Chapter Two: Talks and Tragedy

Harry walked into the Auror training facilities at half past three in the afternoon, two days after Draco's visit. He was cloaked in his normal robes, not wearing his Unspeakable ones. He needed to be Harry Potter today, not Unspeakable Hunter.

"Harry how are you?" Draco called out, walking over to meet him.

Harry shook his hand and replied, "Fine Draco, just fine. Now, where are these recruits that I'm supposed to be terrifying?"

"That's lecturing, Harry, not terrifying" Draco said in mock reproof. Harry smirked once more before making his way up to the front and leaning on the desk. He looked out at the group of Aurors and smiled, it was sometimes painful to talk about Voldemort but this time he was feeling no pain, only anticipation.

"Right then. Who here knows anything about Voldemort?" he asked. The group flinched and Harry frowned. "The first thing we're going to get rid of right now because I'm sick and tired of it, is that flinching at his name. Honestly everyone, he's dead and buried. Actually no, he's dead and turned into tiny little pieces. He's not coming back and that stupid name he gave himself was only an anagram anyway."

"Anagram?" one of the Aurors asked.

Harry snorted. "Yes an anagram. It means that he mixed up the letters in his name to get the one he gave himself."

"How?" another one asked.

Harry smiled. "Come up here Auror – uh, what's your name?" he asked. The Auror blushed at being singled out but got up. "Auror Richards Mr Potter. What do you want me to do?"

"Do you know how to write words in the air with your wand?"

"Yes. What do you want me to write?"

Harry was starting to enjoy this. "Write the name Tom Marvolo Riddle in the air for me would you." Auror Richards did so and Harry looked at the floating letters for a minute.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle. He was a half blood, an orphan, and considered Hogwarts his home. He was a Slytherin and Head Boy, a brilliant student. But when he sank into the Dark Arts he fashioned himself a new name. Waving his own wand the letters rearranged themselves until they spelled out "I am Lord Voldemort."

Staring at the group Harry remarked, "Clever trick huh. He didn't let any of his followers know of his half blood status or they never would have followed him. He was apparently a charming and charismatic leader before he went insane."

"How did you beat him though?" the Unspeakable trainee who had been asked to sit in on the lecture enquired. Harry glared at him.

"Voldemort," he began, and this time the majority tried very hard to stop flinching, "was so steeped in Dark Arts that he'd forgotten the good parts of himself. He'd never known love so he underestimated its power. Because of his arrogance and overconfidence, and my belief in a power that I too hadn't had a lot of experience with, I was able to beat him."

"So you loved him to death? Never thought you were gay, Potter," the Unspeakable remarked.

Harry's eyes flared briefly with anger, seemingly almost lit from behind with power that none of the cadets had seen before. "Watch your mouth Pritchard. I understand you think you can beat me in a duel. You'll get your chance at me later on, for now, keep your mouth shut."

As the Unspeakable slouched in his chair, less confident than he had been, Harry reined in his annoyance and returned to the lecture. "I did not, as Unspeakable Pritchard would have you believe, "loved" him to death. Love for my friends, love for my family, gave me the determination to carry on, to beat him for good. Love was a foreign concept for him and he couldn't stand to be around it. I just used all the power that it gave me to overload his system and he died, I believe, of catastrophic heart failure."

"You gave the old snake a heart attack?" Draco questioned. Harry grinned.

"Essentially, yes. After I and the rest of the army that we assembled at Hogwarts decimated his army, it was just him and me. Any of his followers still alive had Apparated away, or used Portkeys. He was at almost full strength, even though the loss of his followers drained some of his magic. We faced each other and we dueled. He was throwing curses I had no idea how to counter so instead of wasting energy in a magical duel I moved it to a mental one. He and I shared a link through my scar so I used that against him."

"How?" Auror Underhill asked. He was rewarded with a slight smile from Harry.

"Voldemort, like I stated earlier, couldn't stand being in the presence of love. Because I was practically filled with it, thanks to my mother using her magic to cast an ancient protection spell over me just as she died, he couldn't stand to be in my mind for very long. I just pushed a whole lot of magic down the link, infused with as much love as I could manage. He died almost instantaneously.

As the Aurors whispered about this, Harry had a drink of water from the glass that Draco had left on the desk for him. Finally one of the Aurors asked "So, can we have a duel against you?"

Harry smirked. "Just to make it interesting, what about all of you against me?"

The Aurors smirked but Pritchard looked disappointed. "I want to duel you on my own Potter!" he snapped. The Aurors looked at him as though he were crazy.

"Come off it, he's too powerful for you to handle alone!" an Auror named Wickham said derisively. Pritchard flushed in embarrassment and anger but snapped back, "I can take him, he can't be that powerful, even if he did defeat You-Know-Who."

Pritchard then found himself the victim of several well placed curses and hexes then as the Aurors didn't appreciate his slandering Harry. Harry himself merely stood and watched. When the curses had been reversed he straightened up and said in a cool tone of voice, "Very well Mr Pritchard, whenever you're ready."

He stood on one side of a dueling ring, with Pritchard on the other. None of the Aurors were betting on who would win, they were instead, betting on how fast Harry would win the match.

"Now you both know the rules, anything except the Unforgivables," Draco was saying but Harry held up a hand. "Director, I know that Unspeakables are taught the use of the Unforgivables. Just to spice things up, how about we say nothing except Avada Kedavra?"

Draco looked perplexed but looked at Pritchard, who sneered at Harry and said, "That's fine by me." Shrugging, Draco agreed, and got the Auror mediwizard on standby in case he was needed. Then he gave the signal to begin and promptly dived out of the way.

