A/N You know the drill, none of the characters or the central idea is mine, it's all J.K. Rowling's.
It was a dark, damp, and dreary cave. In the distance was the sound of dripping water, for all around was an oppressive humidity; a smothering thickness that chilled to the bone. The cavern walls were lined with torches and every couple paces, there was a gap in the light, showing where a tunnel came off. In the center of this cavern stood Harry and Ginny, standing back to back, trying to discern where the horrible, cold laughter was coming from. But even worse than the laughter was the constant sound of footsteps that fell just out of sight. Unable to see their enemy, all Harry and Ginny could do is turn in tight circles. Sudden, fleeting shadows of a hunter flashed by and, though they always disappeared too soon for Harry to see who it was, he knew. He knew that cold laughter, even the taunting way his unseen foe circled them. This could be none other than Lord Voldemort himself, come to take care of Harry in person. Suddenly the sound of footsteps stopped and the laughter grew. There was a brilliant flash of green light and, though Harry dove in front of her, Ginny fell to the ground, lifeless…
Harry sat bolt upright in his bed, panting, and cold sweat dripped all over his body. These dreams weren't unusual; every night someone Harry deeply cared about died - though it was usually Ginny. Harry looked over at his alarm clock; the glowing red letters read 8:30, so it was past time for him to get up anyway. As he did every morning, Harry got dressed quickly, then went back over to his bed, picked up his pillow, and threw it at a still sleeping Ron. Ron jumped up startled, got twisted up in his covers, and then promptly fell off of his bed.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Ron rubbing his forehead. "Do you have to wake me up like that every morning?"
"Well, if you would just start waking up on time, I wouldn't have to," replied Harry.
Ron grumbled something inaudible, then struggled his way out of the tangled mess that was his covers, and started to get dressed. Harry, after seeing that Ron was indeed awake and not just going back to sleep on the floor, walked out of the room to go downstairs. Passing the room where Hermione was staying, he saw that the door was slightly cracked and the light was off. Of course, Hermione had probably gotten up at the crack of dawn, eaten a perfectly healthy breakfast, and had already started her daily reading, including books like, Defense Against the Dark Arts: A List of Defensive Spells and Amelia Abernathy's Annotated History of Dark Wizards.
Harry had reached the kitchen, which was, as usual, abandoned. Ever since Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived at the Dursleys' doorstep, the Dursleys had been going to bed early and waking up late. Even when they did leave their rooms they tended to stay in the living room and the kitchen. Much worse for the Dursleys was that these extra guests had come of age in the wizarding world and could therefore do magic outside of school. Harry had the great joy of watching the Dursleys shiver in a corner as Ron and Hermione performed enlargement charms and transformed different parts of the house to accommodate the extra quests. Of course, it was Hermione that had added the library onto the house, which was probably where she was now.
Harry put on some toast, which popped out crisp and warm just as he had finished pouring himself a glass of orange juice. He had just taken a bite when Hermione walked into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Harry. Is Ron getting up?"
Harry rolled his eyes. For a while now (the day after they arrived at the Dursleys') Ron and Hermione had been dating; and except for when Ron was sleeping, they had been inseparable. Even though this was a major improvement to their constant bickering, it was still rather annoying.
"Well, I made an attempt at waking him up earlier, and I thought that it worked, but a guess not. But… I bet you could persuade him," Harry said, chuckling a little.
"Oh, stop your teasing… but I will see if I can get him up. Oh, stop laughing!" And with that, Hermione left, no doubt about to use Harry's idea of persuasion to wake Ron up.
For a while Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been discussing going back to school. McGonagall, in hopes of persuading Harry and his friends to return, had sent a personal letter to them announcing the schools reopening, providing parents still let their children come. Harry was starting to have doubts about his decision to stop his schooling, and Hermione was making really good points to return.
"We don't know enough yet to destroy these Horcruxes. I mean, Dumbledore himself almost died last year destroying Slytherin's ring, didn't he? And I am sure we can work it out with McGonagall to come and go out of the school as we please, and to give us private lessons to help us." Hermione was telling Harry, very quickly, for about the hundredth time.
"Yes, I hear you, Hermione - just like all the other times - and like I've told you before you're making sense, but I have got to think it over for a while."
