A/N: I don't own this.

Chapter 3- Of Romance and Death

Voldemort surveyed the scene before him. His Death Eaters had broken into a laboratory in England and were able to capture two scientists who were familiar with the black plague. They had also stolen several containers of the black plague which would eventually be used against the world. So far his plans were working out really well. Next he would go to Azkaban and get the dementors on his side and release the Death Eaters who were involved at the Ministry in June. Then he would continue to build an army made of dementors and Death Eaters until he had over a thousand in his command.

"My lord, we have accomplished what you wanted," Wormtail said. "Two scientists familiar with the black plague have been captured and we have taken over a dozen samples of the most lethal black plague samples in this lab," Wormtail continued.

"Very well then," Voldemort said. "We can now go back to the Riddle house," Voldemort said and apparated back.

Harry was back at the Department of Mysteries watching Sirius duel against Bellatrix Lestrange. It was the night that Sirius had fell through the veil and all Harry could do was watch.

"Come on you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.

The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.

...And Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind and then fell back into place.

"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled, "SIRIUS!"

Harry woke up immediately in a cold sweat. That was a nightmare that had haunted his dreams recently and after each one, Harry found that he could not sleep afterward. Sighing, Harry looked at his clock only to see it was six in the morning. Harry got up then went to brush his teeth, shower and shave with a muggle razor he purchased recently from a store. Harry came back into his room half an hour later and saw an owl by his window. He let the owl in and saw that it was a letter from Dumbledore. He glanced at Hermione, who was still asleep and then opened the letter from Dumbledore.

Dear Harry,

First, I would like to apologize for the events which occurred in June. There are plenty of people who you could put the blame on but one of the key culprits is myself. I made a terrible mistake, a mistake that plenty of people make when they are my age. My mistake? Instead of keeping you informed of what was happening, I tried to protect you because I felt that you had too much to deal with. I realized that this wasn't the best course of action to take and I have now decided that I will try to keep you up to date with the news concerning Voldemort to the best of my ability.

As of right now, Voldemort is disappointed at the failure of his Death Eaters to get the prophecy from the Department of Mysteries and I believe he is planning something. There have been no individual attacks on muggles or wizards as of yet, but I read news concerning a laboratory in England near Liverpool. I believe that Voldemort and his Death Eaters broke in, then captured two scientists who were working with the black plague and took samples of the black plague. It is my belief that Voldemort intends to unleash the black plague on both muggles and wizards.

Voldemort has not yet helped his Death Eaters escape or convinced the dementors to fight with him yet but I believe that it is a matter of time before Voldemort breaks into Azkaban. As of right now, there are aurors in control of Azkaban as most dementors joined Voldemort in June after his return became public. If Voldemort does the same thing he did last time, he will just attack muggles, squibs and muggle-borns. However, I think that Voldemort is trying to build an army so he is recruiting more Death Eaters to join him. That is the news on Voldemort so far, so don't worry too much.

Concerning the lifetime quidditch ban given to you by Professor Umbridge, you are now cleared and your broom is in my possession as of now. A house elf also found a quill which Professor Umbridge used for detentions last year and the quill has a blood-draining curse, which was banned for over a century. A hearing will be held considering the future of Madam Umbridge in two days from today and you are expected to testify. So on that day, a member of the Order will pick you up at ten then you will take a portkey to the Ministry.

Enclosed in this package is a certificate for you to do magic at all times now that the Ministry realizes the danger you are in. There is also an apparating license inside for you. When the Order takes you to headquarters (which will be in three weeks from today), either Mrs. Weasely or Remus Lupin will teach you how to apparate. Enjoy your summer Harry and don't let the prophecy bother you too much.

Albus Dumbledore

Harry read through the letter and sighed. 'At least Dumbledore was going to be more honest this year,' Harry thought. As Harry was thinking of going jogging while leaving Hermione to sleep, he heard a noise behind him and immediately turned around with his wand pointed at whoever was behind him, which turned out to be Hermione.

"Whoa, Harry what are you doing?" Hermione asked.

"Sorry. I thought it was someone else," Harry said.

"Where are you going now Harry?" Hermione asked him.

"Oh I'm going jogging- want to go along and then I can cook you something to eat?" Harry asked.

"Sure. Let me brush up and get dressed first," Hermione said.

Five minutes later, Harry and Hermione were jogging along Privet Drive with the cool morning breeze hitting their faces. Harry found out that Hermione had trouble keeping up with him so he slowed down to a pace at which she could keep up with him. When they had finished, they went back to the Dursley home and Hermione took a shower. When Hermione was done, Harry went to take and came back to his room with his towel around his waist only to see Hermione sitting down on his bed looking at him enviously.

"Ooh can I see Harry?" Hermione asked giggling to herself while staring at Harry's bare chest. 'Oh my gosh, he looks dead sexy standing with a towel around his waist. I bet Lavender and Parvati are jealous of me since I can see Harry topless yet again. Wait- dead sexy? When did I think of my friend as dead sexy?' Hermione thought when Harry's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Um Hermione, can you close your eyes while I put on some pants?" Harry said as he pulled out a pair of boxer shorts and Calvin Klein jeans. Hermione then reluctantly closed her eyes and when she opened them, Harry was wearing his jeans but he was not wearing a shirt. Hermione found herself staring at Harry's body parts especially his chest then she got up.

