1. Home Sweet Home

Challenge: Dark Harry

By Jayu

After 5th year Harry is enraged and grief stricken at the same time. He becomes tempted to use the dark arts but he resists.

When it is time to go back to Hogwarts he has buried himself in the dark arts. Hermione has turned Ron down who asked her out in the week before they go back to Hogwarts.

A month later Hermione has found out what Harry is doing. She learns of his past, of what Dumbledore did and what he sacrificed. They both join Voldemort but do not take the mark. For the rest of the year they are in training.

Ron in the mean time has been thinking to ask Hermione out again. He asked her out once more before the summer break at king cross. She refuses him and he, in his blind Weasley anger tries to use the Avada Kedavra on her.

In the summer Harry and Hermione who are now together, elope. And when they come back to Hogwarts they are both surrounded by a DARK, dark aura...

They let Voldemort think that he is in control but soon they take over him and become the new dark lord and mistress. Then they take over the ministry.

*SSSSS*

My Notes

I will follow the major points in the challenge, though the time they happen may vary. Not everything will go as the challenge puts out, but the main points will be met, and so will the conclusion.

I just found it easier to change a couple of points around, making it easier to believe that Hermione would follow Harry into the dark arts.

*SSSSS*

Chapter 1 - Home Sweet Home

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!

AN: Thanks to Turnlach for his BETA work, now on to the story!

*----*

Harry said nothing as he enter the Dursleys car, after seeing the look on Vernon's face, Harry knew he was in for a rough summer. He only hoped that the Orders threat had some promise.

After all he could no longer write to Sirius about it. Thinking of his godfather Sirius Black only made Harry feel worse. The guilt he had been feeling over the last week came back full cry.

Harry could feel the tears coming to his eyes, but willed them away knowing that if the Dursleys had seen him cry it would only be worse. He didn't want to deal with their teasing at the moment.

The ride back to Number Four, Privet Drive went rather quickly for Harry. Not one of the Dursleys said a word, though it was obvious that they were not happy to see him again this summer.

As usual when they arrived at the house the Dursleys piled out of the car leaving Harry to carry all of his school things in. What he hadn't expected was to see Vernon waiting for him at the door.

“Hand me that bloody bird and your trunk.” was all he said.

“Err… Why?” Harry risked questioning him. He seriously doubted that his uncle was offering to carry them up to his room for him.

“I am not having any of your freak things in this house. They will be locked away, and that bird will be locked in the spare room.”

“But! I need my school stuff… I have to study! A-and Hedwig needs to hunt at night.” Harry protested.

What happened next caught Harry completely off guard, as the back side of his uncle's hand slammed into the side of his head.

“DON'T YOU DARE QUESTION ME TO LITTLE PRICK!” he then bent down and picked Harry up by this shirt. “You will be doing as I say! You will write to your freak friends saying that you are fine every two days. You will not leave your room, the only times you will leave your room is to use the toilet and do your chores around the house! Is that clear!”

“What if I refuse to write!” Harry shouted back, but instantly regretted doing so as Vernon hit him again, this time harder than the last. Harry's vision greyed in and out until he got his bearing back.

“If you don't follow my rules, I will kill your bloody bird!”

“Y-Yo-Y-You woul…” Harry stopped what he was saying…seeing Vernon's face he knew that he would follow through with the threat. “Fine.” Harry slumped his shoulders in defeat.

Vernon hand once again connected with Harry's face, causing his legs to fall out from under him. His uncle then picked up Hedwig's cage and his trunk and went off to the spare room.

Harry slowly picked himself up still feeling dizzy. He slowly headed up to his room; silently thanking god that forced habit had his wand and invisibility cloak in his pocket, while also at the same time cursing his uncle.

*SSSSS*

Harry got no sleep that night. Whenever he closed his eyes flashes of memories would cross his mind.

Cedric falling to Wormtail's curse, the re-birth of the dark lord, Ron getting strangled by a weird looking brain, Ginny and Neville getting injured, Sirius falling though the veil, and then Hermione falling in slow motion to the ground as a purple curse hit her in the chest.

It was always the last images that woke him up, usually in a heavy sweat. The guilt would then follow, then the tears, he couldn't stop them once they started; he had no idea how he was going to get through this.

Harry's bedroom door was then thrown open, Harry didn't even have time to react as his uncle moved faster than Harry had even seen him move, and grab him. Vernon ripped Harry from his bed and threw him towards the door.

“Hurry the fuck up! Who do you think you are! Breakfast should be ready in ten minutes and you haven't even made a start! If it isn't done in ten minutes there will be hell to pay boy now move your ass!” his uncle screamed.

Harry quickly got to his feet and hurried down into the kitchen, not wanting to be on the receiving end of another of his uncle's fists. Harry, as quickly as humanly possible started making bacon and eggs, put the kettle on for coffee and started to make toast.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry served them breakfast; his uncle looked at him and sneered.

“I said you had ten minutes you ungrateful little brat! You are not going to freeload off us any longer! I-Will-Not-Have-It you hear me!” uncle Vernon bellowed “Get your arse upstairs and clean the bathroom boy!”

Harry started to make his way to the bathroom when his uncle's foot sprang out, tripping Harry over. Harry grinded his teeth together, though all he could hear was Vernon's and Dudley's laughter. Harry knew he had to keep his emotions in control, after all the last time he had used magic, Fudge had tried to send him to Azkaban. He didn't want a repeat of that, no matter how good it would feel to curse Vernon into oblivion.

Picking himself, once again, off the floor Harry walked out of the room and into the bathroom, carefully shutting the door, knowing that if he slammed it like he so, so wanted to things would only get worse.

After about one hour of cleaning the bathroom was finally spotless. Harry wondered if the Dursleys cleaned while he was away, as everything seemed a lot dirtier than it usually did.

Walking out of the bathroom, Harry was caught unexpected as Dudley swung, hitting Harry in the stomach causing Harry to vomit. Dudley then left muttering something along the lines of `Stupid freak'.

After catching his breath Harry cleaned up his own vomit, not knowing how this summer could get any worse and itching for the day that the Order came to check on him and then he would be able to get away.

*SSSSS*

Harry was lying down in his small, uncomfortable bed. It had been a week and the Order still had not checked up on him. He would have thought that an Order, containing a number of Aurors would find Harry's letters of “I'm Fine”, or “all good here” would be a little suspicious, but so far nothing.

The last week had been hell. He had cleaned the whole house at least three times and some rooms he was made to re-clean, after a beating, even though there was not a spot of dirt.

Sleep had been practically nonexistent for Harry, nightmares plagued his mind. Even closing his eyes was hard, afraid that the events from the ministry would replay themselves.

Looking out his window Harry noticed that the sun was peaking over the landscape, sighing Harry got out of bed and headed down to the kitchen. When he entered Harry noticed that there were a lot of dirty dishes, panicking Harry knew that his uncle had done this on purpose, to make Harry late with breakfast, therefore having another excuse to punish him. Not that it ever stopped him.

Harry quickly cleaned the dishes and started making breakfast. Much to his relief it was all done on time, his uncle only grunted at this and started eating. Once every one was finished his uncle seemed to have a thoughtful look on his face, this just made Harry more nervous. Once Harry had finished cleaning off all the dishes Harry started to make his way to his room when his uncle yelled from behind him.

“BOY! My coffee wasn't right!”

Harry then watched in horror as Vernon removed his belt, not wanting anything to do with that, he made a run for his room. Unfortunately Harry tripped on the first step of the stairs. A loud `crack' followed by a cry of pain went throughout the house as the metal buckle of Vernon's belt slammed into the side of Harry back. Vernon then stormed off leaving Harry there crying in pain.

It took about five minutes before Harry had enough strength to pick himself up and make it into his room. He slowly sat down on his bed, pain shooting up his back as pressure was put on his wound. Harry mentally berated him self saying, `Come on Harry! This is nothing compared to Voldemort!' After another five minutes of lying on his bed, Harry decided to take some time for himself.

Pulling up the loose floorboard from under his bed, Harry grabbed his wand and invisibility cloak. Putting his wand in his pocket and throwing the cloak over himself, Harry disappeared.

Opening his door as quietly as possible Harry made his way down the stairs. He avoided the sixth and second stair, knowing that the creaking sounds they made would surely make his relatives suspicious. Noticing his Aunt and Uncle in the lounge room watching T.V and knowing that Dudley was out with his `gang' probably picking on ten year olds, Harry opened the front door as little as possible before making a run from the house. Coming up to the place where he had called the Knight Bus before his third year, Harry pulled out his wand and stuck it out across the road.

Not a second later and a soft pop, the large Triple Decker purple bus pulled up in front of him. He was greeted by the half toothless grin of Stan Shunpike.

“Welcome to the Knight Bus! I will be you… well look here it's Neville again!”

“Er… hi.” was all Harry said, “Um I need to go to the Leaky Cauldron.”

“Certainly! Only 5 sickles” Stan said.

Harry faced paled slightly He didn't have any money! Thinking quickly Harry asked.

“Umm Stan, I don't seem to have any money on me at the moment… Would it be ok if I paid on the return trip? I have to stop at Gringotts anyway…”

“No problem at all Neville, after all we look after our friends! Consider this trip on the house!”

Harry sighed with relief and mumbled `thanks' before hopping on the bus. Unlike last time, the bus was not full of beds, but rather old looking leather seats. Harry also noted thankfully that there were not many people on the Knight Bus at the moment.

The trip took about five minutes only making two stops along the way before they arrived at the front of The Leaky Cauldron. Harry once again thanked Stan before hopping off the bus, which with another `pop” was gone.

He entered the pub and watched as every conversation stopped as he entered. Sighing, Harry started to walk further into the pub. About half way through is was when the first person approached him.

“Mr Potter, I just wanted to say… what the papers said about yourself and Mr Dumbledore last year was... unwarranted. I just wanted you to know that we all believed in you.”

All Harry did was nod his head, Bloody liars… all they are, are sheep… After another person approached Harry, he knew he had to do something. There would be no way in the world he would be able to shop at Diagon Alley at this rate. Harry made his way into the bathroom. Pulled out his wand and prayed that the ministry would not be able to track him since the area he was currently in contained so many magical signatures.

With a flick of his wrist, Harry watched as his usually black messy hair changed into blond slicked back hair, his eyes changed from emerald green to light blue and his scar nearly faded out of sight. For some reason, no spell really worked on his scar, though now you really had to get up close to see it.

Harry looked in the mirror, admiring his new look. `I look like some stuck up pureblood,' he thought. `Although the rags for clothes don't really go with the look.' With another flick of his wrist his rags changed into half decent robes, perfect for a couple of hours shopping.

Heading back out into the pub, he was glad to see that the people he passed didn't even look twice at him, his little glamour charm was working perfectly. Harry made he's way out the back of the pub and came up the brick wall. He stopped and looked at it. `Aww… come on! What was it again… two up three across… no three up two across?' Harry was broken from his thoughts as someone came up beside him.

“Cant remember the order dear?” the person said, the voice made Harry freeze, he knew this person… slowly looking to his left he was meet with a middle age looking lady with fiery red hair…Oh shit! Mrs. Weasley… why did I have to run into you…

“Umm… no… I haven't come in this way for a while you see… usually floo in.” Harry replied hoping his voice sounded different.

“Oh yes, the same with me, but when you have come in this way as many times as I have, its hard to forget… now watch… its three up, two across to the left, then one up and two to the right. Then another two to the right, and there you have it!” Mrs. Weasley said as the brick wall reformed to make an arch way.

“Thank you, ma'am.” Harry said before quickly making his way away from Mrs. Weasley.

Harry stood in the middle of Diagon Alley, looking around at all the shops. He had a fair idea of what he needed… New books, trunk, someway to hide them also, new parchment, quills and ink… potion supplies he could get later when he came here with the Weasleys… `If he was allowed…' Harry mused with anger growing inside him again at the thought of people trying to run his life.

Well I guess Gringotts is the first stop…haven't been there in a while… Harry mused as he started making his way to the wizard bank. He came up to the large white building and made his way to one of the free goblins who just happened to be Griphook.

“Hello, I would like to access my vault.” Harry said handing over the key.

“Yes certainly, name please?” Griphook asked.

“Err… Harry Potter.” Harry said quietly so only the goblin could hear. Griphook simply raised one of his thin eye brows questionably.

“My disguise.” Harry said, a small grin crossing his face.

“Understandable… Would you please follow me, I will take you personally to your vault.” Griphook then stood, well Harry thought he did, even though it looked like he was crouched and led Harry though a large circular door to the carts.

The cart took off quickly. Making many, many turns the cart came to a halt after about five minutes. Stepping out the goblin then proceeded to open the vault… what he saw before him amazed him, it was easily double the size that it was the last time he looked.

“Er... Griphook… how come it seems that my vault has grown in size?” Harry asked, though still staring wide eyed at the piles and piles of gold before him.

“This is merely a trust account Mr Potter, more money is deposited after every year. Once you are of age you will have control over the rest of the Potter Vaults.” the goblin said.

“Umm… how much… is there here?” Harry asked still in a state of shock.

“Hmm lets see.” the Griphook said walking over to a piece of parchment next to the vault door. “There is currently 446,521 Gallons approximately.”

If anything Harry's eyes grew larger at this. “Is there a way that I can access this, without having to come down to my vault all the time?”

“Yes there is, we have recently created a Gringotts Debit Card, which can be used in both the muggle and wizarding worlds. All the shops in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and Knockturn Alley now accept them, also a number of other shops elsewhere do. Hopefully by the middle of the year all wizarding shops will accept them. Would you like to receive one?” Griphook asked.

“Yes I think that would be best.” Harry said.

“Ok then, if you would follow me, you will not be needing to fill up your money bag down here then.” Harry thought to grab a handful of galleons as pocket change and to pay Stan on his way out of his vault.

Another twenty minutes later and Harry left Gringotts in possession of a new Gringotts Debit Card. Looking around Harry made his way to the book store when he came across a store that sold magical trunks. There were a couple in the window display and they all seemed very nice looking, `Though a little expensive… then again they might have what I need.' Harry thought as he entered the shop.

Harry walked into the shop and headed straight for the counter.

“Um excuse me?” Harry asked the lady.

“Yes, how may I help you?” she asked happily.

“Well, I need a new trunk… I need it to be light, umm have a way of shrinking and also have a fair bit of space.” Harry asked.

“Yes... we have some that will fit your requirements, though they are rather expensive, the cheapest is about three hundred galleons.”

“Oh money is no problem.” Harry reassured her.

“Oh! Ok then, if you'll come with me.” She then led Harry towards the back of the store.

“This one here is the cheapest at three hundred, it has everything you need, though there isn't much extra space and it shrinks down to about the size of a shoe box…”

“This one is a bit more expensive at five hundred, though it has two compartments, with a fair amount of space, shrinks down to about the size of a matchbox. It also has anti-theft charms placed on it…”

“This last one is also our most expensive trunk we have, it's one thousand two hundred galleons, it also shrinks down to about the size of a matchbox, it has a never lose charm on it, just in case you happen to misplace it, weighs about as much as a feather, has three compartment and also two large storage areas, big enough to fit about 4 beds in each. It also has the anti-theft charms on it.”

Harry looked at the last, it was very interesting, especially with the storage compartments.

“Is it possible to have some book cases put in one of the storage compartments? And a desk and chairs?” Harry asked hopefully.

“Yes certainly, we can do that for you. Though it may cost you a little extra.”

“That would be fine. I would like 3 large book cases, one large table and four chairs, all put in one of the storage areas thank you.”

“Certainly, it won't be a second.” the witch then took the trunk into the back room, about one minute later she returned. “Is this to you liking?” she asked opening the trunk.

Harry looked in; it was perfect, three large book cases and a quiet place to study… `Hermione is going to be soo jealous.' Harry thought briefly.

“That's great thanks,” Harry said “how much do I owe you?”

“Umm… that comes too… one thousand four hundred galleons.” Harry handed over his new card which she pressed against a small square object, the card seemed to sink in and then glow green before she pulled it out. “There you are all done, oh this is also yours. It gives instructions on how to add and modify your trunk. Have a nice day.” she said handing Harry back his card and also a small book.

Harry placed the book in his new trunk, but then thought `How do I shrink it...' “Umm excuse me? But how does it shrink?” Harry asked.

“Oh! I forgot to show you… it's quite simple really, you push this button and this button together to shrink, and the same to enlarge it back to size.” She said showing him the small push in buttons on the side.

"Thank You."

Harry's next shop was Flourish and Blot's bookstore. As soon as he entered the store his senses were hit with the smell of parchment. Looking around Harry picked out all of his school books along with about another twenty others on a range of subjects, a large amount of them focusing on advanced dueling and combat magic. The clerk's eyes went wide when he saw the amount of books that Harry was buying and quickly came and helped him. After paying for the books which ended up costing him about two hundred galleons Harry put them all in the first compartment of his trunk, deciding to re-arrange them when he got back.

Leaving the bookstore Harry started to wonder around Diagon Alley, just looking around. He stopped at Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop and picked up a couple of pranks. He really wanted to have a look in the twins shop, but it was too much of a risk. After walking past the potions store Harry found himself facing the entrance of Knockturn Alley. Remembering his pureblood looking disguise Harry decided that it wouldn't be too dangerous to have a quick look.

Now that Harry had time to look around, Knockturn Alley had some quite fascinating items and also some ghastly one as well. Harry had stopped in a weapons store and seen a wicked looking dagger. He had thought about buying it, but then decided not to, knowing that it could be cursed…

Wondering around Knockturn Alley Harry came across a bookstore, looking though the books Harry noticed that practically all of them were dark arts books. Deciding that researching the Dark Arts might actually be helpful Harry decided to buy a couple. Reasoning with himself that 'it's better to know what you're up against'.

He ended up buying a set of books about the dark arts. The set contained four books,

Mastering the Dark Arts

By Maurice Amaury

Book 1: A look at the Dark Arts

Book 2: Ways to Cause Pain

Book 3: Ways to Kill

Book 4: Rituals

Deciding that this set will cover everything he needed Harry decided to make his purchase. On the way to the counter though two more books caught his attention `A Guide to Occlumency and Legilimency' and `Advanced Dueling: Dark Arts' Harry also picked these up as well.

After paying for the books Harry walked out of Knockturn Alley and back into Diagon Alley. Looking around Harry noticed that it was starting to get dark, he paled at this fact… he didn't realize that he had been away for that long!

Breaking into a jog Harry quickly makes his way back to the Leaky Cauldron where he quickly removed his glamour charm and then called the Knight Bus.

Handing Stan ten galleons, Harry asked to get him back as quick as possible. Stan, thankful for the rather large tip, happily took Harry straight to his stop.

Hopping off the bus Harry threw on his invisibility cloak and ran full pelt towards Number 4.

I hope they haven't realized me being gone… Harry hopes were cut short though as he heard his uncle voice screaming his name. Gulping Harry tucked his invisibility clock into his pocket, knowing that if his uncle knew he had been doing anything `magical' it would be much worse.

Quietly opening the door, Harry silently tried to make it to his room, but his uncle spotted him.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I HAVE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR THE LAST TEN MINUTES, YOU PIECE OF FILTH!” his uncle screamed at him.

Harry breathed a silent sigh of relief; they didn't know he was gone practically all day.

“I…I was just outside uncle Vernon, I'm sorry I didn't hear you call…” Harry said meekly.

“YOU WERE WHAT!!! WHAT DID I SAY TO YOU BOY!!! YOU ARE NOT TO LEAVE THIS FUCKING HOUSE! I PUT A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD, FEED YOU, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN FOLLOW SIMPLE FUCKING RULES!! YOU ARE AN UNGRATEFUL PIECE OF SHIT!!” his uncle bellowed advancing on Harry “YOU ARE NOW NOT LEAVING YOUR ROOM AGAIN!”

Vernon then grabbed Harry by the back of the neck and hauled him up the stairs. The last thing Harry remembered was Vernon's fat fist connecting with his jaw before everything went black.

AN: Well there you go… hope you all like the start

Luke

-->

2. The Dark Arts and Will’s

Chapter 2: The Dark Arts and Will’s

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!

AN: Special Thanks to Turnlach for his Beta work, hope you enjoy the chapter!

*----*

Harry didn’t know how long he had been out… what he did know was that his jaw was aching and his head was throbbing. Pushing himself up Harry stumbled over to his bedroom door, only to find that his uncle had locked him in. He also noticed that an un-opened can of soup was sitting at the base of the door.

Sighing Harry made his way over to his bed, pulling his wand, cloak and mini size trunk out of his pockets. He put his cloak and wand back under the loose floorboard. Looking at his mini trunk, he decided that he may as well put the books that he had bought yesterday away properly… ‘Hermione would go spare seeing all those books thrown around in there… and she would probably hex me into oblivion for even having the Dark Arts books…’

Un-Shrinking his new trunk Harry pulled all his new books out of the first compartment. He then opened the first storage area, taking a little time to admire the little study room before picking up his new books and walking down the staircase.

Putting his first foot into the trunk Harry noticed that it seemed to enlarge, making more room for him to fit. The weird part was that the trunk didn’t seem to get any larger in his room. Shrugging his shoulders and putting it down as ‘magic’ he continued down the stairs.

Once he was actually in the room, it seemed a lot bigger, and there were a couple of items that he didn’t know the witch at the luggage shop had put in here. First there was a fireplace, though he didn’t have a clue where the smoke went. It wasn’t lit at the moment though, instead their seemed to be a cooling charm, which made it seem like an air-conditioned room. Deciding to read the instruction manual on his new trunk a little later, Harry started sorting through his books.

At first he just started putting them on the selves randomly, though after the tenth book, he decided against this. After all he didn’t want to spend ages looking for a book. He then starting arranging them in alphabetical order, but then changed his mind again. ‘Think like Hermione… Sort them into groups, then alphabetical order!’ That was the way he decided to go. Though he didn’t have much books at the moment, it still looked pretty cool to have his own mini library, he decided that he would definitely get more books. ‘Gods… I’m turning into Hermione… whatever will Ron say…’ he though shaking his head in amusement, though he knew Hermione would be thrilled with him.

Harry stood in the middle of his new study room and admired his new little library. After about a minute though he got bored and decided he was going to do something. Remembering his last ‘conversation’ with Vernon, he knew he wasn’t leaving his room for a while, and the soup was just proof of that. The last time they used the dog flap to feed him, he was locked in his room for weeks.

Shaking those dark memories away Harry went to the bookcase, scanning over his books, He stopped at his Dark Arts series. Deciding that now was a good a time as any, he pulled the first of the four books out and sat down in the comfortable chair at the table.

Opening the book Harry started to read…

The Darks Arts is a form of magic usually frowned at by the wizarding world. In the newer times spells are categorized into different groups, the two main groups being ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’. In the older times however, these categories never existed. The killing curse was often used to ‘give mercy’ to the sick and dying. It was classified as Dark when the wizard or witch used it to intentionally cause harm.

What most people don’t understand about the dark arts is that it is not the spells that make it dark. The wizard is the one that chooses whether the spell will be a light or dark one. Simple house hold charms can be used as dark arts. The Accio charm, used to summon objects is a ‘light’ spell, but when used to summon a person’s heart, with enough power it can rip it from the person’s body, therefore using it for this purpose would be classified as the ‘Dark Arts’.

Harry stopped reading for a second, going over the last two paragraphs again… ‘That makes sense… wonder why I never thought of it before…’ he thought before going back to the book.

This theory works for most spells, though there are certain spells that have been created that are ‘purely dark spells’. Meaning that there is no good reason for them. One of these spells is called the Cruciatus Curse.

Harry tore his eyes away from the book as the word ‘Crucio’ crossed his mind, watching as Bellatrix Lestrange fell to the ground screaming for a couple of seconds and then got back up and started laughing at him. With that memory, other memories of the night at the ministry come flying back at him, causing the guilt that had been slowly going away to come back, almost overwhelming him.

He could hear Bellatrix’s laughter again, and the anger he felt towards her pushed the guilt aside. Righteous anger! Next time… next time I’ll show here how much damage bloody righteous anger can do! He then threw the book across the room before storming out of the trunk.

*SSSSS*

It had been two days since Harry had been out of his room, except for the occasional time when he was allowed to use the bathroom. He hadn’t touched the dark arts books again; in fact the book still lay on the ground in his trunk.

Instead he had begun studying his books on advanced dueling non-stop. He had already found a lot of spells that may prove to be very useful, though he couldn’t practice them practically; learning the theory first always made it a lot easier. Some of the topic’s he was studying also did not require spell work, the bits on dueling stances and wand drawing could be practiced without using any magic.

Harry was broken from his studies by a tapping at his window, looking over he noticed two brown owls. At first he thought nothing of it until he realized what was actually before him, ‘Owls! I can send a letter to Dumbledore to get me!’ Rushing to his window Harry eagerly took the letters from the two owls, informing one of them to stay. When both the owls didn't move, he just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his letters.

Looking at the letters, he easily spotted Hermione's handwriting, and smiled, looking at the other though shocked him, the blue wax seal of The Gringotts Wizarding Bank staring up at him. Opening Hermione’s letter first Harry smiled seeing her neat handwriting and began to read…

Dear Harry

How are you? I know it’s a stupid question, but I know you Harry and I know that you will be blaming yourself over this. It. Is. Not. Your. Fault. Ok!

Sirius wouldn’t want you blaming yourself over this. I know what you’re feeling to Harry, well at least a part of it. I helped rescue him too; I loved him too Harry. But please don’t blame yourself over this; he would have done the same things if the roles were reversed.

I am fine also by the way. I had to take potions for about a week, but now there is no evidence that anything happened at all, not even the faintest scar.

I have been begging Dumbledore to let you leave, I know what those things are like, and it’s not what you need. But the old man says you have to stay… though I don’t see why, he told me that it has to do with protections from Voldemort but what good are they since they don’t protect you from those damn people.

Anyway I will keep bugging Dumbledore to allow you to leave though I am afraid I am leaving on holidays with my parents in a couple of days, I wish you could come with us… but I know Dumbledore won’t allow it… So unfortunately I won’t be able to see you until September 1st.

Well, that's about it really, nothing has been happening that I know of. I will miss you, try to have some fun.

With love from

Hermione

Harry re-read the letter before sighing; ‘Love you too Hermione’… his eyes shot open, “What!” he yelled, instantly ducking his head and listening for his uncle, hearing nothing, Harry sighed and shook his head, the lack of sleep must be getting to him…

Harry then looked down at the second letter, looking over the letter, there wasn’t anything on it except his name and the Gringotts wax seal. Opening the letter Harry was surprised to find it rather short.

Dear Mr Potter-Black

Harry stopped reading and simply looks at the name ‘Potter-Black? What the hell is that on about…?’ Shaking his head, thinking that there had been a lot of weird things lately he continued to read…

This letter is to inform you about the reading of Sirius Black’s will that was read yesterday evening.

