The Archive of Infinite Bullshit III (Patreon)

Welp, at this point I have to face facts. This story has gotten ENTIRELY away from me, and I don’t think it works as my original intention. Which makes me sad but ehhh, I’m having fun anyway. This probably will no longer be the base for my Marauder’s era time travel fic.

-]|[-

Harry’s third year started much better than the second. With Dobby not trying to rescue him, he received mail almost daily from the friends he’d made at Hogwarts. The Dursleys left him alone, as usual, which was just how he liked it. He continued training himself and continued to read ahead. With Archive and his natural skill with magic, he probably would be able to pass his OWLs by Christmas if he wanted to. Over the weeks of the summer break, he’d even managed to work his way up into the sixties for his Kidō spells. He hadn’t dared to try one of the spells he’d been anticipating for years, though. Not because he was scared of it, but because he knew just how powerful it was, and he was rather doubtful that even the Forest of Dean would be enough to keep his magic secret.

Despite his personal opinion that the fall of the Statute of Secrecy was likely inevitable, he certainly wasn’t planning on being the one who would bring it about. The weeks passed, with Harry counting the days until he would be sixteen and free to leave this boring house behind. He only had one year left. Just one, and he’d be free of the Dursleys for good.

At midnight of July 31st, Harry looked out his window and saw the approaching owls. He’d stayed in the house tonight for this specific reason. There were actually a bunch of them, and it made him smile at how much of a contrast it was compared to the previous year. The birds all flew inside the window, dropping off their mail before leaving to hunt. The number of letters and packages honestly was almost intimidating. “Business first, I suppose.”

He picked up the letter from Quality Quidditch Supplies first, and smirked when he read that they’d already sold out of the Raijins. He was surprised that it had taken this long if he were honest, but apparently he wasn’t the only upstart this year. Apparently a new ‘Firebolt’ from a ‘Randolph Spudmore’ was giving his broom more than a good run for its money. He’d have to get his hands on one himself to see what made it tick. He hadn’t been expecting to have to make Mark II so soon…

Oh well, they were still selling well, and his Gringotts statement proved it. He opened that one next, and saw that the new account he had opened specifically for his business had gone from a starting balance of one Knut to now holding a hundred thousand Galleons. He had thought that a thousand Galleons per unit for the Raijins would honestly be too much, and his jaw had dropped when Mr. Bradbury had told him conspiratorially that the Firebolt would be double that when it was unleashed into the public at large. Honestly, Harry might have to raise prices unless the Firebolt was far and away the superior broom. If they were at all evenly matched, he was losing money every sale.

Then there was the sale of the basilisk. The creatures may be illegal to breed, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t money involved with their parts. And with such a massive, ancient beast, Harry made more off of his kill than he did off of every single Raijin he sold, and it wasn’t even close. Even with the fees he had to pay to the company he’d hired to render the beast down. And now he had a collection of fangs, gallons of venom (none of which he sold. He did NOT want basilisk venom floating on the market. Especially with how potent stuff so old was bound to be. He and Albus had watched carefully as the head was removed from the beast and given to them before the renderers were able to take the rest of the corpse.), and leather for days. He’d already had a set of boots, armor, and a wand holster made from the hide for himself. He’d also gifted a set of boots and a holster to each and every one of his friends as well.

With the capital he’d acquired, he might need to hire some enchanters to take care of making the brooms now. He’d love to handmake them all himself, but that was a huge time commitment. Still, he was very happy. Just this put the Potter family in much better straits than they had been when he’d first taken over his vault two years ago. He hoped his parents were proud, wherever they were.

The final ‘business’ letter was his Hogwarts letter, informing him of things he already knew (September first, eleven o’clock, yadda yadda) along with his book list. He’d elected to take Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. He had also contemplated taking Arithmancy, but once he learned that it was basically just math and dealt with numbers, he decided to just self-study it. Plus, with Archive he could just download the knowledge into his brain. Honestly, he probably should offer to do that for his friends. That way they could take the OWLs without having to bother with the class. And finally, was the permission slip for Hogsmeade. He’d have to get his aunt to sign that for him.

With that done, he looked to the letters that he was very much more eager for. Fred, George, and Ginny had sent him letters and he was happy for them when they revealed they won some sort of lottery and had gone off to Egypt to spend time with their eldest brother Bill, who was a Curse Breaker. Ginny had also written a second letter, which was much more heartfelt as she thanked him profusely for saving her the previous year. It put a small smile on his face. The twins had also sent him some joke products that they’d made. Samplers, they called them. Perhaps Harry would have an investment opportunity if they were serious about putting Zonko’s out of business.

The next letters he opened were from the Flying Foxes. Now those letters put a huge smile on his face. Especially when he checked the envelopes and saw the… artistic pictures they’d sent him. Those would keep him warm on any cold night. The letters from his friends came next, as well as all the gifts they sent. His heart was full.

Finally, Hagrid had sent him a book that bit his hand when he tried to open it, and he’d had to bind it with Hainawa before finding a belt. Typical.

…

The next morning, he found his Aunt Petunia and slapped the permission slip in front of her. Petunia picked up a pen, deciding that there was zero point in trying to inconvenience him when she knew damn well he could just force her to do what he wanted. And with that, Harry left Privet Drive behind once more.

He made his way to the Leaky Cauldron and paid for a month’s rent for the third time in three years. He hoped that this time would be the last though. He wanted to buy a house for himself, and with the amount of money he had made in the past year, he felt much more comfortable doing so. He also wanted some place to host all of his friends, and eventually have a big family. And perhaps most importantly, he wanted a LOT of land so he could start getting into the actual terrifying spells that he knew were waiting for him.

He wasn’t in a rush though, so he took his time visiting brokers and checking out available houses. He didn’t really fall in love with any of them, and started to contemplate finishing the teardown of the derelict Potter family home and building something new there. He had visited the site, but it had only given him a bit of depression to see what must once have been a picturesque home in that state. Generations of his family had likely been raised there, and now it was just a husk. It made him feel like that should be a last resort, honestly.

The days passed, and Harry heard about the escape of Sirius Black, a mass murderer who had killed thirteen people with one curse. He had wondered why the Alley had seemed a little more… nervous. But at least for Harry, it brightened up when his friends started arriving from their vacations and making their way to the Alley to visit him. Neville had bulked up even more, and was much more confident and relaxed with Hannah and Hermione on his arms. Harry had fun teasing the throuple, though Hermione decided she’d be giving as good as she got once the other girls started arriving. The month and a half apart had apparently been all the girls needed to grow even more beautiful.

And he was utterly delighted when Flora, Hestia, Daphne, Parvati, and Padma showcased their new skill with Shunpo. They had apparently done nothing but practice every moment they had, and Harry congratulated them eagerly with tight hugs. Honestly, it felt more like he was rewarding himself with the way their soft bodies pressed on him.

Every day, at least part of the group got together. Hestia and Flora, who admitted they didn’t really like staying at home with their relatives (said in much the same tone that he would if talking about the Dursleys), came every single day. Some days, they didn’t even leave, and preferred to sleep with him.

Not much sleep was had on those days.

Eventually, the Weasleys arrived as well, with the twins joining them for an outing into the Alley. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley again pulled him aside to thank him profusely for saving Ginny, and that was where the two elder redheads apparently had an argument come to head. She hadn’t wanted Harry to know some things, but Arthur reasoned he not only deserved to know, but he needed to know. Arthur informed him of things that hadn’t been reported. Sirius Black was apparently Voldemort’s right-hand man. He’d escaped Azkaban after a visit from the Minister, where he had spent hours chanting, “He’s at Hogwarts.” Arthur was convinced Black was after Harry.

“Well good. I thought this year would be boring!” Harry just grinned, and Arthur rolled his eyes.

The warning Arthur gave him about Azkaban’s guards made Harry far more nervous than Black himself. Soul-Eating monsters were a touch more dangerous than one madman, and the Minister in his infinite wisdom had decided to station hundreds of them at Hogwarts. He was certain Albus would be furious.

Still, that was a problem for future Harry. For the last few days of summer break, Harry had the time of his life with his friends. They even accompanied him to the broker as he searched for land to build a home. Daphne even suggested widening his search if he wasn’t feeling anything here. With magic, nothing said he had to live in England.

In the end, he bought an entire hidden island a ways off the coast of Brazil. The Goblins were masters of earthen magic and could simply raise a new one and make it hidden and unplottable. For an exorbitant fee, of course. It cost him half of the basilisk’s profits just for the island, which was something that made him balk for a bit. But the allure of having an island to himself in an area with such nice weather, on a Leyline, where he would be able to keep all sorts of magical creatures and experiment to his heart’s content was simply too good to pass up.

Finally, September first rolled around, and it was time to go back to school. They found an empty train compartment quickly and expanded it to fit all of them comfortably. Malfoy failed to make an appearance which automatically made it a great ride, and he was pleased to see Tracey, Susan, Hermione, Neville, and Hannah had actually made progress with Kidō. None of them had managed to make it out of the first ten yet, but progress was progress!

And then the train started slowing down, and the merriment ended. “We can’t be there yet…” Daphne muttered, looking outside. It was completely pitch-black outside. She couldn’t even see the stars.

“Yeah, normally we would still have two hours to go, right?” Hermione said dubiously as she checked her watch.

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows. Susan, who was nearest the door, got up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments. The train came to a stop with a sharp jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness.

“What the hell is going on?” Tracey said, swallowing heavily. Hermione conjured Bluebell Flames to give them light.

“We can’t have broken down, right?” Parvati said, before looking over at Susan. “Shut the door, Suzie…”

“We’re being boarded.” Hestia said suddenly, looking out the window.

And then a sound caught their attention, and they looked at the window. The sound was crackling, and before their eyes, ice started to form on the windows from all the rain. The rain itself had turned to hail. “Lock the door. NOW!” Daphne said, her face pale, and they all realized that they could see her breath misting in front of her.

Susan slammed the door and backed away, also realizing what was happening. “Dementors.” She croaked, rapidly backpedaling.

“Colloportus!” Hermione stabbed her wand at the door, and it glowed momentarily.

Harry stood as they all glared at the door, and he realized he could hear something faintly. It was almost like his mind was icing over as the Dementor’s awful magic pressed on his Occluded mind.

The door opened as if Hermione hadn’t cast a spell at all. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the flames Hermione was holding, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. There was a hand protruding from the cloak, and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed. Like something dead that had decayed in water. Harry winced as the noise got louder. It sounded as if someone was screaming. “We do not have Sirius Black in here!” He yelled, holding his hand out. “Leave.”

The thing seemed to regard him for a moment, before it drew a long, slow, rattling breath. The intense cold became even more crushing, and Harry felt its magic batter his mind. ‘Not Harry! Please no, take me! Kill me instead!’ Harry’s entire body began to burn as he realized the screaming wasn’t coming from anywhere in the compartment, but rather his own memories. He was listening to his mother’s sacrifice.

Rage erupted in him, “Hadō #4: Byakurai!”

The Dementor shrieked as the lightning hit it, but it seemed to just… die on its cloak. It advanced on him, the cold intensifying even more.

“Hadō #33. Sōkatsui!” He tried again, unleashing a blast of blue fire at the creature. The bright light attracted attention from more of them, and his spell didn’t even manage to do anything. The cloak it was wearing seemed to be utterly immune to fire. It advanced, and Harry fell to a knee as his face started to blur towards the maw of the creature.

“HARRY!” Several shrieks erupted from his friends.

Harry pushed on, trying one last spell. The one he’d spent all summer trying to master. “Bakudō #61. Rikujōkōrō!” He rasped out, and six thin, wide beams of light slammed into the Dementor. It ceased its attempt to kiss him, and Harry backed away, terrified. And then the light shattered around the Dementor, unable to hold it for more than a moment.

A shrill voice was laughing. A voice he recognized, and hated. His mother continued to plead for his life. Harry collapsed, barely conscious as the Dementor surged forward.

And then it was over. A bright, warming light smashed into the Dementor and it shrieked, running away as if the hounds of hell were on its heels. The lights came back on as the dementors fled from the train.

A man raced into the room, “Are you all alright?” The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of robes that had been frayed and patched in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though his skin gave him quite the young appearance, his light brown hair was flecked with gray. He also had a wicked scar on his face.

Several of the girls were crowding around Harry, “I… I think so.” Parvati’s skin was several shades lighter than normal.

“H-Harry w-was able to s-stall it for a little b-bit.” Her sister’s hands were trembling despite the return of blessed warmth.

“Dementors!” Daphne spat, her fists clenching so hard that her knuckles cracked in fury. “At a SCHOOL!” She hated when Malfoy did this, but if there was ever a moment for it, it was this one! “When my mother hears about this she’ll string Fudge up by his entrails! That blasted beast was trying to Kiss Harry!”

Harry staggered to his feet, thanking Hestia and Flora for the help, “How did you chase it away?” He demanded of the man, uncaring of his rudeness.

The man sighed, “A very complicated spell. One not even taught at the NEWT level.” He said, leaning against the wall.

“I’m sorry, sir, we don’t have your name.” Hermione said softly.

“Remus Lupin.” He introduced himself, “I’ll be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year.”

They all perked up and Harry croaked out a light, “Finally a good fucking teacher.”

Lupin laughed, “The issues were ongoing even back in my day. I’m guessing your previous professors haven’t been up to par.”

“Not even remotely.” Hestia and Flora grumbled as one.

“Well, hopefully I’ll prove the outlier then.” He said with a slight smile, before reaching into a pocket. “Here.” He passed out two chocolate bars, “Chocolate helps with the symptoms of Dementor exposure.”

“Thank you, professor.” Harry speared the man with his gaze as he accepted the bars and started unwrapping the chocolate, “My spells didn’t do anything against them. What spell did you use?”

“Won’t be deterred, hmm?” Lupin smiled slightly, “It is called the Patronus Charm. It is the only weapon in this world we have against those foul creatures. I’m sure you noticed, but any other spell you tried merely fizzled against it, right?”

“Yeah.” Harry growled, “Even my Rikujōkōrō only held it for a few seconds.”

“I have no idea what that is,” Lupin looked intrigued, “But that it did even that much makes it interesting. Perhaps you can demonstrate it for me some time?”

“Yes, sir.” Harry nodded, “So the Patronus is the only thing that can destroy those things?” He pushed more on the charm.

“Oh heavens, no.” Lupin shook his head, “They can’t be killed, only driven away. They’re neither living nor dead, and therefore cannot die. Not even basilisk venom will do anything to them.” He said, “Now eat your chocolate. I must go speak with the conductor.” And with that, he shut their door.

‘Unacceptable.’ Harry sat heavily, glaring at nothing. ‘Absolutely fucking unacceptable.’

Harry Potter had a new goal in life. ‘I’ll find a way to kill those things or die trying.’

…

He was quite upset that the rain hadn’t let up by the time they reached the school. He wanted to pet the cool, winged, skeleton horses. He still wasn’t sure what they were called, and neither Neville nor Hermione had been able to see them last year when they rode the carriages. “I pity these firsties.” Harry muttered.

“Yeah, I don’t fancy being on the lake in this weather.” Daphne agreed, “Even if we can do this.” This being the Impervious Charm they all had going above them to act as umbrellas. “Poor Tori. She tried, but couldn’t quite figure out something this advanced…”

They all entered the same carriage, with Daphne casually enlarging it to fit all of them. Harry also hit it with the lightening charm so they wouldn’t overburden their steeds. He growled as they were passing the wrought iron gates and saw two more dementors. “Ugh.” Tracey complained, “I almost wish I could take the boats instead. Fucking Dementors.”

“My aunt was furious when she let me know they were being stationed here.” Susan glared at them.

“Have to wonder if our dear minister actually has any marbles to lose.” Hestia sneered.

“I doubt it.” Harry scoffed, “Remember he arrested Hagrid just to be ‘seen’ doing something last year. Bastard.”

“Chasing Black should be the Aurors’ jobs.” Flora agreed. “This is like using a Confringo to get rid of garden gnomes.”

“Oh, great.” Hermione groaned as she raised her wand, deflecting a water balloon. “Here’s Peeves.”

“AHAHAHA!” The poltergeist cackled as he flung more of them at the crowd, who suddenly shrieked from the attack.

Well, Kidō was designed to deal with spirits. Time to put it to the test. “Bakudō #4: Hainawa.” Harry said, flinging the ropes at Peeves.

“HUH?!” Peeves cried out as his arms and legs were bound.

“Gotcha bitch!” Harry grinned gleefully as he yanked down, and Peeves crashed into the stone floors. His friends all gasped over his success.

“Potty Wee Potter has captured poor Peeves!” The poltergeist gaped, unable to even react.

“Yup. Now off with you, or the next spell is a tad more dangerous.” Harry let go, and the frightened poltergeist flew off.

“I don’t suppose you can teach me that, Potter?” Professor McGonagall had a rare smile on her face as she approached. She waved her wand to clean up the mess Peeves had left behind.

“I can try.” Harry laughed, “Alright, Professor?”

“Yes, quite.” She turned to Hermione, “Miss Granger, you will follow me to my office after dinner.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“You all are alright, yes? Professor Lupin owled ahead to let us know you had an altercation with the Dementors.”

“Damned monsters…” Susan grumbled.

“We’re no happier, I assure you.” Professor McGonagall responded to her grumble, “Though please watch your language. Go on.”

The Sorting went calmly, with the only thing worth clapping over being Astoria being sorted with her sister in Slytherin. There was also one precocious girl (one Romilda Vane) who got sorted into Gryffindor and spent most of dinner staring at him like a piece of meat. He’d have to keep an eye out for her.

