Chapter 17.

I dropped the smoked slice of toad tongue in the silver cauldron and carefully poked it with the ceremonial sharp stick. Bubbles escaped the piece of meat as it drowned into the amazingly bright potion and I diminished the heat by five degree Celsius. I stepped back and dropped on a chair. This potion was almost half done, and in a week, it would be done. Satisfied with the thought, I opened my tome on imbuement and continued the interesting read.

If I find the numerological equivalent of banshee cloth, it should be easy enough to set up the imbuement ritual. I finally concluded as someone knocked on the door.

"Vagina shampoo." muttered an annoyed voice from behind the magically enhanced wooden panel.

I cracked a chuckle and waved it open. "That password only gets funnier." I mused out loud.

Alyson shook her head and rolled her eyes as she set foot in my self-proclaimed personal, and utterly illegal, potion laboratory.

"One would think you'd take things a bit more seriously considering the ... situation you're in. The lone discussion topic in the school right now is the Zabini affair, a.k.a whether Harry Potter a dark wizard or not..." she admonished, her focus being drawn to the faintly buzzing cauldron like a moth to a flame.

"What is this potion for anyway?" she asked, curiously interested in the concoction. It was the fumes, I assumed, the stuff this potion contained was mindblowing, and any wizard would feel it by inhaling the fumes.

"It has the very dramatic name of... yes it would translate to 'sacrificial righteousness'. I won't tell you what it does, mainly because you simply wouldn't understand it." I explained proudly, walking around the shining cauldron to face her in an increasingly dramatic way. "It is but one of the first step toward my great purpose. The other first step is what I called you here for." I slapped my hands on the brim, startling her out of her fascination.

It was time to start setting up the ritual, while I still could move relatively freely in the castle.

I took my wand out and disillusioned both of us perfectly without a word.

"Don't talk until I tell you to. Of course you understand we're meant to not be seen."

She nodded, I took her hand and pulled her out of the room, not forgetting to lock it with a charm so obscure and overly complex that even goblins would have to force it open with explosives to get inside.

We moved in silence through the castle, I intentionally led her in unused corridors, taking longer detours to avoid the masses. We reached our destination after nearly an hour of trekking in the depth of the castle. The rock had become damp and moist at places, light didn't reach it since long, spider webs were thick as cloth and only the most annoying paintings were exiled in such a place. All the room were unused around these parts, and I had set my eyes on a particularly large and ancient auditorium to set up my ritual in.

I opened the door and entered the sanctuary, the center piece of my life, and as far as I was concerned, the entire world. In this room, the fate of everything was to be sealed. It was of old design, the rows were made of big stones and the sheer size of the room made necessary four thick round stone pillars to hold the ceiling, complete with semi-archs and everything. A cathedral of a sort.

I breathed the stale air with delight, my arms open, and turned to my guest.

"You can talk." I smiled to the invisible witch before waltzing to the middle of the auditorium, in between the two front pillars, facing the three hundred or so rows of seats and desks.

"Sacrificial righteousness?" she asked out of the blue. "I have no delusion about your plans, Potter, I know you're plotting something nasty, but please don't tell me we're going to make, out of all the thing I really don't want to be doing, human sacrifices... in that remote and if I may, fucking spooky place."

I laughed happily, my laugh reverberating in the stone room and echoing loudly. My time at Hogwarts so far had been splendid. I hadn't much free time around my studies and brewing, not to mention the last minute worries from my Horus partners and the constant harassment from Zachary's friends, but the few free time I could find was used to its full extent, I had killed and shagged twice as much as I thought possible for someone under such pressure. Of course, it was a way to release pressure, but in a way, it also added to it.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, you won't have to kill anybody." I grinned and cancelled the disillusionment charms, tracking my wand down her lovely chin and making her shiver at the contact of unraveling magic. Or maybe it's just me that makes her shiver. She does look scared, sometimes... I chuckled at the thought and squatted down before emptying my pockets on the irregular old stones.

The Legendary Salamander beating heart was in its pot and still beating. The endless pouch was still holding three barrels worth of moondust and the less volatile ingredients I had already brought in the room beforehand. It was unfortunately impossible to set everything up at the same time and starting early was the logical answer. So we would start, and slowly work our way to the D day, cautiousness was paramount in this step, we had time and we would use it wisely, even though the risk of getting caught increases rather exponentially from the day we start and onward.

"What about that liquid-handling spell you were working on? Did you finish it?"

She shook her head.

"I got the base of it alright, but it still isn't a hundred percent accurate. Give me one more week and it'll be to the millimeter. I just need to find out why it wiggles on its own instead of flowing neatly."

"Alright, one more week. I can manage."I replied offhandedly, this particular piece of magic could wait until the very end in all truth. What we were doing here had to start a bit earlier. A lot earlier, if I had my way with it. And since when don't I have my way with anything?

"Say, what do you know about rituals?" I asked after inwardly reviewing my plans for the next weeks. It had become an habit to forget things, lately - or maybe a lot longer than just lately. Just like a kid with too many toys, my mind was scattered. But only one toy really matters.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Rituals? Nothing." she squinted at me. "But I hope to Merlin you're not planning to make one involving sacrifices." she added after a pause.

"I happen to be a master in the field of rituals, and this place is perfect to set up one." I cast my gaze around. "The old and dusty rock, the ambient moist, the inherent quiet of this abandoned room, all of these factors make it more than suitable for the revolutionary, certainly, but still ancient arcane magic we're going to perform here... the pillars too..." I explained to her, being cryptic without realizing it. At this point, I was talking to myself. Yes, those pillars... it's like they were made to have human sacrifices pinned onto them.

