Harry Potter and The Fate We Make

Chapter 13: Dreams and Details

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. Hang on folks, this is where it really heats up. The ride's about to get VERY bumpy.

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July 16, 1995

Harry wrenched himself awake, almost falling out of the bed in the process, heart hammering and gasping for air like he'd run for miles, one hand clamped to his forehead, pressing against his scar, which was burning worse than it ever had, with the exception of when Voldemort had touched him. It took several long minutes for him to get his equilibrium back enough to be able to trust his legs, but once he was sure he could stand without collapsing, he tore out of his bedroom.

"Sirius! Remus!"

The manor was ominously silent. Well, for all of about a minute, and then Hermione and Ginny came tumbling out of their shared room, looking a tad wild-eyed and more than a bit worried.

"Harry! What is it?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Where is ... oh no." Harry's sleep-muddled and more than slightly panicky mind finally caught up with the situation a bit. "I saw ... everyone must have gone ... "

"Harry, what are you talking about?"

"Nevermind. C'mon! There's got to be someone downstairs!" And Harry turned and fled down the stairs. After a half a second, Hermione and Ginny followed.

"Harry, please!"

Harry ignored Hermione's rather strident voice as he headed for the kitchen. He heaved a sigh of relief when he spotted Molly and Sirius in the kitchen, for once united with identical grim, determined, anxious exppressions on their faces. Sirius turned and blinked when he spotted Harry. "Harry?" Sirius asked.

"They've gone, haven't they. Voldemort's attacked somewhere." Harry said.

"Yes, but how do you know, Harry? And what are you doing awake?" Sirius wanted to know, getting to his feet and heading over to Harry, expression concerned.

Molly, for her part gave him a severe look, then glanced past him at Hermione and Ginny. "I suppose you two want to stay up as well?" She got a pair of nods, and gave an exasperated sigh. "All right then. Ginny, if you'd be a dear and help me with the soup. Hermione, could you set the table? They'll come back thirsty and hungry." There was an edge to her tone that said everyone had darn well better come back, or else!

Harry pulled Sirius aside, into the 'family tree' room. "Sirius ... I dunno. I ... I had this really weird dream. It was almost like I was seeing through Voldemort's eyes or something. It was really creepy. I saw Dumbledore and the others, and ... it was just weird." Harry shuddered slightly. Weird in a bad way. He sort of wanted to find out if there was such thing as a shower for your brain, because that dream or whatever it had been had been rather disturbing.

Sirius tugged him into a hug, looking a bit grim-faced. "We'll get it sorted, kiddo, don't worry." He promised.

The Order (minus Dumbledore) didn't show up until almost breakfast time, all of them looking worn to a frazzle, and very grim. Most of them were also looking a touch bruised around the edges, but they must have stopped by the school before coming back, because no one was sporting anything worse than a few bruises. Either that or the Death Eaters had just been toying with them. But if Voldemort really had been there, Harry somehow doubted the answer was 'toying with them'. Then again ... Voldemort had been taunting Dumbledore in that dream, so who knew? Harry was pretty sure that no one had a clue how Voldemort's mind worked. He wasn't sure Voldemort knew how his mind worked. That's what happened when you were stark raving mad.

The adults were remarkably tight-lipped about what, exactly, had happened last night, so Harry wasn't actually able to figure out if what he'd dreamed had happened or not, which aggravated him a bit, as he'd been hoping to figure it out without having to resort to talking to Dumbledore first. Sadly, it wasn't to be. The only interesting thing he learned was that Tonks was sticking rather close to Remus, which (if his expression was anything to go by) amused Sirius no end. Harry wasn't quite sure what was up with that ... he'd noticed that Tonks had a tendency to hang around Remus the last couple weeks ... but Remus was either totally oblivious, didn't care, or was ignoring it.

Dumbledore didn't arrive until nearly lunchtime, and, for once, he looked as worn out as everyone else had earlier this morning. Though given that Dumbledore had, doubtlessly, been having to deal with Fudge and various other idiots on top of the fight (if it had happened that way), his tiredness was rather understandable.

Everyone found seats, and Dumbledore started the meeting.

"Voldemort is clearly not content to let the wizarding world lie quietly." Dumbledore said. "Though it would seem that the Minister is bound and determined to defy Voldemort's attempts to let the wizarding world at large know of his return. Fudge is insisting that last night's raid was the work of isolated malcontents." Harry was fairly sure Dumbledore was restraining the urge to roll his eyes, if his tone was anything to go by. "Worse, I fear Voldemort's strike last night was not so random as it first appeared. I have since been able to discover that a young Muggleborn resides on the street Voldemort and his followers attacked. We need to ascertain who, precisely, brought the child to his attention, since I discovered that accidental magic had been recorded in the area starting only a few days ago."

Harry grimaced. This was bad. If Voldemort started targeting muggleborns not yet old enough to attend Hogwarts ... he grimaced. The worst part was, not many people would want to put an effort into stopping the attacks. After all, they were not, technically, part of the wizarding world, so why should they put themselves out protecting them? Especially when trying to do so might shatter the Statue of Secrecy?