Since you were unable to attend this letter is being sent out to you. If you wish to hear the will send a reply to Mr Grophook Gueks and the earliest time that you are available.

Gringotts Wizarding Bank

Guilt washed over him, though he could easily tell it was nowhere near as much as he had been feeling in the past couple of weeks. There were a lot of unasked questions going though Harry's mind, Sirius’ will was read? Who said he wasn’t available? Though he had a pretty good idea who had kept these things from him… Dumbledore… he had kept a lot to himself.

The words of the prophecy replayed in his mind, though the more he thought about it, the less it mattered. Even if he had not been told about it, he would still fight him. But the fact that only he could do it and the fact that Dumbledore knew this and kept it from him made him angry. He would have been training… Dumbledore talked about his love for him, but all Dumbledore had done was made his task more difficult.

Pushing the thoughts from his mind, it was not something he wanted to dwell on at the moment; Harry quickly scribbled a note and handed it to the owl. the note simply said that he would be available anytime tomorrow. After all, the Dursleys would act normally, thinking it was someone checking up on him. He handed the note back to the Gringotts owl which took flight. Harry then had a look at the other owl. Had Hermione got an owl? Noticing a tag on the owl’s foot, Harry had a look and noticed that the bird belonged to the Wizarding post.

“Would you be able to deliver to a couple of letters for me?” Harry asked the owl which hooted once in response.

Taking that as a yes, Harry quickly scribbled down a note to Dumbledore begging him to come and get him, saying that the Dursleys had not been feeding him and had taken Hedwig away so he couldn’t send mail. Harry then pulled out another piece of parchment and started writing his letter to Hermione…

Dear Hermione

I know that you say it is not my fault that you got hurt and Sirius got… but it is, and I’m so sorry about it.

I should have listened to you… you knew it was a trap, and I ignored you… how stupid was that, not listening to the smartest witch of her age… I’m trying to come to grips with what happened, but its hard…

As much as I would love to go on a holiday, you are right, Dumbledore would not allow it. In fact it’s rather annoying the way he seems to control my life… I hope you have fun though, and I look forward to seeing you on September the 1^st…

Well, until then have fun!

From

Harry.

Re-reading it, he decided that he was happy with it. He attached the notes to the owl.

“Could you take this one to Hermione Granger first please, then the second to Albus Dumbledore.” the bird hooted once before taking off.

*SSSSS*

The next day at 11:00 am, a soft ‘pop’ echoed though Harry's room. Harry, at hearing the sound whipped around, wand coming to his hand quicker than a blink of an eye, the tip already glowing red. At seeing the Goblin there Harry quickly lowered his wand.

“Oh! Sorry… you gave me a fright.” Harry said.

“It’s quite alright Mr Potter, my name is Grophook Gueks.” The goblin said, before flicking his fingers towards the door. The walls flashed white and his door an orange colour.

“Err… what was that?” Harry asked confused.

“A simple silencing charm and locking charm, so that we won’t be disturbed.” the goblin answered.

“Umm… I’m not going to get a letter from the ministry am I? I nearly got my wand snapped because a house elf did magic here…”

“Do not fear Mr Potter, the Ministry cannot detect Goblin magic, you have nothing to worry about.” Harry visibly relaxed at this, “Now… would you like to get along with the will reading? Or do you have some questions?” the goblin asked.

“Actually… I do have a couple of questions…” the goblin waved his hand motioning Harry to continue. “Who told you I wasn’t available to attend the first reading?”

The goblin looked over at Harry for a little while before answering “You did Mr Potter. We received an owl, two days after we sent out the invitation to the reading, saying that you were unable to attend due to family matters.”

“WHAT!” Harry shouted, then quickly look at the door, “What? I never sent a letter, or saw an invitation! In fact, I have never received a letter from Gringotts in my life!”

The goblin sighed. “It is what we thought then…”

“What is!?” Harry demanded, he was sick of things happening in his life that he didn’t know about.

“Answer me this Mr Potter, do you receive much mail? Friends, fans…”

“Waa… fans what are you talking about, I have never received fan mail...”

“Yes… don’t you find that strange?” seeing Harry’s confused look the goblin continued, “You, The-Boy-Who-Lived, Defeater of the Dark Lord, Saviour of the Wizarding World, have never received fan mail… surely people would like to thank you for what you have done, sent you mail on the day you saved all their lives, wouldn’t you think?”

All Harry could do was nod his head, he had never thought of it before, he was famous, walking down Diagon Alley people would come up and thank him, shake his hand. He had never thought twice about fan mail.

“Someone must be reading and screening my mail then, since I have never received mail from Gringotts either.” Harry finally spoke.

“Yes, that is correct, you should have received a number of letters from us, monthly bank statements, your parents will when you turned eleven.”

“Who has been screening my mail? You said you expected it?” even as Harry asked he was ninety percent sure who that person was.

“First, I must apologize on behalf of Gringotts… we take great pride in protecting our customers rights, and have failed at doing this gravely, concerning yourself. We first thought something was amiss when after Sirius’ will was read, we informed the attendants that you would be receiving a copy. Mr Dumbledore then told us that that would be unnecessary and that he would inform you himself. We of course agreed, not wanting to make a scene, but after the reading we did some investigating for ourselves. In seems that Mr Dumbledore went directly against your parents will, your parents had specifically stated that your Aunt was to never have custody of yourself…”

The Goblin could see the rage building up behind Harry's eyes, they were flickering, the goblin though that he noticed a Green glow coming from him, but was startled when his bedroom window shattered. This also seemed to derail Harry’s rage as he looked over at the window, mouth agape.

“Ummm… you wouldn’t be able to fix that would you?” Harry asked the goblin, who didn’t respond, only flicked his index finger and the window repaired itself.

“Sorry about that…” Harry apologized.

“Not necessary, it’s completely understandable. Though… that was quite an impressive display of power there Mr Potter.”

“Although, I must say you didn’t seem very surprised at this revelation… has Mr Dumbledore kept things from you before?” the goblins asked.

As the goblins spoke, Harry started to think back,

‘The Philosopher's Stone, how were a couple of first years able to get to it, when it was supposed to be protected against Voldemort?

How were three second years able find the Chamber of Secrets in under a year, when a school fool of the smartest and most powerful wizards couldn’t find it in fifty years?. He understood that they wouldn’t be able to open it, though finding the entrance shouldn’t have been too hard.

Dumbledore had to have known that Peter was his parent’s secret keeper, after all he was the leader of the Order; he would have then known that Sirius was not the traitor!

How had a polyjuiced Death Eater been able to walk around the school for a whole year, pretending to be one of Dumbledore's oldest friends? How had Snape or Dumbledore not found out, with them being masters at Legilimency?

In fact, why was Snape teaching him Occlumency? Dumbledore knew of the hatred between them, he must have know that Snape wouldn’t try to teach him properly, and then there is the prophecy… why wasn’t he told? After looking back over the years I seriously doubt that it was out of love… some other plan of Dumbledore's…’

As Harry thought he could feel the anger building again, but was broken from these thoughts by the Goblin.

“By the look on you face, I see that this is not the only thing Mr Dumbledore has kept from you. A word of warning Mr Potter, Mr Dumbledore is an old and powerful wizard, tread carefully around him.” all Harry did was nod.

“Now, I’m afraid, I am running out of time and we must get on to the will. We will be viewing my memory of the will, since I was the one to read it.” the goblin said, pulling out small pensieve from his pocket and enlarging it.

“If you would take my hand.” the goblin said offering Harry his hand, which Harry took.

He felt like he was falling through space until with a soft ‘thud’ they landed in a medium size room. Looking outwards Harry noticed a number of people sitting down, most seemed to be dabbing their eyes.

The first person to catch Harry's eye was Malfoy, who had a bored look on his face. He briefly wondered what he was doing here, but then remembered that Narcissa was also a Black.

Looking over the other people Harry also spotted Hermione, who seemed to be softly crying and kept looking towards the door, Ron was next to her, with slightly bored look on his face. This confused Harry a little before he looked on. The twins were also there, they weren’t crying like Hermione but the sadness was clearly obvious on their faces. Mrs. Weasley was crying while Mr. Weasley comforted her.

Next to them, were two people that Harry found vaguely familiar, looking at the lady Harry instantly knew who they were, Hermione’s parents. Behind them was Remus, who also had the same look as the twins, Tonks was next to him rubbing his back, sadness etched into her face also. Dumbledore was next to them, looking at him Harry felt his anger rise, but knowing he couldn’t do anything he pushed it away. Dumbledore’s face was unreadable.

Harry was broke from his studying of the crowd by the Goblin at the front clearing his throat.

“We are hear to witness the reading of Sirius Black’s last will and testimony.” He said “We will now begin…”

I, Sirius Black, being of sound mind and body, leave this my last will and testimony.

Harry could feel tears coming to his eyes, as the reality of it set in.

Well enough with being all formal. If you are hearing this then I have most likely done something stupid and have gotten myself killed.

Now let’s get onto the goodies shall we!

Well to start, to Narcissa Malfoy, I leave you with 1 galleon. You are a weak pitiful person that deserves to be beheaded.

The statement caught Harry off guard; he choked back a laugh at the look of outrage that was now painted on Narcissa’s face.

To her pitiful excuse of a son, Draco Malfoy, I leave 1 galleon. Again you are a useless excuse of a wizard.

Draco, Harry noticed just looked rather annoyed at this, though this didn’t surprise him in the least, it didn’t stop him wanting to rip Malfoy’s head off.

To my lovely niece Nymphadora Tonks, I leave you with one million galleons. Try and live a happy life.

Harry turned at the sob coming from Tonks’ direction and watched as Remus began comforting her. This took Harry a little by surprise, though he smiled slightly at it.

To my good old mate Rubeus Hagrid, I leave you with one hundred thousand galleons, just please don’t get my godson killed in class.

To Albus Dumbledore, I leave you with one million galleons that is to only be used for Hogwarts. I also leave you, personally, with two galleons. You took away my last chance at happiness by keeping me locked up in that old house.

Harry turned to look at the headmaster, feeling even more angry at him after hearing what Sirius said, though Harry was surprised to see they look of anger also on Dumbledore's face, Harry thought that he would at least try to hide it from everyone.

To Arthur and Molly Weasley, I leave you with one million galleons, you have been the parents that Harry was never able to have, and the one I wasn’t able to be. I thank you for that.

Harry heard a loud gasp come from Molly and then she started to cry again. Arthur’s face was one of bewilderment; this caused Harry to smile, knowing that they deserved the money a lot more than he did.

To Fred and Gorge Weasley, I leave you with five thousand galleons each and twenty-two kegs of Ogden’s Firewhiskey. I also leave you with a copy of the Marauders Notes, may they help your future joke shop!

The twins just sat their stone eyed, and nodded, sadness still sketched into their faces.

To Ginny Weasley, I leave you with five thousand galleons.

Harry was surprised to see that Ginny looked rather disappointed at this. There wasn’t a trace of sadness in her features at all…

To Remus Lupin, the last of the Marauders, I leave you with two million galleons and also a medium size cottage. The location will be given to you after the reading. Look after yourself my friend and look after Harry.

Harry just watched as fresh tears came to Remus’ eyes as he leaned into Tonks’ embrace.

To Ron Weasley, I leave you with ten thousand galleons, I know you have problems with the amount of money Harry has. But remember what he has had to go though to get it. You’re his best friend; don’t let something as pitiful as money get in the way of that.

Ron’s expression, both surprised and angered Harry, he looked… Gleeful…

To Hermione Granger, My dear, I owe you a life debt. Well I guess I owe you more than one. The amount of times you have saved my godson’s ass. Anyway I leave you with twenty thousand galleons. I have also had the library from a certain house that you know of moved to your new vault. I have made sure that all the cursed books were removed and destroyed. But there are still some dark books in there, don’t let Dumbledore destroy them, after all the best way to defeat the Dark Arts is to know what you are up against.

Hermione started crying again as her mother leaned over from behind and hugged her, that’s when Harry noticed that Ron next to her had a look of anger and jealously on his face. It made Harry want to hit him.

To my dear godson, Harry Potter, first I must apologize for getting myself killed. I am sorry that I never had the chance to raise you instead of those bloody muggles. I leave you with the rest of the Black fortune and also make you head of the Black family. The Potters and Blacks are old families Harry and being a head of both will have great advantages in the future. One of which is allowing you to leave those damn muggle relatives, as being head of a family legally makes you an adult. There is also a letter that is to be given directly to you. In it will list what I have left you. Try and have some fun in your life Harry, and when the time comes kill that son of a bitch.

After the reading was done Harry could feel the tears rolling down his checks. He was about to ask the goblin if they could leave when he head Ron mumble…

“Damn Potter gets left a fortune…” a large crack followed this as Hermione slapped him, hard across the cheek.

“You are the most cruel, despicable person I know Ron Weasley!” she hissed at him before storming out of the room.

Harry was too shocked at what Ron had said to notice that they had already left the pensieve and were back in Harry's room.

“As you can see Mr Dumbledore's roots spread far.” the goblin said, breaking Harry from his thoughts. “We never gave this to Mr Dumbledore, we gave him a fake letter as he was rather persistent that he should be the one to present it to you, and wouldn’t leave without it.”

Harry took the letter off the goblin and slowly un-folded it, revealing Sirius’ messy handwriting.

Dear Harry

Please don’t mourn my death too much, and never blame yourself no matter what the circumstances. I am in a better place now, with your parents and we will see you again, when it is your time. Which will be many, many years away! Promise me you will try to enjoy life.

Now there are some warnings that I am afraid that I must give you. Be careful of Dumbledore! Don’t trust him; there are things, part conversations that I have over heard that have led me to question his ideas. I would bet all my gold in Gringotts that he is using memory charms or some other spells to change people’s minds to suit his own scheme.

I don’t believe that he has turned his back on the light, though I do believe that he is power hungry as much as Voldemort is. Being locked up in a house for over a year allowed me a lot of thinking time and some of the events of your schooling years don’t add up. With this letter is a book, this book Harry is a dark arts book, but look at the area on mind charms. It has ways to block them; it’s an extension on Occlumency, another thing you must master. Try and find a book on it, and study it yourself. I seriously doubt that Snape is even teaching you properly.

You’re a powerful wizard Harry; there are many topics that you should look at. Wandless magic is well within your reach and a powerful advantage, keep that in mind.

Keep safe Harry.

Now onto all the goodies that I have left you. For starters the title of Baron Black is now all yours! HA, HA! I hated it. You will formally be known as Harry James Potter-Black or Black-Potter, it’s up to you. The Black fortune is a large one! Removing the inheritance of the others, you will be receiving about two hundred million galleons from the Black fortune. Since I was removed from the family tree I wasn’t able to use it, but now since all the Black males are dead my will goes into affect no matter what my mother wanted and I decided who gets it all! I will also be handing over the control of the Potter vaults since they were under my care, I am sorry I didn’t do this earlier but since I was a convict I couldn’t really go into Gringotts and request that they be handed over to you, too many questions. So you will be receiving access to the rest of the Potter vaults, that’s right; the vault you visit at the moment is only a trust account. You will have to ask someone at Gringotts the size of the Potter fortune, since I have no idea, though it was large.

With the Black inheritance you will be also receiving a number of residences. These include Number 12, a cottage in Hogsmeade and also a wizard library, yes, yes I know Hermione will probably die of jealousy… this is a private library so it’s not open to the public. The library is about as vast as the Hogwarts one, but it also has a lot of dark arts books. I would not tell Dumbledore about this place if I were you.

With the Potter inheritance coming into your belonging, there are also a number of houses. There is another library also not open to the public. I had Godric’s Hollow fixed up, you can visit it in the future if you want, there is also the main Potter house where your parents usually lived. It’s a large mansion. There is also a private island, and I don’t have a clue what is there, though there is a portkey to get there in one of the vaults.

Well that’s it… you will have to ask someone at Gringotts for more information on what’s in the Potter vaults and stuff.

Try and have fun kiddo. I will see you again but hopefully not for a long, long time yet.

Love,

Sirius

Harry put the letter down, tears freely falling from his eyes, his face a mixture of sadness and surprise. Even though he didn’t care he asked.

“H-How… Big is the Potter fortune?”

“I cannot tell you the exact amount, though there is around three hundred million galleons, this is not including properties and belongings of course.”

Harry’s eyes just got wider at this statement.

“Yes Mr Potter, you are the largest depositor in England.” the goblins paused before continuing, “I must being going, I am sorry for leaving on such short notice, but if there is anything, anything that we can help you with, don’t hesitate to ask." Harry got the feeling that he was not just talking about banking, "Good day Mr Potter, Oh and you may keep the pensive.”

With a soft ‘pop’ the Goblin vanished and his wards fell also. This was not a good thing for Harry as, as soon as they had fallen, his door was thrown open.

“WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING BOY? I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET THAT DOOR OPEN FOR THE LAST TEN MINUTES!”

Harry paled at this, and it was not lost on his uncle.

“YOU’VE BEEN DOING YOUR FREAK SHIT IN MY HOUSE! HAVEN'T YOU!” his uncle didn’t even give Harry time to answer before continuing, “YOU HAVE CROSSED THE LINE THIS TIME BOY! AND YOU WILL REGRET IT!”

*----*

AN: DUM, DUM DUMMM…

4. Escape

Chapter 3 – Escape

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!

AN: Ah! Here is another chapter! Thank you Turnlach for all your BETA work!

*-----*

*SSSSS*

Harry automatically assumed the foetal position, expecting a number of blows to come from his uncle any second. He however was rather surprised to hear his uncle booming footsteps leave his room and another door slam open.

Harry sighed in relief, anything was better than getting the crap belted out of you. His relief soon vanished, replaced by fear as a loud un-human screech came from down the hall. Fear spreading over his body, Harry jumped to his feet bolting out of his room, heading straight to the spare room.

All the colour drained from his face when he noticed that it was this door had been thrown open. Rushing to the open door, Harry froze seeing the limp form of Hedwig laying on the ground. Looking up at his uncle he noticed the menacing grin crossing the large man’s face.

Pure hatred washed through Harry’s body, and Vernon’s grin soon vanished as Harry's green eyes glowed brightly, the air around him seemed to crackle as the large amounts of magic poured off him, enough for even a muggle to feel.

Vernon’s face change from evil, to shit scared in a matter of seconds, and the fat large man started whimpering. With a sneer and a flick of his wrist Harry sent his uncle slamming straight though the wall into the main bedroom. Screams came from downstairs as the house shook as Vernon literally went through the wall.

Stepping though the massive hole in the plaster wall, Harry flicked his wrist again and sent Vernon through the bedroom door and tumbling down the stairs. Following his fat uncle Harry casually walked down the stairs, glass objects shattering as he got too close.

His uncle started moaning in pain, trying to move on the ground, but finding that moving any part of him caused severe pain. Looking around Harry's eyes fell on his old room, the cupboard under the stairs. With a sneer Harry flicked his wrist again and his uncle disappeared, reappearing stuffed in the closed cupboard.

With another flick of Harry’s hand, his trunks, wand, and cloak appeared. Shrinking his trunk he put it in his pocket, before making his way to the front door. His Aunt backed away in fear at seeing his eyes glowing. As Harry approached the front door it blew off its hinges, shattering as it bounced across the road.

Harry's last walk through the house at Number 4, Privet Drive, had shattered all the windows and nearly every other glass object in the house, left a gaping hole in one of the walls and also removed the front door; it ending up in pieces down the street.

Walking down the street Harry's anger slowly lowered, his magic returning to normal; probably a minute too early as Harry found himself standing in front of six cloaked figures wearing white masks.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t wee baby Potter.” the unmistakable voice of Bellatrix Lestrange called out.

Harry so badly wanted to start yelling out every curse that he knew, but with six to one odds he wouldn’t stand a chance.

“What a pleasant surprise to see you here ickle Potty, The Dark Lord will reward me greatly for finding you.” Bellatrix laughed. “But… I think I might have some fun first… CRUCIO!”

Harry watched as the yellow curse came towards him, it seemed to move in slow motion. Thinking that it was over, he thought of the person he would miss most… Hermione.

Harry didn’t know what happened next, though the feeling of hundreds of knifes being stabbed repeatedly into him did not come. No, instead of the piercing pain it felt like he was being squeezed through a thin pipe.

*SSSSS*

Dumbledore was sitting at his office desk when one of the silver objects, recently repaired from Harry’s anger started humming. Dumbledore looked over at the object slightly alarmed. The object then started screeching.

Moving much faster than a man his age should be able, Dumbledore threw some floo powder into the fireplace calling out “MLE, Kingsley Shacklebolt Office!”

As the soot cleared Dumbledore could see Kingsley looking at him from his desk.

“Kingsley, get some Aurors over to Harry place, there has been magically activity.” Dumbledore said before cutting the floo connection and running to the school apparation point.

About five minutes later Dumbledore and Kingsley arrived down the street from Harry's place. They couldn’t apparate straight there since the anti-apparation wards stopped anyone from doing it.

Dumbledore paled after he watched six Death Eaters apparate away, he paled even further when he looked towards Harry’s house. The front door missing, all the windows blow out. Quickly making his way towards the house, followed by the four Aurors Kingsley brought along, Dumbledore entered the house, wand out and alert. A sound was coming from down the hall, it sounded like someone sobbing. Thinking that Death Eaters may still be in the house, Kingsley signalled the Aurors to move quietly and to back him up from behind.

Coming around the corner they noticed that the person sobbing was Harry’s Aunt Petunia, she was lying down in front of the cupboard that Harry had been forced to sleep in as a child. Moving quickly Dumbledore went to check what was wrong. Though when he got to her, it was clearly evident. The cupboard was full, totally full, not something out of the ordinary, except the fact that it was being filled by Vernon Dursley, who moaned in pain every now and again.

Having a closer look, it was painfully obvious that the man couldn’t have physically fit in there. Magical means had placed him inside. Dumbledore had to enlarge the opening to get the large man out. Once Vernon toppled out, Dumbledore also noted that he had many other injuries.

“Kingsley, get a mediwitch here, Harry’s uncle needs one.” Dumbledore said before making his way up stairs to try and find Harry. Once he got up the stairs, Dumbledore found more damage to the house. The main bedroom doors were splintered. Going over to the room first Dumbledore immediately noticed the large gaping hole in the wall, and now had a brief idea where Vernon’s other injuries had came from. Stepping through the large hole, Dumbledore noticed the bird cage lying on the ground and not far away the limp form of Hedwig.

Relief washed over him, understanding that it was most likely Harry that had done this and not Death Eaters. Forgetting the bird Dumbledore made his way to Harry’s room, only to find it empty. Letting out a frustrated growl Dumbledore walked back downstairs.

“There is no sign of him upstairs.” He announced to the Aurors. “Has his Aunt said anything?”

“Nothing really…” one of the younger men said, “She just keeps going on about glowing green, or something like that.”

“Hmm… ok…” Dumbledore sighed in defeat, “I’m going to head back to the school, tell me if you find anything, will you Kingsley?”

“Sure Albus.” was all he said.

Dumbledore left the house and headed back to school; as soon as he arrived he called an emergency Order meeting for tonight.

*SSSSS*

Hermione was sitting on her bed reading her new books. She had got them before the end of school and had saved them for the summer since she was going on a holiday and she needed something to read.

She was startled from her book as a soft ‘pop’ echoed though her room, looking up she noticed a figure standing in her room and she let out a scream and reached for her wand.

*SSSSS*

Harry spun around at hearing something screaming, thinking that someone had taken the curse for him. That was until he noticed that he was no longer at Privet Drive, and the person that had screamed was... Hermione.

“Hermione?” he asked.

“H-Harry! What, what are you going here!” she yelled jumping forward and slamming him into a hug, making him wince at the pressure against his bruises.

As the adrenalin wore off, the grief of what had happened finally hit him.

“I-I don’t know… apparated… Death Eaters… Hedwig…” Harry said choking back a sob at the last word.

“What? What Harry what’s wrong?” Hermione asked concern filling her eyes

Harry buried his face into her shoulder, “He-He killed Hedwig, t-that bastard Vernon!” Harry sobbed.

Hermione felt her eyes well up with tears also, she loved Hedwig, she was always nice to her, letting her send letters and she always seemed to show up when she needed to send something.

“Shh, shhh its ok Harry, its ok, everything is going to be fine, I’m here, I’m here.” she cooed softly, a tear of her own falling down her cheek and into her hair. Harry's sobs slowly slowed down.

It was then that Hermione’s parents burst into the room, quickly asking what was wrong, but stopping half way through noticing the boy in their daughter’s arms.

When Harry finally noticed Hermione’s parents standing at the door way he quickly let go of Hermione and moved away.

“Hmm… sorry…” he said softly looking down at the ground.

“Nothing to apologize for! I’m Daniel Granger and this is my wife Jane Granger… and you must be Harry Potter.” at Harry's questioning look, he continued, “With the amount Hermione talks about you, you’re rather easy to recognize.”

Hermione blushed at this, though Harry didn’t notice. “Umm Harry, how did you get here?” she asked softly rubbing his back.

Harry rubbed his shoulder, the bruise from one of Vernon’s recent beating was aching, though he soon regretted it as Hermione spotted it also.

“WHO GAVE YOU THAT!” she said pointing at his arm.

“It-it’s nothing Hermione.” Harry said weakly.

“Don’t you nothing me, Harry Potter!” Harry looked at her, concern was filling her eyes. Harry let out a sigh in defeat.

“Vernon.” was all he said.

“Your, your uncle, he, he, Oh Harry... I knew that they were mean… but never this... if I had known I would have come got you… I’m sorry.” she said tears pooling in her eyes as she hugged him again.

“It’s not your fault… it’s their fault, you had nothing, nothing to do with this.” he sighed in her ear.

“So, that’s why you left… but, how did you get here? You can’t apparate…” she asked after she had settled down.

“I, um, after leaving the Dursleys, out in the street, I ran into some Death Eaters…”

“ARE YOU ALRIGHT? WE HAVE TO TELL DUMBLEDORE!” she blurted.

“NO! No not Dumbledore… he, he’s not as good as he seems Hermione.” At Hermione’s confused look, a look that didn’t really go with her, “You were at Sirius’ will reading, you heard what he said about keeping him locked up…”

“What? Sirius’ will reading?... what are you talking about Harry?” Hermione asked, becoming more confused.

Harry just looked at her strangely, “You were there… you, your parents, the Weasleys, Dumbledore, Remus Tonks, even bloody Malfoy.” Harry said.

It was then that Jane entered the conversation, “Um… Harry… we haven’t been to any will reading… in fact we haven’t been to Diagon Alley this summer…”

“What? That’s not right, though… I have proof that you were there…” Harry said not also becoming quite confused. “I’ll show you.” he said pulling out his trunk, to get the goblins pensieve.

He put the pensieve down, when he remembered Sirius’ note, I would bet all my gold in Gringotts that he is using memory charms or some other spells to change people’s minds, Harry groaned remembering this.

