Ginny spent the rest of the term in the Hospital wing with baby Laura. Ron was a bit offended that Harry got to be godfather but he got ever it after a while and set out, secretly, to break up Hermione and Draco.
Despite Ron's feeble attempts, the couple were still going strong and hadn't had a single mishap.
Harry and Claire broke up, twice, but as the last week of school came around they found themselves together yet again.
Harry began to get the feeling of happiness as he realised Voldemort was officially out of his life until September first.
He'd just finished his final exam and was sitting by the lake with all his friends, enjoying a well-earned butterbeer. Even Ginny had come to join the celebrations while Laura took a nap.
"Wouldn't that be a great place to jump in for a swim" Dean pointed up the cliff to where Harry had blindly committed suicide. Only Hermione and Ginny knew that that was the spot. Harry had confided in Ginny when she questioned him. After all she saw him blow up a street a few months ago.
Harry and Malfoy exchanged a glance.
"Hey Potter!" Blaise hit Harry playfully over the back of the head. "I'll jump if you do"
"Deal" Harry said automatically, ignoring Hermione's fearful attempts to get him to stop.
Harry led the way up the cliff then he and Blaise stood, looking down at the rocks.
"Over there" Harry pointed to a deeper part where he suspected he and Malfoy had landed.
"Jump you chickens!" Dean yelled out.
Blaise gave Harry a shove and the raven-haired boy grabbed him by the upper arm.
"Your coming with me" he whispered menacingly, noticing Dumbledore watching them from his office window.
"Fine" Blaise jumped, taking Harry by surprise. Both of them tumbled over the cliff edge and Harry heard Ginny scream as he and Blaise hit the water.
Harry tumbled around underwater, trying desperately to detangle himself from Blaise. He scrapped his back on a rock in the process but he finally managed to resurface,
"You dickhead!" he yelled, grabbing Blaise by the shoulders and dunking him. "You jumped in the shallow part!"
"We're alive, aren't we?" Blaise laughed and swam back towards the shore. Harry followed close behind him and dragged himself up onto the bank of the lake. He lay there for a moment, savouring the warm sunshine and the smooth texture of the pebbles beneath him.
"Harry your bleeding!" Hermione stood up quickly, pointing at Harry's back.
"It'll be fine" Harry muttered without opening his eyes. It didn't hurt so it couldn't be too bad.
"Seriously Harry! You're bleeding! Get up, I'm taking you to madam Pomfrey"
Harry swivelled his head around and found that the back of his robes were stained with blood.
"Shit" he said, more annoyed that he had to get up then the fact that he could be seriously hurt. He decided to stay there.
"Are you nuts Potter? Jumping off that cliff like a mad man? You to Zabini! I saw you push him" McGonagall came and stood over Harry, blocking his sunshine. He groaned and closed his eyes.
"And you're injured! Get up now! We're going to Madam Pomfrey"
"No" Harry replied shortly. "Its not that bad."
McGonagall stood stiffly for a moment.
"Five points from Gryffindor. I'm going to get the head master"
"Get up, Harry!" Hermione pleaded as the rest of the gang gathered around.
"Jeez that is serious!" Dean exclaimed, poking Harry. Harry hit him away and pulled up his shirt. There was a reasonably deep gash, about an inch long, going from the middle of his back diagonally down to his hip.
"Bloody hell!" he got to his feet and wiped some of the blood away.
"Will you come now?" Hermione tugged at his arm.
"I reckon I could heal it myself," he said lightly so only she could hear.
"NO!"
McGonagall came striding back across the lawn with Dumbledore and Harry suddenly turned and ran the other way.
"Harry!" Hermione must have been expecting it because she ran after him instantly. Everyone else just stood, watching in shock.
He stopped behind a bush about halfway around the lake and took his shirt off. Hermione collapsed beside him.
"Harry this is dangerous" she complained as he put his hand over the wound. He had never done anything like this before but it seemed natural to him.
"Harry-" Dumbledore appeared around their little enclosed space.
"Shh!" Hermione held up a hand, rudely cutting Dumbledore off.
"Potter, what-?" McGonagall appeared beside Dumbledore and once again Hermione made her shushing movement again.
Harry's hands began glowing silver and the skin gradually began to heal over, leaving a neat, pink battle scar.
"Impressive" Dumbledore said as Harry looked up, grinning.
"Hey Potter" Malfoy's voice burst into his mind. "Look at the sky. Something weird is happening…"
Harry stood up and held out a hand for Hermione before going out into the open and looking towards the heavens.
The sky was becoming a crimson red colour that swirled around and around; it was almost hypnotic.
"Could it be?" McGonagall whispered in horror as a dull coloured lightening struck the sky.
A single drop of water fell, almost in slow motion, and splashed across the back of Harry's hand. He lifted it to inspect the substance and found that it wasn't a clear drop of water; it was red and it looked disturbingly like…
"Blood" Harry said, shaking the drop off and forcing himself not to be sick. More drops of crimson blood began to fall from the sky.
