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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness	By : Danyealle Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Voldemort Views: 297597 -:- Recommendations : 54 -:- Currently Reading : 184
Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. This is a work of fanfiction and no profit is being made. It is a for-fun endeavor and no infringement is intended.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
This chapter is written by: Aya Macchiato

Beta done by tannne and Danyealle-sama

Again, I remind everyone that the amazing Aya Macchiato has given me permission to continue this story for her. This is another of the chapters that she already had done. All I've done with this one is some basic beta work, nothing more, it's as she wrote it!

Link to the first story...

http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600095391

-Danyealle

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Chapter 16

September 1st at the manor passed far too quickly for Harry's tastes. It included one meeting with Voldemort and a small group of Death Eaters, then a training session with the Intermediate group that evening. Before he knew it, it was just after 10:30 pm, which was just about the same time that Harry had began to sneak out of Hogwarts his first go at September 1st. Harry waited until the moment he felt the shift in the manor wards that signified that he had just portkeyed in. He stood at the top of the stairs and listened as his previous self hissed open the door to the time-turner room, and the soft click of the door shutting behind him. A moment later, he felt the presence of his earlier self vanish from the manor and knew that he had just gone back 24-hours.

Harry then sighed and made his way down the stairs into the entry hall. He pulled the left sleeve of his school robes up, exposing the portkey, and activated it. A moment later, he found himself back in the Honeydukes tunnel and began to make his way back to the school, all the while muttering about how convoluted the process was, and wondering how he'd manage to keep track of it all, while maintaining his sanity.

About ten minutes after re-entering the castle, he met back up with Hermione and the two returned to Gryffindor Tower.

Harry entered the 5th year's dorm room and gave a heavy sigh at the sight of his bed. It wasn't a bad bed. It was leagues above the ratty thing he'd had to sleep on at Grimmauld Place. It was a double-sized, four-poster bed with beautiful red-velvet hangings, fine sheets, and overstuffed pillows with a thick, heavy, comforter. However, it wasn't his bed and it didn't have Tom in it.

He didn't have the locket to sleep with anymore and he knew he had to keep his mind mostly closed off from Tom simply to maintain his own sanity. Tom would be with his other self right about now and he knew it would be pure torture to experience Tom's lust, desire, or pleasure, not to mention any other emotions, while he was trapped at Hogwarts.

It was something that he and Tom had discussed as a part of Harry living every day twice in two separate places. Such constant and drastic time manipulation could be risky if not handled delicately. Harry would need to keep himself completely cut off from Tom during his days at Hogwarts, and could never let any information about the future slip to Tom when he was in the manor. It was a precaution that needed to be taken for multiple reasons.

With heavy feet, Harry made his way over to his trunk, opened it, and pulled out some pajama pants.

His dorm mates were already all asleep, they also having been exhausted from the long day of traveling, and not having the responsibilities of a prefect to keep them up the extra hour. Harry climbed into bed, drew the hangings around it and went to sleep.

Harry tried not to groan too loudly as he woke up in an empty bed. He tried to remind himself that this was still a thousand times preferable to waking up at Grimmauld place and that the following evening he'd be back in bed with Tom.

He showered then went through his standard bathroom routine, using several very handy charms Tom had taught him over the summer to magically shave, brush his teeth, and style his hair. It wasn't slicked back but his long chin-length fringe was now styled up around his forehead and back behind his ears while the rest lay loose, just beginning to brush his shoulders.

He removed his glasses and cleaned them on his robes before putting them back onto his face then pushing them slightly up his nose. He frowned at his reflection, debating for the nth time just getting rid of the damn things. Tom had never had poor eye sight so he had never, personally, had to investigate in any corrective eye magic but he knew there were a couple different procedures that could achieve the goal. Harry had just been so busy that summer that he hadn't gotten around to it at all. Finally, he sighed and shoved the thought to the back of his head to deal with another time.

He exited the bathroom and re-entered his dorm room just as Ron was groggily waking up. He didn't yet know what his timetable would look like but his book bag was feather light and had an expansion charm so it was possible for him to actually take all of his class books with him. Since he had no desire to return to Gryffindor Tower between breakfast and his first class, he did just that.

He told Ron he was heading down and didn't wait for a response before leaving. He passed Hermione as he walked through the common room, and when it became obvious that he wasn't going to stand around waiting for Ron, she scurried after him.

The two made their way down to the Great Hall with minimal conversation. Harry really wasn't particularly interested in making small talk at the moment, and Hermione seemed to sense that.

After entering the hall and sitting down at the Gryffindor table, Harry eyed the pitcher of pumpkin juice in front of him and grimaced. Hermione began to pile a few bits of food onto her plate before pouring herself a cup of juice. She looked over at Harry with a questioning gaze as she made a motion with the juice pitcher, silently asking if she should pour him a glass as well. He shook his head as he pulled out a scrap of parchment and a charmed quill that didn't need an ink well. He scribbled something onto the parchment, waved his wand over it and it vanished.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked, looking at him with a bewildered expression.

Harry held up a finger to tell her to wait and, an instant later, a steaming pot of coffee and an empty mug appeared in front of him. He sighed in relief and smiled as he poured himself a cup then added some cream.

Hermione just blinked at him, dumbfounded.

"Harry, what was that?"

