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Chapter 10 – The Lion and the little Raven

Harry woke up rather suddenly, and it took him several seconds to realize what had woken him up. When he heard the noise again, he was slightly more awake and he was able to identify it as several owls hooting outside his window, he could hear quite a few knocks as well. The fact that it was more than one owl surprised him a bit; he received letters from his friends, but they usually arrived at different times, so he normally only had one owl coming and going from his room.

When he heard the noise that the owls were making increase, he sighed and got out of bed. Though it was really useful to hear what was going on outside of his trunk, in certain circumstances he would prefer it wasn't possible.

As soon as he left his trunk and looked at the window, he saw seven owls sitting on the window-still. He recognized them immediately; they belonged to the members of his Court. However, knowing to whom they belonged didn't help him in knowing why they were there, he had sent a letter to Marcus the previous day and it usually took him a day or two to answer. For all of the owls to be there, something must have happened.

Opening the letter that was closest, he became even more confused. It was from his Demons and said;

'Harry,

Please be careful. Never go anywhere without your wand and don't go anywhere alone.

We will see you soon.

Fred and George'

Not even taking into account that it was a very short letter, it wasn't written in their usual style. Besides, why were they so worried about his safety?

Putting the twins' letter aside, he picked up the next one.

'Harry,

Don't make any hasty decisions.

Don't go out at night.

And please be careful.

Adrian'

'Harry,

I've spoken to my mother, we will go back to England as soon as possible.

Don't go anywhere alone.

Blaise'

'Harry,

Be careful.

No matter what, stay at the orphanage, don't go wandering around.

Keep your wand with you.

Graham'

'Harry,

We're coming back to England.

Theo'

Harry was officially confused, what the hell was going on with his Court? It was obvious that they were all worried about him but he had no idea why, his summer vacation had been extremely boring. The most exciting thing that had happened was when he had set his couch on fire when he was trying a spell in his trunk. Even though he couldn't use his wand, he had accidentally done a wandless spell. A true wandless spell, not the wandless magic he usually did that consisted mostly on his will and not real spells. Naturally he had tried to repeat the feat. It was difficult, and he was exhausted by the end of it, but he had done it again. Aside from that, everything had been rather quiet.

'Harry,

As far as I know you don't get the Daily Prophet, so I don't know if you know. There's been a breakout from Azkaban.

According to several people, Sirius Black, the fugitive, was the Dark Lord's right hand, and according to some rumors, he escaped so that he could get revenge for what happened to his Lord, so it is believed that he will be after you.

So, I beg of you, please be careful. Don't go anywhere alone.

As soon as I have more news, I will tell you.

Marcus'

Well, at least Marcus' letter explained why all of his friends were almost having a panic attack. They assumed that he already knew about Sirius Black, so they hadn't given him a reason for their anxiety.

He supposed that he should subscribe to the Daily Prophet, but, to be completely honest, it hadn't occurred to him. At Hogwarts there was always a newspaper available if he wanted it and he had spent most of the previous summer at Malfoy Manor, so he had always had a newspaper there as well. There really hadn't been any need for him to get a subscription.

Picking up the last letter, he felt a little shock race up his arm the moment he opened it. He frowned, having no idea what had happened.

'Harry,

We will be there in ten minutes.

Draco'

'Hmm, Draco must be really worried,' he thought. At least now he knew what that little shock was, it must have been a tracking spell being activated. That only showed just how worried Draco truly was, to risk angering him like that.

Well, seeing as the Malfoys were, apparently, on their way, he should probably get dressed and pack his things. He doubted that he would be staying at the orphanage for much longer.

About ten minutes later, there was a knock on his door.

"Yes?"

"Harry," Mrs. Brown said, looking through the half-opened door, "You have guests in the common room."

Considering her tone, Harry suspected that it was the Malfoys; they had that effect on people when they saw them for the first time. They were, after all, a rather stunning family.

"Just let me finish getting ready, I'll be down as soon as I'm done."

Mrs. Brown just nodded and left, still looking a little dazed.

Harry hurried a little more than usual, he didn't care that the Malfoys were waiting for him, but if the Malfoys were there for the reason he thought, then the sooner he was done, the sooner he would be able to leave.

When he reached the common room, he was able to identify the Malfoys immediately, he didn't even have to search; they stood out quite a bit. He had to admire the fact that, even in the small run down living-room that served as a common room for all the boys, they looked every inch the aristocratic family they were.

Unfortunately, they weren't alone in the room; almost every boy in the orphanage was present. Considering that it was rather early and that breakfast would be served soon, it didn't really surprise him, they were all waiting to be called to eat, the only ones not there were the ones that had to almost be dragged out of bed by Mrs. Brown.

"Harry!"

That was his only warning, and in the next moment he had a blonde in his arms, hugging him as if he hadn't seen him in years.

"You're alright, you're alright, you're alright." Draco was muttering, far too low for anyone but him to hear, and he let out a small chuckle.

"Yes, Draco, I'm fine."

Draco let him go and Harry was able to see a small blush on his cheeks.

"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy."

"Good morning, dear," Mrs. Malfoy greeted him, giving him a hug, "And didn't I tell you to call me Cissa?" she continued after letting him go.

Harry smiled, it had been one of the first things that Mrs. Malfoy had asked of him.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Harry asked, after indicating the vacant chairs for them to sit.

"We came to get you, so that you could spend the summer break with us." Draco answered, looking at him with his big silver eyes, silently begging for him to accept.

"Hmm, and has this sudden invitation anything to do with Sirius Black?"

Draco blushed a little but didn't say anything, he only looked at him with determined eyes and Harry knew that the blonde wouldn't leave if he couldn't drag Harry with him back to Malfoy Manor.

"I see," whispered Harry and looked at Draco's parents, who had been quiet, "Considering the life experience that you have Mr. Malfoy, do you think that Black is a threat? Did you and he deal with the same crowd?"

Harry knew that Malfoy would understand what he was asking. He had no intention of refusing the invitation, but maybe he would be able to gather some more information first.

"I cannot say that Black and I dealt with the same crowd, we were usually in separate groups, though you have to consider that I do not claim to know everyone," Malfoy had understood what he meant. It was interesting to know that not only did Malfoy not know the supposed right hand of Voldemort, when he himself was rumored to be an Inner Circle member, but that they were also in separate groups. Knowing what he knew about the war, which wasn't as much as he wanted, he knew that there were two 'groups'; the Dark and the Light. If Malfoy was so clearly Dark, then to be in a different group Black had to be Light, it was truly fascinating but it didn't answer any of his questions, it just added new ones to the ones he already had. Of course, there was also the possibility that Malfoy was lying, but Harry had the feeling that he wasn't, "However, you must take into account that Black did something that many considered impossible, he must have had a reason to do it."

Harry had also thought about that, he was really curious about how Black had managed to escape Azkaban. Maybe it would be something that Black would be willing to share, but he wasn't counting on it. Considering that Black, apparently, wanted to kill him, he probably wouldn't agree to have a cup of tea and have a conversation about the finer points of jail-breaking, no matter how much fun Harry believed that would have been.

"All right, I'll just go pack my things, just give me a minute."

When he got up, he saw Mrs. Brown sitting on a couch a little bit away from them, just like the boys in the room she was trying not to look at them, or more like stare at them, but she wasn't having much success. Harry didn't truly blame them, the Malfoys were beautiful, and they had never seen people like them at the orphanage, aside from himself, of course, and they were already used to him, so they didn't stare as much.

"Mrs. Brown," he said, making the matron focus on him, "I'll be leaving today, I'll be back next summer."

"But..."

Seeing Harry's look, she didn't say anything else, she just nodded. They both knew that she wasn't able to stop him, and even if she was, those eyes promised consequences that she was sure she didn't want to deal with.

Seeing that he was not going to have any trouble there, Harry nodded and went to his room to pack the things that he hadn't had the time to previously. He did it far faster than before; he could hardly wait to go back to the Wizarding world.

He was tired; unfortunately, the years hadn't been easy on him and every year that went by it became more difficult to deal with his condition.

He still didn't know if he had made the right decision, but the temptation was far too strong for him to resist. Every opportunity he had to see the last member of his pack was a godsend, even if his cub didn't know who he was, it was better than nothing.

Trying to find a more comfortable position, he tried his best to ignore the noise that the students were making outside on the platform. No matter how tired he was, all that noise was making it quite difficult for him to sleep. In some situations, having such acute hearing was really more of a curse than anything else.

However, other times it was a blessing, he had no doubt that if it weren't for his hearing he wouldn't have heard the footsteps coming his way. Before he had the time to even think about, it he had cast a spell that projected to everyone that looked at him the illusion that he was sleeping, he used the spell so much that it became almost second nature. Every time he used muggle transportation, or even when he was at Hogwarts and wanted to have a bit of a quiet time, or listen to some conversations without giving himself away, so it was such an ingrained habit that he only noticed that he had cast the spell when he felt the magic around him. He thought about canceling the spell, but it was too late, the people he had heard coming in his direction were already opening the door to his compartment.

He stayed in the same position but looked at the door, and he was suddenly glad he had cast the spell, because at least it made it impossible for other people to know that he was staring. He may never have met the boy in front of him, but he knew immediately who he was, because in front of him was a miniature Lucius Malfoy, the boy could only be his son.

"There's already someone in the compartment." the boy said, looking to his right, he supposed he was talking to his friends.

"Then make him get out, it is my compartment." answered a voice, and he knew, instinctively, that whoever had spoken was the leader. Which surprised him, considering that, from what he remembered, the Malfoys ruled Slytherin.

"It isn't a student. Besides, he's sleeping, and he doesn't look like he's going to wake up anytime soon."

He heard a sigh.

"Nevertheless, this compartment is mine and it's in it that we are going to stay."

Malfoy nodded and went inside, followed by a boy that he also recognized, the boy looked a lot like Tadeus Nott, so he supposed that the boy was his son.

