A/N: I own the new stuff. Sorry it took so long, I had a major case of writers block. For those of you who didn't read the "Harry Potter and the Deatheater's Daughter" series, I'll you who Gretchen is. She's a deatheater's daughter who transfered into Hogwarts during the fith years. She's very secrative, and though she isn't as shy as she was when we furst met her, she's not veyr trusting. If you like this series, I encourage you to read the last one. I'm afried that this isn't my striongest peice of writing, but trust me, it gets better.

Harry Potter and the Year of Darkness


Part One: The Calm Before the Strom

Boarding the train of the Hogwarts Express, Harry could see that the summer had changed everyone. Oh, Hermione looked like a sixteen year old girl now, and Ron's face no longer showed the awkward signs of boyhood, even Harry himself was taller, but the physical changes that occurred over the summer weren't the most important. It was the mental ones. Everyone grew up. That thing called childhood seemed to be over. Perhaps, for Harry, it had been gone a long time, and even longer had it been missing for Gretchen. But for Ron and Hermione, whose lives, though touched with some hardships, seemed sheltered somehow, this had been the end.
The fifth year had been the end of a lot of things. It had been the end of Fred and George's school. It had been the end of childhood. Most importantly, it had been the end of Neville's life. Death changes people. For Harry, death had brought awareness. He knew that he wasn't safe anymore, even in Hogwarts. For Ron and Hermione in brought growing. For Gretchen, it brought change. Big change, though it took a while for anyone to notice.
Harry looked over at his friends and events of last years dramas replayed in Harry's mind. The first was of Hermione slapping him. The second was of Ron helping Hermione run away from him. The their was of Harry hitting Ron. Then there were words.
"I knew that there was a chance of my death, of course, if I challenged him. For Dumbledore is a strong wizard, that I will never deny. I was about to go to you when my
faithful servant Herriet came to me, saying she had a way to get you out of Hogwarts. She explained it would take time, but months don't matter to me anymore, Harry. They
seem to be but only days. Gretchen's offer to act as bait was excepted. I came back to Albania, to wait.
"So here you are now, Harry. Foolishly going against your friends warnings and coming to save her from me. I'll admit, I didn't expect such defiance from Gretchen. I
thought she was loyal. But that is of no matter now. She had given me what I wanted. She has given me you. Now, you will die. You will die with a foolish girl. The second who was
willing to give up her own life to save you. Die with Gretchen Locus....for all my work on her has failed. Isn't it funny, Harry? The only two in the world who have a prayer of
stopping me will be destroyed in one night? I had hoped we could turn your friend like us but.....
"Ah, I'm getting sentimental. Enough of that. Death is waiting."
A longing was in Harry's heart. A longing for the simple times to return. Where they could be careless first years....wait Gretchen wasn't there first year. Why did that matter all of the sudden?
"We have to go," Ron said suddenly, before Harry had a chance to speak. "Me and Hermione made perfects. We get to sit with them up front."
"Oh, yeah," Harry said, suddenly remembering that Hermione and Ron had been made perfects and he hadn't. "Well, at least promise to sit with me at the feast."
"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione assured him. "There are some traditions that will never end." Harry nodded at her words, but he wasn't sure he believed them. In the world he could see, everything was falling apart.
"Harry try not to look so grim, you're depressing me," Gretchen said suddenly.
"Sorry," Harry snapped. Gretchen sighed.
"You could at least try not to be bitter, Harry. It's not their fault that they were chosen and not us," Gretchen said. "Besides, you can always go off and find your girlfriend. She'll be glad to see you."
"Then what would you do?" Harry asked.
Gretchen pulled something out of her bag. "I have a book," she announced. A few moments passed. "Well, aren't you going to leave?"
"Mandy's a perfect," Harry said, a grin forming on his face. The irony of the situation was simply amusing.
"Oh," said Gretchen. There was an awkward silence between them. "How have you been, Harry? I mean, I know it's been rough and I doubt anyone's been OK. It's been a rough year."
"More for you then for me," Harry said. "Why didn't you tell me, Gretchen?"
"There are lots of things I don't tell you, Harry, just as there are many things that you don't tell me. But I suppose it doesn't matter now. It's over."
"You're scaring me," Harry muttered.
"Good," Gretchen said, smiling. "So, what do you think about our new schedules?"
"New schedules?"
"You don't know! Hermione would be ashamed of you! Well, Harry, our classes this year aren't going to be as-what's the word-conventional as they have been in the past. We're dropping History of magic, for one. We're having two separate Charms classes, one that teaches average, everyday charms and one dueling class. We get to chose what we want to learn in Transfiguration, I think. Potions....well I'm not really sure what happens in that class, but it changes. We're adding classes, too! One's called magical theory. Then there are two others. One has something to do with mental abilities and the other in a course that's suppose to help us figure out what we're doing after Hogwarts, but that will only meet four times this year," Gretchen explained in a rushed voice. Harry blinked. This was going to be interesting.
"So, what do you want to do when you get out of Hogwarts?" Harry asked Gretchen. To the best of Harry's knollage, none of Harry's intmate friends had any idea what they wanted to do after Hogwarts. Harry had thought about it, and only knew two things. One was that he didn't want to be an Auror. He had enough Dark Arts chasing after him without chasing after dark arts himself. The second was that he would never play Quiddich professionally. He had enough fame to last a million life times. He hated it sometimes. If he played Quiddich he felt that he would become less of a man and more of the star people though he was. But what about Gretchen? What did she want to be?
Two brown almost black eyes looked at Harry. A wide grin spread across a pale face. "I want to live after I leave Hogwarts."
Harry laughed. "What kind of an answer is that?"
"A true one." Gretchen laughed with Harry this time.
"I'm serious, what do you want to do?"
"Actually Harry, I have no idea what I want to do, but I think I know what I don't want to do. I don't want my life to be monotonous. I want to do things. Lots of things. Not just one. I want to meet people. Lots of them. Because I really don't want to be alone. And I guess I just don't want to be miserable. I want to be happy," she said.
"I think you just stole all of my goals for the future," Harry commented. Gretchen shrugged.
"I guess that we just share half a brain or something." Harry laughed.
"Yeah, maybe." Harry and Gretchen were both over come by a fit of giggles. Even though most of the conversation had been totally lame, it seemed to make them happy. The witch with the food cart came bursting threw the door.
"Oh, another young couple!" she beamed. The laughing stopped.
"Me? Him? Couple? Nope, sorry,"Grtechen said.
"Of course, of course," the witch said, still beaming, not believing a word that had been said. Harry and Gretchen told the witch that they weren't hungry and she went on her way.
Gretchen started to read after she left. Harry didn't try to stop her. He had a book, himself. A Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six. Harry had read it twice already. Not because he was turning into Hermione and loved school all of the sudden, but because he was scared. Scared and worried. Harry had been so unsure about everything about the summer. He did everything he could to keep his mind from thinking. It hadn't helped much, but at least Harry could be sure his grades would be good.

