A/N- This chapter took a little long because I was busy in some other works which kept my attention. I hope you all will like it.

Black Town House, London

There was a meeting of the Order going on where Dumbledore was appraising the Order of everything that was being done by them and what he sought to be done further when suddenly two men just appeared without any sound. Mad-Eye, in his paranoid way, shot a bone breaker which was flicked aside by one of the men.

Kingsley, Nymphadora, Hestia, Emmeline also had their wands out pointed at the new comers while Albus sat back in his chair, relaxed and waiting to see how this would turn out. It was true that he could not recognise the two men by their looks but he recognised the magical signature of one of them. It was all too familiar for him, the magical signature of one Harry James Potter.

Alastor had seen his effort go to waste and his wand was levelled at the new comers with a menacing look on his face. Remus Lupin was there but he simply sat in his chair and looked amused like this was a spectacle that was going to be interesting. Sirius Black was not there having sent a message to Dumbledore that he was taking a leave of absence going to look for a wand maker in Italy. Albus understood that the younger man did not want an off-the shelf wand but there were wand-makers who could make a custom wand in Britain too. Why he needed to go to Italy for a wand, he could not understand. Severus was also not present in the meeting as he had been summoned by Tom. The Weasley Twins were at the Burrow. They had begged-off saying that they had some essential errands to run. Hermione Granger was camped-out in the library reading a book which Remus had brought for the students just today. Ronald was also at the Burrow while Ginevra was in her room in the Black Town House. Mr. Longbottom and Miss Bones were at their respective manors.

Minerva was there, her wand out but she looked very relaxed compared to Moody who was taut as a bow string. The other order members were sitting in their seats but Albus had no doubts that they were fingering their wands in their cloaks ready to begin casting if it came to it.

Finally one of the intruders said, "Looks like you have this covered, lad. I will see you again. Farewell."

With that, the man disappeared while the other one looked around at the others and said, "What! This is the welcome home I get? Did no one really miss me at all?"

They all looked Harry up and down. How could this six foot tall, well muscled, young man possibly be Harry Potter? And, where were his glasses? But, there were the green eyes, the permanently untidy raven black hair and the scar on the forehead. And the voice, though deeper and more powerful, sounded like the raven-haired youth who had only spent a few weeks away from them.

Dumbledore chuckled while Minerva said uncertainly, "Harry?"

The teen smiled a jovial smile, "It is very pleasant to see you too, Professor." And as he smiled, they could all see that his teeth were white and strong and even.

Moody who still had his doubts growled, "What did I say to Harry Potter when he was leaving for India?"

He smiled, "You told me that you wanted me to be able to duel you, master Auror. I am waiting for you to decide the time and place."

Mooddy barked a laugh, "I like it, lad. You have got spunk."

Molly Weasley who had been sitting in her chair all this while, rose and ran to him shouting, "Harry!"

Harry took hold of her by her shoulders, kissed her forehead and said, "Hello Mrs. Weasley, I missed you too."

Remus stood up from his chair and embraced the teen murmuring, "It's good to see you cub. Life was not the same without you around."

Harry looked around and did not find Sirius and asked Remus, "Where is Padfoot?"

Dumbledore answered his question when he realised that Remus would not say a word, "Sirius is away to Italy looking for a wand-maker and has not reported since then."

Harry wanted to pull out his mirror and give a tongue lashing to the marauder but decided to do so in person which would be more satisfying and turned to Dumbledore, "So what is this meeting about?"

Dumbledore pointed him to a seat, "Take a seat. We are about to start and are waiting for a couple more of our members."

Harry sat on Dumbledore's right hand side and after a few moments the door opened and Amelia entered the room. She found a stranger sitting on Dumbledore's right side and asked, "Do we have a new member today?"

Everyone at the table chuckled while the stranger's eyes were gleaming with mirth. He stood from his place, came towards her and gave her a perfect bow, taking her right hand and pretending to kiss her knuckles, "Madam Bones, Harold James Peverell at your service."

His proclamation caused total silence in the room. His demeanour, his manners and the grace with which he conducted himself already screamed "Pureblood" to everyone. He introduced himself as Harold rather than Harry and using Peverell rather than Potter made them realise that this was not the same boy who had gone traipsing off to who knows where. Most of them did not know about the name Peverell except a vague idea that it was one of the oldest houses and had 5 votes on the Wizengamot.

Amelia who had just realised who he was, hit him on the shoulder playfully, "Did I not tell you that you are to call me Amelia or Aunt Amelia but not Madam Bones? You may have attained the manners of a pureblood lord but you do not yet have the same charisma that your father had."

"And you know that, how?", said a voice from the door and Sirius Black had just entered the meeting room.

Harry ran to the man, picked him up by the shoulders and whirled him around three times before putting him down and embracing him, laughing all the time, "It's great to see you son. I have missed you so much."

Alastor who had been sitting quietly growled again, "If the pleasantries are over, we have a meeting to be getting on with."

Albus sobered up and asked the members to sit while inwardly he was bursting to know all that the teen had learnt with the mystics. As Harry Potter sat, he tried to scan his surface thoughts and was astonished to see that he could not learn anything at all. Harry Potter's mind had no surface thoughts whatsoever.

He turned to Sirius, "Do you have anything to report, Sirius?"

Sirius turned to him, "I found the wand maker alright and he fitted me with a wand that my grandfather had made. An excellent combination of Ebony wood and Chimera claw tied with a Dragon heartstring. It is a strange thing that it had not chosen anyone yet but the moment I touched it, well, let's just say it's better than my old wand ever was. I tried to contact some of my friends and family acquaintances to solicit their help in the war but right now the Italians are adopting a wait and see approach. I presume they would intervene only when they are sure that we are already winning."

The people at the table made noises of scorn and disappointment but Albus silenced them, "Silence please. We know that the Italians are not very forth coming and usually do not jump into the fray unless it is imperative to do so. We must not be disheartened. We can contact the French through Miss Delacour whose father is head of International Magical Cooperation in France. Likewise we can look for some associates in Bulgaria where Mr. Krum's family is very prominent. I believe Harry had cultivated very good friendships with them during the Triwizard tournament."

As everyone fell silent, he started again, "We have achieved some headway in bringing about Tom Riddle's downfall and we are a step closer to it. The Wizengamot Session is just four days from now and we have to make sure that we are ready to turn some heads. The guard at the Department of Mysteries will continue for the foreseeable future until we see fit to remove the guard entirely. Croaker has promised his help to us in guarding the secret that Voldemort (everyone except the Marauders, Harry and Amelia flinched or shuddered or gasped) is after."

After that the meeting turned towards other topics like how many believed the order and things like that until Dumbledore dismissed the meeting telling people to keep eyes and ears open to listen to every rumour.

Most of the members had left, leaving only a few behind when Harry asked the question he had on his mind, "Headmaster, when are you going to tell me the whole prophecy?"

Dumbledore sighed, "I do not think that we can postpone this anymore. We soon will make a journey to the Department of Mysteries to pick it up."

Remus who had been sitting quietly asked, "What does the prophecy say? Can we hear it?"

Dumbledore turned to him, "It is Harry's secret. He will have to decide if it is appropriate to share it or not."

Sirius who had been sitting quietly turned to Harry, "So Pup, what you have learned with them?"

Remus guffawed, "He has become the perfect pureblood."

Sirius mock grimaced, "The horror! I tried to stay away from it and my son becomes the perfect pureblood lord. Oh how will I show my face to the world now?"

While everyone chuckled at his antics, Albus felt compelled to and shot an inaudible wandless legilimens and tried to scan the teen's mind who had been looking at Albus for some reason, too curious to see if what he had sensed was indeed true. He found the mental shields easily enough and found that they were down. He was disappointed but could not resist the opportunity to explore and crossed the concentric walls around the mindscape easily but before he could get a good look, a memory flashed in front of him. A memory of a hundred Dementors swooping in, trying to administer the kiss and Albus Dumbledore was thrown out of the mindscape. He looked up to find impassive faced Harry Potter (or was he Peverell now?) looking at him but there was mirth in his eyes which clearly said that he had caught the headmaster with his hand in the lemon drop jar.

Harry said to him, "Head Master did you like what you saw?"

Head master said nothing but Sirius asked, "What do you mean, pup?"

Harry smirked, "Head master here just now tried to catch me off guard and entered my mindscape. He thought he was unopposed and I just shocked him with the memory of 100 Dementors swooping in and trying to administer the kiss."

Sirius looked ready to brawl. "You used legilimency on him?", he roared at Albus.

Harry placated him, "It's alright Padfoot. I shot him with a compulsion charm to do so. I had to start my pranking spree on someone, after all."

Everyone laughed at this while Dumbledore looked embarrassed that he had been hit with a compulsion charm and did not realise it. He resolved to stay wary of the teen in future or he would become easy prey for his pranks.

