. Now, I have a few things to say, so let's start with the poll. Simply put, it's too big, so it's going to be taken down, and the top ten results so far will be made into a fresh poll of their own, so get voting, okay? Second, there's been a lot of speculation and questions regarding the 'tests' Harry is having. First off, I'm not saying who/what is testing him, though it has been guessed by at least one person. Secondly to that, the first 'test' was his awareness. Please note, the thing that attacked was invisible, inaudible, had no soul, and lacked a heat signature. In fact, the only reason Harry knew it was there was because of the air it displaced. Future tests, like the one being planned right now, will be big, fighty things, or perhaps puzzling, so you'll get your slice of action, don't worry, especially as I hope to get to the fourth Grail War within the next four chapters-ish, maybe more or less. I... think that's everything, and if it's not, I'll add it to me next AN, 'kay?

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 10 - Detention

Dolores Umbridge stood at the front of the classroom as the children filed in. She made sure to memorise each of them, and recalled as much as she could remember about each one. The boy that took a seat in the third row there was the nephew of Cyrus Sneeway, who was a very successful business man. The girl that sat on the opposite side of the room to him was the daughter of Jason Parkinson, a respected pureblood, though one that wasn't as skilled when it came to handling money. He left that to his wife, while he left his own mark on the political arena.

When Harry Potter entered the room, she focused her attention on him entirely.

She knew everything there was to really know about him, at least as far as the Harry Potter the world was familiar with that is. Even a blind person would have been able to tell you there were some major differences between him and his alternate, so the question was just how different was he?

The first thing Umbridge took note of was how the purple-haired boy didn't sit with his Slytherin house-mates, but an Asian Ravenclaw girl of beauty. The mischievous twinkle in the girl's eyes as she smiled at Harry, and the answering grin he gave her, put her on edge. Those two knew each other, and not in the way of simply being acquainted with each others alternates.

She narrowed her eyes, that required investigation.

She glanced down the register, removing the names of the ones she recognised, and then removing the remaining male names, which left one name which looked the most likely.

Amy Kami.

Dolores didn't know anything about foreign cultures, so she couldn't say whether 'Kami' was a pureblood name, or her countries equivalent of such a thing. She would have to tread carefully, investigate what backing the girl had, before she even thought about trying to assert her authority over her, and with an obvious connection with the Potter brat, she would have to hold off on interrogating him too.

She waited a few moments longer, letting the class settle, before she took register. Once that was done, she flicked her wand at the board, revealing the course aims she'd written on there earlier. She noticed the Potter boy frown at them for a moment, before he glanced back at her, before rolling his eyes.

"Is there something you have to say, Mr. Potter?" She asked in her sickeningly sweet voice.

"Not particularly. I simply noticed that the course aims you've put on the board are more angled towards the theoretical side of the subject, and no mention at all of practically using the spells and becoming familiar with them." Harry replied casually.

"Oh?" Umbridge kept a smile on her face. "If you are... concerned regarding the situation with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, then don't be, the Ministry has the issue contained and will handle things themselves, or did you envision yourself tackling You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters?"

"I'm not 'concerned' at all about Riddle and his minions, and I don't really feel the need to fight him regardless. No, I was more wondering how you intended to have the students pass their exams with no experience in casting the required spells." Harry shrugged.

"Mr. Potter, the ministry believes that so long as you understand how to cast spells, you will have no issue in actually doing so. There is no need to recklessly cast spells around a classroom, where a stray one may hit one of your classmates, and we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt now, would we?" Umbridge returned.

All eyes were on Harry now, as their conversation was the only thing really happening.

"Madam Umbridge, do you understand the theory behind the patronus charm? It is a mass of emotionally charged magic, formed into a shape that the caster subconsciously associates with protection and safety. The structure of the spell falls, arithmetically, under the thirteen base series of spells, and yet requires no wand movement. Knowing all that, could you cast a patronus charm?" Harry shot right back at her, his voice as polite as when he started speaking.

"Mr. Potter, my own capabilities are not under discussion right now, but the course aims, and seeing how they ar-" She began, but she was interrupted by Harry.

"So you can't then?" Harry asked, though still keeping his tone polite. "Were you not claiming the opposite a moment ago? If you need more information on the spell, I can provide everything for it, even the arithmancy formula if you wish for it. If you are incapable of doing so, then I must call into question the legitimacy of your prior claims."

"Mister Potter, I am the professor here. Are you qualified to teach this subject? I thought not, as such I sh-" Umbridge was cut off by Harry's laughter this time.

"In actual fact, madam Umbridge, I am qualified to teach." Shadows gathered next to him, before forming into the certificates Harry had received in his birth world. The certificates floated over to Madam Umbridge, as if to mock her, which might well be true considering what Harry said next.

