Harry woke up with a scream on his lips, his scar burning. Visions of Cedric, flashes of green light, Voldemort rising out of a cauldren leading up to a dark corridor leading up to a door that he can't reach.

"Harry." Startled, Harry looked towards the source of the voice. It was Ron, he had a concerned look on his face with the last remaining bits of sleepyness washing away. "Are you okay mate?"

"I'm fine Ron, it was just a bad dream" He replied

Ron just stared "A bad dream that had you on the verge of screaming and your hands on your scar isn't just a bad dream." He stated "I know that I wasn't a good friend last year, but I want to make it up to you. Was it You-Know-Who?"

Harry looked at Ron, his scar still in major pain while the rest of his body in lesser pain. Ron looked sincere and worried. He sighed, knowing that he needed some form of help. The door he has been seeing wasn't something he recognised either. He finally answered Ron "You're right Ron, I've been having these nightmares all summer. But I want to tell Hermione and Sirius at the same time as you."

Ron grinned "Of course mate. Now why don't we head down for breakfast, I'm starved!" Harry grinned back, knowing that statement was forced but true.

"What time is it?" Harry asked while walking to the kitchen.

"About 6 mate, mum's not even up yet." Harry felt guilt rising up, had he woken up Ron? As if he knew what he was thinking, Ron spoke up "Don't worry Harry, I was already up. I couldn't sleep and it looks like I wasn't the only one."

Confused, Harry paid attention to his surroundings to find that they had arrived at the kitchen. Inside sitting at the table was both Sirius and Hermione.

"Morning Harry, Ron." Sirius said "Neither of you could sleep either?"

There was two cups on the table, one empty cup in front of Sirius and a half-full one with what looked like coffee in it in front of a half asleep Hermione. She looked up at the two before draining the rest of it.

Ron had sat down at the table "Yeah, dunno why and that was before Harry woke up from nightmares." They both looked surprised before guilt showed on their faces.

Harry meanwhile had made it to the stovetop and had started cooking bacon and eggs for the four of them. He took his eyes off the stove for a few seconds to look at them and saw the guilt on their faces.

"I'm sorry Harry." Hermione told him "I forgot what that it was a possibility for you to get nightmares after everything you've been through."

Harry was confused at this "I never expected any of you to remember that." He said as he expertly cooked a large amount of scrambled eggs in one pan and a ridiculous amount of bacon in another guessing that Hermione and Sirius had yet to have breakfast and taking into account Ron's large appetite. "I'm just happy knowing that you tried to contact me."

Before long, breakfast was done and Harry started serving the food to everyone with himself having half of what the others were having. Everyone was silent as they enjoyed Harry's cooking.

"Wow Harry, this is perfect. I doubt Molly would be able to make it any better." Sirius enthusiastically told him with Ron and Hermione nodding along.

"I don't think I'm that good." Harry deflected.

"What, mate, come on." Ron said in disbelief "You can't honestly think that. Where did you learn how to cook?"

Harry's face became unreadable "I've been cooking for the Dursleys ever since I was four."

That slightly killed their enthusiasm. "You didn't have to cook for us Harry." Hermione told him after a moment of silence.

"Yeah." Ron agreed "No matter how good it is." Sirius stayed quiet as Hermione slapped Ron for his comment.

"But I wanted to guys. I never got to eat any of the food I made either and I wanted to know what my cooking tasted like."

That seemed to sadden them. "Cook whenever and whatever you want Harry." Sirius said "As long as you eat something and make some better memories, I won't discourage you." Harry felt some tension he didn't know he had leave him. He wasn't sure what he was worried about, but whatever it was, it's not worrying him any longer.

"Now on to a more serious subject." Sirius declared before he said in concern "Now what's this Ron said about you having nightmares?"

Harry knew this was coming and briefly thought of saying nothing but scrapped that idea, they already knew he was suffering from nightmares and he really wanted to trust someone with his problems. If he can't trust his friends and godfather, then who can he trust?

Harry took a deep breath and slowly let it out, mentally preparing himself before speaking up. "Most of my nightmares are about Cedric dying and Voldemort rising, some of them are about the night my parents died and all of them have flashes of green light and ends with a long dark hallway leading up to a door I can't reach."

