"What're you reading?"

Harry deposited himself onto the couch, disturbing the pillows Aria had gathered around her into a nest. She gave him a half-hearted scowl even as he stole more pillows to put around himself. She snatched her favorite blue pillow with a fuzzy front back.

"I'm looking into what it takes to be a healer," she said. "It's rather fascinating."

"I thought you were going to be a potion's mistress," Harry said.

"I could be both," Aria argued, though she doubted that very much. At least, not right away. She knew from Penny's letters that the girl was practically worked to the bone as part of her healer apprenticeship, but Penelope was also studying to be a general healer.

"We're entering into 5th year," Aria reminded Harry. "We're going to be taking our OWLs which will directly impact what we can or cannot take for NEWTs and that impacts what we can or can't do after Hogwarts. Professor Snape said that we'll be pulled into his office for career discussions." She glanced over at him. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Alive."

Aria huffed.

"I'm serious, Harry," she admonished.

"I am being serious!" Harry cried. "At this rate . . . if I make it to adulthood without Voldemort killing me it'll be a miracle."

"Don't say that," Aria said. "It's not funny."

"Sorry," Harry muttered.

"Pretend that Voldemort doesn't exist," Aria instructed. "What would you want to be then?"

Harry frowned, hugging a pillow to his chest. He had been rather quiet since his healer's appointment. Very closed mouth about it. Aria was not use to Harry keeping secrets from her, and she was doing her best to be content with him not telling her everything, but it was so hard! Getting him to talk at all this summer was like pulling teeth.

"A teacher," Harry finally said. "I . . . I think I'd like to be a defense teacher. People come to me to help them in DADA all the time, and I enjoy helping the younger kids learn defense when they're having trouble."

"I think you'd make a great teacher," Aria said. "Professor Potter."

Harry threw a pillow at her.

The Floo suddenly flared. Aria and Harry immediately reached for their wands. Sirius was not due home from the ministry for another couple of hours, and Neville and Barty were in Switzerland now. Their Spinner's End Floo address was not known to many people, so it was concerning to have it flare in the middle of the afternoon.

"Remus!" Aria cried just as Sirius came flying out of the grate, soot covering him like he had no care for how he appeared so long as he came out of the correct grate. There was a wild look in his eyes, nearly like the look that he had had in his mugshot.

"Remus!" Sirius shouted, skidding to a stop in front of the couch, nearly flipping over the coffee table. Remus came running from the kitchen, still holding a box of tea in one hand, his wand in the other.

"Harry!" Sirius cried, grabbing hold of Harry, and pulling him up from the couch. "I need to take you to Gringotts now!"

"Why?" Harry cried. Aria jumped to her feet, fear curdling in her stomach.

"Remus, you need to come!" Sirius cried, yanking Remus forward. He dropped the tea box in shock. Within seconds the three of them were back through the Floo and Aria was alone in the house.

What the hell had just happened?

The Floo deposited Sirius, Harry, and Remus in a private receiving room that Harry had not known existed. He had thought that you could only access Gringotts by walking through the front doors.

Sirius marched them from the receiving room which was off the main lobby down the familiar hallway that led to the offices of account managers. Harry had only been down the hall a few times, and only since Sirius returned from Switzerland. Sirius was handling most of the Potter accounts while Harry was still a minor, though he had taken Harry once to introduce him to the Potter account manager, Ripblade.

"Sirius," Remus cried as they marched. "What is going on?"

"Wait," Sirius answered. He threw open the door to Ripblade's office, dragging Harry inside.

Within, Ripblade was speaking in rapid Gobblygook to several other goblins while a set of healers in the lime green robes of St. Mungo's stood talking quietly with Bill Weasley. Bill looked over the moment they arrived and grinned. Harry immediately felt better seeing Bill. It couldn't be too bad if Bill was here, right? Maybe they had found something in one of his vaults that they needed to get rid of?

"Thank you, Lord Black, for bringing Heir Potter here so quickly," Ripblade said. "Please take a seat and we can go over next steps."

"What is happening?" Remus demanded. "Sirius, you've ten seconds to explain what is going on!"

