Ignition - Harry Potter.

Last Episode: "Yeah, well it's just an old story, nobody knows if it's true or-"

"Sirius?" Harry pressed when the man froze, "What's wrong?"

"Finish your homework," Sirius ordered as he launched himself to his feet, "I have to go to find a book".

IGNITION

"Ah ha!"

Coughing slightly as he pulled the book from the shelf, Sirius Black blew away the dust covered it and dropped it down on the desk he'd cleared off, staring down at the dark blue cover as his fingers reached out to brush across the symbol on the front.

It'd been so long since he'd seen this book, he'd honestly believed his mother had burned it just to spite him when he'd fled to live with James, just to ruin the memories he had of his grandfather reading from it for him and Regulus when they were just children. Sirius wouldn't put it past his mother to do something like that, she had always been a cruel heartless hag.

Cracking the book open and scanning the table of contents, he sighed and started skimming through the book listlessly. Harry was on the way to Hogwarts right now, he'd agreed not to go see his godson off purely because Harry had assured him it was fine, and in a way he was glad that it gave him the chance to continue his search. He was so close; Sirius could just feel it.

He knew it was this book, it hadn't been the other four possibilities so it had to be this one. He just had to find that story first, which would be easier said than done, because once he found the story only then would he be able to continue his search for more information for his godson.

He'd let Harry down so much already, chasing after Wormtail instead of taking Harry himself, letting Wormtail escape two years ago instead of taking Harry and just running. He wouldn't fail him again, not if he wanted to be able to look at himself in the mirror ever again, not if he-

Freezing as he stared down at the familiar drawn illustration, Sirius let his fingers trace the lines absently before slowly tearing his eyes from it to the title of the story opposite. "Oh Harry," he exhaled in fear, the memories coming rushing back to him with the force of a charging hippogriff, "This is bad".

Pushing himself to his feet, Sirius looked around the library before getting back to work. If any library could have more information on dark magic than the Black family library, then it would have to be the Department of Mysteries or the library of his 'beloved' cousin Malfoy. He'd find more information for Harry, his godson was going to need it.

"This is really bad".

IGNITION

"It's called 'The Quibbler', Daddy owns it".

Barely pausing to exchange a glance with an equally confused Neville, Harry reached out to accept the magazine Luna Lovegood was holding out to him.

"Uh thanks," he mumbled hesitantly as the blonde pulled out another copy from her handbag and started reading.

He hadn't been sure of what to expect when Ginny led him and a lost-looking Neville into the same compartment as the girl she'd called 'Loony Lovegood', but now that he thought about it her name definitely gave it all away.

"Your friend might like it if you don't want to read it," Lovegood added absently, not pulling her head out of her copy of the Quibbler. "The one with the mane," she clarified when Harry glanced at Neville in confusion, "The smart one".

"Oh yeah, Hermione. Probably will," Harry agreed quickly, "I'll give it to her when she gets back from her prefect meeting".

If she came back from the prefect meeting, while Hermione had definitely been less cold around Harry after her little revelation in the kitchen those two long weeks ago, she obviously wasn't ready to accept him as he now was. And he had been quite bluntly informed by Ron that he wasn't going to be forgiven until he publicly apologised to the red-haired boy, because Ron starving his owl – albeit accidentally, the boy's time having been capitalised by Mrs Weasley's cleaning mission – was something that Harry needed to apologise for.

Not that he had any intention of apologising to anyone – aside from Mrs Weasley who'd been surprisingly understanding – any time soon.

Glancing down at the flashing and changing words on the magazine's cover, Harry tilted it towards Ginny and Neville, showing them the cheerful 'Minister Denies Working for Extra-Dimensional Beings' title. As Ginny muffled a giggle into the palm of her hand, he flicked open the magazine to the contents page, grateful that Lovegood wasn't looking as he grinned openly at the names of some of the articles. No offence to Luna Lovegood or her father, but Harry got the idea that Hermione wouldn't use this magazine for more than fuel in the Gryffindor tower fireplace, and he hadn't even read more than the article names.

"So Harry," Neville began hesitantly as the silence dragged on, "What did you do for your birthday?"

Harry blinked. The Dursleys had gone to see a movie, and then they had gone to the most expensive restaurant in Little Whinging after buying Dudley the latest version of the gaming console he played on. On the flip side of the coin Harry had been locked in his bedroom because the Dursleys hadn't wanted him 'destroying' the house while they were gone, thankfully they'd only used the original lock so Harry had been able to use a makeshift lockpick to get out (like the Twins had taught him after their rescue mission before second year) and have a proper meal.

