The yelp of surprise jolted Harry from a half-sleep state. Playing up on his previous self, for now he thought to himself, he scrambled out of bed toward Neville's bed. "Wha-what happened?" he asked with a feigned alarmed tone.

"Neville's dead!"

Harry rolled his eyes internally at Ronald's nasally high pitch near shriek. The youngest Weasley cared for no one but his own advancement so for the ginger to act like he cared was sickening. Shoving the pathetic excuse of magic to the side he moved towards the corpse of his nemesis and, despite his internal disgust but to maintain the façade, checked Neville' pulse at the wrist & neck before pulling a picture frame off the boys end table. Holding it near the corpses face he waited and when there was no misting he projected a distressed look onto his face as the picture frame was returned. "He's really dead…"

"I told yo-"

"Shut up you ass kissing little ginger hanger-on!" Harry snapped with a burning glare that shocked the other boys silent. Hysteria, real or otherwise, made people speak in ways they never would so he was fine to say his feelings and claim hysterics. "Magic is not the begin-all or end-all of knowing. How much magic fails in healing if you lack the precise knowing of what's wrong? How many diagnoses were falsely declared and treatment afterwards made things worse before the true problem was identified & rectified?" Turning on heel and striding towards the stairs, primarily to hide the malicious smile on his lips, he didn't look back as his dorm-mates were staring at his back. "Muggles are pathetic excuses of flesh but they are at least aware enough of how to know someone is well and truly dead."

Dean Thomas barely blinked but Harry, who was just as bed dressed as them, was suddenly dressed in his robes. He was too slow to open his mouth to ask what was obviously eating at his raven haired dorm-mate but Harry was gone. "What crawled up his arse and died?"

By the time Harry noted most of Gryffindor had slithered into the Great Hall, oh the irony was delicious as it was thick, there was a grim tense atmosphere over the student tables.

"Attention students, if I may have everyone's attention." All eyes, save Harry's, went to the Head Table where Dumbledore was standing with a tense visage. The man appeared to have aged fifty years. "As I am certain the rumor mill has gotten around already" his gaze was harsh and by no means his genial self "there was a death of a student here in these hallowed halls. I would respectfully ask you all" his gaze shifted almost menacingly to the Slytherin students table "to join me in a moment of silence for the passing of Neville Longbottom."

Some of the older magical bloodline heirs looked alarmed while Susan Bones, the kind but rather tough when she wanted or needed to be Hufflepuff, ran from the hall. It was common knowledge the two had been arranged to be wed since before they were born and for her to be made a widow before they were even formally engaged was a bad thing for not only her personal reputation but that of the Noble House of Bones. Those who would consider courting her in the future may view her as a black widow not unlike the matriarch of House Zabini.

Behind his hands Harry chuckled silently. The idiots didn't have the faintest idea of how in danger they were. Neville was only the first step in his elimination strategy. By sixth year he would have all his priority targets, Voldemort included, taken care of. Of course once Voldemort was out of the picture he would, by default by the laws of magic, inherit the thorn in his sides control of the Death Eater ranks via the Dark Mark. A small detail but one that would require a lot of careful consideration. The men who bore the mark would not accept him and the few women were little more than sex slaves that were better off put out of their misery which would benefit him even more in tearing the financial assets into his own clutches further making him richer than he already was!

"You ok Harry? You're shaking."

Harry schooled his face into a solemn expression before looking to his left where Hermoine sat looking genuinely upset. "No I'm Hermoine. Neville wasn't a close friend but he was one of us." His eyes darted up and down the Gryffindor table. "For Merlin's sake, his parents are comatose and.. If they wake up, what are they going to think? What will they do? If Dumbledore can't keep us safe and alive, we don't need dark assholes trying to kill us. Incompetence like that will have us drop like flies! I mean, look at last year. He nearly got me killed because his geriatric senile mind didn't protest the Minister hard enough from posting soul sucking monsters on school grounds. I nearly lost my soul because of Dumbledore's inadequacies! That's not to mention he did feck all when the school was under siege by the basilisk and I very nearly died! Again!"

The faces around them went grimmer as they watched Harry leave the hall, his breakfast mostly untouched.

Out in the hallway, behind the closed door, Harry trembled and shook with silent mad amusement. He imagined the first steps to be easy but if they wanted to play into his hand so easily and without manipulation he might get the main goal done far too quick for his liking. Key people would have drawn out suffering fates and he would need to scale certain actions back a tiny bit if the sheep turned on their shepard so quick. His head jerked up hearing the hall door open and close before his eyes landed on the form of his, not to mention Fleur and Gabrielle's, second favorite blonde. The glimmer of madness under the surface made the Ravenclaw quite fun to play with between visions. Of course this wasn't his Oracle so-

"My liege."

Or maybe it was. "High Priestess."