"Calm yourself, Mr. Lupin," Ripblade said. "Please sit and we will explain."

Remus took a seat, still glaring a bit at the goblins while Sirius pulled Harry to a seat so that he sat between Sirius and Remus.

"Hello," one of the healers said, stepping forward. "I'm Healer Murdoch. I specialize in curses, particularly those curses that have been placed on a person. Healer Crutchley sent me the scan results from your physical the other day, centered on your scar."

Oh, is this what this was about? Harry worried his bottom lip. This was probably bad then. But they were they at Gringotts and not St. Mungo's?

"I specialized in Black Magic curses when I did my training," Healer Murdoch continued. "It involved the study of obscure magics, ones that aren't seen much anymore. It took a few days for me to recognize what I was seeing in your scans, which I then brought here to Gringotts for confirmation."

"What is it?" Remus asked. Sirius was shaking his head, clearly having already been told, his face pale. Only now did Harry realize his godfather was trembling.

"Mr. Potter's scar is acting like a little pocket," Healer Murdoch explained. "Within this little pocket is a fragment of a soul."

"A what?" Remus cried, disgust and horror coloring his voice. Harry, for his part, did not scream or shout. How could he when his very insides felt like they were freezing over. A piece of soul? His mind immediately jumped to the diary that Draco had had back in second year, the foul piece of magic that they had had to call the aurors in for, when Harry first met Bill.

Glancing at Bill and seeing how grim his face had become, Harry knew immediately what they were dealing with.

"I've got a Horcrux in my head?" he cried, jumping to his feet, eyes widening in his own horror.

"The soul fragment itself is not the Horcrux," Healer Murdoch explained.

"How do you know what a Horcrux is?" Sirius demanded.

"What do you mean the fragment isn't the Horcrux?" Harry asked.

"A Horcrux," Bill said, soothingly, gently, like Harry were a wild animal, and maybe he was because he could feel his magic swirling within him in horror and agitation, desperate to fix whatever it was that was making him hysterical, "is not the piece of soul itself, but the object in which the soul fragment resides. You are the Horcrux, Harry."

White noise. The rushing of blood in his ears. He could no longer hear the people around him as Bill's words banged about in his head, echoing over and over and over again. He was a Horcrux. He was a Horcrux! He had a piece of someone's soul inside his head! Who's soul was . . .

Harry gasped as it clicked.

"I have a piece of Voldemort's soul inside my head?" he shrieked.

"That is what we believe," Healer Murdoch answered. Why was the healer being so calm about this? There was a piece of the Dark Lord in his skull! He needed it out. Out! Out!

Harry heard Sirius and Remus and Bill and the healers shouting, but he ignored them as he took his nails to his forehead and began digging. He needed the soul out of him now! Out! Out! Out! He had had the scar since the night his parents had died! It was the symbol of all that he had survived but really it was just the entry point to filth and horror and a piece of Voldemort. No wonder the motherfucker was able to come back to life when he had made Harry a Horcrux! No wonder the man was obsessed with him!

His face was growing sticky. There were hands on him, trying to keep him from scratching at his scar.

"No!" he screamed, batting at the hands, trying to rip out of their grip. "I've got to get it out. Get it out!"

He was suddenly pressed against a warm and solid chest, his arms forced into a crisscross at his waist. The grip on him was firm but it did not hurt him. Harry tried yanking out of the grip, but he could not budge whoever was holding onto him.

"Let me go!" he shouted. "Let me go, please! I've got to . . . got to . . ."

"Harry!" Gentle hands cupped Harry's blood-stained face, holding his face firmly until Harry's vision cleared and he stared into Remus' amber eyes. His whole chest heaved as he began to come down from the hysteria that had possessed him. Harry could feel the blood trickling from his forehead, threatening to fall into his eyes, some of it mixing with the tears rolling down his cheeks. Remus took a handkerchief and carefully wiped the blood away.

"Deep breaths, Harry," Remus murmured. "Follow Sirius, okay? Breathe like him."

Only now did Harry realize that it was Sirius holding him in such a firm grip. He let his head fall back on his godfather's shoulder, feeling how Sirius breathed in . . . and out . . . in . . . out . . .

