Harry Potter blinked his eyes and woke up from... something. He couldn't really remember what he had dreamed, just that there was a lot of white space and more white space. There was also a whole lot of nothing and a whole lot of... bored people? What was up with that?

“Hey, kid! You okay up there?” A man's voice asked.

“Huh?” Harry asked and sat up. He looked around and didn't recognize anything. He could tell that he was on some kind of roof, however. How did he get back to a planet? The last thing he could clearly remember was that he and Kes were inside a shuttle in deep space and then everything went white.

“Don't be scared, kid. I'm coming up to get you.” The man said before a ladder clunked against the side of the roof.

Harry was still confused until the fireman climbed up onto the roof. After a quick checkup that showed he was fine, Harry was led to the ladder and he saw everyone waiting for him. Their faces triggered his eidetic memory and it let him remember exactly where he was as he climbed down the ladder. He was back to being seven years old again and attended his elementary school in Little Whinging.

Harry and the fireman were suddenly surrounded by school children that crowded them and shouted questions. Harry was immensely grateful for his year of parenthood and having access to his children's minds to understand exactly what was going on. The kids around him wanted attention and not actual answers to their questions.

“It was a fabulous adventure!” Harry said and cut them all off. “I spread my arms like a bird and flew! Whoosh! Right up onto the roof!”

A few of the kids laughed and the teachers looked annoyed.

“I'm joking. I found a handhold near the dumpsters and scrambled up onto the roof to hide from my cousin, Dudley. I would have climbed back down on my own already if I hadn't been so tired.” Harry said and looked at the fireman. “I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble, sir. It won't happen again.”

The man chuckled and rubbed Harry's hair. “It's all right. It gave us an excuse to use the siren and run a few red lights on the way here.”

Harry couldn't stop himself from making a joke. “So, same time next week?”

The man laughed and shook his head. “I don't think either of us needs that much excitement in our lives.”

Harry nodded and looked at the teachers. “I really am sorry for the trouble and didn't mean to get stuck on the roof. Will I be suspended?”

The two female teachers turned to look at the principal.

“I think an in-school suspension in the unused classroom for the next two weeks will be enough.” The principal said. “And no recess or lunch outside.”

“Of course, sir. I understand and will follow your orders.” Harry said and saluted, which surprised everyone, Harry included. I need to stop doing that or they'll know I know more than I should.

The principal gave him an odd look before he returned the salute. “At ease, student. Head inside and I'll handle your aunt when she gets here.”

Harry dropped the salute and walked over to him to whisper. “You should start off by telling her I'm already being punished with the in-school suspension. You'll save your ears some pain from her screeching over calling her about me.”

The principal chuckled and had to cough to cover it up. He knew what Petunia was like and understood the suggestion was a valid one. He nodded at Harry and waved towards the school.

Harry went inside and sat at the back of the usually empty classroom and peered out the window. He sat there and tried to go over his memories from his 'dream' and couldn't come up with anything. He knew then that they had been intentionally erased and not just repressed, which meant that someone had chosen to send him back here, because he surely wouldn't have chosen to return here on his own.

He looked down at his clothing and saw that they weren't the hand-me-down clothes he had started with. They looked similar, only they were like new and only barely hung off of him, so it gave the same impression that he wore larger clothing without him actually wearing larger clothing. It was such an easy deception that Harry immediately liked it and swore to continue it for as long as he could.

It didn't take long before a familiar voice was heard in the halls of the school and Harry had to clamp his mouth shut to stop himself from laughing. He was so far beyond caring what Petunia thought of him, that her freaking out over him getting stuck on the school's roof, seemed quite pathetic.

To Harry's surprise, Petunia didn't enter the classroom to berate him or even looked in through the little window in the door. She left with a swift stride across the parking lot that made her look more like a chicken than a horse. Harry had to cover his mouth with both hands as he laughed out loud at the sight, because he remembered his daughter Harlani's voice making chicken sounds that matched Petunia's steps.

Harry stifled his laugh and did his best to not look amused when the classroom door opened and the principal stood there. It apparently didn't work, because the man smiled and wiggled his arms like a chicken.

“BAHAHAHA!” Harry burst out laughing and the principal joined in.

“I did my best to make sure you won't be punished at home. It wasn't your fault.” The principal said.

“As long as you kept Dudley's involvement to a minimum, I should be okay.” Harry responded.

“I didn't even mention him.” The principal said. “You were just roughhousing and managed to get on the roof using the dumpsters. We've moved them across the alley to stop that from happening again.”

Harry smiled and nodded, accepting his help to add it to Harry's own explanation. “Thank you, sir.”

The principal glanced round the room and back to him. “You're going to be quite bored in here.”

“Only if you don't leave copies of every year's textbooks for me to browse through.” Harry said and the man's eyes widened. “As long as I'm here, I don't have Dudley forcing me to score badly on my tests to make him look smart.”

The principal's mouth dropped open and he stared at Harry like he had grown another head.

“Maybe a few placement tests could find their way to my desk in two weeks and maybe I could earn a transfer to another classroom when I pass them all?” Harry asked and the man slowly nodded. “Excellent. I'll do my best, sir. You won't be disappointed.”

The principal closed his mouth, opened it, then closed it before he stepped back out of the classroom and closed the door.

Harry turned to look back out the window and sat there as he went over his limited school memories and then went over his re-education to get up to Starfleet standards. With that kind of advanced knowledge, he was going to kick normal school's butt.

*

Surprisingly, Petunia didn't mention the school incident to Vernon, as if there was no reason to. Harry's brief mental probe on the woman let him know that because his freakishness hadn't been involved, there was no reason to incite Vernon to action in order to squash it out of him. That was very good to know.

Harry easily memorized the school books and passed all of the placement tests. In fact, the principal had snuck in the school's graduating class exams and Harry had passed them easily. It more than earned him a new class placement and the principal told Harry's new teacher to never send tests or reports home for Harry Potter, since they would never be returned.

Since he was in another class, the principal extended Harry's recess and lunch ban to stop him from becoming a target during school hours. He could do nothing for when Harry wasn't in school, though. Harry thanked the man and his teacher for being so considerate and didn't tell them that he teleported from school to home and was never in any danger.

Harry having to learn to cook the long way again was both time consuming and sweat inducing.

*

When Harry turned 11, he received a curious letter and felt a presence out in the yard. He tucked the letter away and delivered the mail to his uncle and left the house through the back door. He went around the house to the front yard and saw the owl on the hedge, clearly out of sight from the street.

“Hello, there.” Harry said to the bird and it hooted back. “Are you waiting for something?”

“Hoot.” The owl said and bobbed its head at his pocket where the letter was.

“Wow, really?” Harry asked and it hooted again. “All right, let me just read it and I'll give you a response.”

“Hoot.” The owl said and waited as Harry opened the letter and read it.

“This isn't a joke, is it?” Harry asked it.

“Hoot.” The owl responded and shook its head.

“I guess it does explain a few things.” Harry said and took a pen out of his pocket and tore off the corner of the second page that had enough blank space to write a message. “I know nothing of magic. Lots of questions. Harry Potter.”

The owl watched as Harry addressed it to Minerva McGonagall and added his return address of The Cupboard Under The Stairs. It just seemed like an important point to get across.

“There you go. Thanks for waiting.” Harry said and handed it to the owl.

“Hoot.” The owl said and accepted it in its beak before it took off to soar up into the air.

“Masterful.” Harry commented at it achieving such height so quickly and heard a happy hoot in response. He chuckled at a bird appreciating his appreciation and went back inside. He had a few more chores to do before he was considered free for the day. He thought about going for a walk and decided that it was safer to stay at home. There was no need to give Dudley's gang a free shot at catching him.

*

Minerva McGonagall stared at the note in her hand. It didn't make sense. How could Harry Potter, the savior of the wizarding world, know nothing about magic? She left her office and went to the headmaster. She didn't even bother knocking and strode into his office with the torn piece of parchment.

“Albus. Percival. Wulfric. Brian. Dumbledore.” Minerva said, angrily.

Unlike when he normally heard his full name, Albus wasn't struck with pride that someone could keep them all straight. He actually had to stop himself from wincing at the piercing look in the woman's eyes.

“Yes, Minerva?” Albus asked.

“Harry Potter knows nothing about magic!” Minerva said and waved the note in his face. “You swore that boy was being taken care of! How could you leave him completely ignorant of our world?!?”

Albus took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. “I wanted him to grow up away from his fame.”

Minerva's glare would have set him on fire if his robes weren't already spelled to be fireproof.

“Would you have preferred he have an inflated ego while growing up being praised for saving us all?” Albus asked.

“No, you barmy old fool. He should have been raised knowing about magic and you leave that one aspect out of his education until he is old enough!” Minerva spat. “He could have been trained up to accept coming to a magical school like a normal child from our world and not be corrupted by his fame.”

Albus blinked his eyes at the woman, as if he had never seen her before.

“I can see that it never once occurred to you that he didn't have to be completely ignorant.” Minerva said. “I thought you were supposed to be the most intelligent wizard of your age?”

Albus ignored that jab. “Now that he has his letter, I will send Hagrid right over to...”

“You will do no such thing!” Minerva shouted and Albus leaned back from her. “How dare you think it's a good idea to send an ignorant man to answer questions from a boy that wants to know about our world!”

“Hagrid is perfectly fine to escort Harry.” Albus said.

“No, he is not. He's not a professor! He. Is. The. Groundskeeper.” Minerva growled.

“I trust Hagrid to...”

“If you had a rampant griffon traipsing around, he would be the first I would call.” Minerva cut him off. “He wouldn't be my eighth choice to send to shepherd along a muggle raised student and we only have eight professors.” She said and her glare came back. “Next, you're going to say you want to send Severus Snape to do it if you can't send Hagrid.”

Albus closed his mouth on suggesting exactly that.

Minerva saw his reaction. “You are intentionally setting Harry against Slytherin, aren't you? Rather than telling him that you don't want him to be a dark wizard, you are going to manipulate him and force him to choose another path.”

Albus sighed. “Minerva, there are things at play that...”

“I am going to visit him, Albus. I've begged you for years to let me do so and to check up on him. You have always dismissed my concerns and told me he was fine.” Minerva said and squinted her eyes at him. “Was that a lie? What has Harry's home life been like that you don't want anyone to see what it was like?”

Albus couldn't tell her anything, because it would confirm that he had intentionally sentenced Harry to ten dark years at his relatives to keep him safe from his enemies.

“I've known you for a very long time, Albus. I can see the machinations in your eyes.” Minerva said and turned the note over to show Albus the return address on the note, which made his eyes widen.

Albus opened a drawer in his desk and handed over Harry's vault key. “You may visit him to take him shopping for his school supplies.”

“I didn't ask you for permission.” Minerva said as she accepted the key, even though she knew that he shouldn't have had the thing. She gave him one last glare before she walked out of his office.

Albus rested against the back of his chair and felt all 150 of his years in his old bones. Perhaps having Harry Potter grateful to be rescued from his relatives was not worth losing the support of his staunchest supporter.

*

Harry pulled another weed, the last in the garden, and he smiled as the nearby tomato vine wrapped around his wrist. He let it suck up some of his energy and it brightened up and looked healthier. If his estimation was right, it would produce some nice tomatoes in just under a month.

There was a familiar crack of teleportation nearby and Harry glanced around to see if the Dursleys had noticed. No one came out of the house screaming about freakishness, so it was relatively safe. Harry washed his hands off with the garden hose and walked around the house to see who was there. To his surprise, he saw an older lady approaching the yard.

Harry was quite intelligent, so he quickly deduced that this woman was whom he had sent the message to that morning. “Madam McGonagall?”

The older woman smiled at him. “I am she and you are clearly James Potter's son.”

“Who's that?” Harry asked.

Minerva stumbled a little and caught herself. “Excuse me?”

“I've only ever heard my aunt curse my mother's name for having me and dumping me on her doorstep.” Harry said with a shrug. “Although, I do doubt that 'bitch' is Lily's real middle name.”

Minerva came to a complete stop and stared at him.

“My apologies, I seemed to have shocked you.” Harry said and stepped onto the sidewalk and walked over to her. “I've heard the insults for years and have become used to them.”

Minerva could only stare at him in his oversized clothes as he took her hand and carefully pat it.

“There, there. It's all right. My relatives are horrible people. When you are around them long enough, you can easily start ignoring the worst of it.”

“Mister Potter, you shouldn't have had to get used to it at all.” Minerva said.

“Why? No one has ever tried to get me away from them, no matter who I complained to. All my letters and all my proof disappears after it leaves my sight.” Harry said.

Minerva let out a growl. “Albus, I'm going to kill you.”

Harry chuckled. “Madam, it's all right. After all these years, who is going to believe a criminal delinquent that's being sent to St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys?”

Minerva's mouth dropped open and her eyes almost fogged over.

“Don't faint on me.” Harry said and patted her hand a few times before he reached up to lightly touch her cheek.

Minerva's eyes caught his and Harry saw the confrontation in the headmaster's office and what Minerva really wanted to do to Albus Dumbledore, now that she knew some of what was going on with Harry. He couldn't resist and shared several incidents with her that had happened during the last three years and Minerva's anger dispersed her utter shock.

“Mister Potter, you are coming with me right now.” Minerva said and her hand turned over to grip his hard, then she turned around and walked back in the direction she had come from.

“My relatives...” Harry started to say.

“If I have my way, you will never see them again.” Minerva said, her voice deep and angry.

Harry walked along and didn't resist her. “I wish you had sent me a letter years ago.”

Minerva gasped and stumbled as she fell, only to be caught with strong arms. Her eyes widened as Harry easily held her and stood her back up on her feet.

“I assume you never thought of it?” Harry asked.

“That's not the shocking part.” Minerva said. “It's that no one has thought of it in years.”

“How could that happen?” Harry asked, curious.

“I don't know.” Minerva said and started walking again. “I will find out or I'll ask someone else to.”

Harry followed her to a small path that was hidden from view.

“Don't be afraid, Mister Potter. I am about to use some magic to transport us to near our destination.” Minerva said and pulled him close.

“I insist you call me Harry, madam.” Harry said and hugged her close as he gave her a smile that made Minerva think some very odd thoughts about trying to invent a reverse aging potion, just so she could kiss those lips.

“Hold on, Harry.” Minerva said and then imagined the right spot. It was the apparition coordinates for next to the Leaky Cauldron and she closed her eyes to will herself and her passenger to the right spot. Before she could feel her magic cover them or feel the squeezed through a tube feeling, the crack sound happened and they were already there.

“That's a lot smoother than your normal teleportation, isn't it?” Harry asked.

“What?” Minerva asked as she opened her eyes.

“There were a lot more restrictions I imposed upon myself when I learned to do it, because I didn't want to hurt anyone.” Harry said and led her around the building and inside. He was surprised it seemed kind of familiar and it reminded him of Tom Paris' holodeck program. “This is a quaint establishment. It's like Tom's recreation.”

“I'm Tom.” The bartender said and waved from behind the bar.

“Hello, my good man! Do you have a nice stout on tap?” Harry asked.

“One of the best in England.” Tom said and quickly drew a draft into a tall glass with only some foam.

Harry took it and sipped it. “Ah, you're quite right. That's one of the best I've had.”

Tom looked proud and preened a little. “Thank you, young man.”

“It's no trouble, Tom.” Harry said and took a longer drink. “I've got some business at the bank before I can come back and enjoy another glass and perhaps some of your Shepherd's Pie.”

Tom beamed a smile at him. “Then you go right on through and I'll run a bar tab for you until you come back.”

Harry chuckled and downed the rest of the glass. He turned his head and covered his mouth as he let out a loud belch. It made Tom the bartender and a few of the other patrons laugh. One of them even clapped.

“Yes, a great stout. I'll be back.” Harry promised and led a stunned Minerva into the back of the bar and to the small empty back area. He used her hand with her wand and tapped the right sequence on the bricks to have the doorway into Diagon Alley open up.

“Harry...”

“I still don't know anything about the magic world.” Harry told her and led her down the cobblestone street towards the bank. “My questions can wait until we're back in the pub and eating a hearty meal.”

“How did you do that?” Minerva asked and motioned with her wand.

“I figured it just needed a wand. It didn't have to be mine.” Harry said.

“The sequence?” Minerva asked.

“It was right at the front of your mind.” Harry said and she sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh? You know about telepaths?”

“Tele... no, we call them legillimencers.” Minerva informed him.

“Hmm. That sounds like it needs a wand.” Harry said when he saw her thoughts.

“Only the very skilled can do it without one.” Minerva said and tried to not think about the two she knew about.

“Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape.” Harry said and he almost laughed as her thoughts pretty much threw up all over his mind. “One sentenced me to stay at Dursley prison and the other hates my unknown father with a passion and hates me because I might look and act like him.”

Minerva tried to think about anything else and she couldn't.

“Don't worry, madam. I don't plan on subjecting myself to idiocy any more than you do.” Harry promised and led her into the bank. He dug into her pocket and took out his vault key. They stood in line for several minutes before it was their turn.

“What is your business with Gringotts today?” The goblin asked without looking up from his ledger.

“I'd like an accounting of the vault this key is for, any other vault associated with me or my name, and any inherited vaults I have access to, either by bequeaths or gifts.”

The goblin stopped writing in his ledger and lifted his head to look at him. “And you are?”

“Harry Potter.” Harry said and held up his key.

The goblin stared at it and then at his face. “It seems to be in order.”

“Are you going to assign someone else to do the work and save yourself the headache, or are you going to accept the unknown challenge and spit in the face of adversity?” Harry asked.

The goblin let out a low growl. “If it is too much work, the bank will charge you five percent of that vault for the hassle.”

“I will agree to three percent if it's too much work. However, if you complete the task by the time I return from getting some gold from this vault, you can keep one percent from this vault for yourself, regardless if a fee is charged.”

“GRIPHOOK!” The goblin yelled and another goblin waddled over. “Take Mister Potter to his vault while I do up a full accounting of his holdings.” He said and then whispered something in Gobbledegook.

Harry was sure he knew the gist of it was 'go the long way', and he was fine with that. “Madam, perhaps you should stay here and rest. You've had a trying morning so far and I'm afraid that it is only going to get worse before it gets better.”

“I agree, Harry.” Minerva said and reluctantly let his hand go before she walked over to a bench and sat. She seemed to relax a little and her face was went from a slight frown to blank.

“This way.” Griphook said and Harry followed him. They soon reached a set of mining carts, which told Harry that the vaults were deep underground. You wouldn't need carts if the vaults were only a few levels below the surface.

“I hope the long way has lots of hills and steep turns.” Harry commented as they climbed into the closest cart. He didn't need to be a mind reader to see the flinch. “It's all right. I asked for him to do a lot for me, so I might spend a few minutes or ten as I admire what's in the vault.”

Griphook gave him a searching look.

“Maybe a handful will find a new home in someone's pockets if the ride's a good one.” Harry suggested.

Griphook smiled. “Just so you know, the carts only have two settings. Stop and Oh, my god! I'm going to die!”

Harry burst out laughing and Griphook laughed as well, then proved it. It was a blast.

*

The goblin clerk handed Harry a full accounting of his assets when he returned from riding the mining carts for half an hour. It hadn't been much work, so the goblin was quite pleased to have earned 1,220 galleons for himself.

Harry promised to read everything over and would send an owl or return if he had any questions. He gathered Minvera from the waiting area and she didn't comment about his actually wind-swept hair. She brought him to Madam Malkin's to get his school uniforms and he was measured and told to come back in an hour.

They left there and went back to the Leaky Cauldron to have some Shepherd's Pie and another glass of stout. Minerva actually relaxed a little and had a glass for herself, pleased at the taste. She dug into the pie with gusto and talked to Harry about the wizarding world and answered all of his questions with promptness and without embellishing anything.

When the meal and interrogation was done, Harry paid a bit extra to a happy Tom the barman and he and Minerva returned to Diagon Alley to make the rounds to all of the shops for Harry's school things. The first purchase was a trunk and they went to Flourish and Blotts first for his school books and a couple of books that muggleborn usually bought.

It didn't seem like it took long at all as they had traversed the rest of the alley and picked up all of Harry's school things, including his robes from the clothing shop. Minerva helped him pack everything into his trunk and shrunk it for him to carry.

“Thank you, madam.” Harry said gratefully and tucked it into a pocket before he took her hand once more.

“I will tap the trunk with my wand to enlarge it again when I take you home.” Minerva said.

“Oh? You've decided to keep me all to yourself, madam?” Harry asked, cheekily.

Minerva blushed a little and then softly laughed at the absurdity of her keeping him for herself. “I'm sure there are plenty of little witches out there for you to choose from, Harry.”

“I doubt I can find someone that's close to my intelligence level.” Harry said, a bit arrogantly.

Minerva huffed. “I know of at least one muggleborn witch that will be a challenge for you.”

Harry couldn't help but laugh at Minerva's thoughts and the girl's image popped into his head. “I suppose I did sound a bit pompous when I said that. I apologize.”

Minerva nodded and motioned for him to proceed her into the wandmaker's store, their final stop. “This is usually a personal experience. I will wait here for you.”

Harry gave her a questioning look and didn't enter.

“He has greeted me a dozen times already and I do not need another.” Minerva said and conjured a stiff wooden chair and primly sat on it.

Harry admired her poise for a moment, then he let her hand go and entered the store. He did not miss her appreciation of his admiration, either. Being a telepath that can use touch as a medium to conduct thoughts was quite useful.

“Ah, Mister Potter. I was wondering when I would see you.” Ollivander said when he appeared.

“You have a ward on your door that tells you who enters?” Harry asked, surprised. The thought had been practically shouted at him.

Ollivander startled slightly and then laughed. “A natural legillimenser. Of course.”

Harry didn't bother correcting his assumption.

“Well, that pretty much shoots down most of my dog and pony show, as the muggles say.” Ollivander said with a chuckle. “Which is your dominant arm?”

Harry waved with his right hand and Ollivander nodded before he went into the back. He gathered several boxed wands and brought them out to the front.

“I give one of each kind of wand core I stock to each child, see what reactions they have, then narrow down the wood that best suits them.” Ollivander explained and it only took three wands for Harry to have a good match with a phoenix feather. With that as the clue, Ollivander brought out wands with only phoenix feather cores and made from different woods.

Harry picked the one with Holly and Phoenix feather as the best fit and Ollivander nodded. “You have a story for this, don't you?”

Ollivander did and explained how it was a brother wand to the one that gave Harry his scar. When the old man looked at Harry's forehead, no scar was there.

“I had it removed and healed years ago.” Harry said and paid for the wand. “Have a good day, sir.”

“You as well.” Ollivander said and closed his shop. He had an urgent floo call to make.

“You didn't take as long as I expected.” Minerva said as Harry exited the shop.

“Mister Ollivander said he skipped his normal dog and pony show.” Harry told her and took her hand.

Minerva smiled. “Of course, that would explain it.”

The pair walked all the way back down Diagon Alley and out through the entryway behind the Leaky Cauldron. They passed through and greeted Tom again before they walked around the building to the apparition point.

Minerva held in her blush when Harry was quite bold in hugging her close. The cheeky boy smiled at her as if he wasn't doing anything wrong by holding her so familiarly. The thoughts in her mind about none of the witches at Hogwarts being able to resist a smile like that, made Harry laugh. They disappeared and reappeared in Hogsmeade.

“I need to drop you off at the hospital wing for a while, Harry. You need your immunizations against wizarding diseases and should get a full check-up to make sure you're healthy.” Minerva said.

“You couldn't have done that before completely exposing me for most of the day in Diagon Alley?” Harry asked with raised eyebrows.

Minerva blushed from embarrassment. She really should have done that first. “I'm sorry, Harry.”

Harry held in his sigh at her thoughts about not thinking about it until it was pretty much thrust into her face. If they hadn't come to Hogwarts, she might not have thought of it at all. He nodded and let her lead him through the gates and up to the castle.

Madam Pomfrey almost looked pained when she found out who he was. “I'm sorry, Minerva. The headmaster said I am not allowed to examine Mister Potter. Since he is his magical guardian...”

“He won't be for much longer!” Minerva spat. “As if I wasn't angry enough at him already over what he's done, he has to play his games with Harry's health, too!”

