"Lord Potter,

I am pleased to welcome you back for your third year of instruction at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed in this letter and the package it comes with are

1. Your grades for the previous year's tests.

2. The special shield badge given to students who have given special services to the school.

3. Your third year booklist.

- Minerva McGonagall. Headmistress"

Harry put aside the slender cloth wrapped box that came tied to this Hogwarts letter and picked up his grades to read; Hermione would expect a full report. If she didn't just barge through his floo, which was likely. It had been nearly 2 months since they had last seen each other. Looking down at the parchment slip he was very pleased with his placing.

"Lord Potter,

Congratulations on passing your second year at Hogwarts! The final grades for the year are:

- Transfiguration - 105%

- Charms - 125%

- History of Magic - 100%

- Potions - 100%*

- Astronomy - 100%

- Herbology - 125%

- Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA) - 150%*

*Special note - Harry James Potter displays a natural aptitude for Potions and passed a much harder final. While my class does not give extra credit to raise his percentile above a perfect score, he is currently noted to be a full year ahead of his peers academically.

- S. Snape

Lord Potter shows strong applicable skills in the subject of (DADA), even shining against substandard teaching methods.

- M. McGonagall

Your class ranking is #1.B"

Harry was ecstatic; he did what he set out to do and aced his courses with merits and got to the top of the class. He was slightly confused by the B, though. He finally had proof he was living up to his potential and Smara's and Hermione's expectations of him. With his grades quickly getting stuck to his message board he put up in his sitting room, he picked up his book and supplies list.

"Lord Potter will need the following:

-At least five sets of wizards' robes. (Black)

-under robe set (shirt, pants. Must be black, white, or house colors

-Two wizard pointed hats for day wear.

(Please note that while black is the standard, you can accessorize in your house colors.)

-One pair of dragonhide gloves (or similar).

-At least one pair of black shoes and a pair of boots.

-One pewter cauldron (standard size 3).

-One stone cauldron (standard size 5).

-One set of glass or crystal phials and a stirring set.

The required book list for Harry James Potter is as follows

-The standard book of spells grade 3 by Miranda Goshawk

-Intermediate Transfiguration by Minerva McGonagall

-Magical drafts and potions by Arsenius Jigger

-A history of magic by Mathilde Bagshot

-The essential defense against the dark arts by Arsenius Jigger

-Ancient runes made easy by laurenzoo

-The rune dictionary by "merge" publications

-A new theory of numerology by Lukas Karuzos.

-On becoming an alchemist a guide forth modern magician by Catherine MacCoun.

"I Guess that means I qualified for the classes I wanted" Harry quited happily.

"You did well, Icniuhtli. You should feel pride" Harry heard from his mind.

A recent development In his bond with Smara from their training with the feathered serpent and jaguar warriors, was that they could now speak through their bond as long they were no more than five hundred yards from each other. It is a connection that is now omnipresent and they had to learn to control and shut it off for their own sanity as on top of speaking they hear each other's inner thoughts and while Harry had it easy, Smara's subconscious thoughts were all geared towards survival. Find food to eat, water to drink, and find a warm place to bask in the sun. It was easy for Harry to tune out. Smara however knocked Harry unconscious the first time they completed the link, Her mind was flooded with a million or more tiny impressions that no human was even aware of, overshadowed by an "overwhelming need to rut something until you collapse in exhaustion." as Smara said when she explained why she knocked him out. She then embarrassed him further by congratulating him on finally entering puberty.

"I do feel pride, I'm quite pleased with myself-" Just then Harry was cut off by a bushy haired brown missile that wrapped its arms around him and knocked him and his chair sideways onto the ground. Wrapping his arms around the precious cargo that was now attached to his shoulder. This of course resulted in him landing roughly and hitting the floor hard with an audible crack. Not that she cared or minded at all.

"Are you ok Hermione?"

"Of course I am, shouldn't I be asking you that? That crack sounded painful." Hermione asked. Just then another voice he hadn't expected sounded.

