"Hurry up!" A voice shouted. It wasn't a quiet voice, it was loud, rough and angry.
Harry's limbs were aching, his breathing was heavy, but he didn't stop, he couldn't stop. He knew what happened to people who stopped.
"Aaargh!" A voice screamed right as a boy dropped past Harry, he was seconds from hitting the floor when he was caught in mid-air by a well timed spell. The one responsible for the spell, lowered him to the floor, once the boy was down he grabbed him by the ear and roughly tossed him to the floor. He grabbed the boy and slapped him twice.
"You have five minutes to rest!" He growled as he glared at the boy "After that you are going to climb that mountain again and this time you will reach the top if you want to eat tomorrow."
Harry continued to climb, the mountain wasn't the biggest mountain in the world, that didn't mean it was like a hill either. Harry estimated that it would take an adult roughly an hour to climb it. He and the others would occasionally be taken to random places, the last time they were taken to a dessert and made to walk a very long journey. The others hadn't quite mastered controlling their body heat, so they struggled with it far more than him.
His instructors were more expecting when it came to Harry, he took to his fire training like a fish to water and so they expected better from him. Which is why they always preferred to watch him, if he failed then he got punished harder, the last time he failed he was given ten lashes and minimal food.
Now, he and his fellow students were currently in a country, he wasn't sure which one, and he had to climb this mountain. If he guessed, it was a test to not only test their body heat control, but also test their physical strength and endurance.
The five year old Harry Potter continued climbing, something that was made more difficult by the fact that most of his face was bandaged and that included his left eye, plus he and everyone else had to wear their skull masks, so he had to search even harder for places his hands could hold on to. A minute later he found a comfortable pair of holes he could easily fit his hands into, he hanged on the side of the mountain. He wouldn't dare stay still for more than a minute, firstly because he'd get more tired and second of all because if the instructors thought he was stopping they'd start throwing stinging hexes and/or slaps.
He took in a deep breath and kept on climbing, he climbed and climbed. He didn't know how long it took but eventually he reached the top. He lied down, arms spread as he let out several deep breaths. He knew he should enjoy his breaks while they lasted. If he was lucky then he and everyone else would be escorted down, if not then they might have to go down on their own.
"Tired?" A voice asked. Harry looked through his only non bandaged eye to respond to the girl. She had black hair that was placed in a ponytail, and her eyes were blue. She was around Harry's age.
"What do you think?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"There's no need to be rude" The girl frowned.
"Don't be an idiot then" Harry mumbled as he sat down, he felt something nudge his shoulder, he looked up to see the girl holding a drink for him, clearly offering it to him. "Thanks" Harry said appreciatively.
"You're welcome" She smiled brightly
"You are entirely too happy"
"Yeah, well you should be more happy"
"Listen up maggots!" One of the instructors shouted "You have five minutes to rest! I said five minutes!"
"Are you sure I'm the one that needs to be happy?" Harry said to the girl as he gestured to the instructor with his head.
"Well" She giggled "I think everyone should be more happy"
"You're a strange one Chloe" Harry shook his head, partially in amusement and partially in annoyance.
"Takes one to know one" She shrugged.
Harry plopped down onto his seat in the Hogwarts express, the summer was alright...not counting the world cup and trial, after the trial he had spent some time with Fleur and the Delacours, they eventually had to leave, though it was clear that he and Fleur would've preferred to stay together. Near the end, after a rather emotional farewell and some snogging that Harry liked more than he would admit, Fleur and her family returned to France.
Currently he was sat in his compartment with Delphi sat opposite him and Shadow on his shoulder, he was reading a book and trying his best to ignore people who kept glancing into his compartment to check out the 'boy-who-kills/killed' as people began calling him. To be honest...he sort of liked it.
"Hi" Daphne said as she and Tracy entered the compartment and took a seat opposite Harry.
"Hello, I guess I haven't frightened you off" Harry said in a conversational tone.
