The Fifth House

Disclaimer: Duh.  Need I type it?

For the sake of not being sued, I do not own Harry Potter.

I do own the plot, a few characters, and thats all folks!

So HAH!

Author's Note:  Hi! *waves happily*  It's only been two days but I fell like I've been away from my story for years.  Weird!

Anyway, The Ever-changing third version of the 3R's!

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Sorry, I'm running out of r's.

Curtains Up!

Chapter Eight

            Needless to say, I'm sure, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were very cautious on the way home that day.  Though it was only late afternoon when they left, whatever was going to happen to come early.  You just never know.

Or do you?

            What could fall tonight at sunset?  Other than darkness, Harry really couldn't think of anything.  It wasn't just him that was worrying; Ron looked extremely nervous and was jumping at everything, and Hermione was a wreck, she was shaking, and kept darting her eyes around.

              Mr. Weasley was very suspicious of the three of them; he kept asking them if they were all right. 

            Ginny, on the other hand, was even more confused than her father.  Ron told her she couldn't tell anyone what she saw happen with the note.  Ron wasn't actually sure if she had known what it said, but still.

You just never know.

            Hermione was very worked up about this.  She was a nervous wreck trying to find out what else could fall at sunset, and this was only half of it.  The other half was good old Hermione, distressed because she didn't know the answer to a question. 

            Ron was very deep in concentration.  It was easy to see from his expression that he thought something looked familiar, and was hiding in the back of his mind.  He kept muttering to himself, and shaking his head.  At random moments he would stop and look straight ahead or close his eyes.  He would stay like that for a minute or so.  He would come out of his trance just as he was before he went into it.

            Harry was the worst of them all, but looked perfectly calm, cool, and collected.  He was thinking the note over very carefully.  This was the second time he was contacted by anonymous, and both times were warnings.  He just couldn't get it, who were they from?  How did they manage to get to him, through the strangest places?  At first it seemed that maybe P.1 Rebirth had a partner, and that was why the two scrolls were both with the same owl.  But the second note was in Mr. Weasley's office, which completely baffled Harry.  Who knew that he would be there?  Was it even addressed to him?  Or was it a note for Mr. Weasley? For all he knew, half of he wizarding world could be getting theses notes.  It seemed unlikely, but who was to say it wasn't true?

Unlikely as it was, Evil was an unlikely thing.

            Mr. Weasley finished the tour, which seemed pointless, as Ginny was the only one who could really pay attention.

            Harry was afraid that when they were using the floo powder to return to the Burrow, someone would say the wrong thing.

            Harry took some powder in his hand, tossed it into the flames, which to him looked hungry for it, and loudly said, "The Burrow!" as he walked into them.

            Once he had arrived at the Weasleys' he was relieved to know that everyone had arrived in the right place.  Harry noticed that Ron and Hermione wore looks of relief also.  Mrs. Weasley took no notice of the wary looks on their faces.

            "Dinner is in a few minutes, wash your hands!" she chirped.

            The three looked at each other.  Then Ron spoke up. 

            "We really aren't hungry, mum," he said.

            Just as she was about to persist, Mr. Weasley put a hand on her arm and shook his head, a serious look on his face.  Mrs. Weasley gave the three a questioning look; they had better have good excuses for missing her home cooked dinner.  She turned and went back to preparing the meal.

            "Thanks, dad," Ron said, smiling meekly at his father.  Mr. Weasley smiled back, though nothing could overpower the look of concern on his face.

            It was decided unanimously that Harry, Hermione and Ron would go outside to talk by maple tree in the front yard, though all they needed were looks from each other to know the vote was final.

            Each knew they needed time to think, with peace and quiet by themselves, but each wanted to be nowhere alone.  It was almost as though they were alone, no one was talking.  But the peace and quiet was a different issue.  Kylie, Max, Jade, and Tomas were still playing hockey.  And they made a very loud noise when anyone scored a goal.

            Harry knew he needed to think, but also knew that he couldn't think straight if he didn't clear his mind for five minutes or so.  He decided to watch the hockey game.

