Author's Note: Hello everyone! Er…new chapter here! Remember, this is my version of Harry's fifth year and OotP hasn't happened. (What a great book by the way!) And Sirius will be in this fic and pretty soon too. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. You guys rock!

The next few days took much adjusting. Hermione and Ron were trying so hard to not act weird around Harry that they were achieving only the opposite. Any slight cough was responded to with worried glances and interrogations into his health. Harry finally gave them a lecture after Ron freaked out when Harry made a comment about needing to sit down. Being that they were in Charms and Professor Flitwick had just told them to take their seats, even Ron had to admit it was a little excessive.

Eventually, however, they got the hang of knowing when to be more worried than usual, which was still too often for Harry's liking, and Harry was able to refrain from snapping at the two when they badgered him about his health.

Harry was finding that he had his good days and his not so good days. Sometimes he could just feel his powers being, well, more powerful. Other days he'd feel tired and lose his appetite, but it was nothing too serious.

After another day of wowing the Defense class, this time with his ability to resist the effects of spells that did hit him, Lupin asked him to stay after class. Harry had always had a knack for Defense, but his increased abilities were now catching everyone's attention.

After class, he waved Hermione and Ron on and approached Lupin's desk. The professor wore a curious expression of excitement mixed with wonder and pride.

"Well, Harry, you have definitely proved yourself to have advanced abilities in Defense. I was impressed with you in your third year and your abilities and even power has obviously increased greatly since then, and even since the beginning of the year. I talked to some other professors who say you've been doing equally well in their classes, well, at least on some days. Anyway, I spoke with the headmaster and he agreed that it might benefit you to have some extra lessons in Defense to be able to use this power to its full potential," Lupin said with a smile.

"You mean you want to tutor me in Defense?" Harry asked incredulously. "Isn't that a lot of extra work for you?"

"It won't be that much extra work, and whatever it is I'm very willing. Every teacher loves a student who seems to be interested and talented in their subject. It will probably put you ahead of the class, and help you with your O.W.L.s later on, but more importantly, it should prepare you for more important things, since dangerous situations seem to always find you. I'm very eager to do this, but, of course, it's up to you whether you want the extra work or not. I know you're very busy with your other classes and Quidditch practices, but if you're up to squeezing an extra thing into your schedule about once a week, I want you to know that I think you have great potential," he said beaming with pride.

Harry wasn't sure what to do. He thought it sounded kind of interesting, and, being the number one person on the hit list of a madman, it seemed practical to buff up his dueling skills, but there was only one issue.

"Well, Professor, that sounds great, but even I'm not sure why I seem to have a knack for this lately. I seem to have some days where I'm better at it than others and I you've just happened to see me on two of my good days."

"Hmm…well that seems peculiar, but I'd love to train you anyways. What do you say?"

Harry agreed.

That night at dinner, he explained his conversation with Lupin to Ron and Hermione.

"Harry, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean that's very physically demanding and I wouldn't want you to get any worse because of it," Hermione said.

"Don't worry, you guys, if I'm ever not feeling up to it, I'll just tell him I have a ton of homework or something. Besides, I think it might be handy in case Voldemort tries to knock me off prematurely." Ron flinched at the name, but had given up on trying to make Harry call him "You-Know-Who" a while ago. Hermione bit her lip.

Ron watched in amusement as Harry's fork floated along the table, stabbed into Hermione's dinner roll, and floated back to Harry's hand. He had been stealing food off her plate with wandless magic throughout dinner and she had yet to notice. Now, she only had a scoop of pudding on her plate.

"All right, Harry, but promise me that you won't do it at any time you don't feel well."

"Deal."

Hermione stabbed at her plate with her fork and it clanged against it. She furrowed her eyebrows as she took in her empty plate. She looked around the table around her as if her food had just jumped off the edge of her plate.

"What in the…" she muttered.

Ron burst out laughing. Hermione looked up at him and then followed his gaze back to her dish where Harry's spoon was now scooping up some of her pudding. She made a grab for it but it dodged her grasp and floated quickly back to a grinning Harry. She shot him an amused glare as he popped the spoon in his mouth.

"Mmm…this is delicious 'Mione," he said through a lopsided grin.

"Boys," she said in exasperation, "They are blessed with the power of wandless magic and of course, they use it to eat!"

All three laughed as Hermione got herself more food.

Meanwhile, Harry had begun tutoring Neville and Eloise in Potions. They met every few days in the library or the Gryffindor common room. At first, Harry couldn't quite meet Eloise's eyes. Each time he saw the acne on her cheeks, he remembered Ron's comment about not wanting to go out with her based on her looks and felt guilty. After a while, though, Harry realized how nice she really was. Neville and Harry were joking around and made up a "Hated by Snape" club where they were the co-presidents and Eloise was vice president. They all found it quite amusing.

"All right, so if Snape gave you this list of ingredients, and asked you what potion you were making, what would you tell him?" Harry quizzed them. The two studied the list. Neville sighed and sat back in his chair.

