Chapter 9:

Monday 16th September 1991.

Harry walked into History of Magic and looked around for where to sit. Su Li had an empty seat next to her, and he hadn't sat next to her in almost a week, so made his way to her table.

Halfway there an arm reached out and grabbed his elbow, pulling him onto a stool. Looking at who pulled him he realised it was the Twins younger brother.

Giving the boy the benefit of the doubt, despite his rude behaviour, he greeted the boy. "Mr. Weasley, how are you today?"

"Harry mate! The way you taught that filthy snake a lesson on Saturday was awesome! I would have attacked straight away, defending yourself is a waste of time. I would have hit him with my first spell if I were you, before he even cast. Imagine how embarrassing that would have been for him." The Gryffindor just kept talking.

Harry, trying to stay respectful, responded. "I hope by filthy snake you are referring to Malfoy individually and not the entire Slytherin house?"

Ron Weasley scoffed at that. "Both. Malfoy is a filthy snake, and so is the whole house."

"I hope you can learn to change that view." Harry pulled out his textbook and writing equipment. "Slytherin house has had a long and proud history and has produced many exceptional witches and wizards, just as all the houses have."

Ron wasn't having a bar of it. "All Dark witches and wizards are from Slytherin. They should just kick out the house and not allow anybody sorted into it to attend Hogwarts."

Harry couldn't help himself and burst out laughing. Ron looked at him and smiled, thinking Harry was laughing in agreement with the statement. What he didn't realise was Harry was laughing because of how ridiculous it was.

"Do you realise who you sound like?" Harry had finally regained control over himself and had stopped laughing.

"No, who?" Ron smiled, thinking the boy meant Dumbledore.

Harry's eyes went hard. "Voldemort. You sound like Voldemort."

Weasley gasped, and so did the two Gryffindor students seated behind them. First it was Harry saying Voldemort that shocked them, and then what he said sunk in and hit them even harder.

"Hey! How dare you say that! I'm the opposite; I don't want people like the Death Eaters at Hogwarts, not Muggleborns! I'm nothing like them!" His indignation was evident.

Harry roles his eyes at that. "Your attitude is exactly the same as theirs, just with a different target. They are afraid of what the New-Bloods could do so don't want them to learn magic, while you are worried that a Slytherin might go Dark so don't want them to learn magic. It's the exact same belief that they had, but just aimed at a different target."

Ron just glared at Harry, still unable to believe that Harry was comparing him to the Death Eaters! How could his best mate treat him like that?

When Ron didn't respond, Harry continued well aware that they now had an audience. "I also don't know where you are getting your information from, but it's wrong. Not every Dark magical was in Slytherin, and most certainly not every Slytherin is Dark! In the early 1800's a Hufflepuff wizard tried to become the ruler of Scandinavia and was considered a Dark Lord. There have been Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students have gone on to be called Dark witches and wizards, or have been lieutenants to Dark Lord's or Lady's. The Death Eaters, Voldemort's…" He paused to roll his eyes as everyone reacted at that. "The Death Eaters had members from every house, not just Slytherin, so I would fact-check your source because obviously they either don't know what they are talking about or are lying to you for some reason."

"My mum told me about Slytherin, so you are wrong!" Obviously Harry didn't know what he was saying, because Ron's mum knew the truth.

Harry shook his head at that. "Your mother is a Prewitt wasn't she?" Ron nodded. "Well then she knows for a fact that not all the Death Eaters were Slytherin because the three that were arrested for killing one of her brothers only had one Slytherin. The other two had been in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

Finished with his lesson Harry turned his attention to Professor Binns who was rattling on like he didn't even notice that half the students were listening to Harry and a handful were already asleep. Harry did his best to concentrate on the teacher and ignore the glaring boy next to him.

/

Thursday 31st October 1991, 6:00pm.

Harry left the Ravenclaw rooms into a still and silent Hogwarts. Everyone else was already in the Great Hall, no doubt enjoying a feast, but Harry couldn't stomach being there.

For Harry it was not a joyous occasion. It was the ten-year anniversary of his parents' murder, and Harry couldn't even consider spending the evening with cheerful teens. No, tonight he was visiting someone else.

