The Artifice of Night

By: Lady Lithe

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter.

Naru-chan: I'm sorry about my lack of updating... If you read my profile on my account, you will see a tiny blurb there about that. Anyway, I'd like to take the time to explain the titles. They are musical terms. I'll explain the meanings behind the titles at the end of the chapters. Thanks for reading!

Also, I have no intention whatsoever of dropping my other stories! I'm just a bit stressed right now so won't be able to get much done... But I plan to finish all my stories. And canon means that the content matches the books' contents. And I can't wait until Ginny enters the scene too! Thanks once again:)


Chapter Two: March

"You're a real idiot, you know that?"

Ron grumbled and rubbed his sore arm. "You're one to talk." Then he paused as a glazed look filled his eyes and a silly smile tugged at his mouth. "Still…it was really funny that one round where I nearly drowned you."

"Oh be quiet," Harry replied, flicking away a lock of damp raven hair. They had been practicing for the past two hours and now exhaustion weighed heavily on their shoulders as they trudged toward up a flight of stairs to their room.

It wasn't a very large room, but it was very refined. Two canopy beds pressed together in the center of one of the walls with luxurious red and gold curtains shimmered down the polished wood. It had originally been green and silver, but Harry and Ron had been fooling about one night and had accidentally changed the colors of the curtains and had found that they rather liked them this way. They asked Dobby, the house-elf that cleaned their room, not to report it or change it. Dobby had immediately burst out into tears, bawling that no human had ever asked him to do something before. Harry and Ron had been unsure of what to do at the time, but now they were friends with the erratic, but interesting house-elf.

There was space on the right and the left for a small desk, a chair, and a wardrobe for each of them. The wardrobe magically enlarged itself when it became crammed. It was quite handy since the wardrobe itself was rather small because of the limited amount of space.

For his part, Harry's side of the room was simple and mostly clean, especially when compared to Ron's side, which was usually a mess until the house-elves cleaned it. Ron had a terrible habit of carelessly flinging his clothes about, particularly his smelly socks. Harry once had the misfortune to have personally met Ron's sock when it smacked directly against his face.

Harry now crossed to his side of the room and opened the wardrobe. He pulled out his more casual clothes: a clean black shirt, a pair of black trousers, and a comfortable set of black robes. He quickly changed from his wet clothes and dried his hair with a quick wave of his wand.

A knock at the door caused Harry to glance over to it.

"Harry, could you get that?" Ron's muffled voice asked.

"Sure thing," he replied, heading toward the door. When he opened it, his bright green eyes widened with pleasant surprise.

Hermione Granger stood before him, her intellectual brown eyes glittering with happiness. It had been about six months since they last met, after all. They embraced, and when he pulled away, he took the time to examine the seventeen-year-old female. Her carefully curled hair, pulled back messily away from her pale and smooth face, was tied back with a white satin ribbon. She was wearing the famous Beauxbaton uniform made of rich silk cloth dyed dark, royal blue. It was a dress that clung to her curves both modestly and seductively, and over it was a matching blue cloak that skimmed down to her ankles. It allowed for her to move easily when needed, and to use her charms if caught. A fashionable silver belt traveled across her slim waist. While it looked like a simple accessory that matched her silver boots, it actually held compartments for her potions and poisons. As for her boots, no one could see the well-camouflaged dagger attached to it. In fact, it only looked like a fancy design.

For a moment, Harry and Hermione said nothing and just stared at one another. Goofy smiles formed on their faces. They loved each other, but they weren't in love with each other. They shared an interesting bond of comradeship that even Harry and Ron or Ron and Hermione never shared. Hermione, too, had been a slave, sold into the army like Harry. She, like Harry, had never recollection of her parents or her past. They understood one another's darker past.

"Who is it?" Ron's still muffled voice came as he struggled to escape from his shirt that Harry had shrunk slightly.

Harry opened his mouth, but stopped as she pressed her index finger against her mischievously smiling lips. He returned the smirk.

"I don't know, why don't you see for yourself?" he answered casually, moving away from the entrance.

"Who could it—" the redhead said, finally wrenching his shirt away from his flushed face. He froze instantly when his blue eyes landed on the brunette girl, and his jaw went slack.

Hermione cleared her throat in her no-nonsense way, but a smile still tugged on her rosy face. "Is this how you greet every girl who comes to this door?" Her eyes trailed over his bare chest. "Because I think I now know why you're still single."