"I do believe that a grade of at least EE at NEWT level is required to fulfil the position of assistant professor, and a mastery or experience in a similar position is required for an actual professor. As I understand things, you received a P in your Defence OWL, not even a NEWT, and as such you don't even fulfil the requirements of an assistant professor. I wonder then, how is it you hold the position you do?" Harry returned his certificates back to where they'd come from, and waited for Umbridge's reply.

"Mr. Potter, the Minister has entrusted me with the task of teaching all of you wonderful dears, and so-" Umbridge tried to explain. However, Harry interrupted her once again.

"Regardless of who is backing you, the law is still the law, and even the Minister for Magic is bound to follow it." He paused for a moment. "Correction, everyone should follow the law, but with how often it gets broken, I suppose the law should really be thought of as... guidelines at best."

"Detention, Mister Potter." Umbridge ground out.

"Oh, may I ask what that detention is for?" He asked.

"You may not." Umbridge narrowed her eyes at him, before she began to write out a note on, of all things, pink parchment. "Kindly take this note to your Head of House, would you?"

Harry shrugged. "Sure thing." He responded, his casual reply seeming to infuriate Umbridge even further.

After going to the front of the class to retrieve the note, he turned to leave the room. As he passed where he'd been sat, he whispered something so quiet that no human should have been able to hear it. However, a feral grin grew on the face of one 'Amy Kami', and a dangerous gleam entered her eyes as she fixed her attention on their 'professor'.

xxxxx

'Harry' left the room and yawned slightly, stretching himself out. Not that either action was really necessary though, as he was a conceptual existence and didn't actually need sleep, with his shape-shifting preventing him from ever pulling a muscle, but it was the concept of the thing.

With a single glance, he analysed the spell Umbridge had used to seal her note, memorising everything from the slight flaws in the matrix to the exact wavelength of her magical signature, before opening it to see what it said.

It turned out that she'd assigned him a week's worth of detentions.

Well, that was a bit harsh, and all he'd done was speak the truth. Still, what's done is done, and there really wasn't anything stopping him sending yet another clone to those detentions, aside from irritation that a series of thought processes had been taken away from his research of course.

His eyes lit up for a moment, before he chuckled. "Oh, that was golden." He muttered.

A person walking past might have thought he was talking to himself... which he actually was, but they might also have thought him a little insane... which was also technically true as well...

Anyway, what the theoretical passers by would be unaware of was the fact that Harry had left behind a clone in the classroom – one that had shape-shifted into the form of a fox and was currently laid at Amaterasu's feet, out of sight under the desk – and he was chuckling at what Amy was insinuating.

Of course, Amaterasu could be a lot more subtle than Harry could, and Umbridge actually thought the Asian girl was paying her a compliment, rather than making derogatory comments about her possible ancestry and sexual preferences.

Harry then refocuses and sighs. "Oh well, I guess I'd better get this note to Snape then."

He shrugs, reseals the letter by perfectly replicating Umbridge's spell- even if he doesn't believe anyone's actually going to look that closely at the note – and takes a step forward.

Between one step and the next, he teleported himself directly outside Snape's office, seeing as the man didn't have any classes right then.

Sighing once again, Harry raps his knuckles on the door, feeling Snape's soul move as he makes around his office. Harry shifts his vision, cycling through the spells imbued in them until he can see through the walls and door. He catches sight of a hidden stash of grade B prohibited potions, as well as a bag full of galleons under the floor, and a...

Okay, Harry really would need brain bleach now that he knew what porn mags Snape kept around the place, no matter how well hidden they were.

Snape froze up at the sight of Harry Potter when he opened the door, clearly remembering what Jack had done to his arm – and especially remembering that Harry had healed said arm while he was several hundred metres away – and his eyes narrowed to bare slits.

"Yes?" He asked tightly, keeping himself from doing anything to provoke the monster before him.

Harry handed the man the note. "Umbridge sent me to give you this."

Snape took the note, reading it silently while still stood in the doorway of his office.

"You disrespected your professor during lesson, caused a disturbance, and called into question both her integrity and that of the school and ministry?" Snape couldn't help but ask.

Harry shrugged. "I told the truth, and she is the one who initiated the... discussion. My own comments were on the legality of her holding the position she does, considering the best Defence grade she possesses is below even that required of an assistant teacher, and that even the Minister needs to obey the law."

Snape silently observed Harry for a moment, taking in his posture, expression, and speech.

"You are, I assume, aware of why she's here, correct?" The man eventually asked.

"The Minister wants someone here to keep an eye on things and discover as much about me and the world I come from as possible. Umbridge is simply loyal enough to fulfil the requirements and doesn't fill a critical role within the administration back at the Ministry." Harry explained. "I would like to note that the Unspeakables have so far been far more subtle and far less... blunt than she has."

"Unspeakables?" Snape muttered, caught by surprise.