He contained his sigh with some effort; it was just his luck to end up in a compartment where the children of Death Eaters usually sat. He didn't even want to imagine who their leader was, but he was sure that he had to resign himself to a ride filled with talks about pureblood supremacy.

Another two boys came in, though he didn't know these two, and then another one came that he only recognized because of his scent. He felt his heart stop when the boy entered the compartment, he may not recognize him by his looks, but his scent was unforgettable, it may not be identical to what it used to be but it was the same scent, it was the scent of his cub, in front of him was Harry James Potter, the last of his pack.

He could hardly believe it, he was finally near his cub, though he didn't know why Harry was in a compartment filled with Death Eater children. Only then did he notice the uniform the boy had on; instead of the expected red and gold, it was green and silver, instead of a lion, it had a serpent. Harry, James' son, was a Slytherin. How had that happened?

"Who do you think it is?" asked the dark skinned boy that followed Harry and closed the door behind him, before sitting down beside Harry. Only then did he notice that they were all, aside from Harry, looking at him.

"Considering that Lockhart isn't at Hogwarts anymore, I believe he is the new DADA professor." answered Harry and he was surprised to notice that the voice that he thought belonged to the leader of the little group was Harry's.

Harry was the leader of Slytherin? How had the Boy-Who-Lived ended up ruling a group of Death Eater children.

Nott's cruel laugh made Harry look at him, raising an eyebrow.

"After what you did to him, it really doesn't surprise me that he didn't stay."

"I don't see where you got the idea that I did anything to him." answered Harry with one of the most innocent expressions that he had ever seen, and if he hadn't seen James use that same expression, then he had no doubt that he would have believed it to be genuine. The other five boys started to laugh, showing that they believed it as much as he did.

"Of course you did nothing," Malfoy agreed, "Lockhart starting to see his biggest fears every time you were even in the same corridor as him was pure coincidence."

Harry nodded and with a completely serious expression said, "We must have had a boggart infestation."

The boys continued to laugh until they felt the train starting to move.

"It's strange being here without Marcus." one of the boys he didn't know remarked.

"He spent so much time with us over the summer that for a few moments I forgot that he finished Hogwarts last year." Malfoy added with a small smile.

Harry laughed.

"You all practically moved into Malfoy Manor over the summer."

"What were you expecting?" Nott asked with a serious tone, he was surprised to see that the other four were looking at Harry with the same serious expressions.

"I don't need to be protected." Harry stated in a voice so cold that his eyes went wide, even his wolf became more alert, he also noticed the fear that appeared on the other boy's faces for less than a second. However, their determination didn't lessen.

"Just because you don't need it, doesn't mean we won't do it." Nott replied, and it was plain to see he meant every word, "We are your Court, we will always do everything we can for you, we'll swear it on our lives and our magic, if that is what you require of us."

When he finished, the other four nodded and he was surprised to see the loyalty and reverence in their expressions, he remembered seeing such looks when he went to Hogwarts and also after he left Hogwarts. It was the look the Death Eaters had when they talked about their Master. What the hell had Harry done to receive such looks?

"That won't be necessary." Harry answered and his voice had lost that coldness, making the others smile.

"Who is going to talk to the first year students?" asked the boy that was seated right beside him; he looked to be the oldest there.

"Theo," answered Harry, looking at Nott, "You did a good job last year. And there is nothing new to add."

"I hope none of them are as stupid as the one from last year." added the same boy and Harry laughed, it was cold and cruel and it gave him goosebumps.

"Oh, I don't know. It was rather fun watching Blaise take care of it." Harry commented, looking at the dark skinned boy.

"It was my pleasure." answered the boy, Blaise, with a sadistic smile.

It was becoming hard for him to process everything that was happening. His cub was nothing like he'd thought he would be; from what he was seeing and hearing, his cub was cruel, sadistic, and manipulative. He couldn't associate the boy in front of him with the innocent baby he had loved as if he were his own.

However, as the time passed he saw all the boys behaving like children; they played chess, they read, and told jokes, in a way they reminded him of his own train ride, in a compartment full of his friends.

And now he could see Harry's parents in him. He could see James with his charisma and leadership skills, captivating all those around him. He also saw Lily in him, with her intelligence and thirst for knowledge.

And while he remembered both of his friends, he also remembered the fierceness they had when they fought and no matter how much he considered James his brother, he knew how vindictive he could be, but James was a Gryffindor and a Potter, so no one would ever say that James was Dark or evil, no matter that the Death Eaters that faced James in battle never came out of it alive, nobody commented on the curses that they knew were Dark, because it was war. But he knew how much James loved to fight, how excited James became when there were raids. James loved Lily to death, and Harry was his entire world, but James had a mean streak several miles long and a malicious streak that wasn't far behind.

A small smile appeared on his face, maybe Harry was more like his parents than he had originally thought.

The compartment door opened, taking him out of his thoughts, and two boys came in, he recognized them immediately, that hair was unmistakable; both boys, identical twins by the look of it, could only be Weasleys. The moment he saw the Gryffindor emblem on their robes, he prepared himself to intervene in case there was trouble, and considering that it was Gryffindors and Slytherins the outcome could only be trouble.

However, the twins smiled as soon as they saw who was inside.

"Harry!" both exclaimed in unison.

"We are," started the twin on the left.

"So happy," continued the twin on the right.

"To see," the twin on the left again.

"That you're alright." the right twin finished.

"Demons, I wasn't expecting to see you so early on the ride." Harry said, looking at them and completely ignoring what both had said.

"We didn't see you the entire summer." answered the twin on the right as if that explained everything, sitting on the floor and leaning against the door, his brother following his example. Considering the looks traded between the other boys, he supposed that it did explain everything.

"And being a whole summer without seeing me is unbearable for you?" inquired Harry, just a little touch of sarcasm in his voice.

The twins didn't answer, they just smiled and their eyes had a twinkle in them that he had seen hundreds of times in the eyes of his best friends.

Harry shook his head and laughed. The fond smile that Harry gave them lit up his face and made every boy smile.

"I was thinking," Harry said, looking at the twins, "Tonight, when we go back to our common room, and introduce the Court to the new Slytherins, I want both of you there."

The surprise was visible on all of their faces; clearly it wasn't something they were expecting.

"Harry no one knows we're part of the Court, that's the reason we're such good spies." answered the twin on the right.

"That and the fact that no one would believe that two Gryffindors would ever join Slytherins." added the other one.

"Fred," Harry said, looking at the twin on the right, "George," he continued, looking at the twin on the left, "You are a part of my Court and it is time that the Slytherins know that. I have no intention of letting everyone know, only the Slytherins."

"And how do you know that the Slytherins won't say anything?" asked Fred.

The smile that appeared on Harry's face was so sadistic that he couldn't help but shudder.

"I am the King of Slytherin." his tone had an arrogant quality to it that he had heard hundreds of times before, it was pure James.

The others laughed and Fred shook his head.

"Very well, oh powerful King of the Serpents. When the feast is over we will go with you, we will make it so that nobody sees us."

"I trust in your infiltration capabilities." replied Harry, voice thick with amusement.

"You do know that if anyone finds out that the Demons are a part of the Court, they will accuse us of corrupting the poor, innocent Gryffindors." the boy sitting beside him said.

"Well, considering that they are the Demons, maybe we will be able to convince the people that they were the ones that corrupted us." remarked the other boy that he didn't know.

The boys laughed, completely ignoring the indignant expressions on the twins' faces.

"You are completely right Adrian," exclaimed Nott when he was able to stop laughing, "The twins are the professors' terror, besides we could always use our secret weapon!"

"What secret weapon?" asked the boy at his side.

"Graham, Graham, Graham... How do you not know our secret weapon?" Malfoy asked dramatically.

"Yes, Graham, how don't you know?" inquired a voice that was so innocent that it took him a second to identify it. Harry looked so innocent that it was hard to associate what he was seeing with the Harry he had seen before.

"That isn't fair!" exclaimed George indignantly, though the smile on his face betrayed his true feelings.

"Yes! With those looks, who will believe us?" added Fred.

"Exactly!" agreed Blaise, "It's our secret weapon." he looked so incredibly smug that the others could contain their laughter.

He shook his head, in some ways the group reminded him of his own school days and his friends.

They had been arrogant, they had had no doubt about their superiority, especially James and Sirius. They had been the unofficial Kings of Gryffindor, apparently James' son had followed in his footsteps.

Feeling the train slow down took him out of his thoughts. He looked around, confused; it was too soon for them to have arrived.

"What's going on?" asked Malfoy, though he wasn't looking at anyone in particular.

Harry was sitting near the window and looked outside, he frowned.

"I can't see all that well, but it looks like something's moving outside." he told them, still trying to get a better look.

As soon as he said that, the posture of the other boys changed. They all took out their wands and positioned themselves in front of Harry, blocking him from the door.

He was a little surprised to see their determined expressions and the protectiveness in their eyes. However, he didn't have the time to think about it, because the temperature dropped rather suddenly and then he knew what was going on. Though knowing didn't help him in understanding it; Dumbledore had said that they wouldn't be allowed on the train.

"Harry, are you alright?" asked Nott, and only then did he notice that Harry was extremely pale, his eyes were glazed and he was shaking.

"What's going on?" asked Blaise, looking at Harry worried, though never lowering his wand from the door.

The boy named Graham cursed and looked at Adrian.

"Dementors." was all he said, and a look of understanding appeared on their faces.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," cursed Adrian, "How the fuck are we going to protect him from dementors?! None of us knows how to cast a Patronus."

"Fire." the twins answered in unison, and Nott nodded in agreement, "It's better than nothing." he added.

They were all pale now, and Blaise was shaking slightly. He prayed to Merlin for the train to start up again so that they could leave the creatures behind, but when it became even colder and the sensation of despair grew stronger, he knew that his prayers hadn't been answered.

