To Whom It May Concern

Chapter 2

Unbeknownst to Harry, at the Head table, Snape told Dumbledore, "That's the Dark Lord's vulture," pointing over to the Gryffindor table, where Harry was just taking the parchment from the bird.

Dumbledore jumped up from his seat, shouting, "Don't touch it, Harry. It's from Voldemort."

Harry decided to ignore the Headmaster and proceeded to take the letter from the vulture, glad that nothing happened, when Hermione all of a sudden slapped his hand away, shouting hysterically, "Harry, did you hear what the Headmaster said? It's from Voldemort!"

However, this didn't go well with the vulture, who bit the annoying girl on the hand, causing her to cry out in pain.

"Oh no! Come on, Hermione. Let me take you to the hospital wing," Harry said firmly, grabbing her arm with one and the letter with the other hand, pulling her out of the Great Hall, before the Headmaster could reach him and try to take the letter from him.

Harry made Hermione sit down on a bed, glad that Madam Pomfrey hurried to the girl to look after her bleeding hand, and quickly excused himself to the washroom, knowing that the Headmaster would surely be on his way to follow him to get a look at the letter from Tom.

To the insulting scar head that lives to annoy me,

Thanks for your letter. Hmmm, that was a very interesting theory indeed. We'll have to think about the matter. When I went to Hogwarts, the aunt of your Trelawney was teaching Divination, and she was really good.

At the moment, I don't intend to kill you, because my nose is running. Malfoy and Lestrange were supposed to help me get better, but they are cowards and fled, because they didn't want to get sick too. Are you good at Potions? Maybe you could ask Professor Snape to teach you brew a potion for me or come and bring me one? I know that he hates you, but if you tell him that you're my pen friend, he'll surely help you.

Try to annoy the old fool as well as you can,

Lord Voldemort

As soon as Harry had reached the last word, the letter vanished into thin air, and Harry hurried back to Hermione, seeing that Madam Pomfrey was just wrapping her hand into gauze and told her to come back to see her in the evening. The Headmaster was standing behind the Mediwitch, turning immediately to Harry when he joined them.

"Harry, give me the letter. It might be dangerous," he demanded firmly.

"Oh, I don't have it anymore. It ended in smoke as soon as I read it," Harry said, feigning confusion.

"Did it contain a message?" Dumbledore queried, nervously stroking his beard.

"No, only insults," Harry replied, shrugging, before he left the room together with Hermione.

"Oh no, Harry, we're late! Transfiguration is going to commence in two minutes," Hermione said terrified after a glance at her wrist watch.

"Then we have to hurry," Harry replied, running up the stairs together with his best friend.

Only when they stopped dead in their tracks right in front of the Transfiguration classroom, seeing that the doors were already closed, Hermione noticed that Harry had problems breathing and remembered horrified that he wasn't supposed to run.

"Harry, are you all right?" she asked in concern, giving him a piercing look.

"I'll be fine," Harry breathed. "Let's go in, before we'll be even later."

Hermione knocked at the door, and they entered the classroom, taking the seats Ron had reserved for them in the first row. "I'm sorry, Professor, we were at the hospital wing until now," Hermione quickly apologized.

Her Head of House gave her an acknowledging nod, before she exasperatedly shook her head at Harry, who cringed under McGonagall's disapproving look.

All his efforts to make the professor forget about the matter by flawlessly managing all the Transfiguration tasks vanished into thin air, when McGonagall asked Harry to stay back after the class.

"But Professor, he'll be late then for his next class again, and we have Potions," Hermione tried to convince her to let Harry go, but the teacher stayed adamant.

"I'll give Mr. Potter a pass. Don't worry, Ms. Granger," McGonagall replied in her stern voice, motioning Harry to follow her into her office, where she made him sit down next to her desk. "Harry, you know that you are not allowed to run. You have to be careful," she said insistently.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I forgot," Harry admitted in a small voice, feeling slightly annoyed by the professor's concern. "I know that everyone is worried because of the prophecy, but frankly speaking, I don't believe in prophecies," he blurted out, clasping his hand over his mouth in shock after realizing what he just said.

The professor's expression slowly softened. "Harry, do you know me as someone, who believes in prophecies?"

"No," Harry had to admit.

McGonagall sighed. "Harry, the problem is that even if I don't believe in them, Professor Dumbledore and Voldemort do, and therefore, I have to be concerned about your safety. The same goes for your heart problems. I'm not concerned because I believe that you have to vanquish Voldemort, but because I'm worried about you. You're Lily's child, and she was always like a daughter to me. I don't want to lose you, Harry. Please be careful."

