The Three Ds

10th of January, 1997.

The first week of classes was finally over. Harry and his friends had gathered in the common room to finish off what homework they could. It seemed as if the Professors had gone insane over the holidays. They had never received this much homework before.

Harry threw his transfiguration essay to the side to dry and groaned. His hand cramped and his head pounded. "Is there something else?" he asked.

"Well, technically we should read two chapters before the next Runes class," Hermione said.

Harry sighed. "Yeah, I'll do that in the dorm before collapsing," he said. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Qozul curled up on Harry's pillow as he pulled his shirt off and threw it in the hamper. Another year and he could get rid of this damn glamour device. He was glad they had made sure it would fit him as he grew and the glamour held so well, but he was getting sick and tired of wearing it. He collapsed on the bed and sighed. At least Fred and George had found someone else to make candy for them. Harry had happily handed over all his recipes and everything he had come up with. He simply had too much on his plate right now. He had already spoken to Daphne and told her that he didn't feel like he had time to dance with her. She had understood and agreed. Her schedule was rather packed too.

Now, all Kato had extra to do was heal Frank and train Tanya not counting Quidditch of course. That was certainly more than enough to keep him occupied. He really wished that he could find a better place for Qozul. It wasn't fair to keep the little dragon with him the way he was, but Qozul didn't want to leave him. Hopefully, he could figure something out soon. He touched the jill egg. "I wonder, I wonder when will you hatch," he said. He summoned his Ancient Runes book and started reading. He might as well get through this. His notes were going to be a mess though.

11th of January, 1997.

"So how was Christmas?" Harry asked Neville. They were sitting in the great hall having breakfast. Most people were still dragging their feet. It was cold outside which made the corridors frigid so most students didn't feel like getting out of bed.

"It was great," Neville said. "Mom gave Great-Uncle Algie such a dressing down for holding me out the window. I've never seen a man that old run so fast before. I think she had some rather stern words with grandmother too, but she didn't do that in public." He was smiling brightly as he remembered all the good times. "The only not great thing I guess is that she keeps apologising for not being there for me. I get what she means but I'm just happy to have her now," Neville said.

"I'll see if I can get her set up with a mind healer," Harry said. "She probably needs someone to talk to and I'm not the best candidate."

Neville nodded. "I would appreciate that," he said. He pushed his plate aside. "So what are we going to do today?" he asked.

"Head to the library and take care of the Herbology homework we have," Harry said. "After that, I want to chill and do absolutely nothing."

"Sounds like a plan," Neville said.

18th of January, 1997.

There was a tense but excited energy around Hogwarts; a Ministry employee was coming to teach everyone who was in their sixth-year apparition. Once again this was a class that Harry didn't need but it would look strange if he didn't take the class so he had paid his twelve galleons and was going to attend despite not actually needing to. He already had a license, but that was classified information. Hermione just thought it was good that he was going to take the official class. "You might learn something that Professor Moody missed," she told him.

Since Harry didn't disagree with her, he stood with his fellow sixth-yearers listening to Wilkie Twycross explain the importance of knowing your destination while being determined and travelling with deliberation.

"Now I want you to travel from the circle you are standing into the one a few feet in front of you. The anti-apparition wards have been lifted from the great hall so that we can do this," Mr Twycross said.

Harry rolled his shoulders and spun in his circle. He was the only one that made it over to the other circle. He had considered messing up, but he didn't feel like it. Let people think he was a natural at this.

"Careful now, you don't want to splinch," Mr Twycross said. "Do not under any circumstances try this on your own until you have your license." He watched as Harry apparated flawlessly once more. "Practice makes perfect," he said.

Harry almost rolled his eyes. He looked over at Hermione and Neville. He could see the concentration on their faces. He hoped they wouldn't have too many mishaps. Splinching wasn't a fun experience. He'd done it while training with Moody a few times mostly because Moody had demanded that he could apparate under duress. He should send Moody some kind of update. It wouldn't be a bad idea to let him know that Kato had an informant among the Death Eaters. He would have to secure that letter to the teeth though and he had to send it with a school owl so he needed a letter for Hedwig to deliver as well or she would get grumpy.

"How do you do it?" Hermione asked Harry as they headed back to the common room. With their packed schedule she had declined Harry's private lessons in the subject the year before. She was kind of regretting it now.

"Well, you have to focus and you have to want to move. Apart from that it is a rather complicated piece of magic. An important part of actually doing it is to believe that you can do it," Harry said.

