Harry Potter and the Ring of Slytherin: Year Six

Chapter 1: The Ring

Harry Potter always thought that there's a huge barrier that separates the muggle world from the magical world. They surely had a lot of differences which was quite obvious. The first one was plain and ordinary while the latter was fascinating and full of adventure. But Harry never realized until today that that barrier was actually larger than he thought.

Privet Drive was as unnaturally dull and normal as ever. The sun shone brightly on the cloudless sky. The men drove their cars out of their driveways and set off to work and the women scurried to their neighbors to find out the latest gossip. The weather was also quite perfect and even Vernon Dursley, Harry's beefy, neckless and grumpy uncle, couldn't find anything to grumble about.

While Harry was sitting under the warm sun on the freshly cut grass of the Dursley's back yard and Uncle Vernon was reading the morning paper, the other world, which was the magical world, was in total chaos. The news of the return of the Dark Lord, Voldemort, has reached all witches and wizards in England and even those in America and Asia. This shocking news brought back their memories of the Dark Lord's reign more than fifteen years ago. And those were really dark memories indeed!

The magical people witnessed how the Dark Lord and his loyal followers, the Death Eaters, murdered and tortured the people they held dear. Death Eaters were everywhere, destroying their homes, crops and belongings. Many parents lost their children and many children became orphans, including Harry.

The fear that history would repeat itself flooded the minds of the magical folks. Panic and paranoia could be seen everywhere...and the boy that saved the magical world from the Dark Lord fifteen years ago... was now lying under the sun, eating French toast.

It wasn't easy for Harry to stay with the Dursleys while Voldemort was out there planning his next attack. It's not because Harry's afraid of him. Harry was never frightened of Voldemort. Voldemort has already tried to kill him before. He actually attempted five times but Harry always managed to escape from his grasp. Harry hated staying there because his friends were out there and he's doing nothing to protect them. His stomach turned at the thought of his friends being harmed by Voldemort.

So many people have died because of him, including his parents and godfather and he wouldn't be able to bare it if he loses one more. At that moment the faces of Ron, Hermoine, Hagrid, the Weasleys, Dumbledore and his Hogwarts friends flashed in his mind. Then, to his surprise, he saw them all standing right in front of him, as if his thoughts suddenly materialized. There they were, Ron, Hermione and the others. They were standing just a few yards from Uncle Vernon's car. They were all staring at Harry, smiling.

A mixed feeling of joy and confusion came upon Harry as he cautiously approached them. "What are you all doing here?" he asked but none of them answered. They all just stared and smiled at him.

"What's going on? Answer me!" Harry bellowed desperately.

Harry came closer but he stopped half-way as he noticed the blank expression on their eyes. Even Dumbledore's bright blue eyes didn't have that spark it usually had. Harry backed away a few steps, and then he noticed that everything began to turn grey. He looked up and saw the sun being covered by gigantic grey clouds. Then he stumbled to the ground when he heard a very familiar voice.

"Let him go Harry!"

Harry looked up and saw Cedric Diggory looking as pale as he was, the night Voldemort killed him. With all the remaining strength left in his unnaturally rigid body, Harry spoke.

"Let who go?"

Cedric stared at Harry's hand. Harry looked down and saw his left hand holding the Triwizard cup and his right was clutching the arm of a dead man, his own godfather, Sirius Black.

Sirius' face was as white as paper, his whole body soaked with blood and his almost transparent eyes were wide open. Harry gasped as he instantly released his godfather's arm and the Triwizard cup. When he looked around him, Dumbledore and the others were gone. Instead, he's surrounded by hooded people dressed in black robes. He couldn't see any of their faces but at that moment fear rushed inside him. They reminded Harry of Dementors for all his saddest memories came flooding into his mind. But they couldn't be Dementors because they're only as tall as normal human beings and Harry was certain that they were human. If they aren't Dementors, they can only be one thing, Death Eaters! Harry saw them at the cemetery with Voldemort during his 4^th year at Hogwarts and again at the Ministry of Magic during his 5^th year, which is why he's certain that those people around him were Death eaters.

The Death Eaters encircled Harry and began whispering and laughing. Then they began walking closer and closer towards him. He had nowhere to go. He's trapped! Suddenly, his scar began to hurt. The pain was much worse than the one he felt before. He felt like his forehead was being split into two. Clutching his scar and moaning in pain, he fell to the ground. He writhed and curled as if someone cast a Cruciatus curse on him. The Death Eaters surrounded him. Harry knew that it's over. Then suddenly, he heard a cold hissing voice.

"Stop!" the voice said. Harry knew only one person with that kind of voice, Lord Voldemort. At the sound of Voldemort's voice the Death Eaters slowly walked away from Harry. Then they all bowed down and knelt. Harry waited for Voldemort to emerge from the shadows, expecting to see the thin, tall and frightening man he saw at the Ministry of Magic. A white clad figure slowly stepped forward. But instead of a thin and tall man, Harry saw a girl. Harry couldn't see her face but he was certain it was a girl. She was probably as tall as Hermoine and wearing a long white dress. She raised her hand and the Death Eaters crawled back to give way. As she walked closer to Harry, he noticed something glowing on her finger, a ring. The ring looked like a silver serpent coiled around the girl's finger and in its wide-opened mouth was a shiny green orb. The orb glowed brighter as the girl came closer to Harry. And the closer she got to him, the more pain he felt on his forehead. When she was about an arm's length away from him, she stopped and spoke in a gentle voice. "Come with me and you'll never be alone."

"I am not alone! I have my friends with me!" Harry shouted.

"Are you sure? Why don't you look around you?" said the girl.

Harry stood up and did what the girl said. He found himself surrounded by tomb stones. And written on them were the names: Ronald Weasley, Hermoine Granger, Rubeus Hagrid, Sirius Black, Lily and James Potter, and even Albus Dumbledore. Then he heard Voldemort's voice said, "You see dear boy, you are ALONE!!!" Then he laughed. The coldest and most cruel laugh Harry has ever heard.

Harry's vision began to spin, the pain on his forehead felt more excruciating than ever and all he could do was to scream, "Noooooo!!!"

"No!" Harry bolted up, sweating and screaming. His heart was thumping really fast and there were tears in his eyes. He looked around him. He realized that he was still in the Dursley's back yard. He must have fallen asleep while he lay there. It was all just a dream. The same dream he's been having for weeks. He must have had that dream for dozens of times but he still woke up screaming. The dream was so real and so frightening. And the weirdest part was that whenever Harry woke up from that dream, the thing that he remembered most vividly was the ring.