Lumos!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it.

Chapter Nine: Rise

The headmaster's office itself is a large circular room with many windows and many portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses. The portrait of the immediate predecessor of the current headmaster or headmistress hangs behind the head's desk and is the largest within the office. Several rickety silvery tables were erected around the room and held various delicate silver objects that gleamed in the low light.

Upon the seat behind the tall and thin man with silver hair and beard so long that they could be tucked into his belt. He had a very long and crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken at least twice. His eyes were a brilliant, soul-piercing shade of blue, and were hidden behind a pair of half-moon spectacles.

"Any sign?"

"None, Professor Dumbledore."

A man with thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth. He dressed in flowing black robes which made him resemble an overgrown bat. He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark and penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels.

"I didn't expect Black to linger once he'd discovered that he could remove Potter, but how on earth did your blood wards fail?"

Dumbledore peered over the half-moon glasses and allowed for a little sigh to escape from his lips, "I designed them so that the moment Harry Potter no longer considered Privet Drive home, the wards would drop permanently. It is my belief that when Sirius invited Harry to depart Privet Drive and live with him, Harry no longer considered Privet Drive home and therefore, the wards immediately closed down."

The greasy-haired man placed a hand on the corner of the headmaster's desk, looking the older man directly in the eye, "So what is it that you plan to do now Professor Dumbledore?"

"You must've discovered it by now, Severus."

The man now named Severus' eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"

"I intend to collect Harry from Sirius and return him to Privet Drive immediately and reinstate Blood Wards with a different construction, so they will not break until the day Harry Potter turns seventeen. We will remove Potter by force if we have to."

"Understood, Professor Dumbledore."

"Now leave me, Severus. I have much to do. This latest string of inconveniences is pulling Harry Potter away from our mission of the greater good and I must make sure that he returns to the path that I have laid out for him."

"As you wish, Professor Dumbledore."

Once Severus had stepped out of his office, Dumbledore leaned forward onto his desk. He placed his elbows onto the cool surface and his usually twinkling blue eyes became dull for perhaps the first time in many months. If Harry Potter slipped completely out of his control then it would not bode well for the rest of the wizarding world. He couldn't in any conscience allow that to happen. He wouldn't either.

x-x-x-x

"Auror Tonks, glad to see you back in one piece."

"Thanks, Commander."

"Why do you insist on using that title?"

The young woman with dark twinkling eyes, a pale heart-shaped face and medium length bubble-gum pink tresses that flowed down to a point just above her shoulders presented the man with a smirk and folded her arms over her chest, "Well you are the commander of the mission are you not, Auror Moody?"

A grunt passed from the man's lips. His own appearance was very damaged, with a heavily scarred face and long, matted blond hair. Moody looked like a man who'd been through several wars to say the least. But the real oddity in his appearance was the magical eye sitting in the right-socket tied to his face in a way like what an eye-patch would be.

"You have a point," he said gruffly, "Now I'm busy with my reports, what do you want?"

"Remember that thing you asked me to look into?"

"What about it?"

"I've gotten some information."

This caught the Auror's attention and his magical eye rapidly moved into position for looking at the woman, "Well?" he snapped sharply.

"Oh, er…right."

Tonks clumsily rummaged through her bag and extracted a manilla folder with 'TOP SECRET' stamped across the front.

"Thank you for this, you're able to act more covertly than I am due to that mechanism you developed."

Tonks grinned, "I'm not all beauty and charm you know."

"Yeah, Yeah, just continue on with your tasks."

"As you wish, commander!" The woman gave Moody a mock-salute before turning on heel and departing the office once more.

Moody shook his head but glanced down at the folder she'd left for him anyway. The Dark-Wizard catching veteran thought it wouldn't be much to go off given the delicate nature of the secondary mission that Moody had assigned his former apprentice, but he hoped that it would be enough to give him a chance to start moving things forward.

Remus had openly asked him to re-join the Grey Wolf Society in the previous two nights and he was already working around the clock to make sure that they gained leverage against the Order of The Phoenix. Constant vigilance was his motto and he followed it like a powerful mantra.

Moody slipped the folder open and when his eyes, both magical and mundane widened. For Tonks to have got so much in just two nights was almost superhuman. How did she get her hands on this sort of information? He had to wonder, but that wasn't important for the most part. The Information and it would be enough evidence to make for a case against the headmaster.

"Auror Tonks?"

Luckily Tonks wasn't too far out of the door that she couldn't hear her mentors voice. She quickly returned to the doorway and poked her head inside, "You called Commander."

