Harry Potter 1. Privet Drive Hermione Training

Harry Potter and the World at War

By SHDurrani

Chapter 1

Return to Privet Drive and Training and Shopping and Meetings

Harry and Hermione; trio breakup and Ginny joins the group; transfer students at Hogwarts

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter Characters. They are the sole property of J. K. Rowlings. All other ideas and characters other then what has been written in the first 5 books are my own. 

A/N: This will be the third version of my story. Thank you Bob and Alyx for your input and review regarding how I have written some of the sections of this story. 

For Harry, the ride home was a quite one. His uncle took the Order's warning to heart and didn't say anything about Hedwig being in the back seat with Harry. Harry's Aunt, Petunia on the other hand was being a bit strange in Harry's opinion.

When they got home, to Harry's surprise Harry's cousin, Dudley offered to help Harry with his trunk while Harry carried Hedwig's cage. They got the trunk and cage up to Harry's room, a.k.a. Dudley's Second Room. Once Dudley left the room, after Harry had thanked him for helping him, Harry went about placing his trunk at the foot of his bed and putting Hedwig's cage on top of his chest of drawers.

At dinner the first night, the Dursleys spent the entire meal talking to Harry. His aunt first apologized for all that they had put him through over the years and explained that the Dementors had made them realize that if he had not been there at the time they would not have Dudley with them now. They told him that this incident had opened their eyes to the amount of emotional trauma that was being done by them and they were hoping to at least stop this from happening this summer.

Dudley told Harry that the creatures that had attacked him made him relive the worst stuff that he either had done to people or otherwise and it was then that he realized that there was other things to do other then terrorizing kids.

Vernon, a bit reluctant, apologized for his behaviors to Harry. Harry realized that the apology will probably be the best he will get from his uncle for now.

Also at dinner Harry received a normal portion of food that his aunt and cousin ate. Dudley had lost a lot of weight this past year and finally was able to eat more normal food then the rabbit food that he was on the past few summers. In Harry's opinion the weight loss was good for his cousin.

After dinner, Harry talked to Dudley and found out that he had a few options around the area he could look into to try to start getting into shape. He figured that the best bet for now was to exercise a lot and get into shape since he couldn't practice magic. He also vowed to do some if not all of his homework in the first few weeks of the summer so that he can do some more studying and look into the subjects like Ancient Ruins and Arithmacy that Hermione was always speaking highly of.

Speaking of Hermione, Harry had the idea of calling her and talking to her about maybe getting together and planning a few things for the DA and so forth. He also wanted to maybe talk to her about Sirius and see if she and her family were planning to go on vacation this year or not.

Harry went upstairs to see if he still had her phone number in his trunk. If not he was going to send Hedwig to her to get her number so that he can call her. Luckily he had the number and went back downstairs and asked his aunt, "Aunt Petunia is it possible that I call one of my school friends that live in the muggle world? Her aunt and uncle are dentists. I just wanted to talk to her and see about maybe meeting up during the summer and so forth."

Aunt Petunia asked, "Who is this girl you wanted to call?" She asked this question with a sly smile on her face.

Harry blushed and said, "She goes by Hermione Granger but her real last name is Durrani."

Dudley had heard this and come in and asked to both of them, "You said that her aunt and uncle were dentists right? There is a Dentist Office that opened here in the village with both the doctors with the last names of Granger. Why not ask you 'girl-friend' if it is the same people." Again they both were smirking at this point.

Petunia shook her head and said, "Go ahead Harry, I think that is a perfect idea. Maybe you should look into getting a cell phone so that you don't have to ask all the time."

Harry nodded and made a mental note to look into getting one that week. He then went to the phone in the kitchen since he didn't want to bother his uncle who was in the other room that had the other phone in and picked up the phone and called the number he had for Hermione.

"Granger Residence, Hermione speaking!"

"Hermione is that you?" asked Harry.

"Harry!! It's good to hear from you. I didn't think that you would be able to call so soon. Is everything ok?" asked Hermione.

Chuckling, Harry replied, "Slow down Hermione, everything is great. I was just doing some planning and remembered that I had your aunt and uncle's phone number you gave me a few years ago and thought I would call you."

It took a minute for Hermione to reply but when she did she got a bit hyper about her reply, "Harry so you remember who I am really? That's great, maybe now my mom and dad can come and visit you when they come down from the States this summer. My aunt and uncle opened a new office in your area while we were at Hogwarts this year and they are there three times a week and here three times a week. Maybe we can meet up when they are there. I can come with them and all."

Harry smiled and said, "Yeah I remember, I just didn't want to say it around Ron and everyone because I wasn't sure if you were going to tell them the truth. When we met on the train 1st year and you introduced yourself as Hermione Granger I knew that you were going by your cover name and wasn't ready to tell anyone who you truly was. We really haven't had a chance to talk about it all till now so I didn't really get a chance to say anything. Dudley had said that there was a new Dental office here in the village and the dentists had a last name of Granger. I was going to ask about that. It would be great if we could meet up. I am hoping to get all my summer homework done in the beginning and then start planning for the DA and all that for the next year. I hope to contact Professor Dumbledore about restarting the DA as an official group."

He could hear Hermione smile in the phone and she said, "I really did want to start with Durrani as my last name but Professor Dumbledore and my parents both said it was probably safer if we kept that quiet for the time being. My parents have hinted that there was going to be a big chance that we were going to come out in the open with my real identity this year because of our heritage. I am glad that you are planning on getting started early on your homework and all. Anyway I think that I may be able to get Professor Dumbledore to let you stay over at my place since my parents will be here this summer. They said that they maybe they will be staying a lot longer to help with the war effort. They said that something was happening on an international level and the States were not the only ones involved. May be when we get together on a more permanent basis meaning longer than a few hours a day we can really get down to planning things for the DA. Also, I really don't want to go to the Burrow this summer. Grimmauld Place is another place I don't want to step into for a long time to come. I don't really know who the new owner with the loss of Sirius is. Speaking of which, how are you doing with the loss of Sirius? For the memory of Sirius please don't blame yourself for his death. Harry it wasn't your fault. It was Voldemort and/or Bellatrix who caused his death."

Hermione knew she had overstepped the line that kept the conversation going at the other end.

Petunia was watching the conversation from the corner of her eye as she was doing the dishes and had seen Harry's emotions go from smiling to happy to apprehension to downright depressed and saddened in the matter of minutes. She knew that something big had happened at the end of term for Harry but didn't want to approach the subject in front of Vernon in case it was something that would get him started on how dangerous it was to have Harry around. She knew about the wards that were protecting her family around the house and knew that Harry staying with them was a key essential for the protection to be still there.

Breaking out of her musing she was confronted from a pasty white Harry that looked ready to collapse. She put down whatever she had in her hand and quickly dashed to his side with a chair to sit down on. She then took the phone from him and spoke into it, "Hermione I am not sure what you said to him but he has just frozen up. What happened last term that could cause this much trauma? Oh this is Harry's aunt in case you are wondering."

Hermione gasped and said quickly, "Mrs. Dursley is Harry ok? I didn't stop to realize what I was saying and started blabbing about Sirius, Harry's Godfather. The last week of term Harry was attacked by Voldemort in his mind that led him to believe that Sirius was taken and that he was being tortured and would be killed if Harry didn't go to the Ministry and go to a specific location in the Department of Mysteries to retrieve something. I was able to get him to try and verify the legitimacy of the vision but due to the treachery of a house elf of Sirius he was led to believe as were the rest of us that Sirius was indeed in trouble. We tried to get the only teacher that is a part of the Order that Professor Dumbledore founded to fight Voldemort to pass on his information but the professor was not forth coming on his help due to other problems in the school. Anyway it was a trap that we unfortunately fell for and Sirius came running to help defend Harry and the rest of us. Sirius fought his cousin in a little known area where there is a archway that they used to use to do executions because anyone going through there did not survive or come out the other end. At least that is what is believed. Not much is really known about the arch down there. Anyway to get to the point Sirius was hit by a spell and fell through the veil in front of Harry. Harry is now blaming himself for the loss even though Professor Dumbledore has told him that it wasn't his fault and that it was between Voldemort's and Bellatrix's."

Petunia just stared at the phone and Harry for short moment and then asked Hermione for her phone number and she would call her and talk more or even setup a time for her to come over to the house later.

After hanging up the phone, Petunia gently took Harry and led him up to his room, where she proceeded to put him to bed. Then she did something she never thought she would ever do and that was kissing Harry on the top of his head good night.

Harry got up the next morning groggily and couldn't really remember how he got into bed. Then it all came back to him, his conversation with Hermione and then freezing up. He then realized that it was later than usual that by the look of the way the sun was in the window. He immediately got up and looked at what he was wearing realized that he had somehow gotten to bed without changing. After getting some clean clothes he headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower. He went down to the kitchen dreading the possible screaming from his aunt for not being up to make breakfast only to find that she had made him some breakfast and was sitting and drinking coffee when he walked in.

He said, "I am sorry for not getting up early to make breakfast this morning, it will not…"

Petunia smiled and cut Harry off by saying, "Harry don't worry about it. I let you sleep late. Unless you want to I will not force you to make breakfast or any other meals so that you can recover this summer and maybe have a normal summer for a change. Your uncle got a raise at work and we have decided to get someone to start doing our yard work for us so you do not have to worry about that. Unfortunately your uncle is still not comfortable around magic so please if you are going to do your homework do it in your room. The telephone company is coming this afternoon to install you another line in your room so you can talk to Hermione and any of your other friends without worrying about Vernon."

Harry looked up and smiled at the mention of Hermione but then the memory of almost losing her last month came back to him and he just looked down at his plate and said quietly, "Thank you Aunt Petunia. I will help around as much as I can and as much as you will allow me to. If it is ok with you I would like to walk around town and get a feel for what is available and what has changed."

Harry got up from the kitchen table and took his plate and glass to the sink to clean and put away. Once done with that Harry told his aunt he was going to go and walk around the area before it got too hot outside and he would be back before lunch.

After leaving the house Harry walked around the park for a while and decided that he wanted to go and see where the Granger dental office was. To his surprise it wasn't too far down the road from his house and it would probably take no more than 20 minutes to walk to the office at a leisurely pace. He noted the days that they were open for future reference and went on down the road. A few blocks from the office Harry found a Martial Arts studio and a gym next to each other. He went into the gym first to inquire about a short term membership in say like a month to month basis and was told that they didn't do those kind of memberships. Harry wasn't sure if it was due to his clothing or if it was a common policy so he left it at that and left the gym. On a whim he decided to check out the studio next door and watched the instructor as he taught the students wearing what looked like bath robes (A/N: I am making it look as if Harry has never been around Martial Arts much to know what they are wearing.) and were practicing both defensive and offensive moves.

One of the older students who was also sitting at the front table made herself known to Harry, "Hello sir, I see that you are somewhat interested in what is being taught here. Do you have any questions?"

Harry smiled at her and said, "I am not sure yet but I wanted to know if it was possible to get some training done before end of July at the earliest. I don't have to be very efficient but I want to get some hand to hand work to increase my agility and from what I can see the students here are really doing a lot in that side."

The young girl looked to be oriental like the instructor on the training floor. It then donned on Harry that she just maybe related to him. She smiled at Harry and said, "Well Mr. Potter I can see that this will be an interesting summer for you."

It was then that Harry did a double take on what she said and she smiled and said, "Yes Harry I know who you are. I have heard a lot about you from Fleur and Gabs all last year and it's only fitting to have the chance to meet you at last. I didn't know you lived around here."

Harry nodded while assimilating the information just presented to him and then said, "Yea since I was 5 years old. Anyway, hopefully those two didn't over emphasize my role during the tournament and all."

The young lady finally got her mind in gear and introduced herself as Ming Chen and that the sensei (teacher) was her maternal grandfather. Harry and Ming discussed what he needed to do to get into the class and what his future in the class was.

"Harry, from what Fleur told me about your performance in the tournament you should do really well," said Ming.

Unknown to both of them, the sensei had walked up behind them and listened to the conversation. He of course knew all about Mr. Potter and his reputation from long ago. He was surprised to see him here at this time in his dojo but as he listened to the conversation between his granddaughter and the young man he was here to learn how to protect himself and others.

After listening to their conversation long enough and probably would have spent longer listening if his granddaughter had not noticed his presence and made them aware of it.

"Grandfather I would like you to meet Harry Potter. Harry this is my grandfather Sensei Mitsuma," introduced Ming.

Harry stood up and bowed to the sensei like he saw some of the students do when they walked in. The sensei smiled at the gesture of politeness from the young man and bowed back in response. He then took Harry's hand and shook it in the traditional western cultural way of doing so.

Sensei spoke, "It is a pleasure to finally get to meet you Mr. Potter. Your history I well known back home and I am happy to be able to finally meet you in person. So from what I can get from the conversation you are having with my granddaughter, you are hoping to do some muggle-style defense studying or actually getting into shape?"

Harry nodded and said, "That is correct, I have come to the realization that the only way to win this war against the dark idiot is to actually do it without a lot of dependence on magic. That is one of the failings of the wizarding world. They dependant on magic and their wands and it will be their downfall. I am planning on doing some work with a defense group next year at school in the hopes of getting them up to speed on different defense styles."

Matsuma nodded and said, "All bold and noble ideas but to teach a rock to walk when it has always lain still would be very foolish if not impractical. But then again who knows what will happen. Anyway if you are interested in training I would be willing to get you through a lot of the training and all in a more condensed version of the work and hopefully get you up to mastery in a few of the disciplines before you leave for the rest of the year. Just out of curiosity, why only till the end of July?"

Harry smiled and said, "You are probably right about the purebloods and all but we can only hope. As to why only till the end of July, well according to my best friend, I am probably going to be moving out of Surrey for good by then. My godparents, who are her parents, are returning to England and have voiced their wish to take me in for good. Also by the 31st I will be 16 and at that age according to my family laws I am going to be of age and will be able to take the position as head of the Potter family among others."

Matsuma smiled and said that if Harry was interested he was willing to start this afternoon with a review of Harry's agility and strengths and weaknesses and then go from there. He also said that starting tomorrow he would suggest that Harry start running 2 km in the morning and 2 in the evening, which happened to be about how far it would be from here to his house to get into shape. "Take the running slowly at first but try to increase the speed and shorten the time during the this time of training," was one of Matsuma's statements to Harry.

Harry agreed and for the next two hours Harry spent going through tests that if Harry didn't take up Quiditch, he would have not been in shape to even try. In the end, Matsuma told Harry that he would probably have to start off running half the distance between his home and here and then work his way up in how much he ran. He would also spend half his time with his granddaughter getting more limber. The more limber he is the better he is in defending and doing offensive work.

After further discussions and scheduling, Harry decided to start his work out with a run home. True to Sensei's statement, he was only able to keep up the pace the first half of the distance and had to slow down to trot and then finally to just walking the rest of the way to Privet Drive.

Once Harry got home, Petunia asked him how his walk around town had gone. Harry told her about him finding the dental office and then finding the martial arts studio a few doors down from there. He then told her how he was going to be training with them in the afternoons starting the next day and would do so till he returned to either his friends or to school in September, whichever came first.

Petunia asked if he needed to get some workout clothes and if so that they can get them in the morning after Vernon left for work. Harry said he probably should get some since the ones he had are worn out and more likely too loose. He also needed new shoes that would give him better support during his runs and so forth. They made more plans for the coming day over a late lunch and after cleaning up his plate Harry went upstairs to start looking through his school work and all.

