Disclaimer:: I do not own Harry Potter, but I think I own this plot. I don't own the title either...that belongs to Sun-Tzu.

Summary:: Harry is left to his own devices over the holidays, and discovers some interesting facts about himself. Thought I should mention that this is set in the future in terms of the science.

The Art of War

Making of Plans

'Master Sun said:

War is

A grave affair of state;

It is a place

Of life and death,

A road

To survival and extinction,

A matter

To be pondered carefully.

There are five fundamentals

For this deliberation,

For the making of comparisons

And the assessing of conditions:

The Way,

Heaven,

Earth,

Command,

Discipline'

Sun Tzu

Chapter 3 – Earth

'Earth is

Height and depth,

Distance and proximity,

Ease and danger,

Open and confined ground,

Life and death.'

Sun Tzu

.::.

Harry and Ray ambled behind the two adults, talking about the differences between America and England's magical worlds. That they could work out in the short amount of time they had, England was more archaic and set in its pureblooded ways whereas America embraced the muggle sciences and believed that studying them could unlock doors within the magical world as well. Another large difference was that in America, being a 'pureblood' was considered shameful. Ray explained that magic specialisations were passed down from generation to the next and in the case of two purebloods marrying, only the dominant specialisation was passed onto any children. If a pureblood married a halfblood or muggle-born or these any combination of this, the magics were more sympathetic and merged; the Americans hadn't quite worked out why yet.

By this point the group had reached The Leakey Cauldron and carefully winded their way through the tables with Ray and Nathan on either side of Harry so he wasn't viewed by any patrons of the grimy tavern, Lisa striding confidently ahead to draw any wandering eyes. They quickly made their way through the brick doorway, not noticing a drunk who had been slumped on a table shuck off his dingy coat to show a smart set of wizarding robes or that he was joined by a female who had followed them in. She linked arms with the now smart man, his grey hair and misshapen face flickering a few times before melding into aristocratic features.

Lisa and Nathan motioned Harry towards the address on Knockturn Alley.

'Do you want to go in by yourself hunny?' Lisa gently inquired. Harry squinted at the sign which told him the name of the bookshop and sighed.

'I guess I better do this by myself, c-could you come in after a few minutes?' He asked hesitantly and looked relieved as Nathan nodded.

'Sure thing, we'll just be over here looking at cauldrons and potion supplies for Ray for next year.'

Harry glanced at Ray once more before breathing deeply and opening the door to the shop. The inside was much like the outside; gloomy and dark. He made his way past tottering piles of books to the desk and touched the tip of his wand to the silver circle on the countertop to summon a store clerk.

'One moment.' A voice sounded from a couple of aisles down followed by a crash and quick Reparo. A moment later a man shuffled down the aisle and promptly knocked over a pile of books.

'Mundus' The man muttered and the books flew back up into a pile-like formation, although looking a little worse for the experience. He adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and peered at Harry. 'Now, how can I help you young sir? I've got some great duelling books in. Somewhere. I know I put them around here...'

'I've come for some potions books sir. The boomslang is rarer than it was in 1919 and I was wondering whether this was a common theme to all ingredients or just that one.' The old man blinked and re-adjusted his glasses.

'Well, I believe I have some books on that in the back if you'd like to check them out.' Harry was about to decline, worried that the man was a Deatheater when Ray burst in the door.

'Harry, you'll never guess what happened in the potions store..oh hey Jak.' He grinned and waved at the old man who scowled at the boy.

'I can hardly keep up the appearance and attitude of a frail old man if your family is here can I Ray' The man huffed as Nathan and Lisa also entered before straightening, his appearance flickering a few times as it changed to a younger man dressed in muggle clothing with short black hair and a tattoo trailing down his neck. Harry blinked before staring; it was unlike any glamour he had seen before.

'Well Jak you could have waited for us to join before telling him to go in the back. He probably thought you were one of those dreadful English Deatheaters. Don't say anything, you knew we were coming, Tale saw us in The Leakey Cauldron and Fox had followed us in, they would have reported that we were with Harry.' Lisa smirked as she finished speaking before moving over to Harry.

'Harry, don't panic. We're not Deatheaters, we just want to help. We're sorry for tricking you but when you introduced yourself we had to move our plans forward. Tale and Fox will be here soon and we'll take you to our leader, Micheil.'

Harry blinked a few more times, his mouth opening and shutting in disbelief. Who were these people? The door opened once more to allow a female and male to enter.

