I'm back everyone with a new addition to my story. Sorry for the long absence but I've had writers block and I finally got a new chapter done, hope you like it.

It was early Monday morning and Harry was back at Hogwarts, though the girls were not happy to see him go, they were very verbal about it. They even suggested that they get involved and destroy every wizard in Britain right then so they could have their teddy bear, or Harry bear as they called him, back. They had all slept comfortably despite being on a couch and would have slept all of yesterday away if Shade hadn't woken them up by pouncing on them. Harry said he would be back to see them again next weekend so they calmed down enough to not fly off the handle but it was a very close call, Rebecca didn't help much when she started crying about missing her cuddle time with her little brother.

Harry sighed as he made his way to the great hall at breakfast time, his big sister may mean well but she can be so over affectionate that he worried for his health. Her hugs would have killed him if he was human and they damn near did Koneko in when Rebecca tried to cuddle her to death.

In the hall he saw Luna and Hermione at the Ravenclaw table and walked over to them when they waved at him.

"So how was your time without us," Luna asked as he sat down, she was making a waffle house complete with fence.

"I had a lot of work to do but I made progress," he answered, "and most of my weekends are going to be me in my room working my butt off,"

"Ok then," Hermione seemed sad that he wouldn't be spending the weekends with her like he did last year.

Harry was her first friend, she didn't have any growing up since they picked on her for being too smart. It was nice having a friend and now she had Luna too but her insecurities about not being a good enough friend made her feel like Harry was going to leave.

"Hey I said most," he didn't want his friends to think he wasn't going to be around, "some of my weekends will be free so I'll be around. If you want to spend more time with me you two can join in with my morning exercises,"

"What morning exercises?" Hermione inquired.

"Being healthy and physically fit means having a larger reserve of magic, it's like building up stamina," he explained, "The castle doors open at five thirty every morning and I run from six until seven so I have time to be back and have a shower before breakfast," even if he never ate the food here.

"Isn't that breaking curfew,"

"Not really, the rules classify curfew as the time between the doors locking at night and opening in the morning, so we can be out that early without trouble. And if any of the professors try to get us into trouble I'll simply quote the rules to them and make them see things my way, or knock them out so they get out of our way,"

"Do we need any exercise clothes because I don't have any," Luna said munching on waffles, completely ignoring the last part of what he said.

"Just come in your normal clothes and I'll turn them into something suitable," he reassured her, "bring a bottle of water as well since we'll be running,"

"Ok, I can do that," Hermione said after some thought, "I'll grab Luna on the way and meet you by the doors at six,"

"Good, I'll see you there, now what did you two do while I wasn't with you?"

"Oh, Hermione showed me around and showed me some shortcuts to get to my classes," Luna said, "besides that we mostly talked,"

"Good that you two can get along without me," he spoke then checked the time, "as much as the advanced course is mostly independent study I still have to attend the occasional class, and lessons are going to start in a few minutes. I've got arithmancy and runes first thing so I'll see you two later," he ruffled their hair before he got up and walked out of the hall.

"I miss him already," Luna said once he left, a little sad her new friend wasn't always around.

"He is on the advanced course and doing third year subjects so it's to be expected that he'll be busy," Hermione was usually the one being reassured so it was awkward being on the other side of the talk, "it's not like we won't see him, we just won't see him as much,"

"I know that, but I don't want my friends to leave me again," the blond nearly had tears in her eyes at the thought of Harry leaving her like Ginny had.

Hermione put Luna into a one arm hug, "we won't leave you Luna, real friends doesn't desert each other,"

00000

Arithmancy was basically a math class, albeit with all sorts of randomness thrown in that Harry found just stupid, as if it was added just to make things more difficult than they had to be. It was basically magical maths that was used to calculate and quantify magic, or at least the structure of magic.

Arithmancy is used to construct spells and create spell matrices that allow the spells to function, before arithmancy was around spells were generally created through trial and error. It turns out there are different ways to create a spell, but the different ways can affect the efficiency of the spell making it take more power than it should.

This was actually done a lot with the few spell crafters left bypass several parts of spells to make them quicker to cast but it makes them a great deal weaker as a result. Going deeper into spell creation revealed that while the older way of casting spells was more time consuming they were far more efficient and thus, more powerful.