Pritchard went first. He started, very predictably, with a disarming charm.

"Expelliarmus!" he shouted.

Harry rolled his eyes and stepped to the side. "Missed," he called out. He then sent a rapid series of spells in Pritchard's direction, all low level jinxes and curses, but all designed to irritate and annoy his opponent.

Pritchard was getting furious and upped the ante. "Crucio!" he snarled. Harry let the spell hit him and then raised his eyebrows as he threw it off. He'd endured far worse from Voldemort after all. "Was that a Cruciatus or a Tickling charm Pritchard?" he enquired before sending a Jelly-Legs jinx at the arrogant Unspeakable.

The duel had lasted for five minutes, with Harry not really doing much but sidestepping most spells, shielding against others and taunting his opponent. In between all this he kept up a running commentary to the watching Aurors.

"You see how he's getting more and more frustrated, and as that happens his concentration slips and his spells become less accurate and more erratic," he said as he slid out of the path of a Knee Reversal hex. He cast a bone removing charm at Pritchard's arm in response. It hit the wrong one but it distracted the arrogant idiot long enough for Harry to casually disarm him.

"Now that that's over with do you want to say something Pritchard?" he enquired, giving the young trainee back his wand.

Pritchard snarled at him. "Yeah I want to say something Potter! Avada Kedavra!"

Harry had dropped to the ground as he heard the first syllables come out of his opponent's mouth. Growling he snarled out the first spell that came to mind.

"Alopecia!"

Pritchard let out a scream that didn't sound remotely human at all as every hair on his body was suddenly ripped out by the roots. It was a variation of the shaving charm that witches used to remove unwanted body hair, only Harry had removed the numbing and localizing parts of the spell which would have chosen a specific area and numbed it so there was no pain.

Some of the Aurors were looking at Harry in fascination and some were staring at Pritchard in shock. "Well, let's hope my partner doesn't catch wind of this, or you could start a trend Potter," Wickham muttered, staring at the completely bald Unspeakable trainee. "Um, is he hairless, you know, all over?"

Harry nodded. "Yep, and it won't grow back for a while either. Do you all want to duel me now? I promise not to use that charm on you unless you try to kill me." He grinned at the end of this sentence to show he was joking. Even so, the Aurors were suddenly remarkably unsure about dueling him. Harry shrugged and walked over to Draco.

"Let the Unspeakables deal with him Draco, once he finds out who my alter ego is he'll probably faint or something like that. You were right though, this was an entertaining afternoon. Thanks."

Draco grinned. "It was for me too. I wonder, if we released news of what you did to the general public, how many bald wizards we'd be seeing a few days from now?"

Harry chuckled, which soon grew to all out laughter. "Quite a few I'd imagine," he gasped. Growing serious, he asked quietly, "Did you explain about that security alarm round the house?"

Draco nodded. "Yes Harry, we'll be ready for anything. Do you have to get home right away or not?"

Harry nodded ruefully. "Yes I do, I promised the kids a "lion hunt" this morning but we got sidetracked so I postponed it till this afternoon. If I don't go home now they'll be cranky and cranky kids are something I don't feel up to dealing with today."

Draco chuckled. "Go on home then and have fun."

Harry waved before apparating home. He found Sirius, Daniel and Lily all looking mutinous and sitting on the couch, stuck there with sticking charms. Raising an eyebrow he looked at Hermione.

"They weren't staying still so I stuck them there, that way I could keep an eye on them until you got home," Hermione said by way of explanation. Harry shrugged and released the three kids from the charms. "Ready for a lion hunt?" he asked.

They cheered up remarkably quickly and soon were bouncing all over the place. Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry chuckled. "Too much sugar?" he asked. Hermione nodded ruefully. Shaking his head Harry transformed into his lion form. He was a dual animagus, with his lion form nicknamed Leo and his wolf form nicknamed Shadow. Both animals had given rise to his Unspeakable nickname, as they were both predators.

Leo shook his head and roared a challenge to the three young "hunters" before leaping away and out into the front garden. While he was leading the three on a merry chase round the front lawn, the Floo chimed and Hermione opened it, letting Minerva McGonagall through.

"Hermione dear how are you?" the older witch said with a smile, jumping a bit as a roar was heard outside. "Lion hunt again?" she queried. Hermione nodded with a wide smile. "They never get tired of it, and neither does Harry I think. When they were learning to crawl, he'd transform and let them chase his tail. He was less amused when they used it as a chew toy when they were teething."

She showed Minerva a photo of Leo with as shocked an expression as a lion can have on his face as one of his "cubs" chewed on his tail. Minerva laughed and copied the photo. "I'll put this on my dresser I think, it's so cute." Hermione giggled. The two witches were soon treated to the sight of Daniel and Sirius dragging Leo in by the mane while Lily had hold of his tail and was pulling on that too. Leo himself was walking rather quickly to alleviate the pulling sensations.

Lying down near Minerva he sighed, but apparently the game wasn't over. "Mummy, didn't you say that Daddy needed a haircut?" Lily asked innocently.

Hermione and Minerva shared a wicked smirk and then Hermione nodded. "Yes dear, I did. Go and get the scissors. Remember how to hold them, carefully, yes that's right. Now, I'll do the cutting but you tell me where."

Leo tried to get up but found himself pinned to the floor by his children. Struggling brought him nothing but extra pressure on his limbs so he submitted to having his mane cut, although it was plain to see what he thought of it all as his tail lashed around repeatedly and he kept making growling noises which translated to general grumbling in human terms.

