THE FORTRESS OF THE SHADOWS

A SIXTH YEAR FAN FIC BY TONKS

Chapter 2

As the night went on Harry finally laid his thoughts aside and fell into a deep sleep, even though his arm was aching and his scar still throbbed. The black of night came to dawn and Harry lay fast asleep.

He was woke by his Aunt yelling at him to get dressed. He put on a gold shirt with the Gryffindor logo on, and put on a pair of oversized jeans. He pulled a piece of rope around his waist and then made his way down the stairs.

His Uncle, Dudley and Aunt Petunia were sitting around the table. Harry sat down and helped himself to some toast and his Aunt was the only one that took notice to Harry's heavily bruised arm.

"Vernon, I think you should take the boy to the hospital, that arm looks broken," he heard his Aunt say. He say his Uncle glance at him and then to Petunia.

"Well, er- yes, I suppose I should take him, but how dreadful for this to come up er-... I have to work today," His Uncle replied. And Harry thought he was a really bad liar. He couldn't keep a straight face.

"Well, then I suppose I'll have to take him then," She said and then added, "Dudders do you want more bacon?"

"No," Dudley replied, which was amazing because he only had seven helpings.

"Potter, this came for you while you were sleeping," His Uncle said handing him an official looking letter. He looked down at it and saw that it was from the Minerstry of Magic. He opened it and read:

Dear Mr. Potter,

We have received intelligence that you have broken the International Confederation of Wizards' Stature of Secrecy at twenty-five minutes past six, Yesterday evening.

As you have already been tried for breaking the International Confederation of Wizards' Stature of Secrecy your presence is mandatory at a disciplinary hearing at in Courtroom 10 at 7:00 A.M. on July 31. You are to be tried by the whole Wizengamot, where we will be discussing your punishment.

Hoping you are well,

Yours sincerely,

Amelia Bones

Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Harry reread the letter five or more times. Until... "Well boy, what does it say?"

"It says I'm in trouble for 'Breaking the International Confederation of Wizards' Statue of Secrecy,'" Harry said mimicking Madam Bones's voice.

"Serves you right, going around blabbing that you're a you-know-what and carrying that stick of wood around-" He was cut of by Harry.

"It's not a stick of wood. It's a wand." Harry said his temper rising. "I carry it only because Voldemort is after me. And I do not want to be murdered," He said coolly.

"Murdered by that freak that killed your parents?" Uncle Vernon said, smirking behind his thick mustache.

"Yeah, or incase you didn't know he wants me dead. I've already escaped him four times and I'm the only one who can bring him down. Either it's going to end with one of us dieing, because..." He started mimicking Professor Trelawrney's mystical voice, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have the power the Dark Lord knows naught...And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."""""""" Harry said giving up his "Trelawney voice" and using his own once again... "It means that I have the power to conquer Voldemort and he doesn't know. Even though he can get into my mind..." Harry shuddered at the thought. Voldemort possessed him at the end of the year and Voldemort was trying to get Dumbledore to kill him. "It was a prophecy made about a month before my birthday, by my old Divination Professor."

"Divination, what is this rubbish?" His Uncle spat out.

"Divination is like fortune telling... It's one of our elective classes at Hog- I mean my school. I'm no good at it though... I'm not a seer. Well at least I think I'm not," Harry said.

Harry's Uncle started looking furious. His plump face turned a light shade of scarlet. Harry was sure that his Uncle was going to go ballistic and launch himself at him.

"What can you do that's so special, Potter?" His Uncle spat at him.

"I can do a lot of things, or maybe you didn't notice... I'm a wizard... I must be pretty damn good if Voldemort marked me as his equal!" All of a sudden his scar once more burst with pain like the day before and felt warm scarlet blood dripping down on to his nose and he tasted it. He fell over onto all fours and a vision flew right past his eyes...

He was in a dimly lit dungeon... the walls were lit with torches... It looked like the path that lids to Courtroom ten. He went into the courtroom and saw that the complete Wizengamot occupied it, There was a small person, sitting before the benches on which the Wizengamot resided. The boy had messy black hair and a sick look upon his face. The face looked familiar... He watched in curiosity...

"The Defendant, Harry James Potter is found guilty and sentenced to a month in Azkaban, and shall be dropped off at school by two guards," He heard the voice of Cornelius Fudge say.