Taking a leaf from Hermione's book, Harry decided to get his summer homework over with, in the classes he had planned on taking for the next term. He decided to do the assigned potions homework just in case he was able to take the class.

That evening after dinner, Pig came into his room with a letter from Ron and Ginny and Hedwig came in with a letter from Hermione guessing from the handwriting on the envelope.

The letter from Ron was his usual vague self and didn't say much. He spent most of the letter talking about Quiditch, which to Harry was starting to get old fast, and he decided not to reply to his letter. Ginny was a bit longer and was more concerned to how Harry was taking everything from last term and that if he needed to talk to anyone either she or Hermione would be there for him. Harry just wrote a quick thank you to her and sent Pig, who was being a pain to poor Hedwig, on his way out of the room.

Harry sat down and took a look at the letter from Hermione. He just didn't know what to do or say. It was bad enough that he froze up last night after she was just trying to help him. He started to read her letter:

Dear Harry,

Aunt Petunia told me your reaction when I started talking about Sirius and I wanted to first off say that I am sorry to go that direction at the time. I know that you really don't want to talk about it so I will only say this once. Please Harry in the memory of your godfather, don't shut us out. You didn't kill him and you are not the one responsible for his death.

Harry didn't finish the letter. The Department of Mystery incident was still fresh on his mind and he wasn't ready to give up on feeling guilty for both leading Sirius to his death and almost losing Hermione. He put her letter down and lay down on his bed and cried himself to sleep.

His aunt came up later to check on Harry before going to bed herself and saw Harry had cried himself asleep again. She sighed and tucks Harry in and turned off the light in the room.

The next morning, Harry woke up to a tapping noise on his window and saw an unknown owl with a letter. He was surprised to get a letter from Blaise Zabini and after reading the letter he understood why. She had been getting peer pressure from her fellow upper classmen in Slytherin to join the death eaters even though her parents supported the light side. She had been pleading with for some ways to get out of the mess and not be forced to join the Death Eaters. Harry suggested wrote back immediately to at least let her know that he had gotten her letter and read it fully and suggested that she inquire about making a request to be resorted at the beginning of the year for her own safety and if she and her parents wanted to they could ask for help from Professor Dumbledore for safety reasons.

Harry then sat back down and finished reading Hermione's letter and saw that she was predictably reminding him to finish his homework early so he had time to either study or relax the rest of the summer. After completely reading her letter, Harry was at a loss to what to write to her. He decided to put off writing back to her and go down to breakfast and then back up stairs to get ready to go to town with his aunt to get some new clothes and shoes.

Harry walked back downstairs and found his aunt in the kitchen going through some papers on the table. She looked up and smiled and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

Harry nodded and said, "Yes ma'am, I had a few letters to answer before I came down."

Petunia took her purse and said, "Might as well get going then. Dudley is going to be out the whole day training for his boxing and all, at least that is what I think he is doing."

Harry nodded and said, "If it was last summer I would also wonder, but this summer I actually went with him to the gym he goes to and I know he works out there."

With that said, Harry and Petunia went out to the Petunia's car and they drove to the area mall. As they were entering the mall, Harry was tackled by brown fuzz who he immediately identified as his best friend Hermione.

"Good morning Hermione!!! It's good to see you too, but air is starting to become a necessity," said a smiling Harry.

Petunia laughed at the sight of her nephew being bowled over by a young lady with curly brown hair. It wasn't till she saw that Harry was slightly turning blue from lack of oxygen that she was forced to help him and the girl up from the floor.

Hermione meanwhile was blushing badly at the realization that she was making a fool of herself in public with the boy that she had come to fall in love with. She finally came to her senses fully when Harry had gasped out he was in need of air. She immediately loosened her grip on him and with Harry's aunt's help she got off of Harry.

Harry slowly got up and then gave Hermione another hug but a more gentle one this time. He then said, "Hermione, it is great to see you and all. Aunt Petunia, I would like to introduce you to my dearest and best friend, Hermione Granger nee Durrani. Hermione, this is my aunt Petunia Dursley."

Petunia smiled and noted her nephew's introduction in the beginning as a more then friendly relationship between the two. She also noted the blushing that was forming on the two teens.

She greeted Hermione by saying, "It is wonderful to finally meet one of Harry's friends from school. You look like the mixture of your parents. I remember meeting Sarah and Sikandar years ago before Lily died. I hope to see them again soon."

Hermione smiled and said, "I know that they are going to becoming over in the middle of the July to stay for a long while. I will pass on your message about coming by and seeing you again. So what brings you to the mall?"

Harry blushes and says that he needs new clothes including workout clothes and all.

Hermione smiled and said, "If it's ok with both of you I would like to join you and help. I am bored and have already browsed the bookstore twice."

Harry smiled and said, "I don't have a problem with you helping Hermione. Of course if it is ok with you, Aunt Petunia?"

Petunia smiled and said, "It is ok with me, I am sure Hermione will be better at giving you a better idea on what is the in designs and all or you young teens then I am. With Dudley, the choices are real limited with his size and all."

Hermione and Harry nodded and after discussing what exactly they were going to get they decided on the stores to look at first.

For the next two hours they spent shopping for everything including everyday clothes to workout clothes. They also got Harry a pair of tennis shoes and loafers. The last thing Harry got was a new watch that he could replace the one destroyed in the tournament.

After doing the shopping they stopped for a cup of coffee at Starbucks©. Harry and Hermione talked to his aunt about what had been happening the previous year with the Ministry and how they had treated Harry. Petunia was not a happy camper by any means. She told Harry and Hermione that she would talk to the headmaster about the chances of filing libel suits against both the minister and the Prophet for what they had been spewing against Harry.

Hermione said, "I would suggest contacting Gringots Bank to get suggestions on solicitors in the wizarding world because they are more knowledgeable with such matters like the suits and so forth. If you think it is best ask the headmaster his opinion."

Petunia nodded and said that she would do so as soon as possible. After finishing their drinks they got up and gathered their shopping bags and left the mall. Petunia offered to drive Hermione where ever she wanted to be dropped off before taking Harry to the Dojo for his afternoon training session.

Since Hermione's aunt and uncle's office was near the dojo and she wanted to see the training that Harry was partaking in, she asked if she could come and watch Harry train. Harry said it was fine with him and so Petunia took the two teens to the Dojo and dropped them off before heading home.

Both Harry and Hermione went into the Dojo and greeted Ming. Harry introduced Hermione to Ming and told Hermione that he was going to go and change. The sensei was still working with another group of youngsters so Hermione and Ming started talking.

"So Hermione, I understand that you and Harry are really close," commented Ming.

Hermione blushed and shyly said that they were best friends and all.

Ming wasn't fooled by the way she said that and pressed on by saying, "You know that Fleur said that the two of you had the air about you that you were closer the just friends as you say you are. You ought to know that Harry hasn't said that he didn't have feelings for you and all."

If it was even possible to get any redder then Hermione had proved it. She replied, "I doubt that he would even think of me more than just friends. Who would want a bossy bookworm like me that would irritate everyone more times than not."

Unknown to Hermione Harry come up behind her with his finger to his lips to signal Ming not to let his bushy-haired friend know he was there. He let Hermione confess her feeling for him and this was causing him some trouble trying to figure out his own feelings. Part of him was happy that she returned his feelings, but part of him was also mixed with what he knew about Ron's feelings toward Hermione. Harry backed up and started to make some noise as he walked closer to the girls.

Hermione turned to look at Harry as did Ming and both whistled with admiration at the new look on Harry. Ming was the first one to speak and said, "Wow Hermione, you definitely have a catch here. If you don't do something this year I am sure that all the students, girls and boys, will be going after him."

This made both Harry and Hermione blush madly and all. Neither teens had time to make a return comment before the sensei came in from the training area and escorted his previous class to the waiting area where the parents were. Afterwards he joined the trio at the desk and introduced himself to Hermione. Hermione bowed politely to the sensei and received an raised eyebrow from Harry and a smile from the sensei who had also returned her bow in kind.

Hermione decided to let on to them that she was already a brown belt in three disciplines and had completed her training before going to Hogwarts. After talking a bit Hermione realized that she should start getting back to her aunt and uncle's office to head home. Harry told Hermione that he would come by the dental office when they are there again in the morning and they can either go back to his aunt's house or they can go somewhere else.

Hermione smiled and said that they would be back in two days and she would be happy to see him then. With a notable skip in her step (A/N: I know I am being weird but deal with it.) she walked out of the Dojo.

Harry smiled and turned back to the sensei and bowed and they both walked into the training area to start training. Ming just shook her head at the two clueless teens and went back to filing paperwork and reading.

(A/N: I really don't plan to write everything that happens for the next month so I am skipping ahead.)

About the middle of the fourth week back, Harry got a letter from Professor Dumbledore asking him to meet him at Mrs. Figg's house the next day, Thursday, at 1 pm.

Harry told his aunt that he was asked to go down to Mrs. Figg's house to help her with moving some furniture. His aunt smiled and said that it was fine.

After an early lunch, Harry grabbed his wand and headed out the door for a quiet stroll to Mrs. Figg's house. When Harry got to the house he was still a bit early but not wanting to be late he rang the door bell.

Mrs. Figg answered the door and welcomed him inside the house. "Harry it is good to see you again. Professor Dumbledore will be here shortly. Why don't you take a seat in the living room? Would you like something to drink, Tea or pumpkin juice?"

Harry declined both and asked for some water. While Mrs. Figg got him a glass of water, Harry took a seat on an old sofa in the living room and was shortly joined on it by Mr. Tibbles, Mrs. Figg's old cat. Mrs. Figg found Harry with the look of content petting her cat when she brought him some water. Before she could comment on the picture in front of her, her fireplace flared green and Professor Dumbledore stepped out of it.

Mrs. Figg smiled at Albus and said, "Good afternoon Albus. I will leave you two to talk your business. If you need anything just holler."

After Mrs. Figg went to the kitchen and Professor Dumbledore took a seat in an arm chair facing Harry. Harry was by now sitting up straight and wondering what the headmaster wanted to talk to him about.

"Good afternoon Harry, I hope your holiday so far has been well. I wanted to come and talk to you about what has been happening in the wizarding world and some requests I have been getting from other schools and from the public in general."

Harry spoke up and said, "Good afternoon Professor and for a change my summer has been doing great. I want to first apologize for my actions the last time we met at the end of the school term. I should have never let my anger get out of control like that."

Albus just held up his hand and said, "First of all outside of school call me Albus. As to what happened in my office you have nothing to be sorry about. I have either replaced or repaired most of what I wanted to replace by now and like I said that day I had wanted to do some redecorating of my office right now. I've heard from both Remus and Arabella that your stay at the Dursley's has improved a lot. They no longer hear your uncle being nasty to you and have on occasion seen you sitting with them in either the kitchen or the den. Anyway we have a lot to discuss and not much time to do so."

Albus proceeded to pull out some parchment and handed it to Harry before continuing, "First off, Harry, Fudge has resigned as Minister of Magic but before he did he cleared Sirius's name and this paved the way for the legal bindings of this parchment to be taken effect. Harry, Sirius made a will out after Christmas and made sure I had it before it was too late."

Harry took the parchment and read it:

Sirius Orion Black

Last Will and Testament

I Sirius Orion Black, of sound mind (some debate this issue) and sound body do here by leave the following to the following people.

Albus Dumbledore, I leave you 12 Grimmauld Place as head quarters for the Order of the Roasted Chicken (otherwise known as the Order of the Phoenix) to be used till such time as the dark lord has been vanquished. The only stipulation is that you give Remus Lupin a place to stay there till he decides to move out or otherwise. At that point it is to be done with as pleased by the order.

Ronald Arthur Weasley, I leave you 5,000 Galleons and the collection of signed Cannon's jerseys to be found in the attic.

Hermione Jane Granger (Durrani), I leave the name to be determined depending on whether Sikandar and Sarah have returned to England yet, I leave the entire Black library except the books that Remus and I have determined to be not suitable for your or anyone's general use. I also leave 5,000 galleons and suggest you get your act together and tell him how you feel.

Molly and Arthur Weasley, I leave you 15,000 Galleons for all the support you have given me and my godson.

Fred and George Weasley, I leave 10,000 Galleons for your joke shop and a book that Remus has on some of our, the Marauders, exploits and ideas for jokes.

Nymphadora Tonks, I leave 25,000 Galleons.

Minerva McGonagall, I leave you and the Gryffindor House team the newest Firebolt Brooms on the market.

Severus Snape, I leave you 5,000 Galleons and all the Potions ingredients in the dungeons.

Sikandar and Sarah Durrani, I leave you 25,000 Galleons and I wish I was able to see you again. Please take care of both Harry and Hermione. They will need you more than ever now.

Remus Lupin, I leave you 250,000 Galleons.

Finally, my godson, Harry James Potter, I leave you the rest of the black family fortune and I hope that you tell her your feelings for her and soon. By the power vested in me as your godfather I hereby pronounce you as an adult now. According to law, you are emancipated due to the fact that I have died and your parents are also dead. Good luck in the future and do not base your whole life on one prediction. Live your life to the fullest and don't blame yourself for my death if I died while saving you. I died the way I wanted to and that was by fighting.

To all my friends and family, good luck and long life.

Sirius "Padfoot" Orion Black

Harry had tears in his eyes after reading the will and looked up to see that the headmaster also had tears. After a few minutes Harry went spoke up and asked, "Did everyone else have a chance to read this?"

Albus shook his head and said, "Remus and I thought it would be best if you read it first before the others. I have asked that everyone meet at the next Order meeting to hear the will. Now I want to talk to you about a few things that have been going on since the attack on the ministry. For some reason Voldermort has been attacking some key areas around the world. There has been some word from other ministries that the old Death Eater cells have been getting active again. I am afraid that Voldermort is going a lot faster than his last reign of power. I have talked to Hermione's parents and they are going to be coming back to England help with the effort against Tom. I have received messages from different ministries asking if it is possible if they can send some of their students to us to study Defense Against the Dark Arts. The reason why I am coming to you today is to see if you would be willing to train with Sikandar and Sarah to get up to speed with the defense stuff and when term starts are willing to help teach the class. I was hoping that Sikandar and Sarah would take the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor but they said that they would rather work on the outside and help defend the rest of the public."

Harry was surprised about the reaction of the world to what he and a handful of other students had done last year. He knew that if he was going to do this he was going to have to have Hermione with him on this.

"Professor, I am honored that you have given me this opportunity but I cannot with a clear mind accept this position without Hermione being at my side," stated Harry.

Albus smiled and said, "I expected you to say that and to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. My only question is, what about Mr. Weasley?"

Harry gave a sigh and said, "Honestly Professor, Ron is not mature enough to be able to be impartial to all houses. Both Hermione and I have friends in all the houses including Slytherin. Hermione and I have spent the summer in contact with Blaise Zabini (Female) and she has been in contact with a few of the other Slytherin and have found quite a few that do not want to have anything to do with Tom Riddle. Hermione and I have discussed it and decided if we are going to continue the DA we are going to have to allow the Slytherin to join. I decided that if anyone has any problems with this they can leave the group because as the old American Revolutionary warrior, who I can't remember off heart, once said, "United we stand, Divided we fall." I believe that the Sorting Hat said a similar thing last year."

