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Bearer of Bad News Part 1

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Harry stood shocked. "So...so...are you Grindelwald's daughter?" At Lisa's nod, blasts of wind materialized and threw the furniture in the room into disarray as Harry partially lost control over his element. "How could someone be so cruel to their own daughter? I mean, I know what neglect feels like but even then, nothing my parents did could ever compare to doing experiments on your own child like a lab rat!"

As Harry gazed into Lisa's eyes, black orbs dripping with sadness, Harry found himself wondering about the injustice of it all. And yet underneath all that sadness, Harry could see a flame that burned, a desire to take control and live. Harry engulfed Lisa in a hug, her face now smeared with tears. Harry took deep calming breaths as his mind began to think logically again and started searching for answers. He wanted to go and confront Grindelwald about this but knew that that would amount to no good. What he needed to do was step up his plans to get Lisa out of here. "I promise I'll get you out of here soon." Harry whispered.

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"Hello everyone, my name is Simon Oswell and I will be your lead examiner for the day. The OWL to be taken today is the Potions OWL and it is the winter session of OWLs in progress. You have two hours for the written portion which will be followed by an hour long practical. You will find all the rules and regulations on the cover of your exam paper. Good luck everyone and your time starts now!" Simon Oswell was a short man, with huge spectacles. He wasn't a talented wizard but as a potions master, the ministry had no better man.

Simon observed the students taking the exam. There were about ten of them, and he knew most of them were taking this OWL for the second or third time, trying to pass again so they could fulfill the potions OWL requirement required by most good jobs. He had no doubt they were talented in other fields but he didn't care about that, it was only talent in potions that caught his eye. His eyes were glued on one student in particular, Severus Snape's protege. Snape was not known for his skills in teaching but it would be interesting to see how good this thirteen year old was.

Harry calmly finished up the written portion of the exam well before time and found himself waiting for the practical. When the time was up, the students were taken to potion labs specifically prepared for this portion of the exam. Harry found that it was the lead examiner for potions himself who was to overlook his exam.

"Mr. Potter, your assignment for this portion is to brew, within an hour, the cure for the Amortentia potion. You will find all the materials and instructions on the table, you may begin at any time." Simon Oswell said with a smirk on his face. Harry raised an eyebrow at the man, the potion was barely mentioned in the Potions OWLs syllabus, and the brewing was definitely NEWT level at the least. Looking at the instructions, Harry smirked. Some of them were similar to the ritual potions Snape had had him brew and he definitely had experience with those.

Simon Oswell watched in amazement and awe as Harry Potter sliced the ingredients to perfection and then started brewing the potion. His reflexes were amazing and he seemed to flow between steps required to brew the potion. He had never seen such grace in brewing potions in a student in his life. At the end of the process, a near perfect potion was ready and he doubted that he could have done better himself. Potions masters were highly sought after in the wizarding world and he knew that the ministry would love to get their hands on this young boy when he graduated. Harry knew for certain that he had just brewed himself an Outstanding by the look on the examiners face. He had cheated a bit, using telekinesis to help him cut ingredients but the examiner didn't need to know that.

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"Harry, Harry! Are you alright?" Harry stirred at the sound. Slowly opening his eyes and sitting up, Harry examined his surroundings. He was in the dungeons, and the room was lit by candles. He rubbed his temple as he remembered why he was here. Looking around, he spotted the communication mirror and picked it up. "It's alright Lisa, the ritual went fine." Harry said in a calm voice as he stood up.

"Now, to see if this body strengthening ritual actually works" Harry said as he punched the wall as hard as he could. "OW!" Harry exclaimed as he saw that his fist was bleeding badly. Lisa's worried voice carried over from the mirror but Harry ignored it, looking at the wall in astonishment. He had left a hole in the hard stone wall of the dungeons the size of his fist. His amazement did not last long though as pain shot through him again. Bone was showing at the forefront of his fist and he was beginning to lose blood fast. Apparently, he had forgotten that while the ritual did indeed give him the strength of a giant, his skin still remained as human as ever.

"Harry! What happened?" Lisa called out to him from the mirror. "Nothing, just a minor bruise. I'll talk to you later." Harry said as he cut off the connection. After drinking a blood replenishing potion, Harry packed up his stuff and made his way towards Snape's office.