"It's natural to dream about traumatic life experiences Harry. I still have nightmares from my stay in Azkaban." Sirius said "The only thing not natural about your nightmares is the door."

"The only thing I can suggest is to talk to someone whenever you have a nightmare and they will eventually go away." He continued

The nightmares might go away but Harry knew that the guilt would never go away. It was his fault that Cedric died after all. Not willing to talk about this subject more, he nodded and made a noise of agreement.

Sirius narrowed his eyes a bit before he relaxed.

After the rest of the food had gone, Harry asked "Do I need to prepare for my hearing?"

Sirius responded "You shouldn't, but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared."

At the thought of research, Harry turned to Hermione who had a determined expression on her face that wasn't quite hiding the excitement she had. "Would you help me Hermione?"

"Yes." She said with finality "I promise I won't let you down."

He grinned, knowing that for a fact. "I know you won't." He turned to Ron "What about you? I'm not just talking about my hearing, I'm talking about Voldemort. Will you help?"

"Of course I will mate." Ron answered with a serious expression "I won't be making that mistake again. Especially if you get entered into another tournament." He ended with a grin.

Harry shouldn't of found that funny. He started chuckling, quickly turning into laughter. The laughter was contagious and soon everyone was laughing along with him. The laughter lasted several minutes before it finally died down. It was during this laughter that Harry's old shirt shifted to show the bandages.

"Before we forget Harry, we need to check your bandages." Hermione said after spotting them. Harry had forgotten all about them and agreed, eager to take them off. They all rose from the table and left the kitchen, making their way to the bathroom. The silence had returned and Harry could feel tension in the air. He understood that, he doesn't want to think of the Dursleys either.

Once they reached the bathroom, Harry took off his shirt and Ron took off the bandages. "I don't understand." Ron said in surprise "Shouldn't you still be bleeding?" Harry looked down and saw that indeed, he was no longer bleeding. In fact, most of his wounds had lessened in severity. His body was still in pain but nothing close to yesterday's pain.

"I've always healed fast." Harry told them. "I think it has something to do with my magic."

Hermione appeared thoughtful "I think you might be on to something. I'm sure I've read about something similar happening somewhere."

"No matter how it happened." Sirius began "I think that as long as you stay safe that the bandages can stay off and let them heal naturally."

Harry's face lit up. He looked to Ron and Hermione and saw that they were smiling too.

That happiness didn't last very long as someone screaming filled the air. "FILTH, HALFBREEDS, MUDBLOODS IN MY HOUSE!" This went on for a few seconds before it went silent.

"What was that?" Harry finally asked.

"That Harry, was my Mother's painting." Sirius said "She is usually behind the curtains at the bottom of the stairs, but whenever someone disturbs her, the curtains open and she starts screaming."

Ron gave a small smile "At least we know everyone is awake." Everyone smiled at that, while Ron gave himself a little fist pump.

"Should we go to speak to the others or shall we head straight to the library?" Hermione asked although Harry had a guess which one she wanted.

Pulling on his old shirt, Harry answered "I would rather go straight to the library. I don't want to explain to Mrs Weasley why we are not hungry."

"Good point mate." Ron stated "I think I'll join you two."

At this they stared at him "What? I was serious earlier, I want to help in anyway I can."

"I'm sorry Ron, its just that we're not used to you willingly choosing the library over food." Hermione said.

"Well you better get used to it, I am going to do all I can while making sure we take breaks Hermione."

After a moment she said "Deal Ron, and we will be happy to count on you."

Harry turned to Sirius "Are you joining us Sirius?"

Sirius looked thoughtful before he responded "I am. I need to make sure the books aren't cursed before you touch them." Harry smiled at the thought of spending more time with his Godfather, even if it wasn't what he was imagining at first.

The library was on the floor above the bathroom. When the four of them reached the door, Sirius put his hand on the handle and said in a dramatic voice "Ladies and Gentleman! I am proud to present, the library." And with that, he opened the door.

