A big thanks to pazed for the edit!

I'll be taking a week off, for a late Thanksgiving, so the next chapter will be out the 28th if all goes as planed.

I need some help, I am planning some things around Harry's music, and I could use some suggestions. They need to be pre 1994, rock, blues, or country. Please remember he is growing up in a home that is influenced by Tannim, and if you have read the books, his love of rock. (For those of you who do not know the music plays an important part, as direct foreshadowing, but it us only clear after the fact. So check out the songs I have featured.) I need to borrow your brains to help me find things without just randomly stumbling on things.

Think things like: Elvis, Rush, Boston, Kansas, Garth Brooks, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan (Harry's Favorite). Etc…

Include things from them as well as I may have missed something in the play list I am working from.

Thanks for your help!

As always I own nothing!

Read! Enjoy! Review! It the only payment any of the writers expect!

Chapter 23

Albus swallowed the potion that Poppy handed him. "You must take better care of yourself," the aging healer scolded. "You are not as young as you were, you were lucky this time."

"I know..." he started.

"You know many things Headmaster, but when was the last time you listened to the advice you have been given?"

"Poppy! You know I value the opinions I'm given," he said, with no small part of aggravation in his voice.

"Albus, how many years have we known one another?" she asked, as she waved her wand at one of the chairs n front of his desk. It rose up a few inches and began to float to a spot behind her, so she could sit closer to her patient.

"Over sixty years, give or take."

She shook her head. "Closer to seventy. I was there during the war with Gellert, I know what it cost you." He grimaced at the memory. "You listened then… to me, your brother, Alicia, the others." She paused and let his memories and emotions settle. "What happened to that Albus? When you brought young Harry to me the night James and Lily died I heard what Minerva told you about the ill will between Lilly and her sister. Why in Merlin's name did you put him there?"

"It was for the Greater Good, Poppy. He needed to grow up without all of the adulation we would have heaped upon him, and by using his mother's sacrifice the blood wards would keep him safe from harm."

She shook her head again slowly, a sad look filling her eyes. "Albus… You have been around children and their families your entire career here…" She regrouped her thoughts. "Blood wards would have been a fine idea as protection from those outside the home, but they offer no protection against those inside the family."

Albus sank back into his chair. "I-I never thought..."

"Lily was kind, and strong, she always stood by her convictions, and never had an unkind word about anyone. Did you think she had exaggerated the situation? Did she misunderstand her own sister's feelings about her?"

"How could someone hate their own blood, their own family, so much as..."

"You are confusing family and relations, Albus. Just because you are related to someone by blood does not make them family, family are those that are important... those you love are family. What Harry has found is family."

Albus sank in on himself, as she continued. "Sirius and Remus were his family. You were like a favorite uncle to James, especially after Charles passed, just like Minerva and Filius were family to Lily after her mother finally passed away. Why didn't you listen to any of them?"

He sat for a long moment, then finally spoke quietly. "I wanted him to be strong… to be ready to be my successor."

Poppy's face twisted, and anger flared in her eyes. "So you put him in a crucible!" She stood with a jerk, shoving the chair across the floor as she did.

"He needed to be strong, and humble…" Albus said weakly.

"No! You wanted him broken! Merlin Above!" She slapped him, hard. "You put him there so you could save him! And have the grateful apprentice to the Mighty Dumbledore! You…!" She stomped toward the door. "I thought I knew you, Albus!" she said, tears streaking down her face. "I thought I knew you… But to condemn a child to that, and for what? Why did you do it?"

"A legacy… a champion," he said. "Someone able to take my place as leader of the light…"

She spun to face him. "Don't you dare! This was nothing more than to feed your ego! You could have made that boy as dangerous as Gellert and V-Voldemort combined!"

"Now, I'm sure that Harry would never have …"

"Ha!" She laughed. "Do you even know what happens in a crucible?"

"Of course!" he replied. "It is used to temper metal..."

She walked forward. "No! Albus, that is not what it does! My father was a blacksmith, I learned many things at his knee, and one thing in particular has stayed with me my entire life."

She held out her hand formed in a cup. "You place metals in a crucible, not to temper them but to purify them. It is so hot slag, the impurities float to the surface, allowing for pure ingots to be formed." She paused. "Problem is, if the fire is too hot something he called fracturing happens, something fundamentally changes in the structure of the remaining metal and it becomes useless… brittle…. flawed."

Albus looked at her as if stunned. "Albus, children are already prepared ingots, they don't need to be purified in a crucible. What they need is the skilled artisan, to coax the best out of them, then to show them a path that will lead them not to be a legacy living in the shadow of their predecessors, but to be a strong person that stands in the sun on their own."