"Yes, they've had me under observation since my summoning." A pause as a grin spread over Harry's face. "Or at least as much as I'm letting them see, and where they can observe me. As I understand it, both of those things are frustrating the Department of Mysteries immensely, though it is doing nothing to dissuade them unfortunately."

Snape did not speak immediately, and when he did, he had moved on from speaking about the Unspeakables, returning to the original topic of Umbridge's note.

"You have been given a weeks worth of detention with the... 'Defence' professor." He sneered, not even bothering to pretend to respect the woman in said position. "You are to report to her office tonight at seven. Now leave me." He dismissed Harry, turning around and almost slamming the door in Harry's face.

A small, bemused smile crossed Harry's face. "That was far more... civil than I was expecting, just what did Dumbledore do to get him to reign himself in so much?"

xxxxx

"We heard-"

"-about your disagreement-"

"-with our new defence professor."

Harry blinked and looked up, seeing Rose and Blake stood in front of him. He'd known they'd been heading his way, and even read their intention to find him in their souls, but it didn't hurt to put on a bit of an act sometimes. Harry well knew some people were a little creeped out with his 'omniscience' at times.

"You did, did you?" Harry asked. "Strange, that lesson only finished forty-five minutes ago. It surprises even me how fast rumours and gossip can spread at times."

"May we ask-"

"Whether it's true?"

"About the 'requirements' for a -"

"-teaching position that is."

"Sure." Harry replied. "It's actually part of the Fifteen Forty-Seven standardisation of education laws, and can be found in the appropriate law books."

Without even a gesture from Harry, several shadowy portals appeared, from which said books emerged, copied themselves, and then returned. The duplicates floated over to the twins, opening themselves at the appropriate pages, a further application of magic making the relevant sections glow slightly.

"Why would them-"

"-Ministry send us-"

"-someone incompetent-"

"-when things are so-"

""-dangerous right now?"" The two finished together.

"She's a 'toadie' – my apologies to said amphibians – and is loyal to the current administration. The Ministry is in disarray, and they need to really sort themselves out, so they sent her to keep an eye on things here, where the next generation is gathered together." Harry paused. "On top of that, there's a certain lack of applicants to the position, so getting even one person to accept it is something of a minor miracle."

"But what about us students?" Blake asked.

"How are we supposed to learn?" Rose added.

Harry shrugged. "I did offer to teach you two a few things, and that offer still stands, but the rest of the school's on their own, though it's not like many would listen to me if I tried to teach them anything."

A giggle above them made the girls look up, catching sight of Holly sat on a high shelf.

"But you do make a good teacher, Harry, and if the 'Great Harry Potter' was to give a lesson or lecture, I'm sure there's a number of students who'd turn up out of curiosity if nothing else." She called down at the purple-haired boy.

"Still not my problem though." Harry replied. "Besides, I'm pretty much totally self-taught, let them emulate me and learn something themselves."

Holly gave Harry a flat look. "Harry, please remember that you are the 'Infinite Archive'. I doubt that there's been even a single student that's passed through this school with a mindset like yours, or an equal desire to learn everything there is to know, or if they do then they lack your determination to back it up."

"Once again, their problem, not mine." Harry shot back at the miniature winged female.

"What would you be teaching us?" Rose asked, not even going to attempt to convince him to teach others.

"What do you want to learn?" Harry responded. "I can teach you pretty much anything; elemental manipulation, alchemy, necromancy, summoning and contract magic, there's even a few divine tricks I can teach you that mortals can use, though that does rely on you having a good relationship with the deities you're calling on."

"You'd teach us all that... even the more 'unpleasant' bits?" Blake wondered.

"As long as you're careful with it, there's no reason not to learn something." Harry replied. "Just be aware of what the consequences are, and what you'll have to give up to use it, and things will be fine. Even regular spells have a price attached to them, even if that is simply draining your core of a bit of its magic." Harry then seemed to recall something, and another shadow appeared, from which he withdrew several booklets. "Oh, here, take these, they're the spells and theories you're expected to know for each of your seven years here."

Blake took the booklets off him and quickly flicked through them, taking in the simple but effective layout, as well as the descriptions, diagrams, and notes for further reference material. Rose looked over her twins shoulder, studying it as well, before turning back to Harry.

"Arigatou." She said, bowing slightly.

A bemused expression crossed Harry's face. "Japanese?" He asked.

Rose nodded. "I've noticed that when you're muttering to yourself you often switch between loads of different languages, Japanese being one of the most common ones you use. I thought it might be interesting to learn a little of it, but so far I've only learnt a handful of words, and even then I don't know if I'm pronouncing them correctly."

"Well, that one was correct, and seeing as I've not been here a week yet, it's not a surprise that you don't know much of the language, I remember how much Aqua laughed at my attempts at speaking in the tongue of the Fae." He chuckled. "Learning the runes was so much easier."

"You know Fae runes!?" Blake exclaimed.

