Chapter 3: The Life and Times of Tom Riddle

Today was a day of celebration for Voldemort's followers. Although he would never admit it, the Dark Lord feared Albus Dumbledore and his death brought the confirmation they needed that, the confirmation that said, "You can defeat Harry Potter."

"Wormtail, we mind find Potter," said a cold voice.

A short, pudgy man turned to face the man who had spoken. The harsh lines etched on his face told of a wasted youth and more violence than anyone should see during their lifetime. He knew exactly what his Lord was thinking, even now. The death of Dumbledore meant victory for their side.

"My Lord, with all due respect, Potter is not as dumb as he may appear. He will find us without the help of Dumbledore, if we stay here," Wormtail spoke softly, almost afraid.

"Silence, Wormtail! We must find him, and attack. Keep him on his toes. Never let him trust anyone."

Wormtail sighed. He knew what was to come. The long, and final battle between his Dark Lord and the Boy Who Lived. Even though he knew in his mind that he was supposed to be a strong and loyal supporter of Lord Voldemort, his heart pushed him in another direction. The betrayal of his friends James and Lily had secretly eaten him alive for years, but he kept it a secret, as it should be kept. It appeared that young Harry was the only way he could redeem himself, and part of him wanted to be redeemed for betraying his parents. A large part of him.

"Malfoy has given me clues as to his whereabouts. He believes him to be staying at a friends house. A friend of his, an enemy of ours. The Weasley residents," the Dark Lord spoke to his supporters.

"We will plan our attack for tomorrow evening, at their home. Everyone be prepared."

Voldemort walked away from his supporters and into the next room. A room where his secrets could be out in the open, instead of locked away, hidden. The Deatheaters held a dark mark on their arms, while he had something different. A subtle reminder of his failure, his failure to capture and kill Harry Potter. Voldemort pulled up the sleeves on his robe to reveal a scar, a scar that burned into his skin in the shape of a lighting bolt.

Harry Potter sat awake with his hand tightly grasping his forehead, where his scar lay. He sighed slightly as he swung his legs over the edge of his mattress, careful not to wake the sleeping Ron that laid on the other edge of the room. The burning of his scar was no unusual occurrence for Harry anymore, it always meant something though. That Voldemort was happy, or upset, or plotting something. The trouble was that Harry could never tell what exactly caused the burning of his scar, at least not until now.

"Just concentrate," he muttered to himself. He focused all of his energy into Voldemort, he thought that if he only tried hard enough, everything would become somehow… clear.

"An attack," Harry said, uncertain of whether or not this was something real. He saw Voldemort, he saw him surrounded by Deatheaters, talking about an attack. He looked excited about something, Harry thought.

"An attack…" Harry said again, more sure this time. They were planning an attack, nothing new to that. He saw the Dark Lord mention Malfoy and information he had given them…

Harry's head shot up and looked straight at Ron.

"An attack on the Weasleys, because I'm here," he said, absolutely certain. He rushed over to Ron and shook him furiously.

"Mum, no… too early…" Ron mumbled while he attempted to turn the other direction and go back to sleep.

"Not your mum, Ron. Wake up, we've got to get out of here," Harry said urgently. Ron looked slightly confused and then it hit him when he saw Harry leaned over him, clutching his scar.

"What's happening, Harry? What did you see?" Ron finally got out of bed and put on his shoes. Ever since the death of Dumbledore, everyone was on edge waiting for an attack from Voldemort.

"My scar started burning, so I woke up and I saw Voldemort. I saw him talking to the Deatheaters about how he was going to attack your house, Ron. I don't know when but it must be soon, he seemed pretty pleased with himself," Harry said all in a rush. He hoped Ginny would be alright. He knew that he should be hoping everyone was safe, but his worries were more focused on Ginny at the present time.

"I'll go get Mum, you go get Hermione and Ginny," Ron said as he pulled on his bath robe and walked through the door.

Harry followed suit and hurried into the hallway and up the stairs, to Ginny's bedroom. He noticed the light was off and he prayed she was safe. That her and Hermione were safe. He knocked slightly, not wanting to barge in again in the chance that they were both okay and completely unaware of what was going out outside of their dreams. No answer.

