Harry closed the book as he sighed. Still nothing. He wondered if something had happened to the book's magic or whatever that made it give him instructions. He hadn't received any new instructions ever since the new term had begun.

He put the book back in his trunk and looked at the time. Breakfast would've started so he got up and left his quarter. Entering the great hall he noticed Luna sitting at the Gryffindor table with Neville and Hermione. They saw him as Harry noticed Neville look at him differently. Ever since their talk at the astronomy tower Harry knew Neville was being aware of him because of the Yayu. He couldn't blame him seeing how the Yayu had attacked Luna on the express at the start of the term. That was the only incident but he could be wrong as he didn't remember attacking Luna until she'd told him about it.

"Morning," he said sitting beside Hermione facing Luna and Neville. He glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw Daphne was not there. Perhaps she had a late morning or something. He started to fill his plate while talking to them.

Ginny sat a few students away from him looking at Harry from the corner of her eyes. This time she had brewed the potion well and had made sure it worked by testing it on two sixth year Gryffindors. She knew it had worked because McGonagall had caught them in a broom closet in a rather undisguised position. They were clinging on to each other without a care of the world while looking terrified at McGonagall. That still didn't stop them from doing each other until McGonagall had separated them both using magic.

Luckily the potion's effect wore off before the deputy headmistress could figure what was wrong with them but Hogwarts' rumor mill was already moving. Richard Johnson and Emilia Jennings were the newest, most unpredicted couple of house Gryffindor. It came as a surprise and was the talk amongst the lions because those two had barely talked to each other before and didn't know anything about each other apart from their names even though they were in the same house and in the same year.

And now they were sitting together, whispering and giggling while holding hands and kissing each other from time to time.

Ginny smiled as she looked from them back to Harry and then his cup of pumpkin juice. As he picked it up and brought it closer to his mouth she sat up straighter, looking at him more intently and closely with her palms curled into fists out of anticipation for what was going to happen next.

Unlike the dose which she had slipped in Richard and Emilia's food Harry's was far less concentrated. As much as she felt infatuated towards the boy-who-lived, Ginny knew her mother would kill her if she ever engaged in some lewd act before sixteen. So she had given him enough to make Harry develop feelings for her. It would be instant and powerful but not enough for him to jump on her and start snogging her all over her body like it had happened with Hermione. Ginny shivered for a moment when she remembered about that night.

The anticipation and hopeful glint in her eyes vanished when she saw him scrunch his face in disgust as he looked at his cup of pumpkin juice before spitting out the small sip he'd taken. Ginny's anticipation and hope was replaced with confusion and anger but she kept herself in control. How could it have failed the second time she had no idea. Why was it so hard with Harry? It had worked just fine with her test subjects yesterday so what was wrong now?

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked seeing Harry spitting out hs juice.

"It's like that day," he said. "It tastes horrible."

"Tastes fine to me," Neville said taking a sip from his own cup.

"It does taste bad," Luna said sipping from Harry's cup. They didn't realize it until she'd put the cup down. She was quick with her hands.

Neville's eyes widened with realization as he looked at Harry's cup before picking it up and taking a sip from it. He spit it out just like Harry and Luna as he put the cup back on the table.

"Someone spiked your drink," he said in a low volume so only Harry could hear. Harry's eyes widened with surprise as he looked around.

Ginny immediately started looking at her plate when she saw Harry look around in suspicion. She didn't know why it had not worked. Even Neville and Luna had spit it out making scrunched faces as if they didn't like the very taste of the juice. She didn't understand how that could've been possible. Love potion didn't have a taste at all. It was as bland as water which is why it was almost untraceable.

"Who?" Harry asked.

"It's ammortentia," Luna said slowly making Harry and Neville look at her.

"How can you tell?" Harry asked.

"Celia told me," she replied.

"Who would want to spike your drink?" Neville asked.

"Who wouldn't," Luna said. "He's a lord of an ancient and noble house. Any girl would want to be with him because of how wealthy and powerful the Potter family is."

"What are you guys whispering about?" Hermione asked looking at them.

"Nothing," Harry said.

Hermione shrugged as she got up and collected her books. "I'll be heading to charms early," She said. "I have to submit an essay on one of the spells professor Flitwick asked me to write. I'll see you there?"

Harry and Neville nodded as Hermione left. "Wait a minute," Harry said after a moment of thinking. "Love potion doesn't have a taste so how come my drink tasted different?"

"It tasted different to us as well," Neville said. "Can you take a guess?"

"You mean…?"

Neville nodded. "It's because of the Yayu," Luna said.

