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Master of Puppets

Author: USA Tiger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling and Puppet Master is the property of Full Moon Entertainment. I own neither.

Author Notes: I am so happy and trilled that so many people like this crossover and hope everyone enjoys the second chapter. And I’m trilled that so many people are curious about the Puppet Master series now, I hope that everyone that has checked it out has enjoyed the movies so far.

Also the rating has already jumped into the ‘R’ rating because of killer puppets.

More author notes at the bottom

This chapter is currently un-betaed. If anyone sees a mistake I missed, just drop me a line.

Chapter 2

“Here you go Mr. Potter,” a jolly older wizard with curly mustache and goatee said with a bright smile as he placed a bowl full of chocolate ice cream in front of Harry. Harry looked up from Toulon’s diary and gave the man a smile.

“Thank you Mr. Fortescue,” he said as he closed the book and placed it next to Jester.

“Interesting friend you have there Mr. Potter,” Fortescue said as he looked at the jester puppet sitting on the table. Jester made sure not to move, appearing to be nothing more than just a normal puppet.

“I’ve picked up on puppeteering,” Harry said. “It seems like a fun hobby.” Harry figured it would be a good excuse as to why he had several puppets with him, had even picked up a book or two on magical puppteering from the bookstore to back up his story. And honestly, after flipping one of the books, Harry was becoming interested in it, at least it looked fun.

“Well I’m glad a young lad like you is picking up an interesting hobby,” Fortescue said with a smile, patting Harry on the shoulder then walking away. Harry grinned brightly as he dug into the ice cream, Mr. Fortescue gave Harry free ice cream when he came to sit in the man’s shop so far during this summer. He had tried to leave money behind for the treats but Fortescue always returned it and after a while Harry gave up.

Harry glanced under the table as he felt Pinhead brush against his leg, his puppets were constantly with him when he left his room at the Leaky Cauldron. Blade and Pinhead were his most common companions and Harry couldn’t believe how protective they were of him.

Eating his ice cream with one hand, Harry picked up the diary again and continued where he left off. He was… learning quite a bit about his new friends. As he already found out it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies with the puppets, Toulon had them do some pretty horrible things to the Nazis during WWII but they had done horrible things to him first and it had been during a war. The Nazis had wanted his secret to bringing the puppets to life but he had refused to give it up. He could see why Dumbledore asked him not to tell anyone but his two best friends that the puppets were really alive. Harry had been shocked to find out Leech Woman was once the man’s wife Elsa.

Harry was also interested to learn that these puppets were not the originals, at one time Toulon had a different set of puppets that had been alive. Most of the current puppets shared similar designs and/or names with the original puppets barring one or two of them. He had found the cracked head of the one called Cyclops in the trunk back in his room at the pub, the rest of the original puppets had been destroyed during one fight or another or just became lost.

Harry also learned he was missing two puppets from Toulon’s later friends, one called Shredder Khan and another unfinished puppet called Ninja. He could only assume they had become lost between the years that Toulon died and Mr. Heinz had found the puppets. (1)

“I wonder if Ancient Runes would help me learn how to read that scroll,” Harry whispered to Jester. Toulon’s diary mentioned the original puppets had been brought to life by a spell instead of an elixir but he had lost the power to use the spell later in life.

“Ohhhh?” Jester asked.

“Well… maybe I’ll be able to translate the scroll if I took runes instead of say Divination,” Harry said. He really regretted putting his name down for Divination now, after reading a few of the books at the bookstore it seemed like a bunch of hooey. At least you needed to have the ‘inner eye’ to properly use it and Harry was quite sure he didn’t have that. Plus he had heard some stories about the professor that taught the class, Sybill Trelawney, from the older Gryffindors of how she was a drunk and had an obsession with death. Many said that was the easiest way to pass to class was to predict someone’s death, earning an easy ‘O’. That was the main reason Ron wanted to take the class because it was so easy and Harry signed up because his friend did.

Harry tapped his finger against the side of the ice cream bowl, he wanted to help the puppets in any way he could and knew the elixir Toulon created was running out. With careful use Harry could maybe stretch it out over a few more years but unless he found the formula or something, the puppets wouldn’t stand a chance. Toulon’s diary suggested that the original puppets didn’t have to keep being refreshed by the spell used on them, one time use as it were, but lost the ability to use the spell. Harry wondered that as a wizard if he could use learn and use the spell, if it worked at least for a while for Muggle it should work for him… he hoped so anyway.

“I’ll send an owl to Professor McGonagall to ask,” Harry decided as he closed the book and tucked it into his pocket to finish up his melting ice cream. Once he was done Harry picked up Jester and left the ice cream shop, faintly hearing the tap-tap-tap of Pinhead following behind them. It was amusing how no one seemed to notice the puppets when they shadowed Harry in the alley.

