"Morning, Harry." Lupin said with a weak smile.

Harry nodded. "Sorry about that." He said, slouching into one of the chairs.

Lupin shrugged it off. "Don't worry, Harry. Mrs. Weasley helped me clean it up. It only took a few minutes. Besides, Sirius wanted us to get rid of all that stuff anyway. We repaired the paintings just in case we needed them in the future."

Harry didn't know why everyone was accepting his answers so easily, but he let it pass. He did not want to fight them any more than he needed to. "Why am I here?" He asked.

Lupin sighed. "I don't know, Harry." He said. "Dumbledore said it was important for you to come. Maybe you should ask him yourself. He's in the dining room in a meeting. I thought I'd wait for you all to come downstairs."

Harry waited at the door of the dining room. Mrs. Weasley had not put a blocking charm on the door, and Harry could hear people speaking on the other side, though he did not know what they were saying. He sat back down at the table. Restless, he waited. Finally, the door opened and Dumbledore emerged.

"Harry," he said, "What can I do for you?"

"I need to speak to you, professor." Harry said. Dumbledore's old eyes looked over him before he turned and walked back into the dining room, beckoning for Harry to follow. Harry followed him, and the door clicked closed behind him.

"I know what you want," Dumbledore said before Harry could speak. He paced along one side of the table. "Voldemort is gaining power. He is going to come for you, Harry. We don't know when, or what he will try and do to you, but we know that he will come. And we must be ready. You will stay here for the time being. Voldemort cannot reach you here, nor can he reach you at Hogwarts. But I cannot be here all summer to protect you. Thus, you must stay here.

"You are not to leave this house for any reason, until it is time for you to go to school. We shall go over how this school plan will work when we arrive there on September first. Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger are welcome to stay here with you, though they are free to leave at any time."

Harry frowned. "So it's like I'm Sirius now? I'm forced to stay in this house for the rest of my life?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Harry, you know what the prophecy is. Either he will die, or you will. We cannot risk you, for your own sake, and for the sake of the world around you."

Harry sat down in one of the chairs and pressed his forehead against the cool table. For fifteen years, Voldemort had been trying to kill him, and now, he could. He had the strength, he had the power, and now, he was going to do it. Harry had been protected from him for such a long time that he had never realized how much his life was in danger until now.

He had never thought it important before. He had always wanted to stop Voldemort from killing him, but only so that he could not gain power. But now, now it was sinking in that Voldemort meant that Harry would die. "I'm going to die." He said.

Dumbledore nodded. "At some point, yes. When your time comes, you shall pass, just like every other soul on this green earth."

Harry shook his head. "Professor, he's going to kill me. Just like he did Sirius."

Dumbledore sighed deeply again as Harry stood up, his eyes stinging with tears. He stood up quickly and ran back up stairs, all the way to the attic where Buckbeak rested.

He bowed quickly, then sat down beside the hippogriff. He pat Buckbeak on the shoulder as the creature nuzzled his shoulder. Harry let himself cry.

A few moments later, Hermione and Ron came into the room. "Harry?" Hermione asked softly. "What happened?"

Harry shook his head. "I can't just hide. Sirius hid, and Voldemort got to him. My mum and dad hid, and Voldemort got to them! Now they want me to hide, to wait for him to find me. To wait for him to kill me!"

"When did your scar last hurt, Harry?" Hermione said sharply. "When did you last tell Dumbledore about it? Hasn't he always been able to help you in the past?"

Harry sighed. "He hasn't, Hermione. I don't know if I told you this already, but last year he told me himself how he was weak and how he was wrong not to tell me about the prophecy when I was younger. He told me he had let me down."

Hermione, sitting down beside him, drew her knees up and rested her chin on them. Ron sat down beside her, leaning his head back against the wall. "Dumbledore won't let anything happen to you this time, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "He can't protect me any more. He knows it. Now he can just hope that he'll be able to help me when Voldemort finally decides to come."

They sat in silence, the three friends, and Harry knew they would stand with him until the very end.

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Well, that's another chapter that I barely changed at all. Oh well. A few sentences here and there, but if you've already read it, there's not much point reading it again… except that it makes me feel special. You know.

Lady of Masbolle: that's cool, dude, no worries!

FSI: I'm glad you like it! I'm sorry it is taking so long, but I have been very busy…

"One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to DisneyLand, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "DisneyLand burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real DisneyLand, but it was getting pretty late."

-unolimbo