A/N: I AM SO SORRY. It's been a month since I updated. I'm a horrible human being. Please don't murder me...

On the bright side, this chapter reached 5.1k words :)

So far, the longest chapter in this soon to be ending story. I sort of want it to end so I can have 1 completed novel-sized work on here...but I also don't.

Regardless, I hope all of you enjoy this chapter. I worked pretty hard on it since some events that occur in it have been in my head since the beginning of the fic. I love you all, and thank you for your reviews. I can't express how happy they make me since writing is my life!

Enjoy!

P.S: This chapter is not beta edited yet, but I did my best. I iz perdy sure it has no grammar mistakes. This note will be removed once it is.

Chapter 23

A house of cards is a very fragile thing. The symbolic blood, sweat, and tears it takes to build such a structure is only the more devastation when it falls.

That's what those few moments felt like to Harry. A shattering feeling when in an instant all his hard work was on the floor. Every lie he'd told. Every second he spent hiding behind fake smiles and words of reassurance that they could trust him. Wasted.

The young wizard was only speechless for mere seconds. Instincts kicked in like a blow to the chest. There was no way he could allow the house of cards to fall. Not like that. It had been too easy—too simple. He couldn't accept that fate just yet.

If only he could've stopped time to gather his thoughts, but sadly, time was a thing Harry did not possess. He hastily stepped closer to both boys. Darren took a cautious step back while Mike was still frozen on the spot. The only words that escaped Harry's mouth were a series of unintelligible phrases with the occasional 'Mike', 'Darren', or the well thought out 'I can explain'.

Once Harry got to a close enough of to them, he dropped his wand and put his hands up in the air in the 'I come in peace' gesture.

From the way they were looking at him, he might as well have been the alien from that movie 'E.T' the three muggles had shown him.

Fear was expected in this situation. What wasn't was Mike advancing on him at lighting speed with glazed, unfocused eyes. Harry didn't know if he should be more concerned of the attack or how pale Mike's face was. At this stage the blond boy was either on the verge of fainting or throwing up on Harry.

Mike grabbed Harry by the shoulders both shakily and harshly. Even with the evident disbelief and fright written in his stare, he didn't hesitate to attack. If Mike wanted to fight him, Harry wasn't about to fight back. It would only leave more cracks on the already broken situation. Harry felt his back scrape bark as he was pinned to tree. He winced, but didn't struggle.

In all the commotion between the two—as always—Harry's friends came to his rescue. The young wizard had abandoned his wand but his friends had not. While Harry chose to act recklessly once again—not taking into account Mike's physique and visible insanity—his friends weren't about to let Harry take a possibly fatal beating in front of their eyes. Screw the circumstances.

Mike's face was close enough for Harry to feel his hot, ragged breath. His eyes were wild and afraid, but also determined.

"Where is Linda?"

Harry had been expecting a punch to the face. This question took him aback. In these short moments he had forgotten about Linda's kidnapping.

After finding out your friends are wizards, a being you had never before believed existed, this was not how he expected Mike to react.

"Mike!" Darren called.

Mike turned to see where Darren was pointing. For the first time he noticed the two people who he'd shared his sacred campground with pointing wands at him. His grip on Harry released. Staggering backwards, he grabbed Darren's hand and stood in front of him, both backing away.

Darren's head was visible from behind Mike's shoulder. Unlike Mike he didn't seem afraid. Darren shot Harry a strange look of confusion and sadness.

Mike's glare burned into Hermione and Ron. Hermione looked away, holding back tears. Even then, Ron looked the most pained. Mike had probably been the second closest friend the teen had ever had. The two had spent hours working on soccer training together only to later eating ridiculous amounts of food. It was a strange bond Harry had never shared with the enraged blond.

That didn't stop Mike from yelling "Disgusting Freaks!" before running off. He pulled Darren behind him.

The leaves rustled behind the two muggles. The sound reminded Harry of a falling house of cards. Everything had fallen.

Harry and his friends decided to leave the camp early. From the missing sleeping bags and backpacks, he assumed Mike and Darren did too.

