Chapter 19: What's In a Name

Harry looked down in disbelief at the letter in his hands. He had been shocked when Fawkes had flamed in on him while he was taking a shower; neither had been overly pleased at the occurrence, Harry even less so when he spotted the letter from the Headmaster. Only the phoenix's reassuring chirps had convinced him that the letter was safe to take and Albus hadn't cast anything on it.

At first he planned on just ignoring the letter from the old wizard but Fawkes had remained sitting on a sink and staring at him intently, until he opened the letter and read its contents.

It contained the headmaster's gratitude and some very convincing reasons why it would be best to meet. If Harry didn't know how conniving Albus could be when he wanted something, he would actually think that the Headmaster cared for his safety. The letter ended with an inquiry of how he'd be able to contact Harry in the future.

Harry had slowly penned back his response making sure to be simple and too the point.

Dumbledore,

Do not contact me. I will contact you when necessary. If it is absolutely vital that you reach me, and by vital I mean that Armageddon is about to occur, then use your phoenix. He will know where I am and if it is safe to contact me. Do not under any circumstance attempt to approach me if you have a theory of who I am. Let me assure you, your guess would be wrong and such a mistake would be tremendously stupid on your part. I will only reveal myself when and if I have no other choice. As for my name, Thanatos will work for the time being.

-Thanatos

Harry grinned at the name.

Albus would surely look for some latent connection to link the information to some poor unfortunate soul. Hopefully, the wizard would take the useless track and overcomplicate the whole issue, looking for an association that wasn't there. It would be amusing if he took the whole 'son of Darkness and Night' fact seriously.

However, Harry had chosen the name because Thanatos was the god who personified death. Not only did he kill Voldemort, but he had escaped death many times, even after he killed Tom and was 'killed' by some random Death Eater, he hadn't died. If anything, Harry could honestly say that he had a rather close, flirtatious, if not twisted relationship with Death. Besides, what had Voldemort feared the most?

Satisfied with the note he quickly sent Fawkes on his way with an affectionate pat on the head before leaving the bathroom and dressing quickly.

Looking in his mirror he noticed the bags under his eyes and he quickly cast a charm over them. The bags seemed to disappear and his face took on a healthy rosy hue.

At a rustling he glanced up to see the Lestrange boy tiredly getting out of bed.

"All right there?"

Two blue eyes glanced up to meet his own, and Rabastan tensed slightly, "Alright Potter. You? You're up early?"

Harry nodded his head, making it a point of turning his back and looking back in the mirror, "I'm fine. Seems turning in early equals rising early for me, couldn't sleep another wink. What time did Moon and Roiser get in?"

Rabastan relaxed slightly as Harry turned his back before shrugging his shoulders and stretching slightly.

"Around a quarter till twelve or so. Filch had them scrubbing the Great Hall with tooth brushes."

Harry winced slightly in sympathy, "Filch is a sadistic bastard."

The brown haired boy nodded his agreement, "I don't see why Dumbledore keeps him around, the man is clearly a squib. In my father's day they had a real wizard as the caretaker, but that was when Dippet was the headmaster."

"Dumbledore must have his reasons for keeping the squib around, we just don't know them." Harry said while brushing the cream through his hair, the unruly locks lying flat. He sensed the other boy nod his head in agreement.

"Why don't you leave your hair in its natural state?"

He looked up at Rabastan, "It's too unruly. At least with the gel I can actually make it do something."

The boy nodded before walking to the bathroom.

With a snap of the lid, Harry closed the trunk and grabbed a book off his bed. He'd read until the boys got up for breakfast.

Weeks passed and it seemed as if Dumbledore had heeded his words as he had not attempted to contact him, but Harry doubted that Albus would leave the mystery along for long. He couldn't really blame the headmaster for wanting to know who the informant was, but it was annoying all the same. The visions as he slept came increasingly and more strongly than he ever remembered before. And the visions themselves were changing. No longer did splitting pain accompany them, but rather with each vision the pain seemed to lessen. This fact confused him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind to be pondered on later when he had less to worry about.