"I do, though that is something I can't teach you. Only the Fae can teach their language, or allow others to use it, as it is a very magical language, and closely tied to them. I am fortunate that I was allowed the honour of learning it directly from a certain naiad, and that a number of fae have contracted with me." Harry told them, a small smile on his face as he did so.

"Does that mean you can etch Fae runes into things?" Rose asked excitedly.

Blake seemed just as animated as her sibling and looked at Harry with eager eyes.

"Yes, I can." Harry replied hesitantly. "Though it is a difficult series of runes to use, as it doesn't use human logic. For example, chaining the rune for thunder with the one for storms results in an effect that allows an object to interact with spiritual beings, such as ghosts."

Rose laughed. "That's amazing!" She crowed.

"The Goblins hate the fact that there's a race better at crafting weapons than they are." Blake added on.

"They've been trying to decipher and understand Fae runes for millennia!" Rose finished.

"Really?" Harry asked. "That's a surprise. In my world, while goblin-made weapons are considered the best, or are at least the most well known, dwarven crafted arms are very close in quality, and there is a lot of competition between the two races. The Fae are simply on another level, beyond both of them, but are generally forgotten about as they don't really interact with humans much. In fact, before I met them, it was believed that the Fae had died out several centuries ago."

Harry held up a hand before the girls could say anything. "I think we've gotten a little off track though, we were initially talking about my detentions with the new professor, and then we moved onto me teaching the two of you? If you have time now, we could get started on something here."

"But don't you have to go to your detention soon?" Rose asked.

Harry shrugged, a clone appearing at his side before walking off. "There, that's that taken care of. Now, what do you want to learn about?"

Rose and Blake looked at each other.

"Well..." Blake began.

"How about we start with something relatively simple?" Rose finished.

Harry considered it for a moment. "Elemental manipulation sound good to you two?" He asked.

The twins shared a look, before nodding to Harry. ""Fine by us."" They replied as one.

Holly alighted on Harry's shoulder as he sat up and began his explanation.

"Well, the first thing you do is understand what an element is..."

xxxxx

A knock came on Umbridge's door.

She smiled sweetly as she beckoned him in.

Harry's eyes quickly flickered around the room in an instant, taking in everything, and he found it distasteful to say the least.

The room was, in a word, pink. Not a dark or subdued pink, but a bright one, though thankfully not neon bright. There were shelves set up with decorative plates on them, magical images of kittens playfully moving about on them. There was Umbridge's desk, as well as one more, the one Harry assumed he was to sit at.

He had considered simply not bothering with the detention. After all, what could they really do to him? Would they expel him? Give him more detentions he wouldn't attend? Have a parent-teacher discussion with his alternate's mother and father?

Still, he had decided to send a single clone body. It wasn't like he didn't have plenty of them around doing other things, and he would admit to some curiosity regarding Umbridge. For one, the emanations coming off her soul were quite strange. She was aware she wasn't a 'nice' person, but she also believed that she did what was right, and often, what was necessary. It was a rather interesting feel, and it had piqued Harry's curiosity.

On top of that, Umbridge's flesh didn't seem quite... normal, like it was something else that was mimicking being human. Unfortunately, whatever it was, if it simply wasn't Harry's senses being contrary, it wasn't something Harry had encountered before, and so couldn't identify it.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, you're here." Umbridge simpered at him. "Take a seat there please, a quill and parchment have already been provided. Now, I want you to write some lines for me, nothing difficult. Simply repeat 'I must respect my superiors' on the parchment, and let's see if you learn your lesson.

Harry silently sat down, though his eyes did stray to the window, but that was mostly due to seeing Len sitting on the outside window ledge, looking in. The fact that Illya and Tamamo had also followed him, in astral form, and were now wandering the room with a mixture of disgust and curiosity on their faces let Harry know he wasn't alone with the woman.

This point was made even more firmly when a still astralised Jack sat herself in Harry's lap.

Hiding a smile, this particular body of Harry's took a seat, before examining the quill that Umbridge had prepared for him, and he had to stop himself from simply staring at the woman, wondering just how tiny her brain must be to believe that making him use a blood quill was a good idea.

Blood Quills were class C cursed artefacts, and were illegal to use unless signing official and magically binding documents of various descriptions. If she were found out using such a thing on humans – which Harry wasn't – then she could be facing anywhere up to twenty years in Azkaban depending on how she used it, perhaps even more.

"Well, get to writing, deary." Umbridge spoke up as she saw Harry examining the quill carefully. "That's a special quill of mine. Don't worry about ink... you'll find that you won't need any."

Harry already knew that no ink would be required, it would write his words in his own blood after all, though that was only true if he let it happen.

Truthfully, the Blood Quill should have absolutely no effect on Harry. In fact, literally nothing mundane should be capable of harming Harry, and only incredibly potent mystical spells or artefacts should actually affect him at all. Much like how Berserker Herakles' God Hand only allowed Noble Phantasms of A rank or above to harm him, Harry was immune to anything that didn't have the sheer conceptual power to overcome his resistance.

