Harry woke with a start, but kept his eyes closed

Harry woke with a start, but kept his eyes closed. What a strange dream he thought, still half asleep, as he remembered the strange images that had been floating through his head during the night. He was once again on top of the tower at Hogwarts, his school. He saw again his friends Fred and George, the Weasley twins, floating slightly above his head in the night sky, the stars' argent glow illuminating their identical freckled faces. He reached up to pull them down, and found that he too was floating in the air. But he couldn't reach them.

Not any more he heard George say. Or was it Fred? He had no time to ponder on this, for both of the red haired boys had started singing. They were singing in strange voices that reminded Harry of phoenix song, although phoenix song didn't give him the feeling of dread that he had now. Harry couldn't understand their words.

What? he found himself saying. What? Stop, stop it I can't understand you! He tried once more to reach them, frustrated at his own lack of comprehension. But the twins were rising now, higher and higher. Harry gave up, and just stared up at them. No, he thought as he saw the looks of terror that had appeared on their identical faces, their mouths both open in silent screams. No. This is wrong. What's happening? I've got to help them. Help them…..help…help Fred and George…..

"What?" He heard a familiar voice saying. Harry opened his tired eyes and looked up at the cracked, once white ceiling above him. Huh? he thought. Where am I? He turned his head and saw a face, a long-nosed, freckly face, looking down at him.

Oh! Realization dawned, and he remembered that he was on the floor of his best friend's room. He was staying with the Weasleys for the last couple of days before school started again, and had arrived at the Burrow, the Weasley's house, yesterday afternoon. Ron Weasley, one of his best friends in his year at school, was the owner of the face looking down at him. The face was topped by a tangle of startlingly red hair, as yet uncombed in the early morning.

"What?" Ron repeated. "What were you saying? You were talking about something. Something about Fred and George…."

"Huh? Oh yeah, I was dreaming. I'm sure I've had that dream before. Fred and George were…er…they were……" he tried to remember the details of his weird dream, but they were slipping from his mind.

"I'm not sure." He said after a while. "Never mind."

"Hmm… said Ron, who was not happy at having been woken so early.

Five minutes later, both the boys were asleep again, Ron still and silent, Harry tossing and turning, his famous scarred face contorting into the occasional frown. Had anyone been listening, they would have heard him muttering under his breath.

Help them…..got to help…..er……help them, George, and Fred. Help….

*

Harry awoke once more, a few hours later, remembering nothing of his dreams. He sat up, rubbed his eyes and put on his round glasses. The room he was in slid into focus. The walls were covered in posters of the Chudley Cannons, a quidditch team all dressed in orange and waving madly as they zoomed around on their broomsticks. Ron was still asleep under his tattered, bright orange Chudley Cannons duvet. Harry almost laughed as he saw his large feet sticking out the end.

"Wake up Ron!" he said, leaning over to shake his friend.

"Go 'way Harry," said Ron thickly.

"Come on. We've got to have some breakfast before we go to Diagon Alley. GET UP!"

"OK, OK I'm up," said Ron, as he continued to lie with his eyes closed.

Harry laughed, and then pushed him off his bed.

"You are now! Hehe!"

*

After the excessive breakfast that Mrs Weasley always provided, Harry reached for the jar of floo powder on the mantelpiece.

"Can we borrow some of this, Mrs Weasley?" he asked Ron's plump mother.

"Yes, of course you can dear." Mrs Weasley looked pale and tired, and the lines on her face were more noticeable than Harry remembered, but her eyes remained cheerful. Fighting against evil was exhausting, and with Voldemort's powers on the increase, good people like the Weasleys were being called upon to help in any way they could.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Oh, we're meeting Hermione in Diagon Alley. What time are we meant to meet her Ron?" he said turning round only to find that Ron had gone.

Harry left the kitchen and raised an eyebrow as he found Ron frowning at himself in the mirror in the hall, and at the same time trying to comb his hair. Harry had never seen Ron combing his hair. He had never seen Ron in front of a mirror, either. How strange he thought.

"Er….Ron?"

Ron saw Harry standing there, and abruptly stopped combing. He smiled sheepishly.

"Let's go," he said, and they walked back to the kitchen.

Harry did not enjoy travelling by floo powder, as it was messy and often painful if you weren't used to it. But he had to admit that it was quick – instantaneous, as a matter of fact - and easy. It was very hard to get lost, although, Harry thought wryly, he had managed it once or twice.