"Leave it to you, Granger, to break him before we could even get started killing him for abandoning us for. two. months! With not even a letter to say you were okay! Do you have any idea how worried we were! How worried I was? when I heard that not even Hermione knew where you were I thought some rogue death-eater had kidnapped you! Especially when-"

"No! He doesn't know yet!" Countered Hermione.

"Know what Hermione?" He looked over at Daphne who blushed and looked away. "Know what?

"Harry.. oh, dear, how do I say this? Do you know Fred and George found an old parchment? One linked to your dad somehow?"

"Yea? I've actually been looking around trying to find mention of it since I got back. I promised I would." Replied Harry.

"Well you don't need to worry about that. They found out what it is and how it works. Another marauder is working at Hogwarts and when the twins found out they asked him what it was.

When they activated it, the twins, Ron, and the new Professor were there. And according to Ron when I went to visit him, when Professor Lupin gave the password a map activated. And stabbers started to freak out and for good reason. That map is a marvel of magic Harry. It shows the names and locations of every human being in the castle and grounds. But Lupin and the Weasleys weren't the only people there. There was another man on top of where Ron was standing. Harry it was-"

"Peter Petigrew." finished Daphne after it seemed Hermione couldn't go on. The rat quickly attacked according to Fred. He bit Ron and leapt from his hand. And then turned into a human. A human with a wand. He attacked them. No one died thank the gods. But Ron had his legs crushed by the table they were standing around when Pettigrew banished it, Fred was fine George was hit with a reductor curse. But it seems that Petigrew is a singularly incompetent wizard as all it did was throw George a few feet and break most of his bones. Lupin gave chase but lost him when the rat dove into some pipes." Explained Daphne.

Smara hissed in anger. " I knew there was something wrong with that rat! I could never place the taste. Of course he smelled more rat than man!"

Harry was in shock to hear that so much had happened while he was away and he could do nothing to help, cut him to the quick.

"Is everyo-" Harry started before Hermione cut him off.

"Everyone is fine Harry. they're all out of St Mungo's now, as there were no lasting injuries. But the ministry suspects that Pettigrew is still in the area and Fudge has — well." Hermione said before Daphne finished.

"Fudge is being an obtuse fool. He has come out and said that he will be stationing DEMENTORS around the castle. For "the protection of the next generation of wizards and witches". Total shite those things will attack a student the first chance they get. Kids. Children the younger the better are like CANDY to those creatures." Daphne said with uncharacteristic anger and most surprisingly she swore. Daphne was usually the one with Hermione opposing the use of such language.

"Dementors. I've heard that before. But where?" And Harry stood racking his brain. "Toppy!" And the elf popped in "you called master? I is not being able to stay long, Dobby is still quite delicate, sir."

"Oh no. Sorry toppy, go back , I just remembered something." and the elf popped out just as quickly as he came.

"When Toppy took me to Godric's Hollow to visit my parents' grave, he very quickly grabbed me before we found the grave site and popped me away saying someone who reeked of dementors was approaching us. When I asked him he just said they were evil."

"He's not wrong!" Said Hermione. "Dementors are among the most foul creatures to exist in this world. Unnatural abominations that delight in despair and hopelessness and devour a person's every happy memory they have. If given the chance Dementors will latch their jaws on a victim and feast on their very soul

They ARE evil Harry. And for Fudge to willingly subject Children to them in the name of our Protection!" Hermione was once again unable to finish her thought but this time out of rage.

"That's too stupid, even for him. I guarantee he's being paid off by someone to do this. My father agrees but he doesn't know who, or why." Daphne explained.

"Soooo, why risk it then? Asked Harry.

"Because dementors exclusively go after humans. if the dementors sense anything like a human near them that's not supposed to be they will attack." his buck toothed friend supplied. "If Petigrew does stick around, which I don't think he will, those things know to look for a subhuman rat. They'd find him." Said Hermione sadly but firmly.

Hermione stepped up to Harry calmly and wrapped him in a gentle hug. "I missed you" she mumbled into his shirt. "We haven't gone that long in between talking ever. We have to find a way to talk between long distances and magical interference, And you must tell us what you've been doing over in Mexico!

