Sorry, I know that the first chapter is pretty short but it will have to do until I finish typing the rest. I finished the Harry Potter book at 10:30 on Sunday night. No need to say that I was devastated when I read what happened. I feel so betrayed! I cried okay! I mean there's a part of me that wants to slap J.K. Rowling and then the other part of me wants to egg her on while she's writing the final book! I don't want to talk about the 6th book because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it. By the way if you haven't read HBP, DON'T READ THIS! Okay well I hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER ONE

" Who are you?" he asked rage audible in his voice and clear in his contorted snake like features.

" That isn't for you to know," replied the girl. She was tall with auburn, curly hair that fell to about her shoulders. She wasn't afraid as she kept her voice completely level and calmly stared back at her inquirer with fierce brown eyes.

" Answer me!" the tall man with the snakelike face demanded. His eyes growing an ever reddening shade of crimson.

" I am who I am. What should that matter to you?" she fearlessly replied to the monstrous man.

" What do you mean by trespassing here and stealing one of my most prized possessions?" the man asked trying hard to keep his emotions out of his voice.

" I merely came to secure a priceless artifact for my employer," she replied gripping the thin handle of a gold cup. " Though I apologize for my rudeness; my employer failed to mention that this house or its contents belonged to anyone." She gestured to her surroundings. Indeed, the house was barely that! The windows were decorated with broken glass and moth eaten curtains, the floor was full of treacherous holes from where the foundation had given out, the walls were covered with pealing and stained wall paper, and what was left of the ceiling was draped with cobwebs. This house barely seemed livable let alone own able.

The man merely sneered as he proclaimed, "I don't believe you." Then he whipped out a wand from underneath his cloak and pointed it at the girl while screaming, " Crucio!"

The girl leapt aside with amazing ability and continued to do so as the man began to chant curse after curse. She dodged all of what this dark, cloaked figure had to throw at her, clutching the cup all the while. Then he stopped, his wand still at the ready, and said, " Fight, you slippery harlot!"

She smirked and replied, " If you wish" She then looked at her opponent with a red glint in her eyes, squinted them, and then watched as her tormentor caught on fire.

He quickly doused the flames with ease and laughed, " You are a follower of Emrys, I see! Well then, tell me. What would the great Emrys want with a simple cup?"

" It is not a simple cup as you well know, Tom, and if you must know, we tend to destroy it."

This upset the man visibly and he narrowed his red eyes into long crimson slits and gazed spitefully at his clear enemy. He raised his wand the tiniest bit, took a breath, and yelled, "Avada Kadavra!" A green light penetrated through the darkness, flying like a long emerald knife towards the girl and-

Harry awoke with a start. He examined his surroundings and saw to his relief that he was sitting in his bed that resided in his cramped, bedroom at Number 4, Privet Drive. His head was aching and he realized that what he had wanted to be a bad dream was frighteningly not so as he reached up to place a hand on his burning scar.

It had been a year since he had a dream such as this one. Voldemort had been guarding his thoughts precariously since he came back from near non-existence. He must have been thoroughly angry to have let this one slip. And he should have been! The cup that girl was holding belonged to one of Hogwarts founders - Hufflepuff. It was in that same cup that Voldemort had placed a fragment of his soul for safe keeping. The cup was a horcux!

That word had haunted Harry for some time now. He knew that he had to find and destroy all of the horcuxes in order to ultimately kill Voldemort. He had all ready destroyed the diary and Dumbledore had destroyed Slytherin's ring; but Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, something that belonged to another Hogwarts' founder, and the snake Nagini was left. But that girl…..That girl had the cup that belonged to Hufflepuff. She said that she and that Emrys person were going to destroy it. Then….by this time she was probably destroyed.

