Harry Potter and the Gryffindor Sword

A/N:

I cannot believe I am doing this, but I figured what the hell. Every fan fiction author had to start somewhere, right? Well this is how I started. I wrote this story in four days at Mugglenet’s cosforums. Well, let’s just say, that if you’ve ever read my other stuff, reading this will show you just how much writing fan fiction helps your writing style improve, lol.

Most of you out there that have read me before know that I am very…inconsistent…as far as chapter updates go. Well, this story, and it’s sequel, have both been completed already. It’s sequel ended on a major cliffhanger, a cliffhanger I never rounded off, I just left the story there. Well, I was thinking, after both of these stories were finally put up and completed on Portkey, maybe I’d go ahead and write a third part in the series.

Some parts of this fic will be different than the original…but very few people here have actually read the original, so you probably won’t notice.

Anyways, I still can’t believe I’m doing this, but here it is and I hope you all enjoy what was my first attempt at doing something that I have now turned into my career of choice.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

It was the ideal summer day. The sun was bright and warm, and all seemed as normal and as peaceful as could be in Little Whining. A normal looking boy was walking the streets, just as he did everyday it seemed, as if waiting for something to happen. But this was no ordinary boy. His name was Harry Potter, a very talented wizard whom attended Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.

It had been a few weeks since the 15 year old boy, though he would be 16 soon, had been tricked into going to the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic by none other than the most evil wizard of all time-Lord Voldemort. In the ensuing struggle Harry's godfather Sirius Black, whom Harry had been going to save, was killed.

Of course, Harry thought, there was no need to go there in the first place, as Sirius had not been in trouble at all, but safely at home in #12 Grimmauld Place, but had left there to help Harry, and died in the process. It had taken him a long while, but Harry had finally gotten over Sirius' death, and allowed himself to realize it was not entirely his fault.

Although part of the blame did rest on him, much of the rest laid in the hands of Kreacher, the house elf for telling the Malfoy's all about Sirius and Harry's relationship. Also blame rested on the shoulder's of Peter Pettigrew or "Wormtail" whom had caused the whole mess in the first place in selling out his parents. And there was Voldemort of course, whom lured them there in the first place. Also there was Dumbledore, for not telling Harry about the prophecy.

The Prophecy... Harry thought. He had still not told his best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, what it had said. He must either kill or be killed by Lord Voldemort. And with the ensuing war he knew it would probably be soon. Harry Potter knew that it was a very real possibility that he could be dead within a year or two, but it was also possible that Lord Voldemort could be the one to die as well. While Harry thought of all this he heard a distant voice screaming for help.

"No Dudley, go away!" a young boy sobbed. Harry sighed and sped toward the source of the noise. When he arrived he found a very confused Dudley staring at a perhaps even more surprised Mark Evans, who was sitting on a branch 15 feet up in a tree, but there were no branches below that one and Harry could for the life of him figure out how Mark had gotten up there when it hit him.

"Hey Big D!" Harry yelled, very obviously playing with his wand in his pocket. Dudley saw Harry and took off running. Harry grinned. It had been a great pleasure to tell Dudley and the Dursley's that due to Voldemort's return, the restriction of under age wizardry had been lifted, and Harry could use magic as much as he wanted.

Turning his attention back to Mark he shouted up, "Oi up there! Can you get down?" Mark very nervously shook his head and Harry immediately knew why. All the kids in the area thought that Harry went to St. Brutus', a school for incurably criminal boys. Harry, having realized how it was that Mark Probably got up that tree, pulled out his wand. Mark goggled at it for a second wondering what it was but then Harry pointed it at him and said, "Accio Mark!" and Mark flew right out of the tree and landed gracefully but dumbstruck at Harry's feet.

"Hiya Mark." he said cheerfully.

Mark stuttered for a moment and finally said, "Er... hi Harry. Umm, how did u... I mean what..." he stammered, his eyes glancing from Harry's own to his wand and back. Harry realized at this instant that he and Mark shared the same brilliant green eyes. It took Harry a moment to register this and then realized that his last name was Evans... just like his mother's...

"Mark," Harry said suddenly, causing Mark to jump. "Are your parents home?" Mark nodded his head nervously, obviously wondering where this was going. "Umm, do you mind then if we go to your house then, I believe we need to talk."

"Umm, okay." Mark replied, starting to lead the way wondering why this criminal boy with strange powers wanted to speak with his parents.

They did not speak the whole way there, up until they entered the house and found his parents sitting on the couch in their living room watching a soccer game on the television. "Oh hello Mark dear." Mark's mother said warmly as they walked in. "Oh," she said seeing Harry. "And who might this be." She asked looking straight at Harry.

"My name's Harry, Harry Potter." he said.

He looked at both parents in turn whom did not seem to know who he was, although he thought he saw Mark's father's eyebrows scrunch together in thought, looking Harry in the eyes. Harry took a deep breath and said,” I go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." At this statement Mark's mother looked at Harry as if he was ill, Mark's look wasn't so different. Mark's father however, smiled and gave Harry a look of recognition.

"You'd be Lily's boy then." He said, it was not a question, it was a statement. "I thought I recognized your eyes, they are the same as your mother's. You've got your father's appearance in every other sort though." Mr. Evans said, smiling. Harry didn't know who was more surprised, him or Mark and Mrs. Evans.

Harry managed a smile. "You, you knew my parents then?" Harry asked.

Mr. Evans smile faltered a bit. "Well, somewhat, am your mother’s cousin. She was my father's brother's daughter. So, I assume your here because you believe Mark has the same magic power they possessed?" Harry was at a loss for words for a moment, and then finally found his voice.

"Erm, yeah that's exactly why I'm here." Harry replied matter-of-factly.

Mr. Evans smiled and turned to his son, whom was looking dumbfounded, very much like his mother. "This came for you today in the post." he said, pulling an envelope out of his pocket, which Harry observed to be from Hogwarts, walking across the room and handing it to Mark.

He then smiled and turned to Harry. "I daresay you will be seeing my son at school Harry, but I must ask you to leave for now, as this is obviously a family matter I need to discuss with my wife and son, as you can see they know nothing about the world you come from."

Harry grinned and told a very bewildered Mark he'd see him at school and said goodbye to his dumbstruck mother and left the house. "Wow," Harry said to himself. All along he'd had a second cousin right here in Little Whining and only just now found it out.

It certainly made for an interesting day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N:

Okay, there it is, chapter numero uno. This fic is actually like forty chapters or something, but they’re all like only 1000 words long or so, lol. So I’ll update I’d say…2-3 times a day, probably 2, until it’s finished, and probably the same thing will go down with it’s sequel. If I do decide to go with the third one, well then that one will take a bit longer, obviously.

R/R!

Sora/Player

A/N: Okay, here’s the second chapter, as I said, the updates are coming quick!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

When Harry finally got home to #4 Pivet Drive, he was welcomed less than happily by his Uncle Vernon. "What is the meaning of this boy!" Uncle Vernon positively shouted at Harry.

Harry gave him a blank stare and replied, "What are you talking about?"

"You know bloody well what I'm talking about boy! Or are you going to tell us you didn't threaten Dudley with your, your, ...you-know-what!" Uncle Vernon was fuming now, Harry simply laughed.

"I didn't threaten him with anything, i was just fiddling with my wand when I happened to run into him." Harry wasn't exactly sure why he didn't tell his uncle that Dudley had been bullying his newfound second cousin up a tree.

It doesn't matter anyway Harry thought. like they would believe me, Uncle Vernon was trying to come up with a reply, but was having trouble because he knew that Harry had a perfectly good explanation.

"Well than what took you so long to come back boy!" he roared. "It's been at least an hour since it happened!" Harry smiled and replied politely, glancing at his aunt Petunia,

"Because I ran into Mark Evans," his aunt gave a little jump. "And i found out that he's my second cousin." He finished, looking directly at Petunia. Everyone seemed stunned in silence, although Harry was sure that Uncle Vernon was only too angry to speak. "And," Harry piped up. "He's going to go to Hogwarts next year just like me."

This was to much for Uncle Vernon. "UP TO YOUR ROOM NOW BOY. HOW OFTEN DO WE HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO MENTION YOUR UNNATURALNESS UNDER THIS ROOF?" Harry simply shrugged and went upstairs to the smallest bedroom. Hedwig was gone, presumably hunting, and Harry lay back and thought of how unfair it was, and then he fell to sleep.

He was in the Department of Mysteries, looking at Sirius. Sirius was laughing. "Come on, you can do better than that." he bellowed, but just then a second jet of red light hit him square in the chest, and the humor on his face was replaced by shock, and he fell backwards through the veil.

"NOOOO!" Harry screamed. He had had the dream every night of the summer, but it was still terrifying nonetheless. Harry didn't understand why he still had this dream, seeing as he was over Sirius' death, but he did not dwell on it. He looked at his clock and gaped at it. It was already 11 o'clock.

He hurriedly got dressed and went down stairs to a very scared looking kitchen, as they had all just heard Harry scream. "What..was, what...happened?" managed Aunt Petunia, obviously afraid that fifty death eaters had just apparated into Harry's bedroom.

"Nothing," Harry muttered. "Just a bad dream, that's all." He left the kitchen to see Uncle Vernon intently watching the news, apparently unaware of Harry. Harry turned to the TV,

"In a bizarre event last night, a family was found dead yesterday when their maid came in to do the cleaning. The bodies went in for an autopsy and the doctors were baffled, saying that the family seemed to be in perfect health, except that they were dead. In other news..."

Harry sat down hard on the couch, so hard that Uncle Vernon looked at him and asked "What is it boy?"

"It's started," Harry whispered. "I can't believe it's actually started."

With that he fled to his bedroom an left a very confused Uncle Vernon sitting on the couch. When he got to his room he noticed a large owl perched on his bed. It flew over to him and dropped a large envelope in his hands.

Harry looked at the envelope for a moment and tore it open. Harry wasn't as nervous now as he may have once been. He had decided over the summer that he really didn't care if he became an auror, there was always quidditch, Harry's favorite sport which he was very good at. Harry looked at the contents of the letter...

Care of Magical Creatures- 89% O

Herbology- 83% E

Potions- 71% A

Harry sighed, he would never become an auror after all. He continued reading.

Defense Against the Dark Arts- 105% O

Harry stared at this for a moment. He didn't even realize it was possible to get
that high of a score. He smiled thinking of Hermione and that he surely beat her in something and then read on.

History of Magic- 17% T

He looked at this to, Harry thought Fred and George were just joking about the troll grade.

Divination- 61% A

Harry grinned. He had barely pulled off a passing grade in Divination, and he wondered what Ron had gotten.

Charms- 83% E

Harry glanced over it again. 9 O.W.L.'s. Not bad. He lay back in bed, closed his eyes and was wondering what his other friend's got, the Voldemort attack totally at of his mind.

He thought of Grimmauld place, the bedroom that he and Ron shared. The beds they slept on, the portrait of Phineas on the wall, all the details of the room were coming to him.

CRACK!

Harry shot his eyes open immediately, knowing that someone had just apparated into his room. But he was no longer in his room. He was staring at a very bewildered Ron in their bedroom at #12 Grimmauld Place.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hmm…not much to say except…R/R!

Player/Sora

Chapter 3

Harry and Ron just stared at each other for a moment until Ron's open mouthed gape turned into wide grin.

"How you been mate," Ron said beaming. "And blimey Harry, when did you learn to apparate?"

Harry grinned back at him. "I dunno Ron, I was just laying in bed thinking about Grimmauld Place and..."

Harry was cut off as the door to he and Ron's room burst open. Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Arthur Weasley, and Bill Weasley were all outside the door, wands at the ready, pointed at Harry.

"Harry?" Stammered a gaping Lupin, who seemed to be the first able to recover after the initial shock of seeing Harry sitting upstairs in Grimmauld place.

Harry grinned. "So are you guys going to hex me or are you going to put your wands down?" A few of the member's of The Order of the Phoenix laughed and put their wands away. Moody, however did not.

"What kind of patronus do you make Potter?" Moody asked him threatenly. Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"A stag, Professor." Seemingly satisfied, Moody put his wand back in his robes. A few of the members, Tonks in particular, giggled loudly. Mad-Eye was known for being very paranoid. But if he had been locked in a trunk for 9 months Harry probably would have to.

"What is all this ruckus?" came the voice of Molly Weasley, and seeing Harry she rushed in and gave him a great hug.

"OH Harry!" she exclaimed. "We were just about to come and get you-wait a minute," she said sternly. "How exactly did you get here?"

"That I think," broke in Remus. "Is something we'd all like to know."

"Well, can we please go downstairs first?" Harry asked. "It's pretty crowded in here."

With that they all went downstairs and he told them exactly what had happened, how he had just imagined the room and then he had appeared here. When he was done Kingsley whistled lowly. Harry realized that everyone was staring at him admirably.

Harry felt like his ignorance of the wizarding world was keeping him from something again.

"What?" he said loudly.

It was Remus who spoke first. "Harry, not many people in the wizarding world can successfully apparate exactly where they wanted to on there first try. It's unheard of." he finished and Harry still didn't get what the big deal was.

"So I got lucky then. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal Potter," Moody broke in. "Is that no one I have ever heard of has apparated successfully on their first try, especially not when they weren't even trying to."

Harry opened his mouth to speak but Moody wasn't finished. "Not even Dumbledore." He said calmly, looking straight into Harry's eyes.

Harry mouthed "wow" and the subject changed to his treatment by the Dursley's over the summer. Harry still didn't think it was that big a deal though, he only mouthed "wow" to get them off his back.

So he broke in to telling them all how the summer went, how Dudley was still about the size and weight of a baby whale, and how Uncle Vernon had pretty much ignored him, and Aunt Petunia had actually warmed up to him a bit, they even had a few discussions about the wizarding world while Vernon was away.

A couple of the Order raised their eyes at this, but said nothing. So he went on about the summer, but paused when he got to his 2nd cousin. He didn't see the need to tell them about it, so he just skipped over it, making a mental note to be sure to tell Ron and Hermione first, and then ask Lupin about it later.

This brought him to the realization that Hermione wasn't there. "Hey, where's Hermione?" he asked.

Ron grinned. "She's on her way. But she doesn’t know that you can apparate now mate." Ron said, grinning. "We're gonna have fun with this one."

Chapter 4

Hermione arrived the next day, and was completely astounded to see Harry there. "Harry!" she shrieked as she leapt on him to give him a Mrs. Weasley-like hug. "How did you get here?"

Harry grinned. "I'll explain in a minute. Hey want me to take your luggage up to your room?" Harry offered grinning. He took the luggage before she could answer and apparated quickly to her and Ginny's room and back.

When he came back, the room was roaring with laughter. "Harry, you should of seen it," Ron started, holding his ribs he was laughing so hard. "The look on her face," he broke off again laughing. "It was priceless!"

Hermione was blushing magneta now as Harry joined in the laughing. "Oh it wasn't that funny." she huffed. Then she stormed out of the room, Harry and Ron were laughing as hard as ever now.

"Don't worry mate," Ron said, still giggling. "She's just jealous because you can do something she can't."

For some reason, now having seen Hermione storm out of the room and Ron's laughing face in front of him, that he had still not told either of them about the prophecy. Tonight, he told himself. I'll tell them everything tonight.

So later that night, Harry pulled Ron and Hermione aside after dinner and asked them to come up to his room so that he could tell them something. They obliged with a curious look at each other and followed Harry to his room.

"Okay," Harry started. This was not going to be easy. "There's a few things I've got to tell you." So he started with his story of Mark Evans, and both Hermione and Ron were beaming at Harry, realizing how much that meant to him after losing Sirius.

He took a deep breath and started to tell them about the prophecy. He watched their reactions play out as he told them. They started amused, then surprised at Neville's mention, then in horror as he told them the most important part of all.

"So," he finished. "I either have to kill Voldemort," Harry noticed that Ron did not flinch at the name this time. "Or he will kill me. One way or another, that's how the war will end. If i kill him, we go back to peace, if he wins," Harry took an involuntary gulp. "Than the wizarding world is doomed to his wrath."

Ron was to terrified to speak. Hermione had tears running down her cheeks and was sobbing quietly. Harry to, felt his eye's watering, but held back tears.

Suddenly, Hermione stood up, walked straight up to Harry, and did something she had never done before. She kissed him. Not a peck on the cheek like she would do before a Quidditch match, but a hard, meaningful kiss on the mouth.

When she pulled away, he looked at Ron unable to speak. He had now kissed two girls in his life, and, he thought, it could not be a great omen that they were both dripping with tears when he did so.

To Harry's great surprise, Ron was grinning at them. "Get a room." He said very sarcastically.

