FicWad

Chapter Twelve: Summer Winding Down:

When most were tucked safely away in their beds at night, one person still was awake at the hours of the night, with a piece of paper, slowly working in the spell work that he felt was crucial to his efforts against Lord Voldemort. Harry racked his brain and he felt he was close to achieving a break through on the loyalty oaths for his movement of resistance against Voldemort. In his mind, Harry felt he needed to encode several different levels of spell work within the contracts. Attempting betray Harry’s plans to the Ministry of Magic or Dumbledore may mandate a simple mind wipe of all knowledge regarding Harry’s resistance group before they had a chance to commit the betrayal and a small memory modification, erasing knowledge that potential traitors were ever part of the group, as the last thing Harry wanted was a member of his resistance to seek out the mind wiped traitor if they didn’t know that this person had betrayed them to the Ministry or Dumbledore.

Of course, Harry decided that attempted betrayal of the group to Lord Voldemort mandated something a bit more drastic, as the Ministry was one thing but Voldemort was a whole other problem. As much as Harry hated to do something drastic such as this, it was necessary to invoke some kind of magic into the contract that killed the person that attempted to betray his plans to Voldemort. Harry did not under any circumstances want a Peter Pettigrew on his hands, as a spy is what crippled the effectiveness of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry vowed to succeed where Dumbledore ultimately failed but in the back of his mind, Harry wondered exactly how much Dumbledore allowed Wormtail to know. It was very troubling how Dumbledore seemed to know nearly everything that went on, yet did not figure out who the spy was in his own organization.

Harry checked and rechecked his spell work, slow and carefully, countless times. He didn’t want anything to backfire and harm the wrong person. The type of delicate spell work Harry worked on had to be worked through extremely slowly. After all, the Boy-Who-Lived had to encounter for any unexpected and strange circumstances that came along with this unorthodox magical procedure. And Harry had lived through his strange of unexpected and strange circumstances in recent years.

“Up early, aren’t you Harry?” asked a voice that caused Harry to spin his head around slightly, but he relaxed when he saw that it was only Sirius.

“Oh good morning, Sirius,” said Harry. “I’ve been up for a few hours attempting to figure out a way to allow the two differing charms to understand the difference between betraying my resistance force to the Ministry or Dumbledore and the betrayal to Voldemort. In addition, with the memory modification aspect, I don’t want to accidentally fry anyone’s brain. That could lead to some suspicious people.”

“Sounds extremely technical Harry,” said Sirius. “It’s something that I wouldn’t undertake and I wonder if you are biting more than you can chew attempting to do complex spell work, even through you are among the top of your year in Arithmancy and Charms.”

“Yes, top in Arithmancy, second in Charms below Hermione, but that’s beside the point. I’m close to achieving a break through, maybe about three or four months of through testing, working through every possible circumstance,” said Harry. “I think it will take about six or eight months, to about a year before the Ministry decides to wise up and consider the possibility that their perfect little world might be shattered by Voldemort coming back to power. So, I have a bit more time before Voldemort and his Death Eaters attack “

Harry put his wand down for a minute to recollect his thoughts.

“Is there anything I can do to help you in creating your loyalty contracts, Harry?” asked Sirius.

“No thank you Sirius, I can handle it myself,” said Harry as he raised his wand in the air, looking rather tired in the process. He had one full good night sleep in the past month, which he berated himself for the lapse in concentration by staying asleep all night when he could work, losing several hours of time he could have used to manipulate his spell work.

“By any chance, could you tell me how much longer you will work on this Harry, without sleeping on a regular basis?” asked Sirius in a curious voice.

“You know, Mum asked me the same thing and I’m going to tell you the same thing I told her,” said Harry in a tense, irritable voice. “When I go to the Weasleys, I’ll try and get some sleep. I hate losing another week of working on my loyalty contracts but the Burrow isn’t quite the right environment for the delicate and intricate spell work I have to do. When I get back to Hogwarts, I can use the Room of Requirement to ensure an environment that I can work on this problem in peace, then sleep for a couple of hours, enough to have enough energy to drag my way through school for the day.”

Harry sighed before putting a stasis spell that no one could undo but him on his spell work on the paper so he could resume working on it at a later time.

