Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!

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Prologue

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The road is dark and narrow, and a cloaked figure stood at its center, with a lit wand in its hand. Lumos. He could only see the curls on the back of her head as she lifts her hood up, but she's walking quickly, and glancing behind her as if she's expecting someone to jump out and attack her at any moment.

The woman stops at a tall house at the end of the road. The earth moves along with her, tree roots spring up, forming thickets around the house. If there were people inside, they wouldn't be able to get out.

"Imperio," the woman whispers, her voice similar to a hissing snake.

A lone light turns on inside the house from the second story, and the woman vanishes in a trail of smoke. The girl inside the home sits up from her bed, her normally brown eyes now shining a glassy blue from the curse she's under. His heart is pounding fiercely. He knows her. He tries to call out her name, but as his lips move, no sound comes out. He's forced to watch as the girl moves carelessly down the dark hallway, right towards the woman's clutches.

A flash of green light bursts from the woman's wand, and the girl falls limp. As it shatters, a woman's screams echo in his mind, and a pair of green eyes stare back at him, and a green light engulfs him before he had a chance to defend himself.

Albus wakes up with a start, and scrambles out of bed in search of his glasses, and curses under his breath when something falls onto the floor. He normally places them on his bedside table, but it's impossible to look for them in the dark, and with shaky hands. His door opens, letting the light from the hallway in, and his older brother rushes inside, calling for him.

"Albus, you alright?" James asks breathlessly, his hand brushing against the door. "I heard you shout, what happened?"

"Glasses! Can't find--" Albus exclaims in panic, and James rushes towards him and shoves an oddly shaped object in his hand.

"Are you alright?" James asks again with hesitance.

"Fine, I'm fine," Albus grits his teeth, and slides the glasses onto his face, and mentally sighs with relief because there had been two versions of James in his sight. Honestly, one version of James is bad enough. "What are you doing here?"

James stiffens, and opens his mouth, and promptly shuts it. Albus frowns at the movement. Almost like his brother wanted to tell him, but had second thoughts.

"Wanted to pull a prank on you, but you woke up before I could," James shrugs nonchalantly. Albus narrows his eyes. Lie.

"James," he says with a pointed look.

"You were calling for me," James sighs.

Albus stiffens. He must have been calling for him when he couldn't see anything, and still half asleep. He hasn't done that since he was at least six years old, and still afraid of the dark.

"What are you even doing awake?" James asks softly. "Everyone else is still asleep."

Albus frowns, and pushes back the curtains, and glances out the window. It's still a little bit dark out, but the bottom half of the sky is turning a light shade of orange as the sun rose.

"What are you doing awake?" Albus counters, and takes his hand off the curtains, letting it fall limply to block out the sun.

"I asked first," James says stubbornly, and flops onto the bed, much to Albus's annoyance.

"Had another dream," Albus says. "Nightmare, actually."

"Like the one that dad gets sometimes?" James frowns.

"Something like that, yeah," he says weakly. "How do you know dad gets nightmares?"

"Overheard him and mum talking about his deams one night when I was trying to get food, and got caught," James says with a sheepish grin. "Why do you think they never told us about it?"

"If they're anything like mine, then I don't blame him for not telling us," Albus rubs his eyes. He's still not fully awake, and the dream is still fresh in his mind.

"You gonna tell me what it was about?" James asks softly, sitting at the edge of the bed.

"No, you'll just make fun," he argues.

"Oh, come on, Albus, you know I'd never do that," James insists.

"Yes, you would," Albus says dryly.

"Okay, fine, I would," James snickers, "Just this one time, I promise."

Alright, he'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Albus gives his brother a skeptic look, especially at the innocent grin on James' face.

"Do you know Echo?"

"Echo?" James repeats. His face scrunched up whenever he thought hard enough. "Isn't that the chick Rose hangs out with? Your arch enemy, Echo?"

"Yeah," he sighs tiredly. He wouldn't exactly call her an archenemy, though, they just didn't get along. "had a dream about her just now."

"Was it a --?" James asks with a goofy grin on his face.

"No," Albus cuts him off curtly, and shoves a pillow in his brothers' face.

James raises his brows at him as he takes it, "you're not getting this back," he says, and hugs it close to his chest.

Ugh. He would.

"Has she been acting off lately?" Albsu frowns.

"Wouldn't know," James shrugs, "I don't normally talk to her, why?"

"No reason, it's nothing," Albus sighs. Honestly, he didn't even remember the reason why he was worried in the first place. He and Echo haven't gotten along since second year when he'd accidentally set her robes on fire in charms class, and he had strong feelings that she thought he'd done it on purpose, despite apologizing profoundly.

"It's obviously not nothing if it's bothering you so much," James points out with concern. "Do you want me to tell dad about the dreams?"

"No, no, no, no!' Albus dismisses quickly. "Dad's got a lot on his plate with the ministry already."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Albus stresses. "Would you leave already!? I'd like to get some sleep before we go to Diagon Alley later."

"Alright, alright, sheesh," James rolls his eyes, gets off the bed, and leaves, taking the pillow with him. He stops suddenly when he's near the doorway, and turns back, hesitant and unsure. "Why don't you give Divination a try this year? Maybe it can help you out with all the dream mumbo jumbo."

James, surprisingly, had a good point. Aunt Hermione may not like Divination, but it's worth a try.

"Oh, and bro?" James pokes his head through the doorway, startling him out of his thoughts and worries. "You might want to move out of the way."

"What?"

Before he'd been given time to react, icy water dumps onto his head. Albus jumps as it washes over him, completely soaking his pyjamas, and already messy hair.

"JAMES!"

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