I do not own Harry Potter or anything else you recognise but the plot as well as anything you don’t is mine.

This continues after the Order of the Phoenix. It starts in the Trio’s seventh year with flashes back to their sixth.

Ron and Hermione sat apart from everyone else, at the far end of the Gryffindor table. It had been over a year since Harry had disappeared but it still seemed like yesterday to the two seventeen year olds. They had all left Kings Cross Station at the end of fifth year, and after watching Harry’s Uncle Vernon turn a very unattractive shade of purple when threatened by the Order members, had each returned to their own homes.

And Harry hadn’t been heard from again.

The Order spent many months looking for him. The Dursley’s had been extensively questioned but had revealed nothing, even under Veritaserum. The only thing they said was that Harry had disappeared his first night home. In the end, even Dumbledore said it must be true. At first, they thought Harry had been snatched, but according to Snape, Voldemort was going spare trying to find Harry, believing Dumbledore had stashed him somewhere. In the end no one had seen or heard from him again.

Throughout sixth year Ron and Hermione struggled through. The missing point of their triangle weighing heavily on both of them, making it difficult to keep their mind on their school work. Most of their teachers were understanding. All except for Snape, who would have all but tossed Hermione out of his Advanced Potions class if Dumbledore had not intervened. Both had sent hundreds of owls carrying letters for Harry and all had come back undelivered.

The war had worsened. Fudge, after what had happened in the Ministry, finally having to acknowledge what Harry and Dumbledore had been saying all along. An official apology was written to Harry, together with an Order of Merlin, Third Class for his courage in returning Cedric’s body during the Tri Wizard Tournament the year before, but he wasn’t there to accept it.

The two Gryffindors ignored everyone else, almost as if they were in a world of theiur own, whispering quietly to each other as they waited for Professor McGonagall to bring in the first years. Dumbledore looked at them sadly, the ever present twinkle in his eyes having dimmed somewhat over the last year. The Headmaster had stayed in almost daily contact with Molly Weasley over the summer and knew that the two teenagers had stayed in this almost separate world most of the time. Barely joining the rest of the family even for meals.

‘Maybe it was a mistake to have had Miss Granger stay at the Burrow.’ he muttered bitterly. He had spoken to Hermione’s parents at the end of the last school year and arranged to have her stay at the Burrow for the summer in the hope that they could help each other get over their missing friend but, unfortunately, it had had the opposite effect. Dumbledore was almost at the end of his tether with the two. If they continued on this path, neither would graduate and there would be nothing he could do about it. He watched as Minerva escorted the new students in, he watched as each was sorted, and then he watched the two Gryffindors again.

Twenty minutes into the feast the doors to the great hall were flung open to reveal two of the most unusual characters Dumbledore had ever seen. And that was saying something. Both looked to be in their mid twenties. The woman was quite short, a little over five feet, with long white hair that cascaded down her back in waves. Two long bangs down each side of her head kept changing from one soft pastel colour to another. On closer inspection those bangs seemed to be hiding a set of pointed ears, but of course, Dumbledore knew that that couldn’t be true as only elves had pointed ears and elves were very private creatures and didn’t show themselves to anyone. Her pure white clothes contrasted greatly with the jet black attire of her partner. He was over six feet tall with a shock of black hair that fell around his face in a sort of dark halo. His strong well muscled form was easily defined through his clothes and the sense of confidence and power he extruded had the students closest to him almost shifting away in awe. The different weapons scattered around his body probably had something to do with it as well. Wrapped around his upper arm was a bright green snake and perched on his shoulder was a black hawk.

Both shifted slightly and glanced meaningfully at each other. No one had moved at this point and Dumbledore snapped out of his daze, standing swiftly and drawing his wand. He knew that they weren’t Death Eaters as the wards had been strengthened over the summer against any who would do the students harm but you could never be too sure.

‘Who are you?’ he said loudly. The dark figure glanced at his companion once more, snickering softly as he ran his left hand through his hair.

‘Harry?’ came a soft voice from the far corner of the hall. The man’s head snapped to the right and he saw a girl and a boy standing up at the end of the table. His amused expression dimmed slightly as he looked at them.

‘Ron.’ he whispered. ‘Hermione.’ Suddenly he found himself pushed backwards several feet and his arms full of brown bushy haired girl and red headed boy, both of whom were sobbing quietly, repeating his name over and over. Harry hugged them both to him.

‘Hey. Don’t cry guys. I’m back.’ he whispered. ‘Please don’t cry’. The blonde woman carefully helped Harry extricate himself from his two friends by which time Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape had made their way down from the head table.

‘Harry? Is it really you?’ The headmaster asked softly. Harry nodded slowly, a lone tear escaping from the corner of his eye.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Snape hissed. ‘Clearly this man can’t be Potter. He’s far too old.’ Harry just smirked. An expression that looked strangely out of place on his face.

‘Oh, I hate to disappoint you, dear Professor Snape. But it really is me.’ Harry snorted at the Potions Master’s shocked expression as he lifted his fringe to show everyone his forehead.

‘Harry.’ The dark haired man was suddenly embraced once more from all sides. When Dumbledore released Harry, Minerva noticed that the twinkle had returned to the old wizard’s eye. ’But how? What happened?’ The headmaster gestured up and down, obviously taking in Harry’s advanced age as well as the weapons he was carrying. Harry looked sheepish for a moment.

‘It’s quite a long story.’ he said softly. ’Could we go somewhere more private.’ Harry cocked his head towards the hall full of avidly listening students. The Headmaster nodded.

‘Let’s go to my office.’ He smiled, leading the way. Snape and Minerva, Harry and friend close behind. Ron and Hermione, refusing to be left behind ran quickly after them. Harry smiled to himself as he heard the noise level in the hall explode as they turned the corner.

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This is a new story I have thought of writing. What do you think so far? Please let me know if you want to know more.