The volume of outgoing owls from Hogwarts had never been greater than it was on the day following the battle in Hogsmeade. There was barely an owl available as the students scrambled to send a message to their families assuring them that they were still alive and well before the Daily Prophet could spread the second hand details of what had happened. By the time many of their owls had arrived, however, many of their parents were already composing panicked letters to Hogwarts inquiring about their children.

A little side note that most of the students would not know, was that, in Diagon Alley over the next few days, the Weasley twins sale of their ministry model would multiply three hundred percent over all of their previous sales combined. The twins weren't panicked though. They had bet that the explosion in sales would come eventually. They had stocked enough in their warehouse to fill every order. The thing that had them stumped was why their account at Gringotts had grown far beyond where their own account sheets said it should.

Nearly everyone in the Sunday D.A. class came to the room of requirement early. They were all anxious to see what Harry would do in the class in light of recent events. They were beginning to wonder if the class had been canceled when Harry hadn't arrived several minutes after the class should have begun.

"Sorry I'm late everyone," Harry said as he and Ginny walked in. "I've had to spend most of the day with my head in the floo network reassuring some of your parents that they attacked us and not the other way around."

"How thick can some people get?" Delores asked. "No one would willingly seek out a fight with death eaters."

"Parents," Seamus said in disgust.

"Why did you have to talk to them, Harry?" Neville asked. "Why wasn't it Professor Dumbledore that talked to them?"

"Did you see what they wrote in the Daily Prophet?" Ginny asked. "They were kind enough to change things a little. They turned the D.A. into the P.A. Now everyone thinks Harry is teaching this class to build his own army to fight the death eaters and Voldemort."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Dean asked.

"Think about it," Hermione said. "Who else has trained their own private army?"

"They surely don't think Harry's training us to take over the world," Neville said shaking his head.

"Don't worry Neville," Harry said. "Your parents couldn't have been happier. Look at it as a parent for a minute though. Try to imagine it was your child fighting the death eaters. To them it looks like I'm gathering followers. Even I can look at it and see that the similarities are a little scary."

"You don't gather followers through fear and intimidation though," Ron said. "We all came here because we wanted to. "

"You never would have gotten any of us Slytherin here through intimidation," Delores said. "I haven't been afraid since I came to that first meeting."

"You've touched on the subject for the entire class today," Harry said. "We're going to concentrate solely on occulmency today. In the next battle you may need it. Voldemort is a master of breaking down your mental defenses. If he gets the chance, he'll take control of your mind and use you against me."

"That's why you don't want any of us to interfere," Cassidy said.

"No matter what," Harry began, "I could never bring myself to hurt any of you."

The class proceeded normally for the next four hours. By the time the class was coming to an end, everyone was as relaxed and focused as they had ever been.

"Even if no one tries to get in my head," Seamus began, "I'm going to use this before my N.E.W.T.s. I feel great."

"Before I let you all go," Harry said, "there's something serious I need to discuss with you all."

Harry went on to tell them all the details of what happened between Draco and his father.

"You don't think he'll try to do anything to Draco here do you?" Cassidy asked concerned.

"You were there, Cassidy," Harry said. "You saw it with your own eyes. He tried to kill him. Draco knows too much about the death eaters. If Lucius thinks he's turned to our side he'll try again, and soon. Don't forget that they still don't know who it was that attacked Hermione."

"What do you want us to do?" Ron asked, suddenly much more interested.

"I don't want Draco to go anywhere in this school alone," Harry said. "I want someone from the D. A. keeping an eye on him all the time."

"He won't like it if he finds out about this," Cassidy said.

"I know," Harry said. "That's why you have to do it without him knowing about it. I'll tell the others about it tomorrow. That way it'll involve more people and be less evident."

"Well I don't think he'll have anything to worry about once you get those second years on the case," Dean said. "I still can't believe how they ran out into that battle and protected the injured. You should have told us you were training them to do that."

"Everything in its time, Dean," Harry said with a smile.

"Let's not forget the third, fourth and fifth years," Lavender Brown said. "I'd hate to cross a group of them under the wrong circumstances."

"Some of them have said the same thing about all of you," Harry said with a proud smile. "Let's just be glad we're all on the same side."

Voldemort waited impatiently for the rescue party to return. He couldn't understand what was taking so long. The plan had been a brilliant one. Instead of waiting for the ministry to transfer the captured death eaters to Azkaban, the rescue party was to apparate into the staging area at the ministry and take the aurors by surprise. It should have been the easiest breakout yet, but the time ticked by, and still they had not returned.

