Harry Potter and the Rise of Terror

Halloween, in a sense, was not celebrated at all how muggle families tend to celebrate the occasion. There was no trick-or-treating, but there was a magnificent feast near midnight, and before then, the children would go to small, all magical villages to play games and such. It was a very special night for most children and even the adults felt like kids again. The eleven years prior to Voldemort's downfall however had been all terror on Halloween because of the fear of attacks.

Those days were past, and now it was all partying. In fact, the partying and feasting had grown so much since then. It was one massive party that all people in the wizarding world celebrate, no matter what. Even the students at Hogwarts had a feast, and it was rumored that Dumbledore was making arrangements so that in a in a few years, the students would be able to go to Hogsmeade before the feast.

James Potter walked slightly ahead of the children, leaving Remus and Jonathan Jones to follow behind.

"James...?" Sirius asked, walking up to his best friend since childhood. "Something wrong?"

"No, no," James said, shaking his head absently. "Nothing is wrong, Sirius. I'm fine."

"You can't lie to me."

James raised his eye brows as if to say 'Oh really?'

"Ok fine, you can lie perfectly, flawlessly," Sirius said. "You, however, cannot lie to me 'cause you know that I can see right through it."

Looking disgruntled at that fact, James merely grunted a reply. He could not find any words to answer Sirius' question, but words were not always needed. Sometimes things could just be expressed by a facial expression or even silence between the marauders.

"It's about Harry, isn't it?"

"Yes," James replied. "Why bother asking if you know the answer already?"

"You don't want him going to Hogwarts next year," Sirius said slowly, as the problem dawned on him. "James, buddy, nothing's going to happen."

"Time's have changed, Sirius," James replied looking up towards the twinkling night sky. "He knows that something with the story isn't fitting together correctly. And I'm afraid that one of things he inherited from me was my curiosity."

"He's not a child anymore, though."

Up ahead in the distance, the lights from the village of Hogsmeade shined brightly, and Harry, Courtney, Ron, Ginny, Anna, and Robby ran for it, laughing all the way.

"As far as I can see, he's still a child. End of discussion."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue, but from the pained expression on James' face, he thought better of it. True, at the age of ten you were hardly more than just a child, but that is no reason for keeping the truth away.

Racing down the street, Harry, Courtney, and Ron outran their siblings in hopes to lose them. It seemed to work because by the time they were at The Three Broomsticks the others were no where to be seen.

"Hey, Madame Rosmerta!" Courtney said, hopping up onto a bar stool at the counter. "How's it going?"

"Having a good Halloween?"

"Have you seen the new broomstick out?"

"Ohh, the Nimbus 1500! I heard that it goes so fast that it could outstrip a dragon!" Courtney chimed in as she climbed up onto the stool, having missed it the first time she tried to hop on it.

"Whoa," Madame Rosmerta replied, waving her hands as to silence them. "Calm down you three; just one question at a time!" She grinned and laughed heartily as they told her about an incident at school involving the youngest Malfoy.

"You lot just keep away from him, hear?"

"Yes, Madame Rosmerta!" They chorused dutifully. She went off to get them some butterbeers and some snacks as well. Harry sat at his stool swinging his legs in time to the music sounding throughout the tavern.

The three of them stayed in there for at least an hour and a half, joining in on the dancing every so often, before it was time to head back near the train platform to meet their dads.

"I wish we could stay later..." Ron said, looking wistfully back at the now shut door to the tavern. "It's always so much fun and nothing good ever happens until after we leave."

"Like how Fletcher had so much to drink that he asked Madame Rosmerta to marry him and run away to his island?" Courtney asked, refreshing their memories of the stories that had circulated last year the day after Halloween. "An island on Jupiter? I mean, c'mon, he had to have been really drunk."

"Oh yea, like that!"

Harry stopped and looked at his two best friends. "You know what that means right?"

Both Ron and Courtney stood there, pretending to think.

"No, not really."

"This year is going to be different because we're going to do something that next year, people will still be talking about!" Harry whispered excitedly, checking around to make sure that no law-abiding witch or wizard was about; especially Moody, because he'd be after them for thinking to cause a ruckus. "Ron, Fred and George are coming over for the feast, right?" The twins were at Hogwarts, but were allowed to come home for the feast. Few students were allowed this privilege.

He nodded.

"Ok, so when we get back, we'll send them Fielding with a note asking them to bring whatever they've got."

"Why do they get to be in on this too?" Courtney complained. "This is just us, not them. And definitely not Anna, Rob, or Ginny."

"We need their help, that's why," Harry explained. "Unless you have any better ideas...?"