After the sorting, Albus did his usual announcements, though Harry could very clearly tell how… irritated the man was over the dementors. The warning he gave (mentioning that they could even see through invisibility cloaks) was something Harry was actually going to take note of, for once. At least until he learned the Patronus himself. He then revealed Lupin and Hagrid as the year’s new teachers, which Harry and his friends cheered for.

The next morning, they were forced to sit together with their housemates since the schedules needed to be passed out. “Why the hell are they bothering to have us have classes for one day this week.” He shook his head, “Honestly, how hard would it have been to start classes on Monday?” His friends snickered, except for Hermione, who looked scandalized. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her schedule. “Hermione.” He deadpanned, “Did you seriously ignore our warnings last year and sign up for Divination and Muggle Studies?”

“Did you expect otherwise?” She smiled slightly at him.

He shook his head, “Well, have fun taking both at the same time.” He nudged her schedule, “And… oh, look, you have Arithmancy at the same time too.”

“I’ve already fixed it with Professor McGonagall.” Hermione said primly.

“Yeah, last night. And yet your schedule still looks wrong.” He rolled his eyes and looked at Neville’s, “You took Divination too, huh?” Neville blushed and nodded, “Well, bring a camera. I have a feeling Hermione is going to be hilarious in there.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Hermione looked affronted.

Harry smirked at her, “I mean that unless I miss my guess, your inner eye is glued shut and you’re going to hate whoever the teacher is. Didn’t you hear the disapproval in McGonagall’s voice when she was explaining our choices last year? You can’t learn to be a seer from books.”

“Hmph!” She turned her nose up and looked away.

Parvati giggled as she nudged Hermione, “He’s right, you know. I’m taking it because we Patils do have a bit of Seer in us occasionally. You either have the gift or you don’t.”

“And what makes you so sure I don’t?” Hermione sounded indignant.

“You’ll see.” Parvati grinned brightly, “If nothing else, we’ll be entertained!” She giggled at their friend’s red face.

Hermione huffed and grabbed Neville, charging off for Divination.

Harry next saw them in Transfiguration, where Hermione looked quite put out. “So, how’s the inner eye?” He grinned at the look of disgust on her face. The rest of the class that had taken the elective were pale, and Harry frowned when he saw how frightened some of them looked. Weasley looked like he was going to faint. The class didn’t even react when their teacher demonstrated her Animagus form, which really got Harry to wondering what the hell had happened in Divination.

Something McGonagall clearly agreed with. “Alright then, what’s the matter?” She asked as she transformed back into a human, “That’s the first time I’ve ever not gotten at least some claps while demonstrating.”

“We just got back from Divination, Professor.” Hermione started to say, only for her eyes to widen as she saw their strict professor almost roll her eyes.

“I see. Well, which of you will be dying this year?” She asked, and several in the class squeaked at how nonchalant she sounded.

Ron was pale and white as he raised his hand, “P-Professor Trelawney saw the Grim in my cup.” He wheezed out.

“I see.” She smiled, “Well then, Weasley, you’ll be happy to know that if you do die, you won’t need to hand in your homework.” His jaw dropped at how she was making light of the omen. “Not that you will, of course. Professor Trelawney has predicted the death of a student every single year since she’s arrived at this school, and the only reason I haven’t seen every single one of them graduate is that four of them happen to be your upperclassmen. Half of me wonders if she just considers it to be a bit of fun.” She put her hands on her hips, “Seeing as you appear to be in perfect health, you’ll excuse me for not waiving your homework today. Now open your books to page five and begin reading.”

Well, at least some of Ron’s color had returned. That hair with that pallor had not made a good combination. If Harry had been a bit more of a jerk he would have shone a light on him before calling out that ‘the beacons were lit!’ The thought almost made him chuckle.

The trip to Hagrid’s hut almost had Harry in stitches with how affronted Hermione was regarding Divination. He spent most of it needling her for not taking the warnings seriously and mediating between her and Parvati, who did actually enjoy the class. Hermione loudly declared how much better Arithmancy was to any who would hear it, making Harry frown and wonder how the hell she had been to an Arithmancy class.

Care of Magical Creatures had been a blast. Harry started off with showing Malfoy up, revealing to the ponce how to open their biting textbooks. Hagrid had been elated that he and his friends had figured it out. And then Hagrid had brought them to hippogriffs. They were massive creatures with the bodies of horses but the head, beaks, wings, and plumage of eagles. ‘Bit much for what is technically a year one lesson, Hagrid.’ Harry was forced to think that to himself as he saw how terrified most of his classmates were.

Harry immediately volunteered when Hagrid asked them to approach, “Good man, Harry.” Hagrid said, “Now, firs’ thing yeh gotta know abou’ hippogriffs is, they’re proud. Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don’t never insult one, ‘cause it might be the last thing yeh do.”

Draco and his ilk weren’t paying attention, and all three of them yelped when Flora, Tracey, and Hestia hit them in their arses with stinging hexes. “Pay attention, moron. I don’t feel like seeing your entrails hanging out today.” Hestia hissed, earning glares from Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, but they did start to pay attention. None of them wanted to mess with the Carrows.

Hagrid continued explaining about how to treat the creatures, and Harry followed his instruction, eagerly bowing to Buckbeak and waiting for him to bow back. Once he did, Harry eagerly headed over and started to pet the magnificent creature. He didn’t need any more encouragement when Hagrid told him that Buckbeak seemed to like him and would let Harry ride him. He spent several minutes whooping as he flew on the magnificent steed.

The class, now emboldened by his success, made their way forward. Harry kept a very close eye on Malfoy as he dealt with Buckbeak, and so was perfectly positioned to hear Malfoy insult the hippogriff. Harry didn’t even think. He reached out with his magic and yoinked Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle right out of the pen before Buckbeak even managed to rear up. “You utter imbecile!” He roared as he stomped up to Malfoy, who was wheezing from the rough landing. In the meantime, Hagrid was wrangling Buckbeak, and the rest of the class had backed away from the other hippogriffs in fright. “Quit your fucking bellyaching.” He grabbed the front of the ponce’s robes and hauled him to his feet. “If you’re just here to try to ruin this for Hagrid then you can fuck right off.”

“Yo-you can’t- when my father-” Malfoy wheezed out.

“When your father what?! Hears that his son is a fucking brain dead flobberworm who can’t follow basic instructions?” Harry spat, “What was the fucking plan? Get Hagrid fired by taking an eight-inch talon through the eye? You’re lucky I was paying attention to your dumb ass. I knew you were going to do something stupid.”

Malfoy was as white as snow as he realized that yes, he was in fact a brain dead flobberworm. “I-” He whirled around and walked away, his goons trailing after him.

“How the hell did he get sorted into our house?” Daphne sighed in frustration.

“Instantly too. Hat barely touched his head.” Tracey grumbled.

“Oh, that’s easy.” Harry snarked, “He’s too stupid for Ravenclaw, too cowardly for Gryffindor, and probably thinks ‘hard work’ is some sort of peasant food. Hat had to put him somewhere.” The rest of the class howled in laughter. And then just to prove that Malfoy was the problem and not Buckbeak, he went and flew on the hippogriff again, for the rest of the class. He also went right up to Albus’s office afterwards to make sure the headmaster had the correct story to take to the governors before Malfoy tried to play victim.

One thing he noticed was that Hermione looked very tired by the time they got to dinner. Far more than anyone else. She was practically sluggish by the time they got to the dormitory and didn’t even spend any time with them before going to bed. “She doesn’t think we’re idiots, does she?”

“Maybe.” Parvati’s lips quirked, “Wonder what she’s up to.” She shrugged, “Oh well. I’m off to hang out with Lav. Later boys.”

It was a pattern that he kept a close eye on for the rest of the week. The class he was most anticipating was, of course, Defense Against the Dark Arts. The prospect of having a competent teacher in the subject was something to be eager about. And he wasn’t disappointed. The first thing Professor Lupin did was tell them to put their books away and take their wands out. They’d never had a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson before, unless you counted Lockhart’s disastrous pixie class.

The new professor led them to, of all places, the staff room, where Snape had been sitting and reading a book. The second he saw them, he sneered, and Harry was surprised to see just how much animosity was in his eyes as he looked at his fellow professor. He swept from the room after ‘warning’ Professor Lupin about Neville, who despite all his positive progress, was still awful at Potions due to how frightened he was of Snape himself.

Lupin then earned even more respect when he said that Neville would be going first, and that he’d perform excellently. Snape almost growled as he stalked from the room. “Now then.” He pointed at the wardrobe, “Can anyone tell me what this is?”

Malfoy, back in full form, sneered, “A dirty old-” He leapt back as the wardrobe jumped and banged against the wall.

Lupin smiled slightly, “Any ideas?”

Hestia raised her hand, “A Boggart?” She asked with some hesitation, “It’s the only thing I can think of that would: one, be locked in a wardrobe and two, be something third years could safely handle.”

“Excellent! Five points, Miss Hestia. Now, who can tell me what a Boggart is? Miss Flora.” He nodded at Hestia’s twin.

“It’s a shapeshifter, and one of the world’s only natural Legilimens. Even Occlumency doesn’t help against it.” Flora said with a smile, “It takes the shape of whatever will frighten us most.”

“Excellent! Another five points. Miss Hermione?” Lupin nodded at the brunette.

“The boggart itself is quite weak and can’t really defend itself against anything stronger than a Flobberworm. That’s why it developed its shapeshifting prowess.” Hermione smiled up at the teacher.

“Excellent!” Lupin gave her points as well, and then went on to explain more about the creature, before teaching them its weaknesses and the spell to use against it.

Harry honestly wondered what the boggart would turn into when it saw him. Harry didn’t really know what he was afraid of. It wasn’t Voldemort. He honestly couldn’t bring himself to feel scared of that monster. Not after seeing what he had become, and after defeating him twice. It was as he looked outside the window that he realized what it probably would be. Once the class was ready, Lupin had Neville be the first to take on the boggart.

And thus, Snape in drag was born from Neville’s Riddikulus. Harry almost fell over laughing, and for the first time in his life, lamented the fact that Colin Creevy wasn’t in his class. Parvati was next, making her mummy faceplant. Then Seamus had his banshee lose her voice. Then a rat, then a rattlesnake, then a single, bloody eyeball. He noticed several in the class backing away from the boggart and making themselves scarce. Hestia and Flora, he noticed, wanted nothing to do with it. They were practically hiding away behind Daphne. Harry was touched when her worst fear turned out to be the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets, with ‘here lies Harry Potter’ written in blood. She was incredibly pale as she had confetti explode from the hole with Harry flying out, wearing sunglasses of all things. It became a withered hand for Dean, and then they had the first failure. Malfoy screamed and ran when the boggart turned into him… penniless and wearing clothes even shabbier than Lupin’s. If it hadn’t been for the hair they probably wouldn’t even have recognized him. Ron was already laughing, and choked when it became an Acromantula. He ripped off its legs, and the spider rolled over to Lavender, who squealed and ran out of the way.

And then it rolled in front of Harry. He saw Lupin try to jump in front, and used Shunpo to make sure it wouldn’t work. And Harry’s thoughts from earlier proved correct. A Dementor showed up, icing over the room and sucking the merriment away. Harry sneered Malfoy Sneer #7 at it, “Riddikulus.” He spat, and the Dementor’s robe turned a lurid pink with green hearts all over it. Rainbows started spewing from the hood, and it started prancing around.

The change in the mood was instant as everyone burst out laughing. Lupin looked amused as it turned into an orb of some sort in front of him, before he turned it into a yellow balloon. Finally, Neville finished it off, exploding the boggart with one last cast. “Excellent! Well done, everyone! Five points to everyone who successfully tackled it.” Which, much to Harry’s amusement, was everyone but Malfoy, who was steaming mad. He then assigned everyone homework, before dismissing everyone but Harry.

“What do you need, Professor?” Harry asked once the door closed.

“I was… quite surprised to see what your boggart was.” Lupin said after a moment’s pause. “I thought-”

“That it would be Voldemort?” Harry raised an eyebrow. “That is why you tried to stop me from facing it, yes?”

“Indeed.” Lupin smiled wryly, “Quick little bugger aren’t you? Almost thought you Apparated.” That earned him a grin.

“Well, I’m really not scared of him. I’ve killed him twice at this point.” Harry responded, “Those damned Dementors are actually scary.”

Lupin goggled at him, “How have you killed him twice?”

“Oh, last year he was possessing a student to force them to open the Chamber of Secrets.” Harry explained, “Using a cursed diary.” Lupin stared, but Harry wasn’t going to reveal more than that.

“I…see.” He said lamely, “Alright then. The next subject is whether you will be leading your club once more, now that Lockhart is… no longer here.”

“Don’t see why not.” Harry smiled, “I’ve found it’s quite fun, and dueling more so.”

“Excellent. I believe I will be joining you and Professor Flitwick.” Lupin smiled, “I look forward to seeing how well you do as a teacher.”

“Thank you.” Harry smiled back, “I don’t suppose I can get you to teach me the Patronus?”

Lupin’s smile faded, and he let out a sigh, “I suppose I should have expected you to ask after seeing your boggart.” He mumbled, “Very well. I will need to find another boggart for you to practice with, but we can start on learning the spell sooner than that.”

“Awesome!” Harry grinned, “I look forward to it, Professor.”

Lupin nodded at him with another smile, “Now, I don’t suppose you can demonstrate that spell you said you used on the train, can you? I’m quite interested since you said it did stop the Dementor momentarily. I can’t quite recall what you called it.”

“Rikujōkōrō.” He said, making sure not to cast it. “It’s Japanese and translates to ‘Six Rod Prison of Light’”

“Japanese huh…” Lupin mused, “Can you demonstrate it?”

“Sure, though I need a target for it.” Harry smiled eagerly, “Something I’ve never actually had. I just used it on a rock when I was practicing it.”

“Well then, no time like the present.” Lupin stood, “Go ahead and use it on me and I’ll try to break out.” He drew his wand.

Harry nodded and prepared himself, “Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō!” He called out, and Lupin wheezed as the six rods slammed into him.

“!” Lupin’s eyes widened, “I-I can’t move a muscle!” He struggled, but still couldn’t move, “Finite Incantatem!” He cried out, and his eyes bugged out when the lights didn’t even flicker. “H-How do you possibly know a spell like this?! I-I can’t-” Harry ended the spell, and his professor almost fell over. He straightened up, “I-I can’t even begin to figure out how I would break out of that.” He said finally, looking at the son of one of his best friends in awe.

“There are two ways.” Harry said, “Well, as far as I know. One is raw magical power. The other is unraveling it wandlessly.”

“Incredible.” Lupin started to chuckle, “Simply incredible. I daresay you’re already a stronger wizard than your father was, Harry.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “Y-You knew my father?”

Lupin’s eyes closed, “Yes.” He said softly, “One of my best friends, back during simpler days. After… everything happened, I even wanted to take you in, but was not allowed to. Was told to not contact you either, because you were in the muggle world.”

Harry stared at him for a moment, his mind whirling, “Weren’t allowed… The boggart. That orb…” Lupin’s eyes widened, “…Werewolf?”

“…” Lupin stared at him in disbelief, “H-How did-”

“The clues are there.” Harry said, “No one would be afraid of a regular old ball, even a floating one. Refusing to allow you to take me in isn’t normal either. There had to be a reason for it. You’re also very skilled, so there’s no real reason that you shouldn’t have a good job and be able to afford better clothes. You also looked pretty sickly on the day of the train ride, which was the day after the full moon. Admittedly it was a shot in the dark, but an educated one…”

“And you are… okay with that?” Lupin looked surprised.

Harry snorted, “So you’re a bit mangy when it’s your time of the month. Who cares?” He grinned slyly as Lupin snorted.

“Don’t say it like that.” Lupin deadpanned, though he had a look of relief on his face. The two shared a laugh, before Harry started to ask some questions about his father. He certainly wasn’t going to not utilize this resource!

…

It was so strange finding that Defense Against the Dark Arts was the favorite class of at least sixty percent of the castle. After a year of Quirrell and then a year of Lockhart, Harry had been ready to just write the class off entirely. He couldn’t imagine how bad it was for their upperclassmen like Wood.

Remus’s (and Harry had gotten a huge kick over the realization that their resident werewolf was named ‘Remus Lupin.’ They couldn’t possibly have picked a more apt name. They might as well have named him wolf wolf.) next few classes had been just as entertaining and interesting as the first. Red Caps, Kappas, and all sorts of ‘dark’ creatures were brought in, and they had quite a few practical lessons.

It was a shame that Professor Snape seemed to have regressed more than a little. He and Snape had an understanding ever since his first class, but the man had been bafflingly intolerant this year. He was bullying Neville in class worse than ever after the boggart, and his interactions with Harry had also deteriorated. Harry didn’t really like the man in the first place, but had at least respected him somewhat. The greasy-haired man seemed eager to ruin even that.

His other classes were, at least, much better than Potions. Runes was a bit boring since he was so far ahead of his classmates, but that just allowed him to study ahead. Care had taken the number two spot in his list, just barely edging out Transfiguration. Hagrid hadn’t faltered at all after his first lesson, and with Malfoy and his goons dropping the class, there had been no further incidents. Every week, Hagrid trotted out some sort of fantastic creature for them all to greet. Harry had been positively gleeful to get to play with Fluffy now that the dog was not guarding anything and therefore much more mellow and relaxed with strangers.

He could have done without the slobber though.

But his favorite part of the first month was his private lessons with Remus. Harry had insisted that the professor did not need to waste time finding another boggart just to start the lessons, and so Harry spent a night a week trying to cast the Patronus charm. The spell was paradoxically incredibly simple while also being very hard to cast.