Harry headed down the alley toward the shop where he and Hagrid had picked out his trunk in his first ever trip to Diagon Alley. Not that there was anything wrong with Harry’s current school trunk, it was still very useable, but Toulon’s old trunk on the other hand… well it was falling apart to be quite honest. The locks on the front looked like they had been melted off, the sides of the trunk were peeling and Harry had no idea how the old trunk held together as well as it did. And he couldn’t really bring two trunks to Hogwarts so he was hoping to find a larger trunk to fit both his school things and the things from Toulon’s old trunk in. Plus he was hoping to find a small lock box to put some of the more important items like the diary, the elixir and the scroll with the Egyptian spell in for safety.

“Welcome to Leto’s Luggage and Trunks,” a bored sounding young man said as Harry entered the shop. Harry held the door open just long enough for Pinhead to slip in behind his legs then walked over to the counter where the young man was. The man straightened up in a hurry when he saw the lightning bolt scar on Harry’s forehead. “Yes Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?”

“I need a new trunk,” Harry said sheepishly. “The one I have already isn’t big enough anymore.”

“That’s ok Mr. Potter, with all the books and supplies you need at Hogwarts, sometimes students outgrow their trunks,” the boy said as he pulled out a book and started to flip through it. “Yeah, you got a standard trunk, not much expansion charms on it to make it bigger. So let me show you want we got in stock.”

“Thank you Mr…. ummm…” Harry hesitated as he didn’t know the young names name.

“Just call me Leto, same name as my granddad who owns the shop,” Leto said. “And none of that mister stuff either.”

“Alright,” Harry said with a grin. “I’m not sure what I need…”

“Well let’s look around,” Leto said eagerly, excited to be the one selling a new trunk to the Boy-Who-Lived. Like many others he was a fan of the boy and had been trying to capture a glimpse of the young hero in the alley but hadn’t been able to leave the shop. So to have the boy come into his granddad’s shop on his own… “So what sort of trunk did you have in mind?”

“Are there different types?” Harry asked. Jester looked around as well, being careful not to be caught by Leto moving while Pinhead kept to the shadows.

“Well you got the standard trunks, just one compartment,” Leto explained. “Some of expansion charms on them to make them bigger on the inside. Or…” Leon looked around before bending in close to Harry. “You could get a multi-compartment trunk. Most students don’t use them, not unless you’re an uppity pureblood, but I don’t think it’s against Hogwart’s rules.”

Harry thought about it for a moment, he could see the advantage of have a trunk with more than one compartment. He could use one for his school things and set up a second compartment for the puppets to use.

“Can we look at those then?” Harry asked. Leto grinned and motioned for Harry to follow him toward the back where the multi-compartment trunks stood waiting.

“Here we go, have everything from 2 to 5 compartment trunks,” Leto said with a flourished wave of his hand. “Some of the compartments are as big as rooms.”

“Do some of them have apartments in them,” Harry asked jokingly.

“We’ve tried to design some in the past,” Leto said with a serious nod. “But really the design was impractical, what if something is set on top of the trunk, you’d never get out of it then. Wizarding tents are much easier to deal with.” Harry blinked, he hadn’t been serious when he asked that.

“Well let me look at some of the 2 or 3 compartments then. I don’t need one with a big room, but plenty of space wouldn’t hurt,” Harry said. Leto showed Harry and Jester several different trunks, rattling off the features of each trunk. In the end Harry picked out a nice black trunk with 3 compartments and a strong security measure on it that insured Harry would be the only one getting into the trunk. Leto was a little confused when Harry asked if the third compartment could be rigged to where it could be opened from the inside but with a few extra galleons pushed his way he didn’t question the request. Harry and his two puppets watched as Leto spelled the trunk with everything Harry wanted, stamping Harry’s initials on top of the latch then handed over three keys, one for each compartment.

“If you don’t have any use for your old trunk Mr. Potter, you could always bring it back here,” Leto suggested as Harry finished paying for his new trunk, his coin purse several galleons lighter but worth every gold coin in Harry’s opinion.

“Hmm… oh yeah sure,” Harry said absently. “Could you spell this feather light?”

“Sure thing,” Leto said, fighting to keep the grin off his face. He was going to keep Harry’s old trunk for himself as a keepsake but he wasn’t going to tell the younger wizard that.

****

Back at the Leaky Cauldron, Tom helped Harry take his new trunk up to his room while Harry carried Jester and Pinhead.

“There you go Mr. Potter,” Tom said as he set the trunk down. “Anything else?”

“Well… I’m gonna need to take my old trunk back to the shop, they said they can resell it,” Harry said as he set the puppets down on the desk.

“Oh just leave the trunk out in the hallway with a note of where it’s going, I’ll have it delivered for you,” Tom said. Harry thanked Tom as he left then turned to look at the trio of trunks in his room.

