A pained grunt disturbed my dreams. I sleepily allowed my eyes to observe reality, and was greeted by a second agonized murmur. I turned to face the bed next to mine, which was occupied by Harry, and found him twitching and rolling about the bed. As my mind agreed more to waking up, I tiredly walked over to him.

"Harry," I whispered. There was indication that he had heard me. I shook him a bit and repeated, a bit louder, "Harry." Nothing. "Harry!" He jerked awake, and his eyes widened in surprise as he saw me hovering over him.

"Ron? What's going on?" His voice was hoarse.

"Nothing, mate. You were having some sort of a nightmare." I paused, unsure of how to phrase my next question. "Right? I mean, it—it wasn't a vision, was it?"

He smiled, but it wasn't happy. It conveyed a mixture of sadness and frustration, that I couldn't help but interpret the answer. "I wouldn't exactly call it a vision." He paused, and I simply waited for him to continue. "Visions are…they're more about viewing what's to come. It's like I was there."

"What do you mean?" I said sharply. "You were there? Like last year? It's like those?"

"Yeah. Don't tell Hermione."

"What's he doing now?"

He stared up at the ceiling, concentrating hard. "He's angry," he said quietly. "He's angry, and…and Snape was there. It was a Death Eater meeting. He wants Snape to…to guide me to him, but not obviously. He has this whole plan…Snape's supposed to take me somewhere—somewhere innocent—but I'll be surrounded…and then Voldemort can kill me."

I couldn't speak. It was happening so fast… You-Know-Who really wanted him, though, and things weren't looking good. Something inside me screamed that it was all so unfair; Harry had to deal with a family who hated him, and the darkest wizard in history out for his life. It was too much for me to comprehend, and I couldn't imagine how Harry dealt with it all.

"What are you going to do?" I said, apprehension revealing itself in my voice.

"I don't know," he said. "I think…I think I might just let him find me."

"What?"

"I mean, I have to face him at some point, so maybe, if I can figure when this is going to happen…we can be prepared."

"What are you saying? Harry, you can't just—"

"I'm saying that if I know enough about it, we can get people prepared to fight the Death Eaters, while I confront Voldemort."

I could scarcely find enough breath to speak my next words. "No…you can't…you can't do that."

"I think it's better this way."

"You need to talk to Dumbledore…"

"Yeah, that would probably be a good idea, except that he'll insist I get rid of these vision-like-things before I can find anything else out."

"Can we talk to Hermione about this?" She was the smart one, after all.

"Do we have to? She's just going to go crazy about my inability to occlude these dreams."

"Maybe, but I think she'll be a little more concerned about what you saw." When he didn't reply, I added, "I'll go get her, okay?" He answered with a tiny nod, and I swiftly left the room.

I returned with a slightly frantic Hermione, who demanded Harry recount every little detail of what he saw. She sat on the edge of his bed, listening attentively. He concluded his story by saying he thought he should let it happen, which drew tears, accompanied by a squeal, from Hermione.

"Harry, no!" She said quickly, rushing to get her thoughts out. "No, no, no, no, no!" You can't do that. Talk to Dumbledore…no, don't…no, do. Yes, talk to Dumbledore, see what he says. Harry you can't just give yourself up like that!"

"I'm not giving myself up," he said as she drew breath. "I'm just allowing a rather bad situation to work to my benefit. I mean, if we know the details ahead of time, we can have a plan—"

"Talk to Dumbledore. I'm serious; even if you have something here…you need to talk to him. Soon. Tomorrow."

Although Dumbledore was heading an Order meeting at my home the following day, it proved to be extremely difficult to get him alone. The three of us were welcome in the meeting, which held little information we didn't already know. He mentioned that You-Know-Who was in the process of developing a plan, but very few details were known. As the meeting closed, Harry decided to be forward in getting the headmaster's attention.

"Sir," he said, "I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute?"

Dumbledore agreed, and the adults threw curious glances our way as they departed the room.

"What is it Harry?" he asked when we were alone. Hermione and I refused to leave.

"I just…I'm so sorry, I, um, I had a…vision…last night."