Harry was pretty much deluged with all of the machinations by Albus Dumbledore. At least, they were the ones that Minerva knew about. When he concentrated on Madam Pomfrey, he easily saw himself as a baby and her deep concern over his cursed scar and the dark magic emanating from it. That was when she had been ordered to leave Harry alone.

“Come along, Harry. We need to go to St. Mungo's. You won't be getting the necessary help you need here.” Minerva said, pointedly.

Madam Pomfrey could do nothing but agree.

“I will be stopping by the Ministry of Magic while you are being cared for as well.” Minerva said and led Harry back out of the hospital wing. “I cannot abide by Albus intentionally inflicting you harm, just so you would be grateful to be rescued from your family.”

“Those muggles are not my family, madam. They are only the people I was forced to live with because I was never allowed to escape from there.” Harry said and felt a small surge of energy flow into him. He didn't question it at the moment, because he didn't want to distract the woman leading him to another healer.

Harry would never know that at that same moment, the Blood Wards around Privet Drive that were solely powered by Harry's love of his family and belief that it was a home, crumbled into dust.

*

Minerva was only a little surprised that Harry had been chivalrous beyond all of her expectations and protected her as they rode on the Knight Bus. She couldn't puzzle out how he had held her and himself against the side of the bus and kept the other passengers and furniture away, without casting any spells. That she knew of, anyway. He didn't have his wand out, either.

They arrived at St. Mungo's without being injured or had their clothes dishevelled, which was a first for Minerva. They entered the establishment through the display window and Harry was told in no uncertain terms by the welcome witch that he would have a three hour wait for a basic checkup and for his inoculations.

“So, you're going to make me sit in the waiting room, with all sorts of other sicknesses and diseases floating around, completely exposing me to said sicknesses and diseases for at least three hours, before you will inoculate me against them?” Harry asked her and her eyes widened at the implication. “Why do wizards bother getting inoculated in the first place if you're that ignorant of the danger?”

The welcome witch couldn't stop her eyes from roaming around the nearly packed waiting room and she easily saw one case of Spattergrout, two for wizard mumps, and quite a few switched or misplaced body parts. One of which was a missing nose and it exposed the man's sinus cavity completely.

“Perhaps I can squeeze you in.” The welcome witch said and waved towards a closed door. “You can wait in the staff break room for now.”

Harry beamed a smile at her. “Thank you, madam. I appreciate your concern for my welfare.”

The welcome witch blushed and waved at the door again. “Hurry, before the other patients see you.”

Harry and Minerva went to the door and entered the break room. It was empty and Minerva felt relief.

“Tea?” Harry asked and went over to make some.

“Harry, I don't think she meant for us to help ourselves to the amenities.” Minerva said.

“She won't mind if you bring her a cup.” Harry said with a smirk.

Minerva chuckled and nodded agreement.

The tea was quickly prepared and Harry did up a proper saucer for it, added sugar cubes on the side, a small carafe of milk, and several different biscuits arrayed on another saucer.

Minerva chuckled again and carried the plastic tray out of the room and gave it to the welcome witch. The witch was shocked at the courtesy and stammered a thank you before preparing her tea. She had no idea why it tasted so much better than the cup she had drunk an hour previously during her break.

Harry was soon called because he was an easy patient and gave the healer a break. When she found out he was there for his inoculations, she almost freaked out because he had come in through the general admittance entrance. He was quickly tested and no results came back, so the healer relaxed.

She administered the various potions that tasted like what cat litter smelled like and then performed a general check-up on him. When she was done, she declared that he was the fittest and healthiest ten-almost-eleven year old she had ever met. She also asked him if he had a girlfriend and said that her daughter was a fifth year at Hogwarts if he didn't.

“Thank you for the check-up, madam. Can I ask you what your name is?” Harry asked.

“My daughter's name is Penelope Clearwater and she's a Ravenclaw.” The healer responded.

That made Harry laugh. “I promise to only meet the girl and say hello, not to date.”

Healer Clearwater's pout was quite cute and Harry told her so, just to make her blush. She did and quickly shooed him out the door of the examination room.

Minerva enjoyed the relaxing break room and had just finished her tea when Harry returned and reported that he had his inoculations and that he was as healthy as could be. She almost asked how he could be healthy if his relatives starved him and Harry answered her before she could.

“I stole food from them to give myself a healthy diet. I wasn't going to suffer because of their hatred.” Harry said and cleaned up the slight mess making tea had created.

Minerva didn't comment about him not having to do that, then realized Harry was well practised in dong so. She kept her frown from showing and they left the break room. The welcome witch greeted them happily and thanked them for coming and for getting her the best tea she had all week.

Harry shook her hand and thanked her right back for her hard work. She blushed and shooed him away, which seemed like a common occurrence for medical professionals. Harry and Minerva left there and walked several streets to get the subway and rode the tube to another part of London.

Minerva didn't have to explain that she would have done this while Harry was at St. Mungo's, because if he really had been stuck there for three hours, she would have had plenty of time to deal with paperwork at the Ministry of Magic. Also, having Harry along to give testimony and to sign the papers himself, would make everything go much smoother.

It did. Since Harry had been hidden from the wizarding world for ten years and no one knew what had happened to him, the clerk in the records department was very interested to hear how Harry was actually raised and if it compared to the published stories of his adventures.

Almost as soon as Harry and his new guardian were out the door of the office, the clerk called the newspaper to sell the story.

*

Minerva only had to think of the coordinates and then both she and Harry apparated to her family home in the Scottish Highlands. She would have to ask him to explain how he was not allowing them to be squeezed through a tube when he did that or felt a little sick afterwards.

“I would have boarded you at the castle if it wasn't against school policy to allow students to stay there during the summers.” Minerva said as they entered the place. “You have to forgive the not-lived-in feeling. I haven't been back here in almost a decade.”

“I think the inch of dust would have given it away, madam.” Harry joked and Minerva gave him a pointed look. “I didn't say I didn't forgive you, just that it was obvious you haven't lived here in a long time.”

Minerva nodded and started swiping her wand over everything to vanish the dust.

“Can you teach me that spell? I can help clean up.” Harry offered.

Minerva held in her sigh. “You haven't done any studying. Teaching you a third year spell without any training at all could be completely disastrous.”

Harry's eyebrows raised at her warning.

“You might vanish part of the floor if you aren't careful and you could fall to your death in the basement.” Minerva explained. “Or worse, you could send me to the basement or vanish my foot.”

“Understood, madam. If you show me some supplies and a water source, I will do it the muggle way.”

Minerva thought about refusing, then looked around the quite dirty house. “The kitchen is through there. If you can't find what you need, we can go back to London to buy it.”

Harry nodded and went to the kitchen while Minerva continued to work. She sighed at the sound of apparition and then was surprised when she heard it again barely a minute later. She went to the kitchen and saw Harry sorting through a pile of muggle cleaning supplies.

“I took them from my cupboard under the stairs.” Harry said with a huge smile.

Minerva chuckled and left him to it. Who was she to stop him from getting a little revenge on them?

*

Harry apparated to the right coordinates and shook his head as he made his way inside King's Cross Station to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. The castle was damn near next door to where Minerva lived and he had to go all the way to London to board a train that was going to spend eight hours crossing the countryside to take him all the way back to where he had come from.

Minevra's answer that it was tradition didn't make sense... just like a lot of the things that wizards did. Like limiting each child to buying only the books they used that year. It was maddening, since Harry had memorized all of his books within the first week and then performed every spell perfectly. The only things he couldn't do were potions and herbology.

Harry suspected that higher year knowledge was going to be kept from him, thanks to Minerva's previous warning. He sighed when he found the entrance to the platform and glanced around, only to see that the people didn't even look his way. He suspected a spell that caused that and he didn't know what it was, just that it would be very useful to hide things in plain sight.

Since Harry didn't have his glasses or the telltale scar, he didn't try to fix his hair or hide who he was. No one would expect him to look different than the Harry Potter in the popular books. He couldn't even get them to stop, because Dumbledore had accepted a royalties contract on his behalf and he received a tiny share of the profits.

On the plus side, his account at Gringotts hadn't been messed with or mismanaged. It was sad to learn that he no longer owned any properties, thanks to the Potter ancestral home burning down fifteen years ago and the cottage his parents lived in being confiscated by the Ministry of Magic as a national monument.

After exchanging several letters with the bank, the monetary gifts sent to the Boy-Who-Lived over the years in a separate vault had been folded into his main vault and the physical gifts would need to be sorted during the next summer break. Thank you cards had been sent out automatically, so Harry didn't have to worry about that, thankfully.

Harry just didn't have the time to deal with the gifts this year after cleaning the house and then taking care of the household by himself, including preparing the meals, because Minerva had returned to Hogwarts to keep up the pretense that she didn't know where he was. It had left him all alone and he had to entertain himself. He wasn't some child, even though he was eleven years old.

Then again, since Harry was still part Ocampa and still had his powers, he could be considered quite an old man. The thought made Harry chuckle and he walked through the barrier to step onto the platform and shook his head when he saw the ancient steam-powered train.

Harry hoped they used magic to power the thing, because if it still used coal or wood, then it was a complete waste of non-renewable and slowly renewable resources. It was only 10 in the morning, so he had an hour before the train was supposed to leave. There were not many people on the platform, which meant most families must wait for the train to almost leave before they showed up.

An empty compartment was easy to find and Harry left his shrunken trunk in his pocket. He had convinced Minerva to show him how to do that only that morning and he needed to learn the General Counter Spell to end the effect. She didn't quite look happy that he succeeded with the first attempt, for some reason.

Harry didn't bother trying to look into her mind to find out why, though. It wasn't like they were sharing each other's deep secrets or anything. She was his magical guardian and he lived at her house. That was pretty much the extent of their relationship so far. Besides the teasing, anyway. Making an older woman blush always put a happy smile on his face.

The time until departure passed by as Harry searched through his feelings. He had been surprised when he checked the part of himself that was fully devoted to Kes and found it to be complete and almost closed off, as if it had ended a very long time ago and they had parted amicably.

It was the same with his children when Harry checked his connection with them. Instead of the gaping holes he expected, they were filled in like Kes' connection and felt complete. Now Harry knew for sure that a lot of his memories had been tampered with and removed, because he should have been feeling their loss or sadness to not have them in his head like they should be.

The door of the compartment opened and two girls struggled a little as they entered with their trunks. One was a blonde girl and the other was a brunette. Harry didn't wonder why he knew that without looking and opened his eyes. He suddenly saw the future beauties they would become, almost like an overlay on their eleven year old faces. The effect only lasted for a moment, however.

“May I offer you some assistance?” Harry asked them as he stood.

The two girls exchanged looks and then looked back at him and nodded. Harry easily picked up one of the trunks and put it on the overhead rack, then did the same with the second trunk. The two girls stared at him with wide eyes, as if they couldn't believe he just did what he just did.

“Where's your trunk?” The brunette asked as she and her friend sat across from Harry.

“Mine is in here.” Harry said and patted his shirt pocket.

“Did your parents do that for you?” The blonde asked.

“No, my magical guardian. My parents were killed when I was a baby.” Harry corrected.

“I'm sorry.” The blonde said, her face a little sad.

“It's all right. I didn't really know them and they apparently died for a great cause.” Harry said and smiled as he spread his arms. “Here I am!”

The brunette made a snorting sound and covered her mouth to stop her laugh. The blonde tried not to smile and couldn't stop herself.

“Can I ask you lovely ladies your names?” Harry asked them.

“I don't know. Can you?” The brunette asked back and giggled.

“Obviously he can.” The blonde girl rolled her eyes at her friend and looked at Harry. “I suppose we could trust you with them, as long as you don't abuse them.”

“I promise to only use them when I commit despicable acts in your names.” Harry promised, teasingly. He wasn't sure why he was carrying on so much with girls he just met. It just felt right.

“HA HA HA!” The brunette laughed and her hand proved to be no barrier when she laughed so hard.

The blonde shook her head. “The laughing fool is my friend Tracey Davis and I am Daphne Greengrass.”

“It's nice to meet you, Miss Greengrass and Miss Davis.” Harry said and waited for a moment before he said his own name, because he knew it would get a nice reaction. “I'm Harry Potter.”

Tracey's laugh cut off and her mouth dropped open and Daphne almost looked a little sick.

“I lost the glasses years ago when my eyes were healed and a medical procedure removed the scar.” Harry said and showed off his clean forehead.

Both girls only stared at him and didn't say anything in response.

“The severe malnutrition and badly healed bones took almost a week to correct.” Harry told them without being prompted, almost as if he needed to get it off of his chest. “I grew up with hate-filled muggles and only found out this summer that I was a wizard. It was quite the shock and also explained a few things that happened as I grew up.”

The girls were too stunned by the revelation that he was Harry Potter to react.

“In any case, I am away from them now and living in a nice magical home. It's a bit lonely all by myself while my guardian works at Hogwarts; but, what's a boy to do when he is at the mercy of adults that control nearly every aspect of his life?” Harry asked, rhetorically. “So, Miss Davis, how was your summer?”

Tracey opened and closed her mouth several times and no words came out.

“That is absolutely fascinating.” Harry said kindly as he easily saw the girl's thoughts and looked at Daphne. “Miss Greengrass, what about you? Did anything noteworthy happen?”

Daphne didn't even try to speak and just stared at him.

Harry chuckled as her thoughts of him flowed out of her head and he saw the articles in the newspaper about him and what happened to him. “Nearly the same as me, since it was a summer of revelations.” He said and smiled warmly at the both of them. “What House do you think you will be sorted into?”

“Slytherin, since it's what my father wants.” Daphne said.

“Your needs don't factor into it?” Harry asked.

“No, and it's the same with Tracey. If she doesn't come with me, I won't be able to protect her.” Daphne said.

Harry couldn't help seeing everything about Tracey's father being a death eater and she was the daughter the man wasn't supposed to have with a mistress the man also wasn't supposed to have. He knew exactly what it felt like to be completely unwanted by your relatives and felt the sudden urge to help her. So, he stood and then knelt in front of Tracey and took both of her hands in his.

“Telling you that you don't have to prove yourself to bad people, won't change your decision. All I can do is tell you that just because people expect certain things from you, you don't have to provide them.” Harry said and let feelings of reassurance flow from him and into Tracey's mind.

Tracey shivered at the intensity of the look in Harry's eyes and she could feel how much he was trying to reassure her. “Th-thank you, Harry.”

“You are talking about yourself.” Daphne observed.

Harry nodded and didn't let Tracey's hands go. “I could easily pick up a pair of fake glasses from anywhere and use a bit of makeup to recreate the scar that everyone wants to see.”

“You wouldn't do that.” Tracey whispered, sure of it.

“No, because conforming only makes an individual into a less enlightened being and dims the mind. If you only become the person that everyone expects you to be, you will never become yourself.” Harry said, his words more profound than he realized.

Tracey stared at him as if he was speaking gospel and Daphne did her best to parse out what he said.

“You're ambitious and you're going to use everyone's expectations of you against them, which is quite cunning of you.” Daphne said when she understood. “You are definitely going to be a Slytherin.”

“Everyone's going to freak out if you are.” Tracey said and her hands gripped Harry's tightly. “If everyone's looking at you, no one will be looking at me.”

Harry easily saw in her mind that Tracey would happily hide behind his wizarding robes to use him as a shield, as long as he wasn't hurt doing it. He chuckled and shared his amusement with her.

“If I do end up there, I'll help Daphne protect you.” Harry promised and both girls believed him.

The door opened and a bushy-haired girl stood there. “Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one.”

Harry turned and smiled at the girl that he recognized from Minerva's thoughts as the muggleborn witch that could match his intelligence. “I'm sorry, Miss Granger. No amphibian has ingressed this compartment.”

Hermione looked at him and noticed that he was knelt on the floor and held a girl's hands tenderly. Her eyebrows raised at the sight. “Aren't you a little young to be proposing marriage?”

Tracey's face went to a deep red as she blushed, Daphne clamped her mouth shut to stop her laugh, and Harry beamed a smile at them all.

“The lack of an appropriate ring should clue you in that I was only pledging my support and offering her protection.” Harry responded. “Albeit with a bit more chivalry than was needed.”

“The ring could be in your pocket and I just interrupted you.” Hermione countered.

Harry chuckled. “Touche, Miss Granger.”

Hermione smiled and nodded, clearly happy to have won. “Have a good day.”

Harry, Tracey, and Daphne watched her shut the door and walk away.

“You can... let my hands go... if you want to.” Tracey said in a whisper.

Harry heard her thoughts that she was quite embarrassed about the proposal thing at first and now it seemed like a really good idea. She also liked holding his hands and the feelings he was making her feel. Instead of letting go, Harry stood and eased her closer to Daphne, let one hand go, and sat down beside Tracey.

Tracey blushed again and her fingers seemed to fit between his as they intertwined to lock their hands together. “H-Harry...”

“My knees were getting sore and I needed to sit down.” Harry lied and both girls knew it.

“Have you read any of this year's books?” Daphne asked in an attempt to distract herself from her friend holding hands with the Boy-Who-Lived. She wanted to protect the girl from the other children of death eaters and Tracey being cozy with Harry Potter was not going to help keep her safe. At all.

“I have. What one did you concentrate on?” Harry asked and didn't let his face show that he had heard her thoughts.

“Potions. Professor Snape is head of Slytherin House and he teaches the potions class. If you are unprepared for his classes, he won't be happy.” Daphne answered.

That gave Harry pause, because he knew from Minerva's mind that Snape was going to hate him without needing a reason to. “I've read the book and I haven't had a chance to practice any brewing.”

Daphne looked thoughtful. “If you're familiar with the recipes and how some of the ingredients interact, I'm sure you should be fine.”

Harry leaned forward slight to give her a pointed look around Tracey's still blushing face.

“You make an excellent point.” Daphne said, understanding the look right away. “You are the Boy-Who-Lived and he's going to hate you on pure principle.”

Harry nodded and leaned back. “I have to assume a lot of people are going to feel that way.”

“There are many more that will feel the complete opposite of that.” Tracey said diplomatically and expressed her own opinion nicely.

“I feel so loved.” Harry said with a droll tone and Tracey giggled. “No, really. It gets me right here.” He said and poked himself in the heart. “Ow!”

Tracey laughed and Daphne joined her with her own muffled laugh.

“Seriously, though.” Daphne said. “If you do get sorted into the House of the Snakes, you need to be careful.”

“Don't worry about me, I can handle anything.” Harry said, proudly.

“You mean anything that a first year with no magical experience can handle.” Daphne pointed out.

“I suppose that could be a problem.” Harry said with a big grin and then he slumped and leaned against Tracey's shoulder as he whispered loudly. “Your friend is being mean by pointing out a detrimental flaw in my foolproof sixty-eight step plan to take over magical Britain. Please, heeeelp meeee!”

Tracey thought that Harry taking over was the funniest thing in the world and she laughed and laughed. Daphne rolled her eyes at them and huffed as she crossed her arms.

The trolley lady interrupted them and Harry bought them loads of their favorite sweets and some for himself. They spent the rest of the trip talking about various subjects and which ones they were looking forward to learning about.

There had been a brief appearance by a blond boy and his goons as they greeted Daphne. He had completely ignored Tracey and Harry as unimportant, which set Tracey off again and she kept laughing after he left.

*

When the first years finished their trip across the Black Lake and were met by Professor McGonagall, Harry perked up and smiled at her.

“I understand why the train trip is tradition.” Harry informed her.

Minerva smiled back briefly and gave the House speech before she led everyone inside the castle. She left them in the anteroom to smarten themselves up and to get the stool and sorting hat ready.

When the spectres floated through the wall, Harry automatically reached for the phaser on his hip and grasped empty air. He cursed under his breath, because he hadn't been able to learn enough about manufacturing to recreate some of the essential tools he had been so used to using when he was a crewman on Voyager.

The so-called castle ghosts continued on past the students, half of which had been terrified of them. As Harry glared at them, he picked up a few stray thoughts about them intentionally doing it to get a thrill out of their undead lives. He promised himself that he would take care of their problem as soon as he could, assuming he could somehow recreate a phaser with such primitive technology.

Minerva came back to retrieve the first years and she paraded them into the Great Hall by the other students, which would have been embarrassing for Harry if he wasn't well used to uncomfortable situations. It made him reminisce about his real adventures and compared them to the Harry Potter books that were pure fantasy. The books were sorely lacking and didn't compare to reality.

The sorting started and it went about the same as it was supposed to and Harry wasn't surprised when both Tracey and Daphne were sorted into Slytherin. The knowing looks they gave him as they sat down were missed by everyone else in the Great Hall except Harry.

“Potter, Harry.” Minerva said and everyone seemed to quiet down in anticipation.

Harry waited for a moment, just to make sure everyone was looking, and stepped forward to walk to the stool. The shocked whispers over his different but similar appearance were easily ignored and he sat on the stool and put on the hat.

Hello there, Mister Potter. The hat said into his mind.

Hello. Harry thought back. Do you have a name or should I just call you Mister Hat?

The hat chuckled. I don't think anyone has ever called me Mister Hat before. I kind of like it.

Mister Hat it is. Harry thought and then realized what was happening. You sort students by plunging into their minds.

I do. The hat said. Would you mind lowering your defenses enough for me to do that?

I'm sorry, I can't. Temporal Prime Directive. Harry thought. Any future knowledge you learn about could erase the timeline and I can't take the chance what you learn could change you fundamentally.

Like it did you? The hat asked.

Exactly. Harry thought. I've kept a low profile specifically so that I wouldn't affect the normal population. Since the wizarding world is a completely hidden aspect of humanity, the things I personally do shouldn't change how the outside world, or the real world, operates.

The hat was quiet for several moments. You are saying we disappear in the future.

Yes, completely. Harry responded. There are no records at all. I checked. I believe this area was reclaimed farmland after the third world war that bombed the planet back to the middle ages with nuclear explosions.

The hat went completely silent for nearly a full minute.

You see? Just that little bit of information about the future has changed you. Harry thought, sadly.

I think I know what you are planning, Mister Potter. Since there are no records of the wizarding world, you are either going to save us all or you will make sure we stay completely undetected.

You are really smart, Mister Hat. Harry complimented him. I'm going to do both. After I clean the place up a little, of course.

Then there's only one place I can put you for being so ambitious. The hat said into his mind, then he spoke out loud. “Better be... Slytherin!”

Complete silence fell in the Great Hall as all mutterings stopped about how long the savior of the wizarding world was taking while being sorted.

Harry took off the hat and placed it on the stool. When he saw the pursed lips on his magical guardian's face, he whispered to her. “I'll explain later.”

Minerva nodded slightly and Harry walked over to his House table. The looks of betrayal on some people's faces made Harry stop walking. He went back to the stool and stood on it.

“Can I have everyone's attention?” Harry asked superfluously, because he already had it. “You've all read how I was raised by muggles, haven't you?”

A lot of people nodded.

“Then you all know I was starved and beaten for ten years. I was hated and reviled by my muggle relatives because I was a freak and unnatural. I also had to cook all the meals and did all the cleaning by hand since I was four. What other house besides Slytherin could you expect me to go to?”

“Griffindor!” A redheaded boy said from the unsorted first years. “The Boy-Who-Lived has to go to Griffindor! He saved everyone!”

Harry had to smile at that. “And now we come to the heart of the matter.” He said and pointed right at Albus Dumbledore. “That man ensured that I would never know about magic or being the Boy-Who-Lived. He also made sure that everyone else would.”

The looks of hatred send the headmaster's way made the man flinch.

“I only found out about magic when I received my Hogwarts letter before my birthday and I almost didn't accept.” Harry said and a lot of the girls gasped. “I grew up being conditioned to hate freakishness and unnaturalness. Why would I want to study something that would ensure I would be beaten even more?”

No one had an answer for that.

“Then a caring woman answered my plea for answers and she swooped in and rescued me when she learned of my situation.” Harry said and motioned to Minerva McGonagall. “If it wasn't for her ensuring I was taken care of, both medically and physically, I wouldn't have come here at all.”

The looks of appreciation on everyone's faces were directed at the older woman and she straightened her back and met them with a smile.

“I'm sure if I had grown up like most of you, I would be a well adjusted young man and well accustomed to both magic and being famous. As it is, I was thrust into this situation with almost no preparation and I've been struggling with everything and trying to learn as much as I can.”

