A/N The long awaited update is finally here! I'm sorry, but between chasing my toddler son around the house and work it's hard to get in a good chapter in time. I will leave a disclaimer on this chapter for future one's that says basically that all my work is un-Betaed so if you find something like grammar, spelling, or the usage of pronouns to be off, let me know and I'll fix it. On a related note, anyone that wants to be my Beta, send me a message.

Albus Dumbledore was not known to be a very patient person. Sure, most everyone saw the grandfatherly act that he was able to pull off more often than not, but there were only a select few individuals that knew that the infamous wizard hated to wait on anyone. He believed himself to be better than most, higher than the average wizard, and it infuriated him that things were not done to his liking. He expected most of the jobs to be done when he assigned them if not immediately after some other life threatening crisis; the fact that he would have to wait on anything like a normal wizard never truly entered into his mind. It was because of this attitude that he was rather miserable and getting increasingly angry sitting in his office doing absolutely nothing.

He slowly drummed his fingers against the mahogany desk before him, letting each digit strike the surface before pulling it back. The sound echoed in the empty round room for a moment and then disappeared into the stones of the school. His eyes were permanently fixed on the fireplace watching and waiting for the flames to turn green or for something to occur. He had been sitting here like this for what felt like hours, and what in actuality were only a few minutes. The source of his impatient attitude was a missive that was still open on his desk.

In answer to your repeated requests, the panel has not been able to convene since the initial inquiry into the young man's health and well being at school. Should you provide more details as to his first ten years, the process may move ahead more smoothly, until that time, it is more prudent to wait on the decision of the committee.

Sincerely,

Amicalus Orilius

Dumbledore stared at the words as if his very attention could divine more meaning into them than what was currently written. The committee had left Hogwarts some time before after questioning nearly every first year and second year student, several of the staff, and even the ghosts. He had thought that all of that investigating would give them all the answers that they needed to make a swift and decisive action, but again he was proven wrong. He was starting to really hate being wrong all the time.

The head of the committee had sent him a letter not one week ago in answer to his request that he be notified when the decision was made. Originally he had thought that the members would disappear from Hogwarts and he would get a letter the next day saying that he would retain full custody over the boy even from his muggle relatives. After two weeks of hearing nothing he had sent a nicely worded letter making sure that they still knew of his request. The answer had been short on actual information and long-winded in the old Victorian style that was still prevalent. Apparently the committee had some more questions about how Harry had been raised the last ten years if he was not with Dumbledore, as it seemed unlikely that the old man had raised the child himself.

Albus' usual answer of "he had to be hidden for his own safety" did not go over well and the increased requests for the boys current living conditions were getting worse and worse. He knew that he couldn't reveal too much about the boy's past and where he had grown up or he would never get any kind of control over the boy. His last attempt at controlling him was influencing who he was friends with and it only took a moment to look at the group that he surrounded himself with to see that the scheme had fallen apart spectacularly.

He rubbed his eyes a little and slipped his glasses down to the edge of his nose to get at the bridge. He could feel the old break acting up again and this time it wasn't because of the weather. Pushing the spectacles back up high on his face he turned his eyes away from the fireplace and towards the small tracker that had been placed on the invisibility cloak. He had heard from Molly that Ron planned to give the cloak back to Harry as a peace offering on the train back from the Christmas holidays. He had gotten a howler a few days later saying that the boy not only refused Ron's hand of friendship, once again, but that he slandered the name Weasley; the fact that Ron deserved a talking to for his own actions came no where near the mind of either adult.

The tracker was a small castle in the shape of Hogwarts that he could open up and see down into that laid out most of the floor plan of each of the levels. That was of course if the small glowing green dot ever moved, and so far it hadn't. The dot had stayed quite firmly in the tallest tower that he knew to be Gryffindor dormitories since the start of classes. He had thought he had seen it move once or twice, but upon further inspection he saw that it hadn't at all. What was even more worrying is that it would flicker once in a while and then come back as if nothing had happened; he consoled himself thinking that the wards around the castle were simply interfering with the magic and left it at that.