'Oh Jak you couldn't have waited?' The female said tutting. 'I'm Fox and this is Tale. We've been keeping an eye on you today. Micheil is waiting to meet you Harry. And so that this doesn't take forever, I hereby swear upon my life and my magic that myself, Tale, Lisa, Nathan, Ray and Jak are not Deatheaters, nor do we mean you any harm. So mote it be.'

A wisp of blue magic swirled around her before dispersing. 'Shall we assume that since Fox is still standing that she has told the truth?' The man, Tale, spoke calmly. Harry merely nodded before being dragged through the depths of the shop by an excited Ray.

'Oh I can't wait for you to see the back. You're going to love it so much.' He babbled as the others followed with a grin. He pushed the side of a bookcase which flickered a few times before vanishing to show a sleek, metallic wall. A green light shone out a small hole in the middle and scanned the eye Ray positioned in front of it and then opened, sliding to one side to reveal a set of steps down.

'That was muggle technology wasn't it?' Harry asked, curious despite his fear.

'Sure was mate, it scanned my iris to make sure I really am Ray. It has to be safe otherwise there's no point in having a secret headquarters. There are cameras in the ceiling connected to the security office to make sure we're not bringing anyone un-allowed down here. As soon as this door opens, the front door to the shop closes and locks itself, just in case yanno.'

Within moments they were standing in a large room, the walls, floor and ceiling the same grey metallic material.

'Right, Fox and I have to submit our surveillance reports. We'll catch you later Harry' Tale said before they left through a door to the right as a man entered through the one in front of them. Like Jak he was dressed in muggle clothing, although his was more of a business suit.

'Ah, Harry Potter. I must admit that I wasn't expecting you for at least another two weeks, but I am glad that we could meet today; I really must talk to you. Crews, thank you for supervising Harry. Fox had reported that he took a bus but we didn't know that you were in the area; it is most fortunate. Please feel free to go to the training area or join us in our chat.' Lisa looked at Harry, nodding that they would join the conversation after seeing Harry's pleading eyes.

'If it is ok Micheil, it might be better for Harry that we are there.' The man nodded and motioned towards the door he had entered by. This will take us to my office.

Harry breathed in deeply before striding towards the open door. The lady, Fox, had already made a wizarding oath that they were not Deatheaters or meant him harm, and right now he would take all the help he could get. Especially those who could afford an underground base under Knockturn Alley.

Harry lay back on his bed with a sigh; it had been a long day, and one filled with surprises. The man, Micheil, had explained, along with Lisa, Nathan and Ray's interruptions, a great deal about the Shadowed Knights. The Shadowed Knights, or Shadows as they were commonly known, each member being a Knight, was a group set up nearly 25 years ago during Voldemort's first rise to power to try to defeat him. Unlike Dumbledore's Order they had not been ready at the beginning to oppose Voldemort and had been working underground since then. As Micheil explained, they had been primarily American until after the 'vanquishing' of Voldemort nearly 16 years ago. Harry had been interested to note that he had used the word 'vanquishing', asking whether he knew about the Prophecy. Micheil had nodded and recited the whole prophecy, stating that he believed it to be fulfilled already since Harry had defeated Voldemort moments after receiving the cut that marked him as equal.

Since then they had been gathering support within different factions of the wizarding world, especially the non-human sectors such as vampires, elves, werewolves, fae, sketes, giants and centaurs. Rather than just helping in an up-coming battle, each sector had been asked to actively join the Shadows and contribute to the Intelligence, the database of collected information that could be accessed tablets designed to work off both electricity and magic. Each Knight had their own tablet where they could access information, input raw data or processed information, or message other members of the Shadows, either individually or in a group message.

Offering this to the different sectors seemed to have a greater effect than Dumbledore's advances; the Shadows had been keeping tabs on his Order and what they had been offering. As well as being allowed through any of the thirty four entrances to the Base and being given portkeys and apparition codes, each sector had an ambassador that both lived in and worked in the Base. Each ambassador controlled the Shadows' interaction with their sector, passing on messages from other ambassadors and Micheil as well as the Brains at the Base.

The Brains were segmented into three groups; the Scholars, a division made up of both muggles and magic-users; the Experimenters, another mixed division which specialised in a carrying out a variety of experiments on magic-users and regarding magic-users, the Scientists, mainly muggles which took carried out experiments on muggles, working closely with the Experimenters to integrate magic and muggle technology. Each member of these groups were referred to as their division followed by surname, and Scientist Davies had taken a sample of his blood to run diagnostics on, both by a Medi-wizard and Doctor.