Essentially these shortcuts became so mainstream in an effort to make crafting spells both easier and faster, but they all became less efficient as a result. The spells became less elegant and if they were matched against their predecessors they would be outclassed. Modern spells, that is anything created in the last two centuries, was basically a point A to point B line, the original shape and elegance the spell had originally was lost.

This lesson for Harry was about learning the basic mathematical properties of various parts of a spell and how they fit together to form the spell. They would then be converting these properties into equations to show how the spell required balance to work, it was basically algebra.

At N.E.W.T level arithmancy delved deeper into the components of a spell and the theory of how they work to create a spell, these components were power manipulation, function, regulation and execution.

Someone with enough knowledge in arithmancy can go on to be a spell crafter but not many did, apparently muggleborns were the best in this field as they had prior knowledge of maths from the mundane world, but no one would take them on as an apprentice and purebloods didn't want to actually work for a living. Because of this bigotry those with a talent for creating new spells tended to leave the country, heck only a few new spell has been created by the British in over two hundred years. The usual ones who went into spell crafting were half-bloods and even then most were turned away for not being pure enough in the eyes of the masters.

Becoming a spell crafter was not easy, in fact the number of spell crafters in Britain could be counted on one hand and all of them were well over sixty as it takes a lot of experience to make spells from scratch.

Harry was tempted to bang his head into a wall at the stupidity of pureblood wizards, their traditions and belief that they are better than everyone else was destroying their world and they didn't even know it. If he just let things be then he estimated it would take roughly four or five generations before most of wizarding Britain was no more, good thing he's here to make sure they don't last that long.

He stopped plotting for now since he had runes next and that was one subject he knew quite well, he'd read Odin's book after all.

It turned out he was way over qualified, the class only taught runic definitions, the different alphabets and the history of runes, and all that was for only the Celtic and Norse runic languages. He would put money on the ministry banning any runes not from Britain and he'd probably be right. Apparently practical applications were only taught in an apprenticeship.

Based on wizard history, runes had been used far longer than wands and were most commonly used to make wards, but other than that they were just plain symbols like an alphabet. According to wizards when runes are used in wards the symbols are charged with the casters magic to maintain them and had to be charged regularly, what a load of nonsense. With the amount of experience wizards have with runes, that is not a lot, he was surprised most of them hadn't gotten themselves blown up yet.

Harry was disappointed that runic magic had very little practical application in the wizarding world, it was mainly used for sealing or wards. The other supernatural groups also used runes for sealing or wards but they also used them for enchanting, rituals and other things, it still amazed him how wizards limited themselves. Wizards may not be the strongest of the supernatural community but they were versatile and they could improve themselves so they weren't laughed at, they were just too lazy to bother.

Runes had so many practical used that Harry could easily name a dozen of the top of his head, light emitting items, basically torches, conjure water for a shower, protection against fires, physically enhance a body by empowering it with different abilities and that's just for starters. Not to mention that what was used to create the runes also had an effect on they function. Special inks infused with magic can be used to hold power that is released into the runes, blood contains the very essence of life, something more powerful than magic, and is usually the first choice, and powdered crystal is chosen for its long lasting quality. Various metals such as gold and silver can also be used having been melted down and poured into the runes, this usually serves as an amplifier for the effects.

He tuned out the lesson as professor Babbling went on to explain how runes could do many of the things that could be done with a wand though without as many restrictions, but they would need an apprenticeship. His thoughts turned to how wizards used crystals but that they were never used to their full effect. Wizards merely used crystal dust in enchanting but they were also very rarely used as amplifiers to give their spells a boost. Not too many wizards knew how to prepare crystals to be used in such a way but they didn't go into any of the other areas where crystals could be used.

Crystals, even precious gems like diamonds or emeralds, were extraordinarily efficient at storing and channelling large amounts of magic, the fewer flaws they had the greater amount they could hold. In times gone by they were used to add enchantments to weapons and armour, a few places still used crystals in this way. For some reason rubies are considered to be the best at holding magic though no one is really sure why, a small ruby can be more useful that a large diamond when it comes to storing magic. Ruby dust is also one of the best ways to channel magic since it requires only a small charge from the caster for a big effect.

