Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter books, movies or characters in the books. They belong to J.K. Rowling and some other people I'm too lazy to list.

Summary: Post OotP. What if Harry's and Voldemort's link grew stronger? What if they started reliving parts of each other's life and coming to understand each other? What happens when they start living in each other's minds? Action. Honesty. Humour. Love. Some Snape, but no slash. If you like Snape and Harry and feel ready and open-minded enough to try to understand why Voldi acts the way he acts and watch him change, then you're exactly right here!

Read on and enjoy!!

Chapter 1

The false prophecy, shopping AND Voldemort

Harry shoved back his chair as he stood from the table without saying a word. The Dursleys stared at him, partly with disapproval, partly with fear in their eyes. Harry knew how much Vernon Dursley would have loved to shout at him for being so rude as to leave the table without asking, but Harry knew his relatives knew there would be consequences if they tried anything.

Harry had finished eating. Yes, he was finally allowed to eat. Sure, it wasn't as much as Diddy-dums got to eat, but he didn't complain. Food was not important. Nothing actually was. Harry felt detached from everything around him and felt as though his body was an empty shell operating on its own. He didn't mind. He didn't mind anything, except-

''Boy! Make sure you write to that blasted Dumbly-door before you go to sleep! It's been three days and I do not want any freaks showing up at our door tomorrow! And, by the way, when will that godfather of yours come and fetch you? I'm tired of seeing your freak-face in my house all day!''

Harry stood still, his face already turned to the door. He felt as though he had been hit by a truck. It was painful, sudden and he would have loved to scream. Not in pain, but out of helplessness and anguish. The only thing on his mind was his godfather. Sirius. Sirius.

Sirius wouldn't come. He wouldn't take Harry to live with him. This hope had been shattered. Harry had hoped that one day he would be leaving his relatives' for good and go to live with his godfather...

Struggling against the pained sob that threatened to break out of him, he swallowed several times, trying not to let his voice sound too thick before replying.

''A few days before the beginning of term, the Weasleys are going to pick me up and I'll be staying with them until the end of the holidays.''

His uncle grunted, seemingly satisfied with his answer.

Harry walked up the stairs, silently. His mind was blank again. He didn't mind. He was accustomed to feeling numb these days.

Entering his sparsely furnished room, he immediately noticed Hedwig sitting on his desk with a letter tied to her leg. Crossing the room, he quickly untied the letter and stroked Hedwig.

She seemed to realize her master was feeling bad and hooted softly, nudging his hand.

Harry smiled absently, opening the letter.

A small note, written in Ron's messy scrawl, emerged.

Harry -

How are you? Me and Hermione are fine, but it's a little annoying we're not allowed to leave the house much. The Chudley Cannons have won their last match and I've got their newest poster! 'Mione helped me stick it on the wall with some muggle spellotape! They call it Sellotape, weird, huh? Shall I get a poster for you too?

I'm sorry I can't tell you what we're all doing. You know. Same as last year- we're not allowed to tell you much of anything, it's dangerous, Dumbledore says. I agree, there could be some Death Eater's intercepting the owls after all.

Hermione's here as well and sends her love (girls and love, huh?). Hope to see you soon,

Ron

Harry wasn't angry. He wasn't. He was happy he had recieved a letter from his friends. Right? If he was honest, he was very much angry. It was the same as last year, just as Ron had said. But why couldn't they understand that it was horrible at the Durselys'?

And why couldn't they understand that he needed information! Hadn't they learned from what had happened to Sirius? Harry had been alone then. He hadn't been given any information and hadn't known if Sirius was alright or not? It could happen all over again.

Why couldn't they just initiate him into the Order?

888

Meanwhile, in a big, dark and uninviting house, a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was taking place.

A tall, black-haired man was currently talking about his latest meeting with the Dark Lord.

„Albus, he knows. I am unable to understand how he came by that knowledge, but I do not doubt he is aware that I am no longer loyal to him." Snape was pacing in front of the chair where Dumbledore sat and glanced repeatedly at him during his speech.

Albus was alert. „What happened?"

„He told me in no uncertain terms that I am to deliver the prophecy to him and that he was doubting my loyalty because of my failure to do so." His shoulders were tense and his normally soft voice had an edge to it.

