Author's Note: I am soooo sorry for the long wait. School just started up and on top of that I was determined to make this chapter longer. I am definitely going to do a better job of getting these chapters out quicker from now on. I was so close to posting this chapter up, and we get hit with a hurricane. But I'm back up and running now, so here we go.

monster-post: I am sorry about the length of the other chapters, but chapter two was longer than chapter one! Hmm, that doesn't help does it? Eh, well, as you can see, this one is definitely longer, and I intend to make the others this length if not longer as well.

Tiffinsj: Yes, when he comes of age that would be right, however at this time he is only 16 and therefore not of age.

Dorian: I actually reread the part in the fifth book with Harry's conversation with Nearly-Headless Nick. In it, he never actually says that ONLY people who fear death become a ghost, he just says that that is the reason most do. Dumbledore didn't fear death, he just knew he had more he had to do, and that stuff is more important to him than moving on.

Disclaimer: Again, J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me.

Chapter 3: The Attack

Harry sat quietly in his room with his head outside the window, looking out at the stars. It was about a week before his birthday, and Harry was expecting to be rescued any day now. As he sat there, quietly thinking, his mind began to drift. He began thinking how hard it was going to be to go through his last year at Hogwarts while worrying about Voldemort. From that, his mind moved to how he was going to find where Regulus had hidden the other Horcruxes, if he even got his hands on any others. From there he wondered where Ron and Hermoine were hiding. Dumbledore had said that they, along with Ginny, were to be taken to the headquarters of the Order. But where that was he didn't know. Suddenly Harry began dwelling upon Ginny. He realized, after not seeing her in over a month how much he really missed her. He was hoping that she would take him back after this whole Voldemort business was over. He began remembering how her lips felt on his; those soft, smooth, and 'SNAPE IS STILL ON OUR SIDE!' What the fuck! Where did that come from? It felt as though that particular memory had been suddenly pulled to the front of his mind. It was then that Harry remembered that feeling, he had felt it before in Snape's personal classes in his fifth year. Then that would mean… suddenly Hedwig flew in through the window and knocked Harry's glasses off his head and into the grass outside the house.

"Damnit Hedwig! You stupid bird!"

Angrily, Harry stormed out of his room, down the stairs, out the front door, and around the house to where his glasses lay. Then it became clear to Harry as to why Dumbledore and McGonagall wanted him to stay in the house all summer. As soon as Harry picked up his glasses and put them on, everything began to grow black. Harry remembered that when the dementors attacked him, everything grew black as well. Something felt different this time, but Harry didn't have time to think of that, he had to find the dementors.

"LUMOS!"

Nothing. Harry heard the familiar sound of his wand casting a spell, but he saw nothing.

"LUMOS! LUMOS! LUMOS! LUMOS!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Harry's wand suddenly flew from his hand. Someone else was out there, someone who could do magic. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"CRUCIO!"

Unbelievable pain seared through Harry. He fell to his knees and screamed in agony. Only one good thing came from that spell, Harry now recognized the voice of his torturer, Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Do you like that, Potter? I believe this is an invention your friends came up with. Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder; does that ring a bell? Young Draco discovered this stuff; it seems to be very helpful when you use the Hand of Glory with it. Also, we were able to acquire another invention of those Weasley brothers. The name escapes me, but to sum up what it does, no one will be able to hear you scream. You have no idea how pleased it makes me to see you writhe in pain, Potter! I could kill you right now and take all the pain away of course. Would you like me to do that, Potter? I could… but that would end my fun! Besides, you're worth more to me alive. For instance…"

The thought that Dumbledore had become a ghost was suddenly dragged to the front of his mind. With his body in so much pain, it was impossible for him to try to resist her invasion of his thoughts.

"Excellent! The Dark Lord will be very pleased that I will be able to deliver this information to him. He was worried that Dumbledore would do that; he'll be happy to have a definite answer. Now, let's find out where your little group of friends are…"

It suddenly became clear to Harry as to why that information had been kept from him. He felt a blank being drawn to the front of his mind. He had no idea as to the Order's whereabouts.