"I'd tell him to take that list and shove it up his…"

"Neville!" Eloise scolded. Harry laughed and rolled his eyes.

"And then I'd tell him that it was Campanile Draught," he said proudly. Harry grinned in approval. His two pupils were becoming great at not only recognizing potion names from the ingredients (and vice versa) but could usually figure out how to mix ingredients based on what they did in different forms and how they reacted with other ingredients.

"Good job Neville. Now, what order would you put them in, what would you have to do to the ingredients, and why?"

The two began scribbling notes down on pieces of parchment. After a few minutes Eloise slammed down her quill.

"Done," she stated loud and proud, a little too loud in fact. Mrs. Pince shushed her with a glare.

"All right, let's hear it then," Harry instructed quietly. Eloise explained the procedure and looked up to Harry for confirmation.

"Good, just one step you forgot. What do you say Neville? Do you know what it is?"

Neville took a moment to think and glanced over Eloise's notes. "She forgot to crush the adder's scales?" he asked hopefully. Harry nodded and gestured for him to continue into the explanation of why. "…Which would cause it to not mix properly with the Deroga and would make the potion ineffective?"

"Great! You guys will be acing this class in no time, well of course if Snape gets off our backs," he said gathering his things.

"Right you are, Harry, it's that last step that's the killer though. But hey, did you see Snape's face when I explained to him how I made our last potion? It looked like he had swallowed a Mandrake!" Neville said excitedly. Harry laughed and the three exited the library.

"Ah yes, precious moments in Potions."

"Well I passed the last test," Eloise noted proudly. In Snape's class, this was no simple feat and was almost equivalent to full marks. Harry congratulated her. "Yeah, and I was bragging about it loudly enough in the halls that I think Roger Davies may have overheard. He looked over when I said it! Of course, then I realized he was fixing his hair in the mirror behind me so that could be interpreted as him looking more past me than at me, but I take it as progress."

"Oh yeah, I can hear the wedding bells now!" Harry teased.

"You just wait, one day when he isn't distracted by those hiked-up skirts of the seventh-year girls, he'll come crawling to me," she said with a dignified tone. "And then he'll buy me a huge diamond ring and profess his undying love that he's just been hiding all these years and we'll buy a house on an island in the Caribbean and live happily ever after."

"Eloise, you've given this way too much thought haven't you?" Neville asked.

Eloise's dreamy expression stayed. "Yes Neville, yes I have."

Professor Lupin told Harry that he would work around his schedule, and to come to him on days he felt like doing it. Harry was briefly wrapped up in Quidditch as they were training extra hard to prepare for a match against Ravenclaw. Angelina was now captain and working them as hard as Oliver ever did, already having led them to a victory against Hufflepuff earlier in the year. After winning the match, practices lightened up for a while, at least until the match against Slytherin drew nearer. On a "good" day, Harry approached Professor Lupin after class and asked if it would be a good day to start. Lupin seemed very excited and told Harry to meet him in the Defense classroom at 7:00.

Later that evening, Harry walked into the room. It looked different now that it was practically empty. All the desks had been pushed against the walls, leaving a large area to duel, much like it had looked when they had done dueling in class.

Harry was surprised to see that not only Lupin was there, but that Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were also present.

"Hey there, Harry," Lupin beamed. "I hope you don't mind but we have two audience members."

Harry shook his head to indicate that this was fine.

"All right, Harry, I'm going to bump it up a notch from what we did in class. I'd say you should just work on blocking them, but I think you can do more, so I want you to try and disarm me as quickly as you can."

They bowed and took their positions.

"All right, go!" Lupin shouted, immediately shooting a curse at Harry, who easily blocked it, immediately shooting the leg-locker curse back. This time, however, Lupin was ready and dodged it. He began to shout a whole succession of curses, which Harry either dodged or blocked. Finally, Harry shouted "Expelliarmus!" and disarmed Lupin.

"Well done, Harry," Dumbledore said looking impressed. "Your professor is an excellent dueler. I'm amazed that you can beat him at all, but especially so quickly and with such apparent ease."

"It wasn't all that easy, Professor," said Harry catching his breath. It had been hard work blocking and dodging all those curses. It wasn't that it was difficult to be able to do the spells and shields, just the actual energy it took to do it was tiring.

"Well it was easier for you than most fifth year students. Otherwise you'd be disarmed by now."

Professor McGonagall beamed at him, obviously pleased that it was a Gryffindor who was showing such advanced capabilities.

"If you don't mind, Harry, I'd like to try dueling you myself," Professor Dumbledore said.

Harry's mouth dropped open and the two other professors looked surprised as well.

"Sir? There's no way I'd stand a chance against you," Harry protested, but Dumbledore had already exchanged places with Professor Lupin.

"We'll see. Now, I want you to try your absolute hardest to disarm me Harry."

Harry dumbly nodded. On cue he bowed and took up the ready stance.

"All right, go!" Lupin said.

