Summary: The Slytherins are causing trouble in Hogwarts and Harry and the DA must stop them before things get out of hand. Voldemort gains power and seeks an item that would help him raise an unstopable army. Instead of helping, the Ministry makes all the wrong moves and puts the magical world in an even worse position than before. As Harry trains to fulfill the prophecy he discovers an old type of magic deep within him that hasn't been seen since the age of the Founders. New friends, new enemies, and old enemies with new tricks. Harry is in for an interesting Sixth Year.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it from any of the books JKR has written then it belongs to her and her publishers.

Chapter One:Ordinary Life?

There are many words that can be used to describe Privet Drive. Many of the homeowners would call it perfection, many of their children would call it boring. But, if one were to try and describe Privet Drive most accurately the best word to use would be ordinary. The houses were your ordinary square two-story houses, each with its own modest garden that had been kept in shape by the women of the house while their husbands were away at work. The cars were just as ordinary as the houses, average four door sedans and minivans were all you would find as you went up and down the driveways of these streets. But, despite what it may seem, this street of normality did contain on house that was very extraordinary.

The house was Number 4 and despite what the owners of the house would like you to think their house wasn't special because it had won 'Best Garden in all of Little Whinging', nor did it have anything to do with the fabulous job the mother of the house did keeping it neat and clean. No, the extraordinary thing in the house was something that the owners would have you believe didn't exist, and if they had their way it probably wouldn't. This extraordinary 'thing' was a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Harry James Potter.

To most people Harry would look like your average fifteen year old. He was a little small for his age, he had an unruly mass of black hair, which many people said he he had gotten from his father, and emerald green eyes that had definitely been passed down from his mother. All in all he was quite average looking. But, he had one defining feature that stood out amongst the overall plainness: a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. That scar was one of the things that made him one of the most extraordinary people in the entire world. Because that scar was no ordinary scar. No, he received that scar when he survived a curse from a dark wizard, a curse that had killed countless before him and still continued to kill others to this day. And he survived this curse while only a baby.

The man who had given Harry the curse scar on his head was none other than the Dark Lord Voldemort. Voldemort had killed Harry's parents and had tried to kill him too, but due to the protective magic evoked by his mother he was able to survive while the curse rebounded and reduced Voldemort to nothing more than a ghost of his former self. Voldemort didn't stay gone long though, he had managed to find many ways to keep himself alive and had eventually retuned to his body in Harry's fourth year at school killing one of Harry's school mates in the process.

Ever since he had learned about magic and Hogwarts he had always wondered why Voldemort had targeted him and his parents. He had always assumed that it had just been a random act of violence-he had been wrong. It had taken Harry five years to find out why his parents had been killed by Voldemort, and what he found out hadn't been what he had expected. There had been a prophecy, a prophecy that said that it would be his job and his job alone to destroy the dark lord Voldemort because if he didn't kill Voldemort, Voldemort would kill him. All this information had been kept from him until just a few weeks ago when he found out that the person he trusted most in this world, Professor Albus Dumbledore, had purposely withheld this information from him. Needless to say, Harry now felt as if he could no longer trust the man.

He was the hero of the Wizarding world and he was destined by fate to save it again or die trying. He lived in the smallest least furnished room of his aunt and uncles house and at the moment he did nothing more than lay on his bed and stare listlessly at the ceiling of his small room, doing what he hated doing the most, thinking. Every time he had free time on his hands, which was often now, he would always end up lost in his thoughts and his thoughts always ended up being about things no fifteen year old boy should have to worry about. He thought of many things, of prophecies and dark lords and of secret Orders and death. Death. Death was the thought that was most common in his mind, specifically the death of his dear godfather Sirius. Sirius had died trying to protect Harry and his friends, and even though everyone told him otherwise, Harry knew it was his fault that Sirius was dead. That thought tormented his very soul at times and made him wish he could turn back the clock and not go on an idiotic mission that had gotten many injured and killed his godfather.

Luckily, Harry's mournful thoughts were interrupted by the thumping of feet coming up the stairs. The feet stopped outside his door and then there was a banging knock accompanied by the loud voice of his Uncle Vernon.

