Unofficial Portkey Archive

disclaimer:

I would like to kindly remind my readers that Harry Potter is the brainchild of one JK Rowling. Not that knowing that will stop me from doing utterly stupid things with her characters as long as I don't charge for it (Which believe me, is far more effort than it's worth.)

Author's note:

Erm... just a quick warning, don't try and get your heads around what day everything happens on... at some point over the last chapter or so I totally lost which week I was up to, so it's a bit airy fairy in this chapter. Timing will make a lot more sense as of the next one.

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The good thing about hearing a prophecy from the ball was that Dumbledore could not have tampered with it. It was definitely the real thing.

The bad thing about hearing the prophecy from the ball was that it was the real thing. Harry wished that Dumbledore had tampered with it just to make him feel bad.

"How can someone be the Last Dark Lord anyway?" He pondered to himself. "If I became a dark lord, some goodie two-shoes would rise up and kill me, then someone else would take my place and voila, new dark lord..." There really was no way to prevent them from rising without destroying the whole world, which Harry just wouldn't allow himself to do.

The sorting hat didn't reply. It hadn't said a word since that night.

He sighed. It was mind boggling trying to find a solution to a problem when you're not sure what the cause was.

There was one thing Harry was grateful for though, shortly after the prophecy and the collective silence of thought processes in action Hermione had glanced at their love potion efforts.

She pointed out that antlers would not be an issue with it if they added the gargoyle flakes after three minutes of stirring instead of two and a half. They'd obviously forgotten the basics of potions Hermione huffed.

"Honestly Remus, I thought you of all people could drum it into Harry. The only problem you'd have now if you go through the procedure again is that it would liquidate our livers. You can fix that with a fresh sprig of parsley though."

"You know, suddenly I feel like Aunt Petunia knew more than she was letting on when she told me that the day I forget to add Parsley to the soup would be the day I'd die."

Hermione flashed him an irritated look. "Well, I know for a fact Harry that without Snape sabotaging your potions you're able to do well, so I shall leave this in your capable hands. I am going to go and study for my exams." She said tartly. "You may not give a rats arse, but when this is all over, I'm going to get myself a nice desk job and enjoy my life to the fullest."

"Sure," Harry grumbled. "And I'll bet it has absolutely nothing to do with Ron."

Hermione blushed and reached into her robe for her portkey. "I might see if I can get Ronald to agree to a game of wizarding chess with me."

"What? Hey wait!" Harry grumbled as she vanished and let out frustrated sigh.

He wished he could understand what Hermione was going through. Even worse, he wished that he could feel the jealousy he knew he should be feeling.

Part of him wanted to go with her so he could see Susan. Instead, he'd do what the Baroness had left for him to do and just hoped that in four weeks when it was done brewing, he wouldn't feel the searing jealousy he wanted to be feeling.

He looked at the list of ingredients. Remus had Minerva already out collecting a couple of them.

Harry would need to get some of the rarer ingredients. He'd thought to raid Snape's private stash, but he knew well that the missing ingredients would be reported to the one person Harry wanted to stay one step ahead of.

No, the ingredients would need to come from somewhere else.

It was with an exaggerated sigh that Harry donned his Baron Black cloak and apparated to the Gringotts apparition point, a little way away from the bank. He wasn't wearing his mask anymore, but at this point he wasn't sure that he cared. Dumbledore knew without a doubt who wore the cloaks so what was the point? Certainly not to hide from the two Aurors outside of the bank.

They looked at him and went wide-eyed. "Is that...? It can't be!"

Harry saw them reach for their wands and he allowed his aura to flare long enough to watch them crumble to the ground and start snoring.

Harry pretended to look surprised and poked one of them. "Are you alright?" He shrugged and kept walking as people looked at him.

Harry approached the goblins at the front Bench. The Goblin at the bench gave him an unusual look.

"Harry Potter, I'd like to use my vault." He showed his key.

The goblin nodded slowly and clicked his finger for one of the chauffeurs to attend to this client.

The goblin who took him down to his vault announced himself as Plotholes. "You'll have to forgive us Mister Potter." Plotholes said nervously, he wringing his hands as the cart plummeted into the darkness.

"I'm sure you're aware that the Ministry of Magic is attempting to repossess the contents of suspected Death Eaters. It is not something we goblins are keen on allowing to happen."

"No, I wasn't aware of that..." Harry flashed an angry look at the goblin. "You better not be telling me that you're taking me into a trap so help me..."

The goblin looked ashamed, but Harry couldn't see it for the lack of light in this part of the ride.

"It is not our trap sir, we do not approve of the Ministry stationing aurors inside of our walls. I am notifying you now in case you wish to decide against going to your vault as I could not well tell you out in the open."

"Take me there. I'll take care of any aurors and eject them from the premises for you." Harry said dangerously.

"Please... Baron Black... Do not spill any blood in our bank, or we will be forced to bring down our security teams on you."

Harry nodded. He had no experience with goblin magic, but if it was anything like house-elf magic, he was sure that they'd have a couple of surprises he'd be unprepared for.

Harry was nervous until the cart slowed to a halt. Outside of his vault were two humans wearing the auror uniform.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Plotholes who explained. "Gringotts bank respects the privacy of their patrons, but your ministry seems to think it can seize your assets because of an unproven status, however, they cannot get into your vault without your key."

"Baron Black, A.K.A. Harry James Potter." The left auror said. "You are accused of being a Death Eater and are a known mass murderer. You are under arrest, come quietly or we'll have to resort to suppression magic."

Harry blinked. "There is only two of you?" He asked them in surprise. He had kind of expected an army or something then mentally berated himself for being cocky. "I'm sure that the goblins don't approve of your being here. I suggest you leave." He looked at Plotholes.

"No sir. They are not welcome here, for arresting or stealing from our clients."

"Why you little bas-"

Harry raised his wand and petrified both men, taking them completely by surprise. "Then I would like to conclude my business here in peace and I shall deal with this mess outside of your office."

"Th-Thank you sir."

The door opened revealing Harry's trove of money and other assortments. It had grown since he had last looked in here with everything carefully arranged and sorted, money to one side, books and paperwork to another, and to Harry's interest, a large cache of weapons that he could only assume had come from his inheritance from Sirius.

Harry sniffed and tried not to think about him. He reached out to grab an exotically styled sheath and then decided against it. Who knew what things the Blacks kept?

"Do you guys keep a... a catalogue... or something of what's in here? Or rather, something that can tell me what artefacts are dangerous and which aren't?"

The goblin snapped his fingers and handed him a scroll.

Harry went through the scroll and was pleased to find that not only did it explicitly state which of the weapons and amulets were cursed but also gave short descriptions of what abilities if any, each item had.

It was a relief he'd thought about the possibility of curses; the sword he had reached for was cursed for bad luck, which was the last thing he needed at the moment.

Harry further perused the list until he found listed amongst the amulets a plain ring. It had no benefits or curses on it, but it was, if nothing, beautiful. With five diamonds and a ruby Harry immediately thought of Susan.

He slapped himself and grabbed the ring. While his thoughts skimmed the idea of what it would be like to propose to her, Harry knew that the person whose hand it would be on would be the one his intellect loved.

Which reminded him, he needed to get cracking on that potion. It would take weeks to go thoroughly through the book lists and the rest of the artefacts in the vault.

Harry picked out a less ornate sword which was charmed to not make any sound and had an invisible sheath; it was one of the few cursed weapons he had perused.

With no idea how much his potion ingredients would cost, Harry dug his hands into the galleons and shifted a pile aside the height of his knees.

"There has to be a way I can carry this conveniently..." He muttered to himself as he shook his head.

"Most wizards use their House Elves and make an agreement with the bank to allow them access into the vault. I shall call him." The goblin closed its eyes for a moment.

"But I don't have a- Dobby?" Harry stared at the elf in disbelief. "You came? But that means..! Oh man... Hermione is soooo going to kill me."

"Dobby wantsted to be Harry Potter sir's elf." The elf said proudly. "Dobby did not think that sir could trust anybody else with his secrets."

Harry ran his hands through his head in frustration.

"Aragh! All right! Plotholes, set Dobby up with an account here and give him say 10 galleons a month."

"But sir!" Dobby protested. Harry glared at the elf who wisely shut up. "Dobby is sorry sir. Dobby has been without a master for so long he forgot his place. Dobby shall punish himself." He reached for a large spiked mace and Harry panicked.

