Chapter XV: Shadow

Harry woke up.  He had just had the most unusual dream: Snape confronted the shadowy figure that had haunted him since Christmas.  'Master knows of your double-crossing, Snape.'

            'And why are you telling me?'

            'Because you are going to share the fate of Albus Dumbledore.' Snape knew what this would mean.

Harry went to Lavender Brown (He still didn't trust Trelawney) and had his dream read.  'Harry, this shows a moment in Snape's life, ten days before he died. Do you have any idea at all who the shadowy figure is?  It's probably the person inside Hogwarts that you are trying to find.'

            'No, I've already told you.'

            'That's very annoying.  Tell me if you can think of anything else.'

            'Sure.'  This was exactly what Trelawney had said.  That would probably mean that the dream was real.  Harry still had no better answers for the two of them, and that could pose a real problem, since Voldemort was prone to attacking in about two months from now.

Harry still had no ideas as to what the puzzle meant.  If Dumbledore knew who the Death Eater is, he certainly wasn't showing it.  Dumbledore had remained silent since Harry had given him the clues that Snape sent him.

'Hex… Hex… Hex…' Harry couldn't work out the only clue apart from the letters that were included in the letters.  'The Death Eater is…'

***

'Well done, you have successfully proven yourself.'

            'Thank you Master.  What is my next assignment?'

            'I will tell you later.'  Lord Voldemort's head disappeared from the fireplace, and the figure left the room.

***

One day, early in March, Harry woke up feeling better than he had since school had started, and the lessons began to match them.  Sirius was lapsing back to easier potions, and Lupin had been teaching them Hexes that Harry learned for the Triwizard Tournament.  Dumbledore gave him his best news yet.  'Harry, we have more administration work to do, so we are going to rearrange the Quidditch Tournament.  You have one week before the final Quidditch Match.  If there is a lockout between you and Slytherin or Ravenclaw, the Final will occur on the last day of April.' Harry went to the team to share in the good news, and in half an hour, the entire Gryffindor team was training harder than ever.

Harry's track record against Hufflepuff was his worst: One loss off One Game.  Harry hadn't bothered about going to their matches: He felt he could do well without knowing their seeker and his (or her) tactics.  He found out the line-up two days before the match.  In position of seeker was…

***

'You need to clear me a path to Dumbledore on the last day of School.'

            'Is that all, Master?' The shadowy figure was standing next to Lucius Malfoy.

            'No.  We will need to cause some sort of horrific injury to You-know-who so that he can't retaliate, preferably in a Quidditch sort of way: I'd love that to be his downfall!'

            'Yes, if that is what you wish, Master.'  The shadowy figure disappeared.

***

Harry woke up.  He must have dozed off before he finished reading the Hufflepuff line-up.  In seeker was Ernie McMillan.  The two of them went a long way, with Ernie always blaming Harry on something that had to do with a Hufflepuff student.

Hermione came up with the 'Bad' news the next day,  'Exams are cancelled.  For us anyway.' She looked like she always did in situations like this.

            'So?'

            'I studied the hardest I ever had for these.  I wanted to leave a good impression on Sirius so that I'll get a better NEWT score next year.'

            'That's Hermione.' Ron and Harry said in unison.

***

A/N: Oh, no!  Another short and slightly pathetic chapter, Clocking in at 622 words, however about ten minutes ago I was looking at about 300, so I can hardly complain.

This weeks accolade: Our BETA tester, Lily Evans, managed to work out who our Death Eater is.  But that doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you.  If you have any ideas as to who our man is, then e-mail me at chrisjrn@bigpond.com and I will personally reply.

Now to the extremely annoying cliffhanger process: Who is the Shadowy Figure? Will Gryffindor end up in a lockout?  Only time will tell.

Oh, and before we finish, a note from our BETA reader, Lily Evans!

B/N: Hi guys! Yes, I got it! The person is… (Yeah, like I'd tell you!) I GOT IT! Just thought I'd put that out there. Sanity is overrated, anyway! I've had lots of sugar and it's almost midnight. Can't you tell? Yeah.
A/N: Sorry!  I've been having trouble with this chapter – This is the fourth time I've uploaded it! So let's try this again!