"Oh shut it Ron." Hermione said to him, leaning into Harry and kissing him again. Harry didn't know what to make of it, but there was one thing that was certain, he definitely liked it.

Hermione wasn't the little bossy 11 year old she was in their first year. She was a grown beautiful woman now. At that moment Fred and George walked in the room, caught sight of Harry and Hermione with their lips locked, and burst into laughter.

"There ya go Harry!" Burst out Fred, who was laughing so hard he had tears coming down his cheeks. Harry was very embarrassed at the twins remarks, so he apparated, without thinking, to the next room over.

Hermione was still in his arms, looking at him in awe. "Harry," she whispered. "How did you do that? It's supposed to be impossible to apparate another person other than yourself."

"I dunno," he said. "It just kinda happened. I wanted you to come with me and you did." Ron, Fred, and George burst into the room at that moment. They weren't laughing anymore.

"That was bloody brilliant Harry." George said mystified. Then he winked. "Bet it'll come in handy the next time someone walks in on you at Hogwarts eh?" At this the twins and Ron burst out laughing again, Harry and Hermione joining them. For once she did not make her usual comment about not being able to apparate inside of Hogwarts.

"Hey Harry," Ron spoke up. "We'll go downstairs and tell the rest that your coming, apparate both of you down and we'll see what happens alright?"

Harry nodded and the twins and Ron left the room, the twins still having silent giggles. Harry pulled Hermione in for another quick kiss.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded and he apparated the two of them downstairs into a full kitchen of order members. They stared unbelievingly at them, while Ron and the twins beamed at everyone. Kingsley let out another low whistle.

"Oh, yeah," said George, before Harry could stop him. "By the way Harry found out he could do this because he wanted to get away from Fred, Ron and myself because we walked in on them kissing!"

The kitchen roared with laughter, the only ones who didn't laugh being Remus, whom just gave Harry a little smile, Moody, whom Harry did not believe had the ability to laugh, and Mrs. Weasley, who looked apprehensive about the new couple.

The laughter calmed down after a while and the members got back to eating dinner. Laughter broke out again though when Fred "quietly" offered to let Harry and Hermione sleep in the bedroom above their shop, and that he and George would stay here. Hermione stared bullets at Fred, but no one seemed to notice in the uproar of laughter.

A few days later, after Harry's things had been brought back to Pivet Drive by the twins (whom told Harry with evil grins that they may have "accidentally" left some of their store candy on the floor of the house) a much darker tone when it came time to read Sirius' will.

Chapter 5

Harry wasn't sure what to make of the news that they would be reading Sirius' will. He had been having so much fun at Grimmauld Place. He and Ron laughing about their pathetic divination and History of Magic grades, Harry teasing Hermione every day for having beaten her on the DADA O.W.L. (Hermione had gotten 12 O.W.L.'s of course, and Ron got the same as Harry, they all decided to take the same classes except that Hermione took Arithmacy rather than Herbology) playing chess, pulling pranks with Fred and George's newest inventions, and most of all, spending a lot of time with Hermione.

So when Mrs. Weasley told them all that Dumbledore would be coming by that night to read Sirius' will, it came as a major shock.

That night, when Dumbledore arrived, they all made their way to the kitchen, Harry and Hermione went in holding hands and Mrs. Weasley had to scold the twins almost at once on account of them exploding with giggles.

Dumbledore just looked at the two of them and smiled. Harry and Hermione grinned at each other and then smiled back, they knew that somehow Dumbledore had probably learned all about them, but they didn't ask.

While scanning the table he saw all the old faces of the order, Tonks, Lupin, Moody, etc. He grinned when he saw Percy at the end of the table.

"Hey there Percy." Harry said simply.

Percy frowned, not believing that Harry could be so nice to him after what he had said last year in his letter. "Harry look, I don't think you underst..." he started, but Harry interrupted.

"It's alright Percy, I figured it out a long time ago. You've been working for the Order all along haven't you?"

Percy beamed at him. "I always thought you were bright Harry," but then he frowned again and said,” But how did you figure it out?"

"I gave it a little thought over the summer," replied Harry, shrugging. "I realized that your letter was actually more of a warning than a shot at me. I can see why too, Fudge was probably checking your letters so you had to make it sound like you were against me, when you were really the Order's spy on Fudge."

Ron gaped at Percy. "Is that true," he said unbelievably. Percy nodded. Ron fell back in his chair mumbling something like he knew it the whole time.

Hermione squeezed Harry's hand and beamed at him proudly. Fred and George rolled their eyes in disgust.

"Honestly Harry, we thought you were a true rebel when you didn't get the badge but now..." he trailed off at the glares he got from Hermione and Mrs. Weasley. Harry caught Ron’s eye and they smirked at each other, not wanting to upset Hermione.

"Hem, hem." Ginny said in such an Umbridge like way that everyone jumped for a second and then laughed when they realized what was going on. Ginny's tone got more serious.

"I think it's better if we just got this over with." The smiles faded from everyone's faces and they all turned to Dumbledore. He pulled a small piece of parchment out of his robes and opened it laying it on the table. Sirius' voice carried throughout the room.

"I Sirius Black leave this as my only will, and solemnly swear that I am under no magical or alcoholic," a few people smiled at this. "influence. I hereby leave #12 Grimmauld place to the Order of the Phoenix, to be handed over to Harry Potter after the fall of Voldemort."

The voice paused for a moment, as if to let that statement sink in. "To Severus Snape I leave my house elf Kreacher," Harry could barely restrain a snort. He caught Rons eye and they burst into silent giggles. Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

"To Miss Hermione Granger I leave all of my books, to use as she see fit." Hermione squirmed excitedly, but blushed when everyone turned to her. Harry grinned and turned his attention back to the will.

"To Rubeus Hagrid I leave my faithful pet Buckbeak. To Mr. Ronald Weasley I leave my Nimbus 2002." Ron gasped at this and looked at Harry. Harry just shrugged and turned back to the will. He had not realized that Sirius had bought the newest line of the Nimbus series either.

"To Dobby the house elf I leave every single pair of socks I have ever owned." Dobby, whom Harry had not ever seen at Grimmauld place until just now, shone with delight.

"To the Weasley family I leave one third of what is left in my Gringott's vault." Mrs. Weasley gasped, and Harry didn't understand why as the Weasley twins were now making more in a month than the Weasley's had been making in the previous year.

"I leave one more third of my money to the last true marauder, Moony." Harry grinned, he knew that Sirius would want his last words to Remus to be "Moony"

"And lastly to Harry Potter," Hermione squeezed Harry's hand tightly as she felt him tense up. "I leave the last third of my gold to you. As well as the before mentioned house. I also leave to you a book of unforgivable curses, so that you may be ready for them when they come your way."

The whole table stared at Harry now, as he felt his eyes watering. He wondered how many of these people knew about the prophecy. His answer came almost immediately.

"And my last dying wish to you Harry, is that you fulfill the destiny that the prophecy has given you. I will always love you all. Good-bye."

There were evidently not many people whom knew of the prophecy. Hermione squeezed his hand harder than ever under the table. Around the room, it seemed that only her, Ron, Lupin, and Dumbledore knew what that meant.

Harry stood up to explain.

"Harry no," Hermione whimpered to him. "Don't tell them if you don't want to."

He looked at her. She had tears streaming down her face. "It's okay," he said turning to the crowd of curious order members. "I'm ready."

So he told them the complete story, and when he finished, the responses were pretty much as expected. Mrs. Weasley broke into sobs and gave Harry a bone crunching hug. Then Tonks came up and did the same. Dobby had tears running down his face, Lupin was sobbing, silently, even though he had even heard it before. Ginny broke into hysterical sobs and ran out the door. The three oldest Weasley's and their father were stunned, unable to utter a word. Moody grimaced, probably disappointed that he couldn't kill Voldemort himself. If Ron had the emotional range of a teaspoon he didn't show it, as he had his face buried in his arms crying. Dumbledore had a single tear rolling down his bearded face. Snape, whom Harry had hated ever since he met him, was no longer glaring or sneering at Harry, but giving him a look of utmost sympathy. Hermione was sobbing into Harry's chest. Harry turned to the twins. He could of sworn he saw them wiping tears from there own eyes, but left in a haste, presumably to join Ginny.

Harry was sure that by the next day the prophecy would be told to every member of the order, but he didn't care. Harry knew his fate, and he had excepted it. He caught Ron's eye, whom nodded, and he and Harry got up, Harry, having to practically pull a wailing Hermione upstairs to he and Ron's room.

They all looked at each other, unable to speak. Finally Harry allowed the tears to come and the three of them hugged each other for what seemed like hours before a puffy eyed Mrs. Weasley came in to say it was time for bed, and that Dumbledore said that Hermione was not to sleep in the room with them, even on such an emotional night. Hermione reluctantly pulled away after giving Harry a kiss goodnight.

Harry and Ron stared at each other after she had left, knowing that neither could go to sleep. Harry gave Ron a weak smile. "Fancy a game of chess?" Ron grinned. "You're on."

A/N:

Thanks everybody for the reviews! Sorry I can’t respond to them all, you know how it is. I’m glad to see more and more people catching onto the story; and I can’t help but keep wondering how it would have turned out had I written it at the talent level I’m at now rather than a year ago. Oh well, hopefully you like it anyways!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6

Harry and Ron awoke very groggy the next morning, having played chess late into the night, Harry losing every time. Ron was muttering about how hungry he was so they dressed quickly and went downstairs for breakfast. They stepped into the kitchen and Harry was immediately taken aback.

"SUPRISE!" Yelled just about every member in the order. Harry smiled in spite himself, and shot a guilty look at Ron, and knew instantly that he too had completely forgotten that it was Harry's birthday.

The twins immediately started a loud chorus of happy birthday that everyone joined in on. The emotions seemed to have had a full reversal since the night before, with everyone so happy now.

Harry excitedly sat down and had presents thrown at him from all over. Hagrid had gotten him a detailed and interesting book on thestrals, Ron gave him yet another book on the Chudley Cannon's and also a huge bag of dungbombs.

Fred and George gave him a box of what seemed to be chocolate balls, but George leaned down and whispered in his ear, "We call them Dudleydum's. If you eat one you'll gain about 300 pounds for a full minute before shrinking back to your normal size." Fred gave him an evil grin and Harry laughed out loud. Harry could very well guess where they got the idea from.

Lupin had gotten him a detailed book on animagus, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave him a sweater with a golden snitch on it in Gryffindor colors.

Harry gasped very audibly when he found a package from Aunt Petunia. Everyone leaned in close eager to see what she had gotten him, except for mad-eye, who could already see what it was through the paper. Harry opened it and had to fight hard to keep back tears. It was a muggle photograph of Petunia and Harry's mother, taken obviously during the middle of his mum's Hogwart's years.

It seemed they had not been as distant as it seemed. Harry made a mental note to send a letter by muggle post to his aunt to thank her. He caught Ron's bewildered eyes and then laughed to himself when Ron rolled his eyes toward Hermione, who was crying with happiness that Harry had seemed to be accepted by one of his relatives.

Tonks had given him an interesting book on metamorphagus, and Moody and Kingsley had chipped in to give him about every type of dark magic detector possible. Finally came Hermione's present and Harry gasped in horror as it looked like another homework planner, but Hermione laughed and sat down next to him.

"It's a friend diary," she explained. "It works kind of like Riddle's did," a few people flinched at the name Riddle. Apparently they were alright with Voldemort but no where near ready to hear the dark lord be called Riddle.

"Oh, honestly," Hermione said to those who flinched before turning back to Harry. "You see, I have one of these too. If you want to talk you just write into it, and the words will disappear from your book and end up in mine. Then I can write back to you and so forth, so we can talk even when we are in different classes or in our dorms."

Harry looked at Ron whom gave him an amused look in return. Lupin spoke up, "Hermione, I've never heard of those before, how did you come across one?"

Harry looked around and saw that the rest of the room was nodding their agreement.

"Oh, well," Hermione replied slightly blushing. "I uhm, wanted to get something really special for him this year so I uh, kind of made it."

Everyone stared at her amazed once again by her brilliance. She turned an even darker shade of red.

"Well it wasn't that hard really."

"I love it Hermione." Harry said, kissing her on the cheek. She smiled and kissed him back. Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head. The twins burst out laughing, and Hermione just ignored them, instead glaring at Ron.

"There is one last thing," Lupin spoke up, handing Harry a small photo with a piece of parchment sticking out of it, saying it was from Sirius.

"He told me to give that to you for your birthday if he died." Harry looked at the picture and could have cried. It was the four marauders, Wormtail included, smiling and waving at him holding the marauder’s map.

"Sirius wanted Peter to stay in there Harry." Lupin said sadly. "He wanted you to know that even the best of friends can become enemy's."

A rage built up in him like he had never felt before. His scar was burning with pain, Harry rose out of his chair, ready to kill Lupin for suggesting that one of his friend's may turn on him. He was halfway there when he stopped.

Lupin didn't mean that. Harry thought to himself. Anyways it was Sirius who told him to say that anyway, and Sirius knew how trustworthy his friends were.

Harry sat with a thud into the closest chair as the pain from his scar dissolved to nothing, and Harry realized what had just happened and stared in horror at the fearful expressions of the people around him.

Chapter 7

"I, I'm..." Harry started to say, but he couldn't find the words. He knew what had happened. He had put his guard down. Voldemort had possessed him again, and had Harry not caught it in time, he truly may have tried to kill Lupin.

Lupin, however, smiled at him. "It's okay Harry," he said to the stunned silence and questioning looks around him.

Apparently they didn't feel that it was okay at all to have someone come after them like that.

He sighed at all the faces around him. "I think we all know that Harry was not acting under his own will there." Harry looked up, surprised that Remus had realized what was going on. So did many other members of the order, as they gave Harry more fearful looks.

"I think that there can be no doubt that Voldemort just used that intense moment to take control of Harry." A few of those in the room had dawning expressions on their faces, only just now realizing what had happened.

Lupin grinned at Harry. "But you fought him off, didn't you?" Harry couldn't say anything.

He just buried his head in his arms, unable to look at anyone. He felt some one hug him from behind-Hermione, no doubt, but he didn't care. He had nearly attacked one of his best friends, and if he had, Harry had no doubt that Lupin would no longer be standing, as he would have used one of Voldemort's curses on him, he was sure of it.

Harry took off and left the room, heading back upstairs. How could it be that for the first time in his life he had had an actual birthday party, and it had ended up being his worst birthday ever.

Harry lay in bed for hours, until a soft knock came from the door and Ron walked in. "Harry, mate," Ron said. "We're about to have lunch, and this came for you today." He threw an envelope to Harry.

"It's our Hogwarts letters. Mum says we can go to Diagon Alley later today to pick up our stuff. And you know who the new DADA teacher is?" Ron told him grinning. Harry shook his head. "It's Lupin again!"

This was the wrong thing to say, as Harry buried his face in his arms after this statement. "Oh, Harry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.."

"It's okay," Harry told him, rising from his bed. He stretched and looked at Ron. "How's Hermione?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "I think she's been taking crying lessons from Cho this summer mate." Harry grinned, remembering that almost every time he saw Cho last year she was crying, whether it be over Cedric's death or her suspicions that he liked Hermione... Harry felt a twinge of guilt at that. What would Cho say now that Harry was with Hermione?

"Alright, I guess I'd better go talk to her then."

There was no need, as Hermione burst into the room at that very moment, Ron nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione started, tears swelling up in her already puffy eyes. "It's okay Hermione,"

Harry said reassuringly, smiling at her. "I'm over it. I'm actually kind of happy with myself for being able to fight him off like that." Hermione smiled back at him.

"Well, I knew of course that something was wrong when you went after him like that," Hermione said in her all to normal know-it-all voice. "But it wasn't until Lupin said that you were possessed that I realized," She sniffed, tears swelling up again. "Oh, Harry it just must be so hard, having to deal with all of that, with the prophecy and such."

"I know," Harry said, grabbing her hand and walking towards the door. "But I'm ready for it."

Later that day they all went to Diagon Alley and He, Hermione, and Ron were off instantly to buy there book supplies. Harry and Hermione did not hide the fact that they were together, as they held hands everywhere they went, making for some interesting meetings with old school friends.

When they ran into Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, two of their fellow Gryffindor sixth years, Seamus dropped his ink bottle, splashing ink all over Dean's new robes, which Hermione cleaned up with a simple flick of her wand.

They also ran into the Patil twins and Lavender Brown, whom all erupted in giggles at seeing Harry and Hermione, but Harry had expected no less, they were always giggling at something. They saw many other members of the DA, all wanting to know when the first meeting would be and such.

Harry realized that he hadn't even thought about it since he knew Lupin was coming back. "We'll just figure it out when we get to school okay?" Hermione told a disappointed Ernie McMillan and Terry Boot.