Unsurprisingly, storage crystals were not touched upon at Hogwarts because they were outlawed in Britain. From what he'd been able to gather, there was a ritual involving them a few centuries back that resulted in the death of more than a hundred purebloods and the ministry declared their use illegal. On this occasion they weren't being completely stupid but attempting a ritual that required more power than a hundred witches or wizards had was bound to go wrong in some way since those involved wouldn't have put all their magic into it.

Before long the lesson was over and he left to find Hermione and Luna, since it was nearing lunch he thought they might be in the great hall. He didn't see them in there when he checked but he wasn't concerned since lunch had only just started and they could be here later. The next best place to find them would most likely be the library since both girls liked to study, now that he thought about it all the girls he knew were the studious type as Akeno, Koneko and Rias were more than just pretty faces.

It turned out his hunch was right and he found them in the back of the library where Hermione had a stack of books on curses next to her and was rapidly looking through them.

"Hey Luna, Hermione," he said as he took a seat next to the blond, "what's going on,"

"Hi Harry," chirped Luna sine Hermione was too absorbed in her books to notice him, "how were your classes, were they exciting?"

"Actually Luna I found them rather basic and boring but that's just me. You mind telling me what's got Hermione in a mood,"

"Oh, she's been grumpy ever since she left potions, I think she's planning revenge,"

"Ok, what happened," Harry asked when he saw Hermione's face was upset and more than a little annoyed.

"Potter happened that's what," Hermione practically spat the brat's name as she finally acknowledged his presence, "before I came to Hogwarts I'd read about him in my books and thought he would be like a child version of Dumbledore, but then I find out he is nothing but a fat, obnoxious git who can't keep out of trouble, and I had to spent a year in the same house as him. I know that the fame of being the boy who lived had clearly gone to his head but he seems to be even worse this year,"

Harry completely agreed with her assessment of the brat though he would use much more colourful words. "What did he do?"

"Apparently he lost Gryffindor over a hundred points in potions," answered Luna since she'd been listening to Hermione go on about it for the past twenty minutes.

"I can't believe it, the git cost Gryffindor that many points and got detention as well. We'll never win the house cup with him around,"

"Why are you so hung up on house points anyway Hermione,"

"What?" she almost shrieked but managed to keep her voice down to a loud whisper since she was in the library, "how can you say that, the house with the most points wins the house cup at the end of the year,"

"True but what do you, personally get?"

"Uh, the honour of being in the house that wins?" she half asked, unsurely. She had honestly never thought about it before.

"Ok," he sighed, "let me phrase it like this, Ravenclaw is supposed to have the smartest kids in school but they haven't won the house cup in decades, why do you think that is?"

"Maybe they're just more book smart and the other houses are better at practical magic so they earn more points in class,"

"Actually Ravenclaws are almost always at the top when it comes to O.W.L and N.E.W.T results, in both practical and written exams,"

"Then I don't know," she huffed, she hated not knowing things.

"Maybe the Ravenclaws have realized something that the rest of the school hasn't,"

"Like what?"

"House points are meaningless Hermione,"

"How can you say that?" the bushy brunette was nearly outraged at the thought.

"Hermione, points aren't tracked at an individual level so there's no way to tell who gained or lost them other than word of mouth. They don't show up on report cards and they have no effect on your grades at all,"

"They don't?" she was confused, if you were awarded points then they should impact your performance.

"You're graded on essays, assignments and tests, points don't come into it at all. And in a job interview do you think they're going to ask you how many house points you won or lost, no, they will ask you about your O.W.L and N.E.W.T results,"

"If that's true then why do they have the house point system at all?"

"That's an easy one, the house point system is simply a method used by teachers to enforce discipline through peer pressure. They know that if you lose too many points your housemates will get on your case and they use this to make you behave how they want you to, it's all about control," he explained.

"Then we need to earn points otherwise everyone else will hate us,"

"If you lose points no one will hate you Hermione, they might be upset if you lose some but if you don't make any they've got no reason to have an attitude. They will have an attitude towards you though if you show them up in class,"

"What,"

"Other students are likely to be unhappy with you if you show them up in class. I know you like being the brightest in the class but give someone else a chance to answer a question before you do. You can't always be the first one to jump up with your hand in the air when a teacher asks a question, kids tend to see students like that as teachers pets,"

"Ok, I understand," said a rather subdued Hermione, he didn't want to upset her but he wasn't going to sugar coat it. "Can I still curse him?"

