"Come on Harry, let's go already! We don't want to be late for the train." Daphne called to him, standing in the door of his bedroom.

"I am just putting away my books and my quills, then I will be ready to go." Harry answered.

"This is last year all over again, then you made me nearly miss the train as well. Do you remember? Maybe I should just put you in the bird cage this time and be done with it." Daphne smirked.

Harry grinned, "Yes, or maybe we could fly over there, like I did last time. Shall I fetch a broom for you?"

Smiling they both took their trunks and made their way to the fireplace. Harry would surely miss the house, that in the short period that he lived here had truly become his home. But he could not wait to go back to Hogwarts, he knew Daphne felt the same, it had been a half year since they had both unexpectedly left the school, and they would both return in much different circumstances.

When Harry and Daphne had first gone to their parents to suggest helping the aurors find the horcruxes, they had been quite reluctant, they wanted to keep the children safe. But finally they had agreed to at least send a message to Amelia Bones with the description and approximate location of the wooden shack that Harry thought contained a horcrux. At first they had received a polite thank you from the head of the DMLE, but a week later an enthusiastic auror team had contacted them back. They head indeed found a horcrux in the suggested location, an old ring that contained a piece of the soul of the dark wizard.

This had been the beginning of an intense couple of months. Despite their efforts, the team of unspeakables had not been able to find a way to locate the horcruxes over a large distance. Learning that Harry was able to do so, had been a very interesting development for them. Together with them, the aurors and their parents, they had discussed to find a way of Harry assisting in finding the horcruxes, while ensuring his safety.

As a crow, Harry was able to fly a complete day without rest while covering large distances. No auror could be expected to spend a complete day on a broom following him around. In the end they had settled on Daphne maintaining contact with Harry, using their mental connection, while he was flying around as 'Dread'. A team of aurors with brooms was standby at all time to apparate to his aid if he was in trouble or if he thought he found something.

Their parents were also adamant that they would keep up their education, so they settled on doing their school work during the week. While their weekends went to Harry flying around with Daphne updating the auror team and their nervous parents on his location and condition. Luckily Daphne was now able to keep some connection to him without the need for constant meditation. Still Harry could feel the doubt of Cyrus and Daisy Greengrass when they had taken the first attempt. Luckily he had been able to locate another horcrux on the very first weekend. He had sensed something in a nearby large manor that he later learned belonged to the Malfoy family.

According to Amelia, it would normally have been difficult for her to obtain a search warrant for this place, especially on such a flimsy suspicion as the feeling of a bird. But Lucius Malfoy had already been an important suspect of her, as auror observing teams had seen suspicious activities around the man. When she had obtained a warrant, the unspeakables had been able to confirm Harry's observations and ended up finding a book that was a cursed diary.

The next two weekends had not shown further results, but the weekend after that Harry had been able to point the aurors to an old, abandoned house in the middle of London that belonged to the black family. There they had found a cursed locket that had belonged to Salazar Slytherin himself!

The following location had been in London again, when Harry had indicated an odd feeling coming from Gringots, the wizarding bank. The amount of magic and magical objects that were kept in such a place, made it very difficult for him to be sure, but he had a suspicion. It was a mark of trust and respect from Amelia Bones when she did not shy away from the difficult negotiations with the Goblins to allow them access in the bank to find the Horcrux there. She risked her reputation, and maybe even the 17th Goblin uprising, with her requests. But when the Goblins had finally allowed Harry and an unspeakable in the bank, they had been able to indicate a vault which supposedly contained the next horcrux. After another hefty negotiation with the goblins, the aurors had been allowed access in the vault and had found an old cup from Helga Huffelpuf.

The last horcrux which Harry had been able to find had been the most dangerous one for him personally. It had been a warm summer day when deep in the woods of Wales he had come across a huge snake that had tried to attack him. Harry had been able to take to the air and Daphne had warned the aurors immediately, who had appareted over and captured the creature that had been you-know-who's old familiar.

After that his parents had become wary of any further searches and requested that they would stop their search, but to be quite honest, Harry thought that he would not be able to find anything else. When he flew in the air he could not sense any other places calling to him like that. Still, Croaker, who was the head of the unspeakables, and Amelia were sure that they still missed a final horcrux. Even though they conceded any piece of soul that was not accounted for could only be very small. Every piece that they had located had been destructed a soon as possible by casting fiendfire in a magically contained field and Croaker was certain that the gradual destruction of the dark Lord's soul had severely weakened whatever remained of him.