"Not much really," he dismissed slowly, "What about you?"

Neville lit up excitedly. "Guess what I got?" he said quickly, Harry's fellow Gryffindor looking like he could keel over from excitement anytime soon.

"Another Remembrall?"

"No, although I could use another one," Neville admitted sheepishly, "I put it down somewhere and I can't remember where. This year my Great Uncle Algie got me this!" he exclaimed, pulling a grey little cactus in a pot out of his bag. "It's Mimbulus mimbletonia," he announced proudly, cradling the pot against his chest carefully, "It's really, really rare".

It was also really, really ugly, Harry thought. The grey was the same colour that fruit turned when it went rotten, and instead of spines like a normal cactus it was covered in huge pulsating boils. All in all, it looked like some kind of sick diseased organ, and not at all like something Harry would want to put in his garden. Neville seemed to think it was beautiful though, if the look on his face was any indication, then again Harry's friend was an aspiring herbologist so maybe he saw something golden in the ugly plant. Still, Harry was quite happy to keep it as far away from him as he could get it, there was no justification for having it pulsate like that, it was just wrong.

"Does… does it do anything?" Ginny asked hesitantly.

"Yeah! It does tonnes of stuff!" Neville agreed eagerly, shoving Trevor into Harry's hands suddenly. "It's got an amazing defensive mechanism, hold on," he murmured as he searched through his bag again to pull out a quill. "Watch this," he said slowly, tongue sticking out between his teeth as even Luna Lovegood's eyes peered over the cover of her magazine curiously, "Three… two… one".

Jabbing the plant roughly with the pointed edge of his quill, Harry barely managed to clamp his eyes and mouth shut as a thick gooey green liquid promptly exploded from every single boil on the cactus to spray all over the room. Oh Merlin… the gunk was warm.

"Sorry," Neville rasped out as Harry heard a disgusted spitting sound from Ginny's corner of the compartment, "I didn't think it would be so… don't worry, Stinksap isn't poisonous, I think. I've never tried that before, sorry?" he tried again as Harry dropped Trevor onto the seat between them and tried to wipe the 'Stinksap' from his face as best as he could. "Sorry? Uh here".

Sitting still as he felt a cloth being rubbed over his face, Neville trying to make up for his mistake, Harry hesitantly opened his eyes only for them to water immediately at the sheer stench of the aptly named Stinksap. "I hate you," he said seriously as he grabbed the cloth off Neville and wiped his mouth off, "I really hate you".

"Sorry?" Neville offered.

"Harry, I- oh… is this a bad time?"

"Err," was all Harry could say as every head in the compartment turned to stare at Cho Chang, the beautiful girl standing in the doorway looking at them all like they'd just climbed out of a slimy lake somewhere to terrorise the local campers.

The girl shrinking back as Ginny moved, Harry watched as she stepped back out of the compartment and offered him a forced smile as he imagined the stench reaching her nose, "I just wanted to say 'Hi', so uh hi? I should go".

As the door shut behind Cho, Harry stared at it in shock. That… that hadn't gone how he'd planned it to go at all. Harry would have hoped that Cho could have walked in them laughing at some cool joke someone had made, instead he was covered head to toe in Stinksap surrounded by an equally covered Ginny, Neville and Luna. Okay sure, Neville and Ginny were cool people by his own standards, but the situation was far from what he would have ever wanted anyone to catch him in.

"Oh I give up!" Ginny exclaimed suddenly, "Scourgify! Scourgify!"

Breathing in a sigh of relief as the Stinksap vanished immediately, Harry gagged for a moment before pulling out his wand and quickly casting an air freshening charm to clear the air enough to breathe properly. "Neville," he began slowly, the boy flinching away from him and shifting his grip on the cactus as if to protect it from Harry, "Never do that again".

"Right. Sorry?"

"That was fun," Luna piped up suddenly, making the three of them exchange silent looks again.

"Still…" Neville said awkwardly, "Not even Hogwarts has a Mimbulus mimbletonia, I can't wait to show Professor Sprout. We might even be able to breed it".

"That's great, Neville, it really is," Harry agreed simply. He may hate the plant on equal terms with Draco Malfoy now, but at least Neville was enjoying it. "How long do Prefect meetings normally go for?" he added, glancing towards the door that had remained shut behind Cho.