Sirius released Harry's arms, bringing his own arms up further, wrapping Harry in a tight hug while pressing his face into Harry's hair.

"Sirius," Harry sobbed, "there's a Horcrux . . . I'm a Horcrux . . . please get it out of me!"

"We're going to," Sirius murmured. "We're going to. You just need to take some deep breaths, okay?" Harry nodded and they sat, just breathing, for a few minutes. Remus finished wiping all the blood and tears from Harry's face.

"If Mr. Potter is prepared," Ripblade eventually said, "we can move to the ritual room. Gringotts has experienced cursebreakers who know how to remove soul fragments from objects without destroying the object."

Harry nodded.

"I'm ready," he whispered. "Is that . . . is Bill going to help?"

"I'm one of Gringott's best at Horcrux destroying," Bill replied, coming into Harry's line of vision. "I had a lot of practice in Egypt and since I've been transferred back to England, I've been tasked with the more . . . obscure curses that Gringotts is tasked to deal with. You're going to be just fine, okay? I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Harry nodded and Sirius released him. He rose on shaky legs, leaning on Remus for extra support as the group made its way out of the office and down another hallway.

"The process is straightforward," Bill told Harry as they entered the chamber. "I will essentially 'recall' the soul fragment from you and place it into another object. That object we will then destroy which will then destroy the soul fragment."

"Is that what you did with the diary?" Harry asked.

"What diary?" Sirius asked.

"A horcrux made its way into Hogwarts during Harry's second year," Bill explained. "The aurors and I were immediately called, and I disposed of it. A diary that belonged to a former student named Tom Riddle."

"Who was he?" Remus asked as the goblins began drawing multiple runes on the floor while conversing with Healer Murdoch about where each rune needed to go.

"Not sure," Bill answered. "I did some research, just to make sure he hadn't made any more. In Egypt it was common at one time to make up to three horcruxes. As far as I'm aware, Tom Riddle made the horcrux at sixteen and then graduated Hogwarts, worked for a bit at Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley, but then he disappears from the record. I can't find anything about him after about six years after he graduated Hogwarts."

"We have prepared the space," Healer Murdoch said to Bill. Bill inspected the runes with a nod.

"Harry," he said, "I need you to lie down in the middle of the circle we've drawn."

"Is . . . will it hurt?" Harry asked, his feet suddenly feeling like lead. "Don't lie to me, please."

Bill let out a heavy breath.

"It will hurt," he said. "I can't imagine that it won't. The soul fragment is most likely attached to you and won't want to leave." Bill placed his hands on Harry's shoulders. "I will make sure you come out of this all right, Harry. I won't let anything happen to you."

Harry nodded. He didn't think he could trust any other cursebreaker.

"I'm also going to cast a body bind on you," Billy explained. "It's important that, for a ritual like this where we need to remove a soul fragment that we maintain control of it until we can get it into another vessel. If you were to move outside the circle, the soul fragment might get away from us and try to possess one of us."

Harry grimaced.

"I understand," he muttered, stepping into the circle and laying down. Bill patted his shoulder and cast a soft Petrificus Totalus. For a few seconds everything was fine, then Harry's heart began to beat faster, and he felt unexpected panic slam over him like a tidal wave. Long flashes of memory from the night of the Third Task zipped across his mind, how Abraxas Malfoy tied him so tightly to the headstone of Voldemort's father he could not move an inch. The panic only grew as a hideous pain came clawing at his scar. When Voldemort had touched him that night, he had pressed a skeletal finger to Harry's scar, and it felt just like now. Like someone was trying to split his head open with an axe. If he had been able to open his mouth, Harry would have screamed and screamed and screamed.

Above him, he could only see the ceiling of the ritual room and a growing cloud of inky blackness as it was yanked bit by bit from his head. He could vaguely hear Bill and the healers and the goblins chanting, or at least he thought they might be chanting. There was too much blood pumping in his ears, and the black cloud fighting not to be taken from his head kept shrieking with an intensity and pitch that was the stuff of Muggle horror stories. The soul fragment did not want to be separated from its host.