"I sent a request to the elves," Harry said with a small shrug as he took a slow sip from his creamy-looking coffee.

"Harry!" Hermione said in a scandalized tone. "It is not right to take advantage of them, when they're already terribly overworked and..."

"Hermione, do you even know anything about the origin of house elves?" Harry asked, cutting her off.

Hermione's brow furrowed and she opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off yet again by Professor McGonagall showing up to give them each their schedules. Harry quickly began to read over his schedule while aimlessly stuffing a few forkfuls of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

Suddenly, he heard a rather insistent-sounding 'eh-hem' from Hermione and looked up. She was giving him an impatient and expectant look.

"What?" Harry asked,

"House elves!" she growled.

"Oh! Right."

"What did you mean about the origin of house elves?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know a lot of the details but I'm sure you could just ask one of them and they'll explain it in more detail. Anyway, the house elves we have today are descendants from a clan of elves that turned against their own kind and openly fought against the High Council of the Alder Elves during the Tartessian War. For betraying their own species and choosing to side with the humans, they were punished by the High Council by having their magic permanently bound to the human wizards they had sided with. Then they were denied the opportunity to move on and relocate with the rest of the elves when they all left. The new race of 'house-elves' now and forever would have to serve a wizard master or else their magic will slowly kill them. If they go without a master to serve for too long, they die."

Hermione gasped. "That's awful!"

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, kind of sucks to have to pay for the sins of your ancestors but they've developed a culture around their plight. They want to serve wizards. As long as they're treated with respect, they thoroughly enjoy their jobs and their lives. That's why the house elves don't want to be set 'free'. If they're set free, that means their unbonded, and their magic will slowly start to kill them. Honestly, I worry a bit about Dobby and Winky. I think they're 'employed' at Hogwarts but they're not bonded so I don't think they're safe right now.

"But the Hogwarts house elves who are bonded all seem extremely happy with their lives here. They live to serve the students and it actually thrills them to receive requests. If you want to brighten up their day, attach a note to your empty plates or fold it through the prongs of your fork with a little 'thank you'. They'll probably be so overjoyed, they'll faint when they read it." Harry chuckled and began to eat a piece of bacon while returning his attention to his timetable.

Ron showed up a moment later and McGonagall came over then gave him his timetable.

"Ugh... History of Magic then Potions on Monday mornings?" Ron groaned as he looked his over. "And Divination after lunch... which you don't have to worry about, bloody wanker." Ron grumbled bitterly at Harry who just smirked back. "Followed by Defense in the afternoon then dinner."

Hermione seemed to be pulled out of her deep thoughts on the plight of house elves by Ron's words and she suddenly began looking over her timetable as well.

"Mine is the same except, of course, instead of Divination, I've got Ancient Runes," Hermione said.

Harry hummed in response but didn't describe his schedule to them. Harry's schedule wasn't quite the same as theirs for Monday. His would start with History as well, but for second block he had both Potions with his own year mates, and Ancient Runes with the 4th years. Both of these classes were at the same time so he would have to use his student time-turner for that. After lunch, he had Arithmancy with the 4th years, and then Defense with Ron and Hermione. He was looking forward to Defense since he knew Thor would undoubtedly be a brilliant teacher.

History was as mind-numbing as ever, and Harry spent most of the class plotting different ways he could get the worthless ghost of a professor sacked. He wondered if Tom knew any spells for banishing the man's soul from the plane of the living. Sort of forcing him to 'move on'. He knew Tom had dabbled in necromancy in his twenties but the man had really only gone so far as to learn how to reanimate corpses in order to make his own army of inferi, and hadn't bothered to go much further than that.

After History, Harry followed Ron and Hermione down to the dungeons, having decided to use his time-turner to go back to attend Runes after he was through with Snape's class but before lunch.

As had come to be expected, the Gryffindors were once again taking Potions with the Slytherins. Harry's eyes met for only a brief moment with Draco's as the group of students stood gathered outside the door to the Potions classroom. Draco didn't quite seem to know what to make of him and quickly diverted his eyes as subtly as he could manage then, instead, continued to drawl on about something or another he'd done over the summer to Pansy Parkinson, who seemed to be hanging onto his every word as if it were her lifeblood.

Harry snickered then turned back to face Ron and Hermione just as the door to the classroom was thrown open with a deafening Bang! and Snape stood there, sneering at the group of fifth years disdainfully.

"Get in here," he hissed before spinning around and quickly striding back inside, his black robes billowing dramatically behind him. As he reached the front of the class, and the students began to pour in then find seats he quickly spat out, "Don't sit down yet!"

The students paused, and a couple who had already sat, stood back up, waiting with confused looks on their faces.

"This year the lot of you will each have an assigned partner." Snape began then the room was filled with whispered groans and murmurs that were instantly cut off by a sharp glare from Snape. "You're partner will remain the same the entire term. You will be preparing more complicated and dangerous potions as you prepare for your OWLs, so it will be necessary that you come to know your partner's techniques, skill level, and deficiencies. I will also make sure that, for every despicable failure, there is at least one person in each group competent in the subtle arts of brewing. I do not want any catastrophes caused because someone," at this point he glared at Neville Longbottom, "was too incompetent to follow simple instructions."

He turned slightly and grabbed a roll of parchment off his desk. "As I read your name, you will take your seat at a table with your assigned partner."

