Harry Potter and the Dark Lord's Blessing

by King Andro

What if Voldemort had seen the similarities between his and Harry's life and tried to set Harry on a very different path? Harry/Harem Mentor Voldemort

Harry Potter and the Dark Lord's Blessing

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

AU Year One

Summary: What if Voldemort had seen the similarities between his and Harry's life and tried to set Harry on a very different path?

Harry/Many – but not for quite some time; nothing that needs a rating so far

---

Unlike so many tales of another Harry Potter and his adventures with the Philosophers Stone, this tale begins when most have either faltered, staying forever without ending, or have pointed out how they are different, and simply start to copy from the original. Harry experienced the incident in the zoo, he got bombarded with letters, Hagrid rescued him and took him to Diagon Alley, the Dursleys dropped him off at King's Cross Station hoping to never see him again, the Weasleys showed him to the platform 9 3/4, he met Ron, Hermione, Draco and the others, Hagrid took them over the lake, the ghosts scared them, Hermione annoyed them, and now they stand in line, waiting to be sorted.

And this is where I shall digress from what is known, for in my story Voldemort now uses his power and looks into Harry's mind and sees himself, an abused eleven year young boy, that has seen hell most grown men, even wizards, never see. And so Harry is sorted, not knowing how the future is changing, for he does not notice any difference, and neither does the headmaster, honorable (or is he?) Albus Dumbledore, Supreme Mugwump, Int. Confed. of Wizards, Chief Warlock, and lots more. They do not notice, for even those who knew what the future held would not note the change; sure, Harry did not have the dream that night, but since he forgot about it anyways when he woke they wouldn't even notice if they knew his mind.

But then again you wouldn't need to read anyone's mind to see the differences once classes started. McGonagall was strict as ever, Snape sour as ever, and most teachers just as you would expect; all but for Professor Quirrell, who miraculously began to recover from whatever shock he had been in – much to the relief of the other teachers (save Snape) and especially the headmaster – and began teaching his classes with a new vigor. The recovery took several days (and even then he claimed it only happened because of a new combination of potions he was consuming), but by the time the first defense lessons for the first years rolled around, Quirrell was a new man. Unlike what most assumed that was actually true in every sense of the word, as Voldemort had decided to take direct control of his followers body, even at the cost of his physical manifestation; it made a resurrection attempt in the near future harder, if not impossible, and it would cost his followers life within a little less than a year, but the price should he succeed was worth the inconvenience.

And as such, when Ravenclaw and Gryffindor gathered in the classroom for Defense against the Dark Arts, they met a very different Quirrell, than the one they had seen at the Welcoming Feast. His robes were simple black bearing the Hogwarts crest, his black hair was no longer hidden under a turban, the pale skin tone had returned almost to normal, and there was no longer any trembling, or other nervous reaction, though one eye still twitched occasionally.

---

"Welcome to your first lesson in defense. I am Professor Quirrell, and I will try to teach you how to defend yourselves; try, because I will only succeed if you put a lot of effort into this class. Something which in my experience few do – those are usually the first to die when a Dark Lord rises. So if you can't defend your parent, siblings, partners, friends, and children in the future, because you decided to not put any effort into this class, don't try to hold me responsible.

"More so than in your other classes, I can only teach those willing; I will freely admit however that regardless of how much you study, some of you will not be capable of mastering the art. Those who can't usually fall in one of four categories; near squibs, lacking the magical power; mentally challenged, not capable of learning a fair number of spells or remember them quickly enough; geniuses, knowing so many spells and arts of magic that they can't decide on what to use quickly enough; and finally those too mild mannered or philosophical to deliberately hurt whoever, or whatever, they are fighting.

"As you can see, the grade you receive at the end of the year does not accurately reflect your ability to fight and survive. Indeed it usually does not. Many great duelists are weak in theory, and have limited skill in dealing with magical creatures, and yet they would easily defeat someone who mastered all theory there is to know, knew everything about magical creatures, and could perform every spell known to wizards in a controlled situation.

"I will do anything I can to get you to master the skills needed for your tests, and try to teach you how to act when you have to use the skills for real. Note, I said when, not if. There are usually twenty to thirty years between one Dark Lord and the next, which means that by the time the next one comes around most of you will have children and will need to cover their escape, before you can even think of running away. We have documents to prove that it's been like this for centuries, and enough evidence to say with almost perfect certainty that it's been like this for millennia. This time frame also means that you either have a lot of time to practice after you finished school, or a lot of time to forget everything I taught you. It's your choice and yours alone.

"Now, what will you learn in this class? For now, no spells. Professor Flitwick is much more capable in teaching you the basics than I am, and if you have actually read your course books you will have noticed that basic Defense is based almost completely on charms. Curse, hex, and jinx are just names for charms with special properties. What properties could that be, Mr. Potter?"

Harry Potter, who after he'd recovered from his surprise at how different Quirrell was now compared to their first meeting and then been enthralled by the energetic speech, looked startled for a moment; he had looked through his books, but he hadn't read them. But suddenly he remembered a reference about the color of a curse and it's brightness and size revealing what spell was cast. He couldn't remember where he had read it, but he was sure that at least most charms in 'The Standard Book of Spells' did not have a visual component aside from their effect.

"A curse has a visible color, Professor. It will affect whatever it hits," he said, after only a slight hesitation as far as the class could tell.

"Correct, Mr. Potter, those are the three major factors distinguishing curses from other charms. Ten points to Gryffindor. Jinxes and Hexes are legal fiction; they are usually bestowed on weak or nearly harmless curses. While it may have become common usage for some curses, I will not require you to learn what curse is referred to as jinx or hex; I will however punish incorrect usage. Now since Mr. Weasley and some others seem to have missed what three characteristics Mr. Potter named, could someone enlighten them? Yes, Ms. Granger?"

Hermione Granger smiled brightly as the Professor called her name, showing her overlarge, though perfectly white, teeth, "The first characteristic is that a curse is visible while charms are not. Unlike charms, which seem to work instantly, a curse has a limited speed and needs to reach the object before it takes effect. And finally curses affect whatever they hit, meaning wherever you point your wand, while charms affect what you choose them to affect, even if you don't point your wand exactly at the object, Professor."

"Very good. Take another five points for Gryffindor. Two of the three characteristics of curses are also their greatest weakness. Their limited speed, and the need to accurately aim your wand. No matter how powerful a curse your enemy uses, he needs to hit you. Therefore what are the three most basic ways to defend yourself, Ms. Patil?"

"Evading the curse, hiding behind a solid object, or moving a solid object into the way of the curse," the Ravenclaw half of the Patil twins answered after a few moments of thought.

"Correct, ten points to Ravenclaw. Not being hit renders almost all curses harmless. There are some exceptions, but we will deal with them in later years. Spells to protect you from them are too complex and require too much power for a first year to safely cast them. Now, can anyone tell me of spells that can only be countered in the ways Ms. Patil mentioned? Mr. Boot?"

"The Unforgivables, Professor?" Boot, a Ravenclaw, answered hesitantly.

"Is that an answer or a question, Mr. Boot?" Quirrell asked sharply.

Boot gulped and then answered with slightly more conviction, "An answer, Sir."

Quirrell nodded, "And an incorrect one. The Cruciatus Curse can be blocked by some known shields. Mr. Potter is the living proof that the Killing Curse can be blocked somehow, even if nobody has managed to understand, let alone replicate, what Mrs. Potter did. But she was the most brilliant witch in centuries, and had an extraordinary gift for charms. Anyway, it can be blocked somehow, but for now you do indeed have to resort to not getting hit. The Imperius Curse is actually a charm and as such can not be countered by these means at all. Like its sister charm, the Memory Charm, it is impossible to evade, but can be resisted. Resisting the Imperius is a combination of magical strength, willpower, mental discipline, and awareness that you have been placed under it. It is actually much less powerful than the memory charm for all applications but the one it was invented for – making it easier for healers to treat patients with painful conditions or mental damage.

"But we will deal with the Unforgivables and the usually illogical laws dealing with legality of certain spells during the third year. For now I have decided to try something new. In addition the normal lessons I will offer extra class for those interested and motivated sufficiently. The class will deal with topics usually not taught at Hogwarts, both Dark and Light Magic, and how to deal with it. There will be a written test next week, the information you require for the test is in the folders next to the door. Even if you are not interested in the class, the test will count towards your final grade for the term.

"I recommend that you spend some your weekend learning and researching the topics. Have fun. Class dismissed."

Harry and Ron got up and grabbed a folder each on their way out. "Have fun," Ron moaned. "A test in the first week! This is horrible!"

"I don't know," Harry replied slowly. "It sounds like simple memorizing test. Are you going to the extra class?"

Ron looked at Harry with wide open eyes, "Another class? When the professor gives us a test in the first week?"

"Well, it does sound interesting," Harry said hesitantly. Honestly he wasn't sure if he wanted the extra class either, but the lesson had been interesting; and Quirrell had of course mentioned his mother and Harry was curious to learn more about her. It would be easier to approach the Professor if he did manage to get in the class. "I think I will try to get in it."

"It's truly a fantastic chance, isn't it?" Hermione Granger said, as she joined them. Ron just grimaced as she spoke. "I am on my way to the library to study for the test. He said only those motivated sufficiently would be allowed to join; that must mean that he will only consider those that perform very well in the test. I just hope I can join."

Finally she took a breath, and Harry wondered just how she got all that out is a single breath. "Spending the afternoon in the library? Mental!" Ron mumbled.

"Actually," Harry replied turning to Hermione, "It does sound like a good idea." He turned to Ron who was gaping at him, "I told you I think the class sounds interesting. I want to at least try and join."

"I think that would be a good idea, Mr. Potter," Quirrell who had come up behind them unseen said. "Given your fame you will need it to survive."

"Excuse me? Why would he need it to survive? I mean I can understand that it would be useful for his career, but life?" Hermione said.

Quirrell looked at each of them for a moment, and finally settled on Harry, who suddenly felt very uncomfortable. "Yes, I guess Mr. Potter wouldn't want to talk about it too much. You see, because he destroyed the Dark Lord he has become famous; very famous throughout the International Confederation of Wizards, though mostly in Europe. The problem is that he is seen as a champion of light by many, including dark wizards and witches. What better way to become a famous dark wizard than to kill Harry Potter? The only good side is that there would be little fame to be gained by killing a first year student. He should have until after his NEWT exams before attacks become common, unless he does something to increase his fame that makes people believe he is highly skilled already."

"So Harry gets to join because of that?" Ron asked.

The professor looked at him grimly, "I said it in my class, Mr. Weasley, and I will say it again. Only those interested, motivated, and determined enough will join the extra class. I wouldn't do Mr. Potter any favor if I let him join although he wasn't qualified. I expect all students in that class to put a lot of work into learning the material. As I said in the beginning of the class, Defense doesn't learn itself. You will have to do that on your own." With that he nodded to Harry and Hermione before turning and heading down the stairs.

Harry gulped as he replayed the defense teacher's words. 'What better way to become a famous dark wizard than to kill Harry Potter?' What indeed? 'Kill Dumbledore,' his mind supplied. That would indeed carry more fame, but unlike Harry he also knew how to defend himself.

He was suddenly ripped out of his thoughts when a hand gently shook his shoulder, and a quiet voice asked, "Are you okay, Harry?"

He looked up and into Hermione's brown eyes; he didn't have a lot of experience in reading other people's emotions, but he could see the concern in them; concern for him. It wasn't something he was used to, or had ever experienced, "Yeah, I'm fine." At her skeptical look he amended, "At least I will be, okay?"

She looked him into the eyes and then nodded, "We should head to the library and study."

Harry nodded, "That's a good idea."

"Harry, why don't we play a round of Exploding Snap; we can always go through that material later without the know-it-all around," Ron asked. "It's not as if this were urgent."

Harry looked at Ron and shook his head, "Sorry Ron, another time. I think this is really important for me. We'll see you later." With that he took Hermione's hand and pulled her along.

Ron meanwhile gaped at him, and starred after Harry and Hermione as they left. "Mental! It's only the second day, and he's spending time in the library, when we could have fun. And with the know-it-all." He shook his head and headed towards the common room, "Maybe Dean or Seamus are there. A game of chess would be nice or maybe Exploding Snap. But library?" He shuddered as he went on.

Dumbledore became visible near where the group had stood a little while earlier, frowning. He first looked down the stair, where Quirrell had vanished, then down the corridor leading to the library. With a sigh he shook his head and went to his office. Fawkes appeared in a burst of flame before him, settled on his shoulder and began singing, and Dumbledore smiled and he caressed his friend. "Maybe it is for the best. The more he learns now, the easier it will be on him later. I just wished he could lead a normal life, at least for a few more decades." Fawkes trilled a few encouraging notes as the pair made their way through the castle.

As they reached his office Dumbledore turned to his most loyal friend again, "Do you think I should talk with Professor Quirrell to make sure that Harry joins?" But he shook his head, even before Fawkes could react, "No that would not work. Maybe I should place a spell on young Harry to make him learn," he mused.

Fawkes screeched in outrage and bit his ear. Dumbledore blinked for a moment, "Of course you're right my friend. It looks like he will try anyway, so there is hope." He turned towards his bookcase, "Now I know that I read about a ritual to correct eyesight somewhere…"

---

Harry and Hermione spend the rest of the day (save for a short dinner break – they didn't meet Ron though, since they were late) in the library. He didn't like her bossy attitude, but was thankful to have her around. Even though it was only their second day she knew how to find things in the library and he managed to memorize the techniques while they went over the DADA folders. Harry had been right, Hermione concluded, it was a test they could ace by memorizing, but against their expectations that folder did not contain any answers, it was filled with sheets full of questions and statements that could be true or not.

Ron was already in bed when they returned that night with only minutes to spare before curfew. Harry was mentally exhausted and after a quick good night went up to his bed, undressed to his shorts, fell on the bed and was asleep.

The next morning Neville woke him; they were the last in the dorm. Ron had already left for breakfast. Harry quickly showered and got dressed and headed down to get some breakfast himself. To his surprise Hermione was waiting for him in the common room.

"Good Morning Harry."

"Morning, Hermione. How are you?" The response came automatically.

"I'm fine, thanks. How are you?"

"Fine," Harry said. "Let's go down to breakfast."

"Sure. Are we going to the library after Charms today? We should get the second sheet done in time for early dinner. Then about halve the third before eight, so we could take a nap before Astronomy."

Harry frowned; he didn't want to spend another day in the library, but he did want to join the class. They would need at least a day of hard work, Sunday he concluded with a groan, to memorize the answers. They got only one and a half sheets done yesterday, which left six and a half. If they took today off they'd need all of Saturday to find out the answers, but if they worked today they might be able to memorize everything early and have Sunday afternoon off.

He nodded, "Sure. I won't pretend I'm as eager as you are, but it has to be done."

"Oh, this is going to be fun," she stated, putting special stress on 'is'. "Think about all the things we are going to learn today. I mean, I have found at least a dozen books yesterday that I will want to read soon."

Against his instinct Harry nodded; some of the books had been interesting. More than once he had found himself not only looking for the answer but reading some in depth background information.

They arrived in the Great Hall and had a quick bit to eat, before heading to class. Ron had left just before they arrived, yet he only reached class after Harry and Hermione were already seated and sat himself next to a Hufflepuff boy, Finch-Fletchy or something.

He was walking towards the Defense classroom with Hermione. History had once again been boring, and he had been amazed at the amount of notes Hermione took; more than once he shook his head and decided not to become like that, yet every time he did he had to think about not only the extra defense class, but also about what Quirrell had said. He, the little freak, was a target for all kinds of evil things who wished to make a name for themselves. A part of him looked forward to leave this life behind and be with his parents, but a much larger part wanted to first lead a life they would be proud of. And to do that he would need to learn a lot, especially Defense. And that would mean pouring over old tomes learning forgotten arts, effectively becoming the next Dumbledore. Not a bad model to aspire to, he decided, even if that meant becoming like Hermione. Even if he really didn't want to.

He was ripped out of the god, no Merlin knows how many repetition of that cycle when Ron came up next to them. Harry wanted to greet him, but after the way Ron had acted earlier he wasn't sure it would be welcome.

"Hey Harry," Ron greeted him.

"Ron," Harry said, and tried as much as he could to suppress the urge to smile at Ron; he didn't succeed, but ha managed to keep the smile less welcoming than he felt; he may want to reconcile with Ron, and Hermione might be a bossy know-it-all bookworm, but she had helped him, and still was. He wouldn't forget that; he knew how hard it was to have no friends. And no matter what Ron thought about Hermione, she still was his housemate and he ought to at least greet her.

"Harry…," he hesitated, and looked down for a moment, before looking at his face again. "Look, mate. Sorry about going off like that." Harry gave him a little nod, both of acceptance and for him to go on, since he obviously wanted to say more. "Say, how about we play a couple matches of chess after Charms?"

Harry hesitated for a moment, "Look mate, I'd love to play a couple rounds with you, but I really want to join that class Quirrell offers. So Hermione and I are heading to the library after class. You're welcome to join us."

Ron starred at him and Harry thought for a moment that he saw disgust flashing through his eyes, "What? You had time to think about what Malfoy said and decided I wasn't good enough for you? Decided that you are too good for me and choose friends that have more money?" He turned in a huff, and stalked away.

Harry turned to Hermione, completely confused, "Where did that come from?"

Hermione frowned and shrugged, "I don't know." Then she continued meekly, "If you don't want to come with the library with me anymore, I understand."

Now Harry frowned even worse, "And where did that come from?" He didn't give her time to answer, "Look, Hermione. I will admit that I'm going to the library with you because I really want to get into that class. And I think that I'll profit a lot by studying with you. If Ron can't deal with that, it is his problem; I think he may act like he does because he fears he wouldn't pass the test anyway, and thinks we will. We may not yet be friends, Hermione, but I don't forget people that help me; and I'd like us to be friends." He finished somewhat uncertainly. He hadn't had any friends in his life, beside Ron, and that wasn't turning out well. Maybe it was too much to hope that he'd ever have friends.

Hermione's frown turned to a bright smile, and her brown eyes seemed to sparkle. "I'd love that, Harry."

Harry returned the smile, "Come on. We've to hurry, or we'll be late for Defense."

The Defense lesson was more interesting than they had hoped, since Professor Quirrell had said they wouldn't learn spells. They didn't, but instead Professor Quirrell enchanted their wands to shoot a speck of color whenever they said 'target' and had them practice shooting at a few targets that were floating on the other side of the room. They had quickly learned that hitting something with a curse at even twenty feet was not easy. Harry, much to his own surprise, had actually been the best in class and found himself coaching Hermione.

The rest of the day and the next passed quietly, and the two of them were either in the Library, in class, eating, or sleeping. Even Hermione had finally admitted that it was hard work; Harry had to laugh at that admission, which caused Hermione to smile.

Friday morning Harry got an invitation from Hagrid. After a short discussion they agreed to visit him for half an hour that afternoon. Harry was looking forward to introduce Hermione to Hagrid. Potions was miserable, but since the Draught of the Living Death was part of the Defense sheet Harry could answer the question and Snape concentrated on Ron and Neville.

When they visited Hagrid they actually left after less than twenty minutes because Hagrid got rather uncomfortable after he let the name 'Nicholas Flamel' slip; Harry didn't want Hagrid to get any more uncomfortable and Hermione didn't look like she was going to drop the topic, so he excused them and they headed back to the library. Part of him hated spending, or wasting as that part though, so much time in the library, but he came to enjoy his time there more and more. It would likely never become his favorite pastime, but he did no longer dislike spending time there either.

They finished the last sheet late Saturday morning, and as Hermione prepared their notes they noticed that the last sheet had changed.

Congratulations! You have passed the first part of the test

You may or may not have noticed that you are unable to share your answers with anyone; that is the result of a charm applied to the paper.

Do not bother to memorize your answers, you can only read this after you have found at least somewhat accurate answers to all questions. There is a list your success is noted in, with the current time, the time spend to find the answers, and any partners you may have had.

The second part of the test is to find three different spells that could have been used to secure the information. There are at least five; a penalty will be applied for finding four or more before completing all tasks.

Hermione and Harry starred at the text and then at one another. "I'm really happy we started on it at once," Harry said softly.

Hermione nodded, "Interested and motivated sufficiently. If we hadn't started work at once…"

"…we might have finished it, and still not been accepted," Harry completed her sentence.

---

It didn't take them long to come across the correct book, though they needed to do some experimenting with the Hufflepuff girls (Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Megan Jones, and Sally-Ann Perks) who were also trying to work out the possible spells. They finally solved the problem while they were eating lunch at the Hufflepuff table – something that did cause some questioning glances from older students and professors, but nobody approached them.

When they returned to the library they found the next message waiting for them:

Congratulations!

You have learned one of the most important lessons, nobody can succeed alone, and everyone needs assistance once in a while. With this success the spells changes; you are now under geas to let anyone asking copy your answers without hinting at the uselessness of the endeavor.

Unlike announced the test will be written Monday after lunch; this information is protected by numerous security charms – don't try to even hint at it unless you are willing to completely embarrass yourself.

The third part of the test is to find as much information on security as possible, only excluding the information securing spells from the second part. This includes protection spells, wards, and every other magical art that can be used to defend against a specific type of attack. Note the defense, a brief (less than thirty words) summary on how it is performed, and what it defends against on this paper; once a certain amount is reached you will be informed of the topics of the written test.

Harry groaned; he could see Ron asking for his answers later today. Actually he could see all Gryffindor boys asking him, and he'd give them the useless answers. That wouldn't help mend the relation with Ron at all.

"So what now?" Harry asked.

"I haven't read anything about wards," Hermione said after a moment of thought. "I have however studied spells and potions quite a lot. I'll work on those, while you get books on wards and simply add every protection ward and what it protects against. That should work best."

Harry nodded and with a sigh went to work.

---

The sheet was finally satisfied a minute before the library closed, and Hermione managed to grab them a copy of the required textbook when Madam Pince shooed them out of the library. With no time to waste, they rushed back to the common room and arrived right at curfew – Parvati Patil, their classmate, was the only student arriving after them, a few minutes after curfew.

As expected Ron and the other boys had begun today and were shocked by the amount of work they had to do – and asked for Harry's answers, which he provided readily, against his will. As the boys huddled together to copy the answers, he sat with Hermione studying the real topic of the test, Occlumency and Legilimency.

Parvati joined them a few minutes later. "Three?" she asked simply.

"Done," Harry replied, thankful that he didn't trigger any protection.

"Great," Parvati replied with a smile, "We got done, too. But Madam Pince threw us out before we could get the required books."

"You are that interested in defense?" Harry couldn't help himself asking.

Parvati starred at him and then apparently against her will answered, "Padma and I are identical twins; we did everything together." She struggled, trying to keep her mouth closed, but failed, "We decided to split up in Hogwarts and enjoy two different lives, switching back and forth between them regularly. Once we noticed the information protection spells on the sheets we concluded that each of us would have to join if we want to keep up switching."

"It appears there are more spells on the sheet than we thought," Hermione commented.

"No kidding," Parvati answered, looking sourly at the two other Gryffindor.

"We won't tell anyone," Harry said suddenly. "You didn't mean to share your secret with us, and we won't abuse it." Hermione nodded enthusiastically.

Parvati looked at them for a moment then nodded with a resigned sigh, "I guess that's the best I can hope for, isn't it?" Harry nodded slowly, with Hermione unconsciously synchronizing her nodding with his, causing Parvati to grin.

"Well, I guess we should start reading what the quiz will be about," Harry said. "How do we do this?" He looked at Hermione in question.

Hermione thought for a moment, and then decided, "We'll sit in the corner. You and Parvati switch reading the book while I take notes. Tomorrow Parvati either stays with us and we copy the notes after we finish the book, or she goes back with her team; the others need to start from the beginning anyway, so there would be no advantage in taking the notes along, if it is possible to begin with."

"Let's start," Parvati said.

---

Two hours later they finished for the night and dropped dead in their beds just before midnight. On Sunday after breakfast they continued, after Parvati had a few words with her twin. They had found that while they could read its real title, it appeared a different book to everyone else. Harry had even begun to suspect that Professor Quirrell had only added the books to the library for his little test. Hermione agreed; at least after she'd spend an hour trying to find any other book on either Legilimency or Occlumency; given the intrusive nature of Legilimency Harry expected that any book on the art would normally be kept in the Restricted Section.

And so Ron and the others slaved away at memorizing some obscure facts, most of them completely useless; while they were interesting topics to learn about the pieces of information requested were so limited that without looking it up again nobody would be able to understand what it was all about. Hermione had concluded that it was meant as a teaser to what kind of knowledge the wizarding world has to offer to those willing to learn, and Harry had to agree with that.

Meanwhile the three of them finished the book and made copies of Hermione's notes. Checking the assignment just to be safe – there wasn't another task – they began to memorize what the arts of Occlumency and Legilimency did, how one could learn them, and how they interact.

They finished late afternoon on Sunday when Hermione suggested that they should start to actually learn Occlumency, "It we are motivated and interested to learn, we should prove it by not actually learning about Occlumency, but learning Occlumency!"

Harry nodded reluctantly, but said, "We have done nothing but work on this for six days, with next to no free time. I think that does prove our interest and motivation. If we become obsessed with it, that might get us a penalty, like putting too much detail into the second task."

"Think about it this way," Parvati said. "It's not only a test of motivation, interest, dedication, discipline, and intelligence, but also of the ability to follow orders. We are dealing with dangerous spells in later defense classes, Professor Quirrell might plan to do some of them early with us. And we could all get seriously injured if one of us doesn't follow instructions. We need to think for ourselves, but unless we understand the situation we are in completely it might be better to simply do like we're told."

Harry found himself nodding at Parvati's theory. Parvati was nearly as intelligent as Hermione, but a lot easier going, and had a broader knowledge base about all things magical that came with growing up in the Wizarding World. Harry didn't doubt that Hermione would eventually surpass Parvati, nobody he'd ever met loved reading books and learning things as much as Hermione did.

"Okay, then we can find out who Nicholas Flamel is," Hermione said with conviction. Harry had to admire her constitution; she always had to do something.

"Flamel?" Parvati asked. "Why are you interested in them?"

"There was a break in at Gringotts the day Hagrid took me shopping; he emptied the vault that was broken in. That's supposedly why the third floor corridor is out of bounds; whatever was in the vault is now there and Dumbledore guards it. Hagrid let slip that it belonged to Flamel."

"The Flamels are perhaps the richest wizarding family ever, and are very rich in the muggle world, too. Nicholas Flamel is about seven hundred years old, as his wife; they are still alive because they have created an artifact known as the Philosopher's Stone that creates a substance called 'Elixir of Life'. Our parents have told us about it to interest us in potions and alchemy," Parvati added when Harry and Hermione goggled at her. She shrugged, "Hey, it's not as if that's a secret or something. Merlin, the Founders, the Philosopher's Stone, and The-Boy-Who-Lived are the stories all magical children grow up with."

Harry blushed and groaned, "Please tell me you're joking?"

Parvati giggled, "Nope. The story about how you defeated You-Know-Who is something every child in the Wizarding World in Britain, and probably all of Europe, grew up with; they still do. You know that almost every witch in Hogwarts either had a crush on you, or still does, right? And quite a few older ones, too. You are probably the best known wizard in the world, you know?"