Why couldn't he just pass out? Why did he have to suffer through being awake during this? Harry fought against the body bind, wanting out now, but Bill's magic was too strong. If he made it back home from this, he was going to wrap himself his dad's Invisibility Cloak, an object Sirius had given him just after the Second Task once he had managed to liberate it from Dumbledore and hide away from the world.

He'd take Hedwig with him of course. Maybe let Aria come too. But he would wrap himself up so that no one could find him. No Voldemort, no Dumbledore, nothing. He would be hidden away from the world, and no one would be able to hurt him every again.

Harry's body gave a sudden jerk, his shoulders lifting several inches off the stone floor as Bill gave a final yank on the inky blackness desperate to stay attached to Harry. The sudden release sent Harry slamming back against the floor, his head knocking against the stone. Pain blossomed in the back of his head, bright spots of color erupted in his eyes, and he prayed that he would pass out.

Movement suddenly came back to Harry as his body was released from the Body Bind. Immediately he was crying out in pain, trembling arms reaching for his head. Sirius and Remus were immediately in his line of vision, gently grabbing hold of his hands and petting his head.

"You're okay, pup," Sirius murmured over and over again. Harry couldn't form words, he could only make desperate, incoherent yells that began to taper after a few minutes of his guardians gently holding him and whispering sweet nothings into his ears.

"You did so well," Remus whispered, gathering Harry into his arms. "You were so brave. So very brave."

"I wanna go home," Harry sobbed. "Please. I just wanna go home."

"We'll go home," Sirius promised.

"I want Aria," Harry said. She always made things better. He had not been talking to her like he normally had. He had been bottling all his feelings up because he was afraid of burdening her after all the things she had gone through in the last few months. But now all he wanted to do was curl up in bed with her and tell her all the things that he had been keeping to himself. About the Third Task especially. How he was really feeling about the ministry, about Dumbledore, about everything.

"She's at home," Remus assured him. "She'll want to see you too."

Gently, Remus and Sirius had Harry sit up in Remus' arms. Healer Murdoch knelt in front of Harry, waving her wand over him as she took his vitals and treated the front and back of his head.

"Nasty piece of work," Bill said, holding up a battered looking pot which he immediately placed inside a thick bag with golden runes stitched into the fabric. "One less Horcrux in the world."

"Can you write up a report for Madam Bones?" Sirius asked. "I know it's been a bit on the downlow, but the Wizengamot gave the DMLE permission to create a task force to investigate the Third Task and the 'possibility' that the Dark Lord has returned. She'll be interested in the fact that you pulled a fragment of his soul from Harry."

"Will do," Bill assured him.

"Can we take him home?" Remus asked Healer Murdoch. She handed Harry a potion which he swiftly drank. Immediately the pain banging about his head dissipated.

"Yes," she said, "but I want to do a follow-up appointment with his primary care healer."

"We can arrange that," Sirius said, casting a Feather-Light Charm on Harry. He slipped his arms under Harry's knees and shoulders, lifting him in his arms.

"I can walk," Harry muttered, leaning his head against Sirius' shoulder.

"I know you can, but let me carry you this once," Sirius murmured as Ripblade guided them out of the ritual room towards a private Floo usually reserved for human workers at the bank.

Aria sat on the couch staring at the Floo, waiting for Harry to come back with Sirius and Remus. Hedwig had joined her not long into her vigil, and Fawkes had appeared in a blast of fire about an hour ago. His singing had soothed most of Aria's worry, and now she had both bird captive in her arms, though after a few indignant squawks and beak clicks at the beginning, they had settled down, resigned to their fates.

Kenneth arrived, pausing seeing Aria's arms full of birds.

"Where's everyone?" he asked.

"Sirius came back and said they needed to take Harry to Gringotts and they left," Aria answered, still staring at the Floo. "That was four hours ago."

"Did they say why?" Kenneth asked, sitting on the other side of the couch. Aria shook her head.

"Are you holding the birds captive?"

Aria tightened her hold on Hedwig and Fawkes.

"I'm not sure I know who the other bird is," Kenneth said. Fawkes chirped and Kenneth sighed with contentment.

