Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, places, names, plots, historical incidents in the magical world, ghosts, objects or anything else that the genius J. K. Rowling has come up with. But do try not to steal my plot. Ask nicely and I might let you. This chapter has been slightly edited, but I have not changed anything major as to what the plot is concerned.

Harry Potter and the Light of Life

Chapter I: Start of term

Professor Dumbledore hadn't even the time to sit down after his welcome-back-to-a-New-Year-speech before a low rumble could be heard through the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry.

"What was that?" said Ron.

"I don't know," said Harry, but they both knew it couldn't be anything good.

All the students and all the teachers were looking around, none but Crabbe and Goyle noticing the food that had just appeared on the tables.

"Maybe it was just the lightning?" suggested Hermione and looked up at the grey ceiling.

"That was no lightning Hermione," said Ron, "sounded more as an explosion to me. Maybe Voldemort has finally gotten through the wards!"

"Nonce-" started Hermione, but they never heard the end of what she meant to say. It seemed as if a great number of students had though the same as Ron, for quite a few had gotten up, screaming, running for the doors.

"Silence!"

Dumbledore's powerful voice rung through the Hall, as it has on Halloween five years ago and everyone stopped dead in their tracks. Another great crack could be hear from far away and made them all flinch.

"All students stay here. Prefects, I trust you to calm down those in your houses who need it." Professor Dumbledore's voice was the only thing that could be heard.

"Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, follow me. The rest of the staff will stay here to watch the entrances to the hall. Do not let anyone in or out unless they are accompanied by myself, Minerva or Serveus," he said, before giving Harry a stern look

With that, the three Order members walked out the door behind the staff table, leaving behind a pack of scared students and teachers.

"Do you feel anything in your scar?" asked Hermione at once.

"Nothing peculiar," said Harry, before pain beyond belief hit him. His forehead felt as if it had been stabbed with a sword and he screamed out.

"Harry? Harry!"

He could hear Ron call, before the world went dark. The pain followed him into unconsciousness, and he heard screams, children's screams and there were many flashes green light.

OOO

It was the same pain that woke him up. The blurred picture of Madam Pomfrey face came in to view and he could see Hermione and Ron too in the crowd that surrounded him.

"Harry, are you okay?" he heard Hermione ask.

"Is he here?" Ron asked with panic in his voice. "You-Know-Who, is he here!"

"No...not here..." said Harry, feeling the Dark Lord's feeling soaring through his own body. "He is happy...enjoying himself...death eaters...attacking innocents...children, Ron...killing them!" Madam Pomfrey's face was suddenly filled with realisation.

"Was it an orphanage?" she asked.

"Could have been," said Harry, sitting up. Madam Pomfrey's face went white.

"Oh no," she muttered, as Hermione clamped a hand over her mouth looking just as shocked as Madam Pomfrey, who got up and hurried away towards the teachers.

"What is it, Hermione?" asked Ron.

"The Death Eaters must have attacked the orphanage that lies on the other side of Hogsmeade! How terrible! Please don't tell me there were killing, Harry?" said Hermione with tears in her eyes. Harry nodded. Hermione broke down in tears.

"They are just children," Harry could hear her mutter with her head in her hands. Ron put a comforting arm around her.

The pain was still blazing through his scar and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make the pain pass, but he knew it wouldn't.

"We have to go now," Harry muttered to his two friends, "the children need help."

"You heard what Dumbledore said-" started Hermione but something again interrupted her.

"Mr Potter!" came Professor Flitwick's voice carrying through the Hall as the small professor tried to get through the crowd surrounding Harry. Harry stood up.

"Mr Potter," the Professor said again when he came to a halt in front of Harry. "Myself, you and Madam Hooch are to set of at once. We have decided it is for the best-"

But Flitwick never got to say why setting out was for the best, for at that moment the doors of the great Hall opened. Every eye was on the shapes that stood there. Some of them were small, but others were clearly adults. They walked in, and as the light hit them Harry recognised it as Professor McGonagall and Tonks, along with a group of children, some carried by the older children, one of them holding Tonks hand. Professor Sinastra who had been the one to open the doors ushered away curious students.

Madam Pomfrey ran to the group as McGonagall and Tonks helped the children sit down on the nearest chairs. All of them were soaked from the rain and Harry could see mud splattered across their faces and cloaks. Tonks talked to their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, the two of them speaking in low voices by the door. Between Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall there was also a strained conversation, and even though every ear in the hall seemed to try to hear what was being said, there wasn't much Harry could pick up, but it was enough to understand what had happened.

"...teachers cornered..." Harry heard McGonagall voice whispering. "Aurors...Dumbledore portkeyed...Shrieking Shack...tunnel...take care...going back."

With that Tonks and McGonagall left the hall in a hurry.

OOO

They were left to wait much longer before the doors were opened again. In the mean time the distant rumbles of battle could be heard. Flitwick seemed to have changed his mind about going out, both he and the other teachers were busy tending to the children. Harry had positioned himself so he could see across the lake, he knew the battle was being fought there. Maybe there were more Order members in the fight? Lupin? Mr Weasley? Harry hated sitting cooped up here, not being able to do anything. His scar flamed every minute or so, but he didn't want to think about what that could mean.