Albus was not surprised by this since Zabini had also contacted him about being resorted because she had refused to take the mark. Albus started talking, "I understand about Mr. Weasley and I have also been in contact with Ms. Zabini and she has requested to be resorted. She says that she and her parents are being targeted by the death eaters. I am in the process of finding them a safe place to stay but right now I haven't got anything. Two weeks ago the old Order headquarters was attacked and destroyed so we have no place for it too."

Harry thought about it and realized something, "Professor was there another manor other than the one at Godric Hollow that was owned by the Potters?"

Albus was surprised and realized he hadn't thought about the Potter Mansion as of yet, "Harry that is a great idea, I forgot about the Potter Mansion. It has been unplottable since it was built by Gryffindor himself. You have been here for almost a month and I think that it is long enough for your protection. Sikandar and Sarah will be in country tomorrow so we probably should wait till then before you leave."

Harry smiled and then realized that since the Mansion hasn't been lived-in in years that it may not be habitable and he asked a simple request, "Professor, I just realized that the mansion hasn't been lived-in in years and was wondering if I could get Dobby and Winky to lead the house elves that are there in cleaning it up. Is there any house elves on site?"

Albus smiled and said, "That was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. Dobby and Winky want to work for you now instead of me and Hogwarts. Technically they would be working for you at Hogwarts since you are the heir to the founders."

This time Harry basically fainted from hearing what the headmaster said. After Albus brought him back to the living, Harry started sputtering and saying, "How can I be the heir to the founders. It takes me longer than most to get spells right including transfiguration."

Albus sighed and said, "That would be my fault Harry. When you and Hermione were born you were both showing a great amount of magical powers. James, Lily, Sikandar and Sarah had agreed that to keep you safe from the dark lord, we bound all but a third of your powers. Unfortunately, the killing curse that you had survived bound another 1/3 of the remaining energy in you. By your birthday the bindings should be released. I am hoping that the bindings that we placed on you will be able to release the binding that was done when you were a year old. Your birthday is in a week and hopefully if all goes well you will be with other wizards like Sikandar and Sarah and we will be there for you."

Harry nodded and said, "I understand and it makes sense now. I can only imagine if Hermione has a third of her powers left in the open what would happen if all her powers are released in September."

Albus chuckled and said, "We can only imagine at this point."

For the first time since Sirius's death, Harry was able to laugh full hardily and this was one of those times. Just imagining that Hermione would have more magical powers then she already had by September 19th (her birthday) (A/N: I am sticking with the Books this time) made Harry start laughing out loud. After a few minutes he calmed down to the amusement of Albus.

Albus then started saying, "Harry, barring something happening between now and tomorrow, you will be picked up by Hermione and the Grangers at 10am. I will send Petunia a letter letting her knows that you may not be coming back next summer. The only thing I wanted to ask is if they are in danger is it ok if they come to the Potter mansion?"

Harry nodded and said, "Since the beginning of the summer they have been treating me with a lot of care. They had apologized at the beginning of the summer and said that they were trying to do this because they didn't want what happened to my parents happen to me. I would be honored if they would choose to come to my house for their safety instead of Uncle Vernon's sister's house. Now I will not allow her to come unless she is in real danger and only after my aunt and her family are already at the mansion."

Albus nodded and said, "I think that is more than satisfactory. I am glad that your family has finally seen its errors and has come back to a loving family. Let us hope that there is not a reason to have them come to the mansion unless for personal reasons which could be to visit you. Oh there will be a meeting of representatives of the governments that have pledged their support in the effort against Tom tomorrow. This was one of the reasons why I wanted you out tomorrow morning. They will be arriving at the mansion by 2pm and the meeting will be held at 4pm. You and Miss Granger/Durrani, I haven't asked her what she wants to go by now, will be attending the meeting as a representative of Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts staff and the students will be represented by Mr. Weasley for now. Oh speaking of students, Harry I have been asked if some of the students could stay here after the meeting to keep them from having to travel back and forth from the country."

Harry took it all in and said, "All the students that want to stay are welcome to. I would like to be able to do some training in muggle defense this summer. I have been working with my cousin in some forms of defense and have been going to a martial arts Dojo to train more. I would like to set up training for those that want to at the mansion."

Albus nodded and said, "That is fine if you can find a teacher that is willing to train over the summer."

Harry said, "I have already approached my sensei about the idea. He is from the Japan's Fiji School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but had decided to teach martial arts to muggles instead of going further with his magical training. He is familiar with Voldemort and has pledged to help me train as much as I can while I am here. As it is I am already far into the training and have attained the third level of skills."

Albus thought about it and spoke up after a few minutes, "Harry, this sensei of yours, would he be willing to teach muggle defense at Hogwarts this year? I really would love to meet the man and offer him the opportunity."

Harry smiled and said, "I thought about it myself and was going to ask him before I left if he would entertain the idea. I go to the Dojo in about an hour so if you would like to meet me there or if you would like to join me in the short walk to the Dojo we can meet him."

Albus nodded and said, "I will meet you there. These old bones of mine will not keep up with you and you're walking. Your escorts have been complaining that they are not able to keep up with you and that is including young Tonks. Say in 90 minutes?"

Harry nodded and said that was fine. Harry returned to Privet drive and told his aunt, "Aunt Petunia, Hermione and her aunt and uncle are picking me up tomorrow at 10am for the rest of the summer. I would like to extend an offer to you and your family to stay at my family mansion that has just been released to me by my parent's executor of their will so that I can stay there and so could my friends."

Petunia nodded and smiled, "Thank you for offering for us to stay at your family mansion. I am sure that if time comes and our safety becomes a factor we may end up taking you up on that offer. Are you still going to the Dojo?"

Harry nodded and said, "Professor Dumbledore wanted to meet with my sensei about maybe teaching the techniques he is teaching me to the rest of the school and to some select little this summer. I better hurry if I want to be on time."

Harry ran upstairs and got dressed in his running gear and put his training gear in his duffle bag, which was one of Dudley's old ones. After getting ready, ran down the stairs and after taking a bottle of water took off toward the Dojo.

He got to the Dojo about 10 minutes early and went in. There was still a class going on so Harry went and took a quick shower and changed into his Martial arts gear. When Harry left the changing rooms he was spotted by his sensei and was waved over.

"Ah I see one of my advanced students has come early. Why don't we have a little spar between you and me to show these students what to expect in their future training?"

Harry nodded and said, "Sure sensei."

Unbeknownst to them, Professor Dumbledore had come in the door to the Dojo and was watching from the sidelines with the rest of the parents.

Sensei started talking and setting the rules of the spar, "We are going to just show you what you can expect in the next level of training. Mr. Potter here is actually two levels above you."

With this, Harry took his stand with his hands loose but in front of him while the sensei took his stand slightly lower. Sensei decided to take the first opportunity to attack Harry used both his skills at Quiditch and the ones that he learned this summer to get away from the attack and counter. The sparring continued on with neither side gaining ground but they showed the moves. In the end they accepted a draw and the sensei spoke to the students.

"Since we limited this fight to only the moves that you will expect to see in your next level of training, both Mr. Potter and myself were already equal in skills. That is it for today everyone. I am sorry to say that this will be my last class with you at least for this summer. I have been asked to work with the council of Martial Arts Training centers to work on a project that could last at least till next summer."

Harry was surprised about this and was wondering what was going on. That was when he noticed that Professor Dumbledore was in the audience. After the younger students got up and left Harry went to Professor Dumbledore and said, "Glad you could make it. Professor Dumbledore this is Sensei Mitsuma."

Harry had introduced Professor Dumbledore to his Sensei when he had walked up to them. Albus bowed to the sensei in respect and so did the sensei.

Albus then spoke up, "It is an honor to finally meet you sensei. Harry has told me many good things about you and your teachings and I would like to speak with you about a proposition in regards to the new school year in the fall."

Sensei Matsuma spoke up, "The honor is mine Professor. Your reputation has reached us all the way to Japan. Harry has told me about your fight against the dark lord and was willing to work with him to get trained in non magical defense in case of him losing his wand in battle. Let us step into my office and speak while Mr. Potter goes and practices his moves."

Harry smiled and nodded and bowed at the same time to both Albus and sensei. He went on to the practice mat again not noting that they had another visitor enter the visitor's gallery.

0.0 

Hermione had decided to go and see Harry practice at the Dojo. She was surprised to see Professor Dumbledore talking to the sensei. Instead of wanting to interrupt the conversation she sat down on one of the chairs in the gallery and watched as Harry went through his moves. Ming saw Hermione come in and walked over to the chair next to Hermione and sat down.

Ming started to talk to Hermione, "Hey Hermione, how are you doing? I see that you noticed Professor Dumbledore and grandfather talking over there. It would seem that they are discussing the chances of having grandfather teach at Hogwarts this year."

Hermione smiled and Ming and said, "Hey Ming I am doing great and you? Yeah I noticed the two and thought better of interrupting them. It would be a weird experience to see the arts taught at Hogwarts since most of the pure bloods don't know anything about it and stick their noses up at the mere idea of learning muggle techniques."

0.0 

Albus and Matsuma entered the office and sat down. Albus was the first to talk.

"Sensei, Harry and I feel that the general student body of Hogwarts would benefit by your teachings if you would be willing to teach our students. I know for a fact that there is at least two students including Mr. Potter that has either started training in this field of defense or has attained years of training. Fortunately both of them are real close friends."

Sensei nodded and said, "The governors of Hogwarts had approached the council about sending someone to teach this course after receiving an idea from one of your students, a Miss. Granger, in the possibility of getting approval for the class. I believe she is one of Harry's friends. I am more than happy to teach the course if you would like."

Albus nodded and said, "I would be honored if you were to do so. As to Miss Granger, I hadn't expected her work to produce such results in such short period of time. I am glad that the governors have already accepted the idea and are willing to allow the course."

Sensei nodded and said, "I am glad to help in any way. I lost family in the last rising of the dark idiot and don't want to lose any more. I have a grandson that is starting his first year with you at Hogwarts this year and so I really want him to feel that he is going to be safe in the years to come. I want to spend time back home in Japan gathering some material for the class. I will be back by the 20th of August, in time to be ready for the new school term. This is the basic list of items I require here at the Dojo for the students to have for their training."

Albus took the list that the Sensei offered and said, "I will include this in the items needed for the students that take the course."

Matsuma spoke up and said, "One other thing about the course, I would like to recommend that you allow me to force the students that are taking the course to meet me before breakfast every morning to run before classes. This way they get into shape and work out better."

Albus nodded and said, "I will post that with the class information in the school owls. I should have a list of students that are interested in the class by the middle of August which should be in time with your returns from Japan."

Matsuma nodded and both men ironed out the final details of the classes.

0.0 

After a while, Harry had finally noticed that he had an audience and was surprised that it was Hermione. It was only then that it was one of the days that her aunt and uncle were in Surrey for the day. He smiled and then went back to practicing not really knowing when he will be able to practice before the school started since both his sensei and he will not be around till then.

After completing his normal routine and having no other person to practice with, Harry went and sat next to Hermione and Ming.

She smiled at Harry and said, "Good afternoon Harry. I thought I would come by and see you train instead of waiting for you to meet me later."

Harry smiled and Hermione and said, "Good Afternoon to you Hermione. Today I had another visitor watching our practice. Today is going to be the last time I am going to be able to practice for a while. At least till we get to school if all goes well in there."

Hermione then remembered seeing Professor Dumbledore and asked, "Harry, why is Professor Dumbledore speaking with the sensei?"

Harry smiled and said, "I guess you would find out soon anyway, I proposed to Albus that we do some Muggle fighting techniques on top of magical. Also my sensei is magical and being so he is well prepared to be in our world. Albus is talking to sensei right now in hopes to get him to agree to teach."

Hermione smiled and was hoping it worked out, "I hope it happens. I actually made a inquiry into starting this course at Hogwarts to the governors of the school. I wonder if they have approved it or not. I haven't had a chance to practice more then a month since I started at Hogwarts."

Harry smiled and said, "I am only one step away from getting a black belt in one area and still have a few steps in another."

Harry went back to his work out a little more before the headmaster and the sensei came out of the back office. Hermione went and bowed to both the headmaster and the sensei.

Albus said, "Good afternoon Hermione. It is good to see you again. May I introduce our new muggle defense teacher Sensei Matsuma? Sensei this is Hermione Granger or Durrani in the future."

Sensei bowed to Hermione again and said, "We've met Albus. Ms. Durrani, it is good to see you again, how is your family doing?"

Hermione smiled and said, "My family is doing great. I am glad we are able to have this kind of training at Hogwarts because it will help in fighting against the Dark Lord and his followers. I look forward to it."

Albus decided to speak, "Well I am going to go back to the castle and let Minerva know of the new class that we are offering. I will see both of you at the Potter Mansion tomorrow for the official reading of Sirius's will. Hermione I am sure you are aware that your parents are coming with you to pick up Harry tomorrow?"

Hermione nodded and said, "Yea they told me this morning when they got in. It is great to have them back in town for longer than a few weeks a year. Last year I didn't get to see them much because dad had gotten sick and didn't get a chance to come over like they used to."

Albus nodded and after a few other comments to Sensei and Harry, he apparated away. Harry got changed into some clean clothes and met Hermione in the front of the Dojo where she was watching another training class go through their work out.

"Hermione do you want to head back to my place or go to the clinic?" asked Harry.

Hermione smiled and said, "They told me that they were going to pick me up at your place later since they had a few things to pick up before leaving for the summer since they are going to join us at the mansion at least for most of the summer."

With this said, both Harry and Hermione started to walk back to Privet Drive. While they were walking Harry started talking again, "This class is probably going to be the best thing that has come to Hogwarts this year. Probably have a lot of the half blood students and the Muggle-born students taking the class because they are familiar with it. The hardest part will be getting some of the pure blood students like Malfoy."

Hermione said, "I know for a fact that we won't have a problem with Ginny and Luna. Before they started Hogwarts, they had been training in a Dojo in the village near them. Ron is the only one I am worried about really."

The rest of the walk to Harry's house, Harry was contemplating asking Hermione to be his girlfriend. He had over the last few weeks been thinking about her a lot and seemed to realize that she has grown into a beautiful young lady.

Hermione was also thinking about the way Harry had finally grown out both with muscles and in height. Since their first year, Hermione had started seeing Harry as more than just a friend. She was not sure how much more than just a friend she was attracted to Harry so she wasn't too heart broken when he had gone out with Cho their 5th year. She knew that Harry hadn't really wanted to go to the dance their 4th year so wasn't ready to ask her out and she wasn't really ready to go their either. It wasn't till the Department of Mystery incident that she realized that she had been in love with Harry.

Harry was thinking the same things about his feelings about Hermione. When Doholov had attacked Hermione he almost lost all will to fight thinking that he had lost Hermione before he had the chance to tell her how much she really meant to him. Neville pointed this out to him after the attack knowing that he was feeling more than friendship for Hermione.

About half way to the house the two teens found themselves slowly taking each other's hand and holding them in comfort.

Once they got to the house, Harry led Hermione to meet his aunt and they sat down and had tea at the request of his aunt.

"So Hermione how was your day so far?" asked Petunia after she had sat down in front of the teens.

Hermione smiled and said, "It has been great so far. My parents came from the States this morning and it has been great to have them finally here for a longer period of time than usual. I watched Harry's practice today and was surprised at how far he has gotten this summer."