Harry grinned when he saw Neville Longbottom, another fellow 6th year Gryffindor walking out of Ollivander's with his new wand. Harry's grin faded as he remembered exactly how it was that Neville lost his old wand in the first place.

Finally, after what seemed like days of shopping (the worst being when Hermione forced Harry and Ron to buy new homework planners, as they had both thrown the one's Hermione had bought them the year before in the fire) they made it to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, which Harry had been looking forward to all summer.

"Hiya Harry!" Fred and George yelled to him, beckoning him over to their counter. "How do you like it?" Fred asked beaming.

"It's brilliant." Harry replied, grinning as he saw Hermione trying to subdue her excitement. She had never been very supportive of Fred and George's opening of a joke shop. Ignoring her, Fred and George pointed to counter.

"So how do you like all the stuff," George asked. Harry grinned as he saw Fred and George's fireworks, the various pills to take if you want to get out of class, a few new transfiguration pills, gloves and ankle and wrist bands to go with the already popular headless hats, but Harry was surprised to see that there were no Dudleydum's there.

"Hey Fred," Harry asked, but George answered as if he knew what was going to be asked. "Mum won't let us sell the Dudleydum’s anymore." he said sourly.

"What? Why not?" Harry asked, not sure if he was more surprised that Mrs. Weasley had told them that they couldn't sell them or that Fred and George actually listened to her.

"Well, you see Harry, the problem was that when you gain 300 pounds, your clothes, uh, don't really fit anymore." Harry burst out laughing, he knew Hermione was giggling next to him.

"So yeah," Fred finished. "Mum said that we couldn't sell them anymore on the count of people eating them and there clothes ripping so badly that they couldn't wear them anymore, if you catch my drift."

Harry definitely did and he and Ron stocked up on many joke items, but Hermione absolutely refused to let them but any of the pills to get out of class with. "Oh well," Ron muttered to Harry as they left the store. "We can always buy them at school." Harry grinned and they walked out to the last person Harry wanted to meet.

"So your seeing that mudblood now are you Potter?" came the sneering voice of Draco Malfoy, staring at him with the utmost contempt.

"What if I am Malfoy?" Harry replied, staring bullets back at him and then walking off. Apparently Draco couldn't come up with a comeback for that, and if he did Harry didn't care to hear it.

A few moments later, as Harry was contemplating whether or not to apparate him and Hermione back to Grimmauld Place while Draco was still staring at him from afar, Harry ran into Mark Evans, who was walking around with the Creevey brothers.

"Harry!" all three of them yelled at once, running over to where Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting, talking about quidditch, although Hermione didn't seem to in to the conversation. The Creevey's looked at Mark and then Mark back at them.

"You know Harry?" They all said at once.

"Looks like your fan base is growing Harry," Ron whispered in his ear.

"Want me to get Ginny over here?" Harry grinned and playfully elbowed Ron in the ribs, remembering how Ginny had been very taken with him when they first met. Harry stood up.

"So," he said to the Creevey's. "I see you've met my cousin." Colin and Denis' faces brightened with surprise. Ron and Hermione looked at Mark with renewed interest, Harry had told them about Mark, but they had never met him.

"You're really Harry's cousin?" Dennis asked with a voice that made Mark sound like he was royalty. Mark nodded quizzically, not knowing what the big deal was. Ron laughed as he stood up and put out his hand.

"I'm Ron Weasley," he said. "Harry's erm, somewhat famous in the wizarding world." Mark's eyes grew to the size of melons as he shook Ron's hand.

"Is that true?" Mark asked in awe. Hermione smiled as she took Mark's hand next.

"He is, but he's just Harry to us right?" she said, hugging Harry around the waist and giving him a quick kiss. The Creevey's eyes went wide with excitement at this, and Mark looked at them strangely and asked,

“Are you..."

"Yes, we are Mark." Harry said grinning before Mark could finish his sentence. The Creevey's stared at each other in disbelief, and Colin pulled his camera out.

"Harry, could we get a picture of you two then, for my dad you know?" he asked eagerly, Dennis nodding his head in agreement.

Ron choked back a laugh and stepped out of the way. Harry and Hermione shrugged and then smiled at Colin, whom took the photograph immediately.

"Thanks Harry!" He yelled enthusiastically and he Dennis and Mark left waving, and Draco Malfoy came up to them again, sneering.

"Love that didn't you Potter?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione rolled their eyes.

"What, was that for the daily prophet Potter, or maybe for your fan club?"

"Let's get out of here." Harry muttered, apparating quickly behind a stunned Malfoy, Hermione in hand. Ron laughed and walked off with them, none bothering to stare back at Malfoy's astounded face.

Chapter 8

It was a day of mixed emotions on September the first, as Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny all packed their things for school, and left for platform 9 3/4, the first time they'd ever done so without the twins.

"Who do you reckon will take over as head troublemakers now?" Harry asked Ron as they walked through the seemingly solid brick wall that was platform 9 3/4.

"I dunno," Ron replied. "Seamus maybe, or Dean and Ginny." Ron said the latter through clenched teeth and Harry laughed. Ron had never liked guys who dated his sister, and now that she was going with someone whom Ron had liked previous to his seeing Ginny, it was especially hard on Ron.

Harry and Ginny saw a grumbling Ron and stern Hermione off once they got on the train, they had to go to the prefect meeting. Harry and Ginny soon found a compartment with Neville, Dean, Seamus, and Luna Lovegood.

"Hey guys" Harry said seeing the familiar faces. "Have a good summer?"

They all broke into a detailed expression of their summer's, Dean and Seamus were very interested in how Harry and Hermione had hooked up, but Harry wasn't ready to tell them about the prophecy yet, so he just told them that they were together and that was it.

Neville told Harry that he'd gotten a new broomstick over the summer and was thinking of trying out for beater this year. Harry wished him luck, but Harry highly doubted that Neville could make the team-he had seen Neville fly before, it wasn't pretty. Luna didn't seem interested in anyone's summer's, she just continued to read The Quibbler upside down and hummed Weasley is our King under her breath.

It was about an hour later when Ron and Hermione were back. Hermione smiled and sat next to Harry, taking his hand, Ron sat opposite them, next to Neville. Ron groaned. "I'm hungry."

Everyone burst into laughter, Ron always complained about being hungry on the trip to Hogwarts.

"Hello Ronald." Luna said dreamily, then turned back to The Quibbler. Harry and Ron grinned at each other, Luna always said hello to Ron but no one else, they didn't know why.

About half an hour and three games of exploding snap later their cabin door opened and Cho Chang stepped in.

"Uhm, hi Harry." she said nervously.

"Uh, hi." he replied. Then, catching Harry and Hermione's hands intertwined, she turned and left without another word. They looked at each other and shrugged, not everyone would be happy that they were together.

Many hours later, they finally arrived at Hogwarts, and heard a familiar voice. "Firs' years, firs' years over 'ere." Harry smiled and waved to Hagrid, then pointed to Mark.

"Take care of that one Hagrid," he said loudly so that everyone could hear. "He's my cousin!" Mark’s popularity points shot up about a hundred points after that, all the first years were eager to know if he was really Harry Potter's cousin and all.

"Well, second cousin really," Harry could here Mark say in a gaggle of about 20 first years. Harry walked up to the thestral carriages, and Harry curiously turned around.

"Hey, can anyone see them now?" They all shook their heads.

No, Harry thought. I suppose not. Me and Neville were the only one's who actually saw Sirius die, and Neville could already see the thestrals. Wait. He thought again quickly. I never told Neville about the prophecy! I'll have to tell him the first chance I get then.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were chatting excitedly to the other Gryffindor's, Harry wasted no time telling the table that one of the first years, Mark Evans, was his second cousin. Then the huge oak doors to the great hall flew open, and the first years all nervously walked in. Harry saw Mark and waved at him, grinning.

Mark saw him and waved back, a lot of the first years looking at him in awe. Finally they reached the stool where the sorting hat was, and it broke out into song.

This new year will be tough,
For all houses Gryffindor to Hufflepuff,
For the Dark Lord has returned,
And is seeking the power he has so long yearned.
Maybe you will be in Gryffindor,
If you are brave and strong of heart,
Or maybe in Ravenclaw,
If you are intelligent and very smart,
Or perhaps in Hufflepuff,
Where you will meet the nice and kind,
Or maybe in Slytherin,
To whom power is in their mind.
This year more than ever all houses need to unite as one,
And with that, this year's song is done.

The Great Hall erupted in applause, and the first years were brought to be sorted.

Adelman, Christopher!
HUFFLEPUFF!

Bradley, John!
SLYTHERIN!

Evans, Mark!

The whole Gryffindor table became silent, wishing for Harry that Mark would be in Gryffindor.

GRYFFINDOR!

The table erupted in applause, and Mark came and took a set by Harry, while the other first years looked on enviously, for Mark had gotten by far the loudest cheer.

When Zurich, David, finally went to Ravenclaw, Ron excitedly picked up his fork and knife and stared expectantly at his plate.

"Not yet, Mr. Weasley," came Dumbledore's voice from the head table. "I still have some announcements to make." Most of the older students broke out in laughter, and Ron grinned, going a little pink behind the ears.

"I must tell you all that the forbidden forest is strictly out of bounds to all students." His eyes twinkled at Harry, and Harry grinned. He could not remember a year where he had not ventured into the forest.

"Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that magic is forbidden in the corridors between classes, and that the list of forbidden items may be seen on his office door or," his eyes twinkled. "In Fred and George Weasley's shop in Diagon Alley."

The Great Hall roared in laughter again, and Dumbledore rose his hand for silence and his tone became a more serious one. "I must impress on you all that these are tough times ahead, and I must recommend caution to all." His eyes scanned the now silent Great Hall.

"With that said, tuck in!" And with that the food appeared on their plates in front of them, and they started to eat. No one bothered talk to Ron, who’s mouth was constantly full, Hermione was in conversation with Neville, Dean, and Seamus about the DA, and Harry, after grinning and waving to Professor Lupin at the head table, started to talk to Mark about all things Hogwarts.

When it was time to go, Harry grinned at Ron and Hermione, who had to show the first years the way to the dorms, but Harry pulled Mark aside and told him to come with him. Ron and Hermione had already told him the password, so they took many shortcuts and Harry muttered, "Draconis Septus," to the fat lady and he and Mark were the first to enter the deserted Gryffindor common room, and waited for the rest of them.

When Ron and Hermione came in with all the first years, Ron grinned at Harry and Mark, but Hermione looked like she would explode.

"Harry!" she yelled at him. "The first years are supposed to all come up together, it's tradition!" she was obviously very angry now, and Ron wasn't grinning anymore.

Mark got up and joined a few of his fellow first years, while Ron watched Harry and Hermione bemusedly. It went on for a good ten minutes before Hermione realized that Harry didn't really care, and when he pointed out that he wasn't new to breaking the rules she huffed at him and said he was going to bed, then stormed up to the girls dormitories.

A while later, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus, and Harry went up to bed together. Harry grinned as he closed his eyes. Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad year after all.

Chapter 9

The next day at breakfast, Professor McGonogal came by and handed out course schedules.

Ron beamed as he picked his up.

"Today we've got McGonogal, Flitwick, and Lupin, then Hagrid and Sprout tomorrow, Lupin and McGonogall again on Wednesday, Flitwick and Sprout on Thursday, and then Lupin, Hagrid, and McGonogall on Friday."

He whooped very loudly. "This is the greatest schedule ever! And no Snape! We don't have to put up with that hook nosed git anymore!"

"I too, am glad that I do not have to suffer with students such as yourselves any longer." came the ice cold voice of Snape behind Ron, making him jump. "Ten points from Gryffindor Mr. Weasley."

With that he strode off to the front table, leaving a very embarrassed Ron in his wake. Harry and Hermione laughed.

"Don't worry Ron," Hermione said. "At least we can't lose any points in his class this year, so that should put us up a hundred or so points." Ron grinned at this and went back to his breakfast.

After breakfast was over they all made their way to McGonogall's NEWT Transfiguration class. Harry was pleased to see that Malfoy was no where in sight. Harry and Hermione found a desk together and Ron sat next to them with Neville.

Harry looked around and was surprised to see that the room was full of all DA members.

There was he, Ron, Hermione, Neville. Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Padma and Parvati, Terry Boot, Ernie McMillian, and to Harry's distaste, Cho and her friend Marietta, whose face no longer spelled out sneak. Realizing that it would be safe to ask, Harry rose his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?" McGonogall asked him.

"Er, professor, I was wondering if maybe we could, er, keep doing the DA this year?" All eyes snapped to McGonogall, who smiled sweetly.

"That is not my decision, Mr. Potter. You will have to ask Mr. Lupin for that answer."

Harry returned her smile and looked around, noticing nearly everyone else was smiling to, excluding Cho and Marietta, whom Harry really didn't care if they came back or not. Then the notes started, and everyone forgot about over the next hour and a half long class.

After class, McGonogall asked Harry and Ron to stay behind. Assuring Hermione they would meet her in Charms.

"Yes, Professor." Harry asked politely. "I have decided to make Ronald this year's Gryffindor Captain. I believe that Harry, for one has too much on his mind with Voldemort and the DA, and Second, because Mr. Weasley has proven himself many times to be a great strategist." She smiled at them sweetly and they took that as their leave to go.

They quickly told Hermione what Mcgonogall had said when they reached Flitwick's class. Most unfortunately, Seamus overheard this little exchange.

"Did you hear that everyone," he said smirking. "Harry gets the girl but Ron gets the badge!" The classroom erupted in laughter, even Flitwick joining in.

Hermione blushed brightly, and Harry tried to laugh with the rest, making a mental note to slip Seamus a Dudleydum the first chance he got. The rest of the class passed without incident, Hermione of course being the only person who was able to do the charm by the end of class, leaving everyone else with lots of homework.

Finally, they reached Defense against the Dark Arts, and Harry wasted no time asking Lupin if he could reform the DA. "Of course you can Harry," Lupin replied smiling. "You can even use my classroom if you like, but I have one request Harry," Lupin said this in a low tone, as to not be overheard. "I want your cousin to be in the DA as well harry. Being your cousin means that the death eaters will certainly go after him."

Harry nodded and then slapped himself on the head. "Oh! I completely forgot to tell you about Mark! Wait. How did you find out." Lupin's eyes twinkled in a mysterious way, making Harry think he may have known about Mark far longer than Harry had.

Harry smiled and went back to his seat, but the smile was swept off his face when he saw Malfoy waltz into the room. He and his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, were the only Slytherins in the class and the only non-DA members at that. He sneered at Neville as he walked by.

"Been to visit your parents lately fatbottom? Or do they still not recognize you?" Neville, to everyone's surprise, smiled sweetly in return.

"Better in St. Mungo's than Azkaban." The DA roared with laughter at this, and Malfoy turned beat red and found a seat on the opposite side of the room, face still burning.

"Quiet down everyone." Remus commanded. "We are going to start off with the shield charm this year, how many people here can do it?" Harry beamed as every hand in the room flew into the air, with the exception of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. "Okay then, pair up and let's get started..."

"Did you see his face?" Ron said, beaming at Neville across the table. "He was speechless, put her there Neville." Ron said, sticking out his hand, which Neville took, beaming.

"You think you're funny do you Neville?" came Malfoy's sneering voice from behind them.

"Aunt Bella says she was about to torture you like your dear parents when your friends showed up." He sneered at them again. Harry stood up so quickly that even Malfoy was taken aback.

"I guess she left out the part where she couldn't beat me in a duel and had to resort to crying at her master's feet did she?" Everyone looked around at him in surprise. He had never told them this before.

"That's right Malfoy, I knocked her off her feet with the Cruciatus Curse," Ron's mouth fell open, Hermione gasped, Neville looked sick to his stomach, Malfoy looked scared.

"Yeah Malfoy, if I was an evil wizard like yourself your dear aunt would be laying in Azkaban right now." He paused, to let this sink in. "I was just to pure of heart to really hurt her, as she told me just before she broke into tears over losing the prophecy."

Hermione had had enough. "That's it!" she screamed, so that the entire hall looked at her. "Harry, not another word! Malfoy, get out of here before we all jinx you, now that you don't have a father to run home to."

Immediately, Malfoy dove for his robes, appalled at the insult to his father, but stopped when he realized somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty wands were pointed at him, daring him to make a move. Without another word he strode off and out the door of the great hall, Crabbe and Goyle following. There momentary happiness over getting the better of Malfoy didn't last long as Snape came storming down the table.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor! And detention at 7 tonight for the two of you in my dungeon!" He yelled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. Harry couldn't stop himself.

"What about Malfoy?!" Snape turned on him. "Another ten points Mr. Potter. I will take care of Mr. Malfoy." Harry sat down, at least relieved that Malfoy would get into trouble for what he did.