And oh my, you've tanned!" Said Hermione blushing.

Harry laughed and examined the dark skin on his arms. "Yea Mr Chemalli and the king were slave drivers. Had me and Smara doing laps every morning and night in the badlands. But before that did either of you see the daily profit this morning?" After both shook their heads Harry picked up the paper and started to read the headline.

"Nicolas Flammel and wife murdered.

This morning after an explosion rocked the quiet streets of Paris' magical quarter, French aurors found the bodies of the famed alchemist and longtime wife in the rubble. Examinations of the bodies lead the investigators to suspect murder. The couple's famous alchemy lab was pillaged and several expensive artifacts were taken. No readable magical signatures were found."

Harry looked at the two girls waiting for them to connect the dots as he did.

"Dumbledore?" Hermione said in question.

"That was my assumption. But why he killed them I have no idea after the events with Quirrelmort he told me that the stone got destroyed. And he wasn't trying to kill me then so I don't know if he would have any motive to lie about it." Said Harry.

"Maybe he's trying to remake the stone? We can't know for sure. Sadly I don't think we will know what he's planning until he puts whatever it is into action. Petigrew is the current biggest threat right now. So why don't you distract us by telling us your final grades and about your training in Mexico?" Hermione supplied.

"Well I'm the top student! Number one it said. And I got into all the classes I signed up for" said Harry nonchalantly.

"Ohh! That would explain the ".A" I got on my paper. I received the number one spot in class as well but I had an A next to it. Did you get a B?" Asked Hermione.

"Yuuup"

"Then we tied! Excellent Harry, I am so proud of you!"

"And I of you hermione!" Harry smiled

"Yes yes, we're all quite happy Harry isn't a complete pillock." Said Daphne with false exasperation.

"So onward to my time in Mexico yea?" With both of their affirmations Harry went on to describe the wonderful sights and sounds of Teotihuacan. Of meeting the true King of serpents. And learning secrets of their lineage and culture that no European had ever been taught. Learning some of the true gifts of parseltongue and learning how to guide and control magic with the gift of snake magic.

"I've been reading Slytherin's books and writing. And compared to the Aztec, Slytherin was a rank Ametuer! A dabbler and nothing more. There's some things in his Magnum Opus that he says. Details, the true power of serpent magic. But it's only a fraction of what the jaguar warriors are taught.

Did you know he never found an elder serpent and learned under them? Most of the stuff Parsel magic does can only be known, shared, or taught by an elder serpent. He sought to create his own elder that's why he created Smara but most of what he "discovered" was nothing more than parlor tricks used to scare his enemies.

"Kathas-shhhha reigg!" Harry hissed and held out his hand, his fingers clutched like he was carrying a ball. And suddenly an orb of pure light filled his hand that he then threw onto the ceiling of his apartment where it stuck on the spot it hit filling his apartment with light just like a muggle fluorescent bulb. "Kathasha reigg. Reigg is light and Kath is ball or orb; you all hear kathas-sha reigg but I'm saying form a ball of light, and since my focus is my hand, my hand is filled with a ball of light. The master said eventually I'll be able to point to a spot and the light will coalesce where my attention is.

Parseltongue is a primordial language that affects the very being of nature to a degree that a crude imitation language like Latin can barely allude to." After that explanation Harry snapped and the light faded. "It does however take a good amount of magic energy as I don't use a wand to focus. The master says that as experience increases and my will sharpens it won't cost as much but I forgot it's pretty exhausting. I'll probably not use it unless I have to for now."

"You can tell the difference now!" Hermione picked up. "You used to not be able to tell if you were speaking Parseltongue or English."

"Yea the master had me sit and converse with him without blinking for days until I mastered hearing it. He broke my spine 3 times because I blinked my eyes without permission. Something about the eye contact with an elder sharpening my snake instinct. Or something like that. When he didn't talk in parseltongue he spoke in nahuatl. Which is a non magic imitation of parseltongue and no matter what language he spoke in he spoke in rhymes and riddles. Things I had to decipher and think about as he spoke. To a point I understand all that he taught but being able to explain it in a way that makes sense in English is very difficult." Harry explained easily.