"Damnit Potter! You are absolutely worthless! What's the point of keeping you alive when you can't give me the location of your friends? AVADA KE… wait, you can still serve me a purpose. I'm sure the Dark Lord would be very pleased if I were to deliver to him Harry Potter, alive. He would get a great amount of joy in killing you himself."

This was the chance Harry was waiting for. He heard the sounds of Bellatrix's footsteps coming closer. He reached his hand out in the direction he believed his wand to be and shouted, "ACCIO WAND!"

Harry's wand flew into his hands and obviously it surprised Bellatrix, because the Cruciatus Curse stopped. He leaped to his feet and pointed his wand at the spot he believed Bellatrix to be and shouted, "INCENDIO!"

He must have hit because the next sound he heard was Bellatrix's scream. He leapt toward the scream and knocked Bellatrix onto the ground. He reached around and felt the Hand of Glory. As soon as he touched it, everything lit up. He saw that he had only hit Bellatrix's left leg with the blast, but it was enough of a hit to knock her off-guard. He ripped the Hand of Glory from her grasp, and jumped back off her. He saw the look of absolute fear as suddenly her entire world went black due to Fred and George's invention. She began wildly scrambling around, trying to find either Harry or her wand, Harry couldn't tell which. Harry felt pity for her, despite his intense hatred he felt toward her. He lifted his wand and pointed it at her head.

"INCENDIO!"

Bellatrix's body went limp as her head was submerged in flames. Harry sat there and waited until he was sure she was dead and then cast the spell to douse the flames. Bellatrix's eyes were completely gone. It looked as though her tongue had been melted to the outside of her mouth. There was not one strand of hair left on her head, and her nose was non-existent. There were patches of skin on her face that were no longer there, exposing the now charcoal colored bone. Harry thought he had seen some ugly women before, but this one definitely took the cake.

He walked out of the darkness powder and turned around. It was beginning to wear off; he predicted it would be gone within the hour. He also noticed that Bellatrix had crawled outside of the powder; she was visible to anyone who happened to walk by. He knew Uncle Vernon would be at least infuriated when reporters came to his house asking why there was a burned corpse of a woman on the side of his house. He decided it would be best to at least hide her in the shrubs for now. As he began walking towards her, he heard someone calling for him.

"Harry! What on earth are you doing outside of the house?"

Harry turned to see Lupin running towards him, wand drawn.

"I'm sorry, my glasses fell out my window, I just ran down to get them."

Lupin's glance fell to the burnt corpse of Bellatrix and his eyes widened.

"And then…"

Harry turned to face the corpse as well and said casually, "Oh yes, then I burned her."

"Oh, so it was a her? May I ask exactly who you burned?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange."

At this Lupin's expression hardened. He knew what Bellatrix had done, but he never expected Harry to burn her to death.

"Harry, we better get back indoors. I'll talk with you about this then."

Lupin then ushered Harry back inside and up the stairs into his room. As Harry began packing Lupin began questioning him on what had happened.

"So Harry, why exactly did you leave the house after you were told countless times not to do so?"

"I don't know professor. My glasses fell out the window and I just went to get them, I wasn't thinking."

"Fair enough. After all, you are your father's son. He had his moments where he didn't think. Of course with him, those moments seemed to be just about his whole life." At saying that last part, Lupin gave a slight grin to Harry, showing he was just kidding around. Lupin then continued, "Now explain what happened with Bellatrix."

Harry explained the whole incident in extreme detail, leaving out only the part about Bellatrix knowing that Snape was on their side. For safety reasons, Dumbledore made Harry swear he wouldn't tell anyone that piece of information. Only he, Dumbledore, and McGonagall were the people that knew that, aside from Snape himself. And as was just proven from the encounter with Bellatrix, perhaps Harry made it one too many people who knew already.

"Interesting," said Lupin when Harry had finished, "it would seem either the Dark Lord or that bastard Snape has been teaching the Death Eaters Occlumency. Anyway, since I'm here I might as well take you away."

