28 p2

— DP & SW: TFoP —

For the next few days, the Slytherin common room became a tense borderland, complete with buffer zones and trading ports, while Malfoy passed out wizarding photos showing a panicky Hermione fleeing from a gleeful Malfoy. Harry, as someone who flittered from the Gray to the Dark and back again, had discreetly summoned and burned the photos as quickly as they appeared, and then given Hermione a thick large tome titled The Pranker's Compendium.

For days afterwards, Daphne wouldn't let Hermione out of her sight, for which Hermione was grateful, and which was just as well, because Daphne had pushed out far ahead of him and Hermione in Divination, much to Hermione's chagrin. Neither he nor Hermione had managed to 'open their inner eye', and Harry was starting to suspect it wasn't worth it, considering they had Daphne who had succeeded, and who was already starting to learn the Eye of Kilrogg spell.

But while Hermione might be annoyed about having to watch her back 24/7, which only stressed her out more, considering she already had homework, healer training, muggleborn teaching, and divination, it was nothing to how Harry was feeling right now, as he moved through the school at a casual saunter, occasionally snapping off a homenum revelio, and noticing that his invisible pursuer, who had started occasionally following him a few days ago, and who was almost certainly Dumbledore, was still there.

Losing the man was difficult and time consuming and really starting to cramp his style. Not knowing what the man hoped to accomplish with this benny hill style rigmarole was really getting to him as well.

"It's not anything, John!"

Harry stopped dead just before he reached the next corner and flattened himself to the stone work.

"Don't give me that, Dean." His brother's voice filtered around the corner, sounding angry. "All our friends say they've seen you talking with her, a lot. What's up?"

Dean sounded exasperated. "Nothing's up. And if anything was up it would be none of your business."

Harry snapped off another homenum revelio and revealed the presence of the headmaster behind him and the two boys, Dean and John, around the corner.

"The Slytherins are my business — and Hermione is my business even more so." The voices started to get fainter and it was clear they were moving away.

"Well, why don't you talk to her yourself then? Then you can hear it from her that there's nothing up."

The voices faded away and Harry carried on walking ahead, deciding not to follow the boys, pointedly ignoring the Headmaster behind him, and giving no hint that he cared for anything about that conversation apart from not becoming a part of it. He shrugged. Maybe he'd go to the library and finish his homework for charms. He was sure that standing still in a library watching an eleven year old write essays was exactly what Dumbledore wanted to do with his time.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Lord Chief Auror Sirius Black leaned back in his office chair and shoved another parchment into the out tray. He reached for his in tray and grabbed the next parchment from the pile. Next to it stood a wizarding photograph of himself holding a happy four-year-old Alexandra in his arms, both waving up at him. In the corner of the room, a massive magical cactus plant was starting to yellow.

The door burst open.

"Hey, Bolt." Sirius greeted his auror partner without looking up.

"Hey Sirius," Shacklebolt rumbled in his deep baritone. "Thought you should take a look at this — might become hot soon." He threw a document at him.

Sirius now looked up, caught the roll, unfurled it, and started reading. "Muggle smugglers?"

Shacklebolt nodded. "The boys down in the DoM tripped the keyword 'magic' three times in the official police interrogation transcripts. Things like 'he would appear like magic from behind trees,' and 'I don't know how he did it, it was like magic.'

Sirius frowned. "Doesn't seem like the kind of thing we would usually follow up on."

Shacklebolt grinned. "It isn't. But check who the perp fingered as his main supplier of smuggled goods."

Sirius's eyes scanned down the document. His eyes widened and he choked. "Malfoy!"

Shacklebolt laughed, a deep low rumble. "Indeed."

Sirius tapped the office desk and frowned. "As much as I wish it were true, that's just not something I see Lucius Malfoy getting involved in."

Shacklebolt continued to chuckle and shook his head. "No, I agree. But it massively raises the chance that there's a wizard at play, and that, along with the muggle authorities involvement, puts this firmly in our hands as a possible endangerment of the international statute of secrecy."

"Any leads?"

Shacklebolt shrugged. "Not at the moment — it's just a waiting game for us. Nothing might come of us it, but I thought I'd give you the up." He stepped back towards the door. "You need to get out of the office more, anyway. Take little Alex out to a quidditch match, or something."

Sirius looked around distractedly. "Ah, yeah, I should really do that, shouldn't I?" He moved a stack of parchments. "You don't know what happened to the file with the department's new shield maintenance contract do you?"

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Dumbledore invisibly jogged down the first floor corridor, quickly turned the next corner, and arrived in the empty castle entrance hall — the operative word being 'empty'. Damn. He'd lost the little snake… again!

— DP & SW: TFoP —

The moon shone in through the shrieking shack window. Daphne Greengrass focused intensely and tried to push more magic through her inner eye than she had ever pushed before.

She raised her wand and pointed it at the floor, just a few feet in front of her. "Profero oculus Kilrogg!"

Suddenly something really weird happened to her world. She looked both up and down, and saw herself, looking at herself, and at a horribly ugly floating green eyeball the size of a bludger, all at the same time.

"Daphne! Well done!" Angelystor clapped and whooped.

Hermione let out a resigned sigh and gave her a wistful smile of congratulations. "Yes, well done. I guess we now know who the seer of the team is."

Daphne smiled back at her. "I promise to lend you my new super powers if you ever need them."

Hermione's wistful smile widened a bit.

Harry was hungrily circling the Eye of Kilrogg and Daphne couldn't help feel a little dizzy from following him in two places at once. "Yes," he muttered, "this is going to be just what we need. The range is extremely limited, but that's not a problem. We can work from the pipe network right next to the third floor. It can already pass through most wards…. Can you move it?"

Daphne looked towards Angelystor.

Angelystor coughed. "It's all will and intent. No fancy wand movements or incantations."

Daphne nodded, sat down in her chair and started learning to direct and control her new floating eyeball.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

While Daphne was settling down to practise with the floating eyeball, Harry stepped outside for a breath of fresh air and to get some business sorted. The winter festival had been productive in many ways, and one of those, was getting some fresh goods from Afghanistan. After all, mansions didn't pay for themselves.

Safe in the knowledge that the girls were protected by the fidelius, he wrapped himself in the invisibility cloak, and soared out across the Hogwarts grounds, all the way to his other fidelius property in Hogsmeade.

As he landed, he couldn't help but chuckle. He now had four fidelius charmed locations and he was already planning a fifth — the Black Library. The sheer overpowered nature of that spell boggled his mind. Luckily there were only three people in Magical Britain who could cast it, him being one of them.

He quickly grabbed his mobile phone, gave his loyal sooty owl some owl treats, and made his way back outside, before shooting of again into the mountains where the reception would be horrible, but the magic would be low.

He punched in the phone number and waited.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

The phone rang.

PC Woodman, currently serving the graveyard duty for ogling the Inspector's wife longer than was polite, stared at the mobile phone in the evidence rack behind his desk in shock and disbelief.

He quickly picked up his own phone and punched a number in.

