“Well mate,” Ron yawned as he stretched his arms high over his head, “I’m going up. You comin’?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a sec. I just have one more inch left on Professor McGonagall’s essay,” Harry answered.

Ron walked upstairs to the dormitory, his school books and bag in tow. Hermione had finished her work and gone back to her room an hour before, now it was only Harry in the common room.

Harry was quite proud of himself. This was the first night in about a month where he had actually finished a homework assignment on his own, with no assistance from Hermione. He was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate, especially with Voldemort freely wandering the planet. Harry never felt safe, and he was always thinking about that time in the near future-when he would face Voldemort for the last time. One of them would have to die.

Harry banished the thought from his mind and stuffed his things into his school bag. But as he walked towards the door that led to the common rooms he noticed a half burnt piece of parchment lying in the empty fireplace. Wondering if it was anything important, Harry picked it up and examined it. He was shocked when he realized what it was.

He slowly walked up stairs to the dormitories reading what was written the whole time. Not believing a word the parchment said, and yet being incredibly intrigued as to who the author was. When he reached the dormitory, he gave Ron the parchment and told him to read it.

“Hell Harry, what is it about you?” Ron smirked after reading what was written. “No matter what the rest of us do it’s always you that winds up with all the attention and all the fame and all the money and all the gir…”

Thankfully for Harry, Ron’s comical tirade was stopped short by a loud snore from Dean’s bed.

“It’s nothing Ron. Probably some crazy first year like Ginny was. Nothing for you to get all crabby about,” Harry mocked playfully.

Ron had a point though. No matter what Harry did he always wound up with all the fame and fortune. Everybody wanted to be around him, everybody wanted to know him. Hell, everybody wanted to be him. He wished that sometimes he could just be a normal sixteen year old boy, and not a hero.

Harry sighed as Ron began to snore quietly from his bed, and soon, he followed suit.

It was very dark. The only light came from a fireplace directly behind her Master. It was placed so that He could see her, but He was barely visible. But it didn’t matter. Her Master did not need to be seen to be feared or awed. His height alone was astonishing. And His voice, you could never get over that voice. You could never escape or run from that icy cold and calculating voice.

“My Lord,” the girl managed to whisper. She was on her hands and knees, her head bowed as low as was possible. She wasn’t entirely sure if such an act was appropriate, but better to over do the worship than under do it. This was the first time she had ever been in the presence of The Master.

“Why have you come here?” His voice showed no emotion. She could not tell whether he was angry or pleased. It unnerved her, but she refused to whimper like a baby before the man that she had been taught to worship her whole life.

“I wish to help you My Lord,” her voice grew stronger with every syllable she uttered. This she knew, this she could do. She had spent months planning this speech, thinking over her plan. It was foolproof. She had access to everything needed, and she was in the perfect position to carry out the most important work of The Master.

“With what? Your are but a child, and a rather puny one at that,” she could now hear the traces of humor in His voice. But as respectful as she knew she must be, she had come much too far to be humiliated in front of her Master. And nobody called her puny.

“I have come here because I have direct access to something that you may be very interested in, My Lord.”

“And what is that, my dear?” His voice was mocking, at the moment. But with her next words the smile was gone from His lips and He became the serious man that was Voldemort.

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, my Master, and Harry Potter.”

“You’ll never guess what Harry found last night in the fireplace, Hermione,” Ron uttered between bites of food. They were all seated at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Hermione had just arrived and Ron, of course, had immediately jumped into the tale.

“What Ron? A half burnt log that resembled a Snitch?” Hermione asked sarcastically.

“No, better! A love note-for him!” Ron started laughing uncontrollably at his own comment. So hard, in fact, that he fell out of his seat and needed to be helped back up by both Harry and Hermione.

“It’s not a big deal,” Harry said after Ron was once again safely seated at the table. “I don’t even know who wrote it, the whole bottom of the letter was burned off. Ron, though, had to make a big deal about it.”

“Like hell it’s not a big deal, Harry. Come on Hermione, pick on him a little. He has a secret admirer. Oh come on,” Ron shouted as Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up to leave the table. “Don’t you even want to know what it said?”

“Ron, I have no interest in Harry’s love life whatsoever. Why should I care if some girl likes him and wrote him a letter? It’s also none of my business, just like it’s none of your business; and if Harry found it in the fireplace than it was obviously not supposed to have been any of his business either,” and with that Hermione left the Great Hall.

“What the bloody hells got into her?” Ron asked Harry, who just shrugged.

Hermione walked as quickly from the Great Hall as she possibly could without looking suspicious. She knew that her face was red and flustered and she could feel her heart beating fast.

“What if he found out?”

But that wasn’t possible; Ron had said the whole bottom of the letter had been burned off. She couldn’t believe the nerve of Ron, asking her if she wanted to know what it said.

“Shit!” she cursed out loud, which was something she never did. But how could this have happened? No, Hermione didn’t need to know what the letter said. She already knew.

“Damn it, how could I have been so stupid to write something like that?”

Harry pulled the half-burned letter out of robe for the sixth time that day.

Dearest Harry, There is so much I’m longing to tell you about my feelings. I yearn to say that you are the subject of my every dream. You are the one that makes my face blush and my heart flutter. No matter how close I am to you, I’m never close enough. I try my hardest to pay attention in class and to study, but my mind always wanders to your face. I love you Harry. I love you more than you can ever imagine. And all I can do is hope that one day you will love me too. Maybe one day you will realize that I……

That was all Harry could read, the rest of the letter had been burned away in the fire. He stopped in the middle of the corridor and stared at the words. The writing was familiar, but that didn’t mean a lot. Harry couldn’t understand it, from the moment he had read the letter last night, he could not get it out of his head. For some reason he felt a very strong connection with the writer, whoever she was.

Harry’s imagination ran wild every time he read the letter.

“She dreams about me? What kind of dreams?� Harry wondered. Was he being heroic in her dreams, or romantic, or… What was he doing?

“Damn it,� Harry whispered. He was getting all worked up about a stupid love letter written by some anonymous girl. But just the same, there was something about this letter that he recognized. Every time Harry read the letter a name would be on the very tip of his tongue, but before he realized who it was the letter would end, and the name would retreat again to the back of his mind.

“Hey mate,� Ron came running down the stairs from the dormitories. Harry quickly stuffed the letter into his pocket, not wanting Ron to break into another harassing barrage of jokes.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late for Care of Magical Creatures if you don’t stop staring at the floor and get your ass moving. Hurry Harry,� Ron laughed as he half drug Harry down the corridor. But Harry wasn’t paying any attention to Ron, because once again his mind had drifted to the mysterious letter and the identity of the writer. Was it possible that he was really infatuated with someone he didn’t even know? It couldn’t be love could it?

Harry smiled. Love. That’s what the letter had said-love. Every time he read that letter his heart would swell and he would yearn to know who the author was. In fact, Harry wouldn’t admit it, but he had become addicted to the words on the parchment. He knew he had become secretly infatuated with this invisible and anonymous girl, and all Harry could do was pray that he would find out who the author of the letter was. Soon.

There he was. God, didn’t he ever brush his hair? Not that it mattered. If her plan went as smoothly as she hoped he would be dead soon. Him, and anyone else who got in her way. Including that pathetic Ron Weasley and know it all Hermione Granger.

“Ugh!� she thought. There was that oaf Hagrid. Care of Magical Creatures was undoubtedly her least favorite class, and it was not made any better by the fact that they were taught by that disgusting monster.

This was something new, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had never had this class together before. Usually the Gryffindors had this class with Slytherin and History of Magic with Ravenclaws. But, Dumbledore had decided to juggle some things around this year. No matter, she could spy and watch her pray anywhere- be it outside or in a cramped and boring classroom.

“Righ’ everyone, gather ‘roun,� Hagrid called in his clumsy and poor English. She walked closer to him with the rest of the class, wondering what kind of deadly animal from the forest they would be facing again today.

“Now, today’s gonna be a bit simpler ‘en usual. I managed to lure a couple er Tree Nymphs up to me home. So terday, wer gonna be watchin ‘em and playin’ wit ‘em.�

Tree Nymphs-they looked like twigs, until you pissed one the hell off and then they all played their favorite game of “fuck you up.� The Golden Trio, of course, were the first to get within three feet of where Hagrid had placed the Nymphs. And feeling the need to protect their pet, Hagrid, proceeded to try and grab a couple from their cage.

“Now what er ya doin? That aint ‘ow ya catch a Tree Nymph! Ya gotta kinda sweet talk ‘em a little, coax ‘em outta there. Their jus’ a bit frigh’ened, thas all,� Hagrid stated bluntly, and as usual he was perfectly oblivious to the obvious danger that these tiny camouflaged creatures exhibited.

She continued to watch as that Granger girl held her hand out to the nearest Tree Nymph. She started making some strange cooing noises, obviously what she considered coaxing, but it didn’t seem to work as many of the Nymphs began hissing at her. They even began making the same cooing noise back at her. The smart ass girl stood up quickly and glanced at Hagrid, who continued to smile his dumb oblivious smile.

But within a matter of five minutes, the entire class had managed to group up with someone and acquire a Nymph. The girl glanced across at Cho Chang, Harry Potter’s previous squeeze and the girl she had gotten stuck with as a partner. Who Harry was fucking now, not even she knew-yet.

Chang kept going on and on about how cute the living twig in front of them was, to which the girl simply responded with a grunt and an occasional “Uh-huh�. There is no escaping the idiots at this school, is there. She had managed to drag Cho to a place that was a reasonable distance away from the Golden Trio, however, and with the charm she had earlier placed on herself, she had no problems listening in on their conversation.

Like usual, it was a completely worthless topic, something about Harry’s newest secret admirer. Weasley was making a big deal out of it, just as he does everything else; but Granger shockingly, was trying to be completely oblivious in the conversation.

“Not very much like the snappy, loud-mouthed, know-it-all Ms Granger to stay silent during one of Weasleys outbursts.� she thought. Interesting, maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult to figure out whom Potter’s squeeze was after all; and besides, it had been obvious that him and Granger were going to get together sometime. For some reason, Potter had never been able to keep his eyes of Granger’s ass.

Finally, class was over. The girl was the last to leave Hagrids cabin, however, she didn’t want to be seen by the Golden Trio. She walked up the hill towards Hogwarts quite alone, everyone else in the class was very far ahead of her, but then she felt a sharp poke in her left leg. She spun around, flinging a tiny Tree Nymph onto the ground in front her. The nymph stood up and immediately started jabbering at her, shaking it’s tiny fist, and readying a small blast of magic to shoot at the girl that stood before it.

“So that’s your game, huh?� she said, leaning down close so that she could look the nymph in the eye. “You are rude and stupid enough to follow me, and then you threaten me as if it was I who inconvenienced you!� she smiled when the Nymph grew quiet. Its tiny eyes began to grow, but they weren’t allowed to get as big as they could have.

“Avada Kedavra!�

Binn’s class, History of Magic. It has no competition as the most boring subject in the whole school. Harry yawned and stared with glazed eyes at the see through Professor Binns. Ron was snoring quietly beside him, but as usual, Hermione was the only one in the class paying attention and taking feverish notes.

His secret admirer flashed through his mind quickly and he smiled. To think, that somewhere in this school, possibly in this class, there was a girl who was raptly in love with him. He yawned again and decided he would attempt to pay attention.

Harry grabbed his quill and became writing a few snatches if Professor Binns’ speech down on his blank parchment. But Harry’s attempts were futile and within a minute he was once again thinking about that love letter.

“This is insane, I can’t even think.� Harry thought to himself. Harry glanced over at Hermione’s notes to see where she was. He went back to writing on his paper—

Harry’s mind went blank, and without moving his head he looked again down at Hermione’s paper; and their, in notes concerning the Second Wizard Wars of the 1000’s, was the same handwriting that filled his love letter.

Hermione glanced at Harry, wondering what he was doing. Her eyes met his and she realized what had just happened. She glanced down at her notes, and then back into Harry’s eyes which hadn’t moved. He was staring wide eyed at her, as if seeing her for the first time. Realizing that Hermione had never been just a friend, there had always been something else there. A need to be with her, and urge to protect her, and a want to make her happy. Now Harry could understand it, in fact, he understood everything.

He had felt such a strong connection with the author of the letter because he knew the author. And he wasn’t infatuated with the author, he realized it now, staring into her eyes, he had always loved Hermione. He always would.

He wanted to reach towards her, tell her he loved her. He wanted to hold her tighter than he had ever held anyone before, but just when he made a move the bell rang.

Hermione could not believe she had just zoned out for the last ten minutes of class, and in Harry’s eyes no less. But God, they were beautiful. The bell had snapped her out of her trance though, and she realized now, he knew.

She grabbed her school bag as fast as she could and ran out of the classroom. She had to get away from Harry, she had to. She didn’t know why, but she had always felt guilty for loving him. But now he knew; now it was different. How could she stay away from him? Just as Hermione stopped at the staircase, wondering where she should go now, she was grabbed by the arm from behind. She spun around to come face to face with the very boy she was trying to hide from.

Harry did nothing but look into her eyes, her big beautiful amber eyes. Why had he never noticed them before? He gently led Hermione outside the castle and down by the lake. Luckily it wasn’t too cold today. He sat her down on a bench and looked at her. Her eyes, her lips, her long curly hair that always smelled of Strawberries he now realized. She looked back at him, biting her lip. Her heart was beating fast; he knew it from her letter.

“You love me, don’t you?� Harry asked her. Hermione bowed her head and said nothing. He placed his finger beneath her chin and pushed her head back up so that her eyes could meet his. He shook his head no.

“Don’t be scared, or ashamed, or whatever,� he said, “just tell me�.

“I love you,� her voice was quiet, but strong. Her eyes showed conviction and they mirrored her words. Harry leaned down close to her ear, breathing in the scent of her hair. He had always known her hair smelled like strawberries, he must be in love. Why had it taken him this long to realize it?

“I love you too,� he whispered into her ear. then he moved his lips so that they touched hers. He placed his arm around Hermione, continuing to kiss her. She kissed him back, softly. It was the nicest thing he had ever experienced. Cho’s kiss was a slobbery dog lick compared to this.

“Holy shit!� he thought, “I’m in love with my best friend�.

As Harry kissed Hermione he was unaware of the eyes watching him from the other side of the lake. An evil smile grew across her face as she watched the couple on the bench. They were happy now. But she would make sure it didn’t last very long. She was determined to strip Potter of everything he cared about and everything he had. Starting with his friends, moving on to his new fuck toy, then his sanity, and last -- his life.

“You will pay for what you did to the Dark Lord, insolent bastard. And everyone you’ve come close to will pay as well.” She new that as soon as Potter started to fall the only thing in her way would be Dumbledore, and the Dark Lord had promised to take care of that senile old man.

“Count your days Potter, because before you know it, your world will be spiraling beyond anyone’s control.”

Harry’s kisses had started as tender pecks and tingles of sensation. But the longer he kissed her, and the longer Hermione continued to meet his every move, he could only kiss her more deeply. He began to kiss her harder, he pressed closer to her on the bench. His hands wrapped around the small of her back and under her robes. His fingers began to stroke the skin between her school shirt and her skirt. All this time Hermione continued to kiss him back, her arms had encircled his neck, keeping him from going up for air. They sat on the bench, oblivious to everything and everyone. Even oblivious to the girl standing across the lake.

Harry’s hands began to crawl under Hermione’s shirt and up her back. He didn’t know what he was doing; he just knew it felt right. His hands continued to move, encouraged only by Harry’s hardness and Hermione’s refusal to stop this craziness. Harry began to lay Hermione down on the bench, his hands moving from her back to her front. Hermione moaned when she felt his hands on her bellybutton, her moaned turned into a gasp when his hand grazed across her bra.

“I’m sorry,” said Hermione quickly.

“No, don’t be. It was my fault,” Harry stammered, greatly embarrassed. “I was the one who kissed you, you didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t try to stop you,” Hermione countered. Her face looked scared and nervous, but inside she was smiling. She had never felt like that before. Never in a million years had she ever imagined that Harry would do such a thing -- to her. She had only ever dreamed it. She was also trying very hard not to laugh at Harry. She knew perfectly well what he was hiding; she had felt it -- she had been the cause of it, she now realized!

Hermione let out a laugh, she couldn’t help it. Harry turned around quickly and looked at her, not carrying anymore about hiding his passion from the girl that had caused it. He looked at her and laughed also. He now realized how utterly ridiculous this whole situation was. He had meant to find out whether Hermione was his secret admirer or not, and he had wound up practically fucking her right here on the bench. He leaned toward her and gave her another quick peck on the lips, just to show that he was OK.

He didn’t know what to think. This realization was beyond anything he had ever expected to know, or see. He supposed he should be happy for them. But inside, Ron’s heart ached. Ever since fourth year he had pined for Hermione, never daring to act because of their friendship. He had been jealous of Viktor Krum, but how could he be jealous of Harry -- how could he be jealous of his best friend? Ron was not angry, just filled with sadness. Ron had been shocked when Harry and Hermione had run out of History of Magic as soon as the bell had run. So he had run after them through the halls, only to come across the tender scene that he had just witnessed-his two best friends making out on a bench.

Ron shook his head. Did they have to do that kind of stuff in broad daylight? Couldn’t they get a room or something? It didn’t take Professor Trelawney to figure out that Ron was not only upset by his friends’ conduct, but shocked at the fact the were getting it on in plane view of, well, everyone.

He looked back in the direction of his friends. They were acting very embarrassed. Hmm, I wonder why. Ron shook his head and walked back into the school. He stopped at the stairs to wait for Harry and Hermione who were on their way in.

They both stopped when they saw Ron, neither knowing what to say or do.

“Uh, Ron…mate. I, uh, figured out who my secret admirer was,” Harry told him.

“Yeah, I saw,” Ron answered.

“You saw!” Hermione covered her mouth and looked at Harry; he too looked even more embarrassed than he already had.

“Don’t worry about it. Shit happens,” Ron waved his hand at the shocked Hermione. “Besides, I’m your friend. Why should I care whether or not you two have the hots for each other.” Just then, a hooded figure ran in from outside and ran into Harry.

“Watch where you’re going, you bastard!” a feminine voice spat out from underneath the hood.

“Now just a second,” Ron shouted as he grabbed the arm of the girl as she made to walk away, “you ran into him. You’re the one that should be apologizing.” The girl moved to hit Ron for delaying her in the entryway, but Ron was too quick and threw her down on the ground. She jumped up quickly, throwing her hood off, and ran toward Ron.

“Miss Edgecombe that is enough!”

The girl stopped and looked at the Ravenclaw Head Girl that had just appeared from the Great Hall.

“How dare you act that way, especially towards Mr. Harry Potter and his companions,” Penelope Clearwater stated. “First you shall apologize, and then you shall proceed directly back to our common room and write fifty lines stating that you will never be rude again!”

“Yes Penelope.”

“I apologize to all of you. I’m afraid Marietta Edgecombe has not been very fond of you three since the incident with Professor Umbridge last year. I shall see that this does not happen again,” Penelope apologized to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Harry, Ron and Hermione walked into the Great Hall for lunch. Unaware of the hate filled eyes that continued to watch them.

“You’re positive that it was an unforgivable curse that killed the Nymph, Severus?”

“Positive, Headmaster. In fact, I can tell you that it was in fact the Avada Kedavra curse that killed the creature,” Snape answered Dumbledore.

Hagrid had come across the dead Nymph less than an hour before as he walked to the castle for lunch. He was now sitting in a corner of Dumbledore’s office, crying loudly and uncontrollably.

“Hagrid?” Dumbledore questioned. “Hagrid? You need to tell me exactly what happened today, and when and how you found the Nymph.”

“Well, I had ter kids studyin them Tree Nymph en me class. One of da Slytherin girls found ‘im dead on ‘er way to me class. Made a load a ruckuss, she did, but dats when I found Twiggy.” At that, he once again broke into a chorus of loud sobs.

Dumbledore walked over to Hagrid and lay his hand on the half-Giants back. Snape rolled his eyes, What kind of a name is Twiggy? Professor McGonagall was also seated in front of Dumbledore’s desk; lost deep in thought.

Dumbledore stood up. “Who could have killed the Nymph? I have put protection charms around the school grounds myself to ensure that no Death Eaters come onto the grounds, and even if they did manage, none of them would be dumb enough to leave such a tell tale clue that they had been here. It would only serve to improve security at the school,” it was quite clear that Dumbledore was mumbling to himself as he paced the small office. Something he rarely did in the company of the Hogwarts staff.

“Headmaster, if I may suggest…” Snape started.

“No Severus! No! I will not be persuaded to believe that one of our students killed this creature,” he pointed to ‘Twiggy’ who was lying on his desk. “I simply will not believe it.”

“But Headmaster,” Snape continued, “There are students at the school, many of whom in my Slytherin group, who have parents who are known Death Eaters. It would be an easy feat for those students to learn such a terrible spell. And it would be great fun to them to be able to use it, especially on such a creature. You must entertain the possibility, Headmaster, of a student's being responsible for this act.”

Dumbledore sat back down behind his desk and placed his head in his hands. He was busy and stressed enough with the war to think about. How was he supposed to take the news that either Death Eaters had access to the Hogwarts grounds, or a student at the school could perform the most heinous spell ever known to the wizarding world? It certainly wasn’t welcome news to the tired Headmaster.

“Hagrid, I am very sorry about Twiggy,” Dumbledore told him. “Why don’t you go back up to your cabin, make yourself some tea and get some rest? We will find the perpetrator, don’t you worry.”

As Hagrid left the Headmasters office Dumbledore looked around at Snape, McGonagall, and Lupin. “Minerva, Severus, Remus, I want you three to keep your eyes and ears open for anything suspicious. Notify Filch of the incident and tell him to be aware. If by any chance this is a student, there is nothing stopping him or her from turning on classmates or Hogwarts staff. If a Death Eater is indeed behind the attack, then we are in a great amount of trouble indeed.”

McGonagall, Snape and Lupin left the room together and Dumbledore’s gaze fell to the only remaining person in the room-Amanda Drowry. Drowry was the new Defense Against the Arts teacher. She had not been Dumbledore’s first choice due to her parents’ dealing with Voldemort when he last reigned, but her knowledge and powers in the Dark Arts in their counter curses was irrefutable. She was the best any American school had ever produced.

“Amanda,” Dumbledore said, “forgive me or anyone else that may have even the slightest notion that you were behind this. I know you were in class at the time, and I know that just because your parents had followed the wrong path does not mean that you do or that you must. I ask that you help us find whoever is behind this.”

“Headmaster,” Drowry replied, “I came to Hogwarts not just to teach, but to help fight this war. I will do anything within my power to help, even if that means hunting down the murderer of an innocent Nymph.” Drowry smiled and left Dubmledore’s office.

Now that he was alone, Dumbledore could think. But there was nothing worth thinking about that he wished to dwell on. Nothing good seemed to happen anymore. The only interesting things that ever happened caused nothing but rising suspicions.

Many realizations had come to Dumbledore in such a short time. And the most recent was by far, the least welcomed. There was or had been a murderer on the grounds, and Dumbledore knew that it could be a student or teacher next time.

Fawkes flew over to his desk and laid his head on Dumbledore’s shoulder. “Yes, my friend, I know you are here to help me, and thankfully I have many people here to assist me.” But one of Dumbledore’s realizations had been that no matter how many people he had on his side, they were in a great amount of trouble.

There he was. Her first chance to strike had come, and she was going to take advantage of it. She crept forward, quietly. She kept looking around. He never stood around alone, at least not for long. At any moment now his friends could come out of nowhere, and ruin what she was about to do.

Her wand was positioned behind her back; she knew that if someone saw her there would be no way of talking herself out of this mess. She would have to go through with it, and not get caught.

She was directly behind him now, but he was moving! He turned around at the sound of her last foot fall. He smiled underneath those big blue eyes and mop of bright red hair, then, nothing.

“Imperio!”

“Harry, come on,” Hermione managed to say in between violent fits of laughter. “Ron’s waiting for us.”

Five minutes ago Harry had started tickling Hermione playfully. It had turned into a full-fledged tickle war. They were both lying on the floor of the common room panting heavily. Hermione had never seen Harry smile like that before. It looked as if nothing, not even the threat of You Know Who, was on his mind. Just her. The thought made her happier than she had ever been before.

Harry leaned towards her and kissed her lightly on the lips. He was doing this quite often now. He had just realized that he liked Hermione and already it felt as if they’d been going out for months. He remembered the way he had kissed her and touched her on that bench. He wanted to do it again. He wanted to do so much more. He didn’t even care if it was wrong. Harry wasn’t thinking with his head; he wouldn’t admit it, but Harry Potter was thinking with his dick.

Hermione got to her feet and pulled Harry up.

“We’ve gotta go meet Ron, you know he’ll be hurt if we don’t. Now come on,” she said half dragging him towards the portrait hole. Harry and Hermione walked down the stairs and outside. They walked down to the courtyard where they were supposed to meet Ron. But he wasn’t there. Hermione looked around.

“Where is he?” she asked. “I don’t see him. Ron’s never late. Do you think he’s mad at us?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said putting his arm around Hermione. “We can still go see Hagrid though, just the two of us.”

“Okay.”

Hagrid was in his cabin, but it took a lot of coaxing for Harry and Hermione to get him to open the door. When he finally opened it, Harry and Hermione were shocked by what they saw.

“Hagrid!” Hermione gasped, “What’s wrong?” Hagrid’s face was red and his eyes were puffy. His beard was sopping wet from what appeared to be tears.

“I uh…I uh…” Hagrid burst into a fresh set of violent sobs. Harry and Hermione managed to get him into his house and sit him down.

“I’ll make some tea Harry, you try and figure out what’s wrong,” Hermione said as she walked into the kitchen.

“Hagrid, tell us what happened.”

“No, no! I can’ tell ya. It’s too terrible,” Hagrid sobbed.

“Really Hagrid,” Hermione said from the kitchen, “maybe we can help. Just tell us what’s wrong.”

“Twiggy’s dead!” Hagrid cried. Harry and Hermione both turned to look at each other. Twiggy?

“Uh, who’s Twiggy Hagrid?” Harry asked.

“One o’ da Tree Nymphs I showed to ya yesterday. ‘Es dead, ‘es dead.” Hagrid burst into tears once more. Fang lay on the floor whimpering. It was several minutes before Harry and Hermione managed to get Hagrid calmed down enough to continue talking to him.

“Hagrid, how did Twiggy die? Was he old?” Hermione asked. “Did he get hurt?”

“No,” Hagrid sobbed. “E was murdered! Somebody killed ‘em, they did.” Harry and Hermione were shocked. They couldn’t believe that such a thing had happened, it was too terrible. But, they also couldn’t believe that Hagrid would unjustly accuse someone.

“Are you sure Hagrid? Are you sure somebody killed him?” Hermione asked with a confused look on her face.

“Yeah, Dumbledore and Snape said it was…” Hagrid looked around before he answered. He looked back at Harry and Hermione, and then whispered so softly that they had to lean in close to hear what he said. “The said it was da killin’ curse!”

“What?!” they shouted at the same time.