"I did, and this isn't the time for the jokes, kid. How'd you get your hands on this kind of information?"

"Like I said, I'm not all beauty and charm. I had some help, but the goblins were forthcoming in the end. Well, that was for the bank statements at least, the other information I managed to get testimonies from Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger using Veritaserum. Which also alerted me to Molly Weasley's involvement as well."

"And the other Weasleys?"

"To my knowledge they have no involvement, not even Ginny."

"That's concerning, does Arthur know that his wife is involved this deeply in Dumbledore's schemes?"

"I'm guessing not, I feel sorry for the poor guy."

"Hopefully this will bring him to the true light side. Along with the twins. Those three would prove invaluable towards our efforts."

"Now, how are we supposed to go public with this?"

"Well," Moody said, scratching at his chin thoughtfully, "I doubt our esteemed Minister would turn down a chance to throw Dumbledore out as the manipulative, scheming old traitor that he is. Though, he may be hesitant because Dumbledore is the only one Voldemort ever feared."

"All we can do is try."

"Good."

x-x-x-x-x-

"Concentrate, Harry."

"I can't, it's too difficult Padfoot!" Harry growled loudly.

"Alright, alright let's take a break."

Ever since they'd had breakfast that morning, Sirius had been attempting to train Harry in the art of Occlumency and for want of a better phrase it wasn't going to well. Sirius was breaking through Harry's defences too easily. Panting some the younger wizard crossed the room, he leaned against the wall gripping it tightly.

"Your mind-wall is doing well and is holding me off at first but it's still rather easy, maybe you could try a different idea."

Harry thought about it for a moment, then he nodded, "alright, we can try again but let me catch my breath here for a moment."

"I'll give you that reprieve. This magic is quite taxing on the mind and body at first, then once you've worked yourself up to it the shields become almost second nature. There are some less knowledgeable about the art who assume that the best way to master Occlumency is to have someone forcing their way into your mind repeatedly. This is an inexperienced view on the magic and can lead to the death of either the trainee or the trainer."

Harry listened to his godfather's explanations quietly. This was important information, even if it wouldn't seem like it to anyone else. Harry would need to work heavily if he was going to be able to defend his mind from the workings of Albus Dumbledore and he was determined to get it right no matter the cost.

After taking a few more breaths, Harry turned his attention back to his godfather and nodded, "I'm ready."

"Alright, start constructing the shield."

Harry's emerald pools were closed the moment Sirius gave the instruction to begin and Harry decided to throw a new idea in the works. He constructed what he felt construed the idea the best and then his eyes were re-opened a second later.

"I'm ready," he told his godfather.

"Very well, Harry."

Sirius rose his wand once more and uttered the incantation, "Legillimens!"

A short rush of wind followed the exclamation and Sirius felt his mind tugged out of his head and thrown into the mind of the young man opposite him. Sirius stepped into a room that was practically empty save for five or six desks strategically placed inside with faceless students sitting around the classroom. The only recognizable face was Harry's. The young man was hunched over the desk working on paper work, he then looked up and said, "Professor?"

A pseudo-Remus Lupin stepped into the light and looked down over to Harry, "Yes, Harry?"

"I was wondering If you were alright?"

"I am fine Harry, the holidays are always tough for me."

Harry then turned his head to the invader in his mind and muttered something. A burst of magic later and the pseudo Sirius was thrown out of Harry's mind and back into his own body within the room.

"Bloody Merlin," Sirius cursed, gripping the wall beside him. The last living male Black was heaving breaths through both his nostrils and mouth, "How the hell did you do that?"

Harry was also hunched over slightly, releasing his own heavy breaths but managed to get out, "I decided to work on something a little unorthodox. I constructed a memory that would appear to the invader as whatever memory that they want to see in their heart. So for example Dumbledore would see an unsure young man looking for his guidance. You, would see a memory of both your best-friend and godson working together for the betterment of a society outside of Dumbledore's graps right under his nose. I furthered it by making it covertly sap the invader of their magical strength to the point that continuous use of the spell drains the caster twice as fast but as I get more experienced I'll increase the speed of which the strength is sapped but not to a pace that makes it become obvious."

Sirius moved across the flooring of the private library. Several bookshelves lined the room as one might expect and luckily for Sirius in his current state there was a giant desk erected in the center of the room with a large seat behind it. He dropped into the seat and ran a hand through his long, dark tresses.

"That's ingenious! How did you come up with it?"