He watched Ron throw a handful of the glittering powder into the fire, and as the flames turned green and Ron stepped into them he took a handful of the powder ready for his turn. He took off his glasses and put them safely into his pocket, remembering the many times they had shattered while travelling in this manner.

""Diagon Alley!" Ron shouted, and was gone. The flames became normal again, and Harry stepped forward. He threw his powder into the flames, which became tall and green once more. He stepped into the flames.

"Goodbye dear," he heard Mrs Weasley say. "Have fun!"

"Diagon Alley!" he yelled, and suddenly he was spinning at incredible speed. He knew it wouldn't take long, and, sure enough, a few seconds later he found himself in the Leaky Cauldron, where Ron was waiting for him. They got the usual friendly greeting from Tom, the toothless landlord, who looked older than Harry remembered him to be, and a few others in the pub that they knew. But the atmosphere in the small pub was quiet and subdued. Harry remembered a time when people seemed so much happier. Since Voldemort had started gaining power again, most wizards and witches found it hard to find things to laugh at. The Dark Lord and his evil following were already doing terrible things. There had been attacks, even killings. Voldemort liked to remind people that he was still out there, and everyone knew it was only a matter of time before he was back to his terrifying full strength.

"OK, let's go," Harry said, trying to forget Lord Voldemort for now as he put his glasses back on and tried, in vain, to flatten his naturally untidy hair.

"Let's go to Gringotts before we meet Hermione," said Ron as they went through the small bar to the courtyard at the back. Harry went over to the back wall, got out his wand and tapped the third brick to the left above the dustbin. A hole appeared in the centre of it which grew and grew until the whole wall was gone. The courtyard now opened onto a long street full of shops containing anything any wizard or witch could ever need; Diagon Alley. Here was another sign of people's fear. The street was as busy as ever but the cheerful sounds of talking and laughter that Harry had heard here only a year or two ago had been replaced forever by quiet, fearful talking. The atmosphere was tense and there was little to be heard. This eerie almost-silence depressed Harry, and if he was honest, it scared him too. There was no escaping from the inevitable. There was no way to get away from reality, and the truth was that things were bad, and they would be worse. It was as if the whole wizarding world were waiting for something to happen. He felt a familiar surge of anger. It was all down to Voldemort. Voldemort who had tortured people until they were on the brink of insanity, and Voldemort who had pushed them over. Voldemort, who had killed countless people, Harry's parents among them. Harry sighed, and decided that whatever happened in the future, even if it was tomorrow, he would enjoy life while he could.

The boys set off toward a huge building and climbed the stone stairs to the doors. This was Gringotts, the wizarding bank. They went first to Harry's vault. It was full of gold, silver and bronze. Harry filled a fairly small bag with coins, and then they went to the Weasley's vault so Ron could get some money. The Weasley's vault did not contain nearly as much money as Harry's did, but he had long ago given up feeling bad that they had so little and he had so much. They knew that he would willingly split all the money he had with them, and he knew that they would never accept anything from him.

They left the bank, and arrived outside the ice-cream parlour five minutes before they were due to meet Hermione there. They sat down at a table to wait. Ron was being strangely impatient and fidgety, and kept looking at his watch.

"Keep still will you!" Harry said as Ron stood up and then sat down again for about the sixth time. "What is the matter with you?" he said, frowning.

"Er…….nothing," said Ron, and Harry noticed he was looking sheepish again, like he had only quarter of an hour ago in the hall of the Burrow. He thought back to that morning, and as their other best friend, Hermione, came walking towards them, smiling, a suspicion crept into his mind.

Ron stood up so suddenly that he almost knocked the table over, went bright red and proceeded to trip over his feet as he walked towards Hermione. Harry saw the huge grin on Ron's blushing, embarrassed face and put his hand over his mouth to hide his laugh as he realized what was going on.

"Hi Ron!" said Hermione happily as she hugged her tall friend and kissed him on the cheek. Ron's grin widened further, and Harry tried even harder to stop laughing as Hermione came over to hug him too. She did not, however, kiss him, which he was glad of, as Ron was definitely the jealous type.

Harry thought he had finally controlled his laughter, but Hermione had noticed his earlier efforts to contain himself.

" What were you sniggering about just then?" she asked, smiling.