"You!" he blushed deeply, but grinned at the same time. He flung his shirt to the ground and grabbed the laughing girl into a hug that she returned. Harry grinned as Hermione turned several more shades of red. Why the two hadn't become a couple yet? They never admitted their feelings, but they were plainly there.

"I'm happy to see you too," Hermione laughed, pulling slightly away to look up into Ron's clear blue eyes. "But you might really consider putting some clothes on."

"Bloody hell!" he cried out in shock, jumping a good twelve feet from her and simultaneously grabbing the bed's curtain to cover his exposed chest. His face nearly matched his hair. "I d-didn't mean to do that, Hermione, I swear. C-Could you turn around?"

"You don't have to be so shy," said Harry, closing the door breezily so that his friend would not be subject to any other unwanted audiences. "We've gone swimming before."

"Just hurry and put on something," Hermione ordered, untying her cloak and tossing it onto a nearby chair before opening Ron's wardrobe. Harry always found it interesting when she tried to cover her timidity with her bossiness.

"Hey! Don't go through there!"

"You really don't need to be so shy, Ron. We've known each other for how long now? Two and a half years?"

Ron seemed to struggle for words as he could only watch Hermione's rear move about as she dug through his messy clothes. "U-Uhn…"

"Merlin, Ron! What do you keep in here?" She straightened, holding a few crumpled magazines and newspapers in her hand. She raised an eyebrow at him accusingly. "Why do you have Quidditch Weekly and the Daily Prophet in here? A wardrobe is meant to hold clothes, Ronald."

"Yeah, well," Ron blushed, snatching the papers from her hands and tossing them in the bin, "sometimes I get a bit unorganized!"

"Basically whenever Professor Karkaroff comes around for his monthly inspection, Ron crams all his trash into his wardrobe," Harry explained, seating himself comfortably onto Ron's bed. "And since it just grows and grows…so does the amount of rubbish in there."

"Harry!" Ron cried out, but Harry grinned in response.

"Honestly, Ron," Hermione sighed, whipping her wand out from her belt. She began to mutter several spells and the various objects flew out of the wardrobe.

Harry watched in amusement as a Quaffle, random pieces of armor, several crumpled Auto-Answer Quills, a Pocket Sneakoscope, what was left of a deck of Exploding Snaps, innumerous amounts of Chocolate Frog wrappers, and so on fly out from within the confines of the wardrobe. With another flick of her wand, all the things seemed to arrange themselves — the Quaffle and bits of armor went under his bed, the Pocket Sneakoscope landed on Ron's desk, and most of the other junk ended up in the rubbish bin.

"Wow," Ron said, a bit amazed. "What would I do without you, Hermione?"

"Just get dressed, Ron," she said, but Harry didn't miss the faint coloring of her cheeks. Ron grinned his boyish grin before grabbing a black jumper and pulling it over his head.

"Now that the three of us are fully dressed," Harry said, rising to his feet with a cheerful smile, "do you want to go down to eat?"

The three of them traveled down the hallways, filling each other in about all that had happened over the past six months.

"It's so annoying," Hermione moaned, tugging at her curls. "I'm still not used to taking so many hair-straightening potions in the morning!"

Indeed, Harry thought as his green eyes trailed over the females that traversed the corridors. All of them were gorgeous. Slick and shiny hair, wide eyes with lush and curled eyelashes, slender waists, long legs… It was one of the weapons that the Beauxbatons used: their bodies.

Hermione, however, rather despised being dressed and made up like a doll. She would much rather spend the night curled up with a large textbook, memorizing its content than dressing up and giggling with other girls. Still, it was a requirement that she look good, which really wasn't hard for her to do aside from her naturally bushy hair. Because she had only entered into higher ranks in the past year, she only began taking potions to tame her hair rather recently.

"I think that your hair looked fine the way it was before," Ron said. Harry figured that Ron didn't realize that he was complimenting her. He was just being honest the way he always was.

"Really?" she beamed at him.

"Oh yeah," he said, "it is probably a lot of hassle, right? You could be training during that time!"

"Ah…yeah," she said, her brown eyes flickering to the ground.

Harry shook his head. Leave it to Ron to ruin a moment by speaking about training. Still, Ron took what he did very seriously. His dream was to be a soldier, after all.

"'Arry! Ron!" a throaty voice called from down the hallway. The three of them looked up to see a young woman walking toward them. She was a breathtaking beauty — so beautiful that the whole hallway seemed to light up. Her tall and svelte form seemed to float toward them, her long blond hair shimmering with a faint silvery sparkle flowing behind her.

