"Crucio," cried out a high, cold voice, out of the pitch black of the night. Many hooded, and cloaked figures that you could barely see in the moonlight were huddling around two people, these people were called Death Eaters. While a boy around the age of seventeen, Draco Malfoy, with long sleek blond hair which was shining in the light of the moon, fell to the ground writhing in pain.
"I told you to get rid of Dumbledore yourself, and yet you couldn't do it, just like your worthless father that couldn't get the prophecy from a fifteen year old boy." Snarled the tall pale white man,
"You shouldn't punish him for the death of Dumbledore! We should celebrate," piped up one of the cloaked figures as he stepped out into the light from a streetlight. The man that had said this was now more visible but yet couldn't see his face because he wore a mask.
"Yes, we shall celebrate but after your punishment. You shouldn't have stepped in you lost your place as a spy for me, Snape!" said the skeletal looking man. "Crucio!" The man called Snape that stepped up to save the boy fell to the ground now writhing with pain as the boy had done seconds before.
As the skeletal one raised his wand to let Snape get up he answered "I will spare your life, for you have killed Dumbledore."
"Thank you Lord Voldemort," Snape replied, gasping for breath "for sparing my life." Snape just months ago had found Draco up on the tower talking with Dumbledore and as he had vowed to Draco's mother, he was to kill Dumbledore. Yet he was only supposed to come into the picture if Draco could not kill him.
"Well now that we have all witnessed Draco and Severus getting punished, and Snape trying to defend the helpless and weak. Lets now bring forth the few that we have caught," the man named Voldemort said, some of the Death Eaters walked away and were back after a few minutes bringing with them a person in which you could not see until they were brought up standing next to Voldemort in the streetlight. "Ahh, yes Rubeus Hagrid we meet again, I still remember that I blamed you for being the heir of Slytherin back when we were at school, and I got a special reward for doing that, which is still sitting at the school this very day. When all along it was me who was wreaking havoc all over the school."
"Ya won't git away with this, ya know, yer all bloody cowards see tha' ya won't even show yer faces 'round each other, what are y'all afraid tha' bein' seen is a problem, or is it tha' you all are jus' afraid tha' You-know-who will see yer faces, and 'cause yer all cowards yer afraid he will kill yer." Hagrid managed to get out before most of the Death Eaters fired off a cruciatus curse in his direction which he next found himself on the ground.
Once the curse was lifted Hagrid stood up shaking and a bit shocked about what just happened. When Voldemort cried out "Imperio!" After that Hagrid had absolutely no clue about what was going on.
Harry, hundreds of miles away, awoke with a start. He was trying to remember what he had just seen in that dream. He remembered seeing the cruciatus curse used on Snape and Draco, Harry's two least favorite people. 'Where or who was I there?' thought Harry. 'I must have been watching from the point of view of the attacker.' Then he couldn't remember anything. As Harry was trying to remember the rest of the dream he found that he was drifting back to sleep. Within minutes Harry was back asleep thinking about what had happened in the last dream.
Harry was standing immobile looking back at Dumbledore who was now wandless, with Draco advancing on him. Fenrir Greyback came in after Draco, along with more hooded Death Eaters. Finally, after Greyback, Snape came up to the tower. Seeing that Draco had gotten Dumbledore in a corner, with no wand, and was that Dumbledore, in a soft voice, pleading to Snape to spare him?
"Avada Kedavra" yelled Snape, now on the run. 'NO!' Harry thought, becoming mobile again, and was now chasing after Snape.
For the second time that night Harry awoke. He had had that dream many times this summer, but for some reason this one hurt the most, he felt pained because of the loss of the wise old Dumbledore, confused because of the note he had always remembered about after this dream, the one that was signed R.A.B. Why had this have to happen after such a good year? He had actually found a teacher that he had liked, Professor Slughorn, and he finally did good at potions, even if it was Snape that helped him, he still did good. Harry turned to the clock, it was only 4:37, so deciding that it was too early to actually get up and start going Harry tried to sleep for a little bit longer. As he fell back into the dream world, he finally got to sleep with no dream.
A little brown owl, that looked more like a ball of feathers, fluttered in through Harry's open window while Harry happened to be in his room one night, weeks before his birthday. The tiny, energetic bird had a letter which Harry automatically took away from the wild owls and read:
Dear Harry,
Some people will be coming to get you, the same day as our big friend got you back in your first year, just like they did in your fifth year, only without the fake muggle letter.