Harry whimpered and burrowed his face in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. The girls only giggled some. "Don't worry, Harry," Parvati said, once she recovered. "It won't help."

Harry nodded weakly, and then strategically changed the topic. "So the Flamel mystery is solved, too. It's almost certain that their stone is guarded here." To his relief the girls only nodded accepting his change of topic, though Parvati did smirk at him. "Should we take of the afternoon to relax?"

Parvati thought for a moment, and then nodded decisively. "Good idea. I'll be with my sister and the Ravenclaws. I'll look you up if they come to a different conclusion about learning Occlumency. See you later."

As Parvati left Hermione nodded, "If you want to. It's been fun. I hope we will work together again soon"

A part of Harry wanted to say no and join Ron and the others and have some fun, but hearing the pleading and even desperation in her voice changed his mind. He knew he'd study with her whenever necessary, but he had offered her friendship, and he wouldn't go back on that, or simply use her. He also knew he wouldn't have managed the assignment without her, and would have fluked the test and lost the opportunity to learn the advanced defense lessons.

He still wasn't sure that his life depended on it, but Professor Quirrell's words made sense; too much sense. He remembered reading about how many famous people were protected by bodyguards around the clock. Was there something like that in the Wizarding World? Could they stop the masses of Dark Wizards? And even if so, how could he afford them? No, he would have to learn as much as he could on his own.

His thoughts returned to the present, and he looked at Hermione. He saw some of the loneliness he had experienced before Hogwarts in her eyes and knew that he wouldn't – couldn't – deny her.

"Sure, Hermione. But I need to something other than reading books once in a while. How about we do our homework together after the test?"

Hermione smiled so brightly and nodded so eagerly that Harry felt a sting in his heart. He realized that she had already become a friend. And it hurt because of how lonely she must have been to be this happy about a simple offer. He watched as she walked up the stairs to the girl dorms and then tried to push her out of his thoughts.

He finally succeeded when he was greeted in stereo as the Weasley twins joined him. "What can I do for you two?"

"You can tell us…"

"…why all the ickle firsties are cramming like crazy."

"I mean we have seen students cramming like this before…"

"…but they were preparing for their OWLs or NEWTs."

"Oh, we have a test in Defense against the Dark Arts. Those who do well can join an extra class offered by Professor Quirrell."

"At test?"

"In the second week?"

"That is the proof brother."

"Yes it is. He really was crazy."

"And didn't get better, but worse."

Harry chuckled, "It isn't so bad. And for some reason I'm really looking forward to the extra lessons he has planned. I know that one of the questions has saved me in Potions. Without the test I wouldn't have known what Snape wanted to know, and likely as not he'd have picked on me. So it already paid off."

The brothers looked at one another then shrugged, "If you say so mate."

Harry enjoyed the talk with the twins, and they introduced him to their friend Lee Jordan, as well as the other three members of the Quidditch team, Oliver Wood, captain and keeper (fifth year), and the two returning chasers Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, both third years like the twins. By the time dinner was served the twins had proudly introduced Harry to every Gryffindor they could find (Percy finally blew up when they introduced Harry for the fifth time to him; they didn't stop until he took five points from Gryffindor after the tenth time).

Harry tried to escape once claiming he had to meet Hermione; the twins got Alicia to get her to the common room, and then simply dragged her along with Harry for introductions. And while Harry and Hermione were terribly embarrassed the twins got a lot of laughs when they introduced them as Mr. and Mrs. Potter. After the first time they changed it to Mr. and one of the Mrs. Potters', since their ickle baby sister Gin-Gin would be one, too, unless Harry wanted to suffer for breaking her heart.

Harry was hoping that the floor would swallow him and didn't get out much more than the occasional stutter after that comment, but he noticed that Hermione changed dramatically during the third introduction; gone was the shy and embarrassed girl and in her place was a gracious lady that seemed to thrive on the attention – much to the chagrin on the twins – though they were howling on the floor laughing when Hermione commented during Harry's ninth and her sixth introduction to Percy that her sister-wife had already introduced her to her brother in law. Even Harry broke out of his embarrassment for a while and laughed at Percy's reaction.

Once they got a moment to themselves he heard Hermione mutter under her breath, "Thank you mother. I never thought formal training would come in handy this quickly, if ever. Bloody Weasleys." Harry barely managed to suppress a chuckle when he hear Hermione curse.

So save for some first years that had spend the time cramming for Defense it was a very boisterous mass of Gryffindors that descended on the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at her students, but simply smiled after three of the prefects had pointed at the Weasley twins. Harry guessed it wasn't the first time they had caused unusual behavior among their housemates, when McGonagall simply nodded in answer.

Once they were done eating the twins and Lee Jordan prevented their escape and pulled them along to the Hufflepuff and later Ravenclaw tables to introduce them to their classmates, Quidditch rivals, and whoever else they knew. It was only now that Harry realized why people had starred at him when they sat at the Hufflepuff table; it didn't have anything to do with their houses, but simply was because he was the boy-who-lived. And probably because he had entered the hall with five girls, his mind added. Even Professor McGonagall had smiled when she heard how the twins were introducing them to the rest of the school while Professors Flitwick and Sprout laughed along with their students. The headmaster was just twinkling at them from his seat, while Snape glowered even more fiercely at them once he heard what the laughing was about. Quirrell was not present and Harry wasn't sure if he was glad about it or not. Some part of him wanted to know how he would react to his 'wife'.

So even though the weekend was ending the spirits were high when the students retreated to their common rooms. Parvati joined Harry and Hermione at the fireplace and laughed when they told her how they ended up married. They talked a while longer and finally went over their notes once more before heading for bed.

Monday Harry headed down for breakfast with his dorm mates and tried his best not to wince every time they complained about the stuff they had to learn for the Defense test. It was a relief when they were done eating and headed for Transfiguration; Harry immediately paired up with Hermione and was now glad he had become her friend. It didn't make her any less overbearing, though he hoped that would come in time, but classes were easier.

Transfiguration and History passed quickly and before they knew it they were eating lunch. Classes usually began at one after lunch, though first years had the afternoon off. So it surprised all older students, and most first years when Professor Quirrell stood up and asked the first years to follow him nearly twenty minutes before one.

Quirrell led them to a large classroom and waited for all of them to be seated, "Now, as those of you who have worked through the folders by yourself know, the test will be done now, and has nothing to do with the parchments in the folders at all. So unless you worked through the parchments and they told you what book you needed to read for this test, please leave now and you will simply be recorded for missing homework."

Harry grimaced as the Gryffindor boys, Lavender Brown, and some other students left; his dorm mates, especially Ron, were shooting poisonous looks at him the whole time.

"Very well," Quirrell said after the door closed. "I see some of you decided to stay in spite of not finishing their work." He waved his wand and a piece of parchment appeared before each remaining student. "You have ten minutes to answer the questions; write the answers on the test parchment. Any attempt to cheat will result in zero percent Troll grade at the end of term. Else this test will be worth a quarter of the end of term grade. Begin!"

As Professor Quirrell finished, text began to appear on the parchment in front of Harry and he looked over the questions; there were only ten of them, and the instructions at the end said to use no more than ten words for each answer. And the answers to all questions were basic at worst. He quickly filled in the answers and then looked around and saw Quirrell smirk; he looked where Quirrell was looking and saw quite a few students frowning at the parchment.

Then he realized why the test was constructed like this. If you had been determined enough to finish the prep material you would ace it, but if you never read 'Occlumency & Legilimency – Dueling Minds and more' it would be very unlikely that you knew any of the answers. It would mean that those who finished would have an easy time getting top grades in Defense, while those who tried to pretend they did would have a hard time to get an acceptable grade.

Harry fought to keep from laughing out loud as he saw the look on Malfoy's face as he read through the sheet again and again.

After a few more minutes Quirrell waved his wand again and all parchments flew to his desk. He took another parchment from his desk and read:

Abbot, Hannah – Outstanding

Bones, Susan – Outstanding

Bullstrode, Millicent – Troll, zero percent

Corner, Michael – Dreadful

Cornfoot, Stephen – Dreadful

Crabbe, Vincent – Troll, zero percent

Davis, Tracy – Outstanding

Entwhistle, Kevin – Dreadful

Goldstein, Anthony – Dreadful

Goyle, Gregory – Troll, zero percent

Granger, Hermione - Outstanding

Jones, Megan – Outstanding

Li, Su – Outstanding

Malfoy, Draco – Troll, zero percent

Nott, Theodore – Troll, zero percent

Parkinson, Pansy – Troll, zero percent

Patil, Padma – Outstanding

Patil, Parvati – Outstanding

Perks, Sally-Ann – Outstanding

Potter, Harry – Outstanding

Turpin, Lisa – Outstanding

Greengrass, Daphne – Outstanding

"Well, now that the formalities are out of the way, the trolls may leave, too. As you choose to take this test and failed spectacularly, I will have to inform your Heads of House of your grade. I'll see you in the next Defense lesson."

"This is totally unfair, Professor," Malfoy complained. "I will make sure my father hears of it! And he will complain to the school board about this unjust treatment!"

Quirrell's face turned to an icy mask, and his eyes glowed with power. "Mr. Malfoy," he said deliberately slow. "I told you to leave, unless you had read the book this test was about. It is not my fault that you choose to take the test in spite of the warning. Whiny spoiled brats that always run to daddy when life gets tough are an embarrassment to all wizards. Why, your daddy will be happy that his Lord is no longer around; You-know-who was famous for punishing his followers when their children acted like you do."

Harry grinned as Malfoy blanched to an even more unhealthy color as Professor Quirrell mentioned Voldemort. 'Ron will be so angry he missed this,' he thought.

"But of course you are welcome to remain a spoiled, whiny brat that always runs to daddy. Ten points from Slytherin for blaming others for your mistake, and two weeks detention with Mr. Filch for bringing shame on the noble House of Slytherin and failing to act like a Slytherin ought to."

Malfoy opened his mouth, probably to complain, when Quirrell continued, "And every word from now on is worth another detention and five points, Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy's eyes widened in fear and he rushed out, quickly followed by the other students that failed. Harry was very surprised that while there were a dozen students left he was the only boy.

"Interesting composition. Twelve students; two Slytherin, three each from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and four Hufflepuff. Not what I expected.

"Well, twenty points to Gryffindor for being the only house where nobody tried to cheat their way in. Ten points to Ravenclaw for being the only house where every student tried to finish the task, but five from Ravenclaw for the lack of cooperation between students.

"You will note that all students here have done the work as part of a group. That is an important part to realize; a group is stronger than the sum of its parts. You either realized that on your own, or should at least have recognized it while you were working together. The gender composition is surprising, but I believe it will work in our favor."

He waved his wand and all desks and empty chairs moved to one wall and stacked themselves there. Another wave created a low round table with twelve comfortable chairs around them, spaced evenly along the halve circle that faced the blackboard.

"All of you qualify for the extra lessons, the question is, which of you want them?" Everyone raised their hand. "Very well, take your seats around the table."

Quirrell conjured another chair and set down facing them. "I am certain some of you will want to study Occlumency at once; don't! While the book is accurate, it is not complete. I have not heard of anyone younger than sixteen master Occlumency, no matter when they started learning. I believe it depends on the mental maturity if you are capable of mastering the art; I would say that should be our first aim, but the ritual that mentally matures a person is very complex, and we will begin with less complex ones."

There was a intake of breath when he said that, and Quirrell shook his head, "There are evil rituals, but there are light ones, too. Most are neutral. Most are simply illegal because the Ministry doesn't like them, but thanks to the Hogwarts Charter I can teach you everything I want to, and you can during class perform any magic that is not evil. Our major topic during the first term will be primal magic and magical cores.

"We will study existing rituals, their effects, and how to safely disrupt them, in the case of evil rituals. We will not go into the specifics of how rituals work or how to modify them. We will do that in fifth or sixth year, when you have had a couple years of Runes and Arithmancy. Once you have experienced some rituals, I will teach you how to access your magical core directly; this will allow you to use some wandless magic, and strengthen your normal magic. It doesn't make you any more powerful; magic power is something you are born with or not born with. There are some rituals that can increase your magical power, but they there are consequences, even for those that are not fundamentally evil. No, what we will do will allow you to use your given power more effectively giving the impression that you have grown stronger. Hogwarts used to teach that skill in the past, but like so many other things it was cut from the curriculum.

"We will perform the mental maturation ceremony on Yule Eve, as that date will enhance the magic. Since we are trying for a fixed effect, it will allow us to use a vastly less complex variation of the ritual in question. New Year will be the ideal time to perform rituals that grant enhanced brain functions. We'll perform a number of additional rituals that will be comparably simple since they improve your body. As an easy guideline, the most complex rituals are needed to change your magical core, followed by the rituals that affect the brain. Everything else is simplistic in comparison.

"The second term will be spent on exploring any special abilities you may have, developing them, and performing a few more advanced rituals. I will keep the homework limited for the time being, but after the New Year ritual things will speed up.

"For now we will go over the basics, perform a couple minor rituals, and prepare for Halloween. On Halloween we will perform two rituals for each person; I will excuse you from classes that day, but you also won't be able to participate in the feast. As I said, two rituals. First, since it is the day of the dead, we will summon some deceased members of your families. I have already cleared that with the Headmaster and Professor Trelawney. You might want to invite some members of your families to observe this ritual. It's also important to note that this ritual is a dabbling into necromancy by people who don't understand the basics, as such there are two downsides. One, the ritual can be performed only on Halloween, and two, the ritual can be used to summon the ghost of an ancestor only once. If you wish to talk with them again you will need to use other magic or more complex rituals.

The second ritual is a family power ritual; it ought to boost your powers and activate new talents. Unlike other power rituals, there are no permanent costs associated with this ritual. It's classified as a grey ritual bordering to the Dark Arts, because it doesn't create any power, but takes it from your ancestry; it's not dark though, because to the best of our knowledge it doesn't harm anyone. We will go over the details after a while.

"For now I think I should get on with your other school work. We will meet Monday and Friday afternoon for the rest of the term, and will meet at other times depending on the requirements of the various rituals."

He looked at each of them in turn. "I don't want you to spread what you learn around; rituals are dangerous to perform and a small mistake can kill. And I also don't want you to lord over other students. The rituals will make you better than them, if I get any sign that you let the power control you and twist you, you are out. That is how quite a few good wizards became Dark Lords; they improved themselves through light and neutral rituals until they considered themselves more than human; more intelligent than anyone else. Often they were right, the rituals do improve you far over what humans can naturally be, but that does not give you the right to force your will upon others.

"If I see anyone of you turning into something like Mr. Malfoy, you will forget everything you have learned from me, and I will take steps to bind whatever powers you have gained. As I said, I will train you to fight against the next Dark Lord, not to become it.

"Now, we will meet again in this group on Friday in this room. If you wish to write your family about this, feel free to do so, and to discuss it among yourselves. You do not need to request permission and if you follow the course you will not have to participate in any ritual you are uncomfortable with, though I expect your presence during rituals and that you assist in performing rituals if needed. Go, have fun, learn, and think."

With that the professor disappeared with a small pop.

"But you can't apparate in Hogwarts!" Hermione cried.

Harry shrugged, "Maybe he has done something else. Or maybe there are exceptions."

"I think he used a temporary clone," Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin girl with long black hair and very pale complexion, looking almost like muggles imagined Vampires to look, said, as her icy blue eyes came to rest on Harry. "Daphne Greengrass, nice to meet you."

"A pleasure," Harry answered and shook her hand. "Harry Potter, and this is my friend, Hermione."

The girls shook hands. "As I said, I believe he used a clone, and when he dismissed it used a phantom sound to create the popping noise. Those mental rituals must be more powerful than he hinted at; it's supposed to be impossible to use your body and control a clone. And it is a lot harder for magic to be performed by the clone body, than your real one."

"The rituals will make a career a lot easier," Sally-Ann, a Hufflepuff with impossibly long blond hair that reached below her knees, commented. "That is if we are allowed to have one. What would it be like to be enhanced like that, and not allowed to do anything."

"Not allowed?" Hermione growled. "Who could forbid you to pursue a career?"

"Her husband," Susan Bones said, as she tried to calm Sally-Ann by rubbing her back, while Hannah held her hand, her thumb caressing Sally-Ann's hand soothingly. "Some families still arrange marriages for their children; it is not uncommon for trophy wives to stay at home unless they are needed for some social function."

"And why would any girl go along with that? Can't they say no?" Hermione asked forcefully, but Harry thought she sounded a bit afraid.

"She could," Daphne said. "But she'd be disinherited and would have to make her own way, pay her own bills. What fifteen years old could? And the arranged marriages are usually at that age, or even younger; probably because of that," she spat bitterly. "Maybe if they had a boyfriend or a real friend with as much money as Potter has, but that is rare. And since it is considered a grave insult to both the girl's family, and her arranged husband's family, to help the girl, it takes really good friends if your family is powerful; and only the old and powerful families still practice those traditions."

"But… that's barbaric!" Hermione muttered. Harry silently agreed with Hermione.

Daphne shrugged, "Most of us agree. Not all, mind you, but a large majority. But a tradition like that can't be ended quickly. Even if there were laws against it, it would still happen, just under the table. It doesn't affect more than a handful, but those that are affected? Tough luck."

"Well, now that the mood is ruined," Lisa Turpin, a Ravenclaw with shoulder length brown hair said, "we ought to head to the library and get started on our homework."

The others agreed and the whole group headed for the library. Their group was interesting. Susan's red hair hanging down her back in a plait, walking next to Tracy, whose hair was about the same length, but instead had an unnatural color, a silvery blonde that made it almost look as though her hair was going grey already. Hair aside the two girls looked very similar; since they were both purebloods it wasn't unlikely that they shared common ancestors. Next were the Patil twins. Their skin was notably darker, and their hair was black, but was styled up exactly like the other two.

Hannah and Megan both had blonde pigtails; they looked almost like sisters, which wasn't surprising, since their mothers were twins. Hermione had brown hair, almost matching her eyes, while Lisa's brown was darker, going towards black, and while Hermione's was bushy, Lisa's was straight, and she wore it openly, since it was only shoulder length. Su Li's black hair was the darkest Harry had seen, but accented her Asiatic features well, while Sally-Ann's immensely ling hair was brightly blonde, so shiny that Harry suspected quite a bit of magic at work. Add to that Daphne with her pale features accented by her black hair, and Harry's own unruly black hair, brilliant emerald eyes, and healthy complexion gained during long hours working outside in the garden, and they made for an interesting study of contrasts.

It felt strange to Harry to be with the group; not just because they were all girls, but because he had never been part of a group. Beside Hermione and him the others were either purebloods or had at least grown up in the Wizarding World, and were talking about people they met, and the music bands; Harry was surprised how few bands there were in the Wizarding World. He didn't know much about music, but it seemed that the music selection for wizards was limited at best, and none of the girls had even heard about any muggle bands.

Harry noted that they got quite a few strange looks, both on the way, and during the time they spend in the library. Some of it was probably because he was the only boy among the group, but Harry felt certain that a large part was because there were students of all four houses spending time together peacefully. While not unheard of, he got the impression that there was very little contact between Slytherin and Gryffindor, especially in public. Why teachers would tolerate such hostility among the student body was beyond Harry; he didn't think there was a normal school that would allow the students to become this estranged from one another.

Honestly Harry would have enjoyed just heading back to the common room, forgetting about all the schoolwork and enjoy some time off, but he was dreading the meeting with the other first years, especially Ron. Ron was a friend, or at least Harry hoped so. They had hit it off well on the train, but they had hardly talked since the defense lesson on Tuesday, almost a week ago, and there was a good chance that Ron would hold it against him that he didn't tell him about the test. Or maybe because he did let him do useless and needless studying, Harry wasn't really sure which would be the driving force. But from what he had learned so far the Weasley temper was famous and he would be at the receiving end.

Whichever it would be, he was spared for the day since the boys (and Lavender, the only first year Gryffindor girl not passing the test) decided to ignore him. So Harry and Hermione got together with the Weasley twins and Lee and told them what happened during class. As it was Malfoy had already managed to annoy most of the younger Gryffindors, so they found themselves retelling the story to all of them several times, and even those that hadn't had the misfortune to encounter him yet enjoyed the story of his destruction. The Malfoy family might be powerful, but they were also widely seen as Dark Wizards, and Death Eaters that escaped punishment, and it seemed almost certain that from his behavior so far that the youngest Malfoy would uphold the family tradition.

---

Ron continued to ignore and avoid Harry for the rest of the week. The flying lesson on Thursday ended with Neville injured and Harry recruited as Seeker for Gryffindor, but both Harry and Hermione were disappointed that Malfoy had escaped punishment for both unauthorized flying and taking Neville's Rememberall.

"So it is normal to get away with attempted theft and destruction of the property of other students?" Hermione asked, shocked, when the Weasley twins said that Malfoy wouldn't be punished.

"Sure," Gred said.

"It's nothing unusual," Forge added.

"Not like it's important anyway."

"I agree, brother mine. Montague got away with breaking Brooks leg; Brooks was out Seeker; got his NEWTs last year."

"I mean he wasn't all that good a Seeker."

"Nothing like Charlie at least."

"Or Harry."

"Or Harry," the other twin acknowledged.

"But as I said, Montague used a curse to break Brooks leg."

"Had to spend several days in the hospital, the poor chap."

"Cost Slytherin ten points and Montague a night detention with Filch."

"One Night!"

Hermione and Harry looked at one another. "You mean to say that Montague deliberately injured a student, and only got one night detention?" Hermione asked.

"Yes!" the twins answered in stereo.

"That's insane," muttered Harry. "What's next? Letting them get away with murder?"

"Dunno about murder, mate," said twin one.

"But word is that attempted murder isn't even worth detention."

"Yeah, word is that someone set up a murder. It was just attempted murder because another guy interfered."

"They say that the headmaster knew it."

"And there was no punishment handed out."

"Mind you, the target is supposed to have been Snape; while he was still a student."

"We don't mind a good prank, but that's really taking a bit far."

"Our pranks might injure someone badly."

"But only if they go wrong, mind you, never deliberately."

"Which is the problem with just about all forms of magic."

"But to try and murder someone?"

"Even Snape?"

Both twins were emphatically shaking their heads. "That's taking things too far."

"You mean to say someone tried to murder another student, and it only failed because of another student, and nobody was punished?" Hermione demanded fiercely.

The twins nodded. "That is what we were told by our brother."

"And Bill would never joke about something like that."

"Drove our parents wild with his demands to be sent to another school."

"Not that we had money to do that."

"But he'd never make such a spectacle if it wasn't serious."

"Not that mum and dad believed it."

"They say Dumbledore can do no wrong."

"We think he may have done it because of the war."

"You know with Snape all dark and such."

"Telling the students they could target Death Eaters and kill them if they want."

"One way to keep You-Know-Who's supporters out of Hogwarts, I suppose."

"Still he is headmaster and responsible for the safety of all students."

"If he doesn't want someone he can always expel them."

"But letting students become murderers for any reason?"

"Not one of his better ideas, brother dearest."

"Indeed not, Gred."

"I'm Forge. You are Gred."

"I'm Gred? I thought I'm Forge?"

"I don't think so. I am certain that I am Forge."

The twins frowned at one another. Finally they shrugged. "Who cares?" they agreed.

"As I said," Forge said. "Not one of his better ideas."

"And why hasn't anyone done anything?" Hermione demanded.

The twins shrugged. "Slughorn didn't do anything."

"He was the Potion Master and Head of Slytherin House before Snape."

"Retired the year after You-Know-Who's defeat."

"And if Slughorn and Dumbledore do nothing, what should Snape do?"

"If Gryffindor firsties heard the story, it had to be common knowledge."

"But who would take on Dumbledore during the war?"

"Or even after the war?"

"And Snape seems to be past it, or he wouldn't teach here."

"If you can call it teaching."

"So you are saying someone got away with trying to kill Snape?" Hermione asked. The twins nodded. "And even though Dumbledore knew what happened, nobody got punished?" They nodded again, leaving Hermione starring at them with open mouth.

"And a Slytherin got one night detention for deliberately hurting another student?"

"And ten points," one twin answered.

"Mind you, we have lost more points, and got more detention for sneaking around after curfew."

"You mean breaking curfew is punished more harshly than attacking another student?" Hermione demanded.

"Oh, yes!" the other twin stated.

"That is unless the headmaster catches you. He usually just sends you back to bed."

"Better go directly back to bed then, though, or he will catch you again."

"And then you will have detention with Snape."

"For a whole week."

"Or the same as you'd get for sending the whole Slytherin Quidditch team into the Hospital wing for half a week."

"Is it just me, or is that… I don't even know what I should call it!" Harry said.

"It clearly means that Dumbledore is insane," Hermione muttered. "No, that all wizards are insane, or someone would have removed him by now."

"I don't think Dumbledore is insane," said twin two.

"A little crazy, maybe, but not insane," his brother agreed.

Hermione shook her head, "If this happened in the muggle world Dumbledore would be fired simply for not reporting it to the police. It'd be a nation wide scandal!"

"Wizards do a lot of insane thing, don't they?" Harry asked.

"Yeah." Hermione agreed slowly. "Now that I think of it, there's a lot of stuff that's insane."

"Oi! We're not that bad!" the twins protested in unison.

"Not you, but whoever has any say in what happens at Hogwarts. If Hogwarts really is the best school in Europe, it's no wonder that there are so many Dark Wizards."

"I've to agree with Hermione there," Harry said.

The twins shrugged. "It's good for playing pranks though."

"We can get away with almost everything."

"So it's not all bad."

The twins stomachs expressed their displeasure at being unfilled at the same time. "Well, looks like it is time to eat."

"As my brother said, time to eat. Let's go."

The twins rushed towards the Great Hall, while Hermione and Harry followed at a more sedated pace.

"I can't believe they'd let anyone get away with attempted murder," Hermione exclaimed furiously.

Harry shrugged, "We're talking about the twins here. They may have tried to wind us up about that at least. But the story about Brooks should be easy enough to verify; I'll simply ask Wood at training."

Hermione nodded ferociously, "That'd be Grievous Bodily Harm at least. Any student would be lucky to get away with a temporary suspension. Students have been kicked out of school for far less than that!"

"Hermione, calm down. It's not going to help any if you are angry. We aren't going to be able to change it while we are students here."

Hermione took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "You're right. It's just so wrong. If we let them get away with things like that they will not think twice to do it as adults!"

Harry shrugged, "I'll take your word for it."

Hermione nodded. "Good."

Harry looked at her and wanted to speak up, but settled to shake his head instead. After a moment he said, "Maybe we should prank them in response? I'm sure the twins would help us learn how. That way they wouldn't get away with it."

Hermione thought for a moment, and then shook her head, "It may improve the situation for the moment, but it doesn't actually change anything. They still would not get punished by the authorities. It'd only teach everyone that the authorities are useless, and that you can pass judgment themselves. I don't know if that would be an improvement."

"Should we be worried about things like that while we're still at school?" Harry asked in response.

Hermione regarded him seriously for a few moments, and then shook her head. "We shouldn't be confronted with the question in the first place," she said finally.

