Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

Chapter 6

A week passed at Grimmauld place uneventfully; unless you counted the group of Doxies Harry and the others had found whilst cleaning out the attic, and the order members constantly coming and going. Luckily for Harry, though, he had not had to see Snape since the day he had arrived, and he had also not had to seeDumbledore. He knew he would have to face the headmaster eventually, most likely quite soon, but he was not looking forward to any conversation with the man and was glad any confrontation with him was being delayed.

Harry's dreams had been much less frequent over the past week. He had found that if he went to bed relaxed, he was much less likely to have any of the disturbing images, and the potion that Remus gave him had allowed him to catch up on some much needed rest. Of course he knew that he had not seen the end of the dreams, and he still was anxious to find out if they meant anything, especially the golden eyed man he had seen. The thing Harry was most concerned about was that it was possible the dreams were some kind of premonition. He had never really thought that he had a gift for Divination, but then again he had never really had a decent teacher in the subject, so how could he be sure he didn't have some kind of gift for it? A part of him knew he was being stupid not to mention his dreams to anyone, but he still couldn't bring himself to do it.

He was woken on the 31 July by Ron, who had thrown a pillow at him, "Come on, Harry wake up! Its 10 already, everyone's waiting to give you your presents," he was speaking very impatiently, and it took a barely awake Harry a few seconds to figure out what Ron was talking about. He looked at his friend blankly for a second, causing Ron to roll his eyes and sigh in frustration. Then it hit him, it was the last day of July, his birthday! How could he have forgotten that! He had never enjoyed his birthdays before, with the exception of his eleventh of course, that day had been one of the best in his life. But this year, for the first time he would be with his friends on his Birthday, and of course they were not going to ignore like the Dursleys had done.

He grinned a little sheepishly at his best friend, "Sorry, I forgot."

Ron laughed, a little disbelievingly, how could someone forget their own birthday? "Well come on then, now you're finally awake." Harry got out of bed and started to dress quickly as Ron left the room, muttering to himself.

A few minutes later, Harry entered the kitchen, and was immediately greeted buy hugs from both Hermione and Ginny, "happy 16th Harry!" On the Kitchen table there was a pile of gifts that could almost rival the amount Dudley got from his parents, and Harry looked at them in disbelief. The others noticed his expression and laughed at him,

"They're called presents, mate" Fred whispered to him loudly. Harry blushed slightly, but grinned in return.

He had received gifts from all the Weasley family except Percy, (Harry had been very cautious in opening the one from the twins, and for good reason,) as well as Hermione, and even Neville, Dean and Seamus, his fellow Griffindor sixth years, had sent him something, (he had the feeling Seamus was still trying to make up for his behaviour the previous year,) and to his surprise Luna Lovegood had also sent him something. He was not sure completely what to make of Luna, she was very strange and never seemed to be completely there; she was always off in her own world. He knew Ron and Hermione were not exactly crazy about her, and that she was also teased quite a lot, she didn't have that many friends. But last year, when they had needed help, she had come through for them, and had gone to the Department of Mysteries with them. She had been the only one who had been able to speak about Sirius to Harry at the end of last year without upsetting him more; she had actually been quite understanding of his feelings. He knew she was in Ravenclaw, the house generally associated with the brightest people at Hogwarts, (Hermione had nearly been placed in that house,) and he knew that there was probably more to Luna than met the eye.

He had also received gifts from many people in the order, generally people he knew quite well like Remus, Tonks, and Kingsley, but also he had received some from people he didn't know all that well like Dedalus Diggle and Emmeline Vance. Most of the order members had bought him some kind of book to do with Defence Against the dark Arts, and although reading was not really his thing, he found these books fascinating, and full of useful spells. They would have been very useful for him last year with the DA meetings, but he wasn't sure they would be carrying the club on. He decided to bring it up with all of them when he got back to Hogwarts; he supposed it depended on how good the next DADA teacher was.