"Is there any way to protect these children, Albus?" Asked a very concerned looking McGonagall.

Dumbledore looked more than a bit stricken. "I am afraid not, Minerva. Even if the Ministry was cooperating, it would be all but impossible."

This occasioned quite a bit of muttering as everyone tried to figure out something. Nobody liked the idea of leaving kids defenseless. It was, amusingly enough (at least as far as Harry was concerned) Sirius who hit on a possibility.

"These kids are eventually going to, we hope, be coming to Hogwarts, right? So they'll find out about our world anyway. We just tell them a few years earlier than we normally would. Explain the situation, and offer them some way to communicate with us ... maybe have a house elf assigned to each family, if they're willing. We might lose a few out of fear, but our chances of being able to protect the ones that accept the offer will increase immensely."

And then Remus spoke up. "Or just skip the telling-them step, and have a Hogwarts elf assigned to each family, and have them pop over to check on them every couple of hours unseen. They get so much as a whiff of Death Eaters, they come get us immediately."

More than one person at the table was looking a tad gobsmacked at the idea, but no one could find a fault in the plan.

"A most excellent suggestion, gentlemen. I shall confer with the Hogwarts house-elves as soon as I return to the school." Dumbledore agreed.

Everyone else looked much relieved to have a way to protect innocent kids. Harry didn't blame them one bit. The meeting broke up shortly thereafter, and Harry headed for Dumbledore, albeit a bit reluctantly. "Headmaster, I need to talk to you about something."

Dumbledore looked mildly surprised that Harry would approach him, which Harry didn't blame him for. Things were very strained between them at the moment. "Of course, Harry." They headed off to an empty room, and once there Dumbledore gave Harry a curious look.

"Sir ... something happened last night. I don't know how to describe it. I ... I think I saw the fight last night, maybe."

That certainly got Dumbledore's attention. "Could you perhaps explain what you saw?"

Harry nodded, then told Dumbledore what he could remember of the dream/vision/whatever it had been.

"Most curious. If it happens again, let me know." Dumbledore said.

Harry nodded his agreement. "I will sir." After he told Sirius and Remus, of course.

Once Dumbledore and most of the Order had left the manor, Hermione and Ginny finally succeeded in cornering Harry in the library, where he'd gone with the vague idea to do some research.

"Harry ... what happened last night?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Voldemort and his goons attacked some Muggles." Harry said, deliberately playing obtuse.

Hermione let out an exasperated noise, but Ginny reached over and whacked him on the arm, rather hard. "Harry! You know what she means! You came flying out of your room yelling for Sirius and Remus! And babbling something about them having gone. What happened?"

So Harry repeated, more or less word for word, what he'd told Dumbledore. Hermione looked deeply worried for a few moments before heading straight for the stacks of books in search of who-knew-what. Ginny, though, went very very pale and looked utterly horrified and concerned. Harry grimaced a bit, suspecting her reaction was so strong because of the whole diary mess.

"I'm fine, Ginny, honest." He told her. "It was weird, and not fun, but nothing bad happened to me. Whatever's going on, it's not the same as the diary, though I could really do without seeing things through his eyes. It's more than a bit creepy."

To that, Ginny could clearly agree wholeheartedly.

A bit after that, a rather familiar tawny owl arrived with a letter.

My Lord Potter

I had originally intended to write you this morning to ascertain if tomorrow at ten would suit for your next lesson. My letter was delayed, however, in light of last night's events.

However much the Minister may wish it were so, he is not fooling most of those in power with his insistence that all is well. Already, the beginnings of disquiet threaten. If we are to have any chance of a coherent defense against the abomination, we must have a proactive Minister in place, which Fudge most clearly is not. It would therefore behoove us to replace him, as quickly as is feasible.

To this end, with your permission, I wish to make known the obstruction of justice you informed me of in our first meeting. I am quite sure I know of whom you spoke, as there are few scions of Ancient and Noble Houses that are suffering the travails of Azkaban. While mentioning names, at this juncture, would do nothing to assist the wronged scion, making known the fact that an unspecified scion was thrown into Azkaban without benefit of trial will severely weaken Fudge's position, making it far easier to unseat him. If this course of action meets with your approval, inform me at your lesson tomorrow.

Augusta Longbottom

Harry grinned down at the letter. "Sirius, come here for a minute."

Sirius wandered over. "What's up, kiddo?"

"Sirius ... my first lesson with Mrs. Longbottom, she explained the whole hooplah of how the Wizengamot works. I asked her how people would react if they found out someone from one of those big-name houses got tossed into Azkaban without a trial, and she told me it'd create quite a stir. And I kind of mentioned to my lawyer about you." He admitted. "I haven't heard back from my lawyer yet, but Augusta's saying that introducing the concept of a scion of one of the Houses getting tossed into Azkaban without a trial would really kick Fudge in the teeth."

Sirius looked a bit ... odd. "And you're wanting to know if I'm ok with it?" He clarified. Harry nodded. "Definitely. If there's a chance it'll clear my name, she's got my blessing."

Harry grinned. "Excellent. I'll let her know tomorrow."