He and Hermione looked at each other, and then realized that the entire hall was staring at them, and then caught Ron's eye and they left together, Ron sadly leaving his pie behind. They did not talk the whole way there, Harry and Hermione were to heated to utter another word.

They all worked on homework until 7, except for Harry, whom remembered that he was going to write his Aunt Petunia, so he did that and then Ron bid them farewell as Harry and Hermione stalked off towards Snape's dungeon.

Before they got there, they ran into McGonogall, and she agreed to send Harry's letter by muggle post for him, and then they were off to the dungeon.

"You two will be cleaning out all of these cauldrons tonight," Snape motioned towards at least four or five dozen dirty cauldron's.

"And NO magic!" he added, throwing each of them a towel and cleaning solution.

"There will also be no talking and no signs of affection for each other or you will be cleaning cauldron's for a month, do you understand?"

They both nodded and went to work. It took them nearly four hours, where it would have been done in about five minutes with magic, and when they were done Snape told them he needed to talk to them.

"Potter, you cannot allow Malfoy to get the better of you this year." Harry and Hermione stared at each other. Was Snape being nice?"

"the Order cannot keep you from being expelled, Mr. Potter. And we cannot allow that to happen do you understand?" Harry nodded, and then he and Hermione left.

As soon as they were out of Snape's sight, they grabbed each other’s hands. "That wasn't so bad was it?" Hermione asked him.

"NO, it wasn't really," Harry replied. "I just never thought I'd live to see the day where Snape gave me advice."

They had a good laugh at this that lasted all the way to the common room, where everyone had gone to bed. As they entered, Crookshanks immediately jumped off his perching and ran up Hermione's leg.

"Well, goodnight then." she said sweetly, petting a purring Crookshanks. Harry leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." They smiled at each other and walked to their respective dormitories. Harry was surprised to see that all of the other sixth years were awake, arguing about something.

"How can it possibly fun to play a sport with only one ball where nobody can fly?" Ron demanded, staring at Dean.

"All the muggles love it! I like it even more than quidditch. What do you care anyway if I teach your sister to play football?"

Harry rolled his eyes and told them to drop it and go to sleep, Ron glanced evilly at Dean's poster of the West Ham football team, and then sunk into his bed, grumbling to himself. Dean just looked kind of surprised.

"I didn't think it'd be that big a deal." He shrugged and went to sleep. Harry got the distinct feeling that he was missing something in this argument, but he rolled over in his bed and went to sleep.

***

A/N:

Just thought I’d leave a quick not thanking everyone for the reviews and to say that this fic is 36 chapters, just to let you know.

Sora

Chapter 10

Harry was walking through the Department of Mysteries, but it was different this time. Eh was in the room with the veil. He could hear voices, they were so close, and yet, he still could not make them out.

Harry stepped closer to the veil, trying to hear the voices. He crept even closer still, until he could finally hear a voice he could understand.

It was Sirius.

"Harry, Harry," the voice was saying. "I'm ssstill here Harry, you can ssstill sssave me."

Harry couldn't believe it he could save him!

"Harry, come, now, we can be together."

No.

Harry realized Sirius would never ask this of him.

Harry took a step back.

"LIAR!"

He screamed at the veil. Sirius' voice chuckled. "You will come, Harrry Pottterrr. One way or another you will come."

Lord Voldemort’s face came out of the veil, followed by his face, his body, holding the lifeless body of Hermione in his hands...

"NOOOOOO!" Harry screamed as he woke up, drenched in sweat.

He looked around and realized he must have woken up at least half the school with his scream. He looked past the terrified faces of Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean and screamed, "HERMIONE!" and he bolted out the door.

He was halfway down the stairs when he saw Hermione running the other way at him. "Harry!" She was looking absolutely terrified.

Harry pulled her into a tight hug.

"Harry, Harry, what's wrong?" This was Ron's voice, very scared.

"Come on." Harry said, taking Hermione's hand and motioning Ron to follow them.

"We have to see Dumbledore now."

If anyone had questions, they didn't ask them, but just watched horrified as the three left Gryffindor tower and walked determinedly to Dumbledore's office, being only slightly slowed up by Peeves, who had tried to throw a statue on them.

To none of their surprise, Dumbledore's eagle door started to do up as they walked up to it, and they all hopped on, and into Dumbledore's office.

Dumbledore was behind his desk, and with a wave of his wand created three chairs for them to sit in. Dumbledore's face was very serious.

"Tell me exactly what happened Harry." So Harry told him every little detail, making sure that he left nothing out, and heard scared gasps coming out of Ron and Hermione's mouths at the mention of her lifeless body.

After all was told, Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, thinking steadily. Finally, after what seemed like ages, he spoke.

"Harry, you and I will begin Occlumency lessons three times a week, starting tomorrow night. I am making the DA a now sanctioned class Harry. You will meet four times a week and I will give you the material needed for the lessons. Ron and Hermione,"

Dumbledore turned his stare to their scared faces. "I am afraid all three of you must stay on Hogwarts grounds at all times. You will no longer be able to visit Hogsmeade, and you both will remain here over the Christmas holidays. I will write to each of your parents tonight. Minerva," they all turned around, none realizing that McGonogall and Lupin had both entered the room.

"You will escort Mrs. Granger and Mr. Weasley back to their dormitories and find Mr. Evans and tell him everything I have just told these students. You will also retrieve Mr. Longbottom and bring him to my office immediately."

McGonogall nodded and left, no questions asked. Harry fell back into his chair. He had no idea what all the precaution was for, it had only been a dream in which Voldemort had appeared wasn't it?

"Harry," Dumbledore said to him, Harry snapped his eyes back to Dumbledore.

"I am afraid that Voldemort is making his move. He has now threatened the life of one friend, and will likely do it again soon with another. Harry you must promise me that you will never head back to the Department of Mysteries again without myself, or another fully trained member of the order. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded his head weakly, barely aware that Neville had entered the room. Dumbledore broke out into the story and told Neville everything, including Neville's involvement in it. When he was finished, Harry was only dimly aware of Neville's ghost white face.

"Neville," Dumbledore continued, Harry focusing back on the conversation. "You too, will learn Occlumency with me and Harry, as Voldemort may be liable to come after you next, hoping that your connection with Harry through the prophecy can help him. Do you understand?"

Neville nodded weakly. "Okay then, Minerva, please escort these young men back to their dormitories, and Harry, Neville," they both turned to look at him. "What I have said does not leave this room. Ron and Hermione are the only two you are to speak of this to, as they are involved as well. We do not want the story of the prophecy to fall into the wrong hands. Do I make myself clear?"

They both nodded, horrified. They had never heard Dumbledore speak like this before, it was almost as if it was a threat. A stone faced McGonogall lead them back to their dormitory.

Upon arriving finally back in their room, Ron, Seamus and Dean exploded with questions. Harry and Neville shook their heads defiantly, and the others got the message. Neville fell on to his bed and cried himself to sleep. Harry was to afraid to sleep, but eventually fell into a dreamless sleep after an hour of turning over restlessly in bed.

Chapter 11

The next day there was only one topic of gossip-Harry's mysterious scream in the middle of the night. Everyone wanted to know what happened, but true to his word, he told no one.

Harry gave a light smile at all of the attention that Neville was getting now. He had never been one of the more popular students, and wasn't used to all of the attention. But he too, kept his mouth shut and told no one of the mysterious happenings of the night before.

Ron did not have to put up with as much as Hermione did, seeing as it wasn't his name Harry screamed for the whole school to hear. But everyone knew that if something happened to Harry, Hermione and Ron would be right there with him. No one seemed to understand what Neville had to do with the whole scenario, but after a while, they all got the hint and dropped it.

A new favorite topic for discussion was that Harry and Hermione were a couple now. They received a lot blank stares and such for that, but no one said anything, no one but Malfoy.

"Hey Potter, what's wrong? Have a nightmare about your mudblood girlfriend snuffing it did you?" he sneered at them as he passed their table.

Harry pulled out his wand immediately and pointed it straight at his face, daring Malfoy to say another word. It wasn't until Harry noticed that every head in the Great Hall had turned to look at Harry that he realized what he had just done.

He cursed and put his wand away. There was now no doubt in anyone's mind anymore what had woken Harry up the previous evening. The Slytherins all sneered at Harry and Hermione, while the other three tables stared at Hermione in shocked silence. They all knew from the previous year that Harry's dreams usually came true.

Avoiding the stares and whispers throughout the hallways, Harry, Ron, and Hermione managed to make it through their next few classes without incident. Mark Evans, however, was not so lucky.

So many people whispered and pointed at him that he finally couldn't take it any more and holed himself up in his dorm room. It was only with some very strong persuasion that Harry was able to get him to come out for their first DA meeting.

Harry glanced around the full room, seeing that nearly everyone from the previous year was in the room, minus those who had graduated and Cho and Marietta. There was only one new face in the crowd, and that was a very nervous and scared looking Mark Evans.

"Okay." Harry spoke up and the room fell quiet. "We are hear because we are the most vulnerable students in the school to an attack by Voldemort." Harry beamed proudly at all the students around him, for none of them had flinched at the Dark Lord's name, although he figured Mark only didn't because he did not understand the gravity of the situation.

"Alright, everyone pair up, we'll start by practicing the shield charm. Use any spell you desire, as long as you know the counter spell, and attempt to get them past your opponent's shield. Switch after about ten minutes. Later this week we will get back into patronus'," Harry grinned at the excited expressions and murmurs that broke out from the DA. "And starting in a few weeks I will be using the Imperious Curse on all of you, until you can throw it off as well as I can. Dumbledore's orders." He let this sink in for a moment.

"Okay. Mark you'll be pairing with me. The rest of you partner up and get to work."

Harry didn't really have time to watch the whole DA practicing, as he was too busy starting Mark off with the disarming spell, expelliarmus. Mark picked it up fairly quickly, and by the end of the lesson he had successfully disarmed Harry, although Harry wasn't trying to block him.

"Alright, that's enough for today guys," Harry announced after two hours of the shield charm. "We will meet back here tomorrow same time, and then again on Friday and Sunday. From now on this class will be held for two hours a day, four days a week, until the end of the term."

There was a lot of excited whispering at this, the DA had never met so frequently before. Harry smiled at them all and dismissed them, leaving only after everyone had else had gone, and walked bag to the Gryffindor common room with Ron, Hermione, and Mark.

"So how was your first lesson Mark?" Hermione asked him sweetly.

"It was great!" Mark exclaimed. "I disarmed Harry!"

Ron and Hermione gave Harry surprised looks, and he grinned at them, letting them know that Harry wasn't fighting back.

"Well done mate," Ron said, grinning at Mark. "It took me two bloody weeks to learn that last year." Mark seemed only prouder after this, and the three of them beamed at him when they got back to the common room and he ran off to tell his fellow first years excitedly that he had disarmed Harry Potter.

A few weeks into the term, even occlumency seemed to be getting much better. Harry could now successfully deflect Dumblrdore's attacks and was now starting to feed him false information instead. Neville was doing well also, although not quite at the rate that Harry was. Harry grinned to himself one night after a good occlumency lesson, cleared his mind, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep, knowing that Voldemort wouldn't be able to touch his dreams anymore.

Chapter 12

They were now nearly two months into the term, and Gryffindor's opening quidditch match was coming up quick. Harry, whom was very busy with all his homework, occlumency, and the DA, only made practice about once a week, but he had made it for tryouts.

Katie Bell, having been on the team for many years before, was obviously automatically on the team, just like Ron and Harry. Ginny and Dean had made the team as chasers, and to Ron's great disgust, Dean was still teaching Ginny how to play football, Neville came to the tryouts and played extremely well, earning himself a starting beater position.

The other beater was either Sloper or Kirke, the one that played would be the one that was the least injured from the last practice. Then there was Ron as keeper, and nearly nothing got by him, and then Harry at seeker.

The morning of the opening match, Harry grinned at Neville as he came to eat breakfast. "Scared mate?" Neville nodded and went back to his toast.

Harry was sure he'd be fine, for Harry had been very nervous before his first match, but had ended up catching the snitch in the end.

Finally, the time for the game had come, and the entire school turned out for the event. Ron smiled and shook Cho's hand, she was now the captain of the Ravenclaw team, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and they were off. Harry circled high above the field, searching for the snitch.

Although Sloper was on his way to the hospital wing within five minutes, the Gryffindor’s were doing great. Ginny scored on a beautiful kick shot, which she rocketed past the Ravenclaw keeper to a huge uproar from the crowd.

"An amazing goal!" yelled Seamus, the new announcer. "I guess all that football her boyfriend's been teaching her has paid off!"

Seamus flinched at the hard stare McGonogall gave him, and Ron nearly let a goal in while glaring bullets at Seamus. After ten minutes and 80 Gryffindor points, Harry decided it was time for a Wronski Feint.

The crowd ood and awed when he dove, and Cho followed him. Harry pulled out of the dive only inches above the ground, but Cho wasn't so lucky. Her broomstick hit the ground as she tried to pull up, breaking the broomstick in many pieces and sending Cho flying.

"Oh and a beautiful Wronski Feint from Harry Potter, tough luck Cho, but I bet Hermione' glad it wasn't Harry." Seamus had to jump out of the way as McGonogall tried to take the mike from him.

Harry laughed, feeling a slight twinge of guilt at seeing Cho being carried off to the hospital wing, a piece of her broomstick impaled in her thigh. But Harry dropped that thought immediately as he went into a dive sighting the golden snitch. He did a brilliant Sloth Grip Roll to dodge a bludger and stared the beater in the eyes as they zoomed in at each other, the beater obviously trying to knock Harry off course.

But the snitch jumped up at the last moment, and Harry pushed off his broom and jumped over the beater, his firebolt going under, and snagged the snitch, landing gracefully back on his broom, arm raised in triumph.

"Hermione you can stop covering your eyes now, Harry's caught the sni-" Seamus couldn't finish the sentence as the mike was ripped away from him by a fuming McGonogall. Harry landed gracefully and was immediately swarmed by his fellow Gryffindor's all wowed at his catch, saying that it was his best yet.

The party continued into the common rooms, and everyone got a good laugh when Seamus gained a solid three hundred pounds after accepting a seemingly harmless chocolate ball from Harry, who had told him he did a great job announcing.

When Seamus returned to his normal form, even he was laughing, although he didn't think he got the message as he made another crack about Harry and Hermione, then again, maybe he did.

Harry and Hermione announced that they were going to bed an hour later, Hermione glaring at Seamus after he asked if they were going together, and they parted at the staircases and went to their dorms and pulled out their friend diaries, and wrote to each other and only stopped after Ron, Seamus, Neville, and Dean came up, saw what he was doing, and Seamus told him to kiss her goodnight for him.

Harry laughed and said goodnight to Hermione, and they all stayed up until late into the night talking about the match, until one by one they finally went to sleep.

A/N:

Just thought I’d see if anyone agrees that the second-to-last paragraph of that chapter was the worst-written sentence in the history of the English language. I think it’s up there myself.

Sora

Chapter 13

The day after Gryffindor's brilliant 230-0 win over Ravenclaw, Harry awoke to see a fuming Ron standing by the window, obviously angered by what he saw outside. Harry looked out next to Ron and rolled his eye's as he saw Ginny and Dean playing football out on the grounds, and laughed when he saw Hagrid playing the position of goalkeeper.

Harry winced though, when Dean leaned in and softly kissed Ginny on the lips. "Oh that's it," Ron said, moving towards the door. "I'll show him.."

He was almost to the door when he turned around to see Harry laughing.

"What?" Ron demanded loudly.

"Oh come on Ron," Harry replied, giggling. "You don't get angry when me and Hermione kiss."

"Well Hermione isn't-"

"Your sister, I know." Harry said, clutching his sides. "Come on mate, Ginny's 15, let her do what she wants."

Ron opened his mouth in protest but Harry cut him off.

"Come on, let's go get breakfast." Ron muttered something unintelligible under his breath and then followed Harry to the Great Hall.

The two ate without speaking for a while, Hermione nowhere to be seen. "I'm going to go visit Cho." Harry announced suddenly. Ron gave him a surprised look, but Harry ignored it and walked off to the hospital wing.

Harry had to convince Madam Pomfrey, but finally she let him by. He found Cho at the end of the room, there was an older man and woman sitting there, presumably Cho's parents, but Harry walked up to her nevertheless.

"Erm, hi there Cho." Cho looked at him for a moment and then to his surprise she smiled.

"Hi there Harry." She rolled her eyes at her parents, whom obviously had never seen a celebrity before, and Harry had to suppress a laugh.

