Disclaimer for entire fic: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does and I am merely playing in her world.

James lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin. He sat up, one hand still on his scar, the other hand reaching out in the darkness for his glasses, which were on the bedside table. He put them on and his bedroom came into clearer focus, lit by a faint, misty orange light that was filtering through the curtains from the street lamp outside the window.

James ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. He turned on the lamp beside him, scrambled out of bed, crossed the room, opened his wardrobe, and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A skinny boy of fourteen looked back at him, his bright green eyes puzzled under his untidy black hair. He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.

James tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he had awoken. It had seemed so real… There had been two people he knew and one he didn't… He concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember… The dim picture of a darkened room came to him… There had been a snake on a hearth rug… a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail… and a cold, high voice… the voice of Tom Riddle. James felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into his stomach at the very thought…

He closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember what Voldemort had looked like, but it was impossible… All James knew was that at the moment when Voldemort's chair had swung around, and he, James, had seen what was sitting in it, he had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken him… or had that been the pain in his scar?

And who had the old man been? For there had definitely been an old man; James had watched him fall to the ground. It was all becoming confused. He put his face into his hands, blocking out his bedroom, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in his cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as he tried to hold on to them… Voldemort and Wormtail had been talking about someone they had killed, though James could not remember the name… and they had been plotting to kill someone else… him. Well, not just him. Kyle and Mari had been included, since they had been with him when facing Quirrell/Voldemort over the Philosopher's Stone. Voldemort had also asked Wormtail about Harry Potter, but when he was informed that the Boy-Who-Lived was still missing, Voldemort had decided to just settle for James at the moment.

James sighed, since he really was Harry Potter, but had not told the wizarding world at large. The only people who knew was the members of Unity, his adoptive siblings Stuart and Stella, Sirius, Remus, Dobby, Professor Snape, and the Weasley twins. Oh yeah, and there was the Japanese Minister of Magic and her closest and most trusted advisor. He sighed again, wondering how Voldemort would react if he found out that James Lydell and Harry Potter where one and the same.

James looked out the window, then decided that he had to tell someone about the dream. However, he really didn't want to tell anyone except his best friends for the time being. Eventually he would tell the rest of Unity, but that could wait until school started. He didn't want to put a damper on their enjoyment of the Quidditch World Cup, which would take place in about a week. He also decided to wait until after the end of the Cup to tell Sirius and Remus. He decided against telling his siblings, since it would just worry them and they'd become over-protective of him.

With that decided, James pulled on a sweater over his pajamas and then went to the room next door to wake up Kyle, who was staying over and would be going with him to the Cup. On the way out, James grabbed the three-way mirror Remus had given the trio for Christmas last year, so that they could talk to each other during the holidays. Mari wouldn't like being waken up at two in the morning, but she'd forgive James when she found out about the dream.

Kyle sat up in his bed, yawning, after he'd been shaken awake. He looked sleepily at his watch, then said, "It's two thirty in the morning, James. Why are you waking me up?"

"Because I had a dream," answered James. "And not the usual kind that I get. It had Moldyshorts and Wormtail in it, and an old guy that was eavesdropping and they killed."

Kyle was instantly awake. He stared at his friend, shocked. "Are you serious? And why are you telling me and not Sirius about the dream?"

"Because you're my best friend and I always tell you things. And I don't want to tell Sirius about it until after the World Cup. I don't want him being worried right now. Now, I'm going to call Mari so I can tell the two of you the details at the same time." James looked down at the mirror in his hand and said clearly, "Mariko Kishi."

There was a small flash of light and a buzzing noise. After a couple of minutes, the face of Mari appeared in the mirror. She looked distinctly annoyed. "James Evan Lydell-Black, you better have a very good reason for waking me up at two thirty in the morning. Or are you responsible for this, Kyle Benjamin Melling-Carter?"

"I had a strange dream about Riddle and Wormtail," replied James. "They were plotting something. There was also an old guy that was listening in on them and then Riddle killed him. When I woke up, my scar was hurting, and it hasn't hurt since first year, when Moldyshorts was possessing Quirrell."

The annoyed look disappeared from Mari's face. "Tell us everything you can remember about the dream, James," she ordered.

James did so, a look of frustration on his face as many of the details had slipped away from his memory once he'd woken up. All he could tell his best friends was that Wormtail and Riddle were discussing someone they had killed, that Harry Potter had still not been found, and some sort of plot to kill James and possibly his best friends since Potter wasn't in the picture. There had also been a giant snake, who had told Riddle about the old man eavesdropping on the conversation, and then the death of the man.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Kyle, a look of horror on his face. "Is our fourth year going to turn out being eventful too, with attempts on our life?"

"You know perfectly well that it already was going to be eventful, Kyle," scolded Mari. "I told you about the Triwizard Tournament being reinstated, only it's being called the Quartet Quest since the Mahoutokoro School of Magic was asked to take part in it with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to further Britain's relationship with Japan."

"But now instead of just being excited about the Quartet Quest, we also have to worry about a plot against us," said James. "Well, it's mainly against me, but since you guys are my best friends and stood with me when facing Riddle over the Philosopher's Stone, you're also targets, just lesser ones."

"Well, go write down every detail of the dream you remember in your commonplace book and I'll Floo over tomorrow morning to further talk with you and Kyle about it. Or rather, later today, since technically it's already morning. I suppose you want to wait until after school starts to tell the rest of Unity about the dream?"

"Yeah," said James.

"All right, then Kyle and I won't say a word about it to anyone else until after you've done so," said Mari briskly. "And you might want to consider if your scar might have some sort of connection to Riddle, which would explain it hurting and the dream, which most likely is more of a vision of real-life events."

"I was wondering the same thing," said Kyle. "Riddle apparently already accidentally passed on some of his powers, like Parseltongue, to James when he attempted to kill him."

James made a face. "Great, I have a connection with the most evil person in living memory through my scar. Did Fate decide that I didn't have an unpleasant enough childhood and so see to it that I discover bad things in my life now?"

"Well, you would still find out these things even if your relatives had kept you and didn't leave you at Sunnybrook Orphanage," pointed out Kyle. "In that case, everyone would know who you really are, Mari and I probably wouldn't be your best friends, Unity might not have formed, and you'd be brought up by people that at best would neglect you."

James made another face. "Okay, I know my life could have been worse before I started Hogwarts. I'm going to write down the dream in my commonplace book and let you two go back to sleep. See you later, Mari."

"Good-night, James," said Mari. "Or rather, good-morning." She then ended the connection. James nodded at Kyle and then returned to his room to write down the dream.