Metamorphosis

Chapter 4: A Premonition

The hallway laid out before him was familiar; the long dark stretch of corridor leading to closed doors that he wanted so bad to open. He was running again, trying to catch up with the doors, winding down hallways that he didn't know but somehow he needed to reach a destination. There was a door that appeared out in front of him—a door that was vaguely familiar but at the same time he didn't think he'd ever seen that particular door. It wasn't black like the other doors or brown, but rather a grey-silver color. It appeared old for the hinges seemed to have been rusted together and the color a little worn and because of its aged state he figured it hadn't been opened in quite some time, perhaps a century or two.

Harry could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he approached the door, staring down at the knob. He was afraid this time of what he'd find behind it, wondering if it was some trick planted in his mind, but at the same time still so curious. Grabbing a hold of the handle, he took a deep breath and turned the knob before pushing the door open. It didn't budge very easily, but he managed to get the creaky old door open enough so he could slip through.

The room inside was none other than the same room in which Harry had grabbed the prophecy contained in a tiny sphere—the prophecy that foretold his parents' murder and Voldemort's downfall. It was the same room, yet behind a different door. Harry was momentarily stunned and confused. He could see the tiny spheres glimmering in their respective places, with the exception of the prophecy that had smashed to pieces only a few months ago. He walked forward several steps, wondering if perhaps this was just a regular dream he was having about what happened that night. It wouldn't be the first time he had dreamt about it over and over. Each time it came to the part where Sirius' smiling face disappeared behind the veil he would wake up. Somehow though, Harry was sure this wasn't the same, for there was no one else with him; no Ron, no Hermione, no Neville, no Luna…He was all alone.

He wanted so bad to jump through the veil and see what was behind it. There had to be more to it he was almost positive. If he could figure out the mystery of the veil perhaps there was a chance he could get Sirius back. Thinking of Sirius brought the familiar pang in his chest. Biting his lip to keep from becoming too upset, he approached one of the spheres nearest to him and made a move to reach out and grab it. Perhaps smashing all of the spheres, which happened to be what caused the problem in the first place along with the dream, like he had smashed objects in Dumbledore's office would ease the emotional pain slightly.

His fingers had just reached out to grasp one when his fingers slipped right through it. He blinked and pulled his hand back before trying it again. It was as if the room before him was a mirage that didn't exist in the first place; that not only was he dreaming, but that even in his dream the room wasn't real. His attention was suddenly broken when another door on the opposite side of the room burst open. He pulled his hand away sharply, wheeling around as several cloaked figures stormed into the room. He backed up as quickly as he could against the wall—only there was no wall. He slipped straight through it to the other side but somehow could still see through the wall and was able to watch the figures, almost like he was looking through a pensive except it was in his dream.

"Can you believe that pompous ass!" a feminine voice screeched, not expecting an answer from the tone of her voice. "And to think I once held that man in high regard!"

"Calm down Bella before you set something else on fire," a cool, male voice responded. "We knew it was one of the top servants who got the message directly, we just never expected Dolohov to be behind it."

Bella Lestrange wheeled around to glare at him, her hood coming off from around her face so that Harry could clearly see the look of utter rage. She was standing a mere ten feet from where he was positioned although her back was to him. Harry held his breath even from behind the transparent wall.

"Be calm? How the bloody hell can I remain calm when we've been tricked!? Do you not understand what has happened here?!" she yelled, glaring directly at the several cloaked figures in front of her. "We have been striving to get up to our liege's top ten servants because that would be an incredible honor. It was hard enough even doing the simple missions and Dolohov is in the top ten and he's the one who sent us the false mission to kill the boy in the first place! Now, since there's no proof it was him, we'll get either kicked down to the very low of servant-status and have to work really hard to get back up, which will take years if not forever, or we'll get killed for our disobedience!"

Bella took a deep breath, her face appearing slightly red even in the very dim light of the room. It was silent for several minutes until one of the other figures slowly lowered their hood. Harry could just barely make out his features enough to see that it was Macnair.

"I don't believe that it was through Dolohov alone. I think that someone else was hiding behind him, someone who has hated the boy personally and not just indirectly through our liege," Macnair said quietly.

"You mean…Malfoy?" Bella's eyes widened, her lips settling into a frown. "But he was with us when we went to the house."

