FicWad

“We’re… going to become… Animagus?” stuttered Neville.

Harry nodded, grinning like a mad man.

“But don’t you have to register tell the Ministry? I doubt they’d let a bunch of kids become Animagus.”

“That’s why were not going to tell them. We’re going to become rogue Animagus like my dad. None of them ever registered.” explained Harry.

The group was silent for a moment, before Ginny looked directly into Harry’s eyes and said, “I’m game.”

“Wait a second,” said Fred. “If we have to wait until we become Animagus to get our nicknames, how is it you all ready got one?”

Harry smiled, closed his eyes, and began to transform in front of them. By the time he was done, they were in complete shock. They couldn’t believe their eyes at what they saw. Sitting in the spot where Harry had once stood was a large, jet black phoenix…

-- (Two months later) --

Harry was regretting his promise to Elder that he would not intervene with anything that happened during his second year, big time, due to some space time correctional thingy which Harry still didn’t understand. However, Harry hadn’t thought things would be this bad. The attacks had started barely a week into the new school year. So for nineteen students, Mrs. Norris, and Filch had been petrified. To top it off, Harry kept having visions of the next attack that would prompt his inner Gryffindor to charge blindly towards the location in hope of saving them only to arrive there and find he was too late. He had reported eleven of the attacks to teachers while he had been ‘caught’ at the other nine.

Seeing Ginny as miserable as she was broke Harry’s heart. He had to stop himself several times from yanking the diary from her hands and blasting it into oblivion.

Dumbledore believed Harry when Harry said that he was not responsible for the attacks, but the Headmaster had a knack with reading people and knew Harry was with holding something from him. Still, he didn’t press Harry although he was very concerned when Harry told him about the visions he was having. Harry had been spending a lot of time in Dumbledore’s office mostly because it was sometimes unsafe for him to eat in the Great Hall, more so with every attack. He had to walk to classes with Hermione leading the way, Neville and Ron on either side of him, and with Seamus and Dean bringing up the rear. It sort of reminded Harry of the weeks prior to the Quidditch Cup at the end of his third year. He had been surprised to find that a majority of Gryffindor House believed him when he said he was innocent which was a big plus considering how they had treated him originally. Although, they didn’t know he was a Parseltongue, he doubted many would stay with him if they knew that. Though, you never know. People had surprised him a lot since he came back.

He liked eating in the Headmaster’s office. It allowed him to talk to Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, both which were a wealth of priceless knowledge. He had to be careful when talking to Fawkes, though. Harry didn’t want Dumbledore to know he was an Animagus yet. Let alone, the fact that he had multiple Animagus forms. Harry had snuck out a few times to go flying as a phoenix with Fawkes. Flying was one of two things that could always calm him. Ginny was the other.

The New Marauders were working hard on their exercises. Harry figured they could take the animal revealing potion by Christmas and then be doing full transformations by the end of the year. It would be easy to name them since he’d just use the names they had had in the other timeline, provided they retained the same forms.

He had started up the D.A. within a week of their return to Hogwarts. Harry smiled at the memory of the D.A.’s ‘birth’. It had all started during the first of the second year Gryffindor/Slytherin D.A.D.A. class…

-----

“Let me introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Me, Gilderoy Lockhart.”

“AKA: the Golden Dandy.” Murmured Harry, causing snickers from most of the male population and glares from the female population.

The ‘Golden Dandy’, however, continued none the wiser of Harry’s comment. “Order of Merlin; Third Class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five time winner of Witch Weekly’s most charming smile award but enough about that. I didn’t get rid of that banshee by smiling at it, now did I?” Most the girls sighed and all the boys snorted. The class went on to take a quiz about Lockhart which Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus didn’t even bother to do. Lockhart lightly berated the class when few people did well on it. Then he wanted Harry to wear a ridiculous costume to help him act out Lockhart’s victory over a werewolf.

“You want me to wear that?” asked Harry in disgust. Lockhart smiled and nodded.

Harry stared at the man with a look that told the class Harry thought Lockhart was bonkers.

“I’m out of here.” Harry said suddenly, grabbing his backpack and heading for the door.

“Harry, what are you doing?” asked Hermione in surprise.