“How could that be Hagrid?” Hermione cried. “How did Death Eaters get onto Hogwarts grounds? And why would they kill a harmless little Tree Nymph?”

“No!” Hagrid whispered. “Professer Snape thought it were a student killed Twiggy! He told Dumbledore that it coulda been a student.”

“But who? How?” Harry asked. “How could a student know an unforgivable curse? Who could be strong enough to use one?”

“Harry, don’t forget that you’re just a student, but you can produce a real Patronus, and you’ve used an unforgivable curse. Any number of students at Hogwarts are strong enough to know and use the curse. And don’t forget that some of them have parents who are Death Eaters, which would make it even easier for them to know how to use the curse,” Hermione said.

She was always right. Harry loved that about her. No matter what he said or did, no matter what happened, you could always trust in Hermione to point out all the facts and the truth. He was daydreaming about her when it dawned on him.

“Malfoy!” he growled.

“Malfoy?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah, think about it. His fathers a very powerful Death Eater. He hates Hagrid, he hates the class, and he certainly isn’t beyond doing something like this. You know it Hermione. Hagrid, it has to be Malfoy.”

“Hagrid?” Hermione asked, “when and where did you find ‘Twiggy?’”

“Righ’ af’er yer class with Ravenclaw,” Hagrid answered. “One o da girls found him on ‘er way down to me cabin.”

“See Harry,” Hemione said, “it couldn’t have been Malfoy. He was on his way to class when the Nymph was found. It has to be someone else, or a Death Eater.”

“What did Professor Dumbledore say he would do?” Harry asked, clearly off put that his idea to blame Malfoy had fallen through.

“Well,” Hagrid answered, “’e doesn’ think a student did it. ‘E ‘as da teachers an Lupin watchin’ the grounds and the school. Speakin’ a which, I need ta get in der forest and ask if anyone strange ‘as been in there.” Hagrid rose from his chair and walked to get his coat. He ushered Hermione and Harry out of his cabin as he called Fang.

“Wait Hagrid,” Harry grabbed his arm. “Did you say Lupin? Is Professor Lupin here?”

“Huh? Oh yeah! Yeah, ‘es ‘ere. Should be mighty glad to see all o you too. Speakin’ o which, where’s Ron?”

“We don’t know Hagrid,” Hermione said. “We’re going to go look for him right now.”

“Well okay. Be careful now, you don’ know who it was that killed Twiggy!”

They had just left Hagrid’s cabin and were heading back to the school. Good, everything was going according to plan. The only thing that mattered now was that she kept that stupid fucking Weasel under her control. He had fought a little at first, but he now resigned himself to simply staring off into space.

Pathetic she thought. He was one of Potter’s lackeys, not to mention a member of his stupid DA, and he didn’t have a clue or the stamina to fight the Imperius curse. She would have to have a talk with Potter about not teaching his followers the essentials. Not that it mattered. No matter what he taught them, or what he knew himself, they would all be destroyed someday. And that someday would be soon.

She couldn’t help but smile at what she was about to do. It would immediately distance Potter and Granger from this Weasel, and it would draw the love birds closer, maybe her idea would even do more. Maybe Potter would make her job easier, maybe he would kill the Weasel. It was possible, and it would definitely save her the trouble. She smiled; she knew the perfect way to get to all three of them at once. Yes, Harry could very possibly kill the god damned rat.

She glanced over at Ron who, at the moment, was slouching against the greenhouses. He was staring at Hagrid’s cabin, where his friends had just come from. His eyes had a glazed look and there was even a bit of drool escaping from the left side of his mouth. Disgusting she thought. He wiped out all of his strength in the first two minutes trying to fight her hold. Now, until ordered to do something, he didn’t even have the energy to turn his head.

“There they go, puppet!” she said glancing at Ron again.

Was that a moan she heard escape from his lips? She laughed. “Moaning and groaning isn’t going to get you anywhere but a six foot hole in ground, idiot,” she said. “It’s time to go.”

Harry and Hermione walked into Hogwarts. They couldn’t believe what Hagrid had told them. The fact that the killing curse had been used on Hogwarts was not an idea that made them feel particularly safe. And it had reminded Harry about Voldemort.

He hadn’t been thinking about Voldemort at all, at least no since he had found out about Hermione. She had taken away all the unhappy thoughts he had, then, with Hagrid’s story, they all came bounding back to him. But Harry surely would have felt something if Voldemort or a Death Eater had been near, his scar always warned him about such things. But how could he be sure?

Maybe his continued Occlumency lessons, which he was now taking with Professor Drowry, would weaken his ability to sense Voldemort at all, even through his scar. Maybe Occlumency really was a danger to him. Then, Harry remembered Hermione again. If Death Eaters or Voldemort had gotten onto Hogwarts grounds, then they could do it again. When they did, they might go after the people he cared about. Namely, Hermione and Ron. Then it hit him- Ron was missing.

“Oh God!” Harry said.

“What’s the matter Harry?” Hermione asked, somewhat startled.

“If Death Eaters or Voldemort have gotten onto Hogwarts grounds then they could get on the grounds at any time.”

“But Harry, I don’t see how they could have done it, it’s just too…”

“Ron is missing Hermione!” Harry shouted. Hermione’s eyes grew at his comment. “You know that the first people Voldemort and his Death Eaters would go after would be my friends.”

“Oh my God! Harry we have to find him, we have to…We have to go tell Dumbledore,” Hermione said.

“No, he doesn’t know what Hagrid old us. It might get Hagrid in trouble if we told Dumbledore we thought Ron has been attacked by Death Eaters.”

“Please don’t say attacked Harry, please. It scares me.”

Just as Hermione and Harry were standing there arguing over what to do, a tall lanky figure walked into Hogwarts from behind them. He didn’t try to hide the sound of his foot falls on the floor. Harry and Hermione turned around to see who had walked in, and to make sure they weren’t overheard talking about Voldemort or his Death Eaters.

“Ron!” Hermione screamed. She ran to him and grabbed him in a hug. Ron smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

“It’s okay Hermione, I’m fine,” he said.

“How did you know we were worried about you?” Harry asked. “Where have you been, you weren’t there to meet us.”

Ron just smiled at Harry’s questions. He put his hands into his robes for something. The next thing Harry saw was Ron’s wand pointed straight at his face.

“Stupefy!”

Hermione screamed as Harry fell to the floor. She tried to grab him, but was stopped by Ron’s arm.

“Nooooo!” she screamed as Ron pulled her along the ground. “What are you doing, what did you do? Ron!?”

Ron continued dragging Hermione across the floor, he didn’t even miss a step or slow down to point his wand at Hermione and say, “Silencio!”

Hermione tried to scream, she clawed, bit and cursed. Hogwarts is always crowded Hermione thought. How can nobody know what is going on?

God damn you Ron! Stop it! He was really hurting her now. His grip on her was so tight she could barely breathe, and he was dragging her up the stairs. Hermione reached inside her robes to get her wand. Friend or no friend, something is not right.

“Expelliarmus!” Ron shouted. Hermione’s wand flew out of her hand and down the staircase. It stopped directly beside Harry’s body, which was rigid on the floor.

What the fuck are you doing Ron? Hermione wanted to scream as she tried to get away from him.

“Mandrakonus portomatus!” Ron said to the Fat Lady as she swung open.

“What in God’s name are you doing to that poor girl, boy?” the Fat Lady shouted after him. Ron ignored the portrait and ran up the staircase leading to the boys’ dormitories, still dragging Hermione behind him. He threw her into the dormitories as roughly as he possibly could. Hermione’s head hit the edge of Harry’s bed, and everything went dark.

“Well Minerva, I suppose you should go tell Dumbledore that we didn’t find anything.” Lupin said to Professor McGonagall as they walked into the castle. “There is absolutely no proof that any Death Eaters have been on the premises, which is not to say that there have been, we just can’t find any proof.”

“I shall tell him Remus. Why don’t you go find Harry and his friends, I’m sure they would be glad to see you.”

McGonagall walked off in the direction of Dumbledore’s office while Lupin walked towards the staircase.

“Harry!” Lupin shouted when he saw him on the ground. He looked Harry over carefully, trying to discern what had happened. Finally, Lupin pulled out his wand and uttered, “Ennervate!”

Harry’s eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright immediately. Lupin fell against the floor at the shock of Harry’s quick movement.

“What happened, Harry?” he asked as Harry looked around quickly.

“Ron!” he growled. “Hermione!” Harry jumped up and ran up the staircase as quickly as was possible, grabbing Hermione’s wand on his way and pulling his own out of his robes.

“Harry, what is going on?” Lupin shouted. He stared incredulously at Harry’s stair bounding figure, and then bounded up the stairs after him.

She crawled back onto the bench. She had fallen off five minutes ago when she had started laughing. The best part though, was that it had barely begun.

Hermione screamed. The spell Ron had placed on her had been removed and she had been brought forcibly back to consciousness by a swift tug to her hair. Ron and pulled her off the floor and threw her onto the bed by her hair. She watched as several strands of her wavy, chestnut hair fell from between the usually jovial boy’s fingers.

Hermione began to cry. She didn’t understand why Ron was doing this.

“What are you doing Ron?” she tried to sound strong, like she always did. But she knew she sounded like a scared and stammering little girl. She was in pain. Her head hurt where she had hit the bed and her scalp burned from Ron’s pull. She could feel the bruises on her back from Ron dragging her.

Ron slowly walked around the bed towards her. His eyes were glazed over and it looked as if a shadow passed just behind them. Hermione thought he looked like a monster, she didn’t even think he looked like Ron. Then, as quick as lightening, Ron reached his arm out and grabbed her again. He pulled her towards him and grabbed her by both arms.

Hermione screamed as Ron began to rip her robes of off her. He squeezed his lips to hers and began kissing all over her face, her neck, down to her chest. He ripped her school shirt off, giving him better access to her breasts which he had started to kiss and bite. Hermione squirmed and fought under his grasp, but Ron held her in an iron tight grip and she could do nothing but cry out in pain.

Ron ripped the last of Hermione’s clothes off, revealing her pink and naked flesh. But he didn’t stop to survey her body, he continued to bite and kiss as he climbed on top of her naked and fighting form. Hermione cried out again as Ron twisted one of her arms painfully behind her back.

Ron stopped kissing Hermione and looked at her. He removed his pants.

Harry ran towards the Fat Lady, who was crying.

“Mandrakonus portomatus! Mandrakonus portomatus!” Harry shouted, before he was even close to her.

The Fat Lady swung forward to let him in crying, “Please go save that poor girl!”

Harry bounded into the common room, seeing no one in it he ran for the only other place Ron could have taken her- the boys’ dormitories.

“Wait for me!” Lupin shouted at the Fat Lady and Harry. He ran into the common room and followed Harry up the stairs.

“Please Ron, NO!” Hermione screamed as Ron tried to separate her legs. “NO!”

Ron succeeded in spreading Hermione’s legs when he was pulled off of her and thrown against the wall.

Harry had come bounding into the room like a crazed man. Hermione grabbed the blankets on the bed and pulled them over herself to hide her nakedness.

“Harry, don’t…!”

Harry had both his and Hermione’s wands in his hands he pointed them at Ron and opened his mouth…

“I’m sorry!” Ron shouted. His arms flew up to cover his face when he saw Harry with the wands. “Please don’t, oh God! I’m so sorry!” Ron glanced up at Harry, his gaze shifted to Hermione who was crying on his bed, covered only by a blanket. Ron’s eyes grew big at the sight of her. “Oh God! Oh my God!” he cried. “What did I do? What happened?”

Just then, Lupin burst into the room. The first thing he saw was Hermione on the bed. Her clothes lay in tatters all about the room and she was in tears.

“Oh my goodness!” he said. But then his gaze shifted to the corner of the room when he heard several quickly murmured apologies. There Harry, had his wands pointed directly at Ron.

Ron started crying in the corner. He sank into a ball and sobbed with his head in his hands. Harry walked over to Hermione and picked up her sobbing form, still wrapped in Ron’s bed sheets, and carried her out of the dormitory. Harry walked right past Lupin without saying a word.

“Ron? What happened, what did you do?” Lupin asked. He was mystified and stunned, but more than that, he was disgusted. He couldn’t believe that this could have happened at Hogwarts; and he would never have imagined that Ron would try to do such a thing to his friend.

“I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember!” Ron sobbed. “I was waiting for Harry and Hermione; we were going to visit Hagrid. Then I was here, suddenly. I don’t remember anything, but somehow, I feel like I did something terribly wrong! What happened?”

“Stupid fucking bastard!” she screamed. He had freed himself from her control. She sighed. It was bound to happen eventually, but ten more seconds and Potter would have sent his beloved Weasel to his grave.

But at least the main purpose had been accomplished; Potter was no longer bound to his red haired ferret. And he was even closer to Hermione. And if she wanted to, she could put the Weasley back under her control at any time. He had been a great subject, and easy to control, until the point where he had finally broken free of her hold on him.

Luckily, she had thought of the idea of altering his memory. It would be very difficult for him, or anyone else for that matter, to figure out what happened and who did it to him. Besides, Weasely’d be dead before anyone got the chance.

“What are you doing out here?”

She glanced up and saw Padma Patil. There simply was no escaping the idiots at this school.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Padma continued, “but you’ve been acting very strange lately. In fact, I think you’ve been acting kind of, well, suspicious.”

“Really, suspicious? Concerning what, exactly?” She smiled at the girl.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked Hermione. He laid her down on the couch in the common room. She was still crying. “What happened? He didn’t really…did he?”

Hermione shook her head. She looked up into Harry’s dark emerald eyes. “He tried,” Hermione answered. Harry grabbed her and pulled her close to him. He buried his face in her hair, smelling the strawberries. He had no idea what to think. All he knew was that his best friend had tried to rape his girlfriend.

“What are we gonna do?” Hermione asked.

“Exactly what we should do,” Harry answered. “We’ll tell Dumbledore.”

“Harry, you can’t!” Hermione cried.

“Why not? Hermione! Do you know what he did to you? Do you know what he could have done to you? The bastard is obviously fucking jealous, and I’ll burn in hell before I ever let him get away with what he did to you!” Harry growled.

Hermione started to cry again. She looked up into Harry’s eyes, “I don’t know what happened Harry! It was almost as if…as if it wasn’t Ron. His eyes were all funny, and his voice was different. Harry, I don’t know what to think, but I can’t believe that Ron would try to hurt me! He’s a brother to me!” Hermione was sobbing hard again.

Harry squeezed her tight against. He didn’t care that she lay on the couch naked and that there was nothing but a thin white sheet separating them from each other, all that mattered right now was Hermione.

Lupin walked down the stairs from the dormitories. He looked as if he had aged ten years in the last ten minutes.

“Harry, Hermione, I’m very sorry. I wanted to tell you, Harry, that you did a very wise thing in not harming Ron. He’s in the dormitory right now, don’t move him or try and talk to him. He’s very upset, and he’s very sorry for anything he’s done. Harry, I want you to take Hermione to the hospital ward. I’m going to go speak with Dumbledore, we should be in the ward shortly to find out what exactly happened.”

Lupin walked out of the common room and through the portrait hole. Harry picked Hermione up in arms again and walked her towards the portrait hole. He kissed the top of her head and carried her towards the hospital ward.

Hermione felt safe against his muscular chest. She was scared, upset, and hurt; but just being this close to Harry and feeling his arms covering her protectively, made her happy. She smiled and fell asleep against his chest.

Fifteen minutes later Dumbledore came into the hospital wing.

“How is she Poppy?” he asked walking towards Hermione.

“She’s okay now Headmaster. She was banged up pretty good though when Mister Potter brought her in though,” Madame Pomfrey answered Dumbledore. “She had bruises all over her, and a big bloody knot on the back of her head. But she’s okay now, all fixed up!”

Dumbledore walked over to the bed and looked down at Hermione. She looked much better. Harry was sitting in a chair beside her bed, holding her hand tightly.

“Well Miss Granger,” Dumbledore said. “It has come to my attention that you have been through a rather horrifying experience. While I’m sure you want too get all of this done and over with. I request that you and Mister Potter go to the Great Hall and have some supper first. It will make you both feel better, and then we shall go to my office and get to the bottom of these regrettable circumstances; hopefully we will be able to find out who is behind these suspicious activities.”

Dumbledore gave both Hermione and Harry a cheerful and uplifting smile and walked out of the hospital wing.

“Well child, you can go now. Do as the Headmaster said, some food will do you good!” Madame Pomfrey exclaimed as she helped Hermione out of her bed.

Harry took Hermione back to the common room and waited while she got dressed in her dormitory. When she came down they walked to the Great Hall together, Harry grasping Hermione’s hand tightly the whole time. Neither of them spoke, about anything. They sat down at the Gryffindor table and ate in silence. Ron was not present.

As Hermione finished eating, the Great Hall was silenced by a shrill scream. The teachers all jumped out of their chairs at the sound and walked towards the doors that led out of the Great Hall. But before they reached them, they were shoved open by a terror stricken girl.

Parvati Patil fell on the floor in front of the teachers, crying hysterically. The only thing they could get her to say was definitely something not welcome to their ears.

"She’s dead!” Parvati continued to scream. “Padma is dead!”

Parvati collapsed in the Great Hall. Hagrid picked her up and carried her out of the Great Hall with Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers.

“Hagrid,� Dumbledore said. “If you would please take Miss Patil to the hospital ward? Thank you. As for the rest of us,� he said looking at the rest of the teachers, “we need to search the school. Amanda, would you please go to Argus’s office and inform him of the situation. We need his help to find the girl.�

Amanda Drowry walked off in the direction of Argus’s office while the rest of the teachers began to discuss how they should search.

“I don’t really see the need for us to split up,� Snape stated. “The girl's body can’t be in too secluded an area or her sister would never have found her.�

McGonagall frowned at Snape’s seemingly indifferent attitude, but agreed that her body was more than likely in a rather public place. At that moment Filch came running up the hall with his lantern, which was hardly needed due to the light issuing from Drowry’s and several other teachers’ wands.

“Headmaster,� he wheezed from being out of breath, “I know where she is. Mrs. Norris just found her.�

Dumbledore and the teachers followed Filch up the staircase as he led the way to Padma’s body. Mrs. Norris came running towards them from around a corner, meowing loudly. They followed her around the corner to a girls’ toilet, the door stood wide open. And there, hanging just inside, was Padma’s body.

Harry and Hermione looked questionably at each other. Padma was dead. The news was a shock, to the whole school. Padma may not have been a good friend to Harry and Hermione, but they knew her sister, Parvati, pretty well. And Ron had taken Padma to the Yule Ball in their fourth year.

Padma was dead. Harry couldn’t figure out how such a thing could happen. It was quite possible she could have slipped on the stairs, or, well, anything could have happened. But, it was terrible. Harry couldn’t begin to contemplate how Parvati felt, or how Mr. and Mrs. Patil would feel when they got the news of their daughter’s death. Harry was just thinking how he really wanted to get out of the Great Hall, when Ginny ran over to them from the other side of the table.

“Hey, do you guys know where Ron is?� she asked. “He was acting really weird when I saw him this afternoon, and now there’s a rumor spreading that he attacked someone? I’m really worried.�

“We don’t know where he is,� Hermione answered truthfully, and before Harry spit out the whole story. “Last time we saw him he was fine, just a little shaken.� Hermione grabbed Harry and pulled him away from the table and towards the exit before Ginny could continue questioning them.

Harry and Hermione glanced down the Ravenclaw table as they walked past it. Padma had been in the Ravenclaw house and everyone at the table seemed to be quiet and thoughtful. One of the girls, Orla Quirke, was crying silently next to a freckled brown-haired boy. The only person at the table not acting like that was Luna Lovegood, who was staring at Harry and Hermione. Hermione smiled at Luna, being they had become fairly good friends last year. But Luna frowned harder at Hermione when she did this. Harry quickly pulled her past the table.

Harry and Hermione left the Great Hall. They walked slowly up the stairs towards the dormitory. They needed to be alone. Not for romance, not for passion. With everything that had happened to day, they had no need for any of that. They just wanted to lie in each others arms and feel safe. They needed to feel safe.

They didn’t talk. There was only one thing they could talk about, and neither of them wanted to discuss it. Hermione knew he was mad, and at the same time guilty for almost hurting Ron. She was scared. Hermione had never thought Ron could ever have done something to hurt her. But she couldn’t forget what had happened mere hours ago, she also couldn’t help but remember the way his eyes had looked- possessed, as if just beyond them, someone else was there hurting her. Someone other than Ron. But maybe that was what she wanted to think.

Harry was also contemplating what had happened today. Somehow, even though Ron’s curse had knocked Harry out for several minutes. The second he had awoken, he had known Hermione was in danger. Harry had run to the common room, he hadn’t known why. Something inside of him had just led him there. He could have been wrong. Ron could have taken Hermione anywhere. Harry cringed at the thought. If he had been ten seconds later, Ron would have succeeded in raping Hermione.

Harry’s thought were interrupted when he heard a loud creak behind a nearby guard armor. He instinctively grabbed Hermione and pushed her behind him. When he looked, he saw a hooded figure crouching behind it.

Harry nodded towards the guard armor with his head. Hermione watched as he pulled the hooded person out from behind the guard armor and whipped off the hood.

“Marietta?� Hermione said, shocked.

“What?� she screamed. She fought Harry’s hold, but he was much taller and stronger than her and was not having a problem holding on to the fighting girl.

“What are you doing down here? Why are you hiding?� Harry asked.

“None of your business,� she spat. She stopped squirming in Harry’s arms and looked straight at Hermione. “You did it, didn’t you?�

“What are you talking about?� Hermione said, a bewildered _expression on her face.

“I spent the whole summer in St. Mungos. All because of the acne I got cursed with last year! It was you wasn’t it, you were the one who wrote ‘SNEAK’ across my face in those hideous blemishes. Only a stupid mudblood would do such a…� Marietta stopped shouting and fighting. She seemed to be thinking about what she had just been saying. Then she started up again.

“Only a stupid mudblood would do such a thing to anyone! I was just trying to follow school rules!� Marietta shouted at her.

Harry threw the girl on the ground and whipped out his wand. Hermione had been through too much today as it was; the last thing she needed was a girl with a grudge calling her mudblood.

“Harry!� Hermione grabbed his arm and pointed it away from the figure on the ground. “Yes, Marietta, it was my charm that gave you the acne, but you broke an oath. You deceived us all. You deserved what you got. Now go!� Hermione pointed down the hallway, away from them, and grudgingly, Marietta complied.

Harry looked at Hermione, wonder etched on his face. He never would have believed she had the kind guts needed to tell someone to their face that she had jinxed them, then order them away. At that moment, when Hermione’s eyes moved away from the fleeing girl and met his own, Harry forgot all about what had happened earlier. He forgot about what Hermione had been through, and that he just wanted to hold her. Because, he didn’t want to hold her, he wanted to do so much more.

Ron was sitting in Dumbledore’s office. That’s where Dumbledore and Lupin had taken him. Luckily, nobody had tried to question him about what had happened yet. He just wasn’t up to it.

Ron looked absently at the sight of the roast chicken and mashed potatoes on Dumbledore’s desk. Dumbledore had brought him his dinner here. He had said that it was probably best he stay away from Harry and Hermione for a while. Ron didn’t feel like eating though. He had spent a good part of the last several hours in tears. He wanted to think about what had happened, he wanted to figure it out. But every time he tried, the only thing he saw was Hermione lying naked on his bed, wrapped in his white sheet, bruised and crying.

Ron didn’t have a clue what happened. He didn’t know how he got there, how she got there, and he had no clue why Harry looked as if he could have killed him. Of course, at the sight of Hermione- and later himself- Ron had guessed what had happened. He had attacked, and probably raped his friend. His friend, who was so much like a sister to him. The one person who would always be there for him with the best advice, the warmest smile, and the biggest hugs. Hermione.

Ron shook all thoughts from his head. Thinking about the situation only made him feel terrible, and he had spent the whole evening feeling terrible. The only thing left for Ron to do was to eat his supper, figure out what happened and why he couldn’t remember anything, and apologize to Hermione. He wanted his friends back, he missed them.

“It appears she hung herself, headmaster,� Filch said at the sight of Padma’s body. “Though why I don’t know.�

“Well that’s obvious,� Snape said rolling his eyes. “Unless you were a psychic far beyond the powers of Professor Trelawney, you wouldn’t know why she decided to kill herself, would you Mr. Filch?�

Filch bristled at Snape’s remark but made no reply, he knew better than to draw the Potions master into an argument.

Filch had untied the rope from around Padma’s neck and she was now lying on the floor. McGonagall was around the corner trying to compose herself. It had definitely come as a sock to see Padma hanging in the air like that; there were only a few teachers who seemed fairly unaffected by the sight of her body.

Dumbledore looked at the body of young Padma in silence. It had been a very long time since Dumbledore had been faced with his first dead student, and it never got any easier. Dumbledore sighed. He hated showing such weakness and indecisiveness in front of the staff, but sometimes it got to the point where even he couldn’t be sure of things.

“Well,� Dumbledore finally spoke up, “I shall have to contact the girls’ parents concerning the tragedy. Flitwick, if you could please help Argus transport the girls’ body to the hospital ward. Make sure that she is placed in a concealed corner, we don’t want any student’s stumbling across her. Severus, I would like you to return to the Great Hall and inform the students that they are not to go wandering around. Also tell them that I will make a formal announcement concerning the girl in the morning at breakfast. Minerva, if you are feeling better, I would like you to go to the hospital ward and keep a close eye on Parvati, I would like to know when she wakes up.�

The teachers all nodded and left, except for Drowry.

“Headmaster,� she said, “do you have any thoughts?�

“No, I do not Amanda,� he answered. “Young people often find themselves in situation they do not like, and sometimes they only see one escape. With the threat of Voldemort lurking ever closer, it is not shocking that some students would seek to get away from that.�

“Does that mean you think she truly killed herself?�

Dumbledore turned and looked at Drowry. He had a frown upon his face and he looked deep into her eyes. Drowry never moved her gaze away from Dumbledore’s. She was a strong witch, and very determined. She always spoke her mind, and unfortunately, because of her previous experiences and connections, she was oftentimes right.

“What do you think happened?�

“I’m not sure,� Amanda replied. “But I do know Padma. I have never seen her exhibit a single sign of fear or weakness ever in my class, and as you know, there are many frightening things the student’s face behind my classroom doors. She met every creature, every problem, with will and determination- and those are not characteristics that you find in people who kill themselves.�

Drowry walked away after finishing her comment. She had meant to give Dumbledore something to think about, and she had. Her work here was done- for now.

She wondered where that Weasel was right now. Hopefully they had him locked up somewhere; hopefully they were going to send him packing home. Oh, wouldn’t that be brilliant. With a single swipe of her wand, she had turned the Golden Trio in a Golden Duo, and ruined someone’s life. Her master would be proud.

She stumbled slightly on a hidden stump and immediately regained her footing. What she was doing was dangerous, but The Dark Lord had requested a conference and she couldn’t disappoint him- that would be death, no matter who you were.

“So, the prodigal daughter returns.� She turned once again to look into the cold eyes of The Dark Lord.