The library was bigger on the inside. Hermione squealed as she rushed straight to the closest section. "Don't touch anything yet, I need to deactivate the defences." Sirius called out.

Sirius put his hand on one of the walls. As he did that, there was a small burst of magic. "Now the four of us can pick up any book without worry. Just be careful what you read, not everything in here is pleasant." Hermione wasted no time after Sirius' words and immediately grabbed a book off the shelf.

"I thought that she would've already been in here." Harry said

Sirius' face darkened "Molly has had everyone constantly cleaning."

Sensing his anger Harry moved away from him and started looking at the book titles. The library seemed to have everything, transfiguration, charms, defence and even some dark art books. He stayed away from those books.

He had been looking at books for a while now, pulling them out flipping through them and putting them back when they didn't seem useful until he came upon a red and gold book. He pulled it out and stared at the title. Soul Magic. Looking through the book, the stuff in there didn't seem to be in any particular order. Some of it was nasty while rest seemed helpful until he came upon a page that just stood out at him. On a page next to the one that was labelled Horcrux was a page labelled 'The Soul Connection Ritual'. Reading through this ritual, Harry felt hope, hope that he would actually be able to survive the war while helping as many people as he can. He closed the book while putting a finger where the page was and set out to find the others.

Harry found Ron reading book on strategic tactics. "Hey mate." Harry said, gaining Ron's attention "I found something I want to show everyone." Ron's eyes widened when he saw the red and gold book and stood up, bringing the book he was reading with him.

"You found a book in Gryffindor colours?" He asked. Harry just smiled.

They across both Hermione and Sirius discussing something over a mountain of books and a stack of parchment. "Harry found a book in Gryffindor colours." Ron suddenly called out.

They jumped and looked towards them "Of course you found something like that Harry." Hermione said after she recovered from the shock. "What's it about?"

"It's a book on soul magic." Harry said.

Sirius narrowed his eyes "Soul magic is dangerous stuff Harry."

Harry nodded grimly "I know, half the stuff in this book is really dangerous. But I did find something that I think might help." At this, Harry opened the book and placed it on the table, pointing at the page.

"'The Soul Connection Ritual'" Ron read out loud.

"But aren't rituals dark magic?" Hermione questioned.

At this Sirius sighed "It looks like you all need a lesson on dark magic." He caught everyone's full attention with those words.

"You mean we are going to learn dark magic?" Harry asked, a little apprehensive.

"No, nothing like that." At that they let out a sigh of relief. "I'm talking about the history of dark magic and what true Dark Magic actually is."

Making sure he had their full attention, Sirius began "There are two different types of dark magic, what the Ministry labels as dark magic and true Dark Magic." Harry could practically hear the difference between the two. "Ministry dark magic is magic that the Ministry had banned for multiple reasons."

"Like what?" Hermione asked

"Like magic most people can't control, magic they can't understand, magic that people aren't powerful enough to use and magic that they want to stay buried."

"What magic has the Ministry banned?" It was Ron who asked this question.

Sirius smiled "Ritual magic for one. You see, ritual magic creates something permanent and requires someone powerful to activate and for certain conditions to be met. I believe Harry is one of those people who could activate rituals."

"I don't think so." Harry mumbled. The three of them stared at Harry.

"Mate." Ron said a little bewildered "You are one of the most powerful people I know."

Harry didn't believe that "Name something I have done that proves that I'm powerful." He challenged.

"You drove off 100 Dementors using a patronus while most wizards can't even get mist." Sirius said.

"You can throw off the Imperious curse." Ron mentioned.

"You..." Hermione started but Harry cut her off "Alright, I get it. Now can we finish listening to Sirius." Harry still didn't believe he was that powerful, but if his friends and family believe in him then he will try his best to believe it too.

It took a moment, but Sirius started where he left off "Now true Dark Magic is magic that will do its best to influence you and make sure you rely on them as much as possible. This magic will feed on your darkest desires and make you feel pleasure in activities you use to find revolting. I don't want you to even touch those magics and if you accidently use those magic and feel the effects on you, I want you stop using magic until you no longer feel the urge to recast the spell. Do you all understand me?"

