Author's Note: I struggled for months to overcome writers block. This chapter is not as long as I wanted but I needed to get it out or it would never be finished. Sorry about the wait. Enjoy!

The Skirmish on the Fourth Floor

Chapter 12:

The red dust swirled around Harry in massive, billowing clouds as he trudged forward.

Surrounding him were the decaying ruins of a city, once majestic but now broken. Massive buildings that had once reached for the sky had been toppled and tossed as if a gigantic toddler had had a tantrum with his toys. Even the road he was expertly navigating was missing huge chunks, gaps where he could see magma bubbling deep below the ground.

If Harry had raised his gaze to the buildings surrounding him, he would have seen architecture unlike anything on Earth surrounding him. Buildings and shapes that would not exist, could not exist using current human technology. If he had raised his gaze even further, he would have seen stars that were not the stars on Earth, with different shapes and constellations than an astronomer could only dream of. He would maybe have seen the passing trail of a starship as it crossed through this solar system.

But Harry did not look up.

He had been here before, many times when he was a boy. He had seen this city in its prime, had walked its streets and alleys. Watched as its citizens had gone about their life, blissfully unaware of what was going to befall. The air had been sweet and full of the smell of flowers back then. Now it only smelled like ash and failure.

He shook himself out of his memories. Titan was a dead world, and it was not coming back. He was only here to make sure no one else had to suffer this way.

He, of course, sensed the presence of the Stonekeeper long before he saw him. Even without the Soul Stone, it would have been child's play to sense the energy that rolled in waves off of the man and the stone that he carried around his neck.

He was sitting all alone, completely exposed on the steps of what had once been the government plaza.

Harry allowed a small smile to flicker across his huge, scarred face. He may as well his entrance impressive…

He stepped through the swirling portal and regarded the wizard with contempt.

The other man sighed and slowly got to his feet, his long red cloak shimmering around him.

The man fixed him with a long glare. "Oh yeah, you look much more like a Thanos."

Harry awoke with a gasp, his eyes darting wildly. He threw back his curtains and quickly did a visual sweep of the room. It was early morning, and the dorm was dark and quiet. The snores of the other boys behind their curtains, especially Ron, reassured him that he was indeed, safe in his Hogwarts dorm.

He fell backwards into his pillow with a tired groan and went to rub his eyes only to find his right hand clutched around the Time Stone with its soft green glow.

Harry let out another groan, this time of frustration. This was the third night in a row that he had these vivid dreams and woke up holding the stone. He was positive that he had wrapped it in an old school robe and placed it in the bottom of his trunk before bed, but here it was. Somehow, he was unsurprised to find that the truck was still locked and sealed.

Without conscious thought, he slipped the stone into the front pocket of his night shirt where it glowed brightly next to his heart.

As he tried to make himself more comfortable, he cast his thoughts back to his most recent nightmare. Although calling it a nightmare may be wrong…

Harry was no stranger to nightmares. He had had them his whole life. When he was younger, they had mostly been formless flashes of green light accompanied by maniacal laughter. After his uncle had torn the front door off of his cupboard when he was little, the nightmares had shifted to heavily feature large drunk men coming at him with weapons. After he arrived at Hogwarts, his dreams often seemed prophetic, showing him information he needed to know about Voldemort or whatever danger was going on.

The dreams he had before were fuzzier, almost distant. As if he had simply been along for the ride with someone else. These dreams were different. He had been the figure walking through the dusty ruins of a dead world. They were clearer, somehow sharper than any dream he had ever had.

It was almost as if they weren't dreams but someone else's memories.

It had been three days since Harry had limped his way out of the Forbidden Forest after finding the Time Stone.

Despite his bruises and dislocated shoulder, he had somehow managed to throw his cloak over himself and blend into the crowd of students returning from Hogsmeade and make his way to the common room without someone dragging him to the hospital wing.

Thankfully, the circular room had been mostly empty except for the first and second years who were too busy with homework or games to notice him.