"The serpent could speak a human language?" asked Daphne bewildered.

"The master's kind ruled over 5 different empires of men, the Aztec being the most recent. Establishing a line of communication was necessary. So yeah, he could."

An echo "that's amazing" came at Harry from two sides followed by a shared giggle. The sound was very pleasant to Harry after so long of not seeing either of his female friends.

By the time Harry had finished catching his friends up on his summer, several hours had passed and it was nearing lunch so Harry suggested they take the pureblood princess out for a spot of muggle fish and chips. Which both girls agreed to. It was just lucky enough that Daphne's personal style was just modern enough to classify as vintage goth. Her slightly poofy knee length black and green dress, and matching corset along with her thigh high stocking and thick boots would not be too out of place in muggle fashion. So the group had a nice lunch discussing either of the girls' summers and what to do with the rest of the day.

Harry was eating breakfast with Dora as he had come to call his older cousin. He had just received two very odd letters and Dora had received one as well. When she read the letter it said that she was officially inducted into "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black". His cousin practically jumped through the floo heading for her parents' house. The first of Harry's letters was from Gringotts Bank informing him that he had been named the official Heir of "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black". Harry had to steel himself from following his cousin. He was a Lord, he knew he had to start acting like it. He had avenues of knowledge besides his aunt. Who most likely had received a letter as well and was about as emotionally freaked out as her daughter had been.

'What kind of pretentious dandy addresses their house like that.' Harry thought. Harry knew his family was just as if not older than the Blacks and they didn't have some ridiculous introduction title in front of their house name. Not even in their official seal. Harry noticed a small letter fall from behind the letter in somewhat familiar scratchy handwriting.

"Lord Potter,

Please excuse the pretentious nature of my family's, our family's, self important title. Striking the jinx that makes it possible not to address the family as "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black" has been trickier than I thought and I haven't had time to devote to it.

My family really were a bunch of dandies.

P.S. I'm sorry I can't meet you in person yet as I'm sure you can sympathize, getting an entire house back to rights after years of non or mismanagement is a grueling and time consuming task, I've not left Gringotts in a week.

Lord Sirius Black"

Harry snorted at that. 'Apparently we have a similar sense of humor.'

The next letter was a great surprise as it was from Snape.

"Lord Potter

Due to your aptitude for potions I wanted to invite you to have the chance to regularly assist me in brewing the wolf's bane potion this year following and further streamlining the brewing process as well as the recipe we worked on before the end of term. You need not reply to this letter. Give me your answer at your first class.

S. Snape"

Harry had every intention of continuing those sessions if Snape was offering. After researching the plight of the werewolves of the country during the last Potions classes last year, he had told Andromeda to plant an excess of the ingredients for wolfsbane. Come time to harvest Harry was going to donate the ingredients to St Mungo's with the provision that they be used to brew the wolfsbane potion and that the potions are given out freely to werewolves across the nation.

Term was still a week out and it was already shaping up to be an interesting year. Without much to do or things that preoccupied his time, Harry flooded over to Blackstone Manor. Lately he had been wanting to explore and further catalog what was in his family's blood safe. So he found his way down to the creepy catacombs filled with blood red light — emanating from the body turned ward stone of Garland Potter, the first Lord Potter. Harry was as always entranced by the grotesque sight.

"Hello Lord Potter." Said a familiar bored drawl behind him. "You have been gone for quite some time."

"Yeah, well, school you know and then I went to Mexico to be trained under a master of Parselmagic.

One of these days you're going to have to tell me if you're alive or not. You don't act like a regular portrait and the house's magic speaks in your voice."

"One of these days, Lord Potter, you are going to have to figure it out on your own." The portrait said with a snarky grin that Harry assumed ran in the family. "Now tell me why you are here? Deposit? Withdrawal?"

"Neither, just curiosity, mainly; I want to know what some of these things are, give myself something to do before school starts."

"These are not toys to be played with, child! These are highly dangerous magical artifacts tha-!"