Amelia turned to him then, "So Harry, do you remember the message I delivered when you were leaving Wizarding Britain?"

Harry well remembered the message from Susan and nodded and she continued, "I really would be disappointed if you forget to meet her tomorrow and end up on the wrong end of her wand. Just to let you know, she has become formidable with her wand work."

He cringed at the tone of her message though he knew he probably would be able to defeat Susan in a few moments.

As the meeting was winding up for the night, Harry found that Mr. Weasley had been sitting very quietly since he arrived, eyeing him as if he wanted to say something yet could not bring himself to do it. Harry addressed him, "It is good to see you too Mr. Weasley but you do not seem excited to me at all."

The older man snapped to attention, "It is very pleasant to see you again Harry but I had something on my mind."

It was as he had guessed. He turned to the older man, "Please do go on. If you have to hesitate in saying anything to me then I would assume that things are very bad between us."

Arthur said, "Nothing like that, Harry. I had a small request for Lord Black that is all. It can wait for tomorrow."

As Albus dismissed the meeting and people were going to leave, Alastor barked, "If it does not inconvenience everyone, I have something to say."

Albus smiled, "Please do go on, Alastor. I presume I speak for everyone when I say we all are interested in hearing what you want to say."

Everyone made noises of agreement and Alastor continued, "Not everyone knows that Potter or Peverell or whatever name he goes by now, is back. So, let's keep it a secret from everyone for today. Tomorrow, he can enter the class wearing a mask and duel with the students giving them a taste of duelling with an accomplished master."

Harry grinned, "That is a prank worthy of a marauder. Are you sure you are not secretly a marauder, Master Auror Moody?"

The mystic glared at him, "I am not a menace like your fathers and your uncle."

Everyone chuckled at his protests however they agreed that it would be amusing to see what would happen the next day at the Cottage on the hill. Harry was eager to be back among his friends, but; for the sake of this prank, he could put off meeting them for one day, so he agreed.

The only dissenting voice was of Molly Weasley who protested, "No, he has just returned. At least let him have something to eat first."

Harry chuckled, "I missed you Mrs. Weasley and your delicious three course meals but does it look like I have been starved by them? I promise I will eat a three course meal filled with your motherly love, tomorrow."

She eyed him up and down and probably was satisfied with what he saw because she nodded reluctantly, "I will wait for you at dinner tomorrow then." She turned to Sirius with her hands on her hips, "You will tell those elves to make themselves scarce tomorrow because I don't want them to interrupt me when I am cooking." Sirius cringed

Dumbledore gave him a piece of parchment to read. Harry took one look, flipped it to make sure there was nothing on the other side. The next moment he drew his wand from his holster, flipped the parchment into the air and muttered, "incendio", and the parchment vanished in a puff of flame.

Taking Sirius and Remus by their arms, he disappeared leaving others in shock.

Cottage on the Hill

Dinner that night was prepared by Dobby who was excited at seeing his master back and hugged his leg fiercely all the while saying, "The great Harry Potter is back.". After dinner the marauders tried to corner him about what he had learnt but he kept stalling them.

As Harry looked around the cottage, he remembered that he had a bone to pick with his adoptive father. He turned to Sirius and accused, "Where do you get off leaving the safety of the townhouse? Have you forgotten that if they find you, you are under a death sentence?"

Sirius just sat there doing his best to look shocked and offended until he couldn't stand it anymore. Then, taking pity on Harry, Remus handed Harry a copy of The Daily Prophet from the day after Sirius's trial.

Harry looked at the front page to see Sirius' smiling face looking up at him and the headline, "SIRIUS BLACK EXONERATED"

It only took Harry a moment to scan the article, read the date on the paper and realize that Sirius had been pardoned nearly a month ago and had not bothered to share that news with him. Harry rolled up the paper as it enlarged in his hand. He started swatting Sirius about the head and ears with it repeating, "Bad dog! Bad dog!..."

Sirius started trying to cover his head with his hands, then got into the spirit of the thing and transformed to his dog form, yelping as Harry swatted him about the flanks with the rolled-up newspaper.

After a few more seconds of that silliness, the paper returned to its normal size, Sirius returned to his human form and the three of them shared a good belly laugh.

As Harry wiped the tears from his eyes, he asked, "So, you thought it would be amusing to keep this from me and then go wandering about, making it look like you were taking insane chances?", he zapped Sirius with a non-verbal, wandless stinger, "There's a down-payment on what you have coming, Padfoot."

Sirius started to say with complete nonchalance, "It was in all the papers. It's not my fault you don't read or your friends did not see it fit to inform you."

Then the marauders both noticed that Harry didn't have his wand out. They looked at him open mouthed in astonishment.

Harry asked, "What? Why are you both looking at me like I have grown two heads?"

Finally Remus found his voice, "Nothing is the matter, cub. Not just any wizard can use wandless and inaudible magic with such fluency."

Despite becoming a ferocious war-mage he could not control his blush, "It is no big deal. I can cast most spells wandlessly now."

Sirius had been giving Harry an appraising look all this time, "If I were you pup, I would not go around showing off my skills. The big deal behind me and James being Animagus was that we had done it without any help from anyone and kept this secret for years."

Harry smirked, "Don't worry about me. Nobody can enter my mind unless I let them. Is your mind secure?"

Sirius said off-handedly, "My skills are a little rusty but with a little practice, I can get my affairs in order. Thank Merlin that my mindscape survived the Dementors. It was one of the reasons that I could keep my sanity. By the way, I noticed you did not ask Moony the same question."

Harry replied in amusement, "That's because I don't need to. I know that any information I give him will be safe because to enter a werewolf's mind is suicide. The wolf in him would tear the intruder to shreds."

Sirius looked at him with his jaw hanging open while Moony was trying to hold in his laughter. As Sirius looked at the werewolf to confirm this, Remus lost it finally and started laughing bent at the middle.

Not long after that, he herded the marauders out of his room at the cottage to start working on daily mental exercises. Before he went to bed, he put wards around his bed more out of habit than real need and went to sleep.

Cottage on the Hill, the Next Morning

Harry woke up just before the crack of dawn as had become his habit and sat wondering for a few minutes about why Vari had not entered his room this morning before he realised he was back in Britain and he was sleeping in the cottage. He sneaked up to Sirius's room and found the Marauder asleep and Moony was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had returned to Grimmauld Place sometime in the night.

He went outside and realised that Hogwarts was nearby and if he wished, he could visit the school. Changing his mind and deciding not to, he started running around the property but it was not as exciting as it was at Adrishpuram because there was no one to shoot spells at him every step of the way. After running four laps around the property and finishing his push-ups, he scrambled to his bed again, waiting for Sirius to come and spring the traps around his bed. Sirius entered his room after some time rather boisterously singing at the top of his voice and as he stepped on the wards, he found himself dangling upside down, his skin the colour of burned copper and he had grown two horns on his head.

Harry rose from the bed and guffawed at him, "What is the matter, Padfoot?"

Sirius scowled at him, "You will regret this Prongslet as soon as I get free of this trickery."

He rolled his eyes, "Promises, Promises. Let's see you do your best."

Sirius smirked and called, "Kreacher, Winky."

The elves arrived with two loud cracks and Kreacher who looked much better now, gave a deep bow to Sirius, "What Kreacher be doing for you Master?"

Sirius eagerly said, "Free me from this, Kreacher."

Before Kreacher could do anything, Harry interrupted him, "Kreacher, Winky, I Harold James Lord of House Black forbid you from helping him to get free of his current predicament."

Kreacher turned to Sirius and shook his head, "No can do, master. Lord Black forbids it."

The elves bowed to Harry before they popped away and Harry left him dangling upside down. Sirius pulled his wand out of his sleeve and sent a patronus to Moony who arrived after 15 minutes, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and asked him, "Who got the jump on you, Padfoot? I thought the Weasley menaces had retreated and were licking their wounds."

Sirius growled, "It is not those two Moony but Prongslet who has been pranking everyone ever since he returned yesterday."

Remus was amused, "He did it, didn't he? It looks like we will have to stay clear of him if he is this proficient. How did he do it?"

Sirius sighed, "I would happily retell the entire tale to you if you would be kind enough to bring me down."

As Remus raised his wand to try and break the ward, Harry materialised out of thin air behind Remus and shouted in his ear, "BOO!"

Remus was so startled that he jumped, yelped and dropped his wand. Before the werewolf could recover, the teen shot him with a cushioning charm, ascendio and a sticking charm. Before Remus could do anything, he rocketed to the ceiling and was stuck there. Had it not been for the cushioning charm, he likely would have broken most of his ribs from the impact.