I shook my head and unfolded the large parchment covered in geometrics and runes that I had been feverishly working on for months now, a final compilation of all my research, the fruit of my hard labour.

"Anyway, I digress... Come here and take a look at this. This is the blueprint of the ritual." she obeyed, setting herself against me to watch the amazing document. "Your only work in this place is to reproduce this drawing onto the floor with chalk." I pointed to four small circles set up in a square pattern. "Those are the pillars right here. Make sure everything fits exactly, if it doesn't, you erase it and start again. If you have doubt on what rune some of those are, you ask me, but it should be easy enough to just read it." she opened her eyes wide. "Maybe not the Maori runes, those are quite obscure. Anyway,"

I dropped four more parchment rolls onto the teacher's desk and opened them with a wave of wand.

"Of course, it's a multi-layer ritual. Five layers, to be exact." I handed her a box of multicolor chalks. "One color for each layer, please, and begin." I finished, my mind already starting on my own work for today.

"Harry... there are like a hundred runes on this parchment, and I've never seen any like those... that'll take days, even more." she started, amazed, talking to my back as I started to set up my workstation.

"Nah, it'll probably take you about two weeks, since you're gonna mess up a lot."

"What in the name of sweet love are you plotting, Harry?" she murmured, her eyes madly drifting across the parchment sheets, trying to find a meaning in the answer before her.

I waved her away.

"Psh, start your work now, we've got only a couple hours and I have to start imbuing that banshee cloth with those phoenix tears." I leaned onto the desk and started to analyze the weaving of the banshee cloth with the magnifying tool. I glanced one last time to the phials of phoenix tears before diving into my work. I have enough to fail once. Only once. Well, I seem to be pretty good at first times so here goes.

We worked in silence for two hours, only interrupted a few times by Alyson who couldn't quite make the principal circle round enough, but in the end, she had it right. My imbuement went awry toward the end, I miscalculated the Phoenix tear's chaos potential and it resulted in the Banshee cloth to unravel the whole work and burn violently. Next try will have to work.

"So you're not gonna tell me exactly what we're doing in here?" pouted Alyson on our way back, ignoring my orders of not talking. "I'm the one drawing that thing, I'm involved just as much as you so come on."

"I can tell you it shouldn't put anyone in danger, if that bothers you. Now shut up." I spat, still slightly mad from my failed attempt at 'from-scratch' imbuement.

She didn't catch the shouldn't and stayed silent for about half a minute.

"Did you hear about your brother and that club of his?"

I stopped in my tracks.

"Do tell."

"Well I don't know much of it, but from what I heard, he's been putting some kind of battle squad together and train within the castle, in some secret room."

I was surprised to hear that. I knew James had been preparing him for the incoming war for a while now, and I was sure Hermione and Ron would get some training at some point too, but a battle squad?

"What do you mean, a battle squad?"

"I'm not too sure, but around two dozen people, possibly more. Do you think he'll send them after us?"

"Mmh... That I can't say for sure, but the Zabini affair quite rekindled his interest in me. On the other hand, he's got You-Know-Who to deal with, too, and that's a bit more of a threat, surely."

"Oh, while I'm at it, I'm pretty sure the twins will slip their long-awaited babbling potion in your drink tomorrow, I saw them looking at you intently lately, they must have finished the brew."

I nodded.

"Did you brew the antidote?"

"Yes, sir." she exclaimed proudly, mimicking the Auror's salute. She was an amazing girl, all in all.

I looked at the time. Curfew was in less than ten minutes, no time to grab some food at the kitchen.

"Good, disband."

As expected, the babbling potion found its way into my cup the day after Alyson had warned me. I played their game for an hour, babbling my thoughts about everything mixed in an incomprehensible flow of mingled words, hoping they would be happy enough with that victory.

Thankfully, most of my surface thoughts were inane, I had known this before accepting to get poisoned with a babbling potion of course, I was confident I would mostly blab about sex and cursing people. The latter could have been a problem, but nobody really takes someone under a blabbing curse seriously, it was fairly easy to control what was being said.

I spotted Alyson in the courtyard and walked to her, still followed by the small troop of people laughing at my predicament.

"Hey Harry." she greeted me with a smile, eyeing the laughing Gryffindors behind me with distrust.

"Alysoniwanttofuckyourealhardandeatsomefruitsafter wards." I blurted out in a breath."Maybewecouldkillacoupletwinswhenweredone." I spat, being entirely serious.

She snorted, the group of Gryffindor was howling with laughter, the twins leading the orchestra. She rummaged into her bag and handed me the antidote phial with a coy smile.

"Why, that sounds like a wonderful plan, Mr. Potter, I'm afraid we'll have to skip the fruits, though, we have class soon."

I swallowed the antidote in a single shot and felt it work immediately.

"Lucky your girl is here to watch your back, by the way, you owe her a hundred galleons at least for that antidote." grinned the first twin.

"This was only a preview of what we've got in store for you." smiled the other, trying to sound mysterious and threatening.

I nodded a thank at Alyson and turned to the twins, sighing and trying to appear slightly beaten. Which was harder than I had thought.

"You won, Weasley, you got me good. Because of you, a few girls will think twice before talking to me again. That 'war' is over."

They peered at each other for a two seconds long meeting and, apparently agreeing, snorted together.

"Says you. It's not over until we say it's over."

"And you deserve far worse than a babbling potion for what you did."

On that, they turned around in synch and walked away, letting the group disperse on its own.

Alyson waited for everyone to be gone and sighed, shaking her head faintly, her arms crossed.

"They will regret that."

I nodded.

"Yeah, they will. Anyway, we've got a bit less than half an hour before class, and I know a fairly well hidden closet not far." I grinned and grabbed her by the waist.

"I'm all yours, Sir Potter." she giggled playfully.

