Having turned Malfoy into a clown and proclaiming that his face was funny, Harry had been escorted back to the hospital wing. To have returned so willingly, of course Harry had an ulterior motive. He waited for his friends to head off to their afternoon classes before wandlessly summoning his broom and slipping out through the window.

"Free at last," Harry smiled and closed his eyes as he soared into the clouds above. This was bliss; just him and the perfect, blue sky. Only alone could he face the pain that he would forever carry. This agony that was forced upon his soul was his alone and he simply could not bring himself to stow such a burden so easily upon others; to dump his troubles on his friends and expect them to know how to help him. No, this was all his.

Silent tears streaked across his cheeks as he flew through the air at incredible speeds, oblivious to the dangerous stunts he pulled and near misses that he subconsciously evaded. This was his way of letting it out; a temporary cure to the sickness his mind was plagued by.

It was getting dark when Harry finally succumbed to weariness and settled on the grassy field. In a dreamlike state, he walked back up to the school. He felt somewhat empty now that he had had the opportunity to work through his problems and a deep sense of quiet settled upon him. His mind wandered to the Prophecy, that which he had forbidden himself from thinking of whilst in the hands of the Dark Lord, and he grabbed furiously at his hair. Harry felt so agonizingly helpless; how would he ever defeat Voldemort if he couldn't even hold himself together long enough to evade capture in his own neighbourhood.

Harry took a deep breath to steady himself before entering the castle. He looked around dubiously but nobody was nearby. Assuming that everyone was at dinner already, Harry figured this was his grand opportunity to escape speculation and eat in the kitchens.

"Potter! Where have you been?" demanded none other than Severus Snape. "Of course the famous Harry Potter has had the entire staff searching for his majesty!" the Slytherin Head of House spat furiously.

Harry stopped in his tracks and gave the professor a disdainful look, "Sir."

"What?"

"Your face."

"POTTER!"

Harry found himself escorted to the Great Hall by his favourite Potions professor and the search was called off. Once surrounded by whispering, staring peers, Harry skipped gracefully over to Gryffindor table and plopped himself down next to his friends. "Hi, guys!" Harry crowed, "Group hug!" He promptly grabbed Ron and Hermione around their necks and held onto them until they squirmed to be released.

"Harry! Where were you? We were so worried!" Hermione fretted.

"Can't talk. Eating." Harry proceeded to stuff a large chunk of roast chicken in his mouth and imitated Ron's eating habits with a few added sound effects.

Hermione looked slightly ill but failed to comment.

Of course, Harry's luck had to end sometime and when better than just as things were beginning to look on the upside. "Harry, is it true that you were tortured by you-know-who?" Lavender asked in awe. Everyone fell silent and listened closely for an answer, eager for the latest scoop of gossip first hand.

"Lavender, if someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?" Harry asked thoughtfully before turning back to his dinner.

"But that has nothing to do with what I just asked you," she looked perplexed.

Harry looked at her seriously for a moment, "Think about it really hard and don't talk to me until you have a definite answer with reasons to back it up."

The remainder of dinner was a quiet affair. Harry glanced up at the head table only to find Dumbledore watching him. Harry raised a brow in question and the headmaster nodded at him to stay behind as everyone else headed back up to their dormitories. Once Harry had assured his friends that he would meet them in Gryffindor Tower and the hall was empty save for the headmaster and Snape, Dumbledore approached him.

The headmaster looked at him, speechless for a moment, and asked, "How are you coping, Harry?"

"Just dandy! Got bored, went flying, got yelled at for getting bored and going flying and had some good eating. You know, the usual," Harry said brightly, as though discussing the weather.

Dumbledore's demeanor only became more strained, "My dear boy, I have to ask you to tell me what exactly it was that happened whilst you were… away."

"Aw, c'mon, can't you just guess?" Harry whined, looking put out.

"This is important, Harry," Albus Dumbledore spoke gravely, looking wearied and old, "Did you tell Voldemort the Prophecy? Does he know of the Order?"

Harry looked up sharply. "I told him nothing. Although there is a lot of time unaccounted for, so far as I can recall I did not break under their torture," he said grimly.

Dumbledore watched him intently for a moment, as though trying to discern whether he was being entirely honest, "Thank you, Harry. I would very much like it if you would come and visit me in my office regularly. The password is 'Ice Mice'."

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly will you be needing me for, professor?" Harry asked cautiously.

Snape sneered at Harry, "The Headmaster has made a simple request, Potter. Surely you can manage to grace him with your almighty presence."

Harry pretended to look surprised, "I didn't see you there, professor! How did you get here? Did someone leave your cage open?"

"I'm sure you're the one most adept at escaping from cages, Potter, since you managed to worm your way out of one," Snape snarled.

"Did your parents ever ask you to run away from home?"

Before Snape could retort, Albus interrupted, "That is enough! Harry, we will discuss this in my office tomorrow. Goodnight."

