Tom sat as close to Harry as he dared, despairing a bit. No amount of soothing words seemed to get through to Harry.

"Tinker!" Tom barked. The small elf appeared and looked at Harry worriedly.

"Is Harry Potter being okay?" He whispered, sadness enveloping the small elf like a cloud as he looked over the boy's shivering form.

"No, he isn't." Tom hesitated. He desperately wanted to summon Severus. But getting Rosier into prison was important. "Would you fetch Rosemerta? Tell her it's urgent."

Tinker popped away immediately, leaving Tom to whisper "You're safe Harry, please answer me."

"He's in shock. Likely the very ... explicit... descriptions of the tortures Rosier had planned for him sent him into this state."Yvane said in a worried tone.

Rosemerta entered the room, Molly and Petunia stood at the doorway, halting in horrified silence. Rosemerta sat on the other side of Harry and looked at Tom in trepidation.

Tom nodded toward the discarded Daily Prophet. "He saw the article with Rosier's transcript in it."

There was a muffled curse from all the witches. Rosemerta glanced at Molly and Petunia, uncertainty in her eyes.

"Hold him, Rosemerta, talk to him." Molly urged in a rather loud whisper. Lenghty experience with her own children had taught her when physical comfort was needed – whether the children wanted it or not.

Rosemerta nodded and drew Harry's struggling form into her arms, rocking him and murmuring reassurances. Harry continued to squirm and whimper for several minutes, but finally calmed enough to lean into Rosemerta's embrace. Tom summoned a calming draught and the two of them got him to slowly drink it, the glass vial clattering against his clenched teeth.

Harry's shaking and rocking finally stopped and his eyes focused on Tom, who was still sitting in front of him, looking anxious.

"Tom?" Harry croaked, and turned to Rosemerta as he suddenly realized he was almost on her lap. He hastily removed himself and sat up straight, looking embarassed.

"Are you feeling a bit better, now, Harry?" Rosemerta stroked his back comfortingly.

The potion disassociated him from the overwhelming fears that had swamped him when he had read the article about Rosiers 'plans' for hearing that Rosier had planned to torture him was bad enough, but reading the details – all the many ways Rosier had intended to make him suffer...the horrific death he had planned. It had made his blood freeze and his mind blank out in panic.

He looked around at the concerned faces, feeling a bit ashamed to have made them all so worried. But Rosemerta just sighed in relief, to his surprise. "I'm so glad you're back with us – we're so sorry you went through this..."

Tom's eyes glinted and he snarled. "Those irresponsible gits at the Daily Prophet will be hearing from us. They should have warned us about the article – if they had to be so crass as to actually print such horrible things."

Hedwig winged in and perched on a chair next to Harry and started grooming his hair, hooting softly. The presence of his familiar calmed Harry even more, reminding him of when he'd been stuck as an Osprey and Hedwig had taken care of him.

Tom could hear Lucius and Severus enter the tent, sounding alarmed – Molly was telling them what happened in what she likely thought was a whisper, though they could easily hear her every word. Severus strode into the room, looking the still pale Harry over carefully.

Rosemerta stood and picked up the discarded newspaper and handed it to Severus. He read the article in question quickly. He looked more and more angry and crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it over his shoulder. It exploded into a ball of fire and rained some ashes onto the floor.

Harry was briefly distracted by his dad's display of wandless magic – likely fueled by his rage. Severus muttered something that had Rosemerta glaring at him in disapproval. Severus looked at Harry and Harry, suddenly nervous, stuttered out a "Ssssorry."

Severus – as well as the others – was startled by this apology. "Harry – you have nothing to apologize for. You would have to be an idiot to not be frightened by the things in that article." Severus quickly lifted Harry and enfolded him into a hug, then drew him out into the living area and sat with him on the sofa.

Rosemerta sat on Harry's other side and Tom positioned himself on an ottoman in front of him. Molly quickly saw that the family needed to be alone and shooed everyone else out of the tent ahead of her – especially Lucius, who was reading the article, now, and looking ready to explode.

Petunia hustled Lucius over to the Malfoy tent, getting him to his room that already had silencing charms on it before the colorful explicatives could be uttered.