"So what do we do?" Harry asked.

"Maybe we can transfer to another school," Hermione said.

"Would it be different?" Harry asked. "I don't think they mentioned this even in Hogwarts: A History, did they?"

Hermione looked troubled, "No, they didn't." She sighed. "And transferring would be like running away. But I don't know about pranks."

"I don't know a thing about them either," Harry said with a shrug. "We'd need the help of the twins to get started off, I suppose."

"Maybe," Hermione said as they entered the Great Hall after walking for nearly a minute in silence. "But we will need to do some research first." Harry smiled. "It's nothing to smile about," Hermione stated.

Harry lost his smile, and nodded after a moments thought, "You're right. It's not. But it will be when we start punishing, won't it?"

Hermione regarded him in silence, as they took their seat at the Gryffindor table, "I suppose so." Then she shook her head in exasperation, "I never thought I'd become a vigilante!"

"You never thought it would be necessary for you to become one," Harry corrected her.

She looked at him in surprise, and then gave him the bright smile. "Yes, you are right."

That is when Malfoy interrupted their meal, his two gorillas, Vincent Crab and Gregory Goyle, flanking him. "Good to see a mudblood agreeing with her better," Malfoy sneered. "So having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

Harry looked at Malfoy annoyed, but suddenly got an idea, "You think Voldemort will be impressed that you needed your two little friends to dare approach me?" The three purebloods whimpered when Harry spoke Voldemort. "What is the problem, Malfoy? Afraid of Voldemort? Or are you just afraid of the name Voldemort? What'd Voldemort think? Voldemort wouldn't be happy to how you react to Voldemort, now would Voldemort be?"

Malfoy and his friends flinched each time Harry said Voldemort's name. "Stop saying his name!" Malfoy demanded, though it came out like whining.

"Oh get lost Malfoy, nobody forces you to get close enough to me to hear when I mention Moldyvort, eh, I mean Voldemort."

Malfoy's eyes widened when Harry not only said the Dark Lord's name, but actually maimed it, accidentally though it was. Harry decided on the spot he'd need to come up with several maimed versions of the name, if only to annoy Malfoy. "Stop it," the Malfoy heir hissed, displaying his anger.

"If you can't hear Voldemort, just leave," Harry said, trying to act bored. He was really amused by the way Malfoy and his goons reacted each time he said Voldemort. "We are talking about Voldemort, so we'll say Voldemort regularly. If you have a problem with us saying Voldemort it'd a good idea to be far enough away not to hear us say Voldemort. That simple enough for you?"

"That's enough, Potter," Malfoy hissed. "I won't have you despoil the Dark Lord's name. Wizard's duel. Tonight. Wands only – no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of Wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Tonight?" Harry asked.

"Midnight. We'll meet you in the trophy room, that's always unlocked."

Harry regarded Malfoy for a moment, and then shook his head. "You consider yourself far more important than you are, Malfoy. You're not worth any lost sleep to me. And if I humiliate you, I want hundreds of witnesses. It's either before the whole school, or not at all. Take your pick."

Harry hoped fervently that Malfoy didn't call his bluff. He had some idea what a wizard's duel was, and he'd read some spells that could be used, but hadn't even tried to perform any of them yes. Since it actually was only the ninth day of the year he didn't know any useful magic at all.

Apparently he'd pulled it off, since Malfoy was suddenly looking very afraid. Angry, but afraid. Malfoy turned on the spot and walked away in a huff, but without an answer. Harry let out a sigh, "That was close."

"I can't believe the way he reacted whenever you said Voldemort," Hermione said, her voice conveying the amazement she felt.

Harry smiled, but then turned serious, "Hermione, I might have scared of Malfoy for now, but he may return at any point. Can you help me find out what I need to know about Wizard's duels and some useful spells?"

Hermione nodded, "Sure. It shouldn't be a problem to find what we need in the library. I think I know where you could start looking for useful spells. I'll redo our studying schedule and make some room for them over the weekend."

'Our studying schedule?' Harry thought. 'I don't remember anything about that.' He shook his head, "Yes, Hermione."

---

Friday was another day of surprises. While Snape wasn't exactly friendly to the Gryffindors, he was fairer than the last time. Malfoy actually lost five points for Slytherin when he tried to throw something into Hermione's and Harry's cauldron, while Professor Snape awarded Gryffindor five points for their potion.

After lesson they heard Malfoy complain to Snape, who answered with a simple, "You may; but remember that every action has consequences."

Malfoy then left in a huff. But it seemed obvious that the tone of Snape's response had scared him, badly.

Hermione and Harry exchanged confused looks.

"I wonder what was up with Snape today," Hermione said, as the three Gryffindor outcasts made their way to the Great Hall. So far the other Gryffindor first years kept ignoring them, unless they had to talk because they were paired up in class. "He was almost helpful."

"Almost," Parvati muttered. "But the timing for the ingredient preparation was completely off. I've seen Weasley and Longbottom doing exactly as Snape said; they didn't manage to complete the potion in time. Unless I'm wrong there were only five finished potions; that means two other groups didn't finish either."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, which doesn't fit with his usual precision."

"Maybe it was the first time he explained the preparation, and he simply didn't have enough preparation time to get it correct," Hermione said.

"Snape teaches for a decade or so," Parvati said. "Why would he suddenly change his lessons so much that he doesn't manage to plan them adequately?"

"Well, from what I've heard he was a brilliant Potion Master, but a bad teacher; maybe the headmaster demanded that he improved his teaching or he'd find another teacher?" Hermione speculated.

Harry shook his head, "Why now? Why not insist during the holidays? Or years ago?"

"Maybe because you're here now?" Parvati asked, and immediately held up her hands in surrender. "I know you don't like your fame, but it's still there."

Harry looked dubious, and shook his head, "They knew I was coming years ago. Dumbledore could have forced the change before I arrived if it were because of me."

The girls nodded. "The same is true if it has to do with the stone," Hermione said.

Parvati shrugged, "So something happened somewhere that forced the change. It's not like we have free access to everything concerning Dumbledore or Snape. A lot of things could have happened."

The other two agreed reluctantly. "Whatever happened it's a good thing," Hermione decided. "I've learned a lot more in this lesson than in the last."

As they entered the Great Hall, Parvati excused herself and headed to her sister at the Ravenclaw table.

As they were eating they were surprised when Neville, Dean, Seamus, and Lavender joined them.

"Hey, how are you?" Dean asked, and grimaced slightly at how it sounded.

Harry barely suppressed a snicker by coughing. "Everything's fine," he assured his dorm mate. "So how are the four of you?"

"Still angry about wasting so much time cramming useless stuff," Seamus muttered.

"If you had done the work yourself, you wouldn't have had that problem," Hermione stated self-righteously.

Harry quickly added, "Once we began working through the sheets the spells on them prevented us from sharing answers with anyone. And when we had found the answers the sheet changed and told us that we now were under spells that'd force us to change the answers with anyone who asked, because they were completely irrelevant to the test. We'd have said something if we could have. We literally couldn't."

"That explains that, Lavender muttered.

"Explains what?" Dean asked.

"I had filled out a few answer by myself and tried to tell you, but somehow it never worked out until I read the answers on the note Harry gave us."

Harry was amused at the reaction of the three boys as they realized why Harry hadn't warned them. "So, what are you planning for the afternoon?" Neville asked.

"Oh, we've another double lesson with Quirrell," Harry answered.

"The class is now officially named Arcane Arts," Hermione said. When Harry looked at her questioningly, she explained, "There was a note in the common room about the class. Didn't say anything but the name, so I forgot to tell you. Sorry."

Harry shrugged, "Doesn't matter." He turned to the others, "Anyway, looks like we're going to have to hurry. See you guys later."

The other Gryffindors agreed and Harry and Hermione left the Great Hall, meeting with the other Arcane Arts students on their way out.

As they arrived at the classroom they were surprised that beside Professor Quirrell another woman was waiting for them. Once they had all arrived Quirrell began, even though break wasn't officially over yet.

"Welcome to the first real lesson in Arcane Arts. As you have correctly concluded last time, I used a clone to administer the test and deliver the speech. I'm glad to see all of you have decided to take the class. Good.

"Because of the magic we will be using it is critical that I am aware of any and every medical condition you may suffer from. As such I arranged for Healer Nightshade to examine you. As you will work as group and your life may depend on your partners knowing of your weakness, I expect you all to pay close attention to what Healer Nightshade says. You may question her after she finished with everyone. Because of the private nature of the information notes are not allowed. A dictation quill will record every meeting and the records can be viewed in my office. My clone will go inactive until Healer Nightshade is finished, so don't be disturbed when I do not move at all."

He then put a long sheet of parchment on his desk and tapped a quill with his wand, before releasing it. It slowly lowered itself until the tip was just touching the parchment. The professor then sat in a chair in the rear corner of the room and seemed to freeze.

"Well kids, I usually don't do groups, but I owed Q a favor, so here I am. Let's get this organized. I will assess your physical health in detail. The process takes fifteen minutes at least, and up to twenty minutes is normal. So we are talking three to four hours. The house-elves will bring refreshments in two."

She waved her wand and the door was surrounded by a pale glow. "The door is now locked and nobody will interrupt us. Everyone strip out of your robes; when I call your name lie flat on your back on the unused bed. I don't want to have to wait, since I won't be able to enjoy my weekend before we are done."

With another wave and a few whispered words two tables turned into beds that looked more comfortable than a hospital bed, but far less so than the magnificent beds they had in their dorms. She looked up and saw that none of them had moved, "I said strip! Now!"

Harry was embarrassed as he took of his Hogwarts robe; he had bought robes while he was in Diagon Alley, but he was still using the old underwear he got from the Dursleys, so he was left with overlarge old boxers held up by improvisation. He blushed worse than he had ever before in his life.

Looking up in shame, he noted that most of the girls were also red in the face, and often more than the face. Harry joined them with a full body blush when he noted that most of the girls were wearing as little as him.

"Abbot, Hannah," the healer called out and once the girl had settled on the bed began running her wand over her, saying lots of incantation Harry couldn't understand.

For a while he thought he was going to die of embarrassment, but as time passed Harry calmed down, and his blush almost disappeared. When he looked around some of it returned, but almost nothing compared to what it had been. He noted that the girls were also returning to normal.

After fifteen minutes the healer said, "Everything looks good, but you need to take breath potion more often; either every second day, or four times a week, whichever you prefer. I'll get a regrow potion for Monday and will remove one of the teeth then."

"Remove? Daphne asked in surprise. "Not mending?"

"No. I don't know what exactly Professor Quirrell plans for you, but he wants your bodies prepared for the highest stress levels. While it isn't commonly known mended teeth or bones are not as strong as normal or regrown ones. So regrowing it is. You can get up."

She then turned and repeated the procedure on Susan Bones; Harry had missed her name being called. Susan would have two mended bones removed and grow new ones. She also had slightly weakened hearing, though there was no ready cure available.

Susan was followed by Tracy Davis who took over twenty minutes to examine. She suffered from a rare wizarding disease that was essentially harmless and could be easily treated, but left her unable to bear children; while Tracy took the news well most of the girls broke down crying and hugged her. Harry felt sad for her but wasn't sure how to react; he had never experienced physical comfort, and was unsure what was appropriate between girls and boys, let alone girls and boys dressed (or not dressed) as they were.

Hermione would get a potion to resize her front teeth and another one to repair the damage brushing had done over the years and was ordered to stop brushing and use breath potion thrice a week instead.

She continued calling the girls alphabetically. There were a few minor issues, but nothing major. Last she called Harry. After nearly thirty minutes, she frowned at him, and cast another spell before sighing in disgust. "Ten years malnutrition, for the most part severe malnutrition. Several definite periods of starvation and severe dehydration. At least one instant of torture. Undeterminable number of minor to major instances of abuse. It's hard to get accurate readings because the malnutrition overshadowing every other condition. Eye imperfection; shortsighted. We'll definitely remove quite a lot of bones, probably including the backbone. I think the readings suggest that he was forced into too small a space for a long time, leading to slightly deformed bones. Several teeth will have to be regrown and you will use breath potion now."

She sat warily on a chair and regarded him. "Mr. Potter, you grew up in the Muggle world, did you not." Seeing his nod, she continued, "That makes things more complicated. Abuse and neglect themselves are not criminal in the Wizarding World, though starving, severe abuse, and torture are, though mostly they'll be punished with fines and short prison terms. I believe since you were brought up as a muggle you can request that your case is heard under muggle law. On the other hand I am not sure where you would placed in that case; under wizarding law as last living member of the family older than ten you can choose which adult you wish to live with, without restrictions, since your guardian would have no access to your fortune."

While Healer Nightshade talked Harry sat up and within seconds found himself in the center of a group-hug; it was rather odd feeling to be dressed in underpants only and be hugged by almost a dozen similarly dressed girl, pleasant but odd. Then again Harry had nothing to compare the feeling with, since this was the first time in his life that he was hugged at all!

---

An undeterminable time later, there was a bang. Harry's eyes snapped open, as he tried to remember what could have enraged Uncle Vernon this time. It took a few seconds to remember that he was now at Hogwarts, and no longer in the cupboard under the stairs at Number Four Privet Drive.

It took another few seconds to realize that he wasn't in his bed either, the colors were all wrong. And he was feeling unusually warm under his comforter. That's when he realized that his 'comforter' was breathing!

Hermione was practically draped on him, with his left arm holding her close. On his right shoulder lay another head. The long black hair didn't leave a doubt that his right arm was holding one of the Patil twins.

As he recognized that, he remembered the examination that happened the last afternoon, and their group hug. He didn't have any recollection what happened after that. Let alone how he'd ended on a mattress with eleven girls; he didn't even know a mattress of this size existed, even at Hogwarts!

"It doesn't," Professor Quirrell's voice interrupted his thoughts.

Harry's head snapped around, and he looked at the amused Defense Professor. "Excuse me, Sir?"

"A mattress this big doesn't exist as Hogwarts. I conjured it. After the emotional extremes you experiences yesterday, you started falling asleep, so I conjured the mattress and let you rest."

"How?" Harry asked, but then broke of.

"Correct, I'm a Legilimens. Sorry for invading your mind, but I wanted to make sure you weren't about to panic."

Harry nodded slowly. "Why did you wake me and not the others?"

"I didn't. I just entered the room, and closed the door a bit too quickly." He shrugged. "You're a lot more alert than them. Waking up at rather low noises can be a pain, but it can also save your life. So, enjoying your night?"

Harry blushed brightly, "I-I'm so-sorry, Sir. I kn-know it is imp-proper."

Quirrell quickly waved him to silence. "Mr. Potter, if I thought it improper I wouldn't have left you sleeping here like this. You fell asleep from emotional exhaustion; it's nothing you should apologize for. All of us do that. It was my choice to simply conjure a single mattress and leave all of you on it. Beside, there is nothing improper about this. I guess you have not experienced it, but almost all children experience something like this during their childhood many times. When they are scarred or sad they sleep in bed with their parents holding them, or their siblings.

"You ought to talk to either Ms. Patil sometime; they never slept without holding one another until they came to Hogwarts. Sleeping alone was much harder on them than being away from home. It's only natural for you to crave some physical closeness. Everyone does."

"And I'll be happy to provide some," mumbled Hermione, who was still half a sleep, as she held him closer. Suddenly her eyes opened wide, and she took in her surroundings. "Oh bloody!" she exclaimed softly.

"No need to be afraid, Ms. Granger. And a good morning to both of you. If you'd please wake your companions? I'll be back in a few minutes to give you time to get dressed. The house-elves got new clothing for you from your dorms and took the dirty for cleaning."

With that he left the room. When he returned a few minutes later all twelve of them were dressed, and looked slightly flushed. "Ah, good morning everyone."

"Morning, Professor," the group responded.

"Well, as you have noticed you spent the night here. That means your dorm mates will have noticed your absence. Since the truth only makes sense if you tell private medical information that should never be shared with others, I've come up with a little excuse. It's actually pretty simple. We met here and spend the afternoon and evening preparing a tent for a little excursion during the next full moon, which will be on Monday the twenty-third. You spend most of the time reading some defense stuff; I'm certain you can keep things general enough not to contradict one another. Now scoot. You haven't had dinner, and breakfast is almost over!"

They rushed down for breakfast and sat together at the closest table, which happened to be the Slytherin table. Thankfully Malfoy wasn't there to annoy them.

"So what are you planning for the day?" Hermione asked, as they ate.

"Hmm," Harry replied, thinking about her question. He'd hoped for some time to relax, but with Malfoy making a nuisance of himself, he wanted to be prepared. "Homework. Then looking up and studying a few curses. And maybe see if I can find anything on rituals."

Hermione smiled, "Sounds wonderful."

Harry smiled at her. He could imagine how Ron'd react if he had heard that. He was a good mate, but studying was not his forte.

"Mind if we join?" the Patil wearing Ravenclaw robes asked.

"Of course not," Harry answered.

Homework and a few curses for dueling didn't prove to be a problem, but their search for any authentic material on rituals was frustrated. In the end they agreed that the Information had to be locked away in the Restricted Section; probably because of the danger a miscast ritual meant to the caster.

---

Monday morning passed quietly, though Harry was relieved that Ron and the others were at least talking to him again, but given the time he'd spend learning 'Arcane Arts' without them, and his desire to prove himself worthy of being the son of the smartest witch in centuries by excelling in class, he realized he would never have a close friendship with any of them.

It wasn't that bad though. Hermione had become his best friend, and the other girls, especially the Patils, were good friends, too. He still marveled about how quickly his opinion of Hermione had changed. Or maybe she had changed so quickly because she was around so many people sharing her passion for learning.

After lunch it was once again time for the Arcane Arts. The beds were once again present, but Quirrell was alone this time. "Okay, now we know that all of you can endure a ritual without some obscure condition getting in the way. Now we need to make certain that your magic won't cause any complications either.

"The procedure is both simple and quick. I expect it to take no more than a few minutes each. We should be done in an hour. Finding problems in the magical core is simple, but the magic is very delicate, as such it's impossible to scan someone though even a layer of clothes. I need you to expose your upper body. Same order as Friday. Strip!"

Harry quickly stripped of his robe. Each scan took Quirrell perhaps three or four minutes. Since Quirrell wouldn't make any comment beside next while he was at work, they talked quietly until it was their turn. The conversation turned to birthdays.

"Well, mine is on July 31st," Harry said.

"As if we didn't know that," Susan retorted with a small blush. "I doubt I'm the only one that's send you a birthday card each year!"

Harry blinked. "Well, thank you," he said after a moment. "I would have responded, too, but I didn't get anything. I guess the Ministry kept the owls away because I was living with muggles. Anyway, when're you birthdays?"

"January 12th." Susan answered.

"We're May 25th," Parvati said.

"I'm November thirtieth," Megan said. "Hannah is thirty minutes younger, December first."

"I guess I'm the oldest," Hermione said. "September nineteenth."

Harry didn't hear the rest, though he made sure to get a copy of Hermione's list. But for the moment he panicked internally; his best friend was celebrating her birthday in a few days, and he didn't have a present! And with his vault and all he did have enough money!

Shortly after Quirrell was done Nightshade arrived and began treating them.

She began by handing Harry a dozen different potions. The potions would prevent any future consequences from the starvation and malnutrition, though not correct the permanent damage already inflicted on his body. The first was a bright yellow one that tasted like chocolate milkshake with some cherry aroma mixed in. The second was green, almost exactly matching his eyes. It was steaming lightly, and was pleasantly warm, but tasted awful, since it combined intensive taste of cherry, ketchup, cheese, and honey. Then came a bright red potion that tasted like strawberry marmalade, followed by a green, lemon-tasting one, a black, very hot, and tasteless one, which were followed by six colorless potions, though each tasted differently. First was apple juice, then honey, cinnamon, beef, potato, and finally very strong lemon juice. That was followed by a very cold potion, looking and tasting like clear water, and finally pink potion that tasted hot curry; Harry felt as though he'd spit fire after drinking that one.

Meanwhile she had dealt with the other patients, and returned to Harry. With a few waves of her wand dozens of bones in Harry's body vanished, and Hermione had to lift his head while Padma held a large beaker of steaming liquid. The liquid burned Harry's mouth and throat, and he caught heavily. Once the beaker was empty Harry drank a few gulps of water, but after so many potions he wasn't really thirsty anymore.

He felt stabbing pains all over his body and wasn't able to hide the occasional wince. After some murmured conversation, Harry wasn't really lucid enough anymore to follow them, he felt a pair of arms holding him from either side. For some reason the pain seemed distant and unimportant while the girls embraced him, and he slept with a content smile on his face; after a decade without experiencing any affection he was slowly getting used it. His last thought before he succumbed to slumber was if this was what having loving siblings was like, but for some reason he thought they were closer than siblings.

Once again Quirrell woke them in the morning; once again the house-elves had prepared a change of clothes for them. Quirrell used a spell on them mimicking the effects of taking a shower, and ordered them to change into new clothes before leaving; after spending two afternoons and nights together in underwear changing in front of one another seemed almost normal. Were they becoming family, Harry wondered. He hoped so. None of them tried to hide their interest in seeing someone of the other sex completely nude, and all blushed slightly, but they were having some innocent fun.

Harry also found a new pair of glasses, probably left for him by Healer Nightshade. Not only did the look a lot better – they were black like his hair with a very thin, almost nonexistent frame that was somehow rendered invisible to the wearer – but he could see better, too. They magically matched his prescription perfectly. Beside that they were enhanced to never fall off, unless he wanted to take them off, or powerful magic was at work. They also slightly improved his ability to see in less than ideal weather and light conditions.

As he dressed Harry thought about his relation with the girls. He knew that it was very special; he had overheard some older boys talking about spying on the girls, trying to get a glimpse at them nude. He on the other hand had seen not one or two, but eleven attractive girls completely nude. He promised himself that he wouldn't betray the trust the girls had shown and never even hint that he had seen any of them less than completely dressed.

Harry had managed to get Susan alone for a moment on their way to Herbology and question her about ordering items. Armed with that information he went to the owlery and called for Hedwig.

Hedwig came to him at once and Harry carefully fixed a letter and a small sack filled with galleons to her legs, while he greeted her, "Hey girl. I need you to do something important for me. You know Hermione?" Hedwig regarded him carefully before nodding and hooting affirmative. "Good. Her birthday is in a few days and I need a present for her. She's become my best friend, and I really want something special for her. She mentioned that she'd like to write her parents regularly, but they didn't buy her an owl, and she doesn't seem comfortable to use school owls all the time. So I think an owl would be perfect. Now since I can't leave the castle to choose one, I need you to find one for me. The letter simply reads that I've send you out to choose an owl. I trust that you can find one that's suited for Hermione, can I?"

Hedwig looked at him like he was crazy for nearly a minute, before she regally nodded her head and hooted her agreement. Harry smiled at her, "I know I can rely on you, girl. I need you and Hermione's owl back the day after tomorrow when the morning post is delivered. Okay?" Hedwig nodded again. "Good girl. Good luck." Hedwig hooted one last time before she left the owlery. Harry just hoped that Hedwig was really as smart as he thought she was and got it done.

---

Harry was also amazed at how much better he felt. Between the new glasses Healer Nightshade had brought for him, the new bones, and the other potions, whatever exactly they might have done, he felt better than he ever had. It hadn't been pleasant, but the pain was well worth it.

He was anxious on Thursday; he congratulated Hermione in the Common room before breakfast and they headed down together; they were up before the other first years, and Parvati had spent the night in Ravenclaw tower with her sister.

They were talking about Charms, their first class of the day, over breakfast when the owl arrived. Hedwig flew straight to Harry and landed on his shoulder. He immediately took a piece of bacon and offered it to her. A moment later another snow owl landed on Hermione's shoulder.

She looked at the owl and noted it didn't carry a message. "Hello, can I help you?" she asked.

The owl hooted. Meanwhile Harry had checked the note on Hedwig's leg, which confirmed that the owl was his present.

"Hermione," he said, attracting her attention. "Since it is your birthday, I thought I'd get you a little surprise. I hope you like her," he indicated towards the owl on her shoulder.

Hermione blinked. "You got her for me?" Harry nodded and grinned at the amazement and happiness on Hermione's face. "Thank you," she said hoarsely, as she enthusiastically pulled him into a hug, earning screeches from both their owls as they had to take off. Harry didn't care, and return the hug gladly, but he was surprised when she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Both of them blushed as the Weasley twins cried, "We told you so!"

Hermione decided to name her owl Athena; Athena seemed to like the name, and she left with Hedwig for the owlery shortly after.

---

On Friday Harry received his broom for Quidditch; a Nimbus 2000, the best broom on the market. Malfoy tried to get him into trouble for having a broom but just ended up getting another week of detention from an annoyed Quirrell before he and his two shadows sulked off.

The potion class was also enjoyable. Professor Snape was now treating everyone equal and taught techniques and methods well, but he proceeded very quickly and snapped at everyone that didn't keep up. Ron and Neville had the misfortune to attract most of his attention, though the Slytherins didn't escape the Potion Master's sharp tongue either. Against all rules they didn't do any practical work in that lesson. At the end Snape handed out some raw food to practice ingredient preparation with, assigned over a hundred pages to read, and five essays of at least fifteen inches each for the next lesson. Even Hermione was shocked at the amount of work they were to do, though Harry, Hermione, and Parvati had already started on the assignment after the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had told them of their potion lesson last Tuesday.

The sudden change in the Potion Master was a hot topic for the whole school. It seemed that everyone agreed that he had changed from a highly competent Potion's Master, barely competent, and highly prejudiced teacher to a reasonably fair and extremely demanding teacher. Harry and his friends concluded that Snape just liked to shout at students and berate them but the school board would no longer put up with his prejudice or substandard teaching.

The afternoon Quirrell lectured them on a basic ritual that would cure the effects of malnutrition and starvation normal potions and spells wouldn't heal, since it was one of the simplest rituals.

The fact that it was very simple didn't make Harry any more confident that he could perform it. Drinking a horrible potion that'd leave him in pain for hours was one thing, but to do it nude? "Do I have to be nude?" he said, well, maybe whined.

"It's not strictly necessary," Quirrell said. "The problem is that all kind of advanced magic carries a price. Actually all magic does, but the price for common magic is so minor few notice them. Temporary exhaustion is the most common price for doing magic. Almost every form of magic causes exhaustion. It is so common that people forget it's the price of magic and merely consider it a side effect. But there are many other prices. Doing rituals and ceremonies nude isn't a price per se; it's considered the natural thing to do. Not doing it nude therefore carries a price."

"What kind of price?" Hermione asked.

"It depends on the ritual or ceremony. While you may think it's a small thing, because taking off clothes isn't that big an issue, the price is actually very high. The most problematic step in a ritual is always focusing the magic to do what you want it to do, and clothes act as a major hindrance to the flow of magic. Believe me, modesty isn't worth the price."

"And it's not as if being nude in front of others is am issue," Hermione said.

Harry looked at her, "Been nude in front of others often?"

To his surprise Hermione nodded, "There's a public sauna ten minutes walk from where I live; my parents go there at least once a week, and usually more frequently. I've gone along with them for years. You get used to being nude in front of others quickly. Sure, I was embarrassed the first few times, and occasionally there's one freaky guy or another there that gives me the creeps, but the nudity itself you get used to pretty quick, especially if you trust the people that see you, and it's a regulated setting; the few times I went there alone things were a lot less comfortable."