Harry blushed at this and looked away to prevent the two ladies from seeing it. Petunia smiled at her nephew's embarrassment and smiled at Hermione. "I just got a note from Professor Dumbledore letting me know that Harry will be leaving today actually because of a need to move up the order meeting to tonight instead of tomorrow as was previously scheduled. After you two get done here why don't you head up and help Harry packs his stuff and is ready."

Harry and Hermione walked upstairs and started to pack Harry's stuff in his trunk. Afterwards they took Hedwig's cage and Harry's trunk and went back into the den to wait for their departure.

Petunia smiled at the couple that was on the couch and went back into the kitchen to start supper for her family.

About 30 minutes later there was a knock on the front door and Harry got up and went to answer the door.

End of Chapter 

(A/N:) This is a redo of this chapter. I have rewritten this chapter and added a bit more background on the H/Hr relationship. Ming will come into play again in the next chapter or two. After two reviews complaining about the extremely fast way of both Harry and Hermione getting their black belts I have decided to keep them at least at a lower belt level.

(A/N2:) For those that have been reading my other stories I am sorry for not updating them. I have not been able to write anything for them because of my loss of another laptop. I may try to update my Severitus Story but will not be updating a New Start because this is replacing it. I hope you all like this story and please let me know what you think.


	2. Durrani’s and Potter Mansion and the Ord

Harry Potter and the World at War

By SHDurrani

Chapter 2

Durrani's and Potter Mansion and Ron and the Order of the Phoenix

Sarah and Sikandar stood at the door with Remus standing behind them.

"Hello Harry it has been a long time since we last saw you. It is good to see you again, "said Sarah while being hugged by Harry.

Remus and Sikandar just ruffled Harry's hair causing Harry to say, "Hey it's already messy as it is."

This caused them all to laugh and Harry to be embarrassed. Sikandar hugged Harry and so did Remus. It was only then that Harry realized that they were still on the door step and invited them in.

Petunia came out of the living room and Sarah and Sikandar embraced her and said hello.

"Sarah, Sikandar it has been a long time since we last saw each other. How is everything with you both?" asked Petunia.

Harry smiled and looked at Hermione and motioned her to grab Hedwig's cage while he grabbed his trunk and followed Remus to a car that is seemingly waiting at the drive way of 4 Privet Drive.

After putting his school stuff in the trunk with the help of the driver, Harry turned to Remus and said, "Professor it has been a while, how are you holding up with all that has happened?"

Remus smiled sadly to Harry and said, "It has been tough with the loss of Sirius and all but just thinking about you and how you felt actually watching Sirius fall through the Vail I knew it was could have been worse. I went through a lot when your parents died and all and I thought I had lost all my friends at the time but now I am just going about business as best as I can. I hear that you and Hermione have been asked to join the Order and to teach next year."

Harry smiled and said, "That isn't all that has been planned for this year. With some convincing on Hermione's part we have also acquired a new course in muggle/non-magical fighting techniques. The teacher was my sensei here in this area that is from Japan. Both Hermione and I have acquired the higher levels of the techniques he will be teaching and will be able to help as much as we can."

Remus smiled and said, "I will be there as part of the security and will be helping Hagrid with Care of Magical Creatures and will be glad to see how your classes are going. We will be moving up the Order meeting to today because everyone is in the area and it would be best to get started. Ron and Ginny are going to be at the Potter Mansion this evening but Weasleys feel like they want to stay at the Burrow for the rest of the summer."

Harry frowned and said, "What do we know about the safety of Luna and Neville. I know that they are going to be targets after joining us at the Ministry of Magic and the Department of Mysteries."

Just as Remus was about to say something about it Sikandar and Sarah came back out of the house and after saying good bye they Petunia they got to the car.

Harry walked up to his aunt and said, "You and the family are more than welcome to join us at the Mansion if you feel that you are in any way in any danger. I want to really thank you for making this summer the best for me. I cannot express the amount of support you gave me that helped me get over Sirius's death. Thank you for everything this summer."

Harry hugged his aunt and said good bye. He and Hermione got into the Ministry car and they started driving off.

Sikandar spoke up and said, "So Harry it has been a really long time since we have seen you, how have you been and all?"

Harry smiled and said, "I am been doing well since Sirius's death and all. I think that if my summer had been like the last 14 years here at Privet Drive I probably would not have made it till now without falling into a depression. With a lot of help from Hermione and my aunt I was able to see that the loss was not my fault but Voldemort and Bellatrix who are at fault. I have also been able to build up a non-magic based skill that I can use to fight to defend myself and others. I presume you already know about the Martial Arts that will be taught this year at Hogwarts and all."

Sikandar smiled and said that he had heard all the new classes that were going to be offered.

They continued talking about other things that were happening in both the muggle and wizarding world. After about a half hour of traveling they pulled up to the gates of Godric Hollow. They got their first glance at the area and were surprised on how nice and quaint it looked. After the driver talked to the guard at the gates, they were let through and continued to work their way to the house, or in this case mansion, at the top of the hill in front of them. Both Harry and Hermione had to pick up their jaws from their laps at the sight in front of them.

The only thing that Harry was able to say was "Wow!!"

Hermione smiled and said, "Ditto. I forgot how far back your family goes. I can see that we are going to have a lot of space to train and keep in shape the rest of the summer."

Harry nodded and said, "If we can get some of the DA members to come by every day we can get started on some of the training for the New Year. By the way I have some ideas on what we can do next year since we are going to be an approved club this year. When we get to the house let us find the library and map out the idea I have and sound it out with Albus after the Order meeting. Sikandar, when are Ron and Ginny coming?"

Sikandar smiled and said, "They should have already arrived by now. I would like to find out what you have planned for the DA next year. I know you are teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and all but still having the DA around will be very interesting to see."

"I know it will be. The reason why we want to still have the DA around is because in Defense Against the Dark Arts we are going to have to prepare the students for their OWLs and NEWTS and those tests don't really cover the conventional defense stuff that we need to learn to defend ourselves and our friends. Like I told Albus the other day we are going to be doing quite a bit of studying of defensive and offensive spells in the DA and also are going to work on the stuff that Sensei will be teaching so that they can practice their work and all."

Sikandar nodded and smiled. Hermione was really interested to see what Harry had come up with in such short period of time, in this case the length of time it took for them travel here from Surrey.

Sarah looked on at the two teenagers and saw that her daughter was surprised at the ease at which Harry was coming up with things like this. They always figured that Hermione would be the one with the ideas. But then again they are really not surprised since a lot of the work they are talking about is in both of their strong points.

Soon the limo pulled up to the front doors of the mansion and everyone got out. Harry stretched and smiled up at the mansion. It had been a long time since he saw it and it was through the eyes of a one year old at the time. He felt more at home now than he ever did when he was at the Dursleys and now he was only rivaling what he felt at Hogwarts but stronger.

Hermione saw how Harry reacted at seeing the mansion and smiled. She knew that Harry was finally feeling like he was home. He had always told her that he missed being at a place he truly felt at home at for a long time.

Once they pulled up to the front doors of the mansion Harry didn't wait for the driver to open the door to the limo he jumped out of the limo and ran to the house. Hermione smiled at the enthusiasm of Harry and followed him into the mansion.

Sikandar and Sarah took their time to climb out of the limo and just laughed at the antics of the two teenagers, correction, young adults in front of them. After helping the driver get their stuff out of the trunk of the limo and set it aside for the house elves to take up to the mansion, they entered to entrance to the mansion to find Harry on the floor crying and Hermione hugging him.

At first they were confused till they looked around and found what had caused this episode to happen. In front of them was a portrait of Lily and James Potter, both smiling down at their son? Lily had tears her eyes too.

Sarah went over and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry finally looked up and saw Sarah and Sikandar standing there with a smile on their face. Harry finally stood up and turned to his parents and said, "I have been waiting for a long to finally get to see you again in one form or another. I am so glad to be able to see you two again to remind me of what you were when you died."

Lily smiled sadly and said, "We waited for this day to come when you returned to the mansion and see us again. We knew something must have gone wrong if you didn't return with Sirius when you turned 11. It wasn't till Sirius came last summer that we found out what had happened. We are so proud of what you have accomplished over the years and hope to see you grow up to be a wonderful man in the time to come."

James nodded and said, "I am so proud that you made the Quiditch team and all. I am sad that you had to have Severus as a teacher and he refused to see the true you without hating me."

Harry smiled at his parents and said, "Thanks, but I couldn't have done it all without the support of my friends. Mom, Dad I would like to reintroduce your god daughter, Hermione Durrani, aka Hermione Granger. Hermione, I hope you remember my parents?"

Hermione smiled and said, "It is great to see you both again. We all miss you both a lot. I know Harry does all the time. I can honestly say that if it wasn't for Harry, Ron wouldn't have been our friend, which says a lot since he has a little bit of a problem with jealousy."

James and Lily seemed to come to the same thought and asked one another, "Does that sound familiar to you?"

They both laughed and said, "Severus!"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and back at James and Lily questioningly.

Lily answered for the both of them, "Severus isn't really a bad kid he just was jealous of James and his friends because he had true friends while he had forced friends that he was forced to be friends with by his father. I sometimes wonder if that is the same thing that is happening between you all and Draco Malfoy. Narcissa was one of the more friendly Slytherines in our year. Her marriage was an arranged one and I don't think it was really a mutually love relationship."

This shocked both Harry and Hermione a bit, but then they remembered how they very rarely saw Narcissa in public with Lucious unless it was for publicity or something. Sikandar and Sarah sadly looked at them and said, "It is true you two, it was one of the reasons why Sirius was never really disowned because in truth he wasn't really doing anything that was disgracing like marrying a muggle like Andromeda and all. Not that we are against it and all, it is just that a lot of pureblood families are and they are just a bit weird about it."

Harry nodded and said, "Honestly, the only real reason why I didn't really take to being friends with Draco was because of his comments when we first met in Diagon Alley about muggles and Hagrid. I wonder what would have happened if I did actually become friends with Draco. I might have been in Slytherine and/or been friends with Ron. That doesn't say much because sometimes I think our friendship is based on my fame as the Boy-who-lived instead of Harry Potter. I know that my friendship with Hermione was never based on it; Hermione has always been by my side all these years. I don't really remember having a long term fight with her over trivial stuff, yes we did have a bit of a disagreement over the Firebolt our third year but that was all, never anything else."

Hermione nodded and said, "You know, Ron is going to go postal when he finds out that I am not a muggle born witch like I have been telling everyone since I started at Hogwarts. Honestly, I think that Draco is going to be singing another tune when he finds out that I am actually a pureblood and one very powerful one at that."

Harry nodded and said, "We are going to have to cross the bridge when we come to it regarding Ron when he gets here this afternoon. As to Draco I wouldn't really mind getting to know him better if it would help promote unity between the houses."

This was unfortunately said just as Ron and his family port-keyed into the entry hall. Ron opened his big mouth as usual and as usual stuck his foot in it by saying, "Oh now you are going to become friends with Malfoy. You know sometimes I wonder if you are really supporting the light side or just playing like you are. Did you actually go to the Department of Mysteries to steal the prophecy for the dark lord instead of keeping it away from the dark lord?"

Harry was fuming and so was Hermione at Ron at this point. Harry said, "You know Ron, I never asked you to come with me to the Department of Mysteries at all. As a matter of fact I tried to force you to stay behind. Why would I join up with the man that killed my parents? That would not only be a sacrilege to my parent's memory, it would also go against everything I believe in. I sometimes wonder if the only reason why you came with us to the Department of Mysteries was because you wanted to be known as one of the people that came with me to defend the Ministry of Magic and the Department of Mysteries against the death eaters. I didn't know anything about the prophecy that we found until we got there. As far as Draco is concerned, it is just an idea that we are throwing around. As it is we will be having quite a few Slytherine in the DA this year because they have been contacting me and Hermione through Blaise Zambini who incidentally will be joining us today."

Ron was turning beet red with anger and said something that he will later regret saying, "Oh, so now you are telling me that you have spent more time talking to Hermione then you have with me? The next thing you are going to say is that you are going out with each other. You know Hermione you could do a lot better than him. Everyone that cares for him has died doing so, for example, his parents and Sirius."

Hermione, who had been letting Harry do all the talking so far, let her anger out, "I can't believe you are that shallow Ron. I agree with Harry now, you have based your friendship with him based on his fame only. I wonder if you would have ever become friends with him if he was not the boy-who-lived."

Harry spoke up, "You know Ron it is a two way street you know. If you so badly wanted me to send you letters then you should have sent me something to get me to open up. Hermione sent me three letters a day for the first three days till I finally broke out of my shell and opened up. Of course it also took the aide of my aunt to do so too but afterwards I was eager to talk to Hermione, and to be honest with you Ron, Hermione and I are not together." Harry mumbled, "Yet."

Hermione blushed at Harry's comments regarding her owls and even more at the comments about them going out together. She gave Harry a slight nod to say that they would talk about it later.

Unfortunately Ron caught the blush and the nod and said, "Oh so you would rather spend time with the mudblood then with me…"

Ron couldn't finish his statement because his mother slapped him across the face. Sikandar and Sarah walked up and stood by Harry and Hermione with Remus beside Sikandar. They all had a shocked and angry look on their faces.

Ginny was the first to come around and say, "I can't believe you said that Ron. Of all the people you would call Hermione that."

Unknown to all of them, both Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall had entered the hall and had heard Ron's comments. Minerva was the next to speak, "Ronald Weasley you can consider your prefect status revoked and your chances, though slim, of being head boy also negated. I can't believe you would call Ms. Granger that. The only reason why I have not decided to take you out of the running for the Captain's badge is because I have no idea what Harry plans on doing regarding Quiditch this year. As for the prefect badge, I don't care what you say Albus I am giving it to Harry who was my first choice last year before you over rid me on the issue."

Albus nodded and then said, "Sadly, Mr. Weasley you were to be representing Hogwarts students tonight in a meeting that spans representatives from several nations including France, Italy, Japan, and the North and South American countries. I have decided that since you can't act properly with your fellow students you are not the best choice for that position. I am going to ask Ms. Weasley here to be the representative instead."

Ron was now angry at Harry and it was showing, "Oh so your saying that I actually had a position that the almighty Harry Potter didn't get."

Sadly Harry shook his head and said, "No Ron you had the privilege of being the representative of the UK but lost it. As for why neither Hermione nor I were asked to be it is because we are representing the Defense Against the Dark Arts division at Hogwarts. We were going to tell you when you got here that Hermione and I are going to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. Professor McGonagall, I am going to have to step down from the team this year because with my duties as a teacher and the DA I will not have time to practice for the games."

Professor McGonagall nodded and said, "I understand and that was why I was not sure about your status. Another thing when we are not in class, please call me Minerva since we are colleagues now. Same goes for you Hermione."

Molly was angry at Ron and said, "Ronald should consider yourself grounded at this point. Congratulations Ginny, I take it that this is a special privilege given to you and I know you will do well. Harry and Hermione, you are the best teachers for the job and hope you have a good time teaching this year. Now why don't we all get settled in since we have a while before the meeting tonight?"

Everyone nodded and got up and walked into what looked like the den. Harry realized that they had not gotten to look around the mansion yet and asked, "Albus, how long till the meeting?"

Albus looked at the grandfather clock in the room and said, "About an hour or so, why do you ask?"

