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Chapter 9…finally!

Harry Potter stirred as he dreamt. He was sitting on a straight backed chair in a dark dimly lit room, and was looking down at several figures kneeling before him. He scowled as they stood up, and he looked into their eyes. He saw five figures look back at him as they mumbled, 'my lord'.

Karkaroff, it looks as though you have finally decided to join me and my other, slightly more faithful followers."

M-my Lord, I-I just,"

"Enough of your excuses," cried Voldemort. "Crucio,"

Harry watched as the man before him screamed and wiggled in pain. He then looked into the other four faces, but then directed his attention to the floor again as the man got up.

"That was for being too cowardly to return to me. I hope your loyalty will never waver again. And now, to the matter at hand. What information have you received regarding the escape?"

"The guards are almost persuaded my Lord," spoke up a death eater that turned out to be Goyle.

"Almost is not good enough!" screamed Voldemort. "Crucio! You are incompetent Goyle!" Voldemort watched his servant writher on the ground for a moment, before lifting the curse.

"I should have known better," Voldemort said mainly to himself. "Goyle is a bumbling idiot. Such a task should be given to a competent Death Eater."

Another Death Eater stepped forward. "I can persuade them my Lord," said a female voice.

"You have to prove yourself to me Bella, as you failed to capture Potter after he had practically thrown himself into your grip last June. Perhaps Peter here should accompany you."

Bellatrix and Peter looked horrified, but thought better than to talk back to Voldemort, and gave their agreement.

"Does Dumbledore know of our plans?"

The last Death Eater stepped forward, and bowed before removing his hood. Harry received a shock as he looked up and saw none other than the person who had made his life hell for five years. Severus Snape.

"Nothing My Lord," he said in his low greasy voice.

Voldemort rose. "Good. Don't mess this up Severus. You have already failed me once this summer. Don't let it happen again."

"Yes my Lord," answered Snape softly.

Voldemort walked past his enormous snake, which was lying in front of the fire. He started down a hallway, and paused for a moment looking in a mirror. He smiled.

Harry woke up with a start. He had seen those horrible red eyes, and the snakelike face. He hated that sight. For a few minutes Harry Potter lay in bed in a cold sweat, his mind dwelling on the latest image of Voldemort. The after a few minutes another thought found it's way into his mind.

Snape was meeting with Voldemort? Wasn't Snape supposed to be spying for the Order? Then Harry woke up fully, and reality hit him. Snape must have been lying. Obviously he had to attend meetings with Voldemort as a spy, and of course he would tell Voldemort that Dumbledore didn't know. It was extremely weird however, to see someone in the Order answering to Voldemort. Harry knew Dumbledore trusted Snape, but he had also trusted Peter and look where that had gotten them. Harry figured Dumbledore knew full well what was going on, but he still had a doubt in the back of his mind, where he wondered if Snape had really told Dumbledore about whatever Voldemort had been planning in his dream.

Then Harry wondered if the dream had even been real. Voldemort had a way of playing with his mind, and wondered how he had even been allowed a dream like that in the first place. He must not have cleared his mind properly. Harry sat up in his bed and looked at the alarm clock. It was 4:30 am. He should be getting up about this time anyway, se he rose and headed for the shower, wondering about his new dream.

Harry walked back into his room after his shower, now fully awake. He thought about his dream, and felt his temper begin to rise as he once again thought about Wormtail. Suddenly a crash sounded over by his desk, and Harry was startled out of his thoughts seeing his ink bottle lying on the floor smashed, and ink everywhere.

"Just my luck," Harry grumbled as he quickly used his wand to clean up the mess. He wondered for a moment how the ink had fallen off his desk, but quickly decided that he had just placed it too close to the edge. Harry decided to go down to the kitchen to get himself something to eat. He finished getting dressed, and went downstairs to eat.