It was not helped by the fact that Minerva kept taking photos of the event and when Hermione was done, Leo's mane was more shaped, a bit shorter, and more layered. Shaking his head the massive cat got to his feet and padded over to a mirror. Apparently liking the result he turned and gave everyone a huge lick before changing back into his human form.

"Hello Minerva, how are you?" Harry said with a smile. The haircut he'd had as a lion had stayed with him in human form, and now his normally messy hair was shorter and neater.

"I'm fine Harry. I must say, that's the first time I've ever seen a lion get a haircut. What next, walking a wolf on a leash?" she teased. Harry chuckled.

"Maybe. It's just fun though, playing with them like this. How are the plans for the new school year going?"

Minerva sighed. "Some problems but nothing we can't sort out. Dumbledore has stepped down as Headmaster, did you know?"

"No. I suppose it makes sense though. Are you going to be the Headmistress then?" Seeing Minerva's nod Harry smiled. "That's brilliant. Congratulations."

"Thank you Harry but I'm starting to wonder how Albus did it all. There's so much paperwork to do. Even more than when I was just a teacher."

Harry snorted. "Why do you think I resisted Dumbledore's attempts to get me to teach DADA all this time? I don't like paperwork, even the amount we have to do at work makes me antsy. I prefer action, not reports."

"Yes love we know," Hermione interjected, kissing him. They broke apart when Daniel commented, "Eww, Mum and Dad are kissing."

"It's not eww Daniel, when you grow up and find yourself a nice witch, you'll discover that it's very nice. What are you three up to now?" Harry asked, as all three had been quiet for some time. Daniel shrugged.

"Not much, just want to stay in here with you."

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance but shrugged. It wasn't unusual for the kids to want to spend quiet time with their parents, especially after being tired out by a game. Hermione shifted further down the couch, allowing the kids to climb up between them and snuggle into one parent or the other.

"Will you stay for tea Minerva?" Hermione asked. Minerva nodded.

"Yes I'd like that. It's been a while since I've had tea with you."

After tea, the small group was quietly relaxing in the sitting room and discussing what the three youngest Potters had been up to lately when their quiet time was rudely interrupted by the sound of the perimeter alarms going off. Harry leapt to his feet, drawing his wand as his Unspeakable team plus the on-duty team of Aurors Apparated into the house.

"Spread out, we don't want anyone getting in here!" Harry snapped. The Aurors obeyed him because it was his house, while his team was used to following his orders. "Hey hang on a minute, Potter, you're an Unspeakable aren't you?" one of the Aurors asked.

Exasperated, Harry snarled, "Yes I am, if you hadn't guessed it yet I'm Hunter. I don't want that being made public either understand?"

The Auror gulped and nodded before spreading out with his team mates to defend the house. Harry spun round to check where his family was and growled at seeing Hermione standing at the entrance to the hall, their children standing around her.

"Hermione, take the emergency Portkey out of here!" he snapped.

Hermione shook her head. "I tried. There are anti-Portkey wards – it won't work. There are also anti-Apparition wards and the Floo's blocked. We're trapped."

Harry growled at this information, but couldn't do anything short of tearing down the wards, and that would take time – time he didn't have. "Fine then. Take the kids and go upstairs. Minerva go with them. There will be Aurors up there as well but I want you to protect our kids if any intruders should make it past us. I don't care if you transfigure them into furniture to do that, just make sure they're protected. Go, now!"

Hermione and Minerva retreated up the stairs, but the kids ran to Harry. He knelt, pulling them into a hug. "Go with your mother, Aunt Minerva will help her protect you. Stay very quiet OK."

The children nodded sniffing a little. "Love you Dad," they said in chorus.

Harry hugged them a bit tighter. "I love you too. Now go, quickly." The kids ran for the stairs and were soon in Lily's bedroom with Hermione and Minerva, who were busy casting shields on the door. Hermione hugged them tightly, praying that their family would survive this battle.

"What's going on Mummy?" Lily questioned. Daniel and Sirius were hugging each other and looking scared as well.

"Some men are trying to get inside but your Dad and his friends won't let them hurt us," Hermione reassured them. Inside, she was less reassured. She knew that Harry would do his best to protect them but what happened if it was all the as yet uncaptured Death Eaters out there? Sighing, she erected a powerful shield over the doorway, as an addition to the ones already there. The two adults settled down to wait out the fight downstairs, their wands out and trained on the doorway. Beyond the shielded doorway they could see four Aurors spread out along the hallway, their wands trained on the staircase, ready for any intruders that got past Harry and his team downstairs.

Downstairs the rest of the Aurors and Unspeakables were spread out, awaiting the arrival of the intruders. They had used the time to erect a series of wards and various spells to slow the invaders down a bit. There was quiet, and then the front door was suddenly blown inwards. As the defenders ducked to avoid shards of wood, Harry glared at the space and muttered, "Waste of a perfectly good door that was."

Hermione's suspicion had been right. Ron Weasley and Peter Pettigrew walked through the front door, firing curses and hexes left, right and centre, followed by Nott, Avery, Macnair, and several more that Harry didn't recognise, who were the last surviving Death Eaters from the war. Ron wasn't a Death Eater but he had apparently allied with them in an effort to get Harry.

Harry growled under his breath and yelled, "ATTACK!"