No, what was worrying the old man more than anything was the fact that his entire plan for Harry Potter seemed to have gone out the window some time ago. He had somehow gotten a hold of his first letter and sent back a rather curt reply saying that he would attend, this prevented Albus from having a reason to send Hagrid that would get the boy ingrained to him. Without the friendship of the giant, he feared the boy might gain some dangerous ideas about him and end up in Slytherin, or worse, Ravenclaw. The fact that he had ended up in Gryffindor like he was supposed to was a small victory, but that was overshadowed by his continued rebuffing of Ronald Weasley's friendship. The plan had been perfect to introduce the boys by not telling Harry how to get on the platform, but somehow he had anyway. Dumbledore was starting to think that maybe someone magical was helping him in some way, but that seemed preposterous as the wards around Privet Drive would have alerted him to any magical presence, even his own.

The fireplace flared green startling the old man out of his thoughts only briefly as he put on the grandfatherly look and smiled as a head slowly revolved around the fireplace to stop staring up at him. The fact that it was the bald man he was expecting made him smile genuinely. "Amicalus, a pleasure to see you once again. I hope that you are here to save me from the tedium of paperwork." He swept his arm to show the stacks of parchment giving a small chuckle; the fact that most of the parchment was completely blank never entered into the man in the fireplace.

"Of course, Albus. Thought you ought to know that we've been attempting to get in contact with Mister Potter's muggle relatives as you have told us before that it is there that he normally resides during the summer and winter holidays." If the man saw Albus' mask of happiness slip for a moment he wisely didn't say anything.

"Of what use could you to contact some muggles?" Albus chuckled a little and waved his hand in the air dismissing the entire affair. "I know of how to contact them if you let me know what you need. The wards that I placed around the house are quite specific about who can send mail and who may come onto the property."

The man in the fireplace nodded slowly. "Be that as it may, Albus, we have some questions about the boys upbringing that we need to be addressed." He seemed to look the side for a moment and then turned back. "I've also been told that his magical guardianship has been sealed."

This was news to the old man as everyone he talked to he made sure that they knew that he was the boy's magical guardian. The fact that it could have been differently didn't enter into his mind as he had taken steps to eliminate any other contenders. "I'm sure that the goblins are just being thorough. If I were to come down personally and speak with them…"

The man was nodding enthusiastically. "They're saying that they need a signature from the guardian in question to validate anything and release the files to us. It would also be of your benefit to speak with the muggles and get them to sign off on the change of guardianship as well, it would make the process a whole lot simpler for all of us involved."

The old headmaster didn't want to go anywhere near Privet Drive as the last interaction he had with Petunia Dursley ended up in her shrieking at him and nearly clawing his eyes out. He winced a little as he touched the small scar above his knee from where she nailed him with a vase of, oddly enough, petunias. "I'm sure that if I speak with the goblins on the matter we need not involve the muggles."

The man was already shaking his head. "It's rather a pickle that we've found ourselves in at the moment, Albus. The boy has representation in the muggle world, that is for sure, but it is the magical guardianship that is still in question over here." He paused for a reaction, but continued when he got none. "Everyone knows that you were awarded the boy, but putting him in the muggle world has added some complications. Dealing with their Child Services has caused a few eyebrows to be raised down here at our own Ministry."

Dumbledore shook his head slowly at the slowness of the Ministry as well as having to deal with the muggle side of things. He was much more knowledgeable about their government than most, but even he didn't know how long the bureaucracy would take. "Is there any way that the goblins could at least verify that he has the correct guardianship?"

The man's head in the fire slowly nodded. "Like I told you before, if you could get a signature from the guardian transferring custody over to you…" He seemed to shrug for a moment before looking over his shoulder at something and then coming back. "I'm told that the Child Services have similar custody issues. If you can get the guardians of Harry Potter to sign forms for custody over to you then you should be good. Although, we're still straightening out who exactly has guardianship at the time."

Dumbledore nodded slowly and closed his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before looking back into the flames and the eyes of the man there. "Very well, very well, send over the forms and I'll see about getting them signed."