"So it is another confidence-based magic?" Neville asked.

"I'd say so, yes," Harry said. "But even if you are confident you will splinch if you aren't focused enough. You need to bring all of you along."

Hermione sighed. "I guess reading up on it might help some," she said.

"At least it won't hurt," Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders.

30th of January, 1997.

The stark white walls of the hospital were slowly grating on Alice. It had been nice to be away, but she didn't want to leave Frank alone. The door to the ward opened and Kato walked in. "Good afternoon, Alice," he said. "How are you doing today?"

"Antsy," Alice answered. "I really want to get out of here."

"Let's see what we can do for Frank," Kato said. He sat down next to Alice's husband and waited for her to join him.

"I'm going to bring you with me and we will poke at the defences that Frank seems to have erected around his mind," Kato said. He held one of his hands out to her.

Alice took the offered hand. She took a deep calming breath and asked, "What do I do?"

"Stay calm and think about good times with Frank," Kato said. "I'll do the rest." He closed his eyes and reached out for Frank's mind. The little progress he had made so far had left Frank calmer to his presence as long as he didn't try to break through the barriers. Now they needed to get through. He applied pressure and gathered Alice's essence around himself. He pushed through carefully. He could feel Alice's hand shaking. He knew he was using a lot of his own magic too. They needed to clear out the remnants of this barrier though so it didn't reform. He tugged at memories that Augusta had shown him of Frank playing with baby Neville. He let that memory and Alice's magic surround the next barrier showing that it was safe. Everything would be alright.

Kato was breathing heavily when he got back to himself. He cast a scan at Alice. Her magic reserves were a little low but she would recover in a few days. "I want to monitor him for a bit now before we try that again," he said. "How about next time I bring Neville and we go out somewhere instead?"

"You can do that?" Alice asked hopefully.

Kato nodded. "I can make it happen," he said.

Alice smiled. "I would love that," she said. She yawned. "For now though, I think I might need some rest," she said.

"Remember to eat properly too," Kato said. "You need to refill your energy."

"I promise," Alice said.

9th of February, 1997.

Who knew mosaic would be such a messy thing to work with? Not even the paint had been this bad. Harry watched everyone with an amused look on his face. At least they were having fun. The enchanted windows that Professor Flitwick had helped them install were slowly being surrounded by colourful stones. Justin and Dean had helped everyone draw up the guidelines for the animals of each house. It was already looking pretty good. With a nice polish, it would look amazing once it was done.

Harry was staying far away from this one. He did not have the patience necessary for this. He yawned. He had stayed up late the night before to finish his homework. The goblins had asked him to drop by and secure more vaults. He hadn't done that in a while and they needed to finish up at some point. It did leave him rather tired, but it had been worth it.

Hermione was sitting with her group sorting through colours. They had bought mixed bags that couldn't be used anywhere else. That meant that they had a lot of colours but nothing was sorted. At least it gave more life to the murals.

Tanya was a mess but she was smiling brightly as she picked out the next piece she was going to add.

"It is very nice of you to do this?"

Harry smiled at the blonde girl who had walked up next to him. She wore a necklace of butterbeer caps and radish earrings. "We just want everyone to have a good time," he said.

The girl nodded. "But you didn't have to stick around. You chose to and now you are making things better for everyone. Thank you, Harry Potter," she said.

"You are welcome," Harry said. This girl was strange. The way she spoke got him thinking that she knew more than maybe she should be able to know about him. It didn't worry him, but it certainly piqued his interest. "You know my name," he said. "Would you care to give me yours?"

"Certainly," she answered.

Harry chuckled. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Luna, Luna Lovegood," she answered.

"It's nice to meet you, Luna," Harry said.

"It is nice to be here," Luna said. "There are no Wrackspurts around you and it is quite refreshing."

"I see," Harry said. He had no idea what wrackspurts were but he didn't mind not knowing. "Do you want to sit down?" he asked.

Luna smiled dreamily and climbed up on the table next to him. She hummed softly as she too watched everyone else work. Eventually, she brought out a copy of the Quibbler and started reading it.

"Hey, Harry," Ernie said. "Justin is doing a banging job wouldn't you say."

"That he is," Harry answered.

"So thoughts on the next Care class? Think Professor Hagrid will bring about something lethal again?"

"It is certainly possible, but we should be alright," Harry said.