With that said, the professors deserted the Great Hall and headed to bed, Snape throwing murderous looks in Harry's direction as he went. Harry trooped up to Gryffindor Tower, glancing halfheartedly at various portraits as he went. One in particular caught his eye. It was of a man being held underwater by his children, forever captured in the moment of drowning.

Ron and Hermione were waiting up for him when he stepped through the portrait hole. They quickly broke apart from their timid embrace when he entered. "Harry, what did the headmaster want with you?" Hermione asked, looking flushed.

"Oh, you know, we're having an affair so he just figured it was the perfect opportunity for some loving since we've been apart for so long," Harry said halfheartedly.

"Really, Harry!" Hermione scolded, "You shouldn't go around saying such things. I've seen teachers fired for less."

"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer," Harry shrugged.

"We just miss you, mate," Ron tried to reason, "won't you come and talk to us?" Ron patted the seat next to him and looked hopeful.

"Psshht! Fine, you suck up," Harry muttered, winking and sitting in between his two best friends.

There was a long silence. "Err – well, I guess I can't really ask you how your holidays went so… how's Hedwig doing?" Ron asked, thinking he had hit upon a sudden stroke of genius to broach a subject that wasn't potentially painful.

Harry saw Hermione shake her head at his best mate from the corner of his eye. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" he asked, anticipating another disappointment.

Hermione looked torn, "Oh, Harry! Hedwig didn't make it. Your relatives… well… they didn't exactly like animals and they didn't feed her…" she trailed off helplessly.

Harry remained silent. The only companion that had ever endured the Dursleys with him was now gone forever.

"We're really sorry, mate. I know she was very special to you," Ron attempted to appease the dilemma he had gotten them into.

"You sure Dudley didn't eat her? He's a bit like that," Harry attempted some light humour but it was lost on his friends.

Harry yawned, "Whoa! Look at the time! Goodnight!" He quickly scampered up to his dormitory. As he went, he heard Ron try to cover up his "Awkward!" statement with a cough.

The next morning dawned clear and bright and Harry went to his first Charms lesson of the year. He sat absently blowing at the feather on his quill as Flitwick explained to the how they were going to make their teacup tap dance.

"Harry," Hermione whispered, "You need to pay attention. We're practicing the spell now."

Harry sighed and whipped out his wand. He aimed it at the floral teacup and performed the spell only to have the entire table go flying into the air before coming crashing to the ground as through sucked down by a magnetic force.

A few people screamed and Professor Flitwick fell off his stack of tomes. Harry stared at the place where his desk had been, stunned. "What the-"

"Mr Potter, what on earth just happened?" professor Flitwick had recovered and was looking at the destroyed furniture, clearly startled.

"I – I dunno," Harry looked puzzled, "Is that normal?"

"Goodness, no! Why don't you try again but do make sure you follow exactly what I showed you," Flitwick demonstrated how it was done once again and Harry tried once more, this time on Ron's teacup. This time the table just seemed to crumble to the ground; standing there one minute and in a pile of splinters the next.

"How very odd!" Flitwick commented, "I would suggest that you have your wand checked out, Mr Potter."

As the trio made their way up to DADA, Harry brushed off the episode in Charms and asked, "Hey, who is our Defence teacher this year?"

"Oh, we have professor Lupin, Harry! I should have told you earlier," Hermione said happily, " You didn't see him at dinner because he was recovering from the full moon but he is back this year because Dumbledore simply could not find anyone else willing to take the job."

"Cool, at least we'll learn something," Harry said, not feeling particularly enthusiastic about encountering his parent's best friend after what had happened with Sirius the year before. Being reminded of Sirius made him feel rather deflated and he found himself not looking forward to the fast approaching lesson.

"Class, today we will be learning about defensive magic. The spell I am going to show you is only a minor version. It can be upgraded with a few simple steps as you become more powerful. An extremely powerful witch or wizard can actually cause a worldwide earthquake but that has only ever been recorded to have happened once in history.

Lupin banished the tables and chairs to the side of the room and demonstrated the defensive spell, creating a small shockwave that pushed everything away from the front of him and knocking over a chair.

One at a time, each student was asked to come out the front and test this spell out on the chair. Hermione performed hers perfectly, Ron missed the chair and knocked a few books off a shelf and Neville made the chair wobble a bit. Others either got it or had the same effect as Neville.

"Ok, Harry. Remember, the aim is to focus all your power to push everything away from you," Lupin stepped back to watch.

Harry stared at the chair whilst he tried to concentrate on his power; all of his magic together in one mass. And then he visualized pushing the magic out ahead of him and he performed the wand movement and incantation. Not only was the chair thrown directly back and smashed through the window but Harry was also thrown back in the opposite direction and slammed through the door before landing in a crumpled heap in the middle of the hallway outside.