"Er…..nothing," he said and burst into fits of mirth once more. Hermione and Ron stood there, nonplussed, staring at him as he gasped for air and tried desperately to stop laughing.

A few minutes later, he had managed to calm down and the three of them were sitting eating the huge ice-creams which Hermione had treated them to. Harry couldn't help smiling as he saw Ron's sideways glances at Hermione, who appeared not to have noticed his abnormal behaviour. But Harry was sure that she knew more than she let on, and he was also sure that she didn't dislike the attention Ron was giving her.

After they had finished their ice-creams they went to the shops. They all needed books and various other things for school, so they went to get these first. When that was done, they looked at all the other, much more interesting stuff. They went into Quality Quidditch supplies, and Harry bought a new jar of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish as he'd run out. Ron was looking at a set of Chudley Cannons robes. Harry knew he would love one more than anything, and decided to get him one for Christmas. A sudden vision of Ron popped into his head, wearing a vivid orange robe that clashed terribly with his equally vivid hair, and Harry smiled.

They left the shop, Harry and Ron talking about quidditch. When they started talking quidditch, Hermione would find herself being ignored. It was a while before Harry realized that she wasn't making her usual comments about how boring quidditch was, or even sighing with exasperation at being ignored. He looked around for her, and saw her walking slowly a little way behind them. She had a dreamy expression on her face that was oddly familiar to Harry, and he stared at her as she gazed absent mindedly at Ron.

He managed to turn his sniggers into a deeply unconvincing coughing fit, which brought Hermione out of her reverie. She blushed slightly, and then hurried to catch up with the others. Harry was still "coughing" and Ron was standing there, looking confused, obviously without a clue as to what was going on. Hermione came up to them, and she and Ron stood together, looking at Harry. He had thrown aside all pretence now and was doubled over, laughing hysterically. His laughter cut through the oppressive helf-silence of the street like a knife and people were staring. His friends were convinced that he was insane, but the bemused expressions on their faces only made him laugh all the more.

Calm down Harry he told himself. It's not that funny. Hehe, Ron and Hermione! Oh no. No! STOP LAUGHING!

He eventually managed to stop laughing, and they carried on walking. Hermione and Ron still looked a little lost, and were still, apparently, a little worried about the state of his mental health.

"Harry, what is up with you today?" said Hermione.

"I'm OK," he said. "Really!" he added at their disbelieving looks.

*

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. The three friends ate far more ice-cream than was healthy. They went shopping, Hermione buying just about every book in Flourish and Blotts and some new robes.

"You look….er……really great," said Ron as she tried on the beautiful pale pink robes. Harry rushed out of Madam Malkin's ("Robes for All Occasions") as he fought to stop himself laughing yet again.

Ron bought himself a cheap but nice set of gobstones, and Harry bought a book on quidditch and a Chudley Cannons hat, similar to one he had given Ron for Christmas a couple of years ago.

"Great," said Ron dryly. "Matching hats," and they all laughed.

At the end of the afternoon they went to the Leaky Cauldron and Harry bought them all butterbeers. They sat for a couple of hours, just talking.

"What are Fred and George doing now they've left?" Hermione asked Ron.

"Didn't you hear? They have to stay on another year – they failed all their NEWTs!"

Harry laughed. "What?" he said, "ALL of them?!"

"Yeah," said Ron. "They spent the whole of last year messing around and planning stuff for their shop, you know, and they didn't do any work at all!" He laughed. "Ahh well, it's always a laugh when they're around."

Hermione, however, did not seem to find it funny. She looked very serious.

"That's terrible!" she said. Failing your NEWTs…..Ron that's really serious. They'll never get a good job…."

"Oh come on Hermione," said Harry. "It's not exactly like they wanted a good job! All they want to do is open a joke shop, you know, they didn't want to be in the ministry or anything."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "And it's not like they're the only ones or anything. Their friend, you know Lee, he's taking them again. So's Katie Bell and…I don't know but there're quite a few this year."

"Don't they mind, though?" asked Hermione. "Aren't they ashamed, disappointed? And I bet your mum wasn't happy!" she said, smiling now.

"Oh you should have heard when the letters arrived! She was FURIOUS!" Ron laughed, and turned to Harry. "You think she was cross that time we flew the car? That was NOTHING compared to this. Seriously, she yelled for about two days without stopping, and then ignored them for……well, she's still ignoring them, actually."

