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SIYE Time:22:59 on 28th March 2024
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Return of an Alpha
By Miz636

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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:All
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama
Warnings: Death, Mild Language
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 409
Summary: For three years, Harry has been Becoming Alpha of Hogwarts. Now another Alpha is returning, bringing with him darkness, chaos, and battle. Watch as sides line up for war, and people and society change.
Hitcount: Story Total: 169564; Chapter Total: 4001





Author's Notes:
Thanks to Arnel for the quick Beta job. :)




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Chapter Thirty-Four


Harry was sympathetic toward Draco , now Draco Black. Just one look at his friend told Harry how hard this was on him. They had all been expecting Draco to move in with Harry, just not this soon and not because he was being disowned.

Of course, if Draco knew how Harry was feeling, he’d tell Harry to stop feeling like that and that he was fine even if it was obvious that he was anything but fine.

Sirius took them back to Grimmauld Place by way of the Floo, and Harry took Draco up to one of the Slytherin rooms in the house. Both boys unpacked the few things Draco would need immediately, leaving the rest in his bag.

They both knew, as did their friends, that this wouldn’t be where they stayed for much longer, so it would be stupid to unpack just to have to pack again in a day or too.

Actually, Harry himself had most of his clothes, books, and other things in bags, leaving out only what he’d need for the next two weeks so that it would be easy to pack quickly. Upstairs in the training room, Sirius had packed all but the barest necessities for training, leaving a single box in the corner of the room to put the rest in when it was time to leave.

Everything in the house was staying as wherever they were headed seemed to have its own furniture already.

“How are you taking all of this?” Harry asked Draco, knowing that he’d probably get the same sort of answer he himself had been giving out when asked about Cedric or the graveyard.

“It’s a bit hard to believe, but I’ll be fine,” Draco replied, just as Harry had guessed. Of course, it did help that Draco would be among friends and still had a powerful name, but it would affect him for a long time before he began to get over losing his name.

“Harry! Draco! Get down here, please!” Sirius called, and both boys shared a look before transforming and tearing from the room, racing to see who would be first to the bottom. Harry won because of his size, using it to skip steps easier than Draco’s fox.

“Boys,” Remus sighed and laughed a bit, shaking his head sadly as they changed back. “You’re just like Padfoot and Prongs were.”

Harry realized something and grinned at Draco before replying, “Well, it makes sense since we’re a Potter and a Black, right?” Draco stiffened for a moment before he grinned his agreement; all Remus could do was snort.

“Come on, you two, we’ve got some things to discuss,” Sirius said as he appeared in the doorway of the living room . The three followed Sirius and sat down on a couple of couches, the adults on one and the teens on another.

“Harry, you’ve seen pictures of the manor,” Sirius began, and Harry nodded. “Well, we’ve got it ready to live in, but everyone has agreed that we need more protection on the place.”

“What are you going to use?” Draco asked.

“We were thinking of using the Fidelius Charm, at least until the war is over and we can remove it again,” Remus told the teens.

“Who would be the Secret Keeper?” Harry asked almost immediately.

“Samantha offered to do it as no one would expect one of the Greengrasses to be the Secret Keeper, let alone the mother,” Remus replied, and Harry grinned slightly at the truth of the statement.

“We’re going to do the charm in three days, but we’ll bring you both there tomorrow to see the house and transfer most of your stuff so that you’ll be able to live there almost immediately,” Sirius added.

“Who’s coming to live with us?” Draco asked curiously.

“The Davises and the Greengrasses for sure,” Remus said, thinking it over. Harry was the only one to notice Draco blush slightly when he heard the Greengrasses mentioned; he made a mental note to ask his friend about it later. “I believe Samuel mentioned that Theo was going to be coming with them, and you know that Susan’s aunt has been trying to convince Susan and Hannah’s families to allow them to join you for the summer, even if their parents don’t.”

Harry had been in contact with Amelia Bones once or twice while she and Sirius had been writing at least twice a day back and forth. It seemed she was among the few to realize that there was a third side not under Dumbledore’s control that was still against Voldemort. She had agreed to try and get Susan and Hannah to the Black’s home for the summer so that they could train with their friends every day.

