Authors Note: Hello, my name is Meaghan McCormack and the summer after the 4th book came out, I got really sick of waiting for the 5th book, so I decided to write my own. I am not reciving any money for this and all the character's names and most of their personalities are property of the brilliant mind that created them (J.K. Rowling) and the huge company that bought them from her (WB). I hope you enjoy. Email me reviews and please check out my website.

3.

Arabella screamed and leapt away from the explosion. She dropped and covered her neck with her arms as flaming debris rained down. For almost five full minutes she stayed, crouched on the ground. Finally, she stood slowly up and looked upon the rubble that littered the small clearing in the woods. Then, gazing at the settling dust, she was suddenly hit with the fact that the house she had just seen explode held in it her three best friends alive. She sank to her knees again, her eyes filling with tears. She could almost hear their voices now.

"I told you people hid charms in envelopes," Lupin’s voice seemed to echo.

"But you insisted that we open it," Black added hollowly.

"Fine, blame it all on me," Mundungus said dryly.

Arabella wondered if she were going crazy. The voices sounded so real, but the conversation they were having seemed like something so juvenile that they might have had the same argument when they had been students at Hogwarts.

"I could have sworn I heard somebody scream," Fletcher added.

"I thought so too but unless…" Lupin’s voice suddenly stopped and Arabella felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Arabella!" Black yelled at the top of his voice.

"What on earth are you doing? You weren’t crying were you?" Mundungus put in just as if he were taunting her in the Gryffindor common room as he had done so often all those years ago.

Arabella leapt up and hugged each of them in turn as hard as she could and said, "You’d cry too if you thought that all of your friends had just blown up in one go!"

"Us? Blow up? Well, I suppose however we go, we’ll certainly go out with a bang, but we thought we’d stick around for a while yet," Black said with a grin.

"You scared me to death!" Arabella frowned at him. "Anyway, how on earth did you manage to get out of the house?"

Remus then told Arabella the whole story about Mundungus’s owl and how it came back dead with an unmarked letter. "Mundungus decided then that we had to find out what was inside the letter, so we opened a window and left the house and used an opening charm to open it from outside."

"But Remus, your house! Where are we going to go now?" Arabella asked.

The three men then looked quite sheepish and looked quickly at each other. There was an awkward silence.

"Oh no," Arabella started. "There is no way my grandmother is going to let three wizards stay in her house for even a day, let alone the amount of time we’ll need to…" but Lupin cut her off.

"We don’t mean to intrude, but we have nowhere else to go. If we could meet somewhere else, we would."

"Well…" Arabella started.

"And your grandmother will love us," Black teased. "We can help her cook and clean the house and magic off all the neighbors she doesn’t like…"

"You’re not helping," Fletcher glared at him. Black just laughed. He was obviously very relieved that Arabella had finally arrived, as were they all.

"Can’t you…" Arabella tried again.

"No!" all three of her friends said at once.

"I suppose that…" Arabella said reluctantly.

"Thank you, Arabella," Lupin said. "I can conjure a few tents and we can stay here tonight, but in the morning we’ll have to be moving on."

"You know," said Black thoughtfully. "This whole thing with the letter might have had some benefit. Moony, do those letter charms ever have tracking devices? So that the sender can know when they go off?"

Lupin looked up from the tents he had begun to conjure with his wand and said in surprise, "Why, yes, they usually do."

"Then whoever sent that letter probably thinks we’re little more than a pile of dust right now and might leave us alone long enough for us to get something done."

