Hello and welcome to the next chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'. It's good to be able to write again now that I have some time and have been able to make some headway on getting some of my fourth year changes done. Don't expect frequent chapters again or large chapters at the moment. I am employed, still studying my degree, and dating a lovely girl. My current time writing, is not for fanfiction, it's for study, as I make this final update to the author note I am 82 slides into 487 slides of work I need to summarise for myself in two more days. Medical based classes are tough bitches, this is something I must live with.

This chapter is pretty much covering the majority of time through details and a few scenes being played out that will actually have impact as well as show some more of our new friend the 'Glowing Man'.

Oh yeah, I'm not writing out any of Harry's Christmas presents, if some present of his pops up I will say who he got it from.

Oh yeah before I forget, WARNING, this chapter is where some darker themes are coming in to play. I apologise to anyone who doesn't like this, but I am establishing clear lines here, this story will eventually show brutal combat, this is just references to the aftermaths of it.

Now, onto the chapter.

"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Spells"
Book Names

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Chapter 13

October 31st 1993

Harry thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the day after the trial, he got to spend some more time with Sirius and Remus, they took him to pay his respects to his parents graves and afterwards they went and had a nice dinner together in a muggle restaurant run by a Muggleborn wizard and his wife which had exclusive rooms for magical customers. Sirius and Remus spent the night telling him stories about his parents and their time in Hogwarts.

Late that night they took him back to the castle, to find McGonagall waiting for them just outside the gate. After a brief conversation with Sirius and Remus, in which she reprimanded them for bringing Harry back to the castle so late, Harry bid them farewell and went back to the castle with McGonagall. When she escorted him to the tower he found that his friends had attempted to stay awake to greet him, rousing them and telling them he would explain all in the morning the lot of them went to bed.

November 22nd 1993

"Amycus! Amycus where the hell are you!" Came the voice of Alecto Carrow as she walked down the halls of her home, "Where the fuck is he?"

Approaching the dining room of the Carrow family home, she saw the glow of the fireplace coming from the slightly ajar door. Heading slowly to investigate, she drew her wand as she slowly moved the door open. Taking in the room, she saw a strange hooded figure with glowing red arms sat at the head of the table with the fire directly behind it. At the side of the table she stood, there was a large platter placed on the table where someone sitting in the chair would be able to reach it.

"Ah, Miss Carrow, I presume? I've been waiting for you for some time now. Don't you know it's rude to keep your guests waiting?" The smooth voice of the glowing man in her dining room washing over her almost like a seductive drug, she could have sworn that as he spoke one of the glowing symbols on his arm pulsed.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my home?" Alecto demanded, her wand pointed at the stranger.

"I have come to discuss a proposal with you, if you would take a seat?" Again, as he spoke she saw the same symbol pulse again, even as she found herself sitting in the chair.

"A proposal?"

"Yes Miss Carrow, you are someone who is able to, assist, yes, assist is the word I am looking for, in an endeavour I would like to undertake. I hope you are more interested than your brother was." At her confused face, the man gestured to the platter. Reaching for the platter Alecto pulled the lid back, revealing the dimly lit contents of the platter to be her brother's head, with a decent amount of spine still attached, horror and pain etched onto his face in his dying moments. Alecto screamed, but found herself unable to look away from her brother's head.

"AMYCUS! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" She screeched, reaching for her wand where she had put it down only to find it gone and in the hands of the glowing man, who was standing right next to her, leaning on the chair.

"Well you see, he didn't respond to well to my prescence, not as well as you. He tried to kill me, unfortunately for him, he was disarmed, and so he attacked me with his hands. As you can see from the condition of his head, I removed it for his idiocy. I'm sure he realises now how one is supposed to use their hands." A wicked grin, the only feature of the glowing man's face she could see, spread across his face.

"You, removed his head, with your hands?" The disgust and horror shown on her features did not show in her voice, her training in the pureblood ways allowing her to rope in her emotions.

"Aye. So, will you my dear, be willing to assist me in my endeavour, or must I try another?" The man's smile was no longer cruel, but seductive, and all Alecto managed was a light nod before everything went black, "Wonderful my dear, when you awake, you will feel like, well like a new woman."