Everyone nodded and Harry swore that he would never use Dark Magic.

"Do you think that Voldemort overused Dark Magic?" Harry asked.

"Absolutely." Sirius nodded "Now Harry, I want you to double check the ritual you found and then tell us whether it is Ministry dark magic, or true Dark Magic."

Harry took a deep breath, and grabbed the book and started reading the ritual his attention fully focused on it. It took a few minutes compared to when he read it earlier, to completely comprehend everything about it. Harry put the book down on the table, still open on the page and smiled at the others, who were watching him carefully.

"The ritual is Ministry dark magic." Harry said.

Sirius smiled and relaxed from his tense state. "That's good Harry, now tell us about it. This is obviously something you are considering." Ron and Hermione looked relaxed and interested in what he had to say.

"This ritual connects two souls from two completely different dimensions." Harry happily stated.

The others looked amazed "What do you mean by connect?" Hermione asked.

"The ritual will reach out across dimensions and look for someone compatible for the person who activated the ritual and connect them so that they can help each other while staying in our own dimensions." Harry elaborated.

"That sounds bloody amazing Harry." Ron exclaimed.

"Language." Hermione said while whacking Ron.

Sirius asked an important question "What are the catches?"

That dampened his mood and the saw the others look at him with a bit more seriousness. "There are two major catches. The first is that I can't have an animagus transformation."

Sirius looked like Harry kicked his puppy "What, Why?"

"The animagus transformation pulls the animal straight from your soul." Harry began, disappointed that if he used this ritual, he couldn't ask Sirius to teach him this. "Having two souls so closely connected will prevent the transformation from ever taking place."

Harry saw the understanding bloom in their eyes. "The second catch, is that the two connected people have a very low chance of ever meeting each other face to face."

It was silent for a moment while they all absorbed what he told them. Ron was the one to speak up first "Are you sure you want to do this?" He looked concerned.

Harry smiled "Don't worry Ron, I'm planning on waiting to make my choice after my hearing. What will happen at the Ministry will determine my decision." Ron still looked concerned but he nodded.

"I'll support you in whatever decision you make Harry." Hermione said and both Sirius and Ron agreed with her. "Now lets get to studying!" Hermione shouted while everyone else laughed.


It wasn't long before the day of the hearing had arrived. The library had nothing on Ministry hearings so Harry was just going to have to wing it. Harry had talked to the rest of the Weasleys when he encountered them. The twins filled him in on their plans for the joke shop and just made him laugh in general.

Harry had a nice time with Ginny whenever they got the chance to hang out. Harry got the feeling however that she was looking for more than 'hanging out'. Other then that, they had a good time.

He rarely had a chance to talk with either Mr or Mrs Weasley but he hoped that would change today considering that Mr Weasley was taking him to the Ministry this morning.

Right now, Harry was in front of the fireplace, preparing to floo to the Ministry 2 hours early. Sirius and Mr Weasley was behind him.

"Good luck Harry." Sirius said "Try your best to keep your anger in until you get back." Harry nodded and turned to Mr Weasley.

"I believe in you Harry, shout 'Ministry of Magic'." Mr Weasley told him. Harry nervously grabbed the Floo Powder. He didn't want to end up at the wrong place again. Harry threw the powder down, turning the flames green and shouted "Ministry of Magic" and stepped into the green fire.

Harry stumbled out of the fire and took a look around. He was in a magnificent building, people were walking past him and the walls and floors were polished to perfection. He heard a flash of fire and turned around. Mr Weasley had arrived.

"Ah Harry, good to see you made it to the right place, the reception counter is right over there." He said and guided Harry to the counter.

The receptionist looked bored as he saw the two of them arrive at the desk. "Name, wand and reason for visit." He said in a bored tone.

"Arthur Weasley, here to escort Harry Potter to his hearing." Mr Weasley said as he gestured for Harry to give the receptionist his wand.

The receptionist went wide eyed when Harry gave him his wand. He then did a spell on his wand "11 inches, made of Holly with a Phoenix feather core, been in use for 4 years." He said with awe.

"Yes sir." Harry replied. The receptionist nodded, handed his wand back to Harry and waved them through.

