Harry looked at those red eyes staring back at him. Its teeth bare and sharp, grinning at him as if it had found its prey. The bark-like protrusion on its left shoulder and the dark grey skin was more than enough for Harry to know that it was the same thing he had nightmares about months back.

He tried to run but found he couldn't move. He knew this was a nightmare, a dream and not reality but somehow his mind convinced him that it wasn't. It just felt…real. With every step that it took closer towards Harry he could feel the dread, horror and immense pressure coming from it.

It opened its left palm, the one which looked like it was a mixture of wood and metal and Harry saw it had claws instead of fingers. The small protrusions all over that left hand made it look like it was a thick trunk of a tree with many pointy ends. As it closed on Harry he tried to move himself but couldn't.

"Come on!" he said to himself. "You know this is a dream so wake up!" He tried to bite his tongue in order to wake up from this nightmare but nothing happened. Instead, he felt pain and a slight metallic taste in his mouth. His eyes widened for a moment. Was this real, he thought. But he couldn't remember how he arrived here…where was he? He looked around and saw nothing but a black void. He could feel his back against something and a floor underneath his feet but there was nothing when he looked around. It was like a black version of the room of requirement.

"It's futile to run." His head snapped, looking at the demonic version of himself walking towards him. He realized he couldn't talk as his lips were shut together. His body reacted by trying to feel his mouth using his hands but he couldn't move them either. "If you think you can control me then you are mistaken," it said again as it raised its clawed arm and brought it down on Harry.

He woke up with a loud gasp, clutching his heart as he breathed hard. It took a moment but he finally realized that it was only a nightmare…again. He saw he was sweating profusely before Harry looked at the time. It was close to four in the morning. He wanted to go back to sleep but all his sleep had vanished so he got up and headed towards the living room of his quarters. Once there he stood by the window to let the cool air wash down his body.

After all this time he understood that the demonic creature that he saw in his nightmares, his demonic version, was probably the Yayu. However, this was the first time that he had heard it talk. He had felt a chill down his spine when he heard the Yayu speak. He then looked at his left palm. This had turned into a clawed version as Harry wondered if he would actually end up becoming that monster which he saw in his nightmares.

He sighed, realizing that it didn't matter what he thought about it. He knew he couldn't get rid of the Yayu unless he was dead because he didn't know how he could convince him to leave his body. He looked outside the window towards the mountains. There were no signs of any clouds. It had been a very rainy week. It seemed the pouring had stopped some time in the night and the sky had been cleared as he could see little stars slowly dimming down as morning approached.

Seeing that he didn't feel sleepy anymore Harry decided to start his morning exercise a bit early as he headed back to the bedroom to change.

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Harry entered the great hall when he saw a commotion going on at the Slytherin table. He walked towards his seat while watching them. They all looked anxious and worried at the same time.

"What's going on?" he asked sitting beside Neville and Hermione who passed him the morning Prophet. Harry looked at the front page and was surprised. Crabbe and Goyle Senior had been murdered. Their body was found in an empty street in Knockturn alley. He turned and looked towards Crabbe and Goyle Juniors and couldn't find them. Perhaps they'd been called back home. He then looked at Daphne who was reading the paper with an expressionless face when she looked up and their eyes met.

She looked away immediately fearing someone from her house might see them exchange glances. Harry wondered what she had to think about this situation. Those two were Voldemort's inner circle members so their death definitely must've shaken the death eaters even if it was by a little.

After finishing his breakfast Harry wrote a letter to both Sirius and Remus and asked them if they knew about the situation in more depth. No one in their right mind would try and kill two inner circle members of Voldemort's army unless it was Voldemort himself. But Harry didn't understand why Voldemort would leave their bodies out in the open for others to see. Maybe Voldemort was not the murderer here. As the classes ran with their usual vigor Harry also noticed that their potions class for the day had been cancelled. He had not seen Snape at the head table neither during breakfast or lunch.

Perhaps he was vising Voldemort to see into the matter. Many Slytherin students also received letters from their homes. He wondered if Voldemort was actually a bit worried now because not only five of his horcruxes were destroyed but now two of his inner circle members were murdered.

He received Sirius and Remus' reply in a single letter where they wrote that Amelia was looking into the matter as even they didn't have any idea as to who could've done this, not that it was bad (Sirius' words).

Snape returned back to Hogwarts by dinner time as Harry saw him continuously talking with Dumbledore while having dinner. Harry wondered what they were talking about. It had to be related to Crabbe and Goyle Seniors death as Harry wanted to know more about it.

Daphne had not joined him that day for occlumency practice as he read in her letter through which they talked within the castle. He understood when she told him that the entire Slytherin house was alert after two inner circle members were found dead. They were suspicious towards one of their own as the Slytherins thought that someone on the inside must've done it.

Harry knew what she meant. If some Slytherin student saw her going to the seventh floor, which was abandoned, they would think she was the mole and then anyone could imagine what would happen to her. Even Harry wouldn't be able to help or save her because he knew that Slytherin students didn't take betrayal lightly and would straight up kill Daphne before Harry could do anything.