„So he no longer believes that we have no knowledge about the prophecy."

Snape snorted. „Yes. He has always suspected we knew. Now he wants me to find out and present it to him. He has even given me an ultimatum. It is serious, Albus. He will know who I am loyal to when I am unable to deliver the prophecy to him."

Albus massaged his forehead and closed his eyes briefly. Snape watched him apprehensively.

Finally, the old man opened his eyes and Snape was surprised to see a twinkle in them.

„Severus, then, you will give him the prophecy."

Stunned silence met his words before the room filled with protests. Dumbledore held up his hand and the room fell silent.

„You will not, of course, give him the true prophecy. You will give him a fake one."

Molly shook her head. „He already knows the first part. He would notice."

Albus shook his head and smiled mysteriously. „Then, we will only slightly alter the original prophecy."

Snape had his eyes narrowed in thought. Albus smiled at him. „And we will alter it so that it helps our cause."

„How?" Tonks asked curiously.

Albus leaned back, steepled his hands and sighed. „I want Voldemort to concentrate on a solution to the prophecy instead of planning raids on muggleborns. We need to stop all this bloodshed." Albus thought aloud.

A few minutes later, Albus' eyes snapped open and a small smile tugged on his lips as he silenced the order members with a wave of his hand. Curious and sightly apprehensive eyes met his.

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

„The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...

And he will be love whereas the Dark Lord is hatred,

he will be light while the Dark Lord is darkness;

but love dies in the face of hatred while hatred dies in the face of love;

not through bloodshed will either die

but through love or hatred in their minds."

Silence. Snape sighed. „That will do." He stated reluctantly.

Albus broke into a smile and his eyes twinkled madly. „I know it would, dear boy."

Snape only snorted.

„And now, we move on to our last, important topic. I think it is time we initiated Harry."

There were many protests of different nature.

„You can't. That Potter brat is not responsible enough and his Occlumency skills are nil! The Dark Lord would find out immediately!" Snape snarled in anger.

„Now now, Severus. Harry has improved quite a lot, I hear, and I know just the thing that will further help him conceal the information from Voldemort."

„And what might that thing be?" Snape asked warily.

„Why, I had thought it was obvious. Occlumency lessons with you, Severus."

Snape expression turned cold. „I will not. Teach. That. Boy. Again."

Albus looked at him pleadingly. „Please, Severus. I know and Harry knows that what he did was wrong. It wasn't his intention to humiliate you. You're the adult, Severus. Can't you see through your hatred of James and Harry and help Harry? We need him."

Snape restrained a snarl. „What he did was unacceptable. He will repeat it and I will not tolerate it. No, Albus, I won't."

Albus shook his head sadly. „We will see, Severus. For now, everyone dismissed!"

888

The weeks passed quickly for Harry now that the Dursleys treated him all right. The only chores he had to do were weeding the garden and cooking dinner. Both of which he didn't mind doing because of the distraction they provided.

Soon, the week of his birthday rolled around and finally, it was his birthday. The years before, he used to stay awake until midnight so that he could congratulate himself, but this year he just wanted to sleep.

He was awakened by several, very loud, scratching noises which reverbrated throughout the room. Groaning, he shifted and nearly fell off the bed, before grabbing his glasses and letting in the three owls that had previously made such a racket.

Hedwig, Pig and an unknown, barn owl flew in and settled down on Harry's bad and chair.

He started by relieving Pig of its burden and opened the rather large package. He was extremely happy to see various sweets and cauldron cakes in the package as well as a ripped-out article from the Daily Prophet. Before he could reach for the Daily Prophet, a little note fell out of the package.

Happy birthday, Harry!

We hope you'll have a great birthday and just try to ignore your aunt and uncle today. Just enjoy yourself and eat some more! Ron insisted on getting you a Chudley cannons poster, he hopes you'll like it.

Anyway, Charlie came for a visit and is now staying with us as well. We really hope you wil be able to spend some weeks with us. The exact date when we'll be coming to fetch you isn't clear yet, so just wait for our owl!

Once again, happy sixteenth birthday!

