FIC: Xerosis -- Chapter Seven, Part One -- T -- Voldemort/Harry

[batsutousai]

Title: Xerosis
Author: batsutousai
Beta: tsuki_no_suzu & magickmaker17
Rating: T
Pairings: Voldemort/Harry (post-Harry/Ginny)
Warnings: SLASH, AU, character death, super!Harry, Dark!Harry
Summary: Harry's world ends at the hands of those he'd once fought to save. An adult-Harry goes back to his younger self fic. Super!Harry

Disclaim Her: So... usually my chapter titles are stolen from song lyrics – I have this long document on my computer with two to six word phrases from songs I listen to and I just pick something from that list – but this title was inspired by something Penelope Garcia quoted in Criminal Minds – I'm only a little obsessed – and it just... It was awesome. I kind of want to use the whole quote somewhere in this fic, 'cause it's just that awesome.
Erm... /CM gush

A/N: Responses below to some questions I got multiple times:

Muggle/Mundane killings not wise: No, killing a group here or a group there isn't really the brightest idea Harry's ever had, but he's not at his most sane, either, you'll have to recall, and he's working with Voldemort, who also isn't all that sane. A lot of the person-by-person killing is based on simple bloodlust or because that's how the Death Eaters and Harry's groups have worked in the past. They're guerrilla fighters. (And for the suggestions I heard, I've seen those before in other fics, so I'm leery of using them and getting called out for stealing ideas. Especially since I know an author personally who used one of them.)
Also, you have to keep in mind that the normal members of society would never have been willing to fight back against the mundanes without some proof of what they're capable of. So letting them find out about the magical world and start fighting back was something of a necessary evil, even if it does paint a giant target on their society's back.

Harry/Luna? Jesus, people. Harry and Luna are friends, not potential lovers, for all that they're insanely close. Harry honestly has no thoughts towards romance at this point in time, and Luna is a bit young to think much about it.
And the related question: When's the HP/LV(TMR) happening? When the boys are good and ready. It's not in their characters to jump right in, and they've both got other things on their plates. When it happens, it'll be largely by mistake. There will likely be some angst. Yadda, yadda... XD

-0-0-0-
Born From Conflict
-0-0-0-


"You awake?" Terry asked through Harry's curtains.

Harry moaned faintly but reached up and tugged one side of his curtains open, covering his eyes from the expected afternoon sunlight. "Afternoon, Terry," he mumbled, peeking at his friend from between two fingers.

"At least you know what time it is," Lillian retorted from the doorway.

Harry frowned a bit; the Slytherins weren't supposed to arrive until the end of the hour. "What's the time?"

"It's almost three. Loony made us wait," Lillian reported.

"Oh for– Moon, get out of our dorm!" Anthony Goldstein complained.

Harry scrambled out of bed, grabbing his glasses and jamming them on his face on the way. "Anthony, you're okay!" he realised. He felt a little guilty for not having worried more for his roommate, considering he'd known that his house had been near the first explosion.

Anthony gave Harry a tired look. "Yeah. I was out of the house when the explosion happened."

"Wait, you lived near one of the explosions?" Lillian asked, her haughty expression fading.

"His house is two over from where the first explosion started," Harry offered. "What about your mum? Was she out with you, or–?"

"She's dead," Anthony reported in a bit of a monotone. "I'm a ward of the Ministry while they attempt to get my father to take me in."

Harry ground his teeth together, familiar enough with the Ministry's ward system to know it was not good for a kid who'd just lost his only real parent; after his kids had left the house, he and Ginny had occasionally hosted a ward or two while the Ministry tried finding a family for them, and the whole process was a lot of hell and bureaucratic nonsense. They'd always tried their best to provide everything they could for their wards, but most of them had just lost everything and tended to close in on themselves. It didn't help that some families hosted wards and then treated them poorly because of their emotional pain or who their parents were. And since everyone who kept wards were volunteers, the Ministry didn't really check up on them beyond making sure they had the financial stability to care for a child.

"How is your ward family?" Harry had to ask.

Anthony's face blanked. "They're fine."

Harry and Terry traded knowing looks. Harry would have to write to Sirius and see if his godfather was willing to host Anthony until they could find a new home for him.

Lillian sighed. "Harry, Loony said you wanted to talk to all of us?"

"I did?" Harry blinked and scratched at his head. "Oh, right. Where's everyone else?"

"Your other mudblood and the cowardly lion didn't want to chance getting caught in the Ravenclaw dorms."

Terry rolled his eyes at Lillian's terms for everyone. "They're going to meet us in the library. Li and Luna are waiting downstairs. Unlike some purebloods I know." He shot Lillian a dark look.

Lillian smirked back.

"You lot are ridiculous," Harry declared, summoning a set of school robes from his trunk. "Lil, go downstairs so I can change."

"Ooh." Lillian wiggled her eyebrows, then slipped from the room.

Harry rolled his eyes and got changed while Terry chuckled, then the two boys wandered downstairs to meet the girls. Luna immediately fell in on his right while Terry and Li gathered together to continue an apparently interrupted discussion about Li's summer visit to China.

Lillian moved to walk on Harry's left, wondering, "Are you going to tell them?"

Harry glanced at her and shrugged. "Maybe. I'm a little worried about how many of you already know, admittedly."

"I won't tell anyone," Lillian complained. "And I doubt the mudblood or Longbottom will, either."

"It's not a matter of intent," Harry replied. "Snape and Dumbledore are both Legilimens. Dumbledore, for the most part, respects personal boundaries, but Snape has a tendency of trying a bit of Legilimency when he's ticked off." He smiled at Lillian's scandalised expression. "Neville is probably best off, since he never meets Snape's eyes, but the rest of you will have to be careful."

"What about Loony?" Lillian wondered, glancing at Luna.

Luna smiled at her a bit absently while Harry chuckled. "Luna is fine."