"Fleur—" was all Harry managed before she swooped over him, taking his face in her hands and kissing him on both cheeks; the places where her lips had graced burned. She was part Veela, creatures that seemed beyond stunning. They used their good looks and charms to literally enchant their victims. They did tend to turn into nasty-looking birds when angry, however…

"'Ow long eet 'as been!" Fleur Delacour said as she moved over to Ron and gave him the same treatment. Hermione, who Fleur had pointedly ignored, looked like a choking cat.

"How are you?" Harry croaked.

"Très, très bien!" she said in her husky voice.

"How's Bill?" Ron wheezed, rubbing his cheeks absently. Fleur had been dating his older brother for the past year or so. Fleur, who graduated from Beauxbaton with flying stars, protected Gringotts, a famous goblin-run bank known for its tight security. Bill, who worked as a Curse-Breaker for the goblins, spent a lot of time with her ("for my Eenglish eemprovement").

"Oh, 'e is very busy. New assignment," Fleur said warmly. One thing was sure about Fleur. While she was haughty and self-absorbed, she was head over heels for Ron's oldest brother. "But 'e is so thoughtful! Ze still made plans for our anniversary!" She stopped, looking behind them. "Oh, I am zo zorry, I must go. Good luck tomorrow!"

With an elegant wave, she seemed to glide away.

"Honestly!" Hermione hissed. "All she ever cares about is the male sex!"

"She's not that bad of a girl," Ron said defensively.

To be honest, Ron had a bit of a crush on her when they first met, which had irritated Hermione to no end. Still, the infatuation with her passed rather quickly. He once told Harry that she was a nice girl and all, but she wasn't the one for him, so why should he waste time swooning over something that wasn't meant to be? Harry had seen the far away look in his friend's eyes, and had known that the redhead had probably been thinking about his deceased sister, who never even had the chance to meet her destined person.

"That's right, defend her," Hermione snapped nastily, widening her stride.

"Mad," Harry heard Ron mutter under his breath before hurrying after the girl.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but the words escaped him when his eyes landed on a pretty Asian girl. She turned around, her raven hair sparkling after her, and her eyes locked with his before she smiled brightly.

"Hi, Harry," she said sweetly.

"H-Hi, Cho," he mustered, feeling his cheeks flush a bit. Then his eyes fell onto the tall, handsome bloke by her side. Cedric Diggory smiled at Harry.

"Long time no see, Harry," he said.

"Yeah," Harry smiled slightly before he felt himself being pulled away by his friend.

As he followed slightly behind Ron and Hermione, he watched them quietly. They were so in love, he could almost see the glow coming from them. He smiled a bit wistfully to himself and shoved his hands into his pockets, before staring out into the dark blue night behind the high windows.

He had had a slight crush on Cho Chang. She was a nice and pretty little thing. Still, it was pretty obvious that he didn't stand a chance with her when there was someone like Cedric Diggory around. Last year, Harry had been about to invite her on a date to the Yule Ball, but he had accidentally stumbled upon Cho kissing Cedric and that had been the end of that dream. However, Harry wasn't and never had been in love with her, so it was probably better this way, although he sometimes wondered if in a different time or place, they could have been together.

His eyes trailed over the full white moon. Still, he couldn't help but think that someday he would find the right person, and they would settle down and build the family he never had. Ron and Hermione would come and visit them now and again and let their redheaded children mingle with his. But if he never found this person, it would be all right. As long as Ron was happy, he was happy.

"Harry?" Ron turned and looked at him with an arched eyebrow and a smile. He gestured to his side. "Come on!"

Harry felt the grin tugging at his lips.

"Don't worry, Ron. I'm right behind you."


It was early in the morning when Harry shoved his head underneath the rushing water. It beat down on him, scorching his pale skin red, but he preferred it that way. He scrubbed his hands over his face, pushing away his soaked raven hair before cleansing the rest of his body.

One might wonder why he always chose to shower so early in the morning, but he liked the peace and quiet. He always felt uncomfortable washing himself when he knew everyone was around him. They were quite a rowdy crowd, and if they ever discovered that Harry was among them…well, they wouldn't hesitate to torture him. Not that there was any part of himself that he was ashamed of.

He used to be a scrawny, starved child. The nights when his only company was the moaning and groaning of his stomach were still burned in his mind. Still, he did not have a large appetite and never took more than he needed, so now, after all his training he had a nice lean body.