But that wasn't the only thing Harry was thinking about. Yes, he had spent much of the last week at the Dursleys' thinking about whether or not to go back to school. But mainly he thought of his break-up with Ginny. If Voldemort was such a good Leglimens, which Harry knew from experience that he was, wouldn't he be able to tell, whether he was going out with Ginny or not, that he had strong feelings for her? Of course he would, Harry decided, and having known what it felt like to be with her, being without her was driving him crazy. Harry wasn't looking forward to asking her back; although she didn't seem mad at the funeral, he didn't think he could handle the awkwardness. And with his return to the Burrow happening in three days, Harry thought he would die with anticipation.
Tuesday rolled around and Harry found himself thinking about his leaving the Dursleys' for the last time. He was happy to leave early, not just because he would get away from the Dursleys' sooner, but because this would mean Harry would be spending his birthday with the Weasleys. An escort to the Burrow would be coming at 4:00 that afternoon, three hours from now. They had been told to expect a fairly large group. With Voldemort now openly attacking, they were afraid that there would be an attempt to get to Harry during transport.
Ron and Hermione had been packing at ease. They were often found just lounging around on the couch together doing some of those sweet, yet kind of sickening, couple things. They now spent hours just being together; talking in each others ears, and occasionally running up to Hermione's room for some snogging. Harry found that these things did not help his morale. Walking in on this behavior only made him think about Ginny more and more. Unlike Ron and Hermione, Harry had had all his things packed since last night except for what he needed the next day, which he had added to the jumble of his things earlier this morning.
Promptly at 4:00 there was a sharp knock on the door. Harry rushed to the door to find Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Mr. Weasley, Bill Weasley, the Weasley Twins, and two other people he didn't know.
"Well, let us in, do you want us to get ambushed by the enemy?" growled Moody, who practiced, as he put it, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE".
Harry let them in just as Hermione and Ron came down the stairs with all of their trunks in tow. After some greetings and introductions, they were ready to leave. But just as Moody opened the door, Aunt Petunia peeked down the stairs. Harry looked over just in time to see her expression change from surprise to sadness. She quickly ran to Harry and with tears running down her face, she looked down at him and said, "Goodbye Harry. I am so sorry for… everything."
"Bye," was all Harry could get out in his shock. And with that, Aunt Petunia turned around and ran back up the stairs, still crying. Once outside and mounting their brooms, Ron looked over to Harry and asked, "What was that about? Don't they all hate you?"
"Beats me. I figured they'd be throwing a party at seeing the back of me."
"I think you've greatly misjudged your aunt, Harry. Obviously, she was very sad about something," scolded Hermione in her usual knowing way. Luckily, Hermione's judgment would have to wait - at that moment, Moody yelled for them to take off.
After about a dozen direction changes, and hundreds of position rotations around Harry and his friends, they were finally nearing the Burrow. Like Harry's last, long broom ride from the Dursleys', Harry's hands were frozen to his broom stick. More to distract himself from the cold than actually having any interest, Harry started to look around at the scenery below. He spotted a group of people on the ground huddle behind a low garden wall.
Suddenly, Moody cried out to take evasive maneuvers and battle positions. "Enemy behind the garden wall at four 0clock!" Snarled Moody through the howling wind. Wands flew out of everyone's pockets and Harry's Advance Guard started to rotate around him. In fact, they were rotating so rapidly it was beginning to make Harry dizzy. Harry frantically looked down at the group of people he had spotted earlier and just noticed the wands pointed up at them.
At that moment, spells started whizzing by, one barely missing Mr. Weasley's head .
"We'll, either have to land and fight to the Burrow, or ascend and go on to one of the safe houses, but they could chase if we stay on broom. But we can't stay in the air - its too easy for them to pick us off," shouted Moody.
"We'll land behind that shed; we can secure it easily and get the kids inside," answered Mr. Weasley.
"Alright, three, two, one, DIVE!" ordered Mad-eye.
But just as they were landing next to the shed, a loud explosion erupted, blowing the shed apart. Harry heard screaming and saw Fred or George, he couldn't tell which, lying on the ground, knocked out… or worse.
A/N: This is my first fic so PLEASE REVIEW. Without reviews and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism I can't make this fic better. :)