The library was, expectedly, quite empty. Madam Pince watched them suspiciously from her desk as Terry and Li led the way through the stacks to the back corner that Hermione and Neville had settled into. As soon as they arrived, Hermione was up and drawing Harry into a hug. "Is everything okay?" she asked, considering Harry with concern. "Luna said you got here and immediately went to bed–"

Harry chuckled and smoothed some hair out of Hermione's face. "I'm fine, Hermione. I just didn't get much sleep last night." He gently turned her towards the table she and Neville had picked out. "Hey, Neville. How's life?"

Neville smiled at him as everyone took seats around the table. "Fine. I don't suppose you know why we had to find an alternative way to get to Hogwarts?" At Harry's raised eyebrow, he added, "It wasn't specified in the letters."

"Huh." Harry shrugged and relaxed back in his chair, silently casting a silencing ward around their table. "Yeah, there was a bomb threat at King's Cross. It was decided that using the old system for getting to the school was easier than working around a bomb."

"A bomb threat?" Hermione repeated, concern creasing her brow.

"What is it with muggles and explosions?" Lillian complained. "Every time I turned around this summer they'd gone and set another one."

"What is it with Death Eaters and the Unforgivables?" Terry returned.

"Are you comparing Death Eaters to muggles?" Lillian demanded.

Harry rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Can we not have this argument right now?"

Lillian and Terry looked down at the table, pictures of shame, and chorused, "Sorry, Harry."

Li let out a polite little cough. "Luna said you had something to ask us?"

Harry shot Luna a fond look, then straightened in his seat. "Call it a project, if you will," he offered. "I'm trying to figure out how to get a wizard or witch up in space. Preferably without going through a mundane government."

There was a moment's pause, then:

"Space? Who would want to go up there?" from Lillian.

"Could we hijack a rocket?" from Terry.

"Any particular reason why?" from both Hermione and Li.

"The Usagi Tsuki that lives on the moon might help," from Luna.

Harry blinked at them for a moment, then burst out laughing. It took him a moment to calm down, only to start laughing again when he saw their wounded expressions. Finally, forcing himself to look at the table, he offered, "I'm sorry," between snickers.

Neville, the only one not sporting a hurt – or, in Luna's case, vaguely constipated – look, asked, "Why are you asking?"

Harry glanced up, frowning slightly. "Myself and an... acquaintance of mine have some plans to keep the mundanes from using their satellites in orbit around the planet to find Hogwarts."

"They could do that?" Lillian whispered.

"Yes," Harry said with such certainty that Lillian, Hermione and Neville traded sharp looks. "The wards on the school only have a range of about six hundred metres. Any cameras or people looking down on Hogwarts beyond that can see exactly what we would see close." Harry thought for a moment, then added, "Aeroplanes are also a concern, I suppose, but none of them fly over this area because the magic interference tends to cause them to crash."

They were all silent for a long moment, then Li cautiously wondered, "What does getting into space have to do with this?"

"My acquaintance and I have some additions to the wards which should boost their strength a bit and also link in a series of runes which – when carved onto the side of a satellite – will only record what we want it to record."

"But you'll have to get into space to carve the runes on the satellite," Hermione deduced, frowning in thought. "I don't think we'd get away with stealing a rocket, not with the training anyone riding in it would need..."

"My thoughts exactly," Harry agreed, leaning forward over the table. "Tom – my acquaintance – suggested some form of apparation, but you'd need line of sight for that sort of uncertainly in landing position, so that's likely out."

"What about a space suit?" Terry wondered. "I mean, sure, a bubblehead charm would be a must, but that only gives you air. You'd need something protective to travel in a vacuum, right?"

"And you'd need some training in moving in zero-G," Luna helpfully agreed.

The purebloods gave the odd girl vacant looks while the others around the table all considered her somewhat disbelievingly. Some of the things Luna knew – raised as a pureblood as she was – were completely inexplicable.

"What's 'zero-G'?" Neville requested.

"Zero gravity," Li offered. "There is nothing really to pull you to the ground out there. You would need some sort of propulsion on top of any zero-G training, though," she added, looking back at Harry.

Harry nodded and pulled a small notebook out of his pocket to scribble notes in. "I know of a room that could probably simulate zero-G in the castle, and summoning charms could serve as a form of propulsion, I suppose. Lesser mass pulls to greater mass and all that."

"I hate it when you start talking muggle," Lillian complained.

"Sorry," Harry mumbled, continuing to scribble calculations in his notebook.

Hermione peeked over his left shoulder and her eyes widened at the complicated arithmetic. "Merlin's beard, Harry," she breathed. "I can't even follow half of that."

"I'm secretly a mathematical genius," Harry replied drily, pausing to chew on the end of his pencil stub before adding a few more lines. "Ugh." He snapped the book shut and stuffed it back into his pocket with the tiny pencil. "Fuck it–"

"Harry!" Hermione gasped while Terry grinned at his friend's language.

Harry rolled his eyes and patted Hermione's hand. "Line of sight would require something like ten jumps, depending on cloud-cover. Yes, I factored in gravity pull and atmospheric pressure at higher levels." He grimaced at the blank looks he was receiving. "Sorry. Uhm, anyway. It's not humanly possible for a wizard or witch to make it up there by apparation; the trip would be too draining. Maybe a group of wizards, but more people adds more mass, which requires more magic..." He shook his head.

Luna patted his arm sympathetically. "We'll just have to find another way."

"Hn."

Terry cleared his throat. "What about a broom?"

"Brooms can't make it to space," Hermione replied flatly.

"The brooms on the market now can't make it to space," Harry corrected, pulling his notebook and pencil stub out again. "But if you drop these spells and... maybe use this spells instead... No, what if... And..."

"You're thinking out loud," Luna helpfully pointed out.

Harry paused for a moment to wave a hand at her, then continued scribbling away notes, muttering under his breath.

"He is a bit scary," Li whispered, watching their friend. Harry had always done his homework, sure, but she'd never seen him so excited about something before. Occasionally, when working on Runes or Arithmancy, his eyes would light up with pleasure, but for most things he just looked sort of bored, as if he knew everything they were being taught already.