"Gin, Hermione, I'm coming in," he said, pushing the door open further. Ginny lay still and peaceful on her bed, looking like an angel as the moonlight hit her face. Hermione was rolled on her side, facing an open copy of Hogwarts, A History. Harry smiled and went over to Ginny's bed.

"Wake up, love. It's time to leave," he said softly as he rubbed her back. She stirred in her sleep and finally opened up one eye.

"Harry, what are you doing in here? Why are we leaving?" she said, sounding concerned. Harry went over to her closet and grabbed her shoes. He sat on the edge of her bed while he made an attempt to slip shoes and socks over her feet.

"It's okay, Gin. I just have a really bad feeling that something is going to happen, so we're leaving now, to go somewhere safe," he said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. He grabbed a blanket off her bed and wrapped it around her.

"I've got you, don't worry," he said as he lifted her up from her mattress.

"Ron will be up in a minute to get Hermione, I'm sure of it."

The second the words left his mouth, Ron hurdled up the stairs and into his sisters bedroom.

"Right, Harry. Everyone's downstairs, just take Ginny down there with you and I'll be down in a minute with Mione," Ron said while gazing softly at Hermoine. Harry smiled, "You know it would be much easiest to just tell her that you like her."

"You better shut up, unless you fancy one more person who wants to kill you,"

As Harry trudged downstairs with Ginny still in his arms, he noticed Mrs. and Mr. Weasley standing in the corner of the living room, looking extremely grim and discussing something that appeared to be very important. Well, obviously it must be important, they were about to abandon their home for an unknown period of time.

Mr. Weasley looked up from their conversation and gave Harry a slight smile, but that didn't stop Harry from seeing the fear in his eyes.

"Right, so… We can't exactly afford to stay at the Leaky Cauldron and we don't have a real hide out set up so we called up Remus, and he said he'll be over shortly to help us decide on a place we can go," Mr. Weasley informed the mass of family members that were now huddled nervously around the fireplace.

By this point, Ginny was now totally awake and completely confused as to why the love of her life was now holding her like they just got hitched.

"Harry," she said gently, tapping slightly on his shoulder.

"Yeah, Gin?"

"Just a small question… what exactly is going on here?" Ginny replied, assessing the situation. Harry placed her back onto the ground and rested his hand against her back, just to be sure she wouldn't tip over.

"We're going into hiding," he looked at the terrified look on Ginny's face and started to explain faster, "No, no, nothing's happened. I just got a feeling that something would, so it's more of a better safe than sorry type of thing."

He felt Ginny sigh and he hugged her closer to him briefly.

A soft pop was heard to the left of Fred, causing him to jump and crash into George.

"I've found it," Remus, the source of the popping noise, said. Everyone looked expectantly at him and he continued to speak.

"Harry, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Dumbledore left a lot of his possessions to you, including a small cottage in the south of France, which was to be used as a hide out in case you ever needed it," Remus continued.

The Weasleys glanced around and each other and then finally Mrs. Weasley spoke for her family.

"I'm sure it would be a wonderful hiding place for Harry, but a small cottage in the south of France probably just won't fit all of us," she said quietly.

"Oh, of course! The inside has been enlarged. Small on the outside, size of a fortress on the inside," Remus said, sounding very excited.

"I've never actually been, but I've heard wonderful things about it. Supposed to be gorgeous, you know. I think it's a great idea, it would be like a mini vacation for all of us. We could stay for a week or so, shop in all of the little French stores, eat croissants, swim in the gulf," he continued on with enthusiasm.

"Who knew that possibly being attacked could ever be so fulfilling?" Fred commented and everyone laughed, now less tense than they were before.

"You lot, upstairs! Come on, dears, time to pack," Mrs. Weasley said as she ushered her children up the stairs.

"Mum, I actually wanted to talk to you about that," Bill spoke up, "Fleur got a promotion, she's really excited and she said she'll take the girls shopping when they get there. Her treat."

What a weird day, Ginny thought. It started off with us all thinking we were going to die, and now we're going on a free shopping trip in France, where we'll be staying for an unknown period of time.

"So, let's go to France," Hermione said.

10 minutes later, everyone was packed and ready to go, looking extremely pleased.

"Gather round, everyone. Just stick a hand on the portkey and then we're off!" Mr. Weasley told the children as they all began to gather around the old snow globe that was being used as a portkey.

Harry stuck his hand onto the pile and began to feel the familiar tug in his navel…