A/N: Yes, yes, I know. I'm starting a new story when I haven't finished an old one. Crucify me, why don't you? I know you're all dying to find out who that girl is. At least, my friend Sarah is. And DON'T WORRY! I WILL finish 'Shadow of the Past'. I just need to correct a bunch of stuff. You know, change the beginning and whatnot. But I WILL do it. So chill. It'll just be on hiatus for a little bit, till I get around to changing it. Sorry, but Sophomore year at high school is a tad bit stressful, and it doesn't help that I failed Geometry and now my parents are pissed. My mom's even threatening to get me a tutor. Grr…. Sorry, unloading a bit. Onto the new story! This will be unbetaed at first, since I'm starved for reviews, but as soon as my beta gets it back to me I'll re-post it. I hope this hasn't become a cliché yet. Enjoy! And please, please review, or I might spontaneously combust. Lol. Adios!

-CatJetRat

"I haven't got any options!" said Malfoy, and he was suddenly white as Dumbledore. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"— Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Page 591, Paragraph 5

Chapter One

Visions of a Boy

Normal POV

Harry gazed down coldly at the quivering boy at his feet. "You have had enough?" He said in an high-pitched, icy tone. He raised his wand again. "Crucio!" The boy screamed and arched his head back. His cloak fell off of his head, revealing white-blond hair and a pale, pointed face.

"Please—no more," Draco Malfoy croaked in a broken voice.

"Then I shall end it?" Harry ask in a cruel, amused, inquisitive tone. He raised his wand once more. "Avada—"

"Excuse me, my Lord," said a silky voice.

Harry paused and lowered his wand. "Yes, Severus?" He said to the man who had just stepped forward. His face was covered by a mask, but Harry knew him. He knew all of his death eaters' voices.

"I request that you allow him to live," Snape said.

"And what is your reason for that?" Harry asked coolly. If any of his other death eaters had dared to question him they would be on the ground right beside the young Malfoy boy. However, he thought he could make an exception for the man who had killed Dumbledore.

Severus was quick to respond. "He has done nothing to harm you. The only reason he even considered going over to Dumbledore's side was because he was weak and scared. He continues to be a weak, scared little boy who has always been nothing but a coward. I wish you to let him go because of all these reasons and because I care for him. He is, after all, my godson, and the closest thing I have, and ever will have to a son. It is highly unlikely that he will do anything to defy you, and I would be happy if he survived."

Harry considered these words for a moment. Severus was right; the Malfoy boy was weak, and always had been. There was no reason to think he would ever join the Order of the Phoenix. And Harry had no true desire to make Severus unhappy. After all, he had already killed someone Snape had cared about once. "Very well," he said flatly and took a step back. That was the last favor he was going to do for Snape for a long time.

Severus strode forward and jerked Malfoy up by the scruff of his neck and began to shove him forward, out of the circle of death eaters. "Wait, Severus," Harry called. He walked towards Draco Malfoy and grasped his left arm. He slowly slid the sleeve upwards until it revealed the Dark Mark. Harry placed his wand tip directly on top of the Dark Mark. His sleeve fell down a bit to reveal spindly, white fingers. Harry pressed his wand deeply into the Dark Mark and thought of how Malfoy had almost betrayed him. A huge, red Xappeared over the Dark Mark, symbolic of Malfoy's betrayal. Malfoy's scream of agony echoed throughout the graveyard. Harry pulled his wand away and threw the boy forward, laughing.

"Run," Harry said in a coldly amused voice. "Run, and keep running, and hope dearly that our paths never cross again."

Harry watched the boy stumble away and run off into the night. Harry started laughing, a high, cold laugh that wouldn't stop. It was shrill and echoed throughout the night. Laughing so hard….

"Harry! HARRY! Wake up, mate!" Ron's frantic voice broke through Harry's dream. Harry's eyes snapped open and he saw his best friend, Ronald Weasley, standing over him, looking anxious. The shrill laugh continued to resonate in his ears. A second later, Harry realized that it wasn't just in his ears, it was in the room, because it was he who was laughing insanely. His laughter turned to great gasps. When his breathing had finally slowed down to normal, he looked around the room frenetically.