Rosemerta reassured Harry that he was not a coward for going into shock over the article. Knowing that anyone wanted to do the things described in the article would make anyone afraid. Severus spoke at length about protections in place for Harry, and that people like Rosier would have to get through Severus and Tom, as well as Rosemerta to get Harry. Tom told him that there were many people who cared about him and would anything to protect him.

The voices and words swirled around him, making it hard to hear what they were actually saying, but he felt the warmth of their concern ... it told him he was not alone against this threat. The calming draught did it's job and he relaxed into a peaceful sleep.

He could count on them.

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Ron sat beside Neville's bed that morning, reading him the Daily Prophet. Neville was waiting impatiently for the Healer to clear him to go home. He felt a rather desperate need to leave this place ... where a Malfoy had helped rescue him from death.

Lucius Malfoy had stopped in his doorway several times. Neville had pretended sleep more than once to avoid speaking to him. He didn't know what to make of the man's concerned looks. The Malfoys were supposed to be arrogant murdering rats. It was especially difficult with Dudley at Lucius' side. Dudley had saved his life, and he was grateful. Moreover – he liked Dudley.

The whole thing was shredding his preconceptions and making it more difficult to hang onto his hate ... and his hate – for Uncle Algie, for anyone his grandmother identified as a Death Eater, for the much-lauded Harry Potter, for the cossetted Draco Malfoy, and 'Mister Perfection' Tom Riddle – it had kept his spirits alive and gave purpose to his plots and plans.

Now, though, Uncle Algie was dead. He felt gleeful about it – except when he heard his Grandmother weeping. He'd carefully separated people into pigeon holes – people he hated, allies and neutral parties. Now Mr. Malfoy had helped save his life and by doing so had kicked apart his carefully arranged pigeon holes.

Even Grandmother had slowly and reluctantly said Neville owed Dudley a life debt, and owed Mr. Malfoy – well, not a life debt, but he had helped and was now their host.

Neville shook off his thoughts - Ron had gotten to the part of the article where Rosier was describing his plans for Harry. Ron was looking increasingly green as he stumbled throught the list of tortures. Neville was getting queasy just listening. It must have been horrible for Harry to hear about this.

The full horror of what Rosier had been planning for Harry seeped into Neville's reluctant mind. But he didn't want to feel sympathy for Harry – and after all, he had tons of people looking out for him, Neville only had a Grandmother who was somewhat ashamed of him. Though Mrs. Weasley seemed to care for him, and Great Aunt Enid seemed concerned at times.

"Wow, can you imagine having a murderer like that after you?" Ron wheezed in fascinated horror.

All of Neville's hesitant sympathy for Harry vanished in a flare of rage. "I don't have to imagine it, thank you very much. I had my very own murderer after me - and he almost got me, too." Neville panted in fury. "I would be dead right now, if not for Dudley and ..." Neville couldn't bring himself to mention Lucius Malfoy – the man had likely thought he was rescuing Harry he told himself. "I doubt Harry was in danger at any time. Instead, I was in danger."

The illogic of that stumped Ron for a bit. Rosier was a determined Death Eater – just because he hadn't made it through Harry's protections didn't mean that Harry hadn't been in danger. But Ron was reluctant to contradict his friend at present. He had almost died, and Ron would have greatly missed him if he had lost him.

Before Ron could formulate a reply that wouldn't upset his friend, but might steer Neville back into more logical trains of thought, the Healer bustled in with Augusta and Molly close behind. Neville was scanned and pronounced fit for travel to his relief.

Augusta sighed and summoned her house-elf to pack up. Enid and the Higgs children had already left – Enid had been eager to leave, the children less so. Molly drew Ron to one side.

"Augusta would like you to spend some time with Neville for the next week, until he's up and around – he's likely quite lonely there in that big old mansion." Molly asked hesitantly.

Ron immediately perked up – a week in a roomy mansion with no older brothers pranking him? He nodded happily and ran to pack. The elves took all the luggage along to Longbottom Manor immediately. While Ron and Neville trailed after Augusta as she slowly left the Malfoy tent. The boys went outside quickly, but Augusta lingered briefly at the entrance where Lucius stood.

"Thank you again for being our host." Augusta said stiffly, but managed to also have some sincerity in her tone.