"I wouldn't bother really," he told her, "just let him ruin his already tarnished image and someone else will do it for you in no time, with the way he constantly acts I wonder why he's not permanently injured yet,"

She got up to put the books back when Harry stopped her.

"Here let me," he waved his fake wand and the books flew back to the respective places on their shelves. He noticed that the girls were staring at him when he put his fake wand away, "what?"

"You didn't say a spell," gasped Hermione, even Luna was looking at him oddly, well more oddly than usual.

"To do silent casting at your age is impressive," the blond commented.

"I've been doing magic since I was eight so it's not that hard at all. Now do you two want some advice that'll help you this year and probably the rest of your time at Hogwarts?"

They both nodded.

"Well first I recommend you permanently skip history of magic, it's a useless class where professor Binns only talks about goblin rebellions and since he never checks who's in you can get away without trouble. I know you're going to say you can't do that but trust me, it's a biased way of looking at things that says the wizards are never at fault. It doesn't even mention the non-magical world or how it has affected the wizarding one and it only focuses on Britain not anywhere else. Considering how little interaction there is with the mundane world some wizards still assumed most people still live in hovels, beasts of burden were necessary for transportation and that electricity is a fad, it's a useless class. It will definitely be better if you skip it and use that time to study for other subjects,"

"But we learn important stuff from it," Hermione tried to insist, but it was weak even to her ears.

Harry on the other hand just smirked, "Really, then let me ask you this, how many wars have the wizards had over the years,"

"The only wars fought in the entire Magical World were the ones Grindlewald and you know who started," Hermione automatically said.

The only non-human of the group sighed heavily before saying, "Wrong, there have actually been several wizarding wars since Grindlewald's efforts in World War 2,"

"WHAT?" asked two shocked and disbelieving students.

"I'm not surprised neither of you know the real history lesson of the wizarding world, let alone wizarding Britain," he said, "you and Luna probably don't know about it because you're British and the ministry controls a lot of what is printed in books and only allows certain news to be reported,"

"Why would they intentionally keep historical information from being known?" the brunette asked.

"I don't know, and anyway, while that class may be a required subject until your O.W.L's but it's not a job specific subject, unlike charms or potions, no job in Britain askes for an O.W.L or N.E.W.T in history of magic so even if you fail it doesn't really affect you job prospects. It basically an extra qualification for your record that is ultimately worthless in the real world," Harry told them getting very different looks.

Luna wasn't as surprised since she knew there were no jobs studying history of magic being a pureblood, but Hermione looked somewhere between stunned and appalled.

"But if it's not a requirement for a job why is it taught at all," she asked.

"I've got absolutely no idea," he replied, he'd asked Rebecca the same question and she gave him the same answer, "it used to be a required class but in the last century there haven't been any jobs where it's needed. These days practically every employer wants O. or N.E. in DADA, charms, transfiguration and potions at a certain level, actually I can't think of a single job that doesn't require at least those four subjects,"

That was something even Luna didn't know, then again it wasn't something that was publicised. As a matter of fact most jobs only stated two of them and the level they required so they could turn away applicant without O. or N.E. in all four of them. This was actually a tactic used by pureblood owned businesses so they could give the jobs to other purebloods with the right family connections.

"I also think that you can just ignore astronomy since you won't gain anything from it,"

"What, why," both girls asked.

"That subject has absolutely no practical uses and if you don't believe me ask Professor Sinistra herself, with its lack of use I'm surprised it's still being taught. Since all you do is learn the names of stars and movements of planets, can either of you think of something you could possibly use astronomy for,"

Luna shook her head while Hermione tried to speak then paused, unable to come up with anything.

"I've stopped going to both those classes after the first year and gave good reasons for my actions so they couldn't punishment me for it," he admitted, "the exams for astronomy are easy and for history you can just make up goblin names and your guaranteed a pass,"

"That's not right," Hermione protested.

"If you don't gain anything from it why do it,"

"Because…" she froze when she couldn't give a reason.

