Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Nine

Surprise Attack

Harry couldn't have been happier at the moment. Sirius had just won his case and was now going to stay the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He, along with Ron, Fred and George, had been allowed to rejoin the Quidditch team. Now that Umbridge was no longer going to be at Hogwarts, all of her punishments had been overturned. It also meant that the newest prank that Fred and George pulled on Umbridge, by creating a swamp in front of her office making it nearly impossible for her to get out, went unpunished as well. Sirius had told them, after he joyful went over what happened at his hearing, that Tonks had heard Umbridge had shown up in the Ministry that day covered in mud, causing everyone to gossip about her. Of course that only made Fred and George's prank that much better.

Harry had thought about giving up on the idea of teaching or tutoring (or whatever it was that he was doing) with all the other students. He had only had two meetings so far, the second one going better because Cedric had helped him and that made it easier for him to walk around and deal with everything. Still, he didn't really know what he was doing and it didn't seem necessary anymore. However, when he mentioned this to the others, which included Sirius, they had all agreed that they didn't want these sessions to stop. Sirius had even pointed out that something like this keeps everyone a lot more interested in what they were doing and if it's in a fun and competitive setting, it would help improve everyone's skills a lot.

Harry was walking to the dressing room after a long and hard Quidditch practice. Since so many of their team members hadn't been able to practice for a few months, Angelina had scheduled practice any time she could get. This being the first one they were all attending, it had focused on basic skills and endurance, trying to get everyone on the same page again. Harry had worked really hard, and was happy that Angelina had handled the practice this way because he did needed to hone his flying skills a bit before anything else.

"Well, I thought I'd take a leaf out of your book and make sure everyone was up on their basic," Angelina said when Harry had commented on the practice out loud.

"I'm glad I'm such a good example to be followed," Harry joked back.

"Maybe you could be a little less of an example next time," Fred said.

"Yeah, we were hoping for a bit more fun during this practice," George added.

"Excuse me for not being able to have fun when half my team was kicked off halfway through the season and just when I was about to get new players they're reinstated," Angelina said huffily. "That wasn't very fun for me."

"Yeah, we know," George said. "It wasn't fun for us either you know. But we're all back now and we're ready to try harder than ever."

"George … when did you become such a kiss arse?" Ron asked his brother and at that comment George threw his gloves at Ron, who dodge them. "You've got to aim better than that?"

"Whatever," George shrugged, not really bothered by Ron's earlier comment.

Harry enjoyed listening and participating in the give and take talk that happened after the practice. That was until he felt a shot of pain in his scar and a feeling of joy that he knew wasn't his own. He was laughing before he even realized what was happening, and it wasn't his normal laugh but rather maniacal and had all the others looking at him oddly.

"Er … I think Harry needs a little more water in his system, clearly he's gone a bit mad," Ron said, with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. He was clearly worried about Harry, but he wanted to draw the attention away from him. Luckily, the other Weasleys seemed to want the same thing, because they changed the subject until everyone was ready to leave.

"Thanks," Harry said to Ron, when it was just the two of them left.

"Yeah," Ron said looking at him with concern. "What happened?"

"My scar," Harry sighed, he was trying hard to control his emotions and remember everything that Remus and Snape had taught him about Occlumency. Once again he hadn't been concentrating fully on that like he had the night he had the vision of the snake, though this time it was because of the physical drain of practicing, as oppose to the emotional problems he had last time.

"Did you see anything?" Ron asked warily.

"No … I just felt happy," Harry said.

"Yeah, I got that with the crazy laugh you were doing," Ron informed him. "Do you know why he was happy?"

Harry shook his head, "but it can't be for anything good. It wasn't just happiness … something happened that he really wanted."

Ron shifted from foot to foot, not liking the sound of that, but he didn't ask what it was again. Clearly Harry didn't know more than what he had just told him. "Well, there's no point in us worrying about that, there's nothing we can do about it."

"I suppose," Harry sighed, looking glum and getting up. "We should probably head back now."

"Yeah," Ron agreed.

The rest of the day Harry felt down, though he knew Ron was right, he did worry about what had made Voldemort so happy. He had told Sirius about what he had experienced, almost hoping that Sirius knew what had happened, but of course he hadn't. In the end, all he was told was to practice harder on his Occlumency, which was something he was already doing. Still, when he went to bed, it wasn't easy for him to make sure his mind was clear … to put out all the worry and angst he was feeling so it was a little later than he normally would have when Harry finally fell asleep.

As soon as he closed his eyes, though, he was transported to a room that he had never seen before. The room was huge with several aisles in it which seemed to glow in an odd sort of way. He felt a thrill of panic because he knew this wasn't a normal dream and he couldn't seem to wake himself up. He heard a noise coming from one of the aisle near the end and he felt himself moving towards it without really thinking about what he was doing. His apprehension and panic building, he also recognized a note of curiosity … he knew he didn't want to reach the end of the aisle but he needed to know what was making that noise at the same time.