The wards expired after 30 minutes and Sirius dropped to the floor with an undignified thump. Using his wand, he helped his fellow Marauder out of his predicament. The two of them went to wreck their revenge upon the whelp. He would pay!

They found Harry at the breakfast table, working his way through enough food for a small army. As the aroma of the food hit their nostrils, revenge was postponed as they pulled up chairs and tucked in.

An hour later, Moody entered to find the marauders sitting on the sofa in the entrance hall and no sign of Harry Potter (or Peverell or whatever). He growled at the duo, "Where is the lad?"

Sirius smirked, "Constant Vigilance, Alastor."

Alastor felt someone was behind him and as he turned, a wand appeared out of nowhere and shot him with a banishing hex throwing him across the entrance hall and before Alastor could get on his feet, he had been disarmed and bound with chains. Harry Potter emerged from under an Invisibility cloak (he could swear that his magical eye was failing him) smirking at Alastor, "I believe I just won the first round, Master Auror."

Harry hauled him back to his feet by one arm and proffered his wand tip first, saying, "I am waiting for the honour to duel you at your chosen time."

Alastor grumbled, "Soon lad, soon. You will get what's coming to you."

Sirius and Remus merely chortled.

Soon, Minerva and Flitwick arrived with Dumbledore and surprisingly Amelia (they were told to be present for this session as it was bound to be interesting). Sirius welcomed them into the classroom that they used to teach the students. The students arrived sometime later from their respective abodes. Harry had already disappeared under his cloak and waited in silence knowing that none of the teachers had been told about him.

Moody immediately took the reins of the session, "All right, here is what we are going to do. These two (he pointed to the Marauders) will be leading a charge with another person who has kindly agreed to help us with training the students today. Minerva, Filius and I will be at different points of the property lines, defending it while the students will be on their own. Your aim is to stop these three from entering the cottage and taking a trunk which is in there. If they take the trunk, you lose. If you capture or disable all three of them, you win. You may use any spells you know, any tricks you can come up with. The only rule here is no permanent damage. Amelia and Albus will be the judges for this session."

As the teachers apparated to different parts of the property, the students were left alone. Fred opened the conversation, "So, has anyone got a plan?"

George added, "Because we have none, if we had known..."

Fred said, "We would have thought of something."

Neville raised his hand stopping them, "let's think of something. We have 7 students and 3 teachers on our side while they have only 3 on the other team. Does that seem unbalanced to you?"

Ron said, "Of course it does. It means that the three on the other team are more than a handful for us."

Hermione who had been thinking hard turned to Ron, "So what do you propose?"

Ron gave her a grin, "Let's pair up. Fred you go with Neville, George you take Susan with you and Ginny, you are with me and Hermione."

Neville said, "Ok, you've divided up the party. Now what?"

Ron smirked, "Mad-eye told us to do what we can to keep them from taking the trunk. Three of us will guard the trunk. You four go back up the teachers and try to hunt them down before they get in here."

They decided to look in different directions for the intruders and sometime later, horse neighing was heard from across the property line and George grinned, "They have tripped the caterwauling charm on the eastern side. Let's go." Before he and Susan could do that, a lion roaring was heard in another direction and they took off to the south where the second caterwauling charm had been tripped, knowing that teachers would already be rushing to the east.

Unknown to them, Harry Potter had exited the property and was standing on a little hill to the northern side of the property. He had his mystic mask on and was hiding under the cloak all this while. As soon as Sirius tripped the charm on the eastern side and every one rushed in that direction, he stowed the cloak in his pocket and jumped down landing with the grace of a cat. He drew his wand (he had returned Harsh's wand to Charak at Adrishpuram) and started casually walking towards the cottage in the distance when Moody appeared in front of him, "Going somewhere in a hurry, lad?"

He grinned, "No. I was itching for a competent fighter for good practice. Good thing that you came looking for me."

Harry's wand became a blur as the tip described a rapid series of short arcs and a chain of bone breakers and bone crushers raced toward the grizzled veteran. Mad-Eye raised a shield faster than thought with only one good leg, he couldn't dodge like he used to). Harry kept the power low on his spells, so they did not go smashing their way through the shield, but the bombardment did not let up. He had the ex-auror pinned down. The moment that Harry let up, Moody went on the offensive, but the teen side-stepped every spell effortlessly, making it look like a dance. The grin on Harry's face told Moody that he was enjoying himself. He tried some high powered stingers, hoping that the faster spells would catch him by surprise, but, he just kept side-stepping and grinning. Alastor tried mixing them up and still nothing connected. Then one of his own stunners was coming straight back at him. Alastor dodged the stunner but, Harry judged the dodge perfectly and a bone breaker smashed the ex-auror to the ground. Harry finished him off with a stunner and an incarcerous. With the grizzled veteran tied up and unconscious, Harry picked up the dropped wand and mended the damaged ribs before casually walking forward.

Neville had stopped Fred from running to the east as the caterwauling charm was set off. Fred looked at him, "Neville, mate, what is the problem?"

Neville said, "Remember Mad-Eye said there were three intruders? There is no guarantee that they are together."

Fred looked at him with a sense of realisation dawning, "Blimey, you are right, mate. What if they are coming from three different directions?"

Neville grinned, "I say we wait and keep an eye on Moody. He can watch everyone around him with that eye of his and he will go in the direction where we really need to go."

So they had followed Moody and saw him disappear before appearing before the intruder and trash talking with him before engaging him in a duel. They saw how the teen had turned the tables on Alastor and walked forward nonchalantly.

Fred grimaced, "That must have hurt the grizzled Auror."

Neville said, "I agree. It is not like him to lose to anyone so easily. So, what strategy do we adopt against this one?"

Fred's face was set in determination, "Only one strategy "I will cast and you will defend."

They apprehended the teen who was walking along leisurely like he owned the place and Neville challenged him, "Halt! This is not going to be so easy for you."

The opponent grinned, "Big words, Longbottom. Can you back them up?"

Fred started casting everything that he knew including some prank spells for good measure and just like when he faced Moody, he did not bother to shield. He barely even moved as he just side-stepped every spell. After Fred had failed to get a hit on him, he hollered to Neville, "Longbottom, let's combine forces and teach him a lesson."

The two together started casting curses at their opponent and he merely raised protego maxima between them and stood there, smirking at them. Fred used a contraption to bring down the shield and immediately their opponent started casting at them. His casting speed was blinding and before they were able to defend themselves from a spell, another would be there. They raised shields to protect themselves but in a few shots, their shields were broken. As they raised another shield, he sent an incendio at them followed by a shield breaker and then a stunner. Fred jumped in front of the shield breaker and was knocked out by the stunner. Neville was left alone to fend for himself and his opponent sent an incarcerous at him which he tried to dodge but the rope kept following him and eventually tied him up.

Flitwick, who had been watching the fight with some appreciation (Susan and George were keeping Remus busy) decided to confront him as he saw him using the incarcerous creatively on Longbottom. Win or lose, he anticipated that this would be someone who would give him a good fight.

Flitwick sent a incendio at the boy (he could sense it was a teen, probably in early 20s) and the teen batted it aside and turned to find the charms master standing with his wand in his hand and bowed to him, "Master Duellist Flitwick, I would be honoured to duel with you."

Flitwick said nothing but shot another incendio at the teen who swatted it back at him. Flitwick had to dodge to save himself. As he straightened, the teen had conjured a firewhip (Krishanu) and waved his wand at Flitwick who had to raise a shield to avoid being snared in the whip. The teen gave a jerk to his wand and Flitwick's shield was broken. The Charms master opened a hose of fire at the teen who jumped aside and used a flame freezing charm freezing his fire hose then started sending bolts of fire at him (Pavakam) in an almost unbroken chain. Flitwick was hiding behind a shield and waited for someone to come to his rescue but others were equally engaged. When Harry saw that Flitwick, feeling secure behind his shield, was looking around for help to come to him, Harry sent a shield breaker, followed a split-second later by a disarming charm from his open left hand. Before Flitwick could react to his shield being shattered, his wand was flying through the air to Harry's outstretched hand. Finally the teen conjured a cage of earth, summoned the charms master, guiding him into the cage and fixed him there with a sticking charm.

After disabling the charms master, he went in search of others and found McGonagall about to overwhelm Sirius who was hiding behind a shield while she was using animations against him. Thinking it was as good a time as any to try the trick Harsh had taught him, he claimed one of McGonagall's animations and sent it back at her. McGonagall turned around to find her own animation attacking her and looked around flabbergasted till her eyes found Harry, who was standing there grinning at her.