"Also," he said, "I was originally against this but you shouldn't bother going to DADA since that ponce isn't going to teach you anything even remotely productive, anyone stupid enough to attend is just feeding his already over inflated ego. Lockhart is nothing but a joke and shouldn't even be allowed to teach because that class is a tremendous waste of time, all that stupid fop is good at is teaching students was how to preen for the camera and making girls go all gooey-eyed. Personally I think I would've been a better DADA teacher than him, scratch that I know I would,"

"So what should we do if we decided to skip the class?" Luna inquired.

"The same as if you skipped the other classes, use that time for independent study to get ahead in your other classes, or if you like practice wandless magic,"

"Wandless magic is incredibly difficult, students can't do it," Hermione insisted.

Harry didn't speak, he simply reached out his hand and a book flew over to him, "it's not that hard once you know what you're doing. The ministry just wants you to think it's hard because they can only track magic cast with a wand and if everyone didn't need a wand then they wouldn't be able to tell who broke the law. If you get good enough at wandless magic you could show your parents what you've been taught,"

That brought a smile to her face, Hermione had always wanted to show her family what magic she could do but wasn't allowed to over the summer.

"Here Hermione you try," he put the book on the table, "focus on the book, imagine it coming to you,"

She tried but the book wouldn't budge.

"Imagine it is the one thing you need more than any other, focus that need on the book, visualise it to coming to you and then force your magic to do it,"

She tried, scrunching her face up and the book nudged itself partway along the table towards her. After it had moved a few inches she fell back in her seat with a light sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"That was hard," she panted.

It was true since when she used her wand she barely felt the drain on her magic but that felt much more intense. While using her wand normally felt like a trickle when she did magic, doing it without one felt like a hole in a dam.

"That's because you're not used to it," he explained, "you had to focus your magic through your own body and consciously shape it to the desired result whereas before you relied on the wand to do all that for you. Wands are the main reason wizards are so weak,"

"What do you mean weak," Hermione protested, "wizards can use magic to accomplish amazing things, come on Luna back me up,"

The blond was surprisingly silent for a moment, "how do wands make us weak if we need them to do magic,"

"Finally an intelligent question," he laughed.

He then went on to explain that wands acted as a magical focus and amplifier, drawing magic from a wizard's core, shaping the spell and amplifying the effect all in one. If they were to try magic without a wand they would have to summon their magic and shape the spell themselves which becomes much harder without a focus. Because the wands do all the heavy lifting wizards are not as strong as they think they are. They assume that the better they get at magic the larger their magical core becomes but that is simple their core maturing at its natural rate, with the wand picking up the slack the core just grows regularly rather than reaching its full potential due to constant use. Another thing is that they get so used to using wands and wand movements that they can't use any other type of focus and wandless magic becomes almost impossible.

The few that do use wandless magic can only perform small things since it quickly exhaust them and the effect is less effective than when a wand is used.

After hearing him Hermione had only one question, "But how are wands bad,"

"Wizards have come to completely rely on their wands so than if it's out of their hands the only magic they can do is apparition," he said, "without a wand a witch or wizard is no different than someone without magic, to put it simply if they lose they wand they become completely defenceless and because of the laws only one wand per person is allowed. If you learned how to use magic without a wand this wouldn't be a problem,"

"How would we learn wandless magic," it was Luna who asked this time.

"I can give you some exercises to try but ultimately it's up to yourself," he told them.

It truly was up to them to put the effort into training their magic otherwise they wouldn't get results, and it was a time consuming process to learn it. On the upside it was something they could practise at home, in Hermione's case locked in her bedroom with the curtains drawn, and if they did skip classes they'd have even more time to work on it.

"If we're going to learn wandless magic then I need to see if I can find some books on the subject," Hermione said.

She left Harry and Luna alone so they spent the time talking until she returned with a handful of books a few minutes later.

"Oh Hermione, there is something I wanted to ask you since last year," he said as she set the books down.

"What's that," she asked.

"Voldemort," they both flinched just like everybody else whenever they hear that name, "why do you flinch when you hear that, it's just a name,"

"Because he was a dark lord," she immediately replied.