“Master,� she said, “I’ve come.�

“Yes, and it seems you have done a marvelous job,� he actually smiled, his teeth sharp points under his lips.

“What do you wish of me?� she asked.

“Nothing new. I simply wanted to know how you felt the operation was going?�

“Wonderful Master. Everything has gone according to plan, and no one suspects me- I’m sure of it! I know my plan will work Master, it’s only a matter of time before I get the mudblood.�

“Well, than it appears that everything is coming together quite nicely then. You have done well, daughter.�

Dumbledore left the bathroom where Padma had been found and walked towards his office. He knew Ronald Weasely was up there waiting, but Dumbledore knew he did not have the strength to question him tonight. He gave the gargoyle his favorite password- lemon drop- and entered his office.

Ron shrunk as Dumbledore entered and sat down in his favorite squashy chair. Dumbledore looked him in the eyes, trying to figure out what to do with him.

“Mr. Weasely, due to a recent tragedy I will not be questioning you tonight. Instead, I shall send you to a special guest room in the castle, where you can sleep away from both Harry and Hermione, and then we shall find out exactly what happened this afternoon.�

Just as Dumbledore finished, Lupin walked into the room with a surprised look on his face.

“Dumbledore, I just heard about Padma. What exactly…� Lupin stopped when he noticed that Ron was still seated in the office.

“Padma?� Ron asked. “Padma Patil? Is she okay, what happened? Is that the tragedy you were talking about Professor Dumbledore?� Ron had risen from his seat and looked at both Dumbledore and Lupin in turn.

“That, shall have to wait until tomorrow as well Mr. Weasley,� Dumbledore said. “Remus, would you please escort Mr. Weasley to the first floor guest room, he will be staying there tonight. It is just behind the guard armor next to the portrait of the Lady in Purple. The password is ‘Snuffles�, as it was usually him who uses the room.�

The mention of Lupin’s best friend brought both sadness and happiness to him. Sirius Black, or “Snuffles�, had died the previous year, murdered by his sister Bellatrix Lestrange. Ron too seemed saddened by the mention of the cheerful animagus who had been Harry’s godfather.

“Come on Ron, you should get some rest,� Lupin put his hand on Ron’s shoulder as they walked out the door.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. Never in his life had he felt so unsure and defeated. Hours ago, Ron, a prefect, had attacked another prefect and his friend. Now Padma lay dead in the hospital wing. Maybe Drowry was right.

“I’m tired Fawkes,� Dumbledore said to the Phoenix now perched on his desk. Dumbledore knew he had to be strong. Strong for Harry, strong for the staff, strong for everyone. But, right now, Dumbledore couldn’t be strong. The sight of Padma’s dead body and the tale of Ron’s horrific deed had broken Dumbledore. Two seemingly small things in the middle of a desperate war, and Dumbledore felt defeated.

Fawkes nipped his ear and cooed to him.

“Yes, you are right my friend,� Dumbledore said stroking the Phoenix. “I must be strong.� At that moment the door to Dumbledore’s office flew open and a tall pale figure glided in, his long blonde hair flowing behind him.

“Well, good evening Lucius,� Dumbledore said politely and welcomingly, though he was very irritated by the man’s timing and rudeness. “I’m afraid I didn’t hear you knock.�

“That’s because I didn’t,� said the cool calculation voice of Lucius Malfoy, a known Death Eater. He had cleverly escaped Azkaban once, mainly through his riches, and Dumbledore was fairly sure that he was still up to his filthy and unforgivable practices. “I practically own this school Dumbledore, and I find knocking beneath me.� Dumbledore raised his hands in a seemingly apologetic manner.

“May I ask, at least, what the occasion is that warrants a surprise visit from you?� Dumbledore asked.

“Yes, my son, Draco. I would like a word with him Dumbledore. Immediately.�

“Well, you are aware of course that the students’ curfew is in five minutes?�

“I dare say you can make an exception,� Malfoy growled. “Where is he?�

“More than likely in his common room already, which you know how to find of course from your years at this school. Good evening Lucius,� and with those last few words Dumbledore ushered the Death Eater out of his office and sat down at his desk once again.

As all these thoughts ran through Harry’s brain, he did nothing but stare into her deep brown eyes. Hermione stared right back into his. Finally, Harry just couldn’t control himself anymore. He grabbed Hermione, gently, but firmly, by the arm and gently pushed her through the nearest door.

His lips were on hers before he turned her back around and shoved her against the door. Surprisingly, Hermione did nothing to stop him, only encourage him. She tangled her fingers tightly into Harry’s hair. She squeezed her body as close against his as she could, which was difficult due to the fact that Harry’s own body had her pinned to the classroom door. His mouth was locked onto hers; his tongue was exploring the inside of her mouth.

Then, his lips began to move away from Hermione’s; he began to kiss down to her chin and across her jaw line. Hermione began to kiss Harry’s ear as his lips and tongue traveled down her neck. Never had he imagined she would be like this. He had expected Hermione to stop him, to knock some sense into him like she always did. Never had he imagined she would give into this so completely, so willingly.

But Harry didn’t really care about that. He cared only about Hermione, and his hands, which had somehow found there way up her shirt. Harry moaned out loud when Hermione bit his ear. He couldn’t believe he was doing this, but he wasn’t about to ruin it.

“Where can we go?� he whispered roughly into her ear. His voice was thick with passion, and he knew that if he and Hermione did not get somewhere soon, he would fuck her right here in the classroom.

“Harry,� Hermione gasped. At the sound of her voice, he had expected her to tell him to stop. He expected her to say that this was enough, that they shouldn’t and that they couldn’t, but her words made him groan with passion.

“There are guest rooms, Harry, all over the school,� Hermione was having trouble talking. She was so consumed with passion for Harry and so involved in their kissing, talking was not one of her priorities. “I know where one is, Dobby told me about. I would hide elf hats for SPEW in there.�

At her words Harry immediately stopped kissing her, yanked her away from the door. He pulled the door open so violently Hermione was surprised that it didn’t come flying off it’s hinges. He dragged her back out into the hallway.

“Where?� he whispered in her ear.

Hermione grabbed his hand and led him to the third floor. In a corner, where a staircase led up to the higher floors and eventually Professor Trelawney’s Divination class, was a portrait of the Knight Sir. Cadogen.

“Ah, the beautiful Mistress returns for her noble purposes!� the knight shouted at the sight of Hermione. “And she has brought along a friend to assist her in the freeing of the slaves. I ask only for the password we two had agreed upon.�

“SPEW,� Hermione said, “spelled ‘S’, ‘P’, ‘E’, ‘W’.�

“You may enter my lady and my lady’s friend.� The portrait moved aside revealing a large and well decorated room with comfortable furnishings.

Hermione grabbed Harry’s hand and led him into the room.

“What are you doing here father?� Draco Malfoy asked of his father as they stepped outside of the castle.

Lucius looked at his son, Draco was exactly like his father in every way. He had the same cold, drawling voice, the same blonde hair, the same steel grey eyes, and the same hate for Harry Potter.

“I have come, to give you a mission; a mission directly from the Dark Lord himself.�

Draco’s face brightened at his fathers words. He wished to be a Death Eater when he was old enough, and now he had the opportunity to prove his skills at an early age.

“Anything, what does He wish me to do?�

“A plan is already in motion; you are simply to assist the girl I say in any way possible, and to make sure that no one is suspicious of her.� Lucius stated.

Draco frowned. For a moment he had thought that the Dark Lord was giving him a mission, a mission all his own to bring Potter to his knees. But all he got to do was help some stupid girl with her mission.

“Draco?� his father questioned sternly. He grabbed his sons arms and peered into his eyes, which were quickly becoming level with his own. “You will take this mission and you will serve the Dark Lord! Do you understand me?�

“Who am I helping?�

Harry had never felt like this in his life. For the first time in several hours, he forgot all about what had happened with Ron earlier. For the second time in several days, he forgot all about Voldemort’s threat. And for the first time in months, he forgot all about Sirius. All he thought about was Hermione.

The door had barely closed behind them both before they had fallen onto the large bed in the room. Once again Harry had been shocked that Hermione did nothing to stop him. She didn’t stop him when he began to take her clothes of, when his lips traveled down her chest; she didn’t stop him.

He lay on the bed now, Hermione’s lips locked to his own- both of their bodies moving in rhythm to each other. He realized that this was all he had ever wanted, ever needed. Her, right here, right now, underneath him. Harry was happy making love to Hermione.

It was late when Harry awoke. He sat up quickly; shocked that he had fallen asleep at all. Hermione moaned next to him. At the sight of her Harry smiled and gently lay back down underneath the covers. He wrapped his arms around Hermione’s sleeping naked form. She was so beautiful, and her body was perfect. Perfect curves, perfect color, perfect texture. He thought about the way their bodies had reacted to each other. It was incredible. It was the most amazing thing Harry had ever experienced.

He looked at his watch. It was 2:30 in the morning. He gently shook Hermione and kissed her lightly on her forehead. She moaned and stretched slightly at Harry’s touch. Her eyes fluttered open and looked into his. Harry felt it again. That feeling that nothing else mattered, that all he needed, all he wanted was Hermione. And he did, he realized. He wanted her again, right here, right now.

He moved towards her, a hungry look in his eye. But before he reached her lips, he remembered. He remembered what had happened to her yesterday, with Ron.

Hermione saw the smile fade from Harry’s face. The happiness she had seen their just seconds ago was gone. Now his face only showed worry, remorse, and even sadness. Hermione frowned at him questioningly.

“I’m sorry,� Harry whispered.

Hermione’s frown deepened at his words. “You’re sorry for last night? Why? I...�

“No,� Harry answered, “well yeah. I’m sorry because I realized I shouldn’t have done that.�

“Harry,� Hermione whispered. “You didn’t do anything. We did that!�

“No, I mean I’m sorry because of what happened to you earlier, with Ron. I forgot. I shouldn’t have done that, it wasn’t right.�

Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry, exposing her beautiful bare breasts for just a moment. She pulled Harry close to her and laid her head on his shoulder.

“Harry, don’t feel bad.� She whispered into his ear. “It’s not your fault, nothing is. It’s not your fault Ron attacked me, and what happened last night wasn’t your fault. I think I needed last night, I needed you. I was under so much stress; I just needed to be close to you. I needed you.�

Harry pulled Hermione close to him and smelled the sweet scent of strawberries. That’s the last thing he was thinking about before he fell asleep entangled with Hermione’s body- strawberries.

She was tired from her journey to meet Voldemort. As soon as she walked in through the large front doors, she collapsed in the first room she came to. A classroom. She didn’t care, she was exhausted. After the events of last night she had had to run quickly from Hogwarts grounds to Hogsmeade, where she had apparated to Voldemort.

After their meeting, she had been forced to return to Hogwarts in the same fashion. Apparating on it’s own was tiring work, but running from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts was murder. But she had to do it, if she didn’t, Voldemort would kill her. He would cut her down just like muggle farmers cut down the wheat they grew. If she ran from him, she would have no hope.

Yes, Amanda Drowry knew that the only hope she had of being free from him was sleeping peacefully in the castle somewhere right now. All she could do was hope that The Boy Who Lived would live up to his name and live again.

“You notified your son of his job, Malfoy?�

“Yes my lord,� Lucius Malfoy stood with head bowed facing the Dark Lord. Malfoy was a very rich and powerful man, but just thinking about his master frightened him near to death. That was saying a lot considering nothing scared Malfoy. Or at least that was what he liked other people to think.

“And what did your son think of his mission to serve me?� Voldemort asked in his high pitched yet chilling voice.

“He was honored master. He felt privileged.�

“No he didn’t,� Voldemort replied laughing a cruel, cold laugh. “Your son is exactly like you in every way. He was offended and angered by his assignment and the fact that he was not going to have the honor of capturing the Potter boy for himself. He was offended that he had to play second wand and not first. Why do you lie to me?�

“My master I…�

“Are you still faithful to me, Malfoy? Do you believe that I will be stopped again?�

“No master! You will triumph over Harry Potter. I would never think to desert you, master.�

“Good! Now tell me, exactly how angered was your son that he had to assist a Ravenclaw?�

“Before we begin eating, I believe it is necessary for me to answer your many questions concerning last night,� Dumbledore said standing at the teachers table looking out at the four house tables packed with students.

All the talking in the hall immediately ceased, everyone was eager to know what had happened to Padma and Parvati. Snape had refused to tell them anything last night.

“It is unfortunate news that I must bring you this morning as it appears that Miss Padma Patil is indeed dead. Investigation of the body brought the teachers and I to conclude that Miss Patil hung herself late last night.�

The Great Hall broke into murmuring as all the students began talking about what Dumbledore had just said. Everyone in the Great Hall was talking, except many of the Ravenclaws who were crying.

“We are not aware of the circumstances surrounding why Miss Patil committed suicide, or how her sister Parvati managed to find her sister,� Dumbledore said, immediately quieting the Great Hall once again except for the sobs coming from the Ravenclaw table.

“As for Miss Parvati Patil, she is still currently in the hospital wing recovery from the shock, other than that she is fine. She will, however, be returning home with her parents tomorrow when they come to pick up Padma. The funeral will be held in Hogsmeade on Saturday. I have been asked to inform you that everyone is welcome to attend if they wish, priority will, however, go to Padma’s closest friends and family. Thank you for your time.� Dumbledore sat down and everyone began to eat and talk.

Hermione was very silent during breakfast, it worried Harry.

“Hermione, what’s the matter? Are you upset about Padma?� Harry was sad of course. He knew Parvati pretty well, but he hadn’t know that Hermione would be this upset by Padma’s death.

“I just realized something,� Hermione said. “About Padma. I just realized how truly awful this is.�

“Hey you!�

She stopped in the hallway and turned around to stare at the blond Slytherin that had called out to her. She watched coldly as he walked up and grabbed her arm.

“We need to talk,� he drawled, his blue steel eyes glaring at her coldly.

He led her into a nearby classroom. It was deserted this early in the morning. She stared at the Malfoy while he glared back at her.

“Well,� she said. “What do you want to talk about? I don’t have all day, and I would hate to be found talking to the likes of you.�

“The likes of me?� Draco answered. “A Slytherin you mean? I don’t see why that should worry you, being you’re a Death Eater and all.�

Her eyes turned into slits as she stared at him. The anger and envy she had once felt for Draco Malfoy turned into pure hatred.

“How the fuck do you know that!� she growled. She didn’t even try to hide the hate and anger in her voice.

“My father told me,� Draco answered coldly. “You might have heard of him? Lucius Malfoy, the Dark Lords greatest servant? He told me all about you and your ‘plan’.�

“So you’re here why?� she asked him, ignoring his remarks regarding his father.

“Apparently, the Dark Lord wants me to help you. How I don’t know, but that’s what I’m here to do.�

She watched him for several seconds, looking deeply into his cold blue eyes. She had never expected anything like this to happen. This was her plan, her mission. She wanted to be the one who got the glory for bringing Potter to the Dark Lord. Why would he do this to her?

“Fine,� she said. “But you only do what I tell you to do and when, got it?�

“Just because I’m helping you doesn’t mean I take orders from you,� he replied.

“Fine,� she replied. She walked towards the classroom door, not looking back. But before she reached the door she stopped and turned around. “What’s in it for you?�

“Hopefully, a good reputation with Dark Lord. Most of us, unlike you, aren’t as privileged to be Death Eaters at this age. I’ve always been told you have to at least have taken you N.E.W.T’s to become a Death Eater. But apparently the rules don’t apply to everyone.� He said coldly.

“Well, Draco, unlike you, I have some skills in the Dark Arts. Skills useful to the master, things that at this age most people, even you god damned Malfoy’s, don’t have.� Draco’s frown deepened at her remark. He probably hated her just as much as she hated him.

“If you don’t watch your fucking mouth,� he spat, “I’m going to have to show you just how much I do know about the Dark Arts.�

She laughed. “Oh, I’m trembling,� she scoffed sarcastically. “But that’s all you’re hoping to get from assisting me, a good reputation?�

“Maybe something else,� Draco replied, forgetting his hate for her he quickly but thoroughly surveyed her body. “If I’m a good boy.�

She walked back into the middle of the room and stood directly before him, her face was a foot away from his.

“Something else, hm?� she asked smiling. Draco began to grin looking at her. “You really are a walking hard on aren’t you, Malfoy?�

“At least I’m getting some,� he replied coolly.

“Well just remember this,� she whispered in his ear, seductively close. “Anything extra you do wind up getting is going to be from me, not from the master. So you had better be a very, very good boy.�

At that she turned around and walked out of the room leaving Draco standing there with a mild erection. She didn’t have time to fulfill his wild fantasies right now, she had people kill and lives to ruin.

The bell rang just as Professor Drowry had finished assigning their homework, a foot long essay concerning the Legilimens curse and Occlumency. Harry had previously taken Occlumency lessons with Snape, to no avail. He had hated them and dreaded every session, but this year, he found himself enjoying and quickly learning the art of Occlumency.

This years Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and their teacher for that matter, were very unusual. They had spent a good part of the year studying the Dark Arts, and more specifically the Unforgivable curses.

Professor Drowry had told them that because of the war, Dumbledore had allowed her to teach the higher years with a more ‘unapproved’ curriculum. She had said that the only way to truly protect yourselves as much as possible from the Dark Arts was to know them. So, every week they learned about a certain Dark spell or jinx, and then they would have a homework assignment on how they could use the information they had learned to protect themselves against it.

Incredibly enough, Harry found him enjoying his Defense Against the Dark Arts class as much as he had the year Lupin taught it, maybe even more so.

“Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, can I see you both before you leave please,� Professor Drowry asked in her all too American accent. When they both reached her desk she sat down and began to idly pick at her Defense Against the Dark Arts books. Finally she looked at the both of them and spoke.

“I have heard rumors concerning Mr. Weasely,� she said. “I do not pretend to know exactly what happened or why, or even if anything has happened at all. But I wanted to inform the both of you to be especially cautious.�

Harry sighed, every week it seemed he got lectured by a new teacher concerning his need for caution. Harry was well aware that Voldemort was after him, he was well aware that his life was in danger, and he didn’t need everyone reminding him about it all the time.

“What does Ron have to do with us being cautious,� Hermione asked, Harry could hear her voice crack when she talked about Ron.

“I don’t know the three of you as well as some of the other teachers do, Hermione. But I do know that the friendship you three share is very strong, I don’t believe that Mr. Weasely would have done such a thing of his own free will.�

“What do you mean by ‘of his own free will’?� Harry asked her.

Drowry leaned back in her chair and pressed her fingers together. She wasn’t an old witch, in fact she appeared much younger than any teacher Harry or Hermione had ever knew. In fact, the first day they saw her they had mistaken her for a student.

“Harry,� she said, it was obvious this was not an easy subject for her to talk about. “A few students have been asking me questions about the Dark Arts, and more specifically about the Unforgivable curses. Strange questions about practicing them and the incantations and even questions about Death Eaters. I approached Professor Dumbledore with my suspicions but he refused to acknowledge any threat.�

“Why?� Hermione asked, he eyes widening with realization at what she was being told.

“Partly because Professor Dumbledore does not even want to consider the fact that a student at Hogwarts could possibly know such a thing. It is hard enough for him to know there are children of known Death Eaters right under his nose, it would be even worse to know that any of those children were capable of performing the spells that their parents use. Professor Dumbledore is also wary to believe because of who the students’ parents are.�

“But Professor Dumbledore’s never been wrong, maybe they were just asking about something for the class,� Hermione said hopefully.

“Dumbledore’s been wrong before,� Hermione looked over at Harry when he said this, she had a shocked look on her face. “Who were the students?�

“Normally I wouldn’t be able to tell you,� Drowry said. “But because of recent circumstances, including the death of young Padma, I feel it is my responsibility to warn you. Their were two of them, Marietta Edgecombe and Luna Lovegood.�

“Harry, I’m worried.� Hermione looked at Harry after walking out of Transfiguration, later that day.

“What about?� Harry asked placing his arm protectively around her shoulders.

“Well,� Hermione looked around, uneasy. “It’s Ron, I haven’t seen him all day. He hasn’t been in any of our classes, Harry. And what Professor Drowry told us about Luna and Marietta? I’m worried about Ron.�

Harry rolled his eyes and pulled Hermione down the hallway towards the Great Hall for lunch. “Personally, I don’t care,� he told her. “Hopefully Dumbledore sent him away somewhere, like back to the burrow where he can’t bother you anymore.�

“Harry!� Hermone shouted slapping his arm. “How could you say such a thing, he’s your best friend?�

“No friend of mine attacks you Hermione. No one! I don’t care who Ron thought he was, or how jealous he was, he had no right to touch you,� Harry said stepping close to Hermione and placing his hand on her cheek.

“Harry, Ron wasn’t jealous. He never was.� Harry looked at Hermione questionably. “Harry, he was going out with Padma. That’s another reason why I’m worried about him.�

Harry frowned at Hermione. “You mean, he never wanted you?�

“Well,� she grinned. “He did have a crush on me in fourth year, but he never asked me out. A crush was all it was Harry. He didn’t tell you about Padma because, well, he thought you would be jealous.�

“Me? Jealous of Ron for dating Padma?� Harry laughed. “Not on his life.�

“Harry, be quiet,� Hermione admonished when a couple of passing Ravenclaws glared at Harry for his comments regarding their dead friend.

“How could I be jealous?� Harry whispered. “I have you.� He kissed Hermione gently on the lips. It was hard for Harry to pull away from her kisses. Every time their lips touched he wanted to grab her and drag her back up to Sir Cadogan’s secret room, but every time he found the strength to control himself and he’d pull away.

Just as Hermione and Harry smiled at each other, a disheveled and bleary-eyed Ron walked up the staircase towards them. Ron had been crying, Hermione could tell. She wondered if it was about Padma.

At the sight of Ron, Harry pushed Hermione behind him and stared at his best friend cruelly. It didn’t matter what Hermione had told him about Ron, what he had done was still wrong and Harry was not going to forget about it.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Several seconds later, he managed to whisper his thoughts.

“Hey guys, I was…�

“What do you want?� Harry asked quickly.

Ron’s eyes filled with tears, he looked from Harry to Hermione and then back again.

“I was just wondering…�

“Ron, you have no right to wonder about anything,� Harry said. “If anyone has a right to wonder it’s Hermione and I. Do you honestly think we want anything to do with you after what you did?�

Hermione tried to move around Harry towards Ron, but Harry stopped her. She was starting to cry.

“Harry please,� Ron sobbed, “please just let me ask Hermione a question. I have to know.�

Harry nodded his head and looked at Hermione.

Ron looked into her chocolate eyes, “Did I…did I do it? Did I do what I think I did?� he asked.

“What kind of question is that?� Harry asked. “You know perfectly well what you did.�

“No,� Hermione shook her head, “he doesn’t know.� Ron’s eyes brightened a little at Hermione’s words. Hermione had been looking deeply into Ron’s blue eyes, and she realized, they weren’t the same eyes that she had seen peering out of his body yesterday afternoon. She knew, it couldn’t have been Ron. She had been right the whole time, Ron would never have hurt her.

“Hermione?� Harry asked, looking worriedly at her. “What do you mean it wasn’t Ron? We both saw him, Lupin saw him!�

“It wasn’t him Harry,� Hermione shouted. “He would never hurt me.�

Ron smiled slightly, “But did I…�

Hermione shook her head no.

Ron sighed visibly and deeply. He felt very relieved by that simple nod, he hadn’t raped Hermione. He had tried, but he hadn’t done it.

“Did I hurt you?� Ron asked taking a step towards her.

“YOU didn’t hurt me Ron, someone else did.�

“I don’t care who hurt Hermione, but until I figure out who it is that did hurt her, I don’t want you to come near her Ron.� Harry said. It hurt him to say it, it really did. Ron had been his best friend for over five years, but he had to protect Hermione.

Ron nodded his head and turned to walk down the stairs. Hermione wanted to go after him, but Harry had a hold of her arm again. Ron’s foot fell on the first step as he headed down. A couple of steps down he stopped moving. Ron wobbled unsteadily for several seconds, his legs seeming like they had turned to jelly- and then he fell.

Hermione screamed as Ron fell down the stairs leading to the Great Hall.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed as the tall red haired boy tumbled down the stairs leading into the Great Hall. She tried to run down after him but was stopped and forced to move slowly down the stairs when Harry grabbed her arm.

Ron lay in the entryway of the school without moving, his body was a tangled mess. Teachers and students' came pouring our of the Great Hall to see what was causing all the commotion and Ron's body was soon surrounded by a hundred curious and shocked students.

Dumbledore and McGonagall ran to Ron's side. McGonagall ordered the students to move away as Dumbledore whipped out his wand and charmed Ron's body to float towards the hospital ward.

"Ron!" Hermione began to shove her way through the mob of students to make her way to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were, but was stopped dead in her tracks by a cold and heartless laugh.

"Well guys," Draco Malfoy laughed loud enough for everyone to hear. "Now you know what happens when you fall for a mudblood! Get it? Fall, for a mudblood!" All of the Slytherins began to laugh heartily at the most recent of Malfoys bad jokes, the rest of the students body just stared at him in disbelief.

Hermione pulled her wand out of her robes and pointed it directly between Malfoy's laughing eyes.

"I swear to God Malfoy," she growled, a violent look in her eye. "If I find out you had anything to do with this I will kill you!" Malfoy just stared at her slack-jaw. He would never have imagined that Granger would ever threaten someone like that, even him.

"Hermione, come on," Harry whispered. "Let's go see about Ron."

"You got lucky Malfoy." Hermione lowered her wand and turned away from him to walk with Harry towards teh hospital ward. Malfoy took this as a sign of victory.

"Yeah," he shouted, "and your next Potter!"

Hermione whirled around and hit Malfoy squarely on the nose. The Slytherins all gasped and the rest of the students broke into laughter at teh sight of Malfoy's bloody face.

"He's bleeding all over the damn place," someone shouted.

Malfoy, escorted by Crabbe and Goyle, hid his face and ran from the area.

"That's what happens when you tell bloody stupid jokes about a mudblood's friends Malfoy!" Hermione shouted at his fleeing figure. "Get it? Bloody!"

Harry grabbed Hermione and ran in the direction of the hospital ward, she was right. Ron was his best friend, and he needed to find out if his best friend was all right. But Harry didn't have much hope; he had never seen anything like what Ron had looked like at the bottom of the staircase. Harry was afraid that his friend was dead and that it was all his fault.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Malfoy whirled away from the mirror he had been staring into to gape at the fiery eyes of the girl who had spoken to him.

"How the hell did you know where to find me?" Malfoy asked sulkily as he returned to staring at what had once been his nose, his voice was barely distinguishable because of his injury.

"Those idiots you call friends," she answered. "They'll do just about anything for a chocolate frog or two."

Malfoy whirled around again. He was standing in the Room of Requirement, a secret place his father had once told him about. At the moment it was full of medical books, ointments, bandages and just about anything else he would ever need along with the one mirror he stood in front of. The last thing he wanted to do right now was go to the hospital ward where Potter, Granger, Dumbledore and that McGonagall woman were and try to explain his situation. Besides, he was embarrassed enough as it was, he didn't want to give that supid mudblood the pleasure of knowing he had gone to the hospital ward.