“Come on, sis,” Harry said exasperatedly “this class is a complete waste of time; at least with him teaching it, anyway.” Hermione’s eyes widened slightly at his slip up but it appeared no one caught the true meaning behind his words. Harry continued his rant, “Hell, I could teach you more than he could and since we obviously won’t be learning anything useful in this class besides how to smile like pretty boy and act like a total pompous jackass why even come to class. The most this jerk off could teach you is a some what decent memory charm.” Harry gave Lockhart a pointed look and Lockhart gulped. “I could be doing something useful right now, like finding out who this so called ‘heir’ is.” Harry paused at the door before turning back to the class, “Those of you who actually want to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, follow me. Those of you who would rather just sit here and stare at the Golden Dandy, be my guest and good luck with your exams.”

Harry left the room and was halfway down the hall when he heard the scrapping of chairs. He glanced over his shoulder to see all the Gryffindor’s and a few Slytherin’s following him. Malfoy’s lot had left the classroom as well, but was heading for the dungeons. Harry led his group to the Great Hall, which was empty at the moment, and set the tables to hover about twenty feet off the ground to give them some more room.

“Alright,” Harry said, his years as D.A. leader taking over. “Let’s get started. First, thing we’re going to learn is how to dis-“

“Tell me, Potter.” Interrupted a Slytherin boy Harry recognized as Blaise Zabini. “Why should we listen to you?”

“Fair question,” Harry said. “Well if you think you could do a better job, then come duel me for leadership. In fact, I’ll take on any five of you at the same time. So who will it be?”

Seamus and Dean stepped forward, more for kicks than an actual challenge to Harry’s leadership; while Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass, and Thomas Blake from Slytherin came forward.

“Make a strategy if you want,” gestured Harry “we start in three minutes.”

Harry removed his robe and shirt so only his undershirt was left. As expected, the Slytherin’s were talking among themselves as were Seamus and Dean. It wouldn’t matter that he was out numbered five to one or that he had five years more experience than the five of them combined. The fact that they outright refused to work together meant that they had already lost.

Harry wandlessly cast a shield charm around the spectators.

“Begin!” he shouted as he rolled to the ground and shot off five stunners. Four of the five hit their mark, only Daphne Greengrass remained. Daphne took Harry by surprise with her agility. She returned him; spell for spell and Harry barely avoided a cutting hex aimed at his nether region.

‘This girl defiantly belongs in Slytherin.’ Harry managed to clip her with a tripping jinx followed closely by a body bind. There was applause and cheers for both duelist as Harry unbound Daphne and helped her to her feet. She was flushed in the face, whether from embarrassment or exertion, Harry didn’t know.

“Well, that was more of a challenge than I had anticipated which brings me to my first point; never underestimate you opponent, no matter how cute they are.” Harry added with a wink towards Daphne; causing her to turn bright red, the girls to giggle, and a couple of the guys to make gagging sounds.

“Alright, now if there aren’t anymore idiots wanting to challenge me; I want you lot to pair up and separate yourselves twenty feet between you and your partner and five feet from the person next to you. Stunners and disarmers only, we don’t want any accidents or cutting hexes to ones important bits.” added Harry with a pointed look at Daphne who smirked back at him. “Begin!”

Harry walked around and helped them improve their wand movements, stances, or pronunciations. He had to be weary because Daphne kept trying to hex him every so often when she thought his guard was down. Harry figured it was a game of cat and mouse. Harry was just trying to figure out which one of them was the cat and which one was the mouse.

When the bell rang for the next period, everyone asked if they could hold another meeting for the next DADA class. Harry assured them they would and that they needed a name for the group. They unanimously agreed with fate. The Defense Association was born.


-----

Harry was sitting in his usual chair in Dumbledore’s office; reading his Transfiguration text book. He was studying the theory of turning animals into goblets, of course he already knew how to do this, but he had to make it appear that he didn’t. Every few minutes he would chat with Fawkes for a bit.

Dumbledore walked into the room and was about to speak when Harry’s eyes suddenly flashed the brightest green he had ever seen. Harry’s mouth hung open. Dumbledore knew he must be having another vision.

As he came out of it, Harry gasped, “No!” his eyes ablaze with anger and fear before bolting from the room with Fawkes was flying above Harry and Dumbledore hot on his heels.