As they were walking to the elevator, Mr Weasley was interrupted by a man in red robes who whispered something in his ear. "Thank you." As the man left, Mr Weasley turned to Harry "They changed the time and place of your hearing to a criminal trial in courtroom ten in 5 minutes. We must hurry." And they ran straight to the elevator and only just made it in before the elevator doors closed.

Harry took the time to catch his breath, his body still not fully recovered, although no longer giving him pain. It took a few minutes before the elevator stopped. A voice echoed out 'Department of Mysteries'. They exited the elevator and started rushing to the courtroom. On the way there, they passed a door that looked familiar to Harry. He couldn't linger over the thought though as they had arrived at the courtroom.

"This is as far as a go Harry. "Mr Weasley told him "I'll be waiting out here to take you back after you win." Harry nervously nodded at him and went through the door.

The courtroom was massive. And full of people. There were rows of seats surrounding a lone chair sitting in the middle of the room. Sitting in the highest seat at the very middle of the seats was Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and beside him on a slightly lower seat was a toad-like witch wearing way too much pink to be healthy.

"Ah, now that the accused has arrived we can begin." Minister Fudge announced. "Mr Potter, would you please sit in the chair." Harry remembered this chair. This chair was in one of Professor Dumbledore's pensieve memories and included chains for the arms and legs. He approached the chair with apprehension and sat down. Luckily nothing appeared.

"On the twelfth of August, 1995 at 7:05AM this trial will now begin. Judge for this case is Cornelius Oswald Fudge, scribe is Percival Weasley..." Fudge began.

"Witness for the defence." Dumbledore's voice boomed out as he entered the courtroom " Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."

A grin appeared on Harry's face when he walked in, Harry knew he would win with Dumbledore here.

"I see you got my message that the time had changed." Fudge addressed Dumbledore.

"Alas, I must have missed it on my way here, however by some happy accident I arrived at the Ministry three hours earlier." Dumbledore replied with a smile on his face never once looking directly at Harry.

"I see... moving on." Fudge said as he turned his attention back to Harry. "The charges are as follow, that he did knowingly cast the Patronus charm in the presence of a muggle. You are Harry Potter 5th year Gryffindor correct?"

"Yes." Harry answered.

"That you did knowingly cast a Patronus charm."

"Yes but..."

"That you casted the charm in the presence of a muggle."

"Yes but..." Harry tried once again.

"Ladies and Gentleman, I think that this case is clear..." Fudge tried to finish.

Now extremely frustrated, Harry cut him off "But I only did it because of the Dementors!" There was a small amount of murmuring in the courtroom before the Minister silenced it.

"Very clever Mr Potter, putting the blame onto something muggles can't see." Fudge said with a slight smirk on his face "Unfortunately, I cannot see how the can be true considering that the Ministry holds absolute control over all the Dementors."

An idea that had stayed with him since he saw the chair came to the front of his mind. "Can I show you the event with a pensieve?"

The anger on the Minister's and the toad-faced woman were clear as day but before the could say anything, a woman with a monocle answered him "Of course you can Mr Potter. I shall summon one now." And with those words, she waved her wand and a large pensieve appeared right in front of Harry.

"This Mr Potter, is the only court pensieve of its kind. Any tampered memory in the pensieve won't play and will instead be instantly destroyed." She explained.

It was at this moment that Dumbledore walked towards Harry with an unreadable expression on his face. "Now Harry, I will place my wand on your temple. All you need to do is to think of the memory from start to finish and my wand will do the rest." Harry gave his permission and when he felt the wand on his temple, he began to think of the memory from start to finish. Once he was finished, Harry looked at the tip of Dumbledore's wand and saw a silvery strand connected to the tip of his wand, floating about in a non-existent wind.

Dumbledore placed the memory into the pensieve, activated it and stood back. The pensieve immediately began projecting and showed the entirety of the encounter, from when the chill first entered the air to when he had chased the Dementors away. Harry did notice his wandless lumos but decided to focus on that another day.

