Heart of Shadows

Heart of Shadow

For Tim, "Sorry I couldn't come."

As Harry brushed his teeth, he looked out the window in his common room. Thunderheads gathered over the forbidden forest and stretched back into the horizon. Harry had never been to the ocean, but he imagined that this was what the ocean must look like before a big storm. The clouds moved around like a swirling pot of Polyjuice Potion. The grey would mix with darker grey, and then change its shade even more. Harry was beginning to wonder if this was a normal storm, or some sort of powerful magic.

As Harry finished brushing, his mind wandered to something he had dreamed last night, but as soon as his mind got a grasp on it, it was gone. All he could remember was something small, something that shined. He dismissed it from his mind, for he had more stuff to worry about, like Double Potions with Slytherin. Oh, how he hated to deal with Snape and Malfoy at the same time.

* * *

"Boom!" the caldron sounded as Neville put just a little too much flesh eating slug blood into his potion. The contents splashed all over poor Neville and his unlucky lab partner, Seamus. They were concocting a hair removal potion, and even before they knew what was happening, Seamus and Neville were totally bald! Every one began to laugh, even the Gryffindor, but there were two people who had other things on their minds.

Harry kept swirling his potion while Ron was crying with laughter, barely able to put the correct amount of powdered newt into the mixture. Harry, how ever, was concentrating on the potion, trying to keep his mind off his dream, and his scar. It was currently throbbing with a dull fury, but as he walked down the halls to Potions, it had been a blinding pain, and he had been barely able to stand it. But now it throbbed ever so gently, just enough so he would not forget it was there, but not enough to cause substantial pain. It throbbed like the first year he came to Hogwarts; the year Voldermort came back. His mind then began to wander, from last year's tragedies, to this year's quietness. Nothing unusual had happened over the summer. Nothing unusual had happened during the school year until recently, with the dreams, the pain, and of course, the silence. No year at Hogwarts had ever been this quiet, not to Harry's knowledge that is. The school year was almost half over, and yet nothing of great strangeness had happened.

There was only one other person in the class that was thinking the same thing Harry was thinking and that person was probably anybody would have thought of.

* * *

Snape's thoughts wandered, but they never got far before remembering the dull pain on his arm. When he woke up this morning, it was because of the mark. The skull was a deep pale now, but the tongue was turning acid green. Yes, the dark lord was coming, and he was coming soon. But what was he planning.

Voldermort had told Snape once, "Snape, you will always serve me, won't you (and to this Snape had nodded his head), yes, that is why you are my prized pupil, you are more loyal than all the others, you will be my spy. Yes, you will be my eyes and ears in the place that was once my school, as it was yours. That is why you are the best."

* * *

"Harry, HARRY!?" Hermione said to Harry. Harry jumped, almost spilling his juice on himself.

"What Hermione?" Harry asked, with a hint of frustration in his voice.

"Harry, your mind is wandering again, you poured yourself two glasses of juice into one cup (as she said this, Harry noticed that the table was covered in orange juice around his seat), your upset about something, please tell us what it is!"

"Yeah Harry, you were totally distracted today in potions. You didn't even pay attention when Neville and Seamus went bald (and as Ron said this, the trio looked down the table at the shiny heads of the two unfortunate students)." Ron said as he munched on a piece of buttered bread.

"Well, to tell you the truth," Harry explained, "I have been having some strange dreams lately." And then in a whisper of a voice, "And my scar has been hurting." As soon as Harry said this, three things happened: one, Hermione and Ron both looked up, eyes startled, two, the door to the hall blew open with a gust of wind from nowhere, and three, Harry felt a great stab of pain in his forehead and fainted.