Other than the school, there was nowhere else to go.

Walker High was a lot less welcoming than before in Harry's mind. Even though no one else had found out their identity, being there felt wrong. He had no right to be there after Linda's disappearance, none at all.

Harry texted Amber and told her he felt sick and not to worry. Not to worry. That was about all he could do to make it up to everyone; have them not worry.

Amber was officially the first muggle D.A member, but just like her, he didn't want to tell anyone else about Linda's disappearance just yet.

It was just about the worst decision to make at the moment, but Harry had to be sure that he couldn't rescue her on his own before getting others involved. Partially for their safety, but mostly for his sanity.

No one else was allowed to get hurt but him now, not on his watch.

Well...almost no one.

Ron and Hermione were completely against the idea of not telling the D.A.

"Not trying to make you any angrier, Harry, but I don't think you're in the right mind state to rescue anyone. Alone of all things." Hermione had said.

Ron simply scowled. For now they weren't really on speaking terms since Harry's impulsive actions had cost him his friendship with Mike.

Harry tried apologizing a few hundred times. From Ron's resigned sigh he knew it would blow over eventually.

After about half an hour of arguing and wrestling for the phone with Hermione—lots of biting and scratching involved in the process—she agreed. However, there were a few conditions.

He had 24 hours to find out where she was and rescue Linda with Ron and her following closely behind. If he failed, the D.A would take over.

Lucky for Harry, he did have a plan in mind. Calder had given him a map to Mr. Short's location. Harry was willing to bet that was the same place Linda was. After sharing this information with Ron and Hermione, he told them to get ready. They were leaving ASAP.

But first, there was something Harry had to do.

As stated before, almost no one would get hurt now. Cole was an exception.

After searching around the school, Harry finally found him. The witch hunter was exiting the boys' bathroom when he ran into Harry's fist.

Cole fell to the ground only to be lifted by his shirt collar and pinned against the brick wall.

Barely coming to his senses, he looked at Harry with a startled "What the bloody hell is your problem!?" Cole managed.

"What's my problem? My problem?!" Harry spat. "I'm not the one going around kidnapping the innocent!"

His eyes went wide. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Potter."

Harry gritted his teeth. "Don't play dumb with me! You and I both know what you are. Just as you know what I am." He said darkly.

The young wizard was surprised to see Cole look slightly ashamed. He struggled to free himself from Harry's grip, kicking and punching to no avail. Even though most students were away at camp, Harry had managed to draw in a crowd.

"What do you want?" Cole asked. He finally stopped struggling.

"Answer this," Harry said. "Who is Agnes?"

Cole was a short, baby-faced teen. Other than his association with witch hunters, nothing about him had ever quite been physically threatening. Not until now. As soon as Harry mentioned the name 'Agnes', something snapped inside of Cole.

His light, cloudy sky eyes changed along with his frightened expression. The anger inside looked as though a shadow had crossed the irises. The daytime sky in them now resembled stormy weather.

The young teen knew he crossed some sort of invisible line.

With strength Harry didn't know Cole had, the muggle lifted his body up and kicked Harry—hard—in the abdomen.

Harry fell backwards, releasing his hold on Cole. All the wind was knocked out of him. Had he had breakfast that morning, it would've left him too. Harry clutched his stomach, unsure of what the hell just happened.

Cole didn't waste time and began kicking Harry while he was down. Again, Harry resorted to grabbing his shirt and pulled Cole down to the ground with him.

The fight was a messy and confusing fight—biting, more kicking, punches, childish hair pulling, you name it. Sadly, it was abruptly cut short when the headmistress finally arrived.

"What on earth is going on here?" Said a stern voice.

Harry had been at walker high for weeks, and had only ever had slight glances of the headmistress and founder of the school when passing her in the hall.

She was a pretty, thin, middle aged woman with shoulder length chocolate colored hair. Judging by her physical features, she had a kind-like appearance, sort of like a cookie baking mother. Harry was reminded of Mrs. Weasley.

Though, Harry was willing to bet that she wasn't about to treat them too kindly at the moment.

