A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Okay, so here's the scoop. I lied just a tiny winy bit. In this chapter they're not quite at Hogwarts like I said, but they're getting closer! You'll just have to wait till the next chapter for Hogwarts, but don't worry, I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve. Continue to R/R please!

Special thanks to:

Saya-Sato's continuing critiques. After all, it is near impossible for a writer to critique his/her own work. BTW, I did go back and edit the dream sequence from chapter five using your advice. I'm very much obliged. I never realized how many times I used Dudley until I read your comment. Thank you!

Shinigami06 for being a loyal reader of my story and taking the time to review each chapter. :)

Chapter 7

            They arrived at the Burrow by early evening. Ginny, George, and Fred were all happy to see Lightning's return while Hermione and Ron were starting to like Lightning less and less. Lightning's nervousness in the car became more pronounced on the drive home when Lightning had become carsick in the back seat. To put it lightly, none of the occupants were that happy about Lightning's presence.

            The Weasleys', Harry, and Hermione hung out in the living room while Mrs. Weasley made dinner. Away from Mr. Weasley's ears, Harry told the rest of the Weasleys' and Hermione about his dream. All seemed to have the same horrified reaction as Ron except for Fred and George.

            "The fat prat has had it coming to him," George said shaking the dream off.

            "Yeah," Fred agreed. "It's just too bad that the dream wasn't real."

            "The whole dream wasn't about me torturing Dudley, though. It seemed as if I was torturing myself at the same time. It's hard to explain," Harry said.

            "Harry doesn't want to kill his cousin," Hermione said. "Cause if that were true, he would have left him to the dementors kiss last year."

            "Well, unless this is another one of your visions, Harry, I don't think that this is anything to worry about," George said.

            Harry's brow furrowed. "I don't think it is, that is to say, it doesn't follow the pattern of my other visions, but I can't say for sure."

            Fred looked like he was going to say something more, but Mrs. Weasley's call for dinner interrupted him. A few minutes later, everyone was seated around the dinner table as Lightning ate his dinner happily from his bowl. When Lightning was finished he crawled under the table and lay down by Harry's feet.

            Harry just picked at the roasted chicken on his plate. He wasn't very hungry and it actually was beginning to show. His extravagant meals at the Dursleys' and at the Burrow were getting nothing but nibbles at a time causing both his shirts and his pants to become looser around his body. He fed some of his chicken to Lightning to make it look like he'd eaten more than he really had. He excused himself and headed upstairs claiming to be tired. Lightning trotted up the stairs behind him.

            What Hermione had said about Dudley and the dementors really got to him. Why had he been so eager to save and protect Dudley? He could have easily just run away from the situation and left Dudley to save his own skin. After all, Dudley had abused Harry for fifteen years and he had wanted so much to jinx and hex him since he had found out he had magical powers just to make Dudley's life as miserable as he had made Harry's. But Harry couldn't see himself killing the Dursleys' as much as he hated them. He couldn't even see himself performing an Unforgivable Curse on any of them.

            Harry pondered on this and realized that the Dursleys' mean and unkind attitudes were child's play. They were negative about magic for being something they didn't understand and therefore didn't want to exist. The real people who deserved to be tortured were Voldemort's Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. They were more than unkind in nature. They killed and tortured for the pure fun of it. Harry felt his hand ball into a fist as he thought of Bellatrix Lestrange, Wormtail, and Voldemort, the three wizards and witches who had single-handedly ruined his life.

            Harry reached over and brought out the pensieve once again, determined not to dream again about Dudley. After taking out his wand he removed the dream from his head and placed it inside the pensieve. He then took off his glasses and climbed into bed. Surprisingly, he fell asleep quickly, but it wasn't a peaceful sleep. The voices of Harry's past haunted him that night to form recurring images of his past.

            "Kill the spare."

"Not Harry! Please…have mercy…have mercy…."

"You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father. A Muggle and a fool…very like your dear mother."

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Bow to death, Harry."

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off—"

"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!"

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

" Stand aside you silly girl…stand aside, now…."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead—"

Harry awoke early morning, sweating, as his hatred at Voldemort grew when he remembered his parents' pitiful pleas and Voldemort's merciless stature the night of their death. Remnants of Voldemort's conversation the night of the Triwizard tournament also crept into Harry's subconscious. After that, Harry refused to return to sleep. His dreams were as merciless as his consciousness that continually gave him grief in some form or another.

Harry remained quiet for the rest of the week. He only responded when he was spoken too, and continued to eat very little during meals. This did not go unnoticed by the rest of the family, and numerous attempts had been made to try and brighten Harry's spirits, but nothing they did seemed to reach him. Even Lightning began to become less enthusiastic about things such as eating. Dark shadows began to appear under his eyes, reflecting the relentless nightmares that haunted his dreams all of which were placed in his pensieve the next morning.