All in all, Harry actually had a pretty good day; Mrs. Weasley gave them the day of from cleaning; she had always had a soft spot for Harry. That night they were going to have a small party instead of their normal dinner, like they had done last year to celebrate when Ron and Hermione had been made prefects.

It was that night at dinner, while Harry, Ron and Hermione were talking to Remus and Tonks, that the cheerful mood he was in was ruined somewhat dramatically by the arrival of an owl carrying a small pile of letters marked with the Hogwarts crest. Ron and Harry groaned simultaneously, 'it's just typical', thought Harry, 'that they would arrive on my birthday'. Hermione however squealed in a mixture of panic and delight; Harry rolled his eyes; only Hermione could get excited by exam results. She ran over to the owl, and relieved it of it's mail.

"It's brought our Hogwarts letters, too. Ginny, yours is here. It's a lot earlier than last year for our school letters. But the OWL results are a bit late actually, I thought they'd have come before now. Well, I guess they're here now, oh I hope I didn't fail Ancient Runes, I'll be so annoyed with myself if I did, I knew the answer to that question!" Ron and Harry were trying their best to ignore her, knowing that Hermione would have got the top results of their year. She handed them their letters, and sat back down next to them. Worried as he was about his results, Harry could not help but be amused by his friends' expressions; Hermione had an overeager look on hers, and she was trembling with a mixture of excitement and nervousness; while Ron looked at his as horrified as if he thought he would find his own death warrant inside.

"Well, go on then," Mrs Weasley said to her son, "open them." Ron looked at her in fear, and Harry felt a little sorry for him; if he had done badly he would have his mother to answer to. Hermione was now already ripping the envelope open, and quickly scanned the page, and she again squealed with delight, apparently she had done well. Big surprise there. "I don't believe it, I passed everything! I've got the grades for the subjects I want next year!" Remus grinned at her, and there was a chorus of congratulations from everyone in the room. Soon, though, everyone's attention turned to Harry and Ron who had still not moved to open their envelopes. Looking at each other, they silently agreed it was best to get it over with, and together they opened their results.

Harry opened his, and scanned the writing quickly;

Dear Mr. Potter,

Below are your results from the Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations you sat last year. The grading system is as follows;

O- Outstanding

E- Exceeds Expectations

A- Acceptable

P- Poor

D- Dreadful

A and above is a passing grade, and counts for one OWL.

The grade shown next to the subject is the combined result from the practical and the theory exam.

Transfiguration O

Potions O

Defence Against the Dark Arts O

Charms E

Herbology E

Astronomy E

History of Magic A

Care of Magical Creatures O

Divination A

Congratulations on achieving 9 OWLs. You will be required to send a letter to your Head of House informing them which subjects you wish to continue with next year. Please do not mark down a subject you have not received the required grade in, unless the subject teacher has given you permission to do so.

Yours Faithfully

Griselda Marchbanks

Wizarding Examinations Authority

Overall Harry was extremely relieved, though disbelieving; how could he have passed everything? He had been so sure he had failed at least Divination, Astronomy and History of Magic. He supposed the theory exams had made up for his terrible practical exams in Divination and Astronomy, but he couldn't believe he had got an outstanding in Potions, even without Snape there, and how had he passed History of Magic? That was the exam he had been in when he had received the vision of Sirius… 'Stop it' he told himself firmly, 'don't go there now.' He decided just to accept it and be happy with his results, especially when he realized he had achieved the required grades; he could take the classes he needed to become an Auror!

Ron, too, had looked relieved, and grinned at Harry, who returned it. His mother had taken the letter of him to look for herself, and she let out a scream, and pulled Ron into what looked like one of her rib cracking hugs. "Oh, Ron, 8 OWLs, I'm so proud of you!"

"Ron, that's great," Hermione said, and Harry smirked at him. "8? What did you fail in?" He took the same amount of subjects as Harry did.

Ron grinned back at him, "guess." Harry pretended to be thinking really hard,

"Erm… Divination, possibly?"