“We can help!” A pair of redheads offered.

Harry waved to them and his mind was almost bombarded with prank ideas and them corrupting him to become a prankster. “I appreciate the offer, gentlemen. However, I was warned that learning too much too fast would endanger myself and those around me more than being ignorant would, so I'm kind of stuck. I know I need to know more and I know I won't be allowed to. It's been very frustrating.”

“Bugger.” The twins said.

Harry chuckled. “I will accept some help, as long as you don't mind being associated with... what was the term of endearment I overheard? Oh, right. A slimy snake.”

That got a few chuckles from some of the students.

“It does go against our standing policy.” One of the twins said.

“But, we might be able to make an exception for you.” The other one said.

“Overcoming adversity is something we all have to do at some point. I've been dealing with it my whole life and coming to a school to learn magic is just the next hurdle in my life.” Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw Tracey's happy face and Daphne's blank one. “Just be forewarned. I have had a lot of experience dealing with adversity, since it was a necessary skill for me to develop, and I have no problem using that skill. At all.”

Minerva made a huff sound.

“I'm sorry, madam. I didn't intend to make a whole speech and delay the rest of the sorting.” Harry said and took her hand as he sent her reassuring feelings and bent over to lightly kiss the back of it. “Please, excuse me. I need to join my housemates.”

Minerva nodded and shooed him off of the stool when he let her hand go. Harry strode over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Tracey. She gave him an appraising look that would have been more appropriate on the face of someone a few years older. Harry glanced around and saw exactly that on more than a few faces, both male and female.

The sorting continued and the redheaded boy named Weasley went to Griffindor and the last first year sorted was Blaise Zambini and he went to Slytherin.

“You were expected to come here, too?” Harry asked him when he sat down across from him.

Blaise looked surprised for only a second. “How did you know?”

“It's the resigned look on your face. It's the same one Miss Davis wore when she was sorted.” Harry said. “I gave her some advice that I think you should have as well.”

“Ooo, I want to hear this again! It's so inspiring.” Tracey said, a little excitedly. The other first years and a few of the older students leaned a little closer to hear.

Harry grinned. “Screw everyone else and just be yourself.”

Daphne barked a laugh, Tracey looked shocked, and Blaise smiled.

“I couched it in more flowery words and held her hands at the time; but, that was the gist of it. If you try to be what everyone else expects you to be, then that's all you'll ever be. You will never become who you were meant to be if you limit yourself like that.”

A lot of the older students looked thoughtful at his words.

“That's closer to what you said the first time.” Tracey said. “Why couldn't you say it like that?”

“Because that wouldn't be funny.” Harry said and glanced at Daphne. “I liked that really odd sound she made, didn't you? By the way, Miss Greengrass, that was called a laugh. It's such a novel concept.”

Daphne huffed in an eerie copy of Minerva's. “I know what a laugh is, you dolt.”

“Then I hope to hear more from you in the future.” Harry said and the table was suddenly filled with food. “If that was a spell, I need to learn that right away.”

Tracey snorted. “You can't create food from nothing. It's one of Gamp's Laws of Conjuration.”

Harry gave her an odd look. “Not from nothing, no. It's energy conversion. E=MCsquared is the basic formula for it and there are a dozen other modifying components that enhance the process and can essentially cheat the original formula by creating shortcuts. With only a little bit of energy and a set pattern, you can recreate any food item and make it nutritious.”

Everyone around him stared at him.

Harry knew they thought he was crazy, so he took out his wand as a cover and picked up a chicken leg. “Abracadabra.” He said and pointed the wand at it and used his telekinesis power to rearrange the atoms of the chicken leg to make it resemble a large chocolate chip cookie. His time spent in Engineering was not wasted. “It has the same nutritional value as chicken, except it's a cookie.”

Tracey's eyes were so wide, they were in danger of popping out.

“Here, try it.” Harry said and broke the large cookie in half and started eating the half he kept as he held out the other half to her.

Tracey reached for it as if it was going to bite her, then she held it as if she didn't know what to do with it.

Harry was already halfway through his piece of cookie. “If you're worried about the bone and marrow of the chicken leg, it technically doesn't exist anymore. It was converted into flour and sugar.”

Everyone kept staring at him and they weren't eating.

“I can write out the chemical formula for you later. As long as you know what you're changing something into, it will become it.” Harry said and finished his cookie. He took a pork chop and a scoop of potatoes and pretended to use his wand on them and used his telekinesis power to rearrange the atoms to resemble chocolate pudding. It plopped onto his plate and spread out. “I probably should have used a bowl.”

Everyone stared as his plate's edges curved up and became a nice bowl.

“Much better.” Harry said and started eating his pudding with a spoon. “It's missing something.” He said and picked up an apple to hold over this bowl. It changed to a white creamy thing and plopped down onto the pudding. “There we go. Whipped cream.”

“They usually serve dessert after the main meal.” Daphne pointed out.

“I know. I was just proving to everyone I wasn't lying or crazy.” Harry said and finished eating his pudding.

“I wouldn't be too sure about you proving the second thing.” Daphne responded. That seemed to be the cue for everyone to start eating and they all did, even Tracey. Her first bite of cookie was quickly followed by her scarfing it down in only seconds.

Harry chuckled and sat back as his bowl became a plate again. “I was experimenting and discovered it would work on food, as long as I knew what I was changing and changing it into. It doesn't quite work when trying to make more exotic metals and alloys.” That don't exist in this time.

“Alchemists have been trying for centuries to change lead into gold.” One of the older students said. “Only one has been successful, Nicolas Flammel.”

“Meh, that's a simple thing. Barely a bit of rearranging.” Harry said and picked up his silver fork and waved his wand at it as he used his telekinesis power to rearrange the atoms slightly. It was one of the main reasons gold wasn't valuable in the future, because it was so easily created.

The shimmer of silver was replaced with a distinctive gold sheen. Nearly everyone at the table had their mouths drop open from shock and some even had food fall out.

“Although, I probably shouldn't do that. This is school property.” Harry said and changed it back to silver and put it down.

More than a few faces looked sad at that, probably because they couldn't take it for themselves. After another few moments, everyone started eating again. They also had a lot to think about.

Twenty minutes later, the food on the table was replaced with tons of dessert dishes and Harry immediately grabbed a cookie from a plate and filled a bowl with pudding. Everyone stopped eating to see if he was going to change them and Harry held in his laugh as he simply ate the cookie and started eating the pudding. Without the expected show, they all went back to eating their favorite desserts.

When the desserts disappeared, Headmaster Dumbledore stood and made several announcements, the last of which was a warning to stay away from the third floor corridor on the right-hand side, if they didn't want to suffer a painful death. A few of the students laughed, a lot looked confused, and the rest ignored it.

Harry couldn't do that, though. He stood up and waved both of his hands to get attention. “Hey, everyone!”

Everyone turned to look at him, even the teachers.

“I know I'm supposed to act like a Slytherin and be all cunning and mysterious...” Harry started to say and Tracey's laugh echoed through the hall. “Hush, you. Ahem. As I was saying, the headmaster's warning was too blatant of an invitation for me to ignore. I am going to head up there and check it out, since he obviously wants us to by telling us not to.”

That earned a few laughs and a lot of nodding heads.

“Who wants to come with Harry Potter on a fantastic adventure?” Harry asked and a whole bunch of people stood up. No one seemed surprised that most of them were Griffindors with the Weasley Twins in the lead.

“You're crazy.” Daphne said and she caught her breath when Tracey stood up, too. “You can't!”

“I'm sorry, Daphne. Harry's right.” Tracey said and took Harry's hand. “Let's go.”

Harry smiled at her and they walked towards the Griffindor table.

“I'm not missing this.” Blaise said and he hopped up and walked after them. He was joined by a dozen Ravenclaws, a handful of Hufflepuffs, and a few older Slytherins.

*

Albus Dumbledore was stunned. He had expected that his words would put a suggestion into Harry's brain and it would gnaw at him and perhaps get him to start investigating things. He did not expect for him to immediately gather a huge following and lead them right up to the third floor.

“Headmaster, I suggest that you stop them.” Severus Snape said.

Albus turned his head to look at him. “How would you suggest I stop sixty-five students?”

“You forbid them to go.” Snape answered.

“He already did that and it didn't work.” Minerva reminded him.

“Then threaten them with docking House points.” Snape suggested, even though there were Slytherins with the group.

“No one has any points to remove.” Pomona Sprout said. “I'm a little surprised that Mister Diggory and Miss Bones went with them.”

Bones? Why does that name give me pause? Albus thought and then swallowed a gasp. Amelia Bones is the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement! I can't let her find out what's on the third floor!

The other teachers watched as Albus made his way around the teacher's table and across the Great Hall as quickly as his old legs could carry him.

“I wonder if he will stun them all and erase the last few minutes from their memories.” Minerva commented and stood. “I suppose I should follow him and look after the welfare of the students.”

No one stopped her as she strode out of the Great Hall even faster than Albus.

Quirinus Quirrell sat there and was thoroughly confused by the turn of events. He had expected to secretly observe the Boy-Who-Lived for a while, discern his character, and then use it against him to systematically demoralize him and remove all hope from his life to crush him in a final confrontation at the end of the year.

He felt the urging from his passenger to get some privacy immediately, so he stood and left the Great Hall at a normal walking pace. He and his master had a lot to discuss about the savior of the wizarding world and what to do next.

*

“Okay, does anyone know how to calm a Cerberus?” Harry asked the group.

“You could just stun him.” One of the Slytherins suggested.

“How many of you know that spell?” Harry asked and six people put up their hands. “Step forward and I'll open the door again. Make sure to hit each head twice, so you and you get head number one, you and you get head number two, and you and you get the last head.”

The six older students nodded and Harry opened the door and ducked as he used his telekinesis to hold the dog still. The six stunners hit true and the dog's eyes rolled into the backs of their heads and Harry let it drop to the floor.

“Well done!” Harry praised them and everyone piled into the room.

“There's nothing here except the dog.” Someone said.

“Who knows the levitation spell?” Harry asked and nearly everyone put up their hands. “Give the pooch a shove and put it in the corner so we can see the whole floor.”

The unconscious dog was barely halfway across the room when someone shouted there was a trap door. They opened it and looked down into the darkness.

“Wand lighting spells!” Harry said and twenty of them shone down through the trap door and revealed piles of wriggling vines.

“That's Devil's Snare.” A Ravenclaw said. “Sunlight and fire deals with it.”

Harry didn't have to prompt them as ten blasts of flame called Incendio and ten blasts of sunlight called Lumos Solem were fired into the hole. The Devil's Snare was scared and burned away to reveal another room below them.

“We need ropes!” The Weasley Twins said and the older students conjured a bunch of them and the twins tied them into a very good rope ladder and used sticking charms on it to secure it.

“You two are going to be handy to have around.” Harry said and climbed down the ladder. “There's no other things here, just a door.”

Everyone scrambled down and saw Harry stood by the door. He opened it for them and they entered to see a table with a whole bunch of keys on it and another door.

“We got this one.” The Twins said and pretty much assaulted the door with prank items and blew it off the hinges. “We learned a long time ago that locked doors are not a problem.”

Harry and a bunch of the others laughed and entered the next room. It was a giant chess set and there were several pieces missing. “Who wants to play human-sized chess?”

“We have more than enough people to replace all the pieces.” An older Ravenclaw student suggested.

Almost as soon as she was finished speaking, all of the remaining pieces had been shoved off of the giant chessboard and a quick debate over who got to be king and queen for both sides was on. As a joke, Harry suggested the Weasley Twins for the Griffindor side and it was wholeheartedly accepted.

Fake versions of the crowns and weapons were transfigured by Harry and given out and he said there was no rush, so they could play another game with the students that had to be left out this time. That made everyone happy and the first game was on.

*

Albus and Minerva watched with both fascination and amusement as the students that would never normally work together, banded together so that they could all pretend to fight and enjoy the game. The overacting as various pieces died gave Minerva plenty of things to add to any conversation.

*

“We are totally making one of these things for the courtyard.” King Fred Weasley said as Marcus Flint's cardboard sword slid past his armpit and he clamped his arm on it. “OH, the humanity! The King of Pranks has fallen!”

“NOOOOO!” Queen George Weasley screamed in a womanly voice and pretended to cry. “Wahhhh!”

Everyone burst out laughing and they quickly reset the board with new people and handed over their weapons and crowns. The next game was just as brutal as the first, because everyone wanted to have a good fight and the players calling the moves wanted them to. It soon came down to a draw, because neither side had enough pieces to checkmate the other side's King.

The entire group tried to move on to the next room, only it was much too small for them all to fit. Harry, Tracey, Blaise, the Weasley twins, and surprisingly Hermione Granger barely fit inside and the door shut behind them. Flames shot up and blocked both doors and Hermione read the potions clue.

“It's totally the smallest bottles.” Fred and George said at the same time.

“Why do you say that?” Hermione asked.

“They're single doses.” Fred said. “The other bottles could have multiple people drink from them.”

“One to go forward, one to go back.” George said and pointed at the doors blocked by different colored flames.

“That's well reasoned.” Hermione admitted.

“That doesn't make sense.” Harry said and the others looked at him. “Unless it resets as soon as someone exits the door, then whoever goes through would be trapped forever.”

Tracey gasped. “One dose gets you by the flames only once. If the flames stay, so do you.”

Harry nodded. “I'll go first, shall I?”

“This was your idea.” Fred said.

“We don't object.” George said.

“At least it won't be boring staying in this room for the rest of my life.” Blaise said.

Harry chuckled and drank the right colored potion and put the empty bottle back on the table. He didn't move, however.

“Harry?” Tracey asked.

“Just testing a theory.” Harry said and waited.

A minute later, the bottles on the table rearranged themselves and the empty one refilled.

“Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.” Fred said, surprised.

“Shh! We're not supposed to talk about that!” George stage-whispered.

Hermione rolled her eyes at them and picked up the potion. She drank it and put it back. They rearranged and it refilled, so each person took a turn and drank it. She produced a quill from somewhere and wrote out the answer and how to bypass the restriction, then the whole group went through the other door.

“Don't shut it.” Harry said and took out a bronze knut and made it a little bigger by spreading the atoms a little, and threw it at the other door to make a bang noise. “Now you can shut it.”

“Why don't we leave it open?” Blaise asked and shut it.

“The other door probably won't open if this one is, too.” Harry said and turned around to look at the room they were in. It was surprisingly empty. He walked over to the other door with Tracey and leaned against it. He wasn't surprised when she leaned on him instead.

“What are you doing?” Hermione asked.

“Waiting.” Harry said with a smile.

“What? I thought we were winning.” Blaise said with a smirk.

Harry chuckled and shook his head. “We're all on an adventure together.”

The door opened and two dark skinned girls, a white girl, and a dark skinned boy entered. Fred caught the door before it shut and summoned the overly large bronze knut and threw it at the other door.

“Did we miss anything?” One of the girls asked and looked around the room.

“No, Harry wants to wait for everyone.” George said. “I forgot to tell you I liked it when you smacked Gemma Fowley around, Angelina. Nicely done.”

Angelina gave him a kind of evil grin. “She was asking for it.”

“What did she do?” Harry asked.

“She was breathing.” Angelina joked and George, Fred, and the other two girls laughed.

“You're so bad.” The dark skinned boy said.

“Oh, introductions.” Fred said and put an arm around the second dark-skinned girl. “This fine beauty is Alicia, the other one is Angelina as you just found out, and the third girl there is Katie.”

“They are... the Griffindor Flying Foxes!” George said and waved at them with a bit of a flourish.

“Prat!” Angelina said and swatted playfully at him.

“Ow! The truth hurts!” George whined and they laughed.

“I'm Lee Jordan, the third wheel to the twins two-clown circus.” The dark skinned boy said.

Harry motioned with his free hand. “The beauty practically in my arms is Tracey Davis.”

Tracey blushed and tried to duck her head into Harry's shoulder to hide her face.

“The bloke there is Blaise Zambini.” Harry said. “The understated beauty over there is Hermione.”

Hermione's face went even redder than Tracey's.

“And I'm Harry Potter.” Harry said with a grin.

“We didn't know that. Thanks, Harry!” The twins said at the same time.

“You're terrible.” Tracey whispered.

“I've been feeling particularly playful all day and I wasn't sure why until now.” Harry said when he finally understood what was going on.

“Why?” Hermione asked before anyone else could.

“I want to make friends.” Harry said and her eyes widened. “Dumbledore wanted me sequestered and detached from the rest of the wizarding world by making me famous. If everyone revered me, they would be too nervous to approach me or even try to be friends, unless they wanted to manipulate me.”

The twins sighed. “Ron.”

Harry nodded. “I think a certain old geezer put a bug in his ear about the Boy-Who-Lived needing a friend because he didn't have any, because it was intentionally set up that way.”

“Why do you say that?” Hermione asked.

“Because my cousin beat up and chased away anyone that I tried to be friends with or tried to be friends with me.” Harry said. “I spent ten years in the muggle world completely friendless and bullied.”

Hermione knew exactly how that felt. “I was, too.” She said with a soft voice. “No friends and bullied all the time.”

Harry held a hand out to her and she almost teleported across the room to take his hand. “I'll be your friend, your shield, and if you need it, your protector.”

Hermione almost had tears in her eyes as she nodded and gripped his hand tightly.

The door opened and six more people came in. Fred repeated the trick to knock on the other door and closed the one he stood by. The new people started talking about their favorite moves from the chess game, which was really just the best hits they remembered. It had everyone smiling and it didn't take long before all of the students had made it through and the room was pretty crowded.

“Leave that door open and we'll enter the next room.” Harry said and Fred used the large bronze knut to wedge the door. Harry opened the other door and they all poured in and spread out. It was a very nice room with gold accents everywhere and a huge fancy mirror in the middle of it.

“This would make a great study hall.” Hermione said.

“Party hall.” Fred said.

“Prank central.” George said.

“Slumber party!” Angelina and Alicia said and Katie nodded in agreement, as did about half of the other girls.

“Whoa, look at this!” Someone said and everyone looked over to see one of the older Slytherins standing in front of the mirror. “My reflection shows that I'm the Minister Of Magic!”

That had a bunch of students crowd around and each of them saw something different. A few of them even said what it was. No one laughed, because it could be predicting their futures. When Harry had a turn to look inside, all he saw was a reflection of himself. He looked at the writing on the mirror and read it out loud.

“I show not your face but your heart's desire.” Harry said out loud.

“That makes sense. My dog died during the summer.” A Hufflepuff said.

“I saw... my parents.” Susan Bones said.

Harry felt her pain and it was similar to his own, even though he was over his. He made his way through the crowd to stand in front of her. He let her see in his eyes that he understood and she stepped close and put her arms around him to hug him close and she quietly cried.

“Shh, it's okay. It's okay.” Harry whispered to her and rubbed her back. “You were one of the luckier ones. Your aunt wasn't a complete bitch with a horse face and a giraffe neck.”

Susan laughed through her tears. “You're terrible!”

“I have been described like that before.” Harry said. “I will need a third opinion before I believe it.”

“You're terrible!” The Weasley twins shouted.

“Ow! The truth hurts!” Harry whined as he copied George's words from earlier, and their friends laughed.

Susan stayed there for several minutes before she calmed down enough to show her face without being embarrassed for crying in front of everyone. Harry gave her a handkerchief and Susan whispered thanks as she wiped at her eyes. When she glanced around, not one person was looking at her.

“Thanks, everyone.” Susan said and everyone felt a bit better.

“It's getting close to curfew.” Someone said from the crowd.

“Party pooper!” A few others around them said and a bunch of people laughed.

“It's not like this place is going anywhere. We can all come back on the weekend and do this again.” Harry said and most of them looked thoughtful.

“We could bring some old furniture and maybe some supplies down here.” Someone suggested.

“There's multiple rooms, too. We wouldn't all have to share.” Someone else said.

“If you all pitch in a little bit, we could easily afford a few cases of butterbeer.” Fred Weasley said.

“I'm sure we can arrange some snacks and things, too.” George said.

A few minutes later, the twins had pocketfuls of money, more than they had ever had access to in their lives. Everyone started filing out of the room and looked forward to the huge party they would be having on the weekend.

Harry easily read the shock from the twins and added a handful of galleons to their stash. “For your troubles. You've already got enough for the party.”

The twins looked at the gold and back at him. “We're not worthy!”

Harry laughed and led Tracey over to the line of people leaving. They did the same trick to leave the fire potion room. Since they only did one person at a time, it went much quicker than doing six or seven each time. When Harry stepped through the fire to leave, he met Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall.

“I knew I should have left first. I could have had you disable the fire thing.” Harry said and motioned at the shut door. Tracey stepped out and shut it behind her.

“How many of you did you take through?” Albus asked.

“All of them.” Harry said. “I told them we were all going on an adventure.”

“How did you lock the door to this room?” Minerva asked.

“I didn't.” Harry said and smiled. “I left the other door open.”

Albus sighed. “With it open, the conditions weren't met for completion. This door will not open with the other one open.”

“I figured that out when we had the first one opened and the second wouldn't budge. Spells bounced off of it, too.” Harry said. “We all took a look into the mirror, too.”

“What mirror?” Minerva asked, her voice sharp.

“The Mirror of Erised.” Harry said.

“ExCUSE me?” Minerva said and glared at the headmaster.

Albus barely held in his sigh at her look.

“What's wrong?” Harry asked, even though he had already seen Minerva's reasoning in her mind.

“That mirror is a Class Four X dark artifact. Anyone peering into it could possibly lose themselves if they stare into it too long.” Minerva explained.

“It was only a few minutes each. I think everyone will be fine.” Harry said. “Susan Bones only cried for a few minutes afterwards.”

Albus did sigh at that. There was no way he wasn't going to receive a visit from the girl's aunt now. “Just out of curiosity, what did you see, Harry?”

“Me? I only saw myself. Same clothes and everything.” Harry said with a shrug and then smiled. “Here comes Susan now.” He said and turned to look at the girl just as the door opened to reveal her. “Hey, Susan! You were wondering what it was and we just found out. It's called the Mirror of Erised and it's a Class Four X dark artifact.”

Susan gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. “Auntie is going to be so upset with me when she hears I was staring into it!”

“You didn't stare long enough to be ensnared, so it's okay.” Harry said and took her hand. “Come on. I'll levitate you up through the hole if the rope ladder isn't there anymore.”

“What about the chess set? I thought we had to play across the room?” Susan asked and walked with Harry and Tracey.

“No, once the board was cleared of official pieces, we could have just walked across and gone through.” Harry told them.

“Then why did we all fight off to try and play two games of chess?” Tracey asked.

“Because it was fun.” Harry said, as if that was perfectly reasonable and hadn't wasted a lot of time.

Tracey and Susan exchanged knowing looks and their free hands smacked Harry on the head.

“Ow! The truth hurts!” Harry whined again and both girls giggled.

“There you are.” Hermione said when they reached the first room. “I was about to climb up when a Slytherin used a spell to cut the rope ladder.”

“Not a problem.” Harry said and handed her the cut end. “I'll levitate you, Tracey, and Susan up and then I'll use the sticking charm on the rope to secure it.”

“What about you?” Hermione asked.

“I'm going to try an experiment.” Harry said with a smile.

“Wait until we're out of the way.” Tracey said. She had only known him for a day and she already knew it was going to be dangerous.

“You wound me, Miss Davis.” Harry said and took out his wand to pretend to use it as he used his telekinesis to lift Hermione up through the opening and then the trap door. Tracey and Susan were next and they moved back a bit to wait and heard a light crack echo from down below and missed the second one from nearby because the Cerberus was snoring.

“Harry?” Tracey asked down the hole.

“Yes?” Harry asked from behind her.

“AHH!” Tracey yelled and jumped a few inches into the air.

Harry caught her and pulled her back from the hole. “Careful, Tracey. You almost fell.”

Tracey could only sputter and mumble in response because he had scared her so badly.

“How did you do that?” Hermione asked.

“I created a temporary Heisenburg-Rosen bridge and stepped through it.” Harry said.

“A wormhole?” Hermione asked.

Harry smiled. “It's so nice to meet someone that can understand plain English.”

Tracey and Susan looked confused.

“It's muggle science.” Harry said and used a sticking charm on the rope ladder.

