Voldemort stood surrounded by death eaters. A small group of people in Deatheaters robes stood apart from the rest, but they had no masks. Harry didn't recognize them -he was becoming sickeningly familiar with Deatheaters- and many were young.

"You will serve me"

Various affirmations followed that pronouncement.

A bunch of muggles, young and old, were shoved in front of them.

"Prove your worth," he said gesturing, "Show me what you have learned."

The Death Eaters began showing off their skills. Screams rose in the air from the group of muggles, as the death eaters showed off their various curses, hexes, and spells. One soon-to-be Death Eater hesitated at the young man glaring in front of him, then shot a curse at the him. The young man doubled over and retched.

Voldemort was watching all this is a fond father would. He looked directly at the pair, judging. "Why did you use such a pathetic curse? Do you not want to show me your worth?"

The man cowered slightly, feeling sick, "Master, no, I-"

"I see. Do you not think that the muggles deserve what they get?"

"I-" He was dead before he could finish

"I have no need of week servants"

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Days later, when he got out of the hospital wing, Fred and George informed him and Ron about something. A party -for only 5th years on up. Harry was surprised to learn that this was not an unusual occurrence. They just didn't let the lower grades know about it, to stave off complaints.

It turns out that Fred and George were major organizers of them along with some cohorts from other Houses. That made sense, seeing as how those two would be very helpful in smuggling in what was needed for such a party.

In the end Harry didn't go -instead he went to see Dumbledore again. He told Ron and Hermione to go though, without him. They argued with him, noting the he really didn't look well, but in the end gave up; The decided that maybe the Headmaster could help him

McGonagall was in the office speaking to Dumbledore when he came in. The Headmaster looked at him and said "Harry, have a seat." As Harry complied Dumbledore asked, "More dreams?"

"Yes, sir. Nothing pressing though." Harry just wanted to fill the Headmaster in on what Voldemort had been doing recently. Well, not really WANT, so much as would, in case any information could be useful.

Dumbledore had a sorrowful look that said 'I doubt that' but turned back to Minerva. "Anything else?"

She didn't seem to agree with Harry hearing their conversation and looked disapproving. "Dreams?"

"Minerva, he already knows about he Order, and I believe I mentioned that he gets visions from the link in his scar."

She glanced at harry, no doubt considering what the visions were of. "The last thing I have to report is that Charlotte was successfully rescued. We would have lost her if not for Severus. She had just been through a torture session, with Frinze no less." She shuddered.

Dumbledore had a spark of anger in his face, "It is a very good thing, indeed, that we got her out." He let out a weary sigh. "How is she?"

"Better. We got her to Dr. Werdre, who said she would need several weeks of recovery before she would be up and about."

"Thank you Minerva." She turned to go, but paused when she saw Harry. Dumbledore was looking at him as well. "Harry?" he voice filled with concern. Perhaps he had made a mistake -the boy looked pale and shaken.

Harry came out of his reverie and realized that they were both looking at him. "I'm fine." Knowing that they would not accept that he added, "It's just -she mentioned Frinze -and, well, I've seen him."

Minerva gasped, "What?"

But Dumbledore understood -seen him in visions. The man's eyes closed briefly and he got up. He moved over to Harry, "Minerva, take him to his dorm, I think he needs some sleep.

"No, Sir, I really don't I could-" He really didn't think that he was going to sleep right now. Not to mention that sleep was when he GOT the visions.

"Never mind Minerva, I'll take care of it." She hesitatingly left, still aghast.

He led Harry to another room which turned out to be a bed room. "Professor, I really don't-" He was interrupted by the Headmaster, who gave him some sort of sleeping draught. He didn't dare not drink it, and soon fell unconscious."

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When Harry woke up the next day the Headmaster let him know that breakfast was going to start soon; He had to rush to the Gryffindor tower. Ron and Hermione had fallen asleep in the common room, and as late as it was, he had to wake *them* up.

From what he heard, the party was definitely a success.

Ron and Hermione had finally gotten together. They had been shouting at the party when 'the truth' had come out. Ginny told him that everyone there at the time had cheered, then promptly started laughing.

Harry could guess exactly how it happened. Ron was no doubt acting weird, trying to get his feeling out in a very inept way. Hermione got irritated and confused. Ron frustrated and mad. Hermione reciprocated.

They had questioned him about it, and he said he was fine with it -expecting it. In truth Harry was feeling a bit left out -a sort of third wheel. But only sometimes, and he was happy that they were happy.

Between Quidditch practice and prefect meetings, life moved on. Harry never forgot though, that Voldemort was still out there

************************************************************************

Care of Magical Creatures was less violent than usual. The new teacher filling in for Hagrid -professor Canton- was alright. Hermione was getting more anxious about the OWLs -even though it was still way to early for that. She took mounds of notes with every class; In HoM one day she had written five pages of them.

In DADA they were working on two spells. One was to slow down physical projectiles such as arrows so that you could dodge. Depending on your skill and power you might just be able to stop it altogether -she said that a couple wizards could even make it reverse direction.