Needless to say, not the best first impression.

Not that it stopped Harry and Cole from continuing at their fun.

"Mr. Quinn, stop this at once!" the headmistress ordered, unaware of Harry's name.

But Cole and Harry continued on. If one wouldn't stop, the other wouldn't either. There was no way Harry was letting that dwarf get the last punch. The feeling was mutual.

Harry's wish was granted when Cole's abruptly ceased to attack him after headmaster spoke again. "Cole, don't make me call your parents!"

After one last satisfying punch to the gut of the witch hunter, Harry stopped as well. Had it been Dumbledore, Harry would've obeyed immediately. It's not like this headmaster had much to threaten him with anyway. The young wizard had no parents he could call, or much of a reason to want to be at this school anymore.

Part of him wanted to get another punch, this time at Cole's face. However, he decided to listen to the authoritative figure in front of him. Mostly because he felt sorry for her. It must be hard to break up student fights without magic.

"Up! Both of you!"

The laughing and whispering muggle crowd around them reminded Harry of when he used to get in fights with Dudley at his old school.

With no Dursleys to assure he was the only one to be punished, Harry didn't terribly mind walking with Cole to the headmistress's office.

"Oh honestly," she complained. "You get fired from the newspaper club, begin to constantly skip your classes, and now this?

What on earth has gotten into you Mr. Quinn?"

Cole didn't answer, his gaze fixed on the ground, ashamed.

Harry sniggered.

"And you," she began.

Cole looked up, a smile creeping on his face.

"Don't think that just because you're an exchange student that spares you any trouble. If anything, it increases it. This is absolutely no way to behave at my school."

They reached her office. Harry took a deep breath and braced himself. So far, he didn't dislike the Headmistress, but if his judgement was right, and she was anything like Mrs. Weasley....well...no one likes an angry Mrs. Weasley.

If a muggle headmaster's office could ever resemble at all the one of Albus Dumbledore, this was it.

A vast aqua blue room surrounded by two towering bookshelves on opposite sides. Sparkling snow globes and various ornaments on shelves were enough for this to be a small gift shop. Portraits of famous figures were also part of this strange array of things. These—of course—were motionless, and a bit dull.

A couple jars with mysterious substances were splayed out randomly in different areas. It was both orderly and a complete mess.

Cole didn't give anything a second glance and sat down almost automatically. Harry wondered how much academic trouble witch hunting caused Cole that the Headmistress' office would become a routine.

Harry sat on the identical bright blue cushioned chair next to Cole. He noticed the silver name plate on her desk.

'Eva L. Gray. Headmistress.'

He couldn't believe that after all this time he had never learned her name. Not that it mattered when the scolding began.

She grumbled something about endless detention while sorting through some files in her desk cabinet.

"Ah, here we are. Exchange student records," she said. "Your name?"

"Harry Potter."

After a minute of searching through them, she looked up with a puzzled look on her face. "How odd," Eva said. "Albus had mentioned that most exchange students lived on the country side...

"But to have not telephone number to call? How mad!"

Cole gave Harry a side glance, not looking at all surprised with the headmistress' discovery.

Most wizarding families didn't own a phone. The lacking numbers of muggleborns at school didn't leave much contact options on the files.

"I suppose we could mail your parents. That's all the others give me the chance to do anyway."

She pulled out Harry's file. It was empty.

Cole must've stolen that too.

To answer Eva's unasked question he said "I have no parents," Harry told her, attempting to look embarrassed. "My aunt and uncle refused to give the school their contact information."

Harry received a strange look from Cole. No, Harry was not covering for him. The stressed boy simply didn't need this woman to spend hours finding a way to retrieve files that were now at the hands of far off witch hunters.

The faster he got out of here to save Linda, the better.

A sympathetic look crossed her face. Bingo.

"Alright, but maybe I should still inform Albus? It's your first strike. I suppose no such events will take place in the future?"

"None at all." Harry assured her.

"You on the other hand, Cole, have been causing quite a lot of trouble lately."

"Please don't call my father." Cole pleaded.

She sighed exasperatedly. "I suppose I could make this your last chance.