Both girls nodded and their confusion disappeared.

Harry chuckled at them so easily dismissing something because it was made by muggles. “I'll walk you back to your dorms. Hermione first, since she's up on the seventh floor.”

The three girls were happy about spending more time with him. Hermione immediately asked Harry how he did what he just did. He explained that it was actually teleportation and not apparition, the wizard's version. It still make a crack sound; but, that was because of the displaced air moving to either fill the departure space or to rush away from the arrival space.

“Is that the only difference?” Hermione asked.

“The wizard version seems to give you the sensation of squeezing through a tube. Mine just shunts you from one place to another.”

“That does sound like a much better way.” Susan said, having side-along apparated with her aunt a bunch of times over the years. “It's too bad we can't learn it until we're seventeen.”

“Why?” Harry asked.

“It's illegal to apparate without a license.” Susan said and Harry, Tracey, and Hermione gave her surprised looks. “What? I didn't make it illegal.”

Harry was the first to recover from the surprise. “Wizards can transport themselves and anything they're carrying, at any time, to anywhere, and the Ministry of Magic can somehow track this?”

“Yes.” Susan responded.

“Why make it illegal to learn until you are of legal age, if they can track it?” Harry asked.

“Because you can splinch yourself. If you're not concentrating, you could leave a little bit or a lot of yourself behind when you apparate, like an eyebrow or a hand or leg.” Susan answered. “As an adult, no one has to claim responsibility if a child tries to apparate by themselves and is hurt or dies.”

“Okay, that's a good reason.” Harry agreed and looked at each of them. “I don't want you to learn to do it the dangerous way. When its time, I'll teach you how to do it the right way.”

“You also can't apparate into or out of Hogwarts. The wards protect the castle and stop that and portkeys.” Susan said, just as they reached the seventh floor. They walked down the hallway and reached the painting of the Fat Lady.

“Password?” The Fat Lady asked.

“I don't know the password.” Hermione said.

“Then I cannot let you enter.” The Fat Lady said and pretended to ignore them.

Harry took out his wand and pretended to use it as he used telekinesis to open the portrait. “Open says me.”

Hermione snorted and blushed a little from embarrassment. “It's supposed to be Open Sesame.”

“No! I said it right!” Harry fake protested and grinned at her.

“Prat.” Hermione said and briefly glanced at the other two girls. “It's nice to have a friend like you.”

“It is, because I am magnificent and I am humble. I, the great Harry Potter, deem you worthy of my presence.” Harry said pompously.

Susan's and Tracey's hands smacked Harry's head.

“Ow!” Harry said and rubbed both spots. “You know I was joking!”

“They don't.” Tracey said and motioned to inside the Griffindor common room and all the staring faces.

“Oops.” Harry said and waved. “I was imitating Draco Malfoy.”

No one said anything for a second, then nearly all of them started laughing.

“That was pretty close, Harry.” Fred said from behind them.

“You need to be a bit more nasal in the delivery next time.” George said.

“I'll take it under advisement, gentlemen.” Harry said as they passed him. “See you tomorrow, Hermione.”

“Bye, Harry.” Hermione said and looked indecisive for a moment, then she stepped forward and kissed his cheek. She blushed and turned and ran inside the common room and up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.

“She's definitely a Griffindor.” Angelina said from the table that she, Alicia, and Katie sat at.

The portrait closed and the Fat Lady gave Harry a pointed look.

“I'm sorry your limited options wouldn't let you admit someone from Griffindor House that needed help, madam.” Harry said and took Tracey's and Susan's hands. “Susan next.”

“I only know where it is because my aunt was a Hufflepuff and told me where it was.” Susan said.

Harry nodded and they walked back down the stairs to make their way to the Entrance Hall. “What are you looking forward to this year, Susan?”

“Charms. Professor Flitwick is a master of the subject and I can't wait to learn from him.”

Harry nodded and easily read the accompanying thoughts in her head. “I just hope we learn more than what's in the book this year.”

“Why?” Tracey asked.

“I already memorized it and performed all the spells.” Harry said.

The two girls stared at him and didn't know what to say, so the three of them stayed silent until they reached the Entrance Hall.

“I should talk to an older student and see if the curriculum is strict for most subjects and sticks to just their course books.” Harry said.

“They do. Some of the books haven't changed in years.” Cedric Diggory said from near the stairs to go down into the basement. “Hi, Susan. You're the last lost badger I needed to wait for.”

“Thanks for looking out for me.” Susan said and turned to Harry. “Thanks for taking me on an adventure.”

“No one expected me to do anything on the first day of school, so I had to do something.” Harry said with a smile.

Tracey softly laughed. “Don't be what everyone expects.”

“Exactly right.” Harry said. “I hope you don't feel like you have no Griffindor courage after following me through all of that.”

Susan blushed a little and stood a little straighter. “A Hufflepuff is known for hard work and loyalty.”

Harry saw her thoughts flicker back to Hermione's kiss on his cheek, so he closed his eyes and turned his head slightly. He felt a brief press of lips on his cheek.

Susan squeaked like a mouse after being so bold and ran away.

“That was smooth, Harry.” Cedric said with a chuckle and walked after Susan.

Harry opened his eyes and didn't look at Tracey. He could feel her thoughts pretty strongly through their held hands. They stayed quiet until they reached the spot that Harry had plucked from the Slytherin Prefect's mind.

“I hope you had a good time on our first date.” Harry said and Tracey blushed to a deep red. “Thank you for letting me comfort those that needed it and I'm glad you didn't mind their intrusions.”

Tracey was too stunned to speak, so she just nodded and her blush didn't fade.

“If anyone gives you a hard time because of who you are or because of who I am, I'll know about it and I'll deal with it.” Harry said and she nodded again. “Daphne is really worried that she can't protect you because of me, so don't give her a hard time about it. Just tell her I'll handle everything and all she has to worry about is being your friend.”

“H-Harry...” Tracey tried to tell him he didn't have to do anything, that she wasn't trying to be friends because of that, or that she only liked him because he was the boy-who-lived.

“Tracey.” Harry whispered as he leaned forward and then he lightly pressed his lips to hers.

Tracey almost fainted because she was having her first kiss with a boy she really liked. She didn't even really like boys before and now she was kissing one and it was the weirdest happy feeling she ever had!

Harry broke the chaste kiss and he almost laughed at her thoughts and her lightly fluttering eyes. I think I just kick-started her puberty. He thought and held her steady for several minutes to let her recover.

Tracey came back to herself and realized she had just zoned out after kissing Harry and blushed hard.

“It's all right. You've had quite the day.” Harry said and turned to look at the wall. “Pureblood.”

The wall opened up to reveal the Slytherin commom room.

Harry led Tracey inside and the various thoughts of using him, manipulating him, hurting him, and befriending him, all hit him at once. He had a lot of experience with other people's thoughts, so he parsed them out appropriately into threat assessments and focused on the ones focused on hurting him.

He turned those thoughts against them and their hate changed from him to themselves. The best part was that they knew it. It wasn't natural for them to suddenly hate themselves and like the boy they hated, so their minds warred with themselves to fix the problem. It would also keep them busy for a while.

“Hi, Miss Greengrass.” Harry said and sat the still blushing Tracey beside her. “She's had quite the adventure. Why don't you ask her about it?”

Daphne glanced at Blaise beside her and back to Harry.

“It'll distract her from me kissing her.” Harry whispered and Daphne's eyes widened. “Blaise.”

“Harry.” Blaise said back.

“Can you show me where I'm bunking?” Harry asked and gained the information from him.

“It's not hard to miss. You have the last room in the row.” Blaise said and then whispered. “Some of the other students already wrecked it.”

Harry had to smile at that. “That's why I always carry everything I own with me.”

Blaise hid his surprise and nodded slightly.

“Goodnight.” Harry said and walked across the common room and into the hallway for first years.

He went to his door, which was partially split and the corner was broken off. He ignored the condition of the door as he opened it and the room really had been trashed. You couldn't even tell what used to be the bed. Harry thought about accepting it and not saying anything, and decided that was what they expected.

“The castle house elves will not fix, replace, or clean anything in this room until I give them permission.” Harry said out loud, because he decided that he was going to take his own advice and would not be what everyone expected. He closed the door and merged the edges with the stone so that no one could get back in to vanish everything while he was gone.

Harry walked back out to the common room and he easily scanned through the minds present. He wasn't surprised that the ones that hated him were involved with destroying his room. He was a little surprised that the ones that wanted to manipulate him were also involved. He didn't speak and just waved his hand at them. All nine people stepped forward and dropped to their knees.

“Wait here.” Harry ordered them and left the common room. He walked to where Severus Snape's office was and knocked. He had to wait five full minutes before the door opened and the man scowled down at him. “Your charges destroyed school property in a vain attempt to make me feel unwelcome.” He said and the sneer didn't lessen. “Would you like to handle it or should I go to a higher authority?”

Snape's sneer actually increased. “I will confirm if your... unfounded accusations... are accurate.”

Harry nodded and walked away. He didn't need his psychic powers to know that Snape had asked a house elf to clean up the crimes of his students.

The common room was completely silent as Harry entered it again. “Our head of house will be right here after he fails to cover up for you.”

The nine people still kneeling let out sighs and waited for a few minutes before Severus Snape appeared. The man's eyes widened at the submissive poses his students had taken.

“My room is the smallest one at the end of the row, as if you didn't expect that.” Harry said and motioned towards it. “Shall I lead you to their shame or will you face it on your own?”

Snape tried to let his scowl overpower Harry's confidence and he let out a sigh when it didn't work. Harry waved for Snape to walk ahead of him, because he wasn't stupid enough to give an enemy a clear shot at his back. Snape glared at him and walked ahead. Harry followed and released the door, so that Snape could open it and see inside.

Snape opened the door and saw the wrecked place. He actually let out a curse before he could stop himself. The mess was one that would take several house elves to clear up and he doubted there was any kind of replacement bed anywhere in the castle. The idiots had even torn apart the mattress.

Harry could almost see the headache this was causing Snape. “What are you going to do about these blatant crimes against one of the students you are responsible for, Head of Slytherin House?”

Snape let out another curse as Harry said the magic words. He wouldn't be able to hide the infraction or keep it only in-house, like his standing policy dictated. There were no spare rooms for the first years in the dorms and no extra rooms anywhere else in the dungeons, not that it could be furnished immediately, anyway.

“Come with me.” Snape said and strode back down the hallway.

Harry sealed the door again and followed his Head of House.

“I will be back to deal with you.” Snape said to the nine kneeling students and left the common room at a fast pace.

Harry almost had to jog to keep up with him and followed him all the way to Minerva McGonagall's office.

“Minerva, I have a problem.” Snape said as if he was chewing on glass, then he explained what he had witnessed that the nine perpetrators had done to the contents of Harry's room.

“I will take care of his accommodations until such time that his room can be restored to its normal state.” Minerva said.

Snape bowed slightly and left even faster than he had arrived.

“Harry?” Minerva asked.

Harry held his hands up. “I didn't do anything at all. When I came back from escorting Hermione and Susan back to their dorms, I found my room completely destroyed.”

“Show me.” Minerva said and held out a hand.

Harry took it and showed her the memory of when he entered the room the first time.

“You were smart to ask the house elves to leave it alone. It would have been completely empty otherwise. They hate messes.” Minerva said.

“Thanks for telling me about them.” Harry said. “Do you want to know who did it?”

Minerva sighed and nodded. She immediately received their names and images. “Those six hate you?”

“They used to.” Harry said with a crooked smile and shared him switching their emotions with themselves.

Minerva actually made a snort sound and barked a laugh. “That was very Slytherin of you.”

“Oh, that reminds me. I was going to explain why I chose to go to Slytherin.” Harry said and sent her everything he thought and felt.

Minerva sighed when she got it all and smiled sadly. “I understand. Thank you for explaining.”

“I didn't want you to think I was rejecting you, Minerva. Like I said at the feast, you saved me.” Harry said and let her feel how he felt about how much she cared for him and wanted what was best for him.

“You're a good boy, Harry.” Minerva said and pulled on his hand to get him close and hugged him. “You have the choice of flooing back to the house or sleeping on my couch.”

“Couch, please. I won't miss being there for Tracey and the others first thing in the morning.” Harry told her and she nodded. He followed her into her rooms behind her office and the couch was quickly made up for sleeping on. “Goodnight, Minerva.”

“Goodnight, Harry.” Minerva said and went into her bedroom. She changed for bed and checked her door, only to see that it was firmly shut. She hid her disappointment that Harry hadn't tried to sneak a peek at her, then she laughed at herself for the ridiculous idea. She went to bed with a smile on her face and slept a full night's sleep without interruption.

Harry had barely stopped himself from laughing at Minerva's flights of fancy that his powerful mind easily picked up. I guess older witches are still women that need to feel desired, even if they know nothing can ever happen.

*

The nine Slytherins received a week of detention for what they did and then another two weeks for getting caught. It was the height of insult for a member of the house of the cunning to be caught so easily, so that had doubled their punishment. They also had to pay to replace everything, which did not go over well with their parents. Again, it was more because they were caught, not that they had done it.

Classes that first week were easy for Harry and he spent most of his time helping Tracey, Susan, Hermione, Blaise, and Daphne with their coursework and spellwork. Professor Quirrell's stutter had almost completely disappeared as well, which made the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes much better than they would have been.

When the first potions class arrived that Friday, all of the first year students except Harry were resigned to have a bad class. Snape's reputation preceded him and no one had a favorable thought about the man. The first thing Snape did was glare at Harry, which Harry had expected. He gave Snape a happy smile right back, because no other incidents with other Slytherins had happened all week.

Harry kept the smile on his face as Snape tried, quite fruitlessly, to exert pressure on his mind to suss out his secrets. Harry barely felt it until Snape discreetly slipped his wand out of his robes. The pressure increased ten times and Harry's smile broadened as the man's clear desperation came through.

So, Harry allowed him entrance into his 'lobby'. The real world faded away and disappeared for the both of them and they appeared inside a futuristic hotel lobby. Harry wasn't in his eleven year old body, however. He was a glowing white energy being in the shape of an oval.

Severus Snape just stared at the thing, because all he could feel from it were pure and good feelings. No malice and no hatred were directed at him. That was too much of a surprise for him to take.

“Your unenlightened mind can't comprehend what I actually look like and assigned me this shape so that you could still perceive me.” Harry's voice echoed in the large space. “Feel free to have a look around. I built this place for those that wanted to take a vacation from the real world for a decade or so.”

Snape still looked too shocked to respond to anything.

“I'm going to go spend a year or two with the memories of my family, so enjoy your vacation. Let me know when you want to leave.” Harry said and the energy being started to fade. “My life experiences with the muggles and the wizarding world are in the east wing.”

It took Snape several minutes to recover from the shock, then he spent half an hour looking around the lobby. It was more detailed than anything he had ever experienced before. There was even a bit of dust on a few things that indicated the room hadn't been used in a long time.

Snape started to wander around and found the large dining room with menus on the tables, an expansive kitchen, a ball room, an auditorium, a theatre, and a massive swimming pool the size of a football stadium that shimmered silver. He stared into the chaotic flowing waves for three days before he was sure that it was a mental trap that would catch him for all eternity if he succumbed to the temptation to take a dip.

He left there and went to the west wing of the hotel. If the boy wanted him to see the east wing, then they were fabricated memories and he didn't want to waste his time with them. It wasn't until he started going through the memories in the west wing that he realized he had been right. These memories were unfiltered and included all of Harry's emotions. It also included every bad thing that ever happened to him.

Snape only had enough courage to live through the first six years of Harry's life before he forced himself to leave the west wing. He was almost punch drunk as he entered the east wing and sighed as the 'clean' memories washed over him. The hard work of Harry cleaning, cooking, and doing chores, was a relief to experience without the boy's emotions or the emotional motivations from his relatives.

After Snape had experienced everything in Harry's life up until his accidental apparition, and wasn't that a shock, he decided he didn't need to experience anything after that. He skipped ahead to Harry receiving his Hogwarts letter and saw that he had read all of the first year books and had performed all of the spells, something that was supposed to take a full year for a first-time magic user to get used to.

“I am ready to leave.” Snape said when his own disengaging thoughts didn't work, then both he and Harry suddenly reappeared back in the lobby.

“You didn't have to keep viewing my memories, Professor Snape. You can stay and just relax. The amenities are many and the food is divine.” Harry reminded him. “The pool...”

“I believe I have relaxed enough.” Snape said and avoided looking into the white energy oval. The pure unfiltered good feelings from it were unnerving.

“If you're sure.” Harry said and Snape nodded.

The real world faded back around them and no actual time had passed.

Snape put his wand away. “Potter! What's the main ingredient in the Wiggenweld potion?”

“That depends on if you mean the main magical ingredient or the main normal ingredient.” Harry responded. “The magical one is a pint of Horklump Juice that you start the potion with. The main non-magical ingredient is Salamander Blood that needs to be constantly added to change the color in different stages when stirred correctly.”

Nearly the entire class of students were stunned by his answer.

“I won't ask you all to write that down, since we won't tackle that potion until after the mid-year tests.” Snape said and glared at Harry again. “Ten points to Slytherin for reading ahead.”

Again, the class was stunned. Harry just nodded acceptance.

“Today's potion is for curing boils.” Snape said and gave a quick explanation for it and what not to do during the brewing process. He waved his wand at the blackboard and put the instructions there. “If you don't have all of the ingredients in your potions kit, you may use the stores cupboard. Be sure to mark down what you use, so it can be restocked for the next class.”

Only a couple of the students went to the cupboard for extra ingredients and marked what they took. Everyone started to brew and Harry helped Tracey with hers. He had spent a couple of years inside Snape's potions experiences and had picked up a lot of the little tricks and tips that would make a potion turn out great.

Tracey really appreciated the help because she had no experience with either cooking or brewing, just like a lot of normal children. They were kids and weren't supposed to have those kinds of experiences before they were supposed to.

Both Harry's and Tracey's potions came out great, which didn't surprise Snape, considering the years of cooking experience Harry had prepping ingredients, tending to boiling pots, and dealing with adding ingredients at the right time.

Thankfully, no one caused any explosions or melted their cauldrons. Whether that was because Snape hadn't stalked around the room and sneered at everyone, or that the students had taken his warnings of what not to do seriously, was immaterial. It had been a nice and calm class that everyone had survived with only a little stress.

*

The weekend party was a huge success. The pooled money had been more than enough to provide drinks for everyone and the castle elves in the kitchen had been more than happy to provide snacks and goodies for the students to enjoy while they played games, hung out, and enjoyed spending time with their friends and relaxing.

Over the next few weeks, it would become a regular thing for the students in the know. In some cases, it seemed to replace the normal Hogsmeade visits that the older students usually went on. Since the Weasley Twins could get them what they wanted when it wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend, the importance of the weekends eventually disappeared.

*

Albus Dumbledore was in a bit of a pickle. He had removed the mirror from the room just in time for Amelia Bones to confiscate it. The fine of having the thing was easily covered by the school's slush fund, so that wasn't a problem. No, the problem was that the Philosopher's Stone had not been in the mirror.

He had sixty-four people that he needed to discreetly investigate to see if they had somehow taken the stone during their brief looks at the mirror. His idea that someone looking for the stone and didn't want to use it, would get it, seemed a little silly after the fact.

There was only one student that he didn't suspect, Harry Potter. He had seen nothing in the mirror except himself, so that meant he was perfectly happy in his own skin. That was an odd thing to learn, considering how he grew up with hateful muggles that abused him verbally and sometimes physically.

Albus shrugged at that and resolved to do better in the future, not that he could do anything about the boy. He was staying somewhere else now and Minerva wouldn't tell him where, only that he was being taken care of when not in the castle.

For now, he had to track down the missing stone before Voldemort did.

*

Professor Quirrell was also in a pickle. Harry Potter was nothing like he expected. The passive mind reading attempts constantly failed and he dared not try to do it directly, lest he alert the old fool that he was possessed by Voldemort. He was also waylaid from attempting to get to the Philosopher's Stone through the trap gauntlet by meddlesome teenagers always being present there to stop him.

He had no idea how he was going to progress from here, because all of his plans had been foiled before they had even started. Not even Voldemort's knowledge was a benefit at the moment, because it was over a decade out of date and even longer since he had been inside the castle.

*

Severus Snape contemplated why he was much calmer than he used to be. Things just didn't seem to annoy him as much as they used to. He knew his own mind better than anyone and he was positive that nothing had been changed or altered. He still remembered everything properly and his hidden memories were still hidden.

It wasn't until he remembered his visit to Harry Potter's mind that he realized what must have happened. Being exposed to such strong positive emotions had diluted his own negative ones. He had also spent so much time reliving Harry's horrible memories that were much worse than his own childhood.

The difference between them was that the boy hadn't let it affect him. The verbal abuse from those that raised him and the beatings and bullying from his cousin's gang hadn't made him angry at the world for putting him in that situation. He fully believed he was better than that and wouldn't let them drag him down to their level.

Even after Harry was saved by Minerva, he felt no malice towards his relatives, and he should have. Harry could have had a much better life if only one person had taken him at his word and believed he was being treated unfairly.

Snape only felt a mild indignation at Harry for not being angry about it. He couldn't fault him for not wanting to dwell on the past, even if he himself had a difficult time forgetting about everything. It was then that he realized something important. Harry hadn't forgiven anyone for how he was treated. He could let it go easily; but, forgetting about it and forgiving it were not possible.

With the reassurance that Harry wasn't a paragon of virtue or a saint when it came to his relatives and bullies, Snape pushed his own worries aside and accepted that they dealt with their pain in different ways. Harry moved past it and Snape stewed in it and let it give him strength.

Snape accepted that his anger had been irrational before and now it seemed to have been refined and more focused. He also found that it gave him even more strength to face everything, and that was worth a lot to a man like him.

*

Hermione squealed like a little girl on her twelfth birthday when she woke up and there were presents on the end of her bed. She cherished each one and opened them with reverence, especially the one from her friend, Harry Potter. Her eyes widened at the muggle advanced science book and she hugged it tightly.

Her three dorm mates looked slightly embarrassed, because they hadn't known about Hermione's birthday or paid the studious girl any attention. They had nothing in common and hadn't tried to make friends with her after the first time Hermione had approached them. Even though she became friends with the famous Harry Potter, they hadn't bothered to try again, to their regret.

Hermione ignored the other girls and neatly folded the wrapping paper, then packed her presents and the paper into her trunk and locked it. She had to bathe and get dressed for the day, then she would thank her friends for the gifts and wallow in them after class. She couldn't wait to read the book Harry had given her.

*

“I think she liked our gifts.” Blaise said when Hermione ran into the Great Hall and ignored social convention as she ran right over to the Slytherin table and tackled the waiting Harry in a hug.

“I did! I really did!” Hermione's muffled voice said from being buried in Harry's neck. “Thank you so much, Harry!”

Harry hugged her back. “You're lucky one of the employees at Flourish and Blotts is a muggleborn.”

Hermione nodded and let him go. “Thank you as well, Blaise and Tracey.”

Both of them waved her thanks away.

“There's Susan. You should go thank her, too.” Harry said and Hermione beamed a smile at him and ran over to the surprised girl and tackled her with a hug, too.

“I'm glad I convinced Hermione that I'm not comfortable with public hugs.” Blaise said at the blush on Susan's face.

“I can't tell if that's embarrassment about the public hug or embarrassment that she liked it.” Tracey said and started to eat.

“It's a mix of both.” Harry said and waved to Susan before he turned back to his food. “Loyalty comes in a bunch of different forms.”

Tracey and Blaise gave him a strange look before they shrugged the comment off.

“The party room is really shaping up.” Blaise said and nodded at the Weasley twins. They waved back and made 'oof' sounds when Hermione hugged them both at the same time.

“It's almost becoming a school-wide common room.” Tracey said and started chewing on a piece of bacon. “Is it because people can fight things out on the chessboard, I wonder?”

Harry softly laughed. “No, the last time I went there, they didn't bother playing chess at all and were just smacking each other around with the fake weapons in a free-for-all battle where anything goes.”

“That does sound like fun.” Blaise said with a smile. “I'm going to try and fight to become the King the next time I go.”

“I might go with you.” Daphne said between bites. “I've been a Pawn and a Bishop so far. I haven't been a Queen yet.”