Dumbledore followed Harry down a hallway that led to the library. As they neared the end of the hall, Dumbledore noticed three figures lying on the ground. As they approached the ‘heirs’ latest victims, his face paled as Harry shakily knelt before the petrified body of a brunette. Dumbledore knew there was only one person who that could be. Dumbledore checked out the other two. Both were Ravenclaw’s; sixth year Penelope Clearwater and second year Terry Boot.

Harry knelt by Hermione’s side in a state of shock. He kept trying to connect through their twin link. Not even vague emotions like Hermione had felt when he had gone traveling. It was like she wasn’t even there. Even when one or the other was unconscious, the other twin could still feel the other’s mind and pick up vague glimpses of dreams or thoughts. Here, Harry couldn’t feel a thing. It was like part of him was missing. It was like the sensory deprivation he had undergone for training during his sixth year.

Harry didn’t know how long he had sat at his sister’s side, before a hand gripped his shoulder. Harry vaguely heard Dumbledore tell someone, more then likely the person who was now hauling him to his feet, to take him back to the common room. Harry watched as Dumbledore and McGonagall levitated the petrified students away.

“Come on, mate,” said a some what distant voice.

“On your feet,” said a slightly closer voice.

All of a suddenly, Harry came out of his shock and the truth hit him like the Knight Bus.

“She’s gone.” muttered Harry still in a daze as he fruitlessly tried to reconnect with Hermione.

“She’ll be alright,” Fred tried to assure him, but Harry wasn’t listening, he had gone back into shock.

“I can’t feel her.” muttered Harry.

The twins stole a glance at each other. Their faces clearly asked the same question.

“What are you going on about, mate?” asked George coming to a halt.

“I can’t feet through our link.” Harry said blankly.

“What link?” asked Fred.

“The link Hermione and me share.” replied Harry, “our twin link.”

At that the twin’s eyes widened and sharply looked at each other.

After they had settled Harry in his dorm and explained to the remaining New Marauders, with the exception of Ron who was absent, what had happened, the twins snuck away to a hidden room on the third floor that not even the Marauders had known about.

Fred was rubbing the bridge of his nose and George was pacing so much, he was wearing away a hole in the floor.

“So what do you think we should do?” asked Fred.

George stopped his paced. Looking directly into his brothers eyes, he said “I think it is time we paid our esteemed Headmaster a visit.”

-----

Albus Dumbledore wasn’t a man who was used to surprises. He prided himself on staying one step ahead of everyone else. Therefore, when he stepped into his office, he was angry with himself for being caught off guard as he had not expected to find the Weasley twins standing by his desk waiting for him.

“Messer’s Weasley’s,” he said, hiding his shock. ”What do I owe the honor of your presences to? Not in trouble again are we?”

“No sir.” started Fred.

“We are,” continued George.

“Here on,” Fred.

“Our own,” George.

“Accord,” both.

“Then how did you get into my office?” asked Dumbledore.

“A prankster never reveals his tricks.” replied George, vaguely.

“Well then, if are not in trouble; then why are you here?” asked Dumbledore.

“It’s about Harry.” said George.

“You see, the kid is pretty out off it.”

“And he let slip to us something we found quite interesting.”

“Too right we did, my brother. He told us he couldn’t ‘feel’ Hermione anymore.”

“Through their ‘twin link’.” they finished together with neutral looks on their faces.

Dumbledore paled instantly and subtly began to reach for his wand for in the event he had to Obilivate them, but just as his fingers were about to close around his the handle, he found two wands pointing inches from his face.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Headmaster.” said George solemnly.

“Harry’s been teaching us some nifty tricks that we’re just dying to use.” said Fred.

“What do you want?” sighed Dumbledore.

“Well, we had wanted to know if it was true.” said George.

“But since you were just about to Obilivate us, we reckon it is.” said Fred.

“It is. I don’t think I need to stress the importance of this bit of information being kept secret, do I?” asked Dumbledore.

“Of course not?” Fred.

“How many people know?” asked George.

“Including the three of us, Harry, and Hermione; only thirteen others knew about the Potter twins. Lily and James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, three Healers, Sirius Black, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Remus Lupin, and Voldemort.” The twins both flinched at the Dark Lord’s name. “The first six are dead, the seventh is in Azkaban, the eighth and ninth are in St. Mungo’s, the tenth lives in Manchester, and Voldemort is rumored to be in Albania.” rattled off Dumbledore.

“But that’s only eleven. Who are the other two?” asked George.