Another thing that had been bothering him was that Malfoy had stopped stalking him altogether. The blond seemed to care less at what Harry did as long as it wasn't something unbecoming of the house, but Harry couldn't shake the feeling that he was still being watched. After a few days of constantly checking over his shoulders he put the feelings off to paranoia, it had been years since someone had been watching him. He assumed the constant itch between his shoulder blades had become a side effect of that stalking.

"Happy Birthday Jamie boy!" Sirius yelled happily before raising his bottle of butter beer to his lips and taking a large gulp.

James grinned widely at the four other boys. The five sat in the kitchens at table in the corner. It was loaded with foods of all sorts, with a large cake in the center. The scene was achingly familiar as one very similar had occurred just a few weeks prior when Remus turned fourteen.

"Finally fourteen!" Peter yelled out jovially while beaming along with an amused Remus.

"Yes, finally. I am now a man, may all tremble at my feet."

"Tremble James?"

"I am Gryffindor hear me roar!"

"Terrifying."

"You're an old man now." Harry deadpanned in a sad voice, his eyes wide and a frown planted firmly on his face.

The boys paused and looked at the first year.

James frowned looking over at his cousin, "I'm not that old Harry."

"You do realize after you reach fourteen everything goes down hill right? Fifth year have the OWLs, sixth year you begin your NEWT classes, seventh year you take your NEWTs, and finally you graduate and get a real job. You're already half way done with your Hogwarts education. Just think afterwards your skin begins to sag, veins become visible, teeth fall out, and your hair recedes. Want me to continue?" Harry asked seriously.

"And my parents call me the dreadful optimistic." Sirius said with a laugh.

"That's not all they call you Black."

"Shove off brat."

"Happy birthday James." Harry said with a grin after he stuck his tongue out at Sirius.

James grinned widely back at him before turning to the small pile of gifts on the table, "Presents!"

Harry rolled his eyes as the older boy reached for the closets one.

Remus slapped the reaching hand away with a pointed glare, "You are suppose to open presents after we eat and you blow out your candles."

"But Remus…" Both Sirius and James whined together.

The werewolf glared back unrelenting, "No, eat your food."

"Yes mum."

The four Gryffindors dug into the piles of food, while Harry picked at the food on his plate. After they were done eating the candles were lit and after they sung out the traditional birthday song, James blew out the candles and lunged at the presents.

"Let's see…which one, which one? How about blue!" James exclaimed happily before pulling out a blue wrapped gift from the side of the pile.

He tore the wrapping off and ripped into the box, smiling when a type of candy he had never seen before fell out, "What's a Mars Bar, Harry?"

"Muggle candy bar."

"Are they any good?" James unwrapped one sniffing at the chocolate coating.

"They're my favorite muggle type. I grew up on them."

"How is it Harry that you know so much about the muggles?" Peter asked curiously.

"My godparents. Zacharie was a half-blood and Helen was muggleborn. After we moved back to the Isles we lived in a muggle village. You could almost say I know as much about muggles as a muggleborn."

The mouse like boy nodded his understanding while James took a bite of the bar.

"Mmm, these are better than Chocoballs."

Sirius perked up and looked at the remaining candy bars, "Really?"

Smiling slightly Harry took another three candy bars from his pocket and threw one to each remaining boy.

"The other blue one is also from me James, just don't shake it."

James gave a mock salute before grabbing the gift, and as he continued to open his presents Harry asked, "You guys never did tell me how you found the kitchens."

Around a bite Sirius answered, "When we were young innocent first years…"

"Innocent? You? Sirius Black? Remus and Peter I could see to an extent as innocent at eleven, but you and James?"

Glaring slightly the older boy continued, "well about as innocent as we could get. Anyways, as I was saying…as first years a seventh year took us under his wing."

"Oh?"

"Yes oh! Seth Orisison." Sirius grinned widely.

"Great Gryffindor, that one." Peter agreed, "Though we blame Remus on him."

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"So you say Remy."

Remus scowled at the three Gryffindors, "I'll have you know that simply because I'm smart enough to pretend to be a law abiding student does not make me a pillock."

His tone indicated that it was a long argument that was fought often with the same results.

Sirius turned back to Harry ignoring his friend's claim, "As I was saying, Seth originally showed us many of Hogwarts' secrets until we could make our way around without Filch breathing down our necks."