Ron
Harry read the letter a couple times through seeing that Ron was getting better at hiding things rather than leaving them wide open to steal and figure everything out. thinking back to his first year, Hagrid came and got Harry on Harry's birthday, and in the fifth year Harry was taken by the Order of the Phoenix, but they had sent a muggle letter saying that the Dursleys were in a competition so they could sneak in and take Harry. So now it looks as if Harry is going to be taken by the Order on his birthday, which seems like it is going to be a little while until they come, but Harry still couldn't wait to leave the Dursley's house forever.
One morning when Harry had awoken from yet another Dumbledore falling from the high astronomy tower he found that it was daylight this time. 'That dream was really bad. I had been Dumbledore that time.' Harry was remembering. After Harry got dressed and went downstairs to find all the Dursleys already awake, and they had almost finished eating. Harry, surprised to see the Dursleys already up, walked in the kitchen and took an apple out of the refrigerator and started to eat it. When a great eagle owl flew in and dropped the newspaper on the table in front of everyone not one Dursley moved from their spot yelling, now that they were so used to the owls flying in and out every now and then they didn't really notice.
As the owl flew off Harry picked up the paper and found that there had been another muggle attack. 'What else is ever new in the /i prophet? i now days? Wait...' Harry thought. Seeing something really small that caught his attention. The Prophet read:
The professional Quidditch player, playing for Bulgaria, Viktor Krum, was taken into St. Mungo's Hospital yesterday, where he is delirious after being attacked by what he says was a huge snake, which also has been confirmed as He-who-must-not-be-named's doing. It is said that Krum will be out of St. Mungo's Hospital in three to five days.
To see what else You-know-who has done turn to page 13
Harry was afraid that Nagini's bite might do a little bit more than make him delirious. Harry, seeing the bottom part went over to page thirteen and found something more that made him even more mad than just crumby, old Krum being attacked. Harry read:
On Monday, it was confirmed that Rubeus Hagrid, gamekeeper and keeper of keys at Hogwarts, was said to be missing, nobody has seen him since July 21st, with it being Tuesday, July 31st, and most people say that he can't be dead, he is half-giant, and it probably isn't that easy to kill them. Hagrid has been missing from his hut for quite a while now but his dog, Fang, always seems to have food for himself at the hut. Mysterious? We think that You-know-who has taken him and he is now just clinging on to life after being hit with the cruciatus curse many times.
'There is no way that Hagrid has gone missing. Something also came back to Harry after reading that passage. Its July 31st, my birthday, I am leaving this place forever.' thought Harry. Happy now that he remembered that he is going to be leaving soon.
Dudley and Uncle Vernon stood up and walked out and headed to go watch television.
"What's new in your world then, Harry." Asked Aunt Petunia, noticing that he had his paper, while trying to act like she didn't care.
Harry wondering why she had asked that when she never really cared, thought that she might actually want to know what Voldemort is up to, just like he always does, "My friend Hagrid turned up missing this whole week but they didn't put anything in the paper until today." Answered Harry sadly, forgetting all about Viktor Krum in the hospital.
"The big one? Who came and got you when you were eleven? " said Petunia not really thinking about what she was saying.
"Yeah, but how did you know who Hagrid was?" asked Harry.
"Oh…I just remember him from that day that you were taken by him. Was it Voldemort who attacked him?" answered and asked Petunia twitching as she said Voldemort's name just a little.
Harry was surprised, how would Aunt Petunia know Voldemort was the one attacking everyone? Harry replied, "Yeah...it was, but how did you know who was attacking people in my world?"
"Umm...uhh...you…you told us about him, r-remember." said Aunt Petunia stuttering on the last word, but still trying to cover it up.
"Yeah but you seem like you know more about this than you want me to think, Aunt Petunia." answered Harry seeing that Aunt Petunia was trying to hide something, and it seemed that someone had been filling her in on some of the things that were going on in the wizarding world, but who?
"Okay, I do know a bit mo..." Petunia started to say, but Uncle Vernon had just came back into the kitchen, so it cut Petunia off. The next chance she got she caught eye contact with Harry and waved all of their conversation off. That was the first time Harry had had a real conversation with his Aunt for a long time. If she had known more than it appeared, why didn't she ever talk to Harry while he was being tortured and why didn't she tell him he was a wizard from the start? Whatever the reason Harry thought it always came down to one solution, and that was that she must have been in contact with Dumbledore before he died.
"Were you in contact with Dumbledore after he left his first letter, Aunt Petunia, have you been told the things that go on at school by him?" Harry pressed on once Uncle Vernon left to find Dudley.