"Yeah, only problem is, in a time like this, I doubt the sender of that letter is the only one looking for us," said Arabella. "Now, if you don’t mind," she continued, grabbing her bag and walking towards the finished tent, "I’ve had a very long day and I’m going to bed."

~~~~~~~~~

Harry had returned to number four directly after leaving Mrs. Figg’s house. He suddenly had a pounding headache and wanted to get to bed. When he got to the Dursley’s house, he found the car gone so he let himself in with the key under the mat and went up to his room. He opened the door and the first thing he was a large barn owl sitting on the post of his bed. It held in its beak a letter bearing the Hogwarts Crest. He rushed up to the owl and took the letter quickly. Tearing it open and pulling out the parchment, he read;

Mr. H. Potter,

Also enclosed in the envelope was a list with the schoolbooks he would need that year and a silver shiny badge with a large letter "P" on it. Harry grinned to himself. He remembered his first year of Hogwarts. Alone and quite terrified, one of the first things he saw when he stepped onto the magical platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station, was Ron’s big brother Percy who with his chest thrust forward and the very same badge. He hurried to write letters to Ron and Hermione. He explained to Ron that he would be unable to be on the Hogwarts Express on September 1^st and he asked Hermione if she had been chosen as a prefect as well. He sealed the two envelopes and handed them to Hedwig who soared, side by side with the Hogwarts barn owl, out of the window. Harry then flopped down on his bed, quite exhausted and fell immediately asleep.

Perhaps if Harry had known the dream he was going to have, he would have tried to keep himself awake. Shortly after he had fallen asleep, then he began to toss and turn. Then he began to dream.

Harry jolted awake, and his scar burned as if on fire. He was bathed in a cold sweat as if the fire had been real. He gasped for breath and for one terrible moment, believed that his head would be torn apart by the pain in his scar. Then, as if it had never happened, the pain was gone. Harry shuddered and stood up from the bed. He walked over to the window and pushed it open. The last time he had woken with his scar hurting, it had been because Voldemort had just killed someone. Could it have happened again? Harry stuck his head out the window to let the cold night air clear his head, and saw a horrible sight. Down the street, directly over number 12 Privet Drive, a green smoke lingered in the air. It made the shape of a skull with a snake protruding from the gaping hole that was the mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Narcissa was once again entertaining a host of Death Eaters at the manor, but this time, it was a much larger crowd. Dozens of Voldemort’s supporters who had evaded prison milled around wearing large hooded black robes and eating off plates of appetizers. Lucius and his cronies, ten men and two women, who made up Voldemort’s inner group were removed from the crowd in a secret room located under the drawing room floor. Narcissa wouldn’t have normally been allowed to join them, but as the house elf was gone, and the ghosts didn’t make good waiters as they had trouble carrying solid objects, Narcissa had offered to serve them for the night. She had also wanted to pick up as much information as possible.

"Thank you, Narcissa," Camilla Lestrange said placidly as Narcissa poured her a glass of wine. "My that is a lovely dress you’re wearing. It must have cost a fourtune!"

"I wouldn’t know. Lucius bought it for me," Narcissa replied coldly. Mrs. Lestrange and Narcissa had known each other at Hogwarts and had vehemently disliked each other. They had been quite glad to see the other one leave. Little did they know that they would be seeing a whole lot more of each other.

"Well of course, isn’t that sweet," said Camilla, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now Narcissa, dear, why aren’t you taking a more active role in out circle, like your husband and I?" Her voice held a hint of a challenge, almost as if questioning her loyalty.

"Well, Camilla, I suppose it suits some people, but I prefer to stay out of Azkaban when ever possible," Narcissa replied with a hint of a smile. It was clear she had touched a nerve. The Lestranges had spent most of the past fifteen years in the wizard prison, Azkaban. They had tried to plead innocence when they were first convicted but to no avail. Now, after Voldemort had risen again, enlisted the help of the Dementors, the prison guards, and freed the prisoners, and he rewarded the Lestranges greatly for not renouncing him, and braving Azkaban rather that lie about their loyalty, they pretended they had never put up a fight. The scars the stay in the cells flanked by Dementors, soulless monsters that made you relive your worst memories, had yet to fade from Camilla’s mind and she scowled at Narcissa and turned to join her husband’s conversation.