“We already know the Weasleys are going to be with Dumbledore,” Harry added a bit sadly, knowing it would translate to being unable to see Ginny at all this summer. “Still, Hermione agreed to talk to her parents, and I’m pretty sure Blaise will have it easy getting away from his mother.”

“What about Terry, Padma, Justin, and Neville?” Draco asked.

“Neville and his grandmother agreed to stay with us once Neville told her about the training,” Sirius said with a grin. “It was quite the amusing scene to watch when I picked you up and you were with Ginny. Augusta almost fainted from the shock.”

“Padma mentioned she was going to India with her family for a vacation,” Harry reminded Draco, “and Terry has too many family members to come stay with us. What about inviting Luna and her father?”

“I’ll look into that,” Remus promised.

“Is that all, then?” Harry asked after a moment of silence. “Because if it is, I think Draco and I could use some training.”

Draco groaned quietly, but didn’t complain.

“That’s it,” Sirius said with a nod and a grin. “Go have fun, you two.”

“As if it’s possible to have fun while training with this guy,” Draco muttered under his breath, making Harry snicker as he led the way from the room and up to the attic.



Harry woke up screaming, shooting upright in moments. Panting, he tried to calm his pounding heart.

Yet again, he had just seen Cedric die right in front of him, struck down by a flash of green light. The dream would then turn to the few memories he had of his parents’ deaths, using their words he had gotten from the Dementors during third year.

All he could do was be thankful for Silencing and Glamour Charms as they hid his nightmares and lack of sleep.

Getting out of bed, Harry moved quietly around the room to gather his weapons before heading up to the attic, silencing the entire room so that no one would wake up.

This was the third day back, and he had done it every day so far. Of course, everything would change a bit when they went to the manor the next day to move in after the charm was put on it. Harry was looking forward to seeing his new home later that day.

Opening a pouch of throwing knives, Harry began throwing them from fifty feet away , slowly moving further and further away to see if he could still hit the bull’s-eye on the target hanging from the wall at torso height. By the time he got to the other side of the room, Harry had gotten within the center ring with pretty much every knife he threw, though some almost missed the target completely.

Breathing only a little bit harder, Harry picked up his sword and went over to activate a dummy holding a sword in the corner of the room, moving back quickly as it scanned him to see who he was before going to the level it had been at the last time it had fought Harry. Typically, though, the dummy started upping the levels as it changed to match Harry’s new level after so much training for the Tournament.

Ducking a blow, Harry met the sword with his own to throw the dummy off balance a bit before swinging his sword again. The dummy blocked his swing, meeting it with a “clang!”

Moving quickly, Harry caught the dummy’s hilt with his and twisted the blade the moment the blades were trapped, sending the dummy’s sword flying before finishing with the blade against the dummy’s neck.

Clapping from the doorway made Harry spin around, sword point aimed in the direction of the noise before Harry realized that it was Sirius, still in his nightclothes and his hair rumpled as if he had only just gotten up.

“Why are you up here?” Harry gasped out, still breathing hard. Sweat dripped off his nose and plastered his hair to his forehead as he studied Sirius.

“I had a feeling someone was using this room after we were all asleep,” Sirius said, pushing off from the doorframe and entering the room, “so I charmed the doorway to let me know when someone entered it during the night.”

“I’ve been here for over an hour,” Harry stated. “Why are you only coming up here now?”

“I decided to leave whoever was up here alone for a while before coming up,” Sirius replied. “Now, tell me why you’re up here at four in the morning, claiming to have been up here for over an hour at that.”

“Couldn’t sleep, so I decided to burn some energy training,” Harry said instantly.

“Harry, you’ve got circles under your eyes and look as if you haven’t slept in at least a week, or at least not for long,” Sirius stated, walking up to Harry and catching his chin so that Harry was forced to look into his godfather’s eyes.

Harry closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see the accusing looks in Sirius’ eyes, mentally berating himself for not putting the glamour on even if he had thought he’d be alone for a while.