"Percy said they lasted around an hour or something," Ginny explained. "He was always so smug that he got to take minutes for the full hour, like there's no such thing as a Dicta-Quill that writes down exactly what everyone around them says," she muttered with a roll of her eyes before pausing to study Harry. "But if you're waiting for Hermione and Ron to show up you might be disappointed. Ron's… well Ron's Ron, the only person more stubborn than him is Mum. And Hermione doesn't know what to think, and since this isn't something she can look up in the library…"

"She'll want to be alone while she tries to rationalise an answer," Harry finished for her, "Hermione's been my friend for four years, I know her pretty well," he clarified when Ginny blinked at him in shock. "After the Yule Ball last year she would 'allow' me to sit beside her so long as I was dead quiet while she brooded over Ron's behaviour, I tried to tell her that he was just being a git but she was certain that there was some kind of rational explanation for everything".

"Well, I think she's beginning to realise that you were right," Ginny admitted quietly, leaning forward as if to tell him a secret. "At night we would talk, at first it was just me talking about things like Hogwarts but after you got there we talked about you a lot. I won't betray her trust by telling you everything, but I think she's beginning to understand what you've been saying since you came to visit".

That… that was good, Harry realised as Ginny leaned back in her seat and turned to strike up a conversation with Luna. He'd missed his best friend over the past two weeks, it didn't matter that they were both helping Mrs Weasley clean Grimmauld Place without magic, even when in the same group they weren't talking and Harry really missed having her around. And with Sirius trying to find something in the Black library, having to wage a cleaning war of his own against the dust, curses and sentient books in the library to find the single book he swore (rather crudely) had the information that Harry needed about his gift, Harry had been feeling more alone than ever. Ginny and the Twins were great to talk to, but he and Ginny only had Quidditch in common and the Twins were too dedicated to working on their joke products to be able to stop and talk to him. And Harry would never lower himself to try make conversation with Lupin or the other Order members, so they were right out.

Relaxing back into his chair as he watched Neville cooing softly over his mimbletonia and Ginny and Luna talking quietly to each other, Harry shuffled over so he was leaning against the corner and let his head fall back as his eyes drifted shut. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, he and Sirius had brought a crate of butterbeer up to his godfather's room and Harry had been treated with stories of Sirius' own fifth year. While tales of the Marauder's pranks had gotten repetitive quickly, Harry had soaked up the stories of his father's many attempts to win over his mother, he loved listening to stories about his parents and thankfully Sirius loved telling them. It had been two in the morning when Mrs Weasley finally crashed their little 'party' and ordered them both of them to bed, Harry being too tired to argue as the Weasley Matriarch promised to wake them both up in time to get ready to catch the train.

He'd dreamed of his parents last night, well more nightmares than dreams, every time he tried to reach for them they died in a flash of green light.

He hated sleeping sometimes.

IGNITION

"Tobias Fetch. You are under arrest for the murder of the Minister for Magic, Julius Baggins, and for the liberal use of dark magic both during the murder and not".

Sneering, the red-haired man backed away from the Aurors, hands empty as he clenched them at his sides. "I didn't kill anyone, Victor, and I can give the memories to prove it!" he shouted, "Can you give memories though Victor?" Tobias continued smugly, "You are the only so-called witness to my apparent crime after all".

"I will not allow you to spread your lies, Tobias," 'Victor' snapped, Harry blinking in shock at the similarities he could see between the two men who looked as if they were brothers. "You have murdered the Minister, and you must pay for your crime".

"You mean you murdered the Minister and I'm just the unlucky person you're blaming for it?" Tobias countered, betrayal burning through Harry's chest at his words.

Victor blinked. "Well yes," he admitted simply, none of the Aurors batting an eye as they kept their wands trained on Tobias, "Baggins was not fit to lead us, he had to be replaced. And you're the perfect scapegoat, your lot have too much power, you're beyond the law and things cannot be allowed to remain that way whether you are truly 'Chosen by Magic' or not. It's nothing personal, brother, but I cannot have you ruining everything that I have set out to do".

Looking around slowly at the interior what seemed to be an expensive house, Harry watched as Tobias let out a dark snort and strode around the divan, glancing over the gathered Aurors and his traitorous sibling. "How many men did you bring?" he asked slowly, "I only count fifteen, and surely you know that fifteen men and yourself have no chance of killing me. And I do assume you aim to kill me, since bringing me before a trial would only allow 'my lot' to take over and ensure it to be fair".

"You are an extremely dangerous fugitive from justice, I have been authorised to use any means necessary to ensure you're dealt with," Victor confessed with a smirk, "There's no spell that the Ministry would deem… Unforgiveable… if I were forced to use it on you. Now surrender, and make this easier on yourself".

