A/N: I got a few questions from the reviewers, so I'll answer them (as best I can) here:

BlueEyes White Dragon Sorcerer: Was Victor really just around Hermione for information or did he really care for her? What will happen when Tom and Harry are left alone together? Will the Malfoys continue being snots? Will there be fighting amongst the Brits even though the leaders have come to a truce? Hmm... if I answer most of those questions, it will give away most of the plot... but I will say that part of the answers regarding the Malfoys and the fighting amongst the Brits is in this chapter. Also, I haven't decided about Viktor yet. I'll probably decide muuuuuchhhh later in the story, or maybe sometime I'll take a vote.

Source of Silence: So, will this be a Harry/ Voldemort deal, or what? You bet!

WhiteAngelAriah92: What time is this set in? What book does it come after? This is set during the summer after the 5th book, so Harry has just turned 16. I'm completely disregarding the 6th book (hence my alive!Dumbledore). I made a little modification to the events of the 5th book, though. Sirius didn't die and Lucius Malfoy wasn't thrown in Azkaban.

Thanks so much to all the rest of the reviewers! I hope you guys continue reading and liking my story! Your support means a lot to me.

And a final note: I'm a new author and I am also beta-less. So if you see any mistakes, I apologise. Also, I apologise for such a long Author's Note. Without further ado, here's chapter 2! (hehe I made a rhyme)

The Disclaimer from the prologue applies.

Chapter 2:

"Harry! Harry, get up!" Harry groaned in annoyance and batted away the hand that poked him, rolling over in bed and pulling the covers up above his head.

The room was silent for a moment and Harry, thinking that his tormenter had gone away, gratefully snuggled deeper into the warmth his bed provided. Suddenly, the covers were yanked from his grasp and the chilly morning air met Harry's skin. He shot straight up in bed and shivered, blinking owlishly. "Wassamatter?"

Hermione stood at the foot of Harry's four poster bed, trying to stifle her giggles with one hand and holding his bedclothes in the other. She privately thought that Harry looked adorable, sitting in bed in his muggle Scooby-Doo boxers and tiredly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Harry, it's 10:30. We need to head down for breakfast." He grumbled and got out of bed, grabbing a change of clothes and heading into the bathroom. He came out a moment later wearing a pair of faded jeans and a navy blue t-shirt, both of which actually fit him. He dug around in his trunk for a moment, before finding a pair of dirty black canvas sneakers (also known as converse) and slipping them on his feet.

When Harry was finally ready, he and Hermione started towards the Great Hall, before Harry stopped in his tracks and turned to Hermione. "Where's Ron?"

Hermione grimaced, obviously still upset with Ron, but answered anyway. "He went to breakfast with Fred and George earlier this morning. Seemed keen to avoid me."

Harry nodded in understanding and resumed walking down the hallway. "It'll be okay," he comforted. "Ron's just gone into shock. He'll get over it soon enough."

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip and muttered, "I sure hope so."

When they had reached the Great Hall, Harry pulled the massive doors open and almost couldn't believe what he saw. The four house tables were back in their normal positions and full to the brim. What would have been the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables were occupied with death eaters. All of them were wearing their black death eater robes (without the masks, thank goodness), and were silently eating breakfast as if being in the room with their greatest enemies was an everyday occurrence. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables housed the Order members, who were wearing either casual robes or muggle clothing. They, however, were quietly whispering amongst themselves and shooting suspicious glances towards the other side of the hall.

For the most part, the Great Hall was quiet, except for the clinking of silverware against plates and the odd whisper. It was a strained silence; as if the two parties would be tearing each others' heads off if they could, but held back for their respective leaders.

"When did they get here?" Harry's question was a whisper.

Hermione quietly answered him. "I'm not sure. Probably sometime this morning."

The two friends walked over to the Order's side of the room and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor House table next to Lupin and Sirius. Lupin's robes were shabby as ever and he had dark circles under his eyes. But last night wasn't a full moon! Remus must be really worried about all this business. I can't exactly blame him…

Harry looked down the length of the table and saw Ron sitting between the twins. He didn't seem to be eating with as much gusto as he usually did; in fact, he seemed a bit depressed. The red head looked up and, upon seeing Harry staring at him, quickly changed his expression into one of distaste. Ah, he's still upset then. We've known about this war for a day and already it's tearing us apart.

Harry shrugged, knowing that Ron would come around eventually, and turned to his own bowl of porridge which had appeared sometime during his musings. Though he wasn't very hungry, Harry lazily began spooning it into his mouth, knowing he'd regret it later if he didn't eat. He saw Hermione doing the same out of the corner of his eye.