"Where is he?" Harry asked angrily. He shoved Ron out of the way, hard. He saw the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione Granger and Fleur Delacour. He pushed his way through them and looked anxiously up and down the halls. "WHERE IS HE!" Harry exploded.

"Um, who?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Draco!" Harry shouted furiously.

"Malfoy?" She said in a slightly confused voice.

Harry wanted to shake her. "YES, Draco Malfoy!" He snapped. What the hell were they playing at? Harry had just been torturing Malfoy—no, Voldemort had been. Where had he gone, and why were they all staring at him like he was insane?

It was because, he understood, as the adrenaline drained out of his body, he was acting like he was insane. They hadn't been in the graveyard. They hadn't watched Har—Voldemort, torturing Draco Malfoy. Harry suddenly felt very tired. He sank back against the wall. He wanted to slide down to the floor, but he wasn't about to show that much weakness. He shoved his hair away from his face; it was sopping with sweat.

"Oh, Harry," Ginny said sympathetically. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her breasts up against him. He pushed her away, annoyed. She'd been trying to get him back all summer, but the more she tried, the less he liked her. He didn't quite understand why she wouldn't give up. He wished she would just stop it so that they could go back to being friends. Now he found that he was annoyed with her most of the time and wanted nothing more than for her to leave him in peace. One night he'd walked into his room, wanting some peace and quite so he could dwell again on everything that had happened in his sixth year, only to find her lying on his bed in a silky nightgown that was slightly see-through. While at one point this might have turned him on, right then all it did was thoroughly piss him off. He'd yelled at her to get out, and she had, rather sulkily. Harry didn't understand why she was acting like Romilda Vane. He had thought she had more class than that.

Ginny stumbled away from Harry, looking slightly hurt. He ignored her and sank to his knees, much the same way he had in his sixth year beside Malfoy after he had accidentally performed a Dark Curse on Malfoy. Harry buried his face in his hands, pondering on what he had just seen. Although he deeply disliked Malfoy, seeing him on the ground being tortured had been extremely unnerving. His head snapped up.

"Leave," he said sharply. "All of you." He caught Hermione and Ron's eye and sent them a silent message that they were to stay. Slowly but surely the rest of Ron's family began shuffling sleepily back towards their respective beds. Soon everyone seemed to be gone. Harry looked up, and sure enough, he Ron, and Hermione were the last ones left. He motioned towards his room and they filed in, one by one, all silent. Harry closed the door, and then pointed at it.

"Muffliato," he hissed, in case anyone had decided to be foolish enough to listen. He had turned seventeen a few days prior and was now allowed to use magic outside of school. He'd also passed his Apparition test, so he was an adult wizard at last.

"I finally had a vision," he told the others in a low voice.

"Yeah, I figured," Ron said with a nervous laugh. Harry ignored him. Unbeknownst to everyone except for himself, Ron, and Hermione, Harry had been straining all summer to force his way into Voldemort's mind to learn something of his plans and of his four Horcruxes. So far it had been a fruitless quest—until tonight, that is.

Quickly, Harry told Ron and Hermione all that he had seen and felt. However, he left out the weird feelings he had had when he had seen Malfoy being tortured. He would just confuse them, and to be honest, he wasn't even sure he fully understood it yet.

When he finished, there was a tense silence, and then Ron exhaled."Wow," he said softly, and then a small grin crept over his face. "I wish I could have been there to see Malfoy being creamed. I would have loved to see him knocked down a peg or two."

Harry froze for a second. Hermione glanced at him, a strange look in her eyes, almost as though she knew of the impending explosion. "Ron," she said reprovingly. "That's a horrible thing to say. From what Harry's told us, Malfoy felt really bad about having to kill Dumbledore, and didn't. So he can't be all bad. Besides, we shouldn't want to see someone being tortured. That would make us just as bad as the Death Eaters."