"Boy," the large man barked through the door, "it's time for lunch."

Harry sighed. The threats of the Order of the Phoenix had made his relatives act more civil toward him than they ever had in his fifteen years of living here, but that still didn't mean he liked spending anytime with them. Still, he hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, nor had he eaten dinner the night before and he was getting rather hungry. And so, with the promise of food on the line, Harry decided to get out of bed and deal with the presence of his relative long enough to get some food in him. He stretched his limbs and made the short walk to the door, hoping that this day would be just as uneventful as the last week of summer had been.

Unfortunately, Fate had some very eventful plans for him that evening.

Not for the first time during his summer, Harry was doing absolutely nothing, except this time he was being forced to do nothing outside in the backyard. After an uneventful lunch with his aunt and uncle (Dudley was at his mates house 'having tea') Uncle Vernon had announced that he was going to the market to pick up a few things. That, of course, had nothing to do with Harry, who had been planning on going into his room and doing nothing like he had been doing all summer. Unfortunately Harry's exciting plans for the afternoon were interrupted before his head could even hit his thin pillow.

"You've been doing nothing but lying in your room ever since you got back home and I'm getting tired of it," his Aunt Petunia had said in that shrill voice of hers, "I don't care what you do as long as you get out of the house. God knows you could maybe even lift an ungrateful finger every once in a while and help with the housework."

Harry had felt like telling her off right then, asking her why she never got on to Dudley like that or mention the fact that before this summer he had done more housework around here than all of the Dursley combined. But, not having the energy for a fight, he had just decided to go out for a walk. He hadn't really had a plan on doing anything specific so he had just decided to go to the park and stay there long enough to please his aunt. His plans were cut short, however, when he reached the park and saw that Dudley and his gang had decided that the park would be their new hangout. Harry knew that unless he wanted to get into a fight with Dudley and his gang he should just avoid the park. So, without anywhere else to go he headed back toward Number 4. Knowing that going back into the house would result in him getting yelled at, Harry had decided to go and spend sometime in the backyard.

The fresh air from outside had done nothing to ease his mind and he was once again lost in his thoughts. Fortunately though his thoughts were of the living this time and not of the dead. He was thinking about his friends, mainly Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had become friends in their first year and had been practically inseparable since. Sure, they had the occasional fight, but all friends did at one point or another. At the moment Harry sorely missed them and wished he could talk to them in person. They had both sent him letters at the beginning of the summer, just the usual 'how are you doing' 'are you okay' 'can't talk about much'. He didn't really like the idea of communicating with them through owl post, as he knew anything he really wanted to talk about would most likely be deemed unsafe for owl post and he would just have a repeat of last year.

A noise to his left suddenly caught Harry's attention, he turned and saw a small green garden snake slither by. Aunt Petunia would freak out if she saw that thing slithering around in her garden, Harry couldn't help but think. And it was that thought that made him decide to just leave the snake alone. Unfortunately the snake wasn't going to be leaving Harry alone anytime soon.

"Master? Is that you?" the snake said, startling Harry. He looked around to make sure no one was around before answering the snake.

"Um, what?" was all Harry could manage to say. The snake had called him Master, but Harry had never owned a snake and he was pretty sure no one on Privet Drive owned a snake. Harry was a bit cautious.

"Ah Master, that is you," the Snake said in a delighted tone, "I've been looking for you." It began to slither toward Harry, causing him to stand up to avoid it. Harry knew that he was probably being a little too cautious but he couldn't help but think of the imposter Mad-Eye Moody from his Fourth Year: CONSTANT VIGILANCE! For all he knew this snake could be an Animagus or belong to one of his enemies.

"Master, what's wrong with you?" the snake asked in an aggravated tone, if that was even possible for a snake.

"Look, I think you've got me confused with someone else," Harry began to walk away, deciding it would be best to avoid this unknown snake, "So, uh, good luck finding your master or whatever." With that he hurriedly walked away. As he made his way back to the door he could hear the snake calling after him, but he chose to ignore it; he also didn't notice the figure that had been watching him out the window.