“What is it Harry.” Hermione asked getting worried again. Harry simply dug into his pocket, pulled out Sirius’ letter and handed it to Hermione.

“Take special note of the second paragraph.” was all he said.

Hermione began to read the letter, letting out a gasp as she obviously read about Sirius suspicion. It didn’t take her long to read, before she handed it back to Harry, who pocketed it again.

“The Goblin also said that Dumbledore was very persistent, that he should be the one to tell me about Sirius’ will, and be the one to give me that letter.”

“You… can’t go back to him this summer… you have to hide…” was all that Hermione managed.

“I have an idea.” Jane spoke up again. Both Harry and Hermione turned to look at her, “You can come on holidays with us!” a large grin broke out on Hermione's face, while Harry’s face was one of complete surprise.

“Brilliant idea, love!” Daniel said, “I will make the changes now…” he paused, looking over at Harry. Looking at the rags he was wearing he added, “Don’t worry, Harry we will cover all expenses.”

“Oh, no, I will pay myself.” at seeing Daniel's nervous looking expression Harry added, “I think it might be best if we have a look at the pensieve first.”

Harry was free falling again, until he landed back in the room in Gringotts, looking around he watched as Hermione and her parents appeared behind him and started looking around in amazement. He then heard all of them gasp, obviously as they spotted themselves.

“B-b-but, you say this is a memory?” Jane asked, still staring at the image of herself.

“Yes, it’s the Goblins memory…” Harry answered.

“But, I don’t remember, I have never been here!”

“You have, but you have probably had it removed from your memory… we will explain more later.” Harry said and Jane just nodded.

“Oh my gods… look at Ron…” Hermione said; as she watched him sigh in boredom, then watch herself hit him.

“I… I know… once we left the goblin said something about Dumbledore's roots running deep… I guess he was talking about Ron and Ginny… look at her.” Harry pointed Ginny out, “She has the exact same expression as Ron.”

They turned around as the Goblin announced that the will was going to be read. This time Harry didn’t listen, he just held onto Hermione who also did the same to him. He heard her gasp when her part was read out and she begun to sob on his shoulder. He watched as the ‘memory Jane’ leaned over and hugged Hermione, at the same time as the ‘present Jane’ did so.

When the will finished Harry watched as Ron made his parting comment of ‘Damn Potter gets left a fortune…’ and sighed, though Hermione growled in anger and hissed, “I can’t believe I ever considered that git a friend!”

They then felt the familiar free falling sensation as they had done before, until they landed back in Hermione's room. Harry turned to Hermione parents and handed them Sirius’ letter.

“That’s the letter they referred to in the will… it will probably shed some light as to why you can’t remember the reading as well…” Harry said softly.

Jane took the letter and read it quickly, paling as she did. With a trembling hand she handed it to her husband. He also read it quickly before handing it back.

“So… your headmaster… he’s the one who removed our memories?” at Harry and Hermione's nod he asked, “Why?”

“Dumbledore has always seemed to want to control my life… ever since I was one he has been doing it… according to the Goblins, he went directly against my parents will, with placing me at the Dursleys…”

“Well then! We will change your schools… there has to be other wizarding schools…” Jane said.

“We can’t… he’s one of the most powerful wizards alive mum… and even if we tried that, he would probably just do another memory charm…” Hermione said softly, “We just have to do what Sirius said… learn a way to protect ourselves against it and play along until we can get away safely.” She then turned to Harry.

“He has had his hand in everything hasn’t he… the Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, Sirius… he must have known was innocent, The Tri-wizarding Tournament… oh my god… and with the ministry… how couldn’t he know that Snape would be the worst teacher for you!” she cried throwing him into another hug.

“Well it’s settled then! You’re coming with us!” Daniel said, quickly leaving the room before Harry could say anything.

“Mrs. Granger… I want to pa…” Harry started but was cut off by her.

“It’s fine Harry, Hermione had been bugging us for years to allow you to come on a holiday with us anyway.” Jane said happily.

“If it’s not trouble, I guess.” Harry sighed in defeat, now knowing where Hermione got her determination from.

“Good then! Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes by the way, I’ll see you two down there.” Jane said before leaving the room after her husband.

Harry turned to Hermione, taking his time to admire her face, Even sad she’s Beautiful… WHAT am I DOING!!! I can’t ruin this!

“So… how has your summer been?” Harry asked.

Hermione sighed… “Fine… I guess… its been rather boring actually… just reading books mainly.” Harry looked over at her surprised.

“Hermione Granger, finding books boring? Are you sure you’re the Hermione that attends Hogwarts?” Harry asked a small smirk gracing his lips.

“Yes, you prat” Hermione said slapping his softly on the shoulder. She then sighed again and leaned up against him.

“I wish I could have come and got you away from those horrible people…” she said, a tear rolling down her cheek. Harry brushed it away with his thumb.

“Shhh… it’s not your fault at all, I doubt that Dumbledore would have allowed it anyway…”

“Harry… how are you going to explain running away anyway? He will find out that you’re not at the Dursleys eventually…” Hermione asked.

“I bet he already knows… I bet he has some kind of wards set up to alert him of any magic being used… and I did use a fair bit…” Harry said.

“What did you do?”

“After, Vernon, k-killed Hed-Hedwig… I sorta lost control and sent him though the wall with a wave of my hand… everything was just a blur, I was, was so angry. I then sent him though his bedroom door and down the stairs, after that I stuffed him in the cupboard… that’s when I left and ran into the Death Eaters…” Hermione was staring up at him wide eyed.

“Y-You did wandless magic?” was all Hermione said.

“Y-yea, I’ve done it before… when I couldn’t control my emotions.” Harry said weakly, getting a tad nervous at the look Hermione was giving him.

“But, you did controlled wandless magic… Harry… barely anyone can do controlled wandless magic anymore… and the people that can, can only do little things…” Hermione said quietly.

“Well, I bet you could do it!” Harry said looking straight at Hermione.

“M-m-me, Harry don’t be silly.” Hermione said, not believing him.

“Hermione… I don’t know of one thing you can’t do, if you put your mind to it.” Harry defended her. "Did you ever do accidental magic growing up?"

"Umm... y-yes..." she said her cheeks tinting red.

"What did you do?" Harry asked again, unaware of her embarrassment.

"I... I got locked in the garden shed and, sorta blew it up ok." she said looking away as she blushed even more.

"Hermione, its nothing to be embarrassed about... and you just proved you can do wandless magic with a bit of training..."

"What? Nearly every wizard or witch does accidental magic when they are growing up!" Hermione said.

"Yes, but it’s never anything as powerful as blowing up a shed..." Harry reasoned. "Trust me, you will learn wandless magic over the summer."

“Do, do you want to try and learn over the summer?” Hermione asked.

“If you want… I actually have a book on it.” their conversation stopped as Hermione's mum called up to them announcing that dinner was ready.

Daniel Granger had cooked a roast lamb for dinner with steamed vegetables. Harry, who had barley eaten over the summer, found himself starving. The meal was divine, the meat nice and tender and the vegetables were cooked just right.

Mr. Granger had announced that he was able to book another plane ticket, for tomorrow’s flight, and that they were able to change their accommodation from a two bedroom apartment to a three bedroom one, which was rather lucky.

Harry had once again tried to pay all his extra costs, but the Grangers wouldn’t hear of it, though they finally agreed to let him buy Hermione's school equipment for her instead.

*SSSSS*

Dumbledore stood in front of the Order of the Phoenix, in Harry’s new house, Number 12, Grimmauld Place. The Order was muttering between themselves not knowing what his meeting was all about. They all quieted down as Dumbledore spoke.

“Good evening, I have called this meeting, since something of grave importance has happened.” Dumbledore paused until the whispers stopped. “Earlier this evening, the wards around Harry home that sense magical activity were triggered. Once I arrived there I witnessed at least five Death Eaters apparate away.” a gasp went out though the group. “The house was damaged, though it was easily fixed, Harry’s uncle was severally injured and Harry's owl was found dead, there were no traces of Harry anywhere.”

At this last big a cry came from the direction of Molly. “I have called you all here because we must find Harry! He is very important in winning this war and we must get him back to Headquarters where we can protect him.”

The order then got up and started filing out of the house, their new mission, Find Harry Potter.

*SSSSS*

After dinner Harry, Hermione and her parents decided to head to bed early since the plane left at four in the morning.

Hermione was sitting awake in her bed unable to sleep, when she heard a moan come from across the hall. Hopping out of bed Hermione left her room and silently made it over to Harry's. Slowly opening the door the sight that Hermione saw was enough to break her heart.

Harry was thrashing around in his bed, eyes squeezed shut, muttering things under his breath. Forgetting about anything else Hermione rushed to his bed and pulled him into a hug. Harry automatically stopped thrashing as Hermione softly spoke into his ear, reassuring him that everything was ok and that she was right here.

Harry slowly fell back into a fit-less sleep, still holding onto Hermione. Biting her lower lip, Hermione didn’t know what to do… she desperately didn’t want to leave him, but what would her parents say…

After a couple of seconds Hermione reasoned that her parents would understand, and if they didn’t, then she would explain it to them. She then slid into Harry bed, snuggling down into his side and threw the quilt over herself.

*SSSSS*

Jane walked down to her daughter’s room, and was a little surprised to find it empty. Walking over to Harry’s room, she silently open the door, and looked in, seeing her daughter was cuddled up against the young man. She fought down her motherly instincts to run and grab her baby girl away, as she had a pretty good idea what had happened. So instead she tiptoes over to the bed and softly shook her daughter awake.

“Harry…?” Hermione muttered still half asleep. She opened her eyes and let out a little squeak at seeing her mother staring at her.

“M-mum… it’s not what it looks like!” she said quickly.

“I know Hermione, it’s ok, you’re not in trouble, but its time to get up, we have to leave in about an hour” Jane said before leaving the room.

Hermione laid back into the bed, looking up at the ceiling, she couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing than what had just happened, well she could, but this was still bad. Looking over at the digital clock, she noticed that it was indeed 3am. Rolling over she gently shook Harry’s shoulder.

“Harry… Harry its time to get up.” she said softly as Harry stirred.

“Her-Hermione… what are you doing here?” he asked a little confused.

“Err… nightmare.” she said her cheeks turning red.

“You had a nightmare?” he asked.

“No… not me, you, you were having a nightmare.” she said softly.

“Oh… well that makes more sense… and I guess I have you to thank for the best night’s sleep I have had all summer.” Hermione just smiled at this, loving the idea that it was her that chased his nightmares away, though she was also sad that he was having them in the first place.

“Come on, let’s go have some breakfast and get washed up before we leave!”

“Yeah, ok…” Harry said, grunting as he lifted himself out of bed and stretched. Hermione also hopped out and did the same thing.

“Come on.” she said grabbing his elbow and dragging him downstairs into the kitchen.

“Good morning you two, sleep well?” Jane asked giving them a knowing smile. Hermione blushed at this while Harry was oblivious to it.

“Actually I had the best night’s sleep I have all summer.” he said before going and putting the kettle on.

“That’s good to hear Harry.” Jane said, before turning back to Hermione and raising an eyebrow, which caused Hermione to blush even more.

“Would you like some toast you two?” Jane asked.

“Yes, thanks mum.” Hermione said before taking a seat at the table.

“I will get that Mrs. Granger.” Harry said.

“Nonsense, you go sit down, I will be making it.” she said shooing Harry out of the kitchen and towards the table.

*SSSSS*

The hour passed quickly and before they knew it they were heading to the airport. Harry was jumping with excitement, while Hermione seemed to get more nervous the closer they got.

“What’s wrong Hermione?” Harry asked.

“Oh, Harry you know I hate flying…” she said.

Harry just sighed, “It will be fine… you really must come flying with me someday, and get over this fear, trust me it will help.” Harry said softly rubbing one of her shoulders.

“Y-Yeah… Maybe I should one day.” Hermione sighed and leaned into Harry as he started to massage her back. “And I promise I will if you keep that up.” she added.

“Ok then, you have yourself a deal.” Harry whispered in her ear and continued to massage her back and shoulders for the rest of the drive to the airport.

It only took fifteen minutes to get to the airport and Harry was awed by the sheer size of the planes. Everything in here was new to him, since every time that the Dursleys had gone on a holiday Harry had been pawned off somewhere.

Getting his ticket and loading on their luggage, Harry re-read his ticket at least three times before making it to the waiting room. Harry and Hermione went over to the window and Harry watched in fascination as the planes took off and landed.

It was about ten minutes later that it was announced that their plane was boarding. Handing over his ticket, Harry, Hermione and the Grangers headed onto the plane and found their seats. Hermione swapped seats with Harry, since she really didn’t want to be near the window.

Harry watch as more and more people entered the plane and found their seats. It amazed Harry that this piece of metal was able to fly and carry all these people at the same time.

The sound of the doors closing caused Harry to get excited again. He looked over at Hermione as the plane started to pull away, his eyes full of excitement, but hers were full of fear.

Harry quickly grabbed Hermione's hand as it begun to shake, this startled Hermione out of her fear as she looked over at Harry. He gave her a warm smile and squeezed her hand in support, letting her know that everything was going to be fine and that he was here if anything did actually go wrong. Squeezing his hand back Hermione relaxed as the plan left the tarmac and headed off to America.

*-----*

AN: Well that’s it for now! I hope that you all enjoyed it, don’t forget to check out my new Yahoo Group, here is the link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhr_fanfics/

5. Holiday & Owls

Chapter 4 – Holiday & Owls

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!

AN: Ah! Here it is :P, thanks Turnlach for his BETA work :P

*SSSSS*

Hermione had fallen asleep during the plane flight; after all it was only five in the morning. Harry though was too excited to sleep, looking out the window he watched as the plane passed over towns and cities, which from up here seemed like little toy sets.

With a large yawn Harry looked away from the window and his eyes settled on Hermione, who was currently asleep leaning against his shoulder. She’s beautiful… rrrggg… what am I doing! She’s my best friend! Harry sighed, looking down at her, he didn’t know when his feelings had changed from best friend, to more… he knew he finally realized after the ministry, when he nearly lost her.

But thinking back, he knew he had loved her subconsciously, even in his second year. The feeling of loss within him when she was petrified. She doesn’t feel the same way though… and her friendship is more than I could ask for… I won’t ruin it! Taking one last look, he kissed her softly on the cheek before also falling asleep.

*SSSSS*

Hermione stirred from her sleep. She was having the best dream… Harry had admitted his feelings to her and the last bit she remembered was him kissing her on the cheek. Looking over at her best friend, the person she desperately wanted to be more than a fried to. She sighed to herself knowing that was all it was, a dream. Harry is too good for me… I’m just his bookworm friend… she thought, her heart sinking. I’ll take what I can though, even if it’s only his friendship… was her last thought before she fell back to sleep against Harry's shoulder.

*SSSSS*

Harry woke up, finding that he was still sitting in the plane; Hermione still snuggled up against his shoulder. This fact caused him to smile. Taking Hermione's hand, he turned it slightly to look at her watch, I have to get a watch for myself… he though while doing this. Hermione’s watch read 11am, she having already set it to match the time at their destination. He remembered Jane saying that they would arrive at around one or two in the afternoon. Relaxing back into his chair Harry gently let go of Hermione's hand, though he must not have done this gently enough as a groggy Hermione woke up.

“Good morning Harry.” she said in the middle of a yawn.

“Morning Hermione, how did you sleep?” Harry asked giving her a warm smile.

“Quite nice actually… you make a rather good teddy bear.” Hermione said smiling at him.

Harry just shook his head in amusement, though he was thinking the exact same thing about her. “So… what have you got planned for us this trip?” Harry asked her.

“Well… I found a book on all the magical places in different countries. It has a lot on America… there’s a number of villages, and there is also a huge village that’s made up of just shops. Apparently it’s about seven times the size of Diagon Alley!”

“Wow… so are we close enough to go there?” Harry asked, excitement dancing in his eyes.

“Yep! Apparently we are staying only a five minute walk away.” Hermione answered. “There is also the world’s largest library there too.” she added quickly.

Harry just grinned at her, knowing that she really, really wanted to go there. “Sounds like fun.” Hermione turned to him and smiled back at him.

They talked about a number of things, remembering funny things that had happened to them in the past, and talked about what they wanted to do this summer. Harry felt like one of the luckiest people alive, his summer had just turned from hell to heaven, and it was only an accidental apparation away.

*SSSSS*

Landing in America, Harry looked around the airport. It was rather different from the one they had come from; it was also a lot more crowded. This last fact made Harry a little uneasy and he hoped no one would notice him.

Grabbing their trunks, the group headed out of the airport and hailed a cab. The ride to the hotel took about forty minutes, which Harry and Hermione spent talking quietly to each other.

“So, what you want to do today?” Harry asked Hermione in a whisper.

“Hmm… I don’t know, I don’t think I’m up to going out anywhere today.” she answered.

“Yeah… I feel the same.”

“We could study… if you wanted to of course…” Hermione said quickly. She really did doubt that Harry wanted to study while they were on holidays.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea… but we don’t have any courses yet…”

“Umm… I think that we should learn Occlumency together.” she said softly looking away from him.

“Hermione… it’s ok… and you’re right, we should learn it, if only to keep me having lessons with Snape again…” Harry said giving Hermione a little squeeze with his hand.

“Thanks… I have a book that has a little bit on Occlumency… buts it’s not much… we will have to buy one some time.” Hermione said.

“I have a book on it…” Harry said, then seeing Hermione’s questioning look, after all she knew every book that Harry had he continued, “I got it this summer… along with some other books…” Harry said, he knew he had to come clean about the Dark Arts books. She would see them anyway when he showed her his new trunk.

“OH! What new books did you get?” Hermione asked, obviously happy that Harry had some new books.

“Err…um… I’ll tell you later…ok?” Harry said fiddling with his hands.

“O...Kaayy…” Hermione said slowly looking at him at his like he was some strange looking creature.

“I will show you, when we get settled in.” Harry said looking straight at her.

That was the last Hermione mentioned of Harry's new books for the rest of the ride to the hotel.

*SSSSS*

The hotel was brilliant! It was amazing. They were on the ninth floor and had an excellent view of the ocean. They had settled in fairly quickly. Daniel and Jane had taken the master bedroom, while Harry and Hermione had taken the other two, which were across from each other.

Hermione was sitting down on Harry’s bed, while Harry paced nervously in front of her. It was time to come clean about the dark arts books, and he dearly hoped that Hermione wouldn't kill him.

“Come on Harry, what are you pacing for?” she asked.

“Ok, fine… I’ll just show you.” he said.

Pulling his trunk out of his pocket Harry set it down and enlarged it. Opening the first storage area, Harry started to descend the stairs. He stopped halfway, looking back at Hermione who was just sitting there stunned.

“Well you coming?” he asked, and laughed as she jerked out of her daze and came rushing over.

Once they were inside Hermione gasped at what she saw. In her eyes it was the most perfect place in the world; Quiet, Peaceful, Comfortable and had two very large bookshelves.

“This place is amazing!” she said in awe, before turning to Harry, “You have to let me study in here!” she said seriously. Harry just shook his head in amusement.

She then went over to his bookshelves and started looking through his books. Harry held his breath while Hermione scanned though his advanced dueling books, school books, Quidditch books and what ever books he had. She gasped as she came along his Dark Arts books.

“H-Harry… these are books on the Dark Arts… where did you get them…?” she said slowly, not taking her eyes off the books.

“This summer… I… thought it would be best to know what I’m up against… Please don’t hate me for this!” he said, pleading the last part.

“I don’t hate you Harry… I never could.” She said. “I actually had the same idea… and after Sirius’s will, I was going to try and pick up some this summer… so have you read them yet?”

“I started… but then stopped, and started on the advanced dueling books, mainly the parts about stances and wand drawing… stuff you can do without using magic.” Harry said, not wanting to admit, that the memory of casting an Unforgivable had caused him to stop.

“Well, we will read them together… but first I think we should start on Occlumency.” she said looking back through his books. “Ah here.” she said as she pulled one of them out. She sat down in one of the armchairs next to Harry and started to read aloud.

‘Occlumency is a skill used to protect ones mind from attack. There are three levels of Occlumency. The first is where you build a wall around your mind, when attacked, the attacker will bounce off the wall, the attacker will not be able to enter your mind and will only see the wall. This is ok to stop penetration, though if you are trying to keep a secret it is not as good, as the person will know now you are hiding something.

The second level is when the person can put forward a ‘fake’ memory, the attacker will only be able to see this memory that the person is displaying, therefore protecting the mind. The problem with this level is that the wall is not there. The person is in your mind, but viewing a ‘fake’ memory. Therefore if the person is skilled enough, they will be able to push past this memory and enter your mind.

The third level is when the person can project the ‘Fake’ memory outside their shield. Therefore if the memory fails the attacker will hit the wall and be stopped. This level also allows people to project thoughts towards others.

If two people practice this skill together, in time they would be able to communicate telepathically. Though depending on the bond between them will determine how easily they can communicate. One who masters Occlumency is also able to lie easily, sometimes to the point of fooling the most powerful truth potions. The person will also be able to easily detect if someone is lying, this is the beginning of Legilimency, a skill that is rather close to Occlumency and is usually learned after one masters Occlumency.’

“That would be very useful, being able to tell if someone is lying and talk privately between each other.” Hermione said softly.

“Yeah… with that, team dueling would be a lot easier and we would be able to tell if someone were spying on us.” Harry added.

“Hmmm… but I really want to look at how to start.” she said flipping through a couple of pages. “Ah here...”

‘Occlumency can also be used to block spells made to affect the mind, such as the ‘Obliviate’ spell, which erases ones memory. Learning Occlumency also makes learning wandless magic easier since you have more control over you mind.

To begin building a shield, the person must clear their mind. There are a number of ways that you can clear your mind. The easiest and the way covered in this book is though meditation…’

“Bloody Snape never said anything about meditation, or how to clear your mind… all that greasy git did was yell at me to ‘clear my mind’ and attacked with force…” Harry grumbled, Hermione just took his hand in hers and gave him a squeeze of reassurance.

‘If one has not cleared their mind, before being attacked this can cause a number of injuries. If attacked too many times, the victim can become slow to respond and not work well under heavy stress situations and will have trouble concentrating.

Since the Legilimency spell allows one to read another’s mind it is classified as an illegal spell, and is punished with a two-year jail term. Masters of Legilimency can ‘probe’ the mind. To someone not skilled in Occlumency they will not notice a thing. To silently probe someone’s mind, the victim must be looking at the attacker’s eyes; usually the attacker has a projection which seems to draw the victim’s eyes. This is covered in the later chapters of the book.’

“I knew there was something about Dumbledore’s damn twinkle!” Harry yelled. “I knew it! He must be constantly reading people’s minds!” Realization dawned on Harry, “Snape’s glare… that’s Snape’s projection… and Voldemort has those glowing red eyes…” Harry trailed off.

“Oh my God, you’re right!” Hermione practically yelled.

“Hey! I’m not always wrong…” Harry wryly defended himself.

“Oh, I know! And I wasn’t implying that anyway.” Hermione said “Let’s just start.”

“Yeah… ok so what do we do?”

“Well it says we have to…”

The rest of the day was spent practicing meditating and bringing up a wall around their minds.

*SSSSS*

The next day Harry and the Grangers went out sightseeing. This was fun, but Hermione had other things that she wanted to do today. Like going to see the world’s largest wizarding library, buying new books and other wizarding things.

After half a day of sightseeing Hermione finally got her parents to allow her and Harry to head off to the wizarding village. According to Hermione's book, entering the village was very similar to entering Diagon Alley. In the back of a pub called, ‘The Crazy Witch’ was a brick wall that reformed to allow entry.

Knowing that they were going into a wizarding village, Harry had cast small glamour charms on himself and Hermione so that they wouldn’t draw attraction. He didn’t know if he was famous in America, but he wouldn’t be surprised if there were Death Eaters here recruiting new members.

Both Harry and Hermione gasped when they entered the village. Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade being the only wizarding villages they had seen they were unprepared for the size of the American village, this place was huge! There were hundreds of witches and wizards walking around. Walking down the first street and looking in store windows, they kept doing until they came across a dueling shop. This intrigued both Harry and Hermione; there wasn’t a shop like this one in Diagon Alley.

Entering the shop they noticed a number of things; there was lots of different dragonhide armour, cloaks hanging around the shop, there were also a number of items that Harry had no idea what they were. The one thing that caught Harry's eyes was the wand holsters. He had read about them in his dueling book, but didn’t know where he could get them. He guessed that Ollivander had them, but going in there would have been too dangerous for him at the time.

Harry walked up to the counter and a short man came up to serve them.

“How my I help you young man?” the man asked.

“I was looking at your wand holsters. I was wondering what different types you had and the advantages of them.”

“Ah yes, yes. What price range were you looking at? They range from around twenty gallons and go up as high as about one hundred.” The short man asked.

“Money is not a problem.” was all Harry said, and the short man’s face soon broke out in a smile.

“Very well, the best one we have is this one. It can attach to any body part. Has anti-summoning charms on it, it will turn both your wand and itself invisible to anyone else but yourself. It is also made out of dragonhide, so it offers a little protection to yourself wherever you decide to place it.”

Harry's eyes widened at the description, he hadn’t expected that they would have this many advantages. “I’ll take four.” was all Harry said.

The short mans eyes widen at this, “Y-Yes Sir-r certainly.” he said before heading out the back of the store and coming back with four small boxes.

“That will be 380 galleons.” the man said.

“Do you take the new Gringotts debit card?” Harry asked.

“Yes we do, the whole village is fitted for them.” he man said taking Harry’s card and making the payment.

“Is there anything else we can go for you? Dueling armour perhaps?” the man asked hopefully.

“Not today I’m afraid. Though I will be coming back here for some more items.” Harry said.

“Very well, good day to you sir.”

“Good day.” Harry said before going to find Hermione.

He found her looking at the dragonhide armour. “Hey you done?” Hermione asked, “What did you get?” she asked noticing the boxes in his hand.

“Ah… that’s a surprise.” Harry said grinning at her, “Come on, let’s go look somewhere else.”

The next store they stopped in was a magical bag store. After all Harry didn’t want to be carrying around packages all day. After about ten minutes both Harry and Hermione were the proud new owners of two bottomless bags, both with featherweight charms on them. The next store that Hermione saw nearly caused her to almost faint. It had to be the biggest book store they had ever seen in their lives.

Hermione practically dragged Harry there as she ran to it. Once they entered her eyes lit up in delight. Though they then fell when she realized that she didn’t have much money left after she had bought her bag. Harry seeing this decided to act.

“Get anything,” he said to her, “I’m paying.”

“No Harry I can’t do that… that’s you money!” she protested.

“Hermione… I have enough money to buy this store with my spare change… and anyway, I want any book that may be helpful, we can stock up my shelves.” he reasoned with her.