"Yeah well, after you shoved Malfoy's head into a fire we sort of realised that you weren't the most stable person in the world" Tracy replied.
"Good" Harry nodded "what about Fay?"
"What about me?" Fay asked as she entered.
"Ah, so none of you are scared about being in a compartment with an ex-assassin?" Harry asked.
"No, I mean I was at first but then I realised that if you were going to kill us then you wouldn't have lasted past second year before you ripped out our throats." Fay replied "Not comfortable about it but...I'm just trying to forget it"
"Okay, also relax, if I was going to kill you I wouldn't do it by ripping out your throat."
"That's good...wait what?"
"Yeah, if I was going to kill you I would just slice your throat"
"Wait what?!"
"He's kidding" Delphi rolled her eyes.
"I am not" Harry said "if I was going to kill her then I would do it by slicing her throat"
"And now I am wearing a scarf all year" Fay shuddered.
"I didn't say I would kill you" Now it was Harry's turn to roll his eyes.
"Let's just stop talking about Harry killing people" Daphne said.
"Okay, well seeing as our conversation has now just dropped in quality, I'm going back to my book" Harry said as he returned to his book. He decided to try and focus on the positive points this year, one of which would be how he would likely end the night verbally thrashing someone, always an enjoyable way to spend his time.
Walking from the train to a carriage, then to the great hall was rather awkward as everyone gave Harry a large amount of space. To Harry it seemed like they were afraid he'd suddenly snap and kill them all, though to be fair it's not like he wasn't ever tempted to do so. Daphne and Tracy found it amusing, but they also benefitted from this as nobody in Slytherin was willing to mess with them seeing as the ex-assassin that terrorised their house twice was their friend.
Once he entered the great hall Harry noticed the Hufflepuff's and Slytherin's looking scared of him, so did the Gryffindor's though they tried harder to hide it. He noticed Granger and Weasley looking pale as they looked at him, both remembering that they had annoyed him a lot over the years, the Weasley twins looked somewhere between wanting to thank him for his help while also being scared of him. Longbottom gulped when he saw him. He also noticed that Draco Malfoy was still there, apparently the blond pounce had gotten off thanks to being a minor and pleading from himself and his mother but his father was currently on the run, a fact that amused a great many people. He looked at Harry and seemed unsure if he should scowl or piss himself.
When Harry sat at the Ravenclaw table, he glanced at his housemates and looked at their reactions. It seemed an equal divide as many of the house looked utterly terrified while the others looked as though they were trying to act like nothing was wrong. He rolled his eyes and ignored how he was given quite a lot of space when he sat down. Delphi sat opposite him and seemed to be unsure if she should be amused at their fear or angry at how they're treating her friend.
Eventually the first years arrived, Harry briefly wondered if McGonagall was capable of using a drying charm. It didn't look like it because the first years were absolutely soaked. Unfortunately for Harry, he had a soft spot for those younger than him, so in a rare moment of kindness he removed his wand and began firing drying charms. A few of the older years jumped as if he had just shot the killing curse, McGonagall took her wand out and was ready to defend the new first years when she realised that Harry was just using a drying charm.
The first years were thankful for the drying charm, though they also varied between awe, fear and nervousness at being in front of the boy-who-lived/killed.
"Hey" Harry mock whispered to the first years "you kiddies should go to another school, the teachers here don't even know how to use drying charms" Harry gave McGonagall an exaggerated wink. McGonagall glared at him and the two briefly locked into a staring contest, neither willing to look away. This lasted for several moments, making many people very nervous, McGonagall only stopped when she remembered that she still had to have the first years sorted.
McGonagall sniffed before walking off with the first years following, a little while later the first years had been sorted. After that the feast began, Harry did his best to ignore all the staring that he gotten during the feast, he was tempted to just burn their food to give them something else to stare at. Eventually everyone finished, Dumbledore stood up, after a few announcements Dumbledore introduced the new defense against the dark teacher, a man named Moody.
