A/n: nothing here belongs to me! so nobody say otherwise

thanks to my beta reader Mark

A New Dawn

by S h l o m o 1 1 1

Chapter 1

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Gryffindor 5th year Boys dormitory

One day before school ends

As Harry sat on his bed in his dormitory, he started thinking about the plan that they had thought of a few days ago. He knew that it was going to be difficult, but right now Hermione and Moody were the only people he trusted. 'Well except Remus but he still doesn't know anything about the plan.' thought Harry.

One thing that they had agreed on was that they wouldn't do anything until one day before the school year ended; so as to not raise suspicion of them and today every one of them had their own part that they had to do.

As he was getting out of bed, Harry glanced to Ron's bed and gave the sleeping form of his best friend a slight scowl. While he was really hurt by Ron and his parents, he was willing to give Ron a chance to redeem himself. If Dumbledore had put so many charms on him who knew, maybe he put charms on Ron also. But for now they still couldn't take the chance that Ron would tell Dumbledore their plans so they each made up an excuse as to why they couldn't spend any time with him for the past few days.

Every time that Harry and Hermione wanted to talk they had to find a different place. Since Dumbledore had asked Ron to put the security sphere under his bed his room was not an option and they kept changing meeting places in case someone was watching them on Dumbledore's orders.

After taking a quick shower Harry finished getting ready for the day, picked up his wand and went downstairs to the common room. It was early in the morning and the common room was practically deserted except for a few first years that had woken up early so they would have time to explore the castle and so that they will not get lost on their way to class.

Harry sat in his favourite chair by the window observing the lake, took out his wand and summoned from his room a quill and some parchment.

He pulled a new sheet out and began to write his first letter for the day.

To: Gringotts

I, Harry James Potter, hereby give Hermione Jane Granger the right to make any and all decisions regarding my financial state, and Full access to any and all vaults that I posses or will be in possession of in the future.

To ensure my identity I have placed a charm on the parchment that will verify its authenticity if a drop of both Hermione Jane Granger's and my self's blood will be put on this letter.

Sincerely,

Harry James Potter

After Harry finished writing he cast a charm on the parchment that Moody had shown him. This charm, as he said in the letter would prove that he was the one that wrote it and that Hermione was the one that had received it, thus ensuring that nobody else other than the real Harry Potter and the real Hermione Granger could have received this letter. Since Hermione already had a phial with his blood and a phial with her blood, the fist part of his plan was complete. Quickly sealing the letter, Harry put it aside and pulled out another piece of parchment and started writing.

Dear Dobby.

In about a week and a half I will be moving into my own house for the first time in my life and I would very much like it if you will come and work for me.

If you decide that you want to work for me, please follow these next steps:

You must avoid Professor Dumbledore at every cost and no matter what DO NOT look him in the eye because he can read minds and then he will know where you are going.

Second, you are to tell him that you have found a new family of wizards to serve and that you will be leaving in two weeks from now and promptly leave to the Shrieking Shack where a letter with further instructions will await you.

Hope to see you soon

Your friend,

Harry Potter

p.s.

You can bring Winky too if she wants to come.

After sealing this letter also, Harry called Hedwig, who promptly flew through the window and he gave her a pat on the head.

"Hi Girl, up to delivering some mail for me?"

Hedwig bobbed her head and hooted indignantly as if asking him, "What do you take me for? A lazy bird!"

Harry just chuckled a little and then held up the two letters. "Ok girl, here this one is for Hermione, but make sure that she is alone before you get this to her. And here, this one is for Dobby the house elf.

He tied Hermione's letter to Hedwig's leg and the second one gave her to hold in her beak. After another pat on the head she flew out of the window in search of her destinations.

After Hedwig flew out of the window, Harry leaned back in the chair and sighed, 'Why does my life have to be so complicated? If it's not the Dursleys then its Voldemort and if it's not Voldemort then now I find out that it is also Dumbledore, the great Headmaster puppeteer, always manipulating and pulling the strings from behind the scenes.'

He was cut short from his musings by the loud yells coming from the portrait door to the common room. Upon further inspection he found out that it was just a couple of first years that had the misfortune to run into Peeves just as he was testing his new water balloons.