She saw the logic with what Harry was saying and finally agreed and started to go wild, pulling many books out and stacking them on the counter. Harry only picked out a couple of books; the one that really interested him was “Using your Surroundings in Duels”. He remembered Dumbledore using the statues to help fight Voldemort. He had also picked out some books on advanced Occlumency and some very old books on wandless magic. One of these books was rather rare and cost 200 galleons on its own.

The store owned was in a state of shock when they announced that that was it. There were nearly forty books there… only ten of which Harry had chosen.

“Um that comes to… 1448 galleons.” the owner squeaked.

Harry’s face betrayed no emotion towards the amount it had cost as he handed over his Gringotts card and started shrinking the books, placing them in his bag. After they had packed up all their new books, they left the store leaving a flabbergasted shopkeeper.

They stopped at a clothes store which sold both wizarding and muggle clothing. Harry desperately needed new clothes. He only had Dudley’s hand me downs and a couple of robes. They spent around an hour in there. Hermione playing dress up, where Harry was the doll, much to Harry's displeasure. Though at the end, Harry left with two brand new wardrobes, one muggle the other wizard. His hand me downs were thrown away for good.

They spent another hour or so walking around the village looking through different shops. There was so much here, that they didn’t know what to do next. They turned right down an alleyway and then found themselves on a different street. This one seemed different from the others, more… gloomy.

“Must be the American version of Knockturn Alley.” Harry commented.

“Yeah… do you want to go back?” Hermione asked.

“Let’s have a look around first…” Harry said before heading over to the nearest shop.

When they entered Harry was surprised to see a number of muggle items here.

“What the hell are muggle things doing in a dark wizard shop?” Harry whispered to Hermione.

“Well you don’t really think that all Dark Wizards hate muggles and muggleborns do you? After all most Dark Lords crave power not blood purity.” Hermione whispered back.

“Hmm… guess you’re right… never thought of it before.” Harry said looking around the shop, his eyes landed on a muggle pistol, the sign above it saying that it had magical enhancements. “You know, a pistol would be a big advantage, especially since most Death Eaters are so close minded when it comes to anything muggle…”

“It would be a large advantage… but we have no idea how to use one…” Hermione said.

“We could always ask… maybe the store owner knows someone that will teach us.” Harry said looking around for the shopkeeper.

“That’s a good idea.”

Spotting the shopkeeper Harry and Hermione walked up. The man had a number of scars covering his face and sort of resembled Mad-eye Moody, except for the magical eye and missing leg.

“Hello, sir… we were wondering, is there anyone that you know of that can teach us how to use the muggle pistols?” Harry asked the man.

The man eyed them for a little while before answering, “I give lessons, though they will cost yeh 50 gallons each.” he said in a gruff voice.

“Do you want to?” Harry asked Hermione.

“It won’t hurt I guess.” she said.

“When are we able to have the lesson?” Hermione asked the clerk.

“Tomorrow morning, come around eleven.” he simply said.

Harry just nodded and they turned and left the store before leaving the Dark Alley and returning to the hotel.

*SSSSS*

Once they got to the hotel, Hermione remembered the first thing Harry had bought and not told her about, claiming that it was a surprise.

“Harry?” she asked sweetly.

“Yeah?” Harry asked looking up from his book on magical beasts.

“You remember, in the dueling shop, you brought some stuff? What was it?” she was sweetly again, smiling at him.

“Ah… yes my surprise, come here.” Harry said grinning from ear to ear.

Hermione walked over to Harry and sat down on the couch next to him. He then pulled out his bottomless bag, pulling out the four small boxes from earlier that day. He then handed two over to her.

“Those are yours, open them and see what’s inside.” he said.

Hermione loved presents and ripped open the two boxes, revealing two very good looking wand holsters.

“Wow… they’re beautiful…” she said before jumping up and throwing Harry into a back breaking hug, “Thank you, thank you so much.” she said giving him a kiss on the cheek before letting him go leaving Harry blushing like mad.

Hermione was admiring her new wand holsters, then it hit her… two of them? Why did she need two? She only had one wand…

“Umm… Harry? Why did you get two for each of us?” she asked.

Harry looked up and smiled slightly at her, “Well for starters, we need to get you another wand, one without the ministry tracking devices on it, and mine… well it doesn’t work very well against Voldemort… other than that, I think it’s probably best to have a back up wand.” He said shrugging his shoulders as if it was nothing.

“Yeah, I agree that’s a good idea… you been having a lot of good ideas lately Mr Potter! I think you’re turning in to me.” she said grinning madly at him. Harry just threw a pillow at her.

*SSSSS*

The next day Harry and Hermione walked down to the weapon shop. Hermione had told her parents that they didn’t get enough time to visit the library yesterday and that they were going to have a look today. Her parents had finally agreed, but not before having Hermione and Harry promise to spend the next five days going sightseeing with them.

Walking into the shop at exactly eleven they noticed that the shopkeeper was waiting for them.

“I believe that I never got to introduce my self before, I am Malcolm Holmes.” he said holding his hand out to Harry.

“My name is James Evans.” Harry said shaking his hand.

“And mine is Lily Smith.” Hermione said also shaking his hand.

“It’s nice to meet you both. Now yesterday you said you were interesting in learning how to use the muggle hand gun? Is that correct?” he asked.

“Yes that is correct.” Hermione answered.

“OK, well we have a number of different types, though there are two groups that we have, the muggle ones and the ones with magical enhancements. Such as a slight silencing charm, anti-recoil, they won’t set off muggle metal detectors and they are also as light as a feather.”

“The one with magical enhancements I think we will go with.” Harry said for both of them.

“Alright then! Come over here and you can see our range.”

After looking at many different guns both Harry and Hermione settled with the new GLOCK 36. They were magically changed to suit their hand sizes; Hermione's a touch smaller than Harry's.

“Now the ammo, there are a couple of different kinds. We have ammo with a Reducto charge in it, there is one with a piercing charm, it will penetrate three inches of steel easily and still carry on and of course your normal muggle bullets. You only need one clip, as they are charmed to replace any of the bullets that you use. Though they are more expensive than the normal muggle clip.”

“Would we be able to get… two of the piercing and two of the Reducto charged clips thank you.” Hermione said.

“Certainly ma’am.” Malcolm said, collecting up her choices and taking them over to the counter with their other stuff.

“Now last but not least, holsters. These are charmed to fit onto anybody part, they will become invisible to anyone else, with just a tap of your wand. These are on the house.” he said. “Now including the lesson’s that comes to a total of two thousand two hundred galleons.” Harry simply handed over his Gringotts card.

“Ah… the new Gringotts Debit card… grand update for the wizarding world, carrying around a load of gold can be hard sometimes.” he said to himself mainly to himself as he made the payment with Harry's card.

“There you go! All done, now if you’ll follow me, we will start your lessons.” Malcolm said handing Harry his card back and motioning them toward the back door of the shop.

*SSSSS*

Seven hours later Harry and Hermione left Malcolm’s shop. He had told them of a wand maker just around the corner and they were heading that way now.

The shop wasn’t hard to find. It seemed a little run down, but then again so did Ollivander’s and there were apparently the best. Entering the shop a hunchback man served them.

“What would you lot be needing?” he asked.

“Malcolm said that we should speak to you about getting a second wand.” Hermione said.

“Second wand eh? You know its illegal without a permit?” he man said.

“Yes… but we are willing to pay a little extra for you to forget that little detail.” Harry said and the man smiled largely at this.

“And it seems my mind has went blank.” he said before going back behind the stacks. He came out a couple of minutes later holding two beautifully designed wands. “These should do it, for you sir, ten inches, Basilisk Fang, Maple wood. And for you ma’am, Manticore blood, 9 inches and Beachwood.”

They both took the wands and felt the familiar warm felling spread around them. The same feeling that they had felt the last time they chose their wands.

“That will be two hundred galleons for them two.” the man said.

“That’s fine, just charge it to this.” Harry said and handed the man his Gringotts card.

Four minutes later they were out of the store and headed back to the lighter side of the village. On their way back though Hermione had Harry stop at a bookstore where they brought some more books on the Dark Arts. They had decided that they would start looking through them soon.

Once back out in the main part of the village, Harry and Hermione had about two hours to burn. They started walking around and having a look in the stores that they didn’t have a chance to yesterday. It was then that Harry spotted a Quidditch shop; he didn’t know how he missed it yesterday since the shop stood out quite a bit, the large sign above it reading ‘Everything Quidditch!’

Harry dragged Hermione over there; she just rolled her eyes and followed him. Looking through the window he stopped in his tracks. There in the window was a new broom the ‘Firebolt Series II’. Harry was practically drooling at the broom, 0-500 in only three seconds… he had already made his decision; in fact he had made his decision as soon as he saw the name. Walking up to the front counter Harry waited for the clerk.

“Now how may I help you young sir?” he asked.

“I would like to buy two of the new Firebolt Series II, two sets of Quidditch armour, and one of those Nimbus 2004’s thank you.”

“Harry…” Hermione started but was cut off by Harry, “You promised to let me teach you how to fly.”

Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find a way out of this predicament, but she knew she couldn’t, she had promised, and anyway, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad since it was Harry teaching her. So she just nodded her head.

Meanwhile the clerk had not moved. He was stock still, the only part that had moved was his mouth, which now hung open.

“Umm… is there a problem?” Harry asked.

“Oh, oh! No, no problem… I’ll be right back!” he said hurrying off.

He came back a couple of minutes later with everything that Harry had asked for. He still seemed a little shell shocked at the order and had not said anything once he brought it back.

“Err? How much?” Harry asked eyeing the man; he didn’t know what was wrong with him. But there was something.

“What? Oh... yes that comes to six thousand five hundred galleons.” the clerk said rather quickly and Harry only just understood him.

“Just put it on this.” Harry said handing over his Gringotts card. A few short minutes later, their new Quidditch gear put away in the bags, Harry and Hermione were back out in the street and heading back to the hotel.

*SSSSS*

Two weeks had passed and both Harry and Hermione had been heavily studying Occlumency, Legilimency and the Dark Arts. They had decided to leave wandless magic until they got back to school, where they could do it in the safety of the Room of Requirement. They were currently onto the second level of Occlumency and it was Hermione's turn to try and break Harry's shields.

Harry's goal was to try and show Hermione a memory that is not real, a ‘fake memory’.

“Legilimens!” Hermione shouted with her new wand.

She instantly started to receive flashes of images in her mind from Harry.

Harry is making breakfast for the Dursleys. They thank him before Harry leaves the room.

Harry and Dudley are cleaning up the garden together.

Harry is showing the Dursleys some new spells that he had learned.

The Dursleys are celebrating Harry’s birthday.

Malfoy is talking to Ron about Quidditch... Peacefully.

Harry and Professor Snape are having a friendly conversation together, about the fine art of potion making.

Hermione stopped the spell, her heart swelling in pride at Harry achievements, though at the same time she was a touch disappointed that she couldn’t break through his shields. She then started giggling a little at the nature of Harry’s fake ‘memories’.

The two of them had started noticing the telepathy forming between them. They seemed to know what the other was thinking, or feeling most of the time. Though if Hermione thought back she realized that they always seemed to have this connection, only now it was a lot stronger.

They were broken from their practice when two owls started tapping the windows. Getting up Hermione shakily undid the two letters and dropped them on the table. Harry looked up at her and then down at the letters. He then knew what they were. Their OWL results…

“Well are you going to open it?” Harry asked her.

“I-I can’t…” she said.

“Oh come on Hermione, we both know you did fine… ok here look, I’ll open yours and you open mine, ok?” Harry said picking up the letters and handing his over to her.

“Great idea.” she said sighing in relief, she really couldn’t have opened hers.

Harry opened up her results and scanned it,

Dear Hermione Jane Granger
Listed below are your OWL results. Congratulations and good luck

Class	Theory	Practical	Overall

DADA	O	O	O
Transfiguration	O	O	O
Potions	O	O	O
Charms	O	O	O
CoMc	O	O	O
Herbology	O	O	O
Astronomy	O	O	O
History of Magic	E	N/A	E
Arithmancy	O	O	O
Ancient Runes	O	O	O

O = 2 Pass
E = 1 Pass
A = 0 Pass
D = 0 Fail
T = 0 Fail
OWLS = 19

You have passed all of your classes; you also scored the highest accumulated score this year. You are able to join any NEWT subjects of your choosing.

A small grin crept across Harry’s face, which he quickly hid. He was going to have some fun. Looking up at Hermione he gave her an apologetic face.

“Hermione… I don’t know how to say this…”

The look of pure terror crossed her face and she looked like she was about to explode into tears. He couldn’t be that mean to her so he decided to put her out of her misery.

“You got the highest mark in the school, congrats!” he said smiling broadly at her.

She let out a girly squeal and jumped at Harry hugging him nearly to death. It was at this time that Hermione’s parents walked into the lounge room. They both tried to hide their smirks as they noticed Hermione hugging the boy to death.

“I guess they got those OWL things Jane.” Daniel whispered to his wife.

“I guess they did, and Hermione is using it as another excuse to hug the boy.” she said grinning madly.

“SO? How did you do?” Daniel asked loudly, nearly laughing as Hermione sprang to her feet, both of the teens blushing.

“Hermione did great, highest mark in the school actually. I don’t know how I did yet…” Harry answered him.

“Here you go Harry! And congratulations also.” Hermione said handing him his results. After reading it his eyes were wide.

Dear Harry James Potter
Listed below are your OWL results. Congratulations and good luck

Class	Theory	Practical	Overall

DADA	O	O	O
Transfiguration	E	O	O
Potions	O	O	O
Charms	E	E	E
Herbology	E	O	O
CoMc	O	O	O
Astrology	E	A	A
History of Magic	D	N/A	D
Divination	A	D	A

O = 2 Pass
E = 1 Pass
A = 0 Pass
D = 0 Fail
T = 0 Fail
OWLS = 11

You have passed most of your classes, and have received eleven OWLS. This mark places you in the top ten highest scores this year, leaving you in fifth place. You are able to take NEWTS in all of your classes except Divination since an ‘E’ or higher was required.

*SSSSS*

That night they went out to celebrate their scores, having dinner at a fancy restaurant before going to see a movie. After everyone had gone to bed, Hermione had snuck into Harry's room. She had taken to sleeping with him at night, since it was the only way to keep the nightmares at bay.

Her parents had caught them a couple of times, but Hermione had explained why, and they fully understood. They had taken to studying before they headed off to sleep and tonight they were looking over some of their dark arts books. Hermione was reading though them while Harry would take down notes of potentially useful spells.

So far tonight's list was rather small, but this was only from tonight. They had pages and pages of parchment of spells written down. Both light and dark. This studying would make it easier to learn the practical side of them while at school, instead of having to try and find them and learn them all at school. Tonight’s list was dark spells…

LIST – Dark Spells

Ossein Diffindo Bone breaking charm

Merhersag Shoots a blade, powerful enough can cut someone in half

Stein Skulptor Turns a person to stone, then use Reducto.

Neken Causes internal bleeding

Syre Pil Shoots a jet of acid

Deletrius If powerful enough can cause someone to just disappear

Pugile Bludgeoning hex can break bone

Sectumsempra A spell that creates a gash on the victim in the way the wand is moved

Morendo Causes stone spikes to shoot up from ground

Harry looked over at Hermione, who looked like she was falling asleep; he also felt the same way that she looked.

“Common, I’m too tired to do this tonight… let’s go to sleep.” he said in-between yawns.

All Hermione did was nod and then crawl into his bed, wrapping the covers over herself.

“Oh come on… stop being a blanket hog.” Harry joked and she gave some of them up. “Thank you.” he said chuckling and Hermione just grinned.

Harry lay down in bed and Hermione leaned her head against his shoulder, snuggling into him.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do at Hogwarts…” he said softly.

“Guess we will have to sleep on the couch.” she said softly.

“Guess so.” he said before falling off to sleep.

*SSSSS*

Dumbledore's stood up in front of the Order of the Phoenix. Looking around Dumbledore for once felt his age, his face was tired and worn… there had been no signs of Harry anywhere after his disappearance, and it had begun to make Dumbledore feel every one of his one-hundred and fifty-three year.

“Has there been any news of Harry Potter?” he asked tiredly, already knowing the answer.

After a moment of silence, one of the lower level Order members spoke up.

“Headmaster… is it possible that vol-vo-You-know-who has… killed him?”

This question caused a cry of disbelief from Molly.

“I very much doubt it. If Voldemort had indeed killed Harry, it would be publicly displayed in order to cause panic and disorder.” Dumbledore said, knowing full well that it would happen. “No, I don’t think that Harry is dead… I think that he must be in hiding. There is only a week until term starts and we must hope that he is among the students.” Dumbledore finished as the Order left the room.

*SSSSS*

The last week of their holiday went very quickly. By the end both Harry and Hermione had basically mastered Occlumency and Legilimency. They now had a vast knowledge of both light and dark combat spells as well as a number of combat tactics. During the last week they had started reading more on team combat.

The telepathy from the Occlumency training had greatly increased and they could now ‘hear’ each others thoughts, though it took a fair amount of concentration to do. According to the book, after time and training it would get easier until it came as easily as breathing.

They had left off the practical side of their training until they got to Hogwarts where they could use the Room of Requirement. Hermione had brought up the question of how to get around Dumbledore, since he always seemed to know where people were. After hours of research through their now rather large library Hermione had found the answer. Magical signatures and auras. Apparently each wizard or witch had a different magical signature and a different aura. There were a number of ways to mask their signatures, assassins usually used these techniques. It was another topic they decided to broach once they got back to Hogwarts.

After packing everything up Harry had one last look around to make sure he had not forgotten anything. Satisfied that he hadn’t Harry went out into the living room and waited for the Grangers to be ready. He didn’t have to wait long as they were in a cab heading to the airport about five minutes later.

Once they got to the airport they went though the usual security details. Both Harry and Hermione had left their pistols in the bags, they had not wanted to test the anti muggle metal detector charms. They had to wait for around an hour before they boarded their plane and left for England again.

*SSSSS*

Well that’s all! If the grades came out all messed up for you, you can see them properly at my yahoo group, the chapters are in the files area under ‘HP & HG – DL & DL’

Here is the link for ya, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhr_fanfics/

Luke

6. Hoggy Warty Hogwarts

Chapter 5 - Hoggy Warty Hogwarts

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potterverse, its all JKR’s…

AN: Well here we go, thanks to Turnlach for his beta work once again!

*------*

Dumbledore sat behind his large desk, looking down into the depths of his glass of Firewhiskey. He knew where he had gone wrong; after years of planning, he had made one mistake. It was too soon! Dumbledore berated himself. His plan was going perfectly, everything was working out fine. Until now…

When he fist heard the prophecy, he had started his planning. There were currently two couples in the Order that fitted the requirements. After careful plotting and planning, he had made it so that both the Longbottoms and the Potters had escaped Voldemort three times.

It was then time to tell the two couples about the prophecy, and to tell the Order half of it. He had not known what to do next. He had to find a way for Voldemort to mark one of the boys as his equal. It was Lily Potter that had found the answer. The Fidelius Charm, only the Secret Keeper would know where to find them.

With a couple of simple memory charms, he had the Potters and the Longbottoms change their original Secret Keeper to two people that Dumbledore knew were spies for Voldemort; Peter Pettigrew and Samuel Daily.

And it was not long after the charms were cast that the betrayal happened; both of the Secret Keepers had told Voldemort of the hiding places. He had then sent Bellatrix Lestrange and a team of Death Eaters to the Longbottoms, and Voldemort himself had gone to the Potters.

It was then it happened, Voldemort had marked Harry Potter as his equal. While the wizarding world was learning of the murder of the Potters, Dumbledore acted quickly, taking the boy from the destroyed house and taking him to Number 4, Privet Drive. The news of an attack on the Longbottoms then came out, they were tortured to insanity. It was unfortunate, but didn’t really matter in the long run.

The news of Sirius Black’s betrayal of the Potters and murder of Peter Pettigrew came shortly after. Of course he knew that the man was innocent, but if he was free, then he may be able to claim custody of Harry, and all of Dumbledore’s plans would go out the window.

Ten years later Harry Potter arrived at Hogwarts, uncared for and unloved; willing to do just about anything for a compliment. He then continued on with his plan of moulding the boy into the perfect weapon which could be disposed of after it had performed its task.

Over Harry’s years at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had arranged a number of tasks for Harry to go through; the Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets. In Harry’s third year, Sirius Black had come back into the picture; he couldn’t really affect Dumbledore's plans until he was found innocent but he knew that he would be eventually and that something had to be done.

Harry's fourth year, the tournament and the only thing that was unexpected was the return of Voldemort. Though it was not really a problem, now Harry could fulfil his destiny. Harry's fifth year was a problem, the boy was angry. Dumbledore knew of Voldemort’s link with Harry. So he had arranged Occlumency lessons with Severus, knowing the resentment Snape held for the boy, Dumbledore knew that he would most likely destroy any metal protections the boy currently had. The Department of Mysteries was a let down. Harry had not performed to his expectations at all. The only good thing that happened was the removal of Sirius Black for good. The real problem had come after though, when he told the boy about the prophecy. He had expected Harry to lean more on him, ask for more for advice and guidance, but the boy had thrown a tantrum and trashed his office.

Now Harry was missing, though Dumbledore didn’t think that Harry was still angry at him. He knew the anger the boy must had been feeling at the time and knew when the prophecy had finally settled in Harry would come back to him, seeking guidance and help. Which he would gladly provide, and once the boy completed his destiny, he could be easily removed; put down as another one of Voldemort’s victims, before Dumbledore himself destroyed the Dark Lord and went down in history as the most powerful wizard in the world. More famous than Merlin himself.

Dumbledore smiled briefly at the thought of people in the future saying comments like “Oh Albus’ Beard!” or “Sweet Dumbledore!” instead of “Sweet Merlin” and “Oh Merlin’s Beard!”

*SSSSS*

Harry and Hermione were heading to King’s Cross Station. Harry was nervous. It had been leaked to the Daily Prophet that Harry had been missing all summer and now anyone that read the paper knew of Harry's disappearance.

“It’s going to be fine.” Hermione reasoned with him.

“I know… I know… I just hate how everyone looks at me and then starts whispering and pointing…” Harry said, his face turning to one of disgust, “I mean, don’t they have anything better to do than meddle in my life…”

“One of the perks of being famous.” Daniel said from the driver’s seat.

“Aren’t perks supposed to be good?” Harry asked.

“Most… it’s going to be fine Harry.” Jane said from the front.

“Yeah… at least they all don’t think that I’m crazy anymore.” Harry mumbled, really not looking forward to going back to Hogwarts for the first time in his life.

The ride only took another ten minutes before they arrived at the train station. Hopping out of the car they headed over toward the platform entrance.

“Have a good year you two, we are expecting to see you both at Christmas.” Jane said tearfully as she hugged Hermione and then hugged Harry.

“Yes, try having some fun.” Daniel said, giving Hermione a kiss on the forehead and shaking Harry’s hand. “We expect both of you to come back for Christmas.”

“Thank you… for everything.” Harry said looking down at his shoes.

“There’s nothing to be thankful for, but you’re welcome.” Jane said. “Now get going before you miss the train!”

They said their goodbyes again before going though the barrier onto platform 9 ¾’s. As Harry and Hermione headed towards the train, people became silent before turning to the people next to them and started whispering.

Harry just growled under their breath as they quickly headed onto the train and found a compartment.

It was about five minutes later that a red head boy, their former best friend Ron Weasley walked into the compartment. He took a double look at Harry and then burst out into a series of questions concerning his summer.

It had taken practically all of Harry and Hermione's restraint to not punch the boy. Though they knew if they acted on their feelings, they would be throwing the ball in too early. Thanks to their Occlumency training over the summer, they were able to mask their anger with a happy mask. After all, they didn’t know if Ron was Obliviated after the will reading or not, but what they did know was Ron was in league with Dumbledore. Though they didn’t know what he was getting out of it. But if Harry could guess, he would say money, after all Ron had always been jealous of the fact that Harry was rich.

Ron didn’t stop with the questions for ten minutes and that was testing both Harry and Hermione’s patience. After the ten minutes Ron finally stopped, a little put out with the half answers that he was given. He knew they were hiding something.

The rest of the train ride went in silence; both Harry and Hermione had fallen asleep against each other. This fact had caused Ron to grind his teeth together and scowl at the two of them.

*SSSSS*

Harry and Hermione were awoken by the train pulling up at Hogsmeade station. Looking over, Ron had also fallen asleep on the other bench. Harry shook him awake and they made their way up to the castle.

Harry didn’t pay attention to the sorting; instead he was busy trying to ignore all the looks people were shooting him. He felt like standing up and yelling at them ‘to sod off!’

“What did the sorting hat have to say this year?” Harry whispered to Hermione once all the new first years had made their way to their new houses.

“Oh… something about house unity… nothing we haven’t heard before…” she said. Harry just snorted.

The hall went quiet as Dumbledore stood up to make his yearly speech.

“Welcome!” he said holding out his hands, “To another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!” he said beaming down at the students. “Now I’m sure that you are all very hungry… so with that, tuck in!” Dumbledore said as the tables filled themselves with food. Everybody immediately started filling their plates.

Dinner wasn’t anything interesting, they talked to their friends and there were many questions shot at Harry about his summer and where he was which he just shook off or ignored. They had just finished their dessert when Dumbledore once again stood up.

“Now for the announcements! As per usual the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden. Mr. Filch would also like me to point out that a number of items have been added to the ‘Banned List’. You can see the list posted on Mr. Filch’s office… though it might be easier to pick up a Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes Brochure, as all their items are on the banned items list.” Dumbledore said smiling largely. Harry could feel his anger towards the old man growing, though he quickly pushed it down. Hermione had taken Harry’s hand under the table, she could feel the anger growing though their link which seemed to be getting stronger by the day. At her touch Harry's temper faded away. Ron noticed something going on between his two ‘friends’ and decided he had to step in fast.

“You will also notice we have a new teacher! Meet Professor Miles Stone. He is a retired American Auror and will be this years Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.” Dumbledore said as the students politely clapped. “Now that’s all, I think it is time that you should all be getting back to your dormitories… Good night!”

Heading back to the dorm Ron stopped Hermione, asking if he could have a word alone. Hermione looked at Harry and he silently agreed, but warned her to keep her shields up before heading on into the common room.

Ron practically dragged Hermione into the nearest classroom, the fact greatly annoyed Hermione. Once they were inside Hermione ripped her elbow out of his grip and glared at him.

Ron was oblivious to the look she sent him and seemed to be readying himself up for something.

“Hermione… I’ve wanted to say this for a while now… but couldn’t find the right way to tell you…” he said looking around the room until his eyes fell on Hermione's very confused face. “Ok… look… I know you like me and… I’m willing to give it a go… you know a relationship between us…”

Hermione was stunned… she had not expected that… she had expected Ron would admit his feelings, but… this… saying he would give it a go since SHE liked HIM!

“Umm… Ron… I don’t feel that way about you… you’re like a brother to me… but nothing more.” she said softly. She could see his face turning the colour of his hair.