"Hey, Robert?"

"Charles! Curtis' phone — the one to Malfoy — it's ringing!"

There was a sharp intake of breath. "Don't pick it up! Just leave it for the moment. I'll be there in two."

His connection clicked dead, and all the while the phone continued to ring.

PC Woodman stared at the ringing phone in bewilderment. The arrest of Curtis' and a good chuck on Britain's drug dealing elite had been all over the national news and in all the papers. What kind of hole would someone have to live in to not know that?

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Harry stared at the phone in mild annoyance. Curtis usually picked up pretty sharpish. Hopefully someone hadn't muscled in on his business while he'd been out of it. That would be awkward, but at least he'd have the philosopher's stone project in backup. Despite the great relationship he had with the Boneslicer Clan, he still didn't fancy testing how friendly they'd stay if he stopped paying his debts.

He punched the number into the device and tried again.

Click.

Finally.

"Hey, Malfoy," said the gruff voice Harry easily identified as Curtis Lawless from the other side, "that you?"

"Yes, Mister Lawless, it is me."

"Christ mate, thank god you called. I've had it up to 'ear with this lot. Listen, we need a whole lot of ships from you, understand? You can do it right?"

"Yes, I can do it. I have seventy kilos in my safe house, but I'm going to guess you need, what? Thirty-five?"

"Thirty-five is good — same rates as before."

Harry raised a single, slightly surprised eyebrow. "Sounds good on this end. Same meeting place as usual? 2:00am next Wednesday?"

"Yeah, alright. My boys will see you there."

"Right."

The phone clicked dead. Harry smiled, pocketed the phone, flew back to Hogsmeade, deposited the phone back on his desk, and flew back to the shrieking shack, to be met by a happy and bubbly Daphne who'd just managed to get the floating eyeball to zoom around the room and turn invisible on command.

As he happily waved good night to the girls at the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories, and climbed into his comfortable four poster bed, he couldn't help think that things were going really quite acceptably.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

"Granger."

Draco Malfoy had wondered if the mudblood meeting was a regular event and it turned out he'd been right. He had the mudblood princess boxed into the room again, and this time, he'd made sure to have Crabbe and Goyle on the other side of the door, holding it shut against all attempts to leave. Victory last time had tasted sweet. Victory this time, would be a full course banquet.

"Heir Malfoy," Granger said, looking at him nervously, fiddling with her beautifully crafted trunk before shrinking and pocketing it, and causing a slight tinge of jealousy to pass through him. No. He shook his head. Not jealousy — anger — yes, that's right — anger that someone so unworthy was allowed to possess such valuable artefacts.

He smirked. She looked like a trapped animal, the way her eyes flittered to the exit, the way she stood, the way she breathed. How good would she look in a cage? He chuckled and shook his head.

"Might I ask what's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing," he drawled, raising his wand. "just wondering what colour your hair's going to change." And with that, he let loose the first of his spells.

Granger brought up a shield like expected, and it splashed off it. He fired a second spell and again the spell hit the shield and did nothing. But unlike last time, Granger seemed to be making no frantic bolt to the door. Heh. He casually threw a tourettes jinx. All the easier for him.

Then, suddenly, with a flick of her wrist, Granger sent a bright blue spell directly at him.

Shocked, Draco raised a shield of his own and the spell splashed off of it. "Granger!"

"What?" Granger took a step forward and suddenly Draco noticed that her whole stance had changed. Gone was the nervousness, the darting eyes, the bent stance — instead she stood like a jungle cat getting ready to pounce.

"Y-you can't! You'll get into trouble!"

"Oh, Malfoy." Granger tilted her head to the side. "That was last week."

An orange spell splashed off his shield.

"That was a soprano jinx," Granger said, as though she were answering a question in class. "It raises the tone of your voice to almost a squeak."

A fluorescent pink spell was next. Draco cringed.

"That was a rapunzel jinx — causes your hair to grow a foot a minute until it wears off."

Draco felt his shield weaken as a bright orange spell hit it. Damn how powerful was Granger?

"And that one," Granger said with an almost demented grin, "was the oedipus jinx…

Draco gave her a look of horror.

"Oh, I see you know what that one does," she said sweetly. "I'm sure the world will love to know how much you think about your Mummy, Heir Malfoy."

And suddenly Draco didn't have time to do anything but shield and try to cast offensive spells wherever he could, which wasn't often.

A soprano spell clipped him through his shield and he gave a little squeaky yelp while barely managing to side step an unknown rainbow beam of magic. He sweated. This was a mistake. A bad mistake.

Granger smirked and his nerve broke. He shielded one more time and dove for the door, grabbing for the handle and twisting madly, only for it to not move a Merlin damned inch. He rattled the doorknob. "Let me out!" he squeaked.

"No way, Granger!" came a muffled shout from the other side.

A spell shattered his shield behind him.

"It's me, you idiots! Draco!"

"It doesn't sound like you."

He rattled the door again, and turned around to shield again.

"It's a spell!"

Granger was now only a dozen feet away, smiling like a demon from the nether world.

"Sure, it is."

He had just enough time to say, "Granger, how about it we—" before sparkly lights flashed towards him and a half dozen hexes hit him, one after the other, and his world become one whirling ball of weirdness.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Later that night, the Slytherin common room was almost perfectly divided. A third were howling with laughter, a third were quietly sniggering, and the final third were doing their best to look outraged while occasionally hiding a snort into a pillow or a giggle behind a raised book.

The wizarding photos this time showed a Draco Malfoy with gorgeous pink tresses so long they dragged on the floor, wearing his fine robes as normal, but lined with lace and frills, with deer antlers on his head, walking on his hands and knees, vomiting up slugs, with pink polka dotted skin, and occasionally shouting something that the lip readers of the room could identify as, "I love my Mummy!"

"You see," Tracey giggled, sitting with the rest of the Gray students to the right of the large empty Slytherin throne in the middle of the common room, "this is why you should declare yourself for us, Potter. Because we're awesome."

— DP & SW: TFoP —

It was the next afternoon, just after lunch, and Harry had to agree with Tracey pronouncement the previous night…. They were awesome.

Harry casually ducked behind a tapestry secret passageway, ran at full tilt up the corridor, turned the next corner, arrived into a tall hallway, disillusioned and silenced himself, wiped his cloak around him, and flew up into the rafters, sitting himself on the huge wood beam and dangling his cloaked feet over the edge.

Seconds later, Dumbledore barged into the hallway, looking around in obvious frustration.

Harry stayed quiet and watched as the man slid his own wand from its holster.

"Homenum Revelo."

Harry smirked.

After a few more moments, a rather confused looking Dumbledore left, and Harry descended back down to the ground.

He made his way towards the library, hoping to squeeze in some restricted section reading before dinner — but as he arrived, he spotted just who was facing off against each other just outside the library door.

"C'mon, Hermione!" His brother's voice wheedled.

"I said no — I'm not interested."

Wow, Hermione was attracting all the trouble these days, wasn't she? First Draco, now John.

