Through his sleep, Harry had a glimpse of the terrible vision he had the last time. He clearly saw the dark room he stepped into. Again, he took out his wand, lit the room, and was startled by the horrific scene of the ten dementors or so. The terrible moments of being lifted into the air, facing the great big wolf, haunted Harry's mind. The wolf opened its mouth, and...
"Hey, wake up, sleepy head,"
It was Ron, who had just got out of bed, trying to wake Harry.
"Oh, good morning," mumbled Harry vaguely.
"Morning," started Ron, stretching, "hey, are you ok? You were shaking a bit in your bed, like something was about to attack you."
"I was?" asked Harry perplexed.
"Yeah, you even muttered something softly, which I didn't get the slightest chance to hear. I only just woke up," answered Ron, yawning. "Big day today, huh?"
"Ye--why?" asked Harry, a bit puzzled.
"Well, we'll be dueling, won't we?" explained Ron clearly.
"Oh, I see now. I guess I forgot," answered Harry, getting out of bed slowly.
"I don't blame you mate, after yesterday's wearisome training, we all needed some rest," Ron went on, "hey, seconds ago, did you hear Neville?"
"No, I was dreaming, until you came along," replied Harry, a little tired.
"God, he snored like a pig would!" Ron giggled. A soft breeze came through the window and shook the two out of their places to get along with their school day.
"I guess we've got to go now," said Harry, putting on his glasses," by the way, next Quidditch training, we'll train on keeper techniques, allright?"
"Fine," answered Ron lazily, and the two got out of the boys' dormitory.

Hermione was just walking out of the room; they didn't get a chance to say good morning. Probably, they didn't because she always wakes up first, so excited and so enthusiastic to start the day.

Shortly after breakfast, Harry and Ron met Hermione in one of the corridors. She was talking to Professor McGonagall about the book she took from the library. Harry and Ron thought they heard her say it was cool and contained a lot of facts. Of course, what else could she have said? Hermione would have no problem to open a thousand pages long book, and read to enjoy and learn at the same time. Doesn't that witch ever get tired? However, Harry and Ron never thought Hermione would step down from where she is. She'd never change into an ignorant girl who never cares about homework, and doesn't mind points being taking off her house because of her. No, Hermione wasn't that kind of person.
"Hello Harry, hello Ron," she just caught up with them, carrying the book she borrowed from the library.
"Hi," started the two, "ready to go?"
"Yes," she smiled, and the three walked happily to their first lesson, Defence Against the Dark Arts. Just as Ron reminded Harry, today, they were going to review dueling, which they've all been taught about in second year. Unfortunately, the one who taught them was an old fraud, who cared about nothing but himself and fans...Professor Lockhart, who's memory was seriously damaged.
Harry was quite good at dueling. He actually used it, loads of times. The most memorable moments of dueling, were when he stood face to face with Voldemort, in the old graveyard, two years ago. The mood was so tense, and Harry wanted revenge for Cedric Diggory, the seventeen year old boy who was one Hogwarts champion, the kind friendly gentlemen who deserved the winnings, one thousand galleons. But of course, unluckily, he was murdered, personally by Lord Voldemort himself, which never felt a bit of guilt and remorse.

"Allright, listen up class," yelled Harry, trying to hush up the Slytherin sixth years and his fellow Gryffindors, "what we'll do today, is that we're going to duel. Of course, you specifically remember the moments when we first tried it in second year, don't you?"
The majority nodded in agreement.
"Right then, it shouldn't be tough for you guys," Harry went on, "and another thing, we won't be practicing it in here."
Several Slytherins looked at him, confused.
"Then where are we going, surely not in your common room?" came the dull cold voice of Draco Malfoy. Many of his friends were laughing. Ron stared at him, almost ready to kill him with pleasure, but luckily, Neville nudged him in the ribs, and pulled him back to tell him about his new plant, as an interruption. Harry wasn't pleased too.
"Ten points from Slytherin Malfoy," began Harry, smiling sarcastically," for being such a rude person."
Malfoy glared at him, raising his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to say something.
"Want to go for more?" asked Harry sincerely.
"Right then. Everyone, follow me," instructed Harry, and everybody was out of the classroom.
"Where are you taking us Harry?" whispered Hermione softly in his ear.
"R.O.R," replied Harry, grinning at her.
"What?" apparently, she didn't fully understand what he meant by R.O.R.
"Room of Requirement," explained Harry quickly, letting the big Goyle pass by and join Malfoy.
"What? Why are you taking us there?" asked Hermione again, but this time, smiling.
"Well, it was an idea. Plus, you saw how highly useful it was with the--" he lowered his voice, "DA last year."
"Oh, I see," she nodded, "well Harry, your ideas always turn out to be great, don't they?"
"Maybe, yeah, sometimes," answered Harry.