"What is a sauna?" Daphne asked; it was obvious that nobody aside from Harry or Hermione understood what she was talking about.

"Maybe you know it as steam bath, or vapour bath?" Hermione asked. At their blank looks she continued. "Okay, a sauna is basically a very hot room, one hundred and sixty Fahrenheit to two hundred. You go there and sit in the room nude for some time. It's really healthy thing to do. Now a public sauna has a dozen or so rooms at various temperatures and humidity levels, ranging from almost dry to steam filled. Usually there're all kinds of extras offered, like swimming pool. It's pretty popular among muggles."

"So muggles get naked in front of strangers often?" Hannah asked hesitantly.

"Some," Hermione answered. "Muggles are much more diverse than wizards and witches. You can find nearly anything among muggles. While casual nudity in front of strangers in prohibited, there are special places where it's commonly accepted, saunas are one example. On a larger scale, there are whole communities that are either clothing optional or even require nudity. Those are called nudist, or naturalist colonies. Beaches are divided along three lines, normal ones that require everyone to be 'decently' dressed; those are by far the most numerous. The second type becoming more and more popular at the moment are topless beaches; it's optional for women to wear tops. And then there are the beaches where any type of clothing is optional; they're comparably rare to the others. Of course the definition of what decently dressed means is very different from the Wizarding World."

"There are whole villages where people run around nude all the time?" Daphne asked.

Hermione nodded. "They usually aren't very large and more along the lines of holiday resorts, but there are some permanent nudist colonies like that, yes."

"Muggles are crazy," Daphne concluded.

"Well, Hermione and I have concluded that Wizards are, too," Harry said dryly.

"While I do not have a lot of experience with muggles, I am widely traveled; Wizards in other countries often act very differently from the way you know. I suppose you would call them crazy by our standards. As do we by their standards. I guess it is more extreme when you compare wizards and muggles, but essentially still the same." Quirrell said slowly. "But Ms. Granger has made a very important point, I think. Humans, whether muggle or wizard, are very adaptable. Exposed to a new situation several times, we get used to it, and can ignore the setting. Being nude in front of others is one of those things that you can get used to fairly quickly. That said since I am your teacher it seems even more inappropriate to see you nude; the Code of Apprenticeship, though it doesn't really apply since I'm only a teacher and you are students, states that a master has to avoid situation where he sees the apprentice naked, so to be on the safe side legally, I'll have to follow those codes. Thankfully there is a spell that does not interfere with rituals but makes the caster see all people as though they were dressed normally. I will be using that spell, but it tends to cause complications if the person using it is actively participating in a ritual. So you will have to get used to work together in the nude; there is no alternative."

Afterwards he explained a much more complex ritual they would perform the following Monday; it was a special day as it was not only full moon but also the Autumn Equinox, a very rare event. The ambivalent magic of that night would allow a powerful ritual to be performed safely and without the most complicated steps, since the ritual was appropriate for the occasion.

"So we are going to paint our bodies with animal blood?" Hermione asked, looking completely disgusted.

"So?" Daphne asked.

"So?" Hermione mimicked. "Am I the only one grossed out at that?" she demanded fiercely.

Apparently she and Harry were. "Grossed out?" Daphne said slowly, and then smiled. "Well, I guess that's the reverse of the whole nudity thing; that's what makes us purebloods queasy. It's a difference in upbringing, I guess. All of us have consumed some really gross potions. I guess you're grossed out by Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans?" Hermione nodded, the distaste of said sweets written on her face. "I guess Muggles and Muggle-born are much more sensitive to that kind of thing. Look at some of the ingredients we use in potions; it's not unusual to actually drink something with animal blood in it, so painting our bodies with it isn't a big deal."

Hermione looked at Daphne for some time, and then nodded, "I guess I can understand that." She turned to Quirrell, "And I guess it's also better not to ask what is in the potions."

Quirrell smirked and nodded, "Indeed."

They went over both rituals several more times, before Quirrell told them about possible cutouts for the casters in case they noticed something wrong or some danger approached. He then went over how an outsider could stop the ritual without danger for himself, and either with or without danger for the casters.

Harry's ritual was too simplistic to be aborted securely but the timeframe to disturb it and harm the caster was also very small. The ritual to enhance their sleep efficiency, effectively reducing the need for sleep, on the other hand was very complex and had to be guarded as even animals entering the ritual circle could have dramatic consequences. Harry had some second thoughts about performing the rituals but the advantage was too significant to ignore.

Quirrell then dismissed them for dinner, after which Harry had Quidditch practice. They met again at nine that night and Quirrell led them through several passages none of them had known about up some stairs, down others to a large chamber, with a ritual circle. Several enhanced candles were placed on significant points of the circle, and would be consumed during the ritual. The girls quickly sat on the floor outside the circle to observe the ritual.

Reluctantly Harry took off his clothes and Professor Quirrell drew several runes on his skin. Once he was satisfied with the runes and had checked everything at least twice, Harry sat on the stone floor in Lotus position. He touched one of the runes carefully with his wand before taking the potion that rested within the rune with his left hand and downed it as fast as he could. All Harry could see was a flash of light before he experienced pain unlike any he felt before. He whimpered and came to rest in fetal position.

When he became aware of his surroundings again he lay on his back with Susan and Su Li holding him; he was rather surprised that Hermione wasn't the one holding him. Once he regained his bearing the girls helped him and his two minders up. Harry noted that he had grown maybe halve an inch and that his muscles were slightly better developed. Stretching a bit, he noted that he was no longer looking starved; he later discovered that he now had what muggles considered the ideal weight for his frame. Afterwards Harry hurried to get dressed and never noticed the looks of the girls, now rather more interested in him than the last time.

Finally Quirrell led them back to their Common rooms. Harry found the differences between the common rooms rather interesting, though it'd have been more interesting, if he had still been completely lucid. When they reached their common room all three Gryffindors were exhausted and headed up to bed quickly. Harry didn't even manage to undress before his body decided it was time to shut down for the day.

The weekend they worked hard on their potions assignment and the other homework. Monday classes passed quickly and the excited first years met with Quirrell during lunch break and soon after used a portkey; an item bewitched to transport everyone and everything that touches it to a specified location upon a trigger event.

So when Quirrell touched the rope with his wand they felt a tuck behind their navel and suddenly found themselves upon a grassy hill. The stone monolith that would be important in the upcoming ritual was about a hundred yards away, which was the absolute safety limit. Any closer and the residual energies of the portkey would interfere with the ritual. Quirrell walked them through the preparations for the ritual once again, before sending them off to prepare; the ritual needed to be prepared by all those, and only those, who would participate in the ritual, and as Quirrell had already done it, he could not do so again.

Since they used a most basic version of the ritual relaying on the ambivalent magic surrounding everything they needed to prepare their bodies first. After a ceremonial cleansing and inscribing various runes on one another's bodies with a mixture of animal blood and a potion Quirrell had prepared, they worked on preparing the monolith and drawing the ritual circle.

Unlike what Harry had expected the fact that they were nude did no longer seem to be important; sure he found himself looking at the girls every once a while, and assumed they looked, too, but it was very unlike anything he had imagined it would be like. Quirrell had been right, he realized, humans can get used to anything in a short while, no matter how unusual or morally wrong it might appear to them beforehand. Only Hermione seemed to be completely at ease, at least until they began applying the blood-potion mix, but Harry had not really believed that he could get then this comfortable with being nude, let alone this quickly.

Once they had prepared the circle, drawn all the numerous runes, and checked everything numerous times it was approaching five o'clock. They had time to drink some water, and only water since the ceremony didn't allow them to consume anything else after midday. Even the water had to be purified before they could safely drink it.

Once they had sated their thirst they assumed their positions; since they intended to use the powers associated with the full moon, they would need to be in position at moonrise, which was a few minutes before five thirty, but the first part, summoning forth the power, would only begin when the moon was at it's fullest more than five hours later, and the final part, using the powers to enhance their bodies, would have to wait until Moon transit one minute before midnight. And after that it would take until moonset the next day, nearly seven am, before the ritual was finished and they could safely leave their position, or more likely fall asleep where they sat.

Harry was very nervous when he assumed the lotus position. They were sitting in a circle surrounding the monolith, ordered according to age. So Hermione, the eldest, was sitting to his left, while Su, the youngest after himself, sat to his right. One look straight ahead verified that Susan was either a natural redhead or had changed the color of all body hair.

After a while Harry suddenly felt something change; the feeling was unlike any he had ever experienced, but there could be only one reason for it, the shift in the natural magic that happened during moonrise. Not that he'd be able to actually feel that under normal conditions, but both the circle they were sitting in, and the runes they had drawn on their skin made them sensitive enough to feel it. If one of them didn't feel it, they'd need to abort the ritual now. Thankfully none of the others did. All twelve of them took the first potion and drank the yellow liquid. It tasted horrible but Harry didn't notice it much or anything afterwards, until Quirrell woke them in the morning.

"Well done," he complimented them. "I know you are exhausted, but there is no time for sleep yet. You have had about fifteen minutes, which caused the residual energy from the ritual to bleed out of your bodies. You will now need to stay awake at least until moonrise. Now let's get back to school."

They arrived at school just early enough to get a quick bite to eat and rush to their classes, and even that only because the elves brought them their books and notes. Thankfully they didn't deal with any harmful plants in Herbology that day. Defense was exhausting on the other hand; they were still practicing aiming techniques but now Quirrell was shooting tickling and tripping curses at them that they had to avoid while trying to hit ten targets as quickly as possible. For the first time Harry was not the best student, though Harry attributed that to the lack of sleep.

Hermione took Harry to the library afterwards, and they finished their history essay before rereading the potion text. After a light dinner they dragged themselves up to their dorms and fell asleep.

Much to Harry's surprise he was wide awake again at nine that night. Only then he remembered that the ritual actually improved the regenerative power of sleep by a factor of three, so his three hours sleep were the equal of nine before the ritual, so it was no wonder that he was fully recovered.

He took a quick shower and then headed down to the common room. Since curfew was in effect most Gryffindors were currently gathered there and it took him a few moments to locate Hermione.

"Morning," he said as he moved his chair next to her.

"Hi," she said with a smile. "Isn't it fantastic? We'll be able to read so many books now! Five more hours every day!"

Harry smiled at her enthusiasm and the way her eyes were sparkling in enthusiasm. He doubted that she could be much happier than she was at that very moment. He had to admit that it was the reason he had participated, too. "So, do you have decided what I'm going to read now?" he asked. Whenever they worked together it had been Hermione that decided what to do, and how to go about it.

"Of course," she said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world; then again it probably was to her. "Until midnight you read 'Hogwarts: A History'. There are lots of facts in there that are useful to know. After that one hour each 'Standard Book of Spells Grade 1', 'A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration', 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi', 'Magical Drafts and Potions', and 'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection'. We should get through those books by the end of the week; I will owl my parents and ask them to send me a few school books so we can devote at least some of our extra time to science, mathematics, and other muggle things. I have looked at a few Arithmancy books and it looks like it requires a lot of math. It's really a shame it's not taught as a subject here!"

Harry nodded; it wasn't an enthusiastic nod, but while he didn't look forward to studying over twenty hours a day the schedule sounded reasonable. "Ask Hedwig to go with Athena. I'm sure she'd be happy to help."

Hermione gave him a bright smile before handing him her copy of 'Hogwarts: A History'. The order was hard to misunderstand.

---

Time was passing quietly. Professor Snape was handing out monstrous amounts of work for several weeks, and often had them prepare two or three potions at the same time. Neville wasn't the only one who messed up regularly from then on. Actually the only ones without a spectacular failure were Hermione and Harry, and Daphne and Tracy. Parvati was stuck with Lavender, who had a lot of problems keeping up, and even Malfoy couldn't manage that many potions at once alone and his gorillas were too dumb to assist. As much as it annoyed Harry to admit, Malfoy probably was the most skilled student in their class, though Daphne and Tracy insisted that it was only because Professor Snape was his godfather and had tutored him before Hogwarts and because Professor Snape had resumed his extra potion classes for students of his house.

History was boring as always, even more so now that Harry had read the history books. Charms and Transfiguration were pretty easy; he had taken to working with Hermione in all classes, and they usually finished within the first few minutes. That wasn't really a surprise since they spend at least two hours a day in an abandoned classroom practicing spells.

Herbology was mildly interesting, while Astronomy was boring; though that might be because Hermione's parents had send several advanced muggle books on Astronomy describing things in much more detail. According to the note they'd send with the second package astronomy in the wizarding world was decades, if not centuries behind the rest of the world, so the most difficult part for them was keeping Wizarding knowledge and muggle knowledge apart.

DADA had become more interesting as they started to learn a few harmless curses and now practiced accuracy with them. Harry had little problem with that, but most of the class found it very difficult to make the proper wand motions, pronounce the incantation exactly correct, keep an eye on the moving target, and get the wand in the correct position the moment the curse was released. And that was without dodging harmless curses, or dropping to the floor whenever Quirrell send a Killing Curse at the targets. Harry still had to suppress a snicker when he remembered how Ron and a couple others fainted the first time he did that. His brothers teased him with it for weeks. Hermione was convinced that Professor Quirrell was casting some harmless curse and just made it look like the Killing Curse.

In their free time Hermione and Harry studied muggle science and mathematics. While they couldn't do any practical experiments, they did learn a lot. Hermione estimated that at their current speed they would finish the year's material around Christmas, and Harry found it very amusing that she was already badgering her parents to let her take her O-levels after their third year. She wanted to take them after their second year, but he parents had flatly refuse to even consider that, much to Harry's relief; he didn't believe for a moment that he would get away with not taking his O-levels along with her.

Arcane Arts was moving along slowly. They had studied a few more rituals, including a few evil ones. They performed two more rituals, Lisa performed hers on early October to normalize her overly sensitive skin, while Su corrected a severe, possible fatal, allergy that couldn't be corrected by mere potions or charms in mid October.

Most of the time was spend studying for Halloween however. They had scheduled thirty minutes to talk with dead ancestors for everyone; adding fifteen minutes to bring them forth in the first place that meant nine hours would be spend on that part.

Afterwards they would perform a major ritual, far more complex than even the ritual to enhance their sleep. It was a group ritual, but the effects were much more individual; they would call upon their ancestors and ask them to imbue their bodies with all the talents and powers that would normally have skipped their generation. They would probably get a minor boost of raw magical power, too, but Quirrell assured them that every one of them should gain at least one talent, even if there were no magical ancestors, though he would not go into why that would happen.

---

During October he also started to spend less time alone with Hermione, and more together as a group. It all started rather harmlessly, and he really had no idea how he ended up in this situation. This situation was spending five hours each Saturday and Sunday learning how to dance and more. It was Hermione who insisted that someone as famous as himself had to know how to dance, so she started teaching him dancing two muggle style dances; the others were delighted and joined. Susan, Daphne, and Su were teaching them to dance the various styles wizards used.

Whenever they needed to catch their breath Tracy and Sally-Ann drilled the others in customs and manners used by the various pureblood families throughout Europe. It usually left Harry confused even after the fifth time it was explained. But the perhaps most important lesson, for him at least, was taught by Susan. He didn't much like the idea of dealing with the press, but after a discussion with her Auntie Amelia Susan insisted that he had to learn how to do it, or they'd cause problems for him later – he was just too famous not to deal with them. Other lessons also afforded Hermione and himself a look into Wizarding culture that books alone can't give you – especially since Wizarding culture didn't allow nearly as much information to be distributed as the muggle world does.

During one of these lessons something truly unusual happened. Harry had no idea whether or not it was common at muggle schools, but there hadn't been a visitor at Hogwarts since school began, at least not as far as he knew. Even the Weasley twins, who were maybe the best informed students at Hogwarts, admitted later on that they'd never seen anyone visit the school.

So when the broad, square-jawed witch with very short gray hair and a monocle entered the classroom they were using everyone was very surprised. None so more than Susan. "Auntie Amelia!" Susan squealed and fiercely hugged the woman.

"Hello, Su," Amelia greeted her warmly, kissing her temple.

Susan frowned. "You can't call me that, at least not here," she sad with a note of regret. Amelia's right eyebrow rose in inquiry. "Auntie, may I introduce Su Li to you," she said, pointing out the girl.

Amelia nodded, "Okay. Well, looks like I need a new nickname for you then. So, Suzy, want to introduce your friends."

"Of course. Auntie, this is, as I said, Su Li. Her current dancing partner is her housemate Lisa Turpin, both Ravenclaw. The twins next to them are Parvati and Padma Patil, one a Ravenclaw the other Gryffindor. No idea who's in which house at the moment. You know Hannah, her current partner is Hermione Granger, who even though she's in Gryffindor is the most studious witch in school. Megan was dancing with Tracy Davis of Slytherin. The girl with the never ending blonde hair is Sally-Ann Parks, and her partner Daphne Greengrass, Hufflepuff and Slytherin respectively. And I was dancing with Harry Potter. Everyone, this is my Auntie Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and one of the most senior officials working for the Ministry of Magic. And hopefully soon Minister of Magic."

Amelia Bones rolled her eyes at her niece, "I've told you already that I'm happy with my current job."

Susan frowned at her, "But you'd do so much better then Fudge."

"Anyone could do better than Fudge for brain," Daphne sneered.

Harry nodded his agreement. They hadn't gone over politics too much, but since all his friends agreed that Fudge was useless, it would do for the moment. "Is there a way to change your mind, Director Bones? Maybe if I were to endorse your candidacy?" Harry didn't like his fame, but he had begun to understand that he would either have to learn how to use it, or it would harm him and those close to him. Replacing an incompetent, and almost certainly corrupt, Minister of Magic seemed like a good cause to actually practices.

Madam Bones blinked in surprise. "Thank you for the offer, Mr. Potter, but I must decline for the moment. If I change my mind, I'll inform you ahead of time."

Harry nodded, trying to act as though toppling a government, or at least discussing it, was an everyday action for him.

"Now, Mr. Potter, I'd like to know if you got a letter recently?"

Harry was surprised and it clearly showed. After a moment he recovered, "I've only got three letters, Director Bones. My invitation to Hogwarts, a letter from Hagrid, and an answer from the owl shop, when I send my owl Hedwig to choose an owl for Hermione's birthday present." Madam Bones frowned for a moment, before her eyes opened wide. Harry had to suppress a smile; the girls had reacted like that when he told them that Hedwig had chosen Artemis, too. "Which letter are you talking about?" he asked as neutrally as he could.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I thought you got a letter from my office. It probably was a mix-up of names that got spotted in time. Happens once in a while."

"Oh, okay," Harry replied. Why would the Department for Magical Law Enforcement write him a letter anyways? Nobody ever wrote him.

Madam Bones spend another five or so minutes talking with Susan, before leaving; Harry used the time to recover his breath. While he was in the best form of his life, Wood's Quidditch sessions and the marathon dancing lessons still tended to exhaust him.

---

Another memorable moment had been one evening when Ron joined them in the common room.

"Hey, Harry."

"Ron." Harry kept his voice cool; he didn't like it when people ignored his friends when they sat next to him.

"Mate, I am worried about you."

Harry raised an eyebrow but otherwise kept his face under control. One thing all the pureblood witches in his group agreed upon was that he needed to keep his emotions guarded, and neither let them show, nor act upon them rashly. He could still hear Daphne's voice in his head. 'The conscious mind must always dictate what you are going to do. Others will try to use your emotions against you, so keep them hidden from those you do not trust.' Sad as it was, he did no longer trust Ron like he used to. "And why would that be?" he kept his voice even, although it was a close thing; he almost copies Tracy's drawling, but in the last moment decided it was to much like Malfoy's baiting to safely use with Ron.

That was another point that was beginning to disturb Harry, though he hadn't mentioned it to anyone else yet. The Gryffindors were very prejudiced. Sure, it wasn't like pureblood prejudices against muggles and muggle-born, but Harry also saw very little use in classifying people only by their house, especially since he had almost been put into Slytherin. For a house that supposedly favored individual bravery many of his housemates were very quick to paint all Slytherins with the same brush.

"I've seen you at dinner yesterday!" Ron said fiercely.

Harry thought back to the last day; Monday. They'd come back from class as a group and sat together at… at the Slytherin table. He nodded slightly, "I remember seeing you, too."

"Harry," Ron said urgently, shaking him by his shoulders. "You have to stay away from those Slytherin. They are bad news!"

Harry shook his head. "No Ron, I won't abandon my friends, just because they are in another house."

"I've never said anything about abandoning your friends from the other houses. I've just said that you should stay away from those slimy snakes. They're a bunch of Dark Wizards and witches in training," Ron said hotly, his Weasley temper flaring.

"Ron," Harry said as calmly as he could. "I know them better than you do, okay. Tracy and Daphne are no more Dark Witches than Hermione or than I'm a Dark Wizard."

Ron snorted. "Not bloody likely. Harry, mate, I don't want to lose you to them. If you keep consorting with the likes of them you will become a Dark Wizard!"

"Ron, they are my friends, and I will keep consorting with them for as long as I please." When he started Hogwarts he'd already have been shouting at Ron, but his training caused his voice to turn icy instead, much like the ice mask Daphne kept up whenever they were near people she didn't trust; practically everyone outside their little group.

"See!" Ron cried, jumping up, and glaring at Harry. "You are already acting like one of them! You can't allow them to corrupt you any more! You are a Gryffindor! The Boy Who Lived! A Light Wizard! Not a Dark Wizard like them!" he spat the last word as though it was the most disgusting insult ever.

Harry sighed and shook his head, "No Ron, I'm not a Light Wizard, and they're not Dark Witches. We're all school children. The only Dark Wizards in school are probably Dumbledore, Snape, Flitwick, and Quirrell; perhaps McGonagall, too. But I doubt anyone else knows enough of the Dark Arts to be called by that title."

"They are Light Wizards; well except for Snape, you're right about him!"

Harry got up, too, and sadly shook his head, "Only someone who knows the Dark Arts can successfully combat them. I'd guess that Dumbledore knows more about the Dark Arts than any other wizard alive."

"See Harry, they are brainwashing you. There is no reason to learn the Dark Arts, unless you are a Dark Wizard! You have to stay away from those Dark Whores!"

For all his training by his friends, and earlier by the Dursleys, Harry couldn't control himself anymore; he jumped at Ron and hit him in the face, hard. As the red-faced redhead staggered back, two hexes hit him. Harry recognized one to be a Full Body Bind, as Ron's arms snapped to his sides, while his legs sprang together, and his whole body rigid; given his movement as the curse hit, he fell on his back, stiff as a board. Harry could see his jaws were jammed together; apparently the only part of his body able to move were his eyes. They were starring at Harry, Hermione, and Padma, who was at the moment the Gryffindor Patil, in a mixture of horror, disgust, anger, pity and some pain.

The pain was caused by the second curse that Harry didn't recognize, but it was obvious that the effects were more painful. The curse hit Ron on the right arm, cutting his robe along the whole arm, and leaving a shallow cut from the shoulder down to the knuckles, over the palm of his hand. It didn't bleed much, but Harry knew that little wounds could hurt a lot.

The punch and seeing the curses hit satisfied Harry's anger enough to allow him to regain control. He leaned down and pulled Ron up slightly and leaned in so his face was right in front of Ron's. "Never, ever, insult my friends like that!" Harry let go, letting Ron bump on the floor again.

As they left the common room they could see the Weasley twins heading towards their brother displaying none of their usual mirth. "Lee heard what Ron said," Hermione whispered as the door closed behind them. "I don't think he liked what he heard, and I doubt the twins will."

Harry nodded. "He'd better hope they don't tell Wood; Wood won't like anyone messing with a member of his Quidditch team."

---

Quidditch practice got more and more gruesome as the first Quidditch match of the season approached, Gryffindor against Slytherin. But Harry didn't think it would be too difficult, at least his part. He'd gotten Hermione and Parvati to help him research professional Seeker moves and tactics and help him memorize what he thought might be within his ability to pull off. Wood was so impressed with Harry's first power dive that Angelina scored a goal without trouble; Fred, or maybe George, was knocked off the broom by a Bludger while he was distracted by Harry, ending practice early for once. Wood couldn't get the smile off his face until the next potion lesson; and even then only when homework was handed out, according to his classmates. Apparently the Potion Master didn't like the Gryffindor Quidditch captain smiling like that, which, since he was the head of house Slytherin, was understandable.

Harry was looking at Halloween with mixed feelings; he would meet his parents, and he was really looking forward to that, but on the other hand he was also dreading it. What if they didn't like him? What if they were abhorred that he hung out with Slytherin, like Ron? What if they hated him for taking part in rituals that changed his body? What if they hated him for disturbing their peace? What if…

Even with all those thought running amok inside of him, Halloween steadily approached. Hermione seemed to pick up on his nervousness, or perhaps was nervous herself, and they were working harder than ever to finish both their first year material and the muggle books.

But then it was midnight and Halloween had begun. They were once again in the secluded room within Hogwarts where Harry performed his first ritual, though this time Trelawney, Madam Bones, and several other family members were present. Much to Harry's relief Quirrell had provided them with ritual clothing; he'd have been mortified to be naked in front of so many strangers, no matter how little he minded that around 'his' girls.

The ritual was both simple and very complex in one. It required at least three casters in addition to the person wishing to contact some ancestor, and at least one seer within a few feet of the ritual circle. The circle they were sitting in was itself very complex; there were hundreds of runes and other symbols. One of the texts had mentioned that diamond dust had to be added to the potion used to draw the circle just before the potion is used, so it was expensive, too. The drawing had to be done the day before Halloween by a single witch or wizard, and the circle could then be used for a day, before the magic dispersed. One of the footnotes also mentioned that any one person could only be contacted by a descendent through this ritual once.

They followed the alphabetical order once again. Hannah and her parents talked with her grandparents. Susan got to meet her parents for the first time. Harry didn't really listen to most of the others, but they had all been interested in the ghost Hermione summoned; apparently she did have some magical ancestors, though Grenhild was dead for over five hundred years, and they didn't have much to talk about. Hermione was anxious once Grenhlid mentioned that she hoped Hermione had inherited her talents, though she refused to say what they were in front of so many strangers.

Finally it was Harry's time and he was more than nervous. Somehow he did manage to perform the ritual correctly, and within moments two ghosts appeared floating within the circle.

The man looked in his early twenties and looked very much like Harry, expect that he had brown eyes. The woman had red hair and the same vivid green eyes that Harry had.

"Hello," Harry greeted them after studying them carefully for a time.

"Harry?" the woman asked. "My little Harry?"

Harry nodded, trying desperately to keep his composure.

His mother smiled, "Why am I not surprised that Sirius would do something crazy like this."

Harry blinked, "Sirius?"

Now both his parents frowned and looked around, seemingly for the first time seeing the crowd around them. They seemed to look for someone that wasn't there. Finally his father turned to Madam Bones. "Hello Amelia. Could you tell us what happened to Sirius Black and Remus Lupin?"

Amelia looked down for a moment then answered evenly, "I have not heard anything of Remus for about a decade. He disappeared shortly after your death. Though I believe he's still alive, I don't know where he is."