He had staggered up the stairs and had barely managed to close his curtains before he collapsed into a deadman's sleep, hand still clutched around the Time Stone.

He had slept until dinner where he had been roughly shaken awake by an excited looking Ron, bearing an arm load of sweets who had clearly just gotten back from Hogsmeade. As soon as he saw that Harry was awake, he dumped the entire load of candy in Harry's lap and proceeded to try to tell him everything that he had done in Hogsmeade in a very Hermione-ish rapid fire manner. He talked about everything from the different sweets in Honeydukes to different kind of stink bombs at Zonkos so fast, that it was a wonder he did not pass out from lack of air.

Harry had tried his best to listen but had discovered he had a much more pressing matter to attend to. While he had slept, his still separated shoulder had swollen to twice its usual size and started to turn a rather nasty shade of purple and yellow. It was now almost impossible to move it without a jolt of pain nearly taking him off his feet. Luckily, he had still been wearing his clothes from earlier, but it was only a matter of time before Ron, or worse Hermione, found out and demanded an explanation.

"... And then me and Hermione went to this really old building called the Shrieking Shack! Did you know it's supposed to be…" He cut Ron off in midsentence with an apologetic glance. "Sorry mate, I would love to hear about it at dinner, but I need a shower. I was running Quidditch drills all afternoon and I reek. I'll meet you guys down there." He gave a theatrical sniff of his armpit and grimaced to sell his point.

Ron looked slightly put out at being interrupted in his rant, but the mention of food perked him right back up. He broke into a grin. "Yeah, I wasn't going to mention anything, but you really do smell mate. I'll go save you a seat. I heard from Sheamus that they have roast and Shepheard's pie tonight!"

With his new mission in mind, Ron spun and marched down the stairs. Before the door closed, Harry heard him loudly tell a waiting Hermione that Harry would meet them downstairs.

Alone once again, Harry managed to haul himself out of bed. His shoulder sent a bolt of agony down his arm, so he had had to quickly bite down on his pillow to stifle a scream. He hid the stone in a pair of his uncle's old socks next to his sneakoscope in his trunk and locked it.

Once he was mobile, he quickly staggered up the stairs and stopped outside the one place where it was known that someone could get quick medical care in the tower without involving the Hospital Wing: The Twin's room.

He knocked and sighed with relief when George opened the door. "Ahh young Harrykins, what brings you to our humble abode?" "I need help George. Can I come in?" George smirked and stepped aside, allowing Harry to enter the twin of his dorm room two floors below. Fred was sitting on his bed with an identical smirk. Otherwise the room was empty.

"Everyone needs something young seeker. What is in it for us?"

Luckily, he knew exactly what they wanted. "I'll be your test subject for any experiment you want."

The twins huddled together and held a brief conference. "We are rather busy right now, it is almost dinnertime, and you sound rather desperate Harrykins. We want a free pass for experiments until Christmas."

"5 experiments" Harry countered

"Make it three and you have to help us set up a prank of our choosing."

"Deal" He shook his good hand with both of them. He sat down on Lee Jordan's bed and faced the pair of them

"Now that payment has been decided, what brings you to our office today Mr. Potter? Need pranking advice?" One of them said

"Obtaining something that isn't strictly speaking legal?" the other twin chimed in.

"Fire Whiskey?"

"Drugs?"

"Girl trouble?" they spoke in unison.

"No, nothing like that. I had a minor accident that I can't fix myself." With a great effort, Harry shrugged off his shirt to expose his swollen shoulder.

In an instant, the twins were surrounding him with an uncharacteristic expression of seriousness on their faces.

"Harry, what happened?"

He launched into the prepared excuse he had created. "I was running through some drills on the pitch this afternoon when everyone was in Hogsmeade and lost track of the snitch. When I was diving for it, I banked too hard and slipped off my broom 20 feet in the air. I didn't go to Pomfrey because she would have overreacted and probably kept from me from practice…" He trailed off.

