Black Fire

Chapter One

Repetition

For the first time in five years, it was raining during the summer in Little Whinging, Surrey. It reflected his mood almost perfectly; the rain was his tears, the clouds his solitude and the damp smelling earth the pain he'd absorbed over the last month. He felt blocked off from the world, emotionally and physically, but it wasn't as though they didn't try to help him, he just didn't want it. He seemed to think that whenever he got close to someone all he did was end up hurting them; his parents, Sirius, even Cho, but he couldn't bring himself to contemplate hurting Ron or Hermione, the Weasleys and hell, every student at his damn school, but he knew it wasn't healthy locking himself away like that.

But his life was different from every other person at his school. He was Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Freakin'-Lived and for that one reason his life was turned upside-down every time he walked into the castle that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

On his bedside table a small mirror reflected speck of light onto the ceiling, shaking slightly as though someone was rocking the surface on which it lay. Harry watched the light dance feebly over the white plaster and felt tears seep down the sides of his face. He didn't like letting people see him cry, but he was alone and so he let the tears fall. Inside him it was as though a balloon was swelling, waiting to be burst, waiting for the right time so when he finally did crack up and become a basket case he would have an audience... oh yes, fun, fun, fun.

He turned onto his side and forced himself into a disturbed and uncomfortable sleep...

He was walking down the corridor of the Department of Mysteries, he was in the circular room once more and as he strode forwards he did not enter the room of clocks nor the one of space, but the tall hall with its many tiers surrounding the archway and the veil... Sirius was standing on the dais, his grin a mixture of shock and fear, Bellatrix was laughing loudly her wand glowing bright red and Harry was running, running towards Sirius, but he had fallen through, again, he rounded on Bellatrix and pulled his wand out but she blasted him with a curse and his wand turned to ashes in his hand, again she laughed, but this time it was joined with an evil voice, shrill and snake-like mocking Harry as he ran for the veil...

He sat bolt upright on his bed. He was covered in cold sweat and he was shaking violently. "I see you haven't been practicing anymore Mr. Potter," an old voice sounded through the darkness of his room, whether it was night time or afternoon he could not tell. He whipped his head from side to side, picking up his wand as he did so, searching for the intruder in his bedroom.

His eyes fell upon a shadowy outline, just out of the light. "Who is it?" he said, sounding scared stiff at the prospect that this person could be a Death Eater, sent to kill him in his sleep... but his mother's magic...

"I am terribly sorry if I woke you Harry, but I rather thought it wise," the voice spoke again, but this time Albus Dumbledore walked into the speck of light the outside world was permitting and smiled down at him. "I am also sorry if I scared you."

Harry blinked, why was his Headmaster in his bedroom?

"Professor...No, I haven't practiced since S - Professor Snape refused to give me anymore lessons," Harry told Dumbledore.

"The Order has told me that they've been having some trouble trying to keep you in contact. They've told me that they've sent countless members to your house and each time they find, no neglect, no mistreating, but a boy who has attempted to shut himself off from every living being, not even your owl wants to stay in the same room as you, but to be honest I can now understand the situation. May I ask how long it has been since you had a shower Harry?"

This time Harry glared at his Headmaster, how long since his last shower? Why on earth he wanted to know that for was beyond him. "I... don't remember," Harry said truthfully.

"Well, Harry, if you wish for me to be brutally honest, you're a mess and quite frankly your room smells," Dumbledore spoke calmly, Harry goggled at him.

"Erm, professor, have you, by any chance, been force-fed half a cauldron of a truth potion?" he asked, never before had Dumbledore ever spoken like this to Harry, well not quite this bluntly.

"No of course I haven't! We have Alastor Moody checking our food and drinks for poisons and the such-like every day before breakfast, lunch and dinner and I am sure nothing of the sort would get past Mad-Eye." He smile fondly at Harry and held out to him a small box wrapped neatly in the Gryffindor colours. "I do believe today is your birthday."