When he got into the kitchen he saw Uncle Vernon getting ready to leave for work. Vernon made no sign that he even saw Harry, although Harry was quite sure he did. Half an hour later, Harry walked over to Mrs. Figgs' house alone. Tonight was a full moon, so Remus wouldn't be there today. Harry would be all alone. He could feel himself sadden as he thought about missing Remus today and the next day. He wished he could become an animagus so he could keep Remus company like his father and Sirius had done. Sirius…it hurt to think about that too. Harry missed him terribly. He figured it must hurt Remus even more, when he became a werewolf, when he didn't have any of his friends along.

"You got here alright dear?" asked a voice from above him, jerking him out of his thoughts.

Harry looked up to see Mrs. Figg holding her door open for him.

"I'm fine," said Harry. He walked through the open door and right to the office where Dumbledore was waiting for him. "Hello sir," Harry said.

"Hello Harry," replied Dumbledore. "Shall we begin?"

"Okay sir," said Harry. He wanted to see if he could block his dream from Dumbledore's sight. He was confident that it wasn't real, and Voldemort was messing with him again.

Half an hour later, after Harry had successfully blocked Dumbledore every time he had tried to enter Harry's mind, Dumbledore smiled at him. After that, Dumbledore spent the remainder of their lesson explaining the uses of Leglemmins Charm. He explained how to do it, and what was needed, such as eye contact. At the end of the lesson Dumbledore also had given Harry a warning that he was only to use it when necessary, and not to invade people's privacy.

"That's all for now, Harry," said Dumbledore. "For tomorrows lesson we will practice the charm. Hopefully you can master it fairly quickly like you have done with Occlumency."

An hour later Harry was in the middle of the clearing in the woods with Neville, Moody, and Tonks.

"Where is Lupin?" wondered Neville.

Harry heard Tonks mutter something about the full moon, and Neville apparently heard also.

"Oh yeah," he said with sudden understanding. "He's a werewolf."

"Yup," said Harry dully.

"We are going to practice some more defensive spells that you will need in a duel, and then we'll have our usual duel at the end of the week." said Moody.

"Alright then," said Neville.

They began to practice their new spells they had been learning, with Moody and Tonks correcting their wand grips and wrist movements. Harry was just getting the hang of shooting ropes out of his wand. They were supposed to see if they could tie up Moody and Tonks. Harry was supposed to tie up Tonks, and Neville had been given the task of attempting to tie up Moody. Harry's ropes kept on falling short of Tonks and hitting the floor. This time ropes shot out of his wand he blinked, and looked up as ropes flew around Tonks and she fell to the floor.

"Wow," said Harry. "Did I do that?"

"No," growled Moody untying Tonks. "Mr. Longbottom over here did. You have got to work on that aim boy!"

"Sorry," said Neville sheepishly.

"I'm hungry," said Tonks. "Let's take a lunch break now."

They walked back to the picnic tables, and Moody waved his wand, and food appeared on the tables. Harry sat next to Neville, and they began to talk. They had been doing that a lot lately. They were dueling together and becoming fast friends.

"Hermione came to the Dursley's' house yesterday evening," said Harry.

"Why?" asked Neville.

"Her parents had a business deal with the Dursleys. It was neat though. I haven't seen her in ages."

"Why," asked Neville suggestively. "Do you like her?"

"Come on, Neville," replied Harry exasperatedly. "She's just a friend. Besides I think she's into Victor Krum. Do you like her?"

"No, I …"

"You what?"

"I think I might like the Luna girl that came with us in June," said Neville sheepishly.

Harry was momentarily shocked. Neville fancied Loony Lovegood? He shook himself out of his stupor. "Thats great Neville," Harry said.

"Know what would be cool?" asked Neville after a few minutes.

"What?"

"If we were animals," he said watching a rabbit hop across the clearing. "You could get away from everything, and just do whatever."

"That's why people become Animagus Neville," answered Harry.

"If only it were legal."

"Well what we're doing isn't either. We shouldn't be training without Ministry approval."

"Yeah but we look good," said Neville with a smile. "You can't say this training hasn't been paying off."

"That's true," said Harry laughing.

The two new friends sat in the clearing laughing and eating and resting from their training. They were just being teenage boys. It felt good for the both of them.

They worked hard and deserved a break. They didn't notice the flowers around them float when Harry began to laugh, but perhaps that was because they had dropped to the ground seconds later. They also didn't notice Moody and Tonks listening intently to part of the boy's conversation, then begin whispering to one another.