“Enough about that, I suppose I should take a little break,” said Harry. “So Sirius, have you heard anything about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher?”

“No, not recently,” said Sirius. “Dumbledore seems to be having difficulties finding a new teacher after what happened to the last one.”

“Yeah, Fudge ordered the Dementor’s Kiss on Crouch Junior after holding him at Azkaban in a few days,” said Harry darkly. “From what I heard, it was on the suggestion of Lucius Malfoy himself and I bet that suggestion from Lucius was on the orders of Voldemort himself. I don’t think Voldemort liked the fact that Crouch got himself caught so he got Lucius to get in the Minister’s ear and convince him that Crouch Junior was a dangerous threat. And let’s face it; he was caught in the company of the Lestranges when he was brought to Azkaban so there really isn’t anyone arguing with him.”

“Point taken,” said Harry nodding his head. “Still, Dumbledore hasn’t even had anyone even express the slightest interest for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.”

“Well one person has,” said Lily as she entered the kitchen, wearing a cloak and looking rather tired. “I just came from Hogwarts, meeting with Dumbledore about the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.”

“Mum are you crazy?” yelled Harry in disbelief. “You met with Dumbledore, willingly, knowing what could have happened to you.”

“I met Dumbledore out in the open with other teachers watching,” said Lily calmly. “I don’t trust Dumbledore as far as I can throw him and Dumbledore isn’t going to try anything underhanded with witnesses. Anyway, I offered to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts class for this year, because while I don’t proclaim to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts expert, I know more than enough to competently teach the class.”

“Well you can’t be any worse than Gilderoy Lockhart,” said Harry shrugging his shoulders.

“I should absolutely hope not,” said Lily incredulously. “It doesn’t really matter how good I am, as it was a rather short meeting. I made my case to Dumbledore, reminding him that I achieved high grades in all my classes throughout all seven years of Hogwarts and the fact that I got nothing lower than an Exceeds Expectations in my N.E.W.Ts but Dumbledore told me that he didn’t feel I was quite for the job.”

“So let me get this straight,” said Sirius. “Dumbledore is having a hell of a time attempting to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, someone offers to apply for the job, someone that he knows for a fact would be a competent teacher in one of the most crucial subjects for the survival of everyone, especially when Voldemort gets tired of lying low and starts having his Death Eaters begin killing everyone, and Dumbledore turns down your offer to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

“Dumbledore’s level of thinking is completely different from normal people,” said Lily. “He’s not exactly the definition of sanity but I did expect that he might not want me around him to accidentally stumble upon something undesirable that he might have done.”

“Dumbledore might have to give Snape the job that he applied for the past fourteen years after all,” said Harry.

“Giving Snape a position that allows him to be around knowledge of dangerous spells, that’s a really good idea,” said Sirius sarcastically.

“Yes, Sirius, you hate Snape, we know, give it a rest” said Lily in a tired voice.

“I don’t hate Snape, I just really dislike him and thinks he comes across as extremely untrustworthy, with how deep he’s immersed in the Dark Arts,” said Sirius which caused Harry and Lily to both give Sirius incredulously. “Okay, I suppose I do hate it, but Snape deserved it every time James and I decided to prank him. He normally did something to set us off.”

“That’s in the past and I wish you would learn to let it go Sirius,” said Lily. “Not that I don’t think Snape should learn to let go of his petty grudges from his school days either.”

“I just don’t think he should be trusted around school children,” said Sirius who resisted the temptation to add, “and any civilized people for that matter.”

“I won’t argue with that, I don’t quite understand why Snape decided to become a teacher at Hogwarts,” said Lily. “Snape didn’t seem to care about children when he was one, so I doubt Snape’s opinion would have changed that drastically since his Hogwarts day.”

“Come to think of it, I agree,” said Harry. “He only just tolerates people who do well in his Potions class, because he grudgingly respects them for putting up the effort to do well enough in his class.”

At that moment, Hailey walked into the kitchen, yawning before straightening up.

“That nut of a house elf Kreacher was lurking around the outside of the room, Sirius,” said Hailey.