Snape quickly began to read through the list of names, and it became obvious, much to the horror of the Slytherins and the disgust of the Gryffindors, that each pair included one member from each house. A Slytherin and a Gryffindor. The only inconsistency with this was that he paired Hermione with Neville, apparently he wasn't willing to force any of his snakes to endure the horror that was being Neville Longbottom's partner for a whole year, and as a result of this, he also put Tracy Davis with Vincent Crabbe, clearly, much to Davis' disdain if her expression was anything to go by.

When Harry's name was called, it was immediately followed by Draco Malfoy.

By the look of surprise on Malfoy's face, he clearly did not know this was coming ahead of time. Harry wondered what exactly Snape's motives were for doing this but suspected it was to give Harry a reasonable excuse should Harry and Draco ever be seen together for some reason outside of classes. If anyone ever questioned Harry about why he was talking with Draco and, apparently, not hexing him, he could always claim it was something to do with their Potions class.

For the sake of keeping up appearances, Harry grimaced then trudged over to his new table with an obvious air of disgust and frustration. Ron, who was partnered with Daphne Greengrass, gave Harry a sympathetic look.

The class actually passed without any serious incident. Hermione successfully managed to prevent Neville from blowing anything up, although, by the end of the lesson, she looked a bit frazzled and stressed. Harry had seen her just barely catch a couple of his almost mistakes, narrowly avoiding catastrophe. Harry did not envy Hermione one bit.

He and Draco spoke to each other as little as possible during the class, and the two openly glared and/or sneered at each other for the sake of appearances. Draco seemed to easily slip back into their old relationship, obviously feeling much more comfortable with acting that way towards Harry than the sort of awkward limbo their interactions had been in since Harry's shift in loyalties.

Finally, after an hour and a half, the class was over then Harry, Hermione and Ron left the classroom together. Ron began to rant and rave about something or another, while Hermione played the voice of reason, pointing out the flaws in his logic. While they were thoroughly distracted, Harry slipped away from them into an empty dungeon room and quickly used his time-turner to go back two hours. He made his way through the halls, up the grand staircase, and found his way to Professor Babbling's Ancient Runes classroom. He got there with about fifteen minutes to spare before class would start but the door was open and there wasn't a class already inside.

Harry made his way inside and found himself a seat. He pulled out the assigned textbook for the second section of Ancient Runes and began to skim the first chapter again to refresh his memory. He'd referenced this book a few times over the summer but mostly he'd stuck with the books Tom had picked out. This book wasn't bad by any means but he still felt that Tom's were better.

But Tom's were out of print so he could certainly understand the teacher's choice to go with this book instead.

Before Harry even realized how much time had passed, the chair directly to his right was being pulled out and down sat Luna Lovegood. Harry raised his head from his book and blinked at the girl before giving her a small smile.

"Hello, Luna," Harry said.

"Hullo."

A moment later, Ginny came into the room and sat at the desk left of him, across the aisle.

"Hello, Harry," Ginny said, sporting a wide grin.

Harry smiled back. "Hi, Gin."

The class filled in quickly. It wasn't a large class. Only eleven students, counting Harry, spread out from all four houses. They were all shooting confused looks at Harry, and there was quite a bit of quiet whispering among the others as they pondered his presence but no one seemed to have the guts to just come out and ask him why he was there.

Finally, the bells chimed throughout the castle, marking the start of class and Professor Bathsheda Babbling walked into the room and came to stand behind a podium she had set up at the front of the room beside a large wooden desk.

"Good morning, class," she said with a wide grin. "Welcome to your second year of Ancient Runes! I do hope that you haven't all forgotten everything I tried to teach you last year," she chuckled. "As I'm sure some of you have noticed, we have a new face in our class this year. Mr. Potter decided to change his electives, deciding that taking Ancient Runes would serve him better in life than simply taking Divination."

The smug look on her face made it clear that she didn't have a very high opinion of Sybil Trelawney's class either and a couple of the students chuckled quietly.

"Mr. Potter self-studied Runes on his own and took a placement exam during the summer to prove he was up to spec to participate in the second section of this class rather than go in with the third years. Please welcome him to our class. I'm sure we can all help make him feel at home."

Understanding dawned on everyone's faces as everything was explained to them and, soon enough, Professor Babbling began lecturing on review from the previous term and any oddness of Harry's presence there was quickly forgotten.

Once class ended, Harry, Ginny, and Luna left to make their way to the Great Hall for lunch, walking together, and discussing the assigned class work. Professor Babbling had given them all a syllabus describing her plans for the entire term, including a couple large group projects that Harry thought sounded interesting.

They were going to be creating some sort of magical objects from non-magical objects, by inscribing them with the proper runes and casting permanent charms. It was up to the students to decide what their objects would be or what they would end up doing. They still had about a month and a half before they would even have to start on the first one though.

The three walked into the Great Hall and Luna split off then made her way to the Ravenclaw table while Harry and Ginny went over to the Gryffindor table. They'd been sitting down for about a minute when Ron and Hermione walked in. Hermione did a bit of a double-take seeing Harry already sitting down then looking behind her in confusion.

"Harry? Wait, I thought you were..." she trailed off, confusion laced in her voice and her eyes. Harry just chuckled, wondering how long it would take her to connect the dots.

