"I can't believe you actually fucking got it." Max said in amazement/creeped the fuck out.

"I said that I would."

"Yeah but… I thought you were joking! I didn't think you'd actually follow through on it."

"Maximus, I never joke."

Max didn't reply and went back to staring at the object of his attention. Remember when Harry killed the Basilisk and then later said that he'd have the head stuffed and animated? Yeah well, he wasn't joking. The gigantic head was currently mounted above the fireplace in Harry's room. The whole thing jutted about six feet out from the wall, and had a diameter of about three feet. It's hide was that same dark green with scales the size of Max's hand. The head had a hole in it where Harry stabbed it, this only added to the creepiness factor as it gave the snake a Frankenstein's Monster vibe.

It's eyes remain the same vibrant yellow but had thankfully lost their killing power. It still didn't give Max any assurances however, seeing as how the thing's eyes would follow his around the room and hiss menacingly at him, revealing those giant fangs that had almost killed Harry.

"Can you still understand it?" Max asked from where he stood as far away as possible on the side of the room.

"HIS name is George, and yes I can understand him. Doesn't remember anything from his time in the chamber though, he was essentially born in Switzerland where I had him stuffed." Harry said from behind his ancient looking leather bound book. He pulled out a bag of snausages and tossed one to George who caught it nimbly and swallowed in one quick gulp.

"Why are you feeding it? And where does the food go?"

"I'm feeding HIM because he says he's hungry. As to where the food goes, I have no idea." Harry tossed up another snausage to George.

"Would you ask him why he hates me," Max asked as George gave a particularly vicious snarl, "He's really starting to scare me."

"He can smell your fear, just don't be afraid of him." Harry said nonchalantly.

"That's not gonna happen."

"He'll always hate you then. Now why did you come up here?" Harry asked

Max had almost forgotten why he'd come up in the first place, George kinda distracted him. "Yeah, I kinda need the start up funds for my potions thing. I need to buy some mass production cauldrons, the startup ingredients, order and design some pamphlets, rent out a couple hundred owls to send out the pamphlets, and do you think you could purchase some house elves so I don't have to be brewing all the time, I'd have no idea where to get them."

"I want twenty-five percent of all profits." Harry said without looking up

"Fifteen, you won't even be doing any of the brewing."

"Twenty, I'm going to be charming everything with preservation charms and none of that stuff is exactly cheap." Harry countered

"I'll meet you in the middle at seventeen and you can ask me to brew any potion for you, free of charge even if 'Practical Potions' doesn't work out." Harry seemed to be considering that so Max upped the ante, "And I'll stop bitching about Shannon being gone."

"Deal." Harry said immediately, it was something Max had done constantly ever since the Foursythe's had moved to France.

"Sweet! Uh, how do I get money from your vault?" Max has no idea how banks worked and didn't know if Harry had to be there or if he needed his signature or what.

Harry opened his desk drawer and withdrew his vault key, he tossed it to Max. "Here, show this to the goblins and tell them 'Big Mac'."

Max laughed, "That's your entrance password?"

"I was put on the spot." Harry defended

"Anyway, thanks for this."

Harry shrugged, "It has the chance to produce a fair bit of profit, plus it wouldn't leave the slightest dent in my bank account."

"How much have you made anyway?" Max asked, the stuff he needed was expensive, and for it not to even matter to Harry…

"Well before Quidditch, the Potters had around 750,000 Galleons. And my last bank statement was around three and a half million galleons (AN:/ Around 35,245,000 US Dollars or 17,500,000 pounds). So I've made around three million galleons.' Harry said effectively shocking Max.

"Holy shit." Max said stunned

"Yup, now leave me and George alone. We have things to discuss."

Max didn't question what Harry and a mentally month old basilisk had to talk about, he didn't care at the moment. He was still effectively stunned at how utterly rich his friend was. He left for Gringotts.

Harry kept on reading for another five minutes before closing his book angrily. He'd dealt with complicated subjects before, but soul magic was something else. Flamel hadn't even asked why he needed as many books on soul magic as he could procure. It is one of the most volatile pieces of magic there is and the most illegal. But when you've lived for over six centuries, you'd probably stop caring about laws and whatnot.

From the total of twenty six ever known practitioners of soul magic, Flamel was only able to get his hands on one of their journals. And that was saying something for a man with his kind of connections. The journal's owner, Vladimir Trithritski, was well and truly mad. Attended Durmstrang for five years before he was kicked out for kidnapping another student and performing tests on him. Born in 1896, he was killed in 1952 by a team of aurors that were searching for him seeing as how he was one of Grindelwald's inner circle.

The man's notes were almost impossible to follow, he jumped from subject to subject like a hyperactive puppy moved from toy to toy. Only the toys were ideas on how to use the human soul to create an explosion large enough to level a city. There were more ideas on the human soul of course, but that is the one that appears the most often. It's the idea that Grindelwald was most interested in.