"Fawkes is a phoenix," Aria answered. "He's Dumbledore's familiar—," Fawkes gave a sharp trill as if he were disagreeing with her. "Or . . . maybe not familiar then? But he's always with Dumbledore. Maybe Fawkes just belongs to Hogwarts." She pressed a kiss to the top of Fawkes' head plumage and the bird preened at the attention. Hedwig clicked her beak at Aria, and she had to kiss the top of Hedwig's head to make her feel better.

The Floo finally flared. Aria was on her feet in an instant, still clutching the birds to her chest though neither of them liked the sudden movement. Remus came first, followed by Sirius who was carrying Harry. Harry looked like he had seen better days. His face was as pale as a sick Dicken's character and there were scratches all over his face, particularly on his forehead. His scar too looked nasty, like it had been pried open.

"Thank Merlin!" Aria cried.

"Hedwig," Harry murmured, holding his arms out for his familiar. Aria deposited the snowy owl into her boy's arms. Hedwig cooed worriedly, rubbing her head against Harry's face.

"Is Severus at home?" Remus asked.

"I think so," Aria answered. Remus hurried from the house while Sirius went for the stairs. Aria and Kenneth followed, Fawkes now resting his head on Aria's shoulder now that he was not sharing her arms with another bird. The spoiled little thing.

Aria had to wait in the hallway while Sirius got Harry into pajamas and cleaned his face. Once she was allowed in Harry's bedroom, she sat on the foot of the bed, watching Sirius tuck Harry in. Fawkes flew out of Aria's arms and landed on the headboard, just above Harry's head.

"Why's Fawkes here?" Sirius demanded, eyeing the bird suspiciously.

"Fawkes likes me," Aria said. "He's been showing up ever since he helped me destroy the basilisk second year. Sometimes he comes to me at Hogwarts."

Fawkes began singing while Hedwig settled on the quilt, pressing up against Harry's side to watch over her boy.

"Sirius, what's happened?" Kenneth asked.

"When we took Harry to the healer the other week, he had some concerning readings from Harry's scar, and sent the readings to a curse specialist," Sirius explained, watching Harry pet Hedwig. "Turns out, within the scar, was a piece of the Dark Lord's soul."

"His soul?" Kenneth cried, voice rising in pitch.

"Harry's scar was a horcrux?" Aria gasped.

"Not Harry's scar," Sirius said, "Harry himself."

Aria immediately dry heaved, she should not stop herself. Kenneth grabbed the trash can by the desk and shoved it at her, just in case.

"Bill Weasley and the goblins were able to remove the soul from Harry," Sirius continued, "and we'll be making a follow up appointment with Healers Murdoch and Crutchley."

"What's a horcrux?" Kenneth asked.

"It's a foul piece of dark magic," Sirius spat. "Even we Blacks stayed clear of such things though we certainly retained the knowledge of it. A horcrux is an object in which a piece of a person's soul dwells for safe keeping. If the person were to die, they would not fully die because a part of their soul still remains. Horcruxes can be used to raise the dead, as can a number of rituals. Regardless, they are what ensure people who die don't stay dead."

"And somehow Harry was made to carry a piece of this Dark Lord's soul in him?" Kenneth questioned. Sirius nodded.

"If it's such dark magic, how does Aria know about it?" Kenneth demanded after a minute. Aria gave him her sweetest smile even as he leveled his fiercest glare at her.

"According to Bill Weasley, Harry and his friends came across a horcrux at Hogwarts," Sirius said, also leveling Aria with a sharp glare.

"Yeah, it was a diary from this student called Tom Riddle," Aria said. "I may have interacted with it a bit. We wanted to know if it knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets and it dragged us into a one of its entries. That's how we found out that Hagrid was accused of releasing the monster and expelled." She took a deep breath. "Of course, the diary was somehow responsible for the Chamber being open in the first place during our second year, which means Tom Riddle is somehow involved. Which doesn't make sense because the basilisk killed Myrtle and he and Myrtle were friends! Just like he and Professor McGonagall were but she pretends they weren't!"

The two men stared at her.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked.