The Aurors and Unspeakables unleashed a hail of curses, hexes and jinxes on the invaders. Harry was amused to see the Aurors use the Alopecia charm, which made a couple of the Death Eaters pause in shock. Ron strode through the debris, searching for Harry. All spells that were aimed at him seemed to swerve away at the last minute, causing Harry to suspect that there was some type of redirection shield around him.

"Hello, Potter," Ron snarled, his face a mask of rage. The battle abruptly stopped as everyone wanted to see what would happen with the two friends-turned-enemies.

Harry glared at him. "Hello Ron. Allied yourself with wanted criminals have you? I didn't think you were brave enough to do that. It carries an Azkaban sentence didn't you know?"

Ron merely laughed. "I have only one purpose here, Potter. Where are your kids?" he asked. Harry tightened his grip on his wand but said nothing. Ron repeated the question and this time Harry answered.

"Like I'm going to tell you. You're even stupider than I thought you were if you believe that."

He dived out of the way of a killing curse from Pettigrew and threw a nasty organ liquefaction curse back, which hit Macnair in the face. Ron smirked.

"Oh I think you will, and even if you don't I can just look. See, I have something you don't." With that, he fired a powerful explosion curse into the middle of the group of Aurors and Unspeakables.

The defenders closest to the epicenter of the blast were thrown in every direction. Harry heard the sickening cracks of breaking bone, and risked a quick glance in each direction. Most of the Aurors nearest him were dead, their heads bent at grotesque angles, necks obviously broken. His team of Unspeakables was in no better condition, lying on or under bits of broken furniture. Harry felt sick as he saw his second-in-command lying near him, pinned to the floor by a stake of wood through the heart – a piece of wood Harry recognized as being a leg from the hallway table. Looking around, he saw that he was the only one left alive on the ground floor – his team and the Aurors, were all dead from the effects of the explosion. Harry himself was cut up and a bit dizzy but the adrenaline surging through his system was helping to negate the effects enough for him to carry on fighting.

"DADDY!" came a scream from above. Harry looked up to see Ron and Pettigrew as well as the surviving Death Eaters advancing on his terrified sons. With a snarl, Harry leapt up the stairs, crashing into Pettigrew and killing him with a decapitation curse. Then he advanced on Ron, who backed up, losing his confident aura for a moment. Harry looked at Daniel and Sirius and barked, "Back to your mother. Now!"

The boys obeyed as Ron and the Death Eaters threw a series of curses at Harry, who ducked and rolled to avoid them rather than waste energy on shielding. He threw some nasty curses at the Death Eaters, managing to kill half of them and incapacitate the others enough to remove them from the fight. With the Death Eaters killed or incapacitated, Harry advanced on Ron, and as soon as he was close enough, he let fly with a vicious punch, breaking Ron's nose.

Ron let out a shout of pain and clutched his broken nose, glaring at Harry, who maneuvered round him so that Ron would have to go through Harry in order to reach Harry's family. Terrified squeaks behind him told Harry that at least one of his children was watching the tense stand-off and he flapped a hand behind his back, trying to tell the unseen watcher to get inside their room and close the door. He was wondering why Hermione hadn't had the sense to at least Stun their children and shove them under a bed – he didn't want his children watching this, and he had thought that Hermione would think the same.

Driving Ron back with a series of curses, Harry threw him down the stairs, before risking a quick glance behind him. Lily's bedroom door shut immediately, and Harry felt strong wards go up. He recognized Minerva's and Hermione's magical signatures and smiled grimly before returning his attention to the fight. Noticing one of the incapacitated Death Eaters, whose legs had been pulverized but who was still breathing, reaching for one of his dead comrade's wands, Harry leveled his wand at him and coldly cast the Killing Curse. Seeing that Ron was making his way up the stairs, Harry quickly killed the remaining live Death Eaters and focused his attention on his one remaining enemy.

Ron slowly advanced up the stairs, glaring at Harry hatefully. Harry returned the glare, prepared to lay down his life for his family, but hoping that it wouldn't come to that. He was trying to work out a way of getting through the redirection shield that Ron still had up. He threw Ron down the stairs again, before descending, determined to keep Ron on the bottom level and as far away from his family as possible.

Ron met him with a full body bind charm which Harry impatiently batted aside. He responded with a blood-freezing spell, hoping to break Ron's shield. His spirits lifted when he noticed the shield flickering, indicating that it was getting low on power. He redoubled his efforts and was shocked when a hail of curses flew from behind him, arcing over his head and shoulders to strike Ron's shield.

Seeing that Ron was distracted, Harry looked over his shoulder. Hermione was crouched at the top of the stairs, Daniel, Sirius and Lily crouched behind her and staring wide-eyed at the battle. Minerva was halfway down the stairs, her wand trained on Ron.

Ron recovered from the triple barrage and realized that his shield was now gone. Snarling, he attacked even harder, throwing Dark curses at the trio of defenders, forcing Minerva back up a few steps. Harry stood firm, refusing to give ground, dispelling the curses that Ron threw at him and throwing a few Dark curses of his own back at his former friend.

The battle lasted a few minutes more before Minerva fell to a cutting curse. Daniel and Sirius cried out in shock as their Aunt Minerva fell down and before Hermione could stop them they'd run down the stairs and were trying to wake her up. Their efforts were to no avail and Harry was now forced to try and defend against Ron's spells while keeping an eye on his sons.

The Aurors who had been upstairs now charged to the top of the landing. The first one to venture down to where Harry was fell to a cutting curse which disemboweled him. The other three advanced on Ron but they died as Ron showed a lethal creativity with his spell casting that Harry hadn't known he had.