"But Albus, no one knows…"

"I know of a way of contacting young Potter during the summer. I'm sure that I can arrange for his guardians to sign over custody for me, at least in the short term." Dumbledore was starting to get aggravated at the man in the fireplace and his tone showed it.

The man huffed a little indignantly, put out by the tone of the other man's voice. "Other than a few superficial things in the school the committee has been alarmed at the number of complaints being issued against your Potions Master."

Dumbledore was no longer really listening to what he was saying, simply waving his hands a little. His mind was already filled with ideas of how to get the Dursley's to agree to a change of custody. Perhaps exemplifying the danger that they would all be in should Harry stay with them for another few years. "Yes, yes, I'll be sure to take care of it, as always."

The man in the fire narrowed his eyes and huffed a little more. "We're also a little concerned over the mental stability of a few students. Most notably Mister Ronald Weasley and Mister Draco Malfoy, it seems that they-"

"Yes, yes, I'll take care of it." Albus nodded absentmindedly as he was already thinking about other things. He had his eyes fixed on the perch of his familiar and was no longer really listening.

"But Albus, you don't seem to understand. The boys both have a rather unhealthy obsession with-" The man started again, but he was again cut off prematurely.

"Good day!" Albus called as he waved his hand and cut the connection in the fire short. The man's head seemed to be surprised as it whirled away into nothingness. In a few short moments the entire office was silent except for the steady puffing and beeping of the various instruments thrown around the room.

"Now then…" Dumbledore rubbed his hands together a little as he looked over the parchment strewn desk. "I must draw up a binding contract, one that the Dursleys would agree to, but would also give me more control over Mister Potter." He shuffled a few pieces of parchment around on the desk for a moment before finding a blank one and started to pull it towards him. "I'll have to visit the Dursleys at some point." He shuddered slightly, unconsciously rubbing at his left knee under the desk while his right hand continued to scratch out on the parchment.

Unnoticed by Dumbledore a small painting in the side of the office held a single occupant. The young man within it shook his head a little and then stared around the office. Most of the portraits of past Head teachers were bound to keep the current Head's secrets, but it didn't mean that they had to like that person. Currently, Albus Dumbledore wasn't all that liked by many of the other occupants of the office, not that he took any particular notice of them at the best of times. This lone occupant however, was different from the rest. He looked over at Fawkes and gave a small slow nod before stepping to the left of his frame and disappearing.

XoXo

The fervor over the Quidditch match incident lasted for quite some time, many people asking questions and getting very few answers. What they did know was that someone had jinxed a bludger while it was still in the air, something that was thought to be incredibly difficult. When Dumbledore or any of the other teachers didn't offer up any explanation to the students, indeed it looked as if they were doing no investigation into the incident at all; most of the students came up with their own theories. These theories ranged from the plausible, such as a student using very advanced dark magic, to the completely implausible, such as the widely held belief that some poltergeist had infected the ball and was, even now, possessing it waiting for another victim. The excitement did have the added effect of adding two more people to a small group of friends.

One at least was more than welcome to join while the other one was more of a hanger on. Daphne and Hermione welcomed the addition of Marietta Edgecomb as the three girls now had more to talk about and there were interesting chats between the girls about theories of elemental transfiguration and the enchantment of objects. It was Cho that was barely tolerated as an addition to the little group. She rarely talked with the other girls instead preening her hair before a mirror or attempting to get the attention of Harry when he was around them. It was to the disappointment of his friends that he would still disappear at odd points, sometimes just before classes began, only to show up a few minutes before the bell without a real explanation.

After the last incident that Daphne found Harry on the second floor covered in black grime and grumbling about bringing food to someone that the group called an intervention. It was how the four girls and Neville found themselves seated in an unused classroom discussing the situation at length. While Daphne and Hermione showed concern for their friend, Neville remembered what happened at Halloween and knew that while their friend might disappear at odd times and showed some interesting behavior thus far, he could handle himself.

"But what if he's dabbling in some dark arts?" Hermione complained when Neville brought out his logical argument. She and Daphne had taken to pacing the floor in opposite directions, passing one another every few seconds in the middle of the floor and heading back the way the other had come.