Trithritski had theories about absorbing another's soul to extend one's own life, about removing the soul from the body without killing it, warping the soul so that the recipient feels no remorse for any atrocities they might commit, switching souls with another person, and, worst of all, completely obliterating someone's soul. Wizards don't have a religion anymore, they used to but as time progressed it was found that the so called 'gods' were just really powerful wizards who proclaimed themselves gods. Yet despite this, most wizards still believed in an afterlife of some sort. And all this hinged on the human soul, to completely obliterate a person's soul is worse than killing them, there is no chance of an afterlife when the soul is gone.

Trithritski's Journal is truly a monstrous book, it's a good thing that Voldemort never got his hands on it. Harry had no doubt that Voldy had practiced some kind of soul magic, but this was Trithritski's life's work. Trithritski was decades ahead of anyone in soul magic, if Voldemort got his hands on the journal… Harry didn't even want to think about it.

Anyway, Harry wasn't much closer to know what happened to his mother. But he was starting to know how the soul worked. And progress is progress, no matter how small.

Harry got off his bed, he'd had enough of Trithritski's mad drabbles for one day and it was lunch. He headed downstairs to the kitchens, hoping Alfred still had some of that chicken pot pie left. He immediately regretted that decision, it almost seemed like there was an England National game in Marauders. Fans upon fans crowded inside the common area, most were wearing jerseys with Potter stitched on the back, some were holding quaffles and pictures of him doing some kind of juke or deek. This is not good.

"Look! It's him!"

"Potter! Sign my quaffle!"

"Harry can we get a picture?!"

"Please go out with me!"

Harry had no intention of doing any of the above. He decided that he'd have to skip the pot pie and just grab a protein shake from his locker, he had practice in an hour anyway. He quickly did the same trick he did at Platform 9 ¾, creating a path between him and the fireplace. Flooing out a few seconds later and promising to find whoever reminded the public that he lived at Marauders and make them pay.

"Who told the papers where Harry lives?" Tonks asked from the counter where Remus was serving her. There were girls and fans everywhere!

Remus shrugged, "We did have that article written about Marauders about four years ago, anyone who remembered that article could have let it slip to the press. At least it's good for business."

"That's an understatement, I've never seen Knockturn Alley this full of people during the day! Actually theres not that much of a difference between Diagon and Knockturn anymore, every time I go on patrols, it looks a little bit nicer."

Remus knew that statement was true, Knockturn had been cleaning up it's act lately with all the new customers that Harry's fame was bringing in. There was a lot less litter on the streets, the hags started to sell things for the shop owners instead of just hanging around the streets, and the best part was that the stench that hung around the alley was beginning to dissipate.

"Is that why you're here? Are you patrolling my business?" Remus said jokingly.

"Actually yes I am." She said causing Remus to look up at her in a start, "Officially I'm supposed to just be in the general area, this is the place where the most aurors are stationed. This is the most likely spot for a terrorist attack, with all the people and all. The auror's have been doing almost constant patrols, Knockturn had it's fair share of attacks back during You-Know-Who's wreign. The Ministry's worried about some former supporters would want to stir up trouble. "

"Should I be worried?" Remus asked.

Tonks took another bite of her sandwich while she shook her head negative, "There hasn't been any terrorist attacks since you got those werewolf laws repealed. The only thing I might be worried about is the Ministry sticking their noses around here."

"Why? What's happening?"

"Just some bureaucratic purebloods wanting to keep some power. They don't like what you've done with the werewolf population, werewolves used to be completely beneath them but now they are getting rights and stepping up."

"But that's a good thing!" Remus nearly shouted drawing some attention from the customers.

"I know it is." Tonks backed up, realizing Remus was taking this the wrong way, "What I'm trying to say is that you've drawn attention to your self and so has Harry."

"Well that's kinda hard to avoid." Remus grumbled, Harry was considered one of the best quidditch players in the world and is the best Chaser. With the highest number of goals and the second highest amount of assists (the number one spot being taken by the teammate that passes to Harry the most), Harry was making his way into the record books.

"Tell me about it. It's like one day I was teaching the kid how to duel and the next he's one of the most popular quidditch players globally." She said trying to lead Remus away from the topic of politics.

"They are undefeated, and no small part because of Harry." Remus said with pride.

"When's their next game anyway?" Tonks asked

"I think it's on-"

"Hey Tonks!" Max said when he saw her through the gaggle of fans.

Tonks smiled, "Hey Maxie! How's it going?"

"Good, just getting my own little potions business set up and… Say, your parents are like lawyers, right? They helped Harry and Remus with their trial case a few years back."

Tonks nodded her head, "Yeah. Well officially Dad's the lawyer and Mom helps out with legal troubles and business forms. Why?"

