"Happy Birthday Harry" a Death Eater giggled with glee and they and a few other Death Eater ascended on the boy.

"Father, please! I'm sorry! If I didn't kill him he would've killed me!"

"Then you should have been willing to die! To die for your mission! You're becoming more and more insubordinate son and I've had it! It's time for some tougher lessons. Get him!" Voldemort demanded of the Death Eaters. Harry was quicker, he blasted a spell that sent all the Death Eaters flying in different directions, he then ran out the front door of his home and into the dark of the night. Tears flew behind him as he ran, he didn't understand, why was his father being so merciless. Sure, the mission was to bring back Moody alive, but it ended up with kill or be killed and his father always taught him to fight back, now suddenly that was wrong?

Harry hid at Draco's house after the big fight in The Great Hall. It was easy to hide there, his father was never home and they had at least 20 rooms so it was easy to avoid his mother. When school was supposed to end they went to Bellatrix's house and laid low for a while. When Harry's father came looking for him, he already knew about the fight, thanks to Snape. Harry promised he had nothing to do with it and left before things got bad. He could tell his father was furious so he quickly changed the subject and gave him the book on The Order of The Phoenix he had found in the library. His father was pleased with this and told him to go to their home and wait.

A few weeks later his father returned with a mission for him and a Death Eater of his choosing, he was to kidnap The Order's oldest living member, Alastor Moody so he could be imprisoned and questioned about The Order. Harry, of course, chose Draco to be his second to which his father denied this request since Draco was not a Death Eater. Harry stood adamant, eventually his father gave in and allowed him to take Draco, which worked because Draco had read the book inside out at least twice since Harry gave it to him, so he already knew everything about Moody. Of course, everything went awry and Harry had to return home with the lifeless body of Moody. His father was furious, even more so because Harry had produced The Dark Mark, which alerted the Ministry of Magic that Voldemort was becoming active again, meaning they would strengthen their guard. Harry had to admit, The Dark Mark was a little much, but he'd become overwhelmed with adrenaline after successfully (maybe) producing the Killing Curse. Something he had never been able to do before. He and Draco had been practicing their Unforgivable Curses while they were at the Malfoy Manor and at Bellatrix's house, they barely slept because of this.

His Father demanded Lucius Malfoy take his son home and punish him. After they left, Voldemort talked about how he would punish his own son, by allowing the present Death Eaters to beat him. Harry pleaded with his father, but he refused to listen. This lead to Harry sprinting from his house and now hiding up a tree. He watched as the Death Eaters walked by, from this height he could keep an eye on them to avoid them, but for how long…

Harry had been up the tree for about 30 minutes before he figured the coast was clear. He slid down and made a mad dash to his house. When he was about 5 yards out he stopped dead in his tracks.

"I knew he'd return, get him!" The Death Eaters had staked out his house knowing he would come back. Damn! How could he be so stupid! But he was tired of running, as the Death Eaters ascended upon him he took out his wand and started billowing hex after jinx at them. Voldemort and Bellatrix watched the entire thing from the third story window.

"I do say, I have to admire the boy's fight," Voldemort commented as he watched Harry hex a Death Eater to start doing an Irish jig.

"You really think is necessary though? Why couldn't you be the one to punish him?" Bellatrix asked, in near tears.

"Because, Bellatrix, I have been punishing the boy all his life and apparently its been to no avail seeing as he continues to mess up."

"But he's only a boy" Bellatrix tried, "All boys mess up, he's only 15 and today's his birthday!"

"Then I will only have them beat him for 15 minutes," Voldemort concluded, one of the Death Eaters managed to disarm Harry while he was focused on another. "He will have many enemies, and they will not always come at him on one to one combat, he needs to learn to keep his eyes open to all places, otherwise, well…" Voldemort trailed off as the Death Eaters began kicking Harry while he was on the ground.

The next day, Harry lay topless on his bed while Draco sat next to him, healing his wounds.