"I don't think that he really has the personality for it, to be honest with you." Daphne spoke slowly as if she were still working things out in her own mind. "I've seen the older housemates of mine that I know for a fact are already using the Dark Arts and you can see a certain….darkness around them." She gave a small shudder that made her pause in her pacing.

Marietta was sitting next to Neville on a desk swinging her legs off the edge of it. "I don't think that's it. He's keeping secrets from us, that's for sure, but even in the short span of time that I've gotten to know him it seems like he's a very private person."

Neville nodded from where he was seated and looked around the room. "I think that he'll let us know what he's up to in due time, we just have to give him that time to come to us."

Hermione huffed and put her fists on her hips as she stared at the others. Her mouth had gone open clearly wanting to get into a nice long rant, but Cho's voice flitted from the corner of the room. "Do you think Harry would like my hair up or down?" The Asian Ravenclaw had perched herself on the unused teacher's desk with a hand mirror in one hand and the other moving her hair up and down as if trying out different hair styles.

The others looked at her for a moment before Marietta rolled her eyes and turned back to the others. "On a more important topic, do we actually know where Harry is at this moment?"

Neville shook his head slowly at first and then looked up when there was a banging noise. Hermione had resorted to kicking a nearby desk in frustration. "It'll do no good to really look for him, if he doesn't want to be found, he won't be."

Marietta was nodding again as Daphne and Hermione had taken up to pacing back and forth again, crossing in the middle of the room. "What we really need is a plan to talk to him if and when he wants to talk."

Neville shrugged and then looked up as there seemed to be a commotion outside the classroom door. He moved towards it and put a hand on the knob. "You can do what you want, but I think that we'll just have to give Harry a little time before he's really ready to come to us with whatever is going on." He pulled the door open and nearly had to jump back as Seamus Finnigan had come barreling down the hallway supporting a whimpering and pathetic looking form of Ron Weasley.

"It bit me, it really bit me…..oh, I think I'm going woozy….does this look infected to you?" Ron was holding up a large bandaged hand that had stained with blood. From the small bits of the flesh underneath that Neville could see it looked like it was starting to turn green.

Seamus had pushed his hand away. "Not here, Ron, we have to get you to Madam Pomfrey."

"What happened to you?" Neville had come out into the open and was starting to move in front of his roommates.

Seamus dodged around Neville, quickly pulling Ron away with him. "Nothing, nothing to worry about Neville. Ron just got bitten by something of Hagrid's, that's all. No need to worry." They had disappeared around the corner a moment later.

"I wonder what that was all about." Hermione and Daphne had come crowding around the entrance to the classroom and were looking out around the corner trying to get a glance at Ron and Seamus disappearing. Daphne was the one that was talking while Hermione had adopted a thoughtful look on her face.

"Hagrid's got a new pet." The voice startled the three and they nearly collapsed into a large heap of limbs. Turning up towards them they saw that Harry was grinning and standing leaning against a nearby wall.

Marietta giggled a little as she looked down at Neville, Hermione and Daphne trying to untangle each other on the floor. "Hey, Harry, where have you been?"

At the mention of Harry's name, Cho had jumped up off the desk that she was sitting on and had started a mad dash across the room to get towards the still open door. Marietta stuck out her foot and the Asian witch tripped, hitting the ground and sliding into the tangle of arms and legs that was Daphne, Hermione, and Neville. Marietta simply snickered as the pile of people went down once more and started to desperately fight against one another to get up, only causing another person to fall back down onto the pile.

"Ron's robes were singed around the bottom as well as the bite on his hand." Harry spoke softly and surely to Marietta as the others were still fighting on the ground.

"You think Hagrid's got a dragon? Uf…" Hermione tried to stand again only to have her ankles cut out from under her by Cho rolling into them. "Ouch…that's my foot, Daphne."

"How is it that you seem to know everything that goes on around here?" Marietta put her hands on her hips and glared at Harry, but he didn't seem to be affected by it at all. Indeed he hopped over his struggling friends and started to pace in the room.