While she inwardly felt proud of the display he was putting on, she had a reputation to maintain and she started sending all sorts of spells at him which sometimes he dodged, sometimes flicked aside. As she sent conjured arrows at him, he conjured a metal shield and the arrows impaled themselves into the shield. He immediately transfigured the shield and arrows into javelins and banished them at the Professor who conjured a wall of stone to stop the javelins. While she could not see him, her sight-line being cut-off by her own wall of stone, Harry took the opportunity to disapparate silently and apparate behind her. With her back turned to him, he transfigured her into her cat form. Sirius immediately transformed to keep the professor busy with the cat and dog game.

That left Remus who was duelling with the duo of Susan and George.

Harry sent a stunner at George who dodged it and grinned at him, "It won't be that easy to stun me."

Harry grinned, "I have just come from stunning your twin who was saying the very same thing."

George started casting without thinking when Susan stopped him, "he is just egging you on into making a mistake."

Harry grinned and sent some of McGonagall's animations (he had commandeered all of them) at the pair of them while grinning to Moony, "you have it covered now. Stun them and join me inside."

Before he walked inside, he sent a homnum revelio spell inside showing that the three were hiding in what they considered strategic locations. Ron was hiding behind a tapestry which concealed a door way while Hermione was standing in a dark corner under a disillusionment spell and Ginny was hovering in the air on a broom!

He thought hard about tackling this issue and decided to deal it in the way of a typical Gryffindor. He disillusioned himself and charged inside, sending a petrification hex into the corner and a stunner at the tapestry and dived under a table to save himself from the bombarda from above. He summoned the trunk to himself and as he expected, Ginny descended as soon as the trunk travelled the length of the room to his hand. He immediately sent a petrification hex with a stunner followed by a cushioning charm at her. While she was able to dodge the petrification hex, the stunner hit her with such force that she was thrown from her broom. Before she could sustain any serious injury the cushioning charm hit her and she fell unharmed to the ground. He picked up the trunk and came outside to applause from Dumbledore and Amelia.

10 minutes later after everyone was revived, Alastor who was still grimacing from pain (his bones had been mended by Harry) turned to everyone gathered, "Alright, one boy got the jump on all of you and me too. Let's listen to where it went wrong."

Flitwick went first, "I was over-confident. I thought I would Duel him with charms only. He had an answer for every charm of mine. He broke my shield with a fire whip putting me on the defensive. When I was on the defensive, hiding behind a shield, I took my eyes off of him for a split second to see if any help was on the way. That cost me my shield and my wand. Defenceless, he conjured some sort of cage and stuck me in it."

Minerva said, "He did not even defeat me properly. He just commandeered my animation to attack me and used transfiguration against me easily, something that I have seen very few people do. He turned every attack right back at me. At one point, I summoned a stone wall to stop a particularly nasty attack which obscured my line of sight to him. The next thing I knew, I was a cat and this dog (she pointed to Sirius) was chasing after me."

While everyone laughed hearing of her predicament, she pursed her lips in a thin line. Moody himself started then growling, "This one here started firing bone breakers at me relentlessly not giving me a chance to reply. When I finally had a chance to reply to him in kind, he did not even have the decency to dodge my spells properly but he kept side stepping them as if I was some amateur. Evidently when I had amused him enough, he sent back my curse at me forcing me to jump aside and fired a bone breaker at the place I was going to be. I have never faced such a powerful bone breaker in all my Auror service."

Then Neville started, "We decided that following the Master Auror would be our best chance to engage the invaders. Imagine our surprise when we saw this one put him down with ridiculous ease. Since we were engaging him two on one, Fred cast while I defended. After some time, it was clear that Fred could not hit him. He kept doing that side stepping thing. When we attacked him together, he raised protego maxima which we brought down. He sent a spell chain at us which Fred took on himself and was stunned. Then he sent some weird incarcerous at me to tie me up."

Susan spoke for her and George, "This one sent all of McGonagall's animations at us forcing us to deal with them and then had Remus stun us."

Hermione spoke for the three of them, "He must have cast the Homnum Revelio because he knew exactly where we were in spite of the fact that we were well concealed. Before we even knew that he was there, he sent a petrification hex at me, a stunner at Ron and dived under a table. When Ginny descended to deal with him, he stunned her, knocking her right off of her broom while hitting her with a cushioning charm so that she would not sustain injuries."

Sirius started howling with laughter while Dumbledore looked in contemplation. If the teen had dealt with all of them only using non-lethal spells, he shuddered to imagine what he would do to those who provoked his ire. Amelia was smirking trying to imagine Susan's reaction when she would realise who had shown all of them up. Flitwick was thinking of the charms and the way the teen had used them. It reminded him of a witch who was an accomplished master he had once met. A formidable opponent, if there ever was one but that had been 50 years ago.

Dumbledore who had been playing spectator all this while, said, "Now it is time to see who is hiding under that mask. My boy, if you will."

Hermione's Point Of View

Yesterday, Hermione had seen the inhabitants of Black Town House in better spirits than they had been since she had come to live at the Townhouse. While she was not allowed in the Order meetings (none of the students except the Twins were) but Molly's smile was more dazzling than other days as if she had been given a gift she coveted above everything. The headmaster had greeted her very jovially and that was out of character for the old wizard who had looked grim and contemplative for the past month.

Mad-eye was looking disappointed as if someone had defeated him in a duel but there was no one who could get the jump on that old Auror in a fair duel. Was there? She was surprised to see Madam Bones in the meeting considering the head of DMLE had never attended any meetings as far as she knew. The rest of the members that she had seen were looking happy but, she knew it was pointless to ask them why. They were under strict orders from Dumbledore not to tell the students anything about what happened in the meetings. If Dumbledore thought that something should not be told to the students then it was fine with her. He was after all Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in all of Britain. If there was anything that they needed to know, he would see to it that they were told.

Mad-eye told her to floo call the students telling that there was a practice tomorrow where the students would team up with the teachers. They had never teamed up with the teachers on their side yet in a duel and she was excited.

This morning when Moody announced the fight that he had staged, she was excited to show her prowess and clever wand work, hoping to cement her place as the tactical thinker for the group but the boys had made strategy among themselves and acted on it. She had hatched the plan for the three of them to hide in different places in the hall where the trunk was kept and she was fairly certain that the intruder would miss at least one of them and could be taken down.

What she had not planned for was for the intruder to cast a homnum revelio before he entered the house and he had discovered their positions. She was certain that she would not be discovered because she was in a dark corner and under a disillusionment charm but the intruder had shown his extremely sharp reflexes with his wand, sending a petrification hex at her and following it with a stunner too quickly. She watched as he stunned Ronald and jumped under the table forcing Ginny to come down when he summoned the trunk to him. He had shot the spell chain at her without any effort as if he knew where she would be. To be successful in such close quarters he must have practiced hard at aiming his spells, something which none of the students had practiced before.

When Dumbledore asked him to take his mask off, the face which emerged seemed familiar to her. But how could this be the same bloke? He must be about half a foot taller, no glasses and where did he get all those muscles? It wasn't just the physical changes either. This fine, young man stood up straight, carried himself with confidence and had the manners of a young lord. She looked again. There was the familiar raven-black untidy mop of hair. There was the scar, though just a thin white line, a mere shadow of what it used to be. And finally, those emerald green orbs. Once she looked into them she was sure. This was her best friend, Harry James Potter looking back at her. There sure were a lot of changes, but she was sure, she could get used to it.

Before Hermione could react, a stinger had left Susan's wand and she realised that she too had made the same connection and realisation was dawning on others as he gave his lopsided grin to all of them. Everyone who had been at the receiving end of that grin knew it too well. As she watched, Harry just swatted Susan's stinger aside with his hand and Susan followed it with a volley of hexes such as petrification hex, stunners and even a couple of bone breakers too but none of them seemed to connect with the way he was just side-stepping her spells. Finally Harry disarmed her with his wand (What was it made of?) and Susan pounded him with her fists shouting, "you moron Harry James Potter! You are such a prat! You did not come to see me when you returned."

Finally Amelia had to pull Susan away from the boy who had been laughing while Susan had been pounding him, enraging her. As Susan was subdued, Hermione lunged and hugged him tight, muttering, "you ever pull this on me again prat and you will be dead. Deal?"

He only kissed her head and said courteously, "Miss Granger while you make an interesting offer, I fear that I shall have to decline."

Everyone around them chuckled and then there were Neville and Ron who were hugging the teen.

"Blimey!", exclaimed Ron, "You're nearly as tall as me, Harry! What happened?"

Harry muttered something like, "Growth spurt. That Indian cooking is good for you."

Ron's enthusiasm was contagious, "It is good to see you, mate. There was no one to play chess with me."

Harry chuckled, "you mean there was no one you could defeat again and again?"

Finally as they let go, Neville grinned at him, "It is good to see you again, brother". Harry clasped his hand in sign of brotherhood of old.

Finally, he approached Ginny and bowed to her, taking her right hand and pretending to kiss her knuckles, "It is good to see you too Miss Weasley."

