Harry looked around as he walked to Umbridge's office. He had wondered about LJ's sudden appearance but decided that maybe the stupid horror clown was just there to keep an eye on him under order of Slenderman. So far, Umbridge had fought with Hermione about the educational purpose of the class and had a spat with Neville who declared that he Harry wasn't mad and that Voldemort did truly return. He too receive a detention slip, much to Pomona's consternation.

Harry opened the door after a single knock, not waiting to be invited in. He's not going to give her any form of respect, and even if he do than it would be nothing short of mockery. He found Neville already inside writing lines. However he stopped short upon taking in a single scent that was so out of place in the ridiculously dolly and kitten pink monstrosity that was Umbridge's office; a familiar coppery stench.

His eyes zoned in on Neville's hand and saw the forced 'cutting' that Umbridge inflicted on Neville. A force of teenage angst self-harm, Harry have seen such thing while travelling with the Slenderman. He knew instantly that Neville have too much self-respect to do something so ridiculous and he instantly recognised the lightest torture instrument of Azkaban held in the boy's trembling hand.

Umbridge went on and on about writing lines and the 'I must not disrespect authorities' that he was supposed to write until it 'sink in', but Harry's was seeing red. He barely notice Neville looking up when he held the boy's bleeding hand, barely notice Umbridge's screech for him to stop his ridiculous 'elements' that was the wind picking up and the shards of frozen snow swirling around them slowly and gaining speed. All he saw was that she have harmed one of his own…

Then a sharp and familiar ringing stabbed his mind and Harry all but snarl at Slenderman who have been keeping a very close eye on him since his change. The blood he gave Harry to save him became a bond that they can both feel no matter where they were, the distance in between them or the barrier that separated them. It was useful but at times very annoying, like having an earworm that just won't go away. Part of Harry's research while back in Grimmauld Place was to find a way to block their connection.

Neville looked up as his friend winced, shook his head and sat next to him to write his lines. He could only tilt his head in sympathy acknowledgement. Harry nodded slightly back at him, ignoring Umbridge warning of not speaking and to start his lines.

On Harry's part, he hardly even feel a pressure of the cut that he was supposed to make on his skin due to the fact that his disguise also acted as an armour of sort so the weak but persistent scratching from the Blood Quill doesn't even penetrate the first layer of disguise. So he have to fabricate a scarification on the back of his hand and pretended that it was the stinging wound that cause his discomfort rather than the fact that he's holding back from attacking Umbridge for wounding one of his hive mate.

When detention was finally over, Harry was screaming in his mind for the Slenderman. It wasn't until midnight after curfew that he sensed the Faceless One up on the school's roof. Harry Slenderwalked and released his disguised at the same time before appearing under the weak moonlight to face the Slenderman.

Slendy looked over what he could dub as his childe by blood and asked, "Why did you almost lose control this evening?"

Harry snarled, his tendrils-like hair dancing in the air all around him with agitation, "That Umbitch, she hurt Neville," He paced on the roof, frosting it over in rapid succession, "I want her to pay…" He then looked at Slendy, "What was LJ doing here last afternoon?"

Slendy hummed, "He wanted to see how you were doing, being new and all…but I didn't expect for him to interrupt your class…"

Harry smirked, "He has the perfect timing, the clown…but he won't do. I want to hit her where it hurt closest to home," He eyed the Slenderman, "How is our dear recluse reporter doing?"

Slendy smiled, "Her fear and paranoia is slowly corroding her sanity,"

Harry nodded, "Let's give her an ultimatum," He looked at his claws, "If she want to stop the haunting then dig and reveal as much dirt on Umbridge as possible. I want her ruined," He then grinned, "While she does that, consider it as bonus if she managed to unearth Fudge's dirty under the table dealings as well. And if she refuse, then consider the punishment being upgraded,"

Slendy tilted his head, "And how do you plan to get such scandals published?"

Harry shrugged, "Call them boys to do the sneaking into the printing factory of the Daily Prophet, I'm sure they will enjoy the mayhem that come after," He meant the supposed Slenderman Proxies trio.

As Slendy turned to leave, he stopped and looked at Harry, "What of Dumbledore? He would not agree to such methods,"

Harry huffed, "He know enough about me to know that no one hurts my hive and get away with it," He then gave Slenderman a wicked smile, "Also, what do you think about haunting the Ministry of Magic? I am sure there are some guilty souls there that could use some…shall we say, cleansing?" The wicked smile then turned innocent, "Consider it compensation. I do feel bad about taking away your toys," He did take away the Dursley since he noticed that Dudley have turned out for the better, although he never did return to his home. The damage was done and there's nothing more he can do for his estranged cousin.