“No doubt spying on us, so he can give our secrets to the Malfoys if I slip up and set him free,” said Sirius.

“Well then it’s a good thing I put a silencing charm around the parameter of the room, so no one on the outside can hear anything from the inside,” said Harry.

“Excuse me for just one minute. I’m going to have a talk with that house elf, about not snooping around and attempt to listen in on other people’s conversation,” said Sirius as he got up to his feet before turning around and exiting the condition.

“That house elf is becoming a problem,” said Hailey, shaking her head.

“Yeah he is but Kreacher knows way too much now to be set free,” said Harry. “I’ve been making sure I don’t let him any more than he knows already.”

A sound wasn’t made in the kitchen for a few minutes before Hailey looked up.

“So what did I miss,” said Hailey.

“I applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job at Hogwarts so I could keep an eye on Dumbledore,” said Lily. “I didn’t get the job because Dumbledore decided I wasn’t right enough for the position. Of course, that means that in some moment of demented hysteria, Dumbledore managed to get the delusion that Gilderoy Lockhart was right for such a crucial class in the Hogwarts curriculum.”

“Why?” asked Hailey in a curious tone of voice.

“You mean why I applied to the job, even through Dumbledore….” started Lily.

“Decided to wipe your memory and leave you for dead in a New York Alley Way fourteen years ago,” suggested Hailey.

“Hailey, I have no proof that Dumbledore actually did that but there is a pretty good chance that he did,” said Lily. “If I ever find any proof that Dumbledore did wipe my memory clean all those years ago, whatever is left is him when I’m finished is going to Azkaban. To answer your question, I doubted very much that Dumbledore would find someone to fill the job after what happened to the last teacher. If Dumbledore doesn’t find someone to fill the position, then the Ministry will no doubt be happy to force someone on the students of Hogwarts to take the job.”

“Then the chances of us getting someone worse than Lockhart is rather promising,” said Harry darkly. “The Ministry won’t appoint anyone that teaches the students anything more complex then their feeble little minds can handle.”

“Well, I guess I can count out the only class I find interesting at Hogwarts actually being…well interesting,” said Hailey who decided to quickly change the subject before she got a lecture about not taking school seriously. “So, Harry, about what time are we going to the Burrow today?”

“We’ll wait a couple more hours, I’d say about late morning we’ll leave,” said Harry. “I figure we won’t be waking anyone up if we leave that late in the day. And I did tell Ginny to tell her mother to expect us around eleven o’ clock in the morning or noon.”

Later that morning, Hailey and Harry had just arrived at the Burrow, where they were talking with Ginny right in the sitting room.

“So Harry,” said Ginny calmly

“Yes, Ginny,” said Harry.

“What on earth possessed you to get me a Firebolt for my birthday?” asked Ginny. “I mean I said I wanted a broom of my own so I didn’t have to keep stealing my brother’s brooms from the broom shed out back but still, the most expensive bloody broom there is.”

“Five Hundred and Sixty Galleons, wasn’t it Harry?” muttered Hailey out of the corner of her mouth.

“Yes but stuff is a lot cheaper when you buy it in bulk,” said Harry. “As in a dozen Firebolts in one setting. I thought the store clerk’s eyes were going to pop out when I asked for a dozen Firebolts at once.”

“Wait a minute, you bought more than one Firebolt at a time,” said Ginny in a voice of pure disbelief. “What possible use could you want with more than one?”

“I wanted a Firebolt,” said Hailey with a smug look on her face.

“Okay, I can live with that but there still is ten more Firebolts that we have yet to account for,” said Ginny.

“Well those are depending on whether or not I think the Quidditch Captain should benefit from the greatest brooms on the market,” said Harry coolly. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Harry sat there for a moment; of course, he wasn’t going to elaborate with the other plans he had for stockpiling Firebolts, the one regarding his resistance effort against Voldemort. Of course, this was due to the fact that Harry didn’t know of this possible plan was doable.

“Ginny, did you by any chance get a Hogwarts letter yet?” asked Harry.

“No,” said Ginny frowning. “Come to think of it, don’t they normally send them out much sooner.”

“Well, Dumbledore still hasn’t found a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher,” said Harry. “No wait, scratch that, he hasn’t found one that he feels he can manipulate well enough that he’ll give the position to.”