"What'd yours do to you?" Harry asked through gritted teeth, the pain of being healed was almost as unbearable as the beating.

"I have to scrub the entire Manor, magicless. So, of course, that means I'm going to use magic anyway."

"I could help you if you'd like."

"Don't bother, my mother will end up having the maids do it anyway, bless that woman. Besides, I couldn't be there to take that beating with you."

"Wasn't too bad" Harry lied as he yelped with pain while Draco treated his deepest wound. At that moment Blaise and Goyle came sneaking into Harry's bedroom.

"This is quite fruity innit?" Blaise said upon seeing the scene, he tossed a present on Harry's bed and took his favorite place on the windowsill.

"Thanks," Harry said, sitting up and nodding a thank you to Draco, "Take a video that way you won't have to try too hard etching it into your wank bank."

"I'd sell it actually," Blaise said nonchalantly, Goyle left a present by Blaise's and stood by the door like a guard. Harry smiled as he opened his gifts, both boys had gotten him bags of pastries, candies, and other treats. These were always Harry's favorite gifts seeing as his father usually never let him have sweets.

"You look fucked up mate," Goyle said slowly from the door, Harry flashed him a big smile "Just trying to look like you mate!" The boys in the room laughed, but there was no denying Harry looked as though he'd been trampled by 50 elephants.

"As long as my face is still pretty I'm good, plus look at this." He flexed his left arm for the room to see. His Dark Mark was now golden, not black like the other Death Eaters. "Father said it's going to stay that way since I'm his son. Usually, the Marks just get darker after 15 but mine is far more special. Blaise and Goyal gasped, this was the first time they'd seen his Dark Mark.

"Is that..." Blaise asked, staring at it intensely.
Harry raised his eyebrows at him, "Oh yeah."

"Where'd you get that?"

"In due time my friend, in due time." Harry assured him.

"I want one so bad," Draco frowned.

"You'll get one Dre" Harry assured him, tearing open a candy bag and offering some to the room, "Our missions aren't even close to being done."

0000000000000000000000000000000000

Ron took a deep breath as he stood outside Ginny's bedroom door. He knew Hermione was in there, she had been hanging with Ginny all summer and ignoring him. Rightfully so, he'd treated her so badly last year, he really let his status with The Order go to his head and then he had Lavender too, he acted like a total prat. He wanted to talk to her, to apologize, but she made it a point to leave any room he entered, so he was resigned to sitting outside Ginny's room and listening to their conversations, hoping to build the courage to one day go in and talk to her.

"So... Let's talk about it."

"I've already told you, I don't want to talk about it any further"

"But all you've told me is what you told me that one day in the common room, that somehow Harry found out about the plan and the Slytherin bitches beat you up, but who told him? And did you guys do it?"

"You are so stuck on that, really Ginny!"

"As your friend, I deserve to know!"

"If I tell you, will you stop it?"

"YES!"

"Fine! Nothing happened okay?"

Ron breathed a sigh of relief.

"We snogged a bit but nothing more than that. I was trying to get his shirt off and he said to me 'Show me yours I'll show you mine' so he knew I knew about his mark. And he asked if my clan gave out marks like his, so he thinks I'm apart of The Order. Anyway, I ran away from him and I guess he had called all the Slytherins before I got there to trap me and that's when they beat me up."

"Who told him though?"

"Lavender"

"No!"

"That's what he said! Lavender had met with him before I did and told him I was playing him and I was working with "some people" that he thinks was The Order and I was trying to bring him down or kill him or something! That I was playing him and trying to manipulate him or something, I don't even know how she knew all of that! But apparently she didn't know too many details and Harry filled in the gaps and got furious. That's what happened."

"Damn... How did she know what she knew? That utter cow.. But so... did you feel it?"

"Ginny!"

"What are you doing Ronald?" Ron jumped, Fred and George had come up behind him. Ron stuttered for an answer as he also tried to keep the twins from talking loudly.

"Are you spying on the little girlies Ronnie?"

"You absolute perv!"