They laughed, "yep, big surprise there. How'd you do?" Harry handed him the letter, and Remus, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley read it over his shoulder. Mrs. Weasley let out another scream, and it was Harry's turned to be pulled into a hug, and Hermione looked delighted. Remus grinned at him, "Pretty impressive, Harry. Your parents would be very proud." Harry beamed at him in return, and then looked at Ron, and burst out laughing at his expression.

"You passed Divination! And you got an O in potions!"

"Yeah, it was a lot easier without Snape there. Unfortunately though I need Potions, and now I don't have an excuse not to take it. I have to put up with Snape for two more years. I don't know how I passed Divination though; hey, maybe Marshbanks really did meet a dark soggy stranger!"

Ron laughed, while everyone else just looked really confused.

"Well, anyway, now we have another reason to celebrate! You all did so well."

The party started up again, everyone now even happier than they had been before, even Harry; he was so relieved not to have to worry about the results anymore. He sat down with Ron and Hermione, and they took a closer look at each others results. Harry did not fail to notice that they had both got an O in defence, and because of how terrible a teacher they had last year, he realised with pride that it probably had a lot to do with him and the DA. He wondered how the others in the DA had done. They had all gotten pretty good last year, even Neville, who tended to struggle a lot in most lessons, with the exception of herbology. He amused himself by imagining Malfoy's face when he found out that Neville Longbottom had beaten him in the DADA OWL exam.

The rest of the holidays past too quickly for Harry's liking. Despite where he was, he found that he was actually enjoying them, especially compared to what they were normally like. Ron and Hermione had not mentioned Sirius again, but Harry had talked to Remus a bit more about him. About a week after his birthday, the two of them had gone through Sirius's room, while the others were cleaning. It had been hard, but it had definitely helped him, and Remus told him many amusing stories of the Marauders and the kinds of things they had done while they were at school.

Before Harry knew it, it was the last day of the holidays, and he and Ron were in their room in the afternoon, trying to get all their stuff together, which had once again ended up spread out in the room. Remus had got him some more dreamless sleep Potion for the first weeks of term, and had given him a letter to give to Madam Pomfrey, in case he needed to get some more later on. He was careful to hide this from Ron, of course, as he still had not mentioned anything to him about any of his dreams.

Harry was, however, still looking forward to his next school year. He reasoned that it couldn't really be any worse than the year before; at least there would be no Umbridge, the Ministry must have given up trying to interfere with the school now. Also, he hoped, that all the old decrees would be gone, which meant he would be able to play Quidditch, and visit Hogsmeade. He was dreading seeing the headmaster though. Last year his opinion of Dumbledore had changed completely; he still respected his power, but now realised he definitely had his flaws even though not many people noticed, and he also did not trust him as much. He had been reluctant to go to him for help with anything last year, and he didn't know if he could start now. He was dreading seeing him, and he knew that they would have to talk about the prophecy; which was the thing he had spent the last couple of months trying his best not to think about.

After a late dinner, Mrs. Weasley sent them to bed early, after checking that they had all finished packing; claiming that she wanted them up early so that they could be on time for the train for once.

It was still quite early, but it had been a long day, so both Ron and Harry fell asleep almost instantly. For tonight Harry had decided not to take his potion, thinking that as he was quite relaxed he would not get the dreams. They had barely troubled him since before his birthday, and had been less vivid. He was even starting to hope that they had just been normal dreams; despite his instincts that they meant something.

He did not realise just how wrong he was; for he was soon to regret his decision to not take the potion.

Harry opened his eyes, and took in his surroundings; he was in the forest, once again surrounded by a suffocating darkness. For the first time since the dreams had started, this time he realised that he was asleep; but despite his efforts he could not wake up. He felt like screaming in frustration; he knew he was dreaming, and wanted to get out of here before anything bad happened. He soon gave up in his attempts; he would just have to wait until he was woken up by Ron in the morning.

Tonight was different than the others; tonight he felt braver. He knew he was just dreaming; he knew they couldn't harm him. But they were not following him any more. Had he out run them? He hadn't thought it was possible, but here he was in their woods, and they were not pursuing him anymore. He began to move cautiously forward; he was looking for the way out; through the clearing in the woods, that he had seen a few nights ago. Maybe if he got out and saw where this forest was, he could find out what these dreams meant.