"Look Cho, I just wanted to come and say I'm sorry. I-"

"Oh don't say that Harry," she said grinning. "I know you didn't want to hurt me. I'm just not a brilliant flier like you are." Harry grinned back.

"No, I guess you aren't." Cho feigned like she was hurt by those words, and playfully punched Harry in the arm.

"Maybe you could teach me that Wronski Feint sometime eh?" Cho asked him hopefully.

"Yeah sure," Harry returned grinning. This exchange was going much better than he had expected. "Well, see you then." Harry said turning to leave.

"Hold on, Harry?" Cho said pleadingly. "Do you think it would be okay if me and Marietta, i mean, you know, do you think, we could uh, come back to the DA?"

Harry grinned at her. "Of course, just don't let Marietta tell anybody." They both laughed at this and Harry said good-bye to both of Cho's parents and Cho, and walked out into the hall, where Hermione was waiting for him, beaming.

"Harry," she squeaked, hugging him. "That was such a nice thing to do." She took his hand and they sped off towards Hagrid's for their next class.

Hagrid's NEWT class thus far had been very interesting, as they were learning all about Grawp. Grawp was loads better now, and apparently when Dumbledore had come into the forest the year before to save Umbridge, he had also smoothed things over with the centaurs, whom were being perfectly friendly again.

After an hour of Grawp telling them all about the mountains in which he used to live (he spoke almost fluent English now) they headed back to the castle for lunch. Harry told Ron all about his conversation with Cho, and Hermione hit Seamus in the face with roll after he joked that Hermione had competition now.

When Neville and Harry showed up for their occlumency a few weeks later, they were astonished to see a sneering Snape there waiting for them with Dumbledore.

"Today," Dumbledore said powerfully. "We will begin double attacks on the mind. Professor Snape and myself will both be attacking your minds at random, to see how well you can react under stress. Let us begin."

This lesson was harder than any other that Harry had experienced, but he was able to fend them both off for quite some time.

Neville, however, was not so lucky. Harry had to pull him off the floor many times before Dumbledore said they could leave for the night.

"That was terrible." said a trembling Neville, he was so weak from the attacks that he could hardly stand. "Snape was so...relentless. I couldn't stop him."

"It's alright mate," Harry told him smiling as they entered the Gryffindor common room. "You did much better against him than I did my first time."

Neville gave him a weak smile and headed off for bed. Harry however, stayed downstairs and told Ron and Hermione all about the lesson.

"Wow, Harry, you must be really good, to fend them both off like that." said an impressed Hermione.

"Yeah," Harry replied, taking a nervous look upstairs. "I just hope Neville's alright."

A few days later Harry was beaming around at all of the DA members, now including Cho and Marietta, as they had mastered all of the spells he had given them, excluding maybe Mark, but he was coming very close.

As they were practicing multiple spells, Neville came up to Harry just as Harry had been successfully disarmed by Mark, and Harry knew immediately that something was wrong.

"Neville, what-" But Harry never finished his sentence as Neville's eyes blazed and he raised his wand and bellowed, "CRUCIO!"

Harry's scar immediately erupted in pain, as did his body, but it all stopped suddenly. Harry got up quickly to survey Neville, whom had just been hit square by nearly 30 stunner blasts.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Mark immediately bent over Neville, they were the only one's who knew what had truly happened. Neville was in a bad state. Not many people could survive 30 stunner blasts simultaneously.

"We have to get him to Madam Pomfrey." Harry announced, and without thinking, knowing that they could never carry him there in time, Harry made Hermione, Ron, and Mark hold on to him as he grasped Neville and hoped feverishly that it would work.

CRACK!

They were in the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey got over the shock of seeing Harry do something that was supposed to be impossible and immediately grabbed Neville.

"What happened?" she asked, getting Neville into bed.

"30 stunners," Harry gasped. "All at once." Madam Comfrey’s eyes widened with shock, but she nodded and immediately started tending to Neville.

With another CRACK! the four of them were in Dumbledore's office, staring at a surprised Dumbledore. "It's happened," Harry gasped again. "Voldemort's possessed Neville."

A/N:

Sorry, I have stuff to do today, so this’ll be the only update, except maybe one late tonight.

Sora

A/N:

Sorry, but this chapter is very short, hopefully you’ll like it anyways!

Chapter 14

"What happened?" Dumbledore said calmly, deciding to ignore the fact that Harry had done the impossible.

"We were practicing," Harry started. "Neville came up, he used the Cruciatus Curse, then the members of the DA stunned him, he took about 30 of them. But he's still alive."

Dumbledore looked very concerned for a moment, then nodded in realization.

"Of course, yes, this was exactly what Voldemort wanted, only he didn't anticipate," Harry and the others stared at each other bewildered.

"An what did V-Voldemort want?" Ron spoke up. Everyone stared at him. It was the first time he had ever said the name aloud.

"What Voldemort wanted, of course, was Neville's death."

They all gasped at this.

"So that, no doubt, Harry would come after him, but he did not expect, or maybe overlooked, that in possessing Neville, he also temporarily transferred some powers to him. And I can guarantee that 30 stunner blasts could not kill Tom Riddle."

They all sighed in relief, realizing that Neville would be fine.

"Now I must ask you Harry," Dumbledore said, and Harry turned to look at him. "How you managed to apparate inside school grounds, as it's supposed to be impossible?"

"I dunno, Harry replied, dumbfounded. "I just apparated like normal, only I was wishing really hard that it would work."

Dumbledore leaned in closer, wearing an expression of sudden realization.

"Of course, of course," he murmured. "Of course I always had my suspicions, but now, I am sure." They all gaped at him.

"What are you sure of sir?" piped up Mark.

"As you no doubt know from last year Harry, only a Phoenix or a house elf can apparate on these grounds." Harry nodded his head, but still did not understand.

"This was a precaution that Godric Gryffindor himself put on this school, making it so that only he could apparate within these walls, as well as his trustful house elf worker's and his faithful phoenix Fawkes here." Dumbledore said this stroking Fawkes head, the others looked at each other. Fawkes had been Godric Gryffindor's phoenix?

"Neither can live while the other survives."

Dumbledore recited from the prophecy. "Of course Slytherin and Gryffindor loathed each other while they were alive, and now in death, they loathe each other still."

Harry's mouth dropped. Dumbledore couldn't be saying what he though could he? He glanced at Hermione and could tell that she was thinking the same thing.

"Of course there can only be one or the other in this world," Dumbledore continued. "The last remaining descendent of Salazar Slytherin is among us now as Tom Riddle."

He looked directly at Harry.

"And the last remaining descendent of Godric Gryffindor is here with us now as Harry Potter."

Everyone in the room gasped. Harry tried to say Dumbledore was wrong but deep down he knew it was true. Only Slytherin or Gryffindor, good or evil, could live in this world. There was no in-between. Harry knew that if he won the final battle with Voldemort, Godric Gryffindor and his pure heart would live on, and Salazar Slytherin would be gone forever.

If he did not win the final battle, he did not want to think about what the world became under the dominance of Salazar Slytherin. Harry looked up.

"I know what I have to do."

He looked around at everybody.

"I have to fight him. And I have to win."

A/N: Just thought I give a quick plug to a friend of mine, Lady Cassie, who just posted the first chapter of Harry Potter and the City of Woe -- sequel to Harry Potter and Dumbeldore’s Feint -- on her Yahoo Group at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dumbledores_Feint/

For those of you that haven’t read it yet, it is a must-read series, by far the best sixth-year fic on the net.

***

Chapter 15

The room was dead silent. Everyone was staring at Harry, contemplating what he had just said. Ron was to shocked to talk, Mark was staring emptily into space, only just now truly grasping the situation that had made his cousin famous, Hermione was once again sobbing into Harry's robes, knowing full well that if he failed, her, Ron, and the rest of the wizarding world would go with him.

It was Dumbledore whom spoke first. "Alas, that is true Harry," Dumbledore eyed him very seriously. "But you are not ready, I am afraid. But please allow me to give you this,"

He pulled the sword that Harry had killed the basilisk with in his second year and handed it to Harry.

"This sword is rightfully yours Harry," His eyes twinkled. "Use it well."

Harry and the rest walked back to the dormitories, as Harry was to tired to apparate. They got a huge surprise as they entered the common room. The entire DA was there waiting for them. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw, they were all in the Gryffindor common room.

It was Ginny who stepped forward.

"What happened?"

Harry smiled and shook his head. He looked around and met the eyes of every person in the room.

"I am sorry, but we can't tell you anything. We can't risk it. And do not pester Neville about it when he wakes up from the infirmary, he's been through a lot tonight and no one is to bother him. You will all find out the truth when it is time."

He looked around at the faces again, satisfied that they all knew they would not get an answer from anyone and not try to either.

"Also, none of what happened tonight is to leave this room. No one outside of the DA and the Gryffindor's here can know that I apparated on school grounds. Neville had an accident, that's why he's in the hospital wing. No one is to know that he attacked me, is that clear?"

Everyone in the room nodded their agreement. Zacharias Smith stood up and walked straight to Harry and held out his hand.

"You are the greatest man I've ever met Harry."

Harry smiled and shook his hand, then watched as Smith exited the common room and headed for his own. One by one, every member of the DA followed suit, until finally only the Gryffindor's were left. Dean and Seamus shook Harry's hand and left for bed, the Creevey's did as well.

Ginny, Katie, Parvati, and Lavender all gave Harry a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and they too, went to bed. Finally it was only Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Mark left. Harry quietly left for bed, smiling at Mark and giving Hermione a peck on the cheek first, and then Ron followed him, and they all went to their dormitories. Seamus and Dean were feigning sleep, as they did not want to disturb Ron and Harry.

"Well, goodnight mate." Ron said, shaking Harry's hand.

Harry nodded and replied, "And what a night it was." Within ten minutes, the four of them were all asleep.

The next morning at breakfast Harry was very pleased to see that no one was talking about the previous night, not that he had expected anything else.

"So," Ron said, starting to munch on his toast. "Transfiguration, DADA, and Charms today, huh?"

"Yeah," Harry said, happy that Ron was trying to get their minds off the previous night, but Harry shook his head. "I have to go see Neville today." Ron and Hermione nodded at him. Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"We know. We're coming with you."

So twenty minutes later they found themselves at the end of Neville's bed, and Madam Pomfrey had assured them that she had told no one what truly happened to Neville, and that Dumbledore had filled her in on only what she needed to know.

"He will be out cold for at least 2-3 weeks," she told them. "After that he will need to stay here for at least another month. He is truly lucky to be alive." Harry, Ron, and Hermione all glanced at each other. Apparently Dumbledore had not told her as much as they had thought.

Classes were a nightmare for the next few weeks, but the homework was light, as Dumbledore had no doubt told the teacher's to take it easy for a while, although not exactly why.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron spent the first Hogsmeade weekend inside together, studying, playing chess and exploding snap, and avoiding questions of why they weren't in Hogsmeade with their friends.

When December had arrived, homework had picked up again, and everyone was excited for the second quidditch match of the season, although with Neville still in the hospital wing, the Gryffindor was down a beater, and was forced to play with both Kirke and Sloper. As Harry flew out on to the field, it seemed that all of his worries had been washed away, even though they were playing Slytherin.

Chapter 16

Harry played with a purpose. The moment the whistle blew he shot off and circled the stadium once, and then went into a spectacular dive. He heard Malfoy laugh behind him. "I won't fall for that one Potter!"

Draco was laughing no more and the stadium was completely silent when Harry pulled out of his dive, fist pumped triumphantly in the air.

No one could believe it.

Harry Potter had caught the snitch in a shade under 45 seconds. Seamus' voice boomed throughout the stunned crowd.

"Harry Potter has caught the snitch!"

The stadium erupted in cheers, even the Slytherin's were impressed.

"Hah!" came Seamus' voice again. "Not laughing now are you Malf-" his voice drained out as McGonogall once again tore the speaker away from him.

Harry was absolutely bombarded by his teammates. A Slytherin player swooped up to them and grinned.

"Brilliant catch Potter." and with that he flew off, the rest of the Slytherin's were already gone. Harry stared in stunned silence, but then cheered with the rest of the team.

"PARTY IN GRYFFINDOR TOWER TONIGHT!" boomed Seamus' voice, as he had somehow gotten the speaker back from McGonogall. The crowd cheered even louder.

The party in the Gryffindor common room went on for hours. Even some Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff came in to join the fun. Harry was bombarded with tons of pats on the back and compliments galore and was loving all of it.

This is what quidditch is all about He thought.

Harry gazed around the party and was astounded to see a beaming Fred and George running at him.

"Brilliant Harry!"

"We came as soon as we could!"

"I've never seen anything like it!" came a new voice that belonged to Lee Jordan.

"Hey!" Harry said excitedly, he hadn't seen Lee in ages. "What are you up to?"

Lee beamed at him. "I'm at Puddlemore with Oliver. I'm their new announcer! Wood wanted me to tell that he's really sorry he couldn't come, but the coach wouldn't let him. He's been promoted you know, he's now the starter for the first team!"

Finally, after nearly seven hours of partying, everyone filed out and it was only Gryffindor's left.

The next day the great hall exploded with applause when Harry walked in, and he didn't think that they could possibly still be going on about quidditch when Ron, beaming, brought him up a copy of the daily prophet.

"Read it." he said eagerly. Harry glanced down. There was a huge photograph of him triumphantly holding the snitch with a huge headline of

"Harry Potter Sets World Record For Fastest Ever Catch Of The Snitch"

Harry gaped at it unbelievably. World Record?

The article went on to say how brilliant of a quidditch player Harry was, with interviews from all kind of international quidditch stars, all giving Harry huge praise, saying that a 42 second snitch catch will never be beat and more.

The article covered the entire front page and spanned another three after that. It took Harry nearly an hour to read the whole thing. The rest of the day was full of people bursting into applause whenever they saw him, patting him on the back, until finally Harry couldn't take it anymore and asked them to stop.

The euphoria lasted all the way to Christmas break, which was when Harry came back down to earth, remembering why he and his friends were forced to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays.

A/N:

I apologize in advance for the major run-on sentences here. Lol, honestly, sometimes I just can’t even believe it was actually me who wrote this stuff.

Chapter 17

Harry had one of the greatest Christmas' of his life.

He had gotten Ron a set of play-back chess pieces, so that Ron could play against them rather than he and Hermione, he had given Hermione a very pretty (and expensive) bracelet which she loved very much, and he'd given Mark a chess set of his own, so that if Ron got bored of beating his play-back pieces ha could beat up on him, and to Neville (whom was finally out of the hospital wing) he gave a book on magical plants from all over the world, and he sent a copy of he and Hermione's photo that Colin had taken to the Dursley's by muggle post, hoping that they would accept it, and had a strong feeling that they would.

He received a new wristwatch from Hermione, as his had stopped working a long time ago, he got a book full of different chess strategies from Ron, a dragon book from Hagrid, a new sweater from Mrs. Weasley that had a snitch on the front and :42 sewn onto the back, Lupin had given him a historic book on the history of the unforgivable curses, he received many other items from tons of other people as well, most notably a box of sugar sweet candies from Hermione's parents, and a note saying that they were honored that he was dating their daughter, the most meaningful gift to Harry though, was a full picture of the Dursley's, with a note that said they couldn't wait for him to get back. Harry couldn't believe it. Aunt Petunia must have really gotten through to them.

The best part of christmas though, was all the time he spent with Hermione. Early in the morning they left after presents to go for a walk, and didn't come back until nearly curfew, having spent a wonderful day walking the grounds, sitting by the lake, taking a stroll through the forest, and much, much more.

Ron grinned at them when they came back, he was playing chess with Padma Patil, whom had come over from her common room to have christmas with her sister.

"So what did you two do all day?" Ron asked them, and everyone in the room turned to see them.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Use your imagination." At the explosion of laughter Harry realized that this was the wrong thing to say, but he didn't care.

Let them think what they want Harry thought to himself Today was the best day of my life.

Annoyed by the laughing from everyone downstairs, Harry and Hermione walked upstairs and lay down in his bed-just laid down-and quickly fell asleep, Harry could not think of a better end to a day than one where Hermione was in his arms.

No one mentioned to the teachers that Hermione had slept in Harry's bed that night, all though Seamus would definitely not let them forget it, he knew better just like everyone else that they could get in huge trouble if that was discovered.

When school started up again, Harry was excited for the DA meetings, for they were finally going to start on the Imperious Curse. Not everyone was to excited about it though, but Ron stepped forward to show Harry his trust, and Harry used him as the first example.

"You have to listen to the inner voice inside you, the one that tells you reason. If you listen to it, then you can beat the curse. That's how I do it." He paused. "It saved my life when I fought Voldemort."

The room hushed and Harry raised his wand to Ron.