As he entered the house he planned on going straight to his bedroom. His Aunt Petunia had different plans for him at that moment.

"Boy," she said in her shrill voice, startling Harry, "Just what do you think you're doing out there?" Harry tried to open his mouth to answer her question, but she cut him off.

"Don't even try and give me any of your excuses because I saw you out there," she continued, this time moving away from the window so the neighbors wouldn't suspect that there was a problem in 'Perfect' Petunias house. "I will not have you parading your unnaturalness around, especially in my own backyard." Damn, Harry thought, she must have seen me talking to that snake.

"Look, A-," Harry began in his own defense.

"I will not have any of it!" she said, cutting him off, "Now, you go up to your room right now before I kick you out and let your freaky friends deal with you." Harry did as he was told, not wishing to get into an argument. It didn't matter much to him anyway as he had been planning on going up into his room in the first place. He also knew that her threat to kick him out was empty, she had apparently made some promise to Dumbledore that she wouldn't kick him out.

As he entered his room his beautiful owl Hedwig gave him a hoot of greeting. "Hey girl," he murmured, walking over to her cage and stroking her feathers. His aunt and uncle had given him permission to let her out of her cage anytime she wanted, but she still spent most of her time in his room. Harry suspected that somehow Hedwig knew he needed someone to be there for him and had decided to stay with him instead of going outside. He knew it was a crazy idea, but he always thought of Hedwig as more than any average owl and she was really his only friend in the entire house. As he stood petting his owl Harry took a look through his window that faced the backyard. It was then that something caught his eye, something that confused and scared him all the same.

The Snake was outside waiting for him.

Laughter from the dining room echoed up into Harry's small upstairs bedroom. His cousin, Dudley, had decided to bring over his girlfriend for dinner and Harry had been sent to his room with a plate of food (which he hadn't eaten yet) so that he wouldn't ruin 'Diddy Dunkins special night'. Harry could care less that they had threw him up into his room and pretended he didn't exist. Truthfully, he didn't want to eat dinner with them anyway. He had only seen Dudley's girlfriend once and she had looked nice enough, but he knew that if she had any kind of romantic interest in his large cousin then there was most definitely something wrong with her.

Another chorus of laughter echoed throughout the house and Harry had to cover his ears to block out Petunias high pitched, horse-like laughter. For the first time all summer Harry was starting to get bored of his hobby of doing nothing. It didn't help that ever other second a round of annoyingly fake laughter came from downstairs, making him want to cast a Deafening Curse on his own ears. But, it was strange that after a week of doing nothing it was now that he needed to get out of the house.

Taking a look out his window (the snake had disappeared a while ago) Harry saw that there were still some daylight left outside. It was nearing sunset, but he still had about thirty minutes left until then. He contemplated whether or not going outside would be a good idea. After all, last year when he had gone out after dark he had been attacked by Dementors, foul soul-sucking creatures. Although, when he thought about it, that had been the fault of the person who was supposed to be watching him, Mundungus Fletcher. As Harry continued to think, another round of laughter assaulted his ears, this time Vernon's loud guffaw made the entire house shake. Being incredibly bored and not being able to withstand the obnoxious laughter of his relatives, Harry slipped on his shoes and made his way to his door. He opened the door and slipped out as silently as he could, giving Hedwig a brief farewell and forgetting a very important item as he left his room.

He made his way silently down the stairs and made sure to be careful as he snuck past the dining room. As he passed the dining room he could hear Dudley telling an exaggerated boxing story, the same one he had been telling all week. It didn't take long for Harry to reach the front door and soon he was outside. Once outside Harry took a few minutes to think about where he was going. It was a useless to really consider going anywhere, as there was nowhere to go. So, Harry began the familiar walk to the nearby park. As he walked he had the strange feeling that he was being followed. He knew he shouldn't worry since it was most likely just an Order member, but it was still a felling that made him very uncomfortable.