Ginny did not squeak or try to run as she used to but blushed a little, "Since when did you become so smooth and where did you learn the pure-blood manners?"

Sirius seized the moment to put his two knuts in, "As I said yesterday Prongslet, the horror is unimaginable."

Harry finally turned to the twins, "You two, it's good to see you too. I hope our venture is not doomed."

Gred said to him, "you stunned your partners..."

Feorge added, "You will pay for this..."

Together they said, "we declare prank war on you."

Harry said nothing but Sirius muttered, "be careful you two. He is on a spree. He even bloody pranked Dumbledore."

Dumbledore said nothing but just grimaced.

Blacktown House

Everyone had gathered in the townhouse for dinner when Arthur returned from the ministry. Arthur had sent for his sons to be present (with the exception of Percy) for what was to transpire in the evening. Harry was sitting in the meeting room reading a book while Sirius was lounging in a chair and Hermione sitting, engrossed in a book when Arthur entered the room followed by his brood.

They stopped at a respectable distance from Harry and he waited for them to say something however Arthur remained silent for some time. Finally Harry looked up at him to see him fidgeting, wringing his hands and he recognised that perhaps the Weasley patriarch wanted to say something but had no idea about how to proceed. He broke the silence, "If you want to say something, please do Mr. Weasley. You do not need so many people at your back to talk to me."

Arthur went on one knee and addressed him formally, "Lord Black I have a favour to ask you."

Harry immediately straightened, recognising that Mr. Weasley had come to him as a supplicant, "State your wish Arthur of House Weasley and if it is in my power, I will grant it."

Arthur said clearly, "My Lord, my mother was a daughter of your house and was cast off from the family by Lord Orion Phineas Black for marrying a blood traitor. He further asked the other houses to shun us and we were deprived of our family seat on the Wizengamot."

Harry pondered over this for a moment and then said, "Your mother Cederella Black was a daughter of this house and married for love. That is not an offense in the eyes of Mother magic and as such her banishment is illegal and is not sanctified by mother magic."

Arthur shook like he was ready to cry but Harry was not finished. He said royally, "I, Harold James, Lord of House Black hereby reinstate Cederealla Weasley nee Black in the family with all the rights, privileges and status that are due to her for being a daughter of the family and recognise her marriage with Septimus of House Weasley."

Arthur lost control and started to cry his face tear streaked and looked at Harry who had stood, "Do you Arthur Septimus of the House of Weasley accept your admittance in the House of Black?"

Arthur replied with his voice hitching from tears, "I do."

Harry said further, "Do you swear to serve the family in its best interests and to protect its members as they would do to you?"

Arthur replied, "I do."

Harry asked, "Do you swear to serve the family and your Lord with unwavering loyalty as is expected of a member of family as the family would do to you?"

He replied, "I do."

Harry solemnly declared, "I Harold James, Lord of House Black welcome you and your brood into the family as an extended part of the family whereby your family will be a cadet line to the House of Black and the House will petition to restore the lost honour of your family so that the House of Weasley can again sit upon the Wizengamot in its capacity as the Ancient and Noble House of Weasley. So I say so mote it be."

Tendrils of golden light rose from Harry's magic which had been covering him like a cloak and it engulfed all the members of the House of Weasley in its folds before it dissolved into their bodies.

Harry however had not yet finished and said, "As your mother was not given her customary dowry and all other emoluments as are due to the daughter of House Black, reparations will be made. I will procure rings for all the members of House Black which will connect them to me so I would know if one of them requires my help."

Arthur who still was on his knees stood shakily and Sirius embraced him, "Congratulations Cousin. Welcome to the family."

A three course dinner followed and Harry was served three helpings which he ate with relish. As he ate he realised that the conversation around the table had gone silent and looked up to see everyone looking at him with surprise? Amusement? He could not discern their expression however it unnerved him and he asked, "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

It was Hermione who answered, "Nothing Harry. It is just that we have never seen someone outperform Ron in eating."

While others chuckled Ron's ears turned red but he only muttered, "Damn right."

The table roared in laughter while Molly glared at others, "He is a growing boy. He will need all the food he can eat."

As dinner was winding down, Dumbledore entered the town house followed by many members of the Order. As Dumbledore was calling a meeting, Harry performed passive legilimancy on many of the order members and was disappointed to see that most of them did not even have basic mental shields and he could read their thoughts like an open book. He tried it on a few of them before he stopped because they had not many secrets which he could learn. While he hated to do this, he had to make sure that they were loyal to the Order.

Dumbledore called the meeting to order, "This meeting has been called to assess our preparations for the upcoming session of the Wizengamot. As was decided, Lord Harold James Peverell will be taking up his family seats on the Wizengamot. A meeting of the members of the alliance of the House of Potter needs to be called beforehand however since I am the Chief Warlock and as such I cannot take part in these meetings, therefore Madam Bones in the capacity of Regent of House Bones has taken it upon her. I yield the floor to her now."

Amelia started speaking, "We are meeting the members of the alliance at Bones Townhouse tomorrow where the old alliance will be re-forged. In the capacity of Regent of House Bones and as legal guardian of Harry Potter, I invited them for a meeting and the House of Macmillan, House of Boot, House of Longbottom, House of Acton, House of Addington, House of Ainsworth and minor houses of Dayton, Marlowe and Livingstone have assented to attend the meeting."

There were loud cheers at her proclamation and Dumbledore quietened every one before he started again, "Is there any other news that you all want to share?"

Arthur said, "Lord Black has reinstated Cedrella Weasley nee Black back into her family and has instated House Weasley as a cadet line of House Black in addition to agreeing to petition the Wizengamot for reinstating House Weasley to its position."

The order members congratulated Arthur, toasts were raised, wine and butterbeer was poured and the meeting was over on a happy note with the members of the order leaving after saying their good-byes.

Harry took the opportunity to connect with his friends as he had hardly talked to them during the day. They joined him in his room and as he had expected, Hermione went in her rapid fire mode, "Where have you been Harry? What did you learn from them? How did you learn to fight like that? What were your teachers like?"

Harry smiled and shook his head at his friend's tireless barrage of questions. He took both of her hands in his left, patting the backs of them with his right, saying, "Hermione, breathe. I am sorry, but I cannot answer any of those questions. There are some things that must remain unknown. What I can say is that I learned something of charms, transfigurations, potions, herbology, care of magical creatures and runes."

She asked, "But Harry, you didn't take runes as one of your electives. How could you study runes?"

He smiled, "I had some very good teachers. They taught me enough to catch me up. So, I'm going to drop divination and take runes for my OWLs."

She beamed at him, "That's great Harry! Divination is a sham anyway."

Harry shook his head, "Hermione, most so-called practitioners of divination are nothing but scam artists. Sadly, even though Professor Trelawney has at least some of the true gift, she has no control over it and resorts to their methods to try and hide her inability. She is to be pitied, not despised. There are real seers out there and their power is both arcane and ancient. Sadly, unless one has the gift, there is no way that they can learn the true art."

She was hanging on every word of his as if he was in a class and when he finished she said, "You really believe that there is a thing such as sight? I thought Trelawney as making it up."

Harry smiled, "As I said, most of what she does is just mumbo-jumbo to dazzle and distract while she tells you only what can be learned or guessed from keen observation and some good guesses. She has no control over her gift, but; her gift is genuine. She has made, I think, two real predictions. True seers are very rare and there are only a handful of them in Avalon."

She asked, "Avalon?"

He shrugged, "Britain was once called Avalon in Ancient Times when the world knew of magic."

Ron who had been quiet all this while asked, "You said there are seers in Britain. Who are they?"

Harry smirked, "That is a secret which I would not give up."

She glared at him, "Why not? What harm will it do?"

He sighed, "Hermione some secrets better remain secret. It is not wise to go poking into every nook and cranny to find some secret. Some things should remain forgotten for the general good of the world."

Hermione asked again, "What happened in the evening with Mr. Weasley? What was all that bowing?"

It was Ron who answered this time, "Father petitioned Lord Black to reinstate grandmother into her family. In the next session the House of Weasley will be restored to its hereditary seat on the Wizengamot."

Hermione was confused, "Lord Black? But Harry is not Lord Black and when did you become Harold?"

Harry laughed, "It was always my name. My parents had named me thus and to answer your question, I am Lord Black."

Just then Kreacher popped in, bowing to him and presented a box, "Your rings, Lord Black."

As Harry put his rings on, Hermione could not resist asking, "What are the rings for?"

Harry sighed, "Alright, Hermione. I'll answer this one, but that will be all for today. These are the rings of Head of House. The head of House wears them."