Tobias let out a humming noise as Harry watched him unclipping his cloak and dropping it to the floor, already knowing that Tobias would stand and fight to his last breath rather than let his brother win. "How about, no," the man deadpanned.

Snap.

As a fiery explosion tore through the middle of the gathered Aurors, Tobias moved immediately, dodging out of the way of the counter-attack even as fire flew from his raised hand in a beam. His eyes glowing a bright orange-red as pained screams filled the air, another explosion erupted with a snap of the man's hand, the far wall flying apart under the force as Tobias dove into the smoking hole without hesitation. Conjuring a massive fireball between his hands as he ran into what seemed to be a bakery, Tobias whirled around and hurled it through the hole to incinerate the Auror that tried to follow him through. The fire spreading into the wooden building easily, the red-haired man didn't hesitate to aim his fireballs and explosions to kill the traitorous Aurors, ignoring the screaming muggles as they ran.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A scream catching in Harry's throat, he watched as the green light of the Killing Curse leapt through the hole in the wall as Tobias tried to flee the bakery, striking the door and causing it to explode, Harry gasping in pain as a shard of wood embedded itself in Tobias' stomach and a matching sensation stabbed through his body.

As the red-haired man limped out of the bakery and collapsed to the ground, fire burning across his shoulders just like Harry's fire could do, Victor followed him with his wand aimed straight at his injured brother's heart. "You killed the Minster!" the man shouted, clearly playing it up for the terrified crowd, "You killed the Minister! And now you must pay! AVADA KED-"

The traitor was cut off as the ground beneath his feet shot up, a pillar of earth slamming into his stomach and throwing him back into the burning bakery, Harry spun around to see four hooded people approaching the downed Tobias through tear filled eyes. "Relax brother, it will all be over soon," a woman's voice assured him as he shook, fire burning the wooden stake to a crisp and allowing blood to pour freely from his stomach, Harry choking on a sob as pain spread through his body and he fell to his knees.

Swallowing to try clear the blockage in his throat, Harry froze as glowing fiery eyes locked onto his own and choked noises fell from Tobias' mouth as the dying man opened it to speak.

"Calm yourself, brother," a man said, a dark-skinned hand extending from the robes of one of the hooded figures, gently smoothing down Tobias' messy hair.

"London… will burn," Tobias rasped out, eyes not leaving Harry's.

"Harry?"

"London will burn… for what they have done".

"Brother?" another woman asked, Harry realising it was too late to do anything as the pain bled away until he just felt numb.

"Harry?"

As Tobias went limp, the fire in his eyes going dark, the four figures exchanged silent looks before as one their heads raised to look in Harry's direction.

"HARRY!"

Eyes snapping open as he suddenly felt like he was falling, Harry was treated to a yelp of pain as he jerked forward and his hand hit something soft, his knees going limp as the earlier pain came back with a vengeance to seize at his stomach and cramp his muscles. Clutching at his stomach as he struggled to breath in, his throat feeling like it had closed off, he felt more than heard someone dropping to their knees in front of him.

Flinching as a hand came down on his back to rub gentle circles and another landed on his cheek to gently caress it with their thumb, he felt someone lean over to whisper in his ear. "It's okay Harry," the voice murmured as the gentle touches somehow helped him control his heaving shoulders, "It's okay. It was just a dream, you're safe now, you're awake now, the Striped Hypnohorns can't touch you anymore".

Focusing more on the voice than on the words themselves, Harry felt himself miraculously begin to calm down, the air coming easily into his lungs as he breathed deeply and glanced up to see Luna Lovegood kneeling before him as her hands moved from his back and check to rub at his upper chest. As Luna faltered for a split second, staring into his eyes in shock, Harry felt the burn of his powers shining in them, seeing the fiery reflection of his glowing irises in her silvery grey eyes. Shutting them immediately, he concentrated on controlling the fire as Luna started up her calming chant of "It's okay. It was just a dream, you're safe now, you're awake now, the Striped Hypnohorns can't touch you anymore," again.

Opening his normal green eyes as Luna's chant slowly died down into a wordless whisper, he forced a grateful smile onto his face and rasped out a sore "Thank you".

"I used to have terrible nightmares too," Luna explained softly, the rest of the compartment deathly silent as they kneeled opposite each other, "Mummy always did that for me, she would tell me that I was safe now that I was awake, because everyone knows that Striped Hypnohorns can only hurt you when you sleep".

"Striped Hypnohorns?" Hermione's voice asked dismissively, Harry flinching when he glanced over at his maybe-friend to see her hand covering her cheek where a small red mark was beginning to form. "There's no such thing as Striped Hypnohorns".