It didn't take him long to get to the park and when he did he went towards the back of it, to a familiar swing set. He remembered using this swing set often when he was actually allowed to come to the park as a child. While Dudley and all of his friends had been allowed to use all the new playground equipment, Harry had been sent to the older part of the park in the very back and forced to use the older equipment. He shook his head to try and get all the bad memories out of his head. He had come outside to find something to do other than think, but it seemed he would never be able to get rid of his painful thoughts while he was around here. Harry let out a depressed sigh and jumped off his swing planning on going back to Number 4.

Unfortunately, Fate had decided that Harry Potter would have different plans on that night.

A noise to his left caught his attention and he turned to see a dark robed figure walking toward him. Harry was immediately defensive, this mans figure practically screamed 'Dark Wizard'. His ice cold eyes held a look of maliciousness in them, his head was bald and his face was covered in scars that spoke of many battles.

"Whose there?" Harry asked, reaching into his back pocket a to get out his wand only to find it empty. His eyes widened at this revelation. If things were to get ugly he would be defenseless against this grown man.

"Ello there Mister Potter," the man said, his voice rough and harsh. He continued to walk towards Harry, who began to take slow steps back.

"Who are you?" Harry demanded with much more confidence than a wizard without a wand should have when confronted by an enemy. The man let out a harsh chuckle in response to Harry's question.

"Me? Well, I guess you could call me a friend of a friend." the man took another step forward and Harry was forced to take another step back. Although such a vague answer could have many meanings, Harry knew that it most likely meant that this man was Voldemorts subordinate. Harry looked around hoping to see the Order coming to his aid, his hopes were smashed when all he saw was an empty park.

"Looking for you friends?" the man asked, obviously seeing Harry hopeful look around, "Don't get you hopes up kid, I took care of them." Harry stood frozen in his spot. He was facing a man who obviously meant him harm, he was defenseless, and his backup was nonexistent. Things didn't get much worse than that. He quickly turned on his heel and began to run. Unfortunately his plans were cut short as a painful blow to the head knocked him off his feet.

"Didn't think I would let you get away that easily, did you?" the man laughed and dusted off his knuckles, "oh no, you're much too valuable for that." The man began to search his pockets inside his robe for something, but Harry didn't plan on giving him enough time to find it. Grabbing a bit of loose dirt from the ground, Harry tried to get the mans attention.

"Hey," Harry said, succeeding in getting the mans attention. As soon as the man looked down at him, Harry hurled the dirt directly in his face. The man howled with pain and stumbled back away from Harry, who had immediately taken action and dashed forward, running as fast as his skinny legs would allow him. He hadn't made it very far before a spell came dangerously close to hitting him in the head. He took a look back in time to see another spell, this one properly aimed, heading right for him. He threw himself on the ground to avoid the spell and had to roll out of the way of another spell to avoid being hit. He pushed himself off the ground and began running again. Then things took a turn for the worse.

He didn't see the next spell coming for him, it slammed right into his left shoulder with the force of a sledgehammer and an audible crack. He fell to the ground holding his now broken shoulder. A look behind him told him that the man was now approaching him and it wouldn't be long before he was upon Harry again. The will to not get caught got Harry back on his feet and moving again, and he began running toward a near by jungle gym. He dodged and weaved in between the playground equipment in hopes of losing his pursuer. Pushing his way past a swing set and hopping over a slide, Harry checked behind him to see that his pursuer was no longer behind him, but while his concentration was elsewhere he forgot to look where he was going and fell to the ground. He began to push himself back up so he could continue running when he heard the approaching footsteps of the man pursuing him.

Looking around for a place to hide, Harry found a nearby playhouse to be his only option if he wanted to get away soon. He dragged himself to the small playhouse and laid down inside, there was nothing inside except a few discarded toys and some old paper. It wasn't long before the footsteps of the man reached Harry's temporary hideout and stopped.

"I know you're 'round here somewhere kid," the harsh voice of the man called out, "Don't think I won't find you, you ain't got many places to hide in. What was that?" The man suddenly whirled around and then took off in the other direction. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and began to crawl to the entrance of his small hideout, then something he didn't expect came into his vision.

The Snake lay at the entrance of the hideout.

"What the---," Harry began, only to be cut off by the snake.

