First Place - Angst

"Mrs. Scott?" the woman with slightly graying hair pulled back in a braid nodded. "My name is Harry. I'm here about Dylan. This is my friend Angelina."

The woman looked surprised then stepped back, "Come in dears. Did you know my son?"

Harry shook his head but stepped inside the living room with Angelina behind him. When she heard on Christmas Day what he planned to do she had demanded to be a part of it and Harry had agreed, as she was also touched personally by what happened. She had lost her brother and sister-in-law.

None of the Hogwarts staff was happy that Harry was leaving the school grounds once a weekend and apparating all over Britain to visit various muggle homes, but he had pretty much told them he would do it with or without their blessing. They reluctantly agreed, and admitted that Harry could easily get out of any sudden trouble.

"No Ma'am, we didn't know him," Harry looked around the room for his first indicator of the type of family the Scotts were. There were pictures of a young couple and their baby on the mantle, pictures of the baby alone, and the baby with his grandparents. Mrs. Scott gave them tea and oatmeal raisin cookies.

There had also been a bit of fuss regarding the Ministry and the Secrecy laws, but Harry said that if the Dursleys had been allowed to know what he was, these families could as well.

"What can I do for you then?" Mrs. Scott was perplexed.

"Your son and his wife were not the only ones attacked on Halloween," Angelina said quietly. "My brother and his wife were also killed, and forty-five other couples with infants."

The eyes widened, and the hand went to press over her heart. It was the essentially same reaction they had gotten from a few other couples. "Why?"

"This is going to sound crazy Ma'am, but please bear with us. Has Dylan caused anything strange to happen, anything hard to explain?" Harry questioned.

"He...," Mrs. Scott's eyes watered and went distant for a moment, as if remembering something. "Karen, his mother, had been claiming she was going crazy. The diapers kept disappearing. Dylan had diaper rash, and he was always crying... Do you mean to tell me Dylan was doing something to those diapers?"

"Dylan's parents were killed because Dylan is a wizard," Angelina said bluntly. The first house they went to they had tried beating around the bush a bit, but only succeeded in angering the muggles they were talking to that morning. Directness worked much better.

Mrs. Scott just blinked at them and Harry slowly took out his wand, showing it to her clearly, "I promise I won't hurt you." He turned the vase of flowers on her coffee table into a sculpture of a hippogriff.

"Oh my," Mrs. Scott responded as Harry first animated the sculpture, then changed it back into the vase and flowers, then cast a freshening charm, perking up the bouquet. "Can Dylan...?"

"With time," Angelina answered and then began to explain the wizarding world to the woman. She nodded along with them, and invited them up with her when Dylan began to cry.

The nursery was nice, not too lavish, but certainly put together with care. As far as Harry was concerned, Mrs. Scott passed his test.

They left the house with a promise to stop by again, and to let Mrs. Scott know when the men who murdered her son and daughter-in-law were brought to justice, one way or another.

"What's next?" Angelina asked as they walked along the muggle street to find a good spot to apparate from.

Harry checked his list, "Alec Winters. We don't have who he went to, so we'll have to do some checking around."

They went to the house where Alec Winters had lived with his parents. After talking to several of the neighbors they discovered that Alec had gone to his aunt and uncle, the sister of his father and her husband. One of the neighbors even had their names and a phone number, though it took some persuading and a few charms to get it from the suspicious woman.

A man answered the door and gave them a hard look, "We're not interested."

Before he shut the door Angelina spoke up, "We're not selling anything sir. We just wanted to talk to you about your nephew."

The man paused and looked at them more carefully, his gaze lingering on Harry, "Who are you?"

"My name is Harry Potter sir, and this is Angelina Johnson," Harry introduced them and held out his hand.

The man shook his hand reluctantly, "Padraic Rivers. My wife Abigail is feeding Alec now."

"We only want a few minutes of your time," Harry said and projected calm and trusting at the man.

Mr. Rivers wavered for a moment, but then invited them in. He brought them through the living room, which had the requisite, as far as Harry was concerned, photos of a dark haired baby with his parents and with Mr. Rivers and either his wife or sister. There were others but Harry didn't get a good look.

"Abby," Mr. Rivers had led them into the kitchen, where a woman with brown hair was spooning food to a baby that looked about seven months old. The baby was crying and had his eyes screwed shut.

The woman turned and looked surprised to see Harry and Angelina with her husband, "He's refusing to eat again."

She looked harried, and Harry felt sympathy for her. She was fairly young, and had become an instant mother. He saw no evidence of other children in the house.

"This is Harry and Angelina," Mr. Rivers introduced them to his wife. "This is my wife Abigail. They wanted to talk to us about Alec."

She then gave them a much more penetrating look and, like her husband, lingered on Harry, "Are you a relative of Terri? You look just like her. We never heard much about her family but I was under the impression they had all died."