“He still hasn’t found a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher,” said Ginny in an alarmed voice.

“Yes and I shudder to think what the Ministry might do if they know that Dumbledore can’t find a teacher for the Defense Against the Dark Arts,” said Harry. “The Ministry will assign us some pathetic excuse for a human being that makes Gilderoy Lockhart look like the master of competence.”

“Ministry, oh that reminds me,” said Ginny darkly before lowering her voice so only Harry and Hailey could here her. “Whatever you don’t, do not mention Percy around Mum. She starts breaking down and crying whenever he is mentioned. Actually, don’t mention him to Dad either, because he’s also not too happy with Percy right now.”

“What happened?” asked Hailey.

“Well, despite Mr. Crouch disappearing and Percy not checking in to whether or not it was actually his boss sending in hand written instructions. By all logic, he should have been demoted or maybe even sacked,” said Ginny.

“By all logic by the normal sane person, yes, but by all logic by the Ministry’s twisted form of thinking, then something else happened,” said Harry. “After all, this is the same Ministry of Magic who once stated that since I am a Slytherin, I must have been in cahoots with the minion of the guy who killed my parents just to win a meaningless tournament.”

“Well, Percy came home one day just shortly after I returned home from New York and he seemed rather happy for someone who was on the verge of facing an inquiry at work,” said Ginny. “It turns out that Percy was offered a job in the office of the Minister of Magic himself. A pretty damn good position for someone who was just a year out of Hogwarts in fact, as he would be working with Fudge himself on a daily basis. He came home, more or less saying that Mum and Dad should be happy that he finally gave the Weasley name some respect within the Ministry by getting this job.”

“I take it that didn’t go over too well,” said Hailey.

“That is the understatement of the century,” said Ginny. “The way Percy was speaking about this job, you would think that he thought he was better than the rest of us just by getting this job. He didn’t allow anyone to talk for a while and then he finally stopped and Dad told him that only reason he got the job is so Percy could spy on us because I was rather close to you, as well as the rest of my family by proxy and they wanted information on you, because let’s face it Harry, you are harder to discredit then Dumbledore is.”

“Oh boy, Percy really doesn’t like me, despite the fact I barely even spoke two sentences to him during the time we were at Hogwarts together,” said Harry, putting his head in his hand in frustration.

“Percy really got mad, it’s amazing how he much he could shout like Mum, come to think of it, but that’s beside the point” said Ginny. “He said that we should support the Ministry and not some person who is obviously immersed in the Dark Arts and is hanging around genetic rejects from that radical magical government in America. And the fact that he thinks you have corrupted me into becoming a Slytherin did come up in the conversation as well. He called me a disgrace to the name Weasley which I basically said was the pot calling the kettle black. He stormed out shortly after that, saying that you would be our downfall and that we all should be grateful that he is actually trying to bring a little respect to the name Weasley.”

Ginny sat back, breathing heavily, looking rather upset at retelling some of the things that Percy said. Harry put his arm around his girlfriend, to comfort her. Ginny thought she had better not tell Harry about the fact that in Percy’s little fit of rage, Percy told her that she might have been better off if she died in the Chamber of Secrets, as it would serve her right for trusting a dark artifact that she should have obviously turned into the Ministry because of its mysterious appearance.

“You know what the saddest part of this is,” said Hailey grimly. “That Percy actually believes all of this and would jump off a cliff if the Ministry of Magic told him that was the official stance they were taking.”

“Percy’s pushed it too far this time,” said Ginny in a slightly angry voice. “It’s one thing when he kept dropping snide hints about his disapproval of me being sorted in Slytherin and then about me dating Harry, but some of the things that he said about Mum and Dad and also you Harry, just makes me wonder if I can ever forgive him if he comes back and says that he was wrong in supporting the Ministry. Not that he cares, after all, I’m a Slytherin and he still is living with the mindset that all Slytherins are junior Death Eaters and are rotten to the core.”

Ginny took a deep breath, calming herself.

“But, I really don’t want to talk about him anymore,” said Ginny before lowering her voice to a near whisper so no one else could overhear them. “So, how are you coming along with the You-Know-What against You-Know-Who.”