However, Harry very often cancelled out his own resistance, because, as masochistic as it may sound, pain was something he revelled in. It let him know that he was, in some small way at least, alive, that he was someone. The simple fact that he could feel pain meant that there was a him to register it, and with the increasing number of aspects running around his head, each one capable of manifesting externally, Harry kind of needed to set boundaries between 'me' and 'not me'.

Of course, just because he acknowledged pain like that, it still didn't mean he sought it out. The curse on the quill - which he was having to fight to stop it merging with the curses flowing through his body – was not potent enough, not by a long shot, to penetrate Harry's skin, and he was unsure if he really wanted it to do so.

Umbridge looked up when the scratching sound of quill on parchment stopped.

To her surprise, she found not one drop of Harry's blood on the parchment she'd set before him. Harry himself was scrutinising the quill closely, as if confused by it immensely. He turned to the Defence Professor and spoke.

"I think it's broken."

Umbridge paused for a moment, before taking the quill off him. She wasn't about to 'scribble' with it to check if it was working or not, that'd be stupid. No, she would simply give the boy one of the spares she'd brought with her, it wasn't likely that all of them would be broken.

With that in mind, she opened her desk drawer and retrieved another quill, putting the one Harry had returned to her away. Said boy was rather surprised at how many of the quills she had on hand, though he had made note of them when he'd detected them upon entering the room, as he didn't believe she was truly that stupid to believe she could give an adequate reason for having restricted items on her if she was ever caught.

Harry took the quill off her, before once more considering whether to actually let it pierce his skin. On one hand, he could simply walk out the room right now, completely ignore his detentions, and there would be nothing anyone could do about it, as there wasn't anything they could really do to punish him unless he went along with it.

On the other hand, as irritating as Umbridge was being, Harry was still curious what it was he was sensing from her that made him identify her as not human, and perhaps a little scare might provoke her into revealing a secret or two that would tell him what she was.

Of course, there was also the fact that Umbridge was a rather unpleasant person and Harry would get a rather sadistic joy out of scaring her senseless.

With this in mind, and feeling Umbridge's eyes on him, Harry began to write out the lines she'd told him to. This time, he forcibly cancelled out his resistance, letting the cutting curse, bound with the self-inking spell on the quill, penetrate into the back of his hand.

Without even looking, Harry could feel the smug satisfaction Umbridge's soul radiated when the quill began to write, and he also felt that satisfaction shift into confusion when she saw that the 'ink' was not red, but a black so dark it would but a void to shame.

That confusion turned into shock as the acidic qualities in his blood began to eat away at the parchment, smoking as it did so. Panic began to set in when the 'ink' began to shift and writhe, raising off the parchment, consuming it as it did so, before each letter grew in size, the smallest being around the size of a small dog, and the largest roughly twice Harry's height.

Umbridge scrambled backwards as Harry's curse creatures began to approach Umbridge, all of them horrifying to look at, and each one emanating a sense of pure evil and malice, though nowhere near the smallest fraction of Harry's true aura if he ever let it loose.

One that could only be described as some sort of 'Hell hound', with a mouth full of long, sharp teeth, eyes of eldritch fire, exposed ribs, and shifting flesh, snapped at her feet, as another, this one like a floating ribcage, with a long, serpentine spinal column hanging below it, and six arms, each one ending in a different appendage, human hand, bestial claw, cruel talons, and crab-like claw, hovered above her, bearing down from above.

"Am I doing this right, Professor?" Harry asked in his most innocent voice. "I wrote the words down, but for some reason, it seems that the quill is writing in my blood."

"Wha-WHAT!?" A quivering Umbridge managed to gibber out, her heart racing frantically in fear as she shook and cowered before the monsters surrounding her.

"It's just," Harry continued in his falsely naïve way. "My blood is a little strange, it's heavily cursed you see, and strange things happen when I bleed. It seems that the curses in my blood don't like being written on parchment like that, and I think they're a bit angry."

"Call them off! Call them off!" Umbridge shouted at Harry, though she froze when she saw Harry's innocent expression drop into one of total apathy and disinterest, at it scared her even more that it was directed right at her.

"Really?" Harry asked. "You want me to 'call them off'? But you were the one who made them appear, you're the one who made me write in my own blood, isn't this what you wanted?" He looked on, bored, as a claw trailed, almost gently, across Umbridge's skin, making the woman pale even further, her quivering becoming even more pronounced.

"I didn't want this!" Umbridge yelled back, feeling the oppressive weight of more than a dozen divine-level curses manifested around her, crowding her, and brushing against her body.

Harry took a few steps towards Umbridge, loosening his hold over his aura slightly, allowing his true nature to be revealed, even if only an infinitesimal fraction of it was allowed through. Regardless, it was still enough to make the curses around Umbridge seem like a newborn babe against an army of savage, veteran warriors.

