~*~*~ Chapter Eight ~*~*~

The Class of 1978

It had been the best birthday of Harry's life, they spent the day walking round stopping now and then to go on fast rides, or to buy food from the hundreds of brightly coloured stalls that lay in the amusement park grounds. By the evening they were all getting tired, and their sides were aching from the laughter. Fred and George had looked like Christmas had come early when there carriage had come out, and were still walking round with dreamy looks on their faces, imagining the ways in which they could use this new information about Nearly Headless Nick.

All too soon they were being ushered out by a small dwarf, 'Were closed! You should have been out hours ago!' he squeaked – with a voice to rival Professor Flitwick.

So it was with a heavy heart that evryone walked out the huge pair of golden gates and towards the public floo fireplace. One by one the Weasley's and Hermione disappeared into the flames until only Harry and Mr Weasley were left. With one last look at the rides and shops, Harry threw a handful of the floo powder into the large black fireplace 'The Burrow!' he shouted and stepped into the fire.

One rough and painful journey later, Harry stumbled into the kitchen and was greeted by a shower of golden stars. It seemed Fred and George had let of another batch of Dr Filibusters fireworks, when the stars cleared from Harry's vision slightly, he saw that the huge scrubbed wooden table in the Weasley's kitchen was groaning under the weight of all the plates placed on them. In the centre of the table stood a blue birthday cake with '15 Today' iced on top, on the birthday cake was a painting on Harry flying on his broom, which was darting backwards and forwards on a miniature Firebolt.

Harry couldn't speak, and the Weasley's and Hermione began to sing him Happy birthday, he blew out his candles, stammered his thanks and they all tucked in to the huge meal Mrs Weasley had created while Harry was in the Floo network. Apparently they had all planned it so that they could do it before Harry arrived. At the end of the meal everyone was so full they could hardly move and Ron surprised Harry one last time. Presents from Hagrid and Sirius had arrived while they were at the park, and he opened them expectantly.

Hagrid had sent Harry a small leather bound book on dragons, probably Hagrid's idea of a joke after his last year at Hogwarts, remembering the look on Hagrid's face when he had saw the dragons in the enclosure at Hogwarts. Sirius's present was heavy and he pulled off the paper. Two things fell out of the package. Two large leather bound books fell onto his lap. They were identical, except for the first had the words Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry Yearbook, class of 1978, James Potter. The second read the same, except Lily Evans was in the place of his father's name. He opened his mother's yearbook, and flipped through its pages. Each page held a picture of a different witch or wizard, and they all had paragraphs of writing under them. The Gryffindor's magical photos were on a red background, the Slytherin's green, Hufflepuff's yellow, and Ravenclaw was blue. Harry was surprised to see that most of his mothers seventh year pictures had been signed, even some of the Slytherin's, as well as all the teachers photos on the back page. Harry picked up the letter from Sirius.

To Harry

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I hope you like your presents, Your mom and Dad left these with Remus a few years ago, and we just found them in the attic. We thought you'd like to look through them. I hope you have a good birthday, and I'll see you soon.

From Sirius

Harry looked up, and suddenly realised the whole table was looking down at him,

'Oh! Sorry, I forgot you were there for a second!' He laughed.

'What did Sirius give you Harry?' asked Ron.

'Its my mom and dads Yearbooks from when they left Hogwarts, Look he said flicking through his dads, Here's Sirius!' he said pausing at a page. It was a good job that the yearbook was in alphabetical order, because Harry wouldn't have recognised the smiling boy with untidy black hair and eyes in the photo as that of Sirius. The Sirius in the photo was laughing at something, and kept crossing his eyes and poking his tongue out at Harry. Harry laughed and was about to read the paragraph of untidy scrawl underneath when Mrs Weasley proclaimed it was time for bed.

Gathering up his presents Harry and Ron walked up the stairs to bed, Saying goodnight to Hermione and Ginny at their room, then Fred and George and Finally Percy. Harry and Ron clambered into bed,

'That's a great present from Sirius, Harry!' yawned Ron.

'Yeah, Goodnight Ron' replied Harry.

'Goodnight Harry, Cupio' Ron said as the lights went out.

*

The summer passed by quickly, and no news reached them at the Burrow of Voldemort or his Death Eaters. The Daily Prophet reported nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. One morning the family were sat around the breakfast table when the Daily Prophet arrived. Mrs Weasley paid the owl, placed the paper on the table and continued to eat her breakfast. 'Werewolves to work for the ministry' was the headline splashed across the front, with a picture of Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic underneath looking nervous as he twirled his bowler hat in his hands.

'Can I read that?' asked Harry.

'Sure, here you go Harry' said Mrs Weasley, handing Harry the paper.

'Cornelius Fudge, The Minister of Magic, announced today that he is to allow werewolves to work for the ministry. He has faced increased pressure for this move all summer, as protests were made when an abley qualiffied Auror was fired when his condition was discovered earlier this summer. Now Witches or Wizards sufferng from lycanthropy, will have the same rights as any other person. The minister gave this statement to our reporter earlier today…'

Harry laid down the paper and grinned, it was about time people realised that werewolves were just the same as any other person, apart from at the full moon. Harry hope Lupin had read today's paper, Sirius had once told Harry that Lupin apllied to become a Auror when he had left Hogwarts, but was rufused because he was a werewolf. Hopefully Lupin could get a job now, he wasn't sure what he had been doing since he left his Defence against Dark Arts post in his third year.