"Ha!" Harry finally sat back and grinned around the table. "I think I've got it. I'll have to test it out a bit. Maybe I'll order a couple of Firebolts and play with them."

Terry whimpered. "You're going to ruin perfectly good brooms?"

Harry blinked at him. "Yes?"

"It must be nice to be rich," Li muttered.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'll put them back the way I got them when I'm done. The spells they come with are easy, anyway." He waved his hand negligently, ignoring their disbelieving looks; he had, after all, made a hobby of playing with his old Firebolt when the Thunderbolt came out ten years after the end of the war with Voldemort. He could probably take a Firebolt apart and put it back together again in his sleep. Could probably manage a Thunderbolt, too, though Ginny had never let him pick that broom apart, even when better brooms hit the market shortly before her death.

Luna touched his upper arm. "It's getting on to dinnertime," she mentioned.

Harry pulled out his pocket watch and grimaced at the time. "Oh. Thanks, Luna." He pocketed his notebook and the watch again and smiled at the slightly incredulous looks still being thrown his way. "I'll probably spend the next two days before classes working on that broom, assuming my new brooms arrive in time. Did you guys want to come with me next weekend to play in zero-G?"

Everyone's eyes lit up at the prospect, though Neville looked a little uncertain, due to his fear of flying. "Can we really?" Terry asked.

"Yeah, sure," Harry agreed, standing. "We can meet after lunch and I'll show you the Room of Requirement."

"The whats-it?" Hermione asked, blinking.

"Next weekend," Harry promised, taking his silencing ward down.

"Does this mean we'll get to go out into space with you?" Terry asked hopefully.

Harry blinked, considered the expression Voldemort would wear when he found out Harry wanted to take his friends with him out into space, then said, "Sure. Should be fun."

Terry let out a whoop and hurried forward to throw an arm around Harry's shoulders. "Have I ever told you how absolutely awesome you are?"

"Not recently," Harry replied with a smile.

Hermione cleared her throat and gave Harry a stern look. "When, exactly, would this grand adventure occur?"

Harry shrugged. "On a weekend? We should be able to fit it."

"And if not?" the bookish Gryffindor demanded.

Harry slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled his time-turner out just enough so she could see it, then slipped it back inside while Hermione froze in her tracks, eyes wide.

"What was that?" Terry whispered as the others crowded around Harry, forcing him to stop, as they all wanted to see his shocking toy.

Harry rolled his eyes and, ensuring there weren't any portraits around, pulled the time-turner out properly. "Time-turner."

"You should not have one of those," Li whispered as Hermione joined them again and lightly punched Harry's shoulder.

Harry gave her a wounded look. "What was that for?"

" 'Don't forget to put aside a couple hours for sleep, Hermione'," Hermione replied, repeating something Harry had told her often in their third year. " 'Don't go wasting all those extra hours on school work, Hermione'."

Harry grinned, slipping his stolen toy back into his pocket. "You'd have flipped out if I straight-out told you to use your time-turner to get a few hours extra sleep."

"You had a time-turner?" Neville asked Hermione. "When?"

"Third year," Hermione admitted, flushing a bit.

"That's how you made it to all those classes!" Lillian complained. "Granger, that it so cheating!"

Harry chuckled. "McGonagall was the one who gave it to her, during the Sorting. She gave it back at the end of the year, though, once we talked her into dropping some of her classes."

"You knew the entire time," Hermione realised.

"Yup."

Li cleared her throat. "You are not taking extra classes, Harry. Why do you have one?"

"He stole it," Luna reported.

"Don't say it like that," Harry complained while everyone else except Lillian chastised him. "I liberated it from its life on a shelf, collecting dust." He paused, then corrected, "Okay, not dust; sand imbued with time. But, still."

"You actually stole from the Department of Mysteries," Lillian commented, impressed. "That takes someone truly suicidal to pull it off."

"I'm not suicidal," Harry complained.

"Dinner," Luna helpfully reminded everyone.

They started back out again, the Gryffindors and other Ravenclaws shooting Harry occasional disapproving looks. He just rolled his eyes at them.

Just before they reached the doors into the Great Hall, Hermione stopped him, and the others stopped with them, curious. "Harry, have you considered saving people from those bombings?"

Harry shrugged. "I've tried, sure. Tried completely stopping one bomb, but it still went off. It was how I found out about the bomb at King's Cross."

That got the others to all consider him with new eyes. "If you did not have that... If you did not, we would all be dead, would we not?" Li realised, carefully avoiding mentioning the time-turner by name.

Harry offered her a grim smile. "Yes."

Li leaned forward and hugged him, whispering, "Thank you."

Harry smiled and gently wiped away a tear trailing down her cheek. "Hey, I'm Harry Potter; it's my job to save people."

They all let out a weak laugh at that.

Hermione shook her head. "Harry, what if you..." She glanced over her shoulder to the open doors into the Hall. "Don't try stopping the bombs, just protect the people. Like what you did at King's Cross."

Harry blinked once, twice, then his eyes widened in understanding. "Bloody–" He smacked himself. "Potter, you idiot."

That got another round of weak laughter.

"Why aren't you seven in the Great Hall?" Snape hissed as he stalked up towards them from the direction of the dungeons.

Harry and his friends traded looks, then turned and dashed inside. Only Lillian walked calmly, although even she moved a little quicker than she otherwise might have to avoid her Head of House's wrath.

Harry took his usual seat at the Ravenclaw Table with Luna on his right and Li and Terry sitting across from him. They all took a moment to trade greetings with their housemates, enquiring after summers and falling silent only when McGonagall led the new first years in, covered in soot as they were.

It was going to be an interesting year.

-0-

"So, I know you said you'd figured everything out, but how are you planning to keep from burning up in the atmosphere?" Terry asked as he and Harry's other friends joined himself and Luna over by the lake. Harry was working on the spells for the new brooms that were supposed to be arriving by lunch while Luna was playing with the giant squid.

"That's a good question," Hermione pointed out, settling down comfortably on Harry's left side and peeking at his notes.