After that, they sat making small talk during which they filled him Harry in on how they had been training in the last month and were better prepared for whatever was waiting out there. As it was getting late, Harry herded them off to go to sleep and sat working on his transformation. His animagus was coming nicely and he was sure that in two months he would be able to finish it. He could transform his torso now but he had been having problems in transforming his head to look like a leopard but hoped that with the blessing of mother magic, he would be able to finish it quickly.

Bones townhouse

The Bones townhouse was situated in the London suburbs and was a good place to have a meeting of the alliance. Amelia wanted restricted access to the manor in these perilous times and thus she had convened the meeting here. She had asked Susan to come along because the meeting would be good training for her when she became Lady Bones.

Yesterday as Susan had returned to the manor with her, she had expressed her anger to Amelia about not telling her that Harry Potter had returned to Wizarding Britain. She had not spoken to her at all till this morning but Amelia let her stew. She knew that Susan's anger would cool down as fast as it had come. Not disappointing her, Susan had told her this morning that she was sorry for her rant because since the object of her ire Harry Potter was not there she had taken it out on Amelia.

Right now they were waiting for said Harry Potter to arrive before the meeting could start. The Bones elf popped in, "Mister Harry Potter be in parlor, Mistress and Miss."

Amelia had to restrain Susan from running to the parlour fearing for the safety of the boy concerned. As they entered, he was sitting in a winged chair, looking rather imposing in his finest Acromantula silk robes. As they entered, he stood and gave a bow and Amelia frowned, "Harry, you are not a stranger to me. You will not bow every time that you see me."

Susan glared at him, "So the mighty Harry Potter has finally deigned to visit us?"

Amelia frowned at her tone but chose not to interrupt leaving it to the two of them to sort out their issues.

Harry gave a lope sided grin to Susan, "Miss Bones, I apologize for not seeking your company the moment I returned to Britain, as was my intention. There was a certain veteran auror whose request I granted instead. I ask your forgiveness and will make reparation in any way you choose."

She giggled, "You have become a charmer indeed but you do not need to show your pureblood manners everywhere. Where did you learn them anyhow?"

"From a hard task master who seemed to take offense that I was behaving like an ordinary wizard despite being heir to the House of Potter", he replied smiling, "She seemed to take offense that I have not learned even the formal manners for a Lord and was thus besmirching the good name of my glorious ancestors."

She raised an eye brow at him, "She?"

He shook his head slightly, "Sorry Miss Bones but I cannot tell you about her. Suffice to say that she is someone who taught me a lot about my family history."

Amelia who had been listening intently asked, "What else did you learn with them? I must confess that I was impressed with the way you duelled with everyone but I was expecting something more."

Harry laughed, "I am not supposed to bare all my secrets for others to see, Aunt Amelia."

Amelia still persisted, "At least tell us that they taught you to be able to fight and defeat Tom Riddle."

Susan asked, "Who is Tom Riddle, auntie?"

Harry answered her, "Tom Marvolo Riddle is a half blood wizard born of a squib daughter of a pure-blood family and a muggle. He attended Hogwarts from 1938-45 and was head boy in his time. He had opened the chamber of secrets for the first time and released the monster of Slytherin and a student named Myrtle was killed in the Girl's bathroom on the second floor where she still haunts it. Tom Riddle disappeared after Hogwarts and re-emerged as Lord Voldemort."

Susan squeaked, "He is a half-blood?"

Harry smiled, "Ironic isn't it? He claims to be champion of pure-bloods and is son of a muggle."

As they were talking, the elf popped in telling Amelia that the guests had begun to arrive and were being seated in the visitor's room around the table. Harry accompanied them to the room and found the Dowager Longbottom with Neville, Lord Macmillan, and Lord Acton sitting around the table. Harry introduced himself to the lords and they reciprocated his gesture very warmly.

After the others had arrived and were seated at the table, Amelia opened the meeting, "we all know that you-know-who has returned from the dead and is active among us again. How he did it is beyond my comprehension but I can guess that he used some dark magic to this end. The minister of magic is acting like an idiot and refusing to hear anything that we have to say. He also has been refusing to increase the budget of the DMLE nor allowed me to recruit more Aurors despite the fact that we do not have enough Aurors for even the regular jobs. So, I have called you all here to revive the great alliance as it existed before the first war because Cornelius Fudge has outlived his utility as the minister and now is becoming more of a hindrance. We need someone else in that position who would not balk at making hard decisions nor would shy away from the grim realities of war lurking on the horizon."

Lord Boot raised his hand, "What is to say that we would be able to replace him as the minister?"

Harry who was sitting quietly replied, "I am glad you asked this question, Lord Boot. I have some surprises in store that will give us significant leverage over the minister when the Wizengamot convenes on the 15th. The politics is going to become interesting and our great alliance will be the centre of it. We already have a significant number of votes on our side and our block forms the majority of the original houses on our side."

Lord Macmillan who was not quite convinced said, "Of the original houses there are Bones, Black, Potter, Macmillan, Sayre, Greengrass and Nott left out of which only Potter, Bones and Macmillan are represented in this meeting. How do we have the majority?"

Amelia took the conversation from there, "Because Harry Potter being the godson of Sirius Black is his heir. Since Sirius Black is the blood heir of House of Black, Harry Potter has ascended to Lordship of the House of Black. House of Black will sit in the great alliance on the Wizengamot in the upcoming session."

The members cheered at this proclamation and the meeting was dismissed with the promises of ousting Fudge from his seat however the question remained as to who would succeed him. They both decided to discuss it in the meeting of the Alliance later.

After that Amelia left the two of them to have a little talk and Harry who had no practical experience of talking to a girl outside of Hermione or Ginny knew of nothing to say and was sitting quietly till Susan broke the ice, "what was it like in India, Harry?"

Harry beamed, "It was a pleasant experience except for the training part. The trainers I had were ruthless task masters and they ran me ragged everyday however I did learn a lot more there in one month than I ever did in 4 years at Hogwarts."

She giggled, "Did you even try to learn anything at Hogwarts other than Defence and Quidditch?"

Harry mock scowled, "I will have you know Miss Bones that I was very good at charms too. I mastered the summoning charm enough to summon my broom from the castle all the way to the arena. I could cast a Patronus at the age of 13."

She chuckled, "I am just having some fun, Harry. Don't worry."

Left without anything to talk about, he asked again, "How is Hannah? Did you visit with her during the summer?"

She shrugged, "I had decided that I would call her once you forgive her. I send her letters every now and then but we haven't met yet."

He urged her, "Then floo call her. It is not wise to stay away from your friends for so long especially your best friend."

She smiled brightly at him. She did not want to let on to Harry, but she had missed her best friend terribly. She had been practicing with the Gryffindors while Harry was off with the mystics, but that just wasn't the same. She inwardly hoped that things would be fine between Hannah and Harry.

She went to the entrance hall where she picked up a jar from the mantel and threw some floo powder in the fire-place and said, "Abbott Home'. A minute later, Hannah's face appeared in the flames and Susan grinned at her, "How soon can you come over here?"

Hannah started, "Oh, I don't know. I have to wash my hair, iron my shoe laces, and finish my shop..." And Susan had to get out of the way as her friend stepped out of the fireplace.

As Hannah stumbled out of the floo and followed her friend into the parlour she playfully growled at her, "About time, Bones. I thought you had forgotten about...", her words trailed off as she found the stranger sitting in one of the chairs. The stranger seemed familiar but she could not quite place him. She raised an eye-brow at Susan who just smirked at her. The stranger was about 6 feet in height and while he wore robes, she could guess that he had an excellent physique and his eyes glowed with power. While he cut an imposing presence, she felt he was not older than her or Susan.

The stranger rose from his seat, gave her a perfectly executed bow showing off his pureblood upbringing and took her right hand pretending to kiss her knuckles, "Miss Abbott, Harry James Potter at your service."

Hannah thought she had heard wrong and could not connect this person to the boy who had been studying with her for the last 4 years but there was no doubt about it that he was indeed Harry Potter because those emerald orbs were not so common in the wizarding world.

"Miss Abbott," his words jolted her from her reverie, "How are you and how has your summer been so far?"

She hesitated to say anything. She had not yet asked his forgiveness for the last year and he was being nothing but cordial towards her. She stuttered, "Ha.. Harry, I have something to say to you."

He inclined his head slightly, "Oh? Please do go on."

She gathered her courage, "Harry I am sorry that I caused you unnecessary trouble last year when your name came out of the goblet. I am sorry that I resented you for entering your name into the tournament when it was not you. I didn't realise my folly till it was too late and could not gather courage to say sorry."

Harry smiled serenely, "Hannah, we are children. We are bound to make mistakes and we will fall and rise while we are growing up. Cedric was a Hufflepuff, the finest champion Hogwarts could have hoped for and a good and loyal friend. We all feel his loss deeply. I can understand why you and many others felt resentment when it looked like I was trying to take away from his glory. I have forgiven you entirely."