Narcissa stood around trying to look useful for the next fifteen minutes. She finally decided to see what Draco was doing and bring down dinner for the Death Eaters later in hopes that the conversation would pick up while she was gone. She walked to the fireplace, which held a hidden staircase that went up to the drawing room above. No one in the room looked surprised when Narcissa left and as soon as she was gone, Lucius said, "Alright, lets get started and make this quick."

One by one, all heads turned to Lucius. "There have been a number of owls to the ministry that we have intercepted. A great number of them said absolutely nothing at all, its no wonder, the ministry never gets anything done, with dozens of owls each day asking for world peace and more environmental acts. Anyway, there were a few important letters in the junk and it turns out Dumbledore has a lot more people on his side than we though. Now that shouldn’t be a problem, but that great oaf of a gamekeeper, Rubeus has managed to get most of the giants on their side."

A low moan echoed around the room. The Death Eaters had been expecting most of their strength and support from the giants in the north.

"There are, however, a surprisingly few number of aurors working against us and that number was greatly diminished this evening. I am quite pleased to inform you that Black, Lupin and Fletcher and dead."

"Here here!" came a shout from the other end of the table and the room burst into applause. Lucius bowed his head slightly and smiled to himself.

"But what about Figg?" Camilla asked.

"We are not sure of her whereabouts," Nott broke in. "You know that the reason we are celebrating tonight was the Dark Mark has been sent up after a muggle killing for the first time in fifteen years. The muggle that has been disposed of was the Auror’s grandmother. Figg was not in the house and therefore we can only assume that she was with the others."

"So she is dead too?" someone asked.

"We can presume so, but if not, it won’t take long to find her. She has no where to go."

At that point, Narcissa walked back down the stairs carrying trays of food and the talk returned to mindless chatter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry stood stock-still. He couldn’t have moved if he wanted to. It was as if his legs had been glued to the floor and his eyes to the ghastly scene out his window. Suddenly he saw something that made him feel ten times worse. Arabella, Sirius, Lupin and Fletcher aparated in front of the house with the glowing sign still above it. Arabella’s shrill scream echoed down Privet Drive and she shook her head and started walking backwards. She tripped over a hedge and fell to the ground but didn’t bother to get up. Sirius, who had taken in the scene much quicker than anyone else, was now racing up the street to number four. Harry’s feet suddenly became unstuck and he pulled on his bathrobe and grabbed his wand. He raced down the stairs ignoring the loud grunt that came from Mr. and Mrs. Dursley’s bedroom and yanked open the door just as Sirius came leaping up the steps.

"Harry," Sirius gasped. "Oh my god, Harry, are you alright?"

"I had another dream…" Harry started and then stopped. He wasn’t sure how to put his vision.

"You see it when he kills someone, don’t you, Harry?" Lupin said quietly, coming up behind them and making both Harry and Sirius jump.

"God, Moony, don’t DO that at a time like this!" Sirius said, shaking all over as he turned to face Lupin. His face was illuminated by a ghostly green light that the Dark Mark gave off, warping his features and making them look somehow quite evil.

Harry nodded dully and turned his gaze upon Arabella who was sitting on the ground, her head in her hands, and Fletcher, who was vainly trying to comfort her.

"We’d better go see what we can do," Lupin countinued. "There should be a whole lot of wizards turning up soon."

"Of course," Sirius shivered, glancing again at the horrid mark in the dark sky. You’re right Moony, lets go."

The three of them, Harry, Sirius and Lupin walked slowly back towards number 12. Everything was bathed in a green glow and Harry felt as if he were still dreaming, but he knew he could never have dreamt the look on Arabella’s face he saw when she looked up at them as they approached.