Harry snarled and yelled for Hermione to take their children back upstairs. No child should have to witness this. As he was yelling instructions, a Stunning spell slid through his shields and struck him. Hermione watched in horror as Harry slumped to the floor, unconscious. She knew that he was only Stunned and that he would fight it off soon, but now she had a more important job to do. With Harry unconscious, and Minerva and the rest of the Aurors and Unspeakables dead, she was the only thing standing between Ron and her children.

Determinedly, she shooed them back to Lily's bedroom, where she chivvied them under the bed and warded the space between the bed and floor so they couldn't get out. With that done, she locked the door warding it with the strongest wards she knew, praying that Harry would wake up soon and come to help. While she was praying, she was trying to reassure Lily, Daniel and Sirius who were huddled together under the bed, shaking with fear and silently crying.

Ron looked at Harry's unconscious form and sneered, before stepping over Harry's unconscious body and ascending the stairs slowly. He didn't have to wonder which room held his targets; the strong shields around the door told him which one to look for.

As he prepared to enter, an electric shock threw him backwards. He hit the opposite wall hard, and Hermione smirked as she heard the thud. The smirk died as Ron wasn't deterred by the electrifying experience and began to attack the door and the wall on either side.

Harry was slowly regaining consciousness downstairs. He hated being hit with Stunners; they left him feeling groggy and terrible as he woke up. A scream from upstairs jolted his brain awake and he threw off the effects of the spell, shaking his head to rid it of the last of the woolly feeling.

Another scream galvanized him into action, and he tore up the stairs, praying that he wouldn't be too late. As he ran into Lily's room, he was almost sick. Hermione was dead; the victim of a cutting curse to the neck, and his children had been pulled out of their hiding place. Ron was looking at him triumphantly, holding a knife to Lily's throat while she and her brothers whimpered in fear.

"So Potter, will you risk your precious daughter's life? Her life and the lives of your sons, hinges on your ability to do as you're told. If you don't, well, the last thing you see will be your children dying in front of your eyes and you won't be able to do anything to stop it.

"What do you want Ron?" Harry snarled. His children were looking at him, their eyes filled with fear but also trust. Harry realized that they trusted him to get them out of the mess that they were in, as he'd always done whenever they'd got into a mess that they couldn't get out of.

Ron laughed again. "It's not what I want, Potter, but what my sister wants. You see, when you married Hermione, Ginny was terribly jealous, she wanted you as her husband. So, she and I hatched this plan. If your family was killed, then she could comfort you and worm her way into your heart and eventually be your wife. Hermione was supposed to be mine too but you ruined that for me. I'm sad she had to die but I'm not about to have your leftovers as it were. So the deal is this: You agree to marry Ginny and you can have your children back. Ginny always wanted children and she doesn't particularly care that they're Hermione's either. An adoption potion can take care of that."

"And if I don't agree," Harry asked in a low voice.

Ron smirked. "Then you get to watch as I slit your precious children's throats."

Harry felt sick. Marry someone he didn't love in order to save his children, or refuse, and watch them die. He looked at Lily, and then at Daniel and Sirius, and knew what his choice had to be. "OK fine. I'll marry Ginny" he muttered. He held out his arms for Ron to give the children to him.

The next thing Harry knew, Ron had let out a shriek of pain and dropped the knife from Lily's throat. Looking down, Harry saw two blurs of movement, as Daniel and Sirius ran out the door, followed quickly by Lily. Ron glared at him and Harry chuckled – Lily had elbowed Ron in his groin as hard as she could. Daniel and Sirius, being the good brothers they were, had seized their chance to escape and had taken her with them.

"Those little brats!" Ron seethed, throwing a curse at Harry in sheer frustration. Harry smiled grimly and reflected it back at him.

"Never underestimate a witch – even a two-year-old one," he said, before following his children out the door. Ron followed, throwing all the curses he could at Harry, who defended against them as much as he could, mindful of the fact that his children were behind him.

His focus was solely on Ron, and as such, he was surprised when he took a step backwards and met nothing but air. Sighing resignedly, he threw a Sectumsempra curse at Ron just before he tumbled backwards down the stairs.

He landed at the bottom in a heap, and was aware of the panicked cries of his children as they crowded around him. Raising his head, he tried to reassure them, but he could tell from their expressions that he wasn't succeeding very well. Even at only four and two, his children knew that what was happening was bad and they had every right to be frightened.

Getting up off the floor was painful – Harry had broken his left wrist in the fall, and cracked a couple of ribs. His breathing was shallow and fast, but he still had to protect his children from the menace that was coming down the stairs.

Ron smiled as he saw that his opponent was obviously injured. Recasting the redirection shield on himself, he advanced towards Harry, who faced him defiantly. "Get out of the house," he said to his children, not wanting them in the line of fire.

"We can't, Dad. Everything's locked," Daniel replied through chattering teeth. Closing his eyes, Harry tested the wards and scowled – his son was right. The wards were still up; preventing any exit by apparition, floo, or portkey, and the hole left by the door had been blocked by debris from the explosion, which was set like concrete. Harry would have to waste precious minutes taking it apart for his children to get out. Even the windows were warded, preventing Harry from simply pushing them out that way.

Ron smirked as he advanced on the decreased family. "Oh, dear, Harry, it would appear that you're trapped. As for your answer about Ginny, I'm afraid I lied. Ginny doesn't want any children from other women interfering in her marriage." He threw a Sectumsempra curse at Harry, who dodged it, but that dodge had inadvertently exposed his children. Stumbling over a piece of debris, he heard a frightened cry which was abruptly cut off. A flash of green light filled his vision and he heard a soft thump immediately afterwards. Shaking his head to clear it, he saw Daniel on the floor, unmoving. Swallowing hard, he crawled over to the small body, which Sirius was shaking with increasing hysteria.