"Terry suggested a space suit," Harry commented, handing the notebook over to his friend with a smile. "I could work some protective spells into the suit to keep it from burning up in the atmosphere. Might have to test it a couple of times, but once I've got the spell right, I can add it to a broom." He paused, cocked his head to one side, then said, "Or maybe an amulet with a proximity ward? Here, Hermione, hand me that back..."

Hermione shook her head and handed the notebook back. "Do you ever write in just one language?" she wondered. She'd once heard Terry complaining about being unable to read Harry's class notes because they were in about four different languages, only two of which Terry understood.

"Should I?" Harry wondered absently. "Knowing multiple languages is good for spell creation. Latin doesn't always have the right words for what you're looking for."

"That doesn't explain why you write in so many different languages," Terry pointed out.

"So I don't lose my skills, to some extent," Harry replied, which was at least partially the truth. He was incapable of forgetting the things he learned through sucking someone's soul, but anything he'd learned on his own through books or the help of Li, he could easily forget. Anyway, there was a difference between being able to speak a language and writing it, especially for languages like Mandarin or Arabic, which used different alphabets.

"Why does it matter?" Lillian wondered, giving the two muggleborns disgusted looks.

"It doesn't," Hermione retorted with a scowl. "It does make it hard to understand his notes, though."

"I'd like to see Snape blow a gasket because you turned in a paper written the way your notes usually go," Terry added, grinning. Hermione rolled her eyes while the others all chuckled.

Harry smiled at his roommate. "Yeah? I'd probably land myself a detention, but it could be fun. Might just do it if I'm feeling masochistic."

Neville shuddered. "To each their own form of personal torture," he offered.

"Snape does not really bother Harry, though," Li pointed out.

"Not for lack of trying," Terry added, shaking his head. "Practically every class he stands there and says degrading things about your person or your dad or Sirius and you just smile and keep right on working."

"Or write them down," Li agreed.

"He can insult Dad all he wants, if it makes him feel better," Harry replied, closing his notebook and turning his attention fully to his friends. "Dad and Siri and their friends were absolutely terrible to Snape when they were all in school, and as long as Snape leaves my mum out of things, I really don't care. It's just a load of hot air, anyway."

"What if he did mention your mum?" Neville wondered.

"That might be a show worth watching," Lillian commented, recalling how Harry had reacted to Morag's comment about Lily Potter last year. "Although, you'd probably get detention for a few months."

Harry grunted. "Snape won't say anything bad about my mum, he liked her too much. If he ever were to cross that line, however, I have all sorts of blackmail I can use against him that he doesn't even know I have."

"Like what?" Lillian wondered, wide-eyed and hopeful.

"You have blackmail on a professor?" Hermione whispered, half disapproving, half impressed.

Harry grinned. "I have blackmail on the headmaster, too."

"Harry," Hermione and Li breathed while Terry chimed in with, "Wicked."

Harry just grinned a bit wider.

"Any other professors you have blackmail on?" Lillian wondered.

"Sure. Trelawney, Hagrid, McGonagall..." Harry shrugged. "A minor bit on Flitwick. A couple of things on some of the ghosts, too, if you'll believe that."

"You are all kinds of scary," Neville decided.

"Why thank you, Neville."

Luna finally re-joined them, done throwing pebbles at the squid, and curled up against Harry's right side. "I wonder what it would be like to live on the moon," she offered.

"Live on the moon?" Hermione repeated, blinking.

"It must be nice, since the Usagi Tsuki lives up there," Luna agreed, then turn to look up into Harry's curious eyes. "Don't you think?"

"But for how long?" Harry wondered.

Before Luna could supply a response, they were interrupted by the arrival of six owls bearing three broom-shaped packages.

"You're going to ruin three Firebolts?" Terry squeaked as Harry disentangled himself from Luna to collect his order.

"I'm not going to ruin anything," Harry complained, taking out one of the brooms and retaking his seat between Luna and Hermione. "I'll put it back when I'm done."

"I think I'm going to faint," Terry complained.

"How about you just die, instead?" Morag wondered as she stepped up behind Lillian with Millicent and Tracey. "Lil, we've been wondering where you got off to."

"Potter, what are you doing to that broom?" Tracey asked as Harry started waving his wand over the bristles of the broom.

"Reminding myself what spells are on it," Harry replied distractedly.

"We're watching Harry take apart a Firebolt while Boot has concurrent heart attacks," Lillian offered her friends. "It's a lot of fun, if you wanted to join us."

"You're taking apart the spells on a Firebolt?" Tracey demanded. "Potter, are you insane?"

"I thought that was obvious," Morag quipped. "We've always known he was mad as a hatter."

"But..." Tracey shot Morag a wide-eyed look. "It's a Firebolt, Morag! It's only the best broom on the market!"

"For another ten years or so," Harry offered idly. "And I can boost the speed on this thing easily."

Tracey sniffed. "Lies."

Harry's eyes lit with an unholy light. "Yeah? Wanna test it?"

Tracey narrowed her eyes. "Test it how, Potter?"

"A simple race. Unless you're chicken?"

"I don't have a Firebolt with which to race," Tracey replied with a sniff.

Harry's group of friends helpfully pointed to the two unopened broom boxes. "Harry ordered three," Li offered, "and the other two are still in their boxes."

"You're ruining three Firebolts!" Tracey complained.

"Where have I heard this before?" Harry wondered rhetorically, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Davis, if you're too scared–"

"I'm not scared of some over-inflated half-blood!" Tracey spat, stalking over to the broom boxes and pulling one out. "Name your course."

Harry smiled, pleased with himself, and quickly cast his spell to boost the speed on the broom before climbing to his feet. "Once around the castle? First one back here is the winner."

"Should we get a professor?" Li wondered helplessly as Harry smiled and Tracey glared.

"Agreed," Tracey replied, holding out her hand to shake on it.

"Too late," Neville offered.

"I don't think I can watch this," Hermione whispered, covering her eyes. "Harry, for my sake, come back in one piece!" she called as the two racers mounted their brooms.

