AN: So here is the next chapter, sorry for the delay, I lost interest in the HP fandom for a while due to reasons, but I am back now with a new update.

It'll be a bit of an odd chapter this one, but I hope you read and enjoy it all the same.

Thanks a lot for reading, and for all the support so far.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

( - )

(Last Time)

"I will pass on the message, do you have a time and place in mind?" Aberforth asked quietly, his tone not quite as gruff now, though it was far more intense as he pulled out a dusty bottle of butter beer and slid it across the bar.

"Midnight, tomorrow, inside of the Shrieking Shack." The cloaked man replied, fishing in his pocket and dropping a single, silver sickle onto the counter.

Aberforth nodded at that, picking up the sickle as he did so. "For the Cause, brother."

"For the Cause." The cloaked man nodded, raising the bottle in his hand, before he took a sip.

( - )

Chapter 15

( - )

The Shrieking Shack, it was an old, dirty house that once upon a time must have been quite grand. Now though it was a rotten and derelict ruin.

Years of abandonment and abuse had ruined the outward appearance and interior of the old mansion. The windows were all boarded up, and its walls were dirty and stained, and everything inside of the house was broken, moth eaten and covered in dust.

Once upon a time, on dark nights, screams and shrieks had issued forth from the house, echoing out across the valley and reaching the nearby village of Hogsmeade.

That had been long ago though, and nowadays the house was silent.

Despite this though, the rumour of the foul tempered ghost and malevolent poltergeists that called the house home still persisted, and the house still retained its status as the most haunted place in Britain. With wizards and witches coming from all over to stare silently at its ugly outer façade, and Hogwart's students headed up the hill to gawp at it the first couple of times they visited Hogsmeade.

It was an oddity really, and many thought a waste.

The house was grand, and a spot of magic, and a couple of weeks of work could see the place restored to its old glory.

Despite this though, the house was still sat on its hill; empty, ugly and neglected.

Walking through the torn up, filth encrusted front room, Harry couldn't help but muse to himself about the how the house was a wasted asset.

Hogwart's owned it, and they could easily fix it up in a trice and rent it out for a healthy income.

Despite that though they just left it to rot.

Of course Harry knew the reason for this. The house, he knew, had originally been bought and setup for one of Hogwart's students, Remus Lupin, a werewolf, to safely transform in over the years.

The shrieks and screams that had sounded out from the house had been the young Remus, consumed by the agony of his transformation; screaming and shouting out his pain. It was also for this reason that the inside of the house was in such a ravaged condition.

Pulling out his wand and flicking it, Harry repaired a nearby cushioned armchair. With another flick he cleaned it, magicking away years of dirt and neglect. One further flick and the long abandoned, once dust covered fireplace exploded to life, fire crackling about merrily in the hearth.

Sitting down in the chair, Harry flicked his wand again, repairing a nearby coffee table and summoning it over to act as his foot rest, even as he sat back and waited patiently for his guests to arrive.

It was nearly midnight, his visitors would be hear soon.

Twirling his wand in his hand, Harry spent the next few minutes, from his seated positon, idly repairing and cleaning as much of the previously dilapidated room as he could. It was not a perfect fix as there were somethings that time had worn away, that magic just couldn't repair.

But still, the place was a damn sight nicer than it had been, and with the fire in the hearth bringing a bit of warmth and light to the room, one could almost say that the place was homely.

"You've been busy," Aberforth's gruff voice sounded out, catching Harry's attention as the old man, Albus Dumbledore's younger brother, approached his black cloaked form, Aberforth wearing a black cloak of his own, with both of them having their hoods up, shrouding their faces in shadow. "Not sure why you bothered really. The place is a shit tip."

"Less so now," Harry replied dryly, sitting up in his seat and putting his wand away, even as he eyed Aberforth's squat, broad form, and the other; tall, thin, black cloaked figure beside Aberforth.

Seriously with all the black cloaks and secrecy, it made it seem like they were all members of a cult.

It was admittedly theatrical and over the top.

Still, the truth of the matter was that they were members of a secret society, an ancient order that had existed in the magical world for centuries.

Sure there were rumours of the organisations existence, in a world of magic it was all but impossible to keep anything truly secret. But still, their existence was unknown to most, and was a myth to the few that had heard of them, those that had not been inducted into the group of course.