Blaise smiled and nodded.

Harry didn't have to hear their thoughts to know that they liked each other. He knew Tracey really liked him as well. He suspected that might change as they grew older, mainly because he wouldn't become what she expected him to be. He hadn't been joking about taking over magical Britain in order to save it. He just had to be subtle about it.

An image of Albus Dumbledore suddenly came to his thoughts and Harry concentrated on that. He had learned that the man had become Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederations of Wizards, was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamut, and finally the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had also turned down the offer to become Minister of Magic.

When the man had been given so much power, he had balked at it and refused the most important job in their society. Each of the other three did give him some influence, especially the latter with the shaping of young minds. The problem was, he wasn't embracing any of them. None of his positions were giving him any real way to steer their people towards the future and he only maintained the status quo.

That was not going to work for Harry Potter. No, he was going to use his fame for the betterment of wizardkind and he was going to make sure that he saved them, even if he had to save them from themselves.

Harry's first step was making contact with a person of authority, one that wasn't corrupted politically or a morally bankrupted individual. His head turned almost on its own as he looked over at the Hufflepuff table. Bright green eyes met soft brown and Susan blushed at the intense look.

“I'll see you tonight for Hermione's party.” Harry said and abandoned his half-eaten meal, gave Tracey a reassuring smile, and left the Slytherin table to go over to the Hufflepuff table.

“Aren't you worried about that?” Daphne asked Tracey.

“About what?” Tracey asked and kept eating.

Daphne stopped herself before she rolled her eyes. “Harry making time with another girl.”

Tracey looked over at a severely blushing Susan Bones and shrugged. “We only had one date and that was weeks ago. We're not going out or anything.”

“What? I thought...” Daphne paused when Harry left the Great Hall holding hands with Susan. “...never mind.”

“I think Hermione's jealous.” Blaise said when he looked over at the Griffindor table, only to see the girl hop up and follow Harry and Susan at a fast walk. “There she goes to see what they are up to.”

“I doubt she'll be angry if they are going on a date or something.” Tracey said.

“What makes you say that?” Daphne asked.

“If you take into account his promise to look out for us, it just makes sense that she would get the next date, wouldn't it?” Tracey asked back.

“Again, are you okay with that?” Daphne asked.

Tracey shook her head. “Why are you trying to force me to be angry that Harry might like another girl besides me?” She asked and didn't wait for a response as she stood up. “I think you are the one that's jealous of me. If you are, then it's none of your business who I like and spend time with.”

Daphne sat there stunned as her best friend walked away from her without looking back.

“Are you jealous?” Blaise asked, almost innocently.

“No!” Daphne gasped and then sighed. “No, I'm not. I'm worried that she is going to get hurt when Harry drops her for someone else.”

Blaise gave her a pointed look. “Like she just dropped you because she thinks you're jealous of her for spending time with him instead of him spending time with you?”

Daphne's eyes widened when she realized what he was saying. She didn't answer his question and left the table at a fast walk. She needed to let Tracey know that she wasn't interested in Harry, even if he was the most interesting boy in the entire school, then she decided to not mention that last part.

Blaise sat there and finished eating, happy that he finally made a date with Daphne and she wasn't pining after the Boy-Who-Lived. That meant he had a chance with her and he intended to use Harry's strategy as well. Let the girl feel comfortable around you and agree to everything she wanted to do, because spending time with her and making her feel important was the best way to convince her to like you back.

*

Amelia Bones sat across the table in the back room of the Three Broomsticks a week later and nursed a butterbeer. She did her best to not stare at the young boy that had convinced her niece to go on a date with him, just to meet with her and talk. It was a blatant political play and Harry Potter made no apologies for it. In fact, he was completely open and transparent about it.

It was a little vexing for Amelia that Susan had completely agreed with Harry that it was a smart thing to do and that several kisses and hugs were more than enough payment for the trouble of arranging it. The deep blush Susan wore was all the indication Amelia needed that some of that payment had already been successfully delivered.

Then Harry started to talk. He was a little hesitant at first, either to express his ideas or his philosophy behind them, then forged ahead when Amelia didn't object or tried to interrupt him with questions or asked for clarifications.

Two hours later, both Susan and Amelia were too stunned to speak. Harry had been almost rambling at the end with all of the things he would be doing to get it to work, and needed to be done for it to work successfully, to get to the point that this whole conversation had been about from the very beginning.

Saving the wizarding world from extinction.

It was ambitious... it was fantastical... it was unbelievable... and it could happen.

Like Harry said, it would take a lot of work. It would also take a lot of preparation and a lot of things that Amelia had no clue about and Harry reassured her that he did know about. It would be the single largest undertaking by anyone, ever, and he wanted her to be an integral part of it.

“I don't know what to say.” Amelia finally managed to whisper.

“You don't have to decide right away. We have time.” Harry said and patted her hand.

Amelia couldn't remember when he had taken it and she felt reassured that he was sincere. “Why am I okay with contemplating this?”

Harry chuckled and gave her hand a light caress. “It's because you've subconsciously known for years that the wizarding world has been in decline and not just stagnant like everyone else thinks. You are too smart to believe the lies Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic are selling to everyone else.”

Amelia glanced down at the hand Harry held and then looked at his face to raise her eyebrows at him.

“Ah, my apologies.” Harry said and very slowly let her hand go. “It's a habit I picked up years ago after I turned seven. Holding hands with someone was a rare commodity for me at the time and I couldn't resist enjoying it when it happened.”

Amelia didn't comment that she also enjoyed it and now regretted pointing it out.

“You should think over everything I've said and come to your own conclusions. You don't have to take my word for it.” Harry said and took Susan's hand. “Let's go back over to Honeydukes before we go back to the castle and I'll buy you that slab of chocolate you said you don't want and kept staring at.”

Susan blushed and stood with him. “You don't have to do that, Harry.”

“I know. I want to.” Harry said and led her over to the door. “Oh, before I forget.” He turned around and smiled a wicked smile at Amelia. “Professor Quirrell has the spirit of Voldemort sticking out the back of his head under a garlic-laden turban. I would have handled it myself, except he's been watching me like a hawk since school started and will know if I try anything against him.”

Amelia's mind came to a screeching halt at his words. “Are... are you serious?”

“Absolutely. He keeps trying to sneak through the new school common rooms on the third floor to get to the Philosopher's Stone that was hidden inside the Mirror of Erised. He's pretty frustrated by all the students being there and interrupting him. He doesn't know you already confiscated the mirror.”

Amelia didn't know what to say to that as she considered the implications of Harry's words.

“There's no real rush to handle him, since Quirrell seems happy enough to bide his time and traipse around the Forbidden Forest hunting unicorns to drink their blood.” Harry said and opened the door. “Have a good day.”

Amelia sat there alone for several minutes before she realized she had a lot of work to do that needed to get done as soon as possible. She almost ran out of the back room to the public fireplace and used the floo to go back to her office at the Ministry of Magic.

*

Thanks to Susan's constant contact with her aunt, Harry knew when the supposed raid was going to happen to confront Professor Quirrell. Halloween. After learning that Amelia would lure Dumbledore away to the Ministry, Harry had talked to the Weasley twins and they sold tickets to the event while also having a few of the older students make fake walls all along the route to the party room.

Everyone had a great time watching Quirrell struggle all along the route that they had bested dozens of times, just for fun, and he reached the final room with an audible sigh. There in the middle was a pedestal with the large red rock. He rushed over to it and grabbed it, only to be electrocuted for several seconds and he dropped to the ground, unconscious.

A huge round of applause came from behind the fake wall as it was pushed aside by Amelia Bones and her Auror squad.

“I hate to admit this; but, Potter deserves some praise for such a cunning trap.” A grizzled old man named Mad Eye Moody said.

“I agree. I wish all of our takedowns were this easy.” Kingsley Shacklebolt said as he waved his wand at the unconscious professor. The man was bound and the turban on his head glowed blue. “The turban has several spells to stop it from being summoned or vanished.”

“Then pull it from his head.” Amelia said.

“You can borrow my dragonhide gloves.” Harry said and held them out.

“Thank you, Mister Potter.” Amelia said and handed the gloves to Kingsley. “Be careful.”

The tall black man nodded and he was very careful as he made sure it wasn't boobytrapped, then pulled the turban off.

“EWWWW!” Most of the girl's present said when the grey mottled skin of Quirrell's bald head was revealed.

“I don't think he's washed it in months.” Kingsley said and then stared at the skin made a snoring sound. “Mostly dead skin shouldn't be snoring.”

“It's true? Voldemort's on the back of Quirrell's head?” Someone asked, shocked. “I thought it was just a ruse to up the ticket price!”

“We never lie about good business.” Fred and George said. “We just deliver.”

“I told you that you could have charged more.” Lee said with a laugh.

The Aurors ignored them as they cleaned up the scene and put the turban into an evidence bag that was much larger on the inside. Kingsley handed the gloves back to Harry Potter as Mad Eye disabled the jewel trap. With it proven as such an effective tool for catching criminals, they would definitely use it again.

“Mister Potter.” Amelia whispered and Harry turned to give her his full attention as all of the students followed the Aurors as they carried Quirrell out of the common room. “I sincerely hope this successful operation doesn't mean you are going to ignore my niece.”

Harry took her hand and smiled at her. “Don't worry, madam. Susan knows we're too young for anything serious. When she's a little older, I will pursue her for more than a kiss or two.”

“And she's happy with that?” Amelia asked, a little surprised.

“You should ask her yourself, just to make sure. I mean, it's not like we can get married. She has to keep the Bones name, doesn't she? Wizarding law doesn't permit wives to choose their last name like they do in the muggle world.”

Amelia blinked her eyes several times. “Are you saying you... you will...”

“Give her heirs without burdening her with losing her family name at the same time? Yes, we have tentatively agreed to that. It was one of her conditions to agree to help me save everyone.” Harry said and then put on a sad face. “It will be such a hardship for me to fulfill her desires for a family and to make her happy.”

If Amelia hadn't known he was acting, she would have fully believed that he was actually sad about it. “You are a very dangerous individual, Mister Potter.”

Harry's sad face changed to a happy one and he grinned at her. “Please, you're going to be a grand-aunt to some of my future children. You can call me Lucky... I mean Harry.”

Amelia almost snorted as she huffed. “Cheeky little blighter.”

“Only with those that have my confidence, madam.” Harry said and motioned to the door. “Shall we head out and catch up to your Aurors?”

Amelia looked down at the hand he still held. “Can you really enhance emotions like this?”

Harry smiled and let some of his playfulness and affection flow over the skin contact and Amelia's eyes widened as she felt them, too.

“Sweet Merlin.” Amelia said and blushed, because there was no way those complex emotions could possibly come from the eleven year old boy in front of her.

Harry's grin changed to a smirk and his emotions shifted to innocence and smugness.

“I hope you don't play with Susan like that.” Amelia whispered and started to walk.

“Are you kidding? She makes requests!” Harry said with a laugh.

Amelia did snort at that, because she suspected her niece would take as much enjoyment as she could from whatever Harry offered her. She was just glad it was just emotions.

Harry didn't tell her that he had intentionally told Susan he had that limit, because he knew that people would take it as an intrusion if they all assumed he was a legillimencer that was plundering their thoughts. It had been an inspired idea for him to pretend to be a Betazoid that only dealt with emotions and only through touch. Everyone he told had easily accepted it, too.

They eventually reached the Entrance Hall and Amelia seemed reluctant to let his hand go. Harry felt this and flooded her with thanks, courage, and resolve. Amelia clamped her mouth shut to stop her gasp from the sheer strength of them.

“Have a good day, Madam Bones.” Harry said and let her hand go.

Amelia took two steps before she realized she could still feel those emotions. When she stopped walking to look back, Harry Potter was already in the Great Hall and meeting his friends. Hermione, Susan, Blaise, Tracey, Daphne, and the redheaded twins.

Yes, a very dangerous individual. Amelia thought and walked away. It wasn't until she went through the floo at the Three Broomsticks that the emotions ebbed away. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to ask him how to get the Philosopher's Stone out of the Mirror of Erised.

*

Albus was pretty much mentally worn out by the time the Christmas break rolled around and he had no luck finding a replacement defense teacher the last two months. He had also extensively checked each of the students that had been in the new school common room by reading their minds. Not a single one of them had found the stone or knew where it was.

All he could get were images of a stone pedestal with a large fake stone on it and Professor Quirrell being electrocuted when he tried to grab it. The mass delusion was quite perplexing, since no such event had happened, to his knowledge.

Albus sat on his throne-like office chair and wrapped up the invisibility cloak, wrote out the card, and handed the present to a house elf to deliver to Harry Potter. He had little use for the thing, since his own spell and magic abilities were far beyond the cloak and he had spent several years examining it and investigating it.

Despite the fact Albus had it in his possession for over ten years, he did not own it, so the main magic of the thing was unavailable to him. He rubbed his tired eyes and gave his phoenix a look full of caring, pet the bird's feathers, and decided to go to bed. He could face the rest of his troubles in the morning.

He would wake up the next morning to find a notice on his desk that Professor Quirrell had been tried and convicted of using the unforgivables, killing unicorns, and attempted theft of a priceless artifact that could create gold from any base metal. His sentence was the Veil of Death.

No one but Fawkes, his pet phoenix, heard the painful groan of Albus when he realized he had lost two very important things from his machinations. He had to explain to his old mentor that he had lost the Philosopher's Stone to the Ministry of Magic and he had lost the only way he could keep track of Voldemort's spirit with Quirrell's death.

*

Harry Potter had a nice Christmas. The pile of presents was fairly large and he took his time to open each and every one, then wrote out a thank you card for the senders and added a personal message to each of them. It was the little things that let people remember you, so he knew that it would make them that much happier if he thanked them for their thoughtfulness.

When Harry found the cloak with an unsigned card attached, he couldn't write a thank you card. He also knew by the note saying it was left in their care by his father, that there were only a handful of people still alive from the war that could claim such a thing.

It took almost no time for him to realize it had to be Albus Dumbledore. Only a senile old man like him would take an invisibility cloak from a man who was trying to hide from a mass murderer.

I think some digging into his life is in order, since he is so interested in mine. Harry thought.

He hopped up off the couch in Minerva's apartment at Hogwarts and knocked on her bedroom door. Since he had known for months that she wanted him to sneak a peek at her, he opened it without being asked.

“Good morning, Minerva! Happy Christma...” Harry stopped talking and stared at a completely naked Minerva McGonagall that had just stepped out of her private bathroom. She had been towelling off her long flowing brown hair that had streaks of grey going through it and froze at Harry's appearance. She was in her seventies, which for most witches and wizards was about middle aged, so she still had a very nice body that had been completely hidden under her thick matronly robes.

Harry didn't bother trying to stop his body from reacting to the sight of what he now knew was a strikingly handsome witch. The extravagant bush between her legs did not detract from her appearance in the least, since her prominent nipples from the chilly air more than made up for anything else that was hidden.

Minerva's eyes went to where quite a tent pole had appeared in Harry's loose pyjamas and she blushed a very bright red. Her thoughts of giving Harry a little peek of her womanly form in a nightgown, just for a little thrill and to feel desired, were squashed by the reality that he was seeing all of her and he very much seemed to like it. A lot.

She hadn't known that an eleven year old could get an erection and she definitely decided that she didn't want to know. It was just a bit too much information that she was sure that neither of them needed to know about each other. Before she could voice that opinion, Harry shocked her even more.

“Thank you for reminding me that I needed a bath.” Harry said and quickly threw off his pyjamas.

Minerva stared at a very naked Harry Potter that was more fit than any other child she had ever seen. Her eyes defied her will and her common sense as they went right down to what had caused the tent pole. Her blush couldn't get any deeper and it tried, because he was still happily saluting her.

Harry walked across the bedroom and Minerva watched him bob, which really drove home that she really shouldn't be watching him like that. Her eyes lifted to meet his and Harry's completely disarming smile almost made her forget that they were both completely naked.

“It was bound to happen eventually.” Harry said and lightly touched her arm and shared his sparked desire and how comfortable he was with them nude and never doing anything, because she was his caregiver and he admired her for that. He also let her feel that he would never take advantage of her, either. “People that live together are going to have accidents. It always happens.”

Minerva nodded and Harry walked by her. He refilled the tub and hopped right in, then started scrubbing himself. He hummed a pleasant song she had never heard before and he was soon out and drying himself as well. It was at that moment that Minerva realized that she had stood there the entire time and watched him bathe.

“It's all right to look. It's only human.” Harry said and laughed under his breath. “Actually, did you know that wizardkind are an offshoot of humanity? We are a separate evolutionary branch.”

Minerva was shocked to hear that.

“It's quite fascinating to delve into the genetic potential of our race.” Harry said and dried himself off. “Our long lives are just one aspect of our physiology and our unique energy signature, our magic, is also immutable and highly adaptive.”

Minerva stood there and listened to Harry give a lecture on mutations and genetic diversity that would have been more appropriate at a muggle college and not told to a Mistress of Transfiguration inside a magic castle in the Scottish Highlands.

“Anyways, I've taken up a lot of your time. It was nice to finally talk to you about some of my own personal interests, Minerva. Perhaps we can do this again.” Harry said and hung the towel on the side of the tub and picked up his discarded clothes. “See you at breakfast.”

Minerva watched as Harry strode out of her bedroom, still naked, then the door shut and seemed to break the frozen spell she was under. She shakily walked over to her bed and sat down. Her mind went over everything and all she could think was that Harry was right. The longer they lived together, the more chances there were that they would see each other naked, either one at a time or together.

If Harry hadn't acted so normally afterwards, or had freaked out about it, Minerva wouldn't have been dealing as well with it, either. Instead, she was calmly going over her own reactions and she had to admit that things could have been disastrous between them. Instead, she was surprisingly fine with it all. They had seen each other without clothes and nothing had happened, not that anything ever would.

Minerva took several breaths and stood up, went to her closet, and started to dress. She always layered up because it was always chilly in the castle and she didn't want anyone to see her lady bits reacting and letting everyone know she even had lady bits. They were private and no one she didn't allow would ever see them.

She caught her breath as that realization hit her. She had allowed the situation to happen, because instead of locking her door like she always did when she went to bed, she had left it unlocked and allowed Harry unrestricted access to her bedroom and to her. With that perspective, it was no wonder Harry had said that they would see each other without clothes eventually.

The thing was, Minerva knew that trying to apologize would make Harry laugh, because he had that same perspective. He knew he would see her naked eventually and had accepted it as normal behavior. She wasn't sure why he would be okay with that, then remembered his reaction.

He appreciated the view. Minerva thought and she felt embarrassed again. She fought against it and pushed it down, because she wasn't a little schoolgirl. She was a grown woman, had fought in two world wars, and had seen more death and devastation than any woman should. She would not let a little nudity destroy her composure. She was above such things.

Minerva finished getting dressed and put on her trademark stern expression as she donned her hat. She nodded at herself in the mirror on the door of her closet and her reflection gave her a light applause in return. She smiled briefly and closed the door and left her bedroom. Harry was already gone, so she left her apartment and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

“You look absolutely lovely today, Madam McGonagall.” Harry's voice carried across the nearly empty Great Hall.

“Thank you, Mister Potter. You are looking decidedly average yourself.” Minerva snarked back.

Severus Snape couldn't stop his brief bark of laughter and turned his head to cough and covered it up. The other people around the table openly laughed.

“Touche, madam. Touche.” Harry said with a huge smile and stood to take her hand. He helped her sit and then sat back down himself.

Breakfast was served and light conversation was had about their presents and their plans for the day. No one really had any, since it was the holidays and there was nothing pressing for any of them to do. A good time was had by all, even Snape. He would remember Minerva's verbal jab at the Boy-Who-Lived for a very long time.

*

Classes resumed in the new year and everything seemingly returned to normal. Well, as normal as a magical school could be, anyway. Harry spent time with his friends, attended classes and didn't really learn a lot, since he had already memorized the books. He only picked up a few tips and background information each week and that was only because he was plucking it from the minds of the professors.

On the positive side, Harry had a lot of time to talk to other people, helped them when he could, and made friends and acquaintances that would benefit him greatly in the years to come. He had a great connection into Griffindor through the twins and used it ruthlessly. The Hufflepuffs were a close second with Cedric as a good friend. The Ravenclaws he would have to work on.

Not surprisingly, the rest of Harry Potter's first year passed by without incident. With no Quirrell or main villain to confront, no more actual adventures happened. Of course, the school's common room on the third floor had been liberally used as well. It was Social Gathering Central and everyone enjoyed it.

The Weasley Twins eventually recreated the chess board in the courtyard and it was usually used to play in the afternoons during the warmer months. Their idea that it would become Snowball Fight Central next winter had a lot of the older students quite happy about it and teams were already forming and planning strategies by the time June rolled around and everyone headed home.

*

On the train home, Harry left the compartment that held his closest friends and went to the bathroom. Since he was almost always on guard for it, the attack that was sprung on him didn't work. It did get a lot of attention as Draco Malfoy, whom he had apparently stolen the leadership of the Slytherin First Year class from and reduced to little more than a footnote that no one paid any attention to, was immobilized and stuck to the ceiling of the train car by the bathroom.

His bodyguards were immobilized as well and stuck to either side of the door as if they were guarding the door, which quickly spread through the train. Everyone seemed to come to check him out and sneered at him, just like he did to everyone else during the year. No one was going to mention how many wet hands had patted the three boys on their faces after someone used the bathroom they were stalking.

*

The summer was one of the better ones for Harry, because he had a home and a guardian that actually wanted him there, he had friends and people to write to and visit as well. His idea to take Minerva on a trip to anywhere she wanted to go, had been dismissed as a joke for the first week of the break. It wasn't until Harry handed her several muggle travel brochures that she realized he was serious.

That changed her opinion of him and Minerva seriously contemplated where she wanted to go. Like Harry, she had never gone on a holiday before and it would be an adventure for the both of them. Minerva wanted to avoid anywhere that she would have to wear very revealing clothes, like the French Riviera, so she chose Egypt as a compromise. It was warm and there were no beaches anywhere.

For three weeks, a very happy Harry Potter and a surprisingly giddy Minerva McGonagall, became medieval explorers and traipsed around tombs, dig sites, and tried the exotic foods. They even stumbled across the older brother of the twins, Bill Weasley. He was a cursebreaker for Gringotts Bank and was pretty cool with his long red hair and a small dragon tooth earring.

The rest of the summer break was just as fun with visits to Hermione's, Susan's, and Tracey's homes. Daphne's parents were too busy to entertain anyone, so Harry had to skip meeting the shipping company owner for now. He would need to make inroads with them at a later time.

*

When it came time to pack to head for the Hogwarts Express in London, one of Harry's robes made a thunk sound when he tossed it into the trunk. He took a moment to search through them and pulled out a small ruby red stone from one of the deep front pockets that he never uses. It took Harry only a second to realize what it was and laughed.

Second year started and the train ride had been the best time for Harry to reconnect with the friends he had made the previous year in the other Houses. When the ride was over, he had made a few valuable connections that could prove fruitful in the future.

Harry had been the first to approach the carriages and thought the nearly spectral horses pulling them were pretty nice. When he climbed into the first carriage to wait for his friends, there was a tiny blonde girl sitting there already. She gave him a dreamy smile and patted the seat beside her.

Harry appreciated her boldness and sat right where she indicated and smiled right back at her. “You know the first years are supposed to take the boats.”

“I know. I didn't feel like getting wet this year.” She said and tilted her head as she looked at him. “You're Harry Potter and you're not Harry Potter. How did you do that?”

Harry wasn't unnerved by her words, because as far as he was concerned, she was right. “I'm not sure I can explain it in normal words.”

The girl's eyes glassed over slightly for a second and her dreamy smile faded as her eyes widened. “Can you make me Luna Lovegood that's not Luna Lovegood, too?”

That statement on the other hand, gave Harry pause. He wasn't quite sure what she meant, then inspiration struck him. “Would you be open to do a little experimenting?”

Luna's wide eyes closed slightly and she blushed as her dreamy smile returned. “I'm only eleven; but, I believe you will be gentle.”

Harry's own eyes widened in response. Before he could comment, he suddenly had Luna on his lap and her lips locked onto his. Her cute little moan reminded him that he was supposed to be trying to share thoughts with her, so he reached up to put his hands on either side of her face to put his fingers on her temples.