"I don't believe this," he mumbled, "Luna grew up in the wizarding world so it's to be expected but you Hermione, you've know about the wizarding world for less than two years so why do you flinch,"

"He's the most evil wizard there ever was Harry," she insisted, "and he did some really scary things,"

"Well then what about Hitler or Stalin. They caused a lot more damage than Voldemort and you don't flinch at their names," he told her.

"But they weren't magical,"

"You just sounded like a Malfoy," Luna stated, causing Hermione to gasp and Harry to laugh.

"Hermione, the First World War caused over thirty million deaths, the second had almost double that much and that was all without magic, Voldemort's death toll never even came close to those numbers. His reign of terror lasted ten years and whenever any of his followers tried to attack other countries they were quickly stopped, it was pretty much a civil war with British wizards fighting British wizards," he explained, "you know I've done some research on it and I found that Voldemort had less than a thousand in his forces, yes that's counting the non-humans too, and his death toll was less than ten thousand,"

"But everyone is afraid of him, even now that he's gone people still fear him,"

He sighed and ran his hand down his face, "fine, I'm not going to try to convince you to say his name,"

"Why do want her to say the name Harry," Luna spoke up.

"She never experienced what Voldemort did so I just found it stupid that she wouldn't speak his name," he admitted, "anyway are both of you doing any kind of independent study for potions," Harry asked, mainly to change the subject, but also since after the first year he knew how crap Snape was at teaching.

Hermione on the other hand was very confused, "Why would we need to do that?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Hermione, in class all you do is setup your equipment and follow instructions on a board, does that actually teach you anything about potions, do you think that's how it's going to be out there in the real world,"

"We're being taught to make potions though,"

"No you're being taught to follow instructions,"

"But he's a potions master," she said like it explained everything.

"Just because Snape is a potions master does not mean he can actually pass on that knowledge. Being good at something and actually teaching it are two very different things,"

"But he does teach us," she insisted.

He rolled his eyes before he launched into an explanation.

"There are a lot of things that Snape doesn't teach which are extremely important for anyone working with potions. Snape hasn't even once gone over or explained any safety procedures that are mandatory for all potion related work, things like not touching a cauldron with your bear hands as it can cause serious problems and you might even get poisoned from incomplete or incorrectly mixed potions. Being taught about potions is supposed to entail more than making a successful potion, there are such things as learning the properties of the different ingredients and why they react the way they do to consider. If you're taught properly you can correct a mistake and fix your potion without having to start from scratch which is something Snape doesn't bother to tell anyone, not even the Slytherin's. And finally potions are meant to be made in a well-ventilated space since the fumes themselves can be dangerous such as making you ill. I wonder if Hogwarts really cares about its students safety at all with it taught in a windowless room in the dungeon,"

Both girls looked at him in surprise as he explained things that neither of them considered, not even once, since attending potions classes. They just sat there and followed instructions because that was how they thought they were supposed to learn, but after listening to all the facts that Harry had to say they were shocked that Snape was apparently not teaching them properly. It definitely made it hard for them to argue against his advice when he laid it all out like that.

"Look I'm not going to force you to do anything if you don't want to," Harry reassured them, "but would you please at least consider it, it'll really help you in the future,"

"Ok," Luna replied while Hermione nodded though she still looked unsure.

00000

It took courage but they did end up taking his advice which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the week, and if Luna and Hermione admitted it they would say it was a good decision. They got away from three pointless, and in two cases, utterly useless subjects to get ahead of their class mates and they both had a lot of fun doing it.

They only joined Harry with exercise twice during the week and they got to see him quote the rules to the teachers to make them back off, and it worked.

The two second years helped Luna with her work since they'd done it last year and they spent their DADA lessons actually being productive and even getting ahead rather than listen to the blond buffoon, since Harry was mostly independent they had already covered what they should have been taught so far in that lesson.

Their history of magic lessons were spent leaning how to perform magic without a wand from Harry, he had them start off small by moving a coin but so far neither could move it more than a few inches. Oh they were getting better since Harry didn't need to explain the process to them every time which made their afternoons kind of full.

Astronomy however was where their thoughts were divided. Luna was completely on board with skipping astronomy but Hermione wanted to talk to Professor Sinistra before she did anything. When she found out what he said was true, needless to say she came up with a persuasive argument to her head of house for why she no longer wanted to attend that class.