"I ha-" started Petunia, but she was cut off again by a series of loud cracks outside. Harry knew that sound that was the sound of people apparating. 'But why here right now, the Order wasn't due until later tonight.' thought Harry. 'So that must mean its...' Harry now remembering his birthday meant that he could do magic outside of school whipped out his wand and headed toward the sound of people apparating. There was a louder more deafening crack, and someone apparated next to Harry. The man standing next to him, was old and had a long beard, and long hair.
"Harry we need to leave right now hurry." said the man.
"Aberforth? What are you doing? Is the Order out there fighting?" Asked Harry faster than he expected, but before Aberforth would answer he grabbed Harry by the arm and Harry could feel himself being pulled through what felt like going through a little tube. Once he landed on the ground he noticed he had been taken to Grimmauld Place which he had given back to the Order once he learned that he had inherited it from Sirius. Remembering how to get into the house he saw it appear right between the other two. They both walked inside.
"Wait..." said Harry after he saw Aberforth heading toward the kitchen. "Was the Order there fighting off the Death Eaters or did you just leave my only living relatives there to die?" asked Harry furiously.
"The Order was there trying to defend them. Hopefully they succeeded we can't have too many fall. We are the only defense besides the aurors that fight. Not to mention that most of the aurors fight for this too. So we will have to retreat if too many fall, I'm sorry Harry."
"Let me go back they are looking for me not the Dursleys. I will go back and fight!" yelled Harry still furious at the fact of not getting an answer from his Aunt.
"NO! We got you away from there for a reason, you are not going back into the danger to fight against the people that came looking for you." Aberforth said, yelling at first, then he calmed down just like his brother used to do so good.
Harry, feeling as if he had never been more mad in his life, took off and ran straight to his and Ron's usual room. When he got there he found that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were in there, just waiting for this exact moment to come upon them. Harry still enraged about the Order ran even further up into the house and found the room where Buckbeak was kept. Which was where Sirius always went when he was mad. Harry had decided he would go up there too.
About ten minutes had passed when Harry was found by Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. Once they found him they went over to him and said "Harry, we know you're mad but there is no reason to cut yourself from the world again. You do this every time you come here."
"You're right I shouldn't I was just mad that they might leave the Dursleys to fend for themselves and they have absolutely no chance against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I had just had a real conversation with my Aunt for the first time in my life and there were questions I still wanted to ask her. I know I never really liked them until now but they never liked me until then." answered Harry feeling like he was calm now. "Well, anyways how have you all been, and how was your Summer? And did you hear about what had happened to Hagrid yesterday?"
"Good..." they all answered at once. "Yeah strange isn't it?" Hermione had said, "Why would You-know-who go after him what has he done? Is it just because he was really close to Dumbledore?"
"It must have been that because he was way close and he was the only one that went to find the giants." said Harry trying to answer Hermione's question. "And Hermione just say Voldemort."
"No he wasn't the only one to find the giants, Madame Maxime went with him, remember." Hermione reminded them.
"Oh yeah, but I haven't heard that anything happened to her." answered Harry. Now changing the subject he said, "And what did you all think about Krum being hospitalized?"
"Yeah, why would You-know all right Voldemort want from him he has nothing." said Hermione, sounding as if she had already thought long and hard about this one.
"That's what I thought all he did was be an idiot and play quidditch" said Harry half laughing.
"That's not true." Hermione said. "He did other things, he was nice."
"Yeah, he knew how to attack people, like he did in the maze at the Triwizard Tournament." answered Harry and Ron at the same time.
"Well...Yeah, but he just really wanted to win." said Hermione running out of things to say to defend Viktor Krum.
"So that makes it right to use the unforgivable curses?" said Ginny after sitting there for a while without speaking.
After about an hour of catching up, the four of them were called down to eat by Mrs. Weasley, after everyone greeted Harry with some Happy Birthdays, and they ate Harry was taken by Lupin to tell him what had happened.
"Harry," said Remus. "While over on Privet Drive fighting, your Uncle Vernon came out and started yelling at us for making such a racket. I'm so sorry Harry, they fired the killing curse at him, and he was killed...but your aunt and cousin were safe."
"Its alright." said Harry now with his head down. Uncle Vernon really hadn't ever been really that nice to Harry ever since he was little, but something about his Uncle really made Harry miss him. Now he felt really bad that he had brought this onto all of them just because he had lived there. Harry didn't even go back to his seat in the kitchen, he went straight to the bedroom that Harry and Ron always stay in. After making sure that Phineas wasn't in his portrait, Harry sat on his bed and cried.