When Harry searched for acceptance into her mind, he was pretty much sucked right in as if it had been waiting for him to do that. The real world faded away and the two of them appeared in Harry's quarters on Voyager. They were also naked.

“We're not supposed to be here.” Harry said, a little confused. It was supposed to be his hotel lobby.

“Hush, Harry! I already said yes.” Luna said and jumped on him as she tackled him onto the bed.

Before he knew it, Harry's mind was being plundered of some very specific knowledge and then Luna pretty much made him feel wonderful and like he was being loved by his wife again. He knew that wasn't fair to Luna, because she was reliving some of Kes' memories, so he did his best to find her most pleasurable memories and promised to recreate them for her.

Harry didn't realize he wasn't in control of his own mind's inner workings for about six years. Of course, by then he didn't really care. Luna was an absolutely delightful young woman and he knew her just as well as he had known his wife, Kes. He hadn't realized that he could forge this deep of a connection with someone without them being Ocampa or having sex with them first. The mental recreation didn't count, although it sure felt like it did.

Even though Luna pretty much dragged him through his most interesting memories in the future and been exposed to things her mind wasn't really prepared for, they both had an absolutely wonderful time. She seemed to blossom from the previously shy girl that had been abandoned by her only friend to an experienced soul that had lived most of Harry's interesting life with him.

The next two decades had Luna learning everything Harry had crammed into his eidetic memory. It took that long because Luna didn't have that kind of memory recall and she needed to learn it the long way. Well, the long way in a mind altered timestream. In reality, it was only for the time that they had ridden in the carriage up to the castle, or about ten minutes.

Harry's friends were surprised by him letting a girl he just met, suck on his tonsils. They had climbed into the carriage while he and Luna were snogging and they rode in silence to reach the castle. Both Harry and Luna suddenly broke the kiss and sucked in sharp breaths.

“Do you want to tell us what just happened?” Hermione asked them as everyone realized they had stopped and climbed out of the carriage.

“I agreed to marry Harry when he's legal age and our children are going to take over the world.” Luna said, bluntly. “By our children, I mean all of them that he's going to have and not just with me.”

All of Harry's friends looked surprised at her declaration, except for Susan.

“Finally! Someone who understands.” Susan said and gave Luna a hug before they all went inside the castle. “I'm not allowed to marry him, so the most I can do is help take care of the kids while I have my own career.”

“I can stay at home and take over the family business.” Luna said and smiled at her. “Harry likes you a lot, Susan. You are pragmatic and take after your aunt.”

Susan giggled. “I caught him staring at Auntie's boobs a few times.”

“Hey!” Harry said and tried to think up a good defense, then shrugged. “I got nothing. They're quite nice.”

“You see? He can't even deny it.” Susan said with a huge smile.

“I won't be jealous because yours will be bigger than mine. I have my own advantages and strengths.” Luna said and gave her a quick hug. “Tell Cedric hello for Harry.”

Susan nodded and went to the Hufflepuff table.

“See you later.” Harry said and gave Hermione a quick hug. “Same to you.”

Hermione raised her eyebrows when he let her go and glanced at Luna.

“I'll stand over there by the doors and wait for the other first years.” Luna said and pulled Harry down for another kiss and whispered in his ear. “I'll see you in fifteen minutes.”

Harry did the calculations in his head. “You're coming to Slytherin with me?”

“You've shown me more exotic animals than my father has told me about, Harry. I'm going to do everything I can to help you achieve your goals.” Luna whispered and leaned back to give him another quick kiss. “I won't hold your dalliances against you.”

Harry chuckled. “I have to cement the Magical Alliance somehow. Sometimes money, fame, and power just aren't enough.”

Luna's dreamy smile changed to a smirk. “It wasn't enough for me.” She said and let him go.

Harry laughed and went with Tracey, Blaise, and Daphne over to the Slytherin table.

“I can't believe you.” Daphne said to him as they all sat down.

“I know. You've always pretended to be my friend so that you won't lose Tracey as your best friend.” Harry commented.

Daphne gasped and blushed.

“It's all right. I'm not angry about it. I never said anything before because you've always been mostly civil.” Harry said and Tracey nodded. “If you don't want to associate with Luna, that's your choice. However, I won't have you disparage her around me.”

“That's not...” Daphne started to say and saw Tracey's glare. “Fine. That's exactly what I was going to do. She's only a first year. You need to concentrate on the upper year students.”

Harry didn't say anything for a moment to let her stew on her own words. “So, you think it's a waste of time to groom the lower years?”

Daphne glanced around and saw several of the other Slytherins were listening in on their conversation. “That's not what I said.”

“Do you realize that if I listened to your advice, by the time I'm in fourth year, I would have isolated half of Slytherin House?” Harry asked her.

Almost everyone else at the table nodded and Daphne's face lost some of its color.

“By ignoring the lower years, when I'm in seventh year, I will have no influence at all with the rest of the House. Why would you advocate such a thing?” Harry asked her.

Daphne opened her mouth to explain, then realized if she said it, she would damage not only her own standing, she would lose Tracey as a friend completely. She had already been warned last year about trying to gain Harry's attention only for herself and she regretted not making more of a stand at the time.

When Daphne looked into Harry's disapproving eyes, she suddenly realized she never had a chance in the first place. “Just forget I said anything.”

Harry stayed quiet for about thirty seconds and then smiled. “I think that was the smartest thing you've ever said at this table. If you keep a biased opinion to yourself, no one can prove it. You don't have to stop being biased, you just stop everyone from confirming you are.”

Both Tracey and Blaise nodded, as did a lot of the students near them. Draco Malfoy flushed red in anger and kept his mouth shut, which was the smartest thing he had done since last year.

The sorting started and almost fifteen minutes later, a lot of people from Griffindor and Hufflepuff were surprised when Luna Lovegood was sorted into Slytherin. She didn't skip or flounce her hair like they expected, either. She walked with poise across the Great Hall to the right table and Harry held his arm out without looking. She sat beside him and rested her head on his shoulder as he hugged her to his side.

“We are going to revolutionize Arithmancy.” Luna said, absently.

Harry barked a laugh. “I knew you had a better grasp of spacial equations than you let on.”

Luna lifted her head briefly to kiss his cheek. “I only did that so I could beat you in three dimensional chess.”

Harry laughed again. “Of course! How could I have missed that?”

“You can be a bit obtuse sometimes. It's one of the things I love about you.” Luna said with her head back on his shoulder.

“Hold on, did you just say three dimensional chess?” Blaise asked, almost frantically. “Is it better than normal chess?”

“Unbelievably so.” Luna said. “There's the main board that's a bit smaller than the normal one and two smaller boards on either side of it, only at two different heights and you need to fight across all three to win.”

Everyone around them were very interested in a new form of chess, especially if they had to fight across three boards to achieve a win.

“You have to tell us all about it.” An older Slytherin boy pretty much ordered.

“You've done it now, Luna.” Harry said and laughed again. “You've intrigued your housemates!”

Luna smiled. “Don't worry, everyone. I know the Weasley twins. We can have everything worked out in a few weeks to get things set up in the school's common room and teach everyone the new rules.”

That earned a lot of smiles from everyone around them. It also meant that everyone in the school would know by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. If there was one thing that travelled faster than light in a school, it was gossip.

“Weasley, Ginny!” Minerva shouted, even though the small redheaded girl was the only one left.

Luna sighed and shifted closer to let Harry hold her tighter.

“Don't worry, love. I'll keep an eye on her.” Harry whispered to her. “We'll figure out what happened.”

“Griffindor!” The hat called out and nearly everyone applauded, except for Slytherin.

Albus Dumbledore made the same announcements as last year and didn't give any warnings this year, which meant he either learned to not tip Harry off too soon or he was hiding what was going on. Of course, Harry was just assuming that something was going to happen. He only had one year of experiences to base that off of and he was sure that it was true, anyway.

I think you gained more from me than you thought you did. Luna whispered into his head.

I can only hope. Harry thought back and let her go just long enough to stand. She tucked right back under his arm and they walked out of the Great Hall with the other Slytherins.

When they approached the common room, Harry caught the filthy password from a bunch of their minds and quickly cast an immobilizing charm on the entryway.

“Mudblood!” The student in front said and nothing happened. “Mudblood!”

“Are you sure that's the password?” Someone asked.

“Yes.” One of the seventh years said. “Mudblood!” He shouted. “Mudblood, I say!”

A lot of the Slytherins exchanged worried looks as a few of the other students shouted the word to try and open the entrance with louder and louder shouts.

“What. Is. Going. On. Here?” Severus Snape's quite perturbed voice asked from nearby. All of the students shut up as they stepped aside for him and he walked over to the students in the front.

“Sir, the password isn't working.” A seventh year prefect said. “It's supposed to be Mudblood.”

“Who set it?” Snape asked.

“I did, sir.” The prefect responded.

Harry whispered to his friends and they all spoke as one. “If you keep a biased opinion to yourself, no one can prove it. You don't have to stop being biased, you just stop everyone from confirming you are.”

Snape didn't turn around to see who spoke and only stared at the prefect, who looked quite embarrassed. “I suggest someone else has changed the password to something that won't offend three quarters of the school, Mister Patterson. Rather than pointlessly use a password that doesn't work...” He turned to the wall and waved his wand at it. “...set password: Might Makes Right.”

Harry ended the immobilization charm.

“Might makes right.” Patterson said and the door opened up.

Snape didn't say anything else and turned around to go back to his office. His eyes caught Harry's and he gave him a slight nod. Harry nodded right back. It seemed like another vacation would be appreciated.

That was very Slytherin of you. Luna whispered into Harry's head as they entered the common room.

I should have been in Ravenclaw for my desire to learn everything I can, except my ambition to save the wizarding world from extinction took precedence. Harry thought to her.

I wonder why? It's not that ambitious. You succeeded in getting into my mental knickers easily enough. Luna whispered back.

Harry had to clamp his mouth closed so he wouldn't laugh out loud. He did not want anyone to take it the wrong way after what just happened with the entryway.

Goodnight, love. Luna whispered to him and turned to receive a kiss from him and went to join the other first years to learn about her new living arrangements.

Harry suspected she wouldn't be using them much, for some reason. He made his way to his own room and it was just as bare as it usually was, because he always carried everything on him. It made things easier that way, because no one could ruin his things.

When Harry took off his outer robes to change and checked the pocket for a particular item, it wasn't there. He chuckled at the sneaky girl and changed for bed, tossed his clothes into the trunk, and shrunk it and hung it on his thin rope necklace.

Half an hour later, Harry's room door opened and closed by itself. A moment later, a tiny trunk dropped onto his chest. He chuckled and hooked it next to his own as his blanket was pulled back and an invisible someone climbed into his bed with him.

“You know you don't have to keep the cloak on. No one will come in here.” Harry whispered to her.

“Shh! I'm pretending to be a poltergeist.” Luna whispered back and started plucking at his pyjama top's buttons. “Oooo! It's so scary! Your clothes are moving all on their own!”

Harry couldn't stop his laugh at her playfulness and let her have her bit of fun trying to get his top open, then he hugged her close and discovered she had her top open, too. Luna let out a happy sigh as they cuddled and they drifted off to sleep with their minds and bodies touching.

*

It took a month of investigating Ginny before Harry figured out what was going on. He and Luna infiltrated the Griffindor common room at three in the morning to steal the mysterious writing diary that had a personality named Tom.

When Luna came back from the girl's dorms with a cloth wrapped bundle, Harry could feel the thing inside it trying to send out mental probes to see what was going on. It knew there was someone else holding it.

“The name on it is T.M. Riddle.” Luna whispered.

“That name sounds familiar.” Harry whispered back and gingerly took the thing. He tried to shrink it and it didn't work. That was a surprise, because it meant the thing was either spell resistant or couldn't be altered further.

“So does yours.” Fred whispered as he and his brother came down the stairs.

“Funny seeing you here, Harrykins.” George whispered as he held a blank piece of parchment. “Although, we can't see who else is here.”

Harry smiled and motioned to Luna, whom dropped the hood of the cloak.

“Wicked.” The twins said and then hushed themselves for being too loud.

“What are you doing here?” Fred asked, his voice even softer than a whisper.

“We figured out why your little sister has been acting strangely since mid-summer.” Harry whispered and held up the wrapped thing. “It's a diary that belonged to Voldemort.”

The twins flinched as if slapped. “Where did she get that?!?”

“During your shopping trip to Diagon Alley.” Harry said, having taken all the evidence from Ginny's mind. “It wasn't there when the books were bought; but, it was there when she went home.”

“Malfoy.” Fred groused.

“He made a scene at the bookstore.” George said.

“Bigger than that fraud Lockhart?” Harry asked.

“Fraud?” The twins asked.

“Yeah, he stole the stories in his books from other people and claimed he did them.” Harry said.

“Why haven't you told anyone?” Fred asked.

“Or had him turned in?” George asked.

“No proof. It's just my word against his.” Harry said with a shrug. “I didn't buy any of his books.”

“I've already sent mine back for a refund with a list of inconsistencies and errors they contain.” Luna said with a shrug. “I doubt I'll get a full refund.”

“Do you have a copy of that list?” Fred asked with a mischievous grin.

Luna nodded and reached into her pocket and held it out. “I was going to ask him about them in class; but, he might just deny it all. I guess you can have it.”

George made a 'give me' gesture with his hands and took it with reverence. “We'll make sure this gets put to good use.”

“And we'll make sure this gets dealt with as well.” Harry said and tapped the wrapped diary and cast the immobilize spell. Its attempts to probe him mentally stopped immediately. Altering and probably destructive spells won't work and spells that freeze it can. Good to know.

“Thanks, Harry.” Fred said and reached out to shake his hand.

“Yeah, good show, mate.” George said and shook his hand, too.

“If Ginny wakes up freaking out about the diary being missing, tell her to relax and that I'll talk to her tomorrow.”

Both twins smiled. “We'll let her know even if she isn't freaking out, because then she will.”

Harry chuckled and took Luna's hand. She slipped the cloak over his shoulders and pulled the hood up. The two of them faded away and there was no sound from them until the door to the common room opened on its own.

George put his parchment on top of Luna's and opened it up. “Harry isn't on the map anymore.”

“Luna wasn't on it before, either.” Fred said and gave his brother a significant look. “You know, we could do soooooooooo much with an invisibility cloak like that.”

George chuckled and the pair went back up to their dorm rooms. “Maybe we could figure out a good sharing deal like the tickets at last year's Quirrellmort event.” He said and wiggled the map.

“Do you think he would want to know where everyone is in the castle, at every moment, every single day?” Fred asked with a huge grin on his face.

“It doesn't hurt to ask.” George said and they entered their dorm room.

“Was Harry naked and rubbing his balls on the couch pillows and cushions?” Lee asked as soon as the twins entered their shared room. “Because that's what I would do if I could get into the Slytherin's common room.”

Fred and George shared a surprised look for a second and then laughed. “We need to get a loan of that cloak!”

*

It took a week of Harry and Luna concentrating and combining their different mental abilities to wear down the personality in the book enough that it couldn't resist them. It had been odd that it had mental shielding, even though it was a book, then they finally broke through the final barrier. Luna and Harry accepted the flood of information and Harry compartmentalized it for them.

Professor Slughorn, the Basilisk, Myrtle Warren dying and becoming Moaning Myrtle, making a Horcrux and splitting a soul seven times, and Tom killing his family for the Gaunt family ring.

Harry and Luna had also discovered the thing's plans to use Ginny as a mind controlled puppet to open the Chamber of Secrets to terrorize the school. It was a terrible plan, since the children of Voldemort's followers were there in the school as well. It didn't matter if Tom only focused on muggleborns, because everyone was in danger.

Harry had already helped deprogram Ginny and she would have no more fainting spells where she couldn't remember what she had been doing. Agreeing to go on a date with her was a small price to pay for the school's safety.

It took another week of researching and planning for Luna and Harry to agree on what to do and how to destroy the horcrux in their possession. They made their way to their Head of House's office and knocked.

“Come in, if you must.” Severus Snape's slightly irritated voice commanded.

Harry opened the door and Snape gave him an appraising look before he gave Luna the same.

“I assume this is not schoolwork related?” Snape asked, seeing them in casual clothes.

“Technically.” Harry said and shut the door. “Luna and I have a need of your help, sir.”

Snape's eyebrows rose. “Surely not. Madam Pomfrey...”

Luna giggled. “No, sir. We're not here for that. We only do that in our heads for now.”

Snape blinked his eyes exactly seven times before he looked at Harry.

“It's safer that way.” Harry said with a shrug. “Anyway, we've learned a lot of damaging information, a lot of useful information, and some rather dangerous information.”

Snape would have laughed in their faces if anyone else had said such things to him. After several vacations inside Harry's mind, he knew Harry was not someone that would claim such things if they weren't true. If anything, he would downplay the importance.

“I'm listening.” Snape said instead.

“Before we get into that, I have a very important question to ask you first.” Harry said with a crooked smile as Luna let out another giggle.

Snape raised his eyebrows again.

“Would you like to become more famous than Gilderoy Lockhart and twice as rich?”

*

Severus Snape: The Slayer of Slytherin's Monster, earned an Order of Merlin Second Class and the front page on every newspaper in every country that had a magical population. His story of how he had led two students on a daring adventure into the bowels of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to hunt down the famous Chamber of Secrets that contained a 60 foot long deadly basilisk, quickly became a best selling book.

His instant fame brought to light that he was also the youngest Potions Master in history and everyone was talking about him. He actually ended up becoming three times as rich as Lockhart because everyone wanted to consult with him on their potions discoveries and paid handsomely for the privilege.

Gilderoy Lockhart had tried to claim that it was he that had done the deed and a lot of his fans started to believe that he was the wronged party, then a list of all his lies in his books and his pathetic teaching methods somehow reached the same international papers and were published. He was drummed out of the Defense League as a fraud and became a laughing stock, so he resigned from Hogwarts and disappeared.

Albus Dumbledore once again had no one to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and didn't bother trying to find someone else. After the last two disasters of teachers and his plans being completely ruined, he decided the students would learn more if they did it on their own.

Unfortunately, this odd school policy was quickly adopted as the default if someone didn't like a class. Soon there was almost a mass exodus from less liked classes that people could learn on their own, like History of Magic, Muggle Studies, and Astronomy. Those courses were mostly book learning and memorization, anyway.

One of the rooms in the school common rooms on the third floor had been quickly converted to a Defense classroom and everyone would practice their practical spells there. It actually worked out better for the students when they self-studied, because there was no teacher to hold them back.

Without having to ask about it, Luna waited until Harry had memorized all of their year's course books before she sequestered them into his room and spent the night learning it all for herself with their minds joined together. It was at times like these that the pair would delve into month long discussions about everything.

That was why they were going to kick ass at Arithmancy next year, because they both knew math that was so far advanced from the current age that it could be considered magic for the things that were possible with it. They also secretly disposed of the diary with some basilisk venom.

*

Ginny Weasley was in little girl heaven as her dreams came true. After her ordeal with a sentient book that Harry Potter had rescued her from, and she would remember that for the rest of her life, he took her on a real date and treated her like an adult. It was a nice picnic down by the Black Lake and then a quick fly on two of the school brooms.

It was the best date she had ever had, because she was never allowed to fly at home. That it was her first and only date so far, didn't matter. It was the best and nothing else would ever compare. They even had a race and she won! It. Was. AWESOME!

*

“You just had to be all charming and witty.” Hermione commented as the Weasley Twins led their dazed little sister away.

“I had to do all the talking, so that's not really my fault.” Harry defended himself.

Hermione looked at the staggering redheaded girl for a moment and remembered her bliss-filled face when she passed by. “She just stared at you the entire time, didn't she?”

“Yep! She never spoke a word. Even when I let her win the broomstick race, it was just an inarticulate shout of happiness and she pretty much collapsed onto the grass when we landed.” Harry said and motioned to the Quiddich stands. “I'm glad I asked Fred and George to stick around, just in case.”

Hermione almost laughed at that. “I just imagined you trying to explain to two tall angry redheads why Ginny's face looked like that and she was also sprawled out on the grass.”

Harry looked shocked for a moment and shivered. “I am definitely glad I asked them to stay close.”

Hermione couldn't stop her laugh this time and took his hand. “Let's go, Harry. We have History of Magic to study for.”

“I don't have to study.” Harry said as they started walking.

“You don't have to, no. Everyone else is waiting for us, though.” Hermione said. “You are technically more knowledgeable about the current curriculum.”

“And you're not?” Harry asked.

“Why do you think they sent me out to get you?”

“They wanted a break.” Harry said truthfully and ducked the slap to the side of his head. “Ha! You miss...”

*Smack!*

“Ow!” Harry said and rubbed the other side of his head. “When did you learn to do that?”

“Last week when I played 3D chess with the Ravenclaws.” Hermione said, proudly. “It's called The Backhanded Recovery Slap.”

“I knew I shouldn't have skipped that game. They always come up with good counter-moves.”

“What were you doing instead?” Hermione asked when they entered the castle.

Harry leaned over and whispered in her ear.

Hermione blushed and did her best to not imagine him doing that with her. It didn't work.

“So, Saturday?” Harry asked with a knowing smile.

“Yes, please.” Hermione said and her blush didn't lessen until they were seated in the abandoned classroom that they and their friends used for their self-study lessons.

“What has you so flustered?” Susan asked her.

“N-nothing.” Hermione said and dove into reading her history book.

Susan glanced at Harry and he leaned over to whisper in her ear. She blushed and tried to not imagine him doing that with her and she couldn't.

“So, Sunday?” Harry asked her.

“Yes, please.” Susan said and kissed his cheek. “I still have some chocolate left.”

Harry nodded and started walking around the large desks to see if anyone needed help with fact checking or getting the dates of conflicts wrong.

*

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office in the middle of October and pondered how all of his plans and machinations were being foiled as soon as Harry Potter stumbled across them. It was supposed to take the boy all year to figure out that Gilderoy was a fraud and to work out all the clues to track down Slytherin's monster and save the damsel in a classic hero scenario that Albus had worked out.

Instead, he had a potions professor that was now extremely rich and was only staying in his position for the remainder of the school year. Because of his sudden fame, he didn't need his salary or the budget for ingredients to brew his own potions. Snape also had people begging him for his assistance and were willing to pay high fees for it.

Albus could have been in control of all of that if he had known that Harry had figured everything out. He would have stepped in and stopped the boy from giving Severus everything he ever wanted. Money, fame, extremely rare and expensive potions ingredients, and more recognition than he could ever wish for.

The worst part was that Severus had ended his vow of obedience to Albus and his vow to protect Harry Potter. Severus claimed that without those two self-imposed restrictions, he could do more to help than he ever could while under Albus' thumb.

Albus had barely held himself back from yelling at the man, because that was exactly why he wanted Severus under his thumb. He could ruin years of plans and preparations if he went off without supervision or telling Albus exactly what it was he was doing and why. He could ruin everything.

With a sigh, Albus gave Fawkes a pet through the bird's feathers and went to bed.

*

On Halloween, nothing happened. Harry and his friends gathered together and enjoyed a feast of candies and sweets that most of them enjoyed. A couple of them refrained, for different reasons, so Harry gave them actual plates of food for them to eat. He received several kisses on the cheek for his efforts for giving them their favorite meals instead, which made them and him happy.

Christmas was another great one, thanks to Luna being an almost binding influence for everyone. Her odd perspective was both insightful and enlightening, so no one held her occasional quirks against her. In fact, each of Harry's friends had something odd about them and everyone accepted them anyway. It made for an eclectic group that no one seemed able to touch.

The rest of the year passed by and no other significant incidents happened. It was almost a relief when the summer break arrived and there was no reason for anyone to be nervous or expected anything to happen. It was just another normal year at a magic school.

Arthur Weasley won the Daily Prophet one thousand galleon draw and everyone congratulated him. His picture appeared in the paper and he was only there with his wife, Molly Weasley. Since Ginny hadn't had a huge life threatening event happen at the end of the year, they saw no reason to waste most of that money on a frivolous trip to let her relax and recover.

Harry had another great vacation with Minerva in the Swiss Alps and they bought several crates of chocolates. Harry went a little overboard, thanks to his ability to make as much gold as he wanted from base metals, and he opened a nameless account with the dwarves and deposited a few million dollars worth of gold into one of their vaults.