Love,

Molly (and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins)

Harry unrolled the magical poster and flinched at the (though expected) bright orange glare that met his eyes. He quickly put it away, he was sure he would never ever stick that to his wall. Maybe to placate Ron... oh well.

From Hermione he got a book, which didn't come as a surprise to him- she always wanted him to read more. Perhaps he should. Or maybe not.

In the next minutes he had to open the window once more and duck several owls sailing into his room. They carried Professor Lupin's present and several presents for him from the DA. He really wasn't in the mood for opening presents, so, many presents were put on the floor, unopened.

He had just wanted to go to bed when another owl came in carrying a thick envelope containing what Harry now realized were his O.W.L.-results.

Scanning over them unenthusiastically, he noticed he'd done quite well except for Astronomy, History of Magic and Divination, which he had failed completely. But that was all right. The joy he had expected to feel over an O in Potions didn't well up in him, even as he looked at the grade. It was just... not important.

He sighed and went to bed, nightmares awaiting him in his sleep.

888

Severus wasn't scared, he told himself. He wasn't. He was only nervous. Very nervous, to be exact. Only his strong will and his years of experience in this particular... activity kept his hands from shaking and his focus from slipping.

He was currently in a Death Eater meeting and was supposed to tell the Dark Lord the fake prophecy Dumbledore had given to him.

And the Dark Lord was not in a pleasant mood tonight. But he was the bearer of good news, good news indeed.

After taking a deep, steadying breath, Severus moved a little forward. Just a few inches. That showed he had something to tell and those few inches were enough to get the Dark Lord's attention immediately.

Severus didn't flinch as the piercing red gaze came to rest on him, assessing him. His mind was carefully occluded, even more than usually. This needed to work.

„Severus... you have news from Hogwarts, I take it? Do proceed... I am very interested in your...report." The Dark Lord's slithering voice made Severus' skin crawl, but it didn't show in his face or in his mind.

He stepped another step forward. Now, he was allowed to. The Death Eaters around him were smirking under their masks, he knew. This part of the meeting was always very entertaining to them. It was the part where he reported unimportant facts from Hogwarts and got punished by the Dark Lord.

But not tonight.

„My lord, I have finally acquired the prophecy."

These words initiated a wave of whispers, murmurs and shuffling among the Death Eaters. And they let an unpleasant smile come to the Dark Lord's face.

„Really, Severus?" He sounded deeply interested now. „You have brought me the prophecy? Very good, Severus, well done... I would have been displeased to have to remove you if you hadn't brought the prophecy. You can be very useful, Severus..."

Severus let no expression save an adoring, awed and grateful one show on his face. „Thank you, milord. I have brought a prophecy globe with me. Apparentely the one which was destroyed wasn't the only recording."

He took the globe from his pocket and carefully handed it to the Dark Lord. He accepted it greedily.

Severus didn't know how Dumbledore had managed to get a real prophecy globe, but apparentely he had.

The Dark Lord tapped the globe with his long yew wand and Severus and all the Death Eaters watched as the mist figure of Sybill Trelawney rose from the inside of the globe and started speaking in an odd tone Severus had only heard once before.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...

born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...

And he will be love whereas the Dark Lord is hatred,

he will be light while the Dark Lord is darkness;

but love dies in the face of hatred while hatred dies in the face of love;

not through bloodshed will either die

but through love or hatred in their minds.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord

will be born as the seventh month dies...

Severus was amazed at how real this seemed. He hadn't expected Trelawney to rise from the globe. It was an extremely good adaptation of the real thing.

The others bought it, he knew, as he saw their faces, or what he was able to see, due to the masks they were wearing. And seeing the Dark Lord's face, Severus knew he would stay alive for a few more months. He had successfully tricked him – again. The rest was easy. Get away from the meeting unscathed and return to Hogwarts without arousing suspicion.

The expression on the Dark Lord's face was difficult to discern, it was a hideous mixture of glee, triumph, hatred and fury. The Death Eaters were whispering among themselves. Severus caught a glimpse of Lucius Malfoy, seemingly deep in thought, before fingering something in his robe pocket.