"What do you want?" Malfoy shouted at her. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" she asked him. "How could you do such a thing?"

"I thought I was accomplishing our mission! You started with the Weasel, I was just finishing the job," he spat at her.

"First of all," she said pointing her finger in his face directly at the bloody pulp that currently made up his nose, "this is my mission. You are here to assist, not presume and act on your own! You are second wand, you had better start acting like it. Second, I still had plans for Weasley, plans which aren't going to happen now because you had to go and throw him down a fucking staircase!"

"Don't you ever say I'm second wand! My father is the Dark Lord's right hand man!" Malfoy shouted at her. His embarrassment had turned into pure anger and he was ready to kill again, he didn't care who she was.

"You wish he was, the truth is your father only cares for himself and what benefits him the most. Where was your father those thirteen years that the Dark Lord was barely alive? Where was your father when the Dark Lord tried over and over again to kill Potter? You know where, he wasn't there. He was sitting in his mansion amid his riches living it up. The only reason he answered the Dark Lord's call two years ago was because he was afraid no to. Yeah, you know your father is terrified of the Dark Lord and you know he was punished for doing nothing in service to him those thirteen years. So don't even start to talk about your father being my master's right hand man, your fahter is lucky he even has his right hand."

Malfoy simply stared coldly at her, he knew she was right. That's why he had done it, that's why he had killed Ron. He wanted to be better than his father. He wanted to prove to the Dark Lord that he was capable of so much more, he could do the things his father had never been capable of doing before. He wanted to show the Dark Lord that he could take care of Potter and his worthless friends.

"Okay, I know," Malfoy said. "But Weasley deserved what he got. You can't tell me his murder is going to ruin the whole plan."

"No, it's not," she said simply and calmly. "But it takes a lot of my fun away."

Malfoy smiled. Fun, she was having fun torturing the Golden Trio! With every passing second, Malfoy was beginning to like this girl more and more.

"Want to know how I did it?" Malfoy asked, getting as close to her as he possibly could. "I'm sure you do," he whispered in her ear. As he lay her down on a nearby couch he whispered lightly into her ear, "the Jelly Legs curse."

"Professor!" Harry shouted as Hermione and he ran towards the hospital ward.

McGonagall glanced towards the two of them as she was closing the doors.

"I'm dreadfully sorry to the both of you," she said, "but I can't let you in right now. You are both to return to the Great Hall for lunch and then Miss Granger will inform the rest of the prefects that the students are to return to their common rooms immediately following the meal."

"Professor!" Hermione shouted. "How is he?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you Miss Granger." With those words the doors leading into the hospital ward were shut and sealed from inside.

"Professor!" Hermione cried banging on the doors. Hermione sank to the floor crying.

"He's dead isn't he?" she asked Harry.

"I don't know Hermione, but I'm sure Ron will be okay. He always has been,"he said trying to reassure her. But in Harry's heart, he didn't believe what he was saying. He lifted Hermione up off the floor and led her towards the Great Hall. He didn't want to eat. In fact, he felt so sick that he was sure he would never want to eat again, but he knew he had to try.

At that moment, Ginny came running down the corridor. Tears were streaming down her face as she ran towards Harry and Hermione. She stopped when she saw Hermione crying on Harry's shoulder.

"No!" she said, her tears staining her freckled face. "No, this can't be happening!" Ginny sank to the floor and began sobbing into her hands as violently as Hermione was crying on Harry's shoulder. Thankfully for Harry, Seamus came running down the hall and immediately sat down to comfort Ginny.

Harry was lost. He felt like crying, he wanted to cry. But no tears came. He could only stare straight ahead at the wall, trying to forgive himself for the things he had said to Ron. Harry didn't know how he would live with himself knowing that the last things he had said to his best friend were in anger.

"Come on Seamus," he said to his friend who was trying desperately to comfort his sobbing girlfriend. "Let's get them to the Great Hall."

Amanda Drowry sat quietly in her office. She had witnessed the whole scene, she had seen Ron's mangled body lying on the cold floor at the bottom of the staircase. She had heard Hermione scream and she had watched Dumbledore take his body away.

Her hands shook violently as she tried to contain herself. Was he dead?

This was too much. This was too far. It was one thing to attack Potter, but to kill his friends, to torture him like this. She was sick of it! She didn't care what the Dark Lord did to her, she didn't care what anyone would think about her breaking her cover. She was going to figure out who was behind this, and she was going to start with the most suspicious person.

The four of them sat next to each other at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Everywhere around them people were talking about what had just happened, even pointin at the sobbing girls and Harry. Harry knew they were trying to show sympathy, but it just irritated him. The worst part though was that many of them knew about the fight he had just finished with Ron.

Luna Lovegood was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, staring at him. Harry knew she knew about everything, Luna always did. She knew that Ron had tried to rape Hermione, she knew that Ron and he had jsut finished having an argument before he fell, and he hoped she didn't blame him.

Harry was in the middle of his musings when he was forced to clutch his forehead in agony and fall onto the floor. Hermione and Ginny both stopped crying and immediately assisted Seamus in lifting him back onto the bench.

"Harry," Hermione asked worriedly, "is it your scar?"

The pain in his head was so terrible all he could do was nod affirmatively. Hermione and Ginny immediately started to survey the crowd, looking for any trace fo what could have caused Harry's pain. Everyone was eating and talking peacefully, nobody was even looking at Harry- that they saw.

The doors to the Great Hall flew open and Drowry came walking in. She looked frightening, none of them had ever seen her like that before. She walked directly towards the Ravenclaw table and grabbed Marietta Edgecombe who had been peacefully talking with her friend Cho.

Marietta said and did nothing as she was lifted from her seat and drug from the Great Hall by Professor Drowry. Harry though wasn't worried about Marietta, he was worried about the splitting pain in his head he had felt just before Professor Drowry had walked in, and the hot wave of fear and pain that had washed over him when her eyes met his.

Hermione tossed and turned in her bed. It was impossible for her to sleep. None of them had seen either Professor Dumbledore or McGonagall for the rest of the day, and none of the other Professors would say anything regarding Ron.

Hermione knew he must be dead. The Professor's would have let them into the hospital ward to see him if he had been alive, and they hadn't. Also, Hermione had seen his body, she had seen him fall. She didn't know who could have survived that, wizard or no wizard. Hermione had spent most of the day crying, just like Ginny. Seamus and Harry had been with them all day, only once did they leave for the owlry after Ginny had written to her mother.

It was 2:30 in the morning by Hermione's watch, and she knew there was no hope for sleep., So against school rules, she got up and dressed. She left the bedroom as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Lavender, Parvati had gone home earlier that day.

Hermione walked out the portrait hole, ignoring the snort of disbelief from the fat lady and walked towards the hospital ward. She was going to find out once and for all if Ron was okay. She was tired of guessing.

As she got close to the hospital ward, she saw Professor McGonagall come out from the ward, closing the door behind her once again. Hermione ran up to her from the end of the hall.

"Professor!" she cried.

"Hermione!" McGonagall said in a reprimanding voice. "What are you doing out of bed? And how dare you go wandering around the castle at this hour, you are a prefect for goodness sakes!"

"I know Professor, and I'm sorry," Hermione gasped out of breath. "But I can't sleep, and I have to know about Ron!" McGonagall rolled her eyes and made to walk away down the hall. "Professor please! I have to know!"

McGonagall turned around and looked at Hermione. McGonagall looked so tired, so old, so, so ruined. All Hermione could say was: "Please!"

"Hermione," McGonagall said walking towards her. She placed her arm around the now sobbing girl and pulled her close. "Ron is alive, but we had to transfer him to St. Mungos. We honestly don't know if he will make it."

a/n: Well, there it is! Chapter 7! Oh my God! How scared were all of you? Did any of you honestly think he was dead? I know I did for a while, WOW! That was crazy! Okay, I'm going to stop babbling right now so all of you can go and write me a review- which you will all do, Right? Please! Pretty please! Come on, it only takes a minute, or two (depending on how fast you type) and it makes me happy! I always write back, personally! And, you can yell at me or something for everything I've put in my story! Go ahead, yell! Let it all out, it's not good to bottle your emotions up inside like that! Do it, just review.....Please!

“Talk to me Marietta, tell me what happened. What did you do?” Marietta just stood there, shaking violently. Tears fell down her cheeks, but never once did her eyes leave Professor Drowry’s.

“Marietta,” Drowry said again, “you need to tell me. If you don’t I’ll crawl inside your mind and take what information I need.”

“I…I can’t,” Marietta stuttered. “I…I don’t know…I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Drowry sighed, she didn’t want to have to do this, I was wrong- even for her standards. But, lives were in danger. She pulled her wand out of her robe and pointed it between Marietta’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Legilimens!”

“You’re not bad.” Draco’s hands caressed her stomach. “Better than most at least.” She stood up and walked to put her clothes on. She was ashamed of herself, and it made her mad. She knew she should never have given into him and his desires, especially during such a crucial time period. But there had been something about him that she couldn’t ignore.

The worst part, though, was that she had enjoyed every sweaty second of it. God, Draco knew how to use his hands. And his body, perfectly toned and muscular from his Quidditch playing. God, no one had ever been that good, not even Percy Weasley.

She turned around and looked at him. He was still panting heavily, and covered with sweat. His blonde hair hung loosely in front of his eyes. She noiced the red marks on his back, made from her nails. He hadn’t been good, he had been incredible. But so had she. She could tell by thehungrey look in his eyes, the way he continued to pant heavily, and by the way his erection grew larger underneat the thin white sheet he had loosely draped over the lower part of his body.

Her school shirt hung from her damp shoulders, not completely covering her left breast. She watched as Draco’s hungry eyes moved away from her face and stopped at her exposed chest. She wanted to button her shirt up, slip on her pants and leave the room. She wanted to get away from him, forever. But the sight of his body, and the memory of the way she had felt with him inside of her kept her glued to where she sat.

Draco got up from the couch; the thin sheet fell slowly to the ground. He came towards her, she moved away from him so that her back was pressed against the wall. She wanted to leave, right now. But she couldn’t. As much as she detested him, and what had just happened. Her entire body wanted him, her body ached with the need to feel that pleasure again.

Shivers ran throughout her as he placed his fingers on her breast. His other hand pulled her up from the ground and pressed her against the wall. Malfoy was groaning with pleasure and anticipation, and she did not even try to fight anymore. She let him lead her back to the couch, and she gave in completely to him as he did that one thing that he was so very good at.

“My scar hurt yesterday,” Harry told them as they sat in the common room. Hermione had told them a while ago that Ron was alive, the news had been a relief. For once in 24 hours, Harry looked at Hermione and Ginny’s tear-free faces. Both were wearing weak smiles, and both had finally been able to get some rest.

“We know, I remember,” Ginny said. “We were in the Great Hall, Hermione and I didn’t see anything or anyone that looked suspicious. What do you think happened? Is Voldemort on the move again?”

Ginny had just recently been able to say his name. Slowly but surely, Harry’s friends were gaining in power and they were realizing that fear would not help them in the event of a battle. Not saying his name, was a sign of fear- a sign that they were all working hard to get rid of.

“I don’t know,” Harry said, stroking his forehead. It didn’t hurt, but it still tingled. “I was watching Luna one moment, and then everything went dark with the pain. The next think I saw was Professor Drowry come in and, well…”

“What Harry?” Hermione asked.

“When she looked at me, the pain got worse.”

They were all silent for several moments. Seamus looked uncomfortable. While he was a good friend of Harry’s, he had never really been involved in any of their adventures and he wasn’t used to hearing Harry talk about his scar. In fact, he still cringed whenever anyone used you-know-who’s name. Ginny being his girlfriend changed things though.

“Do you think she’s connected with Voldemort in some way?” Hermione asked.

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “It would make sense, I guess. Especially with everything she’s been teaching us this year, about the Dark Arts. Remember when Barty Crouch Jr. impersonated Moody and taught, he taught a lot about the Unforgivable Curses. Maybe she’s a Death Eater.”

“I don’t know guys,” Seamus said. “She seems okay to me. If she was working for you-know-who, wouldn’t she have tried to kill Harry already?”

“He may have a point Harry,” Ginny said. “Hermione told me about what Professor Drowry told you both- about Marietta and Luna asking about the Dark Arts and stuff. It seems to me like she’s trying to help you.”

“She did give me those Occlumency lessons,” Harry said. “I finally got it too; I’m pretty good at it. It doesn’t make sense that she would do those things if she was secretly trying to help Voldemort kill me.”

“Unless she was just trying to protect herself,” Hermione countered. “She could have told you those things about Marietta and Luna to make you suspicious of them and not her, and she could have given you Occlumency lessons to make you trust her.”

“Maybe I should ask Lupin what he thinks,” Harry said. “He seems to know her pretty well; it was him who recommended her to Dumbledore to give me Occlumency lessons.”

Everyone was silent for several moments while they considered the facts and thought about whether or not it was possible another Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had gone bad.

“It certainly would explain why Professor Drowry was so eager for the job,” Seamus said. “For the last couple of years Dumbledore has had trouble finding teachers for Defense Against the Dark Arts because every year something happens to them.”

Ginny nodded her head and looked at Harry and Hermione. They both looked very worried, which was understandable. Throughout the years, Harry had been through some very hard things and the thought of being once again in impending danger probably was not a very warm thought. And Hermione, she was his girlfriend now. No wonder she was so worried.

“Wait!” Hermione said. She sat up on the couch and looked at Harry. “Didn’t you say that Luna was looking at you when your scar hurt?”

“Yeah,” Harry said.

“Professor Drowry told us that she had been asking about the Dark Arts, and then when she’s looking at you your scar starts to hurt! That’s a little bit suspicious if you ask me.”

“Remember what Professor Drowry was doing there,” Ginny spoke up. “She pulled Marietta out of the Great Hall! What if she was trying to help you!”

“Oh my God!” Hermione said suddenly. Everyone looked at her.

“What! What? What is it?”

“I just realized something, when Ron fell! I didn’t realize it before, I don’t know why but it just didn’t seem important.”

“What?” they all shouted at her. Hermione looked at each and every one of them, her eyes were wide with fear and realization.

“When Ron fell, Marietta had her wand pointed right at him.”

Drowry cringed as she was projected into Marietta’s mind. It felt as if her entire body were squeezing her mind and soul out. Her face and eyes were pounded upon by a heavy wind. Her heart beat fast with fear, a fear she had never been able to overcome, a fear that never again would she stand on level ground. No matter how many times Drowry performed the Legilimens! Curse, she could never get used to it.

Just as suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. Drowry stood on level ground and opened her eyes. The wind was gone, everything was gone. Drowry looked around, everything she saw was white.

She’s not trying to block me from her thoughts, Drowry thought. She knows how, why doesn’t she try to fight me?

Drowry looked around, by thinking of certain key words Marietta’s memories would come bounding towards her. This was the way the Legilimens! Curse worked for her. It opened the mind up like an encyclopedia.

The Dark Lord, Drowry thought, hoping to get information concerning why Marietta was working for him. Drowry had her suspicions, but sometimes she could not believe them herself. Could Marietta be the long awaited heir to Voldemort?

At Drowry’s thought, several memories came rushing towards her. They appeared like the “movies” muggles would watch- moving pictures inside of a square shaped box. As the memories came flying towards Drowry she quickly examined each one, looking for a hint of what Voldemort was up to.

None of Marietta’s memories, however, contained any clue as to what was going on. In fact, Drowry realized that if Marietta was indeed working for Voldemort there would be many more memories concerning him. The six memories in front of her consisted of things Marietta had read in the paper or heard from others, nothing about Voldemort personally.

Harry Potter, she thought. This time, many more memories came towards Drowry. She scanned brief encounters with the Golden Trio, several memories of the DA meetings she had attended last year, but nothing that would hint at Voldemort’s plan to kill the boy. And none of the memories hinted at what had happened to Ron Weasley.

Ronald Weasley, Drowry tried next. She hoped that naming the boy directly would bring up memories of Marietta’s specific action against him- namely, his murder.

But none of the memories that came towards Drowry showed the scene that Drowry had been hoping to find- a scene of the red haired boy falling down the staircase because of Marietta’s curse. Once again, all Drowry saw were memories of past DA meetings.

Just as Drowry was thinking this, something caught her eye. She glanced towards a memory. The memory was very fuzzy, and it was flashing. It looked exactly like a muggle “movie” would look like if the reception was bad. Drowry walked up to the memory to examine it further.

The memory was erratic, almost as if it had been damaged in some way. Drowry was unable to decipher what was going on in the memory, and she had no idea why a memory would behave this way.

Drowry stepped into the memory to examine it further. Through the fuzziness and flashing, she was able to discern two shapes in the distance. Two people, sitting on a bench. They seemed to be kissing. The memory grew to fuzzy to remember anything, then flashed. Drowry was now able to barely make out the three shapes of the Golden Trio, and soon after the shape of Penelope Clearwater.

The memory disappeared from around Drowry. Ronald Weasley, Ronald Weasley! She thought, trying to bring it back. Nothing. The Golden Trio, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger! Memories flew by Drowry, but none of them were the same memory Drowry had just been in. It was as if the memory had just disappeared.

Suddenly, a similar memory flew towards Drowry. Her last thoughts having been about Harry and Hermione, Drowry was once again presented with a very fuzzy and flashing memory. When she stepped into it, Drowry realized she was in a dark hallway, a hallway in Hogwarts. She could barely make out both Harry and Hermione; they both seemed to be very upset with Marietta.

Drowry began to realize something from the memory, she could feel the knowledge of the memory creeping into her brain. But just as she was about to understand what was going on, the memory disappeared just as the one before had.

Drowry began searching for these fuzzy memories, trying to figure out what was going on. But all of a sudden, the squeezing feeling came back to her. She was being pushed from Marietta’s mind, the wind and fear once again returned as Drowry was shoved back into her body. Then everything stopped and Drowry was once again back in her own body.

Marietta was sitting in front of her panting heavily, a confused look on her face.

“You don’t remember those memories I was examining do you?” she asked the girl. Marietta shook her head no.

“What’s going on?”

Drowry looked into the shadowed corner where Lupin stood.

“I’m not entirely sure,” she answered him.

They all stared at Hermione with their mouths open.

“Are you telling me that bitch Marietta tried to kill my brother?” Ginny shouted. Her face was redder than anybody had ever seen it before and she had a violent look in her eye.

Hermione looked at Harry. His brows were closely knitted together as he tried to figure everything out.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s take this one step at a time. Let’s consider all the evidence we have and figure out who Voldemort’s servant is.” Everyone nodded their heads. “Luna Lovegood has ‘supposedly’ been asking Professor Drowry about the Dark Arts, and she was staring right at me when my scar started to hurt yesterday afternoon. We also know that she has witnessed people die, because she could see the Thestral’s last year in Hagrid’s class. Right?”

Everyone nodded affirmatively to Harry.

“Next is Professor Drowry. We know that she accepted the Defense Against the Dark Arts job extremely quickly, which is suspicious concerning the jobs history. We know that my scar hurt just moments before she walked into the Great Hall yesterday, and that it hurt even more when she looked directly at me. On the other hand, she did teach me Occlumency and she warned Hermione and I about Luna and Marietta. Both of which, however, could have been a ruse to gain my trust. Correct?” he asked again looking at everyone.

“She wasn’t around when Ron fell down the stairs,” Ginny said. “At least not that I saw.” “Yeah,” Seamus said, “but Ron might have fallen accidentally. There’s always the chance that it was an accident. Also, Professor Drowry would have no reason to kill Ron, not if she was after Harry.”

“Unless she just wants to weaken Harry and torture him,” Hermione said.

“But still,” Seamus retorted, “does anybody remember seeing her around when Ron fell?”

No one remembered seeing her.

“That doesn’t mean much,” Hermione said. “It’s till possible Ron fell accidentally and that Professor Drowry is a servant to Voldemort.”

Everyone nodded their heads.

“Then there’s Marietta Edgecombe,” Harry said, getting back on topic. “Like Luna she has ‘supposedly’ been asking about the Dark Arts, and she was seen with her wand pointed at Ron when he fell. Is that it?”

“No,” Hermione said. “We saw her the day before Ron attacked me, remember? She ran into the school and bumped into Ron, then she started to argue with them. Then the night Padma’s body was found we found her wandering around the school alone. She was really upset with me.”

“Wait,” Ginny said. “You said the night they found Padma’s body she was wandering around the school alone?”

“Yeah,” Hermione answered. “Why?”

“The day after that, I was talking with Parvati,” Ginny said, “and she didn’t believe what Dumbledore said about Padma killing herself. She said that Padma would never do such a thing. She also said that Padma had been telling that someone in Ravenclaw had been acting really weird and following you guys around. She never told her who, but Parvati thought that Padma had been murdered! She said it was a twin thing, that she knew in the depths of her soul that Padma didn’t kill herself.”

“You’re saying that Marietta killed Padma too?” Seamus asked.

“It makes sense,” Hermione said. “Muggles believe that twins have special connections that let them know how the other is. Parvati very well could know that Padma had been murdered, surely she would know whether Padma had been suicidal or not. And, if Padma was suspecting Marietta of following us or working for Voldemort and she confronted Marietta…” Hermione didn’t finish her sentence but looked down at the floor.

“Then it would give Marietta a reason to kill Padma,” Harry finished. “Marietta had to keep her secret safe, so she killed her. That would explain why she was alone in the hallway. It would also give her reason to attack Ron. If Marietta knew that Padma and Ron were going out, which is possible since her and Padma are both Ravenclaws, than Marietta might have thought Padma told Ron. If she thought Ron knew about what she was doing, it would give her reason to attack Ron.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. It was looking very much like Marietta was working for Voldemort.

“But how could she have done it?” Seamus asked. “Didn’t Dumbledore say that Padma hung herself? You can’t tell me Marietta forced her to hang herself.”

“She could have.” Everyone looked strangely at Hermione.

“How could she have done that Hermione,” Ginny asked.

“Ginny,” Hermione said reluctantly, “I haven’t told you this, but two days ago Ron attacked me.”

“What!?” Ginny screamed.

“He tried to rape me.”

“No!” Ginny said. “Ron would never do that! Not to anyone, especially you Hermione. He loves you; you’re like a sister to him. He would never hurt you for any reason, he would never hurt anyone.”

“I know Ginny!” Hermione said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, and it hasn’t made any sense until now! Ron didn’t attack me!”

“How can you say that for sure Hermione,” Harry asked. He wanted to know Ron hadn’t done it, but he knew what he had seen. He knew it was Ron who had stunned him and attacked Hermione.

“It’s just like I told you,” Hermione said looking at Harry. “Remember, I told you that it didn’t look like Ron. When he attacked me it looked as if something or someone was hiding behind his eyes. His eyes changed and glazed over! And when you finally came into the room Harry, he didn’t know what had happened! He saw you mad, and he saw me! He had no idea what happened, he didn’t remember anything!”

“What are you saying Hermione?” Ginny asked.

“And what does it have to do with Padma being forced to hang herself?” Seamus asked.

“Don’t you see?” Hermione shouted. “Marietta was asking about the Dark Arts! The Twiggy was killed by the Avada Kedavra! Curse! Ron was forced to attack me! Padma was forced to hang herself!”

“She knows the Unforgivables!” Harry shouted. “She used the Imperius! Charm to make Ron attack you and to make Padma kill herself! She is working for Voldemort!”

“We’ll have to talk to Parvati about it tomorrow at Padma’s funeral,” Hermoine said.

“You need to get out.”

“Why?” Draco asked as his lips traveled softly up her back. “You’ve said that three times already. I haven’t left have I? You haven’t done anything to stop me or make me go either,” he said as he bit her shoulder.

She closed her eyes and ignored the lust she felt. Enough was enough! He had to go.

“Now Draco!” she said. “Don’t make me throw you out.”

Malfoy continued to kiss and bite her down her back and onto her chest and stomach. She wanted to groan. She wanted to move and make it easier for him. She wanted to give in again experience that feeling. But she didn’t.

As Malfoy moved down her body she stood up and walked over to her clothes. She began to dress as looked at her questionably.

“What are you doing?” he asked her.

“Getting dressed,” she answered. “If you were smart you’d do the same. I wouldn’t want everyone to have to see your ugly butt when I throw you out of here.”

“No one says no to me!” Draco said. “No one! If I want you I’ll have you.” Draco walked towards her and tried to grab her, but she had her wand on him before he got that far.

“Now!” she said.

Malfoy dressed quickly. Her wand pointed at him the whole time. He walked towards the door and looked back at her, anger in his eyes.

“Just so you know,” he said, “you were good. I’ll want you again.”

“We’ll see about that,” she answered him. He walked out the door and all she could think was: There goes the fuck of the century!

But she couldn’t think about it for very long, she had to get ready to meet her master. There wasn’t much time.

The Dark Lord was laughing. His servants cowered in fear. Recently, with the help from his daughter and Drowry he had become even more terrible than they had ever thought possible. He was glowing with a power none of them though anyone could possess, and he got stronger with every passing moment.

One more day, he thought. Just one more day.

NOTE! There has been a little confusion with my offline readers conncerning Ron and I want to clarify everything now before you get confused! Ron is not dead! Hermione is the only one the Professors told! Hermione told Harry, Ginny, and Seamus! No one else knows that Ron is alive! Got it? You can review me questions if you have 'em! Hope you like the chapter, thanks for your patience through all of my mindless banter! Please Review! I love you all!

Her feet dangled carelessly from the arm of the chair she lay in. Her whole body sunk into the armchair protectively, but she knew that nothing would save her from her Masters wrath if she failed him. Fail him. Those were words she dreaded to contemplate, but with Draco Malfoy’s continued interference in her mission and in her life she began to fear something might go wrong.

The fire in front of her chair continued to crackle warmly in the room. She was getting anxious. She didn’t doubt the Dark Lords’ abilities or his safety, but he had never been late to meet her. And he should have been here fifteen minutes ago.

But she knew not to worry. He was probably dealing with a wayward follower, there were so many of them now a days. But that fact didn’t mean much to her. As long as the Master had her he was unstoppable.

The fire changed from a brilliant orange to a sickening green. The Master was arriving. She rose from her chair and stood erect as the tall hooded figure stepped from the short fireplace. She had made it clear to herself that she would offer no hint of her earlier activities with Draco Malfoy, her master would have to dig very deep if he wished to uncover that information. And he had no reason to dig into her mind or heart.

Her master looked at her and smiled, making his dark sharp teeth clearly visible. She ran to him and threw herself into his arms.

“My dear,” he said, his cold voice no less chilling than ever it was, “It seems as if you have missed me."

“Master,” she said. She had the right to call him by his name, Voldemort. She had gained the right through her activities and abilities. She had also been born with the right to call him by his name. But, she wished to think of him as her Master, at least until the day when she would prove herself, once and for all. She would prove that her special care was not because of her heritage, it was because she was the best. That would be the day that Harry Potter was gone.

“Master,” she continued, “I request that you relieve Draco Malfoy of his duty to serve me.”