We got to class a few minutes late and took our seats in Snape's class after getting scolded by the angry bat and, in my case, losing a good twenty house points.

"I realize the twins are going to be a pain in the ass." I muttered to her at some point while cutting turtle scale in small squares. "You're gonna take care of them." I said, throwing the pieces in the cauldron. "Find a weakness, something heavy, and report to me before taking action."

She nodded and handed me a tomato. "Do we continue our work tonight?"

"No, I'll do some brewing on my own tonight." And a little expedition in the forest... I've got a vendetta to settle against this damned bloodthirsty tree. I smiled at the prospect of spending the night fighting and killing living beings. "Why did you give me a tomato?"

"Alright then, but I still have to finish that spell of yours. It's an ingredient, take out the seeds and put them in."

"Okay, finish the spell and then take care of them, but don't wait too long. I'm afraid they could actually become dangerous if we don't do something." I still can't tell how they slipped the potion in my drink and disguised it so skillfully. It had indeed tasted like pumpkin juice, even if I knew it was a babbling potion. It was more than some Potion trick, probably Transfiguration. They're good. "I'm not putting a tomato in a StoneNail potion, Snape probably thought some idiots would fall for it."

We left Potion an hour later with an E for "it was the best and a perfect potion but there's no way I'm giving you an O", which is the best grade one can get from Snape and went to our respective tasks. I would skip History of Magic to begin to brew the potion that would be fed to the sacrifices after the 'sacrificial righteousness', the 'regret and penitence'. Can it get any more dramatic? I wonder if all Russian potion masters name their brew like so.

I had disillusioned myself and was climbing the stairs leading to my personal laboratory when I spotted a group led by the Beacon of Light, Zachary himself, walking in the other direction. It took me a bit of thinking to realize why it seemed strange to me; Gryffindor had History with us Hufflepuff, and as far as I knew, they weren't the kind to skip classes, so they had no business walking to the north when the classroom was in the south. I took a few steps down and peered closer into the group. Along with my dear brother, there were Hermione, Ron, Andra, Jay and two other I didn't recognize. Jay was a Hufflepuff a year above me and Andra was a Gryffindor I had flirted with at some point, but never bedded. Even a Hufflepuff, huh? There was definitely something happening, I thought, remembering this battle squad thing Alyson had mentioned the day before.

I followed them for a few minutes before I understood where they were going and why they were so slow and cautious about it. On the other end of the corridor was Alyson, alone, looking for an adequate empty classroom to practice that spell she was creating. They were stalking her from a good distance.

"Alright, we're alone." started Zachary suddenly, watching behind the group and straight through me. "Listen, I know you don't like it, but we need to do this. We need to try something now, we can't sit by any longer."

The bushy haired girl took a step out of the ranks toward him and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Zach, I'm going with you only because you asked me to, but I think it's a bad idea. There must be a better way."

"She's the key to Harry, Hermione, I know it. She's been around him a lot more than anyone else lately, and she's got those secret hiding eyes, she knows what's up with him, trust me." exposed Zachary confidently, giving his troopers the conviction they needed.

Dad taught him well. It's a wonder he didn't notice all the obliviating I did already. I had stopped obliviating my housemates after Alyson showed me the flaw it had become, but their memories were still completely messed up, and my biggest fear was that someone else would look into it. Aurors, Dumbledore, or Zachary, who would be the first? I didn't want to find out.

"Ok, let's go." he said, starting to trot toward Alyson. "Andra, Paul, Jay and me will stun her. Hermione and Vincent you get ready in case she manages to shield and counterattacks somehow and Ron, you watch our backs. Like I taught you, half a second between each stunner."

They started running toward Alyson. Anger rose in me. What the fuck do they even plan to do with her? Veritaserum? I glanced at Granger. She could brew it, I'm sure.

"Well too fucking bad for you but you truly pissed me off." I whispered in-between my teeth as I dropped my disillusionment charm. Ron, left behind, heard me and turned suddenly, almost tripping over his crutch.

In a blink, I stunned him silently and ran behind them without a sound, my steps much lighter than theirs. They reached Alyson in a few seconds, she noticed them, took her wand out, her eyebrows raised higher than ever, and then noticed me a few seconds behind them, her eyebrows raised even higher.

"Wha-" she started.

"Stupefy!" shouted Zachary as an answer. She raised a shield but Zachary's minions were trained pretty well, they sent two more stunners separated by a second at most, flashing bright red in the corridor. Her shield yielded brutally, she let out a painful whine as the magic backlash threw her against the wall, the shield dispersing in a hundred blue fireflies. That was really hot. I thought, mentally replaying the scene of Alyson moaning as she was thrown back to wall, not surprised in the least that I'd mix sex and fight to the death. I had stopped being surprised long ago.

The small delay in-between each attack gave time for the other squad members to start casting again without any interruption in the flow of spells, and so, the next spell came almost immediately. Alyson magnificently dodged it by rolling on the wall to her left, the strong spell impacted the stone and exploded harmlessly in a blinding shockwave of red power and a loud bang that shook the stones themselves.

She turned her head back to them, having thrown it to the side before to protect her eyes and ears, panic and anger equally strong on her traits, her hair completely messy. She wouldn't have time to do anything else, she knew it. Defense and attack were both denied by the strategy of the opponents. It was an execution.

I got behind them, silently stunned Granger with a stunner that illuminated the entire corridor and swiftly kicked Zachary in the back of the knee, right above the calf. The bone didn't break, but something internal got torn or bruised. He whined in pain and dropped to his knee, breaking the chain of stunners they had started. His three friends turned to me as the realized something was not right. Alyson didn't skip a heartbeat, she immediately counterattacked with a stunner as well, and in a matter of two seconds, we were only three standing.