“Harry,” Sirius said softly, “has it been like this since the Third Task?”

Harry refused to answer, still keeping his eyes closed. He didn’t want them all to know that Cedric’s death was haunting him in his sleep, leaving him unable to believe that it wasn’t his fault for his friend’s death only a week and a half ago.

“You can tell me, Pup,” Sirius said softly, but Harry just shook his head in denial, not wanting to tell anyone what he was going through. “Fine, you’re coming with me then.”

Sirius grabbed Harry’s arm tightly and pulled him from the attic and down to the kitchen. Once there, Sirius grabbed a handful of Floo powder and forced Harry into the fireplace before calling out, “Davis Residence!”

Harry was thrown into the Floo Network and stumbled out of a familiar grate, stepping out of the way just in time for Sirius to exit from the fireplace gracefully. All Harry could do was glare at Sirius as his godfather took the pot of Floo powder and put it in his cloak so Harry couldn’t grab it.

“Sirius!” Harry growled. “What are we doing here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Samuel said as he stepped into the room, waving his wand to light some of the candles around the room.

“Harry here needs to talk to Tracey now,” Sirius stated, his arms crossed as he gave Harry a hard look. “It appears he’s been hiding the fact that he isn’t sleeping very well at all. I found him in the training room just a few minutes ago, and he had already been in there for at least an hour. Look at the circles under his eyes.”

Harry felt Samuel’s gaze on him, but didn’t look the man in the eye as he tried to think of a way home that wouldn’t leave him exposed to being kidnapped.

“Come on, Harry,” Samuel said quietly, moving to put a hand on the small of Harry’s back to lead him upstairs. He tried to fight it, but both men kept him moving until they were at the door to Tracey’s room. “Tracey, can you get up, please?” Samuel called through the door as he knocked on it.

Movement in the room told the three men that Tracey was awake and moving. Moments later, she opened the door and was shocked to see Harry and Sirius there.

“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily, though her eyes were alert. It only took her a few moments to see the circles under Harry’s eyes, her own eyes narrowing as the normally light blue turned frosty. “Harry, have you been sleeping?”

“That’s why we’re here,” Sirius stated. “I want to lock you both in a bedroom and have you make him talk. We won’t let you out until he talks.”

“Sure,” she stated in a hard tone, sharing the hard look that Sirius had been wearing since finding Harry training at such an early hour as she looked at her almost-twin. “Get in here, Harry.”

Tracey grabbed his arm and dragged him into her bedroom, the door locking behind them.

Harry hadn’t been in Tracey’s room often, even when he’d been living here, so he took a moment to appreciate the sky blue walls, silver trimming, and green carpet before she forced him to sit down on her bed, which was still a mess as she had only gotten out of it moments before. Sitting down next to Harry, Tracey took his hand and just sat there, waiting. They both knew her questioning him wouldn’t make him talk, not for something like this.

The room was silent for a full hour before Harry finally sighed, shaking his head sadly as sleep tried to take over again. He knew he’d soon be asleep, which would give Tracey the answers she was looking for as he’d soon be screaming again.

“It keeps replaying every night in my sleep,” Harry murmured softly, not bothering to elaborate as there was no need. “Every night I see him standing there next to me, as worried as can be by our new surroundings and my last words. Then I hear him say ‘Kill the spare,’ before ‘Avada Kedavra,’ and a flash of green light shoots at Cedric in slow motion, hitting him. All I can do is watch as his body falls slowly, hitting the ground with dead eyes, nothing I could do.

“Whenever I wake up, it feels like it was my fault more and more. He wouldn’t have died if I hadn’t suggested we both take the Cup and I had taken it instead. If I had put the pieces together, he’d still be alive, looking for a job at the Ministry or someplace else, not dead with his parents mourning.”

Harry put his head into his hands, feeling hopeless as he thought about the dreams and the feelings they invoked in him. Tracey began to rub his back slowly.

“Harry, we’ve been telling you over and over that it isn’t your fault,” she said softly. “Cedric didn’t die by your hand, did he? Did you purposely tell him to take the Cup so that he’d die because you knew it would happen?” Harry shook his head slightly. “That’s right, you didn’t! Harry, in this you’re just as much of a victim as Cedric was, possibly even more so because you’ve got the survivor’s guilt from it.”