Although Dudley didn't really know of his involvement with his family's breaking apart, he did learned about Harry connection with him. After a week of getting to know each other, Harry have taken him into his hive and felt it only right that he asked his 'father' to leave his cousin's family alone. Now that he was also taking another of Slendy's favourite toy, he need to give the Slenderman compensation.

Besides, the Order members could use a set of extra eyes on the going on at the Ministry. It was a nest of snakes and although a Slytherin himself, Harry knew better than to completely trust his eggs in one basket now that half of the Slytherin considered him mortal enemy. Albus handing his Prefect badge also worked as a buffer against the worse that his House mates could do to him. Also, Harry wanted his own intelligence instead of relying on the overprotective adults. Not that he doesn't trust them but he knew Albus's tendencies to hold back information that he felt too risky to share and Severus may be blunt with what he thinks that Harry needed to know but it also doesn't stop Albus from sharing information with Severus so that Harry would not find out.

All things aside, he just wanted revenge, petty as it may seems but he's not going to risk anything with Voldemort on the rise and the Ministry of Magic in the palm of his hand. Harry needed back door informants and he's not above playing dirty to get the upper hand in chess match and that include blackmailing.

The next morning, stories of Umbridge's less than stellar past was found splashed across the front page of the Daily Prophet. Harry simply listened to his peers and schoolmates laughing about her exploits during her teenage years in Hogwarts. She was far from impressive and even further from a model a student. If anything, they even learned of her stealing the undergarment of a boy she have a crush on.

The next few weeks were chaos. Umbridge was determined to find the one who revealed all her teenage shames while the Daily Prophet was in trouble for releasing scandals on a Ministry respected representative. To make matter worse, they can't find Rita Skeeter at her home nor at any of her usual haunting.

Not to mention release of unexpected prints happened so randomly. They could go on for days or weeks without a snitch on Umbridge's exploits only for it to appear when they lease expect it. Though their subscription skyrocketed due to the tabloids by the still missing Rite Skeeter, the Daily Prophet does not celebrate it since it threw them into such deep trouble with the government.

Days passed idly by and Hagrid finally returned from his exploits to the mountains to entice the giants to join their side. Harry only knew of this because he happened to be in the room as Samhain when Hagrid's mission was mentioned in passing. So later that evening with an hour before curfew, he and his hive went to meet Hagrid who opened the door to greet them.

Hermione immediately gasped, "Hagrid! What happened to you?!"

Hagrid looked as though Fluffy had mauled him from rough play with the half-giant. The man grunted and gestured for them to come in. He greeted Draco, "Good to see you here once more Draco! How was life in the Muggle world? Must be hard,"

Draco shrugged, "Well, it wasn't so hard once you get the hang of it. I'd say, the Magical side could learning a number of things from the Muggle's technologies. Sometimes I think it was them that was doing magic instead of us!"

Hagrid beamed behind his beards and swollen eyes, "I'd say! You are probably the first Pureblood to comment so! Malfoy's ancestors must be turning and tossing in their graves right now!" The group snickered at the idea while Draco shrugged with a smirk while joining their laugh at the irony of things.

Neville then asked, "Will you return to teach us, Hagrid? Class have been a bore since you went on that trip,"

Ron nodded, "Where did you go, anyway? No one would tell us anything and you don't look like you went for a vacation like they told us,"

Hermione added, "And the way you look…falling over won't even start to cover that wound you have," As she pointed at his bleeding forehead and his swollen eyes, Harry dug into his robe's many hidden pockets to take out a small container filled with yellowy substance with mucous-like consistency, "Here, this should cover the wounds or at least stop the bleeding enough for you to go see Poppy without her flipping,"

Hagrid thanked him and took the Essence of Dittany and started dabbing his face with it, "Thanks, Harry,"

Being Prefects and the equivalent of Assistant Professor, they have to leave before curfew and waved goodbye to Hagrid. He did manage to tell them that he had to meet up with the giants to ask them to aid their side in the war but it seemed Voldemort hasn't lose his honeyed tongue. Hagrid was lucky to escape alive with the kind of battering he had to go through. So when he heard that the Dementors have decided to aid them this time around, he was crying fat tears of relief.