“Why is that child,” the Dark Lord asked as he placed his arm lovingly on her shoulder. “Why would you wish such a thing? I ordered him to assist you; I thought he may be of help. Did I make a wrong call, a wrong choice or decision?”

“Oh, no Master!” she cried jumping from her chair and kneeling on the floor in front of him. “I was wrong to say those things. I should never have doubted you or your methods.”

“Get up!” he said, laughing. “Why do you constantly kneel before me? You are the most honored and respected of all my Death Eaters, you have no need to kneel. Hell, many others, including that insufferable Lucius Malfoy, don’t even kneel befor me- the insolent bastards!”

She stood up laughing. He may be the most evil thing in the world, but he always made her laugh. Maybe it was because she was no less evil than he was.

“I still do not understand your argument against the Malfoy boy?” he continued.

“Master!” she screamed at the tall figure standing before her. “He killed that miserable Weasley boy! I wasn’t done with him; I could have used him still.”

“No!” the Dark Lord answered. “You are upset because you did not get to kill him.” She opened her mouth to speak but was stopped by her Lord. “Don’t speak! You forget that I am more skilled in Legilimens than you are, don’t forget who taught you! Your knowledge of Occlumency doesn’t save you either, because I know you better and more personally than anyone ever could.”

She bowed her head. Of course he was right, he was always right. But Draco still infuriated her. He had had no right to kill Weasley, or to seduce her. He just did it because he felt like it. His father’s money and power did that to him; it made the boy think he was all powerful and unstoppable.

“I agree,” the Dark Lord said. “The boy has always been far too headstrong to be of any use to anyone. Honestly, I assigned him to help you in the hope that you would kick him into shape, bring him to his knees, show him who’s in charge.”

She nodded her head. “I shall.”

“It seems to me like you already have.” He said looking at her. She blushed and looked down at the carpet. “Don’t feel ashamed,” he told her. “Many a worthy woman and witch has fallen to the looks and charms of both Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius. In fact, a part of me suspected you might fall into bed with him. Since you gave into him several times I would imagine that his abilities were not just a rumor.”

She turned very red and continued looking at the floor. She had never been more embarrassed in front of her Master before. She felt terrible.

“But in the end,” he continued, drawing her chin up so that he could look at her while he spoke, “you kicked his proud ass out the door. Something that no other woman has ever done. I guarantee you, that is probably the biggest blow to Malfoy’s pride he has ever experienced.”

She smiled up at him, the red glow of her cheeks fading away because of his words. “My personal anger at him for seducing me aside,” she said, “I still think he was wrong to kill Weasley.”

“Perhaps he was. Only time will tell my dear. And I don’t believe that Weasley’s premature murder will do anything to hinder tomorrow’s activities, or draw unneeded suspicion towards either of you.”

“Yes Master,” she said.

“And don’t forget that you have your share of unworthy killings under your belt. As much as I love death and mayhem, especially underneath the nose of that insufferable Dumbledore, why did you kill Padma Patil?”

“She was getting suspicious of my activities,” she answered. “I felt it imperative to take care of the problem before she alerted a teacher, Dumbledore, or her sister. I promise you that no one has the slightest inkling that I was involved in her death. Everyone is sure that it was a suicide.”

“You are undoubtedly the cleverest of my students. Using the Imperius curse to kill someone and make it look like a suicide, pure brilliance. Something I could only expect from someone with my blood running through their veins.” He grinned at her. Even though his eyes were red slits, his face was deformed, and his mouth was full of filthy razor sharp teeth, she couldn’t help but love him.

He had rescued her. He had taught her. He had loved her. Her master, her father, and she, his heir. The only thing she knew in her mind was that no matter what happened, Harry Potter would die. Then she and her Master would rule together, side by side. It would be a wonderfully evil and cruel existence for many, and she would love every second of it.

“A quick question,” he said.

“Yes Master!”

“Marietta Edgecombe- what is your purpose with her?”

“I have been using her as a tool, to spy on Potter and his friends. I have also used her as a distraction towards the teachers. With mounting suspicion on her everyone will be less likely to look for other suspects- namely me.”

“She has come to a great use than I imagine?” he asked. She nodded her head. “Good. However, I think it is time we begin to relieve ourselves of unnecessary baggage, if you get my meaning. At this point, with the plan so close to fulfillment, she is more a danger than an asset. If she happens to remember something or if someone manages to retrieve her memories, it could be dangerous to our health,” he smiled at her. “Take care of the problem.”

“I will Master, tomorrow- before I carry out my duties for you.”

“Excellent! But now I must go,” he said suddenly. “The night is getting late, I have things to do, and you need to get to bed. It would be a terrible misfortune if that Filch fellow found you wandering around this late.”

“Okay.” She watched as the only parent she had ever had walked back into the flames and disappeared. Every time she saw him go she felt alone again. Alone like she had been before he ever came into her life. Her life, that was something she hadn’t thought about in a long time...

FIFTY YEARS AGO:

Tom Riddle was the hunk of the school, not that that was hard to tell. He was smart and handsome, everything a girl could ever want. Especially Verrah. She had had her eye on Tom since the first day of school in first year. Every year she wanted to walk up to him and tell her how she felt, but she never did. She was too shy.

Besides, Tom was probably out of her league anyway. Him, the hero of the school. He was always surrounded by friends and girls, god, he could have any girl he wanted. Why would he choose her? A silent and shy girl, a little too chubby than most boys would like, and the most annoying twin in the world.

Myrtle. Why did she have to be the one cursed with that girl as a twin, just the thought of people knowing they were related doomed Verrah to loneliness? Besides, why would Tom Riddle want anything to do with a Ravenclaw, he had all those sneaky and sleazy Slytherin girls to play with.

And play he did. Tom was a real player; he never had a steady girlfriend, just a group of girls. If one of them was lucky, then she’d get to screw him. If she wasn’t lucky, at least she could lie to her friends about it, they would never know the difference.

Boy, how she longed to be one of those girls. To be a “groupie”. To be a sex toy, a plaything. To be Tom’s. But she knew she never had a chance, until the day when their eyes met.

Verrah knew, or rather she had heard rumors, that Tom and his friends were looking at books from the Restricted Section of the library. They were playing with Dark spells and jinxes, and some of them were aspiring to be Dark wizards. It all seemed so exciting to Verrah. The girl who had never broken a school rule, who always did her homework and respected everyone. She longed, just once, to be the one breaking the rules. She wanted to be reading those books and studying those spells. She thought of all the people she would jinx, all the people who had ever been mean to her. Starting with Myrtle. The only one Myrtle could ever pick on was her.

One day, in Transfiguration, Verrah was staring at the back of Tom’s head, thinking about all the things she wished she could do with him and learn with him. While she was thinking this, Tom’s head moved, as if he were listening to something. Then he turned around and looked at her.

His eyes bore into hers, they sank to the lowest depths of her mind and heart, they examined every wish and thought, every hope and dream. Then she heard a laugh, inside her head, Tom’s laugh. He smiled at her, at her! Tom Riddle had just smiled at her! She smiled back.

After class, she was stopped by Tom. He pulled her into an empty classroom and sat on a desk, just staring at her.

“You like me don’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she laughed. “Who doesn’t?”

“You got a point there.” They both laughed. Verrah had never imagined that he would be this friendly. “What if I told you, I liked you too?”

Verrah held her breath, she was scared to answer. No, she didn’t know what to answer. “Why would you like me?” was all she could think to ask.

“I think you could help me,” he said. “When I look at you, I see strength, bravery, and slyness. And though your a goody-goody, you’ve never even broken a rule, you still think about wrong things. Things I could show you, help you to learn, help you do. I want to turn you into what you want to be.”

“How could you do that?” she asked.

“Well, for starter: who is the one person you hate more than anything?”

The answer had been very simple for Verrah- Myrtle.

Myrtle was dead the next day. Verrah had never suspected that Tom was behind all the recent student attacks, but now she knew. She knew it was Tom who had killed Myrtle; she knew he had done it because Verrah had chosen her. And she had never been happier in her life.

That night, she got to sit in with Tom and his friends while they researched the Dark Arts. He showed her a really neat trick he could do with his name. If you rearranged the letters they spelled out I AM LORD VOLDEMORT! That was their nickname for him, Lord Voldemort. But only a select few could call him that, others had to refer to him as just Lord.

His name was sacred, it meant a lot to them, he meant a lot to them. Every time they met, Verrah realized more and more what was really going on, what they were talking about and what they were planning. She loved every second of it; she wanted to be a part of it. And she was, Verrah became the most important person in the group that followed Voldemort, the group that was referred to as The Death Eaters.

It had been Verrah’s idea to call them that, she had gotten it from an ancient Dark curse, in which a powerful sorcerer could suck the very life out of people at will. Then, he would absorb their spirit, prohibiting them from ever experiencing any afterlife. The priests who performed the executions were known as Death Eaters.

But Verrah wasn’t just a Death Eater, she was so much more. Tom had told her all about his plans. He wanted to take over the world, and get rid of all muggleborns. He spoke about Slytherin and his ideals; he told her how he had been the heir. He told her all about the Basilisk and how he had attacked people and killed her sister. But more than that, he told Verrah he had chosen her for the most important part- to be his, to bare his heir.

When Tom had told her they were alone in his room. She hadn’t been scared or grossed out by his words, she had simply given in. Inside of her, she knew it was her destiny; she wanted it more than anything else. All Verrah thought about as Tom made love to her was how she had yearned for this for so long.

His lips burned her face and his fingers sent chills of pleasure up and down her body. But the most incredible thing was them, together, joined as one. It wasn’t just sex, it wasn’t just making love. It was a connection, as connection more personal than anyone could ever have imagined. It was probably more like a secret pact, an agreement. When their bodies came to together like that, just as they did so many times throughout the rest of their school years, it was a realization of how much she meant to him and his plans.

She was imperative to his plan. Her child was imperative to his plan. Though her child would not be born for many, many years; they continued to have sex. They had too, it was a continued pledge and promise that they would not leave each other. Verrah knew, she was just as important to Tom and his plans as he was to her.

Because of that, Verrah had wasted no time in planning the initiation of her new daughter to the darkness. When she was a week old, Verrah would promis her to Tom. To this day, their remained only one other person that had been made a Death Eater as a child, that was Amanda Drowry.

Amanda had been older than her daughter. In fact, Verrah had been upset by Tom’s allowing her to be initiated at such an early age. Verrah wanted that right for her daughter and her daughter only. But Tom had seen greatness in the child, a power beyond what he saw in most adults, and he had allowed her parents to promise her to them.

In the beginning it was always them, Tom and Verrah. They were a pair, together till the end. Voldemort without his queen was an impossible thing for most of them to even contemplate. That was until the day their daughter was born.

She had been a beauty from the beginning, and undoubtedly powerful. But as soon as she was born, Verrah became afraid. For some reason, Verrah did not want her baby to be a killer like she had become, she wanted her to live a normal life, not a life of darkness. So Verrah had run away with her and Tom’s daughter.

Everything seemed to be going so well, until her daughters’ first birthday. It was than that Tom arrived.

PRESENT:

A tear fell down her cheek. That was the story her father had told her. That was the story the Dark Lord had told her. She knew the rest of it by heart.

On her first birthday he had kidnapped her. He took her to his home, where he had showed her all the things he could give to her and teach her. She had understood, somehow. At such an early age, she had been so smart, so clever. It had scared her mother slightly. The Dark Lord had told her that all she needed to do to be there with him forever was to kill her mother.

That night, before she was returned to her crib, she was made a Death Eater. In her dreams, she was taught the Dark Arts, the spells and jinxes, the potions and charms, and her favorite- the Unforgivables.

Not long after her initiation her Master had attacked the Potter family, his attack on the baby had nearly killed him. She had felt it, it had woken her from her sleep. She had cried for hours, not knowing whether he lived or died. But he had managed to contact her, and at the age of two, under her Master’s orders, she had killed her mother.

Thinking it was an attack from Death Eaters out for revenge, she had been immediately placed in a foster home, but the whole time she kept in close contact with her Master through her dreams. He had been in bad shape, he could have died, several times he almost did. Every night, she would transfer a part of her own power from her mind to his, trying to help him. She did this every night until the night when he returned to the full height of his power, which was not too long ago.

She stood up from the chair and left the Room of Requirement, where she always met her Master. She had to get to sleep. No one had ever suspected her of killing her mother, they had all imagined it simply another Death Eater attack. No one had ever suspected her of being what she truly was, except maybe that dreadful Amanda Drowry.

But one day it would all change. One day everyone would know her and who she was. One day, everyone would cower in fear at the sound of her name, just as they did for her Master. That day was tomorrow.

WARNING! A lot of things will happen in this Chapter and in 11! It is very important that you pay close attention to detail. But don't worry about time too much, the events are not specifically in a time order! (example: "evil chick" and Draco aren't necessarily talking while Harry and Hermione are in Hogsmeade. That happened before they left!) Got it! Hope so! Enjoy!

“I want to make sure that Hogsmeade is protected Severus,” Dumbledore said. “There will be a lot of people at Padma Patil’s funeral, a perfect opportunity for Voldemort to strike.”

“Yes, Headmaster,” Snape answered. He rose from his chair to leave the office, but before he reached the door he hesitated.

“What is it Severus?” Dumbledore asked. “Do you have something on your mind?”

“I do,” Snape answered. “I was hoping we could discuss Amanda Drowry, and possibly Remus.”

“What do you wish to say Severus?” Dumbledore’s face had become stern. Snape and Dumbledore had had this same conversation many times. As much as Drowry’s actions, capabilities, and past were questionable, Dumbledore felt that she deserved the chance to come clean.

“I think Drowry has been in contact with Voldemort,” Snape said. Dumbledore frowned. He had feared the same, but he did not feel that she was indeed a threat. Secretly, Dumbledore believe, or hoped rather, that Drowry had switched sides and would offer assistance to Harry and him before the end.

“And Remus’ association with her Headmaster, I question how close they are becoming. If Drowry is indeed making contact with Voldlemort, she may have talked Remus into helping her.”

“Severus, your days of hating Remus are over. He is on our side, unquestionably.”

“Well then she may be stealing valuable information from his mind, all the same,” Snape shouted. “He is a member of the Order of the Pheonix! Who knows what she has learned from him and told Voldemort!”

“Severus!” Dumbledore cried, taking Snape purely by surprise. “Remus would never willingly give information away that would jeopardize the Order or Harry, you know that. He also is not stupid enough to allow someone to steal the information from him forcibly! Voldemort does not have a spy in this school and that is final!”

“Headmaster,” Snape continued, “It only takes one small moment of weakness or distraction and his mind would be easy prey! You know this! It is time you take action to protect the Order and…”

“Severus!” Dumbledore shouted again. “That is enough! Get out of my office this instant!”

Dumbledore sat quietly in his seat and calmed down while Snape left. He refused to believe that his school had been infiltrated once again. He had taken every precaution and enacted every protection charm there was. It was impossible that such things could take place on Hogwarts grounds without his knowing. And the thought that a student was behind it was utter rubbish!

How could a student know the Unforgivables? How could a student be knowledgeable enough about the Dark Arts so as to use them? Why would Drowry work so hard to help Harry and him if she was still on Voldemort’s side?

No! Dumbledore knew that Drowry was on his side. She had tried to tell him something the night Padma died. What had it been? She had made the comment that she did not believe Padma would have killed herself. How could she suggest such a thing!

Two things was certain in Dumbledore’s mind, that Drowry would not have suggested such a thing if she were working for Voldemort, and something very strange and underhanded was going on at his school. It was time to find out what.

Harry awoke with a start. His scar was stinging violently. It was late; the common room was in utter darkness, the fire having gone out a while ago. Ginny and Seamus had both said good night several hours earlier. Hermione and he, though, had stayed up. Niether of them had said why, but it was understood that they needed to be alone together.

Harry’s life was in danger, again. He knew Hermione had a right to be worried, especially since Ron was already in the hospital near death. Harry’s scar continued to burn. It burned as if Voldemort himself were near. The thought worried Harry, especially since he would be out in the open today.

Hermione stirred next to him. They had fallen asleep in each others arms, and until Harry’s scar had hurt, it was the most peaceful sleep he had ever experienced.

Hermione opened her eyes and looked at Harry.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“My scar woke me up,” he said. “It’s probably nothing, Voldemort’s just happy or something.”

“I’m worried Harry,” she said. “If Marietta is trying to give you over to Voldemort, you could get hurt…or worse.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I know it’s her, I just won’t let her get the chance to do anything. Everything will be all right.” He kissed her forehead and held her tight next to him. It was a great feeling, having her next to him.

“Harry,” Hermione said quietly.

“What?” he asked, pulling her away from him slightly so he could gaze into her dark brown eyes.

“What if we’re wrong?” she asked. “What if it’s not Marietta? What if it’s someone else, someone we haven’t even thought of?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “Nothing will happen, I promise.”

“Harry,” she said again.

“What now?” he said smiling.

“I love you.” Her words had come as such a shock to him. He knew she loved him, he had heard her say it to him earlier. He hadn’t expected to hear her say right now, not in this situation.

“I love you too,” he said. “More than anything.” He meant it too. Harry meant it more than anything he had ever said before.

He didn’t know how he knew he loved Hermione. It was just something inside of him, something in his heart. But whatever it was, he had never been surer of anything in his life.

Hermione smiled and sat up to kiss him. Her lips were soft and full, but they were hot against his own. The taste of her brought back recent memories. Memories of when they were outside on the bench, or hiding in a classroom a couple evenings ago. But mostly, of the time they had spent together, making love behind Sir Cadogen’s painting.

At that moment with Hermione, on the bed, he had never been surer that he was doing the right thing. Something inside of him had guided him the whole time. He didn’t know what he had been doing, he had been in a daze he whole time. All he had been thinking about was the beautiful girl underneath him.

All these thoughts and memories flew through Harry’s head as Hermione gently continued to kiss him. Her hand was gently tangling itself in his hair, her other hand was grasping his shirt as if Hermione would never see him again.

Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione and drew her closer, kissing her back. Now wasn’t the time, he knew, not here in the common room. He wouldn’t loose control of himself again, not like he did the other times when he had kissed Hermione. Tonight, he would just enjoy her being close to him. Tonight, he would sleep. Tonight, he would dream of Strawberries.

“What did you see in her memories?” Lupin asked, walking from the dark corner and coming towards Marietta and Drowry.

“It was strange,” Drowry said, trying to remember exactly what she had seen and trying to think of ways to describe it. “There were no memories of what we suspected. Marietta didn’t kill Padma, she didn’t attack Ron. Or, if she did she has no memories of it.”

“So we’re back at square one, is that what your saying?”

“Not exactly,” Drowry answered. “There were memories, in Marietta’s mind, of Harry, Hermione and Ron. Not memories from the DA meetings or anything like that. They seemed to be recent memories, but it was almost like they were damaged or something. They were very indistinct and very hard to read. When I examined them, they disappeared around me. Almost like, my examining them caused them to be forgotten permanently. When I asked Marietta about them just now, she said that she had no memory of those incidents’ at all. Do you have any idea what that means?”

Lupin stood up straighter and looked Drowry in the eye, his eyes showed both a touch of fear and shock, but he refused to let them show on the outside.

“It means we have a serious problem,” Lupin said. “And it means it’s time to make Dumbledore see what is really going on at this school.”

The Great Hall was packed. Everyone was talking about today’s Hogsmeade trip and Padma’s funeral. Most of the Ravenclaw’s were going to attend, and a few Gryffindor’s and Hufflepuff’s. The few Gryffindor’s going were Hermione, Lavender, Harry, and Ginny. Hermione, Lavender and Ginny were good friends of Parvati’s and wanted to be there for her. Harry was going for Hermione. Hermione had been curiously silent all morning. Harry knew she was worried about him, but he didn’t know what to say to reassure her, especially since he had already told her numerous times that everything would be okay. Dumbledore stood up at the teacher’s table; everyone grew silent and looked at him.

“It is with both good news and bad news I present you all with today,” Dumbledore said solemnly. “As some of you may know, Ronald Weasley fell from the stairs yesterday afternoon.” The student’s broke out into murmuring about Dumbledore’s announcement. “He is however, not dead.” Dumbledore shouted above he crowd, which immediately fell silent. “He is currently in St. Mungos hospital, he is very badly wounded. As of yet, the incident is deemed purely accidental.”

Harry noticed that at Dumbledore’s comment about Ron’s fall being accidental, both Professor Lupin and Professor Drowry’s faces grew stern. He was distracted from them, however, when Hermione nudged him and pointed towards the Slytherin table.

There, surrounded by his ghouls, was Draco Malfoy. It was not hard to tell from the look on his face that Malfoy was mad. In fact, Harry had seen Malfoy mad many times in his school years, but never this mad. Malfoy looked like he could have killed someone. Crabbe and Goyle were even trying to scoot away from him on the bench. All of the Slytherin’s seemed frightened by the look on Malfoy’s face, and many of them were eager to get as far away from his as possible.

“Regarding other news,” Dumbledore continued, “do not forget that today is another Hogsmeade visit.” The students all broke into cheering. “It is also important to note that today is Miss Padma Patil’s funeral, which is scheduled to take place at one o’clock in Hogsmeade. Everyone, even if they are not attending, should offer their condolences to the Patil family and or Miss Parvati Patil.

“Also,” Dumbledore continued over the now growing ruckus, “security for this Hogsmeade visit will be increased.” For once throughout Dumbledore’s speech, Professor’s Lupin and Drowry finally relaxed a little and nodded their heads in agreement to Dumbledore’s comment. “Student’s are ordered to report to a specific teacher at a specific time several times throughout the day. They are also not to go anywhere alone! All students must be accompanied by at least one other student at all times! Meeting times have been scheduled around the funeral for those attending. For anyone who does not report to a teacher at the scheduled time, when they are found they will be banned form all further Hogsmeade visits this year and they will be issued two detentions.”

The students all broke into disappointed and angry talk at Dumbledore’s announcement concerning the check-ins. Harry hardly cared though. Groups of two, him and Hermione. What did it matter if every once in a while they had to meet a teacher? It didn’t. Hermione and he would still have a great day to spend with each other, and they would be safer. He glanced at Hermione, expecting her to have a relieved look on her face. But she was still worried, and she continued to stare at her uneaten breakfast.

“Hermione,” he finally asked, “what’s the matter? Are you okay?”

Hermione glanced up at Harry and then back down at her plate.

“No,” Harry said, pulling her face away from the eggs and bacon so that he could look into her eyes. “Tell me, what’s wrong?”

“It’s just that, well…”

“What?”

Hermione looked at him, her eyes got a little misty. “I just have this feeling that something terrible is going to happen today.”

“Hey Marietta!” Cho asked sliding onto the bench next to her and Penelope. “Where were you yesterday afternoon and last night? I haven’t seen you since lunch!”

“I was just talking with some of the Professor’s and Dumbledore,” Marietta said quickly. “They were trying to figure out what happened to Ron to make him fall.”

“What did you say?” Penelope asked.

“I told them truth,” she answered. “There was a puddle of water on the floor, I took my wand out to clean it up, but before I could, Ron slipped on the puddle and fell down the stairs. If you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna go back to my room. I forgot something I need for the Hogsmeade trip.”

“Marietta!” she cried at the retreating girl once they were in a secluded area.

Marietta whirled around and looked at her wide-eyed.

“I didn’t tell them anything,” she cried. “I didn’t tell them about you! They didn’t find anything out! Please!”

“I have no doubt you didn’t tell the Professor’s,” she said. “I know my threat to kill you would keep your mouth shut. Unfortunately, the Dark Lord and I are no longer in need of your services.”

“What!” she cried. “No! No please! I’ll do anything! I’ll serve you both! Make me a Death Eater! I didn’t tell anyone I swear! Please don’t!”

“Consider your services to my Master and I terminated as of this moment.”

“No!” Marietta cried as she raised her wand.

“Stop!”

“Severus, Remus, Sprout, Amanda- I want the four of you to go to Hogsmeade with the students and take care of the check-ins. Each of you will meet a specific House outside the Three Broomsticks at specified times. If anyone is found to be missing I am to be contacted immediately. I will be in a private room of the Three Broomsticks. Understood?” Dumbledore said as the teachers prepared to leave the school with the students. All of the Professor’s nodded their heads in response to Dumbledore.

“Severus and Sprout, I would like you two to take care of your respected houses,” Dumbledore said. “Amanda, you will be in charge of Ravenclaw. Remus, if you would handle Gryffindor. The times are on your parchments. Let’s go!”

With those words Dumbledore began to walk out of the castle.

“Ah, Dumbledore?” Drowry asked raising her hand.

“Yes Amanda? Is there something more?” he asked.

“Yes actually,” she said smiling, “I was wondering whether you thought this “check-in” is an apt response to our problem?”

“What are you implying Miss Drowry?” Dumbledore asked.

“I believe, as do the other Professor’s, that we are not doing enough to protect certain students. I think the Hogsmeade trip should be called off,” she said.

“Headmaster, we don’t think your taking this situation as seriously as you should,” Lupin cut in. Drowry, Snape, and Sprout nodded their heads in agreement. Dumbledore looked at all of them. He knew he had been wrong the whole time. He knew he had made a mistake, and he felt ashamed that he had ignored all the small details and hints of what was going on. But what could he do now?

“Listen Remus,” he said, “listen all of you; we cannot stop the students from this Hogsmeade visit, especially since many of them are hoping to attend Padma’s funeral. I have instituted the check-ins; if anyone goes missing we shall know immediately.”

“What good will that do us?” Drowry asked. “Once we know their missing, what do we do? How does knowing their gone help us in any way?”

Dumbledore bowed his head. He had to do this, for several reasons.

“The students want to attend Padma’s funeral,” he said. “They also want a day out of school. Mr. Potter will be accompanied by Miss Granger at all times, I can assure you of that. As you all know, both Miss Granger and Mr. Potter are very capable, as they have demonstrated many times before.”

None of the Professor’s said anything, they knew what he was saying was true. But doubt was still in their minds.

“Headmaster,” Snape said, “while they are both capable, they both have an uncanny ability to get themselves into trouble. That, they have demonstrated many times before.”

“Severus,” Dumbledore answered, his blue eyes were twinkling uncannily and his voice was firm, “something tells me they will be a little less apt to seek trouble this time around.”

“Why is that?” Sprout asked.

“Mr. Potter and Miss Granger have recently become an item,” Drowry answered Sprout’s question. “You think their feelings for each other will keep them from getting into trouble,” she asked Dumbledore.

“I think so, yes,” he answered. “But also, it is time they both learn a little bit of responsibility.” The Professor’s all looked questionably at Dumbledore. “Last year, Harry was made aware of all the circumstances concerning himself and Voldemort, most importantly, I told him about the prophecy. Harry now knows what he must do. Going along with that, it is time for him to start to realize that we might not be around to help him when he faces Voldemort.”

“There’s something else,” Drowry said, looking coyly at Dumbledore. “What else? What aren’t you telling us?”

“That,” Dumbledore said holding up his finger, “can and will wait for later. That will wait until Mr. Potter and Miss Granger realize it themselves, at that time we will find out whether my guess is right or not.” And without saying another word, Dumbledore walked away, leaving all of the Professor’s with very confused looks on their faces.