"Lord Potter." Harry stopped and turned to see the Weasely twins approach him. He was heading for breakfast as he wondered what they wanted to talk to him about. "Lord Potter," Fred said. "I and my brother wanted to apologize to you for our mother's actions."

"We are truly ashamed for what she did, especially using our little sister…err, not that we don't feel good or anything like that for what she did to you, too," George said.

"Yeah, we wrote you a letter trying to warn you about our sister's intentions," Fred said.

Harry remembered reading their letter. He'd thought that it was some sort of prank they were playing on him. "I'm sorry I didn't take you guys seriously," he said.

"We don't blame you," Fred said. "We have a sort of reputation where people no longer believe us no matter what it is we tell them."

Harry smiled a little. These two were different from Ron, Ginny, Percy and their mother. "We also wanted to thank you for…for not going all out at our mother," Fred said. Harry looked at him a bit confused.

"We know you had more than enough evidence to slap her with more years in sentence," George said. "The fact that you didn't do it is why we are here. Although for what our mother did she didn't deserve this but thank you for going easy on her."

"We also know that you provided a therapist for our sister," Fred said. "Thank you for thinking about her."

Harry didn't know what to say to them so he simply nodded.

"Although we don't have money or political power like you," George said, "you can ask us to help you anytime if you are looking to pull a prank on someone who's annoying you."

Harry smiled at that. "I'll keep it in mind," he said. "Also, I am sorry, too. I know how much problems it caused in your family. I know not all of you were in on this but you are definitely paying the price."

"It's not your fault, Lord Potter," George said. "We know you didn't like doing it either when you didn't provide all of the evidence against our mother. We're a big enough family. We can look after each other well."

"It's Harry," Harry said taking them by surprise. "You two seem to have more maturity and understanding unlike Ron or Percy so why don't we stay on good terms?"

The twins looked at him before nodded. Harry chuckled at their expressions of shock. "We won't disappoint you," they both said in unison.

Harry nodded before they headed their separate ways.

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Draco opened the door to his room and saw Snape standing there. He let the man in before closing the door.

"How are you?" Snape asked.

"I'll be fine," Draco replied. It was impossible to hide his emotions from Snape. That man could read him like an open book.

"I know it was your first time out there…going after them," Snape said, "but you need to make sure you do whatever you are doing more carefully."

Draco looked at him as he saw Snape pull out a piece of torn fabric from his pocket. He recognized it from his cloak he was wearing that night as his eyes widened with surprise.

"You should be more careful," Snape said, "of what you tend to leave behind. I hope you will learn from this mistake. Fortunately your residual magic on this piece of fabric was not enough to last long for them to track you down. Make sure you bring everything back with you from the next time onwards. I can't be there looking out for you all the time."

Draco nodded.

"Now, how are you feeling?" Snape asked looking more softly at him.

Draco wanted to stay strong but couldn't as he burst into tears and hugged the man tightly. Snape stood there motionless for a few seconds before hugging Draco back.

00000

Grindelwald looked at the small amount of blood he had saved after giving most of it to Voldemort for his ritual. Ever since that day when he'd taken that boy's blood he'd felt something different about it. The blood didn't seem to be that of a human, not entirely.

His first guess was whether Harry was also a vessel for one of the beasts but then if that would've been the case then he could've sensed it and he didn't need Harry's blood to sense the beast inside him. No, this was something different. There was something terrifying about it. He sensed a very strong and suppressive dark pressure from the few drops that he had of Harry's blood. His interest had peaked. It seemed that the boy was not simply chosen to be Voldemort's defeater.

He wondered if Harry was aware of this power inside of him because if he was then Grindelwald was sure Voldemort would stand no chance against him. He wondered, though, whether or not to tell Tom about it. Perhaps not because Tom wanted to betray him so maybe he won't tell him after all.

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Amelia looked at the towers of files on the aurors' desks. They were all neck deep into paperwork for the new cases of missing people. She knew it had something to do with Voldemort finally being back as she wondered if he was recruiting even more. Those who actually knew about his return knew that standing behind him would mean they would live.

Also the wards which she had placed around the Bones manor told her that it had many trying to let themselves in. Perhaps Sirius' idea of going into a hiding place was a good thinking. He had come up with it when it had been confirmed that they couldn't stop Voldemort's return so Sirius had bought a house where she and Susan moved in the night Voldemort returned. Snape's letter had warned them all.

For now Susan was safe and that is all she cared about. She knew Voldemort wouldn't be stupid enough to attack the ministry in broad daylight…at least in the next few weeks. If he was recruiting then that meant he would take time before doing anything noticeable. For now it seemed all she had to care about are those missing persons' cases. And that was not going well.

It had made into the news – a record fifty-seven people were filed missing in the last twenty-four hours. Anyone who had the faintest of idea as to what was really going on knew it was Voldemort's doing and there weren't many people who knew about his return. Those who didn't were afraid. The next number of missing persons was even more and it increased with each day. A week later people almost stopped coming out of their houses.

Amelia was careful around the ministry as well because she knew Voldemort had his people in here, too. They all knew she was investigating into the matter with a small team she personally formed but that was all she intended Voldemort's followers to know.