The twins nodded to each other, and one shot out of the door towards the common room. The other tried to ease Harry back on to some pillows and got him a glass of water from the sink. They waited in silence.

It was only a few minutes later that the voice of Angelina sounded from outside the door. "I swear to Merlin George, if this is some new attempt to get into my knickers, you won't have a…"

She stopped abruptly upon seeing Harry. She whirled upon the twins with fury in her eyes.

"What the bloody hell did you two do to him? Need I remind you that we have a match in less than three weeks? Wood will have your balls mounted on a board when he finds out…"

Harry cut her off. "It's my fault actually." He told her the quidditch excuse he had made up and her eyes softened. She reached out and rubbed his head.

"You're just lucky that I had an injury like that a few times. Pomfrey taught me the spell I needed to fix it up so she wouldn't have to do it every time. Next time, take someone with you when you go to practice, yeah? No matter how good you are, Quidditch is dangerous."

Harry nodded and Angelina pulled out her wand. "Right, now this isn't going to feel good. Guys give him something to bite down on."

One of the twins handed him a pillow and he bit down as instructed.

Angelina sighed. "Episkey" she incanted.

Harry let out a howl of pain into his pillow as his shoulder was forcibly reset by a pair of invisible hands. Almost as quickly as it began, a wash of relief overtook his as his shoulder returned to its proper place.

Angelina cast another charm to reduce the swelling and gave him a stern look. "This is a onetime deal; do you hear me? Next time something like this happens, drag your arse to Pomfrey. Got it?" He nodded and she gave him a sweet smile and a kiss on the forehead. Angelina fixed Fred and George with a haughty look and swept out of the room.

"Remember mate, you owe us 4 experiments."

"Wait" Harry protested, "I thought it was three?"

"We added one in return for us not telling Hermione about this little incident." The pair of them gave a collective chuckle and left Harry alone in the room.

The next few days were surprisingly normal for life in a magical boarding school.

Despite waiting for the proverbial hammer to drop on him, Harry was able to attend his classes without a single person being aware of his most recent adventure. The third years continued deepening their magical education in their various subjects.

In Transfiguration, they continued to work towards turning living animals into larger and more elaborate objects. Harry surprised himself by turning his canary into a gilded dinner plate faster than anyone except Hermione. This had earned him a rare smile from McGonagall and 5 points.

In Defense, Professor Lupin continued to take them through the classes of dangerous magical predators. He started a new series of lessons on Redcaps. These were a carnivorous imp like creature that inhabited old battlefields, ritual sites, or anywhere where a large amount of blood had been spilled. The class was split into pairs and each given a caged Redcap and taught to identify defining characteristics of the species, so they never ran into one unprepared.

In Quidditch, Wood entered a new stage of mania increasing practice to four nights a week. He tried to make it six nights before Katie and the other chasers took their wands to him and drug him into the locker rooms for "negotiations." When they came out ten minutes later, Wood was walking with a noticeable limp and had a newly blackened eye when he told the rest of the team that they would stay practicing four nights a week.

Despite his frantically busy schedule, and the small mountain of homework he was receiving every week, Harry was happy. Life was finally a little normal for him, and he felt like he could finally breath. The overwhelming urge to find out more information about the stones and Slytherin's involvement with them had been temporally sated and Harry could almost pretend he was just a normal kid going to school for a few days.

And yet in the life of Harry Potter, nothing stays simple for long.

Four days after he came out of the Forbidden Forest, Harry was heading up to his dorm after the final class of the day to drop off his books and grab his Quidditch gear when he noticed that someone had been in his things. The intruder had not bothered to be subtle about it.

The curtains on his bed, which he always left closed, were wide open. The sheets on his bed were torn off and bunched on the floor. His trunk, which he had double checked had been locked before he left that morning, was now sitting open with his things strewn about the floor.