“Professor’s McGonagall and Snape.” answered Dumbledore.

“Snape!” exclaimed Fred.

“Professor Snape and yes.” Replied Dumbledore. “Now it is almost curfew so you boys should be getting back. Ta-ta now.”

The twins left and decided to get a late night snack so they went to the kitchens. On the way they ran into Ron who had come looking for them to see if they had heard about Hermione. They just came up to the second floor where they were intercepted by Percy who said he had come looking for them so as to escort them back to the common room. The Weasley’s turned down the corridor towards Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.

“What’s with all the water?” asked Ron, lifting his pant legs so they wouldn’t get soaked.

“Myrtle’s probally flooded the bathroom, again.” grunted Percy, looking down at the water. He squinted ahead at a dark shape reflecting in the water. “What in the name of Merlin is that?” he asked, drawing everyone’s attention to the thing.

“Bloody hell!” exclaimed the twins as they looked into the reflection of two great big yellow eyes…

-----

Harry jerked awake with a cry of anguish.

“Harry! You alright? What’s going on?” asked Dean who was the only one in the room.

“Get McGonagall.” Harry gasped, breathing heavily.

“Why-” Dean started to ask.

“JUST DO IT!” Harry roared.

That was all the encouragement Dean needed to bolt from the room like a bat out of hall, he returned a moment later followed by McGonagall, Neville, and Seamus.

“What is it, Potter?” asked McGonagall.

“The Weasley’s.” Harry gasped. “Have been attacked, all of them except Ginny.”

There were sharp intakes of breathe from the second years and McGonagall paled.

“Where!” asked McGonagall frantically.

“Second floor, near Myrtle’s bathroom.” Harry muttered before passing out.

By the next morning, the entire school knew of the seven new victims. The Hufflepuff’s kept giving the Gryffindor’s and Ravenclaw’s sympathetic looks. Most of the pity, however, was directed towards Ginny. Luna had come over to the Gryffindor table to sit with Ginny. The Ravenclaw’s in her year were blaming her for the attacks. She was being harassed by some of her housemates.

Harry was staring at the table, fist clenched in rage. He didn’t hear the gasps around him as over a dozen people entered the hall.

Harry had gone into another trance.

“I don’t give a damn what you said.” Harry seized internally. “As soon as breakfast is over, I’m going to destroy that accursed book and kill that bloody snake.”

“And that is exactly why you have to be removed.” said Elder, disappearing from the vision.

As Harry came out of the trance, time seemed to slow and it was like he was having an out-of-body experience. Harry saw himself leap onto the table and flip backwards, drawing his wand at the same time. Where he had stood mere moments before, a dozen stunners collided together. Harry sent a series of his own stunners. All but two hit their mark. Time sped up and Harry was back in his body. He realized, by their cloaks, that these were British Aurors. They wore jet black robes with a patch of the British flag on their shoulder. The only three still standing… well not all were standing, but they were unstunned; were Cornelius Fudge, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and picking herself off the ground having tripped, a very disgruntled Nymphadora Tonks.

“Good thinking, cadet.” commented Shacklebolt. “And good reflexes. Although in the future, a shield might be more useful since he could have still hit you while you were on the ground.

“Er… right… thank you, sir. Yes, sir.” said a flushed Tonks.

“I don’t think reflexes have anything to do with it, mate. Looked like she tripped to me.” said Harry with a smirk.

Tonks was fuming and was about to answer when Dumbledore interrupted.

“Minister!” he boomed with fire in his eyes. “Why have you attacked an innocent student!”

“I have signed for Mr. Potter’s formal arrest.” said Fudge with an air of superiority. “He is to be detained and brought to a holding cell within the Ministry for questioning.”

“On what charges?” asked Harry, wand at the ready.

“On over twenty counts of attempted murder.” sneered newly revived Auror Dawlish.

Harry snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Harry said. “You have no grounds to arrest me, least of all for that.”

“How ‘bout the fact that you have been found at the scene of most of the attacks.” pressed Dawlish.

“The Wizengamot would throw that out in a heart beat.” stated Harry, unfazed.

“Maybe,” admitted Dawlish “but…” he said with an evil grin. “what about the fact that you’re a PARSLEMOUTH!”

the hall gasped and began murmuring. Harry raised an eyebrow. “Who told you that?” asked Dumbledore.