What it needed was an incredibly strong, joyful memory that would infuse the caster and charm with the emotion. Finding that memory had proved difficult. He’d first tried the match against Slytherin from last year. The excitement and joy he felt as he unveiled his new broomstick had been a good match, he’d thought. But two lessons had gone by, with solo practice during the week, and Harry hadn’t managed anything more than just mist. Remus had suggested trying a different memory at the end of that second session, and he’d spent the next week trying with the memory of his fun with the Flying Foxes. Unfortunately, that had barely been better, and his attempt at using his memory with Hestia and Flora hadn’t really done any better.

He’d asked Remus what memory he used, and the man had simply smiled in melancholy, before telling him that it was when his friends had revealed that they knew what he was, and that they accepted him regardless.

It had made Harry realize how shallow the memories he’d been attempting to use had been. He adored the girls, but none of them were in love with each other. He finally found success when he did a bit of meditation, thinking of all the events that had made him happy. He had thought that the discovery of his magic would do it, but it had been tainted by the Dursleys. Summoning that manga had been amazing but tainted by the terror of discovery. There were also many little events that led to his understanding, not just one big one. He had gotten very little mist from it. Even his very first conscious use of magic had only netted some slightly more powerful mist.

He’d thought of his triumphs. Defeating Voldemort twice. Surely one of those had to be it? And while he’d certainly gotten the largest amount of mist so far, it hadn’t been nearly enough. By then, Remus had found a boggart, and he had begun practicing for real against the simulated creature. His shield forced it back, but did not drive it back the way Remus’s could. It certainly wouldn’t be able to defend against multiple real dementors…

He felt like a real idiot when, in the third week of October, Harry finally figured it out. His very first corporeal Patronus came from the memory of the group hug he and his friends had shared last year. The joy, the relief that he had felt that they had all made it out of the basilisk’s reign of terror intact… he didn’t know why he hadn’t immediately thought of it. Just Parvati’s tearful reunion with her sister had filled him with joy.

His Patronus being a dragon hadn’t really surprised him. He loved the creatures. Especially the fictional ones. His shimmering eastern dragon flying around filled him with peace. That it was so huge made him snicker. Remus’s jaw had dropped at the sheer size of it. He’d thanked Remus profusely for taking the time to train him in the spell, but Remus had merely expressed pride. The Patronus was Post-NEWTs for a reason. Harry was likely the only student in the school who could cast one. Possibly for the past generation on top of it.

Remus’s face when Harry told him he planned on raising that number into the double-digits had been hysterical. And Harry had almost been put out when one of his friends outshone him for the very first time. Daphne managed a full patronus on the very first night. Harry had been completely flabbergasted and asked if she had already known it. And that was when they learned of the Greengrass family curse.

Centuries ago, her line had been afflicted with a Blood Malediction. Without fail, every generation would have at least one witch that suffered from it, unless there were no girls born in that generation. Her mother had lost her sister to it, and had vowed to find an end to it. She’d tried an experimental ritual before having children, but whether it worked or not had been impossible to know. Daphne herself never experienced the curse, and had worried for years that Astoria would have it. She shouldn’t even have known about it at all, but she had caught her parents worrying about it when she should have been asleep. The curse only manifested the first symptoms at the age of seven, though it was possible for the child to show warnings in a general sense of weakness or exhaustion prior to that. Just like Astoria had displayed.

She had never worried for herself. Growing up, she had always been in perfect health, so it had never felt like she would get the curse. No, instead, she spent years worrying herself almost sick that she would lose her beloved little sister. The sheer joy she felt when seven came and went and Astoria’s health only improved was enough for a dozen Patroni. And boy, was her unicorn beautiful.

The first Hogsmeade trip was announced for Halloween day, and Harry was quite irritated when several… suggestions were made by the professors for him to avoid it despite his signed permission slip. It took a talk with Albus for them to cut it out.

That said, not everything had been so smooth. Hermione had gotten a cat for herself this year, and because of it, Harry and Neville had almost been forced to break up a fist fight between her and Ron Weasley. The two boys (and Parvati) had been legitimately concerned that either Ron or Hermione had been about to throw hands because of their pets. Little Scabbers had grown unwell during the summer and looked quite sick nowadays, and Crookshanks had it out for the rat according to Ron. As opposed to any other cat and rat pair.

The two had never been friends, and Hermione hadn’t cared one bit when she reminded Ron that rats weren’t even approved pets and that she couldn’t control Crookshanks’s natural instincts. That had been the point where Harry and Neville were forced to intervene and send Ron to cool off.

Ron’s fears were further exacerbated on the sixteenth of October when Lavender got a letter informing her that her bunny had been killed by a fox. Hermione had been much more sympathetic… at least until Lavender wailed that it had been just like Professor Trelawney had predicted.

She was much more understanding when Lavender revealed that she hadn’t necessarily dreaded him dying to a fox, but rather that her single mother was too busy most of the time to keep a close eye on her pet, and that she hadn’t been able to bring him to Hogwarts. Hermione had joined Lavender and Parvati for a group hug. She may not like Divination, but knew Lavender did, and her reasoning had been sound.

The trip to the village had been fun. He hadn’t really known what to expect from a village that was made by magicals for magicals, and thus had been wowed by the medieval architecture. The shops had all been fun to visit, though he (and most of the girls) had turned their noses up at a garishly and offensively pink abomination of a shop. Parvati had earned at least some looks of disgust (particularly from Flora, Hestia, and Daphne) when she had sighed that she’d like a date there some day. He’d spent part of the trip with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie as well, since it was hard to keep a group as large as theirs together for the whole trip. He’d also found some more alone time with Flora and Hestia near the Shrieking Shack.

Honestly, he had almost forgotten about the shoe that would inevitably drop that night, when they made the trek back up to Gryffindor tower and found the Fat Lady’s portrait slashed to ribbons by Sirius Black. Fucking Halloween.

…

They’d been forced to sleep in the Great Hall, surrounded by the ghosts. All the students had been brought back up, looking confused, before Albus conjured hundreds of sleeping bags for all of them. No one could really sleep though. Too much excitement. And Hestia and Flora had decided three sleeping bags was too much and had instead enlarged his and slipped in with him to cuddle. Percy the Head Boy nearly had a conniption when he’d strolled by, but faltered when Harry put on a teary face and asked if he’d begrudge Harry some comfort in these trying times. He’d almost ruined it by laughing hysterically at the ponce’s stammering.

The rest of the school could not shut up about the break in even days after. The theories surrounding how Black got in only got more and more outlandish as time passed. But the real irritation from the break in was how the Fat Lady had been scared out of her painted mind and refused to go back to her portrait when it was repaired. Sir Cadogan took her place and instantly became the biggest source of irritation in the entire Gryffindor tower. The moron spent half his time challenging people to duels and coming up with ridiculous passwords. He changed it five times in one day about a week in. It got to the point that Harry started casting a Raikōhō at the painting before Albus miraculously showed up to save Gryffindor tower from total collapse at the hands of a furious Harry Potter.

Still, at least they had Quidditch to take their minds off everything, though Wood started to piss all of them off with his fanaticism. They’d thought winning the Cup twice in a row would calm him down, but if anything, the berk doubled down. And then the weather just kept getting worse and worse every day, with no signs of improvement on the way. He heard rumors that the Slytherins even tried to fake an injury to get out of playing the first game, but hadn’t managed to pull it off.

The game had been fast approaching when Harry walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts on the day of the November full moon and saw Snape there instead of Remus. That lesson ended up being awful. Snape was awful. Far worse than Harry had ever imagined him to be. Instead of following Remus’s lesson plan, Snape skipped right to Werewolves. Harry knew instantly what the petty man had been trying to do. Remus had shared quite a bit from the Marauders’ time at Hogwarts, and now he knew that there had been a very mutual hatred between them and Snivellus. To think that even now, over a decade later, he’d be trying to ruin Remus’s life made Harry’s blood boil. The dislike he felt for the man now had a very much hot edge to it.

The day of the match dawned as black as night. Thick, very dark grey clouds littered the sky, and it was as if the gods themselves were crying. Raindrops the size of Sickles pounded the castle grounds without mercy. The lightning hadn’t started yet, but everyone knew it was coming.

Still, Quidditch fever cared not for gods of rain and thunder. The entire school eagerly trudged to the pitch in the pouring rain and howling winds for the game. It was a disaster from start to finish. The lightning came not ten minutes into the game, and that was just the latest in a series of things that made the match supremely difficult for both teams. The winds were so strong that all six Chasers straight up missed their shots unless they got so close that fouls were imminent. The smaller players like Malfoy and Katie were whipped about and struggled to control their rooms. Several of the scored goals came from the Quaffle outright swerving in different directions.

It was definitely the toughest match of any of their careers. And of course, the bloody Snitch was nowhere to be seen for the first hour. Not even Harry’s eagle eyes caught a glint of it. Hell, he couldn’t even hear the commentary! Even Wood’s enthusiasm had died down by now. They were all wet, freezing, and was that Bole’s broomstick on fire from an errant bolt of lightning?! Harry goggled at the sight.

But then his attention was drawn by something else. A flash of lightning had illuminated the head of a massive dog in the sky. He looked around, wondering where the hell that could have come from, and then Wood’s anguished yell caught his attention. “HARRY BEHIND YOU!”

Harry whirled around and instantly saw the golden glint Malfoy was chasing. He immediately took off, pushing his Raijin so hard that he actually grew worried about the spells. He could feel the wood heating up even through his gloves. He caught up to Malfoy and eased up a bit, and let out a laugh as another bolt struck Malfoy. The blonde instantly had his hair stand up straight and he fell away from the pursuit, shaking his head.

Harry did the same, musing that if a muggle had been hit they’d be dead. Malfoy got off looking only a little extra crispy. He continued to chase the Snitch when he realized something unusual was happening. An eerie silence was falling across the stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as though someone had turned off the sound, or like Harry had gone suddenly deaf. ‘What the hell?’ He thought, losing sight of the Snitch.

And then his broom started to ice over.

“Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!”

“Stand aside, you silly girl … stand aside, now.”

“Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!”

Harry’s blood boiled as the freezing cold began to make sense. He snapped his right arm forward to launch his wand from its holster. “EXPECTO PATRONUM!” He roared with his whole chest.

Down below, the crowd began to shriek as a blinding silver light illuminated the sky and revealed the hundreds of Dementors that had invaded the pitch. And then Harry’s Patronus burst from the clouds and the cries of terror became cries of wonder. The huge eastern dragon barreled into large clumps of the damned creatures and flung them away with powerful pulses of light. The teachers who could all sprang into action. “Expecto Patronum!” They yelled as one as a cat, a swarm of fireflies, a doe, and a phoenix joined the dragon in the sky. Daphne’s unicorn flew right after them.

The summoned protectors smashed into the dementors and started flying laps around the pitch until they were all gone. Up in the clouds, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He dove down to see what happened with the game, and felt his stomach drop when he saw the Snitch in Malfoy’s hand.

After a moment of shock, he squared up and joined the rest of the players on the grounds. “What was the score?” He asked numbly.

Angelina spoke up when a shell-shocked Wood didn’t. “We lost.” She said softly, looking down and depressed. “We were up by a lot, but not enough to overcome the Snitch. 250-320.”

Harry looked over at the Slytherins, and saw that while six of the players looked jubilant, Malfoy looked like someone had shit in his shoes. Harry walked over, and didn’t react as the players sneered at him. “Come to claim we cheated, Scarhead?” Malfoy immediately defaulted to imperious sarcasm at the sight of his hated rival. It was hard to take him seriously with his hair in every direction.

Harry merely held a hand out, “Congrats, Malfoy.”

He saw the boy almost rock back in shock, and saw the fury that engulfed him a moment after. They both knew that if it hadn’t been for the Dementors, Harry would have caught the Snitch. And it burned Malfoy that his very first victory ever against Harry in anything that they seriously competed in was hollow. That it wasn’t his undisputed victory. If anything, Harry’s congratulations was salt in the wound.

The boy’s jaw was twitching as he slammed his palm into Harry’s much rougher than he needed to for a quick shake. He didn’t say a word as he stalked off to the locker rooms. Harry turned as well and saw Wood still looked like he’d been told his parents had both been murdered. Fred and George were practically having to carry him off.

As Harry looked up at the sky with zero happiness on his face and envisioned the Dementors flying above, one thought engulfed him. ‘It’s time to go on offense.’

…

“Hey Hermione.” Harry walked up to his friend in the common room two weeks later, “Can I talk to you in private for a moment?” The Dementor attack at the game still had him seething, and not just because the team had lost to Malfoy. He was utterly furious that those abominations would dare invade the pitch. They clearly hadn’t been hunting for Black. No, they had been there for one reason and one reason only.

Dozens of letters had flown from the owlery that very day with Dumbledore’s approval. He wanted each and every parent or guardian with even a modicum of influence to know just what had happened. He hoped it would make the Minister budge and return the Dementors to Azkaban, but he doubted it, knowing the current regime.

As for Harry, he immediately decided it was time to get back into project mode, and this time was with much more vicious intent than the last. And that was why he went up to Hermione. “Uhh?” She looked quizzically at him from where she had been reading one of her huge books. “Can this wait, Harry?”

“No.” Harry said shortly, “But it won’t take long.”

She bit her lip but closed her book, “Can you hold onto this for me, Nev?”

“Uhh, sure?” Neville grabbed the book from her, “Should I come with?”

“Just Hermione this time, Nev.” Harry said, making both Neville and Parvati give him slightly queer looks as the two exited the portrait and entered an empty classroom.

Hermione’s frown deepened when Harry locked the door and cast all sorts of privacy charms, “What’s this about, Harry?”

Once he was satisfied they wouldn’t be spied upon, he turned to her, “Can I borrow the Time Turner?”

Hermione instantly cycled about fifteen different colors in shock and ended up a pasty white, “Wh-What’s that?”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I’m not an idiot, Hermione. I saw a mention of it in the Room of Requirement while wondering how the hell you were taking all of your classes.”

Hermione squeaked, “Oh Harry, please don’t say anything to anyone! Professor McGonagall forbid me from ever letting anyone know!”

“I won’t. Why do you think I brought you here?” Harry asked with a droll look on his face. “Anyway, can I borrow it?”

“Professor McGonagall will kill me, Harry!” She rapidly shook her head, her hair whipping about, “What do you need it for?”

“Remember how I made the Raijin last year?” Harry asked, and she nodded, “Yeah, that, but much more important. I need much more time than we have in a day.”

“I’m sorry, Harry.” Hermione teared up a bit, “But I can’t.”

Harry let out a groan, “Fine, can I at least see it?”

Hermione hesitated, “Oh, fine.” She reached into her shirt and lifted it out. It was an hourglass held in a golden gizmo on a chain. She held it out to him for him to inspect, and Harry grabbed it, turning it over in his hands. “Wait.” Hermione’s eyes widened, “Did you just-”

Harry smirked at her and dropped it, “Thanks, Hermione.”

“HARRY! You’re going to get us in so much trouble!” She was aghast.

“Nah.” Harry chuckled lightly, “After all, you don’t have that, do you?”

“Oh you!” She stomped her foot. “I swear Harry, if this-”

“If I pull this off, it’ll be worth it.” Harry said flatly. “Thanks, Hermione.” He said more genuinely, before starting to take down the privacy charms. She stomped out after him.

…

Harry really loved the Room of Requirement, or as he was beginning to think of it as: the Room of Infinite Bullshit. From what he knew, apparently Hermione wasn’t the first student to have ever been given a Time Turner by the Ministry for the purpose of extra classes. It was extremely rare, but it happened.

And several students had accidents over the past one hundred years. Some of these resulted in broken Time Turners, but there was at least one… mostly intact one inside the Junk Room. The hourglass was cracked, though thankfully not broken. The rest of it was mangled on one side, which would prevent it from actually turning. The spells on it had long-since vanished too. It was too dangerous to even try to use, which was why he had needed to examine an intact one.

He got to work quickly. He could not learn the spells directly from the sword of Gryffindor, but it had pointed him in the right direction. These two weeks had been spent finding and then learning the spells he needed to get started. He removed some Sickles from his money pouch and allowed them to float before him. With a flick of his wand, the sickles started to heat up. They burnished and then turned orange-red as they melted before him, forming a floating glob of liquid silver.

Harry then focused hard on the image he wanted, and used a second spell to start shaping the silver. He frowned as he realized he hadn’t used enough, so he stopped that spell and started using the heating spell again, this time throwing more sickles in. He melted all of it and shaped it into a similar shape that Hermione’s had, before quickly cooling it all down.

He frowned as he looked at it, ‘Guess I’ll need practice for this. Maybe my mental image of what I wanted wasn’t clear enough?’ He thought to himself dubiously. It would do for a first attempt, but he wasn’t really happy with the product. He then moved on to making an hourglass that would fit inside the housing, before drilling a small hole in the first hourglass and allowing the Sands of Time to pour into the new one as carefully as he could. Once all the sand had been transferred, Harry heated up the hourglass and fused the top together after sucking the air out. He both cooled and tempered the glass with a series of spells, and then held it in his hands. ‘Good. No cracks anywhere.’

He then got to work inscribing very tiny runes in the glass by hand. Once that was done, he did the same for the silver, and finally set the hourglass in its new housing. He then cast the spells he’d gotten from Hermione’s own Time Turner and had spent a week researching. Merlin, he loved the Room of Infinite Bullshit.

With his tasks done, he put a chain on his new Time Turner. While it wasn’t gold like Hermione’s, he was fairly confident it was more rugged with all the runes he had stuck on it. With a nervous gulp, he dangled it and then whacked it on the table he had been working on. He let out a smile of relief as he saw the dent on the table, and then carefully examined it for any damage.