Instead of mocking Harry's body, the other boys would try to hurt him in petty ways. Throwing around his soap, stealing his clothes… It irritated Harry to no end, and Ron's interference only made him feel worse. He could take care of himself! But worse than that, he didn't want Ron to suffer anything because of him. What if Ron realized that it wasn't worth being his friend? Harry didn't know what he would do. He could take anything Malfoy or the other boys threw at him, but to lose Ron…that would be too much.

Harry waved his hand and the shower shut off instantly. He made a move toward the shower curtain, but stopped, his hand an inch away from the opening. He sighed and ran his hand through his wet hair.

"Hermione, how long have you been out there?"

There was a pause, before he heard a soft sigh. "Just five minutes. I remembered that you like to take early showers."

"You know that any bloke can walk in on you, starch naked," Harry commented, shoving only his hand out of the opening and grabbing his white towel.

"No bloke aside from you would be awake at this hour, and you know it," her shrewd voice floated to him.

"Have you been using your power?" he asked lightly, wrapping the towel around his waist.

"For something like that?" She snorted. "I just need to use my common sense."

Her power was a rather interesting one. What happened was that a force invisible to all except to Hermione would appear before her and tell her almost anything she wanted such as the calculations of her opponents next attack. She would know the exact measurement of how much she would have to move to dodge it. She could make any document, even the tiniest of scraps, reappear in front of her like a floating screen as long as it had never been enchanted. In other words, it was very much like an amazing encyclopedia. However, she could not read the minds of others. Not that she needed to. She was smart enough to read his or Ron's more than half the time.

"What do you want Hermione?" Harry asked as he tore open the shower screen. The pretty brunette stared up at him from her leaning position beside the shower. He ignored her pointed gaze and picked up another towel to dry his wet body. "Ron might get the wrong impression if he saw us."

"Ron would never wake up at this time," she said defiantly though he saw a bit of unease creep into her eyes for a second. "He can sleep through nearly anything, that boy."

"Yes, well — do you mind turning around for a second?" Harry asked, pushing his foggy glasses over his eyes.

"Oh, please. It isn't as if I'm not acquainted with the male anatomy," she huffed, folding her arms over her chest. Indeed, Harry thought, Beauxbaton would have made sure of that. Still, she complied, and he turned to pull on his clothes.

"So what do you want?" he asked, his voice muffled by his shirt for a second.

"Are you…nervous?" she asked hesitantly.

"About the exam?" he paused for a moment, still putting on his clothes. He cleaned his glasses on his shirt. "A little bit, I suppose. What was yours like?"

"A few of us faced a dragon. It wasn't too bad, but one girl tried to stun it between its eyes and missed. It was so furious that it nearly burned the girl to death. Not a pretty sight…"

"Now that you're done being courteous," Harry said, turning around fully dressed, "why don't you get to the point? I know you didn't wake up this early to ask about how I feel about that exam." He grinned when he watched her cheeks flood a guilty red.

"I do care about you, Harry," she sniffed.

"I know," he said, ruffling her hair lightly, a smile still on his face. "You just care about Ron even more."

She sniffed once more and bowed her head so that her glossy bangs covered her eyes. She was usually a strong girl — she had learned to be one — but Ron had somehow crawled underneath that cold wall and had made her weak.

She reached up and held onto Harry's hand. "Can you watch over him for me? Please…?"

"You don't have to ask that, Hermione," he said, his green eyes growing serious. "I won't do it because you asked. I'll do it because Ron means that much to me too."

Harry sometimes thought that it was strange — strange that he and Hermione did not love each other. They shared the same past and understood each other better than most others. Their situations were remarkably similar. But there was no spark at the least between them. What really connected them, in fact, was their redheaded friend. He had a heart that could accept them, and that was all Harry or Hermione ever wanted. What mattered the most to them at the end of the day was the same thing: Ron.

"If he gets hurt, I don't know what I'd…" she choked before she could finish. The hand holding his trembled, but he held onto it firmly.

"Don't worry, Hermione. You know that I would never let anything happen to him."

"Thank you…" she whispered.

Harry closed his eyes and took the girl into his arms — a rare action. The two were usually keen to keeping to themselves. Neither knew the arms of a loving parent or sibling.

"You don't have to thank me for something I was already planning to do. Look, why don't you go back to your room? Just wish him luck before we go in."

Hermione quickly wiped her face and looked up at him, her brown eyes shining with tears that she tried hard to hold back. "He doesn't need luck."