Peter and James nodded in agreement, "He even snuck in counter ban items when he went to Hogsmead for us."

"Anyways, after a full day of educational activities we were all starving and Seth led us here to feast to our hearts contents. We've been coming back every since, I believe the house elves like it too! I'm sure they'd make anything to make us happy."

Remus had a dreamy look on his face, "Chocolate Tarts…"

"Strawberry Cheesecake…" Sirius grinned widely.

Peter rubbed his stomach with a small smile, "Peanut Butter Yum-Yums…"

"And that Apple Pie." The four boys groaned together.

"Does your whole entire life revolve around your stomachs?" Harry asked dryly.

Sirius, Peter, and James looked confusedly at the younger boy as Remus drawled, "No there are also quidditch, pranks, and females. Though I believe I'm the only one who's interested in the last."

"Harry!"

He looked up from the book he was reading. James was striding towards him carrying a bag. Harry blinked in surprise as Prince gave James a dark glare.

"Hello cousin dearest!"

"James? What are you doing in the library?

Harry's confusion must have shown clearly on his face as James scowled slightly.

"You know Harry, I have been known to inhabit the library on occasion. It's not that odd of an occurrence." James said as he dropped the bag which landed on the table with a loud thud, once again gaining a glare from the librarian.

"I haven't seen you in here yet this year."

James waved the statement away as he took a seat, "I don't need to come to the library, any book I could possibly need Remus already has with him. It's more convenient to do our work in the common room. More distractions."

"More distractions?"

The older boy nodded his agreement, "That and we don't have that hag breathing down our necks the whole time."

At Harry's questioning glance James shot a dirty look over to the librarian who was still glaring back.

"Madame Prince? What did you do to incur her wrath?"

"Nothing too drastic. It was an accident really. Destroy a few priceless books and she's after your blood." The messy haired boy shrugged.

Harry groaned and let his head fall to the table with a dull thunk. James' answer finally explained by Prince had watched him like a hawk in his original time line and in the past. It really was James fault; the thought did cheer him up slightly.

Lifting his head, Harry stared at the bag, "What's in the bag?"

"What you asked me to pick up?"

"I had totally forgotten about that!" Harry exclaimed as he pulled the bag towards him. Inside were six leather bound journals; two pink, one blue, one maroon, one green, and one black.

"Brilliant!"

James rolled his eyes, "Are you going to tell me what you wanted them for?"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Nope."

The older boy rolled his hazel eyes before standing, "Well since we have nothing further to discuss I'm heading back to the tower. We have some plotting to do."

Harry looked up at the boy, "I sincerely hope that you little joke is not targeting my house again."

"Why not? Scared?" James asked with a grin.

"Terrified," Harry drawled out, "Actually you should change which house you target. Keeps the whole school on their toes and the Slytherins will be less likely to retaliate if other houses are being pranked too."

The hazel eyed boy rolled his eyes, "Why should I care if they retaliate? It's not as if they could actually do anything too awful."

Green eyes glinted in challenge, "Is that so James?"

James cringed at the tone of voice, "You wouldn't even dare!"

Harry let a dark smile cross his lips, "Try me."

With one last worried look James grabbed his belongings and quickly left the library.

Smiling slightly, Harry turned back to his work, only to stop as the previous occupied seat became occupied once again.

"Lily."

"Harry." She greeted with a smile.

"Why didn't you join when James was here?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I have to spend all day in class with the pillock, I'm not about to spend my free time around him as well." She huffed, pulling out the books from her bag.

"What did Potter bring you?" She finally asked when her books were organized to her taste.

"Just delivering something he picked up for me on his last visit to the village. You'll eventually find out." Harry said with a smile.

"I hope it's not anything banned." She said pointedly.

His smile widened, "Of course not. I have the reputation of the good child to uphold."

Lily turned to the side and glared into the shadows of one of the nearby bookshelves, "Sev, get out here and quit skulking. Potter is already gone."

The third-year Slytherin stepped out of the shadows with a slight scowl on his face, "Yes, but his smell lingers."

Harry's eyes narrowed slightly at the older boy. It was one thing for his mother to insult his father, but entirely different when Snape did it.