“You… You… BITCH!” he yelled and Hermione's eyes shot open in surprise, “What do you mean you don’t like me! Oh wait I know… how can boring old Ron Weasley stand up against the famous Harry Bloody Potter.” He fumed, Hermione was still too stunned to move; she hadn’t expected this reaction at all… She knew he had a temper, but…

“That’s all you are, a fucking glory seeking bookworm, bucktooth mudblood! You only like Potter since he rich and famous, you probably would hang off Malfoy if he was more famous than Potter, you… you slut! Are you putting out for him yet?” Ron sneered. This last comment broke Hermione from her astonishment as she let loose with a right hook that caught Ron in the jaw knocking him to the ground.

“Don’t you ever, EVER speak to me again, you jealous, pathetic little worm. You are the worst friend anyone could have… you don’t deserve Harry as a friend!” she hissed at him before storming out of the room, tears in her eyes.

Harry was sitting in the common room waiting for Hermione and Ron to come in. he had a pretty good idea what Ron wanted to talk about and was rather nervous about it. He looked up as Hermione came running into the common room and straight up to her dorm without saying a thing to Harry as she passed. Harry wanted to follow her, but the damn girls’ staircase wouldn’t allow him. Frowning, Harry tried to talk to her though their link, only to find she was blocking it.

It was then that Ron entered the common room. He seemed to be very, very pissed off and had a large purple bruise forming on his jaw. Harry inwardly winced at the sight of it, thanking god he wasn’t on the end of Hermione’s punch. Ron threw Harry a rather hateful look before also storming up the stairs into the boys’ dorm.

Harry sat in the common room for about half an hour, trying to link with Hermione but she was still blocking him out. He didn’t know what had happened, but if his suspicions were right, Ron took Hermione’s decline of a relationship badly and she acted on his temper. After about forty minutes of trying to talk to Hermione she finally allowed him to link with her.

Are you ok? He asked, concern easily detectable.

I’m ok… now… she said.

Could you come down into the common room? There is no one here and I want to talk to you… He asked.

Ok… I will be down in a second. she said before closing the connection.

About one minute later Hermione came out of the girls dorms. Her eyes were red and puffy, she had obviously been crying for some time. She sat down next to Harry and looked over at him.

“What happened?” he asked, the worry pouring out through his eyes.

Tears came to Hermione's eyes again and Harry quickly grabbed hold of her and she buried her face in his shoulder.

“H-h-he w-was s-so-o me-an.” she sobbed out.

“Did he hurt you!” he said sharply.

“No… he didn’t hurt me.” she said quickly, hearing the anger in his voice. “He just said some really hurtful things…” she said softly, “He said that I didn’t like him, cause I-I loved you… and only because you were rich and famous… he, he called me a mudblood and a slut.” she said tears falling from her eyes again.

“I’ll kill him!” Harry hissed, his voice icy and deadly serious.

“No! Harry its fine…” she mumbled.

“No it’s not fine! You are not those things at all! You’re beautiful, caring, smart, loyal, and you are certainly not a… you-know-what!” Harry said looking deeply into Hermione’s eyes.

“Do... Do you mean that?” She asked softly not looking away.

“Of course I do…” he whispered. He then slowly lowered his face to hers, capturing her lips. Hermione's eyes fluttered closed and she deepened the kiss.

Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and started running his fingers up her spine, which sent shivers though her body. One of her hands ran though his already messy black hair, while the other pulled his shirt, pulling his body flush against hers. They seemed to be made for each other; their bodies fitting perfectly together like two jigsaw pieces.

If anyone else was in the room, they would have commented on little items that started to levitate off the ground. The two of them were lost in their kiss and were oblivious to it.

They didn’t speak a word, only sounds, grunts and moans, until two hours later. Hermione was still lying on top of Harry, her face resting on his chest while Harry played with her hair.

“Hermione?” he asked softly.

“Hmm…” she replied sleepily.

“Would… wouldyouliketobemygirlfirend?” he mumbled. Hermione instantly brightened at this.

“What was that Harry?” She said cheekily, looking into his emerald green eyes.

“Would… you like to be my girlfriend?” he asked softly looking away in embarrassment. Hermione grinned, a grin that brightened her eyes.

“I think I would like that.” she said before capturing his lips again in a passionate kiss, which Harry happily returned.

Another half an hour later Hermione announced that she was sleepy and that they should probably head off to bed. Harry agreed and they both went to their separate dorm rooms.

That night Harry didn’t have one dream about Voldemort, or one nightmare about his past. Instead his dreams were filled with a bushy brown haired girl that had just agreed to go out with him.

*SSSSS*

The next morning Harry awoke feeling refreshed, his mind replayed last night’s events and a grin broke out on his face. Quickly hopping out of bed Harry headed off for a shower and then went down into the common room.

He was surprised to see Hermione there waiting for him, a large smile broke out on her face when see saw him.

“Ready for breakfast?” he asked.

“Yea let’s go.” She said turning and heading for the portrait.

Harry walked up beside her and held her hand, she beamed up at him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before they started heading to the great hall.

“Hermione?” Harry asked.

“Hmm?” she said.

“Do you feel any different?” he asked in deep thought.

She looked thought full for a moment before answering, “Sort of, I can’t really describe it… it’s like something lurking under my skin.” she said.

“Like something wanted to be released, but waiting for you to release it from your body?” he asked.

“Yes! Exactly like that…” she said quickly.

“I feel the same…” was all he was able to say before they entered the great hall.

When they entered holding hands, the hall immediately broke out in whispers; Harry even noticed some galleons being passed between the students. Looking around, Harry’s eyes fell on Dumbledore whose eyes that were usually twinkling seemed rather blank. He immediately brought up his Occlumency shield and went to sit down and have breakfast.

Harry and Hermione started pilling food onto their plates, still holding hands under the table and begun to eat one handed. Not ten minutes later Ron walked into the hall. He looked at Harry and Hermione and threw them a hatful sneer before sitting down with Dean and Seamus.

Harry just sighed and started eating breakfast again. Owls then started flying into the hall. An owl with the paper in his talons stopped in front of Hermione, who quickly paid the bird and took the paper.

She gasped when she looked at the front page, handing it over to Harry who saw the pictures of the Death Eaters who had been caught at the ministry. The big bold head line above the picture revealed all, “MORE DEATH EATERS ESCAPE!” Harry sighed. He knew it would happen sooner or later but he was hoping it was later. Turning the page, Harry groaned at the picture of himself, the article talking about his disappearance and reappearance.

“How can the ministry be so bloody useless…?” Harry sighed.

It was then that Professor McGonagall walked up behind them. “Mr Potter?” Harry looked up at her.

“Yes, ma’am?” he asked, already knowing what she was about to say.

“The headmaster would like to see you after dinner tonight in his office… the password is toffee.”

“Yes ma’am.” Harry said again.

“Have a good day.” was all she said before leaving as Harry slumped back in his chair, rubbing his temples.

Hermione squeezed his hand, which caused him to smile and look over at her, “Come on, let’s get to class.” she said pulling Harry to his feet. They both walked out of the great hall, Ron left soon after, his face blazing red with his temper.

They walked towards potions when Draco Malfoy tried to make some snide remarks about there new relationship. Harry and Hermione ignored him until Draco called her a mudblood. At this Harry spun around and let off a spell before Draco could even flinch.

When Draco opened his eyes he looked around and noticed that he was fine. He tried to laugh, only to find he couldn’t open his mouth. He then looked up to see Harry and Hermione smirking…

“Have fun not being able to talk for a couple of hours Malfoy, call her that again and I’ll make it a week.” he said before doing the spinning, robes flaring, Snape’s signature turn, around and walking down into the dungeons for Potions.

Harry was already in a bad mood, but Snape pissed him off even more. He had taken points because according to him, ‘He had sat down to loudly’. Harry just glared at the Potions Master who glared back. That was then Harry felt it, it felt like a tiny worm trying to enter through the back of his head.

Harry knew what it was; Snape was trying to use silent Legilimency on him. That was then Harry decided to try something new. He made his mind into a deep hole and felt the ‘worm’ all of a sudden fall down the new hole. At the same time a crash sounded as Professor Snape lost his footing and fell to the ground.

Snape picked himself up and glared at Harry once more, though his time there was a spark of confusion and surprise. Harry made Snape even madder when Harry seemed to smirk at him. Before he lost his temper again he started his lecture.

“This is NEWT level potions! Meaning that you had to receive no lower than an “O” on your OWL’s… how some of you managed that is beyond me.” Snape sneered throwing another glare in Harry’s direction.

“Since this is a NEWT level class, you must maintain a passing grade. If you fail to do this, no level of fame will keep you in this class, as I will personally throw you out!” he said glaring at Harry again, who only raised an eyebrow at him. It was easy to see the anger growing inside of him and some of the class begun to get a little nervous.

“Today we will be starting to make the Polyjuice Potion, this is a very difficult potion to brew, and I doubt most of you are capable of doing it” he sneered.

“Potter! What is one of the major ingredients to this potion?” Snape demanded.

Harry just smiled sweetly, “A piece of the person you wish to transform into, usually a piece of hair is used.” Harry said confidently.

“Correct…” he growled, thinking, “What is one of the major restrictions of this potion?”

Harry just smiled again, he had a vivid image of the cat-Hermione, “You can only transform into another human, not animals and such.” Harry said smiling sweetly up at Snape that only made him angrier.

Snape didn’t even bother telling him that he was correct, saying that Potter was right twice in one lesson seemed… wrong… to him, so instead he started throwing questions at his other ‘favourite students’.

The rest of the lesson went fairly quickly, they had started to make their potions and would continue doing so for the next four weeks. Snape also assigned three foot of parchment on the Polyjuice Potion.

*SSSSS*

Charms was as normal as usual. Professor Flitwick gave the same NEWT speech that all the teachers seemed to be giving and then went on to explain revealing charms. They then spent the rest of the class trying to achieve the charm. Only Harry, Hermione and Draco Malfoy could successfully perform the charm by the end of the class.

Next was Defense against the Dark Arts, Harry and Hermione had been looking forward to this class, since it seemed that they would have a half decent teacher. After all an ex-auror must be OK at defense…

It seemed that Malfoy hadn’t learnt from earlier in the halls, as he approached Harry and Hermione while they were in the empty Defense classroom, his goons, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott following behind him.

“I can’t believe you would go so low as to actually date a mudblood scarhead. Being friends with one is bad enough but dating one!” Draco said making a face of disgust.

“I would shut up Malfoy, that is unless ‘the amazing bouncing ferret’ wishes to make a comeback.” Harry said, in a deadly calm voice. Hermione seemed to stifle a giggle. Draco on the other hand, the look on his face changed from disgust to rage.

“I’m warning you Potter, when my father hears…” Draco started but was cut off by Harry.

“Oh, yes… that coward of a father of yours that recently escaped… well next time I see him, instead of just capturing him, I guess I had better kill him outright.” Harry said, his voice still calm, and his face blank, giving the impression that he wasn’t lying.

“You’ll pay for getting my father locked up Potter!” Draco sneered before making to grab his wand.

He wasn’t fast enough though as Harry’s wand appeared in his hand, faster than you could blink, “Prumica!” Harry muttered and a brownish beam left his wand and connected Draco right in the face. Harry watched in satisfaction as boils appeared on his face, then Draco seemed unable to stop himself and started to itch his face, rupturing the boils. By this time, Malfoy’s goons had made to draw their wands but stopped as a voice boomed out.

“STOP THIS AT ONCE!” the voice said, as Professor Stone walked out of the shadows. He took one look at Malfoy and told Crabbe and Goyle to take him to the hospital wing. He then turned his attention to Harry.

“That wasn’t exactly a Light Arts spell Mr Potter.” he stated looking deeply at Harry. Harry didn’t even hesitate with his answer.

“It wasn’t exactly the Dark Arts either Professor, plus I was defending myself, he made to pull his wand first.” Harry defended himself.

“True.” Professor Stone said after a little while, “Find your seat Miss Granger and Mr Potter.” he said before making his way towards the front of the classroom.

The class went normally after that, except for the fact that the professor seemed to be staring at Harry quite a lot. The fact made Harry’s anger boil and Hermione didn’t seem too impressed either. The teacher seemed to have a fairly good idea on what he was teaching, but since all the incompetent teachers they had had things were going to be very slow.

After class Harry and Hermione made their way towards the great hall for lunch. Since they were in their 6^th year, they now had study periods and they both had the rest of the day free.

After a quick meal Hermione lent over to Harry and whispered to him, “Harry, meet me in the Room of Requirement in ten minutes. Oh and bring your cloak and book on wandless magic.”

Harry agreed straight away and they both stood and left the hall. Hermione went and got the room ready while Harry headed up to his dorm and got his book, which he then wrapped in his cloak making both items become invisible.

Ten minutes later Harry stood outside the Room of Requirement. Opening the door Harry peered in to see a fairly large room, with a nice comfortable looking couch in the middle. The thing that surprised Harry was the tons of pillows scattered on the floor.

Harry walked through the maze of pillows and sat down next to Hermione, giving her a small kiss on the cheek before handing her his book.

“So we’re going to start wandless magic now?” Harry asked this stupid question.

“May as well.” was all Hermione said before opening up the book.

Wandless Magic

Wandless magic is a very old form of magic, before the age of Merlin most wizards were able to perform most simple spells without the use of a wand. Though the more advanced spells still required a wand or staff to perform. There were exceptions though, some of the more powerful wizards could still perform these wandlessly.

In the newer ages, there are few wizards that can perform any kind of wandless magic and the ones that can, are only able to perform very simply spells such as levitation. There are incidents when a wizard or witch loses control of their emotions and unconsciously uses wandless magic, but few where the wizard uses it consciously.

“Aunt Marge.” was all Harry said and Hermione let out a little giggle of the memory of Harry’s story of him inflating his ‘beloved’ aunt.

A wand or staff contains a magical core that helps focus the magic in the soul. This allows the person to grasp and control the magic easily. The body of a wizard can also be used to focus the magic, though it takes longer to learn, and more power to be able to control it.

Occlumency is recommended so that you have a greater control of your mind. This makes it easier to concentrate on your magic within and bend it to your will.

“Looks like Occlumency has more advantages than we thought.” Hermione said looking over to Harry.

“Yeah… glad we decided to learn it first before this.” Harry said before Hermione began to read more.

When beginning to learn wandless magic, placing a dampening spell on yourself allows you to feel the magic easily. Without the distraction of sight, sound and smell you will be able to feel the magic coming from inside you and travelling throughout your body. After you have placed the dampening charm you should then start by casting a simple ‘levitation’ charm. You should now be able to fell the magic turning within your body and leaving through your fingers and out of your wand.

What you must try now is to cast the same spell without your wand. You need to focus on your magic you need to pull the magic from around you body and concentrate it, building up and making it leave through you fingertips. You must think on what you want to achieve, the incantation is not needed, since the magic will bend to your will. This allows wizards a large range of spells, they are also much harder to block. You emotions will help a lot in this aspect as well, your desire to cast the spell will greatly increase you chances.

A wand provides a focus for your magic, when starting in wandless magic you must focus on using you hand to focus the magic. Picture the magic building up in your hand, concentrate on combining the magic into one ball and then release it from your body. At first this will be hard and also rather tiring, but with practice casting wandlessly will be as easy as casting with a wand. Once your magic and body adapts to this it will also become less tiring, this is the same with all magic. It’s the same reason that you do not learn a stunner as your first spell, you start simple and become more and more advanced. Though most people don’t have the magical ability to concentrate that much magic to cast some of the more advanced spells…

“That’s interesting; I think I have a pretty good idea what to do…” Hermione said, quickly re-reading some of the more important parts, “Yes… could you cast a dampening spell Harry?” she asked

“Ok… ready?” Harry asked and receives a nod from Hermione “Consto Stimulus!”

Hermione’s vision went black, she could no longer hear anything or smell anything, and it was a rather weird sensation.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” Hermione said, though she heard nothing. She gasped when she felt the magic travelling though her body and towards her wand.

Her senses then came back as she felt Harry lift the charm. “Well?” he asked.

“Wow…” was all she said, “It’s the most amazing feeling! I don’t know how I have never felt it before.” she said.

“Well could I have a go?” Harry asked.

“What? Oh yes, sorry.” Hermione said snapping out of her daze.

Harry then went through the same process as Hermione. Once the spell was taken off Harry had a face of deep thought. He then put down his wand and looked at the pillow. Concentrating on the feeling that was still tingling over his body, he felt it grow and become more concentrated. Once he had made it into decent size, he pushed it through his body and out of his palm, willing the pillow with all his might to levitate.

What happened next surprised both Harry and Hermione; the pillow made a ‘pop’ sound and disappeared. Wide eyed Harry and Hermione looked around only to see hundreds of feathers to come floating down from the ceiling.

“Ah… oops.” was all that Harry said, while Hermione stared at him with wide eyes.

“How…?” she asked.

“Well… I sorta concentrated on the feeling I had before, and tried to pull it together into a ball… I felt it growing, and once it got big enough I willed it though my body and out my hand, while wishing it to levitate the pillow… I guess… I tried a little too hard?” he said while Hermione just nodded and started to have a go.

She was only concentrating for an eighth of the time Harry was before she shot her hand out. One of the pillows immediately shot into the air and hovered there six feet off the ground.

“You just built up too much magic I guess…” she said. “But I expected this to be harder; I don’t see why others can’t do this.”

“Well, considering you are the smartest witch in over a century, and well me… what’s normal with me… maybe this isn’t as easy as it feels for us… know what I mean?” Harry said

“Yea… we find this easily though it’s very difficult… I guess it could be true…” she said before trying again.

They spent the rest of the day practicing their wandless magic, finding it easier and easier each time. It also seemed to take less time to build up more magic the more they practiced.

*SSSSS*

“You’ll be fine… just remember to keep you shield up at all times.” Hermione said to Harry.

“I guess… I will see you soon then… are you going to wait up?” Harry asked.

“Of course I am!” she said, before smiling at him and kissing him chastely on the lips. “For luck.” she said.

“See you soon.” Harry said before making his way to the headmaster’s office. Reaching the stone gargoyle Harry quickly re-enforced his Occlumency shields before speaking the password, and riding the stairs up to the door. With a knock the headmaster’s voice came from inside.

“Enter.”

A/N: The idea of Dumbledore wanting to become more famous than Merlin was from Bob and Alyx’s, Sunrise over Britain… I was looking for a reason for Dumbledore’s manipulative ways, and this was perfect.

I decided to leave it there… Next chapter, some talks with the old man, training and what ever else I fit in :)

Don’t forget to check out my new webpage: http://www.freewebs.com/hhr_fanfics/index.htm

7. Albus the Manipulator

Chapter 6 – Albus the Manipulator

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!

AN: Just thought that I should explain this, ok…

“<TEXT>” - Normal Speech

‘<TEXT>’ - Peoples Thoughts

‘<TEXT>’ - Link Talk

Oh, yes and before I forget, I have had a couple of people ask me how Harry blocked the unforgivable at the start… well if you re-read it… he didn’t block, he accidentally apparated away… he didn’t know how he did it though.

Oh and thanks to Turnlach for his BETA work as usual :P

*SSSSS*

Recap

“You’ll be fine… just remember to keep your shield up at all times.” Hermione said to Harry.

“I guess… I will see you soon then… are you going to wait up?” Harry asked.

“Of course I am!” she said, before smiling at him and kissing him chastely on the lips. “For luck.” she said.

“Enter.”

*SSSSS*

Harry walked into the room, looking around. He didn’t know what it was, but he could… feel… that someone else was in the room. Looking towards the front Harry looked directly into the twinkling eyes of the headmaster and instantly reinforced his Occlumency shields when he felt the headmaster probe start to slowly enter his head.

If Dumbledore was surprised he didn’t show it, his face remained neutral the whole time. Dumbledore waved Harry towards the seat in front of his desk and offered him a lemon drop, which Harry declined.

After about a minute Dumbledore leaned forward on his desk and looked sternly at Harry.

“Where were you this summer Harry?” Dumbledore asked, eyes twinkling away.

Blocking the probe again, Harry just looked the headmaster in the eye. “I left before Vernon killed me sir.”

Harry felt a spell hitting his shield which Harry quickly absorbed into his shield, instead of making it bounce off; after all he wanted the old bastard to think that it had worked.

“Come now Harry, they’re your family! They would never intentionally hurt you… you are much safer with them after all, and should have stayed.” Dumbledore said firmly.

“I guess you’re right.” Harry said, trying to keep his voice neutral, instead of telling the old man, ‘to shut the fuck up’.

“Of course I am… now Harry, it’s important that I know where you were during the summer.” Dumbledore said in a very caring voice, though Harry could easily detected the deceit in it.

“After a left the Dursleys… I was going to head to the Leaky Cauldron, but some Death Eaters apparated out of no where… then I accidentally apparated to Hermione's house.” Harry said.

“You should have contacted the Order Harry. You should have known we would have been looking for you.” Dumbledore said rather firmly.

“I was going to sir… but then I realized that only Order members knew where I lived during the summer. That would mean that at least one of the members were Voldemort’s spies, and if I contacted the Order, they would have told Voldemort and put Hermione and her parents in danger.” Harry said strongly. Dumbledore regarded Harry for a little while, as if contemplating his next move.

“Yes, yes that is a problem I must look into then. Thank you for the observation my boy.” Dumbledore said beaming down at Harry. Harry then had to absorb another one of Dumbledore’s spells before he continued, “But now that you understand the danger people are in around you, don’t you think that it would be wise to stay away from Miss Granger? Her parents are muggles and have no way of defending themselves against Death Eaters.”

Harry was now, very, very angry. The old fart was trying to control every aspect of his life! He tried to calm down though it was rather difficult and he thanked god that studying Occlumency helped with masking your emotions.

“I guess… you’re right sir…” Harry said softly, trying to look hurt, though inside he was sure he had enough anger to cast a hundred Unforgivables.

“Of course I am my boy!” Dumbledore said before asking his final question, “You seem to have developed some skills in Occlumency over the summer, did Miss Granger help with this?”

“Err… no I didn’t even realized I had developed any skills… all I have done is clear my mind before heading to bed each night…” Harry said trying to put on a confused face.

“Well then congratulations, you will be no longer be needing lessons with Professor Snape, your shields should be able to block out Tom.” Dumbledore said, “Though you need to keep clearing you mind before heading to bed.”

“Yes sir.” Harry said tiredly.

“That is all Harry, good luck in class.” Dumbledore said.

Harry left the office appearing calm, though his insides had turned to ice, leaving a cold hatred that was directed at the old manipulative bastard. Harry wondered if Dumbledore had acted the same way to Tom Riddle while he was at school, since Harry was really tempted to kill the old man after what happened tonight.

Entering the common room, Harry saw the most beautiful sight; Hermione was curled up on the couch, book in her arms, softly sleeping. Walking over, Harry sat down next to Hermione, running a hand through her hair. He kissed her softly on the forehead, waking her up.

Hermione slowly woke up and when she realized that it was Harry next to her and snuggled into him a little more, letting out a contented sigh.

“How did it go?” she asked softly. Looking up into his eyes she could see the slowly dieing down rage. “That bad, huh?”

“Bloody bastard tried to make me leave you, tried Legilimency and some sort of mind altering charm also. So yeah, that bad.” Harry said angrily though he calmed down when he looked at Hermione.

“So he actually tried to alter you mind, to distance yourself from me?” she asked and Harry only nodded his head, “Well… I guess he is going to find out his little plan didn’t worked as planned since I have no plans on distancing myself from you.” she said before she buried her face into the crook of his neck.

“I guess so…” Harry said softly before capturing her lips. He slid his tongue across her lips, asking for access, which she happily allowed. She let out a soft groan as their tongues connected in combat, duelling each other. Not breaking the kiss Hermione moved herself so that she was sitting on Harry’s lap, while his arms encircled her, slowly moving up and down her spine, which sent a tingling sensation through her body.

After about ten minutes they broke the kiss, panting heavily. Hermione leaned into Harry, and buried her head in his neck and closed her eyes. Harry kept running his hands up and down her spine, just happy to hold her in his arms. They stayed in the common room for another hour, kissing and holding each other before they decided to go to bed.

*SSSSS*

The next morning both Harry and Hermione woke up late, they had slept in and they rushed to the great hall. Composing themselves Harry and Hermione walked into the hall and headed for the Gryffindor table. They could feel the eyes following them, hear the whispers… but they reasoned it was a little suspicious that they both happened to be late, and then arrive at the same time.

Once they sat down, everyone seemed to go back to their meals and act normally again. Harry and Hermione started dishing out their breakfast, using there link to ask each other to pass what they wanted; they were trying to develop the link as much as possible.

To the people watching them, it would look amazing, passing bowls and plates of food between each other, not uttering a word, and it seemed to be exactly what the other wanted. Half way through breakfast Ginny moved down the table and stood near Harry. Harry looked up at Ginny to see she had a very determined look on her face.

“Harry… could I talk to you for a minute?” she asked sweetly.

“Err... sure Gin, shoot.” Harry said, just a touch nervous.

“Umm… I was thinking if we could maybe step out in the hall…” she said.

Harry looked down at his food and silently communicated with Hermione.

‘Help me please!’ He hissed to her through the link.

‘Nope… you’re going to have to turn her down without any help from me’, she said silently laughing at him.

‘What if I decided not to turn her down.’ he asked cheekily.

‘Then, well you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you.’ she said seriously, and a little angrily.

‘Whoa! It was a joke; do you really think I could ever choose someone over you?’ He said sweetly and Harry could see the side of her mouth tug up in a little grin, while she was eating. Looking back at Ginny he let out a silent sigh.

“Ok come on then Ginny.” he said standing up and walking just out of the great hall, Ginny following behind him.

Once the door closed behind them Harry turned around to Ginny, a ‘fake’ friendly smile on his face, best to get this over with quick he thought to himself.

“What did you want to talk about?” Harry asked.

Ginny slowly walked up to him, “Well…” she said and then grabbed the front of his uniform and quickly went to kiss him. Harry wasn’t the youngest seeker in a century for nothing and quickly moved out of the way of the kiss.

“Ginny… I umm… you’re like a sister to me… I-I don’t feel that way about you, I’m sorry.” he said softly, he really didn’t want to hurt her.

“It’s her isn’t it!” Ginny hissed at him. This caused Harry to look up at her quickly, he didn’t expect the raw hatred to come through her voice.

“What?” he asked in his moment of shock.

“It’s her, Hermione, bloody fucking Hermione, the good for nothing bucktooth bookworm, mudblood Hermione!” Ginny hissed, “Is she any good? Is that why you’re with her, she puts out for you whenever you want…” Ginny trailed off as she noticed Harry's eyes start to softly glow green, and his aura started to become visible. She gasped and backed away in fear when the magic pouring off them hit her senses.