That said there were still some, the smallest of minorities that had heard of them, and didn't just think they were a myth or legend, but instead pursued them and the truth of their existence.

It was these few that were recruited into the society, the Coven of the Golden Dawn.

Whipping out his wand, Aberforth, summoned two other repaired chairs over to where Harry was sat. Positioning them on the other side of the table to Harry, with them still partially facing the fire.

Sinking into their seats, the two newcomers raised their hands, the silver, mithril bands with the emblem of a golden sun on them, gleaming in the fire light as they looked expectantly to Harry, watching carefully as he did the same.

Nodding his head, Harry, Aberforth and the newcomer spoke as one.

"Death is only the beginning."

It was one of the phrases that the members of the Coven used to recognise one another.

Though it was not the main way that the members used to distinguish one another. The main way was by using the enchanted rings they all wore. With the rings being more than just gaudy jewellery.

No, each and every one of them had been given a double enchantment.

The first of which was simple, if still powerful. With the first enchantment being one which would kill anyone who put one of the rings on, save for the person who that specific ring had been ritualistically given too. It ensured that a Coven member couldn't just be killed and their ring usurped by a spy.

The other enchantment meanwhile was more complicated.

All of the rings, all one hundred and eight of them, had been forged several centuries ago, and at the time all of them had been linked together. With this being deliberately done so that the bearer of one of the rings, when they were wearing it, would be able to recognise another bearer when they pushed their magic into their own ring.

Currently all three of them man had their hands raised, their rings revealed, and were pushing their specific magic into them.

It was a bit over the top, but then again these kind of theatrics and the overall pageantry came with being a member of an ancient secret organisation.

Lowering his ring hand, Harry used his other hand to pull down his hood, revealing his true, undisguised features, his emerald eyes flashing due to the light from the fire as he looked between the other two cloaked figures, both of whom had done the same as him.

With Aberforth Dumbledore, as grumpy and irascible as ever grumbling under his breath about stupid, over the top bullshit, even as he made himself comfortable in the recently repaired chair, his mane of grey hair and unkempt beard as ragged as ever, even as his blue eyes peered out from behind his grubby spectacles and locked onto Harry's face.

"Harry Potter…" Aberforth muttered, his brow furrowing slightly as he paused in his fidgeting. "This is unexpected."

"Indeed," The other person in the room muttered, pulling down their own hood to reveal a pair of scarlet eyes, pale ghostly white skin and shoulder length black hair.

Harry recognised her in an instant, this was Amelia, one of the three elder vampires from the Eastern Vampire Coven, which was based in Bulgaria.

A cold, cruel, callous beauty, Amelia had been walking this earth for nearly fifteen hundred years, and was as devious and cunning as she was deadly.

Luckily for Harry however she was a loyal member of the Coven of the Golden Dawn, one of the founding members for that matter, and as such was as committed to the Cause as any of them. Far more so than, Harry, himself ever was.

"I know who you are, but I was not aware you were one of the one hundred and eight…" The question in Amelia's voice was obvious, and it was not one that Harry could just avoid or deflect.

Amelia was a vampire, she could feel the blood in his veins and hear his heartbeat, she would know if he lied. On top of that she, like the rest of her accursed kind, had the ability to see a person's memories by drinking their blood. If he tried to lie, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would bite him, and not in the pleasant way.

Vampires might not be able to use magic in the conventional way that other magical beings were able to do, but they were still magical beings none the less, and thus possessed their own unique form of magical abilities.

"I will be, in time." Harry replied easily. It was not pleasant and the main reason he didn't contact this group of dangerous fanatics before, but it was necessary. There were only one hundred and eight members that had passed the trial and then been ritualistically given one of the rings, and as one of the founders, Amelia, knew all of them by both name and face.

It just had to be one of the members of the group's upper echelons that he had to meet, didn't it!

"Hmm, time travel?" Aberforth asked bluntly, not even batting an eye at Harry's words. In a world of magic there were a lot of weird and wonderful things out there. Harry was not the first time travel, or even the fiftieth. "I hope this doesn't mean there is another, smaller, younger version of you running around? Just the thought of the paradoxes and hassles that will create, it gives me a headache just thinking about it!"