Susan watched the conversation and smiled, happy that her best friend and her betrothed had become friends at least.

Gringotts, the same evening

Harry Potter and Sirius Black were sitting in front of Griphook in the bank. Harry had been looking for time to go and claim his family Grimoires so that he could study them.

Harry opened the conversation, "How are you Account Manager Griphook? I trust things are well. How are things going with maintaining my account?"

The goblin replied, "Lord Potter, when you left after claiming your lordships we had a lot of business to conduct and you were in haste. As I have audited your family accounts, I found that a large chunk of your money is loaned to different families and never repaid. I have sent missives to them to ask them to pay the borrowed amount with interest. I have also made some investments on your part in several businesses and as a result you own many businesses and majority shares in a quidditch team."

Harry sat up a bit straighter, "A Quidditch team? Which one?"

"That would be the Puddlemere United, Lord Potter", said Griphook, looking like such details were completely beside the point.

Now Harry was grinning widely, "That makes things interesting. Now my former captain Oliver Wood plays for my team".

The goblin sighed. "Now, can we get down to business?"

Harry asked him, "Excellent. What about my estates?"

Griphook pulled a bulky stack of parchments and looked into it before replying, "The Potter family has many homes spread throughout the world which include Potter Manor, Potter Castle and of course the cottage in Godric's hollow. Except for the cottage at Godric's Hollow which has been declared a national monument, the rest of the properties are preserved under Stasis charms which would need to be lifted and it depends on you whether you want to do so. The same goes for properties of your other houses except House of Black which is being managed by Ripthroat."

Harry turned business like then, "Griphook, how many companies manufacture the wolfsbane potion? What is their financial condition? I want you to look at them and find out one such company which is in the middle of an economic crisis but can be bought and with little restructuring we can run it successfully."

Griphook looked sharply at him, "You have something in mind, Lord Potter?"

Sirius who was sitting quietly turned to him, "Are you planning to take over one such facility, pup? Wolfsbane requires costly ingredients and is sold slightly above the manufacturing cost not to mention there are only a few potion masters who can successfully brew it. I would only advise you that if you are planning to take over one such facility, think about it before you make a decision because running an enterprise is not an easy task while you are in school."

Harry was already getting an idea about how business worked, already knew that you can't make potions without ingredients. There was a certain supplier which seemed to have the market cornered in aconite and they were gouging.

"Well", Harry thought, "they are going to be in for a rude surprise when they find out that their poison is completely worthless."

He turned to Griphook, "We will need greenhouses. We will not have any supply issues."

To Sirius, he said, "I have discovered alternate version of the Wolfsbane Potion which will need to be registered by ICW before we can start its mass production however I have perfected it already. It does not use Aconite but another substitute. We will be using my process to brew the potion but I will not be looking after the day to day operations. That will be supervised by my Steward."

Sirius was confused and it was evident on his face, "Ok, you have got me confused here. Who is this Steward and when did you appoint him?"

Harry grinned, "I have not appointed him yet."

Sirius asked sighing, "Ok I will bite, whom do you have in mind?"

Harry smiled, "Moony, of course."

It took Sirius a few minutes before he could stop laughing. Then he sobered up, "While this is a good idea, do you think he will accept it?"

Harry gave him a conspiratorial look, "Leave that to me."

Griphook who had been sitting quietly muttered, "While all this is good and cosy, time is galleons and a minute wasted is a galleon lost."

Harry turned to him, "Right. So, your instructions are to find one such facility and buy it. Also look into my estate to find if there are greenhouses and if there are any, we will lift the stasis charms on those properties. Once you do then I will have further instructions for you. Now I have a question for you, Griphook."

Griphook said off handedly, "and what is the question, Lord Potter?"

Harry smirked, "How would you like to make some quick galleons, say 1,00,000 G?".

Griphook's countenance immediately brightened, "I am listening."

Harry said, "I have a slightly decayed 1000 year old Basilisk's carcass which would get me a lot of Galleons. Greengotts would be paid 10% commission to broker the deal to the highest bidder."

Griphook's eyes were big as galleons, "And how long is the carcass? How did you come across it?"

Harry said off-handedly, "Around 60 meters or so and around 4 meters in diameter. Not quite in perfect condition as its eyes and one fang are gone. It was the monster in Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and was petrifying students. I killed it with the Sword of Gryffindor."

Griphook was literally salivating now, "What do you want in the deal in return for Gringott's rendering the corpse of the beast?"

Harry smirked knowing he had the Goblin hanging on his every word now, "That depends upon what Gringotss is offering me. I can give you a memory to see its size and let me know how much it is worth."

Griphook produced a pensieve and Harry pulled a memory out of his head and handed it to the Goblin who replicated it and returned the original to him. He delved into the pensieve for a few minutes and returned ashen faced, "You slew it with only a sword? That is incredible. Gringotts can fetch you 10 million Galleons for the carcass of the beast after deducting the rendering charges."

Harry contemplated his words for sometime before he spoke again, "Put that in writing for me if you please. I will offer 10% of the amount being offered to me as payment to Gringotts for sale of the parts of the beast. I will want some portion of its body parts for some of my potions. There is also a ton of shed skin which I have been told can be quite useful for making armour and I want two dozen armours prepared of the skin while I will take some of the skin for getting a special set of armour manufactured for me."

Griphook who had been noting all of this with diligence, looked up at him when he started speaking, "Will there be anything else, Lord Potter?"

Harry smiled, "Indeed. I will want to visit all my family vaults after I have had my meeting with Ripfang. In the meantime, get this contract drafted so that you can render the basilisk tomorrow."

5 minutes later, they were sitting in front of Ripthroat who asked, "Lord Black, how can I serve you today?"

Harry said, "I am trying to prune my family tree ridding it of some obnoxious members and adding some respectable members at the same time."

The manager raised an eye brow at him, "Meaning?"

He replied coldly, "I have decided to cast Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black off the family tree and dissolve her marriage for bringing shame to the name of family and for swearing loyalty to a wizard who is nothing more than a mass murdering psychopath and claim her vault in reparations to the Longbottoms for the torture that they had to go through. Also I want you to send a demand notice to Lord Lestrange to return the dowry paid to him by House Black in her marriage."

Sirius had filled him in regarding the topic when he had returned from Bones Townhouse and they had decided to do it before the Wizengamot session so that if Rolondo Lestrange came to know of it, he would not be able to move the contents of the vault.

The goblin nodded, "As soon as you cast her out of the family, I will make the move to get the contents of her vault confiscated. When I have done that I will send you a list of the contents."

Harry pulled out his wand and grasped it in his hands, "I, Lord Harold James of House Black hereby dissolve marriage of one Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black with Rodolphus Lestrange and cast her out of the family on the grounds that she brought infamy to the family name by becoming a murderer and committing sacrilege against Mother Magic. From this moment forth, she will be known as Bellatrix nameless. So I say so mote it be." A circle of white light engulfed him.

The goblin nodded, "Bellatrix Nameless is not a member of the Black Family anymore and I will start to confiscate her vault. Do you want anything done to the erstwhile Regent Lord Malfoy?"

Harry had thought about it hard and asked the goblin, "Did he make any alliance for House Black in his capacity as Regent or misused the Black fortune?"

The goblin grinned, "No. A regent cannot draw money from such a vault. Only when the heir, for whom he is acting as Regent, comes of age can withdraw any funds from that fortune. While he flaunted his position as Regent for House of Black, he had the sense to not make any such alliance in that capacity."

Harry sighed, "Damn! Here I was thinking I would be able to send him to Azkaban without fighting him."

After that, he instructed the Goblin to record that House Weasley was now a cadet line of House Black along with the Tonks family and as such, they were under his protection. He further instructed him to pay the customary dowry to the Weasley's vault for the dowry which was denied to Cedrella Black after the Wizengamot session. He also instructed him to get rings made for each member of the House of Black which would be connected with his ring and inform him if any of them were in danger and required his assistance.

Ripthroat escorted them to the trolleys and the trolleys went in deeper than he had ever seen. It went into such depths that he had not even imagined that it was possible. Finally they came to what he thought was the lowest level where the Vaults numbers were in single digits and some familiar names appeared to him like Potter, Bones, Black, Greengrass etc. The cart stopped in front of a vault with number 6 and an adder was inscribed on the door. As he put his hand to the handle, it scanned his magic and opened noiselessly a second later. The vault was huge. It was magically expanded and looked about three storeys high. There was a mountain of Galleons on one side with an equally big mountain of Silver Sickles and Bronze knuts however Harry was here for only one thing, the Grimoire.