Harry answered by saying that he and Hermione would like to go and get settled in upstairs and than take a tour before the meeting. Albus nodded and said that was fine with him.

Ginny asked if she could come with them and they nodded and left together. Dobby met them at the entrance hall again and said, "Master Harry Potter sir, Dobby is so glad to be able to serve you. Thank you for letting me and Winky work for you."

Harry nodded and smiled, "As long as you both accept wages and I will be happy to have you both."

Dobby nodded and said he really didn't need any wages he was happy just to be able to work for Harry but after both Harry and Hermione insisted with Ginny giggling in the background he relented. Harry then asked Dobby if he could show them around the mansion and for the next hour they spent going around the mansion. Both Harry and Hermione were surprised on how big their rooms were and they told Dobby to set the room next to Hermione's room for Ginny when she spent the night. Dobby nodded and with a snap of his fingers a nameplate was put on the door to the said room stating it was Ginny's. Dobby then told them that their stuff had already been brought up to their rooms so they didn't have to worry about anything.

While walking through the entrance hall Harry had an idea and asked his dad if the marauders had made a map of the mansion for people to use so they didn't get lost because it was so big.

James smiled and said, "That was where I got the idea for the map in the first place. There should be one in every room in the top desk drawer for the occupants to use. One can't take them out of the mansion because it has been charmed to not be able to leave the wards surrounding the mansion."

Harry smiled and said that he was glad of that. They went down to the den where everyone else was and sat in front of the fireplace and relaxed. About 10 minutes to 6pm the order members started to show up by portkey. The first one to arrive was Alastar Moody followed by; Tonks, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie Weasley, Professor Snape, and Mr. Lovegood and his daughter Luna. Luna went and greeted Ginny and then greeted Harry and Hermione.

Luna then asked where Ron was and all three sort of gave a look of despair before Ginny answered, "We don't really know for sure. Ron sort of showed his true self earlier and began making unwarranted and/or uncalled for comments about Harry. Hermione's mom nearly threw him out of the mansion and more likely he won't be coming by till he grows up."

Luna sadly nodded and said, "Ronald has his issues and I guess growing up with older brothers that had made a name for themselves while in school and he wanted to make a distinction of his own. Let us just hope he grows up soon."

They all nodded and were sitting comfortably till Sikandar came by and told Harry and Hermione that the order meeting was about to start. Harry told Ginny and Luna that they would be back after the meeting and Harry invited Luna to stay for dinner since Ginny was also. She said that she would ask her father after the meeting.

Harry and Hermione walked into the dining room and sat down next to Sikandar and Sarah at the table. They waited for a little while for more members to show up and finally Albus stood up and began speaking.

"Good evening and welcome everyone. First order of business I would like to welcome two new members of the Order, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, who is now going by Durrani."

Everyone said hello to Harry and Hermione and then Albus continued, "The reason why I moved up the meeting to today is because of another meeting that will be taking place all day tomorrow and will interfere with our regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting tomorrow is between Hogwarts teaching staff and representatives of several countries around the world that have asked for our assistance in preparing several of their promising students in Defense Against the Dark Arts. This brings me to my new order of business that I would like to announce that Harry and Hermione will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts next year at Hogwarts. I know that the OWLs results have not come out yet but I have gotten word that the members of their DA group last year made O's on their exams except one who I will not state here."

Everyone applauded the two youngsters on their ability and they went on with their meeting. Professor Snape reported that there was something being planned that is in regards to the start of term. Harry and Hermione suggested that they possibly setup guards on the train in case something happens.

Both Albus and Minerva smiled and Albus said, "That is a good idea. We can always say that it was for the protection of the students now that Voldermort has come back."

When Albus said that, most of the members of the order flinched at the name. Harry did not like that and said, "For Merlin's sake why do you all flinch at Tom's name. It is just a name. Even Hermione and Ginny say his name now. Anyway Hermione and I think that maybe we can bring the DA into the mansion for the last month of the holidays and have them study defense to help out in the protection of the students."

Albus smiled and said, "It is a good idea regarding the DA. I will get you some portkeys to be setup for the students to take for them to come. Let me know who will be coming and I will send it to them. We are going to need some volunteers to be on the train for the trip. I will be in contact with the minister and Madam Bones to get some Aurors to be at the station and on the train. If that is all there is to discuss then I will say good night and remind those that are going to be here for the meeting with international representatives to be here tomorrow morning at 9am."

Before everyone left Harry invited everyone to stay for dinner if they wanted to. Only a few stayed behind while the rest said they had families to head home to. Harry nodded and saw all them out of the mansion so they could head home. Harry returned to the dining room to find Hermione and Ron in the middle of a fight while Ginny was doing her best to keep Hermione from doing something she would regret.

"Ron just because you are Harry's best friend doesn't make you automatically important enough to join the order like Harry and I did. We only became a part of the Order because of the need for us to be informed of what was happening and to discuss the need for security this year at Hogwarts. A lot of the reason why you have not been allowed to join the order is because your parents did not allow you to do so," explained Hermione.

Ron butted in and said, "Oh so the order needs a muggleborn like you to join the Order to discuss the security when you don't know what it was like during the first war. Of course we all know why Harry was appointed to the order."

Ginny beat Hermione to the question and said, "And just what is that reason Ronald?"

Ron glared at Ginny and said, "Because he is the bloody-boy-who-lived and they felt pity for him because his stupid godfather died for him."

No one noticed Sikandar come in the room behind Harry but they sure found out after Ron made his comment, "Mr. Weasley, it seems that you haven't learned that it is not a good idea to make comments like that about my daughter and my godson's later godfather."

Ron turned and paled when he realized it was Sikandar and then turned anger when he fully understood what was said, "Oh so now you are telling me that you are a pureblood and not a muggle born. It is bad enough that you have been keeping your meetings a secret between the two of you, but now I bet Harry knew a long time ago that you are a pureblood."

Harry decided to answer the statement, "Ron, Hermione is not the only pureblood here, I am one too. The reason why I know that Hermione is a pureblood is because we grew up together before my parents' death. As Sikandar has already said, he is now my godfather and Hermione's mom, Sarah, is my godmother. The change in godfathers happened when Sirius died last month. The reason why we didn't tell you was for Hermione's safety mainly. I know I am responsible for my godfather's death so you don't have to rub it in. Ron I would suggest you stay as far away from me for now as you can. You are bordering on having the characteristics of a Slytherine."

With this said Harry walked out of the room and headed into the dining room. He was still able to hear both Sikandar and Hermione berate Ron and then leaving the room. Molly came to Harry and asked what was going on. Harry just said that the friendship between the trio is straining on snapping and Ron is acting like a two year old.

Molly shook her head and said, "Unfortunately Ron has been brewing all summer because he has not been able to do much other then working around the house since the twins are busy with their new shop and all. I believe that you are responsible for helping them get enough money to start the store up. Even though I didn't really like the idea in the beginning but now that I have seen how well their shop is doing I really want to thank you for your help."

Harry smiled and said, "It is really nothing. I didn't feel it right to keep the gold I got from the tournament so I thought I would give it to the twins that would help give something to laugh about during these trying times."

Molly smiled and said, "That was what the twins said to me as the reason why you gave them the gold. Have you talked to them lately? They have said that they have come up with some ideas to help the light side against the Death Eaters in the future."

Harry smiled and said that he and Hermione were going to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow and they were going to go see them then.

Molly nodded and then joined the others in the dining room while Harry waited for Hermione to join him before he went into the dining room too. When they entered they joined Sikandar and Sarah at the table. Ginny sat next to Hermione while Harry sat on the other side of her next to Sarah. Ron sat with his parents on the other side of the table but still managed to scowl at both Harry and Hermione through dinner.

Dobby and Mandy (the Potter Family house elf) served dinner to everyone and was praised by both Hermione and Harry for their great work. This only happened after Sikandar told Hermione that the Potter house elves were all free and paid for their service. This had been happening for hundreds of years.

After dinner Harry approached both Molly and Arthur and asked if Ginny would be able to spend the rest of the summer with them here at the mansion. Molly and Arthur said if she wanted to that it would be fine with them.

Ginny said she would love to since she and Ron were not getting along with each other at home and she was also bored. Harry said that they would be spending a lot of time preparing for the next year including studying and doing lesson plans for both the DA and the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Ginny said that she would love to help and she had also heard from Hermione that they were planning to have the DA come before the school started to train and be ready for anything that would happen on the train.

With that said Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys went back to the Burrow with Ginny only going back to get her stuff and she was coming back.

Harry and Hermione waited for Ginny to come back and they helped her with her trunk up to her room. After Ginny was settled in Harry bid the girls good night and headed to his room for the night. Hermione came by his room and said good night with a kiss and then turned to her room for the night too. Sikandar and Sarah checked on the three teens before heading to their own room for the night.

End of Chapter 

A/N: Like the previous chapter I have changed this one a bit but not as much as the first chapter so it would include Ming in this chapter and a few other things I can't think of right off the bat. I have the next chapter up also and it is totally new. The chapter is the reason for my total rewrite at the beginning because over the past few years I came up with new and interesting ways to take this story. Please let me know what you think. I have read DH and I know that it will end with Harry and Ginny getting together but bare with me this is a fan fiction so I can get creative on the pairings and as my summary says this is a AU to HBP and now DH post OOTP 


	3. Internation DADA New Minister Goblin Nat

Harry Potter and the World at War

By SHDurrani

Chapter 3

International Defense Against the Dark Arts Meeting and A New Minister and Diagon Alley and Goblin Nation

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from J. K. Rowlings Stories. All OOC characters are mine.

A/N: Please read my first two chapters again because I have rewritten them hence the reason for the delay in posting new chapters. Thank you.

The next morning was a busy one for everyone still at the Mansion. Harry and Hermione were the first ones up that morning and decided to give the house elves a break and cook breakfast. Now understand this, the house elves didn't give up the job easily that was for sure. It wasn't until Harry relented and said that they could help them that they would even let them even do some of the cooking.

Harry and Hermione had a lot of fun cooking together and weren't surprised at the reactions they got from the adults that finally filtered down into the kitchen with the smell of breakfast that was filtering up to the sleeping quarters. Ginny had already come down before the adults and was sitting with her jaw on the ground looking at the way the two were working like a well oiled machine making breakfast.

Remus was the first to recover and say, "Since when have either of you been able to cook?"

Harry frowned and said, "I had a lot of practice with the Dursleys since I was old enough to reach the stove, which apparently was 3 years old."

Everyone frowned and sadly looked at Harry who was in turn looking down at his shoes with their reactions. Hermione put the food that she was carrying down on the table and came over and hugged Harry.

Harry looked up to her and smiled and said, "Thanks Hermione. It is not easy to realize that what the Dursleys did to me is not a normal thing. Anyway Breakfast is ready if anyone is up to it. We have about an hour before people start showing up."

With that said everyone took their seats and started eating breakfast. Albus and Minerva came in and decided to join them for breakfast. After everyone was done eating, they all went up stairs to get ready for the incoming guests.

At exactly 10:30am the first envoy showed up. They were the North American contingent. Sikandar and Sarah immediately recognized them and greeted them. Hermione also recognized one of the representative students. She dragged Harry up to the girl and hugged her.

"Michelle it has been a long time since I have seen you last. I am so glad you were able to come as a representative," exclaimed Hermione.

Michelle smiled and said, "I am glad to see you too Hermione. Who is the stud standing next to you?"

Hermione smiled and said, "Harry meet my cousin Michelle Gault. Michelle this is my best friend and boy friend Harry Potter."

Harry smiled and said, "Hello Michelle and welcome to Potter Mansion. I am not sure if you remember me but we met a long time ago before my parents died and all."

Michelle smiled and nodded saying, "It is good to see you both again and yes I do remember you from back then. I am sorry for your loss of both your parents and godfather. We in the US never really thought he was guilty because there was no real trial to prove his guilt. Their case was based on circumstantial evidence."

Harry smiled weakly and said, "Thanks it is good that some people thought that. I believe that our guest from France should be showing up shortly as well as from Japan."

Just when he said that there was a gong announcing that someone was at the front door. Harry and Hermione walked down to the entrance hall and opened the door. There were a number of students at the door waiting to come in.

One of the French students was Ming. Harry and Hermione greeted her first and then introduced Michelle to her. After that small introduction Harry approached the rest of the new comers.

Harry smiled and said, "Welcome to Potter Mansion please come in. My name is Harry Potter and this is my girlfriend Hermione Durrani, we will be your host while you are staying here. Place your trunks to the left and follow us to the dining room."

It took another hour or so before all the representing countries all arrived and were seated in the dining room for lunch.

Harry stood up and started to speak, "I would like to once again welcome all of you to Potter Mansion and the first international student meeting ever. My name is Harry Potter and I have been asked to chair this meeting with the headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. Let us go ahead and eat some lunch and then we can carry on with the meeting."

After Harry sat down the food appeared on the table in the same fashion as at Hogwarts (considering that there were House Elves working at the mansion) and everyone started to eat. Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Michelle and Ming spent most of the time talking about the differences between the education in the states and the education at Hogwarts.

By the time the meal was over everyone was anxious to see what was to be talked about at the meeting.

Harry got up and walked to the front of the room where a podium was set up. He then began to speak.

"As everyone seems to be anxious to begin let us do so. Let me go over what has been going on over here in England over the last two years. Two years ago Hogwarts hosted a tournament that was competed by three schools including Hogwarts. They were, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang Institute. The last task of the tournament was to have the champions enter a maze and get to the cup first and winning the tournament. Oh let me say that I was forced to compete in the tournament against my will by a death eater that was impersonating an ex auror who Professor Dumbledore had hired to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts that year. Anyway in the end we had two champions for Hogwarts, me and Cedric Diggory. We reached the cup together after fighting off a Acromantula. I was hurt and I told Cedric to take the cup. Anyway, he refused and in the end we decided to take the cup together. What we didn't know was the Death Eater had made the cup into a portkey that took us to a graveyard in Little Hangleton. What we originally thought that it was part of the tournament but we still went on defense. Unfortunately we were not fast enough and a death eater who was there to meet the person who arrived was already ready. I heard a disembodied voice say, 'Kill the spare!' Cedric was hit by the killing curse and was dead before he hit the ground. I won't go into detail of what happened next but to say the least I was tied up and the death eater who I finally was able to identify as Peter Pettigrew. He went through the process of putting some things into a boiling cauldron and then proceeded to take blood from me and add it into the cauldron. After that I heard the disembodied voice that was wrapped up in a blanket tell Peter to cut his hand off and put it into the cauldron. Afterwards the wrapped-up bundle was placed in the cauldron and I am not sure if there was an enchantment said but afterwards Voldermort or if you want to call him anything, Tom, emerged from the cauldron and called the rest of his followers through Peter's dark mark. Anyway we finally dueled with him attempting to put me under Imperious curse twice and failing to do so. In the end he attempts to kill me with the killing curse and I shot a disarming spell. The two spells combined and a golden globe surrounded us and what I learned later the priori Incantation was in effect causing us to see the last people that were killed by Tom's wand. Cedric's image came out first then a muggle old man, then a witch and finally my parents came out. Anyway they were able to communicate with me and tell me to break the bond between us and make a run for the cup. Cedric's last request was for me to return his body to his parents. I broke the bond and summoned the cup while holding Cedric's body. I was transported back to the school where after being checked out by the school nurse I was left in the care of the death eater since the headmaster didn't know that he was one. He dragged me to his office and went about telling me exactly who he was and how he tricked the cup into thinking that there was a fourth school and I was the only participant. Professor Dumbledore immediately showed up and with the help of the other professors was able to subdue to death eater and find the real person who was supposed to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He was in his multi-compartment trunk. Anyway that is the tournament and last year was the worst year for the school and the rest of the magical community in the UK. At Hogwarts last year we had a Ministry appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor that followed the minister blindly and later was responsible for an attack on me and my cousin the summer before with Dementors. I nearly was expelled for defending myself and my cousin but luckily we were able to take care of the situation. For those of you that are worried about the minister this year, don't because he has resigned from office. As we speak there is an important meeting of the ministry officials to elect the new temporary minister till there can be a general election next week."