He felt his blood freeze as he took in the scene. Harry lunged for his trunk and began frantically digging for the folded pair of socks that held the Time Stone. He let out a great sigh of relief as he found it right where he had left it, sitting underneath an old textbook. He fished out the still glowing stone and held it tightly in his hand, willing his heart to slow.

Clearly, leaving an all-powerful object sitting unattended in an unlocked room was a bad idea. Anyone could get to his trunk, and it was a miracle that this mystery intruder had not stumbled upon the stone or his invisibility cloak. He was not going to let it out of his sight if he could help it. Harry took an old leather pouch that had once contained potion ingredients and transfigured an old, snapped trainer lace into a flexible cord that he threaded through the pouch. He carefully placed the Time Stone inside and hung this pouch under his shirt where it hung next to his heart. He could feel it pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat as he closed his trunk with a snap.

The next morning, Harry and Ron strolled into the Great Hall for breakfast and found a scene of disarray.

The usual mass of owls were descending with their loads of mail, but they held an unusual number of copies of the Daily Prophet. Huge clumps of students were gathered around each person student that had a paper, with students from different houses gathering at each other's tables. Even at the high table, the professors were having an animated discussion under a silencing charm. Snape gestured angrily at the paper only for McGonagall to cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"What's going on mate?" Ron turned to say to Harry, but he was already gone, speeding off between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables to the find Hermione, who he was sure already had a paper.

He wasn't disappointed. In fact she had two papers spread next to each other on the table. Her head was swiveling between the two as if she was checking to see if there were any differences between them.

SIRUS BLACK SPOTTED IN DUFFTOWN! HOGWARTS HIS GOAL? Blared the headline. The rest of the front page was occupied by a blurry photograph that looked like it had come from the security camera outside a convenience store. The editor of the prophet had enchanted the originally muggle photograph to move. A skeletal looking man with wild hair was rummaging in a garbage can on the side of a dingy looking building. Suddenly he looked up and spotted the camera. A look of panic crossed his face and he darted behind the building and out of sight.

Harry pulled the paper towards him and read the rest of the article with a sense of dread pooling in his stomach.

Infamous mass murderer Sirius Black has been located! Black, the only person to ever escape from Azkaban prison, was spotted in Dufftown, Scotland outside of a muggle store. This is the first time Black has been spotted since he escaped, and the location of the sighting is a concern. As our readers are aware. Dufftown is only a mere thirty miles from Hogwarts School, where the nation's children are currently in the middle of their fall term. Is he heading to threaten our children?

Minster Fudge's office provided the following statement, "We are doing everything in our power to capture Black and prevent a tragedy. We have placed extra security around Hogwarts including an increased amount of Dementors. Aurors are patrolling every village between Dufftown and Hogsmeade to try to catch Black."

When pressed for a comment Minister Fudge himself had this to say: "Let me state in the clearest terms to the people of Britain. My ministry will catch this man and our society will be able to get back to normal in time for the world cup next summer."

Of all of the reasons for Black to go to Hogwarts, the most interesting, in this reporter's humble opinion, is the fact that Harry Potter is currently a third-year student. Could Black be seeking revenge upon The Boy Who Lived for the downfall of his master when Potter was an infant? Only time will tell…

From there, the article descended into a mess of speculation and guesswork. Harry looked up and blinked. Seeing his own name at the end of the article had been a punch in the gut. Heads all over the hall were swiveling to look at him, their eyes pinning him in place with their speculation. A pregnant silence enveloped the hall.

And then it was over. Around the hall, the small groups were slowly starting to disperse; the lure of news about an escaped mass murderer no longer able to overcome the lure of breakfast. Talk of escaped criminals began to fade into normal school gossip about homework and crushes and slowly Harry felt as if he could breathe again for the moment.

Hermione was looking at him with wordless sympathy and passed him a plate of toast. Ron had a hand clamped on his shoulder. He gave them a thin, tight smile and tried to stomach his suddenly tasteless breakfast. He wasn't very successful.

