The two figures were in a dark, old-fashioned room. One of them was inhuman, skeletal, hunchbacked and fragile looking, the other a slender young woman with hair twisted up in a messy bun. She had sharp, cat-like eyes trained on her companion, but at the same time seemed to be aware of every movement in the room around her..

"Fiona, Fiona," A high, clear voice that sent shivers down Harry's spine emitted from the monster-like figure. "One more murder. And I promise you will by my one true right hand."

"I live to serve my Lord, of course." Fiona's voice was mild and sweet, such a contrast from the first voice that Harry had a hard time imagining that they had anything to do with the other.

"Good. The muggle is to be fed to Nagini. She has been invaluable in helping me regain my full health."

"Of course, my Lord. May I ask one question?"

"Go on." The cold voice sounded almost amused.

"Why is the other to be given the task of infiltrating Hogwarts? My lord knows that I am a much more skilled regarding tricking magical artifacts." Fiona almost sounded petulant.

"Because, despite all of your brains, you are a woman, and so would no doubt immediately be discovered. Though Dumbledore is no longer there, the one who left me to serve the old fool remains, and no doubt reports everything out of place. I want there to be no indication of my possible return at all, and a skilled witch infiltrating Hogwarts will most certainly rouse suspicionsssssssssssssssss."

Harry woke with a start, touching his burning scar and sighing. Immediately, he shielded the dream in one of his mental shelves, so he would not forget the details, and reviewed it. He was left with a horrible realization: Voldemort was at full health. And he had actually complimented one of his followers, and expressed no maliciousness towards her. This 'Fiona' must be exceptional indeed, to have gained Voldemort's favor to such a degree.

Things had changed. And the WEEDS had no choice but to be prepared and on their guard more than ever.

---

Chapter one:

"Sirius, get up! We're going to miss the train!" Harry yelled, and then instinctively cringed for Mrs. Black to start hollering. Walburga Black's portrait had been dealt with only a few days ago when Harry, finally fed up with her slurs, took to her with a heated poker.

His godfather stumbled downstairs, bleary eyed and groggy, muttering about impertinent godsons.

"I know I'm your favorite godson." Harry retorted with a smile.

"You're my only godson." The dog animagus grumbled.

"Exactly!" Harry grinned brightly.

Sirius was left with the feeling that he had somehow lost the argument.

"Kreacher has made breakfast young master." The house elf now resembled the Kreacher Harry had left behind in his original timeline, wearing a clean white towel with the fake locket bouncing on his chest. He addressed Harry as 'young master' no matter how many times Harry told him to call him by his name and mostly ignored Sirius.

"Thanks Kreacher," Harry smiled as with a wave of the house-elf's hand, two plates loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast spread with strawberry jam appeared on the worn kitchen table. The two wolfed down the hot food ravenously; it had taken a whole term of Hogwarts food plus a whole summer of nutrition potions and vitamins to undo the damage on Harry's body, but now he was as healthy as he could possibly be. Sirius was taking longer to recover from the damage Azkaban had done on him, physically and mentally, but there was consistent progress.

They apparated directly to the station, leaving Hedwig (who Harry was carrying in her cage) very disgruntled. They almost landed right on top of Ron who had his wand drawn in a flash, before he realized he wasn't under attack and it was just Harry and Sirius. Ears red, he stowed away his wand. Harry quickly cast a muffliato around them.

"We're all going to have to work on controlling our reflexes," He then said worriedly. "Imagine if some student brushed past us in the corridor and one of us seriously hurts him?"

"It didn't happen last year," Ron said doubtfully.

"But we've been gone for three months; what if –"

"Harry, we talked about this." Sirius cut in exasperatedly. Harry stopped with a sheepish look.

"Right. But it's something we're going to have to work on."

Hermione joined them, her expression rather cross. Ginny and her father came into view not a second later, and the red-head mouthed 'don't ask' behind Hermione's back. Ron snapped his mouth shut again, resigned to the ever mysterious female mind.

"Ah, Sirius, nice to see you looking better," Arthur Weasley shook hands with Sirius, a pleasant smile on his face.

"Likewise," Sirius bowed. Harry had noticed that as much as Sirius said he hated pureblood customs, they were so ingrained into him he used them instinctively.

"I see that even blood traitors cannot entirely leave behind pureblood customs." A familiar voice drawled from behind Harry, who rolled his eyes but whirled around as if surprised. Hedwig hooted indignantly as her cage swung violently at Harry's sudden movement.