He turned back to the Dark Lord who was holding the globe in his hand, clutching it with long, thin fingers. „You please me, Severus. This will not be forgotten. You will be richly rewarded."

Severus pulled his face into the same, overly grateful expression of awe it had held before and fell to his knees, crawling forward to kiss the hem of the Dark Lord's robes. Voldemort allowed it.

„Thank you, my lord."

The Dark Lord only nodded and walked the length of the room, slowy letting his eyes trail over the rows of Death Eaters. Severus noticed Lucius muttering something, still clutching something in his robe pocket as the Dark Lord walked past and tensed. Lucius had just cast a spell. He waited, but nothing happened and the Dark Lord didn't notice. Lucius must have been talking to Crabbe, he concluded and relaxed. For a moment, he had thought, Lucius had become unloyal. Severus shook his head. He really should know better, by now. Lucius would never be unloyal to the Dark Lord. He hated mudbloods too much. He sneered.

There were a few minutes of 'entertainment' provided by Wormtail being tortured, and Severus even felt a little amount of pleasure knowing it was a Marauder who was being tortured.

Soon after, the Dark Lord ended the meeting. Before Severus apparated away, he saw Lucius' eyes twinkling deviously and was surprised to see the man give him a nod of approval.

Confused, he apparated away as well, thanking Merlin he hadn't been tortured and that the Dark Lord had believed the fake prophecy.

888

Harry was bored. He was extremely bored. He was sitting on the front steps of the Dursley's house, waiting for the Weasleys to pick him up. Today, they were going to Diagon Alley and he was actually looking forward to it. Sure, he knew he would have to avoid painful questions and inquiries, but he knew he would manage. Now, he would just concentrate on having fun with his friends. He was a little annoyed with them for not writing to him very often. He knew it was unreasonable, they weren't allowed to write details and such, but hey, he was feeling left out again.

Harry started when he heard twin cracks of apparition which were followed by the startingly red hair of the Weasley twins. They greeted him in their normal way by placing a suspicious-looking globe in Harry's hand, while failing at restraining two equally evil grins.

Harry quickly threw the globe onto the lawn and watched as that particular patch of grass turned an ugly shade of pink. After their greeting, they all took a portkey which transported them into the Leaky Cauldron. From there, it was only a few minutes until they met up with Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

Their greeting of Harry was slightly less dangerous but a little awkward. His friends somehow didn't know how to act around him after what had happened to Sirius.

Harry plastered a big smile on his face and from there, everything went back to the way they normally behaved towards each other.

Soon, Ron, Harry and Hermione (Ginny having walked off with some friends of her year) finished buying their supplies and Harry and Ron fled Flourish and Blotts in favour of the Quality Quidditch store just across the street, while Hermione remained in Flourish and Blotts, enthusing over a newly released copy of Hogwarts: A history.

Harry and Ron were admiring the new model of the Cleansweep when Harry spoke up. „D'you reckon we'll manage to slip away from our 'protectors' for a while?" He asked, looking around for the presence of some order member.

Ron looked slightly apologetic. „Harry, mate, it's just for our own good. You-Know-Who might be lurking just out of our sight!" He shivered dramatically.

Harry shook his head. „Just for a moment. I heard some friend of Dudley's talk about something called a contact lens over the summer and it works nearly the same as my glasses do, just that it can't fall off my face in a fight. I just want to slip unnoticed into muggle London to get some!"

Ron looked torn between wanting to protect his best friend and wanting to give in and sneak away. Eventually, the part of him in favour of sneaking away won and after a few shared glances, they dahed away into different directions.

Five minutes later saw them exiting the Leaky Cauldron, panting and grinning, having successfully lost their 'protectors'.

Another ten minutes walk and they found an optometrist. They entered, Ron staring at the sheer mass of glasses on display.

Harry waited for a moment until the assistant had noticed their entrance. He greeted them and Harry told him he wanted contact lenses.

Ron, meanwhile was slightly panicky and was trying to get Harry's attention. As soon as the assistant had vanished into a backroom, taking Harry's glasses with him to get the right contact lenses, Ron turned to Harry.

„I really think we should go, I've got a bad feeling about this, Harry... What if they've noticed we're missing? What if they're looking for us? They'll kill us, walking off when You-Know-Who's around..."