“And now… to test if it works.” He looped it around his neck and hid it in his shirt, before making his way from the Room and to an abandoned classroom. He looked at the grandfather clock in the room as pulled the Time Turner out and took a deep, nervous breath. He then gave a single twist to the knob, and watched as the hourglass did one flip inside its housing.

And then it started to flip over and over again rhythmically, a tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc sounding in his ear as he watched the grandfather clock’s hands slowly move backwards. A blurred version of himself rapidly left the room. A wide smile erupted on his face as he realized that it had worked. The sounds stopped, and the hourglass stopped turning, and he checked the time on the clock. “Exactly an hour.” He sighed in relief and put the new Time Turner away. “One problem down…”

And now several dozen to go. He wondered if he should start learning Gobbledegook or if he should try to recreate the spells in either English or Japanese.

…

“I’m sorry, you want to what?” Albus looked at him in confusion.

“Trade your knowledge in Gobbledegook for my knowledge of Japanese.” Harry said with a sheepish smile.

Albus shook his head in bemusement, “While I would love to both teach you and learn from you, Harry, that’s not how languages work. If it was that easy, more witches and wizards would know more than a word or two in other languages.” Harry smirked at him, and Albus stopped talking for a moment. “Why do I get the sudden feeling that I’m about to be schooled?”

Harry’s grin turned cheeky, “Archive.” He summoned his most important spell and loaded up beginner Japanese, “Transfer.” A cartoon caricature of both him and Albus popped up on his screen, with an arrow pointing from him to Albus. And then a bar popped up over the old man’s head and started filling up.

Albus staggered as knowledge started to fill his head and slipped right through his mental shielding. He closed his eyes, “Are wa nandatta no?” He shook his head, squeezing his eyes together. “Ooooh, you little rascal!” Albus sweated as the bar reached 100%, “What was that?!”

Harry grinned, “One of my absolute favorite spells. It’s called Archive, and it lets me do just that. I can download knowledge into the archive and then transfer the data directly into my mind. Though I do like reading, so I don’t always use it. But I can never lose a book this way, and can reference them at any time!”

“How utterly fascinating.” Albus looked like Yule had come three weeks too early. “Is this another of those spells that our muggle friends came up with for one of their fictions?”

Harry nodded, “I spent weeks recreating it when I first saw it.”

“That you could recreate it at all speaks volumes, Harry. Volumes.” Albus smiled at him, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to teach it to me.”

“Of course.” Harry said, “I’ve taught my friends already. Took them months to learn it, though I know you’re already skilled with wandless magic so I doubt it would take you that long.” They both shared a chuckle, “But there is a catch.”

“Isn’t there always?” Albus chuckled, “What is it?”

“Anything you add to the archive will be accessible to anyone linked to the archive.” Harry said, and Albus winced.

“I suppose that as far as catches go, that’s a fairly massive one.” He peered at Harry, “There is a great deal of knowledge I possess that I would be fairly happy to see die.” Harry grimaced, knowing that he probably didn’t want to know.

“To elaborate, we won’t automatically know it’s in the archive.” He explained, “Just like I don’t know every single book in the library by heart. It is merely there and accessible.”

“And I don’t suppose there’s any way to put restrictions?” Harry shook his head, saying that he didn’t know if that was possible. “Well… drat.” Albus chuckled with Harry, “I will consider it. I trust you, my boy, but the idea of anyone being able to access some of my knowledge gives me a chill. Some things are better off buried forever.” He stroked his beard, “Now, what exactly is it that you need Gobbledegook for?” He asked as Harry gave him access to the archive and Albus started to add all of his considerable knowledge of the language.

“Oh, I need it for the spells to create Goblin-wrought silver and gold.” Harry said nonchalantly.

As if he hadn’t just given Albus a heart attack. The old man had a coughing fit and had to hurriedly gulp some water, “You want to what?!” He finally croaked out.

Harry grinned, “I read the Sword of Gryffindor’s history. Also read the history of the axes the guards at Gringotts had. I saw how they forged it. And now I want to make my own.”

“Why?” Albus shook his head, “You’ll get into deep trouble with the Goblins if they figure out that you’ve recreated their secrets. And I don’t mean legal trouble either. The Goblins are utter zealots when it comes to their secrets and magic.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, “This is one project I think you should let lie, Harry.” He said as a suggestion, but it was very much an order.

“I can’t.” Harry said, his face falling into a closed off expression.

“You already have the Sword of Gryffindor.” Albus said, a minor note of frustration in his voice, “Why would you need another?”

“The Sword of Gryffindor would not be appropriate for what I want to do. It’s an established blade with its own history, and now is impregnated with basilisk venom. It’s unusable.” Harry replied calmly.

“And what is it that you want to do?” Albus stared him down.

Harry stood and walked over to the window, staring beyond the grounds. Albus joined him and followed his gaze, and his expression closed up as well.

“They were used against us during his first rise, weren’t they?” Harry said suddenly.

“They were. And few situations were ever as perilous.” Albus glared at the abomination floating just outside his school.

“They fear nothing.” Harry said, “And respect no one. It’s a miracle those abominations haven’t given someone here a fate worse than death yet. All it will take is one more dark idiot promising them all the feasts they want, and they’ll be our problem once more.” He turned and looked at his headmaster, “I swore I would find a way to kill them. And I’m keeping that promise.”

Albus breathed deeply, closing his eyes. They were silent for a number of minutes as Albus turned the past few minutes around in his mind, weighing the many, many risks and the potential rewards. He knew he shouldn’t have favorites, but with Harry it was impossible. He was only human. “Where do we begin?”

Harry smiled.

…

It was almost the end of term, and Harry’s project really hadn’t moved forward by much. There were dozens of spells he and Albus needed to either track down or recreate. Plus, Harry was fairly certain the old man wouldn’t be very amused by his recreated Time Turner, so he kept that hidden. Amusingly enough, they got several clues from the Firebolt, one of his Raijin’s major competitors. Harry had bought one even though he didn’t need it so that he could figure out how well his own broom matched up, and the broom had goblin-wrought iron kickstands. He and Albus (though mostly the older man) had been able to recreate seven of their needed spells just off of that, and it gave them insights for the others.

It was time for them to take a break, and Harry eagerly went down to the village with his friends for the final Hogsmeade trip before Christmas and Yule. The snow truly made it feel like a winter wonderland. It felt good to unwind and spend the day hand in hand with a few of his lady friends. And lip to lip.

After a day of shopping and having fun, they decided to end the day in the Three Broomsticks, off in a large corner booth to accommodate all of them. They were all enjoying their time, cuddling due to the cold, their cheeks still rosy from the wind from outside. Harry had an arm around Hestia and another around a blushing Daphne, laughing at an incident from the Slytherin dorms involving Malfoy when the door opened, and the wind blew in. They looked over, and their eyes widened as Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid strode in alongside Cornelius Fudge himself.

They only drew interest for a few moments, and the adults didn’t pay them any attention as they settled on the bar to chat with Rosmerta. They all shrugged and went back to their story, but were drawn into their conversation as the name Sirius Black came up.

“Are they going to discuss that here?” Harry frowned, “Without even putting up a sound ward?”

“Shhh.” Hestia said, and they all shut up.

And then listened in horror as Fudge revealed secrets that none of them had known. That Sirius Black was Harry’s godfather. That he had been James Potter’s best friend, his brother in all but blood. The best man at James and Lily’s wedding. That he’d betrayed the Secret of the Fidelius Charm to Voldemort a week after they had put the charm up. That Sirius had found Harry in the ruins of his home first before handing him off to Hagrid along with his beloved motorbike. That Sirius had then blasted their other close friend Peter Pettigrew so badly that the only thing they had to send to the poor boy’s mother was a finger. They even heard the Minister mention that the Dementors apparently had little effect on Black inside Azkaban. That he’d been lucid and rational during the Minister’s final visit before the escape.

When the adults finally left, all of his friends, pale, drawn, and trembling despite the warmth inside the bar, chanced a look at Harry.

His face may as well have been carved from granite.

…

Never in his life had Harry felt such burning hatred. It coursed through his veins just like the basilisk venom had all those months ago. The thought that his father’s best friend, his brother in all but blood, had directly caused his parent’s deaths burned every single little inch of his body. He was so angry he practically couldn’t see straight, and ignored his friends’ calls as he scooped Hestia up so he could stand from the table and leave. He needed to rid himself of this anger and calm down, as even his Occlumency was frayed to the breaking point. He put Hestia down and stomped from the Three Broomsticks, before vanishing in a burst of Shunpo once he was out the door.

The girls who could use the technique followed as well, but stopped short, looks of pain on their faces as he vanished deep into the Forbidden Forest, and they nearly instantly lost track of him. Once again, he was going where they couldn’t follow, and all they could do was hope that he would return.

All of them felt the minor quake that shook Hogsmeade for a few moments, and they knew that whatever he was doing must have been incredibly destructive. They’d hoped he would come back soon, but then the sky began to darken, and they were called back to the school. They hadn’t wanted to say anything, but Professor McGonagall realized that he wasn’t there. She immediately went over to the ashen group, and paled herself when a tearful Padma revealed what they had overheard.

She immediately went over to the headmaster, who also whitened and went over to Fawkes, asking if his loyal companion could find and bring him to Harry.

The phoenix had formed a small bond with the much younger man during their adventure in the Chamber of Secrets, and was able to bring Albus there. The old man’s eyes widened when he and Fawkes appeared far from Hogwarts in a part of the forest that looked decimated by magics he could scarcely dream of. They were in the air and he couldn’t help but feel a little cold as he looked around, and it had nothing to do with the falling snow. A part of the mountain had been shattered, and there were wide and deep craters all around. Trees were overturned in some areas and were outright bent and leaning in others.

Harry himself was sitting on a boulder, steaming, with his clothes torn off in several spots. Albus could see little crackles of lightning every once in a while crawling across Harry’s body. Fawkes gently set him down and trilled a mournful yet uplifting song. “My dear boy…” Albus said gently, stopping just before Harry.

“How could he do it?” Harry interrupted him, rasping as though he had damaged his voice. Little puffs of steam lifted off him with every snowflake that landed on him.

Albus let out a mournful sigh as he waved his wand, casting a gentle healing spell on Harry’s throat, “I don’t know.” He sat on the boulder next to Harry, “I never… I never would have suspected it of him.” He shook his head, “Not from him. He hated Voldemort and those who shared his views. He hated his cousin Bellatrix, he hated his mother, his father… He even sought sanctuary with your grandparents. They welcomed him into their home at James’s behest.” Harry’s fists clenched and more crackles of lightning erupted, before calming down once more. “I… part of me hopes that he didn’t. That Voldemort somehow controlled him… but the evidence against him.” He shook his head. “I should have insisted on being their Secret Keeper myself.”

“If you had done that, he might still be in power.” Harry scoffed bitterly, glaring at the ground. “Everyone knows our side was losing.”

Albus patted him on the shoulder, wincing minutely at the sheer heat he could feel coming from Harry’s flesh. “That is a cold calculation I would never hope you would have to make, Harry. It is certainly not one I could have made myself.” He looked up at the sky, “What happened was a tragedy. I know it is cold comfort, but I would have done anything to have ensured that you would have grown up happy with your family. I only wish I had been strong enough to defeat him during one of our skirmishes. But Tom never gave me the opportunity.”

“Why did he even come after us?” Harry asked, “Beyond us being on the opposite side, I mean. I can hear them, you know?” He spat, “Every time those fucking Dementors come near. I can hear him telling mum to stand aside, and her pleading for my life. That bastard was after me, not them.” Albus bit back a groan, staying silent. Harry looked over at him, before looking back at the ground. “You know something.”

“Harry.” Albus said, pain in his voice, “If you ask me again, I will tell you. But please, heed my advice. You’re still young. You need not know just yet.”

Harry was silent for a moment as his mind worked. Why would his age matter? “Tell me.” He said finally.

Albus sighed in defeat. “So be it. A prophecy.”

Harry scoffed in disbelief, “That nonsense?”

“You’re not wrong.” Albus smiled thinly, without humor. “I had been ready to remove Divination from the curriculum entirely, truth be told. Professor Trelawney hadn’t impressed during her interview.” He took a moment, “And then just as I went to leave, she went into a trance. Her voice guttural. Her eyes unfocused. I could tell immediately that she was not speaking, but that she was being spoken through. And then she delivered her prophecy. Her only true prophecy to this date, as far as I am aware.”

Harry shook his head in disbelief, “You’ve got to be fucking with me.” He chuckled with little humor, “That’s utterly ridiculous. Prophecies are always finicky little bastards. There can be dozens of ways to interpret them! And in trying to either prevent them or bring them about, they can be invalidated!”

“You’re not wrong.” Albus said, “It is an incredibly wooly field, open to much interpretation. And to make matters worse, I had ill expected a real prophecy relevant to the war effort to be delivered by her. A spy from Voldemort had been outside the door, listening in. When they realized what was happening, they made a noise, and my brother Aberforth caught them. They were ejected having only heard the first three lines.”

“Oioioi…” Harry grunted, rubbing his temples to ward off the sudden headache. “Let me guess. This spy immediately told Voldemort, and rather than doing the intelligent thing and ignoring it, the dark tosser immediately took it as gospel and set it in motion while trying to prevent it.”

Albus snorted at the description, “Got it in one.”

“So, what, am I his nemesis then?” Harry asked, a deadpan look on his face.

Albus sighed, “I can show it to you in my Pensieve at some point if you wish, but the prophecy stated that, ‘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 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...’”

Harry took it in, “Bloody hell…”

“You see why I wished to spare you the knowledge for a few more years?” Albus asked him dryly.

“Not that.” Harry shook his head, “I’m just astounded that the moron decided to go hog wild with that little information. Bloody hell, it doesn’t even name him!”

“But it is undoubtedly about the two of you.” Albus said, “Your mother and father escaped him three times. One of two couples that did, the other being Frank and Alice Longbottom. And then, he marked you as his equal.” He tapped Harry on the forehead, right where his scar was, “I find it interesting that he chose the Half-Blood like himself, rather than the Pureblooded Neville.”

Harry grunted, before going silent once more. Albus smiled lightly, “You are taking it better than I expected, Harry.”

“It changes nothing.” Harry replied immediately, “He hasn’t even returned to power, and I’ve already matched my parent’s record. Also killed him a second time.” He stood, “I had already decided that I would be the best possible version of myself. Already decided that I would become the strongest I could be. And the second I met him for the second time, I already decided that he was my enemy. Anathema. This prophecy might have set things in motion, but I will walk this path because I want to.”

Albus couldn’t help it. He started to laugh. “I suppose I was worried for nothing, my boy. I should have known better.” Harry smiled over at him, “I am surprised you seem uninterested in the ‘power he knows not.’ I’ve always believed it to be love, myself.” The old man stated, getting a raised eyebrow, “Your mother’s love for you led to her willing sacrifice. You saw how Quirrell could not even touch you because of it. Tom was the product of a muggle and a love potion by a Squib. I don’t want to believe he was born bad, but cannot help but feel it may have been the case and his early years only made him worse. He has no empathy. No care for any other creature but himself. No capacity to feel love. He is anathema to you indeed.”

Harry grinned as he thought of the girls, “I could work with that, though I can’t help but feel like my own upbringing has a hand in this ‘power he knows not.’ I have the power of love and anime on my side.” He joked.

“Ah yes, these mysterious spells capable of causing devastation.” He looked around, “I do not believe I’ve ever seen you cast one.” Albus said in interest.

“Well, if you’re offering to supervise…” Harry smirked, “I can try one of the one’s I’ve been eager to have a go at. I suppose we’re far away enough from anything important.”

Albus swallowed heavily, “How… destructive are we talking here?”

“Honestly?” Harry said slowly, “I have no idea. In the series, they didn’t exactly focus on the aftermath.”

“Can you explain how they work? I must admit I’ve been rather curious.” The old man asked.

“Hmm, so the magic itself wasn’t technically magic in the series.” Harry said, “That’s not really that important since the effect is basically the same. But the magic is called Kidō, or ‘The Demon Way’ in English, and it was utilized by the Shinigami, the Gods of Death. Ghosts and spirits in the series would be ferried to the afterlife, but there were those who failed to make their way there and became corrupted. Kidō was one of the methods the Shinigami developed to fight the monsters that these corrupted souls became.” He saw the old man looked quite pale, so he waved a hand negligently, “As far as I’m aware, things don’t work that way here. Clearly we have ghosts that are hundreds if not thousands of years old. I’m just giving a bit of backstory, so you understand that most of these techniques were created to either: one, bind the monsters in some fashion to allow them to get a killing strike with their swords or two, destroy them outright.”

“I see.” Albus said, before smiling dryly, “Well, if that’s what you’ve been recreating, I suppose several things now make sense.”

“Honestly, I’m kind of hoping one of them might be able to kill the Dementors.” Harry chuckled, “In any case, Kidō was divided into two different main categories, though there were a few that fell outside of them. One was Bakudō, the Way of Binding. The other was Hadō, the Way of Destruction. The spells themselves are numbered from one to ninety-nine, with the spells increasing both in difficulty and in power the higher the number.”

Albus pinched the bridge of his nose, “And which number do you wish to try?”

“Number 88.” Harry said, and Albus’s eyes widened in shock, “Normally I wouldn’t go anywhere near that high yet, but it’s a lightning spell and I seem to have an affinity for them so…”

Albus let out a long-suffering sigh, “Well, if you must, I suppose it best be when Fawkes and I are here to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.”