"My grandmother?" Arabella questioned, no one in particular, in shock.

Everyone stared blankly at her, unsure of what to say. The silence lengthened and Harry was acutely aware the whole scene; the glowing mark in the sky, Sirius’s great panting breaths, Arabella’s rigid convulsions, Fletcher, pacing back and forth, and Lupin, standing quite still, hardly seeming to breathe, looking down at Arabella. In the tense silence and hopelessness of the situation, no one wanted to venture any closer to the tainted house, but each of them were thinking the same thing… What if the person who made the mark was still inside the house?

Suddenly, there was a loud whooshing sound and a sound like a clap, and three figures stood beside them. Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts along with Minerva McGonagal and Severus Snape had aperated into the begonia flowers on number 12’s front lawn.

The three of them didn’t say anything, but Dumbledore’s eyes flashed around to each of them and rested for a moment on Harry. McGonagal also look towards Harry and then turn back towards the house. Professor Snape’s eyes stayed straight ahead without looking at any of the others. In one motion, the three of them took out their wands and stepped in to the house. An audible sigh of relief rose from Black, Lupin and Fletcher, and although Arabella stayed silent, she seemed to relax a bit and was able to stand up. Remus moved over to her and put his arm over her shoulder and Arabella leaned into him. All of their eyes were fixed upon the house. For hours it seemed, though it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, no one moved. Harry was slightly amazed what with Arabella’s scream and Sirius’s yelling, none of the Muggles had woken up. Finally, the mark began to blow away in the wind, as brisk breeze had suddenly sprung up over Privet drive and the last traces of the dark mark faded away. Dumbledore exited the house followed by the other two Hogwarts teachers.

"They’re gone?" Sirius said, walking towards him.

"Yes," spat Snape bitterly from behind Dubledore. "You didn’t expect them to hang around did you? In any case, you had better get out of it too, Black."

Sirius opened his mouth to retaliate, but Dumbledore raised his hand and he closed his mouth.

"Severus is correct. Mobs of Ministry workers and reporters for the Daily Prophet will be here any second. You are still wanted, and if you don’t leave immediately, the consequences could be fatal."

Sirius paused, then nodded and turned to Lupin. "Well then. I’ll go…" but he stopped again.

"You’ll go to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagal firmly. Harry assumed Dumbledore had explained all about Black over the summer, as she certainly hadn’t know he was innocent the last year. "You can get in as a dog and may stay in my office until I return. You know where it is. The password is Lion’s Roar."

"If you apperate into Hogsmeade, I’m sure you can manage to get into the castle," Dumbledore told him with a bit of the twinkle Harry knew so well in his eye.

"Yes sir. Thank you professor," Sirius said turning to Professor McGonagal.

"Perhaps I should accompany him in case there is any trouble?" Fletcher asked.

"Yes, that might be wise," said Dumbledore. Black walked over to Harry and hugged him tightly for a moment, whispering, "I’ll see you soon," and turned away. Fletcher then shook Harry’s hand and turned to join Black. Then they both disappeared.

"Severus, would you be kind enough to escort Arabella back to Hogwarts as well? I am quite sure that she will not want to be around when everyone shows up, seeing as her Grandmother was attacked."

Snape shot a look at Arabella who lifted her head from Lupin’s shoulder to look back. She gave him a small nod and Snape in turn looked back to Dubledore and nodded curtly.

"I’ll go with her," Lupin said protectively.

"As you wish," Dumbledore replied.

"I really don’t see what point I will be serving in this excursion. Perhaps I should remain with you," Snape said sourly.

"I am quite sure you will be able to provide more comfortable accommodations for Arabella and Remus than they could find on their own," said Dumbledore, slightly annoyed.

Snape then growled at Lupin under his breath as he walked over to them. Lupin also shook hands with Harry, but Arabella kissed him on the head and whispered, "Good luck." Snape tapped his foot impatiently as they Lupin and Arabella returned to his side. He then muttered something under his breath and waved his wand around the three of them in a circle. A glowing ring of white light surrounded them and they vanished with a pop.