Just then an owl appeared in front of the headmaster and delivered a note to him. He read it and smiled before handing it to Harry to read. Harry read it and it said:

Dear Albus,

Per your request I wanted to let you know that the temporary minister is Amelia Bones. She will be coming to the meeting shortly.

Arthur Weasley

Harry handed the note to Hermione before continuing on his speech, "Well it has been decided, the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Division (DMLE), Amelia Bones, has been appointed to the position. She will be joining us soon."

Just then there was a ring through the mansion announcing the arrival of someone to the mansion. Harry called for an elf to escort the newcomer to the dining room. Madame Bones and Susan Bones walked into the room. Harry smiled and waved them to where he and Hermione were standing.

Madame Bones smiled and walked to the podium and turned to Harry and said, "Thank you for your welcome, I was given the message that when the new minister was selected to have them come here for the meeting."

Harry nodded and said, "Thank you for coming Minister. Hermione and I thought it was best that we included you in the meeting to get an idea on what is being planned. Professor Dumbledore agreed and sent the message to you. It is good to see you Susan. Why don't you go and sit next to Ginny over there and we can continue with the meeting."

Amelia smiled and said that she would join her niece and sit down with the rest of the representatives.

Harry then turned the meeting to Hermione and she pulled out a list of ideas that she and Harry had brainstormed the night before about.

"Harry and I have gone over quite a lot of things in the planning for this meeting. We had been given this duty only two days ago so bare with us. We would like you input and ideas for improving the list. Some of this list will be started this summer here at the mansion and will continue throughout the year. We will not be doing anything between now and July 31st. Somewhere between now and then the Hogwarts letters will go out and in the ones that are going to the D. A. members there will be an invitation to join us here at the mansion to do some training before the school starts," said Hermione.

Harry came up and stood by Hermione and interrupted her, "After consulting with Professor Snape and some of the Slytherine students I have authorized some letters to go to them. This year we are hoping to bring down the inter-house rivalry between the Hogwarts houses. The sorting hat made comments last year that stated in a similar manor to an American Revolutionary General's speech, "United we stand, Divided we fall." In order for us to win the battle against the dark lord we must unite under one goal, the survival of the world. (A/N: I know that is lame but hey I love the quote and I will use it again at the beginning of term for the rest of the school. (Hint hint))"

Harry stepped aside to let Hermione continue with her presentation, "Nice Harry, ok well this summer we would like to get everyone up to speed with the spell work we started last year and also sometime in the middle of August we will be meeting with the muggle defense instructor or sensei who will be teaching at Hogwarts this year. Harry and I will be working with those that want to in getting back into a physical training regiment. Harry's father was into doing the stuff and had the house equipped for such. Harry and I decided that it would be really good if we go ahead and also get everyone who is going to be staying at the mansion for the rest of the summer, and I understand that is almost all of you, up to speed on the Patronus Charm because word has gotten out that the Dementors of Azkaban Prison have abandoned the prison and rejoined the Dark Lord's side."

A representative from Asia raised her hand and asked, "How safe are we here at the Mansion against the Dementors?"

Harry answered that for her, "The Mansion stands on the ancient lands that once use to be Camelot. My ancestors date back to Merlin and Arthur. There are ancient wards around the mansion that have never been breached by the Dementors since they were created. The ministries over the last several hundred of years have tried in vane to breach the wards for their own purposes. After the death of my parents, the former minister of magic with the help of Lucius Malfoy tried to take control over the area but now I know why they couldn't, Malfoy, Sr. bears the Dark Mark and is marred with a dark or black aura. This is why I am certain we will be safe here at the mansion."

The student nodded and sat back down. Harry turned to Hermione and nodded for her to continue.

Hermione nodded and continued, "We are hoping to get a working group to help defend the Express on the 1st of September when we all return to Hogwarts. The more we have the merrier. That is one of the reasons why we are going ahead and inviting the D. A. to do some training during the summer."

Madame Bones stood up and approached Harry and Hermione and turned to the rest of the students and said, "I wanted to let you all know that before I came here I went ahead and signed a regulation allowing underage students to use magic if they are at least 15 years of age. I also put in the regulation a statement that any student younger caught using magic to protect themselves from attack whether from family or from D. E. they will not be prosecuted. While I was head of the DMLE, I saw quite a few kids get abused because they had been afraid to protect themselves with magic with fear that they would be expelled from Hogwarts which they considered their safe place."

Harry smiled and said, "Thank you Madame Bones. I will probably have to adjust the letters going out to the D. A. Members to let them know this so that their parents will not be afraid that they would be expelled by coming here. By the way here is the letter that I am sending out with the school letters."

Harry passed the letter around and kept a copy for himself.

Dear former D. A. members,

I hope that all of you are enjoying your summer with your families. As you have probably have already read the school letters this year we are hosting students from other countries at Hogwarts this year in the hope to help prepare students for the war that has come upon us. The governors of Hogwarts and the ministry of magic have approved the reestablishment of the Defense Association as an approved organization.

This summer I have taken control of my family properties and vaults and rights. In doing so, I have inherited the Potter Mansion that is under strong wards, and has survived many of dark lords including Voldermort's first rein of terror.

I would like to extend an invitation to all that would like to join us in the summer training to come to the mansion. If you would like to come we will be sending you to Hogwarts and the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, will portkey you to the mansion. This is for security purposes only.

Please send your answers to the Headmaster no later than the 31st of July.

Yours Sincerely,

Harry James Potter, Lord Potter, Lord Black

After reading the letter to everyone, Harry passed out a copy to everyone present including the minister herself. He told Susan that she can keep the letter since she is welcome to join the group with her aunt's approval.

Madame Bones told Susan that she would talk to her later regarding it.

Hermione then began to speak again, "Other than that we also going to start getting the students into shape. There are a number of muggleborn students and Half-blood students that have experiences with muggle defense which more specifically will be martial arts. Ming who is from the French group has a grandfather who will be teaching this course. Both Harry and I are now black belts in at least 3 separate forms of the arts and in my case I am black belted in 4. Harry is working getting his final black belt and will hope to be done by the end of September. Ming's grandfather was his teacher and may be joining us mid-August to help start training the students here at the mansion. He is going to be teaching muggle defense this year in conjunction with the D. A. meetings and so forth. Those taking the muggle defense course will be required to do early morning training to get into shape. This will be a great help for students that play Quiditch too so we will leave the morning exercise open for anyone who wants to join. It will be required for everyone that wants to join the D. A. meetings and the muggle defense classes. That is all that is planned for now. If anyone has any suggestions we would love to hear from you about them."

One of the students from Spain stood up and spoke in broken English, "We were wondering if there was a chance to play some muggle sports like Soccer or something?"

Harry and Hermione looked at Albus and he stood up and came up to the front and spoke, "I am better at addressing this issue, we are willing to let you play the game on the grounds but it would probably not be a sport that is played for competition purposes."

Harry asked the Spanish student to introduce himself and explain what he had in mind.

The Spanish student said, "My name is Miguel Esperanza and the reason why I ask is because the games like soccer and so forth are similar to what you have planned with the martial arts work. It helps to, what is the word?" Harry understanding he is saying said, "Build?" Miguel nodded, "That's it, build our skills in working in groups. I know what you would think that Quiditch would be a good thing but to be honest it isn't."

Harry nodded having experienced watching the football games when he was younger and also watching the neighborhood kids play it during the past summer. Harry said, "Your right, in Quiditch we don't really play as a coherent team we are more worried about what we are doing for our part then you do in your games of football. I agree that it would be a great game to be played by those that are not able to get a real grasp on muggle defense work. And unfortunately here in the UK, the only people that are really any good for the muggle stuff are the half-bloods and muggle-borns are the only ones that have had exposure to these things. Hermione and I are familiar with it because we grew up in the muggle world even though we are pure blood students. I know that there will be other people that will want to start other sports like Cricket and so forth but we will have to see how much interest there is for the game when school starts. Is there anyone else?"

There seemed to be no other suggestions from the students at that point and so Minister Bones stood up and asked to speak a bit. Harry and Hermione nodded and sat down to allow her their undivided attention.

"I just wanted to welcome all of you to the UK and on behalf of my administration and the rest of the ministry I would like to personally apologize to Harry for what he had to go through last year at the hands of my predecessor. I would also like to apologize to Professor Dumbledore for the same reason. It would seem that my predecessor was keen in keeping his power and was being bank rolled by a death eater that had bought his way out of being in prison by making large donations to the St. Mungos hospital. Anyway we have got him caught red handed in actually participating in death eater stuff and he will not be able to get away this time. We are going to be discussing what we plan to do with the death eaters this time around in the near future. We felt that one of the ways that will help get people more capable of defending themselves as much as necessary to get away from an attack was to get the students trained and this was the result of it. Mr. Potter's organization was a real god send in that recourse since a few of his students have already proven that they are capable of defending themselves and their families unfortunately because of attacks that have started to happen in earnest this summer. The ministry and I are going to make any and all resources that will be needed available for this endeavor from now on. I thank you all for agreeing to participate in this venture and welcome to the UK."

Harry stood up and started clapping. Everyone else followed suit causing the new Minister to blush like mad. Harry walked up to the minister and turned to the group and said, "I know I speak for everyone here in saying that we will be proud to work alongside your administration and the Ministry in helping to defend the students and the schools. We appreciate your help and I for one thank you for your apology."

Hermione stood next to Harry and said, "For those of you that are staying for the rest of the summer, you're more than welcome to make yourself at home. While the rest of you, please stay behind while we make some plans to meet with you on September 1st at King's Crossing at 10 a.m. to prepare for their arrival of the students for the New Year."

Harry called a couple of house elves to show those students are staying at the mansion, where they were going to say. And also he told the house elves to show where the library is and where the sitting room is.

Once all the students that were not going to leave had left the room Professor Dumbledore stood up and walk to the front. He started to address the group, "I think that it would be a good idea, if everyone here would meet on September 1st at least an hour before the rest of the students should start arriving for the train to school. If the Minister agrees, we will hope to have some Aurors to meet up with you to help protect the students before they get on the train."

Minister Bones stood up and addressed the group, "I agree that we need some Aurors at the station and will have the new head of the Magical Law Enforcement division of the Ministry of Magic coordinate with Harry and Hermione to make sure that everyone is working on the same page."

Harry spoke up, "Thank you Minister for your support, and any help we can get to protect students is much appreciated. I agree with the headmaster, and we should probably meet at 10:30 a.m. on that day. You are all welcome to come back here early, if you would like we can set up some portkeys for you to use if you plan on coming back here before school starts. If anyone of you would like us to set up emergency portkeys in case your house or place of residence is attacked before the school year begins, we would be happy to do so. I would like to again thank you all for coming today and meeting with us and I hope you'll come back in the fall. If any of you have not decided if you come in early or not, you can let us know by owl or by e-mail. I hope to get some computers in the mansion by the end of the month, so that the students here can keep in contact with their family back home. If you would please leave your e-mail address is with Hermione we will let you know by e-mail our new e-mail address. If any of you in the meantime come up with ideas to help Muggle born and half blood students get familiar with Hogwarts and other magical schools, like Web pages and chat rooms, please let us know and if any of you have any experience with these your help would be appreciated."

Sikandar stood up and approached the front of the group and said, "We will be getting some cell phones (mobile phones) within the next few days to help stay in contact with everyone who has a phone at their disposal. Harry's parents had already had the mansion wired for telephones in the den, the study, and the kitchen. We hope to get a phone service reestablished here also. If any of you have cell phones or phones at home and would like us to have your number so that if we need to contact you we could, please leave the numbers with Hermione. Thank you."

Harry and Hermione then went about getting phone numbers and e-mail addresses and found that quite a few of the students that were leaving wanted to come back early, so with the help of Professor Dumbledore they went about making portkeys for those that were returning before the start of the term. After talking to everyone personally, they walked everyone to the front door, where they watch them leave either by portkey or by car.

Harry turned to the minister and the professors that were there and asked if they would join him and has study. He asked Hermione to join him to.

After everyone sat down in the study, Harry started talking, "I asked you to come here because I thought maybe we should get an idea as to what the Ministry would like us to do to prepare any future candidates for the Auror teams."

Madame Bones said, "What we really need for you to concentrate on as a group is to help those people that want to join the Aurors with their weak subjects like Potions and other subjects."

Hermione nodded and said, "We were hoping to do that last year but with everything that happened with Fudge's appointee taking over the school we were too afraid to set something like that up. The DA was one of the first study groups we had planned because we were so far behind in that subject."

Harry said, "We are going to go ahead and do study groups for all years including the first years to help them in any subject."

Professor Dumbledore said, "Professor Snape will not be joining the school again this year because he has taken up the Assistant Headmaster position at Durmstrang. I just found that out today before coming so I thought I would pass that along to you. Sarah here has agreed to take his place as potion master and Professor Sinistra has agreed to take the position as Head of Slytherine house."

Sarah said, "I have lowered the minimum requirement for the OWL scores for Potions to take the advanced NEWT level Potion classes this year. That alone has undermined our ability to recruit new Aurors from England and the UK who attended Hogwarts. Hopefully this will change for the best."

Harry nodded and said, "If I was actually going to be going for Auror I would have had a better chance at the class this way. But honestly the only reason why I don't do so well in class was because Professor Snape was always undermining my potions and was allowing Draco and other Slytherine to sabotage my potions. If by some chance I got it right he was always saying that I was cheating off of Hermione and I would then get a failing grade for it. I am not sure if I have ever anything above a passing score in that class. Even Ron was doing better than me and he was doing horribly in the class."

This saddened Professor Dumbledore and he said, "I had hoped that Severus would have gotten over his grudge with your father and would not have caused you so much trouble. Sadly you maybe right about how it has been so long that we have had a decent size Auror training class."

Madame Bones commented, "I think that last time we had at least 15 people qualified for the program was before Snape became professor. Albus unfortunately I don't completely blame you for this but I seem to think that your faith in Snape has failed us."

Sadly Albus nodded and said, "My faith in Severus has caused us more problems than I thought. I have decided that Severus will remain a very limited member of the Order now that he is not within my influence. I am glad in some way because it has been a hard time to keep him just in Potions. He had always wanted to do Defense Against the Dark Arts instead but it seems that the only subject he is good at is potions."

Harry spoke up and asked, "Albus did you know anything about what was going on in the Occlumency lessons that were being done last year?"

Albus shook his head and said, "The only thing that Severus said to me is that he refused to teach you anymore and that you were useless in the subject."