"Animals are nice," Luna said. "I like the Thestrals. Though Hagrid isn't the best teacher. I wish we could get someone more competent."

"He's decent, all things considered," Harry said. "Though he could use a co-professor or assistant that handles the not-so-dangerous animals and maybe the lesson plan. He isn't great at planning lessons."

Luna nodded slowly. "That might be true," she said.

Ernie gave her a disinterested glance. "Why are you reading that rubbish?" he said referring to her magazine.

Luna's eyes narrowed and she was about to respond when Harry sighed loudly. "Ernie, behave," he said. "The Quibbler is published by Luna's father. If she wants to read it she can, and you don't need to judge her for it." He may not have known that this girl was Luna but he did know about the Quibbler.

Ernie stuck his nose up. "Well either way I have more important things to be doing right now. I'll speak with you later, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes as Ernie walked away.

"Do you read the Quibbler?" Luna asked.

"It happens," Harry said. "I like the change in pace and the differentiating opinions it holds. Mr Lovegood also accepts articles that the Prophet does not, even if it is very important information that needs to reach a lot of readers."

Luna smiled. "That is great," she said. She could detect no dishonesty from him and that was unusual when people spoke about the Quibbler. Even if people just bought it for a good laugh she would rather they said that than lie to her, but Harry wasn't lying.

The day rounded up and Harry had a feeling that he had somehow made a new friend. He would have to keep an eye on Luna. She seemed like a sweet girl without an ulterior motive.

14th of February, 1997.

Pink and purple hearts filled the air. Someone must have bought the Weasley Wheezes Love Cannon. It was a nifty little hand cannon that shot over four pounds of confetti love hearts and you could decide how fast you wanted them dispersed. Whoever had bought this one had set it to all at once so the air above the Gryffindor table was thick with confetti. This didn't bode well for the Apparition class later. Hopefully, they could clean it up before then.

Harry received Valentine after Valentine. He had a stack of cards himself, but he did not hand out as many cards as he got. He didn't understand the point of St Valentine's. If you liked someone it was best to just talk to them about it. He guessed he didn't mind letting people he cared for know that he was there for them, but that was the reason he only handed out cards to those people. The most surprising recipient to most people was Luna. Harry enjoyed her company even if it only happened sporadically.

…

"Now in order to Apparate you need to consider your surroundings, but you also need to be aware of the place you are aiming to arrive in. Could someone have placed something within that space that may affect you? It is always safer to jump to a designated area and please remember to exit that area as soon as you can so other people do not try to apparate on top of you," Mr Twycross said. "Apparating to an unknown location is never recommended. This is why most wards direct you once you apparate through them and most people have a designated spot of apparition."

Harry hummed calmly. He could mention now that someone proficient with apparition can alter their cause slightly before arriving if something was standing in the designated arrival spot, but he didn't want his classmates to experiment.

Just like all other times, he apparated a few times just so it looked like he still needed practice.

Around the room, people were still having trouble. Faces were screwed up in concentration. Apart from Harry, no one else had managed to apparate. It wasn't that surprising though. They hadn't attended that many classes yet.

Neville seemed to do alright. He wasn't trying to apparate yet. He was going through the steps needed to manage one by one. He wanted to have the focus right first.

Harry had given both Hermione and Neville advice based on his own experiences. He hoped that would help them.

Tanya bounced up to Harry after class. She dragged him along until they got to an empty classroom. The Quidditch team had gathered in there so they could have some time hanging out.

"So who is taking over after you Cap?" Ginny asked.

"Kyle," Harry said.

Kyle did a take-back and looked straight at Harry. "You want me to be Captain?" he asked.

"Yes, you have the dedication necessary and you care about the team. Besides, it is good to have been Captain if you want to go pro and I know you are interested," Harry said.

Kyle smiled. He was really happy that Harry was considering him. "We'll start shifting responsibility next year though I want to have some game-plan meetings with you this year too," he said.

"Anytime Cap," Kyle said. He was on top of this. He wanted to go pro so badly and Harry was a great Captain. He wanted to learn as much as he could.

"Can we not speak about tactics today?" Demelza said.

Harry laughed. "Fine, let's get some snacks and chill, yeah," he said.

"I was hoping that you'd tell us a story," Chace said. "You tell really good stories."

"Snacks first," Harry said before calling a house-elf. If they were going to hang out they should have some refreshments and the elves were happy to provide just that.

20th of February, 1997.