I kicked Zachary's wand out of his grip, this time wrecking the bones properly before he could cast anything and I backhanded the last soldier standing, Andra, in the face, sending her sprawling onto the stone floor until she hit the wall. She had been confused too much to react in the short time window given to her.

I breathed loudly and looked at Alyson. She was breathing louder than me, her whole system awakened by andrenaline, fear, anger and perhaps more.

"You okay sweetheart?"

She passed her hand through her hair and nodded, calming down. "I'm okay."

I turned my attention to the third conscious person in the corridor with no small amount of anger. I grabbed Zachary by the collar and tossed him against the wall, with a bit more strength than planned. He slumped on the floor, still conscious, but unable to breath for a while, his face on the cold stone, bleeding slightly and coughing.

"Alyson, he's all yours." Alyson nodded and neatly kicked Zachary in the nuts, or somewhere in this general area, being pretty fucking mad herself. Slytherins in general were very touchy on assault on their person.

I turned to Andra, who was bleeding at the mouth and forehead and slowly getting up, surprising me greatly as I was persuaded only Zach was still conscious. I took two step to her, she let out a whine and cried a tear or two, looking for her wand. It had rolled far away in her flight to the wall.

"Calm down, I won't hurt you." I said, stopping a few meters from her. She was back against the wall and I wouldn't be surprised if she pissed herself a bit. They may have trained in a room with Zach but when you actually come to trade spells and blows, it's a whole different story. Still angry, I knew better than to manhandle her right now.

"Andra, I know you and you know me, so I will ask nicely, what the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you attack Alyson out of the blue like that?"

She stared back at me, her lips trembling but firmly closed. I know exactly why, but if I can play the victim, maybe he'll lose a few of his followers. Starting with Andra.

"Is it some kind of jealousy? Is he jealous of me because Alyson's my girl? What's the deal?" I asked with a perfect mask of incomprehension, walking back and forth before her as if asking the questions to myself.

"Harry, what do I do with your brother?" Alyson was holding him at wand point and occasionally slapping him in the face to keep him in check - or most likely vent out her fury.

"I don't know, he attacked you, not me. I just want to find out what's up." I shrugged and turned to Andra. "Won't you help me understand, Andra? I know my brother won't tell me anything."

"I...I don't know!" she blurted out, her voice dangerously close to one of a nervous breakdown. "He told us you were dangerous ... a-and this girl too! I mean if he lies, who can we trust?" she sobbed, trying to contain it.

I sighed and looked at her sadly.

"It's alright, I won't do anything, I'm not the psychopath my brother seems to portray. Alyson, I suppose we should avoid walking alone from now on." I turned to Alyson. She had Zachary lying face down on the ground, her foot on his cheek and her wand straight to him. She seemed to have completely calmed down. She nodded.

"Yes, it seems that the Gryffindor's hate for everything that isn't Gryffindor has reached a new level."

With that, she viciously kicked Zack right in the face with a leftover bout of hatred and walked to me with a haughty look, her hips swaying nicely, unconsciously acting the femme fatale archetype. The whole picture had been amazing, and I knew I would never forget it.

"Next time you attack my girlfriend for no reason, I'll tell a prefect, Zach. Same for you Andra, and same for anyone else. You guys can't just go around attacking people like that."

I took Alyson by the shoulder and left the scene.

"Harry!" shouted Zach from behind me, his breath coming back through his bloody mouth and his wand in his hand again. He looked pretty terrible, his face not exactly broken but covered in red marks and bruises.

"This is it, Harry. This is your last chance." he spat a mouthful of blood along with a tooth. This last kick of Alyson had really been vicious. "If you don't come clean to me right now right here... I'll consider you an enemy! Same grade as a death eater!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the corridor in a desperate attempt to reach me.

Andra stood still, standing where I had left her, too afraid to get her wand back just yet and watching the exchange with red and puffy eyes.

"Z-Zachary..." she tried softly.

"Shut up, Andra, don't let yourself be fooled! He's either with us or against us!" he barked, sounding more and more like a madman.

I snorted. "What does that even mean? You're going to assault me and my friends everytime you get the opportunity?"

There was a pause. He stared at me intently.

"That means you'll become an enemy of the Order." he growled in a low tone.

I laughed out loud. "Ridiculous. Don't come near me or Alyson ever again."

And with this, I escorted Alyson away. We reached the staircase and sat on the stairs to drink some juice Alyson had in her bag.

"They won't try anything before some time now, so let's keep our schedule as planned." I wouldn't allow this stupid brother of mine to hinder my plans even in the smallest.

Alyson nodded and grabbed my hand slowly, surprising me slightly.

"Thank you for... well, saving me." she tried awkwardly. "So we're official dating now?"

I looked at her weirdly. "Why do you ask that?"

"You called me your girlfriend, back there." she smiled, apparently happy with that.

I chuckled a bit. How could she care about such trivial detail, compared the greatness of my schemes and the danger we were putting ourselves into, was well beyond my scope.

"That doesn't matter. Do your spell work, find something on the twins, and see you tomorrow." I clapped my hands and stood up, she followed and soon we disbanded to get to our own respective plans.

I wasn't overly concerned with Zachary's rambling, he had been after me for years now, and he had done about everything he could to put his nose in my business.

He was bluffing, he doesn't have anything left. The Order won't listen to him, just like they never listened to Ron's accusations about me.

It took my perceptive and sexy associate only three days to learn something useful about the Weasley twins. I motioned her to come sit next to me at the Hufflepuff table as she was entering the great hall to find some calories to ingest and later on burn with me in a way or another.

As discreet as ever, she slipped between tables and sat beside me. "Hey. Why do you make me sit here?" she greeted, eyeing around us carefully.