Her route back home was a planned manner of using floo networks and apparating so she wouldn't be followed. Floo networks could be traced and so did apparition so instead of simply flooing once she would floo to different places multiple times along with a few apparitions in between them. It definitely worked.

As she headed towards the floos in the ministry's atrium she saw a small group of reporters surrounding Fudge around his podium. They were clearly asking him about the increase in people going missing and from the looks of it he was definitely having a hard time. Kingsley was beside him as his bodyguard. She felt bad for her subordinate being used by Fudge like that. When Fudge noticed her she quickly looked away and walked towards the floos faster. She heard him call her once or twice but didn't stop or turned. She didn't want to give him the idea of listening to him or else she knew he would make her stand and answer the reporters and she didn't want that.

She arrived home about an hour after leaving the ministry. It was taxing – apparating multiple times – but she had no other choice for now. It was necessary to make sure no one followed her. Even with the fidilius charm in place she knew it wasn't enough. She had the same charm around the Bones manor but even then Voldemort's men would come very near to the place almost every day.

With the murder of Crabbe and Goyle Seniors there was uproar amongst many of the dark pureblood families, families who she was sure were death eaters. She had received multiple letters from them to personally look into the matter. Even though it was probably good for the society to get rid of two of its worst scums she was wondering who could've killed them. The murder looked very much as if an assassin would do it. Apart from a blown-up shop there was nothing more. When the aurors had arrived they found the two men half-way in the ground. Someone had immobilized them by trapping them in the ground before killing them. Their wands had also been taken away by the killer and she had tried to trace them but couldn't. Either they'd been snapped or they were under heavy protections. It could also happen that at that time Crabbe and Goyle Seniors were carrying their untraceable wands, one which wasn't registered with the ministry, like it was the case with almost all pureblood families. In the name of protecting their privacies they did so many illegal things.

Carrying an untraceable wand was not an offense, though, but it was certainly frowned upon by the laws of the ministry because then the ministry couldn't track them if those wands were used to cast certain forbidden spells.

She had met a dead-end in the case of the two death eaters. With no evidence or no leads she had decided to close the case. She knew some families won't take this kindly so she had decided to make all the findings in that case public so she didn't have to answer for anything she didn't want to. They could all look it up themselves.

She changed into something comfortable before pouring herself a glass of fire whiskey and sitting by the fireplace enjoying the drink. Sirius wasn't home. He'd been living with her ever since she moved into this place and she had no complains about it. With a hectic week at the ministry she could definitely use something energetic and relaxing…Sirius' company.

When he arrived an hour later Sirius found her long asleep on the couch beside the fireplace. Her glass of fire whiskey was half empty and the fire crackled lightly illuminating the dark room.

He walked towards her slowly so as to not wake her up as he grabbed a thin blanket and covered her with it. He kissed her forehead as he took the glass away from her hand. She mumbled something as she moved a little in her sleep to a more comfortable position. He looked at her. So peaceful and beautiful, he thought. He knew what she was going through and he intended to be there with and for her in every step of the way.

00000

They ended their training for the day as Harry noticed Daphne was not her own. "Are you alright?" he asked as they prepared to leave the room of requirement.

"Mom and dad received multiple requests for me and my sister's betrothals today," she said. "With Vo…Voldemort back some dark families have become more confidant and rather coercive towards these betrothals."

"Did they…" Harry stopped realizing what he was about to say.

"No," she said shaking her head, "but I know when my parents are worried even though they won't tell me. I have been approached by many in my own house this week alone. Although that doesn't bother me but I worry about my parents and my sister who are being visited daily by Voldemort's men. Ever since his return it has only increased."

"We can move them into a secure location," Harry suggested not knowing what else he could offer her at the moment. "And Professor Snape will look after you here at Hogwarts."

"I am not worried about myself…"

"But I am," Harry said interrupting her. She looked at him a little shocked. For some reason it made her feel somewhat at peace that Harry said those words to her. "I am worried about you," he said walking towards her. She stood there looking at him as he closed the gap between them. "I have taken the responsibility to look after you and your family. It was my suggestion so…" their gap closed even more as Daphne could feel her heart beat increase, "…so please let me be worried for your family…for you…" he said as she felt his breath on her face before their lips met.

For a moment she was shocked as to what was happening but then she didn't care as she responded back to Harry's kiss. It lasted for only about a few seconds before Harry broke the kiss and took a few steps back looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know what I was doing." Daphne didn't reply as he quickly gathered his things and left the room.

She stood there wondering what had just happened. He had kissed her. In all honesty she liked it. Although it was short but that kiss from Harry somehow made her realize that he definitely cared for her. The corner of her lips turned up into a little smile as she gathered her belongings while thinking about their kiss. It was her first kiss and although she had always wanted it to be somewhat special and sort of grand she wasn't sad or mad that none of that had happened. Instead she felt in content when he'd kissed her. It was shocking at first but she never felt uncomfortable about their kiss although Harry looked rather embarrassed about it. Her smile turned into a grin as she thought more about it. She could feel herself flushed.

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