Chapter 4

Harry arrived at the academy with ten minutes to spare. Spare meaning before the teacher, Mr. Prom, walked in exactly at eight and started the lecture.

Harry found this teacher both amusing and frustrating. While the teacher's punctuality rivaled that of Binn's he was slightly more interesting. No goblin wars did he speak of unless it was how the Auror's fought during them.

He would lecture for an hour, about certain histories of combat and battles, then let them take a ten minute break to use the bathroom or eat a late breakfast from the canteen, then another fifty minutes of lecture.

At ten am, the cadets would travel down the hallway to Basic Combat and learn how to dodge, and have practice duels usually focusing on tactics from the lecture they had just sat through.

At Noon, was a half an hour lunch break, then back to the lecture for two more hours. Thankfully there was a different teacher for each subject. Harry didn't think he could stand Mr. Prom for four lecture hours a day.

During the afternoon lecture hours, they learned things such as surveillance, concealment and disguises, stealth and tracking, transfiguration in battle, charms in battle, and poisons and antidotes.

At two thirty they went down the hall to another large room similar to the Basic Combat room, except it was prepared for whatever their previous lecture had been about.

Harry sat and thought about his party that evening and who else he might expect. The list wasn't horribly long in his mind. The Weasley's, Hermione, Hagrid, Luna, Neville, and maybe Dean and Seamus. He didn't expect them but possibly a few of his former Professors and classmates. No one at the Academy had led on that they knew about it, so he figured they were out. Maybe a few Order of the Phoenix members might show up, like Hestia and Dedalus. His relatives were definitely out.

Harry was jolted out of his train of thought by the teacher entering and starting his lecture. Today it seemed it was about Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Harry had never really known much about the actual battle between his mentor and the bad wizard so he paid rapt attention to the details. The highlight of the lecture was a Pensive memory from one of the fighters who was there at the last battle between old friends.

At ten Harry was anxious to try out a few moves he had seen Dumbledore use and even a few that Grindelwald had utilized. He dodged and ducked and even used a somersault/jumping pounce that had impressed everyone, though Harry was hard pressed to explain how he'd done it and couldn't execute the same move again for the life of him.

He was ready for his lunch by the time noon rolled around.

He had planned on meeting George and Ron for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and headed out as soon as class was dismissed. He arrived five minutes later to see that he had beat the two brothers there.

He found a table in the corner and ordered a Butterbeer for himself from Tom, the bar man and pretended that he wasn't hungry knowing that Kreacher was bringing those glorious Meatloaf sandwiches. As he sat there waiting he pulled out another letter from that morning.

He recognized the handwriting, but couldn't place it easily so he unfolded it and started reading just as the door opened and George and Ron walked in.

They saw Harry just in time to see him go paler than they'd ever seen him and then faint dead away off his chair onto the floor.

They ran over to him and while Ron tried to wake him by slapping him gently on the face and shaking his shoulders George read the letter Harry had dropped.

"Ron!" gasped George loudly and the tone of his voice made Ron look up. What he saw scared him more than ever. George was pale and wide eyed, his mouth making a surprised O. Ron knew it was bad before reading the letter George handed him, Harry's life could never be normal.

But this? This was just too low even for that old codger to pull.

Harry woke up in a back room of the Leaky Cauldron on a bed next to a chair that housed his best friend. George was sitting across the room re-reading the letter for a fifth time. Ron was watching Harry closely.

"What happened?" Harry asked causing George to jump. After loosing one ear, his hearing was a little off and he hadn't heard Harry groan lightly as he woke.

"You fainted after reading a letter from Dumbledore," Ron said cautiously. Harry was known to blow up at people without warning after a huge dooming revelation and this was definitely in the top ten of his life. Maybe even the top five. He didn't faint when he found out Sirius was his Godfather or when he found out he was a wizard, and those two events changed Harry's life forever.

"Harry, how far into this letter did you get?" George asked.

"As soon as I realized that he was serious I fainted. At least when he sounded serious, I still don't know if I believe it, but why would he lie about this? This is so not a funny joke if it is, but how could it be? I just don't know," Harry rambled. He was getting more and more panicky. How could Dumbledore not tell him this?

"So, you didn't actually finish the letter?" asked George tensely. Harry shook his head. "Then I think you better finish it. But first, we need to Floo call Kingsley. This is too big to hide from him. If you want I'll do that, while you read this," George offered. Harry nodded and took the folded letter from him with two fingers, afraid to touch it completely. He set the letter on the bed.

"Ron, did you read it?" he asked his best mate. Ron looked from the letter to Harry.

"Yes, but I think you need to read it for yourself." Harry sighed and forced himself to pick it up and unfold it. His eyes widened more and more as he read.

a/n: so this was going to be 4 and (by the page break) 5, but then i saw 5 was almost as short as three so i combined them. These chapters will be short, but they will be updated fast. Please review! the next chapter is the letter, if i get enough reviews I'll post it today and make it three chapters posted in one day! REVIEW!