Cold... The room was cold... The courtroom plunged into mortal darkness and what seemed like hours, two hooded figures towering towards the ceiling... They mysteriously glided into the room... hovering about a foot from the floor. They extended their moldy, scabby hands and placed them around the boys arms... The boys eyes rolled into his head and he knew he was re-living Sirius's death and Dumbledore's duel and being possessed by Voldemort...

Harry felt coldness toward Fudge... He told the whole Wizarding community lies... HE put everyone into a false sense of security... Anyone could have been killed... He was the one who appointed Umbridge... But... What if Fudge was a deatheater? And he didn't want his master to come out into the open? It could be possible...

He was going to Azkaban! The place Hagrid... and Sirius... dreaded... A month with the foulest creatures on Earth: dementors...! It wasn't fair! 'I'm not going to Azkaban,' Harry told himself firmly. 'Dumbledore will help me! He's back on the Wizengamot! Doesn't that mean that he'll have a say in the matter? Why does everything happen to me?'

All of a sudden he was spinning in what looked like he was traveling at the speed of sound. Blue, Green, Black, Red, Pink, Yellow were some of the colors spinning around him. The end of the tunnel was dark and he was thrown out of it at high speeds. He landed with a loud, "THUMP".

He was in the same courtroom, except there was a person who was wearing a dark cloak, with the Slytherin crest on the front. There was at least fifty deatheaters sitting on the court benches and there was about three hundred more standing in a circular shape on the floor. Someone was standing in the middle of all the deatheaters, but Harry couldn't make out who it was.

"Umbridge..." Said a cold voice. 'That's it! That's why my scar on my hand burnt! This was yesterday!' "You have disgraced me as a deatheater...You let the boy thwart me once more... Good bye, Dolores Umbridge... Avada Kedavara!" There was a bright green flash of light and a scream of pain.

Dolores Umbridge was lying flat on her back with her toad like face visible. Her face didn't show surprise, nor pain, but a grin. Had Voldemort tortured her to insanity? Had she know this was her fate? Had she joined the dark side because she despised him so much? Of course Harry hated her, but Voldemort took the lives of too many people... Even though it's a person he clearly loathed... He hated to see Voldemort kill... Even if they aren't so innocent.

Over one hundred miles away Harry Potter woke up, with his scar burning as if someone had just pressed a white hot wire to his skin... he was drenched in a cold sweat. His breathing was harsh. He opened his eyes and saw that somebody had taken his glasses off. There were dark blurry shapes moving around the room.

"Is he going to be ok?" He heard a female voice say. It seemed as though someone turned his brain on slow. He knew that voice though... It was Tonks! Tonks was here, but why? Wouldn't Lupin and other people be here too then?

"Yes, he should be fine;" He heard a male voice say. The shapes came into sharper perspective... A man in a lime green robe was standing at the foot of his bed talking with Tonks. There was Lupin talking to Mrs. Weasley and Ron talking to Hermione, none of who seemed to notice that he was awake. But he saw Hermione look in his direction and she yelled...


"Harry!"

There were whispers around the room. Hermione walked forward, "Harry, we were so worried! You were out for a week! The Dursleys even came earlier! We thought... We thought you well died."

"I didn't...er- what's today anyway?" Harry asked.

"July 30... They postponed your hearing, until you're well again," Hermione said calmly, but she looked on the verge of tears.

"I feel fine, honestly!" He said, but as he moved he felt a pain run up his side.

"You don't look it, mate." Ron said looking Harry in the eyes. Harry knew he was being truthful with him. "Oh, here" Ron said as he handed him his glasses. Everything came into even sharper perspective... He saw a cast on his right arm... But wizards didn't use casts... What if he was in a muggle hospital?

"Don't worry, you're not at a muggle hospital, mate... You're at St. Mungo's. But the muggles took you to a muggle hospital near London and they put a cast on your arm... The healers can't figure out how to get it off though." Ron said. Hermione gave him you're-really-stupider-than-I-thought look. "What?" Ron said.

"What Ron should have said is that the Dursleys took you to a muggle hospital and they put a cast on your arm and it is healing Ok so they're not taking it off. They think it would be safer if they just leave it on, instead of possibly hurting it further by moving it."