“What do you guys think?” Harry asked as he opened the new trunk to the third compartment, setting the trunk on its end. “This one is all yours, I can set it up like Mr. Toulon did and you’ll be able to get out any time you want. As long as there isn’t something sitting on top or another compartment is open at the time that is.”

The puppets came over, looking at the trunk space Harry provided them. It was a little bigger than their old trunk, which they were sad to see go simply because it was one of their last links to their old friend and original master Andre but really as old as the trunk was and the damage it had taken over the years, all of them were surprised it hadn’t fallen apart by now. Harry grinned as the puppets nodded their approval of the new trunk.

With their help Harry carefully transferred everything from Toulon’s old trunk to his new one, sliding the shelves and drawers into place. The puppets didn’t seem to keep much for comforted, when the elixir ran out they were lifeless anyway and had no idea what was going on around them and even active and alive as they were, things that would make a human being uncomfortable didn’t both them anymore.

Next Harry started cleaning out his old trunk, throwing away bits of old parchment, broken quills and any other trash he found while moving his school books, potions kit and school robes over into the first compartment of the new trunk.

“Hmmm,” Leech Woman stopped Harry as he moved to pick up his clothing to put in the trunk, giving an ugly look at the rags.

“Sorry, this is all I have to wear,” Harry said. “My relatives never bought me any new clothing, I just get Dudley’s old stuff.” Leech Woman did not look happy with this news and patted Harry’s coin purse while looking at the rags. Harry frowned as he puzzled out the meaning of her actions. “You think I should buy new clothing? I wish I could but I don’t think they sell muggle clothing in the alley and I can’t leave to go into the muggle side of London, I know Tom would stop me. Of course I could use my cloak to sneak out…” Harry mused over the idea. He was use to wearing Dudley’s cast offs and while he hated wearing them he never really gave any thought of buying himself new stuff.

Part of him was worried though, he didn’t want the Dursleys knowing about his family’s money as he was sure his greedy uncle Vernon would insist he ‘share’ with his ‘loving’ family. And unless a miracle happened Harry would be returning to his relative’s house at the end of the school year like he had for the last two years. On the other hand with this new trunk he may be able to hide any new clothing he got in the second compartment and would only have to wear his cast offs while at his Aunt’s house.

“We’ll see about getting new stuff tomorrow, I have to convert some wizarding money into muggle,” Harry said his decision made. It would be nice to own something new and that would fit him, something he could wear around the school without having to wear one of the heavy school robes over it. The puppets looked happy with his decision.

*****

The next morning Harry swung his invisibility cloak on around his shoulders and carefully opened the door, peering out into the hallway. Blade, Pinhead and Tunneler stood under the cloak with him, marveling at the handy object.

“Let’s go,” Harry whispered as they slipped out of his room. He had gone the afternoon before to Gringotts to exchange his money for pounds, enough to buy him a couple of pairs of pants and a few shirts and maybe a new pair of shoes for sure. He was currently dressed in his best pair of school pants and a Weasley’s jumper so whatever store he went too didn’t think he was some sort of beggar and thief.

He was also very grateful that the mirror in his room was charmed not to tell anyone that happened in his room and had a spell on it that would erase everything from the charmed looking glass every time the person staying in the room left. Tom had assured him of that after the first night he stayed at the inn, several muggleborns and half bloods had complained about their privacy in the past that the spells had been placed on all the mirrors in each room. If the mirror had remembered anything it would have told Tom about the puppets and his plans for today.

Downstairs Harry and the trio of puppets waited by the door for it to open, Harry’s skinny frame slipping through door as it closed easily. He went down several streets under his cloak, careful not to bump into anyone until he felt he was far enough away to not be seen by any stray wizard or witch. Ducking into an alleyway to pull his cloak off and stuff it in a bag, Harry looked down at his small friends.

“You’ll be alright right?” He asked softly. “You won’t be seen?” Blade nodded to let his master know they would be safe and able to keep an eye on their young master. Harry nodded back then left the alleyway after making sure no one was watching. Finding information about where he could find someplace to shop was easy, there were stores close to Kings Cross station he could use.

Once he found a store suited to his needs, Harry easily lied about his luggage being lost on a train and needing a few things to wear until he was able to return home and that his parents sent him in the store alone while they shopped someplace else. Thankfully the store clerk seemed to buy it and helped Harry find a few pairs of pants and shirts to buy. Harry also bought a pair of comfy boots and a new pair of trainers, he had more than enough to pay for all the clothing and enough money left over for other things.

Once Harry stood outside the store, a couple of bags worth of clothing on one arm, he looked around to see what else was there. Seeing a book store on the corner, Harry headed that way drawn to it. Inside it was cool, a stark difference from the heat outside and Harry was glad he exchanged his jumper for one of his new shirts before leaving the clothing store.

“Morning!” A girl behind the counter said cheerfully. “Anything I can help you look for?”