Harry looked out over his fellow students. Some of the Slytherins were actually eating. He could see Hermione's thick hair over where the children were sitting, a little boy on her lap. Ron was calming down first years that had had a rather unpleasant start to the seven years they would spend at Hogwarts.

At that moment the sky was highlighted in green and red. A great BOOM could be heard and it seemed to shake even the walls of the castle. Harry's face was pressed to the window, he was looking for any sign at all that could tell him what had happened. Had someone won? Was the battle over?

A few minutes later he could see a group of people coming over the grounds from the Whomping Willow. Dumbledore's white beard shone bright in the night.

"They're coming back!" yelled Harry and suddenly nearly everyone tried to look out the great windows. Flitwick undid the charm on the door, and in strode Dumbledore followed by what to Harry looked like an army. There was Snape, McGonagall and Tonks, but also lines and lines of witches and wizards dressed in the same styled navy blue robe. Harry could see Kingsley among them, and he also recognized the Aurors Fudge had brought with him last year.

"Aurors," he whispered before running towards them. Then he realised something. Where were the rest of the children? Surely...there had to be more, many more. But there was not a single child among the Aurors, just grave adult faces.

Dumbledore stepped in front them all. McGonagall and Snape stood silent at the Headmaster's side.

"As most of you have guessed, Lord Voldemort has made another attack," Dumbledore said in the same calm voice he always used. "And as always, he went for the innocent." Harry could see Professor McGonagall's lips quiver. "The guards that usually stand outside the orphanage were today busy with the start of term here. The Dark Lord made his attack quick and I regret to say that he succeeded." Here Dumbledore took a break, before saying what they all knew was coming, but that none of them wanted to hear. "There are no more survivors."

A gasp of horror could be heard throughout the Hall. One of the children let out a heartbreaking cry, before burying her face in her hands. Harry felt his scar burn, black spots dancing in front of his eyes. Lord Voldemort was happy, no doubt about it. He, Harry, burned with anger instead.

"The castle is as safe as it always have been," continued Dumbledore. "The food will be moved to the common rooms of each house where you will eat. Prefects, you will show the first years their dormitories. Now, off you go." Dumbledore looked at Harry for a short moment and gave him a hardly noticeable nod. Harry didn't even want to begin to think about what it could mean.

Harry hurried out of the hall and joined Ron and Hermione by the stairs. They could see the children being led away by Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout and Professor McGonagall. Two of the children, a boy and a girl, looked like first year olds. A boy with a bleeding gash on his forehead might be thirteen. Professor Sprout was carrying a boy on her arm, he couldn't be older than three. The tall girl that he had seen crying was talking to Professor McGonagall, looking very upset. All of them had tearstained cheeks and slumped shoulders.

"We have to show the way to Gryffindor Tower to the first years," said Hermione to Ron. "Will you be alright?" she asked Harry.

"Why wouldn't I? See you later," Harry said before leaving them. He decided to take another route to the common room, avoiding the rest of the students. He felt strange, empty in a way. It had hit him down in the hall that the wizarding world had become so accustomed to battles that no one was in shock after an orphanage had been destroyed and innocents had been killed. Did Voldemort make them all heartless? His scar was humming slightly now and the silence in the empty corridors helped to calm him down. He would still live to see tomorrow then.

Ever since the morning Dumbledore had told him about the prophecy he woke up with a fear that this day would be his last. It followed him through the day and was his last thought before uneasy dreams took him. Every time something happened, like the Muggle killings in Newcastle, the attack on Hogsmeade, or the battle tonight, he wondered if this was it. If this was the day he died or again became The Boy Who Lived. A murderer.

He would never coward out, that was not what was bothering him, neither was the thought of death. It was what happened if he died that was bothering him. What would happen to the Weasley's? To the world? And to Hermione? She was muggle-born after all.

Harry looked up from the stone floor and saw that his feet had carried him to right outside Professor McGonagall's office. He was just turning away, wondering where he had made the wrong turn, when the oak door opened.

"Mr. Potter? What are you doing here?" said Professor McGonagall.

"Err...nothing," said Harry.

"Then how come you are standing outside my door?"

"Just walking and thinking, Professor. Nothing else," said Harry.

"Well, I suspect you must have a great deal to think about," said McGonagall, suddenly losing all her usual strictness. "Now of you go, you should be in your common room."

"There was one thing, Professor," said Harry suddenly. "How many...How many died tonight?" he asked.

"All the six teachers along with... 31 children," said McGonagall, trying and failing on keeping a straight face." The teachers died defending them."

"Oh." That seemed to be all Harry could manage to say. 31? Children? 31!

"Three Aurors have been brought St. Mungo's and two Death Eaters have been captured," continued Professor McGonagall.

"And the Orde-" started Harry.

"Shh, we do not speak of such matters here, Mr. Potter!" McGonagall interrupted him with, before she cast a look down both ways of the corridors, assuring herself that none were listening.

"Moony is alright, if you must know." Harry felt relief wash through him at McGonagall's coded words. "Now, I have other places to be, Mr. Potter." Harry knew she meant Order business.

"What will happen to the survivors?" asked Harry.

"I do not know, but now I really must go. Good evening, Mr. Potter," said McGonagall.

"Evening, Professor," whispered Harry as he looked after Professor McGonagall's retreating form, before he made his way to bed.

AN: Do you like it? If you do, review and if you don't, review anyway! That would be absolutely spiffing!