What he saw when he rounded the corner snapped him out of the vision and he was instantly back in his dormitory bed. Ron, Dean and Seamus were all awake and standing around him, Ron was the closest and it appeared he had tried to wake Harry up. Harry's head was hammering and it seemed to be coming from his scar. He felt clammy but didn't care about that. He moved quickly to his trunk and took out his mirror calling for Sirius just as he had done the last time.

"What's going on?" Seamus asked as Harry desperately waited for Sirius to answer him.

"I don't know, but be quite," Ron said.

"Why does Harry keep shouting like this?" Seamus grumbled the question.

"Look, just shut up," Ron snapped, a bit louder this time. "This is serious!"

"Harry?" said the sleepy voice of Sirius, "what's going on?"

"Sirius I just saw …" Harry said, closing his eyes and the image was clear in his mind, the same as if he was sleeping and he knew he was back in that vision, though this time he was able to pull himself out of it. "Dad … Voldemort has my dad …!"

"What?!" Sirius asked completely awake now. "Harry that's impossible … he's at Grimmauld Place."

"I … I know," Harry exclaimed desperately, "but I see it … he has him …"

"Harry get downstairs, I'll be at Gryffindor tower in a minute," Sirius commanded.

"But …"

"Just do it," Sirius ordered and Harry didn't argue anymore.

Harry got out of the bed, put on his shoes and then left the room closely followed by Ron, who was caring his own shoes. Harry looked at him but didn't say anything, glad that his friend was going with him. He wasn't really sure if there was anything either of them could do but what mattered now was getting to Sirius and telling him everything that he had seen.

Sirius wasn't at the portal hole, even with them waiting for Ron to put his shoes on, so they continued to walk down the corridor where they knew Sirius would be coming. Sure enough in a few minutes Sirius came running to them. He didn't look pleased that Harry left the common room but Sirius didn't bother to tell him off at this point, he just asked what had happened and what he had seen.

So Harry explained how Voldemort was talking about one of the orbs, torturing his dad constantly trying to make him take it off the shelf. How Voldemort had said that he was the only one that could take the orb. Harry didn't tell Sirius how much pain his dad seemed to be in when he was being tortured, nor how much his scar burned and throbbed even now. Or the fact that when he closed his eyes he could see that torture still.

"This doesn't make any sense," Sirius said, they were walking quickly, heading to the Headmaster office. "There would be no way for Voldemort to get your dad …"

"But he was happy today!" Harry exclaimed, "… that must have been when he got dad!"

"No Harry, that had nothing to do with your dad," Sirius said, despite his insisted that James must be safe, he looked paled and worried. "I talked to Dumbledore earlier about that … there was a mass breakout from Azkaban. The worst Death Eaters are now loose … and that is another reason why this doesn't make sense. I can't see him planning another major attack on the same day as that."

"But I saw it Sirius," Harry said, "It's the same as the last time …"

"I know, Harry," Sirius said, putting a calming hand on his shoulder, though they kept walking at the same pace, they were nearly at the office now. "That's why I'm taking you to Dumbledore, I already told him to check on James. If something terrible has happened we'll be there to stop it."

Harry nodded his head, there wasn't much more he could ask to happen. Besides, it was good to know that once they reached Dumbledore's office he might get an answered about his dad. Most of him was worried terribly about his dad, but having Sirius here was helping him gather himself and there was something about what Sirius was saying. He tried to keep thinking about this but it wasn't easy as his scar burned and he felt the pain that meant that Voldemort was cursing his dad again.

"We're here," Sirius said, making Harry realize where he was, as he stepped onto the revolving stairs. The door was open when they reached it, and Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk looking deep in thought and more troubled than Harry remembered seeing him.

"I just received word form Remus, James is with him," Dumbledore said.

"He is," Harry sighed in relief, taking the seat across from Dumbledore.

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "I would have thought it unwise for you to come to me, especially now that it's obvious Voldemort knows of the connection you share. I had feared that he would use you against me, but he can not do that right now."

"What is going on Dumbledore?" Sirius asked. "Who did Harry see …?"

"Voldemort is implanting the image into Harry's mind," Dumbledore sighed. "For him it's not that difficult to do. Is he still trying to make you see the same image, Harry?"

Harry nodded his head, trying to keep his eyes open, not wanting to see the image again. It didn't matter if he now knew it wasn't real. The look of pain on his dad's face as he screamed …

"As I thought, Voldemort is using all of his Legilimency, and Occlumency abilities to make you see this," Dumbledore sighed. "But I can't understand why he would choose to attack in this manner. If his plan was to lore you into trying to rescue your father he should have known that you would go to Sirius for help. And if not Sirius, you have other options for you to turn to as well. He must have known that we would discover the lie … and that we would do it rather quickly."

"Harry was using his Occlumency before going to bed," Ron spoke up, "I thought that was supposed to keep V-voldemort out."

"It can," Dumbledore said, "but with Voldemort it is always hard, especially when he is trying so hard to penetrate Harry's mind."

"Does he know how it affects Harry?" Ron asked, looking at his friend who was still very clammy and was wincing every once in awhile due to the pain. Sirius and Dumbledore turned to look at Harry too, Sirius turning white.

"What … what is it?" Harry asked as the three of them looked at him in horror.

"He's attacking your mind!"