Harry grinned happily, “Okay, follow me! I want to get up higher so I can aim!” He turned and started jumping up the shattered mountain.

Albus met him with a pop when he stopped moving, with Fawkes on his shoulder. “Let me fix this first.” Albus said, before making a few waves with his wand. The rock that had been blown to smithereens flowed back up the mountain and made it look much better. Some rock, however, had been blown to far too many bits to make it back. “Alright Harry… against my better judgement, go ahead.”

Harry took a deep breath as he steeled himself. He raised his concentration as high as it would go, before putting his right hand forward. His left hand gripped under his wrist for extra support as he braced himself. “Worldly calamity!” And Albus felt a bit of dread. What kind of incantation started with the words ‘worldly calamity?’ Harry continued to chant, unknowing of his mentor’s sudden case of second thoughts. “Awakened giant! Overrun the seas and split the clouds! Scattered winds, frozen whispers. My right hand shines with power. My left hand rages with determination! Roar with defiance and strike down the mountain! Hadō #88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!” He roared while next to him, Albus very much got second thoughts as he felt the sheer magical buildup in Harry’s body.

There was a white flash, and Albus regretted everything.

…

Harry had been banned from using that spell ever again unless it was an extreme emergency. As in, a ‘Voldemort-was-back-to-full-power-and-right-in-front-of-him’ tier emergency. Thankfully for Albus, Harry was so drained after the spell that he really didn’t have it in him to argue as he was returned directly to Gryffindor tower, where he waved off Hermione, Padma, and Neville and took a quick shower before collapsing into his bed in a dead sleep.

He was in a much better mood when he woke up, but that only lasted until he realized he had slept right through breakfast and that most of the school had already left for the holidays. Unfortunately, that included the Patils, Neville, Susan, Hannah, Daphne, and Tracey, so he didn’t even get to say goodbye to them or wish them a happy Yule. That put him back in a bad mood, though thankfully not the black mood he’d been in the day prior.

And when they visited Hagrid, they got a bit of bad news. News that Hestia and Flora swore they would get revenge on Malfoy for. Apparently despite not having a scratch on him, Lucius Malfoy had still made a nuisance of himself and had managed to secure a hearing for the ‘dangerous beast’ that was Buckbeak. And if Hagrid lost the case, Buckbeak would be put down! Harry immediately volunteered to testify at the trial. Their studies into other dangerous animal trials didn’t give them much more info to go off of.

Christmas came soon after, and Harry enjoyed his time with his remaining friends. The castle felt empty without the rest of them, though, and unfortunately, things weren’t all hunky-dory. Ron and Hermione were getting into increasingly vicious fights over their rat and cat respectively. It was like Crookshanks found every possible opportunity to try to get into the boy’s dorm to get at the rat. Honestly, Harry wondered if perhaps Ron didn’t have a point. Surely there had to be easier prey around. It was a miracle Ron hadn’t managed to kick the thing across the room yet. Because if he managed it at some point, Harry would be obliged to knock him one on his friend’s behalf.

He was excited when the rest of the school returned, though not when Wood did because that meant Quidditch practices cutting into his time once more. He’d gotten some good work done recreating the spells on the Goblin-wrought metals during the break and was very annoyed that he hadn’t managed to crack all of them yet in the months since the first game.

His rage over Black had also cooled down. Albus had planted the seed in his mind, and now Harry wanted the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Initially he’d been planning on shoving a Raikōhō down Black’s throat and asking questions never, but that was honestly still an option. He hoped Black would show his face again. It had been quite a while since he was last sighted. He had brushed up on his Bakudō and was ready to capture the man.

Instead, he had to deal with Ronald Weasley instead. One night early in February, an exasperated Harry let Neville into the common room. No matter the improvement his friend had over the years from the shy, terrified boy he’d been, his memory never really improved. He was awful at Occlumency on top of it. No aptitude for it at all. And with Sir Cadogan changing the passwords whenever he felt like it, Neville had been left out of the common room enough that his best male friend had written the next week’s passwords down somewhere… and then lost them.

So, they walked into the common room expecting to find people studying, and instead found Hermione crying and vomiting slugs, having just been hit by the spell by a raging Ron. Neville had reacted immediately and slugged Ron right in the nose, breaking it. Then the spells started flying, and it turned into a madhouse as innocent bystanders got hit and either they joined the fray, or their friends did on their behalf. Harry and Parvati were trying to end the curse on Hermione, and were finding no success for once. He then put his attention on calming things down. It took over two minutes and quite a few curses flying before Harry had enough and let loose a cannon blast spell. Neville and Ron both had black eyes, and various other students were nursing lighter injuries when Professor McGonagall burst in. Colin Creevey had run out to get her.

And then, while Parvati took Hermione to Madam Pomfrey, they got to the bottom of things, and Harry was furious to realize that this whole fracas had started because Ron found blood and Crookshanks’s ginger hairs on his bed. Scabbers was apparently dead, and Ron had seen red. He’d cursed Hermione without even thinking about it while she had just been doing her homework in peace.

Professor McGonagall was even more livid, and handed out dozens of detentions and took away five hundred points when all was said and done. Ron had detention for the rest of the year for starting it and for cursing Hermione behind her back. Neville had two weeks for punching Ron. And everyone who had escalated instead of trying to calm things down had at least one.

The next day, the other houses were shocked to see Gryffindor go from first place to dead last in the race. They were so deep in the hole it would take another two weeks to get out of the negatives and start earning points again. Once the rest of his friend group got the details and heard that Ron had cowardly cursed Hermione, he basically became public enemy number one.

Time passed, and Gryffindor smoked Ravenclaw in their next Quidditch match. As Slytherin had just barely lost their match against Hufflepuff (by ten points! One more score and it would have been a tie!) Gryffindor was in second place in the rankings. The party that night was the stuff of legends, and the only reason they went to bed was that Professor McGonagall came in to bring Ron straight to bed from his detention and tell them to wrap things up.

Harry had gone to bed content, and had a rather spicy dream involving his two favorite pairs of twins… which was rudely ruined by terrified screaming. Harry jerked awake in shock, ripping his curtains off their moorings as he fell out of bed. “Wazzat?!” He slurred, his head aching. ‘Fucking Firewhiskey! How did Fred and George even manage to get any?!’ He thought to himself as he struggled with the sheet. “What happened?!” he finally simply tore himself out from his prison.

“Black!” It was Ron who screamed, “Sirius Black! With a knife!”

Harry sobered instantly as he took in the slashed curtains. “What the fuck?!” He got to his feet as the other boys crawled out of bed.

“You sure you weren’t dreaming, Ron?” Dean asked dubiously.

“Look at the curtains! I tell you, he was here!” Ron said, clutching his chest.

Harry ran out of the dormitory, but there was no sign anywhere of Black. The common room was already empty, but not for long. The entire house woke up and assembled in the common room, while Percy tried to get everyone back to bed. Professor McGonagall came in again, and despite her disbelief over Ron’s story, turned around and checked with Sir Cadogan.

And that was how Neville got a month’s worth of detentions.

…

The entire school was once again searched, and turned up absolutely nothing. No one slept a wink that night, and the Professors knew it and therefore canceled classes. All throughout the next day, the bleary-eyed students watched as security was beefed up.

But something had been bothering Harry, and he voiced it when he and his friends got together. “Why did he run?”

“What was that?” Tracey, looking exhausted, turned to him.

“Why run?” Harry asked again. “If he was really going for me, why did he run? How did he even get the wrong bed? Our nameplates are on them.” He ran a hand through his hair, “If he’s really this mass murderer, why didn’t he just kill Weasley before he woke up and then go for his next target?”

No one had an answer.

Sir Cadogan had mercifully been exiled, and the Fat Lady was back, now with a lot more security in the form of animated suits of armor. The gleaming period pieces were a bit unnerving since their helmets almost seemed to follow you as you approached, despite not moving.

It was quite irritating sneaking out at night now. Harry had needed to start leaving through the windows via his eagle soul transformation. Not the most inconspicuous… He was worried the Ministry was going to get even more brain dead and started working much harder on his personal project.

In the meantime, he had something else to worry about. He’d gotten permission from Albus to accompany Hagrid to Buckbeak’s hearing, though it did mean he’d be missing the next Hogsmeade weekend.

His first taste of the Ministry of Magic didn’t really endear him to the building. That godawful fountain of ‘magical brethren’ made him want to hurl if he was quite honest. He, Hagrid, and Buckbeak made it there early, and waited until they were called in. Lucius Malfoy came strutting in, though Harry smiled humorlessly when Malfoy caught sight of him and visibly missed a step. He just barely kept it from becoming a full stumble.

“Harry Potter!” One of the women who entered gasped as she saw him.

“Greetings.” Harry smiled at her.

One of the males spoke up, “It’s good to meet you in person, Mr. Potter, but what are you doing here?” He asked quizzically.

“I was involved in the incident in question, and am here as a witness.” Harry replied, projecting confidence and surety. Fake it till you make it, right?

“I see.” The lady spoke, “You’re not missing classes for this, are you?” She asked dubiously.

“I am well ahead in my classes,” That was an understatement if there ever was one, “And Headmaster Dumbledore granted permission.”

“How ahead?” The male who had yet to speak smiled slightly, eager to see what Harry Potter was made of.

“A demonstration perhaps?” Harry asked, and got nods from the three.

“Very well, we grant permission for you to show us one spell.” The lady spoke, thinking he’d show something like a late third-year spell or an early fourth-year spell.

And then Harry whipped his wand out and said, “Expecto Patronum.”

Gasps of shock rang out as his dragon joined the party and did a lap around the room before vanishing. Malfoy looked like he had swallowed dung, and was much paler than usual. The governors looked astounded. “Merlin’s beard!” The second man exclaimed, “I had heard rumors, but I thought…” He trailed off.

Harry smirked slightly as he put his wand away, “Thank you. But I don’t think that’s what we’re here for, is it?”

“You are right, of course. Nasty business. We just need to wait a moment for the other four to arrive.” The lady told them, and within two minutes, the board of seven governors had been assembled. The only one Harry recognized was Augusta Longbottom, and only from her stuffed vulture hat.

They spoke for a few moments on their own, before Augusta took the lead. “Well, let’s get on with it. We are here to preside over the hearing of the hippogriff Buckbeak. I, Augusta Longbottom, will preside over this hearing. The accuser is Lucius Malfoy. Witnesses for the defense are Professor Rubeus Hagrid and Harry Potter. Mr. Malfoy, you may begin when ready.”

“Yes, Madam Longbottom.” Lucius said silkily, “I made this complaint because of the attack on my son Draco. Draco was attending his very first Care of Magical Creatures class when… Professor Hagrid brought them to a band of hippogriffs. Hardly an appropriate lesson to start a bunch of third-year students on. Predictably, this led to an attack within minutes of the practical lesson beginning.”

“And yet per the accounts from the school, your son didn’t have a scratch on him.” Augusta said blandly, staring him down.

“Indeed.” Lucius acknowledged the point, “But only because he was pulled out of the way.” He said silkily, “Had someone else not been paying attention, I shudder to think of what that beast could have done to my son. It attacked him unprovoked.”

“Well Professor?” Augusta turned to him, “What do you have to say to that?”

“Well, as I told the rest o' the class, Hippogriffs are proud creatures. Insultin’ one is a dangerous mistake.” Hagrid said, though he was clearly uncomfortable in his own skin. He had already started sweating, though part of that might have been the suit. “I instructed the class as clearly as I could on how to approach, an' when to back off. I also told ‘em to never insult one…”

“Can you corroborate that, Mr. Potter?” The woman who had seen his Patronus asked.

“I can.” Harry said, “I was, after all, the student who approached Buckbeak originally. I volunteered. Professor Hagrid was very clear. Approach. Bow while maintaining eye contact. If the hippogriff bowed back, it was safe to approach. If it did not or got aggressive, we were to back away. Professor Hagrid kept a close eye on me throughout the entire demonstration. Buckbeak allowed me first to pet him, and then ride him.”

“I see.” She said, “And did you notice anything unusual about Mr. Malfoy’s situation?”

“You mean other than the fact that he wasn’t paying attention?” Harry asked, and the governors shuffled slightly, “Because he wasn’t. Three of my friends had to hit them with Stinging Hexes just to get them to be quiet. He, Mr. Crabbe, and Mr. Goyle were the only ones in the class that I would have called disruptive influences. Everyone else was paying attention.” Harry smiled humorlessly, “And furthermore, it was quite clear to everyone there that Draco Malfoy had zero respect for Professor Hagrid and had insulted him quite a few times in our prior years. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he orchestrated this whole debacle in an attempt to get Professor Hagrid fired.”

“Ridiculous!” Lucius Malfoy glowered, “You are claiming that my son purposefully-”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m claiming, Mr. Malfoy.” Harry drawled in an excellent impression of Draco himself. “In fact, he didn’t even deny it when I accused him of it after I pulled his dumb ass away from Buckbeak. You’re welcome, by the way.” Lucius flushed red.

“Enough.” Augusta said sharply, “Though interesting, today’s hearing is on Buckbeak, not Mr. Malfoy. Professor Hagrid has already been absolved in this incident.” She turned to Hagrid, “Describe the events, Professor Hagrid.”

“Aye, well, after Harry here flew on Buckbeak, the rest o’ the class was excited to participate.” Hagrid said, smiling slightly at the way Harry had taken command of the room. “They watched Harry closely, an’ no one had any issues until it was Mr. Malfoy’s turn.” Hagrid grimaced, “No’ sure wha’ he said as I was watchin’ a different group-”

“He said and I quote, ‘This is very easy … I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it … I bet you’re not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly brute?’” Harry informed them. “That was when I yanked him away and laid into him for being a moron.”

“R-Righ’” Hagrid sweated a little, hoping that the clear antagonism Harry was showing wouldn’t hurt Buckbeak’s chances, “Mr. Malfoy lef’ class righ’ after. Didn’ want to attend anymore. Harry helped calm Buckbeak righ’ down and rode him again.”

“This is astounding! My son was almost maimed by a dangerous beast-” Lucius’s face was red with anger.

“And you’d know all about dangerous beasts, wouldn’t you Mr. Malfoy?” Harry’s voice cracked like a whip as he met the man’s eyes, and the two of them knew damn well what Harry was referring to. Lucius almost turned puce.

“Enough!” Augusta slammed a gavel onto the table. “It is quite clear to me that this incident was nowhere near what you described, Lucius. Mr. Potter. Please demonstrate what you learned from Professor Hagrid so we can put this to bed.”

Harry immediately turned and bowed to Buckbeak. The hippogriff liked him and bowed back immediately. Harry didn’t waste a moment and mounted the animal, giving him affectionate scritches. Buckbeak let out a caw of enjoyment. Harry merely raised his arms with a shrug, a deadpan look on his face as he stared at the governors.

“Right, I’ve seen enough.” One of the men scoffed as Harry dismounted, “Waste of time. It’s quite clear this was a case of yet another teenager thinking themselves invincible.”

“Agreed.” Augusta said sharply, though inwardly, she was smirking. She knew most of the cowards on this board were in Lucius Malfoy’s pockets, but after Harry’s display both before and during the trial, they couldn’t vote in his favor without looking like a bunch of corrupt morons. She had little doubt that if Hagrid had come alone, he would have lost. The man was so nervous she wondered if that would have been Neville’s fate as a grown man had he not met the young man standing before them. Bringing Harry Potter had been a better defense for the hippogriff than anything that Hagrid could have said himself. “All in favor of acquittal?” It was unanimous, though Harry took note that two of the governors looked over at Lucius with apologetic looks on their faces. “The ‘ayes’ have it. Professor Hagrid, you may return Buckbeak to Hogwarts. Lucius, don’t waste any more of my time.” She glared heatedly at Malfoy.

“This isn’t over.” Lucius glared at Harry before stalking away furiously.

“Maybe third time’s the charm?” Harry called at his back.

“You shouldn’t antagonize him, Mr. Potter.” One of them called out nervously, very much afraid of what Lucius would do next.

Harry shrugged, and they said their goodbyes. As soon as they were out of the room, Hagrid gave him a near bone-crushing hug. “Thank you, Harry! Merlin, I was too nervous. I would have screwed tha’ up summat awful withou’ yeh.”

“You’re my friend, Hagrid. And so’s Buckbeak.” Harry smirked, before putting on a pout, “Almost sad I didn’t get to bust some heads instead.” Hagrid let out a loud laugh as they made their way back to Hogwarts.

…

Honestly, Harry understood Hermione. The poor girl was exhausted from all the Time Turner usage, and no matter how much Harry argued with her, she was refusing to drop some classes. He was tired too these days. The Dementor-Killing weapon project had started consuming him. He was so far ahead in his classes that he barely paid attention, working on his designs and trying to Arithmetically design the perfect runic sequence to go on the blade instead. He already had a few things he needed to get. Parts from ‘Light-Sided’ magical creatures, since he felt that would help in making a quote-unquote ‘holy’ blade. He had already gone into the forest as a unicorn to meet up with other unicorns. He felt it was probably not a good idea to use his own tail hairs since he wasn’t entirely sure they would be ‘pure.’ Still, it had been nice to run around as the magical creature for the first time. He almost wished he had tried to gore Tom in the Chamber last year.

In any case, it was tiring him out too, though he wasn’t being anywhere near as stupid about his time turning as Hermione was. She had outright missed one of their Charms classes and Neville had found her passed out face-first in a book inside the library. They all knew something was wrong with her, and he had a feeling at least a couple of them knew exactly what. He was sure several of their other friends had sussed out that he was up to something as well, though he figured only Hermione would know for sure that he had succeeded in making his own.