Mad-eye Moody wore a brown trench coat, one of his legs was a wooden peg leg, his face had several scars and one of his eyes was a fake magical eye that span around to look everywhere. Harry remembered Sirius telling him about Moody, the man was paranoid but supposedly a bad-ass. Sirius described the man several times as a 'paranoid bad-ass'. Harry wasn't going to get his hopes up on the man being a good teacher, if he was then brilliant, if he wasn't then Harry wouldn't be too disappointed.
"Also" Dumbledore said during his announcements "I am pleased to announce that Hogwarts will be having the honour of hosting a very special event, the Tri-wizard tournament will be coming to Hogwarts."
"You're joking!" Fred Weasley shouted, causing many people to laugh.
"I am not joking Mr Weasley" Dumbledore smiled with his twinkly eyes "though I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a..." Dumbledore heard a cough and looked to Professor McGonagall "uh...enough about that. Anyway, this tournament is a very special event..."
Harry listened as the old man talked about the tournament and how it meant glory, a lot of money and was only for those that were seventeen years old. Though what caught his attention was the mention of the other schools, he couldn't give two shits about Drumstrang but apparently Beuaxbaton was coming. That could've been what Jacques was trying to hint to Harry about this summer, though Harry didn't think much about the hints because in his opinion if people can't be bothered to give him a straight answer then he shouldn't bother caring.
This could mean that Fleur would be coming for a year, he was rather hoping that she did, his year would be a lot less bothersome with her around.
"Mr Potter" Professor Flitwick walked up to Harry one everyone began standing up so they could head to their dorms "the headmaster wishes to see you"
"What does the old goat want know? Let me guess, it's about this summer, isn't it?"
"Yes" Flitwick sighed "yes it is, please come with me"
"Fine, see ya later Del" Harry said to Delphi before he followed Professor Flitwick out, Shadow was on Harry's shoulder and made a few noises in an attempt to comfort his master who smiled appreciatively at him.
"Alright, what do you want?" Harry said as he entered the headmaster's office, he stopped when he saw that it wasn't just the headmaster in the office. There was also the other heads of houses, plus Mad-eye Moody who Flitwick walked up to and stood next to.
"Take a seat Mr Potter" Dumbledore said as he sat behind his desk and gestured to the seat opposite. Harry removed his wand, he cast a few detection spells on the chair, once it was clear he dragged the chair backwards and placed it so he could sit and see everyone in the room while also having distance between them and himself, he sat down but kept his wand out. "Mr Potter, that is not necessary, we do not intend to harm you"
"That's as maybe, but I'd rather not take chances with a bunch of adult wizards, especially when they out number me so much."
"Ha" Moody laughed "constant vigilance, I like the lad."
"Of course you do, what's not to like?" Harry asked, making his voice sound genuinely confused.
"Mr Potter" Dumbledore said "we need to talk"
"I don't" Harry shrugged.
"That's as maybe but you do need to listen to what we need to say. Since it has been revealed that you were once a member of this 'Libra' organisation..."
"Not just 'once'" Harry cut him off "I still am. This is Libra, you don't get to quit Libra, you only quit when you die...and now, now they're coming for me so that could be quite soon."
"Mr Potter, you've said that you quit while you were six" Dumbledore pointed out.
"I might have but what I meant was that I left at six. If they knew I was alive then they would never have let me leave. They left me alone because they thought that I was dead, if they knew I was alive then they would've dragged me back. In fact, now they do know I'm alive and they will try to drag me back. Nobody leaves Libra."
"Mr Potter, we can protect you" Dumbledore said.
"Ha" Harry let out a small laugh "you protect me? That's a joke right? Because if it wasn't then you're stupider than you look"
"Mr Potter show some respect" McGonagall admonished him "and there is nobody better to protect you than the headmaster"
"I'm in this situation because the headmaster couldn't protect me!" Harry glared at the woman "He left me with abusive muggles and then I went from them to Libra! And I'm sorry but you think he can protect me against Libra when he couldn't even stop a single dark lord from rising to power and that was years ago and he was a lot younger then, so you still think he can save me?"