When the memory ended, the people in the seats looked shocked, while the Minister and his toad looked like they had swallowed a lemon. "A-all those in favour of conviction." The Minister asked. Only a few people put their wand up. "All against." The rest of the body put theirs up. "Mr Potter is innocent of all charges." At that, he banged his gavel and dismissed everyone.

Harry turned to Dumbledore to speak to him but he had already vanished through the door. Disappointed with missing a chance to speak with him, Harry rushed out of the courtroom after watching the pensieve destroy the copy of his memory.

Harry saw Mr Weasley waiting for him and went over towards him. "Harry!" He said "Did you win?"

"I did Mr Weasley." Harry replied with a smile on his face.

Mr Weasley also smiled "Excellent, now we should get back before anything nasty happens." Spotting Lucius Malfoy heading towards them, Harry agreed and pulled him inside the elevator as quick as he could. He felt the elevator leave as Mr Malfoy reached the entrance of the elevator.

Once they made it to the main lobby, Harry noticed the large statue in the middle on the room. He didn't know how he could miss such a monstrosity the first time but now it was obvious as he walked closer to it. The statue was gold and had a centaur, a goblin and a house elf looking up adoringly at a wizard. Harry quickly looked away and headed straight for a Floo, not willing to look at it or be in the Ministry any longer.

Harry grabbed a bit of Floo Powder and threw it into the fire and connected it to Grimmauld Place and stepped into the green fire. In a flash, Harry stumbled out of the fireplace and right into Hermione. Almost losing their balance, they managed to steady each other before Hermione asked him a question "What are you doing back so early Harry?" It was at this moment that Mr Weasley came arrived with a flash of fire.

When he arrived, Harry took this moment to see who else was in the kitchen. It turned out that the rest of the Weasley family that was staying here, as well as Hermione and Sirius were about to eat breakfast when they had arrived.

"Harry's hearing was changed to a full criminal trial." Mr Weasley announced "But don't worry, Harry won." The kitchen exploded into cheers.

"Party!" The Weasley twins shouted before they used their magic to conjure streamers. Mrs Weasley looked about to reprimand them before letting it go. The rest of the day had the house partying giving Harry the first chance in a long time to enjoy himself.

It was a tired Harry and Ron that stumbled into their bedroom that night. They both went to lay down on their beds in exhaustion when Harry spotted the book on soul magic on top of his trunk. Feeling his exhaustion disappear, Harry picked up the book and called out to Ron "Ron, I need you to get Sirius and Hermione in here." Ron let out a small growl and looked at Harry only to stop and sign of protest when he saw the book in his hands.

"Right mate." Ron said before he left the room. Meanwhile Harry flipped the book to the page he needed and reread the instructions.

Ron returned with them both as Harry finished rereading the instructions. "Are you sure you want to do this Harry?" Sirius said in concern "There is no going back once this has been completed."

Harry looked into their eyes and let his determination show. "With what I saw at the Ministry today, I'm going to need all the help I can get."

Hermione sighed, then set a look of determination on her face as well. "What do we need to do to help?" Harry could see that Ron and Sirius had looks of determination as well.

"I need someone to draw a lighting bolt on my forehead with white chalk and luckily I have one you can trace over." Harry said raising his fringe to show his scar. Sirius came prepared and produced a selection of multi-coloured chalk. Hermione grabbed the white chalk and traced his scar. After she had finished, she looked a little worried about what she had done.

"Harry, are you sure that tracing your scar was a good idea?" Hermione asked.

"No." Harry replied "But when have any of my plans been a good idea?" He mentally prepared himself for relaying the last part of the ritual to them. "Now once I activate the ritual, I won't be waking up for a day. I need you three to look after me and make some excuses."

They were shocked "Why won't you be waking up?" Ron said with worry.

"The book said that I would be meeting with the other soul and that it would take 24 hours with them to complete the connection." This answer calm the three down as Harry laid down on the bed.

"Good luck Harry." Hermione said.

"We're with you mate." Ron told him with a grin.

"I'll keep Molly off your back for you." Sirius said with a mischievous smirk on his face.

Grateful that he has such great friends and family, Harry closed his eyes and started thinking of what he needed from this ritual. It wasn't long before he drifted away into darkness.