Ron muttered something that sounded like "Whatever," but Harry, again, ignored him. He felt all of the boiling anger inside of him cool down. He wondered briefly why it had bothered him so much when Ron had said that, but pushed it aside for later. He stood up.

"We need to leave now," he said shortly. He started looking around the room, grabbing things and throwing them into a backpack he had bought a few weeks earlier. Ron and Hermione also stood up, looking alarmed.

"Now?" Hermione asked weakly. "But, Harry, it's the middle of the night!"

"So?" Harry asked. He shook his head. "We stayed for Bill and Fleur's wedding. It was beautiful. Now we leave. Why wait? Besides, now we know where Voldemort and his death eaters are. We should go there and wait for them. Spy a bit."

"But—" Hermione began, but Ron cut her off.

"No buts, Hermione," he said. He had a peculiar expression on his face as he gazed at Harry. "All right," he said calmly. "We can leave. It's already almost six. It's better this was, anyway. We can leave a note for my mum, so she won't try and stop us."

Harry frowned at Ron. "Don't you want to say good bye?" he asked.

Ron looked away, a pained, slightly faraway expression on his face. "I already did," he said softly. "Today I told her and the rest of the family that I loved them. They were surprised, but said they loved me too. Now I only have to tell one other person that I love them. Because we're probably going to die on this mission. I understand that. But I can't die without telling her I love her."

Harry had frozen. 'Why is Ron doing this now?' he wondered. 'And why in front of me? I don't want to be listening to this.' Harry suddenly became very interested in his fingernails. Nevertheless, he couldn't help glancing up and watching as Ron walked over to a very shocked Hermione and kissed her on the lips.

Harry turned as red as Ron's hair and hurriedly turned around, starting to noisily pack his things. He chanced a glance behind him, but unfortunately Ron and Hermione were still engaged in a ferocious lip lock, and hadn't taken his hint. He grabbed the backpack he had bought for the occasion. He had absolutely no intention of taking his whole trunk for the journey. He thought it best to take a few select items. He examined what was in his trunk. He decided to start with the basics. Two pairs of underwear, jeans, socks, shirts, robes, one cloak, his invisibility cloak, the Marauder's Map, in case he had to go back to Hogwarts, dress robes, which he packed on a whim. Although he was going to only take the bare necessities, it didn't really matter. His backpack had cost ten Galleons, but it was worth it. It could carry up to 500 pounds of anything, and still be as light as a feather, and also not be excessively big, attracting Muggle attention. It was also able to fit objects that might break, and that were exceptionally large, like his Firebolt, which he thought he might need. These backpacks were mainly for witches and wizards who wished to go hiking or camping like Muggles, and didn't want to be overburdened.

Harry finished packing rather quickly; he didn't have much he wanted to take. He glanced quickly over at Ron and Hermione again. They were no longer kissing; instead, they were merely holding each other. Ron's head was resting on top of Hermione's; he was stroking her bushy hair and whispering to her. His eyes were closed, and he looked more content than Harry had ever seen before. He cleared his throat, and Ron's eyes snapped open, and he looked around, as if in a daze.

"Oh," he said, blushing. He looked embarrassed, but Harry gave him a reassuring smile, and Ron grinned back, a goofily happy sort of grin. Harry shooed them out of the door.

"Go get packed," he said. "And come back here when you're ready."

Ron nodded, and Hermione, who had just looked up, flushed slightly pink, but a shy sort of smile crept over her face as she nodded too. Harry had never seen her look so vulnerable before. Harry smiled to himself as they left the room with their arms around each other.

Harry dressed quickly in muggle clothes; a pair of jeans and a shirt. He had spent about 100 pounds buying his own clothes over the summer; he wanted to be free of the Dursleys completely. After he had turned seventeen, he had left everything that had once been Dudley's behind at the Dursley's. He wished to own nothing that reminded him of his life at the Dursley's. He had absolutely no intention of ever going back there, the way that Sirius had been forced to go back to his parents' house. Harry lay on his bed, waiting for Ron and Hermione to return. They came back about a half an hour later, dressed, and carrying similar lightweight backpacks.

