I am what I am.And that ain't JKR.

Prelude
REBIRTH

It was the dead of the night.The summer holidays had just begun and the grounds stood deserted.Harry pulled up his Invisibility Cloak and peeped through Hagrid's window, seeking re-assurance that the gamekeeper truly was asleep.He heard Hagrid grunt, and, apparently satisfied, made his way up the castle.

A stifling mist hung as he walked up the flight of stone steps and faced the huge, oak front door that led to the Entrance Hall.He felt a pang of guilt as he proceeded to unyoke the door with the keys he'd swiped off Hagrid.But this sorrow was soon forgotten in the face of the larger, ominous mission of his that lay ahead; for the boy who had witnessed Dumbledore die seemed to have dissolved in the man Harry had become.This man proceeded ahead, moving through the corridors and staircases with the air of a warrior on his ultimate quest.

*

The stone gargoyle now lay in front of him as he contemplated, yet again, the righteousness of his plans.His face seemed to mirror a quiet inward satisfaction and he stepped ahead , breaking out of his reverie.He mentally registered how extremely ugly the gargoyle was, and muttered,"Fizzing Whizzbees".
Good, so McGonagall hadn't changed the password......yet.
And, as Harry reminded himself mirthlessly, he would probably out of her office long before she actually did.

*

The moonlight played on the strange silver instruments that stood on the table in the Headmistress' Office.Oddly enough, they were silent and still instead of whirring and emitting puffs of smoke as they usually did.

As he slithered out of the Invisibility Cloak, Harry reeled back with shock : a shallow stone basin engraved with runes and symbols lay in the half open cupboard in the Office. And swirling in it, silvery-white, lay strands of that reminiscent liquid-gas substance; like ethereal churnings in a crystal-ball, prophetic of the time to come.

"Aah," said a comfortingly familiar voice coming from somewhere behind him,"fancy a midnight fix of Butterbeer, Harry, eh?"

And Harry slowly turned around to face the bemused portrait of the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts had ever known : Albus Dumbledore.


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