It was with a feeling of dread that he saw a rotten hand open the door to their compartment.

The boys lost all the blood they had left in their faces but he was rather impressed when he saw that they were still in front of Harry, trying to protect him. He was expecting for the Dementor to go away, but the creature entered the compartment and turned towards the boys, only when he heard a moan coming from Harry did he act.

"Expecto Patronum." he chanted, getting up from his place, breaking the illusion and standing in front of the boys.

The creature left the compartment immediately, and some moments later the lights flickered back on and the temperature went back to normal.

He looked back and saw that the boys had gained a little color back. Nott was beside Harry, who looked to still be in the same state.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked.

"Does he look alright?" Nott snarled, glaring at him for a few seconds, before focusing on Harry again.

Malfoy looked at Harry briefly and then at him.

"I apologize for Theo. He is far more polite usually. He's just worried."

"It's completely understandable," and it was, it was clear as day that they were all worried about Harry, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to talk to the driver and send a message to Hogwarts and explain what's going on with your friend."

Before he could even move, he had the twins blocking his way.

"You can't do that." Malfoy told him calmly.

"May I ask why I can't inform the school about what happened?"

"Do you not know who he is?" asked the boy named Adrian, looking a bit incredulous.

He just looked at the boy, of course he knew, but he was interested in knowing why they didn't want him to warn the school.

"He's Harry Potter." answered Adrian, assuming that his silence indicated that he didn't know.

"The Boy-Who-Lived." added Blaise, "If anyone that wants to harm him knows about what happened, he will be at an enormous disadvantage. And if you inform Hogwarts, everyone will know, and even if it's only hearsay, it is something that can be a big problem."

He had the feeling that there was more to it than what they were saying, and he suddenly remembered what Harry had said, maybe the title 'King of Slytherin' wasn't only metaphorical, and in that case, showing any kind of weakness could be fatal.

Containing a sigh, he looked at the boys again.

"Very well," from his pocket he took out three chocolate bars and gave them to the boys, "Share it between yourselves, chocolate helps to fight off the effects the Dementors have," when none of the boys showed they were going to eat, he sighed, of course they were suspicious, "You can eat it, I guarantee it isn't poisoned." to prove that, he broke a piece from Malfoy's bar and ate it.

Following his example the boys ate the chocolate. However, he didn't miss the fact that Nott only gave Harry the chocolate after he had tasted it.

For a few moments, no one spoke, though a soft voice ended up breaking the silence.

"Thank you."

Looking in that direction, he saw that it was Harry and he seemed to be better. The relief was palpable in the compartment.

"You're welcome." he answered, "I'm Remus Lupin, you're new DADA professor."

Harry nodded with a small smile on his lips.

"I am Harry Potter, beside me is Theodore Nott, then we have Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy, the two closest to you are Adrian Pucey and Graham Montague, and the two red-heads are Fred and George Weasley." Harry introduced them, pointing to each of them respectively.

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised when he recognized all the family names from the Slytherins. They were, after all, in one way or another, associated with Death Eaters.

Again, he couldn't help but ask himself how Harry had ended up the leader of this little group.

"At least we know that he is more competent that the previous professor." remarked Blaise, son of the Black Widow, suspected of more than twenty assassinations ordered by the Dark Lord. Now that he knew whom the boy was the son of, it was easy to spot the similarities.

Malfoy laughed, "Can you imagine Lockhart facing a Dementor?"

Several of them laughed, but Harry and Nott exchanged a look.

"Speaking of Dementors," said Nott, making the laughter stop abruptly, "What were they doing on the train?"

Suddenly all eyes were on him, but it was the eyes the color of death that captivated him and made him talk.

"They were looking for Sirius Black, they'll be at the school too."

"They are putting Dementors in the school?" asked Graham Montague, son of Gregory Montague, suspected of having been one of the Dark Lords most sadistic torturers, at least that had been the information the Order had, "Who would be stupid enough to put Dementors in a school?"

"The order came from the Minister," he answered, not taking his eyes of Harry, "They were put there for the students' protection."

"I believe we need a new Minister." commented Adrian Pucey with disdain, son of the Dark Lord's top interrogator, according to the information that the Order had, Julius Pucey was able to make anyone talk and never used truth serums to do it.

Again, the question of how those particular Slytherins ended up so close to Harry came to mind.

"Are you going to teach the Patronus to students?" Harry asked, ignoring the previous comment.

"To the seventh years, it's part of the curriculum. Though, usually, less than half are able to do it."

Malfoy looked like he wanted to comment, but one look from Harry made him shut his mouth, it was rather astonishing how they obeyed Harry without a second thought.

"Fred and I better go," George said, looking at Harry, "We must be almost at Hogwarts and Lee must be wondering where we are."

"We'll see you later." Fred said, also looking at Harry, receiving a small nod they smiled and left the compartment.

The following half an hour went by without any more incidents, but he did notice something different, their behavior had changed a little, they seemed somewhat younger. Though he believed that he was only able to see the difference because he had seen them interact when they believed he was sleeping, when they felt they were 'alone' they acted more freely with each other.

He didn't quite know what to make of it, so he did his best to put the boys' behavior out of his mind. At the very least, it was going to be an interesting year.

Harry and his Court were the first to arrive at the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He wanted to see the reactions the students would have when they saw the two Gryffindors in their midst. Speaking of Gryffindors...

"Demons?"

A small chuckle came from the shadows and the twins started to appear, he was happy to see that they were taking their infiltration and spying work seriously, they had found dozens of spells that could be useful for it. Not even he knew what the spell they had used was, but it made it look like the shadows were literally dripping of the twins. He had to ask them where they'd found it, it had a rather wicked effect.

"Memorize this place, and every month on the first ask one of us to give you the password" Harry instructed, seeing them nod, he turned back to the wall. "Wolfsbane."

The first password of the year was always chosen by Snape and it was always related to potions. Fortunately, during the year it was the prefects that selected them.

After entering, he let the twins have a look around, and showed them where the Court always sat.

A few moments after they were comfortable in their seats, the other Slytherins started trickling in. At first none of them seemed to notice the twins, but someone must have noticed them, because suddenly they started pointing and whispering and Harry had to contain his laugh when he saw how horrified some of them looked.

However, before anyone was able to make any comments, the first years entered the common room, following the new fifth year prefects. It still miffed him that neither Adrian nor Graham had been chosen, though he knew that it was not their fault. The prefects were chosen by their Head of House and he was sure that Snape would never, even under torture, do something that would give him more power, so naturally he would never chose someone on his Court for prefect. Even if they would have been the best choice, the man was just that stupid. Besides, the prefects obeyed him anyway, so he had no idea what the man was trying to accomplish. Maybe he was trying to make it easier for him to think up ways to finally kill him, or maybe he was trying to inspire him to think of more creative ways to torture him. There were, after all, all kinds of people out there, who knew what rocked the esteemed professor's boat.

The prefects gave the first years a similar speech to the one from the year before and then they ushered the first years in front of his Court.

Considering the slight fear that appeared on their faces, Harry guessed that these students already knew who they were. He supposed that some of the older students must have told them during the feast, maybe the second years, they must have asked why the seating arrangement was the way it was.

However, Theo was able to calm them and still inform them about the gravity of breaking the rules defined by the Court. By the end of it, when Theo asked if there were any questions, one of the students was even brave enough to raise his hand.

"Yes?" Theo asked, looking at the little boy. He was the smallest first year there, and his blond curls, baby blue eyes, and fair skin made him look like a porcelain doll.

"What are they doing here?" he asked, pointing at the twins, "I thought that Slytherins didn't like Gryffindors." the child look honestly curious and that was the only reason Harry even thought about answering.

He looked at the twins, who were lounging on the sofa on either side of him, and laughed, gaining the attention of all the students.

"They... they are my Demons." Harry answered, and the smiles that appeared on the twins' faces lived up to the name that Harry had given them.

Seeing the terror on some of the students faces made Harry laugh again, this promised to be an interesting year.

The first week was almost over and Harry was already bored to death in his usual classes. Sure they had started new subjects, and he had three new ones, having chosen Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures, but he had been studying independently for Ancient Runes and Arithmancy since first year, so he was a little above what they were doing. Though he had to admit that COMC was rather interesting, even if the professor was a bit biased towards Slytherins. He was, however, proud of his snakes, even Draco behaved well in class, listening to Hagrid, even though he couldn't stand the man. Naturally, the other Slytherins followed their lead, so the classes went by without much trouble. And Harry had to admit that the man knew a lot about the creatures, even if he had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with dangerous beasts. Fortunately, he still had his training with his friends; otherwise, he would have gone crazy from boredom. He didn't know if it was possible, but he truly thought that if things continued like they had been then he would find out.

However, he was rather hopeful that today would be different. They would have their first DADA class and he was curious to see how Remus Lupin would do. The twins, Graham, and Adrian had already had his class and they said he was good. Harry knew how much it took to please Graham, so that sparked his curiosity.

After lunch he went to the Defense classroom, Draco, Blaise, and Theo following and they were quite excited, though no one would have been able to know it looking at them; they had perfect masks.

They were the first to arrive and sat in the front row seats. Lupin hadn't arrived yet, but a little over two minutes later he entered the room, a big, old looking chest floating in behind him. When he saw them sitting there he smiled and Harry smiled back, making his friends look at him slightly surprised, it was the first time they saw him smile like that at anyone that wasn't part of their circle. Harry didn't know how to explain it, but he felt somewhat connected to professor Lupin, something about the man was familiar.

A little over five minutes later, all the students were present and the professor began his lecture.

"Good afternoon. As all of you must already know, I'm professor Lupin. My classes will be mostly practical, most of the theory on the subject will be your homework. We will have about half an hour in every class to clear up any doubts or questions that you may have and then we will have practical work; unless, for whatever reason, we need to spend more time on theory. Do you have any questions?" he asked, looking at the students. Not seeing anyone with their hand up, he continued, "Very well, let's start then. Put your books away, wands out, get up from your seats and stand near the back wall, please."