"Remember then, my dear 'Professor', actions have consequences. If you push someone, they will push back." He whispered quietly, yet his voice carried easily to her ears.

Dolores Umbridge passed out then, the sheer malice and evil surrounding her being too much for her fragile, human mind to bear, and when she came to, she would find that she had mentally suppressed the events of the previous night, though when she thought of Harry Potter, her heartbeat would quicken, her skin pale, and she would find herself shaking for no apparent reason.

She resolved to try and find out more about the mysterious boy that had been summoned... but perhaps it might be more beneficial to watch him from a distance.

Yes, that sounded better, she didn't want to get caught up in Dumbledore's schemes after all, and her decision had absolutely nothing to do with any irrational fear she may have developed for pale, young boys with multi-coloured eyes, not a thing.

xxxxx

The next few days began to fall into something of a routine for Harry and his group.

In the morning, one clone of Harry's would go to the Great Hall for Breakfast, while one of his aspects, usually Serial Phantasm, would teleport to a muggle shopping centre and purchase groceries, with which Harry would cook that day's meals.

While one clone was going through the 'normal Harry Potter day', sometimes accompanied by Alt and V/V who were quite getting into the 'novelty' that was going to school, the rest of the Infinite Archive Army – as called by Illya and Sirius – would spend their time in the Chamber of Secrets, working on one project or another.

Sirius split his time between becoming better acquainted with Harry, and spending time in the school proper. Sometimes he tried talking to the 'alternates' of his friends, which had varied results, and other times he simply apparated around Britain, enjoying his freedom.

Harry got a few updates every now and then from Tyrant, who was having fun challenging whoever and whatever she came across, though she often complained about how weak they were. Tyrant was many times stronger, physically at least, than Dream or Destruction was, Harry's least physically inclined aspect, and even the scaled little girl with a penchant for mad science experiments had the equivalent of A++ Strength on a Servant scale, and that was without including enhancements like Reinforcement or Prana Burst. Really, it was little surprise that she was having such trouble getting a decent fight.

Anyway, on an evening, Harry took out one of 'his' girls to a fancy restaurant of their choice and made an evening of it, doing what they wished to do. Surprisingly, Tamamo didn't use hers to try and get into his pants, though she did have a fondness for more romantic settings, including walks along the beach, watching fireworks together, and sharing a candlelit dinner in a rather posh eatery.

Through the night, as Harry didn't actually require sleep, the schedule became a bit more varied. Sometimes he would play games with Jack, who stuck to Harry's side like glue, and seemed fond of the times she was sat in his lap as he read a story to her. Other times, he would be helping Holly improve on her transformations, coming closer and closer to human size. Another notable occurrence was when Len and Nel took him through the dreams of the castle's inhabitants, teaching him little tricks they knew, while also watching and commenting on various dreams – though it must be noted that Len looked somewhat pissed when they came across dreams which featured Harry in certain ways, mostly romantic or sexual.

Strangely enough, those particular dreams weren't limited to girls, but also a number of males, who were split between being incredibly embarrassed dreaming about another guy like that, or who believed that Harry was female, regardless of how often or vehemently he denied those claims.

Still, Harry was glad he'd learned how to duplicate himself, it was really helping prevent the damnable boredom he'd suffered in previous years at Hogwarts, and he would probably have been driven to slaughtering everyone in the castle if he'd been forced through that for just one more year.

xxxxx

Back home, in Fuyuki City, Liz sighed as she looked at her most recent piece of art, once again with a dragon theme to it, something she was starting to really become known for in the art community.

She twiddled with her brushes for a moment, before putting them down, furrowing her brow. The painting in front of her was beautiful, there was no denying that, and she had spent quite some time over getting every detail correct, every scale of its hide was perfect, and it looked like the ferocious dragon was about to tear its way off the canvas and devour the observer. Still, she felt it was missing something, just like she was.

"You could call him, you know." A voice behind her made her jump, and twirling around, her spear appearing in her hand, she came face to face with a smirking Zelretch.

"What?" She asked.

"You could call him." Zelretch repeated. "It's not that big of a deal for Harry to return to this world for a day or two. Heck, if it was a choice between seeing you sad and that entire reality being annihilated, you would be smiling, Harry does care about you an awful lot."

"I know that." Liz replied. "It's quite different to how things were for me in life. There I was given everything I could ever want and no one ever told me no, I was a spoiled bitch, and I deserved far worse than I got. Here, I'm still given pretty much anything I could want for... and yet, everything is so different. I'm so much closer with all of you than I ever was with my own family, Harry gave me lessons on 'Human Rights', and so many other things, and yet I still feel... like this, like something's not right, and I know it's not."

Liz dropped into a chair, sighing once again. "I'm too damn weak."