"Dad, why won't he wake up?" Sirius asked, tears running down his face.

Harry wasn't able to answer – he just cradled Sirius in his arms while he glared at Ron. Seeing the wand aimed at him, Harry rolled to the side, taking Sirius with him and away from the Killing Curse that had been thrown at them. Sirius let out a small cry as he was momentarily squashed by his father's body before Harry rolled off him. "Let Sirius and Lily go, Ron," Harry yelled. He summoned all the hatred and anger he could, and threw a Killing Curse at his former friend.

Ron saw the deadly green light heading for him and hurriedly moved out of the way. Spotting Lily hiding behind the remains of the couch, he summoned her to him with a spell.

"Come out, Harry, or your daughter dies," he yelled.

Harry cautiously rose from his hiding place, Sirius peering out from behind his back. As Harry took a few steps towards Ron and Lily, Sirius, blinking back tears, only saw one thing. His sister was being threatened by the person who killed his brother.

Without bothering to consult anyone, the four-year-old wizard ran straight towards Ron, evading the arms of his father, who was desperately trying to reach him. Sirius saw the wand aimed at him and dived, sliding along the floor on his stomach. Getting up right in front of Ron, he did the only thing he could think of.

Ron let out a yelp as he felt small teeth fasten into his leg. Looking down, he smacked Sirius away from him, dodged the Stunner cast by Harry, threw a cutting curse back at him, and then threw the same curse at Sirius, who couldn't evade it in time.

Harry let out a hoarse cry as Sirius died, but as Ron was holding a knife to Lily's throat, he didn't dare try the same type of assault as his son. He moved cautiously towards Ron, who pressed the knife harder into Lily's throat.

"Don't be foolish, Harry," Ron taunted. Harry glared at him, trembling with rage.

"Let her go, Ron. If our friendship meant anything to you, please, let her go," he pleaded.

Ron thought about it. "No," he said coldly, before casually slitting Lily's throat and shoving the dying child into her father's arms. He concentrated hard, trying to Apparate away. He looked startled when he couldn't, and ran for the front door, to find that blocked as well. He was trapped in Marauder Manor, with no way out, caught in his own trap and at the mercy of the one whose family he'd just killed.

Harry ignored Ron's attempts to escape, knowing that he couldn't get through the wards, or out the door or windows. He caught Lily as she stumbled into his arms and knelt down. Silent tears streamed down his face as she died before he could even begin to heal her.

Looking round at the room, he saw Sirius and Daniel's bodies, lying on the floor among the dead Unspeakables and Aurors. Swallowing his grief, he put their bodies next to Lily's, and went upstairs to examine Lily's bedroom, where Hermione had died defending their children. Grief threatened to overwhelm him as he slowly ascended the stairs, his injured wrist and ribs crying out in protest at each movement, but he buried both the grief and the physical pain, letting his investigative instincts take over so he could examine the bedroom as he'd been trained to do.

The shields around the door had been overloaded by too many spells being shot at it. Once they had been taken down, Ron had been allowed entry into the room. Harry collapsed once more, almost choking on the amount of grief and pain he was feeling. Soon though, the grief turned to anger. The hate he had felt earlier was now a white hot flame. He controlled it – it wouldn't do to become like Voldemort. He would have revenge on both Ron and Ginny for this but he refused to become a Dark Lord over it. Hermione wouldn't have wanted that, and neither would Minerva.

Walking down the stairs he saw that Ron was still trying to escape and he smirked coldly. He aimed his wand at the trapped murderer and hissed, "Tormentia!"

The Tormentia curse was sometimes called the weaker version of the Cruciatus but it wasn't illegal as it didn't cause people to go insane as the Cruciatus did. Harry watched with a cruel smirk as Ron screamed and thrashed on the floor, before ending the curse.

"Did you like that?" he hissed, casting the curse again. Ron was screaming so loudly he couldn't answer. Realising this, Harry ended the curse again and then thought for a moment. Smirking coldly, he hung Ron upside down from the ceiling and conjured spiders to run all over him. Leaving Ron screaming once more, this time because his worst fear was crawling all over him, Harry went to the fireplace.

One Floo call later and a magical forensics team entered Marauder Manor along with Tonks, Kingsley, Draco, and Harry's boss, the Head Unspeakable, known as Croaker. They heard an anguished roar coming from the sitting room, followed by a mournful howl as Harry had changed from Leo to Shadow, finding the wolf's howl a more appropriate method of expressing what he was feeling.

The Aurors, Draco and Croaker found Harry in the sitting room, curled up in front of the fire, still in his wolf form. He looked up at them, his eyes shining with grief. The Floo roared to life and Severus Snape stepped through, unaware of the situation, so he was startled to find several wands pointed at him. The wands were lowered as soon as they realized who he was though.

Harry transformed back and looked at Croaker rather helplessly. His boss wrapped a blanket round him and pushed him down on the couch. "What happened Hunter?" he asked. Snape was looking around the room in shock. He'd been invited for a chat and walked into what looked like a bloodbath. Spotting Harry he walked over and sat next to him, staying silent so he could learn what had happened.

Harry made an inarticulate growling noise and replied, "Look around the house. Pay particular attention to the room we're in. Then come back and ask me what the fuck happened!" He became aware of an arm round his shoulders and he leaned into the other person, not caring who it was, but needing the comfort. Snape just tightened his hold, recognizing that his former student was in shock and needed someone to hold on to, even if he didn't realize who it was.