The students quickly did what the professor told them to, and were standing in a more or less organized manner by the back wall.

"Very well," Lupin said, leaning against his desk, "Who can tell me what a boggart is?"

It didn't surprise Harry the least bit that Granger was the only Gryffindor with her hand up, while glaring at his group. Apparently she was still angry that they bested her in all the exams, not that Harry cared one bit about how she felt.

His friends had their hands up as well but Harry didn't bother, he was busy thinking about what the professor had said. Lupin had said that classes would be practical, and considering the chest he had brought with him, it wasn't all that difficult to guess what they would be doing this class.

Honestly, he didn't know if he was happy about it or not. Seeing the other students' worst fears was something that he really wanted, it was a unique opportunity and he could think of hundreds of situations where the information could be quite useful, but on the other hand, the other students would see what his biggest fear was and that didn't please him one bit.

And speaking about biggest fears... what was his?

For a fraction of a second, he thought about Dementors; he hated feeling weak and the Dementor sure made him feel that way. However, that idea was quickly put aside; there were ways to defend yourself against Dementors, it was only a question of learning them, so he really had no reason to fear them.

"Exactly, five points to Slytherin."

Lupin's voice brought him out of his thoughts. Apparently, Draco had answered the question correctly.

"Inside this chest is a Boggart, the spell to fight the Boggart is 'Riddiculus', repeat after me, 'Riddiculus'," the class chanted in unison, "Again, 'Riddiculus'." he told them, making the students repeat it again, "Good. I want you to form a line. You will face the Boggart one at a time. As Draco said, you have to think of something funny, laughter is the greatest weapon against a Boggart. Are you ready?" he asked looking at them.

Several students nodded and Harry wasn't surprised to see that the Gryffindors were the first in line, eager to show that they weren't afraid of facing their fears.

He was the last in line, though he was curious to see what his biggest fear was, he wouldn't lose any sleep over not knowing. Though he had to admit that he was rather curious to see what his friends' biggest fears were. From what he had seen they didn't appear to fear much.

A scream brought him out of his thoughts and he saw a giant spider in front of Weasley, who was shaking quite badly and seemed to have lost all color, turning his skin sheet white, it was interesting knowing his fear, especially if the red-head continued to get on his nerves as he had the last two years.

The students went by, and there were fears as simple as Weasley's spider and as complex as Longbottom's Snape, he didn't believe that Longbottom was scared of Snape, sure he might be afraid of him personally, but Harry doubted that it was his biggest fear, there must be something more complex to it, maybe he was afraid of what Snape represented?

The students passed quickly and the only one that Harry found interesting as well as quite entertaining was Granger's. Her Boggart transformed into professor McGonagall and told her she would never be as good as Harry. He had to restrain himself from laughing, especially when Granger ran out of the room crying, not even trying to face the Boggart. Harry shook his head, it was truly pathetic.

However, when it was his group's turn he paid much more attention.

Theo was the first that went against the Boggart and Harry knew that every student was paying close attention, they were all curious to know what his group feared. They were, after all, as much revered as they were hated, and for one reason or another people were curious about them.

Theo took a deep breath and stepped forward, it was the sign that Lupin needed to open the chest again, freeing the Boggart.

Harry had prepared for many things, but nothing like what appeared even crossed his mind.

Theo's Boggart looked like Harry. However, he was lying on the floor, covered in blood and wounds, his eyes were glazed over and a pale lifeless green, they looked nothing like his vibrant green eyes, full of life and magic. And though the Boggart Harry was still alive, his breathing was shallow and weak, and it looked like every breath he took pained him.

"Theo..." the Boggart Harry's voice was as weak as he looked, it was little more than a whisper and Harry looked at the Boggart Harry with disdain, he would never be that weak, "I trusted you... you failed me."

Now Theo started to shake.

Harry didn't know what to think about what he was seeing but he knew what he had to do.

"Theo," he called, moving so he was a bit to the side and behind Theo. Theo looked at him and Harry could hardly believe it when he saw the despair in those eyes, Theo should never have that look in his eyes, he smiled and in a calm and warm voice he said, "I trust you." and he was completely honest, he did trust Theo.

For a fraction of a second, Theo looked shocked. However, in the next moment a huge smile appeared on his lips and he stopped shaking.

"Riddiculus." he said confidently, focusing on the Boggart again.

In the dying Boggart Harry's place appeared a Harry with a Gryffindor uniform, holding a big sign that said 'I love Weasley!'.

His group wasn't able to control their laughter, completely ignoring Harry's glare. But Harry didn't say anything, he could detect the slight hysterical edge to Theo's laughter, far too subtle for those that didn't know him to notice, and he could also see the relief in Draco and Blaise, they may not have shown it but they had been affected by Theo's Boggart, so he let them be, knowing they needed it.

While his friends tried to bring their laughter under control, Lupin managed to put the Boggart back in the chest, though Harry did notice that he too appeared to be a bit pale, it looked like seeing a student on death's door had affected the professor.

When the laughter stopped and his friends looked like they were back to normal, Lupin opened the chest again.

This time it was Draco that went against it.

Draco's Boggart appeared confused, for a second it looked like it would transform into Lucius, but then it shrunk and the hair color became darker, but instead of taking a defined form, it grew again and gained a certain similarity to Lucius. It did the same thing for two or three more times, until it decided on a form.

And again Harry saw a copy of himself in the room.

Though this time he wasn't hurt, this time it was truly himself they were seeing, without any masks, his eyes glowed like the 'Avada Kedavra', and the light from the windows made his hair shine blood red in certain parts. The smile that the Boggart Harry had was so sadistic that Harry saw several students take a step back, wanting to put some distance between them and the Boggart. Lupin however was looking at the Boggart like he was trying to solve a puzzle.

The Boggart Harry's cruel laugh was heard and he saw more than one student shiver.

"I knew that you weren't worth anything," said the Boggart Harry, in a cold, detached voice, looking at Draco with eyes filled with malice, "You are nothing more than a spoiled brat. You have no use to me," the Boggart continued viciously, his smile growing and his eyes filled with cruel amusement, loving every second of pain that he was causing Draco, "Hmm, then again, maybe you do have some use," said the Boggart Harry looking thoughtful, Draco looked at Boggart Harry with so much hope that it was painful to see, "Yes... you can always scream for me." Boggart Harry finished malevolently, pointing his wand at Draco.

Just like Theo, Draco started to tremble and was extremely pale and Harry acted without even thinking about it.

"Draco," Draco looked at him, he seemed lost, "I'm proud of you."

Draco's eyes opened wide, and Harry knew that he was searching for any sign that Harry was lying, not finding any, he smiled.

"Riddiculus." he chanted and the Boggart Harry gained bright pink hair with blue strips.

It was nothing all that funny, but it was rather difficult to maintain that demonic air with bright pink hair.

Several students laughed and Lupin put the Boggart in the chest again.

This time it didn't take as long for the students to calm down and less than thirty seconds later, Blaise was facing the Boggart.

Harry didn't know if he should be surprised or not when he saw that Blaise's Boggart also turned into him.

But again it was a different Boggart Harry; this one seemed more innocent and had a warm and heartfelt smile on his face, only when you looked in his eyes was it possible to see the malevolence in them.

"Oh Blaise," Boggart Harry whispered, "You didn't really think you belonged, did you?" Boggart Harry asked in a sweet and understanding voice, "Oh Blaise. I'm so sorry." and if it weren't for those eyes shining with malicious glee everyone would have believed those words, "You should have realized Blaise, that someone like you would never be worthy of belonging, of being near me. You know that, don't you? You simply aren't worthy."

That said in that sweet and caring voice, and looking like an innocent angel, coupled with the perverse amusement that was in Boggart Harry's eyes, was far worse than if the Boggart Harry looked like Draco's did.

"Blaise," Harry said almost whispering, putting his hand on Blaise's shoulder, "You are one of us." though his voice was far colder than Boggart Harry's, his eyes showed Blaise that he meant it, and that was more than enough.

"Riddiculus." Blaise said, focusing on the Boggart again.

The Boggart Harry's clothes changed to something more childish, and he had a white teddy bear in his right hand and a pacifier in his mouth, he didn't look older than two or three years old. The Boggart Harry started to have tears in his big green eyes, and he had the world famous puppy dog look, he looked like a cherub. Harry heard more than one person go 'awwwww', and Blaise started laughing, followed closely by Draco and Theo.

Harry shook his head; he would find a way to get revenge.

Harry was preparing to face his Boggart, when Lupin ended the lesson.

When everyone was packing he told his friends to wait, the other students were so engrossed in talking about the lesson that they didn't even notice that the four Slytherins stayed behind.

When Harry saw that they were alone, he walked to Lupin's desk, where the professor was sitting looking at some notes he had taken during class.

"Professor, I have a question."

Lupin looked at them, his eyes landing on every one of them, filled with curiosity.

"What's the question?"

"Why didn't you let me face the Boggart?"

Lupin looked surprised for a little bit before he answered.

"I think it's obvious," he said, not denying that he hadn't let Harry face the Boggart, "I believed that Voldemort appearing in the middle of the room wasn't a good idea."

Now it was Harry's turn to be surprised.

"Voldemort?"

"I assumed that he was your biggest fear, though considering your reaction it appears I was wrong." explained Lupin, looking at Harry curiously.

Theo nodded.

"It is rather logical that people assume that your biggest fear would be the Dark Lord."

"Yes," agreed Harry, "But he didn't even cross my mind." admitted Harry, not surprising his friends.