"Hey mate," Ron said, also looking a bit confused but sitting down and soon becoming too focused on the food in front of him to actually question Harry.

Hermione didn't seem nearly as easily distracted but she did slowly begin to put some food onto her plate, shooting curious glances at Harry and Ginny all the while. Harry and Ginny, however, just kept on going with their earlier discussion about what sort of object they could try to make. Finally, Ginny turned to Hermione with a look of sudden realization on her face.

"Oh! You're in your third year of Runes, right?" Ginny asked.

Hermione blinked and smiled. "Yes, it's one of my absolute favorite subjects."

"What sort of magical objects did you make last year?"

"Oh, well, I was paired with Sarah Fawcett of Ravenclaw for that and, for our first magical object, we took a quill and put in tiny inscriptions along the center that made it so it would never run out of ink and would automatically perform spelling corrections, which was actually far more complicated to accomplish then it seems like it should be. For the second object, we had to make we actually sewed runes into our robes that would automatically resize them as we grew, make them impervious to stains, even from ink, and runes to prevent them from ever wrinkling."

"That's not bad at all..." Ginny said, humming appreciatively. "Harry, Luna, and I are grouping together for our projects and we've been discussing different ideas since class ended."

"Wait, how is that even possible?" Hermione asked, looking confused.

"We've got an odd number in the class now that Harry's joined so the three of us were allowed to work together." Ginny answered.

"No, not that. I meant about the Runes class. When did you have class with Harry? He had History with us in first block and..." Hermione trailed off at the sharp look from Harry and the slightly frantically waving hands from just beyond Ginny's view.

Hermione looked over at him with narrowed eyes. Harry huffed silently and reached down, pulling the chain that hung around his neck up just enough for the top of the time-turner to appear at his collar. Hermione's eyes opened and realization suddenly dawned on her. Her mouth opened for a moment before she snapped it shut and she gave a forced smile to Ginny to try then mask her almost slip.

"Never mind." Hermione said quickly. "I was just confused."

Ginny raised a single curious, confused eyebrow but shook her head, apparently having decided that Hermione was just being a bit barmy and disregarding the whole thing. Ron remained blissfully ignorant of the entire exchange, as he had been too focused on his food to pay them any mind.

Arithmancy with the forth years was during third block. Ron grumbled as he made his way up towards Trelawney's tower for Divination and Hermione headed to her Ancient Runes class with the rest of the fifth years while Harry and Ginny met back up with Luna again then the three of them headed to the Arithmancy classroom on the second floor.

The class passed without serious incident. Most of the people taking Arithmancy were the same ones in Runes so they weren't quite so bewildered by Harry's presence there.

Again, the professor, Professor Vector, spent a moment to explain why Harry had joined their class then handed out syllabi's to everyone before spending half the class explaining how the rest of the year would progress. The first month would be revision and homework to practice the basic equations they'd all learned the previous year to make sure they hadn't gone and forgotten their fundamentals. After that, they would begin alternating between assignment worksheets of Arithmancy equations, actual practical assignments, putting all that theory and maths into practice in common magical situations.

Arithmancy played a large role in spell creation, and second term would focus a lot on understanding the fundamentals of how that worked.

Harry was actually enthusiastic, despite the headache he had at the end of class from the sheer quantity of different theorems and equations he had to memorize.

After Arithmancy Harry had Defense so met up with Ron and Hermione on the way there. Ron spent the entire journey to the Defense classroom muttering and complaining about how barmy Trelawney was, and how he wished his mum would have let him drop the subject like Harry had. Hermione promptly pointed out that Harry hadn't just dropped Divination, he had picked up another class, a harder class, in its stead. Ron had scowled but continued to mutter quietly until they got into the Defense class and took their seats towards the front.

"So what do you think might be wrong with this one?" Ron whispered quietly once they'd gotten seated.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, exasperatedly.

"The Defense teacher. I mean, everyone knows the job's cursed. Hell even Moody, who looked like he was gonna be alright, ended up dying over the summer."

"Moody dying had nothing to do with him being the Defense professor." Hermione hissed.

"I don't know, 'Mione. They said he died from a heart attack, didn't they?" Ron continued. "Awfully weird for a wizard his age to die from a heart attack."

"He was an Auror for decades though," Harry pointed out. "He was a right mess from it too. He'd been hit with so many dark curses and spells that he'd lost a leg, his eye, most of his nose. His face was so scarred and messed up you could hardly imagine what he looked like before. No doubt all that action he'd seen over the years wasn't exactly good for his health."

"Exactly," Hermione said, nodding her head.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Whatever. But you can't deny that the Defense position is cursed. First year we get Quirrell who actually dies at the end of term, and was possessed by You-Know-Who. Second year we get that idiot, Lockhart, and at the end of the year he ends up obliviating himself. Third year we get Lupin, and while he's great an' all, by the end of the year his being a werewolf gets exposed to the public and now he can't get a job anywhere. Forth we get Moody, and he was just plain mad then, just after the end of term, he's found dead in his home from a heart attack!"

Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes but didn't present a counter argument.

"Charlie and Bill say that all their defense teachers had it just as bad, so it's not like it started with us. This has been going on for ages!" Ron continued. "So what do you think will happen with this one?" Ron finished, smirking.