Even as he thought this he felt a disturbing prickle of doubt. Was this just a dream? He thought so, how else could he have got here? But it all seemed so real. He could feel the cold biting at him; hear the dry leaves crunch beneath his feet. If this was just a dream, why did everything seem so real? He continued walking through the darkness, making his way through the trees, all his senses on alert, listening for the sound of them, in case they found him again. But he heard nothing. He was alone.

But was he alone? He could still here nothing, but he thought he sensed someone ahead of him, close by. He brushed a particularly large branch out of his way, and emerged into a clearing. The full moon above him offered only a small amount of light, but he could make out the form of what looked to be a man. Bravely Harry walked towards him, and as he came closer he saw the man was leaning over a cauldron, stirring it. Though the man did not look up, Harry somehow knew that he knew he was there. This meant he could not sneak away; besides, maybe this person could give him some answers. He moved even closer to the man, who finally looked up and made eye contact. Harry wanted to yell out, but found that he was unable to do so. It was the same man as before, the one with the golden eyes unlike any Harry had ever seen. As the man stared at him coldly, he again felt the evil practically rolling off him in waves. He needed to run, to get away; but found that he was frozen to the spot in fear, trapped by the man's almost unnatural looking eyes.

He did not have his wand with him; he felt powerless against this man, who Harry could tell was more powerful than anyone he had ever met before, except maybe Dumbledore. But Dumbledore would not come; would not be able to save him this time like he had done last June. The potion, or whatever was in the cauldron, was now shooting up red sparks; Harry did not want to know what that potion was for, if it was being made by this person. But the potion was not finished; it needed one final ingredient. Some how, Harry knew what this ingredient was, but he was powerless to stop it as the golden-eyed man came towards him, pulling a knife out of his robes. Ignoring Harry, the man cut Harry on his arm, and even worse than the pain he felt from this was the feeling of being touched by someone so evil.

Just like Wormtail had done more than a year ago, he collected some of his blood from the cut and added it to the potion. Harry could not move; it was though someone had cast a binding spell on him, and all he could do was close his eyes, as the potion turned a blinding white. When he opened them, however, he once again found himself alone in the clearing; the man was gone. His relief at this was short-lived, as suddenly, he felt them again; they had found him; he could not stand here any longer, he had to move; had to run again. He didn't even care as he felt the trees scratching him as he hurtled past them; all that mattered was that he escaped.

That was when he jolted awake. He once again looked around the familiar room, frantically searching for the golden-eyed man, until he realised that he was alone except for Ron, who still slept in the bed next to his.

This dream had been worse than any of the others, mainly because it had felt so much more real. That was when he realised he felt a sharp pain in his arm; No, it couldn't be…

Harry turned on the lamp on his bedside table, knowing it wouldn't wake Ron who could sleep through anything short of an earthquake. He was horrified to see a new, deep cut, still with blood leaking out of it. He felt numb with disbelief. He could have just scratched himself in his sleep, he thought, before almost laughing at himself. This was no scratch; it was a deep cut made by a knife. That was when he noticed his arms were covered in lots of little thin scratches, as though…

As though he had run through a dense forest, being scratched by trees as he ran past as fast as he possibly could. This was incredibly serious; he had never sleepwalked before, and there was no way that he could have left Grimmauld place without anyone seeing him, was there? Something was going on; he had been right, these were not normal dreams. He had to tell someone, he had to ask for help; right now.

He looked at the clock; they had gone to bed early, so it was only 12:30 now, which meant someone was probably still awake downstairs, and he could tell someone from the order straight away.

He left the room quietly, after putting on his dressing gown, and made his way downstairs and through the door that led down to the kitchen. He was about to enter the room, when he heard voices coming from inside, and he froze, his hand on the door at the sound of his own name.

"…and Harry knows?"

"About the first one, yes. I think Dumbledore told him at the end of last year. The night Sirius died."