They had all heard him talking about the Dark Lord, and the only emotion he showed when talking about him was admiration and fascination, something that had surprised them a lot the first time. Considering everything, they were expecting him to at least hate the Dark Lord, but Harry never spoke badly about him, and more than once said that he would have enjoyed talking to him. The first few times they believed Harry to be crazy, people usually don't want to talk to Dark Lords, they want to run as far away from them as they can, even his followers feared him and the only ones that even dared to talk to him a little more freely were the very first Inner Circle members, and very few of them were still alive, most having died in the first war, Theo's grandfather being one of the few still alive, but even they were extremely respectful toward him and far too afraid to have a conversation like Harry wanted to have.

Lupin looked even more surprised than they had but didn't press the matter.

"For a fraction of a second I thought about Dementors," Harry continued, completely ignoring Lupin's look, "Though I discarded that quickly, I may not like how they make me feel, but there are defenses against them, I find no reason to fear them. Honestly, I have no idea what my biggest fear is, I was quite curious in seeing what was going to appear."

Lupin had that curious look again, Harry was starting to wonder what the man's fascination with him and his friends was.

"You don't know your biggest fear?" he asked, his tone conveying his incredulity.

"No, I can't really think of anything."

Remus shook his head, he didn't know if it was arrogance or something else but Harry's answer left him perplexed. Harry was thirteen years old, it was natural for children his age to have fears. It was one of the main reasons they taught Boggarts to third years, they usually already had defined fears but they generally weren't too complex, normally it was something simple, like Weasley's spider, or Patil's snake.

'Though there are always exceptions,' he thought, looking at the three students standing around Harry. He hadn't expected to see what their Boggarts became, he could hardly believe how loyal they were to Harry. Honestly, he didn't even know if the relationship they had with Harry was healthy, it appeared to be almost obsessive. That level of dedication and loyalty couldn't be normal for thirteen year old students.

But on the other hand, it was impossible to deny that the dedication and loyalty was real, the friendships were real, and that couldn't be bad, right?

Though getting back to the original reason they were there, considering that his friends were exceptions, he shouldn't be surprised in Harry being one as well.

"Why do you want to know?"

"If I don't know what my biggest fear is, how can I overcome it?"

For some reason Harry's answer didn't surprise him. Looking at his watch he saw that there were still twenty minutes till the next class, it was more than enough time for Harry to face his Boggart.

"Do you want to face it now?" he asked, studying Harry's reaction.

"Why not? It's more than enough time." he answered with a small chuckle.

Remus nodded and got up, telling the boys to follow him.

Harry stopped in front of the chest and the other boys leaned against the wall on the right. If he hadn't seen their Boggarts, he would have believed that they weren't the least bit worried.

"Are you ready?" he asked, looking at Harry.

Getting a nod in return, he opened the chest.

He didn't really know what to expect, a small part of him was still expecting to see Voldemort pop out of the chest, because even if Harry didn't recognize it as his biggest fear, his subconscious might have, but after he saw Harry's Boggart he had no idea what to make of it, what it meant.

Harry's Boggart was Harry but he was a bit different. His hair was shorter, grew all over the place and it had lost that blood red shine it sometimes had. He didn't have that regal gait and natural grace that Harry had. And though he was still handsome he didn't have Harry's angelic beauty. Though in his opinion the biggest difference were the eyes, instead of the vivid 'Avada Kedavra' green that almost glowed with magic, they were emerald green, rather pretty, like Lily's, but they were nothing compared to Harry's own.

Remus had no idea what the Boggart meant, considering that he looked like a perfectly normal boy.

A laugh caught his attention.

Harry had no idea what to expect from his Boggart, so he wasn't surprised when he saw what it turned into.

He studied the Boggart for a few seconds, but when he understood what the Boggart represented, he couldn't help but laugh.

His biggest fear was being normal, ordinary, a boy like any other. His laughter only grew when he realized how ridiculous that fear was.

'I am, after all, Harry Potter,' he thought with all the arrogance and superiority only a teenager can have, 'I was born to be extraordinary.'.

"Really? That's my biggest fear?" he asked, looking at the Boggart with disdain, "You will have to do better than that, I will never be ordinary," he concluded, turning his back on the Boggart and looking at Lupin, "I suppose you can lock it back in the chest, I have no use for it anymore. It was a rather interesting class professor, I hope the rest will be the same."

Not saying anything else, Harry walked out the door, his friends following him and leaving a shocked professor behind.

He wasn't the least bit surprised with the visit he received after dinner, considering the rumors that spread throughout the castle that afternoon, he was rather surprised that he had managed to wait that long to bring up the subject.

"Good evening Severus." he said as soon as the spy sat down.

"Albus."

They sat for several seconds in silence, Albus didn't want to start the conversation that he was sure Severus wanted to have. If he was honest he didn't even know if he wanted to have that conversation at all, because no matter how hard he tried he couldn't help but feel worried.

"Is it true?" Severus ended up asking.

"I fear you will have to be more specific, my boy."

"Is it true what they have been saying about the Defense class for third year Slytherins and Gryffindors?"

"If you are referring to the form that the Boggart of several Slytherins took, then yes, it is true." Albus answered with a heavy heart.

How he wished it were a lie, or to at least be able to see it with different eyes, like most of the other professors. More than one of the professors had become even more enchanted with Harry and his friends, but especially with Harry. They didn't spare compliments and were all so impressed with the strong friendship between the boys and they were so proud of the influence Harry had on his friends. Naturally, they also noticed that the Slytherins were different, and were causing less fights, and somehow they were sure that it was Harry's doing, that of course just proved to them just how special Harry was.

Albus, on the other hand, wasn't able to see the situation in the same light. Even before that afternoon's Defense class, he had been seeing a boy creating his power base, an intelligence network, he had seen a child capable of controlling an entire school, but even not seeing it like the other professors, until that afternoon he hadn't known what Harry was truly capable of doing.

It was difficult to believe that a thirteen year old child had such a profound control over those boys. They were so afraid of disappointing him, of not being useful to him, of not being able to continue to be at his side, it wasn't normal, and he felt a shiver go down his spine when he thought about what those boys would be like in a few years, or what Harry would be able to do in a few years.

For the first time in a long time, he felt afraid and he could only hope that Merlin had mercy on their souls, because he was starting to believe that Harry wouldn't.

Severus didn't want to believe the rumors, and even now that Albus had confirmed it to be true, he still didn't want to believe them. But even not wanting to believe them, he knew that it was the pure truth, and he also knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

Again he had to sit by and watch as a Potter took what was most precious in his life. First Lily, the only woman he had ever loved, and now Draco, his godson, a boy he loved as if he were his own son.

In moments like these, he couldn't help but wonder if the Potters had been put on Earth to cause him pain, to make him suffer.

Why? Why had Harry James Potter been born? He wasn't a particularly religious man, but he was certain that they must have angered the gods for them to subject them to a being like Harry Potter. He was certain that it could only be a punishment from the gods, otherwise how could they explain how a thirteen year old child was able to control people that easily, how could they explain the obsessive loyalty and dedication of the three Slytherins, especially his godson, how could they explain his power, how could they explain anything about him really, if they didn't think of it as a punishment from the gods?

He wondered if Lucius knew that he had already lost his son. In any other situation, the thought that he was exaggerating may have crossed his mind, but he knew what having a Boggart like that meant.

Draco's biggest fear was disappointing Potter, not being useful to Potter, so it would be only natural to do everything he possibly could for that not to happen, even if it meant going against his father.

So, no, Severus didn't think he was exaggerating.

"Albus..." for the first time since he could remember he didn't know what to say.

"I know." answered Albus, looking far older and more tired than he had moments before, "However, I fear there is nothing we can do. There are no potions involved, no spells. They... they follow him of their own free will."

And both knew that was true, loyalty and dedication like that could only be freely given.

"They are thirteen," exclaimed Severus, exasperated, "How can it be possible?"

A small chuckle captured their attention.

"I don't see what's funny." Severus almost snarled.

"I am sorry Severus, but I did warn you," answered Alistair, the Sorting Hat, "I told you he was a perfect Slytherin."

"Wasn't it the Hufflepuffs that were supposed to be fanatically loyal?" he asked just to be petty, he knew it was childish, but right at that moment he couldn't stop himself.

"Just because it was a definition of Hufflepuff doesn't mean that he isn't able to use it on others," replied Alistair, ignoring Severus' tone, "I told you that if he was able to succeed in Slytherin then there wouldn't be anything stopping him from being great, he always had that potential. Although, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting for him to be able to succeed so quickly."

Severus never though he would hear the Sorting Hat sound so surprised. He looked back at Albus, he didn't want to think about Alistair's words, and he didn't want to think about what Potter was capable of doing if he had surpassed even the Sorting Hat's expectations.

"Have you talked to Draco?"

Considering Albus' look, he didn't think he had been able to hide the pain that the question caused as well as he'd thought.

"The last time I spoke to Draco, outside of a class room, about anything relating to other matters aside from school, was on the Christmas break in their first year," seeing Albus' surprised expression, he added, "Apparently, he noticed that I can't stand Potter, and evidently, between me, a person that he considered a second father, and Potter, his Lord, his Master, he chose his Master."

"Severus!"

"It doesn't matter how much you try to deny it Albus," said Severus, he almost sounded defeated. He contained a sneer, in his opinion it was perfectly natural for him to sound defeated, after years of thinking of and working on ways to keep Draco from being marked by the Dark Lord when he came back, to keep him safe, and he ends up losing him to a completely different Dark Lord before he even knew what was happening. So yes, he was allowed to sound defeated, "He is their Lord, their Master, they don't need to be marked to belong to him."

Not wanting to hear false platitudes, he got up and left Albus' office, he had a bottle of Firewhiskey with his name on it. Who knew, maybe if he was drunk enough he wouldn't dream about eyes the color of death.

Harry was quite excited, it was the end of October and they were having their first Hogsmead visit. Considering that the only magical place he had visited was Diagon Alley, he was quite curious to see what a completely magical town looked like.