"NO! You stupid elf! If you punish yourself I'll dock your pay for a month!" He threatened.

Dobby looked confused, he had gotten an allowance he didn't want, and then his master was threatening to take it away? That was confusing. So he did the only thing he could think of. He burst out crying.

Meanwhile, the goblin assigned to cater to Harry Potter's needs looked on in sheer disbelief.

"Come on Dobby, If you can take money from my vault, then I need your help with my shopping."

"DAMN YOU BARON!" Someone screamed from outside of his vault.

Harry gestured for everyone to leave his vault, and once they were outside, the goblin locked it again and handed the key back to its rightful owner.

"You won't get away with this!" One of the aurors yelled at him.

"Oh, you managed to free your head." Harry mused. "You must be stronger than I thought. But I'm not quite sure I understand what you're talking about; I'm just doing a bit of banking, I'm not allowed get away with that?" He smiled and recast the petrification charm on him and levitated them to the cart where they rode back to the surface.

Exiting the bank, Harry had many people giving him a cautious eye as he levitated the two aurors behind him and organised for Dobby to have access to his vault.

As Harry walked out of the bank, he was met by a fleet of twenty aurors, including the two whom he'd put to sleep earlier.

"Dobby, why don't you wait for me over by the ice cream shop." He said grimly and wished that Hermione was here. It would be a tough battle if any of them were hit-wizards or witches.

"Harry Potter, you're under arrest for mass murder, if you resist-"

Harry fired a stunner at the man who blocked it with a shield. "These two told me exactly the same thing. I don't need to hear it twice."

"Men, lethal force has been authorised, take him down!" The Sargent called.

Instead of blocking the reductos with a shield, Harry flicked his wand in a circle and blocked them with one of his two captives.

Bystanders screamed and started running everywhere.

The human-shield's back opened from the destructive spell, causing massive damage to every organ below his lungs.

With another flick, Harry sent the other body straight at the other aurors knocking a couple over and distracting them long enough to dart to one side and disillusion himself.

"Where'd he go? Banks! You can see auras! Where is he!?" The man screamed as Harry ran him through with a disillusioned sword.

"I can't see him!" The one named Banks screamed in a panic as the man next to him had his head fall off to the ground.

Banks fired a stunner which missed his target and stunned his own team mate.

"Friendly fire!" Someone yelled as Harry brought his sword down the middle of another man.

"Do something!"

"ARAGH!"

"I'm getting out of here!" Someone yelled.

Harry let him run and swung his sword around to the person two his side but instead head a clang as his sword hit twin daggers and a young woman not in auror uniform looked directly at him.

"What took you so long!?" The Sargent cried.

"I vas hoping to gauge mein enemy before I fought wit him." She said in broken english. She sounded German to Harry, but he wasn't sure.

"He is quite young, but possesses invisibility better than a thestral." She quipped while holding Harry at bay as he pushed against her. "Too bad for you that I have seen the deaths of many bad men at the hands of these blades, their kind of invisibility does not work for them or you."

Harry stepped back, but kept his sword trained on her.

She followed his movements despite his invisibility.

Harry found himself dodging random attacks from the aurors as they tracked him through her.

After the third shot, Harry got pissed off and swung at one of the offending Aurors only to find his sword engaged in the lady's daggers again.

His eyes flicked to where she had been a second ago.

'This is no ordinary auror.' Harry mused.

"Not bad." Harry mused, wondering how he could defeat her as he shielded himself from a bone-breaker. "You're not one to play fair are you?" Harry asked her.

"Says the one who would attack others invisibly."

"Twenty against one? It seemed to me like you were being more unfair than I was." Harry mused.

Harry's aura flared as he cast an avada kedavra at the woman which she apparated away from and it struck the auror Harry had originally aimed for.

Harry spun around and brought his blade to meet hers, thankful that he'd felt her presence. She was quick.

Harry twisted his blade and poked at her, she dodged to one side, but got cut by his blade and as she hissed, Harry fired another two killing curses at the aurors.

Upon seeing the killing curse bringing down the law enforcement agency, the assassin got angry and started swinging her twin daggers at Harry who had a hard time keeping them away from him and found himself cut a couple of times. He had tried to apparate away a few times but there were apparition wards firmly in place, which made Harry wonder how in the world the lady had managed to seemingly disappear from one place and appear in another.

Not seeing any other option, Harry allowed his aura to flare to full strength, blinding everyone present, and yet still his blade missed its mark.

With his magic fully released, Harry was able to cast a circle of fire around him which expanded like a tidal wave and burned the remaining aurors alive. His main target however disappeared from him as he cast the spell and appeared within the ring as it expanded away from him.

She scowled at him at attacked anew. She was angry enough to be a highly dangerous opponent, but well trained enough to control it to the point that she wasn't leaving holes in her stance which annoyed Harry who switched appropriately to a mix between physical and magical attacks.

The careless use of magic caused much destruction in and around Diagon Alley, Madam Malkins was completely levelled, Flourish and Blotts had minor damage to the front and Ollivander was not looking impressed at all as he stood outside of his shop surveying the damage and eventually casting a large shield in front of the building.

Harry fired a reducto at the woman which she dodged and the spell went flying straight into the one place that Harry didn't want to hit: the apothecary.

With all of the volatile ingredients shattering, exploding and mixing, there was an almighty explosion that rocked Diagon Alley and probably outside to London as well.

The young wizard didn't have any time to mentally berate himself for being so stupid and instead blocked another attack by his assailant.

He swung down, pushing her back and she fired an expelleramus at him.

Harry noticed that when she went out of the way to attack magically she wasn't very strong. Her aura was mediocre at best. Which made him think about the equations Hermione had laid out for him on a very simple first year spell which they both made a lot of use of, and no wonder as it worked a charm almost every time.

Accio Eyeballs.

The woman screamed as her body parts resisted the call of such a powerful wizard. Harry had to be five times more powerful than someone to summon an integral part of their body. Thankfully, the witch was little more powerful than she was letting on and after a second or two of struggling, they flew out of her head leaving a crack as the nerves snapped.

Unable to fight anymore, she put her hands to her head and made an ungodly racket as she wailed.

Harry had a good mind to leave her like that, but considered the location he was in and the look of disbelief on the few people that had stayed.

With a whip of his sword, her head fell from her shoulders and the anti-apparition field dispersed.

Bystanders looked shocked for a second and there was nothing but silence. Then as Harry looked around the place and surveyed the damage, people screamed and started running.

Harry picked up the assassin's head by its hair and walked to the ice cream parlour where his faithful house-elf stood.

"Dobby, could you find somewhere safe for these while I finish my shopping?" He said as he handed the head and the eyeballs to the elf who looked as though he'd rather tame a dragon, but didn't dare argue.

As Dobby went off to do that Harry approached Ollivander who was eyeing him very cautiously.

"I don't think I shall be selling any more phoenix feather wands. It seems that everyone who uses one is destined to be murderers." He said rather venomously to Harry. "Your magical prowess is every bit as great as I had thought it would be, but I had hoped to see you using it to bring down dark wizards rather than being one yourself."

"If you're talking about Voldemort then that depends entirely on him." Harry replied. "But believe me, I am working on taking down a Dark Lord."

"Your judgement is clouded. There is no wizard darker than He-who-must-not-be-named."

"Perhaps it is your judgement that is clouded. The real enemy hides in broad daylight." Harry said cryptically. "I remember someone once telling me 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'"

Harry just grinned at the old man and raised his wand. "Reparo."

His shop flew together as if it were brand new again.

With a few more waves, Harry had managed to repair all of the buildings except for the apothecary and the buildings directly surrounding it. The dangerous mix of potions that had caused the explosion made the building irreparable.

That and the fact that the store owner was dead anyway.

It was a very frustrated man in a dementor cloak who lightly gripped his house-elf by the arm and apparated back to his home in Norway.

As Harry took off his cloak and hung it up, he surveyed his body. He'd have a few extra scars to sport after today.

At seeing him bleeding on the floor, McGonagall freaked. Harry waved it off insisting he'd had worse and that he wasn't hurt anywhere vital.

Deep down, Harry was seething that Hermione had left him to such a dangerous situation just so she could go leer at Ron. But then again, she had no way of knowing that Harry was walking into such a predicament in the first place.