Again Harry sighed and after a flick of his wand and a muttered charm he had in his hand one of his Transfiguration books. Since they didn't have class anymore and he wasn't really hungry right now he just lay back and read until lunch.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hall outside of the school library

One day before school ends

A few hours after lunch, Hermione went into the library and went to the magical species section to search for information about goblins. Since she didn't know what to do now and she had finished all of her assignments she decided to research goblins as tomorrow she would be seeing them up close and personal and she needed to make a good impression on them.

After researching goblin customs and history regarding business making she was startled for a moment by Hedwig's arrival. Hermione quickly took the letter and read it, allowing Hedwig to fly to her next target. After reading the letter Hermione smiled briefly thinking of Harry. She still couldn't believe that Dumbledore and the Weasleys would do the things that they talked about to Harry and the fact that McGonagall was in on it also just added to Hermione's distress. All of her life Hermione had trusted authority figures and for something like that to happen was a really shocking experience for her. But after considering things for a few minutes Hermione decided that even though most of the stuff that she was doing and going to do would be borderline legal at best, it was all for Harry and that made it ok.

After Hermione finished her work on the goblins and she felt sure enough that she could handle the things that she needed to do tomorrow, she packed her stuff and exited the library. She had to meet Harry in Myrtle's bathroom but just as Hermione walked out of the library she saw someone coming in her direction…

The tall and lanky figure of Ron Weasley.

'Oh! Crap!' Thought Hermione to herself.

"Hi Herms!" cried Ron as he saw her.

"Hi Ron." sighed Hermione. "And DON'T call me Herms, I hate that nickname."

Ron just rolled his eyes and said. "Fine then, Hermy." he added with a snicker.

Hermione sighed again and asked. "Ron, was there a reason that you came here now, because if not, than I have to go? I need to be somewhere important right about now."

A brief flash of … something passed over Ron's eyes before he composed himself and thought for a minute about what he wanted to say before he replied.

"Ahh… em , I.. ahh wanted to ask you if you would, maybe, kind of want to spend your whole vacation at the Burrow? I mean I already talked to my Mum and she said that it will be no problem at all for you to stay."

Hermione seemed at a loss at what so say to Ron. She just gave him a look and was about to reply when Ron saw the letter that Hermione was holding in her hand and made a move to snatch it from her hand but just as his hand was about to grab the letter, Hermione's hand slapped his away angrily.

"RON! What do you think you are doing!" asked Hermione angrily.

"What?" asked Ron as if he didn't seem to understand what Hermione was so angry about. "I just wanted to look at that piece of parchment that you're holding."

Quickly glancing at the parchment, Hermione looked as if she was contemplating something before she answered Ron. Finally she spoke, still in an angered tone of voice. "First of all, you could ask me to show it to you and second of all, I would never let you read something so personal as this." she said as she waved the parchment in the air.

Ron got a sly look on his face before he answered Hermione. "Why? Is this some kind of love letter from Vicky?" he asked with a slight sneer.

Jumping on the excuse that Ron had inadvertently made up for her Hermione replied,

"Why as a matter of fact, yes it is a letter from Victor. He was just making sure that our plans for the summer are still on, as a part of my trip with my parents we are making a three-week stop in Bulgaria and we made plans to meet. I want him to finally meet my parents." Hermione finished while faking a dreamy far away look.

"WHAT!" flustered Ron, "You can't be serious Hermione, that guy is nothing but trouble! Remember, he went to Durmstrang and they teach the Dark Arts there." He finished.

Hermione just looked at him with a bored look on her face and replied calmly. "Again with that? Ron, you said that same thing in our fourth year, I suggest that if you can't find some reasonable explanation as to why I shouldn't go you just shut up and leave it be, it is none of your business. Oh and just so you know, there is no such thing as the Dark Arts." Finished Hermione even though she didn't know where that last sentence had come from.

"W-what do you mean there is no such thing as the Dark Arts?" asked a very flustered Ron.

Hermione contemplated him for a few seconds before answering him. "You know Ron, I don't think that even if I explained it to you, you would understand so I think that I'll just pass this time. Now if you don't mind, as I said before I have to be somewhere more important than here, so could you please move out of my way?"

Ron just looked at Hermione with amazement before a cold hard look set on his face and he said in a low voice. "I don't know what happened to you Hermione but it is obvious that there is something wrong with you and I am going to the headmaster with this, he will know what to do." He finished with a smirk at seeing Hermione's slightly panicked look as he said the word 'headmaster'.