January 10th 1994

Harry and the others gathered around the table in the Great Hall, the Christmas Holidays behind them, staring at the Daily Prophet's headline in front of them.

"Looks like they didn't have the same luck your godfather did Harry." Commented Fred, staring at the picture of Azkaban's halls in front of them, the grim image before them putting them off the breakfast that surrounded them, the same scene being replicated across most of the Great Hall, with only the 1st and 2nd years being ushered away from the papers.

The front page bared the headline 'Failed Escape From Azkaban' with a large picture framing the rest of the page, showing a stone hallway splattered with gore, two of the corpses lain in sections, multiple blankets being used to cover what was left of them for the camera, lain beside them two soulless husks, and finally one final man shown to be screaming in agony as he thrashed around, claw marks running vertically up his chest, ending at the stump that used to be his shoulder.

"That, that carnage, was done to them by the Dementors? And the ministry had those THINGS stationed HERE!?" Hermione's reaction to the abhorrent images shown on the front cover, the article itself clutched in her hands, snapped most of them out of it.

"Who is it under the sheets?" Neville's whisper next to her nearly made Hermione leap in fright, not having realised he had moved behind her while she read the article.

"The Lestrange brothers, they were apparently behind the Dementors that got the first two, they weren't hungry any more, just mad." Her voice had tapered to a whisper as she summed up the guard's report that she had just read in the article. A range of emotions came over Neville's face before he walked away from the table out into the grounds.

"Give him a minute, then I'll go talk to him," said Harry, understanding why his friend needed some time to himself, "Who were the other three?"

"The convicted Death Eaters were," Here Hermione gulped, uncomfortable at reading the names of the dead off, "from left to right, Rabastan Lestrange, Rudolphus Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, Augustus Rookwood, and Mulciber Vertat. Mr Vertat died of his injuries shortly after the picture was taken."

"They may have been terrible people, but none of them deserved THAT." Muttered George, gesturing at the front page picture as he emphasised his final word.

"I'm going to go talk to Neville guys." Harry rose and began to walk after Neville, the others calling after him to let Neville know they were worried about him too.

Seeing that picture had brought one of the more horrifying tales that Sirius and Remus had told Harry about the war with Voldemort back into his mind. Sirius, Remus, James, Lily, and several others had gone to try and stop an attack by a small strike group of Voldemort's men on a muggle town. When they arrived, they found the attack had already been stopped, Voldemort apparently having changed his mind about how he was going to deal with the town, and, without informing his own men, had set a legion of Dementors upon it. The haunted, ashen looks on Sirius and Remus's faces had suggested to Harry that whatever it was they were remembering was not something he wanted to hear. Seeing what just two Dementors could do when they were no longer hungry made Harry fear how much worse it would be with a legion of them well fed.

Finding Neville Harry sat beside him, looking over at his friend, the stone cold determination that had set upon his face was a strange contrast to the nervous face that Neville had in first year.

"Death Eaters trying to escape, what do you think we should do Harry?" Came Neville's voice, cold but strong, his anger burning just below the surface.

"We train Neville. It's no longer about training to defend ourselves. He is alive, Riddle is out there trying to come back, and some of his most loyal attempting to escape, presumably to join him, means he intends on starting all over again. Another war is on the horizon Neville, even Sirius and Remus think so. We no longer train to defend ourselves, we train to fight a war, OUR war, the war HE forced upon us when we were babies. And we WILL make him regret it. He took our parents from us Neville, he took the lives we should have had away from us, and I will not let him do it to any other kids."

"I'm with you Harry. I'll be standing there right alongside you as he comes, and we'll make sure OUR war doesn't become the next generations." As he spoke, Harry saw the spark, the brilliant flash of courage as it manifested in Neville's eyes, and Harry truly understood why Neville was a Gryffindor, through and through.

And there we have it, short chapter I know, but it's been too long, and so I'm hoping that this will at least start to make up for it. The seeds of a lot of my changes in 4th year and on are set, Harry and Neville are about to make the duelling practice they were doing seem like nothing. The Glowing Man is moving as well.

I hope you will all continue to show interest in this story even with me still not being able to guarantee an update schedule, my life is a lot more full and hectic now and I wouldn't change that for anything.

Anyway, until next time,

Lucison.