Harry sighed, but knew that Tracey was right about the survivor’s guilt and that he hadn’t killed Cedric on purpose. What he couldn’t agree with was the idea that he was just as much of a victim as Cedric when he was alive and Cedric was dead.

“You are a victim, Harry, you are,” Tracey said emphatically. “Even if you’re the one alive, the emotional trauma you’re going through just proves that you’re a victim just as much as Cedric, just in a very different way.

“Trace, I can’t…” Harry couldn’t even figure out what he wanted to say.

“If you don’t believe me, then think about what you told Ginny after the Chamber,” Tracey stated. “Think about what Cedric told you when he came out of the wand, what his parents say, what Ginny says; bloody hell, Harry, think about what everyone has been saying since that night!”

Closing his eyes, Harry allowed words to come back to the forefront of his mind, and he realized they were all saying he wasn’t the reason Cedric had died. Even his own words two years ago stated that it was Voldemort’s fault, Pettigrew’s fault, Barty Crouch Jr.’s fault, but it wasn’t his fault.

“Trace, I can’t take the dreams much longer,” Harry gasped through sobs he hadn’t even realized he had been letting out as he remembered the words of others. “They’re eating me up inside, burning themselves onto the back of my eyelids so that I see Cedric or my parents dying every time I close them for more than just a moment.”

“Oh, Harry,” she sighed, wrapping her arms around him as he put his face into her neck and cried over the memories, the pain. “It’ll be hard for a while, and you’ll be fighting to keep going, but you’ll make it, and in the end, you’ll be stronger for this. Turn your emotions, your memories, into learning how to beat the bastard. You’ll get your revenge on the people who have ruined your life so thoroughly, but you need to fight what you’re feeling right now so that you’ll have the chance to do it .” His only response was to sigh, but he nodded his head slowly.

Harry couldn’t tell how long they sat holding each other, even after he was out of tears. Tracey kept up a steady stream of calming words until he finally succumbed to sleep.

When he woke up the sun was shining in the window. Looking around, he discovered he was lying in Tracey’s bed properly, and Tracey was sitting at her desk, writing in her Journal. Harry sat up, put on his glasses, and blinked at the light flooding the room.

“What time is it?” he asked softly, and Tracey turned to see that he was awake.

“Just past four in the afternoon,” she replied. Harry was so shocked that he had slept that it must have shown on his face. “Mum, Dad, Remus, and Sirius all said it was the emotional and physical exhaustion kicking in at the same time. You needed the sleep, so your body gave it to you.”

“No nightmares,” Harry whispered. “Wait, did I have any nightmares?”

“You slept peacefully, though you were frowning slightly the entire time,” Tracey said, putting her pencil down on the desk. “Come on, Mum said to bring you downstairs for something to eat when you woke up. Once you’ve eaten, you and I will meet Sirius, Remus, and Draco at the new house.”

Harry got up and moved slowly to be sure he was awake before following Tracey downstairs into the kitchen. Daniella was there and smiled when she saw him. Soon enough, he had a plate with some leftover roast on it from the night before, or so he gathered, and Tracey was snacking on some biscuits as he ate.

When he finally finished, Tracey dragged him to the Floo and told him to go to “Marauder Manor.” Grinning, Harry did as ordered, swirling out of sight into the green fire.

When Harry got there, he was in a room that seemed to only house the Floo as it was a small room with a place for cloaks and shoes, most likely for guests.

Dusting himself off, Harry waited for Tracey, who appeared a moment later. Together, they set off into the new house, and they were shocked to realize the word manor really did describe the house.

While it had a homey feeling, the entire place reminded Harry of Tracey’s house on a larger level. There was a corridor leading off into different rooms including a large enough living room to hold a party with all his friends in it, a kitchen with a few house-elves, a dining room to seat thirty, another dining room to seat more like eighty people, and then there was a stairway that went both upstairs and down.