“One of your own professor’s.” Dumbledore closed his eyes and Harry shot an unreadable expression at Snape.

Snape fidgeted for a moment before standing up, “I’m sorry, Headmaster.” he said. “but when they questioned the staff about any suspicious behavior on the behalf of our students, I thought it was my duty to the school to give them any information that could lead them to the heir no matter how unlikely it is that Potter is the heir.”

“Kept that little bit of information from us, which is why the governor’s feel you should be relieved of your post.”

“More like Lucius Malfoy threatened to curse their families if the governor’s didn’t remove him.” snorted Harry.

“Now see here, Potter!” roared Fudge. “Lucius Malfoy has donated more money to various organizations then you can imagine. He is-”

“The only reason you became Minister and the source of your Christmas bonus.” drawled Harry.

Fudge was fuming by now. Harry had hit several nerves and Fudge’s ego was about to die of blood loss.

“Seize him!” roared Fudge. Twelve stunners barely avoided hitting Fudge. Fudge was shaking as he turned around to see that ten of his Aurors were once again stunned while Tonks and Shacklebolt were both picking themselves off the ground. Kingsley, apparently had forgotten his own advice to Tonks having opted to ‘hit the deck’ rather than put up a shield.

“Right… uh… Cadet!” I think it is time you get some real world experience.” said Shacklebolt, picking himself off the ground.

Tonks looked god smacked, “You must be joking!” she exclaimed. “He just leveled ten Auror’s! Twice! Besides, I came under the impression that I’d be observing only.”

“Yeah well… quite frankly, he scares the shit out of me. I’m your superior, therefore, I’m ordering you to detain Potter while I revive our comrades.”

Tonks groaned and muttered something about men being a bunch of female reproductive organs, in a slightly more vulgar terminology.

“Wotcher.” she said nervously as she slowly approached him.

“Sup?” replied Harry, idly twirling his wand.

“I’m-”

“Cadet second class Nymphadora Elizabeth Tonks, daughter of Andromeda Black, Department of Child Welfare, Adoption, and Abuse.” stated Harry, nonplussed.

“How do you know that?” exclaimed Tonks.

“People being attacked aren’t the only visions I have of.” Harry replied cryptically.

Dawlish pushed past Tonks impatiently. “Hand over your wand, Potter!” he demanded.

Harry held the handle out to Dawlish while barely grasping the tip. Just as Dawlish’s fingers were about to close around the handle, Harry yanked it back.

“SIKE!” he smirked, before tossing his wand into the air and yelling out “Fawkes!”

Fawkes appeared in a burst of flame and caught the wand in mid air.

“You’ll know when to return it to me.” said Harry.

Too on lookers, Fawkes gave a gesture that could only be described as a nod before disappearing again in a burst of flame..

The hall was silent until Dawlish yelled, “What the hell was that? Never mind bring that thing back!”

“That thing was a phoenix.” said Harry, with a look of defiance “and it will only come back if it feels like it.”

“Order your damn phoenix back! NOW!” demanded Fudge.

“Who said it was my phoenix?” smirked Harry.

“But it followed your order?” pointed out Tonks.

“It did a favor for a friend.” grinned Harry.

“Enough bullshit! Potter, by order of the Minister of Magic, you are under arrest.” Growled Dawlish slamming Harry on to the ground and bounding Harry’s hands behind his back. Dawlish hauled Harry to his feet and subtly punched Harry in the stomach when he struggled.

After being partially dragged half way through the hall, Harry broke free and delivered a roundhouse kick to Dawlish’s head. Harry spat in his unconscious face before walking out of the hall with his head held high and an Auror escort surrounding him.

A few minutes later, a very angry Dawlish held out a portkey which Harry, Dawlish, and three other Auror’s used leaving behind the Minister and the other Aurors.

Upon landing, cold and despair instantly clouded Harry’s thoughts. He raised his mental shields to full strength, but wasn’t fast enough to completely shut out the sounds of a woman’s screams. Harry couldn’t believe that Fudge was stupid enough to sign ff on this, but that didn’t matter at the moment. The walk to his cell seemed to take forever. When they finally did stop, Harry looked at the cell next to his and couldn’t believe his eyes.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Harry muttered before he was shoved into the cell and unbound.

“Welcome to Azkaban, Potter.” Sneered Dawlish before he disappeared and cold darkness enveloped Harry…