"I have come to help you, my Master," the Snake said, not letting Harry finish his sentence.

"What? Help? How?" Harry said, still not quite over the fact that the Snake had somehow found him, and looked to be the only help that he was going to get.

"Please forgive me for being late master, but I have found the ones who are supposed to be protecting you,"

"The Order members? You found them? Where the hell are they?"

"Yess, master, I found them. They are looking for you, but in the wrong place. I tried leading them to you but they did not understand me." Harry remained silent as the snake finished talking. He began to think over the possibilities.

The Order members are out there, he thought, but they don't know where I am. It's probably too dangerous to go out there and look for them and as the Snake pointed out they aren't parselmouths so he can't get them for me. Harry's eyes fell on the nearby piece of paper. That's it! I can send a note with the snake, but wait; I don't have anything to write with.

Harry glanced around the small playhouse trying to find anything to write with but there was nothing. He was about to give up hope on his idea when he looked down at his right hand, specifically he caught sight of the scar on the back of his hand he had gotten when that toad of a woman Umbridge had forced him to right I must not tell lies in his own blood. Blood, it was the only thing around that he could use as ink and he desperately needed to right this note. Harry took his right index finger and placed the tip of it in his mouth and, without waiting, bit down on it. It hurt and Harry was sure the snake had said something about how foolish he was, but it didn't matter to him. He took the piece of paper and awkwardly wrote out a brief message using his own blood.

Need help. Follow Snake-HP

He quickly blew on the paper and made sure the blood had dried before folding it up and offering it to the snake.

"Take this to my friends, okay?" Harry instructed the snake. The snake nodded and took the paper in its mouth. As soon as it had the paper it went slithering off at a speed Harry didn't think possible of a snake its size.

It didn't take more than a few minutes for someone to arrive, but the person who did arrive was the one Harry was hiding from. The man who had been chasing Harry suddenly appeared at the door his temporary hideout.

"I've gotcha now kid," the man said with a hint of glee in his voice. He grabbed Harry by his ankle and pulled him out of the hideout forcefully. "Now you're coming with me." He pulled out a small chunk of wood from one of his pockets and looked at Harry with a smirk. In his hands was no ordinary wood, it was a portkey and Harry knew it. Not wanting to be taken by the man Harry defended himself, he raised the leg not gripped by the man a hard kick to the mans knee. The man stumbled back and Harry used the moments advantage to jerk his leg free of the mans grip. The man cursed and pulled out his wand a curse right on the tip of his tongue when he suddenly turned around and threw himself to the ground to avoid a curse sent his way from the tall imposing figure of Kingsley Shacklebolt, member of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Damn!" the man cursed again, "it looks like your reinforcements have arrived Potter, I'll see you later." And, with a shout of the word 'Activate!' the man was gone.

"Damn, he got a way," The deep voice of Shacklebolt said. He made his way over to Harry and helped him up. "You all right there Potter?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I think my shoulder is broken."

"Hmm, I'm no good with Healing Magic so you'll have to wait until we get back to HQ to get it looked at"

"HQ?"

"Yeah, now that your position has been compromised we can't let you stay here anymore," Kingsley held out a small metal pipe toward Harry, "grab onto this portkey and we'll get out of here. We'll come back for your possessions later." Harry nodded. He wasn't exactly looking forward to going back to Grimmauld Place, but he was glad to be leaving the Dursleys house. He held out his hand and was about to wrap it around the portkey when he felt something crawl up his leg. Before he could do anything about it his hand clasped around the portkey and he felt familiar tugging behind his navel that came with portkey traveling. His world was soon a spinning blur as he traveled to the Orders HQ.

He was heading back to the Order of the Phoenix's HQ. He was heading back to Grimmauld Place. He was heading back to Sirius' home. Or, at least that's what he thought.

Authors Notes:Well, there goes the first chapter of my first fic. If you liked it go ahead and drop me a review; if you didn't like it, go ahead a drop me a review. For those of you interested, the next chapter should be up in a week or so. I know this chapter was slow, but it will pick up in a couple of chapters.