“What now Draco?” she asked, looking at the blonde haired boy who had stopped her from killing Marietta. “What do you want?”

“He’s not dead!” Malfoy yelled. “That fucking Weasley bastard isn’t dead!”

“Duh!” she shouted at him. “We were all there, we heard the announcement! What do you expect me to do about it?”

Malfoy just steamed in front of her. She had never seen him so angry, never.

“I wanna kill him,” he said. “I wanna kill ‘em all! I wanna kill that fucking Dumbledork, that’d wipe his stupid smirk of his face! I wanna see the horror on Scarheads face while he watches me rape and beat his darling mudblood! I wanna feel their blood on my hands! I want a piece of your glory!”

She smiled at him. He looked sexy angry, especially with his face all flushed red like that.

“Why did you stop me from killing her?” she asked, pointing towards the sobbing girl at her feet. “You want to feel her blood too?”

“Not necessarily,” he said. “I came to...I came to...”

“Just say it!”

“I came to apologize!”

“What?”

“I’m sorry I attacked Weasley without your say so,” he said. “The fact is, I just want a little glory. Everything I have is because of my father’s money and my father’s power. I want something for me, because I earned, not because I was born into the right family. I want to serve the Dark Lord and make him proud of me! I want to help you.”

She smiled. She walked up the angry boy and pushed him against the wall, he let her. She kissed him on the lips. It was light at first, but then she bit him. Marietta tried to crawl away while they were kissing.

“You stay right the fuck where you are!” Malfoy shouted at her. She sunk sobbing to the floor again. “Well?” he asked her.

She moved away from him and glanced at the sobbing girl on the floor.

“How do you think we should kill her?”

Harry and Hermione walked away from Lupin, that had been their second check-in. So far it seemed as if everything was going fine, as far as they knew no one had gone missing yet. Not that they cared much.

Harry and Hermione had spent the whole day together, wandering in and out of the shops. They had both stopped in Honeydukes and Zonkos to buy get well gifts for Ron. Harry had also snuck into a small jewelry store and bought Hermione a necklace. It had a large red stone set in the middle of a silver heart.

“The lady I bought it from said that the crystal stands for eternity,” he said while he latched the necklace on Hermione’s neck while they sat outside on a tree trunk. “That’s what I want you to think about every time you look or think about me, us, forever.”

Padma’s funeral had been rather lengthy, especially since there were so many students and Professor’s who needed to give their condolences to the family. Due to that fact, many students had to be excused from Dumbledore’s punishment of not coming in for their check-in.

But despite the Professors’ apparent worry, nothing of any great occurrence happened during the Hogsmeade trip.

Harry and Hermione were walking hand in hand back to Hogwarts. They were surrounded by the students, none of which had gone missing during the day.

“Hermione,” Ginny said running up to them from behind. “Parvati is back here, let’s go see how she’s doing.”

“I’ll be right back Harry,” she said to him. “Be careful, okay?”

“You know I will.” Harry walked over to Seamus.

“How’s Ron?” Seamus asked.

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “All I know is that he’s alive. Hermione wants to go see him soon, but I don’t know if they’ll visitors. I don’t know how bad he is.”

“I heard that McGonagall said they still weren’t sure if he would live or not?”

“Yeah, but I think he will,” Harry said. “Something just tells me that Ron’s going to be okay.”

They walked a long time in silence, Hogwarts looming ever closer. For some reason, Harry was starting to feel that uneasiness that Hermione had been talking about earlier. He glanced around him, but didn’t see Marietta anywhere. Seamus and Harry entered Hogwarts and were walking up the staircase to their common room when Ginny came running up to them.

“Hey Seamus,” she said greeting her boyfriend with a quick kiss on the cheek. “Where’s Hermione?” Harry asked.

“Oh, she’s back there,” Ginny said turning around to point behind her.

“See,” Dumbledore said the Professor’s after the last check-in of the day. “Nothing happened! Harry Potter is safe and sound, not even the slightest occurrence.”

“The day isn’t over yet,” Lupin said as they walked back into the castle. “Neither is the week, or month, or year. Voldemort could take Harry anytime. He doesn’t need a Hogsmeade visit to do it.”

“What are you suggesting Remus?” Dumbledore laughed. “Do you want me to follow him around all the time?”

“You guys just don’t get it do you?” They both turned around to see a very serious Amanda Drowry. “This is not a game.”

“We know Amanda,” Dumbledore said. “Sometimes though, people just need to loosen up in a time of darkness. Don’t worry, Harry is safe on Hogwarts grounds.”

“You still don’t get it,” she said. “Who said it was Harry that Voldemort is wanting to get?”

“She’s right back there,” Ginny said pointing. “She was still talking to Parvati when I...where did she go?”

They all stopped and looked around. They could see Parvati, she was surrounded by a throng of students trying to offer their condolences. But they didn’t see Hermione.

“Hermione!” Harry shouted.

But there was no answer.

Okay, there it is. I uploaded two chapter in a single night for all of you! But now that things are getting really good, I think it's time to set some standards. I would like to have 10 new reviews on these two chapters before 11 comes up! Hopefully you'll do that before the end of the week because I'm out of town all weekend! You guys might have to wait until Monday! OH NO!!! Oh well! Get reviewing! I love hearing from you guys and I love you all!!!

"How should we kill her?"

"No, no please!" Marietta cried.

An evil grin split Malfoy’s face at her words. He glanced towards he sobbing girl on the floor, his eyes mad with anger and passion.

"Don’t get too excited," she said. "We can’t make a mess or else they might cancel the Hogsmeade trip, and that wouldn’t do us any good now would it?"

Malfoy nodded, his eyes still on Marietta.

"No!"

"There’s a closet right around the corner we can hide her in when we’re done," she continued. "After today we don’t need things to look like accidents or suicides anymore. After today we will be free."

Once again Malfoy nodded. "Can I have a little fun with her first?" he aked.

"If you mean rape her, then no," she said. "We have somewhere we need to be and we don’t have time for you to air out your ding-dong."

"Somebody please help me!" Marietta cried, but she wasn’t loud enough for anyone to hear.

"No," he said laughing at the crying girl. "There’s something I’ve always longed to do, mostly to Potter or his friends, but she’ll do fine."

"Please!"

"I think it would cause too much noise," she said. "Marietta is kind of a cry baby and we don’t want anyone hearing her scream."

"No one will hear," Malfoy said as he pulled his wand out of his robes. "Silencio!" Marietta’s loud sobs were immediately silenced. Malfoy stared at her with a hungry look in his eyes. He glanced away from Marietta.

"Only once," she said him.

"Crucio!" Malfoy shouted immediately. Marietta jerked violently on the floor. Her mouth was twisted open in a scream, but no noise came out. Malfoy kept his wand pointed at her for a long and agonizing thirty seconds, then he lowered it.

Marietta lay panting and sobbing on the floor. Her face was red from trying to scream and her body shook from the pain.

"Please, don’t!" they saw Marietta mouth.

"Avada Kedavra!" she said pointing her wand down at Marietta’s trembling body.

A bolt of green shot of her wand, it hit Marietta directly on her forehead. The girl’s body immediately went limp and stopped moving.

"Mobilcorpus!" Draco shouted. Marietta’s dead body immediately sprung up from the floor and hovered four feet from the ground. Draco walked with the body towards the closet while she opened the door. When Marietta’s body was safely hidden inside, they both ran down to the entrance hall of the school where everyone was gathering for the Hogsmeade trip.

"Have you seen Marietta?" Cho asked Penelope as they walked towards Hogsmead. The two of them were supposed to stay together at all times during the visit. Cho was a little disappointed, she would rather have spent the day with Marietta.

"No," Penelope answered. "She had said she was going back up to her room for something, I never saw her since."

Cho shrugged and walked the rest of the way quietly. She was determined to still have fun, even if she was accompanied by the Head Girl and not her best friend.

"You just don’t get it do you?" Drowry had asked. "Who said it was Harry Potter Voldemort was after!"

All of the Professor’s looked wide-eyed at her. Lupin’s jaw was hanging open as the realization moved across his face. McGonagall looked as if she was going to be sick, but worst of all was Dumbledore. His face seemed to have aged fifty years with her comment. He stared at her, and Drowry knew that he knew she was right. He had just realized it.

"How do you know this, exactly?" Snape asked. His face was the only one that showed no reaction or surprise. "Voldemort wants to kill Harry, why would he be after someone else? Who are you to advise us about Voldemort’s activities and what gives you the idea that he is after someone else? Let’s not forget that I am the Order’s informant concerning Voldemort."

Drowry looked from one of them to the other, her face grave and serious. "I think it is time to be completely honest with all of you," she said. "I think it is time for you all to know who I am, exactly."

"Parvati," Hermione said, "I just wanted to tell how sorry I was about your sister. It was so tragic. We are all hurting with you. And Ginny and I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything we would be happy to help."

"Thank you both so much!" Parvati said hugging them. She was crying lightly, but surrounded by all of her friends, she was starting to feel better.

"I just wanted to say that I’m here for you if you ever need anything," Ginny said. With that she ran ahead, probably to go find Seamus.

"I also wanted to say Parvati," Hermione said, "that Ron would have given you his condolences too if he could have been here."

Parvati nodded. "They were really cute together," she said, "Ron and Padma. Even after what happened at the Yule ball, Padma just couldn’t stay mad at him- she always thought he was so cute," she laughed.

"Do something for me," Parvati said. "When you see Ron, I’m sure you’ll go see him soon, tell him it’s okay and that I’m okay. Tell him that I love him, as a brother- you know, for caring about my sister."

Hermione nodded her head, her eyes were getting misty. "I will she said," and she walked away from Parvati. She headed in the same direction Ginny had to find her and Harry.

"Hey Granger!" Hermione turned her head and saw Malfoy leaning against a tree a little way away.

"What do you want Malfoy?" she asked. "There’s plenty people to see you get hit by a girl today."

"That wont happen again!" he shouted. "Come here, I have someone I want you to meet."

Hermione walked over to where Malfoy stood. She was suspicious about how confident he was, but at best he would have Crabbe and Goyle jump out from behind the trees to ambush her, maybe Pansy Parkinson would be there. But no matter what, Hermione was better and quicker with her wand than any of them. No need to be worried.

"What Malfoy?" she asked glancing around. "I don’t see anyone."

"I just wanted to talk to you for a sec," he said. "How do you think Potter’s feeling today?"

"Why?"

"Well," Malfoy laughed, "I would want him to be in the best of health. That way, when he falls, he’ll fall hard."

"Why would he fall Malfoy?" Hermione asked. Her hand reaching inside her robe to grab her wand. "Are you going to push him down a staircase?"

"Tut tut Granger," Malfoy smirked. "Dumbledore said it was an accident, remember? How could I have pushed Weasley anyway, I wasn’t even near him."

"Something going on?" Hermione whirled around and smiled at the face she saw. She immediately took her hand of her wand and pulled it out of her robes.

"Not much," Hermione said. "Malfoy’s just being a stupid git again."

"Yeah," she said. "He has a tendency to do that at times." She smiled at them both.

Everyone had gone back into the castle, Hermione was now alone with them. But she didn’t notice, Hermione didn’t think anything would go wrong with her standing their.

"Stupefy!" Hermione was hit from behind by Malfoy’s spell. That was the last she knew.

"She was right there," Ginny cried. "I swear! When I left she was talking to Parvati!"

"Why are we all getting worked up?" Seamus said. "She probably went to talk to someone else; it’s no cause to worry just because we can’t see her."

"It’s just that I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach," Harry said. "I’m scared for some reason, and I’ve never been this scared before."

"Let’s go!" Ginny said grabbing both guys by the arm and pulling them back down the staircase. "We need to find her."

All of the Professor’s were standing in Dumbledore’s office. It was very cramped, to say the least. But no one cared, all eyes were on Drowry.

"As many of you know," she started. "My parents were Death Eaters." This comment brought several gasps from those who had not known. "What nobody knows is that they were two of the original Death Eaters, or, two of the first people to follow Voldemort. This occurred when Voldemort was still known by his legal name- Tom Riddle- and it took place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry fifty years ago."

Drowry paused and looked around the room. Many of the Professor’s had expressions of utter shock on their faces. The only two who showed no expressions were Dumbledore and Snape.

"My parents, Regina Black and Tor Drowry," she continued. "Were also two of Tom’s most faithful and most powerful followers. In fact, the only other person who rivaled their loyalty and power was Verrah Gertrue. The same Verrah Gertrue that was the twin sister to Myrtle Gertrue, who now resides in a U-bend in the third floors girls toilet. Verrah Gertrue, as none of you know, was in a way responsible for her sisters demise by way of Slytherin’s monster and was eventually the woman who gave birth to Voldemort’s heir eighteen years ago."

This time everyone in the room gasped and began to murmur, even Snape and Dumbledore.

"Please," Drowry said raising her hands. "I know a lot of what I am going to say right now will upset and shock you, but I ask that you just let me say it and get it out. This is not an easy story to tell." Everyone immediately stopped talking and gave their attention back to Drowry.

"I can’t find her anywhere!" Ginny cried as she ran through the crowd with Seamus and Harry.

"Like I said before," Drowry continued, "my parents were two of the most powerful and loyal followers of Voldemort. When they married, it was a very exciting thing for Voldemort. His mind was swarming with the possibilities. Two extremely powerful people joining together in marriage, he could only imagine the power that their children would wield when they were born.

"Voldemort began to build his ultimate plan on that. Between my parents and their extremely powerful offspring and Verrah and him and their offspring, Voldemort was beginning to realize that he could easily achieve what he had wanted for so long- to rule the wizarding world. With so much power behind him, it seemed inevitable.

"When I was born Voldemort’s dreams began to be realized. From the first moment he saw me he felt my power and my potential. He wanted me on his side, he needed me on his side; it was imperative to his plan. My parent’s, who as I have said very loyal, agreed that I must serve him. My parents swore me to Voldemort, even though I was bought a child. They made me a Death Eater."

Again there was a round of gasps and murmurs. Drowry raised her hands and everyone fell silent.

"I became Voldemort’s student. I was trained by him personally in the hope that my full potential would be reached. In fact, I exceeded every imaginable potential. My power at a very young age was exponential, and it was only mirrored by one other- Voldemort’s own heir.

"I never knew who it was. Verrah ran away from Tom before the child was born, I was young at the time but I remember it quite clearly. Because of circumstances I never became the ‘sister’ to Voldemort’s heir that he had hoped I would. We both led separate lives, and though we were both trained directly by Voldemort, neither of us ever met our rival.

"My parent’s soon moved from England to the America’s. It was shortly after Voldemort’s near death over Harry Potter. Though he was weak, his most faithful followers managed to keep in contact with him. It was mainly his heir and I, however, who were able to continue and train within him and communicate with him fully.

"It was through my parents and my move to America that Voldemort hoped to spread his revolution to the other side of the world. We were all very successful for a long time. I began attending a special school set up especially for children like me: St. Caddock’s School of Dark Arts for the exceedingly powerful. I was quickly becoming everything my parent’s and Voldemort had ever wanted me to be."

"Hermione! Hermione!" Harry shouted.

"But then my parent’s were killed," Drowry said. "I was fifteen when it happened, and I watched the whole thing. I was never found by the Order’s Auror’s who had killed them because I quickly apparated to the location of my Master. They never suspected that I could such a thing obviously, and I was believed dead for many years.

"My parent’s deaths had made me realize something though. I began to wonder what we were doing exactly and why the Ministry of Magic and Association of Magical Being’s was continually trying to kill Voldemort’s followers. I also wondered why, after Voldemort’s seemingly death at the hands of the innocent baby Potter, many of his followers merely vanished or claimed to have been forced into his service.

"The honest truth is that everyone who worked for Voldemort did so willingly. Voldemort never threatened anyone that if they refused to join him they would be killed. Every Death Eater was a voluntary and willing servant to the Dark Lord."

"What are you doing?" Snape asked suddenly. "Defending him?"

"On the contrary," Drowry defended. "I am trying to paint a picture of my life, my beliefs, and my worries for you. If you don’t agree with anything I say than I am sorry, I speak the truth." Snape steamed silently in his chair while Drowry smiled at him.

"Anyways," Drowry continued, "my entire life I was told that Voldemort and his Death Eaters were trying to purify the wizarding world. I was taught that there were people who were not worthy to know magic learning it and using it. I was taught that muggles were akin to animals and should be treated as such and I was taught that any muggle or half-breed was only to be looked upon as a servant and never as a magical colleague. I had also been taught that my powers and knowledge of magic were a great gift, a privilege, an honor, and a right. I was taught to respect that knowledge. In the world that I grew up in, there was no excuse for a muggle or half-breed to learn magic- it was simply unheard of and sickening.

"I was taught that it was our duty to remove the animals from magical schools and to make sure that they stared where they belonged- at our feet. When I was fifteen years old, after my parent’s death, I began to question everything I had been taught. Simple teenage rebellion thing. But what I realized was that I didn’t agree with what they were doing. I believed that everything I had been taught and practicing for the last fifteen years was wrong."

"Hermione where are you?" Ginny screamed.

"Of course, at fifteen years old," Drowry said, "I wasn’t going to confront anyone about this. Especially since I was basically living with Voldemort, keeping him alive even. But, throughout the years, my feelings only deepened. I came to this school in the hopes that I could redeem myself. I came here to try and stop the things that I helped to start. I came here in the hopes that I could find and stop Voldemort’s heir."

"And did you?" Snape asked.

"Unfortunately no," she said. "Voldemort thinks I am faithful to him, he thinks I am here acting as his spy. The reality is the reverse. I told Remus Lupin most of what I just told all of you and he was helping me. So in reality, your suspicions Severus were correct."

"How did you know that I was suspicious?" he asked.

"It’s not hard to tell someone is suspicious when they follow you around, listen in on your conversations and stare at you constantly," Drowry answered with a smile. "You are very obvious Severus." Snape turned red with embarrassment and once again sat quietly in his seat stewing.

"For a long while," she continued, "Remus and I believed that the heir was Marietta Edgecombe. With due reason, as we told you Dumbledore. She was following the Golden Trio, asking about the Dark Arts, asking a lot about me, and she was always around whenever anything odd happened. But, when I questioned her we discovered that she was not the heir at all, but a tool to the heir.

"Marietta had been possessed several times, possibly through use of the Imperius! Curse, or through sure power and fear alone. Either way, she was not the one."

"Then who is it Miss Drowry?" McGonagall asked, her face showed utter fear.

"I don’t know," Drowry said quietly. "I’m sorry but I can’t tell you. She’s very powerful if not as powerful as I am, and she has Voldemort’s full backing. He did not reveal to me his heir’s identity."

"Could that possibly be because he does know you are seeking to sell him out?" Snape asked, as sneer on his face.

"No," Drowry said. "Unless I were to confront Voldemort directly he would never know or suspect my intentions, I am like a daughter to him. In fact, if anything were to happen to his heir, I would take the place. I would be Voldemort’s heir in that instance. It is probably for that reason Voldemort did not reveal the identity of his heir to me, simple rivalry."

"How do we know you aren’t trying to find the heir so as to take her place?" Snape asked again.

"First of all, just because I suspected that Marietta was the heir does not mean that the heir is a female. It could possibly be a male," Drowry said. "Also, if those were my intentions Severus, I would not have told you anything about myself or the heir."

"So your saying that Voldemort’s heir is running around Hogwarts!" McGonagall cried.

"It’s worse than that Minerva," Drowry said. "The heir has already killed once, as far as we know. There is nothing stopping the heir from striking again, more severely."

"We must find Harry!" McGonagall shouted rising from her seat.

"Please Minerva!" Drowry said. "I guarantee you that the heir is not after Harry."

"And why can you be so sure?" Dumbledore asked finally.

"For several reasons," Drowry said. "Voldemort wants to kill Harry. It is quite possible that if the heir got into a direct altercation with Harry, one of them would die. Also, Harry is to protected to lure him away or too Voldemort directly, as has been proven several times in the past. Also, Voldemort and the heir will want to take care of those being closest to Harry also."

"What are you saying?" McGonagall asked.

"By taking care of Harry’s friends first," Drowry said. "Harry would be immediately weakened. Also it would make Harry Potter find Voldemort, once again putting himself in a more vulnerable situation, and not the other way around."

"You mean that…"

"Ron’s fall was not an accident," Drowry said. "It was attempted murder, it was made to look like an accident. The day before Ron’s fall, Ron attacked both Harry and Hermione and tried to rape Hermione. It is my belief that Ron was under the Imperius! Curse during the episode. It was staged in order to weaken the bond between Ron and Harry and push Harry and Hermione even closer together, and if I’m not being too bold I would say that worked."

"Why would Voldemort want to push Hermione and Harry closer together?" Snape asked.

"So when he kidnaps Hermione, Harry will be sure to come," Dumbledore said. He sighed. "All along we have been worried about protecting Harry, and he was never the one in immediate danger."

"I think it’s time we go find Harry and Hermione and tell them this," McGonagall said. "That way they will know and they will be prepared."

"Hermione! Has anyone seen Hermione!" Harry shouted as he ran through the crowd of students trying to get back to their dormitories.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Seamus ran up and asked Parvati.

"Yeah," she said. "Her and Ginny came up and saw me a few minutes ago. Then she ran off. I saw her talking to Draco Malfoy a while ago."

"What!" Harry shouted. He came running over to where Parvati and Seamus stood. "Draco Malfoy?" he asked Parvati. "You saw her with Draco Malfoy?"

Parvati nodded.

"Where?"

"They were over there," she pointed. "By the tree. What’s going on?"

But Harry didn’t wait to answer her question, he just ran in the direction she had pointed.

"Harry!" Ginny shouted. "Where are you going? Where is she?"

"Find someone!" Harry cried, never stopping. "Find Dumbledore or McGonagall! Hell, find Snape! I don’t care, just find somebody!"

Ginny ran towards Dumbledore’s office.

The Professor’s all filed out of Dumbledore’s office slowly. McGonagall, Dumbledore, Lupin, and Drowry were on their way to the Gryffindor common room to talk to Harry and Hermione. They were all very grave. It was a very serious situation.

"Professors!" They all turned to look. Ginny Weasley was running towards them. She was out of breath and looked on the verge of tears.

"Professor’s!" she cried.

"What is it? What happened?" McGonagall asked as Dumbledore and she ran up to the girl.

"It’s…it’s," Ginny gasped, clearly out of breath.

"It’s okay, catch your breath," McGonagall said. "Now tell us what’s wrong."

"It’s Hermione!" Ginny cried. All of the Professor’s gasped and looked at one another. "She’s missing! We can’t find her!" Ginny cried. "Harry told me to come get you!"

"Hermione!" Harry cried. He was running towards the spot Parvati had pointed out to him. "Hermione! Malfoy!"

There was nothing. Nobody was there.

"Mmmmm!"

Harry spun around at the sound of the moan. He could barely make out the shape of a body lying on the ground. He ran up to it.

"Hermione!" he cried. But when he got to the body he realized it was Cho.

"Cho?" he said. The girls eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice.

"Harry?" she asked.

"Cho, what happened? Have you seen Hermione?"

Cho nodded. "I was walking back to the school, I was worried about Marietta. I heard someone scream and I looked over here. I saw Hermione being dragged off by Draco Malfoy."

Harry’s jaw clenched. "Did you see where they took her Cho?"

"Yeah, they took her over there." Harry looked in the direction Cho had pointed. He was looking right at the Whomping Willow.

"The heir has her already!" Drowry cried.

"Who could it be?" McGonagall asked.

"My best guess is a Ravenclaw," Drowry said. "They would have the most and easiest access to Marietta, that’s important because they used her as a tool. Another good guess is that it was someone relatively close to her, like a friend or something."

"I have to go now Cho," Harry said. "I have to go save Hermione." He stood up to leave but he was stopped when Cho grabbed his robes.

"Wait Harry!" she said standing up. "Let me go with you! It was all my fault he took her, I should have tried harder to stop him! And you can’t go alone, let me help!"

"Fine, whatever," Harry screamed. "Let’s just go!"

"I’ll go meet with Voldemort," Drowry shouted. "I’ll come back when I know where she is. In the meantime, find Harry and don’t let him go anywhere!"

She ran out the door before anyone had a chance to stop her.

"Where could Hermione have been kidnapped and led off of Hogwarts grounds?" McGonagall said.

"I think I have an idea!" Lupin said running down the hall.

"It was here!" Cho said when they got to the Whomping Willow. "They crawled underneath, but it wasn’t moving."

Harry quickly grabbed a nearby stick and poked around at the base of the tree for the secret knob that would freeze the tree. He found it quickly. The entire tree stopped moving and froze in mid-air.

"Wow," Cho said.

"Come on," Harry pulled down into the hole at the base of the Whomping Willow, and into darkness.

Hello all! Tis me! Please Review and tell me how you like it so far. "Evil chicks" identity will be released in the next chapter! As I'm sure both Synger and IJustReadThem (and probably many more of you) will appreciate. Anyways, if you want to know who she is-----15 more reviews! Come on, it's not that difficult, it only takes a few seconds, and it makes me happy! So, if you want to know, get writing!!! I love you all, I hope you have a wonderful day!

“Lumos!” Harry whispered. His wand lit up, revealing the tunnel that he and Cho were in.

The tunnel was dark and damp. Cho kept slipping and tripping over things, but Harry didn’t have that problem. He had been down this tunnel before. The tunnel under the Whomping Willow that led to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade.

Just a few years ago Harry and Hermione had entered this tunnel to save Ron from a black dog. A black dog that later turned out to be Harry’s godfather Sirius Black.

“Umph!” Cho grunted as she tripped over a large branch. Harry reached out and grabbed her so she didn’t fall.

“Be careful,” he said. “There are rocks and roots all over the place. We don’t need you to get hurt, especially after what just happened to you.”

Harry frowned at his last comment. What had happened to Cho? According to her story she had watched Hermione being dragged into the tunnel by Draco Malfoy. But that couldn’t have been. How did Draco know about the secret tunnel under the Whomping Willow? And how did he know about the knot that stopped the tree from moving? Why didn’t Hermione fight him? She would never have underestimated Malfoy enough to not be ready for any spell he could unleash, and she was much quicker with her wand than he was. What had happened to Hermione?

There had to have been someone else, Harry though. There was no way that Draco Malfoy could have subdued Hermione. There had to have been someone else, Hermione had to have been outnumbered. But who?

Harry glanced over at Cho who was walking without a problem now. What had happened to Cho? When Harry had found her she was laying on the ground, it seemed as if she was just regaining consciousness. But Cho had never said she was hit by a spell, and she hadn’t mentioned seeing anyone other than Draco Malfoy. She also seemed perfectly fine for someone who had just regained consciousness.

Even when Harry had found her, she was far too awake and coherent to have been unconscious from an attack. That’s when Harry realized that they wanted him to know where Hermione was. This wasn’t just some stupid prank Malfoy was pulling. This was the real deal. This was all a set up. Harry was being led to Voldemort.

“That’s right Professor Dumbledore,” Luna said quietly. “Both Marietta and Cho are missing. Why do you ask?”

