The common room was empty with only the sound of banging trunks from the dorms above it. The sixth year boys' room was included in this turmoil.

Harry, Ron, Dean, and Neville were busy reloading their room with all the new goodies they had received over the holidays. There still appeared to be Christmas merriments left over, and everyone was in a cheerful mood.

Harry and Ron were currently setting up their holiday photos in well-decorated frames. Among these included the one Fred and George had taken without their consent.

Dean hopped over his bed to get a better look at eh sleeping trio. "Awww… how cute," Dean laughed, "together forever you lot will be."

Harry's thoughts darkened for a moment, his mind drifting to what lay hidden in the wardrobe; he shook his head and pulled out his kneazle. He and Ginny had decided to name her Curflumpkin- well more Ginny than Harry. He supposed he should have learned his lesson from Pigwidgeon. Harry had just taken to calling her Flump.

Dean hopped off his bed to pet the little creature. Harry saw Seamus come in out of the corner of his eye.

"Who gave it to you, Harry?" Dean asked.

Harry watched the creature mildly. "Ginny."

He heard Seamus snort behind him; Dean surprisingly enough, glared at his friend.

He motioned to Harry, "Come on Harry, let's go get her some milk."

"Yeah, okay." Harry left with Dean in tow, more disgruntled than when he entered.

Ron looked up as the door swung open. Hermione came in balancing a large crate for Curflumpkin. Ron rushed over to take it from her and set it on Harry's bed.

"Where is she?" Hermione asked, wiping her brow. "Ginny said it's not good to leave them out with all the owls around, they might think she's prey."

Ron, Hermione, and Seamus searched the room hoping for the kneazle to show herself.

"There!" Seamus pointed at his bed. There was a ball of fur bouncing across the velvet comforter.

"Okay," Ron whispered, "let's approach it very carefully." The three of them moved in ready to attack, when the little ball flew to Dean's bed.

"Catch her!" Hermione yelped.

Curflumpken leapt across the beds, and the room, like some sort of trapiezist. When it reached Harry's bed and had no where left to go, it paused as if in thought.

Hermione, Ron, and Seamus stood very still ready to pounce, but Flump was quicker. She flew forward into Harry's wardrobe, through a small crack in the door.

The three of them raced to the dresser and Ron pulled the door open slowly. Curflumpken was sitting quietly on a pile of Harry's school robes, just to the left of a stone basin filled with some sort to shiny liquid. She seemed to smirk up at them with a mischievous grin.

"Come on Flumpy," Ron coaxed, "let's get out of the nice wardrobe…" But his words were of no use as the ball of fur hopped promptly into the bowel of shimery water. It seemed to happen in slow motion as the tree of them simultaneously reached for the Kneazle, falling in to the bottomless basin with her. Ron swore he'd walked into a nightmare…

Ron looked around him in confusion at the scene in front of him. It appeared to be Dumbledore's office, though it seemed darkened by some sort of heavy cloud. Harry was standing some twenty feet from the headmaster's desk. The old man was sitting sorrowfully behind it. Ron watched in silence as he finally realized it was the pensieve that he was apart of. He looked on silently.

Harry spoke first. "I don't want to talk about how I feel, all right?" Typical Harry, Ron thought.

Now Dumbeldore was speaking. "Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human-" Oh, I know what this is.

"THEN --- I --- DON'T --- WANT --- TO --- BE --- HUMAN!" Harry roared. The words cut through Ron like a knife Harry, don't say that. He watched as Harry threw the Professor's no doubt priceless treasures across the room. He was in a blind sort of rage Ron could never have imagined.

"I DON'T CARE!" Harry yelled at the portraits, snatching up a lunar scope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END. I DON'T CARE ANYMORE-"

Ron watched helplessly at his friend's suffering. This was like nothing he could have imagined. Hermione was staring with tears in her eyes, Seamus stony faced. It seemed to go on for hours, the yelling, the apologizing, and the pain. It continued until they watched on in horror as a shadowy form of Sibyl Trelawney rose from Dumbledore's own pensive.

"THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES…BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES… AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM A HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT… AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES… THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…"

Great Merlin, was all the time Ron had to think as the horrific scene before him evaporated and he spun into his dorm.

Harry walked into his dorm carrying a bowl of milk for Flump. Dean had left him at the door to the common room when Pavarti had asked to see him. He smirked at the memory of the color Dean's cheeks had turned when she arrived.