"We should tell them aye George?"

"Right Fred, oh Ginny!" George said loudly as he began pounding on Ginny's door. Ron tried to turn and run but Fred grabbed him and held on.

"WHAT?" Ginny could be heard yelling from inside.

"Come out dear sister! We've got something to tell you."

"Bloody hell" Ginny groaned, in a moment she opened her door and saw the twins standing there, smiling widely, and Ron being held in a head-lock by Fred.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"Little Ronnie was outside your door listening, we just thought you should know." Fred tattled while Ron struggled against him.

"You WHAT?" Ginny's eyes shot daggers at him, Hermione appeared by her side. Fred finally let Ron go and the twins scurried up the stairs, laughing all the way. Ron looked past Ginny and to Hermione.

"Hermione…" he said softly, she merely glared at him. "I'm -I'm"

"An arsehole?" Ginny finished for him

"Well… yes"

"That's not an apology"

"Hermione, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for how I acted last year, I should not have let the power I got get to my head. You know us Weasleys, we get a bit of power and it drives us mad," he tried to joke, Hermione remained unamused. "Look. can we please go talk in my room, just us two?"

Hermione turned to Ginny, Ginny looked Ron up and down for a moment, then raised her eyes brows at her friend.

"Fine," Hermione said stiffly. She walked from Ginny's room and started up the stairs.

"You ever listen outside my room again and I'm going to blow your bloody nose off!" Ginny warned Ron before slamming her door shut.

Ron followed Hermione up to his room, then shut his door.

They stared at each other for a moment because Ron finally spoke, "I missed you."

"Spare me."

"No really! You're my best friend Hermione going without talking to you was driving me mad!"

"You didn't have a problem with not talking to me when you had Lavender down your throat."

"I heard what she did to you, it's over as soon as school starts, I swear it!"

"We'll see about that."

Ron took a seat on a chair in his room, Hermione sat on his bed.

"I hear you all have got detention every day before winter break."

"Yeah," Ron sighed, "Nothing will ever be as bad as the lashing my mum gave me when I got home for my suspension. There's no way I can do that again, especially not this year, I can't miss my O.W.L.s, but I was just so angry I blacked out, I'm sorry that all happened to you."

Hermione smiled a bit, "Thanks for sticking up for me by the way."

"I nearly died doing it too, Harry nearly choked me to death."

"Is it really true he, Draco, Blaise, Crabbe, Pansy and Astoria all didn't get caught?"

Ron nodded, "After I ripped Harry's shirt and saw his scar he freaked out and apparently left the hall. That was the last anyone had seen of him for the rest of the year. You reckon he'll return?"

"Who knows, he's 15 now so he's a full-fledged Death Eater now, maybe he'll be too busy destroying things to return."

"I can't believe you snogged him."

"Don't start."

"I mean come on Hermione! Him? Out of everyone?"

"One, it was just to ensnare him into giving up information and two, he's actually a very good kisser." Hermione smirked, seeing the annoyed look on Ron's face.

"What am I not?"

"Should I ask Lavender? I've never snogged you, nor do I think I ever would."

"You wouldn't?" Ron asked before he could stop himself. Hermione blushed slightly and looked at the floor.

"Have you any new missions from The Order this year?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, er, no. They wouldn't let me in any more meetings this summer and I haven't heard what Sirius Black had to say, I'm left totally in the dark. It's my own fault really, I couldn't get anything done last year, especially not with Malfoy's nosy arse blocking my every move. They probably don't need me anymore, they'd probably rather have you, I mean, you were the one Dumbledore trusted with the mission of slipping things to Harry."

"How did you know about that?"

"I, er, heard it one day while listening outside of Ginny's room." Ron admitted. There was a moment of silence before both teens erupted into a great fit of laughter.

"I'm sure they'll give you something before we go back, you have two weeks."

"Possibly, but this time I want you helping me, I'm just not bright without you."

"You're plenty bright Ronald."

"Not without you… I never want to be without you again…"