"Do you think they could help me out with legitimizing this? I might be selling some potions that kid's parents might not appreciate and I'd like to have someone help me through the legal stuff." Max said.

"What wouldn't parents approve of? It's nothing addictive is it?" She'd seen the potion accident ward at St. Mungos, they handle all potion related injuries including overdose and withdrawal. Some of the afflicted looked terrible.

"No, course not. I'm thinking more along the lines of contraceptive potions." He said with a chuckle.

Tonks blinked owlishly, "Oh. Well you'd essentially be encouraging kids to be having sex and I can see why parents would be against that. But I remember my school days, we'd- I mean the other kids would just use the charm and take the risk." The charm worked about 90% of the time.

"We'd?" Max asked innocently.

"Shut up. So I had some fun back in Hogwarts, big deal. The point is is that I think my parents would be fine with helping you out."

"Great! Now I gotta go, it's my shift and Cedric over there is giving me the evil eye. I think he wants his break." It's true, Cedric seemed ready to drop from exhaustion and was glaring at Max to hurry up and take his turn.

"We are overworked, maybe I should hire more staff soon." Remus wondered aloud

"I wouldn't," Tonks said, "they'll all be gone when Hogwarts starts up again. Harry won't be here after all. Now when's his next game?"

"Next week actually, and I think Harry's still got some extra tickets to hand out."

"Welcome quidditch fans, to what will be an exciting game between Germany and England! I am your host Eddie Chase!" The Announcer's voice rang over the thousands of cheering fans.

"We'll start this match off with an opening lineup. First for Germany! At keeper we have Schlesinger, the German's chasers are the amazing trio of Steinhauser, Inov, and Cherk! The two roughhousing brutes themselves are at beaters, Dirk and Kafka! And last, but certainly not least, the third highest ranked seeker in the world, Inoven!" As Eddie called out their names, the German National Team flew out of their tunnel. A moving picture of each player's face showed up on a gigantic floating screen, each was decked out in their quidditch gear and nation's colors. They all even had their stats underneath their picture.

"And now the English! At starting Keeper we have the unstoppable James! England's chasers are the currently highest ranked trio in the world, ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for Cole, Young, aaaaaannnnnnnndddddd Potter!" The stands literally shook when Harry Potter's name was announced, he was obviously the favorite player. "Hold on folks! We've still got half the lineup left! At beaters, the two vicious vixens, Broadchest and Watson! And at England's seeker, the always reliable Shearer!" The crowd roared even louder than they did for Germany as the English took the pitch, each decked out in red and white.

"Go Harry!" Max cheered from one of the private boxes. This was awesome! He got to go to his first National Quidditch Match and he got to see his best friend play in said game! What could be better?

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Oh yeah, not having to sit next to Alastor Moody would have made the game a lot better. Harry had gotten them all tickets, them being Max, Remus, Cedric, and Tonks, to his game in Germany. The only problem was Tonks couldn't come unless Moody gave her the day off. So the two compromised, Moody turned out to be a huge fan of the sport and decided to 'tag along'.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Moody roared his magic eye spinning in it's socket.

It seemed that the ref agreed with Moody and blew his whistle to start the game. The two teams took their sides and the crowd came to a hush, the quaffle was launched into the air, causing the stands to once again break out into thunderous cheers.

"England immediately snags the quaffle! Young passes to Cole, back to Young, Young passes to- NO! Inov intercepts the pass! Inov is trying to take the quaffle by himself! He gets around Watson and lines up for his shot! He- NO! Potter steals the quaffle half way through Inov's wind up! Potter steaks across the pitch but Dirk and Kafka are giving him a good workout with their constant barrage of bludgers!"

"Come on! Where's his coverage! Broadchest stop lollygagging and cover Potter's ass!" Moody roared. He had already deafened Max's left ear, but now he was getting so rowdy that there was spittle flying out of his mouth.

"Potter narrowly dodges bludger but is now within shooting range! Potter Heads straight at Schlesinger! They're going to crash! NO! Potter veers off at the last sec- Young Scores! Right as Potter veered off he gave a backhanded pass to Young who had a wide open shot at the left hoop! What a play!"

Moody seemed to agree, "That a kid Potter! A little trickery I see! I like it! Look how he knew right where Young was! He was CONSTANTLY VIGILANT!"

"Moody you do know they can't hear you, right?" Toks asked. She seemed to be enjoying every minute of seeing her boss loosen up.

"Shut up! I'm trying to watch!"

Max didn't know what he found more annoying, Moody or the announcer. Well maybe they needed the announcer sometimes, there was just so much shit going on in a quidditch match that it was sometimes hard to keep track of it all. And the announcer was being broadcasted to every Wizard Wireless out there.

The game progressed in much the same way, England's Chasers were soundly trouncing Germany's but they were being worn down. The German's beater's were relentless, and the entire English team was taking a beating. Harry had taken a pretty hard hit to his back, it had almost knocked him off his broom. They needed to end this soon.