Fawkes landed on Harry's shoulder and began to sing but not even the phoenix could help ease the burden of grief that he was carrying at the moment. Draco, Croaker and the Aurors went upstairs and looked around, and then looked around downstairs. When they came back they looked extremely sympathetic.

"Who did this Harry?" Tonks asked softly.

Harry turned red-rimmed eyes to him and hissed out "Well it certainly wasn't me! Macnair, Pettigrew, Nott and Avery, and the other free Death Eaters were accompanied here by Ron Weasley. The Death Eaters threw an explosion hex at us, killing my team and the Aurors. Ron, Pettigrew, and the Death Eaters who survived our initial assault on them then went upstairs. I killed Pettigrew and the Death Eaters and threw Ron down the stairs. The Aurors came to help me kill him and died as a result.

Ron was the one who killed Hermione, Minerva, and my children. He tried to get me to agree to marry his sister in exchange for my daughter's life and then when I agreed he killed her anyway. I want him dead and I want him to die in the slowest, most painful way possible!"

Harry had got up and began pacing round, his magic flaring at random intervals. Draco walked with him. "It's alright to grieve, Harry, but don't allow your grief to drive you to do things that aren't in your nature."

Harry spun round with a snarl. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH!" he yelled. "DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN'T DO TO THE BASTARD THAT STOLE MY FAMILY FROM ME!"

Harry continued pacing, growling and casting hate-filled looks at Ron, who was now in custody and wearing a pair of magic-suppressing manacles on his hands. His wand was in Kingsley's grasp and both Aurors were giving Harry sympathetic looks.

"Potter," Croaker said as he was leaving. Harry looked at him. "Take some time off; grieve for your loss, not only of your family but of your team too. You and your team were the best we had, we'll be sorry to lose that."

"You're firing me?" Harry asked.

Croaker shook his head. "No but you won't feel like being a leader at the moment will you?"

Harry shook his head this time. "No I won't. What time do you want me to come back?"

"Whenever you're ready Potter, whenever you're ready. We won't put a time frame on recovery from something like this. Just hang in there OK."

Harry nodded. Now that he was a bit calmer, Fawkes' song was having more of an effect on him. "Is there anything that I could do to stop this from happening again?" he asked.

Snape spoke for the first time since he'd entered the house. "Like time travel, Harry?" He shook his head. "The answer is no I'm afraid. The reason you could do in your third year to save your godfather was the fact that he wasn't already dead. Going back to the fight now wouldn't help, as everyone would know that you were supposed to be downstairs. And what if Ron killed you and the past you came in to see your dead body on the floor? I'm afraid that this is something you'll just have to accept that you can't change. I'm truly sorry."

Harry shook his head. "No. I'm not about to accept it. There has to be some way to fix it!" Severus shook his head as he watched Harry pacing around, discarding idea after idea as he thought of them. Finally he sank down onto a couch.

"OK. There is no grand idea. You're right. What's going to become of Ron and Ginny?" he asked with a slight snarl.

Kingsley answered, frowning as he did so. "They will be charged and it is likely that Ronald will be given the Dementor's Kiss. His sister will most likely spend the rest of her life in Azkaban. Is that satisfactory?"

"Only if they're in maximum security with Dementors around them every second of every day!" Harry growled.

Kingsley shrugged. "It won't make a difference with Ronald but it might with Miss Weasley. We'll have to see. Will you be alright here, with food and everything?"

Harry looked up at him. "Yes" he answered dully. "I'll be fine. I'm used to being alone." He turned to Severus, and said, "You'll need to inform the staff that a new Headmaster or Headmistress will need to be chosen."

Severus nodded and left, casting one last sympathetic look back at his former student. Draco hugged Harry tightly and left as well, to personally oversee the paperwork that needed to be done.

The funeral was held a couple of days later. Most of the old DA had come to pay their respects, as had a lot of former students of Minerva's. Most of the DA didn't know what to say to Harry so they just said they were sorry. Harry himself was in a sort of numb state, half believing that all of the deceased were going to wake up and yell "SURPRISE!" As the mourners were leaving the small church, a group of them split off and headed for Harry.

"Harry, we're so sorry," Molly Weasley said, tears running down her face. Arthur put an arm round his shoulders, trying to offer some comfort. Harry allowed it briefly before moving out of reach. He took in the group of redheads and noticed immediately that two were missing.

"Where's Ron and Ginny?" he asked, keeping his tone neutral.

Molly and Arthur winced and Harry noticed a distinctly ugly look cross Fred and George's faces. "The Aurors arrested Ginny last night, on a charge of conspiracy to murder. They also said that Ron had been arrested on charges of murder and allying with wanted fugitives. They didn't say who they were supposed to have murdered though," Bill replied in as neutral a tone as Harry's.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "The people they murdered, or in Ginny's case, conspired to murder, are lying in those coffins behind you. Ron killed my children after trying to use them to force me to marry Ginny. He slit Lily's throat in front of me."

The Weasleys went dead white at Harry's flat statement, and Arthur closed his eyes, seeming to slump in defeat. "I'm truly sorry Harry, we had no idea they were planning this. How did they get around what I heard was a rather lethal defence though?"

Harry glared at Bill. "Ron threw a powerful Explosion Curse at us, killing all my team and the Aurors who were downstairs. He had a Redirection Shield on him, which made any spell cast at him ineffective – even transfiguration ones. Care to guess where he learnt that spell?"