Downstairs, the entire place was a training area, half of it like the attic on a larger scale — more like the Room of Requirement, if he thought about it — and the other half a swimming pool. There was a doorway off to the side that led to a very nice potions lab with even a few areas for personal potions that could be warded to keep others out.

The second floor was mostly made up of a library and a few studies that were obviously for the different adults that would be living there for the next little while. Up on the third floor were about twenty moderate-sized bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom and shower; as with Grimmauld Place, some were in each color of the four Houses. Finally, the fourth floor had a four master bedrooms and a smaller bedroom that was larger than the ones downstairs.

It was obvious the final, smaller, bedroom on this floor was Harry’s as the walls had the same design and spell on them as his room at Grimmauld Place did. The difference was the ceiling worked almost identically to the Great Hall’s ceiling, showing the sky depending on the time of day, and the floor beneath them was a forest green carpet. Plus, when they looked in his wardrobe and dresser, they found Harry’s clothes already unpacked.

When the pair went outside after being amazed by the inside, they grinned and shook their heads as they had finally found the three they were looking for.

Draco’s blond hair was shining in the sun as he flew around the Quidditch Pitch with a Quaffle under his arm. He and Sirius were trying to score against Remus and failing miserably because Sirius was not a very good Chaser.

“Harry’s awake!” they heard Draco call as he caught sight of them after scoring.

Just a few seconds later, all three were landing in front of the pair, Sirius and Remus looking more worried than Draco, though all there were certainly worried.

“Are you okay, Cub?” Remus asked, looking Harry up and down. “How are you feeling?”

“Sleepy,” Harry said with a half-grin as he tried to shake off the feeling that always stayed with a person after a lot of sleep or not enough.

Sirius snorted while Draco grinned and Tracey just rolled her eyes.

“He’s only been awake for an hour at most,” she informed the three, “and while you all know it he doesn’t realize he fell asleep at around six or so.”

“I did?” he asked, blinking in surprise. It hadn’t felt like it was six when he fell asleep.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I had to call Sirius and my dad to let me out because you were asleep.”

“We came in and got you settled in her bed,” Sirius supplied. “You had tears on your face still, by the way,” he said more quietly, but Harry wasn’t all that embarrassed by Draco and Tracey knowing about it.

“I’ll be okay,” he sighed. “It might take a while, but I’ll be fine in the long run. Just bear with me not sleeping much for a few weeks, okay?”

Draco nodded right away, but Sirius and Remus looked over at Tracey, who nodded slightly, before agreeing. When Harry caught her eye, he understood: She hadn’t told anyone what the problem was, just told them that he had told her and was working on getting over it.

“Now come on, I want a chance to use that new training room,” Harry said with a grin as Draco groaned and Tracey giggled almost silently.

“You just live to torture him, don’t you, Harry?” she asked quietly as they walked towards the house, Draco going to put his broom away first.

“You know it,” he replied with a grin before taking off at a run and calling, “Race you!”

He heard a mixture of a laugh and a growl before Tracey raced to try and catch up to him.



Albus Dumbledore looked down at the little, silver object in front of him, frowning a little with no twinkle in his eyes. A scene of Harry Potter racing across a lawn was visible to him, Tracey Davis catching up and tackling him before tickling the boy.

Tapping the object with his wand just before they reached the house, Dumbledore put it away, his mind full of worry.

He knew that if he could find Harry with a simple object like that, which wasn’t as good as normal scrying was, then that meant Lord Voldemort could find Harry just as easily.

This couldn’t be a good thing, not with the Prophecy and Lord Voldemort knowing half of it while trying to get the other half in the Department of Mysteries.

No, Albus Dumbledore now knew that Harry wasn’t safe with his friends and family, or at least not those specific friends. Harry Potter had to be moved to a place where Dumbledore could watch and protect the boy for his own good. If he didn’t keep the boy alive, Voldemort would take over without being stoppable.

Sighing, Albus Dumbledore tried to devise a way to get a hold of the teen.

AN: So… foreshadowing at the end there, and I’m expecting sparks to fly in the next chapter. Your opinions on any of the chapter? I’m curious.
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