At last, the seventh floor!
Harry clearly remembered the position of the Room of Requirement. He thought of what he needed. Probably a wide stage, with circular edges in which opponents stepped on. What else? he thought. A whistle! He needed a whistle to hush them all up, just in case it got too loud. Nothing happened for a moment, and then...a door appeared out of thin colorless air. It was the entrance.
"Step in, quickly, everybody," said Harry, standing beside the door, counting the number of students that went in. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were the last to enter. Harry shook his head, disapproving their rude behavior.

"Settle down, you lot, on the benches over there," instructed Harry, pointing at the benches that were located just behind the wide stage, which he remembered picturing in his mind.
"Ok, who wants to go first?" asked Harry. To his surprise, many of the Slytherins raised their hands. So did the Gryffindors. Even Neville raised his hand, although he was a bit uncertain to do it.
"Ok, the first pair, Neville against Malfoy. Up here please," said Harry. Malfoy's cold smile widened, as he discovered that the extremely forgetful Neville, turned out to be his opponent. The two stepped on the steps, and were now standing on the round edges.
"Right," began Harry, shooting Neville a you-can-do-it look, "bow."
The two bowed, and Malfoy barely lowered his head.

"Careful here, we don't want any serious damages and injuries," Harry was specifically talking to Malfoy, who had his wand ready in his arm. Neville was ready too, with sweat covering his face.
"One, two..." Harry was afraid that Malfoy would cast his spell at two, just like when they first did, but luckily, he was wrong, "three!"
Immediately, Malfoy pointed his wand at Neville, and roared 'Expelliarmus'.
Neville's wand flew away, several ft. Until Ron acted in the right time, and summoned it. He presented it back to him.
"Thank you," sighed Neville heavily.
"Concentrate Neville, you can do it," said Ron, patting him on the right shoulder.
He faced Malfoy, who had his head raised high up.
"Are you ok Neville?" asked Harry, approaching him.
"Yeah, I'm allright," answered Neville.
"Ok, get ready," started Harry, and he glared angrily at Malfoy, "one...two...three!"
This time, Malfoy decided to stun Neville.
"Stupefy!" cried Malfoy. A jet of red light came out of the tip of his wand, flying through the air to reach Neville. Poor Neville didn't know what to do for a couple of seconds. Then, he remembered something, quite useful...
"Protego!" he squeaked. Instantly, a silvery translucent wall formed in front of him. Malfoy's stun was reflected by the silver wall, and returned back to him, throwing him off the stage. Malfoy was on his knees, wincing a bit. Luckily, he wasn't hurt too much. If that happened, he would've experienced the real excruciating pain of stunning. Thank goodness it lost some of its effect, after being reflected. Several of the Gryffindors applauded, and in the exact opposite, jeers came from every Slytherin's mouth.
Harry helped Malfoy up, unintentionally of course.
"Well done," complimented Harry, "both of you! Fifteen points to Slytherin and Gryffindor!" Now, both houses were clapping. Neville still didn't believe his luck. The two were ordered to shake hands by Harry. Malfoy quickly let go, grinned at Neville.
"Not bad at all, Longbottom," and he backed off to his group.
"Excellent work Neville," said Seamus, giving him a wink.
"It...it wasn't much," said Neville, his smile fading away.
"It wasn't much? Neville, it bounced off the wall, and knocked Malfoy to the ground!" yelled Ron.
"So, who will be next?" asked Harry, looking around.

For the next fifty minutes, all of them had chances to duel. Everybody got their turn to prove their abilities of handling rivals and opponents that would attack them. Ron made a joke of Crabbe, who was so red in the face. The dumb fat gorilla-like boy hasn't spoken a word when Harry said 'three'. So, Ron used the Furnunculus charm for a bit of fun. Dean dueled against Sandra Sanderson, and Hermione dueled against Harry himself. She won the first round, but lost the second. Harry added ten more points to Gryffindor for that.
He checked his watch; it was time for the bell to ring. Just moments later, it did. The sound of it echoed all over the corridors.
"Ok, good job everybody, no homework," started Harry, as he quickly opened the door, "see you next lesson!"
"Hey," began Ron, "can you believe him?"
"Who?" asked Hermione and Harry at the same time.
"Crabbe!" he snorted comically. "Did you see his face? Glowing red like a Halloween pumpkin?" He was laughing so loud now, remembering the delightful sight of casting the Furnunculus charm at Crabbe. Ron left Harry and Hermione, to go to the bathroom. He greatly suspected that he wet himself, due to the laughing. It was seven minutes, till their second lesson began. However, it was cancelled. They had Charms next, but unfortunately, Professor Flitwick was a bit ill, and resting in the Hospital Wing. So, they had a whole free hour, before their third lesson, Potions, the worst of all.
Ron returned from the bathroom, joining Harry and Hermione for a walk beside the lake, still giggling about Crabbe.