Harry and Hailey spent quite some time filling Ginny in on some of the things that Harry was working on for his resistance movement against Voldemort. Naturally, there were a few aspects of his plan that Harry felt it would be better if he kept them under wraps until he fine tuned them well enough in his opinion.

The next week at the Burrow went by rather quickly, more quickly then the rest of summer. Harry believed the reason for this fact was that he took the week off from making plans for the inevitable conflict with Lord Voldemort, not that Harry didn’t have his thoughts about ideas that he could use against Tom and his Death Eaters over the past week but for the most part, Harry decided to wait until he came back to Hogwarts so he could work in either the Room of Requirement or the chamber underneath the Slytherin library in relative peace.

Harry had a very good last week. If there was one thing Harry could say about Mrs. Weasley, it was that she made sure that he didn’t starve. Harry felt he must have had eaten more in the past week then he had during the entire summer and for Harry that was saying quite a lot. Mr. Weasley also liked to ask Harry about various Muggle inventions, even through Mrs. Weasley normally berated her husband for pestering “that poor boy” with loads of questions. Harry didn’t mind too much but unfortunately, Harry had the tendency to explain certain things in a matter which lead to even more questions by Mr. Weasley.

Fred and George were their usual amusing selves but Harry had one of the only instances where he came close to talking about his resistance against Voldemort during his entire time at the Burrow. In addition to working on the various joke items for their joke shop, they also embarked on a special project for Harry that would be a great help for his plans for the resistance against Voldemort. If Fred and George could get this working well, then transporting several people at once would be made much simpler, without using the tedious task of making a Portkey or Harry having to let people know that he had a Portus-Amulet, as he was rather reluctant to let people know about this device as it was still his foolproof way around anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards. Harry believed that this project he had given to the twins was perhaps one of the most single most important tools that he could use when he stepped up his efforts against Voldemort. He had impressed upon the twins that they could take as much time as they needed, as it was extremely important that all of the kinks in the project were ironed out.

The day before they were supposed to go back to Hogwarts, Harry looked up at the window every five seconds. The Hogwarts letters still hadn’t arrived as of yet and Harry wondered if Dumbledore had failed at securing a teacher for the single most important subject that Hogwarts had to offer. Then again, Harry felt that the fact that he hadn’t found a teacher so soon after Voldemort had resurrected in the graveyard just slightly over two months ago

“Harry, I think they might actually be here,” said Mrs. Weasley bringing Harry out of his thoughts of Quibbler level conspiracy theories regarding Dumbledore, as she looked out of the window, seeing six Hogwarts owls coming up to the window. “Fred, George, Ginny, Hailey, Ron, the letters from Hogwarts are finally here.”

The four Weasley children and Hailey ambled into the kitchen, not even a moment later after Mrs. Weasley’s announcement that the letters had arrive. Harry took his letter first, with Fred, George, Ron, Hailey, and Ginny following shortly there after. Ripping open his letter, a silver badge slowly slid out, causing Harry to get a slight feeling of dread. He hoped to for Salazar’s sake that Snape did not make him a prefect. Even through he could along with most of the younger Slytherin students, Harry didn’t fancy himself playing baby sitter to a bunch of younger students or enforcing many of the rules that he had broken in the past. The last thing Harry wanted was the chance to come off across as a hypocrite.”

As he turned over the badge, he felt relief as it read “Slytherin Quidditch Captain”. That was a piece of good news in Harry’s mind, much better than a Prefect job and much more fun.

“Yes!” muttered Harry happily.

“What is it Harry?” asked Ginny, looking over at the Quidditch Captain badge that Harry received before looking extremely happy and hugging Harry and kissing him on the cheek. “Congratulations, Harry, if anyone deserves the job as the Slytherin Quidditch Captain it’s you.”

“Actually, he’s the only one who deserves the Captaincy of the Slytherin Quidditch Team,” said Hailey. “All the other trolls on that team can’t spell there own names, much less string together complicated plays past cheating from what Harry told me. “

“Well, George, it’s a sad day, isn’t it?” asked Fred in a voice of mock sorrow.

