* Disclaimer *
All of these characters belong to the great J.K. Rowling.
" Harry Potter and the Rising Darkness "
Remus Lupin nearly spat out his afternoon tea. "Sirius! What are you doing here? What if you're caught? Come inside where we can talk," he demanded. He turned and walked into his house, forgetting about the rest of his tea. The large black dog followed him into his house and, after Lupin closed the door, turned into a human, for he was an Animagus, a wizard who can turn into an animal at will.
"Remus, we need to round up the old crowd," stated Sirius in a matter-of-fact tone. "He's back to power again. We must alert Mundungus and Arabella and the others."
"But...Why?" asked a confused Remus Lupin, "Who's back and why..." He stopped in the middle of his sentence as the meaning behind Sirius's words dawned on him. "How did Voldemort come back?"
Sirius gave him a brief account of what he had learned from Harry and Professor Dumbledore. "In short," he concluded, "we need to get whomever we can to help us against him. I need to stay here while I wait until Dumbledore contacts me."
"I understand," said Lupin. "I'll go round up everyone and meet you back here. I'll tell them about Pettigrew too so they won't try to blast you through the wall when they get here. I'll leave immediately. When I get back we need to talk about what happened at the school this year."
"Of course," Sirius replied, "I don't know all the details but I can fill you and the others in on most of it. Dumbledore would know the full story so you may want to ask him too."
"I'd better be going then," said Lupin as he Disapparated with a small pop.
* * *
"Mus' be here somewhere," panted Hagrid, the Hogwarts Care of Magical Creatures Teacher, as he climbed up yet another hill. " 'Lo there! Anyone here?"
"Did you hear zomething?" asked the woman standing next to him. She was every bit as tall as Hagrid. She too had an important job in the wizarding world. Her name was Madame Maxine and she was the Head of Beauxbatons Academie located in France. " Zere it is again."
"I 'eard it too," said Hagrid, " it came from o'er there." He walked over to the small clearing that he had pointed to. " Yeh take that side and I'll take this 'n', tell me if yeh spot anythin'."
" 'Agrid!" cried Madame Maxine moments later. "Look!" Hagrid walked over beside herand followed her gaze and saw what she was pointing to. They had found a giant clearing with crudely constructed wooden houses that seened straight out of the 17th century with only one small difference. They were huge, each portion of the little town was several times larger than anything they had ever seen.
"We found 'em!" sang Hagrid joyously. "We did it! Le's go see if we can convince 'em to join our side." He started walking down a large dirt path towards the village. He went to one of the larger houses and knocked on the door. " 'Lo? Anyone there? We're from Hogwarts and we..." He was cut off in mid-sentence as the door opened abruptly. "Foller me Olympe!" he shouted to Madame Maxine as he walked in."
"Who are you?" inquired a woman who was twice as big as him. "What are you doing here?" boomed the deep voice again.
"This 'eres Olympe and I'm Rubeus Hagri..." he paused in the middle of his sentence abruptly upon seeing the giantess reach into a cupboard and pull out a picture.
"Do you remember this my son?" said the giantess Fridwulfa as she showed him the picture. "I was driven out when you were only three," she sobbed as she started to cry. "I thought..."
"Mum!" he cried. "We can talk later but now you must gather everyone you can and leave for Hogwarts."
"But...Why?"
"You-Know-'oo's back. We need everyone to travel to Hogwarts with us so we can fight 'im off again."
"I'll do what I can."
* * *
The room was filled with wizards listening and wondering what this was about. After a few minutes a red-headed wizard walked up to the front of the room and started talking. "Gentlemen," called out Mr. Weasley, "we are facing the worst crises in over 13 years. You-Know-Who is back and has recovered his powers." He paused for a moment until the gasps and muttering died down. "Fudge, however, does not believe that the Dark Lord has returned. I have been told by my son that Dumbledore has asked for help from all of us here at the Ministry. We are to remove Azkaban from the control of the Dementors. Bode? Croaker? Does the Department of Mysteries have anything that might help in this regard?"
One of the hundreds of wizards in the crowd stood up. "I'm sorry sir but thats-"
"I think that the Dark Lord is more of a problem than classified issues."
"Yes, sir. I don't believe that we have anything of use but I will check sir."
"Thank you. Percy I want you to get in touch with the other Ministers of Magic, tell them what has happened and have them send some of their best wizards to help guard Azkaban."
"Understood, father," shouted a tall, lanky wizard who looked ten years younger than the others present. "I'll go now," he finished, Disapparating with a small pop.