"No you're not." A voice at the door said, which turned out to be Fran. The monstrous 'bride' walked into the room, several text books in her arms. "You're stronger than I am, and more skilled too."

"Compared to Harry, I'm nothing. If there were a hundred thousand of me against him, Harry would be able to walk away without a scratch, and with barely any effort. He's leaving me behind, I simply can't grow as quickly as he can, I just can't! I'm no good for much more than art now." A single tear escaped from Liz's eye.

Fran came towards Liz and gently wiped the tear away, smiling fondly, if a little sadly, at the part-dragon girl.

"Like I said, you are stronger than me, so if you are being left behind like that, where am I?" Fran lowered herself to sit on the arm of the chair Liz was in and put a hand on her shoulder. "I've been using some of Harry's research notes on cybernetics to improve my own mechanical parts, even improving on my Noble Phantasms, and I'm not going to stop. I know I'll never be a match for Harry, but I don't care. I don't want to stand above Harry, but beside him, and for that I just need to be powerful enough to be a threat to his enemies, and that's a much more easily achieved goal, no?"

"I guess so." Liz sighed. "It still doesn't stop me feeling so damned pathetic though, I don't have mechanical parts that can be improved like you do, and exercise does nothing to improve the spell-flesh Servants are made from. You're an exception to the rule there, Fran, and I kind of envy you for it."

"Hmm." Zelretch drew attention back to himself. "I suppose this is a bad time to mention that Harry has a project going that would make you all many times more powerful than you are now, once it is finished of course." He grinned at the two of them.

"Really?" Liz asked, her eyes lighting up as she did so.

"I will say he's not having very much success yet, but you and I both know that Harry is not one to give up that easily, and he is also very... creative." Zelretch said. "So, of course he is going to succeed sooner or later, and with him, 'sooner' is a safe bet."

"Details, I want details." Liz insisted.

"All I'll say is that Servant class containers are very limiting, and can only truly hold a tiny portion of a Heroic Spirit's true power." Zelretch told them. "So think what would happen if you no longer required said containers to keep that fragment of yourselves stable and contained, just how powerful would you be as a complete Heroic Spirit?"

"That's what Harry is trying to do?" Fran asked with a shocked expression. "B-But that would put us on the level of a lesser god! Th-That's an immense amount of power, I don't even know if Harry is capable of that."

"It's not the power requirement that's posing a problem, it's stability." Zelretch replied. "Remember, on top of Heaven's Feel refilling his reserves every instant, Harry is constantly increasing his output as well. The issue he's having most trouble with is replicating the stability aspect of the class containers without the same limits, and he will not, under any circumstances, use his technique on you until he is totally sure that it's going to work, and not collapse by accident."

"A god, heh?" Liz grinned slightly. "I think I can live with that."

A hand was held out in front of her, and Liz blinked in surprise to see her own phone in Fran's hand.

"Go on then, give him a ring and invite him to your next exhibition, you know he'll make time for you." She said, getting a wry grin from the torture specialist.

Liz chuckled. "If I didn't know better, I might say you two planned out that routine just now." She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Whatever, it's not like it matters much. Now, let's see if Harry will answer his phone for me."

xxxxx

Sirius jumped in surprise when music suddenly started playing from within Harry's long coat, but then he recognised the ringtone of Harry's phone, 'The Dream Is Over' by Story of the Year.

A 'tail' of Harry's hair rose up and removed the phone from an inside pocket of his coat, bringing it to his ear and accepting the call. After all, the number of people who had his number was not a large one.

"Hello?" Harry spoke into his phone.

"Liz?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know, you're voice is certainly distinctive, and definitely pleasing to the ear. Perhaps you should think of a career in music, eh?"

He chuckled at her reply to that.

"Okay, I got you, one thing at a time."

"An art exhibition? Sure, I'll go, just tell me when it is and I'll be there, no problem."

"Right, got it, I'll show up."

"Okay, I'll see you this weekend anyway, maybe we can do something together? I remember how you loved that dragon reserve."

"Sure, sounds fine to me, see you there then. Bye."

Sirius couldn't help but ask. "Something up with the little dragon?"

"No." Harry replied. "She was just asking me if I wouldn't mind going to see an art exhibition of hers, and as you heard, I agreed. It'll be nice to see some paintings that don't walk around or argue with you, that's one thing I find very irritating about Hogwarts."

"Hmm." Sirius hummed absently. "So, what is it you're working on now?" He asked, gesturing to what Harry held in his hands.

"These? Right now they're little more than simple muggle in-line roller skates. When I'm done experimenting with them, I'm going to build a pair from scratch myself, but it's better to get a feel for them before diving head first into it." Harry shrugged. "Right now, I'm just experimenting with different runic arrays and seeing which ones work best."

He chucked one of them at Sirius, who caught it easily and looked closer at the wheels on the skate.