About halfway through his meal, Harry felt the odd prickling on the back of his neck that meant he was being stared at. He set his spoon down and slowly turned around, instantly meeting a pair of light brown eyes. He raised an eyebrow in question, but the Dark Lord merely raised the corners of his lips in a small smile and lifted his cup to Harry before slowly taking a drink from it.

Harry hurriedly turned back around in his seat, heart beating a mile a minute. Sirius seemed to notice his godson's discomfort and slung an arm around his shoulders. "It's okay, Harry. Don't be scared of those barbaric, blood-sucking Death Eaters. They can't get to you while I'm around." He said, mistaking Harry's confusion for fear.

Harry smiled gratefully at him, touched that his godfather would protect him if he needed it. "Thanks, Siri."

"No problem, kiddo. Now, as fun as eating in the same room with a bunch of murderers has been, I'm going to go run around for a bit, get my mind off things. Wana come, Remus?" The werewolf (who up to that point had been silent) shook his head.

"No thanks, Siri. I'm a bit tired." Sirius shrugged and got up from the table, giving Harry's shoulder a squeeze before walking away.

Harry turned around, watching his godfather walk out of the hall and noticed that Lucius Malfoy had departed his own table at the same time. The two men approached the door at the simultaneously and glared coldly at each other before walking out of the Great Hall, the doors closing soundly behind them.

Though Harry considered Lucius Malfoy one of the most immoral men on the planet, he doubted that the blonde would try to harm his godfather with a room full of members of the Order of the Phoenix right behind him. Not to mention the fact that his very own leader, the Dark Lord, had forbidden violence between the two groups inhabiting the castle. Malfoy may be evil, but Harry knew that the man had a good head on his shoulders.

Harry vaguely heard Lupin and Hermione begin a conversation and tuned in. "Professor Lupin, what do you think about everything that's happening?" Hermione seemed interested.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure. I don't really know what to expect, living in the castle with the Death Eaters," Lupin sighed. "I've been thinking all night, trying to figure out another way to get out of this war alive. But I don't think Dumbledore would have made an alliance with the Dark if it wasn't absolutely necessary."

"What about finding another ally? Couldn't we have just gone to the vampires or werewolves? Giants, even? And what about the Ministry?" Harry asked. The way he saw it, any ally would be better than the Death Eaters.

"I've thought about that too, Harry. I doubt the werewolves would have allied themselves with us if the Dark Lord hadn't- after all, the Dark Lord has Fenrir Greyback on his side. Most werewolves wouldn't dare contradict him. The vampires would just refuse us; they're immortal and don't like to get involved is such 'trivial' things as wars. As for the giants: they wouldn't ally themselves with anyone either. Either way, they live in the mountains and aren't under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic, so it doesn't matter to them who's in charge." Remus sighed. It was obvious to Harry that he had given it much thought.

"But what about the Ministry? Surely even someone as thick as Fudge would realize what a threat the Bulgarians are." Hermione almost seemed as if she were pleading.

Lupin scoffed. "This war gives Fudge even more reason to separate himself from Dumbledore. If people see Dumbledore leading us all into battle and winning, they'll want him as Minister and Fudge'll be out of a job. The Ministry will fight on their own, but it'll be harder to win this war if we aren't working together- which we won't be." He scrubbed at his face with his hands and pushed his bowl of porridge away from him.

"Ron reckons the Death Eaters are just here to get dirt on us. He thinks they'll betray us." Harry said tentatively. He didn't want to upset professor Lupin; the man had enough on his shoulders already.

Lupin looked down the table at Ron and then turned back to Hermione and Harry. "Listen, you two. I can't tell Ron what to do, but I want both of you to stay out of trouble. You're sixteen now; you can handle yourselves. Just make sure to pay attention in the lessons you'll be having soon and promise me you won't go around provoking the Death Eaters. Last thing we need right now is to be fighting with eacho-" Lupin was cut off when a commotion was heard from the hallway.

Everyone in the hall seemed to react to the noises coming from the hallway at the same time. As one, the people in the room stood and moved out of the Great Hall and into the entrance hall. The army of black-robed people mixed in with the rest, all fighting to get through the huge oak doors.

Harry, Hermione, and Lupin pushed their way through the crowd, trying to see what the commotion was. Hermione and Lupin stopped in their tracks for a moment and both of their eyes bugged; apparently, they could see over the heads of the people at the front. Harry, being the shortest of the three, could only see the backs of peoples' robes. "What? What is it?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Oh, my! Sirius!" Hermione cried. Lupin seemed to snap out of the daze he had been in and tried with renewed vigor to force his way to the front.

"What? What about Sirius?" Harry was shouting above the clamor now, trying to get an answer out of Hermione. "HERMIONE!"

"Harry, follow me!" Hermione fought through the crowd in the direction that Lupin had gone and Harry quickly followed, miffed that she wouldn't answer his questions.