The headmaster's expression grew immediately concerned. "Were you Voldemort?" he asked. I looked quickly at Harry—he hadn't mentioned that part.

"I…yeah. Yeah, and Snape's supposed to lead me to him. I think, if I can find out more details, like when this is going to happen and where and…I think it could work to our advantage."

The blue eyes of his audience grew thoughtful as he considered this possibility. Hermione seemed to stiffen beside me, and I forced myself not to remove my gaze from his, thereby not missing any sign of his contemplation.

"Well," he said after a moment, "I believe that is an idea. However, we cannot allow Voldemort to discover that the connection between you is alive. That would put us at risk of being tricked into a situation we won't find to be to our liking. Still, if we could find a way to ensure we are safe in that regard…it's better to be forewarned and prepared. It will come down to this eventually."

"That's what I said," Harry agreed. A horrible feeling crept into my chest, and I couldn't identify it. All I knew was that it wasn't welcome there, and I subconsciously ran my hands across my torso. This couldn't be happening. Why did Harry have to deal with all this? Why was it all up to him? He's been beaten down his whole life, only to have to bring the rest of the world back up. Who was there for him? Who was going to save him?

I wasn't surprised when I didn't sleep well that night. My dreams were haunted by ideas of what could happen to my best friend, and to my family. It had never been this real before. I was woken by something, but I was unsure of what it was. A breeze blew by me, and I turned to see Harry talking through my cracked open window to Draco Malfoy.

A/N: I am so sorry for the delay. I'm aiming to get a chapter out a week, as it's very difficult for me update on weekdays. A special thanks goes out to moonfoot13, who has reviewed every chapter faithfully so far.

SMARTALIENQT: I'm so happy you like it! I've been trying to write loner chapters, but I don't seem to be able to go beyond this length. I'll keep trying, though! I'm very into analyzing the personalities of characters, which is why I love Harry Potter so much. All of the characters are so in-depth, that it makes the whole series brilliant. I try to add all of the emotions in the characters in my fics, because I think that plays just as big of a role as the plot itself.

IPreferVerticallyChallenged: Yes, Harry does have a rather difficult life, doesn't he? His past seems to add a lot to how he deals with his present, so I wanted to incorporate the two together. I hope you liked this chapter!

Ehlonna: I'm glad you like my story so far! I've always been interested in how other characters view Harry, and I find Ron to be a great character to delve into the mind of. His and Hermione's views of Harry are very different from other people's, because they are the only ones who really see him as Harry. It's time for them to truly learn what their friend is all about. Thank you so much for your review!

Warriors-person-thing: Yay! I'm so happy I've intrigued you with this story. Please keep reading, and tell me what you think!

H.P Obsessed Muggle: Thank you for reviewing, and I'm glad you like it! Ron's interpretation of it all is something I've always wondered about, so I figured I'd write about it! Ron is often considered to be unintelligent, and a very a snappy friend, but this really isn't true. I want to bring out his character for what it really is.

moonfoot13: Thank you for all your reviews! They mean so much to me. Please keep reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy it!

darkshadowgirl666: I always have to work hard to keep the plot moving, and not concentrate entirely on the emotions and opinions of the characters. I'm glad I'm succeeding in incorporating both!And I definitely understand questioning things like that, as I do very often myself. Thank you so much for your review, and your previous as well!

Umbrae Calamitas: I have to say that "huzzah" is a very cool word. Haha, I'm glad you like it. I'm sorry I self-plugged this, I just couldn't help it. It seemed to fit your inquiry way too well to pass up. I hope you continue to enjoy it, and thank you for your review!

Ash Shadow: I find the stories that have Harry broken because of his past a bit annoying, because he's just not like that. He wouldn't let it bring him down, he'd use it to become a better person, which is what we see him do in the books. However, a very large part of his personality is derived from his years with the Dursleys, and I figured it's about time his friends realized that. I'm glad you like it, and thank you so much for the review!

Hey look! I responded to everyone! I'm most likely not going to be able to that for every chapter, but I will as often as I can. I love responding to you guys, because you're all so amazing. I really appreciate every word of feedback I've received. Thank you all so much for sticking with this fic. I love you all!