"I've got a few stalkers on my back since the other day, he probably asked some of his soldiers to monitor me. They won't hear us here."

She looked around and subtly pointed at Louise with her chin and eyes. "What about her?" she muttered, leaning in my ear and intoxicating me with her sour-sweet perfume.

"Under Imperius, she's safe." I shrugged. "Now let's talk business."

She only stared at Louise for a few seconds before turning back to me, still dangerously close and inviting.

"You've gotta be more careful, Harry, don't just go doing that kind of things to your housemates!" she hissed, making sure that nobody could hear her.

I swatted her comment and looked at her expectantly.

She harrumphed slightly and leaned even closer, her lips almost touching my ear. "Alright, the twins. I don't know exactly what they're planning, but it came to my knowledge that they have a huge stock of fireworks in their dormitory. I got it from a reliable source. I think we could use it."

Only when her warm breath left my ear I could start thinking about the words that she had slipped in. We could tell on them and get them a few detentions or maybe even a suspension... or we could do worse. Much worse. Those two are part of both Zach's squad and the Order, and they have a personal vendetta against me. It would definitely be a good thing to get rid of them for good.

I nodded, this was almost too perfect.

"You take care of them, take this." I took a piece of parchment out of my bag and scribbled some quick notes for a golem ritual I knew very well. A small stone bug, packed with explosives and answering to the thought, easy enough. I put down a few runes and a list of ingredients, followed by a crude blueprint of the geometrics.

She took the parchment off my hand when I handed it and looked at me hesitantly.

"It's an easy enough one, it makes a little bug of stone that you will be able to control." I explained. There was no way to choose what animal you'd spawn, but there were ways to define at least what size and kind of animal it would be. "I'll give you the blasting concoction, I have some in stock, I believe."

"Isn't it a bit... dangerous? I mean, to detonate an unknown amount of unknown fireworks in a dormitory full of students?" she whispered, folding the parchment and slipping it in her pocket discreetly.

"Told you they would regret it. Now, you're gonna plan the explosion for tonight, so we both have solid alibis by hanging around in our respective common room. If you can't act normal while controlling the construct, just pretend you're in the showers or something, but make sure people see you." she nodded knowingly. "We'll start working in the sanctuary again tomorrow. Watch out for stalkers, visible or not. Zachary has an invisibility cloak."

"Then how can I know if I'm followed?"

"Spells, hearing, odour, use everything you can to find out before doing anything risky. And don't even think about going to the sanctuary before coming to me first."

With this out of the way, we spent the remaining of the lunch doing small talk, flirting like we were normal teenagers and discussing the spell she had finally created, and went to our classes.

I took a few breaks to take care of my long term brews and had a quick discussion with Gregory about the alignment of the planets and the effects it would have on our ingredients - topic we had already broached dozens of times of course, but he was getting more nervous with each day passing. He knew his Lord Victor would behead him on the spot if things didn't work out as planned.

I boosted an old blasting potion with a small amount of stabilized moondust from my humongous stock and dropped it into my partner's pocket as we crossed path in-between two classes. I lacked experience with blasting potions and I wanted to be sure the blast would be enough to ignite their whole stock, even in the small amount it would be delivered.

I was in the Hufflepuff common room when it came, playing a game of exploding snap for the first time in a long time, which ironically should seem a lot more suspicious than me not being here at all, but what the hell, I needed an alibi.

"Remember, Harry, Marco called the explosion on you." reminded Susan, seeing that I was going for the second dock. What kind of mad rules take in account two docks but don't separate the flows, even though there are two flows...

I shrugged and grabbed the card. I was pretty sure the explosion wouldn't be so soon, nobody had touched that dock for more than a turn now, and I was the only one going with the second flow in this round, as far as I knew.

The card burst in flames in my hand and the whole castle trembled. A terrible sound echoed in the corridor behind the door, the tables trembled, glasses tinkled and everything calmed down as fast as it came.

"Merlin's bowels! What the hell was that?" spat Susan incredulously, staring at the burnt card in my ash-covered hand.

"That wasn't the exploding snap! That was elsewhere in the castle!" exclaimed someone, trotting to the door as students began standing up everywhere.

The room suddenly exploded in voices and movements, girls were terrified and boys acted like they had the situation in hand, moving toward the door and asking for calm more to themselves than anything.

I simply watched, my face locked in a practiced mask of surprise, comfortably sitting in my armchair. It felt absolutely exceptional, to be Harry Potter at this moment. It was the first time I had orchestrated such event, the first time I had been sitting in a chair and watching chaos pour from my hands, but not by my hand. At this moment I understood why the evil people in stories like manipulating others so much, what a joy, what a sweet feeling of security and control. Simply wonderful. I could get used to that.

"Maybe it's You-Know-Who! Maybe he's really back!" screamed a first year, clearly panicked.

That simple comment was enough to spread a fair amount of panic in the whole dormitory, which only got worse when McWhorter remarked that there were still some explosion sounds even if not nearly as loud as the first. I allowed myself a wide grin at that, the firework depot was on fire.

The prefects, Trix and Pryce, took control of the crows, moved the first and second years to their dormitory and as they came back to quiet down the other years, Sprout came into the common room and tried to explain what she could. The gist of it was, the Gryffindor dormitory had been evacuated, and there were a number of wounded students in the medical wing, but no need to panic as everything was under control. It wasn't very easy to believe as there were still a lot of booms and cracks echoing in the door behind her, but Hufflepuffs take what you give them and calmed down.

"It was an accident, not an attack." she said before leaving, to appease whatever fear and rumor had spread in our house. I felt like dancing, still bolted in my fat armchair. It was perfect, the twins would get expelled without a doubt, and there was no way to link the 'accident' to me or even Alyson. The rock golem had been obliterated by the explosion, and if they were to question Alyson, she was under a magical vow to not let out anything. Magnificent.