After a moment of silence his father repeated, "And Sirius?"

Her face turned into a cold mask, "Mr. Black is a resident of Azkaban; has been since the day after he led Voldemort to your house."

His parents looked at one another, confused. Finally his mother said, "But we chose Peter as our Secret Keeper. Sirius was only the decoy."

Madam Bones froze for a moment. "I see," she said slowly. "I will inform the Ministry and the trial will be rolled up again. There's still the death of Mr. Pettigrew and twelve muggles, though. We will investigate it again in light of the news."

His father nodded, and finally turned back to Harry. "Well, I guess that explains why you don't know Sirius. So who did you grow up with? The Longbottoms? Bones? Or McGonagall?"

Harry blinked, and Madam Bones answered, "The Longbottoms were attacked shortly after your death, some of the last victims of the war. Both Alice and Frank are in St. Mungo. It doesn't look like they will recover. Mike and Nat were killed shortly before your death."

His mother nodded, "Well, I can understand that you had enough on your hands with Susan."

Madam Bones eyes narrowed dangerously, "Could you please clearly state who, in which order, you designated to be Harry's guardians."

Now it were Harry's parents that frowned, finally Lily said, "Sirius Black, Alice Longbottom, Michael Bones, Amelia Bones, Minerva McGonagall, Andromeda Black Tonks, Arthur Weasley, Pen Patil, Claire Nightgale, Padmus Fungus, and Lisa McDove. I might have missed a name or two at the end; with the war and all we made a rather long list including even some rather casual friends."

"I see," she said harshly. "I will have to investigate that, too, then, since I was never offered guardianship of your son. Rest assured that I will find out who was responsible for that and see them punished."

His mother nodded slowly, before turning back to Harry, "So Harry, who did you grow up with?"

Harry had followed the exchange with some interest, as had most of the people present. It had helped Harry to calm down a bit, so he managed to answer evenly, "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon."

"WHAT!" Lily Evens Potter screamed. "What lousy excuse of a human moron has placed you with those… those bastards!" She spat the last word. "I have specifically forbidden you from even meeting them before you were sixteen! And even then only accompanied by your guardian." Then she continued much more quietly, "What fucking bastard is responsible for placing my son with those creatures? They'd better hope that I'll never get my hands on them…" She mumbled a bit more that nobody could understand and her husband embraced her and pulled her into his chest.

"Well, for growing up there, you sure look good, son," his father commented. "So how old are you exactly. And have you played any pranks on the school yet?"

"No, sir," Harry answered. "I haven't played any pranks. And it is Halloween ninety-one, so I'm eleven and a quarter."

His father looked at him in mock horror, "My only son has been at Hogwarts for two months and not pranked anyone? We'll have to change that!"

"I think not!" his mother interrupted. "There are better ways to spend his time than playing pranks." She then turned back to Harry, "How are you doing in school? What house are you in?"

"Gryffindor," Harry said, evoking smiles from his parents. "I'm top of the year in Defense, and thanks to Hermione here I'm among the best in the other classes, too. She's also making me study for my muggle O-levels. Oh, and I'm Gryffindor's Seeker."

James had looked less and less happy during Harry's list of accomplishments, but smiled brightly as he mentioned that he was Seeker. "That's my boy! And Seeker in your first year? Wow! I'm impressed."

"It's much more impressive what he does in class. Top student in Defense and competing in the other subjects. Now THAT is something to be proud of, not your stupid Quidditch. Though Quidditch is still a lot better than pranks. Thank Morgana you stayed away from them."

At that James Potter approached Harry and whispered, "Sirius, Remus, Peter, and I kept a few journals in a secret room. Fifth floor, there is a horrible painting and a tapestry showing a witch burning. In that corridor there are three suits of armor standing closely together. Touch the sword of the armor in the middle and say 'Marauder's honor'."

"James Harold Balthazar Reginald Potter. I do hope that you are not trying to corrupt my son!"

James cringed at hearing his full name. "Of course not, Lily-flower. I'm just telling him where some family heirlooms are hidden." He started to whisper to Harry again, "Almost all other things are listed in the family vault with location and how to get there. The password to enter the restricted section in the vault is 'Born of Potter Blood I seek the guidance of my ancestors passed'. Oh, and to get books out of the Restricted Section at Hogwarts visit the library at night, put the books you want on the floor, and use the summoning charm from outside the Restricted Section. You need to learn that charm first, though." He winked at Harry as he stepped back, while Harry looked at his father wide eyed.

Lily shot James a poisoned look, "Don't let your father corrupt you, Harry. Know that I'm proud of what you have achieved in class, and I hope you will become Headboy. Even if you don't have to work, try to do your best at school. It's always helpful to know lots of things." She looked around, "I can feel the link keeping us here growing weaker; I love you, Harry."

"I love you too, son," James said as he stood next to Lily as they slowly faded from view.

Harry was too distracted to notice much of the last two rituals but was relieved when they could get up and get something to drink. Nine hours of constantly working magic, even, or maybe especially, rituals had been very exhausting.

They had an hour off to relax before they gathered in the room again, this time only the twelve students and Quirrell. It took another two hours to prepare and they just managed to get into position at twelve o'clock, the latest possible moment to start the ritual. Quirrell didn't tell them much about the components and potions used, but he couldn't hide the fact that several rather large jewels were crushed and added to the potions. Somehow Harry simply knew that the costs of this ritual were astronomical, and he wondered why Quirrell provided all ingredients for free.

As they began to summon the energy Harry realized why Quirrell usually had them perform ritual nude. He hadn't realized it until now, but when he wore clothes earlier that day the magic had felt wrong somehow. Now as it passed into his body without anything in the way it felt right. The ritual was long (twelve hours), complicate, exhausting, and spectacular. The energies they summoned were beyond anything he had expected, and for a while it had looked like they would, or maybe already had, lost control over the primal energy they summoned.

After the ritual had finished and they'd somewhat recovered from the effort, Quirrell bade them to sit in the rather comfortable chairs he had conjured; they did so, though they were too exhausted to even try and get dressed just yet.

"That was amazing," Quirrell told them. "I've not seen anything like it before."

"It seemed that we lost control of the energy at one point," Hermione said quietly.

Quirrell nodded, "It did look that way, and honestly I can not think of another explanation for what happened."

"But shouldn't that have killed us?" Hermione asked strangely frightened, as if the ritual may kill them now, should they mention that it ought to have done so earlier.

Quirrell regarded her for a moment, and then nodded slightly. "Indeed, it should have. But you fought and somehow regained control of the magic; not only that, but you managed to finish the ritual, even though the timing was completely messed up. Simply amazing."

"What could do that?"

"I am sorry, Ms. Granger, but I do not have answers for all questions. I know more about rituals than most people alive, and I'd like to think that I'm a leading authority in modifying and developing rituals, but I have never heard of something like this before." He shook his head again. "But it doesn't matter, the ritual was completed, and that is all that is important. I will try to find out what happened, but I do not have much hope to find anything conclusive.

"Be that as it may, you're a good five hours late, so it's approaching six in the morning. You should be able to catch two hours of sleep; that should take care of most of your wariness. We will meet at four in the afternoon today, so you can catch some more sleep before. Do not under any circumstances try to use magic. The ritual in the designed form would have disturbed your ability to cast spells for a few hours, I will have to run some tests before I can say what consequences the little disruption caused; it may inhibit your spell casting for some time. Should that be the case I will arrange for you to move somewhere else until your magic recovers and you catch up with class in every area. Don't even try casting anything to see if you can, there is no way to predict the consequences, but it may very well render you a squib permanently!"

---

Two hours weren't enough to fully recharge, but it wasn't too bad. Thankfully they had potions, so their inability to use magic wasn't a problem; Professor Snape had threatened to skin them should they even pull their want out! Still, the Potion class was disturbing; that day Professor Snape reached a new level of depravation. Since there were seventeen of them, he divided them into four groups. Harry got lucky that he not only was kept together with Hermione, but would work with Parvati, Tracy, and Daphne. Malfoy, Nott, and Greengrass were paired with Seamus. Crabbe and Goyle with Ron and Neville, while Lavender and Dean would work with Bulstrode and Parkinson.

Gryffindor lost twenty points over Ron complaining about being paired with Slytherin. Since Snape had stopped punishing Gryffindors for breathing many of the older students had begun to keep a close eye on the house-points to see who lost any; Harry knew Ron would have to answer for loosing twenty and he doubted it would be nice. Especially since the Seventh year prefects had decided to use the Weasley twins to express their displeasure. After Ron's comment a while ago Harry wasn't too sorry about it, but he couldn't suppress a slightly sympathetic reaction.

If that had been all Harry would have rejoiced, but Snape then assigned them fifteen potions to brew during that lesson; the others got off with twelve, since they were only four, but the extra three potions were by far the most complex.

Against Harry's, and apparently Snape's, expectations, they did manage all fifteen potions. Two were of questionable quality, and five should work but were definitely not perfect, but they had finished all. Malfoy's group finished seven, and had blown up the rest, landing Nott in hospital. Lavender managed to finish two, while her three partners ended up in hospital, while the last group finished none and were all send up to Madam Pomfrey before even a quarter of the lesson was over.

They asked around during lunch and it quickly turned out that this was a new record; never before had more than three students been taken to the hospital wing in any lesson. Snape appeared to be very proud of his achievement at lunch, even though Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were shooting him icy glares.

After lunch Hermione joined him and they went looking for the secret room. It was apparently undisturbed since his parents left school. They soon found something that captured their interest; animagus transformation. The wandless art of transforming oneself into ones animal form. The text was written by Prongs with some comments from Padfoot, Wormtail, and Moony, and was meant as a guide to fellow students who wished to learn this highly complex art.

The book wasn't very long, and they finished it quickly. They shared a look and knew they had both come to the same sad conclusion: Too difficult for first year students. They'd need to study a lot more transfiguration before they attempted it.

Leaving everything behind, they rushed to the meeting with Quirrell. To their surprise he immediately led the lot of them back to the ritual room. "Well, you have now gained the powers you are entitled to. It's time we find out which powers these are. It's not really a ritual, but your privacy is ensured here. You wouldn't want this information to be freely available. Professor Snape has graciously prepared the potions we need.

"Now, please drink the green potion, wait a few minutes, then use the ceremonial dagger to prick your thumb and press the finger on the parchment. The dagger is then dipped into the violet potion, which should turn yellow. Then let the potion drip slowly onto your thumb until the potion is gone. At worst you'll need to repeat the procedure. So get to it."

The potion tasted horrible, but Harry was by now used to that. Too many potions had made him tolerant to such simple things as taste. Before long the potions were empty and in place of the empty parchment was now a neatly written list.

Quirrell collected the lists and studied them for a long time, before he looked at them, shock obvious in his unusually expressive face. "I guess that explains the extraordinary power of the ritual; or at least where it went." He gave them a wry smile. "And it contradicts every theory I had as to what actually happened."

He shook his head and studied the sheets some more. "All of you have a variation of the animagus ability. Which is very interesting, since there is no recorded version of any variation in the historic records of the Ministry. That in turn suggests that the ability has all but died out several centuries ago, and was nonexistent or extraordinary rare until you came along."

Hermione raised her hand, and Quirrell nodded at her, "If it all but died out, how can the ritual imbue us with the ability? I thought it was supposed to only give us the abilities of our immediate ancestors."

Quirrell nodded slowly, and studied the sheets some more. After perhaps a minute he sighed heavily and looked at Hermione. "I do not know, Ms. Granger. The only theory I have is that because the ritual was fed with so much power it went back far beyond your immediate ancestors for two generations and instead went back thirty or even more. Which should be impossible. But gathering so much power for the ritual should have been impossible, too, so who knows."

"So how do we learn how to use our ability?" Harry asked. After reading the Marauders book on animagus transformation he was rather interested in becoming an animagus himself; it was apparent that his father had been a Marauder, even if he didn't know which one yet.

Quirrell shrugged. "I will have to do a detailed scan of your magical core first, before you even think about starting to develop any skill. As I said some time ago, there is a price for any magic done. As you may have guessed, the ritual is powerful and the price is therefore high. I shifted quite a bit of it into monetary cost by using many rare ingredients in preparing for the ritual. Pain, my usual favorite was not available, so I used temporary disruption of magic and abilities. It wouldn't have been too bad in the ordinary, but I will have to study how the overpowering of the ritual affected the price; it may have gone up, or down, or been left the same."

"When are you going to do that, Professor?" Hermione asked.

"I guess I can do that now." With a wave of his wand beds appeared. "You know the procedure. Strip." Then he mumbled the reverse privacy spell that'd have him see them clothed, even if they were nude.

It took several hours to examine all of them, and Quirrell refused to answer any questions until everyone had been examined. "So that is done," he said, as he dropped into one of the chairs he'd conjured a while ago. He looked exhausted.

"And what's the verdict?" Hermione asked with a shaking voice; Harry could see she was very frightened.

"No worries, Ms. Granger. You are still a witch." Hermione let out a breath of relief, and everyone else breathed a little easier, too. "And everyone of you is still able to use magic. And as far as I can tell no ability has been permanently blocked." Harry smiled in relief as he settled down. "That doesn't mean everything is perfect, though." The good mood vanished instantly. "I can't tell yet what changed, your magical cores are still too charged with energy to get clear results. We will have to wait for several weeks before we can learn exactly what long term consequences you face.

"If it is as I think magic will become a little harder for you to work, until we can correct the problems. For now the important issue is your ability to perform magic; it should be safe to perform magic now, but I'd like you to hold off until Monday just to be safe. Try some spells you mastered before class to get a feeling for your magic, though. It'd be best if other students didn't notice any difference in your magic."

The students nodded, and Quirrell looked back down to the list of their abilities. "As for your abilities, I have no idea when it will be safe to use them. But that shouldn't be a problem. Most, if not all abilities require third year knowledge to master safely, so you'd have to wait a long time anyways. I should be able to give you better information in a few weeks."

"What about the other rituals we planned, Professor?" Sally-Ann asked. She suffered from a heraldic blood clotting disorder and it had caused her significant difficulties during her life so far; the ritual to correct the problem was scheduled next on the following Monday, three days in the future.

Quirrell sighed, "I'm sorry, Ms. Perks, but we will definitely have to delay our plans. I should get a clear reading in two weeks. If everything comes back clear, we will perform the three individual rituals right afterwards." The three rituals in question were of course Sally-Ann's healing ritual, and two others; Harry's eyesight correction and Susan's healing of her slight hearing problem – not that she'd notice it for another few decades, but that was no reason to leave it untreated, especially since there was no conventional cure.

"I guess that's not too bad," Sally-Ann said, with some relief. Apparently she'd expected the ritual to be either scrapped or pushed back a lot further.

Quirrell nodded in acknowledgment of he relief. "Now beside the animagus variations all of you do have elemental powers."

"What are elemental powers?" Hermione asked immediately, surprising everyone with not bothering to raise a hand.

"A good question, Ms. Granger. The answer is both easy and difficult at the same time. Easy in so far as it is the ability to summon, manipulate, disperse, absorb, and so on the manifestations of the elements you control. So if someone where to try and burn someone with the ability to control elemental fire, it would not only not harm the target, it would actually refresh him. Even spells like fire whips and other fire based spells can be absorbed easily and safely, once the talent is mastered. The elemental also has a great affinity to spells based on their element, making them easy to cast and yet more powerful.

"The reason why none of you has heard of this power is that there hasn't been a recorded elemental since before Hogwarts was founded, though there are rumors that either one or more of the founders had elemental abilities or were friends with an earth elemental. There are no records supporting this theory, though; it's been thought of because nobody has found the spells used during the construction of Hogwarts, and the spells used to this day would not have allowed to construct Hogwarts as quickly as historic records indicate.

"The last positively identified wizard with elemental abilities was Merlin himself. On the one hand that makes the ability even more powerful, since nobody has experience fighting it, but it makes learning even harder. Since there are no useful records, you will have to learn it through trial and error, once you think you are ready." Quirrell frowned deeply at this and finally shook his head. "I think it would be best to leave those abilities alone for a long time, since there is no telling what happens if you loose control of them. I wouldn't even think about experimenting until I mastered Occlumency; I don't know if it actually helps, but it should allow you to gain control more easily."

Hermione raised her hand, and Quirrell nodded towards her. "Professor, how can the spell identify the powers if it hasn't been around when they were last recorded?"

Quirrell blinked in surprise, and frowned in thought. "A very good question, Ms. Granger, but I do not have an answer to it. I can only guess that the intent of identifying a power forces the spell to record it under the name that it is most commonly listed under. Or the magic could use the casters subconscious to derive a name for a power; no that wouldn't work, then the same type of magic would be listed under different name by different people. An interesting question that we will have to pursue at a later time."

"Yes, Professor."

"Well, anyway, I'm proud to have been present when the first elementals in over a millennium, and a dozen multi-elementals at that, were born. Thank you for that honor. Now, I believe it would be in the best interest of everyone not to let news get out about any of your abilities. Elementals are the stuff of legends, gods among mortals. You would be forever in the center of attention, and everyone would try to get a piece of you, quite literally. I can see certain elements of society convincing the ministry that you need to be controlled because of your powers, or maybe formulate a breeding program to spread the ability."

The eyes of all students went wide at the thought. "Breeding program?" Hermione screeched. Harry had to wince at the shrill notes she hit. "Do they think we are animals?"

"No Ms. Granger, they would see that you have some abilities that were thought lost and should be conserved; how better to conserve them than turning you into breeding cows; with some luck they would settle for having Mr. Potter get all of you pregnant as many times as possible, which would be the most likely way to get many descendants with elemental powers. And I'd believe at least somewhat acceptable to most of you. It would however make the House of Potter the strongest line alive, so they may well decide to force you into marriages with some other pureblood families, or take your children and have them brought up by those families."

Hermione shuddered and asked meekly, "Would they really do that, Sir?"

Quirrell nodded, "I believe the possibility exists. I don't know how likely it is." He sighed, leaned back, and closed his eyes in thought. "That uncertainty is one reason I strongly recommend you tell nobody about your abilities as long as it can possibly be avoided. Once you master them it shouldn't make a difference. You could easily leave any Wizarding country, or even the Wizarding World itself. The ocean would literally part before you, you could order the air to not allow your enemies to breath, the Earth would swallow buildings and crush them before anyone could get to safety, and who knows what else. So the moderates should win out and allow you to live like you wish, if only because they are afraid of you."

He shook his head, "Some of what I listed was literally worst case scenario. I wanted to frighten you, to make certain you see the dangers that blabbing. You are very young, but since you now know of your abilities you have to realize that society is not perfect, and authorities are both corrupt and even when not corrupt are willing to harm individuals if they think that more people would benefit."

They sat silent for many minutes, perhaps even an hour. Finally Quirrell caught. "Well, depressing issues aside, there's still more to go over. More abilities to discuss." He scanned the sheets again. "The most common ability beside those already mentioned is Rune Master. I don't know if Rune Masters have special powers that normal wizards don't have, but according to the records available on Charms Masters and Transfiguration Masters, and I'm mean those as names for special talents, not as signs of reaching Mastery in a field of choice, it only means that the given area of magic is much easier to learn, less draining to cast, and more powerful in effect. I haven't actually heard of Rune Masters or Ward Masters before, so I can only guess they follow the same rules as Charms Masters, Transfiguration Masters, and Curse Masters. I'm actually surprised there's none of the last three among you."

"Maybe those abilities are considered too common to list for us," Harry muttered, causing the girls to laugh.

"Interesting theory, Mr. Potter, and as funny as it may sound, quite possible. The spell is designed to detect unusual talents, and while those masteries would be unusual for others, they'd be common compared to your other talents. So we can not ignore the possibility."

"Could you tell us who has which ability?" Lisa asked. "I at least didn't get a good look at my abilities before you collected the sheet."

"Oh, sorry Ms. Turpin. My mistake. Ms. Granger, Ms. Li, Ms. Greengrass, and you are Rune Masters, Ms. Bones and Mr. Potter are Ward Masters. I am uncertain whether those abilities are always active, have to be mastered first, or are completely under your control. Since neither rune casting not warding are on the curriculum before sixth year, we have a long time to figure that out."

"Hermione, Lisa, Daphne, and I drew most of the runes for the last ritual," Su said. "Could that be the reason it was so overpowered, because we were Rune Masters, and our runes had more natural power?"

Quirrell looked thoughtfully at the shy young Ravenclaw. "That, Ms. Li is a brilliant idea. Quite possibly correct, too. If the ability had been active in one or more of you, that could explain some of the results. Instead of merely absorbing the energy, they'd actively attract it, and since the natural magic was prejudiced to take the form we needed on Halloween, it might explain where so much power came from. Twenty points to Ravenclaw, Ms. Li."

"It would also explain how we learned the runes so easily; even Padma and Parvati couldn't keep up with us," Hermione noted.

"While I do not doubt that it is possible, I find that highly unlikely, Ms. Granger. It is possible, actually likely given Ms. Li's thoughts, that one of you was active; I find it next to impossible to believe that the first four Rune Masters in recorded history were all active before this ritual; the odds are too long on that. I presume that you simply had some advanced knowledge to begin with and were therefore ahead of both Ms. Patil from the beginning. Or that they were distracted while you learned without distraction. Not everything that happens does only happen because of some magic gift."

He scanned through the lists again. "Well, we also have three Enchanters among us. Mr. Potter and both Ms. Patils. Enchanters are somewhat related to Charm Masters. They have the special gift to easily imbue permanent magic into an item. Even a moderately powerful Enchanter would never have to worry about a job. The magic used for clothes is rather low powered and anyone with the gift on Enchanting could do it easily. The more powerful ones would work on brooms, flying carpets, Quidditch balls, high end trunks, wizarding tents, and other items. The competition among companies for the best talent is so fierce that they are among the best paid people in the Wizarding World. From what I observed in class all three of you should do well as freelancers working on contract for specific items, especially Mr. Potter. If your power has only increased slightly, combined with the gift of Enchanting, you would be the only person capable of producing the fastest broom, and combined with the gift of Ward Master you could emplace the most powerful protective magic possible."

"That's great news," Padma said.

"Yeah. That sounds like fun," Parvati agreed. "Diverse work and superb pay, what more can a witch want?"

"Oh, the same is true for Rune Masters, and Ward Masters. I have no doubt that Ms. Bones could work as a very highly paid Ward Constructor, or Ward Breaker. Either is usually in high demand. And there are many items that contain runes; it is quite possible that those items would be a lot more powerful if made by a Rune Master, so Ms. Granger, Ms. Li, Ms. Turpin, and Ms. Greengrass would easily find high paying employment, too."

"Eight out of twelve already, not bad," Tracy commented. "And I guess an Elemental could gain good employment, too. The Unspeakables would certainly be very interested to learn all they could about our abilities."

"Indeed, you are correct. But you should not forget the other rituals we have planned, Ms. Davis. Those alone ensure that you will be able to find good employment. Additional abilities would be merely icing on the cake.

"Going on, we have two Metamorph Magi, Mr. Potter and Ms. Davis. Metamorphing is the ability to change ones form and take another. It's useful to imitate other people, or simply to pass unrecognized among a crowd. We'll have to do some detailed testing to see exactly how powerful you are as Metamorph. The least talented could change their hair as they wish, both in color and length and could change their eye color, skin tone, and slightly change their facial features. A very gifted Metamorph could change everything, including bone structure, height, muscles, body mass, and so on. There are legends that some Metamorph Magi could change their gender, too, and even appear like members of other races; given the surprised so far today, I wouldn't be surprised of both of you fell into that category."

Everyone cracked up at that.

"Next we have two Parselmouths, Mr. Potter, and Ms. Granger."

That announcement got gasps from the rest of the students. Harry looked around, "What does that mean?"

"It means that you can talk with snakes in their language," Padma explained. "The only known Parselmouth in centuries has been You-Know-Who."

"It's also seen as a power of Dark Wizards," Daphne continued. "To have The-Boy-Who-Lived and a muggle-born speak it may well rock the foundations of the Wizarding World."

"Unlikely," Tracy said. "As pleasant as the thought is, it's unlikely to do anything besides moving Hermione at the top of the kill list of the pureblood fanatics. A muggle-born speaking the noble language of Salazar Slytherin himself? Blasphemy!" Tracy's voice was unnaturally grave for her.

"I fear Ms Davis is correct. A muggle-born speaking Parselmouth would not fit into their world. As far as I know the ability gives you an affinity with snakes, and allows you to talk to them, when you see them.

"I assume Ms. Jones talent of Ocean Tongue, Ms. Turpin's talent of Bird-Speaker, and the Patils ability of Silver Tongue to be comparable, though I have no idea what language Silver Tongue may grand.

"Ms. Perks ability of Empathy is perhaps the most dangerous talent I can identify. As the name suggests it allows you to read the emotions of another person, or being. The problem is that uncontrolled the talent is on and you read the emotions of everyone and everything around. Very bad news. I believe nine in ten Empaths go insane before they can master their ability." Sally-Ann turned white at that. "No need to panic Ms. Perks. Most Empaths don't learn of their power before it switches on; can you read our emotions at the moment?" She shook her head. "Good, then you can start the basic Occlumency exercises. If you master them, you can choose who to read. And it is many times harder to learn Occlumency after the power is turned on than before, so I don't believe you are in danger."

Sally-Ann slumped back into her seat in relief and took several moments to compose herself before looking around again. "I guess once I can control the ability I'll have incredible job prospects?"

The other kids chuckled, or outright laughed. "Indeed you do, Ms. Perks. It is very hard to lie to an Empath, and you could work for courts; I have read though that reading the emotions of Dark Wizards can be extremely taxing."

Sally-Ann nodded slowly. "Luckily I still have a few years to decide."

"Indeed. Moving on, Ms Abbott has the power of True Sight. In the basic version it grants you the ability to see through illusions, such as most ways to become invisible. Combined with the skill called Mage Sight it is extremely useful in analyzing magic, mapping out wards, discovering the way unknown magical items work, and things like that."

"Good job prospects for another one of us," Parvati said brightly.

"Who of us isn't set to have a superb job?" Harry asked.

"That'd be me," Megan answered. "Ocean tongue doesn't sound too promising."

"What about negotiating with sea creatures? Maybe procure rare potion ingredients that only exist below the sea?" Harry suggested."

She smiled, "That doesn't sound too bad."

"Any more talents?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, quite a few, though not many more I know about," Quirrell said. "Ms. Bones is an Aura Reader. In the beginning the talent can be used to identify the power of an individual, and their alignment, if extreme. With a lot of expertise it might be possible to identify talents, given enough time to study another's aura. I'm certain there are some details I can't recall. It's been a long time since I read about them.

"Ms. Perks is also a Soul Reader. I believe that talent can identify whether someone is good or evil. It may also be used to detect soul magic, identify soul mates, and things like that. Incidentally I believe the Dark Mark You-Know-Who used was based on soul magic, so once the ability has been mastered you could identify Death Eaters on sight. I should also make Soul Magic a lot easier to perform, since you actually can see what you are dealing with, while the rest of us fumbles around with it and doesn't understand any of it." He frowned. "I believe I've seen a reference to Aura Magic once, too, but I have no idea what it could be."