Theo, Draco, and Blase, though they had grown up in the magical world, were excited too. However no matter how excited they were, they tried thousands of things to make him change his mind about going, and of course, if he didn't go, they wouldn't either. He had to admit that he didn't understand why they were worrying, and he knew that they truly did worry. A while back he may not have believed that they truly cared, but after seeing those Boggarts...

They didn't talk about it, but since that day they had become closer and the way they treated him had also changed, it wasn't something obvious, none of the other students would notice, however everyone in the Court noticed. They were more... affectionate was maybe the most appropriate word.

Harry didn't say anything, if it were anyone else he would never tolerate it, but his Court was different, the Court belonged to him, they belonged to him, so they had freedoms that others never would.

Graham and Adrian, who had planned to stay at the castle, decided to go with them as soon as Blaise informed them that they hadn't been able to convince Harry to stay in Hogwarts.

He wanted to be angry with them, but he wasn't able to, he knew that they were extremely worried about him, especially since an article in the Daily Prophet said that Black had been seen near a village that was only a few miles away from Hogsmead.

Though he couldn't understand how they were more worried about the whole Sirius Black thing than he was, however he didn't say anything. He had tried over the summer to talk them out of their irrational worry, but it had led nowhere, so he thought that he would spare himself several hours of futile arguing. Besides, he had to see the positive of the whole Sirius Black ordeal; the Court was applying itself far more in their training, even the twins.

Harry was rather proud of the twins, he knew they were intelligent, but they didn't worry about their grades. However, the moment Harry introduced them as a part of the Court they started to apply themselves. When Harry asked them why, they replied that they didn't want to let him down. When Harry told them that it wasn't necessary to do it, they laughed and said that they weren't doing it because it was necessary, but because they wanted to.

He chuckled, and left his room, meeting the rest of the Court in the common room, it was time to visit Hogsmead.

Harry was reading a book near the fireplace with all the members of his Court, not counting the twins, lounging around him, entertaining themselves with various things.

The Hallowe'en feast, or Samhain, like most of the Slytherins preferred to call it, had ended a little over thirty minutes ago and after having spent the day in Hogsmead they were all a little lethargic and were more than happy to indulge in a quiet night with no training.

Unfortunately, his quiet night was about to be interrupted.

Harry looked up when he heard the entrance to the common room open and was rather surprised when he saw Snape enter.

Curious, he observed the man. His eyes looked around the room, staying a bit longer on their corner of the room, until they landed on Malcolm Linndon and Alexis Rosier, the seventh year prefects, and he walked towards them.

Snape had his back turned to them so he wasn't able to see his expression, but Rosier paled a little and Linndon looked far more serious than usual.

Curious about what was going on, he got up and walked towards the trio, knowing that the others would follow him.

'Black had managed to get inside the castle,' Severus thought, and no one was able to enter the castle, they had made sure of that. And no matter how much he wanted to blame the wolf for having helped his old friend, he knew that the he wouldn't be able to break the enchantments that Albus had cast.

He focused on his prefects again, when he saw Rosier pale even more and Linndon's eyes open wide. Noticing that they were looking somewhere behind him, he gave in to temptation and looked back.

He did everything he could not to show any reaction, but it was hard. Potter and his Court were walking towards them. Now that he saw them in the common room the effect was different, they may be only six in number, but it was clear why only six students were able to control the House, even if they were so young.

They had a regal air about them, though they also looked cold and aloof, the students followed them with their eyes, the emotions in them far too complex to identify. However, the reaction they had towards Potter was the most relevant. They moved out of his way and the younger ones looked as much terrorized as awed, leaving them not knowing what to do, or how to act.

Again, he couldn't help but ask himself what Potter had done to get those reactions. However, when he saw the look of one of the second year students when he saw Zabini, he almost wasn't able to stop his eyes from widening. The boy was looking at Zabini with unadulterated fear, and the smiles that appeared on the Court members' faces could only be called sadistic, he had no idea that Draco was able to have that kind of expression.

He wasn't sure he wanted to know what the Court was capable of, but in that moment he agreed with the other professors, Potter had influenced the Slytherins, but he, unlike the other professors, couldn't see anything good about it.

"Good evening," Potter's warm and smooth voice caught his attention. Apparently, Potter had no intention of appearing child-like, "Is there a problem Linndon?"

Severus wanted to growl and send the brat away, but he was a Slytherin and he knew that if he did anything against the Slytherin King, outside of the classroom, and in front of so many other Slytherins, it would be suicide.

They may do nothing against him directly, but any respect, trust, and control that he had over them would be lost, and then the House would be completely in Potter's hands, something that he wanted to avoid at all cost.

"Sirius Black was seen in the castle," Linndon answered before Severus could make a decision about what to do and he almost wasn't able to stop cringing, he knew that tone and he could hear the 'my Lord' at the end of the sentence, "Professor Snape just informed us that we will be sleeping in the Great Hall."

"Very well. Rosier, Linndon, make sure that all the years stay together and that a prefect is sleeping near each year. Tell the younger ones that if they have a problem that they should speak to the prefect sleeping near them. You don't have to worry about the Court."

Potter instructed, it was obvious that he expected to be obeyed without a second thought, and considering the instant and in unison response of "Yes.", he didn't think that the prefects had even thought of not obeying.

Apparently satisfied, Potter turned his back to them and walked away.

He didn't know how, but in that moment he hated Potter even more, and now it had nothing to do with who his father was.

More than a week had gone by since Black had been seen in the castle, apparently he had tried, and almost succeeded, to enter the Gryffindor common room. According to the twins, Black had the password but the painting that protected the entrance refused to move because he wasn't a student or a professor, after that Black tried to enter by force and that was what alerted the rest of the tower that something was going on. Though the situation had been relatively interesting Harry was rather annoyed. Since it happened, his Court wouldn't leave him alone for a second, he knew that they had even pondered the possibility of one of them always sleeping in his room, he was quite happy that they had given up on that idea, otherwise he would have had to interfere.

It was the first night he had been able to get some alone time and he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could.

He was thinking about spending a bit of time in the library when he heard a noise that made him stop. It appeared to come from the classroom on his left, which was rather odd, considering that the classroom wasn't used.

Not being able to contain his curiosity he opened the door and went inside, trying not to make much noise, and was quite surprised by what he saw.

A boy, who looked to be around his age, was sitting in a corner of the room, his clothes were torn and Harry could see more than one bruise and a few cuts.

Harry stood still for a few seconds, analyzing the situation, on one hand the boy hadn't heard him coming into the classroom, so he could leave without getting involved, but on the other hand, if he did get involved he could take advantage of the situation and even if the boy turned out to be useless Harry could always make him useful, it may be a bit more work but it was better than having no use at all for the boy.

"Hey," Harry said, making a decision, "Are you alright?"

Even though his voice was low, calm, and soft the boy almost jumped out of his skin and Harry saw tears running down his cheeks when the boy lifted his head and looked at him. Though what surprised him more was seeing who it was, Longbottom lost all color when he saw him.

When several seconds went by and Longbottom still hadn't said anything, Harry walked a few steps in his direction, trying to keep a calm and serene air about himself. When he saw Longbottom starting to shake, he stopped, it would do no good to scare the Gryffindor even more.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Harry assured him, keeping his voice calm, "But to be able to help you, you'll have to tell me what's wrong."

For several moments Longbottom didn't say anything, and Harry was pondering several other tactics he could use when the Gryffindor spoke.

"Why do you care?" it was little more than a whisper, but even then it was possible to hear the bitterness in his voice.

"Does it matter why?" Harry asked, he didn't want to lie to Longbottom, he generally didn't lie, it complicated things. In his opinion, most people weren't worth the effort it took to lie, "You don't look so good, tell me what's wrong so that I can help you."

Again, several minutes went by before Longbottom spoke.

"It's only some bruises and small cuts."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Harry knew it wasn't likely that he would, but it was worth a shot.

"I hate them," Longbottom almost snarled, surprising Harry, "They're always saying that Slytherins are evil, that they aren't trustworthy, and look at what they've done. If that's being good, I don't know if I want to know what being evil is."

Well, it didn't answer his question directly but it was better than nothing, and he could guess who had attacked him and who the 'them' was, but it was almost curfew and the classroom they were in wasn't the best place to have the conversation he knew they would have.

"Can you stand?" he asked, making Longbottom focus on him again.

It took a while but Longbottom nodded, though when he got up he lost his balance and almost fell, only Harry's fast reflexes managed to prevent it.

"Lean on me." Harry told him, he didn't particularly like serving as a crutch to the boy but if he didn't help him, they would take years to reach the common room.

"Where are we going?" Longbottom asked, after they had left the room.

"Slytherins' common room." Harry answered casually.

"What?" squeaked Longbottom, trying to get as far away from Harry as possible, though it was slightly difficult, considering he wasn't letting go.

"Don't worry, you're with me, nothing will happen to you." Harry assured him, if he played this right he would have a new member in his Court.

Longbottom looked at him incredulously but didn't try to pull away, he considered that a good sign.

When Harry said the password and went inside with Longbottom, he couldn't say who looked more stunned, the Slytherins or Longbottom.

Harry almost dragged Longbottom to where his Court was lounging. When Longbottom saw who was there, he almost went into shock.

"You!" he exclaimed, pointing at the twins, who were sprawled on a couch reading a book.

Hearing Longbottom's exclamation all the members of the Court looked at them, making Longbottom pale a bit and start to stutter. Containing a sigh, he pushed Longbottom to the nearest couch.

"Adrian, take care of him." Harry instructed, going to sit in his armchair, he picked up a book that was on the table and got comfortable, he knew that his Court would take care of everything.

Adrian didn't even think about asking Harry why he had brought the Gryffindor, other people may have found it odd that he, or rather they, because the other members did the same, followed Harry with such ease, with so much dedication, but to them it was as natural as breathing. If anyone asked him why he wouldn't be able to answer, or at least give the person who asked an answer that would satisfy them; after all, he doubted that they would accept or understand the answer 'because he's Harry'.