"So Harry," Dumbledore said with a small smile. "Quite some excitement tonight."

"Professor Dumbledore, sir, I don’t want to sound, er… conceited or anything, but why didn’t they attack me?"

"Well, for one thing, I don’t believe Voldemort’s Death Eaters know exactly where you live. Secondly, when Hagrid brought you here the night your parents were killed," he gestured at number four. "I placed you under a charm that would keep you safe as long as you were in their protection. Even if they did come here, they would be unable to enter the house without suffering excruciating and possibly fatal pain. Any curse they cast upon the house or its inhabitants would have rebounded upon the one who cast it."

Harry stared. He found it amazing to think that so much time, effort and planning on the part of some of the most powerful wizards in the world had gone into keeping him safe as a one-year-old child.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light jolted him out of his thoughts.

"Smile, kid you’re gonna be front page news! This is a crime scene!" A excited looking photographer shouted at him. At his side was reporter who was staring intently at Harry.

"Hold it for a sec Jake! That boy! Its Harry Potter!" At these words, the poor photographer became even more flustered and dropped his camera on his toe. More reporters and harrassed looking Ministry members were arriving by the second and at the words Harry Potter, some of the reporters began to mumble among themselves. One of them spoke up loudly and voiced what they all had been thinking.

"Here now, wasn’t Harry Potter at the Quidditch World Cup when the Dark Mark was conjured? And it was conjured with his wand too! What a story- ‘Harry Potter present at the last two Dark Marks in 13 years’!" He spoke as though Harry weren’t even there. Harry looked around quickly for Dumbledore, but couldn’t see him in the rush of people. There were over fifty now, milling around Privet Drive and Harry could see some of the lights in the houses flickering on.

The reporters words caused an uproar. Some people were outraged, but quite a few of the Daily Prophet reporters looked rather interested in a story like that.

"Hold it," a female voice suddenly was heard over the crowd. Her voice sounded nasal and strangely familiar to Harry. "Lets find out the," she seemed to choke on her words a bit as she countinued, "The…whole story." And Rita Skeeter pushed her way through the crowd towards Harry.

Rita Skeeter had been a new reported and special corespondent to the Daliy Prophet the year before and had taken great pleasure in digging through Hogwarts for information and twisting it into a story that antagonized the subject. Her stories had hurt Harry, Hermione and even Hagrid, the gamekeeper, but at the end of the year, Hermione had found out that Rita was an unregistered and illegal animagus and had threatened to turn her in if she ever told horrible lies about anyone again.

"Lets just find out what really happened before we go jumping to conclusions," Rita continued. She looked just like Harry remembered with foul pointed glasses on a chain around her neck and bobbed black hair.

"Fabulous idea Ms. Skeeter," said Dumbledore finally able to reach Harry’s side through the mob. At the sight of him, everyone fell quite and some of the ministry workers began to whisper among themselves. "I am quite sure you would rather talk to me than young Harry, here," he went on. The muttering Ministry members turned away and some of the reporters and photographers seemed to back down as well. Harry then remembered how the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge had left the school angrily after hearing Harry’s story about Voldemort’s return to power. Harry hoped that the Minister hadn’t been spreading stories about Dubledore, who was one of the few people who could help in a time like this.

"I know what your Minister had been saying about me and while after seeing this, you may still choose to ignore it, but Lord Voldemort has risen again," the crowd gave a collective shudder at the name.

Professor McGonagal had been struggling to get to Harry and Dumbledore’s side, and finally, fed up, had started blasting a path through the mob with her wand. "The dark Mark has returned. It was here just minutes ago! If you refuse to believe Albus then it is only yourselves and your families that you are endangering!" She shouted, her Scottish accent becoming more pronounced in her rage. Everyone quailed under her furious words and the reporters began to pack up their quills and disparate and the photographers snapped a few more pictures of the house before leaving as well.

