Chapter 1

Harry sat in his room, at number 4 Privet Drive, fingering the pages of the photo album Hagrid had given him in his second year. As he turned the page Sirius' face grinned back at him and Harry quickly slammed the album shut.

It had been only a fortnight since that fateful night at the Ministry of Magic and with the memory of Sirius' death still fresh, Harry was ridden with guilt.

It was HIS fault; he should have known what Voldemort was up to; how could he be taken in so easily. The thoughts whirled round Harry's mind until finally he blocked them out.

Harry went over to the bed, he knew it was pointless - he hadn't slept in days, but he thought that maybe if he could just manage five minutes of peaceful sleep he would feel the benefits. He closed his eyes. At first nothing, then he tried some deep breathing techniques to relax him, slowly the sounds of Hedwig twittering in his cage mellowed into the background before disappearing completely.

Harry dreamt he was on the Quidditch pitch with Ron; they were practising Ron's goalkeeping. Harry kept hurling the quaffle at the hoops and each time Ron successfully stopped it and threw it right back. Hermione and Ginny were in the stands cheering them on. Harry caught Ron off-guard and nearly knocked him off his broom when the girls began chorusing "Weasley is our King!

Everyone started laughing as the boys touched down and Ron went slightly pink at the ears as Hermione ran up and apologised for putting him off his game.

Slowly the dream faded and another took its place. Harry could see sparks flying about the room he was in. He turned his head and saw Sirius duelling with Bellatrix Lestrange. Sirius was laughing and joking- he was always playing the fool. Then it happened, right at that moment Bellatrix saw her chance and took it, she shot a jet of red light at him and it hit him squarely in the chest. Sirius' laughter faded as he stumbled backwards towards the dais. Harry screamed Sirius' name and was shaken awake.

"Harry. Harry. Wake up!" Harry opened his eyes but his vision was foggy.

"Here take these." Harry took the glasses he was offered and put them on.

"Aunt Petunia? What…"

"You were having another nightmare."

"Sorry if I interrupted your beauty sleep." Harry said sarcastically.

Petunia seemed quite put out. "Well it's just that you were making a lot of noise and I was worried you were going to wake your uncle Vernon up. You know he doesn't like being disturbed." She turned to leave.

"Erm… Aunt Petunia?"

She paused. "Yes Harry?"

"Thanks."

Petunia smiled to herself and left the room.

Harry was puzzled; was it just his imagination or was Aunt Petunia suddenly being nicer to him? He shrugged thinking about the warning that Moody had given the Dursleys on the platform.

In fact since then things weren't looking too bad at Privet Drive for Harry. Dudley had somehow managed to get a girlfriend and was generally too preoccupied with her to annoy Harry- he never really did seem the same after seeing that Dementor though.

Uncle Vernon chose to completely ignore Harry which suited him fine and Aunt Petunia, well, she was certainly different around him. Harry had noticed how worn down and tired she looked recently. The pursed lips were no longer a permanent feature and she seemed much more thoughtful than usual, like something was distracting her.

Harry pondered over this change in Aunt Petunia and decided to write a note to his friends asking their opinions. He dipped his quill into the ink pot but hesitated over the parchment. Who was he writing to? His first thought had been Sirius – he winced at the memory that Sirius was gone. Who else would be interested? Ron? Hermione? Well both, but Hermione would probably offer the best advice.

Harry looked at the parchment as a drop from his quill touched the scroll. He watched as the paper greedily absorbed the ink.

It reminded him of Tom Riddle's Diary and the way that it had sucked up the ink. He thought of Ginny lying in the Chamber of Secrets, and remembered thinking she was dead as he turned her over and cradled her limp body in his arms. He remembered the feeling of hopelessness that had encumbered him as Tom became more defined and Ginny's life was dwindling away and finally he remembered the protectiveness he felt towards her in Dumbledore's office when the truth about how the Chamber of Secrets had been opened came out.

"Dear Ginny…" He wrote.

Harry lay down the quill and stared at the parchment for a while before screwing it up and throwing it across the room. He shook his head. "Get a grip. This is Ron's little sister we're talking about."