"I know! I'm not going to play with them. Not unless you tell me they're safe to touch. Like that." Harry pointed to a golden orb with weird symbols all over it. "What is that?"

"If my memory serves me well and it should I have an eidetic Memory. That orb was recovered from the fortress of Azkaban after the defeat of Herpo the Foul. It is not known how it works, only that it was used to keep the man's test subjects docile before he invented dementors to destroy the human soul, leaving a placid shell behind. The notes before they were destroyed simply referred to it as "the apple"."

"And what about this?" Harry gestured to a staff made of a greenish black metal with glowing emeralds in the crown of the staff.

"That is the staff of Ramesses. Recovered from his tomb by your sixth great uncle who was one of the first curse breakers at Gringotts. The green sapphires are incomplete Philosopher's Stones and can leach the life force of a victim into the holder, prolonging his life. So long as he holds it. You can guess how Ramesses died."

"See now that's fascinating! I can actually see why that's down here. What is that model pyramid with the giant diamond?"

"That is not a model pyramid. That is the capstone to the pyramid of Khufu."

Harry blinked humbly at that, not knowing what that was.

"The pyramid of Khufu is the largest pyramid in Egypt. The big one. At Giza!" The portrait was practically yelling in exasperation.

"OHHHHH! Okay. I didn't know it had a name."

"Well what's it doing here." Harry asked.

"That is actually rather personal. As I was the one to retrieve it when I was in my thirties. Right now it is inert, completely dead. It is nearly gold and diamond. But let it soak up the sun and the enchantments activate. Slaves built Giza! Tell me how better to easily motivate an entire slave class to build the greatest city known to man at the time! That thing sitting in the sun will project an aura of control over an area of over one million square miles. That thing is the reason the Egyptian empire was able to rise! And Giza being buried in the desert is the reason Egypt fell.

On and on this went, Harry learning the lost history of the artifacts his family had stored here. And Harry wrote down what he learned about them on cards to be left by the artifact. Soaked in the stories of past Potters and past family glories. Learning his family history was as good a way as any to spend an afternoon.

Harry sat in the garden at the Burrow. The entire Weasley clan was there to celebrate another year of Hogwarts along with the Grangers and Tonks and to celebrate Percy making headboy and Harry's special services medal. Both badges were on proud display on either of the boys' sweaters.

"So Harry, have you decided if you're going to come with us to Hogwarts or ride the train, dear?" Missus Weasley asked.

" Oh! Hermione and I decided to take the train actually. It just wouldn't feel right not riding it."

"Ahh well, do be careful, Percy of course has to go on the train but the rest of this brood decided to come with me to Hogwarts and have a lie in." Said Missus Weasley.

"So, Andy! Hermione said that Harry told her that you and your family have been reinstated back into your birth family. What's that like." Asked Emma Granger which got everyone's attention, so all the side conversations stopped for the time being.

"Completely foreign and yet all too familiar. To be cast out of your family is not just your parents no longer talking to you. Not that speaking to my parents was an option anymore anyway, both caught dragon pox a number of years ago and passed on far too late to do anyone any good. For a magical to be cast out of their house, their family magic is stripped away, I felt like a stranger in my own skin for years afterward. I even had to get a new wand as my old one stopped responding to me."

"Does that make you any weaker? Magically speaking?" Asked Hermione.

"No, it doesn't affect your magical strength at all. But it can affect the nature of your magic. How your magic feels inside you. Many disowned magicals can't cope and….. well that's a topic for a time when you're older. Just know to have my family magic back it's like, like, walking into your family home for the first time after a long time away combined with a warm bath after spending hours in the cold." Explained Andromeda.

"Even I felt like I was entering home and I've never even been attached to the family magic. I have noticed that my control of my metamorph powers is finer though, I haven't tried nearly as often as I used to." Said Dora gamely.

"When will I get to meet him?" Harry wondered out loud.

"Soon I expect, he wouldn't stop asking about you." Dora laughed.

Hermione spoke up after a few minutes. "Has there been any luck finding Pettigrew?" She directed her words at Dora but it was clear that she was asking anyone who might know.