It was kept on a pedestal in the centre of the vault. As he picked it up, the air around him rushed for a bit before relaxing. He handed the Grimoire to Sirius who shrunk it and slipped it into a bag. As Harry scanned the vault's interior, something else caught his eye. There was a glass cabinet full of daggers and he pulled them out for inspection. Sirius who had noticed this said to him, "Interested in them, Prongslet? Most of them are forged with a curse built into them. Anyone unfortunate enough to even get touched by the tip would die horribly. These are a family secret."

Harry instantly picked up the entire cabinet, shrunk it and pocketed it.

The next Vault was #4 Potter which had a Griffin on it. Like the Black Vault, it was full of Galleons but that did not catch his eye. He collected the Grimoire and went to inspect the swords which were beautifully arranged in a big display cabinet. He tested a few of them before a sword caught his eye. It was forged of the nearly indestructible Goblin silver, its double edged straight blade, nearly four feet long, still razor sharp with a basket style hand-guard, pommel and grip balanced to wield it with one hand or two. The entire weapon looked like it had been forged in one piece. There was an emerald, the same colour as Harry's eyes set into the pommel. The grip was wrapped with some sort of snake skin which seemed to shape itself to Harry's hand as he gripped it. There was the figure of a griffin worked into the basket guard. The whole weapon felt surprisingly light, warm and alive in his hand. He grinned broadly as he placed it in the scabbard the mystics had given him and it adjusted itself to a perfect fit. Then he shrunk them, scabbard and sword, and tucked them away in his cloak.

He looked through the family portraits of which there were many, but; not one of his parents. Later Sirius told him that James did not have one made when he died.

The Peverell Vault was set on another level altogether where there were a few vaults with symbols of families that Harry could not recognise. The Peverell vault had the thestral on it and the Vault was full of gold Galleons (money would only grow when it is being invested but not being spent) but that did not catch his eye either. He collected the Grimoire and was about to leave when a piece of armour caught his eye. It was made of goblin silver and looked very imposing. He shrunk the armour too.

The same happened with Rosier and Weber though their vaults were not as spectacular.

Blacktown House

As Harry Potter reached his room after a big dinner, a pile of presents was waiting for him with grinning Ron, Hermione, Neville and Susan there. They told him that they had brought their gifts for him for his belated birthday. The top of the pile was a gift from Sirius and Remus which was an album of photographs of him with his mother and father (he had some in his personal vault), him with the marauders and a set of books. Hermione predictably had brought him a book on defensive magic. Ron had brought him a big packet of Chocolates which he said he had brought from the amount he earned by working for Fred and George. The twins had given him a packet of their latest inventions and directions about how to use it. Susan had brought him a bracelet which contained some built-in charms meant for safety. Neville gave him a set of books like others.

After an hour of idle chat and merry making with his friends, he went to sleep after placing some wards on the door.

He woke up early and as he opened the door to his room, Sirius was there stuck to the floor. Harry grinned at him, "Bested again, Padfoot?"

Sirius scowled, "Cheeky Brat. I swear that those people have changed my son with another person. You were not so paranoid before."

Harry descended downstairs while waving his hands around and hollered to Sirius, "They just made me aware of the world around me in more ways than one."

Sirius sent a patronus to Remus who arrived promptly but as he stepped on the last stair, the step disappeared and his leg passed through and the step reformed instantly catching his foot. He roared to Sirius, "Curse you Padfoot. You get stuck and drag me into these pranks. This is twice that Prongslet has got the jump on us."

Sirius did not say anything but sent a patronus to the twins hoping they would be able to help them, promising them to help with some pranks if they would come and rescue the Marauders. When the twins arrived, they laughed at the Marauders for a bit before they apparated (Sirius had lifted the anti- apparition ward for this) near Sirius and one of the twins found himself to be standing in a swamp (one of the twins products which was in the gift box) while the other was stuck waist deep in what appeared to be quicksand. They all roared in chorus, "We will get you for this Harry."

Meanwhile Harry Potter was at the cottage, running laps around the property and imagining how things would be playing at Black Townhouse and he could imagine that they would be vowing revenge against him.

When he returned to the Townhouse, he found a guest sitting at the dinner table. He was a red-head, well-muscled, with partially healed burns on his arms and calloused hands. Harry had no problem remembering Charlie Weasley, the dragon handler.

As he entered, Charlie stood up and bowed to him, "Lord Black, it is good to see you."

He immediately scoffed, "Please call me Harry and none of this bowing unless it is absolutely necessary. I won't stand on formalities with you or your family. When did you arrive?"

Charlie replied, "I was working in the reserve and received an owl yesterday from father asking me to come home as soon as I could manage. I grabbed the earliest portkey out of there today and here I am."

Arthur who had entered the kitchen just then said, "Harry, when you petition for reinstatement of House Weasley on the Wizengamot, I seek favour from you to petition them to allow Charlie here to take the mantel of Lord Prewett since there are no Prewetts anymore and by reason of being their daughter, Molly and her children are entitled to ascend."

He nodded, "I understand that however why not Bill?"

Arthur smiled, "Considering that Bill is my heir, there is no other option than Charlie."

Charlie muttered, "That means I will have to find a job at the Reserve in Wales here."

Headmaster's office, later that day

Harry Potter was sitting before the headmaster after they had a tiring day. He had taken the Head Master and McGonagall with the Goblins to the Chamber of Secrets where they had collected the skins shed by the Basilisk then spent four hours rendering the Basilisk. As they were collecting the ingredients, Harry had asked for a vial of Basilisk venom which was now sitting in his cloak. As the goblins were leaving, Harry had taken Griphook aside and gave him the piece of armour telling him to meld it with the basilisk skin so that he could have armour like Pawan had suggested.

Dumbledore who could not control his curiosity asked, "My boy, why did you ask for the Basilisk Venom?"

Harry said nothing but produced the scabbard and sword from somewhere in his cloak. He returned them to their natural size then drew the sword, its polished blade and the gem-stone catching and reflecting the light in the office. Harry placed an impervious charm on the top of the headmaster's desk and laid the sword there. Then he took the phial from his robes and being careful to keep the blade lying flat, he poured the venom, drop by drop down the length of the blade. When the venom was absorbed by the marvellous material, he flipped the blade over and repeated the operation on the other side. The blade momentarily flashed the same colour as the venom then returned to its normal sheen. When he was done, he looked at Dumbledore who understood what he was doing.

The headmaster smiled, "Of course you are readying it as a way to destroy Horcruxes. Now how can I be of service?"

The operation completed, Harry replaced the sword in its scabbard and shrinking it, tucked it away in his robes again. There was still some venom remaining in the phial, so he stowed that away for future use before he answered. His visage turned grim, "Head master the mystics told me that Hagrid's mission was a failure and 30 Giants are on their way to Wizarding Britain to join Voldemort's ranks."

Albus turned grim likewise, "This is bad news indeed. Did they tell you a way to deal with Giants?"

He smiled, "I am glad you asked this Professor. They told me about the vulnerabilities of Giants and gave me a design of a catapult which can be used to bring them down, however such designs can be made only by the Goblins and not without a cost. I will finance the construction of the catapult and then we will need to train some students to operate it."

Dumbledore smiled in satisfaction that the mystics were taking care of the problems and were ready to help as needed. He turned to the teen, "Any other news that you might want to share?"

Harry shook his head, "No other news but I want you to write a missive to Olivanders to fit me with another wand."

Dumbledore asked him, "Surely you have a wand. Why do you need another?"

Harry smirked, "Let's just say that I know about the rights of the Victor in wandlore and want to avoid any such situation. Speaking of wands, I want you to return my heirlooms to me- the wand and the stone."

Dumbledore sighed, "There is nothing that escapes you, is there?"

He opened a drawer and pulled out a wand and a stone. The wand had beads throughout its body and was larger than other wands that he had seen. He of course knew that it was made from Elder wood and Thestral hair. As he took the wand in his hand, he could feel his magic flaring, a feeling of rejuvenation passing through his body. The stone was warm in his hands and gave him a comfortable feeling. The heirlooms of Lord Peverell had returned to him at last.

Harry produced a very ornate looking box and passed it to Dumbledore saying, "Lord Harsh Vardhan has sent this gift to you."

Dumbledore eagerly opened the box and was stunned by the necklace of Slytherin. He employed his wand in casting several diagnostic spells and none of them returned positive meaning that the necklace was not a horcrux anymore.

He looked at Harry to find him smiling and said, "My boy, by rights this belongs to you. Why are you returning it to me?"

Harry shrugged, "For the same reason that the sword of Gryffindor is not mine. This is a common heritage of the Wizarding World to be treasured and appreciated by all. I would have no use of it at all."

Dumbledore slipped the box in a cabinet and closed it shut and put some protective spells on the cabinet to stop anyone from finding it. Dumbledore wrote a missive for Ollivanders telling him to fit Harry with a new wand and the teen left happily.

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