"The ritual was successful sir." Harry told Snape. "Indeed?" Snape asked looking pointedly at Harry's bloodied hand. "Oh that was an accident sir, it happened after the ritual was already done." Harry explained sheepishly. Snape took out his wand and with a simple spell, bandages wrapped around Harry's hand. "Thank you sir, If I might ask, what is the next ritual I should undergo?" Harry asked.

"I'm afraid this is the last ritual I have for you Potter. Most of the rest in the book I have are either too mundane, such as growing animal like sharp teeth, or useless for you since you do not have magical reserves. So unless you come across another ritual text, which I doubt you will or create a ritual for yourself for which you would at least need mastery in both Potions and Runes, I think we are done with rituals." Snape explained to which Harry nodded in understanding.

"We will however step up your potions learning. So that you will be able to take your potions NEWT next year. After that you can choose a branch of potions you wish to specialize in and eventually achieve your mastery." Snape said. "I am pleased by your performance so far, including your outstanding in your OWL. In fact, it seems word of your potions skills have already reached the 'Worldwide Association of Potion Masters'. The ministry is already seeking to have you recruited, St. Mungoes has shown interest and finally, once you complete your NEWTs, Dumbledore will look to have you join his cause as well. There is also the possibility that the Dark Lord will return and in that case he will also seek to recruit you. This is the true worth of a potions master, you could choose fame by joining Dumbledore, wealth by joining the ministry and power by joining the Dark Lord. From now on, I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as you study potions, because which faction you choose to join will most likely decide your specialization."

"Thank you for laying it all out for me sir. I will think about it." Harry said, a bit overwhelmed.

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As a squib, I knew I could never take down a wizard in a fair fight, yet being an assassin is not about being fair, honest or moral. It is about getting the task done, killing someone by any means possible. An assassin needs to be quick, silent and have ultimate precision...

As Harry read through Master Li's journals, he became both enamored and disgusted by it. To kill someone without a moment's hesitation, without them even knowing they were going to be dead the next moment and without leaving a trace, it was both horrible and beautiful. Harry didn't know if he would ever become an assassin but every morning, he would go through the precision and stealth exercises given in the journals nonetheless. Harry also learned some nifty runes that, once applied to clothing, would allow the user to move both silently and unseen.

And he knew that his illusion mind tricks would blend perfectly with these techniques, forming a deadly combination of mind magics and assassination techniques.

Looking at his watch, Harry noted that it was midnight and exactly one month after he had told Dimitri to meet him in the Hog's head. Harry made his way towards Hogsmeade.

Harry spotted the old vampire sitting in a corner of the pub shrouded by shadows. Harry's first question after sitting down was asking about the containment wards on Lisa's room. "I am afraid I bring bad news master, those wards were custom developed by Lord Grindelwald. Only a Rune Master with sufficient skill could break those and I'm afraid there are no true Rune Masters in the Brotherhood barring Lord Grindelwald. The only way past them would be to break into Lord Grindelwald's office and steal his journals." Dimitri said serenely.

"This is troubling. It seems I'll have to break into his office." Harry said. "How soon could you get me a layout of that section of headquarters as well as other wards in the area?" Harry asked. "That would take some time well over two months though." Dimitri replied.

"Very well, have that done by the time the school year at Hogwarts ends." Harry said sternly. Dimitri nodded in reply. "How is the situation with the werewolves going?" Harry asked.

"There have been unusually quiet. I suspect they are up to something big. I have tried planting spies amongst their midst but it is proving...difficult." Dimitri said.

"They must be plotting something big. It is not like werewolves to keep quiet. If it ends up as violence, this will go down badly for us. Dimitri, as it is, the squibs in the brotherhood are all in disarray. There is nothing connecting them. I want you to sort of create an organization within the brotherhood consisting of squibs and the few vampires that we have. Nothing tangible but such that if in-fighting does break out inside the brotherhood, we should have a united front against the werewolves."

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The thick branches of the trees barely allowed any light to reach the ground. Harry squinted in the darkness, he could barely make out anything but knew to trust his instincts more than his eyes. It was well past midnight and Harry was deep within the Forbidden forest. He had been following his prey for long. He knew his prey was fast and would outrun him if it had even the slightest hint of Harry's presence.