Since the Swiss bank also had muggle ties, it let Harry buy a lot of things from the muggle side of things and he had them shipped to Minerva's home. It would become the start of his plan to save everything magical from extinction. He also bought all of the muggle science books he could get his hands on and had them shipped as well.

Harry still needed to learn a few things about manufacturing and production, just because he needed to make the tools to make the things he needed to make, just to start making the things he would actually need. He was more than four hundred years behind the science and technology that he needed to do what he wanted to do, so it was going to take a lot of hard work to get things going.

Because he lived with Minerva, Harry confirmed his extra course choices long before the deadline was due. He chose Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, because he was going to need both to complete his plan. Since he couldn't rely on actual technology because magic interfered with it, he needed to figure out how to power things with magic instead of fusion reactors and warp cores.

*

When school started again, Harry was given his schedule on the first day and it didn't have his two confirmed choices. It had Divination and Care of Magical Creatures instead.

Harry gave Minerva a very pointed glare. “Please explain why you, the deputy headmistress of the school in charge of caring for the students and their welfare, allowed someone to change my electives without my permission!”

Minerva pointed at Albus Dumbledore. “He overrode me and signed you up for those courses. As the headmaster, he can make certain decisions without having to explain himself.”

Harry stood up and held up his schedule, pointed to it, and let it drop to the floor. “I absolutely refuse to attend a school that forces me to be stupid and take courses that are useless and nearly everyone hates!”

“Harry, my boy. You shouldn't overreact.” Albus said, placatingly. “Im sure that after a few weeks, you will come to appreciate those classes.”

“I, Harry Potter, formally submit my resignation to withdraw from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!” Harry shouted and looked back at Minerva. “As my magical guardian, I am officially asking you to apply to every other school in Europe to accept my application as a student as soon as possible.”

“Harry, it's not that simple.” Minerva said with a sigh.

Harry gave her a squinted look. “Madam McGonagall, do not make me regret the moment you saved me from my abusive relatives.” He said and she looked embarrassed. “You swore to take care of me to the best of your ability and signed official documents at the Ministry of Magic to do exactly that. Does that not include protecting me from meddling headmasters?”

“I tried to stop him...” Minerva started to say.

“Just like you tried to stop him when I was a baby and he dropped me off on the doorstep of those hateful muggles in the middle of the night without even a warming charm?” Harry interrupted her and she gasped. “Yes, I know all about that night. Will you fail me once again? Will you let me be subjected to the whims of a senile old man that has no authority over me and my life?”

Minerva was supremely conflicted, because she had been a professor at Hogwarts for more years than she could remember and she was also responsible for the savior of the wizarding world. If she chose her duty to the school, she would have to force Harry to accept the headmaster's decision. If she chose her duty to Harry, she would have to reject the school she had dedicated most of her life to.

“I have already verbally withdrawn from this school, madam.” Harry said and it hurt her heart that he didn't refer to her as Minerva as he had for the last two years. “Will you continue in your role as my guardian, or are you more concerned that your loyalty to the school is more important than the future of a single student?”

“I do not accept your verbal withdrawal, Harry.” Albus said.

“You are not in charge of the disposition of the status of a student, Mister Dumbledore.” Harry said, intentionally leaving off any of his titles. He looked into Minerva's eyes. “I am not asking you to choose one or the other, madam. You merely have to decide if protecting me is worth defying the orders of the headmaster.”

Minerva opened her mouth to answer and Albus stood and waved his wand at her. Harry was expecting this, so he pulled the woman out of the way and the spell hit a sixth year male.

“I am sorry, Mister Potter. You need to remain at school and under the headmaster's care.” The young man said, as if he was a parrot. His eyes were glassy as well.

“ALBUS!” Minerva gasped and the other professors stood up to pull their wands on the old man.

“You just tried to cast an unforgivable curse on Minerva!” Professor Sprout exclaimed.

“It was merely a compulsion charm.” Albus lied.

“Priori Incantatum!” Filius Flitwick said and cast the spell on the wand in Albus' hand.

The words 'Imperious Curse' floated in front of the wand's tip and nearly the entire Great Hall gasped. After that was the 'Obliviate Curse', then the 'Legilimens spell', then 'Apparition', then 'Compulsion charm'.

“I think the Aurors will be quite interested in what you have been up to, Albus.” Filius said.

Albus let out a sigh at the distrustful looks he saw on everyone's faces. “You have no idea how difficult it is to constantly protect the world for the greater good.”

“I think someone is forgetting the welfare of the people when they consider the greater good.” Harry said and then huffed. “No, not forgetting. Wilfully ignoring.”

“Harry, you need to remain at Hogwarts.” Albus said.

“Considering you just used a spell that is an automatic life sentence in Azkaban prison, in front of hundreds of witnesses, I sincerely doubt you have any say whatsoever in where I go to school.” Harry said. “I also already withdrew. I legally can't be enrolled here for at least another year.”

Albus sighed again. “You planned this.”

“No, I merely had plans in place for when you tried to manipulate me again for your own ends.” Harry said and two dozen other students stood up from various years and all four houses. “The headmaster's desk will soon have this many immediate requests for transfer to Beauxbatons.”

Albus stared at the 24 students, some of them were the brightest witches and wizards in the school. “Harry, you... why...”

“No, headmaster. This is all on you.” Harry said. “I have done my best to stop you each year to end your plans to groom me into your weapon. I have also made sure that your machinations had no lasting effects on the innocent victims you so callously threw into danger without a care that they would be hurt.”

Albus didn't sigh this time. “Everything I have done was for the greater good.” He said, as if that was the best defense that existed. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”

A lot of muggleborns laughed at those words, as did Harry.

“As the one that has been the focus of your plans, I can honestly tell you that sacrificing me would cause the rest of the wizarding world to perish.” Harry said and nearly everyone gasped. “I'm sorry to tell you all that; but, it's true. I am the child of prophecy, as Mister Dumbledore knows. I am the only one that can save us all... and he wants me to die.”

Albus shivered slightly as looks of pure hatred were sent his way. “Harry, you are unaware of...”

“The one to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month dies, born to those that have thrice defied him. He will be marked as his equal, and either shall die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives.” Harry quoted.

Albus Dumbledore's face drained of all color. “N-n-no, you... you have doomed us all! He will find out! His followers will dispose of you and...”

Harry burst out laughing and everyone turned to look at him. It took several minutes before Harry calmed down. “You have made an assumption that bares no resemblance to the truth.” He said and took out a small mirror. “Professor Snape.”

“Dammit, Potter! I am at a critical stage here!” Snape spat back at him and a blasting curse sound came from the mirror.

Harry looked through the mirror at what was around the man. “Just use a bit of fiendfire and concentrate on the corpses. You can't apparate into or out of the cave; but, you can apparate around inside of it.”

Snape made a huff sound. “I won't thank you for reminding me of that.” He said and there was a sound of rushing flames and then a crack of apparition. “All right, I'm clear for now. What do you want?”

“Albus finally decided to use an unforgivable in front of witnesses to keep me at Hogwarts.” Harry told him.

“The idiot. You never do a traceable curse in front of anyone that can rat you out.” Snape said and stepped outside the cave and closed the entrance. “I think it will take an hour or so for the flames to die down.”

“I agree, sir. Your next book will be a best seller, too.”

Snape smiled for the first time all summer. “I still can't believe you didn't want the fame for yourself.”

“I have enough fame being the Boy-Who-Lived. I needed an actual rival to give me a challenge when I'm old enough to run for Minister of Magic.”

Snape barked a laugh. “All right, that I believe. No one is that altruistic.”

“You wound me, sir.” Harry said and walked over to the back of the Great Hall. “I'm going to enlarge the mirror and I'd like for you to explain what you're doing. Albus needs a bit of education on what it means to be proactive in the fight against Voldemort.”

Snape nodded and waited for Harry to use a sticking charm on the mirror and enlarged it to the size of a big screen television. “Mister Potter came to me last year with certain information about the Dark Lord that he and a friend of his had uncovered.”

A lot of students and professors made surprised sounds.

“Using that information, we dealt with a looming threat to the wizarding world as a whole and to me, personally.” Snape said. “Of course, this also applies to all previous Death Eaters, too.”

Several of the Slytherin students looked quite interested.

“I will not name the... items... that the Dark Lord had placed in certain areas to protect himself from ever being defeated. I will say that all but two have been dealt with personally by myself.” Snape said. “The second last is in the cave behind me and the last is in a location that Harry Potter himself will have to deal with it.”

“N-n-no.” Albus whispered. “How... how...”

“Unlike you, when I discovered sensitive information, I did not keep it to myself.” Harry said and the two dozen students nodded their heads. “We've worked hard to figure out where the items were and there is only one left.” He said and nodded to Luna.

“Are you sure? We can't come back here if we reveal this.” Luna said.

“It's the only way.” Harry said.

Luna sighed and took out a small wrapped bundle. She slowly unfolded it and everyone at the Ravenclaw table gasped or shouted in shock at what she revealed. Filius Flitwick had tears in his eyes, too.

“For those that don't recognize it, that is the famous Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw that Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle, corrupted and made into a dark object that needed basilisk venom to destroy.” Harry said.

“Well done.” Snape said from the mirror before anyone could react. “I was worried you would have missed it if you had to leave the school this soon.”

“We all searched for it last night after the welcoming feast.” Harry said and waved at Susan. “Susan's keen eyes led us right to it.”

“H-Harry.” Susan said and blushed.

“Credit where credit is due.” Harry said and Luna wrapped it up again. “Unfortunately, it's pretty much useless as a founder's artifact, as is Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Salazar Slytherin's locket.”

Everyone in the Great Hall stared at him.

“So, as you can all see, I really am the Boy-Who-Lived, because I have been actively hunting down and removing Voldemort's influence that he has left in the world.” Harry said and waved to Severus. “Let me know if you're successful.”

Snape nodded. “As soon as I know, so will you.”

The mirror went blank and Harry shrunk it and cancelled the sticking charm. He stuck it into his pocket and walked back over to the Slytherin table. No one said anything as he took Luna's hand and started walking towards the large doors of the Great Hall.

“Harry, my boy. Where are you going?” Albus asked and held his wand at his side.

“Why do you care?” Harry asked and turned around to face him. “The last of those things is about to be destroyed and there's nothing left to allow him to return.”

“No, there is one more.” Albus said and to everyone's shock, he raised his wand and pointed it right at Harry. “Avada Kedavra.”

“NOOO!” Nearly everyone yelled.

Harry plucked the diadem out of Luna's hands and tossed it in the way of the spell. The thing exploded and the dust and remains fell to the floor. When the air cleared, Albus was bound and unconscious on the floor and his wand was in Filius Flitwick's hand.

“I think it has a worthy owner now.” Luna said and Harry nodded.

“Let's go, everyone.” Harry said and he left the Great Hall with Luna. A large contingent of students started to follow him.

“Don't go.” Daphne said to her friends, Tracey and Blaise.

“We asked you to come, too.” Tracey said.

“You know I can't leave my family behind!” Daphne exclaimed.

Blaise chuckled and shook his head. “Harry was right about you. You can't see past your own needs and wants to see the bigger picture.”

“What do you mean?” Daphne asked.

“None of us are leaving our families behind. We are only leaving Hogwarts behind.” Tracey said and took Blaise's hand. “I think our kids are going to be prettier than Harry's and Luna's.”

Blaise laughed and gave her a quick hug. “With Harry paying for everything, we won't have to worry about anything except that, so I'm willing to try if you are.”

Tracey laughed as well and they joined the back of the group walking out of the school. All of them had their shrunken trunks hung on thin ropes around their necks and didn't need to go pack.

Minerva thought about opening her mouth to try and convince Harry to come back, then looked down at the floor where the unconscious Albus Dumbledore was bound. She realized then that she had made the wrong choice and knew it was much too late to convince Harry that she was still on his side.

“I'll call the Aurors.” Minerva said and started to walk towards the doors of the Great Hall, only to stop when Amelia Bones entered with a ten-man Auror squad. It was almost as if she had been standing by and waited for something like this to happen, which told Minerva that she had been.

Minerva's pained sigh echoed from the walls, because she had utterly failed the only person that had fully entrusted himself to her care. Her tears flowed as she watched Albus be carried out of the Great Hall and decided that she didn't want to deal with things like this anymore. She went to her office and drafted both Harry Potter's notice of withdrawal from the school and her own resignation.

The castle elves packed up all of her things and she had them pop it all to her home in the Scottish Highlands. When she apparated there herself after leaving the castle's wards, she wasn't surprised to see that Harry had not gone there like she had hoped. She did find a note on her kitchen table when she went to make tea.

Madam McGonagall,
I am sorry that you chose to not help me when you easily could have. You knew the headmaster was going to manipulate things to keep me under his control and you let him. Again. You are still technically my magical guardian for now; but, I no longer feel safe in your presence or under your care. My welfare does not mean as much to you as I thought it did. Therefore, I have made other arrangements.
I hope you enjoy your early retirement.
Mister Potter.

Minerva's tears started anew at the harsh formality of the words and the impersonal address. All of the personal moments that the two of them had shared during the last two and a half years came rushing back to her and she cried even more. She had thrown all of that away, because she hadn't defied a manipulative old man for the surrogate son that she had always desired to have.

She hugged the letter to her chest and went into her sitting room. She put on the ever-warm slippers that Harry had given to her for Christmas and wrapped the thick ever-warm shawl around her shoulders that he had gifted to her for her birthday. She sat down in her favorite chair and used her wand to light the fireplace.

As Minerva drifted off to sleep, she wondered what Harry was going to do now.

*

“Thanks for teaching us how to make the mirrors.” Harry said to the shaggy-haired man across the table at 12 Grimmauld Place.

“No problem, Harry. Thanks for having Snivellus break me out of prison.” Sirius Black said. “I must admit that I never thought I would see him enjoy himself as he questioned my lovely cousin Bellatrix.”

Harry nodded. “It didn't take a lot of convincing to get his help after he became famous.”

Sirius laughed. “Who would have thought he wanted anything like that?”

Harry didn't admit that he knew after learning a lot about the man and how he had been treated while growing up. Being recognized for his actual talents was exactly what a bitter man needed to feel good about himself.

“I'm glad he let us know that you had the authority as head of the Black Family to enter any family vault.” Luna said and nuzzled Harry's neck to make him squirm.

Sirius nodded and crossed his arms. “I wasn't allowed to remove anything, so that ruined cup is still in there.”

“It won't matter after Professor Snape deals with the last horcrux.” Harry said and the sound of apparition came from near the front door. “I'd say that's him now.”

The kitchen door opened and an angry Snape strode over and tossed the locket onto the kitchen table. “It's a fake.”

Sirius opened it up and read the note inside. His face blanched at the words written on the paper.

“What is it?” Harry asked and Luna moved off his lap as Sirius handed Harry the folded note. “Oh.”

“Yes.” Sirius said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Kreacher.”

There was a creak noise from the small door to the furnace room. “Nasty blood traitor master called for Kreacher?”

Sirius held out the fake locket.

Kreacher's eyes teared up and he took the locket reverently. “Master Regulus' locket.”

“Where is the other one?” Sirius asked.

Kreacher walked back into the furnace room for a moment and came back out with a similar locket. He put it on the kitchen table and stepped back. “Kreacher was unable to complete Master Regulus' last order. I could not destroy it.”

Harry summoned a bowl from the cupboard and levitated the real locket inside. He took his trunk from the neck rope and enlarged it, put on his dragonhide gloves, and dug out the small vial of basilisk venom. He poured nearly half of what was left in the vial onto the locket and waited. It started to smoke and then a soft scream came from it as a black smoke formed for a second and dissipated.

“And that was it.” Harry said and put the vial away, took off the gloves, and shrunk the trunk again to hang it back around his neck.

Both Snape and Sirius let out sighs and Snape sat down with a look on relief on his face.

“I think someone needs to retire from his adventuring life and return to his potions.” Harry said.

Snape nodded. “The next book will be a best seller and it will be the last one.”

“Can Kreacher keep the nasty locket, too?” Kreacher asked.

“Go ahead. Try to clean it without dying.” Sirius said and motioned towards it. “Chuck the bowl when you're done with it, too. Even clean, no one wants to eat from it anymore.”

Kreacher took the bowl, the note, and both lockets into his cubbyhole and closed the door.

“He's not coming back out, is he?” Luna asked in a whisper.

“No.” Harry said and hugged her close. “He has Walburga's portrait in there, too.”

Sirius nodded. “So, what are we going to do tonight?”

“The same thing we do every night, Pinky. We try to take over the world!” Harry said and cackled with a maniacal laugh. “Mwa-ha-ha-ha!”

Sirius and Snape stared at him with dumbfounded expressions and Luna laughed and laughed.

“It's from a muggle cartoon show.” Harry said as an explanation.

Luna calmed down and leaned into Harry to hug him close. It's only September of 1993, love. Pinky and the Brain won't be released for another two years in September of 1995. She thought to him.

That's okay. It's not like either of them is going to check. Harry thought back. “Seriously, though. Luna and I have a bunch of projects to start as soon as our applications to Beauxbatons are accepted.”

“Already sent off.” Sirius said. “Xeno signed Luna's permission this afternoon, just in case.”

“Daddy always was a step ahead of me.” Luna said and smiled. “It saves me so much time when I don't have to clean dung from my shoes.”

Harry laughed and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “We should head to bed. Who knows how long a response could take to reach us.”

“Two days. One for delivery and another for the return trip.” Snape said and stood. “If for any reason you believe you won't be accepted, you are a dunderhead.”

Sirius barked a laugh that was actually like a bark.

“Good evening.” Snape said and left the kitchen.

“Don't forget to claim all the credit!” Harry shouted and stood up with Luna still clung to him with her arms and legs wrapped around him. “On second thought, we should head to bed early. Goodnight, Sirius.”

“Goodnight, Harry. Goodnight Harry's monkey.” Sirius said with a grin.

“Ook, ook!” Luna responded with a monkey noise and made Sirius laugh.

Harry made his way up through the house to the third floor and entered his and Luna's bedroom. They both undressed and climbed into bed to cuddle, even though it was still fairly early. There was more to plan and more to do, now that they were no longer restricted by trying to stay out from under Albus Dumbledore's crooked nose.

*

Harry bought a huge mansion in the French countryside and they all moved to France. To the surprise of most of Harry's friends that had left Hogwarts with him, Beauxbatons had a merit based education system, so you could advance at your own pace. Learning enough of the French language to get by during the first month of school was only a small inconvenience.

Harry and Luna picked it up instantly and only needed help with some syntax and local word variants. They helped their friends adjust quickly and then they all proceeded at their own pace. Of course, Harry and Luna advanced at lightning speed and blew through the third year curriculum at a pace that their new professors were astonished by.

Since they still needed experience with the practical lessons, they helped their fellow ex-Hogwarts students to advance as well. They didn't want to leave their friends behind, because they were all in this together. That was what the newspapers said when they described their exodus from Britain.

Albus Dumbledore's trial was held and none of the students had been called as witnesses, to everyone's surprise. Unlike everyone else that had been convicted of using an unforgivable curse, the only thing that happened to Albus was that he lost his three positions of authority and became a normal citizen.

Since none of the students were allowed to testify, the Wizengamut didn't find out that Albus was responsible for losing Harry Potter to another country until Dumbledore had already been released to freedom. The entire country hated him for that, which destroyed the very last shred of Dumbledore's fame.

As a last nail in Dumbledore's coffin, they updated his Chocolate Frog Card to say the disgraced man had used unforgivable curses and had tried to murder Harry Potter, which forced Harry Potter to leave Britain to get away from further murder attempts.

As a convicted criminal, Dumbledore was not legally allowed to travel outside Britain's shores. He was arrested a week later when he tried to gain entrance to Beauxbatons by using his phoenix to travel past the wards. Thankfully, Harry and his friends had been in the large cafeteria at the time and several professors had easily taken the old man down. Harry would never admit to using his telekinesis to hold him and Fawkes still.

Albus Dumbledore was tried again for another murder attempt on the Boy-Who-Lived, this time on foreign soil, so all of the students were allowed to testify against him this time. The best part was that because Albus was a convicted criminal and had committed another crime, he was forced to consume a truth serum and was asked to explain his reasons.

The revelations shocked the wizarding world, especially since Harry Potter was supposedly a horcrux. Harry openly laughed and revealed his forehead and said he hadn't had the scar since he was seven. It had been surgically removed by muggles and if there had been a piece of Voldemort's soul inside, it was long gone.

Harry's open invitation for any expert healer or curse breaker to examine him was accepted. Two healers and three curse breakers were brought into the courtroom and not a trace of dark magic was found anywhere on Harry, on his clothes, or on his items.

Albus Dumbledore was sentenced to Nuremgard Prison for the rest of his natural life and he was given a cell next to his longtime lover, Grindelwald. That had been a shock for everyone to learn as well. He hadn't killed Grindelwald as he had previously claimed, or let people assumed he did and didn't correct them, which was worse. The evil man could have escaped and caused untold destruction.

It was funny that the old Chief Warlock was such a hypocrite. Albus was willing to let an innocent Harry Potter die for the greater good to somehow save the wizarding world; and yet, he let a mass murderer live after he had almost destroyed everything and their way of life.

Everyone assumed it was because Albus loved Grindelwald and hated Harry Potter for being more famous than him. The truth was, Albus cared more for redeeming the unworthy than he did for the innocent people that already were worthy. He would deny it if asked, though. He didn't want people to think of him as an uncaring monster, despite the evidence to the contrary.

Albus barely paid lip service to those that died under his command and then would lament the utter loss if one of the death eaters were accidentally killed, because if they were dead, he couldn't return them to the light.

Everyone hated Dumbledore even more when that came out in the tell-all book published by Severus Snape, whose redemption story from Death Eater to Hero made him even more famous.

*

Harry and his group of friends passed their OWLs by the end of the year, which put them all in the same year with the Weasley twins, Lee Jordan, and their girlfriends. Harry's and Luna's plan to make learning fun for everyone, worked like a charm.

They all wanted to help him reach his goal as quickly as possible as well and they all worked hard to meet his expectations. That Harry tried to tell them that he didn't expect them to do that, or for them all to become prodigies, was ignored. He needed them and that was that.

After a long discussion with everyone, they decided to take a year off from magic school and stayed in the muggle world to catch up on their A-levels. With Harry's and Luna's modified learning techniques, it only took them about six months to get their education up from elementary school level to mid-high school, even for the wizards and witches that hadn't been exposed to muggle school before.

It also took some technological and magical ingenuity to achieve one of Harry's goals. He wanted to recreate a teaching computer from Voyager. Specifically because they kicked Arithmancy's ass, Harry and Luna figured out how to combine magical power and adapted some technology to work in tandem, so that it wouldn't blow out or die when exposed to magic, since it was powered by magic already.

Their first successful prototype computer had inadvertently created a new field of study called Technomancy and all of their friends fell in love with it, especially Hermione. She took to programming a magical language like a duck to water and she devoted her supreme intelligence to recreating or simulating current muggle technology and their programs.

Because Harry was ridiculously rich and could make more gold whenever he wanted, there was no bottleneck of material acquisition for any of their individual projects. Tracey worked on communications technology, Blaise worked on miniaturization, and Susan worked on shielding and protection with different metal alloys for durability.

On the other hand, the Weasleys wouldn't reveal what they were working on and kept it a secret. Ginny had come along as well, despite the very loud and vocal protests from their mother. She was excelling in her practical Defense work and she loved flying and playing Quiddich. She had passed her OWLs as well and she and Luna had easily rekindled their lost friendship.

The rest of their friends had their own branches of research to work on, too. By the end of the year of their year off, they all had made massive contributions to the Technomancy field. They had also kept it a secret. It wasn't ready for dissemination to the rest of the magical world yet and needed to be worked on past the prototypes. They all felt like it could be improved upon and they planned to do that.

*

When Harry and his friends returned to magic school to start studying for their NEWT years in September of 1995, they learned that the Triwizard Tournament had happened the year before and some of the seventh years had gone to Hogwarts to participate and be part of the audience. Since they wouldn't have qualified to participate anyway, none of them felt like they had missed anything.