John Potter ran his hand through his hair. "But why? Is that what Slytherin told you?"

"That," Hermione said in a frosty tone, "is none of your business."

Harry surreptitiously drew closer, keeping his wand in hand, just in case.

"I just don't understand how you could allow someone so much power over you. It's not like you."

"Again, none of your business."

John Potter looked away, obviously frustrated. "Shouldn't Slytherin want his vassal to pair up with someone like me? I'm the heir to an Ancient and Noble House, one of the wealthiest houses in Britain, with family magic going back over a thousand years. You couldn't ask for a better suitor."

Harry's lip curled. Oh, that whiny look on his brother's face when he wasn't getting his way.

"Have you considered the idea that maybe my lord simply wishes me to wait until I'm older before accepting such gifts? No one else is giving them out yet."

John scoffed. "Puuurleeze. Slytherin signed contracts with two witches when they were eight. I don't think he much cares about that."

"Well, if you weren't going to accept my reasoning then you shouldn't have asked for it," Hermione snapped, before turning and starting to walk away.

"You won't be able to run away forever, Hermione!" John called from behind her. "This is part of our culture!"

Harry followed the furious Hermione around the castle until he managed to get her alone.

"Harry," Hermione whispered softly when he finally whipped the cloak off himself and dragged her into an empty classroom. "Did you hear all that?"

"Yeah," Harry smiled. "He didn't look too happy did he?"

Hermione huffed and folded her arms. "Can you believe him! I wanted to hex him to hell and back for that last comment. As though the only reason I couldn't possibly want his stupid gift is because I'm a stupid muggleborn who doesn't understand the culture. GrraAAhhhh!" She threw her hands in the air. "It makes me so mad!"

Harry chuckled. "Well, at least he won't be able to force anything. Even if he somehow managed to trap your parents. We made sure of that."

Hermione stopped silently ranting and shivered. "Oh Merlin, you don't think he'd try something like that, do you?"

"I wouldn't put it past him, but probably not." Harry frowned. "I'd advise checking your food and drink for love potions from now on anyway, just in case."

Hermione nodded. "Are you sure I can't just Hex him to hell like I did Malfoy?"

Harry grinned. "As tempting as that is, we still want stay under his radar as much as possible, at least for the moment. And besides, it may not be illegal, but you might still get detention or whatnot. Best not to give Dumbledore any good reason to get you in trouble.

Hermione pouted.

Harry smiled "One day, Hermione, I promise. John's time will come."

— DP & SW: TFoP —

A few minutes previously, John Potter marched away from the Library in a bad mood. Getting back with Hermione was his best plan for sniffing out information on Slytherin. If she wasn't willing to let him near her, as much as that hurt, then he'd have to try other tactics.

He walked up a flight of stairs and down a corridor. Maybe he'd go talk with Susan during History of Magic. She'd have some ideas. It was just annoying they were in different houses so he couldn't have her around all the time.

He was just walking by the hospital wing, lost in thought, when the main door to the wing opened and who should walk out, but junior death eater number one.

John smirked and slowed down as Malfoy turned and spotted him. "Well, hello there."

"Potter," Malfoy spat. "What do you want?"

"Not much." John looked Malfoy over. "What were you doing in there? You don't look ill."

"None of your business."

Did Malfoy just blush?

John grinned. "Heh, bet someone just hexed your annoying arse."

"T-that's…"

"Oh Merlin, they did! HAH! Who was it? I need to thank them."

"They were just lucky!"

"Sure, they were." John smirked. "If they were so lucky, how about you duel me? I could really do with letting out some frustration."

Malfoy gave him a deadpanned look. "I'm not duelling you, Potter. I've heard the rumours of how powerful you are."

John raised an eyebrow. There was the good old Hogwarts rumour mill hard at work again. "And you… believe them?"

Malfoy folded his arms. "Yes, I do."

Wow. That was surprising. He smirked. "So, Slytherin is ready submit before the might of Gryffindor?"

Malfoy smirked back. "Hardly."

"Hardly?"

"Yes." Malfoy turned his back on him and started to walk off. "After all," he glanced back once more before walking off again, "we have our own Potter."

John stared after him with his mouth hanging open. Then he started to laugh — huge belly laughs that erupted from deep within him and echoed away down the large stone hallway. As if his pathetic little Slytherin twin brother could ever win in a duel, against him.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Daphne stood in front of the massive mirror that Harry had hung on the wall of the shrieking shack. Behind her, Harry and Hermione sat at the small divination classroom desks, the former working on paperwork, the latter switching between two different books, the first, 'The healer's Art — Twenty-sixth Edition,' and the second, 'If You Cant Beat Them, Prank Them.'

By Daphne's side, Angelystor gave her an encouraging smile.

Daphne shut her eyes, passed her magic through her inner eye, formed the intent of the spell, made a delicate wand motion towards the mirror, and focused on the three Ds of apparition — destination, determination, and deliberation.

The mirror's surface blurred, and the next moment, was showing her not her own head and body, but Harry's, still bent over his desk.

She grinned.

"Well done, Daphne!" Angelystor clapped.

Daphne let out a deep breath.

"You got it?" Harry had set his quill down and looked up.

Daphne preened. "Yes, I did."

"Excellent. It's all range and control from here on then?"

Angelystor nodded. "Yes, although, because the mirror spell can't pass through wards, even weak ones, we'll have to practise range from outside of the fidelius charm."

Harry frowned. "That's… I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that."

"Oh, Harry." Daphne made doe eyes at him. "I'm sure it will be safe if we do it just outside the shack. Then, if danger comes we can just duck back inside the charm. I can even keep casting the threat seeing spell on my crystal ball, just to make sure nothing dangerous is going to happen."

"Well, I'm not too comfortable about relying on that threat seeing spell like that. Exactly what it sees as a threat might be suspect… buuuttttt…."

Daphne continued to make doe eyes at him.

"Oh, alright. As soon as we get the mirror set up."

Daphne smiled brilliantly at him. "Thanks, Harry!"

"But not tonight. I've got an appointment soon."

Daphne smiled and turned back to the mirror. That was fine with her. She would get this whole divination thing working perfectly and then she'd finally stop being the team member whose only use was as a Daughter of the Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Harry left the Shrieking Shack in high spirits. Daphne's divination studies were coming on amazingly well. At this rate, they'd be ready to start exploring all the bits of the third floor corridor in just weeks. Once they knew exactly what they were up against, they could hatch a plan to crack it wide open and swipe the ultimate prize, right under Dumbledore and Voldie's big-fat and non-existent noses.

He chain apparated all the way to his secret cave safe in the Hebrides, grabbed seven-thousand galleons (£350,000) of Afghan white, popped an ageing potion, transfigured his face to his Malfoy-esque smuggler persona, and then chain apparated to a spot not far away from his trade spot.

The night was perfectly still. Clouds moved across the sky, alternatively bathing the land in moonlight, or cloaking it in darkness. The chill air tried to bite though his warming charms, and made visible his long slow breaths.