"You don't have to worry about a younger version of me running about." Harry replied dryly, Aberforth always was a grumpy old fossil.

"Then not time travel with a time turner then." Aberforth mused, scratching at his scraggly grey beard as he did so. "That's a shame, I had heard they were working on a prototype time turner that could send a person back years, as opposed to just days. I was hoping you'd used that, I kind of wanted to find out more about it."

Harry cocked an eyebrow as he heard this. Such a time turner had indeed been created some thirty odd years from now, and it had been a real pain in the arse. Still though, he didn't realise it was already in development, not that it really mattered. Time turners were limited, and were only so useful, plus they also came with the issue of paradoxes, which if they occurred could and did wipe the user from existence.

"No, he is as young as he appears, on the outside at least." Amelia finally spoke up, her voice high, cold and emotionless. Empty and apathetic, it sent a chill down his spine. "Internally however is a different story."

Here her sharp eyes locked on Harry trailing up and down his cloaked form.

"Just what foul rituals and experimentations have you done to yourself, Harry Potter?" Amelia muttered, her curiousity clearly peaked, and Harry knew exactly why. She could sense the blood in his body and the way it moved through his veins, arteries, blood vessels and organs, as such she could sense that there were some things in his body that was not meant to be there.

"A few." Harry shrugged, he didn't like being questioned like this. But he didn't want to alienate the people in the room. The Coven wasn't a group you wanted as an enemy.

Honestly, it was an irritating situation to be in.

"One to send you back in time?" Amelia pushed, a hint of amusement in her voice as she heard the reluctance in his own.

"That one was a ritual, yup," Harry nodded, sitting back in his seat now, but saying no more.

"What, that's it, you're just going to leave us hanging?! How far have you travelled? Why did you travel back in time? How?" Aberforth suddenly exploded, his voice filled, not with anger, but with fascination.

"With something like time travel, it's best not to say." Harry replied, waving him off with a completely bullshit answer.

Something Aberforth caught onto straight away. "Bullshit!"

"It matters not, he does not need to tell us if he does not want too." Amelia cut in, speaking over Aberforth as he started trying to wheedle more information out of Harry. "As long as it does not get in the way of the Cause, he is entitled to his secrets and plots, just as we all are. We are all independent operatives, each of us working on our own projects and going about our own lives. We are all mere soldiers and have our parts to play in the grand scheme, and as long as he fulfils his role, that is all that matters!"

"I know, but still, the information he has could be useful!" Aberforth pressed.

"It could, but it is up to him to share it." Amelia replied dismissively. "He is not the first time traveller I have met in my life, nor even the hundredth. Already, I alone, know of seven different ways of travelling backwards through time, though three of them are deeply unpleasant, and a further two have just as much chance of killing you as they do working."

"Hn," Aberforth grunted. "Vampires, I sometimes forget how old you can be."

Amelia sent him another amused smile, a smile that was at odds with the pitiless, emotionless look in her crimson eyes, after which she turned back to Harry, her lips curling upwards to reveal her white, oddly normal looking teeth.

Seeing the look in the ancient vampire's eyes, Harry shifted slightly, this woman was far less human than he was. He had met her once or twice before, in his time anyway, and in that time he had seen her rip a man's spine out of his back without batting an eye, decapitate another man with a single swing of her hand and drain a witch of all her blood in moments.

The woman was an absolute sociopath.

Then again that was to be expected, one didn't join the Coven of the Golden Dawn without having issues, and Harry was no exception.

The Coven was, to put it simply, bat shit insane. They were an association of magical beings of all races from Goblins to Vampires to Wizards, all of whom sought to wipe out the mundane race, humanity, and come out of hiding and finally live in the open, and that is what they had been working towards for hundreds of years.

The group believed, and Harry did too to some extent, that the world was reaching a crisis point, and just like how Homo-sapiens replaced the Neanderthal, so too did magicals need to replace the wasteful and overcrowded mundane population. It was basic evolution. Magical beings were just the next step on the evolutionary scale.

Was it twisted?

Yes, definitely.

Would it lead to the deaths of billions if their plans came to fruition?

Almost certainly.

Was it evil?

