Disclaimers: Please and thank you for referring to chapter 1.
Sources of inspiration include, but are not limited to: Harry Potter Series, Book Dragon, Labyrinth; the Movie, Faeiries, the movie, and any number of other fanfiction authors. If you recognize something as yours please let me know and if I agree with your claim I will list you also.
Second year started out rather oddly. Harry found that he could see animals harnessed to the front of what had previously been 'horseless' carriages. While he was looking at the strange horse-like beasts, a small blond girl came up and stood beside him. "They are called thestrals. You can only see them if you have seen a person die in front of you."
He cocked his head to the side. "I was there when my mother died. She was standing in front of my crib when Voldemort threw the killing curse at her. But, I did not see these horses at the end of last year when we rode the carriages back to Hogsmeade."
Hagrid called out for the first years then and the girl excused herself and left. Harry finally stepped up into the carriage where Ron, Draco, and several other boys were sitting. Neville shifted for him and he sat down.
Ron asked, "What were you talking about with Luna Lovegood?"
Harry looked at him. "Oh, was that her name? She told me that the animals that pull the carriages are thestrals, and that you can only see them if you have seen someone die. I don't understand though because I was there when my mother was murdered. And, I was definitely there when Professor Quirrell turned to dust, literally. Yet I did not see the thestrals until just now."
Ron nodded in understanding. "I don't know what to say about you, man, but I do know what happened to Luna. Her family lives close to our house and she and my sister, Ginny, were friends. But, Ginny said Luna is a bit strange ever since she saw her mother die in front of her when she was eight so she doesn't play with her very much anymore."
Draco scratched behind his ear while making a silly face. "That would definitely make me feel strange if I saw my mother die."
Theodore Nott interjected, "So should we try to bring her into the group? She might need a few friends and maybe Hermione Granger would calm down a little bit if she wasn't the only female who we let hang out with us."
Ron added, "I don't think it is going to be a good idea for us to ask Gin to join the group. She spent the whole summer going on about meeting Harry Potter and Mother did nothing to discourage her."
Draco spoke quickly as he saw the castle come into view. "Harry , I spoke with Father about us killing Quirrell at the end of last year. He says that he is pretty sure that we did not destroy Voldemort, and he is still trying to come back. I don't know what all we are going to have to do. Father thinks we will have to put him back in his body to do it properly."
They all looked at each other with fear written on their faces. The silence was not broken until Greg and Neville spoke at the same time. "We are here. It is back to being Gryffindors and Slytherins." The boys all groaned and piled out of the carriage to begin messing with each other again.
Harry silently signaled for Draco to meet him later. They would have to start planning to neutralize Voldemort along with getting rid of Dumbledore. Harry could be heard to grouse, "Frigging wonderful, How the hell am I supposed to do this crap. I am only twelve years old. "
It was a good decision on the boys' part to not include Ginerva Weasley in their group. Ginny spent the year being an unwilling accomplice in a bid to return Voldemort to a body. Had she been privy to the information Harry's gang was amassing, the Wizarding world would reenter the Dark Ages. It was only after Harry came back out of the Chamber of Secrets and discussed with the rest of them what had happened that they realized they had no clue what they were dealing with. Draco was the one who shamefacedly informed them how Ginny had obtained the diary. His father had deliberately placed it in her cauldron with the hope that she would give it to her father. "Father did not know exactly what the book was or did. He could not come right out and say that Voldemort gave it to him to keep safe, so he did what he thought would work. How was he to know she was not honest?"
Harry glared at Draco, "Damn it, Dray, he almsot got us killed. Why didn't he mention it to you?"
Draco looked at Harry then around to the rest of the group. "He did not know what we are up against."
Everyone nodded their acceptance. They all knew that Mr. Malfoy and a few other Death Eaters were only safe as long as no one knew that they were working to bring down Dumbledore and the ministry. They knew that Voldemort's politics was not workable. They also knew that there was something wrong with the way the Ministry was falling into decay; creating weaker and weaker wizards. it was like Magic was leaving earth, and they were sworn to fix it if they could.