He turned and looked at the coffins for a minute before turning back to the ashen faced Weasleys. "The only reason I'm not declaring a blood feud against your family is that I happen to like you. The only members I have issues with are your two youngest, who I sincerely hope rot in hell for what they've done. Now if you'll excuse me I need to speak to Hermione's parents.

He walked off and the Weasleys were left staring at each other. Bill was white with both shock and anger. "I'll kill the little bastard," he snarled. "He told me he wanted to be a curse-breaker and that is one of the standard spells we have to use, to avoid ancient spells or spells from tomb-raiders. I can't believe he'd use it for this." He shook his head, looking utterly sick.

Arthur put a sympathetic hand on his eldest son's shoulder. "It wasn't your fault Bill, and Harry knows that. He's angry and hurt over the loss of his family, as he has every right to be, but he's not irrational. Ron and Ginny will face the full force of the law for this; I think Harry is requesting the Dementor's Kiss for Ronald while Ginny will be spending the rest of her life with Dementors outside her cell nearly all the time in Azkaban. We can do nothing except offer what support Harry will accept from us at this time. We should be grateful he still considers us friends; he would be well within his rights if he chose not to.

Shaking their heads, the Weasleys made their way home as Harry talked with the Grangers, both of whom assured Harry that they didn't blame him in the least. Neville also offered his condolences along with Draco and Snape.

"Harry," Draco began.

Harry turned round to find Draco and Snape standing in front of him. "Yes," he said cautiously. Both held out their hands and Harry shook them.

"We're very sorry, Harry, no one deserves to have this happen to them," Snape said quietly. Harry stared into the eyes of his former most hated teacher, who had become his mentor in his seventh year at Hogwarts and found only sympathy. He nodded curtly.

"They will reap what they've sown," he said tonelessly. Hugging himself he added viciously, "but I wish I could send Ron insane before the Dementors get him!"

"Not Ginevra?" Draco asked. Harry looked at him and shook his head.

"No. You know the hell Sirius gave me for that Ministry fiasco in fifth year when I cursed Bellatrix Lestrange. He told me that even though she was a heartless bitch I shouldn't have cursed her because she was running away from me at the time, and then he grounded me for the entire summer between my fifth and sixth years for using an Unforgivable. Besides, if I went after Ginny now, it would only end with me in a cell in Azkaban right next to her, and I won't give her the satisfaction of ruining my life like that."

The two Slytherins nodded before shaking his hand once more and leaving Harry alone with his thoughts.

Later that night, Harry woke up to a flash of flame on his bed. Fawkes was sitting on his lap, staring at him. "Fawkes," he murmured, "what are you doing here?" The phoenix stared at him and chirped slightly, running his beak through Harry's hair. Harry then felt a warm glow surround him and suddenly he could hear Fawkes' voice in his head.

"I know you want to save your family, Harry, but this is not possible. Not at this time. You need to save your whole family. Voldemort was never supposed to rise like this but you defeated him anyway."

"What do you mean, save my whole family, no time turner goes back in years," Harry questioned.

Fawkes gave the phoenix equivalent of a chuckle. "Harry, Voldemort was supposed to die when he first encountered you. The prophecy would have been fulfilled that night, he marked you as his equal and then you killed him. It would have been over with; he could never have risen again. Thanks to his soul pieces he lived. I want you to go back and destroy the soul pieces before he can use them to survive when he shouldn't have."

"You want me to go back in time and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes before Halloween nineteen-eighty-one?" Harry asked.

Fawkes trilled at him. "Yes. There is a price though. I can send you back, but I cannot bring you forward again. This is a chance to get to know your family, and to change the future for the better. Many things happened that shouldn't have happened. You can change this. While you're there, let yourself heal and learn to love again."

"What about Dumbledore? You know I don't trust him, I hate him even. Why are you still helping me?" he asked, waiting for an answer while he hurriedly dressed and packed a trunk, shrinking it and putting it in his pocket. Into it had gone all his emergency cash, amounting to several thousand galleons, his ordinary clothes, his Unspeakable robes, underwear, shoes, socks, his broom, several books, and pictures of his family. His wand was in its normal holster on his arm and he lengthened his hair and changed his eye color to gold, anchoring both with a charm that couldn't be dispelled except by him as it was in Parseltongue. His scar was hidden by Muggle make-up, kept on by a sticking charm that was anchored with a Parseltongue spell as well so it would never show unless he wished it to. There wasn't time to go to Gringott's and he wouldn't need the entire Potter fortune in the past anyway, so he didn't worry about that.

Fawkes fluffed his feathers in annoyance as he watched Harry ready himself. "I am helping you, Harry, because despite the fact that I'm bonded to him, Dumbledore treated you very wrongly. As for what you do about the past version of him, just follow your instincts but please don't allow your present feelings about him to cloud your judgment of him in the past."

Harry nodded, and checked to see if he'd missed anything. Finding that he hadn't, he looked at the phoenix with a questioning look in his eyes. "Fawkes, what do I call myself while I'm there?"

Fawkes chirped again and said, "What is the name of the dog star's companion?"

"Orion," Harry breathed. "What will happen to the future as I change things?" Fawkes trilled again, and then flame surrounded them.

"I'm not sure. This is the first time something like this has ever been attempted. The future as you know it now could be overwritten or the people that you meet in the past who are still alive now could gain new memories. I don't know what will happen. Good luck Orion."

That was the last thing Harry heard as he fell through a seemingly endless blackness.