And then finally, Hermione cracked, and Harry threw her a full-on party in the common room as a joke. She finally had enough of Trelawney and stomped out of the Divination classroom, this time when the Grim ‘appeared’ in her crystal ball as well as Parvati’s and Neville’s. They all had a laugh later when Parvati reminded them that “Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever.” Even Hermione twitched and started to laugh, since the prediction had been accurate.

Now if only they could convince her to drop Muggle Studies as well. Even with the slightly lightened load, she was still looking like Remus near the full moon, with shadows under her eyes. Harry was honestly debating sneaking into the girls dorm and stealing it for her own good. He was worried she was going to get so exhausted that she’d just pass out on the stairs at some point and break her own neck.

The final quidditch game ended up being ultra-competitive. Cedric was an excellent Seeker and the rest of the Hufflepuff team weren’t bad either. With the way things had shaken out this year, every team except for Ravenclaw had won at least one game. Slytherin had managed to beat Ravenclaw badly (by almost three hundred points! Harry wasn’t sure what the hell happened with the team this year! They were so much better last year.), putting the blue and bronze in last place. Hufflepuff had beaten the ‘Claws almost as badly as Gryffindor did, and had barely edged out Slytherin in their game. By points, Gryffindor needed to beat Hufflepuff by ninety points to tie Slytherin and force a sudden death final game, or one hundred to win outright.

And the game was a slog. Harry needed to nearly foul Cedric four times to allow the Snitch to vanish when it showed up early. It cost them a couple scores, but it was better than losing. The game ended up lasting for over six hours. By the end of it, everyone was exhausted, and it was only Wood’s utter insanity during training that allowed them to outlast the ‘Puffs. By the fifth hour, their younger and less-seasoned Keeper started missing more and more shots, allowing them to pull away. They could have won after five hours and fifteen minutes, but the Snitch didn’t show up for another ninety.

It was pretty funny to think that every team but Ravenclaw could win the cup this year. Slytherin was in the lead by points with a two-to-one record. If Hufflepuff won this game they would be three-to-zero and win automatically. So, when the Snitch finally showed itself again, Cedric burned everything he had in the chase. He and Harry were neck-and-neck, but Harry was able to eke out just that tiny bit more speed and close his fist around the Snitch.

Wood was sobbing as they all landed, and the rest of the house raced onto the pitch to celebrate for the third year running. You’d think that they hadn’t won in years with how he was reacting, but with his goal of going pro, a game like this was the perfect sendoff. A grueling slugfest won by sheer endurance and skill only. The scouts in the stands no doubt had all the info they needed.

Classes were canceled the next day, since absolutely no one had expected the game to go past midnight. Everyone was utterly drained of energy and even the celebratory party in the common room was oddly subdued, with Fred and George not being able to sneak out to get ‘the goods.’ Professor McGonagall forced them to bed past three AM, and everyone relaxed the next day.

For Harry, it was a relief. No more practices. All that free time! He was happy to win, but was finding that the more time passed, the more his passion lay outside of Quidditch. He loved flying, and he even loved the game… but he wasn’t even sure if he’d be returning to the team next year. He found far more enjoyment in learning magic and creating enchanted items than he did in the endless practices. Maybe things would be better under Angelina, since she was nowhere near as rabid as their current Captain.

The day after, the school refocused entirely on classes. The teachers started absolutely pounding them with work, and even for Harry’s group of friends, it was tough. They knew all the spells ahead of time, but the sheer theory work, as well as the essays that they had to write daily was killing them.

With the increased amount of time he had, Harry had thrown himself into his big project. The Chamber of Secrets was absolutely littered with the failed remnants of his attempts to create a Dementor-Killing Sword. You’d think a dark dungeon would be the worst place to work in when trying to create a ‘Holy’ weapon, but it was more important for Goblin magic to be worked as deep in the earth as possible. The Chamber of Secrets was the lowest point in the entire school, and Harry had to dig down a lot deeper. Deep enough that the cavern was sweltering. If it weren’t for the runes in his clothes he’d probably suffocate or outright burn.

He had even found a gold vein about a kilometer in!

He and Albus had also needed to do something… mildly illegal. He had downloaded a master smith’s knowledge into the Archive and then his own brain before they Obliviated the man of the encounter. That at least gave him the knowledge he needed for forging, though not the actual muscle memory. It took weeks before Harry had been able to make even a passable (by his standards) knife, and he’d had to work his way up from there. He didn’t even start trying to enchant anything until March. Dozens of swords had either snapped in half or warped or had other disastrous things happen to them while he was working on them.

But finally, the week before exams started, Harry felt he had everything he needed. He wanted more practice if he were honest with himself, but with the end of the year approaching, pattern recognition stated that shit would be hitting the fan sooner rather than later.

One of the most important aspects of Goblin (and Dwarven!) Smithing Magic was the principle of extracting the nature of things. It was their most zealously guarded secret. Goblin-wrought Silver was so potent because it was enchanted with the captured magic of the full moon, as well as other metals. It captured the strength of other, stronger metals and applied the properties to the weaker silver. It even captured the essences of the very earth itself for the indestructible nature. Their magic was all about the intangibles. ‘The nature of a thing is more important than the form of the thing.’

It made Harry grin. Maybe he couldn’t have a Zanpakutō of his own. But he could damn well make magical weapons.

He went up to Albus’s office. “Harry.” The old man smiled at him, “What can I do for you today?”

“‘Lo, headmaster.” Harry smiled back, “Sorry, but I’m here for Fawkes today.” He walked over to the handsome bird, stroking his feathers, “Hey Fawkes.” The phoenix let out a joyful song. “Yeah, I’m glad to see you too.” Fawkes sang another note as Harry pet him, “I need a favor. Do you think I could get some tears?” Fawkes squawked in shock, and Harry smiled sheepishly. “I need them for the sword. I can’t think of anything purer than them, other than Unicorn blood… and I sure as hell am not going to go hurt one of them.” He told the bird while continuing to stroke his head.

Fawkes sang a slower note while staring at him, before nodding. Harry smiled, “Thanks boy.” He pulled out a vial, and Fawkes let out another seven tears into it. “Thank you. You’re my favorite phoenix!” He joked, earning a whap from the bird’s wings. If Fawkes could roll his eyes, he would have. Harry chuckled, “Tough crowd.”

“Is it tonight, then?” Albus asked, and Harry nodded. “May I watch?”

“Better that you don’t, Albus.” Harry said, “It’s like a hundred and fifty degrees Celsius at the forge. I don’t have any spare clothes enchanted for it with runes sewn in.”

“Ah.” Albus smiled, “I suppose I’ll just have to see this masterpiece of yours some other time then.”

“Let’s not go that far. I’m just hoping I don’t screw it up.” Harry laughed.

Fawkes let out another song and hopped onto Harry’s shoulder, and then started looking smugly at Albus.

“Well, at least one of us will get to watch.” The old man said dryly.

“Looks like it. To the Chamber, Fawkes!” He pointed out the window, before the two vanished in a burst of flame.

Harry immediately turned into an eagle before the two birds dove into the kilometers deep hole he had created. There were runes carved all over the place for light and for oxygen transference. He transformed back once he saw the bottom and gently landed. Fawkes flew around the room and sang, and Harry swore he felt the heat increase inside the room. ‘Firebird. Right.’ Harry grinned, and got everything ready. He put on his smithing clothes and grabbed his hammer before walking over to the anvil.

He grabbed a large bar of silver before breathing in slowly and deeply. His lungs filled not only with air, but with the magic of the Earth itself. He was incredibly grateful that Hogwarts was built on a Leyline. He breathed out, and a jet of blue flames erupted from his lips, instantly beginning to warm the silver. Another deep breath, and another jet of blue. And again, up until it was at the right temperature.

A block of steel levitated over to him, and he began to chant gutturally as he hammered the silver. The steel seemed almost like it was bleeding as the essence from it was taken and transferred into the silver. He tossed it away when it was ‘empty,’ and it crumbled like sand. He breathed another jet of flame at it, before continuing to hammer.

Hours passed under Fawkes’s watchful gaze and his magical song as Harry first shaped and then engraved the blade. He was so grateful for magic. This would have taken weeks if not months to do purely muggle. With magic, he could move metal and shape it to his will much faster and more efficiently. The metal never once cooled below forging temperature as he kept breathing on it with his blue flames.

When it was perfect, he began with the ‘sacrifices.’ He had six in hand. First, the unicorn hairs were added, and then the griffin blood. He quickly ran through them until he got to the phoenix tears. He added them drop by drop, chanting all the while. By now, he could feel the magic in the room. It was almost a crushing presence.

As he worked the metal, he also added the other items he had created previously: the guard, pommel, etc. Once that was done, he used a carving spell to add the runes that ran up the wide fuller. He then used another spell to dovetail the carvings, and then inlaid more gold into them.

He was covered in sweat, and his body was aching. He outright looked a little emaciated, as if he hadn’t eaten in days. His arms were shaking, and he put the hammer down, “Almost done.” He gasped for breath, “Almost done!” He took out his wand, “EXPECTO PATRONUM!” He roared as if he had found his second wind, but the magic almost knocked him to his knees. Fawkes sang an uplifting tune as the dragon raced around the forging cavern before diving into the blade. By now, a noticeable white glow was emanating from the blade that had nothing to do with the heat. He had only one step left.

He went over to a tank and flipped the lid. A silver shimmer escaped, and Harry only looked at the quench tank full of liquid moonlight (Merlin he loved magic) for a moment before thrusting the sword inside.

The magic seemed to erupt in the room as a thick plume of steam covered it. Harry panted as the sound of boiling filled the room. He couldn’t see a thing. When the sounds of boiling stopped, Harry was lightheaded. He cleared the room and let out a strangled gasp when he saw what he had created. It was utterly perfect. He actually didn’t have a single thing to complain about.

Well, maybe one thing. Harry grabbed the handle material (dragon bone) and forced the material to wrap itself around the tang seamlessly. It then further twisted, becoming a spiral-fluted handle with a carved black opal spacer in the middle. He chuckled weakly, knowing how long that normally took. He finished it off by grabbing some twisted gold wire and wrapping that tightly around the handle, before forming it around the fluting.

The blade was gleaming silver like it was a physical Patronus. It was a two-handed sword with a wide blade and large fuller running down the middle. The guards had sculpted dragon heads at the ends that looked just like his Patronus. The pommel had a brilliant black opal that glittered like a little galaxy in it. Runes covered both sides of the blade, barely visible from the deep silver glow shining from it.

Harry couldn’t wait to test this thing out. He sent it away to his Requip storage, “But first… I’m going to die now…” His body was sagging, and as he said the last word, he pitched forward. Fawkes squawked and had to catch him, before singing in irritation and lifting Harry out of the forge and to the Chamber. A bed had been prepared, and Fawkes dropped him gently on it, before settling on the headboard and going to sleep himself.

The next day, Harry refused to elaborate when everyone asked what the hell he had done to himself.

…

The exams hit, and Harry was perfectly happy to be getting full nights of sleep now. McGonagall didn’t give them a single bit of respite for the first exam. She covered all of the most difficult material from the year in the written tests, and selected the most difficult bits of Transfiguration for the practical tests. His fellow third years were limp and ashen-faced from it, bemoaning that their tortoises looked more like turtles, or that they still had spouts for tails, or that they were breathing steam.

Honestly, he felt a little bad for them. Even Hermione had messed it up a little, though he mostly attributed that to her stupidity in taking both Arithmancy and Transfiguration at the same time. Charms was no less difficult for most of his classmates, and then Harry got to have some legitimate fun in Care of Magical Creatures.

Potions was the first class that made Harry sweat a little. Merlin, he wished Snape wasn’t such an asshole. Their exams proceeded apace, and Defense Against the Dark Arts was definitely his favorite of all of them. Remus’s obstacle course was fun… and they even got a bit of entertainment from Hermione’s boggart. It was a relief when it was finally over, and they all gathered in the Room of Requirement to celebrate.

They were all having a good time, and even Neville and Hannah were having fun needling Hermione over the boggart. They had some music playing on the wireless, although Harry couldn’t quite say that he really… enjoyed the wizarding music. Parvati was dancing with Flora, while Harry, Daphne, Hestia, and Susan were playing pool of all things. He loved the room.

And then they heard some scratching on the door. “Hmm?” Hermione was the one who heard it, so she went to go open it, wondering who had found the room. “Oh? Crookshanks?” She yelped as the cat walked in, and then squeaked in shock and backed up as a massive dog came in. it was skinny and looked a little unkempt, and Parvati let out a short little scream.

“The Grim?! Oh, Professor Trelawney was right again!” The Indian girl was shaking.

“It’s just a dog.” Daphne deadpanned, “Albeit a huge one. Did Hagrid try to breed Fluffy?” She joked.

Harry chuckled, “Did you make a friend, Crookshanks?” He muttered as he pet the half-kneazle.

Hermione shakily shut the door, “Maybe we should make the door vanish until we’re ready to leave.” She muttered and the door did just that. She walked wide around the dog, still a little frightened of it due to its immense size. “How’d you get in here, I wonder?”

The dog let out a bark, and they all let out shrieks and scrambled for their wands as it turned into a man. “Well, it wasn’t easy… but they haven’t boarded up all the secret passages yet.” He raised his hands (which were trembling a little) as almost every wand in the room pointed at him. “I come in peace!” He yelped.

“You’ll leave in pieces, bastard!” Hestia snarled, a curse already on her lips and the tip of her wand glowing a violent violet.

“Stop.” Harry said softly as he looked at the man. They all looked at him in surprise, and lowered their wands with snarls.

“…Harry.” Sirius Black croaked as he got his first good look at his godson in years.

“Black.” Harry’s face had no emotion on it. He walked forward.

“Harry.” Susan tried to grab his arm, but Harry avoided her and kept walking until he was in front of the man. He was silent for a moment.

“When I first heard that you were my godfather, and that you had betrayed my parents to their deaths, I swore I would kill you.” He said dangerously.

“H-Harry, I-” Sirius swallowed heavily at the utterly focused look on his face.

“Albus helped me cool off… and it’s been long enough that I’ve had quite a bit of time to think.” Harry continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “Every single person I’ve asked or overheard, from Hagrid to Albus to Fudge to fucking Filch can’t fucking understand how you, the white sheep of the Black family, would ever do that. And now I find a kneazle of all things bringing you to us. Apparently he thinks he can trust you. The same person who was found laughing at the sight of a former friend’s finger, after having destroyed a street and killed thirteen people. The same person who killed my parents.” The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. “I would start talking.”

“I as good as killed them.” Sirius croaked, looking miserable, “…But that wasn’t the whole story.”

Harry stared stonily back, “You broke into the tower. There’s no way you were smart enough to do that successfully and then get the wrong bed. What were you after?”

“…Peter Pettigrew.” Sirius said finally.

“Pettigrew is dead!” Susan snarled, pointing her wand at him once more.

“Oh, if only.” Sirius breathed, turning slightly to her. “At least then the fifteen years in Azkaban might have been worth it.”

“What the fuck are you on about?” Daphne glared, rolling her wand between her fingers. “Pettigrew is dead! You blasted him apart! You destroyed him so thoroughly only a finger was ever found!”

Harry stiffened.

“Yeah, a finger and nothing else.” Sirius snarked, “No blood, no guts…”

“Was Peter an Animagus? Like you?!” Harry’s voice cracked like a whip.

Neville and Hermione paled, “Wait, you don’t think-?”

“He was.” Sirius said, his chin trembling a little. “We all were. Me… him… and James. I was the Grim… your father was a stag… and Wormtail…”

“Was a rat.” Hermione said, sounding utterly horrified. “S-Scabbers was missing his toe… Crookshanks tried to get him so many times during the year!”

Parvati let out a hysterical laugh, “Oh, no wonder Professor Trelawney couldn’t stop seeing the Grim around Ron Weasley!” Hermione thought about it for a moment, and then looked like she was trying to divide by zero.

“W-We shared a room with him for three bloody years!” Neville looked disturbed.

“This is a cute story and all.” Hestia snarled as she stomped forward. Her heterochromic eyes were blazing with fury.

“But do you have any proof?” Her twin was glaring just as hard at the man who had hurt their… more-than-friend so badly.

“And even if you do.” Daphne’s gray eyes were shimmering fiercely, “What does that have to do with your betrayal? You say you ‘as good as killed them.’ Why?!”

“Because I’m the one that suggested the switch!” Sirius moaned miserably, “I- Everyone knew I was the secret keeper. Even if we didn’t come out and tell anyone, everyone knew there was no one else it could be! I was too obvious!” Tears started to leak from his eyes, “So I told James to switch with Peter last minute. We-We never thought in our wildest dreams that Peter would have ever betrayed us.”

“You trusted.” Harry breathed deeply, “A rat Animagus with the most important secret of your bloody LIVES?!”

“H-Harry, we had seven years together just at Hogwarts.” Sirius said, “We were as close as you all are. Would you ever think any of your friends could betray you like that?!”

Harry’s fists trembled at his side for a moment as he ground his teeth together, and then the room changed around them, drawing shock from most of the occupants. It turned into a large hall and Harry roared incoherently as he thrust his arm at the far wall. A gargantuan lightning bolt shot from his palm and flew across the hall, before impacting. The explosion made everyone scream or even drop to their knees in an attempt to steady themselves.

Harry panted as little bolts of lightning crawled along his arm, which was now exposed, the robe having burned away.

“…Holy shit kid…” Sirius looked at the devastation with awe.