“Anything on Egypt? Or maybe puppets?” Harry asked.

“Puppets would be in the hobby section,” The girl said. “Anything particular on Egypt?”

“Ummm… maybe some of its myths or maybe… their magic?” Harry asked rubbing one of his arms. “Just out of curiosity.”

“Oh don’t worry, I like looking up books on the occult myself. I don’t believe in any of that stuff but it’s fun to read,” the girl said with a grin. “Well, try the world culture aisle and maybe the occult section. Hey, want to leave your bags over here behind the counter? I’ll keep an eye on them for you until you’re done.”

“Really? That would be great,” Harry said with a smile, handing his bags over. The girl tucked them under the counter and watched the boy disappear into the aisles of books. She sighed to herself, the boy was a cutie but too young for her, if only he was a little older… She never noticed the trio of puppets that followed Harry down the book aisles.

Harry browsed the hobby section first, picking up a couple of books dealing with how to create and repair puppets. He didn’t know if he ever wanted to make a puppet of his own, not of course to place a soul in he didn’t think he could ever do that to anyone, but he thought it could be useful if he ever needed to repair one of his friends. Harry also found a book on the history of puppets and puppeteering, looking through the index he was surprised to see Toulon’s name there.

“Hey look, Mr. Toulon’s name is in here,” he whispered to the puppets as he knelt down to show them, turning to the page. It wasn’t much, just a brief history on the man and his years of puppeteering, being famous for his stingless puppets. Harry decided to get the book anyway even if there wasn’t much on Andre Toulon. The puppets made soft sounds as they looked at the photo of their first master as they remembered him in his later years.

Over in the occult section Harry found a book stuffed back behind others on a shelf about Egyptian magics, he wasn’t sure how useful the book was going to be since it was a muggle book but he didn’t really have any other leads. He also picked up a book on Egyptian history and its pantheon of gods.

“So is this all?” The clerk asked as Harry returned.

“Yeah,” Harry said as he paid.

“Well if you need any other books to read, just stop by,” the girl said with a wink as she handed Harry a bag with the books and his bags of clothing. Harry blushed and quickly hurried out the door making the girl giggle. Her giggles caught off as something small and dark darted out the door after Harry. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. “What the bloody… I think I’ve been working too hard, I could have sworn I just say a doll with a drill on its head….”

****

Harry quickly headed down the road with his bags of clothing and books, heading back toward Charring Cross Road to sneak back into the Leaky Cauldron. Hopefully Tom hadn’t entered his room to check on him and discovered that he was gone. He was nearing the alleyway where he had hid to take off his cloak, just one more block…

Harry yelped as someone grabbed him from the alleyway he was passing, a hand covering his mouth before any more sound could escape. The Puppets quickly took off after Harry and his attacker.

“Well well, what do we have here?” An oily sounding man’s voice asked in Harry’s ear. “A little rich boy who’s mummy and daddy let him go shopping all by himself?” Harry struggled and bit down on the hand covering his mouth, dropping all his bags to the ground during the struggle. He gagged slightly at the taste of dirt and blood while the man howled in pain and ripped his hand away.

“Let me go!” Harry said as he struggled harder only to stop as a cold sharp knife pressed again his neck.

“Listen here you little shite, be a good boy or I’m going to make you regret crossing me,” the mugger said. Harry’s breath quickened slightly, swallowing heavily as the knife pressed a little harder against his throat, slicing the skin a little and a trickle of blood pouring down his neck. “Understand?”

“Y-yes,” Harry said, wishing he could reach his wand but the man too tight of a grip on his arms to reach where his wand was in his pocket.

“Good, now hand over all you- ARGGEEEE!!!!!” As the man talked Blade rushed forward and sliced his knife against the back of the man’s legs, cutting deeply and making the man loose his balance. He dragged Harry down with him, grunting as Harry kicked him and rolled away to the wall on the other side of the alley. Harry gasped in pain as the pavement scraped his arms and quickly pressed a hand to his neck over the cut.

The mugger screamed in pain and fear as Pinhead held him down by the shoulders and Blade jumped on his chest, his knife hand quickly swing side to side as he cut up the man’s face. The man tried to get up but Pinhead kept him pin to the ground as Blade jumped off the man. (2)

“Make them stop!” The man begged. Harry said nothing to stop his Puppets, not only was he too shocked to but part of him wanted this man to suffer for attacking him. The man and Harry’s attention was drawn to Tunneler as the drill on top of his head started to spin and Tunneler leaned forward, running at the man drill first right into his chest over his heart. The man’s screams quickly turned into a wet gurgle as he spit up blood as Tunneler’s sharp drill dug into his heart. The mugger’s body jerked and twitched in death then went deadly still.