"Oh . . . haven't I told you? I can see past events in Hogwarts. I call them Shadows as in Shadows of the Past, you know? Anyway, at the Yule Ball, I saw a Shadow where McGonagall, when she was a student, was kissed under the mistletoe by Tom Riddle. Madam Pomfrey, Lady Longbottom, and Moaning Myrtle were there. They even got a picture! But when I mentioned it to Professor McGonagall she laughed and said she and Tom Riddle had hardly known each other at Hogwarts."

"So, this Tom Riddle's diary happens to be a Horcrux and then a second Horcrux show up attached to Harry?" Kenneth questioned. Aria shrugged.

"That seems to be the gist of it," she said.

Harry suddenly gasped, shoving off the quilt as he sat up, dislodging Hedwig and disrupting Fawkes' song.

"Tom Riddle!" he cried. "He was in the graveyard!"

"What?" Sirius and Kenneth cried together, at the same moment Remus returned with Snape close behind.

"What do you mean?" Aria asked as Snape came to the side of the bed and began casting his own diagnostic charms over her friend.

"I mean his gravestone was in the graveyard," Harry said, breathing heavily. It was clear he was trying to remember something. "I was tied to it and . . . and . . . the headstone read THOMAS RIDDLE, BELOVED FATHER, AND GRANDFATHER. Abraxas Malfoy used a bone from his skeleton in the ritual that brought Voldemort back to life. Called it 'the bone of the father'. And . . . and Voldemort . . . he said . . . said . . . I don't remember exactly, but something about his Muggle father."

"Tom Riddle and You-Know-Who could be the same person?" Sirius questioned. Snape paused in his rifling through a bag for potions.

"It's no wonder Bill couldn't find any information on Tom Riddle after a certain time," Remus hypothesized. "If he got rid of who he was to take on a new persona."

Aria scrunched up her face in thought. It would make sense that Voldemort was not the real name of the Dark Lord. The wizarding world did seem to have some unique naming practices and traditions, but she doubted that any family was cruel enough to actually name their child Voldemort. However, one thing didn't make sense . . .

"Aren't the Death Eaters all about blood purity and pureblood supremacy?" she asked. The wizards nodded. "Then . . . why would someone like Abraxas Malfoy be following him? If Voldemort is Tom Riddle, then that means Tom Riddle's a halfblood."

There was silence in the room for a moment before Sirius burst out laughing. He laughed so hard he had to sit on the floor and tears streamed down his cheeks.

"Cease your insane howls!" Snape ordered, glaring at the man. "I don't see what you're laughing at."

"Voldemort might be a halfblood!" Sirius howled. "My . . . my parents . . . Bellatrix . . . were so bloody in love with him and all that he stood for. Yet he was nothing more than a halfblood himself!"

"Bloody hypocrite then," Remus muttered.

Snape slathered some kind of sticky balm over Harry's inflamed scar.

"It could be," Snape said, "that those who are 'in the know' follow him because his magical bloodline outweighs the Muggle."

"That would have to be some bloodline," Sirius said, wiping his tears away and rising to his feet.

"To get Abraxas Malfoy on your side?" Snape questioned. "It would have to be."

"But that's like . . . Merlin level bloodline," Remus cried. "Or a Founder or something."

"Well . . . the Chamber of Secrets is said to open only for heirs of Slytherin," Sirius said. "At least, the old wives' tales say that."

"It seems," Snape said, changing the subject slightly, "that you've no Dark Magic on you anymore, Mr. Potter." He glanced at Sirius. "After the Horcrux incident in their second year, I ran scans and Mr. Potter had some Dark Magic residue on him. I thought it was from the Killing Curse that had somehow unharmed him as a baby. Now I see it was all focused on the scar."

"Did you know about the Horcruxes?" Remus asked. Snape shook his head.

"I didn't," he said, "but . . . it makes sense. At a certain point . . . the man just got more and more . . . violent and unstable. Like he was going mad. If he were splitting his soul, that could account for such drastic changes in personality. He was, of course, always a terrible man, but there was a strategic method to what he did. At the beginning. Near the end he was . . . well . . . he seemed to lose the plot once he turned all focus on Harry."