She stared at both of them and said. "Detention for a week."

Fair enough, Harry thought.

Cole's shoulder's relaxed. Just when they thought they had escaped any further punishment, she asked "What exactly brought on this fight between the two of you?"

Neither had a prepared answer to that question. Both boys looked at each other.

"I have no idea professor," Cole was quick to answer. "I was just walking out of the loo when this lunatic attacked me."

'Oh I am NOT playing along to that story...even if it was partially true.'

"Is this true, Harry?"

Harry glared at Cole. "Absolutely not. I had a reason. This deranged dwarf has been bullying me and my friends since we got to this school."

Bullying. A very light term for attempted murder.

"You'd know a lot about dwarfs, wouldn't you, Potter?" Cole shot back.

"Just who do yo—

"ENOUGH!"

Silence followed. The tension filled air was an obvious clue that they'd crossed the line. However, what she said next was far worse than Harry expected.

"Go back to your dorms. We'll finish this discussion tomorrow."

Yes, it indeed sounded as if this woman had let them off the hook. But Harry knew better. He had seen that look before after a fight. Lots of experience with aunt Petunia allowed him to acknowledge what would come next.

No, this was beyond not over. While Cole and he were away, she would plot the perfect punishment to make them reflect on their actions. They didn't just cross the line; they had stumbled miles beyond it.

Cole's expression was seemingly oblivious to this. At least Harry had his opponent's suffering to look forward to.

Harry was about to turn the corner and finally depart from the company of Cole when he felt a hesitant tap on his shoulder. He turned to find Cole's staring at the ground, a paper in hand. He gave it to Harry.

"I'm supposed to give you this." Cole said drily.

Harry took it, knowing this was probably no birthday party invitation.

'We have her. Log cabin at Lake Shore Terrance. Come alone.'

Cole was already walking away by the time Harry finished reading.

"Cole?" Harry said. The witch hunter didn't turn to face him.

"What?"

"You hurt her, you die."

Near the entrance to the boys' dorms, Andrew stopped Harry in the hallway.

"Here's Ron's new room key." Andrew told him. His usual bored expression didn't falter at Harry's horrified one. "A letter was delivered to the Deputy Headmaster saying a change was requested. You'll be rooming with Darren and Ron with Mike 207. I would've given them to him myself, but I sort of have a Halloween ball to plan."

"I think there's been a mistake," Harry tried.

There wasn't. He cursed himself for telling Amber to make those arrangements. Given the circumstances now, this was not the best moment to be roomies with the muggles.

"Any complaints can be taken up to the office." Andrew obviously couldn't be bothered to continue this conversation.

"Emily is looking for Linda to tell her she'll be rooming with Hermione. Any idea where she is?"

Harry hesitated, and then spoke. "Camp. I'll tell her myself, thanks."

Andrew shrugged and gave Harry the key to his tomb.

He shoved the key in his pocket, not wanting to think about the night to come. For now, his mind had to be one hundred percent focused on rescuing Mr. Short and praying that Linda was there as well.

Hermione and Ron stood at the dorm room entrance with grim expectations.

Nothing Harry could do or say would convince them not to come. The throbbing nerves he felt right now only increased at this friends being there. It was a trap, and they all knew it.

Ever since coming here he never felt so lost as to what do in this whole witch hunter predicament. Already having failed at keeping his secret, all that was left to do was try to rescue Linda before anyone else got hurt.

Maybe if he succeeded, he could take a bus back to the Dursley's until this rotten trip was over. Yes, it had come to that.

Ron opened the door to he and Harry's old room. Now it was Harry and Darren's. Lucky for all of them, it was empty.

Harry opened the closet and pulled out the backpack Dean and Seamus had given them—not that there was much hope that some knockout gas would fair too well against the impending threat—and the two broomsticks from trunk.

Hermione wrinkled her nose in disapproval but kept quiet. It was their only ride after all.

"Alright, you ready?" Harry asked them.

"As we'll ever be," Ron answered.

"If you die, I going to kill you," Hermione told Harry, eying him worriedly.