“It is nothing Miss Lovegood,” Dumbledore answered her. “There was some confusion among a few students regarding the Hogsmeade visit and where to meet to return to the school. We’re just trying to figure out exactly who they are, it’s no big deal.”

“Oh no Professor,” Luna said very importantly as if she was proud that she knew something he did not. “They aren’t here in the common room that’s true, but Cho did come back to school with us. As for Marietta, we haven’t seen her since breakfast. I don’t think she ever got to Hogsmeade.”

“Why do you say that Luna?” Dumbledore asked.

“Between you and me,” Luna whispered, still speaking in her important tone of voice, “I think Marietta went and fell into a dangerous crowd. I think she might have gotten into a spot of trouble this morning.”

Dumbledore frowned. Luna was always the one to go to for information, she knew everything. And she was far to smart for her own good.

“Luna,” Dumbledore said, “Is anyone else missing?”

“Lupin!” Drowry as he ran past her. “Where are you going?”

“The Shrieking Shack!” he yelled from ahead of her.

“The Shrieking Shack?” she yelled back, changing direction to run after him. “Why are you going there?”

“Something McGonagall said,” Lupin said as he finally stopped running and looked at Drowry while he caught his breath. “She asked, ‘where could Hermione have been kidnapped and left off Hogwarts grounds’. Well, we know Hermione was kidnapped on Hogwarts grounds. And there just so happens to be a secret passageway from Hogwarts to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. It’s not far and it’s convenient.”

“Lupin your brilliant!” she said grabbing him in a hug. “Where is it?”

Lupin pointed his finger at the Whomping Willow that stood only two feet away from swinging wildly around trying to reach the two of them. He had a huge smile on his face from Drowry’s hug.

“Nice place to put a secret tunnel,” Drowry said staring at the extremely agitated tree.

It was all a setup, Harry now knew. He gripped his wand tighter in his hand. He wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Cho glanced nervously at his hand as his fingers tightened, he could almost see her heart beating from fright.

Harry looked up ahead of him; the tunnel was nearing the end. Soon, they would come to the trap door that led into the Shrieking Shack. He had to act quickly.

“I don’t know if I’m right,” Lupin said. “So you go into Hogsmeade and apparate to meet him like you said you would. Then come back and contact the other’s. I’ll go through the tunnel. It’ll take me awhile because I’ll have to be extremely cautious. Voldemort knows I know about the tunnel, he may have booby-trapped it or placed Death Eaters along it for protection. Who knows! Will you go?”

“Yes, but if your right,” she said, “You will probably get there before me, and I wont have time to go back for help. What do we do then?”

“Then I’ll go back,” Lupin said smiling at her. “Or, we fight to the death. A noble end for noble people.”

“Gah!” Cho screamed as her head hit the wall. Harry’s hand was tightly squeezing her throat and the force and speed at which he had attacked her was phenomenal.

“Give it up Cho!” he screamed. “I know your working for Voldemort! I know you’re taking me right to him!”

“No,” Cho gagged. “No, I’m not!”

“Liar!” Harry screamed slamming her against the wall again. “You attacked Hermione.”

“No!”

Harry raised his wand and pointed it directly towards face. He opened his mouth to speak but the words stopped coming when he heard laughter. And it wasn’t coming from Cho.

“Minerva!” Dumbledore shouted as he ran to the Entrance Hall of the school.

“Everyone else is here Albus,” she said. “The only student’s missing are Cho, Marietta, Malfoy, Harry, and Hermione.”

“No,” Dumbledore said. “There’s one more. We need to find Voldemort immediately, I have contacted the Order.”

“Who else is missing Albus?”

“You will never guess.” Dumbledore said as he walked out the door with Minerva and Severus.

Harry loosened his grip on Cho’s throat when he heard the laughing. But Cho didn’t sink to the floor coughing like he would have expected her too. She staid leaning against the wall, her head slightly tilted, and her eyes glazed over.

Harry pointed his wand in the direction of the laughter. But it was too dark, he couldn’t see anything. Whoever was laughing was just out of reach of his Lumos! Spell, but they had a great view of him.

“Nox!” Harry said. But the tunnel didn’t go dark. It remained bright where he and Cho stood.

Cho moaned beside him.

“I suppose I should release you now?” came a voice Harry knew quite well, a voice he would never have suspected to hear in this situation. “Is that right? I did promise to release you if you led him to me.”

“Please,” came a soft croak from Cho. Harry glanced over at her.

Eyes glazed over, blank expression, he thought of his conversation with Hermione, Ginny and Seamus the day before- Cho was under the Imperius Curse.

“Please,” Cho said again, this time stronger.

Another laugh. Then Harry saw the tip of a wand appear just beyond the shadow in the tunnel, pointed straight at Cho.

“Avada Kedavra!”

“Ahhh!” Lavender screamed as Marietta Edgecombe’s body fell out of the closet.

Filch stared at the body of the girl for a moment and then ordered all of the student’s back to their common rooms. And even though he was just the janitor, they all easily obeyed.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Filch said to Mrs. Norris who was hissing at the body. “Looks like we got a murderer at our school Mrs. Norris.”

Harry watched as Cho’s body sagged down the rock wall and land in a crumpled heap on the ground. She was dead. Harry’s wand flew in the direction of where the spell had come from.

“Expelliarmus!”

Harry’s wand flew from his hand and into the hand of the girl he thought he could trust who stood in the shadows. He turned around and stared at where the spell had come from.

“Scared now Potter?” Malfoy sneered at him, his wand pointed directly between his eyes.

“You wish!” Harry answered the same question through his gritted teeth.

“You should be,” Malfoy answered, “being we’ve got your girlfriend. What I would like to do to her!”

Harry lunged at Malfoy. He may not have had his wand, but he could beat him with his fists.

“That’s enough!” the girl shouted.

Harry stood up and looked daggers at Malfoy. He turned around slowly and looked at the two wands that were pointed at him, one of which was his own. The wands moved forward slightly as the holder walked out of the shadows and into the light.

“Let’s go Malfoy,” said Penelope Clearwater.

Okay, I know I said I wanted 15 reviews before I put this chapter up, but I felt really bad. I told you guys that it would probably only take the moderators a couple of day's to approve Chapter 11, but it's been a week and they still havn't even read it!!! I felt so bad that I came and uploaded 12 for you. Hope your not upset! Also, please review! I am very anxious about your reactions to who Voldemort's daughter is! Especially review if you knew it was Penelope! I'm curious to know how you knew! But it doesn't really matter, just review!

I have finished writing the story and have started on the sequal- Love Fulfilled! In 4 chapter's this story will be over! Can you beleive it? Anyways, I'm thinking that the sequal might be more of a Dark/Angst story than a romance, havn't really decided yet. Will keep you updated! Hope your enjoying the story, please drop me a line and fill me in one what you think! Much love to all of my faithfull readers! Thank you for putting up with the first 3 boring chapter's! Aren't you glad you did?! Anyways, go review now..go...now. When I get 10 more I'll upload 13!

“Wait,� Malfoy said. He had that same crazed look in his eyes as when he had begged Penelope to torture Marietta. “I’ve waiting too long for this.�

“We need to get him to the Dark Lord Malfoy,� she said unemotionally.

“All these years,� Malfoy said, “and finally he is within my reach. Let me.�

“I don’t think I should.�

“Just once, I promise,� Malfoy said. “I would never dream of killing him.�

Harry held his breath as the two of them discussed this. He had no idea what it was Malfoy wanted to do to him, but he could guess. Harry didn’t care what happened to him. Malfoy could torture him, stun him, hell, he could cut him up into little pieces and scatter those pieces all across the planet- all Harry cared about was finding Hermione. And eventually they would lead him directly to her.

Penelope looked at Harry who just standing there in front of her. His face showed no emotion whatsoever and he wasn’t even looking at his wand. In fact, he acted like he didn’t even care about what was happening to him. The bastard, she thought, he’s to prideful to even beg or plead. But she would watch him plead, she had sworn to herself that before she died she would watch him plead before her and her Master.

“Fine,� she said looking at Malfoy. “Just this once. To make him compliant.�

That wide grin spread across Malfoy’s face for the second time that day, this time it contained more joy than Malfoy had ever felt before. This was the moment he had been waiting for for six years.

“Crucio!�

Drowry stopped to catch her breath as she finally exited the Hogwarts grounds. She was now able to apparate. She waited a few more moments to catch her breath, what she was about to do was very difficult and very dangerous. She had to be completely concentrated on her destination.

She stood up straight and emptied her mind. Unlike most apparitions, where a person merely imagined their destination, Drowry had to imagine something else- she wasn’t entirely sure where Voldemort was. She emptied her mind and thought of Voldemort. She thought of his power, of his voice, of his Death Eaters. She imagined herself standing beside him, wherever he was.

She concentrated on nothing but those things and, picturing herself next to him, she apparated.

“Aaahhh!� Harry screamed as his knees hit the hard dirt ground, his knees buckled with the pain, causing his face and body to slam hard into the ground.

Harry continued to scream as his body twisted on the ground. Every thought he had, even his determination to save Hermione, disappeared from his mind. His brain and mind was blackness. Every memory he had, everything disappeared, leaving only blackness and the pain.

Harry’s body continued to convulse, his scream grew louder, earsplitting even. The pain grew more intense. It grew in power and strength until it was Harry. Harry was the pain, and the pain was all Harry had ever known and all that he would ever know.

Harry’s eyes rolled back in his head, he couldn’t breath. The pain was so intense that Harry couldn’t even scream anymore, there was nothing left inside of him to scream. Right now, he was nothing. And the only thing that currently existed in Harry’s life was pain and darkness.

Malfoy, on the other hand, had never felt better. He could feel the power coursing through his body and building in his wand and heart. After all these years of torment and defeat, Malfoy’s hate could finally escape.

That was what caused Harry’s intense pain. It was Malfoy’s intense hate. A hate that had built up and grown for six years inside of Malfoy, a hate that Malfoy couldn’t control anymore, and it had just exloded.

Finally, Malfoy lowered his wand, a triumphant look on his face. Harry lay on the ground gasping for breath, just barely conscious. He lay still for several moments, composing himself from what he had just been through.

Harry opened his eyes and quickly shut them again. Everything was so right, the light hurt him. When he finally gained the strength to open his eys again, he forced his eye lids to stay open. Everything looked fuzzy. He couldn’t see anything clearly. But Harry stood up anyways.

A shooting pain ran from Harry’s knees as he placed his weight on them. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming out and he dug his fingernails into the flesh of his palm to keep himself from falling back down onto the ground. He glared at Penelope through his bleary eyes, ignoring the pain and the blood he tasted in his mouth and felt in his hands. He forced his eyes to look determined and prideful; he refused to let her think that he had been broken- because he hadn’t. He couldn’t and wouldn’t be broken until he found Hermione and killed any bastard who had anything to do with her kidnapping.

“Take me to Voldemort,� Harry said hoarsely to Penelope as she continued to grin and point his wand at him. And he realized, he would start with killing Voldemort, Clearwater, Malfoy and Drowry.

Lupin walked cautiously through the tunnel. He didn’t light his wand; he didn’t want to give any possible enemies the heads up that he was there. Luckily, Lupin knew this tunnel extremely well from his school days. Even in the dark, Lupin found it very unlikely that he would…

“Umph!� Lupin tripped. Damn it, he thought. That was exactly what he was hoping not to do. He lay on the ground for a long while, not moving, just listening. Listening for any sign that he had been heard.

There was nothing. No sound anywhere and no movement in the dark. Lupin couldn’t believe that he had tripped. Finally, after waiting for a few more minutes, Lupin decided to chance it. He wa curious as to what he had tripped over.

“Lumos!� Lupin spoke quietly, still sitting on the ground. “Shit!� he cried out as he jumped back and hit the opposite wall of the tunnel. No wonder I tripped, Lupin thought. Because there, lying on the floor ws the cold, lifeless body of Cho Chang.

Drowry was somewhere she had never been before. It looked like a large dilapidating shack. Everything was falling apart around her, and everything was covered in a very thick layer of dust. But no Voldemort.

She sighed. She hadn’t apparated right, she must not have been concentrating on him enough. If she had gotten it right she should be standing directly beside…

“Hello again, my daughter.�

Drowry turned around and looked at Voldemort and his arms which were stretched out in welcome of her.

“My Lord,� she said walking into his arms. Voldemort had referred to her as his daughter for as long as Drowry could remember, and indeed, he had taught her everything she knew.

“I was just about to summon you to my side,� Voldemort said as she stood in his arms. “My plan is coming to a close tonight and I wish all of my followers, especially my most beloved,� he said grinning that wicked smile at her, “to be here and witness my triumph.�

“So it’s true?� she asked him, he eyes bright with a false enthusiasm. “Harry Potter is here?�

“He shall be arriving momentarily,� Voldemort said. “Why don’t you go and prepare for the ceremony.�

Drowry nodded, smiling. Then she looked around once again.

“Where are we Voldemort?� she asked him.

“In the most obvious and convenient place,� he said laughing. “Right under that idiot Dumbledore’s nose- the Shrieking Shack of Hogsmeade. Now go change out of those stupid school clothes,� he said laughing.

Drowry smiled and walked away. Right now everything depended on Lupin and his reaching Dumbledore. Drowry could not leave, and while she was an extremely powerful being, she did not find it likely that she and Lupin would be able to take on Voldemrt’s army of Death Eaters on their own.

At least I know they’re heading this way, Lupin thought.

“Mobilicorpus!� Lupin said pointing his wand at Cho. He had to get to Dumbledore and tell him where Harry and Voldemort were, he might as well get this girl’s body out of here at he same time.

Lupin sighed as he walked back towards the opening of the tunnel with Cho’s body. Once again they had been wrong. Amanda and he had first suspected Marietta of being Voldemort’s heir. But they had realized that Marietta was only being controlled by the heir. That had immediately led Amanda to believe that he heir was someone close to Marietta, someone close enough to possess her several times- mainly, they had suspected Cho.

But now Cho was dead, and Lupin found it unlikely that Harry could have overcome her so quickly, and Lupin found it extremely hard to believe that Harry would kill anyone.

The heir could be anyone.

The important thing now, was to find Dumbledore. Amanda would look after Harry while he brought back help.

“Expelliarmus!�

Lupin fell to the ground once again, this time on his back, and Cho’s body fell to the ground as he was hitin the chest by the spell.

“Lumos!�

Ten yards away the wand of a Death Eater lit up as Lupin’s wand flew into his other hand.

“Malfoy!� Lupin growled, recognizing the voice behind the mask.

“Lupin,� the masked man answered. “are you growling because it is that time of the month again or because you truly are more animal than anything else?"

Lupin didn't answer, he just stared straight at Malfoy.

"Forget the dead girl and forget your stupid Dumbledore," Malfoy said. "You’re coming with me.�

“Penelope, you will go prepare yourself,� Voldemort said as Harry fell to the floor. “Draco,� he then said just as affectionately, “go with her. She shall sow you where you can change. A Death Eater mask will not be required of you, you are one of my champions.�

Draco smiled, nodded and walked out of the room following Penelope.

“Harry,� Voldemort said. The sound of his voice made Harry’s flesh and blood freeze, his heart seemed to stop in his chest; but worst of all, it reminded Harry of the pain and blackness he had experienced a short time ago. Harry couldn’t help but shiver visibly at the sound of Voldemort’s voice.

“Good,� Voldemort continued, “I’m glad to see you fear and respectg those who deserve it.�

“You don’t deserve it,� Harry managed to say. “No monster deserves it.�

Voldemort sighed. “Harry, we meet for the last time. The sooner you realize this the easier it will go for you and her.�

“Hermione!� Harry said standing up. “Where is she? Have you hurt her?� Harry shouted.

“You shall see her shortly, Boy!� Voldemort growled. “Now, seeing as you are my guest, I should see to your comfort.� Voldemort flicked his wand causing several very large chains to spring from the wall and attach themselves to Harry’s wrist’s and ankles. The chains then pulled back against the wall, taking Harry with them. The chains slammed Harry violently against he wall as Voldemort walked out of the room. And it was at that point that Harry’s head fell forward heavily and he lost consciousness.

Drowry walked quietly through the Shrieking Shack. She had already dressed in her finery so that she could have plenty of time to think over her plan. Drowry came to a door and opened it slowly. There, inside, lying in the corner was Hermione’s still form.

Drowry closed the door behind her and walked into the room.

“Hermione?� Drowry asked placing her hand on the girl’s shoulder and shaking her slightly.

Hermione moaned and opened her eyes to look up at her Professor. Hermione had a large bloody cut above her left eye, but other than that she seemed to be fine.

“Professor?� Hermione asked. “What are you doing here?�

“I don’t have very much time to explain,� Drowry said looking around quickly, “just know that…�

“Why are you dressed up like that?� Hermione asked again. “You look all weird, like your getting married or something?�

Drowry looked down at her outfit. It may indeed have been a little bit more extravagant than she liked, but Voldemort treated her and his heir like princesses, and he had this crazy idea that they should look the part.

Drowry definitely did not look her usual self in her large black dress and red lipstick, especially since her hair was all brought up on the top of her head only falling down in a few soft curls.

“That’s not important right now Hermione,� Drowry said trying to get her to focus. “Harry is going to be here soon and…�

“Harry?� Hermione asked. “Why would he be here? Where am I?� Hermione had started to become upset. She sat up and began to look around at the room. She sat in the corner with her arms wrapped around her knees staring at the floor.

“You remember what happened now?� Drowry asked.

“Yes,� Hermione said. “And I know that you’re a Death Eater and you can’t be trusted.�

“That’s not true Hermione,� Drowry said. “Would I be here if I didn’t want to help you? No, I wouldn’t. Yes, I’m a Death Eater. But I assure you that I would never harm you or Harry intentionally.�

Hermione looked up at her skeptically. “What do you want?� she asked.

“Only for you to listen for a few minutes,� Drowry said. “I have a plan…�

The door swung open.

“My dear’s!� Voldemort smiled at Drowry and Hermione. “Getting acquainted are we? Isn’t it a shame Amanda? Miss Granger is so bright and full of potential, if she weren’t so crazy for Potter she could turn out to be a wonderful pupil.�

Drowry smiled at him. Hermione continued to glare.

“Bring her,� Voldemort said to Drowry. “Potter’s here.�

“Albus,� McGonagall said as they walked out of the castle. “We don’t even know where they have gone. How are we to find and save Mr. Potter?�

“I have a very good idea where Voldemort may have taken him Minerva,� Dumbledore said. “In fact I’m fairly…�

“Dumbledore! Dumbledore!� Hagrid came running from the castle to meet him.

“I’m sorry Hagrid,� Dumbledore said, “but I’m afraid you just can’t come. As much as I would like to take you, it would not be very good for someone who is not allowed to use magic to battle Death Eaters. I have asked you to stay at the school and watch over the students.�

“Es not tha’,� Hagrid said shaking his head. “No, I understand what yer mean Dumbledore, but we found somethin’.�

“What now?� Snape asked. “Every minute it’s something knew, a purple mouse this time maybe?�

“Oh no,� Hagrid said rather seriously, “they only come out in der winter. No,� he said shaking his head again, “Mr. Filch found a body Sir.�

“A body?� Dumbledore aked.

“Who is it Hagrid?� McGonagall asked her hand on her chest.

“Es Marietta Edgecombe Sir,� Hagrid said.

Dumbledore nodded his head. This was a terrible thing.

“Go see to the body Hagrid,� Dumbledore said. “I shall contact her parents later, after I have arrived back with Harry and Hermione.�

“Oh yeah, bout tha’,� Hagrid said, “good luck to all of ya, bring em back!�

“We will Hagrid,� Dumbledore said as he walked off again.

“What do you make of this Albus?� McGonagall asked.

“I think we should wait for Lupin to return,� Dumbledore said. “We will give him half of an hour.�

“Hermione,� Drowry whispered as she walked the girl out of the room. “I want you to tell Harry as soon as you get the chance, that the only thing that matters is that Harry gets his wand. Tell him, he needs to get his wand.�

Hermione nodded. She would tell Harry to get his wand alright, and she would make sure that the first thing he aimed it at was her.

Hello all! Long time no write to! *laughs at YET ANOTHER VERY STUPID joke* okay, so I'm not funny! You don't have to rub it in!! Anyways, we get a little bit of fluff in this chapter, but mostly it's a creepy ceremony and a cliff hanger!! Come on, you know you love me:)! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, it was rejected because Hermione was OOC!!! Anyways, go read, now, oh wait, I'll stop writing now! Much love!

“Harry!� Hermione screamed as she was led into the room by Drowry. His body was hanging from the wall and his head was hanging forward. There was a steady stream of blood trickling down his neck and lower jaw.

Hermione ran up to him and lifted his head. He was alive, but he had a large cut at the base of his head. Hermione could see his skull through the cut.

“How could you go through with this?� she cried at Drowry. “Look at him- how could you let this happen?�

“Hermione,� Drowry said sadly, “I didn’t know…�

“That’s bullshit!� Hermione screamed. “I’ve seen you two together, you and Voldemort! What are you? His daughter or something? We trusted you! How could you have betrayed us like this?�

“I didn’t do it,� Drowry said holding her hands up in front of her in a defeated motion. “I want to help you.�

“Fuck you!� Hermione cried, the dirt and blood that had been on her face was running darkly down her cheeks because of her tears. “You betrayed us! You betrayed him!�

Drowry nodded her head slowly in a defeated manner. “Okay,� she said. She took her wand and pointed it at Harry.

“No!� Hermione cried trying to block the unconscious boy from Drowry’s wand.

“Catch him,� was all Drowry said. Then she flicked her wrist and the chains that had been holding Harry disappeared.

“Remember what I told you Hermione,� Drowry said. “Tell Harry the only thing that matters is that he gets his wand.� Then she turned around and walked out of the room, leaving a crying Hermione alone holding an unconscious Harry.

“My Lord.�

Voldemort turned around to look at the Death Eater who entered his quarters. There was only one man Voldemort knew who was both arrogant and stupid enough to intrude into Voldemort’s private quarters.

“Malfoy,� Voldemort growled, “what do you think you are doing? You realize I should chain you to the ceiling by your earlobes for intruding into my quarters? What the bloody hell do you want now?�

“I’m just doing my job,� Malfoy answered as he threw something into the room with a loud thump. It was a body, Voldemort realized. In fact, it was a member of that stupid Order of the Phoenix. Lupin stood up unsteadily as Voldemort walked towards him.

“Thank you Malfoy,� he said. “Go join the others and prepare for the ceremony.�

Malfoy left the room, leaving Voldemort and Lupin alone. Lupin was scared, but he stood tall and refused Voldemort the pleasure of knowing his fear.

“Where is Dumbledore?� Voldemort asked.

“Why should I tell you?� Lupin spat.

“Because I asked,� Voldemort smiled. “And because it is a much less painful process if my information is given to me willingly.�

Voldemort looked at Lupin questioningly. “Well?� he asked. “Nothing? All right. Crucio!�

“Lupin fell to the ground in a horrifying scream. He had experienced this pain only once before, a long time ago; but it had never been at the hands of the Dark Lord himself. Nothing could ever compare to the pain Harry felt as he was tortured by Voldemort.

Lupin’s scream ended and he gulped rapidly for air when Voldemort lowered his wand and looked at him.

“Did that loosen your tongue any?� Voldemort asked kneeling down to look Lupin in the eyes. “Where is Dumbledore? Your master- the man who holds your leash- where is he?�

“I don’t know,� Lupin coughed as he looked into Voldemort’s frightening face.

Voldemort raised his wand to strike again buy Lupin quickly continued, “the last I saw him he was still at Hogwarts.�

“When you left Hogwarts, did you tell Dumbledore where you were going?�

“No,� Lupin coughed again.

“Good,� Voldemort said standing up and preparing to leave the room.

“But that doesn’t mean anything!� Lupin shouted after him.

“What?� Voldemort asked as he turned around and came back towards Lupin. “I didn’t quite catch that.�

“Dumbledore’s smart,� Lupin said standing up shakily to face the horrifying man in front of him. “When I don’t return he’ll figure out what happened. And he’ll figure out where I am.�

Voldemort smiled. “Then I suppose I shall just have to kill him too. Crucio!�

Hermione jumped when the screaming started. She didn’t know who it was, but she could only hope that it was Lucius Malfoy or Professor Drowry, the two people she despised most at the moment. Hermione glanced down at Harry, trying to throw the screaming person out of her mind.

Harry was bleeding fairly badly from his head. Hermione wished she could heal it, but she didn’t have her wand. She didn’t even know where her wand was. Hermione glanced around the room, trying hopelessly to see if there was any way to escape.

She had been in bad situations before, but never like this. She had never felt so hopeless in her life. Hermione started to sob quietly in the dark corner of the room. Her tears falling lightly onto Harry’s face. Harry moaned and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Harry?� Hermione asked running the back of her hand down his bloody cheek. “Are you awake?�

“Hermione?� Harry mumbled opening his eyes. He stared into her face for several moments. Then he sat up and took her in his arms. “I was so worried about you,� he said.

“I’m okay Harry,� Hermione said as she wrapped her arms around him.

“No, you’re not,� Harry said. He pulled away from her and looked at her face. “You have a cut, right here,� he said pointing to her forehead. “It needs to be healed.�

“Harry,� she said, “you need more healing than I do. But I don’t have my wand, and neither do you. We’ll just have to make do until we bleed to death.�

Harry nodded his head smilingly and then grabbed Hermione suddenly. He kissed her on the lips, over and over again. He had been so worried about her, and now that he knew she was safe he felt as if he just had to hold her and touch her, kiss her as if he would never have the opportunity to kiss her again.

“I love you,� he said. “No matter what happens tonight, I will always love you.�

“I love you too,� Hermione said. Then she sat up suddenly. “I’m supposed to tell you to get your wand.�

“What?�

“Professor Drowry told me to tell you that the only thing that matters is that you get your wand. I don't trust her.�

“Well I’d like to know how she expects me to do that,� Harry said looking glumly around the room, "and I don't trust her either."

“Harry?�

“What?� he said looking back at Hermione.

“I’m so sorry.�

“What for?� he said putting his arm around her.

“If I hadn’t have stopped to talk to Malfoy,� she said, “we wouldn’t be here. Voldemort wouldn’t have you and we wouldn’t be in danger. Now we’re going to die and it’s all my fault,� she said as she started to cry again.

“No!� Harry said placing his hands on either side of her face. “We’re not going to die. We won’t. We can’t die. Voldemort can’t kill us, I won’t let him. I promise.�

The door slammed open as a masked Death Eater walked into the room.

“Come now,� he said pointing his wand at them.

Without another word and only a single glance into each other’s eyes, Hermione and Harry stood up from the floor and walked out of the room with the Death Eater.

Last time Harry and Hermione had been in the Shrieking Shack they had taken the stairs up where they had confronted Sirius Black. Now, they were led to a trap door in the middle of the hallway of the house, and they took a winding staircase down.

The staircase wound for a long time. It was dark in the passageway, only lighted every so often by a burning torch. The air was thick and musty, as if it hadn’t been disturbed in along time, and it was choked with dust. Harry and Hermione walked down the staircase in front of the Death Eater in silence.