Finally, only a handful of ministry members were left.

"We’ve spoken with Arthur," one of them began, and Harry realized he must be talking about Mr. Weasley, Ron’s father, who had pledged his support to Dumbledore at the beginning. "We’re ready to do whatever we need to do."

"Thank you, Perkins. The culprit is gone, and so is the Dark Mark. I think the only thing we will need some support with is the Muggles right now," Dumbledore said quietly, staring around at the neighbors who had appeared, wide eyed, in front of their houses.

"Can do, sir," Perkins replied and the ministry members pulled out their wands to perform the necessary memory charms.

"Now, Harry," Dumbledore said, turning to him. "In a few hours, you will need to be at the Hogwarts express to go up to Hogwarts. We can take you there, if you wish."

"I don’t have any other way to get to King’s Cross, but sir, I don’t have any of my books or…" Professor McGonagal cut him off.

"Now, don’t worry about that. That can be taken care off."

"Great, then, I’ll just go back to bed?" Harry said, still slightly shell shocked from the night’s events.

"Perhaps that would be best. We will be by in the morning." Dumbledore said as he and professor McGonagal took out their wands to assist the ministry members.

As soon as Harry returned to number four and his room, he lay down on his bed, and within three breaths, had fallen fast asleep.

Only a few hours later, Harry’s alarm went off jolting him out of his dreamless sleep. For a moment he wondered why he had set his alarm for so early, but then remembered; he was leaving for Hogwarts! Harry stumbled sleepily down the stair with his trunk and set it by the door. Mr. Dursley was already awake and eating breakfast in front of the television when he heard Harry.

"Just where do you think you’re off to, Boy?" He growled at Harry.

"He will be leaving for school a week early. You nephew has been choosen as a school prefect. I hope this does not pose a problem?" Dumbledore was standing in the open doorway, dressed in floor length wizard robes and holding a wand in his hand. The look on his face was one of slight amusement as he watched Mr. Dusley’s mouth work up and down, but with no words coming out.

Uncle Vernon seemed to be on the verge of saying something extremely rude, but Albus Dumbledore seemed to command even the Muggle’s respect. Instead, Vernon gasped, "Well, get off with you then," to Harry and could only stare after them as Dumbledore lifted Harry’s trunk with magic and led him out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Now be good Draco," Narcissa said, a tad tearfully.

Draco Malfoy snorted derisively and saluted to his mother. "See you over Christmas," he called with a drawl in his voice.

"Come on, Draco, I do not have all day," Lucius called dismissive to his son, who swaggered over and stood next to his father who lifted up his wand.

"Have a good term dear!" Narcissa called, but she wasn’t sure Draco heard her as at the moment she spoke, a green light enveloped Draco and his father and they disappeared.

Lucius and Draco appeared on the secret platform 9¾, still shinning with green light.

"This is where I leave you, son," Lucius said coldly as Draco’s trunk appeared next to them and Lucius vanished again, leaving Draco to lug his heavy trunk to the train.

"Malfoy, Draco!" A familiar voice called, reading off a list of names.

"Yes, professor," Draco said insolently sidling up to Professor McGonagal.

"Malfoy, as this is not the first day of the school year, the students will not have the train to themselves. In order not to disturb the other passengers," she paused and looked over her spectacles at him for a moment at the word "disturb." She then countinued, "We will be assigning you compartments. Let me see, fifth year boys are in 28 and 29. 29 is full, so you will be in compartment 28, second car. Please get on board.

Midgen, Eloise!" Professor McGonagal sighed and hurried off after a sixth year Hufflepuff.

Draco sighed and resigned himself to lugging his bag to the car. He finally managed to stow it in the side luggage compartment and boarded the train. Counting the numbers, he passed 31, 30, 29 and then reached compartment 28. He pushed open the door, and saw only one person, sitting in the seat by the window. Draco swore out loud and Harry Potter turned to see him, and groaned.

****************************************************

Did you like it? Once again, please email me or go on to Chapter 4.