"Hey folks! Looks like Inoven's seen the snitch!" It was true, the German seeker was flying at top speed after what could only be the snitch. Shearer quickly followed however. Max looked at the score 210 - 70, if Germany caught the Snitch England would lose!

England's Chasers knew this and redoubled their efforts.

"Shearer is quickly gaining on Inoven! And Potter has the quaffle and looks to be going for a gauntlet run down the center of the pitch! Dirk and Kafka are setting in on Potter they are going for the Bulgarian Bounce Back!" Bulgarian Bounce Back is a beater strategy developed by Bulgaria. The beaters would hit the bludger back and forth all the while closing the distance between each other. The closer you got, the faster your reflexes needed to be in order to hit the bludger back. It required amazing team work, lots of practice, and stamina. If one messed up it could result in one of the beaters being seriously injured.

Harry was in trouble and had to change direction in order to avoid the incoming bludgers but it was no use. The speeding metal ball hit Harry's shoulder. Harry had to drop the quaffle in order to steady himself. Max saw that His arm was dangling uselessly at Harry's side but Harry didn't seem to mind as he took his arm and jerked it back into place.

"That a boy Potter! Play through the pain!" Moody roared although everyone else in the room was stunned. Did Harry just reset his dislocated shoulder and resume play like it was nothing? Yep, it definitely seemed like it.

Young had recovered the quaffle and shot a quick pass to Cole on the far side of the pitch. Cole jerked his arm back and released the quaffle with a grunt, it soared over the past the goal posts a failed attempt at a goal to be sure.

"What's this? Potter scooped up the quaffle a foot away from the ground and is now headed straight at Schlesinger! Potter shoots! He scores!"

"Yeah! Go Harry!" Cedric cheered, Harry threw that ball with the arm he'd dislocated. How the hell did he throw it accurately?

"Inoven seems to have lost sight of the snitch but looks determined to find it again! Cherk recovers the quaffle, and he gives an easy pass to Ino- NO! A stray bludger hits the quaffle out of the air! Young gives chase, he recovers! He heads straight for the hoops, takes his sho- NO! It's a drop pass to Potter! Potter swerves right, he shoots and scores! England 230 - 70! And it seems like they score just in time because Inoven has seen the snitch again! He goes into a steep dive! And comes out with the snitch! Ladies and gentlemen Inoven has caught the snitch! Final score: 230 - 220! Game: ENGLAND!"

"Cedric! Check these bad boys out!" Max said excitedly

"Max, they're just really big cauldrons."

"Really big cauldrons he says." Max said to the empty space beside him, "These are 60 gallon professional brewing vats, I could get like 3000 vials filled in one batch!"

"And you have 3000 vials?" Cedric questioned from his side of their shared room, he was flipping through Quidditch Monthly.

"... Shit, no. Well it looks like I've got a big order to send." Max stopped marveling over his cauldrons, "I've got to go talk to Harry for some money."

Cedric nodded his head absently, obviously too engrossed in his magazine to care much.

Max headed up to Harry's room. The spiral staircase was replaced with a circular platform that was was enchanted to recognize if you were allowed in or not. If it recognized you, it would float you through the trapdoor hole which had an illusion over it to make it look like a normal ceiling. Harry was very proud of his magic elevator.

"Hey Harry, I need to borrow your key ag…" Max drifted off at the sight in front of him. One would think that after a period of time, you'd think that you'd get used to walking in on Harry doing surprising things. Who ever thinks that can go fuck themselves.

All the furniture was gone and the window was no longer there, instead replaced by blank wall. None of this mattered however. Harry sat in the center of a runic circle, the runes carved into the floor pulsed a deep blue color in synch with Harry's breathing. His eyes were closed and his face was scrunched up in concentration. He was bare chested which showed off his slow healing bruises from the game to nights ago, Max had offered to make him a bruise salve but Harry denied saying that they didn't really bother him and that that they were reminders to learn to dodge better.

"Harry… whatcha doin?" Max asked, he didn't know what to do, did he try and wake Harry up, did he disturb the rune circle, or did he do nothing?

Doing nothing was never Max's strong suit, he decided not to disturb the runes but try and wake Harry up.

"Harry?... Harry?... Harry!..." He didn't move, Max pressed his wand to his throat "Sonorus… HARRY!" They learned the amplifying charm and the end of last year.

Harry eyes shot open and he gave a sharp gasp and started breathing heavily. The runes faded and the room went black since there was no light source. Max quickly lit his wand and pressed it to his throat.

"Quietus Harry are you okay?" Max asked, the dim light from his wand barely allowed him to see him, but he looked pretty shaken.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm… I'm good." He didn't sound too sure.

"What was that?" Max asked

Harry didn't answer for a few moments, "I can't tell you, you'd flip out on me. But thanks for waking me, I'd almost lost myself."