“Why now?” Harry spat, turning to look at him, “Why break out this year? Why not earlier if you were innocent?! Why did you wait so long before trying this? You clearly don’t have Pettigrew?”

“And why did none of this come out at your trial?!” Susan spat at him.

Sirius slowly stood, “…In order…” He shakily took a newspaper clipping from his pocket, “I broke out because of this…” He handed it to Harry and pointed out Scabbers on Ron’s shoulder, “I saw the little bastard so many times over the years, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize him. I never thought that little bastard would be so bold as to hide in plain sight. Once I saw him, I knew what I had to do. I… I never tried to escape Azkaban before because I deserved it for getting James and Lily killed. I thought you were better off without me…” He took a step back as Harry’s face hardened just slightly, “And I did this now because I don’t have Pettigrew. I can’t find the little bastard, and I was hoping you would have the item I needed to do it.” He turned to Susan, “And it never came out at my trial because I didn’t get one.” He spat at the redhead.

Everything went silent. And then Daphne stepped forward, “No trial?” Her voice was utterly frigid, “They sent.” She swallowed her fury, “The heir to a house that can trace their roots back to before the founding of the Ministry of Magic. To Azkaban. Without. A. TRIAL?”

“You can thank Bartemius Crouch for that one.” Sirius snorted without a lick of humor. “They stunned me. When I woke up, I was already there. I waited.” He said, looking away for a moment, “First for days… then for weeks, then months. Before I knew it, years had passed.”

“Malfoy.” Susan, Daphne, and both sets of twins snarled.

Sirius blinked, “Ah, dear Narcissa.” He snorted, “Damn, that actually makes sense. That bitch married Lucius Malfoy. Dear Bella never had kids, and old Arcturus disowned Rommy. I was the only one left to be…removed from the board.” He scoffed in disgust, “Outplayed by that fucking peacock. James must be rolling in his grave.” He murmured.

“So, what now?” Hermione asked after a moment of silence.

“I need the Marauder’s Map.” Sirius said, “It shows everyone in the castle and on the grounds. We created it, back when we were in school. Me, Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail. It even shows every secret passageway we ever found, as well as the passwords to every room. It’s the only way I’m going to get that bastard.”

Several eyes widened in delight at that information. “Where is it?” Harry asked.

“It should be in Filch’s office somewhere.” Sirius said, “Old bat nicked it from us in our final year. Never knew what it was or how to activate it, so hopefully he just stored it and didn’t burn it. When it’s turned off, it looks like a regular old bit of parchment. You turn it on with the password, ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,’ and turn it off with, ‘Mischief Managed.’”

“Alright.” Harry said, “I think we can pull that off.”

“You-you’ll really help-” Sirius started to say, and then choked when Harry grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his feet. Everyone gasped in shock at the sudden violence.

“If you’ve lied about any of this, Black.” Harry said softly, “I will make sure you feel what Petunia and Vernon Dursley made me feel.” He dropped the man, who coughed hoarsely, “You were supposed to be my godfather. You were supposed to take care of me.” He glared, “And instead you were rotting in prison while my relatives gave me a cupboard under the stairs for a bedroom and scraps for food.” Sharp inhales from every direction. Padma let out a soft sob.

Sirius looked horrified, “D-Dumbledore gave you to her?!”

“That’s right.” Harry glared at him, “Maybe think for a fucking moment the next time you decide to go off half-cocked.” He turned to the rest, “Let’s go. We have a map to find. You, stay here.” He glared at Sirius, who nodded shakily, his face even paler than normal. They all left the room, which closed behind them.

…

It was a moment’s work for them to find themselves on the first floor, and the group worked like a well-oiled machine. Hestia and Flora levitated a couple of suits of armor and made them crash as loudly as possible. Filch immediately ran out of his office cursing, with Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. Flora and Hestia then Shunpo’d to the second floor and made more of a mess. “PEEEEEEEVES!” Filch roared as they charged up the stairs.

“Go.” Harry said, “Neville, Padma, Parvati, Tracey, and Hannah, you are the lookouts.” They nodded and posted up, making sure no teachers were coming their way.

Harry, Daphne, and Hermione burst into Filch’s office and started looking at the cabinets. “Blank parchment, blank parchment.” They muttered as they searched. Minutes passed with no luck.

Hermione cursed, “This is getting us nowhere. Point Me Marauder’s Map.” She declared, laying her wand on her palm. The wand spun for a moment, before pointing towards the exit.

“Shit.” Harry cursed.

“It’s not here. Someone already found it.” Daphne looked frustrated, “Let’s get out of here.”

A few minutes later, they were able to regroup, with the Carrow twins having left Filch in their dust. “Damn, that’s going to make things difficult.” Susan looked worried, “How are we going to find it?”

“Hermione, download that spell into my head.” Daphne commanded, and Hermione pulled up the Archive. Daphne vanished, and reappeared two minutes later. “It’s in the castle.” She declared, “I went around the castle a few times. The wand always pointed here.”

“I have an idea.” Hermione grinned slightly, before downloading the info into all of their heads. “Everyone outside.” They vanished and went onto the grounds. She conjured some simple compasses and handed them to everyone. “Use the spell and record the data you get into the Archive. Spread across the grounds.”

“We need a version that does Z-axis as well.” Harry grumbled as they all split up and spent a few minutes recording the data. Hermione was hard at work on her arithmancy as she plotted things out. Once they reconvened, it took a few minutes of typing for Hermione to blurt out, “Okay, my best guess is Gryffindor tower.” She said, before smirking, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

They looked at her cluelessly, and she rolled her eyes, “Who can always find themselves in Hogsmeade to get butterbeer and other snacks even with the castle on lockdown?”

Harry let out a laugh as he got it, “Those bastards. Okay, go back to the room.”

…

“Gred, Forge, just the two I wanted to see.” Harry made the two redheads shriek and jump into the air as he clapped their shoulders with a cheeky grin on his face.

They looked frazzled before turning to him, “Ah, Harrikins!” Fred grinned.

“Did you just throw the gauntlet down with the masters?” George looked menacingly at him.

“Maybe later.” Harry said, “Got a question for you.” He lowered his voice, “Do the words ‘marauder’s map’ mean anything to you?”

Their eyes bulged, “Wha- HOW?!”

“Apparently my dad was Prongs.” Harry grinned, and the two gained looks of awe. Harry became stone-cold serious once more. “I need the map. It’s important.” The two looked hesitant, “I’ll make my own version eventually, but I don’t have the time for that today. I need the original.”

The two exchanged looks, “Cut us in?”

“Not this time, boys.” Harry shook his head, “Too many people know already. You’ll definitely hear about it after the fact if we succeed.”

The two looked at each other one more time, “Don’t get caught.” Fred took it out of his bag and gave it to Harry.

“Thanks guys. We owe you one.” He said, before vanishing in a burst of speed.

“Wicked!” The two gasped.

…

“Found it.” Harry smirked, “You were right, Hermione. Good job.” She smiled proudly as a table popped up. He unfurled the map as they gathered round, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” He declared, and they watched in awe as the Marauder’s Map filled itself out. “Now where are you, you little bastard?”

They all crowded as they looked carefully at every name. “I don’t suppose it has a search function?” Daphne asked.

Sirius sagged, “Honestly, we never got around to adding it before Filch took it. We tried making copies of the map but never quite managed to recreate it.”

They searched and searched and searched, and several minutes passed in quiet but building frustration. “Slytherin common room is clean.” Hestia murmured.

“So is Hufflepuff.” Susan declared.

“Ravenclaw too.” Padma said softly.

“And he’s avoided Gryffindor like the plague.” Hermione mumbled, “Good job, Crooks.” She gave her cat some scritches.

“Found him!” Tracey yelled, and slapped her finger on the map, “Hagrid’s hut! That little rat!”

“It’s really true.” Harry sagged a little at the realization.

“Finally!” Sirius breathed, looking like he wanted to bolt. He started to move away.

“Not so fast.” Harry snarled, grabbing him by the back of the neck. “We have to be smart about this. Susan, get your aunt here with Veritaserum. We have a rat to interrogate.”

“Right.” Susan flicked her wand and her Patronus shot out and out the room.

“What’s the best meeting point?” Hermione asked, “We should try to get this done as fast as possible, right? And try to minimize the chances of Pettigrew escaping.”

“Looks like I’m not going to get to commit my crime after all.” Sirius sighed, and several eyes narrowed in irritation. “Oh well… it’ll be nice to see Amy again.” Susan gawked at him for a moment. “We can use the Shrieking Shack. The secret entrance is close to both Hagrid’s hut and the main gates. If Amy is hustling, she’ll Apparate here and will have to go there. We just have to go under the Whomping Willow.”

“Oh, is that all?” Tracey snarked, and Sirius grinned.

“We can get it to freeze by pressing on a knot on its trunk. Safe and easy.” He chuckled.

“Alright, we should keep the groups small.” Harry said, “Susan, you meet with your Aunt. Flora, Hestia, you come with me just in case the bitch tries to run. Daphne, Neville, you go with Sirius to the Shack and wait for us. Rest of you…” He grinned, “Wish us luck.”

…

“Hagrid!” Harry pounded on the door. “Let us in!”

“Harry?! Wha’ the hell are yeh doin’ here?!” Hagrid hurried to open the door. “It’s dangerous!”

“This is more important.” Harry said as they walked in.

“Harry yer safety is-” Hagrid started to say.

“Have you seen Scabbers?” Hestia interrupted him.

Hagrid blinked, “Uhh, yes. I found him some time ago.” He scratched his chin, “I suppose yeh can take him back ter Ron. I know he’s been missin’ him.” He went over to the fridge and pulled out a milk bottle. He dumped it out, and they all heard the squeaking from the rat. He looked awful, with patches of fur missing. He was skinny too. To the point of being sickly.

Harry smiled in satisfaction as Hagrid handed him the rat. “Thanks Hagrid. We’ll take good care of him.”

Hestia conjured a cage that Flora enchanted to be unbreakable. Scabbers squeaked and tried to wriggle out, so Harry shoved him in the cage and shut the door.

“Blimey Harry, yeh know better! Be gentle!” Hagrid said in shock.

“This time tomorrow, you’ll be changing your tune, Hagrid.” Harry said, and the jolly giant gaped at him, unable to think of a response. “Thanks for the help. Let’s go!”

The trio vanished.

…

“Susan Annabelle Bones, where are you taking me?!” Amelia Bones growled at her niece as she was taken beneath the Whomping Willow, “I was frantic thinking someone had died when I got your Patronus!” She was still so proud to learn her third-year niece could cast that spell, but was still incensed that she had been dragged away from the office in such a panic.

“That might still be on the table.” Susan growled, “We… found out something really important, Auntie. We needed you here.”

“Is it Black?” Amelia’s look became even more severe.

“Yes.” Susan said, “But there was… a lot more to it.”

“Where are we?” Amelia asked as they got to the door and Susan pushed it open. Her eyes widened, “Greengrass? Longbottom?” She eyed the dog at their feet and her eyes narrowed.

“Hello, Madam Bones.” Daphne greeted while Neville bowed.

“What have you discovered?” Amelia asked sharply.

“Not yet. Harry isn’t here yet.” Susan said, before taking a deep breath. She sat on a conjured chair, pale.

“Mr. Potter?” Amelia asked, before her face hardened, “Susan, you know better than to call me like this if it isn’t an emergency! I had to skip out on an important department meeting. And now we’re just sitting around?”

“Oh, it was an emergency.” Harry said as he walked in, and Amelia spun around, her wand in her hand instantly. The rat in the cage started making an utter ruckus the moment it saw her, trying to find any sort of weakness in the cage to escape.

“I’ve been patient enough.” Amelia snarled, “What’s this about?!” She still had her wand loose but ready in her hand.

Flora ended the unbreakable enchantment, and Hestia vanished the cage as Harry cast Hainawa. The rat squealed like it was being tortured as Harry held it in the air, “Madam Bones… Please cast the Animagus Reversal spell on the rat.”

Amelia’s eyes widened, and she immediately trained her wand on the rat. A bright flash of blue-white light erupted from her wand. Scabbers froze in midair, his small gray form twisting madly, and then another flash of light erupted from it. The rat writhed and squealed as it was forcibly and painfully turned back into a man. And when she saw who it was, Amelia Bones almost dropped her wand, “Peter Pettigrew?!” She shrieked in disbelief.

“H-Hey Amelia.” Peter’s beady little eyes darted for the door when he squeaked.

Amelia’s mind raced with growing horror as she took in the sight. “No.” She breathed out, shaking her head. Her mind was whirling as she worked through every old regret and dozens of bits of info in an instant with her Occlumency. And as she did so, she caught sight of the dog transforming.

“Hey, Amy…” Sirius croaked as he stared at his long-time flame. Amelia let out a shuddering breath before she stomped over to Sirius and smashed her fist into his nose. “Argh!” Sirius fell back as everyone else winced.

Except for Harry, “Hit him again!” He cheered with a smirk.

“Ugh, are you on my side or not?” Sirius complained as he pinched his broken nose.

“Dursleys.” Harry said flippantly.

Sirius winced, “…Fair enough.”

And then Harry’s fist tightened, and Peter let out a scream of agony as the Hainawa squeezed him, “Oh, I wouldn’t if I were you, Petey. I’d stay right there.”

Amelia turned her wand on Sirius and fixed his nose, before hauling him up by his lapels, “You switched, didn’t you?!” She demanded, and Sirius nodded shakily, “Oh, you dumb bastard!” She hugged him, “Why didn’t you tell me?! Why did you have to go after this fucking rat with no backup! Why the fuck were you LAUGHING?! WHY, SIRI?!” Susan stared at her aunt with her jaw unhinged.

Sirius let out a dry chuckle as he wrapped his arms around her waist, “Cuz I was mad with grief.” He croaked, “And then he got the better of me. Him! What else could I do BUT laugh?”

“And your trial?!” She hissed as she backed away.

“Didn’t get one. Crouch made sure of that.” Sirius looked away.

“No!” Amelia looked shocked, “That’s not-”

“Possible?” Sirius asked humorlessly, “Fifteen years says otherwise, Amy.” His jaw hardened as he looked at Peter. “Hello, Peter.”

Peter’s trembling increased in intensity, “S-Sirius… my friend…”

“Friend? FRIEND?!” Sirius advanced, and Amelia stuck her arm out.

“Amelia,” gasped Peter, and Harry could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, “You don’t believe him, do you? He tried to kill me, Amelia! I knew this day would come! That’s why I hid! I knew he’d be back for me!” He squeaked out.

“You knew he’d escape Azkaban?” Daphne asked dryly, “When no one has done it before?” She looked incredibly amused. “Quite the belief you had in your… old friend.”

“He’s got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of!” Peter shouted shrilly. “How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-”

“Enough of this!” Amelia let out a snarl as stabbed her wand at him, and his jaw locked up, unable to move even slightly. She whirled around. “Susan.” She managed to keep an even tone, “You know what to do?”

“Yes, Auntie.” She accepted an official ministry interrogation quill and parchment from her aunt. “I’m ready.” She set the official diction quill and kept a careful eye on the parchment for any errors.

Amelia took out a little vial of clear liquid from her robe’s pocket. Peter’s jaw couldn’t move, but his noises of desperation certainly could get louder. Another flash from Amelia’s wand saw it wrenched open with an audible noise. She opened the bottle and pulled the dropper from it. She carefully put three drops on his tongue and retracted her hand. And then she stopped, seemed to think for a moment, and then put a fourth drop on his tongue. Another spell forced Pettigrew to swallow, though he looked like he would rather be doing just about anything else.

She stepped back and put the bottle back into her pocket before clearing her throat. “Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, presiding over the interrogation of thought-deceased Peter Pettigrew. Unless I allow otherwise, only I will ask any questions. If anyone speaks out of turn, by Merlin I WILL silence you and levy a fine. Is that clear?”

“Yes.” Six voices sounded out.

“What is your name?” She asked imperiously.

“Peter Pettigrew.” Peter droned out, despite the wild panic in his eyes.

“When were you born?”  Amelia continued to glare.

“November 13, 1959.” Peter responded.

“Were you the Secret Keeper for Lily, James, and Harry Potter during the Blood War?” Her gaze could light a man on fire, and it was evident that she was very much intending on trying.

“Y-Y-Yes.” The word was forced from his throat.

“Were you a Death Eater?” She demanded.

Peter’s struggles continued, “YES!” He rasped.

“Did you betray the Potters to the Dark Lord?” Amelia snarled out.

Peter struggled and tried to keep from speaking, but was unable to, “YES!”

Amelia’s jaw worked for a moment, “Describe in exact detail what happened during your confrontation with Sirius Black on November 1st, 1981, as well as your thought processes during the event.”

“I knew once the Dark Lord failed to kill Harry Potter that Sirius would come for me.” Peter struggled but his jaw kept moving, and it was causing him a lot of pain. He was grunting and foaming slightly, “I collected the Dark Lord’s wand before fleeing and preparing.” He grunted out and all of their eyes widened, “When Sirius found me, I struck first. I accused him of being the traitor. I had already cut my finger off with a rending curse, and I made sure I was standing on a Muggle gas main. I fired a Blasting Curse behind my back, blowing up the street. I relied on a powerful runic enchantment I had purchased to defend myself from the explosion. In the confusion, I threw my finger from my pocket and escaped into the sewers in my Animagus form.” He finished droning.

Her fists clenched, “Why did you do it?! Why did you betray your friends?! Why did you join him?!”