"You mean he saved me?" Harry asked.

"More like he saved himself," Neville said. "You two have the same body and so anything which is harmful to you is harmful for him. It's the same with us two," he said pointing to Luna and himself. "The juice tasted bitter to us as well."

"We should tell McGonagall about it," Harry said. "She can investigate who spiked my drink."

"If you have a good enough excuse ready as to how you figured out that your drink was spiked then go ahead," Neville said. "Ammortentia is almost impossible to trace."

"I can simply tell her that I didn't like the taste of it," Harry said as he stood up and grabbed his cup of the spiked pumpkin juice. Ginny felt nervous as she watched Harry walk towards the head table with that cup. She wondered if Harry had figured out that his drink was spiked. She looked at Dumbledore who simply ignored her. That old bastard, she thought. He'd pulled his support from her mother after Ron had ruined their plan. Because of Ronald's stupidity she had to face the hardships of trapping Harry.

"Mr Potter?" McGonagall asked seeing him approach her at the head table. "What is it?"

"I think someone spiked my drink, professor," he said as he put his cup of pumpkin juice in front of her. Flitwick and Snape who were sitting on either side of her also looked at Harry as they head him. "I don't know what it is but it tastes different."

"What do you mean?" McGonagall asked while casting spells trying to see if the drink was really spiked with something.

"It tasted bitter when I tried to drink it," Harry said. "That seemed to me a bit weird seeing how I poured from the same jug as my friends and theirs tasted just fine. I think someone got to my cup and spiked it before I poured my pumpkin juice in it."

"I cannot find anything in it, Mr Potter," McGonagall said.

"Let's try a bit harder, Minerva," Snape said. "I want to see if Mr Potter here is making things up just to get attention."

Harry glared at Snape as Flitwick hovered his wand above the cup. He cast some complicated spells as Harry noticed just like the three professors how the juice in the cup changed its color from a faded green to pink.

"It's ammortentia," Flitwick said sitting back in his chair. "Someone is in possession of an illegal potion."

"Well, well, well. It looks like Mr Potter has an admirer," Snape scoffed.

McGonagall was looking at the cup with shocked eyes. Due to the illegal categorization of the potion the wards around Hogwarts had been modified so as to catch anyone who would try to smuggle it in or any other illegal item from the outside. Because it hadn't meant someone had brewed it here in the castle itself. But who, she thought. Brewing ammortentia was a very difficult process and the balancing of its ingredients was very delicate. One miss-weighing of an ingredient, wrong direction of stirring or too much or too less heat could ruin the entire batch. It was unlikely that any student would be able to make this potion on their own even with the instructions laid bare for them. But she couldn't understand one thing.

"I don't understand how the potion can change the taste of the drink though," she said. "It's not a property of ammortentia. It is bland in taste. Unless, there was something else in it other than the love potion?"

"I checked it thoroughly," Flitwick said. "Nothing but ammortentia."

"So is it possible that the brewing was not proper?" she asked.

"The indicating color was a perfect pink," Snape said. "It was very well brewed."

"Then how did it change the taste of the drink?" she asked.

"The more important question is who brewed this potion," Flitwick said.

"It makes sense that someone would target Mr Potter here because of his lordship and family name," Snape said with a sneer. "Unless he brewed it himself just to get attention."

"You really think Harry would be able to brew love potion?" McGonagall asked.

"I'm just saying," Snape said. "He's done remarkable things before like taking down the dark lord as a toddler. Am I not right, Mr Potter?"

"Wouldn't you know about my potion skills more than anyone, professor?" Harry said glaring back at the man. This was good, he thought in his head. "After all, you are my potions' professor."

"Enough, both of you," McGonagall said. "We need to keep this to ourselves so that the culprit can't know that we know about the love potion. I will conduct a search all throughout the castle. Severus, Filius, please check your house students' dorms to see if anyone of them are in on this. I will tell Pomona to do the same. If we can avoid calling the aurors on this then that would be better."

"And what if you can't find the one responsible?" Harry asked. "This was clearly targeted towards me by someone here. I don't know who that is but I am willing to inform the aurors about this if this happens again. I know I can as head of my house."

"We know that very well, Mr Potter," Flitwick said.

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Draco sat in his room, looking at the small vial of the basilisk venom which Snape had sent to him. It wasn't known to Harry or the others that he also had some of the venom of the basilisk. As he pondered over his fate his thoughts were disturbed by the sound of the door opening. He turned and saw it was his mother.

"Are you still up?" she asked looking at the time. It was around one in the night.

