The moon was full and the trees were not the only things casting shadows in the forest. A gathering of Death Eaters had congregated deep into the mass of trees. A tall figure made it's way to the front of the group and made himself known by clearing his throat. The voices became quiet and the tall one spoke.

"I have called this meeting in response to some of your questions. It is true, one of us has attempted finding the one thing that could bring our Dark Lord back." There was a pause in which you could hear fabric being moved from all the heads turning, trying to figure out who it was.

"Malfoy, if you are present, make yourself known." There was another few seconds of mumbled silence until a deep, powerful voice was heard from the back.

"Present, sir." An arm and hand, covered in solid black cloth was raised in the air as he made his way forward, nose stuck up in the air.

"Ah, Malfoy. Tell us all, did you succeed?"

"No, sir." There was an orchestra of gasps.

"And pray tell, what kept you from finding it?"

"The house collapsed, sir" The tall black figure turned around to face Lucius Malfoy.

"The..house..collapsed? How does a house just..collapse?"

Lucius stood taller and now he even looked taller than the black figure.

"I don't know, sir."

"What did you say?"

Lucius raised his voice. "I don't know, sir."

The tall figure nodded and spread his feet a shoulder width apart and put his right hand inside the left side of his robe.

"That's what I thought you said." With those words the dark figure pulled his right hand out of his robe with his wand, pointed it right at Malfoy and said in a calm voice, like the many times he did before.

"Crucio" A smile formed on the hidden faces of the Death Eaters as they watched Lucius Malfoy, quiver into a ball of pain.

********

For some odd reason, Harry couldn't get the dream he had a few nights ago out of his head. He had the dream the night Hermione sent his owl with her 'chicken scratch' letter, saying she was in trouble. At the time, he didn't think that his dream meant much, but the more he thought, the bigger the sinking feeling in his stomach made itself known and the more his scar started to sting. His dream had shown him a house. One big tree resided in the front yard; big enough to tie a tire swing on. The front door was busted in and there were a few screams heard from the inside. He looked around and saw, standing next to him, a boy, no taller than he was, watching. Harry went to say something, but the boy put a finger up to his lips and looked at one of the upstairs windows. As Harry turned his head to look, he saw a black figure moving about in one of the rooms. It was then he saw the boy standing next to him, pull out his wand and point it at the house; muttering a charm that made the house collapse. The boy vanished, as did his dream and he awoke to find himself in a puddle of sweat and sheets. He went to the window in his room and rested his head on the bars. He had no idea how he was going to get out this time…maybe he should just break the rules and apparate to Hogwarts. He was sure Professor Dumbledore would understand. He looked at the loose floorboard that was by his bed and bit his lip. He had hid his wand in there in the beginning of the summer, along with his Transfiguration book, parchment and a quill. The Dursley's, being the Muggles they were, believed that the stick that Harry had transfigured to look like a wand, was his. After they took Harry's wand, they hid it. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if they had snapped it in half. It had been two days since his last meal and the house sounded deserted. He hadn't heard the loud noises of Dudley in the room next to his, or the clatter of plates coming from the kitchen, downstairs.

He moved the floorboard and took his wand. He didn't want to do it, but he had to. He moved towards the bedroom door and put his wand up to it, but brought it down because he heard some voices on the outside of the door. He pressed his ear up to the door and noticed that it wasn't a voice he had heard before; Not as squeaky as Aunt Petunia's, not as sharp as Uncle Vernon's and definitely not as rude as Dudley's. He stepped back from the door and arched an eyebrow, he held his wand out, ready for anything. As soon as the door burst open he said the first thing that came to his mind..

"Patrificus Totalus!" His face changed from confusion to worry to fear as he saw who he had just petrified.

*******

"Ms. Granger? Ms. Granger, wake up." Snape was gently shaking Hermione's shoulder as she slept on the couch, slowly her eyes fluttered open and allowed a smile to set in as she looked back into the face of her potions professor.

"Yes Professor?" Her voice was still quiet from the little hours of sleep she received.

"Ms. Granger, I need you to sit up. We need to go to Potter's house. I'm afraid that something might of happened to him or his family."

Hermione laughed a little bit and Snape growled.

"I'm sorry Professor, but I got the impression that you didn't like Harry."

Snape sighed and stood up from kneeling on the floor, Hermione followed suit.

"I may not like him, but I can't afford to have him hurt in any way. Now if you will quickly get ready, we shall be off."

Hermione nodded. She still didn't remember a lot about Harry, just the little stuff…his scar…his laugh…his kiss…wait! Kiss? They never kissed…that one time after fourth year, but that was a friendly kiss…this kiss she remembered wasn't one on the cheek…was Professor Snape forgetting to tell her something? She sighed and shook her head, then left to get ready.

Not more than fifteen minuets later and Hermione met Snape at the bottom of his staircase. He led her over to the fireplace and pointed to a flowerpot that was mounted to the side of the mantle.

"Do you remember how to use this?"

Hermione walked over to the pot and looked inside, she took a sniff of it and sneezed, sending a light dusting of Floo Powder through the air. Snape chuckled lightly and shook his head.

"If you may, Ms. Granger..I would like to keep all the floo powder I have. It's like this, take a handful, walk into the fireplace, say 'Harry Potter' then you throw the dust down and just hang on until you come to a complete stop. Do I make myself clear?"

Hermione nodded, eying the floo powder cautiously.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Take a handful"

Hermione nodded, took a handful of floo powder, stepped into the fireplace and said 'Harry Potter.' She threw the powder down and felt a pulling behind her belly button that sent her flying backwards, soon she landed in a living room, it was small and everything was white, she quickly stood up and stepped away from the fireplace, looking at the grey spot that was left on the carpet from where she landed. It was clear that the Dursley's hadn't had their flu cleaned for a while. There was a loud noise and soon Professor Snape was standing behind her, guiding her along.

"Let's try upstairs." He said. Hermione nodded and they took for the stairs, stopping in front of the first door that had locks on it. Snape felt his robes, Hermione stood and watched. Soon enough, Snape was pulling his wand out of his robes and held it up to the door, in a light whisper, he spoke.

"Alohomora" The locks clicked open and fell off. Hermione wasn't shocked to see that happen, but she sure wasn't expecting it. Snape took the door handle in his hand and gave it a twist, it opened, but it opened to a very shocked boy. Hermione watched as the potions professor froze up and almost fell over if she hadn't ran behind him to hold him up.

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed as he ran behind Snape to help her. They got him lying down on the floor before Harry pulled out his wand again. He secretly wished to Merlin that Snape wouldn't be too harsh with his punishment for hexing a teacher.

"Infinite Incantatem" Hermione and Harry watched as Professor Snape 'melted' and blinked. He sat up and glared at Harry, who was biting his lip and backing up.

"H-h-hullo, Professor Snape." Harry held out a shaking hand to help him up, but Snape huffed at it and pushed himself up.

"Be lucky that I will let that one slide. Right now we need to get you out, where's your things?"

*******I'm soooooo sorry, again, for not updating sooner. I hope you liked this chapter, this one just seemed to float out of my fingers and guess what!?! I finally made a plot up for this story now! I'm really excited. Well, Christmas break starts officially for me today, so I might not be able to write anymore for a few weeks. Until then, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!*******