Disappeared

Harry was striding purposefully down a long stone corridor; his eyes fixed straight ahead, his long robes billowing behind him. For the first time in many years, he felt…not happy; that was too simplistic to describe the pure, unadulterated ecstasy he could feel flowing through his veins. He was in control, his own power so great that he was almost in awe of it.

He stopped, turned to a large wooden door and opened it slowly.

The door lead to a richly furnished room, the walls decorated with tapestries and the floor strewn with brightly coloured rugs. In the middle of the room was a large, four poster bed, on which sat a dark-haired girl.

She had her knees drawn to her chest, and was staring out of the window. Although her jaw was set, Harry noted with satisfaction that her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.

"I trust you are feeling better," said Harry, silkily.

Without looking at him, the girl replied "Tell your…people to stay away from me."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?" he said, moving closer to the bed.

The girl's eyes flicked over to him, momentarily, and then went back to staring out of the window. "Tell your people to stay away from me – please," she muttered, the last word through gritted teeth.

Harry flexed his fingers, eager to take out his wand and show this brat who she was dealing with. Instead, however, he reminded himself to exercise self control and smiled.

"That's better," he said.

The girl looked up and stared him full in the face. Harry was surprised and angry to see that the look was not one of terror, or even trepidation, but of anger.

"Let me go home, NOW," she said.

Without replying, Harry swept out of the room, firmly closing the door behind him. The things we do… he thought, as he heard the girl's voice rising to a shrill scream.

"Let me out…LET ME OUT YOU BASTARD!"

Harry's eyes snapped open. Becoming aware of where he was, he disentangled himself from his bedclothes, his heart palpitating. Little by little, remnants of the nightmare came back to him.

A chill ran through him as realised he had been seeing through Voldemort's eyes. The girl on the bed…it couldn't have been Sally…she's a Muggle, she has nothing to do with do anything.

Trying to calm down, Harry reached for his glasses. As a NEWT student, he now had his own study bedroom. It was at moments like this that Harry yearned for the even breathing of the other three people in his old dormitory; something to bring him back to normality.

Should I go to Dumbledore? thought Harry. The dream was exactly like the one he had had about Arthur Weasley the previous year, exactly like the one he had had about Sirius…Harry shivered. Could this be a trap?

Charging into Dumbledore's office in the middle of the night was not the best thing to do, decided Harry, especially about a dream that was so utterly implausible. He would wait until the morning.

"Chocolate Frog. Sugar quill. Fizzing Whizzbee. Um…Acid Pop?" The gargoyle stayed motionless. Harry kicked it in annoyance. Why did Dumbledore have to keep changing the password?

He had managed to get through breakfast without speaking much to either Ron or Hermione, as he knew that the first words out of his mouth would be "I had this dream last night…" The niggling doubt in his mind had forced him up to Dumbledore's office, although he knew that it would probably turn out to be pointless.

"Ice mice," said a voice behind him.

Harry turned around to see Professor McGonagall looking at him curiously. She looked as though she was going to ask him a question, but clearly thought better of it and walked through into the Headmaster's office.

Harry followed after her quickly, sure that the gargoyle had just smirked at him.

As he entered Dumbledore's office, Harry was surprised to see not just Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore, but several other people as well. As Remus Lupin entered via the floo and gave him a surprised smile, realisation dawned on Harry.

He had walked in on a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry mentally kicked himself. Of course Dumbledore had more important things to do – the wizarding world was at war for goodness sake! Besides, he wasn't about to start pouring his heart out about a dream in front of all these people, not after what had happened last time.

As he turned to leave, however, Dumbledore put his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"I assume you wanted to see me, Harry," he said, smiling.

"I'll come back later," mumbled Harry. "It wasn't important."

"We can go into my chambers if you would prefer," said Dumbledore, indicating a door to the side of the large office that Harry hadn't noticed before.

Harry nodded.

The small annexe off the much larger office contained a small table and three plush chairs. Dumbledore sat in one and indicated for Harry to do the same. He leaned forward.

"So," he said, "what did you want to talk to me about?"

The niggling doubt that had previously been in Harry's mind had now developed into full blown paranoia. He took a deep breath.

"I had another dream," he said. "Voldemort had kidnapped…a girl. She's a Muggle, a friend of mine, but she can't be…I mean, she's a Muggle…" Harry trailed off.

Dumbledore sat up, eyebrows raised. Without saying a word, he stood up and walked back into the main office. Harry followed him, confused.

All the people in the office turned to look at Dumbledore and Harry, but Dumbledore ignored them. He moved towards his desk and began to sort through a pile of what seemed to be Muggle newspapers. He picked one up and handed it to Harry.

"Is this the girl?" Dumbledore asked, his voice low.

Harry felt as though the floor had disappeared from beneath his feet. On the front page was a picture of Sally in her school uniform underneath the headline:

POLICE BEGIN HUNT FOR MISSING TEENAGER.

A/N: Two chapters in less thantwenty-fourhours, I am on a roll! However, I have only received one review for my last chapter and that is from the ever stunning juno malabre. Please review, I love receiving them, they make me happy…sob.