"Yes, only to make us believe that it wasn't him who betrayed us, but we all know that's something Lucius is capable of. His confrontations with Potter aren't unknown to many of us and in fact I've witnessed a couple inside the Ministry building before and during Malfoy's trials. Trust me when I say that Lucius loathes Potter."

"Yes, but what would it gain him?" another Death Eater asked. "Eventually our liege will find out Harry Potter wasn't killed by us and that we lied to him."

"Well we can't let that get out, now can we?!" Bella snapped. "We have to keep this our little secret until master has completed his final task. He knows that Dumbledore expects the attack and that's when it will all begin. We have to report to him soon anyway. Hopefully he'll like the information I'm going to give him," her lips quirked into a sneer. "I captured and tortured one of the members of the Order, Kingsley Shaklebolt. I've learned some highly useful information, but unfortunately he didn't know where the item was located."

"Your successful mission will only buy us a little time before master once again requests that the boy's body be found. If he has been captured by a Dementor, or has starved to death, there's no telling where he could be," Macnair stated solemnly.

"Not to mention we can't get through the barricade," another Death Eater spoke up. "Not unless it was deactivated."

Bella grumbled something that Harry couldn't hear as she turned and began pacing.

"There's no way we're going to deactivate it! And besides, the only way is from the Ministry but master can't take over that yet because it's too highly guarded. We'll just have to wait and hope that Potter's body won't be too hard to track down," Bella said irritably.

"Yeah, if he's dead," one of the Death Eaters grumbled.

Bella sent him a nasty glare, but her eyes showed that she was concerned as well. They were silent for several seconds before Macnair unfolded his arms and raised his hood again to cover his face.

"We must leave now, master wants us to report," he said, wincing as he glanced down at his arm. "The only thing we can do now is wait. After master's second stage is completed he will have access to the Ministry and finally figure out the Ministry's most secret mystery."

"I still don't know what that thing can do for us!" Bella snapped, shaking her head. "But obviously it's not my place to question master's orders. Let's go."

They all disappeared with a pop and Harry was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Before he could even blink the walls around him began disappearing and blurring together until he couldn't make out any individual objects. He shut his eyes tightly, waiting for the swirling images to just vanish and the next thing he knew he felt his stomach flip as if he was being dropped straight down from a very high height.

Gasping and clutching the old bed covers, Harry woke up in a sweat, accidentally kicking one of the cats off the bed. He heard a sharp hiss before the cat scattered out of the room. He looked around the dark room, his eyes trying to adjust even as his mind registered where he was. He sighed with partial relief realizing that he wasn't in the Ministry, but wasn't completely relieved by the fact that he was still all alone and secluded in Mrs. Figgs' house. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and unconsciously rubbed his scar as he slipped out of the bed. Glancing at the clock, he realized it was just barely six in the morning. His stomach grumbled loudly from lack of food but he chose to ignore it for the moment. The dream he had just had was obviously from his connection with Voldemort through his scar, but he realized that since he had found out about the barricade being put up it seemed that his bond was lessening. The dream had faded away like all the others until he no longer saw Voldemort himself, but now it was just his Death Eaters and unfortunately that hadn't lasted long either.

That just means that I can no longer rely on my scar as a valuable source in finding out Voldemort's plans. This may even have been the last vision…but did I learn anything? They never said what Voldemort was after, but apparently it's something inside the Ministry. He all ready got the prophecy, or tried to get it, so what else could he possibly want? Even Bella thought that what he wanted might not be useful. By the tone of her voice she's obviously surprised he wants it. But I can't think of anything in the Ministry, unless…could Voldemort have figured out that his weakness lies beyond that door—the door that apparently has my strength, as Dumbledore said.

Harry sighed deeply. There was no way of knowing this time around what Voldemort was up to. Obviously he was staging an attack on Hogwarts, but Bella had also said it was a distraction so that they could get into the Ministry building when its defenses are down.

Hold on…weren't they inside the Ministry building when I had the dream? This is confusing. Unless that part I made up in my mind. It could've been a mirage based on my nightmares about the incident that happened there that I've been having over the summer at the Dursleys…Or maybe whatever Voldemort wants is in the same room as where the prophecy was and somehow Voldemort's Death Eaters invaded my premonition of what Voldemort was imagining, which happened to be that room. I wonder if he could sense me?