"Hopefully, nothing," a heavy, rough, voice emerged from behind them, causing Ron to jump and squeak lightly. Harry had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

Thorfinn Rowle walked in down the center aisle of the room and came to stand at the front where he had a single podium setup, atop a wide, low stage that filled the front portion of the classroom.

Harry took in Thor with a small grin. The man's appearance didn't exactly scream 'teacher' to him. Of course, Thor's face had always sort of screamed 'drill sergeant' to Harry. He was wearing a set of professional looking gray robes on his large, stocky form. His pants looked like gray tweed while his undershirt was a darker gray cotton with a high straight neck that looked somewhat odd considering the man had such a thick, short, neck. He had an open-front over robe on with long sleeves, and tails that only went down to about mid-hip instead of dragging all the way on the floor like most of the other teachers. Harry knew it was for mobility.

Admittedly, it was Thor's square face, strong jaw, and short, cropped, blond hair that probably played the largest role in his 'drill sergeant' look. A quick glance around at his fellow students told Harry that they were all equally impressed and intimidated by the man's appearance.

"Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to OWL-level Magical Defense. I'm your new Professor, Thorfinn Rowle. You will refer to me as Professor Rowle. Not just Rowle as I'm sure some of you will feel inclined to do.”

"I have the heavy task of making sure that the lot of you are actually up to expectations and properly prepared for taking your Defense OWLs in the spring. Taking into consideration the inconsistent nature of your previous education in this subject, I anticipate this being quite difficult. This class will not be easy. I will push you and work you to the bone. I will expect your full focus and dedication as well as that you truly put forth an effort. I cannot help you if you do not help yourself.”

"Because of the importance of this subject, not only in your overall education but also in life, I will not stand for any troublemakers in my class. Doing so is a disruption to the learning of your peers that is not only a disservice to yourself and disrespectful to me as your teacher, but also rude and inconsiderate to your fellow classmates who are actually trying to learn. Anyone who consistently fails to actually try in my class, who brings down the learning of everyone around them or who constantly disrupts the lessons,will be given the boot. I don't have time to put up with you and your fellow students shouldn't have to suffer because of you. Consider this your warning."

Thor paused in his speech and looked out over the room of silent students, all watching him with wide eyes.

"I will be doing something a bit unusual this school year in an attempt to get everyone forth year and up where they're supposed to be academically. I will be running two extracurricular classes. Defense clubs of a sort. They will be optional and the advanced one will be by invitation only. They will be for those students who are truly passionate about mastering Defensive Magic, and who are willing to sacrifice their personal time in order to further improve themselves.

"I will be spending the first two weeks of term observing all of my students to determine who needs the most assistance and who are up to the proper level already to get invited to the advanced group."

Harry shot a brief side-along glance at Hermione and could see from her stiff back as well as the bright look in her eyes that she was desperate to prove that she was good enough to get invited to the exclusive, invitation-only defense club. Harry knew she wouldn't be though and wondered how flustered that was going to make her.

After that, Thor began to describe what exactly the Ministry expected OWL-level wizards to know, as far as defensive magic was concerned. Then he went on to explain what he thought they should already know by now and what he intended for them to know by the end of the year.

A brief glance at the room's occupants was all that was necessary to tell that quite a few of them felt overwhelmed by all of this.

Thor lectured for a while before assigning them a reading and an essay due at their next class on Thursday.

Forth block ended at 4:30 in the afternoon so Harry had two and a half hours until dinner. He spent it in the common room with his 'friends' working on the homework already assigned. Dinner, and the evening hours beyond it, passed in a blur and finally 9:30 pm arrived so it was time for Harry and Hermione to do their prefect rounds. By 10:30 pm, Harry was in the tunnel to the cellar of Honeydukes, just outside the castles wards. He activated the portkey and was transported to Riddle Manor. He went straight into the time-turner room and went back 24-hours.

Just as he arrived in the past, he felt his other self portkeying out and knew it was now safe to exit. He made his way up the stairs to the study where Tom was already waiting. The elder wizard smirked at him as he came over then sunk down heavily onto the lounge and heaved a relieved sigh as he began to loosen the remove his neck tie.

"How was your first day of classes?" Tom asked.

"Good. Exhausting, but good. Thor did brilliantly," Harry added with a grin.

"Of course," Tom replied with a dismissive wave of his hand as if he would have never expected anything less.

Harry sighed again as he let his head fall back onto the back of the lounge and Tom resumed whatever he had been working on when Harry had entered the room.

"You know, I was thinking about this whole 'living every day twice' thing." Harry said after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes?" Tom asked, still focused on his work.

"Well, I'm actually going to be aging twice as fast as everyone around me because of this. With all this time-turner use, I'm going to end up living a year in the span that everyone else only lives half one."

"That's correct. I actually did the math and you're sixteenth birthday is going to land around mid-February." Tom replied easily, still intently focused on his work and his quill scratching away at some parchment.

Harry sat up straighter looking at Tom with slightly wide eyes.

"Wow. That's sort of weird. Having my birthday in February. Do you know exactly which day?"

"Well, if you had turned fifteen on July 31st, and lived every day from September first onwards twice, you would turn 15 on February 14th."

Harry's eyes bugged out slightly. "Valentine's Day?"

Tom chuckled. "Yes, funny that. However, I don't think you actually did turn 15 on July 31st. You turned 15 about a week prior to that because of all the time-turner use you made last school year. So, I would place your sixteenth birthday around February 11th or 12th."