"But to go through such a personality change, he would have to make multiple Horcruxes," Sirius said. "I remember reading in a book when I was kid about a man in Finland back in the 1400s who made four Horcruxes and went insane."

"What sort of books were you reading as a kid?" Kenneth cried, voice going up again.

"Well, two are destroyed now," Aria said, reminding all the adults that there were children in the room. "The diary and the soul that was in Harry."

Harry curled up around Hedwig.

"We'll . . . chat more later," Sirius decided, pulling the quilt back up to Harry's shoulders. "Harry's been through a lot today and needs to rest. Do you want any of us to stay?"

"Aria," Harry said. Aria settled on Hedwig's other side.

The men slipped from the room, closing the door quietly behind them. Harry slipped his hand into Aria's.

"It was awful," he whispered. "I was . . . there was so much pain and it . . . it was like I was back in the graveyard, the night of the Third Task."

Aria rubbed her thumb over Harry's knuckles.

"It was . . . I thought I was going to die," Harry said. "Both in the graveyard and at Gringotts. There was . . . it was so painful . . . I just wanted to come home."

"You're here now," Aria whispered.

"The Triwizard Cup was a portkey," Harry went on, as if he hadn't heard Aria. "Cedric and I . . . it took us out of the maze, and we thought it would take us back to the start, but it dropped us in the middle of a graveyard. The cup got tossed a bit from us and we were disorientated . . . as we began to get our bearings, I felt pain in my scar. Like when Professor Quirrell was nearby in first year, but ten times worse. Cedric tried to help me, and I tried to make him leave, but then a robed figure came out of this crypt carrying a baby and . . . he spoke. It was Lord Malfoy. He said,

"'There's another here.' And the bundle in his arms answered, 'Kill the spare' and then Lord Malfoy shot the Killing Curse at Cedric, and he went flying and he was so still and so quiet I thought . . . I thought he was dead!"

Harry buried his face in his pillow. Hedwig clicked her beak, hooting in concern as her boy cried. Fawkes began to trill again, his song easing Harry's tears. Aria too felt tears roll down her cheeks as she heard how her vision had come true. Someone had tried to kill Cedric, and if she hadn't given him that amulet, he would be dead! The thought nearly froze her blood like the original vision had.

"Lord Malfoy cast some kind of spell, forcing him up against this large grave marker . . . like one of those fancy monuments almost . . . that was what had Thomas Riddle written on it. He tied me to it . . . the ropes . . . I can still feel the ropes gripping my wrists, burning them as I tried to get out of them. He then . . . I don't know where it came from . . . but there was a fire and a large cauldron and Lord Malfoy started adding things to it. There was . . . um . . . a bone of the father, which he took from Thomas Riddle's grave, there was the blood of the enemy forcibly taken, which he took from me because he used a really sharp dagger to get my blood." Harry raised his left arm and exposed it, showing the brand-new scar he had received from that night. It was a long cut from his wrist to his elbow. Anger burned in Aria when she saw it. Lord Malfoy probably didn't even need to make the cut that big, he just wanted to because he was a sadistic twat!

"Then he also added, flesh of a follower . . . or something like that," Harry continued. "Malfoy cut a portion of his own arm and added it to the cauldron. It hurt him, I could tell, but he was quick to heal it unlike me. Then he took the baby bundle and tossed it into the cauldron. I was praying that it would drown, that whatever ritual they were trying to perform would fail. But it didn't. Black smoke billowed from the cauldron and it and the fire disappeared and . . . my scar exploded in pain and I was screaming but Lord Malfoy gagged me. When the smoke cleared this ugly . . . reptile like man stood in its place. Malfoy conjured a robe for him."

Harry paused to listen to Fawkes and to pet Hedwig. Aria let him stay silent even though every part of her burned for him to continue. Now was not the time to sate her own curiosity, now was the time to listen.

"He . . . Voldemort . . . he went over to Cedric. Said it was a waste of pureblood blood, but that sometimes these things couldn't be helped. He actually used his foot to push Cedric's face around. Then he came to me and . . . started taunting me. Said he needed to find a way around my mum's sacrifice and now that he and I shared blood he could . . . touch me."