"I'm not really sure," Harry stated, shrugging some, "It sort of just hit me and it was easy enough to apply my magic to it."

"Have you ever had any teachings in wandless magic, Harry?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

"Incredible," Sirius murmured, looking as though he had a faraway sort of expression on his face.

"What's incredible?"

"You may hate hearing it Harry, but this makes you more like your parents than you know. Both of them also had a natural aptitude for wandless magic."

"Draining magic like that is considered wandless?"

"Perhaps not, but we can't rule out the possibility. We should look into training that aptitude just in case. If we can't then we can chalk this up to something else but if it proves to be wandless magic then you will have an almost infallible asset to your repertoire of skills. But we should stop for now. While your body is undergoing the healing process right now, it's unwise for you to be overexerting yourself."

"Thanks Sirius."

Harry felt incredibly drained by the first lesson in Occlumency, the strange limitation on his magic had been pushed to the very brink of its capacity and Harry was having to grip the wall tightly to remain standing. The heavy force pulsating against his chest was dangerous. He'd barely gasped for air when Sirius was at his side, holding him up steadily.

"You alright, pup?"

"Ye..Yeah," Harry said through his heavily laboured breathing.

"Come on, let's go and get you sat down."

"Good plan."

Sirius supported Harry out of the Library, carrying the boy's weight out into the hall of their home and down the long stretch of it. The hallway itself was rather barren. There were no hanging portraits as one might expect from an aged wizarding home. The walls themselves were covered in deep, charcoal wallpaper that depicted the black family crest over the entirety of it.

Sirius managed to pull Harry across two more rooms and opened the door and led him into a large room with the same charcoal black-crest wallpaper, bright glimmering emerald coloured carpet and the furniture resting atop it. The furniture itself was a large sofa made of black leather and a large circular coffee table as well. Sirius lowered Harry into the sofa and then took the armchair beside it. He leaned back in the seat and then looked over at his godson.

"Just take a few breaths."

Harry nodded, pushing himself back into the sofa and heaved a few breaths out of him, slowly he felt his body beginning to return to normal. He released a soft groan and then said, "Well, I'm going to be really glad when we finally get that bloody block taken off. I can't keep dealing with this."

"You're healing has been going really well and I'll get word to Moony so that we can get it removed. We can't leave it much longer because we're still on that two week clock before the magic begins turning in on itself and sucking your life force."

"Did my parents put the block on me? I heard that parents do that with powerful children and then remove it once they turn eleven."

"No," Sirius said, "Your mother and father didn't have any time to see your magic before they passed on. Three guesses who put it on you."

A snarl flew from Harry's lips and he knew in that moment that if his body wasn't in such a state he'd have leaped to his feet, "Damn that old bastard!"

"Relax," Sirius warned him, "I know that it's completely wrong and messed up what that old fools done, but there's no use getting into a state over it when your body is like this."

Harry took a calming breath, then retreated against the sofa. How dare that man? How dare he? What right did he have getting tied up in Harry's life like this? Just because he was so encumbered with Voldemort? Did Dumbledore honestly think? If he wanted Harry's loyalty this was not the way to go about it in even a small part of the meaning.

"I kind of want a nap," Harry said, even though his body was regulating slowly, he still felt utterly exhausted from all that had happened in the last few minutes. His eyes began drooping even before he'd fully finished speaking the sentence. A nod was spoken from Sirius and then he stood from his seat and patted Harry's head.

"You get some rest kiddo, don't even bother going to your bed, these couches won't hurt your back to sleep on, Lily once told me that Muggle ones were horrible. These ones are charmed so it'll be fine."

x-x-

"What do you have to report?" the high, cold and cruel voice spoke, the sound ringing through the area.

"The Ministry is still clueless as to your return my lord," Lucius Malfoy stated softly, "Though there are a few stubborn idiots that insist you have, the minister seems not to be buying it at any capacity whatsoever."

"Good," Voldemort said, leaning back in the large seat at the head of the table, "the longer the minister remains ignorant, the longer we can move in the darkness without being detected. What news do we have of Bellatrix and Narcissa?"

"They've been completely moved to the opposing side milord," Lucius said, looking over to his master and looking him directly in the eye, "I'm sure that you've seen the papers by now, but it looks as though they've been completely moved from our ranks."

"It is a non-concern. We will find them and punish them for disobeying me. There is another matter I wish to discuss with you."

"Yes, what is it?"

