Author's Note: Welcome to my fic. I am reposting the first few chapters, because when I started writing, I had no idea that there was an appropriate format. I know that most sixth year fics start off pretty much the same, and mine is no exception. I could summarize the first chapters for you, but then I would have wasted my time with writing all those words, right? Anyway, I hope you don't get bored, and continue to read on. Review if you can spare the time. Enjoy.

Jeremy

Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to Harry Potter or any characters or places in this story, they belong to JK Rowling. I am making no money from this story.

Harry Potter and the Paths of Fate

Chapter 1: Quiet Changes

It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon at number 4 Privet Drive. In fact it seemed as if the whole world had slowly gone silent. The skies were somewhat cloudy but it was fairly warm outside. It was the third week of summer holiday and Harry Potter was sitting at the desk in his room. His eyes were staring out the window unfocused. They were clearly bloodshot, but still shown a bright green beneath his glasses. He was vaguely watching the skyline for Hedwig to return from delivering his letter to Remus Lupin. Not much had changed about him in the few weeks since the end of term. He had grown slightly taller, and was still skinny although he appeared to have a firm build. He had untidy black hair, which never lay flat, and on his forehead there was a small white scar shaped like a lightning bolt. He found himself tracing the scar with his finger while he thought. He remembered that he used to think how the scar was one of the few things he liked about himself. If only he had known how much pain this scar would cause. How he hated it now.

His mind started to drift off again. Harry had spent the last three weeks torn between thinking about the past year at school, and trying not to. There were many things he couldn't bear to remember and those were the thoughts that most often crept into his mind. He found himself once again turning over those memories

Harry had spent most of the term feeling angry and misunderstood. It had started last summer after he had witnessed the return of Lord Voldemort. Harry could feel his eyes glaze with tears as he remembered the scene in the graveyard from that night. He recalled the look on the face Cedric Diggory, a fellow student, as he was killed. Then his mind flashed to the horrid sight of Voldemort reborn. The hands that were long and white, the snakelike face, those scarlet eyes, with slits for pupils, and the cold high-pitched voice haunted Harry. He had dueled with Voldemort and managed to escape again. And then, he was cut off from the wizarding world. No one told him anything, not his friends, or Sirius, and especially not Professor Dumbledore. Harry felt foolish now at having been so angry with them all. As it had turned out, Dumbledore had his reasons for not telling Harry what was going on. Harry had also suffered ridicule and persecution from the Daily Prophet, the wizard newspaper that had been printing articles supported by the Ministry of Magic. These stories were being used to discredit Harry, making him out to be an attention-seeker and a liar. They had been unwilling to accept Harry's story that Voldemort had returned to power.

More disturbing than all of that, had been the recurring nightmares that made his scar sear with pain. The dreams were visions of the Dark Lord. It was the scar that Harry received when Voldemort had tried to kill him as a baby. It had created a link between them, which the Dark Lord had used to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic with the purpose of getting Harry to retrieve a prophecy. He had lead his friends into a trap. Voldemort's Death Eaters had been waiting for him. Members of The Order of the Phoenix came to rescue them, but in the ensuing battle the prophecy was smashed. Then Harry suffered the worst loss of his life. While dueling with Bellatrix Lestrange his Godfather was killed. Again Harry felt red-hot tears brimming in his eyes. He knew he had been a fool to endanger his friends like that, but the loss of Sirius was too much too endure. Sirius Black was a kind and brave man, Harry thought. For the two years he had known him Sirius had always tried to help Harry with his problems. In the short time since discovering who Sirius was they had grown close. Now he was gone and Harry felt that it was his fault. And each time that Harry's mind came to that part, he could sense his scar burn, and the emotions attached to it were both fear and joy, although they were completely separate from the pain in his heart.

Finally it was that prophecy, the prophecy that had been smashed, which Professor Dumbledore was able to recall for him. Harry could see vividly the figure in the pensieve as it rotated, repeating the words of the prophecy made more than sixteen years ago. "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…." These words Voldemort knew, but that was not the whole prediction. "…. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, But he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not…." And so it was, that when Voldemort had tried to kill him as a baby, he transferred some of his own power to Harry, and gave him the lightning shaped scar. But it was the last part scarred Harry. "…. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…." Dumbledore told Harry that it meant that he was the only one who could defeat Voldemort, and if he could not, then Voldemort would murder him.