He decided it wasn't best to dwell on that thought. If Voldemort knew he was still alive then he would've sent more Dementors after him, but obviously Voldemort thought he was dead. Harry's eyebrows furrowed in thought. Something didn't make sense, and it was more than the confusing dream it was Voldemort's strategy. It wasn't like him to take the direct approach and orchestrate an attack on Hogwarts. That seemed a bit…out of character for him. And the fact that he was even going to great lengths to distract everyone in order to get inside the Ministry, something that he had done not to difficultly just a few months previously to get the prophecy.

"What does he want?" Harry asked aloud.

He rubbed his temples, searching for his glasses on the bureau before getting up. He noticed that a couple cats were still sleeping on the bed, apparently not affected by Harry's movement. He went down the small flight of stairs and into the kitchen in order to find something to eat. He never thought he would be thankful for having been starved most of his life by the Dursleys. It enabled him to not have to eat very much to be sustained for a relatively long period of time. He could even go for days not eating anything, but every little bit helped. The refrigerator was practically empty, except for some milk, so he instead checked the cupboards.

Harry sighed, "Figures she'd have cat food but nothing for a human to eat."

He felt something press up against his leg and looked down to see two cats rubbing up against him and purring. Obviously they were as hungry as he was. Grabbing the last two cans, knowing that someone was taking care of them anyway (probably a house sitter), he opened them and dumped them into one big bowl for the cats to share. Searching through the bottom cupboards he managed to find some crackers. They were slightly stale, but it would have to do for the time being. He didn't have any muggle money to buy anything, but he did have wizard money.

Harry bit into one of the crackers and sat down on the couch in the living room. Several more cats had come into the kitchen to eat the cat food so he was sure they'd be all right until the house sitter came. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now. He could try to use his wizard money to buy some food, but he was certain he couldn't stay in Mrs. Figgs' house, not forever anyway. Eventually either the house sitter would find him, or a Dementor would. And he couldn't live on stale crackers for long either. There had to be something he could do besides trying to survive another day. He had to get into the wizard world.

There has to be a way to get back. This can't be it! I won't die here and especially not thanks to Lucius Malfoy!

Harry seethed with anger. It was all because of him that he was stuck in his position, not that it would've been better for the Death Eaters to have captured him and brought him back to Voldemort instead. What he needed was information on the barricade, like a book, but where was he going to get that? It wasn't like the muggle world carried books on wizard abilities. Harry sighed heavily and covered his face with his hands.

I wish Hermione were here, she'd know what to do.

"Hermione!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, jumping off the couch. "Her parents live in the muggle world! Maybe she left some books there that could help me. But how do I figure out how to get there?"

Harry thought for a moment, trying to remember where Hermione said her parents lived. He was pretty sure it was a couple towns away from where the Dursleys lived, but he wasn't sure how to get there. He could apparate there but he'd have to know the exact coordinates, not to mention it was dangerous because he had just learned how to apparate from Hermione during the beginning of summer when she sent him the books for him, but he had never actually performed it.

"Where was it she said she lived? She had said the place her parents had gotten was nearby some theatres and other great places of education, like museums…And I think she said she lived not to far from the Hogwarts train station so she must live near King's Cross. So if she lives nearby a museum that would probably be…the London Canal Museum! She also said she occasionally took a bus to the British Library, especially before she found out she was a witch. So she must live on one of those streets near there. And if she said she lives only a few blocks from the museum it can only be one street: Caledonian Road! But how do I get there?"

Harry knew there was no way he could walk, nor take the muggle train because he didn't have any muggle money and even if he could get some he didn't know which stop to take. It would waste too much time figuring it out and Harry was limited on time. The only choice was apparating, but from the distance he was at to go several cities over was incredibly dangerous especially for an amateur who had never officially apparated before. Sure, Harry read all the books Hermione sent him over the summer, since he had nothing else to do but mope in his sorrow and ignore the Dursleys, but actually physically doing the apparating was completely different. Not to mention if the Ministry ever found out he'd be prosecuted for underage magic. He wasn't even sixteen yet and the law was that one had to be seventeen to get their apparating license.

Great, my birthday is in five days and I'm trapped in the muggle world, the one place I don't want to be right now, away from friends, shelter or anyone that can help me. The Dursleys house has been destroyed and there are Demtentors roaming around searching for me to suck out my soul. This is definitely the worst summer ever.

Harry sighed, "Sarcasm is not going to help me. I need a plan."