That was more difficult, the killing of innocence was evil that was true, without a doubt. The genocide of a species? Horrifically evil. Saving the world though? Saving your own beleaguered species at the expense of another species? Ensuring that life was still able to live on this world in a hundred, two hundred, or even a thousand years' time?

It was a complex issue. Was it right to commit horrific evil for the right reason? Or was it wrong to do nothing and allow even more people and species, innocents, to suffer as the world came crashing down around them?

Even now, decades after he had been initiated into the group, which itself had only been a couple of years after he had defeated Voldemort and Daphne had died, he had struggled over the morality of his membership.

Harry was not a particularly moral person by any means, or at least not anymore. He had killed a lot of people, done human experimentation, had lied, cheated, stolen and murdered.

He had played around with soul magic like Voldemort. He had possessed and taken over other people's bodies when his own was destroyed, and when that was not enough he had created homunculus bodies for himself to inhabit.

Harry was not exactly a good person.

At the same time though he had saved a lot of lives over the years, had taken down Dark Wizards and Dark Lords. He had even involved himself in some muggle affairs and saved the lives of muggle's too.

Though of course he had been sanctioned for interfering in Coven business the few times he did interfere in the muggle world. The Coven didn't like it when do-gooders got in the way of their plans to push, twist and manipulate the muggles into wiping themselves out.

Yes, even now he struggled with his previous choices.

But still, the morality over his membership to the Coven was immaterial at the moment. Instead, he was more interested in getting his hands on their spy and information network so he could keep an eye on Voldemort.

"So, you wanted a meeting." Amelia prompted, the smile still on her face as she waited for Harry to speak.

"Yes, I'm just announcing my presence here, and the fact that there is now a one hundred and ninth member." Harry replied after a moment.

One hundred and eight. That was how many members there were. Thirty six of those members were in the inner circle, Harry was not one of these. After which twelve of those members were on the council of twelve. Then finally three of the council of twelve were leaders.

One hundred and eight beings wasn't all the Coven was made up of though. There were thousands of other minions and soldiers that worked for the Coven, or for members of the Coven. It just happened all of those people weren't in the outer circle, inner circle, council of twelve, or one of the leaders.

"Cute," Amelia said dryly. "But what is the true reason?"

The woman didn't mess about, when she wanted an answer, she wanted an answer.

"I need to use the Coven's resources." Harry grudging admitted.

"How typical, people only ever come back to the fold when they want something." Aberforth grumbled.

"We're all inherently self-interested, no matter your species." Harry shrugged, eyeing Dumbledore carefully.

When he had discovered that the vaunted Albus Dumbledore's younger brother was a member of the Coven he had been shocked. But only for a moment until he remembered what had happened to his sister, Ariana, at the hands of muggles. It turns out the hatred ran deep in Aberforth.

But it was not the same kind of hatred that Voldemort and the Death Eaters had. He didn't seek to enslave the muggles and purge their blood from the magical population like the Death Eaters.

No, he just wanted them gone.

Halfbloods, muggleborns, purebloods, they were all magicals in his eyes, and the eyes of the Coven, and thus worthy of ascension. Muggles however, those that were not a part of the magical world, they were not worthy.

Their logic was odd and contradictory at times, but Harry didn't try to dwell on this.

"Hn." Aberforth grunted again.

"So what is it you want?" Amelia pressed again.

"I want to find out where Voldemort is hiding, and the location of his still living followers." Harry said bluntly, looking to Aberforth now as he did so. This was his role within the group, he was one of several of the members that dealt with spying and Intel gathering. The grumpy barkeeper was a gifted spymaster.

"Do you plan to kill him?" Amelia asked idly.

"If he gets in the way of my plans, or pursues me and mine, then yes." Harry nodded.

"Don't bullshit us, Potter, you know as well as we do, probably better considering where you're from, the snake bastard will never, ever, leave you alone!" Aberforth grunted, shaking his head in annoyance at Harry's prevarications.

"Probably," Harry shrugged.

"So is that all you want from us?" Amelia asked her eyes narrowing.

"For now," Harry nodded. "Will you give it to me?"