About a week before school was to start, the Weasleys' (with the exception of Fred and George) received their Hogwarts letters and the results of their O.W.L.S. Hermione ripped open her letter, throwing the school supplies parchment to the floor as she skimmed the results of her O.W.L.S. Hermione scanned the list until she reached one topic where her eyes seemed to burn a hole into the paper.

"No, that's not fair!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What?" Ron asked, not as eager to open his letter as Hermione.

"I got an 'E' in Astronomy!" Hermione said outraged. "They should have curved the grade down! After all, the whole class was distracted by what that oaf Umbridge was doing to Hagrid and Professor McGonagall!"

Ron gave Harry a knowing look. "And how many O.W.L.S. did you get total, Hermione?"

"Nine, but that's not the point. It's the injustice of giving every student a lower grade then they deserve because they were distracted during their exam!" Hermione argued.

Ron's mouth dropped open. "You passed all of your other exams and your complaining about one little 'E'?"

"I never said I didn't get any other 'E's' Ron Weasley," Hermione huffed.

Ron raised an eyebrow. "Well did you?"

"No," Hermione relented. "But I told you, that's not the point. It's the injustice of the thing."

"Right," Ron said as he began to open his letter. His face was not as excited by his results.

"Your O.W.L.S. are wonderful, Hermione! How many O.W.L.S. did you get, Ron?" Mrs. Weasley asked after hearing the conversation between Ron and Hermione.

"Five," he whispered, not really knowing how is mother would react.

Mrs. Weasley smiled. "That's great, Ron!" Mrs. Weasley enthused.

"More than we thought you were going to get," Fred said.

"I would be careful what you say, Frederick Weasley," Mrs. Weasley threatened. "He impressed me on his O.W.L.S. more than you two did."

George shrugged. "As we said, Mum, academics had little to do with our planned career. I think we did good in the subjects we needed to succeed."

"What were yours in, Ron?" Hermione asked. Ron knew that she was just trying to prove a point about Astronomy, but he told her anyway.

"I got an "O" in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures. And 'E's' in Charms, Herbology, and Transfiguration," Ron said.

"And Astronomy?" Hermione asked.

"I got an 'A'."

"See that could have been an 'E' if our testing had gone without interruption," Hermione said in triumph. "What about you Harry? What did you get O.W.L.S. in?"

Harry opened up his paper and read the top of his paper before proceeding to his scores.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that we have the results to your fifth year O.W.L.S. at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We apologize for the delay in sending you these results but actions beyond our control of caused a slight setback in our normal grading process. We are delighted to inform you that you have received 'O's' and 'E's' on the following six subjects that will qualify you to test for your N.E.W.T.S. in your seventh year. Below are the grades you obtained in your remaining subjects. Congratulations!

Sincerely,

Gretchen Portwallow

DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL TESTING

Ministry of Magic

Harry smiled bitterly knowing that the "actions beyond our control" had to be the rise of Voldemort. His eyes continued past the paragraph and down to his scores. The "O's" he got were in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Care of Magical Creatures. To his surprise, his "E's" were in Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, and Potions. If only Snape could see his grades. He would absolutely flip.

Harry looked up and saw everyone waiting expectantly. Harry told them his results and Mrs. Weasley beamed proudly as if Harry was her own son. "That's excellent, Harry!"

"And what did you get in Astronomy?" Hermione asked.

Harry looked at the grade nonchalantly. "A 'P'." Hermione smiled knowing that she had proved her point. Harry's Divination grade was a "P" as well, but his History grade remained a surprising "A."

"This is a just cause for celebration, I think!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"How does a spending spree at Diagon Alley sound?" Mrs. Weasley asked. Everyone cheered in agreement.

Harry cheered along with them, but would of opted out had he another way of obtaining his textbooks. He wasn't in a celebrating mood. He was happy with his O.W.L.S but his sadness over his titled dreams was not succumbed. He'd rather just curl up with his new Quidditch book and flip through the pictures, for he found it impossible to concentrate on the words written below the featured photographs.

Ginny and Hermione ran upstairs to change while the boys and Mrs. Weasley waited impatiently by the fireplace. Once they were ready, they used Floo powder to travel to Diagon Alley. After quick school shopping they all headed to Fred and George's joke shop where they allowed their friends to pick up a few of their new products.

As the sun began to disappear behind the clouds, the Weasleys' decided it was time to head back to the Burrow. They arrived home in a blink of an eye, surprised to find Mr. Weasley pacing anxiously by the fireplace.

"Arthur? What's wrong?" Mrs. Weasley asked. Mr. Weasley glanced at Harry and the others and sighed.

"You're all going to find out anyway, I suppose. The reports are in, Molly. The giants have left the mountains." Mrs. Weasley gasped.

Harry looked back and forth between the two. He knew of course, that this was bad, but he didn't know how bad. "What does this mean?" Harry asked.