There was only one thing to do and that was to apparate. Frankly, he'd have to take the risk. It was better than running into a Dementor any day. Just to make it easier, and possibly safer, he'd have to get as close as possible to the city first. Harry decided the only way was to walk or…

"Fly a broom," he whispered aloud, his eyes lighting up.

He had luckily shrunk his broom and stuck it in his pocket the night the Death Eaters had attacked. He also shrunk his invisibility cloak and almost everything that had been under the floorboard of his room. All of his Hogwarts books and papers though had been burned with the house, along with Dudley's old clothes. He could exchange some of his wizard money for muggle money, after all gold was worth something in the muggle world in cash. And that way he could buy himself some new clothes so he wasn't wearing the same clothes every day. Then after he changed into new clothes and performed a cleansing charm on himself, he could apparate to Hermione's house. He knew of a pawn shop just a few blocks over from Dudley's school that might take his gold.

Throwing the empty cracker box away, Harry got up and headed for the door, making sure that his shrunken supplies were still in his pocket. He was just about to open the door when the knob jiggled. Harry's eyes widened as he stepped back, unsure of what to do. Dementors couldn't open doors, could they? One had tried to chase the muggle woman Harry had seen, but hadn't been able to get through the door. He licked his dry lips and approached the door cautiously, peering through the peep hole. A middle-aged woman was standing outside turning a key inside the slot. Harry jumped back and quickly dodged behind the couch just as the door was pushed open.

The woman entered and took off her shoes, putting the keys down on the table. Harry was crouched right behind the couch where she couldn't see him from her position, but if she walked into the living room she'd spot him instantly.

"Hello there kitties," she cooed, smiling as the cats began approaching her. "Are you hungry? Yes, I bet you are," she smiled again, walking past the couch and toward the kitchen.

Harry nearly stifled a gasp, remembering that he had left the opened cat food cans on the counter. Swiftly, he crawled out from behind the couch and slowly approached the kitchen, keeping out of her sight. He peered into the kitchen and watched as she approached the cupboards.

"Oh, what's this?" she commented aloud, glancing down at the opened cans. "You've all ready been fed. I'm sure I didn't leave this out…"

She pursed her lips in thought and dumped the cans into the sink to be washed later. She turned around facing the doorway that led from the living room into the kitchen. Harry had quickly ducked behind the wall between them when he saw she was going to turn. She was definitely suspicious. He heard her footsteps begin moving and knew she was coming toward him. There was only one thing he could do and that was to use his invisibility cloak. Quickly, he pulled it out of his pocket and enlarged it just as she came around the corner. He held his breath, hoping that she wouldn't brush up against him.

Her eyes roamed over the rooms and she walked slowly around as if expecting someone to jump out at her. Harry stayed pinned up against the wall still holding his breath. She turned around looking in every directly and though her eyes past over him she didn't see him. Finally she sighed and shook her head.

"I need to get more sleep," she muttered. "All right, who wants to go outside?" she called out.

Several of the cats walked out of the kitchen and into the living room as she directed them to the door. One, however, decided to linger around where Harry was since she could obviously smell him. She sniffed his leg and began purring and arching her back against him. Harry tried to push her gently away, but she was stubborn and didn't quite take the hint.

"Galinda baby," the woman called out, "what are you doing over there? There's nothing in that corner, come on."

The cat mewed and continued to rub up against Harry's leg. Frowning curiously, the woman began to approach the corner. Harry's stomach flipped in response, knowing that there was no way he'd be able to move or avoid her if she came too close. Again he tried to push the cat away to no avail. He looked up as the woman was closing in, distancing herself from him to a mere five feet. She reached out her arms, preparing to pick up the cat and if she did so she'd brush up against Harry's leg and he was quite certain she wouldn't be very calm about finding an invisible boy.

She bent down to pick up the cat and her fingers unintentionally brushed across the edge of his invisibility cloak. The woman pulled her hand back in surprise and stared at the corner for several minutes even as the cat struggled in her grasp. She blinked, stepping back a ways.

"Must've been a spider web you were sniffing," she said, petting the cat. "Now come on, let's go outside."

The woman then turned around, to Harry's relief and began to approach the door where the other cats were waiting. A chill suddenly crept up his spine and he inwardly shivered. A loud hiss was heard and the woman gasped as the cat leaped out of her arms and raced up the stairs. Several hisses and meows followed as the rest of the cats scattered.