Finally, the staircase leveled out in front of a large wooden door.

“Knock three times,� the Death Eater in front of them said.

Harry lifted his fist and knocked three loud times on the large wooden door. The sound echoed around them and up the staircase for several seconds, and then silence. It seemed as if Harry and Hermione waited forever in front of that door, but eventually, it opened with a loud screech.

Harry and Hermione were led into a huge circular room. The outer walls of the room were surrounded by Death Eaters, all of which faced the center of the room where four figures stood.

In the direct center of the room was a large cauldron and a table, on the table lay two wands- they were undoubtedly Harry and Hermione’s. Directly behind the table and cauldron stood Voldemort. He looked even taller and more frightening in the dim light. On either side of Voldemort, both facing him, were Penelope Clearwater and Professor Drowry. Both of them were wearing an identical black dress and their hair was done in the same way. They looked as if they were brides in a very strange gothic wedding. A little apart from the three of them, but not as far away from the rest of the other Death Eaters stood Draco Malfoy.

Draco was unmasked and he wore a much finer black robe than the other Death Eaters. He had a smug look on his face and he kept his eyes glued to Penelope, only breaking his stare for a brief moment to glance in Harry and Hermione’s way as they entered the room.

Two Death Eaters came forward and moved Harry and Hermione into the center of the room, directly in front of Voldemort and his cauldron. They were forced to kneel on the hard cement floors. The Death Eaters all moved back to their respected places against the walls and looked towards the middle once again.

Harry and Hermione sat in this way for many silent seconds. Nothing happened. Then Voldemort spoke.

His voice sent an immediate chill around the room. Harry felt Hermione shiver as the temperature dropped. His voice chilled the very bones of whoever listened. Every time he spoke, Harry’s heart would pull in his chest as if it meant to leave his body completely. But nothing matched the sheer terror that Harry and Hermione felt as they kneeled on the ground in front of Voldemort.

“You are probably wondering why I don’t just kill you and get it over with,� Voldemort said. “The reason is this. As you have been informed Harry, when you were a child and I attacked you, some of my power was transferred to you. You became strong by means of me. Even though I am now completely returned to my power, much to the thanks of my daughters,� he said spreading his arms wide to indicate Clearwater and Drowry, “I still lack certain things I would like to have.

“Ultimate power, Harry,� he continued, “can never be reached. I may stand before you tonight as a Lord of immense power, power you could never hope to mirror, but I still have much more that I could accomplish. That is why you are here tonight Harry. I am going to take your power just as you took mine.�

“Surely it’s been long enough Albus,� McGonagall said. She had been asking this same question over and over again for forever it seemed. Snape merely stood motionless and stared at the grass.

Dumbledore nodded slowly. “I think it is safe to say that something has befallen Lupin and that he will not return to tell us where Voldemort is. That only would have happened though, if Lupin had had an encounter with Voldemort’s forces; meaning that wherever Lupin went was where Voldemort went.�

“But where did he go Albus?� McGonagall said. The poor woman was falling to pieces in her anxiety.

“The only place he felt safe going, and the one place that is secluded enough for Voldemort to hide at.�

“The Shrieking Shack,� Snape said. “Through the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.�

“And how do you plan to do that?� Harry asked.

“That you will soon find out,� Voldemort answered. “Malfoy!�

“Yes,� Draco answered proudly.

“Bring the Werewolf.�

Malfoy walked towards the only other door in the room. When he opened it, Lupin fell heavily onto the floor in front of them.

“Professor Lupin!� Hermione shrieked as she covered her mouth with her hands.

“Let him go,� Harry said. “Let Hermione and Lupin go, they have nothing to do with us. You can have my power, you can kill me for all I care- but let Lupin and Hermione go.�

“Such moving words,� Voldemort said placing his hand over his heart. “Always the hero, aren’t you? Well, not this time.� Voldemort flicked his wrist at Lupin and the same chains that had pinned Harry to the wall earlier now attached themselves to Lupin and pulled him onto the wall. “I had originally wanted you, Harry, to witness both this thing’s and your lover’s death,� Voldemort said stepping around the cauldron and walking towards Lupin. “But Remus proved to be very rude during our earlier discussion. And for that reason, I think I shall allow him to witness his last hope, disappear.

"Ennervate!� he said pointing his wand at Lupin.

Immediately Lupin’s eyes opened and his head jerked up, but too fast. His head hit the wall violently with the strength of Lupin’s movement, immediately causing him to reel on the verge of unconsciousness once again.

“Remus,� Voldemort said gently. “There are two people here who would like to see you.�

Lupin’s eyes opened and they moved past Voldemort to survey the room, they rested on Harry and Hermione.

“Oh God!� Lupin said at the sight of them. Both of them were covered in blood, and Hermione had tears running down her face.

“Good,� Voldemort said walking away from Lupin and moving back to his original position behind the cauldron, “you are finally awake. Now it is time to begin the ceremony.�

Everyone’s eyes were focused on Voldemort, Harry realized. Everyone except Drowry. Her eyes seemed to be scanning the Death Eaters around the room, moving from one to the next. Almost like she was counting. Maybe this situation isn’t completely hopeless after all, Harry thought.

“To start the ceremony,� Voldemort said loudly, “I shall first name my heirs, and they shall join me in my power. In naming them first they will also share in the power gained from young Harry’s death.�

Almost as if that had been a clue word, both Drowry’s and Clearwater’s arms shot out straight in front of them. Their palms were facing upwards and their fingers were touching just softly. Voldemort then laid his arm out so that his wrist was lying on their hands. At that moment, Draco walked towards the front of the cauldron with a knife and quickly cut a small slit in all three of their wrists.

None of them flinched or moved in the slightest bit while this happened. All three of them stared straight forward as if in a trance. The blood trickled lightly into the cauldron, and the stained knife was placed on the table with Harry and Hermione’s wands.

Harry and Hermione sat quietly through this whole thing without moving. Hermione’s eyes were wide with horror, but the only thing on Harry’s mind was how he could get to his wand.

“Blood binds us to each other!� Voldemort shouted. “It holds us to our word! Blood symbolizes our attachment! It keeps us strong to rule!� A green mist began floating out of the cauldron during Voldemort’s incantation. It crept slowly upwards and then entered into the cuts that had all been made on their wrists. The green mist disappeared as soon as Voldemort stopped speaking and all three of them lowered their arms, the cuts had vanished.

“Power comes from many things,� Voldemort continued after a long silence. “But mostly from love and anger. For me to see you at your full potential, Harry,� Voldemort said looking directly into his eyes, “I need you to experience those things.�

Voldemort’s dark, slit like eyes bored into Harry’s. It was all Harry could do to realize what he meant. Hermione.

The Professor’s walked determinedly towards the Whomping Willow, all the while looking for any trace that a battle or conflict had taken place. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell anything, partly due to an earlier rain shower and also due to the excessive activity the grounds had received when the student’s returned to Hogwarts from Hogsmeade.

“Well here we are!� Dumbledore explained as he stopped by the Whomping Willow. “Solidicus!� Dumbledore shouted while he pointed his wand at the tree which immediately froze in its swing. “The tunnel is right under the stump there Minerva, ladies first.�

Snape looked oddly at Dumbledore. “You should know there’s a button at the stump that freezes the tree.�

“Oh yes,� Dumbledore smiled. “But at this age it is such a bother to get down on the ground, and even more difficult to get back up again! After you Severus.�

“You can’t do that!� Harry screamed. “I won’t let you!�

“And how do you expect to stop me?� Voldemort smiled. “You are incapable of reaching your wand which is only five feet in front of you, you are surrounded by Death Eaters, you have no hope. How do expect to stop me?�

“I will,� Harry growled through gritted teeth.

“Then stop me.� Voldemort said as he pointed his wand at Hermione.

“Avada Kedavra!�

Okay, hello again all! Want to know what happens to Hermione? I currently have around 80 reviews total, make it 100 and I will update the last two chapters of this story!!! That's scary! Come on you guys. Epic battle scene, an explanation of everything, then the sequel- you know you're excited!! Get reviewing -- go now -- do it -- or else!!!

“Avada Kedavra!”

The words came out of Voldemort’s mouth quickly and without emotion, but to Harry everything was happening so slowly and there was only one thing on his mind: Hermione.

Harry saw the green lightening explode from the end of Voldemort’s wand, he saw Drowry’s eyes widen with shock, but he took none of it in- he was concerned only with getting to Hermione.

Harry jumped towards her as soon as the words escaped Voldemort’s lips, by the time the curse reached her, Harry was there. He covered her completely with his own body, blocking her completely from the curse.

“Harry, no!” he heard Hermione scream in the most distant parts of his mind.

His eyes saw the green coming towards him, he closed his eyes and braced himself for what he knew was coming.

“Lumos!” McGonagall muttered once she entered the tunnel, but she immediately became upset that she had, for there lying only a few yards in front of her was a girl’s body.

“Interesting,” Snape muttered from behind her. “It would seem that we have found the right tunnel.”

“Perhaps it would be best Minerva,” Dumbledore said quietly and slowly, “if you take Miss Chang’s body back to the school and contact any members of the Order that you can. Tell them that they can find us at the Shrieking Shack.”

McGonagall nodded her head and quickly went to retrieve the body. As much as she cared about Albus and Severus, and as much as she was worried for their safety- McGonagall was scared, she had never been in a direct conflict situation like this. McGonagall was happy to be able to go back to the school and contact the Order. It was precise work, that is what McGonagall liked, that is what would keep her from losing her mind.

“No!” Lupin screamed as Harry dove in front of Hermione to protect her from the curse. Voldemort himself even seemed shocked by the act.

The green bolt of energy flew towards Harry and Lupin watched as he cringed for the impact. An impact that never happened.

The curse redirected itself when it was less than an inch away from Harry’s body, almost as if it had bounced off of an invisible shield. The curse flew back towards Voldemort. Voldemort, who was determined not to be humiliated in the same way twice, quickly disapparated from the spot with a sharp crack. Penelope was not so quick with her reflexes.

In reality, everything had happened so quick that from the time that Voldemort uttered the killing curse to the time when it finally hit a target was only the blink of an eye. In that short time period, Penelope Clearwater lay dead on the floor from her father’s own killing curse.

Harry had felt the force of the curse hit him, but not the direct spell. The force was so great however that it knocked him on top of Hermione. As they both lay on the floor, the same thought kept coursing through Harry’s mind: I must get my wand!

Penelope’s body fell into the cauldron, knocking it and the table over. Both Harry’s and Hermione’s wands clattered to the floor. Without thinking, Harry just said the first thing that came into his mind.

“Accio wand!” Harry’s wand came zooming across the floor towards him. At the same time the first of the curses began to fly as the startled Death Eaters all moved towards Harry and Hermione. But Drowry was quicker.

“Protego!” she screamed pointing her wand at Harry and Hermione. “Avada Kedavra!” she screamed at the nearest Death Eater.

Drowry flung herself down behind the cauldron and flicked her wand towards where Lupin hung on the wall. He dropped easily onto the floor and reached up to catch his wand which Drowry threw towards him.

“Stupefy!” Lupin began to yell as several Death Eaters ran towards him. He glanced in the direction of Harry and Hermione.

Hermione stood against the wall after just retrieving her wand. She was quickly pointing it at several Death Eater’s in turn, disarming and stunning them with great ease and finesse, while at the same time blocking all attacking spells. Harry was also keeping the Death Eater’s away from him with the stunning charm and Impediment Jinx.

But not all of the Death Eaters were fighting. Many, including Draco Malfoy, had quickly fled up the staircase when they noticed that Harry had his wand and Drowry was not in the least bit interested in assisting them.

The door flung wide as many Death Eaters came running back down the stairs. With two loud cracks, Lupin realized why.

“Incarcerous!” Dumbledore yelled as he apparated into the room, binding a fleeing Death Eater in ropes from his wand.

Snape apparated into the room almost instantaneously after Dumbledore and also began flinging curses at the Death Eaters.

Green energy flew everywhere as the Death Eaters tried to get the situation under control. There weren’t any places to hide from the deadly blasts. Harry jumped behind the stiff figure of a stunned Death Eater to narrowly avoid the killing curse, which hit the stunned Death Eater instead.

“Avada Kedavra!” The words were everywhere throughout the room. It was impossible to know from what direction they came from. Everyone was confused. It was hard to protect yourself when you had curses and jinxes flying at you from both directions. It was everything they could do simply to keep away from the deadly bolts.

But it was hard to dodge them. Dumbledore moved swiftly about the room and Snape hid behind his attackers. Lupin continued to run and dodge the bolts as he was attacked. But Lupin wasn’t fast enough. He jumped out of the way of an Impediment! Jinx, only to be struck in the arm by a deadly green bolt.

“No!” Harry yelled as he watched Lupin’s body fall. Harry turned and ran towards the Death Eater that had fired the curse and jumped onto his back before he managed to flee up the staircase. Harry’s weight quickly brought the Death Eater to the ground. The Death Eater rolled over and moved so as to point his wand at Harry, but Harry was way ahead of him.

“Avada Kedavra!” Harry screamed in his anger, his wand pressed directly against where the Death Eater’s heart would be if he had one.

Everything stopped at the sound of Harry’s words. The fighting, the curses. Everything stopped and everyone looked at the Boy Who Lived. It was at this point that Harry Potter became not a legend, but the person who would save the world. The hope and the fact was finally realized that this boy of 16 was their savior. And he had taken his first step in entering the war- he had killed.

Everyone lowered their wands and stared at Harry as he violently ripped the mask off of the dead Death Eater. It was Lucius Malfoy.

Harry threw the mask on top of Malfoy’s body and stood up. He ran towards Lupin’s body, which was lying on the ground.

“Professor Lupin?” Harry cried as he gently shook the teacher.

“It’s okay Harry,” Dumbledore said. “Everything will be all right.”

“How can you say that?” Harry cried. “Why does someone always have to die whenever Voldemort wants to kill me? First it’s Cedric Diggory, then Sirius, now Lupin, and almost Hermione! When does it stop? When will it stop?”

“It will only stop after you have defeated Voldemort,” Snape said from the corner of the room as he continued to eye the Death Eaters suspiciously.

“What do I do until then?” Harry cried. “Watch as everyone I’ve ever known or cared for dies?”

“He’s not dead Harry,” Dumbledore said.

“What are you saying?” Harry sobbed.

“For the killing curse to be one hundred percent affective, the attacker must have a direct hit. The spell hit Remus in the arm, he is not dead. He is merely wounded.”

Harry sighed and closed his eyes tightly, it was over. Everyone was safe, especially Hermione, and Voldemort was gone. Now he could relax.

But instead of relaxing, his body tensed when he heard another loud crack. Turning away from Lupin’s body he saw Voldemort standing directly in front of Drowry. Both of their wands were pointed directly at each other’s foreheads.

Nobody moved. All eyes were on the two of them.

“How could you betray me?” Voldemort said. “I raised you, I taught you!”

“Just shut up and do it, just kill me,” Drowry said. “Oh, wait, that’s right you can’t! You can’t kill me!”

“I will!” Voldemort shouted.

“You can’t,” Drowry said very calmly and simply. “I’m your heir.”

Voldemort’s eyes narrowed and with a sharp crack he disappeared once again.

“How the bloody fuck could you not have killed him!” Mad-Eye Moody screamed at Drowry as they walked her up the stairs. “I mean yeah, you’re in trouble for using the killing curse and all, but still! He was right bloody there!”

“You of all people should know Moody,” she said calmly. “There’s only one person who can kill Voldemort, and it isn’t me.”

“Still,” Moody grumbled.

Nymphadora Tonks surveyed the carnage in the room. She and Kingsley Shacklebolt were preparing for all of the captured Death Eaters to go to Azkaban.

“Here’s another dead one!” Tonks cried out to Snape.

“Well,” he said snidely, “Drowry certainly did go on a spree didn’t she? I always told you she was bad,” he said pointing at Dumbledore.

“She saved our lives,” Hermione said.

“Looks like she got Lucius!” Tonk’s yelled happily. “At least she did something right!”

“That was me.”

The room got eerily silent as everyone glanced into the dark corner where Harry sat alone.

“I killed Lucius,” he said.

Tonks looked at Shacklebolt, she wasn’t sure what to do. Do they take him off to Azkaban too for using an Unforgivable? That was surely madness, him being Harry Potter and all. She thought.

“I think for the time being,” Dumbledore said, “that we will just forget Harry said that.”

Everyone nodded silently and continued about their work. Dumbledore looked at Harry and Hermione. They were both soaked in blood, dirt and tears; and they were exhausted from their ordeal.

“I imagine that you too have a lot of questions to ask me,” Dumbledore said. “Perhaps it is time to return to the school and let the Auror’s finish the job here, hm? Portus!” Dumbledore said pointing his wand at a nearby candelabrum without waiting for a reply. “Come on.”

And with a touch, they were all rushed back to Hogwarts.

Okay people, one more chapter, than the sequal. The last Chapter will explain absolutely everything!!!! I promise. The sequal will be up soon after the last two here. I want you to realize though, the sequal deals with the war, endless battles, and more importantly, the final battle!! There will be deaths I regret to say, but it's a war! I'm sorry, I don't want to kill these people, I love them too!! But I have to. Anyways, drop me a review and keep your eyes open for Chap 16 and the sequal Love Fulfilled, which I have decided will definately be a Dark/Angst!

Harry and Hermione both lay down in the hospital ward. Madame Pomfrey had insisted that they not be allowed to leave for another day. She had, however, allowed Dumbledore to stay in the ward with them.

He sat down in a chair in front of there beds and looked at them.

“You are both wondering what happened tonight, correct?” Harry and Hermione nodded. “Well, it seems that Penelope Riddle was the daughter to Lord Voldemort. She was adopted at an early age by George and Anita Clearwater. They immediately gave Penelope their last name, not wanting her shunned because she was related to a Riddle and a Gertrue.”

“Gertrue?” Hermione asked. “You mean Moaning Myrtle?”

“I speak of Verrah Gertrue and her twin sister Myrtle,” Dumbledore corrected. Then he continued. “Penelope, however, had maintained direct contact with Voldemort throughout her entire childhood and learned the Dark Arts through that contact. Professor Drowry likewise, was trained by Voldemort. He seemed to love both girls deeply and made them his heirs, as you saw tonight.” Dumbledore said.

“Professor,” Hermione interjected. “What was Penelope doing at Hogwarts in the first place? She left several years ago. Didn’t she?”

“That is true,” Dumbledore answered nodding. “But at the beginning of this year Professor Flitwick, Penelope’s previous Head of House, presented me with a letter from Miss Clearwater asking that she be allowed to come back to the school. According to the letter, Miss Clearwater was interested in teaching Charms as a career and had asked if she could come back as an apprentice or assistant to Professor Flitwick. I told Professor Flitwick that it was all right that she come back. Just add that to my ever growing list of mistakes,” Dumbledore sighed.

Hermione nodded. “What about Marietta?”

Dumbledore held up his hand. “Why don’t you just let me tell you the story from how I know it?”

Hermione nodded.

“To answer your question, Marietta was being controlled by Penelope,” Dumbledore said. “Anyways, several days ago, Lucius Malfoy came to the school, wanting to speak with Draco, it was right after the incident between Ron and Hermione. I am sure that he told Draco to help Penelope.

“It turns out that Marietta was being controlled by Penelope. Penelope was using her as a tool to spy on the both of you and to relay suspicion away from herself. Also, Marietta’s body was found earlier this evening. We think that both Penelope and Draco had a hand in her murder, but we are not positive. Since Draco has fled and Penelope is dead, it may be a while before we get out desired answers.

“Anyway,” Dumbledore continued, “as Voldemort said to you both this evening, most power resides in love and anger. For that reason, Penelope put Ron under the Imperius curse and forced him to rape Hermione. The act would immediately break apart your friendships with Ron, but at the same time, draw the both of you closer together. Ron’s fall down the stairs was not an accident, but Draco Malfoy striking out for all the time’s he had previously failed. So you can both rest assured that Ron’s actions were not his own.”

Both Harry and Hermione nodded, they looked relieved.

“Both of you may have noticed that Malfoy acted different the last couple of days. His behavior was much more violent and superior, for instance. That is due to the fact that he was working with Penelope, but also because he finally had the opportunity to do what he has longed to do for so long. Technically, Draco exploded. Every emotion of hate and anger that he had bottled up inside of him for the last six years came pouring out; as I’m sure you experienced Harry.”

Harry nodded his head slowly, remembering being under the Cruciatus Curse for the first time. He had felt that pain and anger, he had felt it inside of him. He understood what Dumbledore was talking about.

“Professor Dumbledore,” Hermione said, “that’s all good and all, but what I want to know is why Harry and I aren’t dead.”

Dumbledore nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Remember how Voldemort said that most power comes from love? Love, is the one thing Tom Riddle never had. He was an orphan, so he never had any love from parents or siblings or family. All of his friends and girlfriends were only after superficial things, like his looks, his skills, and so forth. So Tom never experienced any strong bonds of love, so it would make sense why that would be his undoing. The killing curse that Voldemort uses time and again, like the other Unforgivable curses, is steeped in hatred and anger and vengeance, but not love.

“Your love protects the both of you from such curses. Because of tonight’s events, I believe it is safe to say that magic cannot and will not ever kill either of you; it does not seem possible. Your love for one another protects each other. You see, the love that two people share for each other is the strongest bond of love that can exist at all, and I would be that it will undoubtedly be the one thing that wins this war.”

Dumbledore was caught off guard by a load moan several bed’s away. Lupin was stirring in his sleep.

“Well,” Dumbledore said, “any other questions you have can be answered tomorrow, I’m sure. Why don’t the two of you get some rest?”

“Wait Dumbledore,” Harry called. “I have a question, or rather, maybe it’s just a remark.”

“Yes?” Dumbledore said. “What is it?”

“After I saved Hermione from the killing curse,” Harry said, “my wand lay on the other side of the room. But I summoned it! I said ‘Accio wand’, and it came.”

Dumbledore nodded. “My best explanation is that, like I said before, love and anger create power. In your love of Hermione, anger over her attempted murder, and urge to protect her, it seems you sparked a power deep within you. A useful power, but also a dangerous one if not watched closely. It seems to me as if tonight’s incident has given you the ability to use wandless magic Harry.”

Hermione glanced over at Harry. He just nodded his head and continued to look at Dumbledore.

“Well,” Dumbledore said rubbing his hands together and standing up to leave, “I hate to admit it but I am quite exhausted by tonight’s events. And Merlin knows how an old man needs his rest,” he said pointing his finger at Harry and Hermione. “Goodnight to the both of you,” Dumbledore said. “Anymore questions you have shall be answered in the morning when I am fully refreshed.”

Dumbledore walked towards the exit of the hospital ward and stopped. He turned back around and looked at Harry and Hermione one last time. He grinned and his blue eye twinkled strangely in the moonlight from the windows. “You two had best mind your manners!” he said pointing his finger at them again. “Poppy has done gone and run off to bed, and Heaven knows that Lupin is in no shape to baby-sit.”

Harry and Hermione laughed as Dumbledore walked out of the hospital ward, still mumbling to himself about Harry and Hermione behaving themselves.

After Dumbledore had gone, Harry and Hermione lay in silence for several moments. Harry glanced over towards Hermione’s bed when he heard a soft rustle and was startled to see her climbing out of bed and putting her shoes on.

“Where are you going?” Harry asked.

“Somewhere,” Hermione said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Hermione walked out of the hospital ward. She walked through the silent and dark corridors, heading towards the common room. She didn’t care what Madame Pomfrey thought right now, she just needed air. As much as Hermione hated to think it, she needed to get away from Harry for a moment.

“Wait!” Harry said grabbing her arm; he had obviously chased her through the corridors. “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t do it Harry,” she said sobbing. “I just can’t do it anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I love you so much,” she said. “You could have died today because of my stupidity. Lupin almost died because of my stupidity. You went on and on talking about how people were hurt because of you, well, this time it was my fault,” Hermione sobbed. “Voldemort can use my love against you and I won’t let that happen. I...I have to say goodbye,” she said trying to walk away. But once again she was stopped by Harry’s arm.

“Hermione,” he said, “didn’t you hear anything Dumbledore just said to us?”

Hermione nodded.

“Hermione, I need you. You remember that prophecy from last year, the one that Voldemort wanted?

Hermione nodded.

“Well that prophecy said that either I would kill Voldemort or he would kill me. It said that neither of us can survive while the other exists! Don’t you see Hermione- I need you to beat him Hermione! Without you... without you I’ll loose.”

“Harry!” Hermione sobbed.

“Your love will help me beat him, your love protects me, just like my mother’s love did,” he continued. “I need you by my side, forever.” And with that word he pulled softly on the silver chain that hung around Hermione’s neck and he pulled it out from underneath her school robes. There was the red stone set in the middle of the heart.

“Remember?” Harry said. “Eternity? I want us to be together forever. That can only happen if I defeat Voldemort and I can only defeat Voldemort if you’re by my side.”

And with that he pulled Hermione towards him and kissed her on the lips. He held her tight against him, tight so that she couldn’t get away. But Hermione didn’t try to get away, she didn’t want to get away. She stood there in Harry’s arms and kissed him back, her tears wetting his cheeks softly.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“I know,” Harry said holding her. Then he leaned down and kissed her again, more deeply. Harry didn’t care about anything but Hermione now, because she was all that mattered. He didn’t have to worry about Voldemort, as long as he had Hermione he would win. Hermione was all that mattered.

Harry looked at Hermione. His left eyebrow was raised and he was looking at her from the side.

“What?” she asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she said laughing.

He motioned for her to follow him and he began to walk down the corridor. Fuck the hospital ward, he thought. If he hadn’t died of his wounds yet, than he would probably be okay for the next couple of hours without treatment. All that mattered right now was Hermione.

So, Harry led her up the stairs to Sir. Cadogan’s painting. Had a very nice conversation concerning elf rights with the oblivious knight, and did the one thing that he felt like at that very moment. He made love to the only woman that he would ever love.

They stayed behind Sir. Cadogan’s painting all night long, and in the morning they were forced to come up with a very creative excuse as to why they weren’t in the hospital ward. When Madame Pomfrey spoke to Dumbledore concerning their excuse, which had to do with Lupin snoring by the way, all Dumbledore did was shake his head and murmur nonsense about “behaving themselves.”

Well, now you know what the Strongest Bond of Love is and how it CAN save Harry. The sequal, Love Fulfilled, is all about how it DOES save lives. The sequal is a Dark/Angst for all of you and I happen to like it much better than the first one- it's more exciting!! Of course, more twists, as always, and cliffies, as always, and much better fight scenes, including the final battle!! Ron lovers will be pleased to note that he is back, etc... Bear with me, theres a lot of language in the first couple of chapters, but it's all relevant. Everything I write is relevant! Pay extremely close attention to word choice, the way names are written and the way the names are written change, they give you clues as to what is going on!! Anyone can e-mail me at legallyblond1988@yahoo.com! Thanks so much to all of my reviewers!

ATTN!!! The sequal is up! Love Fulfilled in the Dark/Angst section by dark arts master!! Go read it! It's better than the original!!!