"We are going to need more information about the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. I want us to find the position of it. If we pull the move right, we can lure Potter into collecting it for me rather than having to go through the Ministry myself and revealing myself before I deem it necessary."

x-x-

"Harry! Harry!"

Two emerald eyes snapped open and Harry, still thrashing slightly began muttering, "He's going to use me to get it! He's going to use me to get it."

"Harry, calm down it's okay, it was just a nightmare!"

Finally Harry's vision caught up with his mind and he gazed up at the beautiful figure gazing down upon his dishevelled features, the woman leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss to Harry's forehead, "Shh, it's alright you're home."

She pulled the young man up into her arms and hugged her tightly.

"Harry, what happened?" another voice asked from the side slightly.

"You can't just force him into talking about it the moment he's woken up, Ciss."

Harry heard Andromeda scolding her sister for trying to pressure him into revealing what'd happened right away, but he was content to just lean forward further into Andromeda's embrace. It was a little odd that he felt a little closer to her than he had yesterday, but perhaps he'd just been searching for the comfort after his nightmare.

Bellatrix had moved behind Harry and knelt down to place a kiss at the top of her head, "You don't need to worry, you're here with us now. We won't hurt you."

Harry quickly got to his feet and shook his head rapidly, "S…sorry I can't…"

And without another word he darted out of the room.

A sigh fell from Andromeda's lips and she placed her hand on Bellatrix's shoulder to hold her back from going after Harry, "Not yet," she told her sister, "He's got to try and organize his thoughts around this matter and it won't help to push him before he's ready."

Bellatrix felt a rush of anger sweep through her and she rounded on Narcissa within a split second, "This is your fault!"

"You're blaming me?"

"If you hadn't have opened your mouth and pushed him to reveal what the nightmare was about the moment he fucking opened his eyes!"

"There's no use playing the blame game," Andromeda said, after giving a deep sigh, "That's going to get us nowhere. Let him go to Sirius if he feels more comfortable talking to him about things. We have to respect him enough to treat him as an adult otherwise he's only going to lump us into the same category as he's put every other adult in his life aside from Sirius and Remus, alright?"

Harry fled the room as quickly as he could. Not because of the dream itself, but because of the closeness exhibited by the three women after such a short time of them knowing each other. Sure they were all betrothed due to the contracts, but Harry felt that things were moving at a far too intense pace in such a short time that he didn't feel like he could keep up. He barely knew the women after all. Sure, they'd all kissed him on the forehead last night and that didn't seem like much. He just assumed that it was part of the meet and greet. Perhaps his lack of knowledge in the 'love' department was playing a part in this. Harry Potter was never shown any sort of care or love on any level before he met Sirius so hopefully they didn't expect him to pick it all up instantly.

Harry just wished he knew how to explain it to them.

Seeing his godson rushing through the house in a way that could be described as a deer caught in headlights, it didn't take Sirius too long to figure out what'd happened. He'd been dealing with something Kreacher had done which meant he wasn't privy to much of what'd happened but the look on Harry's face was definitely enough for him to go on.

"You alright pup?"

"Y…No, I had a nightmare, Sirius."

"Was it a Voldemort one?"

"Yeah, he's going to try and lure me to collect something called a Prophecy? What's that got to do with anything and why does it need to be me or him to collect it specifically?"

"Because, Harry…Prophecies may only be collected by those whom they are made about."

x-x-x-x-x

"Well?"

"I think it is enough for you to be given a warrant, Auror Moody. Though I do not know why you took this to me rather than the Head Auror."

"As you can see, Bones, it's a delicate matter and I don't know if I can trust that guy, cons-"

"Constant Vigilance," Madame Bones stated, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Though she didn't appreciate Moody's constant exclamation of those words, she could understand where he was going with this, but she pressed on either way, knowing the importance of this matter, "Bring him directly to me once you've collected him. I don't trust Dumbledore as far as I can throw him, this evidence gives further backing to this claim and I want him to be tried for everything that he's done."

"As you wish, I'll take a team if that's alright. I don't trust him not to have some sort of escape plan."

"Permission granted, just don't let the old fool escape."

End Chapter.

Hopefully this somewhat longer chapter is a sign of things to come, I know my chapters have been short in the past, but there were some things going on with my mental health that had to be addressed and I was really just putting things out as I could. I wasn't going to say anything but a reviewer brought this to my attention and I wanted to speak about it so they didn't feel like I was just brushing it under the rug or whatever.

Thank you guys for your support, it honestly means the world to me. Happy Reading and I'll see you next time.

Nox!