The two of them flanked him like guardians throughout the rest of breakfast, wordlessly staring down those students brave enough to try to approach him. And there were several, especially from Ravenclaw and Slytherin, who attempted to shout questions at Harry from across the hall. Even Malfoy tried to get into the act, only to find his plate of eggs explode into his face. Hermione sat back with a self-satisfied smirk on her face, and if any of her fellow Gryffindor's saw her wand disappear back into her robes underneath the table, they were smart enough not to say anything.

After an interminable meal, students finally began to break to go to their morning classes. Harry was out of his seat like a shot, weaving in and out the crowd. He tried to blend into the crowd but was finding it difficult. Hogwarts students seemed to have a bloodhound's ability to find Harry wherever he went

A gaggle of sixth year Ravenclaws tromped by. The leader of the group whispered loudly in Harry's direction "My father says it's a shame that Black didn't finish him off last time. 'Could have saved us all a lot of trouble if he had murdered the whole lot of Potter's' he says." There was a lot of giggling and shoving as the small group tired to see if Harry had heard them. When he gave no reaction, they slinked off looking pleased with themselves. It was only when they were gone that Harry was able to unclench his hand, which had gone white knuckled around his wand.

Behind him, a loud bang and several flashes of light erupted out of the entrance hall. A short scream of pain was followed by another flash. As the entire corridor stopped to watch, Ron shot around the corner at full speed followed quickly by Hermione. "Wha…?" was all he could say before they reached him. The pair didn't even stop, simply grabbing Harry by the shoulders and marched him along quickly.

They were moving so fast that it was only when they stopped in an empty corridor on the fourth floor that Harry realized something was different about Ron.

"Ron? Since when have you had… scales? And a tail?" Indeed, Ron looked like a cross between a lizard and a human. Thick scales had grown up his arms and neck in large patches and a pair of glowing yellow eyes had replaced his normal brown ones. A large green tail had erupted out of his trousers and dragged along behind them.

The other boy grimaced in pain. "Malfoy got me with one of his precious family hexes."

"Malfoy?" Harry questioned.

"Yeah, he was waiting outside the Great Hall to ambush you with that article. You had already left so he tried to get back at what for us for what Hermione did to him at breakfast. Fred and George were there so it got out hand on both sides. But luckily we gave as good as we got."

He turned to Hermione for elaboration, only to cringe back at the look of absolute fury that was written on her face and the abuse that was spilling out of her mouth. Or at least it would have been if she hadn't been silenced and trying to communicate at them for the past several minutes. Harry quickly pulled out his wand and unsilenced her.

Now fully able to speak, Hermione took a deep breath and let out a tirade that he would later swear shook the walls. "HOW DARE THAT FOWL, LOTHESOME LITLE SNAKE SILENCE ME. I WILL TAKE THAT STUPID TIE OF HIS, SHOVE IT IN ONE END, AND PULL IT OUT THE OTHER TO FLOSS HIM WITH IT WHILE HE IS STILL WEARING IT. JUST TO SHOW HIM WHAT MUDBLOODS CAN DO." She devolved into a series of muttered threats and curses, each more passionately violently and horrifying than the last.

Harry had never seen her this upset, not even when he had accidently set fire to her notes last year during charms. He turned to Ron for help, only to see the boy becoming more like a lizard by the second. His neck had elongated, and he now possessed a long-forked tongue. He had dropped to all fours and was attempting to crawl up the wall.

Before Harry could properly process either of these problems or try to move towards the hospital wing, a loud yell came up from behind him. "OI WEASEL, MUDBLOOD. WE AREN'T DONE YET." Malfoy clomped around the corner and suddenly Harry remembered Ron saying that they had gotten Malfoy back. Instead of legs, the blonde Slytherin now had a pair of goat legs and hooves sticking out of his pants. A pair of horns was curling out of blonde hair. Close behind him were Crabb and Goyle but Harry could no longer tell which one was which. The one to the left of Malfoy had hair sprouting out of every piece of exposed skin while the one on the right appeared to be slowly turning to wood.