"Oh, I'm not omniscient or anything like that, especially not the way Dumbledore pretends to be." He continued to pace as his friends were able to smooth themselves out and drag Cho back into the room to close the door. "No, no, my dad has faced zombies, the destruction of the entire universe and even Mara, a snake god, but dragons is a little new." He shook his head as he ran a hand through his hair impatiently. "That's not true, although the only time he actually met a dragon it turned out to be a fake."

"A fake dragon, how do you do that?" Hermione had sat down on a desk next to Neville. The boy was trying to help her to smooth down her robes causing them both to flush a little.

Harry waved away her comment a little and smiled. "Oh, it was just a guardian for some treasure or another. I think the way he tells it, the guardian was some sort of robot or another. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. What is important however is that I know what happened on Halloween."

"I thought we already knew about that." Daphne spoke as she was smirking at Neville and Hermione. The pair had tried to hide their flushed faces by turning away from one another. Hermione had stuck out her tongue when she saw that Daphne was smirking at her.

"Besides…" Hermione was trying to recover from the embarrassment that Daphne was still glaring at them for. Neville had ducked his head a little, but still glared at the girl from across the room. "We really should be studying for our exams you know."

Marietta shrugged while Cho went to sit on the top of a nearby desk. The Asian Ravenclaw had watched Harry pace back and forth like a hungry lion and was now preening in an attempt to catch his attention. "Most of the Ravenclaws have already made up schedules and such so you can always find a study group in the library if you want, even if they are several weeks away."

Hermione favored the girl with a smile while still trying to maintain her glare against Daphne. "We should set up a schedule for ourselves as well, a little study group of our own."

Harry waved his hand away as if the exams didn't matter to him at all. Indeed he didn't seem to be putting much thought into the school work of the others and continued to be pacing. "I've been studying for a while under some rather fine tutors so I think that I should be good. I can always show you some of the things that I've learned over the years, of course." The others looked rather enthusiastic about this, but he had already moved on. "There's something that I'm missing, some vital piece of information that should be falling into place around now, but it's not."

Neville shrugged. Harry's friends had gotten used to him thinking out loud by now and had really stopped answering him and letting him think. While it was true that sometimes Harry did enjoy a little going back and forth to get him thinking, his friends were sometimes lost in the jumble. "I wonder where Hagrid got a dragon egg from, if Harry is to be believed, they're supposed to be illegal in Britain."

"Completely hypocritical if you ask me. The Ministry employs things like Dementors that are a hundred times worse than any dragon and they ban dragons because muggles could possibly see them." Harry was shaking his head, but then stopped all together and cocked his head to the side a little. "Dementors guard Azkaban, something very valuable and if anyone got near to them, even Aurors they would be rather affected wouldn't they?"

Marietta didn't have enough experience with Harry to know where he was going with certain things. She had sat down on the edge of a desk and swinging her feet while she watched the others. "My mum works in the Ministry and she always tells me that Aurors hate going out to that place, something about how the Dementors affect everyone, not just the prisoners there."

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "Honestly, the rather inhumane treatment of prisoners in the magical world is appalling. The muggles have passed laws about treatment of even war criminals."

Neville shrugged as he continued to watch Harry seemingly stare at a random stone on the wall nearby. "I don't think that we should be worrying about the wider world at the moment. The incident at the Quidditch match still has people talking and wondering if someone is out to get you, Harry."

Harry shrugged and waved it off again as he started to pace. "There's always someone trying to kill me, most of the time it's from the shadows so it's nothing really all that new. The issue that I have with it is the fact that it was an amateur attempt that was doomed to failure from the beginning."

Marietta opened her mouth to protest, but at a look from Daphne she seemed to think better of it. "What do you mean that it was an amateur attempt? And just how many times has your life been in danger exactly?"

Harry actually flushed a little and wouldn't meet Daphne's eyes. "Not that much, I'm sure. You have more danger in falling off a broom or a stray curse hitting you while at home than I've gotten into. As to your other question, the assassin, if it was his intention to kill me, it wasn't very smart to do it at a Quidditch match in full view of all the teachers and students. They didn't seem to be all that concerned about who they hurt." He pointed to Marietta and Cho. Cho was still preening herself and trying to catch Harry's eye while she brushed out her long black hair over her shoulder.