"Remember everyone, this must be kept a secret from Fudge. Charles I take it that you will see to that?"
The wizard that he was talking to was none other than Charles Culvertson, Fudge's personal aide. "Yes... Yes, I think I can take care of that as long as no one mentions this in his presence."
"Very good," concluded Mr. Weasley, "meeting adjourned."
* * *
Harry Potter was an unusual boy. For one thing he was a wizard and had been attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the past four years, but even there he was not normal. He was one of the best at Quidditch (a wizarding game played on broomsticks) and he had a deadly enemy, Lord Voldemort, who had tried to kill him four times now. He was the only person known to survive the killing curse and when Voldemort tried to kill him the curse rebounded upon its creator. So after being deprived of all his powers, Voldemort had fled, barely alive. He had, however, been restored to his normal self the past year and had fought a duel with Harry which neither wizard won. Harry sat up in his bed and began to write a letter to his godfather, Sirius Black, a convicted murderer (who happened to be innocent as Harry had found out two years prior.)
Dear Sirius,
How are things at Lupin's? Say hello to him for me. I hope you are doing well. Not much is different this summer. The Dursleys have finally given up their diet plan and Dudley is now about the same size as a whale. He broke another TV set (an entertainment device used by muggles) last week when his favourite football team lost. Every year he breaks something. Now all he can do is eat, sleep, and bug his parents. He knows he can't bug me because you're around still and he's worried that he might get turned into a pig. (As though he isn't one already) I'm okay, I'm being left alone again and Ron might invite me to stay over at his house for a while.
If you hear anything concerning Voldemort let me know. I don't get the wizarding news so I don't know what's happening.
Sincerly,
Harry
"Feeling up to taking this letter to Sirius for me Hedwig?" he asked his pet owl who gave a soft hoot in return. He gave the letter to Hedwig and opened the window so she could deliver the letter. Hedwig was a snowy owl and had been given to him by Hagrid just after he had found out that he was a wizard. As Harry was about to close the window he noticed another owl flying towards him. He recognized it at once, it was Pigwidgeon (Pig for short), his friend Ron's owl. The minute owl fluttered in looking very jumpy and started to fly in circles around the room. Harry caught the owl (it reminded him of the flying keys he had gotten past in his first year) and read the letter that was enclosed.
Dear Harry,
Mum says I can invite you over for the rest of the summer. We're going to come through the fire again so tell the muggles to clear it. We'll be picking you up at around 5pm on Saturday. Fred and George are still planning their joke shop and with that money you gave them they even bought me some new dress robes! I never would have thought they would do that. Mum still doesn't know about all this but they're planning to tell her soon. Percy's been promoted to head of his department and is going on trips for the Ministry so we won't have to listen about cauldron bottom reports this year. Charlie's gone back to Romania and he says Norbert's doing fine. Bill's back to work also and he's on some classified assignment now. See you on Saturday.
Your pal,
Ron
As Harry walked downstairs to ask his uncle's permission he couldn't help but feel happy that he would get to leave the Dursley's almost a month before school. "Uncle Vernon?" he asked.
"WHAT?" replied his uncle in his normal tone when talking to Harry.
"May I go to Ron's for the rest of the summer?" He'd done it, he'd asked the question, but what would the response be? The seconds before his uncle answered seemed to pass like an eternity. Harry knew what was going on inside Uncle Vernon's head. Having gone through a similar event the past year he knew that Uncle Vernon's two most basic instincts were coming into play. On one hand, Uncle Vernon wanted to keep Harry as miserable as possible but on the other hand, allowing Harry to leave would free up a whole month and that was nothing short of a miracle on the Dursley's eyes.
"All right then," growled Uncle Vernon. Harry let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"They're coming by the fire again," said Harry, unsure of the reaction he'd get. He heard a grunt from his uncle which he supposed meant yes. Harry tore up the stairs and started writing his letter to Ron.
Dear Ron,
I can come! The Dursleys are really pleased at how I've been able to leave early. They said they were going to unblock the fireplace for you. I'll also get there in time for my birthday.
Thanks a million,
Harry
He rolled up his letter and gave it to Ron's owl who was still flying around the room hooting contentedly. "Off you go then."
** Author's note **
This is just a story that I am writing for those of you who cant wait for book 5 (myself included), I am writing this as a prediction of what the book might be like, and if you're reading this J.K. using this story as an outline would just make my millenium. Roxfort Studios, if you're reading this I'm sorry I didnt include part two in my e-mail to you.