"Why? I moved it a lot when it was broke," Harry replied.

"Well er- you're uncle snapped it pretty bad... So bad that they had to put pins in your arm. So the healers didn't want to mess with it," Ron said looking Harry in the eyes, again he knew that Ron wasn't being dishonest.

The room fell into silence as Professor Dumbledore walked in. Wearing long robes of Navy blue with yellow stars and moons. His eyes twinkling beneath the half moon spectacles and his beard gleaming brightly.

"Ah, Harry, I see that you are awake," Dumbledore said, his voice calm.

"Yeah," replied Harry looking up.

"Molly, Nymphadora, please round up the kids, I'd like to have a word with Harry," Dumbledore said looking at Mrs. Weasley and Tonks. Tonks now had bright blue hair that was spiked up into the air.

"Yes, Albus" they both said and Ron and Hermione walked out of the room with Tonks and Mrs. Weasley. "Remus you should go too," Dumbledore said to Professor Lupin. He nodded as though he already knew what Dumbledore was going to say and didn't have any curiosity what so ever. As soon as Dumbledore heard the door shut he began...

"Harry, I've given some time for the prophecy to sink in. I believe that you had another apparition?"

"Er- Yes, Professor," Harry replied not meeting Dumbledore's eyes.

"Harry, I must know... What was your visualization about?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry explained his whole vision and Dumbledore listened intently. When he finished he asked, "Professor, do you think I'm going to end up in Azkaban?"

"No, Harry, I don't. Visions aren't always correct, but I believe that Dolores Umbridge is deceased. She was a deatheater working for Voldemort.

"Harry, the Order and I discussed letting you join this summer, now that you have escaped him four times that you could handle being in the Order. If you wish to we will change the rules so that you are admitted."

"Yes, Professor" Harry replied, making eye contact with Dumbledore.

"Are you sure, because there is no way out of it once you join?"

"Yes, positive," Harry replied.

"Very well... The next meeting is August 15th at 7:00 in my office... I want you to stay at Hogwarts for the remainder of the holiday for apperation lessons and so you may learn useful spells to use against the dark forces... Mr. Weasley and Miss. Granger may come too if they like." Dumbledore stood and straightened his long robes. "Harry I want you to take Occlumency once again, but I won't make the mistake of Professor Snape teaching you... I will teach you in N.E.W.T Potions and Occlumency. Professor McGongall wants you to become an Auror and I daresay it would help the Order greatly."

"Professor, I didn't get the paper with the scores of my O.W.L's-"

"You are wondering what you got? Well, I brought my copy of the scores incase." He handed Harry a piece of parchment. In Defense against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures and to his surprise Potions he scraped all O's, which were the highest grade that Hogwarts offered. In Divination and History of Magic (Which he passed out during and was the reason Sirius was dead) he got P's. 'P' meant Poor, which was what he thought he'd be getting in Potions. And in Astrometry he got a 'E' which was Exceeds expiations.

"I daresay you did dreadful in Divination and you're a true seer... Your predictions are up to four," Dumbledore said smiling.

"But, Professor, how could I be a seer? Whenever I did tealeaf reading or crystal ball gazing I didn't see anything, except fog," Harry replied perplexed.

"Harry, you didn't see anything, because you didn't believe you would see anything. You have to focus your mind. So there for, I am putting you in N.E.W.T Divination this year, the art of Divination is rare and they're very few seers left. I think, if I'm much mistaken... it would turn out to be more useful then your visions," Dumbledore said and then added. "Harry is there anything troubling you?"

"Yes, Professor," Harry said truthfully. "It's my fault Sirius and Cedric died, and I know it."

"Harry that is only a weakness Voldemort will feed off of. As I have already told you Sirius's death is my fault. But Cedric's is neither yours, nor mine but Voldemort's. Didn't I say that, 'Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great, We can only fight it by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust-'? He tries to break us apart, by killing loved ones and friends. He destroys families and friendships."

Harry just nodded.

Dumbledore stood and took out his watch, which had a lot of hands. "Ah, Harry I must be going back to Hogwarts. Enjoy the rest of your holiday." And he walked over toward the door. "Harry, don't worry you'll be out of here soon. I'll be sure of it," And he left without looking back.