            It appeared that there were two teams, Kylie and Jade versus Max and Tomas.  Harry watched as Max and Tomas got goal after goal after goal.  It was strange the way Kylie and Jade didn't seem to be trying.  But that all changed once Max announced that it was getting darker, and they should stop in five minutes.

Harry noticed Jade give Kylie a little smile, and then both girls nodded their heads.

            "Okay, let's take care of this," Kylie said to Jade.

            "We let them get too far ahead, we might actually lose," Jade feigned.

            Max and Tomas gave each other confused looks. 

            The last minutes of the game began.  Kylie and Jade actually had amazing technique; they just didn't show it at first.  They got a string of goals until they were tied with the boys.  Kylie grinned at Tomas and Max.  Jade was grinning, too.  Max caught Harry's eye and rolled his eyes towards Kylie.  Harry laughed.  Apparently this happened a lot.  Kylie was about to slap the puck into the goal, when she suddenly stopped.

Strike One.

            "It's too dark, game over, we tied, good game," she said very quickly, shaking Tomas and Max's hands. 

            Tomas looked bewildered.  "But, I don't get it, you could have won, you had the perfect shot!"

            "We did win.  It's called a victory with honor," Jade explained. 

            Tomas and Max gave each other looks that said, ' We could have seen that coming'.

            Harry looked back at Ron and Hermione.  Each of them was holding one of the notes written in blood.  Harry saw that Hermione was rubbing her fingers across the print, as if trying to see if there was some wet blood left.  Harry looked back to the four hockey players on the street.  They were all looking at the letters in Ron and Hermione's hands.  Harry knew they couldn't read them, but he didn't really want them to see them anyway.

Strike Two.

            Harry saw that the sky was darker, but that the sun was just preparing to go down.  He elbowed Ron and nodded to the horizon, and Ron told Hermione. 

            There were seven faces looking at the sunset.  Seven faces who did not know that they would never be seven together again.  Neither the group of four or the group of three ever thought they'd all meet again.  Maybe a couple at a time, but they never thought they'd all be together again.

They were right.

            They didn't know what to expect, but they all knew something was coming. 

            Harry sighed and gulped.  He, Ron, and Hermione all looked at each other, they weren't sure exactly what was coming after all.  They all had a right to be afraid.  'Yeah,' Harry thought, 'they have a right to be scared of this.'  He watched the sun slowly descend beyond the horizon.

Three strikes, you're out.

*          *            *            *

A voice somewhere very far away was watching the same sun set.  As soon as the sun was gone, the voice said, "It's time."

            At that moment, Evil opened its eyes.  It was just waking up from a long rest. 

            Hogwarts castle, itself, had several brief changes.  At that one second when the sun went down, the water on the lake had been tapped from under it.  A ripple spread across the entire lake.  Once the lake was all rippling, only for one second did this happen, a pale blue light, almost an aura, shone around the edge.  Also at that second, a sudden wind picked up out of nowhere, a wind so strong it could blow you far away, even thought it only lasted one second.  A beautiful tree in the Forbidden Forest, the tallest tree to be exact, fell down.  Another thing that happened in that sliver of time was that every single fireplace in the castle, from the grand one in the entrance hall to the smaller ones in the common rooms, a fire burst into the air.  The roaring flames hovered above the cold stone floor of the fireplace for one second before going out quickly.  All of these things happened in one second, the same second, and then stopped as if nothing had happened, with the exception of the tree that had fallen down.  Only one other thing happened at that second.

            An icy cold pain that turned white hot flashed through Harry's scar.

Harry Potter did not know.

            It was August 31,1995.  The four powers of Terces had awakened.

Curtains Close!

Author's Note:  That chapter was fun!  The weird narrator stuff I do to explain eerie things that happened.

Words of Wisdom:  Everyone hears what you say; friends listen to what you say; best friends listen to what you don't say.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked it.  I won't post another chapter until I get, like, three reviews for this one.  I don't care what kind of reviews {though it'd be cool if someone could write a rhyming one}. 

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I love you all!

Ciao!

~Starry