"Might as well take me away? You mean this wasn't the date you had originally planned to do it?"

"That's right, Harry. We intended to take you away on your seventeenth birthday. But seeing as I'm already here, and your birthday is a week away, I might as well take you now."

"Coming to pick me up on my birthday makes sense, but if that was so then why were you here?"

At this Lupin grinned at Harry. It was the kind of grin an adult gives a little child when they ask a question with such an obvious answer. "Harry, do you honestly think we would not keep an eye on you?"

The thought that members of the Order would watch over him had never occurred to him, although now it seemed so obvious. In the summer before his fifth year, the Order had a Squib watch over him, and even then members of the Order would rotate out. What would make this summer any different? Other than the fact that Voldemort was more powerful, which would explain why Lupin and not Mundungus was watching him.

Harry suddenly remembered something and looked up from his packing to face Lupin again, "Wait a minute, what about the wedding? If you intended to pick me up in two weeks, I would have missed the wedding. Why would you guys want me to miss the wedding?"

Lupin suddenly looked very sad and his face moved to face the ground. "Harry, the Burrow was attacked last month. Everyone was able to escape except Bill and Fleur. Bill was still asleep in bed and Fleur refused to leave him. When Mr. Weasley and I went back to inspect the damages, we found their two bodies lying underneath the Dark Mark. The Burrow was absolutely destroyed, nothing remaining but a large crater in the ground."

Harry, horrified at this news yet happy that only a few people were killed in a Death Eater attack, continued his packing in silence.

When Harry finished packing, Lupin beckoned him downstairs where they were met by a very angry Uncle Vernon. Harry glanced at the clock and noticed the time. It was one in the morning, a strange man was in his house, and something smelled like it had been incinerated; no wonder he was angry.

"What the bloody hell is the meaning of this!" Spit flew from Uncle Vernon's mouth as he screamed this. Lupin calmly wiped his face and then answered the angry man.

"Vernon Dursley, say goodbye to Harry. This very well be the last time you ever have to see him."

Uncle Vernon's face went from blood red to something that looked like a little kid's face when he first glanced at the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

"Well bloody hell, what am I doing standing your way! Please, please, right this way, the door is right this way."

With Uncle Vernon screaming in his delight, Aunt Petunia and Dudley climbed down the stairs, awakened by the sudden noise. Uncle Vernon was pushing them quite roughly towards the door, and Harry swore he saw some semblance of sadness on Aunt Petunia's face. As soon as he began pondering as to why she was sad, the front door had closed behind them.

"Well," said Lupin, "your Uncle seemed rather glad to get rid of you. Anyway, I do believe we should be…" Lupin stopped short, pulled out his wand and stared into the distance. "Harry… do you feel that?"

Sure enough, Harry had felt it. It was the feeling that was missing when Bellatrix found him. He had thought there were dementors out then, but then one thing was missing: the icy and fearful feeling that comes along with the foulest creatures on earth. Harry, too, pulled out his wand and held it front of him, ready to fight off as many dementors that came his way. Unfortunately for Harry, the dementors did not come from the front. The attack happed so suddenly neither Harry nor Lupin were able to react. The dementors swooped down from on top of the house and attacked from behind. The first wave of them knocked Harry and Lupin both to the ground. Lupin was able to spring up in time to point his wand at a group of them, but another group hit him from the side. Still, Lupin kept getting up and trying to fight. The dementors bothered with Harry very little, however, probably because Harry was not a threat to them. He was still down from the first wave. Fear had overcome him. He stared into emptiness as every fear he had ever experienced was dragged to the front of his mind. He did not notice at all when Lupin hit the floor and was unable to get up. He had no idea that right behind him, the best Defense of the Dark Arts teacher he had ever had was having his soul sucked out right behind him. The fear was too intense. He was on the edge of consciousness. The last words he heard before passing out was the sound of a lady, screaming out, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Author's Note: YAY! I got to leave a cliffhanger. These are fun to write. I suppose not so much fun for you guys though, huh? Don't worry, I won't make every chapter a cliffhanger, but this one felt so right.