"You're up, too," Draco said.

"I couldn't sleep," Narcissa said as she came and sat down beside her son on the bed. She followed his gaze towards the table where the venom was kept.

"Aren't you going to tell me not to do it?" he asked slowly.

"Even if I did would it make any difference?" Narcissa said. "Prophecies are not simple things that can be ignored. They are just as delicate as they are unavoidable for those who are a part of it."

"Do you think I am ready?" he asked.

"No one is ever ready to face their destiny, Draco," she said placing a hand on his back. "If you think you are ready then that's a mistake on your side. Thinking that you are ready is a sign of overconfidence and…"

"Overconfidence leads to one's downfall," Draco said remembering that his father had told him that when he was nine years old.

"Do you think you are ready?" she asked him.

"Honestly, I don't know," he said. "I've never seen him fight but I know he's a master of so many dark spells and curses that I can't be too careful around him." He then looked at his mother. "You and dad must've seen how he fights when he first attacked?"

"No one knows how he fights, Draco," she said. "Word is that he only ever dueled Dumbledore but no one ever saw it. Apart from that whenever he raised his wand against someone that person never lived to tell the tale of how the dark lord fought him."

"What am I going to do?" Draco asked. "I wish dad were here."

"So do I, Draco," she said hugging her son. "So do I."

They stayed like that for over a minute as Draco cried silently in his mother's arms before he started to feel sleepy. "Will you sleep here tonight?" he asked slowly.

"Okay," Narcissa sort of whispered. She knew what the prophecy was according to Snape. With Draco being one of its subjects she wondered when the dark lord had marked her son as his equal or what Draco's secret power could be which would help him stand a chance against the dark lord. What if the prophecy was actually not about her son? Those questions revolved inside her head as she drifted to sleep while hugging her son.

00000

It was a weekend so Harry decided to head back to the manor and meet Remus and probably Sirius. When he arrived there he found the manor empty. Temmie told him that Remus had gone to the ministry due to some business related to the Potter family. Sirius was spending the weekend with Amelia.

Harry was happy for his godfather. He'd experienced so many hardships so finding someone was actually something good that had happened to Sirius in a long time.

He decided to wait for Remus' return and so he headed towards the basement to practice his spell casting to pass the time. Thanks to the occlumency training he had gained quite a good amount of control on his magic. He had also organized his thoughts and so could focus on things much better than before.

As he was heading downstairs he felt a bit uneasy as a light gust of wind hit him. Harry stopped and looked around. There was no window or anything through which air could have come in. He shrugged before continuing down towards the basement.

He activated the wards around the place so he won't hit anything he didn't want to when he noticed his palm was red. He looked closely and found a very fine but long cut across his palm. It didn't hurt because it wasn't deep but it definitely let a trickle of blood run out and color his entire palm red.

Harry wondered when he got the cut as he cast a mild healing charm on it which closed the wound instantly stopping the bleeding. Fortunately it wasn't a nasty cut but he wondered how he got it.

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Grindelwald stood outside the wards of Potter manor looking at the small vial in which he had Harry's blood. He looked at it closely as he removed the stopper and sniffed its smell. He frowned before putting a drop of it in his mouth to taste it.

"There is something odd about that boy," he said to himself as he put the stopper back and vanished out of the place without a sound.

00000

Draco clutched the letter in his hand tightly as his body trembled a little out of fear and nervousness. The letter had just arrived and it was from Snape. He looked at his mother who sat a few feet away from him in her own thoughts. She clutched the necklace that Lucius had gifted her on her last birthday.

Voldemort was going to return tonight.

The letter was short but detailed enough as it talked about the ritual that Voldemort had planned months ago. He finally had the final ingredient and he wasn't waiting anymore. It would still be sometime until he attacked and make his presence known to the world but in that small time period Draco and Narcissa knew many would die by the hands of the death eaters and secretly Voldemort.

Narcissa had already written to Amelia about the situation, attaching a copy of Snape's letter with hers before sending it to the DMLE head. She knew Fudge wouldn't believe nor would he take any sort of action regarding the situation but with Amelia knowing Narcissa hoped even a little difference could be made.

Draco had received another letter from Snape personally for himself and he saw it was a training schedule. Draco knew once Voldemort had returned there would be no telling when the two of them will face each other. The longer it takes the more people will die and the less time it takes it would be more risky for Draco because he would be less prepared.

Both had its downside but one was going to happen either way. Draco knew that and so he picked up his wand and headed towards the training room. While on his way there he grabbed a parchment from the living hall and wrote Harry a letter informing him about the situation.

