Harry Potter And So It Begins

Raven arrives outside an old rundown house on the edge of a small villiage in Ireland. Walking up to the door he knocks three times and pauses for two seconds before knocking three more times. The door opens and he walks into a potion shop stopping just inside the door to allow his nose to adapt to the various oders around him.

"How may I help you young sir?" The old woman behind the counter asks.

"Start by dropping the act and given an old freind a hug, Laura." Raven smiles.

"Raven..." The old woman squeals as she jumps over the counter and runs over to him. As she hugs him the illusion fades away revealing a young beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with long shoulder length brown hair and smooth olive skin. "It's been forever."

"I know and I'm sorry I haven't been by sooner." He pulls away from the death grip she has on his ribs as he looks down at her and into her sea-green eyes. "I need your help."

She gives him a sly grin. "Personal, romantic or both?"

"Snape's dead and Hogwarts needs a new Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin," He tells her frankly.

"Oh my god," she gasps. "What happened?"

"He betrayed Dumbledore and helped Voldermort plan an attack on Nymph just to capture me." He informs her.

"That bastard, I'll kill him." She growls.

"I already did." Raven reminds her. "So will you take the job?"

"You know I will." She tells him with a smile. "After all, I still have to redeem my House's honor."

He laughs at her. "Still fighting the same lost cause as always. Come to the Island when you're done packing. There is still alot you need to be filled in on and I know the others would love to see you again."

"The gang's at the Island?" She asks happily. "Who all is there?"

"Everyone except Rachel," he answers. "But you'll see her at Hogwarts since she's taking over for Binns. I have to go now, I still need tell the others what's going on." He gives her one last hug and a peck on the cheek before leaving. "I'll see you there."

Raven arrives back at the Island at the same time as Sasha and a shorter woman. Though the other woman is actually the same age as Raven and the rest of his friends, she could easily pass for a girl in her early teens. With her short pixie red hair, emerald green eyes and freckled face Holly is often mistaken for one of the Weasley children

They are greeted by everyone and Raven fills them in on everything that happened since he was captured, including Snape's betrayl and the destruction of the Death Eater's island Fortress.

"That should by us a few days respite," Remus says while looking down at the floor. "I just still can't beleive that Snape would betray us like that."

"I can," Rene says placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Dispite what he may have said countless times over the years, Snape was always affraid of Voldermort. The thought of lossing Dumbledore's protection must have been too much for him."

"So he was just looking out for his own neck?" Charlie demands.

"Lesser men and all that aside," Moody began. "Fear is a powerful and an all too common motivator in times of war. If he felt that his life was truly in danger with Dumbledore gone then it stands to reason he would try and cover his own ass."

"Either way," Raven interupts them. "It has already been delt with and Laura will be arriving soon. She has already agreed to take over his duties at Hogwarts."

"But can you trust her?" Harry asks. "Slytherin's not exactly known for its good guys."

"I know that better then anyone." Raven growls as he looks at Tonks. Before the others can question him on his reaction he continues "However, Laura's the exception to that rule. She's the only Slytherin I've every trusted, Snape included."

"But what kind of Professor will she be?" Ron asks more then a little worried. "Will she be like Snape and favor her own House or will she actually be fair to the rest of us?"

"If you do the work properly and don't cause me any problems you'll do fine little Ron Ron." Laura tells them as she walks into the room.

"YOU..." Ron gasps in shock as he sees her. "You never told me you were in Slytherin."

Laura giggles at the expression on his face. "Well you never asked now did you. You just assumed that since I was dating Charlie when I visited the Burrows before Sixth I was in Gryffindor."

"Laura," Holly says as she hugs the other woman. "It's been ages."

Raven and Charlie laugh as the two freinds are tackled by an excited Tonks and Sasha. Everyone else also joins the laughter as the four women end up on the floor still hugging and giggling.

After breakfast Raven and his friends excuse themselves and meet in his room for their first talk together since their school days. He fills Holly and Laura in about what's been happening with the war and about the Order's roll. They quickly agree to join the Order as well.

Sasha tells them about what she learned during her time spying on the Death Eaters before having to help keep Holly from killing Raven for putting her girlfriend in danger.

Raven speaks with Tonks telepathicly for a moment before telling the others the truth about what had happened and why he left. "Oh my God," Holly gasps as her eyes begin to tear up. "I had no idea that he was even capable of something as horrible as that."

Charlie gets up and walks over to the window and looks out at the grounds below. "You should have trusted me bro. You never should have gone through that alone."

"You know why I didn't." Raven says watching his bestfriend. "I couldn't put you through that."

"So you let me believe that my Godchild died from a fall instead of trusting me with the truth." Charlie yells turning around to glare at Raven.

"It was my Godchild too Charlie," Sasha says standing up from her seat on the bed. "You know as well as I do that you would have killed Jasper too if Raven hadn't stopped you."

"So that makes everything better?" He demands.

"Get off your high horse before I knock you on your ass Red," Sasha growls. "You're not a murderer and you sure as hell aren't outside the Ministry's reach. If you had gone through with it the guilt would have destroyed you and your being sent to Azkaban would have destroyed your family."

Charlies anger quickly dies as he hears her words. "You're right," he says. He looks at Raven again. "I'm sorry mate."

"Forget it bro," Raven says. "It's over." They continue to talk and everyone presses Raven about his time in America with Tonks and Charlie leading them in nagging him about his relationship with Sarah.

"Fine," Raven says finally giving in. "If you must know Sarah and I did sleep together, once. Afterwards we both agreed that we were better off as freinds. I care about her very much but there's nothing else going on between us."

"So she's single?" Charlie asks. Laura smacks him as the others laugh at them.

"Yes," Raven answers. "But she's still gun shy when it comes to dating." She still hasn't gotten over the nightmares about the abuse. He thinks to himself.

Charlie smiles before dodging the pillows the girls threw at him. "Now what did I do?"

The next morning Raven begin teaching them Occlumancy with Holly's help. Since he only had a week before he had to leave for Hogwarts to prepare for his classes he would leave Holly incharge of their training until they got to school. Harry was understandably uneasy about the lessons until Raven explained that Snape's sink or swim method only worked for a few.

He has them sit in a circle on the ground before begining "Since this isn't something that can be easily learned I don't want you getting discouraged if you can't get the hang of it right away." He and Holly begin walking around the outside of the circle as Raven continues. "I want you to close your eyes and clear your mind of all thoughts. Listen only to the sound of my voice and block everything else out."

"Now inside your mind's eye I want you to imagine yourself surrounded by darkness and nothing else. Hold on to that image in your mind as you begin to build a room around it. Start with a floor before adding the walls and a celling. The room should be completely empty except for you standing in the center. Hold that picture in your mind and whatever you do, don't let go of it. This room will be vital to your Mastering Occlumancy.

"Now it is time for you to beging filling your room. I want you to picture a desk and bookshelves in the room. To fill them I want you to imagine that every thought and memory you have is a peice of parchment or a picture book for you to put away. Place them carefully and make certain that nothing is left out. Now imagine a door leading to the room and lock it."

Through out the day Raven continues to repeat his instruction over and over again while he and Holly peek into their minds to check their progress. Each night he has them clear their minds of all thoughts before they go to sleep and tidy up their 'rooms' when they wake up in the morning.

Near the end of the week they have all managed to create and maintain the rooms in their minds. "Now to move on to the next part," Raven says. "I want you each to come up with a type of Mental defence system for your rooms. These will be used to protect your thoughts from intruders." He gave them the rest of the day off to create their mental defences and the next day both he and Holly began testing their defences and giving tips where needed.