"Nope, I'm afraid there hasn't been any sign. The dementors will be arriving at the school in a few days and will search the school, grounds, and forest. Before the term starts. After that they'll be kept off the grounds, patrolling the ward line and the village.

The aurors had to sweep the forest last month. Did you know that?

Did you know that that great beast of a man, Hagrid, was apparently sponsoring an entire colony of acromantula in there? The centaurs finally had enough of them encroaching on their territory and actually messenged the committee for the disposal of dangerous beasts about them. Good they did too because when we showed up, a not small group of adult acromantula were attacking the centaurs' village. It took the entire department to clear out the king spider, Aragog. Apparently, according to Hagrid. It was the size of an ELEPHANT; no one even knew they could get that big. There were the remains of 5 centaurs in the webs as well. Hagrid was fined ten thousand galleons for gross negligence but wasn't charged with anything else, the spiders steered clear of the school because of Hagrid.

The ministry made a killing on the reclaimed venom and the silk they could extract from the spiders. And other potion ingredients."

"Yea! I wonder if I can get some acromantula eyes! Would they still be fresh, you think? There's a potion that needs a quart of fresh acromantula eye juice. It's the only potion known that can fix your vision. It's normally outrageously expensive." Harry said excitedly.

"Sorry Harry, wouldn't know, you'll have to go talk to Cyrus Greengrass, he's contracted to sell stuff like that for the ministry. I wouldn't know. Personally I've had my fill of any spider related juices for the next 100 years."

"Ugh!" A chorus came from around the table followed by jovial laughter. At the end of the night Dora separated Harry from everyone else to have a private word.

Upon getting him alone, she pulled out a slim wand box and opened it, revealing the dust colored oddly knobbly wand that had once belonged to Dumbledore. "Harry, this wand. Was it Dumbledore's?" She asked gently.

Harry nodded. "Yea when I, when I cut his arm off it sort of flew to me and before I went to stay at the Burrow I just kinda chucked it in the furnace."

"Yea that's where I found it. Well I say found. Harry, someone broke into the Furnace this morning. I walked in on them right when the guy, some German bloke, started celebrating finding it. I stunned him and had him arrested, of course, but Harry. You need to hide this if people are breaking in trying to find it. It needs to be hidden. I know you're going to the Grangers' house to ride with them to King's Cross. But how about I stop you by Blackstone and you can hide it in the Potter blood safe."

"Yeah . Yeah that's probably for the best. Let's go tell the Grangers I need to make a pitstop at the manor and I'll meet them at their house."

Deep in the bowels of Blackstone Manor, Harry entered his family's secret repository.

"Back again so soon, Lord Potter."

"Good day, Garland."

"What is it you need, young Lord? You have the face of a seeker today, not an asker."

"I'm looking for a place where I can hide something. So that not even a summoning charm can charm.

"Move my portrait" Garland said, all sarcasm suddenly gone from his voice. Upon Harry pulling Garland's portrait to the side a medium sized safe was revealed. A safe with no handle, no keyhole, no spinner for a combination, or any conceivable way to open it. "It will cost a bit of pain. The safe needs Potter blood to open it." Garland's voice called out. Harry didn't hesitate to use his wand to cast a small cutting charm on his palm and open the safe.

As the door swung open, it revealed a largely empty safe. The only other item in the safe was a gaudy gold ring that looked like a snake with a purple gem. It had a tag surprisingly.

"Serpent of Indra. Looted from the temple of Indra during "the Indians mutiny" in 1855. Has caused the death of 37 muggle owners and has possessed 3 magicals with "the spirit of Indra" . It was utterly mad when I encountered it in possession of the body of a man named Heron-Allen.

-ring refuses destruction. .WEAR."

Harry, thinking back to the diary, muttered to himself. "Hmm, something for another time." Harry placed the wand in its box on another shelf and placed a card he had previously filled out over it.

"Strange wand once belonged to Albus Dumbledore. Older still? Needs research, please do not touch."

Then Harry closed the safe. Said farewell to his ancestor. And Dora took him to the Grangers for one more sleepover before summer ended.