The other was similar, but was instead meant to slow down a curse, and it was harder. These spells were hard to do it a battle because you only could slow one at a time, and most people couldn't slow a curse enough to make it worth while -they would just dodge.

In PD they were working on dodging. Soon they were going to work with swords, then they would work on throwing knives. Professor Kartis said that only some of them would end up doing it well.

The Daily Prophet had written about Fudge's growing problems with Dumbledore. There were rumors that he was going to try to get him removed as headmaster. Harry was afraid of that -if it happened there really would be no hope. Dumbledore was the only thing standing between Harry and Voldemort.

Harry made his way to the headmaster's office and said the password, 'Mars Bars,' which had been on a brief note handed to him earlier by a Ravenclaw student. When he came in the headmaster said "Ah, Harry." The headmaster offered him some candy, which he accepted.

"What do you need professor?"

"I've to let you listen in on the meeting tonight."

"Of the Order?" Harry was surprised.

"Yes -although not everyone there will be a member. I think that you deserve to know what is going on, even though I wish you didn't have to be troubled by Voldemort. The fact is, you will most likely be asked to join the Order at some point." He looked at Harry.

"And I would agree." He said this seriously.

"I thought you would. If Voldemort continues on this path, we will need everyone."

They moved into another, larger room and people began to arrive. They would greet Dumbledore then mill about waiting for the meeting to start. He noticed glances being shot his way, as they did not expect to see him there. A few people actually greeted Harry, he responded politely.

One person said, somewhat rudely, "What business do you have being here?"

"Well correct me if I'm wrong, but you all are here to plot the downfall of the man trying to murder me, right?"

He recognized most of his teachers, plus Moody and Arabella. A couple people were obviously foreign. Finally Lupin and Sirius showed up. Lupin raised his eyebrows at Dumbledor when he saw Harry, then followed Sirius over to Harry.

"Hello Harry, how are your classes?" Lupin would ask that.

Harry hugged Sirius and responded, "They are pretty much the same as usual." -He resisted adding professor, as Remus had asked him not to call him that. Repeatedly.

"Which means boring," added Sirius.

"Which doesn't mean you should torment your teachers." Lupin eyed Sirius pointedly.

"You mean there are other ways to entertain oneself?!" Sirius looked shocked.

Lupin rolled his eyes.

As they sat down by Harry he noticed that Snape had come in and was glaring in their direction. Harry just looked at him. The dark professor stalked over to a seat on the other side of the room.

They started off with reports from various people. Fudge was still denying the truth -and had started blaming some attacks on Sirius. At this Sirius growled and Snape smirked. Harry was extremely nonplussed. Sirius was innocent, and Fudge was just looking for a scapegoat.

Voldemort was gathering dark creatures as allies. Recruiting Deatheaters. The dementors were just waiting for his word. They were working on getting the elves to consider offering their aid to the Order -they had been hurt in the last rise of Voldemort.

Karkaroff was no longer among the living.

"There has been no word from Charteroy- he was investing You- Voldemort's activities in France." A man with brown hair was reporting.

At this point a voice heretofore silent spoke up. "Was he tall and blond?"

No one answered. Harry looked at Dumbledore who could see something in his eyes.

"Yes, Harry," he responded.

"And did he have a tattoo of a snake on his left arm?"

"Yeeesss.." This came from another, who obviously didn't see where this was going.

"Then he's dead." Harry pronounced, looking at the man, then at the floor. He remembered a dream -vaguely- where someone had said the name.

People glanced at Dumbledore who only said, "I see." The twinkle was not there, as it hadn't been hard to figure out how Harry had known.

Some time later when everyone started to leave Sirius and Remus stayed behind. "Harry?" Sirius had that familiar look of concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine Sirius, Remus. Really. I'm glad I was allowed to listen," he added this with a nod at Dumbledore.

"You know we care about you, right?"

Harry looked from Remus, to Sirius, to Dumbledore. "I appreciate that, but there is really nothing you can do about the visions."

Sirius sighed.

Into the silence Remus said, "Well, It's time to go Padfoot. You need sleep -if you looked anymore like a skeleton you'd scare children."

"He doesn't already?" Harry put in.

A smile formed on his face. "Alright Moony. Harry"- they hugged -write me if anything happens."

"As if I'd get away with not doing so." Harry smiled slightly.

"Believe it." He disappeared into the fire.

"Harry stared at the fire then turned to Dumbledore who was scrutinizing him

"Why do I see deatheaters? -Voldemort is not always there, so why do I see them?" This was something he had been wondering about for a while.

"The dark mark. He infuses a part of himself into it." He continued looked at Harry, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Go to your dorm and try to get some sleep Harry -your friends will want to know that nothing dire happened to you."

With a genuine smile Harry responded. "Yes Professor. Ron and Hermione probably fell asleep by the fire waiting for me."

Which they had, but he didn't wake them up -instead falling asleep in a chair beside them.