Author's Note: I'm sorry the update took a little longer then I wanted it to, but I had a lot of work to do and some exams that need studying for. Now that, that horror is over, I can get back to updating once or twice a week! Special thanks to the people that reviewed, especially Blue Eyes, my very first reviewer! Please read and review!
Chapter 3:
~We're Back~
With the swishing of cloaks, he blinked and was surrounded by men, if you use that term loosely, men wearing long, black cloaks. The hooded figures were completely covered. You could just make out the whites of their eyes.
He glanced up towards the sky, expecting great black darkness. Instead the sky was blood red. A voice passed by him.
"You killed me, you deserve to die" Harry looked around wildly trying to find the owner of the voice. It seemed to coming at him from every direction. The redness of the sky, combined with the swirling voices made him a little nauseous.
"You did Harry, you killed me. You deserve to die." Harry shut his eyes trying to block out the horrors of the night, but they kept flooding through his senses. His eyes opened as if a force was pulling them. He was forced to see what happen next. Cedric was lying there before him, looking as Harry last saw him. His deadly cold stare glared at Harry without really seeing him.
"Crucio!" a voice whispered, it came from on of the men in the long dark robes. Cedric began twitching, violently shaking back and forth. His mouth opened in a scream, but no sound came out. Harry tried to look away but couldn't. 'I didn't mean to. I-didn't-mean-to. Ididn'tmeanto…'
***
Harry awoke shaking, soaked with sweat and his scar burning like fire. Harry glanced over at Ron's bed. A snoring orange lump met his eyes. He shook his head to erase the images in his head but couldn't. Flashes of Cedric and Voldemort, well, the man who he thought was Voldemort, kept going through his mind. Deciding to take a walk, Harry pulled off his covers and climbed out of his bed. Determined to get a glass of milk without waking the family ghoul up, then the ghoul waking the family up, Harry tiptoed downstairs towards the kitchen.
As he walked outside, he headed towards his favourite grassy knoll, Harry noticed a redhead already sitting there. He walked up to her and sat down.
"Hello Ginny," Harry greeted, "what are you doing up here this late?"
Ginny glanced at Harry, looked down at the ground and sighed. "Thinking. We're going back to Hogwarts in two days, I wish it were tomorrow, but in a way, I have a bad feeling about this year."
Harry glanced at Ginny surprised. After last year and the years before that, the adventures during the year were becoming almost a routine.
"Ginny," he said looking at her directly too her eyes. " Nothing will happen to you this year, I promise."
She blushed, looking down towards her knees. Every since Harry came to the Burrow, Ginny's feelings for him grew.
Maybe it was the fact that she could handle a conversation with him without turning bright red and scurrying away in the opposite direction.
"Why are you being so nice?" she asked him.
"I don't know, it's a talent." He joked.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the clear stone Hagrid had given him for his birthday. He had a hole drilled in it when they went to Diagon Alley, at a shop called Magical Gems, Jewels and Monies. In the shop, he had looked in countless amounts of books trying to find what the stone was. He had only found what the multi-colours meant. Luck. The weight had disappeared; it now was no weight at all. He had slipped a cord through it, creating a necklace. He decided that with the worrying that Ginny was doing, she needed it more than him. He held it up, the moonlight reflecting the stone.
"Here, it brings luck. In everything." Harry said quietly. "Remember the amulet that you gave me for my birthday? The one that you said you have to have faith in? How does it work?"
Ginny took the necklace from him. It changed from all different colours, to a pale emerald green, as soon as it touched her hand. She looked at him, her eyes wide in surprise.
"Harry- I can't- umm- accept this." She stammered.
He laughed, "Of course you can, I'm giving it to you." She was about to protest, when he held his hand up. "I insist. Now, can you please tell me how the amulet works?"
Ginny looked at him, still surprised at the gift he had given her. "The amulet, works only for those Pure of Heart. It helps only those brave enough, strong enough, and wise enough." She looked thoughtful. "It is a very picky amulet."
Harry glanced at her, doubt filling his face. What she just said was a lot to live up too. "Ginny, how do you expect this thing to help me? If it only works for those brave, strong and wise enough, how will it work for me?" He pulled the amulet out of his shirt. Ginny smiled.
"Harry, it will work for you."
"How can you be sure?" He looked in the direction she was looking, at the amulet.
"It wouldn't have let you place it around you neck otherwise."
***
"What do you mean the medallion can not be found? It is essential to my plan…. You must look harder. Do not disappoint me again Nagini…"
"Yesssss.. masssster.. I will do my besssst….."