"Lost yourself? Harry what did you do?"

"Doesn't matter." He took out his wand and began to restore the room, "All that matters is that it worked, if only barely." He conjured a towel and dried the sweat off his body.

"But… Nevermind you won't tell me anyway. I need your key again, I forgot to order vials."

Harry seemed to be pulling all his shrunken furniture from his pockets, they grew to full size and floated back to their place in the room. Harry unshrunk George and pulled the key out of his mouth before floating him back to his place on the wall.

Harry noticed the look Max gave him, "What? It's the safest place in the room for it. Who in their right mind would put their hand in their? It's a shame Dumbledore wouldn't let me bring him to Hogwarts."

"Yeah, real shame. But thanks for this."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Another thing for you to thank me for. Dude! Dudette! Small Max!" Three house elves appeared, all wearing tiny white lab coats.

"Mister Harry Sir?" The one on the far left asked.

"Dude, Dudette, Small Max, this is Maximus." Harry introduced, "You're going to be helping him with his potions thingy."

Max gave Harry a 'what the hell' look, "My 'potions thingy' is a soon to be official business. And what's up with their names? Small Max?"

The elves looked a bit offended by that but before they could say anything Harry answered, "They're from one of my contacts in America, California to be exact, he runs a sort of… center for house elves. He's kinda a surfer and says dude a lot, not that there is anything wrong with your names guys. Dude and Dudette are twins and Small Max's name isn't Small Max. It's just Max, but we couldn't get the two of you confused now, so I just added that little title in there for him. Say hi Maximus."

"Uh hi Dude, Dudette, and uh Small Max." They said hello cheerfully to him, his former comment completely forgotten.

"We could call him More Intelligent Max or Better Looking Max if you prefer."

"No, no Small Max is fine."

Small Max looked delighted by this, "It will be a pleasure working with you Mister Maximus Sir, do yous have any work for us yet." Dude squeaked.

"Yeah, I uh, have some ingredients in my room that I just ordered. They're not sorted yet, do you think you guys could do that?"

They all gave an excited squeal at their first assignment before popping away.

"What was up with their little lab coats?" Max asked

Harry shrugged, "I conjured them, we couldn't just have them running around in mismatched clothing. They know that clothing is a sign of freedom, but as long as you tell them before you give them the cloths, they won't be freed."

"I'm still not that alright with the whole slavery thing." Max said, "Before the Foursythes, my family had house elves sure, but I barely remember them. The Foursythes never had house elves and kinda raised me to be against the idea."

"Just don't treat them wrong, they'll like you and it will feel less like slavery. I mean I just gave Mipsey a shrunken Potter jersey and she loves it. So just treat them like they are… close employees I guess."

"Yeah well it wasn't like I was going to make them punish themselves, I'm just uncomfortable."

"Well get comfortable, I invested money in you and I don't want it going to waste just because you feel bad." Harry then collapsed on his bed and fell asleep.

Harry decided to shadow travel directly into the Hogwarts Express this year. The press had been hounding him for any kinds of rumors or personal information. And his oh so loving fans had taken to regularly staying at Marauders to try and catch a glimpse of him. His room was now warded against invaders and his windows were now tinted. He'd found a fangirl hiding in his closet and a reporter disillusioned on a broom outside his window. The girl had received a stunning spell and was deposited in the shadiest part of Knockturn Alley while the reporter received a quaffle to the face thrown from his window. He'd gotten a black eye and a broken ankle when he fell off his broom but he'd still gotten the shot.

It's was kinda funny actually, the magazine the guy worked for published the picture of Harry's annoyed face looking out the window, and then a speeding quaffle coming right at you, followed by the fast approaching ground. Remus got the picture framed and hung on the wall.

"I'll never get used to that." Max said as he shook off the after effects of shadow travel.

Harry glanced over at him from where he collapsed on the compartment seat, "You're the one who insisted on coming."

"I didn't want to be alone." he protested, "And why take an uncomfortable floo ride when I can take an equally uncomfortable frolic through the shadows with my best friend?"

"Because I could ditch your ass in Afghanistan if I wanted to." Shadow travel didn't affect him as much anymore, he could pretty much travel anywhere on earth when he wanted to. He'd been doing it a lot in order to avoid the quidditch fans and reporters.

"You'd come back eventually and I love the desert."

"No you don't, no one does. It's dry, hot, and full of sand. It would suck massive cock."

Max thought about that for a second, "Fair enough. Please don't leave me in Afghanistan."

Harry snorted and pulled out Trithritski's Journal and a Journal of his own. He'd been trying to translate Trithritski's jumbled mess of thoughts into something that was at least a little bit organized. His little incident in his room that Maximus had walked in on had proven as much. He'd been trying to find his soul. According to Trithritski, it was the first step to performing any type of soul magic. In order to affect another's soul or your own, one had to first know how to control it and access it. But the insane bastard had put the part about how to wake up from the trance on a page about 67 pages away from the one that describes the ritual. Go figure.