"Everyone in the castle, NOW!" Dumbledore bellowed to the perplexed students watching this strange turn of events.
Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and together, with the headmaster and deputy headmistress behind them, they sprinted towards the castle doors that were slightly blocked with a throbbing mass of students trying to escape the blood bath.
Once safely inside the castle, Harry looked around frantically for his friends and to his relief he found them standing over to one side of the dimly lite hall, standing stock still with shock.
The hall was suddenly brightly lit as candles along the wall self ignited.
"Everyone in the great hall Please!" Dumbledore called as Hagrid sealed the front doors.
Harry filed obediently into the great hall with the rest of the student body and sat quietly beside Claire at the Gryffindor table as the staff climbed the stairs to the platform. A few Hufflepuff girls were crying.
"As most of you already know" Dumbledore started, sending the terrified students into a deafening silence. "It has started raining blood. Now I want all of you to stay calm. This downpour is not so out of the ordinary as you think. When the sky turns crimson it means that the reign of a powerfully evil wizard has ended to make way for someone more powerful and more evil. The Ministry of magic has a special weapon in London that reads the words of the rain and that will tell us who the next sorcerer is. After that the ministry will hunt this person down and make sure they're dealt with. I will have the house elves supply you with a meal and I strongly advise, for your own safety, that you stay inside the castle. The blood will not harm you but the creatures that the blood attracts will. Thank you"
Dumbledore hurried from the hall with his staff, leaving orders for the head boy and girl to be in charge.
Harry got up and tore after Dumbledore.
"Who's the wizard?" he asked, catching the headmaster and teachers at the gargoyle outside Dumbledore's office.
"Come upstairs, Harry" Dumbledore said simply, leading Harry and the staff to his office.
The headmaster sat behind his desk and made sure everyone was comfortable before speaking again.
"The wizard who has met his downfall, for the second time, is Voldemort"
"You mean he's dead?" Harry asked incredulously, the colour draining from his face.
"No, Harry. He is still just as powerful as he always was. But now there is someone else out there."
"When do we find out who it is?" Harry gripped the arm of his chair, staring straight at Dumbledore, coaxing the truth from him with his eyes.
"In a few hours I'd say. Hopefully we have nothing to worry about and the ministry will catch the sorry bugger before he can do any harm" Nixon exclaimed.
Harry stood up and walked to the window. What he saw made him even sicker.
Thestrals and other strange bloodsucking creatures were romping around on the school grounds. The green grass was now a deep reddish-purple colour and the lake was bubbling as if it was sitting on a hot stove.
Harry turned away from the window and left the office with Dumbledore's promise that he would tell Harry who this more evil wizard was.
A few hours later Harry was sitting in the Great hall between Ron and Claire, forcing himself to eat and laugh along with the rest while secretly watching Dumbledore who was feasting at the staff table.
There was a loud clap of thunder and a huge black bird came soaring through an open window and landed neatly beside Dumbledore's plate.
Dumbledore untied the red envelope, a howler, and slit it open while the rest of the school watched with some foreboding.
The letter was silent for a moment before it suddenly started to shout.
"YOU WONT BELIEVE IT, DUMBLEDORE! RIGHT UNDER OUR VERY NOSES THE WHOLE TIME! YOU ARE IN VERY GRAVE DANGER AT THAT SCHOOL. YOU AND THE WHOLE STUDENT BODY…WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? YOU-KNOW-WHO'S SUCCESSOR IS, GOD I'M ALMOST TO SHOCKED TO SAY IT… DUMBLEDORE, IT'S HARRY POTTER…"
The voice of Cornelius Fudge faded away and the envelope burst into flames.
The silence that struck the hall was deafening, but the noise that followed was twice as worse.
Girls started screaming some students pulled out their wands while Dumbledore attempted to call for silence.
Ron and Claire got up hurriedly and backed away from the table.
Harry simply sat there, staring at his plate and wondering, almost in irony, how this turn of events came around.
Suddenly he stood up and everyone ran to the other end of the hall.
A hex came flying at him from the head girl's wand and Harry let it rebound effortlessly off his palm. More people started to scream and Harry left the room at a sprint.
And he went straight to the boys' toilets where he was violently sick in one of the cubicles.
When he'd finished he simply sat there, staring aimlessly at a scrap of graffiti on the wall, listening to the students running past in the hall outside and the teachers ordering for prefects and anybody else who found Potter to be on their guards and inform a teacher immediately.
The bathroom door opened slightly and Malfoy slipped through the crack so no one outside saw him enter. He spotted Harry and came straight over, not bothering with a wand or anything.
"Thought I'd find you here" he said, sliding down the wall beside Harry.
"You know I now have a death sentence on my head. That one little howler and I'm dead"
"Maybe they made a mistake," Malfoy offered.
