"Kill the spare!" An all too familiar voice rang out. Before either of them had the time to react, a flash of green light came towards them.

Harry felt his legs freeze as it got closer, no matter how much he wanted to move, to get Cedric and himself out of harms way, he couldn't. He was forced to watch as the spell hit Cedric and the life drained from his eyes, leaving them cold and unfeeling as they stared up at him.

He screamed as he watched Voldemort rise from the cauldron, trying every spell he could think of to get out of there, to get back to the safety of Hogwarts, but nothing worked.

As if to make matters worse, he heard the angered yelling of Vernon and Petunia, their voices accompanied by a pounding that seemed to reverberate around his head.

"Brat!! You better shut up or so help me you will be back under the stairs!!!" Vernon yelled, Harry finally waking up, drenched in sweat and panting hard. Raising his hand to his face he realised he had been crying.

"If you think this is a time for us to be awake, get up and start on your chores. My garden won't tend itself." Petunia added, sounding like she wanted to wring Harry's neck.

Feeling that the air was already warm, Harry checked the time, 3:15 in the morning. Way too early to be up and working, but it's not like he was going to get any more sleep anyway. Ever since the Triwizard Tournament last year, Harry hadn't been sleeping well, catching a few hours here and there, but never anything restful. Every time he closed his eyes he remembered what had happened, some nights even the flash of annoyance on Dumbledore's face as he described how he escaped.

He had never been more glad that Dudley had put a lock in this room when they were little in order to keep Harry out, not that he had ever been in here before he was 11 anyway. He had been using it to at least create an air of safety, even though he knew it was fake. He was alone with the Dursleys, afraid of the events that had happened only a few weeks ago, and completely clueless about the wizarding world.

He knew that Ron and Hermione weren't trying to shut him out, they were just doing what Dumbledore told them, accepting he had their best interests at heart, but in truth all they were doing was isolating him. It was almost worse than second year, at least then the greatest dark wizard wasn't back and he didn't have to hide under the window in the hopes to listen to the news, only to hear about the child of two celebrities.

Harry stayed quiet, waiting to hear the footsteps of his aunt and uncle walk back down the hall to their room for another few hours of sleep, before he got up and dressed. It took him hours to tend to the garden, the unusually hot summer and drought making the ground hard and unyielding.

He had to dash in again at 9 to make breakfast for everyone, hoping Petunia and Vernon would be finished in time for the morning news, knowing that if he worked near the window he would be able to hear, hoping for something more useful than celebrity gossip.

-----

That evening had not gone well, he just hoped that he wouldn't be expelled from Hogwarts, if he was... What would he even do at that point? Sirius had offered for them to live together, but he honestly wasn't sure if his godfather even had a house. Then again, Harry would be happy to live on the run with Sirius if it meant he didn't have to live with the Dursleys.

Harry was shaking, there was no chance of him sleeping that night, his mother's screams echoing around in his head, Cedric's dead, empty eyes looking into his soul every time he closed his eyes.

-----

Harry was having that dream again, green light filling his mind, the people Voldemort killed surrounding him, only this time they were hissing insults at him.

"You're useless."

"Why didn't you save me?"

"I wish I never had you."

"We should have thrown you out."

"Harry, you're hitting the wall, you're going to hurt yourself." Ron's tired, half asleep voice joined the swarm of noise in his mind

Curling himself into a ball, Harry brought his bruised hand close to him, finally feeling the pain. He was truly tangled into the covers, them almost stopping him from breathing. His cheeks were once again covered in tears, and he found himself unable to stop the trembling.

Since coming back to Hogwarts, the nightmares almost seem to have gotten worse, more detailed. He could see every part of the face of his mother, although in his dream she didn't look like the one picture he had of them, probably because her face was twisted in anger.

The other boys had taken to casting silencing charms so they could actually sleep at night, although Ron's was weak enough that he could tell if it got really bad, waking Harry up if he could.

Hermione knew that he had nightmares, occasionally suggesting he went to Mme Pomfrey for a sleeping potion when he came down with bags under his eyes, but she didn't know how bad they were. The boys had all gotten into the routine of casting the silencing charms, they didn't notice when Harry wasn't even in the dorm.

More nights than not, Harry would wander the halls in his invisibility cloak, trying to get the image of that evening out of his head. If there was ever a time for the mirror of Erised, this would be it, but he wasn't sure what would be in it. Would he see his family as he did in first year, or would he see something else?

Having more time to think this year than he had previously, spending less of it asleep, Harry realised that he didn't hate Draco Malfoy like he always thought. No, as well as the many nights reading the textbooks both from this year and the years prior, able to recite them word for word at this point, Harry had realised he was gay. Not that he was read to come out to Ron and Hermione yet.

-----

In his office, Dumbledore smiled, the events this summer had been better than he could have ever hoped for, the Zabini brat felt rather isolated, not that his friends seemed to notice. The only thing to do now was to get them to turn their backs on him, and he knew just the thing to make that happen.

On her perch where she was chained, Fawkes let out an angered cry. This man was not deserving of his compliments nor titles, he was not a man of the light.

Outside the office, a student with long hair with a pale blue tip listened to what Fawkes had to say. After hearing their fill, the first year skipped away, disappearing after they rounded the corner.

"We will be needed soon, I have left our spell."