Victor Krum had won and had soundly beaten both Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory. Cedric had tried to come to France with Harry and his father Amos Diggory had refused. He worked for the Ministry of Magic and didn't want to sully his reputation by having a son of his move to another country to follow a self-important has-been coward that ran away from his responsibilities.

Cedric's frequent calls on the new mirrors let them know that he deeply regretted being held back, made Harry feel bad that he hadn't been able to come with them. As soon as Cedric told him he had no idea what he wanted to do for a career, Harry offered him a job.

The group needed an independent tester for their new field of study, someone that had no background in what they were doing, and Cedric fit the bill perfectly. When Harry offered him a salary that was higher than his father's as a department head at the Ministry, Cedric didn't argue about the ridiculous amount and accepted gratefully.

Because Cedric was legal age, his father couldn't stop him and he moved to France. He also brought everything he owned with him, including all of his school books and course notes. Those proved to be invaluable as a comparison to the French equivalent school books and Hermione dove into that project with just as much enthusiasm as she had with learning to program.

No one was surprised to learn that only Hogwarts main courses for Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology had an equal standard for information and the rest was so inconsistent that comparing them was like comparing apples and oranges. They were both considered fruit and eatable and that was it. Everything else was different.

Hermione's side project to program everything into the learning computer had quickly become her obsession. Her friends had to intervene on her behalf every few days, just to get her to slow down and not burn out. It sometimes didn't work, so Harry had to pull out the big guns occasionally to force her to relax for a day or two.

A new book and a liberal use of his tongue exactly where she liked it the most.

*

Another year passed and no one at Beauxbatons was surprised when Harry and his friends all wrote their NEWTs and passed everything with the highest rating possible, Outstanding. No one could explain how they had brought two 15 year old girls along as well or how they had taken a year off and delayed their studying and still managed to pass everything.

It had been a deliberate thing, because Harry didn't want to have to wait a couple of years after graduation to become legal age. His plans couldn't be put off like that. He only had another year before he was considered an adult in the wizarding world and that was his deadline to perfect his magical technology and reveal it to the magical population.

As a graduation present, the Weasley Twins and their girlfriends finally revealed what their secret projects were. Using muggle processes combined with magic, some conjuration, and Harry's chemical formulas and Arithmancy calculations, they presented Harry and the group with stable forms of Duranium, Dilithium crystals, Transparent Aluminum, and liquid Latinum.

Harry stared at the base examples of the materials and then at the mock ups for a PADD, or Personal Access Display Device, a design for a nearly endless power system that could be recharged using ambient magic or a few spells, and a model of Voyager with clear windows.

“If you weren't engaged, I'd kiss you.” Harry said and lightly caressed the model of the ship.

“Who are you talking to?” Katie Bell asked, curious if he would admit that he liked her.

“All of you.” Harry said and gave her one of his best charming smiles.

“Harrykins! We love you, too!” Fred and George shouted and they both dove for him.

“I was kidding!” Harry shouted back as he dodged out of the way and then ran for it.

“It's too late to back out now!” The twins exclaimed and made loud kissing noises as they chased him around the table and then out of the meeting room while everyone else laughed.

*

With access to Duranium, a kind of aluminum and steel alloy that was extremely strong and light, they progressed the advancement of their technology to the point that it could be produced in large quantities. They started small at first by reproducing their communication mirrors with the advanced technology and materials.

When the very first one was constructed, it was tested vigorously by Cedric. He even dropped it from a 35 meter height, or about 115 feet. It didn't break or damaged the screen, because they had used the transparent aluminum for it. It could be produced cheaply and quickly, thanks to Hermione's adaptable programming to make it work like a cell phone.

Everyone loved it and every batch that was produced were sold out nearly instantly. You could also cast color charms on it and personalize it, which made the teen girls that owned them have a blast decorating them and talking to their friends, no matter where they were in Britain.

That had been the biggest selling point for how popular the communication devices were. You could be at a boarding school across the country and miss your family, so all you had to do to see their faces and talk was use the device. The difference for muggleborns were that they had to buy a separate base that plugged in if the devices weren't charging on their own.

It didn't take long before all of Harry's friends were rich from their own merits, thanks to everyone working together and their first product being so popular. That hadn't been why they wanted to come along with Harry; but, they weren't going to refuse. They had worked hard for years to get to this point and they were only getting started.

They had an entire technomancy facility to construct and continue their research to advance their work. More learning computers were constructed and Hermione paid well for people to loan or donate books and tomes of knowledge for her to add to her growing magical database.

An innocent question from one of the goblin tellers at Gringotts Bank to a teenage girl about what she was doing talking into an odd rectangular thing, caused quite the stir when she answered what it did. It was a wizard device that let anyone in the country talk to anyone else in the country.

The goblins wanted that device for their own uses and petitioned the Ministry of Magic through the Goblin Liaison Office for both the plans and the construction procedures so they could make their own version. It was immediately rejected for two reasons. One, they didn't create them or had approved them for official use, even though everyone in the Ministry owned one. Two, they had no idea how they worked or how they were made.

It took several weeks before the goblins finally made an appointment with the French Branch of Gringotts and met with their representatives to negotiate for the same things they had asked the British Ministry of Magic for. Of course, this set off another stir as the French goblins hadn't thought about getting the devices and using them for their own uses.

The French Ministry also had to reject their proposals for the same reasons. However, they knew several of the representatives from the company that made the devices and gave the goblins the contact information.

Another week of waiting finally let them make another appointment, only this time it was with the actual owners and operators of Magi-Tech. The goblins were shocked when they sat down across the large table and faced a pair of sixteen year old children, one of which was the famous Harry Potter.

“Our company representative told us that you want to buy our devices and manufacturing processes for your own use.” Harry said.

“That is an accurate assumption, albeit slightly wrong.” The elder goblin said and produced a copy of their proposal that they had submitted to two different ministries so far and had been rejected. “Will you read our actual proposal?”

Harry nodded and the goblin slid it across the table to him. He picked it up and his eyebrows rose at the title, then he opened the first page, then the next, then the next and next, and closed the report. He turned to Luna and they leaned their heads together for several seconds with their eyes closed, to the goblin's confusion.

Luna was the first to pull away and she opened her eyes to look at them. “I believe the main purpose of you wanting the manufacturing process is so you can make the devices to fit your hands, expand the internal limited space for storage, and then load your own language into it so that those of your kind won't have to force themselves to learn English to use it.”

The elder goblin hid his surprise well. “That is the fully accurate version of the proposal, yes.”

“That will be a bit of a problem.” Harry said as he opened his eyes and saw the slightly angry looks on the faces of the goblins. “I'm not saying no.” He said to placate them. “I'm saying we built the thing from the ground up using English and runic alphabets. It is as much magic as it is technology.”

“Which is why it works so well.” Luna added.

“The problem is, we would have to rebuild everything from scratch, using your language as a base, in order for you to do what you think you want to do with it.” Harry told them.

“What do you mean by that?” One of the other goblins asked.

“You are trying to co-opt an invention created by a people that you despise to recreate it in your own image so that you can claim it as your own.” Harry said.

The goblin shot to his feet. “How dare you accuse us of theft!”

Harry ignored the outburst and looked at the elder goblin. “Tell me I am wrong.”

The elder goblin put a hand on the other goblin's arm and forced him to sit. “I would like your reasoning before I answer that.”

Harry tapped the proposal. “You want to buy the manufacturing process and not the raw materials, so I assumed you want to remove all wizard-like influences from it. Once you do, anything you create from the altered process will automatically become goblin-made. Anything you assemble with those parts also becomes fully goblin-made and no wizard had a hand in creating it.”

The elder goblin gave Harry a stern look for only a few seconds before he sighed and nodded. “You are not wrong.”

“Elder!” The other goblin gasped.

“Be quiet or I will ask you to leave in disgrace.” The elder goblin said and the other goblin snapped his mouth shut. “I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I am to acquire the process and the process only, and not the devices themselves. They are almost useless as they are and cannot be successfully adapted for our purposes.”

Luna shook her head with disapproval on her face, because they had just admitted they tore the devices apart to figure them out and couldn't get them to work. “I thought goblins were honorable.”

“How dare you...” The other goblin started to say.

The elder goblin spoke in a harsh guttural language and the other goblin's face showed shock, then he stood up and left without saying a word.

“He will be punished severely and I will be killed for revealing goblin secrets when I return to the clans.” The elder goblin said.

“Then why admit to it?” Harry asked.

“You already figured out our plans and distrust us. You won't sell us anything and our mission has failed. Admitting the truth changes nothing.” The elder goblin said.

“Should we assume this applies to the French goblins as well?” Harry asked.

“I was chosen as a representative, because I was the oldest and wisest.” The elder goblin answered.

Harry nodded and slid the proposal back across the table and the elder goblin looked surprised. “Before they kill you for their own crimes and to save themselves some embarrassment, tell them they should have sent a scholar to work with our programmers to create a dictionary of goblin words. We could have used it as a database and adapted it into a reference file to convert the interface to your language instead of English.”

The elder goblin sat there, stunned into silence.

Luna stood up and took Harry's hand. “You don't think we program everyone's individual names into the thing, do you? It creates instances and associates the spoken words with the connections and commands instead.”

The elder goblin watched as they walked around the table and looked up when they were right next to him.

“If they listen to your words, perhaps you could offer yourself to Magi-Tech as recompense.” Harry suggested before he and Luna left the elder goblin alone in the meeting room to contemplate how the next few hours of his life was going to turn out.

*

A week later, to Harry's relief, the elder goblin returned and entered his office. He was missing his left arm from the elbow down and his left foot.

“Is this where I make a joke about seeing what the other guy looks like?” Harry asked.

The elder goblin laughed a guttural laugh. “You do understand our culture!”

Harry had to chuckle at that and waved for him to sit down. “I have to assume that someone in authority heard your last words.”

The goblin nodded. “Ragnok himself, the manager of the Britain branch of Gringotts.”

Harry gave his injuries another look. “I don't see a ceremonial blade anywhere.”

The goblin huffed. “I fought for my life and was exiled. Nothing goblin forged could come with me.”

“Ah, I understand. Operational security.” Harry said.

“And we are greedy.” The elder goblin said with a wide smile and showed off a lot of sharp teeth.

“Ha!” Harry barked. “Since you lived and you're back here, do you feel like working?”

The elder goblin looked at his missing arm and back at Harry.

“Don't worry about that. We've made great strides in medical technomancy.” Harry said and tapped one of the communication devices permanently stuck to the top of his desk. “Tracey Davis.”

A second later, the screen came on.

“Oh! Hello, gorgeous!” Tracey said with a huge smile on her face.

“Blaise is right there beside you, isn't he?” Harry asked her.

“Who?” Tracey asked, innocently.

“Nice try. I haven't fallen for that before and I'm not going to now.” Harry said. “How would you like a new patient to experiment on that's lost half an arm and a whole foot?”

“That depends. What special circumstances removed them? Was it a curse or a weapon?”

“You are going to scream when I tell you.” Harry said teasingly and didn't say anything else.

Tracey squinted her eyes at him and let out a little growl.

“She is going to curse you the next time she sees you if you don't.” Blaise's voice said from off to the side.

“Ha ha, all right.” Harry said and leaned close to the screen. “I have an elder goblin here that fought in a ceremonial battle to save his own life from execution.”

“I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!” Tracey yelled and the screen went blank.

“I think she might be coming to visit.” Harry said and held a hand up as he counted on his fingers. When he reached four, his office door made a bang sound and swung open in the blink of an eye and slammed into the wall.

“Don't worry, sir. You will be taken care of.” Tracey said in a calm voice, even though her face was frantically eager. “It will take a few days of work and perhaps a few tests with tissue samples before we can start regrowing your arm back.”

The elder goblin stared at her and didn't know what to say.

“I expect you to report to work next week.” Harry told the elder goblin as Tracey helped him stand. “We can work out the best way to get your language properly encoded into a database after that.”

The elder goblin nodded and Tracey led him out of the office.

Harry chuckled at the stunned look on his face and closed the door, then cast the repair charm on the hole in the wall that the door handle had put there. He sat down behind his desk and turned on the terminal for the mainframe. He entered a note for Hermione that they had access to a goblin now and she could look forward to adding another language to her ever-expanding database.

With luck, after they finished adding in the secondary backups to the Magi-Tech servers, they would be able to finish the internet node buffer. They wanted access to the muggle's technology without putting their own computers online, which required a kind of dummy terminal that would act as a blocker for hackers and hacking programs.

Just because it was in an electronic format, that didn't mean they wouldn't break the Statute of Secrecy if anyone that wasn't magical ever found out about it.

*

Another year passed and Magi-Tech released a cooking device that cooked meals in a third of the time than normal cooking. It was mostly the richer families with house elves that bought it at first and those elves told other elves, and soon all magical businesses in France had one of the larger industrial versions in their kitchens.

Word of the innovation quickly spread to other countries and Britain ordered a dozen for the Ministry of Magic, twice that many for Hogwarts, and just as many to be distributed to their workers to have in their homes.

What they didn't know was that each of them also had scanning devices embedded inside and in-depth scans were taken of all types of meats, vegetables, grains, flour, spices, sugar, and everything else that was put into one of the cookers. The cooking devices also had a 'keep warm' setting that maintained the food at the right temperature, which everyone used to put fully make up plates of food inside to keep for later.

Hermione giggled like a little girl as her food database increased in size every second. The patterns for individual dishes, full meals, and single items flowed in at an exponential rate from all over the country. It was working even better than she had predicted and she couldn't have been happier... then Harry surprised her by releasing a Stasis Cabinet.

It was hot on one side of the divide and cold on the other, thanks to technomancy, and it had hidden scanning devices as well. The food database soon had singular item patterns for everything from a dirigible plum to a fully slaughtered cow. The last one had come from Hagrid's specially made cabinet, which made Hermione laugh almost hysterically.

A week after the cabinet's release when the data had finally reduced to only a trickle, Hermione successfully pried herself away from her computer terminal and assaulted Harry in his office, then she dragged him all the way back to her bedroom and had her way with him.

The next morning had the both of them wake up with goofy smiles on their faces. “That was totally worth waiting for.” They said at the same time, gave each other surprised looks, then laughed and laughed.

Harry had just stepped out of Hermione's room after having a shower when Luna assaulted him and dragged him to her own room. Thanks to his previous experience, Harry did not disappoint her. She also was a shameless cuddler and didn't let him go until the next day.

Harry was prepared for it when he stepped out of Luna's room and Susan seemed to appear out of nowhere. He didn't protest and let her drag him back to her own room. Unlike Luna, Susan knew what she was doing and what she wanted done to her, so Harry had an easier time getting her off. They also played around a lot and enjoyed it.

Harry was resigned to what was going to happen next as he stepped out of Susan's room the next morning. He didn't bother asking Ginny why they had all decided that this week was the right time for them to all start making children with him. She only assaulted him a little bit before she dragged him away to her room.

When Harry left her room the next day, Ginny was blissfully stunned at having a perfect lovemaking session with the man she had been deeply in love with since she was a little girl.

*

After a very lengthy negotiation session with the Centaurs and their entire herd, a large spot was cleared of all trees, rocks, and anything else. The place was completely flattened and an enchanted muggle paving machine was run over the whole area that ended up being 1,200 feet long and almost 400 feet wide.

When it was finished, a massive construction project that had been years in the making had finally begun. It was the very first United Magical Beings spaceship based on the USS Voyager, a Starfleet Intrepid Class starship. It's name would be the UMB Exodus.

*

Six years and billions of dollars worth of gold later, Harry, Luna, and all of their friends finalized the last bit of magical technology that they would need to make the survival of the magical world a real possibility.

An actual working replicator.

It had taken some tricky conjuration and transfiguration to make some of the initial parts; but, once you had one, replicating the parts to make another was easy. So, that's what they did.

By the time the created parts started to break down and disappear from the first one, they had already made another replicator and replaced those parts in the original. With two replicators, they made the parts to create two more replicators. With those... on and on it went.

Production of materials became as simple as pushing a button and it was nearly instantaneous. Since it was powered by magic, there was no drain on the other systems when it was installed in their living spaces. They could be easily moved around and installed on the ship when it was finished, which would speed up significantly now with replicators.

The ship was only a bare frame at the moment and would only take another few years to complete, now that they could work on creating the engineering systems and items that had been a bit beyond their regular means. This was where Harry's eidetic memory really shone as he inputted the patterns he had memorized years ago and couldn't use until he recreated the technology needed to utilize them.

*

A year later, the information campaign started to let everyone know about the declining magical spaces in the world and how magic itself was starting to falter as the muggles spread out and took over and destroyed more and more environments.

Because the magicals in the entire world were outnumbered 2,500 to 1 and it was only growing worse each day, there was no way for them to fight against the eventual loss of the Statute of Secrecy. So, an outrageous plan had been concocted by the Boy-Who-Lived to save everything magical in the world and construction of a Magical Ark had been nearly completed.

Because it had been created using magical technology and enchanted, the inside had each of the rooms expanded to a massive size. There was plenty of room for everyone that wanted to go on the grandest adventure of all time with the Boy-Who-Lived and his friends. To find a new world for them to live on.

With wizards, witches, house elves, goblins, centaurs, merpeople, and all kinds of magical creatures in their own specially recreated magical environments, they could all travel in comfort to a new place that they could claim for their very own. For free. No one would be charged anything, because the extremely rich Boy-Who-Lived would pay for everything.

Of course, the British Ministry of Magic immediately banned all advertisements and knowledge of such a thing, which just made it all the more tempting for everyone to look into it. Thanks to their communications devices, each of them had instant access to the files and information that Hermione had made available.

All around the world, various magizoologists had been hired, including Xenophilius Lovegood, to hunt down as many creatures as they could and they were to make them the same offer of a safe environment to travel in, free food forever, and to save their species from extinction. Those that chose not to go, were asked to provide blood and tissue samples, just so they could remember them.

The creatures that didn't have enough intelligence to make a decision, were carefully gathered up and taken anyway. Since they were run by their baser instincts, a change of environment wouldn't be too big of a shock to them, as long as they had food to eat and a warm place to sleep.

Harry didn't limit them to only magical animals and plants, though. They needed to bring along some of everything they would ever need, just in case the stored patterns were somehow lost or damaged, despite the multiple failsafes installed to prevent that. Because of their technomancy advances, getting samples from many exotic animals was almost child's play and the muggles never suspected a thing.

At one point, the Weasley Twins made a joke about cleaning out one of the muggle stores using their transport technology and Harry thought it was a wonderful idea. Everyone laughed until Harry arranged to buy out an entire grocery store and then transported everything up into the main cargo bay in a single beam and everything was still on the shelves.

“Well?” Harry waved at the massive amount of grocery items. “Get to sorting everything out and help Hermione and our kids enter everything into the replicators. We need that data!”

Hermione made a growling sound in her throat and grabbed Harry's head and kissed him, hard. “You are giving me another son tonight.”

“Y-yes, dear.” Harry said with a blush.

Hermione looked satisfied and ran over to the closest shelf and started cataloguing everything. Their two bushy-haired daughters giggled madly as they helped themselves to some of the muggle candy after it had been scanned and the patterns recorded.

*

Not surprisingly, the majority of the pureblood families believed that it was a fool's errand to believe that their world was coming to an end and that leaving would cause the end of their world. That wasn't why they objected, however. If they allowed everyone who wanted to leave to actually leave, there would be no one left for them to rule over.

Several laws were soon passed to stop anyone from signing up for the Ark. Those in charge did not realize that no one had to. If you wanted to leave, you sent a discreet message to a specific address and that was that. There were no set requirements, no family obligations, and no restrictions. If you wanted to live, all you had to do was agree to be picked up when it was time.

To Harry Potter's surprise, Narcissa Malfoy sent a message to be picked up and there was no plus one, which meant she intended to leave her son behind, because he was too much like his father. She did ask to include her house elf, which Harry readily accepted. All magical beings were welcome, especially if they were going to help take care of the passengers.

On the day the ship launched, over two million magical people around the world disappeared from where they were, as did their belongings, and they were beamed aboard the UMB Exodus into specific areas from their region. As previously stated, they were not going to lose their sense of identity. If they wanted to stay segregated from other magicals from different nations, that was their choice.

All of the new passengers were shocked at the massively expansive ship and how much room was actually on it. They were shown where their living quarters were and where the various zoos were located. Several guides were appointed to lead them to their quarters and everyone quickly settled into their new existences.

Various viewscreens around the ship activated and all of the passengers watched as the ship that had only been travelling inside Earth's atmosphere, slowly rose out of the embrace of the planet Earth and into space. Most of them were shocked by the view, because it went against everything they believed. No one could leave the planet, because no other planet existed.

When the UMB Exodus flew past the moon to take them outside the elliptical of the solar system, several thousand women fainted. They had only ever seen the moon through a telescope, so seeing it pass by the ship, was too much of a shock for them.

“Medical personnel, check the passengers.” Harry ordered and clicked off the communication device. “Helm, bring us about when we pass the Lagrange Point. Tactical, initiate the dimensional focusing device.”

“Aye, captain.” The Creevy brothers said and both orders were completed promptly.

“All right, people.” Harry said and tapped the communication device to send to all personnel on the ship, crew and passenger both. “This is Captain Potter speaking.”

“The Man-Who-Saved-Us-All.” The bridge crew said as one.

Harry chuckled. “I wanted to announce our first foray into another dimension. The transition itself should only shake us a little, so grab onto something. We'll scan the local area for a possible world for us to settle on. If it's not suitable, we will rest and recharge for a few hours and try again. We expect only a few tries to find a suitable world that we can use and we should find somewhere by the end of the day.”

A cheer came back over the receivers.

“Dragon handlers, you've got the most important job. Keep them from jostling and the eggs safe.” Harry said and received an affirmative from the enclosure. “All right, Dennis. Let's try the first set of coordinates.”

“Yes, sir.” Dennis said and entered the first set into the emitter. A bright beam exited the deflector dish and created a quantum singularity and it was blue, unlike what it had been going into fluidic space.

“Helm, take us in. Let's see what's out there.” Harry said and leaned back in his command chair as he ended the shipwide broadcast.

Luna adjusted the Sorting Hat on her head before she leaned over from her First Officer chair and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek. “You did it, Harry.”

“No, we did it.” Harry corrected her. “You, me, our friends, and everyone else that helped on this monumental project.”

“You can't spread the blame that far, Harry.” Susan said from the other chair. “This was all your fault.”

Harry chuckled as the ship neared the singularity. “All right, I'll accept the blame that only the deadwood was left behind. We brought everyone that wanted to live more than they wanted to control everything else.”

“Just like the best leaders should.” Hermione's voice said over the ship's intercom. “Do you want me to give you the numbers of how long the remains are going to survive without most of us there?”

“Less than five years.” Harry said and heard her surprised gasp.

“How did you know that?” Hermione asked.

“That's the date of the third world war in the historical records I memorized.” Harry said and everyone on the bridge stared at him. “I couldn't say anything because of the Temporal Prime Directive. If anyone, especially the muggleborn, let the muggles that weren't coming with us know that they were going to suffer a nuclear war, it could have changed everything.”

“You... you let an entire planet...” Hermione whispered.

“No, dear. I didn't.” Harry interrupted before she said 'die'. “All I ensured was that history happened exactly how the records said it was supposed to happen. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“You really did want to save as many people as possible.” Susan said from beside him.

“Yes, which was why I did one last check of the magical enrolment books from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, Mahoutokoro, Uagadou, Castelobruxo, and Ilvermorny just before we lifted off. The other five schools were too small and didn't have official registries.” Harry said. “The scary thing was that there were no new births registered.”

“Oh... oh, my.” Hermione's voice said.

“Yes, we left just in time and we brought all of the muggles with us that were ever going to have magical children.” Harry said. “Which means, we are it. It's all on us.”

“No pressure or anything.” Fred said from the science station.

“Just the fate of our entire species and way of life.” George said.

Harry laughed and waved at the screen as the ship entered the large blue rift. “We did everything we could in what little time we had. All we can do now is make sure we all do our best to keep ourselves and our friends alive.”

“Amen to that.” Someone said and they all nodded.

The UMB Exodus flew into the rift and disappeared, never to return. No records of anything magical would ever be found by historians, just as it had always been and always would be.