He checked the lists again, "There are still a lot of talents left, but I have no idea what they are. I mean, I know the words, but they make no sense in these connotations. Fifteen talents I haven't even heard about. It will be truly interesting to help you develop these gifts in the future. But unless we stumble upon their meaning by change I believe it'd be best to concentrate on magic everyone can perform and the talents we have at least some idea what they do." Quirrell stated forcefully.

"Professor?" Harry asked. "Just how unusual are we?"

"Well, Mr. Potter, let me say it this way. Ninety-five percent of the witches and wizards don't have even one talent, or don't develop the one they have. Animagus is the most common talent, and it's still rare. Or those that develop their talents very few have two; nobody alive is known to have more than two talents. You-Know-Who was a Parselmouth, and there were rumors among the Death Eaters that he learned the animagus transformation shortly before his death, but hadn't finished it. No other ability is known, or even suspected. Dumbledore may posses True Sight and may be a Transfiguration Master. Note, may.

"However all of you have at least five talents. That's unheard of in recent history, though Merlin and other figures like him are often said to have had many talents. How uncommon is it truly? I don't know. Only a handful of people ever test what abilities they have, and only a tiny minority ever shares the results. But I think it's safe to assume that you are among the most talented people in history."

"How did this happen?" Hermione asked.

"It's actually theoretically impossible, but the best explanation I can think of at the moment. You have to understand one thing; if enough magic is involved nothing is impossible. So what I believe happens is that someone, most likely Mr. Potter, is the subject of a prophecy and was not allowed to die, so fate looked at all other possible solutions and after a few hours came to the conclusion that in spite of your failure the ritual had to succeed. Of course given the sheer amount of magic it may simply have been the desire of one of you to survive, or to have the ritual succeed which saved you. There was so much magic around that nothing was impossible."

He sighed, "I'm not sure how much sense that really makes, but we're practically trying to explain something that couldn't have happened according to everything known about Magic itself."

He returned his attention to the parchments, "Let's see if at least your ancestry is normal." He cast a spell that took almost thirty seconds to cast, and ended with tapping the sheet of parchment with his wand. He looked at the sheet, and turned white.

"Professor, are you okay?" Harry asked after about a minute.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Fine. Everything just fine. Yeah. No problem. None at all."

"Professor!" Harry said forcefully.

Quirrell's eyes snapped to Harry and he blinked. Then he shook his head, "Thank you, Mr. Potter. I needed that."

"Is there a problem, Professor?"

"Indeed there is, Mr. Potter. Indeed there is. You see, the spell I used has been used for centuries and was considered well understood, if not perfectly understood. I just discovered that all we thought we knew about the spell is wrong."

"How can that be?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"The spell was supposed to reveal whose heir you are. So in Mr. Potter's case I expected to see the names of his parents and grandparents, perhaps a very powerful wizard one or two more generations ago. That's why the spell is sometimes used in court during inheritance disputes." Quirrell looked around and everyone nodded that they understood so far.

"The problem is that I have the result for all of you before me. And two names appear twice. Not only that, but instead of going three of four generations back, some of there have to be hundreds of generations removed. Which should be impossible. In addition there's a reference I can't recall ever seeing in connection with this spell, a reference to a True Heir."

"Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?" Hermione asked.

Everyone looked at her like she was insane. "Sorry Hermione," said Harry. "You've lost the rest of us a dozen or so steps ago."

Hermione looked at him in exasperation, and then noted that the others really didn't seem to understand. "Oh, okay. I mean that the ritual was overpowered and went back a lot further than it should have done. So our blood was still charged with that energy, and when Professor Quirrell cast the spell on the blood, the energy in the blood powered the spell and warped it in such a fashion that a number of our most powerful ancestors are revealed. True Heir would then refer to the most direct descendant alive. And since it was so overpowered it simply jumped over our direct ancestors; it probably needed several generations before it could register anything, if the spell works like I think."

"Very good, Ms. Granger. That is a very interesting theory. Anyway, as I said, there are two true Heirs, which are Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger. Mr. Potter is the True Heir of Lady Rowena Ravenclaw, while Ms. Granger is the True Heir of Lord Salazar Slytherin."

"Slytherin?" Hermione squeaked wide eyed. "I'm the Heir of Slytherin?"

"Better not tell that in public," Harry said with a smirk. "Think about what all the purebloods would think! You would destroy their complete world view."

The other girls cracked up at that, and even Hermione had to giggle. "So what other names are listed?" She asked after she regained control.

"Eleven gods, Merlin, Morgana Le Fay, King Arthur, a couple demons and other extra-dimensional creatures, heirs to dead races, a few legendary individuals, and a few more I don't recognize."

"Professor, if you say gods, what exactly do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I mean beings, most likely witches and wizards that lived millennia ago and performed deeds so impressive that muggles and wizards alike remembered them centuries and even millennia after, and at least muggles worshipped them. Probably Elementals. I believe the muggles still worship someone who parted a sea to lead his people through? Probably a Water Elemental, if you ask me."

Hermione nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Not too surprising that we have one or two among out ancestors."

"Not?" Quirrell asked in honest surprise.

"Let's assume that the god in question had two children. Each married and had two children on his or her own. This happens each generation, every twenty years. Now assuming they never marry another descendant of that guy they number of descendants increases by the factor of one thousand every ten generations, about two hundred years. So a thousand after two hundred years, a million after four hundred, a billion after six hundred, and another sixty years later every human alive would be a descendant of that god."

"So that means if Merlin had children, like this suggests, then a good portion of the people of Britain have some of his blood flowing through them," Harry said. "And it's the same for all the others. They have lived so long ago that their descendants are spread very widely."

"Very interesting theory. I will trust your math, Ms. Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor for another brilliant theory. Well done, Ms. Granger. How does that explain the differences between you, though?"

"I guess it depends on exactly how the magic works. It is possible that if it gets a powerful enough result it will stop following that line, so if Merlin was a descendant of someone know as god then it would only return Merlin. However if nobody powerful enough is between the descendant and the god, then the god would be listed. So the spell would effectively return the first sufficiently powerful witch or wizard among our ancestors. So the founders would get priority over Merlin and co, who in turn would get priority over those old god types. And then we'd probably only learn the name of the god the least number of generations removed."

Quirrell regarded her for a while, and she started fidgeting. "A very insightful theory, Ms. Granger. It is too bad that we can not prove it either way."

"But wouldn't that mean that King Arthur was a wizard?" Harry asked.

Everyone blinked at that. Finally Hermione nodded, "The spell should only return wizards anyway, so the fact that Arthur was listed as an ancestor indicates that he was indeed a wizard, not a muggle or squib. Unless of course he wasn't human or gained powers some other way."

"Does the fact that everyone listed lived so long ago mean that we have no recent magically powerful ancestors?" Lisa asked.

"A very good question, Ms. Turpin, but I don't believe so. Let us take the example of Mr. Potter; since I have a professional interest in Mr. Potter's survival, I have learned as much as I could about his mother. Professor Snape went to school with her, while Professor McGonagall was her Head of House, and Professor Flitwick spend a lot of extra time tutoring her in advanced charms, so all three knew her quite well. Professor Snape agrees that she was magically more powerful than him; and he is the most powerful wizard of his generation that survived the war. I believe Lily Potter and Bellatrix Lestrange were the only two that rivaled and probably surpassed him in power.

"Even though Mrs. Potter died young she was already very powerful; Professor Flitwick thought that she'd soon posses more power than himself, and next to the headmaster he is the most powerful wizard in Britain at the moment. Professor Snape believes Professor Flitwick overestimated her power, but Professor McGonagall leans more towards Professor Flitwick's view, though she thinks it would have taken Lily a few more years than Professor Flitwick thought until she was more powerful than him.

"Based on that we can safely assume that the recent generations were simply ignored. None of those listed that I can identify lived within the last thousand years, so the spell may have ignored the first fifty or so generations; though I don't know why it didn't tell us the first wizards it found."

There was a moment silence. "Power," Hermione said. Everyone looked questioningly at her. "The longer ago they died, the less the power they had counts. So a wizard of average power wouldn't even be detected as magical anymore. It takes someone of true power to be detected so long after their death."

Quirrell nodded. "Well done, Ms. Granger. That does indeed explain everything." He looked at his watch, "Merlin's beard! It's already past dinner. I've already kept you long enough; you remember where the kitchen is?" After their affirmative nod, he continued, "Then go and get something to eat and then enjoy Friday evening. And have a happy weekend; I'll see you on Monday."

---

On Saturday they led the other girls to the secret room of the Marauders and studied the room itself some more. Padma discovered a secret room by chance when she returned a book into the shelf and apparently triggered the spell.

"Wow, look here guys."

"Nice common room," Tracy said wryly. "Very Gryffindorish."

"Well, my father was a Gryffindor, so it's to be expected, isn't it?"

"Nice bath," Susan said, as she looked through one of the additional doors; means we can hide out here for a while and study."

"It shouldn't take too much to allow our dancing lessons to happen here," Daphne said, as she surveyed the room carefully. "And we'll have to try to get more chairs and couches, both for the study and this mini common room."

"Yeah, but enough distracting us with your own rooms," Parvati said wryly. "I guess the twins were right; you're a couple. I mean, already got you own rooms and all."

Both Harry and Hermione flushed at that, causing the other girls to giggle merrily. "Oh, shut up," Hermione groaned, causing the others to giggle even more. It didn't take long for Hermione's resistance to break and join them. Harry simply dropped on the couch and buried his face in his arms, lying face down.

He didn't notice anything was amiss until girls pilled on him and tickled him; it didn't take long for it to turn into an everyone for herself tickle war. Perhaps an hour later they dropped on couches or the floor and caught their breath.

"I haven't had so much fun since Hogwarts started," Susan said with a delighted sigh.

"Yeah, it's good to simply let go once in a while," Su agreed. "Though maybe we're responsible for that ourselves. I mean, we spend so much time together, and so little with our housemates, is it really surprising that we don't feel fully at home with them?"

"I don't think I would want it any other way," Harry said after a moments thought. "I mean, who is there in our house and year? Lavender is a bit too flighty for me, Neville, well, he has the heart in the right place, but he's not exactly good company. Dean and Seamus? I guess they're nice enough, but they don't really know much about the Wizarding World themselves. They couldn't tell me half the stuff you do. And Ronnikins? God…" He flinched as the two closest girl cuffed him on the arm, and two pillows hit him in the face. "Merlin, I mean Merlin!"

The group crackled up. They'd already tried to break Hermione and Harry out of using muggle phrases and teach them the Wizarding equivalent, but it wasn't yet instinctive. "As I said," Harry continued. "Ickle Ronniekins? Could you imagine how I'd end up if a hung out with him? Between all Slytherins are evil, don't spend any time in the library that you don't absolutely need to, no reading that isn't unavoidable, and all that I don't think I'd turn out well; I doubt he himself knows half the stuff you've already taught me. I mean his twin brothers are okay, and so is the rest of the Quidditch team, but there isn't anyone else in our year I'd like to spend time with, who isn't here anyway."

Hermione nodded, "I have to agree with that. There aren't many that I can have intellectual conversations with, and all of them from our year are here."

"You mean the only ones you allow yourself to open up to and not boss around completely," Padma said with a wry smile.

"I don't boss people around!" Hermione protested.

"Sorry, Hermione, but you do," Susan said, and the rest nodded in agreement.

Hermione grimaced and looked at them and asked meekly, "Am I really that bad?"

"Yes you are," Susan, who sat next to her, said. Hermione looked like she was going to cry. "But we still love you," Susan finished, and pulled her in a hug. Hermione clung to get and apparently cried quietly. "Hey, it's okay Hermione. You're not that bad, at least with us." She slowly stroke Hermione's hair as she talked.

Within moments the other girls approached the pair and even Harry got into what quickly became a group hug.

A while later Padma spoke. "So now that the Know-It-All has cried herself out."

Hermione cuffed her on the shoulder, and muttered, "Oh, you!" But she couldn't keep a smile of her face.

"Yes me," Padma said, eliciting a few giggles. "Anyway, we've been distracted enough. So what's with the whole Heir of Ravenclaw and Slytherin thing?"

Harry shrugged, "I've no idea. Then again, you know as much of my parents as I do."

Hermione looked at her feet and mumbled, "I have no idea."

"Hey, we don't hold it against you," Tracy said. "Heir of Slytherin, I think it's great. Let the blood purists deal with the fact that a muggle-born is the True Heir of their idol."

"How certain are those stories about Slytherin in the first place?" Harry asked.

There was a collective shrug. "Your guess is as good as ours; everyone says Slytherin was a Dark Wizard. From what I found out until the mid-fifteen hundreds Dark Wizard was a simple name for someone using the Dark Arts, not the synonym with evil it has today. I think there's little doubt Salazar Slytherin was a master of the Dark Arts, but was he evil?" Daphne shrugged. "All founders were very reclusive and didn't leave anything but Hogwarts of themselves. Some say that the House-Elves moved all their stuff to a hidden chamber after their death. We don't even have a good idea when they died. All that is left are second and third hand accounts. And we have little idea of the author and their intention towards the founders."

"You mean you don't even know when they died?" Hermione asked shocked. "It's no wonder I couldn't find a biography of the founders."

"So what do you think about us being Heirs, and Parselmouths to boot?" Harry asked.

Lisa said, "Nothing. We know you, and it doesn't change anything. The whole Heir thing is interesting; I wonder if it gives you some special privileges here at Hogwarts. And I'm very interested in Parsletongue; I wonder if there's some way to teach it. Speaking to bird will be nice, but I've always been fascinated by snakes."

"I don't like snakes," Hannah said. "But I don't mind you being Parselmouth either. To be honest, and this is nothing against you, Sally-Ann, I'm much more disturbed by Empaths than Parselmouths. Empaths violate my privacy without me even knowing about it. I don't like that at all. I mean, I don't mind you doing it, but the thought of some stranger reading my emotions at will?" She shook her head.

"I agree," Sally-Ann said quietly. "The thought of reading some stranger's emotions is kind of creepy."

"But it will be useful." Harry said darkly. "My parents died because of a traitor among their friends." Hermione had walked him through the known information of the fateful Halloween ten years ago after the ritual; she had been truly appalled at how often the books had been wrong, though Harry hadn't been in the mood to laugh then. "You should be able to pick out any spy quickly. Not that I think any of us would betrayal another, but we have to deal with other people."

"You're that certain none of us will betrayal you?" Daphne asked with a smirk.

Harry looked at her, "Why would you betrayal me? Maybe naive of me, but I think we could get everything we wish to easier within our group than from the outside."

Daphne looked thoughtful, "Maybe you're right. But there are other reasons to for betrayal." She shook her head. "I trust everyone here, but I would feel better knowing that I'm right, rather than just believing it."

Sally-Ann smirked at her, "So how will you know you can trust me?"

"If you combine the talent of Soul Reader, or Aura Reader, with the skill of Legilimency, that should return reliable results," Harry said.

Sally-Ann gave him a dirty look, while Daphne smirked victoriously, "Good one, Harry."

"You know, we should really come up with some nicknames," Susan said.

"From what I've read so far the Marauders based their nicknames on their Animagus forms," Hermione said.

"That'd mean another few years until we get any," Susan frowned. "Doesn't it?"

"Can't we learn our forms without changing?" Harry asked.

"Professor Quirrell said not to use even our magic for the moment," Su said. "And not to do anything with our talents. We really should ask him before planning, let alone trying anything. I don't wish to spend the rest of my days as a squib, let alone a muggle. Nothing against muggles, but I know nothing about them; it'd take a lot of work to fit in with them and get good work. And quite frankly I like being a witch. If I learn more about muggles I want it to be because I want to, not because I have to."

"At our age it shouldn't be a problem," Hermione said after a moments thought. "But I wouldn't want to give up on magic, either. And I've only known about it for a few months. So we'll definitely ask first. What will we do if we can't find out our form?"

"Well, you'll be Know-It-All, Harry'll be the scarhead, and," Megan broke down and giggled, soon joined by the others; Hermione's face was priceless.

After some more fun, they went back to Wizarding traditions and other things that should be taught at Hogwarts, but weren't.

---

Monday began normally, but at breakfast students noted that something was wrong. Dumbledore, who hardly ever missed a meal, and never breakfast, wasn't there, and the teachers that were present looked rather grim. But there was no announcement, and classes proceeded normally, though Professor McGonagall was clearly on the edge throughout their Transfiguration lesson. She even forgot to assign homework for the first time ever.

At lunch the Great Hall was flooded with owls delivering newspapers; one of them dropped a newspaper right in front of Harry, before it took off. A note on the front said that the paper was a special edition of the Daily Prophet that was delivered for free to all students at Hogwarts.

Daily Prophet Special Edition

Monday, November 4th 1991

Dumbledore found Guilty!

Today, at ten o'clock in the morning the full session of the Wizengamot found Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, defeater of the Dark Lord Grindlewald, and currently Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Wizardry and Witchcraft guilty of all charges.

The major charges in detail were:

· Violation of the Ministry Edict of Communication of 1632, paragraph 9; intercepting official Ministry mail.

· Violation of the Gringotts Charta, paragraph 132 section 3; intercepting routine Gringotts mail

· Violation of the Gringotts Charta, paragraph 132 section 6; intercepting Gringotts mail containing financial details

· Violation of the Gringotts Charta, paragraph 224 section 3; misleading Gringotts about the state of official mail

· Violation of paragraph 342 section 9 of the Unified Code of Court Conduct (UCCC) of 1847, updated 1921; intercepting court notification

· Violation of paragraph 342 section 9 of the Unified Code of Court Conduct (UCCC) of 1847, updated 1921; intercepting witness summoning

· Violating of Ministry Mail Regulation paragraph 6 section 1; Erecting mail wards without the permission of the affected person

· Violation of Ministry Mail Regulation paragraph 12 section 4; Intercepting communication with the minor heir of a family without his knowledge

In addition to these charges several minor, but related charges were brought before the panel of fifty judges. Madam Bones acted as chief prosecutor as it was her initiative that brought these crimes to light. In a rare show of unity all fifty judges found Albus Dumbledore guilt within a minute. Finding of a sentence took longer though.

After long consultations with the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, some members of the board of Directors of Hogwarts, as well as the important members of the Wizarding Examining Authority, Albus Dumbledore was sentenced to a fine of 100,000 Galleons payable to Harry James Potter, victim of Headmaster Dumbledore's crimes, and his immediate retirement from the International Confederation of Wizards and the Wizengamot.

Albus Dumbledore refused to comment, but Madam Bones was pleased with the result. 'This was an important step against the abuse of power by Mr. Dumbledore. Yet it was only the first step. Later this year the Wizengamot will have to assemble another time to deal with more crimes conducted by Mr. Dumbledore, and a third investigation in possible additional crimes will be launched later today. I am very saddened by the fact that the man most of the Wizarding World trusted most abused the power we gave him in such a fundamental way, but I hope that he will also serve as an example to future generations that nobody is above the law.'

We at the Daily Prophet have tried to learn what other investigations against Mr. Dumbledore are taking place, but the Department for Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE) has declined to comment on that issue.

Gringotts representative Warclaw stated that Gringotts is willing to keep the peace, as long as Albus Dumbledore never again takes an office with the Ministry of Magic and his behind the scene influence is kept at a minimum. Two of the violations of the Gringotts Charta permit the Goblins to take possession of the content of all Ministry vaults and remove any two restrictions placed on them by the Charta unless the Ministry meets out a punishment deemed sufficient against the individual who violated the Charta.

Two of the last three Goblin Rebellions were fought over paragraph 132 of the Gringotts Charta. This reporter also overheard several Goblins stating that the time for a Goblin Rebellion is long overdue raising fears among top Ministry officials that the Goblins may use these events as excuse to start hostilities.

At this moment the Board of Directors of Hogwarts is in an emergency meeting about what consequences this sentence will have for the school and how they ought to react to it. This reported strongly recommends that Mr. Dumbledore should be dismissed as soon as possible as he is a very bad role model for young witches and wizards to aspire to.

For more on Dumbledore's past achievements see page 2

For details about the committed crimes see page 4

For details about the Wizengamot and it's members see page 6

For a biography of Madam Bones, Director DMLE see page 35

For details about the Gringotts Charta and the wars fought over it see page 37

This special edition was brought to you by Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent

With special thanks to Lucius Malfoy for sponsoring free copies for all Hogwarts Students

Harry quickly opened the paper to page four and studied the list of crimes. It didn't contain many details aside from the fact that Dumbledore had apparently intercepted all his mail since the day his parents died, including over two hundred letters from Gringotts, several dozen from the Ministry, and thousands from witches and wizards in Britain and abroad.

As Harry closed the paper a ministry owl flew in and dropped a letter on his plate, before taking off again. Harry opened the letter and quickly read it.

Dear Mr. Potter

As of one hour ago the mail ward Mr. Albus Dumbledore illegally erected around your person has been destroyed and all old mail is now in my possession. Given the amount of mail you have received in the past and are likely to receive once the press reports the case, I have taken the liberty to ask Gringotts to establish a mail box in your name. Ministry owls and Gringotts messengers will now reach you properly; if you wish to receive mail from other people you need to inform Gringotts of their names, and any letters will be forwarded immediately. You will also need to get in contact with Gringotts to decide what should happen with your mail, both old and new. Both Gringotts and the Ministry are at this moment reviewing all owls they send you and will send a summary of the still relevant information within the next few days. You can collect the old messages at Gringotts at your convenience.

I also wish to apologize that you were not informed of the court case, or the wards around you, prior to this letter. The wards Mr. Dumbledore erected were far more sophisticated than I expected and also intercepted the letter I send to my niece Susan with instructions for her to give it to you. I only learned of this after the court ordered Mr. Dumbledore to hand over all intercepted mail or face a prison sentence.

I am looking forward to meet with you again in a couple of weeks to discuss the revelations of last Thursday and the legal consequences, as well as other ongoing investigations connected to your person.

With best Regards,

Amelia Bones

Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE)

Harry read the letter a second time before he looked around; it seemed as though most of the students and teachers in the Great Hall were looking at him. Considering that they had just read that THE Albus Dumbledore, the only headmaster Hogwarts had known for decades, had been convicted because of him, however little he had personally done, he didn't doubt they actually were looking at him.

"More fame," he grumbled silently to himself, making sure it was quiet enough not to be overheard by anyone. He looked at Hermione and saw that she was still avidly reading the paper. It was apparent that they had been informed of the case ahead of time, or they would have never managed to release a 40 page special edition in time. Looking at his watch he saw that it was about time for classes to begin. "Come on, Hermione," he said quietly, then continued loud enough to be heard by everyone nearby, "Classes are about to start."

That brought a string of curses from many students, as they saw he was right, and they hadn't yet finished, or in some cases begun, eating. Hermione looked up and folded the paper. "Okay."

After they left the Great Hall Harry asked quietly, "Are you okay? You seem, I don't know, down."

Hermione looked at him, she seemed confused, maybe, or something close. "How could he do that Harry? I mean, he is supposed to be the Light Wizards. The one to which all others look up to. How can he do something like that?"

Harry studied her for a moment, and then shrugged, "I have no idea. I suppose it may become clearer once the other investigations are completed and public knowledge. Madam Bones has written me to inform me that she'll be by to go over all of them in a few weeks. Maybe things will become clearer then."

---

Their lesson in Arcane Arts was interesting. Quirrell had once again told them to ignore their talents for now and instead study for their classes. He would research a way to learn their animal for quickly, but warned them that it would take some time; most like well after Christmas. After that Quirrell went over the last five rituals they would perform before the end of term and the two planned during the winter holidays.

The first three were healing rituals for Harry, Susan, and Sally-Ann. Harry would finally loose his dependence on glasses, while Sally-Ann, who suffered from a blood-coagulation disorder, would no longer be in mortal danger from what would be minor injuries for other witches and wizards. Susan didn't really suffer from anything just yet, but her hearing was set to degrade over the following few decades and would leave her deaf within about half a century.

The two group rituals were also of the most simplistic nature, they would improve their bodies to a certain degree. The first would improve the efficiency of their muscles, making them both stronger and less likely to strain or otherwise damage their muscles. It would also improve the development of their muscles and allow them to gain strength unimaginable to normal humans without developing grotesque muscles. This caused Harry to daydream of his next summer and the reaction of the Durselys when he lifted Dudley with one hand.

The second would improve their reflexes, allowing them to draw their wands more quickly and to evade spells more easily. Harry was really looking forward to the ritual that would increase his reflexes. He could hardly wait to see how that would improve his flying skills. And while shocking the Dursleys may be fun, at least in his fantasy, he was really looking forward to gain fame for something he could actually do, like being a highly skilled Seeker.

Dumbledore returned to the castle before dinner that evening and appeared no different than before, but even Harry noticed that the students were looking at him differently. But it seemed as though the students themselves had lost something.

After dinner Dumbledore announced that the Board of Directors had decided that he would continue as Headmaster, which caused mixed reactions not only among the student body at large, but also with Harry.

After dinner the whole group headed to their hideout; it was their first chance to talk alone after the newspaper came out.

"I guess that explains why you didn't get any mail," Susan said.

Harry looked at her, "Did you know about this?"

Susan shook her head, "I suspected there might be some kind of mail ward, but I never thought it was something like that! Intercepting Gringotts mail!" She practically screamed the last part in outrage.

"What's so special about Gringotts mail?" Harry asked.

"With the need to hide magic we have developed and agreed upon rules of warfare with just about every Ministry and race." Sally-Ann explained. "The Gringotts Charta is effectively a summary of the current Wizard-Goblin relations. Violating the Charta is like a major diplomatic incident, and may quickly turn into war. Intercepting mail hasn't caused a war so far, but several other kinds of violations have turned bloody. In Eighteen twenty the German Ministry was for all purposes destroyed by the Goblins after some major provocation. Over eighty percent of the wizards and witches in Germany died, the rest fled without any of their money. That's why Germany didn't have a Ministry until 1936 when Germany and Austria unified into one country and the Ministry of Magic renamed itself to reflect that; until then the Austrian Ministry of Magic took care of Germany. When Germany and Austria decided to separate again, most officials went to the Austrian Ministry, but there were enough left to manage Germany."

"If the Goblins are that powerful, why haven't they fought against Voldemort?" Harry asked.

Some of the girls grimaced slightly, but all of them were by now used to Harry calling him by his name.

"They know they could destroy him when they wish," Susan said. "Or at least think so. They don't like the Ministry, and given how many wizards, and the Ministry itself treat them, it's not surprising. So why should they get involved when all that is happening is wizards killing one another?"

"So," Megan asked. "What do you think about Dumbledore, Harry?"

Harry sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Intercepting mail, well it's not that big a deal. Sure, it is illegal, but it isn't exactly something evil. I'll want to hear his justification for what he did, but I don't see why it's such a big deal; well Gringotts aside, that is."

"Maybe not," Hermione agreed. "And he didn't read the mail or even check where it was stored from what's been published. But you still had a right to know about the mail. And there were hundreds of cards for Christmas and your birthdays; you should have got those."