"Hey, come back here! What has gotten into you all?" the woman huffed, putting her arms on her hips. "Well that's odd."

Suddenly, the front door rattled loudly as if the wind had been forced upon it. The wind chime outside was heard for a second before it stopped. The woman turned toward the kitchen and sighed.

"I guess I'll go clean the kitchen then."

BANG!

Both she and Harry jumped as the front door rattled more forcefully, shaking violently until even the table by the door was vibrating. The door keys that were resting on the table fell to the floor with a soft clank. The woman put a hand over her chest, sighing with relief after being startled. Before she could turn around again, the door shook with a violent force as if someone were banging on it. The woman jumped back a bit startled and slowly began approaching it.

"I wonder if a storm is coming," she mused aloud.

Slowly, she turned around and headed for the kitchen. A shadow of something flashed past the door. It was too quick to be certain if it was anything, but he automatically tensed. His insides began to tingle with a familiar sensation and goose bumps appeared on his skin. He felt paralyzed to the spot, his eyes watching the door for any movement. A sound came at the door, like a rough tapping sound, or a clawing sound of some sort. Harry's eyes were rooted to the knob as he saw it jiggle slightly but nothing more happened. Footsteps were heard as the woman walked back into the room with a cleaning cloth that she had grabbed.

"Coming, just one second," she announced.

Another chill passed over him as he stood in the corner, watching as the woman put the cloth down on the table by the door. He wanted to say something, anything to make her stop what she was doing. He had the feeling that she shouldn't open the door. Opening his mouth, Harry pushed himself off the wall ready to show himself when she turned the knob and opened the door. There standing with the wind howling around it, its cloak billowing in the breeze as if wrapping loosely around its decaying body, was a Dementor with its hood all the way down exposing its hole for a mouth. The woman didn't even scream. Her face paled over and she stumbled backward too paralyzed to voice her fear.

The door swung open from the force of the wind that hadn't been there before as the Dementor floated inside the house and began advancing on her. The woman's lips were trembling as was the rest of her, probably from shock and also because of the intense horrible feelings Dementors forced upon their victims. The Dementor's decaying hand reached out, its bones cracking as its fingers unwound and reached for her face to pull her mouth closer so it could swallow her soul…

Harry closed his eyes, thinking on everything positive that he could, the most being the time when Sirius asked him to come live with him. He concentrated hard on the feeling of security he felt when around Sirius without trying to dwell on the pain of him being gone. Slowly, he felt his fear begin to subside and his cries for Sirius were fading. His eyes flashed open, glaring at the Dementor that was pulling the woman's sobbing face up to it.

"EXPECTO PATRONUS!" Harry bellowed, pointing his wand out in front of him.

The Dementor's head snapped upward looking directly at Harry through his invisibility cloak and it immediately dropped the woman and sped toward him. A burst of light flooded between them and the Dementor screeched a loud, inhuman cry before it was chased away by the gorgeous stag that had appeared. After a few seconds more of trotting around the stag disappeared into shimmering particles that seeped back into his wand. Harry uncloaked himself and ran to the woman's side to help her up. She had tears streaming down her face and her lips were quivering. She managed to grasp Harry's arm tightly and look up at him with wide eyes.

"Are you…an angel?" she asked, having noticed the bright light that had illuminated in front of her before he showed up.

Harry chose not to answer that and instead helped her over to the couch to lie down.

"Are you all right now?" Harry asked.

"W-what was that thing?" she whispered hoarsely.

"Just relax," Harry said, pulling out his wand again, "I'm going to heal you."

The woman, instead of questioning his wand when she glanced at it, closed her eyes as a signal of trust. Whether or not she believed he was some angel from heaven to rescue her soul and give her a second chance, or whether she figured he was some sort of magical being, she still gave in and allowed him to perform a simple, yet slightly more powerful memory charm than Obliviate. It was only more powerful because he only wanted to erase her memory of the Dementor and seeing him perform magic, not wanting her to forget everything including entering Mrs. Figgs' house. Her breathing evened after the charm was completed and Harry quickly stood up and went to the wide open front door. She would wake up any minute and he couldn't be there now that she didn't remember him.