Slowly letting his body wash away the accumulated toxins from chain apparating up and down the country, Harry walked down the country lane, with its hedgerows on either side, and into the forest, on the other side of which, was his meeting point with Curtis' men.

"Homenum revelio."

Nothing. Not that he was expecting anything, but it always paid to make sure. The last thing he wanted was a gunshot wound to deal with. He always kept his wand in hand over a long sleeve during these exchanges. If they ever did try anything funny, they'd be quite surprised when they found their bullets stopping in mid air between them.

He trudged on a bit further.

"Tempus."

1:57am

Okay, that should be long enough.

He silenced himself, and apparated some five hundred metres south, right behind a random tree around the clearing in the woods.

"Homenum revelio."

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge. There were two people standing in the middle of the clearing, like usual, but there was also one person standing behind him, almost outside the range of his detection spell. Almost, but not quite.

What was he doing there? A scout maybe? A watcher? Someone Curtis assigned to make sure the men he sent were doing their jobs? He was too far away to interfere directly with him, and wouldn't be able to see him through all this underbrush, so that didn't make much sense either.

He hefted the heavy bag from his shoulder. Whatever. He'd deal with it.

Harry stepped out from behind the tree and walked towards the two men, making sure to keep his physical shield cast in front of him.

"Malfoy," Goon A greeted him with a grunt.

"You have the money?"

Goon B nodded. "You have the goods?"

He nodded, and flashed the inside of the rucksack.

Suddenly, magic flowed over him, very familiar magic. His eyes widened slightly. An anti apparition ward.

"Malfoy? You okay?"

He looked the man straight in the eyes, watched memories flash across his consciousness, saw the trap, and moved.

Goon A clutched his head, cried out, and stumbled back.

Goon B shouted.

Harry wandlessly banished both of them backwards with a swing of his rucksack holding arm.

And then, seemingly from nowhere, a huge dog leapt from the underbrush straight at him.

Startled, Harry stepped backwards and went for a disillusionment.

The dog transformed into Lord Black complete with Auror shield.

Fuck.

Harry's disillusionment activated.

Lord Black started a stunner chain.

Harry flicked the first stunner away, dodged the second, and swung his cloak around him on the third, watching with wide eyes as the stunner hit the cloak, travelled along the inside of the water-like cloth, and out the other side, barely missing his shoulder, but giving him just enough time to point his wand at the ground, cast the most powerful smell obliterating tergeo spell he could, and fly up into the air, tracing his path back to the tree and casting lessor, silent tergeo spells as he went.

Shouts and cries went up all over the clearing.

Just as he reached the tree, a second wave of magic flowed over him. A containment ward. His heart pounded. Trapped. Trapped! TRAPPED! He shook himself. NO! Not trapped.

Sweating, fighting down the urge to panic. Harry flew at top speed to a random point in the forest, landed, unshrunk his trunk, climbed inside, flinging his cloak over the trunk as he descended, grabbed his miniature ward stones, climbed back out, set up the stones in a one metre square around him, sat crosslegged on the ground under the cloak and started to meditate.

For twenty minutes, the shouts of men and the casting of dozens of different types of detection spells rang out across the clearing and through the woods. Everything from homenum revelio, to water spells, and chalk, Animagus Revelio, and elemental wind, rain, and fog spells.

Harry sat, his heart beating like mad, as one auror, tall, bald, and black, walked past him, not twenty metres away before continuing on.

Eventually, he took a long breath, pointed his wand at the wardstone standing right between his crossed legs in the middle of the square metre space, summoned all his magical powers, and hissed, "Fidelius Occultum."

The fidelius charm activated.

Harry let out a sigh of relief.

Safe.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

It had taken the auror team three whole hours to finally give up — often with Alex's father sniffing around the fidelius charm, making puzzled, doggy whining noises. Needless to say, Daphne, Hermione, and Angelystor were out of their minds with worry when he Morse coded them his situation on his lightning bolt ring, but the desperate hug he'd gotten when he finally stumbled back into the shrieking shack had left him feeling strangely okay about the situation.

"You mean, the money to build the manor, came from drug smuggling?" Hermione sat crossed legged on her chair, nibbling her lip, and looking worried.

Harry nodded. "Safest way I had. It's not like I personally go around doing the stuff that drug dealers do. I just moved things from point A to point B."

"You were nearly caught, Harry."

Harry cringed. "Well, it hardly makes any difference, Curtis seems to be out of the game now. He was fifty percent of the business, and I never could find other buyers with the time I had."

Daphne had sat herself on one of the desks and was idly swinging her legs back and forth. "So, what's our position then?"

"We've got fourteen thousand galleons (£700,000) in stock. Assuming nothing happens to my other buyers, that'll be liquidated in the next twelve months."

"And how long will that last us?"

Harry wrinkled his nose. "Depends on how much we spend — mostly on how much our house elves end up costing us. But assuming we can't get the philosopher's stone… we'd be in deep trouble by this time next year."

The three pre-teens stood and sat in thoughtful silence for a moment while their pregnant ghost seer hovered nearby.

"What about you, Angel?" Harry asked. "Can you offer any insights for the future?"

Angelystor slowly shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry shrugged. "Oh well." He turned to Daphne and grinned. "So, it's all on you now. No pressure."

Daphne scowled.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

It was all on her.

Daphne sat in defence against the dark arts and stared at Lord Voldemort who was currently demonstrating the correct way to use a tripping jinx to interrupt an enemy incantation.

Hermione sat next to her and she couldn't help notice that her friend was attracting several stares from persons of interest, most notably, Draco Malfoy and John Potter. Both seemed to be trying to bore into Hermione's head with the intensity of their gazes.

Both boys, however, would occasionally switch their gazes to Harry —Malfoy with a look of cold calculation and John Potter with one of scorn and derision.

Harry, sitting in front of her and Hermione as usual, ignored them both and kept his attention on Voldemort, who had just banished away yet another hanging garlic bulb, with a flick of his hand, and a disgusted look on his face.

Daphne couldn't help wondering just how much of quirrell was left, and how much was nothing more than rotting possessed corpse.

She shivered.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

After defence, Harry stepped outside the classroom, nodded to Daphne and Draco in turn, and headed off down the corridor. As soon as he was out of eyesight, he whipped out his wand, as he'd made a constant habit of over the past few weeks.

"Homenum revelio."

An invisible presence faded into his consciousness.

Damn. He casually started making his way towards one of the many maze like sections of the castle, determined to quickly lose his annoying pursuer. Really… didn't Dumbledore have more important things to do?

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Hermione had barely parted ways from Daphne after defence before she turned a corner into a zigzag corridor and the annoying person stepped out from behind the other corner.

"Hello, Granger." John Potter leaned on a stone pillar by his corner with his legs crossed and his arms folded in the universal, 'I'm a dick' position.

She sighed. "What is it this time?"

"I thought I'd give it another go to have you accept my gift."

Hermione folded her own arms. "I thought I told you I'm not interested."