A quick glance at his surroundings showed no change and he decided to take action. As Harry moved, his prey suddenly became alert but before it had time to register the sound, Harry was upon it and in one fluid striking motion, his enhanced reflexes and strength guiding him, Harry sliced the head of it's prey clean off it's neck. Quickly taking action, Harry drew his own blood as he began to draw runes on the ground. Once done, the runes activated, disintegrating his pray into ashes. A wind began to blow as the ashes found themselves carried away by the wind itself like a broom sweeping them away. A little more mind magic and the subtle changes in the atmosphere like the grass that had been stepped on looked as untouched as ever. The illusion complete Harry released a sigh.

There was no sign of anything that had happened. It had started out small, killing rabbits to improve his assassination techniques. It had seemed laughable at the start but he found out that killing them was not as easy as he had hoped without using any of his powers. From rabbits to deers. And finally to the Threstral that he had killed today. Perhaps he needed to move on to bigger and more intelligent things. He had seen an acromantula nest a while back but the giant spiders had tried to swarm him when he got too close. Perhaps now he was ready to kill their queen. Yes, to do so silently and escape without a full on confrontation would be a true test of his skills in stealth and assassination.

Suddenly Harry heard the sound of hooves. Looking around, he saw that he was surrounded by a dozen centaurs.

"We have seen you hunt in our forest. You are not welcome here." Said one of them.

Harry saw they had their crossbows pointed at him. Knowing that this was not a fight he could win, Harry decided to retreat and show off of course. Wind began to blow in a circle around him, this time picking up dirt and rocks from the ground. The centaurs were about to shoot when the circle of wind blasted outwards. Harry was already on the move, stepping past one of the knocked out centaurs, he had his invisibility cloak on him.

"Well, that was close." Harry said as he exited the forest. "Maybe next time I will go centaur hunting." Harry said with a smirk on his face.

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Harry was excited to open the package his mother had sent him, not that he showed any emotion externally. When he finally reached his room, he ripped apart the packaging. What fell on the ground was a robe. Colored entirely in black with silver markings on the back and hem of the robes, Harry could discern that the markings were runes of some sort. The robe was a beautiful sight to behold. Harry began to read the letter that came with it.

Dearest Harry,

I've been working on this for quite a while. Knowing how annoyed you might feel when you cannot use your wand for simple charms like a warming charm, I thought you might like a robe that could do those for you. I have embedded within this robe, every useful everyday charm I could think of, from temperature charms, resistance charms to cheering charms. Sadly, the charms are only meant for the wearer of the cloak and will decrease in their potency the more you use them. I expect this should last you by the time summer comes around. I'll be sure to recharge the charms when you come home.

Here's a list of charms and how to activate them:

...

...

...

Just know that I will always love you Harry,

Your mother

Harry was touched. He held the robe close to himself for a few minutes and could feel the magic that was imbued in it, his mother's magic. There was only a month left before the start of summer break. And the closer it came, the more he was looking forward to it. From getting Lisa out of Headquarters to creating an association within the brotherhood and hunting some werewolves to finally going home again.

Harry's happy mood lasted all day. "What's got you all giddy?" Adam asked as they made their way towards the great hall for dinner. "Nothing." Harry replied. He doubted anyone other than Adam could read him and tell when he was happy despite his occlumency shields in place.

"That's strange." Adam remarked as he saw that the headmaster as well as several staff members were missing from the head table. Harry too thought it was weird but decided to ignore it for now as he made his way towards the Slytherin table.

Most of dinner time passed before anything eventful happened. Harry was making subtle illusions to make a fool of Malfoy for fun when the doors to the great hall opened. Harry saw McGonagall walk in and head towards the Gryffindor table. Snape followed her in and headed straight towards Harry. Harry found himself feeling uneasy at the blank stare on Snape's face. "Follow me Potter." Snape said in a quiet voice.

Harry and when he looked back saw that John too was led to the headmasters office. Harry looked at John for any clue but found John to be just as much in the dark as he was. When they entered the headmaster's office, it was to see him standing behind his desk. There was no twinkle in his eyes as he told them to sit down. With a sigh, Dumbledore made a decision to be blunt. "I am sorry to be the bearer of such bad news but Lily Evans Potter was found murdered in her house as of one hour ago." Dumbledore stated serenely.

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A/N: Yes I know what you all might think but it was necessary. It's always hard to write these types of scenes. I'd like to know if I pulled it off correctly. Anyways thank you all for reviewing, it was mainly your reviews which helped write this chapter.

Well, ideas, criticism or simply random stuff, you can review to tell me what you think.

By the way, I realized why I have some grammatical mistakes. It's because I don't read over my chapters once I write them because I'm too lazy. Till next time.