Still. Now Harry had to find a different place to get potions ingredients.

There was an apothecary in Hogsmeade, but if Harry were to go there, he may as well steal stuff off of Snape and visit Susan at the same time.

'No.' He told himself as he bandaged his wounds. He'd need to find one away from Dumbledore, probably in Ireland or Bugaria or something.

Wormtail would probably be a good source for such information.

Harry had figured out that the rat was a weakling and prone to running at the first hint of danger, but he wasn't stupid. He was Voldemort's head of intelligence which meant he would probably know who the assassin was too.

After indulging his ex-teacher's curiosity and letting her know what had transpired, she had tsked and commented that it was about time Remus brushed up on his rusty potions and started making salves for repairing minor cuts.

The Baron informed his house-elf that after paying a visit to the Dark Lord, he'd go straight to wherever it was he was getting ingredients from. Dobby indicated he could follow Harry, all he needed to do was call on him.

With that sorted, Harry politely asked Dobby to retrieve the things he'd asked put away and retrospectively hoped that Dobby could get back, but as it would be, Dobby could apparate directly to Harry as his master.

After having the pleasure of seeing McGonagall scream at the sight of a head still dripping with blood, tongue sticking out and both eyes held by the nerves by the house elf, Harry grabbed the 'items' and apparated to Voldemort's lair.

It was rare that Harry showed his face around the Dark Lord's abode.

To say it was bustling with activity probably wouldn't be correct. It was more active than an average mansion, but less busy than the ministry of magic.

The first person that Harry recognised was Lucius Malfoy, who snobbed him off completely. This suited Harry fine as he had no respect and had no desire to speak to the elder Malfoy.

The second person however was a lot more helpful. Bellatrix LeStrange, together with her husband Rudolphus looked disdainfully at Harry until the matriarch of the family noticed what Harry was carrying around the place and suddenly she was grinning like a four-year old who had found a new friend to play with.

When she asked who it was, Harry shrugged. "That's what I'm trying to find out. I was thinking Wormtail might know."

"Through that door, then past the next three doors you'll find a study on the right." Rudolphus replied as he stared in disgust at the head.

As Harry walked off, he distinctly heard him accuse Bellatrix of cheating on him for the Dark Lord all those years ago.

Harry smiled and shook his head in silent laughter.

Approaching the study he was directed to he noticed that Wormtail was rattling off plans to the Dark Lord.

Harry didn't even knock as the Dark Lord seemed to notice his presence before he even had a chance to knock on the door.

Seeing his master's inattention, Wormtail turned to look at the Baron Black.

"Baron Black." Voldemort said as warmly as a cruel person as him could say. "To what do I owe this... pleasure? You're bleeding on my carpet and floor." He said disapprovingly.

"Sorry my lord." Harry said. "I'll be scourgifying everything on my way out."

"No need, you provided more than enough slaves to do the job for you." Voldemort said simply.

"I had been given reports that you were attacked in Diagon Alley. I see you made it out with four limbs attached."

"Yes my Lord." Harry replied as he walked to Wormtail and placed the head on his desk. "Any idea who this is?"

Wormtail looked at the head and took one of the eyeballs to line up with her eye sockets.

"Looks like it might have been Berthilde Winestock." Wormtail mused. "One of Germany's best assassins. They sent her after you?

"Be honoured, they really want you dead."

"Really? Is that so?" Harry deadpanned.

"It seems you have lost your anonymity." The Dark Lord replied. "The ministry have put two and two together and put out a warrant for your arrest."

"I got into a firefight with Dumbledore a couple of weeks ago. He already knew who I was by that point so I don't care. Let them come after me; they're eighteen aurors and one assassin down short and I'm still here."

Voldemort grinned.

"Look, I kinda blew up the apothecary in Diagon Alley so I'm kind of in need for a new one, I figured you of all people would know Wormtail."

Wormtail scratched down an address on a piece of parchment. The address was a place in Norway but Wormtail informed him that he got a lot business through the Dark Lord, so he was no stranger to English.

Harry thanked him and bowed to the Dark Lord.

"I want that head." Voldemort said as Harry reached for it. "It will serve as a nice trophy to have planted in the middle of the ministry.

"And while you're here, Wormtail, give him that mission we've been planning for him."

Harry looked at the sheet of parchment that the ratty person handed him. "Erskine Barracks, Wilton?" The address meant nothing to him.

"English military major Headquarters."

Harry went pale. "You want me to lead a strike against the British military?"

"Unlike your last mission Baron, I want no survivors. I shall expect the baroness to participate. She has had enough time to mourn."

'Not that she's spent any time mourning at all...' Harry thought to himself. "Surely you don't expect us to go alone?"

"Of course not." Wormtail replied. "I am assigning you Fenrir Greyback and a pack of ninety werewolves."

"You cannot fail this mission Baron or I will use you in my experiments with pain." The Dark Lord told him.

"The attack will commence on the 27th of May, just after the Hogwarts exams."

Harry nodded.

"I want it to be a day to be remembered Baron Black." Voldemort said. "Wormtail here will have all your papers and plans in order, which gives you about a month to plan things. I want you to work very closely with Wormtail on this one. In two weeks, you will be introduced to Fenrir.

"You may go."

Harry nodded and left silently, his mind reeling. 'Holy shit... as if I'm going to wipe out the United Kingdom's military headquarters.' He thought in a panic as he apparated away to the potions apothecary.

The place was huge. It was a one-stop-shop for everything potions, from household herbs to dragons blood to gold plated cauldrons with bronze handles in fourteen sizes and shapes.

The man at the counter was a short wizard that looked like all he wanted for Christmas was two gold front teeth, and got it. He was balding, but sported an unusual trait that where most men suffered from receding hairlines, he was thinning at the back of his head and grew hairier in his fringe; the general effect, he looked like he was wearing a mullet backwards.

"You look like one of them." He said with a slight norse accent. "What do you want? I'll warn you I charge extra for dealing with your types."

Harry approached him and placed an ingredient and equipment list on the bench.

"That's going to cost a pretty penny Mister. I assume you can afford all of that."

"Dobby." Harry called, causing the elf to appear. "Make sure this man gets what he needs."

As the man browsed around the shop getting items that Harry needed, Harry perused the contents of the store and found himself picking out a few bits and pieces and adding them to the growing stack on the bench.

He had no idea why he was grabbing the ingredients, they were all used in the potion that the Hat had given them a while back.

There was a power gap between He and Dumbledore, Harry surmised that it was roughly the same gap between himself and Voldemort, though he had never tried fighting Voldemort to the point where he needed to stop toying with the younger wizard to hold his own.

Like it or not, they needed something to lower the difference between them.

He had very mixed feelings about the ritual. On one side of the coin, Harry did want to be a father, but he wanted to make sure that both he and his child's mother were still alive to raise it.

And on the other side was Dumbledore. He couldn't allow his child to fall prey to the older man's machinations, or Voldemort's either for that matter.

Harry knew for a fact that if he had a child with Hermione, one of the star-crossed, both parties would be interested in it.

But could he hide the child away from both? The fact was that neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort knew where their home was. It was well hidden from their presence. He knew from texts and Hermione's explanations that if she were to die, the secret would not become public knowledge. Only those who knew the secret would be able to get to the place and they would not be able to divulge the secret any further.

So perhaps, Harry contemplated silently as he held a bottle of agueramenti leaves, they could keep a baby in the cave where nobody could get to it. Harry smiled wryly at the similarities between what his parents had done. The biggest difference in this instance however is that Hermione was the secret keeper, not one of their friends.

There were flaws in the idea, but he'd run them past Hermione. After he'd fixed the both of them up the way they should be.

It still took a little while longer before the store owner had everything organised. Speaking quickly with Dobby, the elf clicked his fingers and about ten handfuls of galleons appeared on the desk.

At the last minute, Harry grabbed a flagon of Wolfsbane potion for Remus and added it to the pile.

With the transaction completed, Harry finally felt like he was getting somewhere and was ready to start on the stupid potion he hoped would give one more defiance against Dumbledore.

Harry was as careful as one could be making the potion. There were a couple of stages where the potion was potentially prone to explosion.