"Are you sure?" John Potter took out the book from his shoulder bag and wiggled it in front of him. "Nice juicy, juicy book."

Hermione narrowed her eyes.

John Potter opened it. "Listen to this! Handwritten annotations by the original author themselves. Hidden secrets purged from later editions." His voice dipped to a mysterious drawl. "Think of the knowledge, Hermione. Wouldn't you like to read it?"

"Yes," Hermione said through clenched teeth, "I would. It's very nice. But I'm still not accepting it. All you're doing is pissing me off…"

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Harry ducked into a secret, parseltongue only secret passageway, ascended a steep spiral staircase, walked along a dusty corridor, descended another spiral staircase, came out the other side, and removed his disillusionment, silencing charms, and cloak. Heh. That one had been easy. Dumbles was getting sloppy. He walked up the passageway whistling as he went, until a familiar and most unwelcome voice caught his attention.

"Think of the knowledge, Hermione. Wouldn't you like to read it?"

Carefully, he crept up the passageway until he reached the corner, leant around it, and saw his brother's back, squaring off against Hermione and waving a book around.

"Potter?" A faint voice called from where he'd just come.

He whirled around. It was Tracey. He put a finger to his lips and motioned her over.

"Yes," Hermione said through clenched teeth, "I would. It's very nice. But I'm still not accepting it. All you're doing is pissing me off…"

Tracey sidled up to him, glanced around the corner, ducked back, and gave him a look of confused suspicion.

"Maybe you just need a little bit more… incentive" John Potter flourished another book so he now held one in each hand. "This is a list of all the books in the Potter Library. You could go through it and choose one for yourself."

Harry narrowed his eyes. He wouldn't mind a look through that himself.

Hermione stuck her nose up in the air. "I'm not accepting any gift from you no matter what it is."

"Oh, come on! John waved the new book around in obvious frustration. What's so bad about me that you, you, Hermione — Jean — Granger, would refuse a pick-any-book-you-want from one of the best magical libraries in Britain. It's not as if you're actually agreeing to a contract or anything!"

Hidden behind John, Harry smirked. Beside him, Tracey shot him another suspicious look.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Draco couldn't believe he'd forgotten his book in the defence classroom. It was exactly that kind of sloppy mistake that he didn't need. His standing had taken enough of a beating after what Granger had done to him the other week, thank you very much.

He marched up the corridor and was nearing a zigzag corner when a hated voice stopped him dead.

"It's not as if you're actually agreeing to a contract or anything!"

He pressed himself up against the wall, edged forward and tilted his head around the corner.

Granger was right there. Standing with her back fully exposed to him while John light-shines-out-of-my-arse Potter, ranted and raved while waving around some old looking books.

"My answer is still no."

"Not even if I do this?" John Potter dropped one of the books, held his wand up to the other and produced a small flame on it's tip."

Granger freaked out. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

John Potter smirked. "Accept the gift."

Granger took a step forward. "STOP IT!"

"Take it, or the book burns." He playfully jabbed the wand closer and closer to the book while grinning smugly.

Draco smirked. Oh, this was just too good to pass up.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

"Take it, or the book burns." John Potter playfully jabbed the wand closer and closer to the book while grinning smugly.

Harry stared, wide-eyed, as John tried to blackmail Hermione into accepting the declaration of intent gift.

Tracey was slack jawed. "This is so, so dumb," she whispered.

He nodded.

And just then, Harry spotted something out of the corner of his eye. So focused was he on the show down in front of him that he hadn't noticed another figure, standing behind Hermione, almost completely hidden around the corner on the far side of the corridor.

Draco Malfoy.

His eyes narrowed.

Draco Malfoy preparing to take a pot shot at Hermione's back.

"STOP IT!" Hermione yelled almost in hysterics. "OR I"LL STOP YOU!"

"TRY IT!" John happily yelled.

And all hell broke loose.

Hermione cast a bright blue spell straight towards John.

John shielded and cast one of his own back at her.

Malfoy chose that moment to cast a yellow spell that Harry now recognised as 'Maiden's shame' right at Hermione's back, which Harry managed to shield against by lifting a whole floor-stone right out of the floor behind Hermione and straight into the path of the spell, where it cracked and dropped back to the ground with an almighty smash, much to Malfoy's obvious surprise.

"MISTER POTTER!"

Harry froze.

John Potter froze.

Hermione froze.

Malfoy froze.

They all instantly stopped moving, their wands all pointed which way, the ziz-zag corridor already a war zone of broken stone and scorched masonry.

Tracey was standing to the side, trying to look as innocent as possible.

Harry turned his head, and there, halfway down the corridor he and Tracey had just walked up, stood his long time pursuer, Albus Dumbledore. Damn.

"Detention, Mister Potter!"

He lowered his wand. "For John too?"

John scowled, apparently rather shocked by his twin standing right behind him.

"I only saw you, Mister Harry Potter. You will serve detention with me next week on Wednesday."

Harry gave a low bow, "Of course, Headmaster."

— DP & SW: TFoP —

"I still can't believe that man!" A week had passed and Hermione was pacing in the shrieking shack while Daphne watched and Harry levitated the large wall mirror. "You were only protecting me. You were the only one out of us four who wasn't attacking anyone, and he still singled you out! Gah!"

Daphne smirked. It was amazing just how much righteous indignation Hermione could hold onto about anything relating to Harry.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione." Harry walked with the mirror out of the shack, followed by the two girls, and hung it on the wall facing towards the forbidden forest and away from Hogsmeade. "I'll be fine. Focus more on the next task."

Hermione took a deep breath and nodded.

Daphne sat down on a chair she'd carried from the shack, and placed her crystal ball on the ground. She'd spent almost all of last week since Dumbledore had given Harry detention on the Eye of Kilrogg spell, and she was now starting to practise with the mirror seeing spell. But while the Eye of Kilrogg could pass through most wards, the mirror spell could be blocked by even the smallest and weakest magical barriers. The benefit was that while the Eye of Kilrogg had a very short range, the mirror seeing spell could extend as far as the seer's magic let it, rather like apparition.

The problem with this was that she could only practise the spell outside of the fidelius charm — something Harry had only reluctantly agreed to, especially when he wasn't there, like now when he had his detention with Dumbledore.

Harry stepped back from the mirror and turned to her and Hermione. "Right. Now, what are the rules?"

Hermione raised her hand, which made Daphne stifle a giggle.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Always keep the cloak nearby, duck into the shack at the first sign of danger, and message you with our lightning bolt rings if we get in trouble."

"Right." Harry handed the invisibility cloak to Hermione. "I'll see you back in the common room. He then turned around, hit himself on the head with his wand, and became an outline against the background.

Hermione settled herself down cross-legged on the ground to read.

Daphne turned back to the mirror, raised her wand, and began to practise.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Dumbledore waited in the empty classroom. He'd chosen it specifically for tonight. It was large and gave the feeling of isolation to a student on their own. Also, the dais was raised and allowed the lecturer to look down on the students in the first few rows. It was the classroom he'd once held transfiguration in when he'd been a full time teacher.