He had sensed Lucius Malfoy's approach; no doubt the man had intended to startle Harry. Draco merely looked bored, and perhaps a bit embarrassed, as his father went on with a pronounced sneer.

"I doubt you've even looked through the heirlooms in the vault, but some of them belong to me –"

"But you're not even a Black!" Hermione interrupted. Malfoy senior shot her a quelling look that clearly showed what he thought of her – and her blood.

"They were part of Narcissa's dowry, and therefore belong to me."

"If they were part of her dowry, why didn't they get transferred to your vault?" Hermione arched an eyebrow.

Lucius Malfoy had a flawless retort: "My wife and I were married during a time where Gringotts Goblins were most unreliable. Do be quiet in the future, girl. Your voice grates on my nerves."

"Yeah, because I'd hate to annoy you." Hermione muttered as Malfoy turned to Sirius again.

"I expect them to be transferred to my vault by next week. Draco, don't slouch. It's unbecoming of a Malfoy." He added to his son sharply, before walking away.

"My father, witches and wizards," Draco muttered under his breath, stalking into the train. Harry's sensitive ears heard a compartment door slam and a tinkling of breaking glass a few moments later.

The warning whistle blew, and Sirius wrapped Harry in a tight hug.

"Well, I'll see if Kreacher can make the house fit for guests by Christmas, and then you can invite all your friends over for holidays." Sirius ruffled Harry's hair, causing him to scowl and raise a hand to flatten his bangs.

"Maybe you could just clean the house yourself – that'll save you the trouble of having to yell at Kreacher." Harry suggested with a smirk. In response, Sirius raised a hand to ruffle Harry's hair again, but he ducked under his godfather's arm and stepped away with a grin.

With a last wave to Sirius, Harry climbed abroad the train after Ron and Hermione.

They went to the last compartment, where the twins were already settled in. Neville and Luna joined them a few seconds later. Hermione did an expansion charm and slid open the window for a few moments, letting in a torrent of fresh air, then shut it again with a snap.

Ron erected a perimeter alarm while Luna cast several muffliatos. They flopped down on the seats, everyone greeting everyone else. Neville pulled out a mini newspaper out of his pocket, tapped it with his wand to unshrink it, and tossed it at Luna.

"We know you didn't get to read the paper when you were Snorkack hunting so I saved the special edition for you." Neville winked at her. Luna laughed and unfolded the paper. The headline and subtitle took over the lower half of the first page, Dumbledore's harried, nervous-looking face above it.

Albus Dumbledore: Light or Lies?

An Exclusive Interview with Harry Potter Exposes the Half-Truths and Lies with Which Hogwarts' Venerable Headmaster Has Fooled Us All

Luna didn't bother to read it as she already knew what the article said, but laughed at picture Dumbledore who was glancing around nervously. Hermione drew two more papers out of her pocket and unshrank them.

Minerva McGonagall: New Hogwarts Headmistress

And

Dumbledore Retains His Titles, to Much Public Outrage

"As you can all see, Dumbledore, while still the head of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump, is under probation. He has lost a significant amount of public support as well as reputation. The only con is that now he is gone from Hogwarts, Voldemort will regard it as easy to take over when he regains power." Harry said.

"We hope to have a decent Hogwarts' guard by then, of course," Hermione added.

"But it does mean a slight increase of danger to Hogwarts students in the future." Ron finished.

The others nodded in comprehension. Harry turned to Luna.

"Now, you've been out of contact and have missed some decisions, so we're going to present them to you now, and depending on your thoughts, we can adjust them accordingly."

"First of all, the matter of Barty Crouch Junior." Hermione started. "We think it should be simple enough. When Crouch senior is in the castle at the same time as his son, we'll bring out the Marauder's map and show it to McGonagall. We'll explain to her the situation, and she will contact Snape. If needed, Flitwick will be informed as well. The three of them should be able to reveal Crouch junior."

"We should give them communication bracelets as well," Ginny said. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"The second matter is Harry is going to be under the limelight more so than ever this year, and we, as his friends, will be in turn under many eyes as well. This will make our comings and goings from the room much harder to go unnoticed, so when we meet, Harry will go to the room first under his cloak, and when he gives the green light, we will then shift there in an order randomized every day. Of course, people will still detect our absence, so you have to remember to transfigure and animate something to fill your bed."