"Fine go to him, see if I care!" said Hermione feigning indifference but as she watched Ron's figure stalking back from where he came Hermione could only think one thing.

'Shit! I have to find Harry. It seems that we might have some trouble with the plan if Dumbledore will be looking out for me too.'

Somewhere unknown in the Scotland highlands

Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody's House

A day before school ends

Just as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were heading to the same location from two different parts of the castle, Mad-Eye Moody was sitting in his kitchen waiting for the three people that he had summoned. Alastor knew that if their plan were to succeed that he would need the help of these three people immensely.

As he waited for them to arrive he reflected on what he had learned in the past few days, both from Granger and Potter. One thing for sure was that Potter was the only hope that the wizarding world had against Voldemort and if it hadn't been for Potter in the first place, Voldemort would have won the war a long time ago and all of them would be dead by now. While not many people admit it today, back in the first reign of Voldemort the 'light side' was losing. Badly. While the Aurors were very good at catching Death Eaters, because most of the time the Aurors outnumbered the Death Eaters at least two to one, when it came to one on one combat the Death Eaters had the advantage. This was simply because they didn't care if the magic they used was called 'light' or 'dark' and the Aurors were not allowed to use the so called 'Dark' arts.

When Voldemort fell after trying to kill Potter the rest of the Death Eaters fell to disarray and confusion that made catching them was much easier.

His musings were cut short by a sound coming from the entrance hall. Quickly going to inspect what was the noise Moody came upon a very amusing sight.

Sprawled on the floor were Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"What happened to you?" asked Moody, unable to hide his smirk.

"What do you think happened? Tonks went in first through the floo and when Remus and I came out of the fire here we tripped on her," answered Kingsley.

"Be that as it may," chuckled Moody, "Get up, we have some important stuff to discuss."

"Fine, fine we're up Mad-Eye." grumbled Tonks as she got up from the floor.

"Ok then, follow me into the kitchen." said Mad-Eye.

After they were all set up in the kitchen and drinks were passed around Mad-Eye began his story.

"Ok, as you know about a week ago I was in a meeting at Hogwarts with Professor Dumbledore and his so called 'inner circle' which is McGonagall, Snape, Arthur and Molly and surprisingly, also Ron Weasley…"

Tonks jumped up. "What the hell was Ron Weasley doing in an Order meeting!"

"Hold your hippogriffs Tonks, I am getting there." replied Mad-Eye. "Now as I was saying, according to Albus the subject of the meeting was Harry Potter and Albus told us about the whole fiasco at the Department of Mysteries. He is almost sure that at some point in the future Harry is going to turn to the Dark side…"

"NO WAY!" bellowed Remus, "There is no way that Harry is ever going to turn dark!"

"I know that Remus, even though I don't believe in dark magic as a rule…but I digress. Anyway, Albus explained that there was always a chance that Harry Potter was going to turn dark but until a few weeks ago it was minimal at best. But now he says that because Voldemort – OH DO GROW UP! – That because Voldemort possessed him at the Department of Mysteries it is much more possible that Voldemort used that time to feed Harry dark thoughts that will make it more easy for him to turn dark.

The other thing that Albus mentioned is that after he brought Harry back to Hogwarts he portkeyed him straight to his office. He said that Harry was very angry at him and with no provocation whatsoever that Harry messed up his office really good and in the process of doing that he disabled all of the charms that Albus had put on him. Some that he had put on a few years ago and some even when he was still a baby."

"What do you mean by 'charms'?" asked Kingsley with a frown starting to appear on his face.

"What I mean is that insane Albus Dumbledore had put a slew of charms on the boy to make him more easy to control. Here take a look at this list." Moody said as he passed a piece of parchment across that table to the three people seated in front of him.

A whistle came from Tonks and an angry look came on to Remus' face.

"Holy crap Mad-Eye. What was that man thinking putting all of these charms on the boy? Even without the time in Azkaban that he could get over this, think of the possible brain damage to Harry. For all we know he could drop and become a vegetable in a few days. And the worst part is that Dumbledore knows that. I mean hell he was the one that discovered that in the first place." said Tonks.

"Wait, that's not the entire story." said Moody.

"Sweet Merlin what more could there be?" asked Kingsley.

"Well after that he asked Ron to put a security sphere under Harry's bed in the boy's dorm and then – get this – he said that you three are going to be training Ron and Ginny this summer in duelling and defence against the dark arts."