***

The shadows were swirling dark green through the blackness. A pale faced man sat in his chair; the dim candle light catching the chair's silver and dancing with it through the darkness. There was a knock at the door and a man entered the room, a hooded cloak pulled high over his head shadowing his face from view.

"Master, I have come to you with information on your most threatening enemy..."

"Excellent, my plan will soon begin and my dearest will be the one to instigate it," the man in the chair hissed, the man before him nodded curtly and turned to leave the room. "No, don't leave; if my plans are to be carried out over the following year my... fiancé's life will need to be shielded from the goodness of Albus Dumbledore and his Muggle loving ideas. Do you understand me, my most loyal of all Death Eaters?"

The man nodded once more. "Yes Master, of course Master, where is she?" he said clearly.

The snake-like man laughed. "Well, if you follow me, I shall introduce you."

***

Harry was walking down the stairs in the Dursley household, with Dumbledore closely following, when it happened, he collapsed, falling down the rest of the stairs landing in a heap on the floor. On his awakening he found himself still on the floor, his Aunt looking down on him, but she had a slight hint of pity in her eyes, his cousin stood in the doorway to the kitchen, a piece of chocolate cake in one hand and a can of coke in the other, looking on piggy eyed at Harry's current state of mind, his Uncle standing in the front doorway, clearly only just returning home from work with a look of horror and fury on his face and Dumbledore, a hand on his shoulder and a wand in his right hand.

"Boy, get off my floor," Harry heard his Uncle's voice boom; he saw his eyes fall upon Dumbledore. "Who in the blazes are you?"

Dumbledore stood up in a sweep of robes, causing Uncle Vernon to take a few steps backwards. "I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Head of the Order of the Phoenix," Harry noticed his Uncle take another step away. "I am here to see if Harry is alright and, at this present moment, I do not think he is," he kneeled down once more and looked into Harry's eyes. "So, tell me, what happened?"

He began to explain how his scar burst into uncontrollably agonising pain one unlike any other Harry had ever felt Voldemort feel, and he knew why... Voldemort was happy... very happy.

Half an hour passed in silence around the Dursley's' kitchen table, each of them had a cup of tea in hand. After learning that Dumbledore was in fact the reason Harry had been placed in their guardianship in the first place, Uncle Vernon began to bleat on about how weird freaks like him should not be allowed to do such things, he only stopped when Dumbledore, subtly, picked his wand up from the table and began to twiddle it between his fingers.

"If it alright with the two of you, I would like your permission to take Harry back to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix for the remainder of the summer?" He looked from happy face to happy face.

Petunia filled Dumbledore's cup up to the brim despite his protests that he had had enough and said bluntly, "Of course Mr. Dumbledore that will not be a problem at all," he smiled at her and started on emptying his cup once again. Harry saw his Aunt and Uncle, exchange gleeful looks of pure delight, but only once the Headmaster had busied himself with his cup and saucer once again.

"Well Harry, let's get going," Dumbledore said as he jumped to his feet, Harry distinctly notice him point his wand at his cup of tea making the contents vanish discreetly.

"Should I go and pack away my things..." he spoke but his Headmaster cut him off.

"There will be no need for that." He waved his wand towards the ceiling and as the Dursleys stared in horror towards the wand, they heard a few loud bangs. They looked at Dumbledore as though he was some grotesque madman waving a loaded gun in their direction. "I am terribly sorry; my mind is on other things." The noises ceased and suddenly Harry's trunk went flying through the kitchen slowly stopping in front of the old Headmaster.

"Professor, I need Hedwig," Harry spoke, her heard his Uncle tut disapprovingly at the mention of Harry's beautiful, snowy, pet owl.

"Ah, yes, I'm very sorry about that, but I do believe she is waiting for you at Headquarters. I shall just fetch her cage." He gave another swish of his wand and the cage flew into the kitchen, taking the same path as the trunk.