Harry stood on shaky legs, he needed to get out of here before anyone discovered him with the dead body. He looked down at the three Puppets, who had just tortured and murdered a man in the most brutal way. There was blood dripping off Blade’s knife hand and Tunneler’s whole head was covered with blood and pits of gore. Would their young master reject them now? Harry looked back at them and quickly made his decision. He had already known the Puppets killed Nazis in the past and they had only attack and killed the man because he had attacked and hurt Harry. He had had some idea what he was getting into with the puppets and wouldn’t abandon them now.

“Come on, we need to get out of here,” Harry said as he gathered his bags then took out his invisibility cloak, throwing it around himself then picked up the Puppets, running down the road toward the Leaky Cauldron, careful not to brush up against anyone on the way.

As soon as Harry disappeared under his cloak and his footsteps could no long be heard, a large shaggy black dog stepped out of the shadow. The dog’s stormy grey eyes looked over at dead mugger, growling low in its throat, then looked at the mouth of the alley way. Seeing that no one was coming into the alley, the dog’s shaped blurred and was instantly was replaced by a gaunt looking man with stringy black hair and a scruffy looking beard.

The man was Sirius Black, and escaped prisoner of the British wizarding world’s worst prison ever Azkaban. He was accused of being the Dark Lord Voldemort’s right had man and for selling out the Potters to the dark lord. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. While he did come from a very dark family, Sirius would have never ever followed the dark tosser for he was firmly on the side of good. And he certainly would have never betrayed the Potters. James, who was his cousin as well as his best friend, had been his brother in all but blood, a closer and better brother that his real brother Regulus. Lily, James’s wife, had also become a really close friend when they started dating and later married. And Harry, his sweet little Godson, Sirius could never betray that sweet baby. He loved Harry as if the boy had been his own son.

If only he hadn’t trusted that little rat Pettigrew. He thought he was being so clever, that his family would be so safe. Everyone knew he would be the secret keeper so what better way to throw people off than to make their good buddy Peter the secret keeper? Peter who was magically weaker and a bit of a coward but every so loyal… Well looked how that worked out. That little traitor had been working for Voldemort the whole time and told his master where the Potter’s were the first chance he got. And Sirius never got to tell anyone what happened! They tossed him in a cell at Azkaban as soon as he was caught, never once gave him a trial. Then he had seen the newspaper… saw that little rat on the Weasley boy’s shoulders and Merlin… what if Wormtail tried to hurt his little Harry?

So he escaped, slipped through the bars of his cell one night in his dog from, escaped from the prison and swam to shore. First thing he did was go check on his pup but that had taken time. He wasn’t living with the Longbottom’s, Alice had been Harry’s godmother and he knew what happen to her and Frank already, and everywhere else he checked he couldn’t find Harry! Not even with his good cousin Andromeda Tonks and her family. His heart had frozen when he thought of one place his pup would be but surely no one was that stupid to put Harry with that horrid woman? But checked he did, though it took a bit of remembering where Lily’s sister lived, only to find his beloved godson running away dragging a heavy trunk behind him.

Why? Whywhywhy? Why would anyone place Harry with Petunia Dursley nee Evans? Lily’s older sister had hated sweet Lily and Lily and James had both put into their wills that Harry was never to go to her! He was sorry he had scared his pup that night but at least Harry was able to summon the Knight Bus and he had stuck around long enough to hear Harry request the Leaky Cauldron. Knowing his pup was safe Sirius resumed making his way to Hogwarts to hunt down that /rat/.

Sirius’s current plan was to get to King’s Cross station and follow along the rail road tracks that the Hogwarts Express took. It was purely by chance he had been passing the alley way when he caught Harry’s scent and heard his godson’s voice, rushing down to save his pup only to arrive in time to see those weird doll things attack the man. He had been afraid they were turn and attack Harry next so he was a little shock when Harry picked them up and swooped out of the alley way.

“If those things with my pup hadn’t already killed you,” Sirius growled down at the corpse, giving it a swift kick to the chest. Sirius ignored the blood on his stolen boots as he started to pace back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t just leave the man here to be found, he wasn’t sure what was going with Harry and those clearly dark dolls but he had to protect his pup. No, he had to get rid of the body.

With a manic grin Sirius turned and used the wand he stolen from one of the guards at Azkaban, turning the body into a little wooden statue. He picked it up and tossed it into the trash bin then banished all the blood and gore that painted the brick walls of the alley. Then he set the trash inside the bin on fire, destroying all evidence then quickly turned into a dog and ran off as someone noticed the smoke from the bin. He wondered just how the Muggles noticed that but not someone screaming in death.

‘Eh, muggles, don’t notice anything right in front of their noses,’ Padfoot thought as he disappeared into the shadows.

***

Once Harry reached the Leaky Cauldron he slowed down, watching people enter and exit the door. It was a lot busier now than it was when he left that morning. He timed it carefully then slipped in behind a group of wizards that were laughing and joking with each other. The young wizard then carefully made his way through the pub to the stairs in the back that lead up to the inn rooms.