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There was nothing but silence covering the entire graveyard of the Riddle manor. Being a very wealthy and noble muggle family the Riddles had their own cemetery for their family members in their huge estate but now with no living member of the family alive the property had fallen into the hand of the muggle authorities who had left it the way it was and so time and nature had taken over the entire place. Voldemort looked at the graveyard and the many tombstones. Many generations of the filthy muggle family from his father's side laid here underneath the ground. Every moment he stood there over their graves he felt nauseating.

"My lord?" Voldemort turned around and looked at Wormtail. "The preparation is complete," he said bowing.

"Very well," Voldemort said as he walked towards the large cauldron on top of the burning fire. He looked at his most loyal death eaters – the inner circle members – present there, standing in line. They all bowed when he arrived by the cauldron. He didn't give them any heed as he removed his robe and stood in the glory of the body he was currently using. It was of one of his death eaters, a new recruit. He'd donned this body after getting rid of Regulus.

As he got into the boiling liquid he quivered in pain as it boiled his skin or rather the skin of the body he was in. Luckily, because of that he didn't feel all the pain. Taking in a deep breath he submerged completely into the boiling liquid as Wormtail arrived with his wand in his hand.

Atop the hill, far from the Riddle manor's graveyard Grindelwald stood watching the ritual take place. He saw Wormtail pour the boy's blood after putting every other ingredient into the cauldron as the fire underneath it burned wild and red followed by red and black smoke coming from the cauldron.

Suddenly the sky roared and crackled as Grindelwald saw the dark mark of Voldemort appear amidst the clouds. The death eaters who were all there uncovered their own dark marks in their hands and spoke 'morsemodre' – the spell for the dark mark – together in unison.

There was a loud thunder followed by a lightning strike which hit the cauldron and in a moment it was all over.

Wormtail was thrown off of his feet when the lightning hit as he was standing closest to the cauldron. He groaned as he sat up, holding his head as his ears rang due to the loud explosion when he saw the dust and smoke around the cauldron settle.

Grindelwald saw as Voldemort walked out of the fire, completely unfazed or unaffected by it as a streak of black smoke from the cauldron's potion formed a cloak around him. He could already feel the tremendous amount of power which Voldemort had. With all the magic enhancement and dark rituals that man had done in his lifetime it was no surprise.

Grindelwald smirked as he looked at the most feared dark lord of all time and could see why Voldemort was known to be that. He vanished and appeared in the graveyard just as Voldemort was looking at his original form, his own body. The man felt his arrival and turned around to look at him.

"It wouldn't have been possible without you," Voldemort said as he walked forward and hugged the man. "I will keep my end of the deal. I will kill Dumbledore for you."

00000

Amelia folded the letter as she stood up and left her office. She walked down straight towards the floo area and headed home. Once there, she wrote a letter to Susan explaining her everything when she felt the wards inform her about someone's arrival.

"Have you taken everything?" Sirius asked apparating inside the living hall of the Bones manor where Amelia waited for him.

She nodded before looking at the manor. It could probably be the last time she was looking at it. "I'm ready," she said slowly as Sirius held her hand. They apparated out of that place after activating the cloaking runes to hide the manor from any type of detection. Knowing Voldemort they knew he would figure out a way to breach through the wards so they couldn't take any chances.

00000

"Draco?"

Draco stopped mid-way in his training as he turned around and saw his mother and Snape looking at him. He put his wand in his holster and walked towards them. He looked straight at Snape. "I would be lying to you if I told you that I'm not nervous," he said with a bit shaky voice.

"I know," Snape replied. "I will no longer be able to teach you everything. With him finally back he will keep close tabs on all of his inner circle followers. With me being here I can risk letting the dark lord know about this place." He then placed a hand on Draco's shoulder. "You have grown up to be a very powerful wizard and you will continue to be so in the times to come but I am afraid this is all the help I can give to you. From here on you are on your own."

Draco nodded as he and Narcissa watched Snape leave.

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Harry looked outside the window from his quarters. It was night time and Voldemort would have his body back by now. "I won't leave you alone in this, Draco," he said to himself. Although it was Draco who was the prophesized child Harry wanted to take his own revenge on Voldemort for killing his parents.

As he thought about how he could help Draco in his fight with Voldemort he noticed something far off at the edge of the forbidden forest. The moon was thin and there was barely any light outside but he couldn't forget that shade of silvery grey as it slithered towards the castle slowly. Harry smiled as an idea came into his mind. If this worked then Draco would be receiving a huge helping hand in his fight against Voldemort.

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Thanks for reading…