Harry took over. "The third matter is Voldemort is now back at full health, and has gained a very skilled follower whom he calls 'Fiona'. This means, with the addition of Dumbledore's absence, that there may be a danger to Hogwarts I am not forewarned about. Things have already changed – the Quidditch World Cup was not held in Britain as it was in my previous timeline, and Ron and the twins report Arthur Weasley was not alerted of any disturbance at Mad-eye Moody's at all; there was no mention in the Prophet, either. I want every one of you to never travel on your own in deserted corridors, and never take off your communications bracelet. Always move with the general student population or another one of us. Keep your wands in your holster, and most of all, constant vigilance."

"The fourth matter is that despite our own studies, most of our potions skills are still not up to par." Ron went on, seeing Harry was finished. "Fred and George, however unconventional, are geniuses at potions and charms, so for those two areas, they will be taking over leadership."

The twins bowed.

"Speaking –"

"Of our genius." They pulled out two small cardboard boxes.

"These are the prototypes we've managed to come up with during the summer."

Harry peered into the boxes, seeing variations of Expendable Ears, Skiving Snackboxes, and Decoy Detonaters. There was, however, a mud-colored, lumpy candy that he didn't recognize.

"What are these?" Ron asked, picking up a packet of the candy and examining in curiously.

"You know, that color and texture looks like –" Hermione started, looking thoughtful.

"Polyjuice!" Ron and Harry finished.

The Twins beamed as Neville, Luna, and Ginny leaned in for a closer look.

"One of our –"

"More ingenious –"

"Ideas."

"How do they work? And do they last as long as the potion?" Harry asked.

"You just have to touch a bit of the person you want to impersonate to the candy, and when it turns color, chew it or wash it down with something warm."

"We suggest washing it down with hot water, because we haven't figured out a way to get rid of the nasty taste without disabling the shield components which prevents magical objects like Moody's eye from detecting the polyjuice."

"How long do they last?" Harry asked again.

Fred grinned.

"They last as long as you want them to. When you want to get rid of the look, you just do Finite Incantatem – and here's the best part. Only you doing the Finite Incantatem on yourself will wash away the effects."

"It won't be budged by anything else, even if someone as powerful as Voldemort poured all of their power into it, because when you swallow it, it takes part of your escence and uses your magic – wielded freely, meaning you can't budge it if you don't want to – as the key that releases the shape-shifting components." George added.

"Pure genius!" Hermione squealed. The Twins bowed again.

"It takes almost three months to produce though, and you can't make it in batches of more than seven, so they're to be used sparingly, when the time and the permanence are absolutely needed."

"I'll lock all of it in my trunk for now," Harry said. Seeing the twins nod, he tapped his watch. The trunk expanded onto the middle of the compartment and he climbed into it, placing the boxes on a shelf and climbing out again to see Luna arguing with Hermione. As he changed the trunk back into a watch and fastened it back on his wrist, he gathered an idea of what had happened.

Luna was insisting that she and her father had found a Crumpled-horned Snorkack, while Hermione was insisting she had simply seen a trick of the light.

"I know what I saw, Hermione!"

"You think you saw doesn't mean you actually saw it!"

"Hermione, back off." Ron intervened. "Just let someone keep their own opinions for once, okay?"

The bushy-haired witch huffed, but sat down. There was an awkward silence as the twins and Neville looked at Ron with new respect.

"We'd better get changed." Luna said flatly after checking the time with a quick tempus.

With quick switching spells, they were back in their Hogwarts robes. Harry, as he stowed his wand away in his holster, felt a scale from his holster slice his palm.

He withdrew his hand to see the cut in the middle of his palm fade to a silvery scar, and then disappear entirely.

"What happened?" Hermione asked in alarm. Harry shook his head bemusedly, unfastening his holster and examining it, but found nothing that was changed. The scales were smooth as ever and there was nothing that could have cut him.

"Let me see." Hermione took the holster from him. Immediately, she gasped and dropped it to the ground, shaking her hand as if she had touched a red-hot poker. Golden runes glinted on the holster, long enough for Harry to get an idea of what they were, before fading again.

"Blood protection wards." Hermione whispered.

Harry picked up the holster gingerly and examined it closely. On the surface, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Slightly hesitant to strap it back on his arm, he cast several detection spells, all of which came up with only the basic magical properties of dragon hide and the runes for invisibility and quick release. Frowning, Harry tapped it with the tip of his wand experimentally. Golden sparks flew at the contact between two highly magical objects, but nothing else happened.