Daphne nodded thoughtfully while the others looked a little shocked at the reasoning that Harry was showing to them. "There was very little cunning involved in it. If someone wanted to hurt you that resided in the school itself, all they had to do was attack you while you were walking to or from class, or even while you were just with us. As first years, we don't have that much magical knowledge to fend off a really dark attack which the Quidditch match surely was."

Neville nodded along with her explanation and then picked it up as well. "Weasley is going off on how it had to have been Malfoy, but that's just ridiculous. To force a bludger like that to do something that it wasn't designed for would take a seriously powerful wizard, or some really dark magic."

"And as I was pointing out to these knuckleheads before you arrived Harry…" Daphne snickered as Neville and Hermione both stuck out their tongues at the pronouncement. "….there's a feeling for dark magic and those that have used it before. Malfoy's clean for the time being, but I don't doubt that by third year he'll be dabbling in it at home, if not sooner."

"The only other culprit, according to Weasley and Finnigan, has to be Professor Snape." Neville was listing off as he moved to stop Hermione from pacing along with Harry. He put his hand on her shoulder and guided her back to the desk where they sat down and leaned against one another.

Marietta was the one that shook her head this time. "Just because Snape hates Harry because of his father doesn't mean that he's going to try and kill him. Besides, he wouldn't be a Slytherin if he did it that way, would he?"

Hermione seemed deep in thought and looked up at the mention of Slytherin. "Whoever that is trying to hurt Harry isn't being subtle about it, it's like they want everyone to know what they're doing."

"That pretty much rules out all of Slytherin then, doesn't it?" Neville asked with a grin to Daphne. She stuck her tongue out at him in response. "They wouldn't do it obviously and instead work from the shadows or have someone else take the fall if they are caught."

Daphne was tapping her finger against her chin. "While it's true that most Slytherins would operate that way, it's possible that they want the glory to themselves. They want to make sure that everyone knows who did it and why. Killing Harry would be a huge boon for any dark family that once supported the Dark Lord, so if they could prove that they did it, then all the more prestige to them."

"Even if that's true, killing Harry would bring the might of the Ministry down on top of whoever did it, especially right now. The smart thing would be to wait until the tide of public opinion turns against Harry before making a move." Marietta shrugged at the looks of confusion that she got from the others. "People love a hero, but the masses like to read trashy novels about heroes being torn down and made into villains."

"I have no doubt that it'll happen just like that." Harry's voice startled a few of them since they hadn't remembered that he was still there. His eyes had a small tinge of gold in them as he spoke. "It'll probably be over something stupid and easily fixable, but the damage will be done."

Marietta groaned and rubbed at her forehead for a moment before shaking her head. "We're not really getting anywhere at the moment with the Quidditch incident." She sighed and looked around the room. "Should we start to study then or did Harry here want to talk about Halloween again?"

Harry shrugged. "I was only thinking about the fact that while everyone was running away from a troll, there was someone heading up to the third floor corridor."

"The one that assures us a horrible and gruesome death?" Daphne perked up a little at this. "Come on, I'm game."

Hermione giggled at her friend and shook her head. "No, Daphne, we're not going to go off and get us all killed….again. The troll was bad enough."

Neville had gone white at the mention of death and was shaking his head quickly. "I can't believe Dumbledore would tell us all that. It's like asking for trouble."

Harry chuckled. "I personally think that he's loosing a little grip on reality. He forgot that teenagers are prone to go where they're told not to."

Daphne giggled and shook her head. "Nah, I bet he wants us to go after whatever is there. I wouldn't doubt that some of the seventh years have already tried."

Marietta nodded her head slowly and then dropped it down to her chest as if in embarrassment. "I heard a few in the common room talking about trying to get up there. Apparently there's a locked door and something rather large and ferocious on the other side."

Neville snapped his fingers as he suddenly had a thought. "That's what Weasley was talking about. He was going on and on about some three headed dog that he and Finnigan had seen one night while running from Filch."

Harry groaned and put his face in his hands. "I can't be sure, but I'm going to be blamed for this somehow." He paused and then shook his head. "No….no one is that stupid….are they?"