"Erm, good-bye then Uncle Vernon... Aunt Petunia... Dudley," Harry said to the Dursleys. They looked at him and muttered their unemotional farewells in turn, broad grins plastered over each face equally.

Dumbledore turned around towards the back door, Harry's belongings still following in his wake when he stopped and beckoned to Harry to follow him. Harry was in the middle of contemplating how the Dursley's would react if his Headmaster walked out of their house with a trunk and an owl's cage floating, untouched, in midair when a flash of brilliant bright white light shone through the kitchen. As the light began to dissipate, the outline of a large bird was left in its wake.

Fawkes the phoenix was standing on the kitchen sideboard picking at his tail feathers, seemingly unhappy with his appearance. "Good day Mr. and Mrs Dursley, Dudley, it was nice to finally meet you." Dumbledore nodded to each of them in turn, indicated to Harry to hold onto the phoenix's tail feathers as he was and in another flash of light, they were gone.

***

The hallway was dark, breathing was coming from somewhere to his left and, for a strange moment, and he believed that something about the whole situation seemed too good to be true. The lamps in the hallway must have only just gone out, as the smell of burning was prominent in the air. He could see, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness that there were two thick curtains drawn together where the breathing seemed to be coming from.

"Dumbledore, good to see you're back," a familiar voice echoed through the darkness yet it was hushed. "Harry! How are you?" the voice enquired as a wand tip ignited illuminating Mad-Eye Moody's face into sharp relief, his heavily scared skin glowing ominously in the wand-light, but the curtains to Harry's left burst open now Moody had lighted his wand.

"FITHLY BLOOD TRAITOR... HOW DARE SHE? HE WAS MY ONLY HEIR...!" the voice shrieked through the house, a wave of pain swept through Harry, grief engulfing him, Sirius' mother was talking about her last living son's death and his murderer cousin Bellatrix, the woman who had haunted his nightmares for the last month.

"Someone draw those ruddy curtains!" Moody bellowed in his ear as he saw two men run down the corridor from a room in front of him, telling them to calm down. Mr. Weasley was a tall thin wizard with a love of muggles and head of flaming red hair, even though with his age he was going bald. Accompanying him was Remus Lupin, while young he was still a powerful wizard but, due to being a bitten by a werewolf as a small child, looked worn out and gaunt, the grey in his hair more prominent than ever in his dark brown.

The four wizards before Harry began to pull the thick and heavy curtains across Sirius' mother's portrait. "Why has she had a change of heart?" he asked once they'd silenced her.

Mr. Weasley looked down upon Harry, a look of sympathy in his eyes. "Well, Sirius was her only heir, so she's a bit angry with Bellatrix to say the..."

"HOW DARE HE? THAT FILTHY MUGGLE-LOVER WILL NOT SPEAK HER NAME IN FRONT OF ME! I AM A GREIVING MOTHER!!!!!" her voice boomed again as the curtains flew back open.

"You three should take Harry down to the cellar; I believe Ron and Hermione are down there waiting for him... No Alastor, I shall handle Mrs. Black on my own, I have had the... pleasure of meeting her after all," Dumbledore spoke through the blind and dusty blackness.

The basement kitchen was as it had been the last time he'd been there, his stomach wrenched awfully, the last time he had seen it his head had been in the fire asking Kreacher about his godfathers' whereabouts. As he stood staring at the fireplace he saw Ron's red head somewhere to his right with a mass of dark brown. He tore his vision away from the fire, but only just and out of the corner of his right eye he could've sworn he had seen Hermione and Ron drop their grip on each others hands, but no... They couldn't be...

"Earth to Harry, is anybody home?" Ron's voice echoed in his head. He blinked a fair few times before his sight became focused upon Ron's shoulders; he had obviously grown over their three weeks apart.

"HARRY!" Hermione yelled jumping towards him, elbowing Ron out of the way and flinging her arms around his neck. "I'm so sorry we haven't been writing that much, things have been really busy here." Her cheeks looked flushed as she pulled away from him and when he looked at Ron, he noticed his ears were a considerably bright shade of pink.