Despite the minor setback of learning to awaken from the trance, the ritual had gone off without a hitch. Harry had gotten a glimpse of his soul and never had he ever felt like he knew himself better than he now did. He'd seen his faults, his flaws, his good aspects, his deepest desires, and much more. Basically everything that Harry was, he saw. And now, he had complete clarity. He had no illusions as to who he was or what he wanted. He's Harry Fucking Potter, badass extraordinaire, greatest wizard of his generation and any soon to come, he hates anyone who he's not close to, and only wants to better himself and to see his mother awaken. There were no more distractions in his life, he knows who he is.

Cedric found them some time later after the train was underway, they talked about the usual; quidditch, school, dead basilisks, and girls. And although Harry didn't have much opinion about the last, he did offer up which girls he thought were idiotic and stupid. All of them.

"Oh, I almost forgot to show you these." Max pulled a pamphlet out of his trunk, "I just got the pamphlets this morning!" He handed it to Harry, Cedric read over Harry's shoulder.

The background was green and had a drawing of a smoking cauldron, a cutting knife, and various ingredients littered around it. The name was written above in big red letters:

Surprisingly Ingenious Potions

Just a SIP and all your troubles are gone!

Harry opened it up:

No longer feel hampered or distressed over frivolous things such as zits, rashes, scars, bruises or lack of protection, we have the cure to your ails for the cheapest price, guaranteed!

De-Zitter draught – 1G

Are you getting ready to ask out that 'special someone' only to realize you have a horrible zit marring your beautiful or handsome features? Worry not! We here at SIP guarantee that, and for a small fee, the De-Zitter draught will fix that problem for you in no time at all!

Anti-Rash Tonic – 2G 4S

Having problems with cheap brooms causing vicious chafing and leaving rashes? Are you uncomfortable showing your body off proudly due to pesky and unattractive rashes? You needn't worry; SIP is at your service with this cheap and effective potion! Simply apply to the affected area and whamo! Good bye rash. And not only is it cheap, it is good for multiple uses!*

Super Scar Vanisher – 1G 10S

Have you ever been in a dangerous situation, and the only thing you have to show for it is an unnatural and hideous scar? With the Super Scar Vanisher, all you need to do is apply a small amount to either side of the scar and it will vanish right before your eyes!**

The De-bruiseifier – 3G

Got in a fight and need to remove the evidence? The De-bruiseifier will remove those ugly disfigurements from any part of your body in a matter of minutes!

The 'Happy Ending' tonic 1G 15S

Are you planning a special evening with that special someone, only to have he or she back out because they're worried about the repercussions? If so, this is the potion for you! We guarantee eight hours of absolute safety with this ultimate contraceptive!***

Custom Brews - ?G

You have a particular potion that is not on this list that you urgently need? Send the name of the potion to the P.O. box listed below and we'll reply to you within twenty-four hours whether or not we can brew it for you and the cost!

This is solely dependant on the size of the rash*

Does not work with Cursed Scars or Scars inflicted by magic**

Yes, we mean unprotected sex***

A fee of 5S will be charged for our speedy reply

"There's more terms and conditions and things like that on the back." Max added

"SIP?" Cedric asked.

Max gave a sheepish smile, "You have no idea just how long it took me to find an acronym for that."

"But SIP? You couldn't have thought of a better one throughout your whole summer vacation? " Harry asked as he continued to read the back.

"Hey, if you can think of something better, be my guest. Besides it's short, sweet, and to the point. And I already had the order put in so that these will fly out tomorrow, no changing it now."

"Are these just flying out to Hogwarts or are they going out to other schools too?"

"I don't do things in halves Cedric, these are going out to all schools in Europe."

Cedric raised an eyebrow, "And just how many schools are there?"

"39." Harry answered, he was done with the pamphlet and went back to his books.

Cedric got wide eyed, "Really? I never really thought there would be much more than Hogwarts and Beauxbatons."

"Well there's 45 countries in Europe, not counting the ones that we for some reason share with Asia." Harry continued, "And each country would kinda want it's own magic school, and the ones that don't just go to a school in a neighboring country."

"I miss Shannon." Max said depressed the mention of Beauxbatons had brought up thoughts of her.

Harry's head shot up from his book, "Nuh uh. We agreed, no more bitching about Shannon being gone."

"Sorry, it's just I miss her so much." Max said dreamily.

"That counts as bitching."

Suddenly, the train lurched. One of their trunks fell to the floor and the jelly beans that Max had been munching on spilled to the floor.

"What the hell?" Max said rubbing his head, the trunk had clipped him on the way down.

"Did we hit something?" Cedric wondered.

