Credits: All the references to Harry Potter, the world of Hogwarts and the magical community are J.K. Rowling's. All the rest are mine.
Author's note: To all of those who read my *fic* yesterday, well, I guess you could tell it was kind of a mistake, and just try to forget about that one and read this one. Also review. PLEASE!!!!!!
Chapter 1
Harry Potter fell once again into the dream.
Struggling was of no use. Wormtail, Voldemort's right-hand man, had just
released Harry from his bonds to the tombstone of Voldemort's father, and Lord
Voldemort, Harry's evil nemesis, had risen slowly from the cauldron,
renewed. Harry knew, with dreadful certainty, what would happen
next. Out would come the wand and he'd have to dodge the killing spells,
the torturing, and the- wait. This time it was different. A young
girl came out from behind the tombstone Harry had been tied, helpless,
to. Her wand, a peculiar light green, moved and-
TAP, TAP.
"Wha-?" Harry muttered. He reached for
his glasses, smoothed his black hair from his face, and got up, moving toward
the window where Hedwig, his owl, waited.
The nightmare still haunted Harry's mind, but it was
temporarily removed by the address he saw on the parchment. Hedwig gave a
"your welcome" sort of click and moved to her cage, ready for a
nap. Harry, still not fully awake, opened the folded parchment and
yawned.
Dear Mr. Potter,
I hope this letter finds you well, and that you are in no
immediate danger. I am sorry to say the following, but in light of
Voldemort's arrival, we of course must take necessary precautions, which means
that,
(Harry felt a slight sense of
foreboding)
which means that all Hogwarts staff and students must
arrive at Hogwarts no later than August 5, instead of the usual time in
September.
We hope this has caused no
inconvenience, and that you will make haste toward our reasonably safe school,
which has enlisted the help of several Aurors and dragons to help.
Enclosed you will find the necessary course books in addition to optional
cautionary devices designed to keep your well-being in the school.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts
Curious, Harry opened the next piece of parchment.
It contained the following:
- The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5 by Miranda Goshawk
- Charms and Hexes for the Defensively Advanced by Stewart Trimble
- Advanced Transfiguration: Harmful to Harmless by B.Z. Hardshall
- Sightseeing into the Future: What the Future will Bring by Lorenza Hokranky
- Defensive Strategies for the Arts by Quirk Skuria
- Meddling with Magic: The Worst that can Happen by Parania Corwady
- Sneakoscope (can be pocket or
full-size)
- Pendant on silver chain (pendant either circle, hexagon,
or rod shaped)
- See-through light (green level preferably)
Just as Harry was thinking ruefully that he didn't need
to worry about the Sneakoscope, since he already had one, Uncle Vernon's
furious voice came barging into his thoughts.
"Don't you come near me! Get off my phone! Call the authorities, Petunia!!"
Probably arguing with a wrong number, thought Harry. He
sighed and began to get dressed. This summer had been the same as all the
others. Harry had hoped that that maybe his relatives, the Dursleys,
would at least act civilly in his presence, considering that last year, he'd
escaped Lord Voldemort yet again, and paying with the life of a fellow
schoolmate, Cedric Diggory, during the Triwizard Tournament. He had been
wrong, there had been no change at all. Harry supposed it hadn't helped
at all that one morning, he had come downstairs and had found himself to be
looking down into Uncle Vernon's purple, squashy face. Well, it hadn't
been his fault that he'd grown. No reason for Uncle Vernon to spluttering
into the living room, where the sight of the renovations from last year didn't
help at all. Or that Pig, Ron's owl, had accidentally flown into Dudley's
room and created havoc in there.
That letter Pig had carried had been only the sixth, in
total, that he'd had from his best friends, Hermione and Ron, with a few from
Hagrid, Hogwarts' gamekeeper, all summer long. He hadn't felt like this
since his second year, when he'd found that Dobby the house elf had been
keeping his letters away from him.
At least, this time, Harry knew what was happening.
Taking Hermione's advice, he'd subscribed to the Daily Prophet, the
wizarding newspaper, and he'd found out that letters were being carefully
monitored, in case Voldemort intercepted one and it contained information that
he would benefit from. Now it seemed that Dumbledore was getting
paranoid, too, judging by the school letter.
Harry sighed again and went down to breakfast.
*
* *
Nirry woke up, sweating and coughing. What was
that smell? she wondered. Outside, she could hear shrill whinnies and
high-pitched laughter that sent chills down her spine. The horses!
She slipped on some shoes and ran down the stairs, where she could see the
faint outline of a strange, tall man in black robes, silhouetted against the
burning barn. Nirry gasped. Shadows of horses raced around, trying
to escape.
Then, the man turned. He grinned maniacly, and Nirry
could see his red pupils vibrating. She stood stock-still for a second, and
saw the man's long fingers reach inside his robes and withdraw a long stick of
wood.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he roared, but Nirry was already
on her way. As she ran, she could feel something besides her own hair
graze her face. She reached one of the horses lightning fast, and hauled
herself on somehow, trying to see through the fog that engulfed her mind.
She dug her heels in the horses' side, at the same time looking back and
gripping a slippery handful of mane. The man, or whatever he was, gave a
dismissive laugh and turned into the havoc, yelling to other robed figures in
the early morning dusk. As Nirry
dimly glimpsed the burning barn, she could see the evil silhouette of the man
disappear from view.
Nirry hoped it was a dream, all of it, because no normal
person would actually disappear. It felt real enough, though, while she
galloped along, the horse's fear adding to it's speed. She realized she
was sobbing, terrified, but all she could focus on was one thing: getting
away from the man.
Near dawn, the horse collapsed. Nirry fell,
still shaking, cold sweat on her forehead. She realized that she was near
the city of Ottawa in Canada, her hometown, not far from the horse stables she
stayed at during the summer when she got out of the orphanage's school.
"Calm down," she said, partly to the horse, who
lay, splay-legged, on the ground, and partly to herself. The poor horse's
side was still heaving, with rivulets of water running down the sides.
Now that Nirry was far from the man at the barn, she felt
calmer. She couldn't have put her finger on it, but there had been some
sense of terror, deep inside, that she had gotten while in contact with the
man.
She wondered what was happening to her. Lately, she
thought she was going insane. At the oddest moments, she would point to
an object and say bizarre words like, "Wingardium Leviosa,"
or "Accio." It frightened her. Even more
than that, sometimes she even thought the object would move. Maybe she
was hallucinating, too. Or she would stare at the photographs of her dead
parents and wonder fleetingly why they weren't waving at her in the
picture. And, most recently, she had opened a chocolate bar and
subconsciously looked for a card.
Nirry shook her head. "Insane," she
muttered. She got up, brushing leaves from her butt and coaxing the
dozing horse next to her to stand up.