"Oh Harry, you are so gorgeous," Hermione said before rushing to him and passionately kissing him on his lips while moving her hands all over his chest and arms feeling his muscles. She felt Harry kiss her back and then Harry lifted her up and put her on his bed with Harry on top of her kissing. After a few minutes, both came back up for air.

"I um... should start cooking breakfast now," Harry said putting on a shirt and taking Hermione's hand and leading her downstairs.

"You can cook Harry?" Hermione asked and Harry nodded. "Ooh if all the girls found out that you can cook, they will be lining up waiting for a chance to date you," Hermione said giggling causing Harry to blush extremely red.

"There's only one witch I'll be cooking for," Harry whispered in her ear before starting to kiss Hermione's neck causing Hermione to make groans of pleasure.

"Hmm you should be cooking Harry," Hermione said.

"Right," Harry said as he cracked some eggs and started frying bacon. "How would you like your eggs Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Oh, sunny side up," Hermione responded putting her hands on Harry's shoulders and leaning forward. While waiting for the bacon to fry and the eggs to cook, Harry started to kiss Hermione.

"I love you Hermione," Harry said as he scooped her eggs and bacon onto a plate and poured her a glass of orange juice then scooped some eggs and bacon for himself and poured a glass of orange juice for himself.

"I love you too Harry," Hermione said kissing him. "You make breakfast for everyone?" she asked.

"Yeah- for Dudley, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon," Harry replied in a flat tone as he continued to kiss Hermione who removed both her and Harry's shirts before they were interrupted by a scream.

"Vernon, Vernon come and look at this!" screamed Aunt Petunia upon seeing a topless Harry and Hermione who was in a bra, kissing each other.

"What in the world?" yelled Uncle Vernon as he came down the stairs. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BOY?" Uncle Vernon screamed in a louder voice, turning red.

"I..um was," Harry started to say before Hermione interrupted.

"He was cooking for you," Hermione said as she went closer to Harry.

"Well he should, the ungrateful brat," Aunt Petunia said as Uncle Vernon nodded in agreement.

Hermione was stunned and angry that the Dursleys had forced Harry to do things like this. Instead of yelling at the Dursleys, which was what she wanted to do, Hermione put on a smile, turned to Harry and asked "so what are we doing today?"

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his study at Hogwarts. Recently he had been thinking about Harry Potter a lot. Dumbledore did not want to burden Harry with the prophecy last year but he couldn't think of another alternative and Harry had to know eventually. Dumbledore was still thinking when he heard the voice of Phineas Nigellus speak from his portrait.

"So what is new Dumbledore?" asked Phineas as the other portraits started to stir.

"I have been thinking about Harry Potter," Dumbledore said.

"Ah the Potter boy. He is a strong boy, even stronger than you think Dumbledore but he does have his limits," Phineas said.

"I know Phineas. Harry is important if Voldemort is to be defeated," Dumbledore said.

"Do you know Dumbledore, I think that the boy may be Gryffindor's heir," Phineas said.

"Why do you say that Phineas?" asked Dumbledore.

"See Dumbledore, the boy is more powerful than you think. Just ask Severus Snape," Phineas said as Dumbledore left to find Snape.

"Ah, Severus," Dumbledore said when he reached Snape's office.

"Headmaster," Snape replied in his usual manner.

"Severus, Phineas Nigellus has told me he thinks Harry Potter is Gryffindor's heir and I want to know what you think," Dumbledore told Snape.

"It is possible because the boy was able to do legillimens on me which is unusual. I suggest you speak with the other teachers before you tell the boy," Snape replied.

Dumbledore then left and went to speak with the other professors while thinking 'if Harry is Gryffindor's heir, then Voldemort is in for a fight that Harry will most likely win. Gryffindor was one of the most powerful wizards and a really good swordsman. Then Harry will have Gryffindor's sword and I will need to owl Dayton so that Harry can learn how to fight.'

Meanwhile, one of the scientists had told Lord Voldemort he couldn't assist in Voldemort's plan to unleash the black plague on everyone and Voldemort was displeased. Voldemort had put the man under the Cruciatus curse, but the man had still refused to work and was now in front of Voldemort whimpering in fear.

"Useless muggle, I have no use for you now," Voldemort said before taking out his wand and pointing it at the scientist. "Avada Kedavra," Voldemort said as the scientist died. "You there," Voldemort said, pointing at the other scientist, unless you want to end up like your partner, you better listen to my instructions," Voldemort said pointing to the dead scientist. "Is that clear?" asked Voldemort.

The scientist was scared, so he merely nodded nervously before running off to continue his work. Lord Voldemort watched everything and smiled. So far everything was working like he wanted. Too bad that meddling scientist had refused to work. 'Damn fool,' Voldemort thought. Luckily the other scientist had agreed to continue but did not know that Voldemort would kill him anyway.

Author's notes: I don't care if you think that I can't write. Please send any criticism, suggestions, etc. to Thank you all.