"Hey, little lion," he said softly, he didn't want to stress him more than he was, "Can you tell me what your wounds are?"

When he didn't say anything, he contained a sigh and looked at the twins.

"Neville," Fred said, kneeling in front of the couch Neville was sitting on, "You can trust Adrian."

"What are you doing here?" asked Neville, looking at Fred shocked.

"We'll talk after Adrian has looked you over, ok?" George tried to persuade him.

Seeing Neville nod, Adrian started to work. He was no specialist, but he knew some diagnostic spells and a few healing ones. Harry had suggested that it might be useful to know, especially when they trained.

"It's only some bruises and a few cuts, the deepest one is on your chest, but when it's healed it won't even scar," Adrian informed them, looking at Graham he continued, "Can you go to my room and get the bruise balm that's in a blue container on the second shelf on the stand near the couch?" seeing Graham nod he looked at Neville again, "I'm going to heal your cuts and fix your clothing, the balm is for you to put on before you go to sleep, tomorrow you'll be as good as new."

"Thanks." Neville whispered.

Adrian laughed, "There is nothing to thank me for, you're one of us now."

"What?" Neville exclaimed, perplexed.

"Well, Harry brought you," explained Theo with a small chuckle, "That makes you one of us."

"B-b-but.. but...b-b-b-but..."

"Don't worry," added Draco, having stopped reading for a moment, "We take care of our own."

Neville appeared to be in shock, not knowing what to do, he looked at Harry. Almost as if he felt the eyes on him, Harry lowered his book and caught Neville's eyes. Harry just nodded, but for Neville, a boy that had always been alone, that never had anyone who truly looked like they cared about him, that nod was more important than he could ever explain. With that simple gesture, the Court had gained a member that would be fanatically loyal.

Seeing Neville calm down a bit and a small smile appearing on his face, Fred decided to ask again.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"How about this, Fred and I will tell you why we're here and you tell us what happened." George suggested when he saw that Neville was a bit uncomfortable.

Neville nodded and the twins sat on the couch in front of him.

"As you know, Fred and I came from a big family. And for everyone who sees it from an outside point of view, our parents are perfect. But the truth is... well it's difficult to explain. But it's like Fred and I don't fit the mold that they thought all their children should have."

"Our father isn't present that much, he is always working and when he isn't working he's in his shed, playing with muggle things, and that leaves a clear path for our mother. I cannot remember a day when George and I weren't compared to our brothers, especially Percy."

"We don't blame Bill or Charlie, they left as soon as they finished Hogwarts, and they never liked what our mother said, but Percy..."

"Percy used every opportunity he had to tell George and I that we were a disappointment, that our mother would prefer that we were like him."

"And our mother, well, she never denied it."

"Then we have Ron and Ginny. Ginny is the baby, the only girl, she could kill someone in front of our mother and she would say that it wasn't Ginny's fault. And Ron... Ron believes that he has so much to prove that he became an ignorant, self-delusional, bigot that believes that he has the right to anything just because he wants it."

"Fred and I, we don't feel like we are a part of the family, just like Bill and Charlie. We heard them talking once, but we were far too young to understand what they meant then."

"And last year we found Harry. We found a place where we belong. They don't care if George and I don't fit the mold. As long as we're one of them, they accept us just the way we are."

They stayed silent for a few moments, Graham had come back in the middle of the conversation and had put the container with the balm near Neville, before he sat beside him. It showed how much Neville was focusing on the Twins' story that he hadn't even noticed.

"I lost the parchment with the password to enter the Gryffindor common room, that's how Black knew the password," Neville looked ashamed to admit it and he didn't look like he wanted to say anything more, but after taking a deep breath and gathering his Gryffindor courage he continued, "The Gryffindors were instructed not to give me the password..."

"We heard nothing about that." the twins interrupted in unison.

"You weren't in the common room. Percy gave the order as Head Boy; he said I was a disgrace to Gryffindor and that the other Gryffindors couldn't allow me to further disgrace our House. Some students, especially the ones from my dorm, decided to show me what would happen if I didn't behave like a Gryffindor and stopped embarrassing them. Percy saw what they did and he said: 'Make sure that you look presentable, don't you think you have shamed Gryffindor enough?' And he left me in the classroom Harry found me in."

"I'm sorry, but your brother is a bastard." Blaise remarked to the twins when Neville didn't say anything else for a few moments.

"We know." the both of them replied, looking uncommonly serious.

"Hey Neville," he said when he noticed that Neville looked a little fearful, "You don't have to be afraid. You're one of us now. You're a part of Harry's Court."

Lifting his head, Neville looked around and saw that they were all smiling at him. He smiled back, he may not know what the Court was, but he was part of it and he would do anything he could to be worthy of what Harry had given him.

It was almost the end of November and Harry was in the training room with his friends, only the twins were missing.

In the last two weeks the twins had been rather distracted, but they had never failed to show up to training. If they didn't show up before the end of it, Harry would have to talk to them. It wasn't even because they didn't show up for training, but they were behaving oddly and he was starting to worry, not that he would ever admit it.

"That's it Neville!"

Theo's shout caught his attention and he looked to where they were all standing. The Court members were all surrounding Neville, teaching him a new spell.

They had spent the last weeks training Neville, so that he could be at their level. During the first few days Harry couldn't understand why Neville never seemed to be able to cast the most basic of spells, especially because Harry was able to feel his magic and knew that it was a fair bit above average.

Only after Neville confessed that his grandmother forced him to use his father's wand, did they realize the problem. As they couldn't do anything about it at the moment, they decided to help him as much as they could and at least make sure that he had the theory down.

They agreed to meet up at Diagon Alley during the Yule break, where they would be buying him a wand, and there would be no need to tell his grandmother. At the beginning Neville was a bit against it, he was afraid of what his grandmother would do, but Harry was able to persuade him.

Neville fit in well with the group, it was astonishing the changes he was going through. He was still a little shy but they were taking care of it and Harry was sure that by the end of the school year Neville would be a completely different person.

Hearing the door opening, Harry looked back and as soon as he saw his two Demons he knew that something wasn't right.

"Fred? George?" he asked, looking at both, making the others look in their direction.

The twins sat on the chairs available in front of him, and the others joined them when they saw their expressions.

The twins put an old, worn out parchment on the table and Harry raised a brow.

"George and I found this parchment in our first year. How we found it isn't important, if you want to know we can always tell you later."

It was extremely rare to see Fred and George with such serious expressions, so they listened closely, though Harry had a bad feeling about this, because the fury in the twins' eyes was visible for all of them to see, and to leave the twins in that state, well, it couldn't be anything good.

"The important thing is to know what this parchment does," George continued when Fred stopped, "The parchment is a map."

"A map of Hogwarts." added Fred.

"That shows were everyone is in the castle, and on it's grounds."

Harry was certain that he had the same expression as his friends. His Demons had a gold mine in their possession. And that certainly explained how they had been able to find them the previous year and how they could walk around the castle without being caught.

"Since we heard that Black managed to get inside the castle, we are always looking at the map. We take turns, even at night, first one of us sleeps then the other. A couple of weeks ago Fred saw something, someone, that shouldn't be on the map."

"He shouldn't be alive much less on the map."

"And you have to take into account that the map is never wrong."

"Who appeared on the map?" Harry asked, keeping his voice calm and controlled.

"Peter Pettigrew."

"The wizard Black killed?" Graham asked incredulously.

"The same wizard." confirmed George.

"As you can imagine, we found that rather odd, so we sent a letter to Marcus, to see if he could get us the files on the Black trial, just so we could confirm the name, who knows, we might have heard or read it wrong, it wouldn't hurt to make sure we were right," Fred explained, "Marcus answered back last week, he said there were no files whatsoever about Black's trial, there wasn't even a record of there ever having been a trial for Black."

"They put Black in Azkaban without a trial." Draco whispered.

"That's what we thought too." agreed George.

"George and I started to keep a closer eye on the dot that said Peter Pettigrew."

"You can't imagine how shocked we were when we saw the dot was almost always in the Gryffindor common room, or in the boys' third year dorms. And there was always someone close by, usually our brother Ron."

"But we managed to get it alone two days ago and followed him."

"It was trying to leave the castle, it was a rat," George told them, "But it wasn't just any rat, it was Scabbers, our brother's pet."

"For just a few moments we thought that the map was wrong. We stunned it anyway, better safe than sorry, you know? We were thinking about what we should do, when we remembered certain coincidences."

"Yes, for example, the rat appeared in our backyard, the day after Pettigrew's death. It was missing a finger, and the only thing they found of Pettigrew was his finger. Besides, rats don't live for over a decade."

"Animagus. That was the first thing that came to our minds." Fred ended their explanation gravely and Harry understood why.

Only a person who was guilty of something would spend over a decade alone, hiding as a rat.

"Where is the rat?" asked Harry, his thoughts on overdrive.

Fred and George shared a look and took out of the backpack they had with them a glass container, and inside of it was an ordinary, fat, gray rat.

"We've been keeping it stunned, or immobilized, and we charmed the box unbreakable. We have been learning a spell that can be cast on animals to show if they are an animagus or not; if it glows green it's an animal, if it glows red it's an animagus. That's why we didn't say anything before; we wanted to have the means to prove it, one way or another." Fred informed him.

"Wake it up and cast the spell." Harry ordered, his voice colder than usual.

Fred nodded and pointed his wand at the rat, Harry wanted to see how the thing behaved when it was awake. As soon as it woke it looked around, and when it saw them looking at it, it started to run around the glass box, trying to get away, though Fred's aim didn't fail and he hit the rat with the spell. They were all holding their breath, and after what felt like an eternity, but was no longer than a few seconds, the rat glowed red.

Harry knelt on the floor, so that he was at the same height as the rat, who had stilled completely in it's cage, and was looking at Harry with what appeared to be panic, though he wasn't sure, it was quite difficult to tell, with it being a rat.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Harry asked voice filled with malicious glee, "Hello Peter."