Classes were getting rougher. Herbology was still a lot of fun, but it was getting clearer that they had to read up on the plants that they were going to study in class. The sopophorous plant was a lot to take care of since one misstep could kill the plant and render it useless for potions. They were heading up to the castle from the greenhouses looking like they had bathed in mud. It was a mess and they smelled awful. Thankfully, Pomona had let the other teachers know that it might take a little extra time for their students to show up to the next period.

As lunch rolled around that day they had a heap of homework that they had to take care of

"We'll get back around four," Harry told Hermione. "We'll have plenty of time to dig through this then."

"Go on Harry, I'll see you later," Hermione said. She was already going through her notes for Potions. Professor Snape had given them some gruelling work to do. She knew that Harry wanted to look it over and she appreciated having someone who would proofread her work now.

Neville and Kato brought Alice to a small family-owned restaurant and ate dinner before heading out to a farmers market. She wanted to walk around and see people, but she wasn't too keen on being recognised for now. She knew it would come, but she didn't want to meet her old friends until Frank was better.

They found some seeds and saplings that Neville and Kato bought to improve their gardens.

22nd of February, 1997.

A few days later it was time for the next apparition lesson and this time two students managed to jump. They also splinched themselves rather badly, but thankfully the instructor and professors had it well in hand. The students were still talking about it when they headed back up to the common room. At least it gave them something to think about other than their own continued failure to perform. Harry had noticed that his classmates seemed more down after the apparition lessons and he guessed he could understand why. Not being able to apparate wasn't great for a full-grown witch or wizard.

A gigantic eagle owl pecked on the window suddenly. "Wonder who it wants to deliver a letter to," Ginny said. "It looks kind of mean." She walked up to the window and the bird screeched. She backed off again. "Eh, Harry there is an aggressive owl here," she called out.

Harry looked up from his book. A small chuckle left him as he rose and joined Ginny by the window. "Hello gorgeous," he said as he opened the window. He took the letter and carried the owl inside.

"Whose owl is that?" Hermione asked.

"Looks like a Malfoy owl," Harry said. "Kato must be over there."

"Your cousin hangs out with Malfoy?" Ron asked. He had overheard them and couldn't help himself.

"Cousin Kato has dealings with Lord Malfoy on occasion," Harry said calmly. "He doesn't talk much about it."

"Looks like the owl has another letter," Neville said. "It's cold out there though and it looks like the wind is picking up again."

"I'll carry him down," Harry said. He looked up at the owl. "Do you have a letter for Draco as well?" he asked.

The owl gave a small squawk that seemed to mean yes. Harry just rolled his eyes. "Should we head down there?" he asked and the owl flapped his winds slightly before settling back down on Harry's arm.

"Are you sure that is wise?" Hermione asked. "You know… all things considered."

Harry hummed. Hermione didn't know Heracles. Any Slytherin stupid enough to attack him would get their eyes pecked out if he got his way. Normally Lucius only sent Heracles when he wanted to prove a point, but the aggressive bird got along with Kato really well so he often used Heracles when sending him letters. "I'll be fine," Harry said. "See you in a bit."

The walk down the stairs to the Slytherin dorm was cold and dark away from the main corridors. Since Heracles didn't like people that much Harry had chosen to take a path less travelled. He reached the entrance to the common room.

"Do you open to one who speaks the language of serpents?" Harry asked in Parsel-tongue. He didn't expect an answer. Would Slytherin have built in a secondary way for those who could speak to snakes to get in? He wasn't sure. It sounded like something he might do and sure enough, the door opened up to reveal a cosy room in green and silver. The walls down there were covered in fabric to try to keep the cold out.

"Potter, how the hell did you get in here?" one of the seven-year students asked.

"I asked nicely," Harry said.

"Yeah, last thing you ever do," someone else said. They drew their wand and pointed it at Harry.

Thankfully, Draco walked into the room before his not-so-bright housemate could do something they would end up regretting. "Heracles, what are you doing here?" he asked. He gave Harry a disinterested glance. "Why would you let him hold you?" he asked and held his arm out. Heracles flew from Harry to Draco.

"Cousin Kato must have been over at your place or something," Harry said. "I figured I wouldn't force him back outside considering the weather." He looked at the student who was still pointing his wand at him. "Cast that spell and see why Lord Malfoy's owls are not to be trifled with," he said.

"Are you trying to threaten me?" the guy growled.