Harry went home that night feeling great. He and Neville had gotten the hang of the rope spell, and Harry didn't fancy getting tied up by Neville. Neville had mastered the spell in a few hours, and he had learned to bind his ropes so tight that Moody had almost suffocated. Harry's ropes were also very good. He too had gotten the hang of the spell and was equal to Neville in his ability to tie someone up. He hoped they would win their duel this week.

Whoosh!

Something flew past his head and landed with a thud on his bed. Harry looked up startled. He saw Pig land on his bed. Harry stared for a moment at the owl that had nearly beheaded him, before realizing that he must be carrying a letter from the Weasleys.

Harry rushed over to the bed and opened the letter.

Harry,

How are you? I hope you haven't gotten too bored sitting there in that house with your Aunt and Uncle all summer. I hope the muggles haven't been too horrible. Hermione said they seemed mean when she went there. She wrote this morning, and told us she saw you yesterday. She's coming to stay here with us in two days, which is great, because I'm bored with jut Ginny to talk to. Fred and George stopped by though. Mum made them leave when they blew up your kitchen, and besides that nothing interesting has happened. Mum has been working on Dumbledore to let you come stay with us, and she has a feeling he might give in soon. I hope you can survive until we can come and get you. I have a funny feeling we'll be seeing you sometime soon though. I can't wait to see you mate!

Ron

PS: Ginny wrote you a letter. She won't tell me what's in it though, so I'm sorry if she's being annoying.

Harry looked up from Ron's letter and looked back at the owl to find Ginny's letter. He had grown very excited to see letters from Ginny. As he thought about her, Ginny's letter floated towards him. Harry was too excited about the letter to realize he had just summoned it without his wand. He quickly untied the letter and began to read.

Harry,

How are you? Good I hope. Hermione wrote today and said she went to your house yesterday. She also said she was coming to stay with us the day after tomorrow. My dear brother Ron was positively over the moon about it. He was practically jumping up and down. I asked him about it though, and he just scowled at me. Then later I caught him looking at his photo of Lavender with these extra eye things Fred and George brought with them.

Ron is definitely confused. When you visit we definitely have to help Ronnie sort out his girl problems. Hehe. I can't wait to see you Harry. It'll be nice to talk to someone other then Ron and Hermione. I know we'll see you soon.

Ginny xo

Harry looked up from Ginny's letter feeling happy that she had said she wanted to see him. He couldn't wait to see her either. He thought about how pretty Ginny looked, before mentally slapping himself. Why was he thinking about his friend's little sister like that? It was just not allowed. Ron would surely kill him if he found out what Harry liked his little sister.

Wait a moment, Harry thought. I like Ginny? Oh crap. He liked Ginny. He liked his best mate's little sister. He couldn't believe he was allowing himself to feel this way. Suddenly his pillow flung itself against his wall, and pig gave a loud hoot in fright and took off out the window without waiting for Harry's reply.

Oh well, Harry sighed. I'll just wait for Hedwig to return from hunting and send a reply tomorrow. Harry lets his thoughts travel to his best mate's little sister once more before clearing his mind and falling into a restless sleep. Yes, at this moment Harry Potter was just another teenage boy.

HappySnakes Rule: I'm so glad you liked my story, and you value my opinion. It was nice to hear that i'm inspiring. Thanks so much for your great review. It made me so happy to hear that you think so highly of me. Thanks

Ashley: Thanks. I'm so glad you like my fic.

Idontunderstand: okay then. Maybe i'm colorblind or something.

Silver Warrior: Thanks. I agree. I liked how Harry saved Vernon's butt. I thought Harry could have some fun shoving that in his uncle's face. Hehe

klj;wh, Ihatepeter, BBBBBB: Sorry! I hope you like this chappie. It's kinda short, but there is another one coming soon.

Jallenttu: I'm glad you liked my strange little plot twist. I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

Sorry this chappie took so long to post! It's also kind of short, and I apologize. Chapter 10is on it's way though!

As always...reviews keep me writing!