"Doubt it"
"Dumbledore wants to speak with you"
"Why? Is he going to do the dirty deed?"
"He wants to get you out of this mess"
The bathroom door opened again and two first year boys entered, wands held at duelling point.
"HE'S HERE! IN THIS BATHROOM!" one of them screamed. Harry merely sat there, calm as could be as footsteps came flying towards the toilet door.
Snape shooed the boys away and entered, locking the door behind him.
"So you're going to kill me," Harry asked gently, a twisted smile spread across his face. "I'll bet you've always wanted to do that"
"Shut up, Potter!" Snape hissed, "Where's your invisibility cloak? You need to get out of here"
"It's in the tower."
Snape strode to the window and opened it. Outside it was still pouring blood. He pointed his wand at the Gryffindor tower and summoned the cloak.
Harry put it on, not caring what happened now, and stood between Snape and Malfoy.
Snape opened the bathroom door and walked out to face a corridor full of students waiting to have Harry's head.
"False alarm" Snape announced. "It was only Malfoy"
He waited until the crowd had dispersed before he and Malfoy led Harry to the headmaster's office.
Dumbledore was pacing the room when they arrived.
"Did you find him?" he asked anxiously, pausing mid-step to look at Snape and Malfoy. Harry pulled off his cloak and stared defensively at Dumbledore. For a while Dumbledore didn't say anything. Finally he sat behind his desk and, fingers steepled, watched Harry sadly.
"Did you know, Harry?" he asked after more silence. Harry shook his head slowly and deliberately.
Dumbledore shuffled some papers on his desk before turning to Malfoy.
"Draco, will you please go and collect Hermione, Claire and Ron? I think they and Harry need to have a word."
Malfoy left obediently and was followed by Snape who was going to continue a fake search for Harry.
"I'm not evil" Harry stated as the door clicked shut.
"I know that, Harry. What we need to do now though is keep you safe. Fudge and a few aurors are on their way here to collect you…"
Harry and Dumbledore looked up as Malfoy returned with Hermione, Ron and Claire.
Ron and Claire stood, rather fearfully, by the door but Hermione lunged at Harry, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him hard.
"What's going on, Harry? How the hell can you be evil?"
"I'm not" Harry frowned and unlatched Hermione's hands from his robes.
"Then why are you Voldemort's successor?" she put her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow. It was all Harry could do from laughing. Instead he turned to Dumbledore who seemed just as perplexed as he did.
"I need to talk to him," Harry said suddenly. "I need to find him and ask him, before Fudge gets here!"
Dumbledore looked hesitantly across the room to a cabinet full of crystals then back to Harry who raised a questioning eyebrow. Dumbledore finally nodded and moved across the room to pick up a crystal on a string and a recently made map of London.
"We'll scry for him. Here, get some of his blood on this crystal."
Harry seized the rock in one hand and threw open the window with the other. Once the crystal had a fair amount of blood on it Harry turned back to the desk where Dumbledore had laid out the map.
"Hold the crystal over it and say his name thrice"
Harry did as requested and the Crystal began swinging in even, slow circles before coming to a steady stop on a house next door to the train station.
"Where can I apperate from?" he asked, getting an image of the house in his mind. "I know there must be a hole in the net somewhere in this room."
Dumbledore positioned Harry between a desk and Fawkes' perch.
"Good luck and great haste" Dumbledore whispered. Harry nodded and apperated.
It was raining blood in London as well but it must have been camouflaged as real rain for the Muggles hurried through it as though it was merely a shower.
Harry ran up the front steps of the average sized house and unlocked the door with his magic.
It didn't take him long to find Voldemort. The man was sitting in the downstairs living room but the fire, watching his own blood fall miserably from the sky.
"What's going on?" Harry asked, moving, unafraid, across the room.
"You tell me." Voldemort sighed, rubbing his skeletal head with two fingers. "You're the new dark lord"
Harry moved across the room and stood by the fire so he could see Voldemort's face.
"Your just a man" Harry said quietly, watching his life long enemy staring out the window at his own down pour of blood.
"I have always been a man, Potter. What you don't understand is that I am a very powerful man…"
"Does this have something to do with that prophecy?" Harry cut in, gesturing at the window. He didn't know how long it would take the ministry to get to Hogwarts and he guessed he should be back before they arrive and begin a manhunt of their own.
"It could do. But I hardly see how you can be in anyway linked to Egypt." Voldemort smiled, cruel and twisted and suddenly he was a monster again.
"So where do your loyalties lie now, Potter? With me, Or the Ministry?"
"I have no loyalties anymore" Harry said quietly, watching as the rain outside slowly began to turn from blood to water and the clouds turned from crimson to grey.
"Very well. We shall continue our war when the time comes, until them…" Voldemort stood up and apperated from the house. Harry stood, contemplating Voldemort's lack of knowledge before Apperating himself back to school.
Review please!
Sirius finds out something about his past.