Hermione, less serious now, laughed. She talked and joked with Ron, but Harry was lost in his own thoughts. Talking about Fred and George had stirred his memory, and he remembered…..well, he wasn't quite sure what. He thought hard. What was it? he asked himself. Fred and George. Er… For a fleeting instant, he saw again what he didn't know he remembered. He heard an eerie sound, almost like music…

"HARRY!" He heard Ron and Hermione shouting, and it was gone. The strange images and chilling sounds disintegrated into nothing, and Harry sat, searching his mind for a memory that he was sure was there, somewhere…..

"Harry, wake up!" said Ron. "What is up with you today?"

"What? What d'you mean?"

"You were….totally out of it! Like, in a trance or something." Ron looked quite amused. Hermione, on the other hand, looked concerned.

"Are you…alright?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just……what happened?"

"I don't know," Ron answered. "We were just talking then I said something to you and you didn't answer. It was weird, I mean, your eyes were all out of focus. It was like…you…..I don't know. What's got into you Harry? You've been acting weird all day."

I've been acting weird? Harry thought to himself. Ha! You two should see yourselves!

"Oh. Yeah, sorry."

"Anyway," said Ron, "we'd better go back. It's nearly half six."

"Oh. Alright then."

So they headed over to the fireplace, which anyone was allowed to use for travelling.

"Bye Hermione, said Ron, and he hugged her. Then, red faced and grinning, he stepped into the flames. "The Burrow!" he yelled, and vanished, leaving Hermione smiling after him.

"Er…..Hermione?" said Harry after a few moments of silence during which he wondered vaguely what had just happened to him.

"Oh!" Harry watched, amused, as Hermione remembered where she was. "Bye Ron…er….Harry. Hehe.." She blushed and bit her lip.

"See you in a couple of days, on the train yeah? Hermione?" She wasn't taking the slightest bit of notice of him, but was staring into the flames. Knowing he'd get no more sense out of her, Harry sighed and followed Ron, into the flames and back to the Burrow.

*

They arrived at the Burrow to discover that Ron's oldest brother, Bill, had come home from Egypt.

"Hey Ron," he said as they entered the kitchen. Ron didn't answer. He was absent mindedly staring into space. He was walking around the kitchen as if in a trance, and being even more clumsy than usual, which, thought Harry, was saying something.

Bill gave up and turned to Harry.

"Alright Harry? What's up with him?" he said, jerking his head in the vague direction of his youngest brother.

Harry sniggered.

"Hermione" he whispered to Bill.

"Ohhhhh!" said Bill, and laughed loudly.

Ron turned and eyed them suspiciously before staring, once more, into space.

Mrs Weasley came bustling in.

"Hello dear,"she said to Ron, who didn't even hear her.

"Hello Harry," she said. "Did you have fun? What's wrong with Ron?"

Harry and Bill, to Mrs Weasley's astonishment, laughed.

*

The Weasley's and Harry sat down to a huge meal in the garden. Harry saw all the delicious looking food and realized just how hungry he was. I never know how hungry I am he thought until I'm sitting at the table.

Looking around the table, he thought how happy he was. Despite of everything going on, he was with his friends, away from the Dursleys (which was always a reason to celebrate) and having fun. He remembered the first time he had ever stayed at the Burrow, and how surprised he was that everyone there seemed to like him. Now he was like a part of the family.

"Where's Ginny?" he asked, as he noticed two empty places. One of them was Mr Weasley's, but that was to be expected. He'd had to work at the ministry a lot more since…

For the first time since this morning, Harry remembered Voldemort. Suddenly his feeling of happiness disappeared, and for a moment he was full of dread. He couln't remember a time when Voldemort had been at full strength, but even when he was relatively weak, he was still terrifying. The thought of his happiness, this family, torn asunder by evil, by death, filled him with horror and sadness. He wondered where that morbid thought had come from. He tried to think about other things. His thoughts turned back to Ginny.

"Where's Ginny?" he asked again.

"I just told you dear, she's gone to her friend's for the weekend. She'll be back tomorrow."

"Oh."

Fred and George were giving him strange looks from across the table. At the same moment, their identical faces split into identical grins, and their eyes twinkled maliciously. Harry frowned at them, and tried to ignore them. How do they do that? he asked himself as he thought of the numerous times he had seen their expressions change at exactly the same second. It was decidedly unnerving, Harry thought.