Giants maybe big and brawny but Dementors have more intelligence and stronger magic. This way, their ranks can balance out Voldemort's gathering army.

While leaving, Hagrid had whispered to Harry to meet him later that night, knowing that Harry can come to his hut without detection due to his Slenderwalk, "I need to show you something,"

Around one in the morning, Harry charmed a golem made out of a clay modelling that he have made a habit to carry around since last year's tragedy to sleep in his bed, he quietly slipped away to Hagrid's hut. Meeting the less battered Hagrid outside by the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Harry asked, "What is it?"

Hagrid gestured for him to follow him, "I want you to meet someone," After a few minutes walking, Hagrid started nervously, "He's family and….well…I thought that you would understand better…I-I just need someone to…teach him English, you know?"

At first confused by his nervous mumble, Harry finally understood when his eyes landed on Grawp, who Hagrid introduced as his half-brother. Pure giants to Harry were a little like the troll back in First Year, except more human-like in appearance and perhaps a lot smarter than a mountain troll. Certainly larger too.

Grawp seemed to sense something wrong with Harry since he remained immobile and quiet, eyeing the other non-human with wary eyes. Harry raised his hands with palms up to show him unarmed and meant no harm, but this seemed to make the child giant even more nervous. Hagrid had to whisper soothing words to his younger brother, "Grawp, meet Harry. He's nice and gentle, don't worry. He won't hurt you ever,"

Harry stepped back and watched as this seemed to make the child giant relax a little. He looked at Hagrid, "I understand the dragon and the Cerberus, but why did you take him away from the giants?"

Hagrid looked sad, "I'm not going to leave him there to die! He's the runt, they say! No good giant, they say! Why I won't have it, he's family!" This seemed to make Grawp happy as he grunted, "Hagrid…family…" The words were butchered but understandable still.

Hagrid sniffed, petting his brother's large head, "See? Aren't you a smart boy, Grawp?"

Harry studied the two siblings and closed his eyes. He lightly traced the young giant's mind and was saddened by the harsh physical abuse he had to suffer. Apparently for a giant, Grawp was too small and to a giant, a small giant was a no good giant. He barely had enough to eat since he was often shoved away from the group during mealtime.

Grawp howled from his intrusion, uneasy from the sudden chill running down his spine and in his mind. He instinctually felt intruded and so Harry pulled away. He whispered, "It's alright Grawp…it is alright…" He smiled gently at the young giant, no more than a child in human's term with the mind-set of a five years old. With a twist of his index finger, Harry created flurry of snow that danced about in the form of animals.

This seemed to please Grawp as he tried to catch the snowy creatures with his bare hands. It was at that moment Harry noticed the chain attaching him to the gigantic tree behind Grawp. He looked at Hagrid who was smiling, laughing and crying at the same time as he watched his little brother play.

It was sad how Hagrid was forced to chain his little brother but the man have no other choice if he want to keep Grawp safe. Harry made a promise to himself to find time to visit Grawp and play with him while repeating words such as his name, Hogwarts, Dumbledore and several easier to grasp words like play and learn.

He also have a mind to teach Grawp to be gentle to other creatures just like his older brother by first using ice sculptures as demo.

On the days that followed up to winter, Harry was making leeway with Grawp's education. Ever since his transformation, Harry needed little to no sleep so it was nothing to spend time with Grawp all night long. When Hagrid wasn't around, he even showed his transformation between Harry and Samhain to Grawp so the giant will understand that both form was Harry and that Harry or Samhain would not harm him.

But as to being gentle, Harry have a hard time. His sculptures often break and Harry would scold Grawp and say 'no more play' as punishment for breaking his sculptures. After the first few times Harry refused to play-study with Grawp, even going as far as refusing to meet him two nights in a row for continuing breaking his sculptures, Grawp started to grasp the concept but it was still long going.

At the start of winter, he was met with an arrow and a centaur. The centaur snorted, "You are making futile effort, Dark One. The beast would never know gentleness,"

Harry raised a brow at the reference, "And why do you call me Dark One?"

The centaur looked to sky and whispered, "For you are the bane of all things light yet at the same time you are also the blight of all things dark despite being one yourself," With that the centaur turned away, "Now leave, Dark One. We are only suffering your presence because you have yet to prove yourself harmful to our existence,"

As he was swallowed by the darkness of the forest, Harry heard him whisper, "The trail you make is filled with despair and death and I see no light at the end of your journey,"