"Hermione, for you, I'll even return with my pride intact," he teased. "Hey, Lil, want to give us the call to go?"

Lillian sighed and climbed to her feet. "Oh, fine. Don't kill each other."

"Hey, I'm a Ravenclaw!" Harry complained. "If you're worried about foul play, look at her."

Lillian gave Harry an unimpressed look. "Don't even start with me." Harry just grinned at her. "On my mark... GO!"

Harry and Tracey both shot off into the air. In the moments it took them to fly out of sight behind the castle, the watching students could already see that Harry's broom had gained ground against Tracey's.

"Bets on who's going to win this one?" Terry wondered.

"Harry," came the unanimous response, even from Millicent and Morag.

"But it's a Firebolt," Terry pointed out.

Lillian rolled her eyes. "Boot, honestly, get a clue. If Harry says he can make the broom faster, he can."

"He's an evil, clinically insane, genius," Morag added.

"Harry's not evil," Hermione complained.

Morag snorted. "You cannot be that blind."

"He's not evil," Lillian agreed. "His moral compass is just slightly more out of whack than your average fifteen-year-old." She shrugged at Morag's disbelieving look. "What? You deserved it."

"I did–" Morag let out an angry noise. "He doesn't care if we call them–" she jerked her thumb at a staring Hermione and Terry, "–mudbloods. How was I supposed to know he was a mum's boy? It's not like he ever knew her."

"Harry remembers his mum sacrificing her life for him," Neville quietly supplied.

Morag's mouth fell open in surprise, something like understanding flashing in her eyes. "Shit."

"You deserved it," Millicent helpfully offered.

"What did you do, anyway?" Terry wondered. "Something to do with his mum?"

"She implied she was a mudblood and that Potter was going to go crying to her grave 'cause he didn't like Morag calling her that," Millicent replied, shrugging at Morag's faintly betrayed look. "What? They asked."

"What did Harry do back?" Hermione wondered.

"What do you think he did, mudblood?" Morag spat. She could stand Potter, for all that he was insane, but she had no interest in dealing with his Light flunkies.

Hermione considered the other girl for a moment, then commented, "He cursed you. And not with a legal, fourth year spell."

"How did–?"

"They can be remarkably perceptive, these mudbloods," Lillian offered a bit drily.

Terry offered, "Harry's pretty good at playing the 'Light's Golden Boy,' I think the papers called him?" He glanced over at Li, who nodded, "But sometimes, he acts just that little bit off. When he gets angry – really angry, not that faintly irritated that he gets when Malfoy acts like a prat or Weasley gives him moon-eyes – he's a bit scary, like he might really kill you if you don't leave right that moment."

"We have only seen that once," Li supplied. "When one of the upper years said something nasty to me about my accent, and Harry came to my defence. He was not angry with us, but it is scary even when he is protecting you, his anger."

"It's worse when you're on the receiving end," Neville offered quietly. "Everything gets really cold and the world suddenly seems so hopeless and large and there's nothing you can do. It's like, standing on the train tracks and knowing that if you don't move, you're going to die, but you know there's no way you could move and you've just got to hope the train can stop in time."

Morag nodded, remembering the way those cold, heartless eyes had looked at her as the pain had gotten worse. She didn't remember being suddenly cold, to be honest, but she remembered looking into those cold green eyes and knowing, without a doubt, that he could have killed her at that moment and there was nothing she could have done to stop him. She had no interest in seeing a boggart again, because she knew what it would turn into: those eyes.

"Look," Luna recalled their attention to the near side of the building where a dark form was just coming into view.

Hermione gave a quiet whimper and closed her eyes. "Too fast," she complained.

Terry stood up, eyes riveted to Harry's form as he zipped past them and over the lake, sending up jets of water to either side due to his speed. "Wicked," the Ravenclaw whispered.

Tracey finally came into view, going fast, but nowhere near as fast as Harry's broom, which he was looping back around at a much more reasonable speed. Tracey reached them again first and hopped off the broom next to Morag, breathing hard.

"You okay?" Morag wondered as Harry finally reached them and hopped off with a mad grin splitting his cheeks.

"How could you even control that thing?" Tracey demanded of the Ravenclaw. "I had enough trouble with a Firebolt at its top speed."

"I've ridden a Firebolt before," Harry admitted, shrugging. "It takes some practise to control it, yeah, but once you're familiar with it, it's not so hard."

"But you controlled that thing easily, too," Tracey complained. "You did bloody loops around me."

Harry's grin widened a bit more, remembering the loops he'd done around her at the far end of the castle, teasing her about how slow she was going. "Someone's got to remind you purebloods that you're not the best in the world just because you can trace magic back through your family tree seven generations, or whatever."

"I don't–"

"Yeah, you do," Millicent chimed in before Tracey could deny anything. "You do it to me, sometimes."

Tracey had the sense to look a little ashamed at that. "Sorry, Millie."

Millicent shrugged. "I know you don't mean anything by it, but sometimes you and Morag and Lil get into that ridiculous debate about whose family is purest. Never mind that you're all related!"

The three girls all grimaced a bit while everyone else laughed at their expense, and for that moment, it didn't matter that they didn't always get on with one another, they were almost friends in that moment.

"So you can make the Firebolt go faster," Tracey finally broke in, considering Harry with something that might have been respect, "what else can you do?"

"Lil did say you're a genius," Millicent added with a smile.

Lillian flushed and ducked her head when Harry turned to grin at her. "Thanks, Millie."

Harry considered the broom in his hands for a moment, head cocked to one side, before he commented, "I could probably boost the cushioning charm, and maybe add some safety spells to avoid whiplash..." He grimaced a bit and the others shared some quiet laughter at his expense. "Oh, shut up, the lot of you," he grumbled, giving them an offended look, which earned him more pronounced laughter from his closest friends.

"Aren't there already safety spells for that built in?" Lillian wondered.

"They have a top speed," Tracey replied, nodding. "So boosting the speed will cause the safety spells to fail. Honestly, Potter, I'm sort of surprised you're still in one piece."