I'm pretty surprised she did so well, though. I thought, thinking about Alyson. I had expected her to come to me for more detail on the ritual and take one more day to prepare it. It had been the first time she set up and executed a ritual, after all. I guess it's not that hard when someone gives you everything from the blueprint to the blasting potion.

The day after, the whole school was in turmoil. The accident was of course the principal topic, but there were a lot of divergences and 'guess who's dead' vibes in the discussions. Everybody knew from a source or another that it was the Weasley twins' firework stash that had exploded at this point, but the twins were nowhere to see. Twelve Gryffindors hadn't been seen since the blast, according to the latest updated rumour.

I stood up and walked to the Slytherin table. If it turns out someone died, I don't know how will Alyson react. I need to be able to put her under the Imperius if she panics. I thought. She had proved herself to be capable in a lot of ways, but I was very well placed to know that sometimes, the mind can just break with no warnings, and I didn't trust her to know that.

I greeted her and took her to the Hufflepuff under the mildly annoyed glares of the Slytherin table. Even after all this time, it still irked them to see me come to their table only to pick up someone and leave, and it had become a guilty pleasure of mine.

We sat at the same place as we used to. I leaned on Louise, who was at her usual place too, and whispered in her ear:

"Imperio."

My wand hidden under the table, nobody noticed the slight grey flash, soaked by our robes. I had become proficient at performing magic in public subtly enough to not be noticed.

"So, what's up?" asked Alyson casually, herself unaware of my deed, although it was probably because of her current mental state and not of my capacities to hide dark magic.

"The whole Gryffindor tower, apparently." I winked and chuckled happily, burrowing my wand somewhere in my robes.

She chuckled nervously. Yep, she isn't alright.

"You did a great job, but I want you to be ready..." I lowered my voice. "It's very possible a few students died in this mess. Can handle it?"

She smiled meekly and nodded. I wasn't convinced. She like to play tough and to think she's a Slytherin through and through, but she never actually hurt anybody until now.

The hall suddenly went nearly silent. We looked around and saw why.

Dumbledore had arrived, as imposing as always, his robes a very dark blue, almost black. He made a beeline to the professor's table, watched by hundreds of eyes and exchanged a few secret words with McGonagall, Snape and Umbridge, who wasn't willing to be left out of the matter. Their faces were somber, well, McGonagall was somber. Snape was no somber than usual and Umbridge didn't change her expression neither.

Dumbledore turned to the student body and cleared his throat.

"Students of Hogwarts, a tragedy has occurred last evening as you all are aware already. The details I will not tell you until the Aurors finish their investigation, but I ask you, students of Hogwarts, to stay calm and avoid unnecessary rumors."

"Are the wounded alright?" yelled somebody from the Gryffindor table, earning an angry scold from McGonagall.

"For further inquiries on the health of your comrades, I will ask you to see Madam Pomfrey, thank you." declared Dumbledore, his eyes devoid of their liveliness. He looked older and more tired than ever. I gave the old man a run for his money in the last years... I bet he was used to quieter days.

"I have many things to take care of and apologize for my inability to answer more of your questions. Thank you." he stated finally before walking back to the professor table and soon after leave with Snape in his wake.

Discussion exploded at our table and the others, I turned to Alyson.

"Well, someone's dead. Did you see his face when some guy asked about the wounded? It was like he aged twenty years in a second." I said with a neutral tone.

"Are you sure? He would have said it if someone died, wouldn't he?" she tried, sounding like she was talking from the bottom of a hole, with a weak voice, almost disincarnate and looking around desperatly slowly.

Having never quite experienced any kind of shock, remorse or anything else than joy after having taken a life, I couldn't exactly understand what she was going through, but she was obviously entering some sort of state. I supposed the best thing was to keep her firmly set on reality and what it enticed.

"No, I don't think so. The Aurors are working on the case and he can't let any details leak for the moment. And at any rate, it's the family's decision to announce the death or not, and how to. I'm pretty sure someone's dead." I explained. "The explosion was massive, for us to feel the walls shake all the way to the Hufflepuff common room."

"But you gave me that fucking potion!" she hissed suddenly, her eyes now shiny and her voice strong, like she crawled out of her hole to put the blame on me, like she realized now that she couldn't deal with it.

"Oy, chill out! I'm not accusing you, I'm simply explaining that someone's probably dead." I grabbed her by the shoulder and hugged her while looking around to see if I was being watched. Zachary was watching me intently from the Gryffindor table, fury in his eyes and teeth clenched.

"We're being watched, so I just want to make sure you won't misbehave and fuck everything up. Steel yourself in advance. I need you to be strong for now."

She dropped her anger in a split second and nodded before leaning in for a kiss. I briefly wondered if it would be considered impolite to kiss while everyone else was scared for the life of their fellow students but discarded it as her tongue greeted mine. They're used to see me doing anything at anytime, anyway. Just like when I was with Loren back in second year.

She had needed this kiss badly apparently, and as I was scared that she'd start grinding on me right in the middle of the hall when an enhanced voice interrupted her.

"Students of Hogwarts." it had shouted suddenly. A voice everyone knew. It was Umbridge, she had walked in front of the table and unlike Dumbledore, needed to enhance her voice with magic to be heard by the student body.

Alyson swallowed hotly and removed her hand from my hair but didn't move from my lap, in bad need of human contact.

"The headmaster decided to not announce it himself but in my opinion, it is necessary for every single one of you to hear it." She made a dramatic pause and looked at the students gravely.

At that, everyone stopped talking and focused on her, eager to hear what she had to say.