Harry sighed. He didn't care if they got into trouble with the adults. He just didn't.

„Yeah. Just a few more minutes, Ron, until I've got my contact lenses, all right? They're important, too. They won't have noticed. We've only been gone for half an hour. We can always say we were in the back of Fred and George's shop..."

The assistant came out of the backroom, carrying Harry's new contact lenses. Harry paid. Ron was already tugging at his sleeve.

But the assistant wasn't finished. „Now, I'm going to show you how to use them; by the way, here are your glasses." Harry accepted them gratefully. And the assistant started again. „The contact lenses need to be kept in a special kind of -"

„We've got no time, sorry." Ron said and tugged Harry out of the shop.

„Ron! What if that what the guy was saying was important?" He said indignantly, stuffing his old glasses into one of his bags from Diagon Alley.

„Aw, come on, it wasn't! You heard him, he sounded like Binns, he was about to start on a really long, boring lecture!"

Harry laughed. „You're right. And I can always get more contacts, right?"

„Sure."

And off they were. Harry thought Ron was fussing, but he agreed that by now, someone must have noticed. They sneaked into the backroom of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

They had been right. As soon as they exited the shop, they were ambushed by a least four Order members, all demanding to be told where they had been.

Pretending to have been in the backroom all the time, they went about their shopping, now having an entourage of four Order members. Harry was a little annoyed but his little triumph with the contact lenses left him good-tempered.

They walked on towards Eeylops Owl Emporium to get some owl treats for Hedwig when Harry felt it. A feeling of dread, of being folllowed, watched...

He quickened his pace, forcing the others to adapt.

„Harry, what is it?" Tonks asked, having trouble keeping up. Harry looked at her, mind strangely blank.

„I... don't know. I just got the feeling we were being followed..." He turned around fast enough to see the edge of a trailing cloak vanish behind a streetcorner. The strange feeling stopped.

„Did you see that?" Harry asked quietly. The others looked at him in askance.

He shook his head. „Just thought there was the person who'd been following us. I must have been wrong."

They finished their shopping and made their way back to the archway that led from Diagon Alley to the Leaky Cauldron. To their right was a shop with a sign outside proclaiming: 'Magical jewellery – old and new, cheap and expensive'.

Harry glanced at the display. There was an object which drew his attention immediately and he stopped in his tracks. It was a small watch, nearly ordinary, with only three very small emeralds encircling it, making it look expensive but without catching the eye.

Ron and their Order guard had stopped as well and were waiting. „What're you doing, Harry, you don't really need jewellery, do you? That's for girls!" Ron asked.

Harry didn't turn, transfixed as he was on the little watch. „Nah. But..." He walked towards the door to the shop. „Wait up for me, I'll be along in a few moments."

Without waiting for a reply, he entered the shop.

The saleswitch greeted him. „Hello, what do you need?" She smiled falsely. Harry pointed at the little watch. „I want this one."

The witch looked at him strangely and said hesitantly, „Yes, I see, but would like to see our other watches? We have some bigger ones or cheaper ones..."

Harry shook his head. No, no it had to be this one. He needed to have this one. He told her so and she sold it to him for 15 galleons. Harry put it on at once and when he looked at it on his wrist, he felt a rush of happiness at owning this watch. He grinned at the saleswitch and exited the shop to rejoin his friends.

Their guard was less than happy to see he had bought jewellery, it wasn't uncommon for magical jewellery to be hexed or cursed. And with Harry being who he was...

„Did you feel strange when you first put it on? Is your head clear?" Kingsley was asking him.

„No, I didn't feel strange- Yes, I feel perfectly all right!" He was annoyed with them. He didn't really think a shop would make any profit with selling jewellery that cursed the wearer.

Mundungus was all for selling it in Knockturn Alley but finally they decided on just checking it for dark magic and curses. Just like Harry had said, there were no traces of any dark magic on it and after a few good byes, Kingsley apparated a grumbling Harry home.

Harry cooked the Dursleys' dinner and went to bed early, suffering from a bad headache.