"Yes there are," Luna argued, glaring back at the bushy-haired girl. "Muggles call them 'Boogeymen', they trap you in your nightmares so they can feed on them. Mummy told me all about them," the blonde froze, "I saw a lot of them after Mummy died," she admitted quietly. After sending a look at Hermione that stopped her from commenting – although the expression on her face implied that she wasn't going to say anything anyway – Harry reached out for Luna only for the girl to push herself up to her feet suddenly. "I need to use the bathroom, excuse me," she declared pushing past Ginny and practically fleeing the compartment as Hermione looked after her guiltily.

"Are you okay Harry?" Neville asked after a moment's silence, "You were sleeping normally one moment, and then you just started making these noises".

"It was just a bad dream," Harry lied stiffly, forcing himself up off his knees and dropping back down onto his seat as Hermione sat beside Ginny. "That was all".

What had that dream been? Was it anything like the one he'd had about the volcano and Cato? He'd not felt anything during that first dream, so why would he feel what he feared was Tobias' death during this one. The first dream hadn't left him with a throbbing ache deep in his chest, although Harry thought that might be because of his humiliating reaction and not the actual dream. Either way, he felt exhausted, both mentally and physically. And in all honesty he felt like he was one step away from just collapsing to the ground and crying, with everything that had happened to him recently he felt like he was owed at least one breakdown, especially since the anger that had staved off such a reaction in the first place had recently begun to dwindle.

"Harry… that wasn't 'just a bad dream'," Hermione corrected weakly, sounding like she wanted to say more but managing to bite her tongue. "Watching you like that, it was scary".

"I'm fine," Harry dismissed making Neville, Ginny and Hermione raise their eyebrows in disbelief. "I'm just a little…"

"I had really bad nightmares after my first year," Ginny confessed when Harry didn't finish his sentence, "I woke up crying and it took Mum hours to get me back to sleep. I normally couldn't though, so she would take me downstairs and she would bake something while I sat there and watched until I felt okay again. There's nothing wrong with not being alright, Harry," she said simply, not sounding like she was trying to reassure him but like she was stating the facts. Hermione nodded in agreement with her and Neville tried to send him a strong nod of his head that looked more like the boy was afraid he was going to ruin the moment.

"Then I'm not alright," Harry admitted bluntly, "Just give me time".

And with that Ginny nodded, turning to ask Hermione a question about the Ancient Runes classwork, acting like nothing had just happened. Luna re-joined them after a while, her eyes suspiciously red but she didn't comment either, just smiled slightly at Harry and buried her nose in her copy of the Quibbler again. As Neville asked him a hesitant question about Care of Magical Creatures, Harry felt the tension in the air beginning to drain away.

He wasn't alright, but in time he'd be okay.

IGNITION

"Where's Hagrid? I don't see him"

"Huh?"

Looking around the Great Hall for his friend – an action usually made unnecessary by the half-giant's large stature – Harry frowned as he realised that Hermione was right. Hagrid was missing. He'd thought that the female Professor calling for the first years back at the platform was just a new thing, but something told him that she was replacing him even at the table as Harry realised their friend's huge sturdy chair had been swapped out with an ordinary looking chair with a very feminine cloak slung over the back of it.

"He hasn't left has he?" Hermione asked nervously as Harry sat between her and Neville at the table, Ginny having joined her fourth year friends as Luna wandered off to Ravenclaw table.

"No, of course he hasn't," Harry denied with a snort. Hagrid would never leave Hogwarts, it was just as much his home as it was Harry's, and even if he had he still would have told him and Hermione before they showed up at Hogwarts to find him missing.

"Maybe he's hurt?" Neville suggested awkwardly, Harry catching him looking between his seat and where Ron was sitting by Seamus and Dean further down the table, as if the boy didn't believe that he had unknowingly replaced Ron in their little group.

"He would still be here," Hermione countered, "Remember second year? His arm was in that huge cast after he spelled that flesh-eating slug repellent on himself and he still made sure to show up every day. Oh! Maybe he's not back from his vacation yet?" she suggested thoughtfully, looking hopeful that that was all it was. "You know, how he said that Dumbledore had ordered him to go spend some time in France with Madame Maxime?"

Harry stared for a moment before his eyes widened, "Oh! Right!"

"Hey look," Neville said as Harry exchanged a relieved look with Hermione, "Is that our new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor? I hope they're better than Lockhart". His eyes followed Neville's as Hermione let out a curious noise, and for the first time since his powers had manifested he felt his blood run cold.

Sitting at the staff table talking to the Headmaster, was Dolores Umbridge.