Harry spoke up then, "He pretty much mind raped me during the lessons. The only instructions he gave me during the lessons were to clear your mind. How exactly was I to do that he didn't explain. In the end I was left so magically drained that by the time I got to bed I wasn't in any condition to actually do anything to block Tom out. The second to the last lesson I had with him I started fighting back because with the help of Hermione, I was able to find some books on occlumency and I think that Snape knew this and that was why he stopped the lessons. He had purposely setup a trap for me to give him an excuse to stop the lessons. I need to ask Remus if he remembered the attack on Snape the end of their 5th year after the OWLs exams just to see how much was actually revealed to me."

Albus nodded and said, "I am sorry Harry, I had no idea that was going on. I would have had someone else help you if I had known that Severus was doing that. I understand that you have mastered Occlumency with the help of Hermione?"

Harry nodded and said, "Wandless magic is stronger and by using it we were able to learn a lot quicker. By the way I need to tell Hermione about what we discussed after the attack that night."

Albus nodded and said, "Like I said it is for you to decide who to tell it to and who not to. Just so that you know, Sikandar and Sarah already know it so you don't have to worry about telling them that."

Harry nodded and said, "Albus I think that Amelia, Hermione, Ginny, Remus, Tonks, Neville, Michelle Gault, Ming and Luna need to know. Sikandar I don't know if you know but Michelle is a very powerful witch and I think we need to get her into our group of friends to really help."

Sarah nodded and said, "That was one of the reasons why I wanted her to come here from now on. She has been attracting a lot of attention lately because of some of the things that have been happening to her lately. I think that the dark lord was sending feelers around her school in Texas I didn't want to take chances with being here and being able to protect her."

Hermione asked, "What about her parents?"

Sikandar sadly shook his head, "Hermione, I am sorry to say that they were killed in the attack on the WTC last September. They were helping out the evacuation of people from the south tower when it collapsed. They had made it out of the tower but were both killed by falling debris from the tower."

Harry took Hermione in his arms and held her. He looked up at Albus and said, "I am going to ask her to come in here now. I think it is best to have her join this discussion now more than ever."

Albus nodded and Harry called for one of the house elves to escort Michelle into the study. Once Michelle came in, Harry asked her to sit next to Hermione and then he started to talk to Michelle, "Michelle, we called you here for a few reasons. One of them is to say that we are sad to hear what happened to your parents. I remember meeting them when I was young and may they rest in peace. Both Sarah and Sikandar tell us that you have been experiencing some very strong magical surges that have been attracting attention from all sorts of people and the government and we want to help you control that as much as possible. And lastly Hermione and I want you to join our trio of leaders in endeavor with the DA."

Michelle was crying at this point and nodded and said, "Thank you both of you for your sympathy and all regarding my parents. I think I had a better control on my magic before the attack but now I am having a hard time controlling my emotions and all. I would be honored to join the lead group and would also be honored to receive any help from you and Hermione in controlling my powers."

Harry got up and hugged Michelle till she calmed down. The others in the room nodded to themselves in a silent thank god. They all figured that the best person to help her through this was Harry because he has gone through this also.

Once Michelle calmed down Harry brought his chair around to the other side of Michelle while Hermione sat on the opposite. Harry then started to speak, "Michelle we have been discussing a few of the details of the teacher changes this year and a few things that are going to be discussed when we can get the rest of the group of people we want to know here."

Just as he said that Ginny came in with Tonks, Susan, Neville, Ming and Luna. This surprised everyone because they didn't remember Harry asking for them to come.

Harry smiled and said, "I had asked Ginny before she left with the other students to get a hold of Neville and Luna and bring them with Tonks and Susan here right about now."

They smiled and Albus said, "No problem Harry I guess you had this thought out ahead of time. Do you want me to tell them or are you?"

Harry said, "I will tell them. Guys and Gals I asked you to come here because I wanted to let you know of one of the main reasons why Tom has been after me since I was 15 months old. There was a prophecy made about a year before I was born that states:

'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord of... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …' (From the Order of the Phoenix)

Now this is the exact prophecy made to the Albus while interviewing a prospective new Divination professor. Now, for those of you that have been to Hogwarts, you only need one guess who it is."

Even though Hermione had already heard the prophecy she was still shaken by it. Michelle hugged her cousin and they both had tears in their eyes. Ginny was the first to come to her senses and said, "I presume that when you say that the current Divination professor is the one that made the prophecy? How certain are you that she had made a proper prediction and that this was not just some hoaxes? I mean that her track record in classes has not been that good. "

Harry nodded and said, "Unfortunately it is a true prediction. Albus has a pensive version of the prediction and he showed it to me back in June. After I saw that I was certain that she was making a true prophecy because this was not the only one she has made. She made one other and that was in our 3rd year at Hogwarts. I can't be sure what it actually said but it in effect predicted that Peter Pettigrew would escape from us after the events in the Shrieking Shack where we were able to determine that Peter was still alive and that Sirius Black, who by the way was my godfather, was innocent of all charges. Anyway let us just say that we were not able to predict the untimely arrival of the full moon and Professor Lupin's monthly change. Hermione and I watched helplessly as Peter escaped and in the prediction he would join up with his old master and bring him back. Peter was there in the graveyard at the end of the tournament that the Cup took me and Cedric to. He was the one that killed Cedric at the order of an disembodied voice that sounded like Tom. Through a ritual that included taking by force my blood and a few other items, Peter was able to revive Tom."

This revelation seemed to surprise some of the people in the study, but not all. Harry took this in stride and continued to say, "It seems that some of you came to that conclusion a while back and this only confirmed what you have already figured out. For some reason, even I had realized that back in my first year. This is one of the reasons why I want to get as many of the Hogwarts students ready to protect their families, especially the muggleborn students, who will undoubtedly be targeted by death eaters during this war."

Amelia started talking, "I think that is a good idea and so does the governors of the school and that is why your group is going to be able to run this year without any concerns about having to hide your meetings. The only thing we request is that you do not teach any unforgivables to the students. Right now, we only teach and allow the Hit Wizards to use these curses."

Harry nodded and said, "I have never liked those curses and would never use them in battle even against Tom Riddle. To be honest I don't think that it will take any magic to kill Tom at all. In my opinion it will be a muggle way like using the Sword of Godric Gryffindor to do so."

Albus nodded and said, "I agree with Harry on this and that is one of the reasons why we are going to have a non-magical defense course available to the students this year."

Amelia nodded and was happy that they were going to be doing something to help get some of the purebloods to realize that the muggles are better at some things then they were.

Michelle spoke up and said, "I agree with Harry about the need to look at other venues of defense other then magic. I have a black belt in 2 martial arts types and am willing to help in the classes too."

Harry nodded and said that he and Hermione would talk to her later about it. Amelia asked about what they were talking about and Harry said, "One of the forms of muggle type defense is martial arts. It is the study of techniques of self defense where one uses their mind and body to take down their opponent. It is an old form of defense that dates back to the Ninjas and their form of training that was in Japan in the late 1800's and towards the beginning of World War II. My sensei that I have been training with this summer will be doing the muggle defense training this year. He is a wizard from Japan. By the way I have achieved mastery in 3 of the styles and am working on finishing my final one by the time school starts."

Hermione nodded and said, "I have achieved mastery of all four styles and will be working with Harry to prepare for the final test to mastery achievement test."

This was a surprise to both Sikandar and Sarah because they didn't know how much their daughter had come in her training. Amelia and Susan were surprised because they didn't think that it was that easy to attain the mastery of three forms much less one.

Harry smiled at the reactions but then realized that some didn't really comprehend just how much time it took for them to learn the arts.

Harry started to explain just how much time it took them to learn, "From the looks that both Amelia and Susan are giving Hermione I better clarify just how much training took place for this to be accomplished. Hermione has been doing this training for the last 5 years at least. Now I am going to say that I have accomplished this in the last few weeks only because I have had the pleasure of being helped along the way by my ancestors."

The shock that was going around the room finally wore off with Amelia when she asked, "Who are your ancestors besides Merlin and Arthur?"

Harry smiled and said, "Hermione and I are the heirs of the founders and Merlin. I am also the heir of Arthur Pendragon and in regards am the Prince to the Magical Kingdom."

Amelia then asked, "Harry I thought your mom was a muggleborn?"

Harry said that his mom came from a line of squibs and it wasn't till her mother that magic in her family resurfaced."

Everyone nodded and Hermione said that through both her parents she was the heir to the founders and Merlin only. It was only at this point that James and Lily made their presence known in one of the portraits in the study.

"Both Harry and Hermione are going to be the main fighters in this war. I just hope that this time it will be a final completion in this war not like the semi one we had last time," said Lily.

Harry and Hermione slumped down in their chairs and just looked at each other. Harry was close to breaking down remembering what had happened last time and this was all it took for Hermione to jump out of her seat and grab Harry into a tight embrace. Harry just broke down and started to sob while holding onto Hermione with all his life. Everyone got up and started to leave the study to leave the two to console each other.

Outside the study Sikandar and Sarah invited Amelia to stay for dinner which she accepted and went off to talk to Susan about her being able to stay till she went back to school in September.

Harry and Hermione finally calmed down and realized that everyone including Harry's parents had left them to release their pent-up emotions. After straightening themselves up and cleaning up the study, they left the room and went to find where the rest of their guests had gone.

It didn't take them long to find them and were not surprised to see most of them watching TV in the lounge and just relaxing. Harry went over to Remus and Amelia and sat with them. Hermione decided to go to her cousin and sat with her and Ginny, who had been sitting on the floor in front of Michelle and was discussing a few things that she was reading in Witch Weekly.

Harry spoke to both Amelia and Remus, "Thanks for giving Hermione and I some time to release our emotions, we needed it."

Amelia said, "We sort of figured that was the case and had thought it was best to leave quietly. Oh, Harry, Susan has asked to stay for the rest of the summer here with you and Hermione and I felt it was safer than her staying at the Manor for the summer alone since I will be busier than ever now that I am the Minister."

Harry nodded and said, "That is fine with me, we will have both Sikandar and Sarah here full time and Remus will be here most of the time minus the time of the month he becomes a furry pet." Harry said the last part a bit cheekily and received a swat on his arm for it from Remus.

Amelia smiled and said, "That reminds me, Remus I will be abolishing the racist laws that Umbridge put in place regarding werewolves and other non-human beings like the goblins and the house-elves on Monday and I will be setting up liaisons to the different groups."

Remus said, "I am glad that we have at least got some roadblocks out of the way regarding any chances of preventing the werewolves from joining the dark lord."

Harry spoke up and said, "Amelia, I think it would be a good idea for someone to go to the Goblins and get their help in this war. My suggestion is that we get them to lock down all known death eater's accounts and if that is too dangerous contact us if they have any visitors for the vaults and we, as in the DMLE, could have people there to arrest them. We could also get them to help guard the death munchers that were caught last month or will be caught in the future."

Amelia and Albus thought about and came to the same conclusion at the same time. Out of embarrassment, Amelia let Albus speak, "That is a great idea and we should approach them as soon as possible."

Amelia nodded and said, "I will get someone on it as soon as possible to get started with opening talks with them in the morning."

Everyone nodded and relaxed until one of the house elves came out and said, "Dinner is ready."

Everyone happily got up and went into the dining room and found that the table had been reduced to a smaller, more informal size then what was there for the formal lunch and conference.

Before everyone ate anything Harry stood up and got everyone's attention by ringing his glass with a spoon. Everyone turned to him and waited for him to talk, "This will be one of the only times I will be making announcements before dinner so don't worry. I just wanted to express my welcome to my house and hope that you enjoy your stay here for the rest of the summer. If there is anything Hermione or I can do for you to make your stay a bit more comfortable, please let us know and we will try to help you as best we can. As I believe I said earlier today, we are in the works of having some computers and a T-1 High speed internet installed to the mansion and should be done within the next few days. There are phone lines in the house already installed and if any of your families would like to get a hold of you at anytime we will get you the numbers they can call to reach you. That being said we will get everything sorted out before the end of the month. We expect the other students that are, I hope, joining us in the additional training to come either on the 31st or on the 1st of August. Let us eat. After dinner can I have all the students that have had experience and training in martial arts to come to the den to discuss a few things?"

After Harry sat down, the elves in their usual dramatic manner sent in the food to the table. In Harry's opinion they out did themselves with the dramatics. Harry turned to Hermione and said, "I think I need to talk to our little friends and insist that they try and cool down on the dramatics."

Hermione nodded and said, "I agree with you on that. It will probably be better if they just have it laid out for everyone by a certain time and we will let them know when at least most of us have eaten so they don't have to keep coming to check on us."

Harry conjured up a pad and pulled out a pen from his pocket and started to make notes on what rules they needed to set up with the elves regarding how things can be done a little less dramatically.

Albus and Minerva saw this and said as one, "Lily and James!" with a smile.

Sikandar nodded and said, "Your right about that. That was one of the reasons why we always thought they made a perfect couple. Even when Hermione and Harry were little they used to think alike."

Minerva continued, "I see it all the time at Hogwarts. I saw past the flippant untruth that Hermione told me their first year on Halloween when the troll attacked her in the girl's toilet. I just didn't want the others to realize that I had lost sight of her before the discovery. I later figured that both Ron and Harry had gone to get her after realizing that she wasn't around to hear about the troll and they wanted to make sure she was out of harm's way before going to the common room because they knew they wouldn't be able to get out of the common room to find her if they went back."

By this time both Harry and Hermione had stopped talking to each other and turned to the adults near them and heard Minerva's comments. Hermione blushed and it was Harry that spoke up for the two of them.

"Minerva there is something I should clear up regarding Ron's involvement in that rescue. The reason why Hermione was there in the first place was because Ron had made some hurtful comments about her while walking back from Charms class and because she had been hoping to make friends in a new school and not be shunned for being a bookworm she broke down and ran for the only place she could get to where we wouldn't find her easily. Now this had its good side and its bad side, one she missed the feast while two she helped stop the troll from getting too far and getting Ron to finally get the Windguardian Leviosa charm right. Anyway the only reason Ron was there that night was because I forced him to come with me to find Hermione. I think that the only reason why Ron finally got the charm right was because if he didn't he felt he would be shunned by the rest of the magical community for letting the Boy-Who-Lived die because he couldn't figure out a first year spell. At the time I was grateful for Hermione for telling you that she was responsible for our being there."

Minerva nodded and said, "To be honest it was a bit weird for an answer seeing as we all didn't see her in the hall the entire time and if I hadn't been more worried about you three being there in the first place I would have caught on more clearly. Well that is the past and now we have a future to look forward to."

The days leading up to Harry's birthday were filled with the kids playing around in the garden and reading in the study. Harry had already started working on the lesson plans for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes while Hermione was working on reviewing some of the stuff that the DA were going to work on while they were canceled the mansion before the school year started.

Ginny spent most of the time either helping Harry or Hermione since she was like Hermione and had already done her homework for the New Year. Since they didn't know what the school books were for the next year she didn't have anything else to do.

Sikandar and Sarah checked on the teens from time to time to insure that they did have some fun during the summer instead of reading books all day.

One such day came up toward the end of July when Hermione suggested that they go to Diagon Alley for the afternoon. Harry readily agreed and Sikandar and Sarah contacted Remus and Tonks to get some help in escorting the teens to Diagon Alley that afternoon.

Remus and Tonks joined them for lunch where Harry and Hermione spent a part of the time telling them what they had already planned for the next year. They were impressed and said that they would look forward to coming to the meetings and seeing what they are going to do.