He grinned and handed Ron and Hermione the article, he was about to put the paper down when a small article with a colour photo caught his eye. It was of a well dressed family standing outside of a large house, but it wasn't the picture that caught his eye more the title of the artice. 'Firelight's return to Godric's Hollow'. He stared at the photo intently, he had never seen the village his parents had lived in, all he could make out around the house was a lot of tree's with their golden leaves swiling around the ankles of the family. There were three people in the photo, a tall man with short black hair and brown eyes, and a shorter woman also with black hair and brown eyes.They each had a hand on their daughters shoulder, who looked around Harry's age, who had long black hair, pale skin and large black eyes.

One of the oldest Wizarding familys the Firelight's are planning to return to their ancestrial home in Godrics Hollow. Charles and Mary Firelight are set to return to Godrics Hollow after their 14 year travelling trip around the world. Many of you may remember the Firelight's defeat of 12 Death Eaters which had surrouded their house back in 1981, for which the minister of Magic gave them Order of Merlin, First Class. Their daughter Catalina Firelight, born in 1980, is the heir to the Firelight mansion and name, being the Firelight's only child.

The Firelight's packed their bags and left England only a day after being attacked for a second time by Death Eaters on their daughters first birthday in 1981, only to make this surprise announcement last night. The family mansion 'Firelight Heights' in Godrics Hollow has remained boarded up since 1981, and renovation work is being performed. The Firelight's are expected to take up jobs in the ministry, and their daughter is expected to take up her position at Hogwarts which has been reserved since their departure 14 years ago.

Harry stared at the picture again, she'd be in the 5th year at Hogwarts, that meant that she would be in his year, he frowned at the picture one more time and continued reading the paper. Harry had a funny feeling about that family, but he wasn't sure what it was. Nothing else of importance stood out, but Harry did register the fact that Rita Skeeter didn't have any articles today. Harry passed the rest of the paper to Ron and Hermione, Ron completely missed the article about the Firelight's, but Harry watched Hermiones face closely as she read it. Her eyes went wide as she read the headline, and he mouth dropped open as she read the article. Harry looked away just in time. Hermione glanced up at Harry, gulped as if she wasn't sure about something, she opened her mouth but seemed to think about it for a second and she closed her mouth. Harry was right, there was something about that family, he could tell from Hermiones expression it wasn't just about the fact they lived in Godric's Hollow. He would have to watch out for that family in the future.

*

At around 3 am Ron was still wide awake, ever since he had been in Harrys dream he had been confused, he didn't know how it had happened. He had been sitting in bed and Harry had been having that nightmare, and he had just wished he knew what had happened to Harry, and then he'd been in his dream. He had thought long and hard about it and had decided not to tell Harry what had happened. He didn't think Harry would like the fact that he had been in his dream.

Ron was stroking Cupio absent mindedly thinking about The Order, Harrys dream, and Voldemort, when Harry moaned and turned over in his sleep. Ron panicked, what if Harry was having that dream again? He wished he knew what Harry was dreaming, he wasn't sure whether to wake Harry or not, it wasn't fair that Harry had to relieve the worst momnets of his life every night when he went to sleep.

Suddenly the hairs on Ron's arms stood on end, static filled the room and suddenly Ron's vision went black. Then patches of colour returned and so did Ron's vision, but this time he wasn't in his bedroom, he was in a small well kept garden in front of a huge mansion. A signpost Hanging up told him that it was Firelight Heights, Godric's Hollow. He looked up and saw a girl his age standing in front of him, she had long black hair and pale skin,

'Hello Harry' she said softly,

'Oh I'm not Harry, I'm Ron' is what Ron meant to say, 'Hello Catalina' came the voice from Ron's mouth.

'So you've come back at last? I missed you Harry, we haven't seen each other for so long' came the soft voice again.

'Why are you back?' Ron/Harry asked cautiously.

'Were coming back for the fight against the dark, we are the light Harry' she said mysteriously.

The mysterious girl cautiously looked behind her back, whilst Ron desperately tried to place her accent, it was a weird mixture and sounded as if it was used to speaking in a different language, although it had a definite American twang to it.

'My parents are coming back in a moment, they wont like to see you here, you better go' she said hastily.

Ron turned around and started running. He looked back and saw Catalina's parents stand behind her and place a hand on each shoulder. They shook their fists at Ron, and Ron turned around to continue running. As he turned round he saw a tree appear from nowhere, but couldn't move as fast. He ran straight into the tree and woke up suddenly. At the same time Harry woke up, he glanced over to Ron,

'What's wrong?' he asked Ron grinning, Ron looked like he'd seen a ghost.

'Nothing, just got a bit of a headache' Ron said hastily 'You were making a load of noise, what were you dreaming about?' Ron asked.

'Can't remember now' said Harry truthfully.