"That's the spirit. Now go on, get out of here before someone sees you," Harry said, gently pushing her toward the door. He watched her quickly disappear before he slowly followed after.

The hallway was empty when he stepped into it, and as he walked against the marble floor, the familiar clicking of his boots could be heard loudly despite his soft steps.

A dragon, hmm? Harry highly doubted that they would face a dragon. Especially not with Draco Malfoy's power; he had the ability to control them. But Malfoy being a Malfoy, Harry realized grimly, might be the reason why certain people might rig the exam to ensure that other certain people passed with flying colors.

This premonition aside, he was not too worried about the examination. This was what all his training was for. He wanted to fight beside Ron and protect him if needed. Ron had things to live for: his family, Hermione. But Harry…all Harry had was Ron. So he would protect Ron with everything he had.


"Ooo-kay!" Lavender Brown smiled, flipping her glossy hair over her shoulder. She waved the clipboard in her hand a little, to get everyone's attention. "Hello! It's so nice to see you all!"

Harry raised an eyebrow. Not many others were happy to see the girl as their director. In fact, most of the other boys looked positively yellow. Lavender did not, however, seemed pleased with seeing Seamus Finnigan, the sandy-haired boy that she had attended the Yule Ball with two years back. As he waved to her, she huffed and turned her head. Harry remembered, in the back of his mind, some rumors about how the girl hadn't been pleased with only receiving two letters per day…

Harry's other eyebrow rose when her eyes landed on the redhead beside him and her mouth curled into a flirtatious grin. Lavender giggled shrilly when Ron smiled a bit unsurely at her.

Lavender and Ron? No…that couldn't be right.

Apparently Hermione agreed because she suddenly elbowed her partner aside. Her lips were drawn to a straight, grim line as she spoke. "We have already set you up randomly into groups of ten." Soon she read off of her list.

Harry was both pleasantly relieved to have Ron in his group, but disgruntled to find that Draco Malfoy and his crew would be a part of it as well. The ten in his group followed Hermione down a passage toward what seemed to be a closed off room with high black glass all around.

"Are you ready, toad-eyes?" he heard Draco drawl as the blonde brushed by him. He bit back his retort, however, when Hermione spoke again. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and listened.

"Listen up, Group One," she said in her most no-nonsense voice. "For your graduation examination, you must defeat this captive, which has decided to betray the Empire. If you do not defeat him, or you abandon your companions, you will fail." Her brown eyes flickered to Ron, and seemed to gleam up worry. With that, she flicked her wand and the two iron doors behind her rattled open. "Good luck."

Harry and Ron did not move as those around him jolted and gasped collectively, though Ron flinched. Before them stood a sixteen-foot tall giant. Long, bulging arms swung by its side, ready to smash into anything that stood in its path. Its ugly face was scrunched up painfully as its narrowed eyes searched them for something — or someone. It creased even more when it realized what it wanted wasn't there.

Harry could tell by its deafening roar that it was not pleased.

"HEEE! It's r-real!" cried Crabbe, clutching onto Goyle's robes. It wasn't like the projected enemies that they had trained with all the time.

While Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, and Draco Malfoy didn't make a sound, their grips on their wands tightened, and their faces lost their flush of arrogance. Harry glanced at Ron, who looked a bit paler, but determined.

"Mind that most students drop out here. Even with the best training, if you cannot fight in a real battle, it has all been in vain, so use the skills that your training has provided," Hermione continued stiffly. "Otherwise you will get killed."

"'Arid!" the giant bellowed horribly.

"LET THE EXAM BEGIN!" Hermione said, her wand pressed against her throat.

As the boys spread out, Draco threw a sharp glance at Harry, who was already in stance. "I can't lost to him," he hissed under his breath.

Suddenly Crabbe's body hurtled past Draco, slamming against the black glass with a sickening crunch. Draco, his icy blue eyes as wide as saucers slowly turned to look at his fallen friend.

"'GID!" the giant screamed, slamming its massive fists into the ground. Harry flipped in the air as Ron leapt aside. Many of the others simply screamed as they ran away.

Harry landed against the glass pane with his danger embedded deep into the glass to keep him in place, his green eyes flickering quickly about. There were not many places in which he could use his wire, since there were no protruding slabs — just unbreakable glass. The giant had now seized another boy and smashed him against a nearby windowpane.

"HE'S GOING TO KILL ME!" Seamus Finnigan screamed as he plastered himself against a wall in fear. He waved his wand futilely and watched in terror as the spells deflected from the giant's thick skin.