"We grabbed everything we'll need and all of our money too. We left notes on our beds, explaining everything," Ron said. "You might not need to, but I think you should leave a note too."

Harry nodded and bent over his trunk to retrieve a quill and some parchment. He dipped the quill in some ink and paused for a moment, contemplating what he would possibly say. He knew that Mrs. Weasley would have a panic attack, but he rather hoped that the rest of the family would help her keep her head. Harry sighed and bent over the parchment, and wrote:

Dear Weasleys,

What to say? I suppose Ron and Hermione already explained everything in their letters, but I suppose you should hear it from me too.

We're going after Voldemort. There are things that need to be done before he can be defeated. I can't tell you what; it's too risky. And I know that some of you will say I should probably finish my years at Hogwarts before I go after him, or let the Aurors deal with it. I just can't do that. For one, the Aurors don't fully understand what they're dealing with. And I can't wait to finish my years at Hogwarts because I can't risk him becoming more powerful, or giving him another year's worth of time to kill people. That is why I must go.

As for Ron and Hermione; this was their choice. I would never ask them to accompany me, but they want to, and I do appreciate it. I will do all I can to protect them, but I cannot ensure their survival. Or mine, for that matter. We will write, occasionally, to let you all know that we're alive. But we won't be able to give you details of anything we're doing, or where we are. I know that this must be torture, and I'm sorry that we have to leave like this. However, we couldn't risk you stopping us. Thank you all for everything you've ever done for me over the years.

Wishing you all the best,

Harry

P.S. Please take care of Pigwidgeon, Crookshanks, and Hedwig for us.

Harry looked over his completed letter, guilt filling him like a balloon. After all the Weasleys had done for him, he was taking their youngest son and leading him directly into danger. Harry felt horrible, but there was precious little he could do about it. He set the letter on the pillow of his newly made bed, and turned to Ron and Hermione. He smiled weakly at them. They smiled back warmly, and he felt a rush of gratitude towards the both of them for what they were doing. He gestured wordlessly towards the door, and they left through it. They exited the house quietly, trying not to wake anyone. Harry took one last, long look at it. It was the only place he'd ever lived in, besides Hogwarts, where he'd actually been happy. Harry looked away, into the faces of his two best friends, who were both looking to him for guidance.

Harry thought for a moment and realized that he needed to Apparate to the place where Bob Ogden had been in the memory Dumbledore had shown him the year before. That would give them time to walk into the village under the invisibility cloak and get their bearings. To do this, Harry knew, he would have to guide Ron and Hermione during the Apparition.

"All right, take one of my arms, each of you," Harry said, holding out his arms to both of them. "I'm going to guide you to where we're going."

They nodded, and each grasped an arm of his. Harry concentrated hard on the deserted road where he had seen Bob Ogden in that memory from a long time ago. Then Harry turned around, into the pressing darkness to the mystery and horror ahead.

A/N: Okay, so that was my fabulous start to the new story. What did y'all think? I'm not sure when the second chapter will be up; I'm rather swamped with schoolwork right now. So, please review! I'm dying for some. OH! The teaser!

Teaser:

Harry walked down the dark street, gazing idly in the shop windows. Up ahead, he saw a figure huddled underneath a cloak.

'Beggar,' he thought, and pulled a pound out from his pocket to give to the beggar. However, as he drew nearer, he saw that the figure was trembling. He frowned, and knelt down beside it.

"Are you okay?" he asked kindly.

The person gasped, and hurried to hide themselves more thoroughly with their cloak. Harry saw a thin, white hand extend from the cloak. He grabbed it and grasped the edge of the cloak, pulling it over the person's head to reveal messy, white-blond hair, streaked with dirt, mud, and….was that blood? It also revealed a very familiar face.

"Malfoy?"

A/N: Okay, maybe a bit predictable, but still. Lol. Review. Adios!

-CatJetRat