Harry was going to see Remus for the first time in nearly two months. Remus had a picnic basket and was waiting at the end of one of the secret tunnels out of Hogwarts. Harry couldn't wait to see Moony.

Harry had wanted to have a meeting with his Uncle sooner, but they both knew that Dumbledore had been watching Harry. The interfering old man would be too distracted with the feast tonight and wouldn't be able to keep tabs on Harry. At least that was the idea.

Remus knew just how important it was for him to be with Harry on this night and would move heaven and earth to be there for the kid tonight. Knowing that Albus might get alerted if he crossed the wards, he was waiting at the entrance to the tunnel. He didn't know why but he had an uneasy feeling about tonight.

He was sure it would go away when he saw Prongslet, but for now he was on edge. The wolf was on alert, hairs raised, and Remus wasn't sure why because it had been over a week since the full moon. Remus kept fiddling with his wand, ready for anything.

For Harry he was full of excitement and joy thinking of the coming meal with his guardian. It was because of this that he wasn't paying attention to his surrounding as he walked towards the passage entrance on the first floor.

He went around the final corner and came to a sudden halt. It took several seconds for his brain to process what was in front of him, and longer for him to believe what he was seeing.

A 12-foot tall mountain troll was in front of him, luckily for Harry facing the other direction. Taking a slow step backwards his shoe squeaked and he became stock-still. For 5 seconds it looked like he would get away with it but then, almost in slow motion, the troll turned around.

Harry was in the middle of the corridor, with nowhere to hide, and the troll saw him right away. It looked confused at Harry's presence, but took a step towards him. A quarter of the gap between the two closed with that single step.

Knowing he couldn't run fast enough to escape it Harry had no choice but to draw his wand. Looking into the trolls eyes Harry realised that it had made a decision. It was no longer confused.

No, instead it looked angry. Harry didn't know why it was angry, but assumed it had something to do with him being a human. He didn't blame it, after all most witches and wizards treated magical beings, including trolls, appallingly.

It raised its club, which looked to be taller than Harry, and swung it at the boy. Raising a Protego shield, Harry tensed.

The sound the impact made had the Ravenclaw's ears ringing. Unlike with Draco's spell, the impact nature of the attack broke the shield, but the shield had also achieved its goal and stopped the club.

Unfortunately for Harry the forward energy caused by the clubs momentum had to go somewhere, and that somewhere was Harry. He was flung backwards and hit the wall behind him. He distinctly heard his ribs crack.

Harry was worried now, knowing that he wouldn't have the power to penetrate the thick skin of a troll with any spells. The pain made it hard for the boy to concentrate, and the broken ribs would make it impossible for Harry to even try to run away.

He needed a plan, and quickly, because the troll had once again focused on Harry after spending a minute looking at the club wondering why it hadn't hit the human. Eyes darting around the corridor, almost in full panic mode, the kids gaze settled on the club.

Just inches above the troll's hand a large crack had appeared, and Harry decided that was his best plan of attack. He raised his wand and cast the most powerful stunning charm he could. Instead of aiming at the troll he aimed at the club held in its right hand.

The red light hit the end of the club, and Harry smiled when the club broke off leaving only a stump in the hand of the mountain troll. Not realising what happened the creature swung at the boy, and missed him by almost two feet.

It looked shocked that his plan was thwarted a second time, and stared at his hand wondering how the club had disappeared. He opened his palm and the stump fell out, clattering on the stone floor. Without his weapon of choice it simply drew its fist back.

The hand flew forward, in a simple straight jab, and Harry barely had the time to realise how fast it was travelling. The boy ducked, closing his eyes.

The stone behind him shook as the fist hit the wall, cracking the stone. The troll let out a loud yell, pain emanating from the broken hand. The fist had missed the boy's head by mere inches.

Slowly moving to the side, hoping that the troll was too distracted to notice, Harry started inching away. He had almost made ten meters distance before the troll looked at him again.

Harry's eyes grew wide as the troll literally charged at him. Harry cursed his luck, because he was only a meter away from the next corner and being able to find a place to hide.