The odd trio blocked the end of the corridor and advanced on them with wands drawn. A look of murderous fury was etched on Malfoy's face. "Hello Potter" he sneered in a cold voice. "You missed quite a show this morning."

Hermione materialized next to him. "A SHOW? You think this is funny? Those horrible things you said about Harry and his parents? About Muggleborns? I knew you were pathetic and racist Malfoy, but I never thought you would stoop that low. You're a sad little boy, parroting the bigotry that he had heard Mommy and Daddy spouting at the dinner table. Do you still need them to tuck you in and wipe your arse for you?"

Harry had no idea what Malfoy had actually said to Hermione in the Entrance Hall, but he had clearly crossed some sort of line. She was apoplectic with rage.

Malfoy's mocking sneer faded into something grim and tight. "Funny Granger, I'll remember that one. Pity you won't." Then without warning, without even so much as blinking he fired a muttered curse at her at point blank range.

Something appeared in Harry's hand and a great weight seemed to hit his chest. Time seemed to slow down.

Harry could see the pale purple spell begin to blossom from the end of Malfoy's wand, could see Hermione starting to raise her own wand, but she would never get a spell off in time. Harry wasn't close enough to knock her out of the way, nor did he have anything to intercept the spell with. He briefly considered throwing his wand or himself in front of it, but the spell would get there before he could do anything. Harry let out a loud yell as he ran at Hermione…

Only for the scream to die in his throat. The spell hadn't yet finished emerging from the end of Malfoy's wand nor had Hermione's gotten any higher, but he had crossed the whole corridor to stand next to his friend.

Time wasn't seeming to move slower, it was actually moving at a snail's pace

He looked down to see the green of the Time Stone peaking out from between his fingers. Even though he was absolutely sure he hadn't been holding it a minute ago.

Whatever, Harry decided. That was a problem for another time. He had bigger fish to fry right now.

He safely moved Hermione and Ron, who by now had almost fully become a gecko, out of the way of Malfoy's spell by placing them in an unused classroom. He pulled the door shut behind them.

He then dragged a nearby suit of armor forward to where Hermione had been standing and raised it's shield into the path of the unknown spell. Then, for fun, Harry gave Crabbe and Goyle a light punch in the jaw and gave Malfoy the hard kick that he had always so desperately wanted to.

He then moved safely to one side of the corridor and tried to focus on the stone in his hand, to make time faster. For a brief second nothing happened and then, almost begrudgingly, Harry felt the weight recede and time resumed. Suddenly, he was hit by a massive wave of fatigue that made merely standing up a herculean task.

And then everything seemed to happen at once.

The door to the classroom shattered from the force of being pulled shut. Huge cracks appeared in the wall around the door and some of the masonry began to fall.

Malfoy's spell collided with the suit of armor which exploded into a shower of broken metal shrapnel and flame, which rained down upon Crabbe and Goyle had been standing. The pair of boys had been blown backwards by the sheer force of Harry's single punch, flying backwards, and colliding with the far wall, teeth, and blood raining down in their wake.

Malfoy himself faired no better. Harry's kick had shattered Malfoy's knee like a bag of dried sticks being hit with a hammer. The blonde Slytherin collapsed to the floor, cradling his knee, and screaming like a banshee, his shattered limb spraying viscera all over the walls, Hermione, who had just raced back into the corridor, and Harry himself.

Having emerged from their safe haven, Hermione, and the giant man-sized lizard that was once Ron, simply stared at the chaos.

And then, with Harry's luck continuing to hold, Professor Snape, attracted by the noise, flapped around the corner only to stop dead at what he saw: A corridor that looked as if it had been through a riot, two unconscious Slytherins, one of whom was made of wood, another who was clutching a shattered limb, an exploded and flaming suit of armor, a giant lizard, and two shell shocked Gryffindors covered in the blood of his favorite student.

"Well shit" Harry said