Harry looked around for his new pet and saw her nowhere; in fact the entire dorm was empty. He set the bowl on the ground.

"Ron!" He called "Mione!" Harry knew that was slightly ridiculous as there wasn't much room for them to hide in the dorm. He looked more closely, and noticed the wardrobe was ajar, much more so then when he left it.

He felt his heart begin to thump in his chest, surely not. Cracking the door open further, Harry looked down into the stone basin of the Pensieve. He watched the still forms of the top of Ron and Hermione's heads in dismay. Harry felt his feet making him stager backwards and come to rest on his bed.

"Merlin, No," Harry whispered, as he hung his head in his hands. In his misery he waited for his friends to return. The time alone in that dorm felt like hours if in reality it was only mere minutes.

Their arrival from the pensive, which normally would have been a loud boom, seemed like a sorrowful thump in Harry's mind. Ron and Hermione looked pale and stony faced. Harry looked at a face he hadn't seen earlier in the Pensieve, Seamus. The boy took one look at Harry left the room.

"This-" He stammered, "This wasn't how I wanted you to find out." Harry paused trying to swallow the lump in his throat. "Did Seamus see all of it?" Ron nodded silently. "Good Gods…" Harry scratched his hands over his eyes. "So…"

Ron seemed to be trying to put on a brave face. "Well, I can't say I'm all that surprised."

Harry raised his eyebrows, and silently thanked Ron for hissupport. "Really? Well I sure as hell was." Why wouldn't this lump go away? "Well what about you, Hermione?"

She stiffened and straightened herself, as if preparing for class. "Well, I agree with Ron, I suppose." Her resolve wavered. "I just- I didn't think… that it would-" Her eyes were filling with tears and she was blinking quickly.

Harry quickly got off the bed and rose on his unsteady legs. He wrapped her in a hug. "No," Harry spoke as gently as he could in this state "No, what are you crying for?"

She sniffled. "I'm scared for you Harry. This, it's so real." She straightened herself again and pulled away from him to look in his eyes. "But, you know, you won't be alone for this…"

"Hermione-"

"Damn it!" She stomped her foot in anger. It showed what a truly serious situation this was for Hermione to be cursing. Harry took his seat back on the bed, his headache now fitting to burst. "No, you won't. I know we can't actually," Hermione paused, her own throat working now, "actually kill him but we will help you get there, with all we can. Right, Ron?"

Ron sighed and took a seat on the bed next to Harry. He smiled sadly, "We can't be the Golden Trio without our main man." This statement made Harry's chest tighten like nothing before.

Harry looked down at his feet. "I'm so sorry," he whispered so quietly it was barely audible.

Ron looked at him eyes filled with emotion. "What for?"

Looking at his friends there was desperation in his eyes. "I'm sorry for putting you in this kind of danger…" His breathing was ragged now, "I'm sorry for ruining your lives…"

Hermione kneeled down in front of him, taking his hands in her own. "Harry Potter, you did not ruin our lives. Voldermort ruined yours and now we're going to help you fix it."

She took Ron's hand in her other and it wasn't long before they were all joined together in a desperate embrace. Frantic hands were clutching one another's robes, searching for something to hold anchor to. Their was no shame among them tonight and no reason to hide behind cool fronts and hard shields.

Harry's sleep was very disturbed that night, and the lack of it was catching up to him in full. He was currently wearing a hole in the common room floor. His nervous pacing seemed to do far from ease his mind about the conversation he was about to have.

Harry's stomach was flopping when Hermione came down the stairs ready to go down to the Great Hall for dinner.

"You ready Harry?" she asked.

"In a bit," he tried to sound casual. "I have to talk to Ron for a second. You go on ahead without us."

She looked at him strangely but consented. Ron came down from the boys' dorm not a minute later. He bounced off the bottom step jovially; he was always happy around supper time.

He clapped his hands together and headed to the portrait hole. "Come on, then."

"Ron," Harry said, "before we go eat, I uh, I need to talk to you."

Ron paused, "Well make it quick, I'm starved."

Harry smiled slightly and looked down at his feet. "Well, I've been thinking, and um, there's just been so much going on, and I just think that it would be best for everybody, because I'm just, I'm exhausted and you're much better at strategy than I am. So would you?"

Ron laughed, "Would I what, Harry?"

He swallowed, "Would you take the Quidditch Captain position?"

Ron's eyes nearly fell out of his head. "What! Why?"