Lucius bowed equally stiffly, He'd stopped at the entrance to Neville's room in the tent several times, but the boy was sleeping – or perhaps pretending. He wished the boy was a bit more like Frank – more open even if it meant he had the ivory tower mentality of Frank as well. Instead he always had the suspicious, cold look in his eyes that was all Alice. It seemed all Neville shared with Frank was a love of plants.

None the less, as he bid Augusta goodby he said, "I'm glad the boy is alright, Madame Longbottom. For all that Frank and I disagreed on ... many things, I liked Frank."

Augusta searched Lucius' face carefully, but could only find sincerity. She finally nodded, her face less stiff, and left.

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Harry and Severus sat in the sand, looking out over the sea as the last of the tents and luggage popped away with Tinker. The two of them were the last, as Rosemerta had portkeyed away to tend her pub and the Malfoys – along with Tom, Petunia and Dudley - had also left.

"So..." Harry gulped so he wouldn't stutter. "...R-rosier will be kept in the French prison?"

"Unless the Russians come up with a veryconvincing explanation of how they would keep Rosier secure while they had him set wards." Severus shifted irritably. "The court was quite sympathetic to the Russian people's plight – they do need the wardsmiths. It's a very large country and they are spread quite thin. Luckily the newspapers did something useful for once and wrote quite lengthy and moving articles about the Russians' need for wardsmiths and the Guild was able to round up a large group of them to send to Russia to work over the next year, so the Russian ministry is satisfied ... for now."

Harry nodded, less disturbed by all this, now. The brief nap had restored his spirits and when he had awakened for a rather late lunch, most of the packing was done. He looked down the beach, watching the sun make its way down to set. It was really quite beautiful here, but he was ready to go home. The term home resonated inside. He felt quite gleeful to have a home to miss and return to. Harry turned to his father, giving the patiently waiting wizard a grin.

"Let's go home, dad."

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Harry's birthday was celebrated happily by everyone, except Tom, who had to see Dora off to the Auror Academy later that evening. Only seeing her now and then on weekends the first year was going to be torture.

The three boys received their Hogwarts letters on August 1st, causing a huge celebration. They had a feast near the swimming pool that included all the dragonriders and keepers in a 'thank you' for their support over that prior year.

Tinker and Dobby, who had been quite put out over being robbed of making Harry's birthday cake by Rosemerta's chef, Renee – had made up for this by baking an immense cake that looked like Hogwarts.

The gathering of fellow dragon-obsessed wizards and witches cheered up Tom a great deal and everyone admired the cake. Tom showed everyone the classes he'd signed up for. He'd badgered the riders and keepers – and even Yuan as much as he dared, asking what would help him the most. They had recommended a broad range, as one never knew what one would need at the reserve. Herbology and Potions were important, of course – as well as Care of Magical Creatures.

Yuan had gifted Tom with a new, updated volume of 'Potions for Dragons' – a rare text that could usually only be found at a Reserve library, or in the possesion of a Reserve Potions maker. Tom ... and Severus had both lit up like Christmas had arrived. Severus had been asked to make a few of those Potions and had had the humiliation of needing to ask the Reserve Potions maker for the formulas.

To be sure, the Potions maker had eagerly given them, hoping to learn from a Potions Master, most likely, and he'd grudgingly allowed her to watch as he brewed. Still, it had been disconcerting to know there were potions he actually hadn't known much about even if he hadn't had any difficulty actually brewing them.

Severus could hardly wait to charm a copy.

Harry, Dudley and Draco had sifted through their books and found they needed a trip to Diagon Alley for some texts they didn't have. Harry had owled Mafalda and Martin, so they could meet up. Harry was glad he had sent along all the books about the various houses. He still hoped Mafalda would be in Slytherin like he and Draco planned to be.

The Diagon Alley visit was planned and they met with Mafalda with no difficulty. Lawrence Prewett was there as well – he had rescued a pair of dentists who had gotten confused after entering the Alley. He'd gotten them to Ollivanders and then Flourish & Blotts with their daughter.

The daughter was eagerly leafing through a copy of 'Hogwarts – a History' with a huge bag of books sitting beside her as they all settled into the Leakey Cauldron for a quick lunch after a trip into Madame Malkin's.

Mafalda and Hermione had struck up a tentative friendship. They had discovered they both had an eagerness to learn as much as possible during their time at Hogwarts in an effort to prove themselves to others in the wizarding world. Hermione, because of her muggleborn status, and Mafalda because of her father being a squib.