"Welcome to another year," Dumbledore said in the great hall. Hermione and Ron sat to Harry's left while Gretchen sat to his right. All four were listening to Dumbledore. The sorting was over. There had been an unusually large amount of students enrolled in Hogwarts that year, and Harry guessed it was because of Voldemort. Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort ever feared, so naturally parents would feel that the old man would keep their children safe.
"I have a few announcements before we take part in this lovely feast. The first is that we have a new teacher joining our ranks. Professor Magnus Morryson has agreed to fill the possession as Defense Against Dark Arts instructor." The room filled with applause as a man who looked to be about Professor McGonaggal's age stood up. He was tall and had Auburn hair that was growing gray.
"The second," Dumbledore said as the applause grew quiet, "is that there will be Quiddich this year, however we have limited the amount of practices to one per week. Next on the agenda, Hogesmede visits will resume this year. There will be one visit every month and only if your permission slip is signed. And lastly, students are not aloud to wander school grounds alone. We will have designated outdoor areas that teachers have agreed to patrol in their free hours. With that said, eat!"

After the feast the students went to bed. The first week of school was pretty normal and yet odd at the same time. Professor Flintwick explained about the dueling charms they would be learning an how lessons would alternate each time the class met. The next class was Magical Theory, which they had with Ravenclaw. Harry sat next to Mandy, his girlfriend. "Welcome, sixth years, my name is Professor Chantel Avadwire, but please address me as Chantel, for we are all equals in this forum," their new professor said. Harry looked at Professor Arawire, or Chantel, as they would call her. She was an older woman, around sixty. Her hair was white and she kept it in a bun. She was considerably thin for someone so old, though not nearly as thin as Dumbledore.
"In this class, you will learn about the theory of magic. You'll learn about it's making's an it's history." A few groans were heard. "Oh, not the kind of history that dear old Professor Binns teachers! The history of spells! Things like how magic began and what it was originally used for. In learning how it started we van learn how magic truly works, and that, may friends, is why we are here. After all, you aren't going to learn every spell in existence at Hogwarts. You'ld be here all your life. With this class you'll be able to learn spells on your own, and if the prefession suits you, make spell's of your own."
They were asigned to read chapters one and two of their Magical Theory book, which Harry had already done at least twice. The next new class, Mental Ability, was tought by Professor Zachary Wington. He was a kind man of around forty. The whole purpose of his class was to teach you skill like apperation, and wordless magic. They were starting with something called Phantom Lighting, which, according to Professor Wington, was an easier form of apperation. When Phantom Lighting, a person reduced themselves into a small ball of light that could move at speeds much faster then eyes could see, but was still slower then apperation. Phantom Lighting was also a way some of the most powerful wizards dueled. The balls of lights would ram into eachother until one cracker. The pieces of the ball would fall together, revealing the wizard's dead body.
Of course, new courses weren't the only surprising thing that year. Transfiguration had been a cause of much excitement. "Well class," Professor McGonagall had begun, "it looks like you're all come to a bit of a cross road. I'm giving you three choices. The first is to continue with basic Transfiguration. The second, is to continue with basic Transfiguration and start learning about human transfiguration. Third, and I highly discourage this, is to drop Transfiguration. As of the point, the course is no longer required of you, however, it will still be on your N.E.W.T.s next year, whether you've been practicing or not." The rest of the class was spent in a frenzie of conversation.
"What do you want to do?" Harry asked Ron.
"I think I'll just keep on going with normal stuff," he said. "I don't reckon I'd be much good at turning into anything. What about you?" Harry though for a moment. He though of four young boys who had once walked threw Hogwarts. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.....
"I think I'm going to try to become an animagius," Harry said. "I mean, my dad could do it, right? I can to."
"I agree with you, Harry," Hermione said. "I'm going to try to be an animagius, too."
"Me three," said Gretchen as she sat down next to Ron, Harry, and Hermione.
"Where did you go?" Ron asked.
"I just needed to have a brief word with Professor McGonagall. Nothing big,"
Gretchen said. "I'm really excited. I've always like animals."
"Geez. I'm the only one not doing this," Ron said sadly.
"Then change that, come with us," Hermione pleaded.
"No, I really don't want to be an animal."
There was only one more new class-well, it wasn't really a class. Professor McGonagall talked with each student one on one about their future. Lavender brown got to go first. She was with the professor currently. Harry waited patiently for his turn to come. And all the while, something was bothering him. It was this youth that he seemed to have aquired now that he was back, and safe. Thinking those safe thoughts, Harry drifted to sleep.