Seeing the look in Harry's eyes, Lily quickly diverted the argument about to breakout, "Let's not spend our time talking about Potter."

Harry bit his tongue and went back to his bookwork.

The dawn of the last quidditch match for Slytherin dawned bright and cold. The sky was slightly overcast, and dew clung to the fresh grass and the green leaves. Excitement was ripe as the house talked animatedly at breakfast, donning their green and silver scarves and snake pins. Harry noted with amusement that the majority of the students in the Great Hall donned yellow and black in support of the badgers. Only the teachers and students who could care less about quidditch were in neutral colors.

Harry mock glared over at the Marauders who were cheerfully sporting black robes with Hufflepuff scarves and badger pins on their chests as the mail arrived. James and Sirius grinned cheekily at him, rubbing the pins before laughing at the glare they received back. A small owl dropped the Daily Prophet into Harry's plate before grabbing a piece of bacon off of Regulus' plate and taking flight again. Regulus rolled his eyes at the Marauders' antics before grabbing the paper off of Harry's plate and unfolding it.

"Saturday May 13th…hmmm, ah, naturally, there's a shocker no doubt." He muttered reading the front page.

Harry and Arcturus looked over at the boy as he continued to 'hmmm' and 'ah.'

"Something to share Reggie?" An annoyed Arcturus finally asked after another few minutes of Regulus' mindless mutterings.

Regulus looked up from the paper, a glint of amusement in his eyes, "Hmmm, what was that Archie?"

"Why are you so interested in the paper this morning?" Harry asked quickly, hoping to head off the pointless bickering that was sure to follow over the nicknames.

Holding the paper up, Harry and Arcturus could clearly read the headline proclaiming, "A Squashing Good Time with the Giants by Berry M. Good."

"What in the world?" Arcturus demanded.

Harry grabbed the paper and the two boys quickly read through the article. According to the article a group of envoys from Voldemort was found recently in the mountains squashed. The writer seemed rather jubilant about the fact and happily speculated on why the giants killed them. His most prominent theory involved a love triangle gone wrong with the alpha giant's wife. When the affair came to light the giants retaliated killing the group in which the lover belonged.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read!" Arcturus scoffed slightly outraged as Regulus laughed at his expression.

"It does sound like a rather bad soap." Harry agreed.

Both boys looked over at him in confusion.

"What does soap, let along bad soap, have to do with this inane article?"

"Honestly, you purebloods live under a rock." Harry scoffed. "Soap Opera is a type of muggle TV show that has overdramatic, ridiculous and bogus plot lines about the love lives of its' characters."

The two scowled back, "Potter, I'm just going to ignore that you know that."

"The muggle part or soap opera part?"

"Both."

Harry rolled his eyes in response, "If it makes you feel any better just think of it as moving pictures with sound that acts out a bad romance novel."

"Why would that make us feel better?" Regulus asked with a scoff. "That's even worst than trying to picture it in your head."

"Actually the article sounds like an opener to a joke." Harry grinned at the two as they cast another scornful look his way. "A Giantess, a Death Eater, and the Giantess' mate walk into a bedroom-"

"Potter!"

"Do not finish that sentence."

Harry looked between the two smiling slightly, "What? Surely it's not that bad-"

"That mental picture will scar me for the rest of my days, have you even seen a giant?" Arcturus asked contemptuously.

"They're reasonably good looking if you can get past all the hair." Harry shrugged thoughtfully, trying not to glance in Hagrid's direction.

"You're bloody insane!"

Regulus nodded his head in agreement.

"Besides, the whole idea is absurd. The Dark Lord dislikes half-breeds about as much as he does muggles. If one of the Death Eaters really did have something going on with a giantess, his fellows would be more likely to kill him than a giant."

Harry nodded in agreement, "Which just proves another theory I have about the Wizarding World."

"Oh?"

"Clearly the muggles are better when it comes to factual reporting. Nowhere in muggle Britain would you find an article in a national paper riddled with the speculation of a bad romance triangle with another species unless it was fact."

"What other species are you talking about?" Regulus asked curiously. "I didn't know the muggles were aware of other humanlike beings?"

Eyes sparkling madly Harry called out in a cheerful voice, "Whoever said anything about humanlike?"