"It means," Mr. Weasley said tiredly, "that You-Know-Who has regained all of his former assets and is finally setting them all in motion. Everyone knows giants don't like Wizards much but under You-Know-Who, they're able to relinquish their anger in the most destructive ways possible."

"Is the Order doing anything?" Molly asked fearfully.

"Yes," Mr. Weasley answered. "There's a meeting tonight to inform the other members fully of the situation. I-I just wanted to come home and tell you the details and also that I'll be working overtime." Molly looked at Arthur tearfully.

"I understand." Molly gave him one last long look before she turned to her children and guests. "Let us get to bed, shall we?" Before Mrs. Weasley wiped her face to its normal motherly expression, Harry notice the same pained and fearful look in her eyes that he had seen the night she had tried to get rid of the Boggart. That was the first time he'd ever seen Mrs. Weasley cry or show fear. It was the night that the bodies of her loved ones lay dead on the floor. Harry shuddered and erased those thoughts. The second battle truly had begun.

* * *

"Where are they? They're late! We'll never make the train on time if they don't get here soon!" Mrs. Weasley said looking at the time on her magical watch. All evidence of worry from Mr. Weasley's telling of the giants was gone. Mr. Weasley had stopped at home for a few dinners since then, but they were always quick visits that often resulted in Mr. Weasley grabbing a plate full of dinner and leaving.

Now, they were waiting for the appearance of the Advance Guard to escort them to Platform 9 ¾. It was already ten-thirty and no one had shown up. Almost after the words had left Mrs. Weasley's mouth however, there was a crack as Tonks and Mad-Eye Moody appeared in front of them. Mad-Eye Moody had his wand out. While his good eye covered the front, his magical eye covered the rear.

"Hi, Harry!" Tonks greeted. Her hair was its tradition eccentric color but in green. She ran over to him with her beads clinging and clanging and took him in a hug. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine, thanks," Harry said gasping for breath. Lightning barked and then growled loudly from behind. Tonks released Harry in surprise.

"And this must be our new traveler," Tonks said going over to Lightning. Lightning looked at Harry briefly and then relaxed and allowed Tonks to pet him.

"Ah-hem," Moony growled. "We don't have time to dawdle."

"Relax, Moody, we've got time," Tonks said.

"We've already stayed in one place too long. With the new episode at the Ministry less Aurors were able to make it here than what is needed. If Death Eaters were to apparate in front of his, we'd be outnumbered!" Moody raved while everyone else listened in silence.

Tonks rolled her eyes. "Alright, everyone into the car." Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Ron threw their things into the back and got into the car.

"I'll take the air, Tonks, you have the car," Moody instructed as he snapped his fingers and a broom appeared. Tonks nodded and hopped into the driver's seat.

"Bye everyone!" Fred called, waving from the front door. As soon as the car left, they would travel by Floo powder to Diagon Alley to open up their shop for the day.

"And remember to put our products to good use!" George called as Tonks started driving down the long dirt road. The car ride was bumpy, but Tonks kept a constant chatter with Hermione, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley the whole drive. Ron watched the scenery while Harry was stuck with the ever-nervous Lightning who was practically sitting in his lap. No matter how Lightning situated himself drool continued to darken Harry's blue jeans. Needless to say, Harry was less than enthused about the upcoming school year.

Through out the drive, Moody kept them updated on their clearance above until they finally arrived at Kings Cross. Once there, unpacking their belongings and loading them onto carts became a hectic scene as time rushed on against them. They arrived onto platform 9 ¾ in record time. A few minutes later, their Hogwarts things had been loaded onto the train; all that was left were goodbyes.

"Study hard, Ginny! I want to see high scores on your O.W.L.S. too," Mrs. Weasley said giving her daughter a hug before shifting to Ron.

"Help your sister out, and for goodness sake, stay out of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley said as she kissed him on the cheek. Ron waited till she turned to Hermione before rubbing it off.

"Keep an eye on the boys," Mrs. Weasley said affectionately. "Oh, and if you would, help Ginny out where you can," she whispered. Hermione nodded and Mrs. Weasley moved onto Harry.

"Take care of yourself, Harry. Feel free to talk if you need to, and remember, Professor Lupin and Professor Dumbledore are there for you too." Mrs. Weasley said embracing Harry into a hug that was almost as tight as Tonk's. Lightning barked eagerly upon Mrs. Weasley release. Mrs. Weasley eyed him with authority. "And I best not be hearing any bad reports about you." Lightning wagged his tail harder in response.

"Come on now," Mrs. Weasley smiled. "You better get into your cabins, the train will be leaving soon."

"Bye Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny!" Tonks called waving at them.

"Constant vigilance!"     Moody called as the train began to pull away.

"Oh no!" Tonks cried as she suddenly pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket. "Harry, this is for you!" Tonks said running to keep up with the train.

Harry pulled out his wand just as Tonks tripped over her own feet and fell. "Accio, parchment!" The paper flew out of Tonks hand and into Harry's just as the train pulled away from the station.