Lisa nodded. "Some families send you what amounted to excessive presents by their financial state from what I've heard. And they didn't even get a thank you or acknowledgment in return. And since they thought you got those presents that created the image of an ungrateful spoiled child that's ghosted around in some circles. I hadn't heard about it before either," she continued as she saw the surprised faces. "But after the article some talked with their friends and concluded their image of The-Boy-Who-Lived was wrong. It could have been a major nuisance later on for you, Harry."

"More than a nuisance," Daphne said with a sudden frown. "That explains some things I heard. It would have caused quite some inconvenience for you, had it not come out like this. And it still may if you are too accepting of Dumbledore's actions. Some might take it as permission to bend laws in regards with you to your disadvantage in the future."

"In other words you're in a political minefield and must watch your step," Hermione said.

"What's a minefield?" Susan asked.

Hermione sighed and tried to explain the concept, of both the figure of speech and the nature of mines. Afterwards they settled to have a nice evening and forget about their troubles for some time.

---

On Wednesday an owl delivered a statement from Gringotts including an apology for not noticing that the mail was intercepted. Harry was shocked at the huge list of assets he had, but relieved that most of it was part of a trust fund he couldn't even access until he was seventeen. After his lessons with the girls he realized that the responsibility that came with handling so much money would have crushed him. Even the tiny amount he could access was for Harry a mind-boggling amount. But at least he didn't have to make major investment decisions just yet.

During the next Potions lesson Professor Snape berated all of them for messing up during their last lesson.

"One lesson that even Dunderheads like you should be able to understand, never try to brew more potions at once than you know you can manage. At best it will waste ingredients when most of the potions are of questionable quality, as happened to Group A." He nodded to where Harry, Hermione, Parvati, Daphne, and Tracy were sitting. "They completed all potions, but two potions may or may not have the desired effect, but would have had additional, unintended side-effects, while five more were about ten to fifteen percent less effective than they should have been. So instead of thirteen perfect potions, they had eight perfect, five acceptable, and two questionable potions at the end of class. Potions of questionable quality are almost always useless, since it takes a very long time to verify if they are safe to use, usually far longer than the brewing itself. So effectively their attempt to brew all potions merely reduced the quality of five potions for no gain at all.

"Still, they were the best of you lot. All the rest of you not only made the same mistake, but performed much worse, as you blew up your cauldrons and landed members of your team in the hospital wing. And even if you lot didn't notice, several of you would have died, had I not weakened the reaction of your pitiful attempts to brew some of the easiest potions known. A decision I fear I'll come to regret.

"As for last class, you get a grade for every potion; the average of them will count with twenty percent to the term grade. A potion not attempted would have counted with plus 25%, a potion destroyed counts with minus 10%, while a blown up potion costs 50% and a member send to the hospital wing cost 100%. These are the standard awards I have used for all years, since this lesson was one that most students needed to learn, so don't come to me crying about how unfair the marking is." He sighed warily. "I've had enough of those that I'll simply send everyone who tries to a detention with Mr. Filch." Professor Snape smirked, "He has been extraordinary pleased with the amount of students he could use lately. But on to the grades.

"Group A, eight Outstanding with full marks, Outstanding with 97%, Outstanding with 95%, Exceeds Expectations with 91%, EE with 89%, EE with 87%, A with 67%, A with 61% for an average of 92% or Exceeds Expectations. Congratulations for the best performance of all years.

"On an extra note, your grade was slightly better than it would have been had you only done thirteen potions, but that is a typical difference between reality and classroom environment. While it did get you an extra two percentage points on your mark, it would have cost you in real life.

"Group B, with Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Nott, Mr. Finnegan, and Ms. Greengrass have four Outstanding with full marks, Outstanding with 95%, Exceeds Expectations with 81%, Acceptable with 75%, four destroyed potions, one explosion, and one lost member for 38% or Dreadful.

"Group C, with Mr. Thomas and Ms. Brown, Ms. Bulstrode, and Ms. Parkinson have Outstanding with 99%, Outstanding with 98%, eight failures, two explosions, three in hospital for a Troll with minus 24%.

"Group D, with Mr. Crabbe, Mr. Goyle, Mr. Longbottom, and Mr. Weasley finished nothing had four explosions and all landed in Madam Pomfrey's care, which gets a Troll with minus 56%. The negative record for all years!

"Thankfully for you the worst I can actually give you for the last lesson is nil. Therefore I'll log Group B with Poor, 40%, and Group A with Outstanding, 95%."

He put down the parchment he'd consulted during his speech and smirked at them, "Now that the last lesson is finished, we can begin this lesson." His cloak billowed as he stalked across the classroom and dropped a sheet of parchment on each desk.

"Same groups as last lesson, for the remainder of the term. There are thirty potions on that list, some you brewed before, some were on the list of potions you had last week. I expect samples of all potions as well as a foot on each potion from every group six weeks from now. The sheets are enhanced so that once you pick it up you can't ask someone to let you see their assignment or share yours with others outside your group. A really brilliant idea Professor Quirrell had there. Last lesson of the term will be a quiz to make sure all of you know all potions. For those of you dunderheads that can't count, six weeks means that you have to finish five potions every week. That is doable quite easily."

As Snape finished they quickly went over the list and Hermione marked the ten potions that require the least time, since the lesson had progressed pretty far already, and there wasn't enough time to finish any of the first five potions listed. Since they had already done it once, they worked together more smoothly this time, and the lesson passed quickly.

---

Saturday rolled around quickly and Harry was surprised that he had almost forgotten that he had his first Quidditch match that day. Their team had very little trouble dealing with Slytherin, and Harry quickly concluded that their Seeker wasn't any better than the rest of the team; they played rough but not well, and Harry's better broom and lighter weight allowed him to close or open the distance to the Slytherin Seeker at will. Once that was obvious Harry decided to stay with basic moves and keep the advanced stuff in reserve for when they were needed. Harry caught the Snitch in time for a clear 360 – 120 win for Gryffindor. The victory party was subdued for the first few hours since all three Gryffindor chasers had to visit Madam Pomfrey because of the bruises left by the Slytherin.

---

Madam Bones visited two weeks later on the 23rd of November. Since Harry had all his friends helping him sort through the masses of mail, and answer them, and in more than one case explained things to him that everyone in the Wizarding World knew, he insisted that all eleven of them joined them.

"Are you certain, Mr. Potter? Some of this information is rather… private."

Harry nodded his head, "Yes, I'm certain, Madam Bones. All of them have been invaluable to me over the past few weeks. I'm not only talking about schoolwork but Wizarding culture and society. I knew next to nothing when I started here, and without them I would have made dozens of blunders; I'm certain I'll still do some, but at least now I know some of the basics. I would tell them everything anyway so they can help me form an informed opinion on everything. I'm too liable to miss something on my own."

Amelia Bones nodded, "Very well, Mr. Potter. If this is your wish, I see no reason to contest it. But let us move somewhere more private." Harry nodded his agreement, and she led the group to a classroom and sealed the door with several spells, before taking a seat.

"Now, you may remember that during my last visit I asked you what you thought about a letter, correct?" Harry nodded. "Well, that was a letter I send over a week earlier that I expected an answer to. When it wasn't forthcoming I came in person to get an answer."

"Excuse me, Ma'am," Hermione interrupted. "But why would you send Harry a letter?"

"A good question, Ms. Granger. As I'm certain you know I'm Susan's guardian." Everyone nodded, Susan had often told them stories about her Auntie Amelia. "She is writing me regularly and telling me about things that happen here at school. During some of her early letters she mentioned a few things about Mr. Potter that I found curious. As such I tried to get some answers. I didn't think it important, so I didn't hurry, but when the answers I got were nothing like what I expected, I decided to write to Mr. Potter and get a few answers directly from him. When I got no answer, I visited the school, letting the headmaster think I needed to talk to my niece."

She summoned a house-elf and had them bring some drinks. After a gulp of water, she continued. "Since I didn't mark the letter as Official Ministry Mail I wasn't too concerned when you didn't receive it, since I expected that you would be regularly swamped with fan mail, unless you regulated your mail somehow, but I did realize that you were unaware of the ward. Still nothing very important in the grand scheme of things. So I simply resend the letter marked as OMM. But again I didn't receive an answer, which is when I realized that you weren't simply telling me about the private mail you got, but all mail you got. I should have realized it since you mentioned the Hogwarts letter, but it was something I didn't expect.

"But then I knew that not only were OMM letters intercepted, but Gringotts correspondence, too. You know how serious that is?"

Harry nodded, "My circle of advisors has been most informative on that issue." He smiled and indicated towards the witches. "Without them I'd have totally missed it, even though it was mentioned in The Daily Prophet. That's a reason I insisted on having them here."

Amelia nodded. "Very well. As it was, I went to Gringotts and informed them of my suspicion. Their records indicated that all mail had been received correctly. So they send a letter with vastly more complex tracking charms, and discovered that while the normal charms indicated reception, others indicated that a mail ward had intercepted the letter before the designated recipient got the letter. Both issues are criminal, so I now had a solid case to open investigations.

"It was rather easy to determine that the ward had been set up by Dumbledore, so I prepared the case in secret and called a full Wizengamot trial. It's not that unusual to not announce the defendant until the trial begins; the prosecution gets to present its case, and then the defendant has the option to deny the charges and request time to prepare a more detailed defense or immediately present some details that gets some or all of the charges thrown out of court.

"In this case Headmaster Dumbledore requested a stay to check some documents, and then pleaded guilty." All students were rather surprised at that, and Madam Bones gave them a grim smile, "He claimed to have placed the ward around Mr. Potter right after his parents died, and forgotten about it. From what I could find out, that is probably what really happened. That is the reason there's been no prison sentence; to the best of our knowledge it was merely negligence not any underhand agenda on his part. The Goblins agreed, and accepted our sentence."

"What about the rumors about a new Goblin Rebellion?" Hermione asked.

Madam Bones shook her head, "Pure editorial freedom by The Daily Prophet. There never was any serious consideration given to that idea, as far as I can determine. But it fit into both Minister Fudge's agenda, and made the whole thing sound much more dramatic, always good for sales." She checked her sheet of parchment again. "I send a letter to explain what was going on directly to Mr. Potter, and a second one to my niece with a request to hand deliver it. Headmaster Dumbledore had employed the most sophisticated mail wards recorded by the Ministry though, and they intercepted the letter to Susan, too. I didn't know about it, until Dumbledore had the Hogwarts house-elves deliver all letters intercepted, including the one to Susan. If I had known about that, I would have informed you personally before the Prophet reported it."

Harry nodded, "Thank you for explaining that, Madam Bones. It was very informative."

She nodded in acceptance. "Then let's get down to why I'm here today." When the others looked surprised, she huffed. "While I would have been delighted to use this as an excuse to visit Susan, there are still other issue to take care of. Quite a lot of other issues, I'm afraid. The most important one would be Mr. Black. Sirius Black is your godfather, Mr. Potter, and was believed to have been your parents Secret Keeper. You know what a Secret Keeper is?"

Harry nodded. "My consultants have informed me about that. Between them they are well informed on most topics."

Madam Bones smiled, as the girls flushed at his compliment. "So I take it you know the whole situation concerning Mr. Black?" Harry nodded again. "Good. What isn't well known is that after he blew up the street he was send to Azkaban without a trial; which I assure you is quite illegal. But between Minister Fudge and Chief Warlock Dumbledore the issue passed and wasn't brought up again. Since the press reported that he was found guilt the clerks actually have a valid excuse for not bringing it up again, as a missing protocol would be a mere technicality, and would actually be normal if the case-file was sealed."

She shook her head and sighed. "Anyway, once I restarted the investigation it quickly became clear that there hadn't been a trial. It had even been neglected to check Mr. Black's wand for the last spell used. Going over all the evidence it became clear that without the knowledge that Mr. Black was the Potter's Secret Keeper there was no case against Mr. Black. Just to be on the safe side I went to Azkaban and supervised the interrogation of Mr. Black. It verified what we knew, and gave us a few new leads as to what really happened. But that's not really important for now.

"Since Minister Fudge and Headmaster Dumbledore actually broke the law by having Mr. Black sent to Azkaban, there will be a trial resulting from all of this, in addition to Mr. Black's release. The Minister won't be very happy about that, and he might express his displeasure by acting directly against you."

Harry nodded uncertainly. "No problem, Harry," Daphne said. "We'll be there and steer you through everything." Harry nodded and gave them all a thankful smile.

"I'll also have to warn you about the public attention. Since the investigation was started as a result of the ritual you performed on Halloween, what you did will become common knowledge."

"Is that bad?" Harry asked.

Madam Bones shook her head, "No, not really bad, but it will attract a lot of attention. It is highly unusual to contact the dead and I haven't heard on another instance in decades; and I mean worldwide."

"But… the ghosts?" Hermione stammered.

Madam Bones chuckled slightly, "Yes, I guess Hogwarts does give the impression that talking to the dead isn't unusual, but it is. As are ghosts; Hogwarts actually has the largest group of ghosts on record. And more than half the ghosts living in Britain are in this castle. Anyway, there will be a lot of attention on all of you for a period of time. Since you are at Hogwarts you won't really notice it, but your families will have to deal with reporters. If you leave over Christmas they might also try to get an interview with any of you, just a warning."

"What about next summer?" Padma asked.

"By then it should be settled. Unless you do something else spectacular the interest should have died down." Everyone nodded relieved.

"Good, moving on. The reason I first got interested in Mr. Potter was his lack of knowledge on basic issues that should have been covered in the introduction to the Wizarding World, like owl orders. Common procedure requires a Hogwarts professor and several Ministry employees to visit the house of each person brought up as muggle and inform the wizard or witch and their guardians about the important things. I won't go into details about what should have been covered, since I'm sure Ms. Granger has already shared all of that with you."

Harry and Hermione nodded. "Good. Now since regulations have been broken there was an investigation into what happened. It was basically a case of abuse of power by Dumbledore. Other Ministry employees have been fined for allowing it to happen, but the guilt lies with Dumbledore. And sending Hagrid! Really!"

"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Harry asked. He hadn't spent a lot of time with the huge man, but he did have a soft spot for him.

"For one he isn't allowed to do magic at all, as such he is very ill suited to introduce you to the Wizarding World as it should include a demonstration of the different fields of magic, the possibilities, and the limits. And more importantly he isn't allowed to do magic because he was expelled from Hogwarts for murder; I believe the victim has become a ghost and is now known as Moaning Myrtle."

"Murder!" several of the witches gasped, and even Harry's eyes widened. He'd known that Hagrid wasn't allowed to do magic, but murder?

"Yes. He didn't commit the crime himself, but one of his… pets killed the girl. He has an unhealthy interests in dangerous creatures; the more dangerous the better. He served several years in Azkaban for negligence, though since he expelled from Hogwarts for murder, he is listed as murderer in ministry records."

"How can a murderer work at Hogwarts?" Daphne asked.

"Dumbledore," Madam Bones said shortly. "Anyway, as a result both Mr. Potter and his guardians had less information about our world than they ought to have had; while normally not critical in Mr. Potter's situation that could have caused major difficulties in the future. Especially given his status in our world. So in addition to other fines by Dumbledore and other officials Mr. Potter will receive another five thousand galleons in compensation from the Headmaster for his part in this. Unlike the Sirius Black case, this case is a done deal and will be announced on Monday. Actually, every issue I'm currently briefing you on will be in the papers then, so you'll be the center of attention once again." Harry grimaced at that thought and the witches didn't look much happier.

"Moving on to the next issue; the will of Mr. Potter's parents. As their ghosts mentioned that I was the first listed guardian for Mr. Potter I had the authority to demand the will at Gringotts. The results were rather surprising. The will had not been ignored, it was never read. Headmaster Dumbledore used his influence to bring this about. I don't know if any of you knows, but after some bloody inheritance disputes the will of a wizard was given a very important legal status; to ignore a will were I exists is a major crime that carries mandatory prison sentences. There have been several arrests already, and the charges will become public knowledge on Monday. The charges against Dumbledore will be filed separately in connection with other issues.

"Although the will wasn't read, most issues were carried out as required; the only major breech was your placement with the Dursleys. For various legal reasons it will take a long time until the verdicts in these cases comes in, and the will can't be executed correctly until afterwards. Since something was done that contradicts the will, it will take even longer than usual.

"There are only two possible outcomes however, either I will be named your new guardian, or you will be given freedom to choose a guardian on your own. It comes down to whether the execution of the will is backdated or not. If it is backdated, you will become my ward back in eighty one when your parents died. If it's simply executed now you will be given the right to choose your guardian yourself, since you are older than ten years. Either way you shouldn't have to worry about it for several months. Until then you are under your own authority. That basically means that you can choose to spend Christmas with friends at their home, and choose where you stay over the summer, should the will still be in the air, as long as there are adults to supervise you for the time being. What exact rights you have is a bit more complicated, but shouldn't become an issue."

"So many things that shouldn't be an issue are for me," Harry grumbled.

Madam Bones frowned, but then nodded. "You are of course correct with that assessment, Mr. Potter, and I am sorry for that. I'm certain you will get an official apology from the Ministry soon, but I want to apologize personally, too. I should have been your guardian, and I did nothing. So it's at least partially my fault. I'm sorry."

Harry waved her off, "You didn't even know about that. As far as you knew I was placed where my parents wanted me to be, and you had no reason to doubt that, or to suspect that I should have been placed with you. As such I tell you, there is nothing to forgive."

Madam Bones nodded her acceptance. "Thank you, Mr. …, thank you, Harry. We still have to cover some ground though."

"More?" Harry asked in shock. "There's still more?"

Madam Bones nodded gravely. "Yes, there is. Late last week I personally led the team to brief the Dursleys on the Wizarding World. Professor Quirrell came along as representative of Hogwarts. Things didn't go as we expected. The Dursleys were reacting very hostile towards us and were being very uncooperative. They got downright abusive when I stated that we wouldn't leave until they learned enough to take proper care of you; I didn't mention that it was unlikely you would return, but since they officially still are your guardians, we were legally required to ensure their ability to handle any common situation.

"After they had offended us sufficiently to bring them up on charges, I informed them of this; they tried to get out of it, but since that is actually a muggle law that was it. Anyway the insults used gave us due cause to arrest them and reasonable suspicion of further crimes, so I had them interrogated under Veritaserum; that's the most powerful truth potion and forces everyone to answer any and all questions truthfully. Sufficient to say that I learned some truly appalling things. Enough to bring them up on charges of child abuse and neglect at the very least. I would however like to question you about life with the Dursleys. If you are willing we could do that now?"

Harry looked down and took a deep breath before he nodded. Madam Bones placed a magical quill of a piece of parchment. "Interrogation of Mr. Harry James Potter, born July thirty first, nineteen eighty. Date: November twenty third, nineteen ninety-one. Location: Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, room 46. Spells in effect: Securitas ward, sealing ward on the door, Imperturbable Charm on the door, and standard Hogwarts wards. Recorded by Truth Quill on Veritaserum soaked parchment. Interrogation by Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Witnesses present: Ms. Hannah Abbott, Ms. Susan Bones, Ms. Tracy Davis, Ms. Hermione Granger, Ms. Megan Jones, Ms. Su Li, Ms. Padma Patil, Ms. Parvati Patil, Ms. Sally-Ann Perks, Ms. Lisa Turpin, and Ms. Daphne Greengrass.

"Mr. Potter, do you wish to bring in any additional persons, or exclude one of the persons in this room?"

"No, Madam Bones."

"Is everything I stated so far true?"

"To the best of my knowledge, yes. I do not know which spells are in effect or how to verify what kind of parchment and quill is used."

Madam Bones gave him a smile and nodded. "Very well, Mr. Potter. Can you please describe any and every instance from your life at the Dursleys that you can recall and think may be out of the ordinary; since the Dursleys are your guardians, this would include any and every situation where they treated you differently from their biological son Dudley Dursley. Do you understand this request?"

"I do, Ma'am."

"Mr. Potter, would you permit that a True Speech Charm to be placed on you? The spell will place you in a trance like state and allow you to recall events more precisely and relate them exactly as they happened."

Harry considered it for a minute and then nodded. Remembering the quill he stated, "I accept, Madam Bones."

"Very good." She waved her wand in a very complicated pattern and Harry felt all his worries slipping away and a haze settling in. "Please describe any and every incident that might fit the parameters I mentioned earlier."

So Harry described the chores he had to do, how he lived in the cupboard under the stairs, the Harry Hunting sessions from Dudley and his friends, the Christmas festivities he observed from his cupboard, the lack of presents of any kind, the punishments when he did better at school than Dudley, the incidents of accidental magic and the resulting punishments, how they broke his arm and then locked him in the cupboard for days, how they spread that he attended a school for criminals, and many other minor and some not so minor issues; it didn't take long before the girls were sobbing and holding him in a group hug once more. Even Madam Bones seemed to be affected by his story, and surprised by some stories he shared.

Finally he finished, after hours had passed, and she put the parchment and quill away. Harry could barely recall anything he said while under the True Speech Charm. He actually felt rested.

"Madam Bones?"

"Yes, Miss Turpin?"

"Healer Nightshade examined all of us earlier this term. She should be able to stand as witness in a trial, too."

Madam Bones blinked in surprise, "Healer Nightshade?"

Lisa nodded, "Yes. She gave all of us a throughout checkup at the beginning of the year."

"Healer Nightshade?" Madam Bones asked again. "As in he most capable healer in Europe?"

The students all nodded, and Madam Bones sighed, "I guess I shouldn't expect anything normal to happen here." She then nodded at Lisa, "Thank you, Ms. Turpin. While I don't think her testemony will be required it might be useful."

"So what happens now?" Hermione asked.

"The trial against the Dursleys should be in a month or two. With Christmas coming up closer to two. It should be a pretty quick trial, with the evidence, Mr. Potter's account, the interrogation protocols of Petunia and Vernon Dursley, and perhaps a neighbor or two. Healer Nightshade's examination protocol should remove the last doubts. It will probably be over in a few hours, and end with lengthy prison sentences. While Mr. Potter's presence will be required, it will most likely be the last time you see the Dursleys. Dementors are rather hard on muggles."

"What I don't understand is how the teachers and other authorities could have missed that!" Hermione scolded. "It's too obvious, too many visible signs. Someone should have picked up on that!"

Madam Bones face turned grim, "I'm afraid that would be the Headmaster's fault. There are several indications that investigations were started and memory charms were used to stop them. Since the headmaster was the only wizard who knew where Mr. Potter lived all evidence suggests that he is responsible. But I can not imagine why he would do that. Well, it will come up at his trial and he will be given a chance to justify himself."

"Dumbledore?" Harry questioned shocked. "He not only placed me with the Dursleys but prevented the muggle authorities from removing me from there?"

"That is what all evidence points at, at the moment. We may never know for certain what happened exactly, or why."

"But why would Dumbledore do something… something so…so… evil seems to weak a word," Hermione asked weakly.

"I do not know." Madam Bones sighed. "Things were worse than I imagined them. Well, it's over now, and we will deal with everything. Now, the reason I came here and told you all that is because most of the charges will be filed on Monday and therefore become public knowledge. Rita Skeeter, a Special Correspondent of The Daily Prophet, has been informed of the details yesterday, and The DP will do a large Special Edition on Monday."

"So coming Monday everyone will know," muttered Harry.

"Sadly, yes. Both you and the Headmaster are important persons. A trial of this magnitude will be the center of public attention for weeks, if not months."

"So I'll go from The-Boy-Who-Lived to The-Boy-Who-Was-Abused-By-Dumbledore or something like that."

"Probably you'll get called that or something like it for a few times. But as time passes it should return to The-Boy-Who-Lived."

"As if that's better," Harry said. Madam Bones just shrugged. "Well, at least I'm forewarned this time, thank you."

"I ought to have ensured that you were informed last time, Mr. Potter."

"Well, that's in the past now. We've to worry about the future now. Is there anything else?"

"Of course. You've now had your complete introduction to the Wizarding World, but the reason we inform new students and their parents in early June is so that they can read some material on the Wizarding World, let the information settle, and then go shopping at least one more time before Hogwarts. You've had the introduction, read the information, or got them from your friends, and had some chance to let the information settle. Now I'm going to take you shopping. Professor Quirrell will come with us, as he has something to take care of, too."

"We're allowed to leave the school and go shopping?" Harry asked surprised.

"Normally, no. Only third years and older are allowed, but given your situation you have special permission. And Professor Quirrell will be there so you are technically still under Hogwarts supervision. That of course allows you to use magic freely. I trust that you can behave?"

"Yes, Ma'am. What about my friends?"

"They can come with us; it's already been arranged with Professor Quirrell."

After Madam Bones lifted the spells on the door they went to Quirrell's office and met the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor there. Together they left Hogwarts and walked towards the Hogsmeade station. Once they had passed the entrance gates Madam Bones pulled out a piece of rope and enlarged it, so everyone could easily touch the portkey.

With the customary pull behind his navel and a swirl of colors they disappeared from Hogwarts and appeared in Diagon Alley in a large heap. As the students disentangled themselves the adults appeared with silent pops.

Diagon Alley was much like Harry remembered, but now it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as it had once been. Indeed, Harry found it hard to see why it had seemed so special when he had first seen it. It was probably because it was only then that magic became real. Or at least that he saw it; according to Hermione muggle-born witches and wizards are informed of the Wizarding World and given some basic information over a week before their first visit to Diagon Alley; she postulated that it was to allow them to assimilate the information first. Harry hadn't been given that time. He blinked as he went over his thoughts again; he definitely hung out too much with Hermione, he began to sound like her!

Their group attracted a fair amount of attention, but there was not much traffic; since if was Saturday afternoon, most people had better things to do. Madam Bones and Professor Quirrell lead them through Diagon Alley and pointed out important shops and then took them on a stroll down Knockturn Alley.

"While there are some things that can only be bought here," Madam Bones explained. "You should never go down here alone, even once you are adults, unless you are very good with your wand. While you are underage either go with your guardian and stay close to them, or let them do the shopping alone. When you are of age, take a few friends along. There are usually one or two Aurors around, but they can't see everything."

Afterwards she let them to Gringotts. The Goblins obviously knew they would come and had prepared what amounted to a magical Debit-card for Harry. He also graciously accepted the apology from the Goblins and assured them that he didn't hold them responsible. They still insisted to waiver all normal fees for his vaults, the debit-card, and a pre-filled sack of Galleons – it allowed people to get some Galleons quickly in the lobby of the bank, and the Goblins would take the money from their vault later, plus handling fee, of course.

Thusly armed they headed to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Harry bought a new wardrobe with the help of the girls, since he had grown the most; four months of normal growth plus the ritual that corrected the effects of malnourishment. Madam Bones and Professor Quirrell looked on amused at the spectacle they made. Once he was done he insisted that the girls get some things, too. When the girls were busy again, Harry asked for Professor Quirrell to help him do some extra shopping.

Quirrell quickly agreed, and helped Harry as much as he could. He haggled out a fantastic price for a high quality, multi compartment trunk with permanent feather-light charm and self-shrink function. After that Harry went looking for birthday and Christmas presents for the girls. Through coincidence he came upon a backpack that would reduce both size and weight of everything put into it, and he bought a dozen as Christmas presents for the group. He had already decided to let Hedwig choose owls for the girls that didn't have one yet, and with Quirrell's aid quickly got presents for the others. They returned just in time to pay for their purchase and load the clothes into another compartment of the trunk.