Harry nodded his head slowly, taking it in. "And if I keep up this living every day twice then, I'll actually be hitting seventeen next summer."

"Yes, it's unfortunate that it won't be legally recognized. Your trace would have disappeared when you actually, biologically, turned seventeen this next summer. However, your trace is already gone so that's meaningless. You'll still have to wait until you turn seventeen on paper before the Ministry will recognize you as an adult or grant you an apparition license."

Harry rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, that's lame."

"Yes, it is."

Harry chuckled.

The rest of the week progressed in much the same vein as the first 'day' had. Harry only had two classes on Tuesdays. Charms and Herbology, both in the morning. Third and fourth blocks were both free periods for him, and he used that time to continue working on his homework. He had wanted to slip away so he could get down to the Chamber during that time but Hermione had stuck to him like glue and he hadn't had the opportunity.

Wednesday he had a free during first, Runes again during second then during third block after lunch, he had both Arithmancy and Transfiguration overlapping. He'd gone to Transfiguration with Ron and Hermione first then used his student-issue time-turner to go back and meet up with Ginny and Luna to attend Arithmancy. That evening, Harry had Astronomy, which actually cut into his prefect rounds, but ended at 10 pm so it didn't interrupt his schedule to visit the manor.

Thursday he had Charms and Herbology again then Defense in the afternoon. Friday was History, Potions, and Transfiguration.

Each night at 10:30 pm, Harry would slip away to the tunnel, portkey back to the manor, use the 24-hour time turner to go back and relive that day with Tom at the manor.

His routine at the manor was almost identical to what it had been during the summer so it was a real mind-trip to alternate back and forth between a day at school then a day back at the manor. He wondered how long it would take him to grow accustomed to it or if he would just go crazy first.

He attended meetings, helped with planning, and continued his work assisting with the training sessions in the evenings.

The first truly surprising thing happened on Friday afternoon when Harry was making his way to the Gryffindor common room for his free fourth period and he was stopped in the hall by some unknown third year who handed him a rolled up piece of parchment.

Ron and Hermione were with him, and obviously expected to be let in on whatever he'd been given, which he found rather annoying, especially since he had no idea who it was from.

Still, he was sure that Thor wouldn't get a hold of him by having some random student deliver him a scroll.

Harry broke the seal and unrolled it, instantly recognizing the long slanted script.

"Who's it from?" Ron asked.

"It's from Dumbledore," Harry responded with narrowed eyes as he read it over.

"What does he want?" Hermione asked with an obvious air of worry in her voice.

Harry glanced up at her then gave her an appreciative smile, legitimately thankful that she was willing and able to take Harry's mistrust of the man seriously enough to let go of some of her unwavering respect for the headmaster.

"He wants me to come to his office tonight after dinner. Says he has some important information to share with me." Harry said, as he looked back down at the short letter.

"You think it's about You-Know-Who?" Ron whispered in an urgent sort of tone.

Harry just shrugged. "Don't know. Guess I'll just have to go and find out."

"Are you sure you'll be alright in there alone with him?" Hermione asked, still looking worried.

Harry smiled at her again. "I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. My Occlumency shields are really strong and if he tries to mess with my head any, I'll know right away. I'll just make sure not to accept any lemon drops or tea and keep my guard up."

"What's wrong with the lemon drops or tea?" Ron asked with a bewildered expression.

Hermione, however looked horrified. "Do you think he would tamper with them?"

"I hear the lemon drops are soaked in a calming draught," Harry said with a dismissive shrug."

"Where'd you hear that?" Ron asked.

Harry couldn't tell them that Snape had been the one to tell him, but...

"Professor Moody mentioned it towards the end of last year. He was also the one who warned me that Snape and Dumbledore both were masters at Legilimency."

That explanation seemed to be sufficient for them because they didn't question him further on it. Harry spent the rest of the afternoon and dinner wondering as to just what Dumbledore could be planning for this little meeting of theirs, and was feeling incredibly anxious by the time 8 pm had rolled around it was time for him to head for the Headmaster's office.

The summons had included a postscript mentioning Dumbledore's fondness for liquorish wands and Harry took that to mean that was the password to get past the gargoyle. It was. The gargoyle jumped aside as soon as he'd said it and he quickly climbed the moving spiral staircase then knocked on door. Dumbledore called him inside and Harry entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

"Ah, Harry. Thank you for coming to see me on such short notice." Dumbledore said with a genial smile as he motioned to the chair opposite his desk so he came and sat down in it.

Harry's eyes traveled around the room in a quick sweeping motion, taking in any potential dangers, finally landing on Dumbledore's desk and widening minutely at what he saw there.

A large, stone Pensieve.

Dumbledore picked up a bowl of lemon drops from his desk. "Lemon drop?" he asked.

Harry's eyes went from the bowl, to the blackened hand holding it. "No thanks, sir. Um... can I ask you what happened to your hand?"

"Ah, yes..." Dumbledore said slowly as he set the bowl back down and retracted his hand. Harry's eyes followed it and the ring, thankfully, still intact, until it disappeared behind the desk. "While I have some very important things to tell you this evening, and I have every intention of answering what questions you will ask of me, that is a story for another time." Dumbledore said with a calm smile.