Harry sat up and began to pace, no longer even considering sleep as a possibility. He needed to find that house. If only he could apparate! Obviously he could if he concentrated on what he saw in his dream, though legally he could not because he would not turn seventeen until a few weeks from now. Unless……

Harry walked over to his desk, snatched a piece of parchment from his trunk, and began writing. He wrote to both Ron and Hermione. First he asked them about who Emrys was, hoping that he was someone famous to the wizarding world. Then he began to tell them about the dream. He started to tell them about his frusatration that he couldn't legally appirate to the house but thought better of it and decided not to. Even though his friends volunteered to accompany him on his quest to destroy the horcuxes and kill Voldemort, he couldn't take the chance of them appirating him there and then find Voldemort waiting for them. Maybe he could try to appirate without the ministry knowing, after all he did it when he had to appirate Dumbledore to Hogsmade. Harry tied the letters to Hedwig's leg and told her to go straight to Hermione and Ron as quick as she could.

After she took off, Harry returned to pacing as he tried to answer questions such as: ' How do I find it?' or 'How do I destroy it?' and 'What if I have to face Voldemort before I can destroy them?' And it was with these thoughts that Harry paced the night away………….

CHAPTER TWO

It had been two days since he sent the letters to Ron and Hermione. He had expected an owl from at least one of them by now! However, nothing had come and Harry was left with only his discomforting thoughts. He had stayed up all night the night he had the dream, mulling over how's and when's as he imagined a plan to retrieve the horcuxes. However he could not figure out any useful tactics and was longing for his friends to guide him. On the other hand, he also knew that he would have no guidance when he faced Voldemort and spent the time that he wasn't scheming, training himself. He tried to learn new jinxes as he also tried practicing old ones. And with Snape's words to haunt him, he used whatever he could remember from his Occlumency lessons to prepare his mind for what was to come.

It was late that night that he was disturbed from his self-taught lessons by the sounds of a loud crash and a shrill scream from downstairs. Harry immediately leapt down the stairs, wand at the ready, and to his bewilderment saw the fender of a familiar blue car with a red headed driver inches away from the Durselys' door knob.

Harry smiled and bolted upstairs to grab his things. He wildly flung things into his trunk and ran down the stairs, ignoring the rage that burst from Mr. Dursley and the fear clearly eminent on Dudley's and Petunia's faces. He lugged his trunk into the boot of the car and then joined the red headed driver and his bushy, brown haired companion in the front seat. And with that, they were off!

As they made their way back to the Burrow, the three friends spoke excitedly to each other about their summers, the news from the school which fate was still undecided, and the upcoming wedding of Ron's brother Bill and Fleur Delacour. Then Harry hesitantly asked, " Hermione, have you found anything out about that Emrys guy?"

Hermione gave a startled look to Ron who returned it with a grim expression that replaced the grinning one that he was just sporting a few seconds earlier. It was silent for a few moments and then Harry continued, " I mean I thought that maybe you could, seeing as how you're usually so good at finding information like that in your books…."

" Actually, Harry, I hadn't looked… I mean I wanted to ask you first whether you were sure that this dream of yours wasn't just that, a dream."

"Yea, I thought that Dumbledore had told you that Vol- You Know Who was using that Occlu-stuff to prevent you from seeing that stuff," added Ron.

" I'm sure," replied Harry turning his gaze straight ahead not wanting to look at either of his friends. How could they think that by now he didn't know the difference?

" Oh - then - ummm - all right……I'll start looking when we get back to the Burrow. I'm sure that if he has followers as you said then I'll be able to find him somewhere…" Hermione began to say.

Anger swept over him swiftly. He could tell that they didn't believe him. How could they not trust him after all that's happened? How could they second guess him again when the last time he had been right all the long? Finally he spoke still looking ahead, " Well if you don't think it's worth looking into then there's no point in you helping me, is there?"

" Harry, she didn't mean-," Ron came to her aid.

" O come on! I can tell that you both think that I'm crazy. Think what you will, but I know that what I saw was real and I'm going to follow this clue to wherever it may lead me!" Harry replied angrily. They were approaching the front lawn of the Burrow now. It was the same as before except decorated with varieties of flowers and white ribbon : Ron had said that the ceremony was going to be held at home, Harry should have guessed that there would be decorations.

' We never said you were crazy," Hermione said shakily, "We only meant to be careful. You do remember the last time you encountered these visions don't you? Relax okay. We're on your side!"

" All right, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bite your heads off. It's just that trying to come up with a plan to destroy these horcuxes is so frustrating- I haven't slept for three days!" replied Harry now looking Hermione straight in the face.