"What happened yesterday was the unavoidable result of the negligent direction this school has suffered with Headmaster Dumbledore at its head." she started shamelessly, ignoring the outraged McGonagall behind her.

"I represent the Ministry, and the Ministry has enough of the terrible state this school is in. The lax rules and lack of meaningful punishments have led Hogwarts to the tragedy of yesterday. How, you ask? I will tell you."

She unrolled a roll of parchment and cleared her throat, watching everyone with a satisfied little smile.

"Mr. George Weasley and Mr. Fred Weasley, both well known and recidivist troublemakers, smuggled illegally in the Gryffindor dormitory number six an unknown number of illegal and dangerous fireworks."

She looked over the silent crowd once again, visibly proud of herself.

"It has been established that many housemates, including prefects, knew of it and never went to the authorities about it. Their disregard for school rules, common sense and safety of their housemates led to the death of the following students when the illegal and volatile material caught fire by accident."

At that, many gasps were heard. Some girls didn't wait to hear the names to cry loudly. I tightened my grip on Alyson, who was quietly watching with hard eyes, ready to hear the worst. Umbridge raised her voice an octave higher to be heard better.

"Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Hyacinth Crow and ironically, Fred Weasley"

More gasps, more cries.

I looked at Alyson. She didn't say a word or move a millimeter but returned my grip. She killed four students in a single shot... even I never went this far. I chuckled internally. I'm a real fucking asshole.

"The last years have been horrible but I promise you, my dear students, that things will change. Headmaster Dumbledore will take the blame for letting such a tragedy happen, and he will be replaced by someone able. Someone who will set this school back in its tracks."

She smiled and left the hall, just like that.

McGonagall and the other professors had left the hall during her speech, and no one seemed willing to stop the growing chaos in the students mass prefects included. Slytherin were delighted by the news and laughed openly while Gryffindors were outraged and, in the case of girls, crying their loss.

Zachary and Ron found their way to me, bumping students like if they were some kind of Auror Corp moving civilians aside. Hermione and a bunch of people were trying to reason with them, trotting alongside.

I shook Alyson up and prepared myself to send the Imperiused Louise to fight.

"...stop it! It was an accident, you know how they stock their stuff!" was begging a blonde girl next to Ron. They had their wands out.

"It's not him Zachary, listen to me!" yelled Hermione in my twin's ear.

"It's him, I fucking know it!" he yelled back before stopping in front of me and pointing his wand at me. The commotion had been noticed by now and people formed a circle around us. I glanced at the professor table. Nobody. Great.

"My brothers were planning to prank him all year long!" growled Ron, his wand pointed at me too. "And they're in the Order, he knew it! He knew they were dangerous to him and his precious plots!" he spat, his red and puffy eyes filled with hate.

Hermione was pulling at Zach's arm, begging for reason. "Come on, we'll find out eventually what happened, but not now!" she tried, scared.

People were shouting all around us, it was deafening. Some were telling Zach to calm down, some were shouting at me, some were cheering him on, and a good number of Slytherins seemed to cheer for me.

"What are you going to do this time?" I shouted over the crowd. "First you assault my girlfriend for no reason with that band of yours, and now you're trying to blame me for those idiot's incompetence?" I opened my arms and looked at the crowd hopefully. The crowd answered, Slytherins cheered twice as loud and my Hufflepuff housemates, shocked to hear about the assault on Alyson, forgot in which side they were meant to be.

Ron couldn't take anymore and spat a spell. A thin bright pink needle of magic erupted from his wand and whistled to me, but Louise shielded it with a standard shield. The needle bounced on the shield, creating large sparkles of purple light and then a massive flash and crisp sound of fizzling power before darting to the ceiling and disappearing in the fake open sky, probably too poor to hold its shape to the end. As an answer, Alyson blasted a thick Stupefy in Ron's guts in a split second. Ron got off his feet and was safely cushioned by the crowd behind. She's getting really good with the stunner.

"You're losing it, Zach. I understand it's hard to be you with You-Know-Who and stuff, but you're fucking insane!" I shouted in his angry face to calm everything down somehow. The spell exchange had changed his friend's behavior, Hermione was now standing with them and pointing her wand at me, but the others had stepped back. They can't trust him anymore. I smiled.

"Tell your sextoys to drop their wands, this is between you and me, Harry." he started calmly, taking a dueling stance.

"What's the point? Let's say you win this duel? What are you gonna do? Kill me?"

"I should, yeah!" he spat.

I looked at Hermione at his side.

"Hermione, I know you're not crazy like those two, do something." I pleaded.

To my surprise, she nodded and in a swift motion, she had stunned Zach. I was so shocked I didn't move for a few seconds. And I wasn't the only one. Hermione, however, had more charisma than what I would have thought, and in a few hand signals, she had the others take Zachary and carry him away.

"Don't think I did this for you, I still trust him, and I know you're far from innocent." she said, glaring at me. "It wouldn't be a good idea to let you two duel here, that's all."

She left the crowd, followed by a good number of mixed students, and everything calmed down, except for the Slytherins now almost chanting my name.

That battle squad... I thought, noticing that they weren't as numerous as they should, and that Andra wasn't part of the cortege.

Well, this was a rather good development after all. I definitely got rid of one Weasley, I got rid of the Weasley twins threat in Hogwarts, I almost got rid of the battle squad threat and I pretty much got rid of Dumbledore.

One stone, a flock of birds.

A soft knock on the door made me jump softly.

"Who is it?" I asked to my door. This isn't dinner time yet.

"It's me, Harry. Tonks." answered the magically locked wooden panel.

"A minute."