There were many questions he hoped he'd get answered tonight.

The door opened and a lone figure walked in.

He waited until his current focus of interest was a good two-thirds of the way down the seating steps before raising his head. "Good evening, Mister Potter."

"Headmaster." The boy's tone was neutral and respectful. His gaze giving neither challenge nor submission.

Dumbledore smiled — a smile he'd spent a lot of time over the years getting just right. He knew it was welcoming and warm, while at the same time firm, with a hint of steel. "I suppose you might be wondering why I decided to oversee your detention personally rather than give it to your head of house?"

The boy finished sitting himself down, and Albus couldn't help notice that the spot he choose was exactly the same one that Riddle had sat in for his seven years of Hogwarts. "I assumed it was because he's a ghost?"

"Not at all, my boy. The Baron is just as much a head of house as Professors McGonagall, Sprout, or Flitwick. No, the reason is that I wished to talk to you personally, and felt that this would be a good opportunity to do so. I had been planning to speak with you soon anyway, but your, ahem, actions"—and here he looked over his moon shaped glasses down at the boy—"caused me to alter my plans somewhat."

Harry Potter tilted his head.

"You'll be working on your transfiguration. I've heard rumours of your abilities, and I'd like to see what you're capable of. I was something of a prodigy myself in my younger years, you know." He floated over a brick to Harry Potter's table. "Now, why don't you show me what you can do?"

Harry Potter shrugged, picked up his wand, and started to shape the brick into many wondrous things, many far more advanced then any first year should possibly be able to do, but none quite as good as conjuring an armchair right in the middle of the Slytherin common room.

Mmmm…

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Daphne smirked. She didn't know the forbidden forest, and, like with apparition, you couldn't use a mirror to see a place you had never seen yourself. But that didn't stop her. Just like a chain apparating wizard could hop from one visible location to another across the land or sea, so she could jump from spot to spot using the mirror, so long as the mirror could see the next spot she wanted to jump to.

She was currently viewing a beautiful little creek, in which water ran over a tiny waterfall. It was just a shame that the mirror couldn't pick up sound, or this would be quite relaxing.

A small beeping noise distracted her.

Hermione looked up from her book and shook her beeping wand. "Time for the threat assessment."

Daphne nodded, focused her magic through her inner eye, and tapped the crystal ball in front of her. It lit up a dim pink.

The two girls stared at it.

Hermione bit her lip. "Maybe we should head back inside?"

Daphne shook her head. "It's still fine. What ever it is isn't going to happen for a while. We've got time."

Hermione nodded uncertainly, but did return to her book.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

"And are you making many friends?"

"Oh, yes, Headmaster. Draco, and Daphne, and Hermione, and Theo, and Pansy." Potter thought for a moment. "And Tracey."

Albus frowned. "You might want to be careful, Harry. Young Draco's family in particular are not known for their fondness of people in your situation."

Harry Potter frowned. "But, they all seem so friendly — especially when I showed them some of my better tricks."

Albus mentally winced. While Harry going to Slytherin had been expected, Harry being powerful enough to overcome the natural leeriness his peers would have to a muggle raised, squib-mistaken, half-blood, Potter, twin brother of the boy-who-lived, had not.

"Harry," he took off his glasses and rubbed his face. "It gives me no pleasure in saying this, but there are many who will try to be friendly with you, just to use you. And the moment you are no longer useful, they will abandon you."

Harry's expression darkened. "Like my parents, Sir?"

And there it was. Albus suspected it would be there, but he hoped it wouldn't. Resentment. He sighed. "Harry, your parents did what they did for a very good reason."

Harry Potter leaned forward. "What reason?"

"Alas, I cannot say. Not now — wait," he said, seeing Harry was about to interrupt, "when you are older, no, when you are ready, you will know."

Albus settled back and regarded the boy in front of him, still watching him with those darkened eyes. Had he made a mistake by asking Lily to have Petunia to treat Harry as her own? He figured a well brought up child would be less risky than one who followed Tom's path too closely, but now… he wasn't so sure.

Whatever the case, it was clear the youngest Potter was still holding secrets. He could smell them all over him. So did John, for that matter — and that, was perhaps more worrying than anything else.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Daphne gasped. There, in the mirror, she could clearly see the beautiful and majestic form of a unicorn limping through the forest. The almost glowing white of its hair flowed across its back and sides until it hit a horrible gash in the animal's back leg, from where silvery blood dribbled out and fell on the floor as the purest thing Daphne had ever seen whinnied and tossed its head in pain. Even without sound, it tore at her heart.

"Hermione," she whispered.

Hermione didn't move.

"Hermione," she said a little louder.

"Huh?" Hermione looked up and gasped. "Oh no. Poor thing."

Daphne stood up, heart hammering in her chest. "It's not far. You can help it right?"

Hermione's eyes widened. "But, we can't! Harry said we mustn't leave."

"No, he said ring him if there was trouble."

"And! …Go back inside!"

"Only if it was dangerous," she wheedled.

Hermione pointed wildly at the mirror, eyes panicked. "Have you forgotten what's hunting it!"

Daphne bit her lip. "But… but…"

"Do the threat check spell!"

Daphne cast the spell on the crystal ball, all the while looking back at the mirror. The crystal ball glowed an angry bright red.

"You see!"

Daphne couldn't help it. Tears started to form around her eyes. "But, if we don't do anything, the unicorn is going to DIE!"

Hermione's lip trembled. Her shoulders slumped.

Daphne plunged on. "Look, we'll have the cloak. We can message Harry. It's not far. We can go out, heal it, and get back to the fidelius charm if we run into him. Nothing can see through the cloak — not even him."

Hermione's started pacing frantically.

In the mirror, the unicorn gave a silent cry of pain and collapsed in a lush green clearing, in a slowly expanding pool of silver blood.

Hermione stopped pacing, took a deep breath, and clutched her fists together. She closed her eyes. "How far is it?"

"Five minutes, maybe."

Hermione groaned, her eyes snapping open. "Okay, fine! Get under this thing and let's go. And be sure to message, Harry."

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Albus Dumbledore was getting more and more agitated the more he considered the boy in front of him. It wasn't any one thing, it was all the little things that added together to create a disturbing whole. Like the way he flicked his wand his at the end of a transfiguration and then gave it a little jab downwards. The jab down wasn't necessary, it was a mannerism. One he'd seen before. That and a few other tells had alarm bells ringing in his head.

If only he could get Harry and John performing together in an equal test of magic… that would give him the needed results to know just how much of what was going on was a result of Harry being a Potter twin, and how much of it was that fragment of soul in his forehead.

Of course, there was the duelling tournament.

Harry Potter was currently working on the transfiguration essay that Minerva had assigned earlier that week.

Albus stroked his beard. Maybe…

Suddenly Albus twitched in his seat. Something was happening. Almost impossible to feel for someone not as sensitive to magic as himself, but something was happening. A tiny amount of magic was flowing into and out of young Harry.