“BECAUSE WE WERE LOSING!” Peter did not fight that one, “WE WERE LOSING AND DYING EVERY DAY! NOTHING WE DID WORKED! WE COULDN’T SO MUCH AS TAKE OUT ONE OF HIS INNER CIRCLE, MUCH LESS THE DARK LORD! EVERY DAY, MORE AND MORE FRIENDS DIED! I WASN’T GOING TO DIE TOO!” The rat trembled in exertion when he finished yelling.

Sirius let out a furious growl. He was just barely restraining himself from leaping past Amelia and tearing Peter’s throat out.

“No further quest-” She looked at Harry, who was raising his hand, “You wish to ask some of your own, Mr. Potter?” She asked formally.

“I do.” Harry said, his eyes tight.

“I grant you permission to ask them.” Amelia said, her eyes flinty.

“When did you become a Death Eater?” Harry asked Peter.

Peter’s struggles renewed, and he grunted various times. “On my birthdate in 1979!” He finally was forced to respond.

Sirius had to bite his fist to keep from speaking. That was even longer than they had thought!

Harry had a very nasty smile on his face. Pure venom. “And what did you do to be accepted into the fold?”

Peter groaned, “K-K-Killed a-a-and raped a-a-a grrhhhhh mud-b-b-blood during a grk- raid!” The girls in the room all took their wands out with apoplectic looks on their faces, but a sharp glare from Amelia had them restraining themselves.

“And after being accepted as a Death Eater, what were your duties?” Harry asked, his own fists shaking at his side.

“Ggrrrrkkkkk!” Peter’s face started turning red, “P-Passin-g along information o-o-on the Order of the Phoenix. Wh-where they’d be, wh-when they w-w-w-would be grrrk unprotected! ARGH!”

“And who-” Harry managed to hiss through clenched teeth, “-did your information get killed or injured? Name them. Name them all, and what you did.”

Peter started to cry as he tried to force his own jaw shut. His face was turning purple from how hard he was struggling to not speak. “L-Lily and James.” He shook his head, trying to deny what would be coming out of his mouth, “Benjy Fenwick. I fed him the wrong information and led him to Greyback.” He was huffing and puffing and trying anything not to speak. “Dorcas Meadowes! I led the Dark Lord to her!” He tried to bite his tongue, but a flash from Amelia’s wand prevented him from being able to separate his now steel-like appendage. “Marlene McKinnon! I gave out her home’s location! Gideon and Fabian Prewett! I led them into an ambush against Dolohov.” And here he started rocking and writhing in his bonds, “No, no, no!” He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth cracked and blood started pouring from his gums. His scream of pain made some of them flinch. Finally, defeated, he slurred out, “And I killed Edgar Bones myself.”

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Twin screams from the two Bones ladies rang through the Shrieking Shack. Hestia and Flora threw themselves on Susan as she pulled her wand out. “Let me GO!” Susan yelled as she struggled with the other two redheads.

Sirius meanwhile put Amelia in a bear hug from behind, forcing her wand arm down.

It took a few moments for the ladies to stop struggling, and when they were able to let them go, both had such venom in their gazes it was a miracle that Peter didn’t die on the spot. “Any further questions?” Amelia ground out, glaring hatefully at the man who had killed her brother and orphaned her niece. Everyone shook their heads. “Then I declare this interrogation over. I hereby place you under arrest, Peter Pettigrew. I will see to it that your Order of Merlin is rescinded, and that you receive the Kiss for this.” A red flash flew from her wand, and Peter slumped over, unconscious from the overpowered Stunner.

Harry looked at the scum, “Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō.” He spat, and the light of his Hainawa transformed into the much more powerful binding spell. “Just in case he wakes up.” He said, glaring at the man. Harry then walked over and embraced Susan, who burst into bitter tears and hugged him like a lifeline. Daphne hurried over and joined the group hug with the twins.

Amelia sat heavily on the chair that had been conjured earlier, rubbing her temples. Sirius hesitantly put his hands on her shoulders in old, frightful familiarity and began to rub. “What now?” He asked gently.

‘Later. I can rage and cry later. I have work to do.’ The woman thought to herself, “Now I escort you all back to the school and collect Albus. We need to have an emergency Wizengamot session for the reveal of the bastard’s crimes.” She growled, “Much as I hate to say it, I don’t trust you to be safe in the Ministry right now, Siri. Not before the truth is revealed.”

Sirius chuckled dryly, “Yeah, you’re not wrong. If we’re right and this was Malfoy’s doing in an attempt to steal the Black wealth, I’d surely have an accident with an overzealous trainee.”

“Then you’ll be safe here in Hogwarts.” Amelia said softly, before she turned to the teens, “Come on.” She said, feeling her age for once as she saw Susan’s puffy face and red eyes.

…

As they exited from the secret entrance to the Shrieking Shack, Sirius couldn’t help but stare at the moon. No doubt Moony was safely ensconced inside his office. That Wolfsbane potion truly was a miracle. He wondered what his old friend would feel when he woke up to a changed world.

“You should transform.” Daphne said, drawing his attention, “Before we get to the school. Professor Flitwick charmed the main doors to recognize you.” She smiled slightly.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter, “How in the world did he do that?” He shook his head, “Yeah, I’ll transform. Just enjoying the cool night breeze. It feels… different now.”

“Of course it does.” Amelia smiled wanly at him, “You’ll be a free man soon enough… and have plenty of ammunition to rake the Ministry over the coals for.” Sirius grinned evilly, before assuming his Grim form once more. She shook her head, “Dated for three years and you never told me about this, you damn mutt.” She sighed, earning a sheepish bark from the great dog.

The group continued their trek towards the castle, and it was as they were passing the lake that they got the first hint that something was wrong. Their breaths started becoming visible in front of them, and it was nowhere near cold enough in the middle of June for that. Wands whipped into hands as they looked up and saw over a hundred of the damned monsters rushing their way towards them. Sirius whimpered, curling into a fluffy ball and beginning to tremble as they got closer and the effect more pronounced. Harry wondered what in the world had attracted them here, before remembering that they must have sensed the group out of bounds. Sirius’s happiness. Susan and Amelia’s despair. They were a meal these Dementors simply couldn’t refuse.

“I am the Head of the Department of Law Enforcement! I demand you return to your posts!” Amelia’s enhanced force roared out. And yet the Dementors kept coming. “Shit!” She cursed, “They must be starving if they’re disobeying me!” She flicked her wand, “Expecto Patronum!” She yelled, before a stygian owl popped out of her wand.

“Expecto Patronum!” The others yelled as well, and Amelia’s eyes popped open in surprise as Daphne’s unicorn, the twins’ lionesses (they’d gotten quite the kick out of that!), Susan’s honey badger, and Harry’s dragon raced out to meet them.

And yet more and more Dementors were coming. They were so hungry that even the Patroni weren’t truly chasing them away. They would just get out of range and then come right back as the Patronus raced away towards another group. The sky was absolutely filling with the demonic cloaks. One hundred became two, and then three. And the Patronus charm took quite a bit of power to keep maintaining. Not to mention the Dementors were starting to bring up worse memories. Already, the weakest of the group was starting to sweat, and Daphne was starting to pale. Their Patroni were now too far away, trying to beat back the tide, and there were just too many of them to be contained forever. Some started slipping through and flying directly for them.

If it weren’t for the sheer danger of the situation, Harry would have been happy to finally get his field test. As one approached, open-mouthed, Harry’s gleaming silver sword appeared in his right hand and his Patronus up above vanished. Their line was broken, and the Dementors started to flood downwards. He took a step as he grabbed the handle with his left hand too and swiped the blade right through the unliving cloak.

Everything simply stopped as a splash of black, diseased blood hit the ground before him before turning into black smoke. And then the Dementor began to shriek. Harry didn’t even look at it as it continued to writhe behind him, dark smoke erupting from its form. The decaying body inside burned with silver flame and then went still, leaving nothing but a cloak behind.

A slow smile rose on Harry’s face as his fingers audibly tightened on his sword and he raised it so it was behind his back. “Expecto Patronum.” He said as the Dementors above shrieked in both fury and fear. For the first time in history, one of their number had been killed. They surged downwards, feeling the need to overwhelm him and Kiss him before he could kill more of them.

And as the glow around the blade erupted into white flame that rapidly coalesced into the head of a dragon, they wouldn’t have time to regret it. Harry slashed down and night turned to day. An absolutely gargantuan eastern dragon erupted forwards, roaring audibly and pulsing with light and white flame. Love, joy, happiness, all of the positive emotions engulfed the group, banishing the cold and despair of the Dementors. His dragon was far bigger than his regular Patronus had been. Big enough to swallow about ten of the charging creatures and cut off their shrieks of agony as they turned to ash.

And even those it didn’t touch directly didn’t get off lightly. Those closest to it as it pulsed with energy seemed to shatter, allowing their empty cloaks to float away. Those further were blown backwards, black smoke erupting from them as they fled. Harry’s dragon inhaled and breathed silver fire at their backs, destroying them as well. Of the hundreds of Dementors that had been stationed around Hogwarts, less than one hundred remained, and they were fleeing back to Azkaban as if the hounds of hell were coming for their withered husks.

Harry’s dragon did a triumphant lap around the grounds, making sure that no more of the foul creatures remained. With a mental command from Harry, it turned into a cloud of mist that slowly vanished in the gentle wind.

Harry smiled at the blade, “You’ll need a name…” He murmured, “Thank you, Tolkien. Ainathil.” The newly named ‘Holy White Flame’ vanished into his hoard, before he turned around. Everyone was staring at him with their jaws unhinged. Even the awoken (and still very much bound) Peter Pettigrew could only stare in disbelief (and more than a little terror.) Harry’s smile widened, “Well, that was fun. I’m hungry. Anyone fancy a trip to the kitchens?”

Amelia’s head slowly turned to Susan, “Susan…explain.” Susan merely looked at her with a ‘what the fuck do you mean explain?’ look on her face.

…

As they reached the entrance to the school, it opened of its own accord and several teachers rushed out. Albus was at the head, and they all stopped in shock as they took in the group. “What the devil do you all think- Peter Pettigrew?!” Professor McGonagall had geared up for what would be a legendary rant before she skidded to a stop and exclaimed in horror.

“Yes, yes, there’s no time to waste.” Amelia said as she slowed down, glad to see Albus was already here. “Albus, I need you to get us to the Ministry and call an emergency Wizengamot session. I want every single member there within the hour.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Albus had an ugly look on his face as he looked at his former student. He glanced down at the dog with them, “…I suppose this will be the first time in centuries a second Order of Merlin is stripped.”

“Not just him.” Amelia hissed, “If I have my way it’ll be Barty’s head on the chopping block too.”

“Ohhh…” Flitwick let out a little moan of horror, “Was… was Black innocent? All this time?!” Snape had a look on his face that was a mix of ‘the world is about to fall out from under my feet’ and ‘sheer, bloody rage.’

“He was professor.” Harry said, stepping forward, a hard look on his face, “All because Barty Crouch decided he didn’t need a trial.”

“Let’s not dally.” Albus said, “Before someone gets any ideas. Miss Greengrass, might I borrow that cloak?”

“Of course, Professor.” Daphne took it off and handed it to him, “And I can let mother know to be at the ministry as well.”

“Thank you. Portus.” Albus said, and the cloak glowed blue. It then flew and tied itself around Peter. “Come, Amelia. Minerva, please make sure the students find their beds. And that this one here finds his way to the Hospital Wing. He looks quite peaky.” He nodded at the dog.

Minerva looked down, seemingly seeing the dog for the first time, and they could all see when the realization rocked her. “Yes, of course Albus.” She said tonelessly, mildly glaring at who she now knew was Sirius Black.

Albus went up to Harry, “I see you did it.” Harry smiled victoriously, which Albus returned. “Pity you can’t make more of them. You did a good thing tonight, Harry. I well remember that Hogsmeade weekend.” Harry thanked him, before the old man walked to Peter.

He and Amelia grabbed the cloak and the rat, before vanishing. Snape still looked thunderous. “Come along.” He said, before turning and stomping away.

“One moment. Expecto Patronum.” Daphne said, and her unicorn flew off to her mother.

As they walked into the school, Minerva let out a long-suffering sigh, “Is it going to be every year, Mr. Potter?”

Harry finally let out his laugh, “It’s a talent.” His Head of House shook her head in exasperated despair.

…

“Order! I will have order!” Albus banged his gavel, making the bickering witches and wizards, most of whom looked like they had just haphazardly thrown on their Wizengamot robes and hats and rushed out their doors. One of them had clearly been in the middle of a shave and had only half a beard.

“I think we have a bit of a right to be miffed, Albus.” Cornelius looked irritated, “Even for an emergency session, an hour’s notice for a full assembly this late is a bit…”

“I am well aware, Cornelius. But this is a vitally important session, and the quicker we’re ready, the quicker we can get back to our beds.” Albus said. He looked at Amelia, “Are we ready?” She nodded, “Then bring in the prisoner!” Murmurs erupted as they realized that this was to be a criminal trial.

“Did you do it?!” Fudge looked elated, “You caught Black!?” He then frowned as a man who was somehow both pudgy and skinny was brought in, completely restrained, with a bag over his head. “…That’s not Black…” Fudge mumbled as Peter was led in by Kingsley Shacklebolt. He was very rough with the man as he dragged him in alongside his partner, Savage. The bag was an attempt to conceal his identity until he was sitting on the chair, which immediately wrapped him up in its chains.

Amelia stood and walked up to Peter, grabbing the bag and yanking it off his head, dropping it to the floor as most of the Wizengamot went utterly silent. Someone yelled, “…Who is that?”

Amelia smirked humorlessly at the clueless newer member, “I present to you a man thought long-dead. Peter Pettigrew.” Sound erupted from every part of the room, and she watched in vicious glee as Bartemius Crouch lost every single bit of color in his face. Cornelius Fudge sat down hard in disbelief. Rita Skeeter, unfortunately the only journalist they managed to get on such short notice, simultaneously looked shocked and like every birthday and Christmas for the next year had come early.

“SILENCE!” Albus roared, and the room rumbled. “Madam Bones. Proceed.”

She took a scroll of parchment from her robe and unfurled it. “I have here the transcript of a formal interrogation I performed under Veritaserum less than two hours ago in my capacity as Head of the Department of Law Enforcement. Copies will be distributed to all members of this body, and I will read from it now.”

She then went through the entire scroll, watching the hall respond with first horror and then utter fury as the truth of Peter Pettigrew’s treachery was unveiled. She took note of the heads of some of the darker families, and how they didn’t seem too pleased by what she was saying. All of them close friends with Lucius Malfoy.

With such incontrovertible evidence, as well as a second dose of Veritaserum to ask a few more pointed questions, Peter’s guilt became utterly assured. Not a single person voted for anything short of life in Azkaban, and others yet were braying for the Kiss. The defeated rat did not fight as he was dragged from the room.

Albus stood, “It is clear now that an utter miscarriage of justice has occurred. With Pettigrew’s confession, Sirius Black’s innocence is assured!” He gazed around the hall, “And I for one wish to know just how it is possible for a man to spend fifteen years in our most dangerous prison while innocent of the crimes he was accused of.”

Bartemius Crouch looked utterly defeated as he sat in his chair. His career was over. His bid for Minister had been torpedoed fifteen years prior, and he would be lucky to escape this with merely his walking papers. He wondered if he might get stuck inside the cell his son should have been in if they sent him to the dreaded prison. He could only hope he managed to keep his greatest crime a secret.

…

The next day, the entire school was in an utter uproar as the Daily Prophet delivered the emergency papers to every hand in magical Britain, for all intents and purposes. The Weasleys were all pale and drawn as they read the truth about Scabbers, with Ron looking positively green over having slept with the rat beside him in his bed. Remus had managed to drag himself from his office for breakfast, looking incredibly peaky over the full moon last night. And as he read the paper, the egg and bacon sandwich in his mouth slipped out and splattered on his plate. He looked like someone had pulled the rug out from under him.

Rita Skeeter hadn’t pulled any punches, utterly lambasting the justice system and Barty Crouch in particular for the travesty of justice. Harry was quite satisfied to read that he’d been stripped of every bit of authority he’d had and fired outright from the ministry. He’d never again hold even a low position in the government.

Sirius had the Kiss-On-Sight order rescinded, with a full apology from the ministry. There was an open request that he visit the ministry so that they could get his side of the story and take care of some paperwork. Harry laughed madly when Rita revealed that the Wizengamot had decided to award him fifteen million galleons (one million per year he spent unjustly incarcerated), pending his ministry visit.

Nowhere on the paper was a mention of Harry Potter, Dementor Slayer. And Harry was perfectly fine with that. He stood, walking over to the head table, before telling Remus ‘Hospital Wing.’ The man stared at him in incomprehension for a few moments, before bolting from the table and running full tilt out of the hall. He moved unnaturally fast in his rush, and everyone saw it. Harry bit back a wince.

He was completely unsurprised when Snape later ‘let slip’ that Remus was a werewolf to his Slytherins. The smarter students had already figured it out, but after that, it spread through the school like wildfire. Harry was quite disappointed when Remus tendered his resignation, and he was by no means the only one. The students loved their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but the man wouldn’t be swayed from leaving.

“Bloody hell, the position really is cursed.” Susan groaned, to much grumbling from their group.

Sirius was officially exonerated a day later, and the rest of the term passed in a blur. Harry and his group once more took the top spots for their year, but for the first time since the year prior to his entry to Hogwarts, Gryffindor came in third in the House Cup. The 500 points they lost months ago was too much to overcome. Daphne, Tracey, and the Carrows looked pretty smug to see the hall decked in green, and Harry laughed, conjuring crowns to rest atop their heads from across the hall. With the year officially over, they found their beds, and then it was time to leave. For the first time, Harry didn’t dread the train ride home.

-]|[-