In the end all of Daphne's and Harry's hard work had been rewarded, when their parents announced that they considered the situation safe enough for them to attend Hogwarts again. It had helped that Dumbledore had retired from his old post as Headmaster of Hogwarts. Privately Amelia had told them that the old wizard had come under scrutiny for the information he had held back from her department over the years regarding the dark wizard. Cyrus had also informed her of the legimency that he had Daphne subjected to. Together they had used their political influence, which had grown considerably over the last months, to discretely force Dumbledore to step down. Minerva McGonagall had been named the new Headmistress of the magical school.

Harry had received an additional reward, when he had received a large present from the ministry on his birthday. The auror department together with the unspeakables had all pooled together to give him a nimbus 2001, the latest and best broom on the market. Daphne and Tracey, who had also joined for his birthday party, had joked that if he would take up Quidditch, maybe something useful would finally come from all this flying he had been doing.

When they arrived at the fire place, they were joined by the rest of the family. Astoria, who would be beginning at Hogwarts this year, could barely contain her excitement as she hugged her new big brother. "Can you believe that the moment is finally there?" she asked him excited "Tonight we will both be sorted, I can hardly wait any longer!"

Harry could only grin even more as he hugged the girl back. Cyrus tossed floo powder in the fire place and they made their way over to King's Cross station. Together with his new family, Harry stepped into the flames, towards this new chapter of his life. He was sure it would be a very happy and exciting one. He spend only a brief moment of thought to the dark wizard that was still lurking somewhere in the shadows, but why think of him any longer? Harry was done with darkness.

Voldemort had to admit that he had suffered some setbacks over the last months. After the escape from the body in the interrogation room, he had been looking in his wraith form for a new vessel to possess. He had stumbled upon Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet, that had an impressionable mind and would have a lot of useful contacts for him to use. Slowly but surely he had been influencing her by probing her dreams and bending her to his will.

But when the moment had come to truly possess her and take up residence on the woman's head, he had felt a sudden, considerable drain on his energy and power. He had been forced to leave his target to regain his strength.

This had happened again and again, every time he was close to possessing someone, a similar drain had put an end to his attempts and he had to, momentarily of course, delay his ambitions and look for a new being that he could control.

He had finally succeeded in possessing something, even though he had to admit that it was rather modest. Controlling this chicken which he had found on a farm was only required while he regained his strength. Only when he was back to his former self, he would be able to possess a wizard safely, the risk being that the mind he was trying to overcome would instead take over him.

No, this chicken would have to suffice for the moment. When he rose to power he would just have to come up with a convincing story for this period. That he had been delving into the mysteries of the essence of magic while wandering around in the black forest or something like that. Then he would be able to gather his followers again and overcome his foes, one by one.

While he was gathering his strength and biding his time, he would just have to be content with destroying the enemies that were present right now. You would not believe how many of them were around him all the time. See, there was one going again! He quickly forced the chicken to peck up the worm that was crawling around in the dirt. Yes, very good dumb bird, swallow that enemy and grow strong! Now, scratch around with our mighty claws, aha, there is something again, a snail! Attack it! Destroy it!

His thoughts were disturbed by the arrival of the farmer, that stupid, traitorous muggle would be one of the first ones he murdered when he rose to power. And of course the despicable human was helping the enemy! See? He was pouring grain into their pen, luckily he had gathered quite the following amongst the other chickens already. Attack comrades, attack! Together with the other birds they rained their terror down on the grain, pecking up and destroying every seed one at the time. Soon, very soon he would be dominating the world once again! I am Lord Voldemort, despair and suffer!

The end

Thank you all for reading my story, I hope you enjoyed it. I realise that for some this ending might feel rushed and might have expected a build-up of many years towards the destruction of the horcruxes and finally Voldemort. But it was never my intention to describe seven years of Hogwarts education. I believe that it would become a little tedious, there is only so much a crow can do before it becomes repetitive. Also I believe that the main character development for Harry was completed and I think a story should move characters forward.

Finally I believe that a good story should have an ending.

Again thanks for sticking with me until that ending, the feedback which I received was highly appreciated and the experience was a positive one for me. I have an idea for a different story which would be for Harry and the gang when they are a little order and which would be a little grimmer. But I am not yet certain that I will go for it, it has to swim around in my head a bit longer.

Best regards,

Chuckling Goose