There were times that Harry had to leave the cauldron simmering. These times were often spent sitting in his study either actively working on new curses or worrying over whether Hermione was alright. He hoped that she was spending most of her time studying instead of pining over 'Ronald' as she'd taken to calling him. It had been three days since he'd last seen her.

"Master...?" Harry put his book down and glared at his immature room-mate.

"Don't call me that Cynwise."

"Nuh uh! That's my new name for you!"

She was frustrating when she got like this. Remus had the same problem with her when she decided to nickname him Bubbles after she'd caught him drooling in his sleep four nights earlier. Having still not managed to shake her off of it, Harry wondered what the chances of him being able to achieve a different result was.

"If you call me that I'll line your coffin with Garlic."

She giggled. "Silly Masty, I know how to banish Garlic!"

"Then how about I sink it in the middle of the Hogwarts Lake?"

"I'll go there and use accio on it." She said, rising to the challenge.

"I'll nickname you 'tooth-fairy'." Harry said with an evil grin.

Her eyes teared up and a few seconds later, she was bawling like a kid who just had their candy taken off of them.

"Harold James Potter!" Came a stern voice from out in the training room. "What are you doing to the poor girl?"

"He-He," The girlfriend sniffed. "He was gonna call me 'tooth-fairy'!" She wailed.

"Really Mister Potter, I would have thought you'd be more sensitive than that!" McGonagall huffed.

"Well, she's insisting on calling me 'Master'" Harry retorted.

"Sticks and Stones Potter, Sticks and Stones."

"Bah!" Harry threw up his hands and left to check on his potion.

It was a good thing that he did too as he figured he had the heat up too high. Recasting the charm on the hearth, Harry stirred the potion gently four times while wondering what it was with Cynwise. Sometimes she said the most intelligent things, and other times she just wanted to play.

For some reason he was suddenly reminded of Luna. Harry genuinely felt sorry for she, who just knew something was wrong, but was completely and utterly unable to do anything about it.

He and Hermione had spent many long nights trying to figure out how they could make her, and further than that, everybody immune from obliviations to no success.

"But then again..." He murmered. The truth of it was revealed the night of the prophecy. There was one way that she would be rendered immune from obliviations, but it would come at the cost of her humanity and ability to use wizarding magic.

Vampires had their own brand of magic that was very limited in comparison to wizards.

He would ask Cynwise in one of her more intelligent moments about her opinion about it. He really had no idea about what exactly happens with turned vampires short of what Lupin had taught them in their Defence classes.

Harry glanced over to his instructions. He just needed to add in the ground fawn hoof and then he could let it simmer for two weeks.

Dumbledore moved invisibly through his castle, his home, observing the students. He had plans for a lot of the students. Burt Sludgie was a second year student, highly intelligent and willing to walk over his friends to achieve something. He was going to be the future Minister of Magic.

When Dumbledore planned people's lives, he did so with their strengths and weaknesses in mind. People like Burt were easy to control and didn't need to be obliviated so often to keep them in line.

Then there were genuine troublemakers like Luna Lovegood. Lately she had taken to giving him warnings that it was all going to end soon.

It was only to be expected though. She was an anomaly as much in this world as from the world she came from, the daughter of a spirit who loved a man so much that her love took a physical form for one night.

Yet, though she was born a spirit, her daughter 'outgrew' the spirit world and ended up gaining a real physical body of a human. An error in the universe, that's what she was.

Ultimately though, he was trying to find a place for her in his world as he wasn't particularly fond of killing people. It was a practice that his phoenix had a particular aversion to, and every time he killed someone, his phoenix would disappear for weeks on end. He deeply missed Fawkes.

Dumbledore stopped to look in on the library.

There was one student he had horribly mixed feelings about. Hermione Granger sat behind a mountain of books. She had demonstrated an immense amount of power not so long ago that he had to control. He had the philosopher stone to keep him alive, but there was the possibility of that being stolen. Miss Granger, together with the other two star crossed would be powerful enough to grant him the immortality needed to ensure that the Britain stayed within his parameters.

The elderly man knew she was trying desperately to keep up with her school work. She hadn't left the castle for days which meant that his plan, for the most part had helped, while she wasn't studying, she was seen staring dreamily or actively watching Ronald Weasley, who Dumbledore had decided would be a low level auror.

He was originally destined to be head of the MLE, but since he was forced to use the red-head as damage control for his second-most volatile student he couldn't afford to put him in a position of any kind of responsibility.

With her grounded, it meant that she would stay clear of killing off his aurors and mercenaries.

Voldemort was planning something, he was sure of that. More than likely a frontal assault on the Ministry, but anybody who knew anything about the attack was out of his reach; his probing of known Death Eaters in the school had yielded nothing of use.

"Excuse me, you're in my way."

Dumbledore looked in surprise as he turned to see his biggest source of headaches in recent times standing behind him.

"Mister Potter. I see you have come to grace us with your presence." He replied, removing his disillusionment and wondering exactly how long ago Harry had been able to see auras. It was hardly surprising when he considered the level of power that the boy had attained, but his ability make himself completely invisible was in itself a curious ability.

"Exams are getting close and I'm rather behind." Harry told him rather neutrally. "I don't particularly want to repeat this year."

"I see, and are you planning on bringing back my Transfiguration teacher?"

"She's dead." Harry told him without missing a beat.

Dumbledore gimaced. "When will you learn Harry that death and destruction achieve nothing? It's most infuriating replacing people when I have plans for them all."

"My apologies for disturbing your way of life." Harry said sourly. "Now, if you're not going to attempt to kill me yourself, I would like to do some study."

"Very well, but there is one thing I would like."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Accio portkey."

Harry felt a tug from his pocket and he could have whistled to think that Dumbledore could summon something without knowing what it specifically was.

The golden galleon Harry had given out for his DA last year flew from his pocket.

Harry however let loose a wandless obliterating spell at it.

The quick spell intercepted the coin on its way to the old man and caused it to explode flinging tiny shards of metal everywhere.

"That is good enough for me." The old man said. He really didn't care where they were hiding as long as he stayed within his view.

As Dumbledore stepped past him, he disillusioned himself and kept walking off in the direction of the great hall.

'How stupid does he think I am?' Harry grumbled as he pulled a brand new quill out of his bag and turned that into a portkey instead and then promptly entered the library.

Harry pulled a rather new looking book off of one of the shelves and sat down next to Hermione and made a point to start reading whatever was written on page 103. Harry read four lines and then had a look at the cover of the book and continued reading again. He wasn't sure if he cared about Willy, the wizard who lost his beard to a charmed lawnmower. Though he was mildly curious as to how he managed to write a four hundred page book on the incident.

After a few minutes of silent reading, Harry heard an acidic voice saying "Yes Harry?"

"It's brewing." He told her.

"That's nice." She said as she scribbled something down and left another awkward silence.

"I found a way to make Luna immune." Harry said softly.

That caught her interest.

"Cynwise says that she'll make her a vampire if both parties agree."

"I suppose you're planning on abducting her then and bringing her to the cave then?"

Harry nodded.

"Why don't you just invite Dumbledore too while you're at it." She hissed.

"It would be nice if you showed up every now and then." He hissed angrily. "We have something to do, just after exams. The last one was nothing compared to this."

Leaving the argument at that, Harry left the Hermione and the book and went to find Luna.

Hermione hated that she couldn't control her emotions around him. She always felt like she was a bitch after he walked away and that was the main reason she hadn't returned home.

Took a look at the clock on the library's wall and neatly packed up her books and placed them on the return trolley before heading down to the one place that nobody would find her; especially Ron.

She loved him very much, but she couldn't control herself around him and she had inadvertently divulged some information which she wished nobody would know. Most importantly, she had told Ronald in great detail how she went about increasing her power without a sacrifice.

If she didn't do something, it was only a matter of time before he asked her about her ability to become completely invisible, and she would be unable to resist those eyes.

She had taken note of Harry and Remus' enhanced love potion and with the help of some psychoanalysis on herself and a few diagnostic charms, managed to narrow the list of love potions from thirty seven to two. The bad news was that she had spent a lot of time going over the ingredients and managed to ascertain that one of them would be fatal if taken with the modified Amortentia. The good news was, out of the two of them, that was the only one with an antidote, which was precisely what she had brewing in the chamber of secrets.

If it worked, Harry's potion wouldn't be needed after all. But if it didn't, then it would be a while before she and he could talk without arguing.