"What did you do with the rat?" Blaise asked the following morning.

"It's in a safe place," answered Harry with a wicked smile, "I'm still deciding the best use for it."

None of his friends could help the chuckle that escaped them, they knew perfectly well what kind of treatment Harry was going to give the rat. They had heard often enough how he didn't have anyone to test some curses that he found interesting on.

They shook their heads and left the common room, it was the week-end and most students were still sleeping, the only reason they were up was because they wanted to have a little morning training.

So it was pure coincidence that they happened to pick a different route to their training room, and that they were up that early, it was pure coincidence that made them go past that particular broom cupboard.

"Shut up." ordered Harry, trying to better hear the sound that he knew he had previously heard.

The other five went immediately quiet, looking at Harry curiously. Draco was about to ask what was wrong, when they all heard the noise.

It was coming from behind the door on Harry's right, and he had heard enough to identify it as someone crying.

He thought about ignoring it. It was, after all, not likely that it had anything to do with him, but he remembered Neville and changed his mind, maybe he could get something out of it.

Signaling his friends to stop, he walked towards the door and opened it. It was a broom cupboard, it was full of junk and what he assumed were cleaning supplies, and sitting on the floor was a girl. A naked girl.

Harry's brain needed a few seconds to process what he was seeing, but as soon as he did, he started to analyze it.

The girl had a few scratches throughout her body, but aside from that she looked fine, and Harry thanked Merlin that the girl hadn't been more hurt, or worse, raped. No matter how sadistic he was, there were several things he didn't tolerate, and rape was one of them, especially since the girl didn't look older than eleven, twelve at the most.

"Hey," he said in a soft and warm voice, not wanting to scare the girl.

A silvery blond head, with long hair framing a doll-like face, with big blue eyes filled with tears, looked at him. The girl didn't try to cover herself, nor did she speak.

"I'm Harry, what's your name?"

"Luna." the girl answered after several long seconds, in a sweet and dreamy voice.

"Hello Luna. Aren't you cold?"

Luna nodded, it was a very small movement, almost non-existent, but it was enough for Harry to smile, at least the girl was reacting. Not even thinking about it he took off his coat and wrapped it around Luna.

"Luna, I would like for you to come with us, so we can heal those scratches and give you something to wear. Alright?"

Luna's eyes found his and Harry felt like she was looking at his soul, but even so he didn't break eye contact. What seemed like an eternity later, Luna seemed satisfied with whatever it was she had seen, because she nodded and got up, holding the coat close to her body.

"Draco, go get the other three. As soon as they arrive, take them to my room." Harry instructed, wrapping his arm around Luna's waist and pulling her close. He didn't know if they would run into someone, but in case they did he would prefer to have Luna close to him, and started walking back to the Slytherin common room. The others, seeing Harry's intention, walked around them, forming a barrier that hid Luna from view.

Fortunately, they didn't meet anyone and the common room was also empty, which wasn't really that surprising; it was a little after half past six in the morning, and it was a Saturday, so it was no wonder that the students were still sleeping, or at least in their rooms.

After Harry gave Luna permission to enter his room, he sat her on his bed, while the others sat on the couches that were near the windows, where Harry had created a small sitting room.

"Luna, Adrian is going to heal all these scratches, ok? You can trust him."

Again, it felt like Luna was looking into his soul.

"I trust you, Harry Potter." she ended up answering in that same dreamy tone.

Harry smiled and called Adrian over, after seeing that Luna had no trouble with Adrian, he stepped a bit away.

"Dobby." he called, not raising his voice above more than a whisper.

Almost instantaneously a house-elf appeared. Though he belonged to the Malfoys, he was fanatically loyal to Harry. Lucius had even said that he had pondered giving him to Harry as a birthday gift, since the elf was so loyal to him, but Harry refused, saying that he had no house for the elf to work in, but that as soon as he got a place, and if the offer still stood, then he would accept. But that didn't stop Dobby from doing everything that Harry asked of him, even if Harry wasn't his Master.

"Young Master Harry Potter sir, what can Dobby be doing for the young Master?" and it also didn't stop him from calling Harry Master.

"Dobby, I need you to buy some clothes for Luna, you have my permission to take the money from my vault. Buy whatever you think is necessary and bring it to Luna."

"Yes Master." and with a soft pop he was gone.

"You didn't have to do that. My clothes would have ended up appearing somewhere."

Harry turned around and saw Luna looking at him, with her big blue eyes a bit glazed over, as if she wasn't really there.

"I know that I didn't have to. I did it because I wanted to. Why don't you go take a warm bath, so that you can warm up a bit?"

"Alright Harry Potter, I'll go. You can talk to your Court."

Trying not to show how much what she said had shocked him, Harry showed her where the bathroom was and where she could find towels and such, and when he was done he went to sit with his friends. A little more than a minute later Draco appeared, followed by Fred, George, and Neville.

"Hey, what's going on? Draco didn't say." asked Fred, sitting in an empty spot.

Harry told them what had happened and Fred and George traded a look.

"Is she blond, small, with big blue eyes, and looks a bit dreamy and not all there?" asked Fred. When Harry nodded, George continued.

"She's Luna Lovegood. She lives near us, her father owns the Quibbler. Most people call her Loony because she's a bit odd."

"She was always ridiculed by the students, I guess the bullying escalated." added Fred.

"I'm relieved that she wasn't raped." confessed Graham, his eyes were haunted and they all looked at him with sympathy. Few people knew, but Graham had a younger sister. During Graham's second year, his parents had gone to muggle London on business and had taken the little girl with them. They ended up separating and his parents lost track of her in the crowd. She was found a few hours later, murdered and brutally raped, she had been only nine. They never found who did it, they don't even know if it was a muggle or a wizard, though the Aurors believed it to be a wizard, because there were traces of accidental magic. So they believed it was a wizard because they don't think that a muggle would have been able to do what had been done, considering the way the little girl's magic had reacted, it had blasted a hole in the brick wall, and there were several burn marks, showing signs of something burning, they were certain that a muggle wouldn't have been able to deal with it. The best theory that they had, is that someone snatched her in the crowed, either someone who had a grudge against the family, or simply someone who saw her as easy prey. Harry was sure that this situation had brought back all those bad memories.

"If that had happened there would have been one less person alive in the castle by the end of the day." Harry said, making more than one of them shiver; those eyes promised a long and agonizing death.

Neville was the only one who had never seen that side of Harry; he knew that it existed, since the other members had told him about several situations that had happened before he joined the Court.

At first he hadn't known how he would react if, no, not if, when, he saw that darker side of Harry, but at least now he knew why the others had that awed tone when they spoke about certain situations. Harry's magic was addictive, and every time he let down his mask, every time he showed that darker side of himself, his magic almost poured out of his body, letting them bask in the feel of it surrounding them.

Never in his life had it occurred to him that he would associate with someone like Harry, but here he was, being a part of a group in which most members were somehow connected to the people that tortured his parents to insanity, Draco was even their nephew. Not for the first time he asked himself what his parents would have said about the situation. He asked himself what the future would bring, since he was surrounded by people that were so obviously Dark, and he knew that he was being influenced by them. Only last month he would have freaked out if he had heard anyone talk about killing someone with such ease in such a matter of fact tone, now though, the only thing that had crossed his mind was that he hoped that Harry would prolong their death for as long as possible and make it as painful as possible. Did that make him a Dark wizard? Did it make him evil? He honestly didn't know, and a part of him told him that he should be more worried about it than he was. But another part of him, a bigger part of him, remembered how the Light had treated him, and if he had to choose between one or the other, well, let's just say that it wasn't a choice at all, he would pick the Court any day. They accepted him just the way he was, and if Luna had been raped and he told them that that he wanted the one responsible to suffer, he was sure that they wouldn't judge him. He knew that they would continue to treat him as they always had, by Morgana, he was certain that they would even teach him a few curses to cause the suffering.

It was funny how that thought was strangely comforting. Being accepted unconditionally was strange, something he had never felt before, but it was what Harry and the Court were offering, the least he could do was return the favor; accept them just as they were, unconditionally, sadistic tendencies and all. And knowing that they trusted him enough to share that side of themselves with him was, as he'd said, comforting.

The door to the bathroom opened and took him out of his thoughts, it caught the others' attention as well.

"Luna, I hope that you like the clothes." Harry said, gesturing to an armchair for Luna to sit.

"Oh, yes," Luna answered, giving a little twirl, making the bottom half of the dress spin a little, "It's really pretty." and Luna was right, the dress was rather nice, it was a silver color, and the material it was made of, made it look almost liquid, and the blue belt complemented the dress rather well. Harry would never admit it, but the dress made her look even more like a doll.

After Luna sat down, Harry asked the question that had been on his mind.

"Who did that to you?"

"They think I'm strange. Sometimes girls can be far more cruel than boys." she answered, though it wasn't an answer that satisfied him, it was better than nothing. At least they knew that it had been girls from Ravenclaw, at least he hoped it was only Ravenclaws.

"You will be having breakfast with us, at the Slytherin table." Harry informed her.

"I know," Luna answered serenely, "Are you going to hurt them?" she asked in that dreamy voice of hers.

"I don't know yet. It depends on the reaction that they have after today."

"Hmm, alright." she replied smiling dreamily.

"I want you to tell me if they do anything, no matter what it is."

"Of course I will," Luna answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "I wouldn't be a very good minion if I didn't do what you ordered." she added, before she started humming a tune.

Harry traded a look with the others, they seemed just as lost as he was. Well, she really was quite odd, but who was he to judge? From what he had seen they were all far from normal, besides, who the hell would want to be normal. She would fit right in.

Laughing, Harry got up, followed closely by the others, and gave Luna a hand to help her up.

"Well, little Raven, welcome to the Court," said Harry with a smile.