Regulus and Arcturus looked confused and intrigued.

"What do you-" Arcturus began but cut off as a look of revulsion flooded his face.

Harry's laughter rang out as the two Slytherins turned a color to rival their scarves and they ignored the plates in front of them.

"I hate you Potter."

The three boys began to make their way through the students. The Slytherins around them gloating loudly and still cheering at the victory over Hufflepuff.

Surprisingly, the game had been close as the badgers had concentrated on defense against the snakes, keeping the points down while their seeker scoured the pitch for the snitch. Hufflepuff's game plan was the same as it was in the future, concentrating heavily on teamwork rather than relying on one or two good players. The Slytherin's strategy was much the same as their future's counterpart as well. The snakes easily outweighed and out muscled the smaller badgers, and used to their advantage. They easily pushed the smaller players around, but unsurprisingly the Hufflepuff's banded together and pushed back. It had only been by fortune, or misfortune, depending on whom you ask, that the Slytherin seeker had spotted the small elusive ball while it hid close to the Hufflepuff's goal posts. The final score was 250-90.

Arcturus smiled widely as a chant started up from the green and silver clad students. The Hufflepuffs seemed to take the gloating in stride and their modest smiles showed that they were satisfied with their team's performance.

As Harry, Regulus and Arct reached the front row there was a slight disturbance behind them, and a voice rang out, "Watch where you're going!"

Both Harry and Arcturus ignored the yell but Regulus turned back to watch curious at the fight unfolding.

A furious looking Slytherin pushed one of the older Hufflepuffs down, back into the crowd of unaware students. The surprised boy fell into a group of students moving down the stairs, who also fell forward on more students.

At the yells Harry turned around just in time to see one of the falling students hit Regulus. The stunned first year barely had the time to register what had happened before he was falling over the ledge.

Acting purely on instinct, Harry lunged forward and grabbed the sleeve of Regulus' robe.

A desperate hand quickly grasped his hand, pulling Harry forward. Luckily, Arcturus grabbed the back of his robes before he too could fall from the stands.

Struggling with the weight and fearing releasing a hand to attempt to levitate his friend, Harry quickly called out, "Help!"

Lucius Malfoy ran forward, pushing over a second year that was in the way, and then grabbed Regulus' robes. Together the Headboy and Harry pulled the first year back into the stands and pushed him away from the side.

The youngest Black was, pale and shaking slightly. His eyes wide and he looked like he had seen a ghost or possibly his own life. Harry still clung to the other boy's robe, as Arcturus clung to his own.

"Regulus are you ok?"

Gulping slightly the boy nodded his head, "I-I'm fine."

"Are you sure Regulus?" The seventh year blond asked. After he had seen that the boy was back over the side he had immediately released the boy's robes.

Harry, Arcturus, and Regulus regarded the older boy with surprise and apprehension.

"F-fi-fine. Just a-bit shocked."

Malfoy nodded and turned away, walking quickly through the crowd to where Professor McGonagall was yelling at the wayward Slytherin.

Harry and Arct released the robes they were holding and looked at each other, hearts still racing.

"Lucky, Potter here has a good catch." Yaxley quipped wryly.

Regulus nodded in agreement, "After that catch I think I can forgive for that picture he painted this morning."

Harry rolled his eyes relieved that his friend was ok before backing away to give the boy a minute to gain his bearings. He looked around at the students getting up. Many were angry, a few holding bloody noses or bruised hands which had been stepped on. Some of the girls were crying, and the injured boys were murmuring angrily and glaring threateningly at the boy that was currently being chewed out.

Turning his eyes back to Arct, he smiled slightly at the teasing the boy was giving Reg about his brush with death, which seemed to be cheering up the boy somewhat.

Harry turned his back to the crowd and looked over the quidditch pitch, his heart just starting to slow down.

Out of nowhere, a force hit his back, his eyes widened as he flipped over the rail, his head and face hit the wall of the tower before the ground raced up to meet him at an incredible rate. His mind was numb and time began to slow until impact….then everything sped up and only one thing mattered.

Pain.

Pain coursed through his body, and the one thought that ran through his head as his vision began to turn red, and darkness claimed him was that someone was screaming his name.