“I do agree my dear brother,” said George.

“The days of the chance of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team being successful are down the drain,” said Fred.

“Flushed straight down the toilet they are, my dear brother, as that shiny trophy will never be ours to hold and alas, the losses will be fair and square,” said George.

“Due our brilliant strategist,” continued Fred.

“With a Genius IQ,” said George.

“Your new Slytherin Quidditch captain Harry James Potter!” chorused the twins in unison. “Although, Gryffindor is still going to give you one fine battle, Harry, before going down in a blaze of glory.”

“I do not have a Genius IQ,” said Harry modestly before adding underneath his breath. “Although pretty close, come to think of it.”

“Let’s see if there is anything in the letter that gives us a little clue about who the teacher might be for Defense Against the Dark Arts might be,” muttered Hailey as she scanned down her book list. “Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard. At least that’s what the second years have.”

“Oh great, not that glorified sleeping pill. The firth years have that too,” said Harry in an agitated voice. “I’d rather read Gilderoy Lockhart’s greatest hits then be forced to read that book again. I read it once during my third year during a slow night and it was the only time a book put me to sleep. And trust me; I’ve managed to get through some rather boring books.”

“Fourth years have the Slinkhard book too,” said Ginny as she looked at her list. “Exactly how bad it is Harry.”

“Imagine your worst, most boring History of Magic lesson and duplicate it,” said Harry. “It’s like some of the higher ups in the Ministry sat behind the author and made him write the book in Ministry of Magic standards.”

Ginny looked over and saw Ron staring at his letter with an open mouthed look as he looked to be in complete shock for some reason.

“What’s wrong Ron?” asked Ginny.

“Prefect,” muttered Ron in disbelief, examining a prefect badge up and down, if he thought this was some strange twisted dream that he was living.

“Sorry, Ron, but you’re going to have to speak up, I didn’t you quite right,” said Ginny.

“I was chosen for prefect for Gryffindor,” said Ron with a look of complete shock on his face.

“Really, Ron, you got prefect,” said Mrs. Weasley in a happy tone of voice, hugging her youngest son who looked a tad bit embarrassed at the attention his mother was showing him. “That’s great, now everyone in the family has become a prefect.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are Fred and I, the next door neighbors?” asked George.

“No, I think we are just the kooky family members that no one really wants around but at the same time, no one can get enough of,” said Fred.

“Excuse me for a second,” muttered Harry as he was getting an incoming call on his two way mirror. Harry had a very good idea about who was calling but he didn’t like to be bothered when he was communicating on the two way mirror so he stepped from the kitchen into the living room before pulling his two-way mirror out of his pocket and seeing Hermione’s excited face in the other side of the mirror. “Hello, Hermione, congratulations on becoming Gryffindor prefect.”

“How did you know, Harry?” asked Hermione in astonishment.

“I’m Trelawney’s super secret prodigy, who can predict everyone’s future by blinking three times and then nodding my head twice,” said Harry in a slightly sarcastic voice before straightening up and smirking at Hermione’s bemused expression. “Seriously, through, Hermione, it’s rather obvious you would get the prefect position.”

“Well, yeah I guess it might have been sort of obvious but I wouldn’t have been disappointed whether or not I would get it. It’s not like I deserved it by some divine right, as there are other Gryffindor girls in my year you know,” said Hermione modestly.

“Two other girls, that if I remember correctly you called a pair of giggling idiots who didn’t take anything seriously,” said Harry.

“Well to be fair I am human and I am allowed to have an opinion,” said Hermione. “But I’m not calling you to brag about getting selected to become a prefect. I’m actually asking if you got to become prefect or not.”

“No, thankfully not,” said Harry. “I did get something better; you’re looking at your new Slytherin Quidditch Captain.”

“Congratulations Harry, I’m sure Snape picked you because he knew you’d be able to handle leading the team,” said Hermione. “I just wonder who would have gotten the other prefect spots through, as I was sure that you would have gotten to be a Slytherin prefect, even through you really didn’t want to and I perfectly understand your reasoning that you told me a couple of weeks ago about not wanting to come across as a hypocrite.”

“Well I do know who the other Gryffindor prefect is,” said Harry quietly.