Albus stared.

Harry's expression slowly changed — almost beyond his ability to detect, but the change was there. A tiny hint of concern, of worry. And a tiny leak in the boy's mind.

Albus continued to watch and the magic continued to flow into the boy. Then, the magic started flowing out of the boy, in the same minute amounts.

What was going on?

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Daphne and Hermione crept through the undergrowth of the forbidden forest, careful to always stay under the cloak as they made their way to their target.

They rounded the next tree trunk and Daphne's heart broke.

The unicorn lay there on its side, silver blood everywhere, its chest rising and falling in time with its sad little whines.

"Gogogo," Hermione whispered.

They quickly made their way over to the animal, wading their way through the long greenery of the clearing, still hidden under the cloak.

When they arrived, Hermione groaned. "It's so deep — and unicorns are highly magical creatures already. I don't know if I have enough magic to make this work."

"Please, just try."

Hermione pointed her ash and dragon heartstring wand at the animal from under the cloak. "Concrescat sanguinem!"

Slowly, the silvery blood started to dry around the wound, but the longer Hermione held the spell on the animal, the quicker the blood flowed out. Suddenly, the clot gave way, and the wound opened up again. Hermione eyes watered. "It's too much. I can't do it."

The unicorn gave a loud whinny.

Daphne looked around frantically for anything that might help them, and then stopped and saw what they were sitting knee deep in. She shook Hermione's arm. "Hermione. Look around you!"

Hermione tore her tear-filled eyes from the dying unicorn and gasped. Daphne grabbed one of the nearest plants and started to shred it with her wand. They were sitting in a Merlin damned field of huntsman's sorrow the size of one of the Hogwart's greenhouses.

Hermione quickly joined her and moments later they were packing the shredded herb into the wound on the animal's side. Hermione pointed her wand at the wound again. "Sano caro!"

Slowly, painfully slowly, the wound started to knit itself together, the wound closed, and the blood flow slowed, slowed, and stopped.

Hermione let out a deep breath, and flicked a diagnostic charm over the animal.

"All good?" Daphne asked.

Hermione turned to her, tears leaking out the sides of her eyes. "No, Daphne. It wasn't enough. She's still dying. She lost too much blood and I don't know what else to do. We don't have any blood replenishers."

"I…" Daphne felt a lump form in her throat. "There must be something we can do!"

Hermione let out a small sob. "I don't know!"

Daphne frantically looked around again. There had to be something, but there was only the huntsman's sorrow, the unicorn, them, the cloak, and the pools of silvery blood still soaking the ground, and trailing away into the forest.

She looked down where the unicorn blood had already started to soak in the silk of her robes where she had knelt down on the ground.

That… that couldn't work… could it?

"Hermione!"

Hermione looked up at her.

"The unicorn blood! Give it to her!"

Hermione looked confused for a moment before her eyes widened. "Will that work?"

"I don't know, but what else is there to lose?"

Hermione wiped her nose on her sleeve, and nodded.

Daphne transfigured a small trough from surrounding dirt and soil.

"Accio unicorn blood!"

Unicorn blood soared through the air at them, and they managed to catch, at least some of it in the trough, while being very careful not to accidentally drink any themselves.

Daphne put the trough down in front of the unicorn, which looked up at her with pain filled eyes. "C'mon," she said, stroking the animal's nose, "I know you wouldn't normally do this, but this is your only chance. Please. Don't die."

The unicorn looked up at her again, and with Daphne and Hermione's help, managed to raise its head and, lowing it back into the trough, started to drink. And as it drank, the animal started to glow silver white.

Hermione flicked another diagnostic charm over the glowing animal, let out a massive smile, and gave Daphne the thumbs up.

Daphne's heart soared. They'd done it.

And it was at exactly that moment when a darkened figure, face hidden by a long black hooded cloak, descended from the sky not a dozen metres from where they sat, slowly clapping.

Terror gripped Daphne's soul. She didn't wait to see what the corpse possessing Dark Lord was going to do. She shielded, leapt for Hermione, grabbed the cloak from her, covered them both in it, grabbed her friend, and stumbled to where she'd just been, moments before a dozen spells splashed at and around where they'd just been standing, only seconds earlier.

Hermione shrieked.

Obviously alerted by her friend's cry, Quirrellmort threw more spells in their direction.

Daphne shielded, managing to stop one whole spell before the shield shattered and three different spells hit the cloak, flowing around them and out the other side, but not before one hit Hermione, opening up a huge cut in her shoulder, and causing her to cry out again.

Suddenly, the still glowing unicorn was on its feet and charging.

Voldemort shot up into the air to evade and the unicorn pivoted around, stopping right in front of them.

Without needing to think, Daphne hoisted herself up onto its back, grabbing a still whimpering Hermione with the help of one almighty Accio.

The unicorn bolted away, the girls desperately clinging on as hard as they could, curses and spells raining down around it them.

She sent a series of frantic pulses of magic into her lightning bolt ring. 'LV'.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Dumbledore was still trying to work out was what going on when suddenly a small eruption of magic came from the boy. Not the subtle mystery from before, but a simple flare of determination.

Harry Potter stood up quickly. "My apologies, Headmaster, I need to use the bathroom, if I may be excused." He turned to go.

Albus twitched. "No, I think not, Mister Potter. Please sit back down and continue."

Potter ignored him.

Albus sighed and flicked his wrist, causing the large double doors to the classroom to slam shut and bolt themselves.

Harry Potter froze.

Albus got to his feet and walked up the other passageway to the main doors. Reaching them, he turned back to look at the boy, whose facial expression was now so blank that Albus couldn't detect a single emotion on it. It was as though Harry had completely closed himself off from anything and everything in the world.

"Please go back to your seat, Mister Potter."

Harry Potter didn't move. "I need to leave."

Albus frowned, still standing between Harry and the room's only exit. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, Mister Potter. You. May. Not. Leave."

The blank facial expression lasted all of a few more moments before being replaced by a flash-flood of raw, uncontrolled magic, and one simple overriding emotion. Terror.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Ploughing through the forbidden forest on the back of a glowing unicorn, Daphne risked a glance behind her and gave a whimper of her own. The Dark Lord flew around them just like Harry could, just as agile as any broomstick, managing to keep pace despite the many forest obstacles.

The unicorn flowed through the woods like water.

Daphne couldn't help thinking that riding bareback at this speed should be far more uncomfortable than it actually was. Time seemed to slow down and moments stretched to eternity. She wasn't sure how long the chase lasted, but it felt like forever. In the darkness of the deep woods, every spell flash felt like a supernova in the back of her eyeballs.

Then, after what seemed an age, they danced around another bush, into a clearing and what Daphne saw ahead made her heart stop. Six centaurs, tall and powerful, stood in a semi-circle, their bows drawn and pointing right at them.

Not seeming to care, their pure-light mount continued straight on, dashed past the taut row of bristling death, and screeched to a stop behind the line.