He breathed a sigh of relief once he was safe in his room, pulling his cloak off and setting the puppets on the floor. The other puppets quickly joined them as Harry slid to the floor, his back against the door. Tunneler, Blade and Pinhead looked at each other worried about how Harry was going to reach.

“Hee hee hee,” Six-shooter’s laugh broke Harry out of his thoughts.

“I… I’m a bit weirded out by what just happen… you killed that guy,” Harry said as he stood up and walked into the little bathroom. He winced as he looked at the cut on his neck, he needed to put a plaster on that, then grabbed a flannel from the towel rack. He held it under the water in the sink then walked back out into the main room. “I-I knew that you guys killed people before of course, Mr. Toulon’s diary said so. I guess I’m just shocked to see it.” Harry sat down on the floor again and picked up Tunneler, starting to clean the blood off the puppet’s drill and face. “But… you saved my life and you didn’t attack that man until after he had already attacked me first. You guys really are looking out for me aren’t you?”

The puppets nodded making Harry smile slightly, he never had anyone really look out for him before, except maybe his friends. The feeling was really nice and was glad to have the puppets with him… if they were little murderers.

‘Well can’t say that guy didn’t deserve it,’ Harry mused as he wiped off the last of the blood on Tunneler’s face and let the drill-headed puppet jump down to the floor, cleaning off Blade’s knife hand next as the grim-faced looking puppet held it up. ‘Who knows how many other people that guy has mugged like that. He may have even killed people in the past, or at least really hurt them. I can’t say I’m really all that upset by what happen, just shocked to see to see some killed so brutally.’

Harry tossed the flannel into the clothes basket by the door, hoping no one will ask why it was covered with blood, and got a first aid kit that he had Hermione send him at the start of summer out of his trunk to take care of the cut on his neck.

Harry was startled a few minutes later by a knocking on his room door.

“Mr. Potter?” Tom’s voice said from the other side of the door. “Are you alright in there?” Harry quickly tossed a school robe on over his bloodied clothing, the puppets running to hide as he opened the door. “Ah, there you lad.”

“Is there a problem?” Harry asked.

“No no, no problem,” Tom said with a mostly toothless grin. “Just wondering where you were, I hadn’t seen you all day, usually you’re out in the alley by now. You’re not sick are you?”

“No, I’m fine time, really,” Harry said with an easy smile. “Just thought I would have a lazy day today and sleep in while I have the chance. Don’t really get to during the school year you know.” Tom laughed and nodded his head, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Ah, lazy summer days, guess everyone needs one,” he said. “Well you missed breakfast so how about I bring you up some lunch.”

“That would be wonderful Tom,” Harry said. “I’ll just have whatever the special is.” Tom nodded and left, his mind at ease knowing Harry was just up in his room all morning. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and quickly closed and locked the door. “That was close.”

Harry quickly changed his blood stained clothing out for something clean, hoping the blood would come out of his school pants and his new shirt, into a pair of loose lounge pants and a sleep shirt, giving off the illusion he really had been sleeping in. He quickly placed the rest of his bags into the bathroom just as somebody knocked on the door. On the other side was one of Tom’s servers who chatted happily as she floated a tray full of food and a couple of bottles of butter beer onto the desk in the room. After making sure Harry didn’t need anything the girl left, leaving Harry to his own devices. He locked the door and went over to see what Tom had sent up, starving after missing breakfast and everything else that morning. His stomach grumbled happily as he sent what looked like a stew with a healthy hunk of bread on the side and a treacle tart for dessert.

***

Days later it was near the end of summer. Harry had spent the rest of his day within the safety of Diagon Alley, no one had questioned him about his new clothing but then again he had mostly worn his school robes on top of his old cast-offs so few people knew about them anyway. Neither Tom nor any of his employees had questioned Harry about the blood-soaked washcloth or clothing, which was good since he couldn’t think of a good excuse to explain it away. Since he had bought new muggle clothing, Harry had gone ahead and got him a few robes and cloaks that weren’t school related. It made him feel like a proper wizard at times. He had also gotten a letter back from Professor McGonagall, approving his elective change from Divination to Ancient Runes. In fact Harry could have almost sworn that his Head of House almost sounded gleeful about it. Ron would be disappointed he knew when his friend found out.

Speaking of Ron, he and his family were suppose to come to Diagon Alley, getting their school things and staying the night before heading off to Hogwarts the next day. Hermione was going to be here too, he couldn’t wait to introduce them to the puppets.

He grinned as he heard the familiar voices of the Weasley’s outside of his door as he pulled on his new boots. He quickly opened the door to his room as Fred and George, Ron’s told twin brothers, playfully bantered back and forth who would wake up ‘icky little Harry-kins’.