"No he is stating a fact," Draco said. He didn't feel like defending Potter of all people, but he knew that for Heracles to allow Harry to carry him he liked the guy well enough that he would attack if Potter was threatened. "Heracles hates people. There is less than a handful of people who can touch him without losing a lot of blood. Potter is still alive as you see, and he carried Heracles from his gilded tower here."

"Why the heck would your dad's owl be nice to Potter?"

Draco wanted to groan. "How should I know," he said. "No one knows how Heracles decided who he likes."

"I think that maybe your stupid owl needs to have his wings clipped Malfoy," the guy who had been threatening Harry pointed his wand at Heracles instead. He didn't get a chance to cast however since both Draco and Harry had drawn their wands.

"Interesting combination," Harry pointed out. "I'll ask Kato to not use Lord Malfoy's owls in the future. It seems to make quite a mess of things." He headed back towards the entrance to the common room. "I guess I'll see you guys whenever I have classes with you," he said before disappearing.

Draco looked after Harry as he went. When had Potter started referring to his father by his proper title? Things had changed over the years, and he wasn't sure what to think anymore. Potter was more popular than ever. Even Slytherins liked him unless they were Death Eater wannabes. Draco wasn't so sure he wanted to join the Dark Lord. He had seen his father come back from one of the meetings shaking uncontrollably from cruciatus exposure. It didn't seem that glorious to him. He heard his housemates talk about how good things were going to get once the Dark Lord got rid of all the mudbloods, but were they really the problem? They had proven that they could participate in the old ceremonies just fine the previous solstice. Draco didn't know what to think anymore. His biggest problem was that he had no one to talk to. His parents either wouldn't or couldn't speak badly about the Dark Lord and his friends couldn't help him.

After leaving the Slytherin common room Harry opened his letter and headed straight out the great doors of Hogwarts. He was halfway to the edge of the wards when he saw a dark figure limping towards him. Harry raised a light only he could see to find out who it was. "What did he do to you?" he asked. It was Severus and he looked like someone had tried to use him as a pincushion. Harry assumed that Severus had just returned from a Death Eater meeting considering the contents of the letter he had just received.

"Mind your own business, Mr Potter," Severus said.

"I don't think so," Harry said. He walked up to Severus and placed his hands on the Potion Master's shoulders. His hands glowed golden for a moment and the worst of Severus' wounds healed. "I need to keep going," he said. "I assume that you'll be able to take care of the rest yourself."

"Students are not allowed to leave the grounds unsupervised," Severus said.

"Good for me that Kato is the one leaving then," Harry said as he deactivated his glamour and put his earrings in.

Severus sighed as Kato disappeared in the night. He wasn't against him going. Lucius had let slip that a certain Healer Peverell had agreed to be his private healer and his old friend could probably use some help after tonight. He rolled his shoulders. Whatever Potter had done to heal him certainly made him feel better even if he would never admit it out loud.

An elf met Kato as he arrived at Malfoy Manor. "Master and Mistress be in lounge," they said. "This way."

Kato followed the elf through the beautiful halls of the manor. Paintings of forests and dale hung along the walls and animals moved between them at their own leisure. Kato followed a doe as she jumped from an autumn forest to a river dale. She drank from the river peacefully.

"This be lounge," the little elf said as they stopped by a door.

"Thank you," Kato said before knocking on the door and entering. Lucius looked about as bad as Severus had. Kato just shook his head. "I'll need to get you a pager so you can just send for me," he said.

"My elves couldn't find you," Lucius said. "Heracles didn't seem to have the same issue."

"I can be hard to find at times," Kato said. "Owls have a way of getting around that." He was so glad that Hermione had pointed out elves to him. He wore several different charms just to keep elves from finding him in different forms. It was a mess, but he was usually pretty good at keeping track of it. He sat down next to Lucius. "Just relax as best as you can," he said. Lucius wasn't that badly hurt, but it wouldn't end well if no one treated the wounds. He did a quick scan. His eyes narrowed. "You'll have to take your shirt off Lord Malfoy," he said. "There is something lodged in one of the wounds and I need to get at it to take it out."

Narcissa helped her husband open his shirt. "Is this good enough," she asked. She knew that Lucius was in a lot of pain even if he wasn't showing it, and she didn't want to jostle him too much.

"It'll be fine," Kato said. He warmed his hands before placing one on Lucius' chest. He leaned him forward and gently picked a shard of glass from one of Lucius' wounds. A golden glow surrounded Lucius and he relaxed. The pain was gone.