Harry reached the front of the throng of people and shoved someone aside- he vaguely recognized the person as Macnair- and finally saw what had happened.

Sirius and Lucius Malfoy were struggling to get to each other and both were being held back (Sirius by Charlie Weasley and Malfoy by Snape). Both their faces were bloodied and the front of Sirius' robe was torn open, as was the skin beneath- a slashing hex. Lucius Malfoy looked rather worse for wear: his blonde hair was streaked with blood and he looked as though his left arm was broken. It seemed that the two had abandoned their wands halfway through the fight and opted to use their fists instead.

Dumbledore stood between the two with both their wands in his hand. He screamed out into the entrance hall, trying in vain to get everyone to settle down. The old man shot red sparks out of the tip of his wand; still, the hall did not quiet.

The sound in the hallway had swelled to a deafening roar; people were now fighting with each other and clamoring to get to the front of the crowd. Harry saw a rather undignified looking Tom Riddle stumble out of the throng of people and giggled. His usually tame hair was slightly mussed and his rumpled robes were crooked. The man, though he looked rather harassed at the moment, still had an aura of power surrounding him. He was tall, probably about 6'3" or 6'4"- about a head taller than Harry's 5'4". The way he moved screamed power; Harry could see his muscles moving beneath his black robes. Harry did not like the man (They were supposed to kill each other!), but even he could admit that Riddle was easy on the eyes.

Riddle stopped next to Dumbledore and surveyed the scene before him. The old man turned to him and said something- Harry couldn't hear what- and Riddle turned to address the still-fighting crowd. "Silence yourselves." As if someone had cast silencio on the crowd, the hall was quiet. Harry's ears rang from the unexpected silence and he wondered how the Dark Lord had shut up the throng of people with only two words, while Dumbledore had waved and jumped and screamed and no one had listened.

"What has happened here?" The Dark Lord questioned, though it was entirely obvious.

Sirius blundered for a moment before Lucius Malfly bowed his head and addressed his master. "This mut," he sneered, "attacked me after I left breakfast."

"That's not true!" Sirius protested hotly, "He attacked me!" Malfoy scoffed at his statement and the two lunged for each other again, just barely restrained by Charlie and Snape.

"I see." said Riddle. He turned to Malfoy. "Lucius, I will deal with your punishment later. Return to your room now." Dumbledore handed him his wand and the blonde bowed his head. He limped off into the crowd, having the grace to look slightly ashamed of himself- something Harry though he would never see.

Dumbledore turned to Sirius. "I would like you to also return to your rooms. Maybe check with Poppy later to see about healing that scratch you have there." Sirius wiped a bit of blood off of his face using his sleeve and took his wand from the Headmaster before heading off in a similar fashion.

"You may all go back into the Great Hall." The Dark Lord addressed the crowd. "But be warned; I will not tolerate any violence again. We are here to work together, not harm each other. If we cannot work together, all our lives are forfeit." The people in the crowd guiltily shuffled off.

"Harry? May I have a word with you in my office, please?" Harry turned around to face Dumbledore and Riddle. He nodded, following them through the corridors.

HPTRHPTRHPTRHPTRHPTRHPTR

Harry sat uncomfortably in Dumbledore's office next to Tom Riddle. The three men had trekked to the Headmaster's office in silence. Dumbledore had offered them both tea and lemon drops, to which they both accepted and declined, respectively. Harry looked to the side and focused on the whizzing silver gadgets that Dumbledore had around his office; he was intent on avoiding the two men until either of them talked.

Dumbledore sat behind his desk, fingers steepled. He carefully regarded to two men in front of him before speaking. "Harry, I've brought you here to discuss your willingness to fight."

Harry brought his attention to the old man. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't I fight?"

"Harry… You're going to be one of the key players in this war. We all know that," Dumbledore started gently. "But there are going to be people who are very keen on killing you. Though you are loved by many, there are also a great many who do not share that love. I wish to offer you the chance not to fight."

"Not fight? Why would I not fight? I'm just as much a part of this as everyone else! I won't sit here in safety while my best friends risk their lives for our country!" Harry's green eyes blazed with courage and bravado.

The Dark Lord regarded Harry for a moment before speaking. "Harry, no one would think you a coward if you didn't fight." Riddle's voice washed over Harry and his heart sped up. The man's voice was a deep, soothing bass.

"Why wouldn't you want me to fight? Wouldn't it be to your advantage if I died? You're supposed to kill me! I'm supposed to kill you! I'm Harry Potter! You know, the Boy-Who-Lived?" Harry incredulously shouted. Is he totally off his rocker!

Dumbledore fixed his baby blue eyes on Harry before speaking. "Harry… I think we made a mistake with the prophecy." Harry's teacup fell from his hands and shattered on the floor.