Harry nodded slowly, fighting the urge to scoff or sneer at the man, instead keeping his face mostly blank.

"Alright, Professor, can I ask what this is all about?"

"Yes, yes. Right to business, I suppose. It's probably for the best. I truly have put this off as long as I could..." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily while he twisted his beard absently with his good hand. "Just over four years ago, you asked me a question. You and I were in the hospital wing when you had just woken up from your rather unfortunate encounter with Voldemort/Professor Quirrell. You said that you wanted to know the truth. A terrible and beautiful thing... I told you that I would answer your questions unless I had a very good reason not to and, at that time, I did feel I had a good reason not to answer the question that you ended up choosing to ask me. You had asked me why Voldemort would want to kill you in the first place. Yes?"

Harry's eyes widened slightly and he nodded his head. "That's correct, sir."

"I told you that when you were older, when you were ready, I would tell you. And, while I still hate to do this when you are still so young, I realize now that I simply cannot keep it from you any longer. I realize that the trust between us had grown weak and that you need a sign of faith from me. As such, I am going to tell you, Harry. I will now answer your questions."

Harry forced himself to swallow a thick lump and took on a look of hesitant anticipation. He had a pretty good idea of what was coming, and tried to imagine how his old self would have reacted to it in order to put on a believable performance.

"First, I will have to begin my answer to your question with a story. About six months before you were even born, I was in the presence of a Seer at the exact moment that she made a prophecy. Unfortunately, I was not the only one to witness her prophecy. The other person there was, at that time, one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. Voldemort's spy only witnessed the first few lines of the prophecy but it was enough for him to take it back to Voldemort, and for him to then to determine who the prophecy most likely spoke of."

Harry swallowed again and nodded his head, as if to prod Dumbledore to continue.

"Now, Harry, are you familiar at all with a Pensieve?" Dumbledore as he motioned towards the large basin sitting on the desk before him with intricate symbols etched around the outer edge.

"Um, I've read about them," Harry said, looking at it hesitantly. "You can store memories in them, right?"

"Correct. Not just store but also watch. In fact, you can quite literally experience it. Using this, you can personally witness the prophecy the same way that I witnessed it all those years ago."

Harry nodded his head heavily as he eyed the Pensieve with trepidation.

"Will you join me for a trip to the past?" Dumbledore asked, standing to his feet and motioning towards the Pensieve. Harry blinked then jerked himself to his feet. Dumbledore pulled a small vial from his pocket and uncorked it. Then he poured a silvery liquid out of it and into the Pensieve. He used his wand to swirl and mix the liquid memory in until it settled smoothly along the surface.

"Erm, okay. What do I do?" Harry asked, faking ignorance.

"You just place you face into the surface like so," Dumbledore said, bending over and dipping his face into the silvery liquid. Harry quickly mimicked his actions and joined Dumbledore inside the Pensieve. He was instantly overwhelmed with the sensation of falling a great distance. Without a moment's notice, he landed on his feet with a jerk. It was the same sensation one had when dreaming of falling then suddenly waking.

He acted more shocked than he was. After all, he wasn't supposed to have experienced anything like this before. He intentionally let himself stumble a bit before centering his balance and looking around the space with a bewildered expression.

The pair of them was standing just outside the Hogshead pub and inn in Hogsmeade village late enough in the evening that it was quite dark out. A slightly younger looking Dumbledore was walking down the road briskly and whistling a jaunty tune.

"Now, before we enter the pub, I feel there is something of importance that I explain to you," the older Dumbledore explained to Harry. "You see, I had been searching for someone to fill the recently vacated post of Divination Professor at Hogwarts. A young witch by the name of Sybill Trelawney applied for the position and I had arranged to meet her here this night for a job interview."

Harry's eyes narrowed coldly at the blatant lie but it was dim enough that Dumbledore couldn't see it.

"Now, if you will follow me inside," Dumbledore continued on, motioning with his hand just as his memory-self pulled open the door and stepped inside. Harry and Dumbledore followed behind him and spent the next twenty minutes observing the Prophecy memory from Dumbledore's point of view.

Having viewed the memory from Trelawney's own memories had been a different experience since her experience was clouded by the Imperius curse she had been placed under. Seeing the scene unfold from Dumbledore's point of view would give absolutely no indication that the entire thing had been staged. Had Harry not already known that this was all fake, and that a true Prophecy existed, but this was most definitely not it, he would have had no reason to second guess anything that he had witnessed.

When the entire memory had played out and they were officially done, Dumbledore pulled them both out of the memory then they suddenly found themselves once again standing in Dumbledore's office beside his desk.

Harry sat down heavily in the chair, presenting a mask of shocked disbelief.

Dumbledore sat down and gave Harry a sad, regretful, expression.

"I am so very sorry that this burden had fallen upon your shoulders before you were even born."

"So, this is why he came after me? You said that his spy only heard a bit of it?"

"Yes, Harry. Only the first couple of lines. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies …' But he did not hear the line after that. The line that stated 'the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.' I suspect that, had he heard that, he would have hesitated before coming after you so quickly."

Harry nodded his head slowly, keeping his head bowed low and his eyes unfocused as if he was deep in thought, going over the lines of the Prophecy in his mind. In reality, deep inside, he was fuming, exerting a tremendous amount of will power to keep from screaming and raging at the manipulative old bastard sitting across the table from him.