"Ron tells me you failed all your exams," he said to the twins. As he expected, they were perfectly open about it and really didn't care. However, it was obviously a sore point with Mrs Weasley.

"Yes, that's right," she said, frowning at him, and then at the twins. "They failed because they didn't work," she said. "Much more interested in playing tricks, making people laugh I daresay," she went on, her eyes flashing. She stopped then but shot both of the twins dirty looks at regular intervals throughout the meal. They evidently didn't care about this either. In fact, they seemed to find it quite amusing.

The meal went on late into the hot Summer night, and when Mr Weasley finally arrived home, they were all still up. Harry hadn't seen the tall, balding man yet this year, so he stood up to shake hands.

"Hello Harry!" said Mr Weasley heartily. "How did you do in the OWLs?" His face was lined, there were dark shadows under his eyes and his voice told them all that he was exhausted, but he remained cheerful.

"Er…..OK actually. I did really well in defence against the dark arts and herbology. I only just scraped through potions, but everything else was OK."

"Good, good. And what about Hermione. Full marks in everything, I expect?"

"Of course," said Harry, smiling. He thought of how hard Hermione had worked last year. He hadn't thought it was possible that Hermione could work harder than she had done in the first few years, but the OWLs had proven him wrong.

"Good heavens," said Mr Weasley, "what are you all doing up? It's……well, it's late." His wizarding watch did not tell him the time. Instead, it's hands pointed to where he should be, or "you're late", or some other information which, in Harry's opinion was much more useful than the numbers on muggle watches.

"Yeah," said Ron, who had lost his dreamy expression and was now paying a lot more attention to the world arouns him. "We were just about to go to bed."

Harry and Ron and the twins went upstairs. They had a game of exploding snap in the twins' room before actually going to bed. Harry had never seen their room before. It was very interesting, full of their experiments. The jokes and things they produced were really ingenious. Harry' favourite's were the fake wands which turned into various useless things. As he looked at the bottles of different coloured potions and the diagrams and plans laid out on parchment on the floor, Harry realized that, although the infamous twins never ever worked at school, and failed exams, they really were incredibly intellingent.

They played snap for about half an hour, but Harry and Ron really were very tired, and gave up after a while to go to bed.

"Goodnight" they said.

"Goodnight Harry," said George. Or was it Fred? Which one was it? He was looking up at the twins in the night air. Not any more Fred, or George was saying. You can't reach us any more.

The stone tower dissolved and Harry found himself on the Weasley's landing.

"Huh?" he said. "What?" What is happening to me? he thought. I must have been daydreaming. But my dreams... Harry dreams were often more than just dreams. Indeed, in the past they had been proven to be prophecies of a sort. And once again Harry got the feeling that he should be remembering something. A memory, it seemed to be hiding, going out of it's way not to be brought to the surface of his mind.

"Harry what is up with you?" Ron said for probably the tenth time that day, and headed up more stairs to his room.

"I was just saying…." said George with a wink,

"…that Ginny will be home tomorrow!" Fred finished, with a classic Weasley twin evil grin.

Harry blinked.

"So?" he said.

"Never mind," said one of the twins in a sing-song voice. Their door ("Weasley's Wizard Wheezes – HQ") shut and Harry heard their laughter. He went up another flight of stairs to Ron's room and went in. Ron was sat on the bed.

"Harry, are you sure you're OK?" he said. He really did look concerned now, not amused.

"I….I'm not sure. I've been…"

"Like, you were having hysterical fits earlier, and then…."

"Oh no," said Harry grinning. "The laughing thing….that was…well…" he was not sure if he should tell Ron what he had observed earlier. It might lead to a huge argument. But never mind. Here goes.

"You….and Hermione, you were….acting so weirdly. I mean, you and her. I just though it was funny. You…Ron…..you and Hermione…..you…"

Expecting Ron to be outraged, Harry was very surprised when he simply sighed and said;

"I know. But she's so great. Isn't she great?"

Ron? Is that you in there? Harry thought.

"Er…" he said.

"Sorry," said Ron, grinning sheepishly. "Did you think she was acting weirdly though? I mean, you said…..do you think…"

"Well," said Harry, laughing, "she was, er……you combed your hair Ron! I can't believe it! I knew something was up with you, and, well, I knew WHAT was up with you soon enough! Hehe!"

Ron laughed and turned red.