***
As Harry, the Weasleys, and Hermione, walked through King's Cross on September 1st, almost everybody was in a foul mood. Five of Fred's no-heat fireworks blew up in his trunk. Ron and George were complaining of lack of sleep. And Mrs. Weasleys was in a frenzy trying to get everyone organized. But they all made it safely to the train station, socks and robes packed (Fred's singed and still smoking slightly), wands in their pockets, and everybody's stomach full. They went through the barrier in pairs, to not arouse suspicions from the muggles.
Harry, Hermione and Ron all boarded the train and search for an empty compartment. Finding one at the back, the settled in it. Ron and Hermione on one side Harry on the other. Ron and Harry were busy conversing how they can get Malfoy in trouble, Hermione was just listening, amused, when they heard on knock on the door. Malfoy and his two bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle, each flanking on either side of him, filled the doorway.
"Speak of the devil!" Ron exclaimed, snickering.
"Well, well, well if it isn't scarhead, and his little friends," Malfoy sneered.
"Get lost Malfoy! Unless you feel like being a ferret again." Harry retorted.
"You better watch it Potter, this year the unexpected will happen, you better watch your back." With a final sneer Malfoy and his massive end pieces vanished down the corridor.
"I can't stand him, some day I'll-" Ron continued on with a variety of words, that if Mrs.Weasley heard, Ron wouldn't be allowed out of the house until he was sixty-three.
"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.
Ron was about to retort when he was cut off, by a knocking on the door.
"If that's Malfoy again-" A cuff on the head by Hermione cut him off a second time. Ron just glared at her. Red curls poked their way through the crack in the door. Then, Ginny's head came into view.
"Hey, can I sit with you guys? I really don't feel like sitting with Jen right now, she keeps babbling on about Seamus."
She said with a roll of her eyes. Jen, being her best friend, who told her every thing, loved to talk about boys, every week the boy changed, so the conversation was never boring. Although, her jabbering on did seem endless, sometimes, well, most of the time.
"Sure, have a seat." Harry slid over so Ginny could sit beside him.
"Thanks," Ginny mumbled as she sat down beside him. Ron watched the two narrowing his eyes. As much as he trusted Harry, he wasn't sure if he trusted him with his younger sister. Hermione, seeing the eye narrowing, elbowed him and gave him a look that made him swallow, and change the subject.
"So, who's going to be the new Gryffindor Keeper?"
***
Voldemort swirled around in his chair. His chin resting thoughtfully in his palm. Harry Potter. That boy has ruined a countless number of his plans. But now, he was back stronger than ever, but still, able to defeat. That is why he needed that medallion. It enhanced the power of a wizard enormously. The problem was, the medallion only let those it liked to use its power. It would take powerful magic to confound it, to let himself use it. If only, he could find it……………
***
"Oi, Harry, o'er 'ere!" Hagrid's voice boomed over the loud din of the students. As Hagrid caught sight of Harry, his jaw dropped. The boy must have grow nearly half a foot over the summer, he was nearly as tall as Ron. As the youth came closer to him, Hagrid clasped him in a warm hug.
"It's great to see you again Hagrid! Thanks for the letters and the birthday present."
"Aww, it was nothin', you deserve it." Hagrid grinned.
Harry was about to ask him exactly what the stone did when Hagrid turned away and started yelling.
"Firs' years, o'er here, Firs' years!"
Harry decided to ask him after the feast about the stone, when he wasn't as busy. As the swarm of students made their way up into the great hall, Harry was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around and looked into the twinkling eyes of Professor Dumbledore. Puzzled, Harry followed him, motioning to his friends to go on. He quietly followed in Dumbledore's footsteps, not a word spoken between them. Down halls and up stairwells, Harry followed silently. Finally, they stopped in front of the familiar gargoyle.
"Sugar Quill" Dumbledore said, finally breaking the deafening silence. The gargoyle sprang to life and allowed Harry and Dumbledore to enter. Up the final stairway to Dumbledore's office, Harry opened his mouth to ask a question, but before he could get any sound to come out, Dumbledore held up his hand to silence him. They reached the office door and pushed it open. Harry glanced in the room and collapsed in a dead faint.
***
"Harry, Harry.." a voice loomed overhead. He awoke looking in the concerned eyes of his godfather. "Harry, are you okay?"
Sirius glanced at Dumbledore, worry swirling in his eyes. Why had Harry fainted?
"Harry, are you okay?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry pulled himself up on his elbows. Glancing around the room in confusion, he could have sworn he had seen Voldemort standing there with Cedric, laughing wickedly. Then a burst of pain hit his forehead, and the next thing he knew, he was on the floor. 'What the hell is going on…..