With that as her final word, she turned and left him alone with his thoughts.

The rest of the week passed in a blur for Harry, between school, the track, talking with Dr. Martin, and sleep he kept a break neck pace. When he woke Friday morning he was surprised to see the sun up and light streaming in across the floor. He glanced at the clock, 9:30. He jumped out of bed frantic. He was late! Really late! He grabbed his clothes and dashed across the hall and into the bathroom.

A short ten minutes later a washed and ready Harry ran into the kitchen, to be greeted with the smell of bacon. Shar smiled as he entered. "Morning, sweetheart! Breakfast?" She turned back to the stove." Ok he must still be asleep, his mother was cooking. "I was just about to come get you… Don't worry all I did was cook more of the bacon, and heat everything back up. Tannim did the rest. He'll be back in a minute." She flipped the strips of meat over in the pan.

"Ok!" He sat at the small table, a little more than confused. "Why am I not at the school?"

"Oh!" She turned to face him. "We meant to talk to you last night! But you were asleep when we came upstairs. You were exhausted, so we decided to let you sleep," she said with a smile, as she walked over and placed a plate of eggs (covered in salsa), bacon, fresh fruit, and biscuits in front of him. "Gravy?"

"No… Probably too greasy if I'm driving today." He looked at her questioningly.

She chuckled. "You'll be driving." She scrambled his hair. "We settled on what we were going to do about everything and set everything in motion." She sat next to him. "Officially, you are going to be home schooled for the rest of the year, and the lawyers will sort out the mess with Mr. Dix. One way or another you will be going back to school next year, whether it is that school or someplace else... or even a private school it's kind of up in the air."

She leaned forward, and took his hand in hers. "Your dad and I still want you to have as normal of a school experience as we can give you." She stroked his hand gently. "You need to experience as much of life outside of Fairgrove and the track as you can."

He pulled his hand away. "I know, Mom… I need to see what's 'out there', keep my options open," he said in a sarcastic tone.

"Harry!" she scolded. "It's important. I know you love racing…"

"Mooom," He whined, it was an old argument.

"Fine, but it is for your own good Harry." She moved over a little and poured herself another cup of coffee. "As for what is actually going on… We came up with a plan…" We're moving to Scotland," she said with a small smirk as she took a sip from her cup, waiting for the inevitable explosion."

"O—What! No! Not happening!" He stood up and started pacing. "It's bad enough that I get dragged back there on a regular basis! And now with this stupid tournament… they don't even have electricity did you know that?"

Her laugh caught him off guard. "Easy Harry! Sit down and eat… We have a plan trust us!"

He looked at her for a long moment then plopped into the chair, as the front door opened. "I'm back, is Harry still in bed?" Tannim called.

Shar answered, "He's eating now!"

Harry looked up as his father entered the kitchen followed closely by Sirius. Tannim looked at his face and his mouth twisted. "You told him!" he said accusingly to Shar.

Her lips curled. "I sent you down to get Sirius over an hour ago! Your loss!" a teasing lilt in her voice.

Tannim jerked his thumb at Sirius. "Mr. B-B-Q here was helping Joe… So not my fault!"

"True…" said Sirius. "And I will learn how to smoke meat like that if it is the last thing I do… but who was the one playing with the new…. Thing… that truck delivered?"

Tannim looked at him quickly then at a smug Shar. "They delivered the new Dynamometer yesterday…" he said softly.

"And you had to play with it… just once..." she said.

"Yeah…"

"Your loss!" she replied jauntily.

"If you two are done?" Harry asked. "Why in the hell is this so funny to you? Are you happy you are shipping me off to that hell hole?" he said, his anger growing by the second. "I never..."

"Whoa there sport!" said Tannim, cutting him off. "You aren't going anyplace without us!"

"That's right Harry!" Shar said pulling him into a hug. "We aren't sending you away! We are going with you!"

"Yeah, Harry!" Sirius chimed in. "You are now looking at three of the official instructors of…" He looked at Tannim, "What is the name of that place again?... Sandfield Primary."

Tannim nodded. "Keighvin arranged everything, including himself as a… special patron. We even have a 'Headmaster' and everything."

"Headmaster?" Harry looked at his father, a small smile starting to grow across his face. "And just who did you rope into that gem of a job?"

"Just you wait and see son!" he said patting him on the back. "Trust me! You concentrate on racing, then the things for your charity work, and the egg, let us deal with the other details. Ok?"