"Imperio!" immediately Ron did everything Harry told him to, but was very proud when Ron finally fought it off after Harry tried to get him to play with a football.

Ron beamed at Harry. "You were never gonna get me to do that."

Dean and Ginny rolled their eyes.

The rest of the lesson went well, and Harry was very proud when Hermione threw off the curse after less than a minute. She wasn't the only one though, Neville, Mark and to Harry's surprise Cho also effectively through off the curse.

"Alright that was a great session everyone," he announced beaming. "We'll pick it up again next week and continue it until everyone here can successfully cast and throw off the curse." his tone got much darker.

"And if I ever hear of anyone using this curse outside of a life threatening situation they will have me to answer to."

A few of the members gulped and nodded, all of them knowing that their combined might could probably not even beat Harry, for he had become a very powerful wizard indeed.

Chapter 18

A few weeks later came the worst news anyone could have thought of, the dementors had left Azkaban completely, freeing every death eater there as they did so. Every member of the DA came to Harry after they heard the news, telling him that they were ready to die for him in battle if need be.

Harry did not know how to respond, he was on the verge of tears every time a member came up and told him so. Hermione beamed at him and constantly hugged and kissed him in support. Harry realized that these people were ready to take on Voldemort himself if they felt it necessary, and with this Harry realized he had to talk to Dumbledore.

So late one March night, Harry waited for everyone to fall asleep, and then he apparated to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was there, waiting for him.

"What is it you need to tell me Harry?" Harry told him all about the DA members telling him that they would die in battle for him against Voldemort if need be, and Dumbledore immediately saw Harry's dilemma.

"So you would like permission to tell the DA of the prophecy?" Harry nodded. "Well, that decision lies with you and you alone Harry. If you feel the need to tell them, than please do so, i daresay Harry, that we have troubled times ahead, and that your DA is going to need every spell they've ever learned for the trials ahead."

Harry nodded and apparated back to his dorm room. He would tell them everything at the next meeting.

"The time has come," Harry started and a hush fell over the crowd. They were in Lupin's room ready to start another class of the DA. "For you to learn the truth about my connection to Tom Riddle."

There was complete silence in the room, they had all been waiting for this ever since Neville's attack, and possibly even before. Hermione and Ron looked at each other surprisingly, neither had known he was going to do this tonight.

Hermione stepped up to him and took his hand, offering her support. So Harry told them everything, starting with the prophecy and examining their reactions as he told them of Neville's role, how he, Harry, was the heir of Gryffindor and lastly, that only he, and he along could vanquish Voldemort and therefore the last traces of Slytherin, but that the same was true for him.

Everyone was speechless, Hermione was crying quietly once again on Harry's shoulder, as he looked around most of the other girls were as well. All the boys-no, men, were staring at him dumbstruck, unable to process all of this information at once.

"So I'm telling you all now that you must not go after Voldemort, because I am the only one who can kill him." He let this sink in. "I needlessly must tell you to also not let this information leave this room, you cannot tell even your best of friends, parents, or even diaries. The war is coming, and we and the Order of the Phoenix are all that stands in Voldemort's way of world domination." He let this sink in as well, before smiling and moving on to his greatest idea yet.

"Next session we will be starting a dueling tournament." Everyone in the room looked up excitedly at this.

"Everyone will duel, not to death of course, to determine a champion, although that doesn't really matter, we are only doing this for the experience."

Ron's hand flew up first.

"What does the winner get?" A bunch of the other members nodded in agreement, wanting to know what the prize was.

Harry gave them all a grin.

"You get to duel me."

A/N:

Finally, a nice, long-ass mother fu… I almost forgot this was a PG fic…er, here’s a long chapter. Ahem.

Chapter 19

The Great Hall the next morning was alive with the buzz of a dueling tournament for the DA. As the DA was no longer a secret, many people that were not in it had heard of the tournament and were anxious to see it.

It seemed like Harry was constantly being asked by students if they could come to the tournament just to watch. Finally Harry broke down and talked to Dumbledore, who gave him permission to use the Great Hall so that anyone who wanted to could watch.

Even though Harry was expecting a large turnout, he could never have expected what he saw when he entered the Great Hall. It seemed that every Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor in the school was there.

Harry was surprised when he saw a few Slytherins, most of them young, 1st or 2nd years, but there were older ones as well. Harry grinned and waved to the Slytherin that had congratulated him after the quidditch match.

Harry stepped up onto the stage, to an uproar of applause. He smiled and signaled for silence, then addressed the crowd.

"This tournament will be done World Cup style, with 8 groups of four dueling round robin, the top two people from each bracket will move on to the single elimination rounds. Is everyone ready?"

The crowd erupted again.

"Alright then, first match, Ginny Weasley vs. Ernie McMillian."

They held 16 matches that night, so that each person dueled once. They would do the same over the next two nights, then take a one day break, and then would do all 8 2nd round matches the next day, followed two days later by the quarter finals, then the semi’s a few days after that, and finally finish with the championship and consolation championship a week after that.

Harry beamed proudly at the duels he had seen. Ernie had put up a good fight, but Ginny finally got him with an amazing bat-bogey hex. Hermione had rolled over Michael Corner, finishing him in under a minute.

Ron was barely able to beat Terry Boot in one of the more exciting matches of the night. Neville had demolished Katie Bell, while he beamed proudly at his cousin when he beat Marietta. Luna Lovegood was also successful, defeating Cho in a long battle.

The next day proved even better than the first, when Ginny won again on a bat bogey hex, this time over Susan Bones. Mark fell to Neville, but Hermione cruised to another easy victory over a Ravenclaw 7th year who wasn't in the DA, but had entered the battle to fill in the extra slots needed, Ron took down a Hufflepuff 4th year Harry didn't know, Katie Bell also won, this time over Marietta, whom had now lost twice.

Harry was looking forward to Mark and Katie's match the next day, which would determine the second advancer from the group with Neville. Seamus secured a place in the second round after a brilliant shield charm knocked out his opponent with his own spell, Dean advanced as well, beating a stunned Michael Corner.

The third day of the tournament was the best yet, Ginny made it 3 straight, as did Hermione and Ron, and Mark actually beat Katie, and was the youngest dueler to make it through to the next round. When all the wins and losses were tallied up the Harry announced who would be dueling in the second round.

"Hem, hem," Harry muttered to get everyone's attention, many of the people laughed. "Okay, duel one will be Ginny Weasley and Cho Chang." There was mild applause at this.

"Duel two will be Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbot." Once again the two got a polite applause.

"Number three will be Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley." The hall erupted in an uproar at this, everyone wanted to see who of Harry's best friends would go the furthest.

"The fourth match will be Mark Evans and Luna Lovegood." The crowd exploded at Mark's name, everyone seemed to be pulling for the little guy.

"Match five will consist of Seamus Finnigan and Zacharias Smith." The crowd uproared at Seamus' name, he had become very popular since he started announcing the quidditch matches.

"The sixth match will be Dean Thomas and Terry Boot." The crowd applauded politely again, apparently this wasn't one of the more exciting matches.

"Match seven will be Lavender Brown vs. Padma Patil." The applause was slightly louder this time, and Harry noticed Ron give Padma a little smile and a thumbs up. They had been seeing a lot more of each other since Christmas.

"And the final match will be Parvati Patil vs. the only non-DA member still alive, Marcus Owen!" There was a huge applause at this, everyone not in the DA seemed to be rooting for Owens although he was a Slytherin (the same one whom congratulated Harry after the last quidditch match) as they all wanted to see a non-DA member win it, although they knew it was highly unlikely.

Two days later, Harry and practically the rest of the school filed into the Great Hall for the 2nd round elimination matches.

Ginny used her very popular bat-bogey hex, which seemed to be the talk of the tournament, again to easily put away Cho Chang.

In the second round, Neville used a brilliant summoning spell, taking Hannah Abbot's wand straight out of her hands and winning by default.

Ron and Hermione had easily the most exciting duel of the day, shooting spells back and forth until finally Hermione tripped on the seam of her robes and fell, Ron grinned and used stupefy to finish her, but Hermione had been feinting, as she used the shield charm protego immediately after she fell, and Ron's stunning spell backfired and knocked him out of the tournament.

Harry was both surprised and proud when Mark defeated Luna Lovegood with a brilliant impediment jinx.

Seamus and Zacharias had a brilliant duel, but Seamus came out on top, Dean prevailed as well over Terry Boot, and then Padma took down Lavender after a long duel.

Harry frowned a little at this, Lavender was the first sixth year Gryffindor to go down, but his sadness evaporated when he saw an excited Ron giving Padma a big hug, while Hermione winked at Harry and beamed at them.

Parvati became the second sixth year Gryffindor to go down, after Marcus got under her shield with a stunning spell.

"Now the semi-finals that will take place in three days time are set." Harry announced to the crowd.

"They will be, Ginny Weasley and Dean Thomas!" The crowd went crazy, they all knew that Ginny and Dean were dating, and couldn't wait to give hell to the loser of the match.

"Hermione Granger and Seamus Finnigan!" Seamus got a huge roar again, but no one seriously thought he had any real shot at Hermione.

"Match three is Mark Evans vs. Neville Longbottom!" The crowd erupted at Mark's name, he was now everyone's favorite. Harry gave Mark a grin, but knew that he was no match for Neville.

"And the final match will be Padma Patil and Marcus Owen!" The crowd cheered loudly again, all wanting to see a non-DA member go far, Ron it seemed, was one of only a very few cheering for Padma.

The next day all the buzz was about the duel the night before, all the teachers, even Snape, Harry had heard, had stopped giving out homework in anticipation of the tournament. A pool had started as well, giving the odds on the winner. Hermione was ranked 1, with a 3:2 shot, then Marcus at 1:2, followed by Neville, Ginny, Seamus, Dean, Padma, and finally Mark. Everyone loved Mark, he had now become pretty much the most popular kid in the school although he was still in his first year, but no one really thought he had a shot of winning, and privately, Harry agreed with them.

Finally the semi's had come, and now nearly the entire school, save only a select few upper year Slytherin's (Malfoy for one), were in attendance.

Ginny and Dean started the night off, and Dean was just another tally on the bat-bogey knock out chart.

Seamus was handled pretty well by Hermione, whom used a brilliant combo of an impediment jinx and levitation charm to put Seamus out of the running.

Mark Evans lost to Neville, everyone was sad to see him go, but they had expected no less, Neville was no longer the clumsy, accident prone kid he had been in first year.

The shocker of the day was when Padma Patil managed to use a brilliant fire spell, which caught Owen's robes on fire, and then hit him with a stunning spell in his confusion. After she politely put out the fire with a wave of her own wand, she grinned at Harry and her sister, then ran to Ron and planted a huge kiss right on his mouth.

Harry grinned and addressed the crowd. "Well as soon as Ron and Padma stop lip-locking I will read the matches for next week!"

The Great Hall erupted in laughter and Ron and Padma broke apart, blushing.

"Next week the first match will be Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley!" The crowd exploded, all highly anticipating the match, wondering if Hermione could overcome the bat-bogey hex.

"And the other match will be Padma Patil and Neville Longbottom!" The crowd screamed with delight, now that Mark and Marcus were out, Padma was everyone's favorite underdog to win the tournament.

The next week had continued like the last, everyone murmuring and whispering excitedly, the remaining four champions, Hermione, Neville, Padma, and Ginny, were treated like gods, unable to almost ever have a moment of solitude.

Finally the semi final day had come, and it seemed that every student in the school had turned out for the duels, only Malfoy, Crabbe, Bulstrode, Parkinson, and Goyle staying behind.

Harry was very surprised to see Theodore Nott in attendance at well, but he ignored it.

The first match got under way, and immediately Ginny used her bat-bogey hex, but Hermione muttered the counter curse, no doubt she had found it in the library, and dominated the match from there. Finally, with an unexpected, "Expelliarmus!" Ginny's wand went flying and Hermione turned and beamed at Harry, as she had won. Then she ran up to him and kissed him full on the mouth, to which Seamus exclaimed loudly,” I wonder who she's been sleeping with to advance in the tournament?"

The crowd exploded in laughter, even the teachers joined in, all of them being present except for Binns and Snape. Harry and Hermione just laughed and got ready for the next match. This duel wasn't quite as exciting, as Neville had disarmed and stunned Padma within thirty seconds. She left the dueling ground shrugging, and took Ron's hand and they walked off together.

"Next week," Harry bellowed for all to hear. "Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger will battle for the championship!" The crowd boomed and slowly filed out, leaving only Harry and a very nervous looking Theodore Nott.

"Umm, Harry," Nott started. "I'm sorry Harry, I-I didn't know my father was a death eater. I thought you were making it up. My mum told me he had gone on a long business trip and that's why he hadn’t been home in a while, but I overheard Malfoy talking about it a few days ago and got an owl today saying my dad was back, so then I knew."

With this Nott nodded and left the room, leaving a very surprised yet apprehensive Harry behind. He wasn't sure whether or not Theodore was being truthful.

The next week the Great Hall was filled once again with nearly the whole school, Seamus was allowed to introduce the duelers.

"And here she comes now ladies and gentlemen, Harry Potter's girlfriend," McGonogall gave him an evil stare. "Hermione Granger!" Hermione beamed at the applause she received and gave Harry a thumbs up, which he returned.

"And now our favorite Gryffindor beater, Neville Longbottom!" Neville came onto the floor, beaming at all the applause.

The battle was easily the best of the tournament. Both Neville and Hermione were excellent at the shield charm, so neither could get a spell to work. After what seemed like hours, Hermione wowed the crowed when she yelled, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" And a silvery white otter flew out of her wand. Harry grinned, realizing what she was going to do.

Neville was so dumbfounded at the sight of the otter that he let his guard down, and Hermione got him square in the chest with a simple stunner spell.

"And our winner is the brilliant HERMIONE GRANGER!" Seamus boomed over the speaker, the crowd cheered loudly.

"And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for," Seamus boomed again, the crowd fell to a hush. Harry grinned, no one outside of the professors and the DA knew that the winner would be battling Harry.

"Hermione gets her prize! She will now duel none other than her own boyfriend Harry Potter!"

A/N:

Hmm, an idea struck me while writing this for writing a fic entirely about a Hogwarts dueling tournament, staring with the knock-out round and going through the round of sixteen, quarter finals, semi’s, and finally the final and consolation match.

Would anybody be interested in reading a fic like that? If I did it it wouldn’t start for a long while, but I think it could be interesting.

Let me know what you think.

Sora

A/N:

Ugh…I don’t know what possessed me when I wrote this to use some variation of the word *grin* about once each paragraph. It’s actually kind of funny, because that’s one of the things I’m great at doing now, avoiding the reuse of the same word twice. Anyways, here’s the next chapter!

R/R

Chapter 20

The crowd ood and awed in anticipation.. They had heard stories about Harry, but only a select few had actually seen him battle. Harry grinned and walked out to the dueling area, pulling out his wand. Hermione grinned at him and he wished her luck-she knew that she would need it.

The second that the battle started Harry was on the move. He immediately silenced Hermione, put her in a leg locker curse, and disarmed her in what seemed like one smooth motion.

The crowd stared at him in awe.

Harry grinned and turned to Dumbledore. They had been working on more than just occlumency lately.

Harry muttered the counter curses and Hermione grinned curiously at him, she knew he was good, but had no idea how much he had actually improved over the year.

Hermione tried an impediment jinx but Harry was to quick and her spell only bounced off of his shield charm. This time Harry put her in a full body bind, people looked on in awe as the spell had gone right through Hermione's shield, and then lifted her up in the air with wingardium leviosa and let her float harmlessly back to the ground.

Once again Harry murmured the counter curse and grinned at Hermione. She tried a stunning spell next, but Harry twisted and let the spell hit his non-wand arm, making it numb, and then knocked Hermione's wand away with a well placed expelliarmus.

A thought occurred to Harry just then.

Wouldn't it be funny to make Hermione dance around the entire hall, doing whatever Harry demanded?

Harry grinned and bellowed, "Imper-" but stopped himself just in time and keeled over in pain as his scar exploded.

Hermione, realizing instantly what had happened, ran to Harry and started to try and comfort him. Harry was only dimly aware of a concerned McGonogall ushering all of the confused students out of the hall, none realizing quite what happened.

But Harry knew. He'd let his guard down again, and Voldemort had nearly made him do something terrible to Hermione.

When he looked up again he saw that there were now only a few people left in the Great Hall. A scared Ron, crying Hermione, flabbergasted Mark, concerned Neville, and, to his surprise, a smiling Dumbledore.

"Very good Harry," Dumbledore said nodding. "He tried it again, but you fended him off. A lesser wizard would have crumbled under the pressure.”