She would find out in around an hour.

Harry was lucky in that when he brought Luna before Cynwise, the vampire was in 'Adult' mode. She took her meeting with Luna very seriously.

It was no surprise really when she had informed him that turning someone essentially made them slaves until they learned proper etiquette and earned the right to walk on their own two legs.

Despite the thousand years or thereabouts of her existence, she had been hesitant to ever take a minion of her own, though she had been drilled ostensibly about it when she had been turned herself.

It was an important moment in her life that meant her maturing as a Vampire.

Having said that, the first impression of Luna was not good.

The girl in question had been completely ecstatic about becoming a vampire and insisted that she dress up for meeting the one who would help her.

It was then that Harry realised that Luna really was three sultanas short of a fruitcake.

She was dressed in bright a bright red shirt with florescent green pants, topped with a yellow robe that flashed in blue writing "Beware of the Ministry's machinations." and then listed random accusations of the Ministry's activities.

She would not change insisting that this was the best she had.

Cynwise raised an eyebrow in question to her attire. She herself was wearing an elaborate black dress which she had bought especially for the occasion.

Harry had been surprised to learn that it was expected of her that even a vampire taking their first minion was expected to give the impression that they had more. They were to dress as masters.

"You're very colourful." Was all she said.

"Thank you your highness. I'm sorry for your loss."

Harry could have slapped his head but Cynwise laughed. "I'm not a princess dummy."

"And nobody has died." Harry added.

"Please Master." Cynwise told him. "This is between her and I." If it were any other occasion, Harry might have teased her, but seeing the deadly serious look on her face, he could tell that she was taking this very seriously.

"My master has told me that you were looking for an escape from being obliviated."

Luna nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. I tend to get very confused when the headmaster does that. I would very much like to be able to keep my own thoughts."

"Are you aware of the price that you're asking for?"

Luna stared at her and said nothing. She was like an owl.

"Do you know what I am?" The little girl asked her.

"You're a vampire. Cynwise deBeau-Gryffindor, born in 1123, became a vampire in 1129 when you were dragged into the war between the Gryffindors and Slytherin lines. After being held hostage by Slytherin he handed you over to his Vampire friends to kill you and instead they turned you into one of them. You've never made anyone else a vampire yourself, and you were imprisoned under orders of the Headmaster a hundred and twenty five years ago."

Cynwise looked very grave. "I'm rather surprised you know so much about me."

"The voices tell me things." Luna said airily.

"So you know exactly who I am. Vampires are the only creatures who cannot be obliviated. If you want to be immune to them, I can make you one, but you must understand the consequences.

"You will lose your ability to perform magic as you know it, though I can teach you our own flavour. You will become a hated creature by wizards and you forfeit any right to live amongst them.

"Vampires crave the blood of the living. It is the only thing that can give you the strength to walk on two feet.

"Lastly, until you are freed, you live to serve me. You literally will not be able to disobey me. If I tell you to play horsey, you will."

"I don't mind." Luna said. "As long as I may continue my search for the crumple-horned Snorkack in my spare time."

Harry groaned.

Cynwise looked confused.

"There's a family of them are living on the next range over." She said simply.

Luna looked absolutely delighted and was just starting to babble about it when Harry decided it was a good time to make an escape. The last thing he wanted was to hear two people going on about them.

Harry instead decided to check over the potion and after a while, he'd continue going over the papers for the attack on the British military.

The job scared the crap out of Harry, he wasn't afraid to admit to anybody.

Knight sure as hell didn't like the idea of the attack.

When Harry voiced his concern at being able to block a bullet, Knight said he had an SA80 to try him out with. He'd never tried pointing it at a wizard. Though nervous, Harry agreed to the testing.

Harry was not able to block bullets entirely, but his shield was strong enough that they were slowed to the point of it feeling like being stung by a bee.

It was enough for him, but he worried about Hermione. Her shields weren't as strong as his so she might not be able to stop a bullet from embedding itself in her. There was no question, they definitely needed better shields.

A scream echoed from the front annex where Harry had left Cynwise and Luna. He hoped that it was Luna's way of getting what she wanted and not Hermione interrupting something.

"That... sounded painful." Knight commented.

"I'm sure they heard that over at the nearest town." Harry muttered.

"It never seems to be a dull moment over here any more." Knight said with a smile. "While I think of it, Wormtail asked me to pass along some news he thought you'd find interesting, but do take it with a grain of salt."

"Wormtail?"

"Your star-crossed girlfriend's parents were kissed by dementors right?"

Harry bit back a snap about Hermione not being his girlfriend. "That's what that warden said."

"According to a headcount of the dementors in the Dark Lord's service, there are no dementors working with the ministry. Every one of them left Azkaban to join him over a year ago."

"Really? So their death order was faked?"

"All I'm saying is that it may be faked, or perhaps it was just the cause was faked."

Harry nodded and wondered if he should tell Hermione. It might give her a false hope.

After a few more tests of Harry's shield, they were ready to give up on the regular protego. It was time to try something different.

Harry was about to start picking the protego apart to see how it worked when he heard the sound of movement from the corridor and looked up to see Cynwise looking like she'd overdosed on something. Once Harry realised she had shining fresh blood drenching her black dress, smearing her mouth and running down her neck it was obvious what she'd overdosed on.

She had in one hand a bloodied sword of Gryffindor and in her other hand was Luna's wrist that she was dragging unceremoniously across the floor towards her coffin in the study.

"That was disturbing." Knight said, looking pale.

Harry nodded. He'd seen Cynwise petitely wipe her mouth of blood after drawing blood from himself, but never had she brought herself before him completely splattered with it.

"It's easy to forget she's a vampire until you see something like that." Harry said and then plugged his ears as McGonagall, in the study shrieked.

If she wasn't a cat animagus, Harry would have thought his transfiguration teacher was scared of even mice; the amount she spent screaming.

"Let's get back to this shield."

Knight nodded. "I think the problem is that protego is designed to stop spells. They are slow in comparison to a speeding bullet."

Harry nodded. "Reckon a thicker shield would do it?"

"Well, I failed arithmancy at school, but it looks to me like the protego spell is basically a number of shield cells made up between points."

Harry nodded. He got the gist of what he was saying, but the rest went over his head.

"Can we modify it to create a second layer?"

Knight shrugged. "Maybe Remus would know?"

"Ohhhhhh Reeeeeemuuusssss...." Harry hollered. "Wheeerree aaarreee youuuu?"

Remus wasn't seen for another twenty four hours after that.

He refused to say where he'd been which annoyed Harry a bit, but Remus told him it was personal and he backed off after that.

Unfortunately Remus was little help. He recognised the problem as being a geometry problem, but having never studied geometry himself, had no idea how to implement things the way Harry had asked.

Harry grumbled to himself. Knight had kindly pointed out that Harry was constantly renewing his shield between bullets and on the night, he could well have four hundred military personnel firing at him at once.

Harry shuddered. Even he couldn't pull a shield that could withstand all of those at once.

"Harry?" A female voice called. Harry looked up from the equations he was looking at to see Hermione grinning at him.

"Guess what?"

"What?" Harry asked unenthusiastically.

Hermione approached him and kissed him on the lips. "I love you."

Harry pushed her away and then thought about what she'd said.

"You do?" He asked in surprise.

She held out a vial. "Your antidote sir." She grinned.

"No way!" Harry said grabbing it off her and downing it immediately.

"It takes a few hours to kick in, but it worked for me."

Harry grinned at her. "I thought you were studying for exams."

"Oh, you know me; star student by day, renegade researcher by night."

"I don't suppose the renegade wants to help me with something then?" Harry asked, glad to have his Hermione back to help him out.

Harry wrote down an equation on paper which he had started from scratch with it so often that he had the thing memorised.

"What's this?"

"Protego on paper." Harry replied. "I can stop a bullet with it, but I'm not sure that you could, so we need something better."

"Why do we need to stop bullets?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh right, I never told you about the new mission did I?"

Hermione frowned. "You said we had one, but never what it was."

"Right. We're supposed to decimate the muggle military headquarters."

Her jaw dropped. "You're kidding."

Harry shook his head. "No idea why we're attacking muggles, but that's the job."

"I'm not sure I want to keep up this contract with the Dark Lord if we're going to attack muggles. They're not being obliviated that we know of. There would just be too many of them for it."