“Harry!” Ron said with a grin when he noticed the door was open.

“Ron, how was your trip to Egypt?” Harry asked as he pulled his friend into his room then quickly shut the door before the twins got it into their mind to follow. He heard Percy, the third Weasley son, bellow from down the hall about the twins stealing his Head Boy badge. “Percy is Head Boy?”

“Uhgg yes, the prat hasn’t shut up about it,” Ron said with a roll of his eyes. He sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed. “Egypt was great, Bill took us to see all kinds of things. The twins tried to shut Percy up in a pyramid but Mum stopped them in time. You should have seen this one freaky sight mate, it was dedicated to this old evil Egyptian god, Set-something or other.”

“You mean Sutekh?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, that might have been one of the names for the god I think,” Ron said. Around the room the Puppets looked at each other, Sutekh was the god who tried to kill their master Toulon in the past before they were created then tried to kill one of their other good masters Rick twice. They and Decapitron, the puppet that housed Toulon’s soul, had defeated Sutekh and his unholy creations and had weaken the god. Blade hoped this didn’t mean the old god was going to come back. “Anyway how was your summer?”

Harry told Ron a bit about the start of his summer, about Marge and how he accidently blew the woman up then spent the rest in Diagon Alley.

“Blimey mate, the whole summer by yourself in Diagon Alley,” Ron said in a wistful tone, wondering what it would be like.

“Yeah it’s been nice, a great break from my relatives,” Harry agreed. “Too bad I’ll likely have to go back to their house next year. But staying here isn’t the most awesome thing that happen.”

“What could be better than stay here in the alley?” Ron asked then scratched the side of his head. “Well I guess as few things are better.” Harry laughed softly at his friend.

“No, I meant something I found here. During the summer I came across this old junk shop and ended up buying this old trunk that use to belong of a man name Andre Toulon.”

“Who’s he?” Ron asked.

“An old French man who was a puppeteer,” Harry said. “It’s the puppets that were special.”

“Special how?” Ron asked confused.

“Come on out guys,” Harry said turning to the room. Ron’s mouth dropped open as a bunch of weird looking, and even slightly creepy, doll-like puppets came out of hiding. There were six puppets in all, lined up in front of them on the floor.

“Bloody hell!” He said.

“Ron, these are my new friends,” Harry said. “That’s Blade, Jester, Pin-head, Tunneler, Leech Woman and Six-shooter.” He pointed to each puppet in turn.

“Friends?” Ron asked he was eyeing Six-shooter a little nervously; the puppet’s multi-arms reminded him of a spider.

“Yeah, they’re alive Ron,” Harry said.

“Alive? How is that possible? Are you sure they aren’t just under really good animation charms?” Ron asked. He watched as one of the puppets, the one Harry called Jester, walk over to the room’s desk and pick up a small diary from the top then brought it over to Harry.

“Thanks Jester,” Harry said as he took it then turned to Ron holding up the little book. “In here Mr. Toulon wrote about how he transferred the souls of a bunch of his friends and his wife into the puppets after they were killed by Nazis. The puppets are really alive, it’s not just a charm that lets them move around and stuff. They can think and feel like a person.”

“Harry, are you sure that’s safe?” Ron hissed in a whisper. He thought back on the dairy that his younger sister Ginny had the year before, how the dark magic inside had tried to consume her soul so Voldemort could have a new body. Or at least that’s how Harry explained it later to him and Hermione. “I mean that’s dark magic mate! Maybe we should take them to my dad.”

“No Ron,” Harry said firmly. “Professor Dumbledore has already checked them out and said that they are alright.”

“…. The professor knows about them?” Ron asked his thoughts grinding to a halt. When Harry nodded Ron quickly rethought the puppets, Dumbledore was well respected by his family and most of the wizarding world as a whole. If the headmaster said these weird looking puppets were ok…. “So they really are alive?” He asked as he calmed down.

“Yeah and they are really protective,” Harry said. “At least one of them is always with me when I leave the inn. Professor Dumbledore said I’m a ‘Puppet Master’ or something.”

“So you can order them around?” Ron asked, he watched as the puppets seem to relax a bit and were sitting down in various places in the room.

“Err… I guess but why would I?” Harry said. “They’re living people in the bodies of puppets, they have their own feelings.”

“Ohhh,” Jester said, happy that Harry felt that way. Their good masters were like that as well, they never really ordered the puppets around like their bad masters had.

“Hmm… guess I never thought of it that way,” Ron said as he looked down at Jester who was sitting on the bed with him and Harry. He jumped when Jester’s head started to spin. Harry laughed softly at the startled look, happy that Ron was accepting the puppets so easily once he told him Dumbledore okayed the puppets. Of course he wasn’t going to tell Ron or Hermione about the puppets murdering the mugger in the alleyway to save his life.