Harry had been a little put out at Mafalda's defection, although his penpal had been more interesting in her letters – she was much too 'girly' in person, which was a bit irritating – all that complaining at Madame Malkin's that she couldn't get student robes in anything other than black, with Hermione chiming in they should allow somethingother than black, since muggle schools allowed variety. Quite annoying, really.

They stopped briefly at Eeylops for owl treats and to check on Petunia's order for another Eagle owl chick. Petunia was totally moved into the Spinner's End except for clothing. She was waiting for the school year to start before living there full time. Building in the community was in full swing and she spent a great deal of time there, now anyway.

The Granger's found this idea quite fascinating and had a lot of questions for both Lawrence and Petunia. Lucius sat quietly beside Petunia, listening carefully. He knew any remarks his Death Eater training would have provided would be most unwelcome. So he listened and tried to think of what he shouldsay. It was surprisingly difficult, as he still had little knowledge of the muggle world ... at least not enough to remark on muggle dentistry or the need for computers even in a small practice like theirs.

"What I don't understand is how to use the ticket for 'platform 9 ¾' – is there a doorway or something to go through?" Mrs. Granger asked in bewilderment.

Lucius chuckled darkly, making Mr. Granger, who had been quite intimidated by the aristocratic Malfoy Sr. gulp just a bit.

Severus broke in, "I'm afraid some of the Professors forget to add that bit of information – there is an invisible entrance in the #10 pillar on the platform that only someone with magic can enter, your daughter needs to simply walk though it."

"Best do it at a run if you're nervous, Miss Granger." Lucius intoned with a smirk.

To his amusement Hermione simply nodded and said 'Thank You, Mr. Malfoy' – totally unintimidated by him.

"If you wish to see her off, simply have your hand on her or her cart and her magic will see you through the barrier. The barrier will let you back out with no problem – it only blocks muggles from the one side." Severus added.

In spite of not being able to follow all of the talk between Lawrence, Petunia and the muggles, Lucius did notice that they were quite intelligent. Arthur Weasley was always on about how clever muggles were and Lucius had always sneered in derision. Leave to Arthur to be correct about the damnedest things.

Interesting

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Severus listened to the Headmaster as he blathered on. He usually only paid attention to what was said about his potions curriculum, but as he had a child in whose education he was worried about going into the first year he was trying to listen more attentively.

He'd already created a froth by wanting Professor Binns retired. "He's become a disgrace, Albus. At one time he was a premier instuctor, and even after he died he was quite good, but over the last decade he's been getting worse and worse – he drones instead of teaching and has become obsessed with his beloved goblin rebellions."

There'd been an hour-long fight over that with Albus agreeing to consider at least adding an assistant who would gradually take over classes and ease Binns out.

Then Albus dropped his little bomb. "My friend and mentor, Nicholas Flamel is worried about his stone." There was instant silence. "We've all heard the rumors about stirrings among the Dark creatures ... he wishes me to make the stone safe here at Hogwarts."

"Here, with the students?" Minerva was not the only one alarmed.

"We will hide it well – and I propose we set a series of traps...and safeguards that will alarm if tampered with – we'll have caught anyone well before they reach the stone." Albus twinkled benignly at them.

Severus wasn't fooled and cursed under his breath. Albus knew stone would be something Voldemort would be panting to get ahold of. He hoped that when Quirrell got here he would have a few ideas for guarding it. The blasted DADA teacher wouldn't arrive until the day before classes started, but he'd sent his class syllabus on ahead – Severus had to admit it wasn't bad.

Severus glared at Albus and swirled out of the room with his flapping wildly.

Albus watched him leave with trepidation, Severus would be unlikely to approve anything that might even remotely threaten Harry. But the boy would need to learn to defend himself, and soon. The coddling must come to an end.

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Severus and Harry stood on the platform, looking at the bright red engine of the Hogwarts express. Harry and the others were bouncing in excitement. Draco and Dudley had already bounded aboard and Lucius had portkeyed Petunia to Spinner's End.

Harry took a deep breath. "Not really goodby is it? This time we'll both be at Hogwarts?"

"Yes, no more separations for us. Not until you graduate and decide what you wish to do." Severus smiled. "On you go – I'll see you tonight at the sorting."

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