Harry nodded. He had been thinking the same thing. "Yeah, I agree. But having said that, I'm not sure we can afford to piss off both Dumbledore and the Dark Lord."

Hermione nodded. "You're right. So we're going to do it?"

"Assuming we can figure out how to stop a bullet, the protego charm creates a lattice that curves around the body, what I want to do is make the latice two layers deep and make the lattice more complicated so that bullets would have to go through two layers."

Hermione nodded. "You're talking maths beyond what I've ever studied. We might need to enlist the help of a professional mathematician."

"I'm sure I can convince them to make it a priority." Harry informed her.

"Don't threaten them!" Hermione frowned.

Harry looked startled. "I-I wasn't going to. I was talking about money."

"Oh." Hermione looked ashamed, creating a gap in their dialog.

"I've missed this." Harry said brightly. "Having you beside me." Then he started laughing uncontrollably.

"What?"

"I have a large cauldron of the most potent love potion known to mankind brewing, and I can only think of one use for it."

Hermione grinned. "How about I go toe-nail hunting?"

Harry smiled broadly and nodded. "Are you thinking who I'm thinking?"

"Umbridge."

"Why don't we hit Fudge with a dose too?"

"I'd say we've got a plan."

Luna woke up feeling rather light-headed. There was no noise that she could hear except for light snoring from the makeshift beds that Remus and McGonagall slept in, in the next room over.

She felt incredibly cold. You're a vampire now sweety, of course you're going to be cold. The motherly voice told her. That voice was omnipresent in her life.

She shivered and let out an unsteady breath. Her lungs feeling... fluffier, if that was the right word for it.

She tried to lift herself from the coffin but she felt so weak.

"It's about time you woke up sleepyhead." A familiar young voice told her. 'Master...' was the word that she associated with that young voice.

"Get up, and we'll find you something to drink. You're very parched aren't you?"

In an attempt to say that she was alright, she realised that her master was right. She did have a parched throat. She felt compelled to get up and despite the fact her body complained to the point of being excruciatingly painful, she forced herself upwards.

When she was finally standing, she just felt like she wanted to collapse.

"Follow me sleepy." Cynwise commanded and walked passed the master bedroom where she found her chosen masters snuggling up to each other in a mutual comfort Cynwise felt they really deserved.

She stepped out of the cave into the surrounding forest area, Luna trailing behind her.

"Hurts." Luna rasped softly as they walked.

Despite the cold of her body, it felt like it was on fire, making it move with no blood in her system to power her body. It was like a motor with no oil.

"This is what it is like at your weakest." Cynwise said sagely.

"Your prison... like this?"

Cynwise was once again surprised by the amount of knowledge Luna had on her, and replied harshly "Yes. Until you drink blood, you will feel like this."

Luna shook her head. She couldn't drink the blood of something living. The spirits abhorred it when creatures died prematurely.

They walked for an hour in the forest, by which time Luna was desperate for blood. Her hearing became acutely aware of every living animal's heartbeat. The rabbit in the bushes would make a quick snack. Or perhaps that deer.

She was not even aware of the fact that Cynwise had been leading her in circles for the entire time.

"I need... blood." Luna cried softly. "Please master..."

"Mistress." Cynwise said. "If you want blood. You'll have to get it yourself. Go."

Luna looked thankful for the release from her previous command and Luna could hear the thunder of a large heartbeat. It sounded divine, it sounded alive. It sounded like... a bear!

The blond vampire in the technicolour clothes tore after the beast which was not impressed in the slightest at being charged and swiped a powerful arm at her.

Luna, too slow to dodge, was pushed back and a large gash opened her chest, but nothing leaked.

She charged again and this time the bear brought it's teeth down on her arm.

She screamed in pain but tried punching with her right arm which dazed it a little but then it clamped down harder, tearing her arm clean off.

Her voice echoing through the forest caused all the sleeping birds to wake up and take flight to wherever the inhuman voice was not.

Cynwise watched in morbid fascination. "I deliberately picked a place with three deer close by, and she goes and picks to fight with a bear." A bear that was too much for her. It could not kill her, no matter what it did to her, her body would regenerate, though it might take years in her current state, and though she was expressly told not to interfere, the rules that Cynwise had been given by her own master in the past had been based on the first meal being a human.

"Hey you big bully!" She cried out and ran at an incredible speed towards the bear, ducking under it's head and kicking its chest breaking a few ribs.

The bear stumbled which gave Cynwise the chance to roll out from under it and quickly grabbed it's neck and swung herself all the way around after clamping down on it, twisting it's head a full three hundred and sixty degrees.

The bear slumped to the ground.

"Go on. I know you're hungry." Cynwise told her one-armed protege.

Luna right now wanted nothing more than to nurse her arm, but still felt that desire for blood that she could not stop.

Leaving her amputated arm to one side, Luna's fangs elongated as she approached it and sank her teeth into its neck.

As Luna drank, Cynwise picked up the arm. The Last Dark Lord would be able to reattach it.

When her minion finally came up for air, her mouth full of fur, Cynwise felt rather bad for allowing her to have such a harsh lesson. She should have taken her to a populated area and had her feed off of a human. They were typically better for vampires in general, but it was not really a luxury she felt they had.

With Luna's first lesson complete and her body starting to be able to move without command, Cynwise would bring her before the vampire council for an introduction as was proper. After that, she would ask Luna to come back to the cave where Cynwise would host a tea party and introduce Luna to all of her dollies.

Luna turned out to be a major distraction and both the Barons Black were very glad that Cynwise was taking her job as master very seriously. She hated to be serious and much preferred to play, so after every lesson, Cynwise would either ask her or demand of her, to do something that Harry thought appropriate for a six year old. Playing with her dolls, bullying the resident werewolf or demanding that McGonagall get them some blood flavoured candy. Something they never seemed to get through their heads that the ageing teacher just could not do, for fear of Dumbledore finding her.

At one point, Knight had the pleasure of watching Cynwise order Luna play. He thought it was facinating that Luna never once argued and once Harry explained it to him, his only comment was "She's using the voice. The Bene Gesserit witch must be obeyed." to which Hermione sniggered and everyone else present just felt plain confused.

There were of course the occasional arguments, 'She ate my ice cream', 'That was my tea cup' and 'No! I will not allow you to colour your coffin pink, brown and navy blue!' At which point Harry got fed up with the both of them and told them to go outside and play.

He and Hermione had been spending time either studying for exams or studying for an attack on Britain which made their distractions very hard to put up with when Cynwise wasn't being a master.

Yet, Harry typically found himself on breaks playing along with them, either playing horsie or swinging Cynwise around and around or occasionally, she had caught him waltzing with her perched upon his right arm with his left arm outstretched.

It was at that point that Hermione realised that Harry would be a very good father. Stern, but not controlling, playful, yet ready to be serious when he needed to. She found herself wondering what it would be like to be a mother and whether she would be up to the job.

Such ideas were quickly put aside as exams started in two days and despite the fact that she knew everything backwards having studied it in advance the year before, but she never seemed to feel prepared for it.

Hermione had of course found out about Dobby rather quickly as the small elf kicked her out of their make-shift kitchen. The small house-elf had taken to ruling it with an iron fist. After that incident, Hermione wanted nothing more than to take said iron fist and beat Harry over the head with it.

Harry informed her that he was an unwilling master and was forcing money into a bank account set up just for him.

After that, she just grumbled.

Remus and McGonagall often left the cave for lengths at a time, never telling anybody where either of them left, but it always seemed like one or the other was at the cave, but rarely both.

Yet when McGonagall was in the cave, she had taken to long hours of staring at Draco's motionless body. Which Harry found rather unusual.

The look on McGonagall's face when she had seen Draco for the first time had been nothing short of humorous. She had thought him dead and gave Harry an earful about the level of hygiene around the place.

Then Harry told her he was still alive because Harry hadn't decided what to do with him; even at the present Harry still had no idea. So until he had enough time to consider it, the heir to the Malfoy family was now his personal wall-hanging.

"I really wish none of this ever happened." The older lady commented sadly. "I know that you and Draco had your differences, but to keep someone in suspended animation like that... It just seems horrible."

"I'm not surprised he lied to me. Though, he did say he was planning something to do with Susan." Harry's voice was even and rather emotionless. 'The same Susan that Dumbledore gave me a love potion for.'