She then let out a scream and ran for into the great hall as every glass object in the hall shattered. Inside the hall all conversation stopped when they felt a wave of magic pass over them. Most looked around but Hermione however looked to the doors where Harry and Ginny were. Then the sound of glass shattering echoed though the hall, causing everyone to duck and yell.

Hermione watched as Ginny came in screaming just as everything shattered, she now had a pretty good idea what had happened; Harry got angry… very angry. Hermione quickly left her seat, grabbing both Harry’s and her stuff before leaving a shocked hall. When she got out she could see glass everywhere but no Harry.

‘Harry, where are you?’ she asked through the link, putting as much concentration in it as possible, hoping that Harry would be able to hear it.

‘Ouch! Damn… no need to scream Hermione…’ he said a little grumpily ‘oh and I decided to go to Defense early.’ Harry said through the mental link.

Hermione then started to head off to find Harry and ask him what had happened.

*SSSSS*

That night Harry and Hermione had snuck out and went to the Room of Requirement. Harry had refused to tell Hermione what had happened and said he would explain it tonight. Now Hermione was sitting on a couch in the middle of the room while Harry paced in front of her.

“Just tell me Harry, come on…” she said softly. She knew Ginny had said something that had really, really pissed Harry off.

“Well… she tried to kiss me, and I stopped her saying that I didn’t have those feelings for her. She then started to rant on about you, she called you names… she even went as far as to call you a mudblood…” Harry said, anger lacing his words.

Hermione growled under her breath, she had thought Ginny really only hung around her to get gossip on Harry. But she never thought that the red head hated her. “Don’t worry about it Harry. She’s just acting like a two year old that lost her toy.” she said. Harry just nodded and sat down next to her, “I know… I just hate it when people call you that… name.” Harry sighed.

“It’s not important…anyway I found out something useful.” she said. This seemed to peak Harry's interest.

“What would that be?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“Well… you remember when you told me about your meeting with Dumbledore? And how you said, you could ‘feel’ that someone else was there?” Harry just nodded at what she was saying, “Well, I was sure that I read something about that somewhere and I found it. It’s called aura detection, it’s a part of aura magic. Some wizards can train themselves to detect magical auras, can learn to see them. I’m guessing that’s how Dumbledore can see under an invisibility cloak, and they can also learn how to mask there aura. But from what I read it’s supposedly impossible to totally mask it.”

“Cool… so what do you have to do? How to you learn it?” Harry asked, easily seeing the advantages this would give.

“Well it’s not that hard, but it depends on how powerful you are to how successful you will be… you practice it through a special type of meditation.” Hermione began, “It apparently relaxes you magic and spreads it out so that you can sense others. After you learn it, it becomes easier and you can do it without relaxing your magic, it becomes like a sixth sense.” She said.

“Ok then, let’s give it ago shall we?” Harry said. Hermione nodded and started to explain the procedure.

*SSSSS*

It had been another week and everything seemed to be going fine. The headmaster had left them alone, they were doing great in class and they were progressing in leaps and bounds in Aura magic. Harry had mastered it already and Hermione wasn’t very far behind. Harry seemed to be doing the impossible again as well. When masking his aura, he could get it down so small that it would sometimes disappear completely and he had been practicing to make it completely disappear. Though they didn’t know why everything seemed to be coming easily to them, they hadn’t really thought about it much.

Their new relationship was also progressing steadily, though that had kept it a secret. It wasn’t that they were ashamed, they just liked for their private life to stay that, private. So basically everything seemed to be going nicely, but of course all good things come to an end. Dumbledore had finally summoned Hermione to his office; they knew that they couldn’t play along anymore. After all, they weren’t really playing along now. One of Dumbledore’s main commands had been to not see Hermione again, and they were always together.

“Are you sure you can do it?” she asked him.

“Yes I’m sure, you can’t even sense me, and I don’t think that Dumbledore will actually be looking for me either.” Harry said giving Hermione a small kiss on the forehead.

“Ok then… but you only come in if things start to get ridiculous, not if he’s only asking about summer, ok?” Hermione ordered sternly.

“Yes, ma’am!” Harry said saluting her, before wandlessly making himself disappear. Hermione could feel his magical presence slowly disappear until it was completely gone. She then started to make her way to the headmaster’s office.

Knocking on the door, Dumbledore’s voice came from the room asking her to enter. She opened the door and felt Harry briefly brush past her, letting her know that he was in the room, before closing the door and taking a seat. Sitting down she carefully expanded her senses. She could detect another person in the room other than herself and Dumbledore and from the feeling of it, it wasn’t Harry either.

“How are you my dear?” Dumbledore said smiling down at her, the twinkle in full bloom, which caused Hermione to reinforce her Occlumency shields.

“I’m good… Classes have been good also; it’s nice to have a good defense teacher for a change.” Hermione replied honestly.

“That’s good to know… now there is actually a good reason I asked you here today.” Dumbledore said seriously.

“I figured as much, sir.” she said smiling up at him.

“Yes, well, I’m afraid I have some concerns with the relationship between yourself and Mr Potter.” Dumbledore said seriously.

Hermione hid the sneer she wanted to throw at him before hexing the old coot, “And may I ask why you have such concerns?” she asked.

Dumbledore was silent for a moment before answering her, “There are things in Harry's life that you are not aware of, it would be too dangerous for yourself and your parents to get involved with him.” Dumbledore said.

“I know all about Voldemort and his attraction to Harry headmaster. Harry and I have been friends since his first year if you remember correctly; I’m not going to abandon him because of it now.” Hermione growled.

Hermione then felt a spell hitting her Occlumency shields which she absorbed, just like Harry had told her to do. Dumbledore then started to be more direct.

“You would do well to do as I say Miss Granger. Stop this silly relationship between yourself and Mr Potter, in fact stop seeing him altogether! After all, Miss Weasley has always liked him and you know she would be better for him. And Mr Weasley has always had a thing for you and would do you good.” Dumbledore said.

“Excuse me? But who are you to make such demands, you can’t tell me not to see someone.” Hermione growled at him, and hid a smirk when Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise.

“It seems I have underestimated you Miss Granger. I haven’t met anyone that has been able to block my spell.” Dumbledore said eyeing her carefully.

Dumbledore then jumped in surprise when Harry removed the invisibility charm he had been wearing.

“I blocked your little spell headmaster.” Harry spat, “So this is the real Albus Dumbledore, behind the mask.” Harry said and continued when Dumbledore didn’t say anything in return.

“So, how long have you been manipulating my life?” Harry spat. Dumbledore then made a signal and Mad-Eye Moody came out from behind a portrait, wand held pointing at Harry's chest.

“Put the wand away, you senile old fool before you hurt yourself.” Harry said to Moody.

“You forget who you’re talking to Potter.” Moody said before he started to cast a spell. But didn’t get time to complete it as Harry had this wand in his hand and sent a banishing charm, sending Moody back into the cabinet, knocking him unconscious.

“Well, Headmaster? Are you going to answer my questions or not?” Harry said darkly. Harry could see that Dumbledore was thinking fast, and almost fell down laughing when he heard his excuse.

“As your guardian I am responsible for you Harry! I will do everything in my power to make sure that you are safe! Since you won’t stop seeing Miss Granger on your own, I must order you to stop seeing her!” Dumbledore said seriously, trying to keep calm, though Harry could hear the panic in his voice.

Dumbledore started thinking that what he’d said might have worked when Harry didn’t say anything for a full minute. His hopes were crushed though when Harry let out a deep laugh.

“By gods man… you are good, I’ll give you that much. But seriously, my guardian… you couldn’t come up with something better than that? I know who my guardian is old man!” Harry said the last bit, letting his anger into the words.

“What are you talking about? I am your guardian, explain yourself.” Dumbledore demanded. Harry just cracked a smile at the old man.

“The goblins and I… have an understanding. They found it highly strange when you demanded to be the one to inform me about Sirius’s will and the letter he left me. So naturally they investigated.” Harry said, in an amused voice.

Harry took pleasure in watching the emotions crossing the old man’s face, though the he did something that Harry wouldn’t think he would do. Before Harry could do anything the old man had whipped his wand out.

“Novo Mentis!” the headmaster yelled, and a bright light filled the room. When the light cleared Dumbledore had a smug expression on his face, which soon fell however as he found himself with two wands pointing at him.

“Now that was a stupid thing to do.” Hermione stated matter-of-factly.

To say Dumbledore was surprised would be an understatement, though he quickly regained himself.

“And what do you think you are going to do?” Dumbledore sneered, something that really didn’t suit him, “Do you really think that anyone would believe your cock and bull story? And even if they did, do you really think that the Aurors could do anything? I suggest you take the charms, or else you won’t like the results…” Dumbledore said in a deadly voice.

“Are you threatening us?” Hermione asked in an angry voice.

“That’s exactly what I am doing Miss Granger, trust me when I say you won’t like what I can make happen.” Dumbledore said.

“Get screwed old man, we’re not anyone’s pawns!” Harry hissed, while Hermione nodded in agreement.

“Fine! Get out of my office now! But don’t think that I didn’t warn you!” Dumbledore said sitting back in his chair as Harry and Hermione left his office, heading for the Room of Requirement.

*SSSSS*

“I can’t believe him! I can’t believe I ever trusted that goat-fucking bastard!” Hermione started to yell, while random glass objects around the room were shattering. “And the Order’s in on it to! Well at least one member is!” she yelled in frustration. “Who else is? Or who else is his puppet.” she let out a sigh of defeat and sat down on the couch.

Harry sat down next to her, patting her back as she curled up next to him, “It’s going to be ok Mione.” he said softly.

“What do you think he’s going to do to us?” she asked.

“Its you I’m worried about… after all he needs me, his bloody weapon, wouldn’t want to break it.” Harry said in disgust, “I would understand if you wanted to keep away from me.” Harry said softly looking away from her.

“Harry… I meant what I said, I’m not going to abandon you now, not after everything we have been though together…” she said softly giving him a small kiss, “What do you mean by weapon anyway?” she asked eyeing him.

“The prophecy… Trelawney made it before I was born… Dumbledore was the one to hear it…” he said softly then told her the prophecy;

The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches...

Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...

And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, But he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not....

And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives...

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....

Hermione looked thoughtful for a little while before speaking, “How do we even know it’s real? And not one of Dumbledore’s manipulations again?” she reasoned.

“Well the main reason I think it is real is because I can’t imagine why else Dumbledore will go to these lengths to control my life…” Harry said softly.

“Harry… as much as you hate it, you’re a hero. You defeated Voldemort at age one… that alone would be enough incentive, a good public figure.” she said softly smiling slightly at him.

“I guess… though it doesn’t really matter if it’s real or not. Voldemort won’t stop hunting me until I’m dead anyway.” Harry sighed, and Hermione just hugged and kissed him.

After about ten minutes Hermione got up off the couch, determination etched into her face. “Come on Harry, time to work on our wandless dueling.” she said pulling him up from the couch.

After another two hours, an exhausted Harry and Hermione made their way back to Gryffindor tower and to bed.

*SSSSS*

Two weeks passed with no incident. Hermione’s new determination was advancing them faster than ever in wandless duelling and aura magic. Both of them could now duel fairly well wandlessly, and both could now completely block their aura, while still looking for other magical presences. They were going deeper and deeper in the dark arts books, looking at more deadly spells and even making some of their own.

They could feel their morals slowly changing; when they first started looking at the dark arts books, they found the idea of actually killing someone reproachful. Now though, they could see how it was sometimes necessary and at times unavoidable. After all, the good of the many outweighed the good of a few.

Harry and Hermione walked into the great hall together as usual, no one actually knew if they were dating or not, but there were rumours. Sitting down at the table Harry felt a little uneasy at the way Dumbledore was looking at them. He pointed it out to Hermione as she also noticed the look of… victory, in his eyes.

“Its probably nothing.” she reasoned though inside her guts were clenching, something wasn’t right. They started to eat breakfast when the morning owls started to fly in; Hermione got her copy of the Daily Prophet and paid the bird. She unrolled the paper and looked at the front cover and gasped. This caused Harry to look up at her in concern; he could see the tears coming to her eyes. She then threw the paper on the table and ran out of the hall.

Harry quickly grabbed the paper, and gasped also. The picture was a house with the Dark Mark hanging above it. He knew the house, it was Hermione's… looking up at the teachers table he caught the headmaster’s eyes and could see the look of triumph in his eyes. Harry then quickly left the great hall looking for Hermione.

Harry knew where she was, their link had developed a lot over the last couple of weeks and he could sense her presence even if she were on the other side of the castle. She seemed to be heading towards the Room of Requirement. Harry started to run after her and when he finally made it Hermione had only just entered. He followed her in only to watch as a green bolt shot across the room and hit Dumbledore. He was speechless for a second as he watched Dumbledore fall to the ground, though understood when the image disappeared. He had also come to the conclusion that Dumbledore had played a hand in this.

Hermione then fell to the ground sobbing and Harry quickly rushed to her side, bundling her up in his arms while she clung to him. She was crying for about thirty minutes straight before she quieted down into soft sobs.

“I’m going to kill him!” she said angry, “I don’t care if you help me or not, but Dumbledore’s dead” she said.

“You know I will be there every step of the way… they treated me like a son. I will see that Dumbledore and Voldemort pay.” Harry said in determination.

“For some reason I don’t think that Voldemort had much to do with this one… you saw Dumbledore in the great hall.” Harry continued, as another series of sobs racked her body,

“I don’t see Dumbledore working with Voldemort… they’re both as power hungry as each other.” she said.

“You know… we’re going to need more professional training if we plan on killing Dumbledore.” Harry said softly.

“I know… we will think of something.” she said before hugged him again. “I don’t want to leave here today.” she said softly.

“Then we won’t… I don’t think the teachers will expect you in classes today and I think they will understand me not being there also.” Harry said softly, though Hermione had already fallen asleep in his arms.

*SSSSS*

Later that day Dumbledore held a meeting in his office. Mad-Eye, Ron, Ginny, and Lupin were sitting in front of Dumbledore's desk.

“Everything went as planned did it Remus?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes… the guards on duty did the work, then set off the dark mark and came back to headquarters.” Lupin said.

“Good, good.” Dumbledore said before turning to Ron and Ginny. “This is the time to get back in Harry and Hermione's good books. Play the sorry friends, find out where they were and what they learnt over the summer.” Dumbledore said.

Ron looked unhappy about the idea and started to complain, “I don’t want to hang around bloody Potter again! I’m sick of being in his shadow!” Ron argued.

Dumbledore regarded the boy for a little while, he knew how to play Ron’s ego, “But think of the glory that you will receive when Harry dies in the final battle while you come out a hero.” Dumbledore said seriously and Ron’s eyes seemed to brighten at the prospect.

Dumbledore then turned to Ginny, “You have to try and get in Potter's good books. Get him into bed for all I care.” Dumbledore said.

Ginny just shrugged her shoulders, “Guess it wouldn’t be bad to be the one who shagged the famous Boy-Who-Lived.” she said absently.

“Good. Miss Granger should understand what kind of danger being with Harry is now and should hopefully back off. We need to gain control of the boy again!” Dumbledore said, while the others in the room nodded. “Remus, start owling Harry, ask him to come to number 12 for the holidays, see if you can get him to trust you enough to tell you where they were during the summer and what they did.” Remus just nodded, “Good, well that’s all, good day.” Dumbledore said. The four left the office.

Dumbledore sagged back into his chair and pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey and a shot glass from his desk drawer. Pouring himself a glass, he slammed it down and poured himself another.

AN: Another chapter down! Hope you liked it. Anyways… don’t forget to review! I may not reply to all of them but I read each one and it only encourages me to write more! Oh and don’t forget to check out my new webby if you haven’t already!, the link can be found in my profile!

Luke

8. Meetings

Chapter 7 – Meetings

Disclaimer: Do you really think that JKR would post her books on the net for free? No. therefore obviously I am not JKR and in no way own any of the Potter Universe… though I can dream…

AN: Hope you like it! This chapter is yet to be BETA’s when it is I will post the BETA’d version… its just I was already late and though I may as well just post it now

*SSSSS*

Draco was sitting in the Slytherin common room in deep though… he was confused… it was about the mudblood Grangers parents. It wasn’t that he cared that they were dead; in fact he would have most likely helped if he were asked. No, it was the fact that he wasn’t told about it.

He was always informed about the attacks on the Hogwarts students families, and this one, since Granger was so close to Potter… he would have defiantly been told. Something was not right about this attack… there would have been a message left for Potter if the dark lord had ordered it, but there was nothing… not even signs of torture…

Draco then decided he should ask his father about, he being one of Voldermort right hand men would know about the attack.

*SSSSS*

It had been two days since the murder of Hermione’s parents. She had isolated herself more, only talking to Harry. Her grades had also dropped, but none of the teachers said anything about it, except for Snape of course, though she just totally ignored him.

Harry and Hermione were sitting in the common room finishing off there potions essay when Ron approached them. He stopped in front of them and didn’t say anything.

“Yes Ron?” Harry asked, wondering what the red head had to say now. Looking into his eye’s Harry put his Legilimency training to good use, stealthily sifting though his memories, he finally came to the reason he was here. He watched the meeting between Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Remus, Ron and Ginny. Watched as they discussed the attack on Hermione's parents and admitted to deed, and that it hadn’t been the dark lord.

It took every bit of Harry strength not to Avada Kedavra the red head after seeing this. Though his face remained blank, free of emotion looking at him.

“I… I wanted to apologize... especially to you Hermione… I just lost my temper; I didn’t mean what I said… and after what happened with your parents… I realized throwing our friendship away over something as stupid as an argument is… well stupid” Ron said softly slumping his shoulders and looking at the ground in defeat.

Harry looked over at Hermione who met his gaze, “You know he is lying right?” Harry said, sending the message though their link.

“Yes… but, playing along with it might keep Dumbledore off our back for a bit” Hermione reasoned.

“Yea… but how much do we tell him? Do we tell him about us being together… I think the rumors have died down now, since we haven’t publicly admitted it” Harry said

“We just tell him we went to the states, full muggle holiday… and no we don’t say anything about our relationship… its bad enough as it is with people watching us… I don’t want to imagine what it would be like if they knew...” Hermione said, and Harry just gave a mental nod.

Hermione then turned back to Ron putting up a ‘fake’ half smile, “It’s ok Ron, I forgive you” she said softly.

Ron put on a big smile, and both Harry and Hermione could see the look of triumph in his eyes. “Cool thanks guys… Now… I have to know! Are you guys dating?” he asked in a friendly voice.

Both Harry and Hermione smiled a little before they both shook their heads ‘no’ at the same time. Ron seemed to brighten up even more at this. He then turned to Harry and they started to talk about how the Quidditch team was going. Ron made a couple of comments about how much of a shame it was that Dumbledore wouldn’t lift his ban.

*SSSSS*

It had been two weeks since Draco had sent the letter to his father asked about the attack on Grangers parents and still he didn’t have a reply. Though it was that morning at breakfast that an unmarked, brown owl swooped into the great hall and landed in front of Draco. Draco quickly took and opened the letter.

Draco

I am sorry about taking so long to replay, but we have been investigating the matter ourselves. We have now found out that the dark lord had nothing to do with the attack on the Grangers and it was in fact, Dumbledore’s order that was responsible.

We have no idea why, but this is an opportunity that we cannot waste, the Dark Lord suggests that you try and speak with the mudblood, tell her what you have found out. It would be a great advantage to have her as an ally, since she is close to Potter.

If you succeed in doing this, the Dark Lord said that you would be rewarded greatly for your achievement.

Lucius

Draco quickly set fire to the letter and looked across the hall at Hermione. He watched as she shot a murderous look towards Dumbledore… Maybe she already knows… this might be easier than I thought Draco thought to himself, before he started to plot a way to meet her.

*SSSSS*

Harry, Hermione and Ron were just leaving Defense against the Dark Arts and were heading to the great all for lunch. Harry was becoming annoyed with Ron’s constant questioning.

“So what did you really do over the summer? Why wont you just tell me?” Ron said for the one hundredth time this day.

“GOD! Ron I have already told you a hundred times! We went to America, and seen the sites!” Harry said, his temper coming across in the words.

It was then that Draco walked passed and carefully shouldered Hermione, slipping a note into her pocket. All three of them turned around to face Draco, who sneered at them before continuing down the hall.

“Harry… Draco slipped a note into my pocket…” Hermione said

“Does it have any magical signatures on it?” Harry asked quickly, fearing that it might be a portkey.

“No… its just a note… no magic what so ever” she said, she then shot a look in Ron’s direction, “we’ll look at it when Ron goes to Divination” Hermione said, and felt Harry give a mental nod in agreement.

Ron finally headed off for divination, so Harry and Hermione went to the room of requirement. Once they made the room provided a nice, big comfortable couch, Hermione pulled the letter out of her pocket and read it, it wasn’t long and was requesting a meeting…

There is more to you parent’s death than meets the eye. Be at the courtyard fountain at 11pm tonight. The information I have will greatly interest you.

“Well?” Hermione asked

“I don’t see any harm going… It would tell us for sure if ferret boy is a death eater I guess…” Harry said re-reading the letter.

“Ok, so ill go…” Hermione started but was cut off…

“No, we will go, I will make myself invisible just in case” Harry said, and she just nodded.

*SSSSS*

It was eleven and Hermione was sitting down on a bench near the courtyard fountain waiting for Malfoy to show up. Harry was just over in the corner, leaving only the tiniest bit of his aura unmasked so that she would know where he was.

It was then that Draco came walking down to the fountain, in his usual pureblood prince fashion. “So you came” Draco said, a hint of a sneer in his voice.

“Well? What do you have to say?” Hermione asked impatiently

“I have recently found out that the dark lord and the death eaters had nothing to do with your parents murders… that in fact it was Dumbledore and his little order that staged the whole thing” Draco said, seeming pretty smug with himself. While Hermione just looked un-impressed.

“That’s all you have to say? I already knew that it was Dumbledore. I knew since the day it was in the paper” Hermione said.

Draco stuttered a little at this, “N-no I also, im also here to offer an alliance between yourself and the Dark Lord. He is willing to train you over the holidays, and wants you to act as a spy” Draco said regaining himself.

It was then Hermione had a crazy idea, “Harry…” Hermione thought…

“I know Hermione. I was thinking the same thing… but Voldermort?” Harry said…

“Who said we had to be loyal to him? We could just use the training, kill Dumbledore and then turn against Voldermort” Hermione said.

“I guess…” Harry thought, “Well I better make my self known so we can arrange a meeting” Harry finished before removing the invisibility charm.

As Harry became visible, Draco paled and made to draw his wand, only to stop when Harry had his out, facing him.

“Draw it, and no one will find you body” Harry said in a deadly calm voice. “This offer you have for Hermione… there wouldn’t be a way I could get in it as well?” Harry continued.

At this Draco’s eyes widened... “You... you want to join the dark lord?” Draco asked stunned.

“Really Malfoy think about it.” Hermione started, “What’s the difference between Dumbledore and Voldermort” Draco flinched at the name. “Yes Voldermort kills openly, while Dumbledore controls others and has others to do his dirty work for him” Harry just nodded at Hermione's explanation.

“So is it possible Draco?” Harry asked looking straight at him,

“Ill arrange it, I will let you know when I have” Draco said evenly, finally regaining from the shock.

“Good” Harry said, before he added, “A few conditions, It has to be at least 11pm, I don’t want Snape, Sampson, or Goldsworthy to be anywhere near or to know about the meeting at all.” Draco just nodded his head, then Harry and Hermione turned and left leaving a stunned Draco.

I may have just got Potter to join the dark lord… Draco thought as realization dawned on him, oh he would be rewarded greatly for this!

Hermione and Harry went straight to the room of requirement, they both sat down on the couch next to each other when Hermione broke the silence,

“Do you think it’s a good idea?” she asked softly, Harry just looked at her for a moment.

“I don’t know anymore… I mean, Dumbledore and the order are not much better than Voldermort and the Death eaters… and I bet Voldermort will happily train us and help us in killing Dumbledore… after Dumbledore im his next biggest threat, and if he thinks he has me on his side he will think that’s he unstoppable.” Harry reasoned, “And it’s not like we are joining him… were using and manipulating him actually” Harry said cracking a small smile, “Ironic really” he said, which cause Hermione to chuckle.

She then moved from next to him and settled in his lap, giving him small kisses around his neck. Harry just sighed, “What would I do without you?” he asked no one, though Hermione decided to answer

“Probley be dead by now actually” she said, smiling against his neck.

“True, true” Harry said chuckling a little before leaning into Hermione and kissing her passionately.

“When they broke the kiss Hermione’s hands had move inside his shirt and where running up and down his chest, while one of Harry's hands rested on her hip the other was softly caressing one of her breasts. She moaned against his neck pulling Harry into another passionate kiss, before whispering into his ear,

“Harry… I want to be with you tonight…” she moaned, “All of you” she said softly before kissing his ear, her hands slowly roaming over his body. Harry moaned as Hermione did his, though didn’t stop working on rubbing her breast, his other hand had now found itself under her skirt and was softly cupping her bum.

“Are you sure…” he whispered, in her ear, she didn’t answer just kissed him deeply, passionately, which Harry took as a ‘yes’. She then fell backwards on the couch, Harry falling with her. He was now lying on top of her, one hand under her shirt rubbing and playing with her nipple, his other running up and down her side… he then heard Hermione softly whisper a spell before she started to moan again…

The rest of the night, seemed as a happy blur for Harry and Hermione…

*SSSSS*

Hermione slowly woke up, at first she was shocked that she naked, though as memory’s of the night before came flooding back; a large smile grew on her face. She looked over to see Harry sleeping next to her, she then moved closer to him laying her head on his shoulder and putting her arm over his waist and closed her eyes. She sighed softly as Harry's arms unconsciously wraped around her.

She stayed in his arms for another hour, before she decided it was time to get up. She gently kissed Harry on the lips, then on the neck to wake him up. Harry's eyes slowly opened, and when he saw Hermione there he smiled.

“I could get used to waking up like this” he whispered to her, and she kissed him in replay.

“Its time to get up Harry” she said softly, Harry just groaned and pulled her closer to him, “But I don’t want to” he said giving a fake pout.

Hermione giggled and pulled her self away from him, “common love, Breakfast awaits!” Hermione said before getting dressed and heading out of the room of requirements towards a shower. Harry for his part just mumbled before also leaving the room.

Since it was a Saturday, not many people were in the great hall for breakfast, most were still asleep in their nice warm beds, from either a late night of homework, or a late night of drinking. Harry and Hermione were two of about ten people at the Gryffindor table, and the only ones from their year.

“Must have been a party in the common room” Harry said as he looked around Gryffindor table.

“Hmm… I guess… are you sorry you missed it?” She asked raising an eyebrow at him. Harry just smiled at her,

“Not in the slightest” Harry said a twinkle in his eyes, which caused Hermione to giggle.