"Mr Potter, why did Libra think you were dead?" Slughorn asked while McGonagall was thinking of a response.
"When I was six there was an incident, a lot of Libra trainees died during the incident and they thought I was one of them, I actually escaped and they never looked for me because they thought I was dead. Most of Libra didn't know my identity, they made it a rule to keep your identity secret from everyone besides the higher levels. I only knew about two people that knew my identity, there was probably about five or ten that actually knew. I expected them to come after me during my first year, I don't know why they didn't, the ones who knew my identity either didn't notice or decided not to for some reason.
Matter of fact, I didn't even know my identity for a long while. The muggles that Dumbledore put me with told me my name was 'freak' and then Libra gave me a number for a while, they told me my first name when I was six. When I met Bellatrix she told me about the legend of Harry Potter and the boy-who-lived shit that you lot spread around."
"Mr Potter, is it possible that Libra won't go after you?" Professor Sprout asked.
"Hell no" Harry shook his head "Libra has a few rules, and two of them are to always strike back against the enemy and always be loyal to Libra. I attacked them, that makes me the enemy and makes me a breaker of the last rule. You see I doubt they're going to just kill me, if I was just another target then maybe. But I'm the 'boy-who-lived', I killed some of their own and I'm a deserter. If I had to guess, they probably plan to catch me and make an example of me. I'm thinking public execution after a bit of torture before they impale my body on a pole in Diagon alley, either that or they force me to take a magical vow or sign a magical contract where I dedicate my entire life to serving Libra."
"Mr Potter, I am sorry" Dumbledore said sincerely "I truly am sorry for all that you have suffered"
"Have you realised it yet?" Harry asked
"Realised what?"
"Realised why I didn't want to come here" Harry answered, he stood up and walked closer to the desk, he slammed his hands down and glared at Dumbledore "my plan was to prepare for an army of assassins that would eventually discover the fact that I am alive, I had planned to find a way to go into hiding or either go look for the best teachers across the whole globe and study to the point where I could stand a much better chance, but you took that opportunity away form me. Instead I'm here dealing with idiots, teenage drama, judgement and being stuck in classes where the highlight of the week is learning how to turn matchsticks into needles and making pineapples dance! A fat lot of good that does me for against the worlds' deadliest assassins!"
"It can be argued that you don't need the training, you did quite well in your battle against them. Though I cannot support your methods"
"I did well?!" Harry looked at him with disbelief "I only fought lower skilled omegas, those two girls who were deltas and I fought that one beta and they were the younger members. Libra has a hundred betas at least, the youngest betas are my age, and there is probably more than a hundred and you saw how I was after fighting just the one Beta! Their numbers are in the hundreds! A single omega is capable of taking out multiple death eaters and aurors, what do you expect me to do against an entire army? As for my methods, what the hell was wrong with my methods?!" Harry demanded angrily.
"Mr Potter you killed those people"
"People? I'm sorry, you're not talking about the assassins by any chance?" Harry said as he looked at Dumbledore with disbelief.
"Mr Potter, everyone deserves a second chance"
"Maybe but not when they're trying to kill me, I was trained by the very people who trained the ones that were trying to kill me. We're told to put our enemy down hard and fast with no mercy, you think that can change with people who have lived hearing that same thing over and over for years? I was lucky I escaped so quickly, if I stayed longer then I'd be just like everyone else and brainwashed into doing what I'm told without question."
"Mr Potter, your ripped out that girls throat"
"She was trying to kill me and burst my eardrums!" Harry said defensively "Besides if I didn't kill her then she would've died anyway."
"What do you mean?" Flitwick asked.
"When we're young they remove one of our teeth and fit us with a tooth that contains a poison, it's a lot like a cyanide pill. Libra members are taught to kill themselves if they're ever caught by anyone, that way they don't reveal information, which is another reason that they're coming after me by the way, seeing as I basically told the world about them."