"But still," Harry panted, giving an apologetic look at Hermione. "I still let my guard down. I got caught up in the excitement of dueling. If I hadn't caught it, I, I," he trailed off, dreading his next words. "I could have killed her."

Hermione gasped, but looked otherwise unsurprised.

"But you did not Harry," Dumbledore convincingly replied. "You resisted him, now for the second time in a year. I daresay I do not believe he will waste his time trying it again."

Harry didn't believe what he had said. Voldemort would never give up on possessing him would he?

"I know what you are thinking Harry, and I must tell you that you are wrong. Voldemort is smart enough to realize that he cannot use you any longer." His voice dropped, and he looked at all of them in turn. "But he will try to use your friends."

He let this sink in, all the surrounding students wore expressions of fear. "But alas, I do not believe that he will try to posses any of them, as they know that he can and will be able to stop him, just as you did Harry. No I daresay he will be trying to draw your closest friends out of the school now, stopping at no means. I will be writing to all of your families tonight, and they will leave to take refuge at Grimmauld Place where Voldemort cannot touch them."

With that he turned and left, the rest of them following suit. Hermione was grasping Harry's hand to support him, but he was dimly aware of it. All of his friends and their families were in danger because they were in league with Harry, but Harry could not abandon them now, he got them in the mess, and he would get them out.

The next morning the Great Hall was full of speculation on what had happened the previous night. No one came and asked questions, but there were many stares and whispers directed at Harry and Hermione.

"What's wrong Potter?" Came the voice of Draco Malfoy. "Your mudblood girlfriend beat you up last night?"

"Not half as bad as we beat you father last summer Malfoy." Harry retorted. Draco stalked off, his face beat red. He had been walking around the school like he owned the place ever since his father had escaped from Azkaban.

Harry saw Marcus Owen give him a slight grin from the Slytherin table, and Harry returned it. It was nice to know that not all the Slytherins were bad.

It was a very subdued DA meeting that night, no one quite sure what to say. Harry grinned at Marcus Owen when he came in, as Harry had invited him to join the DA after the tournament.

"Today we are going to learn the anti-apparation jinx." The DA members looked around questionably, not sure what help this would be.

"If you are ever in a duel with a death eater you can use this jinx to make sure they cannot apparate, and therefore not escape a losing battle." The DA looked around nervously again.

"This is not to be used lightly, as you obviously do not want to trap a death eater who is superior to you. Understand?" The DA nodded their heads and got to work.

Chapter 21

He was in the Department of Mysteries again, in the room with the veil. He could hear voices from the veil, Harry leaned closer and closer still, having a strange feeling that he had done this before. "Harry," came Sirius' voice from inside the veil. "You can ssstill sssave me Harry, I'm waiting here, we can be together again." Harry stepped back, he knew where this was going. "LIAR!" A high, cold, laugh came from the veil. "You will come, Harrry Pottter, one way or another you will come." Voldemort stepped out of the veil clutching Ron's dead body, laughing...

"NOOOO!" Harry screamed, sitting straight up in bed, drenched in sweat.

"Harry? Harry what happened?" came Ron's voice with a hint of fear.

"It's that dream, only this time it wasn't Hermione it was..."

Harry trailed off and looked straight into Ron's eyes.

"Me?" Ron asked weakly, although he already knew the answer.

Harry nodded. Ron jumped along with Neville, Dean, and Seamus as the boy's dorm door flew open.

"HARRY!" Hermione exclaimed, and she ran in and hugged him across the neck. Harry had to pry her arms off him, she was holding on so tight Harry thought she may strangle him to death.

"What was it Harry? Was it that dream again?" Harry nodded. "Only it was Ron this time, not you."

"But I don't understand Harry, I thought Voldemort couldn't get past your occlumency?" Harry shook his head. "I have been forgetting to do it lately, he just caught me off guard. It's alright Hermione, you can go back to bed. I know he's just trying to lure me out of here, but I'm not stupid. I'm not going anywhere."

Hermione shook her head defiantly.

"I'm not leaving you Harry." Harry could tell from the look in her eyes that there was no way she was going to leave that room. Harry sighed and pulled his covers up. "Okay, but let's just go to sleep now, alright?"

She nodded and crawled into his bed. Seamus for once, did not make a crack about Harry and Hermione, but instead nodded and went to sleep. The others followed suit, Harry could only assume that all the people listening intently at their door would go off to sleep as well. Harry wrapped one arm around Hermione and closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Everyone was talking about Harry's dream the next day, and no doubt nearly the entire school already knew that Hermione had come running into their room after his scream-and that she didn't leave.

"Have another nightmare Potter?" Malfoy sneered as he passed them by in the hallway. "Not nearly as bad as the one's your father had in Azkaban Malfoy."

Harry retorted. Malfoy, for once, did not turn away but leaned in close and whispered menacingly,

"You and your mudblood girlfriend will be dead by summer Potter." Harry watched him stalk off, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Harry couldn't say anything back as it was taking all his self control to not use a curse on Malfoy right now.

The Cruciatus Curse came to mind for one, but Harry knew that no matter how much he despised Malfoy, he would never use an unforgivable curse in battle again.

The day got worse as they went on, and Harry did terrible in transfiguration so that he was held back by McGonogall, who was fuming at him.

"I have no doubt that last night was very emotional for you Potter," she told him through gritted teeth. "But I never want to hear that Hermione Granger slept in your bed while at Hogwarts ever again. We have two dormitories for a reason. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded and left. He didn't care. He knew that he Hermione had done nothing more than sleep, but did the rest of the school honestly think they had done more?

Apparently so. "Umm, Harry," Mark Evans said to Harry over lunch hour. "Is it true that you and Hermione uh, you-know-what last night?"

"No Mark," Harry replied. "She slept in my bed, that was all. Got it?" Harry said this a little more harsh than he had intended to, and Mark ran back to the other first years nearly in tears.

"NO!" Seamus boomed, so that the whole hall turned to look at him.

"I mean no," he said, lowering his voice.

"Nothing happened, alright?" Harry beamed at him, Seamus was standing up for them now too.

When the Easter holiday's came so did Hermione's annual start to studying for their exams. "They're only 2 months away Ron," Hermione said, nose buried in a book. "Oh stop laughing!"

Harry and Ron looked at each other and did their best to not to burst out laughing. Hermione got so worked up the last few months of every year.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione," came Professor McGonogall's voice.

"Yes?" they all said in unison.

"Dumbledore would like to see you, now." Harry instinctively grabbed Ron and Hermione's hands and prepared to apparate. McGonogall gasped loudly. "Goodness no Potter," she glanced around the room. "There are people everywhere."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"They all know professor." McGonogall stared at him in shock, and then again in realization.

"Very well, he is waiting, do be quick." Harry apparated immediately, and the three of them landed gracefully in Dumbledore's office.

"Take this," Dumbledore handed them a pillow. "It's a portkey. It will take you straight to Grimmauld Place where Ron and Hermione can start their apparation training. Mr. Evans is already there."

"But.." Hermione started.

"Yes, I am well aware that I told you all that you would not be leaving Hogwarts until the end of the term. But as Voldemort seems to be gaining more power, we believe that it is necessary for the two of you to be as well prepared as possible for the coming war."

All of a sudden Harry felt himself being tugged forward, and when he opened his eyes he was standing in Grimmauld Place.

"Well that was kind of a surprise, don't you think?" Harry said turning to Hermione. She just smiled sweetly and stood on tiptoe to kiss him on the mouth. This turned out to not be such a great idea as Hermione's parents were standing in the room, next to Mark and his folks. Harry had completely forgotten that Mark and Hermione's parents had come to live at Grimmauld place.

"Er, hi mum, hey dad," Hermione said, blushing magneta. They sort of stared at her for a moment and then rushed forward and each gave her a huge hug. Then they turned to Harry.

"It's good to see you again Harry." Mr. Granger said, holding out his hand. Harry grinned as he took it.

"Nice to you again to Mr. and Mrs. Granger." They both smiled at Harry and Hermione's face lightened considerably.

"Okay then," Lupin said, coming into the room. "Let's get started then shall we?"

After five solid days, Hermione had finally mastered apparating, and then Ron and Mark followed suit a day later. "You have all been registered and approved by the ministry now." Lupin told them on the last day of Easter holiday's. "You will return to Hogwarts tomorrow with another portkey, understood?"

They all nodded and headed for bed. Because there were four of them and only two beds to a room, Harry and Hermione had talked the adults into allowing them to sleep in the same room, and they had gone all of easter holiday's without incident.

"Hey Harry," Hermione said sweetly their last night at Grimmauld.

"Yeah?" Harry asked, somewhat annoyed, he had almost been asleep.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Harry shrugged.

"Sure." So the two of them snuck downstairs and out the door, and walked down Grimmauld Street in silence together.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Five death eaters apparated in front of them. "Don't apparate Harry!" Hermione squealed as he took her hand. "They'll track you!"

Harry nodded and pulled out his wand, Hermione followed suit. Lucius Malfoy laughed.

"You're really going to fight us Potter?"

The rest of the Death Eaters, whom Harry recognized as Macnair, whom still had a very swollen eye, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughed as well.

"Oh I doubt it would be much of a fight." Harry told them threatenly. "I'll give you five seconds before we attack."

The death eaters laughed even louder. Taking this as an invitation to fight, Harry made a quick apparation behind Crabbe and Goyle, and Hermione had already used the bat-bogey hex on Malfoy, putting him out of the fight. Harry stunned Crabbe and Goyle immediately, and Hermione had screamed "Expelliarmus! And caught Nott's wand and snapped it clean in half. A quick impediment jinx took down a stunned Macnair, and then Harry wrapped them all up with an anti-apparation charm-the same one Dumbledore had used on these death eaters last year-and then Hermione stunned each of them in turn, and snapped all of their wands and evaporated them with a wave of her own. They stared at each other and then back at the death eaters. The whole battle had lasted maybe twenty seconds.

Harry and Hermione brought the unconscious death eaters back to #12 Grimmauld Place with a locomotor charm, and then beamed at the amazed faces that greeted them.

"I'll take them." Moody grumbled, and he was off with the death eaters, presumably to take them to the newest wizard prison at Alcatraz in the United States.

"Where are their wands?" Ron blurted, curious about the battle.

Hermione beamed at him.

"We snapped them all, then vanished them." Lupin immediately asked them to relive the battle, which they did proudly.

Lupin however, was not happy. "You two are lucky you weren't seriously injured." His voice rose to a level that Harry had never heard him use before. "I NEVER, NEVER want to hear about you to walking off on your own again got it! Death eaters may be a joke to you Harry, but what if Voldemort had shown up? And you could have gotten Hermione KILLED! Harry, upstairs, in my room, Hermione, you in your parents. I will be reporting this to Dumbledore immediately!"

With that they trudged to their rooms, kissing each other goodnight as they parted. Harry was grinning. No death eater would dare mess with him now. He couldn't wait to see the look on Malfoy's face when he learned that Harry-no Hermione actually, had put his father in alcatraz.

A/N:

Oh boy, there’s a few more Pulitzer-Prize material sentences in that chapter *rolls eyes* Hope you liked it anyways, R/R!

Chapter 22

After Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Mark returned back to Hogwarts the next day, Harry and Hermione were woken early by Seamus and Parvati, and told to come down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast.

Harry was stunned when he got there. The hall erupted in cheers, it seemed that most all of the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor houses were there waiting for them, and a few Slytherins as well, including Nott and Owen. Harry stared around in disbelief and looked at Hermione, whom was doing the same.

The huge banners that usually displayed the previous years house cup champion had been taken down, and instead there was a huge banner that stretched across the entire back of the room. Harry and Hermione's smiling faces were on it, and a headline above it read,

"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger Single Handedly Capture 5 Escaped Death Eaters"

Under the photo was the full story, telling them all about their heroic capture of Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Macnair, and Nott. They had a muggle eyewitness, whose memory had since been cleared, that said he had seen the two defeat all five death eaters in less than 20 seconds, without receiving a single scratch in the "battle."

Seamus beamed at them from the Gryffindor table, it had been his idea no doubt, and Harry and Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table and recounted the entire story for everyone.

The teachers came in a while later, and from the looks on their faces, had had no idea that the banner had been put up. Poor Seamus got a week of detention and lost 50 points for putting the banner up (with a permanent sticking charm, so the teachers could not get it down) but all was well when Harry and Hermione were each given 250 points for their capture of the death eaters.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were infuriated at sight of the banner, and came straight up to Harry and Hermione, and the entire hall fell silent, even the teachers did not interfere.

"You think you're all brilliant Potter?" he said sneering, Crabbe and Goyle cracking their knuckles behind him. "Just because you landed my father in prison agai-"

"Actually I didn't put your father in prison Malfoy," Harry interrupted. "It was Hermione who put him out of the fight for your information. That's right, muggle-born Hermione Granger was to strong for your father Malfoy."

He smiled at Malfoy's outraged expression. "I got your father's next," Harry said, motioning at Crabbe and Goyle.

"Then Hermione got Nott with a disarming spell, and lastly I nailed good old Macnair with an impediment curse, then we wrapped them all up in an anti-apparating bind, and we carried them off and a friend took them to Alcatraz." Harry smiled at the still outraged but also fearful expression on Malfoy's face.

"It wasn't much of a battle really, I mean it took me longer to take the snatch the snitch in our last game, you know, that one where you didn't fall for my wronski feint." Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle all leapt at Harry but were knocked to the ground after twenty or so varying spells from the DA members hit them. Finally the Professor's came and broke it up, and Snape offered to take the three to the hospital wing, and did so immediately.

There were no punishments outside of Seamus', and the Professor's let them know that the only reason they allowed the talking match to go on was that they knew it would happen eventually, and they all wanted to be there if it got nasty.

With that all the Professor's left, and the day proceeded as normal. Well, at least as normal as a day can be when all the students burst out into applause every time he or Hermione walked into a classroom.

There was a party in the DA that night, everyone save Seamus was there. Harry and Hermione relived the whole "fight" again, and Ginny turned a deep shade of scarlet when Hermione told everyone that it was her bat-bogey hex that put Malfoy out of the fight.

The party exploded when none other than Cornelius Fudge walked in to the room and presented both Harry and Hermione with an Order of Merlin, Third Class honor. They were stunned, but Fudge just smiled and shook each of their hands in turn, then left them to their party.

"Wow, Order of Merlin! That's brilliant!" Yelled Ron, who was holding a beaming Padma Patil's hand. "You two must be the youngest wizard and witch to ever get one!" The rest of the room shouted in their agreement.

Harry grinned happily as he went to sleep that night. Voldemort and made the first gamble, and he had lost.

Chapter 23

Harry grinned as he walked into the great hall for breakfast the next day. The picture that Colin Creevey had taken of him and Hermione in Diagon alley was still up there, although it seemed that the news story underneath it had been wiped clean-probably what Seamus had done in detention the night before.

Slowly but surely, the Great Hall became very talkative as the Daily Prophet arrived, and everyone read that Harry and Hermione had received Order of Merlin, 3rd class honors from the minister of magic the night before. Once again Harry and Hermione were bombarded with congratulations all day long. While in Herbology-the only class that he and Hermione didn't share, Harry wrote to her in their friend diaries, and she replied that she was being bombarded in class as well. Harry laughed. He could almost see her rolling her eyes.

That weekend, Harry and his friends were allowed to visit Hogsmeade, as long as they promised to stick together. They all agreed and Harry and Hermione had their first ever true date, and they finally found time to sneak off by themselves, they snuck up to Sirius' old hideout in the cave, where they started a fire and snuggled up to each other, and had a long conversation about anything but the events of recent days.

Harry woke with a start the following day, and realized that he and Hermione has fallen asleep in the cave, and it was already 4 o'clock in the morning. He swore softly and then nudged Hermione to wake her up.

She was horrified when she learned what time it was, and they snuck back to the castle as quietly as possible, Harry wishing that he had his invisibility cloak. They finally made it back to the common room, thinking that they were safe, when they ran into a full common room filled of scared Gryffindor's and a furious McGonogall.

"Where have you two been!?" She screamed. Harry and Hermione blushed brilliantly. "We er.. well kinda fell asleep in Hogsmeade."

Seamus snorted with laughter, but was cut off abruptly by a cold stare from McGonogall.

"We had all thought you had been taken! Dumbledore was frightened sick! How could you two ever take off alone knowing full well that every death eater in the country is looking for you?!"

Harry stuttered, a little, only just now realizing how scared everyone must have been. "Well, we er, were uh, well we were pretty well hidden."

This was the wrong thing to say. Seamus burst out in laughter, as did Ron and the rest of the sixth years. McGonogall was so angry that she simply stormed out of the common room, to which the entire Gryffindor tower cheered.