"Sorry, no," Harry said in a soothing voice. There was anxiety in the air, thick, and he sent out as strong a feeling of calm as he could manage. Slowly the baby stopped crying, and opened his eyes. They were green, just like Harry's.

"You see what I mean?" Mrs. Rivers smiled in a bit of relief. Alec accepted the next attempt at a spoonful of food. "He got his eyes from his mother."

Harry walked towards Alec and sat in a chair on the other side of the highchair while Angelina stayed by the doorway. Alec looked at Harry and Harry saw the toddler's young magic, all twisted up and blocked. Harry reached out and smoothed the boy's hair back, concentrating his magic on the boy's. Slowly, the threads of Alec's magic began to flow as they should and the boy visibly brightened.

"What did you do?" Mrs. Rivers asked in awe. "He hasn't smiled since he came to us. I've been ready to take him to a child psychologist or something."

"You might want to anyway," Angelina suggested. "He did witness his parents' deaths."

Mr. Rivers nodded, "I'm sorry, but you haven't said why you're here."

"Mr. and Mrs. Rivers, this will sound strange, but Alec is a wizard," Harry said firmly, and the explanations began again.

They were always a little dazed when Harry and Angelina left. Mrs. Rivers showed them to the door, Alec perched on her hip and playing with her hair.

"Your last name is Potter, you said?" she asked Harry. He nodded. "Your mother's maiden name wouldn't be Riddle, would it?"

"How do you know that name?" Harry froze, but kept his fear from showing on his face and voice.

"That's Terri's maiden name," Mrs. Rivers explained.

Harry shook his head, "My mother's name was Evans, Lily Evans."

"But you know the name Riddle," Mrs. Rivers pressed. "We know nothing about Terri's family, and none of her papers say anything about them. If any are still alive, they deserve to know."

"There's only one Riddle left," Harry tried to keep from getting angry, but couldn't help that a little leaked through. "He's the man that ordered your bother and sister-in-law killed. I doubt he even knew who she was, though it wouldn't have helped I'm sure."

"Who was she?" Mrs. Rivers questioned, looking a bit angry herself.

"Most likely his niece, or grand-niece, though I'm not sure how. Riddle killed his whole family over forty years ago," Harry explained to the shocked woman. He could feel anger coming from Angelina.

"Harry," Angelina said once they were out of sight of the Rivers house, "how can that be? I thought Riddle killed them all."

"So did I," Harry's mind was dragging up all sorts of odd possibilities. "The Hogwarts records will have the name of the orphanage where Riddle lived while he was a student. Can you check there, and in Little Hangleton, and see if there any other Riddles out there?"

Angelina nodded, "I'll check. I still have another week of break at the University, and have some free time during classes too."

Harry gave her a quick hug. He was discovering that many people loved him, and it unsettled him but he couldn't close himself off to it completely. He knew that if he became unfeeling he might end up like Riddle, but he didn't want Voldemort to have any more ammunition to use against him. Creating a balance where he wasn't vulnerable, yet remained human was slowly driving Harry mad.

"Thanks," Harry told her. "Let the Order know about it, okay? They might be able to find out something."

"Sure," Angelina agreed. Harry felt hesitancy from her, then determination. "Fred told me Harry, about you and Charlie." Harry stiffened. He did not want to talk about that with anyone, even though Hermione ignored his wishes and frequently got him talking. He really had to stop taking drinks from her, or from Dobby when he was anywhere near Hermione. "We all know where you're coming from Harry, but if you keep pushing him away, someday he won't come back."

"I know," Harry whispered, fighting back tears. He apparated away and went directly to the Room of Requirements. He had started wearing his dagger under his robes at Hogwarts and covered by a concealing charm when he wasn't wearing robes. It kept anyone other than Harry from seeing or even feeling the dagger and its sheath.

His instructor appeared along with several bull's-eye targets, "Your fighting is sufficient Harry, for what you need. It is time to learn throwing."

Harry hardened his gaze and he drew his dagger. He held it at the tip as he was told, and flung it towards the target directly in front of him as hard as he could. It struck towards the lower edge, buried up to the hilt. It was retrieved with a flick of his wrist and the instructor started to critique his technique.

One week after classes started an announcement and schedule was posted on the Gryffindor common room bulletin board. All seventh year students were to meet with their Head of House to discuss their finalized career plans. McGonagall would have the necessary applications for Ministry positions, information about planning apprenticeships, contact information about many other jobs, and help in finding an apartment.

Harry did his very best to ignore his upcoming appointment. He knew that McGonagall was not going to be pleased with what he had to say.

"Can I talk to you later?" Nott said in an undertone during class. It had taken three weeks for the Slytherin to say anything not related to their work.

