“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!”