Neville smiled at Harry and Ron, "On the bright side, mates, there is a very large snake down in the Chamber of Secrets that is worth a fortune in gold and you two have first dibs on it. For a helper's recovery fee the rest of us will help you harvest it."
Theo nodded enthusiastically, "Maybe we can find some other stuff down there. We do need a few private fireplaces where we can talk to our parents, and there are bound to be rooms down there. Maybe we can start getting organized; you know, keep records of what we know and are doing, start storing items in case of war..."
The other boys dogpiled him and he spent the next ten minutes wiping his face and making gagging noises because everyone insisted on kissing him on the cheek. What really set him off though was when Harry got a turn at kissing him he had done so on the mouth then winked at him!
Third year was just incredible and saw the escape of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, from Azkaban Prison. Harry then met the last of the Marauders, Remus Lupin, who turned out to be a werewolf. Lupin surprised everyone by being a decent teacher who was willing to spend quite a bit of extra time teaching the children how to protect themselves. He also taught Harry how to cast the Patronus charm once he saw how badly Harry was affected by the vile Dementor things.
By the end of Quidditch season Harry was proficient enough with the patronus that he managed to scare the daylights out of Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle when they dressed up to prank him. He used the Patronus at the end of the year to save both he and Sirius Black's life.
Forth year saw Harry pitted against students three years older than him in a deadly game played only for the amusement of the observers. Harry probably would not have been eaten by the Hungarian Horntail he had to acquire his egg from, but if Peridot had not snuck out of the tent and went over to talk to her before Harry met her it would have been much more difficult. Peridot returned to the tent and told Harry that she would put up a bit of a show, but she would let him get the egg if he made sure he did not harm any of her Clutch. The second task was irritating because Harry was not a strong swimmer. He would have died a second time except Dobby, one of the Malfoy family house elves, helped him. The third task went exactly as planned and Voldemort had been resurrected using Harry's blood in a dark ritual that left him looking quite revolting, but alive and in his own body again. Harry had not been quite sure how the ritual would work since the blood was willingly given. They discussed it later and Narcissa postulated that the reason Voldemort looked like a snake was the reaction created when the blood was willingly given instead of forcefully taken.
And, now it was fifth year and things were starting to move quite rapidly- fluidly and downhill. There was a sadistic DADA teacher on the rampage around the school, the headmaster was being a prize jerk, and the Potions Master was acting like he was Hitler reincarnated and the Gryffindors were Jews.
It seemed like there was nowhere to turn to for help and Harry desperately needed help. Flitwick and the goblins that had been helping him thus far were at a loss on what to do about his dreams. They tested him and he seemed to have a minor talent for prophetic dreams, but constantly dreaming of running down endless corridors full of locked doors did not seem to fit the criteria for a prophetic dream.
It was not until the night Harry woke up screaming that Mr. Weasley needed help that plans began to come clear. It took Harry quite some time to get Dumbledore to listen to him, and when it became clear that Harry had actually been part of the dream and that it had occurred things got worse for Harry because Dumbledore still did not explain to him what the problem was.
The goblins explained it to him. Harry was literally terrified when Bookgrabber handed him a small text on Horcruxes and told him to read it. The goblins were not entirely clueless thanks to his friends. Times when Harry could not get information to Gringotts, Hermione and Ron would often get the information through for him.
Hermione and Ron had both learned what the vassal system entailed and had sworn fealty to Baron Potter at the end of their third year. In exchange for gainful employment in the Potter holdings, they would receive all the rights and entitlements inherent in being attached to the House of Potter.
Harry also managed to strengthen already strong ties with Longbottom and Malfoy. It was a strong system and the information they gathered and shared often put a damper on both Dumbledore's and Voldemort's plans. The students working against both of them often found that playing the ends against each other was the best way to proceed with their own plans. So far they had not been caught setting up the confrontations that were undermining and weakening both the sides of the light and the dark.
And then Nagini had to go and bite Mr. Weasley. Harry had been sucked into Voldemort's mind and witnessed the attack from first person viewing. It caused a bit of friction between Harry, Ron, and Ginny on the surface. Dumbledore witnessed just enough distress between the students to come up with the bright idea that Harry needed to go to 12 Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys in order to keep everyone close and safe.