Soon enough the weekend came around again and Harry used the same excuse of having a lot of work to do so he could get back to his room and disappear without seeming unfriendly. When he got back home Rebecca gave him another up close and personal encounter with her pillows of death, if he wasn't so used to it he would be dead by now.

"Oh my adorable little mini master I've missed you so much. You own me some cuddle time since I didn't get any last time you were here so I'm not letting you out of my sight this weekend," she squealed as she tried to literally squeeze the life out of him.

"I love you too sis," his reply caused her to squeeze harder.

"The girls are waiting for you in your room, lets hurry and see them since they missed you just as much as me," she said still cuddling him.

"Well let's not keep them waiting then," even with his face smushed between her breasts she could make out his words, having years of practice with this position really helped.

They walked to his room with Rebecca clinging to him and didn't let go until they came to his bedroom door. He expected to be ambushed as soon as they entered his room but instead the girls just stood there calm and composed, not what he was expecting considering their usual attitudes. That didn't last long because as soon as he sat down on his bed they pounced with Rias and Akeno each claiming an arm while Koneko bounced into his lap.

"We really missed you," Koneko mumbled as she snuggled into him.

"Yes we did," added Rias.

"We want to get as much time with you as we can before training," Akeno told him.

Seeing them act like this made him feel a bit guilty that most of their time together was spent in training so he made a decision that was just for them.

"You know what, I think we can give training a miss this time and just hang out,"

Everyone there was surprised at this since they knew how much Harry wanted to get stronger, he didn't want to rely on his father reputation forever after all. They were also a bit hesitant to put off training for the day since they each had their own reasons for getting stronger as well. On the other hand they all enjoyed being in Harry's company, and really what could one missed day do, so they got over their hesitation very quickly, but they still had to ask.

"Why,"

"Since I'm ahead with school work how about we skip training today and just spend the day together," Harry suggested, and was met with unanimous approval.

"Can we cuddle again?" Koneko begged.

"Sure,"

"Yay," they all cheered, even Rebecca.

"You seem happy," Zorn said, suddenly appearing and scaring the daylights out of everybody.

"Ah, dad don't do that," Harry gasped, "you nearly had four devils die of fright,"

"There are only three devils here," Zorn corrected.

No one knew what to say to that, not even Rebecca, since there were clearly four devils siting on the couch, for a moment they wondered if the ancient demon couldn't count.

"Milord I fear you are mistaken," Rebecca cautiously said to her master.

"Yes there's Rias, Akeno, Koneko and me, see that's four" Harry counted them off on his fingers.

"They are devils but you are a demon not a devil, you are something older, stronger, more primal than any devil,"

"What,"

"I remade you using my own essence, the ancient darkness of the demons that existed before devils themselves, to put it simply, you are my son so there for you are a demon,"

The shock of this, for lack of a better word, startling revelation caused everyone to freeze as they tried to process what they just heard. It was surprising to hear that Harry wasn't a devil, but when you consider his abilities it's not really much of a shock, holy energy and the light element don't affect him and his power is immense, stronger than most adult devils, factoring all that in and being something different than a devil isn't impossible.

"So I'm not a devil, what does this mean, how does this change things,"

"Why does it have to change anything," Zorn said with a knowing chuckle.

"Nothing has changed," Rias said clutching his arm tighter, "so what if you're a demon, you're still the Harry that you always were, the one we all care about,"

"That's right," Akeno agreed, "you'll always be Harry to us,"

"Still Harry," Koneko mumbled as she hugged him.

"You're still my mini master," Rebecca giggled.

"Thanks everyone, I needed to hear that,"

00000

It was Friday night and James sat at Potter manor drinking heavily as he thought over the events that happened after his son flew that car to Hogwarts, half the bottles in the alcohol cabinet were empty. He poured the contents of an old bottle of firewhisky into a glass and knocked it back in one making it burn his throat as it went down, even after so many bottles he still clearly remembered that day. With a loud exhale he leaned back and thought about the problems that had appeared over the last year, the most recent one involving his son.

Not only was he forced to pay an incredibly heavy fine for his son's violation of the statute of secrecy but he also had to pay for Arthur's because the Weasley's didn't have enough money to cover it. It wasn't much considering the size of the Potter fortune but just paying the fines made him look bad. His reputation had also taken an even bigger hit and public opinion made him out to be an incompetent father who couldn't control his own son.