"What the hell is that man thinking?" asked Remus.

"He thinks that by training them they will be able to protect Harry from danger and he also said to Ron to inform his friends to NOT owl Harry in the summer so that he may have a quiet time with his relatives – Dumbledore's words not mine – and that if he grieved properly this summer they may manage to postpone his descent to the dark side enough that they may be able to take steps to insure that he doesn't become the next Voldemort."

It was Tonks that asked the next question, "Wait, but what about Hermione? Didn't he want us to train her also?"

"A good question Tonks and this is the part where our plan starts. Hermione was supposed to go on a trip with her parents to America but during our meeting she heard everything with one of the twins' extendable ears. I don't know how but Dumbledore didn't notice that she was here but I could see her through the door. I caught up with her later as she was running to inform Harry of what she had heard and together we made a plan on how to help Harry escape so that he could train so he can defeat Voldemort – oh! Did I forget to mention? Harry is the only one that can defeat him because of the prophecy that we were all guarding."

After a few silent minutes it was Remus that spoke next, his voice hard as steel.

"Tell us what to do Mad-Eye and we will. No one gets away with what they did to Harry even if it is the 'great' Albus Dumbledore."

"Ok so here is what we need to do…"

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Second floor

Girls' bathroom

The same day

It was an hour past the time that Hermione was supposed to be here and Harry was getting worried. 'Where is she?' he thought to himself. A part of their plan was that he and Hermione were to go back down to the Chamber of Secrets and see what else they could find there. It was known to them that Tom had used that place in the past and there could be clues and things that he may have left there. While thinking about their plan Harry's thoughts wandered again to Hermione. She was his best friend and right now he owed her his life. She had given him the chance to take control and live for the first time in a looong time. He just didn't know what he was going to do without her in the future…

Just as Harry was thinking these thoughts Hermione came through the door looking mad as hell. "Hey Hermione." said Harry but upon seeing the look on her face he backed away in fear and trepidation, "He- Hermione did I do something wrong?"

That question seemed to break Hermione from the trance that she was in. "What? Ah no Harry it was nothing that you did. I just ran into Ron on the way over here and we fought as usual but in the end he said that he was going to tell Dumbledore that I am going to visit Victor as a part of my trip and it got me angry. Now, are you ready?" she asked eventually.

"Yes I was just waiting here for you," replied Harry.

"Ok then let's go."

"Ok." Harry turned to face the sink, and focused on the snake near the tap and hissed, "open".

The sink started moving and son the entrance was fully open. Quickly jumping down Harry and Hermione came to the bottom to find that nothing was changed since the last time. Well, to Harry it seemed this way but Hermione was seeing it for the first time.

After a few scourgify's and a spell to block the smell, Harry and Hermione made their way into the chamber. Hermione was holding Harry's hand the whole time without even notching.

Once they reached the main chamber Hermione gasped as she saw the dead basilisk's corpse. "Sweet Merlin, Harry you fought that! You never told me it was this big!"

Harry's face flushed as he answered, "Yes well… never mind that now. We are here on business."

"Ok then, the first thing we need to do is chop up the dead snake. Basilisk parts are one of the most rare in the world and we could use them for potions and we can also use the skin for protection – it is highly magic resistant, even more then a dragon's."

"Ok fine, let's do it then and after that we should explore the tunnels to see if there are any rooms in here that may contain some other stuff that we might have use for." said Harry as he pulled out his wand and started casting spells on the dead basilisk's corpse.

Once they were finished with the parts and Hermione had put all of them into a special container that she had brought with her just for this chance, they started exploring and they found a lot of useful stuff. In one room they found a few bags that were enlarged from the inside and filled with all kinds of gems – high quality ones at that. In another room, the one that Hermione loved the most naturally, they found a lot of rare books about potions, dark arts and a few other subjects and a few of Slytherin's private journals. The last things that they found were a few eggs suspended in a time capsule. Harry figured that they were snake eggs so he decided to take them with him with the thought that they might come in handy sometime.

Little did he know the importance of these snakes.

After that Harry and Hermione made their way back upstairs and to the common room where they each took their things to their trunks and locked them with a few spells that Moody had shown them a few days ago.

After that they went back down to dinner, each of them immersed in their own thoughts about what the next day would bring to their future.

so? what do you think? review soi will know

next chanpter: school ends and operation Potter begins...