"Hmm. Potter Luck," Harry murmured, considering the broom in his hands with a serious air. "That is a shoddy safety spell, though. I mean, if they changed just a syllable, there wouldn't be a top speed..."

"So, can that broom get you into space?" Terry wondered, breaking into Harry's disgusted thoughts towards the broom makers.

"Space?" Morag repeated. "Potter, what the hell?"

"Don't start turning into a mudblood now, Potter," Tracey added, wrinkling her nose. "You were doing so well."

Harry snorted. "Mundanes are not the only people interested in going to space. Given, the few purebloods who have an interest know better than to say anything, but..." He turned to Terry. "Not quite. The speed could be boosted a bit more – okay, a lot more, if we intend to do this in a single weekend – not to mention the safety charms." He tossed the broom from one hand to the other, then added, "And it could use some strengthening charms, what with it going at faster speeds."

"Will a regular strengthening charm be enough?" Hermione wondered, frowning a bit. "I mean, it's just a stick of wood, and the speeds you'd need to get around the whole planet in two days..."

"Strengthening charms tied into a strong rune sequence," Harry replied, shrugging. "I'll need Tom's help for that, though."

"I would like to meet this 'Tom' of yours," Li commented. "He sounds rather..."

"Open-minded?" Neville offered when the Chinese witch found herself lost for words.

"Yes, that."

Harry blinked once, tried to think of Voldemort as 'open-minded', then burst out laughing.

"Why is he laughing?" Li asked Harry's other friends.

The others shrugged, but Luna helpfully offered, "Tom is not open-minded."

Harry snorted and covered his mouth, shaking his head. "Oh, dear Merlin, he is very much not open-minded. I'm still trying to sell him on the usefulness of mundane-borns."

Morag opened her mouth, glanced at Harry, then promptly shut it again.

"So Tom is a pureblood?" Terry assumed.

"Half-blood," Harry corrected with a shrug. "Mundane-raised. He has no love for them, but he tends to share the pureblood views on those of less-than-pure blood."

"He has less-than-pure blood," Hermione complained. "So do you, for that matter."

"So do Snape and Dumbledore," Harry agreed, smirking a bit at the surprised looks from his audience. "What? I told you I had dirt on Snape and the Headmaster."

"Do tell, Potter," Tracey purred, leaning up next to him.

"What, and let you ruin it when I finally need to have something to hold over their heads? Merlin, no." Harry rolled his eyes.

"That time might be sooner than you think," Lillian offered quietly, watching the front doors of the castle, where Dumbledore had just exited. His eyes were on Harry and his friends.

"Don't meet his eyes," Harry warned them all, completely serious, "unless you're secretly an Occlumens. And I'll explain what that is later," he added, seeing the curiosity in Terry, Li and Hermione's eyes. The purebloods and Millicent had all paled and turned quick eyes towards the approaching Headmaster before immediately turning their eyes away from him.

Harry handed his broom over to Tracey, who took it with wide eyes, then he stepped past his friends, pasting an easy smile on his face. "Lovely day for a stroll, isn't it, sir?" he called as soon as Dumbledore was in range.

"It rather is," Dumbledore agreed, coming to a stop in front of the bright-eyed teen. "Or a broom race, I saw."

Harry let out a nervous laugh and rubbed at the back of his head. "Oh, yeah, that. Well, I just got some new Firebolts – bit of a treat for myself and my friends, you know? – and Lil's friends came over to talk. Tracey sort of challenged me to a race, cause, you know, Ravenclaws always seem more interested in books that flying, so she didn't think I should have spent money on Firebolts. I had to prove her wrong." He nibbled briefly on his lip, a concerned look twisting his features. "Was that... we weren't breaking any rules or anything, were we, sir?"

Behind him, with his vampire-enhanced hearing, Harry heard Tracey whisper, "He is good."

Neville whispered back, "You have no idea."

Dumbledore smiled kindly at Harry and set a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong, my boy. Professor McGonagall was just a bit surprised to see you speeding past her window while she was grading." He leaned in conspiratorially. "Between you and myself, I think racing is an excellent way to handle House-related arguments."

Harry beamed. "Yes, sir!"

Dumbledore's eyes took a bit more of a serious cast to them. "I did have something else to discuss with you, my boy. Would you be willing to join an old man on a trek around our fine lake?"

Harry blinked innocently. "Are you sure you should be walking that far, sir? What if you get too tired on the far side?" he asked with concern.

Dumbledore chuckled. "I'm not quite that old yet, Harry."

Harry laughed a bit nervously and coloured. "Er, yeah. I didn't mean to sound insulting or anything, sir–"

"Think nothing of it, my boy."

Harry smiled and nodded. "Okay. I'd love to walk with you for a bit, but can I tell my friends, first? I don't want Lil and her friends to start saying you've kidnapped me or anything." He laughed a bit. "You know how Slytherins are always making stuff like that up."

"I completely understand. I'll walk over with you and we can continue from there, if that's okay with you?"

"Certainly, sir." Harry led the way over to his friends, smiling at them. "Hey, the Headmaster and I are going to walk around the lake a bit. Can I trust you lot not to kill each other?"

"If we get the urge, we'll just leave," Morag replied drily, the only one daring to look up and open her gaze to Dumbledore. Everyone kept their eyes averted, either having pulled out a book or looking over Harry's new brooms. Harry shot a jab of Legilimency at the dark Ravenclaw and was pleased to find Occlumency walls that repelled him. Morag's eyes widened ever so slightly at him.

"Okay," Harry agreed, smiling around at all of them. "Just make sure the brooms are safely put away?" Li and Terry nodded absently from behind their chosen distractions. "And, Morag, could you explain to them about that thing I mentioned?"

Morag sniffed. "If I feel like it," she shot back. "Unlike some eagles, I don't take any orders from you." She glanced pointedly at Li, Terry and Luna. Li and Terry shot her disgusted looks while Luna just smiled a bit absently, twirling a flower between two fingers.