The blonde girl pout-scowled even as her head bowed slightly in deferrence. "I prefer your wives title and you know that" she said with a tense look.

Harry smirked before laughing, it was more of a maniacal cackle really, as he patted the girl on her head. "Yeah yeah, whatever you say Delphi" he said strolling toward the direction of the astronomy tower. "How did you come back with us Little Moon Spirit? We saw you be slaughtered by that haridan Bones."

The blonde scoffed skipping after Harry. "That haridan as you call her made a fatal mistake. She turned her back on me after her cutting curse slit open my stomach and failed to defend against the acid spell I threw that ate through her flesh, muscles and bones that relieved her of her head. Using her blood I bound what was left of my magic and my spirit to you & the mistresses. I wouldn't be doing my job as your Oracle if I wasn't around to be of service" she retorted.

"This is true" Harry said thoughtfully. His left hand rolled casually as the pair made their way up the staircase, Argus Filch clutching at his throat. The man couldn't be allowed to pass on what he heard them say. That would ruin the fun and make it too easy for Dumbledore. Besides, Argus was ancient -for the time that is- so him dying wouldn't be suspicious for the squib to die of a heart attack or heart failure due to lack of usable magic to save his life. "Luna."

The blonde stopped as Harry did and peered up at him. "Yes?" the apparently named Luna asked.

"Welcome home little sister." Harry was hardly kind, and rarer still gentle, but the ghost of a smile tipping at the edge of his lips he gave her was both. Luna was a trusted friend, someone he considered family and moreso a confidante of his lovers & himself. For her to have saved herself by binding herself to him, Fleur and Gabrielle was supremely risky as esoteric magic like Soul Magic was largely lost magic. The fact it ended well and worked as intended was nothing shy of a Merlin be damned miracle. "Never do that again!"

Luna whined as a closed fist came down knuckle first on top of her head. "But it worked!"

"And what if it hadn't?!" Harry asked with an irate tone. Seeing Luna flinch made him sigh and force a deep breath. "Luna, we agreed Soul Magic was an extreme last resort. You could have wiped yourself out of creation and you know how much that would upset all three of us." His eyes softened the most microscopic degree.

"It was dire, it fit." Luna sounded like a whipped child as she stared at her shoes. "I took the bitch down with me."

Pulling her to his side Harry continued his path. "Stick to curse dolls if you're going to do Soul Magic for now. Being the Master of Death has its limitations and I suspect piecing together a soul torn asunder in a million pieces is pushing them" he said shaking his head. "Our beloved shall be here by months end. We must prepare a gift for her."

"Only one?" Luna asked with a pout. While Harry may used beloved to describe how she felt for Fleur and Gabrielle, it wasn't the same context as his feelings. The younger Delacour she adored as her sister and Fleur slotted in as a sort-of surrogate mom.

"If all is the same as before then Gabrielle will be Fleur's victim in the Second Task in the lake. Fleur will obviously be arriving with her school on the thirtieth" Harry said dismissively.

Luna nodded thoughtfully. for Fleur would be hard to pick. The older blonde veela had very specific tastes in just about… Well everything really. "Oh, I know!" Breaking away from Harry she raced up through a hidden passage, him at her heels.

"Where are we going?!"

"Finding the lost things!" Luna said with a mad smile.

Harry's haunting laughter echoed off the walls. Of course, it was so..simply perfect. It rid him of a Voldemort horcrux, gave him ownership of the artifact and Fleur had pined over the memory of the tiara he had destroyed. "You brilliant little lunatic" he praised as they reached the seventh floor hallway they needed to be in.

Luna beamed with sisterly pride as Harry's stride brought the door into existence. "I learned from the best big brother" she said twirling her hair around her finger.

*BEAUXBATONS- three weeks later October 29th*

Fleur was bored out of her skull as the remaining students piled into the ridiculous pumpkin carriage. They could have gotten international portkeys through the school to Hogsmeade with Albus Dumbledore's blessing instead of wasting two days flying to Britain in a gourd. 'I am not Cinderella so this crap is unnecessary' she thought sipping a drink and reading her new, read: old, Dark Arts Protection book. Morgana was this dated and ineffective methodology in real combat against a Dark Arts wielder like herself. Still, she would be reunited with her lover soon and then… then their game would truly begin. Her spine tingled as she smirked evilly behind her book. The masses thought they were safe?

"Zey do not know ze meaning of ze word zafe" she said to herself quietly so to practice her accent after having largely abandoning it in the future.

"You zay zomething Fleur?"

Fleur looked over to her one time friend Eloise and had to resist the venomous sneer that wanted to etch itself on her face. This girl got her parents killed last time around. This girl tried to kill her sister and husband. She would die but not now. "Non, nozzing of importance El" she said with a forced smile that appeared entirely genuine.

Eloise nodded her head and went back to her own book, a muggle romance novel, completely unaware her friend was plotting her murder.