Aria held her breath at the implications. Had He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named molested Harry?

"He pressed his finger to my scar and it was . . . I always thought that pain was the color red. You know? Like sadness is blue and evil is black . . . but it was white hot. I thought I was going to pass out. Be he backed off and used Malfoy's Dark Mark to call his Death Eaters. Many came . . . many didn't. Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were there, so was Lord Parkinson and Lord Nott." Aria nodded, none of those were a surprise.

"Lucius Malfoy was also there," Harry said. "The Dark Lord he . . . he joked about how nice it was for Lucius to come when he was first called and not have to be dragged by the hair to obey."

Aria swallowed hard as she felt sick. Her vision of Draco's future came back, how he had been dragged into the study and forced to take the Dark Mark and there wasn't anything he or his parents could do.

"Voldemort wanted to kill me," Harry continued. "I hoped he would be quick about it, but he wanted to prolong it. Show that he was not going to be bested by a child. He gave me my wand and decided he wanted to duel me. I'm so glad I joined the dueling club with Professor Moody because I would not have lasted as long as I did if I hadn't had some training. I was clearly outmatched though, and I managed to run off and hide behind some gravestones, but I eventually had to go and confront him. When I did, we both cast at the same time and our spells connected in the air. It was both terrifying and beautiful. Somehow . . . and I'm not really sure what was happening, but my magic overpowered the connection and the light of my spell reached out and touched the tip of his wand. Ghosts started coming out of his wand, people he had killed. I think they were in order of his last kills. There was an old Muggle man and my parents."

Harry's voice hitched.

"They spoke to me," Harry murmured. "Said they were so proud of me. That I was so brave. I didn't feel brave, I just wanted it all to end. But they told me to hang on, that they would give me time to escape, and that help was coming. The ghosts rushed at Voldemort and I . . . I was able to make a break for the Cup. People started shooting spells at me, and that was when Cedric suddenly got to his feet and fought back, covering my back until we both stumbled to the Cup, and it took us back to the start of the maze."

The two lay in silence after that, the shadows of the late afternoon lengthening into the shadows of the early evening. Fawkes at some point disappeared in a burst of flame, and Hedwig snoozed in Harry's arms. Aria kept holding onto his hand, deciding that she was not going to be the first to let go.

A creak from the door alerted them to the presence of an adult. Kenneth poked his head in.

"Dinner's ready," he said. "Snape's come by with your nutrition potions, Harry."

"Nutrition potions?" Aria questioned.

"The healer doesn't like how malnourished I am," Harry said. "I've . . . my time at the Dursleys wasn't kind, Aria. I really wish you could remember . . . but not only did they beat me . . . I didn't get enough to eat. Hogwarts is the first place that I've been able to eat three meals a day. So I've got to take from nutrition potions in hopes of catching me up to people our age. I'm short and underweight."

"I could've told you that," Aria quipped, earning a small smile from Harry. Harry slipped his hand out of hers and the two rolled off the bed. Kenneth put an arm around both of their shoulders as they left the room. The smell of linguine and fresh bread wafted up the stairs, as did the irritated tones of Sirius and Snape who seemed to always be two seconds away from throttling each other.

Aria was going to make a slightly snide comment about those two, but Harry was grinning, as if pleased to hear the bickering between the two men, like it was a comfort, so she kept her mouth shut.

Remus' voice sounded, a soft murmur keeping the peace. Harry hurried forward into the kitchen, going straight for Sirius and Remus who greeted him with over-the-top enthusiasm that had the boy laughing.

"I take it you're staying for dinner, Sev?" Kenneth asked.

"I did not invite him!" Sirius cried.

"I am," Snape replied, very seriously. Sirius groaned dramatically before pushing Harry, gently, towards the fridge to grab a pitcher of water. Aria let the soft bickering of the wizards wash over her as she settled at the table. Kenneth's eyes danced with amusement and even Remus' mouth twitched upward a few times.

Whatever happened, Aria decided as the food was passed around to each of them, no Dark Lord was going to break up this little family. They would all survive whatever came, she would make sure of it. Never again would someone hurt Harry, Muggle or magical.

Never.