"Okay," Harry replied cheerfully, motioning for the Headmaster to lead the way. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" he added over his shoulder as they moved past the tree they'd gathered around.

There was a chorus of strained laughter at that.

In the silence that continued as they moved around the edge of the lake, Harry heard Morag quietly explaining Occlumency and Legilimency to Harry's friends. Hermione and Li both let out exclamations of horrified surprise.

"I couldn't help but notice how you and my familiar reacted to one another yesterday," Dumbledore commented lightly, glancing at the teen out of the corner of his eye.

Harry blinked in confusion. "Your famili– Oh! The phoenix?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Fawkes. His song doesn't usually cause such a violent reaction." He offered Harry a slightly hopeful look.

Harry frowned a bit, as if he were trying to remember what he knew about phoenixes. In reality, he was quickly running back through the story he'd made up the night before. Finally, he uncertainly offered, "I... Well, I'm not certain. I remember reading that phoenix song can be most comforting to those with a pure heart, and, well..." He shrugged, putting on an uncomfortable face, "Well, I can remember my mum's dying moments, and after last year..." He swallowed and reached up to pull on some of his hair. "I... Sir," he looked up at Dumbledore, half pleading, half afraid, "is it... wrong, to hate him? Is it okay to hate someone so much, that you dream of making them scream?"

Dumbledore let out a quiet sigh and gently tugged Harry to a stop next to him. "Oh, my boy..." he whispered, gently touching Harry's shoulder.

Harry bowed his head and made a valiant attempt to sound as though he was fighting tears. "I– I can't m-make the dr-dreams s-stop-p..."

Dumbledore leaned over slightly, as if trying to see Harry's face, but the teen easily kept his face away from the old man, as if ashamed. "Harry, child, it is not wrong to dream of doing terrible things to our enemies, necessarily. As long as you never act on those dreams, you're still a good person at heart. The things you have been through... My boy, greater men have reached out to the darkness for revenge. As long as you try your best to embrace the light, your dreams will remain simply that: dreams. And dreams, my boy, will fade in time."

Harry reached up a hand and rubbed the sleeve of his robe across his dry eyes, then peeked out behind his hair, uncertain. "A-and your ph-phoenix?"

"I will talk to Fawkes," Dumbledore promised. "And the more you refuse those dark dreams, the less his song will hurt you, until that pain will be nothing but a memory long faded."

Harry put on a tremulous smile and nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Dumbledore gave him a fond smile. "I'll walk you back to your friends," he offered.

Harry nodded and they walked together back towards where Harry's friends – Morag and the Slytherins included – were still waiting for him. They all offered the Headmaster their greetings as the man left them, then turned to Harry as the man stepped out of range.

"What did he want?" Hermione asked, concerned.

"His phoenix reacted poorly to me yesterday," Harry explained with a groan as he lowered himself next to Luna, who immediately curled into his side. "He, understandably, wanted to know why."

"You didn't tell him the truth, though, did you?" Terry wondered.

"Do you even have any idea what the 'truth' might be, mudblood?" Lillian wondered a bit sharply.

Terry considered the Slytherin with dark eyes for a moment, then commented, "On the train, at the start of the summer, I gave Harry my brother's new address. A few weeks in, we got a call from the police; Jim was dead from cuts all over his body and a poorly executed castration." His eyes flicked towards Harry.

"It wasn't 'poorly executed'," Harry complained. "It's a spell which just removes the testicles of the victim. It just happens to require a healing charm afterwards to keep them from bleeding out."

There was a pause, then:

"You castrated him?" from a wide-eyed Li.

"Why do you even know a spell like that?" from Neville.

"Will you teach that spell to me?" from Morag, who had a slightly disturbing gleam in her eyes.

And, "...he sort of deserved it," from Hermione, which earned her some very odd looks from the Slytherins and Morag.

"It's a useful spell," Harry told Neville, then turned to Morag and added, "Maybe I'll teach it to you when you're older. It's a level four restricted spell, though."

"Level four?" Millicent asked.

When everyone else wore similar confused expression, Harry sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "There's five levels of restriction for spells. Level one is the absolute highest and is basically reserved just for the Unforgivable Curses. Unless you're given special dispensation by the Minister, using a level one spell will earn you a one-way pass to Azkaban. Level two spells tend to be darker spells that aren't quite as bad as the Unforgivables, but are still pretty deadly to use, such as torture curses. Level two spells are also only legal if the Minister gives his say-so, and using one without that okay will earn you fifty years in Azkaban.

"Level three spells are the ones that aurors can use in the field when taking out dark wizards, and usually only incapacitate, but can kill if used incorrectly; if you're not an auror, using one of those will earn you twenty-five years in Azkaban. Level four spells are those that are used by mediwizards and mediwitches during their practise, and if you don't have a license for using them from St Mungo's, they'll earn you twenty-five in Azkaban.

"The last, level five, are some of the more questionable spells that we'll be taught in advanced Defence classes. They can be used with probable cause, but just using it on your average bloke on the street – especially a mundane – will earn you a night in a Ministry holding cell and a hefty fine." Harry considered the purebloods for a moment as everyone processed the information, then asked, "You didn't know that?"

"It's Ministry terminology," Luna offered. "Normal people just know what's illegal and what's not."

"How many illegal spells do you know, Potter?" Tracey wondered, sounding more intrigued than upset.

"Know of, or know how to cast?" Harry replied.

"How to cast," Lillian insisted, recalling that her friend had been an auror and would likely know of most – if not all – of the illegal spells.

"Erm..." Harry considered that for a moment. "I know how to cast about... Oh, maybe sixty of them. The Castration Curse is the only level four spell I know," he added with a faint smile.

"How many of the level one spells can you cast?" Neville asked quietly.

Harry looked over at his friend, eyes blank. "Are you sure you want the answer to that, Neville?"

Neville swallowed and nodded. "Yes."

"I can cast all of them."

"You can cast the Killing Curse?" Millicent whispered as Neville buried a shaking hand in a robe pocket.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her.

"How many of them have you actually cast?" Morag demanded. When Harry turned to her, eyebrow still raised, she added, "Successfully, not just in practise."