Sometimes these things would build up like a weight in his chest that made it hard to breath. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get past these feelings. Harry was anxious to return to his world, the wizarding world. He hated being stuck here in Privet Drive, shut out from the place that he belonged. His birthday was in a little more than a week, but it wouldn't be the same; not without Sirius.

His Aunt Petunia calling him for dinner interrupted Harry's thoughts. He wiped off his face and tried to clear his mind. He was sure that he still needed to practice Occlumency to protect his mind. He knew that the mistakes he had made would have been prevented if he had practiced more last term. It was much easier to do without Snape, Harry's least favorite professor, taunting him; but he found that when he emptied his head of emotion he felt cold and uncomfortable. However the lesson was learned, Harry was determined not to let himself put the people he loved in jeopardy ever again. He just needed to concentrate.

Harry got up from the desk and left his room to go downstairs for dinner. Over the last few weeks he found that he was still having trouble deciding whether he wanted to be with other people or not, so he had skipped more than a few meals. It usually depended on his mood. It is true that the Dursley's hardly treated him as a person to begin with, and weren't upset at all if he deprived them of his company. They would never think of asking him if he was ok, and he did find some tranquility in his solitude. He smiled as he got to the bottom of the steps thinking of how his friends would react if they knew he wasn't eating properly. Hermione would look very worried and nag him about it. Ron however would look at him incredulously as if the thought of not eating was a personal insult.

At the moment he was rather hungry as teenage boys frequently are, and had decided that he could endure the Dursley's at least long enough to eat. Yet here was another change that was taking some getting used to. Normally at number four Privet Drive it was the unofficial pastime to ridicule Harry. Indeed his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin seemed to find pleasure in persecuting him. This summer had been quite different though as the Dursley's were acting almost civil towards him. Even Dudley, Harry's cousin who always enjoyed bullying him, seemed to have lost his penchant for it. This strange turn in their treatment of Harry was in no doubt due to the threats that had been made on Harry's behalf by a group of older wizards who had some part in protecting Harry. The group which included Mr. And Mrs.Weasley, his best friend Ron's parents; the sinister looking "Madeye" Moody; Remus Lupin (a werewolf); and Nymphadora Tonks, a witch who had pink hair at the time. At the end of term, while the Dursley's were picking Harry up at the King's Cross train station, these wizards made it very clear that if Harry was being mistreated they would be paying a visit to the Dursley home.

Well it was bad enough that they had Harry in their home, never mind what the neighbors would say if that lot was seen knocking on the front door. Aunt Petunia couldn't bear the notion of it. Moreover Uncle Vernon and Dudley had yet to have an encounter with a full-grown wizard in their home and come off better for it. Therefore Harry had been granted much more leniency and freedom than usual. As he entered the kitchen he thought that he should thank them all in his next letter.

Another improvement Harry noticed was at mealtime, if he bothered to go. Dudley was no longer on a diet. In the last few years Dudley had grown to be so immense that he had over shadowed his father. Dudley's school therefore insisted that he go on a diet. As a result, Aunt Petunia decided that everyone in the house would have to follow it just to be fair to Dudley, which meant that Harry received even smaller portions of his already meager repast. This too had changed as last year Dudley found a new love in the form of boxing. With all the training he had been doing there was really no need to continue eating the sparse meals. So when Harry sat down it was to a fully laden table. The meal was steak and kidney pie and potatoes, with lemon ice for desert.

Harry was cleaning the dishes when he heard the doorbell ring. Uncle Vernon set down his newspaper and looked rather dejected as he left the kitchen to answer the door. A moment latter to his dismay, Harry heard Uncle Vernon bellow "Harry Potter!" He wasn't sure what he could have done but he set down the plate that was in his hand and went into the hallway to see what was the matter.

Author's note: First; Chapter 1 Paragraph 4 References to the Prophecy are quoted from Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix: Chapter Thirty-Seven, page 841, 2nd paragraph, Written by JK Rowling. I used those words only for accuracy.