“Really who?” asked Hermione in a curious voice, as Harry could see Hermione looking rather interested from the other end of the two way mirror on who it was going to be.

“Ron Weasley,” said Harry simply.

“Him,” said Hermione in a rather irritated voice, her mood growing rather sour at an extremely fast rate. “Of all the people, it just had to be Ronald Weasley being the other Gryffindor prefect.”

“Now, Hermione, you don’t know who good he’ll do,” said Harry in a fair voice. “He’s matured slightly recently.”

“Maybe,” said Hermione skeptically. “I suppose I should give him the benefit of the doubt but it’s just hard after some of the stupid things he’s said and done since we’ve both been at Hogwarts. Time will tell.”

“Hermione, remind me to never get you mad, as you can truly hold a grudge,” said Harry causing his best friend laughed on the other end of the mirror.

“I’ll have to keep that in mind Harry,” said Hermione smiling before becoming serious. “Listen Harry, I really need to get going, my parents are going to take me to Diagon Alley to get my things, so I’ll be seeing you tomorrow on the train.”

“Bye Hermione,” said Harry.

“Bye Harry,” said Hermione as her face disappeared from the mirror as Harry put it away. A second later, Ginny walked into the room coming up to Harry.

“Harry, Mum says she’s going to Diagon Alley to get our stuff and she wants me to ask you if you want her to pick up your school supplies for you, Harry,” said Ginny.

“That’s fine,” said Harry before pulling out a small bag of galleons from his pocket. “Tell her this should cover everything.”

“Okay, Harry,” said Ginny, taking the small bag of galleons from Harry as Harry began to think about the coming year at Hogwarts and hoping against all hope that it wasn’t eventful as the last one

Then again, Harry was honest enough to think that he might be hoping for too much with hoping for a quiet year.

Around this time, deep in Salazar Tower, Lord Voldemort leaned back in the chair behind the desk in his office. He was expecting a visit from one of the members of his Inner Circle to arrive in a couple of moments. Voldemort leaned forward, he detested waiting but the potential information this man could give him was worth the wait.

Just seconds later, Severus Snape stepped in the Dark Lord’s office, looking rather tired but he dropped to his knees, awaiting the Dark Lord to acknowledge him. Snape felt disgusted at the sight of the Dark Lord but Dumbledore had forced him to continue this sick little spying game.

“To your feet Severus,” hissed Voldemort, surveying the man that he honestly believed was his most trusted Death Eater. As Snape rose to his feet, Voldemort indicated to a chair, which Snape sat down in. “Report.”

“Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix is working on the information you allowed me to give them earlier, about you being after the Prophecy, my Lord,” said Snape. “That old fool is spreading all of his resources in guarding the Department of Mysteries in hopes that you will slip up and reveal yourself to the world.”

Voldemort felt something rather close to pride about the way that his faithful spy had managed to throw Dumbledore into the wrong track.

“Excellent, Severus,” hissed Voldemort. “The prophecy is of importance and let Dumbledore and his bird club to continue to think that as it distracts him from my true objective.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, my Lord, what exactly is your true objective?” asked Snape, hoping that the Dark Lord would spill a mere hint ,as Dumbledore made it clear that he wanted Snape to somehow find out what Voldemort was exactly up to beneath the smoke screen he created by leaking the Prophecy information to Dumbledore.

“Now, Severus, as I’ve told you, that is something that you don’t need to know right now,” hissed Voldemort in a cold voice. “Maybe you may fit into my plans of executing this operation yet and only then you will know.”

“Of course, my Lord,” said Snape, nodding his head respectively.

“You may take your leave, Severus,” hissed Voldemort.

Snape nodded curtly before rising to his feet and exiting Voldemort’s office. Voldemort watched him go as he thought about the scrolls that he was making plans to swipe from under Dumbledore’s nose, within Hogwarts itself. Every part of Voldemort’s plan had to go on without a hitch for Voldemort to get his hands on the scrolls and as a result, get his hands on untold of power. Voldemort had all the confidence that once his plans were executed, he would not only be able to take over center of the Magical World in Britain but other countries as well.

In the end, Lord Voldemort felt he would rule over the entire Magical World.