"Yeah Harry and Hermione!" Seamus yelled over the cheers. "Running off in Hogsmeade and coming back to the tower 6 hours after curfew and not getting punished has got to be some kind of school record!"

The common room busted out laughing.

"Yeah, and if you want to finish what you started, You can use our room. Ron, Dean, Neville and I won't bother you!"

The room exploded again, everyone was nearly crying with laughter. Harry and Hermione smirked at Seamus and took off for bed, but they both went into Harry's room and laid down again-just laid down. They were nearly asleep when Seamus stuck his head in and asked if they were finished yet, and Hermione chucked a pillow at him in answer. They grinned at each other and quickly fell asleep.

A/N:

Sorry ‘bout the late chapter, but I had other stuff I had to do today.

Sora

Chapter 24

Harry and Hermione awoke to a smirking Seamus, Dean, Neville, and Ron, and they both smiled back and went downstairs heading for the Great Hall to eat.

Most unfortunately, McGonogall was in the common room and saw them emerge from Harry's room together. Seamus sat back in an armchair smiling in anticipation, he had even borrowed a muggle snack called popcorn and heated it with his wand, then opened the back and ate it, sharing with Dean and many other excited Gryffindor's.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?" She shrieked at them, not caring to notice all of the excited spectators. "THERE ARE TWO DORMITORIES FOR A REASON! I CANNOT BELIEVE THE PAIR OF YOU! 50 POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR! EACH!"

A few of the spectators smiles faltered at this, but it didn't seem to disappoint them to much. Seamus was beaming with glee.

"POTTER YOU ARE WORSE THAN YOUR FATHER, IN ALL MY YEARS I HAVE NEVER SEEN, UGGHH!"

She turned on Hermione.

"AND YOU! YOU ARE A PREFECT, AND THE TOP STUDENT IN THIS SCHOOL! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE FOR THE YOUNGER STUDENTS! BUT NO, YOU AND YOUR BOYFRIEND HAVE TO GO FOOLING AROUND!"

Seamus choked on a popcorn seed and started gagging violently. It was actually a rather interesting sound, as he was gagging and laughing loudly at the same time, until Dean finally smacked him on the back and he coughed up the seed, it flew and hit McGonogall in the face.

She turned on Seamus furious, but he spoke up.

"Don't stop Professor! You were doing so well!" McGonogall huffed loudly and stormed out of the room furiously. The tower erupted in laughter again.

The story grew quickly-even by Hogwarts standards. Hermione and Harry seemed to have etched themselves a place in the Hogwarts Hall of Fame right next to Fred and George.

Lessons were a big joke again, all the students erupted in laughter every time Harry and Hermione walked into a room together. They got mixed reactions from their teachers. McGonogall, of course, was furious, as was Lupin, but Flitwick and Sprout seemed to think it was romantic, and Hagrid beamed proudly at them.

Snape glared at the pair and took 20 points from Gryffindor when Harry's back split open, splattering its contents all over the corridor. Harry had a pretty good idea of just how his bag had split, but said nothing.

Later that night, a very serious Seamus and Parvati (they were seeing each other now too) beckoned Harry and Hermione over to them, they were holding some kind of book.

"Okay," Seamus said. "You two need to see this." They glanced at each other, wondering what could be so important. Seamus opened the book and Harry groaned. Seamus though, kept a straight face.

"Now Harry this is called a Dragon Skin Tux, and Hermione, this is a beautiful full body wedding dress..." The room exploded yet again, and Harry and Hermione laughed rolling their eyes, and headed up to go to sleep, in their own beds this time.

Harry had trouble falling asleep though, as he couldn't help but imagine how beautiful Hermione would have been in that dress.

A/N: Sorry, another short chapter, I dunno what to tell ya other than the entire fic is already written, so I can’t really change it. It’ll go through Chapter 36 before switching over to the sequel.

On another note, a lot of you are probably wondering when I’ll update Harry Potter and the Arithmetic Theory -- well, I’ve got about six pages of the chapter written, but still quite a bit of it to write. It should end up being the longest chapter to date in AT though.

R/R!

Chapter 25

The news about Harry and Hermione died down over the next couple of days, and euphoria broke out the following Friday, when three more death eaters were captured.

Dean had finally convinced Ron to come and play football with him and Ginny (Ron had not been so protective after he and Padma had started seeing each other) one Saturday, and they all had a brilliant time. Harry, Hermione, Dean, Ginny, Ron, Padma, Parvati, Lavender, Neville, Mark, and Marcus enjoyed a great day of football, and Ron never complained about the sport again.

The classes had picked up again a ways into May, with the exams only a month away. Hermione had written out study schedules for the three of them, and Harry and Ron did not fight Hermione this time-mainly so that Harry would not get in trouble with her.

Harry was pushed harder than any other student, as he was in the most danger and everyone knew it.

Malfoy was uncharacteristically quite ever since his father's second capture in as many years.

The DA meetings were going very well, and nearly every student, including Mark and Marcus, had mastered pretty much every spell he could teach them, as he refused to teach them dark curses.

He took great delight in telling the whole DA that the dueling tournament that they had had was going to become an annual event, called the United Hogwarts Dueling Championship, and that the winner would be awarded 200 house points, with the runner-up earning a generous 75 points.

The final quidditch match of the season was going to be Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, and there was a lot of excitement as although Gryffindor had already clinched the cup, Ron had not let in a signal goal the entire year.

No one had ever gone a full season without allowing a goal, so naturally everyone wanted Ron to do it so that they could say they were there when it happened. Padma was always with Ron now, trying to give him as much support as she could.

On the day of the match, Harry flew out onto a field surrounded by the entire school body, and promised himself that he would get another quick snitch catch so that Ron could get his name cemented in the Hogwarts History Books.

"It's beautiful day for a game of quidditch!" boomed Seamus' voice under the very watchful eye of Professor McGonogall. "Ron Weasley is trying to become the first ever keeper to have a clean sheet for an entire season! So watch close, this may be a game you tell your children about. I know Harry and Hermione would love to be able to-"

Seamus had to jump away from McGonogall to keep the speaker.

"And they're off!" Madam Hooch had let the balls out, and Harry was staring intently for the snitch.

Gryffindor was up 40-0 when Harry decided to do a Wronski Feint. It worked beautifully until Derrick Marsh, the 5th year Hufflepuff seeker, realize what Harry was doing and pulled up in the nick of time. Most unfortunately for Marsh, Harry caught sight of the snitch just as he pulled out of the dive, and sped after it.. Harry heard Marsh curse loudly behind him, but Harry paid no attention as he closed his fingers around the struggling snitch, and ended the perfect season.

Harry met Ron in mid-air, grabbed his hand, and threw it up in the air proudly as the stands erupted in cheers. "Well there you have it!" Seamus exclaimed. "Ron Weasley finishes out his perfect season, that'll be a great one for the kids Padma-"

McGonogall ripped the mike away from Seamus, Parvati giggling at his side. But no one cared about that, or that Harry had caught the snitch yet again in less than ten minutes.

Tonight was Ron's turn for the glory, and Harry was more than happy to see him get it.

Chapter 26

The party that night went on for ages. It included all the Gryffindor and many of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Quite a few Slytherins had shown up as well. Nott was there, and Harry had truly changed his opinion of him, as he could see that the boy was a good person who had hung with the wrong crowd for to long.

There were many Hogwarts alumni at the party as well, most notably Fred and George, whom called for quiet once they arrived and announced to the room that Ron really was their brother despite what they had been telling them for years.

Everybody laughed, but not quite as loud as when Ron's skin turned beat red, for the twins had slipped him an emotion pill, which turned him the color of whatever emotion he was feeling.

The crowd laughed harder still when Padma Patil came up to Ron, and he turned a brilliant shade of pink.

Seamus wasted no time telling the twins all about all the trouble that Harry and Hermione had gotten themselves into that year. Fred and George beamed at them and congratulated them on being the new troublemakers, and Seamus for being the new funny guy on campus.

Oliver Wood came by later as well, and told Ron he couldn't wait to play him in a true professional match, then laughed with everyone when Ron's skin turned a dark shade of magenta again.

An official plaque for Ron went up in the trophy room a few days later for his accomplishment. They placed it right next to Harry's :42 second snitch catch award, and in-between Harry and Hermione's Order of Merlin's.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione beamed at them for a while, but then Hermione pointed out that their exams were only two weeks away now, so they all went back to the common room to study.

For the next to weeks they studied like house elves, and Hermione said nothing when Ron made that comment. Apparently she had spoken to some house elves over the summer holidays and had finally given up on S.P.E.W.

Harry and Ron were excited that they would do well on their exams, as their studying had gone very well. DADA was a given, but they felt that they were making great strides in all other classes as well.

Transfiguration was their first exam. Harry grinned and turned to see a grinning Ron and Hermione as well after reading question one.

Name an animagus and their form after transfiguration, and explain in full the details of the transformation, and the effect it has on the mind of the transformer.

Harry smiled and wrote nearly an entire page of parchment on a great black dog animagus he had once knew...

Charms had gone very good for them as well, and Harry and Ron bid Hermione good-bye and good luck as they headed for Herbology and Hermione to Arithmancy. Harry wrote to Hermione after he was done with his test, and found it as no surprise that she had long since finished her own.

The both expressed their positive outtakes on how they had done on their tests, then met up and talked about them for dinner. That supper Dumbledore announced that there would be an end of the year ball, and all students third year and above were welcome to attend. Harry grinned and immediately turned to Hermione.

"So would you like to come to the ball with me Hermione?"

Hermione scrunched her face up in mock concentration. "Well, I'll have to see what Viktor thinks first..."

They both laughed at this and went up to the common room, where Ron informed them that he had already asked Padma and that Dean and Ginny and Seamus and Parvati were going as well. He also told them that Neville and Lavender had decided to go as friends.

Harry grinned guiltily at this. Neville and Lavender were the only Gryffindor sixth years that had not hooked up with someone yet.

The next day they only had their last two exams, Care of Magical Creatures and DADA, both of which went extremely well. Harry had actually laughed out loud at the easiness of the DADA final, and grinned when he turned it in to Lupin twenty-five minutes before anyone else.

"You don't have to grade it," Harry said louder than he intended. "It's a perfect score." The room burst out laughing and Lupin smiled at him as he went back to his seat.

Five days later they got their exams back, and sure enough Harry had gotten a perfect score on DADA, which he loved to brag to Hermione about, until she pointed out that she had beaten him steadily on all of the other tests.

The class results were pretty much as expected, Harry obviously had the top DADA score, Neville had achieved the top marks in Herbology, and Hermione had been the best at everything else.

Harry grinned despite himself before going to bed that night. He knew that he would be going back to the Dursley's in two days, but he couldn't wait for the ball that was coming the following night.

A/N: I’m really sorry about the long wait for this chapter, but my work schedule has been insane, and I just haven’t had that time.

R/R!

***

Chapter 27

The end of the year feast was earlier than usual this year, as they had the ball afterwards. The Gryffindor's all cheered loudly as they won the House Cup for the sixth year running, Harry and Hermione's points for capturing the death eaters easily put them ahead of the rest.

After the feast, everyone left for the common rooms, the third years and up got dressed for the ball and then headed back an hour later.

As somewhat of a joke, Harry and Hermione had bought the clothes that Seamus and Parvati had shown them. Harry knew he had been right the moment he set his eyes on Hermione. She did look incredible.

"Hi, Harry you look good." Hermione told him as he walked down the stairs to meet her.

"Wow. You to Hermione. You look great."

She smiled sweetly at him and he took her hand, they were the last ones to arrive at the ball. Everything stopped when they entered. Harry assumed everyone was just taking notice of how incredible Hermione looked.

They smiled at everyone and moved to the dance floor, where they danced for hours. After a while, while sitting at a table with all the other Gryffindor sixth years and their dates, Cho Chang came over and nervously asked Harry,

"Erm, Harry, is it true? You know, what they're saying, that you and Hermione are wearing wedding clothes because you..ah..you know, um, asked her to marry you?"

Seamus and Parvati erupted in laughter, as did the rest of the table. Harry gave him a quick grin and turned back to Cho, having a great idea who had started the rumor.

"No Cho, that's just something stupid rumor some morons in our house started."

The table erupted again, Cho joining the laughter, Seamus and Parvati were blushing brightly, but laughing with the rest. After Cho had left, Seamus turned and looked at Harry.

"Sorry Harry," he said smiling. "I just couldn't resist." Harry and Hermione smiled at him and went back to the dance floor.

Everyone was very sad when the dance ended, and Harry and Hermione parted sadly at the dorm stairs. They knew that the next day may very well be the last time they saw each other in many weeks.

The train ride back on Hogwarts Express was very sad indeed, but they did all have fun playing and talking, and all of them cheered when Ron was handed his first ever defeat in chess by Padma. Ron insisted later that he let her win, but Harry knew better. The only downer on the trip was when Draco Malfoy came in.

"I won't be seeing you then Potter, mudblood." He said sneering at them. "You'll both be dead by next school year."

They rolled their eyes and Harry replied, "Nice try Malfoy, but didn't you already promise us that we wouldn't live to the summer?" Malfoy blushed brightly and stormed off, then Harry and Hermione turned back to their friends.

Finally they arrived at King's Cross and exited platform 9 3/4. Harry prepared to depart with Hermione but was surprised to see that the Dursley's were not there.

Harry quickly recovered and after bidding Ron and the rest good-bye, he asked Hermione's parents for a lift, happy that he could have at least another hour before they had to part.

They were talking so excitedly that they didn't realize that they had ended up in front of the house, and Harry got out quickly to see why there were so many people surrounding it. He gasped. Hermione screamed.

The dark mark was floating over #4 Pivet Drive.

Chapter 28

"NOOOO!!!" Harry screamed, bolting to the house, throwing open the door and storming into the family room. All three Dursley's were laying on the floor, apparently unharmed.

But unmistakably dead.

Harry couldn't believe it. He had hated them all those years, and now, finally, everything was going to be fine. But now they were dead. Dead because of him.

"Harry?" Hermione said weakly by the door. "Are they..."

"Yes, they are." Harry replied, Hermione broke into sobs. It was just then that Harry noticed a picture that Petunia was clutching in her hand. It was the photo of him and Hermione, and it had been signed.

Your mudblood girlfriend's parents will be next Potter.
-Bellatrix

"No!" Harry screamed, and bolted out into the yard just as ten or eleven death eaters apparated into the yard.

It started immediately.

"RICTIFY!" Harry screamed the ultimate stunning curse and three death eaters were instantly out of the fight. Harry apparated quickly behind two more death eaters and stunned them as well.

"STUPEFY!" came Hermione's voice, stunning the nearest death eater.

There were only four left now, but the nearest to Hermione grinned maliciously and bellowed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

"EXPECTO PARTONUM!" Harry yelled, and his white stag patronus leapt in front of the spell and blocked it, then vanished.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry screamed, and the death eater's wand flew away.

"Stupefy! Harry, behind you!"

Harry apparated quickly and stunned the death eater he had come out behind. Harry caught the last two with an anti-apparation jinx as they tried to flee, and then wrapped them all up in a more powerful one and sat down, waiting for the auror's to appear.

Harry glanced at all the death eaters and was disappointed that he did not recognize any of them, no doubt they were not important to Voldemort.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed, throwing herself around him. "Oh you were brilliant Harry, but why, why did they come back? I mean your family was already--dead?"

Harry looked at her, tears streaming down her face, he then realized he was doing the same.

"They were after your parents," Harry sniffed, unable to look her in the eye. Hermione gasped in shock but understood.

Her parents were running towards them now, having been paralyzed in fear seeing their daughter nearly die in battle. "Hermione! Harry!" Her mother screamed, hugging them both. "Oh I'm so glad that you're all right!"

Mr. Granger turned to Harry with tears rolling down his cheeks. "Thank you Harry," he gasped. "I-we will never forget this."

Just then Mad-Eye, Kingsley, and Tonks apparated on the scene.

"Bloody hell Harry," Kingsley said grinning. "Leave some for us next time eh?"

Harry gave him an evil stare, and then Kingsley's face turned to horror.

"No," he gasped. "Don't tell me, your aunt, uncle, cousin..."

Harry nodded, tears still splashing down his front. "They're gone. It was Bellatrix. She was gone before we got here."

He motioned at the unconscious death eaters behind him.

"They were after Hermione's folks." Hermione's parents gasped, they hadn't realized that they were the targets. "I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Granger, but we have to go."

With that he drew Hermione in for a passionate kiss, and then they apparated to Grimmauld place, and met a stunned Weasley family in the kitchen.

"Harry! Hermione! What are you-wait, what's happened?!" Ron yelled, realizing that something was seriously wrong.

Harry looked at them all wiped tears from his face. "The Dursley's are dead."