Coming Darkness

"The plans are complete. He will join us or die."

"Of course My Lord, the boy will no longer be able to evade you. His mother's sacrifice will no longer save him."

With this remark the first man raised a thin, almost invisible eyebrow over his left eye. He had pasty, almost translucent white skin and blood red eyes. His body was almost completely devoid of hair, and somehow his face had the shape of a snake. The man on the left immediately lowered his head in submission at the slight reprimand. He didn't want any further encouragement from the Dark Lord.

In a voice as cold as ice Voldemort said, "when I want your comments I will ask for them. It is precisely due to this type of reckless action that I have summoned you all. You are all to be reminded that no action of any type is to be taken until I have ordered it. Right now the only ones who are wise enough to believe my return to power are Dumbledore and his pathetic band of followers. So far he has been unable to mobilize the Ministry against us and this is the way it must remain until it is too late for them to do so. And now I believe it is time for a reminder to those who would act foolhardy."

With this remark a man halfway around the circle flinched and stepped backwards.

"That's right," said the ice cold voice, "you who have been disloyal know who you are. And now, Karkaroff, you will pay a small price for being slow to return to me."

"Crucio."

A thin tendril of green light leapt from the Snake Lord's wand and began to coil itself around Karkaroff. As it did so, ear-splitting cries of pain crashed through the air. The thin strand of light began to grow in intensity and thickness until it completely enveloped Karkaroff's body. At this point the cries suddenly stopped. The light faded to darkness and Karkaroff fell, unconscious, to the ground. Voldemort then turned to the rest of his followers who were trembling in fear.

"Take a good look and remember that this was indeed a small price to pay," the Dark Lord paused for a moment to let his words sink in while he gazed around the circle at each of his followers.

"I now wish to hear what our newest member has in store for Mister Potter."

He turned toward a member of the circle whose body remained cloaked in darkness. This new member took a deep breath and began.

"Potter will be given two options. He can either continue living his life in the true and noble way that will ultimately lead to his death. Or he can have a front row seat...and watch his friends die."

With these last words Harry Potter awoke with a flash of pain. Drenched in sweat and breathing hard, Harry surfaced from his dream. But Harry knew better than to mistake that nightmare for an ordinary dream. It was very possible that what he had just seen had really been happening.

Harry had had dreams of Voldemort before. In fact, the last such dream had been a little over one year ago and it had also ended with pain in his scar. The pain was fading already as Harry tried to remember exactly what had happened. He remembered the Death Eaters had all gathered together, Karkaroff had been tortured, and there was a new Death Eater who had to prove himself by killing either Harry or his friends. During the dream the new member's voice had sounded familiar, something in the way he said 'Potter', but all memory of the voice was already fading.

For years Harry had lived with the fact that some people would very much like to kill him. While not exactly a good thing, it was nothing new. What was becoming a new revelation was that Voldemort was now attempting to get to him through his friends. He knew that Dumbledore had protection for him in place while he remained at the Dursleys'. With Voldemort gaining power again this was why Harry had been forced to remain with the Dursleys for the entire summer. If term wasn't supposed to start the next day he would have been terribly worried about Ron and Hermione. The thought that they had been unprotected all summer was making him a bit queasy.

The question now was could he tell anyone about his dream. After all Ron and Hermione had done for him this was how he would repay them? By painting a target on their heads just because they were his friends? What if he told them and they didn't want to be his friend any more? Or worse yet what if they still did? It had been bad enough that they were always getting into danger while trying to help him.

After what had happened to Cedric, just a few months ago, the reality of death had hit too close to home. Harry would have to think long and hard before he decided to tell anyone about the ending to his latest dream.

Harry double-checked for the fourth time that all of his things were packed for school and then tried to go back to sleep.

* * * * *

September 1^st had always been an exciting day for Harry, but this year it was even more so. Harry hadn't seen Ron or Hermione all summer. Dumbledore had thought it would be too dangerous to leave the Dursleys so Harry hadn't even been able to go to Diagon Alley to buy his new school supplies. Mrs. Weasley had done that for him.

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione shouted in unison.

"So how was your vacation?" asked Ron.

"It was terribly boring. It just went on and on. I thought it would never end!"

They then proceeded in catching each other up on all the happenings of the summer. As usual Hermione had been busy trying to learn the whole school year's lot of lessons for every class over the summer. She was also pleased to inform everyone that they were scheduled to learn how to repel Dementors that year in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry, of course, would have to help her and Ron since he had learned that two years ago.

Ron told them some of the things that Fred and George had been up to over the summer. Apparently even more booms and bangs had been heard coming from their room than normal. It seemed as though they had only redoubled their efforts on new products for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The thing Ron seemed to be most happy about was that he had gotten new dress robes and wouldn't have to wear his old lacey ones.

Harry was just beginning to relax when there was a commotion out in the hallway. Loud voices could be heard just outside the door and one of them sounded like Draco Malfoy's. Harry thought it was a little odd that Draco would torment someone else before him. Harry had always been Draco's victim of choice. Curious as to who Draco would find more appealing to torment than him, Harry got up to investigate. Ron and Hermione were busy arguing over Victor Krum and Harry knew that that argument could continue on indefinitely.

Harry opened the compartment door and looked down the hallway to find Draco...and Cho Chang.

"Well, well speak of the devil. Although I guess I could never really refer to Potter here as a devil. No, no, he's just the opposite, our precious hero come to save the day." All of this was drawled out in a mocking, sarcastic voice. Of course that was Draco at his 'best'.

Harry glanced between Draco and Cho, finally resting his gaze on Cho when he asked, "What's going on?"

Cho was opening her mouth to respond but Draco beat her to the punch.

"What's it to you Potter? Isn't she allowed to have a conversation with whoever she wants?" Draco paused at this as a slow smile spread over his face. "Or are you just jealous Potter?"

At this both Harry and Cho glanced at each other, turned bright red and then both glanced away.

Like a shark scenting blood, Draco caught the nervous glance and attacked. "Cho, my darling" Draco began in a booming theatrical voice of a true thespian, "please don't tell me that your heart belongs to this imposter."

"What do you mean imposter?" At this point Harry interrupted what could turn into a very lengthy act. "I never pretended to be anyone, unlike you, who pretends to be a human being."

"Overlooking that wonderful comeback you just made, yes, you are an imposter. Look at you, our hero." Draco spat out the last word and turned to the audience that was forming at either end of the hallway. "Well, what do you all think of your perfect Potter. Seriously, how well do most of you know him? Is he really as noble as you all seem to believe? As disgustingly good? Don't any of you remember as far back as three years ago when most of you thought he was the heir of Slytherin? Or even last year when he managed to get across the age line, that the Headmaster himself set up, and dupe the Goblet of Fire into naming him as another champion? A stunt that ended in the death of a student, I might remind you. Have you all forgotten Cedric Diggory ... or was it just you?" Draco's tone turned cold and accusing as he turned full circle to finally rest his icy gaze on Cho Chang. "So Cho... I see you've turned your sights to our remaining 'champion'. Tell me, if Cedric had lived, would you have dumped him by now and run off with Harry? Or did this change of heart come about because, now that Cedric is six feet under, Potter is the most eligible champion?"

"You know, I believe two people with such high moral standards as yourselves deserve each other." Draco, now finished, stepped back to admire the damage he had caused. Cho, nearly to the point of tears was staring intently at the floor, not daring to look at anyone, especially Harry. Apparently handling as much as she could, she turned and barged her way through the crowd at the far end of the hallway.

During much of the speech Harry had a look of confusion and disbelief on his face, but in the last few moments this had turned to anger.

"I swear Draco, if you ever insult her again I'll..."

"Of course, hero to the rescue," Draco muttered. "You'll what? Aren't heroes not supposed to lower themselves to the point of petty threats? What is the world coming to?"

Harry took a step forward and began to reach for his wand just when a voice sounded from behind him.

"What's all this commotion?" It was the witch who pushed the candy cart. "All of you get back to your seats. I can't get the cart through with you all blocking up the path."

Draco, with a slight smirk on his face, raised an eyebrow at Harry.

Harry gave Draco one last glare and turned to head back into his compartment. Ron and Hermione both glanced up at him as he came in.

"What was going on out there?" asked Ron.

"Malfoy was just causing problems again, as usual." Harry sat down while Ron and Hermione went back to glaring at each other. Apparently their argument about Krum had ended as their arguments often did, in frigid silence. Hopefully the rest of the train ride would pass without more problems.

****************

Thankfully the ride did pass without incident as well as the sorting and feast. By the time Harry awoke the next day he had practically forgotten about Malfoy's antics of the day before. He and Ron got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall along with Hermione.

They arrived at the Gryffindor table and since there were no other seats, ended up sitting next to Colin Creevey and his brother, Dennis. The Creevey brothers had always been a little awestruck with Harry, especially Colin, and he usually tried to avoid them. It was just so annoying to have Colin constantly taking pictures and excitedly asking him about anything he could think of. At least today Harry felt up to handling him.

"Hey Harry. How was your summer?" Colin asked with that breathless quality he always had when talking with Harry.

"It was fine" Harry said in a bored tone. Feeling it would be rude to ignore him Harry asked in return, "How was yours?"

Colin's face lit up with the show of interest. "It was really great! Our whole family stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for a whole week this summer. Since me and Dennis came to Hogwarts, Mum and Dad have never really understood what the wizarding world is like. We would show them pictures and tell them all about it of course, but some things you've just got to see!"

Colin launched into his tale of the summer with Dennis occasionally adding a not so important detail. Harry was beginning to wish he hadn't asked when there was a noise from above and the day's post came in.

Post usually didn't concern Harry since the Dursleys weren't too keen on correspondence, or at least not with Harry. But this morning was different. A huge brown barn owl swooped straight down to Harry, delivered a small package, ate some of Harry's bacon, and flew away. Harry stared, surprised at the package that lay before him.

"What's that?" asked Hermione. She and Ron, seeing that Harry had received something, had stopped eating and were now looking curiously at the package.

"I don't know."

"Well why don't you open it and find out?" Hermione asked quite logically.

Harry tore off the brown paper and uncovered a piece of parchment and a small thin box about ten centimeters long.

Dear Harry,

First I must ask that you not tell Ron or Hermione about this letter. I realize it is a terrible thing for me to ask you to lie to your friends and that this is a selfish request since I am only hoping to avoid personal embarrassment. But please don't mention this to them. I'm writing this to you Harry because I need your help. I have not been the same since Cedric died. I can't forget him and I need to in order to get on with my life.

So now I have two more requests of you. I was flattered last year when you asked me to the Yule Ball and I was wondering if you would still like to go out with me? If you would then please take the potion I have sent you immediately and I will explain its purpose in more depth later. Don't worry, it's not a love potion or anything nearly as potent. Please understand that this letter was very difficult for me to write and I would prefer it if you didn't mention anything until you've either taken the potion or decided not to.

Sincerely,

Cho

(AN: the font should be a girly script type, not block letters)

Harry glanced at the small box again and then looked up at Ron and Hermione.

"Well?" Ron asked after taking a gulp of his pumpkin juice.

Thinking fast, Harry made up something about the Dursleys finding his pocket sneakoscope and sending it to him since they didn't want any of his freakish objects lying around the house.

"I forgot something up in the common room. I'll meet you in class." Not bothering to wait for a response Harry grabbed the letter, box and his bag and rushed out of the Great Hall. He was too preoccupied to notice the second figure that followed him.

Harry couldn't believe it! For more than a year he had had a crush on Cho and now, to his shock, she was asking him out! Harry turned random corners until he found a seemingly deserted place where he could stop to look at the package Cho had sent him. Harry opened the box and found a small vile filled with a clear potion. At this point, Harry stopped to consider a few things.

The main question burning in his mind was why did he need to take a potion before he could date her? What was it supposed to do? She had already said that it wasn't a love potion. Cho had implied that it would help her forget Cedric. But then why was he taking it instead of her? Another question Harry didn't particularly want to ask himself was how he felt about being a second choice to Cedric. Was Cho only asking him out because Cedric was gone or would she eventually have done it even if Cedric had lived? Thinking that he was only considering this because of what Malfoy had said on the train, Harry decided to drink the potion now and ask Cho about it later. After all, how bad could it be?

Harry uncorked the vile and swallowed it down in one gulp. He could feel it quickly passing through his body leaving a trail of warmth as it passed. Allowing the feeling to fade, Harry leaned up against the wall for a moment.

Seeing that Harry had taken the potion, the second person returned to the Great Hall.