“Ron, you can’t tell anyone about the puppets being alive,” Harry said.

“Humm?” Ron looked up at Harry again.

“Dumbledore said I could only tell you and Hermione that they are really alive,” Harry said. “Everyone else needs to think they are puppets charmed to move.”

“Huh…. Guess that makes sense,” Ron said. “I mean it sounds like dark magic went into making them; that would make a lot of people unhappy.”

“So keep it a secret ya?” Harry asked.

“Sure thing mate,” Ron agreed. “Come on, Hermione said in her letter that she’s suppose to be here today too and I need to head to Magical Menagerie.”

“What for?” Harry asked, letting Jester climb onto his shoulder before standing up with Ron. Ron gave the jester looking puppet an odd look then shook his head, taking his pet rat Scabbers out of his breast pocket.

“I need some rat tonic,” he said as he held Scabbers out for Harry to see. The rat looked horrible Harry noticed. The usually fat gray rat had lost a lot of weight and was now missing large patches of fur all over his body.

“What happen?” Harry asked as they headed for the door, leaving it open long enough for Blade to slip out then headed down the hallway for the ground floor of the pub.

“I don’t know, he was fine at the start of the summer but a couple of weeks before we came back he just started getting sick,” Ron said in worry. He petted the rat then gently lowered him back into his pocket. Harry felt bad for Ron, he knew Scabbers was a hand-me down from his older brother Percy and had received the rat in his first year at Hogwarts since Percy had been given his own owl for making Prefect. The rat had always been fat and lazy, mostly just lying around sleeping day in and day out, but Ron had always done his best to take care of the useless rat.

“Well maybe at the store a vet that can look at him,” Harry offered.

“What’s a ‘vet’?” Ron asked confused.

“A doctor, err healer, for animals, it’s short for veterinarian,” Harry explained. Ron looked confused for a second more then shook his head, he never would understand muggles. A healer just for animals?

“Harry! Ron!” An excited squeal came from the other side of the pub, alerting the two boys that Hermione was there right before she hugged each of them.

“Ello Hermione, how was your summer?” Harry asked with a grin.

“It was very exciting,” Hermione said. “I have a lot of fun and learned so much. Harry, what is that on your shoulder?”

“This is Jester, a puppet I bought this summer,” he said. Jester gave Hermione a little wave.

“A puppet?” Hermione asked with a frown. There was a little something creepy about it, like it was really looking at her. Which was silly, it had to just have a really good animation charm on it like the figurines she saw in some of the wizarding stores. “Are you looking forward the school year? I am, I can’t wait to start Ancient Runes.”

“Yeah, the runes in the book looked pretty interesting,” Harry agreed.

“Why would you be looking in the book?” Ron asked. “You’re not taking Ancient Runes.”

“Well… umm… Actually Ron I dropped Divination,” Harry said. “And asked Professor McGonagall if I could take runes instead. I mean I still got the book, I got it before I switched classes so you can have it if you want, but I’m not going to be there.”

“What! Why not?” Ron asked feeling a little betrayed.

“I feel like I need it Ron,” Harry said. “More so that just trying to get an easy grade. Besides, we still got Care of Magical Creatures together.” Ron huffed slightly then sighed, he didn’t understand why Harry would want to go for a harder class like Runes.

“I think you’re mad mate,” He said.

“So where are we going first?” Hermione asked as they entered the tiny courtyard behind the Cauldron. She quickly turned her head to look behind her when she thought she heard something moving and frowned when she didn’t see anything. Blade carefully peeked around the edge of the trash bin, watching as Hermione shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the boys.

“Magical Menagerie,” Harry said as the wall opened.

“Oh good! My parents said I can finally have a pet, I’m thinking of getting an owl…” The trio’s voices faded into the crowd as they entered the alley. Blade made a little panicked sound, the spikes in his eyes popping out and quickly ran for the quickly closing wall. He just managed to clear it and ran down the street after his young master, dodging feet of the many witch and wizards there.

****

Author notes: (1) Shedder Khan, or as some fans call him Shogun, is a living puppet that was seen right at the start of the first film and the ninth film but was never used beyond that. Ninja was a puppet in the ninth film that Toulon had been working on but never finished. The main character of that film laid the soul of his older brother into the Ninja puppet but the puppet died at the end of the film.

(2) In the movies Pinhead is really strong, he can easily drag a human body around so he can easily pin this guy to the ground.

Sakura Lisel – you didn’t have an account so I have to answer here. The puppet you are thinking of is called ‘Dr. Death’, he was one of the Retro puppets. They never really said what happen to him and the other Retro puppets, except for Cyclops, so it’s possible for other puppets Toulon made could come into the series. I already plan on including Torch much later.

Please remember everyone that this isn’t one of my main series fics I work on, so it won’t be updated as quickly as many of my other fanfics, it’s just a little side project I work on sometimes.