Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hello Harry."

Harry spun around. Voldemort was standing there.

"You!" Harry yelled. He felt in his pocket but it was gone.

"Looking for this" Voldemort twirled Harry's wand idly with his fingers.

"That's mine! Give it back!" Harry shouted, reaching for it.

"Ah Ah Ah." I'll give it back when you kill her."

"Kill who?" Harry wheeled around. Hermione was standing, tied up using a body bind curse, and held up by a masked death-eater.

"Harry, go it's a trap! Run! Don't wait for me!"

Cold high laughter.

"Run go, don't worry about me!"

More cold high laughter.

Hermione screamed and fell to the floor.

"No! Hermione! You killed her!" Harry cried, running towards her. He picked her head up gently. As he did the head morphed into another woman with long auburn hair.

"Mum!"

"No, please don't take Harry! Take me instead!"

"Stand aside you silly girl!"

Another scream and a flash of blinding green light.

Harry awoke with a yell. His old scar on his forehead felt like it was on fire. He sat bolt upright and was about to run and find Hermione or Dumbledore when.

"Harry, Harry, its OK." A calm voice said. A hand was placed on his shoulder. Harry found himself looking into the bright blue eyes of Professor Dumbledore.

"You were having a nightmare. It's over now."

"But, Voldemort, Hermione."

"I'm right here Harry." Hermione's voice said. She was sitting on his bed next to him, looking at his, concerned and upset. Ron was hovering above her and the rest of his dormitory was awake, looking through the red hangings that surrounded their beds.

It was then Harry that realised that it was all a dream and began to feel highly embarrassed. He could feel his cheeks burn.

"But…Voldemort…" he began.

"I have reliable sources that Lord Voldemort is no where around. The last recorded sighting of him is in the South of England. He cannot apparate, if he does, we can find and extinguish him. Don't worry." Dumbledore said comfortingly.

Harry brushed the dripping hair out of his eyes. He looked from Dumbledore to Ron and finally to Hermione. It felt like she was back from the dead. Shaking his head he lay back down.

"No. He's closer." He said solemnly.

Saturday held no lessons. Instead of his usual lie-in, Harry was the first to wake up. To be truthful, he hadn't been to sleep properly since his dream. Every time he felt himself drift off, the pleas of his mother and the high, cruel laugh reappeared into his head, jerking him back to full consciousness. Hungry, he dressed and made his way down to the Hall alone for breakfast. A few students were already up including

"Hiya Harry!"

"Hullo Colin." Harry replied dully, contemplating going back to bed. It was Colin Creevy, a Gryffindor in the year below him, a somewhat fan of Harry's.

"Hiya Harry!" a squeakier but almost identical voice piped up.

"Hullo Dennis" Dennis was Colin's younger brother, an almost exact replica of his brother. He too had inherited Colin's admiring attitude of Harry but at least he didn't take pictures. Colin luckily had left his camera behind.

"Do you want to sit with us at breakfast?" Colin asked eagerly.

"No, I'm going to skip breakfast and head back to the common room." Harry replied and turned to leave.

"Wait up!"

Harry turned and saw Colin and Dennis finish their breakfast in what must have been a record time.

"We're going to. We'll walk with you. Do you mind?" Dennis said breathlessly. Thinking this was possibly not the time to be mean, Harry reluctantly agreed and set off back to the common room. Colin and Dennis practically skipped beside him, barely containing their excitement that THE Harry Potter was walking back with them. They asked exited questions, which Harry answered politely, without revealing too much about himself. He didn't want the Creevy brother to know everything about him. Fred had told him they were going to compile a scrapbook about him with all the various pictures they had taken of him.

Finally, they reached the Fat Lady. Dennis squeaked the password "Dungbombs"

And they came face to face with Hermione and Ron.

"Hello Harry!" Ron said. "We were about to join you."

"Yeah, wanna get some breakfast?" Hermione added.

"Yeah, OK, thanks!" Harry said, turning round and joining them. They walked down the corridor until they heard.

"Dennis! Come on! Stop staring at Hermione Granger!" Colin said, in what was supposed to be a hushed whisper, but what actually came out as a loud yell. Hermione blushed.

"I think Dennis Creevy has a crush on our little friend Hermione here!" Ron teased, patting Hermione on the head. She retaliated by brushing his hand away roughly.

"Shut up Ron!" she yelled, causing a portrait of a medieval woman in a tall hat to jump violently.

Harry sat at breakfast listening to Ron and Hermione bicker.

"He likes you!" Ron taunted.

"And." Hermione asked.

"And…he likes you!"

"No-one likes you."

"Yeah they do!"

"Like who?"

"Um…that's not the point. I give in."

"Oh, will you two stop arguing?" Harry asked them.

"Don't think so." Ron replied.

"Never gonna happen." Hermione added.

"OK, what's it about this time?" George Weasley asked, sitting down next to Hermione. "House Elves, whether Hermione's hair is better up or down?" Fred snorted with laughter.

"Shut up you two!" Ron and Hermione said together.