I turned to the large parchment in front of me and scribbled a few words before folding it. The conversation I was having with Gregory and Zephyros on the enchanted parchment wasn't especially important, we were merely sharing our thoughts on what we expected to find on the other side, the only solid information we had being a snippet of memory from the ravaged mind of Jagdish Chanda.

I opened the door with a wave of my wand and stood up to greet the metamorphmagus, only guest of mine since Merlin knew how long.

"Didn't you hear? I'm considered an enemy of the Order, I must be pretty dangerous. Think you can handle me if I go berserk?" I snorted and presented her a seat while closing the door.

"Yeah, I heard. Zachary is really mad at you, but I'm surprised to see everyone go along with it." She commented, ignoring the seat and walking around the room.

"They're going along with it only because Zach threw the bitch fit of the century right when we came home."

She sent me a slightly apologetic smile and came round to the chair I had pushed to her.

"So, stuck in there all day?" she muttered disapprovingly.

"Well, yeah. They bring me food three times a day and I'm allowed to wander in the house when the Order isn't here. I've yet to see that happening."

She shook her head, a dark look in her eyes.

"You're a freaking prisoner, I can't believe Dumbledore - and your parents - would do that."

I shrugged. "I can. They seems to trust my insane brother a lot more than me, Dumbedore is probably even more insane, and my parents... well nothing new here."

"He isn't insane."

"Crazy, if you prefer." I offered, handing her a glass of apple juice, one of the only fluids I had in my room.

She harrumphed and finally sat down in the puffy armchair, looking right into my eyes with a frown as she took the glass.

"Harry, he's neither insane or crazy, put yourself in his shoes for a moment, he's into one hell of a pinch here with You-know-Who. And to top it all... losing Fred like that has been horrible for everyone, and I can't begin to imagine how Zachary feels, having lost four close friends..."

I let that comment linger in the air for a moment. The aftermath of this particular accident had been quite a mess, on both sides. The Order, the Weasley, and pretty much everyone around me were destroyed by the "accident", and Alyson wasn't living it well either. While she had thankfully been able to restrain herself in public, she had lashed out on me when we were alone, she didn't say it out loud but I could tell only the fact that we were indisputably accomplices and bound by a magical vow kept her from saying that she didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore. Even though, disturbingly enough, she was twice as willing to have intimate relations with me, for a reason that I couldn't quite grasp.

"Tonks, I know that. And I'm trying to take it consideration, but put yourself in my shoes for a moment." I said gently, looking into her eyes.

"I do absolutely nothing wrong, and every single time something bad happens, Zachary manages to put the blame on me. I'm just a fucking Hufflepuff trying to live his life, for fuck's sake!" I shouted, kind of proud of my acting.

"Now, it's my fault they died? I didn't like them very much, it's true, but it still hurt me to hear about their death! I'm not some monster who would want something that terrible to happen! And Zachary tells me I did it? Just because we were having a fight over Ginny? Come the fuck on!"

I threw myself in my bed and focused on the ceiling. Not bad, she will buy it.

"I'm sorry..." she started.

"Don't bother, you can't fix it, nobody can. I'll just bear with it until we're back to Hogwarts." I cut her strongly.

"If you haven't made up until summer, I ... I'll talk to James and Lily about renting some place for you." she said, a smile on her lips. "I think sending you to live on your own would please everybody, don't you think?"

I looked at her weirdly. Of course, she wouldn't know I would be gone out of their life for good by the time summer showed its nose, but it was still weird to hear her talking from her point of view.

"We'll see by then, but thank you." I let out a small chuckle.

We sat in silence for a few moments before Tonks recollected her thoughts and spoke up excitedly.

"So... want some news?" she asked with a sly smile. "I bet you're bored as all hell, locked in there all day."

I waved her to speak with a sigh. "Do tell."

"That one is a hot one, we just heard about it and we're not even sure about it but... do you remember that guy who apparated between Venezuela and Britain during last summer?"

I suddenly got very interested.

"Yeah, that guy You-Know-Who sent for some reason you couldn't imagine."

"Well, turns out he was not sent by You-Know-Who, Snape confirmed that some time ago. No, the interesting thing is that apparently, You-Know-Who and Aleksandro - the guy who got robbed - are both very interested in finding out who is this mystery man. They both assigned agents on the case and are trying to trace him back."

"And what about you? Still after him?"

"We'd love to know more about it, but if You-Know-Who didn't send him, we have bigger fairies to fry. Anyway, it seems the Ministry hadn't totally given up on the case, as we thought, and they have a few leads we didn't know about. From what I could get, they even have some visual witness from St. Mungo, the guy got his arm healed in there and obliviated the doc."

I was starting to sweat slightly, it sounded bad for me.

"So, they're almost on him?"

"We're not sure, but now You-Know-Who is on the case, so we expect something to happen soon." she concluded excitedly.

I shrugged mentally, from what she just told me, I didn't really had to worry, all I needed was a month of freedom and then, I couldn't care less about them finding out exactly who I was, I'd face them if they wanted me to, as long as Natasha was back, I could handle dying.

"So he's not with You-Know-Who, that's good news."

She shrugged.

"Except for the fact that he had a Mage Knight armor, he didn't seem any more dangerous than any mercenary. It's actually more worrying that he isn't with You-Know-Who, because that means someone unknown is planning something potentially dangerous here in Britain. You don't steal illegal dark magic ingredients to make a cake. And he stole quite the package, from what we could gather."

"You don't know before you try... how do you think the first cake was created? Experiments, my dear, experiments."

She laughed out loud.

"Well, I do hope it is for a cake, we have enough on our hands as it is."

An: Maybe you'll feel it, maybe not, but I tried to evolve my style somewhat in this one, for the better or the worst. You guys enjoy yourselves reading and tell me what you think if you have time. Cheers.