"We'd have to have hit something pretty big for us to stop like that." Harry said.

Cedric peered out the window. He couldn't see anything, it was raining too hard. Suddenly, the lights went out and the three of them began to see their breath.

"Why the hell is it so cold?" Max said shivering.

Harry peered outside their compartment and saw many other students doing the same. He began to hear a faint screaming in his head and images began to flash across his eyes; the night his parents were attacked, the first fight he had with Mariah, fighting the basilisk. All his worst memories. There was only one thing he could think of that could cause this.

He applied his occlumency and the images began to fade. He glance back at Cedric and Max who were both deathly pale.

"Stay here." he commanded, they nodded their heads affirmative.

"Everyone back in you compartments!" Harry commanded. Some of the older students looked at him funny, who was he to tell them what to do? "NOW!" Harry hiss with venom, allowing some of his Parselmouth ability to bleed through. Everyone quickly closed their doors after that.

Harry waited for the dementor to come, what else could it be? The cold, the bad memories, and the fact that one of their prisoners had recently escaped. They must be searching the train for him. Harry used his sixth sense to feel where it was, two train cars down and headed his way. He'd never done the patronus charm in the presence of a dementor before, let hop his practice pays off.

When he first saw it, it was exactly what the book said it would look like. Floating, ripped black coat hanging off it's skeletal frame, and a hood that was completely shadowed underneath. It was impossible to see it's face if it had one at all.

Harry thought of what little memories he had of his mother, the good times with Remus, and all the times Max had made a fool of himself.

"Expecto Patronum!" He yelled and a glowing, silver lioness burst from his wand. The dementor backed away, seemingly unable to be in it's presence. Harry urged the lion to attack and it did with pleasure, its claws tore at the dementors cloak but before it could hit anything solid, the demon fled.

And suddenly it was over, the lights came back on, the chilly atmosphere left, and the memories stopped hammering away at his occlumency. Harry looked at his patronus, it had been surprisingly easy. Occlumency must help a lot because he didn't have to witness his bad memories as much. Harry rested his hand on the lioness' head.

"Thanks Mum." The lioness rubbed herself against Harry's legs before dissipating. One might think that Lily would be represented by a doe since James would obviously be a stag. This is false, Lily was passionate, brave, ferocious, and hot tempered. But she was loving and caring as well, there was nothing she wouldn't do for her family. She was the exemplary Gryffindor.

Kids were beginning to peek their heads out their compartment doors, many of the younger ones gaping at him. Rumors would already start circling; 'Harry Potter vanquished a demon!' many would probably say. Most wouldn't even know it was a dementor until someone smart actually told them what happened.

He got back into his compartment before any of them could say anything. Cedric and Max still looked shaken up but were fine overall.

"Harry, was that a dementor?" Cedric asked. Harry nodded and pulled some chocolate out of his trunk, he handed some to each of them and took a few bites himself.

Max just held onto his chocolate, he didn't feel like eating. "I- I didn't think it would be that bad. I've heard stories of what they were like but they didn't do them justice."

"Eat the chocolate, it really helps." Harry said

Max grudgingly took a bite and was surprised at how much better he felt. "That dementor," He said, "It was searching for Black. Right?"

"Yes." Harry said quietly.

Max and Cedric looked at each other, they agreed to stay as far away from the topic of Sirius Black as they could. But with dementors now on Hogwarts grounds actively looking for the guy, it'll be kinda hard to avoid the topic.

"So uh, do you think you could let me into the chamber tomorrow?" Max asked trying to change the topic, "I need to get some basilisk parts. I brought some home with me over the summer but those are gone and the rest are still in the chamber."

"Sure." Harry said before going back to his books for the rest of the ride to school.

A week into the first semester and Harry was already bored. School work was never an issue, Mariah hadn't come to fight with him yet, Maximus hadn't done anything stupid yet, and his private studies have been going slow. The only thing that was of any noteworthy was that Cedric had gotten a girlfriend. Some chick from Gryffindor that was barely passing her classes, but she was relatively hot, so Harry didn't make too much fun of Cedric. He was getting some afterall.

So, in his free time, Harry decided to take care of some unfinished business that he'd left on the Seventh floor. Harry paced the three required times in front of Barnabas Barby while thinking of what he wanted. The door materialized and he stepped through.

It was just as he remembered, giant stone pillars in disarray, the golden gravel covered the floor, and the sun shined brightly in the sky. He was back at the Parthenon, one of the places he fought Mariah. Harry had realized that he had severely neglected his magical fighting while his physical fighting excelled. He wanted to rectify this.

"Give me someone to fight that has just as much fighting skill as I do." Harry said aloud.

Almost immediately, Harry had to duck underneath an incoming fireball. He hadn't thought that it'd work that fast. He used his magic to speed himself up so that he was almost a blur. Where was his target?