"Voldemort doesn't necessarily believe in the prophecy," Harry blurted out. "I asked him, well I wrote a letter to him. That's why he sent me a reply. I trust you that you don't tell the Headmaster about this. He told me that at the moment he doesn't intend to kill me, because he has a cold and no Pepper Up potion." When he hesitantly looked up, Harry noticed that the edges of the professor's mouth slightly pulled upwards.

"You want to try to solve the problem on a peaceful way, knowing that you're not able to fight?"

Harry nodded, smiling at his Head of House.

"Harry, if you need help or advice, don't hesitate to come and ask me. I'll help you, and I promise that I won't tell anyone," McGonagall replied warmly. "Now, there is still something else we have to speak about, but I'm afraid that we don't have time now. Since you won't be able to become an Auror, considering your heart problems, we have to think of something else, which we should do urgently in case you need to take different classes. Now it's still early enough to change. Can you come here again tonight after dinner?"

"Of course, Professor, thank you," Harry replied, gratefully taking the parchment that McGonagall gave him for Professor Snape.

His Head of House's warning that he had to go slowly even if he was very late still in his mind, he slowly trailed down to the dungeons, holding McGonagall's parchment under Snape's nose, before the teacher could even take points for his tardiness.

"You have to pair up with Mr. Malfoy, Potter," Snape sneered, and Harry sat down on the empty spot next to Draco Malfoy, who ordered him to prepare the ingredients, so that he could brew the potion.

Not eager to fight with the boy, Harry did as he was told, glad that their potion turned out flawlessly, although he was very absentminded, pondering if he should speak to Snape about Tom's letter and his need of Pepper Up potion.

'Well, he seems to be in a not too bad mood today,' Harry mused and hesitantly approached the teacher as the class ended, telling his friends to go ahead since he knew that Ron always wanted to get to the Great Hall for lunch as fast as possible.

"Professor, I received a letter from your other master," he hesitantly told Snape, who threw him a menacing glare.

"Where is the letter? Hand it over," the Potions Master demanded, holding out a hand.

"It vanished as soon as I read it," Harry admitted in a small voice.

"You stupid boy, didn't you think what harm the letter could do to you? You should have let the Headmaster check on it first."

"He told me that he needs a potion for his cold," Harry replied, unable to hide a small chuckle, causing the teacher to frown and extend a slender hand to Harry's forehead. "I'm not delirious, sir," Harry told him in utter annoyance.

"Let me see."

"I told you already; I don't have the letter any more, sir." Harry began to tap his foot on the floor, slowly getting impatient.

"I know what you told me, Potter. I want to see the memory," Snape hissed and pulled his wand. "Legilimens." The teacher watched how Harry read Tom's letter, pulling out of Harry's mind immediately afterwards.

"I wondered why he wrote to you instead of just summoning me, but he can't summon me without Malfoy or someone else with him," Snape mused aloud, smirking, before his voice became stern. "Potter, did you write him a letter?" he asked surprised.

"Well, I merely enquired if he believed in prophecies and told him that I don't believe in them," Harry replied in a small voice, causing the teacher to raise an eyebrow at him.

"You wrote to the Dark Lord to ask such a question?" he queried, unbelievingly.

"Yes, sir. Um... Could you please... um... not tell the Headmaster about it, sir?" Harry asked pleadingly, unable to understand why he was just talking about the matter with his most hated professor.

Snape sighed. "Potter, what did you intend to do, writing to the Dark Lord?"

Harry let out a deep sigh. "You probably heard that I'm not able to fight anymore, sir. Well, I thought that if we both didn't believe in the prophecy, maybe we wouldn't have to fight at all."

"But the Dark Lord obviously believes in it. Why else would he have gone after your parents?"

"But that was a long time ago, and perhaps I'll be able to convince him not to believe," Harry replied quietly.

"Mr. Potter, I'd like to continue this conversation at a different time. We'll both be missed at lunch. We also have to fix a time for our Occlumency lessons. Can you come here tomorrow evening right after dinner?"

"Okay, sir," Harry agreed. "Professor, what are you going to do about the potion?"

"Ah right, the Pepper Up," Snape remembered. "Potter, do you intend to write back to the Dark Lord?" Seeing Harry nod, he summoned a small phial from his office, handing it to Harry. "Then you can send him this. Give him my regards, and tell him to stay in bed."

The thought, 'This would be a brilliant chance to poison him,' penetrated Harry's mind, while he pocketed the phial and slowly followed the professor to the Great Hall, surprised that Snape kept a moderate enough pace for Harry to keep up with him.

tbc...

I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.

All recognizable characters belong to Mrs. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.