The lake's water was calm, not moving at all. Naturally, everybody knew the lake was the habitat of the Giant Squid, who lived deep inside it.
"Hey," started Hermione, moving her hair off her face," do you know when's our first Quidditch match Harry?"
"Oh, that," began Harry, "I think it'll be on the third of November."
"Isn't it supposed to be way earlier?" asked Ron, to make sure.
"I know, " started Harry, taking a refreshing deep breath of the pure air, "it was scheduled to be on the nineteenth of October, against Slytherin, first. But, their lot wanted to postpone it, they said something about not being prepared, and something about them not training yet."
"They're probably scared of us," said Ron, laughing.
"What makes you think that?" asked Harry, slightly giggling. "Slytherin aren't that easy Ron."
" I agree with Harry," declared Hermione. He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
Harry fleetingly stopped every now and then, to check the time. However, he still got forty minutes, before the three headed back to the boring dungeons.
"Did you hear something?" asked Harry curiously.
"No," answered Hermione and Ron. "Why?"
"I just thought I heard...oh, never mind," said Harry, and continued on to walk. Finally, they decided to sit under the shade of a huge oak tree, and start on their Astronomy homework, which was supposed to be no less than five feet of parchment.
Harry and Ron were extremely bored with this. After History of Magic, Astronomy was very wearisome, boring, and dull. Luckily, Hermione was with them. She kept smiling at the two, like they were pathetic, every time they begged her to copy her homework. They kept trying to convince her to do it, until at last she gave up.
"You're a life saver Hermione," exclaimed Harry heavily, and took her homework to copy.
"What else can I do?" asked Hermione proudly. "I can't afford to have my best friends fail a subject, can I?"
"Of course not," replied Ron slowly.
"Thanks," muttered Hermione softly.
The next few minutes were uneventful, when...Harry's eyes caught something big and black in the sky.
"Guys, what's that?" Harry was pointing at something above the horizon, nearing Hogwarts.
"I...don't know," answered Ron, still gazing carefully.
"It..." began Hermione, squinting, "it looks like a big black cloud or something."
"Oh great news," said Ron in an ironic way, "it'll rain!"

On the other hand, Harry didn't agree with their explanations. He got up, and looked more properly and closely at the sky. Slowly, the image became clearer. It looked something like a group of birds flying together. There were a lot of them, tightly connected to each other, probably three hundred. Suddenly, Harry was shocked when he remembered something. He turned to Hermione and Ron, his eyes wide open.
"Oh no," he began, "remember the letter we got from the unknown sender the other day? About The Crows from Dark Valley striking soon?"
Ron swallowed a lump.
"They actually...meant what they wrote?" he murmured softly.
"Ron! Wake up!" said Hermione loudly. "Yes, they did mean it. What do you see coming our way? A group of flamingos?"

The crows were more visible now, creating a huge wide shadow that spread over the grounds. Many students looked up, curious.
The crows were descending, producing loud, extremely annoying sounds.
Twenty of them or so headed to the Whomping Willow, and burned the very top of it.
"They can breathe fire?" asked Ron terrified. "Come on, we must do something, before they wreck this place."
"Easy for you to say," mumbled Hermione softly. "Harry, what happens now?"
"I don't...I don't know what to do Hermione, should we stun them?"
"Maybe stunning is useful...watch out!" she warned Harry. A beam of flame was heading his way, missing is head.
"Thanks for the warning," he said heavily. The three ran away from their spot. Then, they saw Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor Sprout trying to stun the crows, but they all missed. Surprisingly, a crow landed on McGonagall's hair, and started pecking. Quickly, Professor Dumbledore burned the crow with a wave of his wand.
"Thank you Albus," said McGonagall, catching her breath.
"Look," said Hermione, turning Harry's head and Ron's head towards some crows which were on the ground. They transformed into cobras!
"Oh, this keeps getting worse, doesn't it?" said Ron, as snakes were his second greatest fear. One of the long black cobras slithered quickly towards him.
"Evanesco!" shouted Harry. At once, the cobra vanished.
Ron was catching his breath.
"I thought the Cockatoodles were enough damage," said Hermione, "Protego!" She defended herself using the shield charm. A vicious looking crow bumped into it, fell to the ground, then got up again.
"Vanish him!" said Harry looking at Ron, but he didn't move. The crow strangely was growing bigger and taller. It stood almost eight feet from the ground. The three had their heads up, backing away nervously. Something very unnatural happened...the crow talked.
"Harry Potter!" it croaked. " We come form Dark Valley, where our master currently rests. We attack you as we were told."
Hermione and Ron were stumbling in their places. Harry had his eyes fixed on the crow, his body shaking.
"The Dark Lord shall send more of the followers soon, Harry Potter. Be prepared next time. They'll tear this place apart. And at last, you will be facing our master, for what he is sure of, for the last time. The time will come, when you at last shall fall, and join the ungrateful mudbloods of your time, and the time before you. All of that, will happen right here, at Hogwarts, the school of the Mudblood lover. "
After that, instantly, the crow flapped its wings, and flew away, leading the flock of the crows to Dark Valley, their home.
Students all over the school were panicking, and running to the Great Hall. Feathers lay all over the place.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron joined the students, running into the castle, speechless.
"Now what was that?" asked Ron hastily.
Harry turned to him.
"We're in great danger," he said slowly.
Hermione nodded.