888

Lord Voldemort was turning in early as well, though his followers surely thought he never slept and just lived off air and evil. Just as Harry's, his head hurt and he curled around his pillow in his large bed, concentrated on his link to Potter, ignored the worsening of his headache and sent the boy some nasty memories of torture sessions and gory fights. If he, Lord Voldemort, had to suffer, the boy would at least have some nightmares this night and his mental defences would be weakened a little more – not that Potter had any mental defences worth mentioning.

Already thinking of the Death Eater meeting the next day, Lord Voldemort fell asleep, Nagini draped around him and his pillow.

He was in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic and seeing himself duelling. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was in Potter's body. Before he could begin to wonder why, all knowledge of his true identity was lost to him and he was Harry.

Dumbledore and Voldemort were duelling. Harry was in awe. The duelling that normally was done, with spells flying everywhere, was very different from the duelling these two were doing. At the moment, Dumbledore was fighting against a huge snake that Voldemort had conjured or transfigured, Harry wasn't sure. Looking at Bellatrix, he once again felt the upwelling hatred. She had killed- KILLED- Sirius! But as he had seen, the unforgivables just didn't seem to work. But Harry was going to have his revenge. He had sworn it in the moment as Bellatrix had left the room with the veil Sirius had disappeared behind.

Glancing back to the duel, he was just in time to see a burst of fire above Dumbledore's head, in the same time as a killing curse and the serpent rushed in Dumbledore's direction. Desperately, Harry yelled. ''Look out!''

And then he recognized his headmaster's phoenix swooping down and swallowing the jet of green light that would have killed any other wizard. Fawkes burned as he fell to the floor. Then, Harry watched, astonished, as, with just one slashing motion of his wand, Dumbledore killed the snake and trapped Voldemort in a shimmering cocoon of water. Then, Voldemort vanished. After a moment of suspense, Harry felt himself relax slightly. He hadn't even been aware of his tension. He heard Bellatrix scream for her master and made to run out from behind his statue guard, but Dumbledore bellowed: ''Stay where you are, Harry!''

Harry stopped, confused. There was no apparent danger. Voldemort had had to flee and Bellatrix was no real danger, trapped under a statue, sobbing, as she was. And why did Professor Dumbledore sound so... frightened? It didn't make any sense.

But suddenly, everything made sense.

His scar burst open and he knew he was dead: it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance -

He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creature's began: they were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape -

And when the creature spoke, it used his mouth, so that in his agony. Harry felt his jaw move... ''Kill me now Dumbledore...''

Blinded and dying, every part of him screaming for release, he felt the creature use him again...

''If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy...''

Let the pain stop, Harry thought... let him kill us... end it, Dumbledore... death is nothing compared to this...

And I'll see Sirius again...

And through the mind-numbing pain, Harry felt a surge of emotion. Sirius. Sirius. His godfather's name echoed through his mind, everywhere where it passed digging up emotions, feelings and a deep longing. How he longed to see Sirius again...

Harry felt as though his heart constricted painfully and continued to constrict and cramp, while his mind flooded with a love and ache for Sirius that blinded him. The creature released him as sudden as it had trapped him, taking with it the pain.

The last thing he felt before he slipped into unconsciousness, was a shimmering, glittering feeling he couldn't describe.

Lord Voldemort awoke with a start, breathing heavily. A strange ache was constricting his heart and his lungs and he still felt a trace of the glittering feeling from the strange dream. He touched his head carefully and only slowly found back to himself- I am Lord Voldemort, he repeated to himself over and over until he finally believed it. When he felt like himself again, all that remained of the glittering feeling from the dream was a foggy memory.

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A reviewer told me about some discrepancies in the plot. I tried to fix them. Thanks go to kat. Also, I'd like to thank ParadoxOfInfinity, the very first reviewer!!! Yay! I need your opinion: I need a pairing. A pairing including Harry Potter. What do you suggest?

I'm happy you decided to read it! How did you like it? It'll take me some time to post the next chapter, but it'll be there, promise.

Oh, and a question? More humour or less? Okay, I get it, it wasn't exactly funny. But I can do better. The thing is: I want this story to be serious. Really serious. But I still want more humour. What do you think?

Taranis