"I suppose it all comes down to the last bit though, doesn't it?" Harry asked in a hard, flat tone.

"Ah, yes... 'either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives'." Dumbledore recited in a low, grave, voice.

Harry flinched and bowed his head lower, mostly just to hide the hard, angry look in his eyes. "So I have to kill him then? Kill or be killed?"

Dumbledore heaved a heavy, defeated sigh and his face crumpled in despair. Harry's eyes narrowed as he looked up at his Headmaster but he managed to keep the rest of his expression blank.

"Oh, dear boy, I truly am so, very, very sorry..." Dumbledore said. "This is far too great a burden to carry upon your shoulders. And one that you most certainly should not try to carry alone. It is absolutely imperative that as few people as possible be aware of the full contents of the prophecy because Voldemort still wishes to learn it's full contents. However, I will concede that it would likely be high beneficial to you if you were able to share this with your friends. You must, however, impart to them just how important it is that this remains secret."

Harry blinked at Dumbledore. He was honestly surprised that the old coot was actually suggesting he tell Ron and Hermione. Ron especially, since the guy was so insanely unreliable, prone to bouts of immature jealousy and swings of public opinion.

"You're suggesting that I can tell Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked, just to make sure he truly understood the man.

"If you desire to do so. I think it would help. As I said, this is a tremendous burden for someone as young as you are. It would only create a greater weight of stress, likely driving a heavy wedge between you and your friends, if you felt you had to hide this from those closest to you."

Ah. So that was it. A shared secret was a great way to bring people together. And, hiding a secret was a quick way to drive people apart. Dumbledore wanted a force that would help strengthen Harry's 'friendship' with Ron and Hermione. Inside, Harry smirked, suddenly. "Can I tell Nick?" Harry asked, looking up at Dumbledore with hopeful, desperate eyes.

For an instant, Dumbledore's expression hardened but it was instantly gone and the twinkle in his eyes returned. His grandfatherly smile was hesitant though. "I would ask that you think long and hard before you divulge this information to anyone, Harry. I know you have a great deal of trust and faith in your friend but there are a great many things that we do not know about him."

"Actually, sir, I know a great deal about him. I trust him with my life. I trust him more than I trust anyone else."

"Are you sure that is wise, Harry? Placing such a great deal of trust in someone..."

"I'm sure." Harry cut him off, rather sharply, but kept his expression mostly polite.

Dumbledore sighed and nodded his head. "I just ask that you be careful."

"I am. Constant vigilance, right?"

Dumbledore smiled but it didn't entirely reach his eyes. Inside, Harry smirked.

"So, if I'm like... the chosen one or something, am I going to get special training? I mean, if I'm supposed to defeat Voldemort, I'm going to seriously need to up my dueling skill. And, what do you suppose this 'power he knows not' could be? I mean, I don't think I've come across any special super powers, so do we have some way of maybe figuring out..."

"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, my dear boy." Dumbledore said with that grandfatherly smile and a gently raised hand to cut Harry off. "As it just so happens, I have a theory as to what the power is that you possess that Voldemort has absolutely no knowledge of at all."

Harry blinked at him, legitimately wondering what nonsense Dumbledore was about to start spouting now.

"It is my belief, Harry, that the power that you possess that Voldemort knows not, is the power of love,"Dumbledore said simply before sitting back in his chair with a calm, assured smile on his face.

Harry just stared at him blankly for a moment. "Love?" Harry echoed dully. "You think the power I have that will defeat Voldemort is... Love."

"I do." Dumbledore said with a very confident smile.

Harry wasn't sure if he should hit his head on the desk or just laugh. Of all the ludicrous... "Ohh–kay... So, uhm... how can you be so sure that he doesn't 'know love'? You said it back in my first year too. That it's a foreign concept to him, or something, but how can you be so sure? And, how would I even use something like that to vanquish him? It sounds a bit... er... barmy, actually."

"Ah, but love is truly a most remarkable and mysterious thing. It was love, I believe, that saved you that night when Voldemort first came to kill you. Your mother's love and her sacrifice saved you from his curse."

Harry had to bite his tongue to keep from pointing out that he was fairly sure it was a carefully performed dark blood ritual requiring a willing life sacrifice, combined with the fluke coincidence of his mum and Tom being related by blood that had saved him, most certainly not love.

"And as for how I have come to know that Voldemort knows nothing of love... that would be years of experience, and having known him since he was a very young boy. This actually leads quite nicely into the next matter that I wish to discuss with you."

Harry sat up straighter in his chair, seemingly giving the man his full, rapt, attention. "Yes, sir?"

"I would ask that, in the coming months, you come to my office for, for lack of a better word, 'lessons'. What I wish to do is supply you with the information that I believe you will need in order to defeat Voldemort. Will you be willing to do this?"

"Of course, sir!" Harry exclaimed, eagerly nodding his head.

"Good, good! Well, I believe that I have kept you here long enough for tonight, and if I am not mistaken, I believe you still have your Prefect duties to attend to. I will send another note when I am ready to begin our lessons, if that is alright with you?"

"Sure."

"Good. Alright then, Harry. I suppose we will call it a night. Off you go."

Harry blinked and gave a hesitant nod. "Alright, sir. Goodnight then."

"Goodnight, Harry."

* This chapter contains some direct dialogue from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness