This Year it Will be Different

Thanks to all my reviewers - leothelion3, Stardust, Mella deranged, smegul, Façade, Luigi & krazy-megz1.

You made me want to continue!

CHAPTER TWO - A Sense of Urgency

____________________________________________________________________

"What on earth are you doing here?"

"It's nice to see you too, Harry".

____________________________________________________________________

Harry smiled suddenly, a real smile, which lit his entire face, and scrambled from his knees making sure his footing was secure before making his way over where Remus Lupin stood.

"Sorry Professor", he said still grinning away, "but I didn't.... I mean how..... its really good to see you sir!"

Remus' weathered face smiled back at him and carefully stepped forward to clasp Harry to him in a somewhat awkward hug, both of them aware of their precarious position on the Dursley's rooftop. As Remus pulled away, Harry noticed how much the professor seemed to have aged in the two months since he had seen him on the London platform. He tended to forget at times that he wasn't the only one who was affected by his godfather's death. Maybe it was the fact that the full moon was still a week away, but Remus didn't look as gaunt as he had in the past. The only definitive thing Harry could say about his ex-Defense-against-the-dark-arts teacher was that he looked well, tired, as though he'd been up for days with no sleep and too much on his mind.

Remus spoke up, lifting him out of his reverie, "That's okay Harry, I know I'm probably the last person you expected to see tonight."

Harry shook his head, "It's not that so much sir, but the fact is....er..... you're on my roof."

Laughing, and looking around him as if noticing for the first time where they were, he shrugged. "Well when Dumbledore told me to apparate to your specific location, I don't think he had your roof in mind for my destination. Although I must say its an excellent vantage point, you can see the entire neighbourhood from here."

At the mention of the great wizard's name, Harry stopped smiling suddenly and looked around as if to see the man himself standing nearby "Dumbledore sent you? Did something happen? Have you found Voldemort? Is everyone okay? What's going on?"

"Harry, calm down," Remus interjected, putting his hands up in front of him as if to defend himself from the onslaught of questions. He took a deep breath and studied the serious expression on Harry's face. He's grown up so much, so quickly, Remus reflected, he's so full of determination and courage, yet worried about everything else that was going on around him, so like his father it was rather unnerving at times.

"Harry, I promise you that I'm going to explain everything, but I need to you not talk but to listen, ok?" At Harry's nod he continued, "ummm.......actually is there someplace else we could talk, somewhere not so out in the open perhaps..... or high up?" He looked around again, "what exactly are you doing on the roof anyway?"

With a small shrug and a "waiting for Hedwig" as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Harry motioned for Remus to follow him. Reaching the edge of the roof, Harry began to make his way down to the balcony, which led into Dudley's bedroom. He crossed his fingers and hoped that his cousin was downstairs still watching his favourite TV show, which for this month was called Buffy, or some other ridiculous name. He'd watched it once with Dudley and didn't really understand the show - why there was only one girl who could fight vampires in the muggle world, when all witches and wizards over 2^nd year knew how to defend themselves against a vampire attack. Seemed kind of an unnecessary burden for the poor girl, he had thought at the time. As luck would have it Dudley was still downstairs, so with very little stealth needed, Harry led Remus into his own room down the hallway. He paused at the top of the stairs to list for his aunt and uncle and was relieved to hear them talking about what the neighbours had been up to that day.

Closing the door behind them with a soft 'click', Harry turned around to find his professor looking with interest around his room. He was suddenly thankful for his aunt forcing him to clean his room that morning - you could actually tell that the floor was laid with carpet. A part of him was also hoping that he wouldn't be here for much longer and that the Weasley's would come for him soon.

Sitting on his bed, Harry waited for Lupin to finish his perusal of the room. He'd stopped at a photo of Ron, Hermione and himself taken in the Great Hall in the previous year. In the photo he and Ron had been discussing animatedly a Quidditch manoeuvre using salt and pepper shakers and various implements to designate the players movements. Hermione was sitting on the other side of Ron reading one of her thick textbooks, and every so often would look over to them and roll her eyes before return to her book with a smile.

There was nothing really special about that photo, but when Colin had presented it to him with a flourish just before the end of term, he felt as though it captured the essence of their little group. It had obviously been taken on one of the handful of days last year, when he had not been unleashing his temper or bad moods on anyone who lived, Harry thought sheepishly.

Remus left the photo in its spot on the wall and found himself a seat at the desk that had once been Dudley's, and swivelled around so that he was facing the bed where his former pupil was perched. Harry, who noticed with alarm how serious the older man was looking sat up straighter, and quit fiddling with the edge of his ratty blanket. Thoughts of what could possibly have the professor looking so serious, and here so suddenly, were swirling around in Harry's head, each more gruesome than the last, and he hoped that Remus would start talking soon and (hopefully) eliminate some of his wild imaginations musings.

"Harry", Lupin began slowly, then stopped unsure exactly of where to start, and decided on a different track instead. "How much do you know about what's happened to the wizard's that were captured by Dumbledore?"

"Er.... Just what Dumbledore told me", came the uncertain reply, "the deatheaters were sent to Azkaban, but a few of them tried to bargain with the Ministry by telling the truth about Sirius ........... Fudge didn't actually let them out did he? In return for their information I mean?"

Remus shook his head, "No, nothing like that. I know that you have been taught about security charms, but what you don't know is that you can change the charms so that you can have more or less security depending on what you need it for. Now the measures in place at Azkaban"

"are the strongest known to date in the wizarding world" interrupted Harry. At the raised eyebrows that followed, he added, "Hermione".

Chuckling to himself, Remus continued, "Miss Granger is as usual correct. It uses the strongest charm around. You can't just walk in to Azkaban without being noticed.... unless of course, you can deactivate the security charms first. But it would take an extremely powerful witch or wizard to be able to break those charms. Not to mention a whole lot of time - there are over 300 of these charms in place, and some of them have very time-consuming counter-curses."

"Someone like Voldemort?"

"Yes, although Dumbledore could just as easily get past them as well. Er, not that he would of cause," he added quickly noticing the look of horror on Harry's face, "but he would certainly be able. Harry, two nights ago someone did just this. They were able to not only lift the security charms in place, but enter unnoticed and leave again with all the prisoners who were sane enough and strong enough to leave."

"Does Dumbledore think that it was Voldemort who planned this?"

"We think so, yes. No one else has the ability, magical or otherwise. Plus realistically - who else would want the Death-Eaters released, especially now that Fudge has gone public about the return of Voldemort. Which leaves us in no better position than we were. Although the death eaters will be publicly known, they are no longer behind the walls of Azkaban."

At this, Harry looked confused. "If they are publicly known, won't they just get captured again? I mean, the Aurors must know where they live and all?"

"They haven't gone home, and they wouldn't now - they know it's not safe, and despite how they sometimes act, they aren't completely stupid. Our best guess is that they are holed up with Voldemort somewhere where our magic can't reach them." He paused, evidently preparing himself for what he would have to say next. "Harry, there's something else. We think that there's an attack involved tonight, or in the next few nights. An attack involving those that have stood against Voldemort, and those that are could potentially be a threat to him."

Harry was stunned. Although Lupin had told him something had happened, he had no idea that is was something of this magnitude.

"We're fairly sure this attack is going to involve you at some stage." He nodded but didn't seem particularly surprised, Lupin thought wryly, although then again, Voldemort has been openly after him for the past five years, why should now be any different? "The Order of the Phoenix has begun to move wizarding families that we feel are at risk - the Longbottoms, the Diggorys, the Weasleys..."

"The Weasleys? Are they okay? What about Ron?" Harry fired off quickly, concern for his surrogate family quickly rising.

"Harry, they're fine, and being have been moved to a safe location already. You'll see them all later tonight, I promise. Listen, we have to leave here tonight, I need you to get all your things together so we can get going as soon as possible."

"Where are we going? We're not going to Sirius' house are we, cause the Malfoys know about it."

"No Harry, but Dumbledore has a number of safe houses stashed around, enchanted so that those that intent no harm on its occupants can find it. A little like the Mirror of Erised you discovered a few years ago."

"Well, where are we staying then?"

"You'll see."