"So, what's been going on here?" he asked and noticed Ron and Hermione exchange slight glances.

"Well, er..."

"We've just..."

"Harry!" a familiar voice boomed from behind him grabbing hold of him in a one armed hug.

"How have you been?" another voice bellowed from somewhere a little further away. The person giving him a hug released their grip and Harry spun around to face Ron's older twin brothers, Fred and George.

"Fine," he lied, "how's your joke shop?"

"Amazing... and you would not believe the amount of stock we've sold towards our 'Rid Hogwarts of Umbridge Campaign!'" George grinned, "RHUC, for short. It's been manic!"

"I personally thought you'd think of a better name than that..." Harry replied vaguely.

"Well, we did think of the 'Ten Ways to Shove a Wand..."

"I think," a voice said loudly from behind them in a disapproving tone, "that is enough." They all turned to notice Mrs. Weasley standing behind them, hands on her hips and her wand in her apron pocket. "I'm sorry, but the Order has an important meeting tonight, you'll have to go upstairs. I'll call you once it's over so you can get ready for dinner."

With unwilling certainty they all retreated up the stairs, where, on the second floor they found Ginny with a squirming Crookshanks in her arms.

"Hello, Harry, have you had a good summer so far?" she sighed looking over her shoulder and down the hallway. "My God, you are a wimp aren't you?" she spoke definitely. "You've shared a room with them for the last five years they're not going to hurt you are they?" a muffled voice sounded from down the corridor. Something suddenly sounded in Harry's head.

...Well, I've chosen Dean Thomas; would you say he's better? ...

"Dean...!" Ginny spoke, an exasperated tone to her voice. She walked down the corridor; there was the sound of reluctant movement. "Shift... your... arse!" Suddenly the figure of Dean burst forward from the shadows, cuts all over and a bruise for a right eye.

"Ginny, what did you do to him?" Fred said giving his little sister a wide-eyed look.

"She didn't do anything," Dean said defending his girlfriend, "it's just, I got caught off guard... flew into a tree..." he mumbled the last word with great embarrassment, his face glowing red.

"Well, I hope we don't have to put up with behaviour like that on the Quidditch team?" Ron practically cried through the hallway, he coughed and looked at the rest. "We should go to our room Harry..."

"Always so naive, little brother..." whispered George, a wicked smile spread across his face strangely lit up by the brackets upon the wall. "These," he said pulling out a small, silver 'W' from his pocket, "will give us a clear idea about what the hell is going on in that meeting." Both he and Fred looked around the blank faces staring back at them. "Fred, explain," George sighed.

"These are a step up from the Extendable Ears, the Word Wranglers," he grinned, "they can be transfigured into any shape you like as long as you have two. You just tap them both on the back with your wand and say clearly," he pulled out his wand to demonstrate, "Wrangle the Info," he spoke the words and suddenly Dumbledore's voice sounded clearly from the palm of George's hand.

"... With his recent findings, Severus will be joining us next week for an update as he is on duty tonight. Our new recruit Selena Jamison who is working in the Department of Mysteries will also be joining us," he spoke clearly, as though he was standing just behind them.

"What area does this, Selena, work in?" an unfamiliar, female voice spoke.

"The Death Room," Dumbledore replied grimly, "which took me onto my next topic."

"But..." the voice spoke again.

"I am sorry Narcissa, if the following will upset you, please do not worry about leaving."

"No, Dumbledore, I shall stay."

"Very well... The Death Room, Selena shall be able to take the two on a visit, allow them to understand more about his death, and I do suggest that, for now no one mentions it. I do realise, over the last year I made some rash decisions which did, indeed, cause more devastation rather than preventing it, but, they... must... not... know!" he sighed heavily and then continued, "The severity of Sirius' death shall be known to us by next week, I just hope that it is not too late..." Harry stood, horror struck, staring at the small 'W' in George's hand.