The Shadows aimed to cater to all needs and always had at the Base a team of Medi-wizards, Doctors and at least one Healer from each sector that was working with them who could be found in the Medical Bay or in their housing facilities across the corridor from the Medical Bay entrance.

From what Harry could see, Micheil had smoothly expanded the small Shadowed Knights group at the beginning of Voldemort's first rise to power to a large and connected group with, as the wizards would say, many tendrils of magic in many cauldrons, or, as the muggles would say, their hands in a lot of pies.

He had been introduced properly to his surveillance team while there, Fox and Tale as well as Kopp and Cole. They rotated in groups of two with twelve hours on and twelve hours off. Micheil hoped that now Harry was aware of The Shadowed Knights he might be making use of their facilities and the team could be used elsewhere, and having seen the facilities available, Harry was eager to agree.

Having been given a wizarding oath by Micheil to the effect that the Knights weren't going to injure him under Micheil's orders (although the man could not, in all conscience, state that none of the Knights would harm him or that he wouldn't receive injuries during training), Harry agreed to a few quick procedures that all new members underwent.

He received a permanent portkey, injected into the back of his big toes such that if he clenched his toes on his right foot three times in the space of five seconds he would feel a tingling in left foot big toe. If he was sure he wanted to portkey (as there was a chance it could be a mistake), he could clench his toes on his left foot three times in similar conditions and the portkey would activate. As most of the time he would have his shoes on, this method would ensure the secrecy and security of the portkey, and even with shoes off, there was no indication of the injections so he could be searched from head to toe and, as long as he had both feet, he could be portkeyed away from most, if not all situations. The Brains were working collectively to see whether using muggle satellites to track the portkeys might mean that they would work even through anti-portkey wards as most wards were not half-sphere shape but rose straight up in the air as more of a wall. They had explained that as portkeys transfer the person's particles in a straight line to a set of pre-agreed co-ordinates, having wards that go over the top would be a waste of magic, but if the Knight's portkeys could be bounced off a satellite, the Knight would be transferred straight up before back down to earth.

In the rare case that he was missing a leg or two, they also implanted one in the inside of his lips so that he could chew through his skin, the portkey activating on contact with his saliva. When he had asked his the portkey knew whether it was lip or saliva it was in contact with, he received a rather long and complicated explanation to the effect that the Scientists had developed an exterior to the portkey, rather like a cell membrane, that wouldn't open unless in the presence of saliva as it was covered with receptors which had been tailored to specific molecules only found in saliva. It would therefore not be activated and opened by anything but saliva.

He was also given the standard Map feature; a thin membrane, three molecules thick, was slid under his skin, the Medi-wizards stopping the blood flow and allowing the Doctors to attach the membrane to his back, muscles and fat before healing him up, again not showing any sign of the operation. This membrane acted like a map of his surroundings, and he was taught how to find himself on his back. Basically, he was a point in the very middle of his back and any Knight in the vicinity of 100 metres either side or 300 metres in front or behind would be felt by him as a slight heat. He could turn the heat up or down on the tablet he received. The Brains had managed to configure the Map to link to any battle map in use by the Generals, his Surveillance Team or Micheil and Spotters could relay information on the location of civilians, combatants on the same side and enemy combatants which could be plotted on the battle map and tracked across to the Map on Harry's back. He could change the signals for each of these different groups on his tablet.

He had decided against any further upgrades for now as he wanted to get used to these two first. Micheil had agreed, suggesting that in a few days or a week they could look at using both muggle and magic means to either fix or upgrade his eyes. The word upgrade had made Harry a little apprehensive, but as Lisa pointed out, they were exactly what they were called; upgrades. They were improvements made to the organic system they were implemented in; improvements that wouldn't be made with training. It was almost like adding a Maximus to a Lumos she had argued, just giving it that little bit extra to allow the person to shine brighter.

He closed his eyes, feeling relaxed and comforted by the two heat blobs on his back showing the relative positions of Kopp and Cole. One of them had also added a small tingle to one side of his Map, the sign for enemy combatant, or as he knew, Mundungus Fletcher hiding in a bush; he had seen his foot through his window, the rest of him obviously behind an invisibility cloak.

Well, tomorrow was another day and he was going back over to the Base to find out more about The Shadowed Knights. Better get some sleep while he could.

Authors Note:: I know it has been absolutely ages since I updated this story, but I hope this is an ok chapter to come back on. I have taken it in a slightly different direction than I was planning at first, down the almost sci-fi track. I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect recently, so that may affect this story, but I hope to not completely copy it...although I might nick some parts.

Please let me know what you think, reviews and constructive criticism is always loved.

Rhi x