"Perhaps," Amelia replied carefully. "Voldemort is a useful tool, and a powerful one, a mad dog that can be subtlety pushed in the direction of our enemies. He is one of the Coven's assets, even if he, for all of his vaunted intelligence, doesn't realise it."

"He could be called an asset I suppose, yes, but not one you can control. The moment you show your hand, or push too far, and then he will turn on you and cause a lot of harm. On top of that he preys on magicals. As such the way I see it, he is more of a very dangerous nuisance than anything, one that we should get rid of now, whilst he is weak, than later, when he returns to full power." Harry replied, picking his words very carefully now.

"He makes a point." Aberforth nodded, looking to Amelia now.

"He does," She admitted. "But whether or not we grant him what he seeks, depends on what the others say, and what he offers in return."

"I thought we all worked towards the same Cause? Should there really be a cost?" Harry pressed, he didn't like the idea of owing these people anything.

"For something personal like this, yes." Amelia shot back, her eyes narrowing shrewdly.

"Fine, if that is how you want it." Harry bit out, trying to at least put some good grace into his response. "Then I will offer a favour."

"A favour…?" Amelia replied blandly.

"A favour, one, which can be called in at any time and can be anything, within reason." Harry retorted, choosing his wording carefully. These people were tricky and offering such an open ended thing was annoying, but unfortunately it was just how things were done.

With members as old as Amelia and the other vampires, and as high ranking as some of the Goblins, the Coven did want for money, treasure, or magical knowledge. Material goods meant very little to them, not when they had access to so much already.

No, more valuable were personal favours that could be called upon whenever needed. It was how an organisation of independent individuals all working towards the same, or a similar goal, operated. If you wanted or needed some of the Coven's resources you had to barter favours, or fulfil the objectives or missions given to you by the inner circle or leaders.

"I will run it by the others, and Aberforth will get back to you on our decision." Amelia said after a few moments of thought.

"I appreciate it." Harry nodded, standing up as he did so, both Aberforth and Amelia mirroring his actions.

The meeting was over, what they wanted to discuss had been discussed, there was no other reason for them to stick around and banter, or make small talk.

"Welcome back, Harry Potter." Amelia nodded, pulling up the hood of her dark cloak as she did so, before she then turned and left.

"Potter." Aberforth grunted, before he did the same.

Both of them leaving the room after a couple of moments and vanishing from sight.

"Bloody over theatrical bastards." Harry muttered under his breath, shoving his hands into his pockets as he started heading towards the secret passage that led to Hogwarts.

There was a reason he didn't want to alert the Coven to his presence, and wanted to avoid them. They could be right tricky bastards sometimes.

He just hoped he didn't have to kill them or something when the time came to fulfil the Cause.

( - )

AN: So what do you all think? It was just one scene, but there was quite a bit of stuff being discussed in it. Including a weird philosophy, which I personally found interesting, if twisted.

In my mind it was kind of mixing Thano's nihilistic 'destroy half the universe to save the other half philosophy, with Magneto's Darwinistic ideology about survival of the fittest, and how those who are more evolved will go to war with, and end up replacing the less evolved. Then finally some of Dumbledore's Greater Good spiel; would you kill a hundred people to save ten thousand, or would you destroy a country to save the world, or finally, would you wipe out a species to save dozens if not millions of other speices?

Honestly it was kind of weird, but I also found it quite likely that a society like the magicals, those who are born with inhuman, incredibly powerful abilities, would not just see the world in black and white, blood supremacists against everyone else. Wizards in my mind, like the other magical beings, are not just normal humans, they are fundamentally different, or at least in my mind.

That said the different secret groups, and I reckon in a world of magic there would be a lot more than just two, would all have different ideologies, and pursue these ideologies independently, which would mean they would often conflict with other groups.

Again, it makes sense in my head, so I hope it does the same on paper.

Also congrats to those who picked up the Mummy easter eggs/ references, I'm surprised, I didn't think people would notice.

Either way I hope you enjoyed the chapter, shorter than usual though it might be. Hopefully it gets me back to updating and renews my interest in the HP fandom, because I'll admit, HP and Naruto, they tend to get wearying at times.

Other than that I hope you continue to support the story and leave reviews. Thanks a lot for reading and I'll catch you next time.

Greed720.

Ps. Please do check out my other stories if you have the time.