"That one has Greek arrays on it, and I think I'll use them for the surface-sticking, allowing them to go on just about any solid surface. The power arrays will probably be Fae runes, though I'm leaning towards Egyptian for the body of the skate, they're really good for durability." Harry told him, before shadows coalesced in his hand, revealing red gems roughly three times the size of his thumb. "I'll be using Mana Crystals as a power source, so these things are going to be fast."

Sirius snorted. "Adrenaline junkie." He muttered. "Still, they sound pretty cool. I don't think there's anything like roller skates, especially not powered ones." He frowned. "Now that I think on it, there really aren't all that many games and such in the Wizarding World, and things like gobstones aren't even that popular."

"Meh, none of my business, I'm happy with my research." Harry shrugged, hooking up one of the Mana Crystals to the arrays etched onto the roller skate in his hands.

A whizzing sound was the only warning Sirius had before a flying wheel almost took his head off and embedded itself a foot and a half in the wall barely two inches from his head.

"Hmm, control arrays need to be re-done, I wonder... Ah, that's right, I'm using a standard array, designed for humans!" Harry muttered to himself. "Using my own arrays should sort that issue out, but I'll tweak it as necessary. I'll have to reinforce the durability arrays as well, or simply use a tougher material..."

"Um, Harry, a little warning would have been nice." Sirius got his attention, before indicating the hole in the wall next to his head. "You know, when things are happening that might injure me."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "If that had hit you, it would have killed you instantly, not merely injured." He commented idly. "Don't worry though, as long as I can get to you quick enough, usually within a few hours, I can resurrect you before your soul has faded into death, a line you know I won't cross idly." He sighed sadly, wishing he'd been able to do that back in the Grail War with Illya, but his Sorcery had been too knew to him then, he hadn't really known what he was doing with it.

"Not the point I was trying to make." Sirius replied, eye twitching. He was fairly sure that Harry was simply messing with him, and he knew that Harry's reactions and speed were both great enough so that, if he'd wanted to, he'd have been able to snatch the wheel out of the air if it truly had been a danger to Sirius.

Then again, Harry might really have been so deep in 'Research Mode' that he wouldn't have noticed, and would have had to revive Sirius after taking a fatal hit from, of all things, a roller skate wheel.

A twitch of Harry's lips made Sirius roll his eyes and huff.

"Bloody arsehole." Sirius grumbled without heat.

Harry laughed out loud at that, before something seemed to get his attention, making him laugh all the harder.

"What is it?" Sirius asked. "Did something happen with the clone in the school above?"

Harry's laugh petered out and he nodded, before explaining exactly what he found so funny.

xxxxx

Up above, one of Harry's clones, the one going through the 'normal' day, was heading to the Great Hall for the evening meal, V/V and Alt at his sides to keep up appearances, though Harry was rather amused that no one had worked out he was doing something in secret. It seemed that now he was going through the motions of a regular student, he'd blended into the school as a whole, or blended in as well as he ever would there.

Upon entering the Great Hall, Harry immediately felt attention fall upon him, nothing unusual there, but two particular individuals seemed to be radiating a different sort of intent to the rest of his observers.

Instead of making his observations obvious by glancing their way, Harry used his plethora of other senses to discover who those two particular people were. It only took an instant, but when he discovered who it was, he could only chuckle, those two would undoubtedly provide him much entertainment.

He spread his senses out and saturated the Great Hall with them, going over everything with a fine-toothed comb, and soon came across what the two were up to. He could have read their minds, or even the intent in their souls, but it was much more amusing to do things manually.

The three of them took a seat at the Slytherin table, and, just as the evening meal was about to start, Harry shifted ever so slightly to the side.

A moment later and a cloud of pink smoke obscured Altrouge from sight.

Horrified looks came from the staff who knew of Altrouge's true name and nature at that, fearful of the retribution she may unleash if she was pissed off.

A moment later, when the smoke had dissipated, several of those professors didn't know whether to cringe or laugh, for they could now see Altrouge decked out in a Disney princess style pink dress.

She froze in place, her head turning mechanically to Harry.

"Did you do this?" She asked calmly.

Harry shook his head. "No." He replied, yet he didn't stop his eyes from flickering to a pair of red-headed twins at the Gryffindor table, an action that Altrouge caught.

"Harry." She said.

"Yes?" He asked.

"You are going to help me unleash hell on the ones that did this. You are going to make those prank wars between you and Zelretch look like little children who have no clue what they are doing. You are going to take all of that, and direct it at the ones responsible for doing this to me." She told him in an even voice that betrayed nothing.

"Are you sure you're not overreacting?" Harry wondered, his and Zelretch's prank wars did contain things that would kill regular humans after all.

She turned a deadpan look at him. "This dress is horrible, and even worse... it's pink!" She spat that last word out like a curse.

Ah, yes, Harry had forgotten, Altrouge really didn't like pink, did she?

'Hmm, probably best not mention they were actually aiming at me then.' Harry thought.