Hermione then turned serious, looking at Harry, “Harry… we need to plan, the mee… well the you know” she said softly, Harry nodded his head,

“Ok… room of requirements after this?” Harry asked signaling down at his plate; Hermione nodded her head in agreement.

An hour later both Harry and Hermione were sitting in the room of requirements, there were a number of things that they need to plan for. For one, they were NOT getting the dark mark, there were a number of reasons for this, it would stick out to much for one, and the link that it would create was not something they wanted. There was also the problem that Voldermort may just kill them outright, that… would be bad. This was the topic they were thinking about…

“I got it! Why not tell him the prophecy!” Hermione said, as she threw her hands into the air.

“Err… Hermione… wouldn’t that make him want to kill me more… what better motivation, knowing the only one stopping you from immortality was standing right in front of you” Harry said eyeing her like she was crazy.

Hermione shot him a mock glare, before grinning slightly, “Harry baby… you have to be the most dense person I know at times” she said sweetly, a small smirk grown on her face.

“How dare you Granger!” Harry said, trying to sound offended, but failing miserably. Causing Hermione to have a fit of giggles. “So I guess your thinking about changing it a touch to give us an edge?” Harry asked, and Hermione nodded.

“Yes… I was thinking of our excuses of turning to him at the same time…” she said thinking quickly, “I mean I have my reasons he, he… you know” she said a tear falling down her cheek. Harry brushed it away before pulling her into a hug, which she happily accepted. After a couple of minutes Harry let her go giving her a small kiss on the cheek.

“Well, yea… but you… well there isn’t really a reason” seeing Harry was about to argue she quickly added, “I know he was controlling your life, but we need… more… you could break away from Dumbledore and still be hunting Voldermort, understand?” she asked.

“Yea… I guess I see you point, your thinking that Voldermort will think its some kind of setup, since I don’t really have a reason” he said.

“Exactly! Though know you do!” she said before pulling out a piece of paper, which she started to write down the prophecy, except… different.

The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches...

Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...

And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal…

And either must die at their own hands, or at the hands of the other, for neither can live why the other does not...

The one with the power to vanquish that Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....

After reading it for the second time Harry looked at up Hermione, pride in his eyes, which caused Hermione to blush a little, “You’re making him think that without out me he will die… and with me, we will both be immortal…” Harry said softly, “Your brilliant you know that right?” Harry said smiling at her.

“But… why all the other changes? Why not just the ‘Never can live without the other’ part?” he asked, looking intently at her

“Well… I totally removed the part about the power he knows not… since well I don’t think we want him knowing it do we… whatever it is” she said, and was satisfied when Harry nodded in understanding. “I also put the part about dieing by your own hands… because well, I thought Voldermort might just kill me, then hold you prisoner, though keeping you alive… so I need a way we could threaten him…” she said softly.

“What would I do without you?” Harry asked

“Well… I think you asked me that once before, and I believe the answer is still the same… you would most likely be dead by now Mr Potter” she said mischievously before hopping into his lap.

‘I hope one day I could call you Mrs. Potter’ Harry though. Hermione's head spun around to look at him.

“Di…Did you mean that” she whispered. Harry blushed at this and looked away.

“Ah… I didn’t actually mean for you to hear that… but yes… I hope to one day make you Mrs. Potter” Harry said softly, still looking away from her. Hermione grabbed his chin, and forced him to look at her, before she attacked his lips with hers.

Five minutes later, they broke the kiss, out of breath… “I would like to be Mrs. Potter” Hermione said softly, leaning against his chest. Harry's smile broadened at this,

“I love you Hermione” Harry said softly, running his hand though her hair

“I love you to” she said, before giving him another kiss, “Harry… there is something that I want to do” she said softly looking at the ground.

“What is it Hermione” Harry asked putting one arm around her…

“Well… in accent times, when a couple got engaged they sometimes did a bonding ritual… it bonds the two together by blood… it is also unbreakable, meaning if you died, I would to and vise versa” she said softly.

“Are you sure Hermione… it’s a big risk… I don’t know if I will make it out of this war alive as it is…” Harry said softly

“Then I wouldn’t want to live either, and would probley follow you into the afterlife anyway… but that’s not the main reason…” she said, pausing before continuing, “It would also get me past Voldermort's defenses, like you can, im sure I would be able to help fulfilling your destiny then. And if the prophecy is true and you power is love… then this would probley be it”

Harry looked into her eyes, “Are you one hundred percent sure you want to do this?” he asked her softly,

“Yes, one hundred percent” she said without hesitation

“Ok then, what do we have to do?” he asked.

“Well its not that hard, one of the main reasons its was uncommon was because it requires wandless magic of sorts, you have to slash your right palm, making it to bleed, we then join hands, making the blood to come together. Then we have to chant ‘I bind, my mind, body, magic and soul, to yours for eternity’ twice, pushing all of the magic we can to our joined hands, when its complete they should turn from glowing silver to glowing gold before fading, and then its done” she said. Harry nodded, then made a two knifes appear in the room. He handed one to Hermione, while he took his, sliced his palm open and stuck out his hand to hers.

Hermione did the same, and when there hands meet and blood bond together it sent little sparks though there body’s.

They never stopped looking into each others eyes as they began to chant,

“I bind, my mind, body, magic and soul, to yours for eternity” they said in unison, as they both finished the first half, their hands started to glow silver, their eyes were now also glowing silver

“I bind, my mind, body, magic and soul, to yours for eternity” They chanted again, this time there glowing hands changed from silver to gold, the same thing happened to their eyes. Willing all their magic into there joined hands; Harry felt a familiar feeling, it felt like Hermione entering his body. It was then he realized that their magic was going between the two of them.

A powerful bust of magic sent both of them into unconsciousness.

They woke up at the same time nearly an hour later; they both were still feeling the lovely feeling of having each others magic in their bodies from the souls bonding. Both of their eyes still had a slight gold glow before it slowly faded. They weren’t tired, in fact they seemed to have more energy than usual, Hermione decided to take advantage of the fact and rolled on top of him, giving him a soft kiss.

“Now… lets celebrate” she said smiling a twinkle in her eyes. Harry didn’t answer, he just kissed her.

*SSSSS*

The next day Harry and Hermione were eating breakfast together, when a brown owl flew down to Harry and Hermione. Harry quickly grabbed the letter and the owl left, opening the letting; he read it and was a little bit nervous.

Tonight, same place as before, you know the time

Was all the letter said, he handed it to Hermione who quickly destroyed it while no one was watching. She then leant over to Harry,

“Room of requirements again, I want to practice some dueling…” she whispered and Harry only nodded, he two was thinking about getting a little bit of practice in.

For most of the day they worked on their team dueling, and their aim. They hadn’t worked much with there muggle/magical pistols, though they still had a really good aim. Soon it was time for dinner and Harry and Hermione headed down to the great hall for what could be, there last meal…

*SSSSS*

It was ten past eleven and Harry was getting annoyed, Draco wasn’t anywhere.

“Where the hell is he?” Harry growled softly

“I don’t kn… wait there he comes… bloody ferret” she said and Harry smiled at her use of words.

“Nice of you to make it Malfoy… what the hell took you so long?” Harry growled,

“Shut it Potter, was had to get around Filch” Draco said sneering at the two of them, “Personally I cant believe you two showed up… though I think im going to enjoy watching the dark lord kill you”

“We will see about that Malfoy… now where is the portkey” Hermione said,

“Here” Draco said, pulling a craved piece of wood, that was shaped like a snake out of his robes, “Well grab on already” Draco sneered.

“Please tell me your not that dumb…” Hermione said, then continued seeing that Draco had no idea what she was talking about, “You do know that Dumbledore will know when that portkey has left, and that he will be able to trace it don’t you” she said in the matter of factly voice. Draco seemed to pale slightly at this,

“Well how do you expect to get their then? Oh wise and great mudblood!” Draco sneered at her,

“We go a little into the forest, pass the wards, idiot” Harry hissed at him, “And if you call her that again, ill give you another hole to breath from”. They all then started to walk to the forest. About ten minutes later they felt the magic go though them as they left the wards. They all grabbed the portkey, and with the familiar tug behind the navel they were gone.

*SSSSS*

Voldermort was getting angry, no, he was angry, he was starting to get angry fifth teen minutes ago. Potter and his Mudblood had requested a meeting, which he had allowed and now they are late. They better have a bloody good reason, or I will forget listening to them at all and kill them outright! Voldermort thought as his anger grew. He had already taken his anger out on two of the death eaters with him, and was about to take it out again, this time either on Lucius or Bella.

He was broken from these thoughts by the sound of stumbling feet, looking up he saw Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger.

*SSSSS*

“Potter…” came the hissing voice of Voldermort, “You had better have a good reason for being late, or else it will cost you your life” he threatened

“Oh… you can blame this incompetent idiot, Malfoy here” Harry said, “He’s the one that showed up ten minutes late in the first place, then though we should portkey out though the wards… it took us another ten minutes to exit the wards” Harry said, looking at Voldermort, not a trace of fear in his voice.

Voldermort seemed to study them for a little while before nodding, “I understand, though you Malfoy will be punished, Crucio!” Voldermort whispered lovingly. The yellow beam stuck Draco in the chest causing him to scream and roll around on the ground in pain. After about thirty seconds he lifted the curse, leaving Draco panting for air. Voldermort then sat down on a chair and looked at Harry and Hermione, “Tell me why you requested this meeting?” he said calmly.

“Well we need your help actually” Harry said, all the death eaters present laughed at this, though stopped when they noticed that their leader wasn’t laughing also.

“At what, pray tell, would Harry Potter and his Mudblood need my help for?” Voldermort said, this voice betraying no emotion, though inside he was rather interested, this meeting was getting better and better by the minute.

“We need your help with Dumbledore” Hermione said speaking up for the first time.

“Oh really… and what help could I possible help in regards to Dumbledore?” he asked, still in the calm emotionless voice.

“All of us want him dead” Harry said, most of the death eaters gasped in surprise at this proclamation.

“And why would Harry Potter want the great Albus Dumbledore dead?” Voldermort asked, not really believing him at the moment.

“I think…” Harry started looking around at the Death Eaters present, “I think, that you would like to hear my reasoning in private, away from listening ears” Harry said calmly.

Voldermort stood and pulled out his wand, this had Hermione and Harry on full alert, ready to start fighting, though they were relieved when, with a simple flick of his wand a soft silver dome of silence covered the three of them. he then turned to Harry.

“Now that we are, away from prying ears, what is your reason” Voldermort asked.

“The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... you know what that is right?” Harry asked Voldermort.

“Yes, I know the beginning of the prophecy” Voldermort said, really interested now, He knows the rest… and he’s going to tell it freely! Voldermort though.

“The rest goes as this…” Harry said

“And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal…

And either must die at their own hands or of the other, for neither can live without the other...

The one with the power to vanquish that Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....”

Harry paused, watching Voldermort's face, letting the words sink in, then realization spread across his face Harry continued, “Dumbledore told me that after the ministry incident… he expected… that I kill my self, in order to kill you” Harry inwardly smirked when Voldermort actually became wide eyed, “Yes, that’s right, he expected me to kill my self, he practically demanded… I have, no intention of dieing… and over the summer I realized that everything that had happened over my years of Hogwarts, he had set up, hoping that I would either kill you or be killed by you. Then after I refused to be his pawn, refused to end my own life, he killed Hermione's parents to try and get her to leave, abandon me, make me feel like dieing” Harry spat, he didn’t have to act very much, the anger he was feeling was real, even if the story was a little bit twisted.

“That’s when we decided to come to you, we both wanted Dumbledore dead, though we cant do it by our selves, we need training. Also with you and me being on the same team, we are both unstoppable; all we have to do it not kill each other or commit suicide”

Voldermort was stunned, he had always been trying to gain immortality, but he had already had it! In fact he had been working all these years to kill himself. How did this happen, how does Potter know all of this, “How did this… thing happen and how do you know so much about it” Voldermort said, his voice was calm, though a hint of glee came with his words.

“Like I said, Dumbledore told me most of it after the ministry, he had been studying it ever since it happened, though im sure he didn’t tell me all of it” Harry said darkly, “He said it all goes back to the prophecy, you heard the first part and then completed the second bit, marked me as your equal… at the same time making a link between us, it’s the only reason you didn’t die that night, it started the prophecy, and so for you to die, I would have, had to kill my self” Harry said

“Dumbledore said the link could have been removed, but he didn’t realize it existed until after fourth year. The ritual you used, using my blood, combined with out existing link, complicated it a lot… making it next to impossible to remove. Though this also means that no one would be able to kid nap me and remove it, it also means that you wont be able to removed it, though I cant see why you would… if you found away, you would lose your immortality, and then even the ritual used to give you back your body might reverse also.”

Voldermort nodded at this, then turned towards Hermione, “And what about the Mudblood, so she wants Dumbledore dead, you have just told me I could do this myself, why do I need her” Voldermort sneer at her.

“Well you see, she happens to be bonded to me, though an unbreakable bonding ceremony, so therefore, she has all the benefits that we do, and becomes able to complete the prophecy as well” Harry said giving Hermione a small smile.

Voldermort seemed to like this, two immortals, both on my side, both bonded to me by blood… we will be unstoppable… the power… these were just some of the thoughts running though Voldermort's head. Voldermort flicked his wand again, removing the silencing dome, “I agree, though you will need to be tested first… any suggestions Potter?” Voldermort asked.

A glean went across Harry’s eyes… oh he had an idea all right, looking over at Hermione he noticed the same look in her eyes, yes she had the same thoughts as he did.

“Number 4, Privet Drive, my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin” Harry said, the tinniest of grins on his face, revenge would be sweet.

*SSSSS*

They portkey’ed a street away from Privet Drive, the same area where Harry had run into the Death Eaters at the start of the year. Once they were all here, Harry looked around the group. There were six death eaters and Voldermort, the only death eaters that Harry knew were Draco, Lucius and Bellatrix. Seeing her, he felt the anger grown inside him, he quickly pushed it away, this is not the time nor place to avenge Sirius death! He told himself, though it will be soon… he said to himself as an after thought.

“There will most likely been a order member guarding the house” Harry said quietly, and Hermione nodded to back up his statement.

“Invisibility spells… Potter, your first test will be to kill the guard” Voldermort hissed, as all of them cast their invisibility charms. They made there way to the Dursleys house, just on the front lawn, Harry expanded his sensors, using the Aura magic, he had learnt to try and find the guard.

He or she wasn’t hard to find, they were sitting on what seemed like an invisible seat, under an invisibility cloak, bring up his invisible arm that was holding his second wand, he aimed it at the person.

This is it… Harry though as he brought up memories of the Dursleys and Dumbledore, “Avada Kedavra” Harry whispered, throwing all the hate he felt into the spell.

A blast of green left his invisible wand and hit the person in the back, the only sound that came was the soft thud of the person falling to the ground. They slowly walked up the body where Harry leaned over and removed the cloak. They were greeted with bright pink hair, Tonks. Tonks had been Harry's first victim.

Harry didn’t know what to feel, he didn’t really know her, so he didn’t feel loss, he felt a little guilty, but that was squashed by the reminder that she was in the order, the order that had betrayed him and murdered Hermione's parents. So with that he was left feeling… nothing… absolutely nothing.

Feeling a soft hand on his shoulder he looked over into emptiness, though he knew who it was, even when she was masking her aura, he could still feel her magic though there new link.

The group walked silently towards the door, and with a whispered ‘Alohomora’ it opened squeaking softly. Once they were all inside, they closed the door and removed the invisibility charms.

“Well Potter, Granger… it’s your test… lead the way.” Voldermort hissed, Harry and Hermione both nodded,

“Everyone waits here, we will bring them all down here” Harry said before he and Hermione headed up the stairs. Harry paused at the door to his old room, but quickly squashed those memories, before heading into Dudley’s room. He casted a silencing charm on the door, knowing how loud it squeaked when someone tried to open it, Dudley had done his to give him time to hide is cigarettes and what ever drugs he took before the person could see them. Harry then walked into the room and stunned Dudley in his sleep, before levitating him down into the living room.

Harry and Hermione did the same to his aunt and uncle; bring them both into the living room. He bound all three of them before, enervating them.

“Hello, Dudley, Vernon and Petunia” Harry said in a deadly calm voice. Vernon finally knew who had put them like this started to shout.

“BLOODY FREAKS! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING IN MY HOUSE” he yelled, his face turning puce, “TAKE THIS SHIT OFF US NOW BOY! OR ELSE I WILL KILL YOU THIS TIME” Vernon yelled, Harry only smiled down at him. Then quickly before anyone had time to bat an eye Harry's heal smashed into his uncle’s face, breaking his nose and sending blood pouring down his face.

“If I were you Vernon, I would shut up…” Harry said, but was cut of by his uncle,

“YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT YOU PIECE OF SHIT” he bellowed.

Hermione clicked her tongue and giggled, “Wow… he really is no smarter than dragon dung…” she said before turning to Vernon, “Have you not figured it out yet?” she said smiling evilly at him, “You not going to make it though the night”.

At this Vernon’s mouth open and closed many times, Petunia started to sob, while Dudley seemed to grow some balls.

“Come off it Potter, what’s a little bitch like you going to do” Dudley sneered.

“Diffindo!” Hermione said, then watched in satisfaction as two of Dudleys fingers fell to the ground, cut straight of by the silver light. It took a couple of seconds for Dudley to get over the shock before he started to scream, and cry in pain.

“Better watch you mouth Dudley” Harry sneered.

“Hermione… what do you think suitable punishment for these two… things… would be?” Harry's asked conversationally,

Hermione seemed to think for a while before an evil smile crossed her lips, “Well Harry, for starters I think that they should have to watch their whale of a son be killed… slowly and painfully” Petunia started to scream then,

“NO! PLEASE! NOT MY DUDDERS PLEASE NOT MY DUDDERS! ILL DO ANYTHING, GIVE YOU ANYTH…” she was cut off as Harry silenced her with a Silencio. Now here mouth opened and closed, tears poured down her cheeks as she tried to speak.

“You know…” Harry said… “Since they hate magic so much… I think its only fair we kill ickle Dudley the muggle way” Harry said to Hermione.

“Hmm… yes I suppose your right” she said, she then waved her wand, conjuring to daggers out of thin air… “Some magical enhancements won’t matter though… like making them extra sharp.”

Harry then waved his wand, causing the ropes to disappear; as soon as they did Dudley tried to get away.

“Oh no Dudley im not done yet, Petrificus!” Harry said, and Dudley stopped dead in his tracks, half frozen, small whimpers could be heard coming from him. Hermione then walked slowly up to him, causing his whimpers to increase. She then softly ran the dagger across his cheek, which thanks to the magical enhancements, cut deeply into this cheek. He cried out in pain and tried to move away, though he found himself still unable to move. She finished leaving a deep gash from his ear to his lip, she then lent over and whispered in his ear,

“Oh don’t worry… its going to be much, much worse…” she said, she then lowered the knife to his hand, cutting around one of his fingers, cutting it to the bone the whole way around before bringing the blade though the join removing his finger completely. Dudley had passed out as soon as she had completely removed it so Harry flicked his wand and woke him up.

Harry then grabbed his dagger and jammed it into Dudley’s foot, the blade cracking the tile floors. Dudley once again let out a high pitched scream, then passes out as Harry instead off pulling the dagger out, ripped it to the side, half cutting off his foot.

Petunia was silently screaming, tears streaming down her eyes, while Vernon seemed to be stunned, he opened and closed his mouth, no words came out, and tears were falling down his cheeks.

Harry then brought the dagger up and down so fast that it was a blur, cutting Dudleys ear clean off, by this time Dudley was in a state of server shock and was dieing from blood loss Hermione stabbed her dagger once more into his leg, before removing the petrifaction charm, and watched as Dudley convulsed a couple of times before going limp.

This brought Vernon out of his shock, everything caught up to him, His son was dead… killed by the boy and his little whore!

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! YOU FREAK, YOU KILLED MY SON, I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS I SWARE IT YOU FUCKING COWARD DOG… MUTT… SLUT! YOU AND YOUR WHORE WILL PA…” he didn’t get to finished as Harry foot connected his face again,

“You ever call her that again, I will make your fate a thousand times worse than that whale of a son of yours” Harry hissed, “Silencio” he finished. He then turned to Hermione, “You can do Petunia… I want Vernon myself” he said, she just nodded and walked over to his aunt.

She threw the knife on the ground, then removed the bonds on Petunia, once she was able to move she went straight for the knife but was no where near fast enough,

“Imperio!” Hermione yelled, Petunia stopped in her tracks, and her eyes seemed to glaze over. “Pick up the knife and slowly cut of your fingers, one by one” Hermione whispered softly in the lady’s ear.

Petunia slowly picked up the knife, she then started one by one to remove her fingers on her left hand, she was screaming her throat horse, but kept on going. Vernon seemed to somehow break Harry's silencing spell and started to yell at his wife.

“NO! PETUNIA STOP, WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP!” he screamed but was soon stopped as Harry put another silencing spell on him.

Once petunia had cut off all her finger on her right hand she was still screaming, as she tried and failed to do the same with her right. With on fingers she couldn’t grip the knife. Hermione then decided it was time to end it and leveled her wand at the ugly lady,

“Stella Clavis!” Hermione yelled, as what looked like a bolt of lightning shot from her wand and hit Petunia in the chest. She fell to the ground thrashing around, froth forming on the edges of her mouth. When Hermione lifted he curse, smoke started to come off Petunia, her body fired by hundreds upon hundreds of volts of electricity.

Harry turned to Vernon, who now was deathly silent, he was just staring at the place where is son, and now wife lay lifeless. He knew he was next, and was terrified of what they would do to him before he passed.

“Now it’s your turn uncle” Harry spat, causing Vernon to cringe. “Sectumsempra!” Harry yelled, slashing his wand downwards, pointing at his left arm, a sickening scream came out of Vernon’s mouth as his arm fell to the floor. “Lacrima Acidus!” Harry hissed, when the spell hit, Vernon’s tears turned to acid, burning his skin, and burning the nerves in his eyes, causing him to become blind. Harry then released the Petrifaction charm and watched as Vernon gouged his eyes out in an attempt to stop the intense burning pain of the acid behind his eyes. “Eviscero!” Harry whispered he last spell, that disemboweled Vernon, he numbly tried to gather up the intestines and other organs that had fallen from his stomach, but dropped dead a threw seconds later.

Not a second after Vernon died, a large white flash, followed by a crashing sound boomed out, Harry had a pretty good idea what it was, the then turned to Voldermort.

“The wards have fallen, we have to leave, Dumbledore will be hear along with a ton of Auror’s any second” Harry said quickly, Voldermort for his part just nodded; pulled out a portkey, and a second later they were off. Just as they disappeared several pop’s announced the arrival of Dumbledore and the order.

*SSSSS*

The group arrived back at there original meeting place, most were shocked about what had just happened, Draco was the most shocked, in fact he was paler than usual. The fact that The-Boy-Who-Lived and the Bookworm Mudblood could torture someone to death like that scared the shit out of him. He was briefly wondering how close he had come to being one of their victims over the years.

Voldermort for his part had a large evil smile on his face, oh he was in heaven, not only was he immortal, he now had two spy’s, that were brutal, and bonded to him until the end of their life, which would be for eternity…

He turned to face the two, “I am impressed… very, very impressed, in fact you surpassed my expectations” he started, “I agree to have you trained, in fact I will also train you personally a bit” he stopped as if thinking. “I understand that the dark mark would be impossible given your position, though it would not be need for loyalty anyways… we will need to find away to send you messages for meeting and summoning… in the mean time, Draco will be your informant”

“The next time we meet, we will have the Death Eater garb for you” he said, Hermione then thought to add something, “Mi Lord, I have a suggestion” she said, Voldermort nodded for her to continue, “Well, I was thinking that Harry and I should get our own uniform and make our own mark. Then on missions we would release both the Dark Mark and our own, if people see it as two different dark groups joining forces, it would spread more fear and also more confusion” Hermione said.

Voldermort smile and nodded, “Yes! An excellent idea, you two are already proven very useful” Voldermort said in a pleased voice.

“I have something to ask you Sir” Harry said, “Did you know that professor Snape is in the order?” Harry asked. From Voldermort's reaction he knew that he didn’t.

“What?” Voldermort growled…

“Snape, he’s Dumbledore's spy, also Sampson and Goldsworthy are spies for Dumbledore” Harry said

“This is news…” Voldermort said the rage he was feeling quite visible, “Again you two have proven your usefulness… and I think we will be seeing each other earlier than I had intended… after all I want Snape to see you two with me before he dies” Harry and Hermione nodded.

“You should be getting back before the old man come back to school looking for you” Voldermort said, Harry and Hermione nodded again, before taking a portkey back with Draco.

Lucius moved to Voldermort's side, “Why did you let them live?... especially the Mudblood” Lucius said.

“Crucio!” Voldermort hissed and grinned as Lucius thrashed on the ground, “You are not one to question my decisions! Remember that” Voldermort said before lifting the spell.

“Yes Mi Lord, sorry my lord” Lucius panted.

Bellatrix then moved up to Voldermort, “When do we get to kill them my lordship” she said softly.

“We don’t kill them… they are my most loyal for reasons none of you will know” Voldermort said. “And trust me when I say, harming them will cost you your life! If word gets out about this meeting the person who leeks it will be killed” Voldermort hissed, “After all we don’t want to ruin our biggest advantage”

“What do you want us to do with Snape” Bellatrix asked.

Voldermort smiled at this, “Granger is very smart indeed, after I let slip to him about a new dark force joining me, he will tell Dumbledore… then after he tells him we will kill the spy, well Harry will kill him. The others will die the same night that Snape does. This will cause fear and confusing among Dumbledore little ‘order’, but if we kill them first they might catch on and pull Snape out, understood?” Voldermort said. The Death Eaters nodded,

“Good”

AN: WOW… my longest chapter so far, over 8000 words! Anyways I hoped that you liked it. And I hope you think that the Dursleys got what was coming… if you thinking Harry and Hermione were, WAY OCC then… well for starters they are, turning dark and all and that’s OCC by itself, but there thoughts on the night, reasons behind their emotions I will try to explain a bit in the next chapter. Anyways…

Some one asked me why Harry and Hermione are still at school when Dumbledore is there, well, the school provided a good cover for their future dark deeds :P also if they left it would be rather suspicious, and they don’t want Dumbledore to know about there alliance with old Voldie. Also according to the challenge they don’t leave yet :D

Now onto explaining Dumbledore, as you have found out, Harry and Hermione seem to find most topics that study easy to learn, and in some they do the impossible, aura magic… so naturally when they were learning Occlumency, they became very good at it! Dumbledore had a look of victory on his face most people wouldn’t have been able to see it. It was hidden behind his Occlumency shields, but HHr Legilimency skills could easily detect it. Of course, HHr couldn’t be as good as HIM! ALBUS Dumbledore, most powerful wizard since Merlin! So he thinks that HHr think Voldermort did it, he will most likely try to make amends, “Oh im sorry, I didn’t see the big picture… blah blah blah.