"What are you thinking, Harry?" Daphne leaned forward a little on the desk and watched him intently. The others followed suit, Cho continued to preen and part her hair in different styles, still staring at Harry wantonly.

"Weasley gave me a package at Christmas, said that it came from someone else, a family heirloom is what he said. I have many of my family's former possessions except for a handful that had been confiscated by the Ministry or Dumbledore after their deaths. If Weasley and Finnigan were sneaking around after hours, I wonder if they were trying to entice me to do so." The others simply didn't have an answer for what was going on, but they did know for sure that it had to deal with the third floor corridor and it wasn't good.

Neville was thinking about something that was said before and turned towards Marietta thoughtfully. "You just said that some older students had figured out where the door was, but couldn't get past it, right?"

Marietta nodded slowly. "They kept going on and on about some wards being around the door and not knowing enough to get through them, why?"

Hermione snapped her fingers and turned towards Neville. "That can't be right though, Weasley and Finnigan have been through the door, how else would they know that the room contained a three headed dog?"

Daphne stood up and was slowly mirroring Harry still pacing. They would move to the center of the room and then break off towards the opposite sides of the room. "If that's true then whatever wards are around the door must be some kind of monitoring ward. Maybe it works on some kind of recognition signature."

"With Weasley and Finnigan keyed in, for what purpose? No, we're missing something bigger here." Harry continued to pace as he ran his fingers through his hair. It was a nervous habit that he had picked up from his father sometimes while he was thinking. "Missing, Missing, what's missing? We have the people on the board, but not the purpose."

Daphne sighed, shaking her head as she rubbed her temples with her index fingers. "We're not getting anywhere fast with whatever this is. I suggest we table the entire thing for the moment and study for what we do know to be coming up."

The group groaned, even Cho seemed to pick up on what the Slytherin was asking the group to do. "I suppose you're right." Hermione slid down off the desk and looked around the classroom. "I guess this is as good a place as any. We should start meeting up here every day until exams so that we can revise."

XoXo

Weasley and Finnigan were missing in class the next day and while many Gryffindors were a little unsettled by their disappearance, the teachers seemed confident about what was going on. McGonagall assured everyone that the two first years were perfectly fine and just in the hospital wing for an unexplained ailment. The only information that Harry or his friends could get was that the two boys in question had been helping Hagrid on the grounds when they were injured. Since it was so close to what Harry knew about the dragon, there was little doubt in the minds of the close friends that one or both had been bitten or worse by the dragon.

The group kept up their studies in the new room that they had dubbed their own. It wasn't long before other students began to notice that members of at least three different houses were all meeting together in the same classroom to study. Hufflepuffs felt a little left out of the small group of friends, but were willing to come and study with them for the time being. Harry was knowledgeable about a number of subjects even if sometimes his mind would wander with his mouth and it would take some time to get back to the subject at hand. One time he had gone off on a lengthy discussion with a muggleborn Hufflepuff about the intricacies of space travel given that his father works for the European Space Agency complete with hand drawn diagrams on the floors of the classroom.

If the disappearance of the dragon was in question, the entire student population was favored with a show that Saturday. Since it was warming considerably a few people had gone out onto the grounds to enjoy the weather after doing their homework. Harry and his friends had finished up their essays in the early morning hours in the library before heading out of the castle to enjoy the sunshine with the rest of the castle. The Weasley twins were throwing pieces of bred and a large red ball out into the lake and a tentacle would pick up the ball and throw it back after a while. The four girls shed their robes displaying their legs while the boys simply lay down on their backs and stared up at the sky.

"It really is rather nice this time of year up here." Hermione pulled off her shoes and socks, sticking them together as she flexed her toes into the grass. Daphne had already done the same, tucking her feet up under her skirt while Marietta and Cho were still in their Mary Janes. "I hope that the weather holds, I would hate to have to go back to wearing such heavy winter wear."

Daphne stuck out her tongue a little. "At least you didn't have to worry about fur cloaks all year around like I've heard of some of the other schools."

"Really, I did a comprehensive study of-" Hermione's voice was broken off by a ferocious roar behind the group along with several other hurried voices.