He slipped out of the house and shrunk his invisibility cloak again. He decided to head to the pawn shop and then focus on getting out of the muggle world, if that was even possible. What mattered most was that the wizard world was in trouble and they would of course assume that Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts was real without realizing they'd be leaving the Ministry unguarded and that's when Voldemort's real plan would take place. There was no telling what he would achieve inside the Ministry so Harry had to act fast. He needed to get to Hermione's house fast and the closest place to her house that he could get to by walking was the train station. After that he'd have to try apparating for the first time and hope that he wouldn't screw it up. It was his only hope now, since he didn't know exactly how to get to Hermione's house. Luckily he still had one of her letters to him stuffed in his pocket so by using something of hers he could focus his apparation on entering her house. That way he wouldn't have to know exactly where her house was.

The walk to the pawn shop wasn't very far. He went inside and saw that there was only one customer who was leaving. It was an elderly man who was probably giving up some of his things, or his wife's from the past. Harry smiled slightly at the old man passing by, who gave him a curt nod, before he approached the counter. The bearded man behind the counter turned toward him.

"And what may I do for you young man?"

"Erm…I was wondering how much this is worth?" Harry said holding out several pieces of wizard money.

The man's eyebrows rose in curiosity and he picked up the five pieces, examining it. Harry bit his lip, hoping that wizard money was worth something. The man seemed to speculate for a few minutes before he stood up.

"I'll be right back, wait right here," he said.

Harry nodded and watched as he walked into the back. He glanced down through the glass cases at several antiques inside, including an old watch. A few minutes later, the man came out of the back room and toward the counter.

"It's real gold and bronze that's for sure," he replied. "Where'd you get these anyway?"

"Oh, they're my grandparents'," Harry answered quickly. "They've been keeping them for years, collectibles I'm guessing, and they gave them to me."

The man nodded while still inspecting the coins.

"Well, I'd say these five coins here are worth about $500."

Harry nearly choked but managed to keep a straight face, "Er…five hundred?"

The man nodded, "Yep. Pure gold like this is hard to find, even in jewelry. I had this examined in the back and somehow, though I don't know how, it appears to be made of the element in its entirety, meaning that there's no other elements mixed into it at all. It's a hundred percent gold. And what's more is that it actually has layers of gold, although you can't see it right away, is gold, upon gold, upon gold, and the same goes with the bronze coins. Whoever crafted this was ingenious. I've never seen anything like it. Five hundred is a good price for all five, since I'd give a hundred for each coin. The bronze is probably worth a little less, but I'm not going to cheat you out of anything," he winked.

Harry smiled, a bit surprised, "Thanks."

"Sure thing," he said, as he counted up the cash and handed it to him. "Now you be careful with that load of money. Keep it out of sight."

Harry nodded, "I'll do that, thanks again."

The man waved to him as he left and Harry inwardly smiled. Although his relatives weren't nice and some of the neighbors were snotty and annoying, some muggles were extremely kind. It was the same in the wizard world too. There were good people and bad people, but those like Voldemort and Slytherins in general believed all muggles were bad, as well as all good-hearted people like Gryffindors.

Now that he had money he could buy some clothes that actually fit him with the small shop down the street and get some food before heading off on a long walk to the train station, or at least as close to the train station as he could get. With that in mind, he walked the couple blocks down the street, keeping alert for any Dementors lurking around, and went into the small clothes shop that he had heard Dudley talking about several times. It was a modern day store with nice styles, though nothing like what Dudley's gang wore. He managed to pick out a pair of black jeans that fit just right, not falling off of him like Dudley's pants did, and he picked up a black shirt. He figured if he'd have to sneak around at night, if he didn't figure out what to do before dark (which was highly possible) then being dressed in black for the night time was the smartest so that he wouldn't be easily seen.

He bought a large sandwich and a drink from the nearby café across the street, thankful that he lived in the city. He took a piece of cake to go for later and then headed in the direction of the train station. On his way there, his mind began to wander. There were things that were beginning to make sense. Voldemort wanted the barricade between the two worlds not only because it prevented the wizard world from intervening, and from kids going to Hogwarts for their first year, but it also made it easier for him to attack the muggle world. After all, the barricade was most likely controlled inside the Ministry, and that's where Voldemort wanted to go. At the moment it was highly guarded, but with the attack on Hogwarts the Ministry will be too focused on protecting the school for the kids.