He heard a loud whip like crack and he immediately ducked slid on the loose gravel. A thin golden wire passed just inches from his face. Maybe he should have made sure that the room couldn't hurt him before starting the fight… Eh, he dealt with worse.

He started to return fire at whomever it was he was facing, he couldn't quite tell yet. His opponent moved just as fast as he did and was too blurred out for Harry to get a good read on him. Harry tried a move he'd been practicing through the summer. Harry clapped his hands together causing a wave of force to spread out in an arch in front of him. His opponent was blasted off his feet, allowing Harry to get a good look at him.

It was… well him. He looked exactly like Harry did now, right down to the clothes. The only difference was that his doppelganger's eyes were pitch black, not just the iris but the whites too.

"Well aren't you a good looking fellow." Harry said with a smirk. His clone mirrored his expression. "Let's finish this." Harry said before launching another attack.

"Hey Cedric,can I talk you for a sec?" Max asked. Cedric, was a little busy at the moment. His girlfriend, Melanie, was currently kissing his neck. Max saw this and didn't care.

Cedric glared at his friend, "Uhhh, Max? A bit busy at them moment."

"Yeah, how yad doin Melanie? Cedric this has to do with that summer 'project' that you were apart of." Max said discreetly trying to talk to Cedric about SIP, he didn't want the word getting out that he was incharge of it all.

"Max, we- Mel don't touch me there! Max we didn't do a summer project."

"The 'potions' that you 'invested' in."

"Max what are you- Ah! Mel that's a new one! Max, what are you talking about!" Melanie was now grinding in Cedric's lap. She really didn't seem to care that Max was talking to her object of interest.

Max didn't know if Melanie was making Cedric act so stupid, or if he was really just that dense. "Dammit Cedric! SIP!"" He whispered so that it just sounded like a harsh whisper and Melanie wouldn't hear it.

"Oh! That, what about it?" Now he understands…

"Well I just got a bank statement and I was thinking that you'd want to know how much you made."

Melanie pulled away from Cedric, "Wait, Ced you were making money?" She asked crossly, "You said you were broke when I asked about that necklace in Teen Witch Weekly!"

Cedric suddenly turned gay and got up from his girlfriend, "Max! What about our summer project did you wanna talk about?" He threw his arm around Max's shoulders and walked him down the corridor, away from his angry girlfriend.

"I got my first bank statement from SIP, and guess how much we made in our first two weeks?" He said with excitement.

"I dunno, a hundred galleons?"

Max gave a laugh, "Try four hundred!"

Cedric stumbled in shock, "That's more than you paid for all the ingredients!"

Max smirked, "Yep! And that was just in the first couple weeks. Think about how much we'll make by the end of the year!"

"We wouldn't have to work at Marauders anymore! I could buy that new Nimbus!"

"I wouldn't want to move from Marauders, I like it there. But yeah, we'll be able to buy all the stuff we want. Drakon's Blood, Hellhound Hair, Crushed Dragon's Teeth! There's so much I could buy now. And you could get a little necklace for a little lady." Max teased.

"Shut up."

"Do you even like her?"

"I like… parts of her." He said sheepishly.

"Yeah, she's pretty hot. You get props for that."

"Thanks. Where are we headed anyway?" Max was leading him up tons of flights of stairs.

"I was going to go tell Harry about SIP too. He said something about being on the 7th floor."

"No one ever goes up there though, there's nothing there."

"There obviously is something up there, else Harry wouldn't bother going up there."

The phrase 'speak of the devil, and he shall appear' must have some credibility because they spotted Harry just round the corner. His hair was singed, his clothing was ripped. he was limping, and one of his shoes were missing.

"Harry, what the hell happened to you?" Cedric asked. Max, unlike Cedric, had seen Harry in worse shape but was surprised that Harry hadn't conjured himself some presentable clothes.

"I was… I was in a fight." He sounded exhausted.

"Who did you fight?" Max asked.

"It was… Myself?" Harry seemed like he was asking himself that question.

"That doesn't make sense. But it looks like you kicked your ass." Max joked and then frowned, "Why don't you fix your clothes and heal yourself."

Harry combed his hand through his singed hair, "I couldn't pull off a lumos right now, I'm too tired."

"Oh yeah, I got my first bank statement. Just made 423 galleons!"

"Congrats. 72 of those galleons are mine by the way, as per my 17%." Harry said

"Did you just calculate that in your head?" Cedric asked impressed.

"Yep. Now I'm going to our room to sleep." Harry tiredly trudged back up those godforsaken moving stairs.

AN:/ Sorry the update took longer than I said. I basically just write when I feel like it and more often than not I don't feel like it. But I got it done and I hope you like it. You may have noticed that I recycled somethings like Quidditch player names and the Pamphlet but thats just some small stuff that hardly matters if you ask me. Write lots of reviews and give me some ideas to write about.