The troll lowered its head, obviously planning on simply running over the kid. Diving to the side, and hoping he fell outside of the troll's path, Harry watched it sweep past. A new wave of pain hit Harry as his ribs made contact with stone once more.

Harry gasped out as the air was forcibly ejected from his body. He couldn't take the time to worry about it as he watched the troll run at full steam, head first, into the castle wall. It hit the wall so hard three of the large bricks were knocked into the room on the other side.

The troll teetered for a moment before tumbling to the ground unconscious. Harry was thankful that it fell the other way, because he was sure he wouldn't have been able to evade it and would have been crushed.

They must have made a racket the last few minutes because a cluster of staff came rushing up the hall, after the danger had passed. How they had only managed to arrive after it was unconscious made no sense to Harry, but his ribs hurt too much for him to focus on anything else.

"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall was the first to arrive. "What is the meaning of this? What are you doing out of the dorms?"

Oddly enough, the first thing that came to Harry was wonder at how the first person to arrive was the stern woman, given Snape was a much younger man. The stray thoughts that one had when in excruciating pain would be amusing at any other time.

"Hospital… First… So much… Pain…" It hurt every time he breathed, but because his lungs never seemed to fill he had to breathe more frequently then he would like. "Ribs… Broke…"

He started to fall over but Filius, who had only just arrived thanks to his shorter legs, quickly cast a charm to catch the boy. Not even waiting for the other professors to interfere he levitated the unconscious boy and set off for the Hospital Wing.

/

Harry came to, hurting all over. He was lying down on a bed, but not his own, and the sterile smell alerted him to where he was.

He heard an argument and realised that was what had dragged him out of unconsciousness. It was between Professor Flitwick and the Headmaster.

"Filius, your duty is to your whole house. Go to them, Mr. Potter is quite safe here." That was Dumbledore.

Harry was worried that the Charms Master would agree, but didn't want to alert them to him being awake just yet. Idly he wondered where the nurse was.

He fear proved unfounded. "Septima is with my Eagles, Harry needs me more right now! And don't act innocent I knew what you were trying to cast before I stopped you. Reading his mind is illegal Albus, and unless you have a signed note from Amelia Bones giving permission to read his mind for this incident and you try again I will hex you into next year. And don't speak of duty to me, your duty is to the whole school so go out there and find how your wards allowed a troll into a school!"

If anybody else had spoken like that to Albus Dumbledore Harry was sure that he would have scolded them and maybe even fired them. It was not an idle threat however, because if anybody could give the old man a run for his money it is the former World Champion dueller. Dumbledore was also in hot water with the goblins and firing Filius would lock him out from the bank forever.

He heard footsteps approaching and tensed up, before realising they were coming from the other side of the room from where the pair were arguing. He heard a woman's voice cast some spells on him.

Harry didn't recognise many of them, but they sounded like medical charms. She whispered to him. "Don't worry I won't tell them that you are awake."

Two minutes later he heard the light footfalls as Filius approached. "How are you feeling Harry? It's safe, Albus has left."

"It bloody hurts. How long was I out?" He cracked his eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the light.

Filius laughed at that, but not cruelly he was just surprised. "Only about five minutes. How about you tell me what happened."

"I didn't want to be with everyone today. They were all celebrating, but it's not a day for partying. It's the ten-year anniversary of my parents murder!" Flipus nodded sadly at that while Harry paused to drink a potion the matron handed him. "So I went for a walk, turned the corner and wham! There was a troll. How the hell did a troll get into Hogwarts?"

Filius answered him while the boy drank a second potion. "We don't know, yet, but I will get to the bottom of it. What happened next?"

"My shoe squeaked when I tried to escape, it had been facing away from me, and it heard it. It turned around and saw me there." He had to wait as the nurse cast two healing spells on him. "It swung its club, and with no other option I cast a shield. It stopped the club, but threw me back into the wall behind me, breaking my ribs. I saw the club had started to break so I cast stupefy at it, it being the only near-impact spell I know, and I got lucky because the club snapped off. It tried to punch me and I ducked, and I think it broke its hand when it hit the wall instead of me. I tried escaping but it charged me. I dived out of the way and it knocked itself out running head first into the wall."