They had a quick dinner in the Leaky Cauldron and then enjoyed some ice-cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Madam Bones commented that the dinner was anything but healthy, but the children had a blast, and she didn't press the point. She seemed happy to see Susan enjoy herself with so many good friends.

After that they went on and bought some additional cauldrons, potion ingredients, and all other tools needed to prepare potions. Harry felt the additional supplies would be very useful for Potion classes, especially if they kept brewing new potions at the current rate. And they would also come in very handily if they wanted to brew something on the side or simply practice the art of potion making. And given his family wealth Harry saw no reason not to get the necessary materials. Neither Professor Quirrell nor Madam Bones commented on the fact that they bought enough supplies for an extensive potion laboratory.

After that they bought other school supplies, like parchment and quills, they headed to Flourish & Blott's for some additional books. Harry bought copies of all grade two and three books for everyone, and several copies of nearly two score of advanced books. The girls protested a lot, and Madam Bones was regarding him strangely, but kept quiet. While they kept Professor Quirrell and Madam Bones entertained with their argument Hermione and Padma selected another three scores or so of books about various talents or other topics that would only be found in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts and bought them on the sly. They'd come up with that plan during dinner, well Daphne and Harry did, after he had convinced them to let him buy the books; if his home had been destroyed it was after all likely that the family library had to be rebuilt. Now was as good a time as any to start that process.

Everyone expected that they were done for the Day and would return to Hogwarts, it was already dark and getting quite late after all, but Quirrell insisted that they stop by at Ollivander's; he explained quietly that the rituals they performed might have changed their core so much that a new wand would be better suited.

Harry quickly volunteered to pay everything there, too, and only offered to let the girls repay him after a heated argument. Mr. Ollivander greeted them in his normal spooky manner after apparently appearing from nowhere and regarded Quirrell for a long time, before he softly nodded, "I see. What can I do for you? Your wands are all in order, I hope?"

"They are, Mr. Ollivander," Quirrell said, seeming relieved. "My students performed a ritual to call forth the power of their ancestors at Halloween. What we did not know is that several of the possessed talents that greatly influenced the ritual, or maybe gained them then. The result was rather spectacular. The energies called forth were a lot greater than anything I have ever heard of, and as such the changes to the magical core were more dramatic than anything recorded before, but perhaps for the most powerful rituals in history."

"Indeed," Mr. Ollivander said, as he glided over to Harry. "Eleven inches of Holly with a feather of Fawkes as core." He looked Harry over very carefully with his unblinking silvery eyes, then continued briskly, "Hand me your wand, young wizard."

The tone tolerated no denial or even hesitation, and Harry presented the wand to him. He took it, and studied it carefully, before studying Harry some more. "Not quite. Not quite. Hm." He turned around and went towards the back, "Follow me."

They followed Mr. Ollivander into his workroom. It seemed to be a tiny room made of marble, and Harry watched fascinated as it grew as they entered it one by one. Suddenly a desk snapped into existence in front of Mr. Ollivander, and he carefully laid the wand in an appropriate holder.

"Your destiny has changed," he remarked casually as he leaned over the wand, doing who knows what. "Or maybe destiny itself changed. When you were here and bonded with this wand, your destiny was very different from what it is now. Very interesting." He suddenly stood straight and turned towards the group, starring right at Harry, "It is your wand, and no other will bind with you, yet it won't work with you anymore. Curious. Very curious. I wonder…"

He turned again and hundreds of curious looking items appeared. He studied them for a moment and then took something that looked like a wand, but appeared to be over two feet long and made out of silver. He walked towards Harry and casually hit Harry on the right shoulder. Hard. Very hard. Harry cried out in pain and looked at the old man in shock, holding his shoulder with his left hand, barely keeping tears out of his eyes.

The old man merely shook his head, "And I was so certain he was the one. Well, what else could it be?" He dropped the metal bar on the desk, and it returned to its previous position. "Huhm. It appears we have to do it the orderly way, doesn't it."

"Mr. Ollivander," Madam Bones said. "What exactly is going on?" It appeared that she was just as confused as the rest of them, save maybe Professor Quirrell, who at least had to suspect something before he led them here.

He looked up, seemingly surprised that there were other people in the room. "Huh? Oh, Mr. Potter's wand does no longer work perfectly for him, but it is still bonded to him. That means it still is the best suited wand in the whole world for him. But it is still only pitifully compatible. Has the power of your spells changed since the ritual?" Ollivander asked, his face suddenly right in front of Harry's, silvery eyes starring right into emerald ones. Harry was sure that Ollivander hadn't moved at all; it almost appeared as though the space between them simply decided to not exist anymore. It took all his self-control not to cry out in surprise or shrink away.

Harry gulped nervously. "I think so. The spells are a bit weaker. Not a lot, but noticeable."

Ollivander stepped back and shook his head, "What are they teaching at Hogwarts nowadays? Or have wizards as a whole fallen that much?" Then he starred at Harry again, "Have you not felt that the spells do not wish to take the form you want them to have? Have you not felt the magic denying you?" Harry nodded hesitantly. "And still your spells form. Your power is forcing the magic to do your will. You have indeed become powerful, Harry Potter. Perhaps more so than any wizard alive."

Harry looked shocked at that, and his eyes opened wide. Mr. Ollivander on the other hand wasn't paying any attention to him any more, as he prepared something. Finally he put a bowl of some liquid on a pedestal that rose in front of Harry just as Mr. Ollivander approached. "Hold your left hand over the Complicon. I will draw some of your blood and we will see."

Harry hesitantly did as he was told and watched in fascination as blood dropped into the bowl without any pain, right through unharmed skin. Then the blood flow stopped and the device glowed white, and a moment later it was empty bur for a piece of parchment.

Mr. Ollivander took is and read is slowly, his eyes flickering towards Harry every now and then. "Truly remarkable, Mr. Potter. I have not seen something like this in a very long time. A pity really, I have grown so accustomed to those obscene things called wands that I have not made a true wand in a very long term. It will be a pleasure to craft a true wand again after such a long time." He looked at the girls, "Is it too much for an old man to hope that you, too, will require true wands?" He looked at them for a moment in such a way that even Harry wanted to say yes just to please him, but it lasted just a moment, before he shook his head. "How could you know? You do not even understand what I am talking about, do you? Well, no matter. I will test you, and maybe, just maybe, I am lucky once more."

He went back to his desk and carefully took the wand before casually throwing it into a glass contained. He threw several other things in and drenched all of them in a grey liquid, before turning back. "It will need to soak for a while. Ms. Abbot. Redwood, nine inches, unicorn hair. May I see it?" Hannah carefully handed him her wand, and he starred at it for a minute or two. "You will also require an improved wand." Suddenly there was a bowl in front of her. "A few drops of your blood, if you please."

Within moments he had snatched the parchment from the bowl and threw the wand and other things into another glass container. Almost the exact scene repeated itself another ten times.

"Oh fantastic," Mr. Ollivander said in glee. "Truly remarkable. Your wands will be finished soon, or at least as finished as I can make them. A wand does not change fast, it will take years until the changes I have made will have full effect. You will notice that as time goes by the wand becomes more and more willing to channel magic as you wish, even better than they used to when you first bought them. And you still have so much growth before you." He rubbed his hands in anticipation, "Soon they are ready. But you should come back every year or so, just to see if we may be able to fine tune them some more."

He turned to Harry, "When I sold you your wand, I told you that you would do great things. You have already done more than I expected. You vanquished the Dark Lord, and you brought down Dumbledore. Each a remarkable feat, for each was a truly powerful wizard. And I have no doubt that it was you who is responsible for the need for new wands." He gave Harry a serene smile, "Only you could make them survive the unsurvivable."

"So these true wands mean that we are really powerful? More powerful than Dumbledore or Voldemort?" Harry asked after a moment.

"Merlin no!" Mr. Ollivander answered at once. "A true wand is needed when a normal one doesn't work anymore. Think of your magical core as a perfect sphere. Now with a normal wizard or witch the sphere has exactly one imperfection. The wand most suited to the wizard will match this imperfection perfectly. The connection between core and wand is still not perfect, but almost perfect; even once they have a wand with perfect connection few are able to tell the difference. A true wand is needed if the sphere, that is the wizards power, grows too large for a normal wand to handle, or if the sphere is damaged and gains additional imperfections; to match the wizard the wand will need to match each and every one of them completely. Only then will you be comfortable casting spells.

"I do not know how much of the customization results from growth of your power beyond the normal power of a wand and how much is due to the modifications of your magical core that most would simply call damage. There is no question that you are powerful, Mr. Potter, but you do not match Dumbledore, at least not yet. A wizards power grows with every breath, every heartbeat, and every spell. I do not doubt that should you live long enough you will surpass Albus Dumbledore in magical power. But unlike almost everyone else, I believe that age falls within your natural live expectancy."

He hustled towards the glass containers and waved his wands over them. In a flash there were twelve highly ornamented wands. Mr. Ollivander immediately handed them out.

Harry's wand was still the same color as before, but instead of the impossibly smooth plain surface that every wand Harry had seen so far shared, this wand – HIS wand, he corrected himself – looked very different now. He could see that it had grown about half an inch and it looked like pictures were carved all along it, and a few tiny jewels were positioned at seemingly random positions. Unlike when he first got his wand, there were neither sparks nor the euphoria when he swung the wand.

"The fix is perfect, but it takes time," Mr. Ollivander explained at once. "A wand is a living magical being, for the lack of a better description. It does not change on its own, and if it is forced to change from the outside it will do so, but very slowly. Unless there are future modifications to your magical core, your wands should once again match you perfectly in four to six years."

He starred at Harry intensely, "As long as you are performing rituals of at least average power I recommend that you visit my shop at least once a year. You will pay for all, Mr. Potter?"

Harry blinked at the question, but quickly nodded, "Yes, Sir."

Mr. Ollivander nodded to himself. "You do wish to make other purchases?"

Harry nodded again, "Yes, Sir."

Mr. Ollivander regarded him for a moment, "Will you tell me what you wish to buy, or do you wish me to tell you?"

Harry thought for a moment and fought down the instinct to answer at once. "I believe that your recommendation will be better than what I could order."

Mr. Ollivander regarded Harry in what just might have been surprise. "Indeed, Mr. Potter. That is true. You will want holsters to correctly store your wands. It would be a tragedy to have them break because you sit on them, would it not? Few wizards whose matched wand is destroyed ever find another that suits them. And the need for a true wand makes the search even more difficult." He disappeared into the back of his shop and entered seconds later again through a door on the side that Harry was certain hadn't been there before; then again there no longer seemed to be a door where Mr. Ollivander had left the showroom just moments ago.

"That will be six thousand Galleons for the wands and twelve thousand for the holsters, Mr. Potter."

Harry frowned for a moment, then shrugged, and handed over the Gringotts card.

"Six thousand!" Amelia Bones cried. "Five hundred a wand; and one thousand for a wand holster! Five hundred galleons is more than most people earn in a year!"

Mr. Ollivander's intense gaze moved to the Director of the Department Magical Law Enforcement. "Indeed, it is. Maybe the prize was one of the reasons true wands fell out of use."

"If true wands are only needed by very powerful people, or people with damaged core, why were they in common use to begin with?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"To imagine your magical core as a sphere can help you understand certain aspects, but it is not sufficient to explain all, Ms. Granger. A true wand can only be used by the person it was made for, unlike normal wands that will work at least a bit for everyone. True wands can also hold runes and other spells that can have a great many benefits. A normal wand may also have an inclination to one particular type of magic, making that type of magic slightly easier or maybe more efficient; a true wand operates at this increased level for all types of magic. True wands also allow certain forms of magic that are nowadays extinct, and they allow several additional option for ceremonial magic, assuming you can find the required knowledge.

"According to the only known text to survive the destruction of Atlantis a true wand is theoretically not a physical object but a manifestation of arcane astral energy, and opens the door to any kind of magic. The imaginations would truly be the limit, along with ones power, of course. But even in Atlantis this was never more than a theory. In earlier ages hundreds of scholars used to buy true wands just to see if they could find something new, or maybe uncover the unimaginable power of a wand that could do anything, but that time has passed. There were only three true wands in the last century."

They were silent for a while, thinking about what they had been told. Finally Harry asked, "What about Voldemort? Has he bought a true wand? I mean, I've heard that he did a lot of dark rituals and stuff to gain power. The wand sounds like something comparably easy."

Mr. Ollivander threw a glance at Quirrell, before starring unerringly into Harry's eyes. "Quite right, Mr. Potter. He did not care for the price as long as he got what he sought. He did not seek power; though that is a common misconception. He sought immortality; comparable, but not quite the same. I know he knew about true wands, but never pursued them because of the time it takes to construct one; and during that time the owner may not perform any magic, or even utilize talents like Parsletongue.

"You see, changing a wand to a true wand is a very long process, taking over a year. While only hours passed for you more than a year has passed for me, since you entered my store. When you saw me move and handle the wand, you did not see me, it was just a way your brain explained what you saw, and it should not be considered in anyway what actually did happen. I would guess he did not know of this option. And I doubt that I could have procured the required ingredients even if he had asked me. The core of his wand is a phoenix feather; to change it to a true wand requires the blood of the phoenix that gave the feather, blood willingly given for the specific purpose and wizard. No phoenix or other creature of light would give their blood to a Dark Lord, unless he is willing to retire."

"So what do the true wands mean for us?" Harry asked.

"Nothing for now. Once you know enough magic to create runes and enchantments, you can improve them with many tricks. If you discover forgotten knowledge you may be able to learn forgotten magic that nobody else could perform, even if they steal the knowledge from you. But for now it simply means that slowly your wands will become perfect matches once more, and once that happens, you will have a slightly easier time using most forms of magic."

Harry slowly nodded, "Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Ollivander. It is much appreciated."

"It was my pleasure, Mr. Potter. As I said, it is good to once again create a true wand. I believe our business is concluded. Have a good evening."

"What about the holsters?" Quirrell asked before anyone could move. "I understand the cost of true wands, but why are the holsters so expensive?"

Ollivander regarded him, "Ah, the holsters, yes. Perhaps the finest wand holsters ever made. Basilisk hide soaked in Demiguise blood and then in Demiguise skin dissolved in basilisk venom and basilisk blood from two different basilisks, neither of which supplied the hide. They were then soaked in Phoenix tears until they could be touched without killing the handler. The rest of the holster is made of Acromantula silk. Once put on, only the owner can ever find remove it; others should not try. They are one of my masterworks, if I may say so. I did not know why I created them when I did, but now I know. We live in interesting times, indeed. Bring the others by, Mr. Potter, when they become what you are. Have a good night."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, but Mr. Ollivander shook his head and then wandered through his shop as though they were not even there.

So the group silently left the shop. "Well, that didn't go anything like I thought," Quirrell said with a shake of his head. "We should head back to Hogwarts soon."

"And I should get home soon, too. I have a lot to do tomorrow," Madam Bones said, and hugged Susan.

"Goodbye, Madam Bones," Harry said, and moved to shake her hand. "And please don't bother with any money. Even if it is your job, your assistance is worth much more to me than the few Galleons," he whispered.

Madam Bones nodded and disapparated. Professor Quirrell meanwhile spread another string of rope, their portkey, so that all could easily touch it. After a short jerk behind the navel they appeared in front of the gates of Hogwarts. They were very late, so Quirrell led them to his classroom and cast some very resilient illusions on their wands to hide the ornaments and have them appear the same as before. Harry wished he could have examined the ornaments before they were hidden, but realized that they could not leave them visible; for one it would provoke many questions they did not wish to answer, for another it would just attract more unwanted attention.

Afterwards they sorted their clothes and had the house-elves put in their names and deliver them to their rooms. Harry and the others were quite amused when one of the elves thanked them for the work. Quirrell then explained that House-elves exist to work, and gain both pleasure and magic by serving.

"I think we're done for tonight," Quirrell said. "Before I send you off, I just wish to remind you that even with the ritual to increase your muscle efficiency yesterday, you will need to exercise. A healthy body is magically more powerful, and physical stamina is also very important in duels and other situations where you use large amounts of magic. Before you try to come up with some crazy routines to train yourself, just keep with your dancing lessons. Dancing is in it's own way a very exhausting sport and will provide what exercises you need for the time being."

"What about martial arts?" Hermione asked quickly.

"Martial arts," Quirrell said slowly, trying to place the term. "Ah yes, they would be suited, too, but I don't think there are any suitable books in the library. And even with a book if you learn them wrong, you might do more damage than good. For now dancing is the best choice; over summer we shall see later. Now have a good night."

---

On mutual unvoiced understanding they didn't discuss anything that had been said, until after breakfast the next morning in their secret hideaway. It was still early, before most of the other students even woke up on a Sunday, when they were all gathered in their common room.

They sat for a while in silence, before Susan spoke. "Out with it Harry; what do you think about Dumbledore?"

Harry looked at her, then the other girls, and finally sighed. "What is there to think? I was to grow up with you, instead the old bastard put me with those muggles; and not only did he put me there, he kept other muggles from putting them in their place. All my life… all…"

Hermione, who sat next to him, pulled him into a hug, and held him until he recomposed himself, "Thanks."

"It's okay, Harry; I know you'd do the same for me."

Harry nodded, "Can we do something else today? I really don't want to think about the past for a while. I'll have to think about more than enough in the near future."

Hermione nodded cautiously, as she observed Harry. "Maybe that's a good idea.

"Hey, let's get the books sorted out," Padma said.

Harry quickly removed the new trunk from his pockets and opened the compartment they had used to store the books. With some difficulties they transfigured some things that could be used as shelves for now and sorted the book. The first shelve they stocked with their dozen copies of the year two and three books, and Harry flushed as the girls glared at him while they put set after set on the shelve.

"Okay, so maybe a dozen copies of each book was a bit over the top," Harry grumbled in embarrassment. "But it was the first time I ever could buy me something and buy a few bits and ends for others."

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said, and hugged him, causing him to flush even more, and the girls giggled. After that they each took their turn to thank him. Harry felt more embarrassed then ever, but at the same time reveled in the affection he was getting.

After they calmed down they filled the other shelves sorted by topic. Curses, Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions contained the most books. From what they had found so far almost all talents required advanced understanding of how magic works, while almost every ritual required some potions. With the incredible healing power of rituals they'd be better if they could prepare the needed ritual quickly, without outside help. Especially once they left Hogwarts.

They also had a few books on various talents known to wizards, and stored them on the last shelve; as interesting as they might be, it would do better to master the basics first. That left them with a few books on skills that didn't really fit anywhere; Books on Apparition, Mage Sight, healing magic, mind magic, wandless magic, silent magic, thought magic, will magic, and several other things that were most likely the same things under different label. They quickly transfigures a seventh shelve, and then set up their potion equipment; it didn't take long to recognize that there was far more than they could possibly place in the room.

"Okay, so maybe I went a bit over the top here, too," Harry said defensively.

"Nope," Susan said. "It's just the room; it's too small."

With a pop a Hogwarts house-elf appeared, "Missy wants room larger?" Then the elf looked at their shelves and the furniture. "This wills not do!"

The elf popped away and a few moments later over a dozen house-elves popped in the room. Things started happening faster than Harry could see. The books were hovering and elves removed their shelves while others popped in bringing new ones. The couches and other furniture were whiskered away, and replaced with new one. Some elves were waving their hands at the walls, making new doors appear, while other elves made the room itself grow.

Harry watched the process in awe, and it took him some time to realize that the elves changed the room to closer match what he considered the most comfortable room. An elf suddenly popped in right in front of him and bowed first to Hermione, then Harry. "Lady Heir, Lord Heir. Is yous satisfied with ours work? We tries to make room as you wishes."

Harry blinked and then nodded, "Thank you. It is perfect."

The house-elf smiled brightly and squealed in delight, "Thanks you, Master."

Hermione had by then recovered from her surprise, "It really is very good. Thank you."

For a moment Harry thought the elves would dance in happiness, but apparently they decided it wasn't appropriate, and all but one popped away. "Cans I do something more for you?"

"Did the elves take care of this room previously?"

"Oh no, House-elves dids not like wizards using this room before. Wizards always mades messes. Tinky remembers well how they destroys kitchen before Halloween feast some twenty years ago. Many House-elves rest for weeks because they exhausts them to get feast ready on time. Few elves even injured. No, they were no good wizards. Tinky very sorry that Lady Lily friendly with bad wizard James."

"Thank you, Tinky," Hermione said. "Please leave us for now." Tinky bowed and popped away. "Well, it looks like your fathers pranks were rather destructive."

"Or the elves simply don't like it when someone messes with their home," Tracy said. "I mean they live in the kitchens. It's not just where they work, for them it is home. Naturally they don't take it well if someone destroys them."

"I can't believe my father would do something like that," Harry muttered.

"We don't know what happened, let alone why," Daphne said. "We will have to wait until we meet with one of the other Marauders and have a chance to question them."

"But would it be that surprising that he acted like that when he was young? He's from a very wealthy family, all his friends were Gryffindor boys, rash, with no intelligence, cunning, or heart guiding them, and no moral guide to lead them. Add to that a bastard headmaster that lets people get away with murder, and you have a receipt for disaster. I suppose your mother caused him to clean up his act; she doesn't sound like the type to put up with such antics."

Harry just nodded and decided to explore their new domicile. The elves had enlarged the room; it was no longer cramped, but instead allowed all twelve of them, and probably another few people, to relax. The bathroom had been replaced by a swimming pool; three more doors were in the room. One held a bath that'd probably fit the dozen of them easily, one contained several toilets, while the last was probably a sauna. Harry marveled at the changes the house-elves had made. The size of the apartment alone was magical. The next door led to a potion lab that held all the equipment comfortably. The third door led to a large empty room that'd be idea for dancing. The fourth was a well organized study. While the last door – the secret door leading to the entrance room aside – let to a large bedroom with twelve huge four-posters beds, each of which could easily sleep half of them.

"Looks like we have our own house here," Daphne commented, after she finished her own inspection.

"Very comfy," Susan said simply.

"Oh, I like the indoor pool," Hermione said giddy. "And now I can show you what a sauna is like, too. I've really missed that; and during the winter in this cold castle it will be wonderful!"

"So we'll do all our reading in the sauna now?" Hannah asked.

"No!" Hermione cried out. "You don't take books to the sauna!"

"Why not?" Lisa asked. "It sounds nice to read in there. Especially now that the castle has become so cold."

Hermione calmed down a bit, "Because it is too hot. In the sauna you will always sweat. And if you take books along, you will ruin them quickly."

"Why? Daphne asked with a frown. "Even the basic package of protective spells should deal with a little sweat. It's supposed to protect them in mild rain, after all."

"Yeah, but muggle books don't have those protections; and while they might be standard in your family library, I don't think they are on our school books. And few of the others." Harry said.

Daphne looked at him in surprise, "Yeah, I believe you're right about that."

"Then we know what spell to learn first," Padma said. "I for one am looking forward to being completely warm again."

"I don't think studying in the sauna would work well," Hermione replied. "And it's not healthy to stay in too long, I believe. We could instead begin each studying session in the sauna going over current events. And perhaps another afterwards to discuss what we learned."

"We can at least try that," Megan said. "I'm not sure I like the idea of sweating just for the fun of it, but we can try it."

"How about we try it now?" Hannah asked, when her nearly-sister finished.

"I think we should take an early lunch and go in then," Harry said.

"I don't think we should go in right after eating; the food here is pretty fat, and I'm not certain how well we would handle it, especially the first couple times."

Harry nodded and frowned for a moment, then smiled and snipped with his fingers like he had seen Quirrell do, "Twinky!"

"Lord Heir calls Twinky?" the house-elf said as she appeared in an almost silent pop.

"Yes Twinky. We would like something different for lunch, is that possible?"

The house-elf nodded madly, "Of course it is being possible, Master. House-elves always hopes students sends the wishes to the kitchen; there is being so many of us, and only so much to does. We is always looking for more work."

Harry smiled at him. "Great. Hermione, if you'd recommend something suitable?"

Now Hermione frowned in thought, "We'd like something with little or no fat. Let's say some chicken soup with rice, no noodles, and a large dish of salad."

"Where does you wishes to eat?"

"Hufflepuff table," Hermione said almost immediately. At Slytherin Malfoy and others were always trying to listen to their conversation, at Gryffindor the baby Weasley always insulted at least Tracy and Daphne, and the Ravenclaws were far too curious about what they were up to. Between Harry's fame, the composition of their group, and their participation if Quirrell's class, they were always the center of attention. The Hufflepuffs on the other hand had been nothing but friendly and accepting, if sometimes a bit frightened.

The tiny elf nodded and popped away, and the group set out to the Great Hall. They ran into the Weasley twins almost at once after they left the room.

"Harry!" the cried in unison, and approached him with bright grins.

"Gred, Forge," Harry said cautiously.

"Harry, mate."

"You have to tell us how you did that!"

"Did what?" Harry asked, as the girls watched amused from the side.

The twins pulled out a blank sheet of parchment, threw a look at the girls, but then shrugged; it was eerie to watch, as their movements were exactly identical. "We solemnly swear we are up to no good," one twin said as he touched the parchment with his wand. Moments later a map of Hogwarts began to draw itself, showing the location of each and every person in the castle, Dumbledore included.

"You see, Harry, we were looking for you a while ago."

"And we couldn't find you."

"So we tried to use the map."

"But you weren't on it either."

"So we have tried to follow you for a while now."

"And succeeded just today."

"So how did you manage to evade the vaunted Marauders?" they asked together.

"We've searched for over two years and not found any room the map doesn't show," Gred continued.

"And you do it in months!"

"I'm not certain," Harry said with a smirk. "But I would guess the Marauders didn't want their headquarter revealed, should the map ever be lost."

"Headquarter?" both twins cried wide eyed.

"Yeah, my father told me how to get in."

"Can you show us?"

"Please?"

Harry thought for a moment, and then nodded. "I will show you the room now and allow you access to all their books, and in turn you won't try to get into the room unless invited by one of us, and not play pranks on us as individuals or this group. Deal?"

The twins shared a look, "Deal!"

"What about the map?"

"I mean, if your father was a Marauder it should be yours."

Harry shook his head, "You guys found it, keep for now. If we find out how they made the map you could help us making a few additional ones."

"That would be absolutely spiffing!"

"Absolutely Amazing!"

"Marvelous!"

"Of course that's only if you are worthy." Harry interrupted them with a grin.

"Worthy?" the duo asked.

"All Marauders were Animagi; their names are based on their Animagus form. I mean, you still can help creating it, but you can only take credit if you are named; and you'll need to transform for that."

The twins regarded Harry for a moment, and then looked absolutely delighted, "Animagus you say?"

"Yes he did brother."

"Imagine the havoc we can cause with the right form."

"That's why I'm not listening to you, brother dearest."

They shared a look and looked back at Harry, "We have no problem with that, mate."

"Indeed we are really looking forward to learn that."

"And to help with new maps."

"And maybe you would consider helping us with a few pranks?"

"We'll think about it," Hermione said imperiously. "For now we are heading to lunch; when we return we will show you where the Marauders housed. Alright?"

"Wonderful!" thy both cried out and hugged Harry.