Voldemort zoomed into the clearing, and, without even seeming to hesitate, made a large upwards curve, straight up into the sky, as six arrow heads zipped straight through where his borrowed body had been, only moments earlier.

And then the clearing was silent.

From behind her, Hermione mumbled, "concrescat sanguinem."

The centaurs all turned to them.

"Umm… hi?"

— DP & SW: TFoP —

"Mister Potter, control yourself!" Albus roared through the whirlwind of wild magic pouring off the young sorcerer. Chairs and tables lay smashed all around him. He flicked his wand again, shielding against yet another flying desk.

Harry Potter stood in the middle of an almost completely destroyed classroom. His posture was like a caged animal, eyes white with mindless terror, magic totally out of control, and Albus knew the boy was going into full scale magical meltdown — the pathway to his core had snapped open and his body was desperately trying—and failing—to contain the totality of his magic, every single Merlin being unloaded from his core, all at once.

Albus cursed and tried to shoot a stunner at the boy, which had about as much effect as hitting a steel door with a feather. He transfigured the stone in the floor to form a solid egg around the boy, only for it to be torn through like paper.

The magical build-up was ridiculous.

"Albus!" Minerva's voice shouted from the other side of the bolted door. "What's going on!"

"Minerva!" he shouted. "Clear the area! Get all students away! Now!"

— DP & SW: TFoP —

"Thank you for saving us." Daphne said.

The centaurs all looked between each other before what seemed to be leader stepped forward. "It is not we who saved you, young seer, but the stars."

Daphne's eyes widened. They knew she was practising divination. That was supposed to be, like, super top secret knowledge. "Umm…"

The centaurs all looked to the sky, but didn't say anything more.

Under her, the unicorn let out a little snuffling noise.

Hermione was still tending to her shoulder.

"Jupiter shines brightly tonight."

Daphne frowned. Angelystor hadn't taught her anything about astrology and their astronomy classes were of questionable helpfulness. "Is that good?"

The leader, large and chestnut coloured, looked down at her.

"The last time around, it was Pluto, and the time before that, was Mars."

"The last time?"

"The stars carry messages of their changes, young seer — changes in space — changes in time."

The words crashed into Daphne like a hammer. "Y-y-you know?" she squeaked.

"Around and around you go, will you ever get it right? I hope for our sakes, that you will."

"W-we intend to."

"I'm sure you do." The leader looked around at his fellows again before turning back. He sighed. "Well, I understand that your kind set great store by trades. This thing for that thing. I would trade with you, Lady Slytherin."

Daphne was suddenly on guard. "Trade?"

"For saving your lives, young fillies, we simple ask that you remember that, for us, the forest is our home, and always will be."

"You want me to remember that?"

"Yes."

Daphne thought for a moment. "Very well. I, as Lady Slytherin, will remember that the forest is your home and always will be."

The centaur bowed. "That is all we ask."

Suddenly, from far in the distance, there was an almighty BOOM that shook the ground under them, and caused leaves to fall from trees.

"What was that?" Daphne asked, alarmed.

"That, was your lord."

Daphne and Hermione stilled, wide eyed. Harry!

"I daresay, he is in need of your help, young ones."

And with an adrenaline fuelled jolt, the unicorn surged into motion again, Daphne and Hermione no longer thinking of anything, but getting to their friend and leader.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Dumbledore stood up from where he'd been crouching in a protective bubble of almost pure magic, reinforced by transfigured stonework, and conjured titanium. The room was a mess. Another large beam crashed down to the ground in a heap of flaming wreckage.

He quickly made his way over to the boy, now laying unconscious in a crumpled heap. That reaction had been the most extreme thing he'd ever seen, and he'd seen a lot. Magical meltdowns weren't unknown, but they rarely happened to people who had such apparently large cores.

He pointed his wand at the young boy's head. "Legilimens." His probe hit something as solid as steel and bounced straight off. He stumbled back, shocked. What in Merlin's name?

"Albus!" Minerva appeared by his side, stepping over rubble to do so. "What happened?" She caught sight of Harry. "Oh, my goodness!"

"He needs medical help, Minerva. Can you take him up to the hospital wing?"

Minerva McGonagall nodded, "Certainly."

Albus Dumbledore watched his number two levitate the unconscious boy and leave the room.

Mmmm… now what to do?

— DP & SW: TFoP —

Hermione and Daphne charged up to the school, pausing only for cleaning charms to get rid of as much unicorn blood as possible and turning their robes inside out to hide the rest. They ran past an incensed Filch, was screamed at them about at it being almost curfew, and ran down to the Slytherin common room, only to find Harry wasn't there. They then ran to the one other place they though he might be… the hospital wing.

"Harry!" Hermione and Daphne cried in unison upon entering the wing.

"Miss Granger! Miss Greengrass!" The matron stormed over to them. "Keep your voices down. You, Miss Granger, I expect you to know better."

Hermione wasn't listening though. "What happened to Harry?"

"Some kind of magical overloading." Madam Pomfrey made an unamused cluck sound with her tongue. "Blew up one of the classrooms on the fourth floor."

Daphne took up position on Harry's right side. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yes, with time and rest. It's very difficult to tell, of course, but he'll probably be up and about by as soon as tomorrow morning, as insane as that may be."

Daphne sagged with relief. She saw Hermione do the same. She could remember the last time something like this had happened—when Harry had been trapped at the Weasley's—but it hadn't been this bad then.

They both took one of his hands in theirs and sat down to wait for as long as they could, before Madam Pomfrey eventually kicked them out.

— DP & SW: TFoP —

In a corner of the hospital wing, disillusioned and silenced, Albus Dumbledore watched the two young ladies eventually leave with mixed feelings. Such shows of loyalty and friendship were admirable, and in any other circumstance, he'd be beside himself with joy. But right now, it could not be happening at a worse time.

He'd spent the last few hours thinking about what had happened and had come to the conclusion that Harry had not only shown himself to be powerful, charismatic, and likeable, but he was also keeping secrets, and had occlumency barriers far stronger than anything he'd ever seen before. Not only that, but all those normal memories and feelings that Albus had been plucking from the boy's mind up to now were obviously fake. An extra layer of shielding against legilimency attacks that only the very, very best occlumens could pull off.

That combined with the boy's apparent instability, as made clear by tonight's events, lead him to one painful conclusion. The lad was dangerous. Far too dangerous for the status quo to be allowed to stand. But what was he to do? Lily and James would never allow him to be pulled from Hogwarts, not without an obvious event that showed something had gone wrong. That would go counter to everything he'd told them.

But he needed Harry to be somewhere safer. Somewhere he could keep an eye on him, where Harry couldn't just run away, where he couldn't build up influence the way Tom had. And where Dumbledore could grab the boy when he was needed to square up against Tom again, after the experiment with the stone had run its course.

He stared at the blank wall of the hospital wing.

And then it came to him.

He let out a long, depressed sigh. Of course, that was were he could maneuver for young Harry to be placed, as horrific as it would be… Azkaban.

— End of Chapter Twenty-eight —