Another reason he didn't want to pay was that he was losing many of the Potter properties that earned him money. The dragon reserve, which had been in the family for more than two hundred years, was bought up by somebody who didn't even pay the full amount of what it was actually worth. That reserve provided roughly a quarter of the Potter fortune and now it was gone, that's twenty five percent of their income taken from them. He also had to spend more money because there was apparently some idiotic clause in the employment contract which stated that if the reserve was ever sold then the current head of house was obligated to pay ten years' worth of salary to each and every worker, what the hell was something as stupid as that doing in an employment contract.

Not only that but the villa and vineyard in Italy were also snatched up probably by the same person, the same person who only paid a fifth of what they were actually worth, and then there were the French who were claiming that the Potters never really owned the chateaus in France in the first place and owed them rent going back ten years. They were also adding on multiple fines for not paying the rent each month it was due which was pushing the already astounding amount he owed them up even more.

The Potters currently owed the French more than thirty five million galleons and they were very insistent that it paid in full immediately and the longer they were kept waiting the higher the final price would be. He told the family solicitor to handle these atrocious allegations so he either didn't have to pay at all or at least pay a reduced price, he wouldn't get his way and with the legal fees just adding to his bills he would end up paying a lot more than if he'd just sucked it up and paid the French what they wanted in the first place.

Another thing he found out, quite by accident and because of all this trouble with the French, was that there had been a marriage contract set up between the houses of Potter and Delacour going back to his grandfather's time. He didn't know much about that family, but after some research he discovered that their daughters were veela and Liam having a veela for a wife would be a fine idea, his son deserved only the best after all, but there was a problem that invalidated the contract. The contract was invalid because Fleur was not a pureblood. As the contract specifically states both of the betrothed parties must be purebloods or it is not considered binding and because Fleur is a veela then there will not be any more purebloods in the Delacour line so the contract is void forever.

The contract had actually burned to ash right in front of James when he checked it and now he was being forced to pay the Delacour family restitution for trying to activate the contract when Liam wasn't a pureblood either. Apparently the contract contained some harsh penalties if either of the parties wasn't a pureblood witch or wizard, he looked like he'd just swallowed a dozen of Dumbledore's lemon drops when he was informed of that.

Not to mention the damage that picture of him and Malfoy's wife had done to his reputation. With it plastered all over the front page of the Prophet everyone thought he was cheating on his wife, and when Lily saw it she would have damn near killed him if it wasn't for him fast talking his way out of anything more than a few seriously painful hexes aimed at his jewels, but he had been kicked out of the bedroom and had ended up sleeping on the couch since. There were a lot of other rooms with beds he could sleep in but she'd somehow locked him out of them, why did she have to punish him for this when it clearly wasn't his fault.

He even got accused of orchestrating the whole thing as an attack on the Malfoy family by Lucius of all people, if it wasn't for the fact that there was no tangible proof against him he would have been in some very hot water with their lawyers. There was a very large decrease in popularity of the Potter family because of that photo and the public opinion about him had dropped especially when it got out that his son had broken the statute of secrecy.

Then there was the meeting at Hogwarts where his son apparently pranked Snape, he was actually very happy about that. Unfortunately nothing he could say or do could prevent Liam from getting a month's worth of detentions, stupid Snivellus.

Forgetting the glass he took a swig straight from the bottle, this past year had been a very bad time for him and his family, and it all started with that boy in Diagon Alley and the winged woman with him.

Before meeting those two he was James Potter, the head of the ancient and noble house of Potter, one of the politically strongest wizards in Britain and most respected auror in the DMLE. Since that incident where the winged woman slaughtered those he brought to help him arrest her, which they somehow blamed him for, his co-workers were giving him a hard time and he was slowly being edged out of the auror department.

He had already been demoted although because the Potter's were a wealthy family he could still support his usual lavish lifestyle, but considering what was happening with the family assets he didn't know how long that would last. If he ended up losing any other sources of income he would be in big financial trouble, especially if they have any more of those stupid clauses in the employment contracts.

Unbeknownst to him, over the next few years life for the Potters was going to get a lot worse in a lot of ways.

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