"You could have removed the tooth" Dumbledore argued.
"You're an idiot" Harry pinched his nose as he felt a headache forcing it's way into his head "when they're trying to kill me, you're expecting me to remove their teeth and then knock them out? Let's say I had the time, effort, desire and immortality necessary to do all of that in the middle of a life and death battle, I still can't remove the tooth. They're magically charmed so only the owner of the tooth can remove or break them, I could get a sledge hammer and knock out and smash every tooth except the poisonous one"
"Mr Potter" Slughorns eyes widened as he just realised something "do you...I mean...do you have a..."
"Do I have one of those teeth?" Harry asked with a grin "yes I do" Harry tapped the right side of his mouth "I can kill myself anytime I want. Pretty soon, either I kill myself, they kill me or I somehow manage to kill an army. Either way...should be an interesting few months"
"Mr Potter..." Dumbledore started only to get interrupted when an eagle flew into the room and landed on the headmaster's desk, Shadow puffed up and eyed the new threat in the room.
"That's for me?" Harry gestured to the letter tied to the birds leg, Harry carefully reached out and removed the letter, once he did so the eagle immediately flew away. Harry began opening it when the letter flew up into the air and morphed so it now had a mouth. "Oh great, a howler" Harry groaned.
"Potter" A male voice spoke "you have betrayed Libra, you have betrayed your family. Libra has decided to grant you one final kindness and allow you until two days after the end of your school year, enjoy your time while you can. At the end of the school year, you are granted two days to spend with your family before you will be taken to the council to answer for your crimes. We are telling you this in advance because we now know about you and you know that now we can find you no matter what. If you try to escape then we will find you. Enjoy your year Mr Potter, it may be your last" The letter shredded itself into pieces and it's ripped remains landed on Dumbledore's desk.
"Told you" Harry said to the Professors and the headmaster "also, I'm dropping history and transfigurations plus Herbology."
"What?" The Headmaster, McGonagall and Sprout blurted out at the same time.
"Yep, history is useless for me at the moment, especially with a teacher that drones on about the same thing and I need to save time to train and study. As for Herbology, it's a useful subject and no offence intended Professor Sprout but I need to save time so unless you want to teach me about magical plants that are likely to kill me, then I can save quite a few hours by skipping your lessons and I can catch up on it with self study."
"What about my classes?!" McGonagall demanded "Transfiguration's is one of the most useful classes around and a great way to help you in learning how to defend yourself!"
"Not when it's taught by a bitch who teaches transfigurations that are unhelpful and useless in real life while also trying her best to ignore me, wait a sec, that's what you've been doing the last few years!" Harry said with fake surprise "Yeah, if I'm going to live to see the age of twenty then I plan to take my life into my own hands and spend a lot of time self studying. Goodbye" Without waiting for a response, Harry left the room, leaving the headmaster and the teachers alone.
As Harry left, Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder just how Harry got involved with Libra. He was tempted to try and read the boy's mind but he knew from the incident with Severus that the boy had at least some mind defences, and the last thing he needed to do was have Harry and the Blacks try going after him because he tried to read Harry's mind. He remembered all the memories he saw at the court trial.
In those memories Harry was viccious, brutal and unmerciful. He was also deadly and posed extreme power, he didn't think the boy was quite up to Voldemort's level just yet but he could easily be. Harry had no problems with killing, that much became quite clear, The boy had ripped out throats, used posionous snakes, piercing curses, knifes, cutting curses and sliced the throats of his opponents. Dumbledore couldn't support his methods, he understood but he could not support them.
Everyone deserves a second chance and Mr Potter denied that to his children, Dumbledore needed to figure a way to get him to the light side. It was vital, then once he and Harry are finished with Voldemort, he and Harry could work on stopping this Libra organisation. It was vital he got Harry on his side, everyone now knew how powerful he was, many people would transfer to the light side if they thought that Mr Potter was on the same side.