"I do, but send the note to them anyway, I'm sure they have something to add," Courtney reasoned. "After all, they'll be after us for not letting them in on all the fun that we're going to have tonight."

"Right, but what are we going to do?"

"We'll be home by nine, and the feast doesn't start until quarter till midnight, so we've got a little while to plan. This year we are going to do something that they will talk about for years to come. We're going to be famous tonight!"

Walking now with a little jaunt in their step, they hurried over to the platform where they could see the rest of their group waiting. Instead of walking back home, they were going to floo back since it would be much quicker.

"Have fun?" Remus asked once they were inside and James was preparing the fire. Each of them took a hand full of floo powder.

"Oh, yes. A lot of fun, really." Harry said, grinning. A moment later, and with a shout of "Godric's Hollow!", he was gone.

"It was a blast!" Ron agreed, and he too was gone.

"I didn't think that it could get any better than last year!" Courtney tripped on her way to the fire place, but still managed to say the destination correctly and again, she was gone.

"Is it just me, or is something going on that we're completely unaware of?" Jonathan was always quick to note behavior out of line, though this wasn't too hard to notice.

"Nah, they're just kids," Sirius put emphasis on the word kids and James gave him a look that would have made Lily proud as she was always giving the same look to him.

Moments later, they too were gone and the fire extinguished itself a minute later.

"I've got the letter written," Harry said, holding it up and tossing it to Ron who had Fielding. "I'm sure they'll get it just before they leave, so they'll be late."

"We can stall, make sure that no one notices anything," Courtney assured Harry.

"Good, otherwise mum would figure out what we were up to."

They sat together around Harry's desk with a several sheets of parchment in front of them and Courtney was scribbling away with the quill, not seeming to be able to write quickly enough. Harry and Ron were arguing quietly over what looked like a map.

"HARRY!" The three of them froze at the shout of Anna. Harry glanced over at the clock on the wall to see that the hands pointed to half past ten. It couldn't be time for anything yet, so Anna was just being her bothersome self. She banged on the door; loudly.

"Maybe," Courtney whispered, "If we're quiet, she'll go away."

"Not a chance," Ron and Harry whispered back simultaneously. "Not a chance in the world."

"Harry James Potter! I know that you are in there!"

"Right, so back to planning, do you two have the map sorted out?"

"Yes, well, all except where to place this one charm, we can't pick a good spot for it," Ron responded. "Fred and George will know, hopefully anyway."

"I'm not leaving until you come out!"

"Oh! Wait! I forgot about what Sirius gave me a few weeks back... he said that it would come in handy in a while," Harry said, thinking out loud, as he crawled under his bed. They heard Harry still muttering about something as he slid back a one foot by two foot section of the wall that revealed a hiding place for practical joke stuff. Sirius had also built that for him when he was eight.

"This book," he whispered, "Holds the secrets of The Marauders."

"No way..." Ron whistled, earning himself a jab in the ribs because Anna was still outside.

"Harry!" It sounded like she was getting more and more impatient.

"Right, so this book holds a record of every single prank they pulled off, or at least attempted, while they were at Hogwarts. It holds every detail from who the intended victim was to how the spells are to be performed. I'm sure that we can find some good, simple ones that we should be able to perform tonight."

Together, they opened the book and eagerly searched through all the hand written notes to try and find the perfect charm. Half an hour later, with map and charms in hand, as well as the book safely hidden away again, they walked out of Harry's room. Anna had given up trying to get Harry out of his room about ten minutes ago, which was lucky. Otherwise, she would have demanded to know what they were up to. She'd probably already found something else to distract her, ("Yea she probably found Rob..." Ron had suggested to which Courtney had responded to with an elbow to the stomach.)

"Right," Courtney rolled her eyes at Ron as he rubbed his now sore stomach. "So everyone is outside helping to set up," Courtney said. "So we'll give them another ten minutes or so, then we gotta start distracting so that they will not notice that Fred and George aren't here yet."

Swinging the door gently into the kitchen, they stepped through. In here was the fire place that was connected to the floo hub in Hogsmeade. Actually, it was connected to every floo hub in the world, but only certain people could use it. It was some security measure that had been in place ever since the house was built.

"But," Fred began from inside the pantry, "We got sent off earlier than expected, just shortly after we got your owl."

"And since we're here early, we can get this done earlier so we won't be as much of a suspect," George said, stepping out of the pantry after his brother. "Let's get this show on the road."

The prank was going to be tricky, very tricky. It would be a miracle if they did not get caught. But, if all went well, it was going to go down in history, especially since it was planned mainly by three ten year olds. Every charm had to be precise, which is what they needed Fred and George for. They could perform the more difficult charms with ease.