"I'll research it when we get back to the room, I guess," Harry finally decided, placing his wand in the holster and fastening it back onto his upper arm, where it promptly disappeared.

"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be taken to the school separately." A voice echoed through the train.

Hedwig hooted moodily from her cage. Harry stroked her calmingly.

"I'll let you out of your cage the moment we get off the train," He promised. Hedwig hooted, sounding more complacent than before, and nipped his fingers affectionately. Luna looked up, interested.

"Can she actually understand you?"

"Hedwig is a very smart owl." Harry shrugged. "She always seems to understand what people are saying."

"That's not natural, though, not even for magical owls." Neville added in, looking puzzled. Hedwig ruffled her wings and turned so her tail was facing Neville, obviously miffed at being called 'not natural'. Harry surpressed a laugh at Neville's stunned face.

"Does everything out of the ordinary happen to you Harry?" Ginny asked exasperatedly.

"Not everything," Harry defended. "Just… all of the ones that you know of."

The train shuddered to a stop. Harry picked up Hedwig's cage and took down the spells they'd put up.

Shivering slightly in the chilly night air, they separated onto two carriages and rode to the castle.

"It's going to be weird, not having Dumbledore there, isn't it?" Hermione mused. "I mean, when I think of Hogwarts, I think of Dumbledore."

"I'm worried about Hogwarts' defense, with Voldemort's return to full power so close." Ron said. "We've got eleven WEED members in Hogwarts, thirteen members total. If Voldemort has plans we don't know about, if he's already reassembled forces, I don't know if we can hold out."

"I don't think he's going to want his less loyal followers to see him the way he is right now," Harry said. "It's not exactly going to inspire faith in his power."

"I don't like this guessing game," Ron sighed.

"Who does?" Ginny rolled her eyes. "But if you ask me, it's not Voldemort we need to worry about right now. It's Fiona. Voldemort is still weak, but Fiona is apparently powerful, loyal, and skilled. If we get any trouble, it'll be her spearheading it."

"We'll talk about this later." Harry cut in, noticing the carriage was slowing down. "When we're in the room and able to discuss things without fear of being overheard.

---

The start of school feast was somehow less lavish than before, with a significant lack of anything too unhealthy. Harry saw Hermione glance over the food and shoot an amused look up at the Head table, where McGonagall now sat in the middle. Ron was groaning. Most of his favorite deserts had vanished. Harry had to suppress a groan himself when he didn't spot a single treacle tart.

A second glance over at Hermione gave him the impression that she was the root cause of the changes.

"What did you do?" Ron asked her suspiciously.

"I didn't really expect her to take it seriously, but I just sort of… gave her a suggestion that it would help us if the student population was served healthier foods." Hermione shrugged, but her nonchalant facade was ruined when the corners of her mouth twitched in amusement at the look of total devastation on Ron's face.

The twins walked over to Ron and patted him on the back.

"Though break, little brother," Fred grinned.

"If you get desprate though, you can always volunteer to help us test our more advanced skiving snackboxes." George grinned. Ron tried to retain what was left of his dignity and made to grab an apple from the plate. He wasn't quick enough and the plates were cleared, not a trace of food left.

Throughout McGonagall's speech, which, in a much more severe manner, outlined the basics of the tournament and informed them that the new Defense teacher was too tired to attend the feast, Ron simmered. Harry somehow just knew his friend would be making a visit to the Kitchens soon..

"Now, I expect you all to be ready for a very busy day tomorrow, so would the prefects inform their house of the password and lead the first years to the dormitories?" McGonagall finished.

The WEEDS joined the flow of students exiting the Great Hall. Under the murmur of sleepy chatter, Hermione said:

"Get a good night's sleep. I don't think we should meet until we all have been assigned homework. That way we have an excuse."

They nodded in agreement.

As he finally lay in his bed, Harry listened to Neville and Ron's snores blend into each other, and closed his eyes. Even now, when his body was relaxed and calm, he could feel the magic thrumming through his veins. He could feel it coursing through him like hot electricity and, out of a sudden impulse, directed it towards his Occlumency shields.

The energy formed a corporeal shape of glistening gold, and, after much consideration, Harry ended up with a construction designed around the black, slimy thing that was the Horcrux. (After many failed attempts to make Harry give in, the Horcrux now simply lay in wait, gathering its strength)

The coils of energy bound the horcrux gently, careful not to disturb it. They would tighten if they sensed any movement to interfere with Harry's mind, and made him feel safer. With a silent, satisfied sigh, Harry fell into deep sleep.