"If you start going on and on about her, I mean it I will hex you."

"Would I?" said Ron, looking unconvincingly outraged.

"Probably," said Harry flatly.

"What about you then?" said Ron. "You and Ginny? Missing her at dinner were you? Hehe!" He laughed wickedly.

Harry punched him playfully. Eventually they settled down and talked for a while before finally Ron fell asleep and left Harry alone with his thoughts.

Me and Ginny, he thought to himself. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Missing her. I wasn't missing her. What's he on about anyway. Stupid boy.

Harry had once thought of Ginny as just a little girl, but they had become good friends over the few years they had shared at Hogwarts. Her cute face floated around in his brain and he smiled as he remembered how kind she always was.

Well maybe I missed her he thought, grinning as he drifted off to sleep. Just a little……

*

Harry turned his face towards the sky. A few feet above his head were Fred and George. What were they doing there, he wondered. He reached up to try and pull them down, but couldn't reach.

Not any more one of the twins said. Then they opened their mouths, and started singing, but the voices Harry heard were not theirs. Indeed, they hardly seemed like voices at all. The music was beautiful but intimidating, eerie. Harry wished it would stop.

Looking down at the stone roof of the tower, a metre or so beneath his feet, Harry saw himself. How strange. He looked up at the twins, who were now rising higher and higher into the night sky. The twins closed their mouths but the music continued. Both of them pulled out their wands and, to Harry's horror, pointed them at each other. Both of them looked horrified too, and they forced their heads to turn away from each other. The air around them glowed gold and suddenly both of them were gone. A fine glittering dust floated down from where they had been, and Harry watched it settle around the other-Harry's feet. Other-Harry stared straight ahead, but held his hands out in front of him, palms down. The gold dust raised itself and hovered around them. He clapped his hands and the dust flew back up into the air. Harry gasped as he saw it forming a glittering figure above his other self. It was a tall wizard. He was wearing a long hooded cloak. The figure lowered his hood, and Harry gasped once more as he recognized the golden face – it was Dumbledore. Dumbledore spoke, his thunderous voice shaking the air that was supporting Harry.

Harry he said. Harry started, then realized that Dumbledore was speaking to his other self. Harry, revenge. It is…..my past, my future……..my shadow. My past, my future, my there and my here. My present but not my now.

The dust figure dropped into nothing, and Harry looked to his other self, who was looking as confused as he felt. Suddenly, the music stopped. Everything stopped. There was no movement, no sound at all. It was as if time itself had stopped. Then, the clouds started to move. They rushed and swirled like liquid in the midst of the stillness, and Harry realized that they too were forming a figure in the sky. He looked to other-Harry, who was still standing, but Harry saw the fear in his eyes. The cloud figure was immense, blocking out the faint light of the moon and stars, casting a huge shadow over the castle. This figure was, like the previous, hooded, but did not lower the hood. Instead, it pulled a gargantuan wand from its robes. Harry fell to the floor, and landed face down. He looked up to see the huge wand pointed straight at his other self, who still was not moving.

He's going to die! But he's….me. I'm going to die!

Harry rushed forward, with the idea of pushing his other self out of the way. He got within about a metre of other-Harry and then felt himself flying through the air. He landed on the stone about ten metres away, and wondered for a second why he felt no pain. Then the thought was swept form his mind as he saw a stream of harsh white light erupt from the wand, and hit his other self. Other-Harry crashed to the floor, and writhed in agony. Harry tried to close his ears to his own screams of pain, but couldn't do it. He saw his double clutching his scar, heard the shrieks that tore the night in two….yet he felt no pain.

It should hurt he thought, knowing this was wrong. Why doesn't my head hurt?

He put his hand to his scar as he stared around at the swirling stones and the black cloud figure, and found them gone. He was in back in Ron's room. He closed his eyes as the memory he had been searching for came to him. All the times he had had this same dream, all the times he had watched as Fred and George destroyed each other. But he ha never seen Dumbledore, never seen time stop as he had tonight. He had never seen himself, never heard himself scream like that. Harry lowered his hand from his head. Recurring dreams…this was not good. This meant something. When Voldemort had failed to kill him, he had given him strange powers. Amongst them was the ability to speak Parseltongue. Harry, Ron and Hermione had long suspected that prophetic dreaming was another.

Something's happening he thought. Something's going to happen. Something bad. I can feel it.

*