"It's no good, stunners quickly!" The voice was gruff and a moment later the area around Hagrid's cabin was alight with red lights shooting off in all directions.

Harry had already hopped to his feet, but was staying where he was out of respect for Hagrid as well as the possibility of getting hurt. After the bludger incident he had tried to explain to the girls that these sorts of things just happen, there was no need to worry about the fact that he was almost killed. The girls on the other hand had other ideas and were starting to watch him like a hawk to be able to keep him out of danger. This didn't stop him from wandering around the castle by himself or his uncanny ability to slip out of their sight for only a moment and seem to get a day's work done. For now, Harry was going to abide by their threats and leave the heroic stuff for later, when it was usually most needed.

"What's going on?" One of the Weasley twins had come back up with the soaping wet Quaffle tucked under his arm while the other was still flinging the rest of a loaf of bread out to the Giant Squid. A small crowd had gathered near the hut, but no one was willing to get too close to it.

"It's the dragon of course." Harry spoke with confidence, but no one outside his usual friends gave him any mind. They had gotten used to his cryptic remarks and odd insights in the past. Hermione and Neville had also started to notice the light glow of his eyes when he was saying things that seemed to be true.

"Cor she's a big one." The gruff voice was back, but this time it was augmented by other shouts and grunts. In a moment the owner of the voice had come around the edge of the hut carrying what appeared to be a large snake that trailed away from him towards the back of the hut.

"That's Charlie!" The twin nearest to them exclaimed. Indeed the young man looked a lot like the other Weasleys that they had met previously with a shock of red hair and broad shoulders. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt that showed off a shiny burn on his right arm and a few scars that crisscrossed his back. Some of the boys could actually feel a few older girls swooning at the sight.

"Charlie?" Hermione knew that there were other Weasleys, but to be encountering one was another thing entirely.

"Yeah, one of our older brothers. There's Bill, Charlie, Percy, us, Ron, and our little sister Ginny." The twin that had been at the shore had come up behind them and was shielding his eyes from the sun to get a better look down towards the cabin. "He's usually off at the Dragon preserve in Romania though, wonder why he's here?"

Neville rolled his eyes as Hermione palmed her face. "Don't even say it, Harry." Her voice was muffled through her hand, but she seemed to already know that Harry wore a triumphant grin.

Sure enough after a few minutes Charlie had emerged from behind the hut fully with three or four other men and one woman carrying a long green scaly body. The head was being supported on a levitated bed that looked to be about three times the size of a normal Hogwarts four poster. After the dragon came a crying Hagrid being comforted by Dumbledore with soft pats on the shoulder and the large upper arm. The strange party made a show of moving through the crowds of students, even though the students had parted back some twenty feet away from the moving dragon, and going down to the gates of the school. Once past the gates the Headmaster produced something from within his robes that caused the dragon and all who touched it to disappear and in brief flash of light.

"Someone's going to be blamed for it." Daphne sighed as she looked between the crying Hagrid and the castle behind them. "I'm sure that someone blabbed, but I can't imagine Finnigan or Weasley to do such a thing."

Weasley One had scowled at her declaration, probably because he didn't realize that she was there at first. "Probably Malfoy, the git. He's been slinking around our brother for several weeks now."

Daphne held up her hands in defense. "Come on, boys, you know that not everyone is a git like Malfoy, same as not every Gryffindor is brash and quick to jump to conclusions like your brother." She was trying to discretely point to Harry behind his back, but everyone seemed to get the idea.

Weasley Two deflated a little and waved off his brother. "Yes, Yes, we all know about Ronnikins delusions of grandeur. Mum seems to think that it's because of the Boy-Who-Lived bedtime stories."

Weasley One snapped his fingers and looked a little anxious. "You don't think we're going to have something similar happen next year with Ginny."

Hermione gave a small giggle as Harry slapped his face with his hand and ran it over slowly. "At least that'll be the last of your family into Hogwarts." He paused and looked up at the grinning twins. "Right? There's no hidden Weasleys that we should be worried about, right?" The look of innocence and confusion as well as the shrugging of shoulders did nothing to calm the nerves of anyone present.