"Alright, go Courtney!" Ron said excitedly, giving Courtney a shove towards the door. She grinned and went out onto the back deck to tell her mom that they were all going back to their house to look at her new dog.

Fred leaned up against the window. "

"I think we've got an all clear... from what I can hear this far away anyway," he whispered to the three other boys. "C'mon, we have to hurry!"

The night sky was full of stars as they ran up the street towards where the Jones' lived. There, they would meet Courtney and floo out to Hogsmeade.

"Run!" Courtney yelled from the front door of her house. They scampered up the front steps and in through the front door. Courtney was already waiting by the fire place, her cloak wrapped around her, and floo pot in hand. "C'mon!!" she said anxiously.

Twenty minutes later, and with five cloak swishes, all of them stumbled through the fire place into Courtney's kitchen.

"Now that is a mission accomplished," Fred said in a false announcer voice. "All we have to do is wait until we hear the people talking!"

"Who cares about that now? Let's get out of here," Harry called from the kitchen; he was already making his way out the back door. If anything, he was not going to get caught for this ingenious prank. To be an excellent pranker at Hogwarts, and to follow in the Marauders footsteps, he'd have to learn to make a good get away.

"I'm going to beat you!" Ron yelled, sprinting down the dark, foggy street and out of view. It had gotten so foggy in the past half hour that you couldn't even see the house next door and the street lamps were just barely noticeable. All in all, it was creepy, even in the wizarding world.

"Not if I have anything to do with it!" Courtney hollered back, already half way down the street. Harry and the twins walked slowly, but not too slowly, back. It didn't do well to arrive back all out of breath and suspicious looking.

"I don't like this," George said, looking uneasy with every step closer towards the Potter residence. "

"It's eerie," Harry agreed. Lights flickered in the back yard and partying voices could be heard. He checked his watch; they had ten minutes before the feast would start. They wouldn't be suspected at all.

However, as they walked up the front steps onto the front porch, an uncomfortable feeling settled deep in his stomach and it wasn't planning on leaving for quite awhile. The house was dark as they walked further in and the buzz outside had come to a deathly quiet. It was like someone had put a silencing bubble around the party, which could be possible so as to not wake the neighbors.

But the neighbors were all here.

Coming to the kitchen, Fred and George immediately stopped in their tracks; frozen in their steps they didn't dare make another move. Harry nearly walked into the back of them, but managed to stop himself in time. The blinds were still open and outside, sure enough, was the party. But it wasn't a party like the one from the year before or even the year before that.

"James, Lily, so lovely to see you all again. I believe that it has been ten years?" The voice was cold and chilling to the bone.

"You're outnumbered, once again," James said, not a trace of his jokester self apparent. Harry had seen him angry, numerous times, but never like this.

Then man stroked his chin, as if thoughtfully, with his long and slender fingers. His thin, snake like eyes never left that of James Potter's. With a snap of his fingers, the yard was surrounded by hundreds of dark, cloaked people with wands pointed at every single person in the yard; many were pointed at Lily and Anna.

"Really?" He laughed a horrible laugh, one that would never leave Harry's nightmares. That laugh, it sounded so familiar; it haunted his dreams already.

George let a string of near-silent curse words, but he didn't dare try to step any closer. After all, this was unquestionably Lord Voldemort and from the stories that all children had over heard their parent's whispering, he wasn't a man to be crossed. Saying his name out loud warranted a horrible punishment.

"Leave." James commanded, pulling out his wand as well. "Leave and don't come back. You may have your little followers here with you, but they've been out of practice for ten years. I have my aurors here at my side that have never fallen out of practice. You take your choice."

It would be stupid, Harry decided, for his father or any of the aurors to dare do anything with so many people around. The casualty rate would certainly go up.

"But the party has just begun," Voldemort said, sounding much like a young child who did not want to go to bed so early. "I don't feel like leaving yet, do you boys?"

A hearty, bitter laugh rose up through the Death Eaters.

"Remember, Potter, the game has only just begun!" His voice was loud and commanding; at the same time, he gave a signal to his Death Eaters and they all apparated out of the yard. "You're right; it wasn't a fair fight at all. But you did not and do not have the advantage, Potter!"

In a split second, he whipped around and found Ron standing behind him. Giving Ron a wicked grin, he yelled, "Avadra Kedavra!!"

"NO!" Harry yelled, completely forgetting who had just killed his best friend. Voldemort saw Harry through the window.

"Ah, the young Potter. You'll have your turn." With a loud crack, Voldemort apparated away, leaving the Potter yard in havoc; leaving the wizarding world in a state it had not been in for ten years. Terror had risen once again.