"I have successfully cast all of them," Harry reported, shaking his head. To be fair, he'd only ever cast the Killing Curse during his first life, and the only successful usage of the Cruciatus had been during his current life, but they didn't need to know that.

There was a long moment of strained silence that Neville finally broke by clearing his throat, shaking hand still buried in his robe pocket. "You're an Occlumens?"

"Yes." Harry shrugged, then glanced at Morag, who narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm surprised to find that you are as well, Morag. It's notoriously difficult to learn before your magic and mind have settled after puberty."

"My mother started teaching me when I turned ten," the Dark Ravenclaw offered. "But you're a Legilimens as well as an Occlumens."

"You are?" Tracey whispered, eyes wide. "But, Morag, you said–"

"I'm something of a natural," Harry cut in, knowing very well that learning Legilimency before going through puberty was considered impossible, due to the delicate and invasive nature of the magic, which few children and even fewer teenagers had the finesse or will to work.

"There's no such thing as a natural Legilimens," Morag retorted drily. "And don't even try dumping your usual load of bollocks on me, Potter. Your fan club might fall for it, but I won't."

Harry smiled around at his 'fan club', who all rolled their eyes at the Ravenclaw girl. "I wasn't going to give you any bollocks. I've been able to guard my mind or read another's for as long as I can remember. The Dark Lord, who is accomplished at both, believes it's something he may have passed on to me accidentally when he tried killing me."

There was silence after that as those who hadn't known for sure that Harry was on good terms with Voldemort stared while those who had known considered the implications of the Dark Lord having passed that sort of magical gift on to an infant.

"So, wait, is that how you go–" Lillian choked on her words, then let out an angry sound. "Damnit, Harry! Did you have to cast that spell on us?"

"It was a precautionary measure," Harry replied, shrugging. "There were people I didn't trust at the table, and I don't take chances. Not with Dumbledore around."

"You really don't trust the old man, do you?" Millicent realised, intrigued.

"He has a lot to hide," Lillian grumbled.

"What is it this time?" Hermione complained, half hopeful, half irritated that there were still things about her friend that she didn't know.

"Come on, Potter, share with the class," Morag shot at him.

Harry smiled. "Hermione, you know how you were complaining about my usage of multiple languages in my notes?"

Hermione frowned. "Yeah."

Harry pulled his little book out of his pocket and flipped to a page written entirely in the written form of Parseltongue, which Tom had taught him somewhat accidently by lending him a book written in the language by Salazar Slytherin on Parsel spells. He handed the book over to Hermione, asking, "What language do you think that is?"

Hermione frowned at the page while Neville, Morag, Millicent and Tracey all crowded around the girl to see. "It's decorative squiggles, Harry," she complained.

Neville took the book carefully with his lightly-shaking hand. "I've seen this before," he murmured. "There was a healer at St Mungo's who used to write like this." He glanced up at Harry. "No one's ever been able to read his notes to discover what he was working on before he died."

"It's an actual language?" Hermione wondered.

"It's Parseltongue," Harry agreed, absently releasing Lillian, Terry and Li from the spell that had been holding their tongues. "I speak it."

There was a moment of stunned silence, then Neville held the book out, hand still shaking. "Here," he whispered.

Harry took both the book and Neville's hand, eyes sad. "I'm sorry," he offered and Neville smiled before drawing his hand away and hiding it again in his robes.

"I...heard a rumour," Millicent murmured, watching Harry behind long eye lashes.

"What sort of rumour?" Harry asked, smiling slightly at her, wondering. Of all of their parents, only Millicent's father was actually a Death Eater, for all that he married a half-blood.

"The new Dark Lord, Xerosis, is a Parselmouth," the girl said, still watching Harry. Her eyes widened when his smile got the slightest bit larger. "Oh," she breathed.

Lillian huffed. "I told you," she told her roommate.

Tracey and Morag looked between Millicent and Harry, eyes widening as they connected the dots. Tracey couldn't stop a squeak while Morag looked almost terrified.

"You are this... Xerosis?" Li asked, considering Harry with some shock and not a little fear.

"...my head hurts," Hermione complained, hiding her face in her hands.

Harry looked around at the group of teenagers, taking in their expressions of fear or horror, and stood. "I need to look a spell or two up in the library," he commented, waving his wand to gather the brooms together and bring them to hover at his shoulder. "I don't think I need to warn you to keep this to yourselves?" He smiled at them, but his eyes where hard and glowed with warning.

Shaken from their shock, the students all nodded.

Harry's eyes brightened and he looked down at Luna. "Would you like to remain, or come with me?"

Luna smiled a bit absently. "I am rather enjoying the breeze from the lake," she replied.

Harry shrugged and, taking her answer as a no, turned and started his way back into the school, greeting the Ravenclaw Quidditch team as he passed them on their way to the pitch. If they recognised his broom-sized boxes, they didn't mention them.

Only when he was sequestered in the back corner he favoured and privacy spells were up did Harry take a deep breath and let himself curse fate for bringing together the perfect combination of people that would cause him to bare almost all his secrets. The only one he hadn't shared with the group at large was his previous life, and he wasn't even sure how long that would remain a mystery, having never cast any sort of secrecy spell on his friends in a twisted moment of conscience.

"Harry Potter, you are an idiot," he told himself, then sighed and pushed away from the table. There were a couple of spells he wanted to look up for his spell work on the brooms, and there was no point in moping around, cursing what couldn't be changed. He had a people to save, and limited time to do it in.


-0-

Chapter Seven, Part Two

Chapters:
Pro - If We Could Only Turn Back Time / 1 - Long Road
2 - Never As It Seems ||| 3 - The Bad Man, the Sad Man ||| 4 - Armies of Robbers and Thieves
5 - Fear Falls Like Rain ||| 6 - Rage Like Fire ||| 7 - Born From Conflict
8 - Reach Any Star ||| 9 - Cold Fields ||| 10 - Ice Inside Your Soul
11 - King of Anything

.