Thursday nights were quidditch nights when he was still on the team, and it wasn't practice time yet. The ground was still covered with a dusting of snow and it was freezing outside.

"When and where?" Harry asked and then looked at his notes. "I think we need more powdered asphodel."

Nott sprinkled some over their cauldron and the potion's color shifted towards the expected purple-blue, "How about nine tonight, the old Potions classroom?"

"Works for me," Harry nodded. There really wasn't too much risk of them being overheard. Ron and Malfoy were at the desk behind them, and Hermione and Terry were in front of them. Susan and Padma were at the table next to them. All of them except Malfoy were DA and in this matter Malfoy was almost certainly trustworthy. Corner was as far away from Ron as possible, just as Snape had said he would arrange them.

Harry found the old Potions classroom long before nine. He scanned the room for any traps before setting up his own wards and then sitting down to read until Nott showed up. He only had a few chances to read from Slytherin's book so far that year, and couldn't stand reading from it for long. Written Parseltongue gave him a headache.

There were several potions and charms in the book in Voldemort might have used to extend his life and increase his magic. Harry was amazed at the sheer number of spells and concoctions that had to be affecting Riddle in some way or another, and then there was the unicorn blood, and the resurrection ritual. Harry suspected it was only magic that was keeping the man, though he probably wasn't human anymore, alive. He hadn't found anything more connected to that potion, but kept being drawn back to it anyway.

Harry rubbed his eyes and put the book away. He needed to relax himself, to focus before hearing what the Slytherin had to say. Harry focused on his magic, and wondered idly what he would see if he examined Riddle. A thought occurred to Harry then. He had sort of healed before by adjusting people's magic. If magic was all that was keeping Riddle alive, maybe Harry could destroy his magic, and therefore kill him. He wouldn't have to use any kind of curse.

He would have to test it first though. He could start with an inanimate object, and see if he could strip away its magic, and then... he would have to experiment on some sort of living thing. Maybe there was some sort of magical creature he could use. He could get some flobberworms from Hagrid. His father had to kill enough of them for potions ingredients anyway, and they weren't complex enough to have feelings for Harry to sense.

"Potter?" Harry opened his eyes. He had been concentrating hard enough on his own magic and the possibilities of using this new talent that he hadn't noticed anyone coming in. He would have to talk to Ollivander about his ideas. To his surprise Blaise Zabini, Tracey Davis, and a fifth year he didn't know were with Nott.

"I wasn't expecting all of you," Harry admitted and knew instantly he had said the wrong thing. Tension came from all four Slytherins.

"Look," Davis turned to the two boys and the other girl, "maybe we should just go back."

Harry stood, "No. I didn't mean anything by that, just that Nott didn't tell me anyone else was coming."

The tension lessened slightly, but just slightly and the Slytherins moved into the room. Harry cast a silencing charm and a spelled the door Imperturbable, speaking the spells clearly so the Slytherins would know what he was doing.

"So, Potter...," Nott trailed off.

Harry summoned a table over to him, then four more chairs and motioned for them all to sit, hoping to make them a bit more comfortable, "You can call me Harry."

"Harry," Zabini said as though testing it out. "Very well, we are Blaise, Tracey, and Teddy and this is my little sister Corinne."

Harry nodded, "I take it there's a reason you wanted to talk to me?"

"Draco was right," Zabini said and there was some snickering. Harry just raised his eyebrows. "Gryffindors have no subtlety."

"We can," Harry defended his House, "but only when the situation calls for it. If we don't want to be out after curfew, not that I really mind all that much, we don't have time to do things the long way."

The Slytherins exchanged glances and Harry felt some of the remaining tension lift. There was confidence and decisiveness.

Davis became the spokesperson for the group. She looked Harry in the eye, "We don't want anything to do with the Dark Lord Potter. We'd rather fight against him."

"Do you want something in particular from me, or did you just want to tell me?" Harry leaned forward and made sure he was scanning them continually.

"We probably know more dark magic than we should," Nott said uncomfortably, leading to something.

Harry smiled and cut him off, "Calm down. My father is Severus Snape. Do you think he's taught me nothing this past year? I'll have to fight Voldemort again, the whole world knows that, and I'll need a bit more than Expelliarmus and Stupefy to get through it."

"Right," Nott said tightly. "We need to work on dueling, and we can't do it in our common room without starting something."

"I can give you two ways," Harry said seriously. "You can join the DA," at their raised eyebrows and feelings of disbelief he continued, "and I can guarantee no problems from any Gryffindors. You can also practice in Malfoy and Hermione's common room if you ask. I spend more time there than in Gryffindor."

The Slytherins all exchanged glances and came to some sort of consensus, nodded, "The second might work."

"I'm there nearly every night to study for N.E.W.T.s," Harry informed them and stood up. "Just come by whenever you want to start."

Finding the Key - Chapter 38

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