Anyways that’s it for the Author’s Notes… hope you like the chapter!

Luke

9. The Phoenix Slayers

Chapter 8 – The Phoenix Slayers

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe… I can dream though…

AN: IM sorry about the wait! I have been away on work and only got back tonight otherwise I would have had this chapter out around Monday! Sorry once again oh and thanks of course to Turnlach for his wonderful BETA work!

*SSSSS*

Dumbledore apparated into the kitchen of Number 4 Privet Drive, he didn’t know why, but only seconds ago the blood wards around the house had suddenly collapsed.

Once he apparated in, he instantly knew the reason… not only could he feel death still lingering in the air but a pool of blood was slowly making its away around the corner into the kitchen. Dumbledore strode into the living room and the sight that greeted him nearly made him lose his stomach.

All the Dursleys were dead, obviously having been tortured in the most painful and brutal way. Taking a couple of deep breaths he turned back to Moody who was waiting by the door. The old man had paled slightly at the sight before him, after all his year chasing dark wizards he had never seen a sight like this… yes he had seen people tortured to death, usually through the Cruciatus and a few other dark arts spells. But this… the fact that it was obviously muggle torture, told him it was not Voldemort… but the traces of magic indicated that it was a wizard.

“Alastor, I need you to call an Order meeting for tonight.” Dumbledore said. Moody nodded before Dumbledore apparated away.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting back in his office ten minutes later thinking over the attack. It wasn’t Voldemort…too muggle… maybe even too muggle for most of his followers. But since they were Harry's last relatives logic would suggest that it was Voldemort that had been there…

*SSSSS*

Harry, Hermione and Draco appeared again just outside the wards. They quickly made their way back to the school, stopping just on the edge of the forest.

“I must say, Potty, Mudblood, I’m impressed. Though I don’t think you will last long.” Draco sneered at them.

“Malfoy, call me that name again and I will make sure that you never need a woman in your life.” Hermione said dangerously. Malfoy paled even more, (who thought it was possible) before he tried to regain some dignity. He sneered at them before casting an invisibility charm on himself and heading towards the school. Harry and Hermione followed a second later.

*SSSSS*

The next day after both Harry and Hermione had finished classes for the day they sat on a couch in the Room of Requirement, just holding each other. They had barely said a word; Hermione was reading some unknown book, while Harry was just happy to have her in his arms.

Harry finally broke the silence though, starting a conversation he had been wanting to have with her all day.

“Hermione… why don’t I feel anything?” he asked her, “Shouldn’t I at least feel some guilt… remorse?” he asked closing his eyes.

“Harry… I don’t know why. I don’t feel anything either.” she said softly, “But one thing that I do know, is that the Dursleys got what they deserved. After what they have done to you over the years they don’t deserve anyone’s sorrow.”

“But, how do you explain Tonks? I-I killed her without a second thought and I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it! I should feel bad, but I don’t.” he said in frustration.

“Harry, Tonks was in the Order. If she was one of the people that had to guard you I think they would have noticed the way Vernon was treating you.” Hermione whispered in his ear, “None of them deserve your guilt or sorrow.”

Harry just sighed in response. “This has something to do with the Dark Arts also, doesn’t it?” Harry said softly.

“It is said the dark arts corrupt the soul, changing ones morals and such. So yes, it could be the dark arts, but also the built up anger towards the Dursleys, Dumbledore and Voldemort could also be playing a part.” She said, looking into his eyes, “Those feelings, together with the Dark Arts, would change your opinion on killing someone. It’s one of the main reasons the Dark Arts are… well Dark, they change you over time; change your morals and views on certain things. Why do you think Voldemort is so insane? He feels nothing except hate and anger.”

“Oh gods… we’re going to be like Voldemort.” Harry said as realization dawned on him.

“No… we will never be like Voldemort. We have each other and our bond cannot be corrupted by the Dark Arts. We will always have each other.” Hermione said softly, giving Harry a light kiss.

“We are truly dark wizards now though, aren’t we?” Harry sighed.

“Yes… but don’t you see, we are dark wizards, but doing what we are doing for the right reasons.” Hermione said. Harry just gave her a confused look so she continued, “Voldemort, insane dark lord, has to be killed you agree?” Hermione asked, Harry just nodded, “Now take Dumbledore; supposed leader of the light, he kills innocents, controls people. Who knows how many people he has had killed because they have got in the way of his plans. He is as bad as Voldemort, though he works in different ways.” she said, Harry nodded again, “The ministry is a joke, corrupt and not doing the world any good. They are all as power hungry as each other, none of them are working for the light, just themselves.” she said.

“Yes… I understand. But what happens when Voldemort starts making us complete missions, killing innocent people?” Harry asked softly, looking at the ground.

“I don’t like it but you have to look at the big picture… the death of a few to save the many.” she said.

“That sounds like what Dumbledore is doing.” Harry said.

“No, it isn’t because he is looking at himself in the long run, not everyone else. He will kill a few to get himself in a better position for himself, while we do it to get in a better position for the rest of the world.” she explained.

“I guess I understand.” Harry said slowly, trying to digest the information. He then dug his head into her neck and started to give her small kisses. This caused Hermione to giggle, before she quickly hopped up.

Harry let out a disappointed groan and gave a small pout, Hermione just smiled at him, “Not now Harry.” she said, as she got up and walked to the book shelf with an extra swing to her hips. She then turned around and a twinkle appeared in her eyes, “Later… if you’re good,” Harry eyes seemed to brighten at this.

“I’ll be good! I promise,” he said holding his hand over his heart, a huge grin planted on his face. Hermione giggled and she dropped back down on the couch and started to read her book. Harry then also pulled out a large book, titled “History of the Darkness”.

“What’s that book?” Hermione asked. Harry just looked up at her.

“Oh… well you suggested that we be some new dark force, not a part of the Death Eaters so I’m looking up ancient dark groups. If we use their name then it would give people more understanding and more to fear.” Harry said, a little unsure if they were doing the right thing.

“That’s a great idea!” she exclaimed, “We will also need different names…” Hermione said before she jumped up and started looking through the bookshelf. About an hour into their research, Harry had a question for Hermione.

“Hermione… do you know how to kill a phoenix?” he asked. She seemed to ponder the question, before shaking her head.

“No, but I’m sure it’s possible. Should I look into it?” she asked.

“If you could, it would be great.” Harry said before closing the book he was reading.

“Why did you want to know?” she asked, intrigued.

“Well, I found the perfect group. It’s an ancient group called ‘The Phoenix Slayers’. They apparently ended up killing Merlin before they just vanished… they were recorded to be really brutal and also they were assassins.” He said, “It’s a rather fitting name considering the Order of the Phoenix and also the fact that the phoenix is the mascot of the light. It should definitely put fear into the Order and the public.”

“I agree… we should probably send a message to Voldemort about it also. No doubt he will want to announce it to his followers… and to Snape before they kill him.” Hermione said, Harry just nodded and took out a pen and parchment and started to write the note.

When he was finished he handed it over to Hermione who read it and nodded. They both then left to try and find Draco.

*SSSSS*

Two days after Harry and Hermione had sent the letter off to Voldemort, Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall were in the headmaster’s office. They were working out arrangements for a Hogsmeade weekend.

“We will need at least five Order members at the…” Dumbledore stopped speaking as Snape grabbed his arm.

“He is requesting a meeting,” Snape hissed. “It’s urgent also.”

“You better go then. Don’t worry, your classes will be attended to,” Dumbledore said, looking at the potions master, “Good luck.” he said. Snape just nodded and then left the office.

“I don’t like him going to these meetings…” McGonagall said, “He’s going to be caught some day, I just know it.” she said in barely a whisper.

“I hate it too, but he insists on going back and he is really irreplaceable.” Dumbledore said sighing.

*SSSSS*

Voldemort was sitting on his throne while the members of his inner circle bowed to him. His eyes cast over the people before him; Malfoy, Lestrange, Dolohov, Macnair, Nott and Snape, Snape now revealed as a spy. He briefly wondered who else could be spying on him. He couldn’t allow them to… but hopefully after he killed the three known spies the others would pull out.

“Rise my Death Eaters.” Voldemort hissed. All of the six Death Eaters rose to their knees, “I have good news, very good news.” He said giving an evil smile.

“Who here knows of an ancient group call ‘The Phoenix Slayers’?” he asked.

Malfoy bowed before looking up at Voldemort, “I have my lord. I have read a book where they were mentioned… if I remember correctly they were from the time of Merlin.” he said.

“You are correct Lucius. The Phoenix Slayers were an ancient dark group, they were rumoured to have killed Merlin himself, overwhelming him. But after his death, they disappeared, some say they were trained by Merlin and that they turned on their teacher; no one really knows. They have been written as being the most brutal of killers. They were also highly skilled assassins,” Voldemort said, giving a couple more facts about the Phoenix Slayers.

“They were thought to be extinct, until two nights ago. I had a surprise meeting with the two current leaders, who asked if they could join and help with my cause.” he hissed, before giving out an evil cackle.

“The ministry will fall before the end of this summer.” Voldemort said happily.

Snape’s mind was racing, though his mind was blank and his face showing ‘fake’ glee. He made sure that his Occlumency shields were at full power so that Voldemort couldn’t read the concern he was really feeling. He had to tell Dumbledore about this new problem… and soon.

“That is all.” Voldemort said waving towards the door signalling for them to leave. All of them left except for Bellatrix.

“When can we kill him my lord?” she asked hopefully.

“Don’t worry Bella my dear… his time will come. Right now, he will be spreading fear without even knowing it.” Voldemort said giving off an evil laugh, “The old man’s little Order will be chasing ghosts, keeping them out of our hair for a bit.” he said.

*SSSSS*

Snape burst into the meeting room at number 12, his Death Eater robes billowing behind him. Everyone had stopped talking when he entered as they all noticed Snape looking a lot paler than usual.

“What has happened Severus?” Dumbledore asked.

“The Dark Lord has got anther group to join him.” Snape said quickly. The members of the Order gasped at this announcement. While Dumbledore’s face showed no emotion, his eyes had no twinkle in them.

“Who are they?” Dumbledore asked softly.

“They are called ‘The Phoenix Slayers’. Apparently they are an ancient dark cult or something.” Snape said. He looked up at Dumbledore and noticed he had visibly paled at the information. “You have heard of them before?” Snape asked him.

“Unfortunately, yes I have.” Dumbledore said sighing. He looked around at the members of the Order. “The Phoenix Slayers are an ancient dark cult going back to the age of Merlin. They were said to be trained by Merlin himself, before they turned on him and killed him.”

As gasps went throughout the Order Dumbledore sighed, “They have removed this from most history texts because of the fact that it was never proven, and having Merlin just vanish was more… peaceful I guess. The group was said to be brutal, using all methods to kill. They were also highly trained assassins, sneaking into a house undetected, then either killing the person outright or torturing them to death. Now that I think about it, I think it may have been this group that was responsible for the Dursleys deaths, if they have indeed joined Voldemort.” Dumbledore sighed, “The problem is, they haven’t been seen since Merlin vanished and we therefore have no information on them, no spies in their cult. It will be up to our current spies to find out as much as they can through the Death Eater meetings. And you Severus, being in his inner circle, try to discreetly gather information on them.”

*SSSSS*

“I found it!” Hermione yelled to Harry, who was looking for a new book to read.

“Found what?” he asked, confused

“The way to kill a phoenix. I found it in an old Magical Beast Hunting book.” she said quickly before she started to read out loud,

A Phoenix is the only creature in existence that is made of pure magic. No one knows where the phoenix came from, though some believe that they were created by a ritual where several wizards had sacrificed their magic.

A phoenix is made of more magic than flesh and bone. The blood of a phoenix is said be worth hundreds of thousands of gallons. Though getting a phoenix to bleed is next to impossible. Since the phoenix is so magical, when a lethal spell hits the bird, the magic simply causes the bird to be reborn.

Hunting this animal was impossible until the early nineteen hundreds when a magic beast hunter named Calvo Mostake, created a spell that would remove the magic from the bird, leaving only the bird mortal with no magic. Since the magic is gone, the bird could be then killed like any other, though the phoenix’s blood was worthless since it no longer contained any magic.

Not longer than a year after the creation of this spell, it was classified as one of the dark arts. Since the phoenix was considered the mascot of the light, hunting it was considered dark.

Since this is the only magical being that consists of pure magic, the spell had to be specially crafted for the animal and therefore does not work on any other magical being.

The spell roughly translated goes ‘To separate pure magical essence from a body’. The incantation goes as followed…

“Moveo Putmagustia Somes”

Since a phoenix’s immortality relies on its magic this spell will cause it to become a normal bird, which can be killed easily. This spell would not work on any other creature or magical being, since there is no other creature or being that consists of pure magic.

They found this out not long after the spells creation, in the early seventeen hundreds. For severe crimes, the removal of ones magic was punishment. The spell for that has since been lost. After this new spell was created, they tried it only to find it unsuccessful; it was soon classified as the Dark Arts.

“Hmmm… the removal of ones magic would be a useful spell to know.” Hermione said to herself, “I’ll have to try and find it…” she then turned to Harry.

“I take it you want to kill Fawkes with this spell?” she asked, Harry only nodded.

“Yes… I plan on causing the bastard as much pain as possible.” Harry said, his eyes seemed to glow softly.

“Well, let’s practice it then” Hermione said, jumping to her feet. The room instantly changed to meet what she needed; it was like a shooting range. She then started to try and get the spell down.

After about two hours of practice they were finally getting it right. They slumped back into the couch to rest a little; Hermione was laying down, her head in his lap.

“Harry… what are we going to wear next time we meet him?” She asked, “We have to have some disguise… that’s why I’m working on names. And I think I have one… want to hear?” she asked.

“Yeah, shoot love.” Harry said softly.

“Lord and Lady Mortiferes.” she said, sounding rather proud of herself. Harry just looked at her weirdly, “It’s Latin for ‘death-bringers’.” she explained, “And since a lot of spells are based around Latin I think a lot of people will know the meaning of it.”

Harry just smiled at her, “You’re a genius love.” he whispered.

“I know.” she said, a smile gracing her lips. She then kissed him on the cheek before leaning against him.

“So… when are we going to visit Fawkes?” Hermione asked.

“Well according to the map, Dumbledore always seems to leave on Tuesdays after dinner. I guess Order meetings or something.” he said, “We could go in then. He is always gone for a while.”

“So… we go in a week. I don’t want to rush in tomorrow; I want to brush up on my ward detection spells first and how to break them.” Hermione said, more to herself than to Harry.

“Err… but… if we just go invisible and completely mask our magic the wards won’t be set off.” Harry said.

“Yes dear, we could do that. But you do plan on using magic in the room don’t you? You can’t keep it masked when casting and this spell will take enough to set off his wards.” Hermione said softly.

“Yeah I know… I wasn’t thinking.” Harry admitted.

“No you weren’t.” Hermione agreed with him.

“HEY!” Harry said in mock anger, “You’re supposed to comfort me or something, not agree.” Harry said, giving a little pout. Hermione just laughed at him, before lying back down with her head in his lap.

“I love you,” she said softly.

“Love you too.”

*SSSSS*

It was time to move on Dumbledore’s office, he had left on schedule five minutes ago. Harry and Hermione were now at the stone gargoyle entrance.

“Revelo Proctectorum.” Hermione muttered under her breath. A spider’s web of orange lines appeared in front of the gargoyle. Hermione went close and started to examine the runes that were connecting it to the wall.

“It’s a simple magical presence warning ward.” Hermione said. “I’m guessing he would have another near his door and that’s how he always knows when people are there.”

“Is it a normal one or a more complicated one?” Harry asked. He knew that this ward was usually a very simple one and not hard to remove, but this was Dumbledore they were talking about.

“No it’s just the basic ward, no custom stuff in it. I guess he would not bother. After all, how many teachers and students are going to try and break into his office? And I bet he has more complicated runes around his more… expensive possessions.” she said.

About a minute later, Hermione announced that she was done. They made their way up to the door where Harry double-checked the map. Dumbledore was still away. Hermione mumbled the Revelo spell again and another magical presence ward appeared.

Another minute later that ward was also disabled and Hermione slowly opened the door. They looked around the room, not entering it yet. They would have to get rid of Fawkes from the doorway, since casting any Revelo spells would most likely alert the phoenix.

They were in luck; Fawkes was sleeping on his perch, his back facing the door. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and nodded; they had planed this. Since Hermione had been the most successful with the magic removable spell, she would be casting it, and Harry would be the one that killed the bird.

“Moveo Putmagustia Somes” Hermione muttered quickly and a jet of rainbow light flew from her wand. Fawkes, who had felt the spell, awoke, but wasn’t quick enough as the spell hit him dead in the chest. The bird seemed a little stunned and didn’t move – this was when Harry did his part.

“Merhersag!” Harry whispered and a silver blade shot from his wand, faster than the eye could follow. Then with a soft ‘Thump’ and Fawkes’ head and body fell to the ground, gold blood slowly pooling around the two pieces.

“Revelo Proctectorum.” Hermione said aloud, swishing her wand over the room. Instantly the room was filled with a web of green, red, blue, orange and white lines. They became thicker around a number of different items.

Harry and Hermione carefully made their way into the office, avoiding the wards. They both stopped to have a look at Fawkes before continuing into the office. They looked around the stuff Dumbledore had, looking for anything that may be useful. Most of the stuff in his office was junk, or things that Harry and Hermione had no idea of what they did.

“Oh my god, look at this!” Hermione said. Harry walked over to her, avoiding a green line that was in front of Dumbledore’s desk. He stopped and found Hermione looking at a weird silver and green object that seemed to be half-hidden behind a couple of books. It also had a web of green and blue lines wrapped around it.

“What is it?” Harry asked as he looked at the object. He had no idea what it was.

“I’ve only read about them… it’s a tracking device, it tracks people’s magical signatures.” Hermione said, “He would have most of the students’ magical signatures recorded on this. They’re also really, really rare…”

“You’re saying he could have been tracking us… he knew we met with Voldemort?” Harry whispered softly, his fear growing.

“I doubt it. He would have had to check for us while we were there and since we left late I don’t think he would have. But this could be a problem so we have to destroy it.” she said.

“Can you get past his wards?” Harry asked her.

“Yes, these are a lot more complicated than the last but I should be able to. Probably take about fifteen minutes or so, though.

“Ok… you do that; I’ll have a look around for anything else.” Harry said. Hermione just nodded and started to inspect the tracking object more closely.

Harry started to look further into the back of the office when he noticed a familiar sword. It was encased in a magical presence ward. Harry knew how to disable some of the more basic wards and so began to work on it. And five minutes later, he had it disabled. He was quite proud of himself. Even though Hermione could have done the ward in a minute, she was also a lot, LOT smarter than him.

He pulled the sword from the wall and examined the sheath that it was in. It wasn’t there the first time he had used the sword. He looked at it more closely and found it had patterns across it. It seemed to be a forest with lots of animals with a gold griffin standing among them. It was beautiful.

“Got it!” Hermione called out. Harry looked down at his watch; she had done it in about twelve minutes. She had a very happy look on her face and seemed very pleased with herself… ‘Understandable…’ Harry said to himself.

“What do we do with it?” Harry asked.

“Well, we will have to take it with us. We can’t destroy it here since the old bastard might be able to repair it later.” she said as she grabbed it. “What do you have there?” She asked when she noticed Harry was holding a sword.

“Oh nothing… just the Gryffindor sword.” Harry said, a large smile on his face. “Figured the Sorting Hat wanted me to have it, since he did give it to me in the Chamber second year…” Harry trailed off when realization dawned on his face… “SHIT! The Sorting Hat!” Hermione paled; she didn’t think about the Sorting Hat… she didn’t even think that it might tell Dumbledore what had happened.

Harry was looking around the office, “FOUND IT” he called out to Hermione, who quickly came to where he was.

“Ah Mr Potter and Miss Granger” he hat said, “I knew the both of you were born for greatness.”

Harry and Hermione shared a confused look; the hat was… congratulating them?

“Err... What are you talking about?” Harry asked, clearly confused about what was happening.

“There is no time to explain here. Take me to your Room of Requirement, as you call it, and I will explain.” the hat said.

Hermione cast another Revelo spell and was a little surprised to find that there were not any wards around the hat. She then grabbed it, and they both left the office and made their way to the Room of Requirements.

They were quickly and silently making there way to the seventh floor when Harry broke the silence, “I think I have an idea for our new mark.” Harry whispered to Hermione.

“Fawkes…” Hermione whispered back, Harry nodded.

“Fits doesn’t it, Phoenix slayers, and their mark being a decapitated phoenix.” Harry said. Hermione just nodded as they reached the Room of Requirements. They entered and sat down on the couch, putting the hat on the table.

“So now explain,” Harry said, “Why would you be helping us?”

“I was made, Mr. Potter, to guide the leaders of the wizarding world. The leader for a long time has been Albus Dumbledore, but I sense that this will change soon.” the hat said.

“People believe that I was created by Lord Gryffindor, though that is not true. I came to Lord Gryffindor in his time of need, when the Lord Slytherin was raging war against him. After that, I have been in many people’s possession, but for the last three hundred years I have been at Hogwarts, performing the duty of sorting people into the houses. But now a new leader is coming forth, and like I always have, I will come to him.” the hat said.

“Us? We’re the new leaders?” Hermione asked, not really believing what the hat was saying.

“Yes. You are Miss Granger. I believe I told you in your first year, you were born for greatness… just like I told Mr. Potter.” the hat said, nodding a little.

“Wait… you never said I was born for greatness. You said that if I chose Slytherin I would become great.” Harry said, trying to point out the hat’s errors.

“That is correct, if both of you had chosen Slytherin like I suggested, your road to power would have been smoother, though both of you chose Gryffindor.” the hat said. Harry was looking like a fish out of water, while Hermione looked away; she had never told anyone that the hat wanted to put her in Slytherin like it did Harry.

“Hermione… Slytherin… what? She’s a muggle-born, why would you want to put her in Slytherin, for Merlin’s Sake!?” Harry said.

“Salazar Slytherin may not have liked people not of pure blood. I however do not hold those thoughts. I was told to sort people based on their personalities, not on the purity of their blood.” The hat said, still as calm as usual.

“If you think about yourselves, and think about the traits that Salazar recommended for people of his house, you will find yourselves as model Slytherin students. Both of you are smart, ambitious, and have a thirst to prove yourself.” the hat stated calmly.

Harry seemed to think about it for a moment and nodded his head in understanding… they were Slytherins at heart.

“That is right Mr. Potter. You may be a Gryffindor by blood, but you are a Slytherin at heart.” the hat said, seeming to read his mind. Harry’s head snapped up at this.

“Gryffindor by blood?” he asked in confusion.

“Only the heir of Godric Gryffindor could wield his sword in battle.” the hat said.

Harry just took this new information in his stride. After everything he had been through this stuff didn’t really come as much of a shock anymore. “So… you’re going to help two murderers gain power and control?” Harry asked, not really believing it.

“Mr. Potter, I am a hat with information stored in me, I do not have human feelings. Do you think that Dumbledore has not killed anyone? Did you think that Merlin had not killed? Godric? Every leader that comes to power has to go through obstacles, and it is usually other people they must conquer. I wasn’t made to help the good or the bad, I was made to help and guide the future leaders, whether they be light or dark.”

“So, how can you help us?” Hermione asked.

“I cannot grant you all the information I have and cannot grant you wonderful skills. I can though help you in your research, suggest solutions to problems, and also point out useful areas of magic you should learn. But the most help I believe I will be is spying on Albus Dumbledore for you.” the Hat said.

“But how can you do that? If you went to Dumbledore, then he would know why you are missing…” Hermione said.

“Who said he is going to know I am missing?” the hat asked.

“What… you expect us to continually break in to the headmaster’s office to talk to you?” Harry asked, thinking the hat was stupid.

“Mr. Potter… how do you think I appear to the new leaders? Do you think that they all stole me from the previous owner?” the hat asked, clearly amused, “No… I have my own way to travel.” and with that the Hat faded away.

“Well, that was interesting.” was all Hermione said.

“Yeah…” Harry said still looking at the spot the Hat had just disappeared from. Hermione snapped out of her daze first,

“Oh my god… Harry, think about it! The knowledge the hat would hold! He said he helped Merlin! That’s over a thousand years of information!” she said, getting more excited by the second. “He could tell us about types of magic that have been forgotten…” she said excitedly, her mind ablaze with the possibilities.

Harry just chuckled at her antics. “So Hermione, what do you want to do at Hogsmeade?” he asked breaking her from her thoughts.

“Hmm… well, I need some more quills, ink and parchment; we also need to get a couple of cloaks for our disguise. Oh and I need to stock up on my sweets, I am running a little low.” she said.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her. “I never knew you kept a stock of lollies… why didn’t you ever tell me.” Harry said, faking a hurt look.

“Well…” she said getting a sly grin. “I didn’t want you telling Ron…he’d eat them all… the pig.” she said.

“You’re right there, love.” Harry said. Hermione just grinned and gave him a hug.

“There is one other thing I need to get, though.” Harry said, looking down at her.

“What’s that?” she asked, rather interested in the look he was giving her.

“Well… that ceremony we performed usually has me putting a ring on your finger doesn’t it? I plan on getting that ring.” he said, giving her a warm smile. Hermione broke out in a broad grin.

“Are you serious?” she whispered.

“Of course I am… I couldn’t image living without you in my life, Hermione.” Harry said sincerely.

“Oh Harry…” she said wrapping her arms around him, tears of happiness forming in her eyes.

“I love you.” she said, giving him a soft kiss.

“I love you too.”

AN:

Well, that’s it for this chapter! Did you like? I re-wrote the hat part like six times… and I’m still not completely happy with the wording… or the way it went, im not even sure if it makes sense lol! I was trying to get what I wanted across, by it kept turning out to be dribble… but oh well…

Oh and I know the fluff at the end… even though this is a Dark!HHr story, that does not mean HHr turn into unloving people… well, people that love no one else but each other and their future children that is :D

Ok… at the start with Harry and Hermione's, ‘For the good of the world’ stuff… remember, Dumbledore manipulates since he wants to be famous and thinks he will be a better ruler for the world, Voldemort kills all that cross him, trying to rule since he thinks he knows what the wizarding world need… No Mudbloods, etc. Now HHr think they have the right idea… they are in no way turning back into light wizards/witches for all those who thought that’s what they were doing.

Oh well, next chapter… a trip to Hogsmeade, a ring, and maybe a meeting with Voldemort and out favourite potions master if I can fit it in :P

Until next time then!

Luke

Harry Potter & Hermione Granger - Dark Lord & Dark Lady

1. Home Sweet Home

2. The Dark Arts and Will’s

3. Dreaded Author's Notes

4. Escape

5. Holiday & Owls

6. Hoggy Warty Hogwarts

7. Albus the Manipulator

8. Meetings

9. The Phoenix Slayers