An: I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"What do you mean you're leaving Hogwarts!"

"Remain calm, Harry," Iliad said, "Minerva will remain here, in case you need her help. The groundskeeper is also a member of the Light, and while he may not be the brightest bulb of all time, his combat skill is quite formidable, being a half-giant. If there's even the slightest chance that things are going to get ugly, we'll get the three of you out of Hogwarts in the blink of an eye."

"But how are we going to continue our training?" Harry crossed his arms from his position between Hermione and Daphne, "If you're leaving the school, what's the point of us staying on here?"

Sitting opposite him, Iliad smiled mischievously, "Actually, we have a little bit of a surprise regarding that…"

A pause.

Iliad's smile faded a bit, "Flamel, you can reveal yourself now."

With a poof, Nicolas Flamel came into visibility.

"Sorry about that, I zoned out a little bit."

"Well you ruined my dramatic reveal," Iliad grumbled.

"Nicolas!" Harry, Hermione, and Daphne exclaimed at the same time.

The oldest wizard in the world gave them a little grin.

"But you've been missing for over a year. We all thought that The Darkness got you."

The Alchemist's grin faded, "Yes, it did."

"Are you okay? How did you get away? Why did it take you so long to make contact with us? Does The Darkness know you're still alive? Where's Perenelle?"

"Perenelle distracted The Darkness and destroyed The Philosopher's Stone. It tried to kill me, but I managed to leave an illusion of me behind with my wand, and escape the house. The Darkness does know I'm alive. An elite group of its sorcerers were dispatched to deal with me, and I've spent the better part of the last year on the run, without magic to contact any of you."

"And you're still alive?" Harry looked at Nicolas with a new appreciation for the man's tenacity.

Nicolas barked out a laugh, "I've been alive over six hundred years, what's one more?"

"At any rate," Iliad said, "Nicolas will stay at Hogwarts, under disguise as the potions professor. He will continue your training, and remain here to protect the students. We can't leave the school completely undefended. As long as The Darkness itself doesn't enter the school - which it still can't - Nicolas will likely be stronger than any stooge the Ministry could possibly choose to send."

Harry nodded, mollified with the idea of having the ancient sorcerer at Hogwarts in Iliad's place.

"Welcome to the Summer Quidditch Tournament!" McGonagall announced from her place in the commentary box of the Quidditch Stadium of Hogwarts.

The school year and exams were over, but at this point Hogwarts had become nothing less than a home for all of its students.

A few of the most important dark families came to pick up their children from the gates of the school, but the rest of the students stayed on at the school.

The lower ranking dark families' children served as the eyes and ears of The Darkness and its men at the school - or at least they would until The Hogwarts High Inquisitor was in place.

All of the light families still felt safer with their children at Hogwarts.

This summer, McGonagall had organised a lot more fun and carefree activities which the students could take part in.

This was in part just to offset the depression of the situation of Magical Britain and the aura of fear which surrounded everyone, and partly to give all the students a chance to have some fun before the arrival of the Hogwarts High Inquisitor - the arrival of whom they had been forewarned of by the Ministry, but the identity of whom still remained a secret.

"As Captain of Team Gryffindor, we have Harry Potter!" McGonagall announced to loud cheers, as Harry took to the pitch, doing loops on his broom, as he circled the pitch.

"And we have Cho Chang as Captain of Ravenclaw!"

Less cheering, but still a respectable support from the Ravenclaws in the audience.

Harry hadn't played a game of Quidditch in what felt like forever, but he still found himself at home on the back of his broom.

The game went faster than Harry thought it would. He got into the groove of it quickly.

He saw the snitch.

Just a hundred metres away.

Just ninety metres away.

Just ten metres away.

Just a metre away.

Just an inch away.

Before he grasped the snitch, his broom stopped in mid-air, nearly throwing Harry off it. He looked around to find the culprit, but all he saw was more confused Quidditch players who were frozen in place on their brooms.

He noted with satisfaction that Cho Chang was well behind him in the chase for the snitch.

"All players, please descend to the pitch," McGonagall's magnified voice spoke. She did not sound happy in the slightest.

Harry wasn't either.

Harry's broom started moving again, resuming at the breakneck pace he'd been going at, nearly throwing him off his broom - again.

The snitch had disappeared again, otherwise he may have been tempted to chase it once more. Instead, however, he chose to heed McGonagall's instruction and head to the ground.

The Headmistress of Hogwarts continued to repeat the instruction as Harry and the other players approached the ground.

Harry made a soft landing, next to the captain of the Ravenclaw team - Cho Chang.

The two captains nodded to each other and then waited expectantly as McGonagall made her way to the middle of the pitch.

The expression on the face of the Headmistress was as displeased as her tone had suggested to Harry while she was instructing them to descend all the way to the ground.

However, her expression wasn't the most surprising thing about her walk across the field.

That title belonged to her companion.

Dressed in a green tweed suit, with a pink cardigan on top, a woman with a face like a fat, squat toad was trailing behind McGonagall.

She simpered at the gathered Quidditch players, "Hello dears. That was quite a nice little game you were playing out there, but unfortunately it seems like the administration of this school didn't register this match properly with the Hogwarts Board of Directors, so this game will have to be cut short," she paused, "Do not worry, the teacher in charge for this will be penalised."

The Quidditch players were supremely confused.

Noticing their expression she spoke, "Oh, I seem to have lost my manners. I'm Dolores Umbridge, the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts."

*** End of Chapter