Harry wondered if there was something about Susan he didn't know. There had to be a reason why Dumbledore had wanted them together. Before that, it was Ginny. Why the switch?

Maybe there was a connection somewhere, or maybe he was just reading too far into it.

But then again... Voldemort had been after Hermione because of her magical potential. What if Draco had been after Susan on Voldemort's orders?

No. There was no basis for that assumption.

"Personally, I think you should build a prison for him." Minerva said finally, bringing him from his thoughts.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Harry shook his head. "Last thing I want is for someone like him to be conscious. I wouldn't put it past him to be resourceful enough to break out."

Minerva pursed her lips.

In their spare time, Harry and Hermione had gone to the University of London with ten thousand pounds to have one of their professors give up their day to work on the problem. Naturally, once they'd made their way to the Mathematics department and started knocking on random doors and explaining the problem, flashing some cash and they'd hired themselves a mathematician for the day.

Questions were asked, but Harry and Hermione remained resolutely vague.

The man they'd found, a Professor Robert Williams was a mathematical fanatic. He was ready to jump down the throat of their school when he found out that Harry had no formal teaching with Algebra and technically it was an elective.

They never managed to get him to back down completely, but they did express a level of urgency, which a man being paid a thousand pounds an hour shouldn't complain about, especially if he was being paid cash in hand.

It was a very happy wizarding couple that returned to the cave that night and set about converting the new formula into inflictions of the word 'Protego' and into hand movements.

With the extra shield cells, it was impossible to cast the spell with a wand. It just required more magic than could be filtered through the piece of wood.

The tests however were very successful and even Hermione stepped into the firing line and out without a single scratch.

The new shield was the one thing that Harry did not inform Wormtail about when planning the attack. There was no logical reason for it; it just seemed like the spells he and Hermione created were for their use alone.

Hermione still spent a lot of time at Hogwarts which irritated Harry tremendously for fear that she was still in love with Ron, but Hermione insisted that they had an extra edge over Dumbledore once again and she wanted to use it.

It was also an excellent opportunity for her to use a switching spell on her goblet filled with love potion with Dumbledore's as he placed it to his lips.

He gave an odd look to his goblet, ran a diagnostic over it and finding no poisons, downed the rest of it.

Hermione thought that after the last poisoning incident he would be more careful with what he ingested, but who was she to complain. She supposed that he thought he had her under her thumb. Her personal mission filled, she turned to see Ron leering at her. She really didn't want to know what was running through his head.

Everyone seemed mildly surprised that Harry was around for exams.

Harry ran his quill through his mouth trying to think of a good answer on his charms exam and found himself looking around the room specifically for Hermione who wasn't even in the room. His eyes landed on Ron and could see that his one-time-friend was having a lot of trouble with the exam. He knew exactly why having listened to Hermione rant about it.

Harry himself was feeling rather uncomfortable in this exam. Mostly because the girl directly in front of him was Susan Bones who had flashed him a happy smile when she noticed who was behind her. When she tried to say hello, Harry immediately started softly spouting off random facts about wards.

Now that the exam had started, Susan was just actively scribbling away on her paper. Harry watched her for longer than he'd meant to and she flicked her hair behind her ear, revealing unmistakably for a brief second a small star behind her ear.

Harry gaped. Susan was star-crossed! Wait, if she was star crossed, then of course Draco was after her. She was Voldemort's replacement for Hermione, and that probably meant that Ginny was star-crossed too.

Harry's mind reeled as he tried to put the pieces together.

Dumbledore wanted Harry to be with either Susan or Ginny. Undoubtedly he knew about Susan, but perhaps not Ginny otherwise he would have found traces of someone following Ginny as well.

He guessed that Dumbledore knew that Voldemort thought himself to be the Last Dark Lord, so of course he would be after the Star-crossed. Harry had the suspicion that Susan was perhaps the easiest for the Dark Lord to get to.

No, Hermione was the easiest for the Dark Lord to get to. So why not her?

Simple. Dumbledore couldn't control her.

"Quills down!" Marchbanks called. "Accio papers."

'Shit!' Harrm grumbled, he'd only gotten three quarters of the way through it before he started daydreaming.

"How'd you go?" Hermione asked him that night when she arrived.

"I was doing really well until Susan distracted me." Harry said irritably.

"Really?" Hermione replied tartly as she put her hands on her hips. "And what pray tell was she doing that had you so distracted in the middle of an exam?"

"Flashing me the little star behind her ear."

Hermione puffed herself up to yell at him when she heard the word 'flashing' but the little star totally cancelled the effect.

"Susan is like me?"

"I'm almost positive that Ginny is too." Harry replied. "I've been thinking it over ever since my exam, and I'm sure that Dumbledore intended for me to fall in love with one of them, then he'd hand them over to Voldemort on a silver plate and tell me to go save them in the hope that I'd kill Voldemort and optionally come home with the girl and live happily ever after, preferably though, I'd kill Voldemort in a mutual takedown."

This got Hermione thinking. It sounded like something Dumbledore would do, but she still felt like he was drawing conclusions from too little information.

"It doesn't matter, I don't think that Dumbledore realises that I'm the Last Dark Lord." He said with a grin.

"I thought you were refusing to believe that."

"I'm not sure what it is I'm going to do in the future to stop any more Dark Lords from popping up, but I'm going to take both of them down. You and me... we're going to make this world a better place." He told her sincerely.

"Together? You and I?" She asked hopefully.

"Together. Actually..." Harry said, his eyes brightening. "Wait here."

Harry dashed off past and almost collided with Lupin who was rather startled. He came back a second later where he dropped to one knee and pulled a box out of his pants. Hermione hitched her breath.

Lupin poked his head around into the front annex.

"Come play Bubbles!" Cynwise said, tugging on his shirt.

"In a sec, I want to see this." Remus said turning back to the scene unfolding in front of him.

"I know this may seem rather sudden." Harry was saying. "But I really want to be with you. I want to save Britain from Dumbledore and I can't do it if we're not together. Please 'mione, will you marry me and help me save the world?" He opened the box, showing the ring he had retrieved from the vault that day.

Hermione gaped. "Harry. I-" She looked completely stunned. "I- I can't believe you ruined a perfectly good proposal with cheesy lines like that."

Harry looked rather crestfallen and realised he had gotten caught up in the moment and when he thought back, it was a pretty stupid way to propose to a girl.

"Of course I will you silly skrewt." She giggled. "I'll marry you, and save the world and whatever else we'll get up to in our lifetimes."

Harry felt like his face would shatter if he smiled any bigger. They enveloped each other in an intimate hug and kissed each other passionately before Harry was able to remove the ring from the box and place it on her finger.

In the corridor, Remus looked ready to strangle the Potter heir, Minerva lightly groaned, Cynwise was frowning and Luna had a dreamy smile on her face. "I wish someone would propose to me like that."

"You're a vampire. Vampires don't get married." Cynwise scolded softly. Luna pouted.

"You mean it? You'll really marry me?" Harry beamed.

"Quit asking me or I'll change my mind." The Baroness said with a grin.

"I just... I can't believe you said yes! I mean..." Harry turned and started running "Remus! Remus!"

Everyone stepped out into the annex, Harry too happy to be surprised. "Remus! She said yes!"

Remus grinned. Despite the pathetic execution, He couldn't help but see an older James in place of Harry carrying on in exactly the same way.

In the days that followed, Hermione and Harry both continued to go to exams and Hermione was in full defiance of Dumbledore by wearing her engagement ring the whole time, even if it was upside down. Otherwise she would have been mobbed by a pack of rabid Ravenclaws wanting to know who the lucky man was.

After exams were over, there was only one week left of school before the students would all return to their respective homes and only ten days until the raid on the military base. All of their spare time was spent working on plans, either in their cave or in the Dark Lord's study with Wormtail ironing out problems.

The couple had taken to sleeping in the same bed, though never once without clothes on and while they were allowing each other to touch each other in what Harry had always termed 'forbidden places', Harry was dedicated to the idea of not having sex until the night they married.

Hermione thought it was admirable, but rather old fashioned.

Life seemed perfect at that point until the last day of school when Harry and Hermione went to Hogwarts one last time to pack up their belongings.

It seemed like it was going to be easy. There were no elaborate schemes this time. They were just going to pack the trunks when nobody else was around and portkey out of there.

That was the plan anyway.

Hermione shoved a number of books away into her trunk and her uniforms neatly on top.

"Hey, I was told you'd be up here."

"Ron? What are you doing here? How did you get up here anyway, this is the Ravenclaw girls dormitory."

"I have permission." Ron said simply. "Look, I wanted to thank you for your help, I don't think I would have done half as well in the exams if not for you."

"You're welcome." She said shortly.

"Dumbledore told me that your parents died, I was wondering if you had anywhere to stay. I've owled mum and she's agreed to let you stay with us if you need somewhere."

"Thanks Ron, but I've got somewhere to stay." She said as forgotten wounds that had not healed reopened.

"Alright. Can I at least you to lunch in Hogsmede before we leave?"

"Ron, look. I don't love you. I don't even care about you."

"What?" Ron looked taken aback. "It seemed to me you cared back when we were studying! You can't just turn your feelings on and off like that."

"You can if it's a love potion causing you to act that way." Hermione replied.

"Hmph. So you found out about that huh?"

"I was there when he poured it down my throat." Hermione said sharply.

"I will have you Hermione. You're destined to be mine. I'd prefer it to be by choice." Ron said darkly.

She laughed at him. "This is a new side of you I've never seen before."

Ron pulled out his wand deliberately. "Dumbledore hasn't obliviated me ever since you were moved out of Gryffindor. He explicitly told me that if I kept up the act, you'd be mine and he wouldn't do it any more if I just followed his orders. He's more powerful than me, he's more powerful than you. He's the most powerful wizard alive. So be a good girl and come with me."

Hermione stomped up to him and flashed the engagement ring in his face. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

Ron stared at it, his face becoming very angry. "You unfaithful mudblood bitch!"

Ron brought his fist across her face. Ron's quidditch practice had given him arms that could sprawl just about anybody to the ground. "It's Harry isn't it! That bastard Baron has got you under a love potion too does he!? I'll kill him!"

He pointed his wand at Hermione. "If I can't have you... I'll make sure that nobody can!"

Hermione felt a cold chill coming down her neck as she guessed what was coming next and despite the numbness crawling across her face, she raised her hand and used tergum compello to push him backwards as he yelled "Avada-". The magical shove sending him into the wall.

Ron was winded, but recovered quickly, having had many bludgers to the gut. "Avada Kedavra!" The green light shot across the room and it missed Hermione by a hair.

"Ron, if you don't want to die, you should stop right now."

"Avada Kedavra!" Hermione dodged right and the spell just missed her waist.

She would not reason with him any longer. They had been friends for five years and she wanted to spare him death for that reason, but he was a puppet right now, and always.

"Crucio." Hermione chanted with her hand outstretched, aiming to the left of Ron, precisely where he dodged to. She had fought knight often enough to notice people's balance, a good sign of where they were going to dodge if they needed to.

Ron screamed as the cruciatus took hold and made him convulse.

Letting go of the curse, Hermione Accio'd his wand and as he glared up at her, she cast the stasis charm on him, freezing him in that awful stare. She fell to the floor in exhaustion. Time magic was the worst kind of magic to use and strictly forbidden but that didn't matter to her.

"I'll kill you when Harry gets around to killing Draco. You deserve so much more than a simple killing curse, Ronald." She said acidly as she locked the girl's dormitory and finished packing.

With a hand on each set of luggage, organic or not, she portkeyed away from Hogwarts.

Harry looked on in shock as he saw Ron appear with his fiancee. Upon seeing Harry, Hermione threw herself at him, shaking from the adrenalin rush.

"Are you alright?" Harry demanded. "What happened?"

"He tried to kill me." She said with a tremble in her voice. "He really tried to use the killing curse on me."

"That bastard." Harry said in a cold fury. "I'll kill him myself."

Hearing Hermione come back, Luna popped her head in the room. "Oh, it's Ronald. May I eat him?"

"No, you may not." Cynwise called, following her into the room. "We're going to save him for our master's potions."

"You will not!" Her masters both said simultaneously.

"He's going on the wall with Draco." Hermione said resolutely. "Until we decide what to do with him."

"Whatever you say mummy." Cynwise replied cheekily.

The two humans both glared at her as she left to go play choo-choo trains with uncle Bubbles.

Harry gave Hermione a wry smile. "I'm glad you're alright. I don't know what I would have done if he'd hit you."

Hermione hugged him. "Lucky for me he's a bad shot."

Harry deeply hoped that they'd both survive the attack in a few days. The day of the attack seemed so close, and yet, so far away.

"You know... Despite what I said, I'm glad to be gone from Hogwarts. I don't think I want to ever go back."

"Me either."

---

Author's note:

First and foremost, I'd like to say that I screwed up BIG time with the last chapter. I promise I will never use a love potion as an unplanned plot device ever again. (No promises there if it's planned) People hated the idea and truth be told, it was painful for me to write.

I thought I'd fix the problem by making sure it didn't go for more than half a chapter in this one. Unfortunately, by the time I'd cut the whole thing short, I was still at 8,000 words so my muse told me, if you want to finish that thing up half-way through, you're going to need to do at least another 6,000 and the words just kept flowing.

I would have liked to put more fluff into this chapter after they got together, but I'm kind of itching to start on the next chapter, (which is also the reason for a shortened beta-reading period which I have a feeling a few of you will have noticed before I said it...)

According to the challenge, Ron was supposed to try and AK Hermione at the trainstation, but I just couldn't justify her being there, so it was moved to a more likely place... I guess I fail the challenge huh? :(

Oh, and before someone even tries asking, NO! THIS STORY WILL NOT BE Dumbledore/Umbridge! (By merlin what an ugly thought...)

--Steven

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Omake #2:The world's worst mistake.

After Professor Binns had left the school, citing reasons that he felt he was about due for long-service leave, the school got a wizard who was better known for his work with muggles as a psychologist.

You could tell from the questions he asked his students. In one particular class, he attempted to challenge his fifth year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors with the question, "If I were to give you a time turner, and you could go back in time to fix anything at all, what would it be? That is to say, what do you think the world's worst mistake is."

He paused for effect. "I'll give you fifteen minutes, feel free to talk it over with the person next to you."

One girl's hand shot up immediately.

"Do you really think you have a good answer, you didn't think about it very long Missss..."

"Loony lovegood." Someone answered on her behalf. The professor nodded in thanks and looked to his student.

"Miss Lovegood."

"I've always known what's wrong with this world. If you give me that time turner I'd gladly fix it for you."

"Really?" The young professor asked. "Well then, you tell me, what is wrong with the world?"

"Lentils." She said in the normal serious voice she used. "Without a doubt. Lentils."

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Omake #3:Umbridge my valentine

Albus Dumbledore had absolutely no idea why he was sneaking around this particular residence. He had no idea why he was sneaking.

Further more, he had no idea why he was sneaking around the residence with a Ukulele in hand. It just made no sense and was rather out of character.

As he glanced up, he saw standing on her balcony... the ugliest woman he'd ever seen, and yet... tonight she looked stunning to him. He was left speechless and suddenly he realised why he had the mini guitar in his hands.

He moved to take a place in front of her window when he saw someone else standing right where he intended to be, and he noticed a rich baritone singing sweet nothings to Umbridge.

"Uh hem. Come to take him away have you Dumbledore, well get on with it."

"Actually Delores, I think I might like to join dear minister Fudge in a little rivalry."

"What?" Fudge asked, as he broke his song and stared daggers into Dumbledore's face. "No. You can't have her, she's mine!"

"We shall see Cornelius."

Dumbledore dropped to one knee and took place with the Ukulele and played a sweet little lilt, completely outcasting Fudge in his performance.

"Delores my darling, Marry me!" He hollered up to her.

"Get a grip you two dolts! I'd rather marry that- thing- Reubius Hagrid!"

Her word pierced through his heart, and a look at fudge showed he felt the same thing.

An extra shadow moved from her balcony over the men, and as they looked up, they had only a few seconds to apparate away before getting splattered by a wall-sized display cabinet with all of her favourite china in it.

When Dumbledore returned to bed that night, he just wanted to cry. His dear sweet Delores. The great and powerful Dumbledore, was rejected as if he were a bum on the streets. He had not cried for a hundred years or more, and yet, that's what he did on this night.

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