These two voices were Tonks and Lupin respectively, but they were not alone in the room, he heard another voice speak as well, as he felt a stab of fear; the night Sirius died, Dumbledore had told him about the prophecy. That had to be what they were talking about. He knew that the order had to know there was a prophecy, but did they know what it contained? Harry had assumed Dumbledore had kept that information to himself, but now he felt sick. Had they all known, all along? Had Sirius known?

"I can't imagine that. He's just sixteen, how must it feel to know that he's the only one who can defeat him?" This time the voice belonged to Mr. Weasley, and now Harry felt worse. He heard what sounded like Mrs. Weasley crying quietly; which meant that at least Ron's parents, Lupin and Tonks knew about the prophecy. How long had they known? Who else knew?

Harry leaned closer to the door, as he heard Tonk's reply, "Do you think Dumbledore will tell him about this one?"

What? Had there been another prophecy made, about him?

"I don't think so. Not yet, at least," came Lupin's grim reply, and Harry felt anger surge through him. If there had been another one, they were not going to tell him what it contained. Even after Dumbledore had admitted this had been a mistake with the first one.

Mr. Weasley sighed, "He's not a child anymore, though. I'm not sure keeping it a secret is the best idea. He'll have to find out eventually after all. But then again, I can partly understand. We don't really know anything about them yet. How can we be sure what he'll be facing?"

Now Harry was lost, and he felt confusion mixing with his anger. What were they talking about?

"Dumbledore's trying to find out more, but it's like nothing we've ever encountered before. I hope we're wrong, because he had too many allies as it was last time, but now if Voldemort has something this powerful as an ally, we're all going to be in a lot of trouble."

So had the prophecy been about this new possible ally of Voldemorts? Why were they so dangerous? Could this be linked to Harry's dreams in any way?

"Is there a chance they won't join him?" this was asked by Tonks, and there was a slight pause before Lupin answered her.

"We're not sure; we don't really know what they want yet. They could potentially have more power than Voldemort, if he helps them, so of course he might not risk it, in case they turn on him later on. We don't know a lot. The prophecy, of course as you know, told us a bit about them, but it was very vague. The only thing that was certain in it was that it was referring to the same one who could vanquish the dark lord. Harry."

For the first time, Harry heard Mrs. Weasley speak up. "I think Dumbledore's right. Harry shouldn't know yet, at least not until we know more about what we're facing. He's got enough to deal with as it is.

We should go up now, actually, we need an early start in the morning."

He heard them clearing up, and despite his shock, quickly made his way back up the stairs, not wanting them to know he had heard anything. They obviously weren't going to tell him anything. As he entered his room again, he felt angrier than he had in weeks. Not only had Dumbledore told them the first prophecy, he was still keeping big secrets from him; things he had a right to know. He also felt a lot of fear; this new ally sounded terrible, and it looked like he was going to be involved with them a lot too, if there had been prophecy about him and them. It was the last thing he needed; someone else targeting him. The dreams suddenly seemed so much worse; maybe the 'them' in his dream were the people this prophecy was about. Did that mean the dreams were going to come true? If he had learned one thing over the last few years, it was that there was no such thing as a coincidence.

That was when he remembered why he had gone down there in the first place; to tell them about the dreams. But he couldn't share them with them all now, he was so furious with them all.

He knew he was being stupid by not telling them, but he couldn't share himself with them now he knew they were all lying to him about something like this. Who were they to run his life for him? They had no right. Besides, the dreams weren't telling him anything about 'them' anyway, and if he mentioned his dreams, the order would just lie, and tell him they were nothing to worry about.

He lay there, unable to fall asleep. Was he in physical danger when he had the dreams? Just how powerful were these people, or whatever they were? He had to start taking the dreamless sleep potion more often. He would have to find a way to get some more; Remus had said that they wouldn't give him a lot. He realised that he wouldn't be able to keep this a secret from Dumbledore for too long, he would have to get help soon.

But for now he would keep the headmaster in the dark; just like he had done to Harry for so long.