"Thank you," Lucius said. He buttoned his shirt back up.

"No problem," Kato said. "I'll send you that pager. Now as your healer, I would suggest you don't go sparing with the Dark Lord again."

Lucius sighed. "He wants to get us ready to fight. I don't quite know why, but I doubt it is anything good," he said.

"Probably not, but there is very little we can do about it," Kato said. "If we start messing with him now, he'll realise that he has a leak. I'd prefer that you are as safe as we can make you all things considered."

Lucius nodded. "He is volatile right now. If he gains a few successes he might calm down a little bit," he said. He didn't want to grant the Dark Lord any victories, but what choice did they have? "Have you found any more of those items?" he asked.

Kato shook his head. "Unfortunately not, but I'm working on a way to locate them," he said. He had realised some time ago that he was taking on more responsibilities than he should have. He barely had time to secure vaults anymore and the things he was supposed to help Angelina and Alicia with had been shelved. He had to do something about that. Maybe he could use some of the arts and crafts time to finish his things for the girls. He wasn't as interested in the spring crafts as he had been in the autumn crafts so it made sense. "Now that I'm here would it be alright if I took a look at your Dark Mark? We really should start figuring out how to protect you from it."

Lucius looked resigned as he rolled his sleeve up. He held his arm out and Kato moved his chair so he could grab the offered arm. A notepad appeared so Kato could write things down as he studied the dark magic holding the mark in place. It was a very complicated piece of magic. He could see just how good of a hold on his abilities that Tom Riddle had from this work alone. It was quite scary, to be honest. Riddle had used runes that Kato had never seen before. He might even need Hermione's help to find some of them. Something that Kato realised quite quickly was that he would have to take a look at Severus' mark too. He needed to see how it interacted with different people.

"Can you tell us anything?" Narcissa asked. She was watching as Kato held her husband's arm in a gentle grip. She had not met Kato before, but she already understood why her husband had taken such a liking to him.

"Well, it is rune based and it is made in clusters that interlink," Kato said. "To remove the mark entirely I would have to categorize each cluster and then figure out how they link together. For now, I'm focusing on the cluster that is most closely linked to Lucius' magic. If I can disable that Lucius would still have a fully functioning mark, but the Dark Lord wouldn't be able to steal his magic or life force."

"Thus he wouldn't necessarily know that Lucius' mark has changed," Narcissa said.

"That is the idea," Kato said. "Unfortunately I don't know if he siphons regularly or not. He might notice in that case. I can probably figure out a way to monitor that however so I'll work on that."

Lucius nodded as Kato let go of his arm so he could pull his sleeve back down and button it. He glanced at what should be Kato's notes but couldn't even recognise the letters he used. It would seem as if some things about Kato were still a mystery.

"I'll go over this and then I'll attempt to get a hold of another Dark Mark to study," Kato said.

Lucius nodded. "If I may," he said. "Severus Snape the Potions master at Hogwarts might be amendable. It is possible that his loyalties are not entirely with the Dark Lord." Lucius had hoped that Severus would be willing to talk to him, but Severus had denied his requests. He wasn't sure why, but he could guess.

"I will take that under consideration," Kato said. "If there is nothing else then I should head home." He rose from his seat and moved it back to its original position with a wave of his wand. "I hope that you have a good evening," he said before heading back out. He had a lot to think about and not necessarily a lot of time to do it if he wasn't going to let his grades slip.

Rhavaniel had been right when she claimed that time management was one of the most important things he would ever learn. Maybe the goblins would be alright with handing him a time-turner so he could secure the vaults. That would give him a bit of extra time and as long as he didn't do it too often, his health wasn't likely to suffer. Maybe twice a week would work out. Then he could go into advanced studies with the goblins that wanted to learn as well. Maybe it was time to send Dumac a letter.

All of that would have to wait until tomorrow, however, for now, he had to go through his notes while the magic of Lucius' mark was still fresh in his mind.

Hermione gave Harry a scratching glare when he walked into the common room but she didn't say anything. Harry chose to ignore her. She could wait for now. He knew that wasn't very nice, but the Dark Mark worried him and he had to work on it. He headed straight up for bed and closed his curtains before sealing them so no one could interrupt him.