As curses shot at him, Harry could feel the immense power radiating from them. He dodged them and blocked them, but it was much more difficult than before. He got hit with one that was supposed to make his legs get too wobbly to stand, but Harry fought the effects and only felt slightly unbalanced. He shouted the Disarming Charm, but the headmaster just sent it back toward Harry who quickly shielded himself against it. Harry forced himself to concentrate on Dumbledore, trying to sense what he was going to do.

He quickly blocked another curse and, sensing the headmaster pause to say the next curse, Harry shouted "Expelliarmus!" focusing as much power as he could muster into it, knowing that it would take more than normal to disarm the powerful wizard in front of him.

Suddenly, he saw a wand flying towards him and grabbed it, realizing a second later that it belonged to the headmaster. He had won.

The three adults stared at Harry. Harry was feeling very weak and his legs began to give out. Lupin, sensing danger, had gotten up and gone over to Harry, and was able to catch him as he fell.

"Whoa there, Harry, let me help you to a chair." Somehow Lupin got Harry over to a chair and gave him some chocolate to re-energize him. Even after the chocolate, Harry felt drained of energy.

"I think that's all I can do for tonight," he announced.

"Well, I'd certainly say so. I can't believe what I just saw," said Professor McGonagall.

"Harry," Dumbledore said walking over, his eyes twinkling. "You are more powerful than we ever had dreamed. I could feel immense power radiating off of you while you were dueling." Harry blushed not only at the compliment but also because he knew that there was a reason for it that he was keeping to himself. So many secrets.

"Well, I can't always do that. I seem to have times where I can do things I can't at other times."

"Most curious," Dumbledore looked at Harry suspiciously. "Harry, do you have any idea what could be causing this?"

Harry looked away. He knew he should tell Dumbledore, but he just couldn't. He didn't want the pity. He didn't want the lecture. He didn't want to tell him the reason he was so close to the Stensons in the first place. If he let this one secret out, more would eventually be discovered as well.

"No, sir," he said, trying to sound convincing, but not quite meeting anyone's eyes either. He was sure the headmaster knew he was lying, but to Harry's relief, he didn't press the matter. Instead, he smiled warmly at Harry.

"Well I'd say you should go get some rest and we'll have to have more of these sessions."

Harry nodded and left the teachers to talk among themselves. He trudged back to his dorm and collapsed onto his bed without bothering to change into his pajamas. He was so thankful he had decided to do this on a Friday. He couldn't fathom starting his homework now. He closed his eyes and was drifting off when he heard the door burst open.

"Hey Harry, you in here? How was it?" Ron asked sitting down on the edge of Harry's bed. Hermione had followed him in.

"Hermione, should you really be in here? Couldn't your prefect title be taken away?" Harry asked sitting up in bed.

"How was it Harry? How are you feeling?" she asked ignoring his question.

"I'm fine guys, just tired."

"Did you beat Professor Lupin again?" Ron asked eagerly. Harry nodded.

"And Dumbledore too."

"What?! You dueled the headmaster?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"And won?!" Ron asked enthusiastically.

"Well I'm sure he went easy on me."

"Oh Merlin how wicked!" Ron exclaimed.

"I don't know, I kind of feel bad for not telling them why I can do this all of a sudden. It's like I'm cheating them or something." Harry yawned. Hermione finally seemed to realize how obviously exhausted Harry was.

"Well, you get some rest, Harry, and we'll ask you all about it in the morning." She got up from the bed and started to leave. Ron however, didn't get the hint quite so easily.

"Wait, how was dueling with Dumbledore? Did he…"

"Come on, Ron," she said grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the room. It was only about 8:30 so they were probably going to go play wizards chess if Ron could talk Hermione out of studying.

He fell asleep minutes after lying back down. That night Harry had the first dream connected with Voldemort since his revival.

Harry was standing in a large stone room, much like a dungeon. There was a line of Death Eaters in masks. He knew Snape was probably one of them, having guessed that he went back to spying for the light side. They all looked pretty edgy, none daring to speak.

All of a sudden, two large doors burst open. Harry's scar exploded in pain and he knew who was entering. Sure enough, the same eerie face he had seen come out of the cauldron the year before was now glaring at his followers, who all bowed their heads.

"As you all know, you've been ordered to keep a low profile ever since I was returned to you. I know many of you doubted me. You were fools. I had my reasons. Now I'm sure even you imbeciles can see how opposite beliefs regarding my return is tearing at the wizarding community. Many think that old fool Dumbledore is insane.

Now, however, it's time to have some fun. We're going to announce my return with a huge event that will cause them all to cower before our feet. We're going to attack Hogwarts. You will find Harry Potter immediately and bring him to me alive. We'll use their precious little hero to teach them all a lesson they'll never forget," he said with a malicious smile.

Harry's mouth dropped open. They were going to attack Hogwarts?

"We'll attack at midnight, when they least expect it. Get ready."

He turned to leave and the Death Eaters all bowed low. The room began to fade away and Harry was falling.