Filius laughed at that, confusing the boy. "Harry, it didn't knock itself out. It hit the wall so hard it broke its skull open and killed itself."

Having returned the boy to full health the nurse returned to whatever it was she did while not attending to patients, leaving Harry and Filius alone. The part-goblin jumped up into a seat and pulled a book out of his pocket, expanding the book back to its proper size.

"Thank you Professor." Harry mumbled out, before falling asleep.

/

Friday 1st November, 8:00.

Remus was seated at his table, poking at his porridge more than eating it. He had only gotten an hour of sleep the previous night, after waiting 6 extra hours for Harry to turn up. He didn't know why the boy hadn't made their rendezvous and he was barely holding in his panic.

An owl flouted in the open window clutching the mornings Daily Prophet. He knew that most of what they printed was lies or Ministry propaganda, but there often was a hint of truth in it that you could find if you tried. It was also important to know what the Wizarding World was being told.

He gave the owl 4 knuts, and put the paper to the side while taking a drink of coffee. Unfortunately it was at that time that he read the main story's headline and he lost that coffee as he spat it out.

Troll attack at Hogwarts: Boy-Who-Lives in Hospital.

Scrambling to pick up the paper he read through the article. It was more speculation than fact, but it claimed that a troll had somehow got into the castle and Harry had tracked it down, killing it but injuring himself in the process. Dumbledore refused to speak when asked about it, but an anonymous staff member was on record as saying that Harry had broken ribs, a shoulder and had lots of internal injuries but Madam Pomfrey had him healing well.

D.M.L.E boss Amelia Bones had also been asked to comment but had said that unfortunately nobody had come to her department to report the incident and therefore had not been able to investigate. She was quoted as saying 'If such an event has happened me and my Aurors want to investigate how it has happened, but until Dumbledore or somebody else officially tells us our hands are tied.' Remus knew what he had to do.

The fire flashed, and Callum tumbled out of the Floo, obviously in such a hurry he didn't even take the time to settle himself before he fell out of the fire. "Is it true? Is Harry alright?"

"I don't know. We were meant to meet last night, but he never showed up which has me worried that it may be. If Harry has been in the Hospital all night that would explain him not getting in contact yet. I expect Flilus will get in contact soon." He got up from the table, and grabbed a box before heading to the Floo. "I need to talk to the boss."

They both travelled through the fire, and soon were at Barty's office. "I have already contacted Filius. It's true, kind of. Harry was out for a walk and didn't even know about the troll until he stumbled upon it. He got lucky, but he is recovering well. He will be in classes this afternoon."

Filius, of course, was the inside man that MI-M had at Hogwarts. The goblins knew all about MI-M and were happy for when it took over fully from the Ministry. After all the MI-M held none of the same prejudices that currently existed in the magical world.

They were also supported by the Queen, and because of this alliance the Goblin King had met the British monarch for the first time in 400 years. He had also been invited to Buckingham Palace to meet other world leaders who had visited the U.K including two US Presidents.

A perfect example of the lack of prejudice in the MI-M was the three people in the room. There was a muggleborn, a werewolf and a vampire. There also were plenty of 'Pureblood' employees, but your status outside of work meant nothing to the agency.

"I am going to tell Bones to investigate it. I will have to inform her that I am his legal guardian, but she is the only person in the Ministry that knows of the MI-M so it will be fine." The box in his hand held the adoption paperwork among all the other important documents about Harry to back his claim up.

Bartolommeo looked at him for a moment before nodding. "That is your decision, but I agree that it is the best move. Her occlumency is top draw, she won't tell anyone of your connection to the child."

A/N: What do you all think of this chapter? I'm going on holiday tomorrow so I don't know when I will next post a chapter but hopefully I can write one or two while I'm away so get them up as soon as I get home. Please review this chapter. I am currently debating who to pair up with Harry is this fic, so feel free to weigh in with your reviews. I am not considering any of the three women from my other fanfic, or a multiple relationship. I am leaning towards either Susan Bones or Luna, but try and persuade me otherwise if you would prefer somebody else.

Apprentice.