After lunch they all got ready to go to the Alley to do some shopping and then into the muggle world to do some electronics and clothes shopping before they return to the mansion.

Albus had arranged for two ministry limos to come and pick them up at the mansion and take them to London. The trip to London took 20 minutes due to the speed that the limos went and their first stop was Diagon Alley. Harry needed to stop at Gringots to get some muggle money and some galleons to shop with. Some of the other students with them also needed to get some money to shop.

Harry, Hermione, Sarah, Sikandar, Ginny, and Michelle approached as a group to one of the tellers that Harry had recognized. He greeted the teller, "Hello Griphook, I would like to access my vault and get some muggle money."

Griphook looked up sharply in surprise at a wizard addressing him by name and said, "How is it that you know who I am sir?"

Harry smiled slightly and said, "I remember you from my first time entering the bank almost 5 years ago. You had taken me and Hagrid down to get some money out of my vault."

Griphook nodded and said, "It is very unusual for a human to remember a goblin name much less recognize one. There is one thing that needs to be addressed before we I can take you down to your vault. The manager of Gringot's here in England, Ragnok, has asked to see you when you come into the bank. Also Mr. Potter, are you aware that you have more than one vault and if so which vault would you like to visit?"

Harry looked at Sikandar who shrugged and said, "We have time to meet with Ragnok and as for the vaults you remember that you inherited the black vault and since you are emancipated you are also able to access your ancestral vaults from both your parents."

Harry nodded and told Griphook he would decide after he met with Ragnok. He also asked if the rest of the group could come to the meeting. Griphook said he would ask the manager when he escorted him to the office.

Griphook got down from his stool and told one of the goblins he was escorting a customer to the manager and motioned the group to follow him. After walking for several minutes down two long corridors they came upon a door that was marked with Ragnok's name and his position as manager.

Griphook asked them to wait outside while he went in to ask the manager if they could all come in. After a minute he came back out and told them that they were all welcome to come in.

They all walked into the office and approached the goblin behind the desk. There were enough seats for all of them to sit down but they stood in respect to the manager till he offered them to sit down.

Harry came forward slightly and bowed while keeping eye contact with the goblin manager in greeting.

Harry greeted the goblin by saying, "Good day Ragnok, I appreciate you allowing my friends to join me in meeting you."

Ragnok stood and bowed back to Harry and said, "Good day Mr. Potter and thank you for agreeing to take time to meet with me in regards to some urgent matters I would like to discuss. I understand that the two oldest persons with you are your godparents and therefore recognize them as part of your family. What I would like to discuss with you isn't of any state secret or something which wasn't already discussed in the will of Mr. Black so there was no need for secure talks. Please all of you have a seat and we can start off by discussing some transactions regarding Mr. Black's will."

Harry and the rest of his group sat down and waited for Ragnok to begin. Ragnok pulled out a large file and put it on his desk. He began speaking, "Mr. Potter, as the primary benefactor and the new head of the Black family you needs to decide on what to do with the Black Family Vault. Also we need to know if you have any idea as to who will be your account manager for both the Potter and Black accounts."

Harry turned to Hermione and quietly discussed an idea about who he wanted to choose and after a bit turned to Ragnok and said, "I would like to have a goblin to be in charge of my accounts and the only one other then you that I have met more than once is Gryphook, he was courteous and straightforward with his information to me and I trust him to be the same in the future."

Ragnok smiled a toothy smile and said, "Gryphook will be pleased to know this. What you do not know is that before your parent's death, Gryphook was your account manager for your family going back to the beginning of the 20th century and was replaced by the ministry without your permission with a human one. I will call for Gryphook and then we can discuss a couple of things that popped up while reviewing your accounts after the death of your godfather."

Ragnok pushed a crystal his desk and another goblin came in the office. The goblin was then presumably told to send Gryphook in as quickly as possible.

It took only a few minutes for Gryphook to return and was told that the Potter family would like that he was to be the account manager for the Potter and Black family accounts again. This brought a smile (toothy one) on Gryphook's face and he then turned to Harry and bowed and said, "Mr. Potter it will be an honor and privilege to handle your accounts again. I was sad at the loss of your parents and grandparents who had been held with great esteem by my fellow bankers over the years and it would seem that your family reputation has not been lost on you and your extended family too. Ms. Durrani, your plights for the welfare of the House elves has been known to the goblin folk for a while and we feel that it will do well that when the public finds out that you are a pureblood instead of a muggle born they may actually take more notice then right now. I am afraid that muggle born students are treated as third class citizens in the wizarding world."

Hermione smiled and nodded and said, "That is what me and Harry plan to get rid of at least on the government level. This pureblood supremacy has gone on for too long and it shows. Purebloods are dwindling down to almost extinction due to the inbreeding in the families and other problems."

Harry spoke up and said, "What we are hoping to do and we have already talked to the new minister about setting up some kind of liaison between the goblin nation and the Ministry for real. I am aware that there was some sort of controlling group that was more menacing then actually helpful for relations between us."

What the goblin did next would cause many in the room to have problems with their jaws, i.e. sitting on the floor. The two goblins burst out laughing and after a minute of calming down they explained their reaction, "Mr. Potter, Ms. Durrani, your impressions of the wizarding world both regarding blood purity and the government's idea of providing a liaison between us and them is spot on if not an understatement. Mr. Potter, you are correct in your description of the officials that are supposed to be the representative of your government is spot on. Just to let you know, until the incarceration of Mr. Malfoy Senior, he was the liaison and you can imagine what kind of actions or talks took place between us. I am aware of a lot of sweeping changes in the government and that is one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you today or sometime in the near future. I am well aware of your heritage and know that you have a lot of political pull in the government and hope that we can implement a lot of changes immediately. The first thing that I really want to talk to you about is the condition of your accounts and what the ministry has been doing to them."

Ragnok handed Harry a folder and kept another one for him to look at. He opened the folder and motioned for Harry to do the same thing. The top page showed the balances liquidity and assets like businesses, residences and stocks (muggle and wizard). Also there was a balance of loans that totaled more the 10 million galleons. Harry looked up after passing it too Sikandar and Sarah and said, "Ragnok, who were those loans made to?"

Before Ragnok could answer him, Sikandar started to growl and was about to stand up if it wasn't for Sarah holding him down. Harry and the rest of the group turned to him expecting an explanation for his agitation.

Sikandar spoke and said, "Harry I think we need to talk to Amelia immediately. It would seem that you have been paying for Malfoy and some of the other death eaters that you caught back in June in the ministry being held in prison. Ragnok, correct me if I am wrong but isn't that usually paid by the families of the prisoners and not by victims?"

Ragnok nodded and said, "That is one of the many discrepancies that I wanted to talk to you about regarding your account. The other is the amount of non-interest bearing loans that have been made to a number of small corporations whose parent company is TR and Associates. It is required by both magical and muggle law that any corporation has to have a public file of all its executives and investors and so forth. We found that the head of the TR and Associates is…"

Before Ragnok could finish Harry did it for him, "Tom Marvalo Riddle right?"

Ragnok nodded and asked, "Do you know who that is by the way?"

Harry nodded and said, "The snake head himself, I bet that the whole thing is being setup by Malfoy himself."

Ragnok nodded and said, "That is correct and what concerns me the most is that until we executed the Black will these transactions were still being done by Malfoy and correct me if I am wrong isn't he still in prison?"

Harry and Sikandar nodded and Sikandar said, "Ragnok I want you to call in all the notes that are not to the ministry itself and we will get back to you on the ministry loans as soon as we get in contact with Madame Bones."

Harry nodded and said, "I agree with Sikandar, hold off the ministry loans till we have an idea on what is going on there. Also stop all payments for the death eaters incarceration. Also can you try and get a message to Draco and his mother. As the head of the Black family I would like to meet with them and see where they stand regarding everything."

Ragnok nodded and Gryphook started making notes of what was being requested. He then asked, "At this point is there anything else you would like to happen before you leave regarding the rest of your holdings?"

Harry went back to look at the folder that Sikandar was looking at and found something that piqued his interest. He showed it to Hermione and she nodded in agreement about that so he turned to Ragnok and said, "The stocks that I have in the Daily Prophet, does that give me a majority ownership in it?"

Ragnok nodded and said, "That is correct Mr. Potter it does. What did you have in mind regarding it?"

Hermione spoke up and asked, "Is this our copy to keep regarding the files or can you just copy these papers showing his ownership in the Daily Prophet?"

Ragnok said, "The file is a copy of the originals that we have here, you may take the whole thing."

Harry nodded and said, "Then in regards to that we will deal with the miscreant that calls itself a newspaper after we leave here. Ragnok is there any way of getting a passport and other photo id's that we can use in future travels and so forth. Also do you have a Credit Card/debit card available here at Gringotts?"

Gryphook opened a box that was on the director's desk and pulled out what looked like a muggle wallet and a passport and handed it to Harry. He then said, "If you still want to go down to your vaults we can get the Credit card setup for you so that it will be ready for you to take with you when you leave. It will work in both the muggle world and the wizarding world."

Harry opened the wallet and found a drivers license with the Potter Manor address on it and an EU ID Card for him to use when going around Europe. He opened the passport that was from the UK and saw that it was valid for 5 years. He put the wallet in the back pocket of his muggle clothes and put the passport in his backpack that he was carrying. He then turned to Gryphook and Ragnok and said, "I do not have any questions regarding my accounts at this point. I think that we can forgo going down to the vaults till another day since I have means to pay for my purchases without going down to the vaults. Why don't we go ahead and discuss the other matter you wanted to talk about Ragnok."

Ragnok nodded and turned to Gryphook and told him to go ahead and setup the credit card for Harry. Harry interrupted and said to setup one for Hermione, Ginny and Michelle also. Gryphook nodded and left the room. The girls started to try and dissuade Harry from doing this but Harry wouldn't have any of it and turned back to Ragnok so that he could start the next bit of business.

Ragnok stood up and went to a file cabinet behind his desk and pulled out two medallions and took his seat again. He then turned to Harry and Hermione and said, "Mr. Potter, Ms. Durrani, both of your ancestors have been goblin friends since we have been fully active in the wizarding world and in some cases even longer. The goblin council of nations would like to extend the titles and privileges to both of you. They have also authorized me to make my own decision regarding any of your companions. Mr. and Mrs. Durrani and Mr. Lupin are also goblin friends from long before for their help in the last war in defending the bank from death eater attacks. I understand from my sources in the wizarding world that you are forming up and international coalition against the dark lord and we here at Gringots would like to work with you in the war. No offense to Professor Dumbledore but we feel that allying with his group will not bring a effective end to the conflict as would allying with your group."

Harry and Hermione both looked at each other then turned to Michelle and Ginny and talked to them for a bit. Harry turned to Ragnok and asked, "Ragnok there is one other member of the senior council that isn't here that I would like to come in so that we can talk with all representatives in full about this. I personally think this would be a very profitable and ideal proposition for an alliance between our nations. Ming Chen is waiting outside in the lobby for us to come back. She was chosen by her fellow European members to represent the European and Asian continent because of her heritage on the senior council. I think having her here would be a great help in this."

Ragnok nodded and before he could send someone to get her, Harry said he would instead since he knew where they were waiting. Harry left the room with a goblin following him to make sure he knew where he was going. Harry had memorized the way from the lobby so he was able to retrace with only a few mishaps that were corrected by his companion and made to the lobby. He asked Ming to join him and told the rest that they might as well do some shopping because they would be a while. He would meet them in an hour at the ice cream shop. If it will take longer someone will come let them know.

Harry and Ming followed the goblin that came with Harry back to the manager's office to find another chair by Ginny. Ming sat there while Harry sat next to Hermione. Harry asked if Ragnok wanted him to explain what was going on or did he. Ragnok said he could so Harry explained only the details of Goblin Friend status and the possible alliance of the council of nations to the group. He then explained that she was representing the European and Asian contingent in the group he wanted her here to work out the details and agree if necessary. After getting Ming caught up on what had happened so far he turned to Ragnok and let him continue what he wanted to do.

Ragnok started speaking after seeing all eyes were now on him, "As Mr. Potter has explained we goblins were burned by the dark lord last war and vowed to not repeat ourselves this time. In the intervening years the wizarding government here in England has not been too appreciative to what we provide for them and act like they are doing us a favor by letting us still exist this long. Mr. Potter and Ms. Durrani and their families have had a long history of being supportive of the goblins. In Mr. Potter's family seats on the Wizengott case this support died after his parent's death, pardon the pun. Mr. Malfoy and Fudge had corralled all the Potter and Evan's votes, which added together is the highest number for one family to have right now on the Wizengott and this was before Harry assumed the Black family headship. Unfortunately, Harry you will not be able to take control over the seats until after your 16th birthday next week. By accepting the inheritance from your godfather and parents you have at least suspended until you are 16. Now Mr. Potter the one thing we Goblins are really interested in is a new peace agreement and/or at least some new laws that will grant equal representation in the Wizengott. I am presuming that if this is done for us it would also have to be allowed for other magical creatures like werewolves and vampires."

Michelle turned to Sikandar and said, "Does this remind you of past history?"

Sikandar nodded and said, "The English monarch at the time was extremely stupid enough to be arrogant and say yes to something as big as this as a stalling mechanism to the colonies of the US and later of India. In India's case the distance between the colonies prevented more bloodshed because of the time needed and the war that occurred at the time."

Harry was lost to the conversation being played out between the two but was able conceive the basic premise and turned to Ragnok and said, "I am not at liberty to speak on behalf of the ministry even though I am more or less the crown prince to the magical world. I would need to talk to them and further talk to the muggle Queen because she would also have to agree to this in general. I have no reason not to agree since you should have a voting right to decide on issues that affect your business interests and your goblin nations in general. Only an arrogant person would be stupid enough to believe that his species is above others."

Everyone sighed in relief to see that they were not dealing with a totally naïve person in Harry. Sikandar turned to Harry and said, "I think it would be wise to talk to the Queen and her family with the minister of magic and Prime Minister present so that there are basically a sound agreement in all parties. Maybe we can setup a meeting in the mansion or otherwise."

Harry nodded and said, "We can set it up through Madame Bones and see where that goes. Ragnok if there isn't anything else we will be in touch after we talk to all who are concerned."

Ragnok nodded and said, "That would be no problem. We were not expecting you come this early to the bank so an answer is not needed urgently. But please think about previous history of both worlds when it comes to matters like this in making such decisions."

They all stood up and Harry and Hermione shook Ragnok's hand and said that they would get in touch. Gryphook came back in and gave Harry the cards that he wanted for his vaults. Harry gave Ginny, Michelle and Hermione their cards and kept his in his wallet. He turned to Ragnok and Gryphook and bowed respectfully and said, "May your gold and wealth flow freely in your favor. Good day gentlemen."

With that Harry turned to the rest of the group and followed them out of the office leaving two bewildered goblins in their wake. Gryphook nodded to Ragnok and said, "I believe that we have made the correct choice in Mr. Potter and will see many changes being made in goblin/wizard relations in the near future."

Ragnok nodded and said, "Very true my prince. When are you going to let them know your true identity?"

Gryphook sighed and said, "In good time, I think it would be prudent to wait and see how much pull Mr. Potter can make without playing that hand in the mix. I am quite sure that when he informs the Queen about who he is actually speaking with and who he has managing his accounts then she will be apprehensive on just how influential he is. With no doubt things are going to get very interesting around the UK for now."


End file.