"HELP ME!" screamed another boy helplessly, slamming his fists against the windowpanes.

Blaise Zabini rushed forward, his body glowing a faint silver. Then there was suddenly an army of nine Balises following behind him. The ten of them surrounded the giant, a different weapon in each of their hands. At the same moment, they attacked, but the giant continued to scream as it spun around, its fist slamming into all of them. The clones disappeared as the real Blaise flipped in the air before sliding several feet on the rock floor. He barred his teeth in pain as he swiped away the blood that trickled down his chin.

Theodore Nott took this opportunity to step forward, ducking as another one of his classmates met his downfall. The air around him crackled as he lifted his right hand toward the giant. A small ball of black energy formed in the palm of his open hand, just as a massive black ball surrounded the giant. Theodore bit down on his lip in concentration, sweat forming at his brow as he slowly squeezed his fingers shut. The ball began to close in on the monster, who roared in outrage.

Its fists crashed against its confinement, and Theordore's fingers jolted. The giant then seemed to grab onto the wall and slowly wrench it apart. Theodore let out a cry as his left hand grabbed his right. The giant finally ripped an opening through the black force, and Theodore collapsed onto the floor, still clutching his right arm.

Harry had just decided it was his turn when his eyes landed on the blonde boy who stood frozen in his stance as the giant turned its gruesome head and spotted him. Harry moved without thinking that he would be saving the boy that had made his life a living hell for as long as he could remember.

"Look out!" Harry cried, slamming Draco out of the way, but not before seeing the terrible fear and tears in those blue eyes that were usually filled with hatred and scorn. Draco's knees gave way as he fell to the ground, trembling. Then Harry felt an excruciating grip around him as he was lifted from the ground.

"H'rid!" the giant hollered.

"Harry!" Ron screamed frantically, slamming his foot against the ground so that he leapt up thirteen feet into the air and smashed his fists as hard as he could down onto the giant's arm. Simultaneously, Harry shoved his knee up against the giant's hand, causing him to release him.

Ron's foot cracked against the giant's face, just as Harry crashed his elbow straight into the giant's large chest. In a flash Harry's wire wrapped around the giant's neck. Blood dripped down from its nose as its eyes moved wearily over his captor.

"Give up," Harry said firmly. "If you move, I will kill you."

"Grawp wan 'Arid…" the giant heaved. Harry's eyebrows knitted together. What was the giant saying? It was almost as if it didn't actually want to hurt anyone…it just wanted…

"The exam is not over, Harry," Hermione said, her clipboard in her hand, from where she stood in the corner. "The orders are that you must kill him."

"I have no reason to. He is not our enem—"

Then, in a flash, blood spurted from where the giant's head once was. Harry's eyes widened in horror as his stomach revolted. His head snapped over to his far right, and that's when he saw him, standing tall in front of a crowd of other men with his white gloved hand up in front of him.

He was handsome — even from this distance it was apparent. His silky black hair fell over his pale and perfectly structured face. His blood-red eyes gazed frostily at Harry as his lips curled in a wicked smile. Harry felt his dry throat contract painfully.

W-Who…?

"E-Exam complete!" Hermione managed dutifully, her spine straightening instantly at these new presences.

Then the man spoke, his smooth, heartless voice flowing over Harry, sending shivers down his back.

"You're too slow."


Naru-chan: -lets go of a deep breath- Well, there you have it. One more chapter. One more closer to the adventure our favorite hero will go through. Did you guys like meeting Hermione, Fleur, Cho, Cedric, Lavender, and Seamus all over again? I had a blast describing Hermione's new appearance. ;) And her and Ron together was really fun (though I will always love writing H/G more). Oh yes...and our favorite evil person, Tom Riddle. Did you have fun meeting him again?

I'm sure you've noticed that there are changes in our favorite characters, such as Cedric being alive. Well, there was never any Triwizard Tournament so he never...you know. And as from Voldemort, or Tom's, appearance, there was never curse repelled back at him, so he's still handsome as he ever was. Doesn't make him a better person, of course...

Expect much more from all of them! I'll even let you in on a small preview. Next chapter you will be seeing Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas. What fun! Look forward to it!

As for the last title, a prelude is a relatively short, independent instrumental composition, free in form and resembling an improvisation. Basically, it was an introduction into this world. For this chapter, "March," a march is a musical composition set to the beat of a march. Harry is marching dutifully on his path down to becoming a soldier. Or he was... What will meeting Tom M. Riddle do to perhaps change that?

Reviews are always appreciated.