"It's just the best thing for the team, you're better at strategizing than I am, you can give them what they need."

"That's not true," Ron's jaw worked.

"It is, and I'm just exhausted, I don't have the time or the energy to take us to the cup. Please, it should have gone to you in the first place."

Ron stared hard at him for what seemed longer than Harry could fathom. He finally consented, "Alright, but understand I'm only doing this because I think it's best for you."

Harry clapped his friend on the back in thanks and walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall in silence. When they joined Hermione she looked at them expectantly.

"Ron's taking over for me as captain," Harry explained.

She had the same expression on her face as Ron had had earlier. "But, why-"

Ron cut her off with a shake of his head.

Harry awoke to a bright light streaming in through the curtains surrounding his bed. It took him a moment to comprehend just how bright that light was.

"Shite!" Harry shot up from his bed. He looked at his watch 8:30, he was going to be late for potions. Damn, why did Ron let me sleep in?

He hurriedly threw on his robes, stuck his shoe laces in his shoes, grabbed his bag, and sped out the portrait hole.

He was racing down the deserted corridors into the dungeons; Snape was going to kill him. Harry suddenly felt something hard smack against his shoulder Harry felt his bag snap and split open.

"No!" He moaned miserably. Harry turned to see who exactly he'd run into, it was Mark Evans. "Sorry Mark, I'm running a bit late." He looked at his watch again.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault. Here, let me help you," the little boy whimpered. Harry nodded his thanks as Mark helped him collect his things.

He piled his books as best he could in his broken bag, but suddenly Mark had stopped helping him. Harry looked up at the first year. The boy was starring at one of the photos Remus had given him for Christmas. It showed Harry on Sirius' shoulders as just a baby.

Mark looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Harry quickly snapped the picture back and stuffed it in his pocket. "Thanks Mark," and with that Harry promptly ran to Potions.

To say Professor Snape was furious would have been an understatement. When Harry had finally managed to enter the dungeons the Potions Master was bearing down on him tightlipped and furious. Needless to say, Snape had taken thirty points off Gryffindor and made him stay after to scrub cauldrons all through lunch.

Harry was utterly spent by the time Defense came round. The lesson that day was all theory and it took all his strength not to fall asleep at his desk. They were working on increasing the stability of Protegeo and though Harry was certain it was an important lesson it didn't mange to hold his attention.

He made sure to run down to the kitchens to get some very caffeinated coffee, black. He couldn't risk the chance of Bill making him go back to Occlumency when he was so close to starting Legelimency.

It was an hour later when Harry managed to drag himself back up to Gryffindor tower. The coffee had helped him make it through his lesson with Bill, but it seemed he was now coming off of it.

The sight of the warm common room was a relief like none other. The sight of Ginny was even better.

She turned from her spot on the couch to look at him, her smile warming his numb heart. "Hi."

"Hey," He looked around the room, "Where's Ron and Hermione?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "Take a guess." Harry smirked and heavily took his seat next to her. "What, am I not enough company for you?" She joked.

He sighed, "You're all the company I need."

Harry laid his head on her shoulder and let his eyes flutter shut; he wasn't lucky enough to receive the gift of sleep but it did calm his brain a little. He felt immensely guilty for not telling her the Prophecy, but he just didn't want to burden her with that.

Harry thought on that for a moment. No, that wasn't right; he was just too coward to bring it up.

It was amazing how time flew past when you didn't want it too. It wasn't much longer before Ginny gave him a kiss good night and headed up the stairs to the girls dorm.

With Ginny no longer there to comfort him, relaxation was impossible and he dragged himself up to work on his Transfiguration essay. When all but a few people had left the common room, Harry allowed himself the luxury of letting his eyes fall for just a moment. Of course, it was punctually interrupted.

"Um, Harry?" Harry cracked his eyes open to peer at the small form of Mark Evans. He straightened himself. "Harry I need to talk to you," Harry looked at him, "about, about Sirius Black."

Harry sat shocked for a moment but then realized who exactly this was coming from, some silly first year, looking for some good gossip. He bent over his paper, eyes avoiding the boy. "What about him?"

Mark replied, "He's my stepdad."

Woah, cliff hanger. Do you hate me? If you have any questions go join my yahoo group http/groups. I'd love to get the message boards going. It's also a site for recomending other stories, but before you do that see what is already up in the files section.As always thanks to my beta FormelyKnownAsErin.