There were several soft pops, and Voldemort turned to see the kneeling forms of the rescue party before him.

"What has happened?" Voldemort asked. "Where are my death eaters?"

"They're coming, my lord," Malfoy said quickly. "But…"

"What?" Voldemort asked impatiently. "Was there heavy resistance?"

"No resistance at all, master," Malfoy said. "We took them by surprise just as planned, but as soon as the aurors saw us they smiled and apparated out of the room.

"They smiled?" Voldemort asked making sure he had heard correctly.

"Yes, master," Malfoy confirmed.

"Then I ask again, where are my death eaters?" Voldemort screamed.

The eleven missing death eaters suddenly appeared in the room holding the chains they had been bound with earlier.

"The ministry did something to them, my lord," Malfoy said. "They weren't able to apparate. We had to make a portkey for them."

"They must have suppressed their magical abilities for the transport to Azkaban," Voldemort said. "The affects should only be temporary."

"It was some kind of potion, my master," Wormtail said. "They forced us to drink it."

"Don't worry," Voldemort said. "Your abilities should return in a few hours. In the mean time, you will all be punished for being captured by a bunch of students."
Voldemort smiled at the terror in their eyes. He took such joy in his work.

The Dark Lord was not one to ever let his guard down. Even while asleep he maintained strict control over his unconscious mind. That night though, was different. He was so happy about stealing his death eaters from under the ministry's nose, and then having the joy of torturing them all for several hours. He was in such a good mood that, as he slept, his control wavered ever so slightly. That moment was enough though.

Voldemort suddenly found himself in the hallway just outside his main council chambers. He knew something was amiss right away. He had planned his dream schedule carefully, and this was not what he had planned at all.

The door to his council chamber was cracked slightly and a flickering light seeped through the gap. Voldemort's curiosity got the better of him and he pushed the door open.

"What's the matter, Voldemort?" Harry asked as he sat in Voldemort's chair. "Aren't you sleeping well?"

"How did you get into my dream?" Voldemort asked.

"Surely you already know the answer to that," Harry said with a grin. "You found out long ago that this scar you gave me links us together. You used it to your advantage a few times as I recall. You didn't think it was just a one way connection did you?"

"No one invades the mind of the Dark Lord," Voldemort seethed.

"You can tell you death eaters that all you like," Harry began, "but we both know different."

"I could kill you right now you know," Voldemort said.

"I doubt it," Harry said. "You don't even have your wand. Remember that I'm the one in control of this dream. Nothing will happen that I don't want."

"And what exactly do you want?" Voldemort asked. "Surely you didn't go to the trouble of breaking into my head just to prove that you could. We both know you won't get the chance again."

"I just wanted to check on you since I never heard back from you," Harry said with a mischievous grin. "You wrote to me. I sent you a present. You sent your death eaters to kill my friends. I sent Malfoy back with a message. You still haven't sent a reply."

"I've been a bit busy since then," Voldemort said.

"Ah, yes," Harry said smiling. "You broke out the death eaters we captured. How are they by the way?"

"They're fine," Voldemort hissed, tiring of Harry's playful attitude.

"Are they?" Harry asked still smiling. "Have they gotten their powers back yet?"

"How did you know about that?" Voldemort demanded.

"Lets just say that the pure-blood gene pool they love so much just got a bit smaller," Harry said.

"You're lying," Voldemort said.

"Am I?" Harry asked. "You'll see soon enough."

"You underestimate my abilities with potions, Harry," Voldemort said. "Even if the ministry has developed a potion to suppress their magical abilities, I'll soon develop an antidote."

"Good luck," Harry chuckled. "By the way, the ministry didn't develop it. It was a little gift from me."

Voldemort stared at Harry with an intensity that would have shriveled most men as he tried to determine if Harry was being truthful.

"Those death eaters will be of no further use to you," Harry said. "Soon we'll add more to that list."

"Then I'll soon relieve you of some of your friends in return," Voldemort said.

Voldemort never had time to react as harry suddenly sprang from the chair and pinned him to the wall with a powerful grip on his throat.

"This is between us," Harry said through gritted teeth. "Right now I'm waiting for you to come to me. You so much as lay a finger on one of my friends and I'll come to you. I know where you are. The scar links us. You can't hide from me. I will kill you."

Voldemort suddenly sat up in bed. His body was drenched with sweat, and there was a searing pain in his forehead like he had never felt before.

Hundreds of miles away, Harry lay in his bed at Hogwarts. A smile spread over his face as he dreamed. He knew the battle would come soon now. Everything in its time.