But…Dumbledore wouldn't allow the students to go to the school if he knew about the attack would he? The Death Eaters said that Dumbledore was onto them. But where else could they go? Hogwarts is the safest place, unless…unless it's not really Hogwarts at all! Perhaps Dumbledore has decided to use that powerful transfiguration charm to switch the places of Hogwarts and one of the other schools so that one of the other schools will be attacked, when the Death Eaters think it's Hogwarts, and the students will be safe. Still…what's the point of that? And what's this item that Voldemort wants? Dumbledore must know by now that Kingsley is missing. I need to get there now and tell them that Voldemort suspects their diversion! If Voldemort knows all about the disguise upon Hogwarts that Dumbledore is creating then he's all prepared to attack the real Hogwarts and get inside the Ministry. He's got to have twice the size of his army he had previously and it's only been a few months. This is bad…really bad. I need to tell Dumbledore everything I know! What's that…?

His thoughts were interrupted as his eyes caught something up in the sky flying toward him. He blinked, wondering if it was his imagination or not. It was too far away to see at first. Feeling a bit suspicious, Harry gripped his wand from underneath his sleeve prepared for anything. As it got closer, Harry realized it was a letter and by the way it was flying toward him with a strange color around it, he was guessing it had a charm over it, which meant it was from the wizard world. The letter fell at his feet and he bent down slowly to pick it up. He'd have to be careful in case it was from one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. Opening it up, he read the short message.

Ten o'clock. King's Cross station. Platform 7.

There was no signature and the handwriting looked magical, which meant someone didn't hand-write it so he wouldn't be able to tell who it was from. And how had they gotten past the barricade? It seemed highly suspicious to him, but then what choice did he have? It was better than risking his life to try apparating for the first time to his friend's house, which he didn't know exactly where it was located. And what if her parents weren't home? No, it would be better to sneak to the destination in the letter at night, wearing his new dark clothes and see what happened. It could be a trap, but then again he was all ready trapped with no where to run. One Dementor had all ready found Mrs. Figgs' house so he couldn't go back there since he was sure they'd be back again, so really he had no choice, he would have to go there at ten p.m. and hope that Lucius Malfoy's plan to kill him wouldn't pull through.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Hey! Sorry for the short delay of the chapter. My estimations are of course estimations but I'm usually always very close to my estimation dates. I'll have another estimation date posted for the next chapter to this in a few days! And don't worry I won't make you wait long at all!

Preview to next chapter: The Order has an interesting visit with Rita Skeeter. One particular Death Eater finds out that Harry Potter is not dead and threatens to bring that news to Lord Voldemort. Riots and panic break out in the wizard world as chaos is on the brink of taking over. And Harry hopes that his late-night trip to the train station won't result in his death.

To Reviewers:

c.thorneHehehe, thanks! I know I took some time to get this up, but hopefully I'll be updating regularly now. I'll be updating Interference tonight or tomorrow as well. I hope nothing is confusing so far!

Clever Hobbit: And here I thought you would've taken over the world by now. Hehehe! It's been a while since I've written a little message to you. So sad!!! I'll be updating more frequently now, including Interference, which I should be getting up later tonight (hopefully). Anywhoos, fear not, Harry is in for some REAL trouble, muahahahahah!

Spectra2: Thank you! Sorry to make you wait sooooooo long for an update. I'll be updating more regularly now though. Thanks for being patient!

IniysaHey!! Thanks for the link to the Harry Potter scrolls site! I'm actually going to wait until I either finish this story or Interference so I can put that and Sick Pleasures on it. Or at least I'm looking into doing that. Hehehe. I'm kind of lazy, and when I'm not lazy I'm busy with school (aren't we all? O.o Teachers are so cruel these days). Anywhoo, I won't make you wait long for the next chapter!

FoxylittlechibiHehehe, I'm glad you're liking this so far. Yes, I know I've been taking forever in updating this, but it should be better now. I had to take a little mental break because of school, but I'm back now and I promise I won't make you wait as long for the next chapter!

Kaye: Hey! I'm so sorry! I know I've been taking forever with updating. I'm in college now though so it's more difficult to continue updating at a constant pace but I'm working on it. I'm going to use Thanksgiving break and any other days off in order to get ahead of schedule and plan out chapters so I can type them up quicker. I should be updating more regularly now, sorry for the wait. I had to take a short mental break, but I'm back! I'll also be updating another chapter of Voldemort's Revenge (revised!) very shortly, as well as Interference! Thanks for being so patient!