Grim News

Bright rays of sunshine shone through the open windows and onto the bed that Harry Potter was sleeping on, in Godric's Hollow, just outside of London.

Harry got up, yawned, and glanced at his muggle clock (a gift from Arthur Weasley); 7:02 am was what it read. He slowly got out of bed, and began to get changed.

What Harry did not know, was that while he was getting changed and starting his day, far off in another part of England, was Lord Voldemort. It was true that Harry had already graduated from Hogwarts, destroyed seven of Voldemort's horcruxes, and had killed Lord Voldemort himself. But for some reason, Voldemort had not died, at least not yet anyway…

When Harry got home from work on the night of November 30th it was raining, raining hard, and Harry had just settled into his house after having spent an extremely long day at the Ministry of Magic, working in the Auror offices, as he had now been doing since June. He was having a quiet dinner, and reading the morning issue of the Daily Prophet. He was about to close it up and chuck it in the bin when an article in the corner of one page caught his eye. It read:

Surprising Muggle Deaths

A muggle car was found lying in a ditch yesterday by a quiet muggle road a few miles from Dufftown. Inside, muggle police found the dead bodies of two muggles that had been reported as missing for over a week. At first it would seem like an ordinary car accident, but the car had not been damaged, and muggle "healers" could find no reason that the two muggles had died. "These deaths almost assuredly lead to wizarding involvement, and the Killing Curse," a Ministry insider said last night. No further details were disclosed by the Ministry of Magic. The wizarding world will just have to wait to see if this arouses any suspicion within the muggle world.

A dull evening had just turned into one of great mystery. A billion thoughts were now racing through Harry Potter's head.

"Who killed the muggles? Why? Did it have something to do with Voldemort or one of his past followers? No, it couldn't," Harry thought inside himself, "He had killed Voldemort in his seventh year at Hogwarts, which was over three years ago, right?"

He stood up from his chair and was about to apparate to the Ministry when there was a knock at the door…

"Harry! Harry! Open the door, Harry! Harry!" Harry looked up from the Prophet, and glanced at the door. Who could be calling at this hour? He grumbled, getting up from his chair and ambling slowly towards the door that was probably going to smash soon from all the vigorous knocking it was receiving. "I'm coming," Harry said in an irritated voice.

When he had finally reached the door and it had slowly been creaked open, Harry received a wonderful surprise; it was his friend, Ron Weasley. "Ron?" he asked, surprised.

"Not until we're inside!" cried Ron looking back at the street from which he had just apparated into nervously.

Harry finally just pushed Ron in, and slammed the door. "What's going on?" he asked, "did you see the Daily Prophet today too?"

"More than that," replied Ron as he helped himself to a rather large amount of Harry's various deserts. "There've been more deaths, deaths in the Ministry; they happened just now, d-death eaters." Harry knew what was coming before Ron even said it. "He's back," Ron finished nervously, looking around Harry's kitchen as if Voldemort was going to jump in any second and kill him.

"Voldemort has returned? But how, didn't we destroy all the horcruxes last year?" Harry recalled what he Ron, and Hermione had spent most of their time during their last year at Hogwarts. It had taken so long to find and destroy all the horcruxes! And now there were more? Or was Voldemort up to something else…

"We don't know how he got back, Harry, but that's not what's important at the moment," said Ron in a more serious tone now, "But we do know that we've got to stop him. People are getting killed! Now if you'd excuse me Harry, I've got to go warn some others now Harry, next stop is Fred and George…"

But Harry suddenly had a fleeting idea, "We should get the order back together," he said to Ron, and as if he had been expecting this, Ron nodded, and then slowly began to get up from his chair. "Get new members too, Ron, we should have a lot more people this time than last, now that there's no Fudge around."

Ron managed a grin, "Right."

As soon as Ron had left, Harry began racking his brain, trying to remember what it had been like back when Voldemort was in power. Of course he couldn't remember when Voldemort had first been in power, he had only just been born. But Harry knew he would never forget those years when he was in school still, and Voldemort was in power once again. In his seventh year, Harry finally defeated Voldemort and his remaining death eaters in person, with the help of some of the Order. Yet, Voldemort was in power once again, it was all very strange, but Harry knew there must have been a last resort horcrux, one that nobody knew about, save Voldemort. It made sense, Voldemort must have found out that his secret had been revealed, and that he needed to do something he, Harry, and everyone else would not know about.

Harry reached his bedroom, and sat down to write a letter. He didn't know who to write to, or even why, but Harry had a feeling that he needed to tell someone what was going on, someone important, someone he could trust.

"Think!" he shouted to himself aloud subconsciously. Then it hit him. He dipped his quill in ink and began to write…

Dear Remus:

I am not sure if the news has reached you yet, or maybe you've found out for yourself, but anyway, there's a lot to talk about. Lord Voldemort has returned. At this moment we are already starting up the Order of the Phoenix. I need to ask you some questions, but I can't ask them here in case this gets intercepted. Please send me a time in which I can apparate to your house and we can share more detailed information.

Thanks,

Harry

Looking over his letter with satisfaction, Harry got Hedwig and had her send the letter. Then he fell asleep, still in his wizard robes.