"Leave him be," Neville told Hermione. "He'll let us know what happened tomorrow." He wasn't sure why Hermione had been so worried. There was no way a Slytherin student could take Harry in a fight even if they fought dirty. Whatever reason Harry had for just heading up to bed was probably a pretty good one. Maybe it wasn't all that nice, but neither of them knew what had happened yet so he didn't feel like it was their place to judge.

23rd of February, 1997.

Their footsteps echoed in the empty halls. Hermione was in a bad mood and Neville was doing his best to calm her down. As they walked into the Great Hall he gave up. Harry was just going to have to do this on his own. He watched as Hermione walked up to Harry. Then there was nothing. Harry must have raised a shield keeping everyone else out of their conversation. Then Harry shoved some kind of paper at Hermione.

"What's that about?" Hannah asked.

"She looked really angry," Susan pointed out. "I'm surprised we can't hear what it is about." She was sitting with her back to the Gryffindor table so she couldn't see what was going on.

Neville sat down and grabbed some breakfast as he answered, "I think Harry might have kept them from informing the entire hall. He likes his privacy."

"She just deflated though," Hannah said. "She was really angry and now she is just looking at some paper. You don't think he cursed her or something."

"You really think he would do that," Neville said while chuckling. "He probably showed her something complex and now she is too focused on that to be angry at him. He is probably also using the shock factor to calm her down. Harry knows Hermione quite well after all." He took a bite from his sandwich.

By the Gryffindor table, Hermione was pouring over the most complex rune array she had ever seen. It was chains within circles connected through loops that were all protected by separate chains. "This is the Dark Mark?" she asked Harry.

"No that is one part of the Dark Mark. Then this part connects to three other parts that all make up the whole mark. I can see why people say that he was smart," Harry said.

"Could you make something like this?" Hermione asked.

"Certainly, though I would use a different pattern and I wouldn't want to do what he has done," Harry said. "That doesn't make it any easier to take apart, however. I also don't know if different marks work differently or if he simply arranged one and then just duplicated it."

Hermione nodded. It could be duplicated, but if it was they had to find the Master Mark in order to make any changes and she doubted that was an easy thing to do. "Will you ask Professor Snape?" she asked.

"I'll have to," Harry said. "He is the only person I have available that I can trust apart from Lucius."

"Though you can't be entirely certain you trust Lucius can you?" Hermione asked.

"I'm pretty sure though," Harry said.

Hermione was slowly translating the runes she could find. It wasn't easy. It seemed like Riddle had used several runic languages to make the mark. "I think we'll need the whole thing, Harry. I don't think we can solve just a part of this," she said.

"Then I'll get us the whole thing," Harry said.

"Both Lucius and Severus' marks separately so we can compare them," Hermione said.

"Will do," Harry said.

Hermione realised as they left the Great Hall that Harry had completely distracted her earlier. She considered for a moment if she was still going to give him the lecture she had prepared for him. It somehow felt a little unnecessary now that she knew why he had left so abruptly without saying anything.

They entered the craft room and settled down together. Hermione wasn't that interested in the current craft either, but as a prefect, she liked being present in case something happened. She watched as Harry drew up designs and wrote down runes for something. "Is this the Seeker's Light?" she asked. "I thought you had made it already."

"Unfortunately it seems as if I might have gotten a few too many projects started and have therefore missed this one," Harry said and grimaced. "I have already sent Angelina a letter apologizing for forgetting about them."

"You need to start writing things down," Hermione said.

"I'm on it," Harry said. "I've planned out most of the rest of the school year already. Hopefully, everything will work out."

Eventually, Luna joined them. She sat there and read her Quibbler upside down and seemed content to just have some company.

Qozul poked his head out from Harry's collar and looked around once or twice, and Harry was certain that Luna could see him despite the heavy charms he was under to hide his presence. He would have to keep an eye on this rather strange Ravenclaw girl.

Their peace was eventually broken by Natalie and Tanya who almost bounced over to their table and sat down. They started asking Luna questions about the Quibbler and about magical creatures in general and listened intently as Luna answered even when what she said seemed utterly ridiculous. Harry had to stop Hermione from intervening several times just because he was more inclined to believe in things that most people didn't know existed. He had lived quite a few years in Skyrim after all and spriggans were not a common occurrence on Earth.

Just because Hermione couldn't find information on something it didn't mean that thing wasn't real.

In the next few days, Kato travelled back to Lucius and noted down his whole mark so Hermione could help him untangle it. Now he just needed to approach Severus in a way that wouldn't anger the man.