A/N: Hi everyone, my name's Selene and this is my first story… wel, actually it isn't my first story, but it's the first one I've translated into English, and it's the first one I've put on fanfiction.net (well… even that's not really true, there's still the story I wrote with my friend… but well, that's not an English story so I won't bother you with that one)

I know I had already put this story on ff.net, but with the help of my fantastic beta-reader Erin it's now much, much better... thank you, Erin!

Well, this is the first part, the prologue, and I know it's very short but I haven't translated any further and I just wanted to post this… well, I hope you'll like it, please read&review, and… ummm… that's it! My first English A/N ;-)

Disclaimer: All the persons, Hogwarts, and most of the other stuff belongs to J. K. Rowlings, of course… but there are a few things that are mine… and the most important thing (as you will find out) is 'The Power of Crows'… it's of course inspirated on a lot of things I've read and heard, but it still is mine :-p

Oops, nearly forgotten… the rating is PG-13 for some violence and… well, that sort of stuff. I forgot a lot of things, don't I? ;-)

Prologue: Dream

 He was somewhere above the Great Hall, looking down at the two people below who didn't seem to notice that he was there. Maybe he was invisible. If he could fly, he could surely make himself invisible.

He thought a bit longer and realized that he was dreaming all about what happened down there, where a small boy stood in front of a tall person. The small boy was dressed in black and had a black mask on. The dreamer knew this was the sort of clothes Death Eaters wore. Why would a boy in Hogwarts wear the clothes of a Death Eater?

The dreamer looked at the tall person, and saw that he wore the same clothes as the boy. So there was another Death Eater in Hogwarts. Should he warn someone? The dreamer wanted to call for somebody, but he decided against it. He wanted to see what would happen.

"Are you ready to become one of us?" asked the tall person with a high-pitched, ice-cold voice. It looked like the small boy raised his head, but the dreamer couldn't see it very well. And then the boy spoke, with a clear voice.

"Why? What will you do to me if I refuse?"

"You still feel safe, but you aren't. I follow you everywhere, I kill and torture around you, until it isn't safe for you to love anyone anymore. Your seventeenth year will be one of terror. You'll be uncertain. You'll fear. Fear for the Power of the Crows, who will follow you around with their messages. Be warned, Harry Potter. You can't escape."

Now the boy stripped his arm and the tall person took his naked arm. The person pressed his fingers against the boy's arm and suddenly the dreamer was the boy, and he felt pain when a mark was burnt in his arm. He was Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the dreamer… the Death Eater.

***

Harry Potter woke with a shock, and his first reflex was to grab his arm. The arm that hurt, that arm would have an everlasting mark on it. A mark that made him something terrible, something he didn't want to be, but he couldn't escape any more…

"But my arm doesn't hurt!" said Harry aloud, to lose the thoughts of the dream. He wasn't the dreamer, he wasn't that twelve-year-old Harry Potter any more, and he certainly wasn't a Death Eater. So his arm didn't hurt, it couldn't be hurting, not from a dream. His scar didn't even hurt.

He turned around so he could see his room by the early sunlight that came inthrough the open window. It was a beautiful room, with his books in a bookcase, a table with rolls of parchment, his Firebolt VP2 in a corner, a photo of himself with Ron and Hermione, a photo of Cho (though he should really throw that one away: she had dumped him a few weeks ago and he didn't want to think about her any more.) A very normal room for a young wizard who would start his seventh Hogwarts year the day after tomorrow… no, tomorrow already!

Finally he had a normal room… the previous year he, Dumbledore, Lupin and a lot of others had worked hard to convict Wormtail. They chased after him. Wormtail was caught and sent to Azkaban for the rest of his life. Finally, Harry could go and live with Sirius, who had had his name cleared and now had a good job at the Ministry. The day he had heard he could leave the Dursleys was one of the best of his life. It was nice to live with Sirius. They were friends,in a way, although sometimes Sirius seemed to forget Harry was old enough to take care of himself.

Suddenly, Harry noticed that something was missing. Where was Hedwig? She hunted every night, but usually early and when he woke up in the morning, she was always there. Now, however, she was nowhere to be found, making him wonder where she could be. He hadn't sent a letter yesterday evening, and she hardly ever brought him letters from other people.

A bit worried, he called, "Hedwig!" through the cold morning air